What we've been playing
Coffee and nostalgic horror.
28th April, 2023
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: coffee, nostalgia, and nostalgic horror.
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.
Coffee Talk 2, Xbox
As ever, it's tipping it down in Seattle. It's late but the place is still quite empty. Officer Jorji is fretting about how to get home in a hurry when a new customer comes in. Tall, blonde, rams horns sprouting neatly from both sides of their head.
They sit down. This is Lucas. They tell me they used to love coffee, but their stomach turned on it. They miss the boldness of it as well as the caffeine. Any recommendations.
I suggest Matcha. Isn't that just tea, Lucas asks. Kind of, I say, but stronger. I make them a Matcha - bright green glowing in the cup. Lucas pulls out their smartphone to take a picture of it, and as they do I reach forward, on the other side of the screen, to take a screenshot of the moment.
Bertie
Fortnite, Xbox
It's never a bad time popping back into Fornite for an hour or two, but it can be quite strange. I know this game better than any other by this point, but a few months away - deadlines, a big bit of work, my daughter playing more Among Us or Minecraft in the evening - and I come back in to find I've lost my bearings a bit.
Dropping into a match this week I spent a wonderfully lonely few hours exploring the new Mega City, before grabbing a bike and racing along roads at a speed which would have felt impossible back in the day when the game got its first vehicle - which was, I think, a shopping trolley. Everywhere there are new distractions: treasure chests drop weapons I have never seen before, mission toast refers to in-game ideas I have forgotten all about, and every few minutes I can grab a new perk just because I'm still alive.
Fornite's been part of my life for so long now that I am nostalgic - nostalgic for the days when fun here meant parachuting into Loot Lake and hoping I could land on the roof and make my way down to the attic to score something big. That feels terribly quaint now, but the core of the fun remains. This is still about as slick and painless a form of entertainment as you could ask for, and every few minutes, you feel like you've seen something new.
Chris Donlan
Resident Evil 4, Xbox
I'm on the Island now, Resident Evil 4's rather generic military/industrial-themed final third. It's the bit I know the least well, despite numerous runs through Capcom's classic on various platforms over the years, though the remake's canny tweaks to its Village and Castle sections ensure I've always remained surprised.
For me, the Island is where I start to feel really in control of Leon's arsenal, with my gun choices and upgrades have really overtaken the enemies around. It's another reason why this final third is perhaps a bit less memorable - save for the dreaded Regenorator enemy which thankfully knocks Leon back down a peg. They're still horrible here, which I'm delighted about. They look horrible, they sound horrible - all snuffles, like a phlegmy hedgehog - and they move horrible, flopping around suddenly and shooting up again from the floor in front of the camera. Even in its weakest sections, Resident Evil 4 remains brilliant. When I finish it, soon, I can't wait to start it all over again.
Tom Phillips