We have a special treat for you this week. Peter is too ill to record the podcast. No, that’s not the treat I was referring too, you might think that but I couldn’t possibly comment. The treat is that you get to engage your imagination.
Imagine the excitement as you watch the TSA podcast’s download progress finally reach 100%. Firing up your media player of choice, your finely honed gaming reflexes guiding the mouse cursor unerringly to the play button and clicking it in one fluid motion. Peter’s warm dulcet tones flow from your speakers as he describes his week’s gaming to you…
I played Madden 25, after a very late night watching a particularly one-sided Super Bowl on Sunday. The recent Madden games do a very good job of making themselves accessible to people who don’t know the first thing about NFL. You can just accept the suggested formations and plays and get on with running the routes it puts up on screen for you. It’s all so intuitive and easy to follow but if you want a bit more control, you can delve into the playbook yourself. Every time I did that, though, I had the commentators talking about what a dreadful call it was. So I stopped.
I also played some Surge Deluxe on Vita. That’s absolutely gorgeous and just as compelling as ever. Futurlab has continued to create some really tight, focused gameplay as they upgrade another of their titles that started as a smaller kind of game. It also has a really beautiful art style – all brightly glowing neon lines.
As well as that, I played Outlast on PS4. I started streaming it but quickly realised that watching a stream of someone else playing would ruin that kind of game if you intended playing it yourself. So far, it feels like proper survival horror is back with a vengeance. There’s no way to attack anything, so you feel completely vulnerable and tying the ability to see in the darker areas to the ever-depleting, finite life of your camcorder’s night light is a great idea because it means you have to constantly be aware of how low the battery is getting. You’re also focusing the view point down the lens of a camera, which makes you feel even more like your peripheral vision is obscured. I didn’t encounter anything too psychologically troubling but there were several really well executed jump scares in the first section that gives me hope for the rest of the game.
Tuffcub was initially somewhat vexed by Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on the PS4 as it “started off looking quite shite” but things improved and apparently it “looks great now”, as he has got a bit further in. Don’t Starve is apparently still failing to capture mind share having been clumsily retitled to “Don’t Get Bored In The First Three Minutes Oh You Have Turn Off And Play Something Else Instead”.
His PS Vita has seen plenty of action too, having been outfitted with a 64GB memory card which promptly consumed the bits comprising a comprehensive selection of PS Vita, Mobile and PSP titles ranging from Velocity Ultra to Coconut Dodge via Killzone Mercenary. And then there was…
Also about 20 minutes of Outlast on PS4, late at night. Far to scary so I played a bit more today, in my brightly lit office via remote play on the Vita. D’ya know what? It’s even more terrifying that way, the occasional graphical glitches in the streaming give it the feel of a “found footage” horror movie.
So kind of like the graphics you’d get if you could play it on an Xbox One, then? /joke
Saturday Morning RPG, the love letter to 80’s cartoons and old-style RPGs, is “pretty fun and quite engrossing” according to Aran who has been busy gaming on a new laptop. He’s also in the process of reviewing War of the Human Tanks which he describes as “kind of like Battleship, but evolved”. Let’s hope it’s better than the movie ‘evolution’ of Battleship.
Dom’s “hugely enjoyed” completing Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. As in he enjoyed playing it, not getting it out the way. He’s dabbled with the multiplayer and liked that too so can see himself returning to it quite a bit as time allows.
There’s been a few bits and pieces exercised on his PS Vita too, with Final Fantasies VIII and Duodecim, New Little Kings Story, Persona and “some horribly laggy remote play” of Lego Marvel Superheroes. He notes that it’s the first time Remote Play has been any trouble so this was particularly annoying. Keep an eye out next week for his review of Inazuma Eleven: Team Ogre Attacks.
Kris has finally gotten around to picking up a PS Vita of his own so has “basically been using it to play loads of OlliOlli. Probably an unhealthy amount of OlliOlli? And by that I mean I nearly forgot to get off a train because I was playing OlliOlli.” He’s played a little of the “pretty good” Surge Deluxe too.
Stefan has also been playing “a bucketload of OlliOlli” mixed in with “some of the silly and fun Infected mode on Call of Duty: Ghosts with McProley and Youles”. The latter was the cause of much mirth so expect an all-TSA meet up to play that.
And finishing things off this week is Jim:
I’ve been playing Toukiden, an upcoming Vita title due to launch next week.
The best thing I can compare it to is a Monster Hunter, Dynasty Warriors, and Soul Sacrifice cocktail. You play as a custom-made Slayer, venturing through a fictional universe tearing down huge demon-like creatures known as the Oni. Using the parts you harvest in battle you can create armour and weapons, both of which are used as a progress marker.
After almost ten hours play, I’m really liking Toukiden though there’s no getting away from the ever-present comparison to Capcom’s Monster Hunter. It almost exactly the same in premise and most of the same mechanics. With no Monster Hunter title available on Vita I can’t complain, though Toukiden has also inherited the game’s flaws as well alongside its highlights.
Before this turns into my Toukiden review, I suppose I had better tell you what else I’ve been playing. Well, now that I think of it, there’s isn’t much. The only noteworthy game has been [Assassin’s Creed IV:] Black Flag. As I’m sure many will be happy to know, Ubisoft has finally fixed the online problem some players have suffered with since launch. That platinum trophy is finally in sight!
All that’s left is for you to let us know in the comments about you own week’s gaming…
theberzerka
I played Outlast up until the mrs told me to turn it off because it was scaring her. I’m so glad she did as I was too terrified to go further. I’ve also been playing AC4, which I have been thoroughly enjoying. Really like just sailing and attacking ships.
boeboe
Got Metro: Last Light to finish this weekend, so far its gone well beyond my expectations. Graphics, gameplay, atmosphere though the story is a little..weird. GG
Finally picked up Spelunky too.
Taylor Made
Graphics really? The not good, the story makes up for it’s duke nukem looking graphics
boeboe
I’m impressed by the graphics. The lighting in particular is very good, so is the particle effects like the smoke in the air. Love it when you’re wandering outside and the water starts to attach to your visor then you wipe it away. Maybe not technically amazing but a cool use of graphics anyway. Wouldn’t bring Duke into this :p
JR.
I felt the same way about the Tomb Raider definitive edition. I think my expectations were too high initially. I don’t know why but I expected it to look like real life so when I started playing I was like WTF is this!?!?! But once I got over my real-life-looking Tomb Raider dream, I started to appreciate the huge improvements over the PS3 version. It really is a fantastic looking game.
Played a bit of Killzone Shadow Fall but I couldn’t get into it. I’m not a huge fan of the series. Resistance was much better.
Downloaded Outlast but I haven’t played it yet. I’m scared.
endlesscupsoftea
Been playing OlliOlli – great game – am awful at it but still love it and slowly getting better. Also playing Spelunky – trying to get the mine key through to Tunnel Man – f}}%^ng frustrating!! Also have managed to upload my Terraria save onto my Vita so I might disappear down that rabbit hole! Getting to defeating the Eye of Cthulu
gaffers101
I finished AC: Black Flag this week. Spent a few hours on Battlefield and Resogun too. Played some Outlast last night, tha ts a scary frame – I love it.
TSBonyman
I played the first hour of Outlast, very effective but probably an hour at a time is enough to play it as i felt i needed a break from the constant knife-edge atmosphere.
And Minecraft, i think i might still be playing this when i’m retired.
Also tried the Dustforce and Ethan Meteor Hunter demos, both ok but a bit average.
hazelam
since Wednesday, a lot of Rainbow Moon.
loving it.
i love a good tactical RPG, and this is a pretty good one, after trying the demo a while bakc i wanted it, but the fact i’d have to buy it twice to get it on PS3 and Vita put me off a bit.
but then they had the bundle on sale, and it was instant purchase.
not regretted it one bit.
also i decided to try the mobile version of Dungeon keeper.
i’ve read about how bad it is, i thought it can’t be that bad, not even from ea.
and it’s not.
it’s worse, MUCH MUCH WORSE.
it starts off ok.
you’re greeted by Richard Ridings as the voice of Horny once again, his presence is the sole, single, only highlight of the game.
you start in a dungeon, that’s ok, it looks like the original.
horny tells you to remove a few blocks, you can only do it one at a time because you only have one imp.
but they only take about three seconds each.
not so bad.
you buy another imp during the tutorial, with gems, you can get them by playing, but small amounts, sparingly.
everything you do has a timer, which can be sped up with more gems.
three seconds here, sixty seconds to build a room, not so bad.
but then you finish the tutorial and you try to dig past the dirt or soft rock, and you hit the hard rock.
then you think maybe you’ve done something wrong, because it says it will take four hours to break that block.but no, that’s how long it will take, unless you spend more gems to speed it up, at the price they’re currently selling gems for that’s about 30 pence worth of gems.
then you get to the hard gem vein blocks round the outside of the map.
they take 24 hours to break.
yes, an entire day.
to break it instantly takes £1.50’s worth of gems.
and if you intend to play more than a few seconds of the game per day you’re going to have to spend real money because you’ll only get a few hundred gems after a few hours and it takes 250 to speed up the 24 hours block.
there is a raid option, but that basically turns it into a basic tower defence game where you’re either playing the attackers or the defenders, not awful, but not really Dungeon keeper either.
and that probably has timers on it too.
and ea are brushing off the justified negative criticism by claiming the ratings on the stores are good.
but neglecting to mention they make it virtually impossible to rate anything other than five from the pop up that ask you to rate the game, five and it goes straight to the store with a five star rating, 1-4 and it takes you through some bullshit where you have to email ea about why the game doesn’t deserve five stars, and i don’t know if you ever even get to the store to give it anything other than a five star rating.
you can rate it directly on the store though, but that’s an extra hassle.
of course this applies to the android version, i don’t think they pull this bs on the ios store.
frankly though with this attempt to manipulate the ratings i think the game should be pulled from the android store.
a good free to play game can be played just fine without paying while still getting loads of enjoyment, but you want to pay, either to reward the developers or just to buy some cool stuff.
this is the antithesis of that, you can’t play it without paying and you won’t
enjoy it even if you do.
thankfully there is hope for a forlorn Dungeon Keeper fan.
and that is War For The Overworld.
the next DK game in all but name, definitely truer to the series than this abomination.
and they even got Richard Ridings in to voice a similar adviser role to horny.
i’ve seen a few videos and even at the early stage it was then it looks great.
i intend to buy it soon.
it’s currently on early access on Steam.
sorry about the long rant. ^_^
hazelam
just wanted to add, thank god ea never published Minecraft. O_O
Kitch
Warframe, NFS, Warframe and a tiny bit of Outlast. That’s my day time game now. I’ve dropped my controller twice now so I’ll be leaving it for a while.
Warframe seems to have balanced F2P just right. Yes you can pay but there’s so much else to do while you have stuff being created. Join a clan and it gets even better. I would advise a quick trip to YouTube to get a decent setup for your character as the tutorial doesn’t explain much.
ussantu
guys can u say is spelunky nice game?