4th July

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Sherif determines whether the Battlefield 6 changes have actually changed the game as Battlefield Studios hoped; Dom has a great week that turns into a very unfortunate week; Bertie sees Dom while their week is still great; Connor is too easily persuaded to reinstall Cyberpunk 2077; Chris plays the only game that matters on Steam Machine; and Kelsey prepares for Persona overload.

What have you been playing this week?

Here's another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don't have to! The What We've Been Playing archive has you covered.

Battlefield 6, PS5

Battlefield 6 - Official Season 3 Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube

Battlefield 6 rolled out a new update earlier this week. It's not the most exciting when it comes to new stuff to play with, mainly because it's the last patch of Season 3. The real excitement is a little farther on the horizon, when naval combat is set to arrive with Season 4. But I had to check out this week's update because of the major change to gameplay it introduced.

The patch tweaked the gunplay and feel of all the weapons in the game. The goal was to make long-range shooting less lethal, which should, in theory, make encounters feel closer to Battlefield 4. The game does that through tweaking several variables I won't bore you with, but suffice it to say, it's not your typical end-of-season patch. So yes, I wanted to see if all that work has made a difference to combat.

To my surprise, things didn't actually feel that different overall. In close-range, you die and kill just about as quickly as you did pre-patch. For medium-to-long-range engagements, the incentive to control your fire was less strong than I hoped for. I found that players, many of whom already have favourite weapons, simply re-adjusted and carried on. The only really noticeable effect is that weapon archetypes are stricter now than they used to, meaning not every weapon class can fill every role. It was certainly refreshing to see players clearly struggling to hit targets beyond 100m with their SMG, decked out though it may be.

-Sherif

The Switch 2 UI

Bear with me now. Last week, I went to London to see the Game Music Festival - shout out to the incredible shows representing Persona 3, 4, and 5, and Hades and Hades 2. I had a lovely day attending talks, watching shows, and catching up with industry pals. However, on the way home - coincidentally timed to be after the England vs. Panama game, I should add - my bag was nicked from under my feet at Waterloo station. As a result, I lost all my best clothes and my Switch 2. Undeterred, this week I procured another Switch 2 and promptly got to work downloading my library: Final Fantasy 1-12 first, of course, followed by Persona 3, 4 and 5, naturally, and then catching up with all the other stuff - Mario Kart World, take a bow.

It's quite a boring job in the scheme of things, sure, but I'll tell you what: the Switch 2 UI actually made this tedious task frictionless. The only real pain here is that I lost all my save data - I'm not subbed to Switch Online, alas. So a Pokémon FireRed Pokédex that was basically full, a very lived-in Pokopia world, and complete save game files for every Final Fantasy you can have on Switch are all now, sadly, at the whim of an opportunistic thief somewhere in the Greater London metropolitan area. It's bittersweet. I was due a replay of Final Fantasy 8, anyway.

-Dom

Hades 2, Switch 2

Baldur's Gate 3 • The Last of Us • Game Music Festival 2024 London The Hades concert was livestreamed but there's no archived video, so here's a video from last year's superb performances.Watch on YouTube

You are such a copycat Dom! I also went to the Hades Game Music Festival performance and had a better time than Dom. That's a lie: we had an equally good time. We even said hello to each other - it was awesome, as was the concert. In a world where mega-teams and mega-franchises wane, it's so invigorating to see Supergiant sell out the Royal Festival Hall and pack it with that much passion and adoration. The future seems remarkably clear witnessing a sight like that.

A few days later, suitably inspired, I was playing Hades 2 again - while some friends were over. This wasn't my anti-social idea by the way! My partner put the game on and handed me the controller, expecting I'd have a quick go. But I managed to find some of my old groove and had a very long go, which took me all the way down to Chronos, though I didn't manage to beat him. Still, my game-playing friend seemed very impressed, especially after he had a go himself and didn't get very far; his belief in my game-playing credentials undeniably rose that day. It made me better appreciate all of the learnt skill roguelikes engender. All that time spent playing: it was worthwhile after all.

-Bertie

Cyberpunk 2077, PS5

Yes I know, someone watched the Cyberpunk Edgerunners season 2 trailer and reinstalled CD Projekt's game for the fourth time. How very original. Look, I'm a sucker for this setting okay! It's a cool thing I can chip away at on the weekends, leave me alone.

As for what I can say about Cyberpunk 2077 that hasn't been said a million times already, I remain flabbergasted by the sheer amount of change between the launch experience and what's available to players now. Thinking back to those shaky week-one memories to the Phantom Liberty experience now really puts into perspective how far the game has come, and how much work has gone into it.

Also, this is the first playthrough I've ever done where I remembered to go up to the helipad in Konpeki Plaza to grab a very special sword. If you don't go and do this, you never ever get a chance to do it again, so I'm happy to tick it off my list. What list? Well, a community-made list of all the iconic weapons and how to get them, of course! Such is another perk of playing a game like Cyberpunk years after its release, there are so many resources out there to help you see it in another light. These days, if I am diving into the back catalogue, I will look up resources like this. On Eurogamer first, obviously.

-Connor

Sektori, Steam Machine

Sektori - Switch 2 Trailer Any excuse for a Sektori trailer.Watch on YouTube

I tried to download a variety of games when I was testing out the Steam Machine the other week, ideally ones that'd push the hardware a bit. But inevitably, I found myself coming back to one of those smaller games that I can duck in and out of in a flash.

Sektori is just so, stupidly good. It's also yet another game to prove the golden rule that if you hammer away at the same boss with a hundred attempts in a row, you are guaranteed to beat it on the first try after taking a lengthy break. I came back to this and beat the third boss for the first time with relative ease, as the intricacies of all the rippling, stacking buffs became clearer and clearer to me over time. Also, increasingly this is what the Steam Machine will be all about for me, I reckon. It's just another place to play games I'm already playing and loving elsewhere. And that's neat.

-Chris

Persona 5 Royal, Switch 2

Seeing as we can anticipate a fresh Persona 4 remake and Persona 6 next year - and the fact that these games are gargantuan in length - I figured it was time for me to finally start Persona 5 Royal. I've not even finished Persona 3 Reload yet, and I never completed the final dungeon in Persona 4 Golden, but I've only so much time on my hands and these games are very tough to get back into after months away.

I ultimately had to decide whether to finish P3R or start 5 before 2027, because I simply won't have time for both. P5R won overall, but I'm not particularly happy about it. Going from how crisp and shiny P3R is on Switch 2 to P5R, which largely plays in 540p handheld, was rather headache-inducing. Nothing I can't get used to after half-an-hour or so, but that paired with what is ultimately a weaker story - or at least one that's less interesting to me - has me yearning to return to P3R. Alas, I am 20 hours in and therefore committed to the end - or near-end - now.

I will say that having an airsoft gun and a talking 'cat' that comes to school with me certainly makes up for my qualms with the game, though. So far, what Persona 5 Royal lacks in terms of quality on Switch and general story beats, it makes up for in vibes and vibes alone.

-Kelsey