What We Played #455 – The Last of Us Part II, The Outer Worlds & Pokémon Smile

They announced a new Star Wars game this week, which means that it was a good week. Even better is the fact that it’s coming this year, and, it’s about flying spaceships, which anyone knows is the best way to make Star Wars games.

Even without that, I had a fun little week of gaming, checking out The Riftbreaker, while making a start on the very silly Wave Break, and diving into Elder Scrolls Online’s Greymoor expansion. There’s been some other stuff too, like the Grounded demo, and a bunch of flying games while I checked out the brand new Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick.

Aran has been working his way through the BioShock Collection on Switch, telling us that “1&2 are done, so just playing through Infinite now.” and will give us a verdict on the bundle next week “if work and decorating don’t get in the way.” Jake meanwhile has been putting a load of time into Pokémon Sword and Shield’s new expansion; “It’s honestly great if you like the wild area stuff from the base game. It also brings many other Pokémon back into the mix. Could’ve been more, in some ways though!”

It’s been a quiet week for Nic B, with just some The Outer Worlds on the Switch, which he says is “a poor port of a great game”, and a little bit of Magic Arena when he can steal an hour here or there.

Tuffcub has played Destiny 2, but was just biding his time so he could stay up late and get started on The Last of Us Part II. “I’ve got to that bit in TLOU2,” he said. “Literally sat there, hand over mouth in shock.” Gareth was also having a quiet week, with just 30 minutes or so of Battlefront II before he too cracked open the case of The Last of Us Part II.

Going back a bit, Nick P tried the original Kingdom Hearts but really hasn’t got on with it, saying “controls and system feel really outdated which is annoying because I love the theme”. He also played the Fights in Tight Spaces demo which was “sterling! It’s a deck building fighting game which is right up my alley!”

Having ploughed through for our review, Jim has been taking a break from The Last of Us Part II, though he fully intends to get stuck into a second playthrough once he can get my hands on some collectible guides. Instead he’s dipping into some VR goodness with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners which is “easily the best PSVR title I’ve played all year though I need to go a little deeper to see how much meat there is on the bone.”

That’s not all though. “It’s actually Dauntless that has been taking up most of my free time,” he said. “Having bounced off it when it originally launched I decided to give the game a second chance and I’m glad I did. While not quite as rich as Monster Hunter: World, Dauntless trades depth for accessible and being able to dip in for a few hunts at a time without the laborious setup. I’ve blitzed through all of the Hunt Pass (battle pass) tiers in less than a week and now I’m starting to get my friends on board for some 4-player action.”

Thomas has also been back on the Destiny 2 train, earning himself plenty of Umbral Engrams and trying to increase his power level. “Outside of Destiny I’ve been playing West of Dead for review, which you can read here, and I’ve been chipping away at Resolutiion on the Nintendo Switch which I should finish up for review next week!”

Drea sadly hasn’t been playing anything the last few weeks as her hand is out of action right now, but she tried Pokemon smile this morning, saying “it was pretty amusing and has a cute design”. Reuben is back on the attempt to clear his backlog with some Bravely Second, “which is pretty much how I remember it (in the good and the bad). Otherwise, I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles and making good progress, and I’ve recently picked up Terraria thanks to Jason, which is an experience.”

Miguel has been “crushing it: in Pokémon Smile, having already completed the national dex and beaten the elite four. “My gums are raw and all I taste is mint, but it was all worth it”. He continued “I’ve also been playing a lil Animal Crossing, a lil Apex Legends, a smidgeon of Fortnite, some Sakura Wars, and the Darius Cozmic Collection. Been messing around in The Forest with some friends, too”.

Finally Tef has played six or seven of the games from 51 Worldwide Games. He’s going through each one and “mastering” it against the AI before moving onto the next. Oh, and there were a couple of remote preview events that he’s been working on, including the surprising Rocket Arena and some racing game or other that he can’t quite talk about yet. Not much The Last of Us Part II for him, but he’ll be heading back into the tense story this weekend.


That’s all for us, but what about your gaming of the last week? Have you picked up The Last of Us Part II? Let us know in the comments below.

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. I played some Doom VFR and it’s pretty good. I was initially a bit sceptical when i realised it was still teleporting even with the DS4 but it works out pretty well and suits the gameplay.
    Also played some Renegade Ops, R&C 2 and Half Life Episode One on PS3 but i’m really just counting the hours until my TLoU2 preorder unlocks tonight!

    • Just got home and discovered TLoU2 is ready to play – that’s this evening’s chores abandoned!

  2. As my projector suddenly refused to work, my gaming came to an abrupt end already last weekend. I resorted to dusting off my PSVR, which I hadn’t played for a while, and continued with The Inpatient. Unlike back then, I immediately felt my stomach a little, and struggled with the poor controls of the game. I’m not sure this is really worth any more of my time. Then I ‘played’ some Titanic VR, which is impressive in some respect. But, again, the controls are not one of them.

    As my current projector is already over 10 years old, I thought it might be time to get a new one, and so spent most of the week researching different brands, but that wasn’t really successful.
    First, it’s difficult to find information about input lag, some brands indicate it, but only for some of their projectors, others don’t. Second, most don’t support HDMI 2.1, and so are clearly not PS5-ready. And, third, some projectors in 2020 don’t even support horizontal lens shift, a feature my old one has no issues with at all, and which I need for my setup.
    I gave up, ordered a replacement lamp, and I’ll wait some more with getting a new projector, probably in 2021.

  3. For the first time in a couple of years I had a proper evening of blowing stuff up with mates, this time on Battlefront 2. It’s become a lot more fun thanks to some more thoughtful balancing, Ewok Hunt and the co-op missions. I’m sure neither are revolutionary but they’re a lot of fun, I can see myself playing a lot more in the run up to Squadrons!

  4. Finished off the multiplayer trophies in CoD:WWII, and then deleted it because the single player trophies are annoying and the zombies mode really is a bit shit in that one. And because I needed the 80+ GB back.

    Then a fair bit of NFS:Heat. Definitely the best one since Rivals. Not sure I’ll bother smashing all the billboards and flamingos though. Why are there flamingos to “collect”? Apart from being set in Pretend Miami. Actually, one of the characters pretty much says “it makes no sense, just smash them” at one point, which is fair enough.

    And even more RDR2. Something addictive about just galloping around on Bob the Horse collecting things. Quite a good way to make money to upgrade my moonshine business. I think I’m mistreating Bob the Horse though. He’s a very dirty horse because doing anything that counts as “horse care” can increase your honour, which I don’t want. I sometimes wish the animations for everything were quicker, but it’s part of it’s relaxing charm, I guess. Even when you wander into a house and rummage through a dozen different cupboards and draws and come away with some cigarettes and a tin of fruit.

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