Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 533

Back to the PS3 backlog after a brief dalliance on PS4 & PS5. Really quite excited to finally get around to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Everyone I’ve spoken to about it really rates it and having watched a few reviews, it does kinda feel like a stereotypical Sony-esque first party game… although it isn’t one. Think it’s gonna be a good time.

Will be playing Far Cry Primal on PS5 and Trails from Zero on Switch. I've been wrapping up quite a few games lately, so it's nice to be playing a new game now with Far Cry. I'm rather enjoying it so far, the gameplay loop is pretty fun and it's a breath of fresh air from the previous Far Cry games.

If I manage to finish Trails from Zero this weekend, then I might start up the first Silent Hill on Vita in preparation for the Silent Hill 2 remake later this year.

I have the week off at last, so I’m toying around with Deus Ex Mankind divided and dragons dogma. I’m deciding on whether or not to buy the dlc for Horizon forbidden west as I need to go back and finish it.

I’ve played a little less than usual due to some great weather here but here goes 😎

Destiny 2 the Final Shape - Bungie did it! The Final Shape was a great ending to the Light and the Darkness saga, the campaign was good with a lot of nostalgia thrown in and it ended in a very satisfying way imo. I did get to finish Destiny on a high note as I hoped for with some new great memories and as planned I´m dropping it now even if is kind of hard as I´ve had a lot of fun but I know it will eventually outstay its welcome for me (and I don’t want to put all my gaming time on Destiny). That said, over the years Destiny has truly given me some of the greatest gaming moments of my life (like clearing Vault of Glass the first time or going flawless and reaching the Lighthouse etc) and some clan friends that keep in touch even after we´ve stopped playing Destiny. Would I return for Destiny 3? Maybe… 😊

Ghostbusters VR - Nice to get this on Plus, haven’t play much but seems decent enough so I´ll play more 😊

Rise of the Ronin - Picked it up in the sale, was planning on buying Stellar Blade but I´ve had this on my wishlist for a while. Its very fun to play a few hours in, but god its ugly. Looks like a ps3 game sometimes which can be a bit distracting. However, graphics isn’t everything which this game proves pretty good. Doesnt hold a candle to Ghost of Tsushima though imo. But anyway, fun game and I might even go for the platinum. Thankfully I seem immune to open world/Ubi filler fatigue so I´ll be petting a lot of cats… 😊

I'm around 29 hours into Assassin's Creed Valhalla, it's my first play though and I'm quite enjoying it also have all the dlc with it so I'm set for some time now

Sociable Soccer 24 on my Switch

PS5: I'm on my 3rd playthrough of Stellar Blade. Trying to collect every outfit.
I also might start the Alan Wake 2 DLC.
Series X: Jumping between Witcher 3 (my comfort game) and Starfield. Having a blast testing different mods.
Switch Oled: Nothing.
Have a good weekend everybody!

Sonic 06, yes im playing it; this is my first time ever playing through it. despite its notoriously bad rep, i just had to try it one of these days, because ive always wanted to play it. i like it better than frontiers and any game post generations honestly.

@Hootnoodle The DLC for Horizon Forbidden West is really good. Cant go wrong with it.

A mixed bag of Fallout 4, Streets of Rage 4 and maybe just maybe I can finally play Dead Space remake as picked it up for £27.
Hope everyone has a great gaming weekend!

I’ll be partaking in some cyberfunk of the bomb rush variety and some 2 of the Spider-man variety

My ninja sorcerer (i know) is at level 160, and waiting; for some reason i got hooked, nay biking in days gone. Enjoying the hell out of it. A game does not need to be perfect to be perfect for some moments

For PS5, Stellar Blade. I’m actually fishing as I’m trying to get that trophy for collecting 20 different fish. Also playing WWE 2K24.

I’ve got my NG+ character up to the entrypoint for the DLC

I picked up Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and whilst it's nowhere near as good as the Gamecube originals, it's still a fun game but I kind of wish they'd have just packaged the original games.

On PC I picked up Fallen Aces which is kind of like if Dick Tracy was made as a game mixing Duke Nukem and Deus Ex. The comic book art style is amazing and even early on has many ways to navigate the levels and defeat enemies using anything from your fists, to a fire extinguisher or a good old fashioned gun and its quickly becoming one of my favourite games of the year

More of the amazing Stellar Blade ...near to the end now I think so looking forward to NG+
Destiny 2 The Final Shape ..wow. Huge improvement on Lightfall, love the new Transcendance feature. A great mechanic and very strategic. Usual brilliant gunplay.
Also more Diablo 4....the Season Of Loot is a huge game changer. Brilliant.
Have a great weekend guys and gals ❤️

Final Fantasy XVI: Really enjoying my first foray into the series and the sort of fractured fairytale aspect of the story. The visuals are quite excellent and the gameplay varied enough (now I've made it to the new hideout) to keep me busy for hours at a time. It's shaping up to be one of my favorite PlayStation games.

I am playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla. According to my PS5's playing time numbers, it's about 12th on my most played games, and I've still got a lot of the game to go. Course, thanks to me dropping in for the dailies every day, Genshin Impact is well out in front. I swear, I can pop in for only about 20 minutes and it considers it an hour's game time.

@nomither6 Someone is doing a fan remake of the game, called Sonic P-06. It's not quite finished yet, but it would be well worth checking it out when it's finished.

Ps5 Alone In The Dark picked this up half price and its decent. Alan Wake 2 Night Springs. Looking foward to Still Wakes The Deep and Elden Ring just around the corner

I was playing through the Mass Effect trilogy but I've once again fallen off Mass Effect 3 about halfway through. Instead I'm playing ME Andromeda, which I think is a better game than ME3. I'm also playing the rather decent Mad Max on my Xbox because it's 60fps on there.

Also, the Euros baby!

Starting up Hogwarts Legacy again, not sure which house to pick this time (Already did Hufflepuff) Also trying to finish off Trails from Zero before Trails through Daybreak comes out

Anno mutationem, sly cooper and g-police on the 5. GTA vice city stories on pcsx2.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger

@colonelkilgore Enslaved is great. Trip is one of gaming's great characters. And hot 🤣

@ApostateMage we're banning you for saying Andromeda is better than ME3 😉

@KingPev nice, I’m looking forward to it… and her 😉

Downloading forbidden west to give it a 2nd try. While it's downloading bit of sly and night springs dlc for the amazing AW2

@KingPev Andromeda hasn't got Kai Leng in it.

I agree about Trip from Enslaved, though. ❤️

@BeerIsAwesome i’m aware of P-06 , i wanted to play the original first .

Still bouncing between EA sports wrc and wrc generations. I've really neglected my helldivers 2 squad mates so I should really make a concertive effort to get back into it but as much as l love it I just can't pull myself away from the rally sims. Have an awesome weekend everybody👍@kingPev and andromeda is better than ME3..

I'm thinking about trying to get back into Alan Wake 2 this weekend and probably a bit of Fallout 4 and XDefiant. I've also been playing Settlers new allies but I'm not sure if I'll continue it's not really grabbed me yet.

Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, which has been more fjn than I expected, if a little fetch-quest heavy, Elden Ring. I've given up trying to get my new character DLC ready, and instead I'm just taking my time and enjoying it.

Also I'll be watching football and probably going on a bit of a road trip with the boys tomorrow for Father's Day. So a busy one!

Finished

• Diablo IV (XSX) - finished the campaign as a barbarian reaching Lvl 50. First time I’ve played a Diablo game. Enjoyed the power fantasy. Rating: A-Tier.

Playing

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (PS5) - Finished the Snotinghamscire arc and heading to Wincestre.
• F1 Manager 2023 (XSX) - into my fourth grand prix weekend in Azerbaijan managing Williams. No points as yet - best placed finish is 13th so far (twice) with Albon.

Paused

• Divinity: Original Sin (XSX)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
• Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PS5)

Backlog

• Days Gone
• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
• Persona 3: Reload
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

@nomither6 Ah, fair enough. I'm an old school Sonic fan, so I've played it a number of times. I never said I made good decisions. 😅

Got the platinum for Cowabunger collection the other night (didnt really enjoy it that much, especially compared to Shredders revenge) and completed Yuko's island express (lovely, charming game) so its time to move on. Im thinking The witcher 3 now. Ive played it before but only put in 15 odd hours. Upgraded to the ps5 copy so im thinking of jumping back in. Apart from that i will be fishing if the weather holds up tomorrow morning.

PS5:
Rage 2

Xbox 360:
Mass Effect 2

PC:
Ion Fury and Conan Exiles

@Keyblade-Dan yoo shout out to you for playing a sleeper hit!
well the first game anyway, lol. ty the tasmanian tiger is pretty cool & hella nostalgic.

@BeerIsAwesome what made you play it so much? haha. I don't know if id consider myself an old school sonic fan since i grew up with the 3d games on gamecube, and man do i miss this style of sonic despite its jank and glitchy gameplay, i just miss the adventure style so much, im sick of the restricted boost gameplay so this games a breath of fresh air right now.

I will continue playing one of the best rpgs ever made in the incredible divinity original sin 2 definitive edition.and i will continue playing the instant classic rpg yakuza like a dragon.my boston Celtics 💚🖤 is one win away from winning the championship 🏆.lets get banner 18.i will be watching legendary sitcoms tv comedy tv 📺 shows in Sanford and son.good times.martin.and saved by the bell.word up son

I'm finally finishing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, only the river raids and the final mission remaining. I will play FF mode of Final Fantasy XVI too, and some Uncharted 2 and Dave The Diver. It's a very rainy weekend, so lot's of gaming, a movie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and rest. We all need a good time.

@Ninja-K3y Get ready for a veery long journey. I'm close to finish now, almost one year later. Close to 300h. Bot it was worthy it.

Slowly making progress in Rise of Ronin.

I want to finish Rebirth but after 60 hours and being on Chapter 11, I’m tired boss. Too much responsibility and too much to play to want to keep going even though I love it. So I’ll come back at some point.

I’ve also got to finish a few other games if I feel up to it.

May need to redownload FC24 with Euro being played.

@ApostateMage If you see what happens to him close to the end of the game, you will change your mind. One of the most baddass moments in gaming I ever seen. Shepard brings the pain.

After some very busy weeks at work and tired at evenings to play any game, I'm finally getting back to gaming (slowly). Last days I played little of Elden Ring, but still not sure if I'll buy DLC day1 to be honest. I finally watched Last of Us season1 so I picked up remaster of part2 during Days of Play and will probably start that. On switch I picked up Ori 1st one during sale so I want to play that and hopefully finish SM Wonder too.

Of course, I'll be watching EURO! Hope to see lot of good matches. Have a nice weekend, everybody!

The lack of RE news by Capcom this SFG made me fire up Resident Evil 5 and even playing it solo it has been fun but I'm halfway through and it's becoming a bit Gears like with repetitive and bullet sponge enemies and horde modes. Sheeva's AI is hilarious though and she knows where all the loot is.

Frogger (1997)

I jumped back into MH World and it's still fantastic! I Prefer it to Rise. Still dabbling in Foamstars from time to time and I'll get back to Rebirth soon. It's almost Olympic Trials time!

Happy gaming!

First and foremost, I finally beat my personal GOTY, Dragon’s Dogma 2. It took me 130 hours and I still want to play more. As I said last week, this game is going down as my favorite RPG of all time. The sense of adventure is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. There are so many stories within the stories due to unscripted events whilst undertaking missions, and it truly makes the adventure my own. It’s a rare feat to create something that unique and special.

With all of that said, I am annoyed with the game, in a personal way that doesn’t necessarily reflect the product itself. I’ll explain. Spoilers ahead- I managed to achieve the true ending (the unmoored world). There is a ton of post game content and story, with two trophies related to this — one for completing all trials and another for evacuating all townsfolk in the five main locations you visit, within a seven day period. I did everything in two days. And these trophies coincide with each other, so if you unlock one you subsequently unlock the next. Unfortunately, I only got the trophy for completing all trials. My motivation to do a NG+ run to get the platinum trophy has been nullified because of this. I’m sure I’ll replay the game at some point, especially if DLC is released. Right now, however, I need a break.

Lastly, I’ve started Tomb Raider Legend on the PlayStation Plus catalog. I’m surprised by how truly great this game is. For context, I had never played the original so I don’t have a frame of reference for comparison, but what I’ve played has impressed me.

For a PS2-era game, it has a lot of cinematic flair and set pieces. There are diverse locales to visit, motorcycle chases, parkour, things blowing up or falling apart and a fun use QTEs to escape nefarious situations. You can definitely see how the Uncharted series is heavily inspired by this franchise.

An aspect I love about Lara, similar to Nathan Drake, is her witty one-liners. One line that made me laugh happened when I was exploring an underground tomb. As I was solving a puzzle my partner radioed in saying enemies were heading to my position. Lara simply responds, “This is a tomb; I’ll make them feel at home”. Another quip she had while in Africa was, “If all else fails, I can get into the postcard business”. It’s very endearing.

As for the mechanics, the game has great controls and the gunplay is pretty solid. Lara has a plethora of tools at her disposal that enhances the gameplay. One instrument is a magnetic rope that can help you reach new heights or can be used in the environment to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. The only complaint I have is the hand-to-hand combat. It doesn’t seem very intuitive, and the game wants you to rely on guns.

Sadly, the game on runs at 480p and 30fps. It still looks great all things considered. I’ve been playing on my PlayStation Portal and the OLED screen really makes the game more vibrant. I’m bias, however, as I have a strong affinity with PS2 style graphics. There is something distinctly charming about these 3D environments and disproportionate character models.

Overall, the game is resonating with me a lot right now. There is a level of interactivity that makes the game feel more personal. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the game evolves over time, if it does at all. I can see myself replaying this gem multiple times because it’s just a darn good time.

I went ahead and bought Stellar Blade earlier in the week. I started it last night and am enjoying it for the most part. I'm not a fan of Souls-like games, so the combat is definitely an adjustment. I don't find it to be as difficult as the other games I've tried, so that's encouraging. It looks like it will be a busy weekend, so I may not have a whole lot of time to play. If I do and get frustrated, I can pivot back to Scarlet Nexus.

@mac_da_man I am also plugging away at Rise of the Ronin, and you describe it perfectly. Fun game with some pretty distracting flaws. But like you, I am a gamer who enjoys collecting stuff. This game certainly has a truck load to collect!

I haven't been too motivated for gaming lately but if I do I'll be playing Rise of the Ronin, Gran Turismo 7 and Hellblade 2.

Playing Hellblade 2 on Game Pass and 2/3 in I’m forcing myself to finish it. I loved HB1, cannot put into words how disapponted I am with the sequel. A tech demo walking simulator. Glad I didn’t pay the full price for it.

playing some of prey this weekend highly recommend it after the short amount I have played but mainly watching the football this weekend have a great weekend everyone

@freddquadros I'm ready for the journey!

I'll be missing my parry timing in Stellar Blade, knocking out some season pass levels in The Division 2 and continuing to try my hand with the Valorant beta.

Ive been on Stellar Blade for over 2 wks now, and I won't have it finished before Eldin Ring dlc, so I think I'll balance the two for a bit. I typically don't like doing that, but it's also good to freshen things up, as great as Stellar Blade is.

Stellar Blade and Rocket League for this week

I’m still on vacation from work but I haven’t really settled on a game. I put maybe 10 or so hours into Assassin’s Creed Mirage but it’s not clicking, a couple hours into the new Prince of Persia but it is also not clicking… I’ve been messing around with Midnight Suns and Fable Anniversary on Steam Deck and Sly Cooper on PS5. Too many options lol. Happy weekend!

Tears of the Kingdom - Side Quest/Adventure cleanup. Probably find some Lightroots and load up on Zonaite in the Depths.

Baldur’s Gate 3 - Started playing last weekend and still getting used to the mechanics. Had to take it down to Explorer difficulty since the battles were pretty rough to start. Really enjoying just exploring around since there’s so much to see/do in this game.

1. HomeWorld 3
2. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

Finished Hellblade 2 on Gamepass. Brilliant game. The sound stage is on another level. Really justifies the price for good headphones or 5.1 set up.

Rise of the Ronin

Jumped into V Rising and I’m hooked! The beginning is a little slow because you have to craft a lot of things but when you get your castle up and going it’s so addictive. While it doesn’t play like the classic legacy of Kane games it defiantly has that vampire power fantasy similar to LoK.

After finishing Arizona Sunshine last week, I’ve started it again. It’s that much fun, the gunplay is
superb. Also got the Talos Principle 2 DLC, which feels a fair bit tougher than the base game. Also want to get a bit of Crow Country and Eiyuden Chronicles in too. Have a great weekend folks!

A fresh controller means I can have a crack at the Platinum for Bioshock (PS3). Combined, of course, with keeping half an eye on Euro '24.

I was going to start SMT V: V but I’m waiting for my Celtics to finish off the Mavs before I play it. Too anxious to start a new game before then. So I’m replaying the Novigrad portion of The Witcher 3 on PS5. Still an all time amazing game

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

I had never played any of the DLC from the game even though I bought it all, so I am doing that now after finally finishing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. A good time as any given Shadows is coming in November.

I’m continuing my journey through Stellar Blade, I’ve reached the first point of no return but I still have a few open side quests to do first.

@Zuljarasan, what a game Hollow Knight is! I am playing Nine Sols on my steam deck and this game is up there with Hollow Knight for me. You should keep it on your radar as it's coming to playstation. These games are so much better to me than the titles coming from the big publishers at the moment.

Enjoy the rest of your play through!

@nomither6 At the time? Probably because it was the only Sonic game on the PS3. The real answer is that Sonic 3 was the first game I ever owned, so you can imagine that anyone has a soft spot for their first game. With the exception of Sonic Superstars and The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog (recency bias), I've played all my Sonic games multiple times. So I play them with rose-tinted glasses and overlook all the jank.

I am playing Sea of Stars, almost at the end of the game. I really like the flair and the art style of the game, combat can get a bit boring. Solid game in my book, not great.

Will try and get the Platinum on this one.

Happy gaming and may your favorite football nation win ^^

Picked up Red Dead Redemption on sale. It runs at 60 FPS on the PS5. Forgot what a masterpiece this game is. Gameplay has some of the PS3 jank but it looks pretty good for a game that old. The dialogue and open world are so well done. One of my favorite games of all time. Its successor was even better. Now if Rockstar would just give us a RDR2 update with 60 FPS…..

Still fairly new to PS5, so Ghost of Tsushima DC

@BeerIsAwesome you’re a true fan , i can’t even finish frontiers but yet you can play sonic 06 several times 😆 . funnily enough i have both versions of sonic 06 , when i found out the ps3 version had no trophies after i bought it, i went and bought the 360 version so i plan to beat it on both consoles

Good morning.
This Sunday I played PS4 and PS5 games on my PS5 machine. 😊
1. Youtubers Life 2 PS4
2. Kao the Kangaroo PS5

I have reached Spring 7, year 1 for Youtubers Life 2. Still have to work to capture the Mantendo Zii rumour.

I have reached The Hungry Jungle in Kao the Kangaroo which there was a lot of Durian fruits over there.

Working my way through The Following DLC for Dying Light and quite enjoying it. Been almost a decade since I played that game but it’s a lot of fun coming back to it.

Recently finished Vampyr via backwards compatibility on the PS5. I made it through the game without turning or killing any of the main NPCs despite being tempted more than once! Looking forward to doing another play through sometime in the future where I’ll focus on maxing out supernatural abilities and being a ruthless cold-blooded killer haha.

The game could have really benefited from a fast-travel system but overall a solid AA title. I was impressed and pleasantly surprised by the range of political and social issues interwoven into the game without any of it feeling forced or jarring. The letters and collectibles discovered along the way also did a great job to flesh out the story, too. Wish there were more games like this that remind me of the late PS3-early PS4 era. It was also great to see developer Dontnod team up with composer Olivier Deriviere again as I loved what they did with Remember Me a decade ago. The final track on the Vampyr soundtrack, What We Could Have Become, is hauntingly beautiful.

Now I’m back to Rocket League until I figure out which next single-player game to start... Happy weekend everyone!

I'm about to finish Life is Strange: True Colours. The pacing is slow and kinda boring. However, I managed to reach the end.

Thinking of starting Horizon Forbidden West or Forspoken.

Elden Ring for me in preparation for the DLC.

Langrisser I

Well here we go with another excellent WAYP. Been an interesting week around here. Weekends been mostly busy with work tho I did beat Little Kitty Big City. Also got to take Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance for a ride as well. Excellent games both of those. Thinking the rest of the weekend will just be a Persona 3 Reload weekend. Gotta keep working at that game if I want to beat it by my deadline of July 21st a fitting full moon. Can’t wait to beat it and immediately throw myself hard into the Canon of Vengeance for SMTV:V. Think I’ll pick up the expansion pass for that game and a preorder of Visions of Mana while I’m at it. Otherwise I’m thinking this week is mostly gonna consist of some Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Paper Mario, more P3R and some Guilty Gear Strive Slayer sets with a friend. Maybe some Stellar Blade and going back to FFXIV for the Yokai Watch event. Oh and giving Monster Hunter Stories on the switch a try on my day off. Been really really excited for that one. Anime of the week gotta go to Kaiju No.8, Go Go Loser Ranger, Delicious in Dungeon and Urusei Yatsura of course. Loser Ranger specifically is superb honestly. Might splash some cash and get the last 4 manga volumes of the authors previous work The Quintessential Quintuplets. Podcasts of this week gotta go to Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into The Aether, RPGsites Tetracast,Minnmax, Jeff Gerstmann, Kit and Krysta, Last Stand Media, Easy Allies, Second Wind, Nextlander, Cultaholic Wrestling and Remap Radio. And yet we wouldn’t be done without a incredible huge lovely shoutout to my dear friend over at twitch.tv/akibread and their wonderful streams please give them a look. Here’s hoping we get ourselves a Nintendo Direct this week to go Gaga over. As always yall stay safe, be incredible to each other. Have an excellent weekend and of course Happy Gaming. Oh and Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there

I finally circled back to Baldur's Gate 3 and the combat is great, and the story is great too - it is a very big game with more than binary options for every situation.

I didn't get to X-COM 2 but I feel the urge!

Friday night - played a few operations in Helldivers 2. I don't have the new Warbond but the balance changes feel good.
Saturdaynight - wrapped up the platinum for Dave the Diver
Sunday - played the first episode of Alan Wake 2 Night Springs, and booted up Downwell to check out for about 15 minutes.

@nomither6 I did actually skip it when I did my Sonic marathon a while back. But at the time I was a little more expectant of Sonic P-06 coming out in a modest timeframe. Although one thing I can say about the franchise as a whole is that a lot of the games are better than the reputation they have. Granted, some are worse, but rough with the smooth as they say.

@BeerIsAwesome i think it’s only one person working on the entirety of P-06 right ? i also agree with your last statement very much. sonic fans are a joke imo .

@nomither6 I believe so. At the time I was going to play the original, he'd brought out the third chapter with only the final story to do, but since then he's brought out the fixed version of the original game's demo. I imagine he's probably hard at work on the rest now.

Sonic fans are a psychologist's dream case study. I can throw out ten theories, and they'd probably all be right. I think the real answer is that the modern Sonic audience are now functioning adults that grew up with the originals, so there's less madness these days.

@BeerIsAwesome really puts into perspective just how much time it takes to make (well, remaster) a game, even if the game turns out to be unacceptable; it’s why i have such an adoration for 06 because i can see the potential the game could’ve had and the ambition the devs were going for, but just didn’t have enough time and possibly enough budget . I wish sonic team would rekindle that same passion the older team once had and really make the biggest sonic game they possibly can .

and to the guy remastering P-06, i need to look him up again , is he doing this for free ?

also this statement here - “ the modern Sonic audience are now functioning adults that grew up with the originals, so there's less madness these days.”

that really hits hard, i never thought of it that way . but what would you consider “the original” these days ? would you consider the sonic games from say 1998 to mid 2000s classics ?

@nomither6 Can't disagree with that. Doubly so when it's not an entire team like you get with actual studios. Sonic 06 was crippled by a trio of things. Firstly, the KOTOR 2 problem of having to be rushed to market, in this case for Sonic 1's 15th anniversary. Second, head honcho of the franchise and now convicted criminal Yuji Naka decided to split from Sega to start his own studio, taking a bunch of the dev team with him. And thirdly, Sega split the team to work on Sonic And The Secret Rings. Sonic 06 had no chance! Judging by reactions I've seen, I have seen people say while the writing and voice acting can't be improved, the gameplay has come on leaps and bounds, and it brings the whole thing up with it.

Yeah, he is. I imagine he's probably got a Patreon or Ko-fi, but I haven't looked that closely.

That's another way of saying the fandom years ago were still childish, with their OCs and fanfiction that even makes Bronies blush. Now they've matured, the series almost feels like it is as well. Though that may be down to Sega starting to put actual effort into a canon these days.

I think classics are subjective. For most, Sonic Mania is a classic already, and it's a relatively new game. There are a handful I wouldn't consider classics, but for the most part, each game in the series stands on their own. I would consider Adventure and Adventure 2 definitely classics. Probably 2 of the best in the entire series!