What are you currently playing?

[Derek Metaltron]

Well my PS4 arrived today! Alas the TV system I have in mind for it might not be ready for another week yet, so my opened copies of the Uncharted Trilogy, Far Cry: Primal and No Man's Sky will have to wait a little longer. In the meantime I'm playing on my PS3 though a second run of Minecraft: Story Mode before the final episode comes out, and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, which I kind of wish I had played at the time of release because it's an well made game and I like the distinctions between the four versions of Spider-Man.

[CraigTheCylon]

and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, which I kind of wish I had played at the time of release because it's an well made game and I like the distinctions between the four versions of Spider-Man.

Shattered Dimensions always seems to get a bit of a kicking when the topic turns to Spidey games but I do recall loving it. I think, at the time, the existing Spidey sandbox formula (that had gone near unchanged since being introduced with Spider-Man 2) was feeling long in the tooth, and the more linear, focused style of Shattered Dimensions was a welcome change. Plus, as you say, they did a good job making the various Spiders differ from one another.

Edge of Time, though...I wanted to like it. 2099 is my personal favourite Spider, and I feel the story was tighter and stronger in this one, but it just dragged something awful. Maybe it was the lack of breaks between levels that made the whole thing feel like one endless corridor of punching; certainly I wound up missing Spidey Noir, since his stealth levels offered welcome variety...

[Smallville0608]

Diablo 3, Black Ops 3 primarily.

[Derek Metaltron]

Shattered Dimensions always seems to get a bit of a kicking when the topic turns to Spidey games but I do recall loving it. I think, at the time, the existing Spidey sandbox formula (that had gone near unchanged since being introduced with Spider-Man 2) was feeling long in the tooth, and the more linear, focused style of Shattered Dimensions was a welcome change. Plus, as you say, they did a good job making the various Spiders differ from one another.

Edge of Time, though...I wanted to like it. 2099 is my personal favourite Spider, and I feel the story was tighter and stronger in this one, but it just dragged something awful. Maybe it was the lack of breaks between levels that made the whole thing feel like one endless corridor of punching; certainly I wound up missing Spidey Noir, since his stealth levels offered welcome variety...

Shattered Dimensions levels do feel nicely different from each other, and I enjoy how there's plenty of allusions to elements from the different comics at the time (such as Ultimate Deadpool referring to the Mary Jane-Kitty Pryde love triangle Ultimate Peter had or utilising the back story of Goblin and Vulture in Noir). And having all the voice artists who had previously voiced Peter back as different Spiders is a great choice.

Having watched a play through I think that Edge of Time was just a really rushed game, designed to be shot out between the successful Shattered Dimensions and the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man game in 2012 (which I really enjoyed actually), and suffers for it, especially from lack of innovation or a significant amount of villains. I think the plot is decent enough, there's just little constructive aspects to it.

[CraigTheCylon]

And finished another run-through of Saints Row 3. Shocking news: it's still great. Despite the digs I was taking at Steelport earlier, it's still one of those digital places I'll always have a special fondness for (and at this point I can find my way around reliably without need of the satnav) and covering the map in purple segments as you complete sidequests and buy stores is freakishly addictive. Plus the story has a great rags-to-riches starting hook, and just builds and builds in ways that are progressively nutty yet are approached so fearlessly and with so consistent a tone it never feels like it's breaking the rules of its own reality. Then there's the terrific voice cast bringing to life a collection of memorable nutters - I understand why Angel de la Muerte disappeared between games, but it's a bummer Zimos got reduced to a DLC appearance in 4 - and some of the best needle drops in gaming, or anywhere else for that matter. Will there ever be a better use of Kanye's 'Power' than para-dropping into the pool of a penthouse before blasting all the party-goers? Rhetorical question.

But honestly, what strikes me as most important to the game's success is that it's very liberal with its toys. That's always been an issue for me with sandbox games: so many times they put you into missions with special equipment or vehicles you'd dearly love to see more of...but you'll never see them again, which spits all over the concept of a sandbox game (and has more in common with the strict linearity of a Call of Duty campaign). Saints Row 3 is better than that. Yeah, pretty much every other mission introduces some new toy or another in a showy way, but once you're done the game always goes, "You like that new gun/tank/plane/mortifying costume? Here it is, go use it however you want". It's SO NICE.

Also: the character customization options allow for a pretty decent Domino lookalike. Plus points.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

What irks me about some things with Lego Batman 3 is the flying mechanics. I have to race a parrot to unlock Hawkman and the flying mechanics are so wonky , it takes off and shoots ya high into the air. Its a struggle to get a character who flies right.

[Panfoot]

Yeah, pretty much every other mission introduces some new toy or another in a showy way, but once you're done the game always goes, "You like that new gun/tank/plane/mortifying costume? Here it is, go use it however you want". It's SO NICE.

That's the reason why Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is one of my favorite open world games. After you've been playing a bit and built up the cash, you can order just about any gun, vehicle, or airstrike you want from the PDA. Shame they kinda screwed that up in Mercs 2.

Also I think Saints Row 3/4's character creator is the best monster maker ever in video games, barring maybe Spore.

[Panfoot]

No Man's Sky - I stopped paying attention to this game after about the 13th billion E3 gameplay demo and just figured I'd check it out eventually, didn't bother to pre-order or anything since I wasn't sure if I would like it at all. After the mixed response to it I figured I'd just wait for a big price drop, but won some money on a scratch off lottery ticket so I figured "eh, why not". Even coming into it with some low expectations, I was surprised at just how much bad the game is. The core gameplay is probably the most apparent, which is the braindead get resources to make better tools to get resources to get more resources loop, along with the exploration of countless planets. The problem with the exploration is that it just isn't as exciting, they planets really aren't THAT varied, mostly just different colored rocks with the same plants everyone(half the time not even recolored) and the occasional weird animal, and the exact same small buildings/monoliths on every single one. It reminds me a lot of those mako exploration portions of the original Mass Effect game, which if I remember right were not well loved and the reason why it was replaced with scanning in the sequel.

The combat in the game isn't fun and is entirely pointless, sometimes the robot sentinels attack if you take too much resources(or attack just because if your on a planet with aggressive ones) and the shooting just doesn't feel impactful at all and in most cases it's more beneficial to just ignore them and run back to your ship. The ship on the other hand, one of the most annoying things to me personally about this game, is how it won't let you even get near crashing into an object. Forget about flying along the planets surface or through valleys and rock formations, the game is constantly pushing you away from any object that could damage you, so your always 50 feet or so from the ground. The actual ship combat for me, just seems straight up completely broken. I got into a fight with a pirate for the first time and when I attempted to use the beam weapon, it just caused a damage mark on myself and my shield to go slightly down. Trying to use the cannon instead, the target leading system that is apparently just supposed to be automatic wasn't present, the charge was at 0% at all times and wouldn't let me recharge it but still let me fire, and every time I fired it zoomed in.

I'm playing the PC version and while I have a pretty modest rig (GTX-970, i5-4670), the framerate is all over the place, jumping between 30-60 FPS all the time, especially when going from space to planets. The game has a lot of low resolution textures, especially the ground, and has the worst pop-in i've ever seen in any game ever, which makes flying the ship on planets unpleasant. Honestly if I wasn't over the time limit, I would have requested a refund on this game, and I've never done that with a steam game before even after playing some real bad games.

[Derek Metaltron]

What irks me about some things with Lego Batman 3 is the flying mechanics. I have to race a parrot to unlock Hawkman and the flying mechanics are so wonky , it takes off and shoots ya high into the air. Its a struggle to get a character who flies right.

I found that in the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes game, where trying to fly with someone like Iron Man is a right headache and much as you describe. Thankfully swinging around as Spider-Man is far more fun and way easier, and Thor I oddly found easier to control.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I found that in the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes game, where trying to fly with someone like Iron Man is a right headache and much as you describe. Thankfully swinging around as Spider-Man is far more fun and way easier, and Thor I oddly found easier to control.

I have tried various flying characters...I may try Plastic Man since he becomes an airplane and see if he's easier to control. The rest of the game is fun and perfect. Its just this deal with the flying mechanics that needs work.

[CraigTheCylon]

Finished WET this morning. Mixed feelings. I've mostly been going through shoot-em-ups, if you couldn't tell, and while WET kinda fits the bill it ultimately resembles less a third-person blaster and more a Prince of Persia clone with guns in it. Which in itself is not a terrible idea - the issue is that you're still expected to do manual aiming while also pulling off showboating platforming tricks, and while it's not impossible it rarely 'clicks' and becomes second nature. When it does, it's great, and when the combat dies down and it's just platforming to worry about, it's...okay. Nowhere near Sands of Time but I've played far worse. Perhaps if so many important skills weren't locked to start with it'd be less of an issue, because once I'd spent some serious cash I started seeing better results...still, even when the mechanics ticked me off, the atmosphere and attitude kept me enthralled. A pretty straightforward revenge yarn with you controlling Rubi, a hard-drinking perma-angry bounty hunter, as she runs afoul of Malcolm McDowell and his endless legion of disposable underworld thugs, the game's (pretty impressive for the time) visuals are dressed up with a crackling film reel filter, and the soundtrack is all 70s and Latin-influenced rock songs, none of which I've heard before, all of which I loved anyway. It's clearly influenced by Grindhouse, especially the Robert Rodriguez half, although unlike the visually similar House of the Dead: Overkill, it's less a pastiche of that style and more a love letter to it. But yeah, it's a mechanically average game that elevates itself through art styling.

Since I feel like I've waited long enough to return to its world, I've started The Darkness 2. Very early impressions - not fond of Jackie's less silly voice, unsure about the new art style, very enthused to have Darkness powers that actually feel POWERFUL.

[Derek Metaltron]

I have tried various flying characters...I may try Plastic Man since he becomes an airplane and see if he's easier to control. The rest of the game is fun and perfect. Its just this deal with the flying mechanics that needs work.

I have found that the flying LEGO Dimensions characters I own - Wicked Witch and Wonder Woman - are much easier to control in the hub/adventure worlds and levels, so they've clearly done some work to improve on them. But I do find the LEGO games really fun. Still debating if to nab the PS4 Starter Pack whilst Supergirl is included...

I remember playing the WET demo and enjoying it, especially the crazy red and black freak out scene the main character has, but I never got around to buying the full game.

[CraigTheCylon]

I remember playing the WET demo and enjoying it, especially the crazy red and black freak out scene the main character has, but I never got around to buying the full game.

She has a crapload of those moments, almost one per chapter. One of them's during a car chase which is especially pretty.

R.e. flying in Lego games - it's not the controls that let it down, they're fine, it's the camera. When you're in an open hub the camera sticks behind you and steering is intuitive, but in an indoors or story level it hangs back to almost present the stage side-on and it screws with how you think directions work (since you have to input them based on where the character is pointing, not where the camera is looking).

[simbob4000]

Played Beyond Good and Evil HD since that's free right now on Xbox Live. It's a very charming game, it's got a nice little story to take you through it, it's nice little French sensibility makes the kids cartoon story and work feel unique enough, and it's not even half as good as I'd imagined it would be given all the hype around it. Gameplay wise it is not a good game, the combat is not good at all, and the movement feels awkward and sluggish. To my surprise I beat the game last night, surprise because I'd actually been playing it for only a very little amount of time.

Apparently Beyond Good and Evil meant to be some kind of Zeldaish game, but it doesn't feel as good as the N64 ones that came years before. It also doesn't feel like it's anywhere near the size of past Zelda games, or really a lot of N64 era platform stuff with open worlds to run around in. When looking at the year this was released I was surprised to find it came out in 2003, (it doesn't look like something from 2003) a year after Wind Walker; which also does the whole open world by way of boat thing, only vastly better.

It's still enjoyable, which isn't something I thought it would be after the little combat tutorial at the beginning. The games "dungeons" were nice though, they've got a good layout to them, but there's just so few of them. By the time the games speedy conclusion came I was like: Oh, there were just four dungeons, the first and last being extremely short, and the biggest of the, having no boss fight.

[simbob4000]

I have found that the flying LEGO Dimensions characters I own - Wicked Witch and Wonder Woman - are much easier to control in the hub/adventure worlds and levels, so they've clearly done some work to improve on them. But I do find the LEGO games really fun. Still debating if to nab the PS4 Starter Pack whilst Supergirl is included...

I remember playing the WET demo and enjoying it, especially the crazy red and black freak out scene the main character has, but I never got around to buying the full game.

I really need to buy WET sometime. It had a pretty cool unique way of delivering an over-the-top third person action shooter. I'm actually a bit surprised nobody really ripped of its gameplay mechanics styles in the years since its been released.