VideoGamer.com Plays, 10th December, 2016 – Final Fantasy XV, Pokémon Sun, Let it Die, Doom

Tom Orry, Editorial Director – Let it Die, PS4

Seeing as it’s a free download I gave Let it Die, Suda 51’s latest strange effort, a go this week. Having played it for about an hour over a lunch break I’m not sure I’ll be going back. I’ve seen a fair bit of positivity for the game online, but to me it feels like a cheaper, twisted version of Dark Souls. I’m not a big Dark Souls fan and I don’t care much for most of Suda’s output (bar Killer is Dead, which is awesome), so not thinking much of Let it Die probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise. I did squash numerous toads to death, though, which was a little unpleasant.

Alice Bell, Content Editor – Final Fantasy XV

Alice Bell in overplaying an open world RPG shocker. I’m sort of alright that Square Enix is doing a BioWare and adding bits in to make the story make sense, because I’m happy enough dicking about going fishing with the lads and that. My assumption at this point is the extra content will basically be patching in some cutscenes ripped from the prequel movie Kingsglaive, and I think I’ll do alright without that, although if they actually add bits to the actual game I’ll probably have to take a gander at it. I never went in to a Final Fantasy game expecting to fully understand the narrative anyway, but I don’t actually think the plot of XV is really that hard to get a bit of a grip on, at least enough to know why you have to be going somewhere.

Aside from that I have been disappointed to see that the poll the official FFXV twitter put out to determine who was the ‘best boy’ returned with a strong victory for Noctis. This is acceptable in that Noctis does become a very Good Boy by the end of the story, but I still feel that Prompto is the Best Boy over all. There are deep battle lines being drawn on social media, with anti-Prompto types essentially arguing that Prompto fans are easily-lead populists, while the Prompto fans remain safe in the knowledge that everyone else is wrong.

Sam Riley, Junior Content Editor – DOOM

Now I’m not normally one for invoking the names of dark lords, death-bringers and archdemons, but by golly folks – praise be to Satan on this one. What a bloody great shooter this is. And credit Id too, on revitalising an otherwise unfashionable form of the FPS. In a year of strong, if occasionally samey shooters, DOOM had both the guts and guile to take what was old and make it new again. And for that I worship at its altar.

In DOOM, flow is everything, and stopping means death. This is balls-to-the-wall, stop-and-you-die, bullet-spewing savagery, of the sort I never even considered i’d like. It’s also massively pared back, with zero cover to be grabbed, reloads to be performed or shield regens to be patiently waited upon. It effectively cuts out all of that drab in order to fully empower the player. And powerful is how you’ll feel, with even the in-game audio logs doing little but recall your terrifying majesty. The lack of campaign co-op is a shame, but all things considered this is a mighty fine title and one that deserves to be played by everyone.

Colm Ahern, Content Editor – Pokémon Sun, 3DS

I hadn’t played a Pokémon game since those days when myself and the lads would be at the back of Mrs. Murphy’s class, trying to hook a link cable to our Game Boys so we could swap Magmars for Mankeys. Recently, I got the itch again and felt it was the right time to take the plunge back into the world that I once held dear. I had a Pokedex, a Pikachu teddy, a f***load of trading cards — ten year old Colm was an Ash Ketchumaniac.

While an awful lot has changed, dusting off my 3DS to play “the sequel to Pokémon Go”, as some clever marketing man has dubbed it on advertising I’ve seen scattered around London Town, the basic premise remains the same after all these years. It’s so easy to get sucked back into that mindset of having to run up and down the grass like Kyle Walker to imprison an unsuspecting Pocket Monster, or squaring up to various strangers and challenging them to a pet fight.

There’s definitely a few things I could do without in here, specifically the part where you have to care for your fearless warriors by feeding them some baked beans, but I won’t lie, I’ve had the theme song stuck in my head for days — that had an absolute ripper of a solo.