There are weeks when I casually admire things from afar like a well-adjusted adult with self-control.
And then there are weeks like this one, where a video game, a board game, a comic, and a piece of tech move into my brain, unpack their bags, and refuse to pay rent.
Welcome back to Wishlist Wednesday, the part of my job where I justify my obsessions by calling it “editorial research.”
This week, we’re diving into a hand-drawn Metroidvania that looks like it was made specifically to emotionally damage me, an industrial board game that makes spreadsheets feel sexy, a chaotic urban fantasy comic set in 2003 Florida (yes, that’s as unhinged as it sounds), and a wireless headset that might finally untangle my desk and my life.
Let’s get into it.
Fallen Tear: The Ascension
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There are Metroidvanias, and then there are Metroidvanias that look like someone blended a classic JRPG, hand-drawn animation, and emotional damage into one beautiful package. Fallen Tear: The Ascension is firmly the latter.
You step into the role of Hira, a mysterious child destined to stand against ancient gods (no pressure), and explore the sprawling, interconnected world of Raoah.
What immediately has me hooked isn’t just the lush, traditionally animated art or the promise of layered exploration – it’s the Fated Bonds system.
The allies you choose don’t just hang out in menus; they actively shape how you fight, move, and survive. It’s giving party-building nostalgia with modern mechanical depth, and I am weak for that combination.
Combat looks deliberate and demanding, with slashes, parries, and mid-battle strategy shifts that reward learning enemy patterns instead of button-mashing your way through divine beings.
This feels like a love letter to the JRPGs I grew up obsessing over, just filtered through a Metroidvania lens. And frankly, it had me at “hand-drawn.”
Brass: Pittsburgh
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If you’ve ever looked at a complicated economic board game and thought, “Yes, this. This is my villain origin story,” then Brass: Pittsburgh might already have your number.
From Roxley and Gavan Brown (co-designer of Brass: Birmingham), this standalone entry drops players into the industrial boom of America’s Gilded Age, where you build railways, pipelines, steel mills, oil refineries, and your own legacy as a ruthless 19th-century titan of industry.
What excites me most is that it builds on Martin Wallace’s beloved Brass system while introducing new mechanisms and twists tailored to the Steel Belt setting.
That means deep strategy, deliciously tense decision-making, and the kind of table presence that makes you lean forward and say, “Wait, if you do that, I can’t ship my steel.”
I adore games that reward long-term planning while constantly threatening to ruin those plans, and Brass: Pittsburgh looks like exactly that flavour of stress.
Also, anything that lets me dramatically declare myself an industrial magnate for three hours is already halfway into my collection.
Nights
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It’s 2003. Supernatural creatures exist casually among humans. America has 31 states. And Florida is… well, Florida.
Nights feels like it was engineered in a lab to target people who grew up in the early 2000s and now crave urban fantasy with emotional chaos baked in.
We follow Vince Okonma, who has lost his parents and moves in with his secret mercenary cousin and video game developer roommate, and that’s before we even get to the self-proclaimed greatest vampire who’s ever lived.
The energy here is what has me hooked. It’s gothic but playful, chaotic but heartfelt, and very aware of its early-2000s setting without turning into parody.
There’s something deeply appealing about supernatural politics and personal grief unfolding in strip-mall America, and the Florida backdrop adds just enough absurdity to make everything feel slightly unhinged in the best way.
Logitech G G325 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset
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Look. I love wires in theory. In practice? They are my mortal enemy.
The Logitech G G325 Lightspeed headset is appealing to me for one very simple reason: clean, low-latency wireless audio without the usual setup drama.
Lightspeed connectivity keeps audio locked in with on-screen action (which matters more than we admit), and 24-bit game-ready sound means footsteps, reloads, and ambient cues come through with sharper clarity.
What really sells it for me, though, is the built-in beamforming mic.
No bulky boom arm jutting into the frame. No extra hardware. Just clean voice capture that lets you jump into Discord or squad comms without feeling like you’re piloting an aircraft.
Add 24+ hours of battery life and a lightweight, all-day fit, and this starts looking like the kind of headset you forget you’re wearing – which is honestly the highest compliment I can give gaming hardware.
And that’s this week’s brain squatters.
From hand-drawn gods and industrial empires to chaotic Florida vampires and blissfully wire-free audio, this is the flavour of obsession currently occupying my frontal lobe.
As always, Wishlist Wednesday isn’t about what I need; it’s about what I absolutely, definitely, probably don’t need but deeply, irrationally want anyway.
Now tell me: what’s living rent-free in your brain this week?
