Returnal, Avowed, Halo, Horizon FW, Warno, EU IV, Helldivers 2, Monster Train 2 and now Dragon Age Veilguard.
Good lord, where is the time …
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Beyond fair. I’ve been playing since like early high school. I distinctly remember buying Overwatch 1, popping that disc in, and all the quick play matches. I’d just massively fallen off when the content drops were weaning heavily and the game had gotten more frustrating and toxic (and let me tell you, it was ALWAYS frustrating and toxic, so a breaking point was bad). This was when Overwatch 2 was promised and I was hyped because I like PVE more than PVP (I’d been addicted to those PVE event modes when they role around). And umm, yeah we know where that went initially. I wasn’t even like hugely upset like a lot of people were. It’s just that I’d already not been enjoying OW and the thing that was supposed to bring me back was a “sike” so yeah… and gosh overwatch 2 only officially launched in 2023? Yikes that’s a long time for Overwatch 1 to have been left to bleed to death. Anyway I tried Overwatch 2 when it launched and just didn’t have fun. Stadium just recently brought that back.
Not sure where I was going with that. Oh, starting. It’d probably be difficult. I remember a bit of learning curve when I first picked it up. And I was able to play as new heroes released so it wasn’t too overwhelming (though the new ones that popped up when I re-downloaded OW was a bit overwhelming (I still don’t touch them much)). I’d probably focus on a role and mess around with the heroes in that role.
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The demo of Sonic CrossWorlds. Shaping up to be a real stunner and even better than Mario Kart
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Spooky season begins for me September 1st when I start my two month horror movie marathon. This year I am incorporating more games into the mix. So I have loaded my Xbox with a bunch of spooky games.
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Just got caught up on the latest vampire survivor achievements so am going to put that one down for a while. Also got the purple wristband today in FH 2. Which is the halfway point to gold. Trying to decide if I should stick with this and get the gold or move onto FH3. FH2 is a pretty big step down from 1 in my eyes. Its just way to easy and I feel like I’m just going through the motions. Also hoping to start Prince of Persia Lost Crown here soon.
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Since my last post, I bought a Switch 2 two weeks ago and earlier today, traded it in as outside of Metroid Prime 4, there’s nothing new upcoming that I have any interest in. I did complete Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (8.0/10 overall) and enjoyed it for the most part. It’s a great puzzle platformer. I completed all the grand prix cups in Mario Kart World (8.0/10 overall) on 150CC difficulty with a ranking of 3rd or better and while it was fun to play, I wasn’t a fan of holding down the A button to accelerate when it should be the RZ button. Also, maybe it was just me but I had no idea when I was going to be attacked or anything from behind. The best game I played in those two weeks was The Adventures of Elliot demo. I can’t wait for this game next year on Xbox!!! Day one for me.
That was my Nintendo experience. Now onto PlayStation 5. Because of that Elliot demo, I bought Star Ocean: The Second Story R for PlayStation 5 but not sure when I will play it because I also bought Granblue Fantasy Relink (8.0/10 overall) and completed it a few hours ago on normal difficulty in about 16 hours. I loved the visuals and the art style, story and characters were solid, audio was good and the combat system is great. Wasn’t a fan of there not being a mini-map (I know you can bring up the map while playing but not the same thing) or the skill trees. Just way too freaking many. But overall, for $25 on PSN, I enjoyed it.
I did buy Ys X: Nordics because after playing the demo last week and seeing that Proud Nordics may not get a PS5 release or if it does will be after the Switch 2 release in early 2026, I decided to just buy the base game that released in October 2024. I will be starting this game in a few days to a week from now but before that, I bought Lost Soul Aside. It’s my type of game and after watching a walkthrough of the first hour or so, was really liking what I saw from the combat system which seems to be the strongest aspect of the game. For an AA game, if it ends up being a 7-8 for me, I will be more than happy.
Also pre-ordered Ghost of Yotei deluxe edition and already have that weekend requested off from work so I will be playing it at launch. I may also buy the Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake as I really enjoyed the demo but wasn’t a fan of the turn based combat. I liked the real time combat in the game and everything else was really good. Will decide when it gets closer to release on the 19th.
Now onto Xbox Series X, I pre-ordered Cronos: The New Dawn deluxe edition and Borderlands 4 super deluxe edition but won’t be playing either for a while as I want to get through the few PS5 games that im playing first. I will be buying Metal Eden tomorrow as well as pre-ordering the deluxe edition upgrade for The Outer Worlds 2 (which im planning a 10 day vacation around) as well as the Overture expansion for Lies of P.
Simply put, I have a bunch of freaking games to play and need more hours in the day. lmao 
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Finished Doom: The Dark Ages on Normal, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I immediately restarted on Ultra Violence. I think that the game will be better on replays, like it was for me with Doom Eternal. I think my favorite gun was the Shredder. The final boss was easier than the penultimate boss.
I picked up Pocky and Rocky Reshrined now that it’s on sale
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All other games get put on hold once the Indy DLC comes out today. I honestly don’t think I have ever bought a DLC for a game before. I’m usually in the camp of had enough of the base game plus when months pass, I can’t be bothered with remembering controls/story. However, Indy was my favorite game last year so can’t wait to jump back in.
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Started Silksong. Steam crashed, Xbox browser keeled over but suprisingly the Xbox PC app saved the day for me.
Looks really pretty. Controls like a charm. I think Hollow Knight fans will be very pleased.
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So I bought 9th Dawn Remake on a whim since it’s on sale. Best $12 I’ve spent in a while. Instantly hooked me. The kinda simple RPG loop I love, but there’s also this crazy fishing mini game and a rogue like deck builder mini game.
Also side bar, I was watching Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur in the background (I’m really late, but they COOKED adapting that from comics) and now I can’t stop playing 9th Dawn Remake while listening to Sweatpants (Childish Gambino) on loop… 
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Finished SD Gundam Battle Alliance, it’s a fun game whose main draw is collecting mobile suits(by getting each blue print, some suits require at least 8), upgrading them to be usable in later levels and going through missions set within multiple Gundam timelines.
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Playing The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition as my main game, never got around to playing the DLC with the original version so there’s some fresh content too alongside replaying the main game. Looks pretty good and plays well so far, really looking forward to the sequel.
Also picked up Battlefield 2042 again after the BF6 beta. They have a free battlepass where you can unlock cosmetic packs for BF6! about half way through that now. Very nice.
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Started Hollow Knight this week, and man is it sooo good! Don’t know why I waited this long to play this! It’s hard but satisfying and it’s hard to put the controller down. Hoping to finish it soon and start Silksong.
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Completed Lost Soul Aside in just over 30 hours. Normal difficulty which is the game’s preset difficulty. Outside of two bosses (one around the middle of the game and one at the end), I didn’t really have any issues difficulty wise with enemies or bosses and I stayed with the default sword weapon for 95% of the game. Only switched to the other weapons when I had to.
Visually, the game looks great with the environments and dungeons. The character models look solid. The worst looking part of the game is the opening dock/hub area but even then, it still looks good. Sound effects were good and the music is great but the voice acting is the weakest aspect of the audio but it’s not horrible or anything. Combat/gameplay is the strongest aspect of the game and would have hit my excellent rating but I had two crashes to the home screen, the mini-map disappeared once and I had stuttering/hitching for the middle areas of the game even though it never happened during combat.
The controller configuration having block/parry attached to the circle button while the dodge button is either L1 or R1 as that’s the only button you can change as there’s only two options for the controller configuration. I used R1 as the dodge button. While talking to NPC’s, to make the dialog play on it’s own, you have to press the square button every time you go into a conversation. Why this isn’t an option in the settings menu is beyond me. I don’t consider this bad or anything but it is annoying. There’s puzzles throughout the game but are pretty straightforward and easy. There’s also platforming in the game which while the movement is clunky at times, I thought it was really good and uses a weapon acquired later on to help with traversal.
My biggest gripe with the combat/gameplay is that there seems to be three tiers that the weapons can be used at but researching it, it seems like the second and third tiers which are stronger are connected to the now unlocked difficulty levels which I didn’t like at all because im not going to replay the game just to upgrade a weapon. All the resources I gathered throughout the game were for nothing until the very end when I crafted a life saving potion or something like that (forgot the name as I didn’t even need to use it).
I maxed out the skill trees for all four weapons. Basic stuff like new moves or +5% attack strength or unlocking slots for trinkets and whatnot. There’s arena challenges called the Dispersed Dimensions. I completed about half of these as they’re scattered/hidden in the chapters and you have to activate them in order for them to show up on the menus that’s attached to the NPC you talk to regularly to save your progress and sell/craft items. Story and characters were both good and it all kept me interested and engaged for my entire playthrough. It’s nothing special. It’s basic and predictable but I enjoyed it.
- Visuals - 8.5/10 (great)
- Audio - 8.0/10 (great)
- Combat/Gameplay - 8.5/10 (great)
- Story/Characters - 7.0/10 (good)
- Overall - 8.0/10 (great)
Overall, had a great time with Lost Soul Aside and no regrets spending the $70 on the digital deluxe edition for the game. If you’re someone who likes Devil May Cry action combat games and go into Lost Soul Aside from an AA perspective, there’s a great game here overall. If you’re looking for an AAA blockbuster, you’ll probably be disappointed.
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Finished order of giants today. A lot of fun. I would give the base game a 5/5 and this expansion a 4/5. Puzzles were really hard for me and had to look a couple up (I’m not the smartest person in the world…). Ideally, this expansion should have come out earlier. After 8 months go by, it’s just hard to get back into this one (or any game for that matter). But if you liked the base game I think you will like this expansion. $20 also seemed fair to me.
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Bouncing between two games.
Prince of Persia the Lost Crown - I don’t get this game. I love the genre, but I’m not getting it. Enemies are such a pain in the ass. I’m constantly getting hit so that means every 4 or 5 enemies knock off enough of my life and I’m dead. Been reading that this is true for early game but I still haven’t come out of it. I’m really starting to think I’m playing the game wrong. I like everything else about it, but the combat is not fun right now. I’ll give it more time, but really hoping it turns around. So many people love this game.
Forza Horizon 3 - Just started this this morning. Got what I wanted out of two so putting that down. FH3 is such a huge jump in graphics. Holy shit balls. FH1 and 2 were fine, thought they looked great. But 3 is this giant jump. Must have been designed for xbox one while the first 2 were 360 games. I also finally decided to turn the difficulty up. 2 was so easy on default difficulty. and so far going up one in 3 is noticeably a lot better. May even have to go up one more. On my journey through this series, my ranking is FH1 > FH2.
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Borderlands 4.
Played around 6 hours with Amon on normal but man, im bad at this game so I will be starting over tomorrow on easy difficulty. I’m not certain but I would assume that there’s better guns/attachments that can improve the weapon(s) stability as some guns are shooting around all over the place. I definitely got to get used to this.
Other than that, I do wish the mini-map was still in the game as im not really a fan of having to keep using the robot buddy to give me a line of where to go and don’t want to keep opening the map. One thing I have noticed with games in general since Avatar and it’s annoying the fuck out of me is that games don’t put the way point on screen until you’re close to the objective. It’s very frustrating.
Besides that, I wish the grapple hook could just be used like in Halo Infinite instead of needing grapple spots to use it on. One part I fell off the cliff during a battle and had to loop all the way around to get back where I was. Seems like a missed opportunity to really allow free flow exploration/climbing/traversal.
Overall though, really enjoying the game. Will get back to it tomorrow as im working later today.
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Currently playing Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition on PS5. Finished the main game, just doing post game Vergil playthrough. I’ve hit 40 hours so far.
Also playing Persona 5 Royal on my Switch OLED, I hit about 18 hours, just finished the first palace.
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Just finished Borderlands 1 and it’s a much shorter game than I thought, pretty fun game, played as Lilith because Phase shifting helps throw off the damage going out and give me a breather.
I felt that this being their first game they didn’t use a lot of voice acting for many of the characters except Angel.
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Deep Rock Galactic Survivor miiiiight just be my next addiction 
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