What We Played #312 – Final Fantasy XIV, Breath of the Wild & Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy

With E3 now but a distant memory, we’re heading into our least favourite time of the year. We’re all set for the “summer drought” where game makers expect us to have gone outside, exposing our chaste alabaster skin to the deadly rays of a dying star, while we revel in the blistering 19ºC heat, surrounded by the discarded wrappers of so many strawberry Cornettos. But, this is England, and there’s much more chance that we’re going to have the heating on, and be skulking inside like a vampiric insomniac in front of our glowing screens. They’re probably still firing out deadly rays though, so there’s probably more similarities than you might think.

And yet, a quick scan of the release schedule reveals that there are actually games coming out in the next two months, and they’re not even all on the 31st of August. It’s as if game makers have realised that this is a year-round hobby, and indeed that the outside isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Then again, you could get Splatoon 2 and enjoy the best of both worlds, and get death rays from two sources at the same time.

I’ve been spending all of my time this week with Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion, and with Stormblood, Naoki Yoshida has cemented the game’s standing as a brilliant RPG that you can play with friends. Besides that I picked up Snake Pass on Switch as it was on sale, and though I’ve played it on Xbox One I couldn’t resist getting it to take on the go – particularly at a bargain price.

Kris was the first on the team to drop in his tuppence worth, and he took a shot at Halo 5 and came away sadly disappointed when compared to previous games in the series. Steve played more Monolith, and finished Mages of Mystralia and Dark Arcana – with reviews set to arrive soon. He also briefly looked at Crimson Earth, enjoyed a bit of nostalgia with Crypto via Destroy All Humans and tried out a ton of Steam games that he bought in the big sale (you know, the one that bankrupts you every few months).

Jim on the other hand had a very nostalgic week:

Lots of Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy this week and it’s been brilliant. Played the trilogy on my original PlayStation not long ago, so was great to have that point of comparison. I also switched on some For Honor which I’m still enjoying as well as PSVR shooter Arizona Sunshine. Rounding things off, I decided to go back to L.A Noire on the PlayStation 3 and finish that up. It’s a technical masterpiece and one that still holds up despite the game’s hokey detective gameplay. As much as I’d like to see a remaster on Xbox One and PS4 part of its magnificence stems from what Team Bondi was able to wring out of last-gen systems.

This week Aran finished off Yakuza 0, which he says is currently a contender for his GOTY (I think that’s pronounced “got-ee”). He also played through A Story About My Uncle which apparently gets really frustrating at the end before starting Prey, where Arkane have “really nailed the foreboding atmosphere”. Jake replayed the first episode of Life is Strange and some Aaero, while during his commute, he played Pokémon Liquid Crystal, which is his own Pokémon Crystal remake project.

TC only managed to play some Titanfall 2 this week, but is happy to tell us that Spider-Man: Homecoming is ruddy fantastic, while Miguel put in time with Danganronpa Another Episode and a few random 3DS games on his commute, like Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX. Dave also had a quiet week of gaming, only playing a spot of international Pokémon GO on his trip to Berlin.

Finally, Tef has spent a lot of time playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, continuing to explore the world while waiting for today’s DLC release, as well as dabbling with Aven Colony’s alien city building on console, tried out the three distinct eras of Sonic Forces, and reviewed the less impressive nostalgia trip this week, coming away disappointed from Micro Machines World Series.

So, the question is, what have you played?

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

22 Comments

  1. Been playing Injustice 2 chasing the silly luck Base trophy which I finally obtained the Platinum.
    Started a new playthrough on DeadNation Solo to do a collectible playthrough and only 2 levels left to search and complete.
    Started Crash Bandicoot today and completed the 1st Island going to return on it shortly today for the 2nd island after I complete a few Rally Championships on DiRT 4.
    Bought Wipeout Omega Collection and Micro Machines… have yet to install the game…. hopefully tomorrow or Sunday :) so many games now. Once I’m back online in 5 days (Spiderman Homecoming) I have to nab the last trophy of For Honor, Continue DeadNation online with Tony, continue Borderlands with Tony and Roy and lastly my favourite online game that I miss so much Friday the 13th.
    Way too many games now lol

  2. Elite Dangerous was downloaded and ready to go Tuesday morning.

    So that probably answers the question for about the next 30 years.

  3. Nothing, then about 3 hours of Crash last night, lol! Will continue over the weekend, as long as it doesn’t get too hard.

    • The Platinum Time Trials is really hard.

      • I’ve only done one time trial so far. The one where you’re riding a pig, lol! Got platinum rank in that one though.

      • Hog mate =P

  4. I finally got the 6 wins in super star trophy from PES 2017 after weeks of trying a failing miserably. I’ve also got Elite Dangerous this week which I’m uncertain about about. Also I’ve started the heists from beginning with Waxbill and Buninomike and a friend of mine, which is a great laugh.

    • *Waxbull stupid autospell.

      • Didn’t know Waxbull has a twin brother. Who knew!

  5. Episodes 1-4 of Telltales Game of Thrones. Enjoying greatly, significantly better than the walking dead, but I could be biased there, as a fan of the books and the show.

  6. This week I needed a break from Fallout 4, so I cleaned up some PS3 backlog.

    First I returned to ancient classic Braid, which tried a bit too hard to be special and ended up not being that enjoyable.

    Then I played through Two Brothers, which is excellent, and one of the saddest games I’ve ever played.

    I’m glad to return to the joyful postapocalyptic wasteland.

  7. Once i heard the Skyrim VR announcement at E3, PSVR suddenly became a very attractive prospect to me, especially as feedback from those who tried it at the booth was mostly positive. So i picked one up last wknd and have been playing through all the demos since, so many demos and still not played them all yet. I’m saving/avoiding Beginning Hour for last.
    Also picked up the VR add-on for Dirt Rally and it’s brilliant. I’m definitely improving my times – if not my driving, as i also managed to grab the trophy for having to retire due to wrecking the car! xD

    My favourite demos so far were Rush of Blood, Driveclub – that put a big grin on my face – and, i hate to say it but i think i enjoyed the COD Jackal demo more than the Eve Valkyrie demo, shame that won’t be an actual game.
    The Playroom stuff is very impressive, i immediately put my hand out to touch the robot . And i spent ages just playing with the spheres in the VR Worlds menu.

    Overall, i’m enjoying my time with it so far, trying to limit myself to an hour or so per evening, the most i’ve gotten in terms of motion sickness was feeling slightly queasy towards the end of the Rez Infinite demo, and occasionally in a movie/video where there’s a wide sweeping or twisting camera pan. Quality-wise it can be a bit like looking at things through a pair of tights but as mentioned here and elsewhere before, it certainly does a good job of immersing you into a virtual space.

  8. I have mainly been playing a game called account banning. Started last night about 8pm and still going on now. All for a PayPal transaction that I have paid for. Me and many many others all locked out of our accounts with no help from sony apart from there usual we are looking into this line. Cheers sony. Thanks a f*cking bunch.

  9. I’ve been enjoying Elite. Thanks to MrYd and Avenger I’m getting my head around the horrendously poorly explained, er, everything! I suppose you could call the lack of signposting old school, but it’s still annoying. Funny how the simple act of flying from A to B, then B to C, then back to A can be so engrossing, great game!

  10. I’ve been attempting to thin my Netflix backlog (unsuccessfully) so I haven’t played an awful lot. What I have played is probably equal amounts of Dirt 4 and Witcher 3.

    Dirt 4 I’d great but I feel like there’s so much room for improvement, feels like PES in the sense that it’s a very pure imitation of the act it portrays once actually playing but the rest of the gubbins leaves a lot to be desired. Having said that, Landrush mode is bloody dreadful.

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