Cikajovazmaj

Not a month for me, but I believe most people will love addition of new NBA. In a similar sports spirit, I kind of hoped they would add F1 24 with 25 just coming out..

Only thing these upgrade discounts have caused in my behavior is that I have allowed my PS Plus sub to expire twice now. And I'll be doing it again. So GG Sony.

Second series was just plain bad, no way around that. And I understand there are many challenges adapting a story like TLOU2 (which by the way is amazing game, better of the 2), but man, they basically butchered central characters journey and development - along with many support characters ofc.
To conclude, I don't expect it to recover

Few of their latest WRC games were perfectly fine, so I'm glad licence is back with Kylotonn. I even liked Generations more then EA WRC, so there's that.

I'll be surprised if anybody except reviewers actually buys this.

As predictable as PS5 release was, I'd also predict this to be first Xbox studios PS release dud.
Sequel was a way worse "game" compared to the original, literally a tech demo that can be "played" with same level of interactivity through YouTube in 4K.

Sea of Stars is on sale. It used to be part of PS Plus Extra lineup, and it received a free DLC with about 10 hours of extra story content (and other fixes), so I believe it's perfect time to jump in or return (at least I'll be showing my support and buying the game).

No idea why people are laser focusing on Doom performance last couple of days.
I loved Eternal and I'll probably like this. Unfortunately, based on reviews and reviews alone, gameplay might speak to me a little bit less and I'll be picking it up later down the line when on sale.
If I still had GP sub, I'd prioritize Expedition 33 over it, so yeah, it might just be slightly worse accepted compared to last one and that's fine. It's a different type of game, it was always going to be an expectation reset.

Tried the demo.. Perfect example of why MercurySteam needs external IP. Just look at how well they did with Metroid Dread. This latest game obviously shines decent mechanic through, but setting and finishing touches are just disappointing.

Sure, awesome. I shall be switching my focus to Switch 2 I guess.
Maybe try acknowledging that your core audience does not want to be engaged with a single game for a long period of time, and instead wants to purchase one off licences, stay engage for month/s, and move on. Then adapt budgets according to that goal.
Instead of trying to forcefully re-educate your audience and move them into an unwanted model (and fail miserably if latest news are to be trusted).
This doesn't seem to be that hard, just build stuff people tell you they need and you'll be fine.

Not really happy about anybody losing their job, but Jade Raymond hasn't delivered anything in 8 years. She is slowly approaching Peter Molyneux territory of unreliability.

Is this really surprising though? The game was a known and acknowledged commercial flop. As a customer who bought it I don't like what happened, but surely you can't expect developer to continue pumping out content for a failed game beyond 2 years..

Very cool. I don't own a Steam Deck but it's always a good sign performance-wise when a game can target such a low spec profile. Bodes well for future tech reviews and word of mouth in general.

MS working really hard to lose any good will they might have earned last couple of months.
As a friend of mine used to say "fear of success is a genuine thing".

One of the worst decisions ever made by Ubisoft to disband that team, and that is telling a lot.
Would love to get more, but I'm scared Ubisoft will turn it into AC as they seem to do with every IP they invest in.

As I've said after Nintendo announcement, they were just first to make it public (and ate the proverbial negative PR bullet). Decisions like these were contemplated and decided much earlier than Switch 2 reveal, MS just held of from going public so Nintendo can be sacrificial lamb.

Can't wait to hear from Randy how surprised they are B4 failed commercially..

Sony is working really hard on making PS Plus Extra/Premium a deal I can refuse.

Isn't Disco Elysium getting removed too?

Only thing that could turn me away is going to be game pricing. Console as such is way beyond what I and most expected, and people who are trying to say otherwise are just delulu..

Who knew there would be a limit to how many times you can sell same s*it with a fresh coat of paint.
Color me surprised!

It's sad to see he felt like he had to comment on it. Not every game needs to be a modern live service borefest. They made an awesome game, and budget and scope defined are just proof that bubbled up budgets and cut-throat practices AAAA teams practice are wrong and bound to fail.

@Fiendish-Beaver well, what you propose is just one possible reality
Maybe MS doesn't buy or make games in Ubis less popular IPs, like the ones you mentioned. Maybe they take PoP and make a live service game out of it. Them making another good metroidvania from the IP is realistically not a most probable outcome (mentioning that as I rather liked how PoP got reinvented).
So, if the question then becomes would I rather have old IP stay dormant and untarnished while making space for new IP, vs. have a giant exploit it for easy cash grab, I'd choose option one.

@Fiendish-Beaver I wouldn't necessarily agree, as I'm not worried about MS not putting games on PS (if there are enough interesting exclusives I'll just buy the platform, which I tried with XSS but opted out), I'm worried about market getting monopolized by extremely large corporations with different priorities vs. fun gaming.
I'd say the same thing (and I did when they acquired Bungie) for Sony.
I would rather have AAA market with ultra safe, boring releases crash; and for second coming of indie gaming to happen, than to have one of these giants take whole space for itself.

Microsoft can you please try not to buy gaming, others want to have fun too. Thank you.

Few games I wanted to try, UFC 5 I'll probably get into. For anybody who hasn't already played/beat it, PoP is an awesome game, very underappreciated.

I got refunded a few times, for either buying the wrong version or actually getting a DLC from incorrect region. Assuming you get to a human being, didn't run the game/DLC, they are pretty understandable.
However, if you ran the product, they used to have zero tolerance policy in place (well, maybe only Nintendo really has zero tolerance policy).

I don't want to sound ignorant, but if you are running a business, now might be the time to re-evaluate how much of it you want to have located in the US.
This sucks for regular working folk, but at the same time if you decide to push you need to expect to be shoved.

Are they purposely sending these to die? It's 4 years of Xbox exclusives (it was very dry 4 years) they are releasing in the matter of months.
People have limited budgets and overall sales will suffer..

I really hoped they would do a Metroid Dread sequel, that game was best 2D Metroid in a looooong time (as since Super Metroid).
But I'm willing and looking forward to checking out what they can offer in GoW alternatives world. Looks right up my alley!

EDIT: While it undeniably takes inspiration from GoW, I also felt some Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and BotW vibes. Am I crazy?

Ok, best month in a while. DA has tanked and there are obvious "political" reasons, but there is still a decent game in there. Other two are genuine fun games.

@Toot1st at least as of now, and most likely while the generative AI models we currently use are not replaced with different approach, this is not true. But it is being marketed and sold (very well) as if it was.

@Balie3000 nope, almost zero regulation. We are still in the "steal now, be sorry later" phase most new technologies go through before they either cause a catastrophe or market stabilizes (typically the former).

What this technology is gonna do in relatively immediate future (and it has been worded carefully to be able to be used for this without lying to the "fans"), is fire a whole bunch of artists and turn a senior artist into a "senior AI prompter". Instead of manually creating beautiful levels and biomes, AI will be prompted to generate decent/mediocre ones for a fraction of the cost.
Looking at the GP model and offerings over last 4-5 years (they did have good last few months though) that outcome is very much on brand. I'll be skipping, thank you very much. I have limited gaming time and I'll be using only for the best experiences.

One has to love how "there was nothing shown" during the SoP and excitement poll having like almost 30 entries..
Anyway:

• Tides of Annihilation
• Split Fiction
• Saros
  But there is at least 3-4 more that I weighted upon before settling on these 3.

It is like this game exists in an alternate universe, where there is almost no Sony corporate greed, and games are built for fans.
Not being in SoP proves it!

Definitely would have upgraded for $10, but only Nintendo can make me pay full price for the same game multiple times.

If the price is exactly the same every 2 weeks, is it even a sale?

Terrible list for me. It's 2025. and the only game appealing from that list is Pac-Man. High on life is just abysmal, less funny than Borderlands movie.

Yesterday I tried this game and learned a couple of things. Firstly, game is buggy, glitchy, and all types of bad. Secondly, in it's essence game elements are the same as in the latest Indiana Jones, just done poorly. As I never played it before, I believed everything in Great Circle was completely original take, when it ends up being quite similar to a core of a really old game. It's a far better take though

Most of these games aren't really for me, so I'm OK with the list. Arise I've tried and it didn't quite click, Outriders is just plain bad in my opinion. Outer World is a good game, but it has been handed out for free before on other available platforms (arguably more fitting for an FPS), so not a huge deal.

Hear me out, there is a world in which AAA games don't mean "state of the art" graphics but instead, mean awesome gameplay. Which is cheaper to produce if you hire creative and experienced people, and invest in them to polish ideas and evolve game design concepts. Instead of throwing money at a gazillion contractors (you'll abandon immediately post-completion) to produce stunning assets.
Note:
Look under Nintendo to see more.

Finally, finally a good month for me. There is like 4 games on my wishlist there, and another 2 I wanted to try out. Phewww

@Rich33 "It has had 1 upside though - any 3rd party game launching on GP was an immediate red flag that the devs / publisher thought their game was no good!"

Absolutely agreed. I don't think there was a 3rd party game released to GP I would buy, once the reviews hit (sometimes hype gives me false hope).

Yesterday I fired up my 3DS and played some Donkey Kong because I didn't want to purchase the same game twice. That's all I have to say about all digital, all subscription future.

My understanding is sales numbers for Horizon games are significantly stimulated by the "bundle" offering, but some of those 32 million consumers are bound to like the game at least due to first-hand exposure.
Either way, I happen to be one of them appreciating the IP and believe it to be an excellent basis for a movie.

Hopefully big wigs take notice and we see more games like Astro.

Happy New Year everybody!! 🥂🥳

I'm totally fine with Stalker 2 staying on Xbox. Matter of fact, please keep it there.

@Northern_munkey I can respect that
But yeah, to further explain my stand, it's based on the setting being overdone: 80s throwbacks mixed with futuristic visuals, bad jokes, overly familiar character dynamic (for the first 2 characters introduced in the game world), Escaping from New York coms and visual filter.. It just looked uninspired and rehash of existing ideas. Doesn't have to be bad, Uncharted looked like an unlicensed Indiana Jones game on paper, but ended up being one of the best series ever. Just not what I would present the new original IP with.
Some of the visuals reminded me of Kung Fury and Far Cry: Blood Dragon, and it would probably be better off if it tapped into that sort of silliness instead of trying to be semi-serious.