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

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 12

   This may be a couple of days late but rest assured that I've played none of these since Monday. Not that I have to answer to any of you, it's just that I finished the second game on Monday and have essentially been at work the whole time since (hence why I'm only writing this now).

   So, the First game I played was another that came free with PS plus called Tower of Guns. So I checked what the Internet had to say about that (as well as other free PS plus game Aaru's awakening (spoilers, the Internet hates it, so I didn't play it)) and it was suggested it was a fun indie fps with lots of replaybility due to it's grinding nature of unlockables. Truth is though it's lame. That's my thoughts anyway. You fight your way up a tower filled with mounted guns and a few flying spinney disk things and if you die you go right back to the start of the game (which was an extra annoyance  to me due to my lack of interest in replaying games, though granted the levels are randomly generated so they'll never be exactly the same, but the challenge is the same, over and over and over again).
   It was hard as well, not especially in a fun way though, more in a 'your outnumbered, your weapon isn't powerful enough yet until you play the game through another 50 times so you may as well just stand there and die' kind of way, at least that's how I frequently felt. Then I unlocked a perk that made the game easier (perhaps a little too easy though). That way I finished the game in order to put it on this list, although I was extremely close to not bothering, I had no fun with this game at all.

   Okay, on to Forza Horizon 2 presents the Fast and the Furious (a bit of a long one). Last year I went on about how much I loved Forza Horizon 2, possibly my favourite racing game of all time and it made my shortlist for game of the year last year (though not winning). On the other hand, I have never seen, nor have any interest in seeing a Fast and Furious movie. This game was free for a couple of weeks though so I picked it up then, although by the time you're reading this you'll have to pay for it. What the game essentially is, is  demo for Forza horizon 2. It's a small section of the map, a handful of cars and about 20 races and a bucket load of easy achievement points (if you're in to that kind of thing). I've been considering whether to count this game as a game or not but I figured yeah, it's got a story and 1000g, so why not. The story, as I understand it is you have to make a collection of cars to ship off to some other people by racing opponents for 'pinks', which basically means you win the car. I'm not sure if you lose the car your in if you're beaten as I won every single race as the game is extremely easy. Apparently the guy who does the voice over telling the story for the game is a character from the movies , but i wouldn't know. It is an interesting concept for a licenced game as a mod to another, real existing and actually good game and not some terribly rushed licensed game, but this doesn't hit the mark. Sure, it still plays like Forza Horizon 2, but the story is of no consequence to me and it's way too easy. It'll be interesting to See whether or not other movie games go down this route too (but hopefully are implemented better). This is hardly a cash in for the movie franchise as you could get it free for it's first couple of weeks of existence and I cant imagine it making Fast and furious fans out of Forza fans, it didn't for me after all. The other way round? Possibly, but this sets a bad precedent for Forza being far too easy.

   If you want to know much more about the real Forza Horizon 2, please go back a few pages and read a full review of the real game there and not this, which is essentially a demo.

   I'd like to say that is all for this 12 weeks, 12 games stuff, but I'll come back and write up a summary of it later, I just don't have time right now. Next week most likely.

Completed games

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
The Order: 1886
Shovel Knight
CounterSpy
Ori and the blind forest
Freedom Planet
DLC Quest
Infamous Second Son
Resogun
Ben there, Dan that
Time Gentlemen, Please.
Tower of guns
Forza Horizon 2 presents the Fast and the Furious

12 weeks, 12 games, year 2, week 11

   Ah, nearly there, then I can get on to something else. What that is mind you I have no idea as it's still over a month till Witcher 3 comes out, I guess there will be Daredevil to watch, but that's hardly gonna take up all my time. I'm sure I'll find something to do (maybe).
   Sorry if I let you down with the quick one last week, but more so that I may have done a disservice to Infamous, as it was genuinely really good, definitely one of my favourite games from this fledgling console generation. Anyway, I'm blasting through these games now, granted I'm not playing any mammoth AAA's that'll take me forever (Wolfenstein aside), but nevertheless it's quick and I've enjoyed it thus far. The need for speed (get it) has forced me to play a lot of indie and smaller games that I'd have been very unlikely to play otherwise. The likes of Transistor, The swapper, Apotheon, Counterspy and DLC quest (plus 2 I'm gonna be talking about in a bit) I wouldn't have played, but I've enjoyed them all, if anything it's the bigger games that have let me down like Wolfenstein and the Order.
   All that said, I didn't start the week with an indie game but it was a smaller game as I keep hearing people go on and on about Resogun. This is a Sony made space shooter (think the likes of Defender) that came out with the launch of the PS4, but as I've discussed before, I only recently got one, and only even recently-er run out of games to play thanks to Sony taking an extra week to give me my April PS plus games and Microsoft giving me supposedly the worst pool game ever (and I don't care about pool anyway, let alone pool videogames). I digress, I picked it up and went for it. It takes place on a cylinder as developer Housemarque moved away from the sphere shape that made them famous with the Super Stardust series. They also added in a 'save the last humans' bit where you get bonuses for rescuing them and safely escorting them to another ship. It's great when you get another life or bomb, but when you get points, urgh, lame.
   As you may expect with any game of this nature it's very twitch based and reactions are key as well as learning the patterns of enemies towards the later levels. The first couple I breezed through easily but by the time I reached 4 and 5 (there's only 5 levels) I was there for hours (well, over 1 hour anyway) learning the movements of the enemies and it was so gratifying to blast my former fury enducing enemies to pieces (the particle effects are great BTW).

      Despite all this awesomeness and the element of returning me to my childhood playing Truxton for hours on end (look it up, it's amazing) there is a serious problem. You look at the game and might say (I might anyway) 'hmm, there's only 5 levels, oh well, at least there's all these other modes on this 'ere menu to keep me going' except that's not the case. Despite the fact that it's right there in the main menu for you to play, it turns out all these other  modes are DLC. It doesn't say anywhere that this is what's going on until you go and try to play them. This annoyed me to no end as I was looking forward to going back and trying all the other modes, after all, on Geometry wars  the other modes were the most exciting parts, only to be left annoyed.It's not cheap content either, you're talking £6-£7 for a couple of the modes when the game itself is only £10 in the first place.
   I'd love to recommend this game to you as the arcade mode is great, but the fact of the matter is this game is not the full version and they try and trick you into spending more money on it which I don't appreciate at all. Do us all a favour and if you must buy this, for god's sake don't buy the DLC, we shouldn't have to put up with this BS.

   So, Maybe it's time to chill out a bit and move on to Ben there, Dan that and it's sequel, Time gentlemen Please. Now, I picked these up on Steam a couple of years ago as they were literally the cheapest games on there, and there was 2 for the price of 1! Huzzah! I played the first one for a few mins but moved on to other things, but I decided now it was time to come back. So, they're both point and Click adventures of a very low quality, graphics and power wise, but the stories and lines are great.
 I'll start with the first one, as it was obviously just a quickly made game as it was only a couple of hours long and dead easy. The 2 characters were trying to watch Magnum P.I and got abducted by Aliens and you have to get them back through picking up items and finding out where to use them and all that usual point and click stuff. What makes it funny is that the 2 main characters of the game are the 2 people that made the game (Dan and Ben (can't remember their last names (sure I could look it up but, meh))) and they are constantly breaking the fourth wall, as well as referencing a deluge of other games, TV shows and movies and just like TV shows like Spaced and Community, it fills me with a sense of geeky pride that I get a high majority of these jokes. There's also a fun smattering of crude and farcical humour in there too, as well as some pops at British life (it's a British made game, so extra points on that) to round it off.

   The second one is much the same as the first with some differences. For example it's gone from 2 hours to 5 and is significantly harder. Now, I'm not one who grew up with point and click adventures, I didn't get a PC until the late 90's and by that point I just wanted to play Championship manager on it (and command and Conquer, of course) so I guess I must have missed something in crazy logic school, but there's no way I'd have ever been able to finish this one without an online guide. I feel bad for saying it, but it's the truth, probably a third of this game I navigated purely using a guide as I was frequently getting stuck.
   Oh well, to be fair the plot was equally ludicrous and a follow on from the first game, where you had to go back in time and stop yourselves from giving Hitler an army of dinosaurs (unrelated to the ones pictured above as they're from the first game) and conquering the world all because you let someone invent the coat hanger early. The comedy is still the same and they very slightly upped the graphics and sound this time around (though don't get too excited, you still have to play it in a boxed window, albeit a somewhat larger one).

   You can see the difference, right? Point is though, get them and play them. They've gone slightly up in price as they're now £2.99 on Steam, although that is for both of them. They're definitely worth a buy.

   That's all for this week just 1 more left. I believe my PS plus games should be up by now so I'll check what they are and get back to you in a week. Cheers.

Completed games

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
The Order: 1886
Shovel Knight
CounterSpy
Ori and the blind forest
Freedom Planet
DLC Quest
Infamous Second Son
Resogun
Ben there, Dan that
Time Gentlemen, Please.

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 10

   All about the Infamous. Yes, I did finish it, even though it took me 7 days after all. I really did enjoy it though and it's the first game I've 100% completed since god knows when (by which I mean gone around and done all the silly side quests like 'tagging' walls, destroying hidden cameras and stuff, not just beating the final boss (this was in case for some reason anyone didn't know what it was to 100% complete a game, but I'd like to think if you were reading this already then you would do)).
I feel that speaks highly for my enjoyment of the game as I had a blast playing it. The story was done very well, especially given the more serious nature this time than the comic book approach of the last 2. The confrontations with the big bad made me question whether what I was doing was right (not that I could've changed it, as it's a game, not rl) before defeating her and reaching Nirvana and there was a brief moment where I shed a single, manly tear. Not to say the game play wasn't good, because it was. It was just as much fun as it ever was to blast your way through hordes of enemies or to majestically make your way across the city, whichever way you chose to do it. This leads to the variety of powers and their advantages and disadvantage over each other. I found smoke to be the best one for fighting, Neon the best for movement and Video somewhere in between. (okay, I know there's concrete as well but you only get this when you beat the final boss and I'd done literally every side mission before facing her because I assumed the game would end, hence I never really got to use concrete apart from in the fight with her). The problem with the powers is that you can't just swap willy nilly (is that how you spell it?) but you have to drain the right energy source to get that power back.

   Naturally, just like every game where you can choose to be heroic or evil, I was a goody two shoes (is that how you spell it?) just like I always am. In this game that does mean you're restricted from getting certain powers, but you get different ones instead, it's not like your supposed to be one way or the other but hey, at least I got the happy ending.
   The reason I got the 100% completion though was that the side missions and game play were fun enough that I could listen to music/ watch tv/ listen to podcasts/ play cm03/04 while doing all this stuff. It didn't have to take up my while attention just to have  good time with it, but in my mind it stands as a testament to the game that while I'm doing something else I'd rather be playing this, which is normally that the time I use to play FIFA, Champ man or something online.
   Okay, so this hasn't been a very in depth coverage or long post but hey, it's my birthday, I've got better things to do (kinda).

Completed games

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
The Order: 1886
Shovel Knight
CounterSpy
Ori and the blind forest
Freedom Planet
DLC Quest
Infamous Second Son

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 9

   Pretty exciting week coming, Wrsetlemania this Sunday then my birthday next week (hint hint) but most excitingly at all, I have 2 Villa order numbers with enough games to go to the FA Cup semi final! So I will be straight on that phone 9:01 am, 7th April (happy birthday Rory Smith) and booking my seat (and y'know, a second seat for my Dad (the problem in the first place being I didn't want to go alone)). Away from this though, I know this is a day later than usual and in fact my post last week was a day early, so it's no doubt been a long, teeth grinding, baited breath having 9 day wait for you all. Unfortunately (and this is the reason it's a day late) I've worked every day since the last post, until today at last so there hasn't been much time to play games, but I've squeezed about an hour a day in (I'm making it sound like I have a 'problem') and not picked especially long games this week

   Freedom Planet

   (Sub headings at request of Rory Smith (urgh, him again!). So here's something you don't see very much of these days, 16-bit style platformers. Granted we've had better technology than that since the early 90's, but for someone who grew up on them (Sega not Nintendo for me (Sonic FTW)) this is pretty damn exciting. Freedom planet takes the form of the likes of Sonic, Ristar, Bubsy, Rocket Knight and many others (no, I'm not unable to list the others due to lack of knowledge, it's just that it'll take up half a page and people don't really care) and adds to the list of great 16 bit speedy action platformers, where reflex is king. Sure, I've heard people spout how great Mario was and how Sonic sucked, but people don't get it, just because they're both platformers doesn't mean they have to be the same game judged by the same standards, they are 2 different types of game (this is all personal opinion btw) and Freedom planet is of the Sonic variety.
   Just like the games listed above the characters are colourful animals (actually, Bubsy wasn't colourful, nor is a star an animal, hmm...) which makes it feel more retro rather than try and make it more gritty and the story is nuts, with terribly captured voice work (which I assume was intentional) that sounds like it was recorded in a bin, cut scenes that take way too long, plot twists that are never mentioned again and bickering world leaders. I love all this about it though, it makes it seem so cheesy and that's all part of the fun (for me anyway).

  On to the important bit now, the gameplay. I'm not sure I'd liken it to Sonic so much as many people have (or had by now I guess as this is about a year old), but more of a mix of the games I already listed. It's got the fun variety of levels that you expect, a massive array of enemies that you never know what they're gonna do when you first meet them (and hence nearly always get hit the first time) and lots of spikes, moving platforms, ledges and crushing pillars for you to land on/miss/fall down/ get squashed under. Naturally it gets harder as the game goes on, but as you start to figure out what all your powers do and where to use them, things get easier at the same time.
   One major advantage this has over older games (and something not has no doubt fuelled the 'games are too easy now' arguments that fill the dark corners of the internet) is that there's infinite continues, so no game over (good job too as I died about 30 times on the last boss). Obviously this brings up my dislike of bosses again as there is one at the end of every level, but the levels are so long (mostly around 15+ minutes) that it feels more like the end of 'zone' boss to steal a Sonic term.
   Another bonus is there is 3 different characters you can play the game through, and, by the way their stories mix it would seem like they each have different levels (though I haven't looked that up) and you can opt to play through the game without the story so if you wanted to replay it with all the characters you can save yourself some time (I chose Lilac BTW, because the other first option rode a bike, which seemed lame). There's a time attack mode too if you're in to that sort of thing, but the best part, for me anyway, are the uinlockables throughout the game. These come in the form of cards hidden around the levels, and much like you used to get, most of these are music from the game. I miss sitting there listening to the theme tunes for all the bosses on Sonic 3 or whatever (I don't really miss it, but it is something I did) and although I'm not going to be spending my time listening to it now, it's nice to see it in there for nostalgic reasons

   It must be said that the game was quite easy for me, as this is the sort of game I've invested months of my childhood in to, so if you're of the same generation of me you'll probably find the same thing (apart from that final boss, blimey). Nevertheless, it's a great look in to the past at what I grew up on, and it feels like I've just bought a new Megadrive game. It's available on Steam right now and coming to Wii U soon (which everyone owns of course) and hell, just pick it up on the next Steam sale, even if you don't try it for 5 years, and then just for 10 minutes, it's worth it if you give it a chance. (added note, the water level is much like Sonic 3's Hydrocity zone where there isn't much water (thank god).


DLC Quest

   This is a simple little game (£2 on Steam) that makes fun of a lot of today's games, with having to pay to get a lot of things that should be in a game at the start, e.g, you can't walk left at the start of the game. It also pokes fun at fetch quests as it's often sending you back and forth across the map in order to advance, whilst hiding the ability to advance through a game behind having to upgrade your character. I can't forget it also adds 'dlc' (though you don't really pay for any of this it's noted (apart from the original £2)) that just changes the game aesthetically and has no real impact on the game, like making everyone wear bathing suits, putting a load of zombies in the game (that do nothing) and of course a horse armour pack. It's also packed full of little jokes referencing specific games and just gaming in general

 
   I have just found it difficult to sum up what I just said in 1 picture, so I just picked this one at random. Anyway, the game is between about 1 1/2-2 hours long and for £2 is totally worth it, If I had to describe it in 2 words it would be 'simply (because it's really basic) brilliant (because for the tools available to them they've made a witty game with a handful of genuinely tough platforming moments)'. That's 2 words right?

Infamous: Second Son

   Wow, how did I play all these when I was at work so much? Well, it's because I only started Infamous today and only for a couple of hours. It must be said though that it was a good couple of hours, I had really enjoyed the first 2 infamous games on PS3, so I knew when I got a PS4 eventually I'd be playing this and I got that PS4 sooner than expected and have been getting around to playing this game for months, and today just decided to go with it. It's really good is what I'm saying.
   I'm not far in enough to have unlocked any of the other powers yet, so for now, just like The Mask, I'm Smokin'... hahaha, a classic. Point is it's not all that different from the other infamous games thus far, although the story is more grounded in the real world than before, but the gameplay is basically the same at this moment, which I don't have a problem with, yet, because I knew going in you unlock a variety of other powers like Neon, and whatever the others are.

   This one may well take longer than the week ahead (well, 6 days in fact now) as it's open world, and there are powerful rewards for doing everything in the map (y'know, better powers and stuff) so next weeks post will cover a lot more ground on this game, though probably on nothing else.

   Especially not on Dying Light, Which I've all but given up on, unless a certain person ever actually wants to play co op in it, which was the main reason I bough the game in the first damn place.

Completed games


Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
The Order: 1886
Shovel Knight
CounterSpy
Ori and the blind forest
Freedom Planet
DLC Quest

Underway

Infamous: Second SonDying Light

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 8

   So, obviously after all my excitement for Ori and the Blind forest and Hotline Miami 2 I have played one of those this week, but which? Well, it's Ori. I've been well and truly put off Hotline Miami 2 after seeing reviews mention that you often get killed by enemies that are off screen and you just see bullets flying in from out of camera shot and killing you. That is a massive turn off for me, if there's one thing I hate in games it's failing through no fault of your own (well, multiplayer obviously is different there), and being killed by an enemy you didn't even know was there is perfect controller destroying material for me. Point is I'll be giving that one a miss, but I carried on with Ori and the Blind forest.

   So, to set you up, it's a Microsoft exclusive (by which I mean it's on PC as well as Xbox) 2D platformer, with some exploration elements thrown in. You can go round the map exploring if you want, but of course, certain parts are locked off to you until you unlock the move that lets you get to them. It's a classic trick in games, and it must appeal to many people, but I have to let out a groan every time I see an area right by the start of the game that I can't access and would have to go all the way back to get some mostly useless ability boost (think Pokemon red/blue). These abilities you choose from the tree seem mostly pointless, sure, the 8 key moves you unlock along the way are important, but the skill tree things don't really seem to add much. This isn't where I wanted to start though, I wanted to start from how it started for me and that's constant crashing.



  I'm trying to start the game right, you get to the main menu to create a save file and all that junk, and it just kept crashing for me, I saw that some other people were having this problem too and even though we'd been told that we didn't need to uninstall and reinstall, I did it anyway, which took forever. Eventually it was back on, I went to start it and it crashed on the menu again. Would this game work at all? (obviously it did because I wouldn't have said I'd played it already, sorry to ruin the tension (maybe you should get some red packing paper)). I tried a few times and noticed that although it kept crashing, I was getting slightly further in to the menu every time, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that if I kept doing it then eventually I would get through the menu, in to the game and it magically wouldn't crash again, which it turns out is exactly what happened. At least it was the last time it crashed on the main menu, there was another crashing issue though.You see, on the xbone, you can exit a game, go back to the main menu, watch  iplayer or whatever then when you go back to the game it'll take you straight back to wherever you left off, but with Ori it wouldn't, try this and it crashed and you had to restart the game. Urgh, for an internally developed game you'd expect less bugs really.
   The game itself was good though, some good platforming, light puzzle elements, and split second decision making where you had to quickly figure out which power would be most useful in which situation. It also had a very interesting saving system where you could create your own save point, but it would use up some of your power that would only get replenished by a few fairly infrequent things around the map, so it was a tough choice thinking shall I go around another couple of corners and save there and risk dying (again) or save here and hope I can find somewhere to replenish energy cells soon. This also brings me to the other thing about this game, it was hard. Mostly hard in a good way where it was timing that you just couldn't quite get, but sometimes it would get frustrating as you spend 15 minutes doing the same tiny section over and over but you just can't get it all to work together even thug you have no problem with each little part. Damn you feel good/ relieved when you get through these sections though, this especially goes for the sections at the end of each of the major sections pf the game (of which there's 3) where you have to escape from a barrage of whatever element you've just restored to the forest (although these parts aren't as difficult as many reviewers are making out). The only problem I have really is the character design, which is pretty disappointing, especially as the rest of the game looks so good. Many of the enemies are just blobs (see above) or regular angry animals, plus Ori itself is just some little white dude (see below).

   Still, despite some bugs, it's a neat game, the story is simple yet definitely has hints of the film 'Up' to it. I enjoyed it myself, and that's what's important to me.

   No, I didn't touch Dying light, but I do now wonder what I'll be playing next week since I've been put off Hotline Miami . Will I carry on with dying light? There's always Oddworld (as I talked about last week) and Frozen Planet on Steam interests me (I'd have to pay for that mind), but then I've also got Infamous: Second son, Drive Club and Borderlands, the Pre-Sequel all here still in their cellophane wrap. Who knows? And yes, I am aware I've now done the 12 games, but just like I said last yer, I'll keep going until the 12 weeks is up.


Completed games
Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
The Order: 1886
Shovel Knight
CounterSpy
Ori and the blind forest

Underway

Dying Light