In celebration of 9 years of doing Pile of Shame threads I'm taking two weeks off in June! No, I'll really be out on family vacation in Europe, but we can pretend. Updates may be a bit spotty in the first half of the month.
If you're interested, m0nk3yboy, has the 12 month 2016 pile plan thread over here.
If you want to play the same game with a group of Goodjers and discuss. This May we've got Mirror's Edge over in SallyNasty's Game Club thread.
If you have a ridiculous JRPG backlog, Damnable Bear and co. has got you covered in the Quarterly JRPG Club thread. This quarter is Final Fantasy X-2.
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 isSherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
"Unlike the previous adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in Crimes and Punishments you will not be a mere spectator during the detective’s investigation. It is now your turn to truly become Sherlock Holmes and lead your own investigation--actually, your investigations, as 8 captivating cases await you! Murders, disappearances, spectacular thefts, and other investigations will bring you to the cutting edge of the detective genre and these cases will be the bread and butter of this game, written in the pure tradition of Conan Doyle’s novels." (Official Site)
Multi-Platform
Bioshock Infinite - kergguz
Bulletstorm - AUs_TBirD
Darksiders 2 - ClockworkHouse
Dark Souls - Malkroth
Dark Souls 2 - mrtomaytohead
Dragon Age Inquisition - jdzappa
Earthbound - ksress71
Elliot Quest - ClockworkHouse
FFX-2 - Farscry
Firewatch - Bubblefuzz
Gladius - jrralls
God of War: Ghost of Sparta - AUs_TBirD
Grand Theft Auto V - brokenclavicle
Human Resource Machine - Eleima
The Last of Us: Left Behind - ClockworkHouse
Persona 4 - Malkroth
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - brokenclavicle
Shadowrun Returns - ksress71
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments - Eleima
Tales from the Borderlands - Marchantia
Toukiden Kiwami - bobbywatson
Unmechanical - Marchantia
PC
The Beginner's Guide - Eleima
That Dragon, Cancer - Eleima
Football Tactics - Godzilla Blitz
Rome 2 Total War - jdzappa
WOW: Burning Cursade - jdzappa
WOW: Cataclysm - jdzappa
WOW: Wrath of the Lich King - jdzappa
Xbox One
PS4
Killzone: Shadow Fall - Damnable Bear
PS3
WiiU
Yoshi's Wooly World - mrtomaytohead
Zenoblade Chronicles X - brokenclavicle
Wii
Metroid: Other M - Marchantia
3DS
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - Marchantia
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - ksress71
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team - ksress71
DS
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - brokenclavicle
Contact - brokenclavicle
Still plugging away at FFX-2 on the Vita, on track to have it complete by the end of this month as planned.
Kinda bouncing around a few other titles, nothing I'm willing to commit to finishing in the near-term yet.
I'm not going to carry over Xcom2 because it's too long and the new Witcher 3 DLC drops tomorrow. I will declare Bioshock: Infinite however, because I'm already 5 hours in and should be able to polish it off in June.
I failed in my attempt to beat Toukiden Kiwami (multi) last month, but that won't stop me from trying again this month! I think I'm actually very close to the end of the single player campain. And I think that's all I'm going to declare, I can't really commit to anything these days for some reason...
I'm going to carry over Darksiders II and add Elliot Quest (Multi). Thanks! Enjoy your vacation!
Call me crazy, but I intend to finish all of the following games I've started and left halfway, or the one juggernaut that simply won't die hahaha
Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU)
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (NDS)
Contact (NDS)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Multi)
Grand Theft Auto V (Multi)
In order to avoid the catastrophe of the last two months (not a single finished game), I'm only going to pledge to beat God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PS3/multi) for now, since I'm very close to the end.
Hope you have a great vacation Hemi! If you're in or near Bavaria, gimme a shout if you like!
Hope you have a great vacation Hemi! If you're in or near Bavaria, gimme a shout if you like!
Yes I meant to say, if you're near north Wales, feel free to say hi! (though I don't know why on earth you'd go there, we're hardly the tourist central of Europe)
Still plugging away at FFX-2 on the Vita, on track to have it complete by the end of this month as planned.
Kinda bouncing around a few other titles, nothing I'm willing to commit to finishing in the near-term yet.
FFX-2 is done; was a lot closer to the end than I realized!
Okay, this is it. This is the month I get back on the horse! I'll be declaring The Beginner's Guide (PC), Human Resource Machine (Multi) and That Dragon, Cancer (PC - unless the Ouya makes it count Multi? who uses the ouya anyhow, seriously? ).
Enjoy your trip, Hemi!!! And if you have a layover in Paris, let me know!
God of War: Ghost of Sparta down. It was fun enough to see me through to the end. Invisible walls (especially while trying to jump over deadly things), not so much. Surprisingly easy, especially compared to my memory of the first one.
Gonna work on some other games before publicly committing to them, but let´s just say I'm really happy to be back in the post-apocalyptic soviet universe with Metro: Last Light.
Put me down for Dark Souls 2 (PC/Mulii) and Yoshi's Wolly World (Wii U)
In theory, I could finish both this weekend.
In reality, I've been playing Terraria with Zoso, just bought Just Cause 3 and Cities Skylines (grand total of $21.18 for both), still have to get through Diablo 3 for the first time with some friends, and still want to play more Rocket League, so Yoshi will probably languish for a while longer.
Turns out I only had one quest left to do to get to the credits in Toukiden Kiwami. I unlocked some more missions, and I may actually play a few of them. Time on the clock is 97.5 hours (between 20 and 25 of those were spent online with friends).
Overall, I have to say I had a great time with this game. Of all the Monster Hunter clones I've played, this was the most MH of them. Unlike Freedom Wars and Soul Sacrifice Delta (which I also enjoyed quite a bit), this one is not one big area, it follows the MH formula of having smaller, separate arenas. However, as you get closer to the end, you are usually limited to a starting area with only one extra arena, where the boss battle takes place. Also, unlike MH, I don't recall seeing the enemies change zone. Once you've found them, they stay where they are.
As is the case with MH, characters don't have stats, it's all equipment based. Here though, in addition to weapons and various pieces of armour, you can also equip Mitama, which are spirits that grant you a select number of spells and, combining three Mitama of the same kind (attack, defence, luck, healing, etc), you get an extra bonus. As Mitama get experience, they will gain new levels and new abilities (although they can never have more than three, so you have to make some choices).
The story doesn't really matter, and neither do the characters (although I would totally marry Fugaku in the game if I could, he's pretty sexy), but I like the short missions (they typically take between 10 and 15 minutes), and the game is overall pretty easy (which is a positive in my book, although your mileage may vary). The enemy design gets repetitive (there definitely is not as much variety as in MH or even Soul Sacrifice Delta), but they are creative enough, and are pretty fun to beat. It also has some OK music (I really like the Fall village theme).
I played some of the online and, while it's pretty much the same as the single player, fighting demons (or Oni, as they are called in the game) with friends never gets old. The single- and multi-player campaigns are separate, so any progress done online is not reflected on the single-player side (unlike Freedom Wars, which you could pretty much play online from beginning to end). I've been traveling a lot for work lately, and it's been great to play a mission or two everyday just to change my mind from the mind-bogingly boring stuff I do during the day.
So, in short: It's about as Monster Hunter as it can get. There is a sequel coming out soon in Japan, and this one will be open world, apparently. I'm super curious to see how this one works, and I will probably buy it if it is ever localized (and I expect it will, Tecmo Koei seems to localize almost everything they put out).
Speaking of Tecmo Koei, this game had surprisingly no fan-service whatsoever. Even when you go to the hot springs, all characters wear a white yukata in the water, covering pretty much everything. The most fan-servicey thing I've seen is the feminine feline demon, and even then, it's not very sexy (IMHO).
The game is available on the Vita and the PS4. I ended up buying both versions, and it is possible to transfer a save file from one version to the other. Both versions run very well, and while the PS4 version is definitely the better looking one, the Vita version is fairly impressive.
I guess it's now time to get back to EarthBound and see if I can rescue Paula from the blue-colour fanatics...
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal is in the books, and with it my time with the series in possibly forever. It was good and enjoyable and that last level was a decent challenge. The final boss actually made me nearly run out of ammo on all of my weapons.
I've enjoyed the series all these years and have played all but a couple of the titles in the main series, but I doubt I'll get the reboot for PS4 or the extant games I haven't played for PS3.
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has been beaten. Took me two endings before getting the True Ending with a little help from a hint guide.
It was entertaining, though at times I had a hard time figuring out what could interact with what.
Dark Souls 2 is down! And thanks to Danopian, so is the final DLC boss, so it's as done as it is getting.
Still haven't touched Yoshi's Woolly World
Gladius for the Gamecube is my goal for the summer.
Gladius for the Gamecube is my goal for the summer.
I'll be interested in your take on it. That's one of those critical darlings that nobody knows about. However, based on the reviews, I picked it up and tried to get into it twice, but bounced off hard within the first two hours both times.
At the risk of never playing it again because of this, I'm going to declare Bulletstorm (PC/multi). In two play sessions I'm already more than halfway and am having a pretty swell time with it!
I'm still playing Metroid: Other M (Wii). But meanwhile I finished Tales from the Borderlands and Unmechanical (both Multi)!
I bought and started to play Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (3DS) as well, which I mainly bought because of the cute Amiibo.
Another month, another one wasted, gone, lost to the delays I've suffered because of Dark Souls 3, and therefore, not finishing FFX-2 in time. That changes this summer. Not sure if it will be June, but I'm going to try and tackle Witcher 3 (per Sally's thread, though likely not finishing in June) and FFX-2.
Don't put either down for June, but, f*ck it - put Killzone: Shadow Fall down. I have two missions left. I hope I can handle that.
Okay, I've declared Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS) before but FINALLY finished it. So I'm definitely taking credit for it this month.
I'm also declaring Earthbound (SNES), Shadowrun Returns (various), and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS).
Thanks!
I WILL pry myself away from overwatch to play through Firewatch! It's been a couple weeks so I may start over.
jrralls wrote:Gladius for the Gamecube is my goal for the summer.
I'll be interested in your take on it. That's one of those critical darlings that nobody knows about. However, based on the reviews, I picked it up and tried to get into it twice, but bounced off hard within the first two hours both times.
Full disclosure; It being a critical darling that nobody knows about is _exactly_ how I heard about it and why I want to try it.
I guess I should have stated that my goal is not necessarily to finish it, but to just play enough of it to decide if I want to finish it or not. I've yet to actually play the game, I've just wanted to play the game.
I own the ps2 version of Gladius and played it quite a bit back when it was new. The game was quite enjoyable and very unique. Never beat the game but ended up making it to like chapter 4 or 5 I think.i really liked the arena tactical combat and the class system they used. Makes me want to play it again.
Failing to finish Persona 4 Golden again last month I actually going to fully commit to it this month. Halfway through January so should not be too much left. Also plan to finish up Dark Souls as I only have the dlc and one other area left.
And Human Resource Machine is down! It got kinda complex there towards the end, particularly for someone who isn't a programmer. As much as I loved Little Inferno, this spiritual successor fell a bit short.
And Human Resource Machine is down! It got kinda complex there towards the end, particularly for someone who isn't a programmer. As much as I loved Little Inferno, this spiritual successor fell a bit short.
What exactly is the lure of Little Inferno? I have tried to get into it multiple times based upon shining discussions about it online and in random podcasts, but it never grabs me. I hear it's one of those "subverts your expectations the deeper you dive" games, but I don't know that I'm willing to be bored with the minimal gameplay for experience it.
It was mostly the quirky humor at first, and then the cynical social commentary. It's definitely not for everyone though.
Time to cross Bulletstorm off the list as the first game I've beaten on my first new gaming pc in 9 years!
Holy cow was that dialog awful, but occasionally funny! The game is the definition of a corridor shooter, but the shooting felt good and the point system was a great incentivizer to experiment with different weapons and environmental interaction. Finding new ways of setting up combo effects for a kill or kills was a fun challenge (I had 95 of 131 possible by the end).
I loved sliding and kicking enemies off of ledges and into spikes, but I couldn't seem to use the whip to fling enemies in any direction other than straight at me (is it even possible?) The action is utterly over the top, but rarely gets terribly old, and the music does a good job of accompanying it. It also doesn't hurt that the game is very pretty - bright and colorful are not fps artistic styles often seen nowadays outside of the Far Cry franchises.
Kind of a shame there seems to be little chance of a sequel.
Finally finished Yoshi's Wooly World! Only took me 6 months!
I haven't made any more progress on my picks for the month, but I managed to beat The Last of Us: Left Behind. I talked about it in the PS4 thread, but I connected with it a lot better than the main game. In fact, I liked it so much that I might take another swing at the full game.
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