Which games are keeping you busy this week? Let's share!
Oh, hey! The weekend has finally arrived, which means it's time to chat about what we're playing! The GameSpot team is usually busy keeping up with the biggest releases, but other times we're catching up on games we missed, replaying old favorites, experiencing classics for the first time, or just dabbling in odds and ends for a spell. Below you can see a sampling of the games that we're playing right now, the reasons we're playing them, and what we love about them so far.
But don't just stop at reading our responses; we want to hear from you, too! Tell us all about what you're playing in the comments section below and what you're diggin' about them.
Join us and ramble on about all the super cool video games you're playing! We know you need to talk about it as much as we do. And if you're playing the same games from previous weeks, that's fine too! Let us know why you still love it!
BioShock 2 -- Lucy James, Senior Video Producer
I'm unbelievably excited to play Animal Crossing. I cannot wait to start banking Nook Miles, hanging out with my villager pals, and terraforming my island. The problem is, I don't have Animal Crossing yet. So to try and keep my mind off the decorating I could be doing, I started playing BioShock 2 again.
I'm not sure why I landed on BioShock 2. I enjoyed it (and its fantastic DLC, Minerva's Den) when it first launched, but despite a brief dalliance with the original and Infinite when the remastered Collection came out in 2016, replaying the second game hadn't crossed my mind.
But there it was, installed on my PlayStation 4 as if it was waiting for me to need a roughly 12-hour-long single-player game to take my mind off Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
I'm kind of glad I waited so long to replay it--the finer details of the game's story and gameplay have faded, and it's almost as though I'm playing it fresh again. As much as I love the destitute ruins of Rapture, I've played BioShock so many times that it doesn't have the same impact. Seeing it through the eyes of Subject Delta has reignited my love for that world.
Some things bug me about the game, though. It's not the prettiest remaster I've ever seen, it's relatively linear, and admittedly, it's crashed my PS4 a couple of times. But the story has still gripped me, the weapon variety is excellent, and man, it's just really fun to drill through Splicers as a Big Daddy.
Whether it's doing the job of stopping me thinking about Animal Crossing remains to be seen, but I'm having a wonderful time nonetheless. | Twitter: @lucyjamesgames
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (After The Time-Skip) -- Dave Klein, Video Producer
Last week I started playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and here's the deal: I have a problem. I have a lot of things I need to get done in life, but I can't. Stop. Playing. I don't think this is a major spoiler for anyone (as it was even mentioned at E3 2019), but around halfway through, there's a significant time skip. Knowing this, I was super curious to see what events would unfold, and ready for the war to begin--and let me tell you--I'm not sure I was fully prepared for the consequences.
My boys, the Blue Lions, had it pretty rough. I don't want to get into any spoilers, but the time skip really took a toll on its members. As much as I'm enjoying the game, some things are a little strange to me post-time skip. You still operate out of the monastery (at least within my route), where, as a professor, you trained all of your students before the war. But, in the main campaign, you're supposed to be traveling around fighting a war--so it's a little jarring every time I get to an exciting story beat and then fall right back into the monastery cycle for another month. I think it's mostly skippable if you want, as you can auto-complete sections, but then you don't get the support or custom-exp and renown that help within the game.
Either way, I'm happy to say that, despite this minor gripe, I'm still loving this game and am glad another Fire Emblem and its characters have fought their way into my heart. | Twitter: @TheDaveKlein
Saints Row: The Third (On Switch) -- Mat Elfring, News Editor of Entertainment
I was in a "between two games" period on my Switch. I had been running through Dragon Quest 11, but I was waiting for the release of Two Point Hospital. Thankfully, Saints Row: The Third was on sale in the Eshop--which is still missing some shopping music--and the rest is history.
I only played the first Saints Row when it initially launched and blew it off as a Grand Theft Auto clone. Saints Row: The Third does have a lot of the elements from Grand Theft Auto that I love, but it's more of a parody of that series. Sure, I may find more of the humor utterly juvenile, but it's nice to play something that doesn't take itself so seriously.
Regardless, Saints Row gives me a Grand Theft Auto-like experience that I so desperately want and deserve on my Nintendo Switch. I get to steal cars from random motorists that in no way have done my character any harm. I get to fight rival gangs and the police to prove my worth as a bad guy. Essentially, I get to pretend to be a sociopath while causing no real-world drama--which I save for my mama.
It's just fun to drive around the city, buy buildings, put on silly costumes, and slip into the role of a gang member who has the means and funds to own a purple harrier jet, complete with heat-seeking missiles. I have no clue what the actual story is because I skip the vast majority of cutscenes--I'm much more interested in driving around and shooting people. If I want a story, I'll go back to Dragon Quest 11, because that story is a banger. Saints Row: The Third gets me right into the action, and that's all I want on my Switch. It's a solid port, but it just makes me want a GTA game on the console so much more.| Twitter: @ImMatElfring
Rocket League -- Peter Brown, Managing Editor
Rocket League is my go-to game. It's my pick-me-up. It's also the game that brought me closer to one of my best friends, Rob Handlery. Does that name sound familiar? He's GameSpot's head of video production. While we've had fun working on countless projects over the years, there's nothing quite like hitting the court for five minutes to score goals and make fools of ourselves writing garbage messages through predictive text.
That bit about "writing" dumb messages may not sound particularly enjoyable, but consistent themes and inside jokes form from match to match and sometimes take on a life of their own outside the game. You'd think this would only be funny to Rob and me, yet there are literal crowds that gather when we get into the thick of it at the office--who knows what the text-prediction AI will suggest next? I suppose, to our opponents, it may feel like trolling ("yo stfu," they'll say), but once in a while, someone on the other end of the game recognizes what we're doing and joins in, dishing out their own brand of absurdity. Rocket League doesn't need any of this to be fun or exciting, but you better believe an average match is made a little bit better with a dash of nonsense and a barrel of laughs. | Twitter: @pcbrown
Slay The Spire -- Edmond Tran, Senior Editor and Producer
I'm not a fan of deck building games at all. But man, why didn't I start playing Slay The Spire earlier? If I had listened to everyone harping on about Slay The Spire last year and actually tried it, it would have probably been high on my game of the year list. I've been finding myself trying to squeeze in a bit of it on my Switch every day for the last couple of months--whether that be on the commute to work or in small pockets of downtime at home. It's one of those games.
If you're unfamiliar, Slay The Spire is a class-based roguelike where you play cards to defeat enemies. You use them to attack, defend, and perform special abilities unique to each character. There's more to it, of course. But what made it so accessible for me is the fact that you start fresh with a basic hand each time, and the deckbuilding part is something you only need to consider as you progress. You have the chance to add one of three cards to your deck as you beat each fight, and you can even choose not to take one if you wish--having a small hand can be pretty advantageous. I love that you're not asked to mull over a deck composition and strategy before playing, you just go with the flow and shift your approach based on the cards offered.
The other part that makes it super easy to get your head around Slay the Spire is that you discard your entire hand and draw new cards each turn--so you're just choosing the best cards to play for your situation without having to think too much about whether to hold onto something--use it or lose it. These design choices really make Slay The Spire a satisfying, fast-paced game that's easy to play in bursts or to fill in hours with. I love the game so much that after about 100 hours of the Switch version, I bought it on PC too, in order to get access to the new features and character class that hasn't quite made its way to the console versions. Even if you hate card games, give Slay The Spire a shot. It's phenomenal. I can't recommend it enough. | Twitter: @EdmondTran
Coffee Talk -- Kurt Indovina, Host/Writer
Coffee Talk has had an unsuspecting impact on me these past few days. Before it was my full-time job to talk about video games and Jackie Chan, I was a servant to spreading the caffeine gospel--better known as a barista. I spent many years behind a counter swinging coffee grounds and creating latte art. I got to know a lot about my customers: their occupations, personal lives, problems, accomplishments. I met good friends that way and even made connections that eventually led to my first newspaper job. Coffee Talk encapsulates my exact experience as a barista eerily well.
In Coffee Talk, you play as a barista running a late-night coffee shop in a fantastical alternate reality Seattle, where elves, vampires, werewolves, and the rest of the bunch live among humans. As a barista, you meet customers, make drinks, get to know your regulars, and sometimes give advice on big life decisions. The fantasy element only seems to exist as symbolism for race and class--which is a concept that's been done to hell, but it doesn't distract me enough that it takes away from the core value of this game: the stories of your customers.
I have vivid memories of opening shop, listening to calm beats, dialing in the espresso, and watching the sunrise as the city came alive and the morning regulars began to stroll in. Coffee Talk captures that same feeling. It's comforting and sad the way nostalgia tends to be. Also, Coffee Talk is just a peaceful change of pace until Doom Eternal comes out. | Twitter: @KURT_INDOVINA
Final Fantasy Tactics -- Phil Hornshaw, Editor
I'm continuing my kick of playing PlayStation games on my PS Vita, and since I just finished Vagrant Story, I decided to head back to Ivalice to take on Final Fantasy Tactics, a game I'd never finished in my youth. It has big Vagrant Story energy: Very little is explained about how to play the game, and I'm spending a lot of time wandering menus, trying to learn out how things work and what does what. I figured out which button shows tooltips, so I at least now know what an ability is supposed to do before I commit one of my characters to learning it.
Frustrating as it can be--and Tactics is definitely frustrating, especially during those missions where you have to protect an AI character who decides to sprint into a crowd of enemies and die before the end of the first turn--I'm enjoying delving into the game's story. I've never gotten far enough into Tactics to glean what it was all about, so playing it now is revealing an overlooked gem of game writing, and I love the game's presentation as a depiction of the past that's possibly been misremembered by history. Plus, Ivalice, as presented in Tactics, is just as political and dastardly as it is in Vagrant Story, but it's also not nearly so dark and foreboding.
What I'm digging most is how Tactics and Vagrant Story feel like remixes of one another--as if a batch of similar ingredients were cooked at a different heat; one slow-baked, the other grilled over an open flame. Both games are about the way the rich exploit the poor in their struggles for power, but presented from two vastly different viewpoints: Tactics' Ramza is a disillusioned member of the aristocracy, while Vagrant's Ashley is a pawn in a game he doesn't know is being played. And while their gameplay approaches are very different, both games share a lot in terms of preparation, tactical thinking, and analyzing a battle as it's happening. I'm having a great time seeing director Yatsumi Matsuno and his team explore a bunch of the same ideas across two games, approaching mechanics and story beats from two very different angles.
I'm trucking along in Tactics for now, but I've already decided that I'm going to make this an Ivalice trilogy--my next stop is Final Fantasy XII. | Twitter: @philhornshaw
Luigi's Mansion 3 -- Kevin Knezevic, Associate Editor
With Luigi's Mansion 3's first DLC pack now available, I decided to revisit the game this past week to check out the new additions. This pack and the one to follow later this year both introduce new content to the game's two multiplayer modes, ScareScraper and ScreamPark, which I thought were amusing diversions but not nearly as compelling as the main adventure. After a little time with the new content, that opinion still stands.
The biggest additions to ScareScraper are three new costumes for Luigi: Mummigi, the Green Knight, and my favorite of the bunch, the disco-themed Groovigi. Luigi, of course, looks ridiculous in each one, but there's an added benefit to wearing them; by donning a costume, there's a chance you'll encounter a similarly themed floor while working your way up the ScareScraper. Unfortunately, I haven't yet happened upon these new floors in the brief time I played this week, so I can't comment on whether they change the game up substantially, but ScareScraper remains a good time.
More substantial are the three new mini-games for ScreamPark, Luigi's Mansion 3's local-only party mode. The first, Tricky Ghost Hunt, tasks you with sucking up more ghosts than the opposing team while avoiding electric floor tiles that periodically flip over throughout the match. The second mini-game, Dodgebrawl, is Luigi's Mansion's take on dodgeball. Using the Poltergust, you must suck up dodgeballs that fall around the court and fire them at the other team to knock them out. The final new mini-game is called River Bank, and it's probably the most frantic of the bunch. The object here is to float around a running river collecting coins, all the while avoiding mines, logs, and other hazards that threaten to pop your floaties or push you over the waterfall.
Altogether, the new DLC for Luigi's Mansion 3 is undoubtedly fun and helps flesh out the game's slight multiplayer offerings. Over the weekend, I'll be fiddling around with both modes a bit more. Even with these additions, though, it's hard to see ScareScraper or ScreamPark ever becoming a regular part of my multiplayer sessions in the same way that Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2 are.
Bloodborne (Again) -- Tamoor Hussain, Senior Editor
Hello, it's me, Tamoor, GameSpot's resident broken record. Have you heard the good word? Bloodborne is a fantastic game! A few weeks ago I wrote about how I was playing through it yet again and loving it, and wouldn't you know it, I'm still doing that. Bloodborne has become so core to my identity of late that I suspect more than a few of my friends are secretly making fun of me because it's all I can talk about.
I just reached The Hunter's Nightmare, which is part of The Old Hunters DLC. To this day, this is the bit I dread the most. It doesn't sound like I should be excited about that, but I am. After playing Bloodborne as much as I have, there aren't many reasons for me to fear the Old Blood anymore--Master Willem would be disappointed. As I said a few weeks ago, the world of Bloodborne is familiar and safe--it's home. The Hunter's Nightmare, however, is like experiencing a home invasion.
Its opening lulls me into a false sense of comfort by taking to the familiar locale of Cathedral Ward, but as I venture forth I begin to notice things aren't quite how I remember them. Like furniture that has been slightly moved by an unknown party, everything is a bit askew. It's just a little to begin with, but enough to be unsettling.
Discomfort turns to dread as the home invaders reveal they're still there; crazed Hunters descend upon me, bellowing madly and lashing out with strange weapons that I haven't seen up until this point. Their blades move like frenzied snakes, wildly whipping around, poised to sink their teeth into me at any moment. Were this the version of the world I knew, instinct and muscle memory would have carried me to safety, but it's all wrong. It isn't right. And I'm afraid again. There are obstacles where there shouldn't be; doors that should open block my retreats, pathways no longer lead to where they should; and unfamiliar monsters step out from the shadows.
The Old Hunters is perhaps the only part of Bloodborne that still has the ability instil a sense of terror and evoke exhilaration from me. And it serves as the most potent reminder of why I love the game so much because of this. Twitter: @tamoorh
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