The Month May Be Short But The Pile Isn't - Pile of Shame February 2017

One month down, 11 to go. If your pile is anything like mine, you'll need all the time you can get. Unfortunately this is a short month.

If you're interested, m0nk3yboy, has the 12 month 2017 pile plan thread over here.

SallyNasty has got a group playing Far Cry: Blood Dragon in February over here.

If JRPGs are more your speed, Damnable Bear has got you covered over here. This quarter they're playing Earthbound.

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

Life is Strange


IMAGE(https://animeangelreviews.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/header1.jpg)
"You are Max, a photography senior who saves her old friend Chloe by discovering she can rewind time. The pair soon find themselves exposed to the darker side of Arcadia Bay as they uncover the disturbing truth behind the sudden disappearance of a fellow student.

Meanwhile, Max begins to have premonitions as she struggles to understand the implications of her power. She must quickly learn that changing the past can sometimes lead to a devastating future." (Official Site)

Multi-Platform
Abzu - beeporama
Alice: Madness Returns - brokenclavicle
Banner Saga - jdzappa
Blackwell Legacy - Bubblefuzz
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - Eleima
Dead Space - bobbywatson
Dear Ester - beeporama
Doom - Glycerine
Dragon Quest Builders - Glycerine
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - AUs_TBirD
Fallout 4 - jdzappa
Far Cry: Blood Dragon - ClockworkHouse, Godzilla Blitz, pyxistyx, brokenclavicle
Firewatch - beeporama
Jade Empire - MrDeVil909
King's Quest - Eleima, pyxistyx
Life is Strange - Bubblefuzz
Little Big Planet 3 - ClockworkHouse
Mass Effect - jdzappa
Metro: Last Light - AUs_TBirD
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Eleima
Minecraft Story Mode - jdzappa
Never Alone - beeporama
Nova-111 - kstress71
Oxenfree - beeporama
Phantasy Star IV - bobbywatson
Silent Hill - Forlorn Hope
Valkyria Chronicles - ClockworkHouse
Wasteland 2 - Malkroth
Ys: The Oath in Felghana - brokenclavicle

PC
Endless Legend - jdzappa
Order of Battle: US Pacific - Godzilla Blitz
Pillars of Eternity - Glycerine
XCOM 2 - jdzappa

Xbox One

PS4

WiiU
Xenoblade Chronicles X - pyxistyx, brokenclavicle

3DS
Kid Icarus Uprising - kstress71

One chapter down, four to go... Stick me down for Life is Strange (multi) please.

I am working hard to eliminate as much from my pile as I can in 2017. This month it's Doom on Xbox One, Pillars of Eternity on PC, and if I can squeeze it in maybe Dragon Quest Builders on PS4.

Here are my commitments:

1. Endless Legend (almost done!)
2. Fallout 4
3. Mass Effect 1
4. Banner Saga

Lets go with Silent Hill (PS3/Multi). Wish me luck! I'm a wuss when it comes to horror games (and yet I keep playing them..)

Please put me down for Valkyria Chronicles (Multi) and Far Cry: Blood Dragon (Multi). Thanks!

Between two months of Final Fantasy XV and turning to other big long new releases in March, I decided to dedicate the short month to short games I really ought to have played by now:

Abzu
Dear Esther
Firewatch
Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa)
Oxenfree

All five of these are multi-platform but I'll be playing on PS4.

I'm looking forward to seeing how jdzappa manages Fallout 4 and Mass Effect (much less anything else) in a single month!

I'm either going to finish Dragon Quest II (GBC) or give up.

List should be up to date. Please note the platform the game is available on and not just the one you are playing it on. Helps reduce duplicate listing if I don't pay close attention, or several days pass between updates.

Thanks,
Grumpy Hemi

I'm going to take a walk on the wild side and declare two games this month: Order of Battle: US Pacific (PC) and Far Cry: Blood Dragon (Multiple)

Been a while since I felt like having a serious go at something. The last two months I've been fiddling around in Eve because I just felt like something relaxing and mechanical. I just started on Jade Empire (multi) the other day, so I'm going to make a solid push on that.

Just finished Nova-111 (multi) on Vita. Great little puzzle/strategy hybrid game! I've heard it called a roguelike by some, but don't feel that that's accurate. You have to start a level over if you die, but not the whole game.

Please also put me down for Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS) and Zero Time Dilemma (multi). Thanks!

I will finish Dead Space (multi) this month no matter what. Probably today, even. And then we'll see.

Edit: And Dead Space is done!

This time I'm finishing Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel (multi), I promise! Should also declare King's Quest (2015, multi) and Shadow of Mordor (multi).

I'm working on getting through my WiiU Backlog so that I can then trade it and the games in at some future inspecified date to help pay for a Switch.

Good news: I don't have that many WiiU games.
Bad news: The ones I have are mostly all REALLY LONG games.

Right now I'm working through Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU). I'm EXACTLY back up to the point where I was when I gave up the last time...

Spoiler:

A certain brick wall of a chapter where I'm up against a literal flying saucer of death

...but if I can push through that, then the prognosis for getting at leat the story stuff finished this month looks pretty good.

I'm also one-chapter into King's Quest (2015, Multi) and I'm going to join in with the game-club game this month (Farcry Blood Dragon, Multi)

So, in the shortest month of the year I have decided to try for an uncommon amount of games to declare. I am a mad man!

Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU) because I need to mainline it. Been tarrying way too long.
Far Cry Blood Dragon (Multi) because I joined SallyNasty's club thingy.
Alice: Madness Returns (Multi) because I started it and, while I found the opening bits of the game were a bit underwhelming, it slowly began to open up halfway through chapter one. I'm well into Chapter 5 now and each and every new level is more visually astounding than the previous one. I'm really enjoying this one, so much so that I may very well get the Platinum trophy for it.

Spoiler:

Also, I had been noticing some similarities with Psychonauts as far as some mechanics and bits of level design, only to find a hidden easter egg where Raz' skeleton is propped on an arm chair in a little cave. Very, very nice!

Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Multi) Because I'm about halfway through it on my Vita and it's high-time I got through it as well.

Finished Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! Was fun enough playing with my BFF and enjoyed the low grav' stuff, but those final bosses really outstayed their welcome as is often the case with Borderlands games.

I'm going to declare Phantasy Star IV (multi) this month. Provided I can get myself to stop (re) playing Monster Hunter Generations obsessively, that should be doable. Also being able to play for maybe 30 minutes at work during lunch should help.

Valkyria Chronicles is done! Overall, it's solid, but I think its aesthetic is significantly stronger than its gameplay.

Alice: Madness Returns (Multi) is done. Fun game with amazing level design. Likely going for the Platinum, but for now it is done pile-wise.

So I finished a couple more levels of Doom, pushed a bit farther in Pillars of Eternity...and then Nioh came out and I've done nothing but that since. I'm hoping to put at least a bit of time into each this weekend, but don't see any chance of getting to Dragon Quest Builders. Although my son does like it on occasion, so it's possible he may want me play a bit. Realistically I see Doom maybe getting crossed off the list, the others not so much. Then with Torment and Zelda hitting end of February, beginning of March I don't think I'll get much backlog play time next month.

Hope it's not too late to add two more to the list:

Minecraft Story Mode
Xcom 2

I'm just about ready to just call Xenoblade Chronicles done. I'm on the last mission but severely under-powered and it looks like it's going to be one of those loooong annoying final boss fights with multiple stages. Which means a whole lot of grinding to do and building up cash reserves to buy some significant Skells and equipment before tackling it again and I'm not sure I have the patience for that.

We shall see. I'm not quite at the giving up stage yet but I'm pretty close to just moving on to something else.

pyxistyx wrote:

I'm just about ready to just call Xenoblade Chronicles done. I'm on the last mission but severely under-powered and it looks like it's going to be one of those loooong annoying final boss fights with multiple stages. Which means a whole lot of grinding to do and building up cash reserves to buy some significant Skells and equipment before tackling it again and I'm not sure I have the patience for that.

We shall see. I'm not quite at the giving up stage yet but I'm pretty close to just moving on to something else.

IIRC in Chronicles X if you fail a big fight once or twice, the game offers a lowering of difficulty for the encounter without any penalties. Might want to have a go at the battle and see how that goes?

Please, put me down for LittleBigPlanet 3 (Multi). Thanks!

I also beat Valkyria Chronicles. First game of the month!

brokenclavicle wrote:

IIRC in Chronicles X if you fail a big fight once or twice, the game offers a lowering of difficulty for the encounter without any penalties. Might want to have a go at the battle and see how that goes?

Yeah.. I already reached that stage and he still wiped the floor with me. Problem is, all of my skells were wrecked after the first attempt and you can't leave and come back after getting repaired, so I had to repeatedly tackle a nigh indistructible alien skells on foot doing bare minimum damage.

Luckily the game auto saves before starting the final mission so I DO have the choice to go level everything up a bit first before trying again.

All done with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Good times!

Well this month has been pretty bad for any meaningful progress for me but I am going to declare Wasteland 2 (PC) in hopes that it will spur me to get back into it and complete it.

Kings Quest 2015 is down. Mixed bag in the puzzle department but I loved the story it was telling.

Nova-111 (multi) is actually done, not just declared

I'd like to also declare Bloodborne (PS4) and Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS). Thanks!

Wow, I didn't realize how close I was to the end of the game. Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS) is down!

My summary of every level in this game:
Wow, the flying stage is awesome!
Yuck, the ground level sucks...
And now for a boss fight... oh, it's already dead? Um...okay.