What I've Been Playing This Week (aka Pile of Shame Sunday)

This guy seems a bit too happy recalling his memories of Stalingrad

The following post is part of a series of posts that are published every Sunday to update readers on what Mark G has been up to with respect to finishing off games on his "Pile of Shame". The games to target are picked by Choicest Games contributors Choona, Luke and Lanna. As I'll be talking about my progress through these games, there may be spoilers ahead, especially for games containing a narrative. Consider yourself warned.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

• Picked by Lanna

I've made quite a bit of progress this week in terms of loyalty missions and at least any other quest that comes under that category – which is good since I intend to progress with the main storyline once I've cleared up as many as I can.

Highlights of this week include:

• Finding the Turian Ark and encouraging Avitus Rix (after some coaxing) to be Pathfinder due to the actual Pathfinder (Macen) being dead. 15,000 Turians survived out of 20,000 but it seems like the Ark was in no condition to return to the Nexus under its own power so not quite sure how they ferried all those cryo pods back to the Nexus. Squadmates said absolutely nothing during this mission which was a bit disappointing, especially considering I bought Vetra along.
• Unlocked a depressing SAM memory where it shows Ryder's mum dying. It also happens to be another cutscene where male Ryder sees his sister conscious and walking around.
• Voeld now has over 60% viability and an outpost that smuggles ice off world. Surprisingly the Angarans don't mind the Initiative colonising one of their worlds.
• Had a bar fight with Drack on Kadara – it was glorious.
• Completed Liam's loyalty mission which was hilarious. It was like a humourous buddy cop film.

Company of Heroes 2

• Picked by Luke

I managed to complete Mission 6 this week "Stalingrad – Aftermath". At the beginning of the mission you're meant to clear the city of snipers except I wasn't quite sure how one was to go about that. So I ended up using conscripts as bait to reveal the sniper locations and then bombed the hell out of the buildings with mortar teams. Worked, but at the cost of many lives. I also have no idea how I survived the end of the mission since it was utter chaos – at one point an enemy tank even managed to get behind my lines into my base! But somehow, I managed to pull through... but only just.

World of Goo

• Picked by Choona

I've managed to get through most of the first chapter this week with little in the way of complications until the final level (for the chapter, not the entire game). I've spent a good half an hour trying to figure out how to do it despite a hint saying it's actually easier than it looks. If I recall correctly, I managed to get past this level the first time I played this game many years ago, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it now. I've tried building at a 45 degree incline and building a tower, hoping it would fall down nicely as a drawbridge of sorts – neither plan has worked so far. If I continue to fail at progressing through the game, I could be reviewing World of Goo very soon...

LINK:

[ The Pile of Shame ]