25th April

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Mat remembers when games were just games and not world-shaking conquerers; Marie is impatient for her vampires to get it on; Bertie discovers depth in ridiculousless; and Dom politely calls for help.

What have you been playing this week?

Here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to! The What We’ve Been Playing archive has you covered.

Pragmata, PS5

I once described 2024’s Twisters as a film deliberately engineered to be an 8/10; functional fun with no expectations of greatness. I feel the same way about Pragmata, as if it was plucked out of a different era of video game development when big games were allowed to just be alright. Slightly better than alright, even. They didn’t have to wholly define the following decade and that actually wasn’t even a thing we knew video games could do. Apparently the general public has been as up for this kind of thing as me.

The hacking mechanic is the right kind of fiddly; just complicated enough to occupy your brain without actually being a challenge, but since you need to move your character around too it’s like doing a chess puzzle while line-dancing. I wonder if there was a version in development where the nodes were all differently coloured, before eventually the team realised it’s barely important what the hacks do and say eh they all pretty much add more damage.

It’s got this framing, with all the costumes and coins and challenge rooms, like it could have been a much more complicated game at one point – like new things could have been added to it every month. Like you could start Pragmata servers and do 10-man Pragmata raids. But I’m glad it doesn’t have that. I’m glad it’s just the game that it is. It’s fine. You could play it or not.

–Mat J

Lego Batman: The Videogame and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

I have two this week I’ve been flitting between. Lego Batman is still throwing surprises at me, though now I’m at the point where I’ve become obsessed with finding all the collectibles. It’s definitely showing its age when it comes to how responsive the controls are, such as trying to trigger a switch to open a door, but even after a few weeks it’s pulling me back to play.

Tomodachi Life, on the other hand, has been my go-to on the unexpectedly chilly evenings where a blanket, hot water bottle and Oodie combine to create a cosy kind of personal fortress. The last session revealed that both my 100-plus year-old vampires are smitten with each other but won’t confess their love, yet. They’re too happy pining and having daydreams about one another. Immortals: I wish they’d get on with it.

However, that’s tame compared to the other shenanigans happening on my island. John Wick loves blowing bubbles, because of course he does, and Charmander loves Pikachu, but unfortunately Pikachu is in love with someone else. And another married couple is bickering because one of them spoke to someone else about spoons. It’s all so wonderfully weird and somehow also relaxing.

-Marie

Don’t judge but…

It’s Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire 2 again. Vampire Survivors has become the evening game in my flat, and what I’m finding interesting now versus when I first played it is discovering everything that’s been added since. There’s loads here: themed game additions, hordes of new characters with silly powers. I’d assumed the game would run dry quickly like it used to, but we’re however how many hours into it and it’s still sustaining us.

In some respects it even gets better the further you go in, because what was already a fairly ridiculous proposal gets even more so. One level had us riding mine carts on a side-scrolling track while enemies – also in mine carts – rode after us. And there’s another level where you attack a garden that never stops growing, and another level where you find yourself infiltrating Castle Dracula in Castlevania. A never-ending banquet of finger-food delights.

Meanwhile in Slay the Spire 2 I’m on Ascension 3 with the Regent, so my quest to Ascension 10 is slow going. I’ve had a mixed run of luck. However, the Regent did get buffed recently so I’m hoping to tangibly feel the effects of that soon. One incredible deck had me finishing rounds with 60-plus armour like I was some sort of Sherman tank. I hunger for it again.

-Bertie

Vampire Crawlers, Xbox Series X/S

I lost about three full days to Vampire Survivors when it first came out. I had it on my phone via Remote Play, so I’d play it in the gym, in cafes, and once even on a date when my partner went to the loo. I was dangerously hooked. The rhythm of it, the way it knowingly winks at you when you happen upon a game-breaking synergy, and it’s very Italian sense of humour and propensity for wordplay. It felt designed specifically to itch my ADHD-addled brain. So when you throw that formula into a roguelike dungeon-crawling deck builder, frankly it’s a marvel I’ve turned up for work at all this week. 30 hours in and thrall is only getting stronger. Help me, someone, please, I have pets to feed.

-Dom