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

My civilization in Godus

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.

Quake II: Quad Damage

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 70%

Urgh, got to remember to keep saving the game. I accidentally fell into some acid and there was no way out of it, meaning I had to restore from a long way back. Yay! Oh, I also managed to finish the Big Gun unit so there's only three units left and the single player campaign should be complete!

For Honor

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 10%

I have to keep replaying the Apprentice Training since there's a bit more to the game than pointing in the direction you want to slash: things I have to remember include basic blocking, dodging and guard breaker attacks with the middle mouse button, where you can either follow up with an attack or the middle mouse button and a direction to perform a throw.

Luke has mentioned he'd be keen on trying this out with me sometime which should be fun.

Stardew Valley

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 20%

On hold while I'm playing other games. 😊

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 15%

Since The Testament of Sherlock Holmes is now out of the way I've decided to give Life is Strange: Before the Storm a go. This game serves as a prequel to the original Life is Strange and you get to play as Max's best friend, Chloe. Since Chloe (at least as far as I know) doesn't have the superpowers that Max possesses, she instead gets this "backtalk" mini-game which actually reminds me of the insult swordfighting in the Monkey Island games: what you have to do is try to ensure the insults you dish out match keywords in whatever your opponent says as a rebuttal. Pretty neat.

Otherwise, the game seems very similar to Life is Strange and despite not having played the original in a while, I recognised several familiar characters. Also, where Max was all about taking photographs, Chloe is all about spreading her graffiti wherever she can get away with it.

Oh, the game also gives you the opportunity to play a session of "Dungeons & Dragons" which I thought was pretty awesome. Another thing that is awesome is the soundtrack and that menu music by a band called Daughter.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

• Picked by Luke
• Percentage Complete = 65%

I didn't make any progress in Assassin's Creed IV this week, but I more than made up for it with the amount of time I spent with Godus. I promise I'll return to sailing the Caribbean next week…

Godus

• Picked by Choona
• Percentage Complete = 33%

Choona has picked a few games that should keep me occupied for a while (especially since one of these "games" are all the old Sierra On-Line adventure games in my Pile of Shame!). Firstly, I've decided to revisit the game Godus which I haven't touched for a few years.

So far, Godus seems quite similar to when I last played the game. It's obvious that they were targeting for the mobile platform with this game thanks to the introduction of the Gems in-game currency and the fact you have to collect resources or leash followers by dragging and releasing – it's not your typical way of selecting or collecting things in PC games.

Apparently, from what I've read about the game hasn't been updated in a while and despite this fact, the game is still in Early Access!

I've been playing the game with the Developer Commentary on, which is useful, and the game isn't actually that bad, for a mobile game. The game definitely feels like a bit of a grind later on which I'm not a fan of, and it probably doesn't help that I've finished all the "Voyages" for now (it's basically a mini-game similar to Lemmings or From Dust).

The game does have some promising features and cool abilities but a there are some things that aren't explained very well, like why I can't build settlements on top of mountains? For example, there's one mountain that has a whole bunch of fields waiting to be used on a farming settlement, but the game doesn't allow me to build any abodes there; is this because you can't build abodes at certain altitudes or is the area temporarily locked while the game is in beta?

I like the fact there's another tribe that you compete with called the Astari. They'll occasionally try to raid your settlements and generally be a nuisance to your civilization. Along with the conventional means of fighting with them (either through hurling meteors or sending archers) you can also wage a cultural war with them where you can lure Astari immigrants to your civilization if your happiness level is greater than theirs. Unfortunately, any Astari that immigrate to your civilization are apparently lazy and don't want to contribute…. Hey, I'm not making this up, this is what's mentioned in the developer commentary but it does sound like a lot of prejudice towards immigrants, eh?

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]