Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PS3)

Date Purchased: December 19, 2012
Date Completed: February 25, 2016
Price: Free (PS+)


Wow, this one is from deep inside the archives, originally "purchased" almost a full year before the concept of the pile of shame game tracking was conceived by me.  With the hype behind the release of SFV, I decided to re-download this massive (by PS3 standards) 18GB game.   I'm no stranger to Street Fighter IV, and have actually reviewed it before on the 3DS.  I played the original SFIV quite a bit on the PS3 back in the day, but nothing will ever compare to the original SFII on the SNES that I sunk hundreds of hours into with family and friends.  So, what's new in this arcade edition?  I honestly couldn't tell you.  I played through a story mode, beat that jerk Seth (so cheap) played a handful of online matches and quit when I ended on a win streak (may as well go out on a high note) and couldn't tell any difference between this and vanilla SFIV.   Quite fun still however.  Right now I say I'll play more, but we'll see if that actually happens.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PS3)

Date Purchased: December 15, 2015
Date Completed: February 24, 2016
Price: Free (PS+)


With no pile of games to go through, I went through my downloaded games and decided to start a few of them and see if anything hooked.  Well, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon did.  Big time.  I really enjoyed the game despite hating it's presentation.  The color palette and overall visual style bothered me, but I enjoyed the gameplay so much I kept coming back...well...3 times anyways.  I finished this off in a few sittings which is rare for me, but the game is quite short.  I didn't bother with any side quests but had little difficulty finishing the game without any upgrades.  Fun game, hilariously bad story (which was the intent).   Recommend.

No more shame.

It's been almost 2 years since I've been here.  I remember finishing SSX and having a weight lifted off my shoulders.  At that time however, I missed the pile, I liked having a stack of games to play. I quickly went out and dug up a list of older games that fell by the wayside and purchased some new ones.  Some of them I should have never played, others I'm glad I dug up.


So what now?  I'm not sure. I guess it's time to reflect.  Okay, that just sounds dumb, but I've noticed that my reviews are getting longer and longer.  I may try and shorten them up again like the olden days.  I think I'll take things a game at a time, if some good sales come my way I'll be sure to stock up, but for now, it feels good to be pile free.  I will keep blogging though.  #blogforever

This is not me.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4)

Date Purchased:  November 27, 2015
Date Completed: February 21, 2015
Price: $8.25 (PSN)


Have I mentioned how much I loved Wolfenstein: The New Order?  Well, I did, like a lot, like Pile of Shame GOTY contender a lot.  So after completing TNI I jumped straight into it’s DLC/Standalone companion “The Old Blood”.  The old blood is … different. So much different that I’d recommend skipping it altogether, and definitely not playing it first  to see things happen in chronological order as this is in fact a prequel.  The gameplay is a tad bit more stealthy in the first half, and much more action packed in the second.  The two halves of this game differ so greatly, I had to go to Wikipedia to ascertain whether these were originally intended to be two separate games.  Sure enough, this was originally intended to be two different DLC packs that they combined into a single package.  I wish they would have kept it as DLC as I probably wouldn’t have played it and it wouldn’t have left the somewhat sour taste in my mouth after the delicious “New Order” (I don’t remember ever buying DLC unless it’s packed in).   Pass.

Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4)

Date Purchased: November 26, 2015

Date Completed:  February 6, 2016
Price: $8.10 (PSN)


Best $8 I’ve spent in a long time.  What a fantastic game.   I’m so happy I pulled the trigger and picked this and “The Old Blood” up at that Thanksgiving sale.  I picked up, and played, GTAV in the same sale, but this game, for me, was so much more fun than GTA.   Big guns, great immersive story, little down time to cool the engines and then right back at it.  It’s so nice to see a developer put all their efforts into a single player campaign and not focus on multiplayer first,   Bioshock, Last of Us, Wolfenstein, I do believe they all belong in the same category, and will forever be remembered as some of my fondest gaming memories.  This is a throwback shooter, if you’re not familiar with shooters from 10 or 20 years ago, don’t fret, you’ll be just fine, although you may question some of the design choices.  Health packs?  Pressing an “action button” to open doors, pick up items etc?  While somewhat tiresome, I never had a real issue with either of them, there’s plenty of health to be found and I never fell victim to a “bad save” resulting in insta-death like some old shooters of the past.  I did not buy this game for the story, so it’s narrative, characters and story telling were a huge and delightful surprise.  The main protagonist is awesome as are the supporting cast.  The game forces you to make a decision early on which affects the rest of the game and encourages a second play through.  With little else on the pile, I may just do that.  Recommend?  Absolutely.

Tri Force Heroes (3DS)

Date Purchased: December 28, 2015
Date Completed: February 03, 2016
Price: Free (Christmas Present)


Tri Force heroes, the game came out of nowhere.  My least ever anticipated Zelda game and it quickly became one of my favorites.  This game received mixed reviews from various outlets, including some very negative impressions from giantbomb, but personally, I love this game.  It's essentially a Zelda puzzle game, no, not a match 3 or anything like that, it's classic top down Zelda gameplay with what you could consider to be 32 mini-dungeons.  Each "mini-dungeon" has it's own set of 4 variants to add challenge, which increases your odds of getting better materials to purchase "suits" which will improve your various abilities.  This game is tough.  It's meant to be played with 2 others, but I managed to beat all the levels solo.  I put just over 40 hours into the game, and considering I did it TWICE with my son Cole's copy as well, that's 80 hours into Tri Force heroes, the most I've put into any game in recent memory including games like GTA V.  I love the "pick up and play[ability]" of this game, and the suits are interesting enough to make me want to keep going to collect them all. 


The difficulty is quite high, and some of the challenges feel impossible to accomplish solo. The final stage (not required to beat the game, but to get the prestigious "Force Deity" suit) was one of the hardest things I've had to do since achieving the mile high club achievement in Call of Duty 4.  I finally unlocked it an can now consider the game "finished" as I've officially beaten every level.


The games multiplayer is frantic and fun, luckily we have three 3DS's in our home so we've been able to play the game the way it's meant to be with my wife and son.  The online is mediocre, lag really drags down the game, but if you get a good connection, it can be quite fun.  It does get frustrating without voice chat, but even if it had that option, I'd never use it anyways.  The game lets you communicate with emotes which "work" but not always well.  I've still had some fun with random's though. 


If you're a fan of Zelda, I highly recommend this game.  It will be on my top 10 of 2016, and I'm going to guess it will land quite high depending on what else I pick up this year. 

"My Precious..."