Yeah, I have a love(like… tolerate)/hate relationship with the battle pass. I don’t mind it, cause it is cheap, pointless and you get your money back, and it is super easy to complete it.

But also, it can fuck off, battle passes suck in their timed implementation, it is pointless, you have to get premium currency to get it which is obviously not purchasable at the exact amount.

Only thing I think was good is that it bought in the emulated game catalogue.

I think that’s missing a lot of the content. If SF6 was free to play, if wouldn’t have the single player portion. And would have had a couple of free characters.

2XKO is going to launch with something like 9 characters(might be missing remembering the number), Maybe they add more before release but it is a tiny roster for a tag game.

There is also massive changes between games, and they don’t disappear, so you can still have those tournaments. If it goes free to play, I feel like they kinda get stuck with the game and systems and no easy way to move onwards, with a bit of a PR nightmare(abandoning the game and all that).

I feel like there is pros and cons to both methods, but don’t really think f2p Street Fighter is a good move. I do think sf7 whenever that is released will be another paid game, and will be more expensive upfront.

While true, the base game is still only 60.

If I had to spend an additional 40 for just the base game(not the 2 seasons of characters), that would be a much harder sell.

I think there is maybe 1 game that I would consider spending 100 for the base game. And that’s because I love the series and it is very much a long term game for me, Street Fighter.

But that would be a very tough sell, it would have to be something really special to part with that much, even though I know I would get 1000s of hours out of it

I have played a lot of FFXIV, but have stopped playing for a couple years now. Spending a fair chunk of time in Street Fighter and Monster Hunter, but I have a feeling that will change over the next year with Assetto Corsa Competizione and AC Evo potentially taking the monster hunter spots.

To me this is more like, the playstation 6 will have online connectivity.

I have recently got into sum racing, and have been having a bunch of fun in the Honda NSX Evo in Assetto Corsa Competizione. It is an absolute death trap and tries to murder me on every corner, but it is very good fun.

I have also had a lot of fun in the Nissan GTR as well, but not spent too much time in it.

They adjusted the rules this year I believe, they now allow DLCs in GOTY, and also things like new seasons to games. It is dumb, and I personally think it removes what little credibility the game awards had(which wasn’t a lot to me).

Will catch up on all the adverts that are if interest the next day.

I don’t think you can compare the deadlock and concord mechanics. The concord one is more like, congratulations you won a round with the M4 in CS… You can no longer use the M4 for the rest of the game.

FFXIV released on Xbox earlier this year.

I don’t know if Blizzard ever did an official controller interface for WoW though, that will definitely be the first hurdle.

I don’t think point 3 is quite fair. There were some new ideas thrown into the game.

The issue is those ideas were not fun, or very badly implemented. I believe it was the ranked mode, where if you won the round you were then locked out of playing that character again. They also had you build out a collection of characters to pick from before the game started.

There were some new ideas, I just don’t know of any that were good and added to the game. The only ones I know of seemed bad(or at least badly implemented) and took away from what enjoyment people had with the game.

I think calling this pc heavy is really really generous.

The War Within is an expansion for an MMO, yeah it is pc only, but there is also no expectations for it to be released on console. Maybe WoW will see some port now MS owns it?

Towerborne is coming to Xbox. I am pretty sure the only reason it isn’t yet, is because of early access, and the Xbox having stricter rules for pushing updates? It is coming to Xbox, when it isn’t a paid beta

And finally, I am surprised Ara didn’t get a console launch. A quick search shows one is coming after launch, but no dates or anything outside of sometime after PC.

Outside of the WoW expansion, these are only temporary exclusives, and one of them is early access. I will admit, I actually thought Ara released on Xbox, so was genuinely surprised to find it wasn’t(yet).

It depends. Is there going to be a new console generation within a few years of release? Cause if so that will be released first, then slap on a few more years for the pc version.

I am not too fussed about remakes. There are so many games to play, I don’t have enough time.

But, one game I would instantly get, Panzer Dragoon Saga. What an absolutely legendary game, that hardly anyone had the chance to play. Cleaning that up and releasing it on modern platforms would be amazing.

Wikipedia is only listing PS5. Spiderman and Miles Morales were PS4, but Spiderman 2 is only on the PS5

It has more than one… But it is incredibly lacking still.

But it got Astrobot, Destruction All-stars are both new IPs. There is also Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart for first party. And you can throw in Stella Blade and FF7 Rebirth for now as well.

I believe everything else is remakes or not exclusive to the PS5.

Edit - ohhh scratch Ratchet and Clank off as well, that’s on PC. I thought it was the PS4 one that came to PC, but it is Rift Apart.

Yea, I think I would probably say I prefer single player or co-op games over multiplayer.

But I am pretty sure that I put more time into street fighter 6 last year than every other game combined. I do really enjoy my fighting games… But I can’t really stand to play any other competitive multiplayer genre.

You will be happy to know there is online for every game in that collection.

Trailer for it here - https://youtu.be/Hl0D5FK3a50

Power stone and PS2 are both coming out next year in Capcom Fighting Collection 2.

This analogy is so bad, it is not even close to what is happening.

I will try and adapt to cars for you(I dont know why), but this is just really really bad.

Say you have designed a car, you can produce them on a very small scale, but you have come to valve(they make cars now) to mass produce. They do so, for a 30% cut(that reduces the more they sell) for everything they sell from their direct sales at the price you have set. There is no material costs or labour costs, just that cut of the price you have set.

Now valve have a sales page and are selling, and you decide that actually I would like more people to see the car, and so you consider selling it at other dealers. Valve says, sure, you can even have the cars for free from us(no 30% cut) and you can have basically an unlimited supply of free fully built cars to sell else where. We only ask that you sell the car at the same price you have set with us if you are selling a car we made.

You want to go sell it new cheaper? You are more than welcome too, but you cant sell the car we produced.

Such a bad analogy, but that is closer to what is actually happening.

Just think about how this works.

Steam currently allows you to generate keys and sell them for free, only stipulating that they must be sold for the same price as on steam.

Let’s say they are told that stipulation can’t be enforced.

Valve, will probably go with 1 of 2 options.

1 - you can no longer generate keys. So all the great key sites(GMG, Fanatical and so on) no longer exist, because no steam keys.

2 - Valve charge an upfront fee for keys generated. Now smaller pmdevs and publishers can no longer supply keys to sites, because they can’t afford the upfront costs.

What incentive does valve have to continue offering this free service? If it can be exploited for the detriment of steam, they will stop providing it.

Pretty sure he means a deluxe edition upgrade as a mtx.

Where some games allow you to get the base game, try it out and upgrade if you want. Rather than diving in at the deep end and not knowing if you’ll enjoy the game.

So for fighting games, character passes are a good thing(overall).

If you bought SF4 at launch and continued to play the game throughout it’s life, you ended up buying the same game multiple times. This was essentially a few characters and a balance patch(had new mechanics as well). This the fragmented the player base a lot, so if you were playing the base game you couldn’t play with someone on the latest version.

Street Fighter 5 however, switched to character passes and even being able to unlock characters with in-game currency(difficult if you came to the game later but possible). This means everyone got the balance patches and major system updates, so the player base stayed as a single entity.

For a niche genre, this is significantly better than multiple purchases of the same game, and allows for a game to get more updates over a longer time.

However I do wish they kept in more unlockable content like costumes, colours and stages.

Specific to Street Fighter 6 though, they have a battlepass(which is not good, but isn’t terrible either) which the free version gave/gives out a bunch of character rental tokens, so you can play with DLC characters you haven’t purchased.

Still playing Street Fighter 6 pretty much everyday. Looking at who to try and get Master rank with next.

Learning Tekken 8, but complete scrub at 3D fighters so taking it slow and trying out a bunch of people.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is my current non fighting game time sink as well. Absolutely loving the game, the quality of the combat and character variety is fantastic. Although definitely would have enjoyed more variety in the end game.

So this might not be the most helpful answer, but I think there have already been some great suggestions (monster hunter world and dragons dogma are both awesome).

Granblue Fantasy Relink, it is possibly the game that ticks every box. Has a single player story and is full of dragons and demons to kill, you are recruiting your crew and gearing them up for massive fights, it has some fantastic combat(had platinum games help on it).

The biggest downside is it isn’t out til February, but there is a demo on Playstation 4/5 if you have one to try it on, unfortunately PC not getting a demo.

I mostly agree, but I feel like Street Fighter 6(Going to throw Tekken 7/8 out as an option as well) has a good enough ranking system that you will be able to get people around your skill level years down the line. I didnt jump on Street Fighter 5 till Arcade Edition released, and never had an issue with learning and getting matches in Ranked, and I feel like that will be the same for SF6.

You will have to catch up with knowledge of characters, but I feel lower ranks are much easier in that regard.

However, the Street Fighter 6 Battle Hub is merciless and full of Master ranked players, and that is where turning up late is going to be painful and soul crushing(and I will be one of those people contributing to that).

I finished up Moss Book 2, love it. I wish there were more VR games like this. Absolutely recommend Moss and Moss Book 2 if you are looking for something a little different. But be warned they are only around 4 - 5 hours long.

I just picked up Immortals Fenyx Rising which was 90% off on Steam. I really enjoyed the base game and looking forward to replaying and also diving into the DLC.

Street Fighter 6 is still my daily game, playing Blanka and just rolled into Diamond 5. I am also really happy that the Spy X Family collab event is not a complete rip off and is just 1000 drive tickets(looking at you TMNT event).

Hi Fi Rush was a great contender for sound track, I would have liked either of those winning it. Last of Us winning is fucking wonky though.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam

I will give it a try, pretty sure it is in the steam library, but probably be a couple months til I get round to it now (Granblue is being an absolute blast).

Still playing Street Fighter 6 pretty much every day. Still absolutely loving it.

Spider-Man Remastered, going through on Ng+ and ultimate difficulty to 100%, having just 100% Miles Morales. Those games have really clicked with me and makes me want to play the Arkham games again.

The Finals, have really enjoyed the betas and the full release being shadow dropped was a nice surprise. Definitely going to have more time when Spider-Man is done.

Next on the list to play is Sea of Stars, and Granblue Vs Rising.

Favourites, not really ordered

• Street Fighter 6 - Really really good fighting game, definitely a recommend if you want to play one.
• Baldurs Gate 3 - It is BG3, what more needs to be said?
• Octopath Traveler 2 - It is more of the first, but more refined and better at tying the characters together.
• Dead Space Remake - If you like the original, you should really play this, it is incredible.
• Remnant 2 - Great game, a good refinement of the first remnant, and fantastic in co-op.
• Last Epoch - I really like the leveling systems(Character and also Skills). Not perfect, but fun and chaotic.
• Crab Champions - Crab goes BRRR. Not many games I go out of my way to 100% but this games feels incredible to play.
• Spiderman & Miles Morales - Finally pick up on the cheap, if you enjoy the Batman Arkham formula, these two are fantastic. Miles Morales definitely feels like a large DLC though.
• Driftwood - Longboarding Sloth, super chilled out and relaxing. Just enjoy carving down the hills on sticks of butter.
• Lumines - The best game on the PSP, and still love it(picked up for cheap with Tetris, but prefer Lumines)

The not so good.

• Ghost Runner 2 - I want to like this more, I loved the first game, but the wide open levels and bike traversal just don’t feel good or fun.
• Diablo 4 - Play Last Epoch instead, D4 feels boring and bland and uninspired after finishing the story.
• Blasphemous - Didnt click with me, the combat felt good and the movement was good, but never stuck with it, will probably try again at some point.
• Hyper Light Drifter - I have tried a few times, and I keep bouncing off it.
• Ori and the Blind Forest - I also want to like this game, but bounced off it again.

While Street Fighter 6 is my Favourite game of the the year, Baldurs Gate 3 is definitely the GOTY. I would strongly recommend any game from the favourites list. I haven’t played any really bad games this year, Diablo 4 is probably the worst I have played, do not recommend it. Unlike the other games which I would be tempted to suggest under certain circumstances.

Battle Breakers

This is a bad example to put down, can’t find that on the epic store either.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-is-turning-off-online-services-and-servers-for-some-older-games

I would be surprised if this doesnt take it overal this year.

It is my 2nd favourite game of the year, but I am very biased towards fighting games and Street Fighter 6 is so damn good.

There have been just way to many great games this year, and honestly dont have enough time(or money) to get through them all.

Still on the Street Fighter 6 grind, just picked up another character, Luke. What a dumb stong tool set, placed into Diamond for ranked which is my highest by far(usually into mid plat).

And then finishing up Cyberpunk, DLC was awesome, and patch 2.0 has refreshed the game. Cleaning up the map and doing every quest I can, hopefully get this wrapped up this week as well and can move onto another game.