Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 3rd)

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: Been wanting to play this ever since it was announced, and so far it does not disappoint. The graphics, the facial animations, the world and lore, fast traveling (I know this is more of a "D'oh!" but it wasn't in its predecessor), the new abilities and stances... it all meshes together wonderfully in a cohesive whole, with an appropriately epic (and somber) story to match.

Cal and BD, here's to many more hours with you.

Fire Emblem Engage. This is my first game in the series, and I understand it's not a fan favourite, but I like it. The story is very lackluster and some of the characters are probably even shallower than a puddle, but I think this game expects you to play things at your own pace. If you do the side content, play on casual, and actually explore the Somniel I think you'll enjoy it. Almost reminds me of Animal Crossing weirdly. The gameplay itself fantastic though.

My new deep-dive-all-in game decision has been made: Skyward Sword HD. So I’ll be playing it. (And also grinding up my exp level in Dragon Warrior on the NES.)

Just finished Prince of Persia Lost Crown, absolutely loved every minute of it. Well worth every cent.

Also finished Saga of Sins and just started Vernal Edge which I'm enjoying as well.

I will probably start Itorah after that.

Have a great weekend everyone.

During the week I finished FE Engage. Today I finished Zelda the Minish Cap, was already in the last dungeon, and played some Theathrythm, filling critical charts. Already put in the cartridge of Shin Megami Tensei V. Played a few hours when it was new, but I decided to restart.

PoP Lost Crown. Platforming is getting nuts with all the abilities I have now but it never feels impossible or unfair.

If Silk Song releases this year it’s got strong competition for best Metroidvania of the year, it honestly is that good

Had a week off work so I've managed to make some headway with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (started Chapter 5) and I'm loving it so far. My partner finished all the shrines in TOTK and finally ran credits after beating the final boss so think she's moving on to Jedi Survivor next.

Together, we finished up Portal 2 co-op during the week so we got to feel like a pair of clever clogs. Either Super Mario Wonder or TMNT Shredders Revenge next methinks.

Then off to a cocktail bar in the closest city to us that's currently running a Mario theme. Enjoy the weekend folks!

Jotego just release capcom cps 1.5 core for analogue pocket and man I've been playing the heck out of the punisher, this game is soo good, it's my favorite arcade beat em ups games, along with double dragon 1, warriors of fate, and final fight.

And I just bought the messenger and ys origin on switch (both are discounted for about $5), I think I already have the messanger free on epic games store, but I prefer playing it on portable console. I already have ys origin on steam and ps5, but I want to play it on switch so I can play it whenever I want.

Also still playing castlevania dawn of sorrow on my new 2ds xl, good stuff. And I still have 2 castlevania ds games waiting for me, not to mention ds zelda and other great ds games, I'm glad I bought this console 😃

Probably a mixture between Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Colours Ultimate. The rumours and then confirmation of Sonic Generations coming to Switch put me in the mood of returning to those games while at the same time being a good way to fill in the gap before a potential Direct (next week feels like the last chance for a February Direct).

Vampire survivors! I'm visiting family so if I have some free time surely I'll play a couple of runs. Maybe some Monster Hunter tomorrow once I'm at home tomorrow. Happy gaming everyone!

Super Mario RPG, surprised by the fun(ny) minigames and the light hearted humoristic dialogues this game has

Finally got ps2 emulator to work on steam deck so I’m playing some very nostalgic games that are not available on anything else like the Lord of the rings games
Finished lost crown on the switch but aching for more

I think I will continue my play through of Tomb Raider The Last Revelation this evening after having taken a break from gaming for a couple of days.

@Thisdamian

If you like the Two Towers Game, give Demon Stone a look, same Game, only in the Dungeons and Dragons Universe.

Hogwarts Legacy and WarioWare Move It for me. Happy gaming all!

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. It's such an awesome callback to Jet Grind Radio so far. The retro graphical style doesn't detract at all. It really fits if you've played the games it was inspired from. And the soundtrack just SLAPS. I just can't get enuf.

Also, my 9 year old daughter just finished BOTW last night. She absolutely loved it, and she already wants to play TOTK. I told her to take a break though since both games are so similar. She's got other Christmas games to finish first. Haha.

This week I will be mostly playing

Bionic Commando: Elite Forces
Super Mario RPG (original)

Series X: Baldurs Gate 3, just got to act 2, hope the story picks up, game is a bit of a drag imo.
PS5: Nothing, waiting for supposed the ff7r demo.
Switch: Nothing.

Recently finished: Tekken 8, got the platinum in one sitting which was a first for me as far as trophies goes. Loved the story mode, best one yet. Fighting is awesome but a bit too easy tbh.

Feeling a bit of a Final Fantasy bug, so various doses of XII, XIII, XV, WoFF, Dissidia and Type-0 (and maybe even some FFO) look likely, but there are plenty of other itches waiting to be scratched as well - up to four Xenoblades and up to two Rune Factories, Rogue Legacy and Road Redemption, Fell Seal and Children of Zodiarcs, Portia and Palia, Alchemist Adventure and Atelier Marie, UnEpic and Lost Epic, Doom 3 and Bioshock 2, possibly more stuff from AC2 and Immortals to Double Cross and CrossCode (huh, shapes up to be a peculiar-sounding list this time🤔😆)... plus more KH, Queen's Quest, Horizon, Nights of Azure and possibly Watch Dogs on Deck while the handheld consoles may also see more progress made across Endless Frontier, Pokemon Moon, Eternia and Neptunia.

May do some Eggstra Work, maybe some Stardew Valley. My mom passed away last night though so I dunno if I'll really get to it much. Hope everyone else is having a better weekend though!

Tangle Tower!

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] – completed Arcade Mode as Wallenstein and Byakuya. Finished Arcade Mode on Good Ending as Merkava.
Well, for now, that's all what I've played on this week. I'm planning to play UNI2 later today, so... Update(-s) to the comment will come. Have a nice gaming week, everyone.
Update #1:
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] – completed Arcade Mode as Vatista and Phonon. Finished Arcade Mode on Bad Ending as Merkava (Completed Arcade Mode as Merkava).
Update #2:
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] – completed Arcade Mode as Gordeau.

I started this weekend off, with the Mario vs. Donkey Kong Demo, I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game. I also plan on playing a few rounds of NHL 24 (on PS4), getting one step closer to the playoffs in season mode. When I’m not busy with that, I’ll be playing the first Pikmin game. As for tomorrow afternoon, Chansey will get the community day spotlight in Pokémon Go, so there’s also that.

@Yosher Condolences.

@JohnnyMind Nice lineup. But what are you gonna play tomorrow?

Me? It'll be some more Yoshi's Crafted World and then anything else I have time for or, more likely, my kid asks me to play (i.e. Fortnite and/or FC24).

Oh... and maybe some Rocksmith 2014 on my laptop as I started learning guitar with my kid recently.

Still playing Grimrock on Switch which is great for fans of the dungeon crawler genre, and some more Tears of the Kingdom. Still not finished TotK and even after 145 hours plus, I seem to discover something new every time I come back to it.

Except for that, playing a few retro games, I picked up Robocop Vs. Terminator for the Mega Drive recently (which I'd never played) and it's a fun platform shooter. It's really reminiscent of arcade games of that era.

I'm playing through Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Sea of Stars mainly. If I have extra time I'll dip into Mario Wonder, Gran Turismo 7 and Street Fighter 6. Unlikely I will have extra time with the football on this weekend. Hopefully Luton wins again

Been mostly playing Tekken 8 since it released last week, all around superb fighting game and finally the generational leap for the series that I was hoping to see back when T7 released. I'm mostly done with all the single player content by now and I'm just on and off playing with friends and sometimes randos in the online.

But since I'm mostly done with Tekken as my "main game" I'll also be returning to my Fire Emblem Binding Blade hard mode which took a weeklong break, did CH12X yesterday and I'm now up to the bridge map which is where I believe the difficulty starts picking up once again, cus the western island arc was overall pretty easy after the brutal early game.

Something that I'm also looking to do in the near future is Super Metroid Map Rando, a super metroid randomizer that changes up the item locations and also completely jumbles up the map, I've been waiting for a Super Metroid Randomizer that does that for a long time and it seems like they've finally gotten there. Can't wait.

Ah man, I thought I'd be playing Yoshi, but have just played the Behind the Shoji level for the first time... that level's just not fair. Auto-scrolling levels in collectathons need banning.

Edit: Yoshis. Never. Say. Die.

Wuhooo!

We're getting 40cm of snow today, so time to cozy up and play some Mario Wonder!

I have to finish Dread and also started playing Lies of P (which is really good).

Who’s playingMetroid Prime4?pyoro dat u?

I was gonna do some Palworld on the Series X, but to my surprise the sound quality is shockingly muffled. So until that gets patched up I’m playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which has been a delight thus far! Little over five hours in and Ichiban is already my favorite Yakuza protagonist.

This weekend I’ll continue playing through different games that I’ve been playing recently, and now that it’s February that means it’s almost time for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Over on my switch I’ll continue playing through Mario Wonder and maybe some Minecraft. Over on the PS5 I’ll try to continue my playthroughs of Resident Evil and Uncharted, and try to finish Crisis Core: FF7. On PC I’ll be playing some more of The Finals and Control. Have a good weekend everyone!

This is going to be one of those weekends where I'm honestly not really sure what game will end up playing. I have a couple games in mind, but I haven't really been feeling like playing games a whole lot recently. The only two games I would consider would be The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom on Nintendo Switch or Psychonauts 2 on PlayStation 5. Either way, I hope everyone has a great gaming weekend!

@trymer89 Hoo boy you are in for a treat! Jedi survivor was a favorite of mine last year. I enjoyed Jedi outcast but the sequel completely blew it out of the water. The world and secrets you uncover were so much better and all the new combat techniques you get, it was an amazing game. I waited awhile to play it last year because the performance was a little shoddy early on, but it plays well enough now.

I’ll be chipping away on Dave the diver after completing cyberpunk last week. Dunno how long this game lasts but I just reached the 5th chapter and have been enjoying it but I feel I’ve seen all there is to see at this point. I’m not too into the story right now as all I’d really like is some more underwater caverns or volcanoes to explore and gear to unlock, but I’m finding there’s just more and more fetch quests to do. I’m still enjoying it well enough tho.

This weekend I’m playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown exclusively on my PlayStation Portal. I don’t typically like Metroidvania’s but this one surprised me quite a bit due to its QoL implementations. I have a lot of to say about this gem.

Graphically, harkens back to the PoP of old, before it went to the 3D realm. I’m a big fan of the side-scrolling adventures, and with the nature of the game(s) featuring challenging platforming sections, intricate traps and puzzles, and a fantastical setting, the Metroidvania genre seems to be a perfect culmination. I’m surprised it wasn’t done before.

In terms of the overall world - the map is huge, but also not too deliberately overwhelming for the sake of being so. Thankfully, there are QoL touches that separate it from other Metroidvania’s, and in a positive way too. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of this genre due to constantly getting lost. With PoP, there’s a remedy for that, in a small but impactful way.

There are accessibility options you can choose from: Exploration and Guided mode. If you choose exploration, purists of the Metroidvania genre have the option to play that way. Guided mode is great because there will be a marker on the map telling you, “This is your objective”, but in typical fashion of the genre it’s up to you to discover how to get there, ultimately staying true to its roots.

This leads me to the exploration. It’s always rewarding going off the beaten path. You’ll never know if you’re going to come across upgrades, shortcuts, side quests, or even optional boss fights — there is always something waiting for you. And there are a diverse amount of biomes to uncover with unique characteristics and enemies.

Unlike a lot of Metroidvania’s that I’ve played, which generally relies on gameplay, PoP has a middling story, but features environmental story telling that draws you deep into its world. There are murals and notes to read that explain its setting, why there are traps and who built them, characters to talk to that give you more of an idea of what transpired in each biome, and side quests that will allow you to get a better understanding of the world.

The combat is also a highlight for me. If you take the time to do the training you’ll come to find that there is a plethora of actions you can perform. That’s not including the myriad of abilities you begin to unlock that elevates the experience.

To add to the combat, there is an amulet system — similar to Hollow Knight — where you can customize your play style in various ways. It’s tough to choose which ones you want to equip because they are all genuinely beneficial. Sometimes, a quick change between amulets is all you need to have a different result when it comes to boss fights. Speaking of, the best thing about the boss fights is that if you die you immediately respawn in the fight; there is no backtracking and going through a tedious grind to get back to the same spot.

I know some people might scoff at this, but Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown might go down in my top 10 or 20 games of all time. It brings back great memories of old Prince of Persia, all the while carving a new path. And when a game subverts my expectations and has me captivated in a genre that I don’t typically gel with then I consider it very special.

Skyrim and my husband and I just started the second game of The Great Ace Attorney. Skyrim is overwhleming but it's fun so far.

Diofield Chronicles. I’m at the end of Chapter 4. Once I beat the whole game, I will start Another Code for Switch.

Prince of Persia was one of the best platform adventure games I’ve played.

100% the game last weekend (grinding the final time crystals was a chore) but I’ve been looking for others that can scratch that itch so if anyone has any ideas.

@Nontendo_4DS What announcement was that? I can't find anything.

I somehow missed that Sonic Generations was coming back as well this week. I'm getting too good at being a responsible Dad and am losing my gamer touch.

@Yosher
Losing a parent can be so hard - I hope you have plenty of loving memories to carry you through. 💜

I’ve taken some time off of work and ended up playing a lot of Spelunky lately. The game is a sausage grinder of death (to date, I’ve had 1,350 unsuccessful runs) and I probably just lack the focus and discipline needed to ever get through it, but some macabre personality flaw keeps me trying.
Maybe I’ll switch gears and grab some long-neglected game off the shelf, like the Blaster Master Zero trilogy or Metroid Dread.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend! 🕹👾

I'm continuing my campaign in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom--Light roots, Shrines, The Depths, and a whole bunch of other shenanigans like jumping off stuff and testing new items are afoot. This ain't just a game, it's literally a way of life the way there's ALWAYS something to do. Pac-Man World Re-Pac will compliment Zelda, so it's time for me to knock another world out in that game. I borrowed Mario Strikers: Battle League from a coworker, so I'll try to make time for that-- I've been trying to break into this series seriously for a while now, and I need to know if the game and online is for me once and for all. Lastly, I think I've started an inadvertent trend of playing something retro every weekend, so I think this weekend will be an Arcade Archive game or two.

I picked up a few deep discounts on the eShop and have been playing those this week: Dragon’s Dogma, Trailblazers, Unsighted, RWBY, and Cris Tales. I’ve also found myself revisiting Persona 5 Royal and some beat’em ups Streets of Rage 4 and River City Girls. Got stuck on the scarab beetle boss fight in Mummy Demastered and have shelved that for now. Kinda been all over the place. For chill time before bed, it’s Klondike Solitaire on 51 Clubhouse Games or Palia to explore the Maji Market event.

Tears of the Kingdom. Doing a bit more exploring then plan to do my 3rd sage temple (probably not this weekend) before I put it down again for a while to play something smaller.

Also playing Terra Nil on my iPad a little bit, nice and relaxing.

I did also play solo Mansions of Madness board game yesterday which took up a whole afternoon before my investigators succumbed to the terrors.

I’ve been going through the story mode for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 this week. I’m currently on chapter 5, so I’ll try to finish another chapter or two. I forgot how fun this game was! I didn’t make any progress in Mega Man X3 like I said I would last week, so I’ll try to squeeze in that as well.

While I do not intend on playing them, I also got physical copies for Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and River City Girls 1 AND 2!

I've been working on Anomaly Agent which is utterly fantastic!!! That and maybe some Wonder.

Who put Metroid Prime 4? 😭

Over 10 weeks spent in Tears of the Kingdom, seems like I've spent already over 250h in this game. It's still really fun, and it feels like there's an endless number of things to do.
I've gotten the medals for hunting all of the mini bosses, and I'm now collecting the Bubble frogs, while picking up any Korok seeds I can find. I'm also regularly visiting the Great Fairies and trying to farm some much needed items, don't want to finish the game and still have some armours not yet fully upgraded.

Playing with my 9 year old Super Mario Party, Warioware GiT, and SMB Wonder.

Happy weekend everyone!

Silkworm for me. I had the Spectrum port as a kid and beat it several times. I didn't realise that it was missing some of the bosses, so finally playing the arcade original is a treat.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) - Descended into the giant hole in the ground.

Daxter (PSP) - I forgot how decent how decent this was. I'm glad to have it.

Lode Runner Classic (Windows Phone) - I'm just starting on this, having wrapped up Angry Birds Rio.

Tears of the Kingdom - Been playing for 2 weeks now mostly just exploring around Hyrule. Maybe just maybe I’ll get a Main Quest or two done.

Street Fighter 6 - Trying a tournament for the first time.

Klonoa 1&2 - Just need to finish the Extra Vision and Chambers of Horror/Fun & that platinum trophy is mine.

1: Mario sparks of hope (amazing game)
2: Tears of the kingdom (stil havent faced ganondorf)
3: Smashbros.

And last, not a switch game. Palworld, so addicted to that game love it.

I just beat The Lost Crown last night on switch. So now on xbox, I'm going to really try and and hammer out Robocop Rogue City and once I'm done with that, fire up Arkham Asylum as I don't want to play too many games at once. Im also playing Sunset Overdrive on xbox. With the family, I'm playing Illusion Island. We're loving this game. Such a fun little metroidvania.

I started Wario: Master of Disguise recently, it's the only Wario platformer I haven't played yet so I wanted to see how it is
I'm halfway through and can confidently say I wouldn't miss much by not playing it but might as well finish it at this point

Back on Dragon Quest VII 3D to get through both the JPN and English versions of the game. Starting to remember why I stopped playing. But gotta keep going before the eshop shuts down.

I finished Katana Zero yesterday. I really need to get back to Tchia.

Fire Emblem Engage. Persona 5 Tactica

Granblue Fantasy Relink and nothing but. Just wrapped up the spectacle of a story mode last night, and will be diving deep into the co-op quests with multiple friend groups this weekend.
I've loved every minute.

I just beat Hogwarts Legacy a few days ago. I was very impressed with the game. I don't usually play games like that, but it definitely kept my attention. WB made the story play like a movie and I enjoyed bolstering my magic capabilities. I enjoyed slaughtering poachers and becoming fast friends with Poppy and the absolutely mental Sebastian. Oh, and I'm a proud Ravenclaw~

Hanging with the wife and friends for a few days before I turn the heat up in another game. I really, really wanna replay the GameCube classic Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, which will very likely be my next game, however my Switch backlog includes the following:

Dark Deity
Persona 4G
Knights of Grayfang
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Paper Mario TTYD (when it releases)

That's in no particular order, but I did want to make a visible list. Quite proud of myself for having cut down the backlog significantly!

@Azuris thanks for the recommendation I’ll give it a try!

Well, time to play the actually good Ori game

I’m about 40 hours into Persona 5 Royal and absolutely loving it. In a way, it reminds me of the plate-spinning of Cult of the Lamb, but everything you choose to do benefits you, more or less. It still has that SMT bite, as far as challenge goes. Can’t wait to see where the story ends up!

Happy gaming everyone!

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (Switch,) Gex (PS1,) and Super Kiwi 64 (Switch)

I’m about to cross the 100 hour mark on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and the end may be close. I’ve thoroughly enjoying it, and I don’t want it to end, but when it does, the next game will be less time demanding. Dave the Diver is still in my purchased backlog, so that might be a good candidate.

Metroid Echoes on the GameCube.

Been waiting for this one to re-release since Prime last year. Couldn’t wait any longer. Dusted off the GameCube. Not played this since I completed it in 2005. Had a good two to three hours and got to the Dark World in Agon Wastes. I love just taking my time and taking these games in. Back in 2005 I preferred this to Prime. So be interesting to see if I still do…

Quake on Switch

Another game I had the OG of back in 1996. I was only 10. Didn’t get very far. More my brothers game who is 5 years older than me. Beat this remaster on easy (I suck at FPS games) last year and actually remembed a few of the early levels. Now going through it on Normal. On Episode two, The Wizards Manse atm…

Hollow Knight on Switch

Picked it his back up after a 3 or 4 months hiatus. Loving it. Love playing this whilst the missus plays Tomb Raider survivor trilogy on the PS4 once the one year old daughter has gone to sleep. Not sure how far I am…put in 15-20 hours now. Getting to know Hallownest like the back of my hand!

Last weekend I finished the Hearts of Stone expansion for The Witcher 3. I've gotta say, it was absolutely fantastic. It didn't feel too long and I was hooked all the way through. I'm considering jumping into the Blood and Wine expansion now or holding off until I get a bit more free time.

I'm also a little over 15 hours in Trails in the Sky I'll try and make some more progress this weekend.

Advance Wars for the win! haha

@Zach777 most obvious are Metroid Dread, Ori (1 and 2) and Hollow Knight.

Other than that Guacamelee (1 and 2), Blashphemous (1 and 2)…

I'm cheating on Arkham trilogy on Switch with Suicide Squad KTJL on Xbox. It's ok, we've talked about it and come to an amicable understanding.

Borderlands 3 for me this weekend. Almost done. The performance tanks in the latter half of the game with glitches, bugs and crashes abound. I was enjoying it at first, but now it’s just painful. I’ll finish it, though.
A few months ago i bought a bunch of DnD books on the cheap, so after a 25 year hiatus, i am DMing again. Be doing that too.
I picked up Iceborne on PC and am near the end now. I’ve been enjoying it more than the base Monster Hunter World (which i detest) , but even with the expansion, it’s still my least favorite MH game.

Demon gaze extra on the switch this game is quite tough especially the boss fights.

Still playing Persona 5 Royal. I am 77 hours in and just finished the 5th palace and got to the story bit that happens on the deadline date. It has felt like a bit of a slog lately (summer break was slow, 5th boss battle was annoying) , but I am going to try to keep going because I think the story is about to take some interesting turns.

@Zuljaras Rock on! Order of Ecclesia is a criminally underrated game!

I finished up Yoshis New Island last week - I always put a low key platformer between big games - and now I’m tucking into Legend of Mana.

It’s such a janky game but those PS1 RPGs have so much charm. The storybook graphics with their fixed perspective remind me of those 90s Sierra adventure games, and the music is just incredible.

Metal Gear Solid, mostly going between MGS2 and The Twins Snakes. Then, I'll start a file either on Arkham City or Asylum, to remember the times when Rocksteady was a good game developer, and finally Fortnite, with that Old Snake skin, and playing "Beautiful Day" on that Festival mode, got me engaged, got the song hehehe.

Tears of the Kingdom continues to be my number 1 most played game. Recently completed the floating coliseum, which was really fun. I'm almost always playing it with motion interpolation (old school smart TV frame generation, or fluid motion frames) and I'm frequently amazed at how beautiful the game looks. I keep sages turned off to minimize drops from 30fps, which helps the motion interpolation keep it looking like 60fps. Anyways, I don't think I'll ever get tired of building things, exploring, and simply enjoying this version of Hyrule.
Also playing Advance Wars 1 + 2 reboot camp, Fire Emblem Engage, Fire Emblem Fates (on 3DS), Zero Fire the awesome M2 compilation on Switch, Mario Maker 2, Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star (I want tons of other games added to Fitness Boxing! Boxing with Yoshimitsu, or Link, or Samus, or Mario, or Wario!, or Andy and Sami and Max from Advance Wars!, Falcon Punch!, etc.
Also playing on Deck, enjoying Parodius, San Fransisco Rush the Rock (the Midway GameCube compilation runs at 60fps and is lots of fun!), Roadwarden, The Gunk (really lovely game that I can get up to 90fps, but still looks great at lower frame rates too), etc.
Also, Rocket League all the time on laptop and on Switch.

Bloodstained and SoR4

Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Apollo Justice Ace Attorney Trilogy, Tekken 8, Super Mario Wonder, and One Peace Odyssey. Trying to squeeze in all of that.

Halfway through the weekend and so far I've continued my play through of Arkham Asylum, which feels timely given all the negative reviews for Rocksteady's latest.

Spent a fair amount of time playing Ultimate Chicken Horse with the kids, which always provides a lot of laughs, shouting etc.

Planning to go back to God of War Ragnarok. Played quite a bit of this recently and feel I'm closing in on the finale. Bit of a meandering story, but overall I've enjoyed it.

Just over halfway on Prince of persia the lost crown - I generally suck at games, so it's quite difficult for me even on the lower settings, but I am enjoying it a lot still! Currently on the 4 time based puzzle rooms challenge...

Taking a break from OOT.

Playing a bit of Galaga on my 2DS.

I just picked up Pacman and Galaga Dimensions!

(I can't get my hands on our Switch as my daughter is playing Animal Crossing and Five Nights at Freddy's.)

Oh, I'm also playing the Mario vs Donkey Kong demo. It is so good! 60fps, mostly quick loading, great controls, amazing music, and that classic, excellent GBA gameplay. Can't wait to play through the full game several times, and speed run it!

Im going to try and clear some backlog at the moment im fighting robot masters on the Mega Man X legacy collection 1 and when i got stuck or just don't feel like keping up im playing Paper Mario on 3DS, have fun everyone!

“Gotta Protectors” for the 3DS

Hey @yosher you take care of yourself, okay. My thoughts are with you and your family.

I’m playing Metroid prime remaster in the hope that switch 2 + Metroid prime 4 is announced.

@JohnnyMind
Thanks! Yeah I plan to stick with it. For me the best part of the story so far was around the 4th palace. I think the summer just felt a little slow after that.

For the 5th boss, even after looking it up, getting a higher level persona, getting the right items, and turning the difficulty to easy, I barely finished in the time limit. I think now could probably do it on normal difficulty, because I think I now know the right details of exactly how Baton Pass works that is necessary for it. I think I get what they were going for, but I didn’t feel like the game lead me to the answer.

It is a pretty good example of the issues I have with RPGs sometimes where I find it hard to know if something is hard because it is a puzzle and I am missing something or if I am at the wrong level or if I need to use consumable items. I guess figuring out the answer between those could be viewed as a puzzle, but I guess I prefer to know if it is even possible to “just figure it out” or of leveling up or more items are the only option.

This may be a pretty simple WAYP this week ahahaha. Mainly being that on the Switch I’m really only planning on one game for the foreseeable future and that’s Trails Of Cold Steel IV. I dropped off it about 3 years ago and I was really dragging my feet on going back to it but I did so last night and it wasn’t as bad as I felt it would be so I think similarly to how I did Trails To Azure last year ima just hunker down and slam it out this month and maybe next month. Then I can enjoy Reverie and hopefully have both done by the time Daybreak comes out and hey then I can maybe have a trails game on my GOTY list for once hahaha. Tho seeing as how my day off is slightly changed this week I think I’ll finally maybe go back to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed. Over on the PS5 it’ll be a simple rotation of the new darlings really. Tekken 8, Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth and Granblue Fantasy Relink. All absolutely excellent and beautiful games. Of course I have plans to snag a copy of Persona 3 Reload this month at some point but this all leads up to the end of the week when Saturday the 10th I head back to Endwalker in Final Fantasy XIV thanks to my dear best friend helping me out with a month of subscription paid for after the website just refused to let me. So yeah I would mainly say that’s the two big focuses of the week. Carving out a crap ton of Cold Steel IV and Endwalker hahaha. As for anime of the week the strong shoutouts continue with The Witch and The Beast, Mashle, Urusei Yatsura and of course my absolutely strong Sunday lineup of Solo Leveling, Shangri La Frontier and Undead Unluck. As for the podcasts of the week well you know it’s the usual. Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, RPGsites Tetracast, Into The Aether, Minnmax, Remap Radio, Sacred Symbols and Summon Sign from Last Stand Media, Windbreaker and Firelink from Second Wind and Nextlander. All seriously excellent. As always gotta give a shout-out to a lovely friend as always to my friend over at twitch.tv/akibread with their excellent streams as always. And take care of yourselves folks, be excellent to each other, stay safe and have a excellent weekend. And happy gaming.

I've started playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. I bought it a couple of years ago due to NintendoLife's praising review, but at the time I was put off by it's less than stellar technical qualities and also the heavy anime aesthetics.

Now after finishing Tears of the Kingdom I finally gave it a chance and it turns out that I like it a lot. I'm still not very fond of some of the anime aspects and tropes, but the story is quite engaging and the combat and gameplay loop are pretty satisfying. I managed to look past some rough low resolution aliasing and framerate issues and I found a surprisingly smooth playing and fun hack and slash Action-RPG. It's like a game from yesteryears that cuts the fat when it comes to technical flair and focuses on story and gameplay.

I’ve mostly been jumping between three games this weekend:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Just got Epona and escaped from the ranch wacko. Also got Biggoron’s Sword from the long, annoying side quest. I’m probably about ready to return to Kokiri Village to begin my real quest as an adult.

EarthBound Beginnings - Been a while since I booted this one up. Random encounters are still annoying, but they’ve helped me get pretty strong. I just befriended Lloyd. Also wandered around in a panic trying to cure Ninten’s cold while Lloyd died twice. Thank goodness we have walkthroughs.

Portal - A new game for me. Beat level 15 of chapter 1. An intriguing puzzle game, and also super bizarre. Even early game, it can be pretty challenging, too.

All over the place, but:

Ocarina of Time: pretty far into my first 3-heart run. The game is intense again. I love it. Just the Shadow Temple left. (I'm doing Forest, Water, Spirit, Fire, Shadow order for adult Link.)

Half-Life: finished my second play-through. Love it. Didn't mind Xen this time and even had fun with Interloper (!) But Valve really should fix the bug in Gonarch's Lair. I can't believe that's still in even after the anniversary update.

Dead Space 2: finished for the first time. Pretty good, but goes a bit heavy on the enemy-waves-while-stuck-in-arena design. Bit unrelenting. I may prefer the 2008 original, which I played immediately before it. Tighter, slower, moodier.