Game of the Week: Varney Lake offers the best vampire in a week of vampires.

Spoiler: this week's game of the week actually came out last week, but we're going to allow it because it's been one of those weeks and besides I have a migraine. Also, a slight warning here: this piece contains an anecdote about a trip to give blood that the squeamish may not enjoy very much.

Interesting week, anyway! Redfall was the big release and I've spent a lot of time playing it and trying to work out why I like it more than other games that don't come with its range of technical and design issues. Deep down, I don't think Redfall is a terribly good game, but it's a charming and interesting one.

More than anything I like Redfall the town, a bit Barefoot Contessa perhaps, but I am a sucker for trees and clapboard houses and a covered bridge. Give me a house in the woods with an unnaturally large conservatory and I am anybody's, even before you use the whole thing for a gunfight. Redfall's an interesting place, and one that I know I will be returning to, despite the odd AI and the bugs and slow-appearing textures and all that jazz. It feels, in a way, both a victim of Game Pass and exactly what Game Pass is for. I suspect it will not be the last game to feel like this.