So close to great. I wish more developers were making environmentally detailed, high production value, single player linear games like Callisto Protocol. Just that little bit better executed to round out the total package.

Oh, I meant to mention the map, I know a lot of people take issue with it. It's certainly unusual and makes hundred-percenting item collection challenging. There are some maze-like areas with different levers you have to pull in certain orders that I'm undecided if they were improved by having less information.

Definitely a point of contention though, to say the least.

With dynamic pricing, ad partnerships, add-on fees, etc., terms like "cheapest" mean nothing to me. Which, I assume, is why the word is in quotes in the headline to begin with.

I played the demo up to the first couple battles just to get a taste of how that works. No question, I am very excited to get my hands on it. I'm generally a sub-$20 patient gamer, but this is one I'll be getting sooner. I'll still probably wait for the holiday season to see if it drops down at all because I've got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.

I loved it. I've since also played 100+ hours of Elden Ring and some other challenge-heavy games like Hollow Knight - I've thought about going back to Bloodborne with some experience under my belt because it really is a great game. But for me it feels like a lot to start over (and as much as I hate to be an fps snob, they never released a next-gen update and playing a game like this in 30 fps is a turn-off).

I'm not sure if it's makes any difference to you, but Gris is very abstract in its "storytelling," such as it is. There's no backstory to expose, no reality vs. virtual simulation or dream world. It's about a player figure in a colorless world who begins the game in an implied state of incompleteness and melancholy. You guide her through a journey punctuated by moments of adversity, wonder, and triumph, communicated by an affecting marriage of gameplay, score, and cinema. But that's it, there's no dialogue, exposition, or narration, no backstory or plot twists.

The gameplay itself is fine-tuned and accessible. You learn a few new abilities during the course of the game that serve as tools for navigation and puzzle solving. And there are no fail states. It is meticulously lightweight in presentation and play, but equally powerful in emotional immersion and effect. At least, that was my experience.

If I may, I'd recommend starting with the Demon's Souls remake if you're interested. Bloodborne was the first Souls game I ever played, and it was quite punishing. I got quite far and greatly enjoyed parts of it, but it was my experience that it was extraordinarily challenging for a newcomer. Among all the Souls and Soulslike games, BloodBorne is intended to be played aggressively, which is not a good starting point in my opinion.

It was actually Returnal that taught me how to approach challenging games, i.e., almost like a puzzle game in how you try new things to break through impasses. That being said, I also found the Demon's Souls remake to be a much more forgiving entry point, especially if you play as a magic caster. MP is limited so you still need to engage in melee, but magic is a powerful tool to play things safe if you play smartly.

It's also just a fantastic game with great level design. I actually kind of like the segmented levels with a central hub.

Gris is a no-brainer if you haven't played it. Fundamentally simple puzzle-platformer, but one of the most beautiful and emotionally evocative games I've ever played. Nearly every frame of this game is a work of art, and the wonderful score by Berlinist complements the gameplay perfectly, directly and indirectly.

Aside from Return to Monkey Island - never played any of them - the rest is pretty meh for me.

I gotta vent a little about Jedi Survivor - I really did not enjoy it much at all and am surprised it was so critically lauded. The combat aims for souls-like but is way too twitchy and glitchy to make it feel fun and rewarding. I came out of 60% of combat encounters feeling bored, 20% feeling relieved that some erratic imbalance or technical tomfoolery didn't make me repeat it, and 10% feeling frustrated for the same reason but on the other side.

The same core issues affected the bosses too. I didn't feel like the game earned my dedication to "solving the puzzle" the way games like Elden Ring and Returnal do.

Exploration was mostly fine in a zone-out kind of way but grew quite stale by the end, being the same vertical platforms and grapple spots on every section of every world. And the story too was just too out of focus. The whole Tanalorr thing was a late first-act development completely divorced from the course of the opening, and there was never a clear or necessary enough idea of why they wanted to get there to justify it becoming a priority to drive the story.

::: spoiler spoiler By the time they were trying to chase down the last compass, they'd garnered enough attention from the raiders and the empire that it no longer felt like a hidden secret. And the fact that all Cal had to do to get there was press a button to align the arrays...how long will they be safe on Tanalorr before the empire figures that out? It simply never felt like it was worth the trouble everyone was going to for it. :::

I still like the characters, but I was desperate to be done by the time I was fighting a notable turn-of-the-second-act boss, whose appearance elicited an eyeroll rather than excitement. I set the game to story mode at that point and just rushed the ending.

While that was going on though, I did play Animal Well all the way through ("layer 1" anyway), and that was extraordinary fun.

Oh, I also tried out the Metaphor Refantazio demo and that feels incredibly promising, especially with the incredible reviews it's getting today.

Fatal Frame has gotten lost to history a bit, but I remember those games having the reputation as being the scariest that games have ever gotten when they were new.

There are exactly two games that my kids have played consistently for two straight years: Lego Marvel Super Heroes and "Robot Game" (Astro's Playroom).

Personally overjoyed that it's scoring so well. Incredible success for PlayStation and Team Asobi - I hope they're celebrating well today/tomorrow.

Thanks, I still can't wrap my head around how it makes sense to pull the game and issue auto refunds. Unless PlayStation thinks it's so toxically bad that its mere existence is damaging to the brand.

I'm OOL, what happened that was this bad? I'd heard it wasn't popular, like it just didn't latch onto the market (reasonably, due to oversaturation), but was there something functionally wrong with the game?

The turn-based with real-time elements reminds me of Sea of Stars and Shadow Hearts, which are both excellent titles in my mind for this game to associate itself with. Looks really flashy too with the menu, camera movement, and slowdown effects (hopefully that wouldn't get old with too much repetition).

Same here. Loved the setting and style, and the story and characters were admirably close to (the good) 3rd-person bioware stuff.

I don't usually pay full price for games, but I was thinking of buying Greedfall 2 near release to support what they do. This puts a real taint on things.

Thought this looked pretty interesting, but the gameplay trailer looks pretty rough. Reminds me of a 2010-era mid-budget action adventure. I'll keep an eye on it though, I'm not terribly picky about entertaining single-player games.

My patience with Cult of the Lamb finally pays off.

It's worth mentioning that article is from 2020, around the time she had started pivoting from TERF-lite to TERF-MAX. It was...reasonably possible to assume at the time, for someone who wasn't paying close attention, that her opinions were still rooted in misguided concern rather than open bigotry.

She had only just posted her manifesto a few months earlier, according to Vox's helpful timeline, which reads reasonably if you're unaware of the multitude of false and misleading claims she parrots.

Same, though interested is an understatement. Prey is one of the greatest games I've ever played. I enjoyed Weird West, but it left me feeling more like a POC of what the studio wants to do than anything up to the actual standards of Arkane's best.

If WolfEye fills the void of Arkane's deplorable closure, they'll get all the support I can give.