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
Sea of Thieves has been the only game I’ve powered on with this week due to the frequent migraines and eye pain I’ve been experiencing recently. Whenever I’ve been able to play with Lewis, we’ve done a bit of everything – Taking part in world events, doing a variety of voyages, peaceful fishing, and working towards any achievements we can obtain in safer seas. In addition, some shouldn’t take too much time and are low risk in higher seas.
Most interesting news of this week: Xbox Developer Direct is happening on the 18th January which looks promising. In addition to this, Palworld is coming to Xbox Games Pass for Xbox One, Series S|X, and Windows on January 19th. Pokémon with guns? Could be an interesting addition and concept presented to the gaming world. However, for me personally, the highlight of my week(end) is the SWCX (Smite World Championship Season 10) and the announcement of SMITE 2!
Looking forward to playing: I may have some respite this week as I don’t believe screen time has been doing me much good with my migraines and eyes. If I play anything, it will be Sea of Thieves or Truck Driver: The American Dream. Maybe a visual novel?
Robby
I played a few interesting games this week. I playtested the console versions of Hidden Through Time 2, and tempted to go for 1000G on Xbox. it even triggered something in me to look up more hidden object games and I started and beat Queen’s Quest 5: Symphony of Death in a single sitting.
I also beat Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party, and before you give me “that” look: it’s actually quite challenging to get perfect scores in it and I don’t even think I’ll bother going for 1000G because of it.
I’m still playing Inscryption too and Kaycee’s Mod is giving me a run for my money because that is one tough card game roguelike!
Last weekend, I started Sayonara Wild Hearts and then beat it in ~1 hour. I liked it so much that I beat it twice in a row and tried to get as many of the achievements as I could. This might even make it into my shortlist of favourite games ever. It’s THAT good! (but I’m a sucker for rhythm games)
Most interesting news of this week: The gaming industry feels like a bubble that has burst. People are being replaced by AI and thousands of layoffs (most recently from Unity & Twitch even). Plenty of Gamedev studios too who have now let go of professionals and senior devs, all looking for a job. This will be a disaster for young devs fresh from school because now we’ll have senior devs competing over lower incomes. or worse: leaving the industry and taking their experience with them. These are not good times for games, people.
Looking forward to playing: Prince of Persia!
Thomas
The sea of time I had over the holiday period has settled as life is back to its regularly scheduled programming. This mainly means I haven’t picked anything new up recently and have stuck to my well-established comfort games.
Final Fantasy XIV saw me start a second character to play alongside a friend who made a free trial account. I’m still catching up to where he is right now, but it shouldn’t take me long to blast through A Realm Reborn when you don’t need to read all the dialogue. My mini static (a set group of players) also finally beat Silkie in the first Criterion dungeon, a fight we started late last year.
Honkai Star Rail saw me do most of my usual farming of gear and materials while I further built out Ruan Mei and did the first iteration of the new “Pure Fiction” game mode. Pure Fiction is a sort of time trial where you gain points by dealing as much damage to enemies as possible as they keep respawning in waves. Area of Effect attacks are key in this version of the mode, bringing some underused characters into the limelight like Himeko or Herta.
In Divinity Original Sin 2 my party and I galavanted further along the Reaper’s coast, mainly the cemetery and village so far, getting into scraps with anything and anyone we can’t blag our way out of. It’s fun, but lining up our schedules often proves difficult.
And carrying over from last week, when I wasn’t able to submit my piece in time, into this is that I’ve given Dragon’s Dogma another shake after seeing a couple of YouTube videos about the upcoming sequel. A couple of beginner’s guides later and I’m having a way better time than the last time I attempted to play it. It really has some interesting combat that carries me through the aged graphics and awkward menus and systems.
Most interesting news of this week: One of YouTube’s biggest creators is handing over the torch soon. Matpat, the face of Game Theory, is soon taking a step back to focus more on other things in his life. And while I’ll surely miss him, it’s well deserved and I wish him a fun last 10 theories and some well-earned rest.
Looking forward to playing: We’re getting a free Dr Ratio in Honkai Star Rail next week, so there’s that. I’ll also try to get further into Dragon’s Dogma.
Colombo
I finished playing Atomic Heart this week and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The soviet setting is pretty interesting, the animations are great, the soundtrack is pretty good and the Russian voice acting was well done.
I also started and finished Figment and Figment 2: Creed Valley; both were pretty nice games to play and had interesting soundtracks.
I finally started playing Kingdom Hearts III‘s DLC, ReMind, though I gave up on replaying the original game before it. Not much I can say about it so far.
Most interesting news of this week: Xbox announced that a new developer direct is happening on January 18th.
Looking forward to playing: More KH3 ReMind and possibly starting KH Melody of Memory.
Genethical
You know when you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and you want to try one of everything? I’ve been dipping my proverbial cutlery in many dishes this week, trying to find a game that will grab me. First I tried to get into Metro Last Light, considering I modded my Fallout 4 to be a borderline survival shooter. I had previously bounced off of Metro 2033 as a consequence of having read the book before playing the game, and the game simply butchers the entire feel the book creates. Sadly, Last Light has not delivered the experience I had hoped for either, so I think this franchise simply isn’t for me (the OST rocks, though.)
What’s next? I took a bite of the first Divinity: Original Sin since the group isn’t always around to play OS2. Larian is a great example of suffering from success: each game they make is so improved from the previous one that going back to the old ones is difficult. I’ll still try, but once I finish the game that finally caught my attention.
With Dragon’s Dogma 2 on the horizon, I was convinced by a certain… gremlin I know to finally get the first Dragon’s Dogma out of my backlog and clear it. The start as a mage was rough, but now my character is quickly becoming a powerhouse and I’ll start experimenting with other classes.
Most interesting news of this week: Nothing that Robby hasn’t covered above already. A pretty sad affair, upsetting even.
Looking forward to playing: More Dragon’s Dogma and Divinity: OS2.
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!