What We're Playing

This week felt like a merciful relief when compared to the machinegun of new releases at the beginning of March. Still, perhaps your hunger is not yet sated. Perhaps you wish for more new games, games about mending teapots, making spells, and murdering monsters.

What a coincidence, here are some games that meet those specific criteria. Let us know what you are playing in the comments down below.

Piece By Piece

Repair items for animal folk by jigsawing them back together, then use the money you make to decorate your shop. There's some obvious Animal Crossing inspiration here (the fonts, the UI, the character designs), but gardening and painting aside, it seems much more focused on the soothing loop of shop management.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

I've never managed to get into a Monster Hunter game, but the Stories spin-off series seems like my most likely route in at this point. Twisted Reflection looks like it moves a little closer to the main

Videogames are intensifying! The first week of March has delivered more games I want to play than any other so far this year, and I haven't finished with all the Next Fest demos I want to play yet. Please, please slow down, we are but three sickly men with a small blog.

Here are just some of the games you should be playing this weekend, but remember to tell us all the other games you are playing in the comments below.

Lost And Found Co.

I played the demo of Lost And Found Co. several years ago and had checked in on it intermittently since. Its release this week was still a total surprise. This is a Where's Wally-style hidden object adventure that excites me, mainly, for the warmth and detail of its art style. Sooner or later I'll be queuing up some podcasts and spending hours finding miscellany in its Hergécore dioramas.

Esoteric Ebb

What if you took many of the RPG systems and writerly flourishes of Disco Elysium and applied them back towards a more

Last week I suggested that you might play the new Styx game, Blades Of Greed. This week, Styx publisher Nacon declared bankruptcy. I guess you didn't listen to me and now you see what happens. Let's try it again.

Here's three games you could be playing this weekend. Let us know what game you're playing instead in the comments.

Star Trek: Voyager - Across The Unknown

This survival strategy game is supposedly a "faithful recreation" of the TV series, a very dumb show that I love very much. Presumably this means that the characters aboard the ship die constantly but then are miraculously restored within 44 minutes, their traumatic experiences never to be mentioned again. In fact, I'd be much more inclined to play it if it was more knockabout toybox than Frostpunk misery sim. Here's hoping.

Towerborne

Stoic, makers of The Banner Saga trilogy, return with a new game with similarly gorgeous character designs. There's no turn-based thinkery here, however. This is a co-op action-RPG about biffing big monsters with brawler-style combos. A bit Dragon's Crown? A

I took the Steam Deck with me when travelling last weekend, and instead of leaving it in my suitcase untouched in favour of reading books, as per usual, I spent much of my downtime playing tactical deckbuilder StarVaders. This is because I know I need to write posts for Jank and therefore must be playing games in every spare moment. Cheerfully, it's also because I think you'd appreciate the articles even if they're about games outside the current release cycle. This is highly motivating, so thanks.

On the other hand, you're making me less literate. Read on for some games you could be playing in lieu of reading books this weekend - and tell us what you are playing in the comments.

Under The Island

I'm never too excited by the sight of another 2D Zelda-like, because the formula is simple enough that it often struggles to shine at lower levels of execution. Under The Island is threatening to overcome my skepticism with its trailers, which show an impressively diverse world and an emphasis upon the puzzle part of the formula over the combat.

The weekend approacheth, which means a long languorous release from work for some, and brief stolen moments of respite for those with young children (hi). Either way, you may choose, as we do, to fill your downtime with videogames.

Here's what you should - or at least, could - be playing. Tell us what you actually are in the comments.

Out Of Action

This cyberpunk first-person shooter seems less like the live service hero shooters of the moment, and more like the Half-Life mods of my youth. A bit Action Half-Life, a bit NeoTokyo, as you bumslide, back-dive and bullet dodge in PvP shootouts. It's also got an offline mode and promises "deep progression", so not strictly retro, but one for the lovers of ghosts and/or shells.

MIO: Memories In Orbit

I've become a metroidvania guy in recent years, which is unfortunate because most of the genre's best entries are behemoths that take 30 hours or more to finish. MIO, which released a little over a week ago, is getting lots of praise but apparently won't take me