The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

   I said I'd write something about it and here we go now that I have finally finished after spending just shy of 100 hours in the game. There's so much to do, plenty of which I left, yet much of which I did do. I could have spent another 50 plus hours in the game finding all the locations and killing all the beasts but I find these days that games can be too long (I never used to feel like that).
   I should say before I start that I never played the other 2 games in he series. I was going to go back and play number 2, but I heard that it was hard to understand without playing the original, which now is really outdated, so I didn't bother. I did then hear not long after I started 3 that you didn't really need to play the first one, but I couldn't be bothered to go back by that point. Point is, I'm not 100% sure what the history of the series was (I also hadn't read any of the books) and just reading the plot of the first 2 on Wikipedia doesn't tell you who these million characters that tun up throughout the game that you're supposed to know are. Of course you can look them up but I felt that I was missing out on the full experience by having not played the others. It would be like watching Jurassic World without Jurassic Park. That said, I'd still recommend this game to someone who'd not played any of the previous games.

   Before I go too deep in to my thoughts though I will say that in my mind no massive open world RPG will ever live up to Oblivion/ Fallout 3 to me now. These were the first RPG's I spent triple figures of hours in (no I never played FF7 (but I may in the near future now...)) and they blew my mind with how much there was to do. Nowadays I feel like there's frequently nothing new, or at least similar ideas are repeated frequently. That's not to say that I feel games like this, Skyrim and so on are bad, far from it, I just find that my sense of wonder has gone now. It probably doesn't help either that spending 100+ hours in a game now is a serious commitment of my time, whereas when Oblivion came out I was at university and essentially had very little else to do with my time (hence why I now work for Tesco).
   Okay, the story as a whole is great. The main story does drag on a bit, but the characters are good enough and there's enough involving side quests in the game to keep you interested throughout. I never really found myself getting bored during story quests. I will say though that sometimes witcher contracts could get samey and the combat can get very repetitive at times, mainly during periods in the game where they're clearly trying to drag it out a bit. Unfortunately there are several points in the game where it is very noticeable that the game is being stretched. Sure, this happens in many games but in a game where there is so much you can do anyway, when unnecessarily chucking in sections add half hour on to the game it makes me less interested in trying to get 100% completion.
   Still though, make sure you do the major side quests. I'm referring here to the quests that tie in to characters in the main story. They'll hand them out to you while you're more interested in doing something else at the time, but make sure you go back for these. They add a lot more of the history of the series in and make the world feel far more alive for you. They change the ending massively and as a whole tend to be some of the best quests in the game. The other thing to take note of is Gwent, the game within the game. It's a card game that at first doesn't seem to make much sense, but in actuality it's genius and is probably the best game within a game I've ever played (take that geometry wars). It's a great little addition and the tournaments going on through the world keep it exciting. Unfortunately I wouldn't say the same about the boxing in the game though, which is basically treated the same but isn't really interesting at all.

   The upgrading of weapons and armour as well as resource management is all treated well and all the classic RPG elements of the game work well, arguably apart from the 2 specialist craftsmen you need to 'unlock' to make the best armour in the game. There is also some nice sections of the game where you get to play as Ciri (who's story this really is, forget Geralt) that mixes up the gameplay a bit and I would be very interested in some DLC where you get to play as her more.
     Of course, this being a classic pc game series and with me playing it on console I'm accepting that the game could have looked better than it did, and I've certainly heard enough criticism from people at me not being part of the 'PC master-race' but it still looked pretty good anyway.
   Ultimately I'd say if you, like myself have a relatively large amount of free time then definitely pick this up, but If you could only really commit the 30(ish) hours it would take just to do the main story then I well and truly wouldn't bother. For me though, Game of the year so far up to this point, that Said, I haven't started Arkham Knight yet... (hmm, forgot to this post that funny)

Jurassic World

They say Jurassic Park is the Star Wars of my generation and I can certainly see that. I Remember seeing it in the cinema when I was very young. I'd like to say my first memory of the cinema but I remember seeing Aladdin first. Aladdin may have had a better video game but Jurassic park stuck with me more. It's an important part of my generation and knowing the film is vital to so many things in the 90's. It'd be like not watching game of thrones and then trying to understand 90% of jokes of the Internet.
   Let's forget 2 and 3 existed and here are my thoughts on this great sequel to the original, so hold on to your butts because spoilers are ahead.
 

   Okay, so this is basically  love letter to the first film. They keep the same theme tune they talk about John Hammond a lot, that guy from new girl is wearing a 'tasteless' Jurassic park t-shirt and of course they go to the original visitor centre complete with slow, sad piano version of the theme tune. As a lover of the first film I, and hopefully you dear reader would love this. Granted there's no equivalent scene to Jeff Goldblum posing topless for no reason but they do find the night vision goggles the kids have in the original.
   Apart from me just going on about how many references there is to the first film I guess I'll say what else was great in it. So, I loved the cliche teenager who's just interested in girls. He can't let go of his girlfriend but when he gets to the park he spends his whole time eyeing up every equivalent aged female in the park. Chris Pratt is great in the film too. As someone who saw his come to fame as Andy (what a great name) on Parks and Rec it's so weird to see him becoming a big action movie star. He's got in shape so much and he's always so likable no matter what he's in, this included.
   Back to love and the kiss between Owen and Claire was so cliched and had me rolling my eyes, but just a few minutes later they brilliantly turned it around by having a perfect set up for another classic cinema show of love between the guy from New Girl and the guard from Orange is the new black, but she totally stopped him in his tracks and it was great, I guess the Jurassic Park T-shirt was bad luck afterall.
   The kids weren't s annoying this time either, there was no constant screaming, which was nice (though, to be fair, the little one kept being upset and their parents upcoming divorce, but I'm with the elder brother as someone who's actually been through this. You do get 2 of everything and it's sick). The sub-plot was fun too with a secret operation between the head of research and some army guy to make an army of dinosaurs. Have these people not played Turok? I wouldn't blame them, but still it was a classic feel good moment when the 'raptor killed him.
   It was great to see the raptors back too. In the original they were the stars there after it was expected the T-Rex to be, and here it seemed like the Indominus-Rex was going to be the dinosaur star of the show, but the raptors came into their own again. I loved the great 'cawing' sound effects of them back again too.
   I have just read some RL dinosaur experts were angry that the dinosaurs weren't accurate to what we now know of them when the first one was so good for the knowledge of the time that was made and this is a jumped up monster movie. This has made me angry. Firstly, it's a sequel to a film made in the past so if they looked completely different to that original film it would make no sense, AND they made reference in the film to how the dinosaurs would look different if they weren't full of reptile DNA. Experts man, what a bunch of knobs.
 

   That's what Raptors think of paleantologists. Anyway,it had the great element of building disaster from the first movie too. So, the Indominus-Rex gets out and it's like, 'oh no'. So, to stop him an inexperienced helicopter pilot crashes one into the pterodactyl cage so they get out, so they set the 'Raptors loose to try and practise this Dino-army plan and save they day, but of course they turn and attack. It's a great disaster movie.
   Igonring all the rest of the greatness in the film the ending just takes the biscuit. So, Chris Pratt gets his team of Raptors to turn on the Indominus-Rex again and join team humane, but oh no, the bigger one beat they crap out of them. So, off runs Claire to set the T-Rex free as that will obviously just kill it and then walk back in to it's pen without doing any other damage. Stupid as it is, in the ultimate call back to the first film where the Raptors and the T-Rex are the big bads of the film, between the Rex and Blue, the beta Raptor, they save the day (with a little help from the sea-monster). The T-Rex gives the knowing nod (in my mind anyway) and everyone goes home happy, obvs.
 
   I know now I'm going to be watching the original tonight and despite the fact that I've still got hours and hours left in the Witcher 3 (I swear I'll write about it at some point) plus Batman and Yoshi coming out next week, I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy Lego Jurassic world tomorrow. It's not the best movie I've ever seen, but it probably is the best sequel I've every seen. I'm just wondering who the next Sam Jackson is gonna be.
 

NXT Takeover Unstoppable

I like wrestling. There I said it, move on I'm also going to speak about this as if you have somewhat of a clue what's going on so if you think it's lame or have no interest, click away now.

   NXT has been the best pat of WWE for over a year now, or however long it has been since the network got here. week in week out it's full of great wrestling. It attracts so many indie darlings to WWE like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Hideo Itami and many, many more and could spell a very exciting future for the whole of WWE. It also has a great advantage of always being filmed in the same place. I say this because as the main roster is always on the road and you have to wait for them to go to the traditional big wrestling cities to get the good crowds, but NXT gets it every time and crowd participation is something that is out of the companies control, but makes the product so much better.

There's also a very interesting preview of the show with Triple H where you can see just how proud he is of the show and reading between the lines there's more to see, with comments on how NXT 'divas' are real wrestlers and not just in it for the fame plus essentially saying it's the best wrestling show in the world https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=447&v=I2-AsE_1w3w .

   So, to the show. It was obvious to put finn balor vs tyler breeze on first as the two of those plus hideo itami (who was out injured) have been going as a group through a series of great matches and this one yet again didn't disappoint. I do worry that Finn's Undertaker challenging entrance is too long though, but the crowd seem to love it, I just hope they don't fart out the title match that Finn earned like they did after the last no. 1 contender match although I think they might given what ended the show.

   Divas tag match was solid. We all know how good a worker Charlotte is by now after her series of outstanding title matches last year and is more than ready for the main roster. Bayley too is very good and well over with the NXT crowd. I'm interested to see what Dana brook can bring but I don't like her entrance as he does the same thing over and over again and I'm indifferent to Emma as she was just leaving NXT as the network got here, so despite her match with Paige at the first live special she's been mostly ignored since she went to the main roster so I'm not sure what I think. The match was fun, hardly the most technical of the live special womens matches but fun for what it was.

    Okay, so I'm in to Rhyno being in NXT. It's fun to have some random veteran in there, especially when the crowd can just chant 'gore' throughout the whole match, added to by the way Rhyno himself gets in to the chant. Corbin I'm not keen on, maybe as he's just had short matches until this point but I find myself not caring. I expected a brawl and we got a good one, Just a shame about the result (although I guess a vet coming in and ending a young talents undefeated streak would be against what NXT stands for).

   Enzo and Cass, what a team. Not convinced they're the greatest wrestlers but wow they're good on the mic and super over with the crowd.  You have to love them, it's impossible not to, they've even got the classic big guy/ little guy partnership like Dion Dublin and Julian Joachim before them (and, I guess, whatever other big guy/ little guy combos have happened). Murphy and Blake are strange as tag champs, it seemed like it was done to a) show that when these stupid title matches against no hopers happen, actually the no hopers could win and b) get the titles off the Lucha Dragons to send them to the main roster. I'd say put them on the Vaudevillains instead and have them feud with 'the Jersey boys' but Blake and Murphy are okay I guess, it can't stop feeling weird to me though that 2 jobbers suddenly won the tag titles. Needless to say I was fully behind Enzo and Cass and bitterly disappointed at the result as this was one of two matches where I truly favoured a winner and it didn't come to fruition. Needless to say there's only one word that can describe the ending of that match...

   Okay, on to the ones that really matter and first the NXT WOMENS championship. It must be said that recently Sasha Banks has took the spot of my dream girl from Aubrey Plaza. Ah, if only I were fitter, lived in north America, were a Pro wrestler and worked for WWE. Maybe I'd have a chance (just a few hurdles to climb then). Needless to say I'm in the 'no she's not (ratchet) category. The women's title match has pretty much stole the show on every NXT live special so far, be it Paige showing her strength and earning her place s next WWE divas champion (although arguably the nxt women's title actually is better) to the classic from Charlotte/ natalya to Bayey's coming out party (as a class wrestler) to an edge of your seat fatal 4 way to another clinic in Charlotte Sasha, to this, which probably compares best of those to Charlotte Natalya with Charlotte the underdog against Natalya the established star. The same was true here with Becky Lynch finally getting a title shot. Granted she wasn't really pushed enough to deserved it and it felt like a rush job to get a different match than yet another Sasha/ Charlotte match (though they've all been excellent) and at the start of the match it seemed like the crowd also saw things like this and gave Becky a hard time, but just like Bayley before her ,Becky Lynch may not have won the title, but earned her stripes in this match and left, as the loser, to a standing ovation.
PS. Triple H in the interview I posted higher up said Sasha Banks was one of the best performers, male or female, he's ever seen. I've got high hopes. Here's to hoping they cut all of the main roster 'divas' except Paige, Naomi and Natalya, put the nxt gals up and give them some serious length for their matches. Then we'll see what good womens wrestling is in WWE.
#legitboss.

   PPS. Corey Graves made a killer reference in relation to Becky's newly bright ginger hair.

   So after Kevin Owens made a truly incredible Raw debut on Monday, putting John Cena in his place, I was excited (added to by his entrance attire). Not that I wasn't before. The match at the last special was great, the build has been great and the things you hear about their ROH matches all makes it more special. The only thing I feared for was another Sami Zayn injuy. Not a real injury mind you. He's a great wrestler, but in basically every high Profile match Sami Zayn has it has to get stopped for a period of time due to him being injured. If pro wrestling were real, he shouldn't be doing it, it makes him look so weak. And yes, it happened, again... he came out all guns blazing and fighting Owens off, but the very well put over brutal ring apron powerbomb put Zayn down. Owens wins by the match being ended again and he looks great, but Zayn, who knows. Added to the fact the freakin' Samoa Joe, still named Samoa Joe came out to save Zayn at the end. Don't get me wrong, I was excited. I loved TNA in the late to mid naughties, but stopped watching in the Hogan/ Bishoff era (y'know, when they ruined it) and I gather Joe was bumped down the card at that point too, but Samoa Joe is a truly great wrestler. Next to maybe AJ Styles the only person who could come in to WWE right now and keep his name. It was  great to see him (despite his awful music) but where does his leave Zayn now? He looks like an aftherthough. The next live special will clearly be Joe vs Owens so where does Balor fit in, I assume with another blowoff regular show match. Don't get me wring the match will be great, like the last one, but we all know Owens will retain.

   The show was, just like every other like NXT special, outstanding. Watch it if you have the slightest interest, but I just wonder, where does this leave the title picture with 4 men basically involved now, not to mention the champ's big match against John Cena (sucks) in 2 weeks.

PS Plus May

   After being so excited about all the games coming free on PS plus this month, I felt it my duty to play them before The Witcher 3 took over my life and see if these games were really as good as it was said. Often times you hear indie games are great only for them to turn out to be some artsy nonsense that have little merit as game per say, but are more interactive adventures the likes of which Katherine Janeway may enjoy on the Holodeck as they all pretend to be fancy hundreds of years in the future. Yes, I am still watching voyager (half way through season 4 now (which is about half way in general)) and yes I think games are supposed to be entertainment, not just a chance for developers and reviewers to pat each other on the back and say how great they all are.

   That being said I'd have to take my hat off to 'Race the sun' as that was a good game. I played it first as I thought I would like it the least out of all these games, but how wrong I was. This game is basically an endless runner as viewed from behind where you control a little spacecraft. You have certain objectives to complete as you go to unlock more things like speed boosting pads, jumps and paintwork which all (well, most) help you on the ultimate job of trying to get as far as you can without dying. It's a simple but great concept as you have to both dodge obstacles (moving and static) as well as make sure you're going fast because, as the title suggests, your ship is solar powered and when the sun goes down that's game over.
   There are other modes you unlock too like a sort of maze mode, and an extremely hard mode, but the normal mode is where the most fun is as trying to get as far as you can. The only thing I found a disappointment is that there is no end, not even ridiculously far away, there is a point where the score stops going and 20 or so people have managed that world-wide (this game has been on Steam for a while too) but for most people, me included, it would have been nice to have a just about reachable end to game, so you could aim for it, as it is though, I know I'll never catch those 20 or so with unstoppable scores so when I unlocked everything, I just stopped, I did have all these other games to play too remember.

   As for the other 3 games; The Unfinished swan, Ether One and Hohokum, I have completely different thoughts.

   Firstly the unfinished Swan, which was more of an 'experience' than a game. Now, don't get me wrong, I played Gone home (another interactive story) and loved it, but this just didn't grip me. It was about a boy coming to terms with the loss of his parents (I think) which was doled out in small pieces of information between navigating mazes of no colour, which you threw balls of paint at to help you figure out where to go. That was the game play element of it really, throwing paint or water balls to help you see where to go in basically colourless landscapes. I think it was quite a good idea for a game play element to be fair, but as soon as they seemed to start getting somewhere with it, they'd change it to water, or night-time or other things and you'd be back to step one and you never really got to see how far that mechanic could go, which I'd think could be implemented very well in to a stealthy game (there's a money making idea for someone). I wish I could stay more about the story but after an hour or so, I started zoning out and lost interest, in fact the only reason I finished it was due to how short it was.

   That's why I didn't finish Ether one. Again, it seemed like a good concept as you were some sort of mind changer that goes in to peoples dreams and solves their mental problems. You were accompanied by your boss' voice in a cheap GLaDOS imitation role. The problem for me though is that it seemed to be very reminiscent of point and click adventures where it was a case of trying to combine everything with everything else while looking in every little cupboard in the game, and being on foot (as it's a first person adventure game (just like unfinished swan before it)) it takes forever walking back and forth. I know this one is more personal opinion but I like my puzzle games more like 'The Swapper' (which I talked up a few months ago) and not in the form of trail and error of trying to combine everything in the game together. Sorry, it's not for me so I chucked in the towel after a few hours.

   Hohokum is an interesting one. I can't decide if it's a terrible example of art getting in the way of a good game or a trippy masterpiece. I'm leaning towards the first one but I'm not sure. Basically you're a flying snake thing and you have to go around the world playing a very long game of hide and seek with your brethren by once again trying to interact with everything possible. The difference here is it's not a first person experience but a side on colour trip and you're basically interacting yourself with everything.

   I'm not sure if I'm explaining the difference very well, but suffice to say there is a lot of similarities, especially in the trial and error sence. The biggest problem though is the lack of information it supplies.It doesn't tell you how many of the other snakes you've rescued, if the are you're currently in has a snake to rescue and most damningly of all, there's no overall map, so it would seem that if you get to a stage where you've only got one or two snakes to get (at least, you assume that) then you could be spending hours trying to navigate the giant map that tells you nothing, yet the game is happy to tell you how many eyes you've found in a level (they're a bonus collectible). I'm not claiming to have really been liking it before, but the knowledge of this to come totally put me off. That said, there's a few days until The Witcher comes out yet, so I may try picking it up again, certainly more likely than Ether One.

Chroma Squad

   Oh how I was loving this game. It was a fantastic idea for a game and really well executed until it all went wrong, but to keep a narrative thread, I'll bring up the issue when I get to the point (it's at the end).

   So, this is basically a game where you make a Power Rangers style TV show where you are in charge of running the show and acting out the show in turn based combat. Much like many other turn based combat games it's as complicated as you want to make it and the light RPG elements of the game add extra intrigue when you're outside of the show such as what to equip on your heroes which help out one stat but drop another, y'know, basic RPG stuff.
   The combat is very much played out in the style of Power Rangers or similar shows which exist (apparently) where you fight off some easy monsters before getting on to the big villain, defeating him, then when he gets big, taking him out in your mech. It's not all that simple though, there's directors instruction to follow, like using a team finishing move on an enemy (remember when they used to join all their weapons together? Yeah? Well, like that), or defeating a certain amount of enemies or finishing in a certain amount of goes and other such things. The mech battles can be frustrating though, they're very easy but can be very time consuming where you have to play percentages and when you miss a punch that has an 88% chance of hitting 3 times in a row, it makes me wonder what the percentage chance of me smashing my monitor is about to be.

   On the plus side though, you can name everything. You studio, your team, the characters the finishing move and so on, so there's plenty of chance for personal gags there, or just blatant rip offs. You even get to hire your actors at the start to fulfil certain rolls in the team and they all add something different, so even though the RPG elements are quite light in the game, they're sill very important.
   Of course, the story goes nuts. At first your just making your own show then it goes crazy and gets real and you actually have to save the universe, and keep your audiences up. I do wonder why those camera men keep putting themselves in the way mind you. It's funny though, there's branching story lines too and the music is retro gold.
   I was loving it, until the final boss. Sigh. So, there's 3 parts of the final level, fail it and you have to go right back to the start. Bare in mind that between getting through the fights and skipping the cut scenes the first 2 sections of this take about half an hour before you get to the big final fight at which point twice now it has stopped working for me. Both times I've nearly 'done him in', but when one of my team goes down, the enemy just doesn't take it's turn and the game can't continue. So I'm stuck there, after spending all this time getting there (and nearly defeating the final boss is no quick feat either) I can't do anything. Everyone is just standing there. I've spent far too long looking around forums and such for help, but none exists. It's sad to say but even if they do patch it now I doubt I'll go back and finish it now, if there's one thing I hate in gaming actually, there's lots) it's re-doing large sections of the game. I was so happy when game overs went away for this exact reason, I play games once and rarely go back, once it's done it's done to me.

   Oh well, I'll try and get off my ramble. At least this month there has been a fantastic set of games put out on PS Plus for me to go through before the Witcher 3 comes out in a couple of weeks, it's just unfortunate that right now the term 'pissed off' doesn't even cut it to describe my mood. 15 damn hours I'd played that game for and I wish I could recommend it, I was going to...

   Additional. I've calmed down now considerably. Chroma Squad is a really good game, and assuming it's fixed within the next few days I'd recommend it to anyone, it was great until that point. I may finish it yet, but I'll give it a few days first. I don't like to run indie development teams in o the ground when I know bugs will always appear after a game launches, but with just a small team it's hard to keep up with the corrections, I'm just annoyed it's affected me when many others seem to have finished the game no problem.

A week off

   So I'm on a week off from work, and as I mentioned before, until the Witcher comes out, I don't particularly have anything to write about, but I also didn't want to just leave this un-updated (is that a word?) for a month, so I thought I'd share some thoughts on the things I'd been doing with my week off so far, so here we go.

   So, I just went and watched Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now, I like the MCU and related TV series', hell, I nearly wrote a review of Daredevil as I thought it was so great, but I'm not a comic book reader. I have enough hobbies I feel plus a job and stuff, so I'll happily watch the shows and movies but don't mistake me for a comic-buff. I'm not having a go at comic readers, more power to you, it's just not something I do (also, it seems really expensive). What I was getting to with this is that I don't really know these story lines going in, nor what these more minor characters can do. Sure, I'd heard of Scarlet Witch and 'The Vision' before, but I didn't know if they were goodies, baddies, what their deal was etc. This is leading nowhere really, I'm just trying to say don't expect any big analysis here.
   My main concern is there was too many fight scenes. Sure, I know that's kind of one of he main deals with these films, but if I wanted to watch hours of cgi, I'd go and watch a Michael Bay movie, but I don't, so I wont. I also didn't like how it started in the middle of action, I never like it when films start like that, at least have a brief description of whats going on first. Sure, you find out quick enough that they're trying to get Loki's staff, but it seemed a cheap way of opening the movie when they just basically wished they could've opened with Stark making Ultron. Which leads to my other problem of James Spader voicing him. I'm terrible for associating actors with one role for the rest of their lives, Patrick Stewart may be a Shakespearean actor but to me he'll always be Jean Luc Picard. Simon Pegg is in everything now, but He's Tim Bisley. Kelsey Grammar - Frasier Crane. Karen Gillan - Amy Pond. Steve Coogan - Alan Partridge, Jermey Clarkson - A Cunt (oh wait, that one's accurate). Point is, for me, hearing James Spader over and over just made me think of Robert California, the ott character he played in the U.S Office. I can't take him seriously as a villain while thinking of that. I couldn't get that image out of my head though. I kept expecting him to pass blame on others or make offensive insults based of the Hulks size. Didn't happen though which was disappointing. And yes I know James Spader has actually had a big acing career before that, but it's the thing I remember him best from.

    I did actually quite like a lot of it though so I don't want to be too critical. Hawkeye is actually a character now. Scarlet witch was interesting, though mostly towards the end. There were some fun jokes and a nice nod to agent Carter (the best of the Marvel TV shows so far, imo). The story was pretty good overall and it was just generally fun. The biggest problem though is that it was just filler content while waiting for the civil war in the next Captain America movie. When Avengers Assemble  came out it felt like all the movies before that had been setting up for this epic team up. Since then it seem like Captain America the Winter Soldier was more important than this film as it had more of an affect on the MCU and it looks like the next 'cap' film will also have an affect whereas this film can just be essentially forgotten, based on the assumption that they go back on the ending like I suspect they will.
   Btw, a good video game concept for the MCU would be a beat em up with all the characters from the films and TV shows useable, from Ironman to Skye, Groot to Red Skull. Sure, there's already a marvel vs. capcom fighting game series, but scrap that (they're full of X-men that they're not allowed in their films anyway), put them in their more realistic film/ TV costumes (maybe the traditional costumes could be unlockable? (not paid DLC though!)) and make it more gritty. This was kind of already done with DC's Injustice- Gods among us, but this would be tied in to a film universe, so it's sort of not the same, yeah?

   Another thing I've done this week is started watching Star Trek Voyager. There's only 178 episodes, how long can it take? Well, I watched the first season (albeit only a shorter 16 episode one) in 3 days, so maybe not all that long. It's the only one of the more recent Star trek series I've never watched through (yes, that does mean I've never sat down and watched TOS (or TAS)), even though I've caught many episodes in the past when I was younger and they were on TV. I mean, I know who all the characters are and that they're trapped in the delta quadrant and that it's tough to integrate a Maquis and Federation crew together and that Tom Paris is Jeremy Clarkson in space, but I've never watched it properly through. Sure, with Star Trek series' as a whole they're more episodic, so it doesn't mean that you have to have seen them in order, or all of them to consider yourself a fan, but I went for it anyway.
   You know what, it's not too bad. It's certainly better than the first season of TNG, which was terrible (it did get awesome though (note, if you turn on a random episode of TNG and Riker isn't fat, turn it off and don't bother)). There's some good set up for the future (though I know where it mostly leads) and they actually talk about problems like that they're running out of food and power and they actually try and do something about it. Sure, when they go to do something about it they wind up going down a tangent and that winds up just being the set up for an episode, so I'm still not sure if they've actually gotten any dylithium yet, but at least they're talking about it.
   In the past I've talked about how Star Trek paints a too altruistic view of the future, and DS9 did well to get some of that away, although mainly through alien races while humans stayed whiter than white. While the same applies on Voyager it is nice to see some friction within the ship and not that every member of a federation crew is perfect.

   Don't get me wrong, there's problems. Not every episode is a hit, there's many episodes where not a lot happens, a common issue amongst all Star Trek series. There's been no Borg or Q yet, despite the fact I know they're yet to come and the Doctor, who becomes one of the main characters isn't really introduced as well as I'd hoped, he's just kind of turned on and left to it when the actual doctor, and ALL of the other medical staff dies. That's a pretty unfortunate situation to be in, good job Star fleet though ahead there, I hope if all the transporter chiefs had died there would be a holographic Miles O'Brien ready to step in.
   I'm happy to keep watching it though, I did after all watch twelve episodes of it yesterday, even though I hear it does the reverse of all the other Star Trek series and Peaks early, where the others all start lame but get awesome. We'll see


   The main other thing I did was dust off my Xbox 360 and start Borderlands: The Pre-sequel, named as such as it's set between Borderlands 1 and 2. I could've bought it for the new consoles as it has been re-released, but I'd already had it for Xmas and hadn't bothered yet, so I figured why waste my money (plus more importantly, CEX round the corner from me didn't have it in stock). My issue is I can't get in to it. I don't know if it's because I'd had enough of it with the first 2 games, whether it's because it's a spin off/ placeholder game put out to keep the series relevant while a real sequel is being made, or if it's simply because I went back to my 360 and my mind is now set on me not needing it anymore. I'm sure I'd happily go back and relive some classics on it, but to play a new game on it now feels weird. I suspect it's a bit of all 3 really. I turn it on for half hour, then get bored, I just can't get in to it. Maybe it's cause I know there's so many good games coming soon, starting with The Witcher, and this is jut passing time while waiting, but this seemed like the perfect game for such an issue, but I guess it's not

   There may very well be more on Voyager and Borderlands over the next few weeks while I have nothing to write about, after all, I can't spend my whole time talking about how I saw Villa beat Liverpool at Wembley to get to the FA Cup final, although it was pretty fucking awesome. UTV!

12 Week, 12 Games, Year 2. In summation

   I definitely didn't go back and edit that last post so it no longer said I'd do this on Saturday, no-sir-e.

   So I've been wondering how to rank these games and what to mention again and what to not bother repeating when people can always scan back a couple of posts, but I seem to have separated the games out in to 7 groups, with only the bottom 2 groups being things I'd suggest not playing. Now the questions is do I start from the good or the bad?

   I just wrote the top one, thought about it, then decided to write the bottom group first. This consists of Tower of Guns and The Order: 1886. I didn't like either of these games. I'll skip over tower of guns as I'd never heard of it before, played it for a couple of hours and moved on with my life, but I guess i just didn't 'get' it. For me, dying dozen of times to unlock something to make later playthroughs easier isn't fun, it's something that will wind up with me having a broken controller and is the same reason I'll never play Dark souls or anything like that. Sorry, but I don't enjoy constantly failing, I do that enough irl, I don't need to do it in games too.
   As for the Order, I was weary going in, hearing that it was mostly story and the cut scenes outdid the amount of game time and it was really cinematic and all that. It sounded off putting to me, but then I nearly never played Metal Gear Solid 4 because of the same reasons, but I enjoyed that game, so I went for it, and boy do I regret it. Turns out just because a story is long and the cut scenes outnumber the gameplay, it still doesn't automatically make the story interesting. It was dull, I didn't care about the characters at all and what little action there was, was passable at best, and I don't even like 3rd person cover based shooters anyway. I've still never played a gears of war game for that very reason. Why did I even try it?
   This bottom list comprises of the 2 games I absolutely hated on this list and the booby prize winner for last place is: The Oder: 1886

 

   The second list are the other games I disliked and the only other group of games that I'd recommend you not play. This list is D4: Dark dreams don't die and Wolfenstein: the new order.
   So, D4 is  weird interactive story style game, not the genre that's weird btw, more the game. All the characters don't make sense, there's pieces of the plot that start and don't end, it's just weird. Too weird for me in fact, sorry.
   The there's Wolfenstein: The New order. This game would have been higher up if it were shorter, but it was an average fps that far exceeded it's welcome. It went on (for me anyway) for about 14 hours of its passable gameplay and 'meh' story. after a few hours I'd given up caring buy I pushed through it, I'd recommend no one else does the same.

   Okay, now we're on to the sorta DLC/ demo section, but that are technically classed as stand alone games in Forza Horizon 2 presents fast and furious, and Saints Row 4, Gat outta hell.
   These games don't need to be talked about separately really, the main thing to say is rather than playing these, play the main game that they're based on, as those games (Forza horizon 2 and Saints Row 4) are great, and sure, if you've finished them and can pick these up for free to add a little longer playtime (although that'll never likely be a problem in Forza) then go for it.

 Okay then, on to real games that I'd really recomend with his middle layer of Worms battlegrounds, Sonic adventure 2, Ben there, Dan That, Time Gentlemen please, DLC quest and resogun.
   Right off the bat let's pull Ben there, time gentlemen and DLC quest aside and just admit they're silly little games (well, Time gentlemen, please isn't that little), but they are funny and entertaining and good for what they are. They're all dead cheap on Steam and there's no reason not to at least try them.
   On to Resogun then, which I'll admit was a lot of fun and in the vein of the likes of Geometry wars and the developers own other series, super stardust, this is a genre that has really caught on in the last few years. It is good at what it does, but as I said before, It doesn't have a lot of game modes, but tries to make you think it does by promoting dlc content on the front page like you can play it right there. That is annoying.
   Sonic Adventure 2 is obviously an old game that somewhat stands up against the test of time (although that may well be influenced by my childhood love of  Sonic (which has gone on way too long at this point in time)) as it's still passable. Sure, Shadow has a stupid voice and the knuckles/ Rogue levels are kinda lame, but the way the story intertwines is pretty interesting. And speaking of old games there's worms: battlegrounds too. Sure, this is technically a new game, but the basic idea of what worms is hasn't changed in about 20 years, and just like most (2D) Worms games before it, it's fun. Plus, here's a picture of it to liven up the middle of this post!

   Then we're on to the really good stuff. This contains 3 2D platformers, Freedom planet, Apotheon and Shovel Knight.
   So, Freedom planet brings back the megadrive style of faster paced platformers, like sonic, Ristar, Vectorman, De Cap Attack (a personal favourite) and more. It's got cool 16 bit style music too, but the plot is a little long. The game is a great trip down memory lane though, especially if you were bought up on those types of games like I was.
   Apotheon is another I'd have never played if it wasn't for PlayStation plus. It's set in ancient Greece with a cool art style to go with it as well as fun sword and shield (and bow and arrow) play, it's a lot of fun, the plot is fun and the voice overs are (hopefully intentionally) hilarious.
   Shovel knight then, which hit the 3ds and Wii U last year, but I'd never picked it up, until this year. It's now finally out on nearly everything too, and it deserves to be played. It's another game that's influenced by older platformers and does a good job on it. The story is again great and there's fun spoofing on a lot of other games that'll you recognise (if you know your stuff).

   Then it's the not really indie section with Ori and the Blind Forest and Transistor. I say not really indie because even though it's small studios producing these games, they've been given a hell of a lot of money to make them. Firstly Ori, which was funded by Microsoft, was a terrific platformer. It's got an open world so you're encouraged to look around for hidden extras and collectibles. It's another game with a great story and art direction. It looks great, plays great and really is about as good as it gets for modern day 2d platforming. It's also the highest game on my list that came out this year, so I guess it's my game of the year so far (though I sincerely doubt it still will be come the end).
   Transistor is great too, from the makes of Bastion (which I've heard is good but I've never played it, so hard to say), where you control a sword, or a girl, or both, I'm not totally sure. Either way, the singer has lost her voice to 'the process' and needs to stop them and get it back. Again, great story and interesting gameplay, where you can play it 2 ways, which combine together well, wether you're mapping out a whole attack, just wining it or mixing them together.

   This top group consists of Infamous Second son, The Swapper and Counter Spy. These were definitely my 3 favourite games that I played during this time.
   Infamous was very much like it's predecessors, a fun super powered frolic around an open city, fighting the good (or evil) fight and destroying enemies in millions of different ways. There's plenty of variety, a fun story that doesn't get too in the way (albeit maybe a bit too serious for an infamous game for my liking) and some genuinely good boss fights, but most importantly, just classic fun.
   The swapper may be my favourite puzzle platformer that I've ever played. It's got a cool atmosphere, it's challenging enough to make you want to try again, but not so much that you smash your controller then buy a second one and copy what an online guide tells you to do (or maybe that would just be me? (not that that's happened to me (yet))). That's another game I'd never have played without PS Plus, and I'm grateful it was there as I loved this game.
   Speaking of only from PS Plus, I'd never even Heard of Counterspy before it showed up on PS Plus, but that sure was a nice surprise. It's a terrific 2d sneak 'em up kind of game, where you infiltrate both sides of the cold war to get information. There's other concerns as you go along too like which side is on to you more, which has weapon blueprints, which gets you closer to stopping the space launch and more. Plus, each mission is a bite-sized 10 minute or so affair, so it's perfect for the busy guy/ gal that you probably aren't. There's a lot more to it too and for something that seems so simple I found it truly excellent, so I'll give it my stamp of approval of the best game I played here. Congratulations Counterspy

   Thank for reading at least 1 section of this 13 week process (sounds like I'm on the Apprentice). I genuinely don't know what to write abut next until the Witcher comes out, but I'm sure I'll come up with something