Who releases a big game on a Saturday these days? Nintendo, that is who as yesterday they have released Pokemon X and Y along with the 2DS. Why they chose a Saturday I don’t know, but I know that I won’t be picking up a 2DS. If I am going to go down the Nintendo root, it is going to be with a Wii U when I have enough cash and GAME trade-in credit to get one at a reasonable price. I want to be able to write about some classic Nintendo titles on future editions of Our Week in Games. While I wait for that day, why not look after the break and see what we have been playing.

Chris

As indicated above, I traded in a few games recently, amongst them was my Xbox copy of Arkham City, fortunately though I still have a copy on the PC. And so, my adventure began once again as I aim to complete the City within a year of Arkham Origins coming out. Will it happen? Honestly I don’t know but I hope so. I love this series, it just the trouble that too many other titles manage to get between myself and completing them. I sincerely doubt I will attempt to find all of the Joker trophies or other secrets, I just don’t have the time for that.

I’ve been trying out some of the Battlefield 4 Beta on the PC, no console nonsense for me. Especially not when you consider the findings of Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry analysis of the PC and current-gen console versions of the Beta. I don’t think the map DICE chose to show the game off with was the best, but I do appreciate the fact that they have expanded the Beta with some of the new game modes. I need to play it some more so I can write some fully formed thoughts on it.

That’s not all as I have somehow managed to to squeeze in some more time for Rome II while watching the Wales v Macedonia match on Friday night. My conquest of Europe has continued, though I’ve let the Lugii tribe off so I could sort out the unrest within some of my settlements. Constant war isn’t easy to balance, especially when you have limited numbers of armies. I currently control vast portions of Northern Europe and the Germanic regions, though France still eludes me. I will be heading back there once I have settled my people down.

Nick

This week saw the release of a demo for The Stanley Parable, an exciting adventure, puzzle, story,  erm, game, piece of art, emotional experience, interactive exhibit, choose your own adventure, potential hallucination. Ok, I’m still not entirely sure how to categorise The Stanley Parable, but if you are yet to experience the thoroughly bizarre and unique demo, I strongly suggest, no, I insist you go and download it now.

We’ll have a full review of The Stanley Parable for you once it hits the shelves later this week, when I’ll finally be able to talk about the game in more detail. Until then, you’ll just have to put up with me saying ‘have you played the demo yet? Have you played the demo yet?’

In less exciting, non-Stanley related news, I’ve been back in ArmA-3, exploring some of the user-created missions. There are hundreds available direct from the Steam workshop, and they provide countless experiences for both beginners and seasoned veterans of the ArmA series. I’m incredibly greatful to Bohemia for providing such a powerful and simple-to-use mission creator to its community, and fully expect the fans to keep producing quality content for years to come. It’s a testament to what Dean Hall said at the PC Gaming World Congress –

“If DICE wanted to kill ArmA, all they’d need to do is release some modding tools tomorrow.”

I appreciate all the negatives involved with producing a user-friendly editor for a AAA game, but when I look at games like ArmA, I’m just glad some developers still take the time to do so.