somnambulance

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.

I’m very happy. Quidditch is a wonderful addition. Honestly excited to play it on Tuesday.

I think Xbox is dying which is going to have a negative ripple effect on Sony. The competition kept things healthy. I suspect the bubble will burst shortly after GTA6 launches with a price increase and successful sales, causing others to follow suit in raising prices and failing to hit sales expectations due to consumer disinterest in perceived value. I do think that Nintendo will continue to dominate as they, by and large, create quality products at a more cost effective range. I suspect 2026 and onward to be rough years for the industry if other market conditions continue the way they are trending. Consumers, plainly, need more spending dollars to compete with continued cost increases and inflation.

September for me:
Quidditch, Astro Bot, Rugrats, Plucky Squire, (LoZ on Switch)

October for me:
Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, Life is Strange, and maybe Silent Hill 2 and very maybe Metaphor. I can wait for a sale on Sonic.

And I’m holding out for that Power Rangers game too! More games in September and October than all year

I honestly hope this pushes the game to being F2P or emergency offloaded to PS+. I dunno. I liked it. I just didn’t buy it because the player count was so low and I didn’t want to spend $40 on a game that shuts down after a year. So yeah, I’d like to play it. Sure, the characters are not well designed, but I do like the gameplay.

Most people I know are already pairing back their purchases and waiting for reviews because the value isn’t perceived to be there, even for enthusiasts. I think, if prices go up, people will buy even less and it’ll have the reverse effect that industry heads want. Granted, from a business perspective, profits are likely down this year and it’s causing the executives to question how they can recoup costs. As great as GTA6 will likely be, it could also be the needle that pops the gaming bubble.

I dunno. If the whole Baldur’s Gate 3 thing didn’t happen so publicly where Larian really seemed to struggle optimizing the game for Xbox, I’d find it fishy, but there’s a lot of difficulties going around, and Xbox simply has a smaller base, so I get developers skipping the platform now. There’s become a precedent for it.

Nope. I didn’t like the last Mana game and I disliked the demo. Me in the 90’s would probably be surprised that I’m distant from the series now. I loved Secret of Mana.

Never in all my bingo cards would I have guessed 2024 would be the year we are scheduled to get a Power Rangers and Rugrats game… that potentially look like the best games in yet in their retrospective series.

Since Green Ranger is there, gotta wonder if White Ranger or Lord Drakkon is on the horizon as well.

I can’t wait to read reviews on this one. I’m so glad it’s on PS+. I already know how I feel about this game… for reasons… and I hope that others feels the same way!

@breakneck Totally agree with your thoughts on Cyberpunk. The jank and bugs were more fun and memorable than the base game for me. The whole thing reminded me of Far Cry in a negative way. Even with fixes, I don’t think I’d be able to get invested into the game.

I could honestly do without another Cyberpunk game, as I didn’t really like the first one, but I’ll toss a coin to my Witcher any day.