somnambulance

@RoomWithaMoose When I think about PS2 games that really stick with me, it’s Ico/Shadow, Katamari, Final Fantasy, and Ratchet and Clank. Probably Tony Hawk too. There’s other good games, sure, but the games were so clunky and a lot of them are borderline unplayable. And even the ones that are playable, there’s very few 10/10s on the console. For the hundreds of games on the console, it’s probably less than 10.

I am getting to the point where I’ll only buy a remaster if I really love the game now. I’d greatly prefer remakes, though I’d even more greatly prefer new games. A remake has to feel different for me to really like it, I guess. I love the FF7 games and the REmakes, for sure.

But, man, Oblivion was so boring this year because it was exactly the same game with a new coat of paint. That said, I’m also torn about MGS Delta, if I’m being honest. Love MGS 3, but it felt like I’ve done it to death already too. It was too close to the source material and safe.

In this economy, if Nintendo did a price drop before the holidays, that’d be their best bet for a final hoorah to get the Switch 1 over the wall. I think it could outsell the PS2 if they did that.

It’s always weird to me, the nostalgia for the PS2. I like the system a lot and I had sooooo many games for the system, but I feel like that system was such a quantity over quality type of system when it comes to the actual games on the console. I think it’s sorta my least favorite PS. A shame the PS3 didn’t get more love.

And I believe EA is going to use AI to cut costs and eliminate staffing redundancies. It’ll empower the creativity in which shareholder earnings are acquired!

I support the review Sammy did, even if I’m playing on Switch 2 rather than PS5, so I’m not sure if PS5 has unique issues in practice. Honestly, the MK games play like how they play on older consoles and such. I literally played an arcade tower of UMK3 a couple months ago and I was impressed by how similar the emulation feels in this collection, so I get it. If you’re reviewing this game for how it feels as a nostalgic experience rather than to nitpick technical performance, that’s where you get a 9/10. The witch-hunts are tiresome and clearly Sammy and team have built a community worth being a part of or none of us would continue to be here.

At the end of the day, unfortunately technical performance won’t be the same for everyone either. Baldur’s Gate 3 was broken on my PS5 for about a year after release, but it’s not like I’m trying to burn down the developers or protest the reviews that people had written. I may disagree with a review because my technical experience was different, but I can understand where the review comes from.

@Oram77 Yes! Oh my god yes! I could try every game then and only have my money be well spent because I’m having fun being engaged to my console, which is what Sony wants, right?

Also, is it bad if I’m really curious what Concord would’ve been had it lived? I mean, what would those periodic cutscene have been?

@Titntin @ShogunRok Is it just me or does this year feel like the year without a real GotY that feels like a GotY? While Death Stranding 2 is my favorite, I was ready to jump aboard the Silksong train if the game got traction in the discussion, but then… outside maybe Nintendo Life’s discussion… the game just seemed to pass too. It seems Clair Obscur, since release, has been the only game talked about all year long. I’m not sure what keeps the discussion going about CO and honestly like @Oram77 said, the glaze the game got soured me on a game I otherwise liked, for the most part. But honestly too, if it hadn’t’ve gotten that praise, I don’t know if I’d have finished it! I kept waiting for that big moment to change my mind on it. A couple of my friends said the same thing and that they forced themselves to finish on the hype.

My wife is perhaps the sanest one in my circle, as, maybe two hours in, she sat up, said the game was boring and walked away. When I completed the game, she asked if the game stopped being boring and I said no…The melodramatics were a bit much to me. Tintin, I was weirdly ok with that death too while I was playing. Is it bad if, after that one, I was rooting for a major death at the end of every act?

I can say this: at least when the paintress blobs a big, old 2026 on that fat, stone calendar, Clair Obscur being touted in every GotY article will finally go to Gommage. Then at least we’ll have a few months before GTA6 maximizes on saturation.

Robert, I’m eagerly awaiting your list and the rest of the staff. After following you all for years, I believe this may be the first year where I can’t even guess what your lists will look like (outside perhaps the fact that at least one gatcha game will certainly make Sammy’s list), though I’m suspecting every list will be a VERY different one.

Voting for Death Stranding 2, even though I know it has no chance of winning.

It’s so obvious Clair Obscur will basically sweep this year it’s not even funny. Months after beating the game, yeah… I still don’t get it! It’s a good game, but I’d say it’s my least favorite game out of the list of nominees, outside Peak, which I’ve never played, so I can’t comment on it. I will say I liked Clair Obscur more than KCD2 to play, but think KCD2 is an objectively better game, if that makes sense too.

Personally, this year, I’m more interested in the Pushsquare staff lists than any GotY lists. I have a feeling the staff lists will be really varied this year. I know that’s not the Golden Joysticks or whatever, but I post here and not there. Lol.

I’ll say this: they did something really cool here, but it’s a shame it’s in a Fortnite package.

Admittedly, I’ve not played Fortnite since they added the Lego expansion, but I just really have never enjoyed how Fortnite feels to play, even in the days before it was a BR experience. It has nothing to do with the game being popular. I can admit I enjoyed PUBG and Warzone and Overwatch in the past. In fact, I’d probably say I had the most fun in my gaming life playing multiplayer Halo as that memory grows more distant. Fortnite just isn’t for me. Neither is Apex or Valorant and dozens of other games. For people that do like it though and also like the Simpsons, what a treat!

I might check it out to see it and then immediately uninstall after that. Hopefully the excitement from this creates a genuine new Simpsons game instead.

@naruball I couldn’t even get my family to try Absolum with me. Lol. It feels like that game was literally a flavor of the week on the internet and then most people dropped it. For me, I beat the game, but I lowered the difficulty, so that it was more comparable to like TMNT.

As for me, Katamari and Mortal Kombat on the Switch 2 if I find time, but I’ve been constantly working either for my job or home projects the last few weeks and I keep having to invest more time and more time. I’m sort of wearing out from it, but I’ve got no choice. Sometimes house projects need to happen and you just got to keep working on it, right? The only downside is sometimes one project becomes four then becomes twelve and so on and so forth. I’d like to play Arc Raiders, but I just don’t know if I’ll have time for it.

@IntrepidWombat You prefer rhythm games I suppose?

You know, honestly, Expedition 33 on a Guitar Hero controller might actually be a really fun way to play it, now that I think about it.

To be honest, Arc Raiders feels like the multiplayer game I’ve been wanting to play for like 10 years. I’ve not played much, but what I have played is fantastic. I did not expect to like what I’ve played so much, nor for a multiplayer game to probably enter my personal year end list.

I was never happy to pay for online multiplayer to begin with.

@HRdepartment We’ve found one of them! Lol. It’s sort of fun, isn’t it?

You know, I was wearing a FF6 t-shirt at the grocery store the other day and someone with a CO t-shirt had the goofball audacity to approach me to say that CO is what Final Fantasy should be and that it’s better than the series had ever been. I said, “I bet your other favorite games are Baldur’s Gate 3 and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, aren’t they?” He got all impressed that I knew which games are trendy on the internet and then told him I prefer Pokemon and walked away.

I’d genuinely give CO 7/10, but I also clearly have bad taste!

@HRdepartment @Oram77 I definitely wouldn’t say they’re rivals either. They’re very different games. Personally, I prefer the more action oriented approach to combat Final Fantasy has.

I thought Clair Obscur was good too, but I just didn’t really resonate with it like everyone else in the world. I’ve probably had more fun being a contrarian about the game than I did actually playing it. I’ve definitely called the game a 5/10 to people in real life to get a rouse out of them. 🤡

Remake and Rebirth > Clair Obscur

Let me start the comments by stirring the pot 🥘

Sort of interesting to see how critical people are in the comments.

Personally, I love these Digital Eclipse collections and documentaries. Really happy with this release. It satisfies the nostalgia itch, for sure. The quality of the games on presentation are all over the place, but we already knew that, and it’s fun going back to play the bad ones. It’s entertaining. At the very least, I can now play MK3 Ultimate whenever I feel like it. It was always my personal go-to at the arcade back in the day. Actually had a blast playing it live at an arcade over the summer (though arcades don’t quite have that feel that they did 25-30 years ago now).

Not sure about other PS5, but it runs flawlessly on Switch 2 in handheld mode.

It all depends on the release schedule, honestly. Last time I marathoned any horror games on purpose, I think, was the year RE Village came out when I played REmake 2 and REmake 3 back to back in October of that year. I used to do that a little more often, but I’m a release schedule kind of guy now, I guess.

I have an Alan Wake hoodie and Maniac Mansion sweater I wear more often though! Jeez, I wish someone would port Maniac Mansion to modern consoles…

The reality is that Sony’s biggest competition is that the F2P model took off and following that there’s been a down economy. People are simply spending less on gaming because it’s cheaper and more social to play things like Fortnite.

…but that’s only a part of the story. I think that genuine gamers and mainstream gamers have always been separate demographics that aren’t studied separately. I do think that more people are buying indie games and investing outside the AAA space, but that’s not as large a demographic as the casual space, so there’s less notice taken.

I’m interested, but I’m not in a rush. I’m still working on Yotei and I’m sort of in a place where I’m more in the mood for more casual games anyway.

Now that makes for a Happy Halloween!

Sign me up! The hype around Marvel Tokon has me itching for a fighting game, but I have no interest in Marvel, so hopefully this is an antidote for the itch.

With Monster Hunter right now, I think the things is that people aren’t “trying MH” anymore. The series is back to having a core concept rather than having a dramatic shake up like World was. Personally, I’m not much a MH guy, but I bought World and Rise because the series seemed to have new life to it. Didn’t love either game. Played the Wilds beta and I was good. I’ll never buy the game. People that are on the fence are probably buying the cheaper games instead during sales too, as the risk is lower for a potential reward.

I’d imagine KCD2 releasing right after it to considerably more word of mouth too might’ve washed out some wishy washy early sales too. Usually MH is a little more present in the GotY discussion. This year, it does feel forgotten and would be surprised to see it in many year end top 10 lists.

As long as this helps Sony pump more money into Kodakowa, so they in turn make a second season of Delicious in Dungeon that lives up to the first and concludes the story, I’m happy for the success!

I appreciate these companies are letting us know this. At least we know who NOT to support. Back in the day, we’d all be oblivious. So much for being excited about Hi-Fi Rush 2!

Go get Battle Chef Brigade and the Forgotten City, together under $10. Those two are both such novel games that honestly I wish more people would play them.

This sale’s got a decent amount of great games at great prices, truly. You could spend $100 and get a year’s worth of fantastic titles easy.

Yes, on day one! This is the official next era in gaming. Going to share this one with my son as our first co-op FPS and I’m really looking forward to it. The novelty of it coming to PS5 can’t be overlooked either. I think I got goosebumps the moment I saw the PS5 logo. For all the good times with Halo over the years, I can’t skip this event.

I’ve preordered. Getting the band back together for this one. Hopefully it actually clicks with the squad/clan/group of middle aged men we are that is probably too old to use any of those tags nowadays.

@UltimateOtaku91 That’s the big problem, isn’t it? It’s sad that we have to fear what corporate consolidation is next. If it’s not Sony, there’s certainly other worse and more scummy conglomerates that may take the bite here.

Finished Pokemon Z-A this morning (and the final season of Resident Alien, as much as that is not a game). And after that, there was a new Katamari game. I will be out of town in a moment for the next two days. I will bring the Switch 2, sooooo… maybe a round of Hades 2 and Absolum to complement Katamari? Or maybe just Katamari. Katamari is such pure good to me.

I hope that means multiplayer evolved is on the way!

Genuinely baffling that there’s no multiplayer, but man… I’m excited for this one.

@Titntin The depressing thing is that I liked EA as a kid and I think (if we don’t count Hazelight games, which are independent and just published by EA) the last EA game I liked was Mass Effect 3. I don’t think that’s changing any time soon.

Nice. Didn’t know EA’s games could get more soulless, but EAi sounds like it could push the envelope on that front.

Since when is a 7/10 a bad review score? C’mon community. By giving it a 7/10, Robert said it was good, and if anyone knows how to review RPGs across the internet, it’s him. Let’s all remember that not every game needs to be 8/10+ to be worth playing. Based on what I’m seeing, if you’re someone that loved the first one, this will be more of that, but with better writing, according to this review and others. If we reduce ourselves to only play GotY tier titles, get ready for the industry to continue its descent into banality. Play the 7/10s. They’re still worth it.

Having said that, I was hoping to be wrong, but it sounds like my personal biggest issue with the first game persists in the second one, where I do struggle to remember the story (and I completed the first one). The whole first game felt derivative of Fallout as if it was meant to be based on a tale from a fictitious comic book that existed in the Fallout universe or something.

Even so, having played through Starfield, I can’t help but be curious about how this one turned out in the desire to compare them. Alas, with me still having Absolum, Yotei, Pokemon, Silent Hill, and Katamari to play (and Metroid soon enough), this year probably isn’t the year, but maybe if we get a slow patch and a good sale, I’ll be in.

This looks awesome! Hope we see some reviews on this one.

Right now, I think I’ll just keep my Switch 2, PS5, and Xbone plugged in. The Xbone can still stream any game my Series S can, but I can watch DVDs on it. Wanna bet Nextbox games will be streamable on it too? I get the feeling Nintendo made waves with MKW, but will be the cheaper option again sooner than we all expect. And I’m sort of expecting PS5 games to continue releasing for a decade. I’ll upgrade if Kojima makes it the only option to play Physint… or my PS5 breaks again….

Also, I only expect PS6 to be half Xbox’s price if there’s a change in strategy from what we’ve seen this generation and Sony pivots somewhat to focus the experience on things other than premium visuals.

Happy to help. I’d like to play the game more, but that release schedule lately, man… I do love it though! Perfect Halloween time game too.

Would be wild if Sega manages to find a way to call the games FIFA going forward and confuse a lot of people.

Pokémon Z-A. I am suspecting everything else I was playing will temporarily be put on hold for a bit after my session last night. The discussion on its “Dreamcast visuals” is totally overblown and untrue. If we’re going to pick a topic that makes more sense to go after Game Freak about, it’d be the lack of voice acting…

Anyway, the gameplay so far is just so good and addictive! I had a hard time putting the game down now that I’m finally out of the introductory portion of the game and I have the freedom to play as I like.

I was playing other things before Pokemon, such as Absolum, Hades 2, and Yotei, but those games will be on ice for a little bit.

Also, I’ll be making a habit of showing off that I was on TV yesterday! Lol.

I would love, love, love a Dragon Ball beat ‘em up. How has this not happened yet?

I feel like Quantic Dream has dropped off heavily as a studio since Become Human. I loved their earlier games, but I think they’ve pivoted in a really weird direction after basically mastering a very niche and specific genre. It’s a shame because no one makes Heavy Rain style games anymore and it feels like there could be a market for it. This news just proves that the studio doesn’t understand why they had success before or who their audience is.

@Hyena_socks Yeah, I feel the same. I loved the first game for a chunk of time, but when I finished it, I didn’t feel like I actually remembered most of the story in detail. It was a little flat to me.

Not sure if there’s another game set to release that has a higher likelihood of being a 10/10 in my opinion. I’ve loved the last two games, both GotY tier titles.

Hopefully I enjoy it more than the last one. Geoff does a better show with worst games year after year, it feels like, so last year’s was hard to watch for me, even though I appreciate what his team does.

I’d rather Sucker Punch just keep doing what they’re doing. The Ghost games are far better than Infamous. Sure, I’d love Sly to return as much as anyone probably wants Infamous, but we’ve got to accept that the developers have moved past that era and that’s ok.

Honestly, I can wait for the next Kojima game and will probably stick with current consoles until that point. Sony’s pushed me away a lot this generation with the shift from narrative adventure games. For the longest time, I felt that Rift Apart was the only essential exclusive game. Fortunately, we’ve had Astro Bot, Death Stranding, and Yotei since then, but even so, right now Intergalactic is the only first party game on the horizon I care about. It feels easier than it should have to scale back my gaming spend on Sony consoles the last couple years. Sony will have to show a truly compelling argument to get me interested in PS6. It’s sad because I felt the exact opposite in the latter years of the PS4 era.

I want this to be good, but expectations are extremely low, given the series’s gaming history. Please be at least 7/10 tier and I’m down!

I’ll play FighterZ and buy every character forever if that’s the route they go with it. I love the game! Favorite Dragon Ball game and definitely one of my favorite fighting games

Well, I forgot to write on this yesterday, but so far I’ve played Absolum, which I love to start, Kuukiyomi 4, which my son stole from me and proceeded to play as rudely as possible, a few rounds of Hades 2, which I’m starting to progress in now (and I agree with everyone that prefers the first game, basically, because the second one may have better gameplay but a less compelling storyline), and Super Mario Galaxy 2… because my son was having trouble with bosses.

Hopefully I get a chance to play Yotei as well! Pokemon is coming out next week and, after a relatively easy year to stay ahead of games, I’m sinking now! A good problem to have, huh?