What We Played #452 – Xenoblade Chronicles, Civilization VI & Golf With Friends

It’s that time of the week where we relish the idea of being off all weekend and playing games, though there’s double chance you’ve been off this week and playing games already since it’s (technically) half term. In our house that’s meant we’ve put home schooling to one side and let Joe Wicks get in the bin while we play copious amounts of Minecraft Dungeons.

Beyond that I’ve also played a hell of a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, and cobbled together my very first video review too to go with it. I guess I have to do more of them now that I know how. I’ve also been playing more Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, PUBG, Spirit of the North and some other stuff too.

Nic B has played more Monster Hunter, saying he’s “Reliving my youth, smashing Tigrex with a sword that is never quite sharp enough. In my downtime between these epic quests I’ve also been playing Red Wings, a WW1 dogfighting game that pits the Triple Alliance against the Triple Entente. Review to come!”

Also playing games is Nick P, who dove back into Overwatch, played the first five chapters of A Plague Tale, and is hammering away at a review of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. Meanwhile, Tef has played more Golf With Your Friends without friends than with friends, saying “I’m enjoying it, even if it’s far too unrefined.” There’s also some things I can’t talk about till embargoes lift next week. So I guess we’ll move on.

Gareth has spent the week playing Gorn for review, some Beat Saber, and a good few hours of Death Stranding. Reuben on the other hand has been failing in my plan to reduce his backlog before Xenoblade by heading back into Erdrea for some Dragon Quest XI. “I’ve been balancing this with some CrossCode, just to cleanse my palette from just how much of a classic JRPG DQ is. I love it, but it does feel quite archaic now when put alongside modern takes on the genre.”

Nicole joined us this week and has been diving back into the harrowing underwater city of Rapture in hope of procuring some Bioshock trophies. “I’ve also been trying to squeeze in another The Last of Us playthrough before its long-awaited sequel arrives through my letterbox in the coming month. I do however feel my efforts to prepare for the havoc that game is going to wreak on my very soul may be in vain.”

Turning to Jim, and he’s got something he can’t tell you about, but did share that “When the sun finally sets and my gaming room isn’t on fire I’ve been strapping on my PSVR visor and delving into The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. I’m not too far into the game though it’s fair to say this is one of the best games available for Sony’s virtual reality system – it’s incredibly immersive and intuitive in its controls. Arizona Sunshine may have met its match!”

Tuffcub meanwhile has been playing the adventure “Where is my cat? In the game the cat falls from a first floor window and vanishes and the player must hunt for the feline. One section is clearly ripped from The Last of Us as it involves crawling around in the dark and using a ‘Listen mode’ for any nearby meows. Another section is from arcade classic Paperboy and has you delivering 300 missing cat flyers through letterboxes. There’s a Papers, Please section in which you fill out endless forms online to report the cat and then have to deal with hundreds of messages from people sending you pictures of cats that are clearly not yours and that have been found 200 miles away. I am now over the emotional start of the game which involced lots of sniffles and in the “Stupid bloody cat” phase.”

Less realistic, Aran has been playing Liberated and Jet Lancer for review, with more on those coming next week. He also claimed Civilization VI from Epic and has started playing that with the real world map and a random Civ spawn dropping him in Arabia with Saladin. “So far I’ve managed to bring most of Africa’s coastline under my control. Victoria decided to settle Leeds right in the middle and then denounce me for settling on the same continent as her even though I was there first. Then she built Liverpool on the Arabia coast, so I’ve cut it off by buying all the tiles around it. Helps that I’ve got a good income from selling diamonds.”

Steve has remained hooked on I, Dracula: Genesis, which despite still being in Early Access has really got its teeth into him. He’s already 30 hours in and has the third difficulty unlocked. He’s still found time to play Song of Horror for review, finish off Biped with his eight year old, and had a look at the games on PS Now, planning to start off with Control once he’s cleared space from his hard drive.

Miguel has been playing a boatload of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, which he absolutely loves (as everyone should). He’s also continued to dive into Animal Crossing and Apex Legends, with other random little things like Mario Kart 8 and Rhythm Heaven Fever on the side.

Finally, Thomas has been playing lots of SnowRunner and Elite: Dangerous, two types of games a younger version of himself would likely have scoffed at. “I’ve also found the time between baby feeds to start diving back into Skyrim on my PSVR. What better way is there to momentarily escape my responsibilities than pretending I’m an elven archer in a fantasy world?” Just be careful with those arrows mate, you wouldn’t want to take one in the knee.

Right, that’s enough from us. What have you played?