So Nintendo have finally showed their full hand for the forthcoming Switch last week, and, well, it’s not a very full hand. There are various aspects of the handheld/home console hybrid that you can take offence at, whether it’s the hugely overpriced peripherals, or the relatively short battery life depending on what you’re playing, but really those things matter far less to me than the fact there are only going to be a handful of games available on the day it launches. OK, one of those is going to be Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, which will almost certainly be a candidate for game of the year, but aside from that there are simply no essential-looking titles, at least not at the prices that are being charged.
Even after a £10 price cut, Konami are still expecting gamers to hand over £50 for Bomberman R, while 1-2 Switch is a fun looking set of mini games that just doesn’t scream that it’s a £40 must-have title. What I understand least about the whole situation is why didn’t Nintendo just hang back a month? When there are games launching later in March it simply doesn’t seem that wise to launch with one of the sparsest software line-ups for a console launch in the last twenty years.
Having said all that, I’ll be picking one up, because the concept as a whole works for me and I’ve had a fantastic four and a half years with my Wii U. There’ll be exclusive titles that you can’t get anywhere else, and if they’re anything like the Wii U’s catalogue, they’ll be brimming with quality.
When not re-watching the Breath Of The Wild trailer, I’ve nearly finished Uncharted 4 – I think – and utterly loved the second half of the game. It really doesn’t get going properly for far too long, but once it does it is spectacular. Besides that I reviewed The Flame In The Flood Complete Edition, which is well worth checking out, as well playing a touch too much Overwatch at 3am.
Tuffcub was the first to chime in this week, and he’s taken Titanfall 2 out of his PS4 disc drive in an attempt to stop playing it and give something else a go. He managed an hour or so of Battlezone and The Last Guardian before going back to the giant robot friend simulator. Having spent the equivalent of nearly four solid days playing it, I think it’s safe to say that he loves it. Besides that he and the hubby got into some old PS+ offerings with the fun Tiny Towers and Table Top Racing: World Tour.
Steve platinumed God of War 2, despite some annoying glitches, and finished his first run of Ratchet & Clank on PS4. He also had a look at Tiny Troopers on Vita, which sadly is no Cannon Fodder despite being fairly pleasant, and started work on his Memoranda review to boot.
Jim has been scaring himself silly, as well as finding time for more multiplayer shenanigans;
This week I finished Resident Evil 7 for review – brace yourselves for early next week – before dipping in again to try the tougher difficulty setting and some more VR. I’ve also been slogging my way through Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. I adore the original, but it’s as if DICE completely misunderstood what made that game so fantastic. While it sounded exciting, the open world stuff is basic and adds little to the game.
Overwatch made yet another big return to the playlist. Once again, I’ve been trying to claw my way up the competitive ranks and so far I’m doing well though falling short of my 3,000 target. There’s always next season, I guess!
It looks as though the Switch announcement made Miguel rifle through the Wii U’s amazing back catalogue with time spent on Splatoon, Fast Racing Neo and Xenoblade Chronicles. He also finished up Doom and Double Dragon Neon, while he made a much needed start on Danganronpa 2. Oh, and be sure to check out his reviews of Yakuza 0, Fate/Extella and Atelier Shallie Plus!
Tef also felt compelled to boot up the Wii U and play a couple hours of Mario Kart 8, having played it and a bunch of other Switch games at the end of last week – see what he’s written about the system and its games here. Despite realising he hadn’t touched the game’s second DLC pack, he managed to stay on the podium for half a dozen races. He also got a sneak peak at Halo Wars 2, sampling both its early single player and a handful of modes from the multiplayer, which included Blitz.
Meanwhile Aran is struggling in his third season with Ebbsfleet in Football Manager and beat the somewhat frustrating Titan Souls. Finally Dave has only had time to play Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice and Poochy & Yoshi’s Wooly World. Maybe next week he’ll have some spare time!
Now then, what have you played?
MOVE
About Resi 7: will you be reviewing the VR version as well?
blast71
Gtav story mode is all I’m playing at the moment. Even though I played it to death on the ps3, I’m still loving it on the ps4.
Crazy_Del
Played Mafia III and got the Platinum. Currently playing Lego Indiana Jones 2 and only got one trophy left so Platinum will be tonight. Played Resident Evil 2 on my PS2 in the past couple of days will complete it tonight aswell just after Lego Jones.
Cannot wait for Resident Evil 7 good my holiday booked a week for this!!!
Pixel_nme
Those Plats just keep coming :D congrats;)
Crazy_Del
Thank you :) hopefully more backlog plats from the PS3 aswell
aerobes
More R6 Siege but I’ve been focusing on terrorist hunt and the cleaning up the stars on situations. Only two stars left to get!
I’ve also been playing a little bit of Rise of the Tomb Raider each night this week and I’m loving it so far. I personally prefer it and the reboot to Uncharted.
Tony Cawley
I managed to complete xcom 2 which I was super pleased about, really thoroughly enjoyed everything about it but I don’t think I can be arsed to complete it again on a higher difficulty.
Since finishing that I’ve been on the lookout for something new to play but nothing is really shouting at me.
I put Star Wars Battlefront on for the first time for a proper session, quite enjoyed what I’ve seen of it so far, only reason I haven’t really played it before is because I bought it for my son, not me.
Any suggestions on my next game from anyone?
aerobes
Any type of game in particular?
In no particular order some of the finest experiences I’ve had on PS4 are,
Rainbow Six Siege
Infamous Second Son
Tomb Raider
Hitman
Firewatch
Titanfall 2
Witcher 3
… it goes on and on but they’re all excellent games.
ron_mcphatty
If you haven’t already played Life Is Strange and enjoy teeny melancholy with tragedy and a bit of sci-fi then it’s definitely worth grabbing in the sale mate.
TSBonyman
I recommend Dishonored 2 or even the original. Invisible Inc, which was free on plus recently has similar basic gameplay mechanics to xcom but with a cold war spy vibe.. Inside is also excellent if you enjoyed Limbo.
Pixel_nme
Started the week with Forrest and R1MJAW on The Golf Club and Steep,joined Forrest again along with heedbaw for Tuesday Destiny,Wednesday night some Battlefield 1 for several hours with Toutski Berzerka and Forrest followed by a few games of Overwatch with that guy Forrest,between all this has been quite a lot of Zombies in Spaceland both solo and with heedbaw and Gravity Rush Remastered which I Platinumed this morning and started Gravity Rush 2,tonight will be the usual GTAV with the usual suspects;)
ron_mcphatty
Trophy mopping in Battlefront and Rocket League for me! I spent a glorious four hours trying to get the Ackbars Elite trophy for surviving, er, survival at master level and finally scraped it. Got a day off on Monday where I plan to crack on with The Last Guardian, really looking forward to it.
I cancelled my Switch preorder after seeing that it was available for less than £200, since I’m not a hardcore Nintendo fan I thought picking one up after a price drop would be more sensible. Getting a huge bill to fix the suspension on my car helped make my mind up too!
TSBonyman
Dishonored 2 mostly, completed the Clockwork Mansion – i found an alternative way to deal with the main target without killing them, then ran into a bunch of enemies and a scuffle broke out. Naturally i had to kill all of them … and only noticed afterwards that one of them had been the target i had so cleverly avoided killing a few minutes before! :/
Also a few sprinkles of Titan Attacks and Binding of Isaac.
I’ve also been ‘playing’ Adventure Capitalist – really all you do is switch it on once every fortnight, grab whatever upgrades are available, click 20/30 times to spend any remaining cash on new businesses and then shut it down again – all done in less than a minute.
DividSmythe
I got the platinum out of Lego Marvel Avengers yesterday and the wonderful Jazzpunk today too. So that’s 2 weeks with 2 platinums after I got ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS and Batman a Telltale Series last week. I also started the all Orc Slayer that which I’ll probably polish off tomorrow.
DividSmythe
Not all *awful.
Andrewww
I’ve just returned from holidays and not played anything yet, am currently reading a book.
But I failed to resist the January sales and I’ve added Batman PSVR, The Bunker, The Valley, Virginia, and Zero Time Dilemma to the list of games I’ll hopefully soon be playing.