Another week in the bag, and January is gradually creeping along. Probably even slower than normal thanks to an overall lack of this place known as ‘outside’. Still, ‘outside’ doesn’t have as many consoles to play, so we’ve been getting some good chunks of gaming in while at home.
I finished Breath of the Wild off so that I could truly dive into Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, but really, I just want to start BOTW again. It’s still one of the greatest games of all time. Aside from that, there’s been more Warframe, more Hivebusters, some Hitman 3 when it was working, and some more Wipeout 2048 on my brand new (to me) Japanese PS Vita. There’s almost certainly been other stuff, but my son has helped me fall down a Warhammer: Age of Sigmar hole, and now there’s Citadel paints everywhere and a burgeoning army of Nighthaunts to play with instead.
Gareth has been playing Cyberpunk, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Vigor for review. He’s been trying to arrange people to play Vigor with but it hasn’t happened too often thanks to real life. Aran has also been a digital viking, playing more AC Valhalla. He tells us, “my way is to clear the map of all interest points in each region before embarking on the main quest line. Less distracted that way by the shiny things. I also busted out my Switch to play a bit of Yoshi’s Woolly World because I just need a simple game to get lost in. It is a nice little charmer.”
Nic B has had a quieter one, focusing on our upcoming Persona 5 Strikers review, with a little Pogo and Magic here and there. Jim, on the other hand, has not, firstly playing his way through Hitman 3 for review, saying, “It’s basically more of the same but with some clever twists and refinements, the overarching story being more of a focus. It’s been great fun and I’ve already started diving back into each location, crossing off mastery challenges and finding new ways to dispatch targets.
“Having put it down for a few weeks, I managed to get back into Final Fantasy VI. I’m glad I did as I feel I’m on the home stretch now as I blitz my way to Kefka’s Tower. I also played a couple more runs of Shadow of the Colossus. One more and I should have all the trophies!”
Reuben played yet more FFXIV and is trying to level his Weaver so he can get a cute jacket, “Glamours are the true FFXIV endgame”, he’s also been playing a lot of games with friends this week, finishing Left4Dead 2 together and have moved onto Torchlight II with some Castle Crashers as a palette cleanser.
Another beardy, long haired type, Nick P has been playing AC Valhalla which he’s quite enjoying, telling us, “It’s the first Assassin’s Creed in a long while I’ve not dropped off after the first few hours.” He’s also been playing Werewolf The Apocalypse: Earthblood for review, but more on that later.
Steve has continued his Nier prep by playing through Drakengard 2, but “was sensible enough to watch the alternative endings on YouTube rather than grind and grind for them”. He then took a trip to pre-deluge Atlantis in VR with Ryte The Eye of Atlantis, saying, “it has some nice puzzles but also some pre-release bugs to iron out. And then I started my review playthrough of The Medium (I think I’m allowed to say that?) about which more will be said next week.”
Tuffcub apologised for having returned to Destiny 2 – It’s OK TC, we forgive you – while Miguel has had a busy one, playing “Everspace 2 and Atelier Ryza 2 for writin’ articles this week, and I’ve also been wumblin’ around in Warzone and Apex Legends and Fortnite. I beat Outer Wilds, too!! Crunchyroll also localized a new mobile game called Princess Connect Re:Dive so ive been messin’ around with that.”
Finally, Tef overcame Hades on the 41st attempt, breaking his way out of the underworld and onto the surface to savour the game’s bittersweet climax… except he needs more completions to uncover more story beats, and now the game wants to make things even harder!
Now then, what on Earth have you played?
MrYd
Some more Squadrons, and Hunt: Showdown (still hate the spider).
And finished of The Last of Us 2. An improvement in gameplay, and still looks stunning, but the story (which was the best bit of the first game) is just terrible. I think that was down to the way it was told. Bad person does terrible thing, now we’ll try and convince you they weren’t bad all along. It just doesn’t work, especially in a game.
But then it was on to Hitman 3 and being very impressed by how they got it all to work in VR. And the Hitman 3 levels are as good as those from the first 2 games. They’ve always tried to impress you at the start of levels (walking into that big building in Paris and getting to the fashion show crowd?), but Berlin just perfects that, walking down the stairs to the crowd with lasers and music. Add VR to that, and it almost makes up for the fact you can’t walk into a big room full of people and music for real these days. Particularly cute the way the control vibrates with the music. I think all 3 games in VR will keep me going for quite some time.
Watchful
Only had time to dip into Destiny 2 for a few short sessions. After realising part way through Beyond Light that I hadn’t finished the Shadowfall campaign I’ve just been mostly hanging about on the moon getting distracted from the campaign by the Altars of Sorrow event.
willbuchanan
I bought the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy in a sale a couple of months ago and have finally got round to playing it, I’ve actually been enjoying it more than I expected. Having finished Far Cry 5, I wasn’t sure what to play next, so for a change I’ve installed Far Cry New Dawn, although I’ve not had a chance to start it yet. Having dusted off my Vita, I’ve also been playing Everybody’s Golf again. The Vita is really great for quick gaming sessions. Also, currently I have 96 platinum trophies and I’m wondering what game I want for my milestone 100th platinum. I mean, I want it to be something standout, an AAA game, but what? I’ve been considering games from Skyrim to Ghost of Tsushima and everything in between!
Crazy_Del
Tricky to pick a game for 100th Plat! I don’t know if you have played Miles Morales as that game is superb! There is God of War if you haven’t played or Platinum yet.
Ghost would be great as that game is brilliant!
Hope you know which game you wish to be the 100th
willbuchanan
Miles Morales is a good shout, I’ve got the Spiderman plat so the follow on would be cool. Think I’ll go for Ghost though – my first plat was Infamous, which was also made by Sucker Punch, so it seems fitting somehow!
Crazy_Del
I had crazy gaming hunting lol. Feeling much better as I was under the weather last week. Due to the flu I decided to carry on Valhalla and take it easy by doing collectibles before moving on. I got the Platinum (again) for the PS5 (thanks to some of the trophies already popped from previous save on PS4)
Borrowed ManEater from a friend to blitz it on PS4 for another Platinum again (one I already obtained on PS5 thanks to PS Plus)
I have started Mafia Trilogy this week and will continue this weekend. I have just completed the campaign there. Going to do collectibles (tons of them!) Then replay the campaign again on Classic difficulty for the Platinum which I reckon will be on Sunday if not too much trouble lol. Then I can crack on Mafia II next week!
Oh also played Resident Evil 8 Demo cannot wait for the full version of the game on the 7th May.
TSBonyman
Not a lot this week but i grabbed Yoku’s Island Express and Unravel 2 on the cheap and they are both gorgeous and a joy to play.
Andrewww
I can relate to your situation, my son’s into AoS as well… ?
What I can’t currently share with my kids is how much I enjoy my journey through Resident Evil 2. I cleared the police station playing as Leon, and I think I’ll definitely play Claire’s story after that, it’s so good. Evading (or failing to evade) zombies, zombie dogs, lickers and Mr. X is soo cool… ?
Oh, and I play it on the PS5, as there seem to be some improvements, according to this excellent list I found: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ps5-backwards-compatibility-all-ps4-games-with-benefits.322747/
There are still some loading times, I just presume I’d wait for much much longer would I play on the PS4.