Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 635

Bond. James Bond.

007 for me and probably nothing else.

Dragon Age 2 - now I remember being really excited for this back in 2011… and then playing most of it wondering what the hell were BioWare thinking. It’ll be interesting to return to it all these years later with far lower expectations. Also, Origins will be far more fresher in the mind this time around having replayed it just last year, so my own comparisons will be more fair this time.

Schrodinger’s Call. Want to start a JRPG soon.

Resident evil 7 and maybe some lego batman.

Platted Adorable Adventures yesterday and started Tides of Tomorrow. Played for two hours and the story progress is already at 33%.

Tried Star Wars Outlaws and Imo its pretty meh. Typical open world game with a Star Wars skin. I dont know if I will finish it.

Have a great weekend!

"It’s not even summer yet and it’s already scorching outside."
...Just don't look at the forecast for June in the UK. I hope you have a good umbrella, though.

Started Enotria the other day and I'm going to focus on it over the weekend. Still way too early to judge how I feel about the combat, but this is a very pretty soulslike with strong art direction.

Just got Path of Exile 2 so I guess I will try it, otherwise the classic Helldivers 2 and One Piece Pirate Warriors 4.

I've been playing a mixture of Forza Horizon 6, Crazy Taxi and the Twilight Princess recomp on my Ally X, though I do quite like the look of the new Bond game, so might pick that up

Tales of Xillia Remastered: Really enjoyed Arise and the premise of this title is quite intriguing. Looking forward to another entry in this series.

I recently 100%-ed Super Mario Odyssey and that was a lot of fun. Thirty extra hours and mostly not too taxing (although the Darker Side took a few tries and I loathe Breakdown Road). My favorite kingdom (surprisingly) has got to be Lost: the eye-popping colors and trees, the change of pace, the almost ethereal music, and of course one of the best captures in the game, the Wiggler, will always make this so fun to revisit.

I've just started Pragmata and I've gone back to Granblue Fantasy Relink to upgrade some of the characters so that I'm ready for the expansion in July.

007 First Light just completed Mission 4. What a superbly made, enjoyable game this is. Captures the essence of Bond perfectly and its polished to a fine sheen. Although its strange how many batteries and chemicals there are left lying around all over the world 🤣. Great casting in Patrick Gibson too.
Forza Horizon 6 on XBX ..I love just picking this up, pootling around Japan and doing street races. Looks fantastic too.
It's crazy that in a year where weve got brilliant single player games performing well and selling millions ie. Bond, Saros, Pragmata, RE Requiem and Crimson Desert that publishers are chasing the live service money !
Apart from all that, ill be watching the mighty Arsenal lift the Champions League Trophy ! Come on you Gunners !!

Greetings fellow video game enthusiasts. I will be playing Tunic. Only in the beginning stages but it's enjoyable so far. There are currently around 40 games in my backlog so it feels good to be ticking one off. Happy gaming time everyone.

I’ll be playing psychonauts 2 and not much else.

Bit of everything this weekend, either side of my son’s birthday today.

I’ve recently started Ready or Not and Pacific Drive. Both great games but with very tiny writing and very finicky controls.

RE9 on insanity.

A bit of GTAV online madness and with a dash of PGA 2K25 (the G.O.A.T trophy is driving me insane 😠)

Have a great gaming weekend Pushsquarians! 🍻

Fall Of Avalon.

More Star Wars Outlaws, having a lot of fun with this one. I'm still on the first planet but still finding lots of trouble to get into. The spaceship bits have been more enjoyable than expected, I usually don't gel with that sort of thing.

Have a boss weekend everyone and happy gaming 👍

Since tuesday night I've put what gaming time I have into one game

007 First Light - and I've been loving it. Its so much fun to play, like an awesome mix of Uncharted and Hitman. Very good dialog, good story, fun gameplay, great brawls, so many options to solve different problems and situations during missions... its not all perfect but on the whole it has that special something that makes it really, really fun 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Slowly getting through FF7 Rebirth, the game's pace is super slow... wondering if I should have just played the original

Deep Rock Galactic with the VR mod. These kind of mods are one of the main reasons I went from Playstation to PC this gen:

And some more Dark Souls 2, also with VR mod (mostly third person). Just finishing up the Gutter, which was even more oppressive in VR.

@psmr I agree on DA 2 but the writing in that game is fantastic- brilliant dialogue and characterisation

I'll be playing some undisputed and Forza horizon 6 ( I'm coming for you bowie knife 99) but I might start the Witcher 3 aswell that I never played or continue playing dead rising deluxe remaster that I stopped playing a couple months ago!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Come on psg!!

I just finished Resident evil 9: Requiem and what a game that was. After getting used to playing a horror survival action game after a long time abscence from those games and Resident Evil in general I must say that this was a masterpiece which entices me to revisit the series' remakes on the modern consoles.

To cool off a bit, I've started playing Ratchet and Clank: Rift apart which was sitting in my backlog for a long time. Blew some dust off it when taking it from the shelf and I'm having a blast with this amazing game. This is a top tier title and although I'm a bit late to the party I can't recommend it enough.

Summer is knocking on our doors and the State of play is coming close. Have a fun weekend, people.

Elden Ring, up to Volcano Manor which ironically is about the same temperature as my living room

Well I'm at a total loss without my T598. Its like losing a limb. So racing is off the menu so I think I'll hit something different this weekend and I'm going to play path of exile 2 and see what the ps5 Pro update brings. I was going to purchase the D4 lord of hatred expansion but seeing as Cacktivision expects me to rebuy D4 and the other expansion I've already shelled out for they can kiss my arse. Now that's corporate greed..oh I did buy lumines arise and I'll be chilling out with that in VR this evening. Have an awesome weekend folks 👍

I will be playing one of the best video games ever made in the excellent dishonored 2 as corvo.and I will be playing fan favorite the classic the incredible teenage mutant ninja turtles the cowabunga collection. Teenage mutant ninja turtles the arcade game.i will be watching final destination bloodlines movie.its been amazing o far.will be watching legendary sitcoms TV 📺 comedy shows in family matters.good times.the Jeffersons.sanford and son.different strokes.martin.the wayans brothers.married with children and saved by the bell.word up son

Gaelic Football Laochra. Irish football is back on consoles for the first time in over 20 years. What a time to be alive 😄

James Bond can wait

Crimson Desert mostly for me and I'm trying to stop myself buying 007 as I've already got too many games in my backlog. Probably play some more Forza as well if i get time later.

Everything Forza Horizon 6 for me this weekend.

Happy gaming everyone.

@Anke Clang! Clang-a-lang a lang a lang!

I'm working my way through trying to get the platinum for every Ace Attorney game. I've finished GAA and I'm now on case 3 of the first game.

I've also started a new game on Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Golden Deer) and I'm continuing to chip away at Tears of the Kingdom.

Mina the Hollower, Sektori, and Twilight Princess: Dusk. I also picked up Dracula: Dark Reign for the GBC. Crazy impressive game.

Playing:

• Sniper Elite V2 (PS3)
• Finished:
• Mirror's Edge (PS3)

This weekend i'm gonna play Sniper Elite V2. I bought this game last year but never get the chance to finish it.

Outside gaming, i'm gonna chill and watch Spider-Noir. So far the show has been great and kinda funny that Nicholas Cage fits more as Spidey than Superman.

Hope you guys have a nice weekend. Cheers 🍻

I finally pulled the trigger on Baldur's Gate III. I'm taking my time with it because it was overwhelming at first and the game doesn't explain literally anything.... Anyway, I'm almost done with Act I and I'm really having fun. Will you get the most enjoyment out of it if you're a hardcore D&D fan? YES! But as a normie, I'm still having fun.

Wow, I can't believe that no one has mentioned Mina the Hollower yet. I'll be picking it up today and starting it up. I'll also be finishing up Dispatch by tomorrow, most likely. I've been playing it each weekend morning over the course of 4 weeks and have 2 episodes to go. It's so charming. Some of my favourite writing in a video game.

Still making my way through Lunar: Silver Star Story. Real charming RPG - I'm enjoying it.

I'm just about through Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. The final boss is a bit of a doozy - I might need to go stock up on potions.

Have a good weekend, everybody.

I just finished the hades 2 platinum this morning. So now, will probably carry on with RD2. Its great. I can tell that. But everything about the game at the moment is somewhat laborious. I wish everything was just a bit snappier. It puts me off playing it a bit.

Alan Wake 2 got me doing algebra, what an unpredictable game. Causing chaos in FarCry 6, the series' graphics is always on point. Still chasing Chronos in Hades 2. Oh yeah finally beat KCD2 after 412hrs - crazy! Did a lot of side quests but there was still plenty left. One of the best games ever!

Considering how overrated and boring new games are nowadays (I’m looking at you 007: First Light with your horrendous tonal shifts, extremely linear game design, ridiculous fast pace and laughably poor writing) I’m going to be tackling my backlog for quite some time.

Evil Within and Jetpack Joyride on PS3.

Jak and Daxter: PL and Jetpack Joyride Deluxe on Vita.

Happy weekend, folks.

PS5 - 007 First Light

Switch 2 - Pragmata

I've installed FF14, but I'm not sure I have the time for it. A little scared to start tbh.

I'll be going through 007: First Light mainly. Think I'm currently at about the halfway mark and I'm really impressed by the presentation. Nails so much of the feeling you get when you watch one of the films and I really like the direction they've gone with the character himself.

Otherwise I randomly started Ghost of Yotei again last week so will probably head back to that if I finish Bond.

No gaming for me this weekend, as I'm traveling to the capital to watch Mandalorian & Grogu with my girlfriend. I wish the best gaming hours for all of you mates!!!

Continue my second run on trails remake.
Probably a bit of AX shadow
Probably some fighting games

I’ve made the fatal decision to go out irl, and not stay inside and play video games. When I return from the dreaded real life commitments. I’ll be heading back into Dragons Dogma - making progress through Bitterblack isle. I’ve taken down the Gazer and the Dark Bishop already, so looking forward to continuing.

Same things as last weekend:

• garden work
• Tomb Raider III
• Fort Solis
• maybe Sea of Thieves

Happy weekend everyone!

Lego batman for me. Im very surprised how good it is.

Really is Arkham lite with a Lego twist. A big big big improvement on the pretty average Skywalker saga

Just an aside, why do so many people use the phrase 'pulled the trigger' when talking about buying a game, as if it's some momentous, life-changing decision?

Not just here, I see it on Reddit, forums etc.

I’ll be putting the finishing touches on ‘Pragmata’ and continuing on with ‘Mina The Hollower,’ which I started last night. What a strange and captivating world I can’t wait to fully explore. Happy gaming!

Not having a ton of disposable income at the moment, I picked up Rogue Trader for $20. Have to admit, before starting it I was a bit intimidated by all I'd read, but Owlcat didn't let me down! Yes, it's intricate & involved, but with all the options they give you there's no reason to fret!! Only thing that really threw me (had to go online) is what they refer to as "wounds" actually means your HP! Got a feeling I may be playing this until next year - the REAL reason Fable got delayed!!! 😜

I wanted some dumb fun, so I gave Grind Survivors a try and it's pretty decent, but really tough (or I'm just terrible at it).

Rogue-like survivors are my guilty pleasure.

Looking forward to going back to Hades II.

Entertainment for the tribe most of the day. But champs league final at 5! Then some flight simulator later have a good one

Just started Absolum. Having a great time with it playing solo. Looking at the $50 credit i have and deciding on what next to buy from the sale. Im leaning Monster Hunter Wilds. I never played any as I play 95% solo games. This looks decent to solo though. Deathstranding 2 is another possibility, but I never finished the first so may understand less. Third option is Dynasty warriors origins. Lol to many to choose from.

It's the TT races this week, and next, so my gaming has slowed down, but there's only one game that is demanding my attention. I shall continue to work my way through this season's Skull and Bones challenges, I'm not ready to stop yet.

I finished the main campaign in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. It was fantastic from start to finish. I’m now slowly grinding and chipping away at the remaining collectibles to get 100%. I play for maybe 30-minutes a day to mop them up.

But what I want to really talk about most is Mina the Hollower, my most anticipated game in the last three years. I ignored reading reviews (though I did see the scores), only watched the first reveal trailer, and went in completely blind. Boy, my expectations were met and more.

I’m a few hours in, a couple of dungeons and bosses down, and I feel as if I’m only scratching the surface as to what this game actually **is**. It’s the perfect blend of 2D Zelda titles, and Soulslike difficulty. The checkpoints can be unforgiving, and if you die you lose your “bones” unless you collect them back after your death. This may turn people away — understandably, might I add — and it caught me off guard.

If you are willing, there are a ton of modifiers to help make the game easier. Some of these options don’t feel like cheating, or making your playthrough feel less than. For example, you can turn on the ability to heal faster.

The moment to moment gameplay feels fantastic, as does the handful of weapons. I’ve tinkered around with a few and settled on the hammer, but I do enjoy the Castlevania-esque whip. The RPG-lite elements are a nice touch, too. Leveling up your weapons, gear, and other trinkets creates a layer of depth that has tons of options for unique builds.

Meanwhile, exploration is consistently rewarding. Being a mouse and using its abilities such as burrowing is such a fun element to incorporate not only in its combat, but exploration. I’ve discovered numerous of secrets so far, some of obvious, while others are challenging. Mina has that rare feat where when you uncover a secret you feel as if you’re the first person to do so.

As mentioned, I’m only a few hours in so I can’t really go in depth with an analysis of the game. With what I have experienced so far, I can say it’s shaping up to be my GOTY. Whether or not that will change the further I progress is to be determined. But right now, I can confidently say Yacht Club has burrowed it out of the park again.

@Fartingale superb game that. I couldn't put it down

I don’t even know! Just platinum’d Dragon’s Dogma 2 and have no idea what to play next. Any suggestions?

I started up 007 First Light yesterday, I made it to the airport before calling it quits for the night. I’m absolutely loving it, so far. I’m also working my way through RE5, for an older game that still had tank controls it holds up.

I'll be diving into the 1.09 update in Crimson Desert as I've actually not played it in over a week. I'm ALMOST at the end of Octopath Traveler 0 after 141 hours. And I'm near the final boss of Digimon Story Time Stranger Hoping to complete something soon.

Game on, Comrades!

Just some mindless bug squashing in Space Marine 2 while waiting for Gothic next week.

When do you think we'll get reviews of performance on PS5/Pro?

Well, I decided to throw in the towel on Silksong. I got to act 2 and I think there’s just too much BS to deal with that I can’t have a good time. Disappointing because I think Hollow Knight was so incredible and I wanted to like Silksong but it’s just too frustrating.

Anyway, I’m playing Mina and Quartet now all on Switch 2. My PS5 has been collecting dust for a while. There’s just nothing good from Sony right now.

Still grinding away at the platinum for Spec Ops the Line and trying out Kunimitsu in Tekken 8.

Ingrid on Street Fighter 6, and Mr. Karate on Fatal Fury COTW. I’m back and forth between those games. Will also play WWE 2K26 and Sonic Racing Cross Worlds.

Diablo 4, got me again

50% of all Push Square readers today:

I'll be joining you soon 😁

I’ll be playing Wuchang Fallen Feathers this weekend since it was one of the rare free games of the month I actually wanted to play for some time that I didn’t buy before it landed on the service, which almost never happens. Hope everyone enjoys their time gaming this weekend!

This weekend I’m still out of town playing on my portal. So more than likely Turbo Overkill and Mina the Hollower will have my free time along with Mouse P.I.. When I return I’ll dive back into Pragmata and work through that.

Beyond that I’m tempted to snag Nioh 3, First Light, The Alters, Ninja Gaiden 4, Legacy of the Dark Knight, or Luna Abyss to add to the rotation.

I am all in on 007: First Light this weekend. Having platinumed and cleared my previous games played. Heard amazing stuff about it so far. So my expectations are pretty high. Happy Gaming all

More Divinity Original Sin 2 and I've started playing BioWare's old gem, Jade Empire.
Also gonna watch the Champions League Final. Hope it's a cracker and not just 1-0 to Arsenal from a corner.

@4fold that’s exactly how I felt playing RDR2 which in my opinion was a letdown after RDR1. Laborious, slow pacing, it felt like they thought it was a film and forgot it was a game. I gave up about 20% in and was gutted as the first game was one of my favourites from that gen.

Playing Lego Batman and having a blast. More than halfway through and idk what to play next. I have 007, Prgamata, mouse PI all sitting there. What a year so far.

Really enjoying Assassin's Creed Mirage at the moment. Enjoying the smaller map and the limited skill trees which is a refreshing throwback in an age of bloated RPG open worlds.

I'm 2 weeks into Crimson Desert and will probably be playing it through the summer. Absolutely incredible.

Maybe a bit of crimson desert and rdr2 but with the weather being so good ill be enjoying the great outdoors so may do some gaming in the evening, we'll see:)

I'm tackling Resident Evil 2 Remake on PS4. After beating my first horror adventure in RE9 on Switch 2, I'm running through the rest of the modern RE games. RE2 is just as fun as I hoped it would be!

RE9 went on sale so that and maybe NTE.

@Hylian-Likely I was stuck on The Last Judge for ages. It was so frustrating that I developed an eye twitch for a month. Months later, I went back to it and finally got past it. I got about 20 minutes into Act 2 and made it to the first save point. Never picked it back up since. I just don't have the will to do it since I heard that things get even harder. I see no point of killing myself with stress over trying to beat it. Maybe someday in the far future if I'm feeling masochistic, but not anytime soon, that's for sure.

Just picked up 007 First Light so I will be starting that, also going to dip into Mina the Hollower. I've never played Shovel Knight so this will be my introduction to Yacht Club Games.

Im in Japan right now as one of those extremely annoying tourists so nothing for me. I went to a book off yesterday to see if there was anything to buy but was disappointed. Was looking to pick up Death Stranding 2 or Yakuza Kiwami 3 or really just anything but the selection was quite poor. I guess people in Japan really do prefer the switch over playstation. If anyone knows anywhere else to buy games here please let me know.

Timey-wimey shenanigans in Satisfactory. It’s like a second job now and I love it.

Giving Crimson Desert a break and I'm back onto Outriders.

Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Pro after the Pro update.

I first played it when it launched on the PS4 back in 2020 and had to quit due to crashes. Tried again 2 years later on the base PS5 and finished the game. Liked it well enough but decided to play it again after the big updates.

What a masterpiece!

Not only does it look absolutely amazing on the Pro but it feels like a different game after all those updates. It's been a while since I last enjoyed a game this much.

Can't wait to start Phantom Liberty!

@Burnish1619 Yes, you should have. Some of the OG doesn't hold up well nowadays (like the minigames), but the plot just cannot be beat. FF7R was enjoyable enough, but I've been content ending my "remake" experience there.

I know people around here can be salty about E33, but if you haven't played that, highly recommend it. I've been a fan of RPGs for nearly three decades, and I haven't enjoyed one like this in a very long time.

Starting playing FF Tactics again. I wanted to give Mina a spin, but it really feels like it's meant to be a handheld game.

If I didn't feel so burned out by open world games, I'd dive back into Tsushima. I love the gameplay, but the "missions" get to be so boring and generic. Felt the same way with Yotei.

‘007: First Light’. I’m having a legit blast with it. I’m mainly a stealth player if given the option in games so I’m loving the stealth-focus.

It shows how games like this and ‘Uncharted’ are so damn fun. An excellently written witty, lovable and quippy main protagonist is a rare breed.

I just hope they don’t overextend the life of this game IF it takes away from a sequel’s development time. DLC is great and all but the focus should be on developing the series long-term.

A sequel still needs to polish the gunplay, driving and more gadget diversity. So I’d rather them spend their time making the second game the best it can be. But they have to do whatever makes the company profit

Promised I would clear some backlog before buying Bond.

So completed both Broken Sword and Bramble 👊

Probably nothing as there is lot of sport in TV and going on bike with family today. But last week I finished Soma on steamdeck and it was really great experience and story. Not sure what to play next, feels like Lords of the Fallen is not enjoyable for me enough so will skip this for the moment. I started Sherlock Holmes game but it's not my cup of tea. Probably will give Returnal another try, or with announced DLC for Witcher3 I'll jump in to this in near future.

Enjoy the weekend and happy gaming, everyone!

007 and Saros.

Two absolutely stunning single player games.

007 is a reminder to me that Sony needs to get back to these type of games, Strong and linear semi open levels with cinematic production.

@SuplexingTrains Yeah that makes sense. I'm still undecided on whether I would get FF7R Part 3... I just wanna see how they animate Supernova haha
And yeah E33 is on my backlog for when I get that JRPG itch again. I'm sure it'll be excellent, thanks man
Btw I agree with you on Tsushima, I got most of the way through and got bored. These games like Rebirth don't need all these mediocre side activities!

@Burnish1619 I'm with you. There's a number of us who are very critical of the Remake trilogy that are, for better or worse, waiting to see how it handles part 3. Based on part 2, it just doesn't feel like it's going to resolve in a satisfactory manner. I know I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but at the same time, does that mean I want to slog through Rebirth? No, not really.

And yeah, I was having a blast with Tsushima. My son was too. But after the ending of Act 1, I felt like I lost my momentum, and I just haven't gotten back into it. All of the character-related storylines are great, but they really make it where if you aren't doing these side quests, you won't get the upgrades, stances, etc., and I'm not in love with that.

As for E33, it genuinely is my favorite game I've played in a very long time. It's a bummer praise for it has been labeled as "glazing" around these parts, because for a bunch of us who don't want to play "anime JRPGs", this really does feel like a return to form, for those of us who cut our teeth on the early FFs and recognized FF used to push boundaries, not maintain the status quo.

@Zuljaras Thanks for the tips, mate! I was actually thinking similarly like you to play the Leon games, so RE2R and RE4R. I have very fond memories of RE3 but I heard they managed to butcher it so I'll keep that one in the backlog for now.

I'm also tempted to play RE8 Village since I've heard it plays like a more powerful Grace from Requiem. Maybe I'll try the VR2 mode now that I've managed to fight through Requiem's scary sections.

Unicorn Overlord!! I've installed and deleted this game for 3 times and now and officially addicted. 😅