Freedom from the Pile!

stevenmack wrote:

Going to add another couple to the pile : ... Clive Barker's : Jericho

With all the gaming time I've been putting in, chances are you'll clear it before I do... and I'm a chapter or so away from the end!

brokenclavicle wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

Going to add another couple to the pile : ... Clive Barker's : Jericho

With all the gaming time I've been putting in, chances are you'll clear it before I do... and I'm a chapter or so away from the end!

well, i've got to get through Rogue Trooper first - which is actually a suprisingly cool little third person cover shooter. It's a bit basic graphically (I think it was a ported original Xbox game) but so far it's been enjoyable. Also it gets an automatic pass for being based on a 2000AD comic (albeit one I don't remember reading much of...might have to grab the Rogue Trooper compilation books at some point and catch up).

Definitely worth a look while it's dirt cheap in the steam sale I think.

I finished Velvet Assassin despite the game's best efforts to make me give up on the horrible last level. I could put up with the game's A.I. flaws given its interesting presentation and music, but in the last level the designers had me stop playing as a sneaky female British assassin and start playing as a lady Rambo in a negligee! The game's stealth mechanics were already a little shaky; the run-and-gun combat was outright broken and completely undermined the mood set by the rest of the game. Dropping the last level entirely would have left me with a much better impression, but I wanted that silly little extra achievement.

In keeping with this month's WWII theme for me, please put me down for IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (a multiplatform game that I'll be playing on the 360).

Despite having built it up as some sort of monumental adversary, the green dragon in Puzzle Quest 2 was a cinch. Since that was supposedly the toughest fight in the game, I'm going to just power through to the end without worrying about leveling up with sidequests and such. I should be finished in the next couple days.

I should also wrap up the last of the achievements in Fable 3 fairly soon, although I'll need to leverage the GWJ community to get all of the weapons. After that, I'm torn between Nier, Resonance of Fate, and Bioshock for my next game. I've had Resonance of Fate the longest, have the lowest completion percentage for Nier, and think Bioshock might be a nice change of pace from long RPGs. Decisions, decisions.

Puzzle Quest 2 is done, and I hate to say it, but I'm happy to see it go. For the first hour or two, the game is crazily addictive, but it wears out its welcome and quickly becomes tedious. Every aspect of the game, from the combat to knocking down doors, is built around Bejeweled-style match-three mechanics, and while the developers make an admirable effort to mix things up a bit from time to time, it all begins to feel very repetitive. To a certain extent this is my own fault, as I lucked into a very powerful combination of abilities early in the game and never deviated from them. However, it doesn't help that the quest line feels unnecessarily padded, with every door seemingly locked behind three levers or necromancers or evil orcs on opposite ends of the dungeon. Likewise, crossing most any room requires disarming a trap or wading through an enemy (or three, in the later levels). With a shorter main quest, and better-designed achievements, I could be encouraged to revisit the game with one of the three classes I didn't use, but they wore me out, and I feel like I've seen all there is to see.

Rogue Trooper is done. That's actually a suprisingly enjoyable game given that it's fairly low budget and looks like a PS2 port. Worth a look for a fiver or so I'd say.

Definitely going to have to track down the comic book compilations now - never actually read any of them before, was always more of a Judge Dredd / Strontium Dog fan.

Right then...on to Jericho.

This month I'm going way back to finally finish one of the original pile members, Planescape : Torment. Had it since release, never made it even half way. I've got it up and running with the widescreen mod, GhostDog's UI, the fix pack, tweak pack, and Unfinished Business. This time I'm going to make it and I must not let any other games distract me!

Currently down in the Dead Nations hunting for the all important bronze sphere. Specializing Mage, so I've sunk all my points into intelligence and wisdom. For right now though, it's off to play inFamous 2!

stevenmack wrote:

Rogue Trooper is done. That's actually a suprisingly enjoyable game given that it's fairly low budget and looks like a PS2 port. Worth a look for a fiver or so I'd say.

Definitely going to have to track down the comic book compilations now - never actually read any of them before, was always more of a Judge Dredd / Strontium Dog fan.

Right then...on to Jericho.

Rogue Trooper is a lot of fun. I'll second his recommendation even though I know that's terribly off-topic.

El-Taco-the-Rogue wrote:

Alright, this is the month that Hotel Dusk happens. I've got about four hours to go, maybe less, I can do it.

Alright, I finished Hotel Dusk. Turns out I had about two hours to go.

Spoiler:

I was pretty dissapointed with the ending. The majority of the mystery was solved, though the true identities of NILE were not revealed, and nothing was really done with the information. Kyle solves the case, learns the truth, and then.. Drives off? No evidence of any consequences for the criminals, either. BLARGH. BLARGH BLARGH BLARGH.

Put me down for Costume Quest, please.

I'm on a roll this month. I finished the campaign missions of IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, and I think I'll consider it done. There are tons of individual missions outside the campaign, but I feel like I've gotten enough of it to take it off the pile.

Next I'm going to work on the last WWII game I've got in my stack: The Saboteur, which is multiplatform but I'll be playing on the 360. Please put me down for that.

brokenclavicle wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

Going to add another couple to the pile : ... Clive Barker's : Jericho

With all the gaming time I've been putting in, chances are you'll clear it before I do... and I'm a chapter or so away from the end!

Yeah...about that....

Jericho is down

It was ok. Great setup and story but the gameplay was a bit meh. Also the ending is kind of...an abrupt non-ending. Oh well, glad I can finally tick it off the list anyway.

I'm waffling on Costume Quest, now. It's a cute game, but CptGlanton made a good point in the TA thread that it might be better in season. Should I wait until October to play it?

Next up is Act of War : Direct Action. A fairly fun RTS with a plot rivalling Modern Warfare in ridiculousness, written by a Tom Clancy wannabe I've never heard of.

Best part : lengthy cheesy FMV sequences. Oh how I miss them so...

Baldur's Gate is done! The final three major battles were supreme hassles, and Minsc fell almost simultaneously with Sarevok, but I'm taking poetic license and saying that he wasn't really dead -- SURELY we simply resurrected him between BG1 and BG2.

Oh, hell, I have to start in on BG2, don't I?

TheHipGamer wrote:

Baldur's Gate is done! The final three major battles were supreme hassles, and Minsc fell almost simultaneously with Sarevok, but I'm taking poetic license and saying that he wasn't really dead -- SURELY we simply resurrected him between BG1 and BG2.

Oh, hell, I have to start in on BG2, don't I? :)

Enjoy! BG2 is the pinnacle of all things DnD for pc's in the 90's (along with Planescape: Torment)

Add me on a new endeavor here while I vow to destroy my one declared game for the pile so far this month - Jericho falls tonight!

Deathspank is up next!

brokenclavicle wrote:
TheHipGamer wrote:

Baldur's Gate is done! The final three major battles were supreme hassles, and Minsc fell almost simultaneously with Sarevok, but I'm taking poetic license and saying that he wasn't really dead -- SURELY we simply resurrected him between BG1 and BG2.

Oh, hell, I have to start in on BG2, don't I? :)

Enjoy! BG2 is the pinnacle of all things DnD for pc's in the 90's (along with Planescape: Torment)

Add me on a new endeavor here while I vow to destroy my one declared game for the pile so far this month - Jericho falls tonight!

Deathspank is up next!

I am looking forward to it; aside from a few spots, I found BG1 to be very enjoyable. The difficulty of some of the lesser fights was annoying -- for example,

Spoiler:

what the hell was with the uber-power skeleton warrior archers in the Thieves Warrens?

-- but overall, the game was long, exciting, and memorable. Very glad that I resisted the siren call of BGTutu; stepping up to the "new" engine is a treat unto itself.

I played PS:T back in the 90s, but never finished it, and only remember bits and pieces. I look forward to tackling it again at some point in the future.

Since I picked up a ton of new adventure games in the steamocalypse I'd better pick up the pace and clear out some of the old ones, so I'm also going to add Tales of Monkey Island (episodes 2+) to the list as well.

TheHipGamer wrote:

I am looking forward to it; aside from a few spots, I found BG1 to be very enjoyable. The difficulty of some of the lesser fights was annoying -- for example,

Spoiler:

what the hell was with the uber-power skeleton warrior archers in the Thieves Warrens?

-- but overall, the game was long, exciting, and memorable. Very glad that I resisted the siren call of BGTutu; stepping up to the "new" engine is a treat unto itself.

I played PS:T back in the 90s, but never finished it, and only remember bits and pieces. I look forward to tackling it again at some point in the future.

If you found those annoying, get ready to break your mouse and keyboard with the... better not spoil it I'll let you find out for yourself.

brokenclavicle wrote:
TheHipGamer wrote:

I am looking forward to it; aside from a few spots, I found BG1 to be very enjoyable. The difficulty of some of the lesser fights was annoying -- for example,

Spoiler:

what the hell was with the uber-power skeleton warrior archers in the Thieves Warrens?

-- but overall, the game was long, exciting, and memorable. Very glad that I resisted the siren call of BGTutu; stepping up to the "new" engine is a treat unto itself.

I played PS:T back in the 90s, but never finished it, and only remember bits and pieces. I look forward to tackling it again at some point in the future.

If you found those annoying, get ready to break your mouse and keyboard with the... better not spoil it I'll let you find out for yourself.

The challenge wasn't what was difficult -- although those guys were stupidly unbalanced. It was the pacing; here we are, right before the BBEG, and a couple of crunchy wandering monsters in an utterly stupid maze slow down the action. I don't mind a hard fight, but it needs to be meaningful (and well-placed, plot-wise), balanced/tactically interesting, and not annoying due to mechanical/engine deficiencies. None of that applies to the fight in question.

Anyways.

stevenmack wrote:

Since I picked up a ton of new adventure games in the steamocalypse I'd better pick up the pace and clear out some of the old ones, so I'm also going to add Tales of Monkey Island (episodes 2+) to the list as well.

Nice! The ToMI games were my favorite of the Telltale adventure games that I've played thus far (haven't played Season 3 of Sam & Max nor Back to the Future yet). They managed to really capture the humor and feel of the original games.

Annnnd Jericho is finally down. Fun, short enough, and, well, fun.

On to plundering Deathspank, which I began this morning!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm waffling on Costume Quest, now. It's a cute game, but CptGlanton made a good point in the TA thread that it might be better in season. Should I wait until October to play it?

On second thought, I will go ahead and wait for the game to be in season before I play it. Put me down for Bioshock instead.

Divinity 2 DKS and Bayonetta done!

Both fantastic games, highly recommended!

Put me down for Bioshock 2 : Minervas Den and Splinter Cell Conviction

I'm going to sub Homefront for Fear and hope I can get motivated to try The Witcher again. That blue screen on the Sentry fight is ticking me off.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is done. As advertised, it's a really great game.

Next up I think I'll try to finish off Recettear. So far it's been a lot of fun!

I couldn't find this thread until Garden Ninja posted the link in the 12 month thread. Anyways, had I seen this thread earlier, I would have added God of War III for the month, and I would be here now declaring it is done. So yeah, GoWIII is done. Ugh, I'm done with those games. Go see my comments in the 12 month thread.

Terraria and Borderlands with a buddy will likely be holding back most of progress in other games. Both those games got nearly 15 hours of play since picking them up on the Steam Summer sale and I didn't touch either in the last 3 days as I pushed through the remains of GoWIII.

Homefront is finished. Not a great game, but a decent militaristic shooter. I'd say if you can get it for less than $20, give it a spin.

Tales of Monkey Island is down. The middle chapters (2 and 3) were a bit of a chore really, but it REALLY picks up towards the end, the last two chapters are worth the price of admission alone.

Just a few days shy of three years to the day after I started my first attempt, I started a new game of Bioshock.