Something For The Weekend – 04/11/17

It’s time for heading to your nearest display of brightly coloured explosions in the night’s sky, burning effigies of a traitor, waving around sparklers (in a safe an controlled manner), and trying to reassure your terrified pets that everything is OK and that the end of the world is not nigh.

Do you have any plans for Guy Fawkes Night?

In the News This Week

• Head here for all the news and trailers out of Paris Games Week
• Codemasters Evo – formerly Evolution Studios – reveal new arcade racer Onrush
• There’s a new and very violent trailer for The Last of Us: Part II
• Jim Ryan defends the violent trailers from PGW as being “Made by adults to be played by adults.”
  stonyk said, “I sympathise with parents trying to keep their kids away from this sort of stuff – it’s almost impossible. How many parents will have even heard of Paris Games Week, let alone to pre emtively tell their 15 year old not to watch it in case there is any unsuitable content.”
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds coming to Xbox One on 12th December
• Housemarque are moving on from arcade games – “Arcade is dead”
• Call of Duty WWII features daily missions for watching other people open loot boxes
• Bungie reveals what we can expect in Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris
• Blizzard revealed Moira, a new Overwatch character
• Super Mario Odyssey sold 2 million copies in 3 days
• LA Noire for Nintendo Switch doesn’t dit on a Nintendo Switch
  “So that’s the third game to make the stupid decision of saving money on the cartridge, and forcing a massive download,” kennykazey responded
• Runic Games, of Torchlight and Hob fame, shut down
  “If only they’d put loot boxes in their games,” Starman snarkily commented.
• CCP Games shut down their VR studio 
• November’s PlayStation Plus games include a bonus PSVR game

Competitions

It might Guy Fawkes’ tomorrow, but earlier in the week we had the wonders and delights of Halloween, and a giveaway for five pairs of Friday The 13th and Dead Alliance codes, courtesy of Maximum Games.

The winners were kjkg, Tantalus, @ElSpurgo, @Dualshox87 and Damo_Sim.

Games in Review

The big review this week was that of Microsoft’s big new games console, which is actually a very compact and attractive black box. Is it worth the price tag? Well that very much depends on what you want to get out of it.

• Xbox One X – Hardware Review
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• Pinball FX3 – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• Super Lucky’s Tale – XBO, Win 10 – 7/10
• Spintires: MudRunner – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
• Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure – XBO – 6/10
• Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back – PS4, PC – 4/10
• Disneyland Adventures – XBO – 4/10

This Week’s Features

We actually started off the week with another of our trademark, slightly awkward unboxing videos – I do really need to find a better way to do these, but they’re so rare that I’m sure you can let it slide, even if just for the brilliant title:

However for many of you here, the biggest news will have been coming out of Paris as Sony returned to Paris Games Week. Afterwards, we got to see Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds and how it looks to further and improve the main game, went hands on with Blood & Truth, the spiritual successor to The London Heist, and brought a gorgeous 4K video from Detroit: Become Human, exploring the way a scene can pan out very, very differently.

There’s more to come from PGW, so stay tuned.

Elsewhere, we went hands on with Need for Speed Payback’s Play First Trial, and also chatted to Creative Director Will Ho about what the game is trying to achieve, as it blends open world racing with a blockbuster story and off roading for the first time.

As easily one of the best games of the year, we had a little fun and reviewed Bowser’s wedding plans. From kidnapping and war to dedication and a glitzy location, how did he do? If you don’t fancy picking up Nintendo’s latest console though, we also looked up a few alternatives that can be found on other platforms.

Finally, we have What We Played, which featured Xbox One X, Wolfenstein II and Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds.

Trailer Park

Warning, some of these trailers are rather violent, are not suitable for minors, and might put you off your tea.

(18+) Catch the latest The Last of US: Part II trailer here

(18+) Can Kara save Alice in the latest Detroit: Become Human trailer

(18+) Blood & Truth is a a new PSVR crime caper from London Studio

Check out Codemasters Evo’s Onrush

Learn Reinhardt’s backstory in the latest Overwatch Short

Your Achievements

The Life and Times of TSA’s Community continues this week with:

• TSBonyman completed Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, levelled up his mercenary rank in No Man’s Sky, and raged at The Last Guardian before stopping so his neighbour doesn’t call the cops on him!
• JR. finished the “absolutely not awful” Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
• Ade reckons Assassin’s Creed Origins is the best in the series so far.
• tactical20 does not think it’s much of an Assassin’s Creed game, but is enjoying the setting.
• Andrewww and ron_mcphatty are both coming to the end of Wolfenstein II
• FlyingCowie’s been watching an Xbox One unsuccessfully try to launch Call of Duty WWII, while slipping and sliding on the ice of Super Mario Odyssey.
• It was MrYd’s birthday yesterday, and received a flurry of birthday wishes from other commenters.

The Week Ahead

As we enter November, Microsoft are hoping to make a big splash with the Xbox One X next week. Are you getting one Xbox One X?

• Xbox One X – 7/11
• Super Lucky’s Tale – XBO, PC – 7/11
• Sonic Forces – PS4, XBO, Switch, PC – 7/11
• Nioh – PC – 7/11
• Guardians of the Galaxy – Episode 5 – PS4, XBO, PC, iOS, And – 07/11
• Minecraft Story Mode: Season Two – Episode 2 – PS4, XBO, PC, iOS, And – 07/11
• Doom – Switch – 10/11
• Football Manager 2018 – PC – 10/11
• Need for Speed Payback – PS4, XBO, PC – 10/11

That’s all for this week, and hopefully we’ll see you again soon!