crispy4000

Lots has been said about the pandemic spoiling game releases and schedules. There's obviously truth to it, especially with the state certain games launched in (like Cyperpunk 2077, Battlefield 2042) and the delays we’re seeing. There's also fewer 'next-gen only' marquee titles than could otherwise be expected by now, but that's more difficult to pin on COVID. Still, I feel there's a lack of perspective on this compared to the XBO and PS4 by this point. I don't think we've seen a major difference in big game release schedules. That's incredible if you think about it. Just look at the lists I've compiled below. It could be that we're only starting to see the broader impact of the pandemic this holiday. But 2023 is already pretty stacked, and still arguably front loaded at the moment. (RE4, Dead Space, Redfall, Suicide Squad, Forza, BoTW2, then Starfield and FFXVI in summer. GoW2?) The lists contain AAA (and the occasional Hellblade-esque AA) games comparing generations. I left out CoD since it's there every year pretty much, and Nintendo since they operate on a different timetable: First Holiday First Full Calendar Year Second Calendar Year to June (now) Anyone else agree or disagree? Anything big I'm missing here?

I'll challenge that idea. With AAA, there's been many bleak years in the past that no pandemic could be blamed for. Think back to last gen. We would have just turned the corner on Witcher 3 coming out back in May, if timelines coincided. Before then, things weren't so hot, even for cross-gen games. This generation may have suffered at the start from Microsoft Studios being mostly AWOL, and still has a few too many cross-gen projects... but the slate of big released games kicks the pants of the XBO/PS4's first 1.5 years. A weaker year's end leading into a stacked early 2023 is a temporary blip. As for delay announcements, timelines were already shifting away from the holiday months last gen. Sometimes to get away from CoD. Or because it became apparent that a big enough game didn't need a holiday boost. With indies, they've always been unpredictable. Some teams finish fast. Others, like Owlboy, take 10 years. There's no rhyme or reason to it. An indie being delayed is even less shocking than an AAA project. EDIT: Spun off my thoughts here.

Yeah, something's up with that footage. Peformance on original hardware isn't perfect in that part of the game, but it's not as bad as that video implies. (also dolphin) It still looks good to me for the most part. The final death star section isn't as much of a showpiece as other levels though, IMO.

Apparently Crash 4 never made it off Blizzard's launcher. The CTR remake never even made it to PC. Picking it up cheap on console is probably the way to go here, even better under a sub.

Good year for this to be coming out.

Did pretty much everything in the Questionable Area in Psyconauts 2. Thank goodness they made it, it's a nice call back to the first game, and a much needed moment of open exploration.

Mario + Rabbids 2 this year sounds good to me. I need to go back to the first one. Monkey's Island is another highlight. Don't love the art style, but I'm still here for it. I'll get the Pac Man World remake eventually on sale. Glad to see Bomberman still living, but Konami should try going 'off grid' with the series again. Harvestella looks interesting, but SquareEnix can do better than just making their own Rune Factory. There's so many spinoffs out there already.

The rumors have always been its more thorough than a port, and developed by Retro themselves. But we’ll see.

Heard on their podcasts that Brad will be taking over Frame Trap. Right person for the job, IMO.

Depends if they give it the full remake treatment, which the 3D Mario (or Prime) trilogies never were. I have no problem with a ground up remaster of a game being sold for $60.

If they're out because this is what they were pushing to Sony, good riddance.

We all do it from time to time. But really, Gamecube: Switch: Jaggies and blemishes accounted for in both. Also, props to Nintendo for seldom ever bullshotting official screenshots.

Timed 'console' exclusives, no doubt. My point is that Nintendo would have needed to convince those devs not to announce platforms in other shows. Other than PC gaming show, perhaps. Could be this will be more Japan focused. Unless there's Mario in it or Nintendo is publishing, it's doubtful. Which is why @Zaku3 isn't wrong about the Deck.

I'm surprised they could even do a 3rd party direct right now following Summer Games Fest. Going to suck if it's just 'This previously announced game is also coming to Switch!'

Obviously not done with the game yet, so I'll reserve some judgement. It's not that the levels are bad, but too often they feel like palette swaps to the same underlying approach. It's gone through at least 4 or 5 different visual ways to represent bottomless pits now. And in the level I just beat, I clipped through the ground several times for checking out nooks and crannies. It really wants to guide you on a critical path. I'd just like some levels that let me explore a bit more. Not everything needs to feel like a riff on a Mario Sunshine challenge level. Especially in a platformer that doesn't take away your camera control. A game like Hat in Time strikes a much better balance so far.

More Psyconauts 2. I still feel like it's too linear and closed for an open-range 3D platformer, but the conceptual creativity keeps it exciting. Just finished the 70's inspired bits.

If social politics didn’t keep people from moving from blue to red states in the middle of the pandemic, I sincerely doubt social politics would convince them to move back.

Many people are, I agree there. Just look at the state of right leaning politics today. I don’t think you need to adopt kids just to be justified in being anti-abortion though. It’s not an argument so much as a personal rationalization, if used that way. That said, I think anyone who adopts is doing something heroic, to say the least. As for being suckered by religious beliefs on this issue… it informs my ethics, but not to the degree where I’d be inclined to disagree with secular pro-life arguments otherwise.

Okay then.

As someone who will never see eye to eye with this board on the broader issue, yes to all the above.

Beat Seal the Deal last year, this is supposed to be even better. DLC seems like a better use of my Steam credit these days.

Could be it for me this time. I'll hold out for the winter sale on some other stuff.

Xenoblade combat has always been a bit contrived. In the first one, it didn’t really feel like it mattered how you played it until midway through, when you had to react appropriately to visions. But having so many enemies early on that you couldn’t touch without Monodo arts bogged it down. X’s combat is probably the worst. It was very reactionary to your other party members AI while on foot, but super slow and boring in mechs. Xenoblade 2’s suffered from overly long tutorial, too slow animations at the start, and more complexity than it needed. It sings by the end, but the effort you need to micromanage everything outside of battles hurts it pretty badly. Torna is when they got it right IMO. The tutorial is perfect, animations are quicker, you don’t really need to bother with elemental trees, etc. And the character swapping mechanics are ace. I just beat it recently, combat felt damn good in it. It’s the closest RPG in spirit to FF7R’s combat, but there’s less resistance, if that makes sense.

Not watching because I’m going in dark… but I definitely can’t call myself a fan of a game before I’ve played it.