Capum15

Mostly looking forward to Halo Infinite and Pokemon / Nintendo Direct in general.

Though Saints Row 5... 5aints? Saint5? would be dope. As would anything on TES6.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, mostly because I don't think I've played anything else released this year, and it's pretty fantastic.

That said, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation was brought to backwards-compatibility and it's one of my all-time favorite games, so I'd pick that if I could.

I do wanna grab Trials Rising, though.

Earth Defense Force 5 has replaced Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow Of New Despair as my favorite game, because it's even more ridiculous and crazy. I kind of wish the Quick Look went more in-depth with it, but honestly the game is just so fun itself that I understand the want to just play and have crazy shit happen.

It has a lot of Quality of Life improvements from 4.1, such as:

• The Ranger can sprint and gets an Equipment slot to either buff him up or call down his own vehicles.
• The Fencer gets two equipment slots for various boosts and is insanely mobile compared to 4.1 (seriously, they can boost around the map like a tiny Gundam once you get multi-boost/jump equipment).
• The Wing Diver gets a new Plasma Core slot to up her energy (and sometimes other buffs) as well as a jet boost/dodge (which turns her into a pixie on crack if you learn to spam it well) that can let her fly much further and faster than 4.1.
• The Air Raider gets a third weapon slot and an isometric aiming system with airstrikes (making those far more useful than before), some strikes can auto-reload without having to kill enemies (in the background, too, so you can use other strikes while it reloads!) so you're never completely out of the fight (and you don't have to take a Limpet gun most of the time), and he is the King of the Battlefield, gloriously raining death upon Giant Insects and Innocent Buildings alike. Fear Him, For He Rides The Pale Horse And His Name Is Death.
• The weapons and armor you get now are shared among all 4 classes at once (though at a much smaller fraction of the total compared to your current class), making it much easier to jump classes without having to grind them all out.

The weapon upgrade system feels like you're always getting something from a mission, rather than nothing if you already have the weapons. Plus, it means that a good weapon early on can absolutely see you through a large chunk of the game. For vehicles, it reduces the call-in cost which is great. Also, it's cumulative, so you only get the upgrades rather than have to pick between stats. I will say that the RNG on RNG (to get the weapon and have it be an upgrade) is a bit...much, and once I get most of the drops and am just needing that last upgrade for whatever, my opinion may change, but for now it's fine.

I will say that the radio characters aren't as good as 4.1 (There's no Scientist O'Hara saying "Progress faster than science is impossible!" and other amazingly bad lines), but they're still pretty great. I do miss my buddy Whale in his AC-130 bringing the thunder to Giant Insects, but the Crazy Lady Scientist in charge of the satellite weapons is crazier than ever for Satellite Laser Death, and I love it. She spends half the time cackling madly and the other half yelling at how awesome Satellite Laser Death is, and she may be my EDF spirit animal. The actual Squad characters (the Ranger group you spend a lot of time with, Spriggan Wing Divers, and Grim Reaper Fencers) are pretty great and do a lot more talking when you join up with them, it seems like.

Also, you're actually not in the EDF for the first handful of missions, you're just "a civilian", which is pretty interesting. Base Security Ranger, Construction Worker Fencer, Jet... Pack... Tester... Wing Diver?, and Vehicle Maintenance Air Raider. There's no actual difference to the gameplay, but when you call in stuff as a "Civilian" Air Raider, the support always seems confused at how a Civilian is calling in airstrikes and lasers, which is amusing. "How did a civilian get these codes? Eh, fuck it, fire!"

Wow that was a lot more than I intended to write out, but damn I love that game.

Edit: Oh also the finale of the game is fucking incredible and the last boss is just...so good. So good.

Also Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown came out and is pretty great, but the most important part is that Ace Combat 6: The Fires of Liberation became Backwards Compatible and that game is fantastically amazing and one of my all-time favorite games.

7 is a pretty good return to what I loved about 6, and the story is doing some pretty interesting things. The flying feels just as great as ever, the story and characters are pretty cheesy but in that good way 6 was. Overall, it's a fantastic experience so far.

Edit: I will say, I'm not really into the way they set up your support units in 7. I dislike one specifically, and don't really have any opinion on the others so far. They seem...okay, but by this time in 6 I actively liked basically everyone. I do suppose it's partly how the story is done in 7 though.

That said, AC6 is still one of my favorite games of all time, so if you get the chance, I would highly recommend playing that. I love that story even as ultra-cheesy as it is, the music is fantastic, and it has the CFA-44 Nosferatu and it's All-Direcitonal Multipurpose Missile system that fires like 12 micro-missiles at once, and it is just the most ridiculous thing. "Garuda One, Drive!" Also, Ghost-Eye is awesome, and so is the Marigold. And Warlock Battalion. And Quox. And...

That is easily one of my most favorite trailers for any game out there. I legitimately listen to The Liberation of Gracemeria a ton on it's own, simply because it's such a good song. Honestly, my favorite part about Ace Combat 7 right now is that it brought Ace Combat 6 to backwards compatibility. It was the single game I ever pulled out my 360 for.

All planes, we're going to take back Gracemeria today!

I bought Divinity: Original Sin 2 last week, which has now forced me to go continue my D:OS Enhanced Edition game. I picked it back up incredibly easily which was very surprising.

That'll hold me until Just Cause 4 drops and then I'll be lost in that game for a good while.

I really want to like 76. I only play with friends (I'm attempting an entirely Pacifist character which is real weird in a Bethesda Fallout game, so I kinda need them if I want to explore much), but just about every second of that game makes me want to go back to Fallout 4. Sometimes it feels like Fallout, but then some little thing happens and I realize how it's just so off. Like there's a bunch of random crap you can't pick up to dismantle. You can't pick up and move things around (like bodies, vases, etc). The thought that no matter where you go, you're not going to stumble upon some little settlement or farm with people, just enemies and maybe some robots.

I loved Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. I played the crap out of all of them and enjoyed every minute of it. But even though I know 76 is a different beast, it's just way too similar for me to break that connection.

Also this side conversation MMO Hate-on is... interesting, to say the least. Guild Wars 2 is one of my all-time favorite games.

I miss the bit of red in names and links and such, and Old Bomby but otherwise this seems fine. I used the black theme so it wasn't all that much of a change for me on the forums side. I usually just go to the videos page to look up stuff there so the front page is fine for me.

@sombre: Hah, that's a cool coincidence, one of my friends has been preparing our first D&D session for a few weeks and we're going to see how it goes this weekend. He's DMing and we have four players in total, so that's exciting. Made myself a Human Wizard Illusionist because that seemed like fun, and I didn't just want to power-game it like I would in a video game.

Speaking of those, Forza Horizon 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are doing pretty dang well for me.

Forza is just a fantastic game to just zone out to while driving cool cars in a beautiful place. I think Winter started again today or yesterday so I'm looking forward to it (though Spring is my favorite game season, Winter and Autumn are tied for second).

Meanwhile, Cowboy Simulator 2 is fantastic to get lost in. I need to try out third person (been playing in First Person + FPS Controls), but it's just also a good game to lose yourself in for a while.

Halo is at the top for me, followed by Half Life 2, Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (entirely because it's so ridiculous), and GTA: San Andreas.

Halo is just about my favorite anything. Half Life 2 is extremely well done and I play through that once a year. EDF 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is so dumb, and over-the-top, and the characters are extremely B-movie in regards to acting, and I love everything about it. San Andreas is my favorite GTA game and it has a huge, crazy story with great characters and it also has my favorite licensed soundtrack of any game out there.

Mass Effect 1 was also incredible and I still love that game.

Still playing Forza Horizon 4, but also started Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Shootin' 2 and that's pretty good. Only real quibbles are the Bounty/Wanted system and not keeping my loadout after getting off my horse, but everything else so far seems pretty fantastic. The new horse crashing physics are hilarious, the terrain deformation is really cool in snow and mud, and I'm just overall pretty into the cowboy simulation going on. Not a huge fan of the core system but it's easy enough to manage.