This week saw the release of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, with reviews generally praising the revamped mechanics in a series which had become somewhat stagnant, but with many criticisms of the technical attributes. I’ve barely started my journey with Arceus, and while I can’t pretend that it’s breaking any new ground visually, it has a painterly style reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. Performance might be where Arceus will struggle, but for now, playing handheld I don’t have much to critique.

Let us know in the comments what you think of Arceus, meanwhile hit the break to check out what Our Week in Games has all about.

Chris

Alongside playing the aforementioned Pokemon Legends, I’ve also been continuing my journey through the Halo: Master Chief Collection. This week I completed the anniversary edition of the first game, which has left me realising that when I played the original title on PC many years ago, I never actually finished the game. It’s likely that I got to The Library mission and floundered against the Flood. If that wasn’t the cause of me putting the game down way back when, it might well have been the controls of the Warthog. I’ll save my thoughts on some of these items for a broader retrospective of the first Halo, but whatever criticisms I might have don’t take away too much from a key title in the story of Microsoft’s entry into the console space.

After finishing off the Chief’s first adventure, I moved onto the anniversary edition of Halo 2. I was immediately struck by the gorgeous cut-scenes which provide some much needed information on who the Covenant are, and what their goals are in the Milky Way. I’ve completed the opening chapters of Halo 2 which are all set in and around Earth, and there is a sense that Bungie had more than found their feet with the series, and had the confidence to create some thrilling set piece battles. Whether they come at the expense of moments like The Silent Cartographer, I’m yet to find out.

Unfortunately my time with Pokemon and Halo might well mean my JRPG fun with Octopath Traveler and Final Fantasy X might be on hold, but hopefully not for too long.