27/12/2014

Knack - Katrina

With PSN & XBL under DDOS attack the past few days the online connected games like Destiny & Watch_Dogs were table mats.

It did give me the chance to continue playing Knack with my daughter on local co-op.

The last boss fight proved quite difficult with Katrina in a mech suit & took us a few attempts.

We also managed to collect enough secret chests to unlock a relic detector gadget.

It is a very colourful game & at times a tough challenge even on easy difficulty.

The relic key has been stolen by Vicktor & we have now boarded his airship track him down.

19/12/2014

New Game - Watch_Dogs


This should have been my release game with the PS4 but thanks to the last minute delay from Ubisoft I ended up with Killzone Shadow Fall instead which I did not really play & sold on. I played Watch_Dogs for a few hours yesterday & very quickly got sidetracked into unlocking the area map through the ctos towers & completing side quests like Gang Hideouts & the random crime events that appear.

First few hours impression, I enjoy the hacking, hate the driving of cars stick with motorbikes instead. Still disappointed that the main character has to use guns would have been amazing to play the game with just the Baton. I was mostly distracted by the stack of icons on the world map so will get back to the main campaign when I play next.

Destiny - The Servitor that will not die.


17/12/2014

Destiny - Level 31


I was disappointed with the Dark Below expansion because it introduced new armour with a higher light rating thus making all of my equipped armour useless.

I spent some strange coins purchasing upgrades for my exotic chest armour & auto rifle. The purple legendary items had no upgrade path so I had to earn vanguard marks & purchase armour from the traders. Typically after spending 120 marks to purchase a new helmet the game decided to reward me with a purple helmet engram in my next vanguard strike.

I'm still waiting for Xur to have IceBreaker & need to purchase another heavy machine gun with the new higher stats.

Truthfully I exoected more content, I would have been happy with a whole new planet to explore but what we got is a chase through three story missions, a strike & ending with the raid I assume to kill Crota.

The Vault of Glass raid is very enjoyable & I'm looking forward to playing the new raid once the UGVM guys have levelled up.

I now have a love/hate relationship with the game I love the gameplay but hate some of the design choices Bungie have decided. I understand MMOs evolve over time & it is still a fairly new genre to me. I just wished all my efforts to date on upgrading my equipment was not wiped away with the release of an expansion. I fully expect when the next expansion arrives Bungie will do the same but like the addict I am I'll still come back.

I've enjoyed the 200+ hours I've put into the game but I have other games on the shelf to enjoy. I'll still do the weekly strikes & I will be back for the raids once the UGVM players are ready.

13/12/2014

New Logo - gospvg

New Logo designed by Monster Mohsin http://m.youtube.com/channel/UC802xl3vUGZ2VUThv-LJH3w

Using Gimp he designed his youtube channel art logo & I was very impressed that I asked him to make me a blog logo.

Well done kid, good job.

10/12/2014

Completed - Ghost Recon Future Soldier

The last mission took us quite a few attempts because the enemies kept on running away & we had to hunt them down either within a time limit or could not let them run away.

For the few quid it cost us in a 360 sale it's been a decent co-op game in the gameplay element, even if the story is your typical American Oorah bullshit.

I enjoyed the co-op play in tagging enemies & going for timed sniper kills.

We swiftly move on to Borderlands Pre Sequel which I expect may well be our last Xbox 360 PMG game.

Destiny - The Dark Below

The Dark Below is the latest expansion to Destiny, adding a few story missions, couple of strikes & a new raid.

I completed the story missions yesterday with Hakk & managed to get a new upgraded rocket launcher "The Cure" which does 331 damage when fully upgraded. You also get a fusion rifle that can switch between arc or solar damage when completing the story missions. Handy for taking out shields but I still prefer to have my sniper rifle equipped.

The story missions use various locations on earth & moon that I have already played enough with slight variations & the odd extra room added on, they are still quite challenging especially on hard difficulty.

Armour can now be purchased from the traders with a +33 light rating this will help me reach level 30 & above. I had enough vanguard marks to purchase some new gloves, just now need to fully upgrade them to get the max light rating.

Just when I thought I had broken free, Destiny has me hooked again.

08/12/2014

Forza Horizon 2 - Nissan GTR

I was hoping I would have more time to enjoy Forza Horizon 2 this weekend but I only managed to complete a handful of events. Enough though to purchase the Nissan GTR and apply some upgrades.

The game did on a couple of occasions freeze the 360 console whilst loading up the menu or rewarding me with credits. Thankfully it did not lose any progress or corrupt my game save.

Simple things I take for granted on the PS4 like share a screenshot or upload a video to youtube I really miss on the Xbox 360.

Did not get a chance to play much else except the Destiny raid effort yesterday evening. I did watch the PS Experience Keynote on Saturday which was very impressive with lots of new games to look forward to in 2015.





Destiny Gorgon Maze & Jumping Section

The previous raid I was stuck on the jumping section for at least an hour I think, so it was a relief yesterday when I managed to complete it with my first attempt !!

We got all the way to the last boss fight but it was so glitchy giving us the loot but no checkpoint for Atheon.

03/12/2014

Destiny - Sword of Crota

 

With the latest update you have new events that happen on Earth & the Moon in which you can get a Sword to use for a minute. Just wish it would last longer with every kill so you could enjoy it more.



01/12/2014

Monument Valley - Forgotten Shores & Ida's Dream - Completed

It was good to return to Monument Valley with my 7 year old daughter to enjoy the Forgotten Shores & Ida's Dream expansion packs, some lovely levels & a couple of difficult puzzles to solve.

A very beautiful game & an enjoyable experience. We especially enjoyed the The Oubliette level on Forgotten Shores.

If you own an iOS device Monument Valley is a must buy game along with Carcassonne & Lost Cities.

New Game - Forza Horizon 2

Thank to a £10 refund from Amazon & a Black Friday deal, I managed to purchase the game for £12 on the Xbox 360. Yes I know the game is better on the XB1 console but I'm not spending £300 on another console so the 360 version is fine for me to enjoy.

I only managed to get as far as installing the game to the 360 Hard Drive before I had to hand over the controller to the kids to enjoy whilst I done some household chores, so not had a chance to fire it up yet but the kids have been enjoying it.

Destiny - Vault of Glass Completed


Five hours of enjoyment, hell, frustration, anger, tears & every other emotion you can imagine. Finally I have completed the Vault of Glass.

Completed - Wolfenstein The New Order

The game does eventually give you a sniper rifle, although you can only use it in very few levels. It's mainly assault rifle, shotgun or the LaserKraftWerk gun which the game has you use quite a bit, I hate it because it requires constant recharging.

I like that each level of the game offers you something different to enjoy (very much like Battlefield Bad Company 2) from different transports, using various machines to new locations.

The story continues at quite a rapid pace with quite a few boss fights along the way ultimately leading you the final showdown with Deathshead.

It's been good to break free from Destiny to enjoy some of my other games. Next on the list to finish off Knack with my daughter.

29/11/2014

PS4 - Happy 1st Birthday

With my limited game time I'm happy with my first year of the PS4. It may have not gotten used much by me in the first nine months (kids used it more to play Fifa mainly) because I was playing catch-up on the Mass Effect Trilogy & Deus Ex on the 360.

But I did enjoy AC Black Flag & I love Destiny. I'm not in a rush for new releases in 2015 because I've got enough to enjoy for the next six to nine months with MGS V, Infamous, Watch_Dogs, Wolfenstein & the many PS+ games whilst I also tackle my 360/PS3 backlog.

Only disappointment is the quality of the controllers (poor rubber on sticks & poor battery life). My 2nd controller has gone back to Sony for a faulty left control stick & I wish there was an option to turn off the light on the controller, I imagine that would increase battery life.

I was very close to buying a XB1 last month with the DriveClub vs Forza Horizon 2 challenge but I've managed to ignore that temptation & purchased FH2 for the 360 console. I don't have that much free time for more than one console. I hardly ever use the WiiU unless the kids want to play Mario Kart so I will not be buying an XB1 (Famous last words).

There are only a few games I will be buying day one for the PS4 in 2015 No Man's Sky, Batman Arkham Knight (I'm glad it got delayed, I'm tired of rushed to market games like DriveClub & AC Unity. Just wished more developers/publishers would take the Nintendo/Rockstar approach to releasing it when it's ready.) & Fallout 4 (I'm still hoping).

24/11/2014

New Game - Wolfenstein New Order

Having broken free from Destiny I fired up Wolfenstein New Order. It starts off with a very long prologue at the end of which you have to make a choice. This choice determines the path your story will take & what skills unlock.

There are quite a few collectibles in the game, if you manage to find the area map early on it makes collecting these easy but on a few chapters I did not find the area map thus I have left quite a few of these collectibles behind. Thanks to the RAGE - gotta collect them all incident I have ignored these to focus on just enjoying the game.

Especially with my stealth style of play, the knife & silenced pistol are my favourite weapons. I have enjoyed completing missions without alerting a single enemy. I've yet to find a sniper rifle which would have made a couple of the levels easier. Occasionally I have failed in my stealth approach, I then resort to dual-wielding assault rifles or using the shotgun up close.

The story gives you an alternate-history with the Nazi's winning WW2, you meet up with a small resistance group & plan an attack on a research facility in London. This is where I am at the moment in the main campaign.

Destiny - I'm Free

After 180 hours I'm free I don't know how but I loaded up Destiny to play this evening with my Warlock character & I just did not feel like it. Instead I started Wolfenstein New Order & played that for a few hours.

I'll be back I'm sure at some point but for now I'm just glad I've broken free. It's been a great experience the past two months, this is easily my game of the year.

I think part of the reason is I was not enjoying playing the warlock character, I just could not get on with the supers on both classes. The thought of grinding for vanguard marks & legendary armour for a character that I would not use was just too much.

I'll stick with just playing my Titan to do weekly nightfall/heroic strikes & hopefully raid attempts.
Won't bother with any daily missions (all my main three weapons are now fully upgraded) or bounties.

23/11/2014

Destiny - Grind

With Destiny there is the Elephant in the room about the grind in the game. It annoys some gamers who once they reach level 20 give up on the game. After level 20 you need to start focusing on equipping legendary or exotic armour to take up you light level.

Luckily for my warlock I had an exotic chest & legendary helmet in the vault (loot from my Titan character), once equipped these took me up to level 24. The grind for me then began to level up my vanguard rank so I could purchase armour from the trader. I always focus on completing vanguard bounties & when on patrol missions always keep a look out for VIP missions (these have a star in the icon). These reward you with more rep points than other patrol missions.

Once I increased my vanguard rank to level 2 I then switched to the Vanguard Strike mode to take part in Tiger Strikes to get vanguard marks. Once I had 70 odd marks I purchased gauntlets that reloaded auto rifles faster & cool down on grenades.


With the Warlock on 26 I now need to purchase some legendary boots to increase my light level. I'm still a bit undecided about which class I like voidwalker or sunsinger. I also need to decide on what exotic armour I want to use because the chest plate I have has some upgrades I won't use like fusion rifle ammo increase.

Weapons I've decided to stick with auto rifles I just don't get on with any other primary weapon. Xur once again did not have IceBreaker so I'll save strange coins for next week.

The grind does not become an issue when playing with friends online & I've had quite a few sessions completing daily missions & weekly heroic/nightfall strike during the week.

Target for next week is to continue upgrading Warlock & hopefully take part in a raid with my Titan character.

20/11/2014

Destiny EV-30 Tumbler & Links

If you already have the Destiny Expansion Pass then Bungie sent you a little reward with the EV-30 Tumbler bike. Funky colours & you can do tricks with the bike.







Some useful links for the Destiny Gamers

http://destinystatus.com/
Type in your gamertag & it will show you a quick summary of your characters
with stats.
http://destinystatus.com/psn/gospvg

http://www.findxur.com/
Know where Xur is in the Tower & what he has to sell.

http://destinypublicevents.com/
Useful for knowing when Public Events are likely to happen, database is
currently being rebuilt since last patch update.

Patrol Mission guides
http://planetdestiny.com/guide-to-destinys-patrol/
Just make sure you go for the VIP Missions becasue they give you more
faction rep points than the others.

Destiny - Cabal Dancing

17/11/2014

Destiny - Warlock

After getting my Titan to lvl29 I've been trying to collect Ascendant Energy to upgrade my weapons. I did not have a chance to do a raid attempt but did manage to complete the weekly & nightfall strike to collect another 18 coins but Xur again this week did not have the IceBreaker.

I did not get on with the sunsinger class on the Warlock so I've changed to Void Walker. The grenade seem to be more useful & the nova bomb super attack more useful than the 'super-saiyan' of the sunsinger class.

I've put nearly 150 hours into this game now & it's still very addictive, I'm going to try & step back a bit to go and finish off Knack & start Wolfenstein which arrived at the weekend.

Only a simple target next week to get my warlock to level 20 so I can equip the exotic chest plate that is sat in the vault.

11/11/2014

Knack - Goblin Castle

Taking a break from playing Destiny to enjoy Knack with my daughter. My son has quit the co-op team and I've taken over. Chapter 3 awaits The Goblin Castle.

She originally started playing the game back in February but for whatever reason did not continue. I took control of Knack this time & she played the co-op character.

The save point was at the Goblins Castle & the chapter introduces you to giant Knack, it has some ice levels which are not too difficult & a boss fight against the goblin leader. I quite enjoyed fighting the tanks & then picking them up Hulk style to launch them.

For all the stick Knack receives it does look pretty & is a simple game to play with easy controls.

Left Stick to move & Right Stick to dodge.
Square is attack, O is your super attack & X is jump.

I expect we will be playing another chapter pretty soon.

09/11/2014

Destiny Vault of Glass Templar Boss

Destiny - Do a Barrel Roll

Destiny - Ascendant Energy

The last tier of a legendary or exotic weapon will have three damage upgrades that all require material (which you can easily farm from patrol) & Ascendant Energy.

Ascendant Energy is not so easy to farm. Doing the daily mission EVERY DAY on level  28 will reward you with either two Ascendant Energy or Shards (used in upgrading your armour).

Taking part in your first Public Event EVERY DAY will reward you with one energy or shard. Any further public event comes down to luck if you are rewarded with a shard or energy.

Notice EVERY DAY because to receive any Ascendant Energy or Shards I need to do a daily grind and hope I get rewarded with energy. It's no difference than the dreadful mobile games that tempt you with daily rewards for playing their game. 

Annoyingly with Destiny I'm not guaranteed to get energy, wish there was a trader at the tower who could exchange shards for energy or even if you could spend strange coins to buy some energy.

Xur again had nothing for me this week offering the Alpha Lupi chest plate but I'm not going to purchase that when I have fully upgraded my chest plate. No icebreaker sniper rifle again so I'll save my coins.

I don't need any more shards, my Titan character's armour is all fully upgraded.
Maxing out the armour takes the light to level 29. To get to the magic 30 I need raid gear armour for my Titan. These are unique armour that only drop during the raid by opening the raid chests or defeating the bosses.

I played the raid last week & got up to the last boss fight but had to call it a night because it was getting late. I got some shards/energy & a rocket launcher but no raid armour.

Targets for next week then -
Complete daily missions which don't take that long in the hope I get some energy to upgrade my weapons.

My Warlock character is on level 10 so continue playing & upgrade to level 15.

Complete the weekly/nightfall for loot & coins. Hopefully take part in another RLLMUK raid attempt in the hope I get some raid armour.

I've got some videos to upload from my exploits in Destiny did not have much joy linking my youtube account so will try again later today.

04/11/2014

Destiny - Armada Type 3

Had a great session yesterday evening running through the weekly strike on lvl 28, nightfall & daily on lvl 28 with Rud & Bazra.

Bazra had some void weapons which helped take care of the enemies with ease.

I got the same exotic warlock armour that I have waiting in the vault, Voidfang Vestments so I dismantled to receive some shards but more important was that I got the boots I wanted Armada Type 3 that give you the perk of extra auto rifle ammo.

This is great news because it means I no longer need to play the crucible to increase my vendor rank. I much prefer to stick to playing the vanguard strikes & daily/weekly missions. I also managed to get lots of strange coins yesterday to take my total to 32, hopefully Xur will have the icebreaker sniper rifle to purchase on Friday.

From my targets on Sunday I've not got much else to do apart from level up my warlock character & try to get some ascendant energy to upgrade my weapons on the Titan.

02/11/2014

Destiny - Crucible

Crucible is the PvP mode in Destiny, I've never liked any PvP mode in any game because I'm really bad at them.

Occasionally I might play the one odd match where I actually play well but I put that down to either luck or my opponents are worse than me.

I've had to play quite a bit of crucible in the past week so I could complete my pulse rifle exotic bounty target of getting 10,000 points.

I decided to collect these points whilst also completing the daily bounties. This made the mode a little bit more enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the get 15 kills with super, on the control game type I would wait for opposing players to try and capture a zone & then come charging in with a 'hulk smash' to get 3 to 4 kills.

By completing these daily crucible bounties I managed to level up my crucible rank, this made me look at the weapons/armour the crucible traders were selling in the tower. I found a nice set of boots which increase auto rifle ammo. However before I can purchase these I need to be a level 2 rank.

I completed the exotic bounty to unlock Bad Juju but after all the effort to get the gun I still prefer my exotic auto rifle Suros Regime.

I've upgraded all my armour to max now except the boots (I'm not going to waste shards on these & will purchase the boots from crucible vendor once I'm level 2 rank) but I'm still on level 28 just a short amount away from the next level.

I've spent less time with the game this week because I binged on season 2 of Arrow & started watching Marvel Shield. So I've not been doing the daily missions but I did complete the weekly strike for 3 strange coins. I was hoping that Xur might have the icebreaker sniper rifle again but he had Patience & Time to sell which does have a camouflage perk but the regenerating ammo perk on icebreaker is more useful.

There is a limit of 200 on vanguard marks  which just seems stupid to me so I spent some of my marks on purchasing a legendary sniper rifle called Epitaph which I'm currently levelling up.

I also received another exotic bounty for a machine gun called Super Good Advice which was very easy to complete. So I now have three exotic weapons in an assault, pulse rifle & heavy machine gun.

Hopefully at some point Bungie will allow the option to equip more than one exotic weapon.

I've not got much in the way of targets for next week, maybe play more crucible to try and get rank 2 so I can purchase those boots. Try and collect more ascendant energy to upgrade my weapons which is all going to be about luck.


I did start a 2nd character Warlock class because I've got exotic armour for that class in the vault. So I might play a bit more with that character to level it up.

With the recent PS4 firmware update a 'share to youtube' option has now appeared so I'll try to upload some Destiny videos that I have saved on the console over the past few weeks of gameplay.

26/10/2014

Destiny - Suros Regime

This blog is rapidly turning into a Destiny Diary. At the moment I'm not really playing anything else (except PMG Ghost Recon & Borderlands Pre Sequel on local co-op).

After pushing my luck & gaming Mon to Thu last week, the boss put her foot down & said no to gaming on Friday so I could not continue the Raid effort.

It's a shame that the Raid resets every Tuesday, the time pressure to complete the raid in a week is just too much & difficult to commit. So for now I'm out of any future raids until I've upgraded my weapons & armour.

Xur arrived on Friday & had an exotic assault rifle Suros Regime to sell. Because you can only equip one exotic weapon at any time I wanted that to be the primary weapon. I've got a legendary scout rifle but I'm a 'Spray & Pray' type of player so Assault Rifle is perfect for me.

I could do with a nice legendary sniper rifle to complete my arsenal and I've also got my exotic bounty to complete for Bad Juju. I completed the 25/25 strike missions yesterday & then had to run around the tower speaking to the gunsmith, vanguards & even Xur. Now the last section of my bounty needs me to play the crucible and get 10.000 points :(

Sad face because I don't really enjoy PvP, I suck at multi-player but maybe by forcing me to play via the bounty I might enjoy the experience.

So Destiny targets for next week is to try & complete the exotic bounty. Collect enough ascendant energy/shards to continue upgrading weapons & armour to advance to level 29.

24/10/2014

Destiny - Jump, Jump a little higher !!

A mixture of old & a couple of new raiders inc Hakk managed to take down the Templar with ease yesterday before we ventured through the Labyrinth, I was just waiting for a fire-breathing dragon to appear & Gandolf to shout 'You shall not pass".

Then there is an annoying jumping a chasm section which took me forever to do, stupid annoying kept on failing to make the last jump.

We managed to loot some chests along the way but I did not get anything decent, other players were rewarded with 'Patience & Time' Sniper Rifle & 'Hawkmoon' Handgun.

Arriving at the last fight we gave it a few attempts but truthfully by then we were tired & called it a night.

Hopefully this evening we can tackle the final boss & complete the Vault of Glass.

22/10/2014

Destiny - Vault of Concrete

Team NOOB from RLLMUK (Soi, Stebbo, SuperMBo, Soo Denim, Funtime Dave pipped Billy to the post & awesome me) attempted the Vault of Glass?! More like Vault of Concrete !!

It is hard, very hard !!

It took us an hour to get past the first stage where you need to activate three plates to grow the spire to shoot it's beam to unlock the door. The enemies kept respawning & we kept on dying. Thankfully after this we got treated to our first chest reward, some ascendant shards.

The next stage is very tough first you need to defend some pillars of light from sacrificing vex. The difficulty then ramps up even further when you have mere seconds to destroy yellow oracles that randomly spawn across the map. There is no rest, you now have to start to attack the Templar (main boss) whilst also killing oracles & harpies. If you do not do this section quickly enough the Templar 'enrages' and spawns more enemies which ultimately leads to your death.

It's tough, the raid is very tough. Maybe even too tough.






20/10/2014

New Game - Borderlands Pre Sequel

Started this on local co-op with my daughter, she went for the Nisha character & I went for Wilhelm.

It took us a while to get familiar with the controls once again & once I managed to find an assault rifle it was business as usual.

I hate the addition of an Oxygen meter, it's just another bar to keep an eye on in the heat of battle.

It does feel like an expansion pack & is obviously a cash-in before the 360/PS3 generation of consoles are consigned to history.

Once the 'Claptrap Boys' have completed Ghost Recon we will be finishing our amazing run of PMG (Planned Multi-player Gaming) games which started in 2010 with Borderlands & will finish with this Pre Sequel game playing as Claptraps.

Lost Cities - Complete Set

Managed to get a full set of all the numbers in a recent game of Lost Cities.

Shame I did not get more coin cards to apply to the colour.

Still a great game, even though there are Game Center issues with iOS 8 (which is why I have not updated, I'm still on iOS 7).


18/10/2014

Destiny - Armamentarium

New armour shader Thunder Devil now applied to my Titan which I received from completing a daily mission.

I had a good week playing Destiny, completing the weekly strike with Kamino on hardest difficulty to get 9 strange coins & I managed to unlock a few more through decrypting blue engrams.

An easier way to get more strange coins is obviously to have more than one character & complete the weekly mission on the hardest setting with each character but I don't have time to even think about starting a new character.


I also unlocked quite a few ship engrams from blue engram drops but I still like my Phaeton Class v1.

It's a shame Bungie have not introduced any ship gameplay in the game, I would have enjoyed playing a few missions or maybe even some strikes that involved using the ship.

At least the Sparrow Bikes you can use in the game, the ships are just eye candy for the loading screen.
When Xur (Trader in Tower who only appears Friday to Sunday) arrived yesterday I first spent some mote of lights on the engram but it decrypted into warlock armour.

I was hoping I might have gotten lucky to get the Titan alpha lupi chest armour but Xur wanted me to spend my hard-earned coins so I purchased the Armamentarium for 13 coins.

It's abilities are carry more special, heavy ammo & an extra grenade

Yesterday with Hakk & Kamino we attempted the heroic strike but soon realised we were way too under-levelled & gave up to try the vault of glass with Skim.

It took us a while to figure out what we had to do but we needed an extra two players and truthfully probably needed better weapons to really stand a chance of getting past the first stage.

During the week I  also got offered a exotic bounty & went for the Pulse Rifle Bad Juju. Thanks to the weekly strike I completed the first stage of the bounty. The second stage is to complete 25 strike missions, I'm currently on 3 so that will take me a while.

Borderlands arrived on Thursday but apart from entering some shift codes I've not started playing it yet. Last week I thought I would stop playing Destiny for Borderlands but I'm enjoying Destiny far too much at the moment to let it go.

Tasks for next week on Destiny are to level up my new chest armour & complete more strikes to complete 2nd stage of bounty. Also on Tuesday I'm teaming up with 5 other RLLMUK guys to attempt the vault of glass. Hopefully we can get past the first stage.

Fingers crossed that Xur has an Assault Rifle for sale next week.

11/10/2014

Destiny - Completed

I had a good session yesterday evening playing Destiny first with Chown doing the daily mission & some bounties. Then later with Skim & Kamino we manged to complete the weekly strike on the third attempt, that Archon Priest was really difficult to take down with all the other enemies spawning. We also has a great farming session on Mars whilst doing some Patrol missions and I manged to collect 43 Iron Relics & a new purple scout rifle.

I also got 17 coins to purchase the sniper rifle from Xur but I'm still in two minds because it's taken me this long to accumulate this many coins & what if he has the chest plate or an assault rifle next week. So I'm going to save them for now.

To upgrade later stages of legendary purple armour you need materials (which are easy to get from farming) and Ascendant Shards which are much more difficult to get. The daily mission on the highest difficulty will gift you two shards & public events or random drops is your other chance if luck is on your side.

I'm level 26 at the moment so could tag along on the raid mission but I'll just keep on dying & don't really have powerful weapons yet so will wait till I've gone up another couple of levels & got at least one exotic weapon.

With all the disappointment of DriveClub & the near purchase of a XB1 with Forza Horizon 2 it was good to ignore this & get back to gaming.

I also decided to complete The Black Garden (last story mission) to finish the main campaign. It's crap, what little story there is in the game is just a confusing pile of mess. Coming from Halo, I don't understand how Bungie could have messed up the story so much, there are various reddits which show the game had a troubled final 12 months & changes were made that ended up with what we have now.

If it was not for the gameplay which is amazing I doubt anyone would still be playing this, Borderlands Pre Sequel arrives next Friday so I expect to be spending more time playing that than Destiny. Although I will still try to play every day to complete the daily mission to collect some shards.

28/09/2014

New Logo - No Man's Sky

Explore ....
I've been enjoying Destiny for the past few weeks. Time for a logo change & my most anticipated game. No Man's Sky.

Still no idea when it is getting released, hopefully sometime in 2015.

Destiny - Legendary

The Queens Wrath is an ongoing event till October 6th, you can complete specific bounties which in turn unlock missions (these missions are basically playing a story level of the game on harder difficulty). I tried yesterday with great difficulty to complete on of these missions.

I kept on dying on the second stage of the The Nexus mission on Venus, thanks to Boxoctosis joining my fireteam, I manage to complete the mission & collect my reward a legendary chest armour.

I also luckily manage to change a purple engram  into a legendary weapon called The Swarm.

I'm on Level 24 now need to get some more vanguard marks before I can purchase some more armour.

Would love to try the Raid but at level 24 I think I am going to get torn apart, I think you need to be at least two levels above the mission you are playing to have a chance of surviving.


There have been lots of complaints by gamers at the level of content on offer is the same but regurgitated with modifiers. This is true but the enjoyment comes in playing with friends to complete a difficult strike & Planets/Moon areas are quite large to explore (although there is not much to do).

Lots of comparisons with Borderlands mention in various reviews (which I would say is the better game) but this is an MMO type game & should be compared to WoW or Guild Wars which do offer more content & a better experience but Bungie's first stab at a MMO/Halo hybrid is not a bad effort & will only get better.

Only time will tell what will happen when I complete the story (what story?) missions & hit the level 30 light cap. Will I still play it? Probably but not as much.

Because Borderlands Pre Sequel is released October 17th.

23/09/2014

Destiny - Level 20

Reached Level 20 & you get a colour modifier for a reward to make you look a little bit like Master Chief.

Now starts the hunt for Rare armour to increase my light stat which will in turn increase my level.

Completed all the missions on Venus, now I'm going to visit Mars.

Still got a few of the strike missions to do for the Moon & Venus.

Because I am not really interested in PvP (Crucible) mode I am not going to join a faction to earn points/marks & will stay neutral so I can focus on earning Vanguard Marks to purchase rare weapons/armour from the traders in the Tower.

19/09/2014

Destiny - Guardian


My Guardian is up to level 14 at the moment, I've just started the story missions on Venus.I'm enjoying the PvE gameplay more than the PvP which I tired for a bit and then just got bored mainly because I suck. The PvE is more enjoyable & I've got lots to explore on the Moon & now Venus.

There are still quite a few areas on Earth where there are higher level 20+ enemies that I have not yet visited. I'm still a bit unsure about what is happening in the story but the gameplay is very enjoyable & the planets are huge !!

10/09/2014

New Game - Destiny

I decided to go with the Titan class and after the tutorial mission joined up with Hakk & Orrah to complete the various missions on Earth.

Some changes from the Beta, loot drops are less & I have not yet come across any public event. Not sure if these are turned off by Bungie to manage the day one influx of gamers.

Thankfully no issues with PSN or Bungie servers except one drop out back to orbit on the start of a mission.

I've little interest in playing the PvP mode so will focus my time enjoying the PvE with lots of Old Russia still to explore & the other planets.

Just glad to finally have something with which I can turn my PS4 on & enjoy.

05/09/2014

New Game - Ghost Recon Future Soldier

There are very few remaining co-op game left to enjoy on the Xbox 360. Toby recommended Ghost Recon Future Soldier because it has a 4 player campaign mode. During a recent digital sale the Claptrap Boys purchased for less than a fiver each.

After a long summer break thanks to the World Cup, Ramadan & Holidays, we finally managed to get together to start playing.

It is a tough game even though we are playing on veteran (which I assume is normal) difficulty. When one of us gets shot the other players have around 10 to 15 seconds to heal otherwise the game ends. Guess who was the first of us to get shot? Yes, Sessile.

The second mission had a couple of difficult sections which took us a while to complete. The first we had to follow Macaba to a arms shipment, along the way there were enemy soldiers that we had to taken care off without Macaba noticing & a later section at an airfield in which we had to destroy the airplane whilst trying to kill enemy soldiers. We ended up playing these two sections quite a few times.

Slow & steady is definitely the way to play this game which makes a complete change from the fast-paced Borderlands or Dead Island games we have played in the past.

03/09/2014

Carcassonne - New High Score

One more post for the catch up and another high score post against who else but Lufferov again :)

Walking Dead - Season 2 - Completed

Took me a while to find the last episode the game kept on saying coming soon for Episode 5 & a search for Walking Dead on the console store could not find the latest episode. In the end I had to use the laptop to use the web storefront and add the latest episode to download.

No spoilers on the ending but I have no idea how Season 3 is going to start with the very different endings you can play out.

I'll most likely will end up jumping platform again, going to the PS4 for Season 3 so not sure how the save file can be moved over? Will probably have to roll the start a few times to get the season 2 ending I want.

I don't think I will be returning to Zelda Wind Waker (possible Shredder) anytime soon with Destiny arriving next week.

Lost Cities - New High Score

Beat my previous high score of 149 (also against Luffers) setting a new high score of 179.

I was lucky to start off the game with two coin cards & high yellow cards, along the way I managed to draw more yellow cards to score big.

Luffers response via twitter "How am I supposed to compete against that? Just Impossible!"


Completed - Kiwanuka

Catching up the past few weeks of gaming with a few posts

Kiwanuka is similar to the classic Lemmings game in that you have a swarm of characters you have to get to their destination. You use these characters to create bridges etc to reach their destination.

It has a few difficult levels that make you think but be warn it has no checkpoints so if you fail part way through a level you will have to start again.


19/08/2014

Lost Cities - 100 Games

Lost Cities is quickly becoming my most played iOS game, a very quick & easy game to learn but difficult to master.

I've enjoyed 100 games against Carl "The Board Game Geek" winning 66 games. I broke the 100 game barrier against Luffers a couple of months ago. I've now racked up nearly 500 online game wins.

13/08/2014

Angry Birds Epic - Shredder

It just crashes too much, usually in the middle of a daily dungeon or when I have a level stage nearly completed.

For a a free to play game I have spent quite a few hours playing & have not hit any paywall. I've enjoyed the turn based gameplay & the slow progression to levelling up your characters.

But after another day of crashes it's time for it to go.

11/08/2014

Completed - Monument Valley

A game truly suited to the device, making full use of the touch controls to give you a memorable experience.

It is a short game that you can complete in just over an hour but it is so beautifully made with some enjoyable puzzles. The Box is my favourite level slowly opening up to reveal it's interior.

It is that good that it goes into my Top 30+ list.

Hopefully at some point there will be a future update to add more levels.




10/08/2014

Trials Fusion - Man, Machine, Da



I have fallen out of love with Zelda Wind Waker at the moment, the just another dungeon gameplay is beginning to destroy my enjoyment in the game. I have left it in limbo to go & enjoy Trials Fusion (Purchased in the recent Playstation Store sale).

The boys have played quite a few tracks, so I like to gloat whenever I manage to beat the times they have set. I am not that good at the track stages but I do enjoy the skill games & looking forward to setting some records on them.

Completed - Epic Astro Story

Another Kairosoft game this time you are building your own planet, exploring caves & other planets to find treasure. Trying to attract more residents to settle on your planet which in turn increases your work force & drives up your revenue.

It's another Kairosoft classic & equally addictive.

22/07/2014

Angry Birds Epic - Legendary Weapon

I managed to fill up the Legendary bar from friends using my birds for missions.

I don't bother using the golden coins on roll, saving them for buying a golden cauldron instead.

I'm Level 14 now and in the Winter Wonderland area which has some very tough enemies who can also heal themselves during fights.

Going back to my roll I unlocked a Golden Pistol for Pirate bird to use.

Considering it is a free to play game, I have not yet hit any paywall.



20/07/2014

Destiny - Kestrel Class Spaceship

Spent all of the in-game currency upgrading to a new Kestrel Class spaceship.

Really hope the main game has some spaceship combat modes.

Completed all the story missions yesterday which unlocked a chapter on the moon that you can't play in the beta.

The strike mission is the same as the Alpha but still great fun & I've learnt better tactics on taking down the various boss fights.

Hitting the level cap quite quickly again at eight but you can still carry on playing by upping the difficulty to boost up your character skills. Tried a bit of PvP but I sucked so returned back to Earth to continue searching for the golden chests in the game. Once you have found all five you unlock a new speedster.

The Beta will be offline for maintenance the next two days, hoping when it returns Bungie unlocks a few more story modes.