While our review isn’t quite there yet, it’s worth commending Final Fantasy XV for what it’s already achieved. It’s become the fastest selling entry in the long-running franchise, with over 5 million copies already in the hands – or hard drives – of gamers around the world. Is that down to a ten-year hype-train? It’s development has seen a change of name, a change of director, and a generational leap but it’s done everything right along the way to inform gamers, and to show them where things were heading including the generous Episode Duscae, and the saccharine Platinum Demo.
There’s a rare personable quality to Final Fantasy XV, and that’s possibly due to the humbling nature of its development. Final Fantasy XIII, and its sequels, had steadily lost its audience, with Lightning Returns leaving a bad taste in the mouth of many ardent fans. Sure, for a great many of them XV isn’t going to be the Final Fantasy they remember, and is probably as far removed from VII as is humanly possible, but for those willing to give it a chance, it’s a game above all else about friendship and teamwork.
As I’m the one reviewing FFXV it’s taken up pretty much my whole week, though there was a brief interlude for Lego Dimensions’ latest release with Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them. As ever, Travellers Tales have turned in a highly amusing rendition of a new movie, but I really do wonder just how long the Lego franchise can continue churning out the games that are fundamentally the same.
Jim’s been hard at it this week, getting through a good few titles;
This week I’ve mainly been preparing for The Last Guardian with Ico and some Shadow of the Colossus. They’re still just as fab as they were back in the day and are easily among some of my all-time favourites.
I also had time for some Ezio Collection which, if anything, cemented my negative opinion of Assassin’s Creed III and later entries.
There’s also been some SNOW in there, though it’s not holding my attention. The game’s structure means unlocking events and gear piece by piece, kinda like an F2P game. The frequent glitching is also a massive pain with the lightest snag turning into a complete wipeout.
Miguel has also been hard at it, though he’s mainly working on finishing all of his work for this semester meaning he’s only played Fate Grand Order on his phone. I suppose he has his priorities the right way round. Tuffcub is liking the new Titanfall 2 map, but as a change of pace he’s been playing Skyrim Remastered. While he’s picked up RIGS he hasn’t made it past the overly-long tutorial!
Dave is playing the upcoming The Dwarves, and 7th Dragon III: Code VFD, one of which has a silly name and one of which is based on a novel. It’s more fun if you work it out for yourself. Aran meanwhile has been a busy little bee, starting off with reviewing How We Soar which boasts amazing environments and is a very relaxing VR experience. Pinball FX2 VR will be his next review, which’ll appear next week, and all the while he’s been tootling through the Mortal Kombat XL story mode, though sadly he didn’t think it held up to the last entry in the series.
Kris is mostly happy with the Titanfall 2 campaign so far, having just hit a level that really surprised him, but it’s the pilot combat that’s the real winner rather than the “slightly clunky” mech combat.
Last by by no means least, Teflon had the following to say:
A bit of this, a bit of that. Super Mario Maker on 3DS and Wii U, some other Mario game as well, a bit of that Pokémon Sun, ROTTR in co-op, the wonderful Virginia, and a couple hours some game with a giant cat bird thing.
The usual.
Now then, what have you been playing? Are you one of those five million FFXV buyers?
Pixel_nme
The usual zombie slapping in Riptide with R1MJAW and Forrest on Monday night,some Crew Ultimate Edition and F12016 and No Mans Sky quite a bit of Rise of the Tomb Raider,fell ill Wednesday evening so withdrew from the usual Division still ill Thursday so not a lot,Some Steep today and depending on how I feel possibly GTAV tonight with heedbaw Forrest and R1M think that’s it.
MrYd
As much of the grinding the last few trophies for Fallout 4 as I could cope with (a few left, I’ll come back to those later) before getting started on FFXV. Which will keep me going for weeks, I’m sure.
ron_mcphatty
Nearly done with Train Valley, I went back to get all three objectives at the same time on each level, just four to go! I bought Homeworld Remastered in the sales so I’m looking forward to starting that and having my arse handed to me almost immediately, just like old times.
TSBonyman
I played some more Dishonored 2 which i was enjoying but then the NMS update happened so that’s pretty much taken up all my gaming time this week, apart from last night when i played a good hour or so of Inside – the little chicks were a delight – i wasn’t expecting to get a chuckle out of this game after experiencing a few of those death scenes!
Andrewww
Not that much this week, as I had a lot of work to cope with and the first near-flu experiences this season.
Played some more Amnesia Collection, but the immersion is nowhere near that of other recent horror games, e.g. SOMA, maybe because you can see its age too much.
Then I missed TGA, because of an early Christmas do, but reading things up now tells me I’ve really not missed much. Quite disappointing, but maybe the PlayStation Experience makes up for that.
tactical20
Finished Watch Dogs 2. Then a combination of TSA and Black Friday lead me to buy the Ezio Collection. And I have to agree, playing back through AC2 has been most enjoyable. I also grabbed a load of Lego games for cheap, but having already played a few of those, I’m not in a huge hurry to get them started.
Crazy_Del
Been playing Watchdogs 2 both Story and Multiplayer also nabbed all the MP trophies as soon as the game got patched. Also big thanks to Youles for the Watchdogs 2 Co op trophy as you have to complete 5 dedsec events but we did other Co op stuff aswell think we completed 11 and it was a blast got a clip of an epic police chase will upload soon.
Just went on Gears 4 to continue the Co op on Insane as we haven’t completed it yet (with Cambo not Youles) lol
Also some MP matchest mostly Arms Race.
And a dabble of Fifa 17 currently in 3rd Online Division and will continue to play on Monday and try to reach 2nd Division.
Squalje
Yup I am one of the five million buyers.
Loving it at the moment.
aerobes
After a 90+ hour working week I haven’t played much but I did complete the Titanfall 2 SP last night and I have to say it was absolutely awesome.
Truly great work by Respawn and I hope the game gets the sales it deserves!