Another week has raced on by, and so it’s our very well-established habit (for more than a decade) to look back on what we’ve played over the past seven days. After the Splatoon 3 Splatfest last weekend, I’ve had to think about catching up on games before their sequels come out. With that in mind, I made a little progress in Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (though I’ve no idea where in the story I am), and have a fresh start to A Plague Tale: Innocence to make. I also played a little of WRC Generations thanks to a studio visit at KT Racing. Look out for some articles from that very soon!
Nic B got kicked right in the nostalgia nuggets by the excellent Return to Monkey Island – see his review here – while his differently spelled namesake Nick P started playing the fantastic Inscryption. That was because he got pretty bored by the samey feeling bosses of Steelrising, and so had some time between his regular Dead by Daylight and Fortnite sessions.
Gamoc has been playing Civilization VI, which is the first time playing the series since Civ IV, and he’s finding that the series has lost none of its time-bending powers – “You decide you’ll have an hour to play and then six hours later you come back from a fugue state and look around in disbelief wondering why it’s so dark outside.”
Aran’s been hard at work on our FIFA 23 review, but before getting stuck in with that he managed to complete a run through the 2D action platformer Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2, and also returned to Chorus’ space combat.
Jim has promised himself that he wouldn’t start a Final Fantasy IX replay until he’d finished Final Fantasy X, so he’s been glued to his PS Vita this past week and making his way up to the final act of the game. Meanwhile, Tuffcub has remained glued to Destiny 2, as per usual.
While the real world housing market has proven frustrating for Steve – “everything feels like the real Dark Souls” at the moment – he’s been playing retro FPS Prodeus through Game Pass, as well as enjoying the super tough Moonscars with its monochrome aesthetic, even if it relies heavily on parrying which he continues to feel overly difficult.
Miguel’s dipped into the back catalogue to finally start playing through God of War 2018, has been dipping into his usual Fortnite gaming, and played a bunch of Splatoon 3. He also handed in his review of The DioField Chronicle this past week. And Ade and his partner discovered Alienation, with the sci-fi co-op shooter coming to dominate their gaming time – “It’s just so damn good!”
Now then, what have you played this past week?
willbuchanan
I played Dead or Alive 5, Little Big Planet 3 and Watch Dogs 2 for the multiplayer trophies – the recent server shutdowns (for other games eg Assassin’s Creeds) seem to have made me focus on multiplayer trophies when I get the option, in case the servers get closure announcements.
I also played Lego Hobbit on Vita and finished the main story of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood on PS3.
This weekend I have planned multiplayer sessions for Doom (2016) and Rise of the Tomb Raider on PS4, as well as Aliens v Predator on PS3… One day, I’ll actually get round to finishing a full game!
Andrewww
I played through Telltale’s Batman: Enemy within, which got better over time, and was an easy platinum at the end.
Dominic L
Got to love a Telltale game for an easy platinum!
MrYd
Bugger. Somehow I posted on last weeks post instead. One of my big long ones too…
A weekend away for my partner’s brother’s birthday, and then a trip to the theatre for some comedy (the wonderful Dave Gorman) meant no gaming at the weekend. And then Monday? They’re building a new Aldi near me and managed to dig up an important cable. Meaning no internet for me (and several thousand others) for about 32 hours. Top marks to Openreach for getting it fixed that quickly in a small town.
It does demonstrate how badly the PS5 handles not being online. Everything tries to do something that needs a connection. Even looking at the trophies for a game? Takes ages and eventually realises. I was going to do more of Deathloop, but that gets upset and spends 30 seconds trying to connect before telling you it can’t, but you can still play offline. And it does that every time you die. Which is frequently.
Still, it was all fixed in the end. So back to what I was playing last week. Plus the free update for the lovely PS+ game Toem.
Oh, and because I’m still downloading all of the New PS+ games, The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories. Which is odd. But then Swery65. So what was I expecting? Oh yes. Odd and some interesting but ever so slightly badly implemented gameplay. How did I miss out on that one?
And because it’s free to play, Deathverse: Let it Die. Technically a Battle Royale thing, I guess. But with only 16 players. And melee combat only (mostly). Current gen only, so that helps. No waiting around for PS4 players to load. Quite fun. Quite short games, as it encourages you to rush in and start killing people (you get more powerful with each kill, so a sort of snowball effect there). Played about 30 odd games and came first 3 times. Which I’m going to insist is good, because it’s better than completely randomly winning 1 in 16 games. No obnoxious play to win stuff either, or pestering you to pay. Just occasionally when you level up the battle pass (or whatever it’s called) it pops up a “have a look at what you could have won” screen at the end of a game. And nice quick matchmaking, at least so far. Worth a look.
Oh, and the PS5 version of Tropico 6 was on sale, so there goes another many, many hours.
Dominic L
I was late so I’m going to write here!
I’ve been playing through Space Marine again in preparation for the sequel, as well as a bunch of Valkyrie Elysium for review. I’ve also played some Farthest Frontier and a spot of For The King.