THE HIGHS
Tom Senior: Guardian angel
Holy crap is Destiny… good now? I always get swept up in the thrill of a new expansion and I’m stuck wondering if this feeling is real, or is this just another fleeting dalliance before I get distracted by something else. The story missions are lavish and expensive, the new enemies explode in cool new ways. The tangled shore is a bit plain but there’s the promise of an endgame rainbow city at the end of it. I even like the Gambit mode, which sounded gimmicky and confusing to me when it was revealed. Turns out it’s fun and confusing instead.
The weapon slot changes really upend the game, though. I’m using so many different weapon types now. Everyone will find their preferences and the community will eventually pin down the maths and settle on optimal loadouts, but for the moment it’s a great big gun holiday in space. Cayde-6 didn’t die in vain.
Joe Donnelly: An aye for an Eye
I really should be tackling my ever-increasing pile of shame, but this week I've had a hankering for adventure games. I really fancy Wadjet Eye's Unavowed but, having never finished the same dev's 2006 (reworked in 2013) point and clicker The Shivah, I've returned to that instead. And I'm loving it. It's smart and witty and funny and throws an unlikely protagonist into a story that's kept me guessing at every turn. I've spent as much time scratching my head and furiously scribbling notes into my pad as I have progressing its plot. I've had so much fun so far.
I'm most familiar with the developer's Blackwell series, and I'm so glad I gave this 'un another shot before hitting its more recent games. I quite fancy taking on Technobabylon next, followed by Shardlight, and by the time I actually get to Unavowed, Wadjet's next game will likely have arrived.
Tyler Wilde: Death by die
A few weeks ago, I spoke to Matthew Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe about how they handle player death in D&D, and Mercer's ideas for dealing with a party wipe got my imagination going. Designing or just thinking about tabletop roleplaying scenarios is my go to daydreaming activity—all the joy of my Divinity Engine 2 project without having to figure out how the hell to use Divinity Engine 2. If you're into tabletop roleplaying.
Chris Livingston: Heavy Mettle
There's no wrong way to play a game, and I love when a player ignores the typical rules and creates their own adventure. Sure, in this case, the adventure is spending hours at a time lying on the ground and eating. It's good to push games to their limits and see how far the simulation goes, and if that requires doing nothing but eating a few hundred thousand virtual calories, I'd say it's worth it.
Steven Messner: Prattle for Azeroth
Despite playing for years, I've never had a good circle of friends to play World of Warcraft with, forcing me to team up with strangers for all of its group activities. That hasn't bothered me too much, but with Battle for Azeroth out I managed to recruit a bud to play with me, which created a trickle-down effect that now means I have a few friends who all routinely play together. It's made an already great expansion even better and we even had to set up a separate group chat just to prattle on about WoW all day without disturbing our non-playing friends.
Though my two teammates are decidedly more casual than I am, I'm having a great time showing them the ropes. After a weekend of running Heroic-difficulty dungeons (and dying a lot), they're finally ready to tackle the much tougher Mythic-difficulty versions. It'll probably be a disaster but I really don't care. Having to friends two suffer with makes the whole experience much more satisfying.
THE LOWS
Joe Donnelly: Console exclusives still suck
This week, Sony's PlayStation Now service added From Software's PS4-exclusive Bloodborne to its ranks. Which means we can technically play Bloodborne on PC—assuming you're willing to stream the game, vouch for the service's rolling subscription fee (or play for just seven days inside its free trial period), and have a fast enough internet connection to cope. Which is an absolute tease.
Likewise, Insomniac's Spider-Man is another PS4-exclusive. Site GamesRadar says it's "about as good as superhero gaming gets" and I'm absolutely jealous. It's worth noting that I own a PlayStation 4 console, but I'd much rather play on PC. Give me God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Spider-Man—the lot—on desktop, please. Give in to my entitled and selfish and unreasonable demands, videogame license people.
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Chris Livingston: Can't do anything a spider can
I too am lamenting the PS4-exclusive Spider-Man. So much so I went looking for some Spidey games to play on PC today just to feel included. It did not go so well. I guess I should probably get a console at some point, and most likely a Switch, but not only am I lazy, I also don't like spending money. Maybe, as the Spider-Man VR experience suggested, I should just watch Homecoming again while making sad 'thwip-thwip' sounds until I finally break down and buy a PS4.
Tyler Wilde: I want to play Call of Duty battle royale
Hell, I dunno. That trailer looks cool, doesn't it? I know trailers are supposed to look cool, and I never would've expected to be excited to try Activision's turn on the bandwagon, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout mode looks dumb and pretty fun. There are gadgets, there are ATVs, there are helicopters. My cynical persona is cracking under the pressure of wanting to play the big publishers' cracks at battle royale.
Tom Senior: Can’t take it with you
I’m off on holiday far away from PCs for the next week or so. What will happen to the Final Fantasy 6 run I started on a total whim this week? RPGs rarely survive a long break, even ones that have a good codex that keeps track of your actions. What will happen to the meagre Battlefield 5 skills I have acquired during the open beta? And what if I fall behind all my Destiny pals and they end up cracking the new raid while I’m abroad?
Luckily a bunch of PC games are migrating to the Nintendo Switch, which means I can carry Hollow Knight and Into the Breach in my coat pocket. There’s always a way to sneak PC games into any situation, even via the odd console port.
Steven Messner: Work is da poop! No more!
I'm back after a two week vacation full of day-drinking and videogame binge sessions. I think my week's low is pretty self-explanatory.