As the coronavirus pandemic continues, students at El Camino College continue to use video games as a way to distract themselves and socialize with friends.

Last semester, The Union spoke to students about what video games they were playing during the beginning of quarantine. With new video games being released and older ones becoming popular, The Union followed-up with students to see what games were trending this semester.

Among Us

With the pandemic keeping people indoors, multiplayer video games like “Among Us” have been replacing what used to be in-person hangouts.

“Among Us” is an online multiplayer game created by Indie-developers Innersloth. The game was originally released for mobile platforms on June 15, 2018, and Oct. 18, 2018, for PC, but only recently gained popularity this year.

“I started playing ‘Among Us’ about a little bit over a month ago because a friend convinced me to try it,” Gloria Tobar, nursing major, said. “It got to where I even showed my dad to play it.”

The objective of the game is to complete a set of tasks with a party of 4-10 players before being killed by the imposter.

According to Innersloth’s webpage, the imposter is an alien who shapeshifted into a crewmate and whose goal is to eliminate the crewmates before they finish their tasks.

Call of Duty: Warzone

“Call of Duty: Warzone” was released on March 10, 2020, as an add-on to “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.” “Warzone” is a battle royale video game that people can download for free on all platforms.

“Honestly, I’ve been playing ‘Warzone’ since it came out. My friends and I get on every week and run a squad since we can’t really hang out in person as much as we did before,” Jose Gonzales, 23, computer science major, said.

In “Warzone,” players with parties of up to four people drop from an airship into the map known as “Verdansk.” From there they look for supplies such as weapons and money with the main objective for each team to be the last team standing.

Pokémon Sword and Shield Series

The “Pokémon” video game series has gone through many iterations beginning with its original release on the Nintendo GameBoy in 1996.

“Pokémon Sword and Shield” is the most recent version, released on Nov. 15, 2019, for the Nintendo Switch console.

“There’s this new mode that [The Pokémon Company] released with their DLC (Downloadable Content) called ‘Dynamax Adventures,'” Daniel Rodriguez, 20, undeclared major, said. “You can invite friends through a code and search for pokemon together.”

Players with a party of up to four people can go through caverns called “Dynamax Dens” to search for different forms of pokémon in this mode.

If there are other games you’ve been playing while in quarantine, share your thoughts on Twitter by tagging us @eccunion.