Tchunga

@ATaco On opposite day, maybe. Genshin Impact is one of the worst examples of F2P on the market, bar none. I've seen players waste literal hundreds of dollars before getting the character that they actually wanted. If Genshin is an example of a "good" gacha game then I don't want to know what a bad one is

Hasn't this game been "revealed" like 20 times already?

Wooooo Wild Hearts is actually on the list, let's freaking gooooo. I was fully expecting this game to get snubbed entirely but I'm glad there's someone other than myself that remembers it lol. My top 5 games are:

1. Wild Hearts
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Jedi Survivor
4. Spider-man 2
5. Armored Core 6

I'm currently playing through BG3 at the moment but its too soon to say if it'll knock any of those games off. I am enjoying my time with it so far though

@Athrum I completely agree. I'd rather them spend those resources making a proper sequel or something else entirely

I'm not gonna lie I'm a little annoyed I have to redownload the entire game again but the amount of work Larian is putting into it post launch is well worthy of praise. And I can't wait for Micro$oft to gobble up Larian in the following months. I'm sure they're next in line...

It's funny, I was literally playing through this mission, bored out of my mind, and thought to myself "well, this mission exists solely to boost ESG scores" And here we are where it's literally winning awards lol.

This might sound a little blackpilled but I genuinely don't believe stuff like this gets added for "representation". And if it does it's merely an afterthought. No, it primarily gets added to look good to the right people. Case in point. Because we all know that actual gamers don't want to sit through boring, mind numbing "gameplay" sections such as these. They just don't

@IndoorEnthusiast Yeah, most of the comments I see do tend toward the negative side and yet despite this, the game awards somehow was able to garner over 100 million views last year lol. I mean that's an awful lot of viewership for a show that "no one cares about". It's almost as if it's a small vocal minority online that wants to gaslight everyone into thinking the show is somehow a colossal failure

@IndoorEnthusiast I do. For whatever thats worth.

And I get the feeling you might care more than you're leading on otherwise there'd be no reason to leave a comment. In my experience people don't bother writing or talking about things that they don't care about

@trev666 Eh, I enjoyed my time with Hogwarts Legacy but its not a game I think about unless it gets brought up. For a game about wizards and magic it was pretty bogstandard when it came to its actual game design. In my opinion Hogwarts would have absolutely been snubbed had it came out in a weaker year like last year but in 2023 with just how competitive it is it simply doesn't make the cut

@Northern_munkey As great as Elden Ring is it unfortunately isn't good enough to qualify for two years in a row

@Splat RE4 should be eligible for everything except for GOTY imo. Because you're right, its not just a remaster but its also not an entirely "new" game either. Sure, Capcom did a lot of work updating and reworking the game, but at its core its still RE4. It has the same level design, the same enemies, the same story and characters. Yes, slight tweeks were made to some of those aspects along the way but its a largely faithful remake of the original. So as great as RE4 remake is it really shouldn't be up there alongside actual new releases for GOTY

Lmao wow. The amount of envy in this comments section is actually kind of funny

My current GOTY Wild Hearts isn't in the running or nominated for anything whatsoever so I officially have no horse in this race. That being said though this year is just like last year. In that it's a two-way race but this time its between Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur's Gate 3. But if I had to bet on just one I'd have to say BG3 is probably gonna take it

A fantastic generation forsure, definitely an improvement over the dark days of the PS3. These are my top 3 games from the PS4 era

1. Monster Hunter World - I've always been a fan of the monster hunter series despite some of the more anti-fun mechanics like breakable bugnets/pickaxes, maps and whetstones taking up inventory slots, and of course those immersion-breaking loading screens inbetween zones. But World gets rid of all of those while maintaining what makes the series so special. It introduced a bucket load of quality of life improvements and gave the series the kind of budget and scope it always deserved. It's my favorite PS4 title and I can't sing its praises enough

2. Bloodborne - The reason I bought a PS4 and still to this day one of my favorite games of all time. I'm a huge fan of Fromsoftware and the Souls series and Bloodborne simply took what made those games great and arguably did it even better. While functionally and mechanically not all that different from Dark Souls, it's Bloodborne's unique setting and atmosphere that make it standout. Bloodborne really leans into the horror element of its world and its all the better for it. And also its important to note that Bloodborne just simply came out at a time before this genre was completely oversaturated. Games like Bloodborne were the outliers, now they're commonplace

3. The Witcher 3 - The game that put CD Projekt Red on the map. This was far from my first experience with an open world game but it was the first time that one of these games made me truly appreciate the genre. I could never get into Skyrim, Fallout, or Assassin's Creed in the same way I got into The Witcher. And I think a lot of that simply comes down to the world itself. CD Projekt are masters at crafting immersive, and engaging worlds that are just begging to be explored. Very easily one of the all time greats

I'm surprised Dragons Dogma 2 wasn't in the "most anticipated" category at TGAs. Seems like a pretty glaring snub all things considered

@Mephisto2869 Just based solely off my own personal experience with the game

Well I genuinely didn't think Alan Wake 2 would get nominated for GOTY let alone 7 other categories. I guess I just gotta sit back and accept the fact that I'm in the minority on Alan Wake 2. As much as it pains me to

Glad to see RE4 get some well deserved recognition. Capcom has been on a roll lately, hopefully they keep it up throughout 2024 as well

@Terra_Custodes Likewise. Clearly you and I just fundamentally disagree on this topic, so I doubt there's likely any common ground to be had. But that's okay, reasonable minds are allowed to differ. It's been good debating with ya

@Terra_Custodes It always amazes me whenever someone calls something "objectively good" or "objectively bad" and then they proceed to list off a litany of subjective reasons as to why the thing is the way it is. Practically nothing you mentioned is an "objectively bad" example of writing. It's not an objective fact that writing on the futility of revenge is bad, it's not an objective fact that 21st century ideology is bad, nor is proselytizing it. These are all just opinions, friend. Now they may be opinions that you feel very strongly about, but that doesn't somehow turn vinegar into wine.

Now, good faith arguments work on a level of trust and belief, so I'll believe you when you say you're a studied film and book connoisseur, but even the most educated opinions are still just opinions at the end of the day. I'm sorry you found the writing in God of War Ragnarok to be so poor, personally I found it to be one of the best examples of writing in a video game since the original The Last of Us. But to each their own

@Terra_Custodes The entire point of Kratos leaving Greece and moving to Midgard in the first place was to start a new life. Unless you're not referring specifically to Ragnarok, and you mean both the norse games. But this character arc of him becoming a less murderous, maniacal character was very much set up in GoW 2018. It's not some curveball both introduced and then realized in Ragnarok alone. And even if it wasn't, and also maybe you've somehow forgotten but Kratos did have a family in the original Greek trilogy as well. Which is actually what set off the events of those first three games. That's what sets him on the war path in the first place. I mean, if anything its consistent with his character to want a family, especially so after he already exacted his revenge at the end of God of War 3.

And even if he didn't, even if he didn't want a new life, even if didn't want to put his old ways behind him, the Norse Gods didn't wrong him like the Greek ones did. It's a conflict that he got dragged into, he didn't even want to fight them in the first place, why would he still want to go on some murderous rampage like he did before, it makes little to no sense. Either way though, If you prefer the old Kratos to the new one I think thats totally fine, I'm sure many others do as well, but don't then say the new Kratos is somehow poorly written. It's simply not true. There's a distnict difference between "bad writing" and writing you simply don't agree with

@Terra_Custodes In what way was Kratos "emasculated" exactly? Now it's been a good year since I've played Ragnarok, but I don't recall this ever occuring. Do you simply mean that Kratos isn't allowed to grow as a character? Does he just have to be a raging, homicidal, maniac in perpetuity? And if so, that's somehow supposed to be better writing? So you mean to tell me that zero character development at all is somehow better writing than the mere existence of it. Lol

I get some of the complaints about Ragnarok feeling too similar to 2018 (I find myself feeling a similar way about Spider-man 2) but what I think many are missing or glossing over is that the story in Ragnarok is a huge improvement over the first game. Both in terms of the actual narrative itself and the characters within it. I wont go into spoilers here but lets just say Kratos is practically a different character by the end of Ragnarok. And the fact that this progression doesn't feel unnatural or unearned is quite an achievement if you ask me

Personally, I think you'd have to be huffing a significant amount of copium to believe that Alan Wake 2 will get a slot over RE4 or Dead Space. That being said though I think the nominees will be:

Baldur's Gate 3
Resident Evil 4
Sea of Stars
Spider-man 2
Starfield
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

And either BG3 or Zelda will win, I think it could go either way

Yeah...this an interesting one for sure. I'm only about 8 or so hours in, proabably less than halfway through. But so far I'm yet to find out what is supposed to be fun about this game.

I should probably clarify, I'm a huge Alan Wake fan. I absolutely loved the first game in spite of its many, many flaws. But needless to say I was incredibly stoked for Alan Wake 2. The fact that this was not only going follow up my favorite Remedy game, but it was also going to be Remedy's very first true survival horror outing was enough to make Alan Wake 2 one of my most anticipated games of the year. That being said though, the final product is....confusing.

The vast majority of my playtime has been spent wandering around seemingly aimlessly in incredibly large enviornments,at a snails pace, without any clear sense of where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do. This issue is compounded by a very linear route of progression, meaning you can only advance the story by visiting very specific locations in a very specific order. You can very easily end up wasting your time by going where you actually need to go, but because you didn't go there specifically when the game wants you to, you're arbitrarely locked out. It's one of those games

Idk. I think I probably need to sit down and spend more time with it and see if things get any better. Hopefully there's more combat, hopefully there's more plot developments, and hopefully there's some more scares. But so far its just been a glorified walking sim. And not a very good one

That would be pretty funny if both Shadow of the Erdtree and the new God of War expandalone got a reveal trailer at the Game Awards. I mean, what are the odds of Elden Ring and GoW Ragnarok duking it out at the Game Awards two years in a row?

@AverageGamer Oh wow, well there you go! It goes back even further than I thought 😅

I could absolutely go for a "Miles Morales" scale God of War game. That sounds wonderful. Especially if it picks up right where Ragnarok left off, there's so many different directions the story could go. It would be a shame to not tap into that in some way. Even if it does end up being on the shorter side

Also, It's kind of funny how we all just refer to these smaller scale Sony games as being "like" Miles Morales despite the fact that Uncharted did this first with the Lost Legacy back in 2017. I guess that's just the power of Spider-man. Lol

@Axelay71 I agree. A lot of reviews complained about the linearity in The Callisto Protocol but that was actually one of the aspects that I really enjoyed about the game

@AshenEmbers So what are you saying then exactly, that its a moot point to bring up the fact that practically all Fromsoftware games reuse the same mechanics? Because if so I fundamentally disagree

@AshenEmbers I never made the claim that Bloodborne copied Elden Ring or Sekrio. Those games released after Bloodborne, that doesn't even make any sense. Who are you arguing with?

Well hopefully EA Play can breathe some new life into Wild Hearts. Afterall it's a genuinely good Monster Hunter clone and a shame that it got burried between the likes of Hogwarts Legacy and RE4 remake. This game is absolutely in need of a sequel!

@Grumblevolcano I don't think the reason MH World never released on Switch was due to finances, I think it was a hardware limitation if anything. And if the rumors are true about the next Switch being as powerful as PS4/Xbox One, and if the next Monster Hunter is targetting next gen hardware, then we could find ourselves looking at a situation very similar to MH World. Where it ends up as a PS5, Series X/S, and PC game, skipping both Nintendo and last generation consoles

@AshenEmbers Bloodborne definitely stands out from other Fromsoftware titles dont get me wrong....but completely different? It has a different setting, trick weapons, and a distinct lack of shields, and that's about it. It's easier to list off the amount of things different in BB than it is to name all the things that are the same.

Blood Echoes are pretty much Souls, Lamp posts are Bonfires, Bloodstones are Titanite Shards, ect. Even the player stats are largely the same, skill is just dexterity, and strength is well, literally strength. Vitality and Endurance are both named the same and function the exact same as previous titles. The controls are practically identical to Dark Souls, Elden Ring or any other modern Fromsoftware game. And I'm really just skimming the surface here, I'd be here all day if I tried to name every single reused idea in Bloodborne. The point being though that outside of Armored Core and Sekiro, Fromsoftware has been very comfortable using one formula for the past 15 years, and Bloodborne is no exception

@Grumblevolcano What makes you think the next Monster Hunter won't be PS5, Xbox, and PC exclusive?

@KundaliniRising333 So as long as its a third person phoned in sequel to a played out franchise its all good then. Lol

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually agree with Pushsquare's review. This an 8/10 game through and through. As much fun as I find myself having, I also can't deny that Spider-man 2 really isn't doing anything to set itself apart from Spider-man 2018 or even Miles Morales. It really is just more Spider-man. And while that's probably enough for some people and great if you loved those first two games, its also a tad bit underwhelming

@Sil_Am I'm sorry, but can you please explain to me how there not being a physical version makes the game worse in any meaningful way? I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around this

Alan Wake 2 currently has an 89 on metacritic.

Which is really impressive considering it doesn't have either "Spider-man" or "Mario" in the title

I had no idea that it wasn't on PS4 already, I just assumed that it was. I played the game on Switch and absolutely loved it, It's easily one of the best metroidvanias on the market. Which isn't too surprising considering how good the original one was

I'm going to try and get through either Mario Wonder or Spiderman 2 before I dive into Alan Wake 2. I can easily juggle 2 games at the same time but when it gets to 3 or more things start to become a little hectic

In one cutscene I had dialogue audio cut out completely but it came right back in the very next cutscene. That's about it.

Oh and I guess I've got caught on some geometry a couple of times. But that's more of a collision detection issue than an actual bug

@Quintumply That's fair. Quite frankly I found HFW to be the poster child of safe, iterative sequels but I'm sure many would likely say the same about GoW Ragnarok, Which I thought was a substantial improvement over its predecessor. It's difficult to nail down exactly what makes a sequel innovative or not

A very fair score and review all around. Although I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the inconsistency in criticism between this review and say, Horizon Forbidden West. Which is also an admittedly safe, and unambitious sequel which PushSquare awarded a 9/10. But I'm not gonna bust balls too much, as they might have been written by two different reviewers for all I know. But this lack of consistency is also something that IGN gets beat up for all the time

@Flaming_Kaiser Yeah, no one likes broken games, I think that goes without saying. But a little jank here and there doesn't bother me too much

Something like this interests me far more than something like Lies of P. We're currently living in a key point of saturation when it comes to souls-likes, and the ones that are actually doing something to differentiate themselves from the pack are the ones that are more likely to grab my attention. So while Lies of P may be the more polished game all around, Lords of the Fallen is actually trying something new. I'll take a newer experience over a familiar one even if it is ultimately less polished

Well it looks better than the Brooklin at the very least.

I mean, eh? There's really not that much of interest to me. That new Prince of Persia looks like a lot of fun, and I'll obviously be picking up FF Rebirth. But other than that it's kind of a dull release schedule

I'm really starting to wonder what Square Enix' long term strategy is with the release of all these mid to low budget-tier games. I mean surely they can't be that profitable, can they?

Oh, so the game is finally good now 3 years after I bought it? Very cool 👍

Thank you CDPR