Currently Playing in 2014....

Well, had a ball over the weekend with Gear of Wars 3 - not only with the offline vs Bots, but also (shock, horror) online - and it was good (got myself ranked up to level 27 so far). Really love the maps; amazing that the 360 managed such a beautiful look and it's easy to see why it's going to be hard to put the console to bed once and for all; it's just such a capable machine. This is now probably my most treasured 'bot play' game, followed by GoW Judgement then old favourites like Brink, Lost Planet 2 and the Spartan Ops missions in Halo 4. All in all a great weekend with my 360 - there's life in the old girl, yet!

I've decided to buy a new 360 before they get phased out forever. Although my current machine (an original 'core' 360 with a replacement 250GB drive, believe it or not) is still - somehow - going strong, I really need to make sure that when it dies (and it will, I'm sure) I have a pristine new one boxed and ready in the wings. I've invested so much money in games (god knows how many disks and downloaded and DLCs I actually for it) I think it would be wise to 'future-proof' that investment some more.

[iup=3522990]Banjo[/iup] wrote:Ordered 999. In the meantime I'm really in the mood for visual storytelling-esque games, got Hotel Dusk to play through and am looking for other games of a similar vein. Any recommendations?

When you finish 999, get it's sequel.

Already have it, hence why I'm getting 999, so I can then play the sequel.

I'm really starting to enjoy Front Mission 3 now. I'm about 15 missions in and the story is starting to get interesting. I've managed to bag all the platinum medals thus far too

[iup=3523543]IAmTheSaladMan[/iup] wrote:I'm really starting to enjoy Front Mission 3 now. I'm about 15 missions in and the story is starting to get interesting. I've managed to bag all the platinum medals thus far too

Front mission 3 is amazing shame it's the only good game in the series .

[iup=3523555]Slayerx[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3523543]IAmTheSaladMan[/iup] wrote:I'm really starting to enjoy Front Mission 3 now. I'm about 15 missions in and the story is starting to get interesting. I've managed to bag all the platinum medals thus far too

Front mission 3 is amazing shame it's the only good game in the series .

The remake of the first game on DS is fantastic.

A friend gave me a copy of Amazing Spider-Man 2 on PS4 and a code for the Android game too.

PS4 game is not amazing, but it's not as gooseberry fool as reviews led me to believe (better than the movie though), the web slinging is the best it has ever been, the side missions are repetitive and boring but the main stuff is kind of fun. If you can get for very cheap I'd say it's worth playing just for the web slinging.

Android game is actually quite impressive, looks bloody lovely and despite virtual controls I have had a loads of fun with the game, much better than the console version anyway. Shame Gameloft won't get another chance at Marvel games as this and Captain America were pretty enjoyable and showed promise, hopefully Marvel themselves will deliver better mobile games going forward.

I did download Guardians of the Galaxy while it was cheap over the weekend, seems okay so far, very funny too.

None of these hold a candle to Velocity 2X though, in fact I haven't played a game all year as good as Velocity 2X. Can't say much more until the embargo is up but easily the best PS4 game released since Resogun.

Getting further into Kid Icarus and EOIV.

The land based controls in Kid Icarus are starting to click better with me. They still aren't brilliant, but I feel more in control now than I did. The game continues to fire on all cylinders. Pretty impressive stuff.

EOIV is kickass. It may be better than Untold.

At the moment I'm playing through the obscene amount of downloaded games on my 3DS (Suzz ). The surprising thing about this for me is that my exposure to videogames began with the Mega Drive/Snes era, and I was primarily console-based with iterations of the Game Boy as Pokemon machines (with the odd other title mixed in, but mostly 'Mon), so a lot of the classics from the NES era passed me by as well as numerous Game Boy titles.

And, well, I simply can't play them. I grew up with videogames that had used these titles as a starting point and developed on from them, and while I can certainly appreciate the origins of these templates and genres, they really do not hold up well. Most depressing of all was just how bad Wario Land felt; controls were awkward and I seriously could not get into it. 2, 3 and 4 are still amazing though.

I never played the original Metroid, and I find it almost unplayable in its original form. Looking to get Zero Mission to address that. It's something of a sad revelation to me; that so much videogame history is borderline unenjoyable in my hands.

About 40% of the way through The Last of Us and I'm not sure if I'm liking it or not. The production values are obviously through the roof, but it's not exactly 'fun', is it? Also shares too many insta-death moments with the Uncharted games, which I find pretty inexcusable, personally - I want the game to allow me to to play it. Anyways, I'll crack on and see if my enjoyment levels improve, but so far I would rate this 7/10.

FFX-2: Status ailments carry over from battle to battle? strawberry float that! *deletes*

Saint of Killers wrote:FFX-2: Status ailments carry over from battle to battle? strawberry float that! *deletes*

Don't most RPGs have that? Usually minor ailments like Sleep get lifted after battle but the more serious stuff like Petrify stick around until you cure them.

[iup=3523771]IAmTheSaladMan[/iup] wrote:

Saint of Killers wrote:FFX-2: Status ailments carry over from battle to battle? strawberry float that! *deletes*

Don't most RPGs have that? Usually minor ailments like Sleep get lifted after battle but the more serious stuff like Petrify stick around until you cure them.

FFX didn't. I went straight from X to X-2 and so it's slightly jarring, but it wasn't the real reason why I quit the game. I've just had my fill of FF for now and will carry on with X-2 at some point in the future (I even uploaded my save to PS+ cloud before deleting the game from my Vita).

Tried to play Shadow of the Colossus HD on PS3 at the weekend. Right, erm, just let me brace myself here. How can I put this delicately...?

Wasn't impressed. Controls were very clunky and 'two generations ago.' I just felt like I was wrestling the control scheme. I gave it half an hour but couldn't shake the feeling there were other, better games I could be playing. I stuck on Two Brothers instead and found it a far more pleasurable experience.

I suspect it's probably one of those games you needed to play at the time. Let the flaming commence.

[iup=3523820]Poser[/iup] wrote:Tried to play Shadow of the Colossus HD on PS3 at the weekend. Right, erm, just let me brace myself here. How can I put this delicately...?

Wasn't impressed. Controls were very clunky and 'two generations ago.' I just felt like I was wrestling the control scheme. I gave it half an hour but couldn't shake the feeling there were other, better games I could be playing. I stuck on Two Brothers instead and found it a far more pleasurable experience.

I suspect it's probably one of those games you needed to play at the time. Let the flaming commence.

Pineview Drive-

It's basically what I expected Gone Home to be before I played it. You walk around a haunted house looking for keys to unlock more rooms while progressively more ghost stuff happens. Gradually opening up more and more of the mansion is weirdly satisfying but often you're just walking around trying to find a scripted event without much idea what you're doing. Couple that with a hint system which is either far too specific or so vague as to be annoying. Optimisation is poor too.

Maybe one to buy in a Steam sale.


Just discovered a life size clown doll in a new area of the mansion. Nope.

[iup=3523820]Poser[/iup] wrote:Tried to play Shadow of the Colossus HD on PS3 at the weekend. Right, erm, just let me brace myself here. How can I put this delicately...?

Wasn't impressed. Controls were very clunky and 'two generations ago.' I just felt like I was wrestling the control scheme. I gave it half an hour but couldn't shake the feeling there were other, better games I could be playing. I stuck on Two Brothers instead and found it a far more pleasurable experience.

I suspect it's probably one of those games you needed to play at the time. Let the flaming commence.

Nope, it was always gooseberry fool. Controls are garbage. They're even worse in the HD version as there's a glitch with the gripping that makes you fall of the colossi for no reason.

Hopefully one day they'll remake it with improved controls (I couldn't get in to the HD release either). Though it was totally worth buying for the Ico theme alone...

I was bested by the controls/camera one-two punch as well. Ico has aged a lot, lot better.

Played through both the original and HD versions of SotC without issue.

[iup=3523947]chalkitdown[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3523820]Poser[/iup] wrote:Tried to play Shadow of the Colossus HD on PS3 at the weekend. Right, erm, just let me brace myself here. How can I put this delicately...?

Wasn't impressed. Controls were very clunky and 'two generations ago.' I just felt like I was wrestling the control scheme. I gave it half an hour but couldn't shake the feeling there were other, better games I could be playing. I stuck on Two Brothers instead and found it a far more pleasurable experience.

I suspect it's probably one of those games you needed to play at the time. Let the flaming commence.

Nope, it was always gooseberry fool. Controls are garbage. They're even worse in the HD version as there's a glitch with the gripping that makes you fall of the colossi for no reason.

I don't think SotC is gooseberry fool, but it is a bit overrated. The soundtrack is the only thing that is amazing about it. I thought Ico was extremely mediocre. I did play these on PS2 back then, but haven't played the HD remakes. I still have the cardboard case copy of SotC with the post cards somewhere, and the reprint version of Ico (with the better cover).

I guess these two are the major example for 'Games = Art' for a lot of people. I never really was that into either title.