Yeah, what happened. They take it down?

So close to great. I wish more developers were making environmentally detailed, high production value, single player linear games like Callisto Protocol. Just that little bit better executed to round out the total package.

Oh, I meant to mention the map, I know a lot of people take issue with it. It’s certainly unusual and makes hundred-percenting item collection challenging. There are some maze-like areas with different levers you have to pull in certain orders that I’m undecided if they were improved by having less information.

Definitely a point of contention though, to say the least.

I played the demo up to the first couple battles just to get a taste of how that works. No question, I am very excited to get my hands on it. I’m generally a sub-$20 patient gamer, but this is one I’ll be getting sooner. I’ll still probably wait for the holiday season to see if it drops down at all because I’ve got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.

I’m not sure if it’s makes any difference to you, but Gris is very abstract in its “storytelling,” such as it is. There’s no backstory to expose, no reality vs. virtual simulation or dream world. It’s about a player figure in a colorless world who begins the game in an implied state of incompleteness and melancholy. You guide her through a journey punctuated by moments of adversity, wonder, and triumph, communicated by an affecting marriage of gameplay, score, and cinema. But that’s it, there’s no dialogue, exposition, or narration, no backstory or plot twists.

The gameplay itself is fine-tuned and accessible. You learn a few new abilities during the course of the game that serve as tools for navigation and puzzle solving. And there are no fail states. It is meticulously lightweight in presentation and play, but equally powerful in emotional immersion and effect. At least, that was my experience.

Gris is a no-brainer if you haven’t played it. Fundamentally simple puzzle-platformer, but one of the most beautiful and emotionally evocative games I’ve ever played. Nearly every frame of this game is a work of art, and the wonderful score by Berlinist complements the gameplay perfectly, directly and indirectly.

Aside from Return to Monkey Island - never played any of them - the rest is pretty meh for me.

I gotta vent a little about Jedi Survivor - I really did not enjoy it much at all and am surprised it was so critically lauded. The combat aims for souls-like but is way too twitchy and glitchy to make it feel fun and rewarding. I came out of 60% of combat encounters feeling bored, 20% feeling relieved that some erratic imbalance or technical tomfoolery didn’t make me repeat it, and 10% feeling frustrated for the same reason but on the other side.

The same core issues affected the bosses too. I didn’t feel like the game earned my dedication to “solving the puzzle” the way games like Elden Ring and Returnal do.

Exploration was mostly fine in a zone-out kind of way but grew quite stale by the end, being the same vertical platforms and grapple spots on every section of every world. And the story too was just too out of focus. The whole Tanalorr thing was a late first-act development completely divorced from the course of the opening, and there was never a clear or necessary enough idea of why they wanted to get there to justify it becoming a priority to drive the story.

I still like the characters, but I was desperate to be done by the time I was fighting a notable turn-of-the-second-act boss, whose appearance elicited an eyeroll rather than excitement. I set the game to story mode at that point and just rushed the ending.

While that was going on though, I did play Animal Well all the way through (“layer 1” anyway), and that was extraordinary fun.

Oh, I also tried out the Metaphor Refantazio demo and that feels incredibly promising, especially with the incredible reviews it’s getting today.

Fatal Frame has gotten lost to history a bit, but I remember those games having the reputation as being the scariest that games have ever gotten when they were new.

There are exactly two games that my kids have played consistently for two straight years: Lego Marvel Super Heroes and “Robot Game” (Astro’s Playroom).

Personally overjoyed that it’s scoring so well. Incredible success for PlayStation and Team Asobi - I hope they’re celebrating well today/tomorrow.

Thanks, I still can’t wrap my head around how it makes sense to pull the game and issue auto refunds. Unless PlayStation thinks it’s so toxically bad that its mere existence is damaging to the brand.

I’m OOL, what happened that was this bad? I’d heard it wasn’t popular, like it just didn’t latch onto the market (reasonably, due to oversaturation), but was there something functionally wrong with the game?

The turn-based with real-time elements reminds me of Sea of Stars and Shadow Hearts, which are both excellent titles in my mind for this game to associate itself with. Looks really flashy too with the menu, camera movement, and slowdown effects (hopefully that wouldn’t get old with too much repetition).

Same here. Loved the setting and style, and the story and characters were admirably close to (the good) 3rd-person bioware stuff.

I don’t usually pay full price for games, but I was thinking of buying Greedfall 2 near release to support what they do. This puts a real taint on things.

Thought this looked pretty interesting, but the gameplay trailer looks pretty rough. Reminds me of a 2010-era mid-budget action adventure. I’ll keep an eye on it though, I’m not terribly picky about entertaining single-player games.

My patience with Cult of the Lamb finally pays off.

Same, though interested is an understatement. Prey is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. I enjoyed Weird West, but it left me feeling more like a POC of what the studio wants to do than anything up to the actual standards of Arkane’s best.

If WolfEye fills the void of Arkane’s deplorable closure, they’ll get all the support I can give.

Personally, I am excited about Ender Lilies, it was on my wishlist, but don’t care about other games.

100%. I vaguely remember hearing about Ender Lilies a while back but it fell of my radar. I watched some videos after this announcement yesterday and it looks really great. I’m excited to try it out.

As for the other two, I think I am permanently Lego-gamed-out, and I don’t really understand what FNAF…is, and I haven’t the motivation to bother. What little I do know doesn’t seem up my alley.

Deadline is a film industry trade paper, so success metrics like Box Office are of interest to it, especially insofar as those metrics guide the trajectory of industry trends.

Tried The Ascent because of just how slick it looked in the previews I saw. And you’re right, the atmosphere is great. But I have a low tolerance for the looter shooter format and I don’t play much online coop, so I got real bored of it real fast.