somnambulance

You guys are crazy saying you’d spend $1000+. No way would I spend that unless gaming got so expensive across the board that that was the cheapest option. I bought my Series S for $300 after all…

Realistically, I’d say $5-600 for me for a new Xbox. To be totally honest, I’m not sure I plan to continue on with Xbox into the next generation unless they make some big shifts into making the brand less chaotic and offer some form of value for being a customer.

Feels like February, April, and August are the best months to do it from a business perspective, but I’d pick January because my birthday’s in January and if I could ensure myself a gift in gaming, I would enjoy that. Some years I can, some years I can’t.

I’m down for this. I like Luke Stephens even if I frequently disagree with his opinion and don’t have much overlapping taste. I appreciate his honesty though. It’s a unique format too. It’s good to see people outside the typical circle get a show too.

Now if only Electric Playground and Happy Console Gamer could have one of these…

@SeaDaVie Comment of the year winner!

I think there’s few people out there that are truly pining for a new generation right now anyway, so I think that might be a positive decision.

I voted:
1. Silksong (though I played it on Switch 2 instead)
2. Balatro (though I didn’t play it on Gamepass and own it on three other platforms)
3. Blue Prince
4. Other (To a T)
5. Banishers Ghosts of New Eden (though I’d played it previously on PS5)

It was a very strong year for Gamepass. I do think the service lost steam for me after the price hike, but genuinely the first half of the year was a heavy Gamepass period for me.

Disco Simulator? They really do make games for everyone these days.

I have two more Christmases this weekend to do, so probably not much of anything. I’m feeling ok with the amount of 2025 games I’ve beaten to compile my year end list now, so there’s that. And because of that, I’ve sort of drifted towards playing through comfort food in the form of NES games. Little Nemo, Little Samson, Bucky O’Hare, Whomp ‘Em, Wallstreet Kid, Princess Tomato, and Mitsune Ga Tooru are ideas for what I might finish next. Beat Adventure Island 2, Kung Fu, and Friday the 13th over Christmas Eve/Day. Wallstreet Kid might be my first choice since I failed at it miserably on Christmas Day.

I’ve finished a lot of games this year, a couple on Xbox. Expedition 33, Blue Prince, and South of Midnight for sure on Xbox. That might be it for Xbox though. Feels like there’s more. I don’t keep a record of my completions though. I’ve beaten probably 30-40 games this year. Just beat Adventure Island 2 (NES) on Christmas Eve and Friday the 13th (NES) on Christmas, so those are the most recent, but the most recent 2025 game I beat was Metroid Prime 4.

Zero. Cancelled my Gamepass subscription too. Was a fantastic first half of the year for the service til they shot it down with a price hike. I’ve effectively sorta left the Xbox ecosystem. I’m contemplating getting the Outer Worlds 2 on PS5 or Steam though. Still buying Xbox games, just elsewhere now.

To a T deserved far more love.

No way to tell. Only way for anyone to know what’ll be in the GotY discussion is to wait until we know what the YouTubers like. I wouldn’t say anything on the 2026 Xbox docket has much hype. Right now, Phantom Blade Zero, Sony’s Marvel games, and Resident Evil are practically the only games with “hype” at the moment. RE will probably feel like a lock for awards when it launches, only to be forgotten about by the end of the year though. Happened to Village and I’m expecting it’ll happen to Requiem.

That said, I could definitely see some Xbox games landing in my personal list. 2026’s release schedule looks better to me than this year’s list for sure and that’s largely based on Fable

Just beat Metroid Prime 4. Fantastic game. Time to finally compile that personal year end list.

Onto some assorted oldies like The Sims 1, SimCity 3000, Adventure Island 2, Rampage Universal Tour, Half Life, etc, whatever I feel the random urge to play the rest of the year.

These games are all in bulk on the discount shelves of my local Walmart for $5-$15. I’d imagine sales are low enough now on these that they didn’t extend paying for the licenses.

I’d be able to tell you specifically if Xbox had a year end recap!

This year, I’d wager my gaming looked like this:

50% Switch 2
20% Xbox
15% PS5
13% Mobile
2% Steamdeck

Just got a Steamdeck, but I’m anticipating that number to rise next year. I really liked Nintendo’s first party output this year. I know Silksong was the game I played the most (edit: on consoles) this year on Switch 2 regardless of a year end update. This is definitely the year I played my PS5 least and might be the year I’d played Xbox most this generation.

Edit: actually, Balatro on my phone was my most played game this year as I broke 100 hours on it this year… just updated my percentages with that though my mobile time is all Balatro and I’m sure my percentages are wrong.

@Runex2121 I agree with you. Us hardcore gamers are likely finding more and more frustration with the industry the broader it gets because, even if we were the original foundation of game sales, we aren’t the target demographic anymore.

I suppose backwards isn’t the right description, though it is lower tech that is made more cheaply and quickly. There’s nothing wrong with this though. After all, there’s still plenty of Wiis hooked up in senior centers and schools. It’s arguable that the Wii if sold very cheaply may still be a viable selling console because there is a different demographic that wants motion controlled, casual fun style experiences.

Given the increasing costs of development and consumer pricing, I’m not surprised we’re going backwards as an industry to sell to the casuals. I don’t feel any of the big 3 are fully invested in the casual market currently.

@InfamousOrange It’s coming in January.

If this is good and the price is fair, maybe I’ll snag World War Z for this. Loved TWD during its run. Some shows end and you miss them years later and TWD is one of those shows for me.

@Smackosynthesis This has been a quantity over quality year in terms of first party releases for sure

Haven’t gotten around to Keeper or the Outer Worlds, and I suspect one of them might be the real answer, but I’ll go with one I played and I played almost all of them. I don’t think it’s a perfect game, but I picked South of Midnight.

@BAMozzy You misunderstand the point I’m making. The point I’m making is that the games that receive the most marketing and have the most financial backing are pushing out unique experiences and many of those games that have the financial ability to do so are engineered in a way to prioritize engagement and the addictive properties in games. It’s a more intricate and nuanced subject than “vote with your wallet.” Just because most people have Facebook circa 2025 doesn’t mean that it’s healthy for peoples’ mental health to scroll on it out of addiction, you know? Most people don’t actually know what is out there with games and continue to support what they know rather than exploring more games that may broaden their tastes and palette. This has never been more apparent than in the current era of gaming.

The reality is that most people don’t truthfully know if they would like a spectrum of games because they are not exposed to them or aware of them. Gamers have become risk averse because the larger corporations are telling them to do so and they don’t know any better and probably don’t realize this influence.

By the way, totally believe Hellblade should get more exposure for the unique things it does. I get that it’s maybe not “the best game,” but as a piece of art, it’s highly successful. The first game really didn’t look appealing to me, so I didn’t play it at release, but a family member of mine recommended it, so I checked it out and I’m glad I was told about it. The last two generations, I’ve found myself digging harder because I’ve noticed people used to recommend more games and used to try to expose people to unique experiences, but aren’t doing that so much anymore. I ask about this and usually the answer I get is that people don’t know what’s out there anymore.

That’s why I continue to try to get these kinds of games exposure and tell people about them, wear t-shirts of “obscure games,” etc. Things have changed to make it more difficult for indies to flourish for a multitude of reasons. But I’m happy to help people find more games they’d enjoy. It’s sort of cool seeing others enjoy a game they didn’t know about.

@jesse_dylan @BAMozzy I dunno. I think we should support games that feature disable characters or stuff that is child friendly without being made from a marketing machine. I dunno about anyone else, but I’d rather my kids learn about overcoming obstacles in spite of being different vs “Paw Patrol game #4.” Not that there’s anything wrong with Paw Patrol, but it’s up to our wallets to ensure that people are still able to craft art and idiosyncratic experiences. It’s not like To A T got much of an opportunity for the right people to know it exists, you know? It just irks me when predatory content like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Roblox, and Fortnite are aimed at kids right now and monopolizing their free time and headspace when something like this doesn’t even have the ability to market itself toward any success.

I’m not giving up on the good fight. I’m crusading for unique games until the fight is won. I know I’m on a “kids games hill” for this one, but honestly this generation has been regressive towards much of what is unique in gaming.

Also, I am so thankful for Kojima. As long as he and Remedy continue to find success, there’s hope out there in the industry.

Said the same thing on the Pushsquare version of the article, but I want to post it again:

Support games that do something different. If we don’t throw our support into unique games with unique ideas now, the industry will continue to siphon into games they care more about engagement than fun. We’re at a dangerous point in gaming history where every day the executives of gaming companies are looking for safer games with more monetization for the benefit of their shareholders. I get that To a T may not be for everyone, but neither are a lot of games. Sometimes games do need support and exposure and unfortunately that’s not being given to games such as this.

For what it’s worth, To a T was one of my favorite games this year. I preferred it even to the latest Katamari game too. It’s a unique game with a fantastic soundtrack and I do hope that Takahashi’s able to get a lifeline, so he’s able to continue creating his own idiosyncratic vision of gaming. We need these kinds of unique voices. Also, the game is great for kids as well. My 8 year old was able to beat the game no problem and my 4 year old loves to watch it.

1. Silksong
2. Blue Prince
3. Other… I could put Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo, To a T, or Once Upon a Katamari here if they were options
4. Arc Raiders
5. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, I suppose.

Gamepass carried my play time for the first five months of the year, but honestly my “all games across all platforms” is heavily Switch 2 forward. The Nintendo first party stuff just spoke to me far, far more than most of the games released this year. I’ve still yet to play Outer Worlds 2, Sektori, or the Seance At Blake Manor from my personal list to feel like I can genuinely pick a true top 10 across all platforms though, but I’m trying to get there! I’ve beaten a few more than 20 games this year and tried around 50-ish. Death Stranding 2 is my ultimate GoTY. From my playtime, I’d say there were 20-25 games I’d put at a 7/10+, which is a relatively solid year.

@Kezelpaso If anything, the reaction to its placement in the show says something about the disconnect between the viewing gamers and the industry money right now. I know, with my viewing party, we were all sort of losing focus toward the end of the show with all the gatcha games getting trailers one after the other. I know those games probably spend a lot of money to get those slots, but no one in my group could tell where one ended and the other began.

After enduring a bunch of samey trailers that felt more like ads than a typical trailer to follow it up with a F2P Hero Shooter left everyone saying, “They’re going to announce something else after the award, right?” But no… At least we still got the multi-instrumental flute guy going crazy again this year!

Seriously though, there’s a disconnect between the single player and esports crowd now in a big way and I think it’s all about presentation rather than game quality.

It would’ve been a huge pop if this came out 10-15 years ago, but it sure feels like no one wants anymore hero shooters. Personally, I felt like this reveal landed like a wet sock. Maybe it was the fact that it was the last game announced when there were “bigger” games for the gaming core in the show. I mean, Megaman and Control 2 were moments when my group got silent and watched.

Honestly, I personally think The Game Awards dumping every award of E33, made 2025 look like a sham year for gaming. I know some people want to believe E33 is so good it deserved all the awards, but really we’re in an era where people are playing fewer games and purchasing fewer games. Does it really help the industry to focus solely on one game?

I watched the show with some friends and all of us started getting annoyed with E33 winning awards. We all cheered when Wuthering Waves beat it for Player’s Choice. Lol. The ludicrous choice to give a game that can afford basically an A list cast getting “indie game of the year” while also being marketed directly by Microsoft is a slap in the face to vibrancy of the indie game scene too.

I didn’t even enjoy KCD2 and I agree with him. E33 is officially the most overrated game to have ever been made after last night and I say that as someone who liked the game for the most part.

A D. Megaman could’ve boosted it to at least a B if Clair Obscur didn’t receive literally every award it was nominated for except for one. It’s bad when you get grateful that the bots gave an award to a gatcha game.

@smoreon I’d imagine he does play games. As obnoxious as Geoff can be, his enthusiasm seems genuine.

Well, looks like I WILL try the Outer Worlds 2 by the end of the year then!

Hopefully he plugs Forgotlings again (for free) since the release for that one should be pretty imminent.

I do wonder what type of games Geoff actually plays.

@Fiendish-Beaver After how low quality the PlayStation one was this year, I’m just hoping the Xbox one has depth to it this year. This is the first year in a long while that I’ve played a good chunk of my gaming time on Xbox over PS5, so I’m curious to see what my actual playtimes were!

I’m genuinely curious this year. It was a rocky year for Xbox for me in the second half of the year, but Xbox felt like my dominant console this year… until the Switch 2 launched and totally took over. I’m curious what my numbers were, especially knowing that I played my PlayStation 5 less than expected. I want to compare my playtime.

@abe_hikura Warner Bros/Discovery has been terrible since they merged, so honestly I can see whoever purchases them to improve them. HBOMax went from feeling like Netflix used to to feeling like… how Netflix feels now for me. That said, Paramount and Netflix would probably both do a lot more with the cartoons in the WB storage because they realize people want to watch them.

I really enjoyed the campaign at the time of release, but I also thought that it was clearly designed with the purpose of getting dlc down the line. When it was revealed that campaign dlc was never in the cards, I soured a little bit towards it, but I’d still call it my favorite 343 Halo as a campaign.

I wasn’t much a fan of the multiplayer though. It was an improvement on 5 but still far from the glory days that ended after 4.

I just hope that whoever buys Warner Bros Discovery is willing to free Infinity Train

Really genuinely curious about this game. Reactions seem to be very literally all over the place. I have a hard time resisting playing games like this, but I’ve yet to try it. I don’t imagine I’ll have time to play it this year, given everything I have to currently play, but I’m interested.

Metroid Prime 4

The half hour I played last night felt pretty solid.

I’ve got no real opinion so far, but I mean the game’s reviewing better than that new Marvel game, so it’s not like I can even say I can make sense of the disconnect between my YouTube feed any reality anymore. I do hope I end up enjoying Prime 4 in the end.

Hopefully this doesn’t mean bad things for the consumer. So far, the push for consolidation has led to worse media at a higher cost, in my opinion… and I’m honestly less interested in what’s being peddled out to us and I consume less too.

Also, jeez, I’m hoping that the inevitable Hogwarts Legacy sequel lives up to the first one’s… ahem… legacy… following this as well.

@Stoned_Patrol I didn’t end up buying Routine and just ended up going for bulk instead with Black Mesa, Garry’s Mod, Coromon, Ex-Zodiac, Level Devil, Core Keeper, Refind Self, Nidana, and The Seance of Blake Manner. I had a $50 gift card and was honestly able to get almost every game in that list, which is quite impressive. I only actually paid for 1.5 games after that gift card (which I was gifted). Pretty cool that I’ve got a decent library to start with for such a good deal thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I’ll be getting the Deck next week, but I’m already happy with it.

I’m gone from Gamepass, I believe. I’m not sure there’s $30 worth of games I’d want from Gamepass in December, so the value just isn’t there anymore. I’m in the process of selling my Xbox to buy accessories for the Deck, like mouse/keyboard/a really nice controller. I get that Cdkeys is cheaper, but I’m just sort of peeved with Xbox’s vision at the moment.

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Got it wishlisted currently, curious on what kind of pricing it’ll have.

@Lup @Sindayl Definitely agree with the both of you. If Clair Obscur didn’t get the press bump from being a budget release at launch, history may have been very different.

As it stands though, I am grateful this one was on Gamepass. I very nearly ordered it on PlayStation, even with it being on Gamepass, because I loved the concept so much, but then I felt like I should be rational and try it before purchasing, so I started it on Gamepass. By the end, I was really glad I saved the money and didn’t buy the game. It was still a good game, but the hype was overblown big time for me.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner As a huge Final Fantasy fan, I really hope not. I’ve liked every Final Fantasy game more than Clair Obscur, outside maybe Final Fantasy 1-3 and maybe 5. I’d have to mull over if I liked 33 or 5 better. I want Final Fantasy to keep being Final Fantasy and being its own breed of massive rpg.

@jesse_dylan I don’t finish every game either, but I want to go in with the intention that I’m going to want to commit to finishing a game, you know? I do beat the majority of my games, but I also prefer my games to be 20-ish hour games because I know I’ll beat something like that in two weeks, play the next thing and so on and so forth. A long game’s gotta be REALLY special for me nowadays. Octopath 1 and 2 were both a little too long for what they were for me, personally, but, I mean, Triangle Strategy had me engrossed to the end. Realistically though, COVID was the last time I could easily commit to these styles of games without juggling.

If 2026 doesn’t bulk up soon though, there’s definitely room in the release schedule to hunker down and play something massive.

If I was 25 years younger, this would be such a dream game, based on what I’ve read, but, man, that 100+ hour playtime makes it hard for me. I mean, I’ve still never beaten Persona 5 and I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried. Long games are hard to beat. If 2026 has another drought like 2024 or 2025 though, I’ll get this on sale, I think. It looks fantastic.

Thinking about this one being my inaugural Steamdeck game when I get the console next week. I have a feeling the pricetag for this one might be cheaper than a month of Gamepass now! 😂

@Scummbuddy Lol, yeah, I feel like “recommendations” tend to just be other games that are selling a lot regardless of what you play. Or it’s a scenario like, “You played Elden Ring, huh? Here’s 30 games that are just like it, despite it being an outlier to your habits.”

I’ve tried sourcing recommendations from various sites and apps and thus far, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that can steer myself towards my own taste when I’m buying games (and I can’t even always stick the landing on that either!).

I don’t really need any of that.

In my experience, AI has been bad at recommending games to me thus far, as I’ve tried it already. And honestly, I sort of feel like our numerical analysis of everything exists to distance us from actually experiencing things rather than going through the numbers. Numbers and trends are addictive to me and I could see sorting through data becoming as much a game as games themselves, which feels sort of wrong. I’m already a spreadsheet gamer. Do I need more encouragement to compartmentalize my gaming further?