Breaking the habit

We all have routines and practices we settle into without really thinking about it, and that extends to videogames. With more and more distractions competing for our limited free time, it’s easy to get set in our ways, to spend those precious hours on something familiar rather than seeking out new experiences. That’s part of the beauty of Game Pass – even though having such a vast selection of games available can cause choice paralysis, or encourage us to prematurely abandon slow burners, there’s never been a better time to step outside the comfort zone.

It’s thrilling, too, when games actively seek to push us there. Take Conway: Disappearance At Dahlia View, a detective game that’s at its most potent when it forces us into unsettlingly voyeuristic territory. Or Amanita’s Happy Game, in which you’re complicit in dragging a wide-eyed child through a succession of grisly nightmares. The latest entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, House Of Ashes, shrewdly wrongfoots players by leaning into one brand of horror before briskly switching to another – and then another – to keep the surprises coming.

There are cosier pleasures, too – though what does it say about Call Of Duty: Vanguard that it can be described in such a way? Age Of Empires IV harks back to the series’ beloved second game, changing just enough to be a worthwhile entry in its own right. But this issue’s headliner (available, fittingly, on Game Pass) does both. There’s no denying the joys of Forza Horizon 5’s racing sandbox are largely the same as 4’s – but Playground does its best to stop you relying on old favourites with its accolades, while its Super 7 events might make you tackle an event using bonnet cam instead of the thirdperson view. It succeeds, in other words, by giving us what we know we like, but also by shaking us out of the old routine.