Category: Video Games

My Top 3 Video Games of 2016

One of the nicer things this year is the amount of video games I managed to play in 2016. I’ve not been able to play as much as I’d like in years gone past, so to play a lot of games this year has seen a welcome change.

With that said, the amount of games I did play was quite lacking, instead focusing on a few games rather than play a range of games. As such, I think I only played a small number of games in 2016. Here are my three favourites.

3. Golf With Your Friends

This was quite a find in Steam’s early access. Golf with Your Friends brings me back to my childhood of playing mini golf with my friends. Running around courses, not playing to the rules, but having a whale of a time. GWYF is probably my favourite Steam game I found this year. I covered it in a video below, but since playing it I’ve noticed more courses have been added to the game. This game is still well worth picking up.

2. Pokemon Go

For sheer changing the world, Pokemon Go should be up there. For a few weeks over the summer this game was my life. I was going out and exercising with friends on long walks, even having dates with my girlfriend which involved walking to the nearest pub or two. This usual ten minute walk took upwards of 45 minutes. As we were catching Clefaries, Machokes and Mr. Mimes. It was huge, so huge. Hell, we got so addicted so quickly that a pub crawl with a friend of mine saw us drink one pint in 90 minutes, as we were busy catching Pokemon.

It had a huge impact, but sadly fizzled out quicker than it began.

1. Overwatch

No game has taken more of my time in 2016 than Overwatch. I’m a huge fan of Team Fortress esque shooters and when I played the early beta 3 weeks before launch, I was immediately hooked.

Since May – when it came out, I’ve not played anything else.

I love Team Fortress shooters, as stated above. This is my new favourite. It combines a genuine e-sport with an in-depth lore. Characters are memorable, maps are engaging and Blizzard are geniuses. Content has been added constantly, with 2 new characters, 2 new maps, endless games and three seasonal events (even if I didn’t get the Tracer UK Skin or the Mercy Halloween Skin. Boo!). All for free. I cannot see me stopping playing this anytime soon.

Also, shout out to my fellow Symmetra Mains!

What were your favourite games of 2016?

Play Expo Manchester 2016 – Recap

Recently (well, about a month or so ago) I attended Play Expo Manchester, which is one of the premier events in the UK calendar for the Retro Gaming community. I recorded a video on the event, which was first shared on my retro gaming blog Retro Garden, but I’m now sharing here.

Play Expo Manchester 2016 Video Review

Overall, I really enjoy these events and this year was no different. They always seem to find new ways to improve these events and this year as well as the Baby Pac-Man hybrid machine I really enjoyed playing the Metal Slug esque Dragon Bros and the Uridium styled Hyper Sentinel.

Games Mentioned in Play Expo 2016 Video

  • Dragon Bros – is a very fun shooter based on Metal Slug and Gunstar Heroes with vibrant graphics and a great look. It’s well worth hunting out if you are a fan of the genre.
  • Hyper Sentinel – is a game based on Uridium but using all the power of modern day machines. With a great look and cracking soundtrack, this is made slightly more forgiving than the original. Be sure to hunt this out!
  • WiFi Wars – a massively multiplayer Mobile enabled stage show. Seriously, go and see this!

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos like this!

Golf With Your Friends – Review

After the popularity of my Rocket League Review, I’ve decided to do another review, this is for a game I have been watching on Twitch a fair bit and is quite popular on there. An early alpha game that has been greenlit and is available to play now. Golf With Your Friends.

Here are some other thoughts not mentioned on my Golf With Your Friends Review:-

  • The game was originally called “Golf With Friends”. However recent trademark troubles with that name has seen the game renamed as “Golf With Your Friends”. You can read about it here. The video refers to the game as “Golf With Friends”. I couldn’t really change it as between recording and putting it live, the name was changed.
  • I ran the Alpha 0.0.82 version for this game.

Overall Thoughts

Golf With Your Friends is a fun little game to play with – surprise surprise – your friends. It does seem to work better privately with private rooms than public rooms, but even with playing with strangers the game does work.

There are glitches, but it is an early release alpha game. If you can look through the glitches (and you should be able to), then you have a great game. This will only get better as the game approaches release date.

Golf With Your Friends is available on Steam now for £4.79 / $5.99. You can buy Golf With Your Friends here.

Unboxing Loot Gaming’s April 2016 Box – Metro

Another month! Another unboxing! This is for Loot Gaming’s April 2016 Box – Metro. Last month’s box did impress me, especially the t-shirt which was top notch, however early previews and franchise announcements for this box have scared me because – as mentioned in last month’s Loot Gaming unboxing video – I’m not a huge fan of the games mentioned. I can still be impressed, but what did I make of this box? Here is this month’s video.

One thing I did manage to work out away from the video was what the Tom Clancy: The Division Gun was. It was actually a USB stick, that when you pull out the clip it is a 16GB USB drive. This did make it the coolest item in the box for me, and one that I will actually use (though I may not take it through airports).

All in all, I wasn’t too impressed unfortunately. Whilst the goods were great, I am not a huge fan of the franchises, so maybe I missed these. Which is a bit of a shame. Still if you were a fan you’d enjoy this box a lot more. Next month is going to be the last one (for my current subscription) so be sure to like the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can see it first.

Finally, apologies for the ending. I did have to cut a bit out due to me not understanding how links work. In videos going forward, I will know what I can & can’t link to, so hopefully I will have a less abrupt close.

Own Part of the Crate!

From the crate, I’ve put the following things on eBay:-

To to subscribe to Loot Gaming, check out the official site here. You can get $5 off your first crate with that link!

Play Blackpool 2016 – Roundup Video

Last weekend was the fantastic Play Blackpool 2016, which was held in it’s traditional home of the Norbreck Castle, in Blackpool, on April 30th and 1st May 2016.

The Play Blackpool weekend is legitimately one of the funnest weekends of the year for me, I have a great time when I head there and this year was no exception. We had a great weekend even away from the video, with a curry, a trip to Coral Island, and a night out in Blackpool as well as what you can see. Apologies for the bags under the eyes, I may have been a little hungover!

A Correction

As Sociable Soccer on YouTube posted on the video, the “Season Mode” isn’t strictly true. It’s a competition mode with a cup or league, but no season (so whilst you can play the Premier League, you won’t be able to compete in a Premier League and FA Cup).

Other Notes

  • I actually found a nice B&B to stay in in Blackpool! If you ever get the chance to stay there, be sure to check out The Beaucliffe. A nice central location just outside of town, not expensive, great rooms, and a filling breakfast.
  • Sorry about the letterboxing in the beginning/end. It’s bad of me but I recorded it in selfie mode. I guess I’m still learning!
  • I won the raffle! I won a lot of Konami goods, mainly some pretty cool Metal Gear Solid Merchandise. The second time I won a raffle and this was probably the best. I would’ve done an unboxing video but I was encouraged by the crowd to unbox it on stage. It was filmed, but I’m not sure if I’ll show it, I disagreed with the trousers and I may have mooned the cameraman accidentally. But the gear is below.

konami-stuff

Game Notes

Two games I mentioned playing were Sociable Soccer and Dead Pixels II. You can find out more about these games at the links below.

Play Expo Notes

As mentioned in the video, Replay Events have a bunch of shows and conferences coming up in 2016. If you can get along to them, please do so.

Also you can check out Replay Events on Twitter, Facebook or their website.