Emma Matthews has been playing CS: GO to see where it's at in 2021. While it doesn't get updated as quickly as other games, the Broken Fang operation brought new modes and maps and one of those fashionable ping systems all the cool shooters have these days. Competition from Valorant has drawn away some players, but also apparently inspired Valve to do more for the substantial number who still play. It's the most popular "dead game" in the world, basically.
Tyler Wilde has been playing Among Us, and has a similar update on its state of play. It remains firmly fixed in the Steam top 10, while its tiny indie team slowly work at adding an account system to prevent cheating and hacks, as well as an airship map.
Rick Lane's been playing Cyberpunk 2077, and thinking some deep thoughts about its themes. A lot of lowercase cyberpunk fiction is about identity, whether it's AIs trying to find their humanity, or humans struggling to find themselves in a society that's changing fast. CD Projekt Red's game has the theme at its forefront too—only here, the characters searching for their identities are in conflict with the transactional nature of relationships in the desperate future it depicts.
As for me, I've gone back to Hades, since even after finishing the main quest and seeing the credits there's still more to do. There's an epilogue to work towards and I've been befriending every god and handing out nectar like it's going out of fashion, while also working my way up the difficulty options in the Pact of Punishment. I've just crossed 100 hours, and I'm still loving it. I'm not sure I know how to stop?
Enough about us. What about you? Now that Everspace 2 is available to everyone, have you given the spaceship looter-shooter a shot? Or are you murdering people with unusual objects in Hitman 3? Let us know!
