Your 2016 Gaming Diary

Hnnnnnngggg. I've just finished Batman: Arkham Asylum and it was just a fantastic experience. I've played Arkham City on the WiiU and Arkham Knight on PS4, but there's something very no-nonsense about this game which makes it very likeable. I felt that Arkham Knight was too convoluted at times, whereas this didn't really have any of those issues.

I loved the characters, the way Batman moves and just the general awesomeness of this game. Superb game that would have blown me away even more had I played it on release.

Games of 2016

Flower - Finished

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Finished

The Unfinished Swan - Finished

Grim Fandango Remastered - Finished

Race The Sun - Finished

The Wolf Among Us - Finished

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Story Finished

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

Ico - Finished

Tokyo Jungle - Finished

Grand Theft Auto 5 - Finished!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I turned Skies of Arcadia (DC) on at about 11.30am with the end firmly in sight so set out with the intention of finishing it today

Almost 4 hours later, I've done just that It's a great game but the penultimate battle, versus Zelos, took such a long time. Ramirez, before and after, was easy enough but I had to be extremely patient with Zelos and chip away the health a little bit at a time. I died a couple of times during the battle, prolonging the game further and testing my endurance, but I eventually settled on an attack pattern that eased me through the last stages of the fight.

What was most worrying, though, is the fact that it was so time consuming that I was fearing my Dreamcast may decide that it wanted to reset itself after having that problem occur repeatedly just last week. This, thankfully, hasn't happened since I took it apart

Anyway, it took almost 60 hours in total but Skies of Arcadia is done : yay:

People who've played all the Metroid games, which one should I play next? Should I start at the beginning with 1 & 2; move onto Fusion or head straight for the Prime series?

Don't play the NES Metroid, play Zero Mission instead. It's a retelling of the first game, and one of the most fun 2D Metroids out there.

And if you're interested in the Metroid Prime games, you may want to consider reading my write-ups I did for Metroid Prime 1 and Metroid Prime 2.

Note that the best way to play the Prime games is with the Metroid Prime Trilogy collection on the WiiU eShop, absolute bargain, considering the physical one is very expensive, plus the WiiU version has better loading times.

Hmmm? Where's my write-up on Metroid Prime 3?

I'm sure it'll show up any moment now...

Yes, I know it's been 6 forum pages since I talked about MP2.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out in 2007 for the Wii. It was the Metroid Prime game that introduced the great Wii controls that would be used in the Trilogy collection.

Like my MP2 write-up, I won't go over things that I covered in the other 2 games, so this might be a bit shorter than the others...

So anyway, this game takes place after Metroid Prime 2 (Surprise, surprise).

After getting blown up by Samus, twice. The Space Pirates are starting to get desperate. The Galactic Federation have confiscated quite a bit of their Phazon supplies and it seems that the Space Pirates are truly on the ropes.

Samus gets called to meet with Admiral Dane, who asks her and three other Bounty Hunters to go to various planets to deliver a vaccine to organic supercomputers known as "Aurora Units" after they have been infected with a computer virus.

That is, until the Space Pirates launch a surprise attack on a Federation base on nearby Planet Norion, forcing Samus into action to fend off the attack.

Not long into this segment, an asteroid like object comes dangerously close to impact. Samus goes to activate some defense systems, only to get ambushed by Dark Samus, (Yep, not dead) who proceeds to totally decimate Samus and the three other bounty hunters.

Despite this, Samus still manages to activate the defense system and destroy the asteroid before she falls unconscious.

Around a month later, she wakes up and is told that for some reason, her body is actually generating Phazon and the Federation have upgraded her suit to harness this energy to power up her weapons.

While she was conked out, three other planets were hit with similar asteroids and are now being corrupted with Phazon, the three other bounty hunters were sent to destroy them but have all gone missing.

So Samus must visit these three planets, destroy the Leviathan Seeds, no doubt irritate the Space Pirates, blow up some planets for laughs and provide a right good beating to Dark Samus so she doesn't try this crap again.

I've already gone over how the Wii controls are fantastic additions to the first two games, but this game was made with the Wii remote in mind, so there's a few extra things that you can do. Such as using the Nunchuk to cast the grapple Beam and yank stuff away from enemies, etc.

Gimme the damn shield!

It's a small thing that helps with the feeling of being behind the helmet, and that can't be a bad thing. It is really satisfying to yank stuff though.

An interesting thing to mention is the "Lock on/Free Aim" option.

Now this option is in the other 2 Prime games on the Trilogy collection, but I don't recommend using it on those games, because they're not designed around it.

Metroid Prime 3, on the other hand is designed around it.

OK, so normally, when you lock on to an enemy, the crosshairs stay fixed in the center of the screen, allowing you to easily hit your target.

But with "Lock on/Free Aim" set to on, you can still aim anywhere on the screen, even when the camera is focused on an enemy.

See? You're locked on to the middle enemy,

but you're free to shoot that bozo on the left!

At first this does sound like it would make it harder to hit your mark, but thankfully, the Wii pointer is still the best way to aim, so it's very easy compared to traditional dual-stick aiming.

Which brings me to the bosses.

The bosses are definitely what the Free Aim feature is built for.

Let's take the Meta Ridley fight, which happens surprisingly early. (It's the second Boss)

Basically, shooting the glowing spot will do lots of damage, and it's not always his mouth, so you need to aim well to do damage quickly. And you want to do damage quickly, because the entire fight is in free-fall, and that meter counter is how close you are to the bottom, and it's an awfully long way to fall.

The bosses have never been better in Metroid Prime, truly top-tier stuff here. Can't stress that enough.

The last major difference I want to point out is the fact that you explore multiple planets instead of just one. There is certainly massive amounts of stuff to explore, but of course, each planet is a little bit smaller than the two featured in Prime 1 and 2.

Some people might be a bit miffed about that, but I personally liked it. Especially because each planet has a small backstory to how they all got in such a sorry state.

And naturally, you find that out by scanning.

I do find it hard to choose between Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime 3 as my favourite, they're remarkably different to each other, despite being in the same series. I don't think I'd be able to choose.

But, you definitely should try all three, they're great, and if you can, get the Trilogy on the WiiU eShop. Because it's the best way to play them.

And with that...

Don't play the NES Metroid, play Zero Mission instead. It's a retelling of the first game, and one of the most fun 2D Metroids out there.

 

And if you're interested in the Metroid Prime games, you may want to consider reading my write-ups I did for Metroid Prime 1 and Metroid Prime 2.

Note that the best way to play the Prime games is with the Metroid Prime Trilogy collection on the WiiU eShop, absolute bargain, considering the physical one is very expensive, plus the WiiU version has better loading times.

Thanks for your advice guys, luckily I bought the Prime Trilogy when it first went up on the eShop, so got a nice discount on it. I'm still without a TV in my room, so I think i'll wait until i've got a TV before I play through them - looking forward to it though after loving Super Metroid.

Right! Continuing on with my catching up on games I've finished...

If you've been watching the NEShow, and you should be, you should already know one of the games I recently played through...

I could have been humble in my victory, but where's the fun in that?

Neener neener neener!

So I blasted through Metroid Fusion in 1 hour and 22 minutes in an attempt to win 15 quid on the eShop for the N-E monthly contest.

Metroid Fusion came out in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. It's a 2D action adventure game, but unlike most Metroid games, this one is a bit more linear throughout.

The story takes place after Metroid: Other M (Which wasn't actually out yet). You play as Samus, who has been sent to explore the planet SR388 with a research team.

While there, she encounters some kind of yellow blob which then enters Samus' body.

Nothing terrible really happens at first, so Samus completes her objective and returns to her ship.

While flying away however, she loses consciousness causing her ship to drift into a nearby asteroid belt.

Luckily, the Federation retrieves her from space to see what happened.

Eh, I'm sure you can walk that off...

Things are looking grim, but some clever clogs found out that Metroids were the natural predator of these blobs (Which they named "X Parasites"). So they managed to make a vaccine for Samus.

It had a few side effects, Samus could no longer be infected by X, but she gained the Metroid's trademark vulnerability to cold.

She also had to get a new suit, so she has none of her equipment from previous games. Typical, huh? Isn't that always the way?

After this, the Federation give Samus a snazzy new ship and ask her to investigate an explosion on the BSL Research Station.

So Samus has to find out what's going down, sort it out, no doubt, find lots of goodies and maybe blow up a planet for reasons...

Oh wait, hang on, she's not on a planet this time... Ah, I'm sure she'll find a way.

Metroid Fusion plays like a typical Metroid game, but instead of being dropped into a place and being told to figure it out for yourself, you have a computer telling you where to go.

Because of this, the game is very linear compared to other Metroid games. Sequence breaking is almost impossible to pull off and some Metroid diehards might feel that this goes against the Metroid style of game.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things to find along the way and loads of secrets to discover, but the game doesn't really open up until right near the end of the game.

However, Fusion offers some elements that I think benefit it and one of these I remember very well is the SA-X.

The thing to remember about the X Parasite is that they can transform themselves into whatever they infect, mechanical, biological or otherwise.

And they did technically infect Samus... in her old power suit... with all of her weapons...

Do you see where they're going with this?

No, no, no, no, no! Do not want!

The SA-X alone makes this the most nerve-wracking Metroid game. No joke, the thing is terrifying. If you've never played the game before, then you will have no idea when it'll turn up. And that could be anywhere for all you know.

It really causes a sense of unease, that the other games just don't have.

Anyway, apart from that nightmare, there's a lot of bosses in this game as well. And one thing that stands out is just how difficult they are.

They're easily some of the hardest bosses in the Metroid series, they take no prisoners. And when you're trying to speedrun the game, they can definitely put an end to your playthrough if you're not careful.

Metroid Fusion isn't my favourite Metroid game, not by a long shot, but it's still a cracking game and defintely worth checking out.

It's also very fun to speed run!

And with that...

Cracking write ups @Glen\-i! : peace:

God MP3 did have some AMAZING bosses! That Ridley fight was (and still is) incredible!

Gandrayda is another really fantastic one! Really puts your pointer skills to the test as well!

Well, I've started Enter the Gungeon on PS4. See the dedicated thread if you want to know more :p

Over the weekend I've played Call of Duty: Black Ops III Multiplayer a lot. Managed to reach Prestige 8. Still loving it, can't wait for the next DLC. : peace:

Made some progress with Persona 4 Golden just now. Because I rescued a certain guy on the first day I was able to focus on a lot of Social Links and other stuff.

I really need to get back to Dark Cloud

I recently played through Arkham Asylum and decided to carry on with the series and look at Batman: Arkham City next.

I originally played this through on the WiiU. My console isn't connected up and I wanted to go for consistency as I'd be playing the rest of the series on PS4 (with PSNow to play through Asylum and Origins), so I did the same with this one. The first thing I realised is that...I didn't miss the WiiU version one bit. Can't even remember what I used the screen for, a map I think?

I think it makes sense to play the games through on one console. After playing Asylum, it was really easy control-wise to jump into the next one. This game is excellent and I had another fantastic time playing through it again. I think the game makes an excellent jump from being in a closed, confined area to an open world that you can traverse through gliding and grappling. It looks fantastic, too.

A large part of me wishes that I had saved myself from playing this game first time around, just so I can experience everything here and get all the trophies, etc. I did the majority of what this game had to offer on the WiiU and I've not really got the energy to go through it all again and experience all of the little story arcs, especially collecting the majority of those Riddler trophies! It's a fantastic game though and I love how this game is put together.

I love both Asylum and City equally. They're both sublime games in their own right. City does refine things with its combat system and it's just so fucking satisfying to beat the shit out of things. The variation in enemies is great and it does keep you thinking.

Now I'm not sure what to do. Part of me wants to jump into Arkham Origins next as I've never played it before. The other part of me wants to try Bioshock for the very first time and play through that series. Maybe Bioshock - Arkham Origins - Bioshock 2 - Arkham Knight - Bioshock Infinite?

Games of 2016

Flower - Finished

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Finished

The Unfinished Swan - Finished

Grim Fandango Remastered - Finished

Race The Sun - Finished

The Wolf Among Us - Finished

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Story Finished

The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

Ico - Finished

Tokyo Jungle - Finished

Grand Theft Auto 5 - Finished!

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Finished

Batman: Arkham City - Finished

@Fierce_LiNk it's looking highly likely that a Bioshock trilogy collection is heading to the PS4 soon, so you may want to wait for that.

I've heard about that before but the lack of news made me think it was a non-story. Will it be a remaster or just the three games bundled onto one disc?

Hmm. I'll have a look what else is on PSNow and see if anything else should take priority. Maybe XCOM as I've never played that before. Or I may just try Arkham Origins next.

I've heard about that before but the lack of news made me think it was a non-story. Will it be a remaster or just the three games bundled onto one disc?

 

Hmm. I'll have a look what else is on PSNow and see if anything else should take priority. Maybe XCOM as I've never played that before. Or I may just try Arkham Origins next.

It's pretty much a certainty at this point. It got rated by the rating board in the US last week. It's rumoured to have all the DLC for all the games and been graphically touched up.

@Fierce_LiNk have you played the God of War games? Just checked the service and they all seem to be on it. Highly recommended checking them out.

Another one you NEED to play is Darksiders. It's like a Zelda game but with a better story and combat. Fantastic game.

It's pretty much a certainty at this point. It got rated by the rating board in the US last week. It's rumoured to have all the DLC for all the games and been graphically touched up.

 

@Fierce_LiNk have you played the God of War games? Just checked the service and they all seem to be on it. Highly recommended checking them out.

 

Another one you NEED to play is Darksiders. It's like a Zelda game but with a better story and combat. Fantastic game.

Hmm, I may just wait then for Bioshock. Hope we hear some details soon!

I've never played a God of War game or any of the Darksiders games. Is Darksiders that good then? I'll take a look.

Hmm, I may just wait then for Bioshock. Hope we hear some details soon!

 

I've never played a God of War game or any of the Darksiders games. Is Darksiders that good then? I'll take a look.

Yeah, I rate it very highly. It was a bit of a sleeper hit last gen. I don't think the sequel got as much praise though. Certainly play the first one though.

Yeah, I rate it very highly. It was a bit of a sleeper hit last gen. I don't think the sequel got as much praise though. Certainly play the first one though.

I've never given the series much thought as I know very little about it...

Which means I must give it a go and play it next.

A couple of titles to add to my list, first up is Miitomo.

Have been hooked on this since it came out. Not really a game as such, but definitely worth checking out for all the humorous answers and Miifotos that people post.

Collecting extra Nintendo Platinum Points is the icing on the cake.

Also adding Shutshimi: Seriously Swole!

Cracking little game, very much my cup of tea.

Just one more trophy to get, but it's based on obtaining one of the random items from the shop, so it could take a while.

Got the remaining silvers and 1 gold last night though, after many, many attempts.

@Hero\-of\-Time, I've been playing Darksiders! I'm just under 2 hours into it and have just arrived at The Broken Stair. It's been pretty fun so far. Hope that I continue to enjoy it.

@Hero\-of\-Time, I've been playing Darksiders! I'm just under 2 hours into it and have just arrived at The Broken Stair. It's been pretty fun so far. Hope that I continue to enjoy it.

Glad to see you gave it a crack. I'm always worried when I recommended a game that the person won't like it.

Glad to see you gave it a crack. I'm always worried when I recommended a game that the person won't like it.

I am feeling the exact same about you starting Witcher 3!

Glad to see you gave it a crack. I'm always worried when I recommended a game that the person won't like it.

I'm abusing that PSNow. I'll happily take more recommendations, I'll give anything a try. Just keep them coming.

I am feeling the exact same about you starting Witcher 3!

I'm convinced that Hero will enjoy it eventually. Give him time.

I finished Bully (PS4) last night.

I still have a few trophies to unlock so i'll be popping back on it in between other games.

I enjoyed playing through this again. I haven't played it since it was originally released on the 360. Some of the missions are hilarious, like egging peoples houses, beating up the school mascot and helping out a drunk teacher.

The game suffers from some issues, though. When you enter the carnival area the game slows to a crawl. The frame rate drop here is insane. I'm not sure if this was like this on the PS2 version but I certainly don't remember it being like this on the 360 version.

There seems to be an issue with running in the game. You're supposed to hammer the X button but there's times where it simply won't work properly and you just end up kind of stuck in between walking and running.

I'm wondering if both of the issues I described have something to do with the porting process or the emulator the PS2 games are running on?

Next up, Shutshimi (Vita). I wasn't really fussed about the game, that is until @RedShell spoke about. I figured it would be a better fit on the Vita rather than the PS4 and gave it a download last night.

Cracking game. My first runs were very rough as it took me a fair few tries to figure out what the random weapons do. Speaking of which, the hats are hilarious! You get a one that lets you break wind, one that turns you into a gentleman ( which in turn makes the enemies into cups of tea and gives them monocles ) and one that fires a slug at enemies. Crazy!

I finished the game but still have 2 trophies to unlock.

The first is to finish Boss Rush. I got close twice this morning but couldn't get the luck I needed to get a decent powerup for the final battle.

The second is to get the party hat and wear it for 10 rounds. I managed to get the hat this morning but it was on a boss battle round and I ended up dying.

Brilliant game that's well suited to a handheld device. I've been a bit disappointed by PS+ recently but this has made me love the service again. A fun little game that has appeared out of nowhere.

I am feeling the exact same about you starting Witcher 3!

I'm convinced that Hero will enjoy it eventually. Give him time.

I'll get there eventually.

I'm abusing that PSNow. I'll happily take more recommendations, I'll give anything a try. Just keep them coming.

I see the service has the Ratchet and Clank games on there. I highly recommend you play one of those. A Crack in Time on the PS3 is probably one of the best in the series, so give that ago if you want a fun platformer/shooter to play.

Next up, Shutshimi (Vita). I wasn't really fussed about the game, that is until @RedShell spoke about. I figured it would be a better fit on the Vita rather than the PS4 and gave it a download last night.

 

Cracking game. My first runs were very rough as it took me a fair few tries to figure out what the random weapons do. Speaking of which, the hats are hilarious! You get a one that lets you break wind, one that turns you into a gentleman ( which in turn makes the enemies into cups of tea and gives them monocles ) and one that fires a slug at enemies. Crazy!

 

I finished the game but still have 2 trophies to unlock.

 

The first is to finish Boss Rush. I got close twice this morning but couldn't get the luck I needed to get a decent powerup for the final battle.

 

The second is to get the party hat and wear it for 10 rounds. I managed to get the hat this morning but it was on a boss battle round and I ended up dying.

 

Brilliant game that's well suited to a handheld device. I've been a bit disappointed by PS+ recently but this has made me love the service again. A fun little game that has appeared out of nowhere.

I was close to getting the last trophy I need yesterday. Finally got the lipstick but it was quite far into a game, and there were no sharks around. Then I got killed and lost the hat.

I got Super Mario World on the New 3DS VC (Mainly because I got Earthbound for half price with it)

I actually played this last year, so I'll just copy-paste my thoughts from that thread, because I still think the same thing.

I used my Club Nintendo stars to get Super Mario World for free. So I power-played through it.

 

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I don't need to explain why this game is great, do I? It's Mario World, it's timeless!

I will say this though.

 

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EFF OFF TUBULAR!

Yep, thoroughly uninformative. And I still hate Tubular.

And with that...

Just finished Super Mario 64

I've been playing this for an hour or two every night for the last 2 weeks with quite a few hours put into it at weekends.

At the start I was soon regretting my decision to play it, the controls weren't clicking and I couldn't get used to the controller at all, once I started the 3rd world though, everything changed. The controls were once again perfect as I remembered them nearly 20 years ago and the controller, ah, it was back to being one of my favourite controllers once again.

As I was playing I was thinking back to when I was 13 and watching my brother play this for the first time, such good memories. We were both amazed by the graphics, the controller and that you could control Mario in a huge 3D world.

We got it around a week after it was released in America so we had it a good 6 months before it was released in the UK.

I've really enjoyed playing it these last couple of weeks, the level design & music are still great. The graphics, while aged still look decent.

I started off with the intention of getting 100 coins on each world as you'll notice in the photo above, I soon lost interest in doing that as the worlds got more challenging. I'm happy with the 105 stars I ended up with.

With the 20th anniversery of this game coming up, I wonder if we'll see a remaster on either the Wii U or NX, or maybe both.

So, with Super Mario 64 done, I guess Super Mario Sunshine is next up...

I might put that off for a few weeks/months. We'll see.

So, with Super Mario 64 done, I guess Super Mario Sunshine is next up...

 

I might put that off for a few weeks/months. We'll see.

I definitely need to play Sunshine again but I keep expecting it to get an HD update. I've tried to go back to it before but it wasn't grabbing me! Perhaps I'll make more of an effort to hunt down the blue coins next time as it's the only 3D Mario that I haven't completed 100%

I definitely need to play Sunshine again but I keep expecting it to get an HD update. I've tried to go back to it before but it wasn't grabbing me! Perhaps I'll make more of an effort to hunt down the blue coins next time as it's the only 3D Mario that I haven't completed 100%

I simply can't play the game due to there being no option to change the horizontal camera controls. It spins the wrong way and I just can't deal with it after playing games for a couple generations that do it the way I prefer.

It baffles me that we didn't get a HD version of this on the Wii U. Sunshine is a game that could do with some tweaks and a lot more polish. Instead we got 2 Zelda games.