It's a thread! (Games discussion, etc.)

[JG]

I don't know when Gamestop finally started their sale or not. They might have gotten my $25 for Monster Hunter Rise if they'd advertised it before Wal-Mart actually made it available to buy. I mean, there's an advantage to keeping your deals secret form competitors that might undermine you, but waiting until after the deals are available elsewhere can backfire.

Certainly would have used GameStop instead of Wal-Mart at same price because every year Wal-Mart finds new ways to embarrass themselves on how bad they can make Black Friday compared to everyone else. Store pickup isn't anything new these days - most stores do it since the pandemic started, and Walmart's had it for several years now. Yet, in a new twist, they decided to hold it outside in the cold this year rather than in-store or at the normal store pickup location, with only 6 parking spaces (over 20 people were lined up when I got there), a dead-end parking area (requiring cars to reverse into the main thoroughfare to exit - which is a wreck waiting to happen), and 90% of their items shipped from warehouses in plain white bags with tiny little tags. The staff couldn't find anything because it all looked the same and was apparently entirely unordered (either by order number or alphabetical by last name) - they had to inspect each and every tag manually, except for the really large items too big for such a bag, or really small ones (like my game) that just had the label affixed: these they could see what the items were are pick them out more clearly. Took me 28 minutes (wearing short sleeves with ice cream I'd just bought in the store in my trunk.) Its astonishingly how bad the biggest retailer in America continues to be every Black Friday. Everyone else has figured out how to do it in under 5 minutes (remaining in vehicle no less) and most of them give free shipping during the holiday season, but Wal-mart insists on wasting everyone's time: not just buyers but their own staff. I just don't understand having two different staffs to pickup, using opaque bags instead of clear, organizing by name or order number for quicker handling, having sufficient parking and/or a one-way through driving area. All obvious things that others do that Wal-mart just doesn't get.

Gamestop did get me to break my plan to stick to two games though. I'd already gotten Ghost of Tsushima at Best Buy and Monster Hunter Rise at Wal-Mart, but I saw today they had Avengers for just $9.99 and I couldn't pass on that price as I'm fairly confident it won't be that low again until Black Friday next year. They're website is still garbage though. It knew it was too late for pickup this evening so it told me pickup would have to be tomorrow and 9 copies were available. Fine with me, tomorrow is what I'd prefer. But if I tried to pay with PayPal it kept switching it back to pickup today, saying it was invalid, and requesting to change stores or switch to delivery (at $5.99 extra charge.) I ultimately had to pay by credit card because three different ways around trying to pay with PayPal balance all failed, rejecting me back to the first checkout page. I hope I get a survey to do because I was worried I'd have to call them to place the order (and we know how that pans out.)


Out of stock!? AGAIN!!?

[Moge]

Those are some big, meaty pick ups. Nice. Sorry to hear about your Avengers situation. As for myself, i got Resident Evil Village on Steam for $20 and a new Red Dualsense controller on eBay for nearly full price.

I've been eager to purchase a Dualsense at a discount for awhile, but they rarely ever go on sale compared to Nintendo's and Microsoft's controllers. I must say the controller blows away the Dualshock 4 in build quality, however the controller is a tad large for my hands, but i've grown accustomed to it. The main reason i got the controller was i heard the gyro inside is better than the DS4 and Pro Controller's. After some testing on RE Village, i can confirm it is an upgrade from the DS4, but not substantially. Like i said, the biggest improvements are in the build quality, meaning the controller shell, buttons, and dpad all feel more premium. I really like the new dpad especially. It's better made for fighting games than any previous Playstation controller.

[JG]

I got a bluetooth adapter earlier in the month to try out the XBox One and PS4 controllers. Curiously, Windows would not recognize my Xbox One Controller and told me I probably need to update its software via the Xbox One (partially defeating the usefulness of using it for Windows), and did not know beforehand that Sony purposefully nerfs their controllers to not work with Windows over Bluetooth. So I've still only got that Xbox 360-style controller unless I desire to go USB for the PS4 controllers. I suppose I could try the Switch Pro Controller, but I wanted to try the Xbox One (since I don't use it) and a PS4 (since I have two) first. In any case I've got the Black Friday games and haven't resumed playing on my PC of late.

I liked where Avengers was going story-wise. It had too much dull exploration between fights though. Just walking around and searching for stuff or making your way to the next area. Similar games (Assassin's Creed, God of War, Last of Us, Halo) all have a lot of dialogue-heavy segments between fights where you're just slowly moving between areas, but Avengers kind of over does it with 10 minute or longer stretches without fighting. Were it not for the terrible quality of the game's code that would be my only real negative. Sadly, the stability issue so overwhelms everything else that no amount of storytelling can overcome it. It feels like a good book printed on paper that dissolves as soon as I start reading it.

Monster Hunter Rise throws way too much at a player at once. I guess if you've played previous games in the series or have already finished Rise and know how best to spend your time, its more enjoyable. But it basically drops you into town with a dozen different things to do of which most (like what the purpose of buddy skills are) go entirely unexplained, 16 or so different weapons to choose from without a clue as to which is best for a certain situation, all the crafting options (sans those that require rarer materials) though no explanation about what most of them do (though a few like Potion and Antidote are rather obvious), and at the first castle defense segment I had to play last night, they threw a half dozen different defense devices at me without even explaining what some of them do or how they compare to others. The game just doesn't explain anything, so after 15 hours or so I still feel like I'm going into each hunt with weaker weapons or armor than I feel like I should have, or without the knowledge of which items and tricks I can use to really make a hunt go quicker or smoother. Graphics are great for Switch and it seems like a nice game if you're into it, but goodness Capcom. This isn't the age of Mega Man and Ghosts 'n Goblins where you can just start a game with zero explanation and expect the player to figure out what do to in 30 seconds. Game could be a lot better by just taking the time to properly explain what to do to be a more efficient hunter.

Ghost of Tsushima has done a better job than either. I feel like getting hit by a spear does way too damage (about 80% of my health bar) compared to a sword (about 30%) but otherwise no significant complaints after 5 or so hours. Its been likened to Breath of the Wild and so far its living up to expectations. The combat is not as sharp and I don't yet have a bow, but the island seems large enough with plenty of spots of interest or conflict to warrant the comparison. And it instructs me on what to do whenever a new skill is put into play.

[JG]

It's that time of year again.

TEN GAMES OF THE YEAR:

10. Marvel's Avengers (PS4), F-
Failure to execute, literally and figuratively. The game simply does not run stably on my original PS4, and SquareEnix in typical SquareEnix form is doing absolutely nothing about it, adding to a string of games published by SquareEnix that are terribly flawed in some way, vastly under-tested, and displaying no willingness to correct them. If a game still isn't working months after release, and you pull this stunt two years in a row (see Dragon Quest Builders 2 for PC, 2020) your company deserves the first ever F- awarded.

9. Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Tour (PC), D
Oh, this really hasn't aged well at all. (And its technically 25 years old now, not 20.) Played this all the time circa 1997 but in 2021 it looks dated and the controls are far from sharp, making the game a good deal harder than I remember it. The commentary is ok at some points, annoying at others. On the plus side I paid less than $3 for it when it was on sale so it was an okay trip down memory lane for the price, if not quite the grand experience I'd hoped for. If I want to relive great PC titles from the 90s, best to stick with the all-time number one video game, Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters.

8. Monster Hunter Rise (Switch), C-
This is a surprisingly average game given all the hype earlier in the year over it. I guess if you're fan of the Monster Hunter series it appeals to you, or if you like the Warcraft-mindset of having to assemble an online multiplayer war party to tackle a particularly strong enemy. As a single player, the hunted monster fights take way too long (probably 500-1000 hits with a weapon and a good 15-20 minutes), and the game throws way too much at you right out of the gate with very little explanation. Visually it's the best-looking game I've seen on Switch so far but the gameplay is a disappointing mess. I don't know if I'm going to finish it because it's turned into such a slog. It's not hard, just boring.

7. Donut County (Mobile), C+
One of the games I had interest in at the 2020 review. It's really short with basically no replay value, and the story is bonkers, but its lighthearted and easy fun (can't lose) - an ideal game when you've got some minutes to spare and only have a phone or tablet handy. Doesn't cost much, but worth a "hole" lot more.

6. Untitled Goose Game (PC), B-
Another of those 2020 games. This one's got a little more substance to it, even if you're an annoying bird stealing everyone's stuff and ruining their day. You're the villain, which as I've pointed out before can be a refreshing experience. Also lighthearted fun and unlosable, so you can enjoy it as time allows, but you'll need something more than a phone.

5. Trials of Mana (Switch), B-
I prematurely included this in the 2020 review and said it was lackluster, but I played most of it in 2021 and it turned out to be pretty decent. Still very short, in the 30-hour timeframe, which is typical of 1990s games. Each of the six characters having an interesting backstory and the fact you can only include three of them in the game means the game must be finished at least twice end to end to see it all, as well as 4 branches on every character's job tree, so it has high replayability. The vocal actress for Charlotte does a great job exchanging the "L"s and "R"s for "W"s in everything she says, and it's worth including her in the party if only for comedic purposes and the "Aww, isn't that cute!" factor.

4. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (Switch), B-
One of the best Zelda games but disappointingly there was absolutely nothing new about the Switch port. The Switch Joycons were certainly more precise then the Wiimote and especially the Nunchuk, but they were also overly sensitive: accessing menu caused Link to look down and to right all the time so I'd come out of menu in a spin, requiring me to reset when I was looking if I was going to target something at a distance. It was nice to go through the story once again (since its one of the best in the Zelda series) but the lack of anything new is a bit of a bummer as I could have dug out my Wii disc and put it in the Wii U hooked up in my office and gotten pretty much the same experience.

3. Fire 'N Ice (NES), B
Also known as Solomon's Key 2 in some regions. Of the games in the NES and SNES libraries on Nintendo Switch Online, they generally fall into two categories: games I played back in the 1980s and 1990s and enjoyed, or games I played for the first time on NSO and weren't very impressed by. Fire 'N Ice belongs to a third category: a game I'd not played in the past and really enjoyed. Its a puzzle game where you have to create blocks of ice and move them to climb to higher levels or pushed from aside to crush fire monsters, there's no time limit and you can only die by falling from a decent height or by touching fire, but it's got some decent depth with 150 stages. If you've got Nintendo Switch Online and want to challenge your mind a bit, give it a go as its far superior to the first Solomon's Key, Adventures of Lolo, or Clu Clu Land that are the other puzzle-type games available on the service.

2. Bravely Default 2 (Switch), B
Very difficult and takes the worst thing about the first Bravely Default - gimmicks required to defeat certain bosses - to the extreme, requiring setup gimmicks for nearly every boss in BD2. But if you can put up with that nonsense it's a very good RPG, rather lengthy with a lot of variety, side quests, and challenges (both exploratory/collecting and battle types). Its real problem is that some of the boss fights, especially early, are absolutely brutal and unforgiving if you don't tailor your team properly (i.e., gimmick) which apparently turned a lot of potential fans off. It could have been game of the year contender for Switch with more polish, but it's probably sitting out any awards and watching them go to Monster Hunter Rise or Metroid Dread instead. Its maybe the most polar game of the year: either you like it or you hate it.

1. Ghost of Tsushima (PS4), A-
Fantasic graphics, a huge open-world island, great combat and a ton of things to do, and based on a historical event (though the game's plot and outcome are entirely fictional). Only serious complaints I have are lack of an on-screen compass (requiring pausing to bring up map to know which direction you're headed; and need to constantly swap between outfits when exploring (Traveller's Attire) or for battle (Samurai Armor) as each has such overwhelming benefits when worn for these purposes. Breath of the Wild made you swap outfits for certain tasks as a well but far less often. And according to Wikipedia, the Chinese were using compasses for navigational purposes during the 11th century, and they'd spread to Europe by 1190, meaning the Japanese most certainly had them by 1274 so putting on on-screen compass wouldn't be inappropriate. Probably too many sidequests - can often go days or weeks game-time between events that rationally would be expected to occur in a relatively short amount of time (like having someone starve or be held captive.) But its very enjoyable, looks fantastic, is telling a great story, and lives up a claim as the Playstation's Breath of the Wild.



Things I wanted to play but didn't for various reasons:
* Assassin's Creed III - two years sitting on the TV console table and still hasn't gotten played. I want to, eventually, but it just hasn't ever bubbled up to the surface.
* Witcher III: Complete Edition - also sitting on the TV table (though "only" a year and half). Likely to get played prior to Assassin's Creed III, but also so far getting passed by more interesting titles.
* Yoshi's Crafted World - ditto as above
* Metroid Dread Demo - I like that there's a demo for it and it might change my mind on the game, but I haven't had the chance to playtest it yet.
* Halo Infinite - subject to the curse of a December launch: if I've already got games lined up from Black Friday purchases, December games tend to get left behind. I want to see how the Halo story ends (is it ending?!) but also feel like its been so long I may need to see Halo 5 again first to refresh my memory. So I've not bought it yet.
* Spider-Man: Miles Morales - This was designed to be a PS5 game, but the lack of PS5s has forced them to port to PS4, which worries me too much that the quality will suffer greatly. I intend to wait until a PS5 is in hands, and since that's proven difficult in 2021, this game appears here two years in a row.
* Chicory: A Colorful Tale - this cute, simple game caught my eye mid-year and I tagged it for a Steam sale but then got wrapped up in NES and SNES games on NSO not long after and haven't gotten back to looking at this highly-rated game.
* Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX - I really want to play this, being a childhood favorite of mine before I ever even played Super Mario Bros, but I'd been waiting for it to come down in price first, as $36 for a game from the 1980s is steep. It's finally got there though - I'm debating whether to jump on it now at $9.99 during Steam's Winter Sale (until the 5th) or catch it on the next sale.


Most Anticipated Titles of 2022:
* The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel (expected November-December) - of course
* Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (expected Summer) - another must-have based on the first game's excellence
* Tinykin (expected Summer) - this still looks awesome to me; but at E3 it really looked further along than 12 months out
* Forspoken (expected May 25) - though with SquareEnix's recent trend, I may have to take a wait-and-see approach on this one; also assumes PP5s finally become more generally available by May, which is looking doubtful
* Kirby and the Forgotten Land (expected Spring) - this is a maybe, as I've never been big on Kirby titles, but if its the only thing interesting me in the spring then Kirby might finally get the chance to win me over


Moment of the Year (in-game edition):
The Mongol invasion of Komoda beach in the opening scenes of Ghost of Tsushima. Holy shit. Talk about drawing a player in right away. This looked both amazing and frightening at the same time, watching wave after wave of samurai soldiers rush headlong into Mongolian rocketry and artillery with sand being blasted up all over the place. Most games don't have that "sitting on the edge of your seat" moment, but this one gives it to you right up front.


Moment of the Year (out-of-game edition):
Announcement of Dragon Quest X Offline during the Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Show. Nope, not the Dragon Quest XII announcement - fans like me knew that was likely coming at the end of the show (And did.) But a single player, non-MMO version of Dragon Quest X opened up the strong possibility that SquareEnix would finally be bringing the missing chapter of the franchise to western audiences, without the high capital requirement of maintaining servers which limited the game to far east audiences only. (Of course, this turned out to a bittersweet announcement, as SquareEnix later acknowledged no translation effort is underway.)


So what will video gaming in 2021 be most remembered for?
Misreading the room.
The biggest problem video game companies had this year was completely misunderstanding fan desires. I don't know if its because they aren't getting enough feedback under COVID-19 or if it's something else, but several companies fell flat this year. (Some multiple times.) And not because they didn't release many games - its because the y missed the mark some other way. These were the worst offenders of the year, in decreasing order of ignorance:
1. Intellivision: Presenting the Amico. Not that it couldn't fill a niche now that sub $100 video game units (like 3DS series or NES/SNES/Genesis Classics) are out of production, but at $249 its way overpriced for that niche. The original 2018 investor claim was for a $150-$180 unit so it has clearly spiraled out of control. At some point management (or investors) needed to step in and realize that if it reached (or passed!) the price of a Switch Lite and a number of third party games of similar quality, they wouldn't be selling many Amicos. And they didn't. The sales outlook is so poor they've only manufactured some 50,000 units, delayed release to 2022, and have started supplementing their "100% original" game library with simple ports from the Android store to help make it look more attractive. I don't think there's any fixing this.
2. Square Enix: The Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Show. It was a great idea to include the entire world its in DQ12 announcement, but the rest of the show turned out to be a major bummer outside of Japan, and even a strong disappointment within. In Japan, only the Keshi Keshi mobile game has made it to release, with Dragon Quest X offline delayed to summer 2022, while Dragon Quest III 2-D HD and Treasures haven't been assigned release dates yet. And of course the west has gotten nothing in the franchise, and hasn't since Dragon Quest Tact in January. Nintendo took a lot of heat for only bringing Skyward Sword and Game & Watch to its Zelda celebration year, but Square Enix is in serious jeopardy of coming up entirely empty in the west and virtually empty in Japan. Add in disappointments that Dragon Builders 3 and a much-needed Dragon Quest IX remake were absent, two games that the July survey comments revealed are far more desirable in the west than Treasures or a DQ3 remake, and the Anniversary show backfired badly and has only looked worse as the months ticked by. 2022 marks the 35th anniversary for Final Fantasy (on December 18) and Square Enix would be wise to avoid making the same mistake twice.
3. Nintendo: The Nintendo Switch Online Genesis Controller. Not even comparably functional to the Japanese version. If the Japanese only got a three-button controller there would still be questions about why there isn't a six-button controller. But the fact the Japanese get the superior controller out of the gate means they'll be able to get better game choices, making the Japanese NSO offering comparatively better than the North American or European offerings. There are of course minor differences in the NES and SNES libraries too, but deciding that 6 button games are off the table for the western version based entirely on lack of first-party hardware is both unfair and entirely avoidable. Nintendo rarely makes a mistake when it comes to hardware, but this is comparable to decisions made in Virtual Boy development. It's been proposed that licensing agreements may have factored in - but Nintendo has deep enough pockets that they could have (and should have) done it properly, and chose not to do so. And the fact its overpriced at $50, compared to the more functional SNES controller being offered for $30, further illustrates some manner of carelessness. (And the high $30 per year price to even add Genesis games to your Switch certifies this a boondoggle. Nine of the 14 games available are even available at a one time $30 (or less) price for the three year old Sega Genesis Classics cartridge, with 41 more games included and only Ecco the Dolphin as a serious absence from that set.)
4. Square Enix: Square Enix Presents at E3. Doubling up on their errors, SquareEnix spent about 12 minutes on Life is Strange, but showed only five seconds of video on Forspoken, despite Forspoken being the game SquareEnix knew most everyone tuning in wanted to hear more about and see more of. Their show wasn't bad overall, just very unbalanced, with 9-12 minutes of coverage apiece for three games (Guardians of the Galaxy, Life is Strange, and Avengers) while mere seconds for others that together will probably account for greater sales (Forspoken, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Neir Replicant, and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade.)
5. Nintendo: Nintendo Direct-ionless. In other words, the three Directs of the year. Remakes, remakes, and more remakes. As bad as it is to see Square Enix twice, Nintendo getting the one-two punch shows just how bad a year its been, unquestionably its worst since 2016 (the last year before the Switch arrived with new Zelda and Mario games.)  The majority of their presentations for the year focused on ports of games released years ago on other platforms (Outer Wilds, Dying Light, PvZ: Battle for Neighborville), full remakes of games (Skyward Sword, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Miitopia, Super Monkey Ball, Castlevania Advance, Advance Wars), or collections of segments lifted from earlier games (Mario Party, WarioWare.) Surprisingly little new content from Nintendo first-party outside of Mario Golf: Super Rush and Metroid Dread, and not enough help from second and third parties. They needed more truly new games in 2021, but none of them made it by Christmas season, resulting in a bare 2021 and densely packed 2022. Nintendo is fortunate that Sony and Microsoft can't get production problems under control or else they could have caught up with the Switch with strong holiday seasons (especially Microsoft with a new flagship Halo game.)
6. Nintendo: The Switch Pro that isn't. Rumored for years, Nintendo passed on a proper Switch Pro despite including a new CPU, video chipset and memory to make it possible, opting for a less impressive OLED version that isn't even same size as existing cases, screen protectors, and other add-ons. This continues to limit the games they can exist on all three major systems (four if PC is included.) Nintendo has known for a long while what Sony and Microsoft are doing and have not made a proper countermove - a mistake that may come back to bite them in the second half of the Switch's lifetime, much as it did in the second half of the Wii's, when games for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S vastly outimpress what an aging Switch has to offer. Nintendo continues to bet that its games will be all it needs to carry them to success - and while 2022 looks solid I'm less sure of 2023 and beyond. (Though a new Smash Bros or Mario Odyssey sequel would fit nicely.)
7. Blizzard: Diablo II Resurrected. Maybe more misleading the room than misreading it, but openly acknowledged they would showcase a new Diablo game at E3, and everyone was expecting them to show up with Diablo IV instead to fans' disappointment. And with the very public Activision/Blizzard fallout occurring shortly after E3, Diablo IV is suddenly on the list of highly-endangered games, with Blizzard informing retailers that it would not even release in 2022 due to the high staff turnover.


Winners:
* Microsoft: More a win by default than dominance. But they got their marquee products (Halo and Forza) out in time for the holiday season, something Nintendo, Intellivision, and Valve couldn't do (and something Sony didn't ever seem to think was all that important.)
* Japanese players: They got a lot of goodies tailored to their tastes more than western audiences. While the Japanese often get things that fit their tastes, this year seemed uncommonly heavily weighted.
 -- Mario Golf, Shin Megami Tensei, Ace Attorney, and Danganrompa all got games in series much more popular in Japan than the west.
 -- The Famicom Detective Club games were remade for Switch, despite having very little appeal to non-Japanese players. While the text was translated, the sales projections were so low that no effort was made to record localized voice tracks, resulting in Japanese voices with localized subtitles.
 -- Popular Japanese characters Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, then Takuya from Tekken and Sora from Kingdom Hearts joined the Smash Bros. cast. Erik from DQ11 is also getting his own game, despite being much less popular in the west than in Japan.
 -- They're getting Dragon Quest X Offline despite already having the more complete online game already, and eventually getting the Dragon Quest III 2D-HD Remake (one of the favorites of the series in Japan, though the west's least favorite except perhaps the first.)
 -- The Super Mario World theme park also opened in Japan earlier this year while the American version was pushed back two more years to 2025.


Losers:
* Intellivision: Literally no contest.
* Dragon Quest fans: The Japanese are going to get a worse game than they've already got, while western fans got practically nothing all year long (with Dragon Quest Tact in January the sole addition.) Famed series composer Koichi Sugiyama passed away at age 90 this year, too.
* Zelda fans: No 3D collection as expected (though some are going to NSO) and no Breath of the Wild sequel for the 35th anniversary. Skyward Sword was merely "ok" with no new content over its Wii version.
* Smash Bros Fans: The last several character additions were rather underwhelming, no more characters are forthcoming, and no announcement of the next Smash Bros game has yet been made.
* Campaignless Online Multiplayer First Person Shooters: As expected, without a campaign these games age very quickly. Titanfall was one of the first to attempt this model and now Respawn Entertainment and EA have now decided to pull the plug on it, effectively rendering the game unplayable after a mere seven and a half years.
* Nintendo Switch Online players: There haven't been any new NES or SNES games added to NSO since summer. The $30 cost per year to add N64 and Genesis games is perceived by many as exorbitant. The N64 controllers were not produced in enough numbers before launch. The Genesis controller for western markets is the lesser 3-button version. Game trials, discounts, and giveaways have been few and far between. It continues to look quite pale compared to Xbox Game Pass and Playstation Plus.
* Black Friday Deal-hunters: With prices on same games (Marvel's Spider-Man and many first-party Switch titles) going up in 2021 over their 2020 price, it was a generally lousy year for deals. There were some, but you really don't ever expect prices to increase.
* Valve: Couldn't get their Steam Deck to market by Christmas season, even at $400+. (On the other hand, it did give time for Steam developers to shrink the bloated operating system from 24 GB to just 10 GB, which is a big deal for those that ordered a 64GB model.)


Fortunately, 2022 looks to be one of the most amazing years in video gaming, potentially rivaling years like 1991 or 2017 in terms of overall quality and quantity.

[JG]

You mean GameStop actually listened to our complaint!?


(JG bewildered)


So I don't buy from GameStop very often anymore. Maybe once every two or three years now on Black Friday if they've got a deal. But when I do buy a game and they give me an opportunity to provide a review, I often do, and I generally do the same for Best Buy and Amazon as well. As you know I picked up Marvel's Avengers form them two months back, and after a week of frustration gave up on it. It's clearly a game designed for PS5 (or at least PS4 Pro) that had to be scaled back to "sort of" work with more basic PS4 hardware. It crashed on me so frequently though I checked in on GameFAQs and other sites to see if this was a common problem (it is) so I made effort to point it out in my review: warning other standard PS4 sellers to avoid, and only buy if you have a PS4 Pro or PS5.

You can see it yourself at https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/playstation-4/products/marvels-avengers---playstation-4/11094732.html though you'll need to click the Show All Reviews label and scroll down a bit more.

And you know what? GameStop responded to it! They apologized a product they sold did not work properly and refunded the purchase price and tax, even though I didn't ask for it, since it was only $10.91 and I'd still like to play it again whenever I get a hold of a PS5. Its kind of astonishing though that we've poked fun at GameStop, even back to its EBGames days, for being a little tone deaf to gamers and yet here they are showing otherwise. Kudos to them. I still don't like that they open game packages and put their sales stickers onto things that shouldn't be stickered (as it ruins boxes and such) but this improves my perception of them a good bit. Raika might need to start calling and bugging other folks...

To be honest I feel bad because GameStop shouldn't be refunding me - SquareEnix should. This is SquareEnix's problem, and I feel like they just cost a sale for GameStop, which only worsens my opinion of SquareEnix as the most backward game company there is right now. (Bad software, bad decisions, a pro-Japanese/anti-West posture for some divisions [DQ team for example], lack of interest in supporting their own sales and preorders, no care that partner companies [KoeiTecmo] are dragging them down, interest in introducing NFTs to their games, etc.) SquareEnix costing their retailers money is not an ideal business model.

[Moge]

Since the next Nintendo Direct is upon us, i decided to stop procrastinating and put up GOTY list for 2021 --

10. Super Princess Peach (NDS)
9. Beyond a Steel Sky (PC)
8. Mizzurna Falls (Playstation 1)
7. Resident Evil Village (PC)

6. Resident Evil 1 (Playstation 1)
5. No More Heroes 3 (Switch)
4. Metal Max (Nintendo Entertainment System)
3. Warioware Twisted! (Game Boy Advance)

2. Cave Story+ (Switch) -- If i hadn't played Cave Story before (the vanilla version), it would definitely be my GOTY. Still, it's top spot on my list is well-deserved. Absolutely brilliant run 'n' gun metroidvania with a rather endearing story, but now with upgraded graphics and some new content.

1. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (3DS) -- Out of all the RPGs i've played in my life, this one was closest to capturing the spirit of Chrono Trigger. It's got a battle system reminiscent of Grandia (which i consider to have the greatest RPG battle system), a cool plot that involves time travel with multiple endings, and a fantastic art direction


Disappointments of the Year --

- NFTs
- Activision Blizzard's controversies
- Dragon Quest II

Highlights of the Year --

- Every SNES Goemon game getting a fan translation all on the same year
- Mizzurna Falls fan translation
- Dragon Quest 3 Remake announcement
- Steam Deck announcement
- Splatoon 3 announcement

[JG]

As if the Zelda and Splatoon games weren't enough ammunition for Nintendo's 2023 conquest of the console battlefield, MonolithSoft is dropping Xenoblade Chronicles 3 way ahead of expected schedule in September. This was a mid-late 2023 possibility last I heard about it. And the fact it apparently joins the stories of the first two together has me excited. I want to see less humans and more Nopon though.

On the otherhand I am very disappointed Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope didn't get any coverage. This was supposed to be an early Spring 2022 game, then slipped to late Spring/early Summer, and apparently not going to make it by end of June now or it would have been covered.


Here's the notes I took to recap today's Direct:


Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, June 24

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp is fully voiced and animated, April 8

No Man's Sky, Summer

Mario Strikers: Battle League, more items and gear (including armor) and a hyper strike attack, 8 players on one Switch, but 5 players on a side means one team player still AI; online multiplayer and ranking system, June 10

Splatoon 3: preview of the Salmon Run: Next Wave co-op mode fighting a wave of Salmonids and a boss fight during the wave, Summer (no date)

Front Mission 1st: Remake, Summer
Front Mission 2: Remake, future release

Disney Speedstorm, a Disney-style kart game, free to play, cross-platform multiplayer, Summer

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, remake of Wii game with enhanced motion controls, April 20

Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, February 17

SD Gundam Battle Alliance, later this year

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, ability to turn off random encounters and remastered soundtrack, plus the Radical Dreamers text-based game originally for Satellaview, new April 7

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Kirby can now inhale cars, vending machines, parking cones, scissor lifts, light bulbs, water baloons, etc and upgrade his inhale copy abilities to stronger forms. March 25. I am pretty much hooked into buying this even though I've never bought a Kirby game before. It looks pretty good and nothing else on the schedule for a while with Mario+Rabbids MIA.

MLB The Show 22. First time MLB The Show has come to the Switch, with cross-platform play. April 5

Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece, the first three Kingdom Hearts games with DLC on cloud service, February 10

KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series, both platformer games, July 8

Portal: Companion Collection, both games, later this year

Live A Live, 2D-HD release of an 16-bit Japanese RPG, July 22

Nintendo Switch Sports: followup to Wii Sports. New leg strap to give motion control to kicks in the soccer game. Golf to be added in the fall. Online Play Test February 18-20 for NSO members.

Taiko no Tatujin: Rhythm Festival, drumming to specific beats, later this year

Triangle Strategy, new demo through chapter 3 available today. Will give it a try if I have time.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course DLC, June 30

Metroid Dread, free update today adds Dread Mode, limiting player to death at first hit, and Rookie Mode which is far easier, second update in April adds Boss Rush

EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings (a.k.a. Mother) coming to Nintendo Switch Online today. Mother has been a white whale in the west for decades and is finally coming west. These will likely bump the Triangle Strategy demo.

Quick Looks:
Zombie Army 4: Dead War, April 26
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon, Today
Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles, June 10
LEGO Brawls, a LEGO-themed Smash Bros clone, June (no specific day)
Two Point Campus, May 17

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass paid DLC. 48 additional remastered courses, including some courses from Mario Kart Tour, released in six waves of eight courses each. First wave March 18, continuing through end of 2023. $24.99 price but free with NSO Expansion Pack membership, which helps make that package a bit more attractive for its relatively high price point.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3, ties together the stories of the first two Xenoblades, September

[Moge]

That was a phenomenal Direct, but was especially odd since it focused so much on the past. So many remakes, remasters, and ports, but i can't say i dislike them given they're from franchises that are right up my alley.

Biggest thing that caught my interest was Live x Live. I don't think anyone expected that. From what i've heard of the game, it really sounds like a more digestible Octopath or Romancing Saga game where there are multiple character arcs that eventually weave into one. Absolutely can't wait for this one.

The Splatoon segment was disappointing, but only because the Salmon Run mode they showed off was almost identical to 2's. Perhaps if they had shown off a difference locale, i might have been more impressed, but no biggie. I know i'll sink 200 hrs into that mode regardless. Horde modes are fun.

Boy, i was majorly disappointed with Chrono Cross not getting a full-on remake. The remaster is fine i guess and the visual novel it comes with, Radical Dreamers, is a nice bonus. I have to wonder though why Chrono Trigger isn't included in this collection. Are they planning something bigger for CT?

Even though i likely won't get Switch Sports, i'm happy it's finally coming out. Wii Sports was the first sports game i ever seriously got into, and it was only because i had casual game playing friends at the time to play with. I remember my first impression of Wii Sports being very lukewarm when i got the system.

Mentioned in the Japanese Direct: 13 Sentinels and its demo on Japan's eshop. From i've heard, the port from PS4 to Switch is incredibly impressive in that the Switch game looks exactly like the PS4 game for the most part. Since i don't own a PS4, i've been absolutely thirsting to play this game, but i couldn't justify buying a console for one game (unless it's Splatoon).

There's lots more great stuff i haven't mentioned from the North American Direct (like the Front Mission games), but overall i'm happy with the roadmap Nintendo is taking with the Switch despite being sorely ancient against its closest competitors.

[JG]

If it weren't for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and the Mother announcement I'd have called it a bust. Much of the coverage was for things we already knew were coming (Advance Wars, Kirby, Splatoon 3, Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection) and the most of the rest doesn't really excite me. I don't care about Mario Sports games or Wii Sports (except boxing which was pretty fun one on one). Fire Emblem Warriors 2 looks much better than the first but I'm not invested in Fire Emblem lore and because its from Omega Force, it means this is what they've been working on instead of the much more desirable Dragon Quest Builders 3. And I've no interest to fork over yet more money for a Mario Kart game to cheat me in the last 5 seconds of a race. Unless and until they bring back a Double Dash mode or something similar I've no real interest in Mario Kart anymore: the series is no longer evolving; its merely the same type of race on different circuits and prettier graphics each time. The DLC pack does not change this.


Interesting that a Star Control article is today's Wikipedia's featured article. This is only the ninth time video game characters or alien race has been featured (three of which are from Halo.) The 30th anniversary of Star Control II comes along in mid-November so probably won't be the only time we see SC2 on Wikipedia's front page this year.

[JG]

If you missed the news yesterday, Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp has been indefinitely delayed and moved off its planned April 8th release. The game is effectively done and ready for launch, but Intelligent Systems and Nintendo have decided it is in poor taste to release it during the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, as the first game's plot involves aggression by a neighboring country against the protagonists' country.

As an odd parallel, the original Advance Wars was also delayed in some regions (and outright cancelled in Japan) due to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[JG]

PS4 OS version 7.0 introduced random power downs, requiring about a three minute restart of hardware, then restart of game and reload of last save. Problem persists into the 9.x versions.
PS4 OS version 8.0 introduced random aborts of games, requiring restart of game and reload of last save. Problem persists into the 9.x versions.
PS4 OS version 9.0 introduced controller queue jamming. No loss of game state but you hate to see your character continue to walk in one direction for 6-7 seconds despite your desire and inability to turn them with controller - for single player or co-op its merely an annoyance but competitive multiplayer its potentially disastrous. Problem persists into the 9.5 version.
Now PS4 OS version 9.5. has introduced occasional "data corruption messages" with sudden ejection of disc. Data isn't actually corrupted, as proven by restart of game and reload of last save.

Dammit Sony. This has got to stop. They badly need to either fix the existing problems or stop adding new ones. PS4 has gone from arguably the best console operating system (superior to what its peers Xbox One and Switch offer) to by far the worst over the last two years. The "Features" added to try to make PS4s better cooperate with PS5 has totally ruined its stability.

I'm to the point where I want a PS5 less for the new games than for a less annoying gaming experience.

Of course, Sony can't get PS5 production or distribution under control either... All their talk about a "PS5 Pro" to launch next year are deeply concerning to me. Why worry about a Pro when you can't make existing hardware in the numbers needed? If you've only been able to produce approximately 1.6 million units since September, expecting to produce 10-15 million over a 3 to 4 month period in 2023 is quite  the gamble on the semiconductor market turning around (and without the required neon or argon gasses required for manufacture since a little over half of the global supply of those were produced in Ukraine, with additional significant amounts of palladium produced in Russia.)

[JG]

Should also say I finally finished Ghost of Tsushima last night. Its really good, but it suffers from the overwhelming problem too many open-world games currently have: too many sidequests. Developers seem intent on throwing in hundreds of sidequests and collectibles into games these days, making the game more about sidequests and collecting junk and less about the main story. I've always thought the best ones figure out a way to bring you back to the main story at least once every hour or two hours, and if you're allowed to spend 5-10 hours without ever advancing the main story then its a clear failure of design. Really food sidequests, which most of Ghost of Tsushima's are helps, but its still makes the story feel unbalanced and artificially staggered.

[Moge]

Switch OS has been smooth sailing for me since day one. My biggest knock against it is the lack music that would play in the background of previous Nintendo systems. Not a deal breaker however. I do appreciate the system's clean interface, having seen the ad ridden mess that's plagued Microsoft systems.

This chip shortage stinks. The two things i want most, a Steam Deck and the NSO N64 controller, are gonna take a while to restock.

[JG]

Switch OS has been smooth sailing for me since day one. My biggest knock against it is the lack music that would play in the background of previous Nintendo systems. Not a deal breaker however. I do appreciate the system's clean interface, having seen the ad ridden mess that's plagued Microsoft systems.

The one strike (and its a huge one) against Switch OS is no way to backup to or restore saves from SD card. It only allows a single backup state to cloud (which you have to pay for), or transfer over to another Switch.
Lesser issue is inability to record short segments of gameplay video like you can with PS and Xbox.

Agree that Xbox menu screens have too much going on, both ads and unrelated junk. Of course my Xbox One Has been a $500 paperweight most of its life due to lack of quality exclusive games. I bet I haven't turned it on in over a year.

[JG]

So is 2023 now a Nintendo super year (akin to 2017)?


Break of the Wild sequel has now been moved into 2023. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_vgseuw_o8)

Metroid Prime 4 is still highly anticipated for second half 2023.

A mainline Super Mario game is overdue. Nintendo has only once gone six years between mainline releases (1996 Super Mario 64 and 2002 Super Mario Sunshine), and we'll be coming up on that in 2023. The Bowser's Fury addition to Super Mario 3D World doesn't count.

Fire Emblem likewise has never gone more than three years between its mainline releases, and with no 2022 game, it will make 4 years in 2023 since 2019's Three Houses.

A new Smash Bros game will soon be needed as well, since the Ultimate DLC has now run its course.

Some talk of Mario Kart 9 (or 10, if Mario Kart Tour is counted as a ninth edition) has been made but I personally think the MK8 Deluxe Booster Pass DLC will put off any new game until at least 2024.

Given Mario Strikers: Battle League is about to get out of the way, Next Level Games could be bringing a Luigi's Mansion 4 in late 2023 or 2024.

If Monolith Soft is as aggressive about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as they were about XC2, that would mean a side story/prequel/sequel would be introduced in 2023, much as Torna: The Golden Country was released a mere 9 months after XC2 (which was way too close in my opinion.)

There's still hope Dragon Quest X Offline will be ported to European languages in the 2023 timeframe. DQ12 is also a possibility, but I think its more likely to be 2024 (and not a Switch exclusive)

And I've said it before, but if characters like Pit and Captain Falcon are going to continue to be characters in the Smash Bros series, then we need a new Kid Icarus or F-Zero game to justify their inclusion. F-Zero X on the Switch Online service may buy Captain Falcon a few more years, but Pit is now a virtual unknown with 10 full years since his last adventure and no way to port it to current hardware.

(Pokemon is about the only series we shouldn't see much of in 2023, as the market has been flooded the last few years and the quick turnarounds of Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl in November and Arceus in late January has too many games at the forefront already, with the upcoming Scarlet and Violet later this year. Though if Scarlet/Violet gets bumped to 2023 as well, that only makes 2023 more powerful.)

[JG]

So the Switch OLED is only 6 months old and is now easily available. On a trip to my local Best Buy today, I saw five boxes on the shelf and six more at the store front behind cashiers, with quite possibly at least a dozen more behind those six visible. Yet PS5 is a nearly a year and a half old and still virtually nonexistent in the wild. No wonder Switch OLED is outselling PS5 - its the only one you can get. It is telling that Nintendo, which has only a modest hardware production capacity, has effectively put all supply chain shortages behind them while tech supergiant Sony still can't figure it out. Nintendo is proving their method of being careful in hardware design with a focus on cost effectiveness and availability is the proper way to operate. If you go cutting edge and take losses on each unit sold, you trap yourself like Sony has, and publishers start taking drastic action when their software sales are sluggish. For example, Forspoken has been delayed again, in part to accommodate PS5 unavailability and avoid the price crashes of games like Deathloop and Demon's Souls, which got good reviews but suffered terribly for lack of demand (running about a quarter of what was expected of them.)

[JG]

I can't figure out if Halo Infinite is the best Halo game of the seven, or the worst.

On the plus side...
* The open-world environment is a pleasant change of pace from the generally linear approach of the previous games.
* The graphics look incredible, even on my Xbox One.
* The controls seem sharper - when I toss a grenade or coil I have a better natural feel for how far its going to go so I don't undertoss or overthrow my target as often.
* Hidden collectibles like the audio track messages make a beeping sound to be more easily located.
* Enemy troops march along roads and can reoccupy their bases that you'd conquered earlier, which is a realistic pattern of warfare.
* The enemy chatter is excellent. It even reacts to your actions. If you kill a brute, other brutes may call out that the demon is killing their kind. Shoot an enemy in the head and a nearby grunt may call out that "he took one in the brains", etc. When you attack an enemy base the base commander's voice over the loudspeakers warns the others they are under attack or that the humans have sabotaged some component of the base. And there are radio towers around spiling enemy voices (often a grunt "morale officer") that say both funny and poignant things about how the war is proceeding. Of course, if any enemy kills Master Chief they call out that they got the kill shot, that they are a hero, or that they're sure for a quick promotion before the game reloads the previous checkpoint. Even if you're just sneaking around and the enemies haven't spotted you yet, you hear them talking to each other. As good as the game looks, it might be even better aurally.

However...
* Too many blast, plasma, and shock coils laying around to be thrown like poor-man's grenades. Its a neat feature but there's just so many of them its already kind of worn off its intrigue and made true grenades a secondary solution to the coils.
* Way too many one hit kills from enemies. I'm ok with some enemies having this capability, but its out of hand. The boss fights especially have turned into hammer or sword dodge fests.
* The gunners on enemy dropships are certainly more powerful than they used to be. When the loud hum of an incoming dropship is heard - its time to stop whatever the hell you're doing and take cover or you're likely to get killed. Not a true one-hit-kill, but three or four blasts will do it and the rapid fire of the plasma cannon means it only takes about half a second.
* The marine AI is much stupider. They suddenly stop following Master Chief, leaving him to fight most battles on his own. They drive off with vehicles into unknown parts to simply disappear (distance despawn.) They won't always mount vehicles MC is piloting, leaving the gunner spot empty and useless. They tend to stand directly in front of vehicles and get run over, even if you're very slowing creeping up on them to try to get them to hop out of the way. They stand next to radio towers you can only destroy with grenades, then don't jump out of the way when a grenade is tossed, then a teammate complains that it was a friendly fire kill.
* The combination of OHK enemies and stupid marines means the expected life expectancy for one of them in an enemy base is under 30 seconds. With exception to marines mounting good long range weaponry like sniper rifles or RPGs and not in a base fight, the marines are generally useless.
* The game has twice stalled unexpectedly for about 6-7 seconds.
* Most vehicle control has worsened. Its very difficult to keep a Warthog going in a straight line. (Ghosts are ok though.)
* The surface, especially on roads, should be smoother. In addition to the Warthog's unreliable steering, just about any rock knocks it over. And just walking along the XBox One controller makes its hum sound where it wants to rattle, but isn't powerful enough to actually shake the controller and instead just makes a noisy whirr. Walking shouldn't feel like the ground is shaking all the time and certainly shouldn't be so noisy as to distract from the wonderful enemy chatter.
* Objectives are too distantly spaced. On average 1000-1200 meters or so apart. Which doesn't sound like much but Chief can only move about 5 meters per second (which for a genetic superhuman wearing strength-enhancing power armor is a bit disappointing) and the marines can only move at a snail's pace of about 2 or 3 m/s. So its a good 3-4 minutes of running to get from point A to B with little to do in between, or if you want your marines to tag along without getting lost, its about a 10 minute hike between objectives. Real world that's perfectly acceptable, but in a video game that's way too much downtime between pulling the trigger. And if you have to climb over any kind of hill requiring the use of Chief's grappling hook, it takes even longer and the marines will be lost. I feel like at least a third of the game time spent so far has been just mindless travel time.

[JG]

Revelation I've had in last few days, since the topic of another Nintendo first-party game delay became apparent:

Fact 1: Some third-party games designed for more powerful hardware (PC, Playstation, Xbox) are now coming to Switch as cloud streaming games. The graphics are rendered remotely and delivered to Switch online.

Fact 2: Breath of the Wild has been repeatedly delayed, including missing its shareholder announced window of 2022. (Something that shouldn't happen without a very good reason.)

Fact 3: The most recent delay was explained as a need to ensure the experience is the best it could be.

Supposition: Breath of the Wild's sequel will be cloud-streaming.


Think about it. If Nintendo went this route they could make the world of BOTW2 many, many times larger than BOTW already was, drop in new content (as DLC) as they please, and show off a marquee game comparable to the best PS5 and X/S offer, all without overwhelming the Switch's memory or graphics limitations. It would also greatly explain the delays in that Nintendo would need to ramp up server farms across the globe to support it. If the game were based on the same engine as BOTW1 (and the preview videos seem to strongly indicate it is), then exactly how much new "experience" testing and refinement is needed? Five years and change seems rather long to me. Same hardware and same engine shouldn't really demand continuing delays from a company as capable as Nintendo. I think its because there is something entirely new about the engine and that new part is the cloud streaming. In the update a few weeks ago, there was no definitive mention of further development or testing of the game - only that the experience needed to be improved. I think the game is effectively done now - and that the development team met the goal of a 2022 release window, but testing it around the world has revealed the cloud streaming was not as smooth as it needs to be, or smooth in Japan but lousy elsewhere. Nintendo realized this only recently (between October and February), and came to conclusion they can't launch in 2022 because they won't have enough cloud streaming servers ready as it takes time and capital to bring these online. Had they known this a couple of years back the game would have launched this year, but it was an unknown unknown, and since this is the first first-party title that would be cloud-streaming, Nintendo absolutely can't get it wrong. Thus the punt to 2023.

Maybe I'm wrong, but all the puzzle pieces fit. The establishment of Nintendo-owned cloud streaming server farms also presents the opportunity for future games to leverage streaming. (I could certainly see this utilized in the next Smash Bros game.) It seems like Nintendo has to go this way eventually, so why not do it now with BOTW2? Certainly seems most likely they'd do it first with a Mario or Zelda mainline title, as they tend to go big on these. (Let's face it, they aren't spending big money on cloud streaming servers for something from the Mario Sports, Yoshi, or WarioWare lines.)

[Moge]

Even though Ninty absolutely could use cloud streaming to enhance the BotW 2 experience, they won't because it would be a huge knock against the Switch's most important feature: being able to play anywhere, even in locations with spotty internet connection.

Obviously, this feature is moot when so many multiplayer games require a persistent internet connection, but at least when it comes to Nintendo's own games, they have single-player content you can mess around with when you're not online.

The intentions I see with the Switch using cloud streaming have been more of an afterthought, or rather a quick cash grab. Developers won't have to pour so many resources into an expensive port, especially one catered specifically to the Switch's lesser power.

[JG]

While no formal E3 this year, we at least now know that the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will take place Sunday, June 12 at 1pm EST, 10am CST. This follows the Future Games Showcase (which is PC-oriented) on Saturday, June 11 at a time yet to be determined.

First, this is an extremely curious time for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft to select. Major media doesn't typically plan events for Sunday mornings. (Christian church functions being a notable historical factor.) And they could have done it hours later and still appeased European viewers as this time is still only early evening. (Unless they plan it to be significantly longer than the two-three hours expected.) Or simply move it to another day of the week at this time. Starfield will obviously be the headliner game.

Second, Nintendo tends to pick a date after everyone else, so I think its fair to now expect the summer Nintendo Direct to drop sometime between June 13th and 17th, probably 15th to 17th. If not already explained before then I presume we'll find out why Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Splatoon 3 swapped, when the delayed Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp will arrive (I've seen projections for December), when Bayonetta 3 arrives (if ever?), when Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope launches (it was supposed to be a June release and still has no firm date with only 6 or 7 weeks to go before its anticipated launch), plus the usual suite of previews and announcements. I don't expect a launch date for BOTW2 to be made, nor revelation of the title until autumn. I saw a rumor that Twilight Princess and Wind Waker will be ported to Switch though, possibly digitally only, but am much less sure that makes sense for Nintendo with BOTW2 around the bend. The Metroid Prime 1 Remaster rumor makes more sense to me. If any of the three are true, I'd bet on the Metroid Prime remaster for November window which is currently unfilled (unless Bayonetta 3 finally slots in there.)

With no E3, I fully expect Sony to abstain again. And to my knowledge, neither Ubisoft Forward nor SquareEnix Presents have yet been scheduled either. (SquareEnix could really use a presentation to improve their lot after the letdowns of the Avengers DLC, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Life is Strange 2, the delay of Forspoken to second half, and the still outstanding 35th anniversary Dragon Quest games. They have not had as good a year as expected of them.)