Terahawks Corner

Based on a feature on Kotaku from last year, I've started tracking which games I play over a year. The full list is below but in total I've played 93 different games in 2016. Looking at the breakdown of games, I only completed the story mode on 9 games (10 if you count Destiny's vanilla campaign) but played 12 games that had already been completed in 2015 (or earlier). There were 9 beta's and tests (including one that I'm under an NDA for) and 8 trials and free weekends. This raises a slight question as to whether a beta counts as separate to the main game if the progress doesn't save across - I've taken it as not as it is the same game after all My Xbox Live and PS+ subscriptions do seem to be playing for themselves as those two schemes accounted for 40 of my 2016 games, and there are a number more that could be played. The remainder have all been paid for, other than Overcooked which was a gift from a Guardian Event (so thanks!) but this year I...

The first of two new videos on the Youtube channel: Tiny Troopers is a top down twin stick shooter - anyone who has played the Call of Duty Dead Ops games will grasp the controls - with the schtick being that you can have several soldiers under control at once. It's very reminiscent of the classic 16-bit game Cannon Fodder and has the same issue of not being able to control individual troopers but is more light-hearted and makes for a fairly enjoyable game, with 3 separate campaigns available. The other free PS3 game of the month - Hyper Void - is also harking back to a classic game; in this case Tempest . Like in that game, enemies come towards you and your ship is restricted to only being able to move in one plane. It gives 3 difference types of laser weapon but there doesn't seem to any particular reason to choice a particular type of laser on enemies, other than your personal choice. There are 30 or so levels according to the Trophy descriptions - I felt no ...

New Month, new Games With Gold, new video's on the channel. I'm starting with Xbox this month and we have an older game: the lovely Forza Horizon . I gripe about the arrow line that changes colour depending on whether you are at the right speed or not but it is actually quite helpful for someone like me who learn to race in the age of the d-pad (there was acceleration and not, and not the gradulated analogue that is the standard now. The other video is: Earthlock Festival of Magic . This doesn't fair so well. In part this is because only giving 15 minutes or so for an RPG means that it hasn't really got going. Of course, the game hasn't really grabbed my attention within that time either which doesn't bode well. Not that I'll be giving this game any time any time soon. Overwatch is on a Free Play Weekend 9th - 12th September, I'm part of the closed beta of Behemoths Pit People , my fire team is enthused for The Division Underground havin...

I'm noticing that a larger portion of my gaming these days is comprised of demo's, tech tests and free play weekends. The latest addition to the partial games taking up my Xbox One disk space is the tech test for Titanfall 2 with a First Time Play: and a following Thoughts of the Game vid: The game itself is quite enjoyable but the front-end is very cluttered and I'm going to predict that it's going to lose out against some of the other upcoming shooters coming out this season (not least Battlefield One ) and the larger names still holding their own ( Destiny , Overwatch , Halo 5 , Black Ops 3, stop me when appropriate ...). I do like this trend towards a more objective led gameplay. As popular as the deathmatch game mode has and is, I prefer this more team based approach to games (it's why I stuck with Unreal Tournament 2004 for three years) - I'm not the best aimer in the world so getting points for objective completions helps me and I'm a...

So, a little after the fact but there is a First Time Play up for the game Zheros. A side scrolling beat 'em up IN SPACE! The concept reads a little like Double Dragon in a Ratchet and Clank universe - the execution is a little more lacklustre sadly. Graphics are good but not great, audio does the job but is not outstanding, it does allow for co-op gameplay but with stereotypical characters but the worse part is that it's just somewhat clunky - something which is not that much of a desirable factor in any game, never mind a beat 'em up. There doesn't seem to be much going for this game, as you notice in my video: However, one thing it does have going for it seems to be an extraordinarily huge TrueAchievement score. For this 1,000 Gamerscore game, you could get potentially 25,194 points. To note though, at the time of writing, of the 26,200 members of True Achievements not one has completed it. A challenge perhaps for someone out there ... or an indication t...

This month's 1st First Time Play is Medal Of Honor: Warfighter , currently available for free for Playstation Plus subscribers for the month of January 2016. It starts badly for the game as it needs an update before it even starts. As I mention in the video, and have done previously, I do not understand why a digital download game requires post download patches. I've just purchased GTA V for my Xbox One and whilst that did require an update, it was also a physical disc - there's enough dlc for that game I understand why the disc isn't up to date. But for a game that I entirely download, which has been released for a period of time and which Sony will have decided ahead of time to release for PS+, there really doesn't seem to be any good reason. The opening level is shown in the video - the graphics are fine though not amazing but the sound effects are far too loud, a magnitude above games like Call of Duty or Halo which I also expect effects to be not...

So my last blog spot was a catalogue of woes regarding the October PS+ games. Sadly, November hasn't been much better. Positive news first: I have got a First Time Play for Dungeon Siege 3 up on the channel: Which does at least mean I've got it up whilst it's the November Games with Gold freebie for the Xbox Live Gold subscribers out there. So far better than Dirt 3 (for which I have no space on the console HDD to download), Walking Dead Episode 1 (downloaded and untouched) or Battlestation Pacific (video recorded but is unlikely to be uploaded now) However, for the PS3, I'm wondering if we'll manage to get any of this months games up and out. Let's see, we've got Beyond Good and Evil HD - which I have played previously so wouldn't technically be a First Time Play. I'm also not certain that the opening to that game would do it justice in a 20 min or so video. Then we have Invizimals on Vita and The Walking Dead Episode 2...

Another week, another upload to the Youtube channel: Kung Fu Rabbit is this weeks lucky winner. I had planned to get all the PS+ subscribers October games up but suffered from a couple of technical hitches this time about. First was Kick Beat where the audio commentary ended up a couple of minutes longer than the visual and there is no sync betwixt them (ironic for a rhythm action game). Then I tried Chariot but forgot to change the title from Kick Beat , recorded it with the wrong name then mistakenly deleted it when starting to edit Kick Beat (right before finding the synchronisation issue. Finally started to record Unmechanical and middle of recording ran out of HDD space. Not my week all in all - 1 video uploaded out of 4 isn't a great result. But I do still have the footage from KickBeat so I just need to re-record the commentary and I can possibly even get two separate videos from it. And the little monster has taken a shine to Chariot so maybe there...

Following on from my previous post, I've finally managed to get the Twisted Metal first play up on the youtube channel: I end up being a little hard on this game - but actually it doesn't help itself. The graphics are not outstanding. It's possible that following immediately on from Crysis 3 may affect my view on this but then, I've also been playing Lego Pirates and Littlebigplanet 2 with my little monster and Twisted Metal is just a little rough around the edges visually compared to them also. The music is all guitar rock and heavy metal - which I don't have a problem with, but I heard Sweet Tooths theme so often just recording this video I was getting very bored of it. Especially as it's the music that plays (just once) from the XMB when it's the highlighted selection. There are also inconstancies within the game. As an example, towards the end of the mission played, I get a message to say that I've killed Sweet Tooth. But I'm ...

Next video upload onto the Youtube Channel. This time around, it's the turn of Crysis 3 . I manage the achievement for completing the tutorial level but miss the arrow in the knee achievement  The game seems enjoyable so far but I did spend a couple of minutes wondering around the port in the opening level as there did not seem to be any kind of objective marker and I missed the NPC as he headed off in the rain. The joys of video editing mean that that aimless wondering at least is not for public viewing (other than a few seconds with a life bouy ...) Link below Got this monthly free game out but missed getting a video for Pacific Battlestation before it came down from Games from Gold. On the Playstation side, I got Teslagrad uploaded and I've recorded one for Twisted Metal Online (which is the only other PS3 game on PS+ this month) - but I need to edit that video still so it'll only be a few days up before the next batch. Teslagrad vid below:

Next video is up on Youtube. First time playing the game Rain is now live at this link: https://youtu.be/Osr9NUdKkcw A first play of Mousecraft will follow - I'm just going through a technical difficulties patch with the video either not uploading, or the internet connection not working, or trying to upload with too much data traffic on the connection, or ... E2A: And here's the Mousecraft video, a day late but not a dollar short

Another week, another Youtube update. This time around it's a first play on the PS3 as I take The Unfinished Swan out for a waddle: This follows on from last weeks First Play where I ride out on Call of Juarez: Gunslinger : Not decided on my next video update but as I'm very likely to be in Los Santos with the upcoming DLC, it may well end up being GTA V related. There plenty of games to pick though so watch this space (actually watch the youtube space but you get the idea)

Well, it's been a few months since the last update - my day job and family life conspire to minimise my time to update - though watching Achievement Hunter and Yogscast videos also doesn't help ... However, I recently took the plunge into game capture and now have a Youtube channel all of my little own. Reprobate Gamer Youtube Channel Still finding my way but I'm starting with First Play videos - the aim being 10 - 20 mins of my first time with a game and I'm picking games that are available via PSN Plus or Xbox Gold Live. There are a few videos live already and the latest is Just Cause 2 Still tweaking my settings - certainly my audio levels need some balancing on the capture (there's not much can be done in post if the audio isn't there to start with) as my commentary seems to drop out in a couple of places and the game audio was certainly too loud  I'm aiming to release a video a week at least for now - as well as the First Play...