“That’s one of gaming’s great cities, that is” – What have you been playing this week?

3rd October

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Bertie’s witcher skills are a bit rusty; Dom goes through the Gears; Kelsey enjoys a horror game that feels just like home; and Chris does an incredible impression of a butler that no one acknowledged.

But enough of that: what have you been playing this week?

And don’t forget we have an entire dusty archive of previous What We’ve Been Playings, just in case you don’t trust your memory any more and want to check which games you’ve played and see what you thought of them.

The Witcher 3 – Remastered, PC

It’s weird returning to a game I think I know really well only to discover I don’t really know it that well any more at all. The familiarity slowly dribbles back and broad strokes of the game I can of course remember, but that muscle memory that was once so readily there has gone. I bumbled around like an idiot in The Witcher 3 for a couple of hours when revisiting it for the Remastered release this week. I felt like Roach stranded on a rooftop.

I compared the game a lot to The Blood of Dawnwalker while I played, too, which isn’t a surprise given how similar they are, and in how they’re directed by the same person, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (and made by many of the same people). And stood side by side, The Witcher 3 holds up remarkably well, which is impressive given that it’s now 11 years old.

Indeed, The Witcher 3 even outdoes Dawnwalker in some regards (perhaps many regards). One particular example is the city of Novigrad and its size and interactivity, and the sheer number of people bumbling around, swearing at you. It’s a place like few others I’ve experienced in a role-playing game, and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: that’s one of gaming’s great cities, that is.

Let’s see what GTA 6 says when it comes out in November, eh?

-Bertie

Gears of War: E-Day, Xbox Series X

I’ve been reviewing this game for the past week, and it’s taken me a much larger chunk of time than I thought it would to grit my teeth and push through the Hardcore difficulty than I thought – there’s at least 20 hours of game in the campaign alone if you’re playing on any of the more advanced difficulties. I’ll be staying on the game to test out Horde and PvP in the coming days (God, I hope my old-person reflexes don’t humiliate me too much), and I am not upset about that prospect, either. It’s nice to have a game that focuses this much on catharsis and release when the industry is in such dire straits.

-Dom

Silent Hill: Townfall, PS5

I unfortunately haven’t had much time or energy to play anything this week that isn’t embargoed, but I did make time to watch Jacksepticeye’s playthrough of Silent Hill: Townfall with my housemate after playing it myself a few weeks ago and damn, what a game! It also definitely helps that Townfall is where my favourite in-game place – Silent Hill – and my home, the UK, have finally managed to collide. I might be a little biased in that regard, but still, if you like Silent Hill in any shape or form, play it!

It still feels surreal that Konami has not only revived Silent Hill as an IP, but has managed to do it with real style and fervour. Silent Hill 2 Remake has a special place in my heart of course, and Silent Hill f was pretty good – soulslite combat aside – but the publisher has really nailed things with Silent HillL Townfall, and I am so excited to see Screen Burn hopefully get a lot more attention off the back of this.

-Kelsey

Heads Up!, Mobile

I managed to achieve the fabled both-parents-go-out-child-free moment for the first time in an age this past weekend, for a nice low-key gathering around a friend’s. We were supposed to bring something to play (not a video game, obviously; something a normal person might bring with them to play) as well as a dish, but everybody forgot, so we ended up with a lot of desserts and not a lot to do afterwards for a quick laugh.

Heads Up! became the solution and it was, frankly, better than any new or clever or convoluted game, video or otherwise that I could’ve dug up to bring around myself. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s essentially Articlate! (which is basically Pictionary but with talking instead of drawing). Nobody kept score, everyone kept flicking up on the phone to pass and down to mark the answer correct, when it’s really the other way round (or is it?! I don’t even know myself), and even in these entirely non-competitive circumstances I found it very hard not to get annoyed at someone not immediately recognising my note-perfect impression for the word “Butler”. Anyway! Sometimes the classics are the best.

-Chris