doctommaso

@BuGGy2DaB But that’ll only take up dead space…

Bigger fan of Crash but enjoyed the Spyro remake trilogy and would welcome a new entry.

@Beerheadgamer82 Agreed, It’s a good problem to have. I’ve actually taken to making lists just to help prioritize.

@Flaming_Kaiser Yeah, at this point I might wait a whole year or two on purchases and catch up on backlog. I already had a huge prior-gens backlog, and now even this generation’s backlog is getting unmanageable, with 2023 looking to bury me outright.

I’m not sure any other game has ever received this many game of the year awards. Absolutely deserved. As for story, I find that can often get in the way of good gameplay and actually takes me out of the feeling of immersion. Plenty of good things to watch or read if I really need a story.

I do prefer ER by a pretty wide margin, but I expected this result. I will say the whale moment/story point in GoWR was really neat; just discovered it during post-game cleanup.

@LN78 Not that it really matters, but it’s “that surprise”, not “not surprise”. Fun use of that Iago quite, though!

@MFTWrecks Oh, I didn’t realize that to you bad design is the same thing as difficult. They are great bosses. They are challenging as heck and do require cooperation. If that is bad design to you, then so be it. That cooperation actually made the game much more fun for me, in the end.

@FatalBubbles Fair enough, I can understand that.

@Ravix So well said. Sounds like we had a very similar experience.

@FatalBubbles Love the final boss (second phase), it's a great fight imo, was really cool taking him out solo with Mimic Tear's help in NG+.

@evildave333 Always found it smooth and not at all janky. Honestly no idea what you mean. But to each his own.

@MFTWrecks Totally disagree. Back third bosses were epic with co-op or Mimic Tear, loved it. I must have helped a hundred people or more with Hoarah Loux and enjoyed every minute of it.

@DrVenture69 Awesome! Definitely do it. Happy to offer co-op if needed. (P.S. Are you a doc, too?)

I clocked well over 300 hours, closer to 350, beating the game twice and getting the plat, exploring every single little nook and cranny, as well as helping numerous people with boss fights.

I disagree with people who feel that this is somehow a lazy job. The world is absolutely sprawling, with so many neat touches here and there. There’s an air of mystery and reward of discovery everywhere you go. There is some fascinating side content to uncover. It’s an absolutely incredible game and deserves all the accolades it has garnered. It gets really hard toward the end, but this serves as an excellent opportunity to summon others and get welcome cooperation, which is a neat experience.

I’ve said it before, but ER is quite possibly my favorite game of all time. To me, it leaves Dark Souls 1-3 in the dust and is at minimum on an equal playing field with DeSo, BB, and Sekiro. I had to delete it off my hard drive in order to stop playing it and to be able move on to other games, and not infrequently I have to fight the urge to reinstall it — I’ve never had that happen in over 40 years of gaming.

I did not find the main character appealing or interesting, although I loved the robot. The combat was a very poor man's souls-like, although you have to love wielding a lightsaber. The attempts at Tomb Raider-ish/Uncharted-like puzzles and navigation were uninspired. It all added up to a rather mediocre game.

Really good game but hard as heck if you aren’t an exquisitely thorough gamer. I ended up somewhere I shouldn’t have been and was really underpowered. I’m going to have to play with a walk-through, I think; and I almost never need to do that. Still, I think it’s an OK way to play a game you like, if you would otherwise move on without a guide. In any case, I think number eight for the year is about right.

Can we get actual TOMBS again, please?

I dropped Game Pass and still only have PS Plus Essential — for cloud saves. There are way too many games for me to be able to really dig into these services. My backlog is still pretty insane (dating back to NES if not Atari 2600) and just keeps growing.

Glad others seem pretty amped, though.

Hopefully Sony got rid of the annoying coil noise this time around.

Still way too long/bloated for my tastes.

Man this looks UBER dark/grisly. Probably a bit too much for me. Still, I will remain open-minded, as someone who enjoys Soulsbornekiring (I know, it's annoying, but I didn't invent it) games overall.

Really glad I didn't waste time watching this. Glad to see ER won GotY! The AC announcement was pretty cool, I guess.

Guess 2023 is the year I finally get into AC.

@rjejr Haha that's quite a mix-up! That guy calling you daft was funny; he has no clue.

Mimic tear was epic, but I never found it till my NG+ run. Helped me a bunch on my NG+ final boss fight, for sure!

As big of a Soulsborne fan as I am, I agree with you; the games would be better a bit easier, so difficulty options would be welcome. I'm not such an uber player that I don't have to spend a good bit of time leveling a bunch at least a couple times along the way, and it would feel like a waste of time were I not enjoying the gameplay so much.

@Mr_Gamecube Well said. GoW:R felt like DLC or expansion at first; the latter half impressed significantly compared to the 2018 game, but it still feels very much like the same game. Horizon 2 was the exact same. Still very good games, worth playing. GoW:R was done so well, in terms of writing, camera-work, a fair part of the acting, etc., so I can see why it could deserve GoTY. GoW:R legitimately moved me to tears — or close-- a few times, which is impressive. That said, I don't need any of that in a video game, and on a pure gaming basis, I absolutely would give it to ER in a heartbeat.

@rjejr This is a perfect description of how ER is a huge leap forward for the Souls series.

I'll just grab the trailer announcements later. I regretted the couple years I did watch most or all of it, such a huge time drain. The show needs to be 90 minutes.

@Dusk_Actual I should check out some more lore at some point

@rjejr It would be cool if we did fight at least one battle together! Neat Twitter feed; you preserved a lot of great moments.

@dschons I can't imagine that's legit, but I've been wrong before.

@Dusk_Actual @rjejr Actually loved that battle, once I got it down. Same with Hoarah Loux and Maliketh.

@rjejr Wonder if I must have seen you at some point online. I did 340 hours between a normal run, a lot of helping out with latter bosses in co-op, and an NG+/plat run. Malenia was brutal even highly leveled, and I only won cause I was finally able to summon an insanely good player to help me.

@CWill97 Hope and pray her treatment goes well! I agree on the combat signs, definitely a good move.

@Greifchen @Ravix What?!!!! MIND BLOWN. lol Thanks, that's huge!

Really wanted to play the DLCs on PS5, but I lost my PS4 save and don’t like it enough to replay like 75-100 hours.

@Michael2008ish Interesting. Perhaps I adapted quickly. Or maybe it depends on the class you pick? I know my good buddy thought the combat was super responsive, too. Maybe we haven't played enough more responsive games?

@Michael2008ish That’s wild; I feel like the combat is phenomenal in DeSo, just like everything else in the game (on both systems).

Edit: Well, except level 5-2…

Tried ME a few months ago and couldn’t get into it. Not interested in the others.

Dang, was hoping this would be good. Oh well, Sports Story is coming soon!

Btw, been having an epic time playing Retro Bowl; grabbed Retro Goal, as well. Awesome inexpensive pixelated sports games.

That ad was horrible.

@gipsojo Ah, okay; makes sense.

I’m going to admit I was wrong about this game earlier. I finally completed it, and the last half was far better than the first for me. It definitely had more of a wow factor and didn’t feel like just DLC or an expansion, like the first half felt. In particular, I was impressed by some of the boss battles in the latter half of the game, and the big plot twist pretty much blew my mind. I still have issues with some of the acting and the pacing of the game in the first half, which nearly made me put the game down. While I prefer Elden Ring, I definitely can see why this game deserves to be in the conversation for Gane of the Year.

I went a bit nuts with the Black Friday PS Store sales, so I’m not sure what’s left to buy.

For reviews, I think games should stand on their own merits, without money playing a factor; prices will change over time.

@naruball There is no comparable DLC/Expansion I am aware of. That doesn't change that the game still feels like a large well-done DLC/Expansion.

@dark_knightmare2 Oh my gosh, man — relax; this is an opinion about a game, not a personal attack.

Anyone objective can see that Elden Ring is a huge step forward for the Souls-type genre. I actually think your BotW comparison is a pretty good analogy for Elden Ring, because BotW did for Zelda what ER did for Dark Souls. Also, no one is saying BotW was not an influence on ER (but you can clearly see Souls influences on BotW, as well). This doesn't change the fundamental fact that GoWR is iterative in nearly all respects and feels exactly like a (huge, quality) DLC add-on to the 2018 game — again, I think anyone objective will admit that. I think many people wanted just that, but I expected more.

Having played Elden Ring rather recently, the faux-open level design of the GoW games becomes incredibly obvious and feels like dodging an obstacle course to get to my goal, rather than exploration. Similarly, I can't get invested or drawn into its world, partially because of acting that sounds like reading off of a script but more so constant annoying interruptions regarding puzzles or telling me what to do — a step backward from the 2018 GoW and again much more obvious after playing ER, which is massively open and extremely hands-off.

And I'm sorry, you will never win an argument with me about ER's quality. For one, I completely disagree about ER having a bad latter half, especially compared to some of the prior Souls titles. Regarding the bosses, if you look at the primary bosses (not all the small dungeon bosses, etc.), I think you are dead wrong. As for filler, I spent 340 hours in the game over a couple runs and due to helping others beat end-game bosses numerous times, and I never felt like I was bored — not for an instant. Comparatively, I was bored in GoWR after the first 3 or 4 hours (the first 1.5 hours are epic, however, to give credit where it is due). I've pushed through GoWR to justify the $70 spent and to give it a fair chance, out of respect for the fact that so many people feel it's such an amazing game.

I'm sorry you feel so personally hurt by someone criticizing GoWR, but you need to allow for different opinions and to be able to take an objective look at a game's positives and negatives.

I'll leave the discussion here and have no interest in reading further rather aggressive responses from you.

This game was great in 2018 (not amazing) and is merely good in this 2022 post Elden Ring world. It’s basically just a huge DLC/expansion for the 2018 game. I expected more.