Just Smash. I enjoy it, but am often annoyed by the commentary surrounding it. I fully believe people put too much stock into tier lists in what is a mostly balanced game

I used to watch Smash or speedrunning but don't really do it anymore. I'm so backed up on my own game catalog that its hard to justify watching others play games instead of doing it myself.

Cool to hear about Prince of Persia. My history with the series is buying the HD trilogy on ps3, enjoying Sands of Time, but made the mistake of starting Warrior Within right after and getting burned out halfway through.

Re Ubisoft: I don't think people hate them, but their business practice of discounting their games by 50% a month after release just makes people that paid full price feel burned by them. Trials and Rayman are proof they can make something other than a generic open world game ... which are only generic now because Ubisoft made so many lol.

I need to get back into Cyberpunk. Was great for the week I played it but then Elden Ring came out...

Also, the "Pokemon With Guns" game Palworld seems to be doing very well so far. Not sure if its actually good or people are just drawn to the absurdity of the idea. It's on Game Pass so we all could find out at very little risk.

Finally beat Tears of a Kingdom, and I really think the open world format undercut this one. It has a decent story that is lost in all of the fluff of a bloated amount of side content. Perhaps next time I will play the story straight to see how it holds up as Breath of the Wild isn’t as compelling the second time around, I could see it being the opposite for Tears of the Kingdom.

That being said, the ending is much much better with a far more challenging final boss that cleverly uses gloom to up the challenge. It was a marathon. The final section of the boss fight was spiritually similar to final section in Breath of the Wild, but done in a much more satisfying way. Still wish it was as challenging as the previous stages. If Breath of the Wild had this final boss it would have been a masterpiece.

So yes the game was loads of fun with some really breathtaking moments but is ultimately held back by the same issues that plague most open world games in that you can get lost doing the side content that it messes with the flow of the narrative. Games like Breath of the Wild and New Vegas over came this issue, Tears did not, but a more traditional Zelda playthrough might make me feel better about this one

The PS and Xbox state of plays didn't do much to inspire me to buy any new games this year. Judas (from Bioshock creator) , Avowed (from Obsidian) and the Silent Hill 2 remake (never played original) were all that really stood out and its doubtful any of the 3 will be released in 2024. Hopefully Nintendo will have some updates on Hades 2 and Hollow Knight 2...

Suicide Squad's launch tomorrow should be interesting. Sucks to see a game I was excited for turn out so badly, but maybe it'll bomb so hard they'll make it F2P and we can all find some enjoyment with it then lol.

I'd recommend the new Prince of Persia if you don't have anything new to play right now and nothing is on the horizon.

I just beat it and got to 100% completion after 36 hours, so I'm thinking the main questline is a solid 20-25 hours. You can basically complete (or make a lot of progress at least) many of the side-quests and general exploration as you're just going through the story, so backtracking is fairly minimal too. And it's pretty great. Any Metroidvania fan should really enjoy it, and I think most platforming fans would find enjoyment here too.

The storyline is the weakest point, but the gameplay is engaging, fun, rewarding, and often times challenging. I'll give it a strong 9/10. They really delivered here, and hopefully it's successful enough to keep the franchise alive with some sequels or other entries.

And yes, where is the Hades 2 news!!!* Over a year now since the reveal trailer... If it makes 2024, I'm guessing it'll be a late 2024 release now... I've actually been playing a lot of Hades in recent weeks too and have just about done everything. Nothing else to buy, all weapons fully upgraded, all entries complete, everything is maxed. 190 hours of playtime now, and I *STILL* got some new dialogue. Only thing I have left is to beat freakin' 32 heat! I can reach the Hades fight sometimes on 32 heat now with the bow (Chiron and Rama), just haven't been able to beat him.

*But really, I don't really care how long they take to finish Hades 2. The first is right up there as my favorite game ever now, and the sequel has probably become my most anticipated release ever too, so I'm perfectly willing to be patient as long as needed.

Oh I have plenty to play. Fire Emblem Engage, Mario Wonder, Pokemon Scarlet and Final Fantasy 16 are just sitting there, waiting for me to get the platinum in Hogwarts Legacy (at 75% challenges now so another week or two?) And despite my complaints we do have some cool remakes this month with Persona 3 Reloaded and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Paper Mario TYD remake is soon too I think?.) I also liked the first Helldivers though I believe it was a free ps+ game rather than $40 like the new sequel is. It just feels weird not having any huge games on the near horizon to look forward to. Especially after the last few years where it felt like there were big releases every month. We're definitely gonna have another random title like It Takes Two win game of the year.

You've definiely got me interested in the Prince of Persia game. Will have to jump back into that series at some point.

Hades 1 spent a pretty long period of time in Early Access on PC before being shipped to consoles in its finished form. So I'm thinking maybe we will get that by the end of the year, but the final game won't release until sometime in 2025.

Playing Ocarina of Time again, such a classic. Still holds up well as its story and atmosphere are universal

Seeing rumors that Xbox will be going the Sega route, moving to become a third-party company and stepping away from hardware?!

I haven't really paid attention to any troubles they've been having, and I know the Series S/X is basically doing the same numbers as the One S/X which is a bit disappointing, but I didn't think it was anywhere near bad enough to exit the console race. Feels very... sudden, reactionary?

I also know Microsoft cut a lot of jobs (10%, I think?) from Xbox this year, but even if that's not enough, why not have Phil Spencer and other execs at Xbox take significant pay-cuts (25-50%) like Nintendo's CEO and execs did for a while following the Wii U's disappointment? Nintendo didn't even layoff any employees during that time.

My friend and I talked about this a few years back and it makes sense. Companies can make a lot more money producing just software and there isn’t as much benefit to making the hardware

Gotta say Im very disappointed you can't use the unforgivable curses outside of combat. I wanted to see what that stupid talking well had to say about the cruciatus curse.

As for Xbox ... well if I wasn't lazy I'd make a Drake meme about how paying $10 a month for Starfield = nah and paying $70 for Starfield on PS5 = yah. I know thats dumb but it is absolutely going to happen lol.

Finished the story in Hogwarts Legacy at 62 hours. Still have quite a bit to do for the platinum trophy, but feel comfortable giving it a 9.3 score. I can think of a million ways it could have been a better game, but I am overall very satisfied with what we got. I really liked how the Hogwarts Castle was like a metroidvania that you kept finding new secrets in as you unlocked more spells, while the Hogsmeade Countryside provided an open world to do stuff in. Switching back and forth between the two kept things from getting old. I played most of the game on hard and only had to turn it down to normal when I ran out of potions before the final stage of Ranrock lol.

Started Pokemon Scarlet as my new main game (whilst cleaning up on Hogwarts):

1) Went with Fuecoco as my starter and already love the little guy with his stupid dumb face lol.

2) I already fell through the level once and had a battle with the camera stuck inside a mountain. I gave you 15 months to fix this shit gamefreak, come on!


Also, while paying a full $50 is steep when the backlog is so deep, Helldivers 2 looks right up my alley. They switched the perspective to 3rd person from the originals overhead. Looking forward to that one!

Hogwarts Legacy certainly established a strong foundation for future titles in the series to build upon. Still VERY surprised they didn't do any DLC. Given how well it sold (22m copies in 2023), and given the fanbase, they could have made another fortune with a DLC expansion. But if any DLC was ever discussed and ended up getting moved to any future sequels/entries, I'd prefer that in the end.

I never had any major glitches like that in Scarlet, and I have around 100 hours into it. There were plenty of bad camera angles in battles happening on a slope/cliff, and the frame-rate drops were really bad in many different areas, but nothing extreme happened to me. (Although the frame-rate drops being so frequent is a major issue.) It's a very fun game. I said this here after playing it for a while. I think it might just be the most fun I had playing a Pokemon game, at least as an adult. It's hard for me to not give it like a 8.5/9 because of this despite the many technical flaws. Game Freak just needs to optimize and clean up this formula and they'd have a truly special product.

Just saw on Twitter than Sony recently reported they don't have any major games releasing until APRIL 2025(!) at the earliest. That's pretty crazy. PS5 sales slowed last quarter, so without any big games for at least the next 14 months, they'll probably slack off a good deal this year too. They also said the PS5 is in the latter part of its lifecycle which is... not going over well to say the least. Maybe they just mean it's crossed the mid-point, but it's an odd thing to say after just 3+ years. The absence of major titles for over a year may indicate they are already planning to launch the next gen sooner rather than later perhaps though.

Although the PS5 might be getting all the Xbox exclusives this year too (as well as Switch, at least what they can release on it). We'll know on Friday if Xbox is just going multi-platform with their games, or if they're exiting the console race and going third-party games instead.

We might also know what's going on with the "Switch 2" as early as next month if rumors are correct. The best rumor is that it's supposed to be fully backward compatible with both physical and digital Switch games. And given the Switch's library (arguably the best of any console in history), this will go a LONG way. But rumors have been ongoing for years on it, so not leaning into any of them until Nintendo officially announces it.

Not sure if I would pay for story DLC from Hogwarts as I thought it was the weakest aspect of the game. What I really want from DLC (or the sequel) is to be able to explore other magical schools like Durmstrang and Beauxbatons as that was my favorite part of the game.

A thing I like about Scarlet so far: Being able to catch the baby pokemon in the opening parts of the game. Now I can have those pokemon without making anyone breed with a ditto.

Yeah 2024 is just not gonna be remembered as a high point for gaming. Hollywood has the actors strike as an excuse, but what is Sonys? Last of Us 2 is almost 4 years old and Naughty Dog still hasn't even announced their next project. Also seems like the xbox games making the first moves won't be anything significant. Starfield would be a big mover if it gets ported anytime soon though.

Swich 2 with a new Mario Odyssey at launch would go a long way towards making this year exciting again.

Starfield and Indiana Jones will remain xbox exclusives. Even if those are the only two then they picked the right two.

Guess I'm getting Game Pass back after all! Lol. I was probably going to anyway for the new MLB game next month anyway.

Shadow of the Erdtree launching in June. $40 is steep for DLC but if any game will make it worth it, it is Elden Ring.

Some cute indie games in the nintendo showcase. I'm interested in the crab game and the yo-yo game.

My favorite new pokemon so far: Oricorio. What a badass. And he doesn't even have an evolution cause he doesn't need one. Though I guess they can change type by using an item? How cool is that? We have a new Eevee up in here.

I've hit a wall in trying to 100% Hogwarts Legacy. There's two missing conjurations and since the chests are randomized there's no way to tell what I'm missing. I double checked all the butterflies and vivariums but still nothing. Shame to end at 99%. :-/

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is getting excellent reviews. I'm tempted to pick it up to avoid spoilers but just like with Helldivers, I have too much to play already. Crazy to say that about a remake to a game I already played years ago, but they've done a great job hyping up that there's going to be huge changes to the original story and that's not disprespectful, but part of the new story. So I guess we have at least one game of the year frontunner lol.

Just caught Espatha, a psychic ostrich pokemon. Another big win for the people who made the new designs.

Edit: In our very first battle Espathra refused to obey me. How dare she?!? I'm not gonna let this go.

Edit 2: just caught Greavard, the ghost dog pokemon whose pokedex entry reads "it is said that a dog who dies without ever encountering a human is reborn as this pokemon." ... wtf? Why? That's just excessively dark.

Hit a wall in Scarlet surprisingly. Most of the game was so easy that I wasn't really ever properly worried, even though I play with the permadeath system (you're supposed to release them after they die,but I surprise trade them lol.) So ended up losing half my team to the final Team Star boss and then the Mastibuff guy wiped out the rest of them. Had nothing to counter such a powerful dark pokemon. So I can either go catch a new team (which I did to beat Shield but only had one trainer left at that point) or call it quits. Whatever I do, I'll give the game a solid 8.4/10. Lots of problems, but it nailed the open-world wild area portion and thats what mattered most.

I did get Game Pass back to play Starfield, but while finishing Pokemon I messed around with some other games.

Madden - 5 - same as it ever was for better or worse

Brotato - 8 - A fun little game that starts off feeling like a Vampire Survivors clone, but ends up feeling like a more advanced version of the same genre with lots and lots of choices that make each run unique.

Lies of P - a Soulsbourne type game featuring the characters from Pinnochio. Love the idea, love the aesthetic, but the gameplay is too heavy on parrying which stresses me out. So its more like Sekiro than Elden Ring. Won't give a grade since I didn't get far enough.

Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door remake = wonderful.

Also:

Have A Nice Death - 8/10. A solid NotHades game.

Helldivers 2 - 8.5. Took me awhile to warm up to it but it finally clicked once I started using a shotgun as my primary so as not to get overwhelmed by swarms.

Because of the Fallout show I have gone back to playing Fallout 4. Probably my least favorite of the three modern Fallouts, but the easiest for me to play as my Xbox 360 is in storage. I would play a New Vegas remake in a heartbeat though. By far the best Fallout game, but 3 and 4 are fine too despite what the internet wants you to believe.

New Vegas also my favorite. It was a vibe.

Metroid Prime 4 lives! And theres a new Mario and Luigi and a Zelda game starring Zelda. Jam packed Nintendo Direct today.

But who cares cause Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is out in two more days.

Metroid Prime 4 methinks will launch Switch 2 and be available for the first Switch as well ala Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess

Almost definitely. Probably spring launch for both then Mario Odyssey 2 in November like last time?

Shadow Of The Erdtree is glorious. Elden Ring continues to set the standard for gaming.

Donkey Kong Country 3, weirdly I never managed to finish either the first or the third one, but think the 2nd one is a top 5 game of all time