Crimson Desert. It’s basically an everything game at this point, so it’s not too suprising that the latest update developers Pearl Abyss have put out takes the Red Pudding further down the road of being a Nintendogs competitor. The number of pets you can tame as you wander around Pywel has been growing gradually since launch and you can now have up to 100 of them. That seems dangerously impractical, but hey, video game.

Based on the update notes, the studio are pegging achieving pet ownership maximalism as its own challenge. We’ve “added reward items for the existing pet challenge that increases the number of pets you can register” they whispered as they announced the upping of the pet registration total to 100. In theory, that could allow a person to own 100 pigeons or loafy cats, establishing themselves as lord of the avian arseholes or flabby felines.

Sadly, the notes specify that you can only summon up to 50 pets at camp at any one time, so you’ll only be able to invite half of your animal army to a party at once. That’s sure to fuel some resentment in the ranks, making the job of commanding such a four-legged or two-winged force tougher than you might think. Better start reading Sun Tzu or Machiavelli.

Beyond that, the update adds a map icon for baby wyverns, as well as letting secondary protagonists Damiane and Oongka muck about with mining drills and chainsaws. In another tweak, any rare gear you lose will be gathered up by shopkeepers and re-sold at higher prices. Finally, Pearl Abyss have messed about with the pinball minigame they added in another recent update (told you, everything game). Red Pudding pinball should now be easier, with its balls boasting a slightly heavier feel and less propensity for passing through walls.

Yep, less balls through the wall, as Crimson Desert’s devs continue to go balls to the wall with updates. I’m here all week.

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I spent this morning in the new demo of angler-detective mystery About Fishing – an updated and expanded sampler from the one that Oisin tried last year – and as a piece of playable marketing, it’s done the job. I am intrigued by its tale of mermaids and missing persons; I am absorbed in its creepy rural backdrop of dead streets and churches with prison cells in the basement; I am impressed by how it handles its cold, drizzly weirdness without ever going hey-hey wacky. Even when it introduces a thieving goose.

Basically, this place is horrible, and I want to spend more time in it. Despite the fact, and I’m aware that this might be an issue, that I wish I didn’t have to do so much goddamn fishing.

Not unlike how Arctic Eggs, developers The Water Museum’s previous work, demanded careful mouse waggles to flip frying panfuls of burning breakfast, About Fishing has you wrestling with your peripherals to keep panicking catches on the hook. It’s obviously a move to add some interesting friction to what is a notoriously dull hobby, as is the occasional need to trick-shot your hook through obstacles to tempt the hiding fishies below.

Both actions, however, have an unpleasantly imprecise wibbliness to them. Manoeuvring the hook mid-cast feels like trying to sign your name on a passing wasp, and one you get a nibble, dragging back the thrashing fish relies on good fortune as much as competent mouse-wrestling. They seem magnetically attracted to underwater hindrances – one needlefish I snagged in the tutorial managed to wrap the line around a jetty pillar five times over – and the game’s camera is prone to bumping into scenery as well, making it even less clear whether mouse movements are having a tangible effect.

Luckily, About Fishing makes another, much more enjoyable use of its tackle. Successfully bagged fish can be sent back out, line re-attached, as directly controllable scouts, allowing for subaquatic exploration and puzzle-solving. With the latter, getting the line caught stops being a random frustration and starts being an applicable skill: one section requires orbiting a sunken statue head to wrap it in makeshift rope, before a pull on the reel clears the obstruction and allows passage into the conveniently fish-sized hole beneath.

I’m still not keen on how this offbeat troubleshooting first requires the actual fishing part, but again, there’s enough going on in About Fishing that I’m willing to endure its namesake activity. Not many games have what it takes to show a goose eating curly fries and make it look genuinely disturbing.

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