What We Played – Highguard, Speedball & Cairn

I’m going to call it a day early: January is done! It’s been a long, dry (well, in terms of alcohol) and often dull sort of month, and it always feels good to get it out of the way. I can almost feel the sunshine coming, or at least, a slight rise in the UK’s temperature and for the drizzle to get a bit lighter.

I’ve been playing Highguard this week and, well, I don’t really see why the world has decided to pile on it. It’s a fun enough (and free) diversion. Whether it’s got any longevity, we’ll have to see, but it deserves more of a shot than some people are giving it. Besides that, I got to have time with the Switch 2 port of GRID Legends, and Feral Interactive have done a great job of bringing it across, with a heap of user-friendly graphics options. I’m embarking on a heap of reviews and previews now, which you’ll get to read about next week!

First in the alphabet and first to turn up was Aran, who’s had another week of sneaky shenanigans in Star Wars Outlaws. He said, “I’ve just taken to travelling around each planet, taking contracts and seeing what opportunities I can find. It’s been fun to pit the various factions against each other while getting them to all like me. It makes it easier for me to steal the valuables from their vaults too.”

Jason has gone all coy, saying, “You know I can’t tell you, you tease.” But I think he’s being a bit too secretive don’t you? He’s actually been playing Nioh 3 for review, and while he can’t say much more than that before embargo, there is a demo out now if you want to try it for yourself.

Jim dived back into Dynasty Warriors: Origins for the new DLC. He tells us, “I was quickly reminded what an excellent job Omega Force has done in rebooting the series – Visions of Four Heroes is somewhat similar to the Xtreme Legends expansions we used to get back in the day, though some of the battles are a little too big/prolonged. Still, I’m enjoying the new weapon classes.” That’s not all though, as he also checked out the game everyone is talking about, “I also dabbled in some Highguard but it’s fusion of gameplay ideas just isn’t for me. This disappointment has probably been amplified by my short time with Deadlock which is ticking all my boxes and genuinely feels like the evolution of a subgenre.”

Ade has played all sorts of random bits and bobs this week, though his highlight has been Rebellion’s reboot of 90’s classic Speedball. He says, “I played the original on my trusty Amiga, some three decades ago! Absolute madness! review coming soon!”

Nic B has played a bunch of the new Cult of the Lamb DLC, Woolhaven. He said, “It’s nice to get back into the game. I’ve had to move on to review something else though, which you’ll hear about next week.”

Having wrapped up Cairn for review, and halting his playthrough of Ghost of Yotei just before the final mission, Gamoc made the poor decision to then ruined his chances of feeling alive, telling us, “I couldn’t get to sleep last night so I gave up and played Factorio for six hours overnight and now I’ve had no sleep whatsoever.” Maybe a nap is in order?

Miguel has been playing Code Vein II for our review, and Romeo Is A Dead Man! He’s fully on a wild anime action game grind! Meanwhile, Steve has been playing Ebola: Village and I Hate This Place for review and continuing to enjoy Gigasword at bedtime. He’s also spent some time jetting through space with friends in Void Crew.

And finally, Tef has been on a secretive mission to Germany that you’ll hear all about next week. All he can say for the time being is that he had a currywurst delivered to him by a robot with a cute cat face on his trip back.

And what about you? Played anything this week?