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@Fight_Teza_Fight They had Marcelo and Carvajal still near their primes ahead of them on the roster, the two kids were never going to get the minutes they wanted with that being the case. Theo couldn't defend and still struggles with it, while Achraf wasn't that great defensively either and was sold to help balance the books during the pandemic.

Ode didn't want to stick around to wait out Modric's retirement and the club bought Camavinga with the sale money, a player who was very instrumental in this last CL title. None of these sales were all that damaging.

How on earth are some of these selections made?

Lots of great options but Silksong and Sea of Stars seem like they're on a different level from the rest. Great year ahead.

I, of course, just bought DMC5 less than a week ago. Great game though.

@nessisonett Yeah I don't disagree, I was just wondering what the state of his behavior is these days outside of his videos in which I don't think I've heard those terms mentioned.

@nessisonett Does he still do that? I only catch his videos sometimes, I didn't know that's regular behavior.

Boy if RE4 ends up being the GOTY then it'll be a real bummer of a year for me.

Too many great options to single out but Octopath 2 might be the one for me. Visually stunning from what they've shown so far.

Pulling the trigger on Alan Wake and yeah, Midnight Suns might be $20 in 2-3 months at this rate.

Good grief, the agitation this ranking gives this game's fans. If you enjoy it, great! It's pretty much universally revered, who cares if it came in second on one of many sites ranking games this year?

Really surprised HFW's soundtrack didn't make the cut, but a nice year for music overall.

@MrMeeeseeeks Your criticisms don't become any more serious the more you exaggerate them.

@WallyWest That's fine, I can admit if the writing of the sequel isn't up to the level of the first. What gets at me is the wild hyperbole about it, and a couple of the other bigger games in contention for the top spots. It's like they either have to be the best or the worst at what they do. It's tiring.

@MrMeeeseeeks That... screams of an exaggeration. It might be award-winning writing but it's hardly shockingly bad.

@Loftimus I think the big criticism is that the story in this one went off the rails into some ludicrous territory.

Because, y'know, post-apocalyptic warring tribes hunting mechanical dinobots was perfectly within the bounds of reality.

Probably my PlayStation GOTY. I've never seen anything like it from a visuals perspective.

@WallyWest I don't know why you're coming back to my avatar, it's just an avatar. I liked the art style.

Being given a blank slate isn't inherently a genre-topping trait. Being given pointers or a minimal isn't inherently a negative mark against a game either. And the checklist dig is kind of overblown too imo, having steps to complete on a mission is a perfectly valid game mechanic, many of the greatest games ever can say the same.

@WallyWest Okay, so adjust your HUD visibility and voila, you just replicated Elden Ring. Tons of open world games have secrets that aren't explicitly spelled out for you, I don't understand why we're to act as if ER is alone in this. People are still finding stuff in Red Dead 2 years later so forgive me if I'm not all that overly impressed with ER's secrets being found some months later after release. I think folks can praise the game without necessarily going over the top is all.

HFW for the sheer beauty and variety. I don't think that not having map markers is some type of revolutionary decision that won't be matched for years.

@MightyDemon82 Why is it wrong to prioritize how games look when it comes to enjoyment of them? For some folks that's as important as anything else and given how much we pay for these machines, getting the most out of them in terms of visuals is a perfectly fine wish. There's no right or wrong way in how someone evaluates a game, we all have our own tastes.

@somnambulance I mean, nothing is ever an impossibility but I think there's next to no chance this place puts Horizon over ER, even if I would.

I genuinely have no idea what it is folks see in ER's visuals. I feel like I'm the only person on earth who sees it as the same muddled browns and grays over and over again.

I liked the story in Horizon. It was probably my PlayStation GOTY. 🤷‍♂️

Finally something other than GoW and ER.

I think Horizon clears both GoW and Elden Ring. Great games but I genuinely don't see the masterpieces that others do.

Gross, no. This series is so good and its visual style is so beautiful, just make a third and wrap it up without all this jank.

The exceedingly rare instance where I'm instantly buying on day one, reviews be damned.

@Hindenburg Nope, just wondering what some good games aimed at adults are.

@Hindenburg Okay, so what else when I finish Deus Ex?

@Hindenburg I'm 34, give me a few examples of games I should be playing at my age?

How on earth would someone spot that unless they specifically knew where to look?

I don't mind the cards or the relationships part of the gameplay but I don't know how anyone can watch 60 second of those conversations and come away with any positive thoughts about that side of the game. It's so bad.

This looks god awful.

Was hoping for even a glimpse of Spider-Man but that's probably a ways away. Blue Protocol looked oddly appealing.

It's nice that this type of game is being made. Definitely don't see much of its kind these days.

It's so bizarre to me how HFW is more or less forgotten when it comes to these things just because it's not Elden Ring or Ragnarok, as if it would be a crime if anything other than those two won.

@JaaackTommyyy Yeah but when you have someone like SkillUp showing actual footage of really bad stuttering, combat that seems borderline broken, environments that are pretty but basic and a game that's $70 but only 8-10 hours, why would you give that a shot yourself at full price?

@JaaackTommyyy Why would someone give a game a blind chance at a maximum price without knowing anything about how it runs or plays?

I really can't understand why someone would pay full price for this when the only thing seemingly going for it are the visuals and just about nothing else.

Shame, was hoping to pick this up as a time-killer now and then.

@Marquez Yeah SkillUp's review was incredibly fair and somewhat concerning. Flat battlefields, textures, performance, writing, characterization all look like varying degrees of red flags.

I'm looking forward to this game but from all the preview footage I've seen I'm pretty shocked at how glowing the reviews have been today. That dialogue outside of battle is not good at all and that the majority of the game takes place in the Abbey doing activities that seem out of character for some of the heroes is kind of odd to me (like Blade starting a book club, come on).

Looks kind of dumb and simple but the weird west setting is enough for me to wishlist it for a sale.

I feel like a decent part of the outrage over things like this is performative and not nearly as noticeable as some people make it out to be. I'm sure the game could look marginally better but it seems like a good number of folks are acting as if it'll be running on a potato or something.

@brazzios_84 If that's your takeaway then so be it, rebel.

@brazzios_84 Okay? And they've been working to improve it. If you want to act as if it's still the same game as it was on launch then that's your problem and not in line with reality. It's possible to both be critical of its state at launch while aware of the much better state it's currently in.

I feel bad because there hasn't been one single second where I understood the hype for Elden Ring. I really want to enjoy what so many are enjoying but I don't get it at all and it's kind of a bummer.

@KaijuKaiser It's neither crappy nor buggy. I'm not sure why some act like it's still in the same state as it was upon launch.

GT7? Really? Not sure I understand that one.

The review is good enough for me, can't wait to get buried in this game this weekend.