Something For The Weekend – 03/09/16

A big welcome to our new look weekend feature on TheSixthAxis. We’ve had the Community Round-Up and the Community Chronicle running back to back for a good few years, but it’s time to shake things up, dislodge some of the cobwebs and bring them together in Something for the Weekend.

Simply put, if you’re not the kind of person to check the gaming news day in, day out, this feature is going to bring the biggest news stories to the fore, point you in the direction of some of the latest game trailers, highlight the best games we’ve reviewed and previewed that week, and cap it all off by telling you what to look forward to in the week ahead.

It’s worth saying that this is a work in progress, so let us know what you think in the comments below, but without much further ado…

In the News This Week

• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare beta starts on 14th October
  Activision kicked off COD XP by showing off the Infinite Warfare multiplayer for the first time, and I hope you liked Black Ops III, because it builds on that game. Follow the link for all the details, but if you’re eager to play, the beta kicks off on 14th October for those who pre-order.
• Battlefield 1’s Beta is now open to all
  There were a few server hiccups on day one, but the Battlefield 1 Beta is open for everyone on PS4 and Xbox One to play, and the first impressions are rolling in. Double-o-dave says, “I do feel a bit like I’m playing Battlefront instead of Battlefield. Running around seems a bit too quick and the weapons seem too light like they need a bit more weight to them.” That said, the main sticking point seems to be that objective names have been changed to Apples and Butter…
• Play Overwatch for free next weekend
  If one weekend of free multiplayer wasn’t enough for you, why not try Overwatch for free, running from 9th-12th September? Aside from missing Competitive Play – the second season’s just getting underway – you get to play with any of the characters on any of the maps and in any of the modes. It’s effectively the entire game.
• Gran Turismo has been delayed until 2017
  “No one saw that coming – in true GT fashion,” commented Youles. Camdaz, meanwhile, stated that “I would rather wait until it’s finished so we get the best experience possible than have a game below par and/or full of bugs.”
• EA dismiss the idea of Mass Effect Trilogy Remasters
  “We’re a company that is focused on delivering for the future,” said EA’s Peter Moore, which means you’re out of luck. “Why can’t they do both at the same time?” asks Tony Cawley.
• Marketing material appears for Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection
  Unlike EA, it looks like Ubisoft can do both at the same time.
• Metal Gear Solid V will never get a 51st level
  “Mission 51 is not complete, its development was cancelled prior to the initial release of The Phantom Pain,” tweeted Konami. “Mission 51 is additional story content that was cancelled before development finished, but it’s definitely not the ending.”
• Enter The Gungeon will get a gun shaped like a bullet that shoots guns that shoot bullets
  I enjoyed writing the title so much the first time, I decided to write it again!
• September’s PS Plus update includes Journey and Lords of the Fallen for PS4
  And they’re joined by Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Datura for PS3, with Badland and Amnesia: Memories for PS Vita

Games in Review

We had six games reviewed this week, with The Turing Test, God Eater 2: Rage Burst and Hue the picks of the bunch. Click through to see why they scored so well, and why Armikrog is right at the bottom of the list.

• The Turing Test – Xbox One, PC – 8/10
• God Eater 2: Rage Burst – PS4, PS Vita, PC – 8/10
• Hue – PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS Vita – 8/10
• Assetto Corsa – PS4, Xbox One, PC – 6/10
• Metroid Prime: Federation Force – 3DS – 4/10
• Armikrog – PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC – 3/10

This Week’s Features

Elsewhere in this week’s features, we continued to work our way through previews and interviews from Gamescom, with a handful of other things thrown in for good measure. There was the Monty Python-esque insult hurling of Oh… Sir!, we played some of  For Honor’s historical-ish multiplayer hack and slash, and explored the ridiculously cute World of Final Fantasy, which is a bit like Pokémon for Final Fantasy fans.

Thursday was almost all about VR and the HTC Vive in particular. We went hands on with CCP Games’ next VR project after EVE: Valkyrie and EVE: Gunjack, with the very Tron-like Project Arena; looked at how best to demo VR with mixed reality, Space Pirate Trainer and Serious Sam VR; and spoke to the excellently named Ryan Hoopingarner about where the Vive is now and what the future holds for VR. Turns out it might have something to so with IKEA!

Tuffcub told us why Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is still bloody fantastic, and one of the hottest topics of the week was with regard to No Man’s Sky and whether or not people who had played the game for 50 hours were justified in requesting and getting refunds from Steam and Sony.

As always, we finish off our Friday with a look at What We Played, which featured Titanfall 2, God Eater 2 and PlayStation VR.

Trailer Park

The hype trains are steaming ahead, and there’s always a deluge of trailers to sift through each week. Here’s some of the best new videos for some of the biggest upcoming releases.

Watch Dogs 2 – Gameplay Commented Walkthrough
Nineteen minutes of Watch Dogs 2 gameplay can pretty much do the talking for itself, but Ubisoft’s Colin Graham is there to talk you through all the new things you’re seeing, from contextual hacking to the more vibrant and colourful San Fran Bay Area.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Multiplayer Overview
Millions buy and play Call of Duty each and every year, so yesterday’s multiplayer reveal is a pretty big deal. Here’s an overview of all the new and returning features.

EVE: Valkyrie – Katee Sackhoff Voice Recording
There’s just something about Starbuck giving a rousing speech about why you’re going to be an amazing pilot. There’s also a gameplay trailer and Carrier Assault game mode trailer to sink your teeth into.

Titanfall 2 – Meet the Titans
Meet Scorch, Ion, Legion, Northstar, Tone and Ronin, the six new Titans in Titanfall who’ll be getting up to all kinds of trouble in the IMC’s neighbourhood.

Mafia III – The World of New Bordeaux – Rackets
Mafia III is looking great, but by Jove, are 2K releasing a lot of trailers for the game! Here’s one of the more interesting ones, showing you how some of the story is framed by a Senate hearing after the fact, and also explaining how you’ll be wrestling control of the city’s underworld away from Sal Marcano.

Your Achievements

You didn’t think we’d forgotten you, did you? I always liked seeing what you’ve all been playing and what trophies you’ve been earning with the Chronicle, and so that’s going to carry on here.

R1MJAW gets us underway, as he replayed Dark Cloud on his US account and earned the platinum trophy for the second time, while Crazy_Del made short work of Deus Ex: Mandkind Divided. In fact, he finished it twice, first time with no kills and completing side missions, the second grabbing all the collectibles, and now a third play is on the cards to finish it on the hardest difficulty and avoid triggering any alarms while doing do.

DividSmythe got the platinum trophy out of Coffin Dodgers during the week, while ron_mcphatty managed to stave off the boredom and console crashes that everyone seems to be complaining about on his way to the No Man’s Sky platinum. TSBonyman’s at around the 90 hours mark with NMS, and spent a good few hours on one particular planet, scooping up high value rarities and making some serious money at the trading posts.

Finally, Andrewww’s had a busy week. He tidied up the trophies in Gone Home and thoroughly enjoyed doing so, giving it a personal 10/10. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was next on his list of things to finish, and finally, he played through Thomas Was Alone, which he didn’t enjoy quite so much…

The Week Ahead

Before we look at next week’s games, there’s a pair of major press conferences, both happening on Wednesday 7th September. Apple are hosting their traditional September iPhone event, which will doubtless make a splash in the news, but on a gaming site such as this, it’s Sony’s PlayStation Meeting that will be of more interest.

We’ll have you covered with a live streams embedded on TSA, so just come and join us on Wednesday at 8PM BST to see whatever it is that Sony have to reveal. Your guess is as good as mine!

Finally, the games that you can look forward to seeing released next week:

• Mother Russia Bleeds – Windows, Mac, Linux – 05/09
• The Tomorrow Children – PS4 – 06/09
• Just Sing – PS4, XBO – 06/09
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II – PS3, PS Vita – 06/09 (NA)
• Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas – PS4, XBO – 07/09
• Unbox – Windows – 07/09
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice – 3DS – 08/09

As I said at the top of the feature, this is still a bit of a work in progress, so post in the comments below what you think, and it might push us in a slightly different direction. And with that, I hope you have a lovely weekend.