As I hole up in The Winchester and wait for all this to blow over, I feel it necessary once again to apologise for my errors in what turned out to be a rather wide reaching kerfuffle with our NBA 2K18 review – read about it here. I also want to say thank you for the messages of support, sympathy and even most of the criticisms that I’ve seen.
I’m disappointed in myself for this folly, will obviously learn from this and try to do better in future.
And so we move on to the rest of this round up, starting with all the news that wasn’t us.
In the News This Week
- The Nintendo Switch features a wonderful tribute to Satoru Iwata
“Please remind us of this in early July 2018 TSA,” asked Youles, and we’ve already set a reminder to go off on 11th July, the anniversary of Iwata’s passing, so that we can celebrate his life along with everyone else. - Square Enix announce Left Alive
And it features gorgeous artwork from Metal Gear Solid character designer Yoji Shinkawa - Regular Xbox One X pre-orders go live
And there’s now 130 games listed for Xbox One X enhancements - You’ll need to download 50GB of data for the full Forza 7 game, if buying on disc
- Dontnod’s Vampyr delayed until early 2018
Sadly, even with the delay Foxhound_Solid isn’t optimistic, saying “I really want this to be good but the vibe I’m getting is this is gonna be mediocre at best.” - Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode will be free to play from 26th September
- New Monarchy, Dead Orbit & Future War Cult return to Destiny 2 next week
- All Xbox 360 Halo games are now playable through Xbox One backward Compatibility
- Final Fantasy XV’s Comrades multiplayer expansion is out in October
- Star Wars Battlefront II won’t have any VR missions
“Well that’s my decision final on that,” Crazy_Del said. “Not getting it!” However, ron_mcphatty thinks “It’s a sad omission because that VR mission was a spectacular feat and more of the same would be amazing, but the main Battlefront 2 still looks like it’s gonna be full of content.”
Games in Review
No prizes for guessing the lowest scoring game this week, but there’s plenty of competition for the highest scoring.
- Dishonored: Death of the Outsider – PS4, XBO, PC – 9/10
- Pokkén Tournament DX – Switch – 9/10
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – PS4, PS Vita, PC – 9/10
- Figment – PC, Mac, Linux – 8/10
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
- The Lost Bear – PSVR – 7/10
- INK – PS4, XBO, PC, Mac, Linux – 6/10
- NBA 2K18 – PS4, XBO, Switch PC, X360, PS3 – 3/10
This Week’s Features
Super Mario Odyssey is shaping up to be a truly delightful and continually surprising new game in the long running series. You can read our impressions here, catch our quick look at the game’s photo mode (and rather photogenic dog!), or simply click play below to see it in action.
We got to unleash a bunch of new impressions from the Xbox One X and the various games being updated for it or coming with native support. First there was hands on with the start of the full career to Forza Motorsport 7, which is shaping up rather well, before we dove into the imminent Halo Wars 2 expansion Awakening the Nightmare – with a video in 4K. We also got stuck into the gorgeous and charming platformer Super Lucky’s Tale and explored how this sequel is shaping up on TV as opposed to VR, also with our below preview in 4K.
Then there was a look at Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier and how it’s aiming to bring the interactive storytelling of video games to an even broader audience, and after playing the intriguing Atomega, a shooter from the team behind Grow Home, we spoke to Ubisoft Refelctions’ Team Director Pete Young and Producer Rich Alexander about the game
Fortnite has been in the news a lot this week, and Epic accidentally allowed cross-network play to occur between PlayStation and Xbox players. Revisiting this hot button topic, Jim said it sucks for gamers that it’s seemingly so easy to implement but not being allowed by Sony.
Finally, What We Played featured Monster Hunter World, Destiny 2 and a spot of damage control. sigh.
Trailer Park
The new Tomb Raider movie trailer has arrived
Wolfenstein II shows what to do with Nazis
The new Shadow of the Colossus remake trailer from TGS is gorgeous
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain coming to PS4 and PC in 2018
Dynasty Warriors 9 gets a new English language trailer, and is out in early 2018
Your Achievements
Huge congratulations for freezebug this week, as he passed the 100 platinum trophy mark with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and has now moved onto playing Jak & Daxter which was bundled with the game.
Playing another PS4 exclusive, JR. nabbed the Knack 2 platinum, which he rather enjoyed getting, while Tony C has been sticking with Destiny 2. He now has two of his characters up to light power 285 and eager to give Trials of the Nine a good crack.
MrYd has realised that VR Scalextric is a great idea after picking up Tiny Trax and rated the ordeal that PS4 system software 5.0 beta testers have gone through after update 4.74 was released a 3/10, though he’s back in the beta now.
The Week Ahead
Looking to the next seven days of game releases, we have a fair few big hitters. There’s also the wonderful sounding bundle of the SNES Mini to look forward to.
- Pinball FX 3 – PS4, XBO, PC – 26/09
- Ruiner – PS4, XBO, PC – 26/09
- Hob – PS4, PC – 26/09
- Steamworld Dig 2 – PS4, PS Vita – 26/09
- Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash – PS4 – 26/09
- Outcast – The Second Contact – PS4, XBO, PC – 28/09
- Total War: Warhammer II – PC – 28/09
- Cuphead – XBO, PC – 29/09
- FIFA 18 – PS4, XBO, PC, Switch, PS3, 360 – 29/09
- Danganronpa V3 – PS4, PS Vita, PC – 29/09
- Gundam Versus – PS4 – 29/09
- Blue Reflection – PS4, PC – 29/09
- SNES Mini – Hardware – 29/09
That’s all for this edition, and hopefully we’ll see you again soon!
tactical20
Snes mini out next week?! Had forgotten I got one pre-ordered. Have to dig out the email, lol!
JR.
Don’t apologise, you did what you thought was right at the time. If people can’t get over that, that’s their problem. No one died. The world didn’t end. Next.
B_Cambo
Honestly dont see what you did wrong. But let’s leave it in the past, well done to everyone’s achievements. Well done freezebug on passing the 100th platinum mark. Hopefully get there soon myself! Managed to get the ‘Roll Credits’ trophy in Friday the 13th game. Kill Jason proved challenging but very rewarding once done.
freezebug2
Thanks for the mention Tef, *tips hat*. I remember back in the day when Sony threatened to reward our trophy milestones with gifts from afar and magical places…gold frankincense and meh :P