I’m back bitches, and
this time I’m actually planning on sticking around!
This weekend just gone
I went to the #LeedXmasMeet with Chloe and I genuinely enjoyed myself much more
than I thought I would – especially once I’d gotten over the fact that I made up
a third of the testosterone in the room! The event has definitely inspired me
to blog more so here I am, blogging more.
You see, I didn’t
realise this before but the point of blogging is to write about what you want
to, not what you think might get read by the people that follow you on Twitter.
In keeping with this new motto, here’s a nerdy twist on the “What I’m watching
on Netflix” type post:
What I’m Playing
On Black Friday, my
delightful girlfriend bought me a PS4 to waste my evenings on, and waste them I
have! Here’s what I’ve been playing in all of my spare time.
LittleBigPlanet 3
Ok so while I, like
most other 20-something year old males, will always enjoying shooting people in
the face over the Internet with a sub-machine gun and the power of the respawn,
this cutesy 2D platformer is probably my favourite PS4 game so far. In it, you
play as Sackboy, a loveable knitted creature that doesn’t have a lot to say as
you leap and bound around the lovingly handcrafted levels. A big draw to the
game for me is how everything looks like it’s been cut, stitched and glued
together in order to create what you see on screen, and you can interact with
the materials exactly as you would if they were real (so you can grab onto the
sponge dangling from a rope to swing across chasms, or slide down slippery
glass ramps).
It's so colourful and fun! (Image Credit: The Independent)
The game has a big
focus on customisation, so you can dress up Sackboy as anything from Iron Man
to a ballerina, or leave stickers everywhere you go as you saunter through each
stage. The best part of this though is the fact that you can create your own
levels using exactly the same tools and objects that the developers do and
share them online without needing a degree in Computer Science or any kind of
coding knowledge at all. Personally, I suck at this part, but because the world
wide web is so wonderful, you can go online and play through some truly
astonishing user-created gems that no normal person will ever understand how it
works; honestly, when I see people make fully realised versions of Fallout 4 as
a 2D platformer using the exact same tools that are available to me, I have to
wonder why I struggle to stick a wheel onto something and make a basic car.
I was a big fan of the
previous two instalments of the series but the new features in the third one
(such as the three new characters with unique abilities or the sweet new
powerups) are not so much a step as a clear stride forward. I will definitely
be playing this for a while! (PS it's narrated by Stephen Fry and stars Hugh Laurie, just sayin').
Star Wars Battlefront
With the new film just
around the corner (10 days, but who’s counting eh?), EA has absolutely
capitalised on my childhood nostalgia by pumping out a Star Wars shoot-em-up.
It’s pretty fun running around as a member of the rebel alliance or tossing
people around as Darth Vader, but if I’m honest, this game’s not a patch on the PS2
versions that I used to play back in the day. There’s nowhere near as much
variety in this one. For example, the PS4 game ignores the Prequel Trilogy,
which most Star Wars fans would normally be happy about, but for this game it
means you don’t get the option to leap around the maps as Darth Maul and man oh
man was that fun. Switching between character types is also a lot more
cumbersome than it used to be, which means there is a lot less variety in the
troop composition of the competing armies and subsequently much less of a need
for teamwork.
Ah shite... (Image Credit: Forbes)
The game modes on
offer, whilst I haven’t played all of them yet, don’t offer the classic
Battlefront thrills or the strategy that was involved in trying to beat the
enemy off the field through capturing the command posts. As well as this, I’m
really not a fan of the lack of a story mode, or rather the fact that most of
the game is relatively soulless online multiplayer. Some of my fondest memories
from my childhood are playing through the campaign or galactic conquest modes in
marathon split screen sessions with a buddy, and the lack of that capability in
this version makes me sad.
That being said
however, Star Wars is Star Wars, so I’m still having fun playing the game. It’s
not as good as the classic PS2 titles, but I think that kind of experience from
the developers of multiplayer shooter specialists DICE was never going to
materialise.
FIFA 16
This is essentially a
must-have for me and my group of friends as we absolutely love taking each other
on on the virtual pitch. This latest edition has some really interesting new
features – famously the inclusion of the Women’s International Teams but my
favourite new feature is the addition of individual training drills for your
players in Manager Career mode as I love taking a promising young player and
turning him into a Ballon D’Or winner. I also like to create a dream team and
cement Liverpool’s place as the absolutely undisputed best team in the world,
which I am busying myself with each night.
Rocket League
If you’ve not played
Rocket League and own a PS4 then frankly you’re doing it wrong because it’s
ridiculously entertaining and ever so silly. The basic premise is that you play
up to 4v4 football with rocket powered cars and a giant ball, but the speed
with which the game is played leads to some frantic goal line clearances and
absolutely phenomenal goals; which only adds to the fun!
No-one in this picture knows what the fuck is going on (Image credit: PushSquare)
So there you have it,
the games that I’m playing at the moment. Do you have any recommendations for
what I should get next?
