Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 7-8)

This weekend I’m playing Cyberpunk 2077 and its DLC, Phantom Liberty. I have put 40hrs in with a completion rate of 38%. It took me a while to adjust to an open world game, particularly an RPG, that focuses on verticality because I don’t recall another game similar. Now that I’m accustomed to it, I’ll just cut to the chase — this game rules.

I now want to go on a rant about one aspect of the game that some people (still) consider flawed despite the 2.0 update being a drastic and much needed overhaul of the game. And that is meaningful choices.

I’ve seen a lot of criticism over dialogue choices not having an impact on the outcome of the mission. I do understand this since Cyberpunk is technically an RPG, and The Witcher had so many varying threads throughout conversations that effected other side and main missions. However; for me, I’m not always looking for that when I play this genre.

I just got off the heels of playing the massive undertaking Baldur’s Gate 3. The choices you are dealt have a genuine impact either immediately, ten hours down the road, or the overall ending — whether it’s environmental or the characters and your party members themselves. That is incredible.

With that said, I don’t feel like making those types of choices immediately after. Instead, as soon as I booted up the game I immediately wanted to get lost in Night City — a different aspect in an RPG setting that often gets ignored. And for me, when I want to lose myself in a game world, I’m. It looking for dialogue choices that change my outcome; instead, I’m wanting to learn more about the world and its inhabitants.

This is why I love the blue dialogue options — it expands on the characters, their motivations, and gives you a taste of how life currently is when living in Night City. I care more about that than I do making tough decisions that could ultimately leave me unhappy (like Baldur’s Gate 3). Granted, there are choices that do have consequences so that also shouldn’t be ignored. Give me a relatively linear narrative with amazing character interactions, and a game world that genuinely feels as if it’s living and breathing any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Speaking on the world of Night City - this might be one of the best settings in any game. The vibe and portrayal of a dystopian world is really great. I was born in 1990, but grew up watching the likes of Blade Runner, Demolition Man, Twelve Monkeys, and even early Batman movies with Michael Keaton. I remember the world those movies were set in, and Cyberpunk nails that aesthetic to a T and then some.

One mission titled “Down on the Street” really drives this point home. I’ll try and keep it spoiler free. There is no gunplay involved, but how things unfold, whether it’s the lighting, mysterious meet ups, traveling in a car with neon lights flashing around every corner while jazz music is playing on the radio, is amazing. When a game can captivate you even without much action involved, that is a sign of something special to me.

Overall, the game has engrossing characters and a captivating world. When you mix that with fun gameplay, cools weapons and abilities, and a gritty Blade Runner aesthetic, you come across a game that hasn’t ever been done like this before.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla on my Xbox. Loving it.

The Quarry on PS4 since it's leaving PS+.

Still making my way through my first run of Baldur's Gate 3 on my PC, which will undoubtedly win every single Game of the Year award for the next 12 months (as I have been saying for months now). Approaching 200 hours into the game now, and I'm entering the final stages of the game having yesterday completed Astarion's quest. Still 5 Origin's character quests to complete as well as a few smaller side quests, and then, of course, the main story. I think I'll be finishing this week, but it's difficult to know for certain.

Problem is (and it's a good problem to have) I'm already planning my second and third runs, and I'm not certain that I'm ready to put the game down and move on to something else. I'm really wanting to hit Forza Motorsport, Starfield, and Spiderman 2, though I also want to replay Spiderman 1 to refresh my memory of the story. So many amazing games all in a very short time period. There just aren't enough hours in the day... 😊

Nothing for me. I tested positive for COVID on Tuesday. Felt like I got hit by two trucks. Feeling a bit better now but not really up for gaming yet.

Worryingly if I don’t get better before Tuesday then I might end my unofficial totally in my head weekly reward competition streak on Halo Infinite. I’ve completed every single weekly since launch even the duplicates during Winter Update.

If you want to play Assassin's creed mirage but don't want to own it and pay the full price you can subscribe to Ubisoft+ for one month just don't forget to unsubscribe before it charge you again next month, you will also have access to the Crew motorfest. Here in Canada it's 22,99$ for a month , not Much to have the chance to play two good games for one month.

Really enjoying Forza Motorsport so far. Even did a few MP races yesterday, and I hardly ever play online. The only thing I’d wish they change is to add qualifying laps in career mode, instead of picking your own grid position (“Risk v reward” as they call it) .Still playing Cyberpunk 2077 / Phantom liberty. I had started a new play through for the 2.0 update, but decided I didn’t have the time so reloaded my previous V, though it meant spending an hour or so redistributing all my attribute & perk points. Loving Dogtown so far.

@munstahunta thanks for the heads up. I will probably pay that in a few months to try AC Mirage. 22 $can is not gonna break the bank comparing to 69 can + tax.
For now im on starfield, cant get to the last mission cauze my ship sucks haha.
Also i played 2hs of Gotham knights which is nothing special so not sure if ill unisntall it or not yet
With my son ill play a bit of lost in play for pc (absolutely adorable game)

Still playing Starfield (and will probably be for ages) but I've got Ubisoft+ to play AC Mirage and The Crew Motorsport. Two day-one games for £14.99 isn't bad.

So far, loving both of the Ubisoft games. The Crew is just a lot of fun and handles really well. Although I haven't played many of the older AC games, I am really enjoying this so far. It being more stealth based and also a smaller game is interesting, plus Baghdad is such a good city to explore. Both games really do look great as well!

Playing through the separate ways dlc which is really cool, kinda makes me want to replay the main game with the infinite rocket launcher I unlocked. If I finish that I want to get MK1. Also chipping away at starfield. Playing party animals on occasion with my daughter. Also waiting for forza motorsport..

Had it been a bit drier like this time last year I’d probably be quite interested in assassins creed but as it stands I’ll have to put that aside at the moment.

What an absolute awesome collection of games that have recently been released and are due out in the next few months.

Started Lies of P last night and having a blast. I can see it as the best Souls not made by From when I get to credits.
P.s: Fuoco is kicking my arse atm...

I beat Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 & 2 in the past week and started playing Solar Ash.

Still chipping away at Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations and I finally started Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 4 after taking a break from the game.

Beyond those I’ll probably be starting Professor Layton and the Curious Village and Super Castlevania IV.

Forza Motorsport all weekend. I start a new job on Monday so making the most of the time I have to get as much racing in as I can.

There is a lot to like about Motorsport & a few things maybe not so good.

I am enjoying the sense of progression you get with a car through a race series. Taking it from a stock model through to a full on racing machine by the end.

Much has been said about the upgrade grind when it comes to progress and yes if you want to get to max car level 50 on every car to unlock absolutely every available upgrade it's going to take a while.

However you don't need to do that to build a good car. I have found that by about car level 20 you get access to most upgrades and you can do that in a single race series (5 individual races.).

The game does a decent job of encouraging you to race cleanly too. The better you race the more xp you earn and the quicker you get to upgrades. Doing things like hitting other cars, cutting the track and getting penalties will slow your progress a lot.

Speaking of penalties the penalty system is ok though I think it might need a few tweaks for certain situations.

I do like that penalty time accrued is added to your overall race time at the end of a race rather having to serve it during a race so no penalty zones or slowdowns. Oh and if you get a lot of penalty time in a race you will be disqualified, so race clean m'kay

The handling has a nice feel to it. You get see the difference between individual cars and have to approach each a little different in terms of driving them. Motorsport is simcade but leaning towards sim more. So just holding the accelerator and hoping is going to lead you off track quickly.

Note this is on a controller. My one tip here is go into options and maybe adjust the dead zone setting in the advanced options. By default they are set fairly high & I thought the steering felt sluggish till I lowered those.

I haven't dragged my racing rig out yet and driven on a wheel because frankly I am just enjoying the racing just on a controller.

The ai is ok and if you adjust the difficulty to suit your racing level they will give you a decent challenge. Just be careful in braking zones as they seem to be super cautious approaching corners and seem to break much earlier than you need to. So it might seem like a brake check but if you take it into account you can adjust. It is really noticeable on lap 1 of a race when the field is bunched up. Other than that pretty good ai overall.

One thing I don't like are the proximity arrows that the game uses instead of a radar system like GT7 or ACC. They are easy to lose in the screen clutter it's even worse if you are in a pack of cars & have multiple arrows.

So on any view other than the two chase cam options it's hard to tell where other cars are in relation to yours when they get alongside you. I hope this gets revised in a future patch.

I could go on but I want to get back to the racing. Overall for me there is more good in Motorsport than bad and a lot of fun to be had if you enjoy circuit racing.

Still all in on Cyberpunk 2077, near the end of Phantom Liberty. ***** me this is a good game now, especially with the 2.0 update. CDPR manages to create a world that looks great and creates an awesome illusion of a living and detailed world if you dont look to deep, butwhere the game truly shines imo is the storytelling and interactions with some of the characters and all the feelings it evokes and some of the choices one must make. And the small things, like getting texts from Panam just checking in, phone calls from someone you did a gig for a while back etc etc. Also, the story in Phantom Menace is great so far.

Cyberpunk is very high on my list of favorite games now 😀

I'm still just messing around with riders Republic (I bought it after playing on last week's free play days) and waiting for Forza 👍👍

@ParsnipHero Get better soon! @BBB Good luck with the new job!

I am playing a combination of Baldurs Gate and a new run through of Cyberpunk. Might sprinkle some cocoon and lies of p in there aswell.

Trying to finish up Sea of Stars before Forza.

Series X: Still Starfield. Only achievement I'm missing is lvl 100 before finishing the final main quest. I've had an amazing time and I'm really looking forward to NG+.
PS5 and Switch OLED: Still resting.

Xbox - starfield
Playstation - FF7 remake
Switch - pikmin 4
Pc - fallout new vegas

Xbox Series X - Starfield

PS5 - Assassin's Creed Mirage

Mostly starfield. I really need to button this up so I can move onto RE8 for October.

Starfield, just completed the crimson pirates missions and back to main quest.
The crew motorfest when I want to mix it up, Ive been really enjoying it.

@ParsnipHero Get well dude, sorry you got covid.

Dropped Starfield after circa 70 hours. Don't think I'll finish it either. I'm now on my 6th playthrough of CP2077 with the Phantom Liberty dlc. It really adds a lot to an already great game. In 1440p with DLSS set to qualiy this is easily the most beautiful game I've ever played (on PC). Also bought WRC 23 and WRC Generations that I'll be playing before the former unlocks. Was thiinking about FM8 but I'm just done with track racers. Rally is much more engrossing IMO. Have a good weekend everyone.

@GeeEssEff @Titntin thanks both! I’m sorry too… lol. Going out my mind in isolation but my wife has been amazing support so I count myself very lucky. I’m just happy she didn’t get it.

Still abroad with only gba so Zelda 3 and Mario 4

On xbox I'm playing Starfield currently lvl 34. On PS5 I am finishing up ff7 remake and I am on chapter 17. After I finish ff7 I am going to try cyberpunk again. I did not like it before 2.0, so we will see how I feel after the update

Mainly focused on Chained Echoes and quite enjoying it so far. Might give Lego Skywalker saga a bit more time too. Finally, AoE II campaigns have been calling me, so might do a couple of missions there too.

RE 4 Separate Ways.

Mostly starfield. I need to button this up and move on. Way too much coming out.

NHL 24....still trying to give EA and this series a chance, it's always been one of my favorite games since NHL '94

@OcelotRevolver I got the 10-hour trial (played less than an hour so far since went live on Tuesday). So many things still so wrong with the series — I could go on forever.

Really wish there were other publishers like was the case in the 1990s. (I don’t believe EA has an exclusive license deal.)

Playing Human Fall Flat as well as 7 Days to Die. Very underrated games that I would have likely ignored if weren’t for Microsoft Rewards and the effectively free accompanying Game Pass Ultimate.

@sd7232 yeah I agree, the biggest letdown has been that the online community and EASHL modes have dwindled in popularity compared the NHL's around 2009..I really do think they've tried to keep the franchise relevant with the 3v3 modes, eliminators and of course diversify it's demographic appeal with female players/commentator...I just wish the online community was booming like it used to but recent releases have just not gotten it..That's why maybe buying and playing it at release will have the most online presence, but unfortunately it may quickly fall in weeks

Current

PS5: AC Valhalla
XSX: Starfield
Switch: Metroid Prime Remastered

Next

PS5: Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
XSX: Titanfall 2
Switch: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Lamplighter League > sucker for turn-based. Sea of Stars has me playing The Messenger over on PS Plus. No idea how I let that one slip by. Also Tchia. Nice little game with a positive vibe, and it looks great. Waiting for Mirage to drop to $7.99. Might be a couple weeks!

I finally beat Starfield the other day, and I meant to play Separate Ways with a friend, and also some more Darktide with the guys, but none of that quite worked out. I did however play through X-Men: The Arcade Game with a stranger at a local barcade last night, with the double screen and everything. Some rando gave us the rest of his tokens as he was leaving, and we used them all to do it. Fun times. They had Mario Kart 64 hooked up to a projector there too and I schooled a bunch of drunk people in that too lol.. I might try and get through some more of Bayonetta 3 tomorrow before work.

@Kraven Any non-spoiler guidance you can give regarding Baldurs Gate 3? I’ll be jumping in sometime soon.

I originally bought it on gog but there were technical issues so I decided to wait for a few patches.

Keep meaning to get back to Starfield. Not played for bout 1 week. Been playing Mortal Kombat 1, Cyberpunk and Ghosts n Goblins resurrection which was on offer on PS+. It’s basically old game with PS4 visual. Very good an…..THERE’S DIFFICULTY SETTING!!

Starfield for me. I'm a slow player so only about 10 hours of playtime. Loving it. Also some PGA22, I'm a sucker for a golf game. Currently downloading Riders Republic in the sales. All on Series S.

Gone back to the Messenger for some platforming fun, I finished Sea of Stars.. loved it. I hit a wall with Starfield, so taking a break, its a great game and think I'll enjoy it more after something more casual, I keep starting and quitting Elden ring, just can't get into it.

After a feed into starfield NG+, I binged on Cocoon (brilliant!) And hope to start AC Mirage later. Should really prep for my job interview though...

Same boat as everyone else (well, almost, we don’t say button up here in states) but I do need to wrap up starfield. Also playing silent hill 2 should finish that tonight and started dying light 2

It would've been High on Knife if they didn't pull the Just For You Offer...

Still cruising around space with Starfield along with bursts of the awesome Coccoon.

Forgotten about starfield already?

I’m playing gears of war 2

Not as much time given as I wanted to play.😐
A little bit of AC Mirage.
And today a little bit of MW2 online.
Not very satisfying weekend.

@Baler actually I took me a few hours. Yes, I kinda lost interest pretty soon, same as Tears of the Kingdom, my most useless buy this year.

@Nintendo4Sonic I’ve only done one temple in totk I’m enjoying but I can’t play it right through without stopping, no way! I tend to do around ten hours then want to play something else.