What have you been playing this week?
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Tom has a milestone first EA Sports FC match against his son, and respectfully destroys him; Marie plans out her seasonal planting in Stardew Valley; Will sees old FPS friends returning to play Battlefield 6; Kelsey feels the chokehold of Pokémon Legends: Z-A; and Bertie muses on the mutability of feelings about the survival crafting genre.
What have you been playing?
It’s finally happened. After years of trying to get my son into football (and he has shown some interest in watching Spurs, poor lad), he’s finally said the words every football-loving parent dreams of hearing: “Can I play FIFA (EA FC 26)?” The Switch 2 version isn’t the one I’d choose to play, but that’s what he wanted.
He played it for a few days and boasted about how great he is, so there was only one thing I could do: attempt to completely destroy him. Now, I’ve not played EA FC or FIFA for a good while, and the Switch controllers don’t love my hands, but I was determined to show my superiority – albeit with a few classic dad caveats to excuse any less than stellar skills.
Five virtual minutes in, and oh no, I’ve had a player sent off because I hadn’t changed the controls and accidentally did a horrendous sliding tackle. Oops. I needn’t have worried. My 10-man Spurs sliced through his defense and his Liverpool were 3-0 down by half-time. I let off the gas a little in the second half, accidentally paused the game three times due to the odd placement of the button on the Switch 2 Joy-con, but it was job done.
You’ll get there, son, just not yet.
-Tom O
I’m back at it again on my farm.
