Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 29-30)

I'm enjoying much ANVIL: Vault Breakers (a twin stick shooter on Game Pass) but I arrived late to the party so the servers are dead.

I got back into Forza Horizon 5 this past week so I'll be spending some time trying to 3-star all the PR stunts. I also get paid next week so it might be time to take the plunge on the expansions.

Hi there fellow gamers, been a while;
This weekend I´ll be playing Jedi Survivor on my PS5, loving it so far even though there are some performance issues in the more open areas of the game.
And I´ll also be playing the KOFXV open cross play beta and Forza Horizon 5 on my Series X.
It´s been great coming back to FH5, doing some exploration and some races. And as for KOFXV I´m just hoping they can finally fix the matchmaking problems on all platforms.
Cheers, stay safe good people and happy gaming weekend to us all

Dead island 2 , really enjoying it ,still surprised how good it is

Oh, by the way, that Boss in the articles picture, on Jedi Grand Master difficulty, is no joke. One grab and game over 😜

I'll be finishing off Dead Island 2, which is excellent. The best of the series so far.

I have Star Wars jedi: Survivor waiting in the wings too, which I am really looking forward to playing....

certainly not this piece of garbage called starwars survivors, i will wait for redfall and enjoy a unbroken game. on gamepass day one.

Switch: Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed. It is sooo good! 10/10. Perfect. Seriously.
PS5: Nothing, obviously.
Series S: See PS5.
Uncle Rex got my full attention.

@Microbius Hi there friend;
True. That might be exactly what the creature is thinking as it´s munching on Cal´s dead body (That got a little dark) every time it grabs him, wich happens a lot because of the auto tracking that enemies have......
And since I got all the trophies/achievements for Fallen Order on the same difficulty, I decided to do the same with Survivor.
other than that, really good videogame though.

Finished Ghostwire Tokyo. Will spend some time on FH5 while waiting for Redfall

What are you playing this weekend?

I'm deep into the episidic content of Microsoft’s -ABK drama and....I jest, I jest.

Just brushing up on my Vampire slaying skills in anticipation for RedFall by playing Vampire Survivors, Loop Hero maybe start Benedict Fox and squeeze in a few games in Halo Infinite.

This weekend I’m playing Dead Island 2. The game is simply dumb fun. Sometimes, I’d rather play a solid 15-20hr linear experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously instead of an emotionally gripping narrative driven game, or a long winded RPG. I’m having a lot of fun with the game, and I find the flesh system quite grotesque and impressive all at once. I’m really looking forward to finishing this one.

I do want to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor but with Redfall releasing soon, I don’t want to juggle too many games all at once. I’ll probably hold off until mid-summer or so. There are just too many games I’m interested in that are releasing so soon together.

As for my other hobby - I’ve read a few more graphic novels and comics. My list includes:

Batman: Hush
Watchmen
Local Man #1-3 (awesome new series!)

Green Arrow #1 (Dawn of DC) by Josh Williamson - It was very compelling for a first issue, and I’m excited to see what’s next. JW is a very good writer. Also: chainsaw arrow; that is all, folks.

All Eight Eyes #1
Worldtr33 #1
Alien #1
No/One #1

I have Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again arriving in the mail soon. Once I read that I’m going to jump into Chip Dzarsky’s current run of DD. I have the first few volumes, and I’ll probably buy the rest until I’m caught up completely.

Marvel's midnight suns (loving itttttt)
And ghostwire tokyo which is allright also

PS5- WWE 2K23 and Final Fantasy VII Remake
Switch- Cannon Dancer and Fire Emblem Engage
Series X- Disney Dreamlight Vally and Street Fighter 6 Demo.

On Series X I’m playing SW Jedi survivor (too early to give an opinion yet), and Speedstorm, which is great fun. On PlayStation I’m playing The Division 2. Started playing it again (lapsed player) last weekend, mostly to tie me over until Jedi Survivor came out, but I’ve ended up getting right back into it! I’m close to finishing off the Warlords of New York expansion, then into the endgame.

I recently made a really big decision. I’ve unsubscribed from Game Pass and bought the games I really wanted.

I picked up Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition and Ori and the Will of the Wisps on sale along with the ridiculously addictive PowerWash Simulator while I was still able to take advantage of the Game Pass discount. So those are what I’ll be playing this weekend. Especially the Rally Adventure expansion for FH5, which is an absolute blast.

Oh and I also plan on picking up the utterly fabulous Hi-Fi Rush as soon as I’m able.

The Last Case of Benedict Fox.
I'm about an hour or so in, and its an absolutely solid Metroidvania title. A "must play" in my opinion.

Persona 3 Portable tonight. Will probably also dip into Splatoon 3 and Advance Wars as well. Maybe a bit of XC3: Future Redeemed on the side.

@shonenjump86 I'm working on FE: Engage right now. How are you liking it? I know a lot of fans are turned off by the weaker plot, and 'questionable' character designs. However, Toothpaste-chan has kinda grown on me, and I find the actual gameplay is just such a good time.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) - Going after Chase's grandpa now.

Jetpack Joyride (Windows Phone) - Still enjoying this in between rounds of Nintendo 64 multiplayer with the kids.

@Ralizah I truly, deeply disliked XC3. I mean, bordering on loathing. I sold my copy, but I'm wondering if I should pick it up again and give Future Redeemed a shot. I figure it might sort of address a lot of what made me dislike the base game so much. Which was just the absolute over the top nonsense plot and utter disdain for Moebius.

The last case of Benjamin Fox. Some nice puzzles and exploration in it. If anyone is having problems with stuttering and frame issues just close it and start again. I figured it happens when you switch from quality to performance mode and vice versa.

Going to start Monster Hunter Sunbreak, and continue Valheim into the Mistlands which I'm finding extremely frustrating compared to earlier parts of the game. Ive also got my eye on Age of Wonders 4, just dont have time.

Jumped back into Assassin's Creed Unity to finish some things off and then maybe Watch Dogs

Having finished up High on Life Thursday. I'm playing The Last Case of Benedict Fox which is a metroidvania on xbox. It's a little clunky so far, so I'm hoping to get some new abilities to make the character more agile. There's also not a ton of explaining which feels reminiscent of old nintendo games. I somehow got the double jump mid way through playing last night and I have no clue how I got it 🤷‍♂️.

On switch, I'm playing Advance Wars 1 from the reboot camp. It's ok, not really knocking my socks off. I find it more frustrating to complete missions than I thought I would. I'll continue on, but I've found myself more of an FE guy or even mario + rabbids.

I'm playing Dying Light on my Series X..

I started Hi Fi Rush earlier this week, hoping to finish it quickly, but this did not go as planned, and now I will not be back before completing Jedi: Survivor. I'm playing on PC (4080, 13700k), and while the frame is not rock solid, dropping the settings from Ultra to High and turning off ray-tracing makes a gigantic difference and I'm getting 60 frames most of the time in 4k. I'm not trying to defend the state of the game, just saying that it's not the Cyberpunk mess people are making it out to be. So far it's really fun, and I'm loving my time with it. Might play some more Sea of Thieves with the guys tonight too.

@NintendoByNature I have to agree about AW1. Loved it back in the day. There’s still a charm about it but I’ve not found myself coming back as soon as I got to Grit in the campaign. I like Grit I think I just have more interesting games to play.

I’m not too disappointed I got it with the Switch Online voucher and TotK.

I’m playing Aramagi 2 with my wife. It’s glitchy but there’s so much to like about this title. There needs to be more coop stealth games! I might give Unity a try if the servers are still up. Or Monaco.

Also playing BotW. Just got to Gerudo Town. I love this game so much but cooking is a chooooorrrrrrre.

@Sol4ris The ABK acquisition is the worst episodic game since Minecraft: Story Mode.

@RaZieLDaNtE Whaaaat? KoFXV is getting cross-play?! I've been wanting to pull the trigger on buying that for a while but the low Steam concurrent players weren't encouraging. Now I'm definitely interested.

@SplooshDmg I love XC3. One of the best JRPGs I've ever played. Especially the way it centers human experience at every level of the writing, with even the rather dramatic final revelations working well on the level of analogy. Which is, IMO, the highest possible function of fantasy writing, because otherwise you're literally just making stuff up for no reason.

It also fixed nearly every structural issue that cropped up in previous games.

No game is perfect, but it's easy top ten of all time material for me. It really blew me away.

If you liked XC1's habit of characters babbling on about arcane fantasy metaphysics and/or wanted XC3 to be a comic book-style crossover event instead of the thoughtful fable it wound up being, you might like it. It's intended to wrap up the inane Klaus mythology from the first two games.

Although Moebius are still in it. This IS set in Aionios, after all.

So, on a writing level, I'm deeply disappointed with it so far. Thankfully, the gameplay is still pretty much perfect, so I think I'm going to take it slow and enjoy the exploration/side-questing/battles before pressing the story onward.

@Ralizah I think I'm more curious to see how the inane Klaus mythology wraps up. Like, I dunno. I respect that a lot of people really love XC3, but the story just in no way resonated with me. I hated the protagonists, I hated the villains, but most of all I hate Joran. That entire Joran thing was nauseating.

I just can't really say I found it particularly thoughtful. It sort of just zooms in on some questionable parallels between being a goo baby born into some weird state of servitude and real life, then just really digs it's heels into that, and I found it to just just be overly dramatic for no other purpose than to come off as being darker than it actually was. I also thought the Mio twist was absolutely just swiss cheese so holy the pope would step aside for it.

I'll probably just avoid the DLC, even though I'd maybe like it better. I'm truly curious about the inane Klaus stuff and how they wrap that up, but I don't think I care enough to have to buy the base game again, and it's not like it'll ever be cheap. I'll probably just read a synopsis and watch it on YouTube. Again, that isn't to take away from people that love it. I'm the minority on this one. I think like you said, it's structurally a better game in basically every way, but it was hard to enjoy that stuff because I just felt utterly disconnected from every character in the game.

Resident Evil 4 Remake on ps5 at the moment.

Persona 4 and Danganronpa 2

@ParsnipHero yea exactly. It'll probably be a 1 and done. I could go back to any FE game, rabbid game, or heck, even triangle strategy (which I recommend if you haven't played) multiple times over. The lack of freedom I've found in this game in terms of mission success is what my main issue is. In other strategy games, there's a million and 1 ways to skin a cat. In this game, I feel like you have 2 ways at the most and if you missed your window, that's it.

@NintendoByNature agreed. I’m not much for strategy and rpgs much any more. Top-down, third and first person adventures are where I spend my time these days.

I’m continuing on with Quantum Break this weekend. Love Remedy they make quality games. If I actually finish it I want to finally start Hi-Fi rush and see if it lives up to the hype.

@ParsnipHero I get it. Action adventure is probably my favorite. Top down or 3d, doesn't necessarily matter to me. Srpgs and rpgs are also enjoyable but I can get burn out from them. I just don't have a ton of time anymore.

Just completed resident evil four remake and am going back for a few cheevos, then waiting for Redfall. I hope it’s good

@SplooshDmg It hits the right marks for me as satire. Socially, there's a pretty clear parallel between how Moebius perpetuates an eternal war in Aionios and how powerful forces IRL perpetuate social discontent between different factions of citizens while they consolidate their own power at our expense. In both cases, the system is structurally designed to promote the status quo of suffering and exploitation of the many in service of the privileged few.

This, on its own, is a pretty standard observation, but Xenoblade 3 works so well for me primarily because it also expands its focus and explains why this is happening, ending with a distinctly Buddhistic analysis of human life and how structural evil is seated in the same sort of distinctly human tendencies that motivate most of our behaviors. This is explicitly highlighted with characters like N, Shania, and Joran, whose insecurities and traumas form the basis for their radicalization and transformation into Moebius.

The Buddhistic parallels become even more explicit when you consider the cyclical state of rebirth and suffering the people of Aionios exist within.

Sometimes this approach risks becoming too preachy/obvious in its messaging, but, crucially, Xenoblade 3 also works well as a dark science-fiction war story also. Of all the Xenoblade games to date, this one feels the most tonally similar to Takahashi's 90s JRPG classic Xenogears.

The game melds an interesting and cohesive nest of themes with a well-developed cast of flawed personalities, fixes the structural/gameplay issues from previous entries, and, crucially, improves performance, so that's gorgeous on as well as off the TV. It's everything I could possibly want from a JRPG.

Trying to finish Kingdom hearts 2 before my copy of jedi survivor arrives

Just finished up Dead Island 2 which I really enjoyed, and just started playing Jedi Survivor. I have to say over Fallen Order this a significant upgrade with really impactful quality of life improvements like better map navigation, fast travel, more accessibility customisation, characters more integral to missions including the puzzles, all your learned skills in fallen order carried over, much more interesting and larger open worlds.. the list goes on. I am also on Series S and its running nice and smooth so far 5 hours in.

@Ralizah I read all that, but I'm currently short on time, so I've gotta keep this quick. I think your analysis is correct, and really, that's my take away from it as well, but that's also my issue with it. You nailed it with preachy. I think the story is hinged way too much around how willing you are to accept populist political view points as truth. Not making the conversation political, nor degrade anyone else's opinion, but I just think populism of the right and left variety are both nonsense. That's probably my core issue with the narrative, is that it's trying to make me feel something based on these events, that are sort of just an analogy for ideas I don't accept in real life. So, I do think it's thoughtful in that regard, but I think your mileage with the thoughtfulness will vary based on how important the thoughts actually are to you.

For me, I was never surprised in XC3. Nothing ever happened that it was like HOLY CRAP THAT HAPPENED. Not even the Mio twist, because like you said they dropped hints, but at the same time I thought it was just so stupid that I was more just stunned that they actually went with that. The entire thing was so cliched and predictable from that start that by the time it was over I was asleep on the desk. So, I do agree that Monolith needs to eventually just finally kill the Waifu, or just do something different entirely. Kill husbando, don't kill anyone would even be an option. But really, I respect that others love this game, but for me it just took a weird route and lost all the Xenoblade magic in the process.

Playing Beavis and Butt-Head Origins. Spoiler alert: they are twins, who would have guessed?

@SplooshDmg I like it, I beat the main game and I just want to start the DLC. I can see why some may not like this one though, I prefer 3 Houses and other entries better.

@SplooshDmg I mean, discussions of political themes are going to be inherently political by default.

Fair enough, although I do think the narrative balances its populist sentiments somewhat by acknowledging the shared humanity between all people, including members of Moebius. The 'bad guy' in XC3 doesn't end up being 'the elite,' but rather the shared human instincts that underpin much human suffering, including the systems of oppression and exploitation established by Moebius.

But yeah, if you heavily disagree with the form of social analysis employed by a work of fiction, it's going to be hard for it to resonate with you.

I loved this game to death, but tbh, I think it's time for Monolith to branch out from Xenoblade and explore other ideas. As early as 2017, people were reporting on a medieval fantasy-themed action RPG they were developing, so I'd be curious to know if that's still a thing.

@Ralizah Yeah, yeah, I know, but I'm glad I was able to convey that in a way that meant what I meant, but wasn't just being an arse. I respect the games views, but like you said, if you disagree with social analysis and are picking up on it as it goes, the game has in a sense sort of politicized itself and left itself open to that critique. Really though, I'm glad we've had this discussion, because my woeful feelings about this game are a bit more validated after being acknowledged by someone who really does enjoy it and understands the themes of the narrative. Of course I also couldn't knock the quality of the game itself, because it's obviously pushing the Switch to it's limits and has refined so many systems. It's a Switch masterwork.

I'm curious to see what they do next. Now that the Klaus nonsense is wrapped up, I think they should definitely move on to something else. I'd love to see them kinda tackle the Star Ocean vibe. I love the whole scifi fantasy mash up, and clearly Tri-Ace just isn't quite up to the task anymore (SO6 was at least 'okay'). I think Monolith has proven they can handle both primitive and scifi environments, so I'd love to see them kinda keep what they have going but shift more to space exploration. Go from planet to planet Mass Effect style. Some advance, some primitive, and include giant fighting robots. I'm sure their next game will be on Switch 2 or whatever, so hopefully they are free to do more expansive games. Either way, I won't let XC3 deter me, I'm stoked for whatever they make next.

@Pigrotto did it ever fully release? Or still game preview?

Started the last case of Benedict FOX yesterday, not sure if I will finish it , the art style is beautiful, but the fighting is so si at first, maybe it will get better along the way. The story is intriging to say the least.

Blazblue cross-tag. Good fun if you like tag fighters.

@Dusk_Actual still in Preview, sorry.

@Markatron84 Hi there friend;
Yeah, the cross-play open beta is still active on all platforms. it does work, at least so far.
Also the matchmaking issues do seem to have been adressed.
It feels great to finally go back and do some matches with my main team with Ryo, Kim and Gato.
Cheers and happy gaming

I cleaned up the backlog a little this week and have made room for Redfall. I started a new Dishonored 2 playthrough a couple weeks ago, hoping to finish that up too before Redfall.

@Pigrotto hopefully it’ll still get released. I had a good time with it myself but quit due to the issues you’re experiencing….couldn’t find a cooperative game to save my life

So far, I started Benedict Fox on Series X and Jedi Survivor on PC. Still working on Wo Long (Series X). Just remembered about the SF6 demo. I plan to play some Dishonored 2 (PC) and RE4 (PC). Stalled out on the last one somehow.

Also, there is one day left for 500 MS points from 3 Persona 5 Achievements. There are other eligible games, but I have played most of them.

@Dusk_Actual I hope you are right!

I have been playing Dragon Age Inquisition which I bought for $5 a year ago while I was playing ESO and some free online FPS. I just pick a few older ones and stick with them unlike you guys playing the latest.. Waiting for State of Decay 3 which is like ordering an EV these days.