Gaming / Blog Update

With a hotly anticipated new Zelda game due to be released in a matter of days, you might think that was why I decided to buy a Wii U earlier this week. It’s certainly a reasonable assumption, given the excitement surrounding the title. But for me, the new Zelda is just a nice little bonus. The main reason I bought a Wii U, and the reason I’ve had my eye on picking one up for the last year so, is in fact Bayonetta 2.

If you’ve followed this blog, you’ll know that I rated the original very highly. There was no way I was going to miss out on playing its sequel. But how could I justify purchasing a Wii U for a single title? The Wii U has had a somewhat short and troubled life, but it does have a solid library of games – just not games that I was particularly fussed about playing. Not until Bayonetta 2, that is.

I liked the look of the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD remakes, but given that I already have both of those titles on GameCube, I also couldn’t justify picking up the console to simply play remakes of games I already owned.

I try to stick to a simple rule that says there needs to be a minimum of five games I want to play on a platform before I’ll pick one up. But with Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD and Bayonetta 1 & 2, I only had four titles – at least until the new Zelda was announced. And that’s when I hit that magic number five.

I have the console, but I’m still waiting on the games. I can’t say I particularly care for the gamepad – it’s a neat piece of kit, no doubt – but after trying it out for a bit with Mario Kart 8 (which came pre-installed) I immediately ordered a pro controller.

Even then, it’s going to take some getting used to as all the buttons are backwards when compared to my 360 controller which I use on PC. It’s seriously f**king confusing switching from one to the other with A & B and X &Y being positioned in reverse.

As for Zelda, although I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, I am a fan of the series – not a hardcore fan by any stretch – but I’ve played and enjoyed most of the Zelda games. Wind Waker was probably my favourite, although it’s been a very long time since I last played it which is why I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the HD remake.

But before that, I can’t not play Breath of the Wild. That will be my first Wii U review and should be up either at the end of this month, or early next month depending on how busy I am. I’ll then follow that up with reviews of Bayonetta 2 and Wind Waker / Twilight Princess HD.

In addition to those, I’m currently playing a new Total War: Warhammer campaign as Bretonnia which was released only yesterday as free content. I may or may not do a post about it. I was going to record some more footage for YouTube too, but I just don’t have the time.

I’ve got another Command & Conquer ‘versus’ post to go up soon, and I’ve also got a Dishonored 2 review ready to go which will probably be posted next. I really should do a writing update sometime this month to talk about what’s going on with my new book. It is coming along pretty nicely, believe it or not, and I’m actually still on schedule.

The only other gaming news I really need to touch upon is Titanfall 2, which had another update recently with a new mode and maps but honestly, I think I’m done with the game. I hate to say it, but I think the title has actually gotten worse since release, rather than improve. Very few of the issues I highlighted at release have been properly addressed and the game has bled players like crazy.

I still see people defend the title, but there’s a reason so many players like me have moved on. It’s a damn shame because the core gameplay is fantastic, but with such limited and poorly designed maps, combined with poor design choices in terms of modes and objectives, not to mention major balance issues, I simply don’t enjoy the game any more.

And after trying the new update and seeing how little it had improved (not at all, in fact) I hit that uninstall button and didn’t regret it for a second. I might do a final ‘Gallery’ post for the single player campaign though, because I’d still recommend picking the game up cheap just for that.