What We’re Playing – Week 15

You’ll have to forgive us for the tardy nature of this week’s edition of What We’re Playing. In fact, considering we skipped over last week’s plethora of gaming curios that were keeping us busy back then, this update is now doubly belated. Well, we were a bit busy.

Zuler:

This week, I played the entire first episode of the current season of Sam and Max, a bit of Just Cause 2 and a nice, brief session of After Burner Climax.

Sam and Max is an absolute gem of a game, and one everyone should at least try before ignoring (there is a trial on the store, so no excuses!). I can’t wait for next month’s episode.

Just Cause 2 is as fun as the trailers make it out to be. If you’re coming here for the story, turn back now. Everytime a character talks, I laugh at the terrible voice acting… “My name is BOH-LOH SAN-TOH-ZI.” You probably heard that in the demo, and you’ll be pleased to know others are just as bad. I do like it though, it shows that the game doesn’t take itself seriously. Oh, and did you know? There are jets in this game.

After Burner Climax is a brilliant fit for the PSN. It feels like a straight port from the arcade, but in no way is that a bad thing. It’s the perfect game for a short blast. I haven’t been able to beat arcade mode yet, but I’ve been improving over time (I want to beat the arcade mode without any ex-options, so I’ve been using 3 credits every attempt). Simple, beautiful, and a whole lot of fun.

Watchful:

For some reason this week I returned to a couple of games that always kick my ass.  First I got the urge to take F-Zero GX out for a spin on my Wii.  I never progress very far with it and find it brutally difficult but as it makes it abundantly clear that’s it’s my ability that’s deficient and not the game cheating in some way. I return to it from time to time just to see if my piloting has magically improved.

Next up out of the GameCube back catalogue was Ikaruga which I actually played on my GC that lives in a different room to my Wii.  Another game where my progression can often be described as poor, at best, but it is just such a fabulous bullet-hell shooter that I really don’t mind meeting an explosive end time after time having managed to intersect a mono-chromatic ball of energy with my own ship in the wrong mono-chromatic state.

Continuing the ass-kicking theme, but this time with me giving as good as I got, I returned to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to finish my run through on Crushing and finally get the platinum.  I’ve been working my way through on Crushing over the last couple of weeks, and it’s the first time I have been back to UC2 since before Christmas.

Having recently played through Heavy Rain a couple of times, some of UC2′s strengths really stand out.  For starters there is the quality of the vocal performances from Nolan, Emily, Claudia, et al.  They are in a completely different league to those of Heavy Rain’s principal actors.  UC2′s performance capture in the cutscenes is easily at least on a par with HR’s, though for my money, 2007′s Heavenly Sword still holds the cutscene performance capture crown.  The character animation when you are playing is also certainly more fluid in Naughty Dog’s action adventure then it is in Quantic Dream’s interactive drama.

Graphically UC2 is still an impressive title despite on this, my fifth, play through there being the odd moment when the graphics and animation seemed uncharacteristically clunky.  Interestingly, towards the end of the story in UC2 when there’s substantial precipitation, I’m tempted to suggest that Uncharted does heavy rain better than Heavy Rain.

I have a few thoughts on Crushing difficulty too.  Whereas on the other difficulty levels Drake feels like a relatively unstoppable killing machine, crushing really does seem to turn it into the clichéd (but not in a bad way) one man’s struggle against almost insurmountable odds.  It really does change the combat dynamic making stealth attacks absolutely vital.  For example, at the start of The Monastery chapter you can take down the first 12 guards by stealth making the ensuing gunfight much easier.

Grenades become much more tactical weapons, valuable for their stunning and knockback effects which give you the extra few moments necessary to deliver a couple of headshots to participants in the oncoming wave of attackers.  I found myself valuing the M4 over most other non-pistol weapons for its tighter shot grouping when fired blind from cover, its greater accuracy overall and the modest zoom that’s available.

In short, playing through on Crushing was a great gaming experience but sufficiently hard work that I will be looking for something a little more easy going from the next game I decide to really sink my teeth into.  High point: finally getting to the end of the Cat and Mouse chapter.  Low point: that f’ing final fight on the train into Tibet that had my screaming blue murder at the TV and is the closest I’ve come to controller-throwing in a long time.

Interspersed among my sessions of Uncharted I’ve been playing through the Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle. I picked these up for something a little different and something that offered a change of pace.  I am not entirely sure why, I had read the reviews on TSA, but for some reason I still decided to spend money.  Irrespective of the story, for me, the mysteries of Little Riddle are these:

• Why is the Basil Fawlty clone running the hotel so unfunny?
• Why does the vicar seem to be a Cthulhu worshipper?
• What is Bayonetta doing working in the library?
• Why the Hell did I spend £20 on these?

Tuffcub:

God Of War Collection – Better than GOW3 by a factor of ten.

Golden Axe Beast Rider – Hired it on the off chance it might be better than the reviews. It’s not and worst of all – no trophies. Eh? How they hell did that happen?

ColinBarr66:

I’ve not had much time for gaming this week but have managed to squeeze in some FIFA 10, Just Cause 2 and Killzone 2. I have a large backlog of demos which I’ll hopefully clear this week.

BioEye:

I’ve just bought myself a preowned slim PS3 after six months without a black slab of love on my desktop due to the yummy YLOD it decided to give me. So, being a noob with understanding what to do with data in this generation (can’t we just go back to memory cards?), I’m starting all my games again. Argh.

That means I’ve got to play all the story levels in LittleBigPlanet before I can create a new decent level with the water DLC I bought. Loving the water. Just can’t get enough of it, and I’m having mind blackouts of love just thinking about what I could create with the blue stuff and burlap.

I only just bought Killzone 2. Yup. TSA’s been awesome with KZ2 forever, and I’ve only just joined the party. No, I can’t even get online with it because of the gorgeous uni server disallowing any online play. Nevertheless, when summer rolls around, I’ll be back home pwning all of you. Yes, that is a challenge. I may have only played the game for the first time today, but that doesn’t make me a noob. It means I have a ‘fresh’ perspective… Look out. Got it preowned from Game for under £8. Nice.

Another game I’ve only just picked up is Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition, £20 in Gamestation. So I’m experiencing my first 3D PS3 game. I’ve been very sceptical, and I’ll be honest, when I started up the game with the red and green glasses, I thought it was naff. After about an hour though, my brain seemed to catch up, and all the colours were back to normal, and everything was just 3D. After the headache set in, I took off the glasses only to find my world in red and green. Definitely worth a look, and seeing that you get two pairs of glasses with the game, it’s worth pestering someone you know so you can watch them play in 3D before you think about shelling out the extra cash.

Before all of this though, I’d gone retro. PS2 all the way. With games such as the original Singstar and Shadow of the Colossus helping me fill the last few weeks before I decided to buy a new PS3. Singstar suprisingly still could hold its own to keep a party alive, despite its very out-of-date, limited selection of songs, and Shadow of the Colossus managed to hold a certain mood that’s very rare to feel in games. Even with the blocky graphics, it’s still on par with some of the early PS3 games, and for mood alone, still beats many new releases.

Kovacs

For the majority of the week(s) I’ve been immersed in the wonderful pop-corn adventure land of Nathan Drake. Uncharted 2 is one of the best games I’ve played this generation, and as I’m now at its denouement so it speak, I’m a touch melancholy and disappointed that, once it’s over, that’s it, it’s gone. Of course, I could play it on Crushing like Greg above has (I’m playing it first time through on Hard), and there’s the multiplayer element which I haven’t even touched yet, but there’s something about knowing Drake’s story has come to an end that is just so lamentable. It’s truly a beautiful thing. *sniff*

Other than that, I’ve been playing a little bit of Blue Toad Murder Files. Not enough to actually posit a full opinion, however, but considering how short they’re supposed to be, expect a rant next week.

I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few rounds of Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West. It’s surprisingly robust, and though it will hardly challenge the might of the Killzones, Battlefields or Modern Warfares out there, it’s constructed well enough to warrant the price of admission for people looking for something different.

Angry Birds and Doodle Jump have also been played over the last seven days. But that’s like telling you I spent the week looking up terms like “copacetic.” A given, in other words.