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

The battle bus is coming...

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.

Cally's Caves 4

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 81%

Another stage, another new enemy type. This time, I'm up against "Pilots" which are basically guys piloting mechs that shoot rockets. They're also able to drop landmines but I haven't found them to be too much trouble, they just take quite a few hits. I'm slowly levelling up all my weapons so most are now around level 14. I probably don't' need to level every weapon up in the game but hey I got nothing better to do ??.

I'm now onto Stage 6 which means I should be more than 80% of the way through the game (if you include the "normal" game mode and "New Game+").

Hand of Fate

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 91%

On hold while I'm playing Cally's Caves 4 ??

Stardew Valley

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 20%

On hold while I'm playing Cally's Caves 4 ??

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 25%

I haven't made any further progress on this � it's now on hold while I am distracted by� well� a lot of other games ??.

Battlefield 1

• Picked by Me
• Percentage Complete = 10%

I haven't made any further progress on this � it's now on hold while I am distracted by� well� a lot of other games ??.

XCOM 2

• Picked by Luke
• Percentage Complete = 43%

I managed to get the Avenger into harm's way and it was intercepted by a UFO! This forces the Avenger to land and you end up with two objectives: defend the Avenger from a never ceasing onslaught of aliens and destroy a disruptor device that is preventing the Avenger from taking off. It's a tough mission and you just know it's going to be tough when Central allows you to use wounded soldiers in the battle and continually sends reserves to reinforce your existing troopers.

Anyway, I scouted out where the disruptor was with a single ranger, foolishly thinking it wouldn't be defended since hey they were concentrating all their efforts on the Avenger right? WRONG! Boy, was I so wrong: that disruptor had a Sectopod (think automated AT-ST walkers from Star Wars), two mechs and two enemy soldiers. She actually managed to somehow escape the initial barrage and a couple of other rangers that were trailing behind destroyed the disruptor at range � so all was looking well for a moment, but the Sectopod really wanted that ranger dead and that's exactly what happened ?. The sectopod then wounded another of my rangers but she wasn't killed instantly and was instead bleeding out; this made the decision to leave her behind all the more unbearable, but since she was a woman, I guess I still left no man behind (whoa � misogyny!). Leaving someone behind when they are still alive makes it kind of worse than leaving the ashes of someone who has been vapourised to death.

Ultimately, I was successful in defending the Avenger but it came at a huge cost. Most of my team are now full of Squaddies, which isn't a good sign, and I got absolutely no loot from the mission � so the only thing you get from Defending the Avenger missions it seems are XP and dead soldiers.

Fortnite

• Picked by Choona
• Percentage Complete = 80%

I actually tried my hand at Battle Royale and it's actually quite fun. Mind you, the first couple of times I was often the first to die (usually ranking at 93rd place) but the third time I managed to get 23rd which isn't too shabby (and at least I survived for more than a few seconds); I even managed to get a kill as some poor sucker was building a bridge. Unfortunately, I didn't know there was a sniper watching this all transpire and I died shortly after.

I also completed another quest in Save the World. It was the same quest I did as last time because I didn't realise it actually involved scouring the whole map for a treasure chest� ZOMG so boring. The next quest seems to be more grind yet again� and this is why I don't like MMOs.

LINK:
[ The Pile of Shame ]