What We Played #104: Injustice, Hitman: Absolution and BioShock Infinite

For some reason I’ve spent most of this week being absolutely exhausted. I’m not quite sure why, I’ve not done too much that’s extra tiring, but even now I feel knackered. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped me getting some gaming in. It’s mostly been in the form of Thomas Was Alone, the latest indie offering to arrive on PlayStation Plus.

I feel like I’m a little late to the party with this game, but I can say that it’s absolutely brilliant. There really feels like there’s some depth to the characters, despite the simplicity with which they’re displayed on screen. One of my flat mates is enjoying it just as much as I am, becoming absolutely enthralled every time I sit down to play it.

As well as that, Injustice: Gods Among Us finally arrived, after the Royal Mail kindly decided to keep it in their sorting office without telling me. I haven’t spent a huge amount of time with it but so far it doesn’t feel like it’s living up to the high standard NetherRealm set with the last Mortal Kombat game. That’s not to say it’s bad but it’s just not reaching the same level. Hopefully it improves as I delve into it a little deeper, as it’s certainly got the potential to be interesting.

Moving on to the rest of the TSA crew, DanToo hasn’t managed to play quite as many games as he did last week. With exam pressure hitting him like a tidal wave, his gaming time has become some what limited. Presumably in an attempt to avoid friends dragging him into long gaming sessions, he’s set up his old PS3 with a brand new PSN ID. This has enabled him to get in a few games of the original Modern Warfare, a game that’s brought back his “flair for FPS’s” after his previously dismal showing on Battlefield 3.

He’s also had a crack at World At War’s zombie mode, where he managed to get all the way to round fifteen. Every one else was dead, meaning this selfless tale could unfold:

At this point it was only me left standing and my trenchgun had run out of ammo so I did the heroic act by cooking a grenade and running full force into the oncoming zombie horde! Of course I died in the progress but it looked cool.

Moving away from Call of Duty heroism, Aran’s had the kind of problem that only the Halo series can cause. He’d almost reached the conclusion of Halo 4 when he had to go out. He turned off his 360, forgetting that Halo games don’t autosave. I’ve no idea why this is, but it’s caught me out in the past as well. As he’d got so close to the end he refused to replay the hours he’d lost, and simply turned to YouTube to find the final cutscenes.

He’s also been playing Hitman Absolution, where he’s discovered he’s “pretty terrible at being stealthy”. Fortunately it’s not causing him too much trouble as the “guards won’t look in cupboards for you”. You know, just like real guards. Beyond the awful AI, he says that “The game is alright and looks quite nice”.

His final title for the week was XCOM Enemy Unknown, which he described as “brilliant” despite only playing a few levels so far. He has, however, proclaimed that he’s “sending a message to the stars of don’t mess with Earth,” so aliens should certainly stay away.

As for our normal What We Played host Greg, he’s staying in familiar territory with Mass Effect 3. He’s still working his way through the Citadel DLC, enjoying “all the quips and snippets of conversation from the sophonts on the Citadel where they’re talking about multiplayer tactics and lack of same.” Those kind of in-jokes are really endearing the DLC to him.

For some reason he feels that Candy Crush Saga isn’t quite deep enough to keep him entertained while travelling, so he’s been looking for something he can really sink his teeth into. That’s come in the form of Leviathan Warships, a game which apparently merges the gameplay of Gratuitous Space Battles and Steambirds, and then transports that gameplay to a naval setting.

Unfortunately he’s found that it needs a patch to run properly on Nexus 10, as the UI isn’t working correctly on the high-resolution screen. Luckily, it’s running fine on his Nexus 7, and he’ll try and bring us more detailed thoughts on the game next week.

Tuffcub has, unsurprisingly, been spending time with Killzone 3, where he’s reached level 43. Despite this achievement, he is “getting slightly bored of it due to muppets not playing the game correctly”. He also got annoyed by someone who “found a glitch on the map with the Jetpacks and manged to go above and below the map”. Fortunately he managed to deal with them by dropping “loads of C4 where he was spawning”.

For once he’s also dipping his toe into a few other games. Thomas Was Alone has been keeping him happy on the tube, and he gives “major kudos to Mr Bithell for the mention of Transformers”. At home he’s been playing Catherine, which he says is “very odd and I love it”. He’s also had a short go at Hitman Absolution, “but found it a tad boring.” As for Malicious, he says he “floated about but I didn’t seem to be able to attack anything, not sure what was going on.”

Need for Speed: Most Wanted has got a look in on the Vita, and he also “found a copy of Anarchy Reigns which I did not know I had, did the first mission and then not much happened and it seemed I had to repeat the same mission to get more XP to unlock the next mission.” He called this “lazy game design”, so chucked the disc back into his cupboard of games.

Agent 47 didn’t take kindly to being called “a tad boring”.

Finally, he’d like to relay that Sunday morning sessions of Blur have been replaced by Mortal Kombat. Much to Tuffcub’s irritation his “hubby is quite good at it.”

If you recall last week’s article, Dom didn’t have a house, and the situation has persisted. Fortunately, he’ll have one on Monday, and in the mean time he’s been in Tenerife. Apparently it’s “been nice though I’m pretty sunburnt!” Serves him right for going on a cheeky holiday.

During his time away he’s been playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity for our review. His only comment on it was that it’s “a pretty tedious affair,” so read the review if you want more. He’s also been playing a bit of Talisman Prologue HD on his phone. He says it’s “very cool,” although “At times it’s a bit annoying as its overall built for multiplayer.”

Then there’s Blair, who’s got more free time for gaming now that he’s finished his coursework. First up on his celebration tour is God of War: Ascension, which he says is “still good but easily the worst in the series,” feeling that “the combat is fantastic but the story is a bit pointless and there aren’t very many memorable moments aside from the awesome final boss battle.” Despite this, he does say that it perhaps would have been better served had it been a Vita title.

He’s also had a crack at Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed on his Wii U. Although he thinks that “it’s not as good as Mario Kart and the tracks are a bit disjointed,” he does say that ” ultimately a real blast to play, playing off-TV on the GamePad is great, too.” Speaking of the Wii U, he says that he “really like my Wii U and play it loads, though I seem to be the only one.” He may well be.

Blair’s final bit of gaming this week came from the Rayman Legends Challenges App, also on his much used Wii U. Apparently this is the game that keeps him coming back to his Wii U day after day, because “the endless-running, lum-collecting just-one-more-go challenges are so much fun.” Obviously he simply can’t wait for Rayman Legends proper to be released now.

Our final entrant this week is Jim, who’s been having his most jam packed week of gaming this year. Firstly he blitzed BioShock Infinite in a matter of days, feeling that “it was a spectacular game even if the ending took quite a lot of explaining.” From there he moved onto Assassin’s Creed III, which he feels “is finally starting to open up” after a disappointing first six or seven hours and is raising his hopes for Black Flag.

Finally, there’s Neverwinter, an MMO from Cryptic set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Apparently “its shaping up to be the definitive MMO of 2013,” although he does not that “with The Elder Scrolls Online just around the corner that could easily change.”

So that’s what we’ve been up to this week. How about you?