Something of a shocker this week as the disruption to my free time and gaming routines has been such that I have not played any Gran Turismo 5 this week at all! That’s definitely very uncharacteristic. My PS Vita has seen some more Everybody’s Golf loving, and I’ve been doing what’s necessary to stay at the top of my friend’s list tournament in Treasures of Montezuma Blitz. That means setting high scores, not deleting friends, before any of you suggest that.
PS3-wise I played a few hours of Skyrim at the weekend as I want to try and get it finished before the DLC hits, which is hopefully around the end of July. Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer has been getting some action too as a few friends and I have got quite into it. It was also the cause of a highly amusing text I received from a friend yesterday:
OMG how much do I want to do the savage weekend quest…. 7 million…. we can do that!!!!
Yes, an excitable friend had read it that individual squads had to rack up 7 million kills over the weekend to get their Operation Savage rewards! It was with no small degree of amusement that I pointed out that it was great that they had sufficient confidence in us being able to sustain a kill rate over the whole weekend of about 50 per second – a rate which gave us a little leeway should we need to stop for toilet breaks and get more coffee.
Peter has been playing a plague simulator on his iDevices called Plague Inc. Your sole aim in the game is to develop a disease and wipe out humanity. “Quite fun so far” is his interim verdict. I do wonder whether his need to expunge the planet of humanity comes as a result of his playing through Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for our review, which he summarises as follows:
[drop2]Naturally if only it had featured Kinect dancing Peter would have escaped the review as it would have gone to Kris instead. Our resident seagull- and arcade-lover has also been playing with his iDevices with Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror being the subject of his reflection this week. “It was enjoyable”, he says, “but not quite as challenging as the first game”.It’s total rubbish. I spent hours trying different clothing, lighting and even moved to a different room to see if that fixed it but all to no avail. It doesn’t function as it should. Unless they were trying to make the most broken piece of crap they could in order to make me swear continuously for about five hours. If that’s the case, they nailed it.
He felt that the pacing of the story suffered in comparison to the original Broken Sword and that the feeling of danger was missing. It was competent enough to still rate as a “good game” though and the presence of “some quite amusing supporting characters” was welcome.
With no more Broken Sword games on iOS Kris is now looking for recommendations for good adventure games for his iPhone. Any suggestions?
With his exams behind him Jim has been gaming more than recently which much of his attention focused on Wrath of Heroes once more. The free-to-play title keeps drawing him back and tempting him to part with cash for more must-have heroes. He’s also “dabbled” with EVE Online though the thought of the subscription is holding him back from fully committing to it.
On his PS Vita he is “almost done” with Mortal Kombat:
I’ve poured hours into this game and still have much to explore, though after having beaten the campaign, arcade ladders and most of the tower challenges, I won’t feel too bad if I ever need to free up some space on my puny 8GB card.
Gaming on his PS3 has been confined to LittleBigPlanet 2 which despite loving the first game he struggled to get into until receiving some encouragement from his little sister. Presumably not the kind that goes after your Adam with a big syringe. Now he’s “on board” with LBP2 he’s enjoying the “added game play features and the newly-found focus on narrative” but is “worried” that he still doesn’t feel up to creating his own levels.
Portable playing has consumed Blair’s attention this week with both of the current handheld consoles seeing some action. On his 3DS it is Heroes of Ruin that got his circle pad orbiting, while the cause of the twin-stick-tilting on his PS Vita has been Unit 13. Both titles are the grateful recipients of a “great fun” rating.
[drop]Positively gushing about Gravity Rush we find Tuffcub. “[It’s] one of the best games I have played all year” is his opener. His attempt to characterise the game is that “it’s Final Fantasy mashed up with Studio Ghibli in an open world float ’em up”. Sounds like we have a new genre there.In case his opinion isn’t already clear he like you to know that he “absolutely love[s] it and it is a joy to play such a game whilst on the move”. His PS Vita is proving so popular that he’s had to buy one for hubby so his own doesn’t keep getting stolen.
Whilst not “on the move” his PS3’s Blu-ray drive has been spun up for the “rather fun” Lollipop Chainsaw and Spec Ops: The Line which is actually managing to live up to expectations and be “rather fab”, apparently.
That’s us done for another week. If you have got any suggestions for Kris let him know while you let us know what you’ve been playing.
element666
I have been playing wipeout 2048 trying to finish the multiplayer which is taking an age! At least I have the new dlc to break it up a bit.
I’ve played worms crazy golf which is fun,I went back to AC revelations,and started the DMC trilogy which I don’t remember being that hard!
Also bit of TOM blitz and got 100% on mutant blobs,which is superb and I enjoyed every minute!
Dom El
Virtua Fighter 5 has taken up a good portion of time online – though it’s not the best game to play before bed as I’m too hyped up! Other PS3 gaming has been Uncharted 2 which is great, and Darksiders which I love the art style of.
On Vita I’ve played a fair bit of Tom Blitz, though my scores haven’t been high enough to get beyond third place on my friends list. I’ve got the Wipeout 2048 DLC so I expect to play that this week ( as well as Wipeout HD which is a great freebie!)
bigbaldwolf
I’ve been playing a lot of Disgaea 3 on my Vita this week and it’s keeping me entertained. I’ve also gone back and played some Fieldrunners in anticipation of the 2nd one coming out soon. Apart from that it’s been a quiet week for me
Nate
I’m mostly playing Gravity Rush, which is the first full price game I bought on release for my Vita and loving every minute of it, and Treasures Of Montezuma Blitz. I’ve only got a few friends from my list playing it, but we’ve all got fairly similar scores so it leads to a lot of infuriating overnight changes!
Kennykazey
Finished Burning Skies, which was good, but felt like it was still in beta. Then moved on to the awesome Gravity Rush that really is one of the best games I’ve played this year. I think it’s like a mixture of Jet Set Radio and ICO with a hint of Ghibli.
OneShotWook
Good to hear about spec ops as i have it pre-ordered and well ghost recon almost brought on a coma it was that average.
The Lone Steven
I’ve been playing The laggy Scrolls:lagrim. Did a few quests which i discovered via exploring. I rushed Merida’s quest due to the potential beacon disappearing from your inventory bug. Did Vaermia’s quest and choose not to kill thingy.
Picked up DS on Tuesday and it’s not as hard it i thought it would be. That said, i’ve restarted twice due to me cocking up big time. I’m playing as a knight due to the added health boost and the decent armour at the begining. Defeated the Asylum Demon. All you need to do is do a plunging attack and keep avoid his swings then get a few swipes in. Did die a few times though. Defeated Taurus as well. I used 3-4 plunging attacks before attacking him on the ground. I lured him away from the ladder and then ran back to the ladder.
I’m starting to become compentent at doing parries as they do a lot of damage and have learned not to attack the undead knights whilst they are in a certain pose to avoid getting parried. Defeated the giant knight in the Undead burg by dodging his attacks, and luring him out. Took me a few goes though and then i got stuck on the gargoyles. Nearly defeated them last night but then i decided to restart as i had cocked up the leveling up and had wasted the 3 gold presins.
So far, i’ve made it to the undead burg and will be able to get to the point where i was yesterday, now i know what is ahead. I’m sticking to using the sword and shield combo but for the undead with shield and spears, i switch to the claymore with it being two handed as it can break through their defences within 2 hits and kills them within 3.
LTG Davey
*thinks back*
– Played some more of MGS2 HD – Tanker stage completed and have just given Fatman a bit of a kicking. Had forgotten how great these games are.
– Played a little bit of the DMC HD collection – Parts 1 and 2 have aged a fair bit but Part3 is a timeless classic. So awesome.
– Picked up Heroes of Ruin over the weekend – Good game but very, very repetitive. Will finish my playthough this evening then trade it in I think.
– Finished off my Sonic playthrough of Sonic and Knuckles – Not as fun as I remember :( Still, easy achievements :D
– Finally I played through the Lego Batman 2 demo with the Mrs – really enjoyed it. Voice acting suits the Lego universe nicely and the actual game is good old harmless fun (as always). Will possibly pick up a copy this weekend.
Forrest_01
How is the voice acting on Lego Batman? I thought it was a bit of a bold move by them to suddenly have voices after all this time (& games), but it did intrigue me as to how they would handle it.
It also means that they must have had a much bigger budget for this one, as paying scriptwriters & voice talent doesn’t usually come cheap & isn’t usually something that they need to be concerned with. Unless they usually get George Clooney to come in & mumble of course. :D
LTG Davey
I had my reservations going into the demo but I have to say they have done a great job with the voice acting :D The script seems pretty amusing and each character is suitably voiced.
Given this is a new story rather than a parody of an existing film I suppose it makes sense having a set of voice actors putting the narrative across. Watch the launch trailer for a decent example: http://lifetimegamer.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/lego-batman-2-trailer-and-achievements/
:)
Forrest_01
Ah, can’t watch vids at work unfortunately. :(
However, IMDB has a potential lineup of voice actors & they have made good choices if the page is to be believed;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316821/
LTG Davey
Wow, that’s an awesome set of voice actors! Bloody Nolan North sneeks in there again I see lol
blast71
I’ve been working in the garden most of the week, still waiting 4 the ping of the trophy ‘WEED KILLER’ after spending hours on the borders;)
colmshan1990
Since I came back home from Poland, it’s been Gravity Rush, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Unit 13, Little Big Planet Beta and Wipeout HD Fury (the best racer ever!) on Vita, all of which I downloaded the day I returned, and all of which are fantastic.
:)