Tag: #4iF

#4if

Trey had to suddenly cancel his #4iF because there was some urgent flaying business that we needed him for

Some people think that October is the true month of horror, some people are fools. No dear friends, the true month of terror belongs to the accursed February. February shows not only its contempt for humanity by being the shortest month of the year, but by also flogging us with the dreaded “Four in February”. It dares us to complete four games by the end of the month to sate its masochistic love of human degradation. This year I face its true horror and prepare to make the following sacrifices:

Legend of Grimrock
I will attempt to defeat this tile-based dungeon crawler for the first time. It has sat in that damnable Steam Library for far too long, god only knows what it has been plotting. I only hope that never ending dungeon landscapes do not drive me mad first.

Legend of Grimrock 2
Why stop with the first game in a series? Why not do BOTH? These are questions that I ask for no other reason than to fill space as I delay the inevitable. After completing the first game in the series I will also do attempt to crush its sequel set on an island for some reason. Maybe there will be a "Joe Versus the Volcano" joke I can squeeze out of it after completion?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:The Sith Lords:Escape From Peragus
I will make an offering to this hellish god with this classic game as well. I hope the eldritch beast chokes on the excessive colons.

Legacy of Dorn: Herald of Oblivion
A Warhammer 40K choose your own adventure/Chaos dating sim. It’s like Livingstone and Jackson went back to Games Workshop and made the “Fighting Fantasy” books even more grim dark.
I am also something of a charlatan, so I will include two backup options if I finally pick up a new 360 this week. These will be Dark Souls 2 and Space Marine.

#4if

AJ’s #4iF

What up, Twinstiq? AJ here, evidently back from the great beyond, and just in time for 4 in February. Having followed joystiq for several years, I've been a long-time observer of #4iF but this will be my first year as an actual participant. You see, I've always been great about keeping up with all the latest hits in the gaming world, be they on Steam, Wii U, PlayStation 4, or wherever; the only problem is that having to update my gaming catalog so frequently leaves me little time to properly see anything through.

Truthfully, my expectations going into this are anything but high, but I have decided to at least give it the old college try. So, without further ado, here are the four games I think I might have any kind of a shot at.

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Commonperson’s #4iF Challenge

I am generally the kind of gamer who savours the experience (savour being code for I take forever to finish a game). I'm still toiling away on games from years ago all the while my collection builds up to the point where it becomes slightly daunting to think about what to play next (seriously, I'll get around to finishing Dragon Age: Inquisition one of these days but having seen the Bull sexy time scene I think I've seen all the best parts).

For my #4iF list I decided to go with a mix of new and old as well as a variety of gameplay types. First off I'm going to start with a little old school RTS revivalism by finishing the campaign of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Designed by Blackbird Interactive, a team made up of the designers of the original Homeworld and published by Gearbox Software who acquired the rights during the sundering of THQ the game was originally intended as a "spiritual successor" to the Homeworld series and started under the name of Shipbreakers.

When Gearbox picked up the rights they heard about this project and invited the team back to help not only build the re-release of the original Homeworld games but fold Shipbreakers into the Homeworld universe. The premise was already very familiar with only a slight twist to the story it was able to slot in as a prequel rather nicely. I look forward to exploring the world of Kharak before the Mothership helped the people retake the stars.

To liven things up a bit I'm going to swing from RTS into action-adventure, I'm going to work on putting Assassin's Creed Syndicate to bed. I've been working on that since release and what's dragged it out so much is that it has been so fun! The game world is rich and interesting and just chock-full of  interesting gameplay. In a lot of ways it's felt like a final return on the promise of the series for the first time in years. We have strong and interesting protagonists with a believable relationship, the bad guys are not so cartoonish and the story makes more sense than the last few. Can't wait to polish this off!

Next is a bit twitchier, when Halo 5 dropped so did Assassin's Creed Syndicate and it's been a challenge to find time to spend with it. Destiny has taken up most of my shooting schedule and I've just not felt the need even with Microsoft's really interesting podcast and cross promotion.

That changes this February, the saga of Master Chief is just a vague excuse for me to spend time with my very own virtual Nathan Fillion. I mean it's not hanging out with Mal and zipping around the 'verse misbehaving but it's still something. Damn that man, he does have the rugged good looks of an action hero!

Lastly a classic that I never completed, this is a sin especially for an old school gamer like myself. I feel incomplete having never finished this but now I will right wrongs by completing the saga of Manny in Grim Fandango. The quirky and unique adventure game from the great minds of Doublefine Studio for LucasArts.

Thankfully under Disney's leadership Doublefine have started loosening the choke hold they have on older properties and letting some of them get licensed or even re-released. With Grim Fandango Doublefine made a concerted effort to update without altering the game leaving the obtuse and at times cryptic gameplay intact (I mean not as insane as Gabriel Knight's method of obtaining a fake moustache). This is an interesting historical piece of software as it shows how gameplay, even within a fairly niche genre like adventure games, has evolved over the years. A game that at one time used mechanics considered normal could now be considered quaint, dated or just downright cryptic!

So that's my February in a nutshell. Now to step up to the challenge! (Also, have to find some time to fit XCOM 2 in there now that's going to be a challenge!)

The Twinstiq Podcast – Ep. 25: #4iF

The Twinstiq Podcast is back with a promise: It includes audio!

Granted, not the best of promises, but we have a 100% satisfaction or else money back guarantee when it comes to the inclusion of audio. Tell us of another podcast that does that!

Topics this week: #4iF, one year without Joystiq, one year with Twinstiq, VR (surprise!) and some other stuff I can’t remember right now. Hope you enjoy it.

#4if

Dante’s #4iF

4iF was one of my favorite Joystiq features. I recall last year I tried to pay homage to it by finishing 4 games per month until I reached May in which I went for a Cinco de Mayo and finished 5 of them. Good times. This year, I'll tackle the following:

Disgaea 5

I've been playing Disgaea 5 since early December. It's one of my favorite series and I've already clocked over 70 hours into this game. I haven't finished the main story yet so I'll focus on that part now. It's been very interesting so far and I hope the last 5 episodes get even better.

Strider

The classic Capcom franchise came to the current gen with a very strong Metroidvania game. I'm currently exploring the map so I can get all the power ups before I go the the final stage. The game appropriately warns you that if you go to the last level you won't be able to go back to the main map, so once I'm done exploring I'll try to finish it.

Limbo

Oh, Limbo how I have forsaken you. I started playing this bad boy on PC a few years ago, but I never finished it because I really didn't feel like it. I felt platformers belonged to consoles and quit after passing that big and shining HOTEL sign. Now that I got it for free for the PS4 I told myself I'd try to play through it at least once... And the time is now.

Gone Home

I needed an extra game to complete this list so I tried to add a game that I've heard is only 3 hours long. I'm not really sure what to expect form this one, but I've been pleasantly surprised by critically acclaimed indie games before. For example, I loved Papers, Please. Who would have thought checking out passports would be fun?

#4if

Greywolfe’s #4if

I got into #4if pretty late. The first year I tried it, [2012] my computer blew up and I had to postpone it to March of that year to get it done. The second year, I got three out of four games done - I ended up trying to plow through a game that just took too long. In 2014, I think I sat it out completely. Last year was...well, it was depressing. Joystiq went away and I wasn't sure if I was going to try and attempt it, but in the end I did - I didn't finish [silly Hand of Fate got in the way] but I gave it a whirl.

This year, I have four games all lined up and ready and I'm going to try my very best to finish them off.

What am I playing? Read more