Unluckily for you all, Bertie’s having a well-earned long weekend (possibly skiing, possibly jumping on the spot, possibly just having a nice lie down after the chaos of it all), meaning you’re stuck with me on intro duties for What We’ve Been Playing this time around.

And while most of what I personally have been playing is FromSoftware’s Nightreign – for reasons that will become clear later – it turns out some of the team’s in a bit of a communally Star Wars mood. Both Connor and Chris have come over all tactical, spending the week strategising their way through Zero Company. Dom, meanwhile has been adventuring in considerably different climes, revisiting 2023’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

Which is us covered, but what about you? What have you been playing this week?

And if you’ve ever wondered what we were playing – or indeed what you were playing – in the weeks gone by, you can skip gaily through the pleasant memories of the past by perusing the The What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Star Wars: Zero Company, PS5

I’m thoroughly enjoying Star Wars Zero Company, despite a few bugs here and there. I made a disgusting looking main character who I hate, but the game is such a snare that I’ve already sunk around 15 hours into it and I can’t stomach the thought of starting over.

There are already many thousands of words out there about the finer merits of this wonderful tactics game, so I will instead drill down on a particular thing I love. Kabb Uppercut is a fantastic character for a variety of reasons, but I love him as a brilliant entryway to the game’s approach to displacing enemies.

He, as you can guess, uppercuts people. When you uppercut someone, they get sent flying in a chosen direction, and killing someone with this uppercut gives Kabb all his action points back, which is lovely. As such you’re encouraged to look for creative ways to knock people into obstacles for additional damage, or even better, into pits or watery holes for instant kills.

There is a certain type of enemy (who I shan’t spoil as the game has just come out) who can be buffed into an incredibly tough-to-kill foe, especially on the ‘hard’ difficulty. Shooting them with blasters will trigger reaction melee attacks, so you really want to take them out in as few hits as possible. The perfect answer? Punching them into the water. Bam! And you’re good to go.

– Connor

Star Wars: Zero Company, PC

Well this is embarrassing, we’re wearing the same outfit! I’ve also been playing Zero Company this week (review incoming I promise!) and, surprise, I also think it’s great.

On PC, performance has been pretty choppy – in fact early on it actually prompted me to take my PC apart and give it a much-needed de-dusting and re-application of some CPU thermal paste. But even after that it can chug at times.

It’s also one of those games that is somehow endearing in its moments of jank. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes something lovably cheesy, janky, or whatever else, and what makes that stuff just annoying or disappointing. I’m struggling to find the answer – I think it’s just a gut thing, you know when you play it. But Star Wars Zero Company is undoubtedly lovable. Maybe I’ll leave it at that for now.

– Chris

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Complete Edition, PS5

I’m actually playing a few things I can’t talk about this week, but something I can is this overlooked gem. I played the sequel at Gamescom (impressions soon, hold your horses) and it instantly made me start salivating like a feral Chang Gui, forcing me to immediately download the original as soon as I got back home.

I’m finding it much easier on a second playthrough, maybe because I’ve been playing nothing but ‘parry games’ in the interceding two years. If you’re a Souls fan, give this a go. It’s telling that this is what I gravitated back to after wrapping up Onimusha, hm?

– Dom

Nightreign, PC

Okay, look, I absolutely bloody loved FromSoftware’s recent The Duskbloods closed network test – which came as a significant surprise given how PvP-averse I usually am where these sorts of things are concerned. I won’t go too much into the whys of my love, because I’ve probably got more to say about it elsewhere, but the upshot is there’s been a bit of a Duskbloods-shaped hole in my life since the network test came to an end. And keen to fill it, I found myself thinking, ‘Well, if I ended up liking The Duskbloods, maybe I just didn’t give Nightreign enough of a chance and I should give it another go’. Which is exactly what I’ve been doing.

First time around, back at release, I found Nightreign way too fast and way too hard, particularly as I’d struggled to gather enough interested friends to play it in anything but solo. And while I’m still stuck in the solo boat, and still finding its frenetic pace a lot to adjust to compared to the Fromfests I usually adore, I think I am slowly starting to crack it.

And yesterday, something clicked; I’m starting to learn how the map works; where I can find vital items like flask upgrades and smithing stones, and when I should be levelling or saving my Souls for revives. Have I got through the first night yet? Have I heckers like, but soon Bell Bearing Hunter, your death will come.

– Matt