{"id":821,"date":"2017-02-01T16:01:54","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T14:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2017-02-01T16:01:54","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T14:01:54","slug":"lostwolfes-4-in-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/lostwolfes-4-in-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Lostwolfe&#8217;s 4 in February."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome, one and all to a new year and a new February. Last year, I <a href=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/four-hhhh-three-out-of-four-in-february-aint-bad\/\" target=\"_blank\">didn&#8217;t do very well at all<\/a>, so this year, I&#8217;m going to try my utmost to actually vanquish four games off of my tottering pile of games that I&#8217;ve collected over the last forty+ years.<\/p>\n<p>Before I get into my picks, let&#8217;s &#8211; very quickly &#8211; go over the rules for Four In February:<\/p>\n<h2>Pick four games<\/h2>\n<p>This one&#8217;s fairly self-explanatory: choose four games from your backlog as the games you challenge yourself to beat.<\/p>\n<h2>Play them during February<\/h2>\n<p>Again, fairly self-explanatory. Starting on the 1st of February and ending on the 28th, I must &#8211; for some time &#8211; attempt to play one of my four games so that I can beat them.<\/p>\n<h2>Obtain any win-state.<\/h2>\n<p>If a game has many win-states [like multiple endings, for example], I can go for any of these. As a crude example, Papers, Please has a BUNCH of endings. I only need to achieve one to have &#8220;beaten&#8221; the game.<\/p>\n<h2>Play From Any Point<\/h2>\n<p>This means that I can pick a game that I have started and pick up the save file I abandoned years ago. Eg: I&#8217;m very close to the ending of Saint&#8217;s Row 3, I could, if I wanted to, pick that game up and complete it as my &#8220;first&#8221; four in February game. [This isn&#8217;t something I intend to do, by the by.]<\/p>\n<p>So, with the rules out the way, let&#8217;s discuss my four games. In alphabetical order, I present:<\/p>\n<h1>ABZU<\/h1>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_824\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-824\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/abzu_screenshot.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-824 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/abzu_screenshot-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"I so, so, so hope Abzu is the beautiful, calm diving game everyone tells me it is. [Well, they tell me it has problems] - this is a screenshot showing many colourful underwater organisms and light-rays reaching down from the sky.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beautiful visuals, a soundtrack by Austin Wintory and some of the folks from thatgamecompany. What could possibly go wrong?!<\/figcaption><\/figure>Abzu is an amazing looking, short-ish game from some of the people that used to be part of thatgamecompany. I loved watching Lucahjin play through Journey, many moons ago and am very excited that some part of thatgamecompany broke free of Sony to produce a game-type that they&#8217;re comfortable with. I would have &#8211; at launch &#8211; bought the thatgamecompany collection that came out a few years ago, if it were not confined to one specific console.<\/p>\n<h1>Broken Age<\/h1>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_825\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-825\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/broken_age_screenshot.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-825 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/broken_age_screenshot-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"This is an image showing the two protagonists leaning against the same tree. I have no idea what it means. Probably &quot;We were lazy and re-used art assets on our $3 Million Dollar Budget.&quot; Who knows?!\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-825\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Broken [Promised] Age. Uh huh, Tim. Pull the other one. It has bells.<\/figcaption><\/figure>I am no longer a fan of Tim Schafer.<\/p>\n<p>Broken promise after broken promise, coupled with the squandering of money has left me quite cold to Double Fine in general and Tim in particular. I paid as little as I could for this so that I could see what resulted from his particular Kickstarter gamble. I am completely ready to be underwhelmed.<\/p>\n<h1>Ryse: Son of Rome<\/h1>\n<figure id=\"attachment_826\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-826\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/ryse_wallpaper.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-826 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/ryse_wallpaper-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"This particular picture is a wallpaper of the game's protagonist doing samey-action-y things that happen on every video game cover, ever. In this one, he's staring at the camera moodily while holding a sword aloft.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-826\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I am a guy from Rome! And I have come to QTE! That&#8217;s the same as pillage, loot and destroy, right?!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My understanding of this game is that it&#8217;s QTE central. Either way, we don&#8217;t get a lot of games actually set in the Roman Empire. The last [that I&#8217;m aware of] was Apotheon and then Titan Quest before that. My understanding is that this is a fantastical take on a story-of-Rome, so I&#8217;m quite interested in seeing where it goes. Yes, I&#8217;m aware it&#8217;s completely shallow. I might even be OK with that, in fact.<\/p>\n<h1>Some Mystery Game<\/h1>\n<figure id=\"attachment_823\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-823\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4if_picks.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-823 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4if_picks-150x150.png\" alt=\"Here's a bunch of ten games I think I can beat in February. Help me pick one, please.\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-823\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">So many games! So little time! Help me, internet, you&#8217;re my only hope!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Help me help you!<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s pick a game together that I can hopefully complete in the last week of February.<\/p>\n<p>I like: slow, story-driven, thoughtful PC games that &#8211; if they feature a combat mechanic allows me to pause the game, somehow, or allows me to slow down time so that the screen doesn&#8217;t become visual stew.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m very much a fan of games with comic elements, the fantasy genre as a whole [but high fantasy turns me right off] and science fiction [again, hard science fiction does nothing at all for me.]<\/p>\n<p>I do not like: generally fast paced games and\/or shooters of any persuasion. I find them to be mostly generic and mostly bland.<\/p>\n<p>A crude list of games I am interested in for your voting perusal:<\/p>\n<p>2064: Read Only Memories<br \/>\nBook of Unwritten Tales 2<br \/>\nEpistory: Typing Chronicles<br \/>\nKingdom: New Lands<br \/>\nLife is Strange<br \/>\nNever Alone<br \/>\nNight of The Rabbit<br \/>\nRymdkapsel<br \/>\nSeasons After Fall<br \/>\nTechnobabylon<br \/>\nYOU WRITE IN AND DECIDE!<\/p>\n<p>Thank you in advance for your game suggestions and good luck on your own Four in February [if you&#8217;re playing along.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome, one and all to a new year and a new February. Last year, I didn&#8217;t do very well at all, so this year, I&#8217;m going to try my utmost to actually vanquish four games off of my tottering pile of games that I&#8217;ve collected over the last forty+ years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[164,184,325,268,326,327,328,329,330,331,332,333,334,335,336,337],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}