What has everyone been playing this week? 2

[Azarenka]

Klonoa on the Wii, really charming game, the visuals are excellent and the platforming is great. Top game.

[aticatac]

I did finally get my internet up and running and a steam account,despite being a multi format retro gamer I have played a couple of demo`s of Euro Trucker 2 and Shadow Warrior.
I feel Shadow warrior is an interesting idea with a FPS hack and slash but I am not sure It would keep my interest but i do like the humour. On the other hand Euro trucker two is some thing I can play to relax,do the odd delivery to pass some time away so I may well purchase that shortly, I also have my eye on Farcry 3 and the Doom BFG collections.

[briareos_kerensky]

Dark Souls II DLC, Illvelo Diilinjah, Excave.

[hush]

Been playing ultra street fighter 4 because of EVO and also played abit of the destiny beta

[Dogg Thang]

Playing 80 Days on iOS. It's an awesome version of 80 Days Around The World, like a choose your own adventure thing from Inkle who did the iOS Sorcery games. A really immersive text experience with an incredible amount of options as you find a route around the world choosing from hundreds of cities.

[kryss]

BF4 until it crashed on me, then Pixel Junk Shooter Ultimate.

I need another 13 headshots with the Unica 6 to unlock the Desert Eagle

[teddymeow]

I've had this week off before I start my new job on Monday. Whenever I haven't been in the garden clearing the jungle or having a driving lesson I've been rinsing Hotline Miami on Vita.

Then TLOU Remastered turned up on Thursday and everything else just faded in to the background.

[speedlolita]

Burnout Paradise due to having no net.

Playing a game at a solid 60 FPS at 1920x1200 with 16x AA and AF and high resolution textures with a 360 pad is kinda mad.

[importaku]

Moved from youkai watch ganso to the honke version, enjoying all the new quests. In between that im exploring the wonderful tropical island in boku no natsuyasumi 4 on psp.

[kellog7]

Warriors Orochi 3. Loving it so far.

[Jamie]

Trails in the Sky on PC, never got round to playing it on PSP so snapped it up on Steam on Friday. About 10 hours in, great slow burn story, nice battle system, can see myself sinking a lot of time into it.

[darkangel]

RE:Make on the good old cube. Still scary as hell, still impressive graphics even in the times of next gen. There still is something to be said for pre-rendered graphics imho. The lighting effects are still lovely to see. Makes me really miss the good old days of proper, hardcore, Survival Horror games. I don't know about anyone else, but always having to navigate things with the map, planning out ammo and health items usage and figuring out really obscure puzzles are a big love of mine.

[QualityChimp]

Bit of an odd one as I've been away on holiday and most of my gaming has been on my new phone as I've just upgraded from an Xperia Play to an Xperia Z1 Compact.

I started by connecting a PS3 pad to it and ensured the various emulators worked whilst hooked up to the telly. I found ePSXe was pretty good and completed Tekken 3 on one credit, so the controls are pretty accurate, but not perfect because Parappa was a nightmare getting the timing right.

I'll try and take some footage of various emulators working as I was really curious, so I can't be the only one.

I then tried Max Payne Mobile as that's compatible with the pad too. It's a lot clumsier on a pad than a keyboard and mouse combo, which is how I first played it, but still great fun, despite its age.

I didn't try the GTA mobile games, but I'll probably get Vice City as I think that's my fave (the gangsta stuff in San Andreas put me off, even if it's the most accomplished of the PS2 games and the awesome Area 51 section and jetpacks).

I was a bit let down at the lack of pad-compatible games, especially Minecraft and Survivalcraft (left stick worked but nothing else), but dabbled a bit in the murky world of free-to-play games, dun dun duuuuun.

I played some Dead Trigger 2 and actually found it to be a really good game and struggled to comprehend I was playing something with such good graphics on a mobile phone. The pad worked perfectly and was customisable.

The game I've played the most though, is Dead Ahead, which is a brilliant take on the endless runner genre. You play a pizza delivery boy trying to escape from zombies chasing after him. As the game progresses, you get more zombies, who can run faster, more obstacles and a variety of enemies trying to eat your brains. The graphics are brilliant as they're a cutesy pixelart style. The clever thing is, there are a variety of weapons and vehicles to buy and upgrade, all of which cost game money. Of course, you can buy more game coins with real money so speed things up and I've found it interesting the ways it makes you want to cut a few corners with your actual cash. Half-price offers are made each day, but they're always for things you don't have enough game coins for, so if you want the offer, you have to stump up the money. There are ads in between every other go and you can pay to get rid of those and you can pay to get the ultimate weapons and bike (Kaneda's bike clone!).

Aside from the sneaky methods of making you want to spend real money, I've found the game pretty addictive and the addition of goals to achieve to progress to the next character level is a real motivation for "one more go".

Then I got home and fired up EDF 2025 again!
Only the final level to go on Normal with the Wing Diver, then on to Hard!

[Azarenka]

God Hand on PS2, such an amazing game that is very complex underneath all it's bravado, back when Capcom made quality after quality.

[fallenangle]

Just started Xbox Splintercell: Pandora Tomorrow for the first time. Immediately reminded why I was not a huge fan of the first game - linear, pedantic and a usable but poor inventory system. Can't complain about the writing although it is up there with MGS's numbing complexity of plot and over done Codec style interruptions.

But what I really disliked about the first game and this is the missions where you'll fail immediately if you kill somebody, except when the game decides its OK, as in the Israeli mission I did last night. But do you get the non-lethal weapons, distraction devices etc you get with a free kill mission? No you just get a silenced pistol.

Doors randomly locking behind you when you hit a particular trigger point and exits or exit strategy likewise illogically inactive or unavailable are another annoyance for me. Everything just feels so controlled and contrived but not thoroughly thought through. There is thus little chance for the Hitman style alternative routes or imaginative solutions a gamer (at least this gamer) would like to explore.

One thing that struck me last night as very weird is that three missions in, when you've already used the sniper rifle several times earlier, they introduce what is effectively a tutorial for it. BTW a tutorial, thankfully optional if you ignore what the game expects you to do, where it is apparently OK to practice and waste its non-lethal options on a random civilian. Also, despite being sniper rifle attachments, you can't use the non-lethal and distraction devices when you're using the telescopic sight. The left trigger is normally used for this secondary weapons/device fire but when using the telescopic sight it changes function to temporary breath holding to stabilise the weapon. Stupid.