Hey, you there, staring at your computer, tablet or phone – do you like video games? Do you like hearing about what video games your favorite game journalists have been playing over the past week? Well settle in because we’re about to tell you all about it in a little piece we’ve very originally titled What We Played.
Tuffcub leads off this week with God of War: Ascension, which he says is a better game than God of War III. He also went back to his pile of shame and played Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, though he said he wished he hadn’t after beating it. Finally he squared off with the final boss in Geometry Wars 3 again, but his failed attempts have led him to upping his star level to grab the final unlock, with hopes of making it a fair fight.
Mark has been wrapped up in planning a wedding this past week, but he did find time for another episode of Life is Strange, which he says has wonderful characters, a fantastic soundtrack, and he says the potential consequences of each decision have been painstaking thus far. He also touched back on Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, but he noted that the pace of the game has been a tad too slow for him, even after the discovery of the run button.
Adam checked in with a couple of shooters, the first being the Black Ops III beta, which he says moves a lot like Advanced Warfare and Titanfall, but is a tad too frantic for his taste, though he intends to keep playing while the beta is up. Next he had some interesting thoughts on Wolfenstein: The New Order, but I’ll let him fill you in:
Having now played about half the campaign I have to say it’s a really enjoyable old-school corridor shooter without any of the pretence or bells and whistles most games are lumbered with nowadays. The story is instantly forgettable, but the gunplay feels great, and moving from area-to-area with a bit of stealth instills a tension which only disipates following the unmeasurable slaughter of innumerable mecha-nazis shortly thereafter. Always a winner.
Dom played and reviewed Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment and Toy Soldiers: War Chest this week, and he’s working on Devil’s Third for next week. Then he checked back in on Battlefield 4 and Forza 5, the latter in preparation for its upcoming sequel next month. Dom also had to do some controller maintenance on a PS4 pad, and he took the time to swap the analog sticks with Xbox One sticks while he had it apart. He says it’s worked out quite well so far. Oh, and he got a fancy new TV to play all those video games on.
Dave played a nice spread of games this week, starting with Beyond Eyes for review. Then he moved onto Monument Valley for iOS, which he says is a “great title that bends perception using MC Esher physics.” From there, he found himself ‘tavern brawling’ in Hearthstone, and fishing in Terraria with friends.
Kris spent time this week playing Score Hero on iOS, which he says is a football game that’s “a bit like New Star Soccer, but without the ability to play with other elements of your life.” It’s using a free to play model but he says he’s pretty much hooked and has dropped a bit of currency on it. He also played Path to Luma, which saw him navigating across tiny planets in a cross between a maze and point-and-click game.
Jim dove back into the MOBA world this week with DOTA 2 after being inspired by the Valve international tournament. He said after only a few minutes all the good and bad of that game came flooding back. He also jumped back into Mafia II after seeing the announcement of the third installment. Here are his thoughts:
Despite some setbacks with the weighty shooting mechanics, it’s a fantastic game and one I regret not playing sooner. The setting and characters are completely on-point with Empire Bay and its citizens maturing from the post-war period to the thriving fifties. I’m about two thirds in and hope to mop up the rest before summer comes to a close.
You might’ve seen one of Stefan‘s games this week already if you’ve checked out his review for Volume. He also found himself playing Splatoon again, in an effort to “save up and buy a totally sweet looking black leather jacket for my Inkling girl.” In the end he also found his way back around to Rocket League, which he’s still having a great time with.
As for me, I started my week with a free to play PC game by the name of Trove. It’s a mashup of Minecraft-style building and MMORPG elements. It has an impressive amount of content for no entry price and is even better with friends. I also kept playing Dishonored, but a bout of sickness kept me from playing through the final couple of chapters and finishing it.
So there it is, another great week of games in the books. Now we turn it over to you for your thoughts, impressions, ideas, loves, hates, perplexities, gripes and complaints regarding the games you’ve played over the past seven days. Have at it.
GTOWN
Yet more Elder Scrolls and a bit of Last of us with Journey and LBP3 for unwinding.
If anyone wants to join me on ESO drop me a line.
TSBonyman
i played some of the Fox Tales add-on for Never Alone. Fox Tales is as charming as the main game and i like the additional folklore videos but whichever character is being controlled by the AI seems to fall foul of the environment way too often. It’s especially tiresome when you’ve just completed a particularly laborious puzzle only to have to restart because the AI character then decides to leap to their death.
Also The Witcher 3, wasted several hours trying to progress past a glitched mission with an Innkeeper early on in the story. I wandered around and found some other missions but they were too high a level for me. Eventually had to look on the internet for a solution, thankfully that put me back on track but as a result i didn’t make as much progress as i should have. Looks like i’ll be spending this weekend indoors.