#oneaday Day 776: The Pile of Shame, March 2012 Edition

Over at the Squadron of Shame, our original remit was to go through all those games in your “pile of shame” — titles you bought but never quite seem to get around to due to something bigger, better, fancier coming along. As time has passed, we’ve changed and grown, discussing wider gaming issues and exploring unconventional games such as Katawa Shoujo, but all the while the Pile has been there, mocking us.

For 2012, one Feenwager among us decided that it might be a good time to start tackling said Piles, with the caveat that you can stop working your way through your backlog should something massive and awesome come out. For many people, this is Mass Effect 3, due out this week, though I won’t be touching it with a barge pole for reasons I will expand upon in a post in a few days’ time.

I have a pretty big backlog, so I thought what I might try and do is add an additional little twist to said challenge: to see if it’s possible to get through the remainder of the year without purchasing any “triple-A” titles from publishers such as EA, Activision, Ubisoft and the like. Basically anything that gets talked about so much prior to release that I’m already sick of the sodding thing by the time the discs hit store shelves (or not, in the case of new EA titles and GAME.)

In short, I can purchase downloadable, retro or smaller-budget games if absolutely necessary, but no Call of Duty, no Assassin’s Creed, no Mass Effect. To be fair, I don’t think this will be very difficult to achieve.

I am allowing myself one exception to this rule: Diablo III, and it’s perhaps arguable as to whether or not this counts as a “triple-A” game anyway as despite its (hopeful) quality, it’s PC-only and a little bit niche, if we’re being honest. The reason I bring up Diablo III as an exception to my self-imposed rules is because I have friends who live in the same country as me who are planning on playing it, and it would be lovely to be able to play something multiplayer without having to stay up until 3 in the morning for once. (I don’t begrudge staying up until 3 in the morning, North American friends, it’s just nice to get some sleep sometimes!)

So then, my official rules are “get through the remainder of 2012 without purchasing any triple-A PC or console titles and clear as much of your Pile of Shame as possible”.

I am currently using this challenge as an opportunity to explore the PSP’s rich library of JRPGs, as after finishing The Last Story I find myself hungry for more JRPG action. As you may have gathered from yesterday’s post, I’m currently playing through Corpse Party. This will be followed by Persona on PSP and possibly Shadow Hearts on PS2 alongside it. I will not be playing Mass Effect 3 at all.

Here’s my current Pile of Shame. If you’re comparing this to previous Piles I may have posted and it seems somewhat different, I’m not including games I’ve given up all hope of playing to completion, and neither am I including games which have “indefinite” play periods such as arcade games, multiplayer titles and, to a lesser extent, strategy games. Any entries on the list marked with a dollar sign are games that I don’t own yet but have been intending to purchase for quite some time, so they’re on the Pile even though I don’t own them yet.

To follow all our progress and take part for yourself, join us on the Squadron of Shame Squawkbox.

PS2
Killer7
ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Metal Gear Solid 3
Odin Sphere
Persona 3 FES
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
$ Yakuza 2
Project Zero (aka Fatal Frame)
$ SMT: Digital Devil Saga
$ SMT: Digital Devil Saga 2

PS3
3D Dot Game Heroes
Demon’s Souls
Dark Souls
Yakuza 3
$ Yakuza 4
Midnight Club LA

PSP
Corpse Party (currently playing)
$ Persona
$ Persona 2: Innocent Sin
$ Persona 3 Portable (this may replace Persona 3 FES in the above list)
$ Trails in the Sky

Xbox 360
Rayman Origins

PC
Amnesia
Aquaria
Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (OnLive)
Breath of Death VII
Chantelise
Cthulhu Saves the World
Far Cry 2
$ Fortune Summoners
GTA: San Andreas
GTA IV
GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City
Hacker Evolution
Hacker Evolution: Untold
HeXen II
Hard Reset
Jade Empire
King’s Bounty
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
Magicka (Squad multiplayer sometime, hmm?)
Mata Hari
Neverwinter Nights 2
Portal 2 Co-Op
Puzzle Agent
Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper
Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy
Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet
Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring
Take On Helicopters
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Time Gentlemen, Please!
TRAUMA
Trine
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
VVVVVV
X-COM Apocalypse (and possibly the previous two)
Baldur’s Gate II (inc. Throne of Bhaal)
Gabriel Knight 3
Ghost Master
Master of Magic
Ultima Underworld
Ultima Underworld II
$ Ultima VII

Wii
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Zack & Wiki