11th Oct
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Marie gives her Sims a holiday; it sounds like Kelsey could use a holiday from Silksong; Alex revisits Clair Obscur ahead of Game of the Year discussions, and is quickly reminded why he loves it; Matt revisits Little Nightmares 1 and 2 while trying to work out why LN3 feels off; Bertie moves house; and Tom loses his frog hat.
What have you been playing?
Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.
The Sims 4: Adventure Awaits DLC, PC
Ever since the World Adventures DLC for Sims 3, I’ve been itching for something similar to arrive in Sims 4. While Adventure Awaits doesn’t have the same vibe as World Adventures, it does slightly satisfy that exploration and ‘doing something new’ bug.
The ‘Plan Getaway’ option took a minute to get used to due to its variety of options. This is where you set a destination for your Sim from a select list, then plan their itinerary or pick a pre-made one for them to follow. As someone who enjoys customising their Sims as much as they possibly can, the ability to plan every minute detail was a welcome addition once I got the hang of it.
Also, once you’re on your getaway, and depending on your Sim autonomy level, you really can just leave them to it. So far, I’ve found them a great way of upping my Sim’s skills in particular areas without constantly making sure they’re on task!
-Marie
Hollow Knight: Silksong, Nintendo Switch 2
I’m currently 30 hours deep into my second save file for Silksong, because I can’t get enough of Hornet’s adventure, and I fear I have barely scratched the surface. Hours upon hours have been spent side questing, gathering the most over-powered Tools I can find, and making sure I’ve seen everything – and met every beloved bug – that Pharloom has hidden away. Yet I’m still not even close to being ready for Act 3.
Honestly, I’m not sure what I’ll achieve first: Silksong’s true ending or Silksong burnout. I guess we’ll see if I’m still skonging next week or not.
-Kelsey
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Xbox Series X
Watch on YouTube
I’m thinking about Game of the Year, obviously. We’re getting towards that time again. I’ve got a tiny gap before the next big review puts a grenade in the middle of my work and free time, and so I thought I’d fill that gap with… a big RPG. Ah, yeah, clever me. Idiot.
Anyway, I have played this before, so I am skipping some cutscenes and just vibing, really. Reminding myself of why I loved it in the first place. Playing it this way, less story focused, I’m reminded of the real joy of this – it’s a game for RPG sickos. All those superbosses, some within reach from very early on – and totally defeatable if you’re willing to really think about it and calibrate some truly unhinged glass cannon character build or what have you. God, it’s brilliant.
-Alex
Real-life Unpacking
I moved house – well, flat – this week, and though it’s only been a year since I last did it, I’d forgotten how much stuff reveals itself when you do. Where does it all come from? It’s like things multiply in cupboards when you’re not looking. But I like moving. I like pretending I can lift heavy boxes. Wheeze.
But what I really like is making a new impression somewhere, wiping the slate clean and starting again, like we do in all kinds of video games, come to think of it. It’s building a desk in a new space and imagining myself working there, and looking out of the window at a new view. I like imagining years into the future when a space like this will probably feel familiar and unremarkable, and wondering what life will be like.
I also quite like assembling flat-pack furniture, which is lucky, because I’ve got more of that to do now.
-Bertie
Baby Steps, PS5 Pro
I’m still awkwardly walking my way through Baby Steps, shouting at Eurogamer video’s Jim Trinca via WhatsApp as I go. This week I became outraged when I discovered that the green frog hat, which I’d managed to get by painstakingly walking down some horrid steep stairs, was lost. Unknown to me, hats fall off when you fall over. Goodbye frog hat. I loved you.
-Tom O
Little Nightmares 1 & 2, PC
Watch on YouTube
Originally, I was going to regale you with tales of my ascent up Baby Steps’ forest tower this week; a pursuit that must’ve taken up a good three, absolutely infuriating hours of my time – even though I damn well already knew what the punchline would be (I still laughed when I finally made it top, so good job there boys). But instead, it’s Little Nightmares 2 that’s continued to haunt me as the week has gone on. When I played it back at launch, I gave up somewhere around the hospital section in a fit of fury, but I returned to it amid my Little Nightmares 3 review duties, trying to figure out why Supermassive’s take felt so off.
Turns out if I’d only persevered back in the day, I would have discovered Little Nightmares 2 is absolutely bloody brilliant. It’s got some clever, properly satisfying puzzles; it’s got some phenomenally choreographed set-pieces – there’s such queasy, skin-crawling menace in the scenes featuring The Doctor scurrying around the ceiling it puts most “proper” horror games to shame. And it’s got an absolutely vicious gut punch of an ending that’s still haunting me four days on – one that makes it hard to look at the events of Little Nightmares 1 in quite the same way. And so of course I went back to play that too, then moved onto the DLC I’d apparently also never done. And now I’m stuck dwelling on that fantastically mean-spirited ending too. Great work, Tarsier; I absolutely cannot wait for next year’s Reanimal.
-Matt
Death Stranding 2, PS5 Pro
After a bit of a break (the mountain section sure is laborious), I finally came back to Death Stranding 2 this week and finished it off. And what a gloriously camp ending! I won’t spoil it in case some of you haven’t finished it yourselves, but it’s exactly the kind of outrageous, over-the-top finale I’d expect from a Kojima game and it had me cackling throughout. I still think it’s a flawed experience overall, but the sequel offers a warm meditation on grief and human connection, where the first game was cold and conceptual, in my view. And while arguably safer than the first game, Kojima remains a director committed to being wonderfully eccentric.
-Ed
I’ve been playing EA Sports FC26 for review (sorry! It’s coming!! One day!!!) and, to decompress from a game that should be decompressing in itself, some good old, you guessed it, Pokémon TCG Pocket. Which I would rather talk about again – that new Deluxe EX Pack, eh? It stinks! – but promise I won’t bore you with anymore. FC26 is fine. More at 12.
-Chris
