Blair’s been a bit remiss in his gaming lately, choosing instead to work on some trivial little dissertation or something. Sounds more like a careless disregard for what should be his real priority. All he’s done this week is play a bit of Threes! and set a new high score:
I just scored 25,563 in @ThreesGame! http://t.co/xzB317TVqL pic.twitter.com/UZe5snj1C6
— Blair (@mynameisblair) April 2, 2014
He’s not alone in omitting video games from his schedule this week though as Aran’s only played a little inFamous Second Son, which he is still “enjoying” as he steadily works through clearing all the districts.
DanToo has been letting Uni get in the way of gaming recently but has finally come to his senses in so far as he’s also playing inFamous Second Son.
The story, which I’ve only just completed, was surprisingly good, and quite emotional at times, especially some of the karma decisions. The powers are bloody brilliant too. I went into the game without knowing there was more than one power (silly me!) and now my least favourite is actually the starting power!
He’s played a little more of the “utterly bonkers” Rayman Legends and persists in declaring himself “a big fan of” Thief, “despite its flaws”. There was also a bit of showering race marshals with carbon fibre shrapnel while playing so-called friendly games of F1 2013. His descriptions make it sound more like Death Race 2000 rather than a leisurely drive around Monaco.
Much like last week, we just can’t escape iFSS and Dom’s still plugging away at it, though he feels it is starting to become “a little repetitive and easy”. You will soon be able to read elsewhere on these pages what he thought of Fez and its Cross-Play-ability but in short “it’s excellent, with the cross-save feature working exceptionally well”.
Other than that I pined after Advance Wars releasing on the Wii U, so I downloaded a Gameboy Advance emulator for my phone. It’s perfect for Advance Wars but Mario Kart is utterly unplayable on a touchscreen without causing me severe rage!
Stefan brings us to a close this week with more praise for Fez. “It really is a fantastic game, whether you like Mr. Fish or not, which gradually pulls you ever deeper into the wonderfully complex game world and the puzzles which it has tucked away in every corner. Those QR codes are going to date it like lens flare in recent films, though.”
And he’s finally cracked the first DLC map in CoD: Ghosts’ Extinction mode this week, ably assisted by regulars Youles, McProley & AddictedAndy, with a cameo from Wick. He says that it was a “hugely gruelling task” but quite rewarding for all of that. He finishes up by saying that “Extinction is quite probably the best thing about this game” which sounds to me a little like ‘damning with faint praise’.
All that’s left for me to add this week is, what have you played?
ron_mcphatty
I’m looking forward to starting Fez, sounds like you guys are enjoying it! Who, if anyone, is playing on the Vita? I’m making myself clear a bit of backlog first before I buy it though. I’m nearly finished with The Force Unleashed, then I’m going to finally take on Uncharted 3, then it’ll be Fez around Easter time. I’m also planning on getting a PS4 at the end of July, got a pile of cross-buy games building up and a friend kindly gave me his copy of Killzone, yay!
ico
Hi Ron I’m playing Fez on Vita and really enjoying it. Don’t know whether it’s my poor geography or lack of spatial awareness but I am starting to struggle with getting my head around where different levels are accessed from but this may be part of the game. Heard Mr Fish is a bit of a so and so (and not watched Indie Game Movie yet partly due to this) but seems silly to let this get in the way of what is clearly an excellent game design wise.
Stefan L
It’s great on Vita.
Getting lost is easy, but the map is very helpful for keeping track.
ico
Indeedy! Without the map I’d have given up ages ago I think. Am struggling with the some of the secrets though (the bell?!?!) but determined not to FAQ it yet. Remember one of the proudest moments of my gaming life was completing Braid without using any guide or FAQ n I’d like to repeat the feat here if possible… But probably won’t!
Stefan L
If you get stuck or can’t figure out something, don’t just sit and ponder it, but rather head off and explore a different avenue of the world.
Eventually things like the bell, which I too am yet to figure out, will come into focus as you discover more of the world.
mrfodder
Got suckered into the half price Tomb Raider weekend sale on PS4 last weekend, so been playing that and I’m completely addicted to Destiny Of Spirits on Vita (and I don’t know why!?!)
Eldaveo
A nice mix of things for me this week:
Started by playing some co-op Resogun with a friend. Almost got the 15x multiplier but made the mistake of seeing I was on 14x and messed it up. Great game though.
Fired up some Killzone Shadow Fall and played a few rounds with the Mrs (very close to my 1 million points trophy now!). Also mopped up some single player trophies I’d missed the first time.
Played through Knack, which honestly I really enjoyed and is my favourite PS4 game to date. I think its the nostalgic feeling it gives off but whatever it is I always have a great time playing it.
Since Dead Nation’s multiplayer is now working correctly, a friend and I played through another few stages. Really enjoying it but I doubt I will play through it multiple times.
Finally, I downloaded Mercenary Kings which I’m finding to be quite brilliant. I love the retro look/feel of it and its deliciously challenging, which very few games seem to be these days.
I was also shocked just how much I got for selling my PS2 + games this week. Got my collection valued and they gave me £60 cash. Not bad given it was just collecting dust and not being used :)
yiddo
When you say ‘played a few rounds with the Mrs’ do you mean that Killzone has split screen online?
I’m curious as I’ve yet to get around to playing the full game, I’ve only played the multiplayer through the free PS+ weekends.
Eldaveo
‘fraid not, they’ve scrapped split screen for some reason. We have 2 PS4s and 2 copies of Killzone :)
yiddo
Ahh, that sucks.
I’ve heard Warframe has split screen online (yet to try it myself). Seems to be a dying feature :/
Eldaveo
Yep. Split screen in general is dying, which is a real shame. It’s still the best way to play games in my opinion.
yiddo
Indeed. For some games, online play will never replace the fun that could be had through split screen. For example, if I played TimeSplitters on PS2 online instead of split screen with my mates, I sincerely doubt that I’d have enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I did. Real shame that it’s pretty much dying.
At least Nintendo always seem to retain that aspect for their games – though they’re always more party orientated games anyway I suppose.
hornet1990
Just I:SS this week, completed my good playthrough with all shards, districts cleared etc (just one trophy to go back and get on that side). Now a third through my evil expert playthrough, which isn’t proving any more difficult TBH, but is a lot more fun doing evil deeds!
It’s a lovely looking game but the side missions are far too repetitive, not to mention mostly boring and the main storyline is too short, which overall leads to a sense of disappointment with it. Shortness seems to a defining quality of most next gen titles though at the moment, I wonder if it’s because they haven’t yet figured out how to scale up their content creation processes within existing budgets, so it has to be kept short to compensate.
Eldaveo
“Shortness seems to a defining quality of most next gen titles though at the moment”
I would have to agree with this. I really enjoyed Dead Rising 3, but unless you do the various fed-ex quests (yawn), the main storyline was approximately 3 hours long.
colmshan1990
Part of it may be a creative decision though.
I know I’ve gotten sick of many games being bloated, full of repeating elements (yay, another wave of enemies to kill, yawn) and sapping my enthusiasm for the game itself.
Even great games have been guilty of this (Uncharted, every decent shooter ever, Resident Evil 4, etc).
Sometimes it’s better to end the game quicker, and cut out parts which unnecessarily bloat the game.
We criticise a movie if it drags too long, we should do the same to games. Length isn’t really all that important if it’s all high quality. And if it isn’t high quality, I definitely have no intention of dragging myself through hours of bloat.
hornet1990
Oh yeah. But in the case of I:SS it’s simply not that much of a quality experience. Killzone didn’t take that long to finish and again wasn’t that great. Two hours into NFS I felt like I’d seen all it had to offer. Ghosts SP I expect to be short, and after MW3 and Blops2 probably a pile of crap. Battlefield4 SP I’ve heard is short and not that great either.
Notice a theme running here? Ok a lot are cross platform/generation but even so none are meeting the short but quality experience criteria…
PoorPaddy89
Been playing the Burial at Sea Episode 2 DLC for BioShock, which I really enjoyed. Stealth mechanics are a bit crap, but it’s an enjoyable story nonetheless.
Been trying to play the daily and weekly challenges in order to Platinum Rayman Legends, which is probably my favourite game on PS4.
Also finished 100% of trophies for Ground Zeroes. Good little game, and am gagging for The Phantom Pain next year.
element666
This week I finally went back to finish off tearaway,as it glitched on me near the end,so I had to start a new game. But I’m glad I persevered as a bagged the platinum, which took me to number 100!
I’ve also been playing mercenary kings which I’m quite enjoying :)
Youles
Congrats on the 100 plats mate, that’s awesome! Shame to hear about that Tearaway glitch, much have been frustrating!
element666
Cheers youles :)
It was frustrating,but it’s a great game so it wasn’t too bad.
Youles
Blair’s score is frankly quite ridiculous, and I think he got something like that twice – well done!
Played lots of Extinction – Teflon loves it really! AddictedAndy, McProley and I managed to escape Nightfall together having done all the challenges – which bagged myself and Proley the most awkward trophy, and my 100%…which has since be taken due to the new DLC trophy patch.
Other than that some buying and selling on the FUT web app; a couple of Lego Marvel (PS4) levels; a level of Lego Lord of the Rings (Vita); some Beyond: Two Souls and The Walking Dead season 2 episode 2.
TSBonyman
I didn’t get to do much gaming this week but i got to play about an hour each of Tomb Raider and Minecraft on PS3 and Infamous on PS4.
yiddo
Just started Borderlands 2, which I got time ago thanks to PS Plus. Loved the first game and it’s one of my only platinums, and the sequel is pretty much more of the same but with more varied environments – which is exactly what I wanted.
Also played Tekken Revolution again. I’m quite liking this free to play model of it, but I hope they don’t go down that route with a major Tekken installment such as Tekken 7. If anything, offer it as an alternative.
Spence1115
I started and finished inFamous Second Son, then got the platinum trophy and sold it to CeX, with a total of just a few days play. Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed. The story is a bit cheesy with dialogue and really misses out bits (from small things such as Delsin knowing the term core relay before he’s ever heard the name to big things such as insisting he can absorb powers from people because it happened for his very first power), but mainly the game was far too short. There’s really just reach city, find first conduit, find second conduit, beat main boss, end of game. It took me 4 hours to finish the story the second time through, compared to inFamous 1 and 2 which even on the second rushed play lasted much longer. It probably would have been even less if the cut scenes were skippable.
I enjoyed the game but it was definitely too short. Still, got £35 cash back from CeX after platinuming the game so at least that’s one upside of it being so short…
Oh, evil Delsin is such a dick as well. Like, not Cole’s awesome comic evil, just petty twat evil.