Our Week In Games – Week Three

Our Week In Games – Week Three

As Andy Murray is leading the charge at the Olympics to add yet another Gold to Britain’s growing horde, why not take some time out to read about our latest exploits in the gaming world. Read on for words on games as diverse as Faster than Light and Metro 2033.

Kevin McLennan

Kevin has ventured into the Metro, this his his journey.

Journal Entry – March 17, 2033 – Moscow metro system, deep underground

I remember little of what life was like before the blast, pictures are all I have to show me what the outside world once looked like. Trees, plants, animals, rivers… I read about them in books but they do not exist to me. Apart from us, rats are all that survive down here. They thrive in the darkness and feed on anything and everything they can.

I tried to make the best of a bad situation but I have become much like a rat myself. I’ve not seen daylight in over a month, hiding in the shadows and prospering from other peoples misfortune. I steal, scrounge and even murder if I’m pushed to it. But life in the Metro is hell and the weak are squashed like flies.

There are talks of strange creatures being seen around Exhibition, our station here underground. Creatures with wings and claws and teeth, the size of cars. The dark ones they are being called. Miller says he saw a man decapitated by some demon beast that looked like a werewolf. Honestly I think the radiation has affected peoples minds. I’m too scared to go out there in case it gets to me too, but we need help from another station if we are to survive any longer down here. It will take courage and it will take strength, but I have to make the trip to Polis.

This may be my last journal entry as I do not know for certain what the outside world will bring for me.

Nick Wheeler

All aboard Starship Kestrel.

Mayday. Mayday. This is the Starship Kestrel, located somewhere in…somewhere in space. Our vessel is on fire in several places, but on the plus side, the flames are rapidly diminishing as we are running out of oxygen. On the downside, howver, we are running out of oxygen. Our engines are dead. Our engineer is also dead, which probably isn’t helping.

We are currently under heavy fire from a rebel slaver ship. All our attempts to surrender are being ignored. In hindsight, given similar circumstances I’d probably not call the slaver captain ‘slaver scum’ in our opening hail, but it was all meant in the best possible jest.

Evacuation is not possible, repeat, not possible. I appreciate the need for Star Command to be keeping costs down in this time of economic crisis, but a couple of escape capsules would have been nice. Speaking of which, basic sleeping accommodation and hygiene facilities would have also boosted morale no end. Corporal Alice took to sleeping in the airlock until the tragic ‘incident’ I reported in my previous transmission.

But I digress. Our crew is down to two; myself and a crazy madman we picked up on a desolate planet. He kept shouting something about it being ‘a good day to die’, but I haven’t heard anything from him in a couple of minutes. I think I might be the only one left.

They’re coming in for another attack. If I don’t survive this, please tell my wife the garage keys are in the top drawer. Kestrel, signing out.

Chris

Chris really needs to screen-grab during Battlefield matches.

My my, Battlefield 3 still has it. Well, when it works for me anyway, but I think I might be having some larger troubles with Chrome which means that I often fail to launch the game when selecting Quick Match or Join Server. Regardless, I was blown away when I played the blockbuster shooter this week after barely casting a glance at it this year. Everything felt much tighter and dialled in with the weapons and networking which goes a long way to making the game work better. I have mainly be dabbling in Team Deathmatch, and while I haven’t tried any of the Close Quarters maps yet, playing Noshahr Canals was an action packed experience which felt very pure without any vehicles, or day I say it, kill-streak bonuses. If you haven’t checked Battlefield out for a while, I recommend you do so now.

Edcrab

Skyrim and Dawnguard for Ed.

As foretold in the Elder Scrolls, the prophecy has been fulfilled; Dawnguard, the new Skyrim DLC, came to PC. I fired up my old save game, and realised I had been wrapping up the Thieves’ Guild quest line.

At first I wasn’t sure if the DLC had installed properly, but a town guard make a passing remark about the Dawnguard looking for new recruits. And then a vampire and his dog attacked me in the middle of the market.

I soldiered on, deciding to finish up before braving the new content (or at least before new content decided to brave me). Tasked with breaking into some guy’s home, I hunkered down and edged across the yard, only for the owner’s hired muscle to walk past my squatting intruder self and begin attacking my companion. She stood there and took the punishment until an Imperial soldier killed the thug without comment and went about his business.

Later in the plot I explored tunnels with a fuller retinue, and my followers seemed unfazed by the way I’d run ahead, trigger traps, and allow them to be brought to their knees by spiked floors and gouts of flame and bizarre spinning helicopter-blade-thingies. They’d get back up without a word of protest, because they’re professionals.

For all it’s weird quirks I soon remembered why I’d liked Skyrim in the first place; I’d almost forgotten how attractive and massive the world was. In a dwarven antechamber, a golden mechanical centurion stood idle while three Falmer milled around. My companion, and I’m uncertain if she was being sarcastic, remarked that we’d have to be wary of the big construct. This was a moment after it hit the ground in a gout of steam and the clatter of metal, having been quickly overwhelmed by the troglodyte trio the moment it activated itself. But hey, it looked pretty good! Which just makes it all the more annoying that since installing the DLC, all my screenshots come out black.

Comments are closed.