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

Screenshot from Godus Wars
These Belief Vaults remind me of Tiberium Silos in Command & Conquer

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.

Virginia

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 100%
Yay! Another one bites the dust. Check out my review of Virginia here.

For Honor

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 10%
Didn't get around to playing this.

Stardew Valley

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

The Long Journey Home

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 30%
Well, I lost my first game. Three of the crew died due to the life support failing and the final crew member, an obnoxious scientist, managed to encounter a hostile race of aliens and the ship got vapourised. So, I'm now starting a new game with a new crew. I like it how the seed generator (which uses a string of characters as input) just happened to spell out “DNYARRI" this time. Nice Star Control 2 reference there guys…

Urban Empire

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 30%
Well I managed to fail in my first game. Managed to get to the third era (which is set just after World War I) but I was still struggling to make ends meet and I still hadn't upgraded any roads or infrastructure. I did finally manage to build a port and two new suburbs by raising taxes several times and pleading to the Emperor for money on two occasions too. One of the features of the third era (which led to my eventual demise) is the fact you have to win elections to retain your role as mayor which means you have to play nice with the other parties. While I did manage to survive the first election, I didn't for my second.

So, after reading some tips I restarted the game and now I'm just spamming new suburbs like there is no tomorrow, but ignoring to place any services so that my city can become the next Mos Eisley: a hive of scum and villainy. Apparently, according to tips from other players, you're meant to add services, infrastructure and up the density much later, only when you're absolutely sure you can afford it. The tutorial didn't help in this regard since it keeps on getting you spend on more things despite not really being able to afford it. I think this is what set me off on the wrong course in my first game.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

  • Picked by Luke
  • Percentage Complete = 73%
Wow. Didn't get to play any Black Flag this week. Too busy with other games!

Godus Wars

  • Picked by Choona
  • Percentage Complete = 10%
Okay, the game is now becoming more of a challenge as the AI is actually fighting back instead of just sitting around, doing nothing. It's still weird how a separate application opens up each time you play. I also don't like the key unlocking mechanism for maps – not sure what that's about, I mean, why even bother with such a system? Is this another way to monetize the game? Or maybe I'm just being too cynical?

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]

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