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What we've been playing - mud slides, 9-0 wins, retro difficulty anguish, and space hoppers
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – mud slides, 9-0 wins, retro difficulty anguish, and space hoppers

by admin


4th October

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Kelsey digs out the DS to play The Urbz, for some reason; Tom inadvisably asks Jim for some help in Baby Steps; Marie leaps over a wall on a space hopper; Ed is determined to learn Final Fantasy Tactics, which keeps kicking his ass; Connor buys Persona 5 Royal in a Steam Sale; Chris gives a potted review of EA Sports FC 26; and Bertie tries to work out if he likes Steam sensation Megabonk.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

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The Urbz: Sims in the City, DS

I recently had the urge to revisit all of The Sims games on Nintendo DS and started with The Urbz, which is an absolute nightmare in terms of balancing your Sims’ needs and their relationships, but it’s all worthwhile to see the story of Daddy Bigbucks’ downfall unfold. Unapologetically goofy, they just don’t make Sims games like this anymore, though I’d sure as hell love to see more story-based console iterations of Sim adventures.

-Kelsey

Baby Steps, PS5 Pro

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20 minutes into Baby Steps and I’m texting Eurogamer video’s Jim Trinca with a screenshot asking if I’ve gone wrong. I felt the game was pointing me in one direction and I deliberately looked around to go off in another, and well, I regret it. I’m stood at the bottom of a large mudslide of a hill, seemingly only able to get about half way up. Jim replies, stubbornly: “The only right way is up.”

Thanks, Jim.

-Tom O

Wobbly Life, Xbox Series X

I did not expect to get sucked in by Wobbly Life, but after a week of wobbling around the various different islands, I dare to say I’m hooked. And I first realised this game had me in its clutches when I stole my neighbour’s space hopper and used it to hop over the raised bridge into the city.

Wobbly Life is fabulously unserious, which is why I’ve found it becoming my evening entertainment this week. There’s no real time investment needed for it either. You can spend a few moments to a few hours wobbling around doing various jobs, or simply causing chaos by parking your helicopter in the road – the choice is yours.

Is Wobbly Life silly? Yes. Was this something I didn’t realise I needed? Absolutely.

-Marie

Final Fantasy Tactics, Switch 2

Honestly, I’ve really struggled with Tactics. As a fan of the series who missed its previous releases, I am absolutely the target market for this and expectations are sky high. Yet the early hours have proven rough. It’s a notoriously tricky game, but even with the overall lower difficulty of this re-release and its tweaks, I’ve repeatedly lost battles. In large part that’s due to the game not really explaining itself very well: there are so many intricacies to its wonderful Job system, but it demands a huge amount of time spent tinkering away in menus, only to fail yet another battle partway through.

I’m determined to stick with it, though. I already adore the tone of the game (I see where Final Fantasy 16 stole from now), the hand-drawn intro is simply gorgeous, and now I’m a chapter in, its political storyline absolutely has its hooks in me. At the least, I’m happy to be finally ticking this classic off my list.

-Ed

Persona 5 Royal, PC

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The Steam sale has hit me like Gabriel Agbonlahor was hit by his thirties: hard. Typically a good saver, my bank account has been ravaged by a variety of games because I have no kids and therefore no one relying on my frugality. Persona 5 Royale will be my child for the foreseeable future.

It turns out that Metaphor Refantazio has acted as a bridge to the wider Atlus catalogue, and I will happily take my place as the 2,342,857th person to say online that I think the game is pretty good. People say it’s slow and I’m not feeling it yet, though I suppose one doesn’t grasp how tall Everest is when you’re lounging around Dingboche.

So far Morgana is okay. I initially thought Ryuji was a wasteman but he’s grown on me with his tale of physical injury, and I’ve just met a girl who’s a total narc and who wants to keep me and the gang off the school roof where we do crimes. Pharmacy punk girl best character.

-Connor

EA Sports FC 26, PS5

Been gallantly suffering through this one for our review this year (coming soon!) and, you know what, actually I’m being harsh there. This year it’s alright? Well, sort of. Ultimate Team is comically arcadey this year, with stamina removed entirely so you can run around holding R2 the entire time like a 12-year-old. Offline modes, by contrast, are stodgy as all hell, with an equally comical leap between difficulties (on Professional I win 9-0, on World Class, which is one tier up, it’s a load of agonising 0-0 draws where I hardly touch the ball). An upside though is how incredibly customisable FC is these days, which deserves genuine praise. Look forward to me saying exactly this but in about 2000 more words of waffle, some time in the coming week.

-Chris

Megabonk, PC

It’s taken me a while to work out whether I like Megabonk or not, and I think I’m probably on the side of “like”, but it took some convincing. Megabonk is like a 3D Vampire Survivors, and it looks a bit like it’s been made in Visual Basic (hey I did computer science for a few months before dropping out) so it’s quite scruffy, which is sort of its charm, sort of not. And herein lies my dilemma actually: is this a rip-off or is it something more? It takes a while to distinguish itself.

But actually there is something unique here. WASD platforming and running and jumping and sliding bring a lot, and as you get into the loop of unlocking things after each run, it starts to feel more like there’s a generous amount of content here, albeit metered in the way it gives it to you, rather than the game Scroogily withholding things from you, sort of like a mobile game would.

More to come!

-Bertie



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is online baccarat legal in canada what players need to know before playing
Esports

Is Online Baccarat Legal in Canada? Read Before Playing

by admin


Online baccarat holds a strong reputation as one of the most elegant casino games, both on the floor and behind the screen. In Canada, players who want to join a baccarat table from home face a unique legal setup. 

Unlike many countries with a single federal framework, Canada leaves gambling law in the hands of its provinces — and this quilt of laws can create some confusion about legality and licensing. 

Knowing where a casino is regulated, what authorities oversee it, and how disputes are handled helps anyone who wants to enjoy baccarat online with peace of mind.

Baccarat itself is legal to play online in Canada, but the rules that govern access vary depending on where you live. Gambling law is managed at the provincial level, so there is no single national regulator that covers every Canadian player. Instead, each province decides how to authorise online casinos, how to license operators, and how to protect players.

Ontario stands apart with its open market model, where multiple private companies can offer casino games under the oversight of AGCO and iGaming Ontario.

Other provinces rely on their lottery corporations, which provide government-operated sites for residents. Offshore casinos still accept Canadian players, though these are not officially sanctioned under Canadian law and carry different risks.

Live Dealer Baccarat

Live dealer baccarat has become one of the most popular online formats in Canada, and one that’s especially enjoyable once you learn baccarat rules before you play due to its quick flow. Players enjoy the chance to stream real-time tables, interact with professional dealers, and follow a more authentic casino rhythm. 

These games operate from studios equipped with cameras, sensors, and advanced software to broadcast results instantly.

In Canada, live dealer legality depends on provincial oversight. Ontario-licensed platforms host games from certified providers that meet AGCO standards. Lottery-run sites in other provinces also partner with approved studios, though their selections may be more limited.

The Provincial Model Explained

Canada operates under a decentralised gambling model. Each province has the right to regulate its own gambling services, both land-based and digital. For players, this means that the legality of playing baccarat online depends largely on location.

Some of the oversight and licensing organs are:

  • AGCO in Ontario
  • The Kanawahke Gaming Commission
  • PlayNow in British Columbia
  • EspaceJeux in Québec

Ontario Licensed Casinos and Private Operators

Ontario is the only province that has opened its online casino market to private operators. The framework is built on a partnership between AGCO, which regulates and audits operators, and iGaming Ontario, which manages contracts and revenue sharing.

To operate in Ontario, an online casino must secure approval from AGCO and sign an agreement with iGaming Ontario. This process guarantees that operators meet requirements on fairness, security, and player protection. It also ensures that taxes and fees flow back into provincial programs.

The competition created by this offers players access to dozens of licensed sites that feature baccarat and other games under strict oversight. Compared to lottery-run platforms in other provinces, the variety is far broader.

How Other Provinces Handle Online Casinos

Outside Ontario, players primarily rely on government-operated casino sites. These platforms are overseen by each province’s lottery corporation or regulatory authority. Offshore casinos may still accept Canadian players, but they are not provincially sanctioned.

British Columbia

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation operates PlayNow, offering slots, table games, and live dealer options to residents. It is the province’s sole legal platform.

Quebec

Loto-Québec runs EspaceJeux, which provides an integrated online casino tied to its lottery offerings. All activity falls under its oversight.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Manitoba players can use PlayNow through a revenue-sharing agreement with British Columbia. Saskatchewan, on the other hand, launched a regulated online platform in partnership with the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA).

Alberta

Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission oversees PlayAlberta, which is the only government-approved casino site in the province.

Atlantic Provinces

In New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, Atlantic Lottery operates a joint platform offering casino and lottery games.

Across these regions, each provincial gaming authority controls who can provide online gambling, leaving little room for private competition.

Verifying a Casino License in Canada

Knowing how to confirm whether a casino is legal is crucial for Canadian players. Many offshore sites operate without local authorisation, and the risks of using such platforms include unclear dispute processes or slow withdrawals. 

Thankfully, the process of checking a licence is straightforward and worth taking the time to complete before placing any wagers.

  1. Check the operator’s website footer. All of the best casinos in Canada display their licence details, including the issuing authority.
  2. Confirm the regulator’s seal. Clicking on logos such as AGCO or iGaming Ontario should redirect to an official confirmation page.
  3. Cross-reference with government sites. Provinces publish lists of licensed operators, making it easy to double-check.
  4. Look for KYC and responsible gambling details. Legitimate casinos explain age checks, deposit limits, and self-exclusion tools.
  5. Pay attention to offshore-only licences. If the site only lists authorities outside Canada, it is not provincially approved; this doesn’t mean that the casino is unsafe, just that it’s licensed elsewhere.

Taking these steps helps players avoid disputes down the line.

Age Limits and Access Rules

Canadian provinces enforce strict age requirements for online gambling. KYC (Know Your Customer) processes confirm player identity before access is granted.

  • Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec: minimum age is 18.
  • All other provinces and territories: minimum age is 19.
  • Verification requires ID such as a driver’s licence or passport.
  • Casinos may request additional documents if the details do not match.

Following these rules ensures compliance with laws and protects underage individuals from accessing digital casinos.

Geolocation in Canadian casinos

Geolocation technology plays a central role in regulating online casinos. Licensed sites use software that confirms a player’s physical location within provincial boundaries. If a player attempts to log in from outside the province, access is blocked.

In Ontario, this system is strictly applied across all operators registered with iGaming Ontario. Online casinos in Alberta and in British Columbia implement similar controls.

The purpose is twofold: to comply with local law and to prevent unlicensed play across borders. Understanding geolocation technology helps explain why access differs depending on where players are physically located at the time of login.

Player Protection Standards

Every province with a legal online casino market includes safeguards designed to promote responsible play. These protections are a core part of regulated gambling and give players confidence that their well-being is taken into account when engaging online.

Deposit limits allow users to control how much money they add within specific timeframes, while self-exclusion programs create options for temporary or permanent suspension from licensed sites. 

Reality checks pop up during sessions to remind players how long they have been active, and access to support services links players with counselling and helplines. Monitoring tools are also built into regulated sites to detect unusual patterns that may indicate risky play.

Disputes and Complaints

Even in regulated markets, disputes may arise over withdrawals, game outcomes, or account suspensions. Licensed provinces offer structured ways to escalate complaints.

  • Step 1: Contact the casino directly. Most issues can be resolved with customer support.
  • Step 2: Use internal dispute resolution forms. Licensed operators must provide formal procedures.
  • Step 3: Escalate to the regulator. Ontario players can file complaints with iGaming Ontario or AGCO. Other provinces have lottery commissions that review disputes.
  • Step 4: Consider external arbitration. In some cases, regulators may direct disputes to independent adjudicators.

Following these steps ensures that the complaint process in Canada is fair and transparent, though offshore operators may not provide the same recourse.

Finding the Right Casinos

Choosing where to play baccarat online is just as important as knowing the legal framework. Beyond legality, though, players often weigh factors such as live dealer availability, customer support, and withdrawal processes.

 The following breakdown shows what matters most when evaluating casinos — you can check our top-rated baccarat casinos and pick your favorite.

Feature Checks

Ontarian platforms stand out because they offer variety, modern features, and live dealer baccarat streamed from certified studios. Players benefit from oversight by AGCO, which makes sure fairness and compliance are upheld at every level.

Outside Ontario, residents access baccarat through government-operated platforms like PlayNow, EspaceJeux, or PlayAlberta. These sites may not have the same range of operators, but they are secure and tied directly to provincial lottery corporations; plus, revenues flow back into community programs, and play is always within legal boundaries.

Safety Checks

No matter the province, it is wise to examine factors such as customer service availability, clear terms on bonuses, and transparent withdrawal timelines. Sites that offer reliable live dealer baccarat tables and straightforward account verification create a smoother experience. 

Know the Law, Play the Game

Canadian players who enjoy baccarat online benefit most when they focus on regulated platforms. Licensing authorities in each province demand strong compliance, which means safer play, clearer payments, and access to responsible gambling tools. 

This framework is built to protect those who want entertainment without unnecessary risks or disputes.

What matters next is making careful choices about where to play. Ontario’s competitive market offers dozens of options, and provincial lottery platforms provide secure alternatives in other regions. Both settings are grounded in legality, but the experience differs depending on the type of site and the oversight body involved. 

The safest path is to join casinos that are licensed under Canadian authority, where regulations are active, fair play is audited, and responsible gambling measures are part of the design.

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A screenshot shows a battle at a waterfall.
Game Reviews

12 Tips To Know Before You Start Playing

by admin


I’ve played Final Fantasy Tactics twice in the past couple of months. The first runthrough was of the original on PlayStation. The second was the excellent Ivalice Chronicles remaster, out today. Despite having grinded through the classic strategy RPG back in the day, I still learned a thing or two from revisiting it again all these years later. Here’s a bunch of friendly reminders, PSAs, and helpful tips, whether you’re playing Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time or coming back to it after decades away.

Keep every character a Squire until they learn JP Up

Square Enix

Rule number one of Final Fantasy Tactics is “ABJPU”: always be JP-ing up. JP stands for Job Points and these are what you use to unlock skills across the game’s sprawling job system. As you rank up each job, you’ll collect more points per action you take, but the JP Up skill will double that, letting you progress your characters twice as fast. The skill is on the third page of the Squire skill list under the passive section. Hold off on swapping your fresh recruits to chemists, knights, or other starting classes until you have this one unlocked.

Unlock Focus if you really want to streamline grinding

Square Enix

Characters earn XP and Job Points for successful actions. This means doing damage, healing, or buffing/debuffing something. The fastest way to level up characters is to stock up on potions, leave one enemy in a battle alive, and have everyone keep taking turns while staying healed. Accumulate is a Squire skill that raises your attack. It never misses. And you use it on yourself so you don’t have to move or worry about being in range.

The quickest way to grind in Final Fantasy Tactics is to have everyone learn the skill (it costs 300 points) and stand around using it at the end of a random encounter. Because you can use it as a character’s second skill, it’s helpful no matter what job they are trying to level up, making it a sound strategy over the course of the entire game.

Always have a least one character with the Item skill equipped

Square Enix

The ability to use Phoenix Down items is one of the most useful skills in Final Fantasy Tactics. That’s because when characters die, they only have three turns before they turn into crystals. Once that happens, they’re dead for the whole game unless you reset. If Ramza dies this way, the game is over. Even the best-laid plans can go sideways, and there’s nothing worse than having a character die early on in a fight and realizing you have no way to bring them back. Make sure at least one character has the Item skill equipped and Phoenix Down unlocked (it’s only 90 JP points) no matter what job they are. I usually have at least two or three.

Job Point spillover is your friend

Square Enix

Final Fantasy Tactics is full of math that never gets overtly explained. One of the most important calculations is called JP spillover. Every time a character earns Job Points, the rest of your characters in battle get 20 percent of those points to that same job. Even if they don’t have the job unlocked yet, the points will still accrue in the background, showing up once it’s available.

This has two important uses. The first is you can have people double-up on jobs and unlock specific skills much faster. The other is that you can earn a small amount of points that let characters unlock one or two lower-level skills without them ever having actually spent time ranking up in that job. If you have a Chemist in your party earn 2,000 points, that will be enough for everyone else to learn Auto-Potion, one of the most useful counterattack skills in the game.

Drag battles out when you can so human enemies turn into crystals

Square Enix

When humans fall in battle, they can turn into treasure chests or crystals. The treasure chests aren’t that useful, but the crystals contain all of the Job skills those soldiers had when they died. This is a really efficient way to unlock skills without spending any points, especially for lower-level stuff on jobs that character isn’t currently using. For example, your Chemist, Knight, or Archer might grab a crystal from a White Mage and learn a bunch of useful secondary skills like Cure, Raise, and Protect without ever grinding as a White Mage. There’s just one caveat: they need to have the job unlocked to be able to earn the skills from it this way.

Stats grow differently depending on the job you have when you level up

Square Enix

Here’s some more arcane math the game doesn’t tell you about. Jobs have different base stats, so if you go from being a Knight to a Thief, even if you don’t change anything else, that character will have less health but be faster. Well, these stats also change in the background as you level up (with XP) in particular jobs. Players have spent decades trying to get the rough math right in charts like these, but there are some key things even casual players should be aware of.

  • Monks, Knights, and Lancers have the highest health growth multiplier.
  • Monks and Ninjas have the highest attack growth multiplier.
  • Ninjas, Thieves, and Monks have the highest Speed Multiplier.
  • Wizards and Time Mages have the highest magic attack growth multiplier.
  • Priests, Wizards, Time Mages, and Summoners have the highest magic point growth multiplier.

Mimes, the hardest job to unlock in the game, have the highest all around stat growth potential, while Bards have the worst for male characters and Chemists have the worst for Female characters.

Ramza kicks ass as a Monk

Square Enix

Thematically, it feels like the main character should be wearing armor and tanking hits out in front. It’s also bad if he dies, so survivability also seems like a priority. But Monks, even though they wear light armor and less of it, can be exceptionally strong, and Ramza, because of his underlying stats, is one of the strongest. In addition to hitting for lots of damage and maintaining good speed, he’ll also unlock all of the Martial Arts skills which include ranged attacks, health and MP healing, status ailment removal, and a revive. Best of all, these skills cost no MP and happen instantly.

Pay attention to Bravery and Faith

Square Enix

More numbers! Each character in Final Fantasy Tactics has a Zodiac sign and two numbers near their name. The first is Bravery and it measures their ability to deal and take physical damage. The second is Faith and it’s involved in calculating the effectiveness of magic spells, both used and received. A high Faith character, for example, will have a higher likelihood of spells working and dealing more damage, but will also be more susceptible to them in return. Take note of these stats in the Recruiter’s office when you’re looking for new party members and when you’re deciding on their job trajectories.

If someone’s pursuing magic, they’ll do best with a Faith stat over 60 (I like to aim for 70). Same for Bravery when it comes to physical fighters. Bravery also effects the likelihood of counterattacks activating. This is extra important for things like Auto-Potion. A low Bravery character won’t react to being hit with their counterattack skills as much.

You can out-level for story battles but not random encounters

Square Enix

If you’re stuck on a story battle like, say, the Dorter Slums or Lionel Castle Gate, you can keep grinding until your characters get powerful enough to overwhelm the enemy with sheer force. Random encounters, however, will always raise enemy levels to around where Ramza’s is, which is worth knowing before you try to go into a fight and grind with characters who are all learning new jobs they haven’t unlocked skills for yet.

Don’t rush into fights!

Square Enix

This is a lesson Final Fantasy Tactics tries to teach you itself in Ramza’s very first battle out of the academy when Delita warns him about taking things slow. Any time I have ever lost a battle, it is because I got way too aggressive way too early. This will leave your fastest, farthest-moving characters isolated and easy targets to be picked off while also spreading you out across the field too much.

If you’re facing mostly Archers and Knights, turtle up and take advantage of healing and support spells that hit multiple allies at once. If you’re facing enemy spell casters, separate your party just enough to not have multiple people targeted at once while still being close enough together to burst down one enemy at a time.

Always buy the best armor you can afford

Square Enix

Every couple of battles, new gear will become available at the Outfitter’s office. Armor doesn’t increase defense in Final Fantasy Tactics. Instead, it raises health and magic point totals. Lighter armor will be a more balanced mix, while heavy armor prioritizes HP. It’s okay to switch things up to suit your character’s skills. A Knight that also casts White Magic will want to wear mage robes instead of a full suit of armor to get more magic points.

In the old days, traveling back to town could mean getting stuck in a random encounter, but the remaster gives you the option to flee any battle on the map, so there’s no downside to constantly tracking back for supplies and better armor. Unless you’re playing on easy, Final Fantasy Tactics will require you to grind for cash and levels every so many story battles. Staying on top of the latest gear available will help even the odds.

Don’t under estimate the power of Move +1

Square Enix

One is the loneliest number. In a game full of big numbers, it can look especially unimpressive. But the maps in Final Fantasy Tactics aren’t very big, and being able to move one extra square in any direction can pay off in big ways. Combine an early pair of Battle Boots with the Squire’s +1 movement ability and all of a sudden you have a 50-percent move bonus. Especially for characters who aren’t ranged, this can be the difference between contributing something meaningful to the fight during their turn and just constantly getting outmaneuvered until they die.



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A robot cowboy stands in a desert
Gaming Gear

The first DLC vault hunter in Borderlands 4 will be a robot cowboy gambler named C4SH who throws playing cards

by admin



Borderlands 4 | Official New Vault Hunter Teaser: C4SH – YouTube

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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took to the stage at this year’s Tokyo Game Show to reveal a new Vault Hunter for Borderlands 4, who will be coming out as paid DLC in early 2026. Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel both added additional Vault Hunters as DLC, but Borderlands 3 didn’t add any, so announcing a DLC character this early suggests Gearbox is confident in Borderlands 4 having some longevity. Or at least, more than the third one did.

The new character is a robot who used to work as a dealer at a casino. Disillusioned by the horror of working in a customer-facing service position, C4SH becomes a Vault Hunter with powers based on random chance. Which sounds a bit like Claptrap in the Pre-Sequel, whose action skill could load in a different ability each time you used it.

C4SH also has an ability that involves throwing playing cards, maybe like Gambit from the X-Men? On the Tokyo Game Show stage Pitchford explained that his own close-up magic skills were used as reference for this, with videos of him palming and throwing cards used by the animators. I could maybe have done with more info about how C4SH plays and less demonstration of Pitchford’s magic skills, but I guess it wouldn’t be a Gearbox presentation without them.


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The DLC containing C4SH will also contain some “new story content”, maybe to explain how those mind-control bolts in Borderlands 4 work on a robot. He’s part of the Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Pack, which is included in the Super Deluxe Edition.



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What we've been playing - potential games of the year, and good, and only good, games
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – potential games of the year, and good, and only good, games

by admin


27th September

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Tom reminds everyone that three stars is a good review score; Jim thinks he’s found the next Balatro; Connor returns to work and to Hades 2; Bertie struggles to climb a train; and Marie outs herself as a Lego Jurassic World lover.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, PS5 Pro

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My review of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is live, but I thought I’d sneak in a little inside baseball knowledge about reviews here, just for those of you who are keen enough to actually read this and not head straight to the comments to paste-in what you wrote on Friday morning while you were meant to be working.

We’ve seen you ask for more reviews on Eurogamer and this week we delivered a lot. But this won’t happen every week. Reviews take a lot of time and resources. Even if I decided every member of Eurogamer staff should dedicate their time to reviews and only reviews, we still wouldn’t be able to publish all the reviews we’d like to and that you want to see on the site. We’d also then have a site that was only reviews, which might be nice for a week, until we go out of business.

Finally, a note on review scores. I’ve written this before I’ve seen the aftermath of my three-star score for CrossWorlds, but I expect it was a mixture of “I knew it was going to be rubbish” and “why does Eurogamer hate games?” The reality is I very much enjoyed Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. It’s a good game. But four stars on Eurogamer is a strong statement that means something is better than “good”. I don’t hate video games. I’ve made my love of video games into a career. Sometimes things are just good, and that’s OK.

-Tom O

Kill the Brickman, Steam Deck

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Kill the Brickman is an eccentric cross between Balatro and Arkanoid, which, like all the best video games, is about shooting bullets into dudes. Some of these bullets explode, or clone themselves, or inflict poison damage, and the dudes in question, all of whom deserve to die for reasons, are bricks. It is my most gripping obsession of the year.

It runs beautifully on portables and it’s a solid bedtime or bus game, with big, chunky 16-bit graphics that read easily on small screens. You aim and shoot rather like you would in the old Amiga classic Arcade Pool, with a little line tracing your bullet’s trajectory. This looks and feels so much like an old Amiga game you could probably get it running on one and convince people it came out in 1994. And that’s not a diss.

It’s one of those simple ideas that’s breathtakingly executed and gorgeously presented, like the aforementioned Balatro, or like Vampire Survivors – games that genuinely cause flipped tables during a Game of the Year discussions at popular websites near Christmas time. That studios can spend 500 times this game’s budget and produce something which doesn’t feel half as good to play is frankly unconscionable.

-Jim

Hades 2, PC

I am back from a two-week stint off work due to my ear falling off like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, and having only recently been able to put headphones on, without my jaw also falling off, the 1.0 release of Hades 2 has been a sweet succor to both my physical and mental woes.

There are like a thousand opinionated paragraphs on why a game everyone played months ago is great, and most of them are likely correct so I won’t bore you with how widely getting a Zeus lightning attack-build to work makes me smile. But I will write with great adoration about how much I loved deleting an early access save file with over 40 hours on it.

It’s shedding you’ve got to do, really. I don’t remember half of what happened in Hades 2, and plenty has surely changed in the time since I first hit its farthest reaches. The result is a weird, but not unpleasant, experience, where you’re possessed with the spirit of yourself from weekends past. It’s nice to feel lurch in surprise at how you’re able to get so far so quick; it’s nice to feel talented at something.

-Connor

Baby Steps, PC

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That fucking train, man. Can I swear here? I’ll probably get told off. But this little outburst is so indicative of how Baby Steps makes me feel that I want to keep it in. I’m not the most cool-headed person. I get agitated. I literally twist myself around my chair and grip it like a constrictor snake when agitation flares inside me – it’s a wonder it’s still in one piece. And agitation flares a lot playing Baby Steps.

Case in point: a train moment, which I don’t want to detail too greatly for fear of spoiling it, but you’ll know it when you get there. (It has to be a nod to another video game, surely.) I fell so much during it. I spent hours there. Falling, climbing back up, falling again. And as much as I want to tell you that I coolly and methodically worked through it, I absolutely didn’t. I expleted. I bitterly persevered. It’s a great game.

-Bertie

Lego Jurassic World, Switch 2

Strange fact: I can’t play Lego games on TV because they make me motion sick, but if they’re on the Switch screen I’m fine. I’m not sure why. But that’s my not-so-smooth transition into talking about Lego Jurassic World!

As a long-time lover of the movies, or at least some of them, and the books, and Lego itself, this was always going to be a no-brainer for me. As such, I’ve completed the entire game twice, though never reached 100 percent completion. But it doesn’t bother me. Just racing through the familiar stories with familiar characters, all told with trademark Lego humour, is more than enough to make a cold night warm.

-Marie



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Hinako holds her head in her hand as she lays on the ground surrounded by red plants.
Game Updates

11 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing Silent Hill f

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Legendary survival horror series Silent Hill has entered a new era this week with the arrival of the highly anticipated Silent Hill f. f aims to deliver Silent Hill’s themes of dreadful, psychological horror in a brand new setting, featuring new characters and a new combat system.

Read More: Silent Hill f: The Kotaku Review

The combat here is a little more action-focused than in previous entries in the series, though the game still manages to feel dangerous at every turn. And while I had a delightfully macabre time with this elegant survival horror game, there were a few things I wish I’d known before jumping in. So, after spending tens of hours on this game in both Story and Hard mode, allow me to share with you what I learned while surviving the fog.

1. Don’t sleep on omamori

f may be a survival horror game, but it’s got a touch more build-crafting than you might expect. Not only can you improve Hinako’s max health, stamina, and sanity, you can also equip omamori to augment her abilities. You can increase the maximum amount of omamori slots by spending enough faith at shrines.

While you might be better off investing faith in improving your stamina first, you should still be regularly checking which omamori you’ve collected thus far to see where you can gently improve your combat skills. Plus, unlocking an extra omamori slot can be really advantageous.

2. Stop hanging onto those offerings

As you traverse the weird and terrifying world of Silent Hill f, you’ll find various offerings like antique combs and dried carcasses. These items have no utility beyond earning faith by offering them up at a shrine. But they do take up inventory space. On more than a few occasions, I found my inventory full only to see that there was some random offering I picked up a while back still taking up space, doing nothing but inconvenience me.

Check your inventory for offerings every time you’re at a shrine and you’ll have a lot more room to spare.

3. Invest in Stamina first, Sanity second

© Screenshot: NeoBards Entertainment / Claire Jackson / Kotaku

Stamina is Hinako’s super power. No, really! While our girl is plenty capable of bashing in a monster with a steel pipe, weapons break pretty quickly and there are more than a few occasions when you can easily be overwhelmed by enemies. You’ll need to be able to deftly get in and out of skirmishes with the creatures of the fog. For this reason, I recommend investing in improving your stamina first, followed by sanity second.

Sanity is what will allow you to pull off a pretty powerful counter attack, as well as Hinako’s charged light melee strike (this ability isn’t available at first).

Having a generous amount of stamina to maneuver out of the way of enemies, and enough sanity to deliver more powerful strikes, will help you get hit less and ensure enemies go down faster.

4. Don’t get into useless fights

The creatures of the fog might be creepy, but you’ll quickly realize that many of them are pretty easy to take out–especially if you’re used to combat-focused games like Dark Souls. That said, resist the urge to go wild and clear the town of monsters. While your weapons in the Dark Shrine segments of the game won’t break, the random pipes, crowbars, and kitchen knives you’ll pick up in Ebisugaoka are fragile little things and you can easily find yourself without a weapon all too easily.

Hinako can’t punch or kick, so if you’re without a weapon, you will have no offensive options against monsters. No bueno. Pick your battles strategically.

5. Higashi is kinda broken

Early on, I neglected eating any Higashi, which restores your stamina, because managing stamina seemed like a me-problem more than anything else. That was until I got to hard mode and had to take on one of the game’s early bosses and, well, I learned that this item is kinda broken.

Not only will eating it replenish your stamina, but you’ll have unlimited stamina after eating for a rather generous amount of time. This provides a perfect opportunity to spam your dodge while also getting in close to deliver a ton of hits without worrying about your stamina.

6. Keep your distance and use the camera to peer around corners before exposing yourself

Silent Hill f is pretty low on jump scares. But there are more than a few occasions in which monsters are eager to hop out from a hiding spot and attack you. When this happens, it’s more than likely that you’ll get pulled into a grab animation where the camera will zoom up to show the monster brutally attacking Hinako.

There’s no way out of this animation once it starts. Mash all the buttons you want, you’re not getting out of it without losing a chunk of your health. So in general, it’s best to try and leave some distance between you and any monster you happen to be fighting.

One way to do that is to use the third-person camera to peer around a corner where you suspect a monster may be hiding. The game will play some gentle static (though it sounds a little more like a record player looping on silence in this game) when a monster is nearby, so trust your eyes and ears to avoid unnecessary damage.

7. Counter attacks get easier once you unlock Hinako’s charged-up attack

Silent Hill f’s counter-attack can be a little challenging to pull off at first. You have to wait for the monster to flash in color, then hold down focus, then execute a heavy attack. Given that focusing drains your sanity meter pretty quickly, countering an enemy can be a weird, time-sensitive juggling act.

That said, once you unlock Hinako’s charged-up light attack, things get a little easier.

Since you have to hold down your focus button anyway to charge up your light attack, it has the added benefit of putting you in a good place to successfully pull off a counter-attack. While you’re waiting for Hinako’s attack to charge up, keep your eyes on the enemy. If they flash in color, forget the light attack and immediately hit your heavy attack button. Since you’re holding down your focus button, you’ll trigger the counter attack.

8. Nail that perfect dodge

Dodge just before an enemy strikes you, and Hinako will hack the foggy Matrix to slow down time and recharge her stamina instantly. It’s a pretty small window, but nailing this move is pretty essential for surviving the game’s tougher enemies. Hinako runs out of stamina pretty fast, so do everything you can to preserve and restore it.

9. Look out for helpful items during boss fights

Fragile weapons and sparse items can make you feel pretty on edge at times in Silent Hill f, especially during boss encounters. Fortunately, the game wants you to succeed more than you might think. While my first run through “Story” difficulty didn’t have me desperate for healing items, Hard mode is a different matter.

© Screenshot:: NeoBards Entertainment / Claire Jackson / Kotaku

Fortunately, I’ve noticed that it’s pretty common for the game to throw some items your way during boss fights; you just need to keep your eyes peeled in corners and other non-obvious places.

10. Collect everything; read everything

Us masochists sure do love a game that kicks you when you’re down. But there’s so much more to Silent Hill f than the struggle against the fog’s shambling, knife-wielding monstrosities. Hinako is quite the diligent note-taker and artist, and you are missing out on so, so much if you don’t take the time to read the various character entries and in-game documents. Not only is the art design on-friggin’-point in f, but so much of the game’s wonderful use of metaphor and its dives into Japanese folklore are found in the journal.

11. Resist brute-forcing your way through puzzles

Trying to brute-force your way through most puzzles in SHf is a quick way to sink into some serious ennui. Puzzles in this game often have too many variables for this approach to succeed in a reasonable amount of time, and trying to do so is way more frustrating than just figuring them out as intended.

© Screenshot:: NeoBards Entertainment / Claire Jackson / Kotaku

While the clues in it aren’t always the most obvious, spend some time studying Hinako’s notebook. You can always jump to it while looking at a puzzle via the on-screen prompt in the lower left-hand corner.

Silent Hill f won me over with its brutally dark tale first and foremost, but its combat has a satisfying rhythm that settles into place over the course of the game. Hopefully with these tips, you’ll end up with a few less broken weapons and even fewer scars from those mannequin psychopaths.



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15 Tips And Tricks To Know Before Playing
Game Reviews

15 Tips And Tricks To Know Before Playing

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Dying Light: The Beast is here, and despite some odd issues with super rain (which should be all fixed up now), I’ve been having a wonderful time with Techland’s open-world zombie RPG. After spending over a dozen hours with it, as well as playing the past games in the series, I have some tips to share with folks either hopping in for the first time or looking for some extra help during their next zombie-killin’ session.

Kick! Kick! And Kick Some More! 

As with past Dying Light games, you have a kick button. And you should use it and use it often. Kicking the undead doesn’t use much stamina and can keep them from grabbing you, something they love to do in this game. Plus, you can kick them off roofs and ledges for easy kills that never stop being funny.

Grab The Drop Kick Skill ASAP

Speaking of kicking zombies, very early on in Dying Light: The Beast, you gain access to the game’s skill tree. Once that happens, prioritize getting the drop kick ability. This lets you do a more powerful two-footed jump kick that can send multiple zombies and human baddies flying far away. I love to drop-kick zombies into other zombies.

..And Then Get The Safe Landing Skill Next

Oh, and on the topic of great skills to grab early on, I’d also shout out the safe landing skill found in the top section of the skill tree. It lets you drop from extreme heights and take no damage by holding the crouch button right before you land. It saved my ass many times, and it will save your zombie-killing butt, too. Trust me.

©Techland

Don’t Get Attached To Weapons

You’ll likely find some really powerful and deadly melee weapons in Dying Light: The Beast. Big hammers, flaming machetes, etc. All of that stuff is fun to use and can mow down zombies quickly. But don’t get too attached. Weapons can only be repaired so many times, as identified in the menu and weapon wheel, and once you’ve used up their repairs, that’s it. If you have a specific weapon’s blueprint, then you can craft it repeatedly, but if not, you might want to be cautious with the cool exotic knife you found in a random apartment.

How To Throw Weapons In Dying Light: The Beast

When a weapon is out of repairs and about to break, you could dismantle it, or you could just toss it at a zombie, giving it one last hurrah. But for some reason, The Beast does a poor job of explaining that you can toss weapons. To do so on a controller, hold the attack button and then click the right stick. On keyboard, hold the attack button and then hit F. If done correctly, you’ll toss your hammer or sword or whatever at the zombie ahead of you and hopefully crack it in the face.

Always Unlock New Safehouses And Towers

When out and about in The Beast, you’ll occasionally spot towers and safehouse icons on the map. Head to these the moment you see them, no matter what you’re doing. Once you activate these locations, they become safe zones that can save you from the night, which is very dangerous in the game, and can also act as a spawn point when you die.

When Farming Loot, Walk Away From The Bodies To Save Time

Here’s a trick I’ve been using since the first Dying Light game. If you’ve just killed a large horde of zombies and have a dozen or more corpses to search, don’t waste your time searching each one for loot. This takes a while and is tedious. Instead, run away at least a few hundred feet or so and then turn back around. When you return, the corpses should all be gone and replaced with little grey bags containing whatever loot each zombie was carrying. These can just be picked up instantly, no annoying animation needed. And better yet, if a zombie had nothing on them, then no bag is left behind, saving you even more time.

©Techland / Kotaku

You Get Double XP At Night, But Be Careful

And hey, if you’re going to farm hordes of zombies using Molotov cocktails and then pick up all their little loot bags, I’d recommend doing so at night. You get double XP for all your actions during the night, which helps you level up much faster.

Sure, when the sun goes down in Dying Light: The Beast, you have to avoid deadly, fast, and hard-to-kill super zombies. But if you stick near a safehouse or tower and use the method I outlined above, you can always just run back to safety before they get you and farm a lot of loot, resources, and XP in the process.

Use Your Survivor Sense Ping To Quickly Spot Loot

Kyle Crane has a nifty and useful “Survivor Sense” ability from the moment you start Dying Light: The Beast. Use this! It will mark loot and searchable containers near you, making it easier to grab some supplies and get out. It also marks human enemies and special infected, too, which can help you avoid them or get the drop on them and take them out like a ninja.

Pick Up Every Weapon And Dismantle Them For Extra Resources

Yes, grab that crappy crowbar or the shitty broken bat. Grab it all. Then head to your inventory and dismantle those items. You’ll get a lot of extra resources that you can use to craft better gear and weapons, and repair the weapons you actually use.

©Techland / Kotaku

Keep An Eye Out For Random Events

While running around the city and countryside, you might spot a blue icon on your compass. This is a random event, and you should try, if you can, to check these out whenever they appear. Sometimes you’ll find armed guards and good loot. Other times, it might be a person being held hostage by raiders. Or it might just be a random survivor being attacked by a zombie. Completing these awards gives you XP and other goodies.

… Maybe Kill Hostages After Saving Them

Okay, listen, you don’t have to do this. But, as far as I can tell, once you’ve saved a hostage and grabbed the reward from them, the game doesn’t track what happens next. So if you were to kill them and take their weapon so you can dismantle it for some extra resources, nobody in the game will ever know or care. Do I do this? Maybe. Do I feel bad? Yes. Do I have lots of scrap and screws? You better believe it, bucko.

You Can Unlock Safes Without The Code

Sometimes you’ll encounter locked safes in Dying Light: The Beast. You might think that the only way to unlock them is to find the safe’s combination. But you can also just unlock them by slowly turning the safe’s dial and feeling for a vibration. This will let you crack any safe without the combination. This feature is carried over from Dying Light 2, and it’s great.



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Here are 239 imaginative, daft or broken falling block games featuring laser drones, LocoRocos and playing cards
Game Updates

Here are 239 imaginative, daft or broken falling block games featuring laser drones, LocoRocos and playing cards

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It is written that when the Sumerian king Gilgamesh first beheld the gleaming ramparts of Uruk‐Haven, many centuries ago, he said unto his architects: “be sure to save up gaps for those long straight ones, and try your best to start a multiplier”. But then Gilgamesh realised that, by means of temporal fluctuations too nonsensical to explain, he was actually looking at the submissions page for Falling Block Jam 2025, the latest Itch.io “make a thing with a theme” festival, which ran from last week till today.


Falling block games! Such a simple concept, capable of so many perversions. I have played a handful of the jam’s 239 entries and found them to be enjoyable, if often rudimentary. As is the style round these parts, I will now try to briefly communicate their enjoyableness to you using words. This is honestly going to be quite difficult, because I keep seeing another entry I want to try.


A pretty one to start: Bloquecitos is a Tetrislike with real-time physics, and blocks that merge to create different-shaped blocks when you match their patterns. It’s a crafty rejig of the developer’s previous Pancitomerge. I’m fond of the mosaic tile patterns, and I like engineering cascades by merging two blocks so that others tumble together.

Image credit: Fáyer / Joven Paul / Rock Paper Shotgun

This Side Up, meanwhile, trades the “falling” component of the “falling block” genre for a gradually retreating 3D camera. You’ve got a shipping crate and you’re trying to fill it with vintage household objects such as cacti, cathode-ray televisions, Nintendo Gamecubes, and lizard tanks.

I strongly relate to this one inasmuch as I had a bunch of stuff in lock-up during a flat move last year. There’s a dark art to filling shipping crates so as to optimise both storage space and retrievability. I do not claim to have mastered this art. After all, I managed to divide up all my paired belongings between separate crates. I had left socks and saucepans in one box, right socks and saucepan lids in another. Get ye behind me, This Side Up! You are bringing back traumatic memories.

Image credit: Apotheum

Professor Gambler’s Bone Scrambler is a falling block game born of the fateful realisation that a thrown die is a kind of falling block. Each turn, it rolls out a line of dice. You then slide the line horizontally to match the blocks below and create combos, or spend points to reroll the set. How do you earn points? From combos. It’s got nice chiptune aesthetics, as you might expect from a game that has also been submitted to GBJAM 13.


A Pico-8 one next. In Recycled Blocks, you control a little laser drone that has to sculpt blocks as they fall to complete work orders and remove them from the board. I found the control scheme a bit confusing, but I love the concept. Ditto the self-explanatory Circuit Makers.

Jelly Well, meanwhile, gets two thumbs up for its subliminal hatred of LocoRocos and for its soundscape of human mouth noises. More of this kind of thing, please. Call of Duty games would sell twice as much if all the gun effects consisted of voice actors yelling “bang”. I would hire Sir Anthony Hopkins to voice an AK47, myself.

Image credit: Walaber Entertainment


Simply scrolling the Falling Block Jam submission feed makes me feel as though I’m losing badly at Tetris, so I’ll resist the urge to write up any more. OK, one more, but only because it doesn’t require a computer: Doctor Vs Virus is a table-top falling block game you can play with a standard deck of cards.

If you see any others you like, please rotate and slide them dextrously into the comments below. Why not see if you can form a line with people recommending the same game – I’ll try to add some block-clearing score attack functionality to our moderation software.



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What we've been playing - whispers, webs, houses and beasts
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – whispers, webs, houses and beasts

by admin


20th September

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Kelsey discovers a game like Unpacking on Steam; Tom manages to get his Steam Deck working; Marie puts her Spider-Man suit on; Ed goes with Blue Lions; Ian enjoys drop-kicking; Will argues that Battlefield 2042 wasn’t as bad as people made out; Chris can’t tell us what he’s been playing because it’s top secret (but also: Pokémon); and Bertie is smitten by the Vampire Survivor formula all over again.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Whisper of the House, PC

Whisper of the House looks very cosy indeed.Watch on YouTube

Whisper of the House is a charming little game that I came across on Steam when it launched at the end of August. Those who have played Unpacking will immediately see the appeal of this game, which has largely the same premise. You’re tasked with decorating, reorganising, and cleaning various homes and businesses for townsfolk while sprucing up your own abode.

It’s a great time sink, especially if you couldn’t get enough of Unpacking and wanted more. Most notably, Whisper of the House features tons of customisation. There’s loads of furniture and décor options, a colour mixer for many of these, and you’ve plenty of different environments to decorate how you see fit. This is the one thing that Unpacking lacked – understandably so! – but it is satisfying to finally scratch that itch and design more personal spaces.

-Kelsey

Control, Steam Deck/Geforce Now

I finally managed to get my Steam Deck to play ball after what seemed like days of wasted free-time, so installed Geforce Now (which you can do via Nvidia’s website while in Desktop Mode) and had a jolly good time. I’ve said it numerous times before but Geforce Now is exceedingly good, and I reckon the majority of people wouldn’t know they were playing a game via cloud-streaming if they weren’t told (and if they had a solid enough internet connection).

My issue now is I want to be able to make the best use of all of Geforce Now’s new features and tech, and to play on my TV – something that seems like it’s going to take a bit more time to sort out.

-Tom O

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, PS5

I couldn’t find a good video for Spider-Man Remastered so here’s one for Spider-Man 2!Watch on YouTube

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has to be one of my favourite games to guide, so swinging into Spider-Man Remastered was an easy choice. Even though I played the successor first, this one still has plenty of surprises that make my comic-loving heart flutter.

Battling criminal thugs, saving citizens from car wrecks, and taking on some of Spidey’s most iconic enemies was, in my opinion, a good use of a Friday night.

-Marie

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Switch

After the reveal of the next Fire Emblem game Fortune’s Weave in last week’s Nintendo Direct, and very much needing a break from the horrors of Silksong, I finally decided to boot up Three Houses and start the second run I’ve been intending for years. First time, I went with the Black Eagle house; now I’m Blue Lions. And I’m loving it! I’d forgotten how much I enjoy this game, with its likable characters, magical school vibes, and breezy battles. There are always numbers going up in some form, always things to achieve, and that’s had me instantly, utterly hooked, all over again.

-Ed

Dying Light: The Beast, PC

Eeeeyun!Watch on YouTube

Drop-kicking zombies in the head and watching them rag-doll into the distance is one of life’s great pleasures, especially if you aim the kick just right. Punting a zombie across the road is fun, don’t get me wrong, but nailing the angle and wanging one off the side of a cliff? That’s comedy gold.

The Dead Island series might have pioneered the act of introducing an infected skull to a pair of high velocity boots, but the Dying Light series perfected it and, for the last day or so, I’ve foregone the main quest of the newly released instalment Dying Light: The Beast to two-foot ferals in the face. It’s the kind of mindlessly satisfying fun you only really get from schlocky horror games, and it’s my gaming equivalent of comfort food. There’s no benefit to any of it in gameplay progression terms, it just makes me laugh. And that’s why I’m giving my short time with Dying Light: The Beast two big feet up!

-Ian

Battlefield 2042, PC

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I’ve been playing Battlefield 2042 for the past month, and I’ve been surprised to find just how much fun I’ve been having on “the weakest Battlefield”. Sure, the Battlefield 6 open beta demonstrates a huge step forward for the series, but the number of maps, modes and weapons available right now in 2042’s latest update has certainly seen the cream rise to the top. Many of the later additions show clear learnings from the muted response to 2042’s launch state, in the form of more lively maps and better-feeling guns. Returning to Iwo Jima has been a particular delight, with Conquest delivering all of the 360-degree vehicular chaos I’d missed in other shooters, and Breakthrough scratching that super-dense ‘Operation Metro 24/7’ itch. I’ll be glad to jump to BF6 when it launches in October, but if you ask me, 2042 deserves a critical re-evaluation.

-Will

Stuff I can’t talk about which is annoying sorry

Right, look, it’s very annoying when game journos do the whole “Oooooh,something VERY exciting just turned up in my inbox” thing but, well, that’s all I’ve got at the moment. All I’ve had time to play is several things under embargo for some time soon (I am actually allowed to tell you one of them is Ghost of Yotei, but I can’t say anything at all about what I think of it; so there you go, that’s one). I’ve also been playing Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket! Again! Do you want to hear more? You do?! Okay so I’m currently running a counter-meta Alolan Exeggutor dec– [gets rugby tackled by Bertie].

-Chris

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, PC

I haven’t played a Vampire Survivor-alike in a while (Karate Survivor was the most recent, and it’s great) so playing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor relit all those dormant synapses and reminded me why I fizz with such excitement playing games like this. And I know what it is: I love games that just get on with it. And Roguelikes are primed for this because they don’t need to teach before they let you play. It’s actually better if they don’t because it leaves things for you to discover as you loop round and round again. Play first, learn later. It’s so immediate. Emoji heart-eyes.

-Bertie



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If You're Playing Skate, Change These Settings ASAP
Game Updates

If You’re Playing Skate, Change These Settings ASAP

by admin



After what felt like a couple of centuries in the making, EA has finally revived its classic Skate franchise with a new, free-to-play entry in the series. It’s an early-access title right now, so it’s fairly barebones in terms of its presentation, and the live-service aspect has sparked quite a bit of, ah, discussion among longtime fans of the series. But there is one thing that folks seem to be in agreement on with the new Skate: They nailed the feel of skating just like the original games did.

Out of the box, however, it may not feel exactly the way you remember. But there’s a pretty easy solution to that problem in the game’s settings, where certain “assists” are activated by default that make skating a much more forgiving experience. In addition to those must-tweak settings, we have some recommendations for other options related to custom ramps that most players will want to consider, and and audio option related to the game’s narrator that could make your experience just a little less irritating in the long run. Let’s take a look.

Best settings to make new Skate make feel like the old Skate

Navigate into the settings menu, then choose Gameplay, and then tab over to the Assists menu. For the true, old-school Skate experience, turn everything in the difficulty options section down. I did, however, allow myself to keep Allow Fall Height at 1, the middle option, for the sake of sick jumps.

For the truly unforgiving old Skate experience, turn all these options all the way to the left.

But wait, there’s more! Below that you’ll also find On-Board Helpers, and it’s the same story here as it is above: turn them off. But if you’d like to ease yourself into it, you can leave on Prevent Low Air Spins, which makes it a little easier to maintain control at high speeds by preventing you from turning yourself when you’re bouncing slightly. But eventually you’ll want to turn that one off too.

These On-Board Helpers can make your skating time easier if that’s what you’re into.

There’s also an Off-Board Helpers section at the bottom of this menu, but you can do whatever with those since those settings make it easier to get around on foot. You can do far more on foot in this game, like climbing up the sides of buildings, than you could in the old ones, so we endorse anything that makes that go faster so we can get back to skating.

Congrats, you’ve turned the new Skate into the same sort of painful and unforgiving experience that the old games were. But there are a couple other very important settings you’ll also want to know about before too long.

Turn off other people’s quick-drop ramps

The new Skate brings back and improves upon one of Skate 3’s best features: the ability to place ramps and other objects anywhere you want in the world with a couple of button presses. The downside of this, however, is that this new Skate is an always-online game in which the world is constantly filled with other players, and they can also place ramps wherever they want, too. Knowing our fellow gamers the way we do, it’s not hard to imagine a number of different scenarios in which folks might be really irritating with their ramp powers.

Fortunately, this problem can be wrangled quickly in a way that you probably didn’t even know existed since you can’t access it from the normal settings menu. To find it, you’ll need to pull up the quick drop menu by pressing right on the d-pad, and then press the Options/Start button to open the quick drop settings menu. Scroll to the Multiplayer section at the bottom. Here you can govern whether you’ll be subject to ramps placed by other players–and, crucially, you can make it so other players can’t mess with the ramps that you place.

Free yourself from the tyranny of random people’s ramps.

Once you’re done with that, there’s still one more setting you may want to keep in mind, particularly in the early goings.

How to turn off the narrator

Throughout your time in Skate, a nice digital lady called Vee runs you through the tutorials and missions as you learn the game and progress through, similar to the cameraman role that Giovanni Reda played in the original three games. Unfortunately, Vee is not as much fun to listen to as Reda was, and she really talks way, way more than she should, often repeating the same message over and over every time you return to your session marker, which is maddening. Fortunately, you can disable her idle chatter completely by turning off Gameplay Vee Comments in the Audio settings menu.



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