AgentMantis

Looks good? The graphics were ass and it looked packed to the gills with generic MMO filler content.

Mechanically it's much closer to a souls-like than it is to the rebooted GoW but it's much more forgiving than a typical souls-like. Most reviews seem to call it a boss rush with very little to do outside of running towards the next big encounter, that's more my concern.

Solid month, Wild hearts looks interesting

2 and first Tales are decent enough the rest just isn't worth bothering with. 3 was one of the most painfully misjudged games I've ever played.

This is going to get murdered by BG3 comparisons.

With a reported running length of 15 hours I'm holding fire until reviews drop

Baldurs gate 3. Picked it up in the sale.

Game's journalism continues to dwindle towards an IGN monopoly.

Launching a MP title into the currently overcrowded market would have been madness. Things have progressed significantly since their last attempt and you really need to be built from the ground up as a MP studio to even stand a chance. ND should have farmed it off to a MP specialist studio if it was that important to them.

@dark_knightmare2 is everything ok at home? 5 straight replies defending a mediocre at best game seems is coming across as a cry for help tbh

They've given it away on every platform, that's probably a "sale".

Souls-like has been well and truly beaten to death at this point. Creative bankruptcy.

They've run out of time and money trying to get this one over the line. I think this one is going to be a much narrower, more linear DA experience as a result.

I got the Shadow of Colossus one

It looks like it might be worth a shot. I made the mistake of looking at the YouTube comments though, eesh, looks like this one has really stirred up the basement dwellers.

@lacerz Ga-cha-pon, Japanese onomatopoeic word of a capsule dropping from a toy vending machine. Basically you insert premium currency and get a random character. The odds are fixed though you do get a pity system where once you've spent enough you get a guaranteed top-tier drop. Some are super predatory, some less so. MiHoYo games tend to fall on the more innocuous side of things.

I'm really enjoying it. The combat and characters are a lot of fun, while the grind is a lot more streamlined.

You lost me at youtuber loremaster

@Batesy125s Hoyo tend to make their money through fomo and waifu baiting. Premium characters flatten the skill gap needed but almost all content tends to be beatable with free characters. The gacha system is easily one of the most generous ones out there as well, premium currency is easy to come by and the pity system guarantees characters eventually. It's worth checking out, ignore all the hate from people who have never played any of their games.

Zenless Zone Zero

It's flawed, outdated and has baffling design decisions but I was enjoying it right up until the post game, which is genuinely terrible.

6/10, nothing it did was original or hadn't been done better elsewhere

It's a game that became popular as it was basically a meme, not for its quality in any way. The meme is dead and the PS release is far too late to the party.

Scarlet Nexus. Downloaded it on a whim and really enjoying it.

The original was flawed but enjoyable. I'm not a fan of the new art style though.

The biggest issue is the lack of journalists to hold things to account. Publishers get to showcase in a safe, micromanaged format without having to answer hard questions. Starfield looked like GOTY material in Xbox's showcase last year, we all know how that turned out.

It was rubbish. The format is terrible, Geoff is still annoying and the woman couldn't present to save her life! Worse was the slate of games, so few caught my eye.

I'm done with souls- like, the burnout is real

Astrobot is currently on the Southbank, almost certainly announced tonight then

Played the beta, it was so bare bones it felt half finished which is absurd considering how long it had been in development and that it had been spun off of a pre-existing game. The worst thing was it was just mind-numbingly boring, not even playing with friends could improve it.

The subreddit is a proper swamp. Aside from turning on Arrowhead they also like to turn on other players and dictate how they play. There's a lot of armchair generals trying to dictate the "war" and throwing their toys out of the pram when people just play to have fun.

Recent studies claim gen z have an attention span of 8 seconds. Though I'm some what sceptical of that research, bombarding young people from all angles training them to consume media in bitesize chunks has got to have had repercussions.

Expanded universes quickly feel like homework.

It'll be on ps+ before Christmas and will be dead by this time next year.

Genshin hasn't really dropped off in quality or content so I'll be sticking there for a while yet. I only have time for a single LS title.

@Max_the_German Sadly they only need one hit and they get to print money. It seems like Sony is determined to take as many bites of the apple as it takes to to find that one title that breaks through. Helldivers 2 managed to leverage itself a player base, despite a saturated market, but it's monetisation is terrible. Sadly I think it will only embolden Sony to keep chasing the live service unicorn.

Over the years it's become clear that most of SE's issues stem from their terrible upper management.

The continued run of underwhelming premium warbonds and the nerf heavy approach to balancing will kill the game long-term. It's become less fun with each poorly implemented patch.

It came out and the general feeling is it's trash. Arrowhead have nerfed pretty much every weapon into a bland samey porridge.

The whole discourse around this game is wearisome and once again it's always the minority shouting the loudest on either side

Loved the art style and story was good, though they certainly could have made more of the setting and secondary characters. The gameplay was very mid though, it relies way too much on hitting tight parry windows and doesn't really diversify beyond that for the entire game.

"A good human being" who's entire business strategy revolved around taking Saudi blood money.

@Frmknst It's reasonably priced and great fun.

10 player co-op challenge, is that the entire player base then?

Failing or succeeding in a MO ultimately doesn't matter, a good DM is prepared for both eventualities and adjusts. Two MOs later and we are trying our hand at liberating the bots homeworld again. The failure lost some medals, not exactly something that's hard to come by. I think most of the issue is the Creekers being adopted into lore while the arm chair generals who take to social media desperate to dictate how people play were made to look like idiots for taking things far too seriously.

I'm looking forward to more AAAA games that I don't actually own.

The game is so old it will need to be remade along the same lines as FFVII only with next to none of the budget or talent.

Helldivers 2 and Dragons Dogma 2

GP/PS+ devalued indie games to the point where most people simply won't pay out for them anymore. Look at all the studios that tried launching outside of subscription services and fell on their ass after "disappointing" day 1 sales. Everyone knew ahead of time this would be the case and everyone knew the gravy train wasn't going to last.

Helldivers 2 and Dragons Dogma 2