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
Aniimo has taken over my life since it came out on Wednesday. It’s my new addiction game, which consists of elements from Genshin Impact and Palworld. It is quite overwhelming and confusing to understand everything, but that hasn’t stopped me from diving deeper and deeper into all its content. The visuals are incredible, the audio is decent, but the frame rate during cutscenes on Xbox Series S using performance mode is pretty disappointing. I’m on an exciting adventure, and I’m happy I’ve found that new game, which I believe will keep me occupied for the future weeks and months.
My Overwatch games went pretty well. I managed to play a variety of heroes, and I finally feel like I can see some improvement with my Lifeweaver gameplay (or I’ve just been lucky with bad opponents). I’m getting a little fed up with teams where no one wants to play Tank, but I can’t really expect 2:2:2 in quickplay. I might have to dive into some more Competitive 6V6, or if that fails, go back to Competitive 5V5.
Lewis and I have finished the final map on RV There Yet?, which was a fun accomplishment, but now we have golf to contend with?! Seriously, it was not needed and feels like you’re playing an entirely different game. But unfortunately, there are multiple achievements related to playing golf, which I’m not looking forward to grabbing.
Finally, I completed Mafia Definitive Edition on Classic difficulty. I would say the race was the hardest part, but later on through my playthrough, I got stuck with very little health and ammo, and the mission I was on required many attempts to get through. I now have the task of gathering collectables and miscellaneous achievements, which I’ll get around to when I’m in the mood.
Most interesting news of the week: If Xbox goes through with calling their Platinum equivalent a Mythic achievement, I love the name! Can’t wait to see what the final design will be.
Looking forward to playing: More Aniimo, Overwatch, and perhaps Mafia Definitive Edition.
Robby
Quite a week! I’m still playing Ball X Pit as the last game before bedtime every night (that might explain the dreams about bouncing balls), and I’ll get a review for it up soon, but I feel like I haven’t seen all it has to offer yet. I just unlocked the ability to have 2 characters combined, and that was a total game-changer. But I just can’t seem to find a lot of joy in the actual ball-bouncing gameplay. I’m in it for the wild builds.
I also played a ton of Dragon Quest Heroes – Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon. A retro game I wasn’t fully aware of, but it’s one of the first real roguelikes (with “Rogue” being the very first). You enter a dungeon, grab all you can, keep going deeper, and if you die, you lose it all. With almost no metaprogression (just 50% of your gold). It’s brutal, but it’s also a lot of fun. Full Review [HERE]!
Yesterday, I beat MyDear.Exe on Steam. It’s a client’s game and will only release in November, but it’s so wholesome and original. You play as a 76-year-old wife, and her husband made her a laptop full of games, locked folders and other surprises, as a testament to their life together. There is a demo on Steam now, but you’ll want to experience the full story. Trust me.
I also played a bit of Ex Sanguis and Dunebound Tactics. Two tile-based, turn-based tactics games that were released a day away from each other.
Dunebound Tactics has you traversing a desert in a boat (love that visually), and you can convert your own party members into the game’s main resource. Pretty wild, but I suck at the actual strategy and died against the first boss 3 times in a row.
Ex Sanguis is the spiritual sequel to one of my fav Tactics games ever: othercide. It shares the same unique black & White + red aesthetic and plays quite similarly as well. But the way the roguelike progression works here is a lot more satisfying, with more control over each run and how easy or hard I want it to be. It’s only in early access, but I already had a lot of fun with it.
Lastly, my son wanted to play a new co-op game with me, and that turned out to be The LEGO Movie. Aged pretty well, and still fun. Much better than the 1st Marvel game, which we got lost in and didn’t know what to do next. But LEGO Batman makes everything else look worse compared to it.
Most interesting news of the week: Turns out the new Wolverine game that Sony had been praising as their next system seller is actually quite… bad? I have to play it for myself, but the clips being shared online do not paint a pretty picture.
Looking forward to playing: Fire Emblem – Fortune’s Weave. What can I say. It’s tile-based tactics month, I guess?
Colombo
This week I’ve played more Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Marvel Rivals, and Fortnite with friends. Thanks to my Game Pass Ultimate subscription, I had quite a few V-Bucks in my account, so of course I got the Kingdom Hearts bundle.
I’ve also played some Warhammer 40k Darktide with friends, which has been quite interesting, although we’re having difficulties defeating a certain boss.
On my notebook, I played through The Dark Queen of Mortholme, which I got in a bundle from Humble Bundle recently. It was a very short but meaningful game to play, with an emphasis on perseverance; I strongly recommend it.
I also played Funguys Swarm for the first time after its 1.0 release, and I still really enjoy it. I look forward to jumping back into it in the future.
I’m playing Dark Souls Remastered with a friend. We take turns and play a bit of it each; we did exploit and level up many times, as well as duplicate items, because we agreed that this is too frustrating to play otherwise. We’re still having difficulties despite that 😂
Moonlighter 2 was my gamepass game of choice for the week, and I suspect it’ll remain being for a little while, as it is quite fun to play it.
Finally, I started playing Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and I’d say it could easily have been the straight sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, as both happen at the same time in the story. It’s pretty good so far, but I still have less than 10 hours of gameplay; I’m looking forward to playing more of it.
Most interesting news of the week: Marvel’s Wolverine just released, and it seems like it has quite a few issues.
Looking forward to playing: More Dark Souls, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Moonlighter 2, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Warhammer 40k Darktide.
Benny
It’s been a busy week for gaming. I finished Orbitals at the start of the week and had a lot of fun with it. It’s a fast-paced action game with some enjoyable puzzles and great co-op gameplay. I also really enjoyed the retro-anime aesthetic and punchy soundtrack, which gave it plenty of personality. My only real complaint is that it was over a little too quickly, although I really enjoyed playing through Orbitals online with Aaron, who didn’t even need to own a copy of the game. If you’d like to hear more about what I thought, you can read my full review of Orbitals [HERE]
I also completed Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, and it was a thrilling adventure from start to finish. One of the things that really stuck with me was the monster that appears as part of the story. I thought it was brilliant and genuinely terrifying, and it helped make some of the later moments particularly memorable. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy also looks and sounds fantastic, with some of the best visuals and audio I’ve seen on Xbox, and I found myself regularly jumping into photo mode to capture shots from my playthrough. My only slight criticism was the pacing of the puzzles. I enjoyed them for the most part, but towards the middle it sometimes felt like it was one puzzle after another, and I would have liked a little more action in between. If you missed it, you can read Robby’s full review [HERE]
I’ve started playing Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Capcom’s big revival of their classic dark fantasy samurai series. You play as Miyamoto Musashi exploring an Edo-period Kyoto that has been overrun by demonic monsters called Genma. Armed with an Oni Gauntlet that absorbs enemy souls, the gameplay focuses on fast, satisfying, and parry-focused sword combat. I’ve only played the opening two hours so far, but the fluid combat loops and gorgeous presentation have already hooked me, and I absolutely can’t wait to play more.
Back on the Switch 2, I’ve been playing Monowave, a charming puzzle-platformer where emotions literally become your toolkit. You control a little spirit named Mono who swaps between happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety to get past obstacles, change how local animals behave, and solve some seriously challenging puzzles. It is a wonderfully clever concept; you can read my full review [HERE]
Most interesting news of the week: Xbox shadow-dropped the action-roguelite Shape of Dreams onto Game Pass during their Tokyo Game Show broadcast. The release coincides with a major anniversary update featuring a new frost character, expanded story elements, and an exclusive Xbox bonus costume.
Looking forward to playing: Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok.
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!
