ILuvGames

Metroid Prime 4 on my Switch 2 and Cronos on my Series X. May finally get around to starting up ghost of Yotei. Haven’t turned my PS5 on in a bit, it needs some love.

Really depends on what it’s packing and if it’s more open on store fronts. If they allow us, the consumers, more options on where we spend our money I would be willing to spend more.

@Balaam_ I hope Fallout 3 Remaster is shadow dropped! I loved the Oblivion remaster and would drop everything again to give FO3 a playthrough with the same love.

I read somewhere that it leaked there would be 7 games so other than the big 4 that everybody knows about I am hoping State of Decay 3 and/or Clockwork Revolution are slated for this year as well. I bet Blade is next year so not expecting it until summer showcase. It’s been too long of a wait for State of Decay 3

Should hopefully be getting the Developer Direct date announcement soon so we can get some solid dates on Xbox games.

@Balaam_ correct. Wish I had read this before responding to them.

@dskatter it will be a MS PC/Console hybrid. The hybrid will be the part that allows console games to be brought forward as they will probably not be able to bring everybody’s entire game collection forward with Play Anywhere, they have been investing a ton in those two areas.

Also they have to get dev kits out to not only their own developers but to others. I have zero doubts in this console being made unless there is some major financial snafu.

@dskatter I don’t think you understand what I said, contracts being signed and production underway was for those parts. They paid for the parts, they start creating the parts. I didn’t say anything about the console production. But with the contract they are indeed creating the chips that Microsoft signed for. Reading comprehension is important when responding to a comment.

The next Xbox is coming, I don’t see why people are doubting this. Contracts are signed and production is well underway, but that isn’t until 2027 at the earliest anyways. 2026 is bringing us a new Gears! New GTA, new Fable and hopefully Halo getting back on track. Forza Horizon 6 will no doubt be the best racer and set the new standard as 5 did. Things are looking great!

Happy New Year everybody! I am sooooooo ready and excited for a new Gears game and hoping back on some Halo. Year looks great.

I’m looking forward to checking out Highguard. Yea it gets hate and some of the characters look generic but end of the day gameplay is king and the makers of that game know how to make a great playing game. It’s free as well so if it is not good, no sweat off my brow.

I voted

1. The Outer Worlds 2
2. Doom The Dark Ages
3. Avowed
4. Grounded 2
5. Oblivion Remaster

Doom The Dark Ages
Monster Hunter Wilds
Expedition 33
South of Midnight
Avowed
The Outer Worlds 2
Metal Eden
Sunderfolk
Oblivion Remastered
Mario Kart World
Metroid Prime 4
Donkey Kong Banaza
Borderlands 4
Ninja Gaiden 4
Keeper
Dying Light The Beast
Gears of War Reloaded
Abiotic Factor
Grounded 2
Split Fiction
Wanted: Dead
Assassins Creed Shadows
Mullet Madjack
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

Might have Tainted Grail finished by the end of the year 🤷🏼‍♂️

The Outer Worlds 2 was my personal GOTY. I really enjoyed Avowed as well. Really anything obsidian is great.

@Fiendish-Beaver I am the same way. It’s on sale right now and the style appeals to me so I will probably buy it and put it on the ever growing backlog. Happy holidays!

My hidden gem of the year is Sunderfolk. I just can’t recommend that game enough

@Fiendish-Beaver how was The Thaumaturge? I been staring at that game for months. I’ve already bought a lot of games on the current sale and that one I might nab before it ends just to pile on the ole backlog.

I’ve bought a lot. Hell I bought 7 games alone on the recent sale 😂

I bought so many damn games on this countdown sale. Probably won’t be needing to buy any games until May anyways lol well besides Resident Evil 9. That one is a no brainer.

The wife and I have been playing Sunderfolk for the last few days. Picked it up on the Xbox sale and we are in love. Highly recommend the game.

Gears will be my GOTY no doubt but I don’t see any shooter being nominated for GOTY sadly. Forza Horizon 6 can be a solid 10/10 game like the last one and won’t get a nod either because it’s a racing game. Halo is a remake so probably not. Fable is the most likely one, fantasy games are the in thing right now.

@DeadSpace installed!

The Outer Worlds 2, Doom The Dark Ages and Avowed were 3 of my favorite games this year.

Cronos getting a discount is nice. Will be grabbing that for sure

@Balaam_ nope not trolling. A lot of those older Arkane Austin guys are spread all around. They also did some work on the upcoming Exodus (Archetype is based in Austin as well) before moving over to 2K.

@Shinato2024 I am friends with an ex Arkane Austin dev. They are working on a certain game at 2K now that wouldn’t SHOCK people if they saw their BIO.

Diablo 4 Paladin time!

1. The Outer Worlds 2
2. Doom The Dark Ages
3. Borderlands 4
4. Helldivers 2
5. Arc Raiders

Great article. I always feel like the Game Awards crowd are a little too nose in the air type of people. They like to think single player, narrative driven games are the only games worth making or caring about. I think Highguard looks like a good time personally.

Gears E-Day gameplay and release date!

Hell yea! Can not wait for some new Gears!

I would say B for the announcements. Some cool games there. Awards part I never really care about.

Disappointed in the lack of Gears Eday news but I suppose they are saving all that for their Direct next month

Looks like it could be fun. I wonder how big the teams are?

I bought one of these and is under the tree for my daughter. Reminds me of the Kinect.

I liked Infinite, they just could not release content in a timely manner and I will always remember when they did get Season 2 out it was not what the fans wanted. It was a solo mini FFA. They were right to fire Bonnie and get somebody in there that could appease the fans. Cause after she was gone it got a ton better but sadly it was too late and too many broken promises and delays. Hopefully lessons learned for the next.

@ilyn I agree. It’s like people saying Helldivers 2 isn’t Sony first party. It clearly is. Death Stranding is interesting though because 505 Games published it on Xbox and PC but Sony published it on PlayStation. That game is all over the board haha

@Banjo- yea the whole argument to me is silly. The only thing holding something back from a first party for these corporations is that they didn’t buy up even more of the industry? How about less of that and more of the encouragement for these big dollar corporations investing in independent studios.

@BAMozzy there are usually always two parties involved unless a developer is self publishing.

Those are rules that others have made up when really the same rules apply to both situations. The publishers fund the developer to create a game while feeding them resources. Doesn’t matter if they are an owned developer or not. It’s also platform specific, when Xbox games are published on their own platform it is first party. When they are not they are third party. So to Xbox, Sony and Nintendo any games they publish on their own platform are indeed first party titles. There are also games all 3 support but do not publish.

Gears has always been synonymous with Xbox. So much so that when it was announced for PS people put the stake in Xbox’s identity. To say it was not a first party title back in the 360 days is wild.

@BAMozzy from an old Gears head, yes it was always considered first party because Microsoft/Xbox helped build it from the ground up without owning the studio. But I will say I am glad you put “that’s not first party to me” because it’s recognizing all the silly rules that you have created for somebody else’s product.

@Balaam_ I disagree with this. Publishers invest in games no different from developers they own. NG4 and Bayonetta are great examples, Platinum did both of these and talks about working closely with both Nintendo and Xbox for those games. Publishers funnel money, resources and staff for these games. Even Gears of War 1-3 was by non owned Xbox studio Epic and that was considered their second strongest first party titles next to Halo.

It’s great when the servers are working. But I dig it so far.

I’ve given up on caring about any of these stupid awards or top lists.

@Fiendish-Beaver it’s just more how the comment is structured. Generally people will low ball things they don’t like to make it seem more negative than it really is. This is also done in the reverse. But a simple search has the number at 22 million in 2022 which surely that has grown but even going off that number a 45% increase would be a 9 million increase which is good growth based on 3 year old data.

All my long time running games are getting big updates next month (Fallout 76, Destiny 2, Helldivers 2 and Borderlands 4) so lots of fun to be had for me next month. But I do want to check out Routine.

Maybe Routine. Looks good.

@Fiendish-Beaver it’s pretty negative to set a low figure as an example especially when you know that figure is far off from the truth. And I’m not saying that to be mean, I know you are a good guy but that comment can come off a bit negative. It would be nice to get the actual figures just to see how much streaming has grown even to see how well PS is doing now that the portal has cloud streaming now. I’m more interested in how large it has grown overall rather than just Xbox.

@Fiendish-Beaver streaming games is becoming more and more popular now because it’s getting a lot better and I think the push for handhelds is helping as well.

So many great memories with Destiny. I may go back for Renegades, it looks pretty neat but sadly everybody I played with is gone so it won’t be the same

I would love for some sort of Condemned resurrection.

Arc Raiders. I am addicted!

@Jark Overwatch won once way back in 2016. That is almost a decade ago and the backlash that ensued from that will probably make sure it never happens again.

Total Chaos, Armatus, Reanimal and The Mound were standouts for me. Was already set on 007 and Zoopunk looks interesting. Some good stuff!