Gaming Respawn plays…

Here is what we’ve been playing this week at Gaming Respawn.

Stephen Jackson – Chief Editor

This week, I have been spending most of my time in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It’s my first entry into the series so I can’t say up until now that I was familiar with the background or characters but what I can say is that anyone jump straight in and have a tonne of fun, regardless of whether or not you are a veteran to the series or a newbie like myself. I’ve seen the perfect scores it has received though and that concerns me as the game is not a straight 10 in my opinion and it has its fair share of problems – not least the fact that guards seem to be blind in broad daylight until 50 or so metres away. I am looking forward to reading Daniel’s review actually and seeing what he makes of Phantom Pain. Nonetheless, it is a really good game and lots of fun.

I’ve also been playing the FIFA 16 demo and I have to say, it is growing on me. At first, I wasn’t too sure how different it was to FIFA 15 but the longer I have changed, the subtle changes are becoming more noticeable and I like them. I can’t wait for when it releases and to get cracking on bringing European football back to St. Mary’s! Unfortunately, with no PES 2016 demo on PC, I haven’t been able to try it out before it releases next week so keep an eye out for my review on PES when it releases as I continue my career with my hometown club Southampton!

The only other game I’ve been dabbling in and out of this week is Heroes & Generals. The change back in time to World War 2 is a refreshing one and the gameplay is solid too.

Raul Zaha  – Reviewer

What have I been playing? Well, I’ve started the Mass Effect trilogy for the n-th time now. I’ve just finished the first game of the franchise last week and I started playing Mass Effect 2. In my opinion this franchise is probably the best sci-fi IPs out there. One of the things that keeps impressing me every time I start playing is how well the first Mass Effect has aged. It might be because I’m playing it on PC, but I want to think it’s because it’s a good game. The combat system is a bit… clunky, for lack of a better word, but it’s nothing you can’t get over.

Another game I’ve been playing this week is Guild Wars 2. Now that it went free-to-play I’ve decided with a few friends of mine to give it a chance. It’s surprisingly fun, especially to a couple of friends who were super skeptic (WoW veterans.. what can you do?). The questing and leveling system is super fun, especially if you’re a completionist like me. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing that you have all the Vistas, Points of Interest, Hearts, etc. completed on a map. NCsoft really sold me on their game. I’m thinking of buying it, if I’ll have someone to play with.

Speaking of MMOs going free-to-play, I just noticed I’ve received a WildStar free-to-play closed beta key, so I’ll have to give that a try. Other than these games I haven’t played much. RPG seems to be the flavour of this week for me.

Jorge Godinez – Reviewer

Since I tend to start games while being in the middle of others, I play many games at the same time so hold on tight. First I will mention some console games and then move to handhelds. One game that I am desperately trying to finish is Final Fantasy 9 for the Playstation. I am finally on disc 4, the final disc, and am excited but kind of sad to experience the ending of such a great game. Hopefully I can finish it this weekend and update you guys next week on my thoughts of the whole game. Another game that I have been trying to complete is Darksiders for the Playstation 3. This Zelda inspired game has been able to hold me over until we wait for another Zelda Wii U announcement. I know I am a little late in playing it but it has been able to win me over. Finally, for the consoles portion, I need to mention a game that I will be starting soon. It is Final Fantasy 13-2. I cannot wait to start this game since Final Fantasy 13 is actually in my personal list of favorite video games. I hope that I can start it soon so that I can talk about it in next weeks segment.
Apart from console games, I also play a lot of handheld games at the same time. Nothing better than turning on Netflix while playing a video game on a handheld at the same time. Hope that I am not the only one who does that. Recently I have been getting into Animal Crossing New Leaf again for the 3ds. I turned away from the game for some time but now I restarted my town and have begun to play the game again with new beginnings. At the same time I am playing two different Pokemon games. I am playing Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs and am going through a Pokemon Black Nuzlocke at the same time. A documented Nuzlocke might be fun to do so if any of you are interested of hearing my ups and downs through this adventure then leave a comment. Finally, Xenoblade Chronicles 3d is still taking up some of my time. I have played this game before on the Wii and consider it one of my favorites, if not my favorite video game of all time (still unsure, I love a lot of games). Around 50 hours in and with a plethora of quests and story left, there is still much to play. If you have not played Xenoblade, you have to do it, you will not regret it. That is it for me for this week, I need to go finish some of these games!

Jesse Marsella – Reviewer

 

This week I answered the question does grinding the Hearthstone ladder with Zoolock for the fourth strait month get boring? The answer is a resounding no and I’ve gotten up to rank ten now so that puts me on a faster pace than normal to get to rank five and stay there all month. Besides grinding Hearthstone I’ve been jamming on Madden NFL 2016 and Viking Zombies. While Madden’s franchise mode is a fan favorite, and by fan I mean me, I have been playing a lot of Draft Champions. I love drafting any card game and infusing football with drafting cards is basically the best thing ever.  

Finally I’ve played a good amount of Zombie Vikings; which might be the silliest game I’ve played in a long time. Without spoiling too much I love the side scrolling nature of the game which allows me to just relax, button mash, and listen to the funny dialogue of the game. I am also writing a review sometime next week about it so, shameless plug alert, you should check it out! Anyway I hope to play some more of the same games next week but maybe I’ll play a little less warlock and some more warrior, jk lol warlock for life. 

Michael Fitzgerald – Reviewer/Features Writer

I picked up Madden 16 this week and I’ve been playing the flying fudge out of it and have been having a gosh darn marvellous time to boot!

This was the first time I’d picked up a Madden game for roughly 5 years, and I found it relatively easy to get back into the flow of things. One of the best things I can say about Madden is that there are so many different difficulty sliders on offer that pretty much anyone can find a gaming experience that works for them.

I’ll be honest and say that I find a lot of the stats and positions somewhat confusing, but thankfully you can delegate a lot of squad selection and stat distribution to the computer, which let’s you get on with just playing the games in “Franchise Mode”. However, should you really want to get involved and coach your team fully, the option is very much there to do so.

I find that I can hold my own against most sides but I’m also yet to be truly dominant either. Each match takes a while to play out and no one match has been the same yet for me, which is a real positive. Overall, I’ve found the game to be immensely playable and it’s got plenty of longevity to offer. I’m glad Jesse slapped a 90% on this, because it’s very much deserved.

I also nipped down to Retro-Reload in Stockport today to pick up some new Saturn games. Expect a new Rings of Saturn soon. I can’t believe we’re already at issue #12! Issue #11 should be up very soon. I’ve been playing NHL All-Star Hockey and have found it to be somewhat of a mixed bag. One thing I can definitely say is that it was nowhere near as bad as Olympic Soccer was, though few games are!

 

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4 comments

Kane September 13, 2015 at 18:25

Great look forward to this weekly feature.

Interesting to hear that anyone can jump into MGS5 that’s the reason I haven’t picked it up yet. Look foward to the review.

Haven’t played anything since I finished Until Dawn and did the review. Looking forward to Fifa 16 soon.

Stephen September 13, 2015 at 18:59

I found it easy to get into and to be fair, you don’t need any prior experience of the game to have fun and enjoy. Of course I guess if you’ve played them all the story may mean more and you may pick up on stuff I would have missed. Was one reason I hadn’t taken much notice of MGS5 as well. It has some obvious flaws though

D.G.M. September 14, 2015 at 01:45

Yes, yes it does have flaws. Even though I’ve played all the other MGS games, The Phantom Pain does take some getting used to with its different take on stealth, plus it’s padded out with a bunch of “busy missions”: rescue this guy, find this weapon, remove the little lost sheep from the enemy stronghold (yeah, that’s a real mission). Not to mention all the stuff involved in managing Mother Base. Still, nothing quite so satisfying as scoring a headshot on an assassination target from over 100 meters away with a sniper rifle 😉

I’m gonna do my best to really get into the game now so that it doesn’t take me more than 3 weeks to beat and then review it (because it looks like it will take at least that long). Don’t worry, I’m gonna put the pedal to the metal and hopefully get that review ready a little bit sooner. Hopefully.

Mike Fitzgerald September 13, 2015 at 20:07

I’ve heard a lot of great things about MGS V

Sadly, I’m not going to be playing it anytime soon due to my Konami boycott 🙁

Interesting to read that Jorge likes FF XIII so much, as I know a lot of people really didn’t. I’m not into turn based Japanese RPG’s, so I’ve never played any FF game for more than an hour or so, but I know FF XIII cheesed quite a few people off

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