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?
McProley
Ive been keepin and eye on that Mugen Souls, looks fantastic. The art style is nice. The only thing that concerns me is the amount of DLC ive been seeing on the stor every week,
This week Ive been playing some of the B-Spec races through on GT5 as I’ve decided I want to go for the plat. Whilst doing these Ive been doing some level creation on LBPV and beating a few scores on Zen Pinball 2 on the Vita. Got both FuturLabs games on PSM and both are ablsotely fantastic! I have no idea how some people have such fast fingers though for Fuel Tiracas. But its that fight for leaderboard space and “just one more go” addictive gameplay which makes it so brilliant.
Ive also revisited LA Noir as previously I hadnt even finished the first case. Its a wonderful game, and I don’t understand why I didnt give it more time Initially or why it got so slated. I’m now temted to get myself a noir suit and strut around pretending I’m Dick Tracey (or just a dick)
Youles
You’re a massive phallus, lol!
Only kidding, you should play LA Noire in “Noire” mode, it’s awesome!
The Lone Steven
Played Dark souls untill i lost 44thousand souls and 15 humanity due to me being knocked off a ledge. Haven’t touched it since that incident.
Played Skyrim as well. Only crashed 1 and that was probably a few hours in. Had the endless loading screen glitch, a bit of lag and a few bugs. Played as a stealthy nord and did the Darkbrotherhood questline. The DB is one of the two best guilds in terms of questlines but it just feels a bit rushed. I’ve heard the theives guild is the second best guild due to it’s plot, but yet to commit to that. The college of Winterhold ends when it only just gets interesting and is a bit cliched. The companions is the worst guild out the 4 guilds due to it being very short and is just poor. You join the circle after 2 quests. Still wish that each guild had a set of skill requirements. I know the TG and COW do have some but should really be more strict. A melee fighter shouldn’t be able to get into the college etc..
After i completed the DB, started a new game as that save was getting a bit stale. Was starting to get bored of the stealthy gameplay due to the AI not posing a challenge.
I am a nord again. The only skills i will use are: Two handed, Heavy Armour, Alchemy,a little bit of speech, lockpick and Archery. Won’t join any guilds and instead explore as well as help people. Will do the Dragonborn questline up untill something barrow as i don’t plan to do that untill i’m ready to put up with dragons. Will side with the legion in the civil war as the empire is Tamrial’s best hope to defeat the dominion. Even if they did ban the worship of Talos. Had they not signed the white gold concodenate, they would have been destroyed by the Dominion due to the Legion not have a legion with more then 50% of it’s fighters ready for battle. The dominion would have finished the job off. The stormcloaks are a bit racist and i believe Ulfric only cares about being High King. As the previous high king(the one that was shouted to death) apparently held him in high regard and would probably pull Skyrim away from the Empire if he had asked.
Oh and the damm game crashed on me as soon as i had got into Riverwood. Didn’t save, luckily, i think i have saved back in the spider cave. Oh and mounted combat is crap.
And the guards of skyrim are weak if a single arrow to the knee caused them to stop being an adventure. I’ve seen mudcrabs that are tougher then them! Son of a backed up horse! I’ve gone and done a huge comment again. :O
The Lone Steven
Oh and i suspect Patch 1.7 has something to do with the crashes and lag as my copy used to run very fine. Although chances are i’ve forgotten how reliable my copy is and just a bit surprised.
freezebug2
Been playing F1 2012 trying to get to grips with it’s all new handling model (more tip-toe than gung-ho) and I think that the people who were dissapointed with 2011 will actually like this iteration…..it is great.
@ Greg How are you getting on with RockSmith? I’m loving it, although it’s been a learning curve with the on screen animated tablature method, no matter how well I can play guitar. Nearly at level 7 now (International support act) after gigging my way from the seedy bars at level 2 to the big stages! :P
I hope that they add PS plus discounts to the songs on the store just as the US have!!
MadJunkBoy
started on ratchet and clank 3 but suddenly RE6 came out and that is the “only” game i own right now! :P
Rocket_345
Been playing Hell Yeah mostly which is great fun. Also a bit of FIFA street as i wanted to play a football game but have no money to get 13 yet. Also a bit of Borderlands 2 which i am massively enjoying. Got a bit annoyed though as i accidentally used my golden key when i was saving it for later on. Gave me a great pistol though so not complaining too much.