With only eight days to Christmas, present buying, parties and tree decorating are in full swing everywhere, it seems. As 2016 draws to a close, it’s also time to start looking back over the year. What were your highlights, both gaming and elsewhere?
In the News This Week
- It Appears Ubisoft’s For Honor Will Require Internet For Single Player Campaign
“Well that’s my pre-order cancelled!” says Crazy_Del, citing PSN’s frequent maintenance. - Media Molecule Confirms Dreams Beta Delay
I mean, it’s not really that surprising, at this point. - Today’s Dota 2 Update Is A Game Changer
The 7.00 update introduced a new hero and several major gameplay changes. - Uncharted 4’s Massive Co-op Update Launched On Wednesday
“Time to get friends” says JustTaylorNow – I’m sure he’s up for a game!
- Guerrilla Games Chat About Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy And Her Past
The game is now out on March 1st. Are you looking forward to it? - Sony’s Platinum Wireless Headset Will Be Available From January 16th
Priced at £129.99, the headset will feature 3D audio with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End being one of the first games to support it. - Modern Warfare Remastered Gets Its Own Quartermaster, Female Soldiers
New additions to Modern Warfare include calling cards, emblems, and weapon skins. - Half Of All Xbox One Owners Have Tried Backward Compatibility
There’s over 300 Xbox 360 games available, would you like to see something similar come to PS4?
Competitions
Depending on when you’re reading this, you could be in with a chance of winning yourself a copy of Independent By Design, an in-depth look at some of the best Indie games over the past few years. You have until 6pm on Monday (UK time) to enter, after which we’ll choose two winners at random. Good luck!
Games in Review
Let’s see how the last few games to be released this year fared:
- Werewolves Within– PSVR, Rift, VIVE – 9/10
- Rock Band Rivals – PS4, XBO – 8/10
- Super Mario Run – iOS – 8/10
- Dead Rising 4 – XBO, PC – 6/10
- The Little Acre – PS4, XBO, PC – 5/10
- Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 5 – PS3, PS4, 360, XBO, PC, Mac, iOS, Android – No Score, episodic
- Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: Scarif – PS4, XB1, PC – No Score, DLC
This Week’s Features
Stefan got to grips with Sniper Elite 4 as Karl Fairburne heads to Italy to continue his sniping spree. Meanwhile, Dom went hands on with Paragon’s Monolith update to see what changes are occurin’.
This week also saw the start of our end of year content. Tuffcub began our Review of the Year, looking at the games we saw in January and February, and of course an update on the weather.
Our Games of the Year awards have so far included the Best Single Player and Best Multiplayer categories – let us know if you agree with us or not!
Lastly, this week’s What We Played featured Rock Band Rivals, Werewolves Within & Super Mario Run in Episode 284.
Trailer Park
Forza Horizon 3’s Blizzard Mountain Expansion Out Today, Launch Trailer Released
Eight new cars, 3 new race types, and new tracks to try them out on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOB0QAVUiXc
Boundless Receives A New Gameplay Trailer
TSBonyman describes it as “Minecraft meets NMS”.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead: A New Frontier Launch Trailer Is Here
Clementine returns!
Put Down Your Guns In Verdun’s Christmas Truce
“A brilliant tribute to that one iconic historical event a century ago” says Avenger.
Fantastic Contraption Makes Its Way To PSVR In Spring 2017
Your Achievements
DividSmythe achieved 100% on Actual Sunlight, while MrYd grabbed the ‘easy’ platinum for Lara Croft GO.
Ron_mcphatty and Andrewww also mentioned going to see Rogue One, which will have surely taken up precious gaming time, but it sounds like it was worth it thankfully!
A relatively quiet week for the Achievements then, although a lot of you are close to completing games or nabbing platinums. Do you have any achievement targets for the Christmas break?
The Week Ahead
Unsurprisingly, it’s a quiet week we’ve got coming up:
- Halo Wars: Definitive Edition – XBO, PC – 20/12
- Wild Guns Reloaded – PS4 – 20/12
- The Walking Dead: Season 3 – Episodes 1 & 2 – PS3, PS4, 360, XBO, PC – 20/12
- The Division: Survival DLC – PS4 – 20/12
Well, this will be my last SftW in 2016! Have a lovely Christmas, and I’ll see you in the new year!
TSBonyman
I’m pretty confident of picking up the “Cabin Fever” and “After Dinner Snooze” trophies this year. ;)
The Lone Steven
I feel that I am bound by the code of the Elders of the Internet to insult the staff for daring to pick a game that I disagree with as best single player of the year. I shall be found headbutting a wall until sense comes back into me. :P
I ain’t doing christmas this year. Literally cannea afford to do so. But I do have bacon sandwiches for 2 weeks. :D They be mine. Mine! MINE!
Also, Dragon Age, still playing, I am. Lots of shite on TV as usual. Have heard the summary of the Dr Who Episode this year.
No.
That is stupid. That is pushing it so far past belief that it requires one’s brain to be destroyed. A superhero… what the…. No.
This is a franchise that managed to timeywimey magic into sciene. And now there is a superhero….
This is dumb. Duuuumb. DUUUMB!
Still, should be better then last year’s christmas special with Mary Sue Song and the Forgettable stuff.
I wonder how many times Channel 4 will show RED on Filmfour before the year is out? So far, it’s 4-6 times within a 2 week period. The Mask is ITV’s new film to show as much as possible.
Are they really running out of films that they are reduced to showing the same film a lot? If so, something,something, Brexit caused it, something, something, babble.
Andrewww
Highlights of 2016..? Well, there were quite a few things going on besides gaming, but I better restrict myself to that here.
There are three games that really stood out for me (some of which are older, but I only played them this year):
SOMA, Gone Home, and Until Dawn.
They’re all heartwarming in their own ways, and in my view they’re absolutely fantastic games, each one of them.