It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! So What are You Playing?

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk!

My family and I are starting to plan our cross-country move, so the weekend (and every weekend thereafter until October) will likely be spent going through our stuff in an attempt to downsize what we have to take with us. There are three of us and three cats living in a four-bedroom house in South Carolina, and we need to fit everything into a two-bedroom apartment near Seattle, Washington. Needless to say, a lot of clothes, DVDs, Blu-rays, dishes, books, games, appliances, and furniture need to be trimmed and donated (or sold).

It’s going to be a *lot* of work and with funds being tied up in that, I don’t see many new game purchases in the meantime. I hate using the term FOMO (the fear of missing out), but it’ll be a struggle I just have to deal with!

On the game front, I’m still working my way through The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on the Wii U. Since last week, I’ve finished the Lakebed Temple and acquired the clawshot, and Zant has just sent Midna and I into the world of light while in wolf form. I have a bit of idle time on the clock, but I’d guess I’m around 17-hours played. I like exploring, collecting the bugs, and hunting down heart pieces whenever I acquire a new piece of equipment.

I’m definitely enjoying my first run through Twilight Princess, but I’m still not too wild about playing as Wolf Link. It also seems like the new items I’m getting from each dungeon are only heavily used within it, and nowhere else. I’ve used the Forest Temple’s Gale Boomerang in Hyrule to catch bugs, and I guess the Iron Boots I needed for the Goron Mines (although the bow is the item the dungeon rewarded) were used quite a bit in the Lakebed Temple. I’m conflicted, but still having a mostly good time.

My Wii U and PS4 share the same HDMI cable and last night I was too lazy to get out of bed to switch it over (I was using the PS4 to watch some YouTube videos), so I finally jumped into Observer. The same team developed the first-person horror game Layers of Fear, which I really liked. Observer is more of a sci-fi, cyberpunk, horror hybrid, though.

I like the detective stuff and I’m intrigued by the story (you’re a detective of sorts who just received a mysterious call from his estranged son, so you’re investigating a decapitated body found inside his apartment), but a core mechanic allows you to “jack in” to a person’s mind to “observe” their memories. These observer segments play out similarly to Layers of Fear, where it’s a more psychological experience of unexplainable horrors. Although I liked Layers of Fear quite a bit, I didn’t play Observer hoping for more of that. I wanted this sci-fi, Bladerunner-style story (complete with Rutger Hauer voice-overs) that the first hour portrayed. It’s not bad, but since it’s not what I wanted I’m starting to lose interest rather quickly. It doesn’t help that the game runs downright horrendously at times on PS4.

On the comics front, I finally tracked down volume 8 of Saga and volume 4 of Low. I also rented the complete collection of Fables, volume 1 of Injection, volume 1 of Seven to Eternity, and Overwatch Anthology volume 1. I’m stoked to dig into Saga and Low’s newest release since they’re both personal favorites.

What about you, folks? Got any plans this weekend?