It’s a really good weekend for video games, unlike every other weekend we’ve had this year which have vacillated between good and great… look – it’s already been a good year for video games. I don’t know what to tell you. But, I will say that 007 First Light is really good, and so is Mina the Hollower. So, boot up Bond on your TV and start playing Mina on your Switch 2 and do your best to play them simultaneously. Not really interested in either of those? No worries. We have other suggestions, too. But before we get to those, here are some big stories from the week.
- Inefficient And Laborious – The Ongoing Path To Making Deltarune (formerly behind the subscriber paywall!)
- Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Is Returning To Basics While Improving On Its Gunplay
- Valve Just Raised The Price Of The Steam Deck By Hundreds Of Dollars
- Fable Delayed To February 2027
- 007 First Light Review – Cinematic Flair
- Mina the Hollower Review – Refined Throwback
007 First Light
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a great James Bond game arrive on our screens, but the wait is finally over. 007 First Light is a stellar stealth/action game, melding the combat of games like Uncharted with the infiltration of developer IO Interactive’s earlier Hitman trilogy. It’s also one of the best takes on Bond as a character and a setting in years, video game or otherwise. Excellent acting, gorgeous visual presentation, and a top-notch script really nail what makes this spy such an enduring pop culture fixture. If you’ve been on the fence about the game, I’m here to tell you it’s worth taking the plunge. To learn more, you can read my full review, or check out the coverage we completed when 007 First Light appeared as our cover story earlier this year.
Mina the Hollower
Mina the Hollower is out today on pretty much every platform available (I actually played the game primarily on my AYN Thor and it ran great!) and it’s a charming-as-hell Dark Souls and Zelda-inspired throwback. You can read my full review here where I praise its story and how it makes the player feel challenged and rewarded in lots of different ways, but one element I didn’t really get into there are the new game plus options. It doesn’t really function like a traditional new game plus where you get to breeze through the game again with all your abilities and power level intact from the first playthrough. Instead, it randomizes certain elements so your revisitations feel different each time. It’s a cool approach to a game that is hard to put down even after you beat it (I am still playing it despite having published my review days ago). One warning, though – be careful if you’re trying to hit 100% in your first save file. I accidentally started a new game plus without backing up my save before I was fully done with the game. Learn from my mistake.
What’s The Password
What’s The Password is perhaps the most straightforward example of an effective puzzle game formula one could conceive of. The art style is minimal, with large pixels making up the game’s utilitarian black and white UI. Each level is a puzzle, and each puzzle’s solution is a four-digit passcode, but across the game’s dozens of levels, the solutions slowly get more elaborate. Sometimes you have to do simple math, sometimes you need to bust out a calculator, most times it involves deducing patterns, and in one instance, I had to solve three mini picross-style puzzles to see what number the solutions looked like. I don’t love every puzzle I’ve played, but the hit rate is reliably high, and a skip button ensures you don’t have to linger too long on any given challenge if you don’t want to. I’ve played for just about 90 minutes and I’m a little over halfway through, so it’s a quick one, and at the time of writing, it’s on a launch sale for only about $7 on Steam. May has been full of several huge AAA releases, but I always enjoy finding time to pick up smaller games from smaller devs on the side.
Deadlock
I am firmly back in my pit; which is to say, I’ve found a MOBA to occupy my time. Specifically, Deadlock, Valve’s out-but-not-out third-person MOBA/shooter hybrid. Yes, it’s still in a weird invite-only limbo where people who are already in get invites, and can then send said invites to other people. That said, invites are easier than ever to source thanks to how many people have them now. And really, this one’s a good time. Fellow video craftsman Alex Van Aken and I have been playing quite a bit of Street Brawl, the 4v4 single-lane mode where you play quick rounds and do a roguelite pick-3 for items between them, so no worrying about navigating a shop or build order. I’ve been really liking some of the newcomers, Celeste and Paige. And really, the more I play, the more I’m appreciating how Deadlock isn’t just doing a traditional MOBA all over again, but really making use of its mechanics, movement, and systems to forge something that feels different. When this hits 1.0, I think we might need to do a full evaluation of it alongside the likes of Valve’s other hallowed multiplayer games like Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. See y’all in the streets!
Bluey’s Quest For The Gold Pen
There’s a reason you keep seeing this little animated blue dog everywhere in recent years. For families with young kids, it’s one of those rare properties that has a lot to offer to both kids and adults. After an earlier release on mobile platforms, this game adaptation just hit consoles. For families looking to enjoy an interactive take on the Heeler family’s antics, it’s a good time, and approachable enough for even very young kids to navigate and enjoy. The game sees Bluey navigating a semi-open world space, picking up collectibles, solving very light puzzles, and meeting up with both familiar and new faces from the show. The biggest draw is that the game is written by series creator Joe Brumm, so the dialogue has that great banter that the show is known for.
Black Jacket
After falling in love with Inscryption and, subsequently, Balatro, I’ve enjoyed experiencing how developers experiment with well-established card games by introducing new mechanics and, in the case of Black Jacket, a story. As a soul navigating the afterlife, you progress through Blackjack battle after Blackjack battle, getting your score as close to 21 without going over. As the hands progress, you wager more, with the first player to run out of coins losing. But it’s far from just regular Blackjack, as cards can carry certain effects, like allowing you to peek at your top cards and rearrange them or outright destroying your enemy’s cards to dash away their plans. Each stage has a boss battle against another chatty soul in the underworld, and with a roguelite structure, you encounter them multiple times over the course of various runs, and each time you defeat them, you either learn more of their mortal backstory or earn cards they use from their deck. These cards combine with other cards you accumulate through your run to customize your deck and, by extension, your strategy. I’m not quite as enamored by Black Jacket as I was Inscryption or Balatro, but I’m still having a blast. The Switch version has become my go-to plane game as I continue my current travel gauntlet.
Tabletop Pick: Wroth
Chip Theory Games is often recognized for its excellent and extremely large and complex games like The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era and Cloudspire. But Wroth is a welcome exception to that trend, offering a smaller but still deeply rewarding strategic area control game with a lot of flexibility to be played the way you like — competitive, cooperative, or even solo. Players control one of several asymmetric factions in a quest to control and dominate the lands of the Drudgeon peninsula. Because each playable group is different, there’s a lot of replayability as you figure out how each works, and the unique fighters that can lead you to victory. And while super-expansive and complex games can be a ton of fun, Wroth has the advantage of being very teachable in just a few minutes, and a full playthrough won’t take much more than an hour. If your table of friends is looking for something that is fun and quick to pick up, but doesn’t skimp on the compelling balance and tactical elements, this one should be a hit.
