Why does January feel like an extra long month?
OXENFREE
I had some money left in my Steam wallet from a refund back in December – I had this money lined up for Oxenfree, which came out on Friday. Obviously I bought it.
Developed and published by Night School Studio, Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly portal. You play as Alex, and you’ve just brought your new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight island party gone horribly wrong.
I’ve been following this game for quite some time and whilst a lot about it has been kept pretty under wraps I was still super excited to play it. So far I’ve played around three hours and I have to say those three hours have been brilliant. The game is super creepy and has given me goosebumps and made my hair stand up more times than I can remember. It also has an amazing sound track to it that fits the tone of the game just right. But it doesn’t stop there, the visuals are also great, with it almost looking like a painting at times. I just love everything about it right now and I can’t wait to discover all the islands little secrets.
In terms of game play – well there isn’t much really. You walk around searching the island for clues and other things that I won’t mention, your main tool for helping you find them is a radio that you can tune in to certain frequencies to reveal something or get a little snippet of audio.
Around the island there are loads of hidden bits of audio to discover and every time I’ve stumbled across them it’s made my skin crawl. The crackled, barely audible noise has a very eerie edge to it. Basically the sound design for the game is excellent.
The Division
I’m sure if you’re interested in The Division you will already be aware that the closed beta will be coming at the end of this month. Well since that reveal we’ve been getting to see a load more gameplay and had a few new details released too.
Firstly we’ve had confirmation of the map size from Open World Games.
I’m really sure if this is big or not, but I think it looks pretty big and it’s a 1:1 recreation of Manhattan – I’ve not been there, but I believe it’s pretty big. Also it seemed pretty big in the Alpha and that wasn’t the whole map, so I’m pretty happy with it at the moment.
So it’s been confirmed that at the start we won’t have Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx or Staten Island. It’s not been confirmed whether we will see these later as DLC, but I would put good money on that being the case. Let’s just hope they don’t start charging through the roof for it.
Arekkz Gaming covers a lot of The Division so head to his channel if you want to see more.
The Long Dark
Another game I’ve been playing a lot more of recently is The Long Dark and I started a let’s play of it last week. So you can head over the my YouTube channel if you want to watch it! Personally I think The Long Dark is one of the best true survival games out at the moment. The developers Hinterland Studios have been doing an excellent job with regular updates and the story mode of the game will be coming along pretty soon too!
-Will
Jessica Jones Season 2
Over the weekend Marvel confirmed that there will a second season of Jessica Jones which is fantastic news. The only thing not yet confirmed is when it’ll actually happen. The original idea of the Netflix / Marvel shows to have each hero with one season to introduce them before assembling them all for the Defenders show. But the success of DareDevil spawned a 2nd season due later this year before the Defenders. It’s not yet certain when we’ll see the Defenders show especially if Luke Cage’s show is successful enough to spawn a 2nd season too. Still it’s all good and exciting news to get more quality Marvel TV Shows.
With regards to what I’ve been up to since last week, fortunately quite alot.
I’ve managed to get another game of Zombicide in with the usual guys and Will came over to get his first experience of it too which he I think he enjoyed. We’ve got another night of board games scheduled tonight which will include Thunderbirds and Ghostbusters.
Finally I’ve been and seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The feels when the Star Wars logo appears onto the screen with the iconic music blaring was just incredible. Such an experience with so many epic scenes. I thoroughly loved it.
I’m now part of the PC master race in terms of gaming. I picked up my first new PC is about 12 years over the weekend (yes seriously about 12 years I’ve been rocking my previous PC). I’m a complete n00b to it. But I’m sure the Steam fever will get me eventually.
And finally I’ve completed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I’ve read many thoughts of this game being better than the first one. While there are many moments in the game that I did enjoy, I found the final 2 scenes to be some of the hardest and most soul crushingly frustrating in gaming. Seriously. A complaint I had with the first Uncharted that enemies just come so thick and fast is intensified in the final few chapters of Uncharted 2. And It’s not just normal human enemies, but those Shambhala Guardians, geez they were frustrating. And once that’s all done, you get such a terrible final boss battle that frustrated so much.
Shame that it’s been 2 for 2 Uncharted games I’ve completed this year where I’ve enjoyed them immensely up till the final parts of the game where I’ve found them a grind to complete. I’ll take a break and play some other things now before making a start on Uncharted 3 I think.
– Murr
Is oxenfree worth the purchase or is it best to wait for a steam sale? Also do you know how to get access to the closed beta? I would love to get a taste for the game. Or is there going to be an open beta to?
Personally I think oxenfree is worth it. Maybe watch some videos to see it you like the look?
If you pre order youre meant to be guaranteed beta access. Some places you can pre order and then cancel the pre order once you get the beta confirmation.