1y ago

What are you playing this weekend? 2024-01-05 - New Year Resolutions Edition!

I am back! (hopefully) with properly scheduled weekly thread.

Not much change from what I mentioned in last thread couple of days ago.

Still playing Sniper Elite 4, I think I am about 60-70% done. And got back into Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 after taking a break over the holidays.

What about all of you? What have you been playing?

And while we are at it, what are your new year's gaming resolution? Play more games? Play less games? Don't pre-order? Always pre-order?

I don't have anything as big as resolution, but I have been meaning to focus on older (J)RPGs from my wishlist / backlog that I haven't had time for. So, unless something changes, I am planning to go to my "patient gamer" roots and ignore (most of the) new stuff.

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Splatoon 3
Can't stop. Won't stop.
Gotta stay fresh, stay off the hook, and drip ink.

I’ve finally moved on from Dragon Quest XI to Pokémon Violet expansions. I’m holding off on finishing them completely and have been raiding a lot.
- Finished DQ XI? End game content too?
  
  Yep! Well there are two battles that are just unbeatable for me, so I decided to stop bashing my head against the wall for it and just moved on.

New year, new games. I accidentally managed to do a triple-finish, so I really had to think about this.
I finally finished Baten Kaitos' New Game Minus! All Achievements gotten! The game finally got hard, actually. I expected the hardest part to be the fight against three antagonists at the same time. One of them gets two attacks per turn and the game forces the weakest character into your party, so it's technically a 4 on 2 fight. Oh, and you have to do it twice in a row. I thought once that was over with, the rest would be easy, but no, the final boss actually smeared the floor with me pretty hard. I actually had to adapt my decks for the first time. I ended up putting two characters on offense only and loaded up my fastest character with light element armor and the best healing items to revive the attackers who would inevitably die to anything. That strategy even worked first try!
I'll probably replace the Switch-slot with Mario and Rabbids Spark of Hope. I was going to tackle Baten Kaitos Origins next, but maybe I should take a break after everything...
I completed all Challenge Maps in Arkham Origins, too. I still insist that the game is not as bad as people say, but I cannot overlook the amount of glitches. I'm looking forward to my first playthrough of Arkham Knight eventually, but first...
The PC slot has been replaced with Nier:Automata a few days ago. I already beat the game a few years ago, but that was when I was still unemployed, so I wasn't playing a legit copy. Now I'm going after the achievements on Steam because the game is definitely worth buying.
I've also beaten Shantae on the GameBoy. I'm glad I saved all the overworld collectibles until the end, when you can just fly everywhere. That made it much less of a headache. The ending got a bit confusing though. No spoilers, but you're dropped into a tense and dangerous situation, only to find it's not at all dangerous and after five minutes of having zero clue as to what to do had to look up a walkthrough. I'm not replacing this one, three games was a mistake, but the Shantae journey will continue eventually.
- Very detailed!
- Finally! Congratulations on finishing Baten Kaitos and getting all the achievements.
  I loved first Mario + Rabbits, Kingdom Battle, and it's DLC, and I have heard Spark of Hope is even better, so good luck with that!
  How did you like the Shantae overall?
  
  I stand by what I said originally: Shantae is great when you're in the dungeons, but annoying in the overworld. I'd say it's definitely worth looking at for the visuals though. The game is so ambitious that I have to wonder why they made it for the GameBoy in the first place. When the game released, the GameBoy Advance and the GameCube were already out for a year, too! I can only assume development took a really long time and the overall bad timing affected sales enough to get the sequel cancelled. Luckily, it's being revived now, so I might actually wait for that to keep playing the series in order.

I really want to finish Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario RPG. I haven't played much during the holiday break, but I'd really like to get through these two before I go back to Tears of the Kingdom and others I want to play. I don't have any specific resolutions, but hopefully I'll play more this year and finish more games before getting new ones 😬
- Oooh, sound like a fun time.

Finished Persona 5 Tactica!
Most of my comments about this game are on the previous thread.
Overall a fairly simple game, but I had a good time with it. Worth mentioning that it doesn't seem to have much replay value other than playing or higher difficulties or trying to complete the Compendium.
Playing The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails!
A very charming Action RPG from the makers of Ys.
It's stage-based, which makes it a good game for playing in short bursts, with the stages having specific "goals" that grant you bonuses if you manage to do it. I really like the "seasons" design, where after you beat a stage you can come back and play it in a different season of the year, which is effectively a new (and harder) stage based on the original one.
Combat is not as fluid as recent Falcom ARPGs, but it gets better as you unlock new abilities and spells. Story is fairly simple, but has that usual Falcom thing where the NPCs are interesting and fun to chat with. Though it also has some of the usual Falcom annoyances, like a decent amount of missables - so make sure to explore properly before going into a new chapter.
I believe I'm nearing the endgame (Chapter 6), though I haven't played much this past few days as I have been focused on other hobbies. Will resume and try to finish this one next week.
And while we are at it, what are your new year’s gaming resolution? Play more games? Play less games? Don’t pre-order? Always pre-order?
Honestly, it's just "beat more games than you buy". I have a gigantic backlog and I need to keep moving forward with it.
- How long did it take you to beat Persona 5 Tactica?
  I have heard good things about Boundless Trails, maybe I'll try it sometimes soon.
  That's a good resolution. I usually only buy a game when I am ready to play it, or when I am sure I'll play it next and it's on sale, otherwise I don't buy games, no matter how good the sale is. Only backlog I have, is because of PS+, and all the games I keep adding to my list. But now I am thinking that I should ignore them too, for instance, I started Dragon Quest XI on PS because it as on PS+, even though I wanted to play it on Switch. So, going to ignore that from now on and just get the game where I want.
  
  How long did it take you to beat Persona 5 Tactica?
  Around 20h.
  That’s a good resolution. I usually only buy a game when I am ready to play it, or when I am sure I’ll play it next and it’s on sale, otherwise I don’t buy games, no matter how good the sale is.
  I'm a physical game collector and I love some niche genres, so I tend to buy games early to avoid the risk of not finding them later.

More Wonder!
I was playing Backpack Hero, which initially threw me off Mario Wonder. But BPH has a major glitch that removes progress, so it's back to Wonder.
I'm also bouncing between a replay of the two top-down Lara Croft games. As well as, I started up another Atari recharged game, Caverns of Mars, for some quick shooter action!
- How are you like Lara Croft games? And are you playing them solo or co-op?
  
  Solo. I'm enjoying them again. Solo allows me to pick up the power ups, or at least the gems needed in order to reach certain marks, without having to share them. It always made reaching those scores more difficult. But I definitely had fun playing them co-op, all those years ago! Just different this time around.

Finally getting back into Red Dead 2 and it is just incredible. I got it on release day on Xbox and played about 20 hours, and then found out the starting camp quests were bugged and my whole save was basically trashed. Quit playing and told myself I'd come back to it eventually. I wish I hadn't waited as long, but wow what a treat. The fact that I can play it on my Steam Deck on lunch breaks at work and then easily go home to my rig and pick up where I left off is huge. The rockstar cloud save works well as long as I cleanly shut down the game each time. It's pretty wild how well it runs on Steam Deck too.
- Nice!
  At home, do you play on PC or Xbox?
  
  I’ve been playing it on steam on PC. Steam deck at work or on the couch with the partner or on my gaming PC when I want a nice big display and ultra graphics

Pokémon Violet. I want to get in a few more raids before they go away and then get moving on the new dlc.
I also need to face the academy ace tournament again for some cash.
- Aren't you usually loaded with cash by the time you reach the endgame?
  
  I just blew through a million PokeCoins buying sandwich ingredients and stocking up on quick, timer, and repeat balls. It would also be nice to have a bit of extra cash to get vitamins for quicker, on the spot EV training.

On Switch I've just started M&R: Sparks of Hope. It's great so far! Feels really polished, and I like the new changes to the movement system. If I remember correctly the first game required you to buy more powerful weapons throughout, whereas this one you attach and upgrade 'sparks' to a character. It's a pretty neat system as you can change out sparks to suit the battle.
On my Steam Deck I've been playing through the Spyro trilogy. A lot of love has clearly gone into this remake. It looks beautiful and the levels are fun and well-designed.
On PS4 I'm most of the way through Cyberpunk 2077. It's... rough on PS4. But I'm pushing through because the story and gameplay is great for the most part. I wouldn't have bought it on PS4, but a friend lent it to me. Can't complain with free.
Oh and I don't really have a resolution besides continuing to work through my backlog! I made some good progress over Christmas.
- Oooh, that sparks thingy sounds interesting.
  Well, going through backlog is a good goal, good luck!

Mostly Splatoon 3 (gotta keep up my catalogue progress!), but I’ll probably put more time into Palia. It’s a bit of a mess (plenty of bugs, and pretty choppy while docked), but it’s charming enough to keep me loving it.
I also have to make more progress towards finishing Tears of the Kingdom.
- Catalogue progress is important!
  I tried Palia, but I think my internet was a bit wonky that day, which kind of put me off from it. May give it another try someday.
  How far along are you in Tears of the Kingdom?
  
  Basically right before facing Ganon. I’ve been trying to clear out more of the Depths, but I should switch to gearing up.

On the switch, I'm doing poorly at A Highland Song. Doing better just chilling out in Dave the Diver though.
In the desktop, because we finally had to move from windows 7, I'm now playing Baldur's Gate 3 because the new...er computer can run it. Man solid state drives, cool things!
Resolution is less to no new games for awhile.
- A Highland Song seemed like a pretty chill game, didn't realise you could do poorly in it.
  Congratulations on the new computer! How are you liking BG 3?
  Let's be patient gamers together.
  
  I keep throwing myself off cliffs accidentally because I can't tell things apart well, and turns out I am very un rhythms.
  I'm liking BG3, it's very neat! I made a tiefling bard who lies. A lot.

In spite of getting new stuff, I've mostly been playing Warframe and Honkai Star Rail still. The latter is 100% grinding at this point. Too many characters needing their traces upgraded. Warframe I'm mostly trying to unlock the map, but I've also been building things and leveling them too.
I will say I've been playing Warframe mostly on PS5 and PC, but the Switch version is solid, if the graphics are cranked way down. Now that it has screws save, I'm way more interested.
What I should get playing is one of the four things I got for Christmas, Scarlet Nexux, FF XVI, Horizon Forbidden West, or Division 2. Might be playing more of the first today.
- Ah, good to know about grinding in Honkai Star Rail, it means I can forget about it now.
  I have heard mixed things about Scarlet Nexus, would love to hear your thoughts on it, once you have played a little.
  
  Yeah, I figured it was coming, but it isn't bad for just some mindless battles. I think I'd have puttered out one way or another about now anyway.
  Getting there with Warframe too.
  I've read reviews where they mention the plot is ehh, but combat is good. That's the vibe thus far.

I'm still playing through Starfield... For whatever reason I feel compelled to beat every Bethesda RPG with 100%, even the B- efforts like this one. I'm just over 200 hours in and hoping to wrap up by this week. Just some remaining main quest missions and a bit of grinding. We'll see.
- Wow. So, are you actually enjoying it? I mean not every game is "best game of all time", but you can sometimes enjoy B category games too.
  Or are you just going for 100% it because it's Bethesda RPG?
  
  It's fun for what it is, like all Bethesda games. I played Skyrim for 350 hours, and I loved it but recognized it still had the same jank and poorly realized characters and quests as every other Bethesda game. It's not as good as Skyrim was. More comparable to Fallout. They need to change things up for their next game, but they're already in progress on Elder Scrolls 6, so I guess they won't in time for that.

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