Mirror's Edge of Darkness

So, Mirrors Edge Catalyst is completed. I’m not sure whether I really like the game or really loathe the game. It’s probably a bit of both.

I never played the original so I missed out on probably most of the backstory of the original. The heroine Faith, comes across as a rather bland cardboard cut-out. One aspect of movies and games in general is that if there are flashbacks to the charactors childhood, then one part of the past believed to be the truth is in fact false. I half guessed early on what the twist was and from then on it played out as expected. Faith’s rather blasé reaction to it only reinforced my view of it.

The story is rather boring. The parkour element of the game is easily the highpoint. The fun of running around a rather lifeless environment is the only really redeeming feature of the game.

The biggest problem is quite simply the appalling melee combat system and the stick men that you fight. Maybe I’m just old and useless but the amount of time I completely lost sight of who I was meant to be fighting or zoomed past them was really horrific. There are no boss fights, the best fight in the game is a cut scene at the end and by the time the final chapters start its far easier to just run away from them instead of fighting them.

All in all, Mirrors Edge Catalyst is an average experience and I’m glad that I only got the game on Origin Access as I wouldn’t have liked to have dumped the full price on it.

Down to 28.

The last couple of days I've managed to complete another of the #dirty30 with the completion of Never Alone.

I bought this game on the 24th September last year and was fully intending to play it by Christmas last year but events such as Fallout 4 and the first Witcher DLC overtook it.

It isn't a very long game, it took me four hours (add an hour for senility), but its a lovely puzzle game with some great insights into the people of the region. The only downside with the game is some really clunky controls (don't mention the bola) and occasions when the character you did'nt have control at the time jumps to their death. 

All in all a little gem

In other news, I've progressed into World Tier 4 of The Division. There is something about it being set around the festive season that makes me want to play it, much like the tug of playing Skyrim around this time. 

The bad news is that Lords of the Fallen will have to be replaced on my dirty 30. The game just keeps crashing during the second boss fight and I've tried virtually everything to sort it but with no joy. A shame really as I really liked it from the couple of hours I played. To replace it I've dipped in the Origin Vault and chosen Battlefield Hardline.

The Division is divided and conquered.

Well, that’s the first dirty 30 game completed. After 45 hours of shooting and looting, that’s Tom Clancy’s The Division completed.

I actually got The Division free with my GTX980 in April, about a month after it was released. Early impressions were that it wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m not the best shooter and after dying one too many times I just put it to one side and forgot about it.

Then I saw some gameplay footage of the Survival mode and it again piqued my interest. So in November I started it up again and I’m very glad I did.

OK, there is no real narrative other than go there-shoot-get the loot. But after about 10 hours and I started to get the mechanics of the game I really started to enjoy it. I’ve not really touched the Dark Zone and after getting the season pass for £11 in the black Friday sales I’ve got some more content to get to. I’ve reached World Tier 2 now with a decent selection of high end gear to do some of the end game stuff.

All in all. The Division is a solid 8/10 and in my top five for GOTY 2016.

The Dirty 30

Right then, these are the Dirty 30 that I'm aiming to complete by the latest November 30th 2017.

ALICE : MADNESS RETURNS

ALIEN ISOLATION

AMNESIA : A MACHINE FOR PIGS

AMNESIA : THE DARK DESCENT

BIOSHOCK REMASTERED

DEAD SPACE

DEAD SPACE 2

DEAD SPACE 3

DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN

FAR CRY 3 BLOOD DRAGON

FEAR

FEAR 2

FEAR 3

L.A.NOIRE

LIFE IS STRANGE

LORDS OF THE FALLEN

MAD MAX

METAL GEAR SOLID V : THE PHANTOM PAIN

MIRROR'S EDGE CATALYST

NEVER ALONE

OUTLAST

RAYMAN ORIGINS

SLENDER : THE ARRIVAL

THE DIVISION

THE ELDER SCROLLS V : SKYRIM REMASTERED

THE VANISHING OF ETHAN CARTER

TOTAL WAR : ROME 2

UNRAVEL

WASTELAND 2

WATCH DOGS

Of these, I've only played 18 hours of The Division and have completed 43% of the story. I really won't start piling through this list until I finish work for Christmas in ten days time.

On a side note : If you're a member of the Ubisoft Club on PC there is a free game giveaway starting today. If you want to climb trees, hunt bears and generally smash your controller in frustration, Assassins Creed III is for you.

The Year of Living Gamegerously Begins

I have a problem. No, not that type of problem. No, not that type of problem either. My problem is this: I am an Obsessive Compulsive Steam/Origin/Uplay/GOG Sale buyer.

A bit of history. Up until 2007, I hardly ever bothered with gaming outside of failing miserably at trying to get Mansfield Town into the Premier League in Football Manager or watching the latest Cincinnati Bengal quarterback get marmalized in Madden (I have nightmares still about Akili Smith and it looks like he does to).

Then, a change. I spotted a shiny new thing called a Playstation 3. So, I got one. And then I saw another shiny new (well, newish) thing called an Xbox 360. So I got one of them too. And for the next five years bought every shiny new game that came out.

Then, in 2013 I decided that to build a PC. Not a very powerful one, but enough to play my beloved Skyrim with mods. And that’s when my problem started.

You see, around July of that year, my first Steam Summer sale happened. In those days, Steam sales had the eight hour flash deals as well. I saw Dark Souls at £4.99. I bought it. I saw the The Witcher games for £2.99 when just a year before they were £40. So I bought them too.

By the end of the sale I’d spend some £70 on games that I probably never gave a moments thought to buying at full price. I even used to set my alarm so that I got up early to catch the end of the 8am sale. 

And this carried on for every Steam sale with slightly diminishing results for the next three years and in the process built up a backlog of some 200 games that I’d never get round to playing.

So, when Robin Tate aka Bongothesane launched his Year of Living Gamegerously (very nearly spelt that Gangerously which would be medically unsound) or #YOLG, I jumped at the chance to get rid of the clutter. He has problems with buying shiny new games, I have problems buying shiny old games at a discount price which were shiny new things months ago.

I have my dirty 30 list set up of games I want to finish in the next year. I have a starting budget of only £25, which will increase by a fiver everytime I finish one of the Dirty 30. 

My next post will list the list of gems I have to finish in the next year and my progress so far.