It’s been another one of those weeks, if you know what I mean. A week with seven days that keep you busy and fly by, but don’t leave you with the satisfying feeling of having actually accomplished anything.
There was a fair old effort to get all of our coverage from LawBreakers together, and I took a quick trip into the centre to play Black Ops 3’s new Zombies map while interviewing Treyarch’s Jason Blundell, the Director of Zombies.
In and around that, I’ve dabbled with and been disappointed with The Division’s latest content, got a spot of time in with the classically styled JRPG I Am Satsune – more on that next week – and have fallen head over heels with picross picture puzzles.
But sticking with disappointments, Dom found himself throroughly underwhelmed by the new Star Fox Zero. It had some good ideas, but fluffed its lines on far too many occasions. Star Fox Guard, meanwhile, was a very pleasant surprise. He’s also been getting to grips with racing with a wheel in Dirt Rally and Project Cars on Xbox One, and is working towards a huge three part review for Fire Emblem Fates.
Aran’s also plugging away at a review, this time for Drinkbox Studios’ Severed on PS Vita. He also followed up on his VR time with The Collider 2 with a review of the game as a whole. Kris’ review of Train Valley’s German trains DLC is also still in the works, but he’s been dallying with a little Regency Solitaire, which blends the classic card game with a few RPG elements.
Miguel’s busy, busy week meant that he only really managed a few hours of Dark Souls 3, and that’s what Dave’s been up to as well, as he battles through his second play of the game and has reached the Dancer of the Boreal Valley. He also polished off his review of Yo-Kai Watch, a new monster collecting game that’s finally come to the West.
Rounding things out, we have Jim, who forced himself through Pang Adventures for review, but has rewarded himself with the new Ratchet & Clank game and loves how it remixes the original with new content. Then there’s the usual spot of The Witcher III, as he plugs away at the last few trophies, and has also made time for Broken Age, A Link Between Worlds, The Evil Within and God of War: Ascension.
He’s been a busy bee, but what about you? What have you been playing this past week?
The Lone Steven
Raging Souls:Dark Death Edition. Kinda raged hard on Artorias because I couldn’t master timing. 50+ deaths on him and that’s the second boss of the DLC. Excellent boss and tis a simple dual with a very aggressive boss. Completed Dark Souls on wednesday. Kinda rushed through the Four kings and Gwyn. Started a new playthrough to take my time and to try to get everything.
Dark Souls II. Sod whoever came up with the rather questionable R1 attack replacement. I mean, no. What’s wrong with kicking shields away? Parrying seems to not work or the timing is something stupid. Jumping attacks flat out refuse to occure despite me pressing the controls. I mean, it’s literally DSII that refuses to do it. DSI, i could jump attack with ease. It’s the same fecking controls! So why does DSII flat out refuses to do it? And no respawning enemies after X have been killed amount of times? Really? And the reduced health? Yeah, because I like dying so i can die evne more because dawg, i want dying in my dying.
And why is there an NPC levelling system? It worked for Demons Souls due to the story and layout of the game. Here? No. Just no. I hate having to travel to the central hub to level up. Give me back the bonfires! They were simple and gave a sense of achievement when making it back along with a sense of dread if you were low on health, had no homeward bones or the spell. Just a case of “Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. FACK BALLSHIN! I PUT CHOU INTO DA CLUTCH, GAME!”
And i can’t patch my copy due to data caps. So I’m offline, unpatched and i dislike durablity. It’s stupid. Why is it suddenly reduced and barely lasts between bonfires? Why? If a weapon breaks, it should be because i forgot to fix it or i was stupid with it. Not because it is weak in terms of health.
And why, oh why does the Warrior class start with a broken blade? And why does that seem to be a better weapon then a dagger!? It makes no sense! IT.
MAKES. NO.
SENSE!
And parrying, i understand why they changed it but change it back to Demons Parrying. There, it was a challenge. DS1 parrying, ok, yes, it was prone to abuse but a simple going back to Demons Parrying would have fixed it. Not,
“OH FECK YOU! THAT SHOULD HAVE WORKED!” parrying where the fecking animation doesn’t even play! I mean, the timing is bloody stupid. Either I have to wait to the very last second and the game refuses to adknowledge i pressed that button or rely on my Dark SOuls experience, which means nothing here.
And the bosses. Feck the pursuer. Second boss at low level? Scratch damage for most PCs? Seriously? Granted, the method of killing him seems to be a bit of a puzzla but no. At least, with Taurus, it was a challenge and well, they threw in Plunge as an option. here? Yeah, we’ll throw in a boss that is aggressive and god help you if you don’t know how to dodge.
And estus flasks? What the hell!? Why do we start with one? ONE ESTUS!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? ONE ESTUS TO START WITH!?
ONE!?
WHY IS THERE ONE!? WHY!? WHY!?
AAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
ONE!?
BS! THAT’S BS! DS 1, 5 to start with and you have to earn the ablity to increase it instead of finding shards. Here? Shards are the way to up it. Instead of fighting hard to get that one humanity you need to kindle it.
Man, this is a bit of a disappointing game.
And i’ve heard armour is not as useful this time around. Why!? Why from!? Why do that? Heavy armour should be useful. Not just something for us to use for cosmetic reasons.
The Lone Steven
Holy Sun, Solaire, i didn’t expect that to be that big!
TSBonyman
Not a lot this week as i was traveling. Played some more Just Cause 3, enjoying it apart from the unfathomable mission structure. I was delighted to come first in my very first attempt at the Driveclub tour Legends trophy event… until the absense of the familiar trophy ping made me realise there was no trophy for easy mode..
Carrot381
The nicer weather = less game time for me but managed a bit more GT6 and a few hours of PvZ GW2.
R1MJAW
Some more PGA golf with Forrest and Pixel.
Aside from that it’s just been lots more Enter the Gungeon. I’ve now completed 2 pasts (marine and convict), finished off all the elevator shortcuts, unlocked both secret characters, rescued all the npc’s and completed a load of Frifle’s hunt challenges.
Eldave0
Picked up a cheap copy of fifa14 this week so played a few rounds of that.
Rocket League is free to play this weekend so that’s me sorted :)
DividSmythe
I got the platinum out of Minecraft story mode earlier today. I’ve also been playing Arcade Game Series Pacman which I thought would be easy but I’d quite hard. So that’s 1 game from my childhood gave me the two fingers. I had a go and Starfox Zeeo which is a very confusing game. Also been playing Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Quantum Break and Lego Star Wars TCS.
Andrewww
Experienced VR for the very first time this week..! Wow, found it really cool..! A colleague had these improved cardboard glasses where he put his iPhone in, so the quality was quite poor and you could see all the pixels, it was a roller-coaster ride, but still it was really fun, and I felt a lot more to be in there. Makes me think about PSVR… :o)
Then, I played some Division with a friend, enjoying the high-end sniper rifle I found in the dark zone, replaying some missions on hard and challenging. But, as I said previously, I miss a lot the intel and any meaningful story or investigation or exploration, as I’ve got all of that, and now it’s just all shooting, which may soon get boring.
Played some Driveclub too, and I’m looking forward to the Mirror’s Edge beta, which should sit on my hard drive by now.
spartanstriker
I picked up Hitman Go and rapidly on my way to Platinum I hope, also Treasures of Montezuma free to play on Vita. It’s an oldie but a goldie gem matching – one of the trophies is for a 100 hours play tho WTF.
Might fire up Trackmania again later and Walking Dead 2 from my plus backlog.