27/06/2014

Angry Birds Epic - Turn Based RPG

The Angry Birds brand has been applied to the turn based RPG formula & produced not a bad result.

You have your usual level up stats, weapon & armour upgrades, crafting & various characters.

So far I have not come across any paywall, there are in-app purchases for the materials & gold you need but you can get these from just playing the game.
I've not played an iOS game for a long while (apart from Carcassonne & Lost Cities) but have been playing ten odd minutes per day on this for the past week.

Link it up to facebook to get your friends to help you on your adventure & complete the daily challenge for rewards. There is also a large world map to explore with various boss fights & wave battles.

Rovio are ticking off all the franchise boxes, whats next FPS? Call of Angry Birds

Lost Cities - 100 Games

Not much gaming at all the past couple of weeks with the World Cup to enjoy. I think I have managed about an hour of Zelda Wind Waker but I do still get time for iOS gaming.

Playing the 100th game of Lost Cities against Luffers, I've got a 12 game lead.




17/06/2014

Destiny - Alpha

Over the weekend I managed to play quite a bit of Destiny & hit the level cap for the Alpha test.

On Earth you have three types of modes Story, Explore & Strike.

The story mission is quite short but gives you a bit of a background into what your role is in the game.

The Strike mission is very tough even with my level eight Titan & two other online players there were quite a few tough bosses to overcome. I died quite a few times on this but thankfully the co-op players were able to revive me.

The Explore mode is my favourite because it lets you explore the gorgeous terrain whilst completing simple missions and taking part in public events. I spent hours just exploring the many caves & underground passages. Occasionally you would come up against some very tough level 10+ enemies that you just could not harm. I found an opening in the dam wall which took me to an outside area littered with rusted vehicles.

Visually it looks amazing, I have some screenshots I took below & more on my PS4 which I will upload later.




Can't wait till July 17th for the Beta. I think I may have to take a couple of days off work to enjoy.




11/06/2014

Blog - Tidy Up

I've been having a bit of a tidy up on my blog & have decided to remove all the movies/tv posts, tried it for a while but I think I prefer to leave this blog to gaming only. Also removed some odd posts about videos & splurge.

I then started reading my posts about Owen & got all sad thinking about him. I'm posting about E3 etc and getting all excited about the new games coming soon, none of that is fucking important, it is all so trivial when I think that Owen is not with us anymore.

E3 2014 - Summary

A lot of the games shown are not due for release until 2015 & some may slip even further into 2016/17.

A list of games that I can't wait to play

No Mans Sky - This just looks amazing, get in a spacecraft & fly off anywhere & explore planets

Batman Arkham Knight - Shame it got delayed would have really loved to break the yearly Assassin Creed xmas game trend.

Far Cry 4 - Loved the gameplay shown at the Sony conference, I've not played a Far Cry game since the first.

Zelda Wii U - A long way off but if it is truly open world with Wind Waker style graphics, I can't wait.

AbZu - From the artist & music director of Journey, should be a nice experience, not sure on release date?

Destiny - I've still got my pre-order & have registered my BETA access code for July.

Grim Fandango - I've never played it so glad it is getting remade.

Uncharted 4 - It's Naughty Dog & I have warmed to them since the Last of Us.

The Division - Still looking amazing, hopefully will not get delayed till 2016.

Assassin Creed Unity - Due out this year !! with co-op gameplay, need to persuade the claptrap boys to buy a PS4.

Microsoft & Sony had good press conferences showing off lots of games. Nintendo's press conference could have been better showing off more games, EA was a dull affair but that's because I hate the yearly sports titles & everything else was just way too early to be shown. Ubisoft had a good line up of games which are due out this year The Crew, Far Cry 4 & Assassin Creed Unity but no news on Assassin Creed Comet for the 360/PS3.

The 2014 Shopping list then

September
Destiny - still on for a release day purchase, depending on how the BETA plays.

October
Borderlands Pre-Sequel - I expect this to be a day one purchase for the claptrap boys.

December
Assassin Creed Unity - Will purchase to play over the xmas holidays.

I may pick up a few others this year like Far Cry 4 & Watch_Dogs but that all depends on time. I'm sure there were other games shown over the past couple of days that deserve to be mentioned but information overload !!





10/06/2014

Zelda Wind Waker - Open Seas

Managed a couple of hours over the weekend, really wish I could sail anywhere on the map but instead the stupid boat keeps directing me towards the main quest.

Also have a stupid 500 limit on the amount of rupees I can carry, found this out when I got a treasure chest & missed out on 200 rupees :(

Thanks to RLLMUK found out that to get info on an item you just press A on the item. Also Wii U digital games have a manual by pressing home you can access the manual icon on the gamepad.

Will be busy with E3 & World Cup football for a while now so gaming will take backstep.

08/06/2014

Mario Kart 8 - I'm a Wario, I'm gonna WIN !!

Spending a lot of time enjoying Mario Kart 8 on local multiplayer with the kids. Need to get the hang of drifting but I can on a regular basis now win a race with Wario.

06/06/2014

Dead Island Riptide - Completed

Easily one of the worst endings in a game, dreadful poor cliffhanger but then that does not really surprise me given the voice acting is dreadful & the plot is poor but in some odd b-movie style there is still a sense of enjoyment in the game when slicing zombies with your electrified katana blade.

Next on the list Ghost Recon Future Soldier.

02/06/2014

WiiU - Welcome back

WiiU - Thankfully turned up Friday, I tried to login with my gospvg NNID but it kept on coming up with error messages so I gave up to carry on with the system update. Once all updated we sat down to enjoy Mario Kart 8.

Nintendo do know how to make family consoles, the PS4/360 consoles are mainly used for single player experiences but nothing is better than a Nintendo machine for local multi-player fun. Experience shone through & I won the first Grand Prix against the kids. Alas that was not to last & once the boys & my eldest daughter got to grips it was a much tougher challenge.

Nintendoland (even with it's annoying presentation) especially Mario Chase & Luigi's Ghost Mansion are still great fun with the advantage of allowing a fifth player to join the fun. I'm surprised Mario Kart did not go the same route with one player on the gamepad & four split screen on the TV.

Saturday I had the frustrations with trying to get customer support to transfer my NNID to my new console. In the end I gave up & created a new NNID gospvguk (I've updated the ugvm page). I also had to create a new club Nintendo account because the old account was linked to the now defunct gospvg NNID. This had made me very wary about purchasing any content on the eshop because it is tied to an NNID which is tied to a WIIU.

The free game process however worked very smoothly, I registered Mario Kart 8 & after the survey it came up with a banner which I clicked on to choose my free game. I did think about going with Nintendoland or Wii Party U because it would save on the disc loading but in the end I opted for Zelda Wind Waker.

Luffers was connected so time to try out Mario Kart 8 on-line. I like that you could take two players on-line so Abbas joined me. Made it to the game lobby & connection failed. Luffers then created a room which I joined along with Choobs who was online. Thankfully this worked & we were able to enjoy quite a few races.

Game chat works but in an odd way only during the lobby & it did not recognise my headset. All the chat was coming out of the TV speakers?
I’ve tried various control methods over the weekend from GamePad, Wii Remote/Nunchuck but the Wii Remote/Classic Controller has become my preferred choice until the Pro Controller arrives. I still have not quite sussed the drifting style but after some races with Koopa I am now back with my usual character of Wario.

I’ve not played any of the Mario games (NSMBU/3D World) or Zombi U but I did start Zelda Wind Waker. This looks truly gorgeous & is a joy to play, I spent quite a bit of time with the game yesterday completing various quests & taking down my first boss fight. The girls are enjoying watching me play & keep asking “Have you saved your sister yet?”

It is a triumphant return for Nintendo that none of the kids wanted to turn on any of the other consoles but all wanted to play Mario Kart or Nintendo Land. On hindsight maybe I should not have gotten rid of the purchased WiiU last year (at least I would not have lost my NNID).