What are you playing this weekend?

Gonna try to finish the stories of my main party in Octopath Traveler II.
Also, I want to finally start Cyberpunk 2077.

Dark Age of Camelot is still running?

I finally have a PS5 and christened it with Black Myth: Wukong, which has been excellent so far.

The DAOC theurgist is such a great class and it dismays me that it's not something frequently stolen for other titles. The WoW Demo Warlock sounds close on paper but is a poor imitation.

DEATHLOOP.

19 hours in, I'm pretty sure I understand what I need to get done, so I'm grinding out the weapons and trinkets. At the same time, I'm trying to get all the story branches wrapped up, but not OCD tight - I just want to see all the main story points. If I miss something not crucial, no biggie (or so I say to myself every 10 minutes...)

The gameplay is really cool - it has some qualities of an extraction shooter, as once you enter the map, there are only three ways to get out of it:
1. You walk out one of the level exits
2. You proper die (run out of Reprises), hence moving to the "next" day
3. You quit the game, losing all "unsaved progress" - meaning: back to the initial checkpoint upon return.

Options 2 and 3 will not let you keep any of the loot you accumulated after entering the level.

Enemies do not respawn (while you are on the same map). Once you enter a level, whoever is in, they're in. If you kill someone, they are not coming back until the "next" day. If you kill them all, you're good to roam the level carefree (well, at least NPC free) for as long as you want, until you exit the map. There is even an achievement for killing everyone in a level. That is the polar opposite of E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy where enemies do not stop spawning. Whatever you need to get done in EYE:CD, you will have to do it under a constant stream of enemy reinforcements.

Pitting those two against each other, I prefer facing a finite number of foes but I also understand the infinite enemy mobs too, as there isn't really a different way to create that kind of pressure on the player who is trying to accomplish something other than killing the entire population of the Infinite Loop nation.

Hopefully Neva and then, hopefully, some Disco Elysium with, hopefully, a little co-op action on the side.

Batman Arkham Shadow: Such a fun game. Probably finish it this weekend.

They did such a good job with the combat and these "QuickTime" style prompts. When the timing finally clicks the flow is just amazingly fun. Then they change things up by throwing enemies at you where you might have to vault over them to get any hits in, or cape stun, or physically move your head side to side and duck. So good.

The predator rooms have also gotten a bit more complicated with guards that see in the dark, snipers, and ones that disrupt detective vision. Still I'm Batman and they rightfully fear me!

There's a few puzzles I haven't been able to figure out so hopefully once the game is done you can go back and solve those. If not will mean another play through somewhat soon.

Ys X: Nordics: Guess I'm putting God of War aside in favor of this. Haven't gotten too far but it's scratching that itch that Ys VIII Lacrimosa of Dana gave. Do wish the graphics were a bit more updated (looks like PS4 graphics) and miss the anime intros. Otherwise it seems like its going to be a solid Ys game.

Black Ops 6: I'm probably going to play all three main components of this year's man-shoot package. The campaign is surprisingly good though I've hit a slight dip with a "trippy" sequence that isn't great. Zombies is also catching my attention where in the past it has not. And I think I need to dust off the nostalgia and try my hand at MP and be turned into cottage cheese. Just like the good ol' days.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint: I think this may be my new tactical shooter obsession. It took a few years after launch but the game as it exists today is pretty sweet. The open world is gorgeous and fun to explore. There's a fantastic sense of movement and "self" with the third-person camera, excellent animations and shooting mechanics and it's just find to skulk around in the bush head-shotting my hundredth unsuspecting guard.

The Forever Winter: Big-ish update dropped a couple days ago. I've heard mixed things about it but there's a new map so I'd like to see how that thing plays. Less enthusiastic overall as a few core issues I have with the gameplay have remained the same but there's still fun to be had here.

Just beat Balatro. I thought I might be done with the game after falling at the same stage many, many times but I gave it another go and started to notice and understand some less telegraphed mechanics that made a ton of difference.

I’m quite proud of myself.

Oops!

It is extremely good and I have a contentious relationship with most rogue-likes.

If the demo appeals to you, the GWJ Action Game Club 24Q4: System Shock is going on now.

Did you play Ghost Recon:Wildlands at all? I felt like Breakpoint was a step down in a lot of ways and didn't like it nearly at much. Curious if you felt differently.

I played a fair bit of Wildlands, particularly in co-op, when it first released on PS4. I actually reinstalled it shortly before grabbing Breakpoint on sale, thinking that I would dust off one of my old saves and give it another go.

Something about the setting of Breakpoint (admittedly a lot more generic) and the game-feel speaks to me more than those same aspects of Wildlands. On paper they are very similar in design and approach. I would say if Ubi never added the Immersive options to Breakpoint and had stuck to the gear score/The Division-esque elements then I probably would've never even bothered with it, deep sale or not.

Now that I think about it, didn't Wildlands start introducing some RPG-lite to the series?

Still LOTRO and ETS2. In LOTRO, I have exited Moria, and spent this morning help a load of hoity-toity elves set up a party in Lothlorien, which sounds about right. I did bump into that rabble who left Rivendell before me, who didn't even thank me for going across Eregion clearing up after them, nor for smashing the Last Bridge in Moria with a balrog, which seemed a little OTT.

In ETS 2 news, I broke my own record by earning a quarter of a million quid (253k) trucking Halloween Treats from Sweden to Portugal. I managed to cut the 2,450 mile journey down to 1,495 of actual driving by some judicious use of ferries - and got paid the original contract value. Which was nice. Not quite sure about the utility of Halloween Treats on Nov 2, but there we go (wanders away riffling enormous wad of cash, whistling tunelessly).

Ah, a new Monster Hunter Demo in which I spend time repeatedly unsheathing and sheathing my weapon, swinging at air and dodging for no reason next to a bemused monster.

This time though I could see me having fun with the game if I put in the work to learn the controls properly. This may be the one when I dive in. Glad I tried the demo.