1y ago

What are you playing this weekend? 2023-07-01

Hello Everyone!

(Post got too long, if you want to skip, game names are in bold, you can just read those)

June is ending, and July is starting. For the US folks, that means 4th of July is coming! Another day to just play games, without worrying about work or school!

I am still playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kindgom, about 75 hours in and very near the end, will probably finish it soon. Would have to wait and see, if I lose interest in rest of the stuff after finishing the main story, or want to keep exploring and doing other stuff. Details next, move to next paragraph, if you want to skip. I have done the last regional quest, I originally wanted to go back to exploring after that, but after getting all Tears and completing all regional quest, I wanted to focus on story and see how it ends, so left everything and went to the Castle. Haven't reached the final boss yet, but I think I am near the end now.

In non-Nintendo games, played a bit of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge with my kid. We both had lots of fun with it, and going to continue playing it when we both have time. Only complaint I have is that 2nd player doesn't earn any trophies, but that isn't a big issue for me.

Also played a little of Monster Hunter: World, and I must say, Capcom, improve your multiplayer setup! It's so confusing. Only the host can watch cut-scene, and you can't play a mission whose cut-scene you haven't watched. So, if 4 players are playing, they all have to start the story mission separately, then during the mission when you come across the monster first time, there's a cut scene, after you have watched cut scene, all of you must abandon the quest and then one person can host the mission again and everyone else can join it. (Or all person except one can leave their mission and join that person's mission mid-way). Took us more than an hour to figure all that out. Not counting that, the game is really fun, but still not sure if we are going to stick to it.

Other than that, Marvel's Avengers is leaving PS+ Extra on 12 July. I usually don't prioritize games based on when they are leaving, but the game is shutting down in September and I don't want to spend money on it. So, even though I don't want to start another game right now, I am going to give it a try. The campaign is only 12 or so hours, and I have heard it is fun enough. So, plan to start it too. Not sure if I'll play the full campaign, but I want to give it a try.

So, what about all of you? What are you playing?

Edit: June doesn't have 31 days! facepalm

125 comments

I finished Tears of the Kingdom today! The ending is very sweet. I enjoyed the game immensely and I'm glad I spent so long wandering around, because I needed every last heart for the final boss!
- Wow. That's great to know. With how the story progresses, I wasn't sure if it will have a good ending, but I guess it's Nintendo, so I shouldn't have been too worried.
  I remember talking to someone here how BotW boss was so easy and I wish TotK boss isn't like that. Maybe I shouldn't have wished for that 😃 I haven't reached the final boss, but I did face the one before that. ::: spoiler spoiler Phantom Ganon ::: and it wasn't a very easy fight, if the final boss is tougher, I can understand needing enough health.

Also on TotK, slightly behind you. Finished the fourth regional quest but haven't reported back to Purah yet.
!Spoiler alert! My plans are to do that, then the Korok forest, followed by the extra tear and the fifth sage (who I had stumbled upon before even finishing my second temple). Then I'll just... dick around for months instead of going to the castle. :D
- Ah, interesting. BTW you can use spoilers tag, for spoilers ::: spoiler spoiler I haven't done much sky islands, so didn't stumble upon the fifth sage quest. And I don't know what's there to do in Korok forest, since I haven't been there, but will check it out after finishing the game. :::
- Basically the same as me. I finally went to Purah and most of the dialogue was "Ohh you already did that?"
  I still have only have half of the depths explored, and finally have hero quest to figure out which sky Islands I haven't visited.
  
  I wish they would recognize more quests though. I had done all the Tears, and I knew about Zelda, but still, all dialogues are, along the line of no one knowing what happened to Zelda.

I just got the Harvest Moon remake on switch and it's been great. It's still difficult but they added in more to the plot with the wonders. Oh and they yassified Gordy.
- I never played the original, how would you say the game is, for someone who has no nostalgia for it, and has played some of the modern farming games?

I'm going to finish Pikmin and then start Pikmin 2.
I'm feeling a real nostalgia hit at the moment for the GameCube so hopefully I can get stuck in to some favourites too!
- Nice!
  What are your favourites from GameCube era?

not this weekend but next weekend, i am hoping to get the harvest moon remake and maybe we love katamari remake. loved these games as a kid so a lot of nostalgia there.
- Sounds fun!

I'm playing Mario Galaxy in the 3D All Stars bundle. Pretty great game so far :)
- Nice. Is this your first time playing it, or have you played the original before?
  I skipped on 3D All Stars bundle on principle, didn't like the idea of limited time release to force everyone to buy right now. Would give it a try if it's ever available in non-limited release.
  
  First time! I played galaxy 2 when I was younger but because I was a kid when those games came out I kinda just played whatever I got for chistmas/birthdays lol.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- It's one of my favourite RPG, still listen to to the title music sometimes. The game-play, the combat, the pawn system. Loved it all. And with the sequel releasing soon, it's the best time to play it.

I'm also at 75 hours in TotK, but not much closer to finishing the main quest than last week 😅
I played a bit of Doom Eternal since I finally got my phisical copy from Limited Run Games. It was very fun, and it feels different to Doom (2016). Still looks amazing on Switch! I'll probably be playing some more during the weekend to take a break from Zelda.
Shredder's Revenge is so much fun. Played all the story and some arcade in co-op and it's always a good one to go back to. The DLC will make me play it again for sure!
- I’m also at 75 hours in TotK, but not much closer to finishing the main quest than last week 😅
  Heh, it's same for me this week, haven't progressed much.
  Glad to hear about about Doom Eternal, it recently came to PS+ Extra, so would play it there.
  As for Shredder's Revenge, yeah, it's a great game, going to follow whatever the devs make next.
  
  I recommend you check out Streets of Rage 4 (also from DotEmu, developers of Shredder's Revenge) if you haven't yet. It's one of the beat 'em ups I keep coming back to, so good!

I've been on Visual Novel mood, finished Robotics;Notes Elite earlier this week (which was excellent!) and started playing the sequel, Robotics;Notes DaSH. Just completed Phase 02 of the sequel, and managed to unlock the five different routes that branch from this point.
However, so far DaSH has been a disappointment. The plot of the early portions of the game is just terrible, and Daru's perverted jokes get old really fast with him as the main character. Since there are hints of some bigger conspiracy behing the nonsense of these early parts of the game I'll hold my judgment until I finish the game, but it'll have to be some really great twist to make up for this painful start.
- I am an avid reader, but for some reason I haven't been able to get into Visual Novels. What would you say is the easiest visual novel to get into?
  One of the aspects I don't like much is replaying it multiple times to get the full picture. I can live with missing out on different endings, as long as it makes you feel that you have finished it.
  
  One of the aspects I don’t like much is replaying it multiple times to get the full picture.
  Most (all?) modern VNs have some kind of "skip read text" function so you can get quickly to the parts of the story you haven't read yet, but I'll give some suggestions assuming this is something you also dislike using.
  I'll also be assuming you want to play on the Switch. Anyway, there's several ways to go.
  There's something called "Kinetic Novels", VNs that don't have any choices/branches. I haven't played it yet, but Witch on the Holy Night is a highly-regarded game of this type that just got a Switch release. There's also a demo which you can try.
  There are games like Raging Loop that have multiple branches you're required to go through to get the "true" ending, but also feature a very convenient in-game flowchart that lets you know where the branches are and allow you to jump straight to any choice, so the whole "reading the same thing multiple times" is kept to a minimum. This one is my usual recommendation for VN beginners.
  If you don't mind using a guide there's some games with only one "good" ending that don't require multiple playthroughs if you make the right choices. The House in Fata Morgana is a fantastic choice if you want to go with this route.
  A similar idea of "use a guide" works for some of the games that have multiple endings but the "true" ending is reachable with a single playthrough. I know this is the case for Steins;Gate.
  Games that have branches but no "true" ending might work, I know that the first Grisaia game is like this and I think this is also the case for Aokana. The Grisaia sequels kinda assume you played all of the routes from the first game, but getting the different endings is very easy anyway since there's only a few choices - just save at each one of them and try different answers.

Just finished TOTK after like 150 hours. Now I’m moving on to Master Detective Rain Code!
- Congratulations!
  Master Detective Rain Code looks great, do share your opinion next week.

GTA Online with my friend who only has an Xbox. I bought an Xbox and XBL just to game with him and he only plays sporadically every few months so I hop on when I can. After he gets back to not playing again I will go back to TOTK.
- That's good. Playing with friends is important. Have fun!

Nintendo-wise I'm still on Tears of the Kingdom, over 230 hours in - I beat the main quest a while ago but I'm still trying to fulfill my completionist side.
I doubt I'll make it anywhere near 100%, but I'd like to get a lot more side quests completed and a lot more armor fully upgraded. Might be nice to get max inventory size for my shields too.
Non-Nintendo-wise I picked up Bloons TD6 recently.
- This game has so much stuff to collect and complete, you can spend an eternity getting everything maximized.
  With the amount of stuff I am doing, I may not even reach 50%. I don't care about most of the things, but I do want to complete most of the side quests, and get as many armour sets as I can. Upgrading them all to max might be too much for me though...
  Bloons TD games are really fun. Playing the Netflix version?
  
  I think I have all the armor except a single piece - which I know the general location of and just need to make a good push for. I don't have any full sets upgraded to max yet though - just a few stray pieces. I did recently learn how to reliably farm star pieces, though, so it shouldn't be as painful as I thought it would be. I don't really have any leads on how to find the rest of my missing side quests right now - the method I was using kind of crapped out, and I feel like I've searched most obvious locations pretty thoroughly.
  I'm on the Steam version - doing pretty alright, not as good at it as I thought I might be though

Still on TotK. 115 hours in. I've been at the last bit for a while, just going around and doing lightroots and shrines still. Lightroots are done, and about 20 shrines left.
I'm still considering if I want to do FF16 next. The demo had really bad motion blur and I kinda want to wait to see if they patch it before I spend money.
I still have plenty of other games in my backlog, so I don't know that it's a big loss if I wait. (Unless serious spoilers start getting out, which seems like it might be a problem with this one?)
- Lightroots are easy to find if you have done enough shrines. I still have more than half of them remaining though.
  I am a very patient gamer, generally speaking, most games I play years after release, and for some reason I have been pretty lucky with most spoilers, still haven't played The Last of Us 2, and haven't seen any spoilers yet. Final Fantasy XVI is on my must play list, but there are so many other games I still have to play, so probably won't get around to play it before at least an year (well, a few years if I am completely honest).
  
  Honestly, I found all the light roots even before I think I had even half the shrines. It was sort of my favorite part of the game for a bit. Just hop on an airbike and roam around looking for light, and stopping to look at interesting stuff I found on the way.
  On the other hand, finding shrines tends to be either much, much easier (just look around after launching from a sky rower) or annoyingly harder (hidden in a cave). I guess that's why I'm only just now finishing them. At this point, I'm just using an online map to help me do the last ones.

I'm still in the middle of TOTK. It's been fantastic, but in trying to savor the moment. I've also started playing Rocket League on my PC again. It's nice to jump into an arena and get my butt kicked🤣
- Yeah, TotK is not a game that you should rush through. How far along are you in the game?
  Rocket League is very fun, but it has a very high skill ceiling. The people who are good in it, are VERY good, they are flying around, doing things you don't even know are possible in the game. It's still a fun game though.

I'll be shooting bugs in mines with dwarves in Deep Rock Galactic. ROCK AND STONE!
- I played one or two missions of Deep Rock Galactic, didn't enjoy much playing solo, but I have heard it can be lots of fun when playing with friends. Maybe I should convince my friends to give it a try...

I'm 180 hours into ToTK and i'm still discovering new things on the map. I'm stoked that there's still so much more to discover.
I'm also playing Dragon Quest XI and it's really fun so far.
- Yeah, the game is great in this regard. Yesterday in TotK Inventions post, saw someone mention that they have played over 200 hours, and haven't come across "Construct Head" zonai device yet.
  With lack of time to play games, I am starting to like linear games more, but I don't feel any time passing when playing TotK. A truly marvelous game.

Pinky: What are we doing this weekend, Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every weekend...We're going to take over Hyrule!
- Hyrule is the best place to be!
  Playing BotW or TotK? And how far along are you?
  
  TotK. I'm going the maximum exploration route, so I've only gotten the Travel Medallions, Tulin's Sage, and the locator so far. I'm leaving the main story until much later. 135 hours in, though, and only playing an hour or two most days.

Just started Zelda TOTK, slow burning it at the moment, will probably play persona 5 after this.
- If you have just started TotK, and you are slow burning it, there is no need to think of what to play next yet. You have a looong journey ahead of you.
  Have fun!

Dragon Quest XI. About 6 hours in and I'm absolutely loving it!
- Dragon Quest XI is a great game. I started it, but the game is on pause right now, will get back to it after TotK.. How far along are you? Reached the first city?
  
  Yep! Made it to the first city and now I’m’ off again where I’m going to where the adventure takes me next.

Nothing this weekend. Going to spend next Saturday night trying to get past the technodrome level in TMNT Shredders Revenge.
- Hey, it's already next week, got a bit late with the thread. 😀
  I haven't reached the technodrome level, but the way you are mentioning it, is it hard?
  
  Ha yea, didn't notice that. Yea, it's rough. I hadn't problems til I reached it

Like many of us, still rocking TotK here. My wife and son played the Pikmin demo for a while today and that looks to be the next game we buy.
In non-Nintendo stuff, I’m at some point going to work more on my PSVR2 backlog. I bought a handful of games when it released but due to some major life events, and the inconvenience of headers, I haven’t been able to play much.
- Nice! How far along are you in TotK? And as for Pikmin, have you played the previous games in the series? Or Pikmin 4 is going to be your first one?
  How are you finding PSVR2? I wanted to get it, but the price is a bit expensive (maybe not for a VR unit, just in general), so postponed it for now. Are there fun full games? Or is it mostly small experiences?
  
  I’ve done two dungeons in TotK but I’ve spent 95% of my time exploring around. It’s the most fun I’ve had doing absolutely nothing story related! I rented Pikmin 1 and found it too hard with the time constraints (if I recall correctly), but later played 3 and loved it, so it’ll be good to dive back into that world.
  The PSVR2 is full of pros and cons. It has mostly smaller games I would say, but that actually doesn’t impact my enjoyment like I thought it would. These small games are still brilliant, even if they aren’t God of War sized. Smaller scope can still be wonderful. My issue is comfort I guess. I have to wear a beanie to keep it from sliding down my head (it’s either that or tighten so much I get a migraine in 2 minutes, no exaggeration). Discovering the beanie trick helped my enjoyment a ton, but it’s still a device you have to wear on your head. It has weight to it and it gets warm with a beanie in summer and I can’t toss it on just anytime like I can pull my Switch out. So much less convenient! I just can’t play PSVR2 like I can play games without a headset.
  That being said, I still think it’s a stellar device! Harder to recommend than a console, because cost and inconvenience, but still super cool. Unfortunately I don’t see myself putting in the time to make it worth $500, but if you like Gran Turismo it’s a really excellent way to play that game. People who enjoy GT freaking adore it in VR.

Still playing TOTK. Still have plenty to do.

Been playing a lot of Pictooi lately. I've got a few more puzzles to wrap up and then I'll be done with the normal mode (unless theres some secret unlocks).
After that, it's either the Metroid Prime remaster or Advance Wars Re-Boot.
- I love Picross! I don't play it as a main game though, but pretty much always have a Picross game going on. I am currently on Picross S4. I'll add Pictooi to my list of Picross games to play.
  Good next games, I still have to play both, but I am leaning towards Metroid Prime remaster first.
  
  Yeah, I'm thinking Metroid as well...
  But then I saw Tunic on a decent sale, so maybe I'll do that instead. Or maybe I should finish one of the many other PC games in the backlog first.... Just too much entertainment to get to.

Shredder's Revenge
I am loving this game! Everything about it is so wonderfully polished and fun, a perfect blast from the 90s.
As for me, I just got Nobunaga's Ambition for Game Boy and I need an instruction manual. XD
- Yeah, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is really fun. We are have a blast playing it.
  Good luck with Nobunaga's Ambition! I have seen the trailers for the Switch version, but haven't mustered up enough courage to dive into it. Maybe one day...

Zelda Totk, currently in last temple but planning to explore and get sken armour and batteries before continuing further in the story once completed.
50 hours in and loving it :)
- How on Earth have you done all the temples in only 50 hours?
  
  It's doable if you don't go for too much exploration.
- Of all the things to collect or complete, collecting complete armour sets is probably my favourite. I don't care about finding all the shrines, but I want to collect all the armour sets.
  How about rest of the story? Got all the tears and sky towers?
- Which temple did you leave for last?
  
  On the last battle with Queen Gibdo. Going to go explore the depts more before continuing the story for a while I think. :)

I got accepted into Division Heartland closed beta. Gonna be playing that.
- Congratulations, where are you playing it? Is it PC only yet?
  I have never played any of the Tom Clancy games (other than little bit of first Division, but gave up because of the grindy nature of the game), let us know how you are liking the game.
  
  PC only, unfortunately the NDA forbids any public discussion on it.

Switch: Raiden IV. NDS: Ketsui Death Label. Both are so much fun!
- A retro-weekend!

After 240+ hours on TOTK, I finally finished it, I didn't know what to play for a few days, but then I started South Park The Fractured But Whole and I'm having a blast, I am a fan of the show and I love how the games feel just like an episode or a movie, I hope they make a third one down the line.
- Wow, 240+ hours! That's really something. I don't think I am going to cross 100 hours anytime soon. How much did you do? All shrines? Koroks? Compendium?
  I have never seen South Park so never got interested in the game, but I have heard from lots of people that it's really fun. Glad you are enjoying it!
  
  Not at all lol, I just love exploring and taking my time so it adds up, and just a few days ago I decided that I finally should finish the game, it was an awesome experience all the way through, my only complaint would be combat, I was hoping it had improved since botw but nope.
  I think the South Park games should be given a chance even if you are not a fan of the show, they stand very well on their own as fun RPGs.
  
  Not at all lol, I just love exploring and taking my time so it adds up, and just a few days ago I decided that I finally should finish the game, it was an awesome experience all the way through, my only complaint would be combat, I was hoping it had improved since botw but nope.
  I think the South Park games should be given a chance even if you are not a fan of the show, they stand very well on their own as fun RPGs.

I've just finished Street Fighter 6 and Tears of the Kingdom and I'm working through Pokemon Ultra Sun at the moment; its fantastic.
I will probably jump to FF16 later on this year, but for now I will take a break with the huge games.
- Street Fighter 6 is very high on my list of games to buy, would probably get in this month or next. By finished, do you mean the story mode where you create your own character? How long is it? And how did you like it?
  And what about Tears of the Kindgom? As I asked someone below: How much did you do? All shrines? Koroks? Compendium?
  Good luck with Pokemon Ultra Sun! And I can understand staying away from huge games. Once I am finished with TotK, I am planning to play a few smaller games (and resume couple of games I have paused), before I go for another big one.
  
  With Street Fighter 6, yup I mean the Story Mode; I clocked in about 130 hours! Mostly because it has a lot of content if you want to try and max out all of the masters, try out many of the optional challenges and overall just trying to get better at with the moves (I'm not good at fighting games so I took my time practicing a lot). I had SO much fun, also there are two big semi-openish areas that are nice and diverse.
  In Tears of the Kingdom, I had around 180+ hours; I did a lot of Shrines but mostly it was just exploring/spelunking in the sky/world/depths and trying to come up with crazy contraptions. I'm not sure how many koroks I did, but I don't think it was many, just whatever I found on the road.
  Anyway I loved them both very much, this has been a great year for gaming!

I'm playing Sparklite and Dragon Quest Builders 2!
- I took a chance on DQB2 and really liked it!

We Love Katamari (Reroll)!
- Pure fun!
  Have you played the originals? Or playing these for the first time?

TOTK — 4th sage quest on death mountain rn
- An interesting choice, to leave this one for last. Why did you do that? 😀

Pikmin 4 demo and Diablo IV.
- Reading your name is making me hungry!
  How are you liking the demo? Planning to buy the game?
  And what about Diablo IV? I am very excited for it, but probably won't have time to play it any time soon. What is the main class you are using?

Still playing E03 and replaying Pokemon Sword here and there. (Mostly post-game and DLC stuff.)
- How are you enjoying Etrian Odyssey? And how far along are you? According to howlongtobeat.com, it should take around 50-70 hours depending on how much stuff you are doing.
  I liked Pokemon Sword (only Pokemon game I played, other than Let's Go), but didn't get the DLC. How is it compared to the base game?

I'll be shooting bugs in mines with dwarves in Deep Rock Galactic. ROCK AND STONE!
- Nice! I played a mission or two once, but didn't enjoyed it much playing solo. I have heard it's really fun playing with friends though. Maybe I should try to convince some friends to give it a try...

Just a heads up OP, Capcom did improve the multiplayer experience in Monster Hunter Rise. No more waiting to join a friend till after they've seen a cut scene. Honestly, makes playing with other people a lot smoother. Also, Avengers was kinda rough imo. I picked it up for about $8 a few months back after they mentioned it was going down and all the content was included, found the main story pretty meh, and gave up on getting to the DLC since it would take take a good bit of grinding to get to it. Certainly not the worst I've ever played... but wow does it leave a lot to be desired. Here's hoping you have more fun with it.
As for me: if I'm counting Friday, PowerWash Simulator dropped the SpongeBob DLC on Thursday, so I finished that out. Really fun, super high quality, though a shame it doesn't appear to have the music present. That being said, music licensing is wild, so I don't really hold it against the devs.
Planning to get back into Final Fantasy XIV some more as I've been out of it for months and just kinda wanna play it some more. It has literally been months though, so I'm super terrified of getting back into like, the actual new content. Just gotta shake the rust off I guess, so I've been cleaning up some solo stuff to get the feel back.
And since I've got the 4th off as well, probably going to tip into some Boltgun as I haven't finished it yet. It's good, but it hasn't grabbed me like some of the other boomer shooters I've played lately. Oh well.
- That's great to hear about the MH: Rise, but we have gotten used to MH: World (and we all already have it), so going to stick to it and play that for a while.
  As for Avengers, I am liking the start of the Campaign, but it could just be my lowered expectations. Let's see how it holds up.
  I have always wanted to play a MMORPG, played a bit of FF XIV, but the amount of time needed to play a MMO is just something I don't have. Good luck getting your groove back.
  Boltgun is on my wishlist, thanks for your impressions, will check out some reviews before getting it.

Pokemon violet. I passed on it on release because of the bad reviews but I got a used switch lite with pokemon violet on facebook marketplace for 100 eur so I thought I might aswell. Super into this game. Played for 6 hours after "just one more gym". I might even buy the overpriced DLC
- Glad you are loving the game. Have you played the previous Pokemon games? Or are you new to the series?

I'm thinking on playing MH:Rise but I also want to play the GBA Fire Emblem.
- Haven't played either, but I think GBA Fire Emblem might be a shorter game, if that matters. Would love to know what you ended up playing.
  
  Hehe, my wife and I ended up playing Mario 3D world to finish the story and just started bowser's fury :P
  MH:Rise is just to continue playing it, I already finished it but it's a great game to mindlessly play when getting bored.

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