A little late this week, you can blame some indolent Internet pixies who wouldn’t do what they were told and a certain 2,000 word review that took up a lot of my time. And if I wasn’t writing about Yakuza 3, I was playing it – to death.
We’re going to designate the last seven days ‘God of War III hangover week’ as some of us are still playing Kratos’ epic challenge against the gods. Of course, certain other people have only just purchased the entire God of War Collection despite having over two dozen games to start. Don’t tell Mrs. Kovacs. She has a mean left hook.
Michael:
Honestly, I don’t know why I am part of TSA. I barely even play video games. It’s all I can do to muster up 10 minutes of Battlefield Bad Company 2 just so I’ve got something to send to Kovacs for WWP each week. Which reminds me, I haven’t actually played BFBC2 this week. Have I? If any readers have seen me on the PSN playing BFBC2 can you let Kovacs know please. Thanks.
BioEye:
AgingBooth on iPodTouch. I’ve spent the week filling up a new photo album on my Facebook profile of all my friends faces, slowly breaking close relationships as I post old wrinkly versions of their youthful selves all over the social interweb, tagged, categorised and publicly available. It’s pretty fun to just grab a picture of someone and see how AgingBooth churns it out. Quite often the product is poor, but on the off chance, it’s cracking, and worth any temporary embarrassment of others just to show everyone else as a joke. That is, they find it funny until they realise they’re next.
Wotta:
I have not had nearly as much time as I would l have liked for gaming this week. I did have a quick try of Games Room on Xbox LIVE Arcade, and practically as soon as it loaded up it was off again, not for me really.
The only other game I have played this week is Just Cause 2. I managed to fit about an hour in, and I have to say, I was expecting it to be a bit more polished that it is. The action seems fun though, so I am going to give this one more time.
I still have Metro 2033 to play, so if I get time I may unwrap that one next week.
ColinBarr66:
God of War III again from me. Really enjoying it apart from the fact I continually keep dying and getting stuck. After around ten frustrating deaths, I turn off, go back a day later, and do it easily first time. I hate it when that happens. I’ve also started God of War: Chains of Olympus. Pretty good PSP game so far, just more of what I’ve been getting from the PS3 version.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the only other game to get some of my attention. Ignoring the lag that seemed to be in every game for several days, it is good fun as always.
Kovacs:
This entire week was spent in the company of Kazuma Kiryu running around Karurocho throwing bicycles at people before promptly jumping on their hapless bodies. It’s like Sega stole into my bedroom, cracked open my head and plucked every winning trait I love in gaming and confused them into a pure, shimmering paragon of my perfect title. Action? Check. Set in Japan? Yep. Gratuitous violence? Oh yeah! Karaoke? OK, I’m not sure how that one crept in as I absolutely despise karaoke, but it’s near perfect. If you’re on the bamboo fence about Yakuza 3, I recommend checking out this review.
Zuler:
Like last week, I’ve just been playing God of War III, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. What I have to say about them isn’t anything different, so you can go here if you want to know my thoughts on this brilliant trio of games.
Lorcan:
This week, I’ve barely even touched a video game. The game of life’s been far too demanding for that to happen. However, I did manage to bring my Pokedex number up by one on Pokemon Platinum and recently I fired up my friend’s old Gamecube which contained the wonderful SSX: On Tour. After a bit of floundering with the controls I quickly picked it up again and was able to enjoy the most fun half hour of my entire week. If Criterion really is working on a new title for the series, it can’t come fast enough!
Captain Murdo:
Pokémon Heart Gold! You know those games that force you back into your childhood? Well this is one. It plays exactly as I remember it (looks better of course), and I’ve chosen the same Pokémon as before, Cyndaquil. Expect more about this over the coming weeks.
As usual I’ve had my Call of Duty fix but this time it’s been both Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I played both with some fellow TSAers, and I can’t decide which I prefer. I’ll get back to you about this.
I played about 20 minutes of Dante’s Inferno, but because I also played more than three hours of God Of War III, Dante is on his way back to LoveFilm. He just doesn’t really compare. Kratos, on the other hand, is beastly. Not finished yet but I will be soon.
Finally, I downloaded two PSN games. Section 8 is a great online game but the campaign is severely lacking. You can read more about it in my review. Via Twitter, I won Wakeboarding HD and gave that a quick blast. I like the soundtrack and it’s great for short sessions.
tom_lord:
The busiest three weeks of my life as I wrote my dissertation. It was touch and go, but it’s handed in now. Unfortunately it left no time at all for gaming. However, I have been able to squeeze in some God of War III for about an hour. But what an hour!
That opening battle is pretty intense to say the least, and the scale is simply staggering. The old square triangle combo is like wearing a pair of old slippers.
I have also been putting in the hours on Moto GP 09/10. As a big fan of the real life Moto GP, it is very nice to see the series return to form after several years in the doldrums (not delivering since the old Namco PS2 games in my opinion). It is certainly a big leap over MotoGP 08, and it is nice to see the game trying something different with a well integrated career mode (something that many racing games have recently failed to do). It is not all good news though, the voice over guy grated very quickly whilst chiming in at inappropriate times, and the contrast between the qualifying and race AI on the harder difficulties is way off (pole position by a clear 4 seconds, yet you can struggle to keep up during a race despite lapping quicker than the qualifying lap).
Other than that, plenty of celebratory Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, FIFA 10 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 matches in our house.
cc_star:
The past week I’ve been playing God Of War III, which I’m still in two minds over. Yes I can see it’s a good game, probably even a great game, but that didn’t stop me being a bit disappointed with it. I do rank it highly, but it is my least favourite out of all four GoW games (the other three are all in my top 10 games of all time) for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.
Throughout the whole game it felt as though I was playing a game, there was no suspension of disbelief for me and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was controlling a character rather than being immersed in the game to notice. I’m not sure if this is because Kratos is a generally unlikeable character or if it was because the game’s epic-meter was turned all the way up to 11.
Throughout my first playthough the game I was also hampered by the god-awful double jump problems, and although these issues have been sorted with the patch, I just couldn’t get back into the game for a second playthrough.
Gastos84:
This week has been a God of War III week for me, as it probably has been for a lot of people. Platinumed the game and it certainly provided a few challenges along the way. It is an amazing and epic game but it lacked a little personality for me which is why I still regard God of War 2 as the best of the three. It is definately one of the PlayStation 3’s finest, however, and I highly recommend it.
Still trying to 100% Angry Birds but there are two levels that are proving to be a real bitch!
I also had a boxing marathon courtesy of Fight Night: Round 2 on the Gamecube. I never really got boxing games before but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be tempted to check out the latest Fight Night titles.