Play by Play – September 2025 Playlist – Live Gaming Blog

RoboCop: Rogue City

Playtime: 12 Hours  |  Rating: 4/5 Stars

I first bought RoboCop: Rogue City when it went on sale mere days before becoming a PS Plus Monthly game in April. After hearing that it takes place between RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, I rewatched the first film and watched its sequel for the first time. I think it’s incredibly important to your enjoyment of the game (or lack thereof) to familiarize yourself not with the story, but the world and specific brand of camp and humor around it. The game and movies are in an absolutely brutal near future Detroit that’s often in the midst of a gang war or villain takeover. I recently watched Predator 2 and there’s a similar balance of camp and extreme violence juxtaposed to make a memorable, if not off-putting, vibe to the whole thing.

This is a hyper violent game that refuses to let you just bounce from mission to mission, hideout to hideout breaching walls and kicking in doors (and throwing exploding motorcycles at people). I’m still on the fence if I would’ve loved the game more or less if it was a simple early Call of Duty campaign without the investigation, dialogue choices, and little fetch quests in between, but I know that I cared about a couple of the side characters more than I would’ve otherwise so I consider that a win on the developers’ side. The superb feeling gun combat propelled me through the peaks and valleys of this memorable shooter and while not every design choice hits its mark, its far more ambitious than the source material requires but makes it a better, more dense and feverish love letter to a beloved series in the process.

You can read my full review HERE

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This is the first month of the year that I’m doing the Play by Play monthly Playlist so my proper review will talk more about a formal critique of the game itself, and I guess I can use this thread as a way to document the gameplay experience from my typical ADHD addled way of analyzing the pacing, the process, what worked and what didn’t during my quest for the end credits, etc.

I first bought the game in late March, as stated, and apparently earned my first trophy in late May. It has been a slow burn, as those first few levels without any upgrades were difficult, frustrating, and requiring some heavy trigger feathering that was too much for bedtime Portal use. I found myself putting it to the side for stretches while I finished games like Star Wars, Knack and inFamous on the PlayStation and an array of games on the Switch.

For whatever reason, mostly just looking for a half finished game in the Now Playing tab that I could roll credits on to get my momentum back in the month of September, I started picking up steam again in RoboCop and found that I had been previously brick walled any time that I needed to talk to anyone in the hospital or precinct. Once I identified this, I made sure to at least get to the next actual combat encounter when ending any session to ensure that I wouldn’t be picking up the controller after work just to shelve it in favor of something less annoying than the cheesy dialogue and being hounded by the mayor for my vote.

In a truly psychotic move, I not only avoided starting any side quests but I’d literally sprint from main objective to main objective, getting only half of the scripted chirp dialogue lines from each NPC I ran past looking for a favor or just someone to hear them talk for half a second. RoboCop didn’t have time for that, he had ADHD, so I couldn’t have mainlined the second half of the game any more efficiently if I tried. That being said: I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more! It meant more time shooting, getting XP and therefore getting upgrades that made the shooting far more fun.

Best of all, the halfway point in the game proved to be turning point for the most crucial unlocks. Once I got the perk that lets your health recharge back to 75% without using any resources, I was the god damn Terminator. I could play more recklessly and therefore do more roleplaying of marching through an encounter just to chokeslam a dude through the floor and throw a thick yellowing CRT computer monitor to knockout three thugs at once, then reload my machine pistol and continue on my rampage. While the resource management probably made the early game stand out more than other shooters of generations past, I truly wasn’t enjoying the early game to the fullest potential and I know this is what bumped up the rating for me and made me want to keep coming back for one more mission.

The dialogue continued to be lame and annoying but I found I was noticing and enjoying the music much more towards the end of the game. I wasn’t listening to YouTube videos or podcasts in the background, I was locked in. But it was a helpful reminder that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to push through / navigate a slump like I was feeling towards that middle portion of the game where the encounters were long and the janky cutscenes felt longer.

The aforementioned spreadsheet helped me bounce back and forth between Rogue City and whatever reading I was doing at the time. It wasn’t a clean play through, from late May to late September, but I’ll count it as a completion nonetheless and a cherished one. Especially with that ending.

 

New System

In very non-shocking news, I made a new spreadsheet system. The goal: to track, and therefore encourage, daily and weekly hours played on PS5 and Switch 2.

I set a low and attainable goal for the first week, with 4 Hours on PS5 and 2 on Switch 2, and since I started tracking on Thursday and went to a bachelor party all day Saturday, I think that’s pretty damn good that I got there.

This helped me mindfully input and track when I was making time to play either system, which subconsciously set me on the hunt for more pockets of time I could find to play Switch 2 to meet my weekly goal, which made me want to exceed that goal, which got me doomscrolling less and playing games more. But since I had the delineation of PS5 and Switch 2, I did all my Switch 2 gaming outside or at least in my car or on the subway. I literally got outside more by playing more video games, who would’ve thought???

 

inFamous: Second Son

Playtime: 11 Hours  |  Rating: 4/5 Stars

This was a really cool bounce-back for me being able to install and beat a game within a few days, and although I probably butchered the experience similar to my time with inFamous 2, I really truly enjoyed my time with the game and wouldn’t have wanted to spend another 12-20 hours experiencing cheap deaths and mindless grinding just to experience some different cutscenes. My journey with the game and the characters was poignant and I don’t plan on messing with that anytime soon until they announce a collection or sequel.

I will say, I played this game almost exclusively on the Portal, and half of it during a WFH day, with the only main exception being the first hour to hour and a half in VR mode with the Meta Quest 3 in HDMI passthrough mode.

This hasn’t come up yet, although it came into play a lot with me getting back into the RoboCop flow and beating Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Basically, the Meta Quest 3 got a pretty recent update with native HDMI input support through a USB-C capture card. I started out screwing around with this on the PS3 but it didn’t work with my first adapter so I stuck with my old Portable Monitor. My initial card only brought in 720p 30fps video feed anyways. Then I got a new capture card that gave me the full 1080p 60fps buttery smooth experience I was looking for, and with great surround sound audio that I wasn’t expecting. The main hangup was that I kept moving my PS5 around to easily hookup with the Meta Quest, and that proved to not only be a time waster but also kept it away from the modem and therefore took away my PS Portal capabilities. I bought a 30 foot long HDMI cord and although that sounds like the stupidest possible solution, it’s been problem solved even since. I can lay anywhere on the couch and I could probably even stretch it to the other end of the living room if I was feeling inclined, and the quality has never once hitched. It’s actually absolutely insane and my dream setup, assuming that reliable wireless HDMI transmitters aren’t a thing. But it works great and its perfect for longer sessions and really getting started and sinking my teeth into a game like inFamous Second Son that starts off with a lot of tutorials, plot dump, and character development that wouldn’t have been possible to sit through on the Portal with distractions around me. It’s like a sensory deprivation tank, and I cherish it as the second most important part of my Playstation setup behind the Portal, which has bought me probably over a hundred hours of beautiful HD AAA gaming that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, be that with the ROG Ally, Switch, or even their standard Remote Play app that’s always bound to have some artifacting or hitching.

The long and short is I started off with a bang on like Friday or something, playing an hour and a half on the Meta Quest while Sarah was at a workout class, spent Saturday away from the screen at a bachelor party, and I absolutely ripped through the rest of it in 45-90 minute spurts throughout a hungover Sunday and chill Monday.

The combat was engaging yet chill enough for my sleep-deprived brain to navigate even with a few dozen deaths. The story was interesting but didn’t demand full attention. It was the absolute perfect game for this quick snapshot in my life and got my momentum fired up to keep chipping away at the PS4 and PS5 collection, and gave me a massive W in the PlayStation Studios First Pary Catalogue, finishing up the mainline full titles in the inFamous series. I still have Festival of Blood and First Light to play through someday soon, and even the evil playthroughs on each game one day, but for now I count it as a win. As for the next Sony franchise, it’ll either be the Days Gone Remastered patch, Bloodborne, Jak or Sly PS3 collections, or wait until the next Returnal sequel announcement to finally play that. But no matter what, it’s great to feel like I’m making progress in that regard.

 

Donkey Kong Bananza

I’ve been slow playing this game when it came out: Bringing the Switch 2 to the gym with me and playing a level outside on a park bench, either that or doing the same thing before or after work. I’m on Level 8 or 9 of 17, and I’m fine with keeping this pace. I’ll beat it before my birthday, I’m sure. And then I’ll likely start Pokemon Legends Arceus instead of getting Legends ZA and hopefully have a more stable frame rate on the Switch 2.

No spoilers, but the VK encounter after Sublayer 600 and 700 was absolutely next level stuff and I’m blown away with what this game is doing with physics and interactive puzzle solving and stuff like that. Plus they combat and terraforming FEELS SOOOOO GOOOOOOD and impactful!

Loving the accessorizing too. I wish it was gold instead of fossils, but I finally pulled the trigger on cotton candy blue and it looks INCREDIBLE on Switch 2.

 

Yakuza Kiwami

Started 09/17  |  Work in Progress

I’ve been dying to play this game since the second I rolled credits on Yakuza 0, but I knew the right answer is to make myself miss it and jump back in completely refreshed. It’s a long series and I own every title so I don’t want to get burnt out early.

I was actually weighing different RPG options to play alongside Forespoken or Metal Gear Solid 1 to try that out with this new system

But this morning, my friend Ricky sent the promo graphic for the upcoming RGG Direct or whatever its called and I knew that I wanted to strike while the iron is hot and get another Yakuza under my belt before the end of the month. Next month I’ll want to squeeze in a couple horror games and maybe even Bloodborne so I want to clear the RPG slate, and I’m hoping that they’ll announce Yakuza Kiwami 3 alongside Project Century since they reported that Judgment is on Ice and it feels like Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii just came out recently. That would give me the juice to beat Kiwami 2 and then miss the series leading up to 3. If not, I can play 3 at the end of the year and catch up to the PS5 titles by next Summer.

First chapter is a little ridiculous but also went places I didn’t expect, and I’m along for the ride!

 

Games I Started & Probably Won’t Finish

  • Kingdom Hearts 1 – First time trying it, and I’m hatingggggg the camera and whatever I’m supposed to be doing on this island. I’ll get back to it on just the Portal, it was a bad fit at the beginning of the month
  • Alan Wake II – Not DNFing this game but definitely need to find the groove for when I’ll be playing it during WFH days, because the jump scares made me scream multiple times and I can’t play it in bed. I’m thinking VR this weekend to start, and I’ll try to squeeze in a couple hours on Friday before dinner
  • Lords of the Fallen (2014) – Needs to be a Portal game, this is when I had PS5 hooked up to office TV and the same day I tried Kingdom Hearts. Might be fine for night time but I’ll need to restart either way
  • Stellar Blade – I think I started the month with this and its too intense for night gaming and I just need something more chill right now, I will revisit

 

99 Firemaking

Old School RuneScape – Iron Man Mode

Playtime: A Lot

I’m sure this will spin out into its own series where I’m keeping track of what I’m doing on this account, but essentially:

  • I played RuneScape from like roughly 2005 or 2006 to 2007 or 2008, then stopped playing once they started overcomplicating it.
    • I did not play efficiently, I definitely sucked and maxed out at Rune armor with like a Dragon Dagger if I was lucky. Never any level above like 72
  • In 2018, I moved into an apartment with 3 friends and we all started OldSchool RuneScape accounts, and it was ridiculous but fun
    • I did not play super efficiently, I did barely any quests, and I mostly cut wood or fished on my iPad at home
    • My friend Steven was a fiend and got Base 80 stats and a 99 in Fletching, Smithing, Thieving, Magic, Crafting, Firemaking, and Cooking, and got close to the Quest Cape
    • I’d pick it back up off and on for years but nothing crazy
  • I picked it back up April 20th, 2024 I got my first ever 99 in Cooking
    • January 17th, 2025 I got 99 Fishing
    • March 13th, 2025 I got 99 Woodcutting
    • May 22, 2025 after many hours in Wintertodt I got 99 Firemaking
    • I got my stats to Base Level 60 and that is where my main account currently stands…
  • On June 4th, 2025, Steven and I started completely new accounts to be able to play together again from the same start point, and we made Group Iron Man accounts. We cannot use the Grand Exchange or trade with anyone other than each other
  • As of September 17, 2025, I have gotten my first 99 as an Iron Man with 99 Firemaking just a few months after what felt like a painstaking grind on my Main while accomplishing what my Middle School self never could’ve dreamt of.

Now that I’ve brought you up to date, I can basically document little dumb things that I’m working on or accomplishing. OSRS takes up a crazy amount of gaming time and overall free time, I’ve realized in hindsight, so I might as well document it to look back on and include it with the games I’m playing.

September Grinds – Locking In

Woodcutting

I’ve really enjoyed having a simple AFK task to “feel like I’m making progress” on the train or at work with my phone charging in the corner of the desk, and Woodcutting was probably my favorite 99 because it has the most reliable AFK times and still has solid XP rates. Nothing can beat the rush of 300-400k / hr Wintertodt XP rates, but that was also much more click intensive so I’m happy to have my chill 2 minutes of AFK time with Yew trees from now until the end of October, where I’ll unlock the goated Redwood trees and get like 4.5 minutes of AFK time or something crazy like that.

As I’ll mention momentarily, I’ve Runecrafted enough Law Runes to be able to teleport guilt free multiple times per day to work on this grind, and I’m consistently staying ahead of schedule. Essentially, I have a spreadsheet where I laid out a steady progression of daily XP to get me from lvl 70 to lvl 99 and with gradual increases from 50k to 75k, 100k, 150k, 200k, etc. I can get to 99 Woodcutting right before my birthday November 8th with the most chill barely-touch-it type of activity, and I can always woodcut through a movie or two per week to speed up the outcome. But this gives me so much more flexibility to actually play games on my PS5 and Switch, where I was monopolizing my screen time with Runescape earlier in the year and giving myself tension headaches. Doing some extremely chill Yew runs in between a few hours of Guardians of the Rift per week is extremely chill, frees me up to do other things or even complete necessary quests in between, and I’m enjoying this season of the account with the assurance that I’ll end the calendar year with 2 lvl 99s, and soon to be 3 or 4.

Future Grind: Mining

At the time of writing this I have 65 Mining, which is absolutely nothing special, but after Woodcutting I’ll be switching to the chill money making Motherload Mine and the extremely AFK and Crafting-friendly Shooting Stars. Starting with just 25k XP per day and only 3 inventories of Motherload Mine with no unlocks, I’ll be gradually ramping up into a 99 culminating in mid January. If I’m absolutely insane I might be able to squeeze it in before New Years proper, especially if I postpone my other grind here, but I haven’t decided on that yet and we’ll see how Woodcutting goes first. But between the ores and the gems I’ll get from this grind, it should get me quite a few levels in Crafting and Smithing by the time I get that cape.

Slow Grind: Runecrafting

Nobody likes Runecrafting apparently, but as an Iron Man I need runes and Guardians of the Rift has been good to me. It caps out at like 40-45k experience per hour so it won’t last me forever, but its very helpful right now to get me easy levels and a crazy stockpile of runes to get me to 59 Magic to do the next couple quests for Barbarian Training and The Family Crest, along with other stuff in the future I’m sure. But anyways, it’s only taking me under an hour of Guardians twice or three times a week at this point to stay up to date or even a bit ahead of schedule of my very sensible scaling XP goals. At the current schedule, it says I’ll be getting 99 on December 1st, but I must’ve have screwed something up because the last week of the schedule says 400k and 500k on the last day as the daily goal. As stated, Guardians with full concentration nets me maybe maximum 50k xp per hour, so obviously I’ll need to unlock the other higher level methods of training, like whatever the Lava Rune thing is and Dedalt shards or whatever I’ll be needing to do. I’m not super looking forward to that but at least I’ll get some passive mining XP eventually once I get the Sins of the Father quest done and be able to access the other mines that I’ll need. Anyways, I assumed the grind would be done in mid January so I don’t know what the hell I was thinking there, but I’ll almost certainly need to adjust unless I’m doing daily movies or YouTube marathons with just Runecrafting.

Miscellaneous Tasks In Between Skilling

I haven’t played any quests in a while but I will need to get going on some of the Elf Quests soon, since I’m closing in on 65 Runecrafting and it’ll help my XP rates, Reward Points, and Magic levels greatly to be able to craft Death Runes after Mournings End Part II or whatever its called. That requires a bunch of stuff, including Underground Pass and Regicide, which I hated doing on my main, but we’ll cross that bridge once we get to it.

As stated, I’ll be looking to do Sins of the Father eventually, which I’m sure isn’t actually as bad as I’m making it out to be, and if it saves me a couple hundred hours of locked-in Guardians of the Rift, I’ll do it for sure.