Anticipated Games

Well they did say 2016 for Horizon in the original trailer and announcement post for the game on the PS Blog. I mean not that I'd rule out another delay or anything. I was surprised how little of Mass Effect they showed. Made me think it was further out, but EA are so weird with their E3 presentations, who knows.

Persona 5 @____@

I feel like Horizon could be really cool, or it could just be another so-so game riding the hype train. Love the setting and the idea, but it's all about mechanics. Hopefully it's not just another open world meh-fest wasting a good setting.

I forgot they showed that part off, I was just so expecting that not to make it in 2016 I guess. I mean, Guerilla hasn't done anything beyond Killzone which was mostly pretty linear so three years between Killzone SF and that seemed too soon with how massive it looks.

I'm with you too Kubert. My concern is that Guerilla just hasn't made great games. The polish has been there, but Killzone 2 and SF were some of the worst FPS campaigns I've ever played. Maybe the talent they picked up between now and then and the lessons they learned are enough, but they are just not a good developer outside multiplayer  (where my experience is more limited) IMO.

To really enjoy Killzone games it's about the multiplayer, and I remember everyone loving KZ2's campaign, it was the 3rd one that not many liked. I would have enjoyed the 4th games if the whole damn thing wasn't told in first person, I hate when shooters do that.

I've seen plenty of people who dislike Killzone 2's campaign, especially once they were removed from the hype. It felt like it was just following FPS trends whether they fit the game or not which doesn't give me much confidence in an open world RPG when that's the overused genre now. And that also doesn't change how Shadow Fall's switch to open levels was so clumsy with all of its boring objectives.

I wasn't a fan of KZ2's campaign at all really. The first game wasn't perfect either but provided lots of cool weapons and 4 différent characters with varying paths. KZ2 was 95% MP to me

I got way into the KZ2 multiplayer so I have good memories of that game. Couldn't really tell you what happened during the campaign, but that's the case for just about every FPS campaign I've ever played save a few games. So for me its not fair to dock KZ2 for that.

So I'm pretty pumped for Sonic Mania. Looks like the Sonic game I've waited years to play.

Gonna be controversial here: I never liked Sonic games, including the early ones. Just always felt frustrating to me. It's like the game is telling me to go fast and when I do I immediately hit something and it slaps me and says "NOT LIKE THAT, IDIOT!"

Anyway, for what it's worth, it looks like this new one is being handled by the right sorts of people.

Same, TWolf. I could never get into Sonic

The thing about Sonic is everyone got into it as a kid, where you're willing to forgive more. There are some barriers to the Genesis games that can make them feel frustrating (you actually hit the nail on the head Kubert) but if you do, running at full speed is such a blast while the level design has so much depth to it. There's really nothing like these games which is ironic since everyone tried copying him in the 90s.

Are any of the more recent Sonic games worth playing? I just sort of fell away from playing them as the Genesis was really my only Sega system. I loved 1-3 and Knuckles back then. I even had 3D Blast and Spinball because I just had to have everything Sonic back then. But once I moved to PlayStation I never really got back into the Sonic games. I guess CD is the one I probably need to play the most. Mania definitely looks pretty cool.

I agree, I had both a Sega and a Super Nintendo as a kid and I always felt Sonic was vastly inferior to Mario. I did enjoy that Sonic racing game for the Vita when it was free, my only complaint was that the courses were so long.

Anyone know a good site that lists upcoming games? IGN has a list, but they are always just rough estimates most of the time.

I feel like Genesis Sonic is on par with Mario 3 but not World. I just really love when a game can set you on a single path but have a bunch of different routes to get there.
Trip the Sonic's I'd recommend first would be the DS ones (Rush, Rush Adventure, and Colors). Colors Wii is decent but has some imprecise controls. Generations improved the controls but it's gameplay is pretty shallow but still fun. Generations 3DS is like the DS Sonic's but a lot more shallow. Lost World is okay but has some backwards design choices (Sonic moves at different speeds running straight and to the side for instance).

Yeah I'd heard good things about the Rush games.

I'd put a bunch of Mario games ahead of the best Sonic (2), but that isn't really a knock against it. 2D Mario just rocks that much.

Edit: Maybe one of these Bret:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_in_video_gaming

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/release-date/coming-soon/all/date

I imagine they are missing stuff. These lists always tend to be missing things.

Even though they're rivals (or once were), I have a hard time comparing the two. Mario is all about its mechanics and focuses more on practicing enough until you can take on all the challenges the game offers. Sonic gives you a bunch of options to get to the end of the level and lets you figure them out while offering a more interesting nature vs technology angle that's put in pretty naturally.

I have more fun with World more than the best of Sonic and see the case for 3 being better, but I still feel more attached to Sonic's individual levels than any 2D Mario levels. Not to say that it makes Sonic levels better, I feel more attached to Super Mario 64 levels than 2D Mario levels, but 2D Mario still offers more replayability and deeper mechanics. It's just not designed to stick with me the way Sonic does, and I dig that.

Thanks for the sites, I'll check them out. I feel like this year has the most games that I want and I really can't recall all of the games I want to look up individually. So I hope with that list I see them all marked so I can't start making plans for the ones I really want over the ones I just need.

Pokemon Sun and Moon dropped a really neat piece of info yesterday: The new region will have its own versions of some Pokemon in it. There's an Ice/Steel Sandshrew/Sandslash, Ice Vulpix and Ice/Fairy Ninetails, and a Grass/Dragon Exeggutor, with hints of things like a Fire type Marrowak.
http://www.serebii.net/sunmoon/alolaforms.shtml

I'm sorry but I'm having a REALLY hard time getting excited for this new pokemon. A lot of the new pokemon are *shrug* but also...there's enough Pokemon already. I would give up any new Pokemon in exchange for them innovating on the gameplay a little bit. Just a little.

That's exactly what they're doing http://www.serebii.net/sunmoon/islandchallenge.shtml

Yeah, but I mean revamping the battle system, adding persona-like info windows, fixing movement, making the "cut" and "fly" moves as subsystems instead of moves. I mean, BIG changes.

Also, you may hate me for this, but I'm not a huge fan of the look of this generation of pokemon, graphically. I think the sprites from the DS era were probably my favorite.

The thing about changing the battle system is that Pokemon is a multiplayer game also and changing it in a big way would really affect that, which is too big to be changed. I personally think its battle system is perfect as is. They are removing HMs btw, now you can call upon certain Pokemon which won't be a part of your team for that. Meeting a Charizard lets you fly, a Lapras lets you surf, etc. You won't need to sacrifice a moveslot anymore.

I think changing the Gym structure is a huge change since that's such an important part of the game.

That's fair, that's cool that they're changing up those things. I REALLY wish that you could scan pokemon for weaknesses because part of the experience shouldn't be saving a PNG of the current generation's typechart on your desktop to memorize.

I hope they make that tweak as well, because it would REALLY make that game more enjoyable.

I feel the Pokemon weaknesses/resistances are easy enough to keep in my head. Only Fairy weaknesses and resistances feel weird, the rest can have a quirk or two but you see them and think "That makes sense."

Been trying to figure out what I'm going to buy this Fall (and what else I'm hopefully going to rent and/or wait for a sale) and I was curious if anyone else had sorted this thing for themselves for Fall gaming.

I do actually. Getting ReCore and DQVII next month, The Last Guardian October, Pokemon in November, and South Park in December. Gravity Rush 2 I'll probably ask for Christmas. Also have my eye on Gears 4, Watchdogs 2, Titanfall 2, and Battlefield 1, but waiting for reviews on all of them, then I'll maybe ask for a couple for birthday or Christmas. Depends just how well they do end up and/or whether any of my friends want to do MP on them.

Dishonored 2 looks interesting also, but I'd need to finish the first before.

That's a good gameplan. My must-buys are Gravity Rush 2 and The Last Guardian along with the Manor DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider (I'd also like to get the PS4 version of Rise, but will wait for a sale on that since I bought it at full price before). Other games on my to-play list are: ReCore, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and Watch Dogs 2. BF1 and TF2 are obvious rentals. Same with Shantae. The other three are potential buys. ReCore's price and release timing makes it the most tempting. No new console to buy this year for me (which is what I have done for my birthday the last couple years), so I may just grab it as a birthday present to myself!

I wanted to get Gears 4 digitally on PC/XB1, but then I saw it's an 80+ GB download. That's just absurd, either give me a retail copy or compress your games.

Yeah that one floored me. That's nearly a tenth of my hard-drive. Yeesh

The MS game store and Xbox App are also such a nightmare that you may as well just get the Xbox disc, though. As much as people love to bash Uplay, at least I know how to uninstall games with that.

I actually just remembered September has that new Ace Attorney game. Sorry Dragon Quest, but AA is a top priority, might even want that more than Pokemon.