Something For The Weekend – 29/04/17

Well, well, well. The standings from F1 qualifying are certainly a turn out for the books, and really stoke the fires of this year’s championship. I’ll not spoil things here, but I’m definitely curious to see how tomorrow’s race pans out.

Anyway, as we settle in for another long weekend – you’ve got to love bank holidays – let’s take a look back at the last few days of news, reviews and more.

In the News This Week

• Call of Duty: WWII revealed in great detail
  “Boots on the ground” in the Second World War, and Sledgehammer and Activision are making all the right noises about this.
• Sony’s 20 million PS4s sold in the last 12 months boost their financial report
  They’re now closing in on that 60 million mark.
• Nintendo Switch surpasses expectations in rosy Nintendo financial report
  2.74 million Switches, over 100% Breath of the Wild attach rate, and Pokémon Sun & Moon is set to be best selling 3DS game yet. Good news!
• Nintendo surprisingly announce the New Nintendo 2DS XL
  Citing the Switch’s size and battery life, TheShepanator thinks “There’s an opening in the market now for a “real” new handheld”, that isn’t yet another 3DS variant.
• Forza Horizon 3 getting a Hot Wheels expansion in May
• Try out Prey in the first hour demo
• For Honor Season 2: Shadow & Might kicks off on 16th May
• Battlefield 1’s Spring Update adds Platoons, tweaks DLC maps
• Three Fields Entertainment reveal Danger Zone
• May’s PlayStation Plus includes Alienation & Tales from the Borderlands
  With Blood Knights and Port Royal 3: Pirates and Merchants for PS3, and Laser Disco Defenders and Type: Ryder for PS Vita.

Games in Review

It’s been another busy week of releases, so let’s dive in, starting with the practically essential What Remains of Edith Finch.

• What Remains of Edith Finch – PS4, PC – 10/10
• Stardew Valley – PS4, XBO, PC, Swith – 9/10
• Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight – PS4, XBO, PC – 9/10
• Little Nightmares – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• Statik – PSVR – 8/10
• Cities: Skylines – Xbox One Edition – Xbox One – 8/10
• Puyo Puyo Tetris – PS4, Switch – 7/10
• Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 – PS4, XBO, PC – 6/10

This Week’s Features

A good mixture of previews, a couple of features and a dive into some of the PSVR “experiences” this week. Jim was the one venturing into those, first looking at Alchemy VR and David Attenborough’s attempts to educate, before turning to Virry VR’s semi-interactive safari, well, experience!

I also thoroughly enjoyed my time with a very different kind of VR game, going boldly into the science fiction cooperative game Star Trek: Bridge Crew. It’s looking good, especially for fans of the TV and film series.

Dom stepped back in time to preview Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a remake of the second game in the series, brought up to date for the 3DS. Kris also stepped back in time, in a way, with one last Rezzed Round Up, featuring Night Bizarre, Serial Cleaner & Pawarumi.

With the release of the absolutely phenomenal Mario kart 8 Deluxe yesterday, I turned my eye to the future instead, asking where Nintendo can go next with the series.

Finally, What We Played features Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Little Nightmares and Puyo Puyo Tetris.

Trailer Park

The Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels expansion looks amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-K_M4i2Bbs

There’s lots of off road racing in Dirt 4

Gundam Versus announced for PS4 release in Europe

Sega made a real life Power Fist from Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III

Classic Sonic features in Sonic Forces

Your Achievements

It was back to the PS3 for ron_mcphatty, who returned to Saints Row 3 and picked up the platinum, but there was no such trophy sound for gazzagb, who’s hit a staggering 1000 hours of play time in DOTA 2!

JR., meanwhile, explored The Park, which made him jump a few times with a scray final section to the game, even if it was a knock off PT in his opinion. Meanwhile, Pixel_nme played through Titanfall 2’s “excellent” campaign, before getting to Knack as he works to ward the platinum trophy there.

It’s also been lovely to see several of you enjoying your time with the Nintendo Switch. MadBoJangles and Avenger continued with Zelda, Eldave0 has overcome Joy-Con issues with a new and “phenomenal” Pro Controller, Divid Smythe succumbed to the temptation of a £20 discount code to join the party, and all of them have picked up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The Week Ahead

What do we have to look forward to next week? Well, Prey, but let me give you some of the other highlights:

• TumbleSeed – PS4, Switch, Win, Mac – 02/05
• Super Rude Bear Resurrection – PS4, XBO, Win, Mac, Linux – 02/05
• Gnog – PS4 – 02/05
• The Caligula Effect – PS Vita – 02/05
• Prey – PS4, XBO, PC – 05/05
• World to the West – PS4, XBO, Wii U, Win, Mac, Linux – 05/05
• Dreamfall Chapters: The Final Cut – PS4, XBO – 05/05

So with that, enjoy the rest of your long weekends, and we’ll see you next time!