Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 18-19)

I started up unicorn overlord last night so dive into that properly I think

Just finished Fallout 4 including all expansions. For an old game holds up very well (except the bugs) much more enjoyable than Starfield.

Will now mess around with mods and maybe play Martha is Dead as it's a short game until Hellblade 2 comes out in a few days.

Finishing up Alan wake 2 and playing the finals. Thinking about getting back into Diablo 4 but I just don’t know. I wish path of exile 2 would come out.

Next-gen Avatar > Starfield. Playing Avatar, clearing the map before its Story DLC 1.

Really wanted Starfield to be a polished Star Citizen, but it's just old-school Skyrim in space with nonsense no vehicles or phones/radios and proc gen repetitive garbage.

I’m playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on Series X. I’d never played any of them before Shadow of the Tomb Raider appeared on Game Pass a few weeks ago. I’ve really enjoyed all three.

I might also have a look at either Immortals of Aveum, Chants of Senaar, Crow Country or I might finally get round to trying Dave the Diver on PS5. We’ll see. Have a good weekend. 🙂

Finally finished dead island 2. Either going to start Jedi Survivor or find a multiplayer game. I've been wanting to play a competitive fps lately, it's been a while.

I'll be on jedi survivor and hopefully jump on dragons dogma dark arisen get a start on it finally

Nothing. The sun is shining and Im going outside to touch some grass and get a tan. Have a good weekend everybody.

Diablo 4 all day & night.

Season 4 has some fantastic QoL features that make things so much more enjoyable.

My favourite being all aspects go into the codex of power when you scrap gear. It keeps the most powerful and you can use it as many times as you want. No more clogged up inventory or stash with items just because you might want to use it's aspect at some point.

The season theme is a bit dull but it does give some good rewards so it's worth doing.

If you want to try D4 end game this is the season to do it. Levelling is easy & quick, gearing has been streamlined which makes things less painful. All in all it's just a fun experience.

Oh if you want no brain easy mode play a necromancer minion build (I am sure there will be plenty of guides about if you need one.) Super powerful, easy to play (basically don't stand in the bad stuff & your minions kill everything) and will probably be nerfed to the grave next season so enjoy it while you can.

Playing

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (PS5)
• Diablo IV (XSX)
• Portal (Steam Deck)

Paused

• Divinity: Original Sin (XSX)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
• Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PS5)

Backlog

• Days Gone
• F1 Manager 2023
• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
• Persona 3: Reload
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I’m not sure what I want to play this weekend. I did finish my first playthrough of Stellar Blade. I got both endings (thank you, cloud saving). And those final boss fight(s), depending on the ending you choose, was superb. It took me approximately 65+ hours to do all side quests and collectibles. All I need to do now is NG+ and I’ll have the platinum trophy. With that said, I need a break. It’s a masterpiece of an action game, especially considering this is Shift Up’s first console game, but I’m ready for something different.

For a palette cleanser I earnestly started and completed Crow Country, obtaining the platinum trophy while I was at it. I needed a bite sized game and it only took five hours to beat. I have to say - this is one of the best survival horror games of the year, perhaps in the past half decade. It’s easily up there with Signalis, but I think it’s better due to its more grounded story that isn’t vague and full of questions.

There are some genuine unsettling moments, which is a hard accomplishment for me because I’m desensitized to a lot of horror themed stuff. Moreover, the atmosphere, tone, sound design (OST), and enemy designs are brilliant, only adding to the tension. And it’s excellently written. It has a compelling mystery that’s compounded with environmental story telling, newspaper clippings, journals, secrets, and ever evolving surroundings the more you progress the story. I strongly recommend this game.

Lastly, I decided to purchase Star Ocean: The Second Story R. I’ve been itching for a good JRPG, and everything about this remake looks superlative. I’m particularly keen on the science fiction aspect too. At the moment I’m two hours in, starting with Claude Kenny, and have beaten the first boss. My only complaint is that the game is relatively easy so I might have to adjust the difficulty setting to give myself more of a challenge.

Finished Assassin's Creed Mirage recently. After three amazing games, Mirage was such a letdown. Avergae at most.
Now I'm playing the excellent new Prince of Persia. It surprised me how good it is.

@Traygor just finishing Alan Wake 1 myself this weekend as I really want to play the 2nd game. I’ve really enjoyed the vibe of this game and it links to the Control universe.

@Nerad I powered through the remastered one and honestly the second one is so much scarier. Less combat but the atmosphere is insane.

Last night I finished Ashes 2063, which I really enjoyed as my first Doom total conversion. Interestingly, it looks and feels a bit more like a Duke 3D mod than a Doom one. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with small outposts filled with shady characters to talk to, trade with, and shop from. The guns are nothing overly crazy, but are all pretty cool/useful, and ammo is a bit scarce, so you will find a use for them all. There are subways, abandoned facilities, radiation zones, and motorcycle rides through the desert. The soundtrack is just incredible, too. Mutants and punky scavengers make up most of the enemies, but there are a couple surprises as well. It has some lite RPG type elements thrown in, but its mainly a boomer shooter experience. Maybe 5 or 6 hours long. I would highly recommend checking out it if you're into games like STALKER, Fallout, Metro, and also games like Doom, Duke 3D, or retro shooters in general.

I'll be mostly playing more Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age the rest of the weekend, but I'll knock out a few levels of Warhammer 40k: Boltgun as well.

Looking forward to Hellblade 2 on Tuesday!

Vampire Survivors for me. My wife & I completed most of the base game and are working through the adventures. Just on the Light & Dark but should be on to the moonspell one this weekend.

After losing confidence in the Xbox brand I’ve traded in my series x this weekend and I’ve got a new PlayStation so will be trying out the last of us 1 spider man and gran turismo and ratchet and maybe a little bit of Mario kart happy gaming every one

@Meehanuk_1987 I’ve been thinking about that… I mean if there’s not going to be any exclusives for Xbox I am missing out on ps exclusives like hell divers and ghost of Tsushima

Finished Dead Island 2 (addictive combat - LA looks great), Chants of Sennaar (original and interesting) and Shadow Warrior 3 (entertains but dumb).

Playing Diablo 4 coop and starting Atomic Heart.

I usually don’t love linear story games but that’s mostly what I’ve played this year due to Game Pass. Long/infinite sandbox games are less appealing when you have a huge catalog of 20 hour games, even though the sandboxes are usually more fun. How do you balance that?

Finally finishing Star Wars: Jedi Survivor today and thinking about what game will be next.

I'm trying out Fallout 4 on PS5 for the first time. I've never finished a Bethesda RPG (I got bored of Starfield) plus...

Asgards Wrath 2 on Quest 3

Helldivers 2 on PC

Let's Cook Together/Don't Starve Together with wifey on Series X

Paused: Baldurs Gate 3, Talos Principle 2, Deliver Us Mars

The backlog is real: GOW Ragnarok, Jedi Survivor.

Now this one was very to find so I had to start playing it right away: Harold and Kumars Epic and Fantastic yet Stoned as Hell Journey to the New White Castle "Dazed and Infused Edition" restaurant. You can unlock NPH as a playable character as well as his Doogie Howser Skin.

@Traygor I was thinking about it for quite some time too

I mainly used my Xbox with gamepass so didn’t have a huge library of games I was losing as apart from Senuai which I can play on my steam deck with xplay app I have installed

Just got fed up of all the negative news surrounding Xbox

And I didn’t want to buy games on the console as I can’t see them being around as a console maker after next gen

Plus I’ve got decent internet if there’s anything I want to play by Xbox I’ll sub for a month complete what ever it is and then cancel the sub

Get the best of both worlds

@Meehanuk_1987 Soooo..... the propaganda has gotten to you I see. You must resist and be strong.

Starfield and PGA Tour Golf on Series X. Have a good w/end all.

@ZYDIO propaganda from who?

@Traygor You said, "Just got fed up of all the negative news surrounding Xbox", that is propaganda.

@ZYDIO To be fair it’s mostly true Xbox games have started coming to PlayStation and their selling well they won’t stop now their a business they want to make money.

Can’t see it being to long before halo gears etc cross over they would make a ton of money.

Plus the ps5 and steam deck combo for Xbox cloud gaming gives me the best options can play both plus anything that’s on steam and ps5.

@ZYDIO that’s someone else’s comment. Im asking you what “propaganda” you’re talking about and who is putting this out? Lol

Playing Call of the Wild games

One of my favorite games of all time, Civilization 6, has me hooked again.

Otherwise I'm playing a little halo Infinite, mlb the show, and need for speed hot pursuit.

I'm keeping my single player narrative spot open for heckblade 2.

Definitely getting back into Starfield again. Haven't played it in a few months, and with or without the latest update, which is great by the way, and I'm really digging every second. So much to see, so much to do, so many fascinating characters to interact with, and yes, so many hilarious glitches and bugs to randomly encounter. Added all together it once again reminds me why I fell in love with Bethesda games in the first place (for me it was Morrowind on OG Xbox) Starfield is everything about those games and even more on a much grander scale. Is it everybody's cup of tea? Nope, and that's okay. For me though, it's exactly the cup of tea I enjoy the best - well, other than Yorkshire Red of course. Not to your liking? Awesome. More for me then. Never was too keen on big crowds anyway. Cheers!

@Meehanuk_1987 I think Microsoft just realizes they are limiting themselves but trying to stick with treating Xbox as just an ecosystem tied to a certain piece of hardware. Xbox has become pretty much just an ecosystem that's going to be available on any device, which is what everyone has wanted forever. You buy a game once and it works everywhere on anything you play it on and you get the best version and cloud gaming is included as well. Like I said, that's what everyone's been asking for all these years and they're finally getting it and now people are upset about it for some reason. Microsoft owns so many studios now that it would be stupid to try to contain all of that within the Xbox hardware only ecosystem.

@Traygor Haha, oh yeah, sorry I was halfway awake when I wrote that. What I'm saying is there is all this doom and gloom news that's overdramaticizing everything about Xbox just because they're doing something unorthodox and unconventional. They don't see the big plan that Microsoft is preparing for. Microsoft sees where gaming and technology is going and they see how it's shifting and they're just adapting. I'm not saying they're doing it all correctly in my opinion, but I think they have to do something or they're going to get left behind. I think in the long run they will be the ones prepared for what the future brings and the others will get left behind if they don't adapt and change. They have all the pieces of the puzzle to make gaming awesome and successful again, it's up to them to put them together correctly. I used to work for Microsoft when the original Xbox was released and I still have some friends that work there. Sometimes they feed me little bits of info here and there to let me know what's going on behind the scenes. All I'm saying is get ready for a whole bunch of awesome.

just finished Fallout 3, will do some of the DLC tomorrow!

@ZYDIO All the doom and gloom comes from asking, why would you own an Xbox over a PlayStation if Microsoft is putting their games on PlayStation and not vice versa. It looks like their overall plan is to sell in as many markets as possible. So why not get a ps5 and just buy the Xbox games on ps5 while having the benefit of Sony exclusives?

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Windows Phone) - I'm finally finished unpacking most of my house. So I'm still just focusing on mobile titles for now.

I’ll be playing my newly purchased Grid Legends deluxe edition my wife bought me for an astonishing £7.99!

@Blackadder I saw that deal and actually have the page open in a tab deciding if I should buy it or not. Is it a good game and a good deal should I get it?

@Traygor I will not own a PlayStation or anything made by Sony because they are a terrible company. They steal purchases and remotely brick hardware from people because they feel like it, and that's coming from personal experience multiple times. If I want to play Playstation exclusive games I buy them on PC and only DRM free. I do not trust that company with anything at all whatsoever and neither should anyone on the planet. They have proven time and time again that they are not trustworthy and they are thieves. How and why people keep doing business with them is mind-boggling. Look at just recent news, they've taken away people's purchases and that whole Helldivers 2 thing. The Xbox ecosystem and hardware is a lot better suited for me. A lot of the things I buy on and for the Xbox also work on the PC as well as a lot of my hardware and accessories. If for any other reason I can't stand their damn controllers, they are absolutely horrible and uncomfortable, poor quality and no user removable batteries. The Xbox controllers let you do whatever you want (except Elite 2). You can use non-rechargeable or rechargeable double A's or use a battery pack or just use it wired. You asked me a loaded question and I'm not going to just keep on rambling about why I can't stand Sony or Playstation so I'm going to shut up now. I will say this, I used to have PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 and I actually liked them better sometimes than my Xbox or Xbox 360 but that all changed because of the way they treated me.

Hello there fellow gamers.
For the last two months I´ve been in a Open World Action RPG frenzy with games like FF7 Rebirth, Horizon 2 Forbidden West on my PS5 and AC Valhalla on my Series X.
And now that I´ve finished AC Valhalla and finally got my 1Tb Expansion Card, been installing more games and one of them is AC Origins, one of my favourite AC and favourite Open World Action RPGs, sooooo......... I decided to play the game again, but now on my Xbox and sweet 60 FPS.
I don´t know how long I´ll keep playing these type of games, since they take so much time, but as long as I´m having fun, I´ll continue indulging myself.
Cheers everyone and happy gaming weekend to us all

@ZYDIO I’ve had it’s from game pass for a long time but I have a compulsion to buy games and only the complete version gold edition deluxe edition etc but that aside yes it’s a great game for £8 a bargain great graphics a great story and lots to do modify etc not everyone’s Grand Turismo but well worth a punt I am a sucker for a sale.

Immortals of aveum.

Right now, I am not playing anything at all.
My Xbox is away, in its box.

Once I move house, and unpack - in a few weeks - I will probably restart Starfield. From the beginning.

The update might actually make it feel like a completely different game.

@ZYDIO Excellent explanation of what makes Sony a company some of us would prefer to avoid. My issue with them stems from back in the late 1990s when, through Playstation Underground (which I loved by the way) I discovered my absolute favorite band from the 90s, Headswim. The band did a fantastic album (Despite Yourself) on the Sony label, but apparently it wasn't to Sony's liking so they dropped Headswim like a hot potato. I have refused anything Sony ever since. This of course led me to sell my PS1 and 2, and have been with Xbox through thick and thin ever since.

Everything, everywhere, all at once....in 1 hour increments.

I've just finished Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (I hadn't played it and want to play Survivor), and with a few days until Senua's Saga I didn't want to start something new.

So I loaded up Starfield, went to a temple and instantly remembered how much I hated those temples. I don't want to start a new game+ in it, and there's not a lot drawinge back in until the expansion is out.

Playing through sniper elite 5 on game pass. Not my normal type of game, but I’m having fun. I am taking a break from stellar blade and unicorn overlord, and am waiting to start sandland. I find in this discussion that my preferred console is my Xbox. I like the controller better, I like the ui, and I prefer the ecosystem. When paired with a rog ally, I can remote play or sync my saves back and forth. I also recently discovered better xcloud, and I like using that with my computer and prefer remote playing with it to greenlight.

Forza motorsport 3 and 4. Started new game on both games. Then occasionally playing Black Ops 1 zombies.

@Duck_Farmer you should play Days Gone now, I thought it was one of the best games last gen.

Skyward Sword, super mario land, and Fallout 4

D4.
Even before season 4 I was loving it. Now it’s next level.

What little game time I have this weekend will be continuing Armored Core 6.

@Blackadder Cool, I'm gonna get it.

@Kb42 That game is so weird, I'm not sure what to think of it.

@Meehanuk_1987
Try Astro's Playroom. It's already installed on your PS5. It's a charming platformer. Those type of games are not common on PSN and Xbox

DayZ Watched RuningmanZ on YouTube and was hooked

@BleedingDreamer Have wanted to play Days Gone for a few years now since I picked it up on PS Plus. Trying to limit myself to playing no more than 3 games at a time so I don't know when I'll get to it as AC: Vahalla is a time sink and I'm committed to 100%-ing it and I need to resume D:OS, BotW, and Yakuza: LaD at some stage

Dead island 2 after FINALLY finishing AC Valhalla. Downloaded Hellblade to play also

Well here we are with another jam packed edition of WAYP. This week conducted from the Ocracoke Island Ferry. Yes that’s right this weeks edition written from the deck of a moving ferry. I’m on vacation the next two weeks on beautiful scenic Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks. Shoutout to Jersey Mikes Subs they really are a sub above. You know what that means. Sun, surf, wrestling and of course video games. And boy do we have a lot of those this week. Before we start tho I just wanna say shoutout to Jersey Mikes Subs they really are a sub above. I picked up two Nintendo Switch vouchers and with them copies of Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. For most of the weekend I participated in the recent Splatfest for Splatoon 3 on Team Same Ol. As for the rest of this weekend depending on when I make it to my vacation home I’ll either get my start with Endless Ocean Luminous or just crack on with some more Trails Into Reverie and Persona 3 Reload. As for the rest of the week tho I’ve got so much to start like Little Kitty Big City or since Ocracoke is known for its connection to Blackbeard some Sea of Thieves. On top of that I do wanna go back to stuff like Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth with its vacation vibes. Stellar Blade at night while the stars are clear as can be sounds beautiful. Sand Land after a day of being on the sand? AMAZING. Also got loads of games I was saving to beat for this vacation like Princess Peach Showtime, Another Code, Trails, the FFXVI DLC and so many more that I’m probably forgetting ahaha. And of course I wanna dabble in my fighting games what with Akuma getting added to Street Fighter 6 and Beatrix to Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. And of course big end of the week event gonna be WWE King and Queen of the Ring from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Very excited there. Anime of the week gotta go to Kaiju No.8, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio, Delicious in Dungeon, Demon Slayer and surprisingly My Hero Academia. The anime and manga are honestly both strangely at like hugely high quality points so it deserves its flowers. Oh and Urusei Yatsura of course. Podcasts of this week of which I will be trying to enjoy many of on the beach 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 and Aetheryte Radio. And of course we wouldn’t be quite done without a big lovely shoutout to my dear friend over at twitch,tv/akibread and their amazing streams please give them a look. As always yall stay safe, be good to each other. Have an excellent weekend and of course Happy Gaming.

I didn't' have much time to play last weekend, but I did try an hour or so of Chants of Sennaar which has just been added to Game Pass. So far it's been pretty good, and the language based puzzles (and regular puzzles) are interesting. I'm sure it'll be getting harder shortly though.