somnambulance

I imagine this weekend it’ll be a casual mix of Flight Sim, Stalker 2, and DQ3 with some multiplayer games with the family perhaps.

I’m not sure how I feel about Stalker 2 yet, but it’s definitely hardcore. Not sure if I’ve had issues or if it’s just merciless. Don’t have any concrete thoughts about it yet.

Nope, I do all my gaming at home. I’m ok having my consoles plugged into my tv. If the consoles themselves were more portable, that’s a different story

It’s a great game. I actually sort of love it, even if I would still say FighterZ is a better game. I just wish the story mode wasn’t so authentically a PS2 relic. This’ll probably sound crazy, but I wish there were more characters too.

@Oram77 I agree. It’s not a GotY tier game. It’s a good game, but likely in the running because it had an insane player count early on. I know plenty that would have the game in their top 10 list, but none that would vote if GotY. Though this year is extremely divisive for GotY.

I’ve said it elsewhere but if this wins, we’re celebrating games going back to having stories that aren’t fleshed out in the process of a game again.

The Golden Joysticks are voted to win, so I’m not surprised with that one. I don’t expect Black Myth will win GotY with many publications that aren’t in China this year. I’d definitely be surprised if it wins at TGA.

And now I may bite on Sonic. What a deal!

@UltimateOtaku91 I’d be ok if Pokémon started getting nominated. Arceus deserved a nod in 2022 even if it had no chance of winning (though so too did Kirby and Triangle Strategy). No idea what won in 1999, but Gold/Silver deserved a nod then.

As for anyone that hasn’t played Black Myth, two hours is all you’ll need to make a call on this game, if it’s for you or not. It doesn’t get any easier, but it does get buggier and the story never congeals unless you know the source material. If a challenging boss rush with some open areas in between does it for you and you like strong visuals (and, again, if you don’t care much for your games telling a cohesive story), you will find some strong combat gameplay here. The game deserves its Metascore for sure.

I honestly think there should be a best Remake category and a best DLC category. It’s a good way to mitigate some things here. I mean, Erdtree honestly doesn’t deserve a nod for GotY, but it IS the most critically lauded DLC of all time, so it deserves something, right? A nomination for GotY just isn’t the thing. Similarly Persona 3 isn’t a GotY contender (for me and, in my perception of the industry at large, there’s other titles, even remakes, that got a harder snub in the eyes of the community), but it does deserve to have some acknowledgement.

It might be time for an alternate Game Awards, truthfully. Things smell a little off with Erdtree and Wukong getting nominations, as much as I liked them both.

@Weez I’ll be honest. I didn’t really like this Dragon Age either. I let a friend buy and then try. I was just too skeptical and felt like I was right.

Whoa. That’s crazy to see it outselling Jamboree right out of the gate. This is the biggest launch in Japan in a long time

Honestly, Dragon Age’s marketing was terrible and it alienated the BioWare faithful. I don’t blame the developers on the sales here. This is 100% on EA for basically going the same direction that Prince of Persia did with marketing by trying to appeal to a youth that doesn’t buy these games as much as a little bit older demographic that would’ve welcomed the game if it felt like it was welcoming them. Gaming marketing has sort of fallen off a cliff this generation.

I’ll buy this Day 0. As long as Remedy is in the industry doing Remedy things, I’ll still be playing games.

@DennisReynolds @AhmadSumadi @Matroska @RoomWithaMoose Whatever can bless things bless DQ for hitting that number. I’m so glad to see it have success. First time in a while I bought a game on Switch when its on other platforms, but I just had to do it for DQ and the whole HD-2D thing.

I suppose this one is a pending holidays thing. I sort of got the vibe that Sony was trying to go big with this one, even though Lego games are typically weak to mid games with typically mid sales. I mean, it DID receive marketing, which is getting sort of uncommon in the industry now. It sort of seemed like it might’ve been the Lego game that tried to be more, but u was surprised when it was sort of along the lines of what anyone should have expected. It does make everything more baffling though and sort of obvious Sony was just trying to toss out a placeholder holiday title out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s literally made to get Nintendo kids interested in the franchise enough to want to buy a PS5 for the proper games.

If it’s multiplayer, I’m totally down for this. I thought the game was fine as a single player game. It’s got its positives and negatives, it wasn’t GotY to me, but we’ll say I could see where the hype was for it to be a contender. With multiplayer, I’d definitely play this with friends though. I felt like this would essentially be the PERFECT multiplayer game.

Sound like Lego Horizon might be a flop. I’m guessing the reviews deflated its momentum big time. I know I went from pondering if I’d actually buy a Lego game for the first time in ages to “I think I’m done buying games this year.” Wouldn’t be surprised if others felt similar.

But what do I know? DQ3 came in the mail and that’s enough!

@themightyant Animal Well is in my top 10 this year. I understand your delay on AAA games, especially this year, where, for me, I didn’t much like many of the bigger games, so I’m likely going to be more choosy next year with what I buy. I love that Balatro is nominated for GotY. As much as Rebirth is my pick, if Balatro did it and won, I’d stand up and applaud as if I was there in person for the Game Awards. Lol.

@breakneck I’ll be honest in that I’ve never much cared for FromSoft games, outside Elden Ring. It “clicked” for me with Elden Ring, but that’s the only one, for whatever reason. I’m biased against Sekiro then, I suppose. I’m always surprised by the popularity of Souls games.

Control, on the other hand, man, picking between DS and Control is no easy feat. I’d say that’s the #1 and #2 of the entire PS4 generation!

DS1 was robbed in 2019!

I’ll be honest, I don’t like the nomination. I was personally disappointed in Erdtree as it didn’t rekindle my feelings for Elden Ring and as a result, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. But…. It is the highest reviewed DLC of all time, so I’m not mad. Realistically, I don’t feel there were six valid GotY entries this year. I know many will disagree with me on that, but that’s my opinion.

There’s a Dracky Quest difficulty for those people

I want this very much so. The AA games are my favorite games to play. This would mesh my tastes. I want more creativity in games and better storytelling. Banishers is the sort of what I want out of games, to be honest.

@themightyant Agree 100%

I’m really happy Balatro was nominated, though it has no chance to win. I’m rooting for Rebirth, but I’ll be happy if Astro Bot wins too. Erdtree, Metaphor, and Wukong aren’t GotY tier games, imo.

Oh and Banishers was robbed for performance. Red Mac Raith deserved a nod at least.

@Toot1st Yeah, agree 100%. It felt more clone than Overwatch in the term Overwatch clone. About the best I can say about it is that it’s better than Suicide Squad. Not a very high bar. The beta screamed 5/10 game hard. Thing is, I’ve fallen out of interest with Overwatch because of how the game has changed the last few years, and I want the “next Overwatch,” but not like this.

@ChrisDeku Yeah, that’s really low. It is a really niche game though, so I’m not particularly surprised. It deserves an audience though.

@LowDefAl I wonder how many copies it sold total. It can always turn around. I mean, Capcom is one of the few that know this, given how Okami has sold over the years after being an initial flop.

The Concord beta was better than the Marvel Rivals beta, just saying!

Sort of a weird roster too.

I liked it well enough, but it’s realistically a 7/10 tier Gamepass title. To its credit, it’s probably the third best GP title so far this year.

And truthfully, I liked it better than the Wilds beta. I like when Japanese publishers take risks and make out there games such as this.

I am curious what kind of sales they expected from this one though. It’s a unique game, and incredibly niche. Surely they didn’t expect this one to push millions of units.

I can’t wait for the final chapter of this game. Rebirth improved what I felt was the weakest section of 7, so I fully trust Square with what’s next. Remake and Rebirth were both GotYs for their respective years, in my opinion.

I suspect this is to give Erdtree a nomination that I hope it doesn’t win. I can see the argument for it being a GotY contender, even if I felt the DLC was just sort of ok in comparison to the base game. This year is a weird year for games, and Erdtree was honestly more universal than most of the big releases this year. It is a substantial DLC… though an overrated one for me personally. I don’t particularly have a problem with DLC being included if it’s truly worth it, same as Remakes. I can’t think of a single DLC that I’d personally say comes close to being GotY for me though.

Remasters, on the other hand, do not deserve it, as they’re old games being re-released to run on current hardware. They’re basically the same game released a second time.

Truth be told, this is the first year where I’m somewhat grimacing in thinking of what may be nominated and what may win. Some may disagree with me, but 2024 had more alarm bells going off than celebration bells for this industry of ours that we love so much.

I have to work, but Dragon Quest 3 will be started this weekend, and that… realistically could be the last game I finish this year, honestly.

If you feel the need to have a cramp in your hand, I recommend this level.

I’m still contemplating this one. I had it preordered, but cancelled when Ghost 2 got announced. Sort of depends on how the rest of the year looks, but if there’s any game I am curious on how it’ll review, it’s this one right now.

@LiamCroft That… I wouldn’t mind. I had no idea it was rumored, very interesting.

And yet we don’t have Master Chief or Doom Guy… or Tracer… or Crash Bandicoot or Spyro yet? Where’s the first party support on these skins from Xbox? If you’re going this direction with skins, at least make it the Xbox Mario Party.

It’s going to be really interesting if the Concord episode turns out to be one of the better episodes in this. Truth be told, I’ve personally got more interest in that episode than most of the games on the list, though it’s mostly out of curiosity.

Looking forward to the Mega Man, PAC Man, Spelunky, and Armored Core episodes, personally. To be honest, about half the episodes are based on uninteresting franchises to me personally, so I’m also looking forward to reviews to see if the episodes are worth it to non-fans. I’m willing to give an episode a shot, even if a franchise doesn’t look interesting or didn’t appeal to me in the past.

1. Rebirth
2. Balatro
3. Astro Bot
4. Prince of Persia
5. Banishers
6. Life is Strange: Double Exposure
7. Animal Well
8. Mario Party Jamboree
9. I think Tekken 8
10. I dunno. Silent Hill 2 maybe? Wukong? Dragon’s Dogma 2? Bo and the Path of the Teal Lotus? I dunno.

That’s my top 10 this year, I reckon. I suppose I’m still waiting to see how the trio of Xbox titles do at the end of the year to have my list go concrete. Sort of hoping they really impress me. I’m feeling sort of strong pull to get the Dragon Quest 3 remake too. Based on the original, I would guess that one might knock Banishers and the rest of the list down one peg each, though I would love to see Banishers get recognized for literally anything. It’s an uneven game, but man are there some aspects I love about it.

If that’s true, hope they actually announce the game soon then! With the way 2025 looks right now, it honestly feels like the industry has no certainty if anything is releasing since no one wants to put a release date on anything anymore.

Well, sounds like another Lego game then. Happy to skip, glad I avoided the preview hype then.

I’ll try it out. Why not? Free is free. Never heard of it, but I’d love a surprise!

Half Life Alyx, I demoed at some point. It was the last VR game I played. After about 30 minutes, I got nauseous, threw up, and decided I wouldn’t try VR again, given that I got sick every time I’d use it for every game I’d tried over the course of a few years. If Valve couldn’t do it… you know? Not that it’s a bad game, but man would I have rather had In the Valley of Gods. I loved Firewatch.

It all depends on the game, of course, but yeah the 100+ hour runtimes for Atlus and Like a Dragon games probably explains why I bounce off to play other games. I prefer shorter games. At $60, I feel Astro Bot had more value to my family than most 100 hour games I’ve spent $70 on, and weirdly enough Astro Bot has more hours on my console because of replay time. So, yeah, it’s how you use the time rather than creating a lot of time.

It’s such a bummer to me because the HD games are some of my favorite games this generation. 14 is fine, but it just wasn’t for me in the way that 7, 16, and, yes, even Forspoken felt specifically catered to my tastes. For a while there, I was buying about half a dozen Square games a year too (or more if you count the Pixel Remasters separately). Square has been my favorite developer/publisher of the PS5 era. At least finish the 7 trilogy before you turn to live service fodder, Square.

I just wish someone would make real toys for kids for PS games. My son really wants an Astro Bot toy and a Ratchet and Clank. I know nothing about this brand, but, man, if there’s an affordable Astro Bot toy, I’d get it for my kids. They both love him. My daughter’s not quite able to play yet, but she loves to watch my son play.

I feel bad for kids nowadays that action figures have sort of dropped off. Nintendo’s got that section of the market cornered. My kids are continuously grateful that my mom never threw my toys away because all their favorite toys were my toys! Lol.

This is just a plain bad list, but it’s Grammy’s. No Rebirth makes this an obvious joke.

Although that one song from Balatro that basically makes up the whole soundtrack is definitely the best new song in gaming this year. Man, what a track.

Chumbawamba’s career trajectory is perhaps one of the strangest things to have ever happened in pop culture and this is just more of that.

Looking forward to basically the last big batch of reviews for the year (outside Xbox, who decided they didn’t want to release their biggest titles before GotY season, but rather after many votes are cast) next week, particularly this one.

Genuine question: does the Pro do anything to PS1, 2, ot 3 games?

@LogicStrikesAgain I like shorter games better too. My spending habits are way down this year because I tend to buy most AA games and there just really weren’t that many this year. With how successful RE is, you’d think more developers would use that as a framework. I like RPGs and open world games too, but they just haven’t clicked with me as much this year. Feels like there were fewer notable indies too. Anyway, this is the first year in my adult like I’ve bought less than 2 games a month.

That trailer honestly looked pretty good. This doesn’t look like your run of the mill F2P game. I’m waiting for the catch with this one. It seems like a softer, friendlier BotW with Animal Crossing vibes and that’s a good thing.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden if I get the chance to play the surprisingly solid journey of Red Mac Raith and Antea Duarte on a haunted island in New England. I’ve got to play that new Astro Bot level too! My wife may want to try out Black Ops 6, so there’s that as well. It’s better than expected to me.

It sort of feels like GotY season though. I’m contemplating getting DQ3 and of course Xbox is releasing their whole slate super late in the year all on top of each other, ensuring few will be able to savor all those last minute games, but I’m in the mood to compile lists and celebrate the year in my own way.

@MikeOrator I was honestly surprised it picked up as much controversy as it did, honestly. Sign of the times, I suppose, but it’s no more lewd than many games released two generations ago. It just has more realistic visuals.

I sort of think though, if Stellar Blade would’ve released against other heavily marketed properties in the Sony catalog, it probably would’ve been considered a niche game that found a fanbase, but otherwise just happened for everyone else. 2024 is hardly a normal year though, littered with divisive titles and with few genuine blockbuster titles to boot. This was the year Stellar Blade could stand out if there ever was a year. I’m not throwing shade of the game, just my thoughts that the game got more coverage than it would have if it would’ve released against, say, Horizon Forbidden West.