What We Played… In 1947

What We Played

It seems that most of the team have been spending their gaming time on the mean streets of L.A. and hanging out in The Blue Room. That’s probably not too surprising given that Rockstar’s L.A. Noire was last week’s big release.

Our man Josh is busy scrubbing the streets clean of petty criminals, murderers and other criminal lowlifes who have succumbed to the temptations of crime, vice and corruption.   He should be filing his case notes in a folder marked TSA Reviews soon.

Taking full advantage of the few days head start he got from the game’s slightly earlier U.S. release Matt has played it to the exclusion of all else and managed to “100% it in the first week”.   Those extra cases that were cut to make room on the discs and are now expected as DLC likely can’t come fast enough for him.

With less time to dedicate to the game Toby has been “thoroughly enjoying” the first few cases and is starting to wonder whether as he gets further in that repetition might become a problem.  Picking over crime scenes in the dimly-lit back alleys of post-war L.A. doesn’t lend itself to Rockstar’s trademark humour but its absence has stood out for Toby and he sounds like he’s hoping to encounter a little levity in the game before too long.

[drop]Resident king of the fighting games Delriach also failed to resist the lure of the film noir hues and soul-full jazz sounds of the game.  Only for a couple of hours though before he returned to Mortal Kombat to continue his practice for this weekend’s tournament that we mentioned last week.

To give his kombat skills a test in a true competitive environment he took part in a tournament at Anime Central.   “It’s the taking part that counts” is not a phrase we are likely to hear from this kompetitor: “I made it to the grand finals but choked in the very last match of the last round.  I got second place ;(“

Alex has also been mixing 1940’s sleuthing with polygonal fisticuffs.  He followed up his hands on with L.A. Noire with a review of the 3DS’ Dead Or Alive Dimensions and still seems pleasantly surprised by the quality of the latter:

Dead or Alive Dimensions is much better than anyone expected, and is the epitome of what the 3DS can do both visually (it’s gorgeous) and technically (with regards to the online play, constant SpotPass updates and clever StreetPass battles) – it’s just one of those games that you can pick up, play, and put down again, or play for hours, and be perfectly happy doing so either way.

After that it was straight onto the “brilliant” and “frequently gorgeous” DiRT 3 before a fourth complete change of genre to the old school, bullet hell shooter Bangai-O HD Missile Fury.  “It’s rock hard, but never unfair, visually a real delight, about as pure a videogame as there’s ever been and is unashamedly Treasure”.   Sounds like Alex is enjoying it.  We will find out if that feeling lasts through to the end in his forthcoming review.

Making the most of the PSN’s return Blair has been having a blast playing through Portal 2’s co-op.  Then tossing aside the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device and instead using swarm missiles to create glowing orange holes in his enemies, he took to the Eucadian skies of Warhawk, interest in a favourite online game rekindled by Starhawk’s recent announcement.

Uncharted 2 was also subjected to another playthrough, allegedly purely to test a new, bigger TV.  Happiness ensued with the TV passing its examination and the game “looking even better than it did before”.   Such praise was not offered for Sports Champions though; “it’s quite fun, but nothing amazing”.

[drop2]Slicing and dicing with his pseudo-saber was Dan as he cut down both lawns and enemies in his quest to get Sylvia to come good on her “promise” in No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise.  He then took that punctuating colon and personal combat to an entirely different range in Sniper: Ghost Warrior “which seems to be a great idea let down by poor execution”.

Kris has been playing a two-dimensional figure with spiky, choppy hair wearing only a pair of triangular-shaped trousers.   No, he’s not fallen in with some curious am-dram group he’s been playing Fancy Pants Adventures.   Trying to soothe the mental scarring left by having to review Thor and bury those memories beneath newer, hopefully more joyful ones he’s also been indulging in the Thor: Bring The Thunder flash game.   Now I don’t know, but I’m assuming that’s a game written with Flash and not a game where Thor goes away for a paintballing or airsoft weekend.

Which leaves us with Tuffcub’s tales to wrap up this week’s post.  He’s been playing, well struggling with De Blob 2 which has him “wrestling with one of the worst floaty cameras since Naughty Bear”.   The “massively annoying” camera “frequently moves so it’s in front the character so you can’t see where you are heading”.

Popping Higs’ heads in Killzone 3 has helped relieve some of that frustration when not distracted by his adorable new “kitteh”.  Despite all that he has still found time to indulge in a non-video game of self-promotion which involves “going in to HMV, Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco and anywhere else that is selling my album and moving it to No.1 in the charts”.

Have you all been crime-fighting in L.A. or did the PSN’s return tempt you into some multi-player mayhem over the past week?  What about this weekend?   Are you planning on spending any quality time with any of the week’s new releases?

17 Comments

  1. No.. not really, I was searching for the holy relics to defeat the evil king Umrail (eh) NOW, I am the holy knight of the nine, the defeat of Urmail had a great and terrific affect but many…many brave warriors had fallen.

    I might get a few pc games, likely terrina or something

  2. So hip to be a square.

    • Back in ’86 maybe. In the ’40s square was definitely not hip. :)

  3. Nice to see the return of a once regular feature. :)
    I’ve also been playing LA Noire, although i got a bit fed up with one of the ‘tail the suspect’ sections and decided to take a break for a day or so.
    In anticipation of Dirt 3 i loaded up Dirt 2 again and even though i’ve completed all the x game events ,colin mcrae event and pretty much everything i wanted to play in it i was kinda shocked to see my world tour is only 59% complete. Now i’m wondering about how much of Dirt 3 i’ll want to play and considering waiting for pre owned … ah who am i kidding – i probably won’t have the patience to wait! :)
    I played the PS2 Deus Ex for an hour but wasn’t really enjoying it as i had originally so decided to drop it and look forward to the new game instead.
    And last but not least i’ve been playing Peggle, again.

  4. The last week I’ve played LA Noire, Dirt 3, but mostly I think I’ve returned to MS:A to get practice in…. Nothing to do with it being loads of fun at all!

    All the while totally neglecting Brink, and not touching Portal 2 since I platinumed it. Also haven’t been on L4D2 in a while…

  5. I’ve been playing Warhawk & PES2011 as usual and on Monday I bought LA Noire, Portal 2 and Start The Party… Played half hour of LA Noire and I’m regretting my purchase, it’s not had a look-in since I put Portal 2 in my machine. Just had Medal Of Honor arrive from LoveFilm too although I can’t see me taking Portal 2 out my drive for a while yet.

    • That’s alright, MOH will only take you 4.5 hours to complete. Seriously……

  6. Josh doing the LA Noire review? Hurry up, Josh! :-) Can’t wait to read TSA’s official opinion of it. So rare for me to be like this (hankering for a review) but I feel it’ll tip me over into buying it if it’s a belter.

  7. Platinumed Lego PotC, now flipping between LA Noire, Mortal Kombat and Dirt 3 … although it’s been mostly MK and Dirt 3. Oh, and after reading about the new Hitch Hiker’s Guide game, I re-watched the tv series and have started reading the books again.

    • I’m flipping between L.A Noire, DiRT 3, MK and Motorstorm.

  8. At the moment I’m chasing the LA Noire platinum.
    I haven’t enjoyed a new game like this since Uncharted 2.

  9. Am I the only one really enjoying Brink ? After a few hours of uncertainty I now really like it and I had to re-rent it out (i get my rentals for a measly pound ) . I will pick this up used one day or when it hits the 20 quid mark .

  10. I’ve been playing L.A. Noire with my other half, we’re both really engrossed by it at the moment.

    Also trying for the platinum trophies for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit & Dead Space 2. Hardcore mode is a bitch…

    • Oh god yes Hardcore on DeadSpace is hard I died on Chapter 4 TWICE!!!
      Must make a save on that Chapter then lol, was planning to save on Chapter 5!

Comments are now closed for this post.