What We Played #71: Fall of Cybertron, Joe Danger: The Movie, Borderlands

I have supplemented my usual sessions of Mass Effect 3 multiplayer with a couple of other games this week. First up was finally getting around to playing The Walking Dead Episode 1. And now I get what everyone has been raving about.

Okay, so it boils down to a relatively simple point and click adventure but the storytelling and humour are great. I particularly like that at the end of the episode it shows you how some of the key decisions you made compared to other players. I seem to have gone against the grain in most of mine.

I also spooled up the original 2009 vintage Borderlands for a quick spin online with friends in anticipation of today’s release of Borderlands 2. I’d forgotten just how much outright fun the first game is. As long as the people you’re playing with don’t get too obsessed with loot-hoovering that is.

Dan decided after some time away to revisit New Super Mario Bros. Wii at the weekend and to his surprise lost interest within half an hour. “The 2D Mario games have lost their appeal for me, especially after playing the joy that is Rayman Origins.” Still it’s not all bad, “Borderlands 2 soon”, he concludes.

We find Aran almost at the end of Bayonetta having “enjoyed it for the most part” with the game’s sudden difficulty spikes having proved the only real stumbling blocks. “Plus I’m sure I almost got motion sickness from a couple of levels”, he said still clutching his airline-issue paper bag.

It’s not just been Bayonetta though, another game has seen some time invested in it.

Joe Danger: The Movie has also been a feature of my gaming, and I’ll stand by my 8/10 review score. It’s an enjoyable game and fun to play alone or with friends. Still the lack of an online mode and the occasional almost impossible level are a bit disappointing.

In anticipation of sitting down with a shiny new iPhone 5 Blair has been replaying some games on his iPhone 4 this week, convincing himself that the games don’t run as well as they did and that he really needs that upgrade.

Doodle Jump is one of those games; I’ve been trying to beat my high score of 60,000 (TSA readers – share your high scores in the comments!) to no avail, I think the closest I’ve got is 59,500. It’s very annoying but also a lot of fun to play.

The other game he’s been playing is Rayman Jungle Run, “a bite-sized version of Rayman Origins with smartly crafted levels and a perpetually running Rayman, with your task being to jump, hover and punch at the right time to get through the level.” While he finds it can be an “extremely frustrating” game at times Blair’s still getting a lot of enjoyment from it.

[drop2]Josh has been collectible collecting in Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 to get all those he missed first time through. “I’ve never really played a Lego game before, so I’m amazed at all the little touches and funny animations hidden away – definitely going to pick up the Year’s 5-7 game after this, before Lord of the Rings comes out.”

In Sunflowers on his PS Vita he had a game that was going really well “before it all went horribly wrong”. However, he did manage to get about half the game’s trophies in that one game first. He’s also begun a new game of GTA IV in anticipation of “how much better and less dreary” GTA V will be. He’s likely got a while to wait yet, but let’s just hope they don’t forget to add fun this time.

Finally, he adds an air of mystery to what he’s been playing:

Oh, and I’ve been playing a Vita build of one of my most anticipated games of the year and it’s so good! 60fps and native resolution to boot (hey Al!).

Lastly we come to Tuffcub, who’s so traumatised by the fact TSA didn’t review Transformers: Fall of Cybertron that to tell us what he’s been playing he sent over a mini-review of his own:

High Moon has fixed pretty much every problem from the first game. Ammo is plentiful, there are reasons to be in vehicle mode and it looks stunning. Rather than entering an area, clearing out the bad guys and then moving on to the next area and clearing out the bad guys (repeat ad nausea), there’s now a variety of missions.

The stealth sections are particularly good, and swinging around the towers of Cybertron with a grappling hook is a lot of fun. High Moon boasted that some of the maps are the largest you can make in the Unreal Engine and I’m willing to believe them, certain play areas are huge.

Then of course there is Grimlock. You don’t get to meet the Dinobots till the penultimate level but they have saved the best till last, playing a rampaging robotic T-rex is as much fun as it sounds.

Everything comes to climax as the Autobot spaceship, the Ark, heads for a wormhole and the Decepticons try and stop the ship. This final level is one huge movie style royal rumble, High Moon have thrown out the rule book and chucked every game play element in as you play as both Autobots and Decepticons, switching sides as the plot progresses.

Soundwave can eject Rumble and Laserbeak to help as A.I. companions, Bruticus smashes through the structure of the Ark, Jetfire flys out in space attacking the Decepticons, Jazz races across the crumbling spaceship in vehicle mode and of course there’s an epic one on one battle between Megatron and Optimus.

The developers are obviously Transformer fans as there are so many nods to the rich history of Transformers. The original animated movie gets a lot of love with a riff on Starscream’s coronation and a very funny argument between Grimmers and Slag about Caesium Salami and Baronium Baloney.

There are a couple of problems, the Unreal Engine still judders when loading in textures (and don’t give me any crap about memory limitations, did you see any pop up in Killzone 3? No, stop making excuses for a crappy engine) and turning Swoop in to a Noo Yawker is an odd move.

Even if you’re not a fan of giant robotic dinosaurs (such people exist?) then the game is worth playing just to get final groundbreaking level which really does feel like ‘playing a movie’.

Over to you then, what have you been playing?