orvisbean101

I wasn’t opposed to any of it, and it actually seemed like a unique and potentially fun gameplay loop. But the match felt like it was missing something. Maybe it was the small team counts, or how big the map was for only six people. But there wasn’t anything that made me want to revisit for weeks, months, years to come.

Hopefully we’ll finally see if the 2D God of War metroidvania actually exists.

Idk why I thought of this, but if the industry generated nearly $61 billion over one whole year, a year where the recent Call of Duty release wasn’t even the top-selling title, and Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard/King for over $75 billion…why?

I think there are a lot of tools and programs that all get looped into ‘AI’, some of which are useful and some that aren’t. Generative AI that is usually incorrect and makes the final product weaker? Less useful. Automation programs that can streamline tasks and organization? More useful.

As with most things, it’s a case-by-case basis where you’re going to find people with strong opinions on either side. I think the ‘slippery slope’ aspect isn’t always a given, but depends on the user’s comfort levels or own boundary lines.

conspiracy theory: January 8 is a Thursday...

Thursday is the day of the week that Sony usually has State of Plays...

Sony loves announcing relatively big things out of the blue on a random day in the middle of the week...

January 8 is written 8/1 in the UK. 8/1 -> 81 -> Bl -> bloodborne 2 confirmed.

@Max_the_German I just checked, there were about 5K fewer votes this year than last, probably explaining the close counts of the top few. Last year, Astro Bot got 1st with over 1900 votes.

Though, based on the general sentiment, E33 probably would’ve claimed the majority of those missing votes.

I mean, it sure wasn’t MindsEye, but Clair Obscur was pretty good.

Isn't this the month where they're stopping giving away PS4 only games? That should help naturally increasing the quality over the next year.

@AhmadSumadi Nah, PushSquare is gonna flip everyone off and put MindsEye at the top, calling it an ‘impressively intriguing idea’ and a ‘uniquely creative venture.’

Also, the disclaimer of noticing Prime Video (which I didn’t even realize it was streaming on) makes this somewhat more impressive, with the unaccounted for views.

@Nep-Nep-Freak Yeah, the jump from 2019 to 2020 can probably be attributed to Covid and fewer people busy and more people invested in gaming, but I’m not sure what the jump from 2023 to 2024 was. The GotY nominees were definitely more diverse across genres and audiences, so maybe that.

@RBMango I know, that’s the game I’m looking forward to the most, right above Highguard.

@danzoEX @Veritas7Ax @rjejr Yep, TLOU P2 had seven wins, so Clair Obscur now holds the record

I don’t know if I agree with Keighley keeping slots open, but I definitely get it: if there’s a big indie game or to try to entice a large publisher to show-off a new game.

But, let’s be realistic: how many of those slots does Kojima have priority to?

The double dip on Horizon Adventures in the same month is odd, but Assassin’s Creed and Wo Long balance it out and then some.

89 games played
475 total trophies (including 15 plats)
59 PS+ games
8.6 years of PS+
373 hours played (seems low imo)
Thrill-Seeker gaming style (no clue what this means beyond action-adventure)
822 play sessions, making an average session about 27.5 minutes long.

My most played was Minecraft, from when I platinumed the PS5 edition in the spring. Side note, my top 5 games were all because I platinumed them, no competitive multiplayer. I was expecting at least Fortnite to show up.

@Nf157 Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I think last year's even broke it down by month.

@get2sammyb Are we going to get a pre-show quiz for The Game Awards this year? It's always fun to get a high score and remind myself that I pay way too much attention to these shows.

Ah, dang, 1/2 with Stephen. Fun while it lasted.

The Witness is on my platinum backlog, but I haven’t found the focus to just not give up on a puzzle. Hopefully this next year I’ll catch up on it.

@PloverNutter Yeah, exactly. Between this, Jade Raymond’s studio (that she left, right?), and the new first-party studio from the guy who created CoD Zombies, Sony is really betting on names.

But, this is also Sony, who has Neil Druckmann, Cory Barlog, and Kojima (kinda), all of whom are arguably big enough to sell a game just from their name.

@AinsleyE Yeah, it’s interesting that Sony has tried multiple times to capitalize on individual talent/names when that seems to be a dwindling reason why people buy certain games. There are definitely well-known names in the industry, but not every director with a success is one of those (or deserves it).

For adapting story-driven games, playing them is probably important, but I feel like you can get the general sense of Helldivers by focusing more on the community and core concept instead of putting hours into playing.

Ooh, I’m looking forward to this series, sounds like a lot of fun!

During quarantine, I got more serious about platinuming and glanced at my trophy list and realized that I only needed one more trophy for Rocket League’s platinum, something like ‘complete all tutorials’. It wasn’t my first plat, but it was fun.

So, now I’m 1 for 1 with Stephen. Excited to see how long that stays.

13/15, both of the ones I got wrong I was debating between two choices and picked the wrong one.

From a business standpoint, I could see the sequels as a safe, guaranteed money maker while Sony tries new stuff. Like, if Sony followed through with its 12 live service games by 2026 or whatever it was, and 10 of those failed, the AAA sequels would help offset the sunk costs of those productions. Hopefully this is the case, and we can see more studios trying new things, even if it's using old IP in new ways.

Also, since many of these are the Triple-A 30-hour campaign games, a lot of it can come down to the story. Santa Monica felt that Kratos had one more chapter in Norse, so they made that, and now they're onto something new (presumably). Guerrilla really enjoys the Horizon world and wants to spend more time in it. Insomniac decided to use Spider-Man 2 to more fully transition to Miles' story.

I can see why the sequels can be called repetitive or boring, but they're not copy-and-paste from the originals, and they all differ from each other enough that it works.

@get2sammyb Any clue what the previous record is? Without checking, I'd assume TLOUP2 or Zelda BOTW.

edit: for the proper The Game Awards, not any other shows

edit #2: I can Google. The Last of Us Part II currently holds the record with 7 wins. God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur's Gate 3 are next up with 6 wins each.

The gameplay looks fun, idk if it'd make me become a handheld gamer, but I'll at least give it a shot.

Also, no voiceover kinda sounds weird. I'm assuming if I'm actually playing it I won't notice, but the ambience sounds too quiet from the video.

This seems like something they could easily port to PS5, especially if they push/emphasize the Portal.

But even without the port, it'll almost definitely perform well.

@themightyant we’re thinking on the same wavelength; Pacific Drive and Thank Goodness have been on my wishlist, and Still Wakes was looking interested. Glad to hear it’s worth the play.

I feel like either new Astro Bot levels or new characters/release date for Marvel Tokon is pretty realistic. Maybe the God of War 2D game, if it was supposed to be at the last show and got pushed.

I think you'll find people can argue with numbers and charts. They'll be confidently wrong, but they can still argue.

As long as there's at least one game each month that seems interesting to me, I see it as a win. In September, I got Psychonauts 2 to play later and ended up using Viewfinder as my side game when I needed a break from a big single-player campaign. October was great for me, I'll actually play all three in the line-up.

@Dragoon1994 Oh yeah, I forgot about that one.

...I already have it.

@Dragoon1994 Yeah, the plat seems pretty straightforward. IIRC, there's a trophy that needs you to run through the alley with the bugs jumping at you without getting any on you; that's the only really difficult one.

I played it on Extra but never got around to the plat, and it’s bugged me ever since. Now I’ll finally be able to mark that off.

That’s interesting. I thought that leading up to the release, Remedy had described FBC as a side game, something to make money sure, but never as a headliner like Alan Wake 2 was or Control 2 will be. The dual release on Game Pass and PS+ lined up with that. But now, if this stepping aside is related, they seemed to have had a significantly greater expectation than they let on.

@get2sammyb Ah, okay. Man, imagine coming back from that trip, halfway around the world, and reporting it to the office.

Wait, did Tencent actually want to make a The Last of Us mobile game, or just use that as a bait-and-switch to re-pitch the Horizon mobile game?

Deathloop looks like fun, but every time I see it I just remember how it showed up at every single State of Play and Showcase for over a year.

@SamMR True, I didn't think about it as a pure cut-losses tactic, just in terms of how they could turn it into a profit. I still don't see that happening, just them doing more of the same of what you said, selling on PS/Switch and cloud on PC/Handheld

As much as this seems likely, I can’t see it happening (or, at least, can’t see it being extremely successful) unless Sony and/or Nintendo allow GamePass directly on their hardware, especially if cloud gaming is the main push from Microsoft.

I'm going through The Last of Us Part II for the first time, since it's on PS+. Even though I know all of the main...controversies, it's still fun to see them develop and the side beats that I don't know.