What we've been playing

12th January 2024

Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: dice, Bond, and trains.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

Slice and Dice, Android

I'd forgotten how much I like this game. Sometimes time away can do that, can't it, reinforce our feelings about a game? I suppose if you feel strongly about it weeks or months later then you really do like it. You weren't just caught up in the moment.

Something else helped amplify this feeling too, and it was seeing my son play it. He's 13 and his usual games are Fortnite or online Minecraft, which is quite a different beast to offline Minecraft, so a turn-based dice-rolling game isn't typically his jam. Yet, from the moment I introduced it to him on the train, he was hooked. And for me, that sealed it: Slice and Dice really is a banger.

I've talked about it before because I've been playing it for about a year. I must be about 40 hours in, whoops - probably more. I'm actually a bit peeved now that I didn't put it in my top games of 2023.

In Slice and Dice, you control a team of fantasy heroes in turn-based, dice-rolling battles. Each of your characters has a die that represents what they can do. It's a d6, and on each of the sides are your abilities (some are blank depending on the character class you are). You get a few rolls each turn, so the decision is whether to keep and lock-in what you get, or roll again. That's it.

It's simple and yet it's all the permutations mixed in that make it magic. There's a lot here. When a character levels up, you get to choose a new class for them, and there are something like 100 classes in the game. There are statues, jugglers, vampires - they're a really imaginative bunch. Then there's equipment and spells to modify all of that. Learning how best to use all of that, and how all of the enemies work and how best to defeat them: it's not an easy thing.

There's a free version out there, then it's a one-off payment to get the whole game. And I've just discovered you can find Slice and Dice on Itch.io too. Give it a shot!

-Bertie

GoldenEye 007, Xbox

I got an Xbox Series X for Christmas and of course needed to mark its debut with something spectacular. So, what did I choose to play on booting up my shiny new console? That's right, GoldenEye 007.

I loved this game when I was younger, but I was also absolutely terrified of dying. I would spend most of my time playing with very clenched buttocks while emitting a high pitch squeal like some kind of sentient kettle coming to the boil. I blame my brothers for this fear, as they played that age-old trick of telling the young and impressionable me that what happens in a game affects you in real life. Those blighters.

Anyway, I digress. I have been playing GoldenEye 007 on my Xbox and I am having a lot of fun reliving some childhood memories. Yes it shows its age in a lot of ways, but I really don't mind. For me, this is still one of the best Bond games out there. The music is brilliant as well; I often just check my watch to enjoy Grant Kirhhope's iconic pause beats. Like I said, I am having a lot of fun.

Also, yes, I did shoot the hat off the poor chap in the toilet stall before descending further into that second level. It just has to be done.

-Victoria

Ticket to Ride: Europe, board game

I can't believe I'd never played this before. Ticket to Ride is one of those quintessential board games everyone has in their cupboard, or at least that's how I imagine it. A bit like Monopoly until everyone realised how horrid it is. Seriously; I gave up on Monopoly after seeing my kids break down in tears playing it. And that was nothing to do with how I was playing by the way! I'm not a monster.

The idea in Ticket to Ride: Europe - the version I played - is to create train-snakes across a map on the game board, linking them from destination to destination depending on the routes you've been given to complete. You do this by placing plastic pieces of train - tiny carriages - on board spaces in quantities that depend on the cards you hold in your hand.

It's simple, and that's what's so brilliant about it. I'd never played it before, as you know, and I still managed to make a pretty good account of myself a few drinks in. I even managed to inadvertently block someone else's mega-route while working on my own (the mega-routes offer the most points).

Ticket to Ride is also a great way to get to know the rough geography of places, which is why you'll see a million different themed versions of the game in shops. Watch out for the old-fashioned ones, though - you don't want to go around asking people where Constantinople is these days.

-Bertie