Skip to main content

Weekend Whammy: Switch Lite, Mobile Games & Batman & Robin

It’s way too damn hot. Sleep has become impossible because my sheets have melted together to form some sort of sentient being that whispers terrifying things in my ear at night. Or that might have just been a heat-induced nightmare, I dunno. Anyway, the weekend is officially over yet again, and that means it’s time for a Weekend Whammy!

One review this week which is for Gorn, a rather brilliant VR brawler that is responsible for several dents in my table and in my knuckles. While it may not be the deep, chunky game that VR is still waiting for it is a game that lets you rip heads off using your bare-hands. Now that’s a selling point.

I bit the bullet and bought Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The early trailers did not fill me full of confidence and I’m already regretting my purchase thanks to the amazing Skill Up’s review of the game. Stay tuned for my own views on it.

So, I might sort have started playing The Witcher 3 again and let it kinda consume my life. Again. I have no regrets. At this point I’d have to say that it’s my favourite game of all time, though certainly not without problems. There are many, many games out there that could arguably sit on the throne and wear the crown, but The Witcher 3 is just the one that clicks with me the most. I love Geralt and Ciri and Yennefer and Triss, and I love the incredible work. Much like Geralt himself I’m just happy riding around the taking work where I can find it, battling whatever monster in whatever tiny crappy town for some gold.

The big reason for me firing the game up yet again is because I’m still working my way through the books, and I’m really fascinating by the idea of taking a closer look at how CDProjekt Red adapted the novels, what they changed and what they didn’t.

I reckon the trick here is going to be controlling my time. I want to savour The Witcher 3, but at the same time if I take too long working through it and the extensive DLC I might accidentally just sort of forget about it. Plus there’s all those shiny new games that need to be played! How do you guys juggle your gaming time and the rest of your life? I always struggle to get a good balance.

I’ve actually found myself doing some mobile gaming this week, largely because I had a quick shot on my niece’s Nintendo DS and enjoyed playing something simple while kicking back in the garden. Specifically I played Super Mario Bros 2 and bloody loved it, but I don’t think I can justify grabbing even a second-hand DS just for some Mario goodness. It’s kind of greatg timing that the Nintendo Switch Lite has been announced. I’m tempted to get it for some Mario fun on the go and to catch up on the many games I’ve been missing out on. Mind you, $200 does feel like a lot for a handheld. (by the way, what the hell is up with the launch colors? Bleugh.)

Anyway, to my disappointment there are no Super Mario Bros games available on mobile, but I have been playing a bit of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, which I haven’t touched since waaaaaaaaay back in the dark ages. There’s something to be said for the simplicity of games like Sonic, a sort of relaxing easiness that is perfect for some quiet gaming time.

The problem with mobile gaming is having to wade through the crap to find anything worth playing. I’m not against the free-to-play model with the game being supported by adds or micro transactions, but it does lead to a lot of terrible tat available on the store that’s been tossed together in the vague hope that you might spend some money on it. I’d say 95% of the Google Play is utter crap that isn’t worth touching with a large pole. But there are great things to find, like XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Stardew Valley, which is about the most chilled game in existence.

The point is mobile gaming offers a horrifying glimpse of what the videogame industry can be, and probably would love to be. Free games lure people in before bombarding them with adverts and micro transactions.

Before I go let’s talk about something else horrifying: Batman & Robin, the old move filled with ice puns, nipples and bat credit cards. And do you know what? I love it! The reason for watching it was that I promised by older niece that I’d show her the movie with all of the terrible puns. I remember disliking the film years ago, but now I find myself enjoying the incredibly campy fun. Sure, it’s not the dark and brooding Batman and some of the dialogue induces pure cringe, but there’s such a sense of fun about it. It embraces the weirdness of comics, the sheer stupidity of a character that dresses up like a bat. Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly enjoying the hell out of his role as Mr. Freeze and so am I! Meanwhile, Uma Therman is embodying pure sex. While I can understand the hatred for Batman & Robin I think there’s a genuinely hilarious, entertaining movie to be found within it.

I’m going to keep it short this week and sign off here. Let me know what you’ve been playing this weekend in the comments below!

Like this:

Like

Loading...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super Review: Just A Bit Of A Boost

Following the recent release of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super, we have the final piece in Nvidia’s Super puzzle. Coming in at the same $700 price point as its predecessor, the new RTX 2080 Super version will offer some performance increases, though we suspect we won’t see anything too dramatic considering the proposed specs and the fact that Nvidia doesn’t need to cannibalize sales of the 2080 Ti, nor does it have any direct competition at this price point. The GeForce RTX 2080 Super adds two extra SM units for a 4% increase in cores, meaning this is now a fully enabled TU104 silicon. This is the same silicon used by the standard RTX 2080, as well as the 2070. There’s also a 9% frequency uplift for the base clock, and a 6% increase for the boost clock. Due to the way GPU boost works though, we anticipate this will be closer to a 3 to 4% increase in frequency. The GDDR6 memory also sees a boost and now we’re looking at a peak data transfer speed of 15.5 Gbps, up from 14 Gbps...

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus Review

Platforms: Xbox One, PS4 and PC Reviewed On: PC Developer: MachineGames Publisher: Bethesda Singleplayer: Yes Multiplayer: No Review code supplied free of charge by the publisher. A sprawling open-world, microtransactions, RPG levelling mechanics, loot and clusters of mundane side-quests that have been copied and pasted. These, it seems, are the foundations of modern triple-A video game development, the industry pumping them out like there is no tomorrow. And yet here’s is Bethesda and MachineGames putting out a linear, singleplayer FPS without a microtransaction in sight that is easily the best shooter since 2016’s awesome DOOM reboot. It’s almost like you can make a quality game without slapping consumers in the face, isn’t it? So once again the legendary hero and possible immortal super-soldier B.J. Blazkowicz is back to kill a lot of Nazi bad guys. Following on from the events of the last game he’s in somewhat of a bad state, but it isn’t long before he gets a lovely suit ...

Serial Cleaner Review

Formats: PC Reviewed On: PC Developer: iFun4All Publisher: Curve Digital Singleplayer: Yes Multiplayer: No Y’know, I’ve killed many people. I’ve also killed many people in videogames, and while I’ve certainly had to spend some time hiding the corpses from the eyes of roving guards I don’t ever remember patiently hoovering up the blood and pocketing any potential evidence I left lying around. Even the bald-headed Aget 47 was never that finicky. Yet that’s what you’ll be doing in Serial Cleaner, a game that casts you as a man who makes his living going to crime scenes in order to grab all the bodies, clean up most of the blood and then scarper with any leftover evidence such as guns or other nonsense, all while the cops patrol the area. In other words, it’s a top-down stealth game, and in that sense it doesn’t bring much new to the table. There are places to hide like cupboards and pot plants, cones of vision to avoid and noise to consider as you hotfoot it around the levels in s...