What We Played #12

Continuing roughly where we left off last week we find Blair still playing with his virtual LEGO.  He is obviously still using LEGO Harry Potter to come to terms with the fact that all the Harry Potter films have now been released; at least until the inevitable cartoon spin-off showing the adventures of the kids seen in the 19-years-later bit. Followed of course by the merchandise-vehicle prequel trilogy telling the epic tale of how James and Lily met and fell in love, unknowingly setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually see Alderaan Hogwarts blown up.

Yes, we’ll all hate the prequels, but our kids won’t.  We’ll still cherish the memories of the original films, especially that scene with the late-teen Hermione chained up in front of the basilisk wearing her metal bikini and daring you to risk a look.  Or was that just some fan-fiction I read…

[drop2]Still on the subject of prequels, having just reviewed Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Blair’s been playing though ‘Splosion Man, the title-less forerunner.  That and Trials HD, two “gems” he missed when they first came out.  He’s been pretty sharp to pick up TSA-favourite Bastion so quickly then:

It’s certainly one of the most wonderful downloadable games I’ve ever played and I love everything about it: the narration, the art style, the story… everything!

Forza saw some more action, this time focused on “creating some cool cars for cool people”.  So if you’re playing Forza online and stumble across a group of people all racing in their Dacia Sanderos with what look like custom tribal paint schemes that on closer inspection turn out to be paisley, then you’ll know where they got them.

A graphics card upgrade for his PC lead to a short session of Hydrophobia.  He found the game so compelling he switched off his PC after five minutes and went to find a book to read.

Next up on this week’s list of those playing Forza Motorsport 3 is Dan.  I can only assume he’s really taken the tinkering to heart and is building an in-game kit-car as it’s “been taking up shed loads” of his time.

Clearly eager to help him out while he finished building his own car, not only has Peter donated a customised car to him but Blair has made him a Zelda car.  I dread to think what the satnav in that is like… “Hey! Listen! In two hundreds yards turn left.  Hey! Listen! Turn left.  Hey! Listen! Turn left NOW!”

To mentally readjust to normality following a few minutes in the car with that satnav he’s played the “superb” Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon:

This may take the ‘most bat poop crazy’ award away from Gundam 3. Being attacked by dozens of giant insects, only to look up and see a 200 foot tall mechanical spider hunting you is an awesome experience.

Our resident fighting game fan Delriach has been playing through PSone Import title, Yakiniku Bugyou, which isn’t, as its name might suggest, about an irritating character called Yakiniku making nuisance phone calls to you late at night, but a cooking game.

Yes, you read that right, a cooking game.  Delriach briefly swapped his karate chops for pork chops and his chopsocky for chop suey.  Going into the game with low expectations “it turned out to be surprisingly good” with addictive and easy to understand gameplay.  Then the inevitable happened…

I played Mortal Kombat for 14 hours straight with one of MK’s best players, Michaelangelo.  He was training for EVO 2011 and decided that he wanted to do a 24 hour live stream.  I joined a few hours after the stream started and I was putting on quite the performance.  Then the netkode didn’t allow me to complete my matches anymore and that’s when I gave up.  I could have lasted the entire time if I was actually able to play.  But nope, every match kept desyncing.

[videoyoutube]After that he watched EVO 2011 “the biggest fighting game tournament in the world” all weekend.  All of which was quite a change from messing around with Catherine.  He found it captivating from start to finish, replete with witty dialogue and on a second playthrough has noticed story elements he missed first time around.

The various driving game three-quels are continuing to prove popular with the staff.  Instead of the Forza that has been occupying the rest of us, Jen, preferring her tyres to have knobbly bits on, has been tearing up pristine forests and scaring the horses at the local gymkhana with DiRT 3.  When she’s not been outside enjoying the great weather that is.

Toby has been playing Crysis 2 and a number of hours in he has not found anything to really grab him.  He’s complimentary of the “stunning” graphics and likes the “tactical dimension” the trademark Nanosuit brings to the game.  With Portal 2 and an unfinished L.A. Noire tugging at the corners of his mind “Crysis 2 desperately needs to pull something out of the bag, whether it be in regards to the plot or the gameplay” or it may find itself back on the shelf.

TSA has been home over the past several months to something of a running commentary of the trials and tribulations of husky breeding game development.  As the gestation nears term Alex has “been playtesting our new game to shreds, changing stuff, tweaking bits, and generally making Michael’s life hell”, which all sounds remarkably like TSA’s own early days.

I’ve also been playing a tiny bit of Forza 3, some Dead Island for the preview and a dash of Bodycount in between rediscovering my old Gamecube and having a good old trip down middle-term memory lane.  It’s astounding how quickly Mario Kart Double Dash loads, the tracks appear in a second, it’s amazing.  Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is still brilliant, as is Viewtiful Joe, Wind Waker, Crazy Taxi… Man, what a console.

[drop]A console he liked so much he ran a website about it.  Then the PS3 happened which ultimately led to you reading What We Played every week.  You are reading every week aren’t you?  If you don’t read every week you may miss the latest Kitteh Kraving update.  This week’s preference is for spaghetti bolognese topped with cheese followed by a paw palate cleansing serving of vanilla Haagen Daz ice cream.

When not slaving away in the kitchen to satisfy Kitteh’s every Kraving Tuffcub has been playing games we can’t tell you about for fear of being accused of “shoddy journalism” if we did.  He has also “endured” an hour of L.A. Noire before declaring it as “typical Rockstar pants”.  Finally, he has “of course been playing Killzone 3 and #winning”.  And you thought he hated Twitter…

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you’ve been playing and feeding to your sock puppets.