PneumaPilot

Since my switch from Xbox Series X to PS5 Pro (gave the X to the kiddos), I've been slowly rebuilding my library. Dying Light 2 was one of those I just hadn't repurchased yet. I'll be glad to have it back in my stable!

Hahahaha! No.

But I didn’t play my PlayStation at all for the last 2 weeks because I rediscovered Hearthstone after being away 6 years (it carried on just fine without me during that time, looks like). Also have been reading Liege-Killer by Christopher Hinz. Great book!

I absolutely hate this kind of trophy design. There are way too many good games to have to replay ones you've already played to get the trophy that says you did everything. I wish there was more consistency in this whole department across the board. Astrobot's trophies were perfect - as were the ones for the PS5 Spider-Man remaster. If you have extra crap, put it in a separate trophy category. Looking at you here, Resident Evil (fill in the blank).

Was a PC gamer for decades. Finally got tired of the crappy games and the need to sit at a desk like a dork playing with a 16-button mouse and a clicky keyboard. Ditched that for Xbox and now PlayStation about the time I traded plastic baby computers (Windows PCs) for the creative working man's MacBook Pro. There's no way in heck I'd go back.

I've played exactly 7 minutes of one of the CoD's (the 80's Reagan one). So I might actually install MW3 to check it out.

Aww, who am I kidding, I don't think I've played a single one of these Essential games yet - despite having the service for 7 months now.

@Yusuo It’s all about the games. I think it’s a good idea for platforms to distinguish and differentiate themselves based on exclusive games. Want Mario? Get a Nintendo. Want Ratchet and Clank and Horizon, etc.? Get a PlayStation. I’m perfectly fine with that arrangement.

@Yusuo Yep, lots of physical media choices there...

I think this is a good idea, but I understand that some people have large libraries of physical media, and this is heartbreaking for them. Personally, I think that having a bunch of plastic boxes around is junky. Often it takes longer to retrieve and install a game from the disc than it does from the internet. And if you do use discs, then the stupid console makes you find it and put it in to act like a key to play the game.

Also, all of the reselling in previous generations put a good portion of the profits in the hands of middle men rather than developers.

The games themselves are also often too large to fit on our 'ancient' (at this point) physical media. It's a relic of the past that has to go at some point. Sorry for those negatively affected, but this had to happen.

Path of Exile 2 all the way!

This is actually a really cool way to do the extra goodies. It’s always immersion breaking to just have an extra menu with cosmetics loaded in. It’s much better to have cool unique shops for your extras. The complaining about this is stupid. It’s the best way we’ve ever seen for a game to sweeten the deal.

That looks terrible.

Took me less than one second to decide to get the Ultimate Edition.

@themightyant I work in supply chain. If the hardware is "locked in", then the price of that hardware would also be "locked in". If the price has changed, then the hardware can also change.

@breather That’s because it’s not about banning social media. It’s about banning the types of social media that would question the official narrative. This is an attempt to control which information is accessible. That is all.

Destiny 2 was great fun. I probably put a thousand hours into it. But then it's time to move on to something else. I wish that studios would close out these live service games like this sooner. I will never EVER want to marry some game for 10 years! Marathon is awesome right now, but I sure as heck better be playing something new and different a couple of years from now. Anything else is a waste.

I love it! Quality control is an absolute necessity in a age with so many choices. We need to be able to trust the platform owners to keep the store shelves stocked with good stuff and free of crap that no one wants.

@Sunraku Yeah...I'm feeling the same thing...Dang it!

@Moby Do you know why games and movies make nothing but sequels and reboots, despite all the people who constantly clamor for new and original IPs? Because a few times a year they make some truly new and original stuff and no one goes for it. Consumers are stupid and lazy, and therefore marketing must follow.

@GMaster7 Exactly! I remember when Zuckerberg was fighting to allow the Meta Quest store to be a non-curated open marketplace, and it was like watching someone slowly commit suicide while smiling the whole time. 100% as expected, that move completely killed the Meta Quest. Everybody complained about Apple's "walled garden", but a garden with walls is just so infinitely better than the county dump.

Dzang! I don't even play many fighting games, and have never really liked the feel of a fight stick, but I'll almost definitely be buying this beauty!

Very cool! Would be tempted to buy one (even though I don't own a desktop computer - all MacBooks in our house) if it weren't for that 1440p.

@RicebinBernacky Haha! I literally thought the same thing!

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is also 50% off - and it almost never goes on sale. Finally grabbed it!

This game is so ridiculously good on PSVR2 (heck, it's ridiculously good on ANY screen). It's essentially the killer app for PSVR. Can't wait to play this in full immersion!

Not going to use them, but I like collecting them! Thanks!

I view trophies as an indicator of how much a person loves a particular game. I don't think they should ever include things like completely replaying the game on hard mode or crap like that. I think that Astro Bot and Spiderman have the best kinds of trophy lists. You won't get the platinum just for beating the game - you have to do all the optional stuff - but they don't turn the game into job. 'Hardcore' type trophies should be relegated to a different trophy list separate from the main platinum.

The absolute worst part of the whole thing is the inconsistency. Makes me feel just as disappointed as I did when playing with toys of different scales as a kid. GI-Joe just isn't in the same universe with my LEGO minifigs or my Transformers. Mixing them is anathema.

Well...TECHNICALLY...Marathon is on update 1.0.9, so...

I'm sure they have other things that have been in development a while. Even smaller devs like Hi-Rez Studios (here in my town) had more than one large-ish team working on new projects while others maintained their (arguably not super-popular) current offerings. I was surprised at just how many people were employed by a small studio like that. There's no telling what all a company like Bungie is up to.

Never liked Darksiders. Turns out the price to upgrade if you don't like the product is still $0 on all platforms.

Looks like it's time to pick up Yotei (despite only being like 10% through with Tsushima). So many games...

I was so enamored with PlayStation (after two decades of being Xbox only) that jumped in with both feet - bought a PS5 Pro, the Pulse Elite headset, the PSVR2, The DualSense Edge, the PS Portal, and the Marathon controller (as well as the PS Plus Premium subscription and more games than I can ever hope to play). Their last State of Play was amazeballs to me! I am in love with the idea of Horizon: Hunters Gathering! I'm a gigantic Marathon fan. My 19 year old daughter has since bought her own PS5 (at the new prices), and my 16 year old daughter is wanting to work a summer job to buy her own. Even my 21 year old married daughter is talking about getting her own PS5.

My point is, whatever they are doing is working for some of us. I was won over by this late generation, and I'm now a gigantic fan. Despite cheering Concord's death from the green seats a couple of years ago, all of this drama (especially around the AWESOME Marathon) is making me wonder if it was actually a good game after all...

I remember playing King’s Quest 2 as a 7 year old and having no clue was I was doing. The game was still fun, even though I was playing it all wrong. When I got into my teens, I went back and beat all those old games. But today’s kids don’t have that learning curve. They have brainless crap served to them (which they also don’t play well or really know what they’re doing), and it really never gets more sophisticated. They remain gaming infants.

Lists like this always make me disappointed in my fellow man. The masses truly have not washed.

@LifeGirl Currently, I’m playing God of War Ragnarok, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Saros. I just finished Pragmata, and I’ve been having a great time with Marathon. I know that not all of those games came out this year, but that’s kind of where we’re at. There have been so many amazing games released that it takes a while to work through stuff. But we’re in a whole different universe than we were back in the NES days or the TurboGrafix 16 days. Heck, we’re in an infinitely better place now than we were when Oblivion was released.

Saros is awesome, but Housemarque needs to up their main character design skills. Sorry, but 'crazy divorcee' and 'some Indian guy' probably aren't generating much excitement for the crowd that votes based on which candidate wore the better suit at the debate.

I passed on Returnal for a long time because nothing there looked interesting. Of course, when I finally tried it, I was HOOKED. But the game's cover image was not doing that awesome game ANY favors.

I'm currently playing the best video games I've ever played in my 48 years of full-time video game playing. Anyone who pines for bygone eras is kind of a doofus in my mind. For sure the future will be even better. Sure, maybe only 1% of games that get released are worth your time, but that 1% still produces a massive backlog for people with actual lives to live.

Using AI to make things better, cheaper, and faster is great. If the final product is good, who cares weather they used tool A or tool B. If the AI-hating weirdos can't make a game (or song, or movie, or whatever) as good as what the AI-embracing creatives can, then they deserve to reap the rewards of their convictions.

Now go listen to Serpentfall, by Ash Meridian!

I've got the Trails in the Sky remake on my wishlist, but even on sale it's currently too expensive for just a taste. I want to like games like this - and if they're beautifully remade, that helps A LOT - but I've never really clicked with any of them.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Cyan needs to do Obduction next!

I could never find the fun in the original Lords of the Fallen (despite buying it twice - Xbox and PS5 - and then being given another copy of it), but these armors have my approval.

I'm certainly enjoying Saros (finally - after a little rocky start for me), but Pragmata was a whole 'nuther animal. I did not put it down until I had finished it. I cannot even remember another time where I did that.

I adored ZZZ (especially during the TV era), but I hated this. The initial part with all the cutscenes was really cool, then actual gameplay (quests) turns into the most just-stand-here-and-read-all-this-crap thing I’ve ever seen. Artificially lengthening the “gameplay” through obnoxiously long dialog about stupid crap that the player doesn’t care about. And of course it’s not voiced. I could care less about any of it, but then the dang quest quizzes you about the last hour of inane reading in order to complete the quest. I saw that question pop up after all that and I immediately dropped to the Home Screen of my PS5 and deleted that poop.

@MrPeanutbutterz Yeah, I finally got past the first boss with modifiers (which made me feel like I was cheating - didn’t like that). But I realized subsequently that each weapon has two different firing modes, and I was ALWAYS using the secondary mode (because I naturally pull the left trigger to ‘aim’ whenever doing any kind of shooter). When I got a shotgun and realized that the spreader pattern changed when I held down the left trigger, I wondered if all guns were like that. Yep, they are. Everything plays much better now. I even went back and trashed the first boss with no modifiers.

Sounds awesome! I've taken about a month off from Marathon to play Pragmata and Saros, but I'm about to jump back in. My kids and I have been having withdrawals. Absolutely adore the game!

I was in the middle of Wuchang on my Xbox when I decided to switch teams and buy a PS5 Pro. It was a good game, but not interesting enough for me to buy it again on PlayStation (like I did with probably a dozen others). I mean, I still have my Xbox, but I don't like to play it now (it's been given over to the kids). So getting Wuchang like this is the absolute best option!

I’m going to be real honest: I don’t think Saros is as good as Returnal. There’s just something “off” about it. I don’t know if it’s the compressed world design that rushes you to the boss or that damn charge-up pistol, but it doesn’t feel as good as Returnal. I couldn’t put Returnal down, whereas I’m almost sorry I bought Saros.

@UltimateOtaku91 I really wanted to like NTE, but dang, it is a complete SLOG! I just think that this type of game is uniquely bad on console. These games are far better on iPad. I had ZERO desire to continue playing NTE when the very first quest asked me to remember if the flower shop was a scam or not. I just looked at the choice, didn’t pick one, quit to the PS5 main screen and deleted the game.

@Boxmonkey Personally, I hope they all were.

Can't wait to start playing when I get home from work! It's installed and ready to go!

Holy cow! This is actually a really good month, imo! Wuchang! That's huge! And I've been wanting to try Nine Sols for a while!