What We Played – Crimson Desert, Marathon & Towerborne

Phew! It’s been a long two weeks for me, as I’ve been plugging away at our Crimson Desert review. It is enormous, and Pearl Abyss have been tinkering away throughout that time, updating it constantly. That’s great news for players, and the game you’re playing today is already a better one than where I started two weeks ago. It’s an interesting game, and I’m intrigued to see how it goes down with the community. They’ve already improved some of the tutorials, which is very helpful! I did sneak in a game or two of Marathon as a palate cleanser, but I’ve mostly been swinging swords around and chasing thieves.

Jim has also been playing more Marathon this week and he’s decided that yes, he likes it! He told us, “It’s definitely going to be my go-to shooter for the foreseeable future. I’ve still got a way to go before I can access its new raid-like map, Cryo Archive, but I’m still having fun crossing off Faction Contracts with several back-to-back extractions under my belt.”

Jason is lost again, saying, “Now that I’ve done everything there is to do in Slay the Spire 2, I am wandering through the digital wastelands aimlessly. I still want to start Veilguard again, but I also know I need to play Crimson Desert, so I’ll probably just wait for that.”

While he can’t tell us what it is yet, Steve has been continuing his fun with a mystery upgraded title on Switch 2, before spending some time squinting at REVII on the same system (he says it’s definitely one for playing docked over handheld). He’s also had a somewhat mediocre time with the Starship Troopers boomer shooter, checked out a promising upcoming indie horror game, and delved back into PS1 classic Breath of Fire III as had a lot of commuting this week whilst covering teaching for colleagues.

Ade and Laura have been thoroughly enjoying gathering bucket loads of loot in the coop action RPG Towerborne. Other than that, I’ve been finishing off the Season 6 Battlepass of Marvel Rivals, ready for Season 7 which starts when WWP goes live! So, I’ll likely be trying to play as White Fox – and probably failing to select her in time – right now! (edited)

Tuffcub played absolutely nothing this week, but he did get to see My Neighbour Totoro live on stage. He tells us, “It is, for want of a better word, magical. It took a few moments to get over the lead characters Newcastle accent, but it was superb. How they have brought Totoro and the other creatures to life is amazing.”

Sticking with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, Aran has just got a new party member that I’m now levelling up alongside the rest of the team by doing sub stories and getting into fights. I also started The Pale Beyond, in which you need to keep a group of people alive after their ship gets stranded in an ice field.

Miguel only had time this week to squeeze in a bit of Marathon with his partner! After a week and a half of playing it with randos or by myself and being miserable, it was a nice reminder that the game is a night-and-day difference and super fun when played with friends.

Meanwhile, Gamoc has played a selection of stuff as always. Dragonkin: The Banished, Stellar Wanderer DX, and Sovereign Syndicate for review, plus Freelancer not for review. He also tried – because they’re now on PS+ – Space Marine 2, “seems pretty good”, Astroneer “Controls are a nightmare”, and LOTR Return to Moria “Cool but still a survival game, and particularly annoying even for the genre”. He was happy, though, saying, “The latter had actual John Rhys Davis in it as Gimli, which is awesome.”

And finally, Tef’s week has been all about Pokémon Pokopia once again, but he did get to have a hands off preview of the next Starfield update and expansion, and share some extended thoughts on Pragmata, a game he’s very much looking forward to.