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
Hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you have fun welcoming in the New Year over the weekend. I didn’t really feel up to gaming much this past week as I’ve been physically and mentally preparing for the start of next year; I always get nervous and anxious during this period. I did purchase and play Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (£4.99) to give me access to all the DLC I didn’t own so I can return and work on getting my completion percentage higher; desperate to work on my backlog next year and I have to start somewhere. Other than that, I played a little of Chameneon which is my next review game and I would like to get it online by the end of the year. It’s a quirky and interesting platformer title so keep an eye out for that being published over the weekend.
Most exciting news of this week: Once again, TrueAchievements has released details for the January monthly target medals which I will be continuing to obtain in 2023. The start of the New Year also excites me tremendously and I can’t wait to see what gaming news gets revealed!
Looking forward to playing: Chameneon, Bravery & Greed, SMITE, and perhaps Persona 5 and/or Borderlands 3. I also need to get the winter tome completed in Dead by Daylight.
Dae Jim
The final week of the year! I started The Walking Dead: The Final Season. It was a long adventure for Clementine. For me, one of the best videogame characters with depth and a meaningful personality.
Most exciting news of this week: That new Stalker 2 gameplay was very impressive!
Looking forward to playing: Not sure I have the time to play on my Xbox next week but hopefully some more Walking Dead.
Robby
First of all I’d like to use this moment to wish everyone a great holiday period and the best of health during the festivities.
I had a week off, but with two kids to look after, one of them being sick, it was hard to get a lot of gaming in. I played some more Pokémon Violet but barely made a dent in it, finally beat Stray (but I was only half an hour from the credits) and also started playing High on Life, which doesn’t seem all that amazing as what I’ve been reading online. The highlight for me was probably downloading Moving Out again and playing the DLC together with my daughter, it’s a game she really loves to play together.
Most exciting news of this week: Nothing in particular, just looking forward to reading some GOTY articles everywhere 🙂
Looking forward to playing: More High on Life, it’s not really the humor that does it for me, but it has some solid exploration skills too.
Aaron
Hello everyone & I hope you all had a great Christmas with friends, family & loved ones. While I was graciously unwrapping my French press coffee maker, Santa quietly snuck some goodies under my tree so I’ve been playing some really interesting games this week.
First off, I spent the first 2 days after Christmas playing Stray on PS5. What an incredible game that was. An unusual choice for a protagonist but it was really cool to see & play as something different for a change. The neon cityscape & Cyberpunk aesthetics were impressive to look at as well as the mechanics involved. Despite it being quite short, this was okay, because I also got Returnal which I had been wanting to play for a long time.
If you are unfamiliar with Returnal, essentially it is a roguelike permanent death shooter which has similar ties to groundhog day. If you die, you start at the very beginning of the game again & only get to keep the equipment that is integral to the story progression. The world is constantly changing also. With each new loop after death, you will have to deal with different enemies at different locations, and no loop is the same. Quite interesting, but also highly frustrating.
Finally this week I also managed to squeeze in some Ghost of Tsushima. I have already finished this one, but since I also got a year of PS Plus, I was able to start playing through the director’s cut which has all of the new content & multiplayer features.
Most exciting news of this week: That I still have time off until January 5th!
Looking forward to playing: Ghost of Tsushima & Bendy & The Dark Revival.
Colombo
First off, Happy New Year in advance! Hopefully, you had a nice Christmas as well.
I didn’t play many different games, but I did play about 30 hours of Persona 5 Royal from last week to this one, it’s been really good so far and I’m looking forward to playing more of it. I also played a few matches of Dead by Daylight again and started levelling up The Pig on Wednesday after I was done hitting prestige 1 with Ghost Face.
Most exciting news of this week: Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden are both available for pre-installing on Xbox.
Looking forward to playing: More Persona 5 Royal and Dead by Daylight. I may play something else as well, but I’m not sure just yet.
Thomas
First off, I hope everyone has a good turn of year and a fun New Years’ Eve!
I’ve had a lot of fun with various titles this week. To get the usuals out of the way, I’ve been progressing steadily throughout Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers where I brought the aforementioned shadow. I’ve not yet looked at the main scenario quest list on the wiki, but I reckon I’m close to halfway through the 5.0 quests.
Phasmophobia also saw the dark of night as I’ve put some more time in with friends. We’re like the ghostbusters, only a lot more incompetent and scared. It’s me. I’m the scared one. But we are finding our groove and it’s a lot of fun to mess around with in their company. It also doesn’t help we only ever start after midnight.
I turned on Elite Dangerous Odyssey for a bit to sell off my reserves of rare minerals and decommission my fleet carrier. I’ll probably get a new one once I start playing it more, but for now, I’m stopping the drain on my credits.
And as said last week, I set up my Oculus Rift again to play Hubris VR. I’m about halfway to where I was during my visit at Cyborn. Stunning game, I’m proud for it to be Belgian.
And lastly, I dodge-rolled myself back to the lands between to play the Elden Ring seamless coop mod with friends from my Final Fantasy Free Company (guild, if you will). It’s been a lot of fun and feels like the perfect victory lap after beating it three times.
Most exciting news of this week: Nothing noteworthy reached me in terms of news this week.
Looking forward to playing: More Elden Ring Seamless coop. We’ve got various classes going in the party which makes it feel like I’m playing D&D.
Missi
I wish you all a happy new year! On to a great 2023 with a lot of awesome releases and great gaming sessions.
I got the flu this week, and sadly not a mild variant; would have loved to play games but was too sick for that. At the beginning of this week, I started Potion Permit, which is a lot of fun.
Most exciting news of this week: I haven’t followed gaming news, so sadly I have no idea.
Looking forward to playing: More Potion Permit. I hope to complete it in the upcoming days.
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!
