JustPlainLoco

During the interview, we also learned that John Garvin and Jeff Ross never even approached Sony about Days Gone 2 because the higher ups at BEND STUDIOS denied their pitch, not only that but John Garvin & Jeff Ross knew they were releasing Days Gone in a rough state and said that; had they approached Sony about delaying Days Gone one more time for further polish, they said that Sony would have allowed it BUT John Garvin & Jeff Ross chose not to.

I hope this remake adds more trophies veered toward the campaign because most of the trophies for the base and remastered version of The Last of Us was largely veered toward Factions (Which I don't care for). Additionally if this The Last of Us Part 2 Director's Cut is true, I hope they tinker with the audio, because I found the dialogue harder to hear in cutscene than during gameplay, it was inconsistent.

Gee people act like Sony not greenlighting a sequel means a Days Gone 2 will never happen, after working on the first game for 6 years, I'm sure many of the folks at Bend Studio were thrilled at the prospect of creating another new IP. And since I know just how much people LOVE to b*tch and moan, if they had greenlighted a Days Gone 2, I GUARANTEE you would have just as many people b*tching and moaning that "They should be making a new IP", the amount of people I've seen complaining about this EXACT issue, people complaining about H2FW, God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Tsushima 2, R&C Rift Apart, Demon Souls Remake, even people complaining how Insomniac Games is a 'Marvel Games' developer now, "Oh they should be working on new IP's" but if they do that then you have the same people complaining about a lack of sequels, there's just no pleasing a lot of you people.

Plus Bend Studios being allowed to create a new IP means they can gain more experience, experience that can be utilized when they inevitably make Days Gone 2. Keep in mind; Days Gone was their first attempt at a AAA game since 2007 back on the PS2, and despite the bugs & glitches and some pacing issues with the story, Bend Studio did a damn good job with Days Gone, but the same people who complain about it JUST being 'Another Zombie Game' are the same people who play the same copy-and-paste Multiplayer Game and act like Multiplayer Games haven't been done to death, but no one has the stones to call Developers out on creating nothing but lazy copy-and-paste unoriginal uninspired Multiplayer Games, my oh my ya gotta love them double standards.

Certain people: "Oh Days Gone is just another Zombie Game"
Same people in the same breath "Oh I can't wait to play Back 4 Blood and Dying Light 2!"

Glad to see F.I.S.T getting some well deserved attention on this site, I'm not a big fan of metroidvania type games, but there's something oddly engrossing about this game, it's likely due to the anthropomorphic animals in a futuristic steampunk world, it's unique, and F.I.S.T ended up being my hidden gem of the year, it deserves all the love and support it receives.

I could never get into the Bioshock series, tried many times to do so, but the series just never clicked with me, which is odd considering Rapture is such a great setting for a game.

Great list, though I'm saddened by the absence of F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch, in my eye; it truly was 2021's hidden gem.
If you have not play F.I.S.T, I urge you to do so, I'm usually not the biggest fan of metroidvania type games, but F.I.S.T was a joy from start to finish, and it's well-worth your time.

Had to go with Dying Light 2, Horizon 2 Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, A Plaue's Tale: Requiem and Stray.

While I do wish RE Village had maintained the same level of horror & scares as RE7, and I also wish all the villains got more screen time, there's no denying I still had a blast playing this game, I replayed through it 3 times in a row back-to-back, and still plan on playing through it again a few more times.

In Resident Evil 9, I hope the Duke makes a return, everyone needs an ally like the Duke in their lives.

Replaying Tomb Raider (2013) & The Evil Within on PS4, and playing Spider-Man Remastered on PS5, once I'm done with these games, I'm gonna finally play Spider-Man Miles Morales on PS5.
(I played Miles Morales on PS4 but it had a few game-breaking glitches concerning the Spidey Challenges & Base Takedowns that prevented me from fully completing the game).

@Tomato_Goose - I agree, as much as I love the game, I still felt it was missing something, I think it's the fact they didn't go all out with the multiple dimension angle, they should have brought back more characters from past games, it needed a few more worlds, and I think it needed a few side villains like Captain Slag & Rusty Pete with Tools of Destruction or Lord Vorselon & The Valkyries with Crack in Time.
Granted I do think they were holding back so they didn't use up too many ideas they might intend on saving for the inevitable sequel, because I do believe Rift Apart is the start of a new trilogy of Ratchet & Clank games.

Kit ended up being the surprise highlight of Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, she was absolutely adorable, her backstory was quite sad, and I loved the dynamic she and Ratchet had over the course of the game. This might sound wrong... but I think I like Kit more than Clank, Kit is just so adorably shy, yet sweet, and I just couldn't get enough of her.

Persona 3 or Persona 4 Remake? Unlikely but I thought I'd throw these two games into the ring of speculation we've got going on.

I wanna play It Takes Two but it's difficult to find time to get another friend to play it with me at the same time, and I don't want to play it with just some random person on the internet.

@Nepp67 - Honestly I wish we got more moments with the villains, more development, more backstory, more interactions with one another and with Ethan. It felt like each villain was just something to check-off on the check list. I'm not sure how to describe it but I really think we should have encountered each villain multiple times through the story, each becoming more of a threat after each encounter before killing them for good, like Jack Baker in RE7, instead of killing all of them back-to-back.
Just to clarify: I loved the villains (Minus Mother Miranda), but I just wanted more of them than what we got.

@The_Pixel_King - Both are great games, replayed through RE Village 4 times this year, incredibly fun but lacking in the horror department, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy genuinely surprised me with how incredible it was, and I was one of the biggest skeptics of this game (I thought it was gonna be another Avengers deal), and it ended up being my favorite game of 2021 for it's great story, incredible voice-acting & performances, fun and relatable characters, enjoyable gameplay, great soundtrack, stunning graphics and it's easily one of the funniest games I've played in a long time.

I haven't given my top 5 yet, so why not now?
5. Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
4. F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch
3. Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
2. Little Nightmares 2
1. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
With Honorable Mentions to Returnal, Life is Strange: True Colors, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Alan Wake Remastered, Mass Effect Trilogy Legendary Edition and Resident Evil Village.

I misinterpreted the question "Which God of War Ragnarok character went viral due to their newly revealed physical appearance?", I remember a LOT of people bellyaching about that one female character (Can't remember her name) being a different race, I thought that is what the question was referring to.
Also FAT THOR FTW!!!

Turtle Dead-as-a-Rock Studios now I guess

@Shinnok789 - Some people prefer the faster-paced more aggressive combat of Bloodborne over the slower-paced more cautious combat of Dark Souls. I actually tried to get a friend into Dark Souls a few years back but he couldn't get into it due to it's slower-paced combat, so I suggested he give Bloodborne, and he fell in love with Bloodborne. After 2 months of playing nothing but Bloodborne, I managed to convince him to give Dark Souls another try, and he did become a fan as well, but he would always tell me "But it's not Bloodborne".

More Accessibility Options is always a good thing, especially for someone like me who needs to make adjustments on a game-by-game basis, especially in the audio and subtitles department because of my poor hearing and poor eyesight. I can't even play Persona 5 Strikers because there's no options to adjust the audio, because the background music is louder than the dialogue, and in a lot of cases the dialogue is too quiet in some parts even when the background music isn't too loud, which sucks because Japanese developed games often have some of the best audio.

@SoulsBourne128 - The studio that did the MediEvil Remake was Other Ocean Interactive, also known for porting Minecraft across multiple platforms, and had a hand in the development & porting of those two Yugioh: Legacy of the Duelist games. Regardless yes I too think that would be a good acquisition, especially if it means more MediEvil, but after a MediEvil 2 Remake, I think they would have to try and breathe new life into MediEvil the same way that Santa Monica Studios did with God of War. Also TiGames the studio behind F.I.S.T would be another good acquisition, F.I.S.T truly was an overlooked and underappreciated game, the hidden gem of 2021 in my opinion.

Single-Player Story-Driven Games that leave an an everlasting emotional impact on the player. The types of games that make you reflect on your actions and maybe even learn something about yourself you didn't know before. The types of games that stay with you because of how emotionally invested you were in it's story, characters, world and lore.

Single-Player Story-Driven experiences I'll never forget include; The Last of Us Part 1 & 2, Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Danganronpa series, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, the Persona series, Telltale's The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Telltale's The Wolf Among Us, Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands, A Plague's Tale, Heavy Rain, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Ni No Kuni: Curse of the White Witch, Dragon Quest XI, the Sly Cooper Trilogy, the Jak & Daxter Trilogy, the Uncharted series, Infamous 1 & 2, Red Dead Redemption, Portal 1 & 2, and tons upon tons more games I know I'm forgetting.

I'll still buy it on PS5 just to support the developers who no doubt worked really hard on this game... despite some of it's questionable story elements.

@Hootnoodle - Damn, hope it doesn't have a negative impact on your hearing, I had a really bad ear infection back in February 2019, and since then my hearing has been on a massive decline, the hearing in my right ear fluctuates between near deaf or just okay all the time, I also have tinnitus now (Constant humming, clicking or ringing in one or sometimes both ears), and have developed vertigo as a result of the hearing loss & tinnitus. All because of one ear infection as a result of going swimming at my local swimming pool, haven't gone swimming since.

2nd playthrough of Guardians of the Galaxy, and went back to finishing Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Also playing Pokemon Brilliant Diamond in the mornings and late at nights when in bed. I also plan on playing some Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl tomorrow.

Got my copy of the game today, might play it shortly, if not; tomorrow, but I'm hearing great things about the game, which is good, because I was very hesitant to play the game after... that OTHER game, but if the characters, humor, emotion and story is as good as I'm hearing, Guardians of the Galaxy could be my hidden gem of the year alongside F.I.S.T.

Back during the PS3 era, I lost a lot of weight playing Just Dance 3 via PlayStation Move (Was given the PlayStation Move as a Birthday present), combined with at least 2 - 3 laps around my small town at nights every 2 days, and my diet consisted mostly of Baked Beans, Toast with Vegemite, Dry Biscuits with Cheese and Salad Rolls.
Sadly I gained most of that weight back the following years after a few deaths in the family (I tend to eat more when stressed or saddened).

Demon's Souls, Returnal & Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut.
However I gotta give special mention to Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, F.I.S.T, Astro's Playroom, Alan Wake Remastered, Resident Evil Village and Little Nightmares 2.

I see Tales from the Borderlands there... shame that we never got and probably will never get a Tales from the Borderlands 2.
Come to think of it, we haven't received any news about The Wolf Among Us Season 2 since it was revealed back at the 2019 Game Awards.

@Royalblues - How? In just about every State of Play or PlayStation Showcase, they always highlight multiple Indies & AA Games, so I fail to see how they are 'failing behind a bit in the the Indiesphere'? Hell the most common complaint about their State of Plays & PlayStation Showcase's is that they focus too much on Indies & AA Games. Not to mention when Sony does highlight and bring attention to these Indies & AA Games, very few people actually support those games upon release, instead all I hear is "Imma wait for it to come to Gamepass" or "Imma wait for it to come to PlayStation Plus".
So it's not Sony failing to support the Indiesphere, it's 'Gamers' failing to support the Indiesphere.

Take-Two becoming more and more like Ubisoft & EA, cancelling projects with potential in favor of milking the series they know will generate more revenue. They're playing it too safe really, and the more they milk GTA, the less interested I am in GTA6.

Would rather hear news of an actual acquisition, even if I have no idea who else Sony should acquire since acquiring Bluepoint, Housemarque & Insomniac Games, maybe Ember Labs? And then just work on expanding their pre-existing studios, so that every First-Party Studio can work on multiple projects at once.

Doubt Sony would order a Cease and Desist, that's more Nintendo's territory, I don't think Sony would even care, in fact: if I remember correctly, about a year or two ago, someone was recreating a level from Sly 2 Band of Thieves, and upon hearing about this project, the folks at Sucker Punch reached out to said person and actually sent them most of the assets they themselves used on the original game.

NeXomon & NeXomon: Extinction both on PS4, NeXomon feels like a breath of fresh air after playing Pokemon for all these years and noticing Game Freak's decline in creativity. Also decided to replay through Mario Odyssey for the 3rd time.

Gee the amount of people that expect this game to be included day one to PS Plus subscribers, can't even be bothered to support the developers huh? Then ya'll wonder why Sony are more focused on their AAA offerings, because you lot can't even be bothered supporting the games you CLAIM you want more of...

If I'm being honest; I've seen better work from the Modding Community, and they're doing that sh@t for free, if Modders can make GTA San Andreas reach the graphical fidelity of GTAV, than Rockstar really has no excuses.
Imagine an option to be able to switch between the original graphics of the PS2, with an actual Remake version akin to GTAV, think Halo Anniversary Edition.

Seeing Ratchet & Clank just appear and without hesitation; immediately begins to escort the injured player off in search of medical assistance, is just so wholesome.
Clank - "Do not fear. We are here to help"

@CynicalGamer - I'd hate to be the guy that has to call 'foul' on Kratos... no amount of money is worth potentially unleashing the God of War's Spartan Rage.

But I thought people were 'sick and tired of zombie games'?

Far Cry 3 for it's gripping story and phenomenal villain, Far Cry 5 for it's great cast and diverse environments, and Far Cry: New Dawn for it's more exhilarating gameplay.
Couldn't get into Far Cry 4 or Far Cry Primal.

@Dezzy70 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Halo Infinite will only launch with Multiplayer, with the campaign coming a month or two later.

Might go back and replay Code Vein or go back and finish Remnant from the Ashes.

I honestly didn't know some of these games were capped at 30fps, played through Concrete Genie & the Spyro Reignited Trilogy a few months back, the frame-rate seemed smooth to me, but I recently went back and played Bloodborne, and yeah I can see now why it really does need a 60fps patch.

Bought it physically on both PS4 & PS5, waiting for it to arrive in the mail within the next 2 - 3 days.

@TraCuz- LOL nah I don't rage easily, but Demon's Souls is a slower more methodical type of difficult, while Returnal is a more fast-paced think-fast type of difficult, when I start to tire of one play-style, I switch to the other.

Still playing Demon's Souls Remake & Returnal

I wonder if Bluepoint will reveal something at the Game Awards? During the 'Welcome to the Family' video that PlayStation / Bluepoint uploaded, toward the end, they said something along the lines of "We can't wait to reveal more in the coming months", sounds like they could have two projects in the works; something original (New IP OR a Sequel to an existing IP) or a Remake.

I'd pay top dollar if the Game Awards was hosted by Statler & Waldorf, those two old farts always crack me up.

After the phenomenal job Bluepoint did with the Demon's Souls Remake, and if FromSoftware has no plans to develop Bloodborne 2, I think Bluepoint could fill that SoulsBorne void by potentially developing a Demon Souls 2.