Thy Creature is an odd one. I want to make several comparisons to other games that probably aren't very accurate or fair. I think that's because it's one of those that's made up of the gaps in between other genres. Right from the start of its anime goth girl intro I knew this wasn't really my kind of thing, and yet its striking art and sense of sincerity felt compelling.

And it was a bit weird, which is sometimes enough. It depicts a frankenstein cast out by villagers, left to wander the wilderness, across forests and mountains, still peppered with arrows, turning up at a sinister tower that seems to welcome them. And just a few minutes in, it reveals itself as a mystery puzzle game with bullet hell parts. Almost none of this is my thing at all, but here I am playing it. Hmm.

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It’s been a little over a month since I got my WASD-calloused fingers on the Steam Deck, Valve’s ambitious and mostly successful attempt at a portable gaming PC. In that time I’ve taken it on day trips, chatted to Gabe Newell and the Valve dev team about it, and been laughed at in a pub for inverting the Y axis on it. And all the while, the Steam Deck itself has been getting better - considerably so.

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Before we get stuck in, here's the sitch. PC code for FF Origin went out a bit late, so the thoughts below are my initial impressions of the game based on the chunk I've played so far, which is about half the game. This isn't a full review, but I also can't see my thoughts changing. Anyway. Let's embrace Chaos.>

Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a Soulslike Final Fantasy spin-off that swings so much it misses. Your sole focus is to kill a bad guy called Chaos and the game provides fights and loot in their hundreds, possibly thousands, to ensure you're beefy enough when the time comes. But cut away the combat and you're left with little, really. Search for anything other than Chaos and you'll find there's nothing else driving you forwards. You'll finish the game and part as strangers still, probably.

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From the small slice I've played of samurai slasher Trek To Yomi, I'm convinced it's going to be the most Instagrammable game out there. Every frame looks gorgeous>, capturing feudal Japan through a grainy black and white lens that evokes classic samurai flicks. Thankfully, there's some substance to match this style too. Combat is elegant and the story seems refined, not bloated, which makes this a ronin romp worth watching out for.

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It's been a hot minute since we were last together, reader, and that's because I have been, as the kids say, hella busy. I've obliquely mentioned it elsewhere on the site and podcast, but in two short weeks I am emigrating, and I don't know how many of you have tried that but it turns out it will consume your life. I am aware that my journey into Ireland could be way more stressful than it is (especially because a fringe benefit of being a UK citizen is having the right to live and work in Ireland, no questions asked, no visa required), but still, I have been in need of focused distractions. Here are three new indie games to focus your attention on something other than whatever is stressing you out this week.

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Most of my Elden Ring adventure was an absolute breeze. I chose the Astrologer class and used sorceries galore to effortlessly steamroll through almost every boss. Nothing could compete with my trusty staff, so I didn’t need to use spirit ashes for my first 100 hours or so. I was fine by myself, like any good romcom protagonist at the start of the movie.

As I walked into the final boss arena, I had unwaivering confidence. I strolled in, staff at the ready and prepared to win. Then, my string of easy victories came to a shocking end. I got walloped and decimated for about 10 hours and eventually announced my defeat. Elden Ring was a game I just couldn’t finish. Fortunately, love had other plans, and I entered into a whirlwind romance with the Mimic Tear Ash.

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This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is talking about our favourite heists. Although we start with a bit of confusion because I changed the topic too late and Matthew didn't notice. Yes: I successfully pulled off a truth heist!

As well as talking a lot about heists in games, we discuss whether or not most crimes are heists. For example, theft in general is just spicy picking up, and murder is a soul heist. Matthew clues us in on what it was like to work for a secret shopper company, and Nate tells us about his repeat of his annual Eat Every Thing In Lord Of The Rings watch-along. Will this result in his daughter blocking memories? Only time will tell.

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A sequel is coming for excellent cooperative heist game Monaco, publishers Humble Games announced today. Jim Rossignol's Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine review in 2013 was pretty straightforward: "This is one of the most important independent games this year, and might well end up being one of the best-loved games of the decade." I don't think it panned out quite that way, partially because indie games grew so larger and more mainstream than expected across the decade, but the IGF Grand Prize winner is still a cracking game. And Monaco 2 looks pretty.

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GPU-based upscaling has proven to be one of the most useful additions to gaming PC tech in years. Big performance improvements in exchange for only a minor drop in visual quality, if any at all? Yes please and thank you. Nvidia’s DLSS has established itself as the gold standard of upscalers, outperforming AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), but the Radeon makers are now readying two new offerings: FSR 2.0 and Radeon Super Resolution (RSR).

FSR 2.0 looks to be a straight upgrade on the current 1.0 version, promising sharper picture quality with “optimised anti-aliasing” to better compete with the built-in, AI-assisted edge smoothing of DLSS. It will still need to be implemented in games by their developers, though – unlike RSR, which aims to work with just about any game by applying its upscaling algorithm at the GPU driver level.

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The folks over at Eastshade Studios sure do have a brand, don’t they? Cozy, rustic, slow-going living with a touch of the magical has a certain appeal all its own, and as the recent announcement of Songs Of Glimmerwick proves, EastStud don’t intend on shaking up that brand any time soon. This is a wonderful thing for me because their previous outing and namesake, Eastshade, is not only one of my favourite games of all time, but also such an important kind of game in the terrifying, nightmare world we find ourselves in today.

You see, Eastshade does one thing very, very well. In fact, it does it so well that most players probably won’t even have noticed until they look back and really think on it. Eastshade teaches mindfulness, a keen and acute awareness of oneself and one’s surroundings in the present moment. And that, my friends, is where the appeal comes from.

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