Pile of Shame Sunday - 23rd August 2020

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.


Kentucky Route Zero

  • Picked by Me
  • Percentage Complete = 50%

I've come to the part of the game where you use a computer called XANADU to play an Interactive Fiction (IF) adventure. A good part of this act is a tribute to the IF of old including the fact that you're in a cave (probably a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure which in turn is based off Mammoth Cave in Kentucky) as well an old man called Donald (possibly a reference to Don Woods, one of the developers of Colossal Cave Adventure), Amy (possibly a reference to Amy Briggs, a developer at Infocom) and Roberta (most likely a reference to Roberta Williams at Sierra On-Line).

There's also a beautiful, melancholy part of this game where you get to choose the lyrics of a song called "Too Late to Love You", which is definitely the highlight for me and makes this act the most interesting and interactive (although I've never played the fifth act, so we'll see how it compares). While on the topic of melancholy, that's probably the dominant emotion players are meant to feel when playing this game, including a sense of despair and loneliness. Not for the faint hearted.



Fallout 4

  • Picked by Luke
  • Percentage Complete = 58%

I didn't get time to play Fallout 4 this week as I invested time in Kentucky Route Zero and Quest for Glory II instead


Quest for Glory II

  • Picked by Choona
  • Percentage Complete = 27%

I defeated the Earth Elemental this week and since I was a fighter, I borrowed Rakeesh's flaming sword "Soulforge" to defeat it. Neat. (paladins get badass swords I tell you)

I also reminded Julanar of who she was and got the Fruit of Compassion. After giving the Griffin Feather and the Fruit to Harik the Apothecary, he was able to create a dispel potion. I used it to turn a caged beast in the desert back into human form. Apparently, the man was an apprentice being punished by his master Ad Avis (the main antagonist in Quest for Glory II). He ends up warning you that you'll either need to be good at avoiding Ad Avis's attacks or have a powerful protection spell in order to defeat him.


LINK: [ The Pile of Shame ]

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