What We Played #101: Black Ops II, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate & Lords of Football

I feel a little lost to be honest. I’ve never taken the reigns on What We Played before but I’m raring to go and hopefully I won’t let you down. If you’re wondering where Greg is, then you probably missed last week’s What We Played. As he explained, he’s taking a little break from the series he’s nurtured for a hundred entries. Apparently he’s very busy with work, but I reckon he’s off sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere, leaving me to slave away at What We Played until he returns.

However, despite his absence, or perhaps because of it, he’s trying to invest more time into the only game he ever seems to play – Mass Effect 3. Although he’s mentioned dipping into the title’s multiplayer every week since approximately the start of time, or at least since the game’s release, he claims that most of his “online play has been fairly casual”. Now he’s just hoping that EA don’t take the game’s servers down. Keep hoping Greg, I’m sure they’ll stay up if you just want it enough.

[drop2]Moving onto another staff member who’s pretty much obsessed with one game, Tuffcub has once again been spending his time with Killzone 3. This week’s a bit special though, as he’s achieved a “record breaking score of 24,588”. In fact he’s so proud of his accomplishment that he included a picture of said score.

He’d also like me to note that he’s been watching The Bay on Blu-ray. While this isn’t actually a game, he just wants to prove that he really does do things other than play Killzone 3. His thoughts on the film? “It’s quite a good film, if a little icky.” Even if it is a little icky, it’s good to know that he’s branching out a little.

Next we turn to a member of TSA’s Scottish contingent, Blair. He claims that he’s “too busy and boring these days” to get much gaming in, although he did find time for Black Ops II over the recent Double XP weekend. After his time playing he’s decided that the game is “probably the most fun I’ve ever had in multiplayer, or at least on par with Call of Duty 4,” some high praise indeed.

Much like Tuffcub he does seem a little proud of his in game accomplishments, joyfully proclaiming that “I prestiged twice!” Good for you Blair. Good for you.

Our next two entrants have shown me a simple test for working out how long someone’s been writing for TSA. If they still open an email with “Hi Kris!” instead of just dumping as much information as possible on me, they’ve probably not been here all that long. Both Dom and DanToo (as Greg has Christened him), the newest members of the TSA family, started their emails this way; obviously we haven’t beaten the manners out of them yet.

Anyway, just what have the newest members of the TSA family been playing? Well Dom is currently moving house, an activity that limits his gaming time somewhat. However, he has managed to find time for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, a game you may recall him discussing this time last week. Although he’s given up on his previous quest to get his Wii U save to transfer over to his 3DS, meaning that he’s now got a different character on each console, he’s rather pleased with the game’s Wii U update, saying that “the off-TV patch has made grinding for parts easier too!”

As for DanToo, he’s been sitting down with F1 2012. As I don’t follow F1 I have no idea what the following sentence means, but apparently he’s been “Driving with a Caterham at one of the highest difficulty at Monte Carlo, after 2 drive through pens and still finishing a respectable 6th, from 18th.” It seems Dan’s pleased with… whatever he’s achieved, so that’s something.

Away from racing, he’s been getting a few scares with Slender: The Arrival. However, it seems the series has lost some of its lustre, as he complains that “The game is so bloody difficult,” and that “It’s lost it’s scariness now, it’s simply annoying.” Given how well received the original Slender was, it’s a shame that they’ve tried simply added complexity to the game, rather than trying to really improve it.

I expect Aran is glad for the arrival of Dom and DanToo, bumping him up from “new guy” status. He’s been celebrating his new found position with a bit of Gravity Rush and Tomb Raider. He’s nearly completed Gravity Rush, and has found the story rather enjoyable. He also praised the way “the powers evolve when you upgrade them,” and “The build up from being pretty weak to becoming a super hero.”

As for Tomb Raider, he says that it “looks brilliant graphically and it manages to build an atmosphere of tension.” Much like Fatboy Slim he’s selected a Weapon of Choice, although in Aran’s case it’s Tomb Raider’s bow rather than… well I guess Fatboy Slim’s was music.

Next we come to the big boss, Peter. Yet again he’s teasing us with an embargoed game he can’t talk about, in this case Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Fortunately he’s also been playing some things he can talk about, primarily Guacamelee! on his Vita, as well as Fire Emblem and Mario Bros on his 3DS.

He also took a look at Lords of Football, but was less than favourable:

It’s supposed to make you micromanage a club’s (no official licenses here but editing is easy) affairs and players through most aspects of their lives. So you train players and play in matches but you also take control over visits to the pub or radio station interviews. It’s not very good though, 45 minutes was enough to realise that the tutorial prompts weren’t actually helping when they popped up two minutes after the thing they were informing me about had stopped happening.

If you’re interested in what I’ve been doing, the answer is not a lot. In fact I didn’t actually play anything until last night, when I finally got to play a bit of inFamous 2, courtesy of PlayStation Plus. I haven’t played much of it yet, but my main concern is the handling. It’s just so loose and floaty, and the free running mechanics have none of the freedom or satisfaction of the Assassin’s Creed series. I must say that blasting people with electricity is a lot of fun though.

Finally we come to Alex. Last week he began a story about a tiger called George. It was a little weird if I’m honest, largely centring on incontinence. However, it seems Alex has a larger tale to tell, as George returns this week:

George was scared. This wasn’t normal, but he’d committed. He was on the way. Embarrassed, confused, but determined. He’d address this, he had to, or this would all come crashing down.

It’s easy to project, to try and figure all this out by twisting the truth, but this was binary and resolute: and needed sorting.

George reached the bathroom. He sat, patiently, gazing directly ahead at the picture on the wall. It was his picture – he remembered buying it – but something seemed odd. Different. Blurred. Twisted.

He shook, as if disturbed momentarily.

He took a closer look at the picture. A photograph of a long lost bench straddling grass and tarmac, weathered but adroit, the pine standing the test of time. But it wasn’t just about the bench, and it was the figure sat upon it that caught George’s attention, for the first time.

So make of that what you will.

So that’s what we’ve all been up to, how about you? What’s been occupying your gaming this week?