What game are you most excited for?

I hear you. I am so done with Game Freak. They don't even care at this point. They blatantly lied to fans. "Oh we aren't going remove the national pokedex..." until they did and said "oh well we had to remove it so we can spend more time on building brand new models for the pokemon instead of reusing old models". Then we find out they reused the old models anyways. So what was the reason for removing the national pokedex then? I mean Pokemon is the single biggest money making video game franchise in history, they have the money to create all new models and make things look really good. But instead we get something that looks like a Playstation 2 game. Didn't even bother to pick up Sword and Shield. And the sickening thing is that they are getting away with it... Sword and Shield is already one of the best selling Switch games despite all its problems.

 

I am sure you know about this already, but just in case you dont, there is a full remake coming of Mafia 1, and it looks like they have put a lot of effort into it, its not half assed at all.

 

Seems like a lot of people feel that way about TLOU2, that the game itself is good, but the story gets gradually worse as it progresses. I know all the leaks and most of the main plot points at this stage, so I wonder how it will affect my enjoyment when/if I play it myself later down the line.

 

I can relate to an extent, I no longer have the energy or patience to sit and play all day like I used to. A few hours at most is enough unless I'm really invested in something, and even then I feel more of a desire to read or write.

 

I would love for Halo Infinite to be good but I dont have much faith. I jumped off the Halo train after not liking 4, never played anything that came out after because I went with PS4 and not Xbox. Would like for them to win me back but I dont see how they can at this point.

 

Nintendo themselves did this to a lesser extent with Animal Crossing, the new game removes a lot of content from past games, but at least the idea with that was to update it gradually to add all that stuff back in, not ideal but its something and I suppose it makes sense for seasonal updates to be a thing in a game that bases everything off a real time calendar. With Pokemon I honestly believe they should never have moved to 3D at all, as this was where the problems started in my opinion. They could have just as easily kept the games in the style of gen 5 (which had incredible pixel art mixed with basic 3D for perspective and scale), and kept all the content. People would have accepted it and bought the game anyway, but they just did it to appeal to people who desperately wanted a full 3D game without realising how much of the dev time and resources would be taken up by the transition. Add this to Game Freaks general incompetence (I read somewhere, I dont know if its true so take with a grain of salt, that the models actually ARE new, but are almost exactly the same, and they needed to do this because they couldnt figure out a way to move the models across from 3DS to Switch) and its a recipe for disaster. At this point I almost dont want Diamond and Pearl remakes because I am afraid at how badly they will mess them up. When the Switch can run Witcher 3, theres no excuse for Pokemon to look as bad and run as bad as it does.

 

I've made the commitment not to buy anymore games until I beat the ones I still have; which I regrettably have not even touched yet.

That said, I'm a die-hard Crash Bandicoot fan. And a new game is coming out in October. Therefore, that is the ONLY exception I will be making.

 

Looking forward to RE8. Not too stoked about playing with Ethan again...struck me as kind of a psychopath if I'm being honest and I'm sure that wasn't the intention for the character. Hoping he feels more alive in this game, also not happy how they just up and did what they did to my favorite character from 7, hopefully it was just some sort of hallucination or dream. But the rest is looking really interesting! I'm curious to find out what the deal is with Chris (and why he switched character models yet again), the witches and the wolf biohazard looks interesting as well. I got a feeling a lot of the assets in 8 are going to be reused in the remake of RE4.

 

I’m definitely waiting for Cyberpunk to come out just like most everybody, it’s been delayed quite enough. I just hope that it isn’t SO overhyped that the end result is completely disappointing. That tends to happen too much with video games anymore.

I think TLOU 2 looks good gameplay wise but from what I’ve seen of the story, I can’t see myself buying it.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but games as a whole seem to be getting more and more dull, and the good ones are further and further between because dev takes so long. I swear at this rate I’m gonna be 40 by the time the next Cyberpunk comes out. I’m hoping the next generation consoles can bring it back somewhat at least.

 

Cyberpunk. Not that I'll be able to play it soon. Just after I manage to control my gaming addiction.

 

That's exactly what I thought. Game is magnificent, intuitive, beautiful, raw, gorgeous, violent, incredible (plus playing it on a giant screen so it feels very immersive and pure pleasure), and the story is amazing at the beginning, but then it goes all the way to the bottom and never gets back up. Plus, I don't even dislike Abby, they did a good job of brainwashing me, but she's highkey BORING. Who cares about playing her for half the game time? Major problem here.

Nope I don't know the game for the new Witcher, sorry. We have next to zero info about it unfortunately All we know is that it won't be called Witcher 4 because the trilogy is over and done, and it won't star Geralt as the main character, which I'm okay with, because I love this whole pile of muscles and grumbling, but my ULTIMATE favourite fictional character, in general but especially in games, is Cirilla. So if we can play with Ciri I'll be extraordinary happy. Plus a good thing to remember is that first the story with Geralt is finished forever with Blood and Wine, but Ciri's is completely open; we know nothing of the path she chose, but since it depends a lot of the player's choice in Wild Hunt, I don't think they'll focus the game on Ciri

You HAVE to get into the Witcher, by far my fav saga of all time, I'm obsessed not only with the games (only played Wild Hunt and Blood and Wine but looking into getting copies of the 1st and 2nd games and gonna start Hearts of Stone soon) but especially with the universe. The books changed my vision of literature. They feel incredibly grounded and contemporary. It's a pure pleasure to read, so many plot twists and intricacies. I must admit though, they're pretty triggering - the first page of the first book describes people having sex lol. But I cannot recommend the Witcher enough. I wish I could experience reading them for the first time again. I collect editions of the first tome, I have 5 already But my favourite book is probably the 4th. Don't bother watching the Netflix series though, it's really trash, plus it's sexual af.


Also I forgot to say two minor things re:OP, first I got the collector edition (200€) of Cyberpunk, this is my first game ever where I get a collector edition and hope it won't be the last. Also, I am very intrigued about this PS5/Steam game called Stray, where you play as a cat in a neon, Tokyo suburbs like environment. It looks gorgeous, very fun and I'm a huge cathead so...

 

I keep telling myself I will do this, then something ends up going on sale and I buy something. I did this last week when I bought the first Jak and Daxter on PS4, but it was extremely cheap and mainly paid for with money already in the digital wallet, so its not too bad. In the past I used to buy games and not play them for months and months, it was like I was buying them just for "retail therapy" reasons and not because I actually wanted to play them. By the time I actually got to playing them they would usually be much cheaper than they were when I originally bought them.

 

I definitely think games are getting more boring to play, and I dont think its just me "outgrowing them" or anything like that. I really do believe a lot of AAA games at least released in this last generation have been tangibly worse than games released before then, with a handful of exceptions of course. The obvious answer would be to play more indies, but lets be honest, a lot of those are bad as well, and tend to be stupidly expensive for relatively little content.

 

343 ruined the series so hard. Up until Reach, Halo was my favourite franchise, 4 and 5 were not even decent but just awful imo. I really want the game to be good. I want a new modern shooter of an IP I used to love bring back basic arena elements to FPS. I want the PC version to be more than a botched console port of a botched remaster. But I just don't think 343 can pull it off, and it really sucks.

 

This is 100% what I feel like. I think in the last 10 years, games have become more and more casual. Most AAA games nowadays are like playing a movie. They are about storytelling and character development (which is also why I was never a big fan of RPGs). And it makes sense because technology is improving so there is more potential for using realistic graphics to create immersive storytelling. But if I want to experience a good story with interesting characters, I can watch a movie or read a book. I play games to challenge myself, to challenge my mental abilities, to strategize and think of different tactics to complete a mission. I want to challenge my reflexes and skills to become better. I just get bored easily with cinematic games if there is no challenging gameplay. But I understand appealing to a casual audience makes more money.

 

Yeah, but for all the casual games out there there are many great, weird and amazing ones. Sure, AAA will always be dumbed down.

But games like Pathologic 2, Cultist Simulator, Hardspace Shipbreakers, Dusk, The Long Dark and so on, don't let me say games today are dumbed down. It depends on where you look.