Earthbound and Dune 22.08.16

I've been really slack updating over the last couple of weeks, being weighed down by a new baby and a balmy summer but it's not stopped me playing some games. 

First up I finished Uncharted 4 (PS4) it wasn't the longest of games, but it still felt a bit drawn out toward the end and the final boss fight was needlessly frustrating, more so because the antagonist was such a dick throughout the game I wanted better playing way to finally take him down. At its best though it was a pretty much unparalleled experience, amazing to look at and the mechanics worked really smoothly, jumping of ledges or balconies during gunfights and shooting enemies never got boring (it became a lot more fun once I turned on auto-aiming). Some of the puzzles were really neat and involved me taking pictures with my phone to work them out, they weren't the most taxing but made me feel cleaver for a brief period of time. I don't feel the urge to play any of the other games, I'm not too sure whether it would be too much and taking away some of the cool stuff added in this game may limit them a bit. That's nothing against the game, in time it took me to complete it I really enjoyed what I played and special mention to Sully who is one of the coolest characters I've come across in video games in a long time.

I also got through Abzu (PS4) in a sitting. A peaceful game which looks and feels a lot like the fantastic Journey, helped by the fact it's some of the same team who made that game. It's a diving game, but shorn of pretty much any simulation, air is infinite and the areas of the ocean explored, while spectacular, are pretty condensed packages. The graceful way the game has been compacted into a short experience though is not to its detriment, I always had an idea where I was going but would hold back to watch sometimes hundreds of fish milling about in an amazing eco system. That was the wonder of this experience for me, along with a couple of set pieces involving whales it is an awesome game to look at. Controlling the character felt really intuitive and fun the only negative thing I could say about the game is that it didn't have the emotional impact on me that I think it was going for, the narrative in the game seemed  pretty abstract so when it got to the closing chapters I was a bit lost to what was going on. This is probably because the little world the game creates is so easy to get distracted by.