Now that the day one patch has fixed most of the technical problems, GameCentral offers a final verdict on the Justin Roiland-less sequel to High On Life.

Humour isn’t an easy thing to get right, especially in in video games, where players have such a large influence on when and how they experience the action and the dialogue that punctuates it. Comic timing is hard when you might not be listening to or even looking at whoever’s trying to be funny. The first High On Life went full Rick and Morty, appealing directly to the show’s considerable following, and thanks to the involvement of its creator, Justin Roiland, the anarchic first person shooter was an instant hit.

Roiland also voiced the game’s first weapon. Because your protagonist was entirely mute, and each gun had its own distinct and exaggerated personality, they did all the talking for you, conversations changing radically depending on which gun you equipped. Since Roiland’s no longer involved with Squanch Games, his idiosyncratic vocal style and particular brand of brutal humour are also absent.

That gives High On Life 2 a different feel. For a start, it’s not as funny, with more of its bits landing with a wry smile rather than actual laughter, and long tracts of the game now relying on the boorish personalities of your weapons. While they certainly have their moments, they sometimes seem to rely on swearing as a substitute for jokes. It does manage to improve on the first game in some ways though, one being its more pointed satire.

In High On Life, aliens discovered they could smoke humans like pot and your character’s job was to gun down the galactic drug cartel responsible. In the sequel, humans are being farmed and turned into legally manufactured pills by an evil pharmaceutical conglomerate whose ruthless pursuit of profit, regardless of the human misery it causes, may not be too distant from actual big pharma.

Traversal has been streamlined with the addition of a skateboard. Now the sprint button hops you onto your board, letting you move faster and grind rails, something every environment in the game has plenty of. You also gain access to your knife’s grapple hook right at the start of the game, rather than towards the end. Along with your double jump and air dash, it makes getting around the game’s vertiginous, brightly coloured levels less painful than it could have been.

The final upgrade is to the gunplay. There was a lot wrong with High On Life’s shooting, from the apparent puniness of many of its weapons, to the annoyingly stodgy feel of aiming, and although the sequel improves on every aspect, it’s still some way short of being actively good. Despite being a first person shooter, its firefights are something to be endured rather than enjoyed, even if boss fights are occasionally more inventive.

You can tell Squanch knew things weren’t working properly because the game defaults to easy mode rather than normal. A quick experiment reveals why: in normal, fights are a mess. Enemies are inveterate bullet sponges and you regularly find yourself being killed by opponents you can’t even see. On easy, its untidy and defuse battles are at least manageable. The downside is that you’re practically invincible, making it feel as though little skill’s involved, the auto aim continually patronising you.

Puzzles, such as they are, are spelt out for you in the early part of the game, with both onscreen instructions and characters simply telling you what to do, often repeating themselves after a few seconds if you don’t act quickly enough. High On Life 2 emphatically isn’t a puzzle game, but it’s odd to include those elements, and then paper over them with overbearing announcements – the time it must have taken to add all that would have been better spent polishing the rest of its mechanics.

It also suffers from a clutch of technical issues. Until the day one patch arrived, an early boss fight was unplayable on PlayStation 5, crashing the console on every attempt. Even after the patch we soon found ourselves soft-locked after a Lugblob, one of High On Life 2’s grotesque key items, failed to spawn. Reloading the checkpoint and restarting the game didn’t help, although we did finally manage to glitch our way past it in what was clearly not the intended solution to the puzzle. Fortunately, that was the last significant problem in our playthrough.

Underneath its unrefined exterior, there’s a riot of offbeat and anarchic ideas, from its playable retro style arcade games to full length B-movies you can sit and watch; a boss that infiltrates your HUD and menus, forcing you to pause the game to fight him; and, of course, the absurdist weaponry. It’s even got an Agatha Christie style murder mystery. It’s just a shame they’re all so uninspiring to play.

High On Life 2 is frustratingly close to being a good game, but its rough edges predominate to the extent that they drown out much of the inventiveness. Shooting up groups of enemies just isn’t much fun, but neither are the minigames, and now that the dialogue isn’t as funny, there just isn’t enough joy to be had. With more polish those crazy ideas could really shine, but as it stands this feels more miss than hit.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Squanch Games
Developer: Squanch Games
Release Date: 13th February 2026 (20/4 on Switch 2)
Age Rating: 18

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Arsenal scored four times in 17 first-half minutes to cruise through to the fifth round of the FA Cup with an emphatic 4-0 drubbing of League One Wigan.

Noni Madueke sent Mikel Arteta’s rampant side on their way after 11 minutes before Gabriel Martinelli doubled the hosts’ advantage seven minutes later.

Jack Hunt headed through his own net after 23 minutes and Arsenal were four to the good inside half-an-hour when Gabriel Jesus struck.

Arsenal failed to add to their tally, but their one-sided victory at the Emirates saw them advance beyond the fourth round for the first time since they won the FA Cup in 2020 and kept alive their outside chance of completing an unprecedented quadruple.

Arteta made eight changes to the side which drew at Brentford on Thursday, but he was still able to boast a front five of Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Madueke, Jesus and Martinelli.

Eze was hooked at half-time against Brentford after an underwhelming 45 minutes. And, with just one assist and no goals since his hat-trick against Tottenham in November, his form had been under the microscope.

However, here he was, the architect of Arsenal’s opening two goals. Eze played an eye-of-the-needle, no-look pass to Madueke, who ghosted in off the right flank and made no mistake with a cool first-time finish.

Eze was soon at the wheel again when he found Martinelli, who slotted past Sam Tickle.

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Only five minutes had ticked on before Arsenal added to their lead.

Madueke raced past a flat-footed Morgan Fox and played in Saka. The England winger’s pull-back flicked off Jesus’s toes and a bamboozled Hunt headed past his own goalkeeper.

Wigan’s 6-1 defeat to Peterborough last weekend cost boss Ryan Lowe his job and the visiting supporters were chanting: “How s*** must you be, it’s only 3-0.”

The hymn sheet had to be revised in the 27th minute after Jesus latched on to Christian Norgaard’s long ball over the top and dinked his side’s fourth over the on-rushing Tickle.

Wigan are 22nd in League One, with six losses in their last seven, and stand-in boss Glenn Whelan might have been fearing the worst.

But his side navigated their way to the interval with the deficit still at four.

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Indeed, they might have pulled one back, but Joe Taylor’s shot was expertly kept out by Kepa Arrizabalaga.

With Wolves and Tottenham to follow across the next seven days, Saka, still working his way back to full fitness following a hip problem, was replaced by Viktor Gyokeres at half-time.

And the Sweden international nearly made it five, only to see his first-time deflected effort rebound off a post, with Eze then smashing into the side-netting on the hour mark.

Tickle then got a strong left hand to Martinelli’s close-range header.

To Wigan’s credit, they avoided a Six Nations scoreline, which had looked a real possibility when Jesus scored, as the game fizzled out after an explosive opening half-hour.

However, it is Arteta’s men in the hat for Monday’s fifth-round draw in a campaign where they will roll into March with the Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup all still up for grabs.

Áine O’Reilly was on her way to work at an out-of-hours GP service when the crash took place

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A community is mourning a “kind” nurse who died in a three car crash in Co Limerick. Áine O’Reilly was in her 30s when was pronounced dead at the scene after the accident on the N24 near Grange West, Boher.

The incident happened at around 11.10pm on Friday (February 13). Ms O’Reilly was travelling to her place of work at Limerick’s out-of-hours GP service Shannondoc when the crash happened.

She was the only person in her car and was pronounced dead at the scene, the Mirror reports. A man in his 40s, who was in another car, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to University Hospital Limerick.

Meanwhile a driver in a third vehicle fled the scene, leaving their car behind, reported the Irish Mirror. The N24 between R505 and L1132 was closed for a time to allow Garda Forensic Collision Investigators carry out a technical examination of the scene, but it has since reopened.

In an update on Sunday, Gardai thanked the public for their assistance, and said they “are following a definite line of inquiry.”

Many people have expressed their sadness at the tragedy with one person writing on Facebook: “Aine was such a lovely gentle soul and had a great sense of humour. We had great laughs over the years.

“She gave the best skin and hair care advice and loved animals. Such a great nurse she is such a loss to our community and her lovely family and friends.”

Another message read: “Such sad terrible news. Aine was a wonderful nurse and I’m lucky to have had the pleasure of working with her. Such a kind and caring person.

“My deepest condolences to her friends and family. Rest in peace my dear Áine.” And a further comment stated: “So sad, she was going to do good for others! May her good & gentle Soul rest in Peace.”

Parish priest of Pallasgreen and Templebraden, Fr Tomas O’Connell said the O’Reilly family are well known and respected in the community. “There was a palpable silence in Nicker Church at mass last night,” Fr O’Connell said, reported RTE.

“People are shocked at the terrible tragedy that has happened our lovely parish and community.”

He told how Ms O’Reilly was a caring young woman who had previously travelled to Lourdes as a youth worker. “That was the nature of the lady and the family,” he said. “That’s what the family is all about, giving and helping other people.”

Ms O’Reilly will be laid to rest in St. John the Baptist Church Nicker on Wednesday morning before she is buried in St. Columba’s cemetery Pallasgreen.

An RIP notice read: “Áine O’Reilly (Grove House, Pallasgreen, Co. Limerick), died tragically following a Road Traffic Accident on February 13th 2026. Sadly missed by her heartbroken parents Eugene and Ann, brothers Eoin, James and Conor, sister-in-law Aisling, nephew Dáire, aunts, uncles, relatives and a wide circle of friends.”

The No Work Club wants to be a space for people to escape from daily life

A new venue packed with activities for both children and adults is coming to Peterborough. The No Work Club, which already has a location in Lincoln, wants to be the “leading brand in social entertainment” and “create a place where people can unwind”.

The No Work Club has been described as an “after-hours playground” with escape rooms and axe throwing on offer. Rebe Hawes, the Operation Manager for No Work Club, said: “We want people to have a great time and escape from reality. Our whole mantra is saying we want to disrupt normal life.

“We managed to grab ourselves a perfect space with Nene Park and we are working with the Blind Tiger to rent their upstairs area. They have a bar downstairs. It was honestly a great deal, location, and area so we thought we’ve got to have it.”

The Peterborough site plans to have six axe throwing lanes, three escape rooms, and nine holes of crazy golf. The No Work Club will also have some interactive dart boards on offer.

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Miss Hawes said: “What I’m most excited about is the escape rooms because they have been built from scratch. We’re currently getting that worked out and set up. They are going to have a mix of both technical things to work out and open as well as a mix of padlocks here and there. So I’m really excited to see how they come out.”

The site will be aimed at everyone and gives people a place to go with their whole families. Miss Hawes added: “I say it is for adults but obviously, it’s great for children as well. We have an age limit of 10 and above for the axe throwing but there is no age limit for the golf and escape rooms. In a way, we want the adults to come and have fun because we want them to get away from work and daily life.”

Miss Hawes believes having all of the activities “in one space” will help it to stand out in the city. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the drinks and food at the Blind Tiger so won’t need to leave the area if they want to spend a day there.

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Miss Hawes continued: “I know there’s already axe throwing place in Peterborough, which is a bit more in the centre. We want to offer a bit more variety. We want it to be a hangout place where people cane stay for a couple of hours and they don’t need to go anywhere else. It’s not too far from the caravan site so we want people to know there are things to do in the area.”

Miss Hawes described the brand as “different” with a set colour scheme that is “quite grungy”. Miss Hawes said people should “keep an eye on social media” for any opening discounts the No Work Club might be offering to celebrate the new location.

The No Work Club is hoping to open on Saturday, March 28. It can be found on Ham Lane in Peterborough, above the Blind Tiger taproom.

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3 Premium subscribers could each win a pair of tickets to The Mystery of Banksy Exhibition, Depot Mayfield, Manchester

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We’ve teamed up with The Mystery of Banksy Exhibition to give away three pairs of tickets to the Banksy Exhibition at Depot Mayfield in Manchester.

The lucky winners will step inside the world of the elusive street artist with an immersive experience for all ages.

Seen by 3.5 million people across 36 cities , the exhibition features more than 200 carefully recreated works, the exhibition brings together graffiti, photographs, sculptures, video installations and prints, all presented in an atmospheric warehouse setting in the heart of Manchester.

A dedicated screening space walks you through the key moments in Banksy’s story, tracing the rise of one of the most influential and mysterious artists of our time.

The prize must be redeemed between March 13 and June 30, 2026. Some blackout dates may apply.

For your chance to win, simply fill in your details on the form below. Closing date for entries is 23:45 on Sunday, March 8, 2026.

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Terms and Conditions: The competition closes at 23:45 Sunday, March 8, 2026. To enter the competition, entrants must complete the online entry form. Three (3) winners will be selected at random from all the submissions after the closing date. The prize is two tickets to The Mystery of Banksy Exhibition at Depot Mayfield in Manchester. The prize is non-transferable and must be redeemed between March 13 and June 30, 2026. Some blackout dates may apply. The winners will be contacted by email within 7 days of the closing date to arrange their prize. The winners will have 48 hours from the notification email to claim their prize, failure to respond at this time will result in forfeiture of the prize / pick another winner. Prize cannot be exchanged, it is also non-transferable and no cashback alternative will be offered. Upon entering this competition there is an option to opt in to receive various newsletters sent via email. If you do opt in, you will receive these newsletters in accordance with their sending schedule. For those who do not opt in to receive any email newsletters, your data will be solely used for administration of this competition. The winners’ contact details will only be used to administer the competition and will be shared with the company’s prize fulfilment partner, We are Indigo – PR Agency to fulfil the prize. We are Indigo PR Agency will contact the winners to further liaise on the fulfilment of the prize (please make sure all entry details provided are correct). By entering this competition, you are permitting Reach plc to use your personal data to contact you to arrange prize fulfilment only. Entry to the competition is restricted to one entry per person. Multiple entries will be disqualified. Automated entries, bulk entries or third party entries will be disqualified. This competition is open to UK residents only. This competition is open to people over the age of 18. Employees of the promoter, their families, agents and anyone else connected with this promotion are not eligible to enter. By entering a competition, an entrant is indicating his/her agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions. Entry implies acceptance of these rules. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any disputes arising under these terms and conditions. Standard competitions rules apply. Please click here for more information.

Let’s begin with a story from the beginnings of western philosophy that doesn’t sit well with existentialist thought.

In Plato’s Symposium, a character called Aristophanes gives an account of love. He tells us that human beings originally had doubled bodies, with two heads, four arms and four legs. As a punishment for threatening the gods, however, Zeus cut each of them in half.

Now, these half humans, with just one head and one pair of arms and legs, find themselves adrift in the world, searching for the other half of themselves that would make them whole.

This, for Aristophanes, is the origin of love – the desire to return to a lost unity and to become whole. Why this story appeals to us is that it captures our intuition that love is destiny, and that there is someone out there who will take away our feeling of incompleteness.

For the existentialist, however, this feeling of incompleteness points to a fundamental truth about being human. For them, we are this tension. We are thrown into the world we haven’t chosen, but we are still responsible for the sense we make of our lives. This is what the existentialists mean by the slogan: existence precedes essence – there’s no script of our lives.

We become who we are through what we do, in a world defined by contingency and transience. Aristophanes here gives us the comforting illusion that there is some essence or meaning to our lives given before we exist – that there is someone out there who will resolve the tensions of being human by making us whole, if only we can find them.

For the existentialist, stories like Aristophanes’ cover over irresolvable tensions with being human rather than solving them. Think about the idea of finding “the one”. For the existentialist, behind this project is really one of putting the script back into our lives. Love proves that our lives have meaning.

If the aim of love, then, is to resolve our own feelings of anxiety at being cast adrift in a world, then we’re unlikely to really connect with another person. Rather, what will be important about them will be the role they play in our life.

Think about our desire to be the centre of someone else’s world. For existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, this is less about them than it is about the place they give us in their lives: their love for us becomes a proof that our own life has meaning. From here, we ask for what our lover cannot in good faith give us – the certainty that we will occupy that place: “you’ll always love me, won’t you?”

It sounds as if love is not so much a relationship, but a project we use to insulate ourselves from our own fears. It lets us believe the meaning of our lives comes from the outside while ensuring that we stay safely on the inside.

Stepping back from love itself, we can see another tension, however.

A more positive possibility for love

When we think of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, whose lifelong partnership combined romantic and intellectual commitment with a deep insistence on personal freedom, it’s difficult not to see a model of romantic love.

At the beginning of the second world war, Sartre wrote to de Beauvoir: “Never have I felt so forcefully that our lives have no meaning outside of our love, and that nothing changes that, neither separation, nor passions, nor the war. You said it was a victory for our morality, but it is just as much a victory for our love.”

There is here, then, a more positive possible account of love.

For Sartre, this possible positive love is not an attempt to resolve the tensions in what it is to be human. Rather, to love authentically is to love in full understanding of the tensions of time and freedom.

Love’s aim, on this account, is not to escape time, but to embrace it together. This means loving, in the moment, absolutely, while recognising that just as we can always disavow our past, this moment, in the future, will itself become another past that we may disavow.

Loving is, then, not using the ideal of love as a project to step out of time, to hide. Instead, it involves the recognition that being with another within time entails living with fragility and transience, and that what makes this love human is the possibility of change.

Rejecting love as an ideal, and the lover as a role to be played, allows us to see our lovers not simply as a foil for our own projects, but as another person, with all the complexity and singularity a human being contains. In this, we find ourselves outside of ourselves, exposed in a world where failure is always possible.

But with such exposure there is also the possibility of a genuine connection with another human being. As Søren Kierkegaard, the first existentialist, puts it, in love, we do not love the “other I”, but the “you”. Love, then, becomes the rejection of destiny for authenticity.

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A spell of snowfall could cause some travel disruption

A six-hour weather warning for snowfall has been issued by the Met Office. The warning covers parts of Cambridgeshire and runs from 10am to 4pm on Sunday (February 15).

The Met Office say that eastward-moving rain on Sunday morning is likely to turn to sleet and snow. Slushy accumulations of a cm or so are likely, with a chance of 2-4 cm should snow turn briefly heavier, this is more likely for the Lincolnshire Wolds and parts of Norfolk and Suffolk.

The show should turn back to rain before clearing late afternoon. Any lying snow is forecast to melt relatively quickly. Snowy, wintry weather can cause delays and make driving conditions dangerous.

The warning covers parts of Cambridgeshire, including Soham, Ely, Wisbech and March. Also affected is Lincolnshire, Rutland, part of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The Met Office’s East of England weather forecast for Sunday says: “A spell of sleet or snow is possible for a time in the morning before turning to rain from the west. Spells of heavy rain are becoming widespread for a time during the afternoon. Maximum temperature 7 °C.”

Turning to Sunday evening, they add: “Rain soon clearing the east to leave a mostly dry night with some clear spells. Perhaps some isolated heavy showers towards dawn. Minimum temperature 3 °C.”

Jango is a 12-year-old female Kelpie who was admitted to RSPCA York Animal Home on January 9 after her owner was not meeting her needs.

She is neutered and described as a sweet, super-friendly ‘older lady’ who was in “quite a poor state” when she was rescued by an RSPCA inspector and taken to the centre on Landing Lane in York.

RSPCA York is looking for a new home for Jango, a Kelpie. Photo: RSPCA York

Always keen to say hello, she loves nothing more than curling up on the sofa and enjoying plenty of snuggles.

Ruth McCabe, aninal centre manager, said: “Jango is one of the sweetest, most gentle dogs you will ever meet. She has been through so much, yet she remains incredibly loving and trusting of people. We would love for her to find a home where she can spend her twilight years knowing she is truly loved and cared for.”

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She enjoys going out and walks well on a lead, but does not need a lot of exercise, preferring instead a couple of shorter strolls throughout the day.

More than anything, Jango would love a cosy home where she can relax and soak up all the love and attention she deserves.

Jango requires a special diet as she has very early stage kidney disease which is being successfully managed through diet alone and she does not require any medication.

She is otherwise well and has a lot of love to give.

Jango has previously lived with other dogs and could share her new home with a compatible dog of a similar age.

She can feel a little worried around younger, bouncy dogs, so would prefer a calm, older companion if she were to live with another dog.

She would be suitable to live with children aged 10 years and over.

For more information about Jango, visit www.rspca-yorkhome.org.uk/adopt-an-animal/jango/ or email reception@rspca-yorkhome.org.uk

The northbound carriageway is shut in Lancashire

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The M6 motorway in Lancashire is closed following a serious crash tonight (Sunday, February 15 into Monday, February 16).

The northbound carriageway is shut to traffic between Junction 32 and Junction 33.

The closure was first reported at around 11.40pm, with some motorists caught within the shut stretch of road.

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The crash involves two cars and all emergency services are at the scene.

A National Highways spokesperson said: “The M6 in Lancashire is closed northbound between J32 (M55) and J33 (Galgate) due to a serious collision involving two cars.

“Emergency services are in attendance. Thanks for your patience if you’re caught within the closure.”

Inrix, the traffic data company, said: “M6 Northbound closed due to serious accident, two cars involved from J32 M55 (Broughton Interchange) to J33 A6 Preston Lancaster Road (Lancaster South / Garstang).”

Elsewhere on the north west road network tonight, the M66 is shut in Greater Manchester following a serious four-vehicle crash.

The following diversion route is in place: M6 north traffic is advised to follow the hollow circle diversion symbol:

• Exit M6 J32 onto M55
• Follow M55 to J1
• Exit the M1 and take the third exit on to the A6
• Follow the A6 through Broughton, Barton, Bilsborrow and Garstang
• Rejoin the M6 at J33

M55 eastbound traffic intending to join the M6 northbound is also advised to follow the hollow circle diversion symbol:

• Exit the M55 eastbound at J1 (Broughton)
• Take the first exit at the roundabout onto the A6 northbound towards Garstang
• Follow the A6 northbound through Broughton, Barton, Bilsborrow and Garstang to then re-join the M6 northbound at J33