Cube

Chip n Dale was a ton of fun. I appreciated that it wasn't just entirely Disney. It feels quite genuine and not soulless recent attempts like Space Jam 2 and Ready Player One.

For "heavily inspired by Zelda" done right, here's Tunic The design is clearly influenced by Zelda, even the in-game manual (which is a key point of the gameplay) is inspired by artwork from Zelda manuals. Yet it still has its own unique style and it's gameplay is also very unique. It delves into your knowledge and expectations of Zelda in order to do it's own twists. It comes across as a love letter to Zelda, one that fully respects it and builds its own things. (That said, the main problem with Tunic is that it's not available for the Switch).

Psychonauts 2 was great. Halo Infinite is still unfinished and Forza Horizon 5 was a potential good game ruined by live service nonsense.

I was thinking that perhaps Microsoft could focus on getting some big games on Xbox day one...but there doesn't seem to be that many 3rd party games they could do it with. Deathloop is a guarantee for Game Pass already (plus, has been out on other platforms for a while) Forspoken isn't on Xbox. Gotham Knights doesn't look great ,but could be a contender. A Plague Tale: Requiem is a bit of a smaller title, but possibly. System Shock could have potential if our this year. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum doesn't look great, but again is a big IP like Gotham Knights Sonic Frontiers is something I'm looking forward to, but I'm expecting a delay on it. Plus while the game still sell well, it isn't a big an impact. Hogwarts Legacy, I'm dubious about how the game will turn out, but it's probably one of the biggest games they could get on Game Pass. Really, getting a great deal with Warner Bros (Gotham Knights, Gollum and Hogwarts Legacy) is probably their best option.

Delayed to somewhere in 2023:

EA were the publishers, though, they're just licencing the name rather than working for FIFA. The only part they'll have to do differently is the World Cup.

EA have built up their brand over a very long time, including building relationships with leagues, clubs and even individual players. Which includes access to a lot of information and scans. From the FIFA pr release, it seems that FIFA don't have a developer in mind, and whoever agrees to pay the FIFA licencing fees will also need to negotiate with many other leagues and clubs. At most, I expect some kind of cheap mobile cash-in with international teams only.

Does Donald Trump now run FIFA?

Bugsnax I wasn’t expecting that much from Bugsnax, but ended up loving it. It’s a game where you collect cute creatures made out of food. There are 8 regions to explore, each with its own set of Bugsnax. You’ll need to learn their behavioural patterns and catch them using various traps and equipment. Working out how to capture each Bugsnax is a lot of fun, and you can combine your equipment in a manner of ways, like launching your trap towards Bugsnax. A lot of the game is focused on the small village of Snaxburg, where you’ll find the muppet-like Grumpuses that reside in this world. They all have fun designs and personalities, along with their own troubles to help them with. A lot of this involves feeding them live Bugsnax, which transforms their body. Some of their issues are surprisingly deep, too. It may look like a kid’s game, but what Bugsnax does is quite surprising. Bugsnax is incredibly entertaining. If it were a Pokémon game, it would easily be my favourite Pokémon game. Life is Strange: True Colo(u)rs A visual novel game about a girl called Alex, who finally reconnects with her brother in a small mining town after going through a dreadful foster care system. She can delve into people’s minds and understand their emotions, so tries to help those around her. A lot of the game is story-related, so I’ll keep it short, but overall I enjoyed the story, even if the main mystery is fairly simple. I enjoyed the slow paced nature of the game and just wandering around the town, although I wish there were a few more locations you could enter.

I enjoyed Picard season 2 for the most part, but some of the plot elements seemed to go nowhere and the pacing was annoying as the end of some episodes felt like they were in an odd place. Strange New Worlds episode 1 was a very strong start.

Horizon: Forbidden West While I loved Horizon: Zero Dawn, I was dubious about the sequel. A big part of the first game was discovering what went wrong with the old world, why society collapsed and how things exist as they do, with robot dinosaurs roaming around. It was amazing watching them treat such a silly-sounding topic seriously, but also create a compelling reason for it all as you get more and more invested in the story. But where does the story go once the biggest mystery is out of the way? Thankfully, Forbidden West manages to make you much more invested with the game’s current events and challenges, while still having more to reveal about the past. In Forbidden West, Aloy is attempting to fix the world by finding lost parts of an AI system, and is joined by new and old companions, giving other characters a much bigger role. I really enjoyed Aloy’s interactions with everyone, as well as the new groups of people you encounter throughout the game. The side quests also feel much more meaningful, the world feels much more alive and you can see Aloy’s impact on it much more, making the open world feel much more alive. Traversing also feels much less restrictive, as there was only one “correct” climbing route in the first game, while you have less restrictions and more tools. Some things return form the first, such as Cauldrons and Tallnecks, but the developers have found a way to make each one feel unique and a wonder to explore. Combat remains a lot of fun, too, although I found that overriding machines was less effective than the first (which does stop it from being overpowered) and there are a lot of “Apex” machines that can’t be overridden. This encourages you to use the other weapons more, although hitting off parts of machines with a bow and arrow is still the most satisfying way to me. Melee combat has been overhauled significantly with combos you can unlock, too. The game looks absolutely amazing, too. And I played this on a base PS4. Guerrilla have done a phenomenal job getting this running smoothly on such old hardware, especially looking as wonderful as it does. There are some issues - fast travel loading screens are much longer, plus you will occasionally hit a short loading screen as the game world catches up to you, but they’re worth it just for how great the game looks, and how life-like things like plants and trees are, both in looks and movement. Horizon: Forbidden West is an absolutely phenomenal game, and has become one of my favourites. Lost in Random A very whimsical game set in a world where dice have immense power, and imbue cards with power to help people fight. Except that dice are now banned and only the evil queen has one, and uses it to divide people into six cities. You play as Even, whose sister Odd gets chosen to be in the Queen’s region, setting off on a journey to help save her, encountering a dice companion along the way. While the synopsis is a lot like a typical young adult novel, the uniqueness of the dice aspect and how each regions are divided into numbers and have traits based on it, mixed with the style reminiscent of Henry Selick films, makes the story a wonderful one, with a creative array of characters and strange situations. The combat is a lot of fun, too. At the start of each combat, you are only equipped with a harmless slingshot. This is used to knock crystals off enemies to power up your Dice, drawing cards for you to use. Once you’ve drawn the cards you need (or reach your max), you can roll Dicey and spend the pips to buy cards. These can be weapons, traps, new abilities, health and other modifiers. Outside of combat, you can adjust your deck and buy new cards. It’s a really nice system, although I do wish that there was more variety. My main criticism is that walking to and fro each section can be a bit dull in terms of the gameplay, especially when you’re looking for something. I do think that there could have been some platforming/puzzling alongside the story sections. Lost in Random is still a really fun game, though.

I love board games, but it still seems crazy that the company that owns Ticket to Ride was bought for 10 times more than the company that owns Tomb Raider. (Both bought by the same company, too).

Horizon Forbidden West has some really great music.

I'm a big Star Wars fan, but Yoda and Vader in Soul Calibur 4 just seemed incredibly dumb and out of place. And the part that makes Soul Calibur 4 perfect for this thread: they weren't even available on the same platforms, so they couldn't even fight each other. The exclusive characters make sense when they're tied to the platform owners, but this was purely done for marketing. (I believe they later sold the other character as DLC for a temporary period).

I thought that Rebel Strike was still mostly a great game, just spoiled a bit by terrible controls for the on foot sections. Something which was significantly changed for the unreleased Wii version, which has more traditional 3D shooter controls instead of the strange Robotron controls.