Here is what the gang at Gaming Respawn have been up to this week and as you’d expect, Fallout 4 is featured heavily for Kane!
Kane Newell – Writer
All I’ve been playing like any sane person would is Fallout 4, and it has consumed most of my life. Even when I’m not playing the game, I’m talking about it, reading about it or thinking about it. Fallout 4 is the first game this gen to do that to me.
I’m over 40 hrs in and l’ve only just went to visit Diamond City, that just goes to show the depth and stuff you can do in this game. Most of my time has been spent scavenging the wasteland for materials that I can use on the fantastic new crafting system.
Building your own settlements and being able to modify your weapons and armour is the best new feature in Fallout 4. The game still has its bugs but due to the size of the game I’m not that fussed as I haven’t seen anything major. Just remember to save often and have many save files.
I also went to MCM Comic Con which was held in Birmingham on the 21-22. And I have to say it was fantastic, the atmosphere was amazing and friendly.
I bought myself some comics. I was handed out tons of free comics plus I bought anime to watch, but that’s not even half the stuff you can buy. From toys, clothes to all the most well known swords in gaming and anime, Clouds giant Buster Sword which was totally real because I tried to pick it up and it was too heavy, and there was a real Lightsaber that I nearly cut my hand off with, all totally real, plus Iron Man and Batman made an appearance, the real Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne took time out of there busy rich life’s to grant fans. Obviously a great day and event.
James Haxell – Writer
This week I was able to get my grubby little mitts on Mass Effect 3, which means I am coming to the end of what was a lovely series, if I didn’t know about Andromeda I’m sure I would be sadder. As you can assume there are the standard improvements that I shan’t delve too far into. Actually I will say on the Xbox the loading screens are certainly lengthy, I do love being giving time to go make a tea and come back before doors open, it was a pet peeve I had in the others, walking straight into rooms without waiting, I like to savour these precious moments.
A lovely part of the game is going on missions and stumbling across old friends, well fun for those who have them alive, heart-breaking if they died in previous games. I hope Andromeda takes all the little bits with it, like the fact characters talk to each other more or even move around the ship and citadel. Well before I get carried away with what I want in the next game I suppose I should finish this trilogy first, all I know with this being the end of this story arc I have a lot of big decisions ahead. Then again apparently some of my decisions didn’t make the foggiest difference. Maybe I should have killed the council?
Michael Fitzgerald – Writer
I’ve had a few games on the go these past two weeks.
Firstly, I spent a bit more time with Super Mario 3D Lands on the Wii U. Those of you who read a few weeks back will remember that I wasn’t especially raving over the game when I first played it. However, after playing it a bit more my appreciation for the game has grown exponentially. The graphics are superb and the Cat Suit power up, despite being perhaps one of the all time weirdest Mario Power Ups I’ve ever seen, really comes into it’s own as you advance further in the game. It’s reached the point now where it’s the only Power Up I ever want to have, so useful is the ability to climb. I still find it occasionally difficult to navigate in Mario 3D games, an issue I’ve had since Mario 64, but there’s no disputing that this game doesn’t contain the same charm that the best Mario games since way back on the NES also had. I’ve still not played the 2D Super Mario Brothers game for the same console, but I hope to do so during this week so I can write a bit about it in next weeks GRP.
In addition to Mario, I also picked up Lego Jurassic World last week. We didn’t have anyone lined up to review Black Ops III on the site, so I decided I would bite the bullet and pre-order it. However, Stephen decided to take the hit for me and do a review, so I gleefully traded the game in for some Lego hijinks. What can I say? I’m an immature, easily amused and fuelled by warm memories of nostalgia. Under this criterion, any of the Lego Games are just perfect for me. Unlike the Star Wars games in the same series, Jurassic World actually has really good voice acting. This does mean that audio for the Jurassic Park sections is sometimes ripped right from the original 90’s movie, meaning the sound quality drops somewhat, but overall it’s a good nostalgia rush. The problem is that you’re forced to play through Jurassic World before you can finally start playing the Jurassic Park levels. This is probably because the developers feared that people would just play the JP levels and ignore the JW sections. I know that’s certainly what I would have done! Still, me and my buddy Adam had fun with it and I’m looking forward to him coming over and playing it again with him soon.
Week commencing 16/11/2015 I traded in a couple of more games that I don’t play anymore and picked up a copy of Destiny: The Taken King. Destiny wasn’t originally on my radar when it first came out. I’m not especially against first person shooters, but I’m much more inclined to go for platform or sports games. However, Destiny is a game which not only enjoys a lot of column inches but also seems to divide people, with extremes on both side of the spectrum. Being the filthy moderate that I am, I thought I’d arrive late to the party and see what all the commotion was about. I’ve only sunk 3-4 hours into it thus far, but it’s been enjoyable enough. I’ve been playing standard Destiny first before moving onto the Taken King DLC. I’ll concede that I’m not really sure what’s going on with regards to the story, as I’m aware that you have to get most of it from going on Bungie’s website. The environments are certainly atmospheric, especially the first area where you confront “The Hive”. Graphically I’m impressed and gameplay in the game is serviceable, though I doubt it would convert any FPS haters. I’ll probably have an update next week.
I was originally going to return to the Dreamcast for this weeks Retro Respawn, but due to world events I’ve ended up bringing another game forward. You’ll all find out what this in a couple of days.
