Whatcha Been Playing?

[Feirsteax]

I've been working my way through the Metal Gear Solid series.

I saw the extended trailer to MGS V and I think it looks amazing. Quite surprised that it's going to be an open world game, but I can't wait to try it out.
The only problem now is that I don't have a ps3 to play Metal Gear Solid 4 or 1. I decided to watch a playthrough of mgs 1 on youtube because I had played it before and just wanted to get caught up on the plot details. But I really want to actually play mgs 4.

Right now I'm playing mgs 2 and I still love the Tanker part. I'm only about 2 hours into the Plant part but aside from a few ridiculous and cheesy segments, I have to say I'm enjoying the story and I quite like Raiden as a character. I've played it all before so I know what the deal is with him and maybe that makes me more sympathetic towards him.
I love all the hints and nods towards the S3 plan. I noticed Raiden saying things like

Spoiler: show

"It's like a bad dream"

and

Spoiler: show

"Is this part of the simulation, too?"

which creeped me out but intrigued me in equal measure. I really like the concept of the mgs 2 story.

In this game you have to get to a 'node' in every strut before you get a radar. Which means I usually get caught by guards when I first enter the room. It is quite annoying to deal with lots of enemies at once if you're caught, but I suppose that is okay because it gives me a reason to go stealthy.

I've played 3 before but I can't remember anything about it other than the fact that the hand-to-hand combat is much expanded upon and staying hidden was really hard.
Can't wait to get round to it and I might even give the original Metal Gears a go too, they come with the HD collection.

Then I'm gonna play peace walker.

Can you tell I'm hyped for mgs v
That MGS V trailer... was just so good...

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Must say I'm really looking forward to MGS 5 after the recent trailer! Only problem is I've never played a single other MGS game before, so I'm worried it'll all be gibberish to me and I really don't have the time to work my way through all the previous entries....

I'm currently playing the glorious Fire Emblem Awakening on 3DS, which has me hooked like nothing has managed for quite a while! Genuinely excited about the train journey to and from work so I can get stuck in, which is a bit sad really....

I also yesterday crumbled during the weekly shop when faced with the offer of FIFA 14 for £32 when you spend £30 at Sainsburys. First FIFA I've bought in 3 editions and yet to get started, but might stay after my good lady has gone to bed tonight and get stuck in!

[Todinho]

You just need to play MGS3 and peace Walker to understand what's gonna happen in V so it's not too much ,MGS chronology is weird.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Ah ok! So if I pick up the HD collection on 360 or PS3 and just play those two it should see me right....

Thanks mate!

[Todinho]

I finnaly managed to make Silent Hill 2 work on my PC so I'll be playing that it will be interesting revisit it since the last time I played it I was probably 10-12 so most details must have flew over my head

[mikeleddy83]

I had a shot at the Battlefield 4 Beta and enjoyed it despite its obvious beta state, felt quite invigorated to fire up BF3 once again but the vertical combat of the shanghai map felt exciting, the roadblocks a little intrusive, the players - eerily experienced (with my mic muted we still operated well) and the loading and front end stuff seemed like it had been cleaned up enough. I'm not expecting the current gen versions to be an afterthought anymore though I can wait a few weeks for the PS4 build unless that itself is crippled beyond playable standards which though unlikely is still a possibility.

On the other hand I tried the Beyond: Two Souls demo and its production values alone left me in awe! The controls didn't sit right with me and the moments you're given a little too much control of the scene left the character models (though highly detailed) looking a little static and the environments a little awkward to navigate (perhaps I craved some hand holding here). I can see the game being a standout title should it rein in the control from the player but there were moments I simply didn't enjoy the freedom as stupid as that sounds. The visuals were on another level even post The Last of Us and the score intrigued me enough to sit through the demo loop, as a whole it sold the game to me and I will play it in the future but there are small worries surprisingly for once not related to the story. Quantic Dream have certainly upped their game. In short: Try it!

[MARK-146]

I've been playing the BF4 beta and found it was a game I could play, usually crap at FPS as have the reactions of a slug on valium, actually came third in a domination match which is very rare!

I tried Beyond Two Souls demo and while it looks good, the controls put me off aswell as the qte's, never played Heavy Rain because of them and don't think I'll be buying this one either!

[Scrustle]

Wind Waker HD! It's glorious. Playing it again I felt a huge wave of nostalgia wash over me. And it's so good damn colourful! Looks brilliant in HD, and the remastered soundtrack is great. The improvements to the Windfall theme are pretty significant. There's so much more to that song than you can hear in the original game. Gohma's theme was pretty different sounding too.

Not everything has been smooth sailing though (pun not intended). I tried to take a look at one of those Tingle bottles, and for some reason it made me exit the game and go in MiiVerse to see it. It said that it would keep my place in the game and I wouldn't lose any progress. That didn't happen. My Wii U decided it wanted to install an update, which involved restarting the fucking console. Come back to the game and I've lost well over an hour of playtime. Had to go through the bloody Forsaken Fortress stealth section again! The wonders of modern online gaming trends...

But it didn't take long to catch back up, since I ran through it as fast as I could to get back to where I was. Since then I've made quite a lot of progress too. I've done the first two dungeons already, and a couple of side-quests. I'm trying to get all the figures this time, since it's much easier in this version of the game. I got the Swift Sail too, which is pretty handy.

I've been playing with the GamePad so far, and it's a bit of a double edged sword, I'm finding. It's great having the inventory right there to switch quickly. Something that has always been a bit ungraceful in Zelda games, so it's very useful for that. But I'm finding it a bit unwieldy in combat. I keep getting buttons mixed up, and doing the spin attack is tricky because of the position of your hand on the controller. Or well, the position of my little girly hands, at least. Might switch over to the Pro Controller next session to see if that makes it better.

[AndyKurosaki]

Played through The Bureau:Xcom Declassified. It's nothing special, but worth a rental at least. It utterly loses it's mind towards the end though, the plot goes absolutely insane. Fuck knows what it means by the final stretch.

[MARK-146]

I picked up Twisted Metal off PSN, never played any of the previous iterations but I have to say I'm finding it enjoyable. It has a steep learning curve and after several controller mapping changes, I think I've found one that is satisfactory.
Haven't ventured online as I know without plenty of practice, I'll be slaughtered and hung out to dry!

[Woodfella]

Nothing. I have just moved back to university and I am bereft of all consoles. I very nearly bought a second hand ps2 from cash converters today. I may well go back and get it, can anyone suggest a hidden gem that I should get and has any one played Haunting ground?

[NokkonWud]

Nothing. I have just moved back to university and I am bereft of all consoles. I very nearly bought a second hand ps2 from cash converters today. I may well go back and get it, can anyone suggest a hidden gem that I should get and has any one played Haunting ground?

Ah, Haunting Ground. Mentioned this on Twitter the other day. It's the one that got away for me.
Always wanted to play it, never got it. One I'm always on the look out for at a bargain price.

[Woodfella]

I have been looking for a decent copy on ebay and eternal darkness for gc too. I wanted raw danger but the only one on there is £50!

[NokkonWud]

I just recently sold my Eternal Darkness (with my other GC games) as I needed some money. Such a shame, if not you could have had it.

[NokkonWud]

I've been playing a lot of GTA V Online. I've actually put a lot more time into the Online side of things than I have the SP.
Other than that it's been a lot of PES 2014.

Seems my ingenious plan of buying both games on alternate formats so that I didn't have to change discs, worked. (and Tony thought I was mad!) :p

[Woodfella]

I just recently sold my Eternal Darkness (with my other GC games) as I needed some money. Such a shame, if not you could have had it.

ahh that would have been great! Watching a few on ebay now. Did you enjoy it when you played it?

[ratsoalbion]

I'm also slowly getting into PES 2014, though I ditched the fuzzy graphics, choppy frames and unlicensed teams of the PS3 version (my copy of which is now on eBay) in favour of the clearer, sharper, smoother PC version plus comprehensive PESEdit mod-cum-patch.

Takes me back to the mid-2000s and burning Fernando's Winning Eleven updates to DVD-R for my chipped PS2 so it does.

I'm still not fully sold on modern PES, without going into detail it does some odd things on and off the pitch and I'm still very much looking forward to FIFA 14 on Xbox One. But, PES does have some nice ideas, animations and physics of its own.

Anyway, it's installed to my PC's HD now so I won't be getting rid. In fact, instead I'm trying to get my FIFA (re)wired brain more used to the alternative controls and features of Pro Evo. It still seems a little easy though.

Out of old habits dying hard (and maybe a touch of arrogance) I started on the hardest difficulty setting and drew my first proper game as Arsenal against Real Madrid (1-1) before beating Bayern Munich 1-0.

Goals might be hard to come by at this stage but I'm concerned that - just as it was in the old days - it's going to be too easy to consistently tame the CPU with a bit of practice.

[DomsBeard]

Played Battlefield 4 Beta today (360). Negatives first, it looks terrible so I would imagine there will be a big HD install day one. They've changed the spot button to RB so I spent the first two games pressing back which brings up some information on the screen so you are out of the action and you can't change that. The screen whilst you are waiting to spawn is far too busy compared to 3 and I was struggling to read what was on parts of the screen.

They've changed the vehicle controls but you can change back. It's too early to look at the combat etc.

Positives? The map in the demo is fantastic, the destruction is far better than 3 too (I've not seen the tower fall). The big plus for me is spawning. The amount of times in 3 you'd spawn on a team mate then get killed as they were under fire was annoying. In 4 it shows you clearly on the map where they are and you can see through their eyes what they can see so if they're under fire you can jump to another player or wait till they are under cover. I saw a player had cover today but a tank was putting them under pressure. I spawned with a RPG and helped take it out.

Difficult for me now as I want 4 but to fit it on my 360 I'd have to delete 3's data off it and I'm not sure I want to do that.

[Alex79]

Woodfella I only recently sold my copy of Eternal Darkness too! Yeah I enjoyed it though, to the point I got to. Be aware though, I had to stop playing as its possible to reach a certain part of the game without an item you need to progress, and it's impossible to go back for it meaning you absolutely have to start again. I couldn't be bothered! I can't remember where though as its been years since I played it.

I've just started Dragons Dogma on PS3. It has one of the worst game openings I've ever played. Worth sticking with?

[Scrustle]

Worst opening? How? And it's definitely worth sticking with. Story of the game is a bit bland, but the combat is really damn fun. I quite like the setting too, even though the graphics are a bit rough outside of the larger enemies.