The weeks directly following a major trade show always feel a little bit odd as the announcements slow down and the news stories get just that little bit more snarky and nitpick at the news stories of the week before. Then again, perhaps it’s my imagination as I, much like the rest of you, struggled to deal with the sweltering heatwave and had pretty much everyone complaining.
It’s my turn at bat for What We Played this week, and so I’ve decided that I get to go first. My newfound love of Tricky Towers continued into last weekend, as I distracted myself from the somewhat dull managerial career in MotoGP 17. The explosive chaos in Danger Zone also helped, as has my continued time with the Fanatec CSL Elite Racing Wheel and fiddling with the New Nintendo 2DS XL.
However, with the launch of the first DLC pack just around the corner, I’ve found myself drawn back into the world of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a major way. Boy, is that game good or what?
Sticking with Zelda, Jake went and played A Link Between Worlds this past week and a bit of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. That’s been all for him, as he’s had day job interview to prepare for and it’s  been way too hot to go near his PS4.
Tuffcub’s been an incredibly busy bee this week. Firstly there was the admittedly awesome PlayStation VR Worlds minigame Danger Ball, which has him eager to try out CCP’s Tron-like Sparc. Battlefield Hardline and Rise of the Tomb Raider have also gone down well with him, alongside the usual time in Titanfall 2, and he’s busy reviewing Perception and a co-op PSVR tower defence game called Ancient Amuletor!
As well as joining a gym so that TSA can hopefully boast having the buffest news team going, Aran completed Yakuza 0, saying he loved it and that it had just the right balance of seriousness and oddness to it. As a fellow lover of games out of Japan, Miguel’s been playing Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, a little bit of of Overwatch and devoting plenty of time to the mobile Fire Emblem Heroes game. He only hates it a little bit.
Dave busied himself reviewing Ever Oasis this week, finding it a nice adventure but nothing terribly remarkable. Beyond that, he got the higher frame rate he wanted in Dark Souls III by grabbing it in the Steam sale and playing it on his powerful PC, also shelling out for LA Noire off the back of the remaster rumours. Then there was his regular dip into Hearthstone for the Tavern Brawl, which was another repeat of an earlier brawl.
Following Ubisoft’s added penalties for rage quitting matches in For Honor, Jim has returned to the medieval mash up brawler and found that it significantly reduces the number of distrupted matches. “I’m really glad I dipped back in,” he said, “and can see myself playing For Honor as much as I do Overwatch.
Steve sunk some time into “rogue-like done right” Monolith, and has nearly finished Mages of  Mystralia for review. He also managed to accidentally finish Breath of the Wild while search from the last memory, but needs to redo it to get the proper ending and so his kids can watch. Not sure how you accidentally defeat Ganon, but there you go!
Last but by no means least, Dom has been savouring Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood and how it revives the MMORPG. There’s also been Kingdom New Lands’ delectable side-scrolling kingdom management game, losing hours to the game at a time.
So, that’s our gaming week in review, but how about you? What have you played?
Steelhead
Didn’t get much done in the hot weather due to an ongoing back injury, and didn’t manage much gaming either.
Played the final episode of Life is Strange, then went back to snag the optional photos I missed to earn the plat.
A bit more Shantae Half Genie Hero, which is still failing to grow on me. Also wanted to try the free trial of Final Fantasy XIV but after several hours of waiting and multiple failed attempts to update the game I gave up and started book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire instead.
Jim Hargreaves
Shame about FF14, it’s a fantastic game once you get past all those silly hurdles.
Great book too!
MrYd
Bit of some of the free-to-play games again (Marvel Heroes and Skyforge).
And Horizon Zero Dawn, which is at least gorgeous looking. There’s a story there somewhere, but it’s suffering from too many icons and distracting side quests. The story is probably “men are all stupid and women are great, even the amazingly unlikeable main character”.
Then I picked up The Turing Test in a sale, which was an entertaining Portal-clone with an interesting story. Until it ended before it got to the challenging puzzles.
There were probably 100 others things, because it was far too hot to concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes at a time.
I guess next week will be Elite Dangerous.
Jim Hargreaves
Finished Horizon this week (completely forgot to mention). In truth I really didn’t think much of it starting out. By the end I was hooked though. The story definitely improves the more you progress.
TSBonyman
Too hot for gaming much of this week, but i played some more NMS and Neon Chrome. Also played the first day of Firewatch and a few levels of Brick Breaker, both of which i grabbed in the store deals this week along with Shadow Complex remastered.
aerobes
Witcher 3 and trying to avoid the sun.
Andrewww
Some more Fallout 4.
Oh, and I stumbled across Horizon Zero Dawn, down in the public library, when I got some books for the kids (I was quite surprised they have it). But when I wanted to rent it (who knows, maybe it’s as good as people keep saying…), they told me I couldn’t, as it’s age rating is above what they allow for my kids (only they are registered there, as only kids get free membership). So, that was that. Maybe it’s not as good as people keep saying. And I should finish Fallout 4 (and lots of other stuff) first anyway.
ron_mcphatty
Horizon is better than people keep saying, every single person whose recommended it has understated its incredibleness ;) Being honest, there’s things to complain about but it is still excellent, very much worth a play when you find the time.
I’ve not played anything but I have been tinkering with my PiStation for Tuesday evening where a friend (who loves Zelda) is going to make me play Link’s Awakening, should be fun!
Andrewww
I’m sure I’ll play it soon. I’m just trying to figure out how to outwit public library regulations… ;o)
ron_mcphatty
Hah, you are hardcore ;)
Andrewww
Of course…! ;o)
Eldave0
Nothing much for me this week; have recently started a games development training course so have been getting stuck into that :)
I did put a few more hours into the Puyo Puyo Tetris’ Adventure mode, which continues to be challenging and wacky.
Oh, I also picked up a cheap copy of Gears of War 4 after it hit my sub-£10 biting point (£7.99). Hoping to make a start on it tonight.