What We Played #447 – Moving Out, Final Fantasy VII Remake & Animal Crossing

I love gaming right now. I mean, I write for a gaming site, so I must have some kind of affection for them – that’s right Twitter trolls! – but at this moment, I’m enjoying it more than I have in years. I think, to be fair, it’s all of the extra time I’m finding for it during lockdown. We’ve got to structure our days around having two small boys to teach, and generally stop from destroying everything in our home, but there’s just more space for doing our own thing too, and for me that’s to delve into loads of games, all at the same time.

There’s Animal Crossing of course, but that’s been joined by Freedom Finger, Spider-Man, SnowRunner and Gears Tactics this week, and I’ve just been having a great time with them. If we’re looking for positives right now, having a hobby where you can escape the confines of your home, and thoroughly envelop yourself in someone else’s life – or create your own – has to be at the top of my list.

Nic B was the first to tell me what he’s played. I mean, literally. I must have just hit Enter on my request almost the same time he replied. It’s like. he could see what I was doing! Besides possibly stalking me from four hundred miles away, Nic has been playing a tonne of Final Fantasy VII Remake, saying he’s been “Crushing hard mode, trying to get that sweet, sweet platinum. I’m not far off now, either… I’ve also played a little Magic Arena — the new set comes with Godzilla cards, thanks to a deal with Toho, but getting them means doing the expensive draft and I don’t wanna spend real money on it, so I’m grinding the free-to-play mode.” Now, if there was a Godzilla Magic the Gathering game, I could get right on board with that.

Nick P finished FFVII this week and has also now started hard mode – I know a man who can help you with that – while Aran is playing Streets of Rage 4 and In Other Waters for review, and Tuffcub has played Destiny 2, and the PC ENGINE MINI. He is the chosen one.

Jim has continued to transform his days under lockdown into something more productive, meaning another week of Ring Fit Adventure. “Even at level 45 and some 20 sessions in, Nintendo’s clever exercise ’em up is surprising me with new types of level designs and advanced RPG mechanics.” He continues, “It’s been a very Switch focused week actually as I finally dipped back into Hollow Knight. Having snapped it up to play during a long flight I immediately bounced off it though decided to knuckle down this time and I’ve been enjoying its Metroidvania trappings so far.”

Reu has been using the lockdown to finally commit to getting through some of the titles in his backlog, with him “finishing (or at least getting to the end of) Final Fantasy XII. I’ve also started and finished What Remains Of Edith Finch, and moved onto Rime, which has been sitting on my PS4 forever. Other than that, it has been the Holy Trinity of Lockdown Releases™: Animal Crossing, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Resident Evil 3”.

It’s been a pretty eclectic week for Steve: “Got the platinum on RE3 finally – the end boss on Inferno is cheap as hell – playing through Stranger Things 3 on PS4 with my 13-year-old – she’s obsessed with the show so going against her usual anti-gaming stance – and the 8-year-old and I are still plugging away at Adventure Time Explore the Dungeon on 360.”

That’s not all though, as he’s also been “thinking of working through my physical PS4 games for an epic trade once normality resumes. But then my PC hard-drive is pretty full, I’ve got a few PS3 games to polish off still, my WiiU is mostly untouched, and then there’s handheld options… Too many games and fewer other commitments on my time.”

Another one on the Animal Crossing train is Drea who’s been “terraforming like crazy”, Jason has also been reviewing Streets of Rage 4, but has mostly played EDF 5 and Tabletop Simulator, explaining “That’s an idle game on my phone because it makes me feel like something is moving as time slowly stops completely.”

Miguel has played some Trials of Mana, his usual heaped helping of Animal Crossing, and a wee lil bit of Fortnite. “I’ve also been getting more into Apex now that duos is a thing, and a bunch of friends picked up Rainbow Six Siege so ive been playing that too!” Finally Ade played Moving Out for review and absolutely loved it, saying “Best mutiplayer I’ve played all year!:” Well, that’s a mighty recommendation then!

Now then, what have you all been playing this week?

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

5 Comments

  1. Been playing DiRT and only got one trophy left which is proving to be difficult as I jave to use Audi Spory quattro S1 E2 and that car is hard for me to handle!
    Started Shadows Awakening and it is a nice wee fun game but it does have bugs along the way. Will continue to play as I am halfway on the story.
    Lastly Predator Hunting Grounds…. I am loving it and that is saying from a fan of Predator! Currently at rank 36 and that game is my weekend planned sorted!

  2. I’ve been splitting my time between Dreams on PS4 and Half-life 2 on PS3. I hadn’t played HL 2 for about ten years so it feels quite fresh again and i’m having a great time with it! :)

    • Retro! I just started Half-Life on Steam but I think I’ll just cough up for Black Mesa, in the Hope by the time I finish the series HL3 will be a thing!

      I’ve been hammering more Need For Speed Payback, I just love the utterly shite Fast and Furious style story and the Permanently drifty cornering. I think I’m approaching the end of the narrative so the races have become pleasantly challenging, I have to do each one two or three times which is a good thing, the series has always been fun but definitely too easy. More tonight I think, vroooom.

      • I really wish i’d hung on to my PS1 copy of the original but i was watching Danny Dwyer playing Black Mesa during the week and it looks great, shame it’ll probably never make it to consoles. Ah well, i still have the episodes and the Portal games to keep me going!

  3. The Division 2, trying out different specialisations, skills, etc., and tidying up some bounties. And I’ll soon be ready to go to New York. Before that, I first have to play some more of Kenly College, which for some odd reason is not available constantly, and now is for only three days longer.
    Apart from that, lockdown made it possible to play some couch-co-op with my kids, Star Wars Battlefront 1 (we clearly prefer the first one over the second), Plants vs. Zombies (which we didn’t like and deleted straight away), some Resogun and some Rayman Legends.

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