somnambulance

I mean, it’s sort of obvious. This year has pushed more solid games than any other year. There was a point in time earlier in the year where 80% of my top 10 list was GPU titles. It’s dropped to just Silksong and Blue Prince now, but if I went to a top 20 list, I’d wager about 40-50% of this year’s list for me would be GPU titles, which is frankly insane value for the service this year. And October is insanely stacked for the service… Plus, we’ve still theoretically got Witchbrook launching by the end of the year (fingers crossed we see that one on Thursday with a release date). I’m conflicted about utilizing the service due to some of MS’s labor practices of late, but it’s hard not to argue 2025 has been an improvement on 2024, which was previously the best year for the service all generation by a landslide.

@Vipor007 It reminded me of both of them too, but sort of as a pale imitation of them.

I am waiting to read the reviews. I’m close to sold, but I dunno. Silent Hill 2’s remake actually made me wonder if I’d overrated SH2 all these years. It was still good, just not as good as I remembered it. And that free Silent Hill game that came out was terrible! F looks like the type of game I want out of the series though. It’s just not confirmed yet.

I didn’t get much time to play games this week, soooo… when I finally do play something, it’ll be fighting The Last Judge in Silksong at some point and hopefully entering the Citadel.

Since it’s so early in my time zone and I’m on vacation, I’ll look at my phone when I wake up and will probably see all the updates I need to. If it was a work week for me, I’d have had it playing on the commute.

@WildConcept6 @WildConcept6 I don’t quite agree with that narrative about Tango. I mean, these big companies in gaming are all multinational companies, and we’re in an age where you can FaceTime/Zoom/MS Teams someone and get a good meeting going. Hi-Fi Rush just wasn’t the hit Microsoft said it was, but the critical feedback was so positive that they just went with that. I truly feel that Shinji Mikami leaving was the reason they shuttered the studio. I like Gamepass, but I do think Hi-Fi and Tango were victims of it, as the shadow drop probably spiked the player count, only for it to drop off quickly. Personally, I’m hoping to buy Hi-Fi Rush again on Switch 2 if it ever gets ported. It’s definitely a contender for the best first party Xbox game this generation, with only Psychonauts 2 as competition (and Indiana Jones as a single notch below). Another weird thing with the game too is that I remember Hi-Fi having considerable buzz and a lot of people talking about it and playing it that I knew, so perhaps my circle clouds my own vision there? I compare that with like Hellblade 2, for instance, and that game felt like a critical and social dud, so I wonder what Ninja Theory is doing that Tango didn’t. Again, in the Gamepass era, we don’t have sales to directly look at, and even so, digital sales are typically gated communities where we can’t truly analyze much either because the companies won’t let us. I understand MS is a business, but to close a studio a year after their game generated such positive buzz about the brand seems sort of wild. I dunno.

It made sense that Arkane Austin got shuttered, even though Redfall definitely failed due to poor management. There’s enough developer statements for us to know that game wasn’t the game the studio wanted to make, the team had terrible retention due to this, and they sort of slapped it together, and yet Microsoft somehow thought the reviews would end up in the mid-80’s on Metacritic somehow. That’s a game that has all the telltale signs of something you cancel and utilize the talent elsewhere on games they can clearly do better and want to make and you’ll probably have something successful like their other games, but, no, they ran that project into the ground and no one was surprised it was bad, except Xbox.

For me, I think this whole narrative of games getting bigger is an excuse by executives because they can’t manage things as well as executives could in previous generations. It’s a more money with less product type of scenario, pure capitalism. When I think of things like Everwild getting cancelled, I think it should’ve happened 5 years ago and MS should’ve shifted staff to other projects rather than mass layoffs like they have been doing. Plain and simple, the poor optics on Xbox has been what has removed Xbox from the hardware discussion and into the third party software publishing discussion. It just doesn’t feel like Xbox values accountability, or else the management staff that has failed wouldn’t continue to get promotions over the course of the generation and management bonuses wouldn’t continue to increase. Some of these bonuses are large enough to basically fund a AA project, you know?

@AverageJoseph @Stoned_Patrol The way I see it, if Perfect Dark was in such dire straights, why did Xbox advertise it at not-E3 the year before it was cancelled, year 7 of the development cycle? Everyone knew development was rocky on the game, but less than a year before it was cancelled, all of a sudden, it was being reported, “No, development is actually going great for Perfect Dark!” It’s just goofy. If things were that bad for it, they should’ve pulled the plug far earlier.

It’s not necessarily a problem with them deciding to use their resources more effectively, it’s the narrative they give the public that’s the problem. There’s ways to discuss a game failing to hit expectations or development milestones in a way that’s far more realistic than the way MS does things now. I can’t trust what they have on the release docket unless there’s a firm date at this point. For all we know, Fable could get cancelled, you know? We don’t really know THAT much about it.

I’ve been saying it for years now, but it does sort of feel like Xbox management doesn’t actively manage their projects. They just sort of let them go. And I get the vibe they just aren’t paying attention or they don’t know their own developers enough to know what’s going on. Their PR tends to create backlash because they give unreliable messaging. As much as I like Gamepass, I get the vibe that they don’t quite know if a game is a success if it’s on the service either, which is totally understandable since sales is a lot easier to decode than a player base sustained over any period of time, especially for single player titles.

Finally, someone understands why some of us turn off crossplay!

@WildConcept6 @Markatron84 Perhaps, but, by all accounts, Hi-Fi Rush was hitting all metrics and Xbox was proud of it and Tango… until they weren’t. I dunno. I get that Everwild and Perfect Dark had issues, and I suppose we’ll never know how things truly were, but, I mean, if it were that bad, where was management to help course correct? You can’t tell me they didn’t get anywhere with 8 years of development, you know?

@theduckofdeath I wouldn’t say I’m indicting the gameplay, just commenting on how the gameplay isn’t nearly as innovative as others have said. Again, I did like the game for the most part. The gameplay was actually my favorite part.

With regards to the Writers faction, it’s mentioned, sure, but we know nothing about them, who they are, what is this grander conflict. I understand that the game is a smaller budget, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t throw a huge plot development out there with very little exposition to it. For me, I felt like, “Why even introduce this other mysterious, unknown faction when you’re resolving the family drama as the final character arc if you’re not going to explain the conflict with said faction much?” I felt the end was really flat, personally. Reminded me a lot of the ending in Horizon Forbidden West, where it sort of felt like the ending was designed to say, “There will be a sequel.”

I dunno. I felt like the story of the game was a little bit predictable and it never culminated to a big wow moment for me. There’s a gauzy, somber feel to the game that I don’t quite love. I love my Sad Dad style of games, but this one leaned a little too far into that for me. The world of the game never truly felt believable to me and perhaps that is my disconnect.

I’m still having a hard time with this one and Everwild getting cancelled. It truly does make one worry about the future of studios under the MS banner if they aren’t selling. Really hoping Double Fine stays safe

That’s ok, spring 2026 already looks pretty solid after that recent Nintendo Direct. I’m sure the Fable team is hoping this is BS though.

Could be the single best month of drops on Gamepass that we’ve ever seen. Going to try all of these games at least! Hope one of them is a hit for me.

October feels like it has 90% of this year’s release schedule jammed into it.

@WildConcept6 I agree. This year has really looked like E33’s year, based on the online discourse, but Silksong has, to me, fortunately disrupted that in the way I was hoping Donkey Kong or Death Stranding would have. With E33 though, I don’t know any person that I know personally that’s played through it that has been enamored with it at the beginning, only to loose steam with it, you know? I remember a friend of mine and I discussing it and we were both discussing it lightly before we were both relieved that we agreed it was a 7/10 because of how people react toward the game online. It’s a funny game in that way.

This year isn’t an Elden Ring vs Ragnarok type of year for GotY. It’s such a niche and diverse year, so I’m sure GotY will be tense and heated more than any previous year. Keighley is certainly doing something right where many of us are thinking about GotY early into the year.

Silksong, Silksong, and Silksong.

@theduckofdeath Again, I liked E33, but I thought the last couple hours of the game were sort of a mess in that it cheapened the entire journey of the game to introduce an antagonist faction that they don’t even show in any capacity. After all the over-the-top melodrama, the game goes full on nihilist or detachment fantasy, depending on how you choose to end the game. And again, the whole thing is a farce anyway because the game acknowledges the futility of its fiction, so win or lose, it doesn’t actually matter anyway as things conclude in finality.

Personally, I feel that similar themes were explored more effectively in other games, such as Xenoblade Chronicles. I do prefer the gameplay to XBC, but even so, the gameplay is a distinct riff on the Mario and Luigi series. I feel that E33 is basically a hodgepodge of influences and a meta-commentary on game development in 2025 in a way. A little Final Fantasy here, a little Souls there, some Ubisoft… nevermind that!

It’s interesting, sure, but I wouldn’t say I ever grew attached to the characters or had a lot of fun playing it. It’s a technical showcase for a new studio, most certainly, as they did a good job with the visuals, voice talent, and music. However, much of the discussion about the game has been in comparing it to other IP rather than how unique it is as its own IP, and, for that reason, I don’t understand the GotY hype train for it.

Again, I like the game, but I feel it’s been the front-runner for most of the year and has grown such incredible hype not for what it brings, but by the lack in the industry elsewhere, if that makes sense.

I think there’s zero chance Donkey Kong gets GotY, as Keighley rarely rewards Nintendo for their brilliance. Personally, I like Bananza far more than I like E33, but the game certainly doesn’t have the following or critical hype to compete against E33 right now, nor does my personal pick Death Stranding 2. They get nominations, but not wins. This year is likely E33 vs Silksong vs potentially Hades 2 and Ghost of Yotei. I’m curious if Silent Hill, The Outer Worlds, Metroid Prime, or Mina the Hollower will make an impact. They all have the potential to get nominations, but I’m not sure any of those four have the reputation online that E33, Silksong, Hades, or Ghost has.

Hope Silksong takes home GotY this year. Death Stranding 2 is my personal favorite, but the cultural impact of Silksong and its immaculate gameplay deserves so much praise. It’s time a genuine small indie team snags the win.

Weird to see that I’ve played everything in both top 10 lists, minus Pirate Yakuza.

And as far as GotY goes, I really hope the Expedition 33 wave is over. I liked the game, I thought it was good, but I don’t know if I’ve ever felt a game I actually enjoyed has been more overrated. The endless gushing about the game earlier in the year made me wonder if I played the same game everyone else did. I didn’t like KCD2, but I understood where its supporters had a point with it. But with E33, I really don’t get it.

Would love to see Xbox pour some money into getting the licensing sorted on Guitar Hero or getting Warcraft/Starcraft on consoles, but I don’t expect it these days.

I hate to say it, but I’m hoping Bethesda bins the support of Starfield, so that we can get Elder Scrolls 6 in the next 20 years.

@AverageJoseph Admittedly, I’ve not played that one, but I will now. I’m not particularly a player of deck building games, but I’ll give it a shot

I bought the game on Switch. I’ll wait to resub to Gamepass til my son’s birthday next week since he wants that as a present.

That said, Silksong easily tops anything that’s been on GPU all year. While Death Stranding 2 will remain my GotY no matter what, Silksong even in the early goings is making a strong case of being my second favorite game this year

Silksong and then more Silksong and then more Silksong.

No, I will not. Never.

@BAMozzy I really appreciate your thorough response on the matter and I’ve definitely learned something reading this. It does make me wonder what the future holds for Xbox, whether they are using this as a beta test of sorts on developing what the next standard Xbox comes to be. Seems like portable is going to be the next push from MS and Sony, but it’ll be interesting to see how it is implemented and what the meaning of a console will be next generation.

@BAMozzy That’s good to hear the actual improvements over the basic Ally. The previous iteration was a decent device to me, but when I demoed it at a friends’ place, I just didn’t like the “feel” of it as much as say the Steamdeck or Switch 1 or 2. I am surprised these types of devices don’t override the UI to reduce the Windows waste though, you know? Even if it’s Windows-based, you’d think MS would streamline things just a bit. It does sound like an improved device, just with a lot of the same functionality concerns as previous devices in the Ally line.

In other words… it’s just another ROG Ally, just with some Xbox branding this time in an effort to sell hundreds of additional handhelds?

The novelty of Halo coming to PlayStation will dwarf this, I’m certain.

Y’know, I was curious about those Cronos and Hell is Us reviews and was thinking about maybe one of those being for me, but… then Silksong dropped that launch date and I think I know what I’m playing next weekend!

I’m just trying to beat Death Stranding 2 before Silksong. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I want it to!

Fable for sure. I’d love to see Halo too, but I’m not holding my breath on that!

The Rogue Prince of Persia is the best of the bunch here, in my opinion. August was sort of a weak month for Gamepass. At least the service looks to be picking up the next couple months.

I don’t think I’ll ever get the hype over games with the initials G.o.W. I mean that for the both of them.

I’m aiming to beat Death Stranding 2 before Silksong comes out, though I won’t be home for most of the weekend, so… yes…
I did bring my Switch 2 along with me though and so I’ll likely fire up UFO 50 and Chibi Robo in the meantime.

@Millionski Yeah, I basically agree with you. I can’t honestly say anything I’m excited for that’s exclusive to either platform in 2026.

But I do want the gimmicks, which is probably why Nintendo has been drawing me in. Drag X Drive and Welcome Tour aren’t classic games, but, man, do I appreciate when games feel unique and like authentically new experiences.

Will it come with a Samus costume like Skyrim had Link? I could see Starfield finding more success on Switch 2. I mean, Skyrim was practically on a second wave in the early Switch 1 era.

Honestly, the price is better than I would’ve expected. It’s still expensive to me and I’m not getting one, but I expected a far more ludicrous price. That said though, I’m not sure if it’ll be able shift people from other handhelds in this economy. I see this being an enthusiast’s device, same as the existing Ally rather than breaking through like a Steamdeck (which, let’s be real, is also mostly an enthusiast’s device still currently) or Switch 2.

@Millionski I’ve been buying multiple platforms for like four generations now. Right now, I can’t honestly say why I’d buy another Xbox or PlayStation in the future. I always liked Xbox AND PlayStation. It’s just that right now neither of them are prioritizing quality games, it seems.

Capcom is basically carrying the industry at this point, aren’t they?

Unbeatable was a real highlight for me. Outside Resident Evil, I think that’s the only game showcased today I’d like to buy at launch.

When I’d put Bubsy in my top 5 announcements today though, that says a lot about the current state of gaming, doesn’t it?

@Millionski Which basically means that neither platform will be as exciting in the future, unfortunately. I’ve never felt more distant from both Sony and Microsoft, personally, than I have over the course of this generation.

@Coletrain Death Stranding is easy to explain without talking about the characters! It’s a game where you play as a delivery man who is connecting the world with each stop he makes! My son got that! Lol.

But yeah I totally understand that. Until the second half of the Xbox One generation when I got the Switch and PS4, I was basically the same with my habits, but then Xbox just… didn’t really do much for a while with making exclusives, so I started playing other consoles, and with this generation, it just never felt like Xbox got back to what worked for me most. Ironically enough when I talk about a good first party and indie line-up, that’s what Xbox used to have in the 360 days and some of the Xbox One days.

@DonnieTACO Interesting perspective to me considering that Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World were both top shelf. I’d even go so far as say that DKB may be a 10/10 for me. Of the big three, I’d say Nintendo’s current line-up for the rest of the year is my favorite of the three. Death Stranding 2 is certainly going to be my GotY, but Switch 2 has woken up a bit of my interest in gaming again, just like the Switch 1 did years ago. It feels like first party and indies will be strong on the console.

I would hazard to guess Madden is on the front page since the franchise has been absent from Nintendo consoles for a full generation and it’s a selling point for people to return if they’ve been absent from the ecosystem. It’s not for me, but it would make sense why someone out there would find excitement from it.

@Coletrain it really took a lot of thinking time, and honestly this was the perfect year to make a decision like that. The first half of the year was almost certainly Gamepass-centric, but then it’s gotten sparse for a little while. Since getting the Switch 2 though, I’ve found that I can play more in portable mode right now and that the games I play are ok for my kids to watch. Only non-Switch game I’m playing is Death Stranding 2 and my son asked me one time, “Is this one even fun to play? I’m not sure if it is.” I said, “Absolutely, it is,” but it did give me some perspective too. Lol.

@Coletrain That’s my concern is missing games, but I just have more fun with their first party games and am frankly getting to a time in my life where I don’t have as much gaming time, so I’m going to have to be aware I can’t play everything I would want to.

On the case of GTA6, I’m honestly not even sure that’s one I’ll pick up at the moment. Given its nature (and how I can’t play it around the kids), the rumors of increased pricing, and my limited gaming time, I might skip it. It feels weird to say that, but I may have to admit it doesn’t fit what I can play right now.

For two generations, I’d have called Xbox my primary console, but so much damage has been done this generation that I’m not sure I’ll ever feel that way again. Granted, I never thought I’d be Nintendo first again, but the difference there is that Nintendo has the exclusivity of their IPs. I can’t honestly say that I have any interest in purchasing the next Xbox and I feel that they’re wrapping up this generation of consoles just when it feels they’ve finally started the generation within the last 2-ish years.

Reading recaps while I’m at work, of course.

Death Stranding 2 and UFO 50. I get the feeling I’ll be saying that every weekend until I beat Death Stranding 2. Unless we get a shadow drop of something truly exciting at Gamescom, I think this might be a lock til sometime in September.

@Ricky-Spanish I doubt they’d cancel it at this point. I do know it’s been in development for ages though. If I remember correctly, it’s been in development since at least 2018, so jeez you’d hope 8 years would be enough. If we weren’t told that Everwild and Perfect Dark were progressing nicely 6 months before they were both cancelled, I’d feel more at ease. 😂

Hopefully they’re just holding back on the game to allow it to release outside of the GTA6 release window? Hopefully that’s the issue.

@FarmDog08 Didn’t Team Cherry sort of deny that in saying that Xbox may have misspoken about it releasing with the Xbox Ally? I could be wrong, of course.

@Ricky-Spanish I felt the same about Fable not being on there. I’m sort of wondering if Fable’s in a rougher spot than we all realize. I mean, some games that we thought were in good shape were just cancelled recently, you know? But then again, Gamescom isn’t a Summer Games Fest/E3 or The Game Awards either, where trailers are more emphasized than actual hands-on gameplay, so Xbox could be saving the big guns for a more prominent venue.

No Silksong…. huh….

Going to be totally honest about this list… I’m skipping this year’s showcase for sure. A bunch of old games on other platforms, live service titles, etc. I think Keeper and Silent Hill F might be the only games I’m interested in on the list… that I haven’t played in some capacity.

I just want release dates for Fable and OD. I’d like to see Halo cross over to PlayStation and Switch too.

I just want Silksong’s release date from Xbox right now at this point. If Fable and Halo arrive, I’d like that, but I don’t expect it.

Not really expecting much from Gamescom. It’s a decent showcase, but it’s rare that we get something totally unexpected from the showcase. I’m more hopeful to see the rest of Nintendo’s first party line-up this year get release dates? Metroid Prime 4 is a bigger deal to me than GTA6.