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Thomas was alone – I am a shape

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I spent some time Sunday morning sorting some of my steam collection into two categories Ignore & Play.

The ignore included games I had already completed on the consoles like Bastion & Walking Dead. It also had a large collection of games that I had no interest in playing like Amnesia, The Ball & many more bundle games.

The play obviously had less games but these were titles that I was keen to enjoy like Hotline Miami, Kings Bounty, Dear Esther & Thomas was alone.

I did not really know what to expect having only seen a few screenshots & read some posts on UGVM about the game.

It's a puzzle game, which if you do not enjoy I suggest you go back to playing your generic shooter.

Mr Maker on Cbeebies has a section about shapes. Singing along to the annoying "I am a shape" (Youtube it). Your nightmares have come true, you are indeed a shape, a rectangle to be precise named Thomas.

Thomas sets off on an adventure meeting various shapes helping them reach the level portal to advance.

The game takes a leaf out of Bastion & has a narrator explaining each new character. Their thoughts on the surroundings & other shapes. Each shape has it's own unique skill in they can jump higher, go through small gaps or float. Claire is my favourite shape so far, she is a big blue square that can float on water. I'm enjoying the puzzles & the narration.

I tried initially with keyboard control but soon ended up plugging in a 360 controller which thankfully after a few button configs works perfectly.

I'm playing a Steam game, hopefully unlike my previous effort (Penny Arcade Adventures) it looks like I won't get bored & give up.

Gears of War Co-Op – Judgement

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It's been a quiet couple of years for local co-op gaming. Gears 3 last year & Halo 4 earlier this year is all that was on the platter. It's a shame that 99.9 % of all local co-op games are shooters, after a while they begin to become a bore.

Which probably explains the long gaps in between each co-op game played. 

Anyhow time for the fist pumping chest thumping macho men to return in Gears Judgement.

No Marcus or Dom in this story it's all about Baird & Cole Train, along with two new recruits in Sofia & Paduk. The game is a prequel to the Gears Trilogy.

It starts with a typical military court marshall & gives the player a chance to visit each characters flashback of events.Not much has changed on the gameplay front apart from a few tweaks to throwing a grenade & quick swap of weapons.

Each mission also gives you a declassified challenge to accomplish for experience & braggin points. So cue the action.. Shoot, reload, collect ammo, shoot, chainsaw melee attack, throw grenade, reload, revive, shoot and I think you get the picture by now.

The only advantage local co-op offers you is the quick communication to your partner. "I'm down, revive me" "Tickers incoming!!" & the obvious gloating opportunity at the end with mission stats to see who got the most kills.

Some of the missions take a cue straight out of horde mode & have you defending a location from waves of enemies. After completing Baird's flashback we had enough adrenaline injected action for the day. Sofia's story will have to wait for another evening. I've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. It starts with shoot...

Uncharted 3 – Shukran

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I have certainly enjoyed the third game in the Uncharted series compared to the previous two, possibly because I know what to expect with the scripted sequences, button press action (although there seems to be less in this game then the previous)

Naughty Dog seemed to have perfected the hollywoodesque (deep storyline with action sequences) style of gaming & it was definitely an enjoyable movie to watch, sorry game to play. Even though you did not have much to do in the destruction of the brass vessel but got to sit back and enjoy a cut scene.

If I go back to the first game I was very frustrated by the style of gameplay but was impressed by the animation, presentation & dialogue of the game which is why I persisted  with the series & Naughty Dog have been refining the experience with every game but I still feel they have a bit more to go to get rid of the cut scenes & give the control of the character fully to the player. It will certainly be interesting to play their next game The Last of Us to see what they have learn in the development process.

For now though it was an enjoyable experience playing the adventures of Nate & Sully. Shukran.