PWB July 2026 This is fine

Play
Legends of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. I was trying to finish this before heading to France for three weeks but the final boss killed me and I didn't have time to try again. That aside, I really enjoyed the game. I love the tour the whole nation of Liberl premise and the very low-key local plots along the way. There's a good recurring cast and it all ties into a solid climax in the final area.

Want
I'm excited to get my RP Nova. I expect the first thing I'll be doing with it is playing Trails in the Sky SC. Hmm, unless there's an option to carry my save over if I stay on PC…

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Sonic Mania. I literally found this cart in a Costa. I don't know why I tried it, I don't like Sonic games.

Play
I can't stop playing Overwatch. I'm starting to branch out a bit from my old favourites, and have discovered I'm actually pretty good with some of the characters that were added during my OW2 drop-off.

I need to get back and finish the campaign in 007 First Light, but I've been holding off on it while Sarah catches up. I've done some of the TacSim stuff in the meantime, but it's not really clicked with me; the initial spread of options aren't very open-ended, and are both combat-heavy and quite punishing, forcing a full restart every time you fail, which can get frustrating after a while. You can do it dressed as a skeleton, however, which is amusing.

Want
The wishlist is long, but there's nothing massively exciting on it. The thing I'm looking forward to most is probably Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, because we had a blast with the first one in co-op. Adding the fourth marine also means we won't have to rotate squad members so much, so that's good.

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I'm aware that I'm probably one of maybe seven people on Earth in this group, but I'm already fed up with GTAVI. R* do excellent world design - nobody else has ever really had places that feel as well-designed and organic as theirs do - but then fill them with just the most abominable, adolescent shit. Outside of brief excursions into the early days of Online, I found V completely reprehensible, and am not looking forward to having to hear about this one for the next decade.

Play
All PC handheld, all the time. I need an annoyingly cute nickname for the Legion; I feel like half of the Steam Deck's appeal is that you can call it Decky. Let's go with Lenny.

I've set up a whole load of crap on Lenny (no that's awful, I'll keep thinking). Emulation Station, PS5 remote play, Epic Store, GOG Store, and more. The trouble now is trying to focus on one or two things. This week's main games are:

Castle of Illusion on the Mega Drive. I'd always heard good things about this, but never played it back in the day. It's great fun, and easy enough that I don't have to save-state scum.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow. This might end up being one of my favourite games of the year (that was released about a decade ago). Wonderfully acted, beautifully written, suitably creepy… it's just great.

Yooka Replaylee. I've heard the first level is the best bit, but even if it's downhill from here it's earned the 17 quid I paid for it. A lovely homage to Rare's N64 era. Plus it has a snake called Trowzer. At what point does innuendo become actual smut?

Bioshock Infinite. I think this got a bit of a raw deal when it first launched. It's not as clever as Bioshock, but it's still got more about it than most other FPS games. And the shooty shooty bits are a lot more enjoyable than the original game.

Want
More time to play Lenny.

Bin
Gaming devices that aren't Lenny.

I think my issue with Bioshock Infinite is, while on the surface it's very similar to a modern shooter, a lot of the small incremental improvements in those games which have crept in since 2013 are quite apparent. It's very clunky mechanically, even if the traversal mechanic is quite fun. Also, I do think the storytelling is a bit laboured and tired. We were three games in and I spent a lot of it going YES I GET IT.

I won't tell you what my nickname for the Claw is, but it's also 4 letters and starts with c.

Play
Zelda BOTW: I don't think I've ever got as far as I have this time around. I remember really enjoying it on the WiiU, but it not really capturing me much. I remain constantly surprised at how little handholding there is, and how the game trusts you to just get on with stuff. On more than one occasion I've clearly solved a game puzzle in a way the devs might've predicted, but it felt like I'd come up with a clever solution to something. I think Cyberpunk is also good for this sort of thing. But I also think, unlike Cyberpunk, what an absolute breath (lol) of fresh air to not just have a map strewn with icons and THINGS TO DO SO I DON'T GET BORED. Zelda is quite sparse, but that makes it a lot more enjoyable. Finding something tucked away is a pleasure, not a constant stream of collectables and rewards, Assassin's Creed style. It also feels big, but not in an overwhelming way - because it cleverly localises tasks and puzzle structure. Yeah, I am enjoying it a lot.

Mario Kart: World. I think if you'd asked me if this was an alltimer after a few days of play I'd have given it a strong meh/10. It looks lovely, it plays well, and I really didn't mind it as a little break between other games. Then I got the online pass, and then I started playing the Elimination mode online. Now this game makes sense. What an absolute riot. I haven't had this much fun in an arcade combat racer since Blur. And it is very like Blur. Huge amount of things on track, and complete emergent chaos, punctuated by the thrill of hitting a gate just before the cut off. I haven't won yet, as some people are crazy good, but hitting the top 5 felt like an absolute adrenalin rush. And what is quite clever is as the pack thins, the final rounds are less about items and more about driving. It has a perfect little storytelling arc.

I'm also finishing up Detroit (which isn't that bad, and I've quite enjoyed), Crossworlds (which I really like, but I have to admit isn't drawing me in as much as MKW, which is a surprise), and also a bit of Puzzle Quest. Which is good, but the computer opponents cheat like crazy.

Want
The new Fire Emblem and I guess I'd like to give Splatoon another go when Raiders is out. As I have the online pass now, I have very few games to use it with. I remember quite liking Splatoon, but that's about it. A fairly chill online game might be just the ticket.

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GTAVI is also a no from me, until we get some info one whether Rockstar have worked out how to tell a story in a videogame and with non-odious characters to boot. I also won't be touching it at 30fps, or buying a PS5 Pro, so at best it'll be a PC purchase.

Also, I managed to bin a mole I've had on my waistband for about 35 years. As I'm 50 this year, I finally thought, "this is really irritating, especially when I run, I wonder how much it would cost to get it chopped off?". 200 fucking euros. I always assumed it would be like 5k or something. So that was good, even if the doctor was a bit like a Simpsons character (slightly manic, with "degrees" from African nations I hadn't heard of). Added to that, and after 2 years of desk sitting and slowly getting fatter and fatter, I've also managed to lose almost a stone this month as part of a total life shakeup. The hope being I can move into my 50s slimmer and moleless…

Play

Final Fantasy XIV which has been completely dominating my gaming time. I'm only a little way into Heavensward, the first expansion, so still an enormously long way to go, but there's already so much to do and see that I'm finding it hard to put down. It's stood the test of time brilliantly too, it's had just enough in the way of graphical updates to ensure it still looks current while also being exactly how you remember it, and they've managed to keep pretty much all of the content current so you don't have that thing you get with WoW where they're always trying to funnel you to the latest expansion OR the thing you get in LOTRO where the starter areas are completely dead. It's just a marvel of game design really and I'm not surprised it is (apparently) propping up the whole of Square Enix with the money it brings in.

Star Fox - I have however managed to find the time to have a quick blast on this and it's really nice actually. It IS basically the N64 game with added shinies but it stands up really well and I love, love, love the taxidermied animals approach they've used for all the cut scenes, they never fail to make me smile. I need to devote some proper time to this though because it is at heart a score attack game and the occasional quick game doesn't really show up its strengths in that way.

Want

Also looking forward to the new Fire Emblem but not a huge amount other than that.

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Count me out for GTA6 too, really not my thing and it's going to dominate everything for months when it lands. It feels in many ways that the wait for this game has been sustaining the entire industry for a couple of years and I'm honestly fearing a collapse once it's finally out. Certainly the prospect of £1000 next gen consoles whose only promise is "this will play GTA6 better" doesn't appeal. Not sure how we get out of this either while the AI fuckwits continue to drive up the cost of RAM and components. Ah, fun times, eh?

Mario Kart: World. I think if you'd asked me if this was an alltimer after a few days of play I'd have given it a strong meh/10. It looks lovely, it plays well, and I really didn't mind it as a little break between other games. Then I got the online pass, and then I started playing the Elimination mode online. Now this game makes sense. What an absolute riot. I haven't had this much fun in an arcade combat racer since Blur. And it is very like Blur. Huge amount of things on track, and complete emergent chaos, punctuated by the thrill of hitting a gate just before the cut off. I haven't won yet, as some people are crazy good, but hitting the top 5 felt like an absolute adrenalin rush. And what is quite clever is as the pack thins, the final rounds are less about items and more about driving. It has a perfect little storytelling arc.

Everyone loves this mode and I think it's taken Nintendo by surprise a bit. They've just added two whole new routes to it after a year which is amazing really given the open world they built and the fact they could be popping up new routes across the map on a weekly basis if they wanted to.

I like Mario Kart World too, it's different to MK8 which is all I wanted really (that game isn't going anywhere). Less emphasis on drifting, much more chaotic, and some great tracks. But it needs more content, or at least ways to see what's already in there. The fact there isn't a single Knockout route that ends in Rainbow Road is frankly just bizarre.

Play

Odin sphere: Leifthrasir - So far I think I prefer this game's flow to Muramasa, and while the combat is slower and incredibly similar it really does feel more impactful, in terms of actual choices and also in the feeling of it, hoping the other character POVs are also more distinct like the Muramasa DLC and not too similar in the way Momohime/Kisuke were in that game too.

Also can I just point out that this is a remake that comes with the game it's remaking? Imagine if the Crash/Spyro remakes did that? Or Persona 3 and 4?

Maximo: Ghosts to Glory - I'm not sure why I chose this again, but on my last day of work I usually play a totally different game to before (Odin Sphere) and I brought my O2M with me and initially played God Hand, died and decided I wasn't in the mood, so I loaded up this. Only on the 3rd world now but I still think this is a good game, it's really not that especially hard as it's reputation suggests (unlike Ghosts 'n' Goblins) and it's not doing anything that will blow you away but I enjoy the relative simplicity of it.

Want

Grand Theft Auto 6 - My only hope is it's not 'No Fun Allowed (unless it's in the way we envisioned)' in the same way Red Dead Redemption 2 was, let me do things outside the scope of your predefined ideas please Rockstar, and make it fun to actually break the law again. Other than that I might not sound like it but I just know I'm going to be super excited the day before this releases, the long wait and hype seem almost impossible for any game to live up to but I feel like this is going to really impress me.

Granblue Fantasy: Ragnarock - Or whatever it's called, hoping this fills the hole that Wilds has left (I still like Wilds)

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Despite wanting it since it was announced, the Steam Machine is looking/sounding like an overpriced brick now, lame. Add Sony killing of physical copies of games in there too, RAM prices going higher and higher and pricing people out of certain parts of this hobby? Thank God for emulation