Just joining us? Catch up with the previous posts: intro, week 1.

Wait, what? We are already half done with February? Yikes. So the challenge is to finish four games this month. I am still sitting on the big ol’ goose-egg. I have not completed Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Infamous: Second Son, Shadow of the Colossus, nor FTL. Despite that, I am still feeling pretty good about my chances. This week, Uncharted and Infamous got the lion’s share of playing time with FTL a distant third and no time on Shadow of the Colossus this week. Here is what is going on.

I am getting better at FTL. I say that despite the fact that I have yet to get back to the final encounter. It takes a strategy to make it through the stages and be prepared for that encounter. I am getting close to having that strategy. In fact, I just reached sector 6 in my current play through and am feeling pretty good about it. Of course, since I just told you all that, sector 6 will probably lead to the death of my crew and ship. While you can have a great plan there is still a large element of randomness, as is often the case in rogue-like games, which can bring your plans to ruin. Either way, I hope to have FTL in the done pile next week.

Now that I have decided to go with the easy difficulty, I am making progress in Uncharted: Golden Abyss. It is slow, but that has been my experience with all of the Uncharted games. Part of the mastery of the series is that they are so well set up within their narrative. They unpack like a great pulp adventure or action movie. This leads to some of the best set pieces of the last game generation and has made the Uncharted series one of the highest rated game franchises ever. It also means it takes me a while to really get into the games. It is not that the first chapters are poorly designed, rather it takes me a little while to get invested in the new characters and plot. If an Uncharted game were a roller-coaster, I am still on the chain-climb to the top of the first big drop.

I just started chapter 5, so still at the beginning, but far enough in to start to get a feel for the mechanics. Most of the way the game plays so far feels a lot like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and lacks the refinements of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. However, as told in this incredible interview, while they had access to the source code of both Uncharted and Uncharted 2 the team at Bend Studios used it as a blueprint for a new game engine for the PS Vita. That had to be a tremendous amount of pressure facing the developers. Here you go guys, you are developing the showcase launch game for our new handheld hardware using the universe of our most successful first-party title and have to show off all the quirks of this machine like touch- and motion-control. Do not screw this up. So far I am very impressed.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss feels like it belongs with its big-brother counterparts on the consoles. Sure that means the shooting mechanics are pretty squishy, but that has always been of secondary importance to the story, characters, and fun of the series. Here is where some of the hardware showcase works, and some feels shoehorned in. I really like how the touch screen and motion controls works for climbing. Just trace the path you want Nathan to transverse and he goes for it. This is very intuitive. Tilting the Vita to swing on a rope is intuitive and adds to the immersion into the game. It is less successful on the parts that feel forced into the game like keeping your balance on a log for a few seconds by tilting the Vita or using the machete via touch- both by following on-screen prompts. These examples feel more tech demo and actually break immersion for me.

These are just my initial thoughts. I still have a lot of time to spend with Nathan Drake, so we will see where I am next week.

The game I have spent the most time with this week is Infamous: Second Son, and I am having a blast. Sucker Punch has really improved upon their formula from the PS3 Infamous games and delivered a strong game. The problem with partially open-world games like this or the Assassin’s Creed games is I get lost in the side missions a lot. With Infamous this has meant I have spent a lot of time clearing sections of Seattle from DUP authority and leveling up my conduit powers more so than advancing the story. As an example, here is what my map looked like before the mission to get to the top of the Space Needle:

If you have not played this game that is about the second mission after you get to Seattle. Each of those sectors in the city start out with lots of markers and side activities to do. It looks more like this:

I will be finishing this game this week. It is going to happen. I will have more to say about it then. Hopefully, things will go well with FTL and I will finish it. If I could also finish Uncharted, I would be back on track and have a week to focus on Shadows of the Colossus. As a side note, I have not played any I have not played any Destiny this week. Not even the nightfall or weekly heroic missions. So at least, this challenge has been successful in making me branch out in my gaming.

Alright, see y’all next week.