ErrantRob

@Splat I highly suggest looking up or changing around your builds. I managed him on the second try after realizing I could one-shot my way through each phase by utilizing synergy between my party members.

Finally bagged the platinum on Clair Obscura Expedition 33 and it’s easily my top 3 favorite game of all time. I started a NG+ run to dip in and out of.

Now I’m back to First Beserker and Blue Prince but I’m really temmted to pick Deliver at all costs as a palette cleanser.

So much to play as always! We truly are spoiled.

@BusyOlf Yea S was wicked with that. However, I intentionally made sure that those who came after were capable of one shotting so I didn't have to worry about dragging out the fight.

The older I get, the more I cringe at long timelines for games, and the more I think about how few games Kojima has left in him, and how I have less and less in me. Nonetheless, I'll be looking forward to it!

This weekend is all about Expedition 33 as I wrap up Act 3 and work on the platinum. What an incredible game that has moved me more than many games. Afterwards I continue to chip away at Blue Prince and First Beserker Khazan which both fell into hiatus with Expedition.

Lastly I’ll try out some Blades of Fire and maybe touch Onimusha or Trepang 2

This is a fantastic month for me. I skipped Sandland, Soul Hackers 2, and STALKER, hoping to add them to the to-do list one day, so now I have no excuse. Are they top tier? No. Are they aligned with my curiosity and interest in games that are of a 7/10 quality, yes!

My guess is word of mouth continues to push Expedition 33 upwards, while something like Oblivion or other titles will sell continually, but their big pop came at launch.

I am one of those who will get Oblivion down the line, but saw no rush as I've had twenty years to play it; Expedition 33 however was new and priced fairly, so I had to dive in to support a new dev.

It would be nice to see more smaller teams get their flowers for a few weeks, let the larger market continue to expand its palate.

About to wrap up Expedition 33 and hoping to avenge those who came before by taking down the paintress! So we shall see how close I am to the end. Afterwards I’ll do the end game content and work on the platinum. What an incredible game!

Then it’s back to Blue Prince and my notebook.

I’ll mix in some First Beserker of Khazan as well as I am slowly chipping away one mission and boss at a time.

Happy gaming everyone!

@Korgon Ah ok, I think I misread your initial comment then. I can see that for sure. I think whatever or wherever Sandfall goes from here that could be a “let’s do this in our next game” goal.

Now you’ve got me thinking about other AAA RPGs and how much or little they accomplish that goal where the main character is absent from the conversation.

@Korgon I think the bonding for me occurred a lot during the optional Campfire scenes. That was when I laughed, smiled, and even lamented the most how this journey has developed. Hopefully you are hitting those as a supplement to help see that camaraderie.

An almost 10/10 from me.

Near the end of Act 2. It is easily a top ten game for me of all time, and that's growing up with Atari as my first console. I love the story and the originality of it, even if it hits some tropes on occasion. The combat, honestly, has yet to get stale after 20 hours, and I suspect by the time it "gets old" I will be in the endgame content and satisfied.

This is easily a game I would replay years from now to enjoy again.

A series I keep telling myself I will get into, but probably never will, despite it seeming to be right up my alley.

I’m obsessed with Expedition 33. This has cracked my top ten games of all time and after Act 1 I can see it cracking my top 5. Truly incredible work and as a gamer who has been playing since owning an Atari as a kid, that speaks to what they’ve accomplished here.

Also still working on Blue Prince and First Beserker of Khazan. What a year of games!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

@Marquez just said the same thing below! Scrolled up and glad to see I’m not the only one who feels that way already.

Expedition 33 which is already my GOTY unless Death Stranding 2 can prove me wrong.

Otherwise it’ll be finishing up Blue Prince and First Beserker of Khazan.

I did finish all 6 endings for Atomfall this week as well.

What a year already for me. Those games are all easily the best games of the year and can see only one or two others knocking them down for me.

@Northern_munkey @freddquadros @shepherd_tallon @rusty82 @kidfunkadelic83 @Czar_khastik funny to see us all wondering the same thing, but also love seeing what you all and the rest of the posts here are playing every weekend! Always the highlight of my Saturday morning. Cheers all!

Blue Prince has me enraptured but I still am wrapping up Atomfall endings and still grinding away bosses in First Beserker of Khazan. I’d like to finish two of the three before Expedition 33 this week but I doubt that will happen! Too many games!

Wrapping up Atomfall I hope. Then more First Beserker of Khazan. What great games!

Then I am fascinated to try the Blue Prince and on my Switch I’ll finish Thank Goodness You’re Here

@roe I couldn’t pinpoint why I picked up my Switch again this week either but I think you solved it. The justification that I deserve the new one because the original still gets used!

Working on First Beserker of Kahazan still along with Atomfall as well.

I’d like to wrap up both next week so I can begin to prepare for Expedition 33

If time allows I’ll also chip away at building my team in The Show 25 and I’ll work through Prince of Persia

Lastly on the switch I started Thank Goodness You’re Here and it’s brilliant. Humor is top notch.

@Kraven good luck to you as well! This more than any other souls game definitely has me memorizing patterns before success.

@Kraven the third boss before and after the patch was night and day for me. I spent a good chunk of early access stuck on him, but post patch wiped the floor with him. This is one of the hardest souls games by far. I imagine it will filter out many players by boss 3 or 4 (where I currently am).

I’ve been really enjoying First Beserker Khazan (one of the best soulslikes out there) and I’ve also dove into Atomfall and it is incredible as well.

Finally to celebrate baseball being back I hit the diamond in MLB The Show 25 and the roguelike dice game has me hooked!

I just recently got into NMS and it already felt like there was so much to do. This is awesome and I look forward to dipping back in and out of it throughout the year as I complete my first journey

For me it is finish up and platinum Robocop Rogue City and Split Fiction

Afterwards I plan on squeezing in a game or two like Prince of Persia before I buy one of the following:

AI Limit
Berzerker Khan
Atomfall

All 3 have me eager to play and experience them.

Oh no. I’ll be knee deep in finding out why we shouldn’t have connected. Sorry SS2, I’ve got a beach to be on with Sam Bridges.

@Northern_munkey if you’re into a StarFox style experience I highly recommend checking out Rogue Flight. It’s short (has three story paths to compensate) but a wonderful space shooter as well.

@AhmadSumadi I like it so far. Can’t say I love it but I may be too early to realize its potential. I love Metroidvanias but I always hate the beginning of them when you’re underpowered or lacking skills. I have no doubt it’ll grow on me.

And hopefully more people will give it a chance now it’s part of PS Extra tier. I bought it last year and just now am getting around to it.

@iPaud Evil West was perfect length and made me wish we got more games as zany as it

@Northern_munkey Cyngi really showed what a more graphically intense Shmup could look like. I loved it even if it wasn’t my favorite in the genre.

Robocop Rogue City and it is fantastic. Also playing Prince of Persia and I may revisit Silent Hill 2 Remake since I stopped after I knew I just wasn’t in the mood for horror.

I’m really just killing time until the end of the month when at least 3 games I want to play release.

Back when I loved the attitude era of wrestling I would have devoured this type of game. Now I’m so disconnected from wrestling I’d have no idea who or what matters.

After a bit of a road trip today I’ll probably settle in tonight and tomorrow night to play more No Man’s Sky or Sonic Frontiers and then really dig into last year’s Prince of Persia title. I need a good metroidvania and thought I’d rather play Ender Magnolia I’m trying to clear the backlog a little in anticipation of AI Limit and Betzerker Khan at the end of the month.

One US Tour date? Among the largest gaming audience in the world and we get one date?

What has impressed me most with this device is my ability to travel, connect to wi-fi and stream games from the premium online collection without any lag. I get more lag playing remote play (although barely any) away from home! Truly impressive.

Little shocked System Shock is not on here. At what might be its lowest price yet, it is the predecessor of what would become Bioshock after Levine worked on System Shock 2.

This week I finished and platinumed Rogue Flight, and excellent Starfox anime style game. I’m wrapping up Iron Meat as well. I also wrapped up Mafia.

So now I’ve moved on to starting the first Kingdom Come to see if I’ll want to indulge in the second.

I also for some reason thought I would check out No Man’s Sky after disliking it years ago. I am hooked. Building a base, traveling to planets and stations, and the general relaxing vibe has me so engrossed that I feel like I finally get it.

Beyond that, I may start Prince of Persia or get Ender Magnolia

Spent an hour in the demo, and I am all in. The writing alone, the zany character design, and the humor of the entire concept has me intrigued enough to buy and play it.

@Fuzzymonkeyfunk that was my issue. Played like 20 hours and needed it to end so I abandoned it. Maybe I’ll go back, maybe I’ll never save New Eden.

Played the demo for Promise Mascot Agency and I’m in love. It’s so whacky and dumb and right up my alley with the Japanese humor.

Otherwise I just started Iron Meat and it is excellent. If you love Contra this is modern Contra head to toe.

Otherwise I’ll wrap up Mafia Definitive Edition collectibles for the platinum

I also need to get back into Zenless Zen Zero and Infinity Nikki as well.

@rjejr while I agree I also tend to see (on a semester system) 150 students or more a semester, so 300 a year over years adds up. And while they are only a small segment of a larger population their interests tend to align with the PS charts every month as well. There is a more hardcore gaming audience out there for sure, but they aren’t in high school. For every 10 kids playing 2K I get one or two playing Undertale, which I still think tracks when magnified to millions. So while I do only hear things I engage a lot and none of them have heard of games like Persona 5 or Kingdom Come, but they all know about Elden Ring or Black Myth, which they do talk about.

Again I’m aware of who my audience is and how small of a sample they are but I also know these are future audience of PlayStation as we age up and even with a full digital storefront, they stick to AAA games because they don’t care for much else. That may change as they age (it did for me) but that won’t help the current state of the AA space now (so maybe a renaissance will be in order).

Indie games and AA games are mostly gamers over a certain age. 25-30 or so I’d say. I teach in high school and every year I hear about students playing Spider Man 2 or NBA 2k or Genshin Impact. I never hear about indies or smaller titles. Maybe I get one student every 3 years who knows what something like Persona is, and I’d argue that is more AAA than any other title I could mention that isn’t AAA. So you have a generation who aged out or kept playing but is replaced by a generation that is only aware of the biggest titles.

This feels like a nothing burger to me. Even in games where you can create your build and character aka Souls games, there is an established amount of canon. Sure you have different ending choices but no one complains there. Besides, when did we start caring so much about the story of AC anyway 😂

@Gremio108 this sounds like an amazing build to mess with and has me intrigued to go back and try it!

Mafia Definitive Edition. Going for the platinum!

On top of that I’ll get lost in High on life and maybe Infinity Nikki or Wuthering Waves or Zenless Zen Zero

Truthfully I’m all over the place with my backlog right now trying to avoid buying Kingdom Come 2 since I didn’t get into the first but I really feel like I might be able to the second one.

@BearsEatBeets high school kids love it. It’s massive where I live every year.

I teach high school seniors and every year for the last five years the moment they find out I’m a gamer at least 10 of them inevitably ask me if I play FNAF. To which I have to disappoint and say no. So I’m not shocked at all.

@RaZieLDaNtE was your NG2B hard run on hard or the hardest difficulty? I tried path of the Master Ninja? I believe and got wrecked so my hat is off to you sir because it feels like a very different game of block and go at that level.

Currently working my way through Mafia since I’ve never played any of these games. Great acting and storytelling so far!

Finished Ninja Gaiden 2 Black this week and loved that as well.

It’s a good time to do the backlog. I’ll get back to Silent Hill 2 and Wuthering Waves at some point as well.

Lastly, I’m contemplating Turbo Kill as that demo impressed me and Iron Meat as I hear good things.

I recognize you always have a new generation of gamers coming up (a 17 year old was 6 when it first arrived on consoles), but I really cannot believe people are still buying it. When you think of the entire ecosystem of how many PS4, PS5, Xbox and PC gamers are out there, it has to be something like 80% or more of gamers who own a copy.