We love a new console announcement here at TSA Towers! And when it’s a new Nintendo console it’s bound to cause various office arguments about its pros and cons. Whenever I go on a long journey or I’m staying away from home I’ll pack my Vita or my 3DS, but it’s quite possible that I won’t return to those same games until the next time I’m heading out. The idea of simply playing the same game I’ve been playing at home is a great selling point – as is it not being a graphically downgraded version that I have to fight with to transfer a save to.
Of course, if you’re a PSVR owner then you’re probably far too wrapped up in the surprisingly cohesive worlds it’s capable of creating to wonder too much about it, and March is a long way away right now. As it stands PlayStation are absolutely on the cutting edge of console hardware, and that’s only going to become more true when the PS4 Pro arrives next month. No matter what, it’s a great time to be a console gamer! Unless you’re waiting the inordinately long time until the arrival of Scorpio…
Jake’s been playing a truckload of Pokémon, with Omega Ruby and the Sun/Moon demo being top of his list. Otherwise it’s some Dead Space and yet more of that not-addictive-at-all Destiny. Steve meanwhile has finished his insurgent run through Witcher 2, a big chunk of Ori and the Blind Forest, and is tinkering away on a review of the console release of Darkest Dungeon which so far is looking very good!
Dave moved house today (yay!), but that’s meant he’s not played too much as most of his consoles are packed away (boo!). He did play WWE 2K17 for review, put together a review of the simply sublime Civilization VI, and not surprisingly dug his teeth into the Pokémon Sun/Moon demo as well.
That demo’s still on Stefan’s to do list, because he’s been busy putting together videos, reviews and previews this week. Battlefield 1 reviewed well on Monday, after he played it all weekend, loving the powerful prologue to a more emotive single player campaign. In contrast, he had a lot of fun blowing up his city in a preview of the Cities: Skylines – Natural Disasters DLC, and there’s another embargo lifting at 5PM today… He’s also returned to Stellaris for its new expansion pack, messed around in Sports Bar VR, and stuck to the beat in Rhythm Paradise Megamix.
Jim has been on a Games Workshop fueled binge this week, though a few other games have snuck in there as well;
Bit of a Warhammer flavoured one this week with a large helping of Overwatch alongside. It’s crazy how fresh that game feels every time I dive back in – those Halloween skins are to die for!
Vermintide took up a fair chunk of time though I doubt I’ll pick it up for a while. The co-op combat is ace but the torturous loot grinding? Not so much. Mordheim has also been on my plate, and it’s absolutely brutal. It devoutly sticks to its board game roots and has already had me questioning my sanity thanks to its demanding campaign goals and warrior permadeath.
This week Aran’s continued his PSVR gaming, with both Bound and Ace Banana the subjects of two features, while he also made on start on reviewing Football Manager 17, which he’s expecting that one to take a while. Tuffcub, on the other hand, has been working on Teslagrad, Shadow of Mordor and Destiny, but he’s handed his PSVR over to his hubby, so there’s been none of that.
I’ve been playing a lot of head-mashing PSVR, with Rez Infinite and Thumper top of the leaderboard, while EVE: Valkyrie and Driveclub VR have had a look-in. I also played and wrote about the VR sections found in Rise Of The Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration while in non-virtual reality world it’s been WRC 6 and Gears Of War 4, but they feel a little flat in comparison!
So then, tell us what you’ve been playing!
TSBonyman
No Man’s Sky, one trophy away from the platinum so only a few lightyears to go now.
And i’ve just picked up Tomb Raider 20th anniversary for €46.99 in Argos so i’ll get started on that over the weekend.
Crazy_Del
Fifa 17 FuT, Mafia III, Gears 4 and PS Playroom VR
MrYd
Picked up Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (or Leifþrasir if you believe what it says on the title screen and can remember how to do a thorn, which isn’t the most useful character to know)
And got the platinium for it, which was lots of fun. Well worth a go.
Plus lots of random bits of all sorts of stuff. It’s a week of indecision, I guess. An hour of this, and hour of that. Then a big chunk of Star Trek Online (with stupid amounts of waiting on Risa doing nothing until “nighttime” for a trophy)
I think it’s time to go and get a cheap second hand copy of Fallout 4 tomorrow, along with the season pass being on sale now for halloween. Which makes no sense at all, really. But saves me waiting for a GOTY edition.
R1MJAW
The usual co-op stuff, Riptide and GTA online.
A fair bit of GTA solo (finishing off all the single player trophies, just a few online trophies left for platinum but it’ll take a long time to grind to level 100).
Finished off doing challenges in Peggle 2 to get the platinum and completed the 2 dlc masters.
More Dragon Quest Builders, I think I’m about halfway through chapter 3.
tactical20
Finished Mafia 3, which I enjoyed. Stupidly spent ages getting all the collectables, including the 500 odd node things, and got absolutey nothing in return, not even a bloody trophy!
Started on Tomb Raider now.
The Lone Steven
Completed Red Faction:Gurilla. Average story, forgettable soundtrack but a decent game.
Played a lot of Prototype.
Then today, I decided to go retro with Final Fantasy 7. Man, it’s been too long since i’ve played it. Graphics, i feel have aged well due to it’s unique blockiness. Some PS1 games look like garbage nowadays but FF7 and FF in general avoids it. It is a marmite type affair though. Gameplay is simple but complex. Simple with battles but you better make sure you know what you are doing with the materia and pay attention to it. Limit Breaks are excellent and i’ve barely scratched the surface of this. Soundtrack, is fecking excellent! Even better then I recall it being and i realised that the Girl in the Slum Church theme is a subtle version of Aeris’s theme.
I am not tearing up. Just got something in my eye.
The plot is excellent so far and the typos add to it’s charm. It can be cheesy at times but it works. E.g. the entire tutorial bits breaking the fourth wall.
Probably will take me until 2017 to complete. Want to do everything there is to do and if i recall correctly, FF requires grinding. Don’t mind grinding and makes me wish turn based RPGs would return as turn based RPGs. Not the action turn based RPGs that are just disguised as turned based RPGs but are more like action RPGs.
I do fear that the remake will cut a lot of stuff from FF7 due to erm… well, some stuff causing issues nowadays. E.g. Cloud being forced to have a bath with 10 men. Tis nothing but just humour but i could see that being cut out because it could cause offensive. Same with er…. Tifa’s assests and outfit. People would jump on Square Enix if Tifa appeared with her FF7 appearance. If the crossdressing section which is plot related is removed, that will suck.
I hope it’ll be more of a Resident Evil type remake where it didn’t remove anything from the original(that i’m aware of) and added more stuff to it.
FF7 Remake is going to never live up to expecations due to the sheer amount expectations being over 9999999999.
Andrewww
As I’ve been on holidays, I dusted off my Vita, playing some of my Plus backlog games on it, but not finding much of interest there. Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines had the most ridiculously annoying opening, I barely made it through that, and it was deleted soon after. Muramasa Rebirth at least got to the point much quicker of actually letting me play, and that was ok, but not my game.
Then I got it: the PSVR.
After trying hard not to for a couple of days, and it changed my life forever. Except that it didn’t. Well, in some respect.
I tried out most games on the drastically reduced EU demo disc, and some looked quite good (e.g. Eve:Valkyrie) but were much too short demos, others disappointed me a lot (Driveclub: such a shame, I love the original, but the graphics just look awful in comparison).
I’m still waiting for nausea to show up, just to learn of my limits, but so far that didn’t happen, not either in Rigs, or doing rolls in Eve:Valkyrie.
But I do find the quality of the normal PS4 menus annoying, as there the pixels show up a lot, which is much less of a problem in-game.
There were some WOW experiences, I don’t want to miss.
Playroom VR: Very good, highly detailed, and lovable robots, I only played two of the games, but this is almost the VR killer application for me. Robot rescue is excellent.
Kitchen: I cannot recommend this to anyone below 30, or who might still have the odd scare when alone in the dark, it is incredibly intense and beautifully horrible.
What definitely needs improvement for PSVR 2 is a) cabling. You just drown in them. Thankfully, my PS4 is not in front of me, as I got a beamer on my side of the room, and that helps. But I probably need an extension cable to position the camera better.
And b) it really needs a front-facing camera to switch to normal view and also enable AR.
So far I’m quite happy with my PSVR. But I still miss a game which lets me move halfway normally in FP view, without flying, floating, or similar. If that makes me sick, at least I would understand what all the fuss was about.
Pixel_nme
Finished the story of Mafia 3 with it’s many bugs and glitches,couldn’t be bothered to play through again to obtain the platinum maybe in the future,Riptide with R1MJAW and Forrest and played several hours of Dragon Quest Builders,Division with Toutski Berzerka and Forrest,started the single player of Battlefield 1 also played a little multiplayer and Friday night should have been GTAV with herbal Forrest and R1MJAW but the internets dns problems put paid to that.
Pixel_nme
heedbaw not herbal Forrest lol
freezebug2
Heck, maybe heed likes to tiptoe through the herbal forrest on a Friday evening to unwind and consider life’s possibilities after a hefty weeks schedule :P
It’s all been Rise of the Tomb Raider for me with Mafia III simmering in the background. Stunning stuff from Lara!
Pixel_nme
Lol maybe he does,I started Tomb Raider but think I’m going to try save it till my Pro arrives loved the first an from what I’ve played think I’ll love Rise as much with as close as dammit 4K sparkle to boot :)