What We Played #360 Yakuza Kiwami 2, Everspace & Dragon Quest XI

It’s been a hectic week, thanks to a return to work after a relaxing week off where I’ve literally forgotten what it feels like to be at work. I’m slowly getting back into the swing of it, which is handy as I’ve been falling asleep far too early and not getting anything done. Those late nights are currently filled with Dragon Quest XI at the moment, as we work towards our review in a couple of weeks, as well as Dead Cells, while regular Jurassic World Evolution and Rocket League sessions are still going down well through the summer hols. I also pretended to be in Daft Punk for a spot of Electronauts, with a review coming next week.

Aran was first up this week and he’s finished Far Cry 5. “The ending came out of left field completely”. He also tucked into a bit of Everspace too for his sci-fi fix, and has started Death’s Gambit for review. Meanwhile Miguel has been playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Hypergun for review. “I also played some Luigis Mansion for the first time with my partner, that game is really cool. Hung out with some friends and played a little Jackbox and Mario Party, too, plus I tried out Dead By Daylight with them since it’s one of the free PS+ games.”

Jake has just played a lot of Guacamelee 2, “which has a been incredibly fun and I’m looking forward to putting my review for it together”. Aside from that, he’s just been dipping into Destiny 2 to do the Spire of Stars raid lair, “but it’s been very glitchy”. Gareth played about ninety minutes of Rise of the Tomb Raider, “apparently I stopped playing about 90 minutes from the end last time:”. He also tried Far Cry 5’s Lost on Mars DLC which, “other than being mildly amusing occasionally, is dreadful. It brings back tower climbing, and it turns out towers are still annoying to climb even if you make a self aware joke about it”. Finally he also got in some Fallout 4, “because wandering through wastelands never gets old somehow”. He also delighted in the new intersection controls in Cities Skylines and played a little more No Man’s Sky.

Jason played Guacamelee 2, Freedom Planet, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark all for various writing business. “I basically can’t talk about any of it or the writing is already up and you should go read it. Oh and I played Dead Cells, no-one is surprised.”

Tuffcub has been playing H1Z1, and God of War, and his take is suitably Tuffcub-esque;

“Well the boy is annoying as hell, and the fact that he talks like an American child using words like “barf” or phrases like “that was insane!” is horribly jarring. Why bother to go to all the trouble of painstakingly researching and reproducing a dead runic language when one of your main characters if fucking Bart Simpson? Kratos also said “Ok” and that made me cringe. The foul mouthed dwarf is obnoxious, there was no need to make him so sweary, and the attempts at humour are weak.

The combat is slow and cumbersome and the plot so far (I’m on chapter 8) is obvious – so I’m heading to the final destination, the end of my quest in chapter eight? Oh WHAT A SURPRISE it’s not the end.

The map is awful, and even worse are the loading screens, or the lack of them. To mask the game loading you have to run round a circular track, or even worse paddle that bloody boat. I HATE THE BOAT AND KRATOS’ RUBBISH BEDTIME STORIES. It adds nothing, pushing forward on the Dualshock for forty seconds is plain boring.

The crafting/RPG bits are pointlessly dull, it occasionally looks good but it’s not a patch on Horizon Zero Dawn, but most importantly, it’s not God of War. Eight chapters in and there’s been one fight with a god (which you lose) and one set piece with a huge creature. Kratos has been turned in a big wuss who goes on errands for people to get an item he needs rather than smashing the brains out the person and just taking what he wants.

I would be enjoying it much more if it wasn’t Kratos. He was a shouty twat, but that’s who he was, and what they turned him into is just sad.

Having said all of that, it’s kinda OK to play but really nothing special and not a patch on HZD. 7/10.”

Steve has continued with Knack II, replayed Darksiders WarMastered “which is a terrible name for a great Zelda-alike” and got stuck into Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition. “First character setup got sassed by a sheep and spent several hours wearing a bucket before I changed my mind about class and started again.”

Ade has been playing Phantom Doctrine for review, and he’s thoroughly enjoying it. “The game seems to have come into some unfair criticism but I think that might be because people are approaching and playing it as they would XCOM and going full assault. Do that and you’re missing half the game – it’s all about the infiltration!” He also played Aces of the Luftwaffe “which thankfully was not – as I originally feared based on the title alone – a game in which you took on the role of an ace of the the Luftwaffe”. H also played through episode 1 of the final ever season of the Walking Dead. “If only the TV show took the hint from its videogame cousin and decided to wrap things up too”.

Now then, what have you played?

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

13 Comments

  1. That little mini-review of God of War amused me. The most internet review ever. “It’s shit. 7/10”

    I finished off all the previous seasons of The Walking Dead and got the platinum. Which didn’t exactly take much. Still manages to have a few shocking and/or upsetting scenes. (Mostly involving Kenny and his family). But definitely gets unnecessarily gory as it goes on. And by that 3rd season, it’s not very subtle with the way it realigns your story with the one it wants to tell.

    Then onto the final season. Which is a very long episode. And I guess I won’t be getting the platinum, because (a) there’s a choice that locks you into one of 2 pairs of trophies, about 90 minutes in, and I don’t want to go through all that again to get to that point, and (b) you miss pressing 1 button that needs pressing very quickly, and you’ve missed a trophy. But it was still all good fun, and I’m expecting horrible things to happen by the end.

    My arms are knackered from Electronauts. Waving them about making noises is fun, but tiring.

    An Aim controller should be arriving very soon, finally. So that’s some VR fun sorted then.

    Bridge Crew got weird this week. Apparently I sound posh. If you’re a sweary idiot from south east london. I think that says more about them than me. And then some Americans got all excited and loved my accent because I sound like Batman’s butler.

    And some Tales of Berseria again. My theory that I was at a “this isn’t the real bad guy you’re fighting unexpectedly early” was wrong, and it was the dreaded “you can’t kill the bad guy because reasons” fight. Somehow JRPGs can get away with that sort of nonsense and cheerful, wacky characters in a story about revenge and dead kids.

    I also finished off Beyond: Two Souls from however long ago it was on PS+ and got half the trophies and decided not to go and get the rest because that’d mean changing some of my choices, which seems wrong. I did sleep with the CIA bloke, because he looked nice enough, even if he’s a bit of a dick. And kissed the other bloke, because apparently I’m a tart. But I got a motorbike out of it, so that’s fine. (Let me guess, everyone gets a motorbike even if they don’t kiss him?)

    And quite a bit of Destiny 2. Because it’s fun, even if you spend half the time staring at loading screens and getting rid of shit you don’t need to make room for other things you don’t need.

    • And yes, that was a long post again. I’ll be kind…

      MrYd got the Platinum for The Walking Dead Collection, and did some other stuff.

      Copy and paste that into the Something for the Weekend post tomorrow? ;)

      • Gripping and thorough,
        Mr Yd omits nothing,
        His fingers rest now.

      • Stop that, Haiku boy.
        It’s getting very silly.
        So please just stop it.

      • Okay, okedoke,
        Okay, okedoke, okay,
        I’ll stop now… maybe ;)

    • Technically the game is good, and I am still playing it so dont hate it. I just dont like threw everything that was God of War out and replaced it with a load of pointless bobbins.

  2. Dead cells. That is all.

  3. So this week I finally got around to playing The Inpatient (PSVR). Jump scares galore – my swear jar overfloweth. As for the game… it’s very dark (and grainy) and so far involves walking slowly through eerily lit corridors and being periodically confined to your cell. I’m currently at the mid-point of the game and I have a feeling it’s going to open up a bit more and become a bit less claustrophobic. Jump scares are great but it isn’t something I plan on returning to once I’m done.

    I also revisited and completed Fe (got the plat), which I abandoned a few months prior due to disappointing first impressions. The game does a really poor job of introducing you to the basic gameplay mechanics but once you figure out what you’re supposed to be doing (and you unlock a few extra skills), it’s actually quite good. Overall I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of Grow Up in some ways (same basic premise) but I enjoyed Grow Up a lot more.

    Also completed Dear Esther (another plat & my 150th plat overall). Well, what can I say… wasn’t expecting much but it really resonated with me. The section inside the caves might be the most beautiful level design I’ve ever seen. Truly breathtaking. The score is great too. Can’t believe I allowed this game to sit on my hard drive for months until now. Overall a fantastic and unique experience – really glad I played it. Also, definitely worth listening to the directors commentary for some interesting insights into the games development.

    Finally, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (3rd plat woo!). This is another one that’s been ‘gathering dust’ for months. After a shaky start (and a quick googled re-cap of the original game’s plot) I soon found myself fully immersed in the world Deck Nine have created and completly invested in the characters and their stories. Before the Storm isn’t quite as exhilarating as the original game but I felt it was the perfect companion piece and made the first game seem more tragic somehow. When you compare it to something like Telltale’s The Walking Dead, where scenarios and character motivations are often eye-rollingly contrived and unrealistic, the characters in Life Is Strange are absolutely believable. I thought it was brilliant – really looking forward to Life Is Strange 2 now.

  4. I dusted off my trusty old winged space banana this week and zoomed about No Man’s Sky. Sean and co have done a stellar job with the visuals, the upgrade is as impressive as a generational leap, and the universe feels so much more lively and real with the more abundant NPCs and fauna. I’m not sure I’ll make it to the centre but since I’ve finally found a lush, interesting and non-toxic planet to build a base on as part of the new story I think I’ll take a cue from TSB and sink some time into exploring this one world.
    Also GTA, got all of the DJs on board now, earned the axe for RDR2, spent some time dispensing justice on the unscrupulous Delorean wankers. Endless fun :)

  5. GTA online, as usual

    A bit of Mass Effect Andromeda.

    Also a bit of Gravel.

    A lot of Dead Cells! Really great gameplay, and although i had a few very frustrating runs that ended up with me loosing a ton of Cells, it always happened because i got too greedy… Im still not seeing me getting the Plat, but i think i will finish it.

    Also i dabbled a bit with Phanom Doctrine. A little overwhelming at first, but charming!

    And i dusted of my copy of Assassins Creed Chronicles and finished the India part of it, only Russia left to do. (i did not dust off anything at all, its a digital copy)

    Also, tomorrow starts my two-week vacation in Thailand, so no updates from me, but i will take my VITA with me, maybe it will see a bit of action.

  6. Little bit of my favorites in anticipation of the upcoming deluge of AAA titles we’re about to be subjected to.

    Siege: Still an unrivalled FPS multiplayer experience though its huge upswing in popularity has pushed my mediocre skills backwards pretty dramatically.

    Driveclub: Still one of the best racers of this generation. Especially after how it was initially received.

    PES 19: Struggling to get to grips with the ’19 demo, it’s so different! I’ll obviously try the FIFA demo too but who knows, maybe I’ll stick with PES 18.

    Witcher 3: Over 30 years of gaming under my belt and this is firmly in my top 3. It’s incredibly rare I play anything more than once but I’m currently on my 3rd playthrough. Still no platinum though …

  7. I was on hols last week or so, bit of a family gathering so lot’s of outdoor and kid-oriented activities, trips to the local islands, nature walks and picnics , Alpaca sanctuary, circus etc. I hadn’t been to a circus since i was a kid and my they have changed. 16 different mediocre acts and at the end all 9 performers lined up.. My nephew and nieces enjoyed the circus especially as their favourite uncle got dragged out of the audience for some extended humiliation by the clown. In fairness though the clown was the best part as he got the audience engaged everytime it looked like there was a danger that the other acts were putting people to sleep. Good memories for the kids at least :)

    Very little gaming done aside from a brief stint with VR. Brother noped out of the Kitchen demo and felt sick a few seconds into Wipeout. Brother in law noped out of trying anything, the kids enjoyed Alumette, Invasion, Robot Rescue and Bound.
    But i got to play some No Mans Sky last night so things are getting back to “normal” again.

  8. Picked up RE Revelations2 in the Switch Summer Sale and have been putting a bunch of time into the Raid mode. Game runs really well on Switch and looks great.

    Was looking forward to giving the BlackOps4 beta a try but unfortunately didn’t get change all weekend :-(

Comments are now closed for this post.