Bitesize and Loading times

Hello

I didn't think I actually played much this week, but then I started listing the games I did play. I didn't play a lot of one game, but I did play a little of a lot of games.

I got a rare night to myself this week so I decided to play some games on the PS3. Unfortunately I'd forgotten how slow the PS3 can be when installing from disc. TNA Impact Wrestling must have taken a good 20 mins or so to install. The game itself is actually quite a good wrestling game and a nice alternative to the WWE games. It also gives a nice snapshot of TNA at the time and the fairly stacked roster that they had. The downpoints are that the load times are slow (despite installation to the PS3 HDD), and that a fair amount of the roster is locked out until you unlock them through the story mode.

Def Jam Icon was next, and after just one match I gave up on it. It's not that it's a bad game as a lot of time has obviously been put into it, but it just didn't grab me the way that the Def Jam games on the Gamecube did. Compared to those it just felt a little slow and the punches and kicks lacked weight behind them. The roster looked OK, and I'm guessing more characters can be unlocked through the other modes. I'll maybe go back to it at some point.

Up next were Entwined and Cloudberry Kingdom, both of which were free on PS+ in previous months. Cloudberry Kingdom is a side scrolling platformer that has you collecting diamonds to complete the level. The artstyle is a cartoon style that suits the game, but the controls felt sluggish and jumping just didn't feel right. Entwined, however, was very satiffying to play. You control two birds with one analog stick each and have to navigate them on the screen to fly through relevant coloured sections to fill up your entwined meter. With your meter filled you then merge the birds into a dragon and fly about collecting orbs that opens up an exit portal to the next level. A very beautiful game and worth your time to have a go on.

As for everything else I've been playing a bit more of LA Noire, 0rbitalis and Rogue Legacy on the PC, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the WiiU, and Alphabear, You Need to Build a Boat, and WWE Supercard on Android.

My goal this week is to try and get the handful of achievements in 0rbitalis that I haven't got yet, and put some time into either Rage or Zack & Wiki (hopefully).

What I've been playing this week

Hello

Here we are, nearly at the end of June 2015. It's amazing how the weeks seem to fly by sometimes.

This week I've been mostly playing Hearthstone (iPad & PC), Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (WiiU) and Alphabear (Android).

In Hearthstone I've been playing Ranked mode to get myself up to level 20 for to win the monthly event card back. I've also been playing Tavern Brawl which was a new mode released about a month ago. This mode has a new rule set each week eg. adding bananas to each players hands, or giving you a strong deck based on the class you choose. This keeps the mode fresh and allows players to dip in and out of it as they want. For anybody interested in Hearthstone I heartily recommend the HearthCore Podcast. The hosts have a nice conversational style as well as a good knowledge of the game.

I have 140+ hours clocked up in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. It is easily my most played game of the last 2 years, if not ever (I had 100+ hours on Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii). I am still doing quests, upgrading my weapons and armour and trying to push on to the next level (this is just in the offline mode, I've still a lot more time to put into the online quests). A fantastic game that still has a good online following.

Alphabear is a cute looking word making game where you use bears to boost your points. I'm just playing the free version as it's an easy pick up and play for 5 mins a couple of times a day.

I had hoped to put some more time into LA Noire this week, but when I sat down on Saturday night and tried to launch it from Steam it would not work. After an hour or so of validating files, uninstalling and reinstalling, and checking the forums I gave up. During the week I looked online again for a solution and found some users saying to disable antivirus while playing. I tested it last night and it does actually work. Not ideal but at least the game is working again. I'll hopefully spend a few hours in LA this weekend.

If you are reading this please leave a comment and let me know what you've been playing.

Stuart

My Year in Games

This is the My Year in Games blog.

At the minute I'm just setting the blog up, but I hope to post regularly about games I've been playing (when I get the time to play them).

Due to limited time and money the games I get to play are not going to be the triple AAA titles that are just out, but there are plenty of other sites that'll cover those.

My main goal with the blog is to, hopefully, play the large backlog of games I have on Steam and consoles (WiiU, PS3 & Wii). I might even occasionally go retro and bust out my Gamecube or Dreamcast, but we'll see how we go. I'll throw in some smartphone games on Android as well (always easier to squeeze in 5mins on a phone than an hour on console).