What We're Playing: NieR Dangerous Edition
Horizon Zero Dawn sold 2.8 million copies in less than three weeks. Correy Bunnell gained recent fame for posting on a forum board back in 2007 that he wanted to work for Nintendo, then appearing, 10 years later, in the credits for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And, just in time for Mass Effect: Andromeda's launch week, BioWare is once again fending off online threats and abuse against its developers.
What are you playing?
Patrick Aloia, Staff Writer, paloia@gamingnexus.com
Hello all, from sunny Florida! Taking a vacation this week, and trying to stay outdoors, so gaming has been light. A lot of casual Hearthstone between outdoor activities, and some Binding of Isaac to wind down in the evenings. I have decided that tonight is my Oxenfree night. I'm going to wait until my girlfriend goes to sleep and dive into the spooky summer camp game in earnest—and I should actually have stuff to report back afterwards.
Russell Archey, Staff Writer, @NeoScyther
I'm soon going to be part of the crowd with these where you can just insert a certain game as my response and that's it. I'll be spending some of my free time exploring more of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I have a good amount of the shrines done as well as two of the Divine Beasts, so I have a ways to go in terms of finding most of the things in the game (screw finding every Korok Seed, I'd like to have some semblance of a life). Beyond that I'll also be diving into Out of the Park Baseball 18, OotP's latest in their series of baseball simulation games. While I'm typically terrible at guiding a team to success, I'm curious to see if and how they'll improve upon last year's entry.
Sean Colleli, Staff Writer, @scolleli
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become a way of life in my house. It's the first game in quite a while to leave me sleep deprived, and my fiance is hooked now, too. It's hard, it's majestic, it's at times frustrating but utterly engrossing. Now I just have to figure out how to write a review that's less than 10 pages long, lest Randy kill me. I'm also really digging into Turok 2 Remastered, an N64 classic brought back by the brilliant Night Dive Studios. I love how gleefully violent, gory, and corny the whole thing is. I missed Turok 2 back in the '90s, so I'm glad I can catch up now. I might also actually sign back into No Man's Sky, if Randy lets me know if the Path Finder update is worth any time at all.
Chapel Collins, Staff Writer, @ChapelCollins
I started playing Ghost Recon on a whim the other day. Not Wildlands, either, I'm talking the OG 2001 Ghost Recon. It has been a spiritual experience for me. I'm having another Dark Souls moment, where a game is so good that it threatens to ruin other games like it. It's so tense, thoughtful, and smart. I swear the AI behaves more realistically in this 16-year-old game than any recent shooter. So yeah, I guess I'm playing Ghost Recon now.
Kinsey Danzis, Staff Writer, kdanzis@gamingnexus.com
I'm continuing my post-review adventures in Mass Effect: Andromeda like Randy, taking my time to explore every niche of every planet where last week I didn't have the time. I feel like I've come back home, even though it's in an entirely different galaxy; the game is just so distinctly Mass Effect, even with its flaws (and, I say as I look at the wonky animations, especially with its flaws). Now that I have the time to just spend time admiring the landscapes in between fending off raiders on Kadara and Remnant on Havarl, I plan to do so—but don't think for a second that that means I'm not going to be going back to my Vanguard roots as much as humanly possible. Maybe a display of battle prowess will woo Vetra.
Charles Husemann, Editor-in-Chief, @chusemann
This weekend will be light on gaming as I will be out of the house most of the weekend. After a busy week with lots of social interaction I am hoping to spend some quality time "de-peopling" with Elite: Dangerous. Nothing like the quiet black of the universe to recharge and refocus. My plan is to spend some quality time sucking up to the Federation so that I can rank up to earn my pass to the Sol system. I might shelve my Asp Explorer in exchange for my more combat-ready (and cheaper) Viper Mk IV so that I can hunt down some bounties and wrap up a few massacre missions. Time permitting I might pick up Mass Effect: Andromeda to see where that rabbit hole goes. It's not a perfect game but there is still a lot of Bioware/Mass Effect magic woven in.
Randy Kalista, Staff Writer, @randykalista
All the folks dissing Mass Effect: Andromeda on Twitter couldn't stop me. Better luck next time, tweets! Planetfall in 30. Andromeda also inspired me to dust off Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage, a book based on the journals and letters written by Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark Expedition fame). Sure, Andromeda has a few goofy animations. But it'd take a lot more than that to keep my hands off a BioWare game. I'm too busy mapping my route through the Heleus Cluster, navigating the shoot-first politics of the Kett, and rising up to my role as a scavenger, explorer, expedition leader, scientist, soldier, son, brother, and A+ alien lover. Check it, it's all in the job description.
Nicholas Leon, Staff Writer, nleon@gamingnexus.com
I'll be revisiting my time in Star Wars: Battlefront II. There's just something about the chaotically hectic battles of that game that are pulling me there. All thanks to the AI, of course. Sure it's a bit dated and a little easy, but they're also a whole lot more deadly than the ones from the newest Battlefront. I think I'll also try my hand at Mount & Blade: Warband, it seems to be a much similar game to Battlefront, except it's not scifi. I miss old-school bot multiplayer, where the bots were actually a force to be reckoned with.
Matt Mirkovich, Staff Writer, @Stillmywords
I'm focusing on getting all of the endings to NieR: Automata. Now that Breath of the Wild isn't my focus, I can move to another open world game. Then I can go back to another open world game and try to get the platinum trophy from Horizon Zero Dawn. I picked up Mass Effect: Andromeda this week as well, and maybe I'll give that a shot this weekend.
John Yan, Senior Hardware Editor, @TheJohnYan
This weekend, I'll be trading commodities as I try and get enough money to buy a Python in Elite: Dangerous. I've had pretty good luck with my trade routes, which Randy has heartily approved of [I have not. -ed], so hopefully I can make good headway into earning about 70 million credits. Even though the ship only costs 56 million, I need the extra money to outfit it and pay the insurance. I'll also try and make some progress in finishing The Last Guardian. I want to get that off my plate. From what my friends say, about 10 hours should be enough to get through the entire game.
