I haven’t played Destiny since launch week. Even when I’ve had little else to play on my PS4, I keep subconsciously glossing over it, pushing the MMO shooter further and further towards the retirement shelf. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time with the game – I will no doubt return to Destiny at some point – but this week other game’s have drawn my attention.
The first of these is Batman: Arkham Origins. Although I loved the first two game’s in the series, I always knew I wasn’t going to pick up the instalment at launch. Considering how soon it came after Arkham City I knew that any improvements would be merely incremental, especially without Rocksteady on development duty. All in all I enjoyed Origins yet it felt way too similar to its predecessor and didn’t really capitalise on its intriguing set-up as much as I would have liked.
With first semester in full swing, as a university student, there’s no escaping the enthralling allure of local multiplayer. This means that I’ve developed an uncharacteristic adoration for FIFA 15 as well as Mario Kart 8, while also giving me the opportunity to dig out classics such as SARPBC and the timeless Crash Team Racing.
Someone who has yet to give Destiny the cold shoulder is Stefan, despite having his raid progress reset during Bungie’s weekly wipe. He got there in the end, however, thanks to help of fellow TSA members Jambo, Sifo, Wick, Dave and, of course, “George”. Take a bow, brave guardians.
Aside from hosting various TSA broadcasts during EGX, Tuffcub has also found time to play Destiny as well as he go-to handheld solution for those monotonous commutes, Borderlands 2.
Aran also spent some time with Destiny this week, bagging himself a coveted exotic item. It’s just a shame that it turned out to be for the wrong class. The Cryptarch works in cruel and mysterious ways, but hopefully players will have more luck thanks to Bungie’s recent loot-balancing patch.
Blair’s travels up and down Britain left him with plenty of spare time on his hands. It’s lucky, then, that he happened to have a copy of Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS knocking about:
I’m really enjoying it. It made tube and bus journeys through London much more enjoyable. I still think it’s far too focused on multiplayer for a game on a handheld system, but the classic mode is good.
Finally we have Peter who’s been spending time with some hot upcoming releases:
I’ve been playing Alien Isolation for review but the embargo isn’t up until later today so I can’t tell you how good it is. Or isn’t. It’s a mystery!
I’ve also played a bit more Forza Horizon 2, which is still quite brilliant, and a tiny little bit of DriveClub, which is absolutely gorgeous to look at and controls quite nicely but is significantly more of an arcade racer than I’d thought previously. That’s definitely not a bad thing, it’s very fun, but die hard PlayStation racers will probably have to wait for the next Gran Turismo for their proper racing sim.I’ve just got the beta for The Crew to play too, so it’s racing all week long next week!
So, how many of you are still grinding your way through Destiny’s endgame? Has another game caught your eye, or are you eagerly awaiting today’s new releases?
Youles
Mostly Watch_Dogs “Bad Blood” DLC this week – did the Co-op missions with kjkg which was a lot of fun, despite me making a lot of fuck-up on our first evening. Made me realise the controls seem a bit odd compared to other 3rd person shooters (X to go up against a wall/cover, L3 to reload). Was never issue when playing the game, but re-visiting it felt a bit odd. T-Bone and his campaign is far more fun and interesting – I wonder if the original game was rushed – the DLC seems far more experimental. However it’s almost like they ignored issues with the main game – the driving is weak, so here’s 29 more driving missions. The stealth missions are fun, so we’ll give you loads of opportunity for combat. Having a Co-op partner made the side-missions far more bearable though!
Also played some TLOU with yogdog, kjkg, scuba_steve and threelions! Only 4 games away from completing my Firefly journey and the final online trophy!
Played a fair amount of FIFA too, mostly FUT but also a few exhibition games here and there. I can’t for the life of me get the Toe Poke trophy, even wondered if it’s glitched.
On PS3 I played some FarCry 3 (Co-op) with Tactical20 and scuba_steve, completing all 6 missions. Seems like a fairly decent game, and was pretty tough considering it was on Casual.
No Vita this week….apart from the update, although I couldn’t see ANY themes available. Kind of a pointless feature if there aren’t any yet.
PvZ Garden Warfare turned up – hoping to find some TSAers to play it with.
Avenger
I presumed there would be a selection of themes included in the update to choose from, but from what I’ve seen across the net it seems that themes will come to the store next week. Some will be free, others will cost. A shame really. I’ll probably grab the free ones but just continue to make my own. Then again I’m hardly playing the console these days.
Youles
Yeah, thought there might be a couple of default ones in the update at the very least.
I’d probably get a few game specific ones, although I’m happy to use Vita game screen-shots for my background.
Lyts1985
I’ve treated myself to PvZ on PS4 too mate so may well catch you on there at some point ;-) it really is good fun
Youles
Oh smashing, pretty busy until I go away on 13th Oct for a week, but if you fancy a regular weekly meet after that I’d be up for it?
Avenger
Mainly messing around on GT6 trying to rack up another 900 miles for the platinum.
Also delved into the Crysis 3 multiplayer which isn’t half bad. I just have 6 multiplayer trophies left to get and then I’ll play the single player. I’m amazed how bad the graphics are considering Crysis 2 looked great on the 360.
tactical20
Sniper Elite 3. Not a particularly memorable experience. Pretty short and pretty boring, with plenty of glitches. Wouldn’t recommend it. Gonna go back for another run through Wolfenstein this weekend, before Alien arrives next week.
Youles
What setting did you play SE3 on, it’s very rewarding (but tough) on Authentic? It’s brutal but the harder the setting the more you get out of the game imo :)
tactical20
Yeah, that’s what I figured. I expect on higher difficulties, levels can take hours to complete. I missed Sniper Elite 2 on PS3, so was keen to give this one a go, but just found it pretty one dimensional. I guess the desert setting isn’t exactly the most dynamic of environments!
Youles
You’re spot on – the levels can take a few hours on Authentic, and it can be frustrating, but incredibly satisfying once completed! I agree about the desert, I wasn’t drawn to the setting, particularly as the levels in V2 were far more varied and interesting. But that said, the last two Churchill DLC levels in SE3 were utterly brilliant, but it’s not likely people will buy them if they didn’t enjoy the 8 stock missions so much.
R1MJAW
Still have an unhealthy addiction to Diablo, recently hit paragon level 175.
Occasional bouts of Fifa 15 in between loot hunting sessions in Diablo.
Played a bit more Trine 2 multiplayer with Forrest and Pixel_nme, finished of the main story and made a start on the dlc levels.
Picked up Fantasy Life and Smash Bros for 3DS, really enjoying Fantasy Life, played it for about 15 hours so far and I’ve barely touched the story.
Eldaveo
Destiny for me mainly. I’m not sure what it is about it but, despite its numerous flaws, something keeps bringing me back to that game. Have almost finished up the Story missions and Strikes, then its off to the Crucible as I start the long grind to level 26+ and attempt the Raid.
Other than that I got into The Crew beta, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Not sure how excited I am for the full game, but the beta does a nice job at showing off the different vehicle classes and a nice chunk of the map is unlocked for exploration. With all the driving games out between now and the end of Nov, I can see The Crew getting lost in there and dropping in price quickly. I’ll probably pick it up cheap early next year.
Oh, Hyrule Warriors on Wii U. Incredibly repetitive but, again, surprisingly enjoyable. Will probably trade it in towards Smash Bros U next month however.
double-o-dave
Just a little FIFA 15 for me.
I’m finding the gameplay a bit better than the last instalment but I’m not too keen on the animations. The players seem very jerky to me and tend to look like they’re ice skating across the grass quite a lot. The goal replays etc don’t look as good to as FIFA 14 either, almost a bit unfinished. Not moaning, just saying. :)
JustTaylorNow
Been playing the last of us, finally platinum it, I was busy trying 100% it only to find out you can complete the whole game without playing the DLC but now I will move on to left behind & hopefully finish it off.
Played a bit of metro light & erm I will move on to next game which will be that Lord of the rings that ain’t called Lord of the rings for some reason unknown to me.
Fifa 15 there & there, soul sac delta on vita
JustTaylorNow
Oh and the lottery 77 mill imagine
TSBonyman
I completed Destiny story and decided to play some of the strikes i had skipped but kept getting disconnected – and at the worst possible moment – twice it happened just as i was reloading to take what would have been the final headshot which would have beaten the boss and completed the strike mission. That’s me done with Destiny, and quite possibly any other game which requires an online connection in future.
On to brighter things and i completed Metro 2033, enjoyed it overall but it is showing it’s age a bit.
Also i’m at the last fight in Wolfenstein so i’ll quite possibly have a look at the alternate timeline when i’ve managed that.
I’ve gone through hell with Minecraft on PS4… After all the hours i spent playing it on PS3 i somehow never got around to it but finally made a portal and visited the Nether! It’s excitingly frantic when you die there and have to try and race back to collect all your items. :)
And just to make things easy for myself I’ve started a new playthrough of Dishonored and last night i bought and sampled a few levels of Rayman Legends before sleep became a priority.
Incidently, while i was in the throes of Destiny, over a few days off i spent my time jumping back and forth between Destiny and Minecraft, a few hours of each at a time, and was wondering how much i might enjoy a game which featured the best of both .. here’s looking at you No Man’s Sky.. :)
freezebug2
Playing through Grid Autosport PS3 at the moment and fair play to Codies, really have delivered with this one. The only real gripe is the single player AI’s failure to meander from a programmed and pre-determined path.
Get past the AI dumbness and acquire a skill for the brash handling it delivers a cracking game. Online with randoms has been pleasantly surprising with very few smash and grabbers ;)
DividSmythe
I’ve played a decent amount of FIFA on Ps4 in the last week but mainly my Xbone had the most love this week. Chariot which is free with games with gold, which is a great couch co-op platformer and Forza horizon 2 which is quite good.