Whatcha Been Playing?

[Scrustle]

True. That level really drags on, but at the end the story starts to get in to the real meat of things. But I think the reason that the Bioshock formula gameplay seems dull is because Infinite is way more linear than previous games. Before that kind of structure felt more natural and less tedious because you were exploring the level's different areas each time. In Infinite all you really do is continue down the same narrow path as it lets you. The only time you don't really do that is when you're backtracking through it all again to open a chest or something.

But as for what I'm playing, today that's Fable Anniversary. Seems okay so far. More or less what I expected. Just Fable, but with better graphics. It seems some reviews seemed to mark it down for that. I guess they have a point though, seeing how we've got stuff like Wind Waker HD now, but I don't really have a problem with it basically being the same game. It never pretended to be anything more, and I didn't expect anything more.

But anyway, there are some things I'm not too impressed with about it. The main thing actually being the graphics. They're obviously better than they were, and more or less on par with a lot of other 360 games, but it doesn't exactly look... great. Even if I ignore the aged animations, the graphics have some problems. Models and textures aren't very detailed, and the now familiar Unreal Engine pop-in is probably worse here than I've ever seen it before. There's quite a bit of screen tearing too. I suppose overall it doesn't look bad enough to be called "bad", but if I was judging it as a game on its own merits, not an HD remake, I would probably be less than impressed.

The menus are pretty terrible though. Not that they're badly designed or anything, but they're so slow! Especially when you first pause the game. I've also noticed in some places in the menus, they actually use graphics from the old game too. Like in the leveling up menus, the little animated icons they have showing what the skill does is just taken straight out of the original. Not really a significant problem, but it is a little odd seeing little parts of the original game occasionally pop up in the remake.

There are also a few audio issues I've noticed too. Only little things though. On rare occasions there might be a little pop or something. It actually sounds a little like the kind of audio issues you get with playing original Xbox games on the 360, although a lot less common.

There's also something else I wanted to talk about, which isn't necessarily to do with what I've been playing though. There has been yet another chapter in my journey to finding a better feeling PS3 controller! Act 3: The Cheap 3rd Party Reckoning!

So yeah, I bought a 3rd party controller to see if it was any good. This thing. Although, I got it for £20 on Play.com instead. So far it seems alright. It's got a really nice faux suede/rubber finish to it, and feels mostly solid. Buttons are alright too, and it has triggers that are levered like the 360 triggers, although they're nowhere near as good. Still significantly better than the DS3 triggers though. It has the same concave sticks as a 360 pad though, which is nice. They feel a bit more resistant to movement though, but I think that's something I can just get used to. But there is one thing about it which is diabolical. The D-pad on it is by far the worst D-pad I've ever touched. It makes the 360 D-pad look like it was designed by Da Vinci. It's raised up a bit like with the 360, except the shape of it is worse, and it feels so ridiculously flimsy it seems like a miracle that it even stayed on in its journey in the post. Feels like it's about to fall off at any moment. But overall, it seems alright so far. It's got most of what I was looking for. Decently shaped sticks in the right position and better triggers, so the D-pad doesn't seem like it'll be that much of a problem.

There is one other thing I noticed about it which it didn't do so well in though, but I'm not sure it's this specific controller's fault, or just something else. I tried using it in GT6, using the triggers for accelerate and brake, but they were useless. But they were useless in the exact same way the DS3 is, so I don't know what's causing the problem. What happens is that the detection of how far you've pressed down the triggers is completely broken. It seems it detects from 0% to about 20% okay, but anything more than that is just interpreted as 100%. Nothing in between. Makes trying to do proper throttle and brake control utterly impossible. But it does the exact same thing with both controllers, so perhaps it's something to do with the PS3 itself? Or maybe the game? I don't know, but it's really disappointing.

The rumble is pretty weak too, but that's so minor I almost forgot to mention it.

[Cass]

Continuing to play Bravely Default. Approaching the endgame, but have hit a significant snag in the story, which is really disappointing:

Spoiler: show

Your quest is to reactivate the crystals. You spend the first 40 hours doing this, fighting bosses and progressing story. At which point the game resets the world and makes you do it again. And again. And again.

Obviously you keep your levels, gear, exp etc, and it's a simple airship ride over the terrain (as opposed to walking absolutely everywhere). And the bosses get harder and harder. But you're still fighting the same enemies with the same move patterns four times to get the proper ending.

I mean the rest of the game has been an absolute blast, and this isn't bad per se (you get some interesting story tidbits thrown in here, and the battles themselves are still fun) but it's padding on what was already a 40 hours experience for me. Really disappointed.

[Feirsteax]

Sounds awful. What a strange decision

[Alex79]

Bizarre. Why? I mean, does it actually make sense within the story?

[Cass]

It does? After a fashion. But whether or not it makes narrative sense, it sucks the momentum right out of the endgame. It's worth noting that:

Spoiler: show

...you only have to do this if you want the "true" ending, however. The game sort of hints at you that you should be destroying the crystals instead of cleansing them, and if you do this you're immediately transported to the "bad" endgame (which does still require you to fight at least 5 of the crystal bosses, rather than 16). But yeah, the true ending requires a lot of repetition.

I almost don't want to be talking about this/giving any kind of negative impression, because the preceding 40 or so hours of gameplay is absolutely some of my favourite gaming of this generation, but yeah. It just seems like such a bizarre direction to take your game in for its final chapters, where previously it had barely put a foot wrong.

[mikeleddy83]

Pushing on in Ace Attorney 5, it's a masterclass in presentation and fan service. Unfortunately with stiff competition from Super Mario 3d World it's not the best game I'm currently playing. World is a game where a single level can (and often does) contain more "magic" than entire games. I'm playing it smart and almost doing 3 playthroughs on my first go with a simple, completionist and speed run limited to around a world and a half per week, it's my one game I hope never ends right now!

On those quieter nights its a little bit of Spelunky and Hotline Miami that I can't resist although I'm making an effort to put them on the backburner for the Vita's imminent arrival and for my final bedtime snack it's Wario Land 4 and occasionally another dungeon of TLOZ:ALBW on the 3DS. Despite the fluffiness I can't wait to rip into The Last of Us: Left Behind on Friday!

[Feirsteax]

I'm playing ALBW too, how do you like it so far?
I think It's absolutely bloody brilliant, I am just having so much fun exploring hyrule, finding collectables and secrets. The fact that death has a meaningful penalty now has changed the game completely too. I like it.
The combat is simple but challenging, you have to time your attacks quite well on some enemies, and the stronger ones can do 3 hearts of damage.
I still haven't got the first 3 pendants yet, but it feels like I've already been on an adventure. All the memorable characters and locations, each one with beautiful music. And that's all in the Light World, I cannot wait to see what the Golden Land has in store for me.

Haven't been playing anything else. Just Zelda for the past few days. Fantastic.

[mikeleddy83]

It's exactly as you say, stunning! It's another game I'd love to slow burn, having said that I've witnessed the link (though only very recently) but did milk as much greatness from the light world as humanly possible. I'd probably love this game if it was just a series of cliffs to jump off, the 3d effect gets me every time!

[DomsBeard]

Had a good session playing Split screen co op with the Mrs on Borderlands 2 last night. I'm finding it quite tiresome so far. We both kept running out of ammo as there seems to be more
money drops than ammo which isn't useful in a firefight. It hasn't helped that the first big environment you get to is very dull, sparse and generic. We've just left on a boat to Sanctuary so hopefully it'll pick up.

[AndyKurosaki]

Couldn't get on with Kingdom Hearts, not saying it's a bad game. I just found it gibberish and couldn't connect with it. Ah well, my loss.
Besides, with One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 and my new Wii U, I doubt I'd have time for it.

[kappisun]

Playing dmc at moment. Was really enjoying but currently stuck on boss battle which is really starting to piss me off. I do wish you could skip through these or change difficulty level when games like this get difficult. I don't get much gaming time at moment and spending night after night trying the same thing over and over is going to end with me sacking the game off. A shame if this happens cos brilliant upto this point.

[ratsoalbion]

I think if you drop out to chapter select you can continue from where you are on a different difficulty setting. Apologies if this isn't the case.

[kappisun]

I'll give it a try tonight. Cheers Leon. I'm also playing metro last light which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Oozes atmosphere

[kappisun]

Think my problem with boss battles is they are usually very dull and repetitive. Either make em more inventive or do away with them (steps down from soapbox)

[ratsoalbion]

I'm with you in the case of many games but I actually thought most of the boss fights in DmC were pretty great.

[Scrustle]

I though the bosses were okay. Not bad, but not anything particularly special either. I don't really get why people liked the Bob Barbas fight so much. I was actually expecting there to be another phase to the fight at the end for how much people hyped up that fight. But I liked the idea of the game putting you in a news report as seen from a helicopter while there's slanderous rhetoric commentating over your fight, but I don't think the best place for that to happen was in the middle of a boss fight.

[kappisun]

I'm just frustrated with the Lilith boss fight. Also metro just glitched on me so not massively enjoying the old gaming at the moment

[Cass]

I thought the concept of the Bob Barbas boss fight was really creative, even if the actual mechanics of it weren't - his attacks were about as "video game boss fight" as they come, but the whole jumping-into-Fox-news-to-fight-Bill-O'Reilly thing was just... inspired. DmC is a silly, glorious game and that was its silliest, most glorious moment.

[Todinho]

Yeah bugs can be a real pain in Last Light hopefully is nothing too bad and you can carry on because it really is a fantastic game.

Also I thought about it but I still dont get why the DMC boss fights get so much praise some of then look cool I give them that but the have almost 0 substance I dont want to insult you Kappi but they are really easy that second to last boss is joke c'mon.

Oh yeah Capingreen remembered me of a game I have on 3DS so I started playing Crimson Shroud really interesting it really has that whole tabletop RPG style and im liking it so far also is made by the creator of FF tactics and Vagrant Story(I will get back to it someday!) so I have high hopes

[kappisun]

Metros brilliant. Won't let me put gas mask on at moment though. Looks like I'm going to have to go back a couple chapters. Good job I'm enjoying it