Our Digital Wizards Are Hooked: Eurogamer's Team Dives Deep (and Gets Deeply Frustrated)
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Eurogamer's team shares their latest gaming obsessions, from Bertie's glorious chaos in Slay the Spire 2 and Connor's dedicated Old School RuneScape grind to Kelsey's expansive world-building in Pokopia and Dom's hypnotic return to Ball x Pit, revealing the true, messy, and delightful reality of what gamers are *actually* playing.
Right then, gather 'round, mates. I’ve been tinkering with the digital ether this week, sifting through the latest whispers and wonders, and I stumbled across something truly delightful. You know that feeling when a developer drops a trailer, full of shiny promises and 'revolutionary' features, and you just *know* it's mostly smoke and mirrors? Well, this isn't that. This is the good stuff.
Our incredibly observant mates over at Eurogamer, specifically the ever-insightful Robert Purchese, recently pulled back the digital curtain to show us what their own team has *actually* been sinking their precious hours into. And fair dinkum, it’s a wonderfully chaotic mix of the familiar, the utterly bizarre, and a healthy dose of gamer frustration. It’s less a press release and more a digital tea leaf reading into the glorious, messy reality of what gamers – even the pros – are truly passionate about. This article is repurposed from Eurogamer's 'What we've been playing - "I'm playing with my balls again"' feature by Robert Purchese, originally published on March 28, 2026, which you can find.
First up in the gaming crucible, we've got **Bertie**, who, bless his cotton socks, is back on the **Slay the Spire 2** grind. Now, I love a good deck-builder, and the original Slay the Spire felt like it was brewed in a wizard's cauldron, constantly surprising you. Bertie's embracing the chaos of it all, experimenting with tiny decks and repeated cards, which he admits made him 'feel clever' even as he died. See, that’s the spirit! It’s not about winning; it’s about the glorious, catastrophic attempt to break the game in new and interesting ways. And breaking it he did! He recounted a tale of a 'Replay 3' card bestowed upon a 'multiplayer' card, effectively quadrupling his co-op partner's energy. Cue 'swearing on voice comms.' That, my friends, is pure, unadulterated digital magic – the kind where your spell works *too* well and causes delightful pandemonium. It's the unpredictable emergent gameplay that truly shines.
Bertie also dipped his toe into **Nutmeg**, a nostalgic football management card game. He talks about 'incredible retro vibes,' which immediately piques my curiosity. But then, the cautious optimism kicks in: 'the card game part of it is limited.' Ah, the age-old tale. A brilliant concept, a lovely aesthetic, but does the gameplay truly have the depth to keep you hooked? It's a reminder that good looks only get you so far; the mechanics need to be as solid as a well-built dungeon.
Next, **Connor** is pulling a classic move: returning to the digital comfort food of **Old School RuneScape**. He’s not out there slaying dragons or uncovering ancient mysteries, oh no. He’s been *mining shooting stars for Stardust* to dye his gear gold and buy a ring that improves mining. And you know what? That’s utterly brilliant. It perfectly encapsulates the zen and satisfaction of the grind. In a world full of flashy AAA titles begging for your attention, sometimes you just want to find a digital rock, click it a few thousand times, and watch the numbers go up. It’s almost meditative, like a simple enchantment building power over time.
But then, the flip side of the gaming coin: **Marathon**. Connor's been battling the truly terrifying beast that is *random online teammates*. 'Hair-pullingly awful,' he calls it, comparing it to being stuck in a terrible World of Warcraft raid group or a Ranked League of Legends match. And honestly, who hasn't been there? It’s like trying to cast a complex summoning spell with a bunch of apprentices who keep forgetting the incantation and tripping over the reagents. The sheer frustration of putting 'a lot of loot on the line' only for folks to drop out is a common blight on multiplayer gaming. Good on him for finding an 'organised crew' – sometimes, a little communication and coordination is all it takes to turn chaos into a glorious victory.
**Kelsey** is clearly a wizard of digital world-building and creature collecting, clocking in **70 hours in Pokopia** since launch. Seventy hours! She's sculpted cliffs, built, demolished, and rebuilt homes (twice!), and even created an 'underwhelming tree house' for her bird Pokémon. This is the heart of emergent gameplay and player creativity, isn't it? The game gives you a canvas, and you just *go*. The minor dissatisfaction with the tree house and the ambition for a 'very big and not-at-all underwhelming dojo' speaks to the constant drive to refine and improve one’s digital domain. It's a journey, not a destination. And then, the ultimate distraction: the **Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo**. Lara Croft yearning for Leon Kennedy’s attention while he’s off having sleepovers with Agent 47? Bloody hell, that’s a narrative masterpiece right there. Sometimes, the most unexpected stories come from letting disparate elements collide in a digital sandbox. It's the gaming equivalent of a magical accident creating an entirely new dimension.
Finally, we arrive at **Dom**, who confesses to being caught in the hypnotic spell of **Ball x Pit** again, thanks to its 'Regal Update.' 'I just can't keep my hands off,' he admits, stating it gets him into 'Tetris Effect' mode even more than *Tetris Effect* itself. Now that’s high praise! The roguelike genre has truly had a stellar run, hasn't it? Balatro, CloverPit, Die in a Million, The Rogue Prince of Persia – it seems every other week, another gem pops up, offering endless replayability and that tantalizing 'one more run' hook. These games, with their procedural generation and constant surprises, are like endlessly shifting magical labyrinths, always offering something new to discover or a new way to test your mettle. Dom’s simple plea, 'Just bring on Vampire Crawlers, I guess!' is the universal gamer cry for more of what we love.
What these glimpses into Eurogamer's playtime tell me is that for all the marketing fluff and corporate promises, the real magic of gaming still lies in the unexpected joys, the frustrating challenges, the deep satisfaction of a well-executed plan (or a delightfully broken one), and the sheer, unadulterated fun of simply *playing*. Whether it's the grind of an MMO, the strategic depth of a deck-builder, the creative freedom of a world-shaper, or the hypnotic loop of a good roguelike, the human story behind the controller is always the most interesting one. What about you, mate? What digital rabbit hole have you fallen into recently?
Tags: Gaming Culture, Roguelikes, RPG, Multiplayer, Indie Games
Original article: Eurogamer