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

The Resistance celebrates most fortuitous news

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.

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 28%

I was trying my best to find Damonta by finding a passage east but kept on getting my squad killed from lethal dosages of radiation every time I traversed a Level 4 radiation zone. It turns out that despite having radiation suits, I hadn't equipped them which meant my poor Ranger squad was getting fried every time I attempted to traverse the irradiated wasteland… oops!

Anyway, in order to get the higher quality radiation suits, I had to help a prisoner escape and Vargas was quite a bit pissed about the whole affair, but so far, it's only been a slap on the wrist.

When I finally made it to the canyon that leads to Damonta, Angie was recalled which really sucked because not only am I Ranger down, I also have the junk of six Rangers distributed amongst only five. I'll need a place to offload all this stuff soon. I also ended up killing some merchants in self-defence: after my doctor botched an attempt at performing surgery on their comrade, they decided the best course of action was to kill us for our incompetence. Geeze, talk about harsh Wasteland justice!

Anyway, guess I need to improve the Surgeon skill with my doctor…

Homefront: The Revolution

• Picked by Luke
• Percentage Complete = 26%

So, I stormed the police station, gung-ho style, just killing all the soldiers that I came across yet what first started out as a rescue mission turned out to be a recovery one as when you reach the interrogation room you find all Resistance members tortured to death. Damn.

Things only get worse for the Resistance as soon after you find that the Armory is being raided by the KPA. I went to help a guy called Ned but unfortunately, he dies while you're all attempting to escape. A "Goliath" (some kind of robotic tank I guess) is the reason for all hell breaking loose but thanks to a newly acquired RPG it only took a few hits of that and some explosives to destroy it. I acquired its "brain" and apparently the Resistance now knows where Walker is. My next task is to give the brain to an engineer so she can plant it in our own Goliath.

I'm also rocking a sniper rifle at the moment and I'm not sure what to make of it: It's good when precision is required but on a mission where there are so many enemies to take on, a machine gun is probably more useful.

Also, I'm not sure what to make of the game's plot. There is some arguing back and forth between the doctor and the rest of the team about who deserves to die and who doesn't but it's not very convincing and rather weak: they're the typical tropes you'd expect in a revolution but it does make you wonder why the doctor seems so defensive of the Norks. Maybe he's actually a mole?

Police Quest

• Picked by Choona
• Percentage Complete = 54%

I've arrested the main antagonist of Police Quest who currently goes by the name of Marvin Hoffman and I also finally found out how to properly handcuff the drink driver (you apparently have to cuff from the back as he can only attack you if you cuff him from the front – interesting bit of trivia here while reading the procedures manual: apparently you have to cuff men from behind but it's okay if you want to cuff women from the front!). Anyway, later on you meet up with one of your buddies for a birthday party where shortly before it starts, he confesses that his life is ruined thanks to a daughter who has succumbed to drug addiction and a wife who is threatening to leave him. If you play the Police Quest games, you'll often be bombarded with a strong anti-drug messages such as this one.

Speaking of drugs, I'm now at a part of the game where Sonny Bonds has been temporarily transferred to the Narcotics Division and working with a detective named Laura Watts. As soon as you join, you get word that Marvin Hoffman is about to be released on bail but once you discover evidence to prove that Marvin Hoffman is an alias for a very dangerous man called Jason Taselli (who is on the FBI's Most Wanted List) you have to rush to Lytton Courthouse in order to get a No Bail Warrant.

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]