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[Mephisto]

<snip>

[Delta Foxtrot]

One question: how long do I have to play tetris for it to count?
But seriously this works for certain kinds of games, others not so much. And like the book iteration, this discourages replaying stuff.

But the point is to have fun while playing games and if this helps you accomplish that then by all means.

I could join up in a very non-commital manner. Right now there's Dominions. Then there's probably going to be another Dungeon Crawl tournament six months later that sucks me up for a month. And stuff in general. God forbid if I decide it's a good time to check out TOME. On the other hand I have a bunch of console games that are most certainly finishable that I've been meaning to get to.

I won't be going alphabetically though. More like going with whatever strikes my fancy. Right now I'm waiting on a new playstation to finish metal gear solid. Then it's either replay MGS on extreme, MGS2, or something else to take a break from MGS.

[Mephisto]

I don't own any form of Tetris, so that's not my problem. In any case, I'm not sure I have any games with no defined end conditions. If I do, I'll probably skip it.

As to the derivation of enjoyment, I can find enjoyment in just about every game I own. Once I'm done playing, I'll likely write a review on Steam to commemorate the occasion as well.

[Frumple]

... so what exactly would we be doing again? Play one game for a week, put it down, go to another? Play 52 games in a year (Could do that rather easily, especially if flash games count )? Actually complete 52 (or some other number. Twelve, 26, something) games in one year?

Mostly curious about how one would format such things. There's basically no way I could complete the challenge if it were only-one-game-per-week -- that would drive me up the gorram wall. Sounds nearly as bad as listening to only one genre of music a week straight, which would end with me contemplating killing something. Possibly myself. Hell, I actually did complete the 52 book thing, more or less, and I was usually reading a few things at the same time... no sticking-to-one-thing-until-finished silliness.

Especially if it also precluded checking out new stuff... new flash games, new free and/or indie stuff, etc. I would murder, I tell you. Murder. Now, only counting one per week... that'd be more doable. Or only checking off a list, but still able to play other stuff. Better.

Still... nattering aside, good luck to those who go for it. Sounds like something that might drive me nutters, but perhaps an admirable goal nonetheless.

[Bouchart]

How 'bout you play a different Action 52 minigame every week of the year?  It works out perfectly.

[Darkmere]

Ah, posting to pledge moral support. I've had to shunt most of my game time into work time for the next month or three, so I wouldn't even have a chance (especially next November *cough* NaNoWriMo *cough*), but I will follow this nonetheless.

As someone who is not planning to participate, this idea

How 'bout you play a different Action 52 minigame every week of the year?  It works out perfectly.

is by far the best idea!

[EuchreJack]

... so what exactly would we be doing again? Play one game for a week, put it down, go to another? Play 52 games in a year (Could do that rather easily, especially if flash games count )? Actually complete 52 (or some other number. Twelve, 26, something) games in one year?

Mostly curious about how one would format such things. There's basically no way I could complete the challenge if it were only-one-game-per-week -- that would drive me up the gorram wall. Sounds nearly as bad as listening to only one genre of music a week straight, which would end with me contemplating killing something. Possibly myself. Hell, I actually did complete the 52 book thing, more or less, and I was usually reading a few things at the same time... no sticking-to-one-thing-until-finished silliness.

Especially if it also precluded checking out new stuff... new flash games, new free and/or indie stuff, etc. I would murder, I tell you. Murder. Now, only counting one per week... that'd be more doable. Or only checking off a list, but still able to play other stuff. Better.

Still... nattering aside, good luck to those who go for it. Sounds like something that might drive me nutters, but perhaps an admirable goal nonetheless.

I'm pretty sure the requirement is that one has to finish a game per week, but is free to enjoy as many other games as they like.  With the book thing, it's about reading more books, not less.  The book thing also usually defines book to exclude smaller works of fiction, such as comic books (although might include longer graphic novels).  So the games should be those that would generally take most of a week's worth of free time to finish.

To Mephisto: Yeah, in these sort of things, you make the list.

Throwing in my moral support.

[Mephisto]

I'm going to follow the example set by /r/52book and say that the first week has ended.

My game for the past week was A Game of Dwarves. I did not finish it (sadly), but I did beat maybe a third of it. This is a challenge of my own making, so there are kinks to work out. The first kink is that I'm not going to try to beat every game. I'll try to get as far as possible, but my free time is limited and I would rather not spend every waking moment gaming.

GoD is currently $10 on Steam undiscounted. At that price point it's probably worth it. It's a Paradox strategy game, but it's in a completely separate class than the grand strategy games that they're known for.

Levels have been pretty tedious so far, with each requiring more preparation than the last. It's not a game that you sit down and play from beginning to end. Your dwarves start at level 1 on each stage, but every unknown cave you dig into has the possibility of containing harder and harder enemies as you progress. The king's orders do give something to work towards while you're waiting, however. It's nothing too impressive - mine X blocks, reach tech Y in the tech tree (more waiting, yay), discover Z macguffins from unexplored caves. Part of the tedium also lies in the underground caves I mentioned. Each level so far seems to be about digging into caves, fighting the contents to level up, and then determining the right cave to dig into, which may or may not contain a boss monster. Given that the tech tree and buildings are fully available in every stage, there's nothing new to see. There are new enemies now and then, but they have thus far been clones of one another. Moles, gnomes, goblins, and orcs all just stand there and trade blows with you until something expires. Not exactly engaging gameplay.

That being said, this can be pretty entertaining if you play stages sparingly. I'll definitelyprobablymaybe finish this in the future.

This is the only time I'll use achievements as a metric. My last achievement for this playthrough is "Striking The First Blow", which only 23.1% of players have picked up thus far.

And now I'm off to do some things and determine what to play next. I'm open to suggestions as long as they're on my list or are significantly discounted (I'm trying to reduce my backlog, remember) and they follow the criteria in my first few posts. If no one has suggested anything in the coming hours, I'll pick the next game.

Next up: Dust: An Elysian Tale

[Hugehead]

I have a lot of half started DS games, so I think I'll take part in this myself, starting with Infinite Space.

What happened to Damnation Mephisto, is it so bad you have to ninja switch to a better game?  I'd suggest you play Intrusion 2 next week, it's a really fun game that you probably haven't played because it looks like a flash game, but it's really good.

[Darkmere]

I got maybe halfway through Dust before encountering a certain enemy type that destroyed my will to play. I forget where exactly it showed up, but it had this auto-teleport when struck in melee that forced you to use the vortex attacks on it, and hung out in clusters of other things so I'd always hit it and get surrounded.

If you're looking for a casual but fun playthrough, stick to normal or one step above. I went for hardest and some of the stuff in there will one-shot you halfway through a screen forcing you to do everything multiple times of you screw up a parry. Also the mechanic if "take a single inconsequential poke in the middle of a 500-hit combo wipes the ENTIRE COMBO" was starting to piss me off. Other than that, I had fun with it.

[Mephisto]

I have a lot of half started DS games, so I think I'll take part in this myself, starting with Infinite Space.

What happened to Damnation Mephisto, is it so bad you have to ninja switch to a better game?  I'd suggest you play Intrusion 2 next week, it's a really fun game that you probably haven't played because it looks like a flash game, but it's really good.

Not quite so bad. I just ran into ninja instakill shotties that temporarily turned me off. I'll move it to a bit later in the year.

I actually tried Intrusion 2 for a few minutes, but had to quit. My old PC wasn't up to snuff, but my new one definitely is.

I got maybe halfway through Dust before encountering a certain enemy type that destroyed my will to play. I forget where exactly it showed up, but it had this auto-teleport when struck in melee that forced you to use the vortex attacks on it, and hung out in clusters of other things so I'd always hit it and get surrounded.

If you're looking for a casual but fun playthrough, stick to normal or one step above. I went for hardest and some of the stuff in there will one-shot you halfway through a screen forcing you to do everything multiple times of you screw up a parry. Also the mechanic if "take a single inconsequential poke in the middle of a 500-hit combo wipes the ENTIRE COMBO" was starting to piss me off. Other than that, I had fun with it.

Is that the floating bomb thing that acts sort of like Boos from Mario?

Noted. I think my current file is on normal. I admit that I cheated a bit in using a save that already had 30 minutes or so on it. Hope you guys won't hold it against me.

[Darkmere]

Is that the floating bomb thing that acts sort of like Boos from Mario?

Noted. I think my current file is on normal. I admit that I cheated a bit in using a save that already had 30 minutes or so on it. Hope you guys won't hold it against me.

I don't think so, I remember it being a flying armored guy that came in halfway through, just after the zombie-things showed up. The flame pillar attack worked best, I believe.

[Mephisto]

I'm going to go ahead and call it. It's Sunday and I haven't beaten Dust yet. Technically by the guidelines I was going by, I have the rest of the day to finish. I've got a lot of non-gaming stuff to do today, so that's not going to happen.

I found the swirling chickens of death to be infinitely more frustrating than the flying, armored, teleporting, zombie-spawning creatures mentioned by Darkmere. Whenever possible, I would ignore them and proceed to the next zone. At least the zombie spawners allowed the possibility of racking up massive combos.

I just beat Baron Kane (no spoilers, the cheeves tell you exactly who all of the bosses are), however, so I am very nearly done. It looks like there are two chapters and one boss fight remaining. I could only put seven hours into the game this week.

Spoiler: Dust: An Elysian Tail Review (click to show/hide)

Dust is a game that you either love or hate. After playing it, I personally think it's one of the better games that came out last year. It's labeled as an action RPG and it's pretty competent at the action part. Combat feels fluid to me. The controls are responsive. Some attacks are pretty flashy, which can be a downside. The flame pillars that Fidget's fireballs create during a dust storm can completely cover the screen with fire. I lost my combo a number of times to this.

Judged in the context of most AAA games, the length is about right. I'm seven hours in and there are only two chapters remaining. Judged as an action RPG, however, it feels a little short. The story itself was pretty good and it had more witty exchanges than I would have expected. I purchased this when it was about $5, but I could see paying full price (or more) for it.

Next up: Intrusion 2 (thanks, Hugehead)

[EuchreJack]

Glad to see you going forward!  You call the rules, if you get to 52 played in a year, you're the champion by any criteria!  Go Go Go!

Edit: see you haven't touched EUIII Divine Wind.  You should do that, the series is classic.  There should be a thread somewhere on this forum entitled "Show off your empire" or something that is mostly EUIII.  It's very inspiring.

Also see you haven't played the Original Crusader Kings or Mount and Blade.  They're both different than their successors in ways that I think you'll like.

For extra fun, play a week of Mount and Blade:Fire & Sword, then a week of the original (not warband) Mount and Blade.  It's nirvana.  The original is just so much simpler and easier that combat will be pure delight.

[Mephisto]

I think I'm going to have to give Intrusion 2 a pass. I mean no disrespect if you like it, but it's just not for me.

Spoiler: Intrusion 2 Review (click to show/hide)

I'm pretty bad at all things Contra-like. Intrusion 2 reminds me more of Contra than it does Metal Slug, despite containing vehicles. There are nice ideas spread throughout and you don't often see physics in a game like this, but some... interesting control decisions and the perpetual shaking of the sprites are a turn off to me.

I started play with a 360 pad plugged in. Navigating the menu using the pad crashed the game. I retried using the mouse to navigate the menu and successfully entered a game. This is basically Megaman (in the same way that CoD and Battlefield are Doom), so it should be pretty good at run, jump, 'n' shoot. Running and jumping are pretty easy, though I would prefer if jumping was mapped to something other than up. Shooting, however... You aim with the right stick and shoot with one of A or X, but I forget which. Since you constantly need to aim, the control system doesn't exactly make it easy to shoot what you're aiming at.

I switched to keyboard and mouse and played until I got a wolf. You can still run, jump, and shoot, but only in the direction that you're aiming. If you want to run away from something while firing at it, you get to watch the wolf slowly hop backward a few pixels at a time.

A combination of the prior issues and my own incompetence leading to a dislike of the genre mean I will probably never finish this game. I can't really recommend it to anyone who doesn't love the genre.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, EuchreJack. I was pondering closing the challenge just now as it's starting to turn into "Mephisto plays and reviews his Steam library but doesn't actually finish anything." I'll continue as long as people don't find this annoying.

Spoiler: On game play times (click to show/hide)

Only the base EUIII tracks playtime. I've put ~1 hour into it, but that was on a computer that could barely handle it (sad, I know). I would not be averse to reinstalling.

I put several more days into M&B and Warband than my library shows. That was several years ago when I didn't have an internet connection at home, so it was all in offline mode. I love them, so I'll probably get around to that at some point.

It's still early in the week, so I think I'll take one of EJ's suggestions. I'm fairly certain I can beat at least one Crusader Kings scenario in the remaining time, so that's what I'm going to do.