Remember this Kotaku article from a year ago? Kotakaboom. I'm still in favor of making February the "play some of your backlog" month, in spite of February 2014 being unusually loaded. Whatever. I'm not buying any new releases. So the plan is every February to pick four totally unplayed games in your backlog and finish them in the 4.036 weeks (on average) of the month. So here I go again.
If you want to read about my failed 4 in February exploit last year, then check the tag at the end of this post. I ended up completing zero of those four during February, but I eventually played and beat Psychonauts in late March. This year I'm going to try to keep the games at a reasonable size - none of these games are 40+ hour RPGs. A pair of medium-sized action games, one sizable open-world action game, and one episodic adventure / visual novel / whatever. But let's stay in the present and see my new 4 in February challenge:
4 in February: 2014 Edition
Dust: An Elysian Tail
I was interested in Dust from the moment I heard about it, as it's a Metrovania-style 2D action game with beautiful, super-stylized setting and characters. Sounds like my kind of joint, right? Add in the fact that it was made by ONE DUDE and suddenly it's even more impressive. Seriously, one guy did all of the art, gameplay design, and coding. The music was contracted out to HyperDuck SoundWorks (a really talented team of composers), because Dust's creator is only human, barely. So anyway, I won Dust in a trivia contest I won last year (thanks, Starmongoose of RPGFan!) and now it's finally getting played.
Mark of the Ninja
Most of the "cover" pics that showed up in the Google image search of Mark of the Ninja were different croppings of this picture. Whatever; it's a cool picture. Anyhow, I picked up Mark of the Ninja last year on Steam (of course I fucking did) and it's a neat-looking 2D stealth action game. I typically don't favor stealth games, but if it's well-integrated enough then I'll get some mileage out of it; I really enjoy stealth shit in other genres, like the stealthy parts of Uncharted and Sly Cooper. Maybe this is the game that gets me turned around on stealth games and finally motivated to try Metal Gear Solid? OK, that won't happen, but beating Mark of the Ninja will.
Assassin's Creed II
I bought that Ezio Trilogy disc in 2013, intending to finally play an Assassin's Creed game for the first time. Yeah, I know. Embarrassing. So I've come to enjoy open world character action games in recent years, and it's finally time to try AC, which is only one of the premier series in that genre. It has action, stealth, exploration, historical fiction, and crazy future-past lore that I'll probably barely understand. And I've heard that the original AC is... subpar. AC2 is where they figured the series out. I can always go back to the first one if I really feel like it (I won't). But enough of that; time to play and BEAT one of the most acclaimed games of five years ago (I will).
The Walking Dead (season one)
The adventure game based on the popular comic and TV series (sharing a setting, but not plot or characters with those two productions) was one of the most popular and acclaimed games of 2012. I enjoy oldschool adventure games and visual novels, but I'm not really into zombie fiction. Still, The Walking Dead isn't so much about the zombies as it is the characters and player choices, so I'm sure I'll get a kick out of it. Season one is five episodes, so I can probably finish it in a week.
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It's technically been February for several minutes now, so I'm going to get started on this business straight away. I'm thinking... opening hour or two of Assassin's Creed Due. That's "two" in eye-talian.
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