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Things I’ve been playing recently (Part 1 – Wii U demos)

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Time for a roundup. Seeing as I’ve played a lot but not posted about anything. In several parts too, as there’s so much. Firstly, some demos:

Over E3, Nintendo put nine new Wii U game demos on the eShop under the horrifically named “Nindies@Home” banner. So I played them.

Runbow

Not as good as I was hoping for. It plays a bit like Guacamelee only rubbish. Sort of. Platformer with an annoying colour changing mechanic where platforms disappear when the colour changes to match. Didn’t play it multiplayer, which is the main draw, so it’s probably better there.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge

More Mutant Mudds. Which is great, as the original was great, but on the Wii U you lose the 3D and it makes the jumping in and out of the screen seem pointless, somehow. And it’s hard. And I never finished the original 100% so not sure how I feel about more hardness.

Forma.8

Pleasant floating around game. It’s a bit like Knytt Underground and Abyss in style, has a fun drop a bomb and “kick” it attack, and some simple puzzles. Seems OK, might be interested in the full game.

Extreme Exorcism

Platformer where you kill ghosts. It’s a bit like Super Crate Box, only when you kill the ghost, the next level has a new ghost who duplicates all your moves from the previous level. And then the next level has all the previous yous and ghosts. Or that’s what it seemed. Fun, if a bit confusing.

Rive

Lovely twin stick shooter with really, really meaty bangs and explosions. Sections split between gravityless side scrolling and gravity based platforming, with the odd swimming section (where you can’t shoot). Very nice.

Soul Axiom

It’s Not Portal(TM). It’s also really shonky, with stuttering and framerate issues all over the place. It also looks a bit like it’s been made with some Unity level designer or something. And terrible, terrible voice acting. Oh god.

Freedom Planet

What looks like Sonic and sounds like Sonic but is terrible (like Sonic is now, I suppose)? Freedom Planet! Awful animation, screen juddering everywhere and all hopes and dreams of a possibly good Sonic game (even though it isn’t Sonic) up in smoke. Boo.

Lovely Planet

If Noby Noby Boy was a first person shooter, it would look like this. Is the style intentional, or the result of not being able to draw? Who knows. Hiding behind the cute sparseness, is a brutal one-hit-death FPS, which is sort of OK, but I’m not sure I like it enough to play it again.

Typoman

The best of the bunch. Limbo-esque platforming with puzzles solved by creating words with letters that litter the area. So RAIN is a rain cloud filling a pit, but add a D and it DRAINs out. Clever, lovely, and definitely on my want list.

New Game – Battlefield Hardline

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After completing AC Unity next on the shelf was Battlefield Hardline. The presentation is very good, styled like a US cop TV show with episodes & recaps.

You play the role of Nick Mendoza who is a Miami cop involved in the drug war. Each episode advances the main story line whilst also giving you two types of side quests to complete.

The first are warrants, you have to identify your target & take them into custody. This is tough because your target will not be alone & you need to take out the other enemies with stealth so you can arrest your target. I've failed these warrant targets a few times & have had to retry from the last checkpoint. You don't have to retry & you can just carry on with the main campaign ignoring this side quest but where is the fun in that?

The other is case files where you track down clues to various cases, this is quite easy (although I did miss a couple & had to replay an episode) you just use your tracker to locate the clues to scan them. These cases do give you further information on the main quests so are not a pointless collectible.

I especially enjoyed episode 3 which has you visiting the everglades & you can drive an airboat. You are rewarded with more skill points for arresting an enemy which upgrade your level to unlock more weapons etc. The idea behind is to stop you going in gung-ho & just killing everything you see, trying to get you to play like a cop & arrest the bad guys.

Anyhow back to the everglades for me, I got some warrants to complete.



Dishonoured (PS3)

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Several years ago, I played a demo of this at the Eurogamer Expo. It reminded me a lot of Bioshock, which I loved, and gameplay wise sat halfway between that and Assassin’s Creed, which I also love. I knew I was going to have to buy it.

For various reasons, I never got round to it. Then, a little while back, it got added to PS+ and I thought I’d finally give it a go.

And it’s been fantastic. I love the slightly steampunk, slightly Fallout apocalypse setting. The powers are great, especially Blink and the rat summon. The story is interesting and the characters are well above average. I’m really enjoying it.

At first, I struggled with trying to stay stealthy. I’m not a fan of hide and seek games, despite my love for Assassin’s Creed, so staying in the shadows and taking out enemies in a non-violent manner was difficult. I’d heard if you kill too many people, you end up with the bad ending, so I didn’t want to aim for that. Once I’d been told that really, the bad ending isn’t really bad and the good ending isn’t really good (they’re both just different viewpoints or something – I’m not that close to know for sure yet), I stopped worrying when I got spotted and just took out the bad (or good?) guys whichever way. Sure, I tried stealth and hiding, but if it went wrong? Who cares.

With that little revelation, I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Game.

Apart from the TallBoys. I don’t seem to be able to hurt them at all, even when shooting their oil tanks, supposedly a weak spot. Ah well, I can just skip past most of them with Blink instead, which is actually more fun.

Another thing I’ve been enjoying is the variety in missions. In particular, the one where you have to get up Dunwall Tower and take down the Lord Regent (I chose to upend him via propaganda, rather than slitting his throat) – lots of great areas in that level. Also, the mission at the house party. That was fantastic – eavesdropping and exploring to find out which of the three Lady Boyles was the one you needed to off, then tailing her to the bathroom and knifing her behind closed doors. And then running away. Awesome.

I’m closing in on the end now, having just returned to the Hounds Pit after some… unpleasantness.

Splatoon: splosh

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An online shooter - from Nintendo.  And as such it's not really an online shooter at all, it's an online competitive painting game where everything is jolly and fun.

Immense fun.


Look at the colours!


Look at the character designs!

I've played online more than offline so far, which is incredibly unusual for me.  It's just so well designed and ... fun.

Immense fun.

Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D: getting used to the time sickness

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Hello again!

I have been playing things, you know.  I've been playing a bit of Heavy Rain, and some Cities Skylines.  I've completed Peggle Blast again, and played a few levels of Two Dots.  I've made a little progress in a second story of 80 Days, and caught a few big ones in Sega Bass Fishing.

But most of all I've been playing Majora's Mask.

I said I'd write more when I'd worked out how the game works.  I sort of have, although there are still things that I don't know how to do.  On the first day, a little boy or girl wearing a fox mask runs to the postbox, and I haven't worked out how to talk to them. Postboxes are a mystery too.  Is there a reasons for the workmen in the town square?

But outside Clock Town it's a little more straightforward.  The game seems to be neatly divided into a core story (make it through the dungeons and gather the giants to stop the moon) and side quests (make others happy and gather information).  There are some of the latter which change into the former - such as finding Epona which allows you to access the ocean - but otherwise it's clear what is optional.


Not that it really matters.  I've been trying to do everything, following the hints in the notebook to find where I can get all the optional masks and heart pieces.  I've fished, I've thrown bombs at targets, I've taken photographs, and I've jumped around islands.


The game is magnificent, and the amount of detail crammed into the cartridge is astounding.  Look at the Gamecube in the background!
 

I've just completed the temple in the sea, and the giants have told me there is one more.  Before I go off there, though, I've got a frog choir to find.