Monday’s back, and with it another Geekly Review…
My Week
It seems like forever ago I bought a new game. I’ve got a real itch to buy a new one, but at the same time trying to keep to a budget to see the rest of the month out. Fortunately I’ve been able to keep myself entertained PS4 game wise with the resurgence of an old PS4 title and being gifted a code for a new PS4 title.
Firstly the re-emergence of a PS4 title. I’ve put DriveClub back into my PS4 and spent a lot of time on it during the week. There’s been a double XP bonus taking place the time I’ve been playing it so I’ve managed to level up pretty quickly. Working my way through the tournaments having just completed the Semi Pro tournament. Slow and steady progress for sure. The PS4 game I received via code is the rather obscure Klaus. It’s a puzzle platformer developed by La Cosa Entertainment. It’s about a man who wakes up in a basement with no idea who he is other than the world “Klaus” on his arm. I’ll get a more detailed write up soon once I get some more play time on it.
Aside from gaming I also managed to get some board games in. 2 rounds of Thunderbird’s and 1 round of Ghostbuster’s. The great thing about these gaming sessions is that we managed to successfully beat the games. Each occasion before this we’ve succumbed to “The Hood” in Thunderbird’s or to the ghosts from Ghostbuster’s. So it was nice to get some victories.
And finally lots of Marvel. Spending Valentines day with my wife with Domino’s pizza, bags of M&M’s and Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron. A good week all round.
Daniel Bryan Retires from WWE
Some people claim they saw this coming, others myself included were in disbelief as on Monday 8th February Daniel Bryan tweeted that he will be retiring from WWE. This tweet was followed up on RAW that evening where he addressed the crowd and the WWE Universe to break the news. It was a pretty emotional good bye from Bryan. He got plenty of thank you’s from fellow WWE roster members. The other big news to come from Bryan’s retirement on Raw is that Titus O’Neil was suspended for his interaction with Vince McMahon as Daniel Bryan left the stage.
Xbox One Titles Going to PC
This was a pretty big story throughout the week that had message boards at each other’s throats. It was officially confirmed that Quantum Break will be making it’s way to PC as well as XboxOne, which contradicts what Phil Spencer said way back when at the announcement of Quantum Break. The more this news was talked about, more ‘leaks’ appeared online that not only would Quantum Break be available on PC, but other initial XboxOne exclusives Gears of War 4 and Scalebound would also find their way onto the PC. While this is actually not officially confirmed, it was blurted out on gaming websites to be quickly retracted when people were picking up on it. The news was taken very differently depending what side of the fence you sit on. “Well I don’t need an Xbox One anymore!” being one of the larger opinion which I can kind of see. The counter argument “Well there are PlayStation 4 games on PC and PS4, So it’s not like Sony don’t do this!”. My thought’s on the 2nd statement is that while there are PS4 “Exclusives” on PC, they aren’t Sony IPs like Uncharted or Horizon, but 3rd party games like Street Fighter or No Mans Sky. There’s not enough time or space on a Geekly Review to get into the details of this news.
DeadPool is smashing the box office
And this is something I genuinely hadn’t expected. DeadPool is lighting the box office up. Internationally, Deadpool opened with an estimated $125 million from 61 markets for a global total of $260 million through Sunday! It is now also the biggest R-rated opener ever, surpassing The Matrix Reloaded‘s $91.7 million, can claim the record of largest R-rated comic book adaptation (which was previously 300‘s $70.8 million), and is the biggest opening ever for 20th Century Fox (surpassing Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith‘s $108.4 million).
All those figures for a film that Fox delayed and scrapped so many times and finally green-lit with a lot of hesitation.
– Murr
Firewatch
Last week saw the release of Campo Santo’s hugely anticipated Firewatch. I’ve been interested in this game for a long time so was very happy to get to play it.
In Firewatch you play as Henry and for reasons that I won’t spoil you take a job as fire lookout in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest for the summer. Your only real form of communication is with your supervisor Delilah, who is on the end of your radio.
Everything starts out fairly normal with you having to deal with teenagers playing with fireworks, keeping an eye out for fires – you know, the normal day to day stuff you’d expect. But you soon realise that there is something else going on, something a little more unusual. Is someone following you?
I’m not going to give away anything more about the story as that would just ruin it. But I have to say that up to now I’ve loved every minute for Firewatch. The game is stunning, exploring the wilderness would be amazing to do on its own. It’s emotional, it’s funny and it get very tense at times. The way your relationship with Delilah builds throughout the game is really well done. The choices you make in conversations feel like they mean something and like you’re having a very real conversation with someone.
Kona: Day One
Another game I’ve been playing is Kona: Day One from Parabole.
Kôna: Day One is the first act of a narrative-driven interactive tale in which the player faces many mysteries and challenges in a wintry rural environment in the year 1970. You incarnate Carl Faubert, a war veteran now private detective who must travel to Atamipek Lake in Northern Canada to solve a simple, yet lucrative case. Your client is a rich industrialist and copper mine magnate who goes by the name of W. Hamilton. The latter accuses the local Cree community of vandalizing and stealing from his summer residence and hunting manor. The Crees are no friends to Hamilton, as they accuse him of destroying sacred lands for the sole purpose of increased profits. From driving to shooting to scene-searching, Kôna combines the atmosphere and immersion of a modern survival title with the deep storytelling and puzzle-solving aspects of a traditional adventure game. By blending and wrapping several gameplay mechanics around its scenario, the game aims to blur the lines that define today’s genres.
I’ve started doing a play through of it on YouTube if you fancy checking it out!
The Division: Agent Origins
This video actually popped up a little while back, but seeing as we’ve got the open beta for The Division coming this week I thought I’d share it with you.
Jungle Speed Review
Our latest review came out last week. This time around Murr was taking a look at Jungle Speed, check out his review here.
-Will
