I was able to switch to the console (ctrl+alt+F2 is what I used). Lower down in the post I was asked to try a few commands, which I did - however for some reason I was unable to connect to the internet while in this console - thus being unable to continue.

I was linked an article about wireless connection but I'm on a wired one so it died on vine so to speak.

The latest thing I've done so far is ignore a few packages to hopefully prevent an issue from updating, however without trying to sound ungrateful this doesn't actually fix the issue and the drivers I'm using at the moment although 'working' give poor / glitchy performance while gaming.

I asked on the forum but didn't get a reply, but are you aware of a comment section for packages? I'm sure I've seen them about somewhere and would like to see what / if anyone has had a similar issue.