Oblivion may have technically better graphics. But it’s ugly. Everything is orange and shiny.

Plus the level scaling is the worst in any game I’ve ever played, by far. And level scaling is already not a great system.

Morrowind is dated, but still has a great look. The gameplay is tough at first glance, but is the foundation of a great role playing system.

Oblivion needs a remake more.

If I care enough about a game to pay $70 for it, I want to own it. And I want to be able to let a friend borrow it. And I want to be able to sell it.

I know people like their convenience. But I don’t really understand it either unless it’s a game you might want to play in the spur of the moment (Call of Duty or something like that). If I’m playing a longish story-heavy, I’m just leaving that disc in my console for awhile.

They made that ad and released it the same day after Xbox announced their disc games would be one-time use activation keys.

Playing one of the big multiplayer arcade cabinets like Simpsons or X-Men was the original couch co-op with whoever was at the arcade not playing pinball or pool.

I bought the 4-Player co-op X-Men arcade cabinet from Arcade1up and it’s been a blast playing it all the way through with my son.

Most awe inspiring: Morrowind

Most depth of interest: Final Fantasy X

Most emotional impact: The Last of Us

Bloody scenes? The whole game is made up of bloody scenes unless you’re intentionally avoiding doing the finishers. And even then it’s just less so.

It’s on sale on PSN. I might actually pick it up now.

And suddenly I lost all excitement for this game. Why would they change the foundation of THPS4?

Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2

For the record, I was also immensely disappointed in XV. However I loved XVI. The ability cool downs in particular felt very ATB-like to me and I loved the customization. The story is very good and one of my favorites from storytelling perspective (in other words, HOW the story is told).

I also really liked the combat and exploration of XII. And the Zodiac version makes it even better.

I thought XIII had some of the best moments in the series.

XIII-2 perfected the gameplay from XIII and made storytelling and exploration “fun”

XIII: LR is very experimental and has some of my favorite action-based combat in the series.

World of Final Fantasy is a lot of fun if you want turn based monster capturing.

Stranger of Paradise is a blast. My only issue with it is that you can’t really overpower by leveling up. I hit a hard wall with a boss and the only way through is “get good”.

I didn’t get much into Type-O but I keep meaning to.

Theatrhythm exists. I love it, but it’s also it’s own thing entirely.

No Man’s Sky was my favorite experience on the original PSVR and I know it runs on the PSVR2 as well.

Yeah, I guess he’s really transphobic and every time someone reaches out to talk about Earthworm Jim, he gets really weird and political.

Isn’t the creator/owner problematic?

My first thoughts were Final Fantasy because you have all the enemies you need. And they’ve already branched out into monster catching and Souls-like. So might as well.

My second thought was X-men because the Genesis games were already kinda built for that.

The other half of the equation is that I like to do local Halo multiplayer, so I didn’t mind getting a second xbox to run the Master Chief Collection. Although, Halo Infinite ended up being about as disappointing as it could possibly be. It really has been a whole lot of disappointment.

That wouldn’t feel good on a personal level as I bought a Series for Fable. Obviously having access to other games is a perk, but I probably wouldn’t have bought it without Fable being exclusive.

But also, I’m always happy for more access. I hope it’s good.

The hodgepodge of different vehicles in different terrains was so incredibly fun to navigate no matter which vehicle type you chose. And using 6axis was just a whole other level, even if it wasn’t the easiest way to play.

Oh, the two-pack on PSN is only $7.50 right now. I think I’ll pick it up.

But also Spider-Ham, Peter Porker, is a real character with audience familiarity from Into the Spider-Verse.

I love both formats. But I’m a collector. Any big games or anything I’m buying at full price, I’m buying it physical. Baulder’s Gate 3 kinda left my radar early because it was digital only (at release).

I also like the ability to loan out those types of games.

Dang, I got excited that we were getting another Amplitude.

I’d pay for a mobile version of this. But I’m going to have to play this on a computer.

I assume it doesn’t work anymore. But you would set your PSP to ad-hoc, go into ad-hoc party on your PS3, find someone in a lobby with your game, and your PSP would act as if it found a local connection.

I’ve been wanting to play Dissidia over ad-hoc between my Vita and Vita TV. Did you ever play online using the PS3’s ad-hoc party?

I got a Vita TV recently and hacked it to put a larger memory card into it. I’ve been using it as a small PS1.

I didn’t really want to hack it with emulators because it’s extra work and their actual PS1 catalog is quite expensive. But a few games that I own physically were never made available. Or in a couple cases, the digital games were blocked from Vitas for some reason.

I felt like Morrowind struck a great balance between clunk and depth. Skyrim was polished but had no depth.

Something like Kingdom Come Deliverance feels way more clunky to me, but has far less appeal to general audiences than the Elder Scroll games. Although, there are extremely passionate fans of it, so there’s obviously still a market for that kind of game.

Wandering around in Morrowind before I really knew what I was doing, being happy just to find a few coins in a tree stump or a crappy dagger.

Other games have given more extreme emotions. But no other game has instilled such a joyous sense of wonder.

I met my wife playing Rock Band. It was definitely a top gaming moment. But I didn’t realize at the time what it would lead to eventually.

Secondary games are also my main. Rogue Legacy 1 & 2, Loco Roco, old Final Fantasy games, Spyro.

I need to have the energy and time to dig into a main game, and I usually do not have that after a long day when everyone else goes to sleep.

I love the inFamous games. inFamous 2 in particular is in my top 5. I’m trying to remember some of the choices, but some of them are execute the mass murderer or not in one (or multiple) cases. But also, they have a variation of the trolley problem which I thought was a nice touch. The ultimate decision in 2 is pretty extreme, but it’s also the culmination of two games worth of selfish vs selfless decisions.

The biggest morality question though is whether to use area of effect vs precision damage.

Having said that, I think it’s interesting how these two games are so similar on a surface level. But in my experience, most people heavily prefer one or the other. I remember my friend and I were each obsessed with one of the two franchises when they came out, but neither of us were interested in the other.

Side note: inFamous 2 had a standalone DLC which just used the map from 2 with an entirely new powerset, and it was awesome. But it was a lot shorter than a full game. However, I remember losing interest in Bioshock 2 because it felt like I was just replaying the first game.

Seems like a great month!

Technically ∞ Loop on my phone. But the last real game I was playing was Jade Cocoon.

I have zero problem with consoles investing in new IPs and funding high budget games as console sellers.

But I don’t like these buyouts or pointless exclusives. I don’t know why there are still exclusive Final Fantasy games.

https://www.thegameawards.com/nominees/best-independent-game

Balatro (Winner)
Animal Well
Neva
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
UFO 50

I got my Xbox Series to play Fable. It also doubles as an extra Halo machine for Lan parties. But it was really for Fable.

Still waiting, but it’s supposed to finally come out next year I believe.

I was on board with PS5 immediately with Ratchet & Clank and I’ve been pretty happy with it.

Do you mean that Sackboy was relatively grounded compared to Astrobot or are thinking of Little Big Planet?

Either way, it sounds like I need to play Astrobot.

How does it compare to something like Sackboy?

Damn, is this game that good?

I kind of love the early game. If I see a particularly difficult room, usually it’s a treasure room and you can back out or take the challenge. The two real objectives are get gold or kill a boss.

RL2 feels a lot bigger and more dependent on longer marathon runs and more strategic builds. For me it’s still a lot of fun, but not nearly the same cozy feel. Plus there are other challenges that seem mandatory for progression. Having said that, I have not touched the difficulty sliders.

I love Clive and they did a phenomenal job capturing his fighting and abilities. But Tekken is the weirdest fighting game to include him in.