Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 375

I finished spec ops: the line and judgment last week, both amazing games that everyone should play.

Harry potter and the order of the phoenix (ps3) - a fun short game, not worth the current ps3 price tag unless you’re a collector like me. Better played on 360, wii or pc since it’s the same game but cheaper. Also no one is getting money from it anymore so there should be no issue with sailing the seven seas for this one. It’s fun as a licensed gen 7 game.

Mirror’s edge (ps3) - the discord server I’m on has a challenge to play and beat 2 games this month that start with an M that aren’t mario games or a digital game. Gonna play it right after HP5.

Mirror’s edge catalyst (ps4) - gonna play this for the same challenge right after the ps3 game.

God of war (ps4) - wanna give this a try finally. I played and beat 1 and 2 on psvita years ago and liked them.

Pokemon shield (NS) - I rather be shiny!

Village is all wrapped up and will be until I can stop dying in Returnal.. so yeah. Endless death all weekend.

Focusing only on Resident Evil: Village (PS5 version). It was easily my most-anticipated game for the year and though it's still way too early to predict how I'll feel about it by the end, the first few hours have already been very intense.

MK11 and Returnal all weekend!

@darkswabber I liked Mirror's Edge a lot. Catalyst unfortunately seemed to have fallen victim to the trend of making everything open world, which was the big thing in gaming at the time. This game did not need that. It's still pretty good but not as good as it could've been.

Switch - Finishing up Crash 4 and continuing the Spyro Reignited Trilogy!

PS4 - GTA Online with friends!

PC - I bought Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to own as it is off Game Pass now, so gonna be revisiting that!

Have a good weekend everyone.

I am thou, thou art I
What are you playing?
Persona 5!

The new update to Hardspace: Shipbreaker is whats holding my attention this weekend. I might also do some grinding for weapon materials in NieR Replicant as that's all I need for the Platinum.

I have a craving for a loot heavy game as well but unsure what to pick up or go back to.

RE Village and Returnal.

What a brilliant start to this new generation !

Unfortunately we’re house/dog sitting this weekend. I plan to try to remote play my ps5 on my phone and finish some mahjong and shogi requirements in Judgment, maybe grind a bit in the VR area, but not confident it’ll work too well. We’ll see.

Edit: streaming to phone works really well. I wouldn’t play anything where disconnect leads to failure, but can go hours without a disconnect before having a few in succession (likely my wifi issues). But as it’s streaming from my local ps5 any disconnect doesn’t lose progress. Nearly done all the mahjong requirements but needing a load of open Riichi wins is annoying.

I shall be returning to Returnal several times (fingers crossed for the latest patch), but I really need to focus on uni work this weekend.

Finally have some time to play after a few brutal working weeks... Just got RE Village, so that will be the main dish this weekend.

@kyleforrester87 That's awesome, chap! As someone who has himself been on a weight loss health kick the past year, fair play for kicking it up a notch. Best of luck to you! Let's hope the sun shines!

Finished the main story in AC Valhalla, now have to decide whether I bother catching a few fish, get some bear skins and go river raiding to tidy up the final side missions, or maybe look at the PS Plus games.

@kyleforrester87 Well done mate.
Brilliant stuff.

PS3 backlog for me. Few hours of Gran Turismo 6 and some Mini Ninjas today. Tomorrow I'll be cracking the seal on my copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes. Have a good weekend all!

More Monster Hunter Rise for me. I've picked up the pace with it, and I'm now nearly at the 6 star high rank quests. Also started playing some Half-Life: Opposing Force.

Cuphead im having a blast with this masterpiece..hard reset redux. flying wild hog studio the same publisher who mafe the excellent shadow warrior 2.hard reset is a really good fps shooter.a cyberpunk triumph of a game.and another fps amazing game far cry 4 gold edition.word up son

Still replaying Dark Souls III, still dying in all the same places I died last time. It's reassuringly grim.

Still hoovering up the rest of the trophies on Hitman 3, and I was today years old when I realised you no longer need to play on Master difficulty to get the Classics

Hi there fellow gamers.
This weekend is all about PS5.
I´m still in Atropos, seing Selene die and die again on the fifth Biome..... At least I´m leveling up my weapon traits and I´m getting better each run. So there is that. Might beat it this Saturday though.
Going for some Outriders Expeditions with friends in co-op. Gotta get that sweet loot.
And more Devil May Cry Special Edition for some relaxation.
Cheers, stay safe and happy gaming weekend to us all

Hopefully get enough time over the weekend to finish Oddworld Soulstorm. The game starts out rough but gets really good after a few levels.

Still playing Dark Souls 3 after picking it up in the sale, going to do the dlc before I complete the game I think. Not sure why I abandoned this game in 2016, maybe after DS2 and Bloodborne I was a bit tired of the style. Thankfully, my save was on the cloud so picked up where I left off.

Getting real close to the end of my time with Shadow of War. For some reason I'm finding myself quite reluctant to start a new SP game so instead have spent the past week grinding away in Mordor, trying to 100% all the different quests before finally finishing the main story. Overall it's pretty good but it's so slow at the beginning and only really starts to become fun once you can dominate Orcs and other beasts.

I did download Battlefield V earlier in the week and have been enjoying some mindless online fun. It's easy to pick up and there are always plenty of incentives to play 'one more round' what with the daily and weekly challenges and your own character progression. I've been looking for a MP to get into since finishing Star Wars Battlefront 2 last summer and V is looking very promising so far.

Stay in out of the rain and play some games people, even if these happen to be on a different platform.

😉

@kyleforrester87 Hi there friend.
If Big Boss himself is going for a challenge, who am I for not suporting 😉
A good challenge for an ever better cause.
I salute you and widh you all the best in this endeavor your going to undertake.
Cheers, stay safe, stay well and healthy, train hard but with intervals, always see the finish line and keep up the spirit 👍

Persona 5 Royal...just under 70 hours in and only done the third palace so loads left to do...yay!Absolutely fantastic game.
Resident Evil Village in the evening when it's dark..
Sakuna Of Rice And Ruin on Switch,been months since I did this one.

Came home from work this morning to find Village has been delivered. Taking a break from Yakuza to go scare myself silly!

Finally managed to snag a PS5 this week woohoo so starting Demons Souls and RE Village which is so far so stunning ...Also restarted Cyberpunk and my God the graphical difference and framerate is incredible, it's a whole new game ! My poor PS4 looks like it will relegated to the loft
Have a great weekend guys ❤

@kyleforrester87 I usually shout 'get off the roads!Bloody cyclists!' When I'm in my car but lucky for you I won't be for a while so good luck on your mission!

@kyleforrester87 well done, I'll make a donation !

Still MHWorld. Exploring more of Far Harbor this time in Fallout 4, I realize most often I just go to find DiMa's secrets, do a few side quests and then bail. Then probably Far Cry 3, Genshin Impact, RDRII or anything else.

@KingPev Same here.

Unfortunately resident evil village gives me motion sickness, so not that.

I’m working my way slowly through Tony Hawks 1 at the moment but struggling to get some of the ‘sick scores’

@1_W1NG3D_4NG3L Nice! How did you like Yusuke's story and Madarame's Palace?

Assassin's Creed 2 on ps4, sonic mania and continuing Chrono Trigger on wii

Playing returnal, beat the 3rd boss now I'm still in the 4th biome. The game difficulty is little weird, the 1st biome is hard, the 2nd one is easier, while the 3rd is medium, I spend about 8 hours in the first biome against the 1st boss but I only died about 2 times in the 2nd biome and on the 3rd try I beat the 2nd and 3rd biome at once.

The 3rd boss is crazy though, don't even bother if you don't have "repair suit when in low health" parasyte, oh and the best weapon is hollow seeker, I try the trap weapon, while it seems good at first, hollow seeker is still the best option.

@kyleforrester87 nice one brother, I've sent over a score because a tenner felt too cheap 😅 and the anonymous push Square peep below me in the donations list is putting everyone to shame 😂

Good luck with it mate!

I may add you to PSN, I feel like you can know my real name now that I have made a financial investment in you to ride from Cornwall to Scotland!

@Wazeddie22 not cool bro 🤣 I am also one of those cyclists, although I hate riding on roads and much prefer cycle routes. Luckily, Milton Keynes is full of great redways for cycling but not enough, same as many cities and towns I've lived in.

still playing Persona 5 XD

@Wazeddie22 The next palace is my favorite, you're gonna love it.

Just been immersed in FFXIV lately, truly wonderful game. The world, settings, and characters really get me hype for FFXVI. Somewhere in there I gotta find time to complete MGS4 so I can fully focus on Returnal.

Happy gaming fam!

I will be celebrating all the ladies in my life! My mom, my aunts, sister and lady friends. Outside of that, I will be playing NIER: REPLICANT..

@1_W1NG3D_4NG3L Haha same, I personally didn't level Yusuke up too much in my playthrough, although I did find the content of his confidant story interesting.

Yes the game definitely opens up around that time. It really amazed me how you can feel so deep in the game and they still have stuff to teach you and new mechanics. Another thing that amazes me is how much story depth is here. Some games could have the entire project revolve around just simply one of Persona 5's palaces. It always caught me off guard when they flash forward to the interrogation room because I would be so immersed in the present story that I forgot that my journey is heading to that moment. Brilliant game.

Currently playing the Drakisde Detective: A fumble in the dark, enjoying the humour and light relief before tackling more grinding in Dragon Quest XI.

@playstation1995 I couldn't make it past the damn dragon! Love the style of that game.

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (Windows 10) - I restarted this yesterday and I look forward to beating it again!

Battleship (Windows Phone) - At the end now.

Gerbil Physics (Windows Phone) - Also nearing the end.

@Marquez Somehow, and I'm not sure how, I managed to beat bosses 1, 2 and 3 on the first try! I must have been in the zone or something, as both bosses 1 and 2 have spanked me multiple times since.

Returnal, army zombies 4: war dead? Wreckfeat, tropico 6 and maybe 13 sentinels.

Just got ending A in Nier Replicant so will be starting off the next part of the game. Will definitely get B, but whether I go for the other endings or watch them on YouTube remains to be seen.

Resi villiage for me! It's the best resi so far imo. Its just like 4 but without the floaty aiming. Awesome!!

@PossibLeigh. I beat that dragon 3 days ago.you could do it.im on that bees boss fight.haha.amazing game.word up son

@Boldfoxrd lol just a joke,I hold nothing against cyclists.To be honest I hate driving now due to increased traffic,roadworks and cars parked all over the place.If anything it's other drivers I lose my patience with.

Resi 8 this weekend! Played about 2 hours and I think it's not as scary as Resi 7 but the scenery is very beautiful! Can't wait to be followed around by Lady Dimitrescu

@TraCuz- I did play the original Persona 5 too but yeah can't remember the next palace so looking forward to it.

I have a few games that I have going but I can’t peel myself away from Control. I just love this game on PS5. Despite the blandness of the lead character, the confusing map, and the bonkers storyline, I am loving every minute of it and really don’t want to play anything else until it’s done.

Returnal, RE village, MLB 21 the show. Great time to be a gamer

I'm playing the remake of the game that preceded the masterpiece NieR: Automata. That of course is the "update" to NieR: Replicant. After that I plan on playing Persona 5 Scramble/Strikers.

@1_W1NG3D_4NG3L

Don't worry you've barely scratched the surface! I've just finished a NG+ run to get the platinum and even fast forwarding a lot of the dialogue, it was still almost 100 hours.

Enjoy the ride. Best game of the last generation for me.

I'm having a tolerance break this week.

Finished a NG+ run of Persona 5 Royal for the Plat on Thursday and want to dive into ME next Friday. Doesn't seem to be anything in my backlog short enough to play in the meantime.

It’s a fantastic weekend for games! You know I’ll be playing both Returnal and Resident Evil Village.

Currently just finished the 3rd boss in Returnal, so I could see this game getting finished this weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend gaming!

@Gamer83 agreed with you, RE Village is super tense! I got stuck in that house about 45 minutes in and my first death was to all those enemies due to running out of ammo so quick. Not sure if there was a way out but it seems like an ambush you have to finish off then and there haha. Stoked to get into it tonight!

@wiiware I had the same experience haha the 1st boss is insane. They all have their level of difficulty, but by the 3 biome you should be cruising with upgrades and your preferred weapon so it’s a bit more manageable. Can’t wait to see what’s in Act 2. Gonna start that now, wish me luck!

Resident Evil Village!

RE8 and Returnal in the same weekend !!!

Knights Of The Old Republic. A timeless classic.

I’ll be a little busy this weekend but I’ll squeeze in Yakuza Like a Dragon.

I got the platinum for kingdom hearts 3 a few days ago. Had i played it when it released, it definitely would have been my goty. The gameplay has never been better and the story still had me smiling like in the old days. The ending felt a bit rushed but with more sequels on the way, its not too much of a problem outside of xehanort himself

Now I'm onto Nier Replicant. I'm not too far in but I'm already in love with it. Don't understand what the problem is with the combat, it's satisfying. And i was originally worried the ost would be significantly worse, but so far i find it to be just as good if not better for certain songs

RE Village of course. I’m enjoying it a lot so far but I missed a hidden item very early on and I don’t think I can return. That red (unfinished) room on my map is going to bug the hell out of me for the rest of this playthrough 😫

@Judal27 great job getting that Platinum!! I need to play through the KH series in order.

I’m glad to hear you’re loving Nier! I’m about 15 hours in and it’s a blast. Not sure whether or not I prefer this or Automata yet

@fR_eeBritney I’m loving RE8 as well! Was the room you missed the one with the lock pick? Because I couldn’t figure out how to get in there either lol

@hypnotoad same here! The Returnal and RE8 combo has been amazing so far, hope you have a great weekend gaming

@ItsATM Right back atcha mate.

1. RE Village (amazing)
2. Nier Replicant
3. F1 (hello Barcelona 🏁🏎🏎🏎)
3. MLB The Show

@kyleforrester87 Just wanted to say well played, man. My mum has early-onset dementia and it’s been an absolute shotgun blast to our family, so huge thanks for giving your time to a criminally underfunded cause. Good luck to you in September 👌🏻

Finishing up the awful, awful singleplayer of Battlefield V for the Platinum before moving on to Persona 5. Looking forward to seeing how it improves upon P4G.

"If you go down to the village tonight you’re sure of a big surprise…" Mostly Autumn, The Ghost Moon Orchestra!

Do I win a prize?

I was HOPING to play BG Dark Alliance with my Switch loving wife, but the eshop is being stupid.

@ItsATM Yup, I'm in the same position, I hope we can finish the game 😃

@kyleforrester87 oh wow, the Mrs grandpa is dealing with this right now. Not insane at all - happy to support you on the run. GL from NYC! 🏁🚴🚴. A small shout-out to PushSquare for letting it on the site 👍👏

After taking a week long gaming break after finishing the solid but utterly endless AC Valhalla, I started Children of Morta last night. What a fun Rogue-lite! More people should play it!

Have to finish evil within 2 before my copy of resident evil village will come

@ItsATM Go for it, there's a lot to love in the series even if some of the earlier games are a bit archaic and the story a bit convoluted lol

Can't really speak on automata tho as i didn't play it cause i wanted to play Replicant 1st. But im definitely looking forward to playing it sometime. It looks just as good to me

I have one side quest left to get one of the last two weapons I need in Nier Replicant, then I just have to finish the final area of playthrough two. Then onto my final playthrough.

@kyleforrester87 add a crypto sponsorship to maximize gains

Dark souls remastered and Steins gate elite.

Rage bought (is that a thing?) Nier Replicant after dying for the 1007th time on Dancer of the Boreal Valley. Such a welcome change of pace and just enjoying the simplicity of Replicants story (so far!) and button-mashingly solid combat.

@kyleforrester87 Just got round to making a donation.
Very best of luck mate and let's hope the push square mob can help a bit too.

No gaming for me, going to be more productive and read D.H. Lawrence's Twilight in Italy, a biography on George Bataille, and a biography on Darwin by A.N. Wilson.

Just finished immortals fenyx rising, longer than I thought!! Too many puzzles!! Made my brain bleed by the end! 😀
Now on mundaun, a bit rough round the edges but atmospheric and enjoyable.

@ApostateMage indeed it is. Once you get through that opening Tanis level its still a stunner

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike via the 30th Anniversary Collection. My favorite fighting game of all-time.

Nier Automata. I’m 13 hours into my first playthrough. I was hoping it lived up to the hype and, to me, it really does. The combat has clicked for me so I’m doing a lot of side quests and haven’t even reached Ending A yet.

RE Village. The damn lycans are kicking my ass. I’m taking a break and will loosen up with some SF3 then give it another shot. Not really sure where to go when they swarm me. Still figuring it out. Overall I’m impressed though I must say.

Returnal for me. Struggling to beat the second boss atm. I’ll keep trying

@kyleforrester87 no worries 👍, looks like your smashing it, only a grand left to go!

I am loving Returnal and Resident Evil Village and I don't want either of them to end.

@ItsATM
I had a little bit of ammo left after that part, not much.

Trying to finish Fenyx to start Village. Why is the late game King Mountain are such a slog???

Still trying to get the platinum in SOCOM 4

@Odium Dang that is awesome progress, keep it up and have a great time my friend! Nier has been so fun.

@somnambulance I totally felt this too during my first few attempts and successful pass through it. I think the area is a bit longer than others for the sole fact of having you explore more than normal for health upgrades once you get the item after the 2nd boss.

Glad to see you're also playing RE8 and New Pokemon Snap. I have loved the first bit of Snap but haven't played it due to Returnal, RE8 and NieR as well. It was about time Playstation had some more of their heavy hitters release! It just happened to be all within a couple weeks haha.

@The_New_Butler While I am a huge collector of physical games and would never sell anything I've purchased, I am right there with you on each game being built to offer loads and loads of content just for the sake of having a million things to do. I have just been disciplining myself to not feel like I have to complete it all, but instead focus on finishing the main game and visit some of the additional content along the way depending on how much I'm loving the game itself. So many great games out though! Tons more with release dates this year already too

finishing up Cadence of Hyrule (Switch) and Shadow of Colossus (PS4), and finally making progress on Ghost of Tsushima... About 20 hours in, trying to retake Castle Shimura.

Can't answer right now. Lady Dimitrescu is coming.

Resident Evil 7 and Returnal for sure. Probably some Arenas in Apex as well.

I played AC: Valhalla and decided to drop it after 99 hours, as the story didn't catch up with me and battle system became annoying and dumb.
I look forward to play something from my bc, which is pretty large: there's Outer worlds, Persona5 royal, Control..

It can be frustrating, when the game you are playing expires in some way (ends or becomes annoying) during the middle of the weekend.

@Wazeddie22 I know 😀 tbh it is the huge number of drivers that puts me off driving too. Ten years ago I could make a short journey in 5 mins butnow it's more like nearly ten.

I've taken full ownership of Watson, Westbrook, the Badlands, Pacifica, and Santo Domingo. I've cleared every map marker in Heywood, too, but for some reason the game hasn't acknowledged that fact yet. (Maybe one gets triggered later?) City Center is half mine. I'm reuniting the band, and that's the last side quest I've got left before jumping into the point of no return.

I've meditated with the spirits of Earth, Water, and Fire by finding the Zen Master 3 separate times. I've bought all the cars. I've subdued all the cyberpsychos. I've completed my Tarot deck. I've won all the races.

296 hours on this playthrough so far, and I've had one of the best times gaming I've ever had. Sadly, I've run out of things to do, and will have to see the story to it's conclusion. I find myself playing slower, because I don't want it to end.

@Jimmer-jammer I finally found Skippy in Heywood! Loved the time I spent with him, but in the end, I brought him back to his rightful owner. Quite frankly, in my next playthrough I think I'll keep him!

@ApostateMage

Love your taste, man. I haven't seen it up and running in at least 10 years, but it's still one of my all time favorites.

I ended up finishing Zero Dawn and then instead of Frozen Wilds I went back and finished GoW. Now doing the Valkyries, 4 down so far.

Resident Evil Village for me, all the way
Played about 25% of it, very good game so far, good job Capcom!
The plan is to finish it 'till next weekend, 'cause Mass Effect Legendary Ed. launches next Friday and I've been wanting to replay those games for at least 6 months now.

Xeno Crisis on PS5 and it’s classic MEGADRIVE fun by Bitmap Bureau 👍🏻

@ItsATM thanks! Insomnia and having to take a bit of time off of work because my second COVID shot has certainly helped with my progress. I got the last weapon I needed last night and have gotten my third run underway, I’m loving every second of it.

Just alot of Giant Bomb content for me this weekend. I still can't believe Vinny, Brad & Alex are gone😪

@LordSteev If you decide to keep Skippy, place him in V's weapon display room of the apartment for a good chuckle.

MGS V.

For the last 6 months I've been in a bit of a gaming funk. I've been playing and loving a ton of driving games. Every time I've picked up something else, even when it's a game I was really looking forward to, I keep thinking oh I wish I was playing a driving game instead. MGS V seems to have got me well and truly out of that. Started playing it last thursday and already played an insane 110 hours. I'm nowhere near close to being done either.

@ApostateMage

Too late this playthrough, but I'll definitely try it next time through! I'm finishing this run, then getting bogged down in Mass Effect Trifecta for however long that takes. (summer?)

@LordSteev ah you've done well to do all that. Unfortunately I went past the point of no return thinking I could return to finish everything off, but no. But ive snagged a new PS5 this week so started all over again as a street kid with the aim of doing EVERYTHING. Not rubbing it in but it runs amazing on it, like a different game altogether. Something for you to look forward to !

@LordSteev have you finished the Cyberpunk story to completion before?

@LordSteev ahh yes, I also gave him back. I’m slowly hunting for Cyberpunk’s platinum (it really is a huge game) but with Biomutant looming, I decided to finally start Skyrim or I fear never will. I killed a chicken in the first town and learned very quickly that I need to mind my manners in this game. I’m early but having a great time. I plan to dip in and out of Cyberpunk while I get the platinum.

It's all about Resident Evil 8 and a bit of Returnal for me this weekend. I'm absolutely digging everything about RE8 right now. Just 100% the castle and now back in the village. One lord down 3 more to go! This has taken me about 8 hours and I'm loving the value this game is delivering! I tend to play games like this at a slower pace and explore every nook and cranny. Capcom did it up right with RE8 I'm beyond impressed!

@KingPev

Hah! I did the same thing. After starting 3 builds and putting about 60 hours each into them, I started a fourth as a stealthy hacker. Only finished one companions quest line and cleared out Watson and Westbrook, then ventured past the point of no return. I didn't really like the ending I got out of that, either. This time, I am doing absolutely everything possible. Got back from Stepmothers Day brunch, went back into it, and did a couple of things very fast.

Found the Zen Master one final time and meditated on Air, which seemed to finish his questline. Closed out Heywood (the one I was missing looked like it was in City Center on the map, but once I did it, I got the trophy notification for Heywood, so, yay?) Closed out City Center, too. The map is empty of icons now, except for the Embers point of no return. Kinda proud of that, lol.

@Jimmer-jammer

I don't usually hunt for them, but I might just end up getting Platinum on this, too. This playthrough, I've completely emptied the map of any icons except fast travel, shops and drop off points, and Embers stands as the only Yellow thing left on the map. I'm waiting for a call back from the concrete pool girl, so I can finish Kerry's questline, and I've stopped for the evening so I can finish fresh tomorrow.

I think I'll do it twice more once I get a PS5, Street Kid and Nomad since this run is Corpo. I looked through the Trophys list, and there's a few weird ones like superjump kill that I'm not even going to try with this run, but will make more sense with different builds. This run has gotten me so close, anyway, that I might as well hit them all in my next playthrough. Just have to make a scum save before going in to Embers, so I can explore all the endings.

Man, I am so glad you started Skyrim! If you stick with it, one of the things you will notice is the game keeps rewarding you in meaningful ways as you progress, better than any open worlder I've ever played. Hit me with any questions, and ENCHANT!

@LordSteev lol you should be. Yeah I finished with a Nomad but now started again as a streetkid with the intention of doing EVERYTHING and can't wait to do it all again. I adore this game

@KingPev

Me too. Can't wait to see it on PS5. Congratulations on finding one, by the way!

@ItsATM No it was in Luiza’s house and because of what happens there (no spoilers), it’s impossible to go back. It’s the only red room left on my village map.

One of my only criticisms about the game is those flashing hidden treasures - they’re almost impossible to see (even when you’re looking for them). They weren’t this obscure in RE4.

But I’ve messed up a few things at this point. I sold my fish meat and missed hunting the fish in the Reservoir area, so I’m locked out of getting all recipes/upgrades 😫 DONT sell the meat from hunted animals!

Brilliant game so far, if not a little short.

@LordSteev I’ve completely cleared Santo Domingo and Westbrook, with Watson and the badlands not far behind.

Yeah, my first impression of Skyrim is that this will be something that I enjoy very much. Bethesda really does offer a level of freedom that few games can match. I’m not a big fan of the gunplay in Fallout so I’m finding that this world scratches that itch in a better way. What does enchanting do exactly? Is that the same as blessing?

@Jimmer-jammer enchanting gives you damage boosts to weapons eg. fire / ice or shock damage and other buffs and boosts to armour. It's great fun to play around with

@KingPev ahh gotcha. I got a blessed weapon now so I think I see the difference. Thanks!!

@Jimmer-jammer

Enchanting uses soul gems. One of the best early spells to get is Soul Trap. Even early on, you can use it on mudcrabs and the like. Cast it on them before you kill them, and if you have an empty soul gem in your inventory, it will become filled with their soul. This full soul gem can then be used to recharge magical weapons, or if you have sacrificed a few weapons or pieces of armor at an enchanting station, which is how you learn their enchantments, You can use the gems to enchant your own weapons and armor. Be careful, because different creatures have different size souls, so if you have an empty Grand Soul gem, and cast soultrap on a deer or mudcrab, you'll fill that gem with a petty soul, which is a waste. It should all become apparent as you play, since it's not introduced right away, but if not, ask me.

By now, under your miscellaneous tasks, you might have one that says pay a visit to the shrine of Azura. When you feel comfortable doing this, it gives you one of the best relics in the game, Azuras Star, a re-usable soul gem. But DON'T do what the lady at the shrine wants you to do, or it will only work on animals, which use very common soul gems anyway. Take the other option, and it becomes The Black Star, which lets you use it on bandits and the like, who have Grand Souls. This may not make sense now, but once you figure it out, you'll be glad you did!

If you have a blessed weapon, if memory serves me correctly, that's just one of many enchantments a weapon can have. Once you reach the king to warn him about the dragon, you'll meet his mage. In this room is the first enchantment station you will encounter, and much of what I'm saying should start to make sense.

In Cyberpunk, you're getting there! I actually found Westbrook and the Badlands to be the most tedious ones to clear, working from the outside in towards City Center, which went the fastest. I liked all of it though, really, especially as long as I was taking my time and not trying or caring to rush things.

A last word on enchanting, at first it seems horrible to sacrifice your weapons and armor, but each time you do, it drastically raises your enchantment skill, along with teaching you the enchantment, and no matter what you sacrifice early on, you'll eventually find better later. Have fun!

@LordSteev There is a lot to take in. I like the inventory system quite a bit, especially how the favouriting items mechanic and menu works. I’ve chosen to be a Breton.

One of the first things I’ve done is the golden claw quest and I was finding soul stones and gems all over the place and had no idea what they did. This is super helpful. Thanks, man!

@Jimmer-jammer

Upon re-reading what I wrote, I would hold off on going to Azura's shrine till I was at least level 15 or 20. Just remembered there's a hairy part to it where you can die pretty easily, and if you didn't have a save going in, it can be frustrating.

Bretons rule! I've played one in every Elders Scroll game, because you're better with magic and have built in magic resistance.

I love the favorites, too, especially the left and right d-pad acting as a quickswitch. Had a melee weapon on one and the bow on the other. Also, don't neglect bow skills. At first, you will suck with it, not even able to kill deer before they run away. But when fighting dragons later on, you'll be glad for any advancements you've made with it.

Bleak Falls Barrow! I saw one guide refer to it as 'baby's first dungeon', lol..but I love how involved some of the underground levels get. I'm guessing you talked to the shop keeper in Riverwood?

One more clarification from what I wrote earlier...I said if you have an empty grand soul gem and soultrap a mudcrab, you'd fill the grand with a petty soul. To try to clarify, anything you cast soultrap on will fill the smallest gem able to accomidate that creatures soul available in your inventory. So if you have an empty petty soul gem and an empty greater soul gem, soultrapping a critter will fill the smaller one. It's only if you don't have any empty smaller ones in your inventory that you have to worry about filling larger ones with smaller souls. God, it sounds complicated, even to me as I write it, but it's not. It'll come naturally, and even if you say, fill a common soul gem with a petty soul, it's no big deal, and you can still use it to charge weapons or whatever. It's just that you could have squeezed more out of it. When I play, I like to keep about 5 empty soul gems of each size in my inventory, just in case. They don't weigh much, so why not?

I'm jealous of you, really. I wish I could go into Skyrim again without knowing what was going to happen, and rediscover all the great things the game has in store for you!

If you want any more unsolicited advice, all you have to do is mention the game, and I can't help myself!

@LordSteev I’ve hardly leveled up as the levelling system is frankly overwhelming in the early game. I’m figuring out as I play what I should put points into.

There was a fellow offering archery training in Riverwood but I didn’t have the funds to train so I’ll have to remember to go back. Is it worth spending money on training?

I’ve been talking to pretty much everyone so I’ve been doing a lot of miscellaneous tasks while learning the ropes. I didn’t realize what I was getting into after talking to the Riverwood shopkeeper but it was nice to apparently gain a main quest item through doing it.

It’s funny how some series can just pass a guy by, even though I play plenty of games. I always leaned toward Fallout even though fantasy is right up my alley. Pretty much everyone I know is into Elder Scrolls, I just never really bit for some reason. It’s exciting having this whole world with years of world building to dive in to. Mass Effect is another one (though I played about half of the first one when I borrowed a buddy’s Xbox). I haven’t played an Assassins Creed since 2.

All I know is I’m now that much more excited about Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI! Hope they come to PlayStation.

@Jimmer-jammer

Yeah, the perks can be overwhelming at first. The various trees are fun to read through, though, and I found myself looking ahead at the ones I'd want later, and choosing somewhat based on that. Smithing is a great one, as you'll eventually want to get the one that lets you improve magical weapons. Did you go through the smithing tutorial in Riverwood? Also, at least the way I played, one of the armors is always a good bet (I went light armor).

As far as health, mana, and stamina, I just always went with distributing my points equally between all three. It's easy to overlook stamina, but each time you pick it you're gaining five pounds of available carry weight, and that almost always ended up being the thing I wanted more of. Speaking of carrying weight, by now you probably have an inventory filling up with mountain flowers, potions, and the like. You're probably not 100% sure what's important to keep or not, too. If you haven't visited the Jarl at Dragons Reach Keep in Whiterun yet, you may want to consider it. Doing so leads to the opportunity to buy your first house, and the castle's Steward will sell you furniture for it, such as chests, shelves and the like. All of these chests are pretty much bottomless, and once you furnish your first house, you'll have enough empty chests and dressers to organize your goods as you see fit, as well as have your own alchemy lab. Can't remember exactly what the house costs, but start saving so you have a good place to stash ingredients, ore, etc.

Is it worth it to spend money on training? I'd say no, at least not early on. After you've gotten higher level, and have some disposable cash, you might meet and join up with some unsavory people who sometimes want you to do some unsavory things! One of these things is pickpocketing, and in the first half of the game, this was the only thing I found it necessary to spend money on for training. I was never in the habit of pickpocketing the locals, so this skill never developed on it's own for me. If you look at the pickpocket perk tree, you'll notice that not very far up it is a choice that lets you carry more stuff, and since that was the only important thing on that tree for me, that's how high I took it, and never needed any more from it. Later in the game, when you are truly godlike, if you bought the special edition, you can pretty much level up forever. When one of your skills reaches 100, you have the option to reset it back to 15, and get all the perk points you invested in it refunded to spend elsewhere as you please. I can't stress enough how great this is!! Not only does it keep you from getting so godlike that the game becomes uninteresting, but it lets you then spend some perk points in things you were curious about but didn't want to waste points on. For maximum enjoyment, even though you may not want to give up your hard earned gains in a particular skill, as soon as you hit 100 you ought to go ahead and reset it. Even though it drops to 15, you can build it back up, and since you got it to 100 first, ahead of all the other skills, you'll probably build it back up reasonably fast. This was when I really started spending money on training, to train these back up. You can only train a maximum of 5 points per level, and late game, levels come more slowly, so this was a good way to return to at least a level of competency in these skills.

@Jimmer-jammer

cont. from above (first time it's ever told me my post was too long!)

You're talking to everybody, and that's good! Unlike Cyberpunk, most of these folks have something to say, and many will end up leading to quests.

I'm glad you are enjoying it! I've played probably close to a hundred open world games, and Skyrim is my undisputed favorite out of all of them. It just keeps getting better as you play it, like no other ever has. Hope you stick with it!

I've been studiously following every rumor I can find about Starfield, and I'm convinced it's going to be announced at E3, and many are saying it will release this year in time for Christmas, with some adding some time (early 2022) for covid. I hope the rumors are true, because I've been waiting ten years to dive back into a Bethesda single player open world! Unfortunately, I don't think Starfield is coming to PlayStation. I will buy an XBox for this game alone. That's just how highly I think of Bethesda single play. So, one game for $570. If I end up putting the thousands of hours into it that I did for Skyrim, money well spent as far as I'm concerned.

@LordSteev I don’t think I did the smithing tutorial in Riverwood but I had a text tutorial in Whiterun with the lady blacksmith there. I smithed a few items but can’t seem to do the hide helmet (it doesn’t even show up) which is the next one she wants me to do.

I haven’t visited the Jarl yet but it has been mentioned so I will make sure I do that! I tried adopting a little girl but didn’t have a house so that makes sense now haha

Yeah, one of the biggest takeaways for me so far is how everyone seems to have something to say that’s worth hearing. It really adds to the world.

One thing I haven’t quite wrapped my head around yet is how blocking and damage work. Is it based off of stamina or a guard break system or does a shield simply negate a percentage of damage dealt? It seems to me to be the latter.

I’ve interacted with the enchantment and alchemy tables at Dragonsreach but haven’t really gone farther than that. What I’d give to have an 8 hour slot of dedicated game time!!

@Jimmer-jammer

Hmm..that's a bit troubling that it's not showing up. Are you looking under Hide? It's a separate sub-menu from leather. It should show up, even if it's darkened out due to lack of materials. (Leather, leather strips) Not like you'll ever make a hide helmet for practical purposes (leather helmet is better, anyway), but I don't know. Maybe head back to Riverwood and see if the blacksmith there is still amenable?

Blocking, as I understand it, works by using stamina, and will block most if not all damage from fast attacks. On strong attacks, it's better to get out of the way, if you can. A strong attack will break your block. Also, if using a shield, block will negate more damage than if using a two handed weapon.

This game used to turn a planned 2 hour session into an 8 hour marathon for me without even realizing how much time had flown by! I was lucky enough to retire at 50, but this game wreaked havoc with my sleep time back in my working days!

@fR_eeBritney That totally makes sense, I just got past that part and can see what you mean about missing a certain room which is such a bummer if you want that map completion :/ brilliant game indeed nevertheless, it's done so well!

@LordSteev ahh, I’ll have to check for a sub menu. I saw the greyed out ones which is why I was confused when I couldn’t find it at all.

Congrats on living the dream and thanks so much for the reply’s and the help! I’m a little slow sometimes so this is all very helpful.

@Jimmer-jammer

Not a problem at all! And whilst you may be self depreciating, you are definitely not what I would call slow!

Just had another thought on blocking. If you like using a shield, learn to shield bash, too. If timed right, it will interrupt a strong attack and stagger your opponent. Very useful in close quarters!

Any more questions, just @ me! Any of these old threads will do, I think, and pushsquare doesn't seem to mind!