Weekend Gaming: What are You Playing?

The weekend is upon us once again, and hopefully you’re all taking time away from your busy lives to relax, refocus, and avoid a long-term case of the “fuck its.”

Any gaming plans on the agenda?

I finally started Quantum Break this week, though I’ve only made it to Act 3-2. I’ve never been a huge Remedy fan, only playing bits and pieces of Alan Wake and Max Payne, but I’m really enjoying this one so far. The gunplay is fairly solid, with only minor annoyances in aiming, but the time-control powers are all really fun to use.

A major concern I had with Quantum Break going in was the live-action TV show. I don’t usually play a video game to sit and watch a 20 minute television episode every hour or so, so I was hesitant thinking it would not only be poor quality, but halt my momentum during longer play sessions.

Although I’m surprisingly enjoying the episodic TV show, the latter is still a concern early in the game. The story isn’t becoming predictable, but I’ve come to expect a formulaic approach to Quantum Break’s act structure — heavy dialogue, shootout, heavy dialogue with a cliffhanger, TV episode, repeat. And with that in mind, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to play the game longer than an hour at a time. Which is fine.

I’m in no hurry to finish Quantum Break, after all. I’d rather savor it like a steak than shove it down my throat like a cheeseburger, and there’s so much story to digest that it’d probably pass through me faster than I could comprehend it in longer play sessions.

But I’d be lying if I said the TV show aspect wasn’t a double-edged sword.

The quality of the presentation and the writing is great, and I love seeing how certain collectibles and decisions affect the live show. It’s successfully blending the fun-factor of video games with the storytelling of movies and television, which is something David Cage has mostly failed at over the years. If the quality was anything less than stellar, however, it’d probably be a deal breaker. For now it remains both a new and interesting method of storytelling, and a stick in my spokes that grinds my momentum to a halt.

My girlfriend had been wanting to play Far Cry Primal, so we gave that a rental last night. I’ve mostly enjoyed the last few games in the series, and it’s cool to see all of the things I love about Far Cry transition in to the prehistoric era of Primal — capturing bases, crafting, fun open-world stuff. And now we can tame beasts? I’m sold.

First-person melee has always been a little weird, and Primal is no different. The lack of guns forces you in to a lot of melee action, but there’s a few ranged options like bow and arrows, bone shards that act as throwing knives, and apparently a sling opens up so I can go all David and Goliath on a mammoth (this’ll probably have a different outcome, though).

It’s still a lot of fun, and downright gorgeous to boot, and I can definitely see myself playing it through to the end. In fact, I may just go ahead and return the rental and buy the game outright, since it’s sure to be something we won’t finish in a day or two. At $3.60 a day, we might as well buy it and play it at our own pace, right?

Between those two big guns, I’m sure I’ll pick up my Vita every now and then for a quick go at Downwell. I just published my review of Moppin’s vertical platformer rogue-like yesterday, and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite games this year.

What about you folks? What are you getting in to this weekend?