What we’ve been playing – “I then made fishcakes and fed them to a time-frozen lad called Pirate Pete”

10th January

Hello and Happy New Year – is it okay to say that now? I’m not sure where the cut-off point is. Some people still have their Christmas trees up. We had ours out before New Year. Welcome back to What We’ve Been Playing! Or as I like to call this particular edition of it: What We Played Over Christmas, because it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve talked.

This week, Bertie’s obsessed with balls – you did try to tell him; Connor does his best Lottie impression and gets hooked on old-school RuneScape; Tom thinks he’s experienced the pinnacle of gaming; Dom can’t resist going back to Atlus’ best game; and Marie finds life as a dinosaur rather exciting.

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Ball x Pit, PC

Why did no one tell me Ball x Pit was good? Oh – *looks at Eurogamer’s and Eurogamer Readers’ top 50* (in which Ball x Pit placed in almost the same position) – they/you did. To be fair, anything baked with Vampire Survivors ingredients is likely to tempt me, though there’s a lot of Slay the Spire here too, which again is a good thing, and plenty of Breakout. It’s inspired, really, how creator Kenny Sun has taken that old Breakout template and reimagined it by way of popular modern roguelikes.

I love the presentation, I love the way the ball-bouncing concept stretches into the base-building part of the game. But most of all I love how in love the game is with the idea of delirious overpoweredness, because that’s the real draw of Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire, the quest to break the game in your favour to make your power outrageous. So it is here: build cleverly and your projectiles will ricochet around the game’s arenas like demolition balls. There are few things quite so satisfying.

Bonus entry: I also played a chunk more Sektori and discovered there is a mode almost exactly like Geometry Wars – Classic – where you fight in a fixed arena, rather than those that keep morphing and changing around you. It’s just brilliant – a faceful of energy, an arcade rave on your screen.

-Bertie

Old School RuneScape, PC

A good friend of mine has been recommending I play Old School RuneScape for years, and during the holidays I decided to finally give it a shot. It has dominated my life ever since. This morning before work, I was killing 80-ish crabs for a Slayer task. I then made fishcakes and fed them to a time-frozen lad called Pirate Pete.

One thing I’ve started valuing immensely over the years is the degree of British-ness in games. I’ll admit, I do get joy from seeing lines like: “would you like a cuppa tea?” after a furniture-building house call. Or when my character shouts Oi when kicking a golem awake in a dwarven ruin.

Right now I’ve hit a bit of a wall though. I need loads of money to continue building out my fancy new sloop for sailing the open seas, and am dead broke. Oh well, an excuse to go out and explore I suppose!

-Connor

Thank Goodness You’re Here!, PS5

I’ve not played much of this, certainly not as much as I’d have liked – for that I’ll blame a Christmas lethargy, children, football, and general things. But what I have played has been brilliant fun. I don’t know if I’m really doing much other than wandering about until stuff happens, but when a sausage-making machine spurted out an enormous banger only to end up on a woman’s lap, then for her to draw a nice face on the end of it and put on a silly voice, well, I think I may have experienced the pinnacle of gaming.

-Tom O

Persona 5 Royal, PS5 Pro

I have no idea why I was drawn back to Persona 5 Royal over the break. Something about it was just tugging at my heartstrings, like a pack of thieves had left a calling card deep inside me summoning me into my cognition to examine some deep part of myself all over again. It hasn’t aged a day, has it? I think it’s still pretty easy by Atlus standards, but where this lack of friction annoyed me on a first pass, I’m finding it a really nice coast as I gird my proverbial loins for the likes of Nioh 3 early this year.

Incredible production values, music so good I let fights linger longer just to hear the choruses, and some tasty narrative hooks all combine to make this one of the best all-around packages Atlus has ever produced. Roll on Persona 6, or Persona 4 Revival, whichever comes first.

-Dom

Lego Jurassic World, Switch 2

I’ve already made a start on my 2026 gaming resolution by picking up Lego Jurassic World again after watching the original film and Lost World this past week. While I will say that, currently, Marvel Super Heroes is still my favourite Lego game, Jurassic World has a charm I’d previously overlooked.

Fitting multiple movie plots into one game is a feat, and it strikes a nice balance between having enough to keep me interested but not too much as to overwhelm me. Smashing everything in sight to collect Studs is deeply satisfying, as ever, but I think I’ve found something this time that’s even better: charging around as a dinosaur!

-Marie