ThomasHL

No-one really knows how this will play out, and speculation could be wildly out of step.

What we know is it will be a weaker version of the support passive. The support passive doesn't really effect combat - it only kicks in after not being shot for a few seconds. It's also not very fast. Supports don't rely on their passive for healing - they use their abilities and the other support to heal them up.

But this could theoretically effect lone wolf DPS' and potentially encourage DPS' to duck out of combat for a few seconds to get some regen. Will it be powerful enough to bother doing that? Depends on the numbers

@RicebinBernacky it's the games that people play more that win. People aren't going to not vote just because they've only played half the games on the list. So they vote the game they've played as game of the year.

There's only one indie game on the list even though there were probably 5+ indie games this year that deserved it more than any of the games in 6 to 10

It's a good setting for a MMO, but when it comes to Horizon, the believability of the ecosystem is much more important to me than single player / multiplayer.

I want the robots to move around more naturally, and interact with each more naturally. Add more Monster Hunter.

Do that, and I'll love the game, MMO or no

It's one of the greats, but not the greatest simply because a lot of the best AAAs were sequels and don't feel like they'll forever alter how games are made.

If this kicks off a lot of new trends in future years then its true greatest contention.

@Korgon I find BG3 very intimidating - I enjoy it whenever I get going, but starting a session is hard. It's almost too interactive - I'm afraid I'm going to mess up and get an outcome I don't like for playing non-perfectly.

If I had to guess whether a random character was in Star Rail or Genshin, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference

If you're going to level scale in an RPG, just don't have levelling at all. Do ability trees and cut out the stat scaling for everyone.

Level scaling is junk gaming. It's just a way to abuse people's desire to see numbers go up without doing anything meaningful.

I'm playing Honkai Star Rail. I'm still unsure if I like it - the combat is excellent, but everything else is a bit bland.

I really thought Starfield would turn things around for them. I've never seen a Bethesda game leave the public discourse so quickly

Honkai hasn't really been clicking with me yet. Is there a point in the story I should stick it out to?

If they really didn't see a Starfield boost, they're in big trouble. Microsoft looking for a way out of that CoD multiplatform requirement now.

I'm going to speculate slightly below the PS4, perhaps 110 million.

Reasons 1) Xbox acquisitions are going to kick in in a big way, slowing current growth. It's hard to underestimate how big Elder Scrolls games are to people. If Starfield is close to as big, it's the kind of game that will attract people who only buy consoles for one or two games

2) The Switch 2 will come out in a few years, and put more pressure on PS5 sales, especially if it can achieve PS4 level graphics on a handheld.

3) The PS5 is only a small step up over the PS4. I don't regret getting one, but it's been a less satisfying purchase than the PS4 was

4) With the steam deck, PC games are slowly becoming more accessible to a wide audience

All of that only adds up to a small dip, but I still think it will be a dip. A lot depends on Bethesda actually getting things right and Microsoft sticking to a strategy - two things which are always a risk

@somnambulance you convinced me, I'm voting Noctis

@LifeGirl for COD and multiplayer games sure. But Microsoft said internally they were looking to "crush Sony" with their buying power 3 years ago, and I absolutely do not believe they've changed their minds.

Uncharted wasn't particularly original in taking inspiration from films either, including that scene. Saying that, the luggage rack shot is very similar!

It was the director, Christopher McQuarrie who wanted to do a train crash. Just guessing from his age, I don't think he played Uncharted.

There's no "game industry" agenda to kill physical games here. Tesco are a big profit-obssessed supermarket. If they stopped stocking physical games it was because not enough people were buying them.

Big recommendation for Kingdom Come Deliverance at that price, one of the greatest sleeper hit RPGS of the last generation. One for Witcher fans and Fallout Vegas fans - quality storytelling with a big focus on immersion in the world.

Not having to store discs is a big deal at this point in my life. I'm at the stage where the clutter and storage space are bigger concerns than paying a little bit extra for the game.

@Markatron84 I read that as how few physical sales you need to get on the charts after the handful of AAA releases. Remember when Gollum made the charts despite selling nothing?

I'm guessing only Final Fantasy and Zelda sold anything meaningful this week.

Arena fighters and grinder RPGs roll out

25 million is shockingly low

I didn't know it existed

10% of all PS5 owners in Japan isn't bad, especially as this is physical only I think. With digital sales included that's easily more than 1 in 5 Japanese PS5 owners.

I knew it would turn out like this, not because of anything about AEW in particular, but because people underestimate how difficult and expensive it is to make a game from scratch these days. The WWE games have a much bigger budget and get to iterate on work they've built up over a decade.

Chances are, a sequel would do much better (although it would still probably lack polish)

"There's so many competition regulators that have to give us the go ahead before we're willing to tell people it will be exclusive"

Definitely developed by some people who actually climb. Look at them shake out their hands! And they even have a handwavy version of cams.

I'd love to play a climbing game that put serious emphasis on foot and hand placement though. This still looks like you'll jump from node to node

Let's hope you actually have a reason to run away this time, unlike the original games, where running away was fun, but the objectively better strategy was just to hold block and spam the counter button for a few minutes.

I've got a friend who is very wary about playing games with large numbers in the title, because he feels like he should start from 1.

I doubt Microsoft payed much for the embargo if anything, it's probably just in exchange for a spot in their showcase and maybe some contribution towards marketing.

For Atlus it's a win. They get the initial hype, then they get a couple of days of 'is this coming to playstation' articles, then they get to announce it for Playstation. I've paid more attention to the game because of the embargo.

From the Microsoft side of things, they don't want to be promoting PlayStation the same day they're promoting their own games. They want the headlines to be xlook what's on Xbox" not "look what game we're all getting". It makes sense to push back the the PS announcements a couple of days after their showcase.

@Th3solution the question will be not just how many sign up, but how long they stay. If people sign up, play it for a couple of months and then leave again, they'll have just been selling Skyrim for a $40 discount at launch.

I thought the controversy was going to be that some people who really didn't like the tone shift from ME1 to ME2 view that event as the best example of Mass Effect losing its way - the main character dying for about a minute of game time and getting resurrected with very little consequence.

But nope, whatever this was, it was way dumber.

@gigiard ah that makes sense, thanks!

The visual flow of those Kameos is weird. I hope at least they're pretty rare

Was not expecting the Never Have I Ever guy

Is this the first time we got a release window? Q4 2023

(Also note to marketers: Q4 is a business term, don't put that in trailers.)

This is a true Getting Over It sequel

The chibi style is a real disappointment - for a game based on its visual style as much as Persona, it's a fairly big deal

Who was the guy in the sting at the end? I didn't understand why that bit was dramatic

DONTNOD always put in effort with their games. They've always got new ideas, so I'll follow any game from them with interest.

The trailer voiceover seemed way better than the footage being shown.

@belmont Microsoft really wanted to attract non-gamers. That was the key to their plan - lower the cost but widen the market.

The thing about TV and films is, they're short, particularly nowadays. And a lot of it can be made cheaply, outside of your tent poles.

With them, I'm always struggling to find things to watch, because I run out of the stuff I'm interested in.

Games are the total opposite. I always own more games than I manage to play, because a good game can take a month + worth of time by itself. And they're really expensive to make. I just don't see subscription services working out, aside from giving you access to a back catalogue of older games.

The really problem TV / film streaming solved was that before streaming, you couldn't watch a TV or film at the time you wanted to. Games have never had that problem.

This isn't even a real government. No-one voted for them, and as soon as we can vote next year, they'll be gone.

An independent regulator shouldn't be swayed by them.

Cris Tales for under £7 was the only thing that caught my attention

I really enjoy Marvel Midnight Suns and would heartily recommend it, but I think there are some things going against it

1) The Marvel IP holds it back more than it helps it. My favourite characters in the game were the ones I knew least about (Magika, Nico, The Caretaker). These strategy games are mostly about getting to know your characters and it doesn't work so well for characters you already know. Amongst the bigger names, the best were those who were different from the depictions I'm familiar with (Doctor Strange). The game also doesn't recreate the feeling of being a hero, so it's not tapping into the core Marvel fantasy. Instead it's tapping into the core strategy game fantasy (which it does well).

2) The games economy systems are broken. There's an emphasis on time, choice and resources and yet you have infinite time and resources.

They've got a fair argument to make there. People are looking more and more at walled gardened ecosystems (iPhone app store) and questioning whether that's an allowable practice.

We need price competition, we all know that when Sony get on top they tend to start seeing what they can get away with. The only strong price competition Sony sees is buying games for an alternative platform.

It's an expectations thing. Did they show me games I'd love to play? Yes. Did it show what Sony is doing? No

We can't be that far off from hearing what they're working on. Days Gone came out 4 years ago. I am excited to see what it is

@JohntheRaptor what I'm saying is the trailer is throwing out some strong flags, including making the main character some half dead / half alive thing trying to reclaim their humanity. I.e. the concept of half of every Soulslike

Poor Peter always gets so cringey when he puts on the symbiote suit

@Topov81 he's growling a lot more - a sign of the symbiote affecting him.