A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
Episode #108
Thursday 19th November saw the release of Star Wars battlefront. In the GSRR headquarters 2 padawans were pretty hyped for the release. Unfortunately only one team member picked up the game to choose sides in the fight between the Empire and the Rebels. This is due to the fact that the 2nd member of the team Will-Be-One-Kenobi was already balls deep in the post apocalyptic wasteland that is Fallout 4. With only Darth Murr available to choose a side the weekend was dominated with battles between the rebels and the empire, But what else did the 2 padawans get up to…..
So, yeah, a rather large game released prior to the weekend. Star Wars Battlefront ( I can hear the music in my head as I type this). I spent all of Thursday night on Battlefront until about 11pm as I had to have some hours sleep with work Friday morning. Friday night however I did not need to restrain myself and played it practically from the moment I’d finished eating Friday evening till gone midnight.
It’s fair to say that the game is lacking content if you like single player experiences. There are only a handful of levels that you play in a battle mode which is you and a team against an opposing AI team and it’s the first to 100 kills. It’s still fun as you can decide the AI difficulty or can mix the mode up by playing as hero’s like Luke Sky Walker.
The real fun though comes from multiplayer mode where there are more match types available than single player modes. Supremacy has been my mode of choice so far. It’s another 20vs20 style game in which you need to take over checkpoints to push the enemy off the map.
My win ratio is pretty appalling currently, but I’m pleased to say that in the hours spent playing it over the weekend I’ve only had one game in which I took more deaths than kills. The ease to join a multiplayer game is incredible. COD took a while to smooth out and often took ages to find a game. Battlefront is almost instantaneous into a game. It’s impressive given how many players must have been hammering the server over the weekend.
Away from playing Battlefront this weekend I also signed up to Netflix (I decided it’s time to join 2015). I smashed through all 10 episodes of Master of None featuring Aziz Ansari. I like his stand up and his work in Parks and Rec, so thought I’d give this show a shot. Also helps that it’s holding an impressively high 91 metacritic and impressive reviews across the board. I loved it. It’s really charming and not over the top in your face funny. It shows a lot of different aspects of life a late 20 person will experience. The finale I did not see coming at all.
I also managed to squeeze in watching Manchester United vs Watford and also began trying to catch up with Orange is the new black smashing 4 episodes from season 2 on Sunday night.
And in between Battlefront and Netflix, I finally decided to tidy my nerd room up. For ages now my Amiibo had been just piled up in the room taking up space, my consoles not set up, posters rolled up and scattered on the floor. So I decided to give it a tidy up and make some space. While it still looks very cluttered believe me this is a massive improvement to what it looked like prior to my intervention this weekend.
All in all a weekend very much dominated with Battlefront, Netflix and some family time too.
– Murr
You might think I’ve been playing Star Wars Battlefront too, but I haven’t even bought it yet. That will be tonight!
This week saw the return of Destiny’s Iron Banner. The PVP event where your light level matters. Up to now I’ve never actually hit rank 5 in the Iron Banner, I usually get to around 3 or 4 and then either run out of time or get a little bored of it. But this week I was determined to hit rank 5. You may be aware that as the week progresses the amount of reputation you gain from bounties and matches in the Iron Banner increases to help you hit 5. So I saved all my weekly bounties until Sunday to turn in, this meant that my rep gains had almost tripled when I completed them.
I think it’s safe to say that I was on fire when I first started. Sometimes you just get in the zone and it feels like no one can stop you. I was consistently finishing top of the board and leading my team to victories on Friday night. Needless to say, I scrubbed off the ‘get 2500 points’ bounty pretty quickly.
I eventually hit rank 5 Sunday morning and was rewarded pretty well. Bungie have said that they’ve been working on rewards for it and that they would be better this time around, they weren’t wrong. Over the course of the event I had 5 legendary chest pieces drop – one at light level 310, some boots and my rank 5 reward was at ghost shell at 310 and a fusion rifle at 316. So overall it was a very successful time for me. It’s just a shame I don’t ever use Fusion rifles so I will probably just infuse it in to something else.
I don’t know what it is about Destiny that keeps me coming back, but it just has something that I don’t get in other FPS games right now. I’ve not played a lot of Halo 5 online because of Destiny. Maybe it’s just because I’m usually pretty good at it, or maybe it’s just that thirst for new loot. Either way, over 1 year on I’m still coming back for more, and don’t see that stopping for a while. I’ve now put in over 200 hours just in the Crucible – that’s a hell of a lot of time.
Also I’m in the top 9% for Kills + Assists /Death ratio and top 20% for win ratio. Not bad!
Speaking of Destiny, I also created a highlights video of my recent Trials of Osiris games!
A couple of weeks back we posted up a ‘One to Watch’ of the game Hard West. Well it’s out now, and over the weekend I got to play a little bit of it. I’ve only played a couple of levels but my initial feelings are pretty positive.
Welcome to the Wild West like you’ve never seen it before. When a tragic turn of events sets one man down a path of supernatural chaos and revenge, he must brutally hunt down all those whom wronged him. Follow Warren on his descent into the darkest recesses of the human soul, and try to survive in a world full of hard choices and even harder consequences. Because in this world, death is a constant presence and the black pacts which you make with forces beyond human comprehension will forever haunt all those around you.
It’s a turn based strategy game with some RPG style elements to it. As I said I’ve only played a couple of levels but I like it so far. I’m not usually one for turn based games – just something about them doesn’t usually appeal to me. But I’m willing to give this one a good go. I was a huge fan of Desperados when that came out years ago, and whilst that wasn’t turn based Hard West still reminds me of it and that’s kind of why I wanted to play it. I will update when I’ve had more of a play.
Weirdly I haven’t played Fallout 4 in days…. Damn you Destiny. That will change this week though.
-Will
News Roundup
While we didn’t get to post much news recently, some news with regards to our website is that we now will be reviewing board games. Our first 2 went live last week.
First up was Hotel which you can read here, and our second review was for Star Wars – X-wing Miniatures which you can find here. Expect more reviews in the months ahead.
