We’ve had an extended weekend following the Bank Holiday, but it’s time to catch up on what we’ve been playing and doing!
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is a game I’ve had my eye on for a little while, the hand drawn visuals kind of reminded me of a black and white Ori and the Blind Forest. Since its release a few months back it’s been getting a great reception so I decided it was finally time to get it.
Hollow Knight is a platformer metriodvania style game that features a Dark Souls esque system where, if you die, you’re spirit remains for you to go back to and collect all your dropped gem stone things. I’ve played for around 2 hours now, so still have a very long way to go, but I’m really impressed with it so far. The game is quite tough in some places and it doesn’t hold your hand, instead it says “here is the map, off you go.” Some areas are off limits by being locked or inaccessible as you need double jump or a wall jump ability, but other than that you’re free to roam the initial area as you see fit. The aim of the game, really, is to beat the bosses and there are a lot of them. I’ve found the first one called the False Knight, but I haven’t beaten him yet. He doesn’t seem to tough, I just miss timed a jump when I was trying to heal which resulted in my death. I think next time I face him, I’ll take him down.
I mentioned that when you die you drop your gem stones – I don’t actually know what they are, but I’m calling them that… Well you can use these to buy certain items like maps, and trinkets that will help you along the way – to start with they’re generally things to help you build up your map by marking certain objects and items on them, I’m assuming they will become more varied as you progress.
Hollow Knight is a stunning game, with a great soundtrack too. Everything I’ve played so far has really impressed me and I’m eager to play more of it. I’m hoping that the game doesn’t get too tough because I just end up getting frustrated and bored if it is. Ori was a great example of a platformer, with some challenging areas, but most of it was manageable.
Mass Effect Andromeda
It’s actually been a few weeks since I’ve touched ME:A. I don’t really know why though, because I really like it. I think I just feel like I need to sit down for a handful of hours uninterrupted to get stuck in to it, it’s not the kind of game I can play for 30 minutes. On Saturday I had the day to myself so got back on to it and made some decent progress.
I’m currently making my way around Voeld, the ice/snow planet. It’s a very visually striking planet with the constant snow and wind whipping around you. I’ve focused a little more on the main missions for now as I want to learn a little more about my enemies and actually see the main bad dude a little more – I’ve only seen him once!
As it stands I’ve also not had to make any tough decisions, but I feel like maybe one isn’t too far away if I carry on with the main story as I am.
In my squad I currently have Peebee and Jaal Ama Darav, they seem to be flirting quite a lot with each other whilst we drive around, which is pretty funny. In fact it feels like all the characters in Andromeda are much more flirty than ever before, which in some cases I find a lot odd.
The team you’re able to build was always going to be tough job in terms of living up to expectations because the original trilogy had such good characters, but so far I do like most of them. I think I mentioned before, but the only one I don’t really like is Cora, but other than I like them- although it’s mostly because they make me chuckle a bit.
I’m going to try and focus a bit more of my time to getting more done in Mass Effect and single player games in general as I have a bit of a backlog building up now.
-Will
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
I went to my first midnight premier on Thursday night / Friday morning, when I went to go see the sequel to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The first film hit all the right notes as a new stable to the Marvel Universe, who genuinely thought a talking rocket launcher wielding raccoon would actually be accepted? Well Marvel’s recent magic continues as GoTG2 was brilliant. There was a lot more humour this time round, in some cases there are complaints that there is too much humour which results in the larger emotional events in the film being just laughed off. Personally, I was okay with it. The events that are meant to shock you, still shocked me, I enjoyed the progression with the story of Peter Quill, Yondu and the likes. The events that are meant to shake you did just that to me and the humour was really well received by myself. Drax was probably the standout in terms of lines and humour. Rocket takes a little bit of a backseat in this film in terms of stealing scenes with his outspoken and lack of care as he did in the first film. Baby Groot is definitely positioned to be the star of the film, he’s easily marketable and makes a great mascot for this film. His scenes were damn adorable for the most part (say Vin Diseal is adorable is weird). There was never a sense of too much Groot which is good, as I had expected this to feature a lot more of him due to his appearance this time round. Nebula and Gamora’s rivalry was also really cool, and I loved the genuine hatred of Thanos from Nebula, It’s always tough to try and sell what where once enemies like Yondu and Nebula as good guys and potential Guardians of the Galaxy, but this film does perfectly to explain why both can be good guys. Nebula’s reasoning for wanting to destroy Thanos being a really incredible side arc (although it doesn’t lead to Thanos appearing in GoTG2 other than numerous name drops).
While the overall story is of course meant to be about Pete Quill and he’s meant to be the main Guardian, It was all about Drax for me, he stole the show hands down. Plenty of stuff to get excited about from the 5 (yes 5) credit scenes too. I openly have to admit I needed to read about them and why there were so highly appreciated by comic book fans, but it appears there could be some very positive news for phase 4 if a certain other movie studio has agreed to some licensing deal like Sony has with Spider-man.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – The Switch thirst is real
Another month, and another incredibly positive story for Nintendo’s latest hardware the Switch. It appears the initial doubt and worry about how the hybrid will do were unnecessary as the Switch continues to out pace the Nintendo Wii’s launch in the first 2 months. And the next high profile title to hit the Switch, Mario Kart 8 continued the trend of beating Wii records as it’s gone on to be come fastest selling Mario Kart game in history.
With more than 459,000 combined packaged and digital sales in the U.S. on launch day alone (April 28), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch system is the fastest-selling game in the long-running Mario Kart series. The previous record holder for the highest first-day sales in the franchise was Mario Kart Wii, with U.S. sales of approximately 433,900 when it launched in 2008. The solid sales numbers for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe equate to an attach rate of 45 percent – meaning nearly one in two Nintendo Switch owners in the U.S. purchased a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the first day it was available. To date, more than 2.7 million Nintendo Switch systems have been sold globally.
Nintendo is doomed.. maybe?
PS4 is relentless
Sticking with sales and figures, Sony announced their 2016 Financial Year results with confirmed numbers that the PS4 has now gone on to ship 60 MILLION as of 31st March 2017. That is insane and is currently trending higher than the PS2 did at this stage of it’s life time. Unbelievable figures for Sony. Completely deserved success with the outstanding Q1 2017 games that have released exclusively for the console.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC 1
And finishing off with more Nintendo news, Nintendo have revealed the details of the first DLC pack for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And it’s pretty damn exciting:
Trial of the Sword
When you get to a certain sacred location, you can take on the new “Trial of the Sword” challenge. Face an onslaught of enemies, one wave after another. Link starts the challenge without any equipment or weapons. When all the enemies in a room are defeated, Link proceeds to the next. Clear all the trials (about 45 rooms in total), and the true power of the Master Sword awakens.
Hero’s Path Mode
This new map feature shows the path Link has walked through Hyrule from the last 200 hours of gameplay. Use the time tracker bar to see where you’ve spent the most time and where you have yet to explore. There’s bound to be more adventures and maybe a shrine or two on the road less traveled.
Hard Mode
In Hard Mode, enemies gradually regain health, so take them out as quickly as possible. All enemies are also powered up by one level. For example, Red Bokoblins in Normal mode are now Blue Bokoblins. Enemies can also have higher maximum levels than they would in Normal mode. Look up, and you may also find enemies and treasure chests in the sky!
Travel Medallion
Somewhere in the world, there is a chest with a Travel Medallion inside. When you use this, you can register your current location as a fast travel point on the map. You can only register one location using the Travel Medallion.
More Armor
There are 8 treasure chests placed around Hyrule containing armor themed after previous The Legend of Zelda titles. Watch for tips as to the whereabouts of these chests as you travel around Hyrule.
Korok Mask
The Korok Mask is also hidden in a treasure chest somewhere in the world. While wearing this mask, it shakes whenever Link is near a hidden Korok location. There are 900 Koroks hiding in Hyrule, so this should help you discover quite a few of them.
– Murr
