What We Played #298 – Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Snake Pass & Persona 5

I think there’s a chance that I’m becoming a little burned out. While most autumns are pretty full-on in terms of the computer game release schedule, I can’t remember many years where the first three months have been as packed with amazing games as 2017, and it’s not as though these are small indie experiences, either. Games like Resident Evil 7 and Nioh have been swiftly followed by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nier: Automata and Horizon Zero Dawn, to name but a few. It’s an embarrassment of riches, and the biggest problem is likely to be how many of these are added to already bulging download lists and piles of shame rather than delved into straight away.

Breath of the Wild has subsequently become my pre-sleep go-to game, and its shrines and open world structure make it absolutely perfect for handheld play, with a couple of shrines replacing my attempts to read a couple of chapters from the latest Tad Williams book. What is especially remarkable is the fact that every time I fire it up I’m impressed by how beautiful its world looks, and a month on that hasn’t faded.

Besides catching up on Zelda, I’ve ploughed through Mass Effect Andromeda, which I genuinely enjoyed, despite the occasionally questionable character models, as well as tackling Lego Worlds for review.

Miguel was the first to pop in with what he’s played, and it’s been a spot of Chaos Code and Momodora, both of which he’s working on the review for. Jake meanwhile has gone hands on with Snake Pass and Aaero, as well as getting through more of Breath of the Wild, and making his yearly pilgrimage into Link to the Past.

Dave is into his 70th hour of Persona 5, with an epic final push for his review set for the weekend, while he’s also dabbled with this week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl which was alright. It’s the April update that has him really excited. It has dinosaurs.

Aran took a huge step forward in PC gaming this week having purchased an Alienware Alpha, and is working through his Steam library with the enjoyable Banner Saga, while subscribing to Humble Bundle netted him The Witness, which he’s played ten minutes of and will return to soon. He’s also playing Old Time Hockey for review and has worked his way through a bit more of Ghost Recon Wildlands. At one point his squad got stuck in a sniper tower and managed to hold out for twenty minutes before being overwhelmed by Unidad forces. It sounds like it was a lovely time.

Steve used lots of rude words while playing Jak 2 on Vita, plagued as it is with terrible camera and the most unresponsive controls since Trump’s media advisors*. Otherwise he’s hoovered up the collectibles in Lego Lord of the Rings and begun reacquainting himself PES for the first time since losing hours upon hours of his undergrad life to it.

Last but not least, Tef played a few hours of Mass Effect Andromeda as a green haired lady, got to play a little more of the open world sniper fest that is Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, and sunk a little more time into Breath of the Wild. Also feeling a little frazzled from the start of this year, last night saw him jumping between half a dozen games, unable to get into any real groove, before switching on the Wii U and pretending that the Gamepad was a Switch while playing Mario Kart 8 in bed. In just over a month, there’ll be a more Deluxe twist to that scenario.

Now then, what have you played? Are you exhausted from the 2017 game’s gold-rush?

*I’ll admit this analogy needs a little work.