Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. It’s been a busy week with several new releases, including some that I had been looking forward to for a while. I also spent more time with Genshin Impact and Unforeseen Incidents. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.

El Paso, Elsewhere

El Paso, Elsewhere is from Strange Scaffold and released a few months ago on PC. Unlike their other games, this one got ported to mobile and plays pretty well, even with touch controls. It’s inspired by classic Max Payne games and has you hunting down zombie-like creatures while rescuing hostages. I only played through the first few levels, but it’s been pretty forgiving so far. There’s plenty of ammo, stakes and pills that heal you, at least early on in the game. The levels also aren’t too long, so you can play it in short sessions without feeling like you’ll lose progress if you need to take a break. There are also a lot of accessibility options if you find it too difficult. I do plan to play more, but there were other games that stole my attention this week, so I didn’t get to play as much as I wanted. Thankfully, the game is free to try with a one-time payment to unlock the full game, so you can see for yourself how you like it.

Sokobond Express

Sokobond Express is another game that has been out for a little while on other platforms but made its way to mobile this week. It’s from Draknek, the folks behind A Monster’s Expedition, Cosmic Express and the original Sokobond. Sokobond Express is basically a combination between Sokobond and Cosmic Espress, where you have to draw paths to pick up the different elements in the right order so they can all connect to each other. I’ve played through the first three worlds so far, which is fifteen levels total, and it feels a little easier than Sokobond, at least at the start. There were a few levels that stumped me for a bit, but I think it was because I was still learning how things work. I do plan to play more of it this coming week and I’ll see how the difficulty curve continues. But if you liked other Draknek games, this seems like an easy recommendation. I also like the tongue-in-cheek chemistry lessons after each level.

Machine Yearning

Machine Yearning is an interesting game in which you have to choose a shape to represent a made-up word. You then need to remember what you chose so you can identify it from a group of different shapes. Soon you’ll also have to name colors and as you progress you’ll have to memorize more and more within a single level. I do like the concept but I personally hate learning new languages so it doesn’t feel particularly “fun” to me. There was also a point where the shape I chose was just a vertical line and I had a choice between two seemingly identical vertical lines and I chose wrong. That felt bad and hopefully isn’t something that will happen too often. Overall, I think it’s worth trying out, especially since it’s completely free. From what I can tell, the only reason you need to pay is if you want to unlock the hats and/or support the developer.

Pocket Oasis

I love the art style of Pocket Oasis and even the concept. Unfortunately, I don’t love the gameplay. It’s an idle gardening game in which you can water and feed your plants but then you have to wait in real time for them to grow. You can’t speed them up and you need the fruit from those plants in order to make jam, which you can then use to buy new plants. But it takes three fruits to make one jam and they grow incredibly slowly. I spent about 30 minutes with the game and most of it was waiting. I came back the next day just to see how much progress I could make by being away from it and there were a few chilis on my chili plant, which gave me enough to buy one more chili plant and then wait again. I’m sure there’s an audience for this but I’m really not a fan of games like this where all you do is check in every once in a while to make a tiny bit of progress. I tend to just forget about them if there’s nothing to do besides wait. It’s free to try, though, so check it out and see for yourself if it’s worth playing.

Unforeseen Incidents

I started Unforeseen Incidents last week and the story, dialogue and voice acting sucked me in enough to have spent a few more hours with it this week. I’ve made some more progress and uncovered more of the conspiracy. I’m eager to see where this all goes and I’m enjoying solving the puzzles along the way. I highly recommend this one if you’re a point-and-click fan. I’ll definitely have more videos for you next week and will hopefully see this one to the end.

Genshin Impact

And last, I’ve been playing Genshin Impact daily thanks to the huge Natlan update we got a few weeks ago. This week brought with it Kinich’s banner and I eagerly pulled for him and had insane luck, getting Jean and then him in less than 20 wishes since I got Mualani. I threw 20 more wishes at his banner just in case I was having a particularly lucky day, but nothing more came of it and I stopped. I want to save my wishes in case I end up wanting more Natlan characters than I expect. But anyway, he’s a ton of fun and I feel like Spider-Man when I slingshot around with him. Thankfully, there’s a free craftable weapon that matches him perfectly so I don’t feel too pressured to try and get his signature weapon. I’m currently playing through his story quest, and there have been some really nice surprises there, too. Overall, loving this update and it’s the reason I haven’t played as much of the other games in this roundup. New Genshin content always sucks me in.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also saw Strange Darling, which was a fun serial killer movie shown out of order. I saw The Substance last night, which was completely insane and I can honestly say everything about it took me by surprise. It’s also really gross. I also watched the Color of Magic on Amazon Prime and it had me thinking of finally reading the books. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!