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

Tygan initiates the Psi-Gate

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 myself. 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.

Cally's Caves 4

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 100%

I did it! I finally completed Cally's Caves 4 and reviewed it! At one point in the game, there was a very real chance of one of your close allies becoming a turncoat, but it turned out to be a happy ending (although no doubt there's going to be a Cally's Caves 5).

So, what next? Well, I'd really like to get some of these other games that I've put on hold out of the way, but it might actually be a retro game: Megarace 2, since I'm revisiting the game anyway for my VGM Monday posts. After that though, maybe Battlefield 1 since it takes up so much space on my hard disk!

Hand of Fate

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 91%

I haven't made any further progress on this – it's now on hold while I am distracted by… well… a lot of other games 😊.

Stardew Valley

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 20%

I haven't made any further progress on this – it's now on hold while I am distracted by… well… a lot of other games 😊.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 25%

I haven't made any further progress on this – it's now on hold while I am distracted by… well… a lot of other games 😊.

Battlefield 1

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 10%

I haven't made any further progress on this – it's now on hold while I am distracted by… well… a lot of other games 😊.

XCOM 2

• Picked by Luke
• Percentage Complete = 52%

I think I'm pretty close to finishing XCOM 2 but just in case I'm mistaken, I'm going to be cautious with my estimate of how far I am and leave it at just beyond half-way.

In XCOM 2, after completing the Psi-Gate Shadow Project, Tygan and Shen discover that a Codex Brain can be used as an electronic key to the Psi-Gate but an organic key had to also be used in order to traverse it unharmed: this is where the Avatar Autopsy Shadow Project comes in, which was unlocked after completion of the Psi-Gate Shadow Project. While I was waiting for that project to complete, I successfully completed a Supply Raid mission and a flawless defend data mission (against my arch enemy, the Sectopod).

Once I completed the Avatar Autopsy Shadow Project though, I inadvertently triggered the end-game and things are getting serious: the mysterious Council Member aka Honest Trailers voice guy, seems to be out of commission prior to warning you about an imminent broadcast by ADVENT which would hasten the Avatar project dramatically (basically, promising all humans life-changing medical procedures when in reality turning them into gunk). Prior to him cutting off the transmission he recommends that XCOM disrupt the communication and broadcast their own message instead.

Fortnite

• Picked by Choona
• Percentage Complete = 100%

Well, I've played over 10 hours of this game now so it's ready to review. I played Save the World for 45 minutes and it turned out to be a waste of time since leaving the mission early results in all progress being lost, not just the mission you're on but any side quests you've got going on in the background too. It basically means you have to repeat missions over and over again in order to ensure any side quests you've done also count I'm guessing. Well that's 45 minutes I'm never going to get back…

I used the remaining 15 minutes to play a couple of rounds of Battle Royale. My first game was over rather quickly: after I heard an enemy enter the same building I was ransacking, I hid in a room, waiting for him to enter. What actually happened was I got shot through the wall; so, he somehow knew I was already there and in the exact spot or my ping was so bad that he was actually in the room but I didn't get a chance to react. I did better on my second game though, coming in 32nd place and even managing to get a kill. I almost got a second kill but unfortunately my target escaped and after a short game of cat-and-mouse, she managed to spot me first and it was game over.

Expect a review of Fortnite in the near future! After this, I'm going to start giving Town of Salem a whirl.

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]