What We're Playing This Weekend: Hover Junkers Tokyo Mirage Edition
These are your last few days to get in on the Steam summer sale—it ends on the Fourth of July. A Massachusetts Ford dealership ripped off Firewatch artwork for a "Freedom Sales Event." And we come down off our E3 high, talking about the games that stuck with us.
What are you playing this Fourth of July Weekend?
Russell Archey, Staff Writer, @NeoScyther
Most of my free time will be spent playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE in preparation for my upcoming review. I completely lost track of time recently and was going to post my first impressions of the game so far, but it's been kind of a busy week. So expect that up sometime this weekend with the full review coming next week. I've also been doing some achievement hunting in Borderlands 2. I'm down to the final eight, which are mostly things like getting 100 kills with Axton's sabre turret, gunzerk for 90 seconds, and so on. Nothing too bad. Except for the Tier 3 Death Race in Mr. Torgue's DLC. Man I hate that mission.
Nathan Carter, Staff Writer, @natedoggcata
What am I going to be playing this weekend? Well, what I won't be playing is Zero Time Dilemma because the awesome crew at Amazon won't give anyone updates about the special editions of the game that hardcore fans have had pre-ordered for months. Here I was on Tuesday, launch day, and nothing had shipped. Why? I'll also be wasting my entire weekend trying to get through Mediocre No. 9. Oops, I meant Mighty No. 9. I have been playing this game for review and I have spent hours on it and haven't completed a single level. This is because this game is relentlessly difficult and unfair. At first I thought the game was fun. But as I continued playing, I understand why people are so disappointed. I have actually never played a Mega Man game before in my life, and if Mighty No. 9 is anything like Mega Man, I won't be playing them anytime soon. Oh, and Ill be playing Rhythm Heaven Megamix for review. This is seriously one of the most boring games I have ever played in my entire life. In my three or four years with this site, this is the first time I have honestly regretted accepting games to review, haha.
Chapel Collins, Staff Writer, @ChapelCollins
I've been bitten by the achievement bug again. This time it's taken the form of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, of all things. It's such a weird game. Everything in it feels like it was made with a much, much bigger game in mind. Aside from that, I am eagerly awaiting the Bespin DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront next week, so I'll probably be working through the rest in preparation for that as well.
Jeremy Duff, Senior Staff Writer, @Duff3c
I picked up two new games this week which are likely going to suck up all of my time this holiday weekend. First up is Mighty No. 9—which is nowhere near as bad as most critics have made it out to be. I am thoroughly enjoying the game thus far and find it to be exactly what I was expecting from the project. The other game is 7 Days to Die on PS4, which is proving to be a pretty interesting experience. It's far from being a great game, as it looks like a late-era PS2 title and it really doesn't give the player a lot of direction or instruction. But I am finding it to be a lot of fun. It takes some effort to get going, including researching how different things work online, but I am enjoying it, nonetheless.
Randy Kalista, Staff Writer, @randykalista
My first impressions of Prison Architect went up bright and early Tuesday morning. For a top-down simbuilder with No Punctuation cartoon graphics, it's not afraid to get explicitly violent. It's no Hotline Miami, but Prison Architect gets uglier than its sim-like name would lead you to believe. So, it's that, and The Banner Saga 2's Survival Mode. I'm cool with The Banner Saga's tactical battles, but I'm usually just trying to push through them to get to the juicy story bits. With that removed, we'll see how engaged I remain in the Nordic folklore-fantasy. I won't be hasty to judge, though. Sometimes, stripping away a storymode is all it takes for a game's fights to really stand out and be appreciated singularly for their depth.
Matt Mirkovich, Staff Writer, @Stillmywords
I'll be at Anime Expo this weekend, working at my booth for Attack The Music. Stop by if you're in the area. Hopefully I'll have some free time to play more Odin Sphere on Vita, and Star Ocean 5 [Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness], provided the camera doesn't continue to give me motion sickness. I've also got a bunch of games arriving this week, including Zero Time Dilemma, Grand Kingdom, and Ori and the Blind Forest. Then there's Va-11 Hall-A, which I am totally in love with and really wish there was a portable version of.
John Yan, Senior Hardware Editor, @TheJohnYan
I think this weekend, I'll be spending time on a few VR games I picked up. Hover Junkers has really got my adrenaline pumping. I'm looking forward to blasting some robots with a few friends in this one. Also, Pool Nation VR is another I'm having a lot of fun with, so I'm looking for a few friends to try with that as well. I still need to look at the new Contraptions Workshop DLC for Fallout 4, so I will probably load that up for a quick session or two to poke around with the new settlement items.
