A change has taken place here at The Reticule, although it’s one we may all live to regret: I (Ross) have humbly accepted the position of editor to help out Chris, which means I’ll be overseeing content for the foreseeable future. That’s kind of mad, but I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in next week. Do you have any ideas on how to improve the site or what kind of content you’d like to see? Well, gimme an email: ross@thereticule.com!

(That’s not to say I don’t. Promise.)

(But do send your best so I can take all the credit for them, natch.)

Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been playing this past week…

Ross

As for my week in gaming, that’s largely been spent rounding off my return to the Resident Evil franchise. After completing – and reviewing with love – the recently released Village, I was left with an urge to revisit a much older title, and one that’s probably (probably) my favourite: CODE: Veronica X (that’s the title of the PlayStation 2 re-release).

I won’t say too much right now as I’m hoping to get a piece up on it later in the week, but CODE: Veronica is a somewhat awkwardly positioned title in the series. It’s a major instalment that had been conceived as the proper sequel to Resident Evil 2 – evident in the fact that it had the biggest narrative of the lot at the time – but due to Capcom’s decision to keep ‘numbered titles’ on the PlayStation (which is where the money was), it sort of came off as a side-story rather than a true follow-up.

In retrospect CODE: Veronica and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis need to switch to places. And I can’t tell you how much it pains me to say that when Nemesis’ hero, Jill Valentine, is my favourite character in the series (she’s well cool). But there’s really no arguing it: CODE: Veronica is ‘3’ in all but name.

And I love it. Check back next week to see why (hint: it has aristocratic villains, and I like those).

Chris

It’s strange to take a step back from this place which is still a home for me, but in the interests of mental wellbeing and to give The Reticule a chance to flourish once more, it was time that I took a step back from driving all aspects of the site. I’ve been blessed to work with numerous great writers over the years, but not since the founding days of the site has the burden of running the show been shared. Maybe I should have allowed others to take the editorial reigns sooner, but in Ross I know the site is in safe hands. I’m not disappearing entirely, and will be working with Ross on ideas to drive The Reticule forward, and will still chime in with my own writing when I can….that might not return to usual levels until the intensity of the new house stuff dies down, but we’ll see how it all pans out.

If you want some weekend reading, I will continue to demonstrate that I seem only to read gamesindustry.biz, but it’s a site which is always full of really good insight into the inner workings of the industry. Of course, the Epic vs Apple lawsuit has been ongoing (“what is a game?”, ” is Mr Peely naked?” are going to be memes forever), and GI.biz have a great analysis of the discussions that Microsoft and Nintendo had about Game Pass. Check it out why don’t you, right here.

Nick

This week, I’ve been playing it safe.

Sophie’s Safecracking Simulator provides an educational lesson in how combination safes work before offering you the chance at opening one without the benefit of actually knowing the combination.

With in-depth instructions and explanations, I’ve definitely learned a lot from this little project. Will my new-found knowledge help me in my day-to-day life? No, no it won’t. But then again, I’m not sure how often I’m likely to face down alien hordes with a chainsaw or command a star-ship into battle and I’ve never worried about that before. Besides, I may now possess the theoretical knowledge, but it doesn’t mean I still don’t fiddle with the lock for several minutes before giving up entirely.

In addition to utterly failing at opening safes, I’ve returned to Seedship by John Ayliff, a fascinating sci-fi tale of an AI-controlled colony ship searching the stars for a new home for humanity. Playing as the AI, your role is extremely simple – once you arrive in a star-system you’re presented with information on the surface conditions and then you must make a simple choice. Land the ship and declare this world the new home of humanity, or venture onwards in the hope of finding somewhere more habitable. The further you travel in search of a new home, the more you risk your systems deteriorating and your passengers not surviving. It’s a terrifying thought-experiment. Do you settle for something not quite hospitable and hope the settlers will make the most of it, or do you travel onwards, with every chance that the next world will be even worse?