somnambulance

They didn’t fail to meet my expectations. I’d give both games a 10. Loved them both A LOT. Both would be top 5 for this generation for me, probably at the #1 and #3 spot, honestly. These are the games I dreamed about existing when I was a child playing FF4 and 6, essentially. I’m an outlier though because I’ve honestly really enjoyed Square the past decade. Final Fantasy, Triangle Strategy, Octopath, etc… To me, you’ve got a top developer with that kind of line-up.

If it’s a $10 upgrade then I’ll probably get it, but otherwise this would be another totally useless move by a Sony that seems hellbent on NOT listening to their customers. I could see the Lego game outselling a nothing but new paint remaster if it’s a full price remaster. Sony’s going to have to learn the hard way with bombs like Concord and inevitably the Until Dawn remake.

When so many people are saying it’s bad, it’s probably bad. Theres a part of me that sort of expects the Pro to flop, but, knowing the fanbase and how these things work… the scalpers will make sure it sells out regardless of demand.

Like others, I love just playing this game. First time in a long time that I’m going back just to collect things. Haven’t been this committed to really doing everything in a game since Mario Odyssey, I believe.

Well, I’m there Day 1 whenever that Day 1 is. I’ve been sort of surprised with a few releases being Steam only this year for decently “big” indies. Still waiting for the final Momodora game to come to consoles.

I feel like fear that Astro flopped is largely based in the fact that we’ve had so few “hits” this year. Almost every big game released this year hit at #1, so seeing that it’s in #2 sounds weaker than it might’ve sounded in other circumstances. It’s competing against a game that would make massive sales just by existing though, as sports games typically do. Seems like Astro has had a strong start and word of mouth may very well keep the hype coming. I’d love to see Astro become THE holiday title this year.

After finishing Astro Bot yesterday, my son basically begged me to install Horizon. Maybe this IS for someone after all. I’ve felt this game was so baffling to exist previously.

Maybe I’ll go back to it then. I got really frustrated with the bugs in this one when it launched. I’d typically get stuck where I couldn’t pick something up or go to an objective and couldn’t figure out why and would restart a save and it’d work ok. Little things but frustrating. I liked the setting. Might be patched up now too.

This game sounds like Forspoken meets Assassin’s Creed 15 years ago with modern AA production values.

And, man, does that make me feel like I need a demo of this one to have an authentic opinion. I’d like to see more, but I also feel like this one may get lost in the rough.

I totally agree, even if a lot of my favorite games have reviewed very well. I think there’s a certain bit of judging a book by its cover that is missing these days and also a bit of word of mouth that’s missing nowadays. Plenty of games that had average-poor reviews at launch generations ago are considered classics now too. It certainly feels like gamers are now lumped into two parties now: Metacritic gamers and live service gamers. There is still a “blockbuster gamer” class, but it’s winnowing as sentiment against publishers like Ubisoft, EA, and Activision has been largely negative the last few years. I miss the ignorant years a bit. Those times were just about what games felt like your games rather than what is collectively, universally applauded.

I’ll admit I’m guilty of abiding by Metacritic score for a while during my tenure as a gamer, but now I largely follow Pushsquare, Happy Console Gamer, and Electric Playground, and even with those ones, I’m sort of aware of where our biases differ and I just sorta buy what I’m going to buy. Reviews help when I’m on the fence

This is honestly a fantastic selection. Plucky Squire was going to be a day 1 for me. I’ve been on the fence about Under the Waves and Chernobylite. Night in the Woods and Road 96 are fun curios. And, man, Skygunner and Mr Mosquito launching together is just perfect. It makes me excited for what other deep cuts Sony might actually be thinking about. It gives me faith that Astro Bot is more of a Sony vision than we realized. I’m totally satisfied. In fact, I resubbed to Premium from Essential on the strength of this line-up. It might honestly be the happiest I’ve been with a month with the service.

Vib Ribbon and Um Jammer Lammy soon please?

(and I’m still praying for a Mega Man Legends drop, but the weirdness of this line up makes me feel like anything is possible)

Best month on PS+ for me in ages. I can’t wait for this one, Mr Mosquito, and Plucky Squire. This is sort of what I wanted out of PS+ tiers in the first place. Happy to get some Sony deep cuts. Bring on Vib-Ribbon next, please!

Balatro absolutely deserves that #1 spot. Vampire Survivors deserves a higher ranking, but that top is THE top 5. Balatro, Dead Cells, and Vampire Survivors are practically forever games for me much like Galaga, Centipede, and Root Beer Tapper.

I’d say a 9/10 (9.5 if I could do half points). I’m really loving every minute of it, but I’ll be honest that I’ve got one pet peeve for the game. The collectathon aspect of getting the bots sort of forces replays or meticulous combing through levels. On one hand, that’s really fun to do and I do actually like to do it, but on the other hand, levels have a gatekeeper from this. Yeah, I know, Mario and his stars and all that, but I just personally liked having collectors be more optional in Playroom. It didn’t stop me from going back. The way they are in Astro Bot activates some of my OCD. That’s a me thing though.

Game is otherwise perfect. Best game since my one two punch of beating Balatro and Rebirth the same day this year and by a wide margin. It’s almost certainly going to be in my top 5 this year, even with a dense next five weeks of big releases.

When is this economy going to get better? It’s not just gaming that’s having this kind of problem. It feels like everywhere you look, “Layoffs, mass exodus, etc” but also “Can’t find people, lack of leads, etc” from the business side of thing. The last few years have felt like a spiral. Man, I hate seeing my favorite industry experience this over and over again, on the daily.

Dang, I was honestly sort of hoping this was the moment when a game finally let GT fade into the ether.

The economy in Japan is pretty rough right now, isn’t it? Couldn’t that be a factor? Most Japanese sales charts this year have been lower than expected from what i recall

@Almost_Ghostly Yes! Absolutely! In sometimes struggle to remember why I was so active in the PS2 era, but it’s totally rental culture and games like that. Man, Stretch Panic is also so great. Bring it back!

Mr Mosquito is certainly one of the most underrated PS2 games. PlayStation definitely needs more of this energy. THIS is the PlayStation that I love. I’ll take the weird over the remasters, live service, and bland any day.

Speaking of Vib-Ribbon too, whatever happened to that one getting ported to PS4?

Almost alway quality mode for me. I guess I’m an outlier

MISTER MOSQUITO! Screw it, I’m going back to premium

I hope it sells similar to Elden Ring

I hope this isn’t the “showcase” that was rumored for September for not-E3. I want games!

Glad I bought my replacement yesterday then and got the protection plan

Absolutely sounds lovely. It’s about time we got some proper 90’s nostalgia projects. I can’t wait to experience the decade again through this lens.

@get2sammyb Any trophies on this thing? I’m a sucker for arcade compilations, can never seem to get enough of them, so I’m casually interested in this.

I could say Astro Bot, but I have to be realistic and say that I’ll be watching my son play Astro Bot and potentially play the hard parts.

I wouldn’t be surprised if my son beat the game while I’ve been at work today. He asked me to wake him up at 4 am, so we could start the game before I left and I wouldn’t be surprised if I came home to see him still playing it. Of course I’m playing too!

I’m not watching an hour of a ten hour game. Lol. I do hope Silent Hill reviews well. I’m holding out on purchasing it because I’ve got trepidations with Bloober Team, but I’m hoping for something wonderful.

Sony has a habit of shelving great IP. Just bring me a new Parappa, Sony. Be a little weirder again. Astro Bot proves my case. Glorious game in the half hour I tried it this morning.

10/10, absolutely glorious game

@Rich33 Between this and Zelda, we may have two “low stakes” goty contenders and I’m honestly pretty excited for that. I can’t believe Sony didn’t see the game as a top game, absolutely baffling.

@UnlimitedSevens @Rich33 Lol. My apologies for having you both inventory your collections. I spreadsheet my gaming, so perhaps my perception of fun is a bit analytical, but you guys are definitely driving that point home. After seeing those Astro Bot reviews, I am hoping that game gets a seismic amount of sales to help show PlayStation (and the industry at large) what we really want from gaming. Can’t wait for Astro Bot. I never expected it to review THIS well!

I’m an American and bought the game. I do think part of its success is that it’s literally been one of the only 8+/10 tier single player games to release this year and many types of gamers are sort of starved at this point, but the game is also so fun that I’m glad this is the one that broke through at the right place at the right time.

@UnlimitedSevens @Rich33 For me, this is the first year in literal ages that I don’t have a top 20 list for the year yet. I’ll have one by the end of October, sure, but I’ve certainly joked to my wife that it feels like I’m buying more games in September and October than the rest of the year combined. It certainly feels like most games I’ve bought this year have been disappointing to a degree too, so that doesn’t help. I will say that, for new releases, Rebirth, Balatro, and surprisingly enough Ubisoft’s own Prince of Persia games were far and away my favorite games so far this year… but they all released fairly early this year. I’ve still purchased several games this year, but almost everything I anticipated felt off to me when I played it, and then there was a period of literal months when I was starting to wonder if anything was going to come out. Weirdly enough too, with well reviewed games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, Stellar Blade, Helldivers… I was starting to question my sanity because all three of the games felt 7/10 tier or less. I started to feel like those games got higher review score due to drought.

I brought Wukong on hype alone because it had been months and I felt starving for something, anything that might be good. And honestly it is quite good, I’m pleased to report, and I’m sure it’ll be one of my favorites this year. I’m just hoping there’s more games that stick in September/October. I’m practically nervous about every release at the moment when games are supposed to be fun. The only games I’m just blindly excited about are AstroBot, Life is Strange, and Dragon Ball Sparking Zero because, I think to myself, these games are likely going to be pretty true to themselves and that’s about it! Lol. But even so, what a strange year that my most played games are almost assuredly going to be: 1) Dave the Diver 2) Vampire Survivors 3) Balatro. There’s the argument: did I buy my PS5 for game like that? I mean, sort of, but not really.

I’m definitely worried about what’s going to happen when GTA6 launches next year. I’ve got a feeling it might nuke the industry. At first it’ll feel like a good thing because I’m sure the game will be good, but I suspect they’ll raise the price of games with it… and I’m sure the game’ll be worth it, sure, but will anything else be worth the raised purchase price?

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah, in my own social circle, I’ve noticed that there’s a sharp decline in most of my friends’ purchases. My poor cousin was one of the 50 people playing Concord. Lol. Most people I know have purchased 2-4 games this year whereas in the past, some of those people would have literally bought everything. Those friends can still afford it too, but the industry isn’t making the games they want currently. The industry stopped listening in 2020 when the live service industry dominated for all the kids that couldn’t go to school. They didn’t think about the actual base that was washed out in those statistics and now we’re seeing the consequences of that. If you’re a gamer that was playing Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and TLOU2 in 2020 instead of Fortnite, GTA, and CoD, the industry isn’t catering to that… but also my friend group may be niche… we had a high purchase rate for Alan Wake 2 in my group, almost as high as CoD. I don’t even think the subs have affected that. I got a lot of people to cancel GP recently because I said, at a party, when was the last time any of us even used the service? For some, it had been over a year.

I think realistically people just buy less games now. You can’t even say successful IPs or great review scores help now. I mean, what games HAVEN’T been sales bombs this generation according to their publishers? They’re still measuring success against 2020 even now, as that’s when many of these games were in primordial development.

Say what you will about Concord, but it looks far better than Fairgame$.

Herman Hulst was chief for the live service push, huh? Gotta wonder if Concord will come back in any capacity in the future. Hopefully Herman can remember the things that made him successful in the first place.

Realistically the only spoiler anyone needs for Astro Bot is: is it a 10?

@LiamCroft A shame. I’m really curious to know what people think of it. And I’m really curious how meaty the campaign is. At least it’s PS+.

Hope reviews launch with the release of the game? Sort of weird to see no reviews of such a high profile game, even if it’s a live service one

This games is Pringles. Once you pop, you don’t stop.

Is this one even honestly as big a deal as Wukong or Baldur’s Gate were or are we just going to be speculating on every game that gets delayed on Xbox from now on?

@breakneck It’s impossible they didn’t have an inkling. I wonder if it just wasn’t forming into what the execs thought it was or what. There’s some signs that PS thought it might’ve had more modest numbers, but not bombing so abysmally. The marketing was awful on this one either way though. I have a feeling more money was invested into Fairgame$ and Concord was a bit of a litmus test for that one after the negative reaction to it. I mean, Mark Cerny sang praises of Fairgame$ a full year before we saw anything of it…. But then again, Herman Hulst said some really nice things about Concord when Firewalk was acquired too. You’ve got to wonder if Jim Ryan was forced to retire after the Bungie acquisition caused serious pivots that had immediate negative reactions and now we’re seeing the ripple of that. It’s hard to know since Sony has decided a “silence only” policy on everything since practically the first PS5 showcase. I genuinely wish we had more information. I miss the openness the industry was starting to have pre-COVID.

Let ‘em go early. Bring on the Quidditch!

The marketing for this game really makes me wonder if Sony knew this was going to flop hard back when it was announced. I mean, Fairgame$ and Marathon got cinematic trailers when Concord just got announced with a nothing trailer and then the next time we saw the game, it was with gameplay and a soon to come beta. The weird thing is that it doesn’t feel like the developer or Sony are even trying to drum up interest at all. Either they are baffled in a serious way or they knew this one was doomed and sent it out to die. I’m still shocked this game bombed like it did though. While I’m as tired of the industry’s greedy GAAS tropes as anyone else, Concord wasn’t the worst offender of these by any means. We’ve had at least half a dozen, maybe even full dozen GAAS titles that were worse. At least Concord was competently made, so I do hope a lot of the staff gets another shot at… something. I really have no clue what could save Concord though.

At any rate, a cousin of mine is playing it daily with friends, so there’s five of the sub-100 people playing this. I’m sure they know everyone else on the servers at this point.

Sort of crappy that we’re at a point where games are getting rereleased one generation after release at full price, even average games. Watch the PS4 version get delisted as well.

Vampire Survivors is a pure 10. For the price, the value is insane. Pure arcade bliss.

@Maubari If Silent Hill bombs and Metaphor sounds like it’s wrong for me (and Dragon Age too, I suppose), I’ll either grab Sonic or Mario Party since I like them both and 100% know what I’m getting into. My kids will no doubt thank me if this is the future.

@Malaise That would be a big win for me. I liked Concord, but the lack of players had me concerned enough to wait for that to be a possibility. Not sure I get the vitriol for a solid hero shooter when there’s far worse F2P options out there that are thriving.