The first Sci-Fi shooter on my ‘played’ list this week is not my regular one, instead it’s Dust 514 and specifically the beta that PlayStation Plus subscribers now have access to. I probably can’t say too much about it at the moment but my first experiences haven’t been all that convincing.
As a concept it fascinates me with its real-time links to the universe of Eve Online and the potential for wider stories to develop but at the moment most people are playing it as a typical run-into-the-middle-shooting FPS; one where some people have clearly got equipment that far outclasses everyone else’s. We need more perk-free competitive online games like Warhawk.
Other than that it’s pretty much been simply more Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. This weekend’s event was Operation Alloy where the player (squad) goal was to promote two classes (which becomes possible when they reach level 20) and the overall (Allied) goal was to get 50,000 classes promoted.
[drop]The Allied goal was met with room to spare as there were 262,749 promotions over the weekend. Disappointingly though only 28,398 of those were from PS3 players (approximately 0.02% of those were mine) with PC players contributing 67,573 and the remaining 166,778 being 360 players’ promotions.The PS3 is alone in not having a pop-up in-game to tell players about the upcoming Operations so that may be part of the reason for the PS3’s poor showing in addition to it having the smallest player-base. I’ll make sure we cover the operations on the front page in future to do my own little bit extra to help out and maybe in return Bioware will fix some of the bugs that sometimes plague the otherwise very enjoyable game.
In their blog post reporting the Operation’s success there is a hint of something:
While we celebrate Operation ALLOY’s success, we need to be aware that the unexpected resistance faced by our soldiers may be symptomatic of a larger issue. We’ve been receiving a number of strange reports that are inconsistent with our knowledge of Reaper ground troop movement. At this point, intel is vague at best. Rest assured we are pursuing the matter.
The ME3 multiplayer community is currently split over whether it is simply setting the scene for the next Operation or a hint that there is more multiplayer DLC on the horizon.
[videoyoutube]Leaving behind the science but definitely keeping the fiction we find Kris once again dreaming of Brighton and Hove Albion reaching the Premier League as a change of FIFA 12 platform from PS3 to 360 (blamed on a departing housemate and subsequent finger trouble at an online store) mean his old save is of no use.All of this forms Kris’ preparation for the release of FIFA 13 and now he is over the hurdles of having forgotten how to play and adjusting to the 360’s controller, with the aid of a bunch of free transfers, he’s feeling hopeful.
Peter’s been busy previewing games for you lucky readers. First up was Resident Evil 6 which is both promising and disheartening for those who like Peter ache for a return to the Resi gameplay of old when it was still a survival horror game. “There’s bags of content though, around fifty hours when it’s all finished, so maybe there’ll be enough in there to keep everyone happy?”
Then jumping clean over several genres he fell into the driving seat of F1 2012 which left him “very impressed”. Singled out for particular note is the Young Driver section which acts as a tutorial and introduction to F1 and “was really good at easing a relative newbie like [Peter] into the intricate world of F1 racing”.
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations’ gameplay was enjoyable for Aran but he felt that there was something missing from the story and as a result he found he didn’t really care about it. His mission to clear his games backlog finds him nearing the end of the first Gears of War which “has been fun despite a few glitches popping up such as Dom falling over and getting stuck in a tree”.
Oh and he bought Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (obviously not from the EU PSN Store) and is “loving it”. So far Arms Race is his favourite mode and its pick up and play nature means he can see himself pouring many hours into it, though he’s already hoping for more maps.
Last up this week is Chris who’s revelling in Indie gaming heaven having picked up the Humble Bundle that I managed to somehow miss:
I now have Fieldrunners, Bit.Trip Beat, Space Chem, Uplink, Spirits, World Of Goo, Osmos, Edge and Anomoly: Warzone Earth to dive into on my PC, Android phone and tablet. Nine great games for less than the price of the one of them that’s available on the PSN.
First up was World of Goo, it was also last up as I’d forgotten just how addictive it was and lost a couple of hours to it. Too many great games!
Absolutely. If you’ve got access to a non-console gaming platform served by the Humble Bundles you really do owe it to yourself to keep an eye on them for the fantastic games they offer at incredible value.
Oh, and whilst he hasn’t been playing any games, Tuffcub wanted me to remind you all he’s still getting a tan in Waikiki but I’m not going to mention that out of spite and jealousy.
So what have you been playing?
element666
I have been playing lego harry potter and mainly THPS HD,its cracking to play again!
I’ve also been trying to get 100% on gravity rush,3 challenges are making me want to give up lol
Can’t wait for a new vita game to come out!
The Lone Steven
I’ve been playing Dark Souls. If you’ve not played it, then let me sum up the average player experience of it.
Death 1:Fair enough.
Death 2:Okay, i should try a different tatic.
Death 30: F**K YOU GAME! *continues*
Death1000:ARGHH!!!! WHY DO I LIKE THIS?!
Anyway, i defeated Tarus Demon(only died once), unlocked the Drake sword by shooting 20 arrows at the tail of the dragon on the bridge after Tarus.(I did shoot 100 before so i’m not sure how much is required for it) which makes the first few sections easier due to it being able to kill the enemies in a few hits. Summoned someone to help deal with the gargoyles and we decimated them within 2 minutes. Got invaded, killed the invader. Got stuck on Capra demon, waited an hour or two trying to summon someone as well as me being summoned. The second person who i finally managed to summon killed him within seconds. :O (This was after the 5 deaths and 1 summoned). Fought the Gaping Dragon with a summoned person, died, summoned another person, killed the dragon but he also killed me at the same time. Got invaded, killed the invader just. And now i’m in Blighttown, hating the toxic undead. And the drake sword is not overpowered anymore.
Also, i’ve been toying with the idea of getting SD, was thinking of getting DS but seeing as the servers are closed, i am not touching that flipping game!
Forrest_01
So you have been toying with the idea of getting a Standard Definition telly as well as a Nintendo DS? :P
The Lone Steven
Well someone has to get an SD telly so that Kris won’t feel like he is the only one on TSA that owns one. :P As for the DS, i had one, got probably 10 hours out of it, sold it.
@wolf, I DEPISE THOSE TOXIC FUKERS! *Ahem* I mean, i dislike those toxic things and may just summon somone to do the work for me. Also the entrance to Blighttown is a good place to farm souls as the fat monsters tend to walk off into the pit if you run away from them to the ladder. What? The game tends to throw cheap punchs, so i’ll punch it back in the nuts!
wolf-OF-chaos
@Steven I just finished dark souls and i must say it’s a truly fantastic game. As soon as you learn enemy attack patterns, blocking and dodging the game becomes alot easy.
Blight town was soooo anoying, fire bugs, flies,worms,orgers, toxic water and terrible frame rate issues. Any prepare to die…. i nean good luck.
wolf-OF-chaos
*annoying*
wolf-OF-chaos
*Anyway*
anthro
Dark Souls for me as well. Currently almost at the end of my first playthrough, 68% of my way to Plat. Next boss to defeat is Bed of Chaos before going in for Mr Lord of Cinder himself. NG+ beckons…
Origami Killer
Sounds like good progress. I’m still stuck in the Asylum Revisited, the Stray Demon very hard on the second time around :/
The Lone Steven
I suspect i may reach the Stray before you can kill it and kill it. That said, i’m not on NG+, I suspect i will be stuck on Blightown for a while then get my arse handed to me on a bloodstained silver plate by Queelag.
Origami Killer
I’ll be there for a long time. Qualeg is hard I must admit, died a few times on my own. Have you got a lot of purple mosses?
wolf-OF-chaos
@Steven Queelag isn’t to hard to if you summon the npc before the fog door. The npc is a great distraction leaving you 2 swipe at Queelag from behind.
The Lone Steven
Defeated Queelag on my second attempt. Although i had my first DS rage due to me being killed in an area that is full of blow pipes and it cost me 22grand in souls! Went to go back there, got killed by the flaming rats. Now i just need to find some purple clumps to survive the journey back to Firelink shrine. I wasted all of them due to me going to the wrong way and into the Valley of the drakes. And i will ragequit if it turns out that i have to kill Ceaseless Discharge as he can one hit kill me. Drake sword is still useful though. Oh and i’ll probably kill Stray before OK does.
Origami Killer
Sounds Shapes, THPS HD and can’t think of what else :P Loving both games :)
Yersal
Finished my first playthrough of the 1st Darksiders and played through Retro/Grade on mediumcore.
Thanks ps+ I enjoyed them both.
Sympozium
Playing Phantasy Star Online 2 and Just got Rock Band Blitz on Wednesday good game.
Dom El
How is Phantasy Star? Really looking forward to it when it arrives on Vita!
Dom El
This week I’ve continued to play Final Fantasy 9, across my PS3, then over remote play, and finally on my Vita! It was nice and easy transferring my save across too – though I’m wondering whether when PS+ arrives on Vita whether I’ll be able to cloud save and not have to do any transferring…
Beyond that, a little bit of Virtua Fighter 5, Chime, some Rock Band Blitz and I’m just making a start on Tales Of Graces f too!
If anyone wants to add me on PSN for Rock Band Blitz (and Need For Speed when it comes out) competition my ID is TheCityWake – sadly very few of my friends have PS3’s to play against!