My Gaming Update - February 27, 2026

What I've Been Playing

I wanted to give a quick update on how things are going for me in gaming. I’ll do some of these every other month. At the start of the year, I set a personal goal to play 20 games (not including older games). Despite a stumble out of the gate, I refuse to go back on this goal. I still aim for twenty or more games released this year, as well as tackling older games I’ve never played before. I am about to have four games in my rotation. I am dedicated to making this 1UP Vault’s best year yet.

Night City

The two games I kicked off 2026 with are Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. I knew Cyberpunk was going to take a while, so I’m not surprised I’m not done with it yet. I also knew that adding another major RPG, like Dragon Quest, would take some time, but I didn’t realize how unlucky I would be this month. First, I had family come over, which I wasn’t a real fan of, and that took up a lot of time I could've spent playing video games. That was followed by a really bad cold that had my eyes tearing up, so I had trouble even trying to play. Not too long after that, and I didn’t mention this on my socials, I had my cold relapse again. I had a rough week and didn’t get much sleep for other reasons, so my playing time has been really bad. I’m moving forward, and I’m going to make sure March is much better.

So, as far as Cyberpunk 2077 goes, that’s the game I’m playing the most when I do get my chances, and I’m about thirty-plus hours in. I am shocked by how much I am believing the hype and falling in love with this game. I’ve been suckered into a lot of the side missions, and I still have the Phantom Liberty expansion to play through. Needless to say, I’m expecting it to take a while to finish this game, and I’ve accepted that it’ll be my game to hop to between others. So far, I love the world and the characters. I’ve told people, when I talk about it, that it comes off to me as Grand Theft Auto in a future setting, but with a much better story and more memorable characters.

The decisions you make are more impactful than I thought they would be. Johnny Silverhand has been more than just a Keanu insert, having his own arc despite being such an a-hole. I like Judy a lot, and I’m intrigued to see where her arc goes, but Panam has stolen my heart in romance choice, and I just generally like her character and story overall, too. It probably helps that her personality feels so much like my wife’s. The combat is hit or miss for me, but it’s not horrible, and the gunplay is pretty good. I’m still figuring out the hacking and technical mechanics, but I’ll get there. I’m going to do some more side stuff and finish out Panam and Judy’s arcs, and then I’m going to do Phantom Liberty, and then knock out the rest of the main stuff. I have a long way to go, but needless to say, I LOVE this game.

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Searching for Tablet Fragments

I’m playing my first ever Dragon Quest game! I’ve had my eye on this franchise for a while now, so I took advantage of the release of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. From the moment I saw the intro to an hour into the game, I was struck by how charming it is. It has this childlike charm that I’ve only encountered in Pokémon and Kirby games. It’s hard for me to explain, but it’s a rare feeling, and this game has it. I don’t know if it’s the art direction, the music, or the characters, but charming is the number one word I would use. I’m liking it. It feels like a relic of the PS1 era, so it’s feeding some nostalgia neurons. I’m also playing it on the Switch 2 to take advantage of the handheld option, and it’s completely fine. I haven’t noticed anything bad, and it’s running smoothly as butter.

The only issue I have so far is that the story feels a little simple, but I know a lot of RPGs pick up their stories as they go. I also feel the gameplay is pretty simple, as it does feel very much like a game from the late nineties. None of this is bad. I’m still enjoying my time with it; you can just tell it’s a remake of a PS1 game. Another weird thing with it, and maybe it’s because I find the gameplay loop so simple, but I can’t sit and play it beyond two plus hours, it’s not a game I’m begging not to put down. That sounds worse than I mean it to; it’s more than that after a couple of hours, I’m happy to take a break from it. Outside of that, I am liking the rest of it, and I do expect it to pick up and start to get good, and as someone who missed out on the PS1 era as an N64 kid, it’s cool to play something from that other part of the era I grew up in, but missed out on.

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Return to Kanto and Evil Residence

As for what’s next, well, we got Resident Evil: Requiem, which has been one of my most anticipated titles of the year. The reviews for this one have been incredible, and I think we got our first real Game of the Year contender. I’ll be playing this one, potentially putting 80% of my focus on it before going back to the previous two. I’m also planning to play Pokémon: FireRed Version, as I have never played those remakes. My more nostalgic side would’ve preferred a re-release of the original Red and Blue, but since I never got to play the remakes, it’ll at least be a somewhat new experience. Most of my Pokémon experiences have been more through cards than games, so I’m excited to give the games another chance after decades since I’ve played them. If everything goes as planned, I should be done with at least one of these games (most likely RE9) and close to finishing the rest by the end of March.

So, I just wanted to provide a small update on how things have been going for me on the gaming front. The month of February seemed to fight hard to block me from playing games, but it’s life, and I just gotta push through and make March better. Next week, I’ll have my first News Roundup looking at all the news and events of February, with comments regarding certain topics, and I plan to get my older series of articles going as well. As always, thanks for the support.

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