Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 494

Baldur’s Gate 3 for me this weekend, of course!

I also picked up Marvel’s Spider-Man to see what the fuss about the sequel is. It’s okay so far.

Oh, and I have to avoid Lies of P spoilers until Tuesday.

Starfield - I think Im nearing the end of the main story, will probably wrap up some side missions first as I found them to be the best missions the game has to offer. But after that Im done. And I dont think I’ll replay it as I often do with Bethesdas RPGs, just dont see myself enjoying it enough. Not a bad game at all, its very good most of the time even with all the issues, its just not a great game imo.

The Crew Motorfest - played the trial for a bit. Very positively surprised at how good it was, like a mix of Forza Horizon and Need for Speed. Will be playing this one for sure.

I beat Starfield yesterday on the Xbox Series X after playing it for almost 70 hours.
Currently continuing my playthrough of Ace Attorney: Justice for All I started on my Switch before Starfield.

Planning on starting Firewatch later and finally starting either God of War: Ghost of Sparta or Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time on Ps3.
Might also start Baten Kaitos 1+2 HD on the switch.

Picked up Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak and will likely make use of the free multiplayer weekend. Let's see if it can finally dethrone Monster Hunter Freedom Unite as the best one 😎

Enjoy your weekend everyone

My Lies of P copy didn't arrive yesterday, so I am hoping for today. I've been looking forward to it even more after the demo.

I was planning to play Baten Kaitos 1 + 2 Remaster this weekend on Switch but my copy has been delayed and unless it magically gets delivered in the post even though payment hasn't been taken from it along with a dispatched notification from base.com, won't be happening. So I guess I will spend more time playing the demo for Dragon Quest Monsters which I'm very mad about Square Enix quietly dropping without any fanfare, they really don't want the series to do well here. And I could probably finish Bayonetta Origins, which I started playing slowly in the week to keep me busy while waiting for Baten Kaitos. It's very different from the traditional Bayonetta experience, and won't appeal to everyone but it's still a lot of fun. As you can tell a lot of gaming on the Switch right now, PS5 is in waiting mode until Spider-Man 2, LAD Gaiden and P5 Tactica drop.

On PS5 i will be playing Monochrome Mobius and Atlas Fallen, both good games so far. I will also put a couple hours into Sea of Stars as I plan to chip away at that game slowly.

On the Switch I want to get Dragon Quest Treasures done before the end of the month but there's a lot to do in this game. I will also be continuing with the Pokémon Violet DLC.

@Sam_ATLUS my copy of Baten Kaitos arrive before it officially released weirdly enough.

Rage on PS3… damn fugly (up there with the worst looking PS3 game of all time)… but surprisingly decent to play.

Series X/Laptop Starfield back on the main story for a bit after playing alot of the Vanguard missions. Divinity Original Sin 2 for the first time. On Ps5 Final Fantasy XVI about 80% completion. Getting back to Marvel's Midnight Suns with the season pass

I’m going to try to finish FF16 off, beyond Clive and dog I’ll be fumbling round in baldurs gate 3 and I may attempt to play the second level of hi-fi rush but I think I’m going to end up in the 70% who quit before the second boss.

Baldur's Gate 3

I've got a vast array of quest tangents all centering on the Goblin camp, almost overwhelming amounts of overlap going on, and I've just about got myself through them in a logical order, just one potentially massive battle to go, i've also been solving lots of minor issues that I'm partially causing there (sorry Volo) and taking part in the local customs and casually getting my ass whipped by the in house Loviatar worshipper, to Shadowhearts delight 😏 while I'm at it. (I also gave her a go by reloading hahaha)

Lies of p. My copy has just dropped through my door and i'm just installing it right now. Have a smasher of a weekend people👍

More epic space adventures in the wonderful Starfield.

Sea of Stars & FFIX for the foreseeable future.
Some efootball 2024 as well. Trying to catch up with some of the weekly events.

I need to finish some of the plus games over the next couple of months. So Sea of Stars and my final playthrough of FF7 Remake. Maybe the DLC if I get round to it.

I finally beat Sea of Stars and it was absolutely wonderful. I’ve been raving about the game for the past couple of weeks, so I’ll spare you all another rant about the game. All I’ll say is: Go play it.

I’m now playing Baulder’s Gate 3 on the PS5. I’m not sure how long I’ll dabble with the game, but so far it’s quite a masterclass in writing, world-building, and RPG mechanics. I’m also not entirely overwhelmed which is even more astonishing. I thought the onboarding would be a difficult process, but it hasn’t been bad. That said, I still don’t understand a lot of its systems, but I’ve yet to feel punished by them.

So far, I’m not sure what I’m even doing narrative wise. I know the arc, but I’m just walking around, chatting with people, intervening various situations that lead to fun side quests, and most importantly, letting things play out with my choices which is something I never do often. I like being the good guy, and I’ll typically reload a save just to make the right decision — but the writing is so good that I’m fine with how things play out. In fact, I’ve had one party member kill another already, and I’m not even mad about it. I will say, I recommend camping as much as possible. You’ll get some of the best character interactions and overall development that I’ve ever seen in a video game, particularly in this magnitude.

I do have one complaint though — the density. You never seem to have a moment to breathe. You’re always in conversations, or doing some kind of quest, and then another before finishing the prior one and the trend continues. Everything then becomes jumbled and [I] you feel like you’re not having significant meaning behind what you’re doing because you forget about the situation you were last in. I do not like that.

With that said, I did decide to start a completely new play-through yesterday despite having 20+ hrs logged, and halfway through Act 1. I had the house to myself and I was able to truly focus on the characters and environmental storytelling without being interrupted by my wife and child (we have been sick with Covid). I took things at my own pace. Things are now clicking together and I can’t get enough of the game.

BG3 is a new benchmark for CRPGs, or any RPG for that matter. The writing is exquisite, and your choices have genuine consequences that pay off — good or bad. And the level of consistent polish is mind blowing considering the scope of this game. This is quite easily one of the best CRPGs of all time, and may just earn the status as GOAT and GOTY.

I started Dead Space last night so probably continue with that and Sniper Elite 5 on PS5 . On Xbox it'll be more Starfield probably just going to stick to the main story missions now and get it finished. I'll maybe give the Crew Motorsport trial a go too just downloaded it.

Starfield and Sea of Stars today and I've dusted off my PS3 for some Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory tomorrow. Have a good weekend all!

50 hours into Starfield and only just completed the third main mission. It has its faults but overall I am really enjoying it, 8.5 for me. Got 10 hours into Sea of Stars which I will continue when not playing Starfield. Tried The Crew Motorfest demo last night fully expecting to buy the full edition but I honestly didn't enjoy it. No feedback from the car, no adaptive pressure on ps5 controller when accelerating/breaking. Will stick with last NFS and horizon 5. Shane as I was looking forward to it.

Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s one of the few games in life where you give it ‘just five more minutes’ and you’ve then realised five minutes has turned into 2 hours of gameplay. Love it:

BG3, I'm addicted. I'm even dreaming about it. I woke up the other day to the sad realisation that not only did the legendary hand crossbow that I gave to Astarion not happen, but one doesn't even exist in the game

@Zuljaras

I have fond memories of Faxandu, one of the first video games I was exposed to.

I'll be playing Tales of Zestiria this weekend. Just waiting for Fate/Samurai remnant.

Spiderman GOTY Edition and Days Gone. Plus instead of pints of booze it'll be Tea and ice water, damned seasonal allergies. Have a great weekend.
Edit:
Wow! Just finished the first fight at Fisk ( Frisk?) Towers on Spiderman, had a couple of chuckles, forgot how light it compared to the Batman Arkham games, so forget Days Gone, is spider-man all weekend.

Second Edit:
Went to the local Walmart and purchased Spider-Man: Miles Morales and currently downloading "The City That Never Sleeps" DLC.
I'm 40 years of age and this brings me back to my childhood. So great how games can finally reach dreams from decades ago.

3rd Edit:
I bought the game of the year edition and on a whim I tried the DLC code, it wasn't redeemed! 10$ well spent! ( It was a second hand pawn shop purchase.)

Pretty close to finishing Sea of Stars. Also going to play Ghostwire Tokyo I think

Re: 4 remake on ps5, halfway through... hope to finish it on time for the dlc next week (guess not) ...

Feels like I'm nearing Sekiro's end, it's been a very difficult game with no searching for help on the internet whatsoever. Then it's some GT Sport, RDR2, Valhalla or anything else.

Lots more Final Fantasy XVI for me this weekend. I’m also itching to start VII Remake once I’ve wrapped up my XVI playthrough.

I also never got around to finishing Spider-Man Remastered, which I got in the pack-in with Miles Morales, so I really must get that sorted before Spider-Man 2 drops next month. I know I really should be prioritising Spider-Man, but I’m on such a Final Fantasy tip right now.

I've started SF6 and it is excellent, loving world tour almost a simple Yakuza game in that format with crazy characters & side quests. Not keen on Chun Li though in this one, those legs/thighs look silly.

Games got real personality, so far, so good.

Happy gaming everyone

Im playing the incredible dark souls remastered.the excellent divinity original sin enhanced edition.the amazing 🕷 spiderman.and the fantastic Red dead redemption 2.i will be watching my Pittsburgh Steelers 💛🖤 play.i will be watching legendary sitcoms tv 📺 comedy in Sanford and son.good times.and saved by the bell.word up son

Sekiro and Tekken 7. Have a lovely weekend folks 🤘😄

This weekend I plan to finish the main story of Hogwarts Legacy, get the final trophies of Marvel's Guardians of The Galaxy and do some advances in Assassin's Creed Valhalla and maybe a whiff of Yakuza 0. Getting ready for new games in the near future.

Still on my first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, which is definitely Game of the Year, so every other game may as well stand down now and accept that they have been bested.

Also, still itching to play my unopened copy of Starfield, but as I'll be squeezing every drop out of BG3, it'll probably stay sealed for another month yet...

No games on PS5 this weekend unfortunately. I’ll be out of town. I will have my Switch with me though.

@Intr1n5ic I’m so glad to hear someone else is as weirdly obsessed with this game as me. Some of my dreams have involved me having to pass dice roll checks.

I just finished Pikmin 4 (great!), now I’m waiting for my copy of Lies of P to arrive.

So this weekend I’ll be mopping up some DLC: Burning Shore for HFW (great so far but it’s basically more of the same so I’m glad it’s been a year since I played the campaign) and Episode Intermission for FF7R (haven’t started yet, will be fun seing Midgar again but I’m not expecting Witcher quality DLC…)

@darkswabber Lucky, I hope you enjoy it! Im just praying Bandai Namco have done a good job with the remaster

@Intr1n5ic I won’t give away any spoilers, but you can get a very powerful weapon extremely early on. It has saved my Elf-Paladin hide a few times.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

I don't remember where I am at hours wise (probably at least the upper 50's by now), but I'm still enjoying it.

Not sure how I feel about how slowly the loyalty missions progress (almost all of their first ones are still On Hold), but that would be my only major complaint so far I believe.

Like a broken record it feels but I’m almost at the end of Armored Core 6, then I may speed run NG+ and even NG++ as much as possible.

Also wrapping up the final leg of TOTK which I took a break from. I also need to wrap up Remnant 2.

I’d love to get into MK and Lies of P this week.

Lastly Sea of Stars. Taking my time through it and loving it.

Finished the absolutely amazing Plague tale requiem on Thursday (so much better with added performance mode) and now in a bit of a lull.

Think may try PS4 version of stick of truth as loved it on PS3.

May get Bramble the mountain king finished too

Xbox - Starfield (my mining empire is going great)
Playstation - kingdom hearts 1.5 remix
Nintendo - nothing
Pc - Pumpkin Jack

I gave the Star Ocean Remake demo a try and it's pretty cool! Still progressing through Octopath Traveler 2 just fined Temenos's story. Looking forward to FLCL: Grunge tonight to see if they can do anything interesting with this one. Have fun everyone!

I’ve been sinking time into Skyrim this past week and I forgot how easily distracted I get. To make up for my lack of progress I’m gonna make a start on coffee talk for some light comfort before having to go back to work on Monday.

My Switch got busted out for the first time in a while because F-Zero 99 is going to be my life for a bit.

I am not going to have much to contribute here for a while, because I can’t stop playing Starfield. I love the game. It is slow to start, but now it has its hooks into me really deep.

I am mainly posting today to marvel at how good we have it. BG3, Starfield and Spider-Man 2 all in the same few month span? Amazing.

Playing more Starfield on XBOX, and dipping back into Sea of Stars on PS5. Just picked up Trombone champs on Switch.

Baldurs Gate 3, it's a masterpiece!

MK1 for me. Picked up the ever so expensive premium edition after discovering nearly £40 credit in my account I’d totally forgotten about so thought hey, why not!

Thus far I’m really enjoying it and it plays beautifully and looks divine. Wish the intro dialogues were included in all modes though plus I miss the intractable environmental objects. Plus the Invasion mode hasn’t yet captivated me as much as I enjoyed The Krypt. But I’m liking the freshly designed characters though I’ve never been such a devout fanboy as to decry past ‘controversies’ and the story is solid enough B movie nonsense. As for the Kameos it adds a new spin on proceedings but again I’m not quite ready to call it revolutionary as I often forget to use them and win single handedly … well, thus far. Looking forward to seeing what the DLC brings though and considering the reduced price I’m happy with my purchase …

… now, gotta dash as I paused the game fir a wee and got distracted!

Chickens Can't Fly (Windows Phone) - Just started this a few days ago. Kinda reminds me of Downfall a little...

Contre Jour (Windows Phone) - Around 3/4 of the way done with this. I've been enjoying it very much so.

@darkswabber Are you going to continue in New Game +? Without spoilers does it leave you excited to play NG+?

I started Wo Long last Sunday but I don't know how much I'll get in this weekend. Good start though, beat the first couple of bosses.

Starfield ...Yup. Just Starfield.

Game Pass is cool.

On PlayStation; MLB 22 The Show, as well as just finishing up Uncharted 2.

@TabulaRasa If you don’t mind me asking, what types of games do you generally gravitate towards?

Caved in and bought the digital deluxe of Lies of P to play early.

Easily the best-feeling souls-like that I've played that's not FromSoft. Really enjoying the Bloodborne/Sekiro gameplay and the setting and lore is very interesting.

Excited to keep playing, then roll onto the Cyberpunk update (to give it a legitimate try!)

@TabulaRasa Fair enough. I’ve had similar bouts to what it sounds like you’re going through. I suppose we all have at one point or another. I only asked because, as long as you weren’t vehemently against platformers, I was going to suggest Psychonauts 2. Oddly enough, it’s a game that reignited…something in me back when I played it and thought it might be worth a try. The story touches on a lot of psychological subject matter in very creative ways, plus it’s pretty fun. Cheers!

@TabulaRasa No worries! Without getting into it, I’ve been there (especially the unregulated bouts of crying). Take care.

I played a little humanity earlier, left in complete peace with the dogs and fam out, with a cup of decent coffee and a podcast on. It was bliss!! Hoping to put some crew motorsport demo on later, what I've played yesterday was pretty solid.

Still ranking up in SF6. I'm now a Diamond lvl 5! Almost there to Master rank!

Other than that I think im almost finished with Eternights. It's a pretty solid little game! Little janky sure but for the price I'm happy with it.

Finished rdr2, now kinda hollow. Was awake at 3am, started, and gave up on AC odyssey, sekiro, armoured core 6, I just don’t know what to play

Elden Ring. About 25 hours in, exploring first 3 main areas, levelling up slowly and just defeated first main boss Margit the other day so on progressing to Stormveil Castle. It's great experience so far, incredible how addictive FS games are in regards to exploration.

Happy gaming gamers!

Daymare 1994: Sandcastle. Downloading it now, seems like a good throwback to survival/horror games from the 90s, sans the tank controls that sucked even back then.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint, I really should stop, it 215 hours so far, and just flying around collecting things now, maybe I'll give Saints Row a try

I took the plunge and started Baldurs Gate 3. Played for like 11 hours.
Yesterday 😊

Can’t wait for this shift to wrap up so I can go home and continue on my Universal Monsters binge and play a couple more hours of BG3.

Lots of Hogwarts Legacy and a bit of Armored Core 6

Well this week yet again proves interesting. Being free of those morning shifts feels oh so very good. Plans this weekend are fairly simple. Play some trails to azure and stay cozy with some football on the tv. Peak Fall vibes and it ain’t even fall. And I definitely wanna go hard on Trails To Azure minus Monday where I wanna do some Future Redeemed I wanna try to beat Azure soon so I can get even closer to playing Trails Into Reverie. Over on the PS5 tonight is a debate between FFXVI and Baldurs Gate III. Im thinking of restarting my play through of BG3 with a Origin character like Shadowheart as I feel it’ll finally click if I do that and I won’t feel Elden Ring levels of choice paralysis. I know BG3 is special I just ain’t gotten to the core yet. Otherwise this week kinda special. Got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk last week and been enjoying it but this week I’ll be nabbing a copy of Mortal Kombat 1 my first real MK game tho I dabbled in 11 a little. Probably take some trades for it too so I can nab some eshop and psn money for The Teal Mask and Phantom Liberty DLCs for Pokémon and Cyberpunk respectively. Very very excited overall just very good vibes. Otherwise the rotation of games is simple as always. On switch we got Zelda TOTK, Pikmin 4, Trails To Azure, Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue, Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, and on PS5 we got FFXVI, BG3, Sea of Stars, Tales of Arise, SF6, KOFXV, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Anime of the week of course is a big one this week as we have 4 finales this week meaning you won’t be hearing about these anymore: Atelier Ryza, Ayaka, Liar Liar and Yohane The Parhelion. All excellent shows and they made for great summer watching and I can’t wait to see how they end. Also big shoutout to Bungou Stray Dogs for giving me even more trauma then I already have y’all know what you done. And of course shoutout to my podcasts of the week: Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Giant Bombcast, Friends Per Second and Remap Radio. As always Happy Gaming to all and have a awesome weekend.

starfield and mk1