Another week, and with the nights drawing in, the battering some parts of the country received with Barney blowing through, gaming indoors is becoming a more and more attractive way to spend your evening.
In Aran’s case, the last few weeks have seen him simulating an outdoor sport with Football Manager 16. He’s been guiding Southampton to glory in the Euro Cup – well, he’s now trying to navigate through the knockout stages now – while holding a decent 8th position in the league at the same time. Can he lead them to the top? He’s hoping that Cassio – his hot tip for a keeper to scout – can help him on his way. Phineas & Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz and The Crew: Wild Run are also on his ticket for review, and you can expect those next week.
Dom’s also been busying himself with reviews, spending time with Xenoblade Chronicles X for the future, but also reviewing Star Wars Battlefront over the weekend. “It’s still proving to be a draw,” he said, “despite now having limited myself to only a few of the modes. It’s a shame that I feel like the season pass is an essential purchase though to fill the game out.” Beyond that, he’s been punishing his ISP for having him as a customer by replacing his PS4’s HD with a 2TB drive and re-downloading all the games and patches he had before!
Kris‘ week has been building towards an exciting future project, and part of that required him to play a fair bit of Volume. He said, “I like the gameplay a lot and while the core story is good but slightly cliched, the smaller side stories set around this dictatorship that rules England that are told via notes you find in game are excellent and fascinating, showing the rise of England’s ruler and how he got around a lot of the obstacles in his way.”
Tuffcub’s week has also seen a spot of reviewing, with Superbeat: Xonic’s rave inducing rhythm action, but when he’s been on his PS4, it’s been Fallout 4 in the drive. He’s not as head over heels with it as Dave was in his review, though, saying that he was expecting just a little bit more than being Fallout 3 HD.
And speaking of Dave, he’s been playing just a little bit of Fallout 4 – taking a little break after hammering his way through – a little bit more of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros., and a fair amount of Undertale on PC.
“Undertale is an interesting one,” he said, “as it is a JRPG where you don’t have to kill anything, well, almost. I’ve tried to go as fully passive as possible. Harder than it looks. Only a few hours into it so far, but allegedly it gets really interesting later on.”
As for myself, it’s been another week where I’ve struggled to get into the games I’m playing. I’ve been reviewing the tactical strategy game of Hard West, which blends the Wild West with XCOM and throws in more than a few occult ideas into the mix. While I’m enjoying it, it lacks checkpointing to the more bespoke, narrative-led levels, and I’ve, at times, found myself in a bad position and with a vital character killed, which sends me right back to the start of the level. It can be quite off-putting.
I’ve also been thoroughly enjoying my time with Star Wars Battlefront. I can certainly see where Dom was coming from with his criticisms over the lack of depth and variety to the game modes, amongst other things, but there’s still a lot to like and enjoy about it. For one thing, it looks simply stunning in motion, with incredible recreations of Endor, Hoth and Tatooine.
But now it’s over to you. What have you all been playing over the past week?
TSBonyman
Mostly Treehouse Simulator – ie Fallout 4. Yes, i’m probably spending far too much time with the settlement building but i’m also enjoying the rest of the game and i can see the disk remaining in my PS4 for some time.
Also dipped into the free-to-play Gem-Whatchamacallit.
TSBonyman
*Gems of War.
MrYd
Don’t talk to me about Gems of War. It’s evil, in the same way all of those similar games are evil.
It’s actually a lot of fun. Suddenly gets hard without a bit of luck/grinding/paying real money, but then you make more progress. And no real need to pay for anything. I like the invading other players kingdoms part, mostly because the match making tends to reject some games for having too much of a level difference (something a lot of games could do with, especially certain large first person s*******), and every now and then for being “a bit weird”.
TSBonyman
It’s not bad at all, although i’d prefer a purer match-3 type game without the battling. The great thing about free to play games is that they are only intended as a distraction, are never actually meant to be completed and also the developers don’t seem to have any interest in getting paid.
;)
MrYd
It’s the battle bit that makes it interesting for me. It can get surprisingly complex and strategic with the right troops.
Wait until you’ve matched enough to charge up 1 or 2 of them, use 1 troop that destroys a row, does damage and gets you an extra turn, use that extra turn to match 4, charging up another troop which does damage, removes a row and gets all the benefits of everything on that row. Which with any luck matches some skulls to do damage, charges something else up and gets you an extra turn for your hero to do his attack.
When it all comes together, you can wipe out 2 or 3 of the enemy troops, attacking with 3 of yours, and end up just 1 turn away from fully charging something to attack again.
But to start with, it’s just a bit of luck and some easier oponents. Until you get stuck and have to grind and get better troops and upgrade them. At which point, claim some more kingdoms and do their first levels, do challenges, and open chests, before it suddenly becomes possible to win harder levels and gets all strategic.
Carrot381
Second playthrough of Fallout 4, this time I’m taking it slowly and having a good explore. I think the game really comes into it’s own when you just wander around. I’m loving the ‘legendary’ enemies and find myself getting proper excited to see what weapon or armour they’re gonna drop when I kill them. Top, top game.
Andrewww
Again, I only had time for Driveclub, and I’ve not even got the bikes yet.
Still love it, especially the challenges, but I do a bit more of the tour races now.
Just seen I need to drive another 406 races in India for one of the last two trophies. Come on, 406 races…? Are you serious..?
MrYd
Which trophy needs that many races?? I’m sure I got the platinum with nowhere near that many. I know this because (a) I got the platinum and (b) didn’t go mad in the process.
Unless I did and I haven’t noticed. Which is entirely possible, I guess.
Andrewww
I’m sure you must have then. You need to max out 5 levels for one of the locations. As I seem to have done most in India, that’s what I’m going for, and I doubt it’s less for the others. Ok, when you do the short drift events, especially trying to beat someone’s challenge score, you get the number up quite quickly, but still.
Andrewww
Wait a moment… I’ve just checked that trophy again. You’re right, it mentions all the accolades, but not the location..! Means I don’t need all those India races… Thanks a lot..! :o)
MrYd
The “Credit where it’s due” trophy? Yes, it’s just finish level 5 of a single accolade under 4 of the categories. No location involved.
A whole bunch of single lap races (single events, not the tour) should get you there quickly. Drift events might not be wise – races can get you the accolade for overtaking.
Personally, I’d just ignore it and have fun playing the game. You’ll get those accolades eventually anyway. And it won’t take a silly number of events in the same location.
wonkey-willy
been mixing it up this week with a main course of COD’s completely nutty single player,a side order of gears of war,resident evil and for dessert some wang!(shadow warrior)
RocketSOL
Fallout 4 and Battlefront for me. Loving both!
Pixel_nme
Borderlands 2 meet Monday with Forrest,Zerka and R1MJAW,some Fifa 16 and a bit of Fallout 4 a fair few hours of solo in Borderlands 2,some Black Ops 3 and Star Wars Battlefront and Dying Light Friday night with R1MJAW,Berzerka and Forrest and just a moment ago picked up the platinum for Need for Speed which i actually enjoyed,shame they went the route of always needing a connection and virtually no multiplayer.