25th April
Hi there, and welcome back to our usual catch-up, where we talk about a few of the games we’ve been getting into. This time around, Mat looks back on when games were simply games rather than headline-grabbing conquests; Marie is excited to see her vampires make their move; Bertie takes pleasure in the ridiculous; and Dom, in true fashion, asks politely for a hand.
So, what have you been playing this week?
And here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to—our What We’ve Been Playing archive has already got you covered.
Pragmata, PS5
The hacking system strikes a great balance: it’s detailed enough to keep your brain switched on without becoming overwhelming. At the same time, because you’re moving your character, it ends up feeling like you’re working through a chess problem while line-dancing. I keep wondering if the team once had an earlier build where the nodes came in different colours—before the developers realised it hardly changes what the hacks actually do, and that they mostly end up boosting damage anyway.
It has this sense of being a “complete package,” with the outfits, coins, and challenge spaces all neatly in place—almost as if the game might once have been much broader. For example, it could have imagined new additions arriving every month. You could even picture the idea of running Pragmata servers and organising ten-person raids. Still, I’m glad it doesn’t go there. I’m happy with it staying exactly what it is. It works. It’s enjoyable. You can choose to jump in—or not.
Lego Batman: The Videogame and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
This week, I’m bouncing between two games. Lego Batman keeps surprising me, even now that I’ve reached the stage where I’m fixated on tracking down every item. It’s definitely starting to show its age in how responsive the controls are—for instance, when I’m trying to activate a switch to open a door—but even after a few weeks, it keeps drawing me back in.
Tomodachi Life, though, has turned into my comfort option for those unexpectedly chilly evenings, when a blanket, hot water bottle, and Oodie combine into a cosy little hideaway. In my most recent play session, I learned that both of my 100-plus-year-old vampires are taken with each other, yet they aren’t prepared to admit how they feel. They’re savouring the whole longing thing and spending time daydreaming about one another. Immortals: please, just say it already.
That’s pretty tame compared with the oddball stuff happening on my island. John Wick enjoys blowing bubbles—naturally—and Charmander is smitten with Pikachu, except Pikachu has his sights set on someone else. There’s also another couple bickering because one of them spoke to another resident about spoons. It’s wonderfully strange, and somehow it’s also relaxing.
-Marie
Don’t judge but…
It’s Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire 2 again. Vampire Survivors has become my evening go-to at home, and what’s kept it interesting for me—compared to how it felt at the start—is discovering everything that’s been added since. There’s a huge amount of content: themed expansion packs, plenty of new characters, and a range of quirky abilities. I assumed it would fade out quickly the way it did before, but we’re still here, many hours later, and it hasn’t lost its grip.
In a way, it even gets better as you progress, because the already ridiculous premise just keeps going further. One level had us riding mine carts along a side-scrolling route while the enemies—also riding mine carts—came after us. Then there’s another stage where you attack a garden that simply won’t stop growing, and yet another where you infiltrate Castle Dracula from Castlevania. It’s an endless spread of delightful little finger foods.
Meanwhile, in Slay the Spire 2, I’m currently on Ascension 3 with the Regent, so my climb to Ascension 10 is moving along at a slower pace. My luck has been a mixed bag. The Regent did get a recent boost, though, so I’m hoping I’ll start seeing the difference soon. One really strong run had me finishing turns with more than 60 armour, like I was some kind of Sherman tank. I want that feeling back.
-Bertie
Vampire Crawlers, Xbox Series X/S
I ended up losing almost three full days to Vampire Survivors when it first launched. I had it on my phone via Remote Play, so I played it at the gym, in cafés, and even once on a date while my partner was in the bathroom. I was hooked in a genuinely dangerous way. I love the rhythm of it—how it almost knowingly winks at you when you unlock a synergy that breaks the game—and its unmistakably Italian charm, along with a real affection for wordplay. It felt custom-built to poke at my ADHD-heavy brain. So when you take that formula and mix it with a roguelike dungeon-crawling deck builder, honestly, it’s a surprise I even managed to show up for work this week. After 30 hours, the pull of addiction is only getting stronger. Please help me, someone—I’ve got pets to look after.
-Dom