What we’ve been playing – “I think this has the potential to go the whole hog”

31st January

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, I’ve been failing to be competent at a video game, again, Marie has been trying to please Mama, Victoria passes the time in an airport, and Dom is off on one about Nioh again.

And if you’re looking for something else to read, or a reminder of what you once wrote, there’s a whole What We’ve Been Playing archive to delve into.

Blue Prince, PS5

This might be my third (maybe fourth?) attempt to get into Blue Prince. This is the puzzle game that took home Eurogamer’s 2025 Game of the Year award, so I felt I simply must give it another shot. A few hours on, am I now a Blue Princian, dedicated to spreading the word of the game’s brilliance to all who will listen? Well, no. I think I know the problem now, though. I simply can’t dedicate enough time to the game in one session, so I end up feeling completely clueless every time I play. I’m sure I’ll get over the hump one day, but that day isn’t today.

-Tom O

Cooking Mama 2, 3DS XL

My palms are clammy, my anxiety is high, my stress levels are beyond their natural limits, and fear envelopes my body as I submit my creation. ‘Terrific, even better than Mama!’. Those words still bring me the same elation I felt all those years ago when I first played it, Mama liked my food. However, now that I’m a bit older, I realise just how condescending Cooking Mama is when you get something wrong and how stressful it is to try to meet her demanding standards. When the flames ignite in her eyes after tasting a dish I’ve messed up, I know I am done for. I’d like to point out that some tasks are trickier than others and easy to mess up. For example, grilling anything within the time frame to get bonus points is near enough impossible. Not only is there not enough space to grill that much Squid that quickly, but to keep the flames at the right temperature to cook requires constant attention.

I’m starting to understand why I like Overcooked so much, my training in high-stress virtual kitchen environments began with a seemingly nice Mama in her home kitchen.

-Marie

Waiting and Words, mobile

I spent a good chunk of time in airports this week, playing that ol’ fashioned waiting game, and since my previous airport go to of Star Wars Hunters has shut down, to while away some time, I returned to the ever-faithful trinity of Wordle, Strands and Connections.

I have to say, I think I have my Wordle tactic pretty down pat now. I can usually guess the correct word in well under a minute (not a brag, I am sure many others can also). What I do is I always start with OUIJA, a very vowel heavy word, and then for my second guess pick a word with any of the correct letters from my first guess, but this time make sure I get an E in there as well. I usually end up with something like BEANS or PLUME for guess two. From there, it is then pretty straightforward to get the right answer.

Connections, though, man some of those are obtuse! On the plus side, at least Connections kept my brain occupied for slightly longer while I waited for my flight to board. Wait, what do you mean it’s been delayed again?!

-Victoria

Nioh 3 demo, PS5 Pro

It’s here, it’s finally here. A sizeable, full-fat introduction to one of my most anticipated games of 2026 is now available to download on PlayStation and PC, and it absolutely rules. It looks sumptuous, the variety of build-crafting available to you is out of this world, and flitting between bruiser samurai builds and rapid ninja builds laces the whole action-RPG experience with something diabolically compelling. I think this has the potential to go the whole hog, surpassing Nioh 2 (which, for my money, was a near-perfect game) and helping the niche franchise eat further into mainstream consciousness. Give it a go, you’ve nothing to lose.

-Dom