November 2: Gaming Respawn Plays

Stephen Jackson – Chief Editor

Last week saw the release of the Football Manager 2016 beta so that is all I have been playing. So far, I am really like the new additions to Football Manager. I was hoping the Create-a-Club feature would offer more depth than just a simple club editor but unfortunately it appears that it is somewhat lacking in depth as a separate game-mode. In short, you can do anything you could do with the in-game editor which SI always release as an add-on come release.

Anyway, my main career was started using the Create-a-Club mode. I decided to go for a country I have no footballing knowledge about. That brought me to the rather beautiful but chilly Iceland. Going against their naming traditions, FC Reykjavik was born. Not very creative but it’s the only city I know! It proved a touch challenge but I relished it. I had a group of players who were Sunday League standard at best, or at least that’s how the 3D Match Engine made them look. We were favourites for relegation and were considered to have no hope of ever gaining promotion into the lucrative Icelandic Premier Division. A good start to the season saw us sitting top of the league but then was soon over following back-to-back defeats against some poor opposition. Another defeat followed by a draw saw up lingering around mid-table, but then the resurgence began. We had got knocked out of the cup in the first round before the season started so I was able to focus solely on the league. I’m going to cut to the chase, we clinched promotion by finishing runner-up on the last day of the season. Although the league was so tight it was between me and potentially five other teams to go up on that last day.

Football Manager 2016 isn’t due out until November 13th, however you can purchase the game now to receive access to the beta and your career will carry over once the game is fully released.

Raul Zaha – Writer

Not a lot of actual game time for me these past few days. I was at DreamHack for the whole period of the event. I had never been to any event like this before and since it took place so close to home (basically in my front yard) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. And boy am I glad I didn’t pass it up, because it was awesome. I got to see an amazing CS:GO competition (obviously), I got some cool merch, I’ve seen a lot of awesome cosplayers, especially a particularly cool Evie Frye from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, that girl was so cool, you wouldn’t even believe, she probably won the cosplay competition (Evie Frye is my latest video-game-crush if you haven’t caught on by now). I’ve also followed the Hearthstone tournament that took place at this DreamHack. When I say”followed” I mean I tried to understand what was going on in a few matches, without too much success of course. I’m so out of the loop when it comes to Hearthstone. Also, I noticed there was a lot of backseat-gaming going on in the crowd. Is this a common thing with Hearthstone or was it just me that noticed it? Anyway, this about sums up my gaming for this week. Not too much hands-on gaming, more viewing than anything, but fun times nonetheless.

Jorge Godinez – Writer

For the last couple of weeks I have played a lot of Super Mario Maker. Even after writing my review, the game has still been a lot of fun. Plus, with the new update coming in a few days, I know I will be playing and creating a lot more levels in Super Mario Maker. I can’t wait to use the new features coming with the update, especially the addition of checkpoints. I mentioned in my review that the game was missing checkpoints and it seems to be a gaming miracle that they will finally be added in with the coming update.
Other games that I have continued to play are Final Fantasy 13-2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. I don’t remember if I have mentioned FF13-2 in one of these features before but if I haven’t, then all you need to know is that the game is pretty good. I still believe that the story should have ended at the original Final Fantasy 13 but this sequel is not bad. The game is fun and that is all that really matters. Xenoblade Chronicles 3D has been a struggle to finish. I already beat the game on the Wii and this time I am going for a high completion rate on the 3DS. I have had the game since April and I am still trying to plow through it. It’s not a dreadful task though, the game is one of my favorites.

Kane Newell – Writer

I’ve been raiding tombs and kicking ass in Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. Currently I don’t own an Xbox One so I won’t be able to play Rise of the Tomb Raider next week. But I’ll be occupied on that same day thanks to Fallout 4.
Back to Tomb Raider now, and I’m fully enjoying it the same as I did the first time. The game does a great job in making Lara Croft grown over time in the game. The game borrows a lot from the Uncharted series but it also does a lot of things better. It’s going to be interesting to see this gens battle battle Uncharted and Tomb Raider.
This week, I’m going to be playing Dragon Fin Soup, a highly anticipated Indie game free this month on PS Plus.

James Haxell – Writer

Well this week I finished Mass Effect and moved on to number two. One of the coolest parts of the series is the decisions that can change your game dramatically. It is fun but at the same time absolutely terrifying, making sure all your favourite characters are safe and sound. From the little I have played of the second game they have made several improvements. With fighting being a lot more pleasurable and no more Mako which rarely went where I wanted, the thrusters were fun but 9 out of 10 times ended with my death. The story has stayed at a constant high quality, but unfortunately I’m not lured enough to warrant the bank loan needed for all the dlc. Well apart from Kasumi but there was no way I was leaving her behind, I’m currently in the process of wrapping her in bubble wrap so she doesn’t go dying on me. Though whoever lied to me about making elevators better you’re wrong, replacing the lifts with loading screens that take just as long is not an improvement, it’s just subtly redecorating the problem.

I also had a crack at Rocket League. Not being a pc gamer nor having a PlayStation 4, has meant I have looked envious towards others playing this game, but finally I have had my shot. Now for those still unaware of what this is, though I don’t know how you would be, it is football (soccer) with cars. What I played of it was great fun, though I feel like my skill is 100% based on luck. I think this is a real niche in the market, why not start expanding the company: 11v11 games or even a rocket league manager could be great additions. If you haven’t played it yet, I recommend you track down a means to as it’s worthwhile.

Daniel Garcia-Montes

I’ve finished playing Darksiders and since I hadn’t played that game for about 3 years or so, it was almost like my first time playing it. It’s basically a perfect mix of the type of gameplay from the God of War and Legend of Zelda games, which makes for a fun game. It wasn’t especially challenging, but it had fun combat and finding all the collectibles was actually quite satisfying and not the chore that it could be in other games.

I currently await the chance to play Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition. Why exactly am I waiting to play it? Well, I played and enjoyed Darksiders II when it was originally released on the PS3, however I (and many other players) experienced game breaking freezing caused by the save file being overloaded with data with thanks to one of the DLCs being defective. Getting rid of my collection of weapons and armor that I had spent hours upon hours acquiring was the only way to make some room in the save file and get rid of the freezing. However, this fix didn’t last and I was still unable to complete one of the DLCs, while this irritating freezing kind of bled into the other DLCs and even the main game. Publisher THQ and developer Vigil Games went under due to bankruptcy, so these issues were never fixed.

When publisher Nordic Games acquired the rights to the Darksiders series….nothing happened. Nordic’s track record was rather unimpressive, not that I could find a whole lot of info on the company to begin with. When they released the Darksiders Collection on the PS3 last year, I appeared to be one of 10 people who knew this collection even existed. I was hoping to find out if this collection had fixes for the DLC’s freezing issues, but I never found out. The collection was delayed continuously over a period of 3 or 4 months, with Nordic providing absolutely no updates on these changes (I had to check Amazon to find out about these delays). Even after the collection finally was released, there were no reviews to be found anywhere on it; it appeared almost everyone had forgotten about the collection after all those delays.

So, you could imagine why I was hesitant on getting Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition for PS4, even though Nordic brought in the guys at Vigil (now known as Gunfire Games) to work on the collection. However, this collection appeared to actually have a fair bit of attention placed on it, not to mention a solid release date. But when the release date of October 27th came, only a select few who pre-ordered the game digitally got to play it before it was removed from the PSN, while the rest of us had to wait until October 30th for the game to actually be available in physical retail stores like Gamestop and Best Buy, and of course get put back on the PSN. Nordic is still kind of shaky when it comes to following through on things, but they appear to be improving. What few reviews there are now for the game appear to range from decent to good, but I’m pretty much waiting on any info on the DLCs being fixed or not. I imagine they are, but I will be waiting for a few more days to see if there is any news on this issue before I get the game for myself (I really don’t want to waste cash on another defective item). I’ll still likely get Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition in a few days, after which I will review it on this site at a later date, so be on the lookout for it.

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4 comments

Raul Zaha November 2, 2015 at 17:47

Oh James, sweet sweet innocent James XD You’re going to wish you had that Mako back, after doing your fair share of planet scanning.

James Haxell November 3, 2015 at 11:59

I’m sure it’ll be fine :), besides Shepard could use the exercise.

Jorge Godinez November 3, 2015 at 01:23

Man Daniel, I really want to play Darksiders 2 but I am still in the process of finishing the first one.

D.G.M. November 3, 2015 at 03:42

Well, if you’re enjoying the first Darksiders you’ll most likely really enjoy the second one. It improves on basically every aspect of the first game: combat, exploration, puzzles, environments, you name it. Except the story, the first Darksiders definitely had a superior narrative.

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