Learning LOTRO: Trick or Treat for Extra Life

The first mini marathon for Extra Life is coming this weekend! You're invited to participate in the mischief and collect some treats for yourself!

The Marathon Day Recap: 2020 Edition

 

For my 8th year of Extra Life, I played The Lord of the Rings Online over the course of 24 hours and raised $501 to surpass my goal of $3,000. This is what happened!

Extra Life Marathon: 2020 Edition

It's here! It's Marathon Day! And if you're reading this, I'm already playing away in Lord of the Rings Online to raise money for the kids at Children's National!

What you'll find here:

• Special Announcements relating to community incentives & poll outcomes
• A list of stuff I will (try) to give away over the 24 hours
• How I prepared for this
• How unprepared I actually am

Extra Life Marathon 2020: LOTRO Class Reveal

Because the Away Shall Fade kinship on Landroval was so AWESOME in supporting the PvMP 4 Extra Life event on Labor Day weekend, I promised them I would spend the entire Extra Life marathon in LOTRO playing a new character. They've had several weeks now to submit class guesses to me for a chance to win VIP Time or an equivalent gift. Today I reveal the class!

Extra Life Marathon Countdown: 1 Week!

 

The 24-hour Extra Life marathon is in 1 week, and this is a weekly entry counting down to the event. Here's an update to get you excited!

Extra Life Marathon Countdown: 2 Weeks

 

The 24-hour Extra Life marathon is in 2 weeks, and this is a weekly entry counting down to the event. Here's an update to get you excited!

Extra Life Marathon Countdown: 3 Weeks

 

The 24-hour Extra Life marathon is in 3 weeks, and this is a weekly entry counting down to the event. Here's an update to get you excited!

Extra Life Marathon Countdown

 

The 24-hour Extra Life marathon is in 4 weeks, so I thought it would be fun to do a weekly entry counting down to the event. There's a lot going on this year, so keep reading and get excited!

The Marathon Day Recap: 2019 Edition

For my 7th year of Extra Life, I played 18 games across 4 platforms over the course of 25 hours and raised $450 to surpass my goal of $1,000. This is how it happened!

Saturday, November 2, 2019
7:30 AM

My alarm goes off at my usual wake-up time for the marathon, and I promptly go feed myself some breakfast Hot Pockets and a cup of vanilla cappuccino (not the best when you struggle with your A1C, but at least not as bad as the Vanilla Doubleshots of previous years!). I anticipate Discord being a little quiet this year, and decide to focus more on Twitter. For that reason, there's a noted lack of commentary in this recap -- no apologies, because it was still a great experience!

8:00 AM

Stacking

Expectations: It's a Double Fine game, so there's going to be plenty of cheeky humor, and it's done with cute nesting dolls to solve puzzles. Should be pretty good, amirite?

Reality: Pretty much what I expected. This is a very tongue-in-cheek puzzle game where you play as the tiniest of nesting dolls and are tasked with using layers of bigger dolls to solve puzzles or access places you normally couldn't. There are achievements for discovering all the hidden stuff and finishing collections of dolls, so this is a game to keep you busy for a while. I certainly had no problem playing for a full hour to start off the marathon!

9:00 AM

Northmark: Hour of the Wolf

Expectations: No expectations, really. This game came to me through a Humble Bundle, I think. In any case, it's a deck-building game with a story.

Reality: This was both better and worse than I expected. I was enjoying the story as I progressed across the map, but I was frustrated with my card limitations. I kept failing to defeat the Necromancer and it took a while to figure out why. I'd missed one small step and was murderized for it. Even so, this is a nice little deck-building game and there are some nice options for how you build it and utilize your cards. Worth investing in.

11:00 AM

Guacamelee! One-Two Punch (Nintendo Switch)

Expectations: I played the first Guacamelee title for the 2014 Extra Life marathon and surprised myself at being fairly good at it. It was silly and fun and I found the story quite compelling.

Reality: I had to buy the double set for the Switch so I could play with my husband. We were going to play the 2nd game since I had already played the 1st before, but it turned out to be easier to get a second player going by playing the first game. It's just as silly and crazy as I remembered, and I had twice as much fun playing it with my husband. It's definitely well-suited to being played on console. No screenshots to share because this was played on the Switch. (We were too busy having fun to take pictures anyway!)

12:00 PM

I Am Bread

Expectations: I expected the difficulty to be somewhere between Probably Archery and Goat Simulator, and just as silly as both.

Reality: Not disappointed. I should have spent more time practicing how to move in the tutorial, however. It was HARD making it across the kitchen to become toast! I don't see myself finishing the game, but it was good for passing time. I think I'd still rather be a goat.

1:00 PM

Trials of Harmony ~ Experimental Visual Novel

Expectations: This was a random find when I went looking for a 2019 released game to add to the marathon schedule. It sounded unique enough to spend a little money on. I'm not usually big on visual novels, but when it's presented in a unique way -- only from a cell phone -- and adds a lot of mystery to figure out, then you've got something I want to experience.

Reality: I was interrupted several times while playing this, but it was an incredible experience. If you enjoy mystery, and reading text, then you'll like this game. There are visual elements that help you identify who's talking and moods, and I fully intend to finish at some point and find out what was really going on! I should add that playing with a headset is a must, also.

3:00 PM

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (Nintendo 3DS)

Expectations: I've played this game many times before. This game was selected from my pile of 3DS titles by my mother-in-law. It's a rhythm game. It's Final Fantasy. It's good.

Reality: I tried some harder difficulties than I previously had, to make it more of a challenge. Boy, was that a mistake! I guess I probably should've warmed up and refreshed my memory first. But playing this game on my 3DS made it easy to sip on my GFuel (not a sponsor -- but wish they were!). No screenshots for this game, because 3DS. The last song I played through was really tough!

4:00 PM

Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky

Expectations: Cutesy, anime-styled puzzle solving without the limitations of gravity or physics.

Reality: Plain puzzle solving which boiled down more to platform skill rather than actually solving puzzles. Launcher was buggy. Not a friendly experience for English-speaking users. I was disappointed, and glad I only spent a dollar or two on the game during a sale. No screenshots because I was that upset about the game being a dud.

5:00 PM

Code Vein (PlayStation 4)

Expectations: I had played the demo, watched my husband play the demo, and watched him play through the beginning of the rest of the game also. I knew I was going to have to play smart because enemies could easily overwhelm.

Reality: I had a better time playing this time around vs. the demo because I'd already played it before. I had a better idea of what to expect and how to best play out certain parts. I also spent a good chunk of time making the perfect avatar in the character creation. That is, after all, half of the appeal here. Make your ideal anime character who also happens to be a badass. Still don't really follow the game's story, though. It's a little... weird. Basically, humans are endangered species. Most people are revenants (i.e. vampires) who need blood, but most of them are trapped in this weird barrier, in the ruins of a city. The only thing that sustains them are these "blood beads" that grow from weird glowy trees, but the trees are drying up. And also every time a revenant "dies," they come back having forgotten more about who they used to be until there's nothing left. Sounds great, right? There's also this miasma that can't be breathed in, or the revenants become lost and turn into monsters that can't be saved -- just slaughtered. That's where the badassery comes in. Anyway, I may or may not return to it at some point!

At this point, I had raised my goal of $1,000! With plenty of marathon time left, it was really just a matter of aiming for the $1,200 stretch goal...

7:00 PM

Moonlighter

Expectations: Some kind of weird cross between Binding of Isaac and A Wizard's Lizard. (I don't have much experience with procedural stuff.)

Reality: Expectations met, and then there was a bit of playing The Price is Right when managing the shop during the day. Basically, you're young and dumb and determined to go into the ruins to get treasures to sell to sustain your shop. It's pretty, it's fast-paced, and you definitely have to have some planning and tactics to gather the right things and sell the right stuff for the right prices to make a profit and progress.

8:00 PM

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch)

Expectations: I'd only seen my husband play a smattering of this game, but I knew people really liked the Fire Emblem games. This was his choice for me to play during the marathon.

Reality: Wow! While I didn't like the lack of customization, I liked the story overall. I didn't play far enough to understand why my seemingly inexperienced character would be hired to be a teacher for others their age and slightly younger, but... whatever! I played far enough to have selected the Blue Lions student house to be head of, and was just starting to learn the personalities and strengths of the individuals in it. Dimitri seemed to be the strongest option of the 3 house leaders, though I was (as my husband expected) amused by the quips from Golden Deer's leader, Claude. (Where was this Golden Deer group back when I was doing the Team Mascots, anyway?!) I'll definitely be playing more when given the opportunity. No screenshots, because Switch.

9:00 PM

Little Nightmares

Expectations: A creepy game where you are a child that has to avoid scary monsters that want to eat you, and lots of uncertain darkness.

Reality: An intensely creepy game with a lot more darkness than I anticipated. I only managed 20 minutes of gameplay because my little kid avatar had to sneak through a room where I could see a chair and feet dangling (someone hung themselves). I can handle pretty intense things, but that wasn't something I really wanted to wreak havoc with my imagination just before getting into the long night stretch of the marathon.

After only 20 minutes of this game, I moved on to the next with the expectation that I would just play later games for longer to make up for the time.

9:30 PM

The Last Tinker: City of Colors

Expectations: Colorful, action adventure puzzle game. Something something colors being divisive. I dunno. Looked like fun, so I bought it. I scheduled it after the dark little horror game because I expected to need a pick-me-up -- thanks, Past Self! You were right!

Reality: I actually didn't get to start on this one until nearly 10 PM because I had trouble configuring a controller to work with it -- and it's NECESSARY to play the game. As for the game itself, it's another one of those where you don't hear real dialogue, just gobbledy-gook in different pitches that are supposed to represent the different characters -- so get ready to read. Despite that, and despite the controller frustration, this was a really fun game to play. The graphics are vibrant and their stylization is unique. Oh, and that big race you struggle to get to? The antagonist is going to cheat and you're going to lose no matter what you do, so don't sweat it. Oh, and that might have just made things worse between the different color-obsessed city districts. Have fun with that.

12:00 AM

Darksiders III (PlayStation 4)

Expectations: I had fairly low expectations of this title even though I'm a fan of the Darksiders series. I hadn't heard very good reviews, but... of course I was gonna play it. My husband is awesome and knows me very well -- he nabbed this game when it was available through PlayStation Plus, knowing I would want it. Yay for husbands!

Reality: I enjoyed the game more than I expected to. It felt easier to play, somehow, but that may have only been because I played the first two games on PC and for this one I had a controller in my hand. But the story was also rather compelling, too, and I didn't anticipate that. It picks up after the first two horsemen have made a mess and been blamed. But it seems that the third doesn't really care about the other two -- or does she? It's hard to tell, because the Council has sent a nanny along with the third to make sure things go the way they want. My only complaint would be that I got lost trying to figure out where I had to go once I arrived in the big tree. I'll need to reference a map to find my way again and keep playing! No screenshots because it was super late and I'm not sure I want to dive back into the game right now just to show you where I got lost... *fumbles for a compass*

1:00 AM

Lichdom: Battlemage

Expectations: Launch magic at everything with reckless abandon!

Reality: Couldn't play it. Game froze and crashed before the end of the opening cut-scene, multiple times. Such a shame, because I really wanted to go crazy with this one. This definitely brought me down from the happy high I had from playing Darksiders.

I filled the time with playing Faerie Solitaire and gave my eyes a well-deserved rest for an hour.

2:00 AM (the second time)

7 Mages

Expectations: Dungeon crawler goodness with a focus on mages.

Reality: A very bland dungeon crawler that slows your progress with puzzles more than enemies. I was pretty bored with this one -- another title I'm glad didn't cost me very much. I didn't span a full hour with it and admittedly gave myself a stretch-and-bathroom break.

3:00 AM

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 3DS)

Expectations: Get to lay dow-- I mean, get to listen to a fairy yell at me to not be lazy because I have to go save Hyrule! (But also strategically placed in the schedule so I could lay down to prevent back and leg pain. Play smarter, not harder!)

Reality: Those fairies sure are annoying. Part of me always wants to enjoy Zelda games. Part of me always gets frustrated that there's actually only one viable path to progress, but you're going to struggle to find it. Like, if you're going to force one particular path, at least make it obvious. I need to try Breath of the Wild. I think I would like it better. One day, though... one day I may finally have developed the patience to progress far enough into a Zelda game to want to keep playing it to completion. The Extra Life marathon was not the time for that. But hey, my legs and back were happy! No screenshots, because 3DS.

4:00 AM

From Dust

Expectations: Black & White, but with better graphics and prettier land.

Reality: Black & White, but with better graphics, prettier land, and WAY HARDER OBJECTIVES. Oh. Em. Gee. I had an easier time teaching my dumb tiger not to eat my people in Black & White than I did preventing the ocean from wiping out my little village of followers. The controls felt like the Second Life landscaping but with even LESS control. I don't know how that's even possible, but From Dust nails the experience perfectly. I won't tell you how many times my villagers died from the tidal wave crashing in on them, but after 21 hours of playing games I think I earned a pass. Or a participation trophy. Something.

5:00 AM

The Lord of the Rings Online

Because this is the game that led me to Extra Life, I always end my marathon with it. I stopped around 6:00 AM because I had met my fundraising goal and I was feeling very tired. Having health issues means it's important to know when to give in, so I did. I grabbed a few hours of much-needed rest before getting up, taking a shower, and going to a concert to see David Crowder and Mercy Me. I napped in the car both ways, and then I slept like a rock and rested up on Monday.

Due to DDOS attacks on the Extra Life website's host, there were problems with people making donations during the marathon. The only reason I was able to receive any for most of the day was because I had set up a Facebook Fundraiser in advance. Even now, the total listed on my Extra Life page is incorrect because of donations being counted multiple times. I have made sure all of my donors were charged appropriately, however, and my official total as of the writing of this blog is $1,260 (and not $1,460).

Feel free to click here to read my Twitter Collection for the 2019 Marathon -- I had some great retweets and comments from some of the game developers, Extra Life, and Children's Miracle Network!

Thank you to everyone for your support and donations this year! You may have noticed that I started posting some regular, scheduled content in my blog -- and that is something I will continue in 2020. I have big plans for Gamer Reverie, and I hope you'll come along for the journey.

This Year's Marathon Schedule Unveiled!

The final schedule is here for your perusal! I still won't be streaming this year, but I have a diverse selection of games I have not played... more or less.

You would think that making the marathon schedule would get easier each year, but since my game library grows each year it actually becomes harder. There are even more titles I've never played before, and still many that I want to keep "for myself" -- that is, I want to play them strictly for my own enjoyment and not with a blog entry in mind. That isn't to say I don't enjoy the games I play for the marathon or for blogging. A prime example is Town of Salem from last year's marathon -- I still play it on a regular basis and have even gotten my husband into playing it with me.

This year, I took my time and combed through my Steam and GOG libraries, writing down any titles I hadn't played which also hadn't come from $1.00 bundle deals until I had double the number I needed. I also asked my immediate family to help me select console games to throw into the mix this year from our PS4, Switch, and 3DS collections. There are six titles from those libraries, giving me a full third of my list's time away from the PC. I did this so I could get more movement during the marathon and help my eyes. I'm not as young and spry as I once was, and health issues mean I have to plan ahead and be smart to make sure I don't harm myself while trying to participate. I do this because it's fun and it's #ForTheKids -- doing irreparable harm to myself would be very counterproductive!

I set up an elimination chart for myself based on a combination of Metacritic scores and release dates: games with no score were arranged by release date on the opposite end of the spectrum. I then went through the list of 1vs1 and chose one title over the other based on what I felt would give me enjoyment as well as be a title worth writing about after the marathon. Sometimes it came down to simply liking a release trailer better, and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

Games That Didn't Make the Cut

Nuclear Throne, Viking: Battle for Asgard, Gravity Badgers, Ballpoint Universe, The Nightmare Cooperative, Kingdom: Classic, Morphopolis, Elven Legacy, Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle, Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Eselmir and the five magical gifts, and There Came An Echo.

The Marathon Games by Platform

PlayStation 4

• Code Vein
• Darksiders 3

Nintendo Switch

• Guacamelee! One-Two Punch
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Nintendo 3DS

• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

PC

• Stacking
• Northmark: Hour of the Wolf
• I Am Bread
• Trials of Harmony
• Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky
• Moonlighter
• Little Nightmares
• The Last Tinker: City of Colors
• Lichdom: Battlemage
• 7 Mages
• From Dust
• Lord of the Rings Online

But I know what you really want. You want to see the schedule in its final layout.

So here it is! Click the image to view it in all its glory.

Think something from the reject list should have made the cut? 

Let me know in the comments!

The Marathon Day Recap: 2018 Edition

For the 10th Anniversary of Extra Life, and my 6th year of participation, I clicked and pressed my way through 18 games over the course of 25 hours. This is what happened!

Saturday, November 3, 2018
7:30 AM

My alarm goes off, and I get myself out of bed. I turn on my computer, go heat up breakfast hot pockets in the kitchen, and bring them back to my computer along with a Vanilla Doubleshot. I am ready to start this!

I open up the marathon channel on my Extra Life server on Discord, and find a few friends and team mates there and ready to get going.

8:00 AM
Glass Masquerade

Expectations: A puzzle game based on stained glass. Stained glass is pretty.

Reality: A puzzle game based on art deco and stained glass, with beautiful music and a variety of difficulty for the puzzles themselves. The progression path is based on world countries, so the artwork is thematic and relevant to the locations. The puzzles themselves are presented in a unique way. You are given fragments of stained glass in concentric circles around the face of a clock (where the pieces go), but they only appear as silhouettes. When you pick them up, they rotate and show their colors/patterns. The chimey/piano music is very whimsical and added a lovely touch to the game. It made for a very pleasant first game of the day/marathon.

I have, since the marathon, gone back and finished the main game as well as the two available DLCs. My only disappointment is not being able to find the music for the Halloween DLC available anywhere. It is also fun to try beating my previous times for the puzzles. Most were finished in less than 10 minutes; only one took me about 18 minutes to complete.

Lyrak: CRAP I accidentally killed my husband
snarkqueen: ^ Things said while playing Skyrim for $500, Alex.
Lyrak: We're... just... gonna load that game again.

9:00 AM
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe

Expectations: There's cooking and fighting and OH LOOK -- THE LOGO HAS DRAGONS!

Reality: Very selfish main character made this hard to enjoy from a story standpoint. "I'M GONNA RUN AWAY FROM HOME BECAUSE I WANT TO, EVEN IF IT MAKES THINGS HARDER FOR MY ALREADY STRUGGLING PARENTS AND MEANS STEALING MONEY TO DO IT." The sister makes sure she has enough underwear and stationery... then gives her a cookie jar that somehow bestows +2 health. "I have to make sure I'm not sending you off to die in a ditch!"  "I'll have plenty of underwear and paper in that ditch." And then the things already in my inventory? Orion's Pebble: A shiny pebble given to you by an elderly customer one day. Maybe he thought it was a coin? UNDERWEAR, PAPER, COOKIE JAR, AND A ROCK. I'M SURE TO WIN MYSELF A PLACE IN THE ELITE CHEF-SOLDIER BRIGADE!

The game elements are pretty good, though. The match puzzle element for cooking is spot-on (insert Pacha meme here), and the combat to acquire ingredients from monsters is adequately challenging -- especially when the little bird monsters want to fly off with your hard-won monster bits and your bag is too full to carry what you need. I did rather like the old man with all the cats named after cheeses, too. PECORINO! BRIE! FONTINA! SWISS!

Innkeeper: Everything alright with our accomodations, sir?
Mina: I'm a girl.
Innkeeper: Oh ho ho! Oh my word! You'll have to excuse me. I've misplaced my glasses.
Mina: But I don't sound like a man, do I?
Innkeeper: Forgive me! I'm hard of hearing too, oh ho. I'm sure you're a fine young Orc lad.

Mina: Is that your falcon? She's beautiful.
Shiv: She knows.

At this point, I forgot that I wasn't wearing my 10th Anniversary Extra Life t-shirt, so I fixed that. I may or may not have struck an epic pose for nobody but my cat.

11:00 AM
Kentucky Route Zero

Expectations: A super popular adventure game with a lot of good story. So I've been told...

Reality: [Insert Unpopular Opinion Puffin meme here.] I'm afraid I was highly underwhelmed overall with this game, but there were some elements that tickled my inner geek's fancy. This mostly came in the form of really intellectual references you either knew or would miss entirely. The gameplay itself didn't really strike me as entertaining, and the the dialogue menus left me wholly dissatisfied.

The best reference was to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude." You are told to find a character named Marquez to get through the Zero. When you look up the address for them, it is 100 Macondo Lane. Macondo is a fictional place in Marquez's book. If you're familiar with my homestead in Second Life, I have a tower in one corner of the sim that is actually named Macondo Keep. Aside from that, the only other reference I'll mention was an excellent use of Beethoven on a record player (Symphony 3, movement 2, I believe).

I won't say anything else, because there is a good deal of character story that pushes the story forward. I haven't yet made up my mind if I'm going to go back and finish the game.

12:00 PM
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Nintendo 3DS)

Expectations: I played 10 minutes of this and then got distracted by Pokemon Alpha Sapphire instead. I did read that it is a sequel to a GameCube game (Luigi's Mansion), and there's a tentatively-titled Luigi's Mansion 3 that's going to come out next year. I dunno -- it's Luigi, and he's dealing with ghosts. I always liked him better than Mario. It's gotta be good if they're planning another sequel, right?

Reality: The ghosts and the scientist in Dark Moon remind me of the minions in Despicable Me. It's an entertaining little game where you have to poke and prod at everything to find things to do other things and restore the fragments of the Dark Moon to make the ghosts be nice again. And of course you have to do this as the fearful Luigi who didn't really want this task in the first place. I almost got stuck early on because I hadn't tilted my 3DS enough to uncover something.

I took a stretch, walk and heated up pizza rolls for lunch. The best part of the pizza rolls being that there are codes on the packages to redeem for goodies in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (which I need to get back to playing soon!). Extra awesome was opening a new package of pizza rolls, heating up a whole plate of them in a noisy microwave, cleaning the tops off of two soda cans with a noisy faucet, and NOT waking up either the snoring husband in the recliner or the hyper puppy at his feet. I'm either a ninja or a hobbit -- you decide.

1:00 PM
The Wolf Among Us

Expectations: I chose this game because it is by Telltale Games, and as most gamers know by now... they are closing their doors after they finish the work on their plates. I felt I should play one of their games in the marathon as a tribute to their great work. Plus, this one deals with fairy tale characters and has a good story... supposedly!

Reality: Well, I may have forgotten the Mature rating of this game. I remembered very quickly, and that made it a challenge to take screenshots -- plus, I never knew when I'd have to make a quick reaction! (I might have died once and had to restart from a save point because I was too focused on my pizza rolls.)

Make no mistake, though -- this is a fantastic game. It's dark, it's gritty, but the story is very intriguing and I absolutely HAVE to get back to it to finish it and find out Who Did It. It's a little nerve-wracking to know that my choices affect the mindsets and responses of the other characters. And what is up with the wine-drinking, flying GREEN monkey?

3:00 PM
Apotheon

Expectations: Fight the gods to save mankind in Greek mythology. Unique art style. Yeah, that's enough for me!

Reality: I plugged in my PS4 controller, having the notion I would need one since it's primarily about fighting your way through everything. However, even WITH a controller... the controls in the game were awful. A lot of the dialogue and events made no sense either. Blacksmith tells me to grab a coin box behind him, in his smithy, so that my character can afford to pay him for new gear? HERE, LET ME ROB YOU TO PAY YOU FOR YOUR OWN HARD WORK.

I finished the first portion of the game, but am not sure I'll go back to play more. I'm not sure how I feel about being on the same side as Hera, the goddess depicted as ever-vindictive. The controls were also just that bad... I kept dropping items instead of switching, and the directions for how to craft were very vague. I had to stop and Google just to figure it out.

I continued to listen to Lyrak on the voice channel as she played Skyrim, which made my struggle a little less tedious. "Everyone will get smashed when it is time." ...and other things said at the beginning of parties for $600, Alex. (If I recall, she was talking about an enemy getting up in her face before she was ready to smite him.)

4:00 PM
The Deer God

Expectations: Gorgeous pixel art. Be a deer. Survive to atone for being a jerkface. Did I mention the gorgeous pixel art?

Reality: So, the beginning of the game reminded me that it wasn't REALLY my character's fault that a baby deer died -- it was those wolves attacking him while he was aiming at the adult deer. Regardless, it was definitely fun to play. The only real struggle was getting through some of the long stretches where there was no food available. So, if you try this game, EAT EVERYTHING. Just do it. Be a pig. You won't regret it. 

My other bit of advice? DON'T STOP MOVING. Keep running and leaping and moving forward. This is not a slow-paced exploration game if you want to survive. Survival hinges on reaching other deer and creating baby deer as save points. The bigger you get (i.e. the more days you live), the easier it is to clear obstacles and avoid injury. Also... inside locations will likely throw giant bosses at you. I accidentally found this giant toad that was reminiscent of ShogunGekomon from Digimon, minus the horns.

Sometime around this point, my husband was awesome and went to go pick up some chicken tenders and potato wedges for dinner at a local place. (We've had them both Friday nights since. Yeah, they're THAT good.)

5:00 PM
Pyre

Expectations: Third game by Supergiant Games. I have traditionally had the first play of their games during my Extra Life marathons, so this one will, too. Something about rites to pass and redemption and freedom or something. (Yay, more Darren Korb music!)

Reality: The art is beautiful. The music is folksy and nice, but not AS nice as Transistor or Bastion (sorry Darren). The gameplay itself is very tricky, particularly in swapping between the characters during the Rites. However, it's just not as compelling as Transistor or Bastion were for me. I am disappointed that I am disappointed! I may go back to finish this game at some point, but it isn't anywhere near the top of the list like I thought it would be.

7:00 PM
Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

Expectations: I watched my husband play a bit of this while we were supposed to be focused on our D&D game via Google. You have a horse. You find these giant temple-building-monster-things. You climb them as they're moving. You find a weak spot. You murderize them. That's all I've got. I let my husband choose this for my queue.

Reality: You're super upset about some girl dying, and you're willing to go somewhere forbidden to get the power to bring her back to life, and you've got this special sword. A disembodied voice (a god?) agrees to do it, but sends you to go kill the giant temple-building-monster-things. You climb them as they're moving. You find a weak spot. You try to murderize them. You fall off a lot. And steering the horse is harder than it has any right to be. I won't be going back to this game. It should not be the struggle it is. Which is a shame, because the graphics are super pretty.

8:00 PM
Moon Hunters

Expectations: Steam says: "A co-op personality test about exploring an ancient, occult world in 5 days. How will you be remembered?" ...so, like... this can go a lot of different ways, and I'm expecting to have multiple, different playthroughs. More pretty pixel graphics.

Reality: I am betting this would be more fun with others to play with because some of the mobs are just... too many for one character to handle, and they do a LOT of damage. But I was right about doing the multiple, different playthroughs. It's the same 5 days every time, and it's up to you to guide a specific historical hero of this world through those days. Each time you play, you unlock more options for future playthroughs, and you learn a little bit more about what's going on. 

The pixel graphics were good in the game, but I liked the hand-drawn art sections a lot more. More of that would've been fine by me. The music was also very well-done, but not memorable. There's a good chance I'll go back into the game to play more of the heroes and uncover more of the story and options.

Right here is where I hit the $900 Milestone and sealed my fate -- I'll be watching all of the Twilight movies.

9:00 PM
The Witcher Adventure Game

Expectations: Digital version of the board game... based on the video games... based on the writing. Geralt and monsters and stuff. Should be fun, yeah? This one was a selection from my GOG.com library.

Reality: This was SO BAD. If you don't own this game and you were considering it, DON'T. I mean, by all means feel free to buy the actual board game and invite friends over to play it. But if you enjoy video games, this is not for you.

It is very similar to complex, cooperative board games like Arkham Horror. Downside... they clearly didn't rewrite any of the text when adapting it to the PC version, so a lot of it reads weird or isn't understandable. They don't give you any help learning to play the game, either. I set it up with 3 bot-controlled players, and was glad that it didn't last too long. 

I told my friends in the Discord marathon chat not to judge me for bailing early on the game. I got the expected response from them, but made up for the gap of time with RIFT. Good ol' RIFT.

snarkqueen: Tell you guys what... I give this a half hour. I'll squeeze in an hour of RIFT or something to make up for it. DON'T JUDGE ME. I FEEL THE JUDGEMENT IN YOUR SILENCE. ;___;
Kataplexy: 

I worked on some guild quests for a while, then jumped into the Intrepid Instant Adventures (Hammerknell and Mind of Madness). Naturally, I got disconnected from the server RIGHT as the fight with Akylios was starting.

11:00 PM
Western Press

Expectations: Typing duel game. Set in the old west. Yes, please. I'mma beat those AIs!

Reality: The opening narration for this game was the absolute best. The capstone of which was, "The duel abides."

When I went into the settings, it said "Ah, a technical user." And when I clicked specifics, it said "What, default not good enough for ya?" I set it up so I would have actual words instead of random letters or directions. I made it all the way through pretty easily until the last duel, which was Wyatt Hurt. He is SO FAST. It took several tries, but eventually I won with the word 'strawberry.'

Short game, but lots of fun.

12:00 AM
Scanner Sombre

Expectations: Exploration game with unique visuals and good reviews.

Reality: This one was very different. I don't really know how else to describe it. There were a few places where I wasn't sure where I had to go, which resulted in awkward backtracking. You use the scanner to 'map' the topography around you in the caves and find your way through. I don't know why you're set up in a tent at a dead end. I don't know why you can't bring the actual light from there with you. I don't know why you don't bother to take supplies when you leave it. I don't know what happens if you fall into any of the big holes.

What I do know, is that the graphics are murder on your eyes. I had to lay down and close my eyes for a half hour after playing this one. I had to, or I wouldn't have been able to play any other games! This is when I begin to sip at a berry-flavored Five Hour Energy.

2:00 AM
Always Sometimes Monsters

Expectations: This is an encore. I have played this in a previous marathon and it got me through the tough early morning hours. It can be a completely different experience with each playthrough, so I felt I should bring it back again.

Reality: It was weird playing a different character this time, and in my head I was still the last character. I might have to go back to that save file. I knew a little of what to expect this time, but it's still a very unique experience. I didn't get any closer to finding out the meaning of the opening scene, but I think I saved a friend from drug addiction this time. I think. I still had to sleep on a mattress in an alley because my landlord evicted me, though.

This game does a great job of illustrating the highs and lows of life and the realistic choices people have to make to get by. Still a strong recommendation from me, and I hope they don't perpetually delay the sequel, Sometimes Always Monsters.

3:00 AM
Seasons After Fall

Expectations: There's a fox, and puzzles and stuff and you control the seasons and there's pretty artwork. FOX!

Reality: Very cute game with a very pretty art style. The directing/narrating voice is irritating. The controls could be better -- but it may also be easier with a controller. I got stuck a few times, not sure what I needed to do -- and it ended up being the controls.

4:00 AM
Town of Salem

Expectations: Murder mystery meets colonial America. Finger pointing!

Reality: I enjoyed this more than I expected to. Since the marathon, I have played many more times and learned a lot more about how to play it effectively. It's always different because of how random people are thrown together (unless you build your own group with friends). The game seems to love placing me in the Mafia or making me the Sheriff. I've had a few other roles, but not enough to be worth mentioning. I couldn't really take many screenshots of this one because of the vulgarity of some names, as well as the language they used in the player chat. If you can ignore people's inherent perversion on the internet, and enjoy cooperative who-dunnit games, then I recommend this one to you. (I have even spent a few dollars so that my character appears as Santa Claus, has a reindeer pet, and the whole town looks like a Christmas village. Totally worth it when I get assigned the Godfather role. lol)

5:00 AM
The Forest of Doom

Expectations: Tabletop RPG of the 80's turned into digital choose-your-own-adventure with dice and stats. Yes!

Reality: This is an 80's tabletop game converted into a sort of visual novel with dice and stats. In the time I had, I had several playthroughs. I honestly don't know how anyone actually completes the quest... it's so unbelievably difficult! I made it OUT of the Forest exactly one time, but hadn't accomplished the objective of finding the two halves of the magical weapon AND delivering it to the dwarves. I struggled so much: through wolves, a swarm of killer bees, poison dart-wielding pygmies, hobgoblins, an apeman, a swindling crow, a thief, a werewolf, a wyvern... You get the idea. D&D players will probably enjoy this one.

6:00 AM
The Lord of the Rings Online

Expectations:  Being the game that got me started in Extra Life, I have traditionally played it in my final few hours of the marathon each year.

Reality: Nobody was online from the Away Shall Fade kinship when I logged on, so I was tempted to just give it 20 minutes then call it early and lay down for an hour before I would have to go to church. But then some people logged on and kept me company as I did some epic quests on my level 40 guardian, Yfandiel. 

I ended the marathon with $925, but by that Sunday afternoon I was sitting at $1,001. That means ALL of my milestones were unlocked and I have a great deal of incentives to deliver on in the coming months! And I'll do it all again next year, too.

I've learned over the years of doing this that you have to pace yourself -- and that includes breaks, food and drink. Step away for too long, and you lose momentum. Eat too much, and you'll get sleepy. Drink too much, and you'll have to visit the bathroom too often and it will interrupt your game flow. To this end, I made sure I started with that Vanilla Doubleshot after not having had any caffeine the previous day. I sipped at mini Cherry Cokes throughout the day, along with water. I snacked on Gushers and Goldfish crackers. My meals were pizza rolls, nibbled as I gamed and not gobbled all at once to sit heavily on my stomach. Every 3 hours I would stand up and do stretches. I made sure not to touch energy-giving options until after midnight, where I sipped on a Five Hour Energy for 3 hours instead of gulping the whole thing, giving myself a slow release effect of B vitamins. So I could function, I had my second Vanilla Doubleshot on the way to church around 10:30 am. This way, I didn't cause myself any sugar or caffeine crashes. I laid down that afternoon to rest, but maybe only slept a half hour in total. I didn't actually go to sleep until 9:45 pm. I had prudently taken Monday off from work, and I spent most of it in bed watching anime.

Look forward to the announcement for the Spicy Challenge poll result, as well as a loose agenda for when you can expect the other milestones. ALL donors should expect to receive 2 pieces of digital artwork for Christmas. They'll arrive via an official Extra Life e-mail so I can get those anonymous donors, too. 

If you're part of Away Shall Fade, I have good news! You guys successfully donated 25% of my goal, so I'll be giving away some LOTRO points. I'm trying to work out the logistics of that, but hope to have it done before Christmas. Thank you for all the support you've given me this year!