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
I’ve decided to do something a little different this year. As well as returning to my backlog to complete or get further progress on already started games, I also want to start games I have previously bought and not succumb to purchasing any new games until I’ve worked through most of them. So I went through and completed Stories Untold, Aborigenus, Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise, and Dr. Atominus. My favourite was definitely Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise with it being an interesting point-and-click title that I found relatively fun. Aborigenus and Dr. Atominus are both simplistic platformers while Stories Untold had unique but rather confusing gameplay to contend with. I reluctantly reinstalled CrossfireX in order to work through the remaining achievements I have; damn do I have fun in classic mode when you can just spray and pray! Next, I played more Bravery & Greed for my review which was published on Wednesday; highly recommended by the way and you can read it [HERE] if you have a moment of spare time. If you’re interested in a new rogue-lite dungeon crawler, this may be perfect for you. Finally, I returned to Undungeon. When I first played this, I just couldn’t get into it but now I can’t get enough of it. There will be a review for this online in the next few coming days so be sure not to miss it!
Most exciting news of this week: I’m looking forward to the Xbox Developer Direct Showcase which has been confirmed for the 25th January. I would like to see what updates this brings us in terms of gameplay for some newer titles! Also, its the SWC – SMITE World Championship starting Friday over the course of the weekend and I’m super excited to watch the matches and see the preview for Season 10!
Looking forward to playing: Undungeon and SMITE. Maybe some others; not entirely sure.
Dae Jim
Had my first couple of completions this week, and I have been playing a few games I had in my backlog for a long time. Lots of hours went into Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and I’m halfway! For the upcoming week, I have two new review games so BD-1 and Cal will have to wait again to finish their adventure.
Most exciting news of this week: Orange Spark joining the managing staff from LifeisXbox!
Looking forward to playing: Finishing Alan Wake and starting my first review games of the year.
Robby
I’ve been playing One Piece Odyssey since the start of the year. It’s a wonderful recreation of the anime and feels very faithful to its source material. The Dragon quest 11-like JRPG gameplay is also right up my alley, and if you add the fact that it starts right where I stopped watching the show, it kind of feels like it was made for me. You can read my review-in-progress [HERE].
Most exciting news of this week: I launched a new idea where I’m collecting colouring book pages from indie games. it’s getting a lot of attention and I love it. Check my tweets [HERE]
Looking forward to playing: I’ll keep playing One Piece Odyssey until I beat it. might even go for 100%.
Aaron
Hello everyone. This week I have been super busy with work but have managed to find some time to play my new favourite vice, Escape from Tarkov.
Escape from Tarkov can’t be found through Steam or Console, but rather through its own website. Tarkov is a hyperrealistic military simulator. There are a lot of mechanics at work here and will take a lot of time to learn. Shooters like this have deep combat mechanics such as weapon breakages, weapon jams, ricochet, bullet drops, ammo types, weapon cleanliness and more.
Getting shot affects various parts of your body, and getting shot in the arm or leg can cause bullets to ricochet off of your bones and cause an exit wound from your ribs for example. There are various types of trauma kits and medical kits available in the game which have different types of healing abilities. Cutting a cut for example can be bandaged and you are good to go. More damaging wounds will need more attention.
You can also get tired and hungry which affects your combat effectiveness. It’s very deep, and your character needs to rest between each run that you do.
You can play online with a friend or up to 4 others giving you a squad of 5. It also features a permanent death feature so if you die, your character is lost as well as your gear, and you will need to start over again. You have access to a trader before and after each mission to buy new equipment or sell stuff you have found in the world.
Needless to say, this will be something I’ll be investing more time in over the coming weeks as my own game I’m working on wraps up.
Most exciting news of this week: New Xbox Game Pass games look really good, so might be playing some of those too.
Looking forward to playing: More Escape from Tarkov.
Colombo
This week I only played Persona 5 Royal, currently have a little bit more than 70 hours on it.
I did watch a few movies this week to vary things a bit, they were as follows: Shutter Island, The Martian, and Drive. I liked all of them.
Most exciting news of this week: The new Xbox Developer Direct Showcase being announced piqued my interest.
Looking forward to playing: More Persona 5 Royal, maybe some Dead by Daylight, and if I get a new game to review, there’s also that.
Thomas
Another good week in gaming was had. Many of the same games, but some with twists.
As always, the story goes on in Final Fantasy XIV where I saw the credits roll on 5.0, otherwise known as Shadowbringers. It’s taken the story to even greater heights than it had already achieved and is making me very excited for the Endwalker expansion.
When I wasn’t in Eorzea, I spent some time in Elgado, the outpost you operate out of in Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak. I’m taking on the new, and to their credit quite ferocious, monsters like Flaming Espinas, Viole(n)t Mizutsune and Chaotic Gore Magala. The latter of which caused me some real panic moments while frantically trying to evade its moves.
Segwaying nicely into a different kind of panic caused by paranormal activity in Phasmophobia. The ghost hunting continues, with a crew of four we get ghosts busted before they bust us. And now that my VR setup is in place for Hubris VR I’ve even played a couple of rounds in VR. Let me tell you, I’m a scaredy cat when looking at the screen, so being right in the middle of it all does not help. I love and hate it in equal measure.
Most exciting news of this week: Sigono announced the next entry to their OPUS series of games, namely: OPUS: Prism Peak. I was a big fan of OPUS: Echo of Starsong, giving it a shining review.
Looking forward to playing: I’ll be pressing on with Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers’ patches. And I hope to have everything ready in Monster Hunter Rise to try Weapon and Monster Roulette with my friends.
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!