If you're someone who pre-orders games, you're an active participant in the constant enshitification of gaming. Doesn't matter what game it is, you're contributing to a scummy corporate tactic that serves no positive benefit to the player.

It made sense with physical copies that had a limited quantity, now it's an outdated tradition from a bygone era.

My personal and maybe controversial answer to this question would be the "Little Big Planet" Series, as much as I want other games to have a sequel and know how many absolutely need a renovation game to better tell a story with better graphics while staying true to the original games, Little Big Planet has been a lost IP ever since the ps4 came out and has only gone down hill. Servers has shut down even with an active player base, millions of made community levels, good vibes and a good community doing cool things like being creative together and a storyline built on arts and crafts, it helped me build my creativity that I have today, and it has honestly shaped me into who I am today. As of recently the IP has been dropped and is no longer receiving updates or even acknowledgement from the developers of the franchise already. If they were to make a new LBP, keep the side stroller theme going, dont make it free roam camera, keep creative, story and community levels including the old ones. Build a bigger story and Cooler more modern DLC. And add new gadgets and widgets, blocks and logic to the game. EVERY OTHER SEQUAL IN THE FRANCHUSE HAS JUST DONE THAT AND ITS BEEN BANGER AFTER BANGER. All I wish for is a new LBP game to come out! HOW ABOUT YOU?

The PlayStation 2 is one of the most beloved consoles ever made. The amount of memories and treasures people have made with the games on it are staggering, as is the amount of great games on it from Ico to Persona 4, and it is still the best-selling console ever made to go along with its legacy.

BUUUUUUUT it was arguably the WEAKEST console of Generation 6 hardware-wise. The GameCube and Xbox have it beat in many ways, and even the Dreamcast had some superior hardware. But the problem was, none of the other consoles even came CLOSE to selling as well as the PS2. Naturally, because of this, a lot of games were either A.) Cross-platform releases. Or B.) Hastily ported to PS2 or given a PS2 version despite being designed for the GC or XB. So which game will give you an inferior experience when played on PS2?

Only games from Gen 6.

I’m genuinely confused by some of the reactions to Wolverine having New Game+ on day one.

For years I’ve seen people complain that NG+ should be a standard launch feature instead of something added months later. Now Insomniac announces exactly that, and suddenly I’m seeing “the campaign must be 8 hours” or “this makes me worried the game is short.”

We literally saw this with Spider-Man 2 as well, where NG+ was added after launch and a lot of people, especially on Reddit, immediately said it should’ve been there from day one. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

There’s also a massive gap between an 8-hour game and a 60-hour game that seems to disappear whenever game length gets discussed. A focused 20-hour campaign with optional content, mission replay and NG+ could be perfectly substantial.

Obviously, if the game releases and actually feels too short or rushed, criticize it. But it feels weird to turn a feature people have been asking developers to include at launch into evidence that something must be wrong with a game that isn’t even out yet.

Every single multiplayer PvP game has this issue. The game companies will see that the loyal sweats and streamers make them the most money, so they cater the enter game to the sweats and streamers, who then ruin the entire game for anybody else. As an example, in Fortnite, prior to late Chapter 2 (when I noticed it), the game had a variety of fun weapons and skins, but now, every weapon is tailor-made to appeal to only the good players, build mode is essentially unplayable due to the sweats (and to the people who would tell me to "get good", I have been playing since chapter 1, and have tried over multiple years to adapt and get good), and every skin in the item shop is either a slim female skin or a reskin of an already plain skin that they want to charge money for again. Anyways, that's just an example, as this HAS to happen to every game at this point, as you have to appeal to the streamers and the 12-year-olds with no jobs. After all this insanity in every game, it seems that the money is too appealing to them, as they turn a blind eye to an issue, and devs in games instead choose to appeal to one streamer who complained about one miniscule thing that doesn't matter at all, Lastly, companies fail to understand that these issues cause casual players like me to not enjoy the game, as I don't want to go match after match without getting a single win, and the infuriating part is that there are simple solutions to this problem that could fix this issue in a game, THAT is what is causing the multiplayer games industry to tank.

I don't necessarily mean which year had the best games, I'm refering more in terms of influence and overall impact. I feel like a case could be made for 1998, 3D gaming was still fairly new (N64 was released in 1996), so devs were till trying to figure out what works and what didn't, I think by 1998 they finally started working out the kinks a bit, so many huge titles from that year (Metal Gear Solid, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil 2, Starcraft)

Im looking for a shooter that actually takes damage into account, I remember things like Sniper: Ghost warrior, but is there anything like shoot someone in the leg the adrenaline will obviously wear off so you can't run as fast, shoot someone in the chest, yeah you have armor so you're not dead, but you also broke some ribs, is there anything that realistic?

There's been a lot of great movie tie games over the years. Some which you'd expect because the movies are so popular, like Terminator, and others which are completely left field, like Scarface or Rockstar's The Warriors or The Mummy Demastered. There's also some which you'd expect but nobody expected to be so good, like Goldeneye, Spiderman 2, Riddick, King Kong, or any of Asobo's Disney games for PS2. Some of my best gaming memories are the arcade games of tie ins, like the '94 Jurassic Park, Capcom's Alien vs Predator beat 'em up, and Star Wars Trilogy (yeah I'm old).

It's too bad we're kinda past the golden era of movie tie ins, but at least we still get things like 007: First Light, and the fun async multiplayer games inspired by classic 80s horror.

Here's a gallery of my favorites and some of which I hear are great but haven't tried. What's your favs and why do you love them?

Most recent example for me was getting all 5 Gears (Basically like Stars/Rating in how well you did on the Challenge) in the Laguna Bomb Blast Challenge in Just Cause 3. You have to basically drive a vehicle with a bomb to a waypoint (above a certain speed and within a certain time limit) but the most infuriating part is the traffic is random every time you try. So sometimes you'll never have to slow down in the town but other times you'll crash into turning vehicles due to the road being heavily congested. There are other Bomb Blast Challenges in the game that account for this and give you leeway but this challenge specifically is so rigid in that you have to never crash into anything or slow down in any way in order to get the final 5th Gear. So if the town's traffic is congested, then the attempt is already dead in the water.

I just finished The Alters and it was fantastic and an incredible experience far beyond my expectations going in.

The concept and execution of it is extremely well done. The base management and resource collection is balanced perfectly in that it's never too punishing but there's always just enough pressure and anxiety to fit the narrative perfectly.

I have to mention the game's central performance. Alex Jordan as Jan Dolski and all versions of him. For one person to act as all those roles and make each one seem distinct and unique is an incredible piece of acting. Honestly Alex Jordan not getting even a nomination for best performance might be the worst snub. It's one of gaming's best ever performances, not just 2025.

This game should have got a lot more love.

Everyone always talks about Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or Unpacking when recommending cozy games. But for me, the ultimate "cozy" vibe isn't cozy by definition.

Mine is Just Cause 4.

I put on a music playlist or a video on my second monitor, open the game on my main display, and just roam the map with the wingsuit. No missions, no story progress—just grappling around, using the tethering hooks to mess with physics, and causing low-stakes chaos while vibing to music. It’s pure brain-off, mechanical comfort.

What’s a game that isn’t classified as "cozy" by standard genre definitions, but hits that exact relaxing, comfort spot for you?