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

Screenshot from Gold Rush! Classic
Visiting Rio de Janeiro in Gold Rush! Classic

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 = 36%
I'm still going through Damonta, killing robots. I met a couple that I could finally trade with which meant I could offload a lot of junk that was causing my party to become "over-encumbered". I also came across a bunch of familiar faces: the water merchants that I helped out in the valley on the way to Damonta. As my squad makes its way to the aircraft graveyard, it seems that the town of Damonta itself is a graveyard as there are hardly any people left alive.

I also came across a frustrating bug where my own followers blocked the damn doorway! This meant my squad was split in two and the only squad members I had available to take on the remaining enemies were ones that specialised in pistols. Since the combat encounters in Wasteland 2 are designed to only finish when all enemies are dead (i.e. you can't attempt to flee beforehand) that encounter could've ended real badly. Fortunately, at the last minute, one of the followers finally decided to move out of the way so I could send the rest of the squad as backup!

Homefront: The Revolution

  • Picked by Luke
  • Percentage Complete = 53%
I've taken over half of the Lombard zone and also secured a garage which technical genius Heather used as a home base for the Goliath (the mission is called "Goliath Online!": nice StarCraft reference there). I now have to guide the Goliath to destroy a whole bunch of "duster" sites, where the "Norks" launch drones to drop gas.

I also used an explosive RC car for the first time to help me get into a radio room: one of the doors to the room was padlocked and the only way to destroy it was sending an RC car into a small crack that led to the inside of the locked room. From there, it could then get close enough to the padlock to destroy it. I like the fact you have to perform basic puzzle solving in order to unlock areas in the game, but I guess it's pretty similar to what you do when you're climbing towers in Far Cry, Assassin's Creed or Tomb Raider, so it's not exactly, revolutionary (mind the pun).

Gold Rush! Classic

  • Picked by Choona
  • Percentage Complete = 36%
I like how this game is educational in that it tells you how long and precarious the voyage was from New York, around Cape Horn and to Sacramento City in California. Yes, I didn't quite have enough money for the ticket through the Panama Canal (which would've been a shorter and probably less perilous journey) but there you go. Anyway, it's better than getting into the dead-end situation I was already in during my first playthrough of the game where if you wait too long, prices for passage to California get really steep and you're unable to sell your house for a decent price (I'm assuming this is the way you're meant to get money in order to finance your trip).

I like how the game is broken into stages since at the end of each stage, it tells you the maximum points you could've achieved as well as providing hints on anything you've missed.

Anyway, I'm now at a place called Sutter's Fort which was a real place during the California Gold Rush, and now I need to figure out what to do. I'm hoping Jerrod's brother's letter will provide clues.

One thing I found confusing was why La Cucaracha was played when you visited Rio de Janeiro... I mean, wasn't Rio de Janeiro a Portuguese colony and isn't La Cucaracha a Spanish folk song popular in Mexico?

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]

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