What I’ve been playing recently:
Cyberpunk 2077
Completed this, the first (and only) game I’ve specifically bought for my PS5. Sad to have missed the early, buggy days – long time correspondants will know that I’m convinced PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS lost a lot when all the bugs were fixed – but what’s left is an excellent open world shooty-drivey thing. I appreciated how adult it all was, not just in the shock ultraviolence but also the general, pervasive sexiness of the setting and characters. Gaming is so often stuck with arrested development in the teenage years (there’s plenty of that here as well) so when it breaks through that barrier its worth nothing. Special mention to the crucifixion quest, one of the bleakest, most cynical things I’ve seen in any fiction this year.
Hitman: World of Assassination
I finished the Hitman 1 missions! It’s only taken me fifteen months. It’s a great game, every level very considered, but I do wonder if I’m missing out because I don’t have the time for the in-depth mission repetition which the game keeps nudging me towards. I’d still be on that boat.
Hades
Celebrated the release of the Switch 2 by buying a game for my long-neglected Switch 1, which had to be gently coaxed back into retaining battery life. I almost ordered a replacement battery, glad I didn’t as it has returned to form. Hades is well scratching the itch formerly occupied by Dead Cells, and before that Nuclear Throne, for games I can very slowly get better at in short intervals. The much-vaunted writing and art is very pleasing also.
Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate
I absolutely hammered the prerelease demo of this last November but haven’t had a chance to engage much with the final release; the demo benefitted from the necessity of having all the elements of gameplay within close reach which gave it a real manic energy that I struggle to summon up in the full game. That’s probably a me-problem however.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Finally burned those crops with the moonshine. No further comment.
Fall Guys
The appeal of bailing out four rounds in because you slipped trying to murder a fellow competitor-bean remains undiminished. Baffling that queueing as a three is still so unpleasant after however many years its been though.
Tetris: The Grand Master
I can reach S1, but S2-6 continue to evade me.
Stunning little gem that hits the Disco Elysium sensation of failing feeling more like a continuation of the story than a cause to reload. Don’t even know if you can reload, I’ve never tried. Considerably more cyberpunk than Cyberpunk, and eminently playable on a Macbook.
Cheating here; this is my game that I’ve been working on. I’ve been adding load/save as well as sketching out ideas for making the various game actions more visually interesting, with a little Sims-esque display of the band going about their business.
Interesting concept and fun to play, but progression requires either a bit more precision than I’m capable of giving or a bit more grind, so I eventually bounced off.
CAPTCHA-mocking fun set of online puzzles. Loved it.
Perfect little clockwork puzzle where you naturally put the available elements together to form a solution.
Counter-strike 2
It’s still Counter-strike. I’m missing Anubis, and Vertigo (which I never thought I’d say) but it’s nice to have Overpass back.