Something For The Weekend – 01/10/16

If you live and breathe videogames, October is both hugely exciting and utterly terrifying. September has seen some big releases, sure, but October is where the proverbials hit the fan. It’s not just that there’s huge FPS series like Battlefront and Titanfall hitting the shelves, let alone big hitters in the form of Mafia III’s open world and Civilization VI’s evergreen turn based empire building, there’s also a whole new hardware platform and reams of launch titles for the PlayStation VR.

Quite simply, there’s too much to play… not that this will stop me trying!

In the News This Week

• Hello Games are being investigates by the ASA over No Man’s Sky advertising
  Enough people reported the game’s marketing to the Advertising Standards Authority, in particular pointing to the outdated trailers and videos on the Steam store page. For a different perspective, here’s Jeff Minter’s nostalgia-laden thoughts at the game (via TSBonyman).
• Driveclub Season Pass owners can get a big discount on Driveclub VR
  Instead of shelling out for the full £34.99/€39.99 game, you can pick it up for £15.99/€19.99.
• Changes abound, as Kotaku report that Destiny 2 aims to feel like “a totally new game”
  Dropping last gen consoles (but also coming to PC), it’ll be much more ambitious with the world structure, featuring towns and outposts across completely new planets and areas, and “play-in destinations” as opposed to the kinds of patrol areas we currently have. The downside is, you might not be able to keep your guardians from the first game…
• Jack Tretton said the PS Vita was great, but came to market too late
  TSBonyman commented, “I thought it would be really cool being able to play games like Uncharted and Killzone on a handheld […] but the simpler games didn’t really hold my attention.” Similarly, JR. wrote, “Vita just wasn’t cool. It was a handheld for serious gamers not casuals looking to play flappy bird on their daily commute.”
• Movie News: Expect a Portal movie announcement soon & Firewatch is coming to the big screen
• Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey courts controversy by funding a “sh•tposting” Trump supporting group
  There’s been a lot of fallout for Facebook-owned Oculus because of Nimble America’s defamatory posts and support of the incendiary presidential candidate. A number of developers announced they would no longer support the headset, but Insomniac Games said that, while the condemn the Nimble America’s hate speech, they “are also confident that this behavior and sentiment does not reflect the values of the many Oculus employees we work with on a daily basis.”
• There was a huge old design PlayStation 4 fire sale this week
  All the UK retailers were flogging C-chassis consoles and bundles for £150, and often adding in extras on top of that. You might still be able to spot a bargain, if you’re lucky.
• PlayStation Experience 2016 comes to Anaheim on December 3rd
• PlayStation Plus features Resident Evil and Transformers: Devastation in October

Games in Review

If you thought last week’s selection of game reviews was varied, this week takes things to new levels. A lot of it is actually rather good, with a fistful of 8/10 score. Here’s the rundown:

• Madden 17 – PS4, XBO, PC – 9/10
• FIFA 17 – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness – PS4, PS Vita – 8/10
• Destiny: Rise of Iron – PS4, XBO – 8/10
• RunGunJumpGun – PC – 8/10
• Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity – PS4 – 8/10
• Jotun: Valhalla Edition – PS4, XBO, Wii U, PC – 6/10
• Slain: Back From Hell – PS4, PC – 6/10
• Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice – 3DS – 5/10
• Hitman Episode Five: Freedom Fighters – PS4, XBO, PC – No Score

This Week’s Features

With so many reviews this week, other previews and features took a bit of a back seat. Dom got to go hands on with Horizon: Zero Dawn at EGX, and while it was a limited demo, he came away from it feeling rather optimistic about the game.

Jim was less enthusiastic about the Star Wars Battlefront: Death Star DLC, which is clearly very evocative of the original film’s climactic battle, but leans far too heavily on the game’s dogfighting for his liking.

Lego Dimensions is heading into its second year of content, and as Wave 6 launches with a ton of new toys, we looked at how TT Games are now trying to shake things up with the new Story Packs.

XCOM 2’s come to console this week, having launched on PC earlier this year, and we spoke to Garth DeAngelis about handling that long wait, how the game differs from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and tried to figure out the name of a Matt Damon film where there’s this city in the sky…

And finally, with PlayStation VR out in less than a fortnight, we got some extended hands on time with Battlezone. Could this be the defining PlayStation VR game, we ask? It’s certainly shaping up to be a very compelling launch title, and you can see the game in action in our video, and read about the game’s development as we speak to Rebellion.

Trailer Park

We played an awful lot of Battlezone in VR
And while it’s a bit cheeky to put this in with official trailers – and I just mentioned it in the features section above – but it’s really very good and you should totally watch us playing it…

There’s a new cinematic story trailer for Titanfall 2
And it tells you why Pilots are so super special.

Battlefield 1 also gets a single player trailer
EA’s other big hope for the FPS market this year is Battlefield 1, hopping between multiple protagonists and theatres of war.

Watch the first 20 minutes of Gears of War 4
This prologue opens up the game with a whistlestop tour of some of the world’s pivotal moments.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered gets a launch trailer
For those that have pre-ordered the fancy pants editions of Infinite Warfare, they can get in on the remastered Modern Warfare on October 5th.

SportsBarVR joins the PlayStation VR launch line up
Pool Nation VR is being rebranded for PSVR, because it’s now much more than just a pool game, letting you faff around in a 100% digital sports bar. The best part is won’t need to clean up after yourself!

Your Achievements

Steelhead gets us underway, having finished off both Doom and Ratchet & Clank this week, before moving on to Transistor. While he hasn’t completed it, TSBonyman has also been playing Ratchet & Clank, alongside a good slice of Uncharted 3 and Dirt Rally.

Blast71 picked up one of the Battlefield 4 DLC trophies he’s been working toward, and seeing as we’re very light on the achievements this week, I might as well mention that Andrewww somehow managed to fall asleep while playing SOMA… a horror game.

The Week Ahead

Fun fact: all of the release dates for the next week and a half look like review scores. Can anyone release with a perfect 10/10 a week on Monday? I’m sure that 2K are hoping for better than 7/10 scores for Mafia III!

• Aragami – PS4, Win, Mac, Linux – 4/10
• Shu – PS4, Win – 4/10
• Atlas Reactor – Win – 4/10
• Rocksmith 2014 Edition – Remastered – PS4, XBO, Win – 4/10
• Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide – PS4, XBO – 4/10
• Wheels of Aurelia – PS4, XBO – 5/10
• Mafia III – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
• Paper Mario: Color Splash – Wii U – 7/10
• WRC 6 – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a busy weekend of gaming ahead!