What are you playing this weekend?

Monster Hunter Rise, which I'm playing with my son. Well, trying to. We jumped straight into co-op and got butchered several times in a row on the very first quest (an Aknosom). It appears to me that the game expects you to make a bit of progress in the single-player storyline and then to jump into multiplayer a bit later, once you've got the hang of it and upgraded your gear a little.

So, the co-op is on hold for a bit while we grind the single-player. Now the challenge is keeping up with the boy, who wants to play the game at every available moment...

It's fun, though. We did a couple of dozen hours in World some time back, so it shouldn't take long to get to a point where can group up again.

Spikeout wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

Steam World Dig 2. It’s been cozy.

One of my favourite Metroidvania's of all time. It gets so creative the further you get into the game with the abilities, the dungeon design facilitating them beautifully.

Stele wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

Steam World Dig 2. It’s been cozy.

Love it. Love all the Steamworld actually. Think they have a new game coming soon.

I really hope it's Steamworld Dig 3, I've been a bit disappointed with their other titles specifically SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, which was good but not great.

Steamworld heist is brilliant I had an amazing time with it. Would love another of those.

I also really enjoyed Steamworld Heist. I enjoyed what I played of Steamworld Dog 2 but I did eventually get stuck on a boss fight.

I actually started Steamworld Heist the other day after having it sitting in my library for what must be about 7 years. I did the first mission, I like the bouncing the bullets of the environment to get enemies behind cover.

I'm also playing Ghostrunner which is good but tough. It's requires a lot of skill & quick reaction times.

Lastly there's Yakuza Like A Dragon which is fun enough so far but the combat really needs to open up as it's been just Ichi doing one attack & one special for about the first two hours of play, defeating enemies easily. The main story has been good but the dialogue can be pretty goofy, sometimes in a good way other times it just feels like it's poor writing or translation. I've noticed that tonally conversations can go from confrontational or angry & the next sentence just shift right back to pleasant, which feels really off. I'll stick with it until I get new party members, new abilities, run some businesses etc.

Spikeout wrote:

I actually started Steamworld Heist the other day after having it sitting in my library for what must be about 7 years. I did the first mission, I like the bouncing the bullets of the environment to get enemies behind cover.

Yeah. That’s very satisfying. Later on you can get some really wild angles going on in order to ricochet bullets into enemies.

Yeah I'd rate the Steamworld series Dig 2 > Heist > Dig > Quest probably. But I still finished Quest, it was good. I just won't play it again. Dig 2 and Heist were fun enough I could see picking them up again someday.

And apparently there was a Tower Defense game back on DSi that was digital only. Never played it. A bit ahead of their time for console digital only with that. They should probably port it.

Spikeout wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

Steam World Dig 2. It’s been cozy.

One of my favourite Metroidvania's of all time. It gets so creative the further you get into the game with the abilities, the dungeon design facilitating them beautifully.

Stele wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

Steam World Dig 2. It’s been cozy.

Love it. Love all the Steamworld actually. Think they have a new game coming soon.

I really hope it's Steamworld Dig 3, I've been a bit disappointed with their other titles specifically SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, which was good but not great.

Steamworld Build

A demo? Nice!

I fired up Ori and the Blind Forest for the first time over the weekend. What a beautiful game! Though I'm already getting horror flashbacks from Hollow Knight as I see the map getting larger and larger and realizing I'll never manage to navigate back to a locked treasure box later.

JohnKillo wrote:

Steamworld Build

Didnt even look at the store page. Downloading Demo now!

The weekend's plans got shaken up a bit when on a whim I wanted to see if I could get my old disc of L.A. Noire installed on the Series X. Sadly, it's not supported but another game box on the shelf caught my eye: Syndicate.

No, no, not Assassin's Creed Syndicate. The weird "nobody asked for this" FPS reboot of Bullfrog's Syndicate by EA & Starbreeze released in 2012. I say nobody asked for it because that was definitely my feeling at the time. I bought it anyway because, well, cyberpunk. And I reinstalled it on the XSX yesterday and started a fresh hard difficulty playthrough of the campaign.

Yeah... YEAH this game was pretty decent! There doesn't seem to be any visual or framerate boost on the XSX but considering how hard it is to find a copy of this game now it's a big amazing that I'm even able to play it. Load times I assume are at least improved by the SSD.

More Cyberpunk 2077. I had read that the game was shorter than a lot of people expected, but it seems to be going on for quite a long time. Maybe people were expecting some sort of 100+ hour RPG rather than a 30-40 hour one? Or I'm just slow.

Also keen to check out Hi-Fi Rush. As a big fan of Tango's other games, this one's a must-play. And just the way it looks is intriguing enough.

And finally, I've recently introduced my almost-5-year-old to Mario Kart, so probably a little of that too.

Continued adventures in making marginally better trousers through mass slaughter in Monster Hunter: Rise and in the analogue space my Gloomhaven group have a day on Saturday to play!

Veloxi wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

As much Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor - Martyr as I can. So addicted right now.

But I also need to break it up with some Star Fleet II playtesting.

Same.

And again.

I was planning to visit a friend out of town this weekend, but we decided to postpone due to the weather. So, this weekend, I think it's time for me to (finally) finish Persona 3 Portable. Or at least try to (finally) finish Persona 3 Portable.

I might also play some Tomb Raider III. I'm currently at what I think is the most confusing level of the game (Aldwych). That's where I stopped the last time I tried to play the game.

Fire Emblem Engage continues!

I intend to get caught back up to where I was in Marvel's Midnight Suns

Basically I'm assassinating all the assassins in Valhalla while I get all Eivor up in this hiznit.

Plugging along in Crystal Project, which is quickly becoming my default "an hour before bed, an hour with my morning coffee" game. Such a nice relaxing time.

I'm also hoping to put some time into Hitman 3, I've been wanting to get it for my Steam Deck and lamenting that I couldn't quite justify paying full price for it but the next big Steam sale isn't until March, and then lo and behold it went on weekend sale this week. Score!

The main game I'm playing now is Dishonored 2, as I'm playing a low chaos run as Emily. Not the best at stealth, but Dominoing a bunch of guards and then choking someone out or using a sleep dart to put everyone down is cool so far. And I'm just about to start the Clockwork Mansion, which I know everyone says is one of the best levels in the game and maybe gaming in general. So excited for that.

And might get back to Old World for the Strategy Game Club.

Yesterday, I finally escaped the water temple in Ori and the Blind Forest. Looking forward to flying around whatever the next beautiful world they have in store for me.

Got family visiting, including my 9 year old nephew. I'll be having a grand time showing him Burnout Paradise, Rocket League, Sackboy Adventures, and anything else that catches his eye (sadly Tetris Connected did nothing for him).

Going to try to finish up Solatorobo, or get as close to the end of it as possible given some social commitments *grumble grumble*. I will also be raiding with my kid in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet; Greninja ain't gonna catch/farm itself! Some Xenoblade Chronicles as well.

Dead Space Remake
Dead Island
Alien: Isolation

Midnight Suns and Elden Ring. Didn't beat Elden Ring last year with my first character. Started a magic focused build and started over. Not playing for 6 months and it feels like I just got the game. Love that world.

Syberia for me.

More Steamworld Dig 2.

Spoiler:

Grapplehook

Aristophan wrote:

I've been playing The Case of the Golden Idol. If you enjoyed Return of the Obra Dinn, then I encourage you to check this one out. It's 2D scenes and a series of discrete mysteries, but it scratches the same itch, and resolving the mysteries is very satisfying.

I actually just started return of the Obra Dinn a couple days ago, but I have it on Switch and my wife wanted that for Fire Emblem yesterday, so yesterday night I blazed my way through the first five chapters of The Case of the Golden Idol. (I had already done the first two through the demo). Really, really good. I think I’ll stick on this though the weekend.

I... don't... know!

I beat Steamworld Dig 2 again this week. I have Steamworld Heist again (which I also beat many years ago) but Im not sure if I'll play. I'll probably finish Per Aspera and finish turning Mars green and blue.

More Days Gone. It’s a cross between Sons of Anarchy and The Last of Us, two things I enjoy. It isn’t a perfect game but it’s a hell of a lot better than I thought it was going to be based on reviews and various people’s impressions (which, to be fair, were based on a far earlier and far buggier/less refined version.) It’s scratching that ‘looting houses in a zombie apocalypse’ itch that is only being exacerbated (in the best way) by HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ adaption.