Welcome to our regular Saturday morning check-in where we let you know what we’ve been up to this week. We want to know what will be up on your console or PC too, so don’t forget to vote in the poll at the bottom of the article. Without further ado, let’s crack on so we can find out what you are playing this weekend.
Jesse (DonCabesa):
This week I played two different, yet similar titles. First was Death Howl. From a game I had never heard of to one of my favorite releases of 2025, Death Howl rules. It takes the progression and mechanics from the Soulslike genre and puts them into a turn-based card game. It’s tough, fair, and Day One in Game Pass on PC. It will hit consoles in February on the 19th and I cannot recommend it enough. Check out the full review here.
The next was Terminator 2D: NO FATE. A classic old school pixel arcade action platformer, with all the pluses and minuses of that goal. It nails the look, feel, and sounds of the mid-90s arcade scene. It can be frustrating to reach the end and have incredibly difficult fights lead to starting back from square one, but that was how those quarter munchers behaved at home. You can read the review here.
Genghis (SolidusKraken):
“I’ve been playing a little known game called ‘Red Dead Redemption’ as of late, on the side as I finish up a few smaller reviews. But I’m not playing this on a PC or console, no no – I’m playing Rockstar’s western on my phone. About the only reason I was even interested in replaying this classic was to sate my curiousity in seeing Rockstar’s modern tech stack run on mobile devices and I am absolutely floored by how good of a port that studio Double Eleven has produced this time around, significantly better than those awful GTA classics ports that circled around.
Rockstar has a habit of making their rereleases worse, see. But RDR has no such problems, with lighting, visuals, and gameplay fully intact in their native Android and iOS ports. And the game still holds up very well, even today so long as you can put up with the rather limiting mission design that the prestigious developer still employs even in their modern works.
I better see this overhauled in ‘GTA VI’, Rockstar, or I’ll… I’ll… I’m not really sure what I’d do, to be honest. But I can tell you, my fine reader, that I’m not actually hyped for GTA VI. For my open-world fix, I’m unironically looking forward to ‘Ananta’ over that!”
Jon (Sikamikanico):
“It’s been a curious week for me. I downloaded ‘A Game About Digging a Hole’ and 8 hours later, I’d ‘completed’ it twice, and managed to earn all but two of the games achievements. Is it a good game? I’m not sure, but it successfully tickles that animal part of your brain to seek reward – dig deeper, see the next thing, uncover the next mystery. It’s out on Game Pass, and if you’re an achievement hunter, will net you 800 pretty easily.
My PlayStation 5 journey continues, and I’ve dove into playing The Last of Us Remastered, which so far is very engaging and very pretty, though I find the aiming/shooting to feel a bit rough around the edges. I also jumped in on checking out the demo for Super Meat Boy 3D, which is available now on Steam. It’s the same demo I played back at Gamescom earlier this year, but without the imposed 8 minute time-limit. I think they’re on to a winner here, it’s fun, performance is great and it is super addictive. I hope the demo comes to consoles sooner rather than later.
Lastly, Razer sent me a Blade 18 laptop to check out, equipped with a 5090 GPU and all the trimmings. So naturally, I’ve kitted it out with the latest updates to Windows, including the Xbox Full Screen Experience – just to see how everything performs. Expect a review of some description at some point in January.”
Kat (MortonToe):
“OK, I’ll admit it. I am addicted to digging holes. This game is short, yet absolutely hits every single dopamine receptor in my brain, and I just can’t stop. I have dug holes this week on my PC, Xbox Series X and my ROG Ally X. Honestly, it’s become a bit of a problem. I have managed to justify this by saying that I’ll review the game for XboxEra, so you guys will have that to look forward to soon – and just so you know, I will absolutely not be attempting a northern accent this time around.”
Aarsal (SoulBlazerz):
“It’s done. It’s over. But before we get into that, this week I played through Dispatch at a breakneck pace. For those who haven’t yet, Dispatch felt like the kind of superhero story I needed right now. Not quite as dark and gritty as The Boys and not quite as whimsical and kiddish as Marvel, Dispatch told a deeply personal story worth experiencing. Highly recommended for anyone interested, though hopefully it comes to Xbox soon!
And now, the big elephant in the room. I’d told folks I’d have my fabled Hollow Knight: Silksong review done and out this last week and I kinda, sorta kept my word? The game is done and the review is written, but the video is going to take a couple more days. Look for it early next week! Though in the meantime, here’s a snippet from the review itself:”
“As I continued through Act 2 and beyond, both the level design and the boss encounters continued to impress. There were still moments of struggle, such as a seemingly never-ending gauntlet of enemies, but the open nature of the game let me explore other areas instead and come back stronger and more versatile. For anyone who may have dropped the game in frustration, I highly encourage you to go back and keep pushing until you hit credits. Then you need to go back and hit the credits again. But if you truly want to fight some of the best bosses in the game, you’ll need to go back one last time and hit credits for the third and final time. Trust me, it’s worth it.”
Poll time! Let us know what you will be loading up this weekend. Vote in the poll below, and of course if you want to carry the conversation further you can hit up our XboxEra forum, or head to the Discord server.
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