Tuesday, 26 May 2020

This still ain't no place for no hero

Lockdown, year 28. Or week 8. The New Normal is becoming… pretty normal, really, though I know I’m very fortunate in being able to work remotely without major difficulties. It looks as though things will be easing over the next few weeks with more schools, shops and the like opening, and of course vehicle-based landmark-visiting eyesight tests are now compulsory.

Far more excitingly I found a bit of gaming mojo (down the back of the sofa cushions, what with having more time for hoovering and stuff). The Guardian Games of Destiny 2 were terribly grindy, I got the machine gun from that event, but subsequent community events (complete NINE! MEEEEELEON! pylon-charging thingies, then an interminable number of shotgun kills) have been less than inspiring, so that’s on the back-burner for a while. I did fire up Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time in six months or so, but didn’t really get anywhere. It seems like something where you really need to commit and immerse yourself in the world to get to grips with it, something that needs a lot of investment. It might well pay off later, but it I need a more instant hook at the moment to pull me in.

Instead I turned to new (to me) games, as a couple of sales brought them down from £50+ to more sensible prices. Firstly, Anthem (or Ha! Mass Effect: Andromeda Doesn’t Look So Bad Now, Does It? to use the full subtitle). I tried the demo a year ago and found it pretty underwhelming with annoying flight controls; 12 months on, it’s still pretty underwhelming but with decent (if not outstanding) flight controls. It passed the time; combat was fine, the story was fine, overall… fine. I’ve seen that Bioware are trying to go back and give it a major re-work, fingers crossed they can overhaul it into something better than fine. If nothing else it was something new and (slightly) different to Destiny 2, I would’ve probably kept ticking along in there, but then Epic Games announced a sale and my head was turned by Borderlands 3.

Borderlands 3 turns out to be a lot like Borderlands 2, but a bit shinier, and for the moment at least is just what I’m after. It’s got that instant hook (Shoot things! Get loot!) that works for a quick blast, but can also draw you in for longer sessions. The story seems like fairly generic MacGuffin-chasing fare, a bit patchy and with characters right on funny/annoying line, pretty standard for the series and does the job. Apart from anything else it’s nice to be playing a game you can pause, something of a rarity in these more multiplayer times. I’ll probably keep nudging my gear score up in Destiny 2 with the three pinnacle gear activities each week, and War Thunder has just received another update, but for a while at least it looks like Borderlands 3 will be the main reason to REMAIN INDOORS.