Only 1 DAY LATE! I could have gotten this out yesterday, but I took down Christmas lights and ran some errands. Not as bad as some months, but not the greatest way to start a new year. 
Some housekeeping notes.
If you're interested, trueheart78, has the 12 month 2023 pile plan thread over here.
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.
This month's Pick of the Pile isMetroid: Samus Returns
"Brave the hostile terrain of an alien planet teeming with vicious life forms as legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran. Her mission? Terminate the Metroid menace in this masterful reimagining of her 1991 Game Boy™ adventure. Samus Aran's arsenal has been enhanced with new moves and abilities that are sure to help her face the deadly surprises that await." (Nintendo Store)
Multi-Platform
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis - AUs_TBirD
Axiom Verge - AUs_TBirD
Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes - kstress71
Ender Lilies - Stele
The Gardens Between - AUs_TBirD
Hades - iaintgotnopants
Horizon Zero Dawn - iaintgotnopants
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - iaintgotnopants
Life Is Strange - Stele
Lost in Random - Hemi
Persona 3 Portable - bobbywatson
Resident Evil 3 Remake - kstress71
Return to Monkey Island - iaintgotnopants
Spiritfarer - Forlorn Hope
Svoboda 1945: Liberation - AUs_TBirD
Xenoblade Chronicles - brokenclavicle
PC
Endless Space 2 - LastSurprise
Murder By Numbers - kstress71
3DS
Metroid: Samus Returns - Forlorn Hope
Wii
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - kstress71
DS
Solatorobo - brokenclavicle
GBA
Fire Emblem - kstress71
SNES
Space Megaforce - kstress71
Ok, let's see..I'll declare Spiritfarer (Switch/Multi) and Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) for now.
"May those who accept their fate be granted happiness. May those who defy their fate be granted glory."
Backloggery|MAL| Switch 7924-5010-1433
Short list for Hemi:
Declaring:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis - (PS4/multi) - After 23 hours I finished off episode 1 and learned not to clear the map before taking on the story quests, as I'll just be returning to those locations over and over again. Episodes 2 and 3 will hopefully take less time each.
The Gardens Between - (Switch/multi) - Short and seems simple enough, but I assume things will get tricky soon enough.
Axiom Verge - (PC/multi) - I fee like I'm about 1/3 done. A Youtube longplay disagrees and claims it's more like 1/6.
Svoboda 1945: Liberation - (PC/multi) - sequel to Attentat 1942, which impressed me quite a bit a few weeks ago.
As always, thanks for running these threads Hemi!
Steam | Backloggery
Ah, the smell of my own failure to complete all the games I set out to conquer... Whelp, them's the breaks!
Fairly confident I can beat one or two titles in January, so here I go:
Xenoblade Chronicles (multi)
Solatorobo (NDS)
Now Playing: Puzzle & Dragons SMBros. Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Pokemon Violet, Pokemon Legends Arceus, FF IX HD.
Switch Friend Code: SW-7025-5637-0902
Persona 3 Portable (multi) for real this time! I'm (almost) in December, and the game ends in January, I think. I can do this!
Currently playing: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
backlogging and game making blog
But it's coming out for Switch in a few weeks.
I guess I'll declare Ender Lilies (Switch, multi). I'm nearly done, 2 of the 3 endings.
I also started Life Is Strange (PS4, multi) recently so let's work on that this month.
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
I'm going to declare Endless Space 2 (PC). This is the month that I finally finish a campaign!
The GWJ JRPG Club 2.IV Remastered: Let Us Grind Together! | Backlog
I'm playing the PSP version in PPSSPP, with the True HD mod. It's running quite well. I made good progress this weekend, and I am almost at the end of December. I was hoping to finish before the 9th (new job), but it looks like I won't be able to. Oh well. At least I should be able to finish it in January.
Currently playing: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
backlogging and game making blog
I'm going with Lost in Random this month. Let's see how I do...
ClockworkHouse: He means the comic The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman and Superman get in a fistfight over Gotham. Not The Dark Knight Rises, where Batman and a loudly farting orchestra get in a fistfight over your attention.
I somehow ended up with a bunch of in-progress games which is not how I usually like to do things.
Horizon Zero Dawn (Multi) is my main PC game at the moment and it looks like it's probably going to take me quite a while. I think I'm something like 15 hours in and I only just got to the second area. Big map games like this shouldn't give me the option of trying to be sneaky. It's just going to result in me playing it for 80 hours and hating it. The game is alright but the combat is terrible.
I've got three Steam Deck games going currently. Return to Monkey Island (Multi) is almost done. I'm casually making my way through Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Multi). And, I'm working on Hades (Multi). I can fairly consistently get to the third area but I have no idea how much more there is.
Steam/Xbox Live/PSN: iaintgotnopants
HZD combat improves a bit as you get more weapons and ammo I think. Keep with it. Can be a lot of fun
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
I just finished Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (multi) last night, so I'll just take credit for that, thank you very much
Other than that, I'll put Resident Evil 3 Remake (multi), Space Megaforce (SNES), and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) on for January.
Thanks for you work on this thread!
PSN — Steam
So I just finished up Resident Evil 3 Remake (multi). Not bad, but not particularly good either. It's great in the same way that RE2 Remake was great (that engine is a beast), but I definitely get a sense of the minimal effort needed to bring it to market. It's polished but missing some of the options that made RE3 interesting.
PSN — Steam
Just viewed the ending credits for Space Megaforce (SNES). Awesome retro shmup that perfectly fits my resurgent interest in the genre. Still trying to figure out what my next one should be...
I'm doing well this month so far, having finished 2 of my declared 3 games, so I'm going to add a couple more. Plus, I've already started them both, so it's not too much of a stretch. Please put me down for Fire Emblem (GBA) and Murder By Numbers (PC).
PSN — Steam
Good luck with Fire Emblem....anything past chapter 20 or so has been brutal to me. Still stuck on 26 myself.
Steam | Backloggery
Oh hey I finished Life Is Strange and Ender Lilies. Posted thoughts in the LiS and Metroidvania threads. Both pretty great. Looking forward to LiS sequels at some point when I get to it.
Picked up Fire Emblem Engage so the pile is pushed further back for a few weeks. Maybe something new to declare in Feb.
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
Not sure if a message was missed or just not updated for it yet, but I did finish up The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes from my list. Also, Murder by Numbers is completed as well. I won't finish anything else this month though. Thanks!
PSN — Steam
Apparently I couldn’t
Currently playing: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
backlogging and game making blog
Persona is so hard to gauge time-wise. Seems like "One in-game day shouldn't take too long, right?" and then the dungeon goes onnnnn and onnnnn...
PSN — Steam
I probably could have done it, had I spent more time playing it instead of replaying Tomb Raider III.
Currently playing: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
backlogging and game making blog
Whelp, I certainly didn't beat the games on the pile that I chose. With Xenoblade, I hit a bit of a snag with a boss whom I can't seem to conquer, so it's off the the grind for a bit, abusing Expert Mode to bring my levels back down and get some of those XP bonuses while fighting yellow-tagged mobs to add to my pooled XP stash. With Solatorobo, I'd sworn I was finishing the story, and I kind of did, but then right after the credits it takes me to a completely new, second story. Going to carry them both over.
Now Playing: Puzzle & Dragons SMBros. Edition, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Pokemon Violet, Pokemon Legends Arceus, FF IX HD.
Switch Friend Code: SW-7025-5637-0902
Lost in Random started ok and then I get to the end of the 2nd area and said NOPE...
Maybe I'll do better in February.
ClockworkHouse: He means the comic The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman and Superman get in a fistfight over Gotham. Not The Dark Knight Rises, where Batman and a loudly farting orchestra get in a fistfight over your attention.
Finished everything I declared!
The Gardens Between - Interesting little emotional puzzles game with a reversing-time mechanic. Not too long either. One of two kids is moving away, and via various puzzle stages you relive their memories together.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis - DLC that is longer than many full-priced games. Three amazing new environments (in some ways, the best in Odyssey) with interesting characters, some really impressive new upgrades to your powers, and the same great gameplay.
My two complaints are both story related:
I then continued on and wrapped up AC: Odyssey completely (game time 227 hours, level 83, ancient Greece completely depopulated by me several times over) by finishing:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Those Who Are Treasured (undeclared) - free DLC concluding the game's story (and connecting it to Origins and Valhalla) and set on a new island, Korfu. Fairly short at just around 4-5 hours.
Axiom Verge - Neat Metroidvania that initially looks like it could be running on an NES, but it goes some weird places, has a ridiculous amount of weapons you can find (though I only really used 4 or so), and lots of secret stuff. Finished with 99% of the map discovered and 92% of the items found.
Biggest complaint is the lack of fast-travel which would have shaved several hours off of my playtime. Also, some of the optional codes you could enter: how...t.f...was I supposed to figure THAT out?!?
Svoboda 1945: Liberation - a follow-up to 2017's Attentat 1942 (which I just learned was the first game that was allowed to show swastikas in Germany), Svoboda explores what happened in the Czech countryside in the last days of WWII and the years immediately following it. Tasked with having to decide if the village school should be declared a historical landmark, you set about interviewing the current and former locals using dialog trees that trigger FMV responses. There are a few short game-like sections that try to convey the experiences of people in the late 1940's and early '50's.
When it came time to decide if the school was to be saved, I honestly felt I didn't have enough information to make my decision, so the feeling that there was more that remained to be discovered guided my choice. A fascinating and important experience, but that's more like an interactive documentary than a game.
also went back to Silent Hill 2 and finished a bonus scenario:
Silent Hill 2: Born from a Wish - (Xbox/multi), undeclared - just a short, weird little bit of story featuring Maria instead of James, exploring her experiences in the hours before meeting him. There's a new melee weapon that's pretty handy, but the focus is on exploration and lore rather than combat. The 90ish minutes I spent with it were interesting enough.
Steam | Backloggery