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.