I haven’t talked about any games yet. That’s mostly because I was having a self-imposed break from gaming after spending a lot of time on Skyrim. However, since then I have dabbled with Battlefield 3 and completed Portal 2 and Assassin’s Creed Revelations.
Battlefield 3 was curious in that the HD content was not included on the disk I was lent by one of my long-suffering friends. It was free download, but I couldn’t be bothered downloading it – to me the graphics looked okay anyway and when I’m running around trying to not get shot I’m not too bothered about the scenery. If I wanted scenery I would just go back on Skyrim and get my fill. BF3 solo campaign is on rails and I sacked it off when the game’s auto-saving functionality somehow contrived to lose me 1.5hrs gameplay on a very tricky level. I can’t comment on the multiplayer experience as I didn’t get a go on that disk. If it’s anything like it’s predecessors it is probably great and just as good as any of the Call of Duty incarnations. Seems like there’s a Stones/Beatles, Oasis/Beatles thing going on with those who shun COD for BF and vice versa. I am frankly growing bored of all on-line FPS games – perhaps its my age, but when you have to turn off your headset to shut out the racist and homophobic tirades that some people seem to have on these games it’s time to play solo. Shame. The solo campaign seemed of reasonable size compared to COD and was most enjoyable. A score? How about (7/10)
Portal 2 was lots of fun and very amusing at times. I am not sure if I enjoyed it as much as Portal (served up as part of the legendary Orange Box) but it was a hard act to follow – Portal was just such an original idea for a game. Some of the new features of the game – like the different coloured paints that introduce new physics to the game – were great and the storyline was good in delivering a back-story to WTF was going on in Portal. I had a crack at the two-player splitscreen game with Sigoth and enjoyed it as far as we took it. I got it for £15 on Amazon and traded it in for £10, so certainly got my money’s worth. (9/10)
Assassin’s Creed Revelations can be viewed pretty much like Assassin’s Creed 2 Episode 2 much like they did with Halflife 2. Episode 1 being Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. I think this is how we should view it given that Assassin’s Creed 3 is due out soon. Again we get lots of strong story building and useful flashback levels to the original titular Assassin of the original Assassin’s Creed.
New combat moves, new bombs, a new claw weapon, zip-lines and some destructible scenery kept my interest levels up. However the game was just too easy and I felt it had been dumbed down with the omission of the puzzles. I was also cheesed off that there still isn’t any present day stuff in the game especially given Desmond’s revealed origins. I am glad that the developers have seen sense to move on to another character for AC3, although I am slightly disappointed that it is not a female assassin. I expect they are saving the present day stuff for AC5? Bought for £15, traded for £12 at the same shop – go figure. (7/10) but only because I am curiously in love with the Franchise since its inception.
So what next? Well I am patiently waiting for the next instalment of GTA and meanwhile I have acquired Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas for a paltry £6 – amazing. I have to tip my hat to Bethesda, who have created some of my most enjoyed games – Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim.
What to say about Skyrim? You could spend far too much time in that game exploring all its richness. I ‘completed’ it after approx. 100hrs of game-time and when I say complete I mean I did all the main questlines I was given and the thieves guild, Nightingale, wizarding and war storylines of my chosen side. However I didn’t develop any of my skills to a great level unless required by the storylines. So my armour was okay, my weapons vaguely enchanted as best I could or substituted for Daedric ones when the opportunity came my way and i was a puny magician. I didn’t collect all the Daedric artifacts, crazy masks, or explore every nook and cranny of the game and I was surprised at how such a puny magician was allowed to become head of the university of wizards or whatever the plop it was called.
I did collect all the shouts and kick many many dragon’s asses. It was in relation to the dragons that I found the game most buggy. I have heard talk of dragons flying upside down on the PC version – my experiences weren’t that bad. I did have several dead dragons disappear into the ground, a couple of carcasses suddenly appear in the middle of towns and I am sure I fought the same dragon’s multiple times. However I didn’t experience any bugs that stopped my from enjoying the game. I think back to Oblivion and the bug that left me unable to complete several important quests and thank the Daedric lords that Skyrim wasn’t as buggy as that. Also I was very happy to find that curing vampirism wasn’t such a rigmarole as in Oblivion. Skyrim has to recieved a dragon scale plated (10/10)
couchmagpie 