Demo Of Flock Around Has Made Me Realise I Don't Have The Skills To... (2026)

Laying my real life binoculars down to rest for the time being.

Birdwatching seems like the kind of hobby that would instil an indescribable zen within you, but the unpredictability of it all makes it feel a lot more chaotic than you realise. Not only are you practically under the control of the weather, but there's never any guarantee that you'll see anything good.

That's why in the bleak midwinter when the last thing I want to do is go outside, I look for games like the demo of Flock Around which let me birdwatch without feeling the bitter cold. Plus, you are almost guaranteed to see a cool bird, which is always a nice plus.

You take on the role of what is essentially a sentient, cylindrical blob who has been trusted with a camera and unleashed in a park. You can customise the colour, eyes, mouth, and clothing, but aside from that, there's not much going for you. That doesn't matter though, as you've got one job and one job only: take cool photos of the local wildlife.

The demo gives you a guidebook with 20 birds to track down and photograph within, but with no clues or hints as to what to look for and what they sound like, so you best believe it's just a lot of point and click pictures and hoping for the best.

Fortunately, my prior knowledge from lengthy birdwatching sessions means I could identify the cartoonish yet strangely realistic birds from both appearance and song. But, that didn't mean photographing them was made any easier. Getting too close or speaking too loudly over proximity chat with my pals would cause the birds to fly off, and their sheer speed meant I quickly lost track of where they were and had to do another lap of the park. But, after realising you can crouch and slowly walk towards them, taking pictures certainly got easier.

There is a bit of difficulty when it comes to filling out your guidebook, since some of the birds are quite challenging to track down, but that's half of the fun. It took me an hour and a half to finally see a yellow-rumped warbler, which reminded me of my year-long desperate attempt to see a common Kingfisher in real life. The chaos of finally spotting it and begging your pals to slow down and shut up so you could get a nice photo is what brings so much personality to Flock Around.

Each page of the guidebook tasks you with getting four separate photos of each bird as well. One face on, one from behind, one from the side, and one in flight. When you point your camera to snap a picture, the birds practica

Source: PC Gamer