somnambulance

So far, I’m really enjoying it and I’ve just been playing the episodes or battles with my son. I do wish that the couch vs battles had more options, but it’s otherwise been an absolute blast to play. Good luck, everyone, with Great Ape Vegeta. He’s harder than Jiren.

If Halo comes to PlayStation, I think I’ll be done with the platform. The prospect of the Halo franchise revitalizing itself gets me out of bed to support Xbox, even if next year looks like it’ll finally be “the year.” I mean, provided the games hit instead of being in that Hellblade/Starfield tier of games that fall short of expectation.

@Decimateh Halo Tatanka BR shadow dropped too!

UE5 remaster shadow dropped that day, right?

ES and Fallout!

Just announce the next couple Halo games then. Reading this though, not gonna lie, for a second I remembered what it was like in the heyday of Halo and got excited. If Halo can turn it around, that saves the Xbox brand, honestly. Halo was enough to give 360 the win over PS3. Even though PS3 had more great exclusives, it was always a “But Halo though…” situation.

Read Dead Redemption 2, Octopath Traveler, Ori, Cuphead, and those Megaman collections immediately come to mind. Anything Remedy does too. Alan Wake, Control, it’s all iconic. I love box art. I do think the golden age might’ve been NES/SNES, but there’s still some really solid ones these days. In particular, I do enjoy those sketchy style Square box arts that they’ve been doing lately.

@NeoRatt Exactly. I’ve never played a game that so directly felt like it stopped where it stopped because there would be story-based DLC. It felt like there were gaps in the story too that were filled with supplemental material, so it seemed like such an obvious ploy to expand the amount of Halo people dip into, and DLC would’ve served that very well. The lack of biomes seemed suited for DLC too. Theres so much that feels like it should have been more campaign oriented with Infinite.

All the odd random updates this game gets and yet they couldn’t do DLC on this one. It sort of felt like it could have been the first genuine live service campaign title, given how it left off, and I was warm to the thought of it, but… alas…

My opinion of Infinite has diminished from its lack of DLC, weirdly enough. Could be the only game I’ve ever felt like that with.

I think this weekend I’ll try to wrap up my backlogged games for the year. I’ve sort of put off Plucky Squire, Quidditch Champions, and that Rugrats game, so maybe, if time permits, I should try to blitz through them all. I’m halfway through Plucky, the Rugrats game is pretty short already, and Quidditch Champions… I just haven’t played much of it because September was so busy. I’ve backlogged Wukong and Banishers too, but I’ll save those ones for later, I think. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually come back to either of them, if I’m to be honest. I do like them both, but I don’t really have the desire to play them. Astro Bot sort of reminded me what it feels like to be genuinely interested in playing a game for fun, and most of that backlog doesn’t have that special novelty to me, I suppose.

So yeah… what that means is that I’ll probably play Vampire Survivors til Silent Hill and Sparking Zero come out next week. Sounds about right.

I have the DLC due to buying the special edition upgrade, but I don’t own the game because I played it on Gamepass and I’m not subbed anymore. Maybe I’ll sub again in December. Never have I had DLC but not the main game. Definitely not subbing for Shattered Space. I fell asleep playing the main game four times. I’ve fallen asleep playing zero games in 2024 for comparison.

I’m sure the 10-12 people that are interested in Fragpunk will be thrilled.

@RentedPanda I thought it was, but I just looked it up and I guess not. Xbox just had marketing rights for it for a bit. Still a game that did not resonate with the gaming community and financial error.

@funkhouser I think it’s likely due to the lighter release schedule this year, but it also feels like PS+ is netting day 1s for a lot of games that used to feel like obvious GP games, aka games like Dave the Diver, Plucky Squire, Animal Well, etc. Also, it feels like the biggest indies that are signed up are AWOL. We’re missing Silksong, Replaced, etc. These are circumstantial issues. The lack of quality first party games feels particularly obvious after roughly 3-4 years of sparse releases.

it feels like Xbox is banking on CoD, Stalker, and Indy this year, which all release end of year. I do question who greenlit some of the AAs though. Flintlock was such massive miscalculation. Certainly feels like Palworld was the last GP “hit.”

For me, personally, Hauntii was the only GP game I’ve liked this year and unsubbed after the price increase. Haven’t seen a reason to go back, as I wouldn’t have saved money with GP, but rather spent more money in paying for nothing basically. To be fair though, this is my lightest spend year in gaming in total in over a decade, so Xbox isn’t the only issue.

I dunno about you guys but Fable is taking a couple extra years to download that I was expecting.

I jest.

Honestly my Xbox is usually sort of slow for the downloads. I don’t know actual stats but it was noticeably slower than PS and even Switch last time I downloaded something, but I also haven’t turned my Xbox on in about half a year or more, so I’ll update when Indy comes out?

A dead week before an absolute megaton week next week.

Life is Strange and Sparking Zero may well be my last two games this year, as I’ve preordered them. I cancelled my AC Shadows preorder, so I hope the wife approves one more game though! We’ll see how that Metaphor demo goes!

Katamari smokes the rest of them like it’s nothing.

Unfortunately won’t be getting Zelda as I wanted to because of unforeseen expenses, so I’m going to play that demo for Metaphor most likely, maybe Plucky Squire, Vampire Survivors?

Realistically, it’s the same thing Xbox does every year for TGS. “These games have been on other platforms for a few years. Now coming to Xbox. Some on Gamepass too!” I get it if you’re excited because you’re only on Xbox, but I stopped being Xbox-centric because games I liked lagged behind on the console

Cancelled my preorder. I’ll wait for Ghost now. Pretty sure they shot themselves in the foot with this delay coinciding with that announcement.

@DaddyDuder Totally agree with you and we’re already seeing the ramifications of it in the industry. That said, Capcom’s actually been one of the better ones about remakes, as RE pretty much wrote the book on how to do one respectfully and bring a game into the modern age beyond just being a new coat of paint.

@BrilliantBill Yeah, I wish we got a slate of AAA story games from PlayStation this generation! Where’s Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, etc? It’s practically been confirmed Insomniac has transitioned from being the developer of Ratchet and Clank to a Marvel studio. For me, I dunno. I liked Rift Apart and loved everything that Astro has done, but besides that, this generation has definitely felt like a filler generation. The third party exclusives have carried Sony, but most of them have been timed exclusives, which makes Sony’s exclusive market look significantly weaker now.

After this generation, I’ll definitely be passing on any future Xbox unless they can really turn things around. Honestly, PlayStation’s going to have to turn things around too for me to want a PS6. Given the current state of the industry, I have no interest in a console for remasters and remakes, nor do I care if a console is portable. Unless there’s a slate of compelling new releases, I may just stick with a Switch 2. At least Nintendo doesn’t slouch with their first party games or release schedule. I didn’t expect the original Xbox showcase to be an outline of the entire console generation

I can’t wait to do other things!

@Titntin I have little control too! I’m bummed out that I’m probably going to skip Indy til next year now when I can get more bang for my buck with an Xbox/Gamepass binge! I’ll be real, I’m probably going to get Zelda… even though I definitely have enough to keep me entertained without it. Much like you, I’ll probably take my tired reflexes back to the struggle of Wukong if the well dries up a bit for a moment.

Astro Bot continues to be my go to, as I’ve not had much game time, so I just “help my son” when he wants to watch me play… and we’re using my save data, which is nearly complete now, rather than his, so who is helping who now? Anyway, I’m really close to having all bots and puzzle pieces, so that may happen this weekend.
Elsewhere, I’d like to play more Mr Mosquito and Skygunner. Talk about the best month of PS+ ever to have those two launch at once. I’ve yet to start Plucky Squire too, and I want to. Maybe this weekend?
I’m in no rush with games, as I had to buy a new car as an emergency (as a trade in) and my wife needed a new one too, so we collaboratively did the responsible thing. Now, I will have to rely on my preorders for the rest of the year, which means goodbye future Switch games as Zelda still isn’t even on Amazon to preorder. The insanity, am I right? So it’s looking like I’ve got four or five PS games for the rest of the year, which is plenty, but… man… maybe I can make an exception for Zelda, right? What’s money anyway? Who needs it? Maybe I can figure out a side hustle?

They shot themselves with the arrow in the knee by taking so long to develop it when you know they could’ve done things other than porting Skyrim to everything Doom is on. We didn’t hear this kind of thing before Oblivion or Skyrim. They just knew they were making special games and did it. The fear of Metacritic is such a lame excuse.

Balatro on the Xbox only side of things. The game is addictive, unique, and utterly brilliant.

Prince of Persia would nab second place in an Xbox only list for me. Roughly half of my current top 10 isn’t available on Xbox at the moment. Rebirth is likely to be my GotY, with Balatro and Astro Bot in 2nd and 3rd place. Realistically, the only game I think may shake up that top three currently is the Zelda game coming end of month. Plucky Squire and Life is Strange perhaps.

If Silent Hill 2 is a solid remake, that’d hit my top 10. I suppose Sparking Zero may hit the spot much more than I expect too!

Realistically, this has been a low key year overall. When the Alan Wake dlc is #6 on my list, it just feels like it’s emblematic of 2024. A snack from a delicious meal tops most of the feasts I’ve had this year, to make a metaphor of it.

Definitely Halo LAN parties. It was the absolute zenith of multiplayer experiences at the time.

The lack of Starfield, Hellblade, and recent-ish games is a red flag. I dunno. Without Day 1, I don’t get the excitement for Gamepass, maybe the average consumer will understand. To me, it feels like the industry just keeps shifting into more and more out of touch practices.

Reviews when?

If that’s per songwriter, Rockstar was willing to pay 22.5k for one song. Doesn’t seem outrageous to me. That’s roughly a third to a half of most peoples’ yearly salaries and the exposure could lead to a lot more than that. Jeez, got to wonder how much Kate Bush made off Running Up the Hill for Stranger Things and then for the Spotify plays alone.

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 personally prefer games be the length of RE titles. I’d rather have a solid 10-20 hour game than a bloated 60 hour game.

Preordered the collector’s edition, but I honestly struggled with playing the game. I felt bored during a lot of my time with it. I got a good 50 hours in than rushed to the end. Theres some good, some bad, and mostly a lot of boring in the game.

I totally agree with that 8/10. It’s honestly in my top 10 games of the year list right now. I’m loving it. It’s not the best game in the world, but it’s fun, and we don’t get enough of that in gaming these days.

A shame the two best looking ones are PC only 🫤

It would have been cool to have been there in person, but as a viewing event, it was ok. The biggest problem for the showcase, I think, was that expectations were set poorly by Microsoft, who implied that the showcase may have been a victory lap after their incredible not-E3 showcase, but, if anything, it set in stone that Xbox would generate more uncertainty going forward.

Black Myth Wukong if I get the chance to play

@GADG3Tx87 Aaron Greenberg must have different taste from the majority of us. After such a great show case for not-E3, Gamescom was a total dud, but to be fair to Xbox… Gamescom usually is overhyped, even in the glory years of announcements

Ah the pitchforks are already out. Phil shouldn’t have a talked about how important 60 fps is earlier in the generation, honestly. He sort of shot himself in the foot there. I don’t mind 30 fps, myself, but every time it’s announced, people are ready to attack. With the drop off in the amount of released games, I’m almost to the point where I’m glad anything is released!

That list is indicative that sales are likely way down overall in software this year as Suicide Squad is in the top 20 and was considered a massive flop.

@andrewsqual I know. I was being facetious. Sony’s not putting first party games on Xbox. I’d honestly question if even future Bungie games will be on Xbox at this point.

@Dimey Play it Day 4 with Gamepass Ultimate*

*Still unknown if Day 4 for GP Standard users or if Standard Gamepass gets the same release day as PS5

Yeah, after the whole early access thing to Starfield, not going to do that again.

I’m sure we’ll see Sony give big exclusives like Concord to Xbox soon

Atomfall is the clear winner from Gamescom’s announcements yesterday

D for me. Lost Records and Indy were the only games I was interested in. Much like 2024, it made me feel like I might not buy many games in comparison to previous years again.

2025 looks fantastic. Hopefully those four all land next year.

@Markatron84 I think part of it might be related to their being actually less high profile games releasing the last 3-4 years. I’m not going to applaud GP or anything, but the pickings are sort of slim either way and it’s more obvious now that the service has increased in price.