What We Played #332 – Star Wars Battlefront II, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 & Pokémon Ultra Moon

There’s been some awesome TV watching in our house this week, with Star Trek Discovery and Stranger Things 2 filling the house with sci-fi aliens and monsters. The only downside is that they’re nearly finished both of them and will have to find something else to watch. Thankfully I can swap them out for an epic run into Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which has already got under my skin, and I’ll have a preview coming after the weekend.

Besides that, I’ve been returning to the immense world of Skyrim on the Switch, which is great, speeding through Need For Speed Payback, which is nearly good, and playing co-op with my son in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.

Kris was the first to drop in this week, and he’s had a lovely week:

Loads of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle on iOS, which is a 4 player racer (on foot races, so Sonic should obviously win but doesn’t always) with fairly standard F2P mechanics, but it’s not aggressive on monetization. I’m reasonable at it, but wish there were more tracks to race around.

Also the fun game of “Unpacking an Xbox One S then wait for it to install Halo 5, but then it’s time to go to sleep”. So I haven’t actually played anything on my new console, but hopefully will have done so by this time next week! For more pen and paper based gaming, I’ve been playing D&D with a group based in London. Love a bit of D&D, even if it does mean travelling up to London every Thursday at the minute. Being a quite thick Barbarian is excellent.

Miguel has joined the world of Nintendo Switch, though he decided to called it a Blintendo Swintch, which is apparently what all the cool kids do. As such, he’s been playing the rather excellent Splatoon 2. He’s also been making solid progress on The Witcher 2 and is just about to finish it’s second chapter. Also, for those concerned about his mobile game addictions, he’s been Fire Emblem Heroes-clean for about 3 weeks now after losing all his orbs to unfruitful character rolls. He’s hoping to maintain this healthy lifestyle for the foreseeable future, but the introduction of a Christmas version of Tharja or the full release of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp may cause a relapse.

Jake has only played a bit of Super Mario Odyssey and Pokémon Ultra Moon which he got yesterday, and is loving Pokémon yet again. Seemingly it feels familiar to Sun/ Moon yet there are enough differences throughout the main story to warrant a playthrough. He’s looking forward to building his competitive team anyway! Aran meanwhile has played through Hellblade and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy which are “both great”. He’s also started Wuppo for review and has Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy on its way to jump into this weekend.

Dave has had a week of cramming to do;

Pretty much a major push to complete Pokémon Ultra Moon in time for the embargo while at least experiencing some of the post-game content. Since the review I have caught a couple of legendaries and even figured out a method to catch shiny Pokémon rather reliably, having caught both a shiny Audino and Floatzel in quick succession. I also vanquished the demon that is King Dedede’s ability to play one mini-game in Kirby: Battle Royale and played the Indivisible backer beta, impressions of which should be up today.

Steve has been having a DLC-tastic week! He’s finished his replay of Last of Us which “still has the power to be affecting, but I’m done with the Uncharted gameplay for now.” He’s also really enjoyed Left Behind and then went on to complete the DLC for Evil Within. “I still think it’s mad that about 80% of the story of that game is in the add-ons.” He’s also played a bit more Elex and had the odd run through of Skyforce Anniversary.

Jim meanwhile has mainly been into multiplayer stuff. He’s had at least one competitive game of Overwatch a day while also diving into Call of Duty WWII’s War mode. He said, “It’s great fun, though most COD players are having a hard time adjusting to a game type where bodies constantly pile up around the objective.” He’s also been reviewing Hand of Fate 2 which “is one of the best RPGs I’ve played this year.”

Ade joins us for the first time this week!

At the moment I’m still playing through Assassin’s Creed Origins. It’s so vast that I imagine I’ll still be playing through it in six months time too. But that’s ok, what other game let’s you ride a chariot Ben Hur style, have a lion for a friend and wear a vast range of clothing, that despite the threat of skin lashing sand storms, seductively reveals one bare man nipple?

I’m also playing Outcast: Second Contact for review. Though doing so makes me feel rather old as I played the original as an eighteen year old way back in 1999.

And finally, Tef has had the delights of trying to review Star Wars Battlefront II and hating how difficult EA have made the decision with all this stupid microtransactions stuff on what should have been an absolute slam dunk. Tell you what is a slam dunk, though? Rocket League on Switch, which keeps a tight grip of 60fps gaming, even if some concessions have been made on the visuals to make this one of the better ports to the console of the last few weeks. Less good was his time with Rime on the console, but finger crossed that can be mitigated, because it’s still a very lovely game.

Now then, 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.

7 Comments

  1. Fifa 18, Need for Speed: Payback, Call of Duty WWII and Battlefront 2
    Just unlocked Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker happy days. Prestige Call of Duty so Online MP trophies are done! Completed Need for Speed and all is left is the grinding.
    Assassins Creed and Evil Within II are resting for now due to playing Star Wars Battlefront 2 multiplayer which I am enjoying currently on Rank 15….. I think lol.

  2. Got my 15th platinum, AC Origins. Took 68 bloody hours!

  3. A bit of the various Kingdom Hearts games, which could still keep me busy for months.

    And Watch Dogs 2, finally. Which is good, but lacking something compared to the first. Possibly characters you don’t want to punch in the face. Then again, it’s improved some things.

    There may also have been a bit too much Marvel Heroes Omega. I’m determined to get the platinum trophy before it shuts down in 6 weeks or so. Helps they’ve dropped the prices of everything to a single Eternity Shard and bumped up the rate they drop at too, by the looks of things. I’m fed up of opening the loot boxes though, even if they’re all effectively free.

  4. I’ve been hooked on AC Origins, over 60 hours in and I’m on the final stretch of the story. I wander, a lot! I’ve actually already managed to get the end game armour.
    I always thought I’d enjoy ACO especially given its Egyptian setting but I didn’t think I’d love it as much as I do, great game.
    Other than that I’ve had a daily round in GT Sport and checking the multiverses in Injustice 2.

  5. Battlefront 2 for me. I haven’t even glanced at a star card yet and I’m still loving the experience, it’s like the last game but more! Lots of fun, I’m not really looking for depth just fun, and this has it in spades. I also finished Frozen Wilds today which was also brilliant, a great addition to the story. Lucky there’s not gonna be any more DLC as I spent all my shards on materials for blast grenades to kill bloody robot bears and zoos wolves, they’re hard as nails.

  6. I completed Firewatch, after the first few days events suddenly ramped up and it seemed like there was strange things going on but in the end it all turned out to be relatively pedestrian – which is quite suitable really for a walking sim. More story than game but i enjoyed it.

    I started The Assembly on PSVR and while the scenario seems interesting i seem to be spending a lot of time bending over while seated in order to reach various drawers and it’s not very comfortable. Added to that something about the graphics doesn’t move well with the smooth turning so it’s made me feel a bit queasy. I must see if i can adjust the turning sensitivity next time.

    And i’ve been continuing Prey, ended up somewhere i shouldn’t have been until later on in the game, had to make my way back past a few tough enemies whom i was unprepared to defeat. Eventually got back to where i should have been and now i’ve entered the crew quarters and there is something which i think is called a Nightmare. And it keeps killing me.

    And today i grabbed myself a copy of Skyrim VR which i’ll be jumping into shortly!

  7. Continuing Telltale’s Game of Thrones, trying out ancient Giana Sisters with the kids, and I got GT Sports from the public library with the card of my little boy, for free… :o)
    It looks really good, much better than what I remember from some videos I’ve seen a while ago. It’s of course a shame my fine G25 Logitech wheel doesn’t work with the PS4, but still, it’s good fun for a couple of races.

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