Wednesday, 22 June 2016

Earthbound and Dune 22.06.16

I've found Fallout 4: Far Harbour (PS4) both a fantastic and frustrating piece of add on content which while it seems great value goes in some weird directions it didn't need to. The main quest takes place on a big island north of the area which the body of the game has taken place so far, but that's not after a bit on detective work first. I opted to take Nick Valentine along as my companion (the game not so subtly pointed me in that direction straight away) the initial work I needed to do to get to Far Harbour is fairly simple but its a cool angle on the synth subject which is covered a lot in the game. As soon as I got to Far Harbour though it got a lot more difficult, soon introduced to a number of new creatures in a fight not too dissimilar than the early fight against a Deathclaw in the main game. The only difference is I opted to tackle it without power armour so it was a lot more tricky and my ammunition and health restoring resources which I'd squirrelled away for hours were depleting at an alarming rate. I then made the mistake of taking on a new companion and sending Nick back to Sanctuary, this new companions gruff nature and seeming alcoholism was funny at first but the joke wears thin after an hour or so travelling with him. On top of this it seems like there would be a lot more story which would unfold with Nick at my side, especially when you meet up with the synth commune which has a big part to play in the story. The plot has seen me reintroduced to the children of the Atom, who are just as dislikeable as when I met them in the main story. In fact I had to resist the temptation of gunning them down as soon as I met them, the only thing stopping me being the slog through toxic marshes littered with weird angler fish mutants to get there. I'm glad I did though as it went in some interesting places at this point and getting deeper into the weird cult was interesting and well written. Sadly it was soon after that the weakest part of the new content reared its head, a sequence of puzzles involving the construction mechanics which at first was a fresh idea but by the end (it took me over an hour to get through them, I'm not great at puzzles) was just boring and frustrating, I was unsure whether leaving the sequence would erase my progress especially without the option to save while your working through it. Along with this it all involves fiddly placement of items and tricky platforming in first person (which is rarely much fun). I've worked through this now, which is a massive relief and hopefully it will become more of the reasons I play a Fallout game again soon. 

Like I say I've enjoyed a lot of it, the combat steps up a level in challenge on the island. Most of the factions are littered about the habitat and at least one new one, who introduce a fun new nautical themed weapon. I like the way the stories going too especially the reasons for the abundance of radiation on the island, I'm just not too sure once I get through the main content that I'll be as keen to root about for other things to do, which is a shame because it looks like there is plenty on offer.

Played a bit of Downwell (PS4) too as it came out sneakily on the console. I was a bit caught out because I was so used to touch controls, it certainly wasn't as easy as I expected, but after a couple of tumbles down the well I was getting further than I had playing on an iPhone. The other benefit of playing on the PlayStation I found was I was chasing trophies more than I had with other games, and the trophies themselves were cool ways to attempt playing the game. Such as get to the bottom of a stage without firing a shot or killing an enemy or even landing, basically it added a new way to play the game. Its really cheap too, so well worth it!

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