There will probably be a few revisions, and a dedicated portable.

Haven't played much from this gen yet, unless you count Switch, which I will:

Star Wars: Squadrons. It's the simcade fight game I didn't know I needed. A happy medium between Rogue Squadron and X-Wing. Would love to see more, but I get it's not the kind of thing EA would normally make. Should just be happy it happened at all.

Fire Emblem: Engage. Yes, the presentation is Saturday morning anime nonsense, but that really appealed to my kids. Now we play Fire Emblem together, and all the callbacks got them curious about the rest of the series. Warts and all, Engage will always be special to me.

ARMS. This was like a Dreamcast game that showed up 20 years late.

Smash Bros Ultimate. I got into the pre-release hype for this in a way I haven't since college. Might be the last game I ever pre-order.

Hotwheels Unleashed. I was was never a huge Hotwheels kid, but I am always down for a good arcade racer with sprawling, twisting tracks, and dinosaurs.

@uninspiredcup said:

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them, and then go to court.

I wonder if there is any one that has contained more unintentionally funny statements, than lists of bullet points on Fox News.

Constantly. Playing with my kids for sure, but also just in general whenever I have some down time. Been that way since I was young. Never grew out of it.

@davillain: Second Sight came out within weeks of this, and split the market. Just really unfortunate timing. I think Psy-Ops sold better but still not great. Second Sight is on GOG already at least.

@R4gn4r0k: Geist was a bit janky, but the core concept was so good I loved it anyway. I played a lot of the ghost hunt mode with my college roommates, where ghosts try to possess humans and walk them into death traps. Good times.

@nod_eclipse_: Max Payne was objectively better, but I enjoyed Wet more. Adding wall-running and a sword really elevated the experience.

I bring this game up a lot, but Heavy Metal: Geomatrix is one of the best Dreamcast games no one else talks about. It had every reason to bomb though; late release on a dying console, niche licence, didn't really directly tie into said licence, and the cover screams shovelware.

Puke!

PUUUKE!!

PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE!!!

PSA: Doom 2016 is on gog now. And on sale for $4.

It's easy to get confused because the line can blur quite a bit.

An open-world game will generally play like a traditional linear video game, but with everything spread out in a large world. Take Elden Ring for example. You're doing basically the same stuff you did in Demon's Souls, but everything is farther appart and you have some leway in what order to tackle objectives. Other examples would be Assassin's Creed, the newer God of Wars, Forza Horizon, Horizon Zero Dawn.

Sandbox games give you tools to play around with, and a space to futz around in. There might be some goals or structure, but in general your experience won't necessarily be the same as another player's. Stuff like The Sims, Factorio, Civilization, or Black and White (if you're old enough to remember that one).

But some games are a little of both. Zelda TotK may be the best example where you have traditional quests and dungeons dotted around, but you could also chop down a whole forest and glue the logs together to make a fort. GTA might count too, though you could argue it's open-world, but with so much stuff to do that it feels like a sandbox.

Sigh. We certainly did.

Really glad to see it's being so well received. Like the concept a lot. I want to play, but will have to just give it a spot on my "RPGs I hope to someday get to" list.