IntrepidWombat

I was in from day one, but the trailers are having the opposite effect - I'm kind of in the 'wait and see' camp now. Conscript's physical release is my top October want.

My brother from another mother has a big Italian family on his mom's side. He's closing in on 50, but he still plays games. I'm thinking this will make a great gift for him.

I'm definitely interested in it once I can buy a disc. I haven't had a lot of time to play anything lately, maybe 10 hours total this month.

@Specky There have been some token attempts at this - Skyrim for example has an in-game mod manager and browser, but it's not as extensive as PC. The developer has to be in on it, and I imagine most would opt out - whatever mods could be introduced by the community are features that they themselves could sell for a profit.

Boy that was rough.

Come on Tokyo Game Show!

@QiaraIris Or you just have that kind of disposable income?

Expedition 33 and Metaphor are at the top.

I also want to see Resident Evil Anything-at-all and some more HD2D of Squaresoft classics - Xenogears and Final Fantasy Tactics.

A Gears of War trilogy for PS5 is somewhere on my wish list, but I'm not holding my breath.

@MasterVGuides I'm as 'murican as it gets, he's just a popular VA.

@MasterVGuides The Discworld question was the easiest of the bunch...it's always Eric Idle. Dude is in everything.

8/10, and I guessed for most of them. BRB, getting a scratch-off.

A much better trailer than the first, but the art style makes it look last gen. The Fortnight vibe is cool for a F2P or budget title, but I expected more from a AAAA EA Bioware game that's been in development for as long as it has. I haven't liked a DA since Origins, so I'll likely skip this one.

Nothing is washing the taste of that first trailer out of my mouth. It was horrendous. If that's the tone they wanted to set in introducing the game, then the rest of the game being just like that is a pretty safe bet. I'm so tired of the smarmy Marvel-esque writing. Maybe the gameplay will be fine, but if the writing surrounding it in a story-heavy RPG is that bad, it's just a non-starter for me. If that's what people truly want, then I'm happy for them.

This weekend will be BUSY. We're catching up on yard work today, and tomorrow is our annual back-to-school shopping extravaganza. My son enjoys it since there's an arcade and a restaurant visit in it for him.

If I get some time, gaming will be Trails into Reverie. I want to love this game, but holy smokes, it's 20 minutes of talking and cut scenes to every 5 minutes of gameplay. Hopefully there's a big meaty gameplay section coming up.

I get that it's 6 games. But $75. Yeesh.

Great write-up. The attempted humor of this series hits the same as an awkward teenager trying to tell jokes he doesn't quite understand.

The casting choices are weird. I don't like when actors get loud in politics. I can only ever see them as who they are rather than their characters from that point on. Call it a personal failing on my part for being unable to suspend disbelief.

They got the whole thing backwards - for a film like this, spend heavy in the writing room and in production. Use nobodies and up-and-comers in the cast. An ensemble of recognizable B-listers probably bloated the cost to make this film when it was the most unnecessary expenditure and probably detracts from the experience overall.

Yeah, I'll probably grab it straight away. I've been holding off on a second run of Reload for this to come out.

With the current economic climate, continued support of the PS4, and PlayStation franchises going to PC, it's kind of impressive that the sales have continued. I believe those factors have kept it from staying on pace with PS4, not the price.

$499 USD in 2020 had the same buying power as $605.74 today. Staying the same price might as well be a price drop with this inflation.

The combat in these games has way too much jank for them to be stressing about a card game. Maybe they could do something about that first?

3 out of 10 for me. I haven't played most of the games on this list, and I could have sworn that Tomb Raider II came out in '98, but no, that's just the year that I bought it. Oh well!

I updated my Eve client and undocked for the first time in ages. My main turned 17 this past June - time flies. I couldn't be bothered to build an alpha-friendly fit to get in some trouble with, and I didn't feel much like slapping down for Omega, so I did some ship spinning in Amarr and logged off. The temptation was there as I was longing to poke my head in to a wormhole, but alas.

I've been playing Clash Royale lately - fun little game, especially challenging if you commit to not spending any money.

I went back to Stellar Blade and am working through the Normal boss challenges. It only took me 5 tries to beat Raven this time.

I bounced off SMTV. I thought for sure it would grab me. The desert setting is so bland. I'll try again another time.

Not terribly excited to play anything else right now.

Ghost was really good, but the fox hunts, haikus, and other 'do the same thing in two dozen locations' was repetitive. I hope that's not what other studios are taking away from it. Skipping all of that made it an excellent experience for me.

I'm not about strapping a thing to my head to play games. I'll stick with a television and a regular controller. And get off my lawn.

@get2sammyb Ah, I forgot about the VR, thanks. I'll have to take your word for it.

"is this just par for the course for one of PlayStation’s best franchises these days?"

I must have missed several games, because I thought the only thing released with this character was a brief little play room game that was a tutorial on how to use the PS5. How does that and an unreleased title (assuming In haven't missed anything) make a franchise?

I think I'd have to put it down pretty quick - 2 or 3 minutes of the constant little yips and yahs were enough to get on my nerves. I might have bought this for my son a few years ago, but I think he's outgrown it? Really, really, really don't get all of the hype for this title.

I'm there day one. Let's get it!

Summer is better for handling things outside the house. Maintaining engines, maintaining my property, other outdoor type projects...I've only completed 4 games this year so far, but once winter hits and my son is in school, I'll be gaming a lot more.

Ghost of Tsushima proved that a western developer could make a Japanese game high in quality with respect to the history and culture. I wonder if the backlash would be less harsh if Ghost hadn't set the bar so high.

Took the family out today to see Twisters. It was a fun popcorn flick. Lunch at Waffle House, and now I have a bit of free time. I beat Stellar Blade earlier this week. I tried to get back in to Scarlett Nexus, but it's not holding me. Gave the Rebirth demo a third try, and I just need to come to terms that it's not for me. I'm burnt out on Falcom for now, so those games will have to wait (Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ and Trails into Reverie on the shelf).

I'm studying my backlog now trying to figure out what to play next. I could go back to SB for NG+, though I also have SMTV and Octopath Traveler II in plastic on the shelf. I'm 14 hours into DQ XI, so I may pick that back up too. We'll see!

@Deoxyr1bose The execution and the polish on Stellar Blade is what did it for me. You look at a similar game when it comes to mechanics and game loop like Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor, and you can immediately see the difference. The Jedi games were both buggy with some serious performance issues, especially at launch. They also had the benefit of the most well-established science fiction franchise in any form of media to back up the lore and act as a backdrop. Stellar Blade had none of these things. Good performance, lack of serious bugs, and a brand new IP that needed to be established. It hit the ball out of the park as far as I'm concerned.

@Dalamar I'm with you. I don't understand the love that Rebirth gets - the combat felt so broken to me in the demo. I didn't like it at all. Stellar Blade is incredible though.

I love No Man's Sky and have mad respect for the devs continuing to grind out content for it. Looking forward to seeing more information on this.

Pre-order is a big no from me, but I'm definitely intrigued. I hope we get the demo in the US.

Still have a ton of work to do on the house. I don't know if I'll get any opportunities to play. If I do, it'll be Stellar Blade and the demo for Dragon's Dogma II.

@Dunkin You can't have humanity without greed. Why single out capitalism? Any and every economic system is vulnerable to corruption and greed.

@JackMiller43 Indeed. He just wanted gray eyes.

This was the game I got with my PS2!

The thing I remember best about it is the easter egg in the credits - they animated an audio skit from the Dead Ale Wives of the characters playing a D&D game, and it's hilarious in that late 90's kind of way.

Resident Evil 2 (1998) on the PS3

It's a dead tie for me between Stellar Blade and Persona 3 Reload. I ended up picking P3R in the poll only because I knew it would get fewer votes, but they're 1a and 1b. I have very little interest in Rebirth. I have hundreds of hours in the original Final Fantasy VII on PS1, and I just don't like what they did to my baby. I will play Infinite Wealth eventually, I just need to finish Like a Dragon first. SMTV Vengeance is still in plastic wrap, and I plan on buying Daybreak and Metaphor to wrap up the year.

I completely forgot about this game. It amazes me that they went through all of the effort to make a dinosaur game in RE Engine and didn't make the game that their fans wanted, instead going with the live service slop. At least they can maybe recycle some assets if they do remake Dino Crisis.

Trails through Daybreak and Conscript definitely have my attention. Trails I'll buy right away (just to add it to my backlog - physical copies of these games don't last long), Conscript I'll need to see reviews. If it's anything like Signalis, it'll be an immediate buy as well. American Football is one of my other obsessions, but the games have never really done it for me (except for NFL Blitz!).

Tried spinning up Inquisition last night - just didn't enjoy it at all. It just felt so... Corporatized? I don't know how to explain it other than it just wasn't for me. I'll be skipping this one altogether, but I'm glad anyone who picks it up will be able to enjoy it. I bounced off Bloodbourne and Demon Souls, but games with similar mechanics and easier combat like Jedi Fallen Order and Stellar Blade have been very enjoyable on the standard difficulty. I couldn't see myself turning off death, but people play games for different reasons, and even then, to varying degrees - challenge, story, whatever.

Octopath Traveler launching on PlayStation was a pleasant surprise, but that price definitely had some sticker shock. Digital only on that makes me sad. The 'sale' price is a little easier to swallow though.

Gaming is still Stellar Blade. I made a bit of progress this past week. Hopefully I get an hour or two this weekend. I find that when I'm on, I'm really on. I can power through, beat bosses and standard enemies with few issues. Out of nowhere, I get the yips and start missing blocks, miss Blinks, miss dodges, incorrectly input combos - that's when I know my session with this game is over.

Lots of home improvement on the books for the next week. Dumpster will be delivered Wednesday, and I can finally finish our garage clean out. Two of my bathrooms need new commodes, one bedroom is getting new paint, and my wife and I will be doing furniture shopping for a couple rooms as well. I'm really contemplating new floors too - that will probably have to be in next year's budget.

Hell yes, this looks cool. I'm definitely checking out this author too.

@WiiWareWave That's hyperbole. I live in a rural area of a rural southern state and have 1Gb fiber. It's happening all over the place. Look up CAF and RDOF programs.

I do agree that steaming sucks though. Physical forever.

It should launch around the same time as StarCraft: Ghost.

I appreciate a moderate challenge. Stellar Blade is right at the edge of how difficult I want a game to be. Every time I die, I know exactly why and what I need to do on the next attempt. Same games inflate difficulty artificially with weird mechanics - for example, I've played games with large bosses that charge up for attacks. I get clear in advance, but the boss rotates in place as if it was on a turn table to unleash it upon my character anyway. Why should I expect the boss to move that way? A big lumbering thing like that should have to have some kind of turn animation that takes time to execute, but instead, the difficulty is inflated artificially. That kind of difficulty is really, really annoying because it feels artificial.

Stellar Blade is an example of a game that does it right. Square off against an enemy and try to time its blows for a perfect parry, but oh dang, it pulled that second blow a bit and had a delayed third one. I got complacent thinking I could predict its movement, but it was more erratic. I did a poor job anticipating what it was going to do, so I pay the price. The Resident Evil remakes do the same thing with zombie head sway. That sort of smart, on-your-toes kind of game play difficulty is invigorating and rewarding for me. Running face first in to getting one-shot by a boss that defies the laws of physics and losing an hour of progress is not.

@PerpetualBoredom Xbox wire reported it, and there's nowhere to order a physical copy despite the game releasing in less than a month. I think it's a safe bet.

No disc, no buy (exceptions for <$10). Bummer. I remember having my interest piqued the first time I saw it, but I completely forgot about it.

I actually quite liked the story, warts and all - it really wanted to be Game of Thrones in tone, which makes sense given when development of the game started. The voice acting was on point. It was gorgeous to look at.

I'm mystified by the combat. Nier Automata came out in 2017, and it has some of the tightest action melee in any game ever. FF16 has OK combat (better than FF7 Re-X anyway), but it's disappointing for a main line title in SE's biggest IP to not stack up against a title that they also published 6 years prior. I didn't care for the big Eikon battles - they would just drag out so so so dang long. I was tired of QTEs 10 years ago, and sticking them in a game in 2023 was just...eh.

I stuck with the game, did all the side quests, and even did the first DLC as I was at the end of the game when it came out, so it was convenient. Solid 6.5/10 for me.