Community Round-Up: 19/12/15

The universe as gone Star Wars mad this week, as the latest film opened just a couple of days ago. If you’ve seen it, I hope you enjoyed it and let us know what you thought of it (without any spoilers please!).

Meanwhile here at TSA Towers, it was quite a busy week as a number of our end-of-year reviews began. So, with a lot to get through, let’s make a start on this week’s Community Round-Up!

It’s been an absolute age since we’ve last had a competition on TSA, and the kind folks at Curve Digital gave us a few codes for Instant Indie Vol. 2, which includes Pumped BMX +, The Swindle, and Nova-111. The competition ended on Thursday, with the winners picked out of the hat being adevow, @week_semana, @CardBoardMario and @IndelicateJane.

Make sure to check your emails or DMs!

Looking at the Meets, chances are that Monday will see the usual Project CARS meet, with the odd Rocket League or GTA V Meet thrown in elsewhere.

If you’d rather play something else, you can add your own Meet to the list, provided you have more than 250 TSA Points.

Our high scorer this week was Fast Racing Neo, something that fans of F-Zero, Wipeout and Ikaruga should check out. In his 8/10 review, Dom praised the 60fps technological marvel that delivers a real sense of speed, although noted that the brutal difficulty might put some people off.

Next up we had two games both on 7/10’s. Jim enjoyed Story Of Seasons, the spiritual successor to Harvest Moon on 3DS, while Aran looked at Guns Up! The F2P title for PS4 mixes the tower defence and strategy genres, perfect for short bursts of fun.

From the previews, Stefan looked at Ghost in the Shell: First Assault, and the difficulties of translating an anime series to a F2P online shooter. He also took to the battlefields in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, which builds upon the first game in almost every aspect, with new characters, modes and more. Lastly, Jim wrote about Uncharted 4’s Multiplayer, which sees Naughty Dog once again doing more than just adding a tacked-on multiplayer.

This week also saw the start of a number of are annual features. As we look back over 2015, we have currently reviewed January and February.

Adding to that, our Game of the Year awards has so far  spanned several categories, including Best Soundtrack (Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture), Outstanding Audio Design (Star Wars Battlefront), Outstanding Art Direction (The Order 1886), Best Narrative (Life Is Strange), Best Character (Chloe Price, Life Is Strange), Best Multiplayer (Rocket League), Best Sports/Racing Game (Rocket League), and Best Mobile Game (Fallout Shelter).

Looking ahead to next year, we’ve also began our Ones to Watch in 2016. So far we’ve covered Shooters & Adventures, RPGs, Stealth & Action, Online Shooters, and exclusives for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U. I’m sure there’s still lots more to come, so make sure to let everyone know if you think there’s a game that has slipped under our radars, there will always be those little gems only a few people know about!

From the regular features, the Chronicle returned with Hot Topics that included the Final Fantasy VII Episodic Remake and festive PSN Sales. Meanwhile in the Open Forum, Jim wondered What Are Your Christmas Gaming Habits?

This week’s Podcasts included Episode 204, as well as the Year According To Dan Marshall from Size Five Games, and also Dom from TSA Towers. Lastly, What We Played #234 included Destiny, Disney Infinity, and of course, Star Wars!

The Forums have been pretty quiet in the run up to Christmas, but let’s see what’s happened this week:

• Carrot adds some Fallout footage to the videos thread
• While Del is getting stuck into Just Cause 3 in the what are you playing thread

Well, that’s the last Round Up for 2015! It’s been a fantastic year, enjoy the holiday break and I’ll see you in 2016!