What did you play last week?

Doomguy rips and tears some demons — (Image credit: Bethesda)

James Davenport has been playing Ancient Gods, the hardcore expansion for Doom Eternal. If you remember the memetic complaints about marauders back when the base game came out, now there's apparently even more of those jerks. They force mid-distance play and waiting for your turn like a good Doomguy, which I'm sure will be a popular choice everyone loves.

Emma Matthews has been playing the Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War beta, where the popularity of sniper rifles is a frustration. Not just because getting shot from the other side of the map is no fun, but because snipers aren't playing the objective. It's just as annoying when they're on your side, too busy trading shots with snipers on the other side of 2Fort to help capture the flag—wait, wrong game.

Lauren Morton has been playing Phasmophobia and sharing some tips. You'll find several helpful guides on how to use the crucifix and smudge sticks, what to ask the ouija board and spirit box, as well as a guide to all its ghosts types. There's no guide for what to do if you're too scared to even play it, however.

Fraser Brown played Drone Swarm, a new RTS with a twist. It gives you control of 32,000 flying robotic drones, an extended family who must make it hell maintaining a Christmas card list. You draw paths for them and the angry cloud hurtles through space to eat enemy ships, which is nice of them. Drone Swarm has a short campaign too, if you're looking for an RTS you'll actually finish.

Eric Watson has been playing Solasta, the other Early Access game based on D&D's 5th edition. It's a bit more traditional in some ways, with no tieflings or githyanki, and an emphasis on plain dungeon-crawling combat. It's a bit more linear as well, without branching dialogue and Big Decisions. There's room for this and Baldur's Gate 3 in my heart—I hope we get more RPGs like both.

Enough about us. What about you? Have you been dodging sawblades in Disc Room, getting into pumpkin season with Amnesia: Rebirth, or teaming up in Squad? Maybe you've got a new pet in Torchlight 3? Let us know!

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.