Has this been a great gaming season or what? I’ve been trying to juggle so many games that honestly I really should let some of them slide so I can make progress somewhere.
Today I just wanted to jot down a quick list of everything I’m playing just to see if anyone out there is enjoying any of the same titles.
Nintendo Switch
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — This just came out last Friday so it is early days, but so far I’m enjoying it. Finally a Switch game I can get excited about. Hopefully this one sticks. Scopique at Levelcapped has a great post on it, btw.
Playstation 4 Pro
Star Wars Battlefront 2 — I play this a little bit every day. Sometimes online MP, sometimes “Arcade Mode” and sometimes a little nibble of the campaign, which I’m trying to stretch out until the next chunk drops this month.
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds — I’ve finished the story of this expansion but there’s still more to do and the combat is SO fun for me that I’m happy to stick around to chase collectibles and put poor Aloy in harm’s way. HZD is my personal Game of the Year.
.hack GU Last Recode — Dabbling in this one mostly for the nostalgia. I have issues with the main character (he’s such a dick) but enjoy the kind of low-intensity grindy-combat when I’m feeling less than energetic. There are 4 games in this bundle…not sure I’ll get through them all
Xbox One X
Newest console so spending lots of time here. *deep breath*
Assassin’s Creed Origins — I love the AC games and ACO is no exception. And OMG is it ever pretty. The only thing missing, for me, is that Forest Gump-ish vibe I got from the older games when my character would get stuck into the midst of some historic event I was familiar with. ACO feels a lot more ‘fantasy’ than earlier games. Still, enjoying it a lot.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War — I loved Shadow of Mordor and I’m loving Shadow of War. Orcs are a great bad guy, the nemesis system is cool, and I’m even OK how they changed the lore. My one tiny gripe is that you get no exp from killing regular grunt orcs which centers the game almost entirely on the boss fights. I still cut through swathes of grunt orcs because it is fun as hell, but it’d be even more fun if I was getting a bit of XP from it.
Agents of Mayhem — I picked this up for $20 during a Black Friday sale and I’m happy with it. It wasn’t received well when it came out and most of the complaints were legit, but it is a spectacle of a game and is something fun to boot up for a quick couple of missions. Don’t play it for more than an hour or two at a time, though, or it’ll get too boring.
Call of Duty: World War 2 — Don’t even ask me how/why I bought a COD game at full price so near launch, but I did. As soon as I pulled the trigger I regretted it. Then it d/led, I started playing, and those regrets vanished. I am REALLY enjoying the campaign, which looks stunning on the XBX, but even more surprising is that I’ve been enjoying the online stuff too. I guess it’s the era… things are maybe a little slower or something? But I don’t get nearly as frustrated as I usually do in MP FPS.
Forza 7 — I swore I’d never buy another Forza game because I find them kind of ‘dry’ but I snagged this just as a way to show off the power of the XBX. And y’know, I’m enjoying it as long as I stick to shorter sessions. I do 2-3 races and that’s enough. And man, is it ever pretty! [Sadly transitioning 4K HDR screenshots from the console to a non-HDR, low res copy on the blog loses a lot of the ‘wow’ factor.]
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands — This was another sale. I own this on PS4 but re-bought it on XBX to get the better visuals. I’m that one weirdo who actually enjoys playing this solo. Not that I wouldn’t play it with friends but I don’t have any friends who play it.
So yeah. Juggling 10 games. Am I insane or what? The good news is that I don’t get bored. The bad news is that I don’t make much progress in any one of them. But the good news is also that I don’t feel any need to spend more money on games for a good long while. I make a point of not letting any of them languish for too long so I don’t forget how to play.
I might let go of .hack and Agents of Mayhem, the former because XC2 on the Switch is itching that JRPG itch, the latter because it just isn’t as good as the rest of these games. We’ll see. For now I’m managing to juggle ’em all, though!
That’s amazing volume! I am a serial gamer – one at a time (and currently, that is Warframe.)
The one gaming series I regret never getting into is Assasin’s Creed – I haven’t played a single one of them despite being a huge PC gamer my whole life. I have no clue why that is, just one of those things!
I waver between serial and not-serial, but this is as far out on the ‘many games at time’ scale as I’ve ever been!
I platinum trophied HZD and want back for the Frozen Wilds. I enjoyed the story and finished it but I’m not sticking around to trophy hunt in it.
I also platinum trophied Shadow of War and also went back and earned platinum in Mordor on my PS4.
I played AC:O on my XBX X and it is gorgeous. First AC game I could stand and that’s because of the additional RPG elements. I then decided to try Black Flag and, yeah, still don’t like it.
Currently I’m playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on my Switch. I think I prefer Chronicles X but I’m going to the time into it and probably complete it. However it’s not in my top 3 Switch games of the year though. Glad to hear you finally have a reason to play that Switch though.
Shadow of Mordor was one of the, or maybe the, first ‘full’ game I Platinumed on the PS4, then when I knew I was getting War on XB1 I re-played Mordor on that system, though I didn’t platinum it (what do they call it on Xbox, getting all the cheevos?)
I might set up the Wii U for Chronicles X. I bought it but never played it much. The music drove me nuts. Of course I could have turned it off/down!
That music can get good awful.