Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 25-26)

Switch - Brushing up on Smash Ultimate ready for the final fighter reveal!

PS5 - More Demon's Souls! Man that game is brutal lol.

PC - Gmod with friends!

Have a good weekend everyone.

I’m going to dive into the Castlevania Advance Collection & continue my playthrough of Tales of Arise!

Mahjong by Microsoft (Android) - Playing almost daily for the challenges.

Equalicious (Windows Phone) - Nearly done with the puzzles.

Rayman Fiesta Run (Windows Phone) - Still enjoying this in bursts.

I'm absorbed in Sable. I just managed to get a new mask, discovered a village inside the husk of a giant beast, got lost several times, and say by a bonfire as I pondered where to explore next. It's a lovely game, really chills me out in between other games.

The other game in playing is Aragami 2. Y'know, it reminds me of the old school stealth games like Tenchu, or Styx. It's always ironically appropriate that stealth games other than MGS and SplinterCell, are often under the radar, yet their gems in their own right. Aragami reminds me a lot of the first Tenchu game, which did you know that the black fog organised in tenchu was so that you couldn't see the map render in, due to the limitations of the machines at the time. Yet it created that eerie atmosphere which made the game all the better.

Final 2 Missions of Psychonauts 2. Then starting a new game.

Will be playing Tales of Vesperia on Switch, Red Steel 2 on Wii and Hydrophobia Prophecy on PS3.

I'm nearing the end of Vesperia and it's been a fun ride despite the stuff that I didn't like about it. I'm also going back and clearing games that I've had for almost a decade with Red Steel 2 and Hydrophobia. The former is so much fun, I love the motion controls, and the latter is decent enough, but nothing special.

Halo Infinite and Minecraft: Dungeons for me.

Ghost of Tsushima PS5 upgrade Iki island dlc
And maybe some ratchet and clank.
Might go back to assassins creed vanhalla
Series x later on.
No switch games.

Kena on my PS5. If I have time and it's during the times it's running, maybe a bit of Halo Infinite. Still not thrilled about only having set times, but oh well.

Playing Catlateral damage remeowstered, world of warships and Dante’s inferno 😉

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon through the Castlevania Advance Collection.

I really miss the Castlevania series, and the GBA days was Castlevania at it’s absolute best IMO.

I hope they follow this up with a DS Collection, if they can make the games work without having two screens.

It’s a Death Loop and Halo Infinite beta weekend

Mad Max weekend for me. The publicity for the Fury Road car auction pulled me back into the game after a hiatus of a few years. Lots of bone-crunching fun!

I'm still playing Zelda Link's Awakening..

I started playing the technical preview for halo and remembered why that game frustrates me. It feels more like a scavenger hunt to find a decent weapon than a shooter. The starting AR you can unload a full clip to get one kill, while some of the found weapons can one shot you. I did well in the matches but this just seems outdated and silly. Ive played all the Halo games and look forward to the single player component of infinite. But for now I went back to finish RDR2 and playing COD.

@YourNameHere is the mad max game good? Lifelong fan of the movies and I always meant to give it a go but that one snuck past me.

Hoping for some more time in Night in the Woods.

Sable and Walking dead series

Dodgeball Academia
State of Decay 2
Hitman 3

I started Lost Words earlier and it is such a lovely game. Really clever gameplay ideas and very chill (but emotional!)

Series S: If I have time I will wrap up Psychonauts 2. I have a feeling I'm approaching the end of the story.
My plan is to finish it before Back 4 Blood comes out.
Switch: Nothing, but Im really looking forward to Metroid Dread.
Have a good weekend everybody!!!

Diablo 2 on the series S. I’d taken a break from video games in the late 90s/early 00s and missed D2 but always wanted to check it out. Now I can

Just Forza Horizon 4 on Xbox One X for me. Don’t really feel like starting anything else at the moment. I’m finishing up the last of the races on the DLC.

Been playing the Halo Infinite preview, mostly focusing on the modes with Bots. Here are my thoughts after a few hours:

1) The Bots are much more competent in Slayer than they are in more complex modes like Capture the Flag or Stronghold. Twice in a single match I watched Bots grab our flag only to suddenly and inexplicably stop and back into a corner as I approached. The typical time for a CTF victory was less than 3-4 minutes, and Stronghold saw scores of 200-0. So no, they're simply not ready for Prime Time, at least in those modes.

2) In Slayer they tend to do better, although they'll never provide as challenge for "pro" Halo players as currently constituted. For the record, I consider myself far below average at Halo; I've only played the series sporadically since Halo 2. Even so, I routinely had Killing Sprees and even entire matches where I didn't die, and that NEVER happens against human players.

That said, Bots are absolutely a huge step in the right direction for Halo, especially for less experienced or skilled players who are more interested in casual play...particularly in local splitscreen matches...than serious competition or the eSports scene. With an IP as huge as Halo, there's a place for both groups, but up until now the skill gap (and all too often a toxic online environment) has made for a discouraging barrier for many folks, myself included.

It could also work wonders for the Forge by filling out team rosters, because up till now unless you had an extensive Friends List and the ability to coordinate, you were left with mostly empty arenas and nobody ever got to enjoy the fruits of your efforts.

Right now the Bots are a work-in-progress, but that's to be expected. If 343 puts the effort necessary into their AI routines, I see them becoming a staple option for the future that will make Halo much more accessible to far more players.

@Luigi_Skywalker The special weapon timers are definitely an "old" design idea, but I think the fact that you can pick up these weapons after you kill the person holding them makes it more balanced. Also, having everyone respawn with the same loadout goes a long way to making the game more fair than COD, where you'd have to play for like over a hundred hours to unlock certain weapons and the good attachments for them.

To each their own, but I'm personally sick of having to spend dozens and dozens of hours unlocking guns and attachments just to get some semblance of fair play online.

This is my first Halo game and it's reeeally fun! The COD beta was sooooooooooooooooooo much garbage (namely Champion Hill replacing Gunfight) and Battlefield looks like the same old slog, so it's good to have a new multiplayer shooter this autumn that I'm ACTUALLY excited to play.

Art of Rally on Gamepass and Uncharted on Playstation Vita.

I finished up Twin Mirror which was incredibly lackluster. I finished it hoping it would at least have a surprising twist or some other redeeming anything.
I’ve recently started The Last Campfire which has been good. It’s not a long game but I’m enjoying my time so far!
I think I’m going to start Lost Words afterwards and continue with my hard drive cleanup.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Deep into The Outer Worlds right now. Everything about it is good - nothing is bad, but nothing is great. Still, absolutely enjoying my time with it.

@stinkyx the modern online shooters are more about learning the map layout than anything. After pumping a lot of time into most of them I’ve found an experienced player can do just fine with a base weapon and no attachments. That’s simply not true with Halo. I do see the casual appeal to halo because everyone starts with the same load out- my nephew loathes unlocking weapons in COD, but I prefer the game that rewards the person who gets the drop on the other player, not the one with the better weapon.

Castlevania Advance on Switch - Mass Effect LE - The Wild at Heart - Halo Infinite Tech Preview -

Switch: After the nintendo direct i want to play a random game on the sega megadrive collection.

Xbox: I'm around 50% in psychonauts 2 and i want to play the "the one" career in NBA live 19. If i have time i'm gonna play a bit Fortnite

Before continuing my Gears playthrough (only 4 and 5 left), I'm addicted to State of Decay 2. I won't play Psychonauts 2 until I play the first one.

I’m in a limbo. Was really excited for Sable, but it is unplayable on PC Gamepass. Does anybody test these releases?

I’ll put so more time into Psychonauts 2 and see if I can catch the hook and try some more PC Gamepass releases that hopefully work.

Combination of Destiny and Halo Infinite.

@Luigi_Skywalker I was exaggerating a bit, admittedly, but it still takes a few dozen hours to get a good loadout in COD, IMHO! And I agree 100% that map knowledge makes the better player, but getting shot in the back because a player spawned right behind you will never not be annoying, and the map design of many levels makes luck too much of a factor (I think more "3-lane maps" and dedicated spawn bases goes a long way to correct this, i.e. Killzone games).

Just finished the marvelous Artful Escape and now i play GOW 1 (which i never happend to play all these years).

@stinkyx we can definitely agree on the spawn issues. During the vanguard beta I spawned directly behind enemies at least 6 times, I am sure the same happened to me. I am glad Halo is something different though in the fps space. Also my nephews have me playing splitgate which is a nice change of pace. I’ve always enjoyed the portal games, never would have dreamed of marrying them with competitive online multiplayer. Not normally a fan of the free to play model, but it’s not detrimental to the experience there.