Playing Together this Christmas

Christmas is a time for being together, a time for family, a time to show each other appreciation: Quality not quantity. We know this but somehow we tend to get sucked up into the commercialism of it all. This year we vowed to make it more about family time but wasn’t sure how to do that when we knew that all our boys would want to do really is play computer games. And then Playstation sent us the answer: Spend time playing together.

At Playstation, they believe that gaming together is one of the most fun and meaningful ways of gaining a shared experience. They can mean as a whole family (co-operatively and competitively), with friends or even just as a couple. They have suggestions on how to achieve this which I will tell you about below, plus there’s even more by following their social media channels.

In it Together

Playing as a team is a great way to get groups of friends and/or family together. Make a whole occasion out of playing by providing some snacks and drinks as you all snuggle up together.

Team Games you can play co-operatively on your PS4:

• Overcooked 2
  • Developed by Ghost Town Games and Published by Team 17, the sequel to Overcooked teams of up to 4 players prepare and cook orders in absurd restaurants. Requires co-operative play to ensure that food is chopped, cooked, combined on plates and served. This can involve complications such as moving floors and other obstacles which interfere with the cooking process.
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
  • Developed by Steel Crate Games, you need to disarm bombs with the help of other players who read a manual of instructions. This can be played with or without the use of a VR (virtual reality) headset.
• LEGO DC Supervillains
  • Developed by Traveller’s Tales and released by Warner Bros. Interactive, this LEGO themed action-adventure game serves as a spin-off to the LEGO Batman trilogy. However, this game just focuses on the villains. It can be played as a single or multiplayer game – with split screens.
    

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Sofa Standoffs

Or maybe you fancy a bit of competition! Why not add an extra dimension to the fun by using a scoreboard. Get in some medals and prizes for the winners; provide some stress relievers for when it gets tense; and why not spend some time together in the kitchen making cookies to ensure that everyone keeps their energy levels up (or make some afterwards to have some much needed bonding time).

Competitive Games you can play on your PS4:

• FIFA19
  • Developed by EA Vancouver as part of the Electronic Arts’ FIFA Series, a football stimulation video game with Cristiano Ronaldo as the cover athletic of the regular edition.
• WWE19
  • Developed in collaboration between Yuke’s and Visual Concepts, and published by 2K Sports, is a professional wrestling game.
• Knowledge is Power: Decades
  • Utilising PlayLink up to 6 players can go head to head with thousands of unique questions, a variety of themed environments and eight unique characters to pick from.

All Back to Mine

Sometimes you just want to have some fun, especially when you have a whole range of ages and abilities playing. These are the real Christmas Day games that a whole bunch of people can join in with. Why not make a party out of it with balloons and chocolate coins.

Party Games you can play on your PS4:

• Chimparty
  • Developed by NapNok Games it is one of PlayLink’s first forays into the family market. Up to four players can compete in a blitz of 18 wild party games across 90 levels.
• Sonic Mania Plus
  • An action packed adventure with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Go head to-head with up to four players in Competition Mode, or play with a friend in Co-Op Mode.
• Frantics
  • Another PlayLink game – please check out my previous Frantics review.

Pass & Play

Even single player games can be utilised to socialise by taking things in turn. Either use quick-fire games, ones when you are likely to die quickly – why not get a fidget spinner for the person waiting! Or use them as an alternative to a movie night – with drinks and nibbles.

Turn-Taking Games you can play on your PS4:

• Detroit: Become Human
  • Quantic Dream and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, is an adventure game revolving around 3 androids each with a different story/purpose and who may survive or perish depending on the dialogue choices that shape the story.
• Life is Strange
  • Developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, the game’s plot focuses on Max Caulfield, an 18-year-old photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind timeat any moment, leading her every choice to enact the butterfly effect.
• Crash Bandicoot
  • The Crash Bandicoot series was created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin during their tenure at Naughty Dog for Universal Interactive Studios and Sony Computer Entertainment; and was originally exclusive to the PlayStation family of video game consoles.Set on the fictitious Wumpa Islands, where humans and anthropomorphic animals: Such as Bandicoot named Crash, whose quiet life is often interrupted by the games’ main antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex – who created Crash and wants him dead. In most games, Crash must defeat Cortex and foil his plans for world domination.

As well as spending quality time together, playing together helps give a better insight into how games work and what the children are doing. It can make you appreciate why they may need a warning before just switching something off mid-game – or why a certain game makes them lose their rag a little (and finding ways to help cope with that). We are really looking forward to playing together as a Playstation family this Christmas.

I was sent a `Something for the Weekend’ Parcel from Playstation in order to experience playing together as a family. All opinions are honest and my own.