It’s time to look back on the week we’ve just had! What did the weekdays look like for our writers? What was the biggest news from the week? and what are we looking forward to playing during the upcoming weekend? Our Eyes on the Week article will answer all three of these questions!
We’re curious about your opinion and played games, so be sure to share your stuff on our social media channels!
Victoria
There are two games I’ve properly played this week and a number I’ve played for my genre progress on TrueAchievements for both the medal and bingo card. I finished the main story playthrough of Pentiment and it was an adventure. I would never have seen myself playing through this originally, despite my enjoyment of visual novels. Still, the story and characters’ dialogue gave plenty of detail/structure that kept me entertained. I also obtained the remaining achievements on Friday evening so that’s another completion in the bag! It’s currently on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate if anyone is interested!
Originally, I intended to play Family Feud for my genres but found myself thoroughly enjoying it (despite some questionable answers) and will be playing more once my genre journey is complete. It definitely relies on ‘Thinking out of the box’ answers at times!
As last week, I’ve been sucked into Pokemon TCG Pocket even more! I have collected more cards but still have a generous amount left to collect. I’ve been good with my pack hourglasses and I’ve started saving them up for a rainy day so it’s just two packs a day as my premium trial has just run out and I won’t be paying £8 a month for that… At the moment… I have made progress with my event battles too and I’m currently at 26 wins so just 19 more to go for the shiny medal.
In addition, I will mention: SSX, Forza Horizon 4, Hogwarts Legacy, D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, The Finals, Avicii Invector and Dead Cells. I’ve played very little of all these but they’ve been played and achievements have been obtained in each!
Most interesting news of this week: The Xbox Black Friday Sale is now live! Make sure you grab some bargains while these discounts are around.
Looking forward to playing: Family Feud and Pentiment are definite. I’m bound to play other games too. Perhaps returning to Dead Cells?
Robby
Mostly been playing the same as last week, with my Xbox focus on Farewell North, a game in which you play as a sheepherding collie recollecting old memories.
I also started playing MTG: Arena again today, because the new “Foundations” set is out, and I’m a sucker for a new set release. Next year will see a Final Fantasy + Magic The Gathering collab and I guess I’ll take 3 months off of work to indulge myself?
Played a lot of Quest 3 with Wall Town Wonders coming out soon. a Belgian Mixed-Reality game in which you build a miniature town on your wall and interact with its tiny inhabitants.
Most interesting news of this week: I’m late to the party, but still happy with last week’s port of Death Stranding.
Looking forward to playing: Stars in the Trash, a catventure in 2D by a nice Spanish developer that sent me cookies this week!
Colombo
I’ve played a bit less than usual this week but I still played a bit of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer and Persona 3 Reload again. I also played some Baldur’s Gate 3 with friends, we’re about 30 hours in, and it’s been great
Most interesting news of this week: The Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s gameplay deep dive video releasing, it’s looking pretty good!
Looking forward to playing: More Persona 3 Reload, COD BO6 and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Missi
I have finished TCG Card Shop Simulator. This week that was mostly idle play as I used a mod to hold more booster packs in hand and to open them while I was working, so I only needed to check on the game every 15 minutes or so. I did enjoy this game so so much but the grind at the end.. is no fun at all.
This week I had to wait on the phone with a company for a while, and with annoying waiting music going on… I couldn’t play something big, but I decided to play Clawfish while waiting on the phone. Perfect game for that, as it is fun, easy, and short with about 40 minutes to unlock all the achievements.
Another game I played this week was Calcium Chaos: Derailed. A fun roguelite that is quite short, but that is perfect as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It has a fun mechanic to combine weapons and upgrade your weapon that way, with adding a bit of the effect of the weapon(s) you used to upgrade it.
I also started American Arcadia, and wow that game pulls you in, right from the start! I’m amazed by how cool it is and it looks so good. Looking forward to finishing this one very soon!
And last but not least, I was at the launch party of Petit Island in the publishers’ office SOEDESCO, as their studio is quite close to me and was able to play a bit of Petit Island. What a cute game where they made the difference between the NPC animals and the animals on the island by making the random animals on the island fruit- and veggie-based animals, so you have a tomato crab or a leak bird. I’m so hyped to play this game this weekend as it just looks so so cute.
Most interesting news of this week: The earnings report from Embracer group and how they now employ 40% fewer game developers than a year ago (because of layoffs, closing studios, and selling studios). My heart goes out to all the developers in the game industry and how unstable their jobs are.
Looking forward to playing: More American Arcade and Petit Island!
Benny
This week I’ve been playing The Callisto Protocol. I started playing via Xbox Cloud Gaming and was impressed with the opening gameplay and then I downloaded it for the best performance. Unfortunately, after around 4-5 hours of playing, I lost my progress and had to go back around 4 hours. While very frustrating, I did manage to get back to where I was and I’m now saving using manual saves much more frequently.
I’ve also been playing Metal Slug Tactics, a new take on the Metal Slug game series, look out for my review coming soon.
I played some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies with my brother online and we had a blast. The difficulty really ramps up quickly and this adds to the overall depth. Season One just dropped too, so it’s a good time to jump into multiplayer.
Most interesting news of this week: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s sublime soundtrack is now officially available on music streaming platforms. Featuring 36 tracks compared to the 67 tracks found in the base game.
Looking forward to playing: More of The Callisto Protocol, Metal Slug Tactics and next week S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl which launches Day One on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Hello, I’m Victoria. I’m from the UK and have been playing video games for as long as I can remember; back on DreamCast. I’ve pretty much fallen for Xbox since I was around eight years old and remember BioShock being my first game on the Xbox360. Although I find it thoroughly enjoyable to not only experience gameplay, I also find comfort in getting lost and engrossed in the online worlds that sometimes differ greatly from what we know. Another side of my Xbox passion would be achievement hunting and gamerscore. I thrive when I hear the little sound of one popping up on the screen and I’m always finding ways to work on my backlog when possible. Horror is my favourite genre so if you have any recommendations, don’t be afraid to send them my way!
