Unusually, my only Mass Effect gaming this week has been tablet-, not console-based, after I picked up Mass Effect Infiltrator for 25p in the Google Play sale at the end of last week. I normally stay well clear of virtual touchscreen analogue stick controls and while they’re not too bad in MEI’s case it has served to remind me why I’m grateful for buttons and real analogue sticks on my motion controllers and handheld consoles. I’ll stick with it though, for the boost to my Galaxy At War score.
Borderlands 2 has featured in a couple of online games with friends and while some of the improvements to the original are welcome, including the automatic sharing of picked up ammo if you cannot carry it yourself, some are less so. There seem to be many more invisible walls in the game than I recall from the first, which mainly used geography to quite reasonably constrain your movement.
Also given how one of the changes is that you no longer take any damage from falling (the rationale being?) there are places where Insta-Death can occur by taking a small jump down to somewhere you’re evidently not supposed to go. The worst offending place for that so far is just after stepping off the ferry. Having spent much of the first area running around on ice floes exploring and searching for hidden loot, just to the left after you step off the ferry is the tempting looking, icy edge of the coastline.
It’s just a two metre, or so, drop down from the surface you’re on and looks to be solid ice and just the kind of place they might have hidden something, but no. Jump down there and you’re instantly dead without any warning. Perhaps they forgot to put up the invisible wall at that particular location? I’ve also been playing Rocksmith, but more on that some other time.
Dan has been playing Mugen Souls, the game that sounds like it’s published by Honda. He describes it as “an RPG that’s so Japanese that the only way to make it more Japanese would be to have someone yell ‘JAPAN’ every ten seconds.” Though he’s not played it a great deal yet it is apparently “solid enough” and you should watch this space for more of his thoughts on it.
Two “addictive and brilliant” games have held Blair’s attention this week. The first being Pokemon White 2 which he calls “a good improvement from the first game and an interesting idea” as Black/White 2 is the first time the franchise has produced sequels. “There’s not too much to say other than… it’s Pokemon, it’s great and I’m on my way to the top.”
The second game is Borderlands 2 which he’s played a lot since getting back from EGX. “I don’t think I’ve stopped, in fact – all of my free time has gone towards Borderlands 2.” Playing it splitscreen with his flatmate is adding significantly to the game’s already high fun factor and while there are “noticeable framerate drops at times” they’re not detracting too much from the experience.
Similarly dual-gaming it is Aran. FIFA 13‘s Ultimate Team sees him playing Forlan, acquired through “a free Gold pack” (which I guess means something to you FIFA players) in a lone striker role. However, Aran’s noticed that he has “lost my once envied FIFA skills and must work to regain them”. That may go some way towards explaining him spending “quite a while” on the skill games “which are a nice addition”.
He’s also still playing through The Witcher 2, hanging around the Dwarven town of Vergen and generally making a nuisance of himself as far as the local monster population is concerned. He’s still “loving” and game and its hidden depths, both narrative and subterranean. “It’s an amazing world with brilliant characters and CDProjekt Red have gained a new fan. More games like this please.”
Tuffcub has been playing more of Clive Barker’s Jericho. “I love the story and it touches on some very mature topics”, he tells me before elaborating with an example. “A throwaway line about one of the team being abused by her father becomes relevant a couple of levels later when the team encounter the ghosts of an army of child soldiers and team member becomes traumatised.”
While the game’s combat is “wonderfully meaty and visceral” he does find that it becomes repetitive so when it begins to feel like it’s becoming a grind he simply stops playing for a day or so thereby preventing that less fortunate aspect of the game become too detrimental. When not running around the city walls with a trumpet he’s started a playthrough of inFAMOUS 2 “on hard, being as evil as possible”, something he describes as being “great fun.”
Lastly this week we come to Peter who found a couple of potential Indie gems among the many more bigger-budget and headline-grabbing games on show at EGX:
I bought beta access to a game which was on show in the Indie section called Don’t Starve. It’s by Klei, who made Shank and Mark of the Ninja and it’s basically a fairly serene survival game. You gather materials and make things to help you survive. You’ll need food to eat and if you don’t have a fire going by night time, you’re bitten to death by some unseen foe. It has a kind of hand-drawn aesthetic that’s a little bit Tim Burton-esque, it installs and runs on a Chrome browser and if you buy early beta access now for $6.99, you get an extra code to give to a friend. When it launches, it’s expected to cost around $15 so that’s a real bargain.
I’ve also been playing Prison Architect. That’s in alpha at the moment but again, you can purchase early access to it and its range of hilarious bugs right now for $30. The tutorial level sees you adding an electric chair room to an existing prison and it makes every effort to accentuate the story behind the unfortunate resident of that building – hinting at a more emotionally involving experience than games like Theme Park and Theme Hospital, which this is obviously similar to.
If you were at EGX what were your highlights (other than possibly meeting us TSA staff of course)? The video game charts would suggest you’ve all been playing FIFA 13 but there must be some other games getting some of your screen time too, so what are they?
An-dz
That prison Architect game looks amazing… i had to go and buy it after listening to the hilariously terrible voice over on the trailer.
Taylor Made
Been playing MGS4, this games is by far the best game, aged so well & still by far has better graphics than most games being released.
LBP vita, not the biggest fan but the vita version I love it die to the fact touch screen made it easier for creation.
An-dz
Infact the fact its in alpha and has loads of bugs makes this more appealing for the comedy factor, prisons getting their lunch, going to the shower room, undressing then eating it…. that is the best one. It just reminds me of dwarf fortress, losing is the best part.
LTG Davey
Thanks to the Eurogamer Expo and the release of a certain big-name Capcom title I have played a lot of stuff this week :)
Starting with the EG expo, I got my hands on:-
Hitman – Looks great and plays great. Obviously this sort of “trial and error” game is not realy suited to an expo but I will definitely be picking the finished game up. P.S the little figurines they were handing out are awesome :)
Tomb Raider – Again, I was really impressed by this and cannot wait until its release next year.
Far Cry 3 – My game of the show. Stunning visuals, solid gameplay and plenty of exploring to do. Can see myself investing a lot of time into this one.
Doom 3 – Never got chance to play it on the PC/Xbox so I’ve been keeping an eye on this HD remake. Pretty fun shooter with some decent lighting and sound effects. Will probably pick it up when it hits the £15 price point.
Borderlands 2 – Played a co-op section with my brother and, despite some average visuals (I blame the display settings of the tele mind you) I had a lot of fun. Tried to buy a copy immediately after playing it but unfortunately the GAME stand had just sold out :(
Joe Danger The Movie – Played some multiplayer with the Mrs and had fun just messing about performing tricks. Little annoying it took the LBP approach of forcing players to remain onscreen together but enjoyable Joe Danger gameplay nonetheless. Plus we got a DLC voucher and some badges :)
After getting home I decided to use a chunk of my Blockbuster credit and pre-ordered copies of Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, Hitman and Dishonored :)
As well as attending the expo I’ve also played a lot of Resident Evil this week.
Starting with RE6, I can safely say I disagree with the negative reviews out there, as Leon’s section alone is some of the best RE gameplay I’ve ever experienced. Great visuals, perfect pacing and an interesting storyline. It’s basically RE4 but with co-op. Perfect and well worth 40quid :)
I also did a speed run of RE5 with a mate last night to mop up some achievements and managed to finally get our best time under 3hours :D
LTG Davey
Oh and DOA5 arrived from LoveFilm this week so I put a few hours into that. Awesome as always :)
R1MJAW
Got the platinum for London 2012 last weekend, then I got totally engrossed in Tokyo Jungle. I’ve finished the story and unlocked maybe 10 or so of the 38 unlock able animals. For the last few days I’ve been mainly playing Hell Yeah, which is fantastic.
Youles
Helped ron_mcphatty get his Portal 2 platinum (although he didn’t require much assistance), then we played some LBP2 which was fun – including R1MJAW’s excellent top-down maze level!
Other than that I’ve played FIFA13 (and am enjoying FUT, it’s the first year I’ve got into it)!; I’m very very close to finishing my first playthrough on Ico HD; and I’ve been creating my first LBPV level which I hope to have done soon!
Youles
I forgot the stuff I played at EGX – which was mainly Hitman and Tomb Raider. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tomb Raider turns out to be one of my favourite games this gen, even the short demo was spectacular!
LTG Davey
Did you check out the conference? So much gameplay footage!
Greg Aldridge
As long as Lara doesn’t transition from vulnerable survivor to
brpistol-packing untouchable super-heroine too quickly Tomb Raider shows a huge amount of promise. That andBurnout Paradise 2NfS:Most Wanted were my EGX favourites.Youles
I only went to the Tomb Raider Dev session, but it was great to see a nice balance of story and “survivor/exploration” gameplay, but they need to get the combat, whether it be gun-play or hand-to-hand grounded, not make her too “super” as Greg says. They said she is meant to be 21, and most 21-year olds aren’t sharp-shooters. I love the idea of an open-world Lara game with changeable weather, as well as the skill system and nice menus – every aspect of the game could be great. There certainly was a lot of footage!!
I’m actually more interested in the Vita version of NFS Most Wanted so I didn’t pay too much attention to be honest. Tomb Raider and Ni No Kuni were my favourites, which reminds me, this is so cool:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-PLAYSTATION-3-PS3-SLIM-GOLD-CONSOLE-Ni-No-Kuni-BOXED-320GB-/300775947944#vi-content
WANT.
McProley
Now we know what ypur getting me for christmas! your rubbish at keepong surprises ;)
Youles
As much as I love you – and I do love you – I don’t love you enough to give you a £600 gold Ni No Kuni PS3……before having one myself! ;)
element666
Just borderlands 2 with mates,finished first playthrough and started true vault hunter mode,other than that I started he’ll yeah and as R1M states is fantastic so much fun!
TSBonyman
Hell Yeah on PS3 and LBP Vita, both awesome.
I can recommend the LBP Vita community levels ‘Textventure’ (good for a few chuckles) and ‘Shadows VITA’ (cool echochrome ii inspired gameplay) .
Shakugan
After i got Silent Hill Downpour Platinum, i’ve been playing Tales of Vesperia (JPN ver.) on PS3, Record of Agarest War 2, Dead or Alive 5 (Currently addicted to it) and i went back to Folklore along with Tales of Eternia on PSP… multitasking!
Youles
Well done on the SHD Platinum, that could be a TSA Fastest since I’m not sure anyone else has claimed it, you should check the forum thread? ;)
gazzagb
I’ve been keeping my eye on Prison Architect for a while now (Eurogamer has done some great interviews with the Devs, but the steep price for just the Alpha game is a bit much for me right now.
I’ve been playing loads of Empire Total War following the Steam sale last weekend, really enjoying it, except for the pesky Spanish navy getting on my nerves!