Alright, normally I don’t do things like this, but I felt the need to address it. Now, some people might have noticed that this year in particular has consisted of various levels of me bringing up the same types of games for discussion on this blog. I understand that I am at fault for that, but the main reason for that is because I honestly don’t know what else to talk about this year. This year has just been very lackluster for gaming. The amount of big name releases this year has been pretty low so far. And for the ones that we did get, they were a pretty mixed bag. Honestly, did anyone even remember that the new Saints Row came out after a month. I sure didn’t. I was literally looking at a list of games that came out this year and realized in shock that it was on the list. You know how many people are playing that game now? Nobody. Literally no one. Gotham Knights ended up also feeling bland as well so soon everyone will just forget about it too assuming they haven’t already. I’ll be honest and say I forgot about this too. It’s hard to remain relevant when your previous games were just better in every way.
Now maybe I could choose to believe that is all due to the live service nature of those games, but honestly most of the decent games came out at the beginning of the year to be honest. Elden Ring was great, the new Kirby game was good, and so was Horizon: Forbidden West. The thing is that they cannot hold an entire year on their own. Sure there are other games that came out aside from these, but I can’t see the others fighting it out for game of the year. We had a long drought this year and so the fact that most of the releases since then have been mid is slightly disappointing. Honestly, one of the most memorable games this year has been Stray and that is just a walking sim with a good story and world building. Honestly, it just feels unfortunate since a bunch of interesting releases were pushed back until next year. That is not anyone’s fault. We had a pandemic. Plans changed. We are just feeling the brunt of it now, that’s all. However, the current trends make me nervous for what’s in store.
Now this could just be my daily dose of paranoia so you can take what I am about to say with a grain of salt. I am fine with you going down to the rabbit hole with me though. You see, I am worried that any games coming out later this year might have their share of problems. Since development times have been thrown off, I am worried that people might have cut corners to have games on shelves for the holiday season. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened. Especially, when referring to the franchise that is unveiling their first real take on the open world formula next week. Sonic the Hedgehog really deserves a win at this point and so I really hope this latest game is what every fan of the series is hoping for and more. I just really don’t want it to be another dark spot in his history since Sonic has gone through a lot over the years. I am less worried about the other games, but I am still suffering from this needless anxiety because sometimes I am not sure if I trust this industry. So I figured I would share the wealth so we can hopefully all suffer together. Again, it is probably nothing. However, now I get the luxury of getting to say I told you so if I am right. I will not feel the least bit good about doing it though. It would just be obligatory. Anyway, that’s all. Bye!
That Casual Gamer Guy 