Welcome to your weekly snapshot of the most interesting games and play experiences I’m exploring, from video games to escape rooms to anything in between.
Top story: Escape room fun!
I recently had the chance to visit Pier Pressure Bracknell escape rooms. We played four of their games. My one word review: awesome!
The level of quality and attention to detail in the set design really made these rooms stand out from others.
A particular highlight was the Alien themed room, which made us feel fully immersed, and had some nice theatrical moments and big story beats. Great puzzles too.
Get yourself to Bracknell and give them a try!
This week
GTA ransom and leak. Hackers broke into Rockstar’s data and threatened to reveal secret company files. Rockstar didn’t pay so the hackers followed through with their threat. Now we know how much money Rockstar has been making from GTA Online… Approximately, a whopping £1 million PER DAY from September 2025 to April 2026. Wow.
Big Game Pass price changes. Xbox says it is dropping the prices of its subscription service Game Pass, just six months after hiking them by more than 50%. But it is also dropping day-one releases of new Call of Duty games.
Worth a watch: If you haven’t seen Rental Family (2025), starring everyone’s favourite Brendan Fraser, I highly recommend it. It is heart-warming and great for Japanophiles out there.
What I am playing: My buddies and I have been enjoying Slay the Spire 2. A deckbuilding run-based game. It does everything well that the first game did, plus the joy of multiplayer.
Was it good? Last week I mentioned Peter Molyneux’s new game - Masters of Albion - which has launched into early access, to mixed reviews. I have studied the game and my initial take-away is that it does a great job with its worldbuilding, quirky Fable-like humour and storytelling, but they forgot to create an engaging and addictive gameplay loop. Let’s hope they iron out the issues before full release.
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