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


Screenshot from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
This guy seems like a happy chap

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.

Horizon Chase Turbo

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 75%
I've almost finished 9 out of the 12 cups in the World Tour mode so you can say that I've made quite a bit of progress. I even unlocked the Australia Cup but sadly Perth is not one of the stops: only Brighton Beach (in Adelaide), Uluru and Sydney. Seriously folks, Adelaide was included in the game above Perth (and Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast for that matter). The bonus challenge for Australia is French Polynesia, curiously enough (I don't recall Australia ever annexing those islands 😉). I've unlocked a few new cars along the way including one called the "Westbound", which is actually a Shelby GT500. Still rockin' the Lancia Stratos in Canary Yellow though.

Hand of Fate

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 91%
On hold while I'm playing other games. 😊

Stardew Valley

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 20%
On hold while I'm playing 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 😊.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

  • Picked by Luke
  • Percentage Complete = 9%
Okay, so this is the first Assassin's Creed game I've ever played, and I'm not even joking: I acquired a copy of this game for free, thanks to Ubisoft giving it away in December last year which is the main reason this is my first Assassin's Creed game, because I don't own any of the other ones.

So far, the game isn't too bad; it's a bit like Far Cry 3 mixed with Sid Meier's Pirates! (to the point where it appears you can travel across a good portion of the Caribbean). Graphics are okay but just like in Far Cry 3, graphics from 2013 are starting to look a bit dated now. Also, I'm not sure what it's like in other Assassin's Creed games but the fact you know you're playing in a virtual world generated by your mind cheapens the experience for me, although I'm hoping the plot thickens in the "real world" as I'm starting to come across a whole bunch of cryptic QR code Post-It notes scattered about the Abstergo Office.

Oh, and the game seems to favour the stealthy approach, which makes sense if you're an assassin. Unfortunately, I tend to suck at stealth games so it'll be interesting to see how far I actually progress in this game.

Hacknet

  • Picked by Choona
  • Percentage Complete = 25%
I'm enjoying Hacknet. It's similar to real-life hacking except obviously simplified. I also enjoy the music in the game and you're able to purchase the soundtrack off Bandcamp and Steam it seems. I'm not a big fan of the netmap at the bottom of the screen though: sometimes it gets really busy and the tool tips end up stacking on top of each other.

I played the game later in the week and was shocked but then impressed when the game appeared to have a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). What had actually happened was that the terminal in the game had a BSOD and the terminal ends up rebooting. You then have to use good ol' terminal command prompt mode in an attempt to download the correct system file so you can boot up the GUI again. I did almost get stuck however after not digging deep enough (i.e. there were actually two other servers I had to access if I bothered to read the connection logs properly).

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]

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