. Plays, 22nd September 2014

Jim Trinca, Video Producer – Wasteland 2

This week I’ve been spending lots of time with Wasteland 2, which I’ve been playing in its various stages of development since it went into early access a wee while ago. The full release is out today, and it’s bloody brilliant. It feels like the Fallout 3 a lot of purists wanted before they got Bethesda’s Elder Scrollsed take on the franchise in 2008.

Now, I love Fallout 3, but Wasteland 2 feels much more like a proper follow up to the classic Fallout games. It has a vast world to explore that feels lived-in and alive, albeit with squalor and conflict. It has a deep, rich combat system that makes you consider everything from range stats to posture, and crucially, it tells an epic, branching story that’s stuffed with more moral quagmires than Brett’s shirt drawer.

Expect a review and videos about it from me next week, assuming I manage to get to the end. It’s so long.

Chris Bratt, Weapon-in-Chief – Hyrule Warriors

I accept that I’m in something of a minority here, but I care way more about Dynasty Warriors than the Zelda franchise. God, it feels good to finally say that. I’d rather jump head first into the politics of The Three Kingdoms and hit things with the mighty Zhang Fei, than chase fairies or whatever, as Link.

As a result, it turns out that Hyrule Warriors isn’t really for me. The game is based around the classic Warriors formula, but it only exists to walk you through your favourite Zelda locales, with your favourite Zelda characters. There’s loads to get nostalgic about and that even carries over to some aspects of the gameplay, with boss fights and bombs and the like. Zelda fans will probably get all misty eyed, but yet again, I find myself wishing I was playing Dynasty Warriors instead. What's wrong with me?

Dave Scammell, News Editor – Forza Horizon 2, Xbox One

After a brief revisit to the original Horizon I feel like I may have been a tad harsh with some of the things I said about Forza Horizon 2's visuals, particularly the comments about the environmental detail not being that big a step up over the Xbox 360 title.

The original is still a great looking last-gen game, of course, but its low fidelity and relatively murky colour palette made me question whether it was actually as impressive as I remember it. As is inevitably the case with each new piece of hardware, have we reached the point where we look back and ask ourselves if games really looked like that last-gen?

So yes, while I still stand by the theory that DriveClub may end up looking somewhat better than Forza Horizon 2 (and so it should given Playground's open world versus Evo's closed tracks), I'd love you forever if you could forgive me for #FoliageGate. The bushes look lovely.