Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 18th)

Animal Crossing New Horizons

Go on then, another couple of loops

Dying Light The Following. I'm still standing in front of the same volatile hive as last week! Kidding of course. This game is so big! But I'm nearly at the end. Hopefully find a cure for this disease soon (but since there is a Dying Light 2 coming out (which doesn't look to have half the same atmosphere) I'm not holding my breath lol.

I have to say, honestly, that I know this website recommends you play it on another console if you can but that to me really discredits Techland for the amazing job they have done with this game. It's been a pleasure taking my time with this game and it's one I know I'll revisit at some point.

I downloaded the paid version of Fuze4 as it's on sale for £5 and you can play so many games on that version (including an unofficial Dizzy adventure game called Tycoon Dizzy) by entering the codes found on the Fuze4 Arena site and some of those games are actually addictive as hell! Takes me back to MS-Dos days and software like The Games Factory. True indie games!

Other than that I'll probably be focusing on Cadence of Hyrule and maybe some Wunderling.

@BenAV Touhou Spell Bubble looks fun but even with online I'm not paying £50 for a glorified Puzzle Bobble game, lol

Since it’s the week before Christmas and I’ll likely be getting a bunch of games then, I’m gonna spend this weekend trying to finish a few games I already have. I got to case 4 of Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (case 3’s ending was crazy by the way!) so I’m hoping to finish that and case 5 this weekend, and maybe make some more progress in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox if I have anymore time. I’m enjoying that game a lot, but it’s definitely a step down from Ys VIII for me. I’ll definitely play Dead By Daylight, Mario Party Superstars, and Clue with friends as well.

Bravely Default - 1st playthrough

Still chipping away at Shin Megami Tensei V! Around level 33 and just fused the Tyrant King Jack.

On the 3DS, I’m finally about to meet Fenir in Etrian Odyssey.

Lastly I’m about halfway done with the 4th case in Ace Attorney : Phoenix Wright

Playing the gunk in XSX, almost done with it. Fun game so far.

Also some super mario party on the switch with my sister and her boyfriend.

Was planning on getting back into forza horizon 5 on the XSX.

And finally I’m probably gonna start DMC5 on the ps5.

SWITCH
Metroid Dread - Continuing my playthrough of this amazing game! Loving it so far.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - In celebration of crossplay and voice acting being announced, doing some online matches! Currently maining Nigel and Garfield.

PC
Horizon Zero Dawn - Starting this one today! Heard great things about it.
GTA Online - As always, multiplayer madness with friends tonight!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Some usual suspects on Switch - DerQ and Fuga, Xenoblade and Portia, Amalur and Skyrim, Starlink and Morta... and whatever else I may get a more momentary itch for. Meanwhile, my laptop should witness more fooling around across GTA 5, Just Cause 2 and/or 3, one of or various Elder Scrolls and possibly some Ubisoft open-worlders like Watch Dogs or Assassin's Creed as well.

That said, the newly procured machine has been really (if still comparatively) more reassuring in the Gen 6/7 emulation range - while some stuff like the earlier mentioned Drakengard or Valkyrie Profile 2 remain noticeably slow (at least without attempting any witchcraft in the emulator settings), I've been pleasantly surprised to find all three Xenosagas, two Tales (Abyss and Legendia) and Star Ocean TtEoT running pretty well - and Dolphin predictably behaves even better in the GCN/Wii stuff I've tried. So I'd be lying if I denied the urge to rummage through all the aforesaid more - but at the same time, simultaneous shots of Xenoblade and Xenosaga experiences may well drive me to go do more stuff in Xenogears on Vita (the platform which incidentally turned 10 yesterday!) on top of other usual plans thereon like Castlevania, Eternia and Blue Reflection. And of course, my chaotic gaming appetites keep making more 3DS plans from Fire Emblem and Endless Frontier to wrestling with that one particularly annoying stage in... Sudoku Gridmaster. Doesn't take much to stump me, does it.🙄😆

On pc - Animal Royale, really enjoying the new update

On switch - smash with friends

Still going at it with Brilliant Diamond's postgame. Currently working through Ramanas Park, still pretty early in that sidequest. Also spending time in the Grand Underground again catching new Pokemon and hunting for treasure. I'll also be playing Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon on Switch because I'm a huge Shovel Knight fan and this one's a lot of fun.

Outside of Switch, as usual, I'll say I need to get back to Silent Hill soon... maybe I'll actually do it this time! We also switched to a new ISP this last week, so I can finally play Final Fantasy XIV again. Our old one would throttle my connection any time I tried to play it, so it's nice to return to that, even if the servers are currently overloaded so it takes time to get in.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Slay the Spire. Both seem a bit simple so far though, so hopefully they will improve. Kena does look stunning.

I'm playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Still on Chapter 1. Tomorrow I'll will be able to finish 1st chapter, I think. That's all what I've played on this week.

I’ve completed Skyward Sword with all side quests this time. I’ll be spending some time on DLC content of Two Point Hospital. Needed a break after finishing the base game. I’ll begin with the hospitals in the snow region.

Final fantasy x still. Some of the dialogue scenes seem to go on forever but I am still enjoying the story and characters and, crucially, the battles.

I may get into some Red Dead Redemption on XSX, along with Halo Infinite Multiplayer. Then some Psychonauts for good measure.

On Switch, I will probably play some Mighty Gunvolt Burst, some Spector of Torment and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I have a $50 eShop card that I want to use on way too many games but there are also a lot of titles next year that I want so I'm having a mild dilemma. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Currently playing through SMT 5, I am having a great time and plan to beat it before moving on to anything else.

Shin Megami Tensei V and DiRT Rally 2.0

More Loop Hero (maybe also Darkest Dungeon) on Steam, with some Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ and Monster Train on Switch on the side.

I have just finished The Gunk on XSX. Fun game that doesn't outstay its welcome.

I have now moved on to Switchblade on the Evercade.

Other than that I might try I am Setsuna to get me into a wintry mood.

The Grand Underground and Contests don't particularly interest me so for now I'm done with Brilliant Diamond though I can't really decide what to play next. I'm thinking either start SMTV, continue with MH Rise or continue with Bravely Default II.

On the Xbox side, I'll try and find some Halo 5 matches as I honestly prefer its multiplayer to Infinite.

Cosmic Star Heroine on Switch. The game starts good, but after 9 hours is slowing down a bit... no character background and long battles is getting old, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

Happy gaming everyone!

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Megamix
Got Excellent or better on every song on Normal, now replaying all songs on Hard while also playing some songs on Exteme.

Detective Pikachu
Second chapter. Playing in Japanese.

All work no play.

Well, last week I rage quit Death's Door (which turned out to be one of my most hated, disappointing games of the year), so half an hour after ending my suffering with that game, I turned on Quake and I was instantly happy with that game. I never got around to this one and I really did miss out. I'm currently on the 4th episode and it really gives me that old school vibe that doom/wolf3d/Duke nukem gave me. I love it.

I also picked up the Capcom Big Blue Arcade 1up this week, so now that I'm on Christmas vacation, I want to give it and my recent MVSX and Midway Legacy arcades a lot of playtime. I've got 11 of these things in my basement arcade now, so my family and I can ride out the covid apocalypse shooting pool/playing arcades/pop a shot basketball and playing darts (we're now the #1 worst city for covid in Canada. What else are we gonna do?)

Failed my Nuzlocke run in Pokemon Shining Pearl (my team was avg Lv 62 going into the elite four, that was a mistake). So I'm doing a round 2. Going much better, I lost my starter at the third gym in my first playthrough and so many during the actual run, this time I'm being extra cautious.

Thronebreaker Witcher Tales on my Switch.

With the premiere of Witcher season 2 this weekend I am kind of overdosing in Geralt 🤨

Slay the Spire
Shin Megami Tensei V
Ring Fit Adventure
G-Darius HD

halo infinite ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

For xbox I will finish up the gunk, I'm 3 hours in and does already seem like the end is near 😢, then I will continue with some aliens fireteam which so far I've enjoyed more than back 4 Blood

On playstation 5 I will continue my slog through blue reflection second light and start a new game on horizon zero dawn so I can do the dlc before the new game comes out

On nintendo I've recently bought Bioshock remastered collection so will be playing that and pokemon brilliant diamond

Chicory: A Colorful Tale! Lovely game so far.

Doing some island hopping in Animal Crossing New Horizons
looking for a new villager

Christmas is next week by the way

I am in Marvel Multiverse and Family game mode this weekend. After coming back from seeing NO WAY HOME on Thursday night, I finally picked up Lego Marvel Superheroes 2; and yes, the voice acting is terrible. Also rolled some Pac-Man VS. with my kids. Will see where else the weekend will take me.

Uhh I'm real busy this week, so mostly just fussing with 2048 on my phone. It's the best mobile game ever

I'm also starting Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why Are You Stealing Our Garbage!? In the internet age it is more and more difficult for a game to achieve "hidden gem" status, but this is certainly that

I picked up Saints Row IV in the sale yesterday (for a RIDICULOUSLY cheap price!) so that’ll be what I’m doing with my weekend. Having a blast with it so far.

This week I will be mostly playing

Pokémon Black 2
Star Fox Zero

The Christmas crunch is on, so relatively little time to play games for me!

I’ll still sneak in a little Into the Breach and beachcombing in ACNH.

Have a very merry week everyone!

I’m still playing Astral Chain. I just finished file 8 last night. There is a ton you can do with the combat, but I still feel like I button mash a bit or at least spam certain things a bit even though I am on standard difficulty. At least to me the game doesn’t make it clear when in combat to use which of all the options available. I guess that is to give you freedom to do what you want and experiment. However with systems like this I tend to find some thing that works well enough and I keep doing it. I am still enjoying it, but I am curious how to possibly get more out of it or if it would be possible to have a game with this much flexibility in combat but that has a smooth learning curve that has you really mastering all of it.

Mahjong by Microsoft (Android) - Daily challenges and puzzle packs as usual.

Bad Piggies (Windows Phone) - Going back to finish this off finally.

Tiki Towers (Windows Phone) - Just getting into this.

I kicked 2021 off with Cat Quest, I'm looking to end it with a playthrough of Cat Quest II. Outside of that, Pokemon Go, even though I have shiny versions of all the CD Pokemon. I'll probably also play some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Party Superstars with the fiancée as well.

On the PlayStation side of things, I'll continue to play my AEW universe mode in WWE 2K19.

Slowly burning through my completionist checklist for Age of Calamity. I want to finish it before Breath of the Wild 2 comes out.

Still stuck on Tetris 99 & Halo Infinite. I’ll most likely stretch this routine until Pokemon Legends Arceus

Saints Row IV was like 3-something on the eShop so I grabbed that. Only about two hours in but having a lot of fun already. Daily check-ins with Animal Crossing continue, chipping away at Paper Mario 64, and working on a 105% run of DKC3 with the MERRY cheat activated. Guess I've been busier than I realized!

Fire Emblem Three Houses.

Sims 4 and Pokemon Diamond.

Just started Death's Door and I'm way excited about it. I love crows (or are they ravens?)

Still at it with Animal Crossing. Then some Mario Golf and Clockwork Aquario.

Animal Crossing New Horizon and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I want to start a new game on Devil Summoner but I doubt I could finish it before the holidays.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I'll be playing Doom Mods and maybe Shin Megami Tensei V.

I am closing in the finale of Shadowverse, and I will probably continue my journey into the under verse! Also been playing the excellent Donkey Kong 94 on my 3DS. May also tackle some DQXI or SMTV and Danganronpa.

@GingerNinja Slay the Spire becomes very complex and with the randomness of the game it is really a complicated game. Also as you get the other characters it adds variety to cards and play style.

I just recently played a handful of old Super Mario and related games including the original versions of SMB 2 and 3. Had such a great time, I'm going back for more. Then, if there's time, I might play a beat-em-up like Knights of the Round or something like that.

I've been playing Ys IX and I'm currently on chapter 6. I do have to admit I think I enjoyed Ys VIII a bit better but I am enjoying this one so far!

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Age of Calamity
Mario kart and Mario Party superstars on switch
On PS5 i'm playing House of ashes

La Mulana. Pray for me.

Got the Grand Children over for 4 days so the Wii is getting switched on and 3 player games of Mario Kart and Wii Sports bowling tonight. Happy gaming all and 7 sleeps to go!!

Me and my son have both really gotten into Gundam recently. So much so that I'll probably be playing some Daemon x Machina and Gundam Cross Rays. He has a birthday this month and will be having a Gundam model building birthday party. Santa will also be bringing us some Gundams for Christmas.

Lot of xenoblade chronicles 2 and whatever my son wants to play. MUA3 or mario golf.

I also bought saints row 4 in the sale so a little of that too.

Switch: Undertale, Geki Yaba Runner, Hollow Knight, Horace.

3DS: Donkey Kong (Game Boy version), Oracle of Seasons, Mario Golf: World Tour.

DS Lite: Star Fox Command.

Spider man, because no way home made me nostalgic for a certain character.

And maybe yooka laylee

I'll be poking around in the Blasphemous Wounds of Eventide update to chase down my eroded skills, and of course, see what it's all about. Boot Hill Heroes and Torna will come into play if I can stop dabbling back into MK8D.

Congratulations!!!…we made it to the weekend!

I recently finished RUINER…what an awesome game. It’s like Hades x Cyberpunk with twin stick gameplay..it’s brutal and beautiful! Highly recommend it, would love a sequel!

My quest with Geralt continues in Witcher 3 as does my climb to HR 100 in MH Rise..still one of the best multiplayer games around. I’ve recently added Dying Light and Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition to the backlog..Switch 2 better be backward compatible!

Of course this weekend will be well seasoned with some good eating , shoveling snow and fending off this extreme cold so Baileys with hot chocolate is required.

Strains: Red Congo, Platinum Grape and the freshest LA Kush Cake

Happy and healthy weekend of gaming to all!

Still playing Eastward and Blasphemous. Also having a blast with two things that had lots of controversy: the GTA Trilogy and the N64 Switch Online.

@GregamanX

Been considering starting Deaths Door, looking forward to it..too bad the experience wasn’t an enjoyable one for you! Sounds like your either in Ontario or Quebec…sounds like we’re getting ready to ride out the 5th wave…thankfully Covid and gaming go hand in hand

Christmas is coming so I'm playing UNDERTALE again!

Sakura Santa of course! Tis the season after all 😁

@Rainz It's too bad because I was really interested in Death's Door, and I REALLY wanted to like it. I paid full price, and I really wish I picked the other game I was eyeing up instead. And yeah, I'm not just in the #1 province (Ontario), but I'm in Kingston. The omicron has escalated so much that I feel like it's pretty much gonna be irreversible 😣

@GregamanX

Nothing like having hype deflated by pure disappointment! I have some pretty big expectations so I’ll temper them before I start it. Don’t you worry about COVID in Ontario…just wait until Alberta gets to ride the wave. The only place where they are easing restrictions just in time for the holidays and while cases are climbing at that! Common sense isn’t so common after all! Hope you and the fam stay safe and enjoy your holidays and some gaming as well!

@Rainz For Death's Door, I just found the combat repetitive and frustrating, with no real worthwhile upgrades throughout the game. The waves of enemies in areas with almost unavoidable environmental hazards and constant low health made me lose my mind and rage delete it. And I normally have patience (I've beaten Cyber Shadow this year), but this one pushed me over the edge. I hope you have a lot more patience than I, and that these are things that wont bother you.

As for covid, i imagine omicron will spread eventually. It's just that we have a dumb party university that spread it like wildfire (about half of our cases are them alone), not only among themselves, but through the bars and restaurants too. My family and I are trying to stay safe. I just started a 2.5 week Christmas break today...except for the fact that at work yesterday we got a covid case, and if my supervisor has it, then I'm going to have to get tested too. I pray that it's not the case. I really don't want our Christmas ruined by covid. Ah, sorry I got carried away. 2021 has been the worst year of my life, by far. Stay safe out there too, and enjoy the relative freedom while you've got it.

@GregamanX

Yeah the downsides to residing in a University/College city…good ol’ Queens and those damn students trying to get an education during a pandemic lol! Smart move booking off the time…should be able to avoid alot of potential exposure situations now.

I haven’t started Deaths Door yet but stayed with the topic of death I guess and have decided to give Spiritfarer a go. So far so good. Sending positives vibes to you and yours stay safe..no tests required! Enjoy your time off!

Got Saints Row IV for that ridiculous price so a lot of that, surprisingly smitten with it. It’s just stupid fun and the super powers really add a lot to this kind of game.

Also The Gunk which is pleasant enough. It’s a lot more chilled out than I imagined it would be which isn’t a bad thing, but I’m not really feeling it’s on the level of a Steamworld game so far. Decent though.

@Rainz Whew luckily my supervisor's covid test came back negative so I can enjoy Christmas break now. Oh, and Spiritfarer is a good choice! I played that a few months ago and I really recommend it! Thanks for the well wishes too.

Loop Hero has drawn me in with the ‘just one more run’…..