What did you play last week?

Andy Kelly has been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator in advance of its release, and been properly wowed by its fidelity. The thought of flying over a version of the city where I live that—at least from a height—looks photorealistic? That's exciting, and so is the idea of being able to return to places I've visited. The closest thing to a flight sim I've played in the last few years have been games where you're a bird, but this might just drag me back.

Chris Livingston has been playing Blaseball, a simulator of baseball that is apparently being played in Hell (unlike the regular version of baseball, which is just being played somewhere that resembles Hell, wahey). In Blaseball you place bets on matches that might involve players mutating, or vote on rules like whether to open the Forbidden Book. It kind of reminds me of Jon Bois's 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future, only horror-themed instead of sci-fi.

Stacey Henley has been playing Valorant, and observing that this hero shooter's boring heroes are that way by design. Though it gets compared to Overwatch a lot, Valorant shies away from giving its characters backstories, or even differing hitboxes, as a way of emphasizing readability—something it has in common with old Team Fortress 2.

I've been playing Necrobarista, a visual novel set in a cafe that serves the dead as well as the living. Its deep Australian-ness is a pleasing oddity, and I'm looking forward to the free DLC that will add side stories about the characters who didn't get to do much in the main plot, as that was one of its few flaws.

Enough about us. What about you? Have you been playing Fae Tactics, Carrion, or Rocket Arena during its free trial? Maybe you tried Honey, I Shrunk the Survival Genre, aka Grounded? Let us know!