I think Q-UP might be gaslighting me. It most certainly is a real video game, I played it myself. And yet it presents an entirely different vision of reality where it is the coin flipping eSport of choice. The worst part is that it nearly convinced me that such a reality is a pretty good one. Perhaps even more than half!

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I am genuinely unsure if MiHoYo are capable of making a game that doesn't heavily borrow from a different game you probably already love at this point in time. Denying The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's influence on Genshin Impact is like denying the sky is blue! Only recently was Honkai: Nexus Anima revealed, a game that takes Pokemon and shoves it into a blender with Auto Chess. And now there is Petit Planet, a game I can only describe as Animal Crossing but if it was in space, I guess.

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Aha! I have at last wrested control of the WAWAPs from the intruders! Let the smiley faces return! And also, be a star and let us know what you're getting up to this weekend? I've missed our chats.

Here's what we're all clicking on this weekend!

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After weeks of discovering new layers and playstyles, I have no idea how to summarise Rise of the White Sun, except perhaps "It's 1920s China! Good luck!" Playable factions include major political blocs, conventional military behemoths, petty warlords, peasant uprisings, foreign stooges, and multiple communist cells (particularly in the recent DLC). There's even a police chief, and my inevitable favourite, the angry mountain lady who cares for none of that, and only wants to raid everyone's cattle.

This is an absurdly rich and complex grand strategy wargame. But where that usually means an unmanageable deposit, White Sun's greatest design strength is fitting its possibilities into a framework where they feel comprehensible, and remain manageable at any scale.

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