somnambulance

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.

@WhiteRabbit I like it. It’s a little bit over the top, but honestly I’m so glad it is. So many games try to play into realism so much nowadays that a pure epic like this is so completely refreshing.

I’m really glad I trusted my gut on this one too. It’s such a unique game so far

@WhiteRabbit I’m honestly loving it so far. It reminds me of how games were a few generations back, but with a new coat of paint. I’m really happy we’ve finally gotten a new style of combat in games with this one and Stellar Blade that take elements from God of War, Soulslikes, and even Devil May Cry and do something a little similar, but a little different too. I was a little nervous about this one before playing it, even though I preordered it, but I can safely say now that I’m impressed. On the topic of its story, I like its sparseness and minimalism thus far.

I got it on PS5 and I’m really enjoying it so far.

I’d get a month of Ubi+ if this is worthwhile. I’m getting Wukong, so I’ll probably be busy (and September is loaded) for a while, but I’d like to try it

Hopefully the older games are getting ported to modern consoles. I’d buy ‘em.

Honestly, I think I’m just going to bide my time and wait before playing Wukong. There’s practically going to be a new game weekly through September and October for me, so a calm before the storm.

@NEStalgia Yep, hit the nail on the head there. I don’t shop for games on the console at all, for the most part. I like to use the mobile app. Sony beats Xbox because Xbox wanted to make it less convenient to buy their games apparently? The ads on Xbox are also totally irrelevant too. I’d say that the Xbox store used to be my favorite and now it’s… more functional than the Switch eshop. Not a high bar to leap over. It’s so strange because they had the idea right a while back. But, yeah, all Xbox has to do is make a nice, clean mobile interface where you can click to download the game anywhere, so you can play the game when you get home. Simple, easy, stupid solution really.

Can’t wait to play this one next week. Feels like I’ve been waiting ages for a new, big AAA game, so even if there’s a few wriggles, I’m excited.

Looks to be a bit better than Stellar Blade was, based on what I’m reading. I’m hoping it is. I’m glad we’ve hit a Souls-inspired, but not Souls-like style of combat that is working in games this year.

I’ll get Castles. I liked Fallout Shelter fair enough. Given how weak the gaming lineup has been for me personally, it might end up being the third mobile game ever to hit my top 20 list by the end of the year if it improves on what I liked about Fallout Shelter.

Games As A Service Pass

Looks pretty good. Actually very interested to see a bit more. I’m unfamiliar with the series, but if Indy does land toward the end of the year too, GP will have a worthwhile month for sure

Man, I loved the first Splitgate, but the tone of the sequel is rather off-putting to me. I miss the simple Halo meets Portal vibe. The esports theme is extremely garish to me and practically kills my interest in it. I suppose I’m not the target demographic, even though the first game was my favorite F2P game in quite a bit

With Shinji Mikami gone, that might be along the lines of the types of games the team at Tango wants to do anyway instead of horror, which also might be part of why Shinji departed too. Either way, Hi Fi Rush is certainly the best thing I’ve played from this team, and they’ve practically improved release after release. I’m happy for the team at Tango. Can’t wait to see what they do next.

@OldGamer999 Having such a great showcase and then delaying everything (and potentially some of the games outright disappearing) would sort of be par for the course for Xbox.

Realistically, even with Indy and Stalker, I don’t think Xbox beats Playstation or Nintendo this year for me.

Can’t wait to hear more about Lost Records. Hope the Plucky Squire gets an update

If they don’t get us a release date next week, no way it’s coming out this year.

Yeah, I agree that I find the tone of the trailers sort of repulsive. I want a Halo-like with Portal influence like the original. The esports look is sort of… no….

It still exists, so that’s a net positive at least

@Decimateh The remakes are great, I’ll give you that, but I dunno. At this point, I sort of feel like most people that want them would’ve bought them at this point and they’ve both already been in some ludicrously cheap sales by now to the point where they could’ve been purchased under the price of a monthly sub. But I’m totally glad if more people played the games if they’re in the GP as a method of collecting games club.

For my personal thoughts, I think Hauntii was the only winner I found on GP this year for me when I was subbed.

@jesse_dylan Just curious which games were solid for you on GP this year, as I felt like this was a real down year for me. Typically GP upticks toward end of year for me, but this year in particular has felt quite barren. Curious to see if I missed something of interest.

If I was still a PC gamer and had time for strategy games, this would be a great month, honestly. Definitely the best looking month on GP since 2022 with Ara and Frostpunk. If they were on console, I would’ve potentially considered resubbing if I found a discount code. Really looking forward to reading the Ara reviews.

Probably something casual to wind down at some point today. I might replay The Exit 8 because my son is really curious about it. I dunno. Feels like most of this year I’ve been waiting for the next big game and hopefully Wukong is that game! Not long now!

If that one doesn’t do it, at least September is loaded with three games I already know I’ll like, same with October. I’ve waited most of the year for new games I’ve liked, I can wait a little longer and play the retro stuff I love til then.

@Markatron84 Yeah, but it followed the WiiU. If a platform wants to advertise McDonalds, at least toss McKids on the console or something.

I don’t want any ads. The Switch doesn’t have ads and neither should any platform.

If CoD and DLC is all Xbox can produce, they should change the console’s name to GAASbox. Gasbox. Low brow humor, but it’s how I’d feel.

@Sifi Sony’s lineup is paltry too, but they’ve got third party exclusives enough to fill out their lineup a bit. Realistically, this year and last year were bad years for both of them on the first party side of things. If not for the third party exclusives, people would complain about Sony more. Platform speaking, Nintendo, even on a down year, is the platform with the most solid first party release schedule again, though third parties are now sort of leaving them behind due to software limitations.

I cancelled my GP sub, but I’ve tried and played enough of these to say Kunitsugami is the best of this batch.

Maybe Nobody Wants to Die, depends on how the day looks and how tired I am. I can’t play it around the kids and I’m sort of drained from work, so I don’t want to fall asleep playing it, which… sort of happened last time I tried to start it. 🤷‍♂️

I’m not really playing anything in particular, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I just play something retro, like the TMNT collection. I’m sort of tempted to pick up Sand Land while I wait for Wukong.

Looking forward to the releases next year. South of Midnight, Doom, and Fable look fantastic. At this point though, I think I’ll buy them instead of subbing to GP (and on PS instead of Xbox where available), depending on price. Hope Indy gets a release date at Gamescom…

Now, that it’s confirmed, what a mess. Hopefully Indy isn’t delayed. Makes me glad I cancelled my Gamepass sub again. I’ve said it elsewhere, but if Indy gets delayed too, this is the worst year in the history of Xbox. That will mean that this is the year that the biggest news stories about Xbox will have been studio closures, price hikes, and CoD. After two years of barely releasing anything and the Activision merger being bigger news than the games, it looked like this was finally going to be the pivot year, but, no, this is the year they closed the studio for their most critically successful game in ages after they made it a multiplat release and then tossed Hellblade out to die without marketing it, likely knowing it was going to receive mixed reviews. Next year looks great, but it’s getting hard to forgive the wasteland this generation has been for Xbox.

Can’t believe THQ has a hand in Eternal Life. Could be the best THQ game in years or ever.

Fallout London needs a Forgotten City treatment. I want to play it, but I don’t have a PC to try it!

Can’t wait to see those exciting and special delays.

@OldGamer999 I feel like I’ve been waiting for Xbox to release games for forever. I dunno about you, but Starfield was sort of disappointing. Not the worst game in the world, but nowhere near the hype… and Fallout London seems to be more satisfying, oddly enough. Anyway, I felt like Xbox put all the eggs in the basket for that one, and that was a bummer. Hi Fi Rush was the last great game by Xbox and they shut the studio down. 2022 was barren. 2021 had Halo Infinite, Psychonauts, and Forza Horizon, which is a fine line up, but Forza’s not my cup of tea and Halo Infinite’s mp irked me, even if I liked the campaign. I’m not giving them credit for Deathloop. There’s been two games by the company I’ve genuinely loved all generation. Two in four years. This might be a work from home problem, but clearly it’s bigger than that. It genuinely feels like Xbox is constantly lying to get consumers passively interested and management can’t keep any project on point from a timeline or quality perspective. It feels like it’s GAASbox now, sadly.

@OldGamer999 Indy is way more important to me, but this delay makes me wonder if more important games like Fable will get pushed back even further. Xbox has cemented 2024 as the worst year in Xbox history with this delay. The best thing MS has done this year is a Fallout tv show…

Glad I cancelled my GP sub. Expecting Indy to be delayed too. I gotta say it: this is the worst year in Xbox history.