What are you playing right now?

[Sharecrow]

I’m playing almost exclusively Outlast 2. Doing a collectibles run to be followed by a nightmare run to be followed by an insane run. That’s mastery and ambitious but I think I can do it.

In my odd spare moments I am playing Sonic Spinball, to finally beat it. And Uncharted 2 in crushing mode.

[Kong Wen]

My main game right now is Spider-Man (PS4). I'm VERY slowly working my way through it. I'm alternating between that and Bugsnax (PS5) in an effort to keep on top of my PS5 games as they trickle in.

My break/filler games for shorter bursts in between those are Flywrench (I'm grinding out Mercury right now) and Wuppo (I just started).

[Kong Wen]

I'm juggling a few manageable tasks right now:

• Having just beaten Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4), I'm going to stick with it for a while to work towards completion & the platinum trophy. It will involve playing a few of the chapters two more times each to complete some side-quests and collections, then maxing my levels and mastering several important Materia, and then finally playing through the entire game again on hard mode.
• I'm also going to continue working towards completing the Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) DLC after I finish or get tired of FF7R.
• On Switch, I'm playing my 2020 GotY Grindstone. I beat the second "world" last night. This is a very good "gradual progress" puzzler.
• I'm also, of course, obviously, working my way through the Picross S5 standard puzzles. I think I'm about 60% finished right now.

Bugsnax and Demon's Souls are now on the back burner.

[Claytone]

I'm juggling a few manageable tasks right now:

[...]and then finally playing through the entire game again on hard mode.

I respect your endurance with plats like these. Any time a platinum asks me to replay a game longer than a few hours I have an immediate "oh fuck you!" reaction. Night Trap required something like 8 replays (plus some failure states) but that game's ~23 minutes long. Bit more reasonable!

Unfortunately seemingly all the Yaks require a second playthrough, so I'm not sure I'll ever plat one of 'em unless I do a big series replay years from now or something.

[Kong Wen]

I'm juggling a few manageable tasks right now:

[...]and then finally playing through the entire game again on hard mode.

I respect your endurance with plats like these. Any time a platinum asks me to replay a game longer than a few hours I have an immediate "oh fuck you!" reaction. Night Trap required something like 8 replays (plus some failure states) but that game's ~23 minutes long. Bit more reasonable!

Unfortunately seemingly all the Yaks require a second playthrough, so I'm not sure I'll ever plat one of 'em unless I do a big series replay years from now or something.

Oh don't get me wrong, FF7R has already gotten several "oh fuck you!" reactions from me. The game itself is already padded to the gills, and making you replay the whole thing on a difficulty unlocked after the credits roll the first time is the ultimate expression of its paddedness.

That said, shotgunning this 43-hour game in 5 days made me feel like a kid-Gamer again. And it was at least a better game than Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2, albeit with a more arduous platinum than those had.

—

Platinum Progress:

Ch. 3: Tifa dress #2
Ch. 4: Bike mini-game
Ch. 8: Aeris dress #2
Ch. 9: Cloud dress #2
Ch. 9: Aeris colosseum quests
Ch. 9: Dancing mini-game
Ch. 3: Tifa dress #3
Ch. 8: Aeris dress #3
Ch. 9: Cloud dress #3
Ch. 16: Level 50
Ch. 16: max Materia
Ch. 14: All remaining colosseum quests & VR quests
Ch. 17: Optional "Ultimate Weapon" VR battle
Ch. 1–18: Hard Mode

[Claytone]

I'm currently doing a Claytone no-no and playing two story-driven games at once! Hope I don't get lost.

First is Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen on DS, continuing my release order playthrough of the series (well technically I've been playing remakes of the games in release order, but nevertheless). I'm on Chapter 2 and enjoying it. I did hit a spot where I'm gonna need to grind a bit, which always annoys me, but I can probably do that while watching Jeopardy! or something.

Meanwhile, I'm also playing Beyond Oasis on my new Genesis Mini. Trying to knock out some good Genesis games I never got around to on this thing. Beyond Oasis is a nice little Zelda-like, and it looks like it won't clock in as too terribly long of a game. The one interesting thing to me is it seems to contain far fewer villages and NPCs than you might expect from Zelda. Except for like the first half hour, it's really been dungeon after dungeon. Not bad if that's what you're looking for! Anyway, it's a nice little game, and I look forward to forming a fuller opinion on it soon.

Also, WipEout HD is seeing occasional action from me as I try to clean up some of my PS4 stuff before the next gen gets into full swing. It's fun but man it just doesn't feel as good as F-Zero. They physics and game feel just aren't quite there. But still, it's a fun racer no doubt, and I'll at least finish it off, even if I don't get to the other games on the Omega Collection. This one's nice in the sense that I can chip a way a race here or a time trial there without having to constantly keep at it like DQ or BO. Having said that, it's probably pretty much on pause until I knock one of those out so I don't get overwhelmed.

[Claytone]

That said, shotgunning this 43-hour game in 5 days made me feel like a kid-Gamer again.

Love that feeling. I played Yakuza 3, Astro, and Miles Morales in fairly binge fashion as well during my holiday break. Nice to be able to form a dent in the couch til 3AM with Cokes and snacks strewn about the coffee table for the first time in a long time. It was the longest vacation I had taken since graduating college period but by far the longest sit-at-home vacation I've had since I was a child. Really kind of nice! With vacation limited such as it is, I always want to travel when I take it, but lazing around for two weeks was not bad at all.

FFVIIR in 5 days sounds similarly pleasant, and I see you're still chugging away at the plat. Enjoy the rest!

[Sharecrow]

I hadn’t been gaming much at all for a couple of weeks but finally got interested in replaying Dead Space 3. I’m up to chapter 13 (of 19) already. I just love this game. Anyway I never did platinum it but it’s got some tough trophies for platinum which I don’t think I’ll go for. I do want to continue my Classic run at some point though and maybe do a Pure Survival run too. Mostly though I want to play the downloadable content which I bought but never touched. Am playing through in normal mode again just for fun and to get good at the controls again before taking on the DLC the Awakened...

[Kong Wen]

The one interesting thing to me is it seems to contain far fewer villages and NPCs than you might expect from Zelda. Except for like the first half hour, it's really been dungeon after dungeon.

The original Legend of Zelda has 0 villages, and I think Link to the Past and Link's Awakening have 1 each? Those are the only Zelda games that existed at the time. They're much more explore-the-dungeon games than go-to-town games.

At least DQ doesn't have any story while you're grinding!

[Claytone]

The original Legend of Zelda has 0 villages, and I think Link to the Past and Link's Awakening have 1 each? Those are the only Zelda games that existed at the time. They're much more explore-the-dungeon games than go-to-town games.

That's a good point! I've even played those, just wasn't really thinking in context. Makes a bit more sense if those are an imitator's only frame of reference.

At least DQ doesn't have any story while you're grinding!

Another good point!