What We're Playing

27 Feb 2026 By Graham Smith What We're Playing

What you should play this weekend

Tell us what you are playing in the comments

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.

Harry Kim is asking for your orders, Captain, in a text prompt next to a picture of the USS Voyager. But look, it's not actually Harry Kim. Harry Kim was sucked into space and killed in season two and we replaced him with a different Harry from an alternate universe. Nobody talks about it but our Harry Kim is dead! Don't let Janeway cover up anymore dea-- — I can't explain right now, but that's not the real Harry Kim.

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.

Some magic guys blast fire at an enemy next to a bunch of cornfields and grass. — The use of fire in these fields is deeply irresponsible.

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

20 Feb 2026 By Graham Smith What We're Playing

What you should play this weekend

Tell us what you are playing in the comments

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.

A character shoots a fireball from a plant at an enormous tree man surrounded by dazed tree children. — This certainly doesn't look like any Zelda dungeon I've ever seen.

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

13 Feb 2026 By Graham Smith What We're Playing

What you should play this weekend

Tell us what you are playing in the comments

My Retroid Pocket 6 arrived this week and I am immediately leaving on a family trip. Is this the perfect time to cosy down and play some retro classics? Oh friend. I didn't buy this thing to play games on it. I bought it so I could spend countless evenings tinkering with frontends, boxart, and metadata. Should I ever get the device set up just to my liking, it will be going straight in a drawer to be forgotten about. Fingers crossed everything is as fiddly and time-consuming as I think it should be, or I'm going to have to buy an AYN Thor as a second project.

You might be built different. You might want to actually boot up a game. Here's a few you could try - and tell us what you are playing in the comments.

A side-on cut-through of a museum, showing six rooms. — I'm already stealing lost cultural artifacts on my Retroid Pocket 6.

Relooted

Everyone who has watched Indiana Jones or played Tomb Raider has had the idea: what if instead of stealing from foreign historical sites, we were taking back plundered artifacts from museums and repatriating them to their origins? Relooted is exactly that: a 3D sidescroller from

06 Feb 2026 By Graham Smith What We're Playing

What you should play this weekend

Tell us what you are playing in the comments

Another weekend? So soon? I am not at all prepared for this collision with two days of supposed non-work, but I hope that you are making merry, putting your feet up, and stuffing your gullet with salty, crunchy videogames.

Here what you should or could be playing. Tell us what you actually are playing in the comments.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

I am not an RPG guy, but oh how I dream of being. Alas, I tried playing the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo and fell asleep on the couch within an hour. I'm like yer da putting the snooker or bowls on TV on a Sunday - I see the colour green and I'm out. If you've greater fortitude than I, this seems like a great modernisation of one of the genre's classics, with lots of fast-forward and automation options to make the combat more fun (and an anthology structure to make the 85-hour runtime less intimidating).

A spaceship with a lot of complicated parts, viewed from above, possibly on fire. — This is fine.

30 Jan 2026 By Graham Smith What We're Playing

What you should play this weekend

Tell us what you are playing in the comments

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.

A person dives while swinging a sword as the player fires akimbo pistols at them. — Best take your keys out your pockets before you land on them mate.

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

O__________________________O