The lead up to Christmas keeps the AAA releases pouring in, with a couple of major tie-ins appearing. Everyone’s a winner. Except your bank account. And of course, if nothing tickles your fancy, you can just continue on with Fallout 4. Truth be told I could comfortably write that for the entirety of the next year and it would still feel warranted.
This week’s heavy-hitter comes in the form of Dice’s multiplayer shooter Star Wars Battlefront. Between this and Fallout 4 coming out, you’d be excused for for failing your degree/losing your job/ neglecting to eat, drink and sleep. Criticized by some as a mere re-skinning of the Battlefield games, Battlefront does have at least one distinguishing feature. It’s bloody Star Wars! Additionally, our time with the Beta revealed that the game is not getting by on brand recognition alone. Battlefront also boasts massive maps, stunning graphics and sound design, reverence for detail and pure wish fulfillment. Use the force, fly an X-Wing, pilot an AT-AT, it’s all there and it’s all good.
The week also sees the conclusion of what has been a fairly epic journey. And by epic, I mean roughly a year long. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series releases its final installment on 17th November, bringing to a close the six episode series. As they have done with The Walking Dead, Back to the Future, Minecraft and Borderlands, Telltale have masterfully appropriated the world and characters of a licensed property here and spun out their own engaging, player-directed narrative. The final episode in the series promises to wrap up all of the plot strands and to show the ultimate consequences of the player’s numerous in-game decisions. As well as that, there’s the return of Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Natalie Dormer, Kit Harrington and Iwan Rheon to look forward to. The series is available on Xbox One, PS4, IOS, Playstation 4, Playstation 3 and PC.
Just because the last few weeks have been mostly good, doesn’t mean that we are free from the onslaught of pointless re-releases. This time it’s Deadpool for the Xbox One and PS4 getting the treatment. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Deadpool as much as the next juvenile fanboy. He’s probably my favourite Marvel character. But even the most die-hard fan would struggle to muster up much excitement for this one. Whilst the original game was passable, it’s hardly worth a re-release, and more to the point, it doesn’t exactly showcase next-gen capabilities in any way. Still, if you’re a big fan of the merc’ with a mouth AND haven’t already played this one, then… you should probably still play Fallout 4, but I can’t tell you what to do. Deadpool is released on 20th November.
The second Mario game in as little as three months, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is coming to the Wii U on the 20th November. Just in case you were spectacularly misinformed, this isn’t going to be an ultra realistic sports sim, but more an arcade party game complete with power ups etc. (because of course it is, it’s the Wii U). Likely to be a fun diversion, its release is unfortunately tarnished by the now obligatory Amiibo add-ons, meaning that what should be a complete experience is now divided up to milk as much money as possible out of customers.
Going one step further than Mario and co., Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival has the sheer gall to include its exploitative raison d’etre in its name! So go for it kids! Persuade your parents to take out another fucking mortgage so they can buy you all the characters in this merchandise advert thinly veiled as a video game. You know what you don’t need to spend extra money on to actually get the full experience? Fallout 4. Just saying.
