What We Played #138: Knack, FIFA 14 & Pivvot

This time last year I was mostly skipping what I played each week as it was always the same game. That’s likely to be the case for the next few months too, unless I become bored of Warframe, and I can’t see that happening. With random challenges and rewards to counteract the levelling up and progression fatigue that might otherwise occur as I work towards earning a few of the titular Warframes, I’m always looking forward to playing more and it’ll keep me going for a while.

The “very enjoyable” Knack is Dom’s favourite game of the generation so far, but as we’re not far in and he hasn’t played the likes of Killzone, AC IV and NfS Rivals yet, that could easily change. It is at least ahead of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes at this point.

He also enjoyed the “buggy” [pardon his pun] Amazing Spider-Man on the PS Vita that he’s just reviewed for us and is currently working his way through Mario Party: Island Tour on the Nintendo 3DS, so keep an eye open for his forthcoming review of that too.

Between exams DanToo isn’t revising as much you might expect:

On PC I’ve played Football Manager 2013 which has gone awfully. I was sacked from Man Utd (I had won the FA Cup) after signing a new contract a week before. I was then sacked from QPR for saving them from relegation in the Championship.

I then saved a Bradford team from relegation half way through the following season, had 55% win rate and the board were still disappointed, and when I then moved to Fulham where my season expectations were to finish mid-table, my sacking after finishing 13th determined that was a lie. I don’t play the game any differently to others so I’m not sure why my team never performs for me. I’m probably the most sacked player on the game!

On PS3 I’ve hunted a few T-Rex’s on Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD, played the first half hour of Dead Space 3, messed about on LEGO Star Wars, and I’ve just started Crysis 3.

Meanwhile, Aran is “loving” Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The sailing and plundering is distracting him from making it too far into the game but even though he’s only got to chapter 4 he’s happy to declare it “easily the best of the series”. He’s not alone in having that opinion.

Stefan is to be found either lapping the back-markers in Gran Turismo 6 or dabbling in a bit of Planetary Annihilation. We’ll call it dabbling to spare his blushes, as he admits that the AI is just repeatedly giving him a damn good kicking.

If you’ve ever thought that the one App missing from your iDevice is something akin to LittleBigPlanet‘s create mode but in the style of Terraria, Peter’s found just the thing for you, Createrria. “It’s surprisingly robust as a level builder for platform games and it even has a slingshot so you can recreate basic Angry Birds on your iPhone or iPad.”

Then he took a run out on the pitch with FIFA 14, playing Pro Clubs online for the first time. “There was ten of us from TSA, all in one team, it was manic but very fun.” And while pretending to work on his laptop he’s actually been playing a lot of Game Dev Tycoon.

It’s very similar to Kairosoft’s iOS/Android game, Game Dev Story, but I struggle to have an issue with that because I loved that game too. Basically, you manage a game developer and make games to release and make you rich and adored by the masses. Or you fail hard and end up bankrupt. It’s fun though.

Kris’ answer this week to the eternal question “WWBD?” was that he would run around looking for the handful of Enigma’s datapacks still to be found in Batman: Arkham Origins, that being the only “campaigny” bit of the game still outstanding.

Beyond that it’s been iOS games all the way in the guise of Fightback, Beat Drift and Pivvot. The former being “a sidescrolling beat ’em-up with really good combat, but little else to inspire really.” Apparently it’s also stuffed to the gunwales with microtransactions.

He reckons that if you like games like Super Hexagon then Beat Drift and Pivvot could be worth a look with the latter having “a brilliant soundtrack. Although Pivvot is £1.99, it’s well worth that for the audio alone.”

Last up this week is Jim, who is finding time for games despite having just returned to Uni:

At the forefront of my playlist has been Devil May Cry (last year’s model.) Truth be told I’ve never really been a fan of the Capcom flagship but with Ninja Theory being one of my favourite devs (not to mention it’s free on PS+) I had to give it a try. In short, it’s a great game and a fantastic re-imagining of the series. A strong weapon system, awesome boss battles, and revised characters make it a must. It’s just a shame I didn’t get to try it last year.

Next on the list is DOTA 2. Yes, I’ve fallen into the trap again. It’s been a year since I first started playing Valve’s sublime MOBA and there’s no sign of me stopping. In fact, DOTA 2 was my most-played game in 2013 a rather uncomfortable margin (we’re talking a good hundred hours or so.)

Trailing behind is AC IV: Black Flag. Despite loving Ubi’s latest game in the series, I’ve hit a stone wall. Like many, I enjoy hunting PlayStation trophies but the PS4 version of Black Flag is currently suffering from a server glitch meaning the one trophy I’m looking for is completely unobtainable. I don’t usually overreact to these things, but the whole experience has left a sour taste.

So what have you played these past seven days?