It’s hard to believe we’ve been on here jabbering about our gaming feats and stories for 200 of these now, but that appears to be the case as we return once again for What We Played, our own little piece of video game tomfoolery where we share what we’ve been up to for the past seven days. Let’s pop the proverbial cork on this thing and get rolling, shall we?
Aran was the first to check in this week, and he’s been playing a variety of games for both the site and his own leisure. He completed and reviewed Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, and he’s also been playing Space Colony, which you can expect to see a review of next week. Aran also took the time to check out the PlayStation Now beta with both Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Papa & Yo. He noted that Now seems to be a pretty good service but he did see a degradation in quality at certain points, even with a very solid internet connection. As for the games, he enjoyed the cheesy 80s vibe of Blood Dragon and he referred to Papa & Yo as a decent puzzle game that looks really nice.
Jim was up next and didn’t have much to report, but since he seemed to feel bad about it I’ll go ahead and pass on his story.
Well, isn’t this just my luck. WWP is celebrating its 200th edition and here I am, for the first time ever, with absolutely nothing to report.
With it being the last week of my degree, you can imagine there’s been little time to frolic around with games. That said, not wanting to miss out on the 200th celebrations, I did manage to get my hands on a “New” 3DS XL to pre-emptively reward myself with. Haven’t set it up yet, but it will no doubt get some usage as soon as I import my Monster Hunter 4 data!
Dom reported having a very good week, which started with Affordable Space Adventures on Wii U. He spoke very highly of it in his review, noting it includes some of the best use of the Wii U gamepad he’s seen yet. He’s also been checking out State Of Decay: Year One Survival Edition on Xbox One, as well as Mortal Kombat X, Codename STEAM, and Forza Horizon 2.
Next up is Mark, who had a bit of a busy week so he’s been specifically looking for games he can drop in and out of quickly and for short periods of time. That, and his love for F1 racing, brought him back to Driveclub this week, which he says is amazing now that all the kinks have been worked out. He’s also been playing a bit of the Raid game mode in Resident Evil Revelations 2, as another game that’s easy to pick up and put down.
Gareth took the time to play some Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor this week, which he completely lost himself in for the second time.
The storyline is far from being part of the Lord of the Rings but the atmosphere is dead on, due in no small part to the Orcs and Uruks being just so well done which, in turn, is down to the Nemesis system. I hope to see it cropping up in other games. When I find someone who’s afraid of fire I never get tired of throwing them into the flames, but I think that may say something about me.
Stefan got to fulfill his wish of pretending to be a piece of bread this week, as he played and reviewed I am Bread. He wasn’t entirely thrilled with the controls, but he still gave it a 6 out of 10 and praised its nonsensical premise. Next he tried a bit of Knights of Pen & Paper 2 for a preview, which he noted has “plenty of light humour, that unique tabletop RPG-styled gameplay pastiche and lots of genuine improvements over the first game.” He finished his week with Driveclub and Destiny, the latter of which should have him prepared for the House of Wolves expansion next month.
Then there’s Blair, who spent some of his week playing a different kind of game, a board game. He told me a story about a game called Betrayal at the House on the Hill, which sees a team exploring a house in the beginning, yet at some point one of them becomes a monster and apparently goes after the rest. It certainly sounded interesting and he said he’s definitely hoping to check it out again soon. As for the type of game we normally hear Blair talk about, he did make time for a bit of Super Smash Bros, and said he’s excited to play the new Mario Kart 8 DLC in the near future.
Finally there’s Tuffcub, who made his normal trip into Destiny this week, as well as Metro 2033 Redux, which he said he’s been enjoying. He also played Never Alone, a game he called “utterly charming” but said it lost steam at the end for reasons that would spoil the game if he shared. He also visited Far Cry 4 for the first time, which he talks about just below.
Created by the Ubisoft Game Making Committee it takes the “trapped in remote region with psychotic bad guy” story from Far Cry 3, the “unlock towers to see the map” from Assassin’s Creed and the “hunt animals to craft” from both series. I’m quite surprised there isn’t a hacking mini game swiped from Watch Dogs. Also you don’t get to play the bloody game for ten minutes after starting it due to un-skippable cut scenes. Tired, generic and generally dull, thank god I only rented it. Tomb Raider did much the same thing but was much better two years ago.
Coincidentally, I also played Far Cry 4 for this first time this week, but I came away with a very different opinion than TC’s. I’ve enjoyed the villain again this time around, though I wish he played a bigger role in the first half of the game. I’ve also enjoyed the plethora of side objectives, hunting, and scavenging the game affords you in its absolutely massive world. It leverages just the right amount of side tasks that you really need to do without making you feel like you have to do all of them. Granted, this isn’t the type of game that’s going to hold your hand for a six hour experience, and we’ve certainly seen tighter narratives, but I’ve enjoyed my time with it.
So that’s 200 of these things in the books now. If you’ve been with us since the beginning and you’re up for a bit of nostalgia, click here for the first ever What We Played. Whether you have or haven’t been with us since the beginning, remember, this is a two-way street, and we need your input as well. So head to the comments and let us know what you’ve been up to!
Tuffcub
Well I’d like to say I’ve grown up since the first one but.. no. :P
The Lone Steven
In fact, i think you have grown down since the first one! :O
Youles
Last Saturday I got the Battlefield Hardline platinum, although I found the single-player rather boring.
I also got 100% Heist DLC trophies on GTA5 on PS4.
Other than that it’s been the regular Monday evening PS3 GTA5 Heists meet, and I’ve got back into Dying Light this week. It really is a good game. I appear to have done all the missions in The Slums, so I’m going to gather all the collectables there, and then move on to the Old Town. Hopefully not too long before I finish it and get the platinum – hopefully in time for Project CARS’ release.
Youles
And congrats on the 200th What We Played!!
Wow, that one had 5+ pages of comments!!!! :(
Back then I wrote:
I completed Portal 2, Dead Space 2 (and still doing Hardcore mode), Mirrors Edge and Dead Nation….so I can tick them off my list! Now for Brink, LA Noire and Dirt 3 XD
Avenger
Just GT Academy for me. I’ve put loads of practice in (for the fun of it I might add) and the more I do, the more I appreciate the car and tack combination. I’m slowly shaving off time bit by bit, and I’m currently just outside the top 1000 (on a leaderboard which is ever increasing). Lot’s of fun, and learnt quite a bit in new driving techniques.
Tried Ghost Recon Future Soldier a few weeks back. Not bad, but better in co-op I reckon. Looking forward to playing it with Blast71 in a couple of weeks when I’m done with work for a bit.
JustTaylorNow
Just bloodborne, really enjoying it right now, having lost all my data when I swapped HDD, was frustrated starting that game again but found my feet again as I spent all my night trying just to get past the annoying first stage.
Hopefully some co op with Jones, we always discuss some sort of co op but never really excite it
TSBonyman
If you’re becoming impatient i recommend just calling in a random to help with the boss fight (Father G i presume?), it really worked out well for me. Took less than a minute for someone to join me. You can each take turns alternating between attacking and then healing while the other player attacks. Few minutes later the fight will be over, the other player will de-sync from your game and you’ll have a brand new area to explore and die in. ;)
R1MJAW
Finished my first run through Titan Souls. 19 bosses killed (including the final extra boss) in 2 hours 30 minutes with 158 deaths. Really enjoyed it but don’t think I’ll be attempting the platinum as some of the trophies are extremely difficult.
Went back to Tower of Guns and now have 100% trophies thanks to the new patch fixing the 2 glitched unlocks.
Still playing Dying Light co-op with Forrest, berzerka and Pixel and Borderlands 2 with Forrest and Pixel.
Random short blasts of Diablo and Binding of Isaac when I can’t decide what to play.
Made a start on Shovel Knight yesterday, really looking forward to getting stuck into it.
Carrot381
An enjoyable week of PSNow for me. The Wolf Among Us kindly provided me with an easy Platinum taking me to a career high of 3.
Have also been putting some hours into Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen. Not the best RPG I’ve ever played but I’m finding it quite addictive and it’s got me in the mood for The Witcher 3.
Tony Cawley
I’ve also really got into far cry 4 this week, having finally (temporarily) broken my addiction to destiny. I am living far cry 4, some of the missions are just plain bonkers, highly enjoyable stuff.
Matt Wingler
Yep, some really unique missions that completely go off the rails at unexpected times. Loving it so far.
WalkingP
Same thing happened to me, when I finally said enough was enough of Destiny, one of the first games I played was Far Cry 4, and I must say that I really found it nice change of pace from the Destiny grind.
DividSmythe
Pretty same as every week Rayman Legends, GTA V both on both consoles. Also got invited to Ps Now beta test last Saturday and got through my first play through, now on to trophy for it and platinum it hopefully sometime next week. I’m loving Ps Now BTW. No latency or major graphical loss for me.
TSBonyman
I played some more of Tomb Raider DE, took that gammy looking new concept car for a run in Driveclub – actually a fun drive – but haven’t even looked at the new Startline tour yet.
I jumped into Titan Attacks having jumped out of it several months ago and enjoyed a few rounds of that while picking up a few unexpected trophies, and i’m still performing my ‘one-step-forward, two-steps-back’ routine in CounterPoint.
But mostly, Bloodborne. I’ve now defeated Father G thanks to some kindly co-op assistance from a random and also bought the key to access Cathedral Ward, so now the game has really opened up with a hub of new areas to explore. Surprisingly i’m finding some of the new enemies quite easy to deal with but other enemies i had previously encountered are now in their second iteration and nastier to deal with as a result. For example i heard the distinctive call of a Troll and went confidently to deal with it not realising it was now armed with a particularly nasty rake which – YOU DIED
The Lone Steven
I’ve been playing Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Bayonetta.
Mass effect 2. I discovered my copy is a bit crap and need to replace it with a brand new one due to all kind of issues that are caused by it’s condition. Never thought i would buy the same game 3 times.
Dragon Age Origins. Still my favourite RPG of all time.
Bayonetta. Well, what can i say about Bayonetta? That ***** instant death if you fail to hit a button within a second or two quick time events **** me off and the cutscenes tend to give you little to no time to dodge an attack. But it is very fun and traces of Devil May cry(original series) are present in it due to the creator of DMC being the creator of this. Gameplay is fast and fluid, story is interesting and Bayonetta has a rather nice ass. What? Don’t judge me for not ignoring my tv when she thrusts it at me! Shame the franchise is most likely dead due to sales not doing that well for the sequel. :(
Forrest_01
The real shame of Bayonetta 2 was that they foolishly decided to make it Wii exclusive & not release it on any of the consoles that made the original a success.
Excluding almost the entire fanbase from a sequel is not really the best way to make money if you ask me. In fact, its a good way to kill off a franchise.