Something For The Weekend – 21/10/17

Storm Brian certainly isn’t the messiah, as it’s blowing up the western side of the UK, but it’s certainly a very naughty storm. If you’re having fun in the windier parts of the country this weekend, make sure to stay safe. Perhaps you can wrap up warm on the sofa and get some gaming done?

In the News This Week

• EA shut down Visceral Games and move their Star Wars game to another studio
  The perfectly named coruscant said, “Well, that’s my interest in this game completely blown then, I expect. I was so looking forward to a decent single-player, story-based Star Wars game…”
• Ex Visceral dev says Dead Space 2 cost $47 million and underperformed despite 4 million sales
• Activision have patented matchmaking that encourages microtransactions
  In the understatement of the week, StevenHibs said, “Personally I think it’s starting to get out of hand now with this micro transactions malarkey.”
• Naughty Dog release a statement regard claims of sexual harassment
  Really disappointing if true, and Sony have denied knowledge of any complaints being made, but either way, it shows the depressing world we live in.
• Nintendo Switch System 4.0.0 adds limited video capture and user data transfers
  And the hidden extra of USB headset support!
• PlayLink titles Hidden Agenda, Knowledge is Power and SingStar Celebration all delayed in the EU
• The latest limited edition DualShock 4 is orange and purple, but you can’t buy it in the UK
• Xbox One’s Fall Update redesign released for all
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be updated for Xbox One X and also made less broken

Competitions

No new prizes up for grabs this week, but we do have a winner to re-announce. It was Crazy_Del whose name was drawn from the digital hat to win the Middle-earth: Shadow of War snow globe, and we couldn’t think of someone who could offer it a better home than this collectibles obsessed gamer!

Don’t let that stop you enjoying this week’s quiz, though.

Games in Review

With the release of GT Sport, we’ve come to the end of the sim racing trilogy, and got our verdict in yesterday afternoon. It’s also a week where a ton of games managed to command a similar “great, but could be more amazing” position and 8/10 ruled the review scores…

• Gran Turismo Sport – PS4 – 8/10
• Fire Emblem Warriors – Switch (tested), 3DS –  8/10
• South Park: The Fractured but Whole – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• The Evil Within 2 – PS4, XBO, PC – 8/10
• ECHO – PS4, PC – 8/10
• Wulverblade – Switch, PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
• Rogue Trooper Redux – PS4, XBO, Switch, PC – 7/10
• Ruiner – PS4, XBO, PC – 6/10
• RAID: World War Two – PS4, XBO, PC – 3/10

This Week’s Features

As the embargo lifted for Gran Turismo Sport reviews on Tuesday, we weren’t quite ready to pin a number on the game and give our final verdict, so we didn’t. That didn’t mean I didn’t have lots of Important Things™  to say about the game. For one thing, I dove into the VR Tour that’s part of the game, finding impressive VR, but a disappointingly wasted opportunity with what Polyphony did with it. Further to that, I was very disappointed at just how needlessly restrictive the game’s online requirement is for accessing the single player content and even save your progress.

Elsewhere, it was all Star Wars, all the time. We went hands on with the first couple of levels from Star Wars Battlefront II’s single player, finding a fun action romp that could add a refreshing new perspective into the Star Wars universe, and then speaking to two members of Motive Studios who have been creating this single player content.

As the news of Visceral Games’ closure saw many of us disappointed, I pondered EA’s recent past and how their lack of success with single player games has spurred on this shift. Was the writing on the wall for Visceral’s Star Wars game?

Finally, as per usual, we have What We Played, which this week featured GT Sport, Wulverblade and South Park: The Fractured but Whole.

Trailer Park

The Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Launch Trailer is about hurting Nazis

The Destiny 2 PC launch trailer is here

Doom is coming to Nintendo Switch on 10th November

Warhammer Vermintide 2 gets a first gameplay trailer

Your Achievements

The Life and Times of TSA’s Community continues this week with:

• tactical20 taking his SNES mini to France and almost certainly discovering that the French call it something entirely differently to the UK’s “SNEZZZZ” pronunciation.
• TSBonyman is bored of driving around in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and just wants to be ambushed.
• ron_mcphatty let his inner voyeur get the better of himself, and watched a friend play Titanfall 2.
• Christmas came early for GeneralJeeb, as a PS4 Pro and PSVR arrived on his doorstep.
• MrYd managed to not break any chairs this week, which is surprising considering that he watched a “sexy video” in Yakuza 0.
• Steelhead has been redecorating the living room while his kids are sleeping, and celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary with a lovely sounding evening with his wife of rump steak, rice pudding and a viewing of Jurassic World! Congratulations!

The Week Ahead

This week is by far the busiest so far this year in terms of AAA releases. Sure, we had Shadow of War and The Evil Within 2 both releasing in days of each other earlier in October, but 27th October will see Super Mario Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus all releasing at once.

What a week to be a gamer!

• Destiny 2 – PC – 24/10
• Just Dance 2018 – PS4, XBO, Switch, PS3, X360, Wii U, Wii, PC – 24/10
• Hidden Agenda – PS4 PlayLink – 24/10 (NA only)
• Knowledge is Power – PS4 PlayLink – 24/10 (NA only)
• SingStar Celebration – PS4 PlayLink – 24/10 (NA only)
• AER: Memories of Old – PS4, XBO, PC – 25/10
• Super Mario Odyssey – Switch – 27/10
• Assassin’s Creed Origins – PS4, XBO, PC – 27/10
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – PS4, XBO, PC – 27/10

That’s all for this week, and hopefully we’ll see you again soon!