somnambulance

Honestly, if they’re doing a showcase in September, why do Gamescom? I’d like to see more presence from Sony, but they are clearly emulating what Nintendo does to makes themselves more successful and keep people guessing. Unless Xbox rebounds, I don’t see this version of Sony changing.

This might be the first DLC ever made that might win GOTY gongs. Quite impressive to think of that. Really looking forward to jumping into this.

Hopefully purchases made during the downtime get points! I bought five games in this downtime

I do think the problem is when games are all $70, but there’s a spectrum. I loved that LiS was $50. I’ve got my expectations set for what it is and know it’ll be quick but worth that value. If more developers do things like that, I’m down. I’m certainly going to buy more strong narrative short content games at $50 than bloated games at $70. I’ll still buy a $70 here and there, but I like there being more diversity in pricing and style in games. As much as I love JRPGs, this year has pushed me away from the genre as they’re too big and there’s too many of them, and frankly, I’m not certain most of them felt standout to me. That’s probably a me problem with my time, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

We’re almost through showcase season, everyone. Ironically enough, my paycheck for games is practically spent for the year now, so LRG won’t see much from me! Though I’m interested in this and that Rugrats game that has gone silent since March when it was rumored to release. We all know LRG needs to stretch out time, however…

I don’t suspect we’ll see this one this year, and even so, the release schedule has filled out now, so it’s got competition even if it does launch this year. I have a feeling that Silksong may be victim to the hype, where the team is having trouble keeping up with the expectations, so it’s lengthening the development cycle… which, by extension, raises the hype even more. I wish this one well and the team well, as I’m not envious of their position.

@JohnnyShoulder 150 is the recommended level!? Yikes, I’m level 128. I’ve beaten the game and Mogh to access the DLC, but jeez that’s intimidating. Hope there’s some ways to power level early in the DLC. Farming xp in Farum Azula gets a bit tedious, but it seems like the safest spot. Maybe it’s time I actually aim to beat Melania.

Really disinterested in the art style. Not interested at all and honestly sort of concerned with the art style the next Mass Effect game will take. BioWare doesn’t exactly have the reputation they had 10 years ago, so I’m not really holding my breath with this one.

Really looking forward to this one, especially because it’s Souls adjacent rather than Souls-like. I’m hoping to really like the combat. I want something with weight, but… more fun? I dunno, I’m hoping this one hits the way I wanted Stellar Blade to.

@breakneck It’s already a major release to me and many others. This is bigger to me (and my family because my son is going to easily sink a huge amount of hours in this one) than GoW or TLoU or Spider-Man, etc (and most other first party titles, honestly). I wish the game an immense amount of success.

For Father’s Day, my wife is telling me I need to devote some time to gaming because I love it, but… I’m in that weird place of waiting for Erdtree and I don’t really have anything else I’m playing, so I guess I’m going to force myself to play Elden Ring? What else can I play though? Maybe Dig Dug or Galaga? Gaming is weird when you clear the backlog and get ahead of your new releases.

For me, Astro Bot was the one game this showcase season that just made me really happy to see. I think Sony was insane to say they have no big games this year on the first party line-up and then just toss this one out there. The first one is still authentically the best platformer since Mario Odyssey and I’d put the game in my PS5 top 10 for sure. At this point, even given the new releases in the schedule, it seems Rebirth is certain to be my GotY now, but Astro Bot is the type of game that could knock Balatro from the #2 slot.

Outside that, I’d say that Life is Strange was the big surprise. I was looking for Lost Records, but in its absence, Life is Strange being announced out of the blue was a huge pop for me. I’ve loved most of the Life is Strange games and I know I’ll certainly enjoy the next entry as well. I felt very safe in preordering these two games. I can easily see both games in my top 5 for the year. And honestly, I think a good chunk of my top 10 list from the year will end up being late year releases now, which is very welcome to me, as I’ve struggled to get excited about my gaming for the last two, three months. I’m certainly excited again!

For others, I thought Assassin’s Creed Shadows looked like what I’d want out of the series in 2024. Indiana Jones looks fantastic (not PS, but still…) and I can’t wait for it. Likewise, from the Xbox Showcase, Fable, South of Midnight, Doom, and Expeditions 33 suggest that I’ll finally use my Xbox Series S in excess of 100 hours next year. As someone that bought one at launch, can I say finally? Man, that thing has felt like my son’s Minecraft box too long.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero realistically might end up being my most played game this year, even if I doubt it’ll be GotY. I just love Dragon Ball and, with Toriyama’s passing, I can’t help but feel the game might hit me more in the nostalgia than I’d like to admit. Black Myth looked wonderful yet again. The Power Rangers and Toxic Crusaders beat-em-ups are very welcome. I’m curious about Phantom Blade Zero, especially in finding out that it’s not a Souls-like and has a fresh style of gameplay, which, man, I need, as I’m burnt out of a lot of current gameplay tropes.

I’m skeptical about Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid Delta, but I want to believe! Man, do I want to have that “I’m playing Metal Gear” feeling again.

I’ll avoid the negativity right now, which I certainly had from the overall season, because I was overall really impressed with a few titles enough to the point where I’ve actually got a release docket I’m excited about now. Just hoping for a surprise from the upcoming Nintendo Direct because July is purchase free at the moment! But yeah, some solid titles announced!

If it wasn’t for that Xbox Showcase, this year would’ve been absolutely junk. Astro was practically the saving grace outside that. I liked Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, Black Myth, and AC Shadows, but we’ve also already gotten a lot of info on those previous to the events. The Xbox showcase set up a strong line-up with plenty of surprises. It’s a weird year when Ubisoft looks more solid than Sony.

If they were calling it X7, it might be for the best it was cancelled. I mean, remember Megaman X7? Holy cow, the world would’ve been better off without that travesty!

I jest though. I’m sure Disco Elysium X7 would’ve made different choices.

Without any knowledge of the series, I’m curious how Stephen interprets Goku’s changing hair colors.

My schedule is:
June:
Still Wakes the Deep (Gamepass)
Erdtree

July:
Nothing currently

August:
Rugrats
Black Myth

September:
Quidditch (PS+)
Astrobot

October:
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero
Life is Strange Double Exposure

November:
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Avowed (rumored, Gamepass)

December:
Indiana Jones (rumored, Gamepass)

And I’m leaving a little room, hoping for some fun with the Nintendo Direct. If that bombs, I might try to squeeze Silent Hill 2 and Visions of Mana in if they review well. Maybe Metaphor. Hoping Lost Records, Plucky Squire, Silksong, and Mina the Hollower launch this year too, though if they all do, man, I’m booked. Once August hits, we’re eating good.

Definitely won’t miss PS+ Premium with this list

@jrt87 See, there’s enough new games coming out where I can skip a remake if it’s not worth the time, you know? However, if either of them is worth the time, I’ll get them both. The originals of both games are practically flawless, so if I want to replay them, I can always do that as well.

Much like Silent Hill 2’s remake, I’d love to say I’m ready to preorder, but I feel like something may be off between both games, so I’m waiting on reviews for the both of them. Looking forward to a good read. I hope Konami is back, but… it’s also Konami, so there’s that.

I was bummed by that cost, but thrilled the regular version is $50. I love LiS and would get the super whizbang deluxe if it seemed like it was worth an extra $30, but… it doesn’t seem that way. Preordered the standard though! I’m not going to let this ruin the fact that I’m super excited about the title! Huge fan of the series and I can’t wait to be there (authentic) Day 1.

With this one and Wukong, I’m hoping that they aren’t strict Soulslikes, you know? I never really liked Souls games til Elden Ring changed my mind on the genre, but even so, I want different styles of combat.

I’m stuck on Commander Niall. I used to be good til I took an arrow to the knee… lol. Im nowhere near as good as I was two years ago when I became Elden Lord and it’s a problem. Lol.

The industry’s overall shrinkage? All these companies are posting record earnings and spinning it like they’re struggling to be sustainable businesses.

@dskatter I preorder games pretty regularly. I’ve already played all the old games I want to play. I’ve been gaming since the NES and have been about as up to date as you can get. I’m looking forward. I currently have six preorders hanging out there, seven if you count Erdtree. I like having things to look forward to. And also, I don’t mind some jank. The PS360 era was such fun for all the jank you could find.

And, with Cyberjunk, I actually did NOT preorder it, but got it for free on Stadia. It was alright. It was buggy and all that, but my gripes with that game were more or less that I thought it was sort of a boring story. Even with its whole redemption arc, I still don’t think the game is that good.

Playing as Naoe looks like it’ll be what I want out of AC in 2024.

Say what you will, but AC is such a reliable series for the quality of gaming it provides. It’s never Game of the Year, but it’s always a good time. I don’t mind a series that is consistently 7/10-8/10 tier. At least you know if you’ll like it.

I was sort of torn on whether or not I should pick this one up, given that this year’s sort of felt like a gaming drought for me, so I was itching to preorder something, anything that looked like it might be really solid, but those previews really sort of pushed me over the edge… and away from the game. The Star Wars burnout is just too strong with the force on me, I guess, and then watching the gameplay was sort of meh. AC Shadows looked much more interesting. Not sure I could do two big Ubi titles in one year, so I decided to go with my gut and preorder Shadows… and Black Myth as my August game instead of this one. Man, I’m excited to have some new games to look forward to though. Happy that one of them is an Ubisoft title too. Feels like Ubisoft is really on the upslope with the quality of their games the last year or so.

I gotta be honest. I’m looking forward to this one. Call me crazy, but I preordered it. This is the AC game we’ve been asking for for years.

This was easily my favorite gaming experience since finishing Rebirth. Yeah, it’s two hours, but what a fun two hours it was. Can’t wait for the next batch of DLC.

I thought it was strange we didn’t get an update for this one. I’m honestly struggling to think when the rest of the 2024 line-up will get their release dates. The year’s half over now already, you know?

They go through all this to show off a preorder without giving a date it’ll be available? Um… ok?

A lot more interested in it, given that it’s not another Souls game. Feels like, since Elden Ring, half the titles we get announced are Souls inspired in some way, so I’m glad this has some of that flavor, but is something different.

If there was an update on the Anniversary Edition, there was some hope, but now… it feels about as dead as Skull and Bones.

That tweet looked ok, but honestly no, I’m certainly not sold on this one. I think I’ve already picked what I’m going to play the rest of the year now and I think my plans may only change depending on a Nintendo Direct at this point.

Preordered AstroBot already, not touching Lego Horizon though. Can’t wait for Astro!

@Solingo_Bill See, I liked what I saw in that trailer a lot and I also like Kena a lot. If the story wasn’t fluff, Kena would’ve been a 9, but it’s an 8 because the story isn’t that interesting. South of Midnight looks like it’ll have the story at least. I actually liked the art style too. I feel like it’s a bit tone deaf, given how much frame rate snobbery has been a thing this generation, but I personally love it.

@Anke Sort of feels like the ship has sailed on these types of games, doesn’t it?

@Solingo_Bill Jeez, man, South of Midnight looks fantastic. Let’s not jinx it.

Whether the games are coming to PlayStation or not, that Showcase gave a compelling point to Gamepass from the tail end of the year and on into 2025. I can’t say PS+ has done that. So it looks like I’ll be doing Essential/GPU moving forward.

What I’ll be doing is buying the games I want to buy on PlayStation and I’ve gone back to subbing with Gamepass for the Xbox stuff, which there’s enough to make it viable again

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Regardless of big games, I just tend to like Switch exclusives most often of all, so, yeah, I expect a light one, but geared more to my taste is all

I loved the Xbox showcase and roughly half the games did nothing for me. It was how it was presented. It felt vital and important and honestly like a resurrection for the vision Team Green has. I’m better that the Nintendo Direct will hit me more in the interest, but it’ll be hard to top how that showcase hit and felt. 2025 is stacked for Xbox too. I’ve been skeptic for a while, but, yeah, Sony needs to step up after that one. Sony’s State of Play felt out of touch whereas the Xbox Showcase was clearly on the pulse of what interests gamers. Xbox might’ve finally figured something out after meandering for years.

I can’t wait to play this. The whole time I was waiting to see Lost Records, but then this came and with a release date. Oh, man, this might top AstroBot for being my most anticipated game this year now.

I hate to say it, but I sorta think BioWare might be dead to me. I don’t like the way this one looked at all.

Man, I hope we get Moro, Merus, UE Vegeta, and Black Freeza. I want those manga characters and forms.

If the quality of these events stays on par with this show, I’ll likely stop watching them and stick with recaps instead until the bar of quality increases again. I prepare myself to potentially preorder 6+ games and plan out the rest of my year in gaming following the summer showcases. I’ve done this for years now. I’ve saved a lot of money the first half of the year and I dunno about the second half. Weak showing that felt like it was missing more than it had.

Tonight's episode: the line between fact and fiction becomes hopelessly blurred. And nowhere as vividly as in Night Springs.

I’ll try Quidditch. I’m definitely less excited about Slitterhead now. I’ll be buying the Dragon Ball game and Alan Wake 2 DLC. In fact, I’ll probably try to play that this weekend. The Power Rangers title looked genuinely interesting though. Wukong and Metaphor look like they could be standouts, but I’m feeling hesitant on the both of them. At the end of the day, though, it’s the first time I felt like I was watching ads instead of a gaming presentation. All the live service junk… I dunno… that whole Valorant section actually repulsed me.

…and I’m ready to pre-order… one game… just one… from Summer Games Fest. At least this looks fantastic. Can’t wait to share an expedited version of Dragon Ball’s story with my son.

Is it just me or was like a quarter of Summer Games Fest an ad for this game? That ad went on forever. What a drag, man….

This was hot garbage. I thought the State of Play was bad, but at least that was 30 minutes. Possibly the worst “big showcase” I’ve ever seen.

Looks like Sims 3 Harry Potter, but i want to try it