aniki

Kyle Bosman has a pretty balanced (in my opinion) reaction video about the Switch 2 Direct

I wonder if the (relatively) small improvement in technology is responsible, to some extent, for the blurring of lines between the Xbox One/PS4 and Series/PS5 generations. There was a clear leap from Xbox to 360, PS3 to PS4; cross-gen games and remasters were (to my memory, anyway) much less common. Digital delivery and backwards compatibility probably added to the fuzziness, to some extent, with older games getting "free" upgrades on the new hardware. Home consoles are basically just PCs nowadays, and that's a platform that hasn't really had a similar distinction since the DOS/Windows switchover.

That said…

• Metaphor: ReFantazio is a phenomenal refinement of the Persona formula, transplanted into a fantasy world that allows its melodrama and themes to resonate together in a way that contemporary urban Japan can't. I loved the world, the characters, the music, the art design, and replayed it more times than is probably sensible.
• Cyberpunk 2077 suprises even me by making this list. Despite its embarassingly juvenile prologue, its maybe-too-complicated city map (unnavigable without the GPS) and Keanu Reeves' why-won't-you-just-fuck-off Johnny Silverhand, I find myself thinking about its quieter moments and side characters a lot.
• Avowed is another one of these "refinement of a formula" games that came along at just the right time for me. I'd never clicked with Elder Scrolls games, assuming that first-person melee combat was an insurmountable hurdle. Then along comes Avowed and I'm hacking-and-slashing my way through the Living Lands with reckless abandon. Is this the first western RPG where the first party member you get isn't a tedious dullard?
• I've played a handful of visual novel-type games before, but Citizen Sleeper is the first one I really fell in love with. Its sequel streamlines and expands on the mechanics, but the focus of the original – the claustrophobia of the Eye, slowly lessening (but never disappearing) as locations open up and new characters are introduced, with an ever-present awareness of your character's inexorable mortality – beats the bigger scope.
• I wish I could erase my memory and re-experience Unicorn Overlord for the first time. Miraculously, given the scope of its plot and breadth of its (excellent) cast, it doesn't outstay its welcome. Looks gorgeous, too.

That new From Software game looks tasty though, although it doesn't look like an exclusive.

The trailer claims that it is, though it's also (apparently) a multiplayer game, which may dampen some excitement.

This bit was genuinely quite funny. The temerity to assume that people will pay money to learn where you've hidden your magnets.

I was mostly just mad that it was better than the pun I'd come up with (Tears of the Kongdom).