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

Don't usually comment on these but wanted to say I've been thoroughly enjoying Atomic Heart. It's not as smooth as say Shadow Warrior 3 was mainly because running in AH is a bit odd which in turn makes boss fights a bit of a hassle at times.
But it's great honestly, diving into this alt history world and reading 1984 at the same time is really immersive.
Helps that the game is beautiful as well, and Mick Gordon killed the soundtrack.

I started Atomic Heart, I like what I’ve played so far. I’ve seen complaints about the main character being annoying but I think he’s funny. I’m gonna wait for a patch though as performance is rough.

So I’ll carry on playing Callisto Protocol which I’m very much enjoying.

Atomic Heart. So the reviews are out and the latest patches.
What’s it really like?
What’s it like on series X performance wise?

@Fenbops
Is that series x performance rough?
What’s up with it?

@Dezzy70 it looks amazing, some of the nicest art I’ve seen in recent memory. Performance… I played for an hour and it’s rough, noticed a lot of frame drops. Series X. It’s had a 67gig and 16gig patch since release, still rough after those.

Playing some Atomic Heart which is definitely better than I thought it'd be. Not amazing, but very solid.
Also finishing up some side quests and completion points in Yakuza Kiwami.

Still finishing up Hogwarts Legacy on ps5 hoping to start Atomic Heart this weekend if i have time.

Last night finally finished the borefest that was Final Fantasy 7 Remake only because I hate not finishing games. It's game number 9 that I've finished so far this year.

I'm currently playing Batman Arkham Asylum and inFamous 2. Also planning on starting Ratchet & Clank.

This weekend I’m playing Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS5). I’ve always preferred this franchise over GTA, with Y0 being my most adored. I didn’t know what to actually expect from this latest remake/spinoff. I wasn’t entirely sold on the setting with the initial trailers and announcements leading up to its release; however, after putting in several hours already, I can say that if it keeps up this pace it’ll easily sit alongside Yakuza 0 as my favorite in this long running series.

I feel as if this franchise is one of the rare series of games that are consistently good, and can somehow intricately balance intense moments that fill you with adrenaline and heartfelt emotions, to humor and downright hilarity — and sometimes both all at once. One instance would be having a serious talk in a bathhouse, and subsequently fighting a certain individual bare naked.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the writers and sub-story designers should be creating the side content for Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation because their quirkiness and tone is essentially dad humor that molds right into Spider-Man personality and lightheartedness.

One thing I love about this franchise, and with this game particularly, is how it’s directed. There are some beautiful shots throughout the cutscenes and even in the moment-to-moment gameplay and dialogue between characters. It’s such a prominent staple in the Yakuza game, but more-so here because it makes you feel present with how it presents being a samurai in a western setting.

I also purchased Octopath Traveler 2 (Nintendo Switch). It’s rare when I buy a physical copy of a game these days — I prefer digital, but I own the first game physically and the artwork is superb. I’ve played an hour of it; I chose Hikari as my starter, and it’s great so far. I thoroughly loved the combat in the first game but found the story convoluted and overall repetitive. Hopefully, this one will remedy those two concerns, and from what I’ve read in several reviews, the characters are much better written than the previous installment.

Like a Dragon: Ishin on Series X, Resident Evil 5 on PS4 and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story on 3DS.

I'll probably focus more on the latter two as I'm nearing the end for both of those games, but I do want to also delve into Ishin as I haven't played a Yakuza game for a long time. From the little that I've played of it this week, it's really good. Just what you'd expect from a Yakuza game. So much fun!

On PS5 i will be playing Wild Hearts which I'm finding more fun than monster hunter at the moment, but I'm finding it hard to find other players. Also my copy of Octopath Traveler 2 should come today so I'm looking forward to starting that.

On Switch I will be playing some Kirby return to dreamland and Fire Emblem Engage, I've also bought Harvestella which I may start today.

I finished up Atomic Heart this morning. I am usually a story person but I felt it dragged on a bit so started skipping it fairly early. As a shooter is ok nothing special just ok and there is some fun to be had with it mechanics.

On balance I did enjoy it though I probably wouldn't have given it a chance if it wasn't on gamepass.

I am diving into season 28 of Diablo 3 for the immediate future. It's the last season before D4 launches and it looks to be a good one. Also leads me nicely into the betas for D4 in a couple of weeks or so.

@Fenbops
So a top end TV with VRR would eliminate any frame drops and smooth the world out.

Headset arrived on wednesday so dropped all other games to dive into it:

PSVR2
Horizon: Call of the Mountain
We always knew this would be a tech marvel but what about the rest? Im a big VR nut, so im spending lots of time going off path to interact with objects and drool about vistas. I usually dislike VR platforming, but this title does a great job at giving you new tools and challenges to keep it intresting, plus stealth while climbing is well suspenseful. Combat aint bad, it does a solid job of bringing series style to first person...although i miss the melee follow ups. The main character and plot are dull, but all the rest is incrediable...its 8/10 material for me so far.

Gran Turismo 7
Never played this series nor really got into racing titles (asides Mario Kart)...but in VR? Just wow. So addictive. Cars handle great, theres so much customisation and things to do, im hooked. Its amazing how appealing a title i wouldnt look twice at, is so much fun in VR.

Resident Evil Village
Just started it the other night. This isnt some rushed port, Capcom have done a baffiling good job at bringing motion controls to this, and all for no extra cost...and holy crap, the haptics from shooting the shotgun! It plays great so far but am going to pause until finishing Horizon, then give this my full time.

Playing the final chapters of LAD: Ishin and I have a couple of substories left too, fantastic game.
I started Atomic Heart but I'll wait for a patch that fixes the VERY small subtitles.

Playing Yakuza Kiwami 2. You play one Yakuza game, you wanna play them all. Finished 0 and Kiwami 1 this month.
So far, it's really good.

@Dezzy70 maybe? I don’t have VRR so I don’t know. Have you watched the DF video? That’ll probably tell you.

Certainly not Atomic Shart! I'm very close to picking up the Hot Wheels FH5 expansion and just want it to dip a little lower on sale before doing so, but it really looks like a blast. I had a lot of fun with the Hot Wheels game, but I want my Hot Wheels with AAA graphics, too, ya know? That and Kirby's Return to DreamLand Deluxe over on the Switch. Keeping it light this weekend. Cheers to all!

@Fenbops that's very odd. I've got about ten hours in and only noticed framedrops twice (both in elevators). If anything I keep getting surprised by its good performance in the open world and during boss fights.
Tv doesn't support VRR either I believe.

@nofriendo
Atomic Shart 😂

Finished Elden Ring so Im playing Atomic Heart which is great so far nice mix of Singularity, Wolfenstein or Arkane games

i was playing Atomic Heart but its developed a bug where i cant open the inventory or access the upgrade shop with out it crashing. Tried full restarts, reinstall it only leaves me with two options start again or play something else.

Playing through Persona 4 Golden and tossing in a few multi-hour long sessions of Microsoft Solitaire Collection in between.

How come I didn’t know that MSC removed all the annoying ads and gave tons of premium features to Game Pass subscribers??? I tried enjoying that Solitaire game for almost 8 years but could not tolerate the filthy F2P architecture. Now that I can play it as a proper game, I’m actually wishing it was offered as a premium game-only (for purchase + game pass) on Xbox.

Still stuck in Hogwarts...its so much larger than I was expecting!

Just Like A Dragon Ishin pretty much

I'm playing Mass Effect 2..

On vacation, and couldn't start Fire Emblem Engage on the plane yesterday due to no internet to check to see if I could play it 😑

Then I booted up Hogwarts Legacy on my laptop but there was no internet to sync my save from the cloud from when I played earlier at home on my PC 🥲

So I powered on my Miyoo Mini and played through Metal Slug X.

Bad weather here so ended up watching a friend play through the first 2 hours of Hogwarts on my laptop since she was unsure about getting the game for herself due to being apprehensive about how much of the game is combat. Turned on "story" difficulty and boom, no problem. It was fun to see her make different choices than I did and watch how they did or didn't play out differently compared to my own playthrough.

Gta V and chained echoes. Also some Gameboy games on NSO.

Hogwarts Legacy continues to keep me glued in front of the TV! I’m really taking my time, which might bite me on the bum later, lol. But for now I find it absolutely enthralling, an excellent detailed recreation of the Wizarding World that doesn’t disappoint.

Atomic Heart on the series x- very good enjoying so far.

AND

Donkey Kong 64 on Wii u virtual console. Classic.

@Kaloudz gears 2- what a treat!

Jetpack Joyride (Windows Phone) - Always playing in bursts nowadays.

Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (Windows Phone) - Finally almost completed the entire game.

Hitman GO (Windows Phone) - This is technically my first intro to this franchise, but I'm really enjoying this puzzle game!

Still stuck in Elden ring what a massive game .

@Kaloudz I think 2 is my favourite.

I'm just starting Gears of War series for the first time 😎

Still hi fi rush, still enjoying from it.
I'm on track 6(or 7, I'm not sure) now.
So far, everything is great, only thing that annoyed me was a very short platforming section that is nothing against the joy the game gives you.

Atomic Heart, Hogwarts and the new Wo Long demo, which to me is actually harder than I remember the first demo being. I’m enjoying it though and look forward to the final game (which save data carried over).

@everynowandben
How do you bold some of your words?

I went to a friends house, he is sad about buying a PSVR2. We both thought it was complete dogshit, he likely will sell it to a stupid pony since some hardcore ponies will buy any of sonys *****. lol! And then we watched the Sony Showcase and laughed our asses off. I'm a huge PS fan but I think sony is going down the drain. I miss the days when sony can have games like Shadows of the Colossus or an rpg like Dark Cloud. But instead we get ***** remakes and ***** boring open worlds like snoreshima, days bored, god of bored and horizon boring dawn. I think maybe ill watch episode 3 again of Last of Us.

@Wiiiiiiii type an asterisk before and after the text you want in bold

@everynowandben
Thanks

@Dezzy70 another 12gig update for Atomic Heart today let’s see if it’s improved….

@Kaloudz Gears 2 is also my favourite. That game is special man. The first has a special place for me because it blew me away at the time and it’s still a great game, even today. The second built on everything that was great about the first, story, characters, gameplay, everything was improved. Love Gears 2.

@gogolpoe interesting, may I ask why you both think PSVR2 is dogshit? The YouTube world is busy fapping one out over it currently so I’m interested to hear a different perspective.

@Fenbops
Sounds positive, let me know how you get on and if any series x improvements.

@Kaloudz the 3rds still great but my least favourite of the 3. It’ll be interesting to hear what you think about 4 and 5 when you get to them.

@Dezzy70 I’m deep into Callisto Protocol at the mo but if I get time I’ll give it a whirl. See if it’s improved.

@Fenbops
Gears 3 for me but really enjoyed gears 5.
They just need to take 5 to the next level for 6.

@Kaloudz I know why I just can’t remember when it was explained and it may have been a very brief thing.

@Dezzy70 Got to play some atomic heart today, performance seemed fine, hopefully it’s been fixed. I played for around 40 minutes and it made me suffer from motion sickness though 😷

@Fenbops
I don’t like motion sickness, that’s why no VR for me.
Wonder why the game causing motion sickness.
Actually some games have done that to me and I found Switching from say 30 to 60 fps seemed to cure it.

@Dezzy70 some FPS games really knock me sick. It’s not often but when it is I usually have to stop playing. Resistance 3 on the PS3 was unplayable for me because it knocked me so ill and I loved those games.

Atomic Heart has this weird thing where when you push the stick forward to move it’s almost like a boost as you start moving, not sure if it’s that or some other setting I can adjust. Couple of hours in now over 3 sessions and I’m not sure I’m feeling the game. Loved the opening but going around sucking loot up and crafting, I’m not sure I can be bothered, the motion sickness makes it even worse.

@Kaloudz or you’ve missed it already 😂

@Fenbops
I will give it ago not downloaded yet.
What’s your thoughts on this:

The most interesting review for me this year will be BOTW2 it’s been over 6 years in development and the wow factor happened 6 years ago, open world Zelda.
After 6 years in development, the game engine already there i think we are expecting something big, but it is the game I’m most concerned about, no sign of much new on the ground, no sign of shines 120 that gives you good reason to really explore and some floating bits up above and a make your vehicle 🚗 bits.
So far not looking like 6 years of resource to me.
But it is Nintendo and a massive franchise to them so got my fingers crossed.

@Dezzy70 what I’ve seen of BOTW2 hasn’t excited me and I don’t even think I’ll buy it. I liked BOTW but also don’t think that was the masterpiece many make out. I think it’ll review well but it’s running on awful tech at this point, there’s only so much they can do.

I bought fire emblem engage a few weeks back, the first switch game I bought in ages and I think it’s rubbish I don’t like it 😂 I enjoyed three houses but I hate the engage system.

@Fenbops
Took me 3 attempts to get into BOTW when it released over a year period. Once I did though and got the dlc that helps with certain items when you find them, I thought it was amazing and didn’t stop until I found every shrine and completed the game and dlc. It just to took something in me to click that I wasn’t looking for, but then it just did.

Fire emblem not my thing so never tried it.
Switch wise, playing splatoon 3 at the moment.