What Are You Playing This Weekend? (11th October)

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

Since last weekend was pretty much dedicated to Super Mario Galaxy 2, I’d like to spend a bit of time with Final Fantasy Tactics and actually get a decent start on it. On the other hand, I’ve recently jumped into Xenotilt, and my goodness, it’s absolutely marvellous. Gorgeous visuals and lots of numbers that keep going up, up, up. It’s addictive stuff.

Jim Norman, Staff Writer

I’m still banging my head against repeatedly Hades II runs and, once again, it’s refusing to let me go. I don’t think I’m quite as into this one as I was its predecessor, but it’s still a jolly good time and a firm reminder that I am very bad at just about every boss fight going.

If I can put it down, I’d really like to get back to Clair Obscur, which I haven’t touched in about a week but has really gotten under my skin. I’ll wrap it up on PS5 soon enough, I’m sure, but it has to be coming to Switch 2 soon, right?

PJ O’Reilly, Staff Writer

Well, I’ve got a bunch of things to review over the weekend so most of my gaming time will be spent doing that. However, I will also be putting a little time aside especially for Hades II and Super Mario Galaxy action.

I genuinely can’t believe these latest Galaxy 1+2 ports have been out this long and I haven’t even started them yet. I’m losing my touch.

I never had a touch.

Kate Gray, Contributor

This week, it’s nothing but Hades 2. I was a very good girl and waited until it was out of early access, a feat of willpower for which I deserve the highest praise, and I’m glad I did — although I always feel like I can sort of see the stitches in a formerly-early-access game. I can see the places where they’ve added more content, like building on an extension after realising that they forgot to put in bathrooms; I can feel the tension between whatever the early combat systems were, and how they ended up changing to be different from the first game, and more like what the early access players wanted. There’s a lot of speedrunning and min-maxing stuff, for example. I don’t hate it!

But I am less invested in the storyline this time, which is a shame, because Hades was so pivotal to me as a player, designer, and writer. It’s like they lost their sense of humour. Supergiant has always had a really masterful way of weaving together cosmic tragedy and silliness (Bastion was great at it), but Hades 2 is far more serious. I have strong thoughts on Comedy As Serious Art, and I love when games get it right, so I’m a little disappointed, especially because I love seeing the Gods take things less seriously than mortals would. There are still moments of levity, but they’re largely at the side of the Main Story. Still, I’m relatively early in the game — maybe a little under midway through the story? — so perhaps it lightens up a bit!

Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor

I’m reliving my Final Fantasy Tactics obsession through Zach all over again, who’s playing on Tactician difficulty. So of course we’re getting our backsides handed to us every so often. We’re approaching that Chapter 3 fight, so let’s see if we get another rude reawakening…

That’s pretty much it for me right now — things are busy busy in our household right now! Enjoy your weekends, folks!

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

Greetings programs! I have arrived at Star Wars Outlaws point where I am told if I proceed forward, I will miss out on all unresolved side quest content. So instead of properly finishing the game, I will probably be running around the galaxy for odds and ends. Wow, it’s Lando Calrissian! While not properly a new game despite its recent début on the eShop, Söldner-x: Himmellstürmer is giving that euro-shmup bliss I often crave and it was the only game in the series I had never played before with the added bonus of a banger soundtrack by Rafael Dyll. Also making my way to the final missions of Gearbits and I’ve made my way to Cronos in Hades II. Hopefully a defeat of the Titan is on the cards for this weekend.

UFO 50 report: 31 of 50 games played. Wow, these week’s lot is impressive! Divers is super retro-hardcode hard, Rail Heist is amazing, Vainger gravity switch tricks makes it rather unique, Rock On! Island is super addictive and Pingolf could be a stand alone release! Still more games to come next week.

Game of the week is that Wii forgotten gem TRON Evolution: Battle Grids. In this scribe’s humble opinion still the best TRON video game ever made and clearly one destined to be forgotten by time and industry advancements. But despite all the light-cycling and disc throwing shenanigans, I need to ensure part of this weekend is spent cleaning up my new upcoming music album and ensure a smooth release in a few short days time. End of line.

Nile Bowie, Contributor

There’s a very quirky, recently released title by Panic called Blippo+, which is basically a TV simulator where you pick up the broadcasts of a distant alien planet where ’80s New Wave culture is the norm! The fun thing about it is that you can use a single Joy-Con vertically to as a remote, and it gives me vivid flashbacks of surfing channels on a CRT and stumbling across late-night public access shows as a kid. There’s not much “game” to it, but it’s utterly unique.

I absolutely love Donkey Kong Bonanza, but I’ve been chipping away at it far too slowly and will be firing it up this weekend. Likewise, there are so many P-Switches in Mario Kart World that I’ve yet to discover and complete, and I owe it to myself to improve my paltry Knockout Tour score a little bit, so there’ll definitely be some competitive karting happening.

I’m really curious as to the roadmap for future updates for World and still find it odd that DK and Pauline have only an outfit each. I’m crossing my fingers for a Bonanza tie-in of some kind.

Well, that’s what we have planned for this weekend, but what about you? Let us know your picks in the following poll.