26th July 2024
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing over the past few days. This week we enjoy poking around spooky oil rigs, we object in dramatic court cases, and we discover what we love about a game series through a TV adaptation of it.
What have you been playing?
Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, PS4
I first played Ace Attorney when it was released on the DS in the noughties, using the handheld’s touchscreen to flick through evidence and the microphone to shout “Objection!” during the court scenes. I loved it, but I never managed to complete it, so I was thrilled when Capcom released a shiny remaster of the first three games for modern consoles which – thanks to my never-ending backlog – I’ve only just started.
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The games have a rinse-and-repeat format: collect enough evidence to build your case and then head to court for the witness cross-examination. Once you’ve cleared your client’s name, it’s case closed – until the next mystery starts. But no matter how many times you repeat it, it never stops being a thrill – furiously combing through the evidence in court, trying to find the flaws in a seemingly airtight testimony, and then throwing it all back in some villain’s face.
I’ve got many more cases ahead of me and I can’t wait to delve into them. It’ll help keep me busy until the much-demanded Ace Attorney Investigations remaster drops later this year.
Still Wakes the Deep, Xbox Series X
More horror games should be set on oil rigs. I discussed Still Wakes the Deep’s 1970s North Sea setting with creative director John McCormack last year, and I remember him reeling off an array of phobias that oil rigs check off: vertigo, drowning, claustrophobia, isolation… The list goes on.
Yet after finishing Still Wakes the Deep, I wish I’d been able to spend longer sinking my teeth into its perilous world. Not in terms of game length – I think the six-or-so hour running-time is perfect – but in terms of how suddenly you’re thrust into peril, and how little time you have to soak in your surroundings before that happens.