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For a third year, Joystiq's Mike Suszek is challenging all gamers to suck it up and dive into their piles of shame with the Four in February challenge — finish four games you have laying around incomplete otherwise.
Disclosure, Mike is a friend of mine and was one of the original panelists on The Press Row Podcast, which I appear on every couple of weeks or so. Four in February is just a gathering of likeminded gamers. It advertises nothing, sells nothing, costs nothing. Well, you had to pay for the games you're going to play, I suppose.
To participate, see Four in February's Facebook page. There are, basically, no rules, so pick any four games, but the fun is in declaring what you're going to tackle and having others hold you to it. Mike's going to beat Blackwell: Convergence on iPad, Hotline Miami on PlayStation Vita, The Walking Dead: Season One on Vita and, at long last, BioShock on PlayStation 3.
As a sports gamer I tend to get sucked into games that don't really have an end. Plus, for some reason I re-rolled a thief in Skyrim on Friday and I am on a mission to steal all of the cheese in Tamriel. But I'll go ahead and say I'm going to finally finish LEGO City Undercover, Far Cry 3 (hangs head in shame), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and once and for all, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (which has just languished for years. I have all of Rome rebuilt and unlocked, I just haven't plowed through the story.) Holy crap, there is no way I'll be able to do all that in 28 days.
Mike will be dropping encouraging notes on the Facebook page all month long. Connect with other challenge-seekers over Twitter using the #4iF hashtag, too.
It's also a nice way to remember the work of Joystiq, which has gone through a week of absolutely awful news. The 11-year-old gaming publication, owned by AOL, will be shuttered.
Tragedy then struck the Joystiq family again with news that former editor Andrew Yoon died while on vacation in Texas this past week. He was 29.
