Lego City Undercover - SPOILERS !!

THIS IS GAME OF THE YEAR material so much fun diving down a mine shaft, riding a t-rex, trains, boats, skateboards, nintendo easter eggs, red brick power-ups, the humour, TRAINS (I said that already), horses, space centre, mini games and so much more.  I so can’t wait to unlock planes.

I’m on chapter 10 at the moment & loving every minute.

This game is reason why you need to buy a Wii U !!

Wii U - Family Time

I have never completed a game on the Wii, the only time I would play any games would be with the kids. So either Wii Sports or one of the Mario Party games.

Time to test out the Wii U in the same capacity, firstly you will need wii remote controllers. Ideally the motionplus variant because Metroid Blast & Zelda do not work without them, so I could not test those two games.

Mario Chase has the tablet player running around the map with the other players chasing him down. A simple game which after a few plays loses interest.

Luigi's Ghost Mansion is great fun, the tablet player is the ghost & the others Luigi playing ghostbusters trying to capture the ghost. It's easily the most fun game on Ninendoland.

Animal Crossing Sweet Day has the tablet player whacking the other players who are trying to gobble sweets. You can have two players on the tablet each controlling one stick, it has a nice team-play element, this might grow on us the more we play it.

Pikmin Adventure is very enjoyable team based quest adventure, quite a surprise really & could easily be a full game release with more content, one that I look forward to playing when we have more time.

The first few days of the console were disappointing mainly due to NSMBU but I am now starting to enjoy it more, I love that you can turn the tablet on without needing the television to access certain features of the OS. It feels like a XXL DS console but not too heavy to hold, just wished the battery life would last a bit longer. 

Lego City Undercover - New Game

I have not played a Lego game since the first Lego Star Wars on the PS2 because to me they have all just seemed the same with a different movie license attached to them.

Lego City Undercover however takes the GTA open-world style, adds a mission structure & give it a lick of Lego paint.

I have only completed the first mission which has you capturing bank robbers, driving around, building, smashing & collecting. The game has full voice acting with a Lego sense of humour that will make you smile & laugh whilst playing Chase McCain.
I like the way the game interacts with the gamepad using it for a sat nav when driving, mobile for communication & many more features.

Best of all you get 4 saves per user (You listening Nintendo, PER USER !!) which means I can sit down & enjoy playing. From the games I have purchased with the console Lego City Undercover is a reason to own the Wii U.

Forza may have to take a backseat for a while, I have a mission to complete !!
Chase McCain to the rescue !!

Tomb Raider - Completed

Apart from my obvious hate of QTEs the game itself is very enjoyable, I enjoyed running, jumping & climbing around the map to get the collectables. The storyline is not bad with pretty decent voice acting.

The tombs were much simpler than I thought and the puzzles were a tad on the easy side. 

I hated the gore especially the death sequences, I did however like the Metroid touches of collecting/upgrading weapons to return to previous sections that were inaccessible.

Fire arrows are easily the best weapon in the game but disappointed that Lara did not have her two signature guns or the cartwheel move. The developers should have played the original playstation games & have some Easter Eggs relating to the previous games.

There are obvious comparisons with the uncharted games but I found Tomb Raider more enjoyable that the two uncharted games I have completed.

It's good to pick up a game & play to completion without getting distracted by anything else. Not a bad record for me two weeks from start to finish.

Next then some Forza Horizon with the very possible distraction of Lego City on the Wii U.

I understand Lara did not sell in the numbers SquareEnix wanted, I for one hope this is not her final game. She can be so much better & hopefully next generation will see her return with her next adventure.

Wii U - 3 into 5?

My son transferred his mii from the 3DS to the Wii U this morning to play Super Mario U, when he loaded up the game it came up with my save file?!

The Wii U does not lock down save files to profiles?!

Upon further searching on google, my worst fears confirmed. New Super Mario Bros U only has THREE save files per console & not per user profile.

What a f@@&ing joke !!

How do Nintendo expect my family to play NSMBU with only 3 game saves per console when we have five players that want to play ?!

I had over 100+ on Fallout New Vegas & 200+ on Skyrim on the 360 !!

Thankfully the same issue does not apply to Zombi U or Nintendoland but so far I have been disappointed with the Wii U with the three games purchased. Mario U does look lovely in HD but due to the save file issue I have lost any interest for this game. I really really hate the Nintendoland presentation, annoying floating TV presenter. Zombi U is interesting to play but I'm still getting used to playing with the supersized DS gamepad & not enjoying it.

Hopefully Lego City Undercover will be here soon to change my mind on the console but so far very disappointed. I will also try some of the multi-player games on Nintendoland if I can get pass the annoying Mario Partyesque graphics & presentation.

Wii U - Initial thoughts

The OS seems really sluggish, the game pad too big & do I look at the TV or the game pad to play?!

After fighting with the wifi settings, running the system update & creating my mii. Two hours later I finally got to play with the console. Whatever happen to the open the box, plug & play experience of the cartridge generation?

I browsed the mii verse, added some friends, signed up to some notifications & visited the eshop to download Street U which was fun for two minutes.

Only got a brief chance to try Mario U before the Sugar commanded the TV. It looks lovely in HD but really the game pad is TOO big.

Will spend more time tomorrow because I've got the kids mii accounts to create.

Hopefully also get a chance to try Zombi U & Nintendoland.

Tomb Raider - Death Sequences

Uggh !! way to graphical & too much blood. You have action sequences in the game that have you controlling Lara down a slope or jumping over obstacles but it you miss a step in the sequence then Lara is met with a gruesome death.

One particular section proved very difficult and I died a few times attempting the sequence only to end up getting Lara impaled in the head every time.

I even paused the game to check the options to see if there was a setting to turn the gore off.

Trial & error prevailed and I eventually finished the sequence. I just don't know how anyone could have sat down & designed those death sequences without feeling sick.

Anyhow I've just finished the Solarii Fortress section & apart from the quick time events I'm enjoying the game very much. 

I've also unlocked the tier 3 skill set & now have a shotgun/machine gun to carry around.

Although I still prefer to use the bow with a fire arrow to set the enemies alight.

I'm a fire-starter, twisted fire-starter !!

Forza Horizon - Too competitive

When you finish a race, you are given a rival challenge time to beat. After the last yellow wristband race it gave me Abbas to challenge.

Now how could I refuse that challenge ...

Abbas completed Forza Horizon a few months ago & deleted his game save.

So what does he do?
Start playing the game again of course.

Too competitive, like father like son some would say :)

New Game - Tomb Raider

My initial thoughts when watching the trailer videos & reading some reviews was oh Lara! what have they done to you?!

Taking the girl out & dropped her into an Uncharted game. I'm not a big fan of button press sequence gaming and within minutes of starting the game you are asked to hammer away at the X button :(

They even stripped out the cartwheel move you could pull off when climbing a ledge. Maybe she needed to be reinvented to survive? Or otherwise she might have been gone to the character graveyard & joined Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon & her other playstation friends.

The sales figures whilst strong did not meet their targets, so will she be back? Or is this a farewell?

Maybe she was released too late this gen thus when playing the game you cannot help but think that the developers have taken the Uncharted template, mixed in some Assassin Creed & topped it off with some Batman Arkham Asylum.

The formula is not wrong, for all it's button presses the game is very playable but it's not the Lara Croft Tomb Raider game I wanted.

I have just completed the second area of the game and unlocked fast travel. This lets me return to previously used camps to continue searching for any missed collectables.

For now Lara is a distraction to stop me playing Forza Horizon but she should have & could have been so much more.

New Game - Forza Horizon

Titch (my younger brother) came round with his playstation 3 because he could not get the display to work on his tv.

A quick search revealed by holding down the power button for five seconds you reset the HDMI settings on the console.

He had a few games with the console but I loaded up GT5, just playing a single race I felt the desire to play a racing game.

Do I nick his copy of GT5 & give the game a second try?

Do I play Need for Speed most wanted which is sat on the shelf?

Or do I buy Forza?

I'm not a fan of open world racers, I did enjoy Burnout Paradise for the fun factor but boy would I get lost driving around !!

Having already played GT5 & given up at around 50% mark I did not want to start again, so it came down to Forza.

Forza 4 or Forza Horizon?
Trying both demos Forza 4 was a menu driven track racer & nothing more. Just want I wanted but like GT5 would I eventually get bored & give up?

Forza horizon was a mixture of an open world setup but with track based events.

I'm a sucka for eye candy & Forza Horizon looks amazing. I've only just really started the game, having raced two track events & a challenge against a plane which won me a Mustang car.

Before I got distracted by ...

iOS gaming recap

A quick recap on iOS gaming, after completing Rolando, taking Oxford to the top division in New Star Soccer & burning items in Little Inferno.

I have moved onto playing Clash of Clans this uses the build & time wait mechanics of every other freemium game. I never attack other players thus it only takes up a few minutes of my time every day collecting the coins & choosing what to upgrade or build next.

On recommendation of Neil (Satsuma), Real Racing 3. Once I found a control method I liked, the default tilt to turn is not for me. The game is quite enjoyable, however with Forza Horizon waiting for me it might have arrived at the wrong time? I'll keep it on my phone for a while yet.

What else?

Poker Knight is a play poker hands RPG but I've already done that with the excellent Sword & Poker games so I expect this to be deleted shortly unless it offers something new?

Multiplayer games I'm still playing are Carcassonne, Lost Cities & Ticket to Ride. I recently purchased Scotland Yard and have only really just completed the tutorial, so a few local games needed to get some practice.

Completed - Borderlands 2

To answer the obvious question? Yes

Yes, it is better than the first game because gearbox have a more solid story to the game this time around.

The gameplay is the same shoot, kill & loot but you have different character classes to choose.

On my local co-op game which I completed this week I played with the same commando class from the first game, mainly because the turret is one of the better action skills.

The game has you chasing Handsone Jack in his quest to revive the vault warrior. There are some very funny moments in the game from the minecraft Easter egg to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quest but it is the death of Roland at the hand of Handsome Jack that stood out for me. Gearbox killing off a character from the first game is a bold move.

The game ends with a multi world vault reveal, hinting at the direction for the next game.

The beauty of the Borderlands game for me is the pick up & play nature of it. You have an hour spare lets go do a couple of quests?

After completion you then unlock play through 2 but before I think about playing that the DLC content awaits.

Just in case anyone is wondering the Claptrap Boys are still playing this on a Monday evening and we are nearing the end fight.