25th July

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie goes back to ancient Greece for an odyssey of his own; Kelsey goes bird watching; and Connor crosses all his fingers and toes for Sony to fix PlayStation Network.

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.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey, PS5

I watched The Odyssey last weekend and, in a rush of enthusiasm for it - I loved how real it felt while also remaining incredibly weird - I reinstalled Assassin's Creed Odyssey to have an Odyssean adventure of my own. It hasn't aged well. I know 2018 is a long time ago, but The Witcher 3 was released three years before it and holds up better, maybe because of patches, I'm not really sure.

Regardless, AC Odyssey shows its age. The character models are like old plastic toys. But it's broader than that, in the way the game is made. It's supposed to be a world you can immerse yourself in, but every second, the interface flashes something at your eyes, pointing you somewhere, shoving you somewhere, geeing you up. It's like an arcade game is layered over the top of a sandbox world.

Look, I don't hate it. I've actually got quite a lot of time for this approach; or rather, I appreciate the time it's saving me by using this approach. Some games are so impressed with their open worlds and their sense of exploration and discovery that they let you flounder aimlessly, and that's wearying. AC Odyssey is all forward momentum.

I've also got a lot of love for Kassandra, the female playable lead, who presents like an actual soldier, with musculature to be gawped at. She's exactly what I imagine a female soldier would look like - she's believable - and we don't see that enough, not in 2018, nor even now.

-Bertie

Flock Around, PC and Pokémon GO, Mobile

Flock Around is a co-op steam game that tasks you and your friends with going bird-watching, and that's about it, and that's the beauty of it.

Armed with the birdwatcher's best friends, a camera and some binoculars, you're thrown into an adorable, simplistic world with various biomes that possess different American birds for you to try and take snaps of. This is how I spent most of my Saturday, and to make it worse, I completed much of the game solo because the dopamine from getting three-star photos of geese, pigeons, and more was too good to turn away from. There are shiny birds too, turning birdwatching into an adrenaline-pumping activity, and you might even be blessed by these virtual birds landing - and pooping - on you. It's a charming game with a low price tag, and if you've any affection for birds, I highly recommend it.

When I've not been watching birds, I've been playing Pokémon GO again after a two year hiatus from the game. GO Fest 2026 really sunk its claws into me, and after landing myself a shiny Kyogre and more shiny Pikachu than I can count, I've fully got the Pokemon GO bug at the behest of all my friends (who are already tired of me taking part in Gym Battles at the pub, but needs must).

-Kelsey

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls beta, PS5

Gosh I had a really fun 30 minutes with Marvel Tokon before PSN went down. I hopped into training mode and tried my hand with a few of the characters available - and was feeling pretty good about Magik. She's got some tricky teleportation tricks and a nice mix of ranged and melee tools that I was really excited to take online.

That was this morning. I took my lunch break today and booted up my PS5, giddy like it was christmas, and then whomp whomp. PSN is down. In my head it's the world's revenge against me in particular. Assuming the network is still down by 5pm today, I'll have to do far less exciting things, like reading the five books I bought and haven't touched yet. Or maybe I'll go to the gym, or improve my life in meaningful and material ways. That sounds lame as hell, help me out Sony.

-Connor

Read this next

  • Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls' single-player Episode Modes have been written by legendary writer, Kieron Gillen
  • "It was like being back in 2016" Pokémon Go celebrates 10th anniversary by recreating the original trailer's Times Square Mewtwo raid
  • Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is blocked in 132 countries due to Sony's controversial PSN linking requirement – but its Steam page is still visible to blocked players