RBMango

@PuppetMaster If I didn't know anything about who made Highguard after playing it and someone told me it came from some of the top designers of Titanfall, I don't think I'd believe them. Even now I have a hard time believing anyone involved in designing Highguard played a part in creating Titanfall 1 and 2's outstanding attrition mode.

The 5v5 mode is definitely better because it makes the matches feel slightly more like a large-scale raid, but it still plays like a confused mess. I legit thought Concord was better designed than Highguard, because at least Concord didn't have all of these annoying roadblocks to the PvP action like wall reinforcing, tedious resource gathering, a pointless loot system, and long respawn timers.

For a studio full of multiplayer veterans, it's stunning how many obvious and amateur-hour mistakes Wildlight made. People can blame the hating, toxic gamers for Highguard's reception all they want, but I think the things that did the most damage were Geoff Keighley's bizarre lack of good judgment and foresight and Wildlight's hubris.

I'll be on my deathbed at a ripe old age and Beyond Good & Evil 2 still won't be out.

Wildlight said they don't need a high player count to sustain Highguard, but I think that statement is going to be put to the test very soon.

After losing myself in KCD2 recently, I definitely want to check this out.

I've had my eye on Ultros for a while, so that's a good one.

I don't think a Metacritic for reviewers is a good idea, but there are an alarming number of critics in the game press cabal and on YouTube whose standards of evaluation and critical eye are questionable, at best. I can understand the kernel of what he's saying even if I don't agree with his full opinion.

@Ultrasmiles It really does. It's a bizarre, underbaked hodgepodge of multiple multiplayer subgenres, and it doesn't excel at any of them, imo.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I disagree. For a F2P live service in a hyper-competitive market, attracting about 62% of your day one playerbase on the most popular current-gen console to even finish one match is a lot worse than "not terrible". Could it improve? Perhaps. But a lot of its long-term success is going to rely on enticing a loyal playerbase to spend money on skins and battle passes, and I don't see this having the juice to pull that off.

Even going by trophy stats on PS5, it paints a concerning picture.

As of right now:
>Only 61.8% of players have bothered to complete one match.
>Only 6.3% of players have finished 10 matches.
>Only 27.3% of players have planted a shieldbreaker (i.e., a fundamental mechanic of a match).
>Only 15.4% of players have destroyed 20 walls (again, a fundamental mechanic).

The day one drop-off curve looks bad, no matter where you look. I don't put much stock in Steam reviews, but the hard numbers don't lie.

@DennisReynolds My exact same experience and thoughts. One thing that confused me was that this is supposed to feel like an exciting siege/raid battle, yet it's only 3v3 and lacks music most of the time. It makes for a very underwhelming atmosphere.

I'm perfectly fine with the PS5 gen getting extended beyond 2028 or 2029.

Wolverine won't be at this. Insomniac already said they'd next show it in the spring.

God bless the person who bought Kingdom Hearts II.

Yōtei ranking higher than CoD is nuts. Congrats to Sucker Punch!

One of the least appealing Xbox games this gen imo

Looks alright. I don't know why this took over 6 years to make, but it has potential.

If they're another one of these UE5/Creation Engine amalgamation remakes, I'm not interested.

I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing how this does.

Very strange casting choice imo

I might have to borrow my buddy's Xbox for this one. Driving around gorgeous landscapes in Japan is too enticing to pass up.

Crossing my fingers Decapolice and the next Professor Layton turn out well too.

Played it at launch and it was one of those games where I could tell very early on that it lacked a clear creative focus and tried patching together multiple disparate ideas (some decent, some dreadful). I didn't "hate" it, but Anthem was a mostly boring, and disposable thing.

I don't see Hermen Hulst leaving any time soon, sadly. I'd love for someone else to be in the role who doesn't sound like an android and avoids obviously stupid decisions, but I don't know who at PlayStation is even capable of shepherding the first-party stuff outside of people who will never be asked to lead.

I'm surprised no one brought up anything related to Fairgames considering everything that has happened with that.

I'm always rooting for the folks at Obsidian (I've met many of them over the years, and they are lovely people), but this one did not click for me at all, sadly.

Limited Run is an automatic no for me. Screw that company.

@LifeGirl Amen

Easily my favorite gane of the year and one of my all-time favorites.

Also, wheeeee

Happy New Year, everyone!

If Expedition 33 wasn't in the picture, Ghost of Yōtei would be my pick for the best score of the year. It has a spaghetti western vibe that I love and there are so many catchy melodies. Lumines Arise's soundtrack is awesome too. Hades 2 and South of Midnight aren't on PS5 yet, but the music is very high-quality in those as well.

That being said, E33 has one of my top 10 game scores of all time. It's the obvious winner by a gigantic margin.

Epic Mickey is an interesting get. I'll play that.

The insane finale alone makes DS2 a worthy contender for GOTY. KojiPro's imagination is one-of-a-kind.

And none of these updates will be Persona 6. =D

@Logonogo 10000% agreed. I think Hazelight reached the peak of their prowess and creativity with It Takes Two. Still, Split Fiction is VERY good. It speaks to how good they are that even a much weaker version of ITT is better than the vast majority of games I played in 2025.

After almost 150 hours of playtime, I fear jumping back in.

I had never heard of Needy Streamer Overload until reading this list, but it's such an out-of-pocket pick and I respect that.

#4 is where it's on my list as well. Great fun, but it would have been even higher if the story had resonated with me.

E33 is my top pick for best storytelling and nothing else that I played this year came close. Phenomenal characters, fantastically written dynamics and arcs, skillful mixture of tragedy and comedy, and hard-hitting and thought-provoking exploration of the themes its tackling. Even with the gripes I have with certain elements, it's one of my new gold standards for video game storytelling. Blows me away even after three playthroughs.

I need to play this at some point. This kind of setting and humor isn't normally my thing, but I was pleasantly surprised by the writing quality of some of the cutscenes I saw.

@Oram77 I wish I could heart this comment more than once.

I'll die on the hill that exclusives are healthy for the console industry. Not a fan of the "when everyone plays, we all win" nonsense.

@Balaam_ We get it. You think E33 is overrated. You don't need to repeat the same point in different ways in multiple comment sections, especially resorting to saying something highly questionable like "it's hard to defend game XYZ being in the top spot." God forbid the author love E33 in spite of your opinion of the game.

Any time Expedition 33 is the #1 on someone's end of the year list, an angel gets its wings.

@TheArt I love the little details I've seen like getting chastised by guards for not carrying a lit torch at night or getting knocked off your horse by a low branch. I'd gladly trade fancy graphics for those fun, immersive little things in an RPG any day of the week.

I haven't played KCD2, but the depth of outcomes and consequences that some of the side missions I've seen have blew me away.

Ghost of Yōtei getting only a bronze award for art direction should be illegal.

I need a screenshot of Don Lee slapping someone.

I took a near fatal huff of hopium when I saw this supposed leak. Like Banjo-Kazooie revival and Bloodborne 2 level of hopium.

Blue Prince was an extraordinary experience. I had so much fun writing in notebooks to keep track of and uncover the puzzles within puzzles. Loved it.

I hope this isn't yet another case of Naughty Dog management's "scope creep" problem and obsession with fancy graphical details causing problems for the people who now have to crunch like crazy to get this thing out.