Zaruboggan

Scalpers are gonna have to work that much harder!

Lol this guy is a nut, but I agree that leaks ruin the fun of it all.

I've tried my best to avoid clicking on leak articles, but the headlines alone laid it all bare. Despite my efforts, I still more or less had the entire picture in my head.

I'm begging, and I'm pleading, in the voice of Eric Stuart, please, please let us click a checkbox that hides all leak and rumor articles. Please implement it before every April direct game leaks, so that I can continue to read the news about Rune Factory, indie switch games, and XCX's new content and without having to know about Mario Kart 9, Donkey Konga 3, Starfox x Metroid, and 1080 Snowboarding Mayhem before they're announced.

And if you can't do that, at least try to make your headlines vague. BIG SPOILER NEWS: 20 NINTENDO GAMES LEAKED, CLICK HERE.

Sincerely, everyone who likes surprises

It's like a getting a game title cinematic. Sure, it's nice knowing it's coming and a general idea of when we'll learn more, but it won't feel real until I see the actual direct in April.

The Switch reveal had to show off what it was all about, since it was a new thing, which made for a better trailer.

So, uh, see ya all in April.

Aka, the actual console reveal!

I'm pretty excited, but we'll see what May looks like by the time we get there!
Very pretty looking game. Hopefully that walk speed in the town footage isn't as high as it goes.

Still waiting for the totally unrelated Soma Bringer!

It's been 20 years since the first game came out on PS2. I hold that NIS of that era (especially together with Gust) was one of the greatest and most prolific developers of (S)RPGs.

Lame. You'd think remastering credits was impossible based on the way these ports have been operated!

Bomb soundtrack. I own the physical disc(s) so not as much value for me, but that doesn't mean I won't fire up the app and enjoy some of the other soundtracks I haven't gotten to yet!

I have very fond memories of playing the co-op movie tie-ins back in the day. I liked the RPG one, too.
Unfortunately, the best LOTR games never came to Nintendo consoles. The first Mordor's combat and Nemesis systems were a lot of fun to play around with.
But of course the best LOTR game, bar none, and it's not even close, was Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Criminal that the servers were shut down in a year. You haven't lotrd until you've ridden a troll in combat against Gandalf in the middle of Helms Deep, fire balls and arrows flying all around you, and right when it seems you're backed into a corner, a pop-up appears, asking if you're ready and willing to bring the Witch King to the field of battle.

I like the idea of both. Subscription because I'm already paying to play online, so trying out random retro games is a nice little perk.
But VC because then I can buy and own. If they ever price me out of the sub cost, I lose nothing because I'd own my favorites.

VC also means more third party drops, because they don't have to share a sub pool. They can sell em like they sell any other game. Might get more consoles like on Wii, too.

Played some Warhammer Darktide last night. The best thing I can say for it is that it has co-op! I don't know, it's decent fun. I kind of wish the incremental upgrades were more than a percent at a time.
More Granblue Fantasy Relink, just working through some lucilius/behemoth/proto Bahamut etc. I'm in desperate need of Silver Centrums. We've also started new files to play with friends, which feels like a completely different game from the one we've been grinding for the last 100 hours!
Working slowly through Arco. Act IV. Easy rec. Great game.
And finally Theatrythm: Final Bar Line.

@Porky lol I guess that's one way to put it

Hope to hear from them soon, just so the articles start being more interesting than 'Here's Another Shot of the Switch 2's Backside! Allegedly!' or 'Switch 2 Case Manufacturer Reveals Indentation Required to Accommodate L4 and R4 Buttons!'

As long as all the games don't get leaked, the full reveal should still be fun, but damn, do ya'll peak into your Christmas presents early, too?

The trash is back!
Nothing for me this week. Had Freedom Wars on my Vita and don't really feel the need to buy it again.

So excited! Played this game for 150 hours or so. I remember every moment was basically spent trying to build max-range gem stuff.
Totally pointless in terms of combat efficacy, but lots of fun for my sniper.
This time, I'll definitely take a little more time to figure out the systems (like the soul voice stuff) and build a party that actually works together haha.
Not that I won't use the sniper.

Please fix the battle system, please fix the battle system...

I enjoyed the catching and general Pokemonness of Arceus, but it was so hampered by its garbage-bin story, awkward trainer battles (and that's being generous), and sinfully ugly environments that I'm more than a little worried how the sequel will turn out.

Phantom Brave 2 is pretty exciting. It's been 20 years since the first one!
Hopefully it's the start of NISJ's return to SRPG form.

Great game. It's in my personal Top 10. Of the rest of their top 10 games, I've played 8, and maybe a couple of them would be in my personal top 100.

Very little, since we'll be out of town. Some Granblue Fantasy Relink with friends this morning, and then we're off.
I'm hoping to get back to Arco (finished Act 3 on Tuesday) when I get back.
Next week, I expect some more Warhammer Darksomething with my brothers. I really don't gaf about Warhammer, but you wouldn't know it based on all the games we've gotten this year lol.
Come on, devs! What happened to all the co-op shooters?!
Anyway, we might also be playing Mario Party Jamboree for the first time while we're out partying this weekend. Should be fun!

XCX, Metroid Prime 4, Rune Factory, and Pokemon for sure.
Fantasy Life i's release window is a little too close to XCX for me to think I'll be ready for it, unfortunately.

Just don't raise the price of NSO on me and I'll be happy!

Happy Anniversary to all of these games, but especially the best Star Fox of all time (Starfox Assault) and the first part of a duology which is collectively the best Fire Emblem of all time, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance!

Happy New Year!
No big gaming resolutions from me. But I will be sure to start the year off with some Theatrythm!

Lol I did alright considering the crapshoot nature of the questions. 9/14

Christmas gifts have changed my plans by quite a bit. On Steam, I was gifted Arco, Crossover: Roll for Initiative, Tyranny, Minami Lane, and Firewatch. I'll be starting Act 3 of the fantastic Arco this morning.
I bought myself stitch. on Switch, so I'm hoping to start in on that, too. But I'll probably wait until I finish Arco.
Otherwise, still playing Granblue Fantasy Relink and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Watching my brother play Indiana Jones, too.
Busy busy busy

-A proper Crystal Chronicles port that doesn't take all the charm outta multiplayer.
-More Theatrythm DLC, but make them the beautiful songs, not just the crazy rock vocal ones.

@BodkinDQ Haha yep, Tellius is king!
And hey, not every game is right for everyone, even in our favorite genres. If anything, that's when we're the most critical of our per peeves.
I guess what I'm saying is, I won't take it personally if you don't find a way to love Unicorn Overlord haha.

@BodkinDQ I think Unicorn Overlord is less auto battle than you think it is. I mean, you do move your units individually, just like, say, FE, only in real time. The battles are about as automated as Fire Emblem, in that once combat starts, you're hands off. Only there's so much work to be done to make your units come together, so much fiddling with equipment, strategy, and more, that it's much more involved than maybe it initially appears.
I won't pretend playing further will change your mind, but I think it's worth giving it a fair shake!

So far I've gotten stitch.
It's not on this list, but it is on a nice sale (about $7.5 USD).
I'm considering Infernax, Balatro, or Ghost Trick. We'll see.

Gonna give it a listen next time I work! Always love me some Mario OSTs

Started the weekend off with some Windblown, which added a couple new weapons and balanced some mechanics about a week ago.
Snuck in another Proto Bahamut fight in Granblue Fantasy Relink. We're tryna do one a day, at least until we have every weapon. Two to go for my brother. Five for me! Then it's back to sliver centrums and fortitude crystals...
This weekend might be when I finally start Another Code, but I'm also tempted to buy Balatro. My brother's working through Eldin Ring again with our cousin, this time on PC with a sweet MP mod. It's just distracting enough that I don't think I could get as immersed in Another Code as I need. Hence Balatro.
Still busy with holiday stuff, too, so I might not get to either of them!

Nintendogs + Guinea Pigs

I liked Nintendogs a lot on DS, but I'm not sure if I'd actually be back for another one. Unless it exploded in ambition or something.

Fantastic little game. Some real nice stage work. These small fixes sound like they should smooth things out for when my brother borrows my Switch to play it for himself.

284 hours this year compared to last year's 654. And 74 of those hours were for work lol.
Most played was otherwise Unicorn Overlord, which I also put as my favorite.
Part of the reason for the drop is my PS5 going from 45 hours in 2023 to 450 hours this year due to Eldin Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Granblue Fantasy Relink (among other games).

I think I actually played a similar number of games on Switch. They were just shorter.

Loved every minute of it, as has been the case with everything Vanillaware has done, but especially with this, Muramasa, and 13 Sentinels.

Finally!
While it was quick relative to the launch of the game, even as a free-to-play user I was getting so little in the way of new cards that I stopped caring to log in and open even my free packs.
I'm not gonna use my hourglasses because then I'd be in the exact same spot.

Just don't muck em up!
I would love to be able to play Tales of the Abyss with friends again.
Without having to hook up the PS2.

I'm ready and waiting, Capcom!

Had a little bit of trouble getting my brother's Windblown to launch properly last night, but we think we know the problem, so hopefully we can get that sorted out and try out the update.
We might do a night of Dragons Age: The Veilguard (been progressing at the same rate), but tbh I don't foresee a whole lot of gaming this weekend. Lots of holiday prep to get through.
We are going to do some hotpot tonight! Not a game, but good for warming up all the same.

Oof, two player hurts.

@Daniel36 Stop me if you've played this one, but iirc Tales of Symphonia had a great balance between world saving stuff and the ol fireside chats. Because it had literal fireside chats. Plus, a lot of city and side stuff had the pace pulled back for some downtime. It also had the skits referred to in this review where you got some silly, casual conversations between party members.

Love the look of despelote!
Even if soccer is one of the few sports that I find boring =P

Pro-tip for people struggling to get into EoW: don't summon a guy and wait. In combat, spam the summon button as if it's an attack button. Much faster and more intuitive way to deal with mob(lin)s. I recommend using the Club Moblin for this.
Also, take a nap in the middle of a boss fight. Very cheeky; very rewarding.

Doubt it. As has been said, the switch logo will probably appear at the bottom of the screen after a few trailers, but that's it.

I've watched every TGA to date, so I'll probably sit through this one, but eh. The players choice awards have showed their true colors (remind me again why an ancient gacha game is in the running?) and highlighted why the actual awards are so heavily weighted against the popular vote.

I'm mostly just curious to see how/if they respond to last year's backlash.

Hell yes. I know what I'm working to tomorrow!

Loved the heck out of this game when I played it on GamePass.
I might have to buy it proper and play the DLC next year!

Echoes of Wisdom, Unicorn Overlord, Neva, Paper Mario... I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but those are the big ones!

And we're still playing it!
And will still be playing it until the next one. SSB is my #1 and always will be!

I just beat Kunitsu-Gami (fantastic game!), so I've got to decide on another game to play. I miiiight start up Another Code on Switch.
Otherwise, my brother and I are continuing Dragon Age: The Veilguard side by side. Last weekend we got the last party members.
I started Infinity Nikki, and my main takeaways are: awkward loc that forgot to fix the sentence structure; absolutely gorgeous cloth animation; great open world feel; relatively lame side quests; unfortunate gacha/live service daily BS.
But it does have an awful lot of cosmetics to purchase with ingame money that doesn't require gacha, so it's actually pretty nice in that regard. You can slay without slaying your time or wallet.

I'll probably also do another run of Trash of the Titans, a fun lil roguelike strategy game on Steam that's good for a few playthroughs, but relatively light on content (early access).