I will add my own exceptions though:

• Huge releases I will buy regardless. Not just any old game, I mean stuff like Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Valve releases. Games that I’ve been waiting for for years.
• If a game is terrible or I find it a chore to play it gets taken off the list.
• MMOs and mainly multiplayer games are exempt due to the fact you cannot ‘complete’ these games.

So off the top of my head, here are some games that are on my Pile Of Shame:

• Mass Effect
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Sins of a Solar Empire
• Kings Bounty
• Sam & Max series 3
• Monkey Island 5
• Time Gentlemen, Please
• Braid
• The Dig
• Dawn of War 2

That’s plenty to get me going!

So reading through the new PC Gamer I read the preview for Supreme Commander 2 and it reminds me I’ve not yet completed SupCom1 or it’s expansion. I’ve played most of SupCom1 and about half of the expansion so for the past few days I decided to finish the expansion, Forged Alliance. It is one bloody unforgiving game, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because it’s Total Annihilation x 100. Although there are only a handful of missions each one takes me between 2 and 3 hours to complete, which for an RTS is a bloody long time! I’m sure if I wasn’t so meticulous about my base building and actually sent out small groups of units as I went along that I could shave off an hour but that’s just how I like to play my RTS’s, trying to make an impenetrable base is part of the fun and SupCom certainly gives you the tools to try and achieve this. The part where it is rather unfair, is that the maps all start off small and as objectives are completed, the map expands to reveal additional enemy bases. Which wouldn’t be so bad if for the fact that the reveal usually comes along with a new armada heading your way. And even though I know this will happen and you can usually tell which way the map will expand, I still manage to let it catch me by surprise. Last night I’d spent ages building up a base with a couple of small bases the other side of the map, ferrying troops over and taking out the Commander in the south east. Then when I did, the map expanded and a few dozen air units came in from the north and obliterated me. I had not put any defences to the north of my base as at the time there was no north for the enemy to come from. I had plenty of units but they were the opposite side of the map, and for anyone that hasn’t played SupCom, I’ll tell you now the maps are huge and take forever to cross, even with air transports to help you. So I watched my base slowly decay and they finally got my Commander, game over.

I’ll be back tonight though. I think I’ve only lost 30 mins of play, and now I know I can just take out the southern Commander to wipe out his entire base, I will try and blitz him rather than slowly wade through his base, destroying it as I go. Oh and yes, before I do that, I think a few shield generators and anti-air emplacements will be installed to the north of my base!

Looking forward to SupCom2 and also C&C4 which are both out in about a month, so I’m all set strategy wise for the foreseeable future.