With the dust from E3 finally beginning to settle, many of us here at TSA have gotten back to our old habits of profusely playing video games until our thumbs and eyes bleed. Well, maybe we’re not quite that bad but we do play a lot of games, and it’s this piece that’s going to give you the low-down on what we’ve been gaming with over the past week.
Kris gets us started this week with every intention in the world to play Batman: Arkham Knight, but since the day one patch took so stinking long to download, he hasn’t been able to start it. Instead, he returned to Gain Ground again this week, and discovered an alternate fire button he didn’t know about, which has changed the dynamic of the game for him.
Stefan had a busy week managing his vault in Fallout Shelter, which he was quite successful with. He also took part in a Project CARS community championship, though it doesn’t sound like things went his way. Next he reviewed the Crimewave Edition of PayDay 2, which he enjoyed and said is a good game for anyone after some co-op shenanigans who suddenly can’t stand Destiny. Speaking of Destiny, he wrote about the pricing fiasco and managed to go unbeaten in the Trials of Osiris PvP mode not once, not twice, but three times.
Blair spent a good chunk of his week playing Batman: Arkham Knight, and although he wasn’t a huge fan of the Arkham Knight character, he did have positive things to say about the game.
I can’t remember being as engrossed in a video game as I have been with a Arkham Knight this week. I’ve just completed it and enjoyed it much more than City, which repeated far too much of Asylum in terms of story. It’s a better game, but it still doesn’t match the first one and really loses its way at the start of the third act with some terrible Batmobile sections (though that’s good at other points).
Aran also spent time with Batman: Arkham Knight (you can read his review here) this week but didn’t seem to enjoy it quite as much as Blair. He also noted that the Batmobile sections were a little too dominant, and joked that the game could’ve been called Project Gotham Batman. Even so, he gave a very solid 8 out of 10 score and praised it for its fantastic combat.
Mark returned to Destiny this week for the first time in quite a while and he was quite pleased with some of the changes Bungie has made over the past several months. Like most of us, he also played Batman: Arkham Knight and also really enjoyed it. In contrast to some complaints I’ve heard, Mark had nothing negative to say about the Batmobile and noted that it was a blast to drive.
Hey, did we mention a lot of us have been playing Batman: Arkham Knight? Well add Dom to the list because he’s been knighting around as well. He praised the side missions and how organic they feel in relation to the main story, though he did note that the Batmobile (while fun) isn’t always the easiest to control. He stuck with a DC Comics theme and also played Injustice, which is also getting him psyched for his Mad Catz TE2 stick to arrive (as a birthday present) so he can start playing Guilty Gear Xrd Sign. Finally, he reviewed Yoshi’s Woolly World, handing out an 8 out of 10 score while praising it for its visuals, woollen mechanics and soundtrack.
Miguel continued playing Nier on the coattails of last week’s E3 announcement of a new one, alongside catching up with anime and jamming with the new Devil May Cry 4.
As for me, I continued to cruise through The Witcher 3, though I’m consistently shocked at how little progress I make in that game in relation to the time I’ve logged. I also kept fortifying my almost indestructible home in Rust and managed to accidentally raid some poor soul who thought I wasn’t friendly and opened fire on me first. It didn’t end well for him and he had lots of good loot. Poor guy.
So there we are, another week in the books, another week closer to (insert your most anticipated upcoming game here). Some of you might have noticed that I like to leave questions beyond just what you’ve been playing right here. This week, try and conjure up the memory of the first video game you ever played and tell us about the experience in the comments.
Youles
Mostly Black Ops 2 for me, completed my first playthrough and replayed certain parts, changing my choices to see the various endings. Now on my Veteran run. I like that it tried to be different, but it’s quite boring and terrible visually.
Can’t remember if this was last week or not, but I managed to get all the trophies for the two Dying Light DLCs – Parkour and Bozak Horde DLCs.
Still Project CARS Community Events…there should be another one today.
Youles
My first game was Super Mario Land on the original GameBoy, in 1989.
hunterstryfe
My first game was Alex kidd in miracle world on master system, it built in, and only game I had for ages as dad would not buy me any new games. Rock paper scissors still annoy me to this day
DividSmythe
Prey much Batman, Batman and Rayman really from me.
DividSmythe
*Pretty
vjmwilliams
Lots of Destiny and close to finishing Wolfenstein: The New Order.
First game was Blitz on Vic 20!
hornet1990
Finished Wolfenstein:TNO on Uber difficulty so now playing through again on super-easy to cleanup the collectibles and upgrades etc.
As for my first game, that is a damn tricky question – it was a long time ago and huge number of games played since then!
It was definitely on the C64 in the mid-80s, and most likely would have been Fighter Pilot. One of the singlies used to babysit me and my sister whilst my parents were at mess functions when we were in Germany and he would bring his C64 round, mostly to program when we’d gone to bed but before that was game time, not that he had many games but I definitely recall Fighter Pilot was one of them – and probably kicked started my love of flight sims (and programming).
We later bought it off him when he upgraded to a C128, and that lead to more games like Boulderdash, Snoopy, Hunchback, Hunter Patrol, Wing Commander… Ah, the memories, and misspent youth! :)
hunterstryfe
Ya know I totally blanked the zx out of my mind, had to have been transformers, dizzy and Thundercats when I was like 5 or summat
Carrot381
Last night I finally managed to complete the Witcher 3 which has made me happy and sad in equal measure. I have a couple trophies left to get before I get the platinum and plenty of quests to finish so a fair bit of life in the game yet.
Had a quick hour on Driveclub. Massive improvement since I last played.
JustTaylorNow
It’s all been bloodborne & batmab for me, bloodborne such a pain the dungeons are doing my head it for my platinum. Batman really enjoying it but the bat mobile I try to avoid it as much I can, awful car mechanic.
Started playing sunset overdrive, being used to the ps pad, I found myself having to look down to find most of the buttons. Good game
ron_mcphatty
Oddworld and Need for Speed Rivals for me, and I think my first game was called Blast, I think it was probably 1990 when we first got a PC so it would’ve been a DOS game, pretty much an Arkanoid clone with lots of flourescant coloured blocks, a green paddle and a little pink ball (square) that went ‘bip’ and ‘bub’. Brilliant.
R1MJAW
Borderlands 2 co-op with Forrest and Pixel.
More Diablo 3, though I’m probably going to take a break from it until the 2.3 patch is out as it’s going to add a fair amount of new stuff.
Still grinding XP in Pure Pool, but I’m getting close to the platinum.
Speaking of platinums, I played through and platinumed Lego Jurassic World.
I’m and old timer so my first game ever played was Pong (or at least a version of it) in 1976/77. We had a Binatone black and white TV game, it had tennis (pong), football and squash.
MrYd
This week it’s been things from that double discount sale. Shadow Warrior (which was lots of childish fun), Wolfenstein (which has the best warning ever at the start, with it’s “Nazis are bad, m’kay?” small print) and even Tropico 5 (I can see that taking up hours and hours).
Oh, and episode 3 of Tales from the Borderlands, of course.
First game? I think we might have had one of those TV pong things too. Otherwise it was probably something on the Spectrum. Possibly Jetpac. Amazing how much fun you could have with just 16KB of game 32 years ago. And now just an update for a game can be a million times that size.
MrYd
I’ve also given Planetside 2 another go, after being very unimpressed by the beta.
It’s suddenly got my attention. Once you find the “instant action” option, and now there’s a lot more people playing at once. And if you leave the first continent.
It’s absolute chaos. Bodies falling all over the place. The map is showing each little battle as 96+ people on each side. Groups of allies spawning, running towards a target, all getting mown down instantly, respawning, and somehow all realising the best tactic is to sneak around behind the enemy.
Although I’m not liking this “server’s too busy, you’re in a queue, wait 3 minutes or give us money” thing. And the annoying “stop shooting allies” messages. Yes, I know I wasn’t supposed to do that. But with that many people running around, sometimes the wrong things get shot. No need to try and embarrass me for being a bit too trigger-happy.