The Clock is Ticking, is the Pile Shrinking?

Zelda 2 is done! What a brilliant and brutal little gem that one is. If Majora's Mask weren't just the best damn thing ever, this would be my favorite Zelda game.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Zelda 2 is done! What a brilliant and brutal little gem that one is. If Majora's Mask weren't just the best damn thing ever, this would be my favorite Zelda game.

While I'm with you in liking this one more than most people, I have a hard time finding more joy from a Zelda game than A Link to the Past. My (not so) hidden shame being that I've never played Majora's Mask and have only barely touched Wind Waker.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

I have a hard time finding more joy from a Zelda game than A Link to the Past.

My big secret is that I've never played A Link to the Past. I was a Genesis man, and I've just never gotten around to getting the game on Virtual Console or GBA. My hope is that the GBA port ends up as one of the 3DS ambassador games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I have a hard time finding more joy from a Zelda game than A Link to the Past.

My big secret is that I've never played A Link to the Past. I was a Genesis man, and I've just never gotten around to getting the game on Virtual Console or GBA. My hope is that the GBA port ends up as one of the 3DS ambassador games.

I... who. are. you?
I've beaten that game every which way I could think of including breaking dungeon sequencing and minimum heart no death runs in a single sitting.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

They're largely unrelated stories, and Bioshock 2 is the better game, so go ahead and play that one.

I too was worried about playing the second before the first. I will go ahead and pull it off the pile for this weekend.

I know, right? Who the hell hasn't played Majora's Mask?

mrtomaytohead wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

I have a hard time finding more joy from a Zelda game than A Link to the Past.

My big secret is that I've never played A Link to the Past. I was a Genesis man, and I've just never gotten around to getting the game on Virtual Console or GBA. My hope is that the GBA port ends up as one of the 3DS ambassador games.

I... who. are. you?
I've beaten that game every which way I could think of including breaking dungeon sequencing and minimum heart no death runs in a single sitting.

Seriously! It breaks my break to think that gamers out there never played the classic Zelda canon!

EDIT: I meant "breaks my brain"... evidently, it was broken by the time I was writing that sentence...

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I know, right? Who the hell hasn't played Majora's Mask?

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Well, you should.

Sam and Max 106 is down. The whole season was kind of meh.

Ironically, certain changes in my personal life which aren't altogether good have made my schedule rather clear for pile-diminishing purposes.

A hearty cookie says I meet my goals for the pile this month with time to spare!

de Blob 2 fell last night. I really enjoyed it and will return one day to get the last three achievements, but for now I am content with what I have, and the 's' rank on all levels.

Now to get some headway made on next month's title while I wait for Gears 3 to arrive in the mail...

Puzzle Quest 2 is off the pile!

Unannounced, but VVVVVV is down. Pretty cool game, mostly, and harder than I expected.

Finished The Witcher!

Didn't think I was that close, but I watched the credits roll on Section 8 Prejudice.

Hemidal wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I know, right? Who the hell hasn't played Majora's Mask?

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You don't count, Ms. Compson. I assume you've never played anything good.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I know, right? Who the hell hasn't played Majora's Mask?

I got as far as watching the attract screen for a while; does that count?

Everyone should play it! It is a huge deviation of the standard Zelda main story rehash we've gotten over and over throughout the years. It's brilliant, really.

And Fallout 3 is finally over for me. Having spent so much time with the side quests, etc., I was surprised at how the main story wrapped up fairly quickly for me. I think it's time for some shorter things before tackling anything longer than about 12 hours.

It's looking like Crysis 2 and Vanquish will roll into the 3 month end of year attempt.

My success stories of this month:

Faxanadu (NES) - September 1st
There is no way I would have ever beaten this without gamefaqs. There were numerous instances of unavoidable damage and even one spot about 30% into the game where it is possible to be unable to progress if the player does things out of order. Thankfully, in the age of the internet, passcodes can be looked up to skip past such a trouble spot.

I've seriously attempted to finish this four times and finally succeeded. My verdict: overrated.

Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning (PC) - September 9th - unannounced
Much harder than the original, but mostly not for the right reasons. Lots of shielded enemies and cheap enemy placement/hits.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (NDS) - just now.
Beating this excellent portable RPG took me 62.5 hours. It is very charming, extremely meaty, and mostly old-school game that has me seriously planning to dive into post-main-story content.

Unfortunately, the quest system wasn't very good. Most quests were simply tedious and unfortunately necessary for unlocking other classes. I actually didn't even use any special classes to beat the game with, however. Additionally, of the three optional grotto dungeons I played, all were devoid of personality and repetitious, with the only highlights being their bosses. Furthermore, the item collection and grinding for the alchemy pot wasn't exactly exciting either, and would have been infuriating without a thick notepad and/or online faqs.

Despite all of this criticism, DQ IX still belongs in the upper echelons of jrpg's I've played, which speaks to the tremendous strength of its positive points' ability to overshadow the tedious and uninspired elements.

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Hope to finish off Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero (PC) by the end of the month. I might even manage another short game, but I'm not willing to commit to it yet.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

My success stories of this month:

... Lot's of stuff

I need to make some sort of pile award. I swear you clear the most games every month, without fail.

Well, it would seem that the powers-that-be were against me this week. The power company decided to revamp all cabling in my neighborhood and therefore left me powerless for two days... Hence hardly any time to play. I will have to carry over all of the games unfinished as I won't have time to play neither tonight nor tomorrow night.

Hemidal wrote:
AUs_TBirD wrote:

My success stories of this month:

... Lot's of stuff

I need to make some sort of pile award. I swear you clear the most games every month, without fail. :)

Seriously. The guy's a machine.

Although he's also a machine at adding things to his pile, too.

Does ICO count for the pile? Cause I got and beat it this week. Granted it's the new version that isn't 3 months old yet. But the game itself is 10 years old and I never played it before...

So... pile progress!

Sort of.

Finished Uncharted. I was surprised when it ended, because to my mind I could only have been on the second act. Then my wife pointed out how many hours I'd put into it, and I went 'Oh.'

Hemidal wrote:
AUs_TBirD wrote:

My success stories of this month:

... Lot's of stuff

I need to make some sort of pile award. I swear you clear the most games every month, without fail. :)

I'm just trying to stay ahead of Clocky and a few others So far this month, Garden Ninja is in the lead with 5 down.

My 4th is Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning at around 5 hours.
Unless you really like Quake II's gameplay, this one should be skipped. It became even harder than the previous expansion because of nasty turret placement, often right above an entrance, so that the only way to learn of its presence was to get hit. Due to the frequency of such cheap turret placement, the pace in the latter half of the game can become quite slow and methodical - something which I really don't associate with the series, and it juxtaposes poorly with the speed of all other enemies. Also, the movement is too slippery, although this is true to the entire Quake II line. I found myself frequently slipping off of surfaces due to momentum. While the new guns and items (at least the ones I actually used) were good, most of the new enemies were simply irritating. Amusingly, several of the levels seem to bear little resemblance to their namesake.
It sounds like I'm really down on Ground Zero, and I do believe it has many issues, but the shooting action is still solid for a game its age, the variety in weapons is appreciated, and it even features a slight enemy AI upgrade. However, it's very easy to do better when searching for an old-school fps to play.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Seriously. The guy's a machine.

Although he's also a machine at adding things to his pile, too. ;)

If the industry would occasionally take a break, so could I

Ok, Gears fell tonight. I might be able to squeeze in some Crysis 2 tomorrow, but since I'm only half-way, I doubt I'll finish it.