Welcome to 2019 everyone, I assume you’re all feeling suitably excited about going to back to normality and leaving Crimbo Limbo behind. It was a good Holiday break and we got to do some good gaming, so let’s check in on what we’ve been up to!
Borderlands 2
With each steam sale that comes around I seem to be less and less interested in them. I think that’s just because I’ve already got most of the games I’d want from them in previous years. But this year I did decided to get Borderlands 2. I played Borderlands 1 on console and loved it, I also played Borderlands 2 but never actually got around to finishing it, I think it might have actually been a rental from Lovefilm – ah the good ol’ days. Seeing as the collection for all the DLC plus the Pre-sequel was on offer from around £120 down to £11 I figured why not!
We all know Borderlands I’m sure, the action RPG with over the top characters and tonnes of loot to hunt down. I’ve started my new game with Maya and have been really enjoying playing it again. One thing I’ve really noticed since starting again is how well presented it is, and I don’t necessarily mean the graphics – although it doesn’t look too bad in that area given its age, but it’s the style of the game, it still feels fresh and relevant and it still looks really slick in the way it’s all delivered to you, like the introduction of new characters. I’m surprised at how well it’s aged to be honest. A lot of the time you kind of remeber older games with rose tinted glasses and they actually weren’t as good as you first thought and that could be related to any aspect of the game, not just visuals. But Borderlands holds up really well I think.
I’m only about 3 hours in and have moved on from what is essentially the first area, but it’s been fun and a little more challenging than I remembered. Not that it’s difficult it’s just that it’s not quite as run and gun as I thought and quite often I find that if I do try that tactic it goes badly. So picking off targets from a far with a sniper is working a lot better!
Star Citizen
A few Geekly Reviews ago I jumped back in to Star Citizen following Citizen Con and over Christmas I jumped on again as there have been a few more updates to the game and it’s slowly getting more and more playable. In fact I was actually getting 60fps in quite a few areas which, about 2-3 months ago was unheard of. For the most part I’ve just been trying to earn a bit of in game cash so I can start to buy a few upgrades, weapons or armour. The best and easiest way I’ve found for doing this – lowest risk, is to run cargo deliveries. It’s also a really good way to get used to flying with the Quantum Drive a little more.
I took my first trip to Levski, the ‘freetown’ mining facility on Delamar and I was simply blown away. When I first saw the footage of Levski in the trailers and stage demos I was impressed, but if E3 et al. has taught us anything it’s that maybe we shouldn’t believe everything we see on stage. Well, I think Star Citizen is the only game to actually show off properly and more important accurately what it’s like because flying in to Levski myself was just as awesome as seeing it on stage.
Every time I play this game it gets a little bit better and always blows me away with its scale, detail and technical achievement. I’m yet to really get in to the dog fighting and FPS fighting side of the game – mainly because I’m very ill equipped, but it’s on my ‘to-do’ list for sure.
I can’t wait to see how this game develops in 2019, it really has the potential to be so good.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
I’ve been plugging away at Mutant Year Zero and making good progress in it, I’m hoping the full review will be out this week, but it could be next week so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested!
Insurgency: Sandstorm
Speaking of reviews, you can check out my review for Insurgency: Sandstorm that I posted last week. It’s a brutal but brilliant realistic FPS shooter that will probably have you cowering in a corner waiting for backup to arrive.
Game of the Year
We also posted our picks for games of the year if you want to check that out!
-Will
