Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 541

Kingdom come deliverance for me.

I'm about 45 hours into Trails Of Cold Steel 3 which I'm still enjoying.
I also went back to Monster Hunter World,a game that I couldn't get into when it first released and had only tried for an hour but now I'm 10 hours into it after it finally clicked.I'm not good at it though and I still can't capture any monsters but I'm loving it!

On the Switch I have just bought and started Civilization 6.It's pretty complicated but I'm enjoying it so far.

On PS5 i will be playing Fairy Tail and Trails Through Daybreak. Daybreak has been excellent so far, the best Trails game yet for me so far.

On Switch I will be playing Tears of the Kingdom, been using the strategy guide to make sure I do all the caves, wells, shrines and side quests in every area before I do the final sage. I will also be playing Splatoon 3 as its Splatfest weekend.

Still working my way through Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Tales of Arise, never played before. I am not loving the combat system but I am having a good time. It is a good game overall

Just been playing The Division 2 (Roosevelt Stronghold Solo) and just realised why I gave up on that game yonks ago. Last quest on Dead Island 2 as well, now off to the bookies and pub for the football.
Have a great weekend gaming folks!

Steamworld Heist 2 has got it's claws in me, it's so addictive. Playing on Veteran difficulty first playthrough and the challenge is 🤌

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: I finished Remake and thought it was great, so I decided to keep the story going and hoo boy - is this different.

Apart from the obvious change in scenery (going from the sky city of Midgar to the grasslands of the planet below), this is far more open. The game eases you in with a starter city, but within three hours: off you go, into the wild blue yonder! This is an area teeming with wildlife, foes aplenty, vistas to scout out, and materials to collect that will aid you in crafting consumables.

The story is as excellent as you'd expect, with a rather protracted and quite engaging prologue detailing Cloud and Sephiroth's past together. You even get introduced to Aerith's first love Zack Fair as he rescues Cloud in an alternate timeline. This all ties neatly into the present, with Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII all coming to rely on one another in ways that affect their relationships as well as gameplay via Synergy Attacks (ported from the Intermission DLC).

There's a lot more I know I haven't yet discovered, and I think that's the major draw of Rebirth: discovery. What's in that barn over the rise? Or that swamp, or those ruins? I don't know, but it's going to be a pleasure finding out.

Not feeling too great this weekend (a bit under the weather) so I bought robocop as I have not played a decent fps for god knows how long and I've been enjoying my 80's action flicks quite a lot as of late. Have a great weekend folks 👍

Just had my daily dose of Arizona Sunshine 2 and finally got the gunslinger trophy to pop (20 headshots in a row), so I’m a happy camper. Also playing through Grimrock 2 on PC, but I really want to play Exit 8 this afternoon. Have a great weekend folks!

I’ll be playing Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess NG+. Easily the best game I’ve played this year! So much fun

Charming my way out of situations with my charismatic Drow bard in the majestic Baldur's Gate 3.

Madison VR (PSVR2)

Since last week I’ve mainly played:

Nobody wants to die - Really enjoyed this game! Its a bit slow at times perhaps but its a good story, great setting and pretty good puzzles/clues to solve. Its also pretty short so I’ve managed to finish and platinum it in about 5-6 hours. If you like these kinds of games I can really recommend it 🙂

Next up is Stellar Blade 🙂

Playing:

• Ender Lilies on PS4, currently at chapter 3. So far i'm really enjoying this game. But the vibe feels pretty sad and quite dark with all the blood, death, and people turn into monster that reminds me of some manga. And that music, dang, i must give my salute to the composer 🫡🙇‍♂️
• FF XIII on PS3, with 40 hours playing time and currently at chapter 11 fighting this annoying boss with 3 million HP. Back then, i thought FF XIII was mediocre. But right now i think i change my mind and appreciate what SE tried to do with this game.

Edit:
Forgot to add Warhammer 40K: Space Marine on PS3. I booted up the game just to see if some people are still playing multiplayer and i'm surprised to see like 10-12 people are playing Versus / Annihilation mode. I forgot how the control feels heavy and kinda janky, which is lore accurate i guess with that big armor & weapons. But i had some fun despite i'm sucks lol.

Working on the awesome CYGNI All Guns Blazing. The replayability is awesome!

Other than that Stranger of Paradise and Rise of the Ronin. I’m in a Soulslike mood.

This weekend I will play more Yakuza 4, already reached Kyriu's chapter. I will continue my Uncharted series revisit with 2, and chip more of Final Fantasy XVI FF mode. Them, it's a matter of choosing between Borderlands 3 or Dave The Diver. Must free some HD space for Star Wars Outlaws. Good gaming weekend mates!

I was enjoying the new Doom campaign from Machinegames, Nightdive, and id. Then Archviles showed up so I'm not sure if I'll continue with it. Been great so far, but I don't think Doom is fun with Doom 2 Archviles...just like the Spawn in Quake 1. As soon as they show up the game gets much, much worse.

I'm giving Ghost of Tsushima a try. Can't say it's entirely my cup of tea, but I can see it's a well made game. Also, decided to bite the bullet and get a ps portal, though my internet is terrible. Whenever it arrives, I'll find out if I should have opted for a Steam deck instead.

I will be playing 5 indie hits that remind me of other video games.i will continue be playing the excellent sifu.who remind me of batman Arkham game.sifu got excellent boss fights.gameplay.story.graphics.soundtrack.i will be playing the amazing mark of the ninja remastered.who remind me of a 2d tenchu.amazing gameplay and graphics.story.and soundtrack.and boss fights.i will be playing the incredible ruiner.who remind me of a top down cyperpunk returnal.incredible gameplay.graphics.story.boss fights and soundtrack.i will be playing the wonderful hotline Miami.who remind me of ghostrunner with the 1 hit.cool retro graphics.story.gameplay.soundtract.and boss fights.and i will be playing the awsome enders lilies quietus of the knights.which remind me of a soulslike metroidvania version of ps3 underated classic folklore.awsome boss fights.graphics.gameplay.story and soundtrack.i will be watching usa basketball finals.i will be be watching legendary sitcoms tv 📺 comedies show.in good times.the Jeffersons.sanford and son.and saved by the bell.word up son

Having got my platinum for Still Wakes the Deep, I am about 2 hours into Prince of Persia Lost Crown, excellent so far, pretty challenging but in a good way, it just flows so well!

@Northern_munkey Brilliant game, one of my favourite films of all time and definitely one of the surprise games of the 23' for me, proper B movie fun! Get well soon buddy!

I finally bought the sheer joy that is Pistol Whip for PSVR2. Do I look like a muppet while playing? 100%. But I feel like John Wick and Neo’s love child. It’s like being a kid again playing Time Crisis at the arcade and a real workout on top. I’m using leg muscles that haven’t had any attention in years!

Evil West

It's not considered to be a great game, but around 4 hours in I'm having fun with it. Yes, the combat can get repetitive, but there is something to be said about the simple fun Flying Wild Hog games provide. They may never make a GotY contender, but they continue to make games that are entertaining.

@GeeEssEff Happy for you. It's simply brilliant!

I'll be finishing off The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, as well as continuing with Forza Horizon 4 and getting started with Persona Q.

Jedi Survivor post game crap.

@Mostik 👍

I've decide to finally (after a decade) return to Guild Wars 2, started with a new character to a relearn the whole game and hopefully work my way through the expansions.

My financial situations a bit dicey at the moment so its going to be backlog games for the foreseeable future until I can square away a new job.

Welp I jumped back into Star Ocean 2 Remake and it's just as good as I remember. Gonna wrap up a Claude playthrough and probably start Rena run right after. But I have to play more Bloodborne too so there is that. Plus it's a long weekend for me so I'll try out the PS Plus games for the month.
All after the Olympic closing ceremony can't belive it done already! 🥺

Enjoy the weekend!

@PuppetMaster I might give it a miss then cause dark & depressive isn't really what I need from a game right now, Bloodborne is bad enough.

FFXIII is one of my favorite FF! Wish they would remaster is for PS5.

It's going to be pure PlayStation gaming this weekend as I'll be playing Sly 3 on PS3 and Red Dead Redemption II on PS5.

Finally picked up God of War Ragnarok while it’s on sale. It’s been very easy to get sucked back into GoW. So fun to hunt around for stuff to find. Also put a few more hours into Balatro. Have a great weekend!

@crimsontadpoles I really enjoyed the devil in me. The best of the dark pictures series for my money

I’m still playing through Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana on the PlayStation Vita. I’ve currently reached chapter 5, and things are ramping up. This game is an absolute joy.

It reminds me a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s not as grand in scope, but it has a nearly seamless open world, with varying landmarks and locales populated by all forms of enemies that range in level. As you progress through the story and bring in more castaways to your village, new areas of exploration open up from prior locations. It’s a great design that keeps things fresh as you retread old ground.

Speaking of the narrative, I think it’s paced brilliantly, and it’s a testament to its unique approach to story telling. While it may be bare bones in terms of a grand epic, where there are evil kings and queens, trapped princesses in need of rescue, or some mysterious force plaguing the lands, it makes up for it by telling a relatively simple tale, with a few mysterious questions.

Your ship has crashed, and you washed ashore on a peculiar island. Your job is simple: find other survivors and escape. The more people you find stranded the more you can gather resources, acquire basic necessities, and build a safe haven as you explore the island and looking for an optimal approach to escape.

But, the more you explore the island, the more questions start to emerge. Why are there ancient beasts roaming around? Why are you discovering weird notes and journals? Is that really a city that housed an advanced civilization beyond the mountain range, and how did it come to be and why does it look abandoned? Who is this person I keep dreaming about when I make camp? It’s all simple but effective.

Side quests are spread out sparingly, and they are serviceable enough. They are fetch quests, but they make sense in regard to the overarching story, and most of them can be accomplished via the golden path. I’d say it’s quite smart.

There are new gameplay mechanics that are introduced throughout the story chapters, but it’s essentially crafting tools, cooking recipes, and upgrading gear. It’s not all thrown at you at once, so it never feels like a chore to keep maintained because all of it happens organically.

One of my complaints is the difficulty balance between enemies. There are some beasts that could have the same level as you, or maybe one or two above, and they are easy to destroy. Other times, there are enemies the same level as you are, maybe even lower, that pose a significant challenge and can kill you in one or two hits if you aren’t careful. Perhaps it’s due to my character composition and their gear that upgrades their stats, but I don’t think that’s the case because I’ve experimented twitch a lot of variations. To be fair, however, I am playing on Nightmare mode so that obviously plays a huge factor. And even on hard mode, I haven’t necessarily needed to grind, at least for very long, to get past a certain area or boss fight.

All in all, Ys VIII is a fantastic game. With it being my first venture into this franchise, I’m now excited to play other games in its historicity. In fact, Ys X: Nordics looks quite wonderful. Nihon Falcom is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite developers, and I’m ecstatic to hear they want to be quicker on releasing their games to Western audiences. And when they do, I’ll be there day one.

On Steam Deck I squeezed in a bit of Sekiro last night. Then, after the kids went to bed, I started Kumitsu-Gami Path of the Goddess on Game Pass. PotG is very much a “just one more round” kind of game, I played four or five levels after only intending to play one, I’m really loving it so far.

Just finished Fallout 4 main story for the first time and I'm about to start Far Harbor or Nuka World.

Dark Souls 3 Now on the Ringed City dlc after finishing Ashes of Ariandel. Kunitsu-gami path of the goddess was decent but lost momentum at the end for me so put it down

Nintendo Switch:
Currently abroad for hols so started up The Minish Cap on the plane - at the fire temple so far and loving the animation and pixels! Not so loving having to swap my items every couple of minutes…
Also playing Thank Goodness You’re Here as I felt I should support the company - the jokes fly out so fast that it’s quite difficult to play much more than an hour at a time and I’m not convinced a game is the best medium for it but I’m enjoying it so far
PS5 is paused at the moment as I couldn’t bring it with me!

Bloodhound-stepping my way through Shadow of the Erdtree

I managed to beat the amazing Returnal the other day after about 50 hours. Then the following day I played through it again to get the second ending without dying once! Isn’t it funny how things work out? Absolutely brilliant game, with the best use of the Dual Sense and 3D audio on the PS5 in my opinion.

Beating Returnal has been the perfect reminder on the eve of my 40th birthday that if you keep chipping away at something without giving up you can indeed “git gud”. I’m now busy clearing the tutorials and combo challenges on Dead or Alive 5&6 after picking them up in recent sales. Getting the timing right on some of the combos and throws is bloody difficult on a standard controller but I’m sure with more practice I’ll get there! Really enjoying this new challenge and I’m even quite tempted to invest in an arcade stick now. Nobody Wants to Die and Kunitsugami are going have to wait a bit longer haha…

Happy gaming everyone!

@rusty82 I'm certainly enjoying the story in The Devil in Me once it got going, though I'm a bit more iffy on the extra focus on traversal this time around (i.e. all the press X to climb/jump/push sections).

Dragon Dogma 2. Doing a few side quests on there before going back to the main quest.

This weekend will be BUSY. We're catching up on yard work today, and tomorrow is our annual back-to-school shopping extravaganza. My son enjoys it since there's an arcade and a restaurant visit in it for him.

If I get some time, gaming will be Trails into Reverie. I want to love this game, but holy smokes, it's 20 minutes of talking and cut scenes to every 5 minutes of gameplay. Hopefully there's a big meaty gameplay section coming up.

Still chipping away at the huge FF7 Rebirth, where I have just arrived at the Gold Saucer. I bought Atlas Fallen during the week, as it was on sale and had just had the Reign of Sand update. A bit worrying that I’ve already had 2 crashes where the game just froze on me. Considering the game has been out a year you’d think this sort of thing would have been fixed by now 🙄 I also bought Steamworld Heist 2, which I hope to start over the weekend.

Eh, probably gonna play 2XKO and maybe some BG3 while I wait for monke.

Subnautica Below Zero for me this weekend. Played the original a couple of years ago and was blown away by it. I'd heard mixed reactions to Below Zero but have gone in with an open mind and so far I am loving it.

Also just finished with Ys Memories of Celceta and had a fantastic time with it. Never met an Ys game yet that I didn't like!

Got the platinum in Cat Quest 3. I love those games as they are so charming and the gameplay is simple but fun. My next platinum will be my 100th one so I wanna make it a good one. So far the contenders are the last of us part one, red dead redemption, or GTA San Andreas. All 3 I have fond memories of from back in the day.

I’ve just started Dragons Dogma 2 and I’m enjoying every minute, after struggling to find anything to hold my interest.

@Kraven Ys VIII is a amazing game from start to end. Love Dana so much, what an extraordinary character!! The plot gets crazy (in a good way) and epic by the end. Make an effort to get the good, complete ending, is tottaly worth it!!

On a side note from what I’m actually playing this weekend, tonight my wife and I will be seeing Goo Goo Dolls and The Fray. It should be an excellent concert, and we are both excited.

@mac_da_man Glad to see you enjoyed Nobody Wants To Die and got the platinum! It’s an excellent game, despite some parts being slow.

@Mostik I just bought Still Wakes The Deep. I plan on starting it in the next couple of days. How difficult was the platinum trophy?

Splatfest time so I'm playin' some Splatoon 3.

Once the Splatfest is over, I'll continue my journey in Elden Ring.

@Kraven The Fray AND Goo Goo Dolls?! Thats awesome. Man that take me back. Enjoy!

Got a Lenovo Legion Go last week, so have been messing mostly with that. Have been playing Assassin’s Creed 3 and Persona 3: Reload

After finishing the outstanding Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, I’ve made a start on Hi-Fi Rush, which is just wonderful thus far. I’ll also be looking to finally begin my Final Fantasy VII Rebirth journey. Happy gaming!

I made the mistake of buying balatro. 11 hours in after 24 hours…

I have finally platinumed all of the Tomb Raider Remasters thoroughly enjoyed it (minus TR2 NG+). A bit lost for a new game now, thinking about The Pathless

Got my ps3 back recently and got a few japan studio games (trash panic, the last guy) and played puppeteer. Absolutely fantastic game

@freddquadros I’m also currently playing Yakuza 4 as well, but still on the first chapter.

In between sessions of that I’ll be playing FFVII Rebirth, just started chapter 12 so I’ll hopefully finish that up next week. Also, dipping into my old playthrough of AC: Valhalla I never finished but have about 50 hours logged. Hoping to finish that before September hits. Trying to squeeze in some arcade shooting every few days as well with XDefiant and MWIII: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

I’m a bit late to “proper” gaming after over a decade wasted of playing only GTA, CoD and FIFA.

Hopefully finish Horizon Zero Dawn this weekend before diving into TLOU for the first time

@KilloWertz Evil West was really fun. It reminds me of action games from PS2 era like Gungrave that has arcadey vibe or easy to pick up and play. We need more games like Evil West and Gungrave.

And I think they spice up the gameplay with a couple of puzzles and some boss are quite challenging. I don't know about PS5 version, but i played it on PS4 and it has some weird glitch with the cutscenes.

@3Above Yeah. If right now you're not in the mood for games with sad & depressing vibes, i think you should avoid Ender Lilies. But i still reccomend you to give it a try.

Happy weekend everyone.

I am playing so many games right now, here we go:

New Star GP - really enjoying this one

Jeanne d'Arc - playing bits and pieces

Actraiser Renaissance - still in the first area - second boss encounter

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - losing all the time online, yey

Ashen - 15 hours so far, I like it (only downside my companion is garbage sometimes)

Bioshock Infinite - finished it years ago on PC, but I forgot all about the story. So a fresh experience all over again.

On top of all that I want to continue Returnal, Yakuza 0, Mass Effect 2 and Death Stranding. I am so far behind, fudge.

Enjoy whatever you are playing or doing.

@3Above Yeah, I was shocked that both bands will be playing tonight, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It’s definitely nostalgic for us!

PS5 wise: P3 Reload, MH Rise and Ghost of Tsushima mainly with a bit of Returnal and Cult of the lamb.
PS4 wise: ESO, Dragon’s Dogma, AC2 and Days Gone.

@mac_da_man agreed. Nobody Wants to Die surprised me. It’s a great narrative experience.

@Doctor_BK hehe so you are like me, play many games concurrently. It's a huge balancing act with adult life, but, what we can do? We love games!

And man, Yakuza 4 story is TOP NOTCH. What a web of intrigue they developed here!! Stoked to see more!!

For me, it’s College Football 25 and maybe diving into Terminator Resistance or the Strange Brigade.

@PuppetMaster That's a pretty reasonable comparison for Evil West. Sometimes a fun game is just as good as the GotY contenders in a sense.

Even with the combat being a tad repetitive, it is fun beating the crap out of enemies for a while. It's even better when you pick it up and play it after a day at work.

Yeah, at least they try to work in a few things to mix it up a little. I haven't had any truly challenging boss fights yet, but that's not actually a complaint. I'd rather be able to figure it out after a few deaths than be sitting there after a few dozen deaths and then finally do it somehow.

I'm stuck again on BG3 on Series X so this weekend Ill be wrapping up my 3rd playthrough of the fantastic Stellar Blade on PS5 instead. Meanwhile my Switch is collecting dust.

Samurai Warriors 2 on Xbox 360 for me!

still on Dark Souls Remastered on ps5...slowly progressing and on the way to collect 4 lord souls. Already opened the path to DLC but as FS DLC´s are quite hard or harder than base games, I´d like to level up a bit and only after that jump in to DLC (before final area of base game). I accept the cult status of Dark Souls 1 but it´s definitely not better than Bloodborne in my opinion

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

True lies on a genesis emulator 🤷🏼 nothing has reached out and tickled my gaming pickle for awhile so I’m kind on in a gaming funk.

Currently playing through Alan Wake 2. The game has a bit of a learning curve at the onset, what with having to connect clues on a detective board (for Saga) or, even more confusingly, on a writer’s story board (for Alan). But once you get past that, the game is an absolutely brilliant game and it’s been super cool to see all the connections to Control and its shared world. The game is an absolute must play if you enjoy the story aspect of games or the artistic aspect of them. Really impressive!!!

@Kraven Hi buddy, it is a great game and the platinum was pretty straight forward. You will need a play through in Scottish Gaelic but you can do this on your 1st go, you still get English vocals, just signs and subtitles are all Gaelic. Other than that pretty straight forward plat, don't forget to look at the dead body to the right before the staircase after Finnley gives you the lighter. Games about 3 hours long if you need to speed run another play through holding down sprint.

I played, finished and Platinumed Dave the Diver. An outstanding game and one of the best smaller titles I had pleasure with.

Well here we go with another cool WAYP. Been a nice week around here. Beat Stellar Blade and that game was honestly a whole lot of fun. Decent ending and would definitely look forward to a sequel or DLC. Bosses were the best part of the game easy. Also played some Splatoon 3 this weekend for the Splatfest. Picked Team Bread amd became the rank of Bread Defender. Definitely gonna go hog wild on the next one since it’s the grandfest and most likely the last one. Also did some Kunitsu Gami and I think that game is gonna go on the back burner. Bought Fate/Stay Night Remastered amd Tsukihime a piece of blue glass moon. Excited to get into those after some Witch in the Holy Night. Also got a preorder on Yars Rising. Been excited for that since seeing it in I think a Indie World earlier this year. Think the rest of the weekend is gonna be a Persona 3 Reload session. Think I have it planned out in a way that I should only have 5 or 6 more sessions of that game. Otherwise I’m thinking this week is mostly gonna consist of some Paper Mario, more P3R and Dragons Dogma 2, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, Trails Through Daybreak, FFVII Rebirth, and FFXIV Dawntrail, WWE2K24, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and countless more I’m probably missing ahahaha. Goal is same as before just clear out most or all of the first half of years of games before the second half really kicks off. And that second half basically kicks off when Concord comes out. Trying to get a copy of Sea of Stars now too since Sony is gonna take it away. Also gonna try to remember to use my PSN money to preorder Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Excited for the end of this month for WWE Bash In Berlin the two currently announced matches of GUNTHER vs Randy Orten and Cody Rhodes vs Kevin Owens have me very excited. Anime of the week gotta go to Mayonaka Punch, VTUBER Legend, Oshi No Ko, and Delicious in Dungeon. Those first two are real standouts of this season of anime they’re excellent. Podcasts of this week gotta go to Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into The Aether, RPGsites Tetracast, Minnmax, Jeff Gerstmann, Kit and Krysta, Last Stand Media, Easy Allies, Second Wind, Nextlander, Cultaholic Wrestling and Remap Radio. As always yall stay safe, be splendid to each other. Have a stupendous weekend and of course Happy Gaming.

Dune Imperium: Rise of Ix on Steamdeck...(such a hipster)

I’m still making my way through Elden ring (like 120 hours in and haven’t gotten to dlc but I’m close!) and Star ocean second story r. My first time with a Star ocean and I’m really enjoying it

Yakuza Kiwami