Wilkens

My most anticipated game of 2020 hands down

Sounds good to me. I hope they make it as close to the original Nioh as possible in terms of difficulty. I found that game to be perfect and so much better than any of the From Software games. The RPG elements made Nioh far more advanced with greater replay value than any of the soulsborne games and the combat system was so advanced and engaging that I found it impossible to enjoyably downgrade to the simplicity of the combat system in Sekiro. Can't wait for Nioh 2.

If we're going to call it "cross" let's at least turn it upright and elongate the vertical line to make it more Biblically representative

This new COD is a breath of fresh air. I think they're heading in the right direction by bucking the battle royale trend and sticking to the fundamentals- great gunplay, solid hit detection, great animations, and a new game engine with smooth beautiful graphics. If this mode is a centerpiece of the game at release, I'll buy it. Great work by Infinity Ward.

Paul's Miracle Pon Ken from Tekken 2 is one of my favorite songs of all time. I will get Spotify because of this new development.

I don't really think he's being overly reductive with that statement. I wish he was, but unfortunately we've seen some amazingly bad games thrive and profit by placing a bunch of people on an island and having them shoot at each other. Hideo is the best thing the industry has and all developers would do well to listen to him.

@ShogunRok Although very different because this is 2D and Soul Calibur 6 is 3D, they are both in the rare category of weapons based fighters. Which one did you like more overall?

I agree that Bethesda's single player games, specifically Elder Scrolls, is truly special. I think the world building and lore of Elder Scrolls is completely unrivaled by any other series. Nothing else even comes close in terms of achieving what Todd Howard once said was his vision- "To create worlds that the player just wants to be in." That said, where Elder Scrolls will need significant improvement in the future is its combat system which was somewhat dated in 2011 and totally behind the times today. Looking at what Action RPGs have done since then (i.e. Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, etc) I think the biggest challenge for Bethesda will be developing a system that competes with today's quality RPG mechanics while staying true to the Elder Scrolls formula. From a very base standpoint, Elder Scrolls has widely been played in first person over the years but I don't see how that can work in a way that keeps up with standards for quality in RPG combat. All this being said, Lord knows they will have taken enough time to figure it out.

@Splat I think you can redesign your character once for free now and can change it subsequent times for a small fee

@ShogunRok what are your preferred weapons in MHW?

I'll be watching exclusively for Doom Eternal. I am praying for the return of competitive online arena shooters.

I'm really looking forward to Doom Eternal. Hopefully the in-house multiplayer can bring back a player base for old school, high skill ceiling arena shooting and a reprieve from the free to play party games and battle royales that currently plague the genre.

No Dirt Rally 2.0?

Tekken 7 and Monster Hunter World

I hope PS5 launches with some solid release titles. Back in the day some of the best games for a system were released along with the system itself to drive sales. Nowdays developers are so cautious they sort of come limping into the market months or even years later when all the kinks are worked out and they know what their competitors are doing. While I understand why they do this on an individual company basis, they collectively hamstring their profits by marginalizing the console release and keeping people wedded to past generation systems. Let's start PS5 right with some top tier release titles.

Great review. In the absence of Dirt 4's track generator, how do you feel replay value will be with Dirt Rally 2.0?

This shows that you can still sell a complete game for 60 bucks with no microtransactions or paid dlc and make about 700 million dollars. EA and Activision could learn from this. Sometimes the old ways are still the best.

@ShogunRok after having played and reviewed Tekken 7 and SC 6, and given them very similar review scores, which game do you enjoy more overall?