Community Round-Up: 19/01/13

Fingers crossed Gazza gets all his coursework done on time, since he’s cutting it a bit fine! So, in his stead, I’m back to fill in. Yes, I’m sparing you from another instalment of Steven’s gibberish, so I imagine he’s just doing something incredibly silly with his free time instead. Perhaps hiding inside a snowman, waiting to pounce at unsuspecting passers by?

So without much further ado, lets crack on with this week’s round-up.

Hopping right in with the meets this week, we have the regular Dirt Showdown meet on Sunday night at 6PM, followed by GTOWN with Borderlands 2 at 9PM. He’ll be starting afresh from the very beginning of the campaign, for some regular cel shaded carnage.

Monday sees the second week of the revitalised TGMEM Gran Turismo 5 get underway at 7PM on Monday night, followed by a long gap before we get to Friday and Youles’ Dirt Showdown meet.

That’s it, so far, but if you fancy getting a merry band of like minded silly people, feel free to set up your own meet for a game and get playing!

We have a pair of fresh reviews for you this week, with Kris taking a thorough look at the rebooted DmC: Devil May Cry and Dan playing around with Anarchy Reigns, with both garnering rather favourable reviews. Al gave us a preview of the upcoming Ni no Kuni, which looks wonderful, while Peter went voice on with the Sing Party karaoke game on Wii U. I also had some hands on time with the MAG II gun controller, giving you my early impressions of an interesting new control system.

With a depressing week for many high streets, we have quite a few blog posts which look at HMV and Blockbuster’s entry into administration. Focusing on the former, Aran looks at what this means for gamers and the high street, with Peter giving some general advice on gift cards, though these will now be honoured in store. He also speculates what Game might have planned, should they be able to get their hands on some of HMV’s larger areas.

Peter’s also been thinking about what the next rendition of the DualShock controller could entail, but you shouldn’t get too excited just yet, as Al tells us why the PS4 won’t be announced before May. All this amid a flurry of information and leaks with regards to next gen specifications, where he also puts a dampener on some of the drama with DmC’s revamped look.

Rounding us out with a bunch of regular segments, we have the Community Chronicle featuring topgearsam’s play area. WeView totted up the scores for The Unfinished Swan, before opening the voting for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Finally, the Podcast and What We Played make their weekly appearance alongside the latest from Tuffcub’s Trailer Park.

Heading over to the forums, this week there have been quite a handful of nice new threads popping up mixed in with some golden oldies.

• AG sparks off a new memes thread, for all your favourite captioned photos of cats.
• Gazza asks what game you’d most like to play for the first time all over again.
• The Screenshots thread is going strong still, largely thanks to a whole bunch of Dead Island tomfoolery!
• Mcphatty shares something that’ll have your sphincter tightening, as people escape from many a horrendous accident, miraculously unscathed.
• Fillip2k asks for some tips on job interview etiquette… Steven’s hints are totally choice.
• What are you playing right now? Keep sharing what you’re up to in here.
• Finally, Heedbaw and a few others from the GT5 meet gang share some of our favourite races and memories. Preferably in video form!

Alright, chaps. That’s us done for this week. Hopefully Gazza will be done with all his coursework next week and make his return.