It's a Labor of Love - Pile of Shame September 2015

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School's back in session. Madden is out. Big Boss is back. I'm pretty sure the pile is growing and not slowing. This is the last monthly thread. Next month brings the 3 month end of year spectacular where we all sheepishly try to play a few games, but mostly we just collect new pile entries. Ok, maybe I'm speaking from personal experience and projecting on the rest of you. So what?

If you're interested, m0nk3yboy, has the 12 month pile plan thread over here.

If you want to play the same game with a group of Goodjers and discuss. This month we've got Wolfenstein: The New Order over in SallyNasty's Game Club thread

A quick reminder, in order to be considered "Pile of Shame" the game needs to be at least three months old. Otherwise, it's just a new game you haven't gotten to playing yet.

Also, if you are curious about some of the previous threads, Picks of the Pile, etc... Please go here and check out the spreadsheet I setup.

Let's get on to the games!

This month's Pick of the Pile is

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings


IMAGE(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WkPQ5_W0Dtc/T-Ry1xXFWrI/AAAAAAAAMwA/Hy8MjjHUin4/s1600/Geralt_of_Rivia_Witcher2_Wallpaper_1920x1080.jpg)
"The player is Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer, a witcher. Entangled in the political turmoil that engulfed Temeria, Geralt helped quell the rebellion of the Order of the Flaming Rose. Soon after, he saved King Foltest’s life when the monarch was attacked by a witcher-like assassin. He continues to protect the king, serving as his bodyguard as Foltest strives to bring peace to his kingdom. The Order’s last bastions have yielded to the royal army, yet one more task remains - the Baroness La Valette announced her secession from the realm, and her fortress must be taken. A month after the attempted assassination, Foltest’s armies stand at the gates of La Valette Castle, preparing for a final assault. Still at Foltest’s side, Geralt is among them, unable to begin his personal quest to discover the mysterious assassin’s origin and identity." (Official Site)

Multi-Platform
Assassin's Creed III - kstress71
Babel Rising - brokenclavicle
Banjo Kazooie - Forlorn Hope
The Banner Saga - jdzappa
Bastion - chiefsheep
Castle Crashers - honeycut1
Crypt of the Necrodancer - Eleima
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - chiefsheep
Donkey Kong 64 - Forlorn Hope
Dragon Age Inquisition - jdzappa
Dying Light - CptDomano
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Forlorn Hope
Fallout: New Vegas - jdzappa
Final Fantasy: Theatrhythm - kstress71
Final Fantasy X-2 - Eastwardflea
God of War 2 - mcwizardry
Kingdom Hearts: ReChain of Memories - Demyx
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - bobbywatson
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - kstress71
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Hemi
Onimusha 3: Demon Siege - AUs_TBirD
Papers Please - ActualDragon
Persona 4 - Demyx
Pier Solar and the Great Architects - damnablebear
Red Dead Redemption - bobbywatson
Resident Evil Revelations - Marchantia
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - brokenclavicle
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment - Eleima
Sly 2: Band of Thieves - brokenclavicle
Soldier of Fortune - AUs_TBirD
Syberia 2 - kstress71
Valiant Hearts: The Great War - Eleima
The Walking Dead: Season 2 - ActualDragon
Way of the Samurai - CptDomano
The Witcher 2 - brokenclavicle, Quintin_Stone
Wolfenstein: The New Order - Hemi, damnablebear, CptDomano, SallyNasty
Xeodrifter - damnablebear

PC
Endless Legend - jdzappa
Gunman Chronicles - AUs_TBirD
Guild Wars 2 - jdzappa
Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure - Eleima

Xbox 360
Gears of War: Judgement - honeycut1

PS3
Demon's Souls - holehearted
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - AUs_TBirD

PSP
Patapon - kstress71

WiiU
Super Mario 3D World - brokenclavicle

3DS
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - kstress71
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call - kstress71

Wolfenstein for me as well, in addition to carrying over Pier Solar and the Great Architects (PS4). I may declare Red Dead again at a later date but my interest in continuing that game is fading a bit.

Yup, Wolfenstein: The New Order (multi) for sure is on my list

I'm going to carry over Way of the Samurai (multi) from last month, and then also add in Dying Light (multi)

So I just finished up Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS). The transition to 3D visuals in most cases was surprisingly good, not straying too far from the hand-drawn look of the game. Some of the 3D puzzles were just clunky though.

Please also put me down to finish up this month:

Patapon (PSP)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
Final Fantasy: Theatrhythm (3DS)
Assassin's Creed III (Multi)

Thanks Hemi, but I'm doing just fine over here when it comes to Pile Reduction. /TotallyNotGloating

I'll be carrying over Valiant Hearts: The Great War (multi) which I started last week.

I'm kinda undecided on what to play next, but I think I've settled on: Crypt of the Necrodancer (Multi), Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure (PC) and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment (Multi).

Odds are I won't be able to tackle them all, since we'll be moving mid September, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Going for ambition this month... sort of. Please, put me down for:

The Witcher 2 (Multi)
Babel Rising (Multi)
Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Multi)
Sly 2: Band of Thieves (Multi)

Two relatively small games, one mid-sized Platformer, and a decently sized RPG. I'm feeling good about September :D.

I've made a terrible mistake and dipped my toes in the crazy that is MGS 5. I'll try to split my time, as Mordor will take a bit (Wolfenstein, not so much). Here's hoping at least one falls this month.

For me this month, my only objective is to finish Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (multi). I should be able to, I think I'm 9/10 hours away from the end.

Please put me down for Wolfenstein as well, and thanks for linking to the game club:)!

I'm playing Persona 4 (PS2) but since I just started and it's a 100+ hr. JRPG I won't be finishing it this month. Although I have been blazing through it pretty fast because it's just that good!

This month I'm going to tackle Banjo Kazooie (N64/Multi) and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Xbox/Multi). I'm pretty sure that I won't finish the latter in time for October but it'd be good to make some progress in the main story line. (And not get distracted by the side stuff too much)

I'm carrying over Bastion (Multi) from August. I *think* I'm about 80% of the way through so am really hoping to complete this month.

Also adding Deus Ex, Human Revolution (Multi) as next on the list.

So, OK, my pile may shrink slightly more slowly than hoped (damn you, World of Tanks, damn you!) but at 21 games (24 originally, 3 down so far), finishing one a month means I won't need to buy another game until spring 2017.

Ha.
Ha.
Ha.

Like that's going to happen.....

And in other news I upgraded my PC to Win10 a couple of days ago. And then reformatted and clean installed. Which meant I had no games installed. Which means (be strong!) if I just reinstall the ones that are on my pile list one by one....I won't be tempted to play those that aren't on the pile list. Is that how it works?

Put me down for fire emblem awakening and carry over Fallout New Vegas from last month.

Syberia 2 is done!

I screwed and bought Splatoon and that is eating away my life. By the by, if anybody wants to play me online, I'll kick your ass. Nintendo ID: halfhearted. But yeah, I didn't finish Demon's Souls. I'm on World 3 though, the Prison Tower area. So...getting somewhere. Hopefully done this month. Not gonna claim anything else for now, haha.

September already has an early success for me; Babel Rising is done. Had fun, got a bit tedious during a couple of missions/stages, but it's not a long game so it was surmountable with a little patience.

Chiefsheep, sounds like you'd fit right in the yearly Pile thread. But yeah, you're headed in the right direction. Make sure to track your progress in some fashion as well.

Final Fantasy: Theatrhythm is done!

September's a pretty busy month for me (PhD qualifying exam woohoo), so I'll start out a little pessimistic: going for remaining achievements in Papers, Please and finishing The Walking Dead: Season 2. We'll see how those go before I figure out what to play next...

Yikes!! Good luck, ActualDragon!!!

Thanks, Eleima. I'm sure it'll be fine, it's just a lot on my plate... (will probably swing by the "how's work going" thread as the next couple weeks ramp up to vent...)

Done with Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Gets tough - for me - toward the end. The last two stages and the set of final bosses. Those took me a few tries.

What's this? Two games already down? (nevermind that they're quickies) My month is looking good so far!

After crouching through Everybody's Gone to The Rapture I'll slowly move into the opposite direction and therefore I pick Resident Evil Revelations. I'm playing on the 360 but i guess it's a multi title.

You can both add and cross off Xeodrifter (multi) for me - finished it tonight!

I'm going to declare and strike off Donkey Kong 64 (N64/Multi). I wasn't planning on playing this before Banjo Kazooie but I booted up the game to check on something. I could of sworn that years ago I had a young family member come over and accidentally erase my 70% save file. I remember being really depressed since I had worked so hard to get to that point. Game files 1 & 2 were empty but 3 had my old save on it! So all I had to get through was the (rage inducing) original Donkey Kong arcade game to acquire the Nintendo 64 coin and then take on the final boss. So happy

Down goes The Walking Dead: Season 2! Everything hurts. These games just wreck me. Love seeing the choice breakdown at the end though - some of them, I'm surprised I was in the minority of players.

Next up: defeating my qualifying exam...

I'm hoping I can cheat here since Im posting late. Last night I finally beat the final boss in the Guild Wars 2 personal story. So please add the following:

Guild Wars 2 - beaten
Banner Saga
Dragon Age Inquisition
Fallout New Vegas
Endless Legend

Credits finally rolled on Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (PS2) last night.

I have come to understand that I need to take the howlongtobeat average on games and multiply by two to get my time-to-finish.

The dialog and story in Onimusha 2 was bad in an amusing B-movie way. In Onimusha 3 it´s just bad. Really, really, painfully, fan fiction written by a 3 year old who has never had human interaction - bad. The short segments where dialog remained in its native French and Japanese was fine and sort of cool, but once the Navi-wannabe-universal-translator arrived, it all went to the dogs. I wouldn´t be surprised if Jean Reno counts his co-starring role in this game as the low point of his career.
Also, whoever wrote the story had zero concept of how time travel works (I can´t believe I just wrote that).
At least the action is good, the gameplay surprisingly varied, the controls MUCH improved over the previous games (using an analog stick to move - how novel!), and the visuals had a few impressive tricks (notably the fantastic-looking fire and water).

I´ve now seen the credits on all three Onimusha games in my collection. I guess that´s an achievement.

Shametember

I'm trying to get through The Witcher 2 this month.

Awesome, congrats jdzappa!! So how did it feel to take down Zhaitan? Was it sufficiently epic??

I finished Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PC/multi) this morning. I'm looking forward to the sequels and pseudo-sequels, and will buy them on day one (mostly because I want to give support to Xseed so they can keep releasing games like these and not... the other kind of games the release) but won't play them right away, I kinda need a break from all the talking.

Not sure what I'm going to play next. I'm considering MGS3, but we'll see. I'm currently on medical leave with a lot of time on my hands, but I'd rather spend it doing something more productive than playing games.

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