Community Round-Up: 16/01/16

Although the Q1 launch period is generally a quieter affair, there’s plenty to look forward to over the coming weeks and months. I’m sure many of you will already have the odd release date scribbled down, or maybe you’ve even got your pre-orders in early.

Let me know what you’re looking forward to in the comments, as we begin this week’s Community Round-Up!

From the reviews, The Banner Saga for PS4 came in first place this week. In his 8/10 review, Jim praised the “fantastic lore and setting” along with the “truly jaw-dropping art direction”. Sadly, it was a bit downhill after that as the next review we have, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, sits on a 6/10. If you enjoyed the China outing then you’ll probably find something to like in this one, but Aran described the story as ‘lacklustre’ and quite short.

Dropping one more point to a 5/10 was Hardware: Rivals, a game in need to some polish, while Stone Tales was given a 4/10. Both games had some good ideas, but neither managed to pull them off gameplay-wise. Lastly, Stefan reviewed Knights of Pen & Paper 2: Here Be Dragons, which is by no means a bad expansion, but it just doesn’t add significantly to the previous games and expansions.

Moving on to the previews, and Dom brought us a first look at Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon for 3DS. This War of Mine heads to consoles in a fortnight, and Stefan looked at how The Little Ones expansion adds a subtle new layer to the game.

On a cheerier note, he then went hands on with Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 ahead of the launch of the open beta earlier this week, and there’s also a video showing off what’s new. For the final preview, he looked at Mega Man’s spiritual Kickstarted successor, Mighty No. 9.

From the features, Jim explained why Power Hover held his attention over the Christmas break in Mobile Watch, while Stefan chatted with the team at Neople, the developers behind Ghost in the Shell: First Assault.

Last weekend’s Chronicle highlighted your comments on Oculus Rift’s pricing, which was also the subject of this week’s Open Forum.

Ending in the usual way, What We Played #236 featured Football Manager, Life is Strange and Danganronpa.

Time to open up the Forums and have a look!

• In the What Are You Playing thread, Youles says GTA V is the best game ever made, would you agree with that?
• And Avenger adds some Gears of War and Battlefield to the videos thread

And that’s the Round Up sorted for another week, I’ll see you next time!