discomposure

I do like positive threads!
I still need to play the Witcher 3. I know it's a game I'll really get into but I want to play 1 & 2 first

I'm currently playing 3 games all on PS4, which I normally don't do since I like to focus on one at a time but since 2 of these are platformers that I play in short bursts it's working pretty well.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Pretty much just started this. I played the Tomb Raider definitive edition for the first time earlier this month and loved it, way more than I thought I would. Lara is awesome & I dug pretty much everything about it. So far ROTTR is living up to that and I'm really enjoying it. It looks & plays great, although I have heard the writing/story is weaker than the first one so far I don't have an issue with it. Might be a bit weird to say but I do like the brutal death scenes, there's something to be said for a game making me wince when I mess up

Yooka Laylee - Well this is Banjo Kazooie 3 but with a lizard and a bat (and a snake in a hat). Soo it's fantastic. It's colourful, charming & packed with that 'Rare' brand of humour the BK games had. It's a game that just makes me happy playing it, even just walking around sticking Yooka's tongue out like an idiot makes me smile

Lego Harry Potter Collection - I LOVE Harry Potter & lego games are cool so this is a great combo. I'd never played any of them before either so it's all new to me and I'm enjoying seeing the stories that I know far too well play out in lego form without any dialogue. It's a really cute game that's just fun to mess around in. Plus I got to play as Remus Lupin who is the GOAT so that automatically makes this friggin brilliant.

2020 is late enough I suppose, I really hope it's gonna be backwards compatible though.
I'm kinda hoping this gen lasts a bit longer than that though, 2021 or 2022 would be great for me. I get why some people want it to end sooner but I dunno, it's not unusual for games to have like 5year dev cycles now so a 7 year gen actually seems a bit too short

I got my PS4 just over 2 years ago now and probably wouldn't jump into next gen until it was a year or two old so I think that's a decent amount of time for a system. But really, outside of (maybe) Nintendo I doubt next gen will feel like a big leap forwards whenever it comes out though

I keep all my consoles anyway so I'll still get to play older stuff

For new releases probably just Pokemon Ultra Sun, Lady Layton & Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age

There are others coming out I want but I almost certainly wont be getting them this year - like the Crash N'Sane trilogy, Dragon's Dogma PS4, Vampyr, Elex, Demons Age, Battlefront 2, Ni No Kuni 2, Mario Odyssey & Mario + Rabbids

Nope.

If it's a very story-driven game like a Telltale or visual novel then I think it's probably alright to do so if you've watched the whole game but otherwise it seems a bit silly.

I never watch full playthroughs of games anyway

Hmm everything on it prior to last gen really. Worst offenders are Drakengard & Final Fantasy XII which are probably my favourite games from the PS2 era but I've never actually finished them

I've gotten better at dropping games I lose interest in from my backlog though. For me the backlog is supposed to be only games I own that I genuinely want to beat or play - but it can be hard to determine if you really don't want to play a game or if you're just in the mood for something else or distracted by newer releases

I never did get the backlash over the ending to 3, imo it was just a little 'meh' but not awful - certainly not bad enough to tank my opinion of the entire game, which I still think was AMAZING.
It's hard for me to rank the games tbh, I think they're best viewed as a trilogy - 3 parts of a whole, each with slightly different strengths. When I replay them I play one after the other & it's a fantastic experience. If I had to vote I'd go with 3 (what I chose in the poll) or maybe 1....or 2 lol. I went with 3 just because you've got an awesome mix of old&new companions and I found myself very emotionally invested in it.
Never touched multiplayer

Hmm at the moment it'd have to be

Muse: Hyper Music, Plug in Baby, Panic Station
The Killers: Read my Mind, Tranquilize, Sam's Town
Biffy Clyro: The Captain, Born on a Horse, Semi-Mental

I like it.
I've been using Origin for about the same time as I've been using Steam (not a big PC gamer) and in some ways I prefer it

I find Origin looks nicer and is quicker, but as a store it's obviously more limited & tends to be a bit expensive. They give away free games pretty regularly though, which is cool.

Having them as an option you can enable/disable at anytime is best
Sometimes I appreciate them, other times I find them kinda distracting

More games should give you actual directions though, rather then a quest marker just popping up.

I think they still have a place in informing purchase decisions, albeit a diminished one

Personally I hate spoilers for story-driven games, so for those I tend to quickly look over a couple spoiler-free reviews rather than watch videos. You can't take reviews at face value though, you have to actually read what's being said and think about it in terms of your own experiences with other games.
Saying that, the reviews don't have to be from game sites/outlets - they could be from other players as long as they're well written.

Also, quicklooks are great and all, but what about games that are slow starters or just really long? The first hour or two could be a bit dull but the game gets fantastic later on or it could start out great but the story/gameplay totally fall apart a few hours in - this is stuff a decent review should inform you about.