What You've Been Playing This Week

[prinnysquad]

Up to Chapter 15 or something of U4.

It’s where they are wandering around the lost pirate city.

I thought the atmosphere and visuals of the sequence where you are shipwrecked on the island utterly outstanding. The driving rain looked absolutely amazing. There was a real sense of being freezing cold, battered by the elements and generally bust up.

The sequence before that when searching for clues in those island towers was ok. Not one of the best sections, but decent enough.

It’s against all my usual instincts, but I almost crave linearity in this game. The more open areas panic me a little. There’s just too many height levels and nooks that I can’t be bothered to scrat around for objects. I want to push on and follow the story. Yet I know that I’m missing collectibles by doing that, which is annoying.

Still, that’s my problem.

[Golgo]

Up to Chapter 15 or something of U4.

It’s where they are wandering around the lost pirate city.

I thought the atmosphere and visuals of the sequence where you are shipwrecked on the island utterly outstanding. The driving rain looked absolutely amazing. There was a real sense of being freezing cold, battered by the elements and generally bust up.

The sequence before that when searching for clues in those island towers was ok. Not one of the best sections, but decent enough.

It’s against all my usual instincts, but I almost crave linearity in this game. The more open areas panic me a little. There’s just too many height levels and nooks that I can’t be bothered to scrat around for objects. I want to push on and follow the story. Yet I know that I’m missing collectibles by doing that, which is annoying.

Still, that’s my problem.

The collectibles in this game are little more than shards of pottery and random bit of brass junk. They don't even give them any archaeological context to make them a bit more interesting. Don't bother hunting them out, just press on.

[wakka]

Yeah, I would just press on with the adventure. Don't worry about the side stuff. I can't remember any of it being of note at all, it's not like the Witcher 3 or something.

[prinnysquad]

Ok chaps. I don’t know why it’s agitating me so much, so I’ll just push it to one side.

[prinnysquad]

Just completed the mission where the truth is revealed about Sam.

WOAH. Didn’t see that coming, at all. Excellent!

I like the fact the next level is a flashback. It’s a very cinematic game, with the narrative dipping between the past and the present to join the dots.

[vanpeebles]

Was it serious?

[prinnysquad]

Lord of Laffs.

[Atticus]

I like the fact the next level is a flashback. It’s a very cinematic game

Are you around chapter 16 ‘The Brothers Drake’?

->Open Spoiler<-

most memorable part of the game for me was putting Beethoven on the gramophone and exploring the big house ... genuinely felt like being in a film

[prinnysquad]

That is the bit I’ve just done! That exact thing. Before heading to the air vent. Class.

[Atticus]

Been plodding along with Twilight Princess on the Wii U. Enjoying doing an hour here and there ... can't do much more as the controller battery doesn't last much longer I should play with the Pro maybe but I like the inventory screen set up on the big one.

[JazzFunk]

Playing Tomb Raider Definitive from the beginning. Loved it first time around on 360 but got sidetracked, what a great game this is, really enjoyable to play and you can set fire to things like in Evil Within.

Any more games with good arson?

[vanpeebles]

Playing Tomb Raider Definitive from the beginning. Loved it first time around on 360 but got sidetracked, what a great game this is, really enjoyable to play and you can set fire to things like in Evil Within.

Any more games with good arson?

King Kong on 360 and Far Cry 2

[JazzFunk]

Cool, still got Far Cry 2 physical on 360, somewhere. And yeah, I played KK on OGXB, you're right, it had flames of fun as standard.

[wakka]

Been plodding along with Twilight Princess on the Wii U. Enjoying doing an hour here and there ... can't do much more as the controller battery doesn't last much longer I should play with the Pro maybe but I like the inventory screen set up on the big one.

Apart from Mario Maker, which received an obvious benefit, I feel like Wind Waker was my favourite use of the WiiU's mostly fairly pointless touchscreen. It was genuinely handy having your inventory and map there.

It's good to hear Twilight Princess uses a similar system. I was disappointed that Breath of the Wild didn't. The Sheikah Slate within the game felt to me originally designed as an obvious analogue for the WiiU gamepad, which, before the game became cross-gen, probably had some interesting uses in BotW. Even if it had simply been an always-on interactive map, that would have been a great benefit.

Sadly, it did nothing in the game - just displayed a black screen. I've no doubt that the planned gamepad features were excised for fear that reviewers might call out the Switch version for not having them, and the WiiU version might even be considered the 'definitive' version. Not what Nintendo wanted considering it was their key launch game. But as a WiiU player of the game, I felt shortchanged by it.

[JazzFunk]

Is it possible to play TP on the standard Wii using just the GC pad? I quite fancy going through another Zelda but I don't like the idea of the motion controls, it sounds tedious.