PS4 — Page 18

Things I’ve been playing recently

Posted on 09/12/2016 Written by deKay

Well, where “recently” is “any time in the last couple of months” and “things” is “games I’ve not completed as I’ve already posted about those”. In no particular order:

Spec Ops: The Line (Mac)

This was free, but only if I played it enough to get £1 credit back from Green Man Gaming. At first, I really struggled as it misdetected my PS4 controller and everything literally spiralled out of control – see this video, in particular from the 7 minute point:

With that fixed (I used a mouse and keyboard instead), I then worked through the first level, or mission, or whatever. It’s OK, but nothing special. It’s also difficult to play with an Apple mouse, because you can’t click the left and right buttons at the same time. I don’t know if I’ll play it more.

Paper Mario Sticker Star (3DS)

A lot of people seemed to be quite negative about this, but I’m really enjoying it. It removes almost all of the RPG elements (perhaps this is why it has the reputation it does), but the story and the combat are great and it looks lovely. Also, that Wii U one is out now and I thought I’d do this while waiting for that to magically appear in my possession.

Letter Quest Remastered (PS4)

Incredible Boggle/RPG hybrid. You’re given a bank of 15 random letters, some worth more than others (sort of Scrabble-like) and you make words out of them. The more powerful your word, the harder your attack is on your foes. You can level up abilities, making 6 letter words worth more, or double letters more powerful, etc. and it’s very addictive.

Assault Android Cactus (PC)

I set my Steam Link up again and this is one of the titles I played, having heard good things and getting it for virtually free in a recent Humble Bundle. It’s not bad, but I don’t think – so far at least – it deserves all the praise. It’s just a quite bland twin stick shooter with average graphics but with some great characters. I’m enjoying it, but not as much as I expected to.

Lego Dimensions (PS4)

I actually bought this a while back, but still had Lego Marvel Avengers on the go. With that finished (although not 100%ed) my daughter and I broke it out and yes – it is excellent. Jumping from world to world (we’ve had The Simpsons, The Wizard of Oz, Ninjago and Doctor Who so far) is great, and the references to other Lego games (such as the Joker Titanbot rematch) are awesome too. Playing shuffle-the-characters on the portal is less fun, though, but we’ve negated that a little by moving the portal to the sofa between us.

Pokémon Y (3DS)

With over 70 hours on the clock now, and still about 30% of my Pokédex unfilled, there’s a lot of game here. Not least when you consider I “completed” it at around the 35 hour mark.

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 26/11/2016 Written by deKay

Like many Narrative Discovery games, it’s hard to talk about Ethan Carter without spoiling the only real thing it contains – the story. Unlike most, though, it does have a few puzzles. Sort of. I can’t really say any more about what actually happens.

You’re a psychic detective summoned to a sleepy village by a little boy – Ethan Carter – who wants you to figure out what’s going on. A creature of some sort, The Sleeper, has been awakened and strange doings have being happening. That’s spooky enough, but soon after you arrive you realise things aren’t quite what they seem. And then, you find that the second thing you thought was the truth isn’t quite what it seems either.

Click to view slideshow.

It’s a beautiful looking game, slightly scary in parts, and just plain bizarre in others. Part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, part puzzle game, Ethan Carter is pretty unique, even amongst titles of its genre. Well worth playing.

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Lego Marvel Avengers (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/11/2016 Written by deKay

This has been some time in the making! I bought Lego Marvel Avengers months ago, played about half of it, then got sidetracked with Pokémon Y. As with other recent games (and Pokémon), I’ve been playing it with my daughter, and although it didn’t start out as well as Lego Marvel Super Heroes, the “endgame” content is just as good. Well, it should be – it’s almost the same.

Completing it came as a bit of a surprise, actually. I thought we had at least another “film” to go, but it turns out that Avengers: Age of Ultron is the final bit of the game. As for the gameplay, it’s pretty standard Lego stuff, and – as I’ve said before – that’s just fine.

It’s a shame there are no (or at least, appear to be no) X-Men in Lego Marvel Avengers, and I suspect some other characters are missing too, but that doesn’t really matter. Will I complete it 100%? Perhaps not this time round. I want to move onto Lego Dimensions, and pottering round Manhattan and the helicarrier again isn’t that appealing, even if the tasks are different.

My daughter and I did spend a good while in Hobbiton–sorry, Barton’s Farm which absolutely isn’t a clone of Hobbiton in any way, playing a game where she summons a vehicle and I steal it from under her nose. It was hilarious.

Also hilarious: Squirrel Girl in Squirrel Hulk-Buster Armour. Oh my.

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Virginia (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 15/11/2016 Written by deKay

The odd thing about Virginia is that it was recommended to me the day before it was in a sale on PSN. And it has toilets in it. It must have been fate.

As a narrative discovery game, it’s hard to tell you much without spoiling the plot, but I’ll try. You play as a newly qualified FBI agent, who is assigned the task of investigating a long serving FBI agent because, well, they have unusual ideas and methods. As your “cover”, you’re assigned as her partner, and so together have to investigate the disappearance of a Virginian teen son of a vicar.

Interaction in Virginia, as is the norm for games of this genre, is minimal. You can activate objects like door handles and so on, and walk around limited areas, but it’s about furthering the story, not solving puzzles.

And what a story. A confusing one, where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s a dream, what happened and what is hallucination, and sometimes even what order everything occurs. You find out more about your partner’s past, your own past and possible futures, but even after completing it I had questions and remain somewhat confused.

Imagine something like Firewatch, mixed with the setting of The X-Files, and you’re mostly there. The art style is close to the former, but the FBI partnership and events are right out of the latter. There are also parts that feel a lot like The Stanley Parable, although without the humour. Or the narration. In fact, there’s no dialogue in the game at all, which you’d think would hamper its efforts to put across a story over everything, but no: It’s expertly “acted” and directed, and even without conversation (and not a great deal of explanatory text) everything comes across. It’s still hard to piece together some, but I don’t think talking characters would help there. It feels like a film or TV show too, with hard cuts from location to location, which was jarring at first but felt natural when you experience it like a film rather than a game.

I can certainly recommend it, and will probably pore over my recorded playthrough (which I did in a single sitting – it’s not very long) a bit to see if I missed anything. I obviously did as I have a fair few achievements missing! If you want to see my run through Virginia, you can below but be warned: It is full of spoilers.

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PaRappa the Rapper 2 (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 13/11/2016 Written by deKay

I had two issues with the original PaRappa the Rapper game. The first being I didn’t own it (until much later, and that was on the PSP), and the second being that I couldn’t play it because of the issue I have being PlayStation Controller Blind ¹.

When I saw the PS4 port of PS2 game PaRappa the Rapper 2 for just £2.99, I thought I’d try. And try. And try. Oh my did I try. Thankfully, the game is pretty easy and very forgiving, but some button combinations (mainly those that use the circle and square buttons) I simply can’t cope with. Getting through a few stages was little more than luck as I hoped I’d pressed the ones in order, trying not to actually think about it and run on autopilot.

Like the first game, the sequel is a pile of glorious nonsense. PaRappa wants to be a real man for his girlfriend, and luckily the impending conversion of everything into noodles gives him the opportunity to step up and become one. Which mainly involves a lot of rapping, as you’d probably expect.

Control issues aside, it’s great, although a lot shorter than I was expecting. Only eight stages? I thought the first game was a lot longer. Or am I mixing it up with Gitaroo Man? Hmm.

Click to view slideshow.

Notes:

I mention this a lot, but it’s basically that because the PlayStation controller doesn’t have a standard or memorable button layout, games that rely on quickly knowing their location – like rhythm games and games with QTEs – are a struggle ↩

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