The nights are drawing in and it’s getting much colder in the UK, meaning that it’s the perfect time for playing video games, basking in the warmth of our OLED screens and heat being pumped out by your PC’s GPU. I’ve been playing a lot of games this week, including Jurassic World Evolution 3, Nascar 25, Hades II, Ball X Pit, Lumines Arise, Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, while getting involved with my youngest son’s newfound obsession with Star Wars by playing Lego: The Skywalker Saga with him, and sneaking in a few matches in Battlefront II.
Keeping things much more controlled, Nic B has been playing Pokémon Z-A (or PukaPuka as his tiny son calls it) and while on review duties for us, he handed it a massive 10/10. This seems pretty good, if he’s to be trusted.
Next up, Aran has played a couple of games for review, including Keeper and Lumo 2. That’s all he’s allowed to say right now, but you won’t have too long to wait before those review embargoes lift. A matter of hours, even!
Jim has been fully hooked on Ghost of Yotei this week, freely exploring its gorgeous open world and ticking off the odd bounty and side quest as he goes. He told us, “I’m glad to report that the combat is becoming more varied and challenging. Atsu is also growing on me, though it’s fair to say that the true main character is the location. Easily the best-looking game of the year.
“I randomly installed a mobile game called SOVL, too. It feels like a fan-made video game adaptation of the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop game, and it works incredibly well. Makes you wonder why Games Workshop haven’t tried something similar, in the same way that Wizards digitised MTG with Magic Arena.”
Ade has been on with Hades 2 this week, crushing the underworld run but finding that defeating the end boss on the surface still eludes him. He says, “It’s been an absolutely stonking year for video game releases, but, so far, Hades 2 is definitely my favourite!”
Meanwhile, Gamoc has been playing The Outer Worlds 2 for review, plus Rise of Industry and Dreams of Another. Once again, you’ve got to wait for those pesky embargoes to find out more.
Jason has uninstalled Ball X Pit “to save myself”, but he did at least wait until he’d fully 100%-ed it. Other than that, he’s been mucking around in Fellowship too, saying ” It is basically what you’d get if an MMO was designed for people who had responsibilities.”
And finally, Tef has been keeping up with Battlefield 6, dipping in for a few matches most days and plugging away at challenges. More interesting, though, has been dipping into a few Next Fest demoes. He wrote about Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked already, and he’s giving Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown a try today as well.
What about you? What have you played?
