Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (2nd November)

Fate/stay night REMASTERED – Day 15. Unlimited Blade Works route.
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] – played Score Attack Mode as Byakuya. Got to 11th place on the online ranking.
Well, for now, it's all what I've played on this week. Have a nice gaming weekend, everyone.

Hey everyone.
Hope you all had a great week.

I had a busy week.
Had eye ops to replace both my lens.
Had a fall 2 days before it and dislocated my shoulder, popped it back in but tore 2 muscles

So I've been resting and playing my Switch.

Started and finished Escape from Nazarick after my CE arrived from LRG.

Also about 3/4 of the way through Rack n Ruin retro edition.

Started and finished Wife Quest retro edition.
It has a couple of frustrating parts but overall I enjoyed it.

My copy of Astral Ascent arrived from LRG, I love this game.
It is soo good.
So much to unlock and you always feel like you're achieving something on each run.
Highly recommended.

Have a great weekend everyone

I'm still playing Rayman Legends on Wii U. It's definitely become a bit harder, but it's extremely forgiving with checkpoints and not losing anything when dying almost feels like cheating. I've collected almost every Teensie from the main levels and plan to play through the Invaded levels next. It's great fun. I'm still thinking I'll hold off on the Origins levels until I've played that on Wii.

Still on PowerWash Simulator. Recently started Witcher 3 and hooked on that, I don’t care for the combat to be honest but everything else is fantastic.

Jamboree is still going down well in our house. Elsewhere, I picked up Viewtiful Joe for the GameCube this week and have enjoyed the first couple of levels on that so far.

Also got back into Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting on my Evercade Super Pocket.

Theatrhythm. Going for the rainbow stars, 18 more critical charts and done. Yesterday did 30+ (public holiday here) so surely will get it by tomorrow. Otherwise I’m in a gaming crisis, I don’t feel like playing anything from the backlog, nor buying something at current price. Maybe will do some collectibles in LEGO Star Wars.

Astro Bot: I thoroughly enjoyed Astro's Playroom and can honestly say that this has been one of my most anticipated games of 2024. It's light platforming with a bit of an edge for those wanting a challenge and lots of PlayStation game homages (my favorite being an Uncharted game level).

Here's to many more hours with Astro and his pals.

I'll be playing through most of Oxenfree II. It's been a great game for the few bucks that I paid for it during the sale it's on. I'm also really going to try to finish Pizza Tower, now that I've finally got a more chill, weekend at home. I love this game, but ive been picking at it for months due to its higher difficulty and high stress moments. My nerves are only fine with playing it in short spurts. But the game is always on my mind, and is probably the most memorable game I've played all year.

I’ve had a few days off already so I recently wrapped up a return to Arkham asylum and ufouria 2 that I had been chipping away at. I’ll continue a bit with Arkham city and I just got core keeper in the mail which I’m really enjoying for something very similar to terraria. I really wish it was two player split screen tho to play with my daughter, she loves the little yaks in the meadow you get. I’ll be playing stardew with her and maybe a little battle block theatre for her missing chihuahua head she so desperately wants. That’s a game that could use a new coat of paint and a splat on our switch.

I'm playing exclusively Bayonetta 2 at the moment. Got my Platinum trophy at Witch Trial #5 on the 15th anniversary of the witch, what a coincidence. Grabbing them in story mode now on hard difficulty. Missing the last 4 chapters.
After that I will grab them all in normal mode too ... because why not, and I can't get enough XD

Happy gaming weekend 🎮🧡

@Summer235 give that one some time, the combat is tough but if you stick with it it’ll get better and it’s one of the best games I’ve ever experienced.

Retrorealms: Halloween and Ash Vs Evil Dead. I'm in love with these games. They aren't tight as something like Shovel Knight, but the aesthetics make up for a good bit of that. I'm eyeing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, but I really want to wait for a physical version. I might just pick up CoP digitally and then grab the cart if it ever happens. I also started Bioshock again, since I haven't played through it in ages. I totally forgot how much I love immersive sims. Maybe I'll play through System Shock on my Portal after...

On Gamepass I just finished CoD 6 campaign. That was a good one. Moving on to zombie mode now.
On PS5 Im playing Dragon Age Veilguard, or Manfred Dating Sim as I like to call it. I've gotten pretty far and this game is a GOTY contender in my book. Absolutely love to be back in that world.

Just finished the -ive Alive event in Blue Archive. Surprisingly it didn't have as much gunpowder in it as I thought it would, considering the kind of gun-crazy culture Kivotos has. The story didn't even have any playable fights! Still, it was quite the charming story of not blaming yourself for your shortcomings and being willing to grow. Also, is it me, or is Natsu.... kinda "special" in the head? The overly verbose things that come out of her mouth without realizing it, to the point of being so convincing yet off kilter at the same time, really add to the humor of the A.S.S club. (that's "after school sweets club." What did YOU think it meant?! ) It's no wonder Kazusa wants to punch her in the face so much! I absolutely love her already!

Been also playing a bit of YuGiOh Master Duel on the side. Not much to say here, I just like messing with people's heads! Although, I do wish the deck building wasn't so overwhelming, given the 10,000 cards in the game that can turn the whole thing into a new hobby of its own. Still enjoy it, and still a fantastically F2P friendly gacha game. You might even want to pay money for it out of respect!

Finally, I've been putting it off, but I have been trying to pick back up LittleWitch Romanesque, the Perfecta version of course which I do have a physical English PC copy of! (ownership for life!!!) Anyways, it's a raising-sim visual novel with lolicon elements about trying to raise these two little witches who can't cast spells into knowing how to do so, or else they'll get expelled from their studies, and you obviously don't want that to happen as their sensei. It's obviously a really cute eroge with charmingly high production values for a game initially released in 2005 and clearly shows it's early but youthful Harry Potter influences. Perfect for the Halloween season! And while I haven't played enough to remember the girls names, I do like seeing how they try to grow as characters and even sympathize with what their old struggles are while trying to become better versions of themselves. I think I might be getting more use to this kind of genre after Food Girls and the -ive Alive band raising minigame.
Did I also mention that it's cute and funny? 😭🦀

Anyways, I'm also contemplating trying to go through my free epic games copy of Deus X Machina since I wanna play Armored Core 6 but... money... But that might also be put off because of the Monster Hunter Wilds beta this weekend.

The excellent Banishers: Ghost of New Town. Such a shame that it sold so poorly. It deserved much better

My game of the week is definitely Castlemania. Man I love it so much! I played through it on Deck, then later played it on laptop with lossless scaling so it looks like 240fps. It is just perfect with polished Mario controls, classic Castlevania music, and just right difficulty (I am using save states since I'm playing it on an emulator). Perfect Halloween game!
Also playing TOTK where I've lit every root on laptop and gotten the frostbite trousers on Switch. So fun just to traverse the world!
I've enjoyed Retro Game Corps' ally x video. It looks like a great system to have dual boot on, and I loved that Russ showed Parking Garage Rally. Also liked Nerrel's Silent Hill 2 review with the customary Halloween wishes at the end. I've been playing some of the original on Deck, but scary games aren't my jam.
I'm also enjoying nodebuster (addictive game with awesome chill music), Bug Hunter (can't get enough of this strategy game), Gokujou Parodius Da! Collection, wipeout phantom edition (I feel like I'm playing the most perfect, coolest, most fun game ever when I'm playing this AMAZING port), Snakebird, Rush Rally 3 (love it with high frame rates), 1000xResist (seems great so far), Research and Destroy (fun modern strategy game), and Orbital Bullet.
Also been having fun with Toad's Cherry Tracker, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, Super Mario Bros Mini (love this demake even though I can't get it running smoothly).
Also been stunned by the beauty of regular old Metroid, Gun nac, and Blazing Lazers while using lossless scaling. And also amazed at how youtube videos of Wipeout Omega Collection look when using lossless scaling to bring it up to 240fps. I hope Shadps4 can run that game soon so I can play it at 240!
Song of the weekend is kassil's Astral Observatory in Breath of the Wild style!
Happy gaming!

Bought this Monday dragon quest monsters for switch but it didn't arrive yet 😞 I don't want to start any other game until then so surely gotta be playing some runs on roguelikes. Nuclear throne here we go! Happy gaming everyone!

I’ve recently completed Death’s Door and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and have been playing the surprisingly delightful Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon as well as just started Neon White which has been a unique experience thus far. My one constant this past month has been KILL KNIGHT…it’s a hard game but pure twin stick bliss!

On Xbox Series X
I’ve slowly gotten back into COD with the recently released Black Ops 6, been awhile since I’d played the franchise but this new game has been great.

Happy and joyful weekends to all!

@TYRANACLES True, especially since I’ve just started it. Like everything else, it just requires patience and practice.

SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS!!!!

Happy gaming all!

On Switch it's Sonic X Shadow Generations and Clock Tower. I'd never played Clock Tower, so glad it finally got a official release in English. It's puzzling and creates a good sense of tension for a 16-bit era game. Sonic is great, playing this a lot more than I did on PS3, it's so well suited to portable play too.

I'll be playing Sonic Frontiers, Sonic X Shadow Generations and Metaphor: ReFantazio this weekend. All of those games are great imo.

This week I purchased Retro Realms (double pack), Faith: The Unholy Trinity and Core Keeper so I’ll be busy playing them this weekend. Happy gaming everyone

Ring Fit Adventure

Unicorn Overlord

On PS5 I've got the last dungeon to do in both Metaphor Re Fantazio and Trails Through Daybreak so I suppose both of them will take me all weekend to do. If I can finish them quickly then I will move onto either YS Nordics or Farmagia.

On Switch I will be playing some Mario Party Jamboree, time do 30 turns on the shopping mall board.

Continuing my way through Echoes of Wisdom. Loving this game, the dungeons are great, story is great, been having a right laugh with some of the echoes, got the whole map open and enjoying exploring all the nooks and crannies. Lanayru Dungeon coming up next.

@Freek
Astral Ascent!! It’s in my backlog just staring at me. Great to hear you’re enjoying your play through. There was another gamer on here who gave it a similar glowing review. I didn’t even know it had a physical release! I only just found out it has a co op feature included , looking forward to it!

@GregamanX
I recently purchased Oxenfree II on sale as well so nice to hear it’s a great value purchase. Pizza Tower is another game in the backlog but I’m glad to hear it’s worth a play through even though it’s been haunting u! 😝 Your avatar reminds me I need to play Night in the Woods at some point! It also reminds me that…I need an avatar! 😮

This week I will be mostly playing

Big Brain Academy: Brain Vs Brain
Two Point Hospital

Playing through Red Dead Redemption on switch, I had forgotten how darn good this game is, still holds up remarkably well. Downloaded Slay the Spire+ from Apple Arcade this morning as I’ve heard lots of good things but never took the plunge on Switch, so I will try it for ‘free’ (already have a subscription). Oh, and I will definitely fit in a few Mario Kart online races (does anyone else despise the cursed Tour courses!? I cuss whenever one is selected, haha).

@Rainz
It's an awesome game. Plays so smoothly too.
Great game game to have in your backlog.

@Ooyah
Thanks.
Yeah, had a week to forget that's for sure.
Taking it easy sounds like a good idea 😁
Thanks for the kind words, hope you have a great weekend.

Picked up Luigis Mansion 2 HD last nite so time to get spookyyyy! Plus randomly played Mario Land 2 throughout the week and wrapping that up. Have a good one everyone

I will try to finish Epic Mickey Rebrushed and afterwards, I will continue with Unicorn Overlord. Both games are great.

Happy gaming everyone!

Surprisingly I am not joining any of you all with Ys X: Nordics. My copy came late and I started The Silver Case I just rolled credits on one half of the story and find myself (enjoyably) exhausted by it.
So I started THQ Nordics Purple Lamps Disney’s Epic Mickey: Rebrushed so far I think it’s a really lovely little platformer and am excited to play more!!

Other then persona 5 the main thing I’m going play is guilty gear strive, I think it’s time to finally try and learn it since dizzy is finally in the game.

Still on the third route of Hanaemu, Kare to & Bloom (Eng: Him, the Smile & Bloom), so probably that.

I have some other non-video game reading to get to, so not sure if I'll play anything else, but I've been meaning to get to Legend of Santa when I can fit in the time. And I see Andro Dunos II is on sale for a little less than $3CAD, so that's also tempting me to replay it on Switch (I have the 3DS cart).

Tears of the Kingdom. Just mopping a few last quests before I head towards what I assume is the end. There’s plenty more I could do but after about a year of playing on and off and about 170 hours in total I’m ready to move on. After all I still have some big games in the Switch backlog and with the next console somewhere on the horizon I need to get a wriggle on!

Probably focused on Sonic X Shadow Generations. While I've beat the game and unlocked everything, there's still stages I want to improve my times on or get S ranks in the lead up to Brothership's launch next week.

Playing the NEW BLASPHEMOUS 2 DLC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm playing Old School Rally, which I've nearly finished. Just mopping up the achievements. It's a great game inspired by thr early Colin McRae Rally games on PS1. Perhaps a little easy, but I'm not complaining.

Aside from that, I'll play a bit more Echoes of Wisdom and Astro Bot. I'm enjoying both games, but taking my time with them so I don't burn out.

Enjoy your weekends.

Guys...
I got Barbie: Project Friendship PS5 this afternoon! 😁
My GOTY 2024 on PS5.

I still at the beginning part of the game.
So far so good, I can see beautiful resort with smooth 60 fps on PS5. 😊
Barbie on PS5 is a big surprise for me.
I would like to see another Barbie games by Outright Games.

@Neckcrane I hope you say what you think of Retrorealms. It doesn't seem to have a lot of eyes on it.

I was planning on playing Sonic x Shadow Generations, especially after reading Ollie’s review, but then Core Keeper was brought to my attention via Mitch’s review, and it being a co-op survival with lovely 2d graphics, not to mentioned the praise lavished upon it by Mr. Vogel, made it about as ineluctable as could be. We were able to find time yesterday to delve in and delve we did. We love it!
I bought The Bunny Graveyard and will be checkin that out as well.
I still plan on picking up Generations, probably during my upcoming epic house/dig-sitting stint. I want a physical copy, so i’ll prolly swing by a local store to procure it.
Also, there will be a Final Fantasy themed Magic set releasing next year and i want Tonberries.
I hope Fishy is having a swell vacation.
Take care all!

I’ll be playing some Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, currently on chapter 3, one of my personal favorite chapters!

@Anti-Matter are you a Tim and Eric sketch? Be honest...

@dartmonkey Mend well and enjoy barking orders at your loved ones, whilst gaming, from the confines of your cushy sofa!

@Freek I hope that shoulder heals up. I have a buddy who’s shoulder dislocates rather easily, i hear tell it’s quite painful. Best wishes!

@Rainz Night in the Woods is amazing. I played through it 6 or so years ago and it still remains one of my favourite games of all time. Oxenfree II has had much better dialog and voice acting than the first game (which was already a good game). I played through a couple more hours this morning and I'm deeply invested. I know I'm already halfway through, but it's good value for only a few bucks. I'm on the final world of Pizza Tower, and honestly, I wasn't too big on the game at first, but by the second world the controls clicked, and the escape sequences didn't stress me out as much. There's still a level of stress when I play (kind of like Cuphead, which I also picked at and eventually beat), but I seriously think it may be a GOTY contender for me.

For the last week and a half I’ve been in a gaming slump and I wasn’t aware of it initially. It has been strange. Once I obtained the platinum trophy for Silent Hill 2 Remake, I subsequently dove head first into Metaphor ReFantazio. And then it hit me.

I was enjoying it, particularly its UI, combat, characters, story, setting, and political strifes. However, it wasn’t fully grasping my attention. I was feeling overwhelmed. I found this peculiar because P4G is my favorite RPG of all time, and P5R is exceptional. I’m accustomed to the calendar structure, knowing content will be missed by choosing to do one activity over another. It was bothering me immensely even though time management is a core game design.

This feeling carried over with the Archetype mechanics. I was I immensely engulfed by options and it was ruining my experience. It was difficult for me to switch up my vocation because I had certain archetypes maxed out, with great skills, but switching classes and starting from scratch felt counterintuitive because I’d have to change armor, weapons, and be underpowered. I appreciate the flexibility, but not when it’s almost essential.

My brain just couldn’t handle any of it. In fact, it’s odd because of my affection with Atlus games (not just Persona), and while I was liking the majority of aspects of the game, I just wasn’t having fun. Ultimately, I set the game aside and will come back to it another time.

I then scrolled through my cross-media bar on my PS5 and saw Kunitsi-Gami: Path of the Goddess. I’m a huge Capcom fan and love their odd side projects. The glowing reviews for this game definitely piqued my interest. I played for five hours and was enjoying it; but it wasn’t holding my attention as well.

This trend repeated itself two more times; once with Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered; and secondly Ys X: Nordics (my favorite RPG series). At this point, I decided to take a break from gaming altogether and decompress. Maybe the depressing nature of Silent Hill 2 Remake took more of a toll on me than anticipated.

And suddenly, something changed. Monday rolled around and the reviews for Dragon Age: The Veilguard went live. The positive reception the game has been receiving from critics (and definitely not random strangers on the internet who hadn’t played the game but want to hate on anyone who likes it; seriously, the vile things said all over YouTube channels—Eurogamer, IGN, and other mainstream outlets—is absolutely out of control and incredibly disheartening) brought back that sense of excitement for games.

I started Dragon Age: The Veilguard on release day and have put 15-hours in it. I’m having an absolute blast. I’m an Elven rogue, part of the Antivan Crows association, with a slight affection for Neve. I’m slowly swooning her, but unlike my organization I work for, I won’t be stabbing her in the back.

TL;DR - Gaming is fun again; thanks, Dragon Age.

I will be playing Super Mario Party Jamboree alone.

I have an amusing anecdote to share with my fellow gaming enthusiasts. I tried out Xbox Cloud on my Amazon fire stick and the only ftp game is Fortnite, which I’ve never played. It was so laggy that my movements were very unpredictable and I ended up winning.

Tl;dr: Sometimes lag can help you win at Fortnite.

This weekend it’s round 2 with the fallen leaves in the yard, but by the power of leftover Halloween candy I hope to overcome!

With my spare time and energy I’ll probably play some more Grounded, of course. I really have to stay focused and make a disciplined effort to finish the game. It’s just so easy to get distracted with all the crafting and base-building. I dabbled in one of my absolute fave 16-bit games Zombies Ate My Neighbors for Halloween, but maybe I’ll finally start playing Astral Ascent as it’s been perched front and center on the shelf, tempting me.

Wishing all NL friends a fabulous weekend! 🕹🎃🍁🍫

Since getting a ROG Ally X last month, my Switch play time has really plummeted. With the exception of Echoes of Wisdom, most of the 1st party titles I own I've completed, so that's opened up exploring the new handheld library that I've amassed. Those weekly free games from Epic and Amazon have kept me interested so far.

Wrapped up cocoon earlier this week and moved on to ugly to scratch that puzzle itch. Started playing Eternights alongside Persona 5, it's definitely way more indie like and pales in comparison, but it's quite fun to fill the gap between Persona 5 sessions (my wife forbids me from playing Persona without her 😆)

Will be mostly playing Sonic x Shadow Generations, but I would like to make more progress in the Link’s Awakening remake.

I am trying to finish up Banjo Tooie and if I manage that I may be starting up Dave the Diver.

destiny 2- grinding out their Halloween event
mario kart ds- I had this game since I was a kid and I just unlocked waluigi and ROB

I’ve been getting into [Redacted], the Callisto Protocol spin-off and it’s pretty good so far. Might do some Shadows of the Damned as well.

I rolled credits on Animal Well last night. Great Game! I know there is plenty more puzzles to solve with how this game is designed, but I am not sure I’ll bother. I tend to only play the “main story” of games because there are so many games to play.

I haven’t decided if I am getting Brothership right away. I think it is going to be longer than I will want it to be and I still haven’t played TTYD remake so that is on my list to play at some point soon as well. I really like the art style though.

I’ll be trying to give raiden nova a chance even though it’s a low effort vampire survivors clone

Halo 2 and Black Ops 6. My xbox getting work until M&L drops.

Mainly going to be focusing on mobile games this time for the weekend! I have two:

Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! - I’m mainly going to be replaying some of my favorite song charts I completed and full combo’d already and trying to get new high scores on them. They added a lot of new song charts while I took a kind of long break from the game, and just earlier today in the morning, I competed all the songs they added for October. I’m also probably going to be trying out some harder Master charts for the songs I full combo’d on Expert just for fun.

Fire Emblem Heroes - I haven’t played this for quite a few months. I’m replaying it to make more progress on the current story, Book 8, since I am pretty far behind on it, and they are likely going to wrap up the story on that Book very soon. If I can remember, I am maybe on chapter 8.

Metaphor. Dragon Age is waiting in the wings, but I expect I have a couple more weekends of Metaphor to get through.
That's probably it. I will be opening packs in Pokemon TCG, though.

@LikelySatan
I think people are likely being put off by the price. I’m a fan boy of the Evil Dead and old retro horror classics so this was an instant purchase for me. The games play like clunky megadrive side scrollers and the pixel art is amazing, full of character and personality.
I’m very pleased that there will be more licensed games coming in the future and seeing the in-game arcade grow accordingly.

So I beat Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony last weekend. It was a great game; the story was very well written and the class trials were as varied as ever. However, the ending was quite…bizarre, and not quite as satisfying as those of the previous entries. But I can’t fault it for trying something different. Overall, it was another home run in a series full of them. (Trigger Happy Havoc is still my favorite, though I am somewhat biased there. I suppose it’s usually the originals that stick with you the most.)

I’ve played some of the Ultimate Talent Development Plan (the postgame board mode). It’s fun! In short bursts, at least. Once you unlock them from a gacha machine, you can play as any of the students from any of the three main games in the series…in a rather basic RPG mode. It’s not the most interesting thing, but the character interactions are fun. There’s even a bonus board which features encounters with characters from The End of Hope’s Peak High School. (And hey, you’re not going to see me complain much about a mode where you can play as Hina, Fuyuhiko and Kaito…)

I also started Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls on Windows, which I skipped initially because it wasn’t on Switch. Most people recommend you play this one before DR3 and DRV3, but that ship’s kind of sailed for me. It’s a third-person shooter, but people still die in the story, so I suppose it’s still a true Danganronpa. Actually, it’s a lot darker than I expected. They basically replace class trials by adding a lot more deaths. It does feature a lot of family members of Trigger Happy Havoc characters, most notably the protagonist, Makoto’s younger sister Komaru. I’m currently on the third chapter. The gameplay gets kind of repetitive but the story’s as gripping as ever.

Tomb Raider Remastered and Ace Attorney Investigation will be the main Switch games for me.

Started Luigi’s Mansion on 3DS a few days ago for Halloween, so I’ll probably go through that some more later today. Other than that, probably a bit more Genshin Impact, trying to go through the event before it runs out of time.

Switch faces the usual multitude of whims and plans, be it Xenoblades (the trilogy would certainly be no exception on a week like this!), sim stuff from RFs, Portia and Marie/Nelke to Deadcraft, Truck Driver and Long Live the Queen, other spacious adventures like EoW, Skyrim, Hogwarts and SR4 or the more segmented yet equally eventful environments of Bioshock 2, Isaac, Personas/TMS and Wreckfest. And then there's still stuff to do in the soon-ending NMS expedition. Procrastination? Er, let's discuss that another time.

On Deck, my gluttonous posterior is struggling to look calmly at a whole 20 Gb the recent announcement just freed me - not nearly enough to get FFXIII or Horizon back on board, but it could accommodate either one of the previously shelved Steam biggies like Prey or Resonance of Fate, or I could use it to stuff back most of the emulated entries I've also begrudgingly benched this year (Xillia, True Crime, Burnout, Sin & Punishment 2 etc). Depending on the outcome, none or some of the aforementioned stuff may end up on the menu as well, but the already installed stuff like Starbound, Dishonored, Mass Effect and Zestiria/Arise may get a dose of action regardless. The handheld consoles beckon with the familiar playthroughs like Eternia, VLR, Endless Frontier and Strange Journey while PS4 may see me reinstall Little Big Planet 3 because scraping up the extra money for it before the memetically short-notice delisting (with seven more bucks left idle in my wallet after all PSN cards below $10 just went poof... and that's two dollars short of the current Star Ocean IaF discount so I'd need another tenner investment to catch it🙄😆) is as good a catalyst as any. And I might even try and quest around in Genshin Impact despite not usually using the mobile version for anything besides clumsily screen-mashed trials, just to see if I can accumulate a few more primogems towards a shot at Hu Tao banner.

Snowrunner (Switch) keeps on being my backlog quest destroying time sink. I'm just over 135 hours into that beast and I started playing it about mid-September. What keeps fascinating me is that for the most part I'm just having a blast every time I play it. The only time the game grinds my gears (besides flipping over with cargo on the home stretch of a long haul) is when I ever attempt to play a quick session. This game is by no means generous to play it like that. If you try that you'll get nothing done and by annoyed. Every time I boot it up, I'm committing to getting some contracts and tasks wrapped up. By far the most 'out of leftfield' of a game. I thought for sure Sifu (Switch) was going to by my GOTY this year but Snowrunner may haul it out (pun intended). It made my flight to and from Maui last week feel super quick.

In an attempt to split things up a bit though I picked up Epic Mickey (Switch). Never got around to it back in the Wii era so it's great getting another shot at it. I played for a little and had a good time. I would put more into it, but Snowrunner keeps calling me. I'm getting pretty close to finishing Alaska and I told myself I'm stopping at that...but I'm having such a great time in Alask that the Taymyr level is starting to interest me...then there's all the DLC maps that are starting to look interesting...oh no what am I going to do My backlog is so mad at me and I was doing so well for a while before Snowrunner.

Feda: Emblem of Justice (SFC)

@MegaChem good stuff. Playing through the Master Quest in 3DS for the first time but I’ve played OOT3D a number of times since it came out. One of the greats.

Being the Halloween week here in the US it’s been a tad bit difficult to game this week but we managed to get some in! Metaphor ReFantazio has been my main focus and I’m currently traversing the map after the first dungeon. To anyone on the fence - get past the 10 hour mark/first dungeon and you’ll see what the true game opens up to be. Fantastic characters and story that get better once you achieve that mark. I do expect this to launch on switch 2 at some point and can’t wait to play it portably. Pokemon TCGP has also taken over my working hours and collecting cards has never been easier or more relaxing. The battle system is simple enough for anyone to grasp & all I can do is brag about it to my small group of friends and hope it latches its claws into their lives as well. Lastly, my family and I jumped into a game of Super Mario Party Jamboree. We took a ten turn game of the mall board and WOW. The surprises. The new rules. The layout. The presentation. This may just be the best Mario party I’ve played and couldn’t agree more with the overall masses.

Shadows of the Damned remaster on Steam Deck. So underrated- it’s not the best game ever and it has its flaws but it’s refreshing to go back to something like this that really doesn’t take itself seriously at all. Basic “save the damsel” plot, ridiculous dialogue, fun arcadey action with enemies exploding in bursts of gems. Great character designs, juvenile jokes, a fantastic soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka and it still looks really nice IMO. For £20 it’s absolutely worth a go…just make sure to shut your brain off while playing 🥴

@Ganner are you playing snow runner on switch or a deck? I’ve been wanting to get it but probably on a sale for Xbox because I’d like to get some of the dlc with it but all together it’s quite pricey. Is the dlc worth it you think?

Be taking advantage of the clocks giving me an extra hour tonight with some high Mario Party Jamboree, and some Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness in the evening while wife plays SoS: Friends of Mineral Town.

Away from Nintendo I'll be playing Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, and either Gotham Knights or TMNT: Shredder's Revenge.

@Tyranexx Oh that's a pretty neat Lego build/set.

I really need to finish my Paris set..

Recently got Darkest Dungeon II. I've been waiting for this to come out on Switch ever since the first game became one of my Switch's top ten most played. Time to be reacquainted with Wayne June's gravelly narration.

Banjo-Tooie babyyyyyy!

Though I've also had a slight hankering to get back into Slay the Spire this weekend.

I just picked up my NSO N64 controller so I'm excited to play Banjo the intended way. The controls don't translate all that well to the normal Switch controllers. Might go through a few other 64 games just to play optionally for a change.

With the new Vampire Survivors DLC out, I'm absolutely going to be giving it a shot. The real question is going to be deciding whether to switch over to Brothership once it comes out or to stick with VS.

I'll be so busy with a church conference this weekend that I probably won't have any time at all for games! But yesterday my local game store was doing a buy-2-get-1-free deal on used games, so I picked up the Pac-Man World 2/Pac-Man Vs. 2-pac(k) on GameCube alongside World 3 and Glory of Heracles on DS. I booted up the latter two, for a brief moment, so I guess those count?

I just got a new laptop, which is not specifically for gaming but I thought I'd test its performance by installing the most recent AAA game in my Steam library, Gotham Knights. It's from a Humble bundle (like most of my Steam games) and I don't know if I'll like it given its mixed reception, but hopefully I'll get round to giving it a spin soon to see how well it runs, and if I actually enjoy playing it that will be a nice bonus.

Apart from that, I'm still ambling through Echoes of Wisdom, currently in the Falon Wetlands.

About two thirds (?) into Sea of Stars. I'm somewhat mixed on it... I like the story a lot, and the turn-based RPG with Metroidvania bits is a cool idea, but outside boss battles the mechanics are a little meh. It's going to rain all weekend, so I might get back into Ori and the Blind Forest, which I was having fun with but couldn't really stay with it.

Happy gaming everyone!

Wow. This week has been... crazy. First, Nintendo announces Xenoblade X out of the blue like it's 2020. Then, on the same day, Sony announced they're canceling Concord and axeing the team with something else. And then, Nintendo Music happened. Just... wow.

This weekend, when I can, I'll be playing Sonic x Shadow Generations on Series S. Beat Sonic Generations, still a great game, and started Shadow Generations, which is... pretty good, actually. Can't wait to 100%. Also will probably play more Partners in Time and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. Man, Mario and Luigi Brothership is next week, but I don't think I'll be playing that until Black Friday. We'll see. Have a good weekend!

P.S. Ethan Zack, if you're seeing this, play Sonic Mania! That game's great and pretty easy to get into.

Die hard for the Nes and maybe Goonies II

@TYRANACLES I'm playing on Switch. Yeah the DLC does add up if you don't get it on sale. I think there's like 14 Seasons worth now. I don't have any of the DLC though just straight vanilla game. I didn't want to cheese the game at all with any of the DLC vehicles either. I'm sure the DLC is worth it because there's tons of hours per map alone so I even just one or two additional maps add like a 100 hours or so.

Like I said in my post originally I was just planning to get through Alaska and attempt to get back to the backlog...but after all this time I'm so into this game and my fleet of vehicles. It's so cool when you get some vital upgrades and start getting things done a bit easier. Still a challenge but having a better engine, raised suspension and a better gearbox with better tires makes you feel like a workhorse. We'll see what I end up doing. I'll most likely start the Russia level to at least check it out.

I haven't had a Switch for a few years, but I got a Switch OLED as an early birthday present and I'm catching up on Nintendo games I've missed. I'm bouncing between Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Feel like it’s been a while since I’ve been on here lol. I just beat Voice of Cards Forsaken Maiden a few days ago and the secret boss too. The game is definitely harder then the first game but it was good. Very emotional too.

Also just beat Alan wake remastered after that. Good story. Kept me hooked. The gameplay is a little janky like resident evil 6 or revelation 2 but it was good enough. I still have to play the dlc story stuff on it to see what else happens.

Will try to play some drakengard 3 on other consoles besides switch lol.

@Diogmites
Thanks, for the kind words.
Yeah, it is quite painful.
Games are a good distraction though. ☺️

@Tyranexx
Thanks.
Glad you didn't do more damage.
I wish you a speedy recovery as well.

My Limited Run physical copy of TUROK 3 finally came, so I've been rocking that. Finished my first playthrough this morning. Also will be playing RetroRealms HALLOWEEN and EVIL DEAD since my physical copy for that came the same day as well. 'Tis the Season!

In Tears of the Kingdom, I'm done with all the side stuff currently available on the surface in the Rospro Pass region, so before I do sky/depths stuff, I'm going to do the Rito dungeon. In Fire Emblem Awakening, I'm practically done grinding, probably going to be able to finish today. Last of all, in Fire Emblem Heroes, I'm doing Book III on Normal mode and Book II on Hard mode simultaneously. I just did Chapter 3 of Book III on Thursday, so I'll be returning to Book II after I finish some Book III Paralogues and Tactics Drills.

I've been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons more seriously than I have in a long time, so that's been my main game of the weekend. I thought about starting Banjo-Tooie on NSO, but I should wait for later in the month since Mario & Luigi: Brothership is just around the corner. No telling how deep I'll get into that when it launches, but it IS an RPG, which naturally takes a lot of time.

Sonic X Shadow Generations (Switch), Xeno Crisis (Evercade) and Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2)

@MegaChem the two versions are pretty much the same but the 3DS version feels a bit snappier

Microsoft Wordament (Android) - After taking a break for a few weeks, I'm back to doing dailies again.

Wordament Snap Attack (Android) - Because you can never have enough Wordament in your life.

Free Slots Fun Factory (Windows Phone) - Still watching YT vids on this.

Finished all the in-game achievements in Iron Meat coop. Really solid Contra-like we put dozens of hours into playing on Hard.

@PikminMarioKirby What colour Yosh you going for?

@drypaphmrbro I got Red and Orange previously, so I was going for any of the other colors, and I ended up getting Pink Yoshi!

Nikoderiko The Magical World

Played nothing. Been traveling. Finally home. I think I'll start Luigi's Mansion 2 once I'm well rested.

Well here we go with another jampacked WAYP. Been a stupidly awesome week around here. Lots of new games came out. Most of the weekend was spent with Zelda and Ys X with a little Yakuza Kiwami and yeah all of those are extremely awesome I’m loving them all. Sure Yakuza I’ve already played but man it’s such a cozy switch game. Ys X is also like probably the best of that series by far so far. Getting real big GOW: Ragnarok vibes. Rest of the weekend I’m thinking is gonna be some Astro Bot as I would like to beat that game next alongside Metaphor as well. Yeah that’s right no Dawntrail because I beat it. Very touching and amazing Yoshi P and his team knocked it out the park again. Also dabbled into Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered and those too were excellent COD in particular seriously impressed me. Otherwise I’m thinking this week is mostly gonna consist of some Zelda, Trails Through Daybreak, Emio, Astro Bot, Metaphor, BLOPS6, Sonic X Shadow Generations and hopefully dabbling in both the new Life Is Strange and Slitterhead. Very excited for them. Also Mario and Luigi Brothership comes out this week and I’m looking to pick that up and a copy of Dragon Age: The Veilguard too since that reviewed well. Also started at my new store since the old one shut down and honestly it’s seriously amazing it’s a great store. The two wrestling things this week being WWE Halloween Havoc and WWE Crown Jewel were seriously cool. A lot of excellent matches between the two with amazing wrestlers like Giulia, Trick Williams, Liv Morgan, LA Knight, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa and so many more. Now we’re on the road to SURVIVOR SERIES WARGAMES and I just can’t wait. Anime of the week gotta go to Oshi No Ko and Dandadan and Dragon Ball Daima. Yeah we’re full swing into fall and for instance even that new Dragon Ball is seriously peak stuff you guys it seriously rules. Podcasts of this week gotta go to Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into The Aether, RPGsites Tetracast, Minnmax, Jeff Gerstmann, Kit and Krysta, Last Stand Media, Easy Allies, Second Wind, Nextlander, Cultaholic Wrestling, Weapon Wheel Podcast and Remap Radio. As always yall stay safe, be stupidly awesome to each other. Have a totally wacky weekend and of course Happy Gaming.

@Anti-Matter those games are terrible.

I am pretty late to the party but I finished up Crow Country on Steam Deck, and I also started/finished Lil Gator Game on Steam Deck as well. Both were great experiences but I sort of enjoyed Lil Gator Game more because of the poignant message it gave. It left a better lasting impression on me.