Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 497

Assassin's Creed Mirage and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty. Completed Separate Ways really great DLC hope we get a Code Veronica remake next

Obviously the new Sword Art Online Last Recollection

Currently helping an AI cabbie friend with his (its?) disfunctional rogue family in Cyberpunk 2077.

Also building ships in Starfield.

Lies of p. Loving the game and i'm just taking my time trying to discover everything it has to offer. Have a great weekend folks 👍

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.

Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game mainly; got it yesterday, really getting into my roguelites at the moment and this is one of the best I’ve played even after just a couple of hours.

Then a bit of 13 Sentinels now and again. Getting towards the end of the story on that one now. Both great games.

I dropped Sea of Stars earlier this week as I'm going to wait until the physical release next year. For now its all about BG3. Still on act 1, still loving it!

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.

I finished Call of the sea (hidden gem on PlayStation extra) and now really enjoying The Callisto Protocol at the 2nd attempt.

Still also going through the stick of truth. Currently in the 8 bit Canada lol

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage for the most part. Had an hour or so last night and seems decent so far. Also had a handful of Evercade games pop thru the post too, so will be playing the Sunsoft and Delphine collections too.

Will find some time for No Man’s Sky too, which has been sat on my ‘to download’ list for a good while but took the plunge on PS5 a couple of weeks ago and I’m very happy wandering around, doing random stuff and occasionally progressing the story, such as it is!

Currently The Callisto Protocol from Plus. Not a terrible first impression at all tbh, albeit only 6 hours in barely halfway through first playthrough taking my time trying not to miss collectables. Not really finding it scary, more blood splattering and brutal limbs flying more than anything. Really good atmosphere and sounds too. If decide to platinum is where the repetitive baton combat dodging annoyance might come into play on maximum security difficulty, apparently supposed to be really annoying on that diff?. Overall enjoying Callisto Protocol so far and is scratching that halloween itch atm. Hoping to play some more Boltgun before Spiderman 2 and MGS collection

On PS5 I've got about 5 games on the go at the moment lol but I'll be playing AC Mirage most of the time maybe a little Cyberpunk and some MW3 beta loving playing the old MW2 maps but they could've just released this as dlc for MW2. On Xbox probably nothing as my Gamepass has run out and I've no desire to go back to Starfield right now because it crashes constantly just like Fallout 4.

More lies of P until lords of the fallen comes out

I’m sort of in a AC mood with the release of Mirage, so I might start AC odyssey today.

Up for some multiplayer mayhem with Donald Duck on Disney Speedstorm, clear a couple of decks on Dread Nautical, uncover a bit more of the map on Bloodstained: RoTN and complete a couple of chapters in The Quarry. Have fallen into the too many games at once trap again!

Have a good one people.

Playing some more AC Mirage, which I’m enjoying for the most part. It is very much a change from the hefty last three games, but I’m unsure if I’m a fan of it at the moment. It’s very stealth heavy which is usually my favourite but at times I feel so clunky.

I'm playing the same games as last week, so I don't have anything very exciting to share in that regard.

On the hardware side I'm pondering buying a g923. Should cover my PC needs right now and also PS5 when I get one. Anyone have experience with it in GT7?

Needed a little break from BG3 (I still absolutely love it, game of the year, no question). But DS1 New Londo Ruins with a bit of a hangover might have been a mistake.

After more than 60 joyous hours of play, I’ll be finishing up Final Fantasy XVI this weekend. It’s now comfortably overtaken Tears of the Kingdom as my personal Game of the Year. Absolutely brilliant. Though I should stress that I haven’t yet played Baldur’s Gate 3.

@ApostateMage Beep Beep Motherf***er

It's just been Monster Hunter World Iceborne the whole week! Can't get enough of that gameplay loop.

Is there anything other than Baldur's Gate 3?

Im playing the incredible resident evil 7 gold edition. Just in time for the 🎃 Halloween month.what a incredible game.the graphics is excellent.the gameplay is incredible.the graphics is amazing.ethan is a really good protagonist.the boss fights and the enemies is excellent.and the story is really good.im playing the amazing dying light the following enhanced edition.crane is a excellent protagonist.the graphics is excellent.the story is really good also.the boss fights and the enemies are excellent.and the gameplay is excellent.im playing the fantastic red dead redemption 2.and the excellent vanquish.watching my Pittsburgh Steelers💛🖤 play.im watching legendary sitcoms tv 📺 comedy shows in Sanford and son.good times.and saved by the bell.word up son

@TheArt how is the playerbase on it these days? I never actually started Iceborne despite buying the expansion years ago.

Hogwarts Legacy, already beaten the main quest, now will clean up the side content left, Dragon Quest XI S, same situation. Planning to start Yakuza Kiwami 2 as well. A few rounds of Rogue Legacy 2 are in order too. Let's go.

Still making my way through my first run of Baldur's Gate 3, 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... 😊

@The_Pixel_King Anxious to play it, my next big buy. Must start FF XVI soon, as I will get FF VII Rebirth next year!!

The call of the sea?, sea of stars and I’ll be hate playing need for speed unbound. It’s also Canadian thanksgiving, which is a thing that brings a long weekend and turkey so that should be nice.

Just bit the bullet on Baldurs Gate 3. I’ve been on the fence due to the digital only price and not knowing if I’ll like it. But the hype has gotten to me and it’s unlikely to be discounted anytime soon.

Completed Blasphemous 2 this week. I absolutely loved it until the final 1/4 of the game which had a ridiculously frustrating difficulty spike out of nowhere. It felt like they tacked the end on to make it last longer. I was sitting at 9/10 until that point. I’d give it a solid 7.

I also abandoned my playthrough of super Metroid last night. I got all the way to Ridley but ended up underpowered and couldn’t face backtracking for energy tanks. It’s a great game and way ahead of its time but the controls were driving me mad at times. I didn’t always feel like I had full control of Samus. It probably wasn’t a good idea playing this immediately after Blasphemous.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Approaching the 100 hour mark this weekend and still going. It's a shame EA never gave them the chance to really "finish" the game, but I'm still enjoying it and I guess that's all that matters.

Oh and I’ve got RE4 remake downloaded for when I need a change of pace from BG3

@JohntheRaptor I play solo, with my palico, troupers, bugtrappers or plunderers.

More Street Fighter 6 for me and also a bit of Flashback on the Evercade now my Delphine cartridge has arrived.

Happy gaming everyone 👍

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 know I’ve said that a lot but in case someone missed it 😀

I've just picked up The Crew Motorfest because I wanted something similar to FH on PS5 and to be fair, I'm enjoying it much more than FH4 & 5 although it cannot get to grips with the planes 😂

So it will be between that and BG3 this weekend for me, the weather is miserable so cant see me stepping outside other than to drag the dogs out.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

I’m going to try to save as many thoughtless and libidinous teenagers as I can in The Quarry.

Then some time with Clive and friends in FF16.

I'm playing The Last of Us 2 Remastered.

Sorry, I meant The Last of Us 2 with the PS5 patch . . . which takes the PS4 Pro version and makes it 60fps.

Maybe I'm playing the Director's Cut? I'm confused!

Maybe I should pay another £70 just to stop my confusion!

I’m working my way through Lies of P. Halfway or there about and it’s probably my GOTY. It’s Sekiro Bloodborne and it’s own thing all at once.

Otherwise MK1 storyline and I may jump back into Armored Core 6 after the patch. Supposedly now the Zimmy Songbird OP build is no more. A shame as I was gonna blaze through NG+ and NG++ later.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. I’m actually at the beginning with this game dealing with the first murder. I’ll then try to go back and forth with Street Fighter 6 and King of Fighters 15.

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

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.

PS5 - Assassin's Creed Mirage

Xbox Series X - Starfield

I was gonna mainline the story on a fresh play through of Cyberpunk 2077 to get to Phantom Liberty but Night City’s magic has washed over me all over again, 23 hours later and I haven’t hit the expansion. I absolutely love what they’ve done with 2.0. What a fantastic year for games!

Fate Samurai Remnant (really good game) and struggling my way thru White Day on hard mode. Close to finishing up Star Ocean Divine Force, at 77% thru the main story but man, these back-to-back ship cutscenes are really boring, lol. I enjoyed it overall, couple minor complaints like not being able to open the map or scan for items when the party is chatting, which is all the time!

Still Starfield on xbox and the crew motorfest on ps5. Tough to play anything else atm, but I have some great titles waiting in the wings!

Horizon Forbidden West just hit level 70 and spending time clearing map and DLC, lots to do, so glad I got back into the game, such an amazing open world.

Cyberpunk 2077 first few missions of DLC have me really hooked. Game looks so much better with 2.0 and the city really feels "alive" now...hard to explain but between the new gorgeous visuals and all other changes its just so vibrant. New car combat giving me a lot of Borderlands vibes.

I've been feeling proper rubbish over the last few days with a crazy cough so have been bunkered down playing tons of Starfield. I might be sad enough to try build a klingon bird of prey in the ship builder!! Going to play some more quarry too, loving the 90s scream vibes. I also managed to check out the viewfinder demo and dave the diver demos and now want to buy both! Crazy time for games. Have a good one folks

Since I finished RE4 Remake's Separate Ways a few days ago, and with the wait for Spidey 2 and Mario Wonder is getting smaller, I've been thinking of just diving into a bunch of indie games until the 20th while also playing my usual Splat 3 playing.

It's October and cold outside here. The perfect time to jump back into RE4 DLC.

Tending to the farm in farming sim 22 and trying to get my canola oil productions running efficiently. Apart from that I'm also playing Sniper ghost warrior contracts 2 and slogging through fire emblem engage. The story is dreadfully boring though.

Will finish Cocoon & finally playing through Neon White, it's insanely addictive.

Finally started BG3. Wow!

I may return to playing Sonic Frontiers to resume the Final Horizons story.

@Kraven A really good and balanced take, thanks! %

Guiltily, I abandoned FFXV 35 hrs in and I don't know if I'll ever finish it, because, and I say this with regret, the story is terrible. If only somebody would have warned me! Now I'm 15 hours into Cold Steel instead, which is a million times better. Proof that graphics really aren't everything. Also playing Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars and Ys VI with the kids.

I'm still in Foamstars withdrawal so I havent really played anything since. I NEED to finish Octopath Traveler 2 before Spiderman 2 comes out. But that's been looking less and less likey thanks to work and other real-life obligations. Still I'm hoping for the best! Keep in Gaming!

Current

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

Next

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

. The PS5 I've completed the single player campaign for Mortal Kombat 1 - quite enjoyable campaign. I am also nearing to the end of Hogwarts Legacy - what a game .

One the PC completed Alan Wake remastered , glad I played this. Atmosphere of this game is awesome .also started a 2 Nd run on Cyberpunk 2077 - looks and plays even better than I remembered also on episode 4 of Telltale's Batman Season 2 . Enemy Within - I got the shadow edition which looks good .

Playing a bunch of Call Of Duty, actually. Between the incredibly underwhelming MW3 beta, which is essentially a re-skin of MW2’s MP (terrible weapon progression system and all!), I’m also going back and playing the zombies DLC for Black Ops 2 & World At War on my PS3. Really having a good time w that but WaW is making me remember how much more difficult and stripped down the early zombie DLC’s were!

Im currently working on a few games.
Playing FF7 Remake, but im stuck on Hell House, so i then started Cyberpunk 2077.

Also downloaded Callisto Protocol.

@Ravix The thing is - I find Baldurs Gate can’t be played in large doses. Things happen so slowly and require so much thought. I started playing overwatch again to give me relief from it (I’d quit that for good) and now it’s just given me my overwatch addiction back…

I just started Judgment and love it. Trying to play both of them before Gaiden releases

WoW dragonflight, sea of stars and i replayed a bit of FFXVI. Ah also played a bit of Yakuza like a dragon.
It's difficult to find time, so i have been playing these slowly in parallel.

It’s Cyberpunk for me…again! Might dip into some other smaller indie games as well, just for a breather!

@Ravix Love the texts and pics you get from them if you decide to set them free.

Loving the COD MW3 beta.

@Kraven you nailed why this game is great!