What We Played #38

Another week passes and Alex’s firm grip on his PS Vita is yet to lessen. Headlining the bill has been Uncharted: Golden Abyss which he’s been working through “in the tiny chunks I have in-between dying of flu and working”. Those interruptions haven’t diminished his enjoyment of the game which he says is “lovely, very much like the first Uncharted game with lots of shooting and climbing and not so much wanton, wholesale destruction”.

While it features fewer set-pieces than the more recent games Alex says that the game has much more personality. “Very nice”, he concludes. WipEout 2048 has seen less screen time this month and instead some demos have been tried meeting with little approval.

“Top Darts is too dartsy”, he proffers obtusely “and Hustle Kings only has that [censored] ‘pool’ that Americans like with the daft rules, at least until you buy the full thing”. The scathing comments don’t end there though, “the framerate’s [censored] too, even if it is nice and crisp”. Having played many of the PS Vita’s titles he offers that “it seems only Virtua Tennis 4 has managed 60fps and a decent resolution so far”.

Quarrel has formed the basis of Peter’s gaming this week. He describes it as “a kind of board domination game where you attack with Boggle”. If like me that leaves you little the wiser then head on over to his review armed with the knowledge that the game is compelling enough to have kept him playing after having finished the review.

Aside from that he’s spent some time on FIFA 12 on his iPad and found it to be “surprisingly good”. “I can even live with the on-screen controls”, he says, “but I’m going to get the gamepad app for my iPhone and play it that way, using my phone as the controller”. “It’s all a bit futuristic”, he continues. Does that make the iPhone the most expensive wireless gamepad yet?

[drop2]Last on his list is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Having taken a break from playing since his review and wisely allowing the game to be patched a few times he’s back to start afresh with a new character. Initially aiming to go for a character armed solely with magic he’s drifted back into the comfort zone of the pairing of a one-handed sword and a fire-based spell that he used when playing through for the review. Concluding, “I might need to start again”. And Skyrim claims another victim.

Kris’ gaming has been fairly minimal this week with only SoulCalibur V getting any screen time while he was reviewing it. His nugget review: “It’s pretty good and looks lovely”. Besides that he’s been entertaining himself by trying to work out how he can get up to Liverpool to watch some seagulls. Never knew he was into ornithology.

Killzone 3 remains a semi-permanent fixture on Tuffcub’s list and is this week accompanied by the “absolutely brilliant” Saints Row: The Third which he has just completed. In his somewhat less brilliant pile we find the “dull” Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge which he says “couldn’t be more generic if it tried”. Finally he’s also been playing Spec Ops: The Line but you can’t read about that until Monday.

Dan is also sharing an office with Secret Squirrel again and this time he’s not even permitted to tell us what he’s been playing. Of course it may be that he just hasn’t been able to put his new PS Vita down and doesn’t want to admit it. Toby has no games to share with us either but that’s due to his discovery of that marvellous ninth century technology, the printed book.

Finally we come to Aran who has also not been playing any games. Instead his PS3 has been playing host to Netflix and the many celluloid gems within its vaulted halls. He’s watched The Princess Bride for the first time and is now working his way through three seasons of Arrested Development.