12th July
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Tom O pretends he’s playing a different game to Rematch; Bertie shares what sounds like an obsession with Blue Prince; and Bertie steals his partner’s experience with a dating game and tries to pass it off as his own.
What have you been playing?
Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.
Blue Prince, PS5
This game! One moment I’m on the cusp of giving it up and the next moment I’m right back in, marvelling at the ambition of it all. To be clear: I’m talking about what I assume is the late-game part of Blue Prince. I’ve – we’ve, for I’m still playing with my partner – long since reached the antechamber, the ostensible ‘goal’ of the game when you begin, so we’re now in the apparently endless process of cycling through the game, over and over, in a quest to find something new. To find the deeper mystery, whatever that may be.
It can be a frustrating process. The random nature of the game means you’re never quite sure which room-cards you’re going to be dealt, nor what you’ll find when you draft or play them. You might really need a shovel during one run but never see one, for instance, or you might speedily and unexpectedly build yourself into a dead-end for no other reason than what appears to be bad luck. Frustration peaked; quitting imminent.
But then, the next time around, you might make a bold new discovery. A room type you haven’t encountered before might suddenly appear, or a solution to puzzle you’ve been stewing over for a while might crystallise in your mind, and in doing so, allow you push the game on in a way that’s exhilarating to behold – if only because you’ve struggled to progress for so long beforehand. The tedious in-between bit works, then? I can’t quite decide.
I know that I wouldn’t have ever encouraged someone to make this game, though. I’d have said “aim at around the 25-hour mark for total completion”, because that seems reasonable to me. It would stop people leaving the game as they do, in a kind of partially solved state, never to unearth the actual mystery beneath.
But also what I admire about the game is that it doesn’t do that, that it doesn’t give away its secrets easily. It’s as though creator Tonda Ros, who spent eight years making the game, wants you to live with it for a comparative amount of time, to appreciate the thought that went into it. It reminds me a bit of Fez in that way, and I admire the obstinacy. It makes Blue Prince singular, however awkward and frustrating it might be.
-Bertie
Final Fantasy 16, PS5 Pro
No, only joking! I’m still playing Rematch, obviously. To be fair to me, I did unwrap my copy of Final Fantasy 16 on PS5 with the intention of playing it, but then found myself booting up Rematch, essentially acting on instinct alone. It seems I need this game in my life at the moment.
I think I got lucky a few times this week, landing in games with randoms who seemed to want to play football. It didn’t always work as we imagined, but there was plenty of passing and moving, finding space, keeping the ball, and goalkeeping that wasn’t hair-pullingly bad.
It was only a few times, mind. In one match I had the flamboyant goalie who’d attempt to dribble past three opposition players, only to spam “Sorry” when losing the ball and conceding a goal. In another match one player simply wouldn’t pass and seemingly wasn’t interested in scoring either – just running around with the ball. As I’ve said before, this is on PS5 where all players have bought this game. Some of the play boggles my mind.
-Tom
Date Everything! PC
This is a cheat addition because it’s my partner who’s been playing the game and not me, but it’s the sort of thing I’d probably miss otherwise, because dating my household furniture isn’t usually something I do. And that’s what this game is all about: getting kinky with your sofa.
What I find so charming about Date Everything! is how brazen it is. Your bed or your curtains or your washing machine – I mean it when I say every household object is a possible romance option here – might only have manifested as a humanoid moments ago, but this doesn’t hold them back. They flirt and proposition all kinds of naughty things – a bit of bondage, perhaps – as soon as they open their mouths. They’re not fussy; they are horny. It’s a very sexy game.
But it’s never crass or creepy, and that’s the game’s real skill. There’s more to Date Everything! than simple titillation. There has to be, really: it would get boring quickly if every conversation was a variation on the same thing. But the characters here have depth, and it’s just as appealing meeting a character to enjoy their jokes and utility-related puns as it is to have a quick flirt with them. The game also has a whos-who in voice acting kind of cast – the Critical Role influence runs strong through this one (CR regular Robbie Daymond is one of the co-founders of the game’s developer, Sassy Chap).
It’s infectious when you’re around someone, or something, that’s having a good time, and that’s what it’s like here.
-Bertie
