As if 2020 couldn’t get any worse, this week I discovered that House House have added two player functionality to Untitled Goose Game. As if climate change, the rise of fascism and the shrinking size of Quality Street tins weren’t enough signs of the apocalypse we now live in, now there are two horrible geese to worry about.

But what have we been playing while the world burns?

Chris

It might well be common knowledge that I am a racing game fan, but after a while, racing against the AI can become a tad boring. Some games have a horrendous grind through the career mode, while others have great action but little depth. Few quite match up to Dirt Rally 2.0 which is one of the finest racers on the market today. It doesn’t have the same arcade feels as the upcoming Dirt 5, and it isn’t quite as hardcore as the legendary Richard Burns Rally but stands proud as a leading racer of this generation.

However, it can suffer the same fate as many other racers in that after a while, racing against the AI or for singleplayer titles can become a bit old hat. That’s where the beauty of Race Clubs come in, and recently I joined on at the behest of a friend, albeit halfway through their championship. In this championship an event across all the stages in a country will take 60-90 minutes to complete, and generally the event is open for a fortnight. It means there is plenty of time to dip in and out for a stage here and there. While Dirt Rally 2.0 itself doesn’t keep track of championship positions in-game, the fella who organises the whole thing keeps a track of everyone’s stage results, end of event standings and even allocates bonus points for Power Stage results.

It’s as close as I’m ever going to get to dipping my toe in competitive online racing, and having crashed out of the three events I’ve taken part in, I don’t think I’ll ever be going much further in competitive events. But having a club gives me a reason to play, and that’s a feeling I’ve missed since the Battlefield 2 days of my younger years. Give me a singleplayer game with a strong story and I’ll work my way through it, give me a range of other games like racers or online shooters, and I need a sense of community to keep on playing. I have that now with Dirt Rally 2.0, and I’m very happy to have it.

Oh and I also completed two games this week in The Order 1886 and The Outer Worlds. What a week it’s been!

Nick

As my two children spent this week celebrating the carnage that can be caused by two simultaneous geese, I’ve not had much opportunity for playing on what I mistakenly thought was my own computer. Earlier in the week however I did get an opportunity to dive back into Left 4 Dead 2 for some co-operative action with our very own Jon Armer and some of his stream chums.

For a multiplayer game released back in 2009, it’s great to see how well it still holds up. How much of this is down to the fact that games are almost always better when played with friends and how much of it is down to the fact that hitting zombies in the face with a frying pan never gets old is difficult to say, but I’m definitely glad I was persuaded to give it a fresh look.

I’ve always considered the main objective of a Left 4 Dead campaign to go out in a sacrificial blaze of glory. As the power went down putting our escape attempt in jeopardy, I split from the group to singlehandedly reactivate the generator. The hoard descended on me moments later, and as I lay pinned on my back surrounded by the rampaging dead, I had just enough time to re-power the generator moments before it all went black.

Nailed it.