The Video Games Thread II - The Resurrection

[Alan]

Open world driving games are the antithesis of good fun. The point should always be competition! I don't give a flying fuck if I'm on 13th or 75th street if I'm not competing with anyone.

 

[Langers]

I think I'm approaching the end of Black Flag now, and I'm so impressed with it. Definitely the best of the series for me. It's a really decent story, the protagonist is by far and away the best of the series (and I really liked Ezio), it's a huge world, the missions have enough variety in them to keep them interesting, I love the sea battles, there are hundreds of things to collect if you like that sort of thing, it looks great and is bloody good fun.

The only drawback is I KNOW I'm going to feel let down by Unity. I've never been that interested in the French revolution as opposed to other eras of history and it looks like going back to a copy of Ezio's AC games, rather than a more open world like Black Flag.

I think I'll have a break from AC after this game and give Destiny a decent play through.

 

[Manchester Wolf]

I have started playing unity and unfortunately I think you will be dissapointed Langer's. I have no real empathy with the character and the revolution thing doesn't yet seem to integrate well with the plot. The fact that it is all just in Paris makes it seem quite small and repetitive although the actual sandbox itself is very impressive! Definitely not as good as black flag or shadow of mordor. Even with the rubbish final boss fight on SoM!

 

[Langers]

Well I've finished AC: Black Flag after a pretty lengthy campaign, interspersed with a variety of side missions that never detracted from the main quest. I've clocked up more than 30 hours and should I want to, still have countless things to collect, assassins missions, forts to unlock, loads of stuff left so it's a decent sized game.

A couple of gripes though - especially towards the end, I felt there were too many 'follow x' missions. I don't mind them every so often, but some of these were bloody tricky, and you can't even fight your way out of them, as the level de-sychronises if you're spotted. So basically, you have to time hiding absolutely perfectly. I just felt there were too many of those sections, and it slightly spoiled the variety that's pretty good throughout the vast majority of the campaign. The other criticism (not a major one by any means) is the platforming section just before you make the final kill - needlessly lengthy and almost spoiled the build up.

A cracking game nonetheless and I'll start AC: Unity soon, though with a slight doubt in my mind going by what others have said about it. I'm not expecting the same quality as I found in Black Flag.

 

[Toon Wolf]

I'm enjoying Black Flag on my Xbox One. Looks gorgeous, great characters, good variety in the missions, decent challenge in terms of difficulty (some things very tough) and loads to do. It'll keep me going for ages I reckon.

 

[Kenny]

GTA5.......just 3 things left for 100% (although there will still be stuff left to do when 100% is achieved, which is odd). Got to do 8 Knife Flights, 25 Stunt Jumps (done 5) and fly under 25 Bridges (done 4 I think)

 

[Langers]

Spent most of last night on Destiny - I'm REALLY enjoying it, and haven't really worked out exactly why it didn't score higher in some places? Maybe it's a bit samey after a while, but I'm not going to experience that after only a few hours.

The game mechanics are excellent, it's one of the most polished looking/feeling games I've ever come across as well. The story isn't exactly gripping in the Mass Effect/RDR sense of the word, but it seems to be a vast world with stacks to do, so I'm looking forward to exploring more and teaming up with people for some missions.

 

[Alan]

Personally, I can't abide by any game whose backstory is delivered by the line "I could tell you what happened" (but then doesn't).

I wish I was making that up.

 

[Hereford Wolf]

Stunning. It's like playing Far Cry 3 on my Ipad!

http://toucharcade.com/2015/02/10/radiation-island-review/

 

[Langers]

Mini Langers got Minecraft for his birthday, so we had a decent go on it over the weekend.

Despite me slagging it off left, right and centre a few months ago, I think I now understand why it's so popular. And I think it's a really good game for kids to play. We've not got very far and have just made a 2 story house and very little else, but it was really nice to engage with him, asking him where he thought the bricks should go, what we might need to make torches or glass in the furnace, etc etc.

So I'm changing my opinion on it - I can see the appeal and I think it's a great little game to play with kids.

 

[Alan]

I must have missed your earlier anti-Minecraft comments. What is it that you did or didn't like before?

 

[Langers]

I must have missed your earlier anti-Minecraft comments. What is it that you did or didn't like before?

I just didn't get why it was so popular - I hadn't played it before, it was mostly just an observation based on watching clips of it. Seems there's an awful lot more to it than I originally thought there was. And the blocky graphics are actually rather endearing after a while.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Where's Toon?! All the maps have changed on World of Tanks and i'm scared!

 

[t3ch]

I seriously cannot understand mindcraft. It's the type of game that I absolutely should be obsessed with, but I just find it incredibly stupid.

Having said that, the kid loves it, and I'm glad he has some sort of creative outlet. He likes to look up building designs on youtube and copy them block for block, which kind of ruins the point IMO, but I try to limit that.

 

[Toon Wolf]

Where's Toon?! All the maps have changed on World of Tanks and i'm scared!

They've overhauled a LOT on World of Tanks, almost all of it for the better. Some great new maps and yeah, a few changes to some of the older ones. It's still a spectacularly good multiplayer game and I'd say anyone who hasn't played it really should, it's the best multiplayer game I've ever played by an absolute fucking mile. You just have to get into the mindset of not trying to rush forward and think you're going to be a hero, because you'll end up dead in seconds. Play thoughtfully and work with your teammates and you'll have an insane amount of fun. You'll also have a LOT of times where you'll be cursing the incredible stupidity of the players on your team!

 

[MARKakaJIM]

They've overhauled a LOT on World of Tanks, almost all of it for the better. Some great new maps and yeah, a few changes to some of the older ones. It's still a spectacularly good multiplayer game and I'd say anyone who hasn't played it really should, it's the best multiplayer game I've ever played by an absolute fucking mile. You just have to get into the mindset of not trying to rush forward and think you're going to be a hero, because you'll end up dead in seconds. Play thoughtfully and work with your teammates and you'll have an insane amount of fun. You'll also have a LOT of times where you'll be cursing the incredible stupidity of the players on your team!

Yeah, i'm glad of the tweaks to the maps to be honest.

I was stuck in a bit of a rut with my whole garage being miles away from any upgrades so i was just plodding along with a lot of tanks, none of which i particularly like and more often than not getting stuck on maps where the tank i'd chose was all but useless. Now with the changed layouts it's bought a bit of a new angle back so hopefully i can get rid of a few of these old hunks of shit before i'm used to all the new layouts and keep it interesting.

The french gear really is awful for the most part, other than their shit off a shovel light tanks, hopefully that improves soon!

 

[Toon Wolf]

Yeah, i'm glad of the tweaks to the maps to be honest.

I was stuck in a bit of a rut with my whole garage being miles away from any upgrades so i was just plodding along with a lot of tanks, none of which i particularly like and more often than not getting stuck on maps where the tank i'd chose was all but useless. Now with the changed layouts it's bought a bit of a new angle back so hopefully i can get rid of a few of these old hunks of shit before i'm used to all the new layouts and keep it interesting.

The french gear really is awful for the most part, other than their shit off a shovel light tanks, hopefully that improves soon!

The French lights are super fast and with fast reload times, some of the higher tier French medium tanks are similar and can deal a lot of damage quickly. The auto-loading German tank destroyers are lethal too. Some of the maps are great, but I hate Port with a passion, it's such a terrible map and I always get it when I'm in a slow, immobile tank destroyer.

The addition of operations awards is brilliant, I love the opportunities to win free Premium days and bucket loads of xp and silver. They seem to be adding to the depth of the game every month which is brilliant.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

The French lights are super fast and with fast reload times, some of the higher tier French medium tanks are similar and can deal a lot of damage quickly. The auto-loading German tank destroyers are lethal too. Some of the maps are great, but I hate Port with a passion, it's such a terrible map and I always get it when I'm in a slow, immobile tank destroyer.

The addition of operations awards is brilliant, I love the opportunities to win free Premium days and bucket loads of xp and silver. They seem to be adding to the depth of the game every month which is brilliant.

They've certainly added a lot to the game since i started playing it, Russian and French tanks, the new maps, now adjusting all the maps and the crew abilities too. Even without those additions i'd still be clawing my way through all the other tanks anyway so i still wouldn't have done everything, i've seen rumours of Japanese tanks being added too? Which sort of makes sense now there are a few Pacific looking maps.

There's one German destroyer that always seem to kill me whenever there's one on the opposing team, rHm something or other i think, weird looking low profile thing but nothing i've had so far can take more than 1 hit from it.

 

[Langers]

Xbox One games sales imminent, apparently - I'm on the look out for a cheap season pass for Shadow of Mordor.

 

[Bandyrastard]

World of Tanks is coming to the Xbox One. Look forward to giving it a try.