On to week 2 anyway, which would be the week of 9/1- 15/1 if you couldn't figure that out from the dates given before, and just like I said, the first game on this list was half done by the time I got to week 2, but as I'm writing it backwards due to computer issues I might as well do it in one, yeah?
Killzone: Shadow fall
Wow, I wrote a whole lot of notes on this one, and can read a very small amount of them, off to a good start then. If you haven't heard of Killzone you're not missing out (so I understand). It's PlayStation's flagship FPS series that debuted on PS2 with the only instalment I'd previously played but really made it's name on PS3, it's name of course of being an average FPS, not bad, but it's never going to be challenging COD for any awards, it is enough of a name though to be a launch title for the PS4, which was before I had one and we all know what launch titles tend to be like, Ridge Racer anyone? Anyway, I was in CEX and knew I was going to be starting this 12 weeks, 12 games thing again, and this was £6, so I bought it, and here we are. There wasn't a lot of new ideas in this, they sure picked away at other games with the content, but in the end I think they delivered a good game, even 2 years after its release I enjoyed it, despite me saying before I'm bored of Triple A's. Firstly, the actual gameplay, the 'king' if you want to borrow the cliche (as it's the most important thing) is good. It felt good to mow down a bunch of enemies and the AI was intelligent enough to make it a challenge without going crazy with the amount of enemies. I liked the way they did the story too, as a release game it seemed smart to do an individual story in a big series where you didn't have to know the whole plot of the series to understand what was going on, although it seemed like there was more for long term fans too.
There were some parts I wasn't too keen on though, for one thing, the length of some of the missions. I will say I very much appreciated the 10-12 hours (ish) campaign, but split up in to just 10 missions seemed crazy, especially the the few in the middle that started to drag as you passed the hour and a half marker in 1 area, it might have been more interesting for a bit more variety there. I also wasn't a fan of the spider drones that came in to the game towards the end that you had to hack to open doors, it seems like there's always some silly BS like this in every FPS rather than just letting you carry on shooting stuff, you could at least add something fun like 2D platforming sections (that might just be fun for me though). Map size as well, it annoys me that the whole industry seems to want to make open worlds, or at least areas in this case (similar to Rise of the Tomb Raider (though granted this game came out a long time before)) without even putting anything in there, can't I just do the story? that's all I want from a game about 90% of the time, but it seems like 90% of games keep wanting to force me to do more, whatever happened to optional extras? Rant over (for now).
Oh yeah, I was trying to make a good news sandwich. The game was fun though despite these criticisms, hey, I can't complain for £6 (sorry Guerilla). If you like FPS' and have a PS4, you can do a lot worse than giving this one a whirl, possibly one of the best launch games I've ever played, but there's not many challengers to that throne
Killer Instinct
As I'm sure you can tell from the picture above, this is a fighting game, and yes, it is a follow up to that mid 90's game that wasn't very good. For some reason though, Microsoft did a deal and bought it back as sort of a free to play game back at the Xbox Ones' release. Free to play as in you could download and own it, but if you wanted any characters to actually be able to use, you had to pay. Anyway, over 2 years later and after a second cast of characters came out, finally those original 8 came free (with games with Gold at least) and I could give it a go.
It's much more of a Tekken than a Street Fighter as it's all about 'dem combos as a single hit basically does nothing. It's okay as well, when you find the difficulty mode that's right for you (which for me was 'hard', as medium was really easy then there was a huge step up (especially as in easy the AI basically just stood still)) it can become a fun fighting game. Sure, I probably could have done with playing through the tutorials at the AI got me occasionally with Combo breakers and I didn't have a clue how to execute them, but I made it through. You may be asking what I class as completing this game (probably not, actually) and it was to complete the 'story' (I put in inverted commas as it's just a random assortment of 7 enemies with the boss at the end with no plot other than a subtitled screen at the end) with all 8 characters. I've got a couple of top tips for you here if you wanted to play it more than I cared to. Don't play as Glacier, he's really slow, but do play as Sadira, she's basically Chun Li. It's fine
Teslagrad
Of all the PS Plus, Games with Gold and 20p Steam purchases I had listed to play during these 12 weeks, this was the one I was looking forward to most. It's exactly what I want from a PS plus game, a 5-6 hour, well reviewed indie game that I would never have played otherwise. It's a puzzle platformer which if you had read what I'd put last year you'd know I can be a big fan of, depending on the quality of course. I wasn't let down.
You're an orphan caught in a war who escapes in to a giant tower, which happens to be where the king/ emperor/ dictator (I'm not sure) rules from, so you set out to stop him. I think that's the plot anyway, doesn't really mater though. You have to work your way up the tower by unlocking new abilities such as magnetic control and short distance teleporting (and more!). The game does a great job of introducing you gradually to these abilities and as you go along showing you all the things you can do by combing them. The puzzles are the right difficulty level and you get a real sense of power by the time you get to the end.
My only gripes with the game are, firstly, bosses. I've said I don't like them before but I guess others do, I can't stand them though, the amount of games I've quit because of a frustrating boss (not this one though). The other, a small section of the game about 2/3 of the way in where you have to float up a section of the tower avoiding electrical beams. It's a huge trial and error section (which I don't like at the best of times) that seems to forget all the smart build of the rest of the game and just tries to add another 15 minutes to the game.
That aside, I really did like it, the best game I'd played so far (up until that point, but at the time of writing it's been replaced). I hope you picked it up last summer for free, because it really does deserve to be played, it's also on Steam, PS3, Vta and Wii U!
Completed
Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Underway
Xeodrifter
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