Slim pickings again this month. Not a lot of us Gaming Respawners playing much of anything of note. Check out what games a couple of us who do have a decent amount of playtime on our hands have been playing this month in Gaming Respawn Plays (May 2026).
Peter Keen
Stellar Blade, Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis- The Answer DLC, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and More
So, when I get into a bit of a gaming funk and don’t know what to play, I tend to go find a PlayStation exclusive single-player game to cheer me up. And boy, have they done that recently.
First of all, I played Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. I have played both the first Spider-Man and Miles Moreles, and even though I’m not really a “superhero” kind of person, I still really enjoyed them both. Spider-Man 2 is much better and astounded me with its production levels and was great fun to play.
I then (after buying a new PS5) carried on playing Ghost of Yotei. I’d previously played it for about 20 hours, but my day-one PS5 was turning off due to the game’s high demand on its CPU. On top of that, I’d put my day-one PS5 upright for a while, and when opening it up, I found all the liquid metal had pooled to one side, so the CPU was overheating and shutting the system down without any warning.
With a new PS5, not only did I finish Ghost of Yotei, I swiftly platinumed it (number 39) a few hours later.
I then moved onto (not a PlayStation exclusive) Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis- The Answer story DLC. I’d heard some fabulous things about this DLC in that it adds so much to the story but is such a grind, combat-wise. Well, after 27 hours of play time, I can confirm that is exactly how it was. There isn’t a huge amount of narrative content in the DLC, but goodness me, the little that is there adds so much in such a short space of time to the whole story arc of Persona 3 Reload as a whole. It was one of those games where even after I’d finished it, I was still thinking about the story.
I turned the difficulty down to as easy as possible to blast through the combat and have enough room to breathe when doing so. Even then, the last five hours needed me to be on top of my combat game to defeat a couple of boss fights.
Finally, as I had a week or so to spare before my time will be taken up with 007 First Light on the 27th of May, I’ve been back on yet another PlayStation single-player exclusive: Stellar Blade. I’m back on this game to experiment and try doing a platinum run on it. I’ve completed the game and got the true ending already.
However, there are two other endings, and if I can get to the last save point where I can make the last two choices to get the last two endings, I’ll carry on and then do all the other things to mop up that platinum. The issue really is that the game doesn’t have a normal game save system, and I’m worried if I mess up the last save (I will have to do a cloud save and somehow reload it), I’d have to play the game all over again for a third time, and I’m not sure I’ll bother.
Daniel Garcia-Montes
Crimson Desert
Having recently reviewed the game I’m currently playing, Crimson Desert, I’d like to share a little bit more on how my playthrough is going. I’m halfway through the main story and have taken part in a number of side missions and activities. I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth with this game…and I still have so much awesome stuff left to experience. I still haven’t fully upgraded my camp, which will eventually allow me to acquire more weapons and armor that look pretty damn cool, honestly. I have yet to acquire other mounts to ride around the massive open-world, like these rideable bird/raptor creatures or friggin’ DRAGONS (I seriously can’t wait to acquire a dragon mount).
There are still so many enemies and boss fights I have yet to face, and I truly look forward to taking them all on. If I didn’t have to go to sleep after finishing this little snippet, I’d jump on Crimson Desert right now and play some more of the game. But time is a cruel mistress who often comes up with ways to keep me from playing games as much I’d like to. No matter…I can only be kept from Crimson Desert for so long.
