What we’ve been playing – office nightmares, games with kids, and Tetris building games

fifth April

Hi there and welcome again to our common characteristic the place we write a bit of bit about a number of the video games we have been enjoying. This week, Bertie will get his starchiest white shirt on and descends into the company purgatory of The Stanley Parable, cleaning himself within the nearest river in between, whereas Tom O each dips again into Avowed and tries Cut up Fiction together with his son.

What have you ever been enjoying?

Meet up with the older editions of this column in our What We have Been Enjoying archive.

The Stanley Parable: Extremely Deluxe, PC

I’ve a exceptional capability to permit issues to fully cross me by – simply whoosh! they’re gone. Maybe I will do a masterclass on it at some point. “One merely turns their head in the wrong way and hey presto, the world passes them by.” Oh now I’ve given it away.

It is how I discovered myself solely this week enjoying seminal 2013 indie banger The Stanley Parable, partially as a result of Lottie loves it and seems as if summoned at any time when somebody even barely references it, and in addition as a result of I used to be informed it was lots like Severance, the TV present. And it’s by the way in which – it is precisely like Severance, however I ended up writing a factor about that which I do not need to echo right here.

What I needed to say right here was that The Stanley Parable completely holds up. It feels as refreshing and magical and clever to me in 2025 as I anticipate it did to folks in 2013 – as I do know it did to folks in 2013, as a result of they would not cease happening about it. And I do not suppose that is a given. A recreation like that has to work more durable in 2025, partially due to the legacy that precedes it, partly as a result of it is growing older, and partly as a result of there are that many extra clever indie video games round it. That The Stanley Parable ought to nonetheless shine so brilliant is borderline exceptional.

-Bertie

Avowed, Xbox Collection X / Cut up Fiction, PS5 Professional

If there’s an annoyance I’ve with Avowed (apart from the ghosting visuals when shifting the digital camera), it is the issue I’ve figuring out the place to go, to get to the place I need to be. I’ve began taking over some aspect quests having been focusing primarily on the central storyline, however it’s thrown some map markers method out past the place I have been earlier than. I typically head over within the route of a marker, solely to search out that the door I am going by means of takes me to an space that’s locked off from the place I must go, so I find yourself taking place blind alleys and retracing my steps again once more.

My answer has been to make a fast exit to the open world exterior of whichever constructed up space I am in, then go what I presume is the good distance spherical to the marker. I do know GPS-style navigation is not everybody’s cup of tea, however I really feel Avowed would profit from having it.

I’ve additionally put a few hours into Cut up Fiction alongside my son. I wasn’t actually bought on the artwork route within the pre-release footage, it coming throughout as a bit of bit generic, however within the warmth of the motion it is completely strong and adjustments issues up often. We managed to finish the pig part simply earlier than we referred to as it an evening, and it was lots of enjoyable, if somewhat traumatic. I am unsure what was extra disturbing, although, the twerking pig or the meat grinder. However we’re trying ahead to seeing what occurs subsequent.

-Tom O

River Cities, PC

I’ve had this one earmarked for some time, however I used to be fully mistaken – I now realise – about what sort of recreation it will be. What I believed it will be was a comfortable constructing recreation about making settlements alongside rivers, and it form of is that, however far more instantly it is a form of Tetris recreation. And I like that as a result of I do know that.

The premise is absolutely easy: lay down items of a city formed as Tetronimoes are, with the hope of becoming them in completely to a confined house by the aspect of a river. Place them completely and you will get an enormous rating. It truly is that straightforward. A city actually pops into being, as in a pop-up image e-book, as you lay the items down.

You comply with a dried out river throughout an overland map, step by step restoring life and exercise as you go, and the complexity gently will increase. I now have two varieties of constructing – two factions, form of – that I would like to put away from one another in order not cross-contaminate, and I get bonus factors on the finish for whichever faction is bigger. It is like enjoying towards myself, which is odd.

I’ve solely had a short blast at it so the way it develops from right here, I do not know, however the introduction is powerful – rapid and tactile and nice. I prefer it.

-Bertie