What we've been playing - Viking sagas, cosy crafting mice, and the end of a long trail
A few of the things that have us hooked this week.
30th August 2024
Hello! Bertie's on holibobs this week, so a warm welcome from me to What We've Been Playing, Eurogamer's regular feature where we share some of the intriguing - but not necessarily brand new - games on our screens over the past few days. Hot off the Gamescom 2024 showfloor, there's a cosy crafting survival game you can also try at home, plus the end of a lengthy role-playing saga, and an epic Viking tale with a Greek twist.
What have you been playing?
Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla, PC
Assassin's Creed is a bit of a hit-and-miss series for me. I somehow ignored the critically acclaimed second game, played through the entirety of the lacklustre Assassin's Creed 3 and genuinely great AC4, then skipped everything up to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. This was the game that clicked for me, and I spent literally hundreds of hours happily hoovering up every collectible (and charming Kassandra moment) in the Mediterranean. Valhalla was the next game on my to-play list, but I bounced off after a few hours trudging around a frozen, annoyingly spaced out and surprisingly hardware-demanding rendition of Norway with the much-less-charming Eivor for company. Four years later, I'm giving the game another shot, and absolutely loving it this time - thanks to a few small changes.
First, I've returned best bae Kassandra to the starring role as she deserves, swapping out Eivor's face, figure and hairstyle using the Eivor Customizer 2 mod. The mod can't do everything - the facial animation looks a bit suss in some scenes and of course the voice lines remain the same - but having a friendlier face on screen makes a big difference, especially as you get a full set of Odyssey-style armour for having played that game on the same Ubisoft account.
Second, I've boosted performance fairly substantially by using a paid mod ($6) that implements Nvidia's DLSS into the game - and even offers frame generation, though the RTX 3080 I'm running the game on doesn't best support it. This lets you drop the game's internal resolution while keeping visual fidelity quite high, and makes a huge difference to the game's fluidity - especially if you're running at 4K as I am.
Finally, I've gotten over my collect-'em-all compulsions and actually done the handful of missions necessary to reach England, start a settlement and access all of the fun stuff that Valhalla is meant to be about. Seeing verdant fields of green, traversing easy roads rather than mountain passes and being able to take a dunk in a river without turning into a popsicle… these things make a huge difference to how enjoyable the game is moment-to-moment, and I'm slightly ashamed I didn't get this far sooner! Soon I'll even be able to see the familiar territory of Gloucestershire - and I absolutely can't wait.
- Will
Winter Burrow, PC
Maybe it was the four hours' sleep, the travel, the long day ahead. But when I sat down at Gamescom 2024 to play a half-hour demo of Winter Burrow, a simple survival-crafting game about a mouse returning home to do some overdue DIY, I found the experience surprisingly moving.
Winter Burrow begins as you move back to an old tree stump burrow, many years after you last left. The place is now dilapidated, and in need of much work. So far, so Stardew Valley. But there's enough of an intro here before things get underway that you're immediately invested in this small rodent's fortunes. This was the home your parents hoped to retire back to after years of hard labour in the city. Alas, a mournful cutscene shows them passing away before they're able to.
One Pixar-opening later, you're headed out into the snow to snatch up your first few resources - twigs, stones, foliage - to craft your first tool and repair an old armchair - somewhere for you to rest by the fire each night. Winter Burrow's snowy world has a gentle but pervasive freezing effect, limiting how long you can make each trip outside last until you build campfires elsewhere or, at the end of the first 30 minutes, craft enough bits and bobs that you can knit yourself a thicker woollen sweater.
There's simple combat, though nothing taxing. There are NPCs out in Winter Burrow's world to meet and trade with. It's quietly cosy, somewhat repetitive fun. I spot several sections out in the world - broken bridges and the like - where the game will clearly open up over time to offer more areas to explore. I'm curious where Winter Burrow ends up - I get the sense this isn't going to be about your mouse beginning their own farming empire and strip-mining the land. But I could be wrong.
If you want to give Winter Burrow a go, the demo's available on Steam now ahead of its launch in 2025. It's also coming to consoles, and judging by its placement on the Xbox Gamescom booth, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it also turn up on Game Pass.
- Tom
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, PS5
Readers, I've actually done it. I promised at the start of the year I'd get up to date with the story of Final Fantasy 14. And after really getting to grips with the game I finally made it through Dawntrail. And now? I feel a bit lost.
As I mentioned in a previous WWBP, Dawntrail doesn't get off to a great start. The story is shallow, the pace is slow, and there's a distinct lack of drama. Thankfully, as many reviews stated, it picks up in the second half and for me the payoff was ultimately worth it. I don't want to spoil its twists, but the expansion settles into a familiar rhythm of philosophical musing and elaborate dungeons, but this time with a hefty dose of Final Fantasy 9 nostalgia that had me cheering at the TV.
I do wonder now what's next for the MMORPG. As much as I enjoyed Dawntrail - and there are plenty of new directions for its story - it's starting to feel a little formulaic. We know we'll get another 10 experience levels; every other level will have a dungeon duty; there will be six areas to explore; quests involve a lot of 'go here, speak to this person, beat this enemy'. The game absolutely excels with its wonderful characters, thought-provoking narrative, and welcoming community, but I'm keen to see Yoshi P and co. shake up their formula and give us something truly surprising.
As for what's next for me, there's still a tonne of non-story stuff to get stuck into and make use of that ongoing subscription. Is this where I become a Savage Raider? Maybe I'll start a Gathering Job? Or perhaps I'll just get stuck into Triple Triad?
- Ed