What we've been playing - castles and ultra-cool action

A few of the things that have us hooked this week.

4th October

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, we're preoccupied with castles, it seems. We visit one in real-life and then we make a few in make-believe land. We also show our appreciation for the sheer coolness of a brand new super-violent action game.

What have you been playing?

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

Dungeons & Dragons' new rules, tabletop

My obsession with Dungeons & Dragons continues, and there's a lot that's been going on in that world of late. Number one: I went to a castle to play it. My partner and I drove all the way up to a place called Brackenhill Tower, near Carlisle, which is pretty much on the Scottish border, to play D&D fairly solidly for two days, with our newish Chaotic Questers group (shameless plug: we stream). It was lovely to meet them in person and it was lovely to play in person rather than online - there's definitely a difference. However, the trip was sullied somewhat by our car breaking down on the way back, stranding us in Preston, then needing to be scrapped shortly after. We rolled a natural one.

The other big thing that's been going on is that Dungeons & Dragons has evolved and a new version of the game has come out. Well, sort of. A new Player's Handbook has come out, which is one of the core rulebooks, and which tells you how to play, but without the new Dungeon Master's guide, due out this month, and the new Monster Manual due out early next year I think, the entire core rule set isn't complete. Nevertheless, we are on new ground, and I excitedly read through the 2024 Player's Handbook recently. Alas, I was a bit underwhelmed.

I think I was expecting a capital B, Big Change, even though I knew this was an iterative release rather than a wholesale step-change. People colloquially refer to it as 5.5 edition D&D, because it's not that different from 5th edition, which launched 10 years ago. Nevertheless, I expected something - a moment. I think in retrospect what I was after was something akin to what we feel when a new video game comes out and everyone rushes in to find the answers, whatever they may be. That - that surge of discovery: that's what I wanted, but there wasn't one. The new rules were suddenly just there.

I wonder whether it will change with the release of the new DM guide. I know our group is holding off until then because it's a kind of incomplete transition without it, and because there are some bold new features in the DM guide like Bastions - individual home bases - that might significantly mix things up. Perhaps then I'll feel a more notable difference. Or perhaps I just expect too much.

It's still an exciting year, just not perhaps as exciting as I thought it might be.

-Bertie

I Am Your Beast, PC

I Am Your Beast is such a cool game, and I hate that description but I really can't think of a better one for it. I Am Your Beast is really fucking cool.

It's a fast-paced first-person slaughter fest with a comic book art style, and it's really addictive. Now let's be clear, I am not good at the game, and despite seeing reports it can be completed in a few hours, I am yet to do so. I'm also not ashamed to say I have died a lot. But you know what? I am having such a blast doing it that I really don't mind.

In the game, you play as former special agent called Alphonse Harding who, despite being in retirement, has been summoned for one last job. He doesn't take too kindly to this though so swiftly begins to punch, shoot, kick and slice his way through droves of military in bite-size, speedrun levels, set within a wintery wilderness.

It's all so incredibly slick. Harding is able to effortlessly climb up trees, with gravity and stamina clearly not an issue for him, before jumping down to land on an enemy's head nearby with a very pleasing squish. Firing guns gives a sense of power, as Harding looses round after round into the advancing forces, and then when he's done with the gun, he can just lob it at an enemy with equally impressive force. Then there's that kicking I mentioned: I realise I sound sadistic saying this, but my is it satisfying seeing the damage one swift stomp can do.

As I said: I Am Your Beast is very, very cool.

-Victoria

Tiny Glade, PC

How could I not play this after Digital Foundry's spellbinding video featuring it? Not only that but I don't think I've ever been more seen by a game - a chill game about building yourself a castle in wooded clearing, a glade. Perhaps I can play D&D there next time, wistful sigh.

Tiny Glade follows in the footsteps of games like Townscaper and Summerhouse, meaning it's a soft and gentle game about building things for the sake of building things, and for the sake of making them look nice. There are no points or rules or threats or anything like that, only the allure and inherent satisfaction of making something, and then taking hundreds of pictures of it so you can show off; it's not entirely wholesome.

Because there's not much you can do - your options are limited - there's a great emphasis on making the things that you can do count. For instance, placing a path - the first thing the game asks you to do. This has to be a joy, not fiddly or annoying, because it's a part of the overall toy. And it is - a joy I mean. Paint through a wall and a dinky arch will magically appear in it, and maybe some flowers will pop up around it too. Pop a window over there and some vines will grow over it after it's placed. Change the shape of a tower and some bags of potatoes might appear at the base of it. The game is alive in its building blocks, and it started the moment you did - it's not waiting for you to finish something. It's a toy that's about the pleasure you get from using it.

It's beautifully intuitive. It's beautiful.

-Bertie