somnambulance

I’d like to try it. The beta had pretty positive reviews. I doubt I’d keep on with it long term, but as a casual thing, why not? Though I still have yet to really try Helldivers…

Once things like housing, vehicles, and food are affordable, I’d absolutely like to do that. That’s a tall ask, isn’t it?

I’d like to start playing Banishers, but I don’t know. It depends on the wife with that one. Same with the Fallout TV show. Definitely playing the Umbraclaw demo though!

I’m feeling a little burnt out of Dragon’s Dogma 2 because… now this might sound silly… the menus have such tiny text that I sort of strain to read things in the game. I’d put in quite a few hours now and now that I’m focusing on quests instead of exploration, the game is sort of wearing on me a bit. The story is sort of boring. I still might play it though because, well, it’s fun to fight the monsters.

Based on what we’ve seen, it’ll be in discussions in the same capacity that Alan Wake 2 was in discussions, and by that I mean it’ll review well, critics will like it, but the gaming population likely won’t rally around it like Baldur’s Gate or Spider-Man, so it’ll have its fans that think it got snubbed. That’s just my guess. I’m expecting high 80s for the Metacritic/Open Critic. As it stands right now, as much as I disagree with it, Helldivers 2 is looking to be the game to beat for GotY.

For me personally, I doubt it’ll top my current pick in Rebirth. As much as I didn’t really like the first one (on the gameplay side, I liked the story and aesthetics), if the gameplay improves enough I could see it hitting my personal top 10 list. If the gameplay still doesn’t vibe with me, it’ll at least be a good movie on YouTube with the cutscenes.

I played Palworld for I think 8 hours and that’s my total Xbox play time. Switch and PS5 have had more worthwhile exclusives thus far this year, but we’ve gotten some solid multiplatform releases so far this year. It does sort of feel like this year’s release schedule is a little front loaded, but we’ll see what gets announced for the second half of the year soon enough.

Honestly, the Fallout TV show seems to be the best Xbox adjacent project so far this year.

They said this about the Series X too and look at where we’re at there. It can be the biggest leap in hardware ability, sure, but that means nothing if it doesn’t have the games to make it the console of choice. They should work on fixing the current generation before bragging about next.

Hopefully we get some fine vintage Activision titles in the very near future. I’m ready to play some Pitfall.

Beacon Pines was the last like true “out of the blue” surprises I can remember where I was sort of floored that I didn’t really know anything about it, tried it at random, and loved it games. One of my favorite games of 2022.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 perhaps. I want to start Banishers. Will be going to the Midwest Gaming Expo, so we’ll see l if I pick something up there too.

I typically prefer shorter games overall, but it also depends on the game. I never felt any burnout in Elden Ring or most Final Fantasy games. I can pick up a Zelda, Elder Scrolls, or Red Dead game and it’s like going home. My favorite games are typically on the long side, BUT those ones are special. I’ve burnt out on so many jrpgs, open worlds, and live service things over the years. I like when games are around the length of a Resident Evil game best on average.

The first one… I hated the gameplay. Just being honest. However, I am really looking forward to watching the cutscenes on Youtube

Finally! Another Strand game!

To keep it simple: that list is trash.

Out of the exclusives, honestly, Halo Infinite is the only one I really liked a good amount, personally.

The non-exclusives are a great bunch. Deathloop, Hi-Fi, and Psychonauts are great! All better than the actual exclusives.

@theduckofdeath @NEStalgia Ultimately, the pursuit of GP and Plus has ultimately hurt both ecosystems, honestly. They could’ve invested all the money they used for either service and made games, which is more exciting, in my opinion. But everyone needs to be Netflix now, so it is what it is, I suppose. I cancelled both subs (and Netflix too) this year, so maybe I’m just not who they want anymore as a consumer? Honestly, the Nintendo plan works best for me. I have trust in what Nintendo does, whether I agree with it or not, because Nintendo has established trust in their way of doing things. If I buy a Nintendo console forever just for Mario and Zelda, I will, whereas I wonder about Xbox being a PC with an Xbox UI and Sony remastering the same games over and over again and making live service to fill the gaps. Lol.

Xbox could pick up momentum if they stick to some concrete release dates and start pumping out games. It’s that simple. They need a few big games that are received positively across the board. If Hellblade is well received and then they drop something in the summer people love and Indy and Avowed stick the landing, they’ll be looking better than Sony is if Sony does indeed have nothing to offer first party-wise this year. I want to see Xbox be successful because 1) Xbox is worthwhile to own again, 2) it forces PlayStation to try harder, 3) everyone wins when the competition is good!

@Grumblevolcano @NEStalgia If Xbox was just upfront and said they’re going to focus on making Gamepass the best service in the world, putting the pressure on PS and Nintendo saying they want it on the consoles, and making a dedicated handheld with Steam and Epic stores also available, I honestly think Xbox would position themselves in a great place. It just requires them to be upfront and consistent in messaging. It feels like Phil has a vision, but it also feels like he is constantly changing it. I suspect that’s not entirely because his vision is changing, but because he’s constantly adapting to a whole bunch of things not panning out the way he wants it, whether that’s from MS, the fans, his studios, staff, etc. If Phil’s allowed to be positive and be a hype man, he does quite well. It’s just a shame he’s not in that place for a variety of factors and that makes his brand leadership look rocky at the moment. It could change.

And yes, I think Sony went BIG BIG BIG exclusives and forgot that minor games are important too and that, just like with Xbox PR matters. Unlike Xbox, PS doesn’t seem to listen to their fans, so we get disaster showcases like the Suicide Squad or Fairgame$ reveals. They might as well start to announce a few games that appeal to their demographic earlier and focus on smaller titles again to fill the gaps. Seriously, a small Parappa game as a stop gap can’t be that expensive and it holds people over. Sony used to have a wizard’s touch for this, but now it seems like they’re tossing obvious big money plays, and it’s apparent, even when it flops like Ronin or Forspoken. You know I’m Forspoken’s biggest fan on these forums and that I believe it would’ve done better if Square and Sony supported it lovingly, but they let the dogs rip it apart. Sony needs to show passion rather than this coldness they’ve gotten. Xbox at least makes it known they care. That’s my favorite part of Phil’s leadership.

@NEStalgia I agree with you 100%. I don’t think Sony’s got any momentum right now outside the momentum of industry inertia. Nintendo and Sony do sell consoles by exclusives, but with exclusives like Ronin, I’m baffled at what Sony is doing. To be fair though, Stellar Blade is getting a lot of people excited. Not sure it’ll sell consoles, but the hype will sell copies. I think it’ll potentially be a big wave game, much like Palworld was, and sort of taper off though. If Sony wanted exclusives to sell consoles, they’re definitely misusing Naughty Dog, of all studios.

For all the doom and gloom I spout, I clearly want Xbox to succeed or I’d not be on here. I’m hoping that, if Xbox is going to shift into third party and handhelds, Stadia-likes, Gamepass dongles, whatever, I’d just like to see them commit to it and have a consistent message. For me, I just am not a fan of Phil’s kumbayah games for everyone everywhere message and the backtracking on it, sidestepping, then retracking to it. I just want Xbox to have a clear vision and go for it. The worst thing the industry is doing right now is being nervous. I mean, I get it. People have been critical of new IP, so there’s this stale, safe remake and sequel culture right now, but the publishers didn’t get to where they are by being complacent and nervous. They took bold risks. I’ll take a Forspoken or Hi-Fi Rush over another TLOU remaster or barebones Forza. Of course, the press would have to start getting a bit more supportive of new games and help the developers sell (which they used to do).

The thing I give Phil most of all is that he’s at least got a positive mindset about things. And I think it’ll be a good ten years before we can really evaluate his strategies (Or Jim Ryan’s, honestly) and see if they were forward thinking or a fallout. Seriously, I think Xbox needs to invest in heavily PR though, so people can trust their vision, even if it’s different from the norm. They need to take control of their public perception.

I liked the campaign quite a bit at launch, but was gutted when they announced story DLC was never even planned for it. That sort of diminished my opinion of the campaign as, to me, it seemed tailor made for story expansions.

The multiplayer was always fun, but didn’t have the impact of Halo 1-4. It had a lot of issues early on too. I haven’t gone back to it in a while

@NEStalgia That’s not nothing, but, to me, like I said, I go back to E3 2019, you know? 100 Games being developed for Xbox was the message, but I didn’t realize half of them were ports of games that already released on PS4 and now we’d be at a point where Xbox is on the verge of being a third party publisher, but also not. I feel like the messaging is confusing, which is what frustrates me most about Xbox. I feel like they don’t have consistent plans and the plans they do have are made last minute and off-the-cuff. That might not be Phil’s fault. He seems like a good guy, but really, for all his transparency, we still have no clarity on anything. The last two years in particular though have been a challenge as an Xbox fan for me and that’s really because literally everything from the brand feels up in the air and subject to change at any minute. It doesn’t help that Sony is also slipping without real competition. Sony has trouble pulling a Nintendo and just existing in its own world, you know? For the record, I wouldn’t mind if Xbox became a third party publisher though. I’m ok buying Xbox games on PlayStation if that’s the future of Xbox

@theduckofdeath The fanbase was divided before the porting program. It was divided at the start of the generation and the divisions have just been progressing. Halo Infinite was divisive. Activision was divisive. 2022 having no major releases was divisive. Redfall was divisive. Starfield was divisive. The porting program was divisive. The only dedicated fanbase Xbox has at this point seems to be the ones that share Phil’s vision of non-exclusivity, but plain and simple, no one in the Xbox community would be championing that vision if Xbox was beating their competition or even close to being on terms with their peers. Xbox could really use a bonafide hit with the gaming community at large.

And yes, a large developer or publisher would skip Xbox if they didn’t feel it would generate them income at the expense of the development cost. Plenty of AAA publishers have titles that have skipped Xbox. There’s a decent amount of Switch/PS/PC games that are from healthy developers.

@theduckofdeath I can blame him for the last five years, for sure though! As much as I like Hi-Fi Rush and Psychonauts 2, Xbox Games Studios hasn’t exactly been churning out hits and the ones they have hit with are now multiplatform.

Also, the fanbase is severely divided and uncertain now. Developers are questioning if Xbox is a worthwhile platform to develop for. As someone else has said in the comments, Xbox has overpromised and underdelivered. I think back to E3 2019 and things Phil said then and where we are now. Phil can give a pitch, for sure, but Xbox is still a far cry from where it was in the 360 era.

From 80 million Xbox console owners to 34 million Gamepass subscribers. Interesting how much the metrics for success have shifted in the Spencer era. I don’t dislike Phil, mind you, but I do wonder if he’s actually benefitted the brand long term, aside from keeping its existence intact.

@OldGamer999 I’m in the trucking and transport industry, I support you could say, and it’s been bizarre. We’ve shifted a chunk of our focus into huge business-based jobs instead of residential services and we’ve had a phenomenal quarter so far, breaking our March sales record by a comfortable amount, which seems at odds with how our employees feel, as we’re getting constant complaints about how my team isn’t receiving the hours they expect and how they feel the business has never been slower. I sort of feel that this is a microcosm for industry as a whole this year, as many of my affiliates are sharing that they’re encountering similar problems… and if they aren’t, they’re plain down on sales, so they’re downsizing. I feel fortunate that at least sales have been great for my business this year, but it’s such an odd world right now. I hope the economy sorts itself out soon!

Voted for Control because it’s the best game on the list, but I let my sub lapse in March, so I can’t say I’m impressed with Gamepass at this point. Control’s been on sale for less than a monthly sub cost, for reference, if I didn’t already own it. Gamepass is getting to be a more and more difficult thing to support if you’ve been actively buying games the past couple years, you know?

Who knows? I’m guessing holiday 2025 or summer 2026 as a release date.

@OldGamer999 The whole economy is basically experiencing this, not just gaming. I know plenty of people in logistics that are cutting back on truckers and forklift drivers for the time being, just because they aren’t getting enough work to necessitate their jobs. It’s a rough world out there right now. Supply and demand and all that.

Still waiting to see how Harold Halibut reviews (and is priced) before I think about going back to Gamepass.

I believe it. They went all out with Dragon’s Dogma 2. I’ve never really liked Monster Hunter as a franchise, but it’s hard to argue against Capcom’s standard of quality so much so that I’d honestly consider buying the new game depending on 2025’s release schedule, even while knowing I’ve not liked previous games. It’s Capcom, so I know it’s likely a strong title. It’s wonderful to be able to say that about a AAA developer, even with that whole MTX controversy thing.

If this is a win, we’re all losing.

@rustyduck If we don’t get them this year, it’s another bum year for Xbox as a platform. It simply isn’t a good look if a trillion dollar business can only manage to get one solid game out a year, if that. That’s mismanagement, plain and simple. I expect Avowed and Hellblade this year for certain and perhaps a third game, though I don’t know if it’ll be Indy. I can wait for Indy as it was just announced. There’s so many other games that have been in the oven a loooong time now. Anything that was announced in the initial Xbox Series showcase, it’s about time to release those games. It makes you wonder if they’d even started a few of them when they announced them at this point. I sometimes wonder why this generation started when it did, given all we knew about where the economy was at the year the consoles launched. It’s almost like they were rushing to get the consoles out to create a COVID bubble.

@Phil-Spencer-Gate They lost me as a subscriber for the time being and I’m not alone in my friends group in that (I’ll come back, but certainly won’t subscribe for a full year in advance again). I get that is their goal, but seriously I know a couple people that have sold their Xboxes the last year because they lost confidence in the brand. The way Phil has been running Xbox in the last five or so years has been running it into the ground. It’s a pity we get more news about what Xbox’s financial moves are or the plans Phil shills out than news about upcoming games these days. I’ve been with Xbox a long time. It is weird to me that I’ve used my 360 more in the last six months than my Series console.

I hate to say it, but I hope this one loses a lot of money for the shareholders that are involved because this reeks of “games made to increase shareholder investment.”

The decisions they’re making now are making it likely I won’t buy an Xbox again, at the very least. They can make solid hardware, but what’s the point if you can’t generate the games to lure people into playing the console? It’s March and my playtime on Xbox is in the single digits hour wise. The only game I’ve played on the console is Palworld and it wasn’t for me. I’ve cancelled my Gamepass sub and I’m considering resubbing for Harold Halibut and Still Wakes the Deep, but only if it’s cheaper to sub than to buy them. I understand where Xbox’s pivot makes financial sense, but it doesn’t mean I’m a fan.

Phil’s comments from PAX East speak to me like Xbox is hopping out of the home console space and is going to launch a Steamdeck-like, which will be a budget handheld gaming PC, as their Hail Mary in the hardware space to see if they can dominate that area. This’ll change optics on the brand, of course, as they won’t be competing with Sony anymore directly if that’s the case, and I suspect, like always, they’ll sort of ignore that Nintendo exists as a competitor, to focus on beating other deck sales. This would be a crafty pivot, honestly. They need to do something to optically make the brand more attractive. Alternatively, the Luma/Stadia space is something I can see casual gamers actually being interested in now, as well. Xbox could swoop that space up in a more thoughtful way, ie to make Xbox truly everywhere.

The issue though that Xbox tends to ignore is that they spend so much time discussing pivots to brand strategy that I think they forget that this generation and last they’ve lost a good detail of brand identity in the process. In other words, they still need to create the software to make their ecosystem more attractive. Beating Steam, Epic, Google, Apple, and Amazon by inviting them in doesn’t solve that problem.

I trust whatever they do with RE. I thought 7 would be awful, but it ended up being my favorite in the series. I thought REmakes were a bad idea, but they impressed me. I said REmake 4 was totally unnecessary and I was wrong. Three strikes and I’m out. With RE, I trust Capcom to do their best and I’m here for it day 1.

I’m suspecting this indie thing may have been more to wrangle them from the Activision banner than anything else. I mean, the excellent platforming studio was relegated to Warzone support for such a long time. What a waste of their competencies and I’m sure the developers are happy to be wrested from such a prison as that to work on the games they want to do. I certainly hope they make a new Spyro, but honestly they’re one of those few studios that you know they’ll be able to pull off something interesting regardless of what it is. Their Crash game was the best of the Crash series, in my opinion.

Preordered it on PS5. Part of me got it because I’ve heard “if you love Elden Ring…” and then there’s the whole thing where Capcom’s been so solid lately. I never played the first one though, so I’m being trusting… which is hard in this industry, but I’m a guy that trusts Square, so logic evades me, huh?

Another part of me got it because… what else is coming out this year? Might need a time sink

All dozen people playing this game are excited, I bet!

Maybe I’ll sub up for Gamepass come June for Still Wakes the Deep and Harold Halibut

I’d honestly say it’s the fourth best game to release on PS5 this year, personally. I wish this game all the success it deserves. It’s the best first party title by Xbox since the Ori games and best yet this generation.

This is a Ubisoft style metric of success to report.

What a shame for the review, but not unexpected. It is an Embracer title, after all.

@Jark My bad, corrected my typo

@RIghteousNixon Basically, for me, I would say that their financials are of none of our concerns and she shouldn’t be putting that out in the open as a contractor for Microsoft, you know? It lacks professional etiquette. Yes, transparency is good, but personally, I don’t think talking money as a reason something is minimized is a good look. There’s a budget on everything, sure, but, I mean, if the Fallout TV show didn’t have Deathclaws and their reason was, “A) We didn’t have the budget and B) for these various reasons, it wasn’t the story we were trying to tell,” you really don’t have to state reason A because they likely decided it wasn’t in the budget in the first place and chose a different path anyway. It’s a slippery slope when you start pointing fingers at the allotted money for a project as any reason for anything. I mean, do we forgive Redfall’s mistakes at launch if it launched the way it did because of its budget? Just own up to the creative decisions. This is a big budget TV program. At the end of the day, they made creative choices, regardless of what money they had to spend, because they felt it was the right thing for the show, narratively and for viewer engagement.

I dunno. My perspective comes from being someone that’s deep in the budgeting side of business, and typically that’s something that we keep tight lipped about. If I were to divulge budgetary information, typically it would only be positive information, as that tends to create an assurance that things are going well and it puts my employer in a “safer place,” so to speak. Yes, things get cut because of budgets all the time across all types of businesses, but to me, it’s just not professional to bring that up to the press, you know?

@RIghteousNixon Respectfully disagree. With a multimillion dollar TV show like Halo, talking about a lack of money is sort of a tasteless argument, in my opinion. It’s not like we’ve got an indie production here. This is a show backed by Microsoft, after all. Transparency is great, but honestly just say that the vision for the show was more specific on different facets of the franchise. The second reason adequately explains their reason to reduce the size of the Fall of Reach’s presence in the show, whether people agree with it creatively or not.

@Vordus If any of the big players in the industry deserves to collapse though, it’s Embracer. Their financial plans have made little to no sense to me. Buy up tons of studios and IP and sit on them after one huge budget game (from a franchise in Saints Row that wasn’t exactly known as a critical darling) gets a largely negative reception. Then release nothing for a year or so, cancel dozens of in-production games, sell studios for less than their purchase cost, and then Alone in the Dark comes around. As innovative as the original was, it was a cult classic rather than a breakout title for a reason, and it’s a surprise they poured so much into it, including Hollywood actors to publicize the game. But heck, let them throw a Hail Mary and see where it lands. If Embracer fails, they’ll just continue to crumble and sell properties that deserve revisiting to publishers and developers that will hopefully do something with them.

Control is a 10/10. I played it at launch back in 2019 and it would’ve been GotY for me had Death Stranding not landed like the gorgeous albatross it is. Control is most certainly in my top 10 games of the previous generation. On the “Xbox only” ecosystem, I believe the only two games I would rate above it are Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metal Gear Solid V and even there, it gets hard to rank things at that caliber of games. Many days, I’d maybe place Control above V, but my years of being on the Ruse Cruise make it difficult to do in totality.

That said, I can’t wait to see where the franchise goes next. Alan Wake 2 was even better than Control.

@Vordus Fair enough, but I want the industry to be riskier, so I’m all for this type of investment. I’d probably have more faith in the game if it wasn’t attached to Embracer though. I can’t honestly think of a single Embracer game that I really liked.

@Vordus If it reviews well, I’m interested at least. Not sure I’d play it right away, given that I’ve already got two other preorders right now for next week and I’m still playing Rebirth, but I’d buy it as something to play later. I bought Banishers and still haven’t played it, but I will.

I sort of suspect this one might flop, but I’m hoping it’s great!

Final Fantasy Rebirth… and that is all. In Chapter 8 now, just bobbing along and loving my time with it.