“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #021

A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels

Today’s entry is going to be a little light on the tooth. Real-life has unfortunately got in the way of most of our writers being able to play anything this week. However, with all the exciting reveals, new trailers and new release dates dropping almost daily throughout June, there’s lots in the pipeline here at The Pixels! Here’s what a few of our writers have been up to this week:

On top of doing a ton of yard work, I had also lost my voice over the weekend, so I wasn’t able to stream more Phantasy Star IV. Good thing I recovered quickly by Tuesday so that I could continue my playthrough of Oracle of Seasons! Swapping between that game and Oracle of Ages to unlock all the secrets within a linked game using passwords was tedious at times. Ultimately, it was very satisfying to obtain a ton of new items in Ages and then transfer them back to Seasons. The password system for both games was really well developed, as it didn’t force players to depend solely on the Link Cable.

Off-stream, I’ve completed the main story of The World Ends With You. The story had wrapped up in such a dramatic and twisted fashion. While I won’t spoil it, I can say that there was always something about Joshua that seemed off, but that’s all I’ll reveal. The main message of the story, though, is that by exposing your vulnerable self and opening up to others, you’ll broaden your own world. The world does, indeed, end and begin with you, after all. It’s up to you how you make of it. 

Now, it’s on to gathering the Secret Reports, which reveal a ton of lore within the game and expose the secrets of one particular character…

~Ryan C

I live in a world of cubes. Minecraft, at the earnest urging of my darling children, has been a beast to play for the first time. It’s humungous and there’s a lot to it after all these years, but, precisely because so many years have passed for it, I’m finding it just seems to be missing a lot of features that other building games have going for them.

On top of that, it’s pure freedom, at least in the survival mode I’m playing. I’m finding it difficult to figure out what to do next so I just mine and craft. Like the title says! I’ll get the hang of it and it is fun, a great way to spend some time with my kids as their summer break hits.

~Red

I’m back yet again! Was sick with COVID last week, while I recovered I put in about a dozen more hours into Elden Ring. Making more progress, but feels like I’m still a long way off from finishing it.

More interestingly, I also acquired an interesting title called Fuga: Melodies of Steel. It’s a bit pricey for an indie game ($40) so when I saw it on sale I snagged it right away! It is a turn-based, war-themed game in a fictional world where everyone is cat people. The art style is absolutely adorable but the subject matter is actually quite dark. The story has gotten a bit depressing at times. You take control of a group of kids whose village was attacked. They found a giant tank in a cave and decided to fight back to try to save their families. I’m still very early on but I’m having quite a lot of fun with the battles. You’ll probably be hearing more on this game from me soon.

~Kalas

Going back to work this week has meant less gaming time for me, sadly. Although I have found the occasional ten minutes here and there to beat the new Mastery Challenges added to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Normally these are not my kind of thing at all.. just a bunch of challenges with some absurd stipulations: time limits or only being able to use sleep arrows, for instance. However, they have been ideal for that quick-fix of gaming that I’ve needed this week: especially on the PS5 with its super-short loading times getting me straight to the action.

I did run into a couple of progress-halting glitches, though. One of which had a key (that was necessary to complete a mission) completely vanish! No matter how many times I restarted the mission, it just would not respawn into the guard’s pocket! Thankfully I’ve learnt over the years to keep separate save files, so back I went to an earlier manual save, and voila! There was the key again!

Honestly, I must give a shout-out to the Ubisoft Support Twitter account because for every glitch or issue I’ve had this week with Valhalla, they have responded extremely quickly and been super-helpful with their advice. Thanks, Ubisoft people!

~TeeBee

So, what were you playing this week?

Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Twitter as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.