It’s nearly here! It’s nearly Christmas! It is possible that I am becoming giddy at the thought of opening a few presents and spending time with my family, but as an immensely immature man somehow I’ve still retained the childlike glee that Christmas can bring – well, that and I think my wife has bought me a BB-8 droid. It’s a time for peace, love, and overeating, but you can’t forget that a gamer’s Christmas will undoubtedly include some time set aside for playing games, whether they’re plastic-wrapped new ones or a few drawn from that ever-increasing pile of shame. I’m really hoping to finish Uncharted 4 and Gears of War 4, but chances are I’ll dive into a new game instead and they’ll have to wait a few more weeks, months or, heaven forbid, years.
This week though I finally got to see Rogue One – it’s amazing, by the way – and that made me fire up the Star Wars Battlefront VR mission – which is also pretty amazing. Hopefully EA will see the opportunity to put together a fully-fledged VR game, or at least a dedicated mode in next years Battlefront 2, as there’s little else that can beat flying an X-Wing while John William’s music blasts out of your headphones.
Beside that I’ve also played some Forza Horizon 3 and a lot of Overwatch, which is easily my favourite game of the moment. The characters are great, and playing the random modes is a fantastic way to try all of them out in a relatively short space of time. Torbjorn is still my favourite, though Mercy and Widowmaker are great fun too. Loot boxes shouldn’t seem so exciting… but they are.
Dave finished his review of 7th Dragon III: Code VFD, which sadly doesn’t seem to make any more sense than its name, grabbed Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on iOS and also picked up Shantae: Half-Genie Hero which has thankfully been very enjoyable. Aran has also been getting into some Half-Genie Hero action for an upcoming review, while still sticking with plenty of RIGS and Football Manager 17.
Steve platinumed Uncharted: Golden Abyss and got all of the endings on Stories, while he waits for a new Vita memory card so he too can tuck into the handheld version of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero -the team clearly has a thing about Shantae this week. Jake of course immediately bucks the trend though, playing Titanfall 2, Pokemon Sun and Moon, while he’s getting into the Sparrow racing of Destiny.
In a guest appearance, former editor Peter let us know that he has somehow managed to spend 35 hours playing Planet Coaster this week, despite also doing his full time job. Unless he’s a theme park owner, he probably hasn’t slept very much, or he’s a vampire. Miguel appeared in classic fashion to announce he’s been playing “a s**t ton of Let It Die”, as well as some Pokemon Sun, Overwatch, Tales Of Berseria, and DBZ Xenoverse 2.
Kris has forgotten how to edit podcasts – a super special Christmas edition is coming soon – and has otherwise been playing Super Mario Run. At least he can carry on trying to edit with the his free hand. Jim on the other hand finished our single player game of the year:
This week I smashed through Titanfall 2 and boy what a ride – it’s easy to see why many billed it as their favourite shooter of the year. For me, it doesn’t quite top Overwatch overall, though it’s definitely up there, thanks to some rapid multiplayer and a short yet stellar campaign.
There’s been plenty of VR too with PlayStation VR Worlds, DriveClub VR, Lethal VR, and Here They Lie. I’m still prone to motion sickness in some games, though this will hopefully lessen the more I get used to strapping that headset on.
Finally, Tef has continued to boss it on Super Mario Run – his tip for Toad Rally mode is to get good at the airship levels to collect Toads of all colours – and played a little Overcooked and Enter the Gungeon with his brother. His review of Space Hulk: Deathwing will have to wait until the new year though, as you might have noticed we’ve been writing and posting an awful lot of year ending features of late.
Now then, I hope you have a fantastic Christmas, but before that, what have you played?
ron_mcphatty
I also got to try PSVR this week. The X-Wing mission was sublime!! Flying close to the U-Wing, zooming under and over a Star Destroyer and strafing Tie Fighters was pure, distilled, 100% proof geek joy! Really enjoyed the Battlezone and Driveclub demos too, VR really is wonderful, I might abandon my Switxh plans I favour of a new hat.
In normal, boring 20th century antique 2D I’ve been lapping up Ratchet and Clank, which I’ve finished the first play through of and now taking on challenge mode, which is sparkly flying pixel joy thanks to the Ryno. Really good, simple, old school, big numbers, explody fun.
ron_mcphatty
And Rogue One is brilliant, especially the third act. Hopefully I’ll get to see it again in the new year.
aerobes
Dribs and drabs of Tomb Raider in anticipation of my wife hopefully buying me Rise of the Tomb Raider for Christmas.
I very rarely complete a game more than once but Tomb Raider is just a fantastic experience from start to finish and I’m approaching my fourth completion.
blast71
Finally had a few hours free to play games after being overworked and underpaid for the last couple of months. Trying to get through some of my backlog, with velocity ultra, call of juarez – gunslinger, and a revisiting of journey. Loved journey again, velocity is pretty good, and gunslinger is great too even though I’m stuck on the 1st duel with pat garnett.
blast71
Garrett not alfs brother ;)
Andrewww
Glad to hear you liked Rogue One, I loved it and will go and see it again in January. The end was excellent, and Darth Vader was sooo good…!
Aß a consequence, I got myself the season pass, and when I did manage to find some play time this week, I was fighting in Star Wars Battlefront. I think I’m not too bad flying TIEs and X-Wings, but some of the maps on the ground I’m just rubbish dealing with, e.g. Scarif, and the outer rim. On the Death Star, on the other hand, I seem to be halfway ok.
Oh, and I finally managed to propel myself and my console into the hyper space of having 2TB..! Worked really well, surprisingly well, it was really easy to swap, and it all seems to be there still. No more error messages, no more need to delete stuff constantly, just great..! :o)
Andrewww
Where did that exotic letter sneak in? *As* it should be.
ron_mcphatty
Smart! It’s a lower case German double ‘s’, or ezsett, hold the s down on your keyboard ß. And that Vader scene sent shivers down my spine, it was one of the best bits of all Star Wars! Shame it was followed by grinning CGI yuk.
Pixel_nme
The Last Guardian over the weekend finishing the story enjoyed it though I don’t think I could play straight through it again,Monday night meet with R1MJAW and Forrest for Riptide and Tuesday Forrest and heedbaw for Destiny,then again with Forrest this Wednesday as a slightly diminished team for The Division with us both picking up the Platinum,Friday night was the usual GTAV with heedbaw R1MJAW and Forrest for a snowball showdown followed by several hours of Overwatch with someone called Forrest and started the Batman Telltale series after picking it up in the PSN sale.
Have a fantastic Christmas everyone at TSA and everyone else have a good one ;)
TSBonyman
Nier Automata demo which was okay but didn’t whet my appetite for more and i played some more NMS.
Merry Christmas to all the staff and community here at TSA!