Your 2016 Gaming Diary

It's been a good weekend of gaming for me. I managed to clear and nab all the trophies for four games.

 

First up was Tales from the Borderlands (PS4). As I finished this in January I won't bother going on about it again.

 

Next was Hitman GO (PS4). I thought this was quite a neat little game, if a little frustrating at times. I really enjoyed the visual style the game used. The board game look serves the game well.

 

Up next was Gone Home (PS4). This is one of the free games on PS+ this month and thankfully I didn't have to pay for it. I know the game gets a lot of praise but I just didn't get it. I usually love story driven experiences but the way this is presented means that you only only get bits and pieces of what actually is going on. I suppose it encourages you to search every nook and cranny but I just found it rather boring.

 

Last up is Volume (PS4). Fantastic game! Absolutely loved it to bits. I only snapped it up because it's stupidly cheap at the moment and I ended up throughly enjoying it.

 

The game is essentially a more fleshed out and fun version of the VR missions from Metal Gear Solid. Yeah, it's a stealth based game but the levels are short ( 100 of them ) and the checkpoints plentiful. The game never feels frustrating.

 

While what little story is in the game didn't interest me, the gameplay is king here. Mike Bithell you've done it again, you glorious SOB!

 

I highly recommend PS4/Vita owners pick this up while it's on sale as its only around £3.00.

 

@drahkon I noticed you have this but never really played it much. You not like it?

Interesting to hear your thoughts on Gone Home. Out of interest, have you played Firewatch?

Interesting to hear your thoughts on Gone Home. Out of interest, have you played Firewatch?

Nah. I was never fussed about it. What little interest I did have for it got knocked down to zero after it came out that the PS4 version had performance issues. I think it's patched now, though.

Glad to see that you enjoyed Volume, @Hero\-of\-Time. Great little game that definitely deserved a bit more attention than it got. And another great game from Mike Bithell, as you say. Very interested to see what he's working on next, after they wrap up Volume: Coda for the PSVR (which is free incidentally if you have the base game, if I remember correctly). Not expecting an announcement at E3 but would be nice to hear something in or around Gamescom from him.

Anyway, I too also finished up Gone Home the other day. Had been eyeing this up for awhile but when Fullbright/Sony Europe screwed up the release and then put that ridiculous price tag on it (£15.99 is outrageous for the game), I was hoping it'd turn up as a PS+ title and lo and behold it does.

And I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the way in which the back story is revealed to you, through inspecting items and notes throughout the house, and the building up of the bigger picture I thought was handled well. I can see why it might rub some the wrong way though, in that you might miss elements if you don't fully explore some rooms and such. Still, I thought it was handled well enough and I found it an enjoyable narrative.

Game seems to have bugged on a trophy for me (the one for finishing in under 1 minute as I've done it several times now, with and without skipping the intro and outro, and got nothing for it) but it's not something I'm too bothered about going back for. Got my enjoyment out of the game and plus, I have Mirror's Edge Catalyst to play

All of my Gamecube games which begin with the letter 'B' are now finished with the completion of Battalion Wars this afternoon

After plenty of frustration with the penultimate mission, it was almost a relief that the final encounter was straightforward and cleared at the first attempt This was despite the fact that I thought I had completed messed it up with only one solitary mortar remaining on low health with two flags to capture and enemies throughout the area. I just had to be patient as killing each enemy helped refill my life guage while I gradually raised both flags as I fended off the respawning foes.

Ultimately, it was something of an anticlimax but I mostly enjoyed the game and feel glad that I finally decided to play it after all these years. Like Xenoblade Chronicles last year, I feel like Battalion Wars was one of those titles in my collection that I may never get around to or have to urge to see through to the end.

The lack of Wii U games being released is really helping my backlog

Started and finished The Legend of Zelda (Wii U VC) this afternoon.

I decided to play through The Legend of Zelda this afternoon in preparation for tomorrow. 3 hours later and it was done.

 

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Finished and platinumed Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4) this afternoon.

As a massive fan of the original on the Vita, I was quite nervous to see how this port would turn out, especially as the PS4 doesn't have the touch screens. I'm happy to report that the game is amazing and Bluepoint Games have done another quality job in porting a game.

What really impressed me was how the game controls. I would argue that this version handles a lot better than the Vita version and as such getting golds on all the challenges was a lot easier.

Fantastic game and seeing as I snapped this up when Amazon were selling it for £11, I can't complain at all.

That's Ratchet & Clank completed. Very good game, in fact i think it's better than the original i was playing on the Vita. Ok, it's a little more weapon heavier than before. But overall a great game, i loved it.

My June has been entirely consumed by Dark Souls so far and after 40 hours I've barely made a dent. I thought if it was taking me a long time I'd be able to play other games alongside it, and i've been trying to do that with 'Super Mario Galaxy 2' but 'Dark Souls' is just too addictive.

Time for another "before I forget what I have played" update.

Finished the campaign for Tropico 5. Had to start over because I ran the first island to the ground. Never seen a larger rebellion than that again. The second time went much better, and beside the constant back and forth between each island it was pretty fun. Knocked out all but one single player trophies so I only have that one and the multiplayer trophies left.

Finished and 100% on Gone Home. Not really into games like this, but it was decent, short, free game. Thumbs up for that.

Bought Plague Inc Evolved after all the chatter in the PS4 thread. Played it on web game sites several years ago and it still is a great fun game. Beaten all the plagues and some of the scenarios. Really liked the Planet of the Apes virus.

Bought Minecraft: Story Mode on the sale with the expansion. The first chapter was great, funny and not being too serious that comes naturally in the other games like Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. Then it gets all too serious with save the world plot in the middle. It was not bad, but I was never really invested it. It got good again in chapter 5, funnny, concentrated plot and story and exploration. I hope the three dlc episodes is more like episode 5. One story, one world for each episode.

Got the LE of the latest Fire Emblem games. Started on Birthright on Classic. As I said in the FE thread, maybe that was not a good idea. Restarting the game over and over because I got a character killed at the very end of the battle is not fun. Chapter 20 so far.

Wasn't going to but with the lack of impulse control I bought Mirror's Edge Cataclyst. Good choice though, it's a great game. There are some minor stuff I don't like, but for the most part it was a lot fun. Platinum get, but no in game 100% that I usually do anyway. Over 700 collectibles but in game map for less than half. Only got 100 or so of the 250 electronic parts plus missing a couple random events I'm not going to search for.

I think that was it?

Edit: Damn, forgot the best one. Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. Epic expansions. Beaclur or however you spell it is so beautiful. Great story, even better quest and new Gwent deck. Amazing. After clearing out everything it had to offer, I mopped up the totally not fun to do battle trophies and got the platinum and 100% on both expansions.

Copied over from it's own thread but, managed to finish up Mirror’s Edge Catalyst yesterday as well and have to say that while reviews were a bit all over the place and middling, I personally loved it. Being a big fan of the original helped obviously but I just thought the game played and worked so well.

The game more or less ignores anything that happened in the previous game, opting to reboot everything afresh and while there are some names and references back to the original game, it remains at that giving Catalyst a blank canvas, more or less, to work from. Story wise, there are some loss similarities to what’s happening this time around. The Runners, headed up by a man known as Noah, are afforded the freedom of the rooftops to make courier runs and deliveries as long as they stay out of the way of the Conglomerate, an amalgamation of the various companies and families ruling over the city of Glass and the region of Cascadia with an iron fist. It’s very much a dystopian society with a clear hierarchical structure and the design of the city with its bright billboards and signs clearly highlight who’s in charge.

You pick up as Faith who has spent 2 years in a correctional facility after a job went down wrong. Almost immediately upon release, you’re taken back off of the grid and on the run from the city’s police force, KrugerSec, running, jumping and sliding your way around the city.

The pace of the opening sets the scene for much of what comes later in the game as you’ll be running all over the city, making deliveries, taking down some enemies and escaping capture. The story does see you infiltrating companies of the Conglomerate along the way, uncovering corporate secrets with wider ramifications for the city and beyond and this, along with a twist that is pretty apparent early on, comprise of what drives your actions later on. A lot has been made about the story being throw away and while it’s not going to compare to more story heavy games, I didn’t think it was that bad and actually enjoyed aspects of it. Sure, the dialogue at times doesn’t best convey some of the key moments but it’s a better job than the original and a solid foundation for potential extension should there be another sequel.

The opening acts as a very good introduction to your moveset and the new melee systems in play, I felt. These will evolve as you progress through the game, more so because of how you start to consider the environment around you and how best to make use of objects to your advantage. It gives the game a natural progression and while yes, there are move unlocks behind an XP barrier, even early on you are capable of putting together some good moves to free run across the roofs and dispatch of the KrugerSec guards coming your way. Those skills locked behind XP are quickly unlocked as XP is handed out readily so it’s never usually too long a wait for certain things and even then, your arsenal of moves is more than enough at default to launch across the city.

The free running was the best part of the original and once again, it takes centre stage and feels fantastic. It’s flowing when you get into a run and the layout and geometry of the locations helps to facilitate speed. There’s nothing like stringing together a good set of moves and maintaining your focus as you plough through a group of enemies and take them out at speed. I will say that I did find that during Dashes, the game’s speedruns, that it occasionally doesn’t flow as well but I have a feeling that may be more the engine creaking under the speed of things as I found that it wouldn’t let me drop off of ledges (even with jumping somethings) and that I wouldn’t be able to slide under objects even though I’d pressed the button to do so. That is really the only downside to the parkour and it’s only really apparent through those optional Dashes and even then, only occurring because of the engine.

Those issues with the engine are apparent at times when playing as textures load in slowly when changing districts at speed. Textures aren’t really up to much either and look bad for a 2016 title, especially on Frostbite 3. That being said, the frame rate is solid throughout which I’m thankful for and even in some of the more chaotic sequences, I didn’t experience a single blip or drop. Even with the issues with the visuals, the look and aesthetic of the game is beautiful. It nails that clean, futuristic look with loads of geometrical patterns and shapes and the use of colour is good as well giving a bit more character to the city than the original had. And the soundtrack, once again by Solar Fields, is great again, tapping into some of the original’s best moments but also creating some beautiful ambient pieces that play while out running through the city.

The game isn’t without its faults but I really enjoyed the whole game from start to finish. Getting a chance to play a new Mirror’s Edge after an 8 year wait and after lacklustre sales of the first game is a fantastic feeling and I am sad that the story has ended. I’ve still got collectibles to grab and some Dashes to complete on 3 stars to nab the platinum but that’ll allow me more time with a game that grabbed me from the start and had me hooked.

I only hope that if there is more Mirror’s Edge to come that the wait isn’t as long this time. Really hoping we do get more. Superb game and probably my favourite of this year so far.

Been playing a mix of games. Started the year playing Xenoblade Chronicles X but I have found it difficult to keep my attention on that game for very long periods of time, and as soon as I downloaded Undertale I began playing that all the time instread.

Then I started to learn about the Pokemon20 legendary distributions throughout this year and gradually my Pokemon addiction returned, which has lead me to want to get all of the legendaries that I had never been able to get before. I then bought Pokken Tournament and have been playing that quite a bit, beat the first three leagues with Chandelure and began the Chroma League and recently decided to download Pokemon Yellow on Virtual Console and start a Nuzlocke.

Also dabbled with playing Final Fantasy X, but like Xenobalde it is struggling to hold my attention for long periods of time. While it has an interesting premisce I can't look past the fact that all the environments are blatantly a straight line, with only the odd diverging path for extras. I do hear that it opens up later on but at the moment it's difficult to really get invested. Then again, it might just be me struggling to pay attention to these big RPGs... might give them both another go and try and make some progression.

After watching Ubisoft's press conference at E3, I was inspired to play South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3). I've had it on my shelf for ages now but never got around to playing it. I changed that on Sunday and finished it last night.

The game is flat out hilarious, even if they do go a little overboard at times. It's by no means a hard game but it's so much fun the lack of challenge doesn't really matter at all. I had a lot of fun just running around the town, doing sidequests, taking in the sights and just generally pratting about.

I'm in the process of making my way through the 'Remix Tour' in NBA Jam for Wii but decided to return to my save file in Paper Mario on the Virtual Console to provide some contrast to all the dunking!

While browsing the SD card menu, however, Mario Kart 64 caught my eye and I suddenly fancied playing it. I only had the 'Extra' mode left to do so quickly raced through it and enjoyed the credits music all over again

I've finished the game many times in the past and always considered it to be the easiest Mario Kart to fully complete, despite the cheating AI, but I definitely noticed that the controls weren't quite as precise when I returned to it this week after all these years. It took a while to adjust considering how great Mario Kart 8 feels but I was having a disastrous time on Toad's Turnpike.. especially with the traffic driving towards me I don't remember it being quite that tricky but when I hit a car, lorry or bus, I was often just stuck there while 2 or 3 other vehicles followed up and crashed into me before I had any chance to move away!

I'd love to dip back into a few battles to, since Mario Kart 64 has the best version of it, but there's nobody to really play it with until my son grows up a bit

I may not be a huge fan of EA or own many of their games but I've just put the finishing touches to NBA Jam on Wii, one of their better offerings

I beat the 'Classic Campaign' years ago but had left it at that. I returned to the 'Remix Tour' last week and have now cleared all of the challenges and unlocked The Beastie Boys in the process

While the game is generally fun, especially with 4 players, I did find the 'Remix Tour' extremely repetitive, despite the range of different scenarios on offer and 'Boss Battles'. I wish there was more variety, though

finally got round to finishing off Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor this weekend, I'd started it when it came out and had almost finished the story but for some reason moved on to other games without finishing it.

I really liked the nemesis system in the game and that the Orc Captains would remember their previous encounters with you if you died or they/you ran away

Combat was a clone of the Batman games so it was well done. The executions were obviously a lot more brutal in this though

As it was Sonic's 25th Anniversary last week, i thought i'd play a few games.

First up was Sonic the Hedgehog. I decided as it was the 25th Anniversary, i'd fire up the Mega Drive and play it on there. Played well, ok had an issue getting a picture to begin with. But got it going, and ultimately had a great time. Completely forgetting you can't Spin Dash (been playing the 3DS version too much). Did the game in about 1 1/2 hours.

And finally, Sonic Advance. Played it on Saturday to and from Swansea on the train, completed it. Not as fun as i remember it being, but still was great none the less. Found the Chao garden on the cart, and completely forgot how to feed the Chao.

I finished my play through of A Link Between Worlds (3DS) last night. Brilliant game, if a little too easy. It has a sense of familiarity but also manages to surprise you with the new things that appear. It pulls of the balance very well.

I would post my miiverse stuff but for some reason the miiverse links [miiverse][/miiverse] won't produce any images.

I finished Fire Emblem Awakening yesterday - this is actually the first Fire Emblem-game that I have completed, having played a bit of Path of Radiance on GameCube before this. So for all practical purposes this was my first meeting with the franchise.

I quite liked the game but I, as Tales above, did not enjoy starting a level over again and again because I got a character killed. However, I let one die at the very last chapter simply because I didn't care enough (Libra) and just wanted to finish the game. Finished in 29 hours (3DS counter) or 21 hours (game counter) - the difference is due to hard resets of the game.

Overall, I enjoyed the game but it suffers from a giant leap in difficulty. The first 10-15 chapters were extremely easy but then suddenly all the enemies are super powerful and started acting more clever, going for my knights with magic or for my wyverns with bows for instance which I didn't experience at the same degree for the first large portion of the game.

Another point is that the game got a bit tedious and samey after a while, it was always the same mission (defeat the commander or kill all enemies) with only a few chapters with varied missions (warn the villages) or such. They could have mixed it a bit up.

Then I didn't find the story all that exciting.

Overall, I enjoyed the game but it will be a while until I insert Fates into my system. I got Conquest and will play on Casual just because that's effectively what I'm doing anyway.

Next up is Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages which I spent an hour on yesterday. Got the Harp of Ages and am now ready to explore the Ages!

I went back into my backlog again and finished my first ever playthrough of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune which had been on hold from October last year.

It was a pretty enjoyable game, I played it on crushing for the trophies so suffered a fair few deaths along the way. I did like the story and the platforming but some of the combat just felt unfair at times (but that may just be me).

Looking forward to giving Among Thieves a go, but going to play something else in the meantime as need an Uncharted break right now

I finished the main story of The Division (PS4) last night. Fantastic stuff. It's been a while since i've played and enjoyed a shooter this much. It makes me really regret not picking this up on day one and playing through it all as a group.

There are a lot of similarities between this and Destiny but unlike Destiny the single player stuff is actually fun. I played through most of the game by myself and then hooked up with a bunch of randomers for the final few missions.

There is still a bunch to do, such as getting all the collectibles that are scattered around the city and doing a few sidequests that I left in favour of pushing on with the story. There's also a crazy amount of content that unlocked once I reached level 30, as well as the DZ to tackle.

This is my game of the month and even though the story is finished, there is still plenty left to keep me returning to the game.

It's the half way point in the year so I figured I would take a look at what i've finished so far.

@Hero\-of\-Time, you sure play a lot

June has been a good month for gaming. Haven't played much because I've spent a lot of time with friends and my girlfriend and I have only completed The Talos Principle and several playthroughs of Plague Inc. Evolved but I enjoyed the games I've played a lot

Currently I'm only playing Overwatch and Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (264 hours so far...I think I've got my money's worth ) and I might start Rainbow Moon. Edit: Forgot to mention Dangerous Golf which the lady and I play whenever she's over

Exams are coming up and I will try to keep socialising as much as I did in June so gaming time might be reduced.

Well, my GOTM for June is an easy choice: The Talos Principle. Quite possibly the best puzzle game I've ever played. Need to give the expansion a go soon

And here's my completed games distribution:

30 games completed

1 Wii U

6 PSVita

27 PS4

Haven't touched my 3DS in over 1 1/2 years...think it's time to prepare my Wii U and 3DS for ebay.

Went back to Xenoblade X for a bit. Finally managed to get a Skell and tried to recoloured it to look like Samus Aran (Metroid is one of my favourite game series)... this is as far as I could get...

Also playing a Nuzlocke on Pokemon Yellow. Currently training for the 7th gym and the team is Flappybird/Fearow, Saur IX/Venusaur, Bananas/Primeape, Derren/Hypno, Donatello/Blastoise and Metallica/Magneton. All are currently Level 50 except Flappybird. My ruleset is the basic rules but with the added rules of not being allowed to be higher levelled than the next gym leader's best Pokemon, a rather liberal use of Dupes Clause which means only the first new Pokemon family can be caught (which is how I got Derren and Bananas) and I'm not allowed to use items in battle apart from Poke Balls.

Unfortunately Yellow's high level Gym leader Mon have made a liberal use of the level limit. Still, so far I've had only four deaths, but there was some close calls.

Not managed to get enough time together to finish much off the last week or so. Just been jumping from game to game but really enjoying Far Cry Primal. Such a good game, nothing like riding your sabretooth tiger into battle jumping off and then taking out an entire outpost in a matter of second Easily becoming one of my favourite games this year and I still have plenty to play of it as apparently I've only got 33% completion from about 12 hours, so lots to do.

Have also given Dishonored: Definitive Edition and Divinity Original Sin a start but not really played much of them and the change of pace coming off of the back of Mirror's Edge Catalyst has meant that they haven't clicked right as they are more slower games.

Bit more of a quiet month for me then but easily beaten what I managed to play through to completion this time last year, with having done 40 games for the first 6 months which isn't too bad, 38 PS4 titles and 2 PS3 ones.

Haven't picked games of the month for those 6 months so instead, the new games released this year which I've enjoyed the most this year so far are:

Amplitude

The Witness

Firewatch

Republique

Uncharted 4

Ratchet and Clank

Invisible Inc.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Overwatch

Far Cry Primal

Biggest disappointment for the year for me so far has to be The Division. Maybe being burnt with Destiny didn't help this but it just didn't click and I really couldn't engage much with the game. It's a shame as it could have been something special but in the end it's a casualty for completion this year.

Been a pretty strong start to the year I feel game wise and I've never felt like I've been short of anything to play on my PS4, with more than enough variety to choose from (I know there are some out there that would suggest otherwise even though it's not the case). Definitely looking forward to the next couple of months of gaming and to pick up and replay some older games on the PS3.