Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 523

I got unfortunately spoiled on a big event for FF7R, so I'm going to put that off until I forget about it... if ever. So instead, I started YS VIII Lacrimosa of Dana again. Still a fantastic JRPG and pretty much perfect aside from a slow start. Otherwise, i'm also still playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I literally cannot stop playing this lmao!

Im revisiting Mad Max...its absolutely criminal - even nearly a decade later - its not getting the love it deserves 🙂

Still playing Dragon's Dogma 2 every waking moment. I may have to bump my score up to a 9/10 for that game. I bought Freedom Planet 1 & 2 for the Steam Deck also so might give them a go if I can tear myself away from DD2.

Will be doing some helldivers over the weekend but i really must push on with Rebirth. On chapter 10 now so i dont believe theres too much more to do. Maybe some sniper elite 5 with a buddy too but the missions are really long.

Finishing off the plat for infinite wealth, then either vertigo 2 or I might get Cyube vr

Hi-fi rush mainly. Maybe bit of penny's big breakaway

This weekend I'm catching up on some older games from my backlog, namely Ratchet and Clank 3 on PS3 and Guacamelee on PS Vita. Having a lot of fun with both.

Platinumed Pacific Drive last weekend (absolutely loved it), and managed to smash through FFX remake. Now I’m on FFXVI, which I’m liking, but not that frame rate! Have a good weekend folks!

Need 2 more trophies for AC: Valhallas Plat but I borrowed TLOU Part 1 and seriously loving the game all over again so probably more infected and clicker killing all weekend!

To everyone here I had arguments with about Dragons Dogma 2:

I'm sorry lol. You were right. The game sucks. I just quit after 30 hours.
What a letdown that was... I'll finally dig deeper into No man's sky today

Switch and XSX: Nothing.
PS5: I'm close to platting Helldivers 2 and Street Fighter 6 so that's my goal before Stellar Blade comes out.
Have a wonderful weekend everybody.

Samurai warriors spirit of sanada

I’m completely sucked into Dragon’s Dogma 2. I love this game so much. I just changed to the thief vocation from fighter and warrior, so I’m gonna try leveling that up for a while. I haven’t got very far in the main story - I’m mostly exploring and doing side quests. I love my pawns

Gonna be boosting the online trophies on Burnout Paradise: Remastered. Never played it back on PS3 but heard it’s great… looking forward to a test drive.

I want to play Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, but I've got no curtains and it's so sunny here that I can't see the screen. So... I'm playing TSW4 for the meditative gameplay loop.

@ironcrow86 I adore Mad Max. It holds up really well even after all this time. I may have to redownload.

Finished Cyberpunk 2077 on my PlayStation Portal and what a fantastic experience! £199 device really excels at making it feel like your playing native on PS5

Dragon's Dogma 2. 135 hours played and still loving it. Honestly, it's one of the best games I've enjoyed playing on PS5.

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown: It's a fun side-scroller metroidvania with quick and flashy combat and an interesting lead. I like the pastel cel-shaded artwork, too, as it gives a nice sharp contrast to the visuals.

Should be a challenging but interesting combat platformer.

I finished FFXVI yesterday - what an experience it was! my 1st ever FF game and it was really epic.

This weekend I will play Stellar Blade demo and continue with Mario Bros Wonder on my switch lite. going to install Elden Ring and might possibly start to prepare myself for the DLC

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Gaming will be taking a backseat this weekend. Have a work trip I am going to instead. Maybe some Dragons Dogma 2 on the Sunday evening though. Happy Gaming all!

I literally can't decide, I didn't play this last day because I can't choose. I'm stuck between Persona 3 Reload, Dragon Quest XI, Yakuza Like a Dragon, Trails of Cold Steel, Octopath Traveller 2, or Star Ocean Second Story R.

I've got 50 games installed including all the Soulsborne games, Sekiro, Nioh/Nioh 2/Wo Long, Dragon's Dogma 2, Elden Ring, Hades, Dead Cells, Devil May Cry series, BG3, Pathfinder wrath of the righteous, Rogue Trader, Chaos Gate Daemonhunters, and every final fantasy up to XII. It's too much choice lol

Suggestions anyone?

@Terra_Custodes yes, uninstall the souls likes

@pirlega I love them!

God of War (2018). Love going back to this beautiful world and fun combat. Tbh I would be playing/streamimg GoW 1 (PS3) on PS+ streaming service, but its too laggy for a game that requires fast button inputs. It doesn’t register my presses most of the time. Anyways, I’m cleaning up GoW (2018) en route to another platinum.

On Thursday, I platinum’ed One Piece Odyssey. Flawed yet fun to hang with the Strawhats. It has potential to be great if they expand on it, make more unique NPC models (I swear there are only like ten and they all change hair) while adding more actual OP characters (frayed memories should’ve been boss fights against side characters like Mr. 1 in Alabasta, Kalifa in Water 7, any War Lord in Marineford, and Fujitora in Dressrosa), collectible counters, more convenient save spots aka next to camps, etc. I’m sure there was a budget but still a lot of missed potential that could be worked on. Welpppp, I got sidetracked

I'm playing Ultra Street Fighter IV and Quake 2 reboot

I’m still plugging away at ff7 rebirthmake on the 5, I’ll also be air punching in synth riders on psvr2 and knocking bosses off of cliffs in shinobido 2 on the vita

@Bentleyma Do it mate, my Vita is the go to portable in my life though I am very tempted by a steam Deck but have never PC gamed so unsure! I do love my Evercade though!

More Helldivers to ensure democracy and rid ourselves of the Automatons for good! I am sure that means the Alien race is on the way 🤞✊

Probably some VR with GT7 too.

Happy gaming everyone

I'm jumping between Rebirth and Banishers Ghosts of New Eden but I'm going to try and get Rebirth finished this weekend got to chapter 10 and just stopped playing for some reason. I'll also play a bit of Helldivers 2 I've been playing solo on challenging and it's still a lot of fun solo.

I'm on the true End Game of FFVII Rebirth... Getting Johny all of his Treasure Trove gubbins! I only have one more left - the Hard Mode VR Missions so that Platinum is smelling mighty tasty!

If I get that done I'll be returning to Pacific Drive and playing some No Man's Sky with the lads.

I think I am just going to stick with my Vita and Chinatown Wars for the next few days. I have Racing Transformed on the way also, and am very excited for that. I might throw on some Sleeping Dogs or DD2 if I want to play a big game like that. I played some of Immortals of Aveum, and can confirm that it is a video game. I didn't know it was sooooooo...YA? It really is though. Unfortunate.

@Bentleyma I do highly recommend it. There are so many great games on the device. I'd also say it's worth getting one on Ebay from Japan as you can get a 2000 in a nice colour (the blue and red both look really great) and Japanese people take much better care of their handhelds than Americans/Europeans.

Do you know which games you're most eager to get on it? If you're not going the mod route (can't earn trophies if you do I believe) It's worth checking to see if you have any games on it through PS+ I had over 100 just through claiming the monthly games, and a lot of PS3 and PS4 games still have crossbuy.

Mainly ELDEN RING™.

@Luigia Soon as I have the $$$ I am picking one up. People here have convinced me. It makes sense. I've always preferred portables.

@ironcrow86 Mad Max is a special game.

Cool to see Mgs acid mentioned though I'd do myself the favour and skip straight to the sequel since they streamlined, and imo perfected the gameplay of the original. I sank so many hours into it.

Dragons dogma 2 and a spot of helldivers 2 this evening as per usual. I did purchase kinga glyks feelings on cd so I'll be listening to that and attempting to learn some of her amazing bass lines especially the song "joy joy." Have a great weekend everyone 👍

Hoping to get more Cyberpunk played. Bout a third of the way through the main story. I like the game but I'm not loving it the way I thought I would. That could all change though

@LikelySatan I hope you enjoy and provided your PS5 is LAN connected and enabled you’ll have a great time! I’ve two kids and this has allowed me to enjoy away from TV

I’m 28 hours into dragons dogma 2 and am starting to run out of steam with it. I’ll see it through but it might take me a while.

Also Helldivers. Always Helldivers.

@Luigia We have 7, but only five at home rn, lol. The PS5 is kind of the entertainment center tbh. I just want to play games in bed.

Continuing my playthrough of Persona 5 royal and enjoying the little changes here and there. Trying to finish it before moving to Psychonauts.

Dragon's Dogma 2 mostly but will be checking out the big System Shock update next week

Working my way through my criminal backlog in the last few week have finished got and callisto protocol including the final transmission, can see why this game received so much hate but thoroughly enjoyed it myself! Started evil west last night and seems fun so will continue with that this weekend, xeno crisis, Robin hood and sensible soccer on the evercade as well when not on the ps

Playing Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Like a Dragon 7 on xbox. Also, started a new save of Animal Crossing on the switch, which has been a nice, relaxing experience.

Random acts of philanthropy in Dragon's Dogma 2

As I'm feeling quite OP I've taken to hiring random lower level pawns to balance the game at times. Already gifted one a full set of pretty decent upgraded armour. And now I'm wondering if they've noticed yet and equipped it in their game, so I must check in with that pawn at some point.

I feel like I'm at the point where I can advance the story as I've exhausted near all available quests and locations I can find and killed so many giant monsters. I might try and hunt a few more Drakes first though 😁

@Zuljaras I love your posts ever Saturday but blimey !!!
How many games have you got !

Playing Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on my PS5 and I have been looking forward to play this again for a while.

Yesterday I put some hours on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, this awesome huge game. Today I will host my birthday party, so no gaming time, and tomorrow is my sunday game, Tales of Arise. I have to put more hours on it, it's very good!! A brilliant weekend for all of you!!

Closing in on the end of Final Fantasy Rebirth… hoping the chapters get a little quicker toward the end. Still loving the game, but man, some of the mini games have really tried my patience 😂.

Might put off 100% each region for the second playthrough, but I’m going to need to free up some space for whatever’s next. And at a huge 146GB Rebirth might need to take the hit once it’s done until I have time to go back and finish it off completely.

I will be playing my favorite mascot of the 1990s the incredible. And iconic crash bandicoot n sane trilogy.the graphics and gameplay is excellent.and the story and boss fights is incredible.i will be also be playing the wonderful nier automata game of the yorha edition.2b is a awsome protagonist.the gameplay is incredible.the graphics is awsome.the boss fights and the story is wonderful.i will be playing the excellent immortal fenyx rising gold edition. The gameplay is amazing.the art style graphics is excellent.the story and the boss fights is incredible.and i will be playing the amazing metal gear 5 phantom pain definitive edition.solid snake is a iconic protagonist.the graphics and the gameplay is amazing.the story and the boss fights is excellent.i will be watching my boston Celtics 💚🖤 🏀 play.i will be watching legendary sitcoms tv 📺 comedy shows in Sanford and son.good times.the Jeffersons.martin.familly matters.and saved by the bell.word up son

@Zuljaras How is Undying on the deck? Been meaning to give it a go as never played it and played Jericho ages ago on X360 which wasn't a great game but I am partial to the work of Mr Barker.

@Zuljaras Nice one.
I'm a very old gamer and I've had god knows how many games over countless systems.

We love our hobby.

I know I'll be playing Stellar Blade in 2/3 weeks time.

PS5 - Final Fantasy XVI

Switch - Princess Peach: Showtime

Have sunk about 50 hours into Rise of the Ronin and still can’t get enough of it!

@Mostik I'm thinking of getting a Asus Rog

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Another weekend of Rebirth. Darn.

This weekend will be full on FF7 Rebirth action, with a little Foamstars sprinkled in. I can't wait to finish work today 😁

Have a good one folks!

My long term city on Cities Skylines is getting too stressful to manage now, so I’m going to play through GTA5 on PS5. Haven’t played it since it came out on the PS3 10+ years ago!

@Ephexis83 they apparently overheat so much that the SD card will fall out.

Thought I would give midnight sun's a go as it is free lol , not bad atm

Feels like everything and nothing.

FFVII Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and the occasional round of HellDivers 2.

Still want to get back to Balatro and BG3 and Snowrunner as well!

I’ve been itching to get Rise of the Ronin as it seems like I’d enjoy it regardless.

So many games!

Farcry classic on PS3, realistic difficulty!

Just Helldivers 2 ... can't be anything else atm. Obligatory invite to anyone to hook up - DeadOnFred 👍🏻

Spreading democracy and freedom across the galaxy in helldivers

This weekend I’m playing Rise of the Ronin. I thought I was going to take a break from gaming since it took me 110 hours to finally beat Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but this game has its (demon) claws in me.

I want to preface that I think RoTR is a strong 7.5 game. It’s not as polished as prior Team Ninja games. The game can be janky, and the frame rate, even on performance mode, dips quite a bit. I’ve noticed on several occasions the game stutters even during cutscenes. And graphically, there’s much left to be desired. Perhaps the budget for this game wasn’t that much, but thankfully the strengths of this game outweighs its negatives.

As for the positives — it’s addicting as hell, to be honest. The open world has your typical tropes: clear bandit hideouts, find treasure chests, and various collectibles. It’s essentially a Ubisoft playground. But that’s okay. Not every new game has to reinvent the wheel because the game is just fun. The open world activities are also perfectly spaced out — nothing is ever too far away, so it manages to keep you actively engaged and gives you a since of accomplishment in continuous bursts.

The combat is also superb, which is Team Ninja’s bread and butter. Unlike their counterparts, the action is most slowed down. It requires patience and good timing. It may not be as fined tuned as From Software titles, particularly Sekiro, but it’s still Grade A stuff. In fact, it feels more like Ninja Gaiden than it does NiOh and Wu-Long. There’s also a plethora of weapons and combat variety that are all equally balanced and satisfying to use. Each weapon and its class have their own unique skill set and abilities.

With that said, I do have a gripe with its combat and weaponry. You can only equip two weapons — primary and secondary (I’m not talking about the guns, bows or shurikens) — and sometimes you’ll encounter enemies where the two weapons you have aren’t built to fight the enemy you’re facing. And the game usually has multiple enemies at once, and maybe one of your weapons work against one of those enemies, but nobody else. I typically brute force my way through them, but it’s a system that is somewhat misguided. I get the incentive — the game wants you to experiment with various weapon types, but it shouldn’t force you change your preference. This is eventually remedied by unlocking different stances for all weapon types, but it takes a while to achieve that.

In tangent with the combat is a skill tree, with four difference classes: strength, dexterity, charm, and intellect. I think this is one of the better skill trees in a game. The majority of abilities are actually beneficial and I find myself genuinely thinking about my decision when spending skill points. All of these things provide a healthy balance to suit your play style, so I enjoy the freedom of choice.

There is a lot more I would like to discuss, but this is already lengthy as is. At the end of the day, I don’t need a genre defining masterpiece. Sometimes, I just want to turn my brain off. I’m content with an unremarkable story and characters, albeit historical. I just want to mindlessly hack-and-slash people. And that’s what Rise of the Ronin does in spades. I’m having fun, and that’s what gaming is all about.

Rebirth, I must finish it before I get distracted...
I picked Robocop up this week, and I might take a quick peek at that too, though I'm trying to resist the temptation!

Whatever your playing, have fun!

Rise of the Ronin. Having a lot of fun, except when I lost what may have been my favourite picture I’ve ever taken in a photo mode because there’s no prompt asking, “Are you sure you want to exit?” Happy gaming!

I have just (this morning) finished Tomb Raider III through the remasters. Fancied the platinum across the three games but not sure I can face some of the levels on New Game+, Lost City of Tinnos seems like it would be a nightmare. At a bit of a loss for my next game now...

I finally came around to playing Saints & Sinners for a longer period, after it sat in my backlog for way too long. It's bloody amazing, as i already suspected! Will be playing all weekend!🔥

I finish platinum like a dragon infinite wealth ( love it) and start to play Evil West. Maybe the squad will start remant 2 this weekend too.

@ShogunRok
Why is there no poll on pushsquare for this weekly topic unlike your sister site Nintendo Life? Since both sites look exactly the same.

Unfortunately I really don’t have anything to play until the DLC for RESISTANCE: Retribution comes out next week….. maybe I’ll jump back into Helldivers 2. Been a few weeks since I played that.

I decided not to renew my PS+ sub for the first time since the service began so I can work on my disgusting amount of bought, unplayed games. So I'm kicking it off with Torchlight 2 which I've had since it launched about a decade ago!

Have a good weekend all!

@Zeroo The reason we don't include a poll is because there are just so many games — feels a bit pointless. But if people would like one, we can look into it.

FF 7 Rebirth - I’ve finished the game. Simply awesome! Dont know what to add to all the positive things already said but its high on my list of favorite games 🤩

Brothers A tale of two sons remake - a favorite game of mine, had to take the opportunity to play it again. Still very good, and still very emotional 🥲

The Expanse - About half way and enjoying it a lot more than I had hoped. Looking forward to continuing the story over the weekend!

I also got Robocop lined up, picked it up in the sale, I think Im going to enjoy this game a lot.

Happy gaming y’all!

@ShogunRok I like it on Nintendo Life because it shows the main trends every week. Like 20% of the pushsquare community playing DD2 for the next weeks, then some news indie hits taking some share, etc. Easy to get the ‘zeitgeist’ of the week if that makes sense.

It’s WrestleMania weekend so I’ll be into that for the weekend. I’ll still make time for Unicorn Overlord and Tekken 8 though.

Helldivers 2 and i wish i didn't buy it at this point because the playerbase is braindead, multiple games people just straight up ignore bunkers so you get robbed of potential super credits, you can ping spam, tell them in chat and even respawn them directly in front of the bunkers and these mouthbreathers straight up refuse to press a button.

Push square you've fully overrated the game, game about working together to secure planets and yet nobody works together and your own teammates are who'll cause your demise not the enemy ai.

Like a Dragon IW. Damn I finished Ff7 Rebirth and started IW a few days ago. I don’t know which game I like better tbh. Between IW, ff7 and persona 3 it’s a crazy first quarter of 2024 for jrpg fans.

Still working my way through Rise of the Ronin. Which I don't know what happened, but I'm completely hooked on it. Still only in Yokahama trying to 100% everything before moving on to the next area.

Happy Gaming Weekend everyone.

Going to try the Stellar Blade demo to see what all of the hype is about (although I think I know what all of the hype is about).

@LikelySatan then the Portal will do you proud 👍🏻

Dragons dogma 2 and Princess peach showtime!

Rise of the Ronin's had its teeth in me since it came out and I'm still into it ~35 hours in. This is the first Team Ninja game that's really clicked with me and while it definitely has flaws, it's been a blast to play. Loving the Assassin's Creed exploration with the Souls/Sekiro combat (though I can never nail the parries)

I have Rebirth and Dragon's Dogma waiting for me on the sideline and Helldivers 2 open for whenever my coworker wants to kill some bugs.

bought dragons dogma 2 but it really didn’t pull me in. I was expecting to feel like I went on a grand adventure like the reviews said. Instead what I got was just laughably… idk, video game-y. I picked mage and battling was spamming square button while my character barely moved. It just felt off. Think I’ll try Witcher 3 instead

Taking a break after too much MHW, HD2, and DD2 Jan-Mar

@Kraven great synopsis! I loved GOT, so how does it compare?

I’m still taking my time with Rebirth and a side of the Unicorn Overlord demo on Switch, which is fantastic and one I’ll definitely be grabbing soon.

Started the weekend with some Helldivers 2, but will be finishing it off with some more FF16. I played Control for about 30 minutes and ended up completing chapter 2. I’m not seeing the appeal to this game. I’m just confused on what’s going and kind of tired of running.

@Deityjester sad

@Fishface45 I wrote it off at first but this is probably going to be a game I really like based on comments like these

@Kyushutrail I’m doing the same thing. I maxed out Fighter and Warrior and am about to start playing as a Thief. My character is level 40, but I’m gonna do more side stuff to get meister skills and flesh out the world.

Since I‘ve been on holiday I don’t think I’ll get onto much this today.

PS5 wise:
VII Remake Rebirth
Rise of the Ronin
MGS2
Star Ocean Second Story R

PS4 wise:
ESO

I’ve started playing yesterday Soul Hackers 2. And I do seem to like it even though it’s a bit odd at times.

Elden Ring. I reached the three fingers door but I haven't touched it yet. I'd like to get all of the endings in the game with "save scumming" and I know how painfully laborious it is to reverse the effects of the door.

After not playing for over a week, I picked up Ghost of Tsushima again, I am about 50% in. In the current sale I bought quite a few games, on top of that I ordered some physical games: MGS Collection, Unicorn Overlord, Pacific Drive, Vertigo 2, Labyrinth of Galleria Moon Society and Aliens Dark Desenct.

Now the only question that remains is, when will I play all the potentially great games?

Happy gaming everyone.

This weekend I’ve been working on the Mortal Kombat 1 campaign. It’s fun and looks amazing like all of them have done. And i continue to slowly work my way through Robocop. Have a great weekend!

Alrighty here we go with another edition of WAYP. Pretty simple this week. Big things of the past week would have to be seeing everything John Wick related, the movie Monkey Man and beating both Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown and Rain Code. All of it was simply amazing really. All simply superb. As for the rest of the weekend I’m thinking of just keeping it simple and doing Trails Into Reverie on switch with some of the womens basketball finals on and either Eiyuden Chronicle Rising or Hi-Fi Rush on PS5. Did the Stellar Blade demo and I locked that preorder in it’s absolutely amazing. As for the rest of the week I think I’ll keep it simple. Talking the Saga Emerald Beyond Demo on switch and Princess Peach Showtime and Another Code and Unicorn Overlord and I’m thinking AI: The Somnium Files will take the place of Rain Code now as there’s rumors they’re about to announce a third one. If they do I really wanna have both of the other games done before then. And hopefully finally start Penny’s Big Breakaway too. Over on PS5 if I can actually start Eiyuden Chronicle Rising that’s definitely the main focus of the week with a little Hi-Fi Rush, Persona 3 Reload, FFVII Rebirth, Tekken 8 to try Eddy Gordo out, Dragons Dogma 2 and hopefully finally start Helldivers 2 as well. As for anime of the week we’re finally really back at it with some absolutely excellent stars like Mashle, Delicious In Dungeon, Solo Leveling, Shangri La Frontier, and The Witch and The Beast. Podcasts of the week are of course Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, RPGsites Tetracast, Into the Aether, Remap Radio, Minnmax, Nextlander, Summon Sign, Windbreaker and Firelink. Tho being quite honest I think I’m gonna start cracking into my GOTY podcasr backlog so I’ll be getting oddly nostalgic for all the amazing games of last year. And of course y’all we wouldn’t ne some without a shoutout to my amazing friend at twitch.tv/akibread with their excellent streams. Enjoy the eclipse tomorrow if any of y’all are near it. As always be good to each other. Stay safe. And have a awesome rest of the weekend and Happy Gaming.

Unicorn Overlord after finally finishing the slogfest that is Rebirth