It’s F1 o’clock after the longest-feeling three weeks without F1 that I can think of. With Red Bull finally able to truly rival Mercedes last time out, it’s been a long wait to find out if the Bahrain race was a one off, if Mercedes can resume their dominance, if Verstappen can have a tilt at a championship? Thankfully we’ll get some answers (and no doubt some new questions) this weekend at Imola.
While we wait with baited breath to see how qualifying and the race unfolds…
In the News This Week
- Square Enix officially denies buy-out rumours
- PS5 April update adds game backups, improved friends list features and more – Improves DualSense rumble in PS4 backward compatibility games
- Rumour: Battlefield 6 will be a PS5 & Xbox Series X|S exclusive, not coming to PS4 or Xbox One
- Resident Evil Village second demo gives you one hour of playtime – play this weekend on PS5 and PS4
- Resident Evil Village ray tracing mode targets 4k at 45fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X
- F1 2021 races out in July with a brand new story mode
- Ubisoft E3 2021 digital press conference confirmed for 12th June
- Resident Evil 4 VR announced for Oculus Quest 2 – see more gameplay next week
- Genshin Impact PS5 upgrade launches later this month with Beneath the Light of Jadeite update
- Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is coming to Switch and PC in 2021
Games in Review
We had a relatively concise set of game reviews this week, wrapping up a couple of major reviews:
- Disco Elysium: The Final Cut – PS5, PS4, PC – 10/10
- Rain on Your Parade – XBOX, NSW, PC – 8/10
- Oddworld: Soulstorm – PS5,PS4, PC – 7/10
- Ashwalkers – PC – 6/10
- Deiland: Pocket Planet – NSW – 6/10
- Poison Control – PS4, NSW – 5/10
- Tens! – NSW, PC – 5/10
Featured Articles
We started the week off with Jim digging into Diablo II: Resurrected’s technical alpha, a game that gripped him far more than Diablo III managed.
With a new WWE game on the horizon, Ade looked at what WWE 2K22 needs to do to win fans back after the abomination of WWE 2k20. Meanwhile, as New Pokémon Snap approaches, Reggie looks back on what made Pokémon Snap such a fantastic spin-off.
I called for Gears 5: Hivebusters to have a standalone release to reach a wider audience, as Sam branded Trails of Cold Steel the best JRPG you’re not playing. Harry discussed how an aversion to “political” video games is hindering cultural progress.
Finally, What We Played featured Disco Elysium, Oddworld: Soulstorm and Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Trailer Park
Resident Evil Village will see the return of Mercenaries mode
Returnal Hostiles trailer shows some monsters players will have to survive
OlliOlli World announced by Roll7, and it is coming this winter
BioWare release official Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster comparison video
Your Achievements
Here’s what you in our community has been up to this week:
- TSBonyman has been carrying on with No Man’s Sky Expeditions, and is still in awe of the game. He also loaded up Dreams and found himself surprisingly given a shoutout in a weekly Dreams music livestream. Sounds like a lovely turn of events.
- Dan Jones has been smashing Demon’s Souls on PS5 some more, onto NG++++ after snagging the platinum. He gave Maquette a try, but struggled with the frame rate and screen tearing.
- willbuchanan has been knocking through the DLC for Borderlands to reach 100%. He’s just got Moxxi’s Underdome to go and then he can move on to the next game.
- And MrYd has been struggling with SSD corruption on his PS5 after a power outage. In and around redownloading all the games again, he finished the main story in Marvel’s Avengers despite poor design decisions. He’s also played plenty of Enlisted and enjoyed some co-op in Zombie Army 4.
That’s all for this week’s gaming round-up. As always, have fun at home, stay safe if and when you’re out, and we’ll see you next week.
