What We Played #100: Guacamelee!, Just Cause 2, Okami HD

Ton up! It’s hard to believe that this is the 100th What We Played post. It would be nice to mark the centenary by being able to tell you that I’ve been playing some amazing games this past week but all I’ve got to report is my usual Mass Effect 3 multiplayer and a bit more Bioshock Infinite.

As it is the 100th WWP, and to be honest because I’m criminally short of time at this moment, for the second time in WWP’s history I’m going to let you read the actual submissions I’ve had from the team this week, including those from a couple making their WWP débuts.

First up though is the irrepressible Seagull-fancier Kris:

I played more Just Cause 2 because that game seems to be infinite. I feel like I could take a week off work to dedicate entirely to Just Cause 2 and still not finish the game. There’s just so many bases to take over! I haven’t even been to a city yet.

I’ve also been playing this weird flash platformer called Give Up, Robot. You have a grappling hook, much like Just Cause 2, and it makes for some fun platforming puzzles. It’s also got a weird “glitched” graphical style.

I’m not sure whether Alex wanted to submit something special for this week’s milestone or if he simply sent me the wrong email but what I received seems to begin like a children’s story before descending into something much more disturbing. See what you think:

George, although cute, was a lazy tiger. His stripey, orange and black exterior hid a wealth of ambition, but it was locked deeply away beneath his furry, outwardly vague skin.

As a result, afternoons would be a breeze to George: reclining whilst absorbing Countdown, or sipping on tea. Or both.

One day George needed to go to the bathroom, just as the Teatime Teaser appeared. He knew the answer – or at least thought he did – but his deliberation resulted in a tragically soaked sofa and a dry cleaning bill he couldn’t begin to imagine.

At forty-seven, George thought this was probably unacceptable.

He put down the tea, adjusted himself, and strode carefully to the toilet.

Odd, no?  Dan was the next to get his email in and it was a typically succinct and focused nugget:

Still plodding through Tomb Raider. Wasn’t so keen on it last week but I’ve warmed to the game massively. It also raises a big smile with how it deals with ‘secret’ tombs – “ALERT ALERT SECRET TOMB NEARBY DON’T TELL ANYONE!”

With Dan having successfully put us back on-topic here’s the first of this week’s two WWP noobs, our new news writer Dom!

This week I have mostly been playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and though I have both the 3DS version and the Wii U one I can’t for the life of me get them to communicate and send the save data between them. In actuality I think that’s meant that a good portion of playing time has been spent trying to understand what’s wrong with them.

Cue a 3DS sitting on a Wii U. Are they too close? Cue a 3DS in various locations from the kitchen to the bedroom. Is everything remotely electrical disrupting them? Cue turning off all the wifi and electrical devices in the vicinity. I found myself pressing refresh on the 3DS for approximately an hour at roughly 4am, too tired to give up, and guess what? IT STILL DOESN’T WORK! Not that I’ve become obsessed with it in any way…

Along with that I’ve also been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening for my very first TSA review. In short it’s amazing but horribly hard!

And now’s as good a time as any to introduce our second noob. You know him as OrigamiKiller, his Mum preferred the name Dan but as we’ve already got one of those for now I’m going to call him DanToo which has the advantage of sounding like a great place to abandon a rebel base.

Quite a bit of gaming from myself this week though. I’m coming close to finally completing Aliens: Colonial Marines. It’s so awful I’ve forced myself to play it this far. Really dreadful game.

Also played a little Civilization 5, using it as a hangover cure a few times! I just find it enjoyable raging war on everyone – North Korea would love me.

Finally I’m still making my way through Slender The Arrival. It’s not as a good as I had hoped. Hopefully both Blair and I can complete it soon and write a joint review type thing for it.

Peter has turned his laser-like focus upon a game featuring characters running around in colourful gimp masks:

This week I’ve basically only been playing Guacamelee! I played through once for the review, with about an hour of having it on my Vita but that meant switching the PSN accounts on it and that’s really annoying when everything else on Vita is on my normal (UK) PSN account. So I got the game again for my proper PSN account now I’ve finished writing the review – which should tell you how much I like it!

If you missed it earlier in the week his chat with Drinkbox’s Chris McQuinn is both entertaining and informative, and there’s no requirement to wear a Luchador mask while you read it – unless you’re into that sort of thing.

With a game in his list that must fall into the should-have-known-better category is Tuffcub:

Mini Ninjas on Chrome. Killzone 3 and Need For Speed Most Wanted on Vita, obvs. Puddle.

Battleship. Yes, the game of the movie of the board game. I rented it as it’s set in Hawaii but I can safely say not a single member of the development team has ever visited the locations in the game. As you might expect from an Activision movie license, it’s not very good.

We’ll finish with a couple of the team who struggle with the “a few sentences” concept and always provide more lengthy missives. Here’s Aran:

This week I reached a milestone where I bought a Vita and a PS Plus subscription. I also, finally, finished Assassin’s Creed 3.

I feel AC3 didn’t really have a grand an ending I had hoped for. There’s so much build up in the pursuit of Lee, but it just ends. Really think there was potential for a major stand off. And also Haytham was definitely the best character of the game, representing a much more sensible approach to the Templars. I would love a whole game about him purely because he had more depth than anyone else.

On to my purchase of the Vita. Picked it up along with a 16GB memory card and got Uncharted: Golden Abyss for free. Then I found Gravity Rush and MGS HD Collection on Plus. So far I’ve only played Gravity Rush and Uncharted.

Golden Abyss is a very good game and it looks brilliant. I’m only on Chapter 4 but the gameplay is fantastic and is as good as its console counterparts. The Vita features are well incorporated and very easy to pick up.

However, Gravity Rush has to take the prize of best game I’ve currently played on the Vita. At first the controls feel fiddly but after a while everything just gels. The gravity switching element is very well done and the game world is great to explore while using powers. The story does jump about a bit but gameplay is fantastic. I think I’ll play more now actually.

Not content with sending me one lengthy email this week he even submitted an addendum:

I forgot to mention Okami HD! That game is stunning to look at and it’s very easy to get into. Being able to manipulate the world with a brush and ink is brilliant. The voice sounds are a tad annoying but not enough to detract from a good game.

And our last team member with a submission this week is Jim:

Having abandoned my flat and, more relevantly, my PlayStation 3, my week on the road was mainly spent with my PlayStation Vita.

Admittedly, since the Christmas break, I’ve neglected my handy little Sony handheld. However, with a stock of PS+ goodies to play and a few train/coach journeys to endure, my love was soon rekindled. Spearheading the Vita vanguard was Metal Gear Solid 2 HD. Despite being well ahead of its time in terms of mechanics and other nuances, the game’s bloated narrative proved bothersome when revisiting this classic after 5-6 years. After finally getting my head around one part of the story, it would either flip or change direction completely, leaving me profoundly confused even as the credits began to roll.

My Vita spree also allowed me to finish up Assassin’s Creed III Liberation. When I first played the game back in November I wasn’t all that impressed but since then I have put a good few hours into Assassin’s Creed III which has changed my view a fair bit. The plot may never take off in Liberation but its technical splendour and commitment to creating a fully-fleshed open world adventure is worthy of merit.

After being reunited with my PlayStation 3, I have found myself playing a title I thought I’d never return to. However, a bit of shopping around and a few impulse purchases later and I have myself a small collection of Skylanders and Giants in preparation for this year’s Swap Force. Sure, the gameplay is rudimentary and the concept behind the figures reeks of money-grabbing publishers but, at the right price, Skylanders offers quite a unique experience.

Regular readers will know that I’ve not been playing much lately.  That’s due to a chronic lack of free time which in turn is partly due to a recent change of job with the new one seeing me splitting my time between the UK and Germany.

With 100 consecutive weekly WWP posts under my belt, that’s every week since The Great PSN Outage Of 2011 for those who are counting, I think I deserve a few weeks off. Don’t worry, I intend to be back for WWP’s 3rd anniversary in a month or so.

Kris may even manage to persuade someone to fill in for me, though in that case let’s hope they don’t do such good a job that I’m not allowed back! In the meantime thanks for reading, especially those of you who take the time to comment every week. I do always read the comments each week even if I’m not around to reply while the post is fresh.

And with that, what have you played this week?