7th November
Well, hello! I am once again wearing the Bertie hat in your usual host’s absence, so joyous welcomes to our regular feature in which we talk about what we’ve been playing in recent times. This week, Marie has been revisiting Zelda – although perhaps not the one you might expect – while Dom is rediscovering Vice City of the 80s. Kelsey is playing some very weird cards, Connor is back in WoW – possibly forever – and I’m equally smitten with a different RPG.
But enough about us, what about you? What have you been playing this week? Do tell all! And don’t forget we have an entire archive of previous What We’ve Been Playings for your leisurely perusal, just in case you forgot what you were playing a year or a month or a week ago. Bye!
Inscryption, Nintendo Switch 2
Once again, I am finally playing a game from my backlog that I should’ve played years ago, and that’s the delightful albeit dark card game Inscryption. There’s so much more to this than you’d first expect, and I’m surprised the community has been able to keep the game’s best bits under wraps for so long. Ultimately, nothing could’ve prepared me for Act 2, and my only real qualm with the whole experience is that I wish Act 2 had its own endless roguelike mode; you’d never be able to pull me away from it.
The game falters a little at the start of Act 3, I’ll admit, and I’ve found myself very frustrated by what is an otherwise relatively easy time. This is down to me missing some rather useful earlier cards that I’ve since learnt would’ve made this final stretch much breezier, but oh well. I will still take down the Uberbots one way or another for the love of the game!
-Kelsey
World of Warcraft: Forever, PC
.Watch on YouTube
I’ve sunk every free hour I have into World of Warcraft: Forever since its release on Wednesday night. As of writing I am Level 19, waiting for an escort quest to come up in Westfall. So far things seem largely the same as in the original MMO, though the little changes and improvements I’ve seen have firmly planted a smile on my face.
This includes the new weather system. Like many others I was caught in a snow storm in Dun Morogh this week, a seemingly random environmental transformation that drastically limits view distance and blankets your screen with the cold stuff. It adds a lot, I think, to the fantasy of the game. I’ll be playing this all weekend and for the foreseeable future.
-Connor
GTA Vice City, PS5
I’ll let you guess why I’m playing this right now of all times. Ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6’s launch, I’ve made it my unofficial job to internalise the map of Vice City. I’m spending time driving around the strip, familiarising myself with the docklands, going for a few rounds of golf up in Leaf Links, and sniffing out the warehouses on Prawn Island. I’m immensely curious how similar the map is in GTA 6, and can’t wait to see what’s changed in the interceding 40 years in-universe. It’s even better having V-Rock blast Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister at me; over the past few evenings, I’ve been playing this extra loud so it drowns out the sound of local fireworks for the sake of my poor, terrified dog. I don’t think he’s a fan of Bruce ‘the air raid siren’ Dickinson’s voice – but it’s better than all the apocalyptic banging.
-Dom
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Switch 2
The cold winter nights are drawing in, which calls for blankets, a warm drink, and a nice peaceful game before bed. I don’t have an exact reason for going back to Tears of the Kingdom. Perhaps it’s me diving into Ocarina of Time that fuelled my curiosity about returning, but what’s surprised me the most is there’s still so much I didn’t see or do in my first 190 hours with it.
I started again, cleared my save file, and it turns out I’ve completely forgotten most things about the game – which is by no means a complaint! I’m rather enjoying making the little discoveries that are either brand-new to me, or ones that make me go ‘AH-HA, I remember you’ (in the case of Gloom Hands, the reaction was ‘NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, NOPE.’)
I’ve also had another surprise. I play in handheld mode mostly, and ToTK was all looking a bit blurry on the Switch 2’s screen. So I got the upgrade pack and suddenly everything became beautiful again – Link was in focus, the individual blades of grass in Hyrule Field were clearly whipping in the wind, and the crispy snow around Rito village almost sparkled. I don’t often get upgrade packs for games I already own, but this one was worth it.
-Marie
Queen’s Domain, PC
I suspect this won’t be the last time you see me yapping about Queen’s Domain here. I’ve already enthused about it elsewhere on the site this week, but I’ve managed to squeeze in a few more hours since then, and it continues to enthrall. Here’s a small moment from my most recent go: I’d been fumbling about the Tower of Knowledge for a while at this point, dying slightly more than I’d like to those jabby gargoyle gits and lumbering chimera things, so I thought I’d have a little wander away from the violence and have an explore. That was when I noticed the gap on the bookshelf, wide enough to slot in the mysterious tome – the Ratty Bug Compendium – I’d been wondering about ever since I picked it up elsewhere some five hours earlier.
Moments later a secret passage had opened, leading out to a balcony overlooking the ocean. Treasure! Exciting! But just as I’m about to go back inside, I notice a little outcrop on the exterior of the tower, seemingly reachable with my sword’s magic dashing power. So over I go, discovering an otherwise inaccessible route into an inner chamber. There, I find a lever, which I excitedly pull, only to be rewarded with… nothing at all. Until five minutes or so later, when I discover a secret panel has now opened up on the other side of the tower, granting me access to the treats within. In isolation, it’s not a remarkable gaming anecdote, but Queen’s Domain is just crammed with these little incremental secrets and surprises, full of clever design that makes exploration feel so rewarding. I’ve already spotted more enigmas waiting to be cracked, and if Queen’s Domain keeps distracting me like this, I might never escape its pull.
-Matt
