Blimey, it’s Friday again. Despite this week feeling like it’s dragged a fair bit, Friday has somehow snuck up on me. Greg has yet to return from his sojourn, so you’re stuck with me guiding you through another week’s worth of gaming.
I’ll start things off by sharing what I’ve been doing this week, and for once I’ve been getting a bit of variety in my gaming. That variety comes via the wonderful service that is PlayStation Plus, and is in the form of inFamous 2, Driver: San Francisco and Machinarium.
Of the three, Driver: San Francisco is probably my favourite. While the jumping between cars mechanic seemed a little odd at first, it opens at some interesting possibilities when the police are chasing you. Rather than simply out running them, why not try and block them off with a lorry? It adds a puzzle like element to the game, and encourages experimentation, making for a fun experience overall.
There’s also a lot to like about Machinarium, although I think the Vita version that’s arriving next week might be better. The touch interface could really benefit it, assuming that’s the direction they go in.
As for inFamous 2, I’ve played a little bit of it but now it’s broken. For some reason the PlayStation Plus version refuses to download the latest patch, and will no longer let me into the game. If anyone’s got any advice I’d be very grateful.
To counter point my diversity, Dan has been applying a laser like focus to Soul Sacrifice on the Vita. While he’s been playing it, he can’t really say much about it due to the embargo. What a tease! All he’ll say is that it’s “very compelling, if not a tad difficult”.
Peter has similar embargo limitations. Although he’s been playing Grid 2 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon he can’t actually talk about them until next week. Instead he just gave me this string of emoticons, saying that people can draw their own conclusions: “:| :) :D :O >:( :D XD”. Make of them what you will.
Fortunately, Aran’s actually been playing some games he can talk about. First up is Virtue’s Last Reward, which he describes as “more of an interactive story than a standard game”. Apparently you spend most of your time “reading plot and dialogue before being presented with a puzzle.” Sounds thrilling! The biggest problem Aran had with the title was that it required multiple playthroughs to advance, at which point he decided he “could not be bothered… [and] deleted [it] from my Vita.”
His Vita does seem to have been getting some attention this week, as he’s also been playing Uncharted: Golden Abyss. He feels that it’s “as good as any Uncharted on the PS3”, although the graphics obviously don’t match up. He’s currently halfway through, and can feel the game building towards something, so I’m sure we’ll here more of Drake’s adventures next week.
Sticking with the adventuring motif, Tomb Raider‘s been getting some love from Aran as well, so much so that he’s declared it his GOTY so far. This week he’s been “going through areas to pick up treasures and complete challenges”, saying that the collectibles “offer a lot of depth and background to the story”.
Finally, he’s been spending time with Okami HD, although perhaps not enough of it. He’s currently ten hours into the game and feels “the end is nowhere in sight.” Although he finds the game’s voices annoying, he does say that it’s brilliant overall. Much like Uncharted, I feel we’ll hear more of it in coming weeks.
If you remember last week, Dom announced that his gaming time has been constricted by an ongoing house move. Currently his house is full of boxes, which is hardly the best environment to get some gaming in. However, he has managed to find a little time for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, as well as the odd go at Zen Pinball 2 and Kirby’s Dreamland.
He’s also squeezed a bit of Football Manager 2013 now and then. Unfortunately this means he’s been playing it while queueing for various things, and consequentially holds up the queue while a virtual game is taking place. I can’t imagine it’s a trait that’s making him popular.
Our other newbie, DanToo, has been spending a lot of time with Surgeon Simulator 2013, a game he called “outrageously funny”, even if it is “starting to lose its appeal”. He’s also been developing road rage while playing F1 2012, due to his hatred of the game’s online drivers. “They are so incompetent,” he complains, before going on to say that “Codemasters don’t do a good job either with their flawed penalty system.”
Much like Aran he’s been spending time with Tomb Raider, although only for about half an hour. The only opinion he’s formed so far is that “the quick time events were really not needed.” His week of frustration wasn’t eased when he took to Slender The Arrival, a game he described as not “scary anymore, just downright frustrating.” Hopefully next week he’ll find something he likes.
Finally we turn to Greg, who’s still away in Switzerland and Germany. Travelling back and forth between the two nations means he’s only had time to play a little Candy Crush Saga on his Nexus 7. However there is an upside to his time away:
On the bright side, I’ve been working down near Lucerne today and The Alps have looked absolutely spectacular in today’s bright sunlight after a cloudy couple of days so it’s not a bad place to be working even if you have no time for video games.
I’ve got to say, that does sound rather nice. Hopefully those beautiful views won’t keep him away from What We Played for longer than he intended.
What have you been up to this week?
carlos___82
Really enjoying Dead Space 3 at the minute, much better than DS2 in my opinion. The save points in DS3 are a bit dodge ( especially conning tower) and if you go onto the replay mission option it saves you back there, so you lose all your game progress. getting Tomb Raider soon, i have not heard one bad review about it.