Another month, another hybrid splurge. And, despite the progress made in Wreckfest and Saints Row 4, another couple of reluctantly shelved items on top of the space previously cleared with two GTAs in January. But the tradeoff was not only getting FFXII back on board, but also greedily surrounding myself with a bagful of enticing backlog bloaters for the weekend (Core Keeper, Knight Witch, Going Under, Paranormasight, Warriors Abyss and Caravan SandWitch while yet others from Brigandine, Home and Curse of the Sea Rats to Penko Park, Scar of the Doll and PopSlinger will await their own hour). Naturally… if for a given definition of “natural”👀… the already installed playthroughs will still be competing with this bunch for this nerd’s free time and attention as well – driving stuff from the aforementioned titles to Truck Driver and Super Mario Kart (itself close to a wrap-up, although the last two 150cc cups can drive you in a fairly nutty direction even with all the emulation perks applied💀), adventure mysteries like Athanasy and Danganronpa, simulations like PowerWash and Idol Manager, roguelites from 20xx and Little Noah to Dust & Neon and Rogue Legacy 2, JRPGs from Xenoblades, Tales and Ateliers to Rune Factories, Personas and Fantasy Lives… and some other possibilities like Carto, RE0, Monster Sanctuary, Luminaria and Astroneer.
Handheld consoles, aside from a couple more Miracle Cure stages, may take a backseat for the next few days, outbeckoned not only by Deck (which saw Tales of Arise and Oblivion wiped in light of their respective NS2 ports’ advent, then Elex and Wondership Q immediately taking some of their space) but even PS4 which I’ve finally made slightly more portable with a pretty basic but proportionally affordable 11.6″ external display – the resulting combo may still not so readily lend itself to my “downtown downtimes”, but not having to plug into a living room TV might just streamline the procedure for occasional home sessions. The likes of GTA 5, Star Ocean IaF, New Order and Uncharted are all likely to be summoned as witnesses to those expectations over the weekend. I even curiously tested both hybrids in docked mode, the results feeling satisfactory if predictably redundant.