What we've been playing
A few of the things that have us hooked this week.
16th February 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: tombs, maps, and bats.
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.
Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, Xbox Series X
Nothing says Valentine's Day like launching someone you dearly love off of the side of a cliff, which is exactly what I did. Before you get all concerned, my husband is fine; I am of course talking about the one and only Lara Croft.
I spent my last couple of evenings with Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, and I'm loving it. Yes it has its issues - I took a good half an hour trying to get onto a platform set over a pool of water, with Lara spending the majority of the time swimming because I could not make the jump. This is because the camera would shoot upwards, leaving me looking at the ceiling from within Lara's head, which made lining up the jump trickier than ideal. The controller tutorial is also more or less non-existent, so a lot of my learning has been through trial and error. I only discovered the camera mode because I got a shock and accidentally pushed in the two joysticks on my Xbox controller.
But quibbles aside, I am having so much fun relishing in the nostalgia of it. I have loved heading to locations I remember from my childhood, flipping between the more modern graphics and then back to the original again. The two modes have come in handy when using the slightly brighter original look to highlight levers and keys.
It's occasionally frustrating, then, but mostly brilliant. Thank you for being my date this Valentine's Day, Lara.
-Victoria
Canvas of Kings, PC
I'm currently obsessing over maps, because I'm writing a feature about them and their enduring appeal. Donlan knew this and so, when he saw images from Canvas of Kings flash by on TikTok, he sent them to me. And that's how I ended up here, tinkering with this tiny tool that allows you to make your own. They're the kind of top-down fantasy maps you might see in a tabletop role-playing game, looking down on rooftops and trees and castles and the myriad kinds of things you find in those worlds. And just look at it for a moment, look at the screenshots: is it doing things to you the way it does things to me?
Maybe it's the sketched look of it and the paper canvas; maybe it's the way all the buildings shed a bit of shadow in their own distinct but correct ways; maybe it's the hue of the whole thing; maybe it's the way birds and clouds and trees are slightly animated so the map seems gently alive when you're looking at it. I don't know exactly what it is but - jelly legs - it speaks to me.
The double-clever part, of course, is how simple it all is. You can, in 30 minutes, make a gorgeous map without any previous experience. There's a menu on the left that you can just fling things onto the canvas from, then you move them around a bit and add some weather effects, and tinker around until it's done. Then, export it in whatever form you want, overlaying a grid or not.
It amazes me that it's been made entirely by one person, Hannes Beueuer, whose reason for making it seems to be linked with a game called Might of Merchants they're making, which is a merchant trading RPG that's "coming soon", according to Steam. What a clever way to draw attention to the actual game you're making.
-Bertie
Gotham Knights, Xbox Series X
Gotham Knights has been on my 'to play' list for a long time, but I only managed to get around to it recently. My sibling pestered me incessantly to play it with them and I eventually caved, which I'm now glad about, because our Gotham evening each week has become a treasured part of my recent routine. Both of us love anything Batman - I still have their Batman film collection on my shelf - so Gotham Knights is the perfect game for us.
You can glide through Gotham on your own, of course, but the entire point of Gotham Knights is that life is better as a team, which is exactly why I feel the multiplayer element works so well: it's made for you to be a team. And unlike some other multiplayer titles, your entire team here can be one character if you wish, which takes the pressure off having to decide who will be who before you start.
Being Batgirl talking to another Batgirl was a bit surreal at first, but you get used to it. Plus, being able to import solo characters into someone else's game means any solo play is not in vain. So far, the characterisation of the Bat family has been as I'd imagined, with a particular shout out to Alfred, who has always been the backbone of it. His influence feels more blatant here than ever, as the Knights find their feet.
We're still in the first few hours but, like a good book, it's very hard to put down.
-Marie