Welcome to Press Start (What We Played)! This is a weekly segment that dives into what we here at The Game Fanatics have played during this past week. What did you game?
Joel: Getting back in the mood for The Walking Dead‘s return so I have jumped back into Dead Island. Cannot get enough of the open world zombie killing and weapon customizing. I also restarted my assassin in Borderlands 2, going for a sniping specialist. And of course I have continued my NBA 2K13 MyCareer Mode Player. MyPlayer was traded to Brooklyn and I have also started playing some online matches with random peeps.
Jeff: I’m making it a goal to finish the Mass Effect trilogy next, with no distractions. Right now I’m about five hours into Mass Effect 2. The shooting is a little stale, but the story and characters are just too fun and this universe is just too cool to not keep playing.
Darrin: Spec Ops: The Line has been both awesome and very uncomfortable. The story is great and makes up for the multiplayer shortfalls.
Nick: I checked out the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and, as someone who is new to the MGS series, I get the sense that there’s not much cross-over between the Snake saga and this new game with Raiden. That said, MGSRR plays like a Japanese action game, such as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, so it’s fairly easy to pick up and enjoy. Raiden’s animations are smooth and flashy, and the storyline and characters show some promise. I haven’t found many unique gameplay qualities within the genre, but it is a demo after all.
Enis: I was really excited this week to play some Halo 4 Spartan Ops. The 6th Episode was amazing and I can’t wait to get my hands on the 7th on Monday. Aside from my usual Halo gaming I was able to get Dragon’s Dogma and have been loving that so much. Glad I picked it up. I really have enjoyed the story and combat system for that game very much.
Ben: I played through The Unfinished Swan. It’s a very beautiful and creative game. I feel that if Journey and The Walking Dead didn’t also come out last year The Unfinished Swan could have been the game that everyone was talking about. In preparation for the PC release of DmC, Devil May Cry, I went through Devil May Cry 3 for the first time. I can see why it is so highly revered in the genre but I still prefer Bayonetta for the weapon variety combo style and not terrible camera. It’s still a good game though. Naturally, I then played through the new Devil May Cry and really enjoyed it. Bayonetta remains the pinnacle of the genre for me but this is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for from a reboot. There’s a larger focus on platforming (which I liked), and the different weapons and switching between them was fast and fun. There should probably be more combos and weapons but I didn’t really mind too much. Also, everyone should be playing Ni no Kuni because it is unbelievably gorgeous, fun, creative, etc. it just makes you smile. It’s Studio Ghibli meets Pokemon. I would be playing it if I didn’t already sink over one hundred hours into the Japanese version.
Jen: Having to work six days this week, I didn’t think I would get much gaming in. Yea, I was wrong. Played a little bit of multiplayer in Halo 4 as well as the latest episode of Spartan Ops. Had the place to myself for a little bit so I sung a few songs in Rock Band 3. Did quite well for being sick. My husband got into the SimCity beta, so naturally I had to play a little of that. Sad that I wasn’t able to activate any disasters, that is the point of SimCity after all. Steam was finally loaded up after what seems forever and a day, but I only played a little bit of AudioSurf. I need to remind myself to download my Steam games onto the newer computer. Grabbed my 3DS for some TheAtRhythm Final Fantasy and played a few XBLA games such as the original Sonic, Bubble Bobble and Bejeweled Blitz. Of course the usual, SWTOR, was played as well.