I returned to the lands of Skyrim for a few hours at the weekend. What I found there wasn’t entertainment. Skyrim has become a place of tedium that I sometimes bring myself to trudge through in a vain attempt to just get the damn thing finished.
Shouldn’t really complain of course, I’ve wandered those now familiar lands for something like 250 hours despite not yet completing the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood or Civil War quest lines. I no longer stumble across undiscovered farmsteads and remote shacks; the joy of discovery has left the game.
All that remains seems to be a never-ending string of ‘fetch that’ or ‘kill them’ quests and it’s become an utterly soulless experience. The land of Skyrim is the real lead character in the game and now I’ve dallied with that mistress too long.
I would of course be lying if I said I hadn’t played any Mass Effect 3 this week. I was disappointed that its soundtrack didn’t quite manage to keep Journey’s from the top spot in our vote. ME3’s should have won if for no other reason than it was used in the BBC’s Horizon programme about the Curiosity rover. Hopefully Curiosity will find those Prothean ruins we know are there…
My Wii U’s seen some more Nintendo Land action as I’ve been exercising the single-player games to earn more coins for the pachinko game that unlocks bits and pieces of the theme park. Frustratingly I’m still two combos short of a full house in Little Inferno and having got up to 69th in Puddle‘s global leaderboard by the time I’d finished the review it’s depressing to see how far I’ve fallen.
[drop2]Alex quickly regretted handing a mate the keys to his main ZombiU character when showing him the game the other day. Five minutes of play left the character dead with “no remorse, no apology, nothing. I was furious.”He suggests that it’s the game’s pretty hardcore survival horror nature being at odds with the more common gaming experiences that’s to blame. “I think CoD has conditioned people into thinking two shots of anything is enough to kill anything.”
Fuel Overdose turned out not to be Dan’s cup of tea. “I really didn’t like it”, he tells me. He also expressed shock at learning it’s a £10 game saying that he’s “seen better looking 69p iOS titles”. Ouch. He’s also been playing Surge. “It’s an absolute riot, and I managed to get 15th spot on the global leaderboard. Doubt I’m there now though!”
What does Peter like to do when not herding cats TSA contributors?
I’ve played a lot of Football Manager 13 this week. That’s mostly due to the way I play that game. It’s always on in the background while I work and, when I have a spare ten minutes or need a short break from Photoshop, spreadsheets and word processors, I flick over and do something in Football Manager. I might have time for a match or even two but often I just have time to tinker with a formation or negotiate a transfer in preparation before I get back to my second job outside of Premier League management.
Snatching the odd short moment of play like that does mean a season “takes ages to get through” but he likes using it to break “the monotony of daily toil”. Currently he’s two weeks into a games as Spurs, two weeks that have seen him reach the top of the table halfway through December.
Perhaps AVB should call him for some hints: “I’ve developed a really nice, fluid attacking tactic but I desperately need another right winger to bolster my squad in case Lennon gets injured.”
Aran’s constrained his footballing to FIFA 13 where he’s finally won the 1st division in Ultimate Team’s Online mode. He modestly says “it was a hard run but I proved that my once admired FIFA skills have returned. Now I’m on a strong path to complete my Spanish league team.”
His love affair with Metro 2033 seems to be over. “I enjoy the game but it seems to drag”, he admits, “especially since the last hour of play has been non-stop action”. He still intends to finish it though as he “needs the closure”.
Lastly he started the original Mass Effect. Coming to it after playing its two sequels he says that “it’s nice to be able to experience where it all began”, while noting that in many respects it “plays quite differently to its successors”.
That’s it from us this week, what have you lot been up to in your gaming lately?
R1MJAW
Played a good few hours of Big Sky Infinity (on PS3), started playing PSASBR (which is better than expected, but still not anywhere near as good as Smash Bros). I’ve also been sucked back into the awesomeness that is Skate 3 (I picked it up again the other day along with Catherine, Sacred 2, Spiderman Edge of Time and Rayman Origins on Vita). I also picked up Crazy Taxi and Under Defeat HD from the PSN sale … had a few goes of CT but haven’t touched UDHD as of yet.
element666
I actually haven’t played anything again.hopefully that will change over Christmas :-)
Happy Christmas all :-)
McProley
As Youles said, This week we both Platinumed LittleBigPlanet Vita and Dead Space extraction together. After finishing off Extraction I decided to make use of the Move as it was dust free and played some Child Of Eden which i picked up for under £4. Lovely game but very odd.
Carried on with Big Sky Infinity on the Vita and maxed out my ship this evening. Just need to kill all the bosses in one run through on classic mode for the last trophy and bag myself 100%.
Played a bit of Dirt Showdown which is fun in small doses but I can see why a lot of people suggested it should have been DLC for Dirt 3.
Tonight whilst Im at work, I’m going to start Hitman and possibly do a bit more Showdown
blast71
Enjoying Just Cause 2, finally got round to playing a game off my pile of shame!
Trouble is the pile never stops growing – in the last few weeks i’ve bought Tokyo Jungle, PES2013,Skyrim,Journey & Unfinished Swan. Can’t resist a bargain, even tho i won’t play them until next summer at this rate!
wolf-OF-chaos
You’re not alone, my ‘pile of shame’ has over 50 games in
blast71
OK you win, mine’s only got 25 :)
Dom El
It’s mostly been about ME3: Special Edition on my Wii U this week, which I think is hugely enhanced simply by having a map constantly available, and the ability to switch back and forth from the TV to the Gamepad when my wife wants to watch something! The multiplayer is also right up my street as I much prefer ‘horde’ modes than deathmatches.
Beyond that I’ve been filling my iPad with all of the seasonal sale games at 69p – and then trying them each for about five minutes before deciding the controls are rubbish and giving up. I still enjoyed playing Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on it despite that.
gaffers101
Platinumed AC:3, and Sleeping Dogs. Now working on Dishonored before Christmas.