For some reason I’ve spent most of this week being absolutely exhausted. I’m not quite sure why, I’ve not done too much that’s extra tiring, but even now I feel knackered. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped me getting some gaming in. It’s mostly been in the form of Thomas Was Alone, the latest indie offering to arrive on PlayStation Plus.
I feel like I’m a little late to the party with this game, but I can say that it’s absolutely brilliant. There really feels like there’s some depth to the characters, despite the simplicity with which they’re displayed on screen. One of my flat mates is enjoying it just as much as I am, becoming absolutely enthralled every time I sit down to play it.
As well as that, Injustice: Gods Among Us finally arrived, after the Royal Mail kindly decided to keep it in their sorting office without telling me. I haven’t spent a huge amount of time with it but so far it doesn’t feel like it’s living up to the high standard NetherRealm set with the last Mortal Kombat game. That’s not to say it’s bad but it’s just not reaching the same level. Hopefully it improves as I delve into it a little deeper, as it’s certainly got the potential to be interesting.
Moving on to the rest of the TSA crew, DanToo hasn’t managed to play quite as many games as he did last week. With exam pressure hitting him like a tidal wave, his gaming time has become some what limited. Presumably in an attempt to avoid friends dragging him into long gaming sessions, he’s set up his old PS3 with a brand new PSN ID. This has enabled him to get in a few games of the original Modern Warfare, a game that’s brought back his “flair for FPS’s” after his previously dismal showing on Battlefield 3.
He’s also had a crack at World At War’s zombie mode, where he managed to get all the way to round fifteen. Every one else was dead, meaning this selfless tale could unfold:
At this point it was only me left standing and my trenchgun had run out of ammo so I did the heroic act by cooking a grenade and running full force into the oncoming zombie horde! Of course I died in the progress but it looked cool.
Moving away from Call of Duty heroism, Aran’s had the kind of problem that only the Halo series can cause. He’d almost reached the conclusion of Halo 4 when he had to go out. He turned off his 360, forgetting that Halo games don’t autosave. I’ve no idea why this is, but it’s caught me out in the past as well. As he’d got so close to the end he refused to replay the hours he’d lost, and simply turned to YouTube to find the final cutscenes.
He’s also been playing Hitman Absolution, where he’s discovered he’s “pretty terrible at being stealthy”. Fortunately it’s not causing him too much trouble as the “guards won’t look in cupboards for you”. You know, just like real guards. Beyond the awful AI, he says that “The game is alright and looks quite nice”.
His final title for the week was XCOM Enemy Unknown, which he described as “brilliant” despite only playing a few levels so far. He has, however, proclaimed that he’s “sending a message to the stars of don’t mess with Earth,” so aliens should certainly stay away.
As for our normal What We Played host Greg, he’s staying in familiar territory with Mass Effect 3. He’s still working his way through the Citadel DLC, enjoying “all the quips and snippets of conversation from the sophonts on the Citadel where they’re talking about multiplayer tactics and lack of same.” Those kind of in-jokes are really endearing the DLC to him.
For some reason he feels that Candy Crush Saga isn’t quite deep enough to keep him entertained while travelling, so he’s been looking for something he can really sink his teeth into. That’s come in the form of Leviathan Warships, a game which apparently merges the gameplay of Gratuitous Space Battles and Steambirds, and then transports that gameplay to a naval setting.
Unfortunately he’s found that it needs a patch to run properly on Nexus 10, as the UI isn’t working correctly on the high-resolution screen. Luckily, it’s running fine on his Nexus 7, and he’ll try and bring us more detailed thoughts on the game next week.
Tuffcub has, unsurprisingly, been spending time with Killzone 3, where he’s reached level 43. Despite this achievement, he is “getting slightly bored of it due to muppets not playing the game correctly”. He also got annoyed by someone who “found a glitch on the map with the Jetpacks and manged to go above and below the map”. Fortunately he managed to deal with them by dropping “loads of C4 where he was spawning”.
For once he’s also dipping his toe into a few other games. Thomas Was Alone has been keeping him happy on the tube, and he gives “major kudos to Mr Bithell for the mention of Transformers”. At home he’s been playing Catherine, which he says is “very odd and I love it”. He’s also had a short go at Hitman Absolution, “but found it a tad boring.” As for Malicious, he says he “floated about but I didn’t seem to be able to attack anything, not sure what was going on.”
Need for Speed: Most Wanted has got a look in on the Vita, and he also “found a copy of Anarchy Reigns which I did not know I had, did the first mission and then not much happened and it seemed I had to repeat the same mission to get more XP to unlock the next mission.” He called this “lazy game design”, so chucked the disc back into his cupboard of games.
Finally, he’d like to relay that Sunday morning sessions of Blur have been replaced by Mortal Kombat. Much to Tuffcub’s irritation his “hubby is quite good at it.”
If you recall last week’s article, Dom didn’t have a house, and the situation has persisted. Fortunately, he’ll have one on Monday, and in the mean time he’s been in Tenerife. Apparently it’s “been nice though I’m pretty sunburnt!” Serves him right for going on a cheeky holiday.
During his time away he’s been playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity for our review. His only comment on it was that it’s “a pretty tedious affair,” so read the review if you want more. He’s also been playing a bit of Talisman Prologue HD on his phone. He says it’s “very cool,” although “At times it’s a bit annoying as its overall built for multiplayer.”
Then there’s Blair, who’s got more free time for gaming now that he’s finished his coursework. First up on his celebration tour is God of War: Ascension, which he says is “still good but easily the worst in the series,” feeling that “the combat is fantastic but the story is a bit pointless and there aren’t very many memorable moments aside from the awesome final boss battle.” Despite this, he does say that it perhaps would have been better served had it been a Vita title.
He’s also had a crack at Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed on his Wii U. Although he thinks that “it’s not as good as Mario Kart and the tracks are a bit disjointed,” he does say that ” ultimately a real blast to play, playing off-TV on the GamePad is great, too.” Speaking of the Wii U, he says that he “really like my Wii U and play it loads, though I seem to be the only one.” He may well be.
Blair’s final bit of gaming this week came from the Rayman Legends Challenges App, also on his much used Wii U. Apparently this is the game that keeps him coming back to his Wii U day after day, because “the endless-running, lum-collecting just-one-more-go challenges are so much fun.” Obviously he simply can’t wait for Rayman Legends proper to be released now.
Our final entrant this week is Jim, who’s been having his most jam packed week of gaming this year. Firstly he blitzed BioShock Infinite in a matter of days, feeling that “it was a spectacular game even if the ending took quite a lot of explaining.” From there he moved onto Assassin’s Creed III, which he feels “is finally starting to open up” after a disappointing first six or seven hours and is raising his hopes for Black Flag.
Finally, there’s Neverwinter, an MMO from Cryptic set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Apparently “its shaping up to be the definitive MMO of 2013,” although he does not that “with The Elder Scrolls Online just around the corner that could easily change.”
So that’s what we’ve been up to this week. How about you?
tactical20
Finished Goldeneye, which I very much enjoyed. Started Retro City Rampage, but was then sidetracked and decided to build legendary London skate spot, South Bank on Skate 3. The place is under threat after more than 30 years of skateboarding history. There is a petition on Change.org if you wanna help save it!
Taylor Made
Firstly my GF been playing Journey & I will admit, it’s not a floating blanket, it’s a person, secondly it’s visually beautiful & thirdly it’s boring as f*ck!
Been playing FIFA on the vita, I can’t wait till they bring pro to the vita cause FIFA sucks OMG! Besides that Youles offered to help me out so that’s platinum soon. Played some soul sacrifice, need put hours been busy on FIFA
ron_mcphatty
I can imagine Journey being boring to watch when someone else is getting all the fun out of the exploration. When you get three hours alone with the PS3 try it on your own, perhaps with a PSN randomly assigned companion, you’ll probably enjoy it more :)
I’ve been playing Wipeout Pulse, I bet no one else has!
Taylor Made
Yeh maybe you right, might download it on the other ps, cause she trying get 100%?but people keep messing about & not sitting down for that trophy.
I only know of wipeout on the vita, is that the ps2 one? And cheers for the link on forum
Eldave0
For once I actually played quite a bit this week (most of them were demos mind).
Outside the usual rounds of COD (MW1 and BLOPS2 this week), I also played through a number of 3DS demos: Fire Emblem Awakening (just amazing), Epic Mickey 2 (much better than the console version), Monster Hunter 3 (couldn’t get into it, but that could be because the demo didn’t explain the controls), Virtues Last Reward (very good, I want a copy!) and Castlevania somethingsomething (also pretty good).
Also, I played through the entirety of Lego Lord of the Rings with the Mrs., which is easily the best Lego game so far, with loads of stuff to do and is less tedious than Lego Batman 2. We are miles off that 100% stat but loving every second of it so far.
The Far Cry Blood Dragon trial got a look in but it seemed pretty dumb to me so I stopped playing it and went back to Dragons Dogma DA (excellent RPG with some unique concepts).
Downloaded the FUSE demo also, which I intend to play through co-operatively this evening with a couple of buddies. Downloaded the PS+ stuff (Catherine/Hitman) too, so I’ll give them some attention this weekend hopefully.
Oh, finally I pre-ordered two copies of RE Revelations on 360 last night for me and the Mrs. Very much looking forward to play through that game again :D
phantom5813
Been mostly playing Hitman Absolution this week. still pretty early in the game though but it seems ok so far. Finished Rage as well and was disappointed with the ending. Cleaning up the trophies for both and moving forward. Ni no Kuni also got a look in but progress is slow since in trying to preserve it and let the magic last. Picked up DMC on rental and its ok but i prefer the earlier ones (dmc 2 doesnt exist to me). gotta return it on sunday so im gonna blast thru it until then.
aerobes
Worked nearly 70 hours this week so there hasn’t been much time for anything. However, I did manage to squeeze in a few games of Fifa and a particularly impressive first hour of Sleeping Dogs having received it for free from Plus.
Crazy_Del
I have been busy with quite a few games. Recently just played WipEout Vita and started on 2050 Season. Another WipEout HD (PS3) and just need to get the last gold then onto Fury. Really love it in 3D. Had a few Multiplayer with TSA, Fifa on Vita, Payday: The Heist on Tuesday weekly been playing it solo and with randoms to rank up. Had to cancel Castle Crashes (Last night) as I was slightly drunk and was at my mate’s flat playing Battlefield 3 Multiplayer (Took out 3 choppers and a Jet with a Tank in a single round!) I still got it xD
Also Two Worlds 2 on Sundays aswell with TSA lads.
Tonight is Battlefield: Bad Company and I am close to Rank 25 and just need to focus on getting all the badges and the 10,002 kills online!
Eldave0
“Took out 3 choppers and a Jet with a Tank in a single round”
^^…. by ’round’ you mean a single game, right? If that was all in one tank shell I am calling hacks! :-P
Crazy_Del
Yes in a Single game not a single shot. Although I took out a jet and a chopper with one shot (4 kills that was 2 years ago) Man gameshare (PS4) will be awesome!!!
R1MJAW
A mix of stuff for me this week, restarted career mode on Blur (after picking it up again round about Xmas time), general mucking about in Skate 3, started Dead Island Riptide and cursing repeatedly at Alien Spidy.
I finished Lego City Undercover on 3DS 100% and I’ve gone back to playing NSMB2 (got sidetracked by new games after playing the first few worlds).
I’ve also just ordered myself a Wii U (basic) with Nintendoland, NSMBU, Zombie U and Lego City Undercover.
salvodaze
Played some Thomas Was Alone. I wasn’t too crazy about the controls but the simplicity of the whole game, including the simple yet well thought narration (clearly the work of a single focused mind), grabbed my attention.
And finally started Unfinished Swan yesterday. Gameplay is intriguing, balloons add a nice touch and the game’s lovely to look at.
Also played some DOA 5 and Borderlands 2 with friends over the weekend. Now I really want to play Borderlands in coop.
Temascos
Bioshock Infinite for me, almost got all the trophies and am just playing through Easy to mop up the remaining ones. After that it’s onto Bayonetta which I hope to get better at until The Last Of Us comes out. I basically buy a new game after completing two older games that I already have at 100% or as close to it as possible (If its Single Player, if its multiplayer I don’t bother) . So at some point I will be going through Wipeout HD and FF13. Good times. :)
Youles
Nice idea….I’m not too sold on PS4 (console and features seem great, just don’t like this DLC/micro-transaction culture), so if I do get one, I shall probably adopt a similar approach and buy a new PS4 game for every 3 PS3 games I finish, since I have some great games in my backlog!
On PS3 this week it’s been Dead Space 3 (Pure Survivor playthrough co-op with McProley), Dead Island Riptide (McProley and I are hoping to platinum it completely co-op), and I finished BioShock Infinite on Hard mode, did most of the mopping up trophies, so have now started my 1999 Mode playthrough in hope of getting the platinum. I still maintain the gameplay is boring and the graphics (particularly the textures) are average, however the story is probably the best and most complex I’ve enjoyed this gen – absolutely brilliant! Have even read various blogs and articles about people’s thoughts and ideas.
On Vita I’ve just been playing Fifa 13 – enjoying the touch-screen shooting but finding the Pro mode a bit boring. Might restart using a keeper.
MadJunkBoy
started Modnation Racers for an hour or so but the lag was just too much to take…
and have played some Dead Space 3 on Pure Survival, made some cool weapons and killing Necros!
otherwise it’s been all about Pokémon Diamond.
have 1 more badge to get and then it’s Pokémon League time! =D