30th May
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Marie pootles around Japan in whatever season it happens to be; Victoria suspects her husband of breaking their TV; Chris walks the one-way street of Warhammer 40K miniature addiction; and Bertie enjoys being a secret agent.
What have you been playing this week?
Here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to! The What We’ve Been Playing archive has you covered.
Warhammer 40K Kill Team, Tabletop
Right, this one’s technically cheating as it’s a tabletop game but Bertie has definitely cheated like this before [guilty -Bertie] so I’m stealing his lovely idea and sneaking in a bit of tabletop action myself.
I tried Kill Team for the first time last weekend, borrowing a friend’s set of half-painted miniatures so I could scrounge my way into the action. For the unfamiliar, it’s basically a small-sided Warhammer 40K tabletop game that plays very similarly to XCOM. Except if you say that near any actual 40K and/or Kill Team fans they will get very angry and inform you that it’s not like that at all.
Well, it is – sorry! It’s the exact same 40K miniatures but with a different ruleset, that ruleset being a turn-based tactical game (XCOM!) where you move your little people around between bits of cover and expend your limited action points to do so. And after an unbelievable amount of time learning how to do the most simple of actions, thanks to a ruleset with more inscrutable proper nouns in it than a 70s Ikea catalogue, I am pleased to inform you it’s actually brilliant. The variety of tactical options, teams you can use, and objectives the game allows is pretty phenomenal; including, I gather, the ability to play 2v2, or 2v1, or all of you against a kind of ‘CPU’ enemy faction, or 1v1 but with a big monster causing problems for both of you.
It’s ace. And it’s probably going to cost me a fortune.
-Taps
Forza Horizon 6
I keep pivoting between this and Lego Batman: The Legacy of the Dark Knight – these two are my go-to’s at the moment. There’s something deeply relaxing about choosing a car from my garage and having a pootle around Japan in, well, whatever season it currently happens to be. When I want a bit more excitement, I can then take part in various races around the map, my personal favourite being street races. I’ve got goals, too, mainly cars I want to own and visions of how I want to customise them. Yes, I am going to make the Dodge Charger look like Dom’s car from Fast and Furious.
But I think the thing I’m enjoying most about Forza Horizon 6 right now is that it’s so incredibly easy to drop in and out of. There’s no need for it to be a solid block of commitment or a day-after-day pursuit, so you stay current with how it works. You can do that if you want to, but if you want to keep it casual that’s absolutely fine: you can do that too.
-Marie
Split Fiction, Xbox Series X
My husband and I restarted Split Fiction the other night because our earlier save file corrupted somehow and we lost all our progress. “How much better would this game be if we were playing it on a bigger screen?” my husband asked as we made our way through one of the earlier sci-fi levels. “We don’t need a new TV,” I replied, deploying my laser whip to throw an enemy off the side of a truck. I knew exactly where he was going with this line of questioning. “This one is just fine,” I said, saving him again, this time from corrupt cyber police.
The following day, I kid you not, our TV broke. It just doesn’t turn on any more. It whimpers, pathetically, before completely shutting down any time we try. What happened here then? Curious, isn’t it?
I’m not suggesting foul play on my husband’s part, but I’m not not suggesting that either. Regardless, our predicament is the same: we need a new TV. And would you believe it, my husband has his eye on one that’s quite a bit bigger than our last TV. Well played, husband. Well played.
-Victoria
007 First Light, PS5
What a charmer. There’s definitely something to be said for bringing back a straight-line linear action that gets straight to the point. It feels so refreshing in a sea of expansive adventures.
The best thing? The pacing. This is all forward momentum, and it’s so breezy it at times feels like it’s pulling you along. When I compare that to something like Saros, a roguelite, which has to have you fail and repeat and slowly get better because that’s part of design: it feels like a holiday. I’m loving it.
I’m not very far through yet but early highlights include possibly the best tutorial section I’ve played in a game. This one is long and luxurious and serves, effectively, as a way to embed you in the game but also embed you in the relationships with the other 00 recruits you’re training with. The months roll by, the tutorial sections roll by; there’s always change, always something interesting to do. For a company that’s used to making ponderous sandbox levels, it’s a really impressive change of tack.
-Bertie
