Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 23rd)

Tales of Vesperia REMASTER – now in Dahngrest.
Skullgirls 2nd Encore – completed Robo-Fortune's Story Mode. And tried to play as various characters in Training Mode.
CAPCOM ARCADE 2ND STADIUM:
Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge – just tried to play the game as Donovan Baine. I like his unique design and moveset.
Street Fighter ZERO 3 – completed the game as Gôki, Juli, and, Rose. For some unknown reasons, I began to like the game. Juli is good and strong character, imo. And, I hate Final(Shin?) Vega(Dictator).
Well, that's all what I've played on this week. Have a nice gaming week, everyone.

Just seeing the image of this article almost made me jump out of my seat thinking it was news about a Prime 2 and/or 3 remaster. I feel betrayed... Anyway, I think I'll give Control on Xbox a chance over the weekend.

Last weekend I started AI Somnium files nirvanA Initiative, and I’ve just finished the left side of the flowchart. I’ll continue with the right this afternoon.
I borrowed Splatoon 2 from a friend to try out if this series is for me or not, will see.
Also progressing a bit with AA Spirit of Justice.

I bought the Pokemon Violet DLC, I needed something chill after playing through Command & Conquer Red Alert, and there's not many thing more chill than Pokemon, didn't start a new save or anything, just continued from my save with the main story completed, to get some more mileage of the DLC though, I made it a point to not use many of my Pokemon from the main run and try to build a new team for the DLC, I only kept my favorite, Mondo Beast the Vigoroth, to help me get things running. To get readjusted to the game I did go and collect the Eviolite item which I missed in my original run since I never really went into the area where it was, in the process I ran into a Misdreavus which'll also be joining me in my DLC run.

Made it to the DLC area and have just been sploring haphazardly, catching random Pokemon and battling pointless trainers. It's been okay, it's just more of the same, which isn't too bad since I did quite enjoy Pokemon Violet.

I'm so hooked on Starfield it's insane. Therefore, my Switch and PS5 are on timeout.

The Danganronpa series are on sale on the eshop. I took a chance on the first game and I’m already hooked. Why didn’t I get into this series a long time ago? Better late than never I suppose. I’ll be playing Danganronpa and maybe try out that F Zero 99 game.

Playing Star Ocean The Divine Force. I like it and want to play the rest of the series sometime.

Happy gaming everyone!

I'll be playing a little bit of F-zero 99, some Pikmin 4 and a ton of Baten Kaitos of course.

This game seems to be a non-event around here, even though not for the site users mind you, and the review was kinda botched tbh. But it's a real pleasure to get back to these games and the remaster is pretty good if not for the inconsistent frame rate that is far from unplayable but I hope gets patched further down the line. Also I don't really care about VA which I turned off anyway just like I did back in the days although I will admit that the lack of English VA at least for the second game is kind of jarring.

Usually I played PS4 games oftenly during weekend, but today I played Wii U games for maintenance time. 🙂
1. Paper Mario Color Splash
2. Nintendo Land

Paper Mario Color Splash is not a game you can just walk through the next places. There are some places require key items or clearing other places before continue further.
I played Nintendo Land to open more stages for Pikmin game.

Just got my N64 iQue so I'll be playing around with that.

Also finished Elderand and loved it, recommend it.
Started my LE of Infernax and I'm really enjoying it.

Bought a physical copy of Moonscars as well so I'll be straight into that after Infernax.

My LE of Axiom Verge 2 arrived so too my copy of Blasphemous 2 so I've got Metroidvania overload, not that I'm complaining though.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Mostly focused on Pikmin 1 given the physical release of Pikmin 1+2 released yesterday. Maybe also some F-Zero 99 and MK8 Deluxe.

I beat Firewatch on my Xbox Series X last week and I continued playing Ace Attorney: Justice for All on Switch which I’m at the final episode for. I also started playing Baten Kaitos Remastered which is fun so far.

Beyond that I bought a handful of games including Gato Robotto, The Messenger, Neon White, Warhammer 40.000 Boltgun, Loop Hero and The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo which I might start too.

Starfield on ASU’s rog ally

I’ll be playing Horizon Chase 2.
Important note.
A prompt appears saying you need an Epic account to continue. Press B to close, but when you press any button on the title screen the prompt appears again.
When you press B for the second time you are taken to the mode select screen, so can play without the account.

Otherwise it’s a good high speed racing game. Still satisfying as you weave between cars climbing the ranks.

I started up Shin Megami Tensei V on Thursday night, so I imagine it's what I'll be mainly playing this weekend, and possibly every weekend for the rest of the year if it hooks me enough. I'm enjoying what I've been playing so far. I may play some N++ or give F Zero 99 a try if I have some spare moments where I want to play something else.

My life is being consumed by Baldur’s Gate 3. This game is so damn good. I’ve been playing it for 45+ hours now (this is not including 20hrs playing before starting a fresh new character).

I decided to go the Underdark route and did as many side quests as I could, including the Adamantine Forge, which included a relatively tough boss fight. Afterward, I back tracked and decided to go through the Mountain Pass to try and absorb as much as I can during my first play through.

I’m now officially in Act II and exploring the Shadow Cursed Lands which is unsettling, but it’s not that difficult to traverse. What is difficult is discussing my experience because it’s very spoiler heavy.

I’m really starting to feel the weight of my choices. Some of outcomes are good, while others have had serious implications. I’m interested in some of my recent decisions because I’m genuinely torn as to whether or not they were good moves, particularly with Lae’zel and Shadowheart’sstory line. I haven’t been nervous for an outcome in an RPG like this in quite some time.

Speaking of Shadowheart, I think I’m on the verge of finding Nightsong for her. The whole quest line has been phenomenal, especially the optional areas that lead to really fun exploration experiences. And the characters and choices along the way (of this particular companion quest) have been interesting. I can see the ripple effects from my decisions in Act 1 which is a sign of excellent writing.

This game is going to go down as one of my favorite games of all time. And in the RPG space, it’s in my top 3. What a year for 2023 — arguably the greatest year of all time in terms of video games.

More Sea of Stars for me, mixed with Smash and Pokémon Violet.

Wrapping up Undead Nightmare, probably return to the playthroughs I had going of either Life is Strange 1, Pokemon Black 2, or Wind Waker afterward.

I can't stop playing the Dragon Quest Monsters demo, which is probably unwise. I'm not sure how much you can transfer, but it's just so addictive.

I'm always playing Rocket League, but also still really loving Tears of the Kingdom after about 300 hours and starting over when Nintendo patched out my beloved freedom to use elevator railings any way I please (I'm on 1.0 playing on cartridge now). Also playing Pokémon Legends Arceus, Pikmin, Advance Wars 1 + 2 (really wish it ran at same frame rate as every single other older version of the game, but I've bought it digitally and physically to help hopefully get more Wars games from Nintendo in the future), Pacman 99, Fzero 99, Gynoug, Mario Maker 2, BOTW, Lunistice, Akka Arrh, Zero Wing, and Marble It Up Ultra.

Lies of P - finally a decent Bloodborne clone.
The Ascent - Diablo with guns and stunning looking.

Prodeus on my RTX4090FE, ultrawide and 144fps max settings. Good retro take of 90's FPShooters.

This week I will be mostly playing

Tower of Druaga
Tears of the Kingdom
Kirby Air Ride
Legendary Starfy

Raindrop sprinters. Check it out if you like; downwell, donkey kong/jr, mr game and watch, galaga etc

More Monster Hunter

Playing Splatoon 3 and I will hopefully beat Tears of the Kingdom, tonight. Since MS changed XBL Gold to Game Pass Core, I've been into Dead Cells so I might play that as well.

Forgot to mention that I might also play some Pokémon Violet end game. Which is actually slightly more useful than I initially assumed.

Is anyone else as hooked as I am on F-Zero 99!? I can’t get enough, even though I still haven’t got that darned podium finish. What a great surprise release this has turned out to be after the Direct.

All things Starfield for me this weekend.

Dusting off the old PSX! Love the PS1 library..

Super Mario Odyssey

Just recently beat Banner of the Maid and that game was a wonderful, hidden gem. Now I'm getting hyped for Super Wonder, so I decided to revisit this modern day classic. Love it.

Nintendo - Not much this weekend. If at all will be Super Mario 64 (3D All-Stars version)

PS5 - MLB 22 The Show. Also just about finishing up Uncharted 2.

Xbox - Playing a bit each of Unpacking and Human Fall Flat until exhaust achievements for daily reward points. Also ‘legitimately’ playing 7 Days to Die (a very underrated game IMO).

Continuing on with Tears. Lightroots done, two shrines to find, cutting through most enemies like butter now so I might turn my attention to helping out those Koroks rather than just telling them to bugger off when I ride past them!

@jolteon23 I loved the 1st game. This 2nd one is a bit bland compared to it, but still hard to put down, and the story can pick up in the rest of game.

I’m going on a work trip so I will have a ton of time for airport, plane and hotel gaming. I’ll continue final fantasy 6, I think I’m about halfway through. I’ll probably bring another big rpg I haven’t started like persona 5R and some bite size platformers.

I’ve been obsessed with getting every star and stamp in Super Mario 3D world - I already did it on my Wii U copy and want to do the same on switch. What great challenge. I think 3D world is my favorite 3D Mario game

Paper Mario: The Origami King
Pokémon X and maybe some
WarioWare: Smooth Moves

Yesterday evening I did actually play some New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe! I guess we're just all in the mood right now. Never really felt that motivated to complete it but I'm hoping to put some decent time into it before Wonder comes along!

Earlier today, I was playing some Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. This weekend sees Grubbin, getting the community day treatment in Pokemon Go as well.

I'm still playing Starfield ...but funny you mentioned Metroid Prime as I was just thinking about getting it myself. Never played the original but Starfield made me interested in more science fiction FPS games.

I'm playing Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Dry Twice that I left off for quite some time and now I decided to finish it. It's a pretty good, but also a very buggy game.

Super Mario Galaxy. This is my very first go at the game. Yea, I know I’m late to the party here but just before Super Mario Bros. Wonder being released seemed like the optimal time to me to ah “jump” in.

Not sure to be honest still torn between starting either slime rancher or Fae farm.

Shin megami tensei nocturne HD this is around 17th or 18th playthrough of the game and I'm breezing through everything

I FINALLY finished Forza Motorsport 3 this week. That required a lot of grinding, but I'm glad I finished it.

Now going to sink my teeth into Starfield. I might also spend some time on Bone Marrow on the Evercade and Horizon Chase Turbo on the Switch.

Monster Hunter Rise! Maybe starting Sea of Stars, not sure about that yet. Happy gaming everyone!

@jolteon23 I’m not sure you asked about the 1st or 2nd somnium files game. If the 1st, I absolutely recommend to pick up if you like visual novels even just a bit.

Dusted off the XSS and started RE4 Remake. Finished chapter 7 yesterday, and I can't say I'm really enjoying it so far. The GC original, back in the day, was groundbreaking, but the set piece-driven gameplay doesn't hold up, if you ask me. I enjoyed the RE2 remake much more.

Just picked up PIKMIN 1+2 physical so I can finally start my PIKMIN marathon!! I've bought them all but never played any of them so I'm very excited to dive in head first and play all 4 over the next few weeks

@Logicfire
You are one lucky gamer, my personal favourite game of all time, you are in for a darn treat of a game that I wish I could experience it for the first time like you are now <3

Blasphemous 2 and a bit of Picross S7 for me.

BTW, I don't know why but I can't use the poll. The box doesn't appear

Thief II: The Metal Age and F-Zero 99.

On Switch, still polishing off Pikmin 4. Maybe some Vampire Survivors while we watch… Survivor!

A bit of FZero 99 and probably push on with Octopath Traveller - the end is in sight! Been playing on and off for months now (I probably average 4 to 5 hours a week of video games) so I’m ready to move on.

Working on Tears of the Kingdom since I got it two weeks ago…and fifteen hours in I am very, very impressed. I also may dive into Metroid Prime Remastered and Splatoon 3. I’ve got plenty to play until wonder and side order…

Street fighter 6
F zero 99
Starfield

It’s a rainy weekend here and I should have time for a little extra gaming, though I’ve been in a bit of a game funk this week and haven’t played much of anything.

I’ll probably take a few retro fun laps in F-Zero 99 or fire up the old PS3 to play Dragon’s Crown, a cool, D&D-inspired Atlus/Vanillaware belt-scrolling beat•em up I heard of only recently on Time Extension.

I’ll keep my ears open for any Tokyo Game Show news this weekend too.

Hoping everyone finds just the right game to play this weekend! 🕹👾

@Vil Metroid Prime Remastered is an absolute masterclass in video game design. You will not be disappointed.

Been on a fishing trip these last few days. I'm headed home today, but might be too tired to play tonight. Maybe tomorrow I can play a little more SotN, starfield, and finally fire up Underdungeon

Haven't really been gaming as much recently. Still love gaming, but most of my game time is relegated to short impromptu bursts (games like Picross, Annalynn, and Fortnite) or dedicated time slots to play games with my friends (we played Ultimate Chicken Horse the other day and it was a blast). College life, y'know!

However, I am making plans with my girlfriend to play Danganronpa with her. She loves it but I've never played it, so it being on sale for $5 recently was a great opportunity haha.

Everyone have a great weekend!

NBA 2K24 on Switch will be my weekend pastime.

I'm playing GTA San Andrea's on Switch.

Haven't played them since PS2 days, so it's a nice trip down memory lane for me.

Finishing up Hogwarts Legacy- I'm going to get to Level 34 and call it a day; the idea of 100%ing lthe game is just unbearable 😂 had a great time with it though. Aside from that, I'm playing both Rune Factory 5 (so relaxing to stick on an interview or podcast while playing) and Octopath Traveller.

I'm finally playing through Xenoblade Chronicles. I've only ever made it to Satorl Marsh in both the 3DS version and my first attempt on the Switch, and my first playthrough on the Wii ended just before entering the marsh, right after Dunban enters the party. I decided this time I would ignore the side quests and focus on the main story, but I ended up alternating between focusing on the story for one of two chapters before clearing sidequests until they stop appearing... I do wish they were all available immediately, rather than people waiting until I deal with someone's problem before three of them suddenly decide they want Shulk to do their grocery shopping!
My goal is to play through the whole series, including X and Torna, so I can finally play 3. By then, the amiibo will be released and the game will be done getting updates.

I will be finishing up Resident Evil 4 Remake on PlayStation 5 and will be in the process of considering buying the Ada Wong dlc for extra content. Beyond that, I am unsure as to what I will play next.

Been playing Mortal Kombat 1 all week since launch on the PS5, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. As for the Switch, maybe some Mario Kart or finish up The Messenger finally.

No Man's Sky and F-Zero 99.

I've been playing Resident Evil 4 remake on my Steam Deck the last week or so in anticipation of Ada's Separate Ways DLC and the free update to the Mercenaries mini game.

Just managed to get Separate Ways working yesterday using the Proton Hotfix compatibility layer (Settings/Properties/Compatibility/Force tool/Proton Hotfix tool), so I'm playing that now (and it's great!).

Mostly Wartales this weekend. Switch port is definitely imperfect, but it's grabbed me. The ability to adjust difficulty for combat and resource management separately is a godsend!
I'll probably stop in for a few more F-Zero 99 races.
I'm house-sitting, and it's times like these that I really appreciate the ability to just pop the Switch into someone else's dock with no hassle.
I've got my copy, but I'll probably wait until I'm home before I start up Baten Kaitos.

I'm continuing my Mario RPG quest before TTYD comes out!

Vanilla Dark Souls 2 on Steam Deck.
I originally tried SotFS years ago and hated it, but I'm really enjoying the original version.

Switch - Metroid Dread, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

PS5 - Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle

Xbox Series X - Starfield

Playing more Splatoon 3 as usual, I played a few rounds for the random rotation in Salmon Run last night and it was fun! Splatoon is overtaking my gaming schedule though lol. This article also reminded me to buy Prime Remastered so I need to get around to that, I haven’t been very invested in Metroid despite being the huge Nintendo fan I am

Pikmin 1 + 2, Physical Edition. I pre-ordered it at the first chance, and got it yesterday as I was clearing Olimar's Comeback on Pikmin 3 Deluxe. And now I'm waiting for a Darkwing Duck Plush I bought off ShopDisney.

Lies of P mainly.

@Picola-Wicola @Vil
Yeah, I played Metroid Prime back when it originally released on Gamecube and got the remaster the day it launched on a physical game card. If you ask me, it's incredible how well the game has aged. Level design still holds up, boss battles are still fantastic and the upgraded graphics and modern control scheme make it easy for anybody to jump into. Can't recommend it enough. MP 1 is among the top 20 greatest games of all-time and now that it's easily accessible I say everybody with a Switch, fan of the series or not, should give it a try.

Getting back to some Doom Eternal on Switch.

Survivor-type games. Lots of them. Holocure and God of Weapons being the big ones currently. I'm also (somehow) still into Splatoon 3 and will probably load that up if friends are about.

I've just started Trails from Zero and will be playing it through the weekend. And when I need a little action break, I'll play a few rounds of F-Zero 99.

I just passed 3 games in a single day

Finished Oneechanbara
Ridge Racer Type 4
Astebreed

I have really been on a Final Fantasy binge this year lol. Earlier this week I finished Final Fantasy II. I was actually expecting it to have a barebones story like the first game so I was surprised when I found out it actually had a cast of characters. The leveling system grew on me over time but the encounter rate felt a lot higher even compared to the first game. On top of that, I was not a fan of how many empty rooms were in the dungeons. Overall I enjoyed it but I don't know if I would play it again.

Now I'm about 6 hours into Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII which is the last game in the trilogy. I was worried going into this game because I found out it has a doomsday clock mechanic. It actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be though. I also wasn't fond of the new combat system but after a few hours, I think I'm really starting to enjoy it. I'm currently on the third day so I'm looking forward to playing more this weekend.

Just got done Zelda tears of the kingdom yesterday. Better then botw definitely but not a big fan of the story. Game was way too long then it needed to be in my opinion. This weekend I am playing persona 5 Royal(trying to start the fifth palace), star ocean 2 second story demo, maybe some Megaman battle network collection(playing part 1 now since it’s the only one I never touched in the past). Still waiting for my baten kaitos physical game copy to come. So slow 🤦‍♀️ 😂

Going to try.. and play lies of P, but time is limited. Still playing fallout New Vegas also.

Just finished Tinykin. Great game that makes me consider getting Pikmin 4. Tinykin has so many hidden places, and funny dialog. Now to finish Wreckfest and more Rocket League.

Happy gaming everyone!

games im playing this weekend

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
some of Tera raids in Pokemon Violet
Zelda Skwyward
Injustice Gods Among Us for my Playstation 3
and playing through Final Fantasy VII remastered for my Playstation 4

This being a busy weekend, I don't expect to get to play as much, which somehow seldom means one can expect me to plan little.😅 There are the [semi-]usual Switch itches like Xenoblade series, Doom 64, Terraria, Mary Skelter 2, Portia and Undermine plus a new backlog batch represented by Knights & Guns, Red Lantern and Ship of Fools; there are likewise oft-mentioned Deck items like Horizon, XCX, FFXIII, Mass Effect and Just Cause 2 (while finally picking up the discounted other piece of Nights of Azure 2 DLC today makes up for a simultaneous prompt to make more progress in the first game); there are at least a few handheld itches like Endless Frontier, Fantasy Life and Tales of Eternia... and even my PS4 may see some tangible dedicated time between its own new investments (NFS Heat and Avengers), already started playthroughs like SR22 or Generation Zero and this month's Catalogue additions where I'm tempted to at least fool around with multiple later Star Oceans (which, in its turn, might also lead me back to First Departure on Switch) and even NieR Replicant. Yes, all of their respective full playthroughs will belong on Switch [U Advance] or Deck, but the franchise binge queues and lack of storage space make it a rather distant prospect even on the latter.😅

@Vyacheslav333 I always like reading your posts and I appreciate that you’re always playing some nice fighting game single player stories.

Evolings.

Thank you Nintendo Life for bringing this game to my attention. It’s addictive AF.

Baten Kaitos Origins! Just yesterday I got past the point where I always got stuck back in the day, so I'm super excited to see the rest of the story. No spoilers but boy does it get crazy towards the end.

I wasn't able to finish SMT V or the Messenger before the Baten Kaitos remasters came out, but that's okay. Baten Kaitos is one of my all time favorite games, so I'm okay with temporarily putting those two on pause for it.

I'm in my Final Fantasy mood currently so I finally got Stranger of Paradise for PS5. Gonna kill CHAOS. And in between that I've been playing Thunder Ray on my Switch. It's been a fun throw back to Super Punch Out and I really hope Nintendo brings back that IP now

@mlt I agree with pretty much everything you said. The Baten Kaitos remaster has been one of my most hype games of this entire year. But I can't help but feel like it would have felt like more of an event on this site if it had been marketed more and featured in the June and September directs.

@Leecpfc
I saw the game on Eshop and brushed past it because of the thumbail, @nintendolife really helps in that regard.

Mortal Kombat 1 but not on Switch, which is awful! Got the Series X version so a lot of play time this weekend with that version. I also got the physical versions of Pikmin 1 and 2 and will be trying them out.

Persona 4. Never finished it on the ps2 so having it on the switch is great. So far, I’m at he end of summer break.

Baten Kaitos 1 and maybe some Pikmin.

Nothing this weekend, too tired and lethargic 💀

Enjoying a weirdly specific kind of game right now, I'm playing tons of Little Noah: Scion of Paradise and Lapis X Labyrinth. Summum Aeterna is taking up a lot of time too, WAY better game than people realize.

I'm still recovering from COVID and last night was the first time in over a week that I felt well enough to sit up and play something; I played some Octopath Traveler II and I'll continue with it this weekend, and also some Picross S4 on the side.

@mudkipfan217
Yes that might be what happened. Though the review starting with something along the lines of "hey the original games were some kind of b-team efforts anyway" certainly doesn't help.
Amongst people who are or could be interested in the remaster, the main point of contention seems to be the lack of english which I always underestimate how important that is to some people. I'm from the snes era and back in the days I loved imagining the voices in my head it really helped me appropriate these characters. So I often just turn VA off. Even in modern games. VAs in general are most of the time super over the top and overdoing it. For my tastes anyway. A lot of them make games sound like saturday morning cartoons. That's just my opinion of course but it's really not my thing.

Out of curiosity, where were you stuck in BK? I'm glad I've found another fan! Rather you found me.

Battlefield 1943

Because the servers are finally being switched off in December which makes NO SENSE as you can STILL get FULL 12v12.

And this is a game from 2009!

I started playing in 2010 on PS3 and soon got to level 50. I'm half that on the XBO.

I still love hiding in my old favourite spots but DAMMIT am I bad loser😡🤬

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

So this weekend we're playing MK8D with my 9 year-old daughter. She got all 3 stars in 50cc and 100cc but 150cc shows more challenge, and just 1 star is not enough, so she's a bit bummed out. We're playing online to hone her skills, hopefully she will get better at it.
She's also playing a lot of Minecraft in the middle.

I've been playing the Hatsune Miku game, and I can honestly say I'm completely addicted to it now, extreme and extra are super fun, very challenging of course. I've got more than 50 songs favourited, I must be going mad ...
I've also started the Shredder's Revenge DLC, brought the new guys to level 10, to realize it didn't matter in the new survival mode. Having fun so far, I can see how this will take my time of the rythm game.

@Olliemar28 @DarkCoolEdge I only see last week’s poll.

Pac-Man World Re-Pac.

Tried playing that new Avatar: Quest for Balance game for about an hour but I'm pretty certain it was originally a mobile game ported over to sell for $50 because it's baaaad. It even has those Subway Surfer style three lane mobile game levels in it.

Evolings is pretty disappointing. Very repetitive fast

Back to Overwatch for me.

The last couple of episodes of Ahsoka has reignited some of that passion I use to have for Star Wars before Disney/Kathleen Kennedy really jacked things up and gave the proverbial middle finger to fans. So this weekend I’m playing back through Jedi Fallen Order with the intention of playing through Jedi Survivor again after. Oh and Mortal Kombat 1 on my PC and Steam Deck.

Looking at my games-to-play list, I may play some Mario Strikers Battle League and Goldeneye 007 on NSO.

About to beat the last of us 2 (ps5)
Sea of stars( switch)
Pikmin 4

More Zelda TotK with some F-Zero 99 mixed in for me! Hoping to finally have Zelda finished by the time Super Mario Bros Wonder releases.

@mlt I actually felt the same way about the original VA in BK. I always turned it off. I kept it on for Origins though.

It's Origins that I never finished. It's a huge spoiler to say it specifically, but I got stuck on a certain disc 2 boss fight.

Going out for Pokémon Go Grubbin community day, and then getting back to Pokémon SV: The Teal Mask.

Metroid Prime Remastered. I still can't get over how impressive this game looks on the Switch. It's an exceptional remaster of a great classic given new visuals that are marvelous to behold.

I am playing Pheonix Wright Trilogy and Starfield. They go together so well. When Im not in mood to play one I play the other.

@Morsel that's funny because I just got the original AI: The Somnium Files and it's been super cool so far but I'm still early on.

I'm wishing I could play Turok 1 and 2 on switch, but not willing to spend $20 each on those when I own the carts for N64 and have both games on steam as well, lol

I've had my fun all week with F-Zero 99, Actraiser Renaissance, and Chrono Cross, so it's time for me to get back to TOTK for this weekend. I must maintain progress in that game if I hope to beat it this year.

I'm currently downloading the definitive edition of Marvel's Avengers for PS4 after they gave a massive discount on the game (as it's going to be delisted from digital stores starting in October) so instead of paying $59.99 I only paid $3.99 for the game and all the DLC.

Smash and Mario Party Superstars!

I’ll be playing Gunbrella for single player and tomorrow night I’ll be playing splatoon 3 and Wartales multiplayer.

More Origami King and Portal 2(on Switch) for me.

The new Avatar: The Last Airbender game just came out yesterday, so that's currently what I've been playing. I finished the Seige of the North level earlier and am now in the second season of the show. The game is... okay. It's definitely not as bad as it could've been for a licensed game, but the Avatar franchise still deserves better. It's kind of what you expect from these sort of games. Walk around mostly linear areas, solve some puzzles, and do some combat that isn't very engaging and mostly just devolves into mashing buttons.

I think the character models look quite nice and are very faithful to the show. Even the music in this game is honestly pretty great. The character voices are okay. At times they sound like the old cast, and that times they don't. I understand the actors have gotten too old to reprise their roles, but I feel like they could've gotten by with just reusing old voice samples. The animations look touched up compared to the jerky movements in the trailer, which is good, but don't be surprised to see NPC's glitched out and walking in place out of bounds somewhere. Framerate is mostly stable with occasional hitches.

There's a lot of chapters from the show you don't actually get to play, which is disappointing. There's 18 chapters in total, which is a sizeable amount of content, but some of the omissions are painful. Like, the narration briefly talks about Aang going to Omashu and having to solve 3 challenges and battle King Bumi while giving us some accompanying slides to look at. But that could've been such a fun level! They also skipped over the Jet chapter, which I think would've been a really good one. A level with autumn leaves up high in the treetops where you battle Jet and the rest of the freedom fighters would've been so much fun. You don't even get to visit Aang's home at the Southern Air Temple! I still have many more levels to experience, but there's already so much wasted potential from the first season.

The fanservice is pretty good, though. Lots of callbacks that hardcore fans of the show will be happy about. For example, the Cabbage Guy appears in almost every level, and you can destroy his cabbage cart if you want to. There's also a skill tree you can use to upgrade your abilities by collecting Pai Sho tiles from doing side quests or uncovering secret chests. If you haven't seen the show, though, the story is probably gonna seem pretty nonsensical, as they gloss over a LOT.

The environments definitely don't look all that pretty on Switch with some pretty egregious pop-in. The game has an overall lack of polish like you'd expect from a licensed game like this. I had to reset one level, for example, when a flaming cart I had to douse with Katara's waterbending just... wouldn't go out for some reason.

Each level actually has a shrine reminiscent of Breath of the Wild where you have to use your bending to solve environmental puzzles and unlock a new ability, and these are honestly pretty good. The game unfortunately have far too many sliding block puzzles, but there are a lot of other ones that are genuinely pretty clever.
Otherwise, the gameplay is pretty reminiscent to the old Avatar games made by THQ.

It's that same kind of generic gameplay you'd find in something like a Lego video game. It actually reminds me of the Samurai Jack game in a lot of ways, which got a lot of praise despite feeling rather basic to me. Despite being a 3D game, you don't get 360-degree camera control. The camera stays pulled too far back with no way to zoom in, which makes my eyes go crossed after a while.

There's also a lot of backtracking as most of the sidequests and even main quests boil down to, go back to that suspicious thing you noticed earlier in the level but couldn't interact with, and pick it up now that you've spoken to an NPC who wants it. There's not even like a run button or anything; Aang should be able to hop on his air scooter to zip around, but you can't do that.

One more thing of note is that there are scripted segments where you ride animal mounts like Appa or the elephant koi, but these are auto-runners where you swipe between 3 rails similar to mobile games like Temple Run, so not much to say about that.

As a hardcore Avatar fan, I don't regret purchasing this game, as I knew it had the potential to be either very good or very bad. But for the average consumer, I wouldn't recommend it at the full $50 price. There was some love that went into capturing the spirit of the show, but the budget just isn't there to deliver something truly special, unfortunately. If you aren't a fan of the show, there's no reason to play this.

I haven't had a chance to try the co-op either locally or online, but it's a feature from the old Avatar games that I'm glad to see was brought back. I'd recommend waiting to see if this game comes to PS Plus to experience it for free and with better graphics and performance. I don't hate it, but it's no Battle for Bikini Bottom. At this point, I'd probably give the game like a 7/10 as a fan of the show who is happy to see these characters and this world again in any way, shape, or form. If you're not a fan of the show, it's honestly probably like a 5/10 experience.

I’ll probably take a few retro fun laps in F-Zero 99

@Teksetter I HEAR THIS IN MY HEAD WHEN I DRIVE MY WHEELED, NON-ROCKET-PROPELLED VEHICLE ON THE ROADS NOW

IS THAT BAD

I’ll keep my ears open for any Tokyo Game Show news this weekend too.

... [deep breath] that reminds me! Thank you. You asked me a long while back about this past summer's Direct, which inspired me to go back and watch the last few Japanese ones, too (more later).

in another year there probably will be more DLC, and an updated physical release. I’ve been through this with SOR4, Attack on Titan, Dead Cells, and BOTW this far.

At this point, I've passed on so many games for this exact reason that I've missed proper complete releases out of sheer habit (Hades comes to mind). I'm with you on Dead Cells, and I'd really like to pick up the full edition of Mario-Rabbids from a few years ago.... And I don't think there's a reasonable way of judging in advance which edition of a given game will be the last. This is one of the reasons I respect the studios behind Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight and Disco Elysium...

MK1 on Switch. I'm having a great time playing Vs mode and Online. If you can pass from the graphics, it's a ver fun game to play, and it actually displays a little bit better graphics on Vs and Online. I'm going to keep playing F-Zero 99, and, on PC, I'm going to try Ghostrunner II Demo, hope that one comes to Switch eventually, I got the first one, and it's a great game!

@Edu23XWiiU wow, I heard a while back they were working on Ghostrunner 2, really curious how this one turns out and if please it comes to Switch. I loved the first one, it was brutally hard, maybe the hardest game I ever played, but I loved the gameplay. I will go back to it later on to try and collect all the bits. And maybe try to pay attention to the story this time, it was so intense I couldn't follow while trying to stay alive.

taking a zelda break after beating it still have armor sets to find but right now im attacking my backlog before other good games coming out for switch next month and november.

Nothing, I'm open to suggestions. Either Switch or PS5, if anyone has any suggestions for games around the £20 mark. Not into rhythm games or turn based but open to anything if it's fun.

This weekend will be

Pokémon Stadium on the NSO app: After beating Round 1 of Pokémon Stadium 2, I thought I could make a pause before starting Round 2.
Beat Pika and Petit Cups and the Poké Ball division of the Poké Cup. Currently doing the Gym Leader Castle, about to challenge the Viridian Gym and Giovanni.

F-ZERO 99: I think I'm starting to get the hang of things, I've been able to reach 1st place but I haven't been able to win a race.

Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition and Rayman Legends (Wii U): Getting Lums to reach 1,000,000 and unlock the remaining Heroes. And yes, I'm playing both simultaneously to reach that goal.

@Gamer83 @Picola-Wicola Thanks, y'all. Will do.

Just found it for a nice price. Gotta go physical with this one.

Sea of Stars on PS5 ("free" on PS Plus rn), and a little bit of F-Zero 99 mixed in for good measure.

Uh....Sea of Stars is just as good as people are saying it is. They seriously nailed it. It feels like a late-90's RPG that went down as a bonafide classic in another universe. Fantastic game, hard to put down. Deep, rewarding battle system, beautiful graphics and music, likable characters, the whole nine yards.

@Vil
Cool. Have fun with it.

Current

PS5 - Disco Elysium
XSX - Starfield
Switch - Metroid Prime Remastered

Next

PS5 - Assassin's Creed Valhalla
XSX - Titanfall 2
Switch - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

I'm stuck playing Vampire Survivors on my Switch. I can't stop myself. I should've headed the warnings. Now whenever I blink all I see are gems and coins.

I beat The Warriors on PS2. I’m almost at the end of Dragon Quest 9 for DS, and I am trying to advance in digimon survive.

Romancing SaGa 3 on Switch.

This is my first SaGa game and I dove into the deep end playing one known for a lack of tutorials explaining its many complex systems. Early impressions are good anyways and I am having fun figuring stuff out the hard way!

Pokemon DLC of course, what else? Happy gaming!!

I'm playing F Zero 99 which is just pure unadulterated fun and Pikmin, it's great to have all four Pikmin games in physical form. Eagerly awaiting Metroid Prime 2 and 3 on cart too, pull your finger out Nintendo!

Primary Objectives:
Just Beat: Blake Stone - Planet Strike
Now Playing: Super Mario Odyssey
Up Next: Dragon Quest 11
And Then: Fire Emblem 3 Houses

Bonus Missions:
Cave of the Seven Stars (Star Ocean First Departure R)
Galdera the Fallen (Octopath Traveler)

In the Mail:
Baten Kaitos 1+2 HD Remaster
Fire Emblem Engage
Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie
Nayuta Boundless Trails
Disgaea 1 Complete

@ELtA427 Welcome to club SaGa! Kenji Ito was in top form with the soundtrack to 3. Bangers throughout, from the opening title theme, all the way through to the amazing final boss battle! Sparking (Glimmering?) new skills never gets old. Beautiful pixel artwork in that one too! I am really looking forward to the just announced SaGa Emerald Beyond. Have fun!!

@Duck_Farmer Well rounded gamer eh? Flying all 3 flags, Red, Blue and Green!

@FishyS Both the Star Ocean Demo and Disgaea 7 demo are great. So good in fact that, after playing them I was inspired to go back and beat the secret dungeon in 1st departure R (after leveling my characters to the max of 255, I am finally ready), and order Disgaea 1 which I loved but haven't played since the PS2 days. It really is a slick and fun turned based strategy series exploding with style. But I remember the first game being looooong! How is Dragon Quest Monsters?

@SpoonySpoons BATEN KAITOS!! Legendary! Great choice.

@Grail_Quest Thank you! Fantastic hearing you lauding the music, mostly because playing all the incredible tracks on Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is what convinced me to try out the series

@KayFiOS You probably don't hear this very often, but X was my favorite of the series. Very slick and stylish RPG. I loved settling in and becoming a resident of the futuristic world they created, far from home on a distant planet. The music was so-so, but the mechs are AWESOME! (When you finally get them.) You are in for a fun ride!

Aside from my perennial Genshin Impact, I figured I might play through some of the Shantae Games on the Switch, specifically Half-Genie Hero and The Seven Sirens.

@gaga64 Tower of Druaga? Interesting and cool choice! An important little nugget of Namco lore.

@Grail_Quest Its been a really cozy game so
far. I’ve never played it before, but it has me nostalgic of times where I’d play FF10 or DQ8 on my PS2 before school every morning.

@Not_Soos Appreciate you taking the time to write all this out! I've been curious about the game, but nobody's covering it on any of my usual haunts, so this was very helpful!

@Grail_Quest yeah, it’s a fascinating little thing. I was playing it as part of the DS Namco Museum, where it seemed weirdly out place compared with the other endless score-chaser arcade games, and the bottom screen shows the instructions for all the treasure chests - most of which seem excessively obtuse for an arcade game. I know it’s not really in the spirit of it, but without those instructions I doubt I would have found more than 2 or 3 of them naturally, or cleared the final stage.

Grisaia: Phantom Trigger 7 and Postal: Brain Damaged on my laptop

Trying to complete the No Man's Sky expedition, really enjoying 4.4.5

@Deenroy Blushes ...O!... I don't know what to say... Well... I'm quite dedicated to fighting games. They became a vital part of my life. I learned quite a lot of things thanks to them. I felt a lot of pleasant emotions and got a lot of good memories thanks to them. They make my life happier. And I'm really care about fighting games' stories (Story Mode, Arcade Mode, etc) and their character development. Yeah, I love fighting games.

Model Debut Nicola #1 - Nintendo Switch

Happy Gaming! (^_^)

@Aispen its called metroid prime.

@Yalloo looks really good, but my PC can barely run it hahaha. Equally as difficult as the first one, which I also loved on Switch, I'm planning on giving it another run on my Zelda OLED!

@Edu23XWiiU sounds great, and thanks for your reply.
I was checking out their site (not the trailer though) and they don't mention Switch at all, who knows maybe a port on the new console someday.
How is it with the bike, are there many parts with it, does that change the gameplay a lot?
Have fun with it, and with your OLED run too!

@JohnnyMind Thanks, I couldn't figure out how this site does spoiler tags lol

@mlt I know how to do spoiler tags now so I can answer your question lol.

The place where I got stuck in Baten Kaitos Origins is the Guillo boss fight

@JohnnyMind
I know it's insane that they censored this game. If it's just alcohol references and things like that, that's dumb and nonsensical and all, but at least it's not going to hurt the story. The games have a rather serious tone and deal with pretty mature themes so I hope they did not touch anything that would alter that. So far I'm playing through the first game with french text and honestly did not notice anything weird apart from a guy dead drunk sleeping at a table in a bar and his friend just states that he is "tired" when he should clearly say he's wasted. But this might have been in the original for all I know I can't remember. On the other hand and without getting into specifics, references to things like the playable characters clearly stating that they want to murder someone without anyone questioning it or characters being beaten up or some characters pushing their own agenda without caring for the rest of the group and whatnot, all of this is here and intact. So yeah, it doesn't seem too bad.

@Yalloo I couldn't get to the bike part, I'll try again later today. Hopefully, they'll port it to Switch eventually, and, you're welcome and thanl you! Hehehe.

Now that I’m done with TotK and Blasphemous 2, I’ve decided to work on my backlog. So far my time is on Spider-Man Miles Morales.

Alrighty semi interesting week this time. The games for this weekend kinda simple. Trying to wrap up Trails to Azure which I think I’m fairly close to beating. Again peak fall vibes with that and some football and a rainy day. And on the PS5 some Baldurs Gate 3 and Sea of Stars. Picked up MK1 and the 120ish dollars in Digital funds I wanted this week so I’ll be enjoying some Mortal Kombat as well as snagging The Teal Mask for Pokémon Scarlet, Nayuta Boundless Trails for switch, Seperate Ways for RE4 Remake and Phantom Liberty for Cyberpunk 2077. Very excited to delve back into all those games and more this week. Like Sonic Frontiers getting the free final update I gotta reinstall that game. Or Street Fighter 6 getting A.K.I this week. Overall I think the games getting tackled this week look like this. Switch: Trails To Azure, Pikmin 4, Zelda TOTK, Fire Emblem Fell Xenologue, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed, Pokemon Scarlet, and Trails of Cold Steel IV depending on when I finish Azure. And on PS5 we got: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Sea of Stars, Final Fantasy XVI, Sonic Frontiers, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Baldurs Gate 3, Mortal Kombat 1, and Street Fighter 6. Over on the anime front I’ve already finished up the first Summer anime and it’s actually the first one I started too. Atelier Ryza was simply excellent. Amazing time with it really. Gonna try to finish up a lot of anime this weekend actually like Ayaka, Liar Liar and Yohane the Parhelion. Shoutout to BSDs latest episode for fixing last weeks trauma. Shoutout to JJK’s latest episode for reinstalling the trauma. Special shoutout this week to Emmy they’ll know who they are when they see this. Finished that live action One Piece too and that was incredible. Definitely looking forward to more of it. Podcasts this week simple as always: Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into the Aether, Remap Radio, Giant Bombcast and Nextlander. Have a awesome weekend everyone and Happy Gaming y’all.

I've been gaming a lot more now thanks to the fact I have more free time than ever!
So here's what I've been at for the last week:

Pikmin 4: Started it last Sunday and I've been hooked ever since!! This is my first Pikmin game too, and I've almost 100%'d all the areas. Aside from being addicting and equally as depressing when my lil fellas get eaten by a crab onion monster (motherly instincts kicking in-), the game looks absolutely stunning even on the Lite which is what I play my Switch stuff on. Big contender for my GOTY!

Shin Megami Tensei IV:
Been at it for a few weeks now, after finishing Persona 5 Royal and honestly I think I'm ready to become a Megaten fan because this game is one of the most engaging JRPGs I've played! It's brutal but fair during the beginning hours but getting the hang of press turns and demon fusion/team building will make things go smoothly (the game does get a bit easier once you reach Tokyo tbf). I'm becoming crazy for SMT games so I ended up buying SMT Nocturne HD for the PS4 and SMT V which is arriving the coming Tuesday (I ordered the Fall of Man edition because of the sling bag haha), finally I downloaded the first Raidou game on PS3 since physical copies are way too expensive, so I think I'm set to explore this series.
SMT IV has an amazing soundtrack to boot, which represent both the isolating and dreadful feeling of an apocalyptic, demon ridden Tokyo, to the epic fights spread across the game. I highly recommend the Megaten/SMT series to ANYBODY.

Wario World:
My favourite SMT game.
I actually started playing this first last October, as I got it using birthday money. But I put it on hold due to school stressing me the hell out. Right now I'm actually nearly done the final world before the final boss. A little bit short though the levels are lengthy so I can see why.

This game is extremely bizzare. It's almost like Wario walked into a random obscure PS2 platformer and then decides to beat the daylights out of every thing in his way. It's a pretty simple platformer but oozes such weirdness to the point its pretty charming, both in visuals and music. Collecting items is also satisfying as you punch them out of chests and such, though I do find it annoying when you have to go through the entire level all over if you miss one treasure or crystal (which you need to enter the goal), as the levels are lengthy enough. Aside from that, it's definitely a game I wish more people talked about or even got some kind of Switch remaster/remake since they're doing a lot of Gamecube remasters at the moment.

Now for upcoming stuff!
October is my bday month, and there are MANY big games releasing at that time and after (Mario Wonder, Sonic, Spider Man 2, MGS Collection, Star Ocean, WarioWare, Mario RPG, P5 Tactica and more im probably forgetting). So I cant wait to write one of these around that time >

@CANOEberry
I THINK PERHAPS YOU’VE RACED IN TOO MANY KNIGHT’S CUP GRANDS PRIX 🏁

I’ve seen you online in F-Zero often and you must be a monstah on the track. If only we could join lobbies with friends in the game! I’m only level 11 and my best finish is 20th place, but it’d be fun watching you in action!

I saw a couple of interesting bits of TGS news, though I just started to look into it.
Next year City Connection will be offering a Sega Saturn Tribute release for Assault Suit Leynos 2, one of fave Saturn games. Also I think I saw that that EGG service that offers old Japanese PC games will be coming to Switch - apparently it’ll be like Arcade Archives, allowing you to buy the titles you like, rather than subscribing for access.
Hopefully there’s not too much more of interest, as I’m set for games this winter and many more beyond. 😅

Continuing with my Black Eagles play through of 3H. I can’t believe how different this is from Dimitri’s path, but I guess it makes sense. Excited to see Claude and Rhea’s paths too.

Pikmin 1+2 arrived today, and I’ll be starting that as soon as I finish Fire Emblem.

My multiple current playthroughs in no particular order:

F-Zero 99 (just began)
Mario Kart Tour (farming green coins for more pipe prizes)
Sonic Rush Adventure (my first time playing it)
Shadow the Hedgehog (also my first time - collecting the few remaining A ranks)
Super Mario Maker 2 (trying to unlock the Mii suits that require me to play hundreds of Endless levels - normal mode)
Tears of the Kingdom (took a break before finishing the Zora side of the story)
Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (only my third playthrough in the 13 years since it came out)
Star Fox 2 (about to dive into Expert Mode for the first time)
Sonic Generations 3DS (finishing the last few S ranks)
Sonic Generations PC (slowly working my way through it)
Sonic Runners Adventure iOS (getting the last few stars)
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (about halfway through)
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter & Balance of Power
Wario Land 4