Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 3-4)

I'm really enjoying Lost Judgment. Just this one and Gaiden and I can play Infinite Wealth.
So far, one of my favorite "Yakuza" games. Big improvements over the first one.
Bought quite a few games on these last sales but definitely not Suicide Squad. 😂

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

I'm almost done with figment from the game pass library, very enjoyable game

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razers Edge. NG still has the best combat in video games and I play one of the games each year

Tried to get into Persona 3 Reload but as expected, it's not for me. Lovely aesthetics and can see it being immersive for those that get it, but the writing is too twee in the way that anime often is (for me).

@Sakai

Amazing games. I would love a new one.

Prince of Persia then some BF2042.

Decided to brave Revenant 2 in solo mode. The bosses are a bit of a challenge but I am definitely enjoying the game. It’s a brilliant blend of game styles and is lovely to look at as well.

I’m playing all sorts of stuff, but mostly Forza 8 via Xcloud and Batman: Arkham City. Both on my Steam Deck. Forza 8 is actually a banger, contrary to what a lot of folks say online.

Probably a bit of Halo. Unlike previous operations I won’t complete this one in the first week.

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.

A bit of Suicide Squad and Persona 3 this weekend for me! May even drop a few hours into Infinite Wealth too

Business as usual for me this weekend.
Which means Trails of Cold Steel III. 😅

Will at least try to play something else this weekend, most likely Black Ops: Cold War.

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.

Like a Dragon: Infinte Wealth. On Ch. 5 now and 17hrs in. Absolutely phenomenal game!

I'm back at Halo Infinite multiplayer. I'm enjoying the free 20 tiers operation. The only problem is that this game is harder than I remember 😳

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.

After a brief hiatus I’m right back into Forza Motorsport. I think it’s a good move from Turn 10 to renew the “open” class events in career mode on a monthly basis. Apart from dropping in new tracks, it gives me an incentive to keep playing.
I’ll also be playing a couple of games I bought in the Lunar sale during the week. These include Trepang 2, and Warm snow.

Still playing Syberia 4 on the PS5. Quake and MW3 multi on Series X.

I just beat The Lost Crown last night on switch. So now, 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. For the gameclub I'm playing Sunset Overdrive With the family, I'm playing Illusion Island. We're loving this game. Such a fun little metroidvania.

Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload

@NintendoByNature I got stuck on that boss at the bridge (the second fight). Playing on hard difficulty by the way, good and upgraded amulets too.

Finishing up with Oneiros from last weekend, and after that I am going to get around to playing Before I Forget to wrap up the achievements and finally get the game off my Xbox Series X's hard drive. You know, before I forget to do that...

Perrrrsonnnnaaa!

@Nighto4 second to last or second boss from the beginning? If it's the second to last, that one was tough for sure. I played on normal and even that was tough. I didn't change any damage settings, so I'm still pretty proud of myself lol 😆. I couldn't imagine playing on hard.

I started Spirit of the North this week, so I think I'll be able to finish it this weekend.

I had also been playing Batman: Arkham Knight, but I have now gotten a glitch that will prevent me from being able to 100% complete the game and would require a restart after about 25 hours of playing. That has really sapped my enthusiasm, and I'm going to leave it alone for a while before deciding what I want to do.

@NintendoByNature I mean the second time you fight the same boss, it's the fight after you shoot arrows to the four guardians.
Yeah, I had little problem playing on hard until this boss lmao

@Nighto4 dude they were all hard! Lol. Kiana the forest queen was voted the hardest in the game. Based on a poll with maybe IGN(?) I cant recall, 33% of people had to try more than 10 times to beat her. I was in that 33% 🤣

Probably losing my a$$ in a bunch of Trials of Osiris matches and some P3 Reload!

Pffff like a dragonnnn 🙌 game of the year already.
Second im playing kill the Justice League. Man this game is better than i expected. Lots of fun esp Coop. Well done.
Oh and also Palworld, so in love with that game.

I took the day off yesterday (far in advance to be a little more fair to myself) to play Suicide Squad and I ended up not even buying it.. Like Gotham Knights and Arkham Knight, it will probably go onto Game Pass at some point anyway, and paying full price for such a poorly received game seems like a stupid move when I have so many other games to play.

As far as what I'm actually playing, I decided to check out Silent Hill: The Short Message which is hitting closer to home than I expected. Honestly its helping me better understand someone in my life, and also making me reflect on some of my own thoughts and behavior when I was younger.

It’s a Brotato weekend with maybe some Opus before it leaves on the 15th… love the crazy strategy that Brotato serves up …

@Kraven interesting write up that’s made me want to check this out now. Cheers dude

I'm playing Cocoon on xbox, tales of symphonia on pc and donkey kong country returns on 3DS. Donkey kong Country is the strangest blend of frustration and joy. I hate it but love it.

Still Sea Of Stars. I've almost given up on it a few times now but always pull myself back in cause I really don't like not finishing games after I've invested several hours. It is fun, but these types of games (turn based rpgs) have never really been my style. But I was trying to branch out of my comfort zone. It was a nice palate cleanser from dead space

After finishing LaD: Gaiden last week and thoroughly enjoying the Infinite Wealth demo (and being sorely tempted to purchase)… Played some more Hi-Fi Rush too…

All about Persona 3 ReLoad for me now though. So much fun so far and a fun and different experience since playing part-way through with P3P remaster last year as FeMC. Lots of QoL features too and believe they’re using a new engine so visuals and new animations really pop.

To all, a good weekend. Happy gaming to all! (Koromaru is bestest boy!)

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.
Only for jrpg fans, but a different blend of game than most, with satisfying real time combat, lots of doing good deeds to help ctizens and build your town, and more fetch quests than you can imagine. An aquired taste Im sure, but Im loving it and want to finish it before its sequal releases in a few months.
If I can tear myself away from the above, Im also looking to play 'one piece odyssey' which I picked up for £18 and hear is good time, even if, like me, you know nothing about one piece.
Ive got a jrpg itch and Im gonna scratch it one way or another!

Whatever you are playing I hope you have a great weekend!

I playing Avatar, really liking this game though im stuck at a point where they kill me so easily even on lower difficulty hehe
I decided to play a different run on Baldurs gate 3... and i just cant believe how different the game can be from one playthrough to another. This has to be one the accomplishements of the decade regarding gaming.
Trully a gem

I've been live streaming now that I got my new capture card dialed in. I'm playing through Peter Jackson's King Kong for Xbox 360 on the Series X and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Dawn of Ragnarok. Sundays (today) are my days to play a mixture of racing and multiplayer games, so I'll probably be playing any combination on Forza games, Halo Infinite, The Elder Scrolls Online and The Division 2. Ill be live steaming later today.

www.youtube.com/zydio1103

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.

Everyone thinks the sky is falling with Starfield and maybe Indy going to PS5. Very surprised not to see an article here yet. PushSquare is all over it.

I know what I'm not playing, Suicide Squad. I am replaying Sleeping Dogs. Such a fun game

@fabisputza007 haven't had a chance to check that out yet but it looks awesome. They did such a great job with the environment

Rogue Trader, about to hit Act 3 finally.

i'm currently playing the immersivd assassin's creed mirage 🫡