What We Played #369 – Elden Ring, Atelier Sophie 2 & Horizon Forbidden West

Time Stamp: February 25, 2022 7:00 AM

What have we been playing this week to drown out the real world? Well, in preparation for Elden Ring – which is the best-reviewed game of the year so far – I started on the Demon’s Souls remaster I’d had sat in my gaming draw of shame. I’ve really been enjoying it so far, but now feel like Elden Ring should probably take its place in the drawer while I finish it. I’m not sure that’s going to happen though. I’ve also been plugging away in Triangle Strategy on its way to review, and playing more King of Fighters XV.

Miguel chimed in with his week of gaming, which has included a bunch of Atelier Sophie 2 – and let me a-tel-yer that there’s a review of that now live – a bunch of Pokémon Legends Arceus, and a random afternoon of co-op that raced through River City Girls, Streets of Rage 4, and Kirby Star Allies.

Horizon Forbidden West Coast

Nic B has joined the crowds picking up last week’s game of choice: Horizon Forbidden West, but his gaze is already turning back to Pokémon Go with a Johto tour this weekend. On a very different path, Gamoc has been mopping up side content in Horizon Zero Dawn, and is quite likely to do a new game + run through the game some time soon. He also downloaded Red Dead Redemption 2, but mainly to mess around and not to replay it.

A copy of Elden Ring arrived a day early for Aran, who’s been building up to it by playing through Death’s Door, which was “excellent if a bit tough at times”. He bounced off Aragami 2, Before We leave and Daemon X Machina, though.

Nick P had an interesting time reviewing Martha is Dead – just read it to find out why – but got sucked into Sifu, which he’s had a great time with. “I’m really enjoying the combat, learning the combos and working out how to beat bosses.” Then again, he says,  “I also don’t think it’s as difficult as people are saying. It just takes practice and in no time, you are creating your own martial arts epic.”

Elden Ring Review Dragon

Jason’s been playing so, so, so much Elden Ring – finishing the game in 51.5 hours for our review – that he hasn’t even touched his Rocket League this week!

Diving into the Warhammer fantasy universe with Total War: Warhammer III, Jim had some thoughts. “It’s incredible just how much work has gone into recreating the Old World which now houses a ridiculous number of factions, each with their own unique heroes, units, and campaign mechanics. Starting with the Ogre Kingdoms, I’ve been terrorising my Empire and Dwarf neighbours while keep an eye on the Chaos corruption that’s began to spread.”

He’s also returned to For Honor and is “both shocked and impressed how easily it got its hooks sunk in me for the umpteenth time. The devs have continued to fine tune and rebalance just about every part of this amazing fighting game – I can’t wait to see what’s coming for Year 6 of Ubisoft’s roadmap.”

Ade finished off Guardians of the Galaxy this week, enjoying the story, script and characterisation, but finding the gameplay rather so-so. “Highlights included Drax impaling himself on his own daggers during a conversation, Star Lord stuck on a rock during a slide section and all of the team’s speech audio not working when they were using their communicators. Many chortles were had!”

Guardians of the Galaxy Melee

Infernax has become “the best Contra game in decades”, according to Steve, who unlocked the mode using the classic Konami code. He’s also been playing far, far, far, far too many demos from the Steam Next Fext, “to mixed results”.

Finally, Tef has been off to the races all week. He reviewed GRID Legends, which was a decent evolution of the 2019 reboot, but ultimately comes up short in comparison to the rest of the genre. He’s also had to break out his racing wheel, as Assetto Corsa Competizione has landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and he’s on duty for out upcoming Gran Turismo 7 review.

Now then, what have you been playing?

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