Gaming’s been on my mind more than usual for the last week or so. Â Can’t think why. Anyway, as a result I’ve actually played a bunch of stuff for a change. Â Job one was to stop looking around the place and focus on Skyrim’s quest lines to get that platinum sorted.
With just the Thieves’ Guild quests to finish off before throwing my lot in with either the Imperials or Stormcloaks I figured it wouldn’t take very long. Â How wrong I was. Â As I reached the culmination of my thieving career I found I could go no further.
A quick search online turned up that as I’d done some minor quests in a particular order the quest line was broken. Â The only save I had that got me back to a point where I could recover the situation was 12 hours of gaming time behind me. Â Oh well, it is Skyrim so what did I expect.
So I went back, finished the Thieves’ Guild and aided the Imperials to victory over my misguided Nord brethren. Â Yeah, this Nord chick kicked Ulfric’s arse for the good of her people. Â And ‘ding’ platinum trophy.
Final save shows just over 340 hours of gameplay, obviously not including time due to deaths, crashes and repeating things because of broken quests. Â Probably got my money’s worth out of Skyrim.
While sat at the computer between the press conferences this week I broke out old favourite Defence Grid: The Awakening to collect a few more of the gold ratings for completed missions and was happy to discover there’s more modes than when I last played so I kicked butt on those too. Â It’s still a brilliant tower defence game for those who like that sort of thing.
I’ve also tried once more to like Bioshock Infinite. Â I played another couple of hours and I’m disappointed to report that I’m still just not really enjoying it. Â I LOVED the first Bioshock but Infinite just isn’t grabbing me. Â It looks great but feels to samey. Â I was looking forward to it for so long and I’m gutted that it just isn’t for me.
Lastly for me this week is The Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Â A “co-op action RPG” set in Middle Earth but away from the usual areas for the most part, I’m playing it with a friend and we’re having pretty good fun.
It neatly tackles some of the issues that can afflict co-op gaming such as loot- and kill-stealing. Â It’s intended for a triumvirate of players and any missing have their shoes filled by NPCs. Â We’ve been joking between us that those points mean that one of our regular online comrades in playing better than usual…
After all those words from me, there’s just a few from Tuffcub who’s been playing “Remember Me, which is awesome”.
Aran’s played Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for the most part this week finding it “a pretty easy game to get into”, with “simple quests that aren’t too far apart”. Â The proximity of the quests means there’s always something nearby to tackle.
Ico also got a brief look in but it seems that didn’t go well. Â “The game kind of just chucks you in without any sort of tutorial. It’s like here you’re in a tower now go. I think it’s one of those games you really have to concentrate on and I wasn’t really in that mood.”
Covering E3 with us on Monday night/Tuesday morning was “a lot of fun” for newish team member DanToo which just highlights the fact that we’ve got to work harder to turn him into a jaded gamer. Â When you’re too tired for your eyes to focus on details, what’s a good game to play?
I’ve completed a fair few of the levels on Thomas Was Alone, and it’s really something quite special. I was playing through at the same time as one of my friends and the fact we’d refer about the shapes by their names and personalities really made me think what a wonderful game it is. It’s quite challenging too.
A stint on F1 2012 saw him offered a contract by Red Bull while Sports Champions’ Gladiator Duel is reportedly “really fun and tiresome”. Â I’m going to guess he means physically tiring rather than ‘dull’? Â That he admits to saying “I like the way you die boy” after every KO may suggest that sleep deprivation is getting the better of him.
Another hour of Arcania The Complete Tale has left him not wanting to play any more. Â “The scripting and voice acting is just terrible. The combat, which initially seemed alright, is a slog.”
[drop2]Kris, as you might expect, has “seen many things but only played a few”. Â Don’t know why but I got a troubling flash of Kris playing Roy Batty as I typed that. Â “I’ve seen games you people wouldn’t believe…” Â Maybe sleep deprivation is getting to me too?His brief report from The City of Angels is that “Sonic Lost World is strangely good”, he liked the Spies vs. Mercs mode in the new Splinter Cell game, OlliOlli is very good and “the new PAC-Man game was a surprise”. Â He doesn’t clarify whether it’s a good or bad surprise. Â We’ll assume good until he corrects us.
Rounding out our list this week is Blair who’s been playing PC upgrading this week.  The happy outcome is that  he didn’t manage to blow up his motherboard and the Spec Ops: The Line on “Very High” looks “absolutely stunning”.  Fortunately he was surprised to discover it’s fun too.
LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes on the other hand has proved itself to be underwhelming. Â “LEGO games aren’t as good as they used to be” he tells us, though he’s bought LEGO Lord of the Rings and is hoping his LotR fanboyishness will help carry that title.
Our other two roving reporters over at E3 (imagine it was in Yorkshire, they’d write it EEE and at a certain residence in West Wallaby Street the reporting would be along the lines of “cracking games Gromit”) Al and Peter have been playing all sorts of games we won’t see for months *sad face* but you can read about their exploits elsewhere.
What have you been playing on this most focused of gaming weeks?
element666
I feel your pain Greg,I had that glitch with the thieves guild too!
This week I finally got the Tomb Raider platinum,and I’m close to Far Cry 3. I just need to finish two more co-op maps with my mate. I started to play Okami HD which I’m really enjoying.
On my vita I’ve been playing coconut dodge and NFS Most Wanted.
Hopefully I shall be picking up The Last Of Us today or tomorrow :)
Taylor Made
Platinum prototype 2, it was a good game, Shame we won’t get 3. Been playing The darkness 2, it’s sorta like scarface with a twist.
On the vita,
Taylor Made
Stupid iPhone cut me off, on the vita persona 4 golden, it’s a good game, I love it but I just don’t get the combat system how it works but I will play till I get it.
Playing the last of us right now & if anyone would be interested in getting the online trophies out the way, lets do a meet.
Germanos
The combat system is mainly about getting to know enemies strong point and weaknesses. Always remember to check their stats if you already faced them and try to have some personas with the weakest magic attacks (better if they do damage to all), so you are able to test various magics on enemies.
Also, I don’t want to spoil the game for you but pay attention to dialogues and cutscenes. This is a crime investigation game. The game ending depends on your choices.
I played the PS2 version and had 4 save data files, each within 4 hours game time distance.
Taylor Made
Thanks that’s helpful, so you know when I’m fighting since its turn based, when they attack me is there a way to block while they attack me?
Germanos
No, it’s very turn based, so each fight decision is done character per character, nothing real-time. There are skills, which will be acquired by your friends, later in the game, that protect you from a mortal blow one per fight (random).
Also, consider changing your team tactics to Direct Command when fighting new enemies and bosses (here it’s even mandatory).
Eldave0
In typical E3-week fashion I personally didn’t really play anything. Too busy watching all the videos and chatting on forums, etc.
More importantly, what did Microsoft play? Me like a fool, that’s what. £429 for a below-spec, always-online, lack-of-launch-titles brick?! Changed my pre-order to PS4 this week and am feeling very good about it!
Germanos
First of all I completed Dark Souls. Just like I red, the endings aren’t the best ones and nowhere near as great as the game itself. Last boss battle had a beautiful music and kind of made me sad. I decided to not play the NG+ right away but let myself forget about various things in the game, so the next playthrough has again the same feeling of uneasy and curiosity.
When it comes to multiplayer , I played KZ3 on the DLC maps, but yesterday I downloaded Motorstorm Apocalypse, which I never played before, despite the fact that I totally loved the previous two ones (and the awesome VITA one). The game is actually really good, graphics could be better, but the shit that is happening within the stages is just brilliant. Music is cool. Multiplayer also seems nice. I think I will be spending more time in Motorstorm Apocalypse from now on, so maybe someone would jump in? TSA Meet maybe?
Motalla
Set up a meet and I am your man.
Germanos
Done.
Taylor Made
I will join too, ain’t played it before though but I have it on hard drive, I download everything from plus lol
Broonba
As my R hands been in plaster since last week I’ve not really been able to play anything, although I could just about manage half an hour on NFS Most Wanted.
I also had the same glitch on my thieves guild playthru and it really pissed me off. :/
TSBonyman
Once again during E3 week i seem to get very little actual gaming done as i’m too busy keeping up with all the developments!
Limbo on Vita kept me entertained while waiting for the different conferences on monday.
Started up Tekken Revolution, saw the big notice about needing coins to access everything – several different types of coins too, not just one currency for everything – and that almost made me switch it offf and delete it straight away. Gave it a go anyway only to find half the characters are missing so i don’t see myself ever being any way enthused about FTP if that’s what it entails.
hazelam
been playing a bit of State of Decay on 360 this week.
great game, it’s probably about as close as you can get to Day Z on console right now.
except it’s single player only.
it’s the first game from a new studio called Undead Labs, it’s their first title.
it does lack polish in a few areas, but you can understand when you realise the scale of it, it’s an open world zombie game, where you can enter and scavenge just about every building.
combat is most melee based, there are guns but using them is a risk, ammo is pretty scarce and the noise of them is almost certain to attract more zombies.
you can switch between select characters at your home base, in fact you have to, to let them recover from fatigue and serious injury.
most of your time consist of scavenging and carrying out mission, like hellping a group of trapped survivors, who may then join your group, to going on trade runs to other groups of survivors, to target spotting for the military.
anyway, there’s a hell of a lot to do.
there is no multiplayer right now, but i hear the plan is, if this does well, they’ll make a mutliplayer version.
and it seems like it is doing very well, with something like a quarter of a million copies sold, on XBLA, in two days.
if you’ve got a 360, you owe it to yourself to at least give the demo a try, it’s pretty big, there’s the whole starting area you can explore freely, you could spend quite a while there if you explore all the buildings and tents, then you cross the bridge and you’re into the main game world, and you have thirty minutes to do anything you want from that point.
also a bit of Lego Batman 2, haven’t got to a bit where i can play as Superman yet though.
R1MJAW
Yet more Terraria, though I am a bit pissed off at it right now as it decided to delete my main world which had all my stuff stored in it.
Finished off Grid 2 career and started playing Tiger Woods 14.
Got my free copy of Animal Crossing on 3DS last night/this morning (thanks to the current promotion).