whatchu waiting for

A thread for anticipating games that might not rise to the level of getting their own threads.

For instance, this quasi Name of the Rose RPG: https://www.polygon.com/23319825/obsidian-pentiment-preview-xbox-game-pass-pc

Pentiment looks interesting. I'll play it on Gamepass for sure.

I think some of the best releases will just be good existing stuff moving to new platforms, like Tunic and Inscryption on Playstation, or Dorfromantik on Switch.

I'll probably give Gotham Knights a spin unless the reviews are brutal.

Reviews for Pentiment seem pretty well recieved.

I've never played The Witcher 3. There is a free PS5 update upgrade coming in a couple of weeks, I think I'm all in.

Don't get your hopes up like I did. It's not groundbreaking so much as piles and piles of convention.

My hopes are still up!
But my backlog is so bad, I actually have both The Witcher I and II to play first... I need a better PC setup

Huh. People do seem to love it. Helpfully, I typically have low expectations, since because I missed out on basically an entire couple of generations of games, they're all pretty cool to me.

They do love it but I think they're all wrong.

But seriously, take this to the Witcher thread, this is a rolling anticipation thread for smaller niche/indie games!

my most wanted at the moment:
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley - loved the Moomins books as a kid, so a gentle puzzle adventure where you get to roam around as Snufkin tootling on his flute is like my dream game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1808680/Snufkin_Melody_of_Moominvalley/
World of Horror - a "1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft". been following this for a while, but have held off until it's out of early access next summer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/913740/WORLD_OF_HORROR/
Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeons - Visual Novel coming out early next year, I just love the "blue sky dystopia" sci-fi stuff that Japan makes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2156620/The_Future_Radio_and_the_Artificial_Pigeons/

I still eagerly await Truck Heck, whatever the hell it turns out to be.

This sounds like a lot of fun: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23702866/mr-suns-hatbox-review-roguelike

I need more word games: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2072840/Word_Factori/

Others of note:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382070/Viewfinder/ -- I lost interest in The Witness pretty quickly but maybe this time?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1864950/Beastieball/ -- from the makers of Chicory!

Beastieball looks fun!
looking forward to Sea of Stars https://store.steampowered.com/app/1244090/Sea_of_Stars/
and The Invincible https://store.steampowered.com/app/731040/The_Invincible/

I am waiting for so much right now, Summer Fest showed a lot of interesting developments for me.

Nivalis in particular, as I enjoyed Cloudpunk and would love to see the city used more than just for delivery jobs.

The next Microsoft Flight Sim also looks impressive.

Mars First Logistics

Came out today, early access, and I'm all for these Moebius style looking games lately

(some early gameplay)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uauRDqR4zBY

Yeah there's actually a bunch of indies that I have my eye on and even though I didn't mention it the Mars game is definitely something I'm interested in.

I got it, been playing today in between, ahem, work.
It's great, it's more difficult than expected - the rover rolls over a lot and there's a ton of mountains and rocks to negotiate, i guess that's part of the game to build something that can navigate the terrains.

Very nice to play though, building the vehicles is smooth and frustration free.

Deck building tower defense? Right into my veins, please.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2455350/The_Deadly_Path/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2160480/Hellboy_Web_of_Wyrd/

There's going to be a Hellboy game?!

Viewfinder reviews have been pretty rapturous.

That looks awesome and crazy and the trailer almost made me barf.

Gotta say, Lords of the Fallen 2 looks like the greatest Dark Souls ripoff ever. Maybe it will succeed where all others have failed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7o_WyN43E

just reading my steam wishlist, all games that are not out yet (order in date added):

Toxic Crusaders
Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth
Ships At Sea
Route 66 Simulator: The Free Ride
Space Trash Scavenger
Blight: Survival
Synergy
Hammerwatch II
Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together
Macabre
Bzzzt
Sand
Breathedge 2
MULLET MAD JACK
Fortune's Run
The Invincible
Dread Pilots
D.O.R.F Real-Time Strategic Conflicts
Star Trucker
ARK 2
The Brew Barons
Life By You
Pixelshire
Pacific Drive
Car Manufacture
Taxi Simulator
Tiny Glade
Streets of Rogue 2
Starship Simulator
Little Martian
Derelicts
Thunder Helix
Pirate Commander
Nivalis

Nivalis is the Cloudounk spinoff? I bought that recently, looking forward to playing it.

yeah, i have cloudpunk plus the dlc story. Not a lot to them, but a nice chill story to plod through and great looking scenery if you like that sort of thing. I turned off the audio dialogue btw, just a word of warning.

I turned off the audio dialogue btw, just a word of warning.

Good god, I thought this was going to be on the hyperbolic side but now having played 5 minutes of it, the VA really is worth turning off.

yeah, I don't think I've ever played another game with such oddly recorded and off putting voice acting, it just sounds like shit. Not turning it off though because I am a masochist.

Between TotK, Elden Ring, and perhaps BG3 I'm probably set for gaming for the next 2 years, not including other shit I bought, but I'm eagerly anticipating the Switch release of Dave the Diver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p85VHMpE0to

Have we talked about these Spellbound rumours, ostensibly the working title for the next FromSoft IP?

I'm hoping it'll be amazing, but personally I'd be just as happy for them to keep releasing Elden Ring DLC content every couple of years rather than a new Souls-based franchise. That, or make a Souls game based on the Mandy movie, but that's not gonna happen

AFAIK the sole source of those rumors is a 4chan post, so I am taking that with an enormous grain of salt. IMO it would be cool if Miyazaki & the studio at large broke out more of the Souls formula. I'd really like to see their take on other styles.

I watched some youtube video on it, of course I'm down for a new Souls-like variation from From. Their approach to spells really hasn't changed that much from Dark Souls to Elden Ring (and I almost never play a magic-focused build), so I'm into the idea of a wizard game.

Moebius art + language puzzle solving, definitely intrigued:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5fsaiDgfoU

Psychedelic Hollow Knight?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2HHC--J_M4

Chants of Senaar looks very interesting

xpost A trippy Metroidvania seems like a path not yet taken.

Speaking of Souls-like, everyone seems to love "Lies of P."

Also, the clips making the rounds from Spider-man 2 show off what the PS5 can do when designers actually design with the PS5 exclusively in mind.

For some reason Lies of P just doesn't look appealing to me, b but Lords of the Fallen really does.

Lies of P I'm definitely waiting on, but the reviews have been pretty convincing, basically saying it's one of the few Soulslikes that gets it right but also makes the right changes.

I never played Dragon's Dogma but I'm intrigued now seeing some footage from the upcoming sequel. Kinda seems like a blend of Souls-like combat x more straightforward D&D/Baldur's Gate type story & quests? So many giant fantasy games these days.

The first game is only $5 on PS rn, just grabbed that because why not.

dragons dogma is more like a character action game meets open-world fantasy rpg, not 'souls-like'. its by the same designers as the devil may cry series

Ha I guess I haven't actually played any 3D third person action-rpgs besides From games. So that always reads as Souls to me, but I guess Devil May Cry/Monster Hunter/God of War/The Witcher/etc must feel quite different.

the fundamental gameplay concept of the souls games is "you can't cancel your attacks"
the fundamental gameplay concept of character action games is "you can cancel your attacks"

so they're fundamentally opposed

(cancel in action game parlance meaning interrupt the attack with a new one before its animation finishes)

Interesting, I don't think I've ever heard it put like that before but it makes a lot of sense.

Hmm. If this is turn-based or tower defense or real time strategy or whatever I'll probably skip, but if this is, as implied, more adventure/story-based, I'm intrigued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY5r0nEd2ag

Replaced, gorgeously animated pixel art cyberpunk side scroller:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWkOcpZEk4I

Looks cool!

Patient though I may be, my fomo flares up when they start announcing DLC for games I haven't gotten yet because I'm waiting for lower prices. Remnant 2, Ragnarok, Lies of P ...

Yeah, two DLC packs are planned.

Night Springs – 2024

Night Springs will allow players to control several familiar characters from the Alan Wake setting. They’ll experience mysterious and unexplainable events inside multiple, self-contained episodes of a fictional TV show called Night Springs. If you thought Alan Wake 2 got very meta a couple of times, it sounds like you’ll get more of that with this expansion, which should launch some time in 2024.

The Lake House – 2024

A secret government organization, a lonely research facility, and ambitious scientists – naturally, something goes wrong with that combination of factors being involved. Players will explore the Lake House in this expansion in two separate adventures as the realities of Alan Wake and Saga Anderson once again collide.

I've been playing Cairn. It is hands down the most difficult game I have ever played. Or at least the most frustrating. I think that most of that is on me, and not the game. You have to take it slow and be extremely methodical. I would find myself hurrying up a cliff face because I wanted to get to the next plateau, see the next thing. It got a bit easier once I slowed down.

I also struggled to get to grips (no pun intended) with stamina management. It's the one thing that isn't explicitly displayed in the HUD so you have to pay close attention to Aava's physical cues--breathing rate, limb shaking, etc. I turned on the feature that shows you when you have a good hand/foothold. Even with that turned on, I would find myself in what I thought was a stable position, still rapidly losing stamina and falling to my death.

To say nothing of he survival aspect. Now I'm a good chunk of the way in and starving because I'm out of food. I assumed I would find more, because this is a video game, right? And the developers want me to finish it, right?

It sounds genuinely fascinating, but at the same time I know I never want to touch that game. Like a serious simulation of Getting Over It?

70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X - just from the title I want to play it!
originally released on PS1 (on 4 discs!) it's getting a remaster in the summer with english subs.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4120310/70sstyle_Robot_Anime_GeppyX/

"70's Robot Anime Geppy-X is a 2D side scrolling shooting game. Stages in the game are presented as if they were episodes of a fictitious episodic anime series named Geppy-X. Following the anime episode format, stages play the format of opening theme, Part A, Eye Catch, Part B, ending theme, and ending on a next episode preview. The stages even include fake commercials and its own theme music. For example, one such commercial in the game promotes a fictitious series which is a parody of Ashita no Joe, and another for merchandise related to the show such as shampoo."

in a a development nobody could have seen coming, it appears Crimson Desert is a bit of a boring mess

lol i assumed this would be the case.

I look forward to getting this hella cheap in 5 years time to mess around in the open world for a few hours before getting bored

sort of feels like the devs spent 7 years and god knows how much money implementing every single idea any of their kids pitched to them

jetpacks, rideable dragons, pettable cats, ability to perform the leaping three quarter turn facelock jawbreaker popularly known as "the RKO", an actual circus: yes definitely

good controls or UX: pardon?

lol you can do an RKO? SOLD

lol https://bsky.app/profile/lexluddy.xyz/post/3mheiimhcjv26

vampire crawlers demo is v fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaAEKYGnxrA

People seem to really like Pragmata.

i never doubted space RE4 would work but its nice to see a non-franchise AAA game actually make it to release let alone be received well

That's Pragmata? (I've only skimmed the praise.) Everyone seems taken by the story and writing, which ... is not the case for any of the RE games, heh.

huh i've mostly seen similar impressions to RE games which is that it plays well and immersive and the story is good enough

The RE games that I have played all seemed pretty silly/dopey/campy. This Pragmata game is supposed to be pretty moving/powerful.

mouse: p.i. for hire looks tempting - a fps with black-and-white steamboat willie aesthetics (i know cuphead already did the early animation aesthetic but i was always scared off by people talking about how hard it is)

word seems positive so far

new SP splatoon going right on the radar

SP / co-op

I'll be dipping my toe into Vampire Crawlers, the turn-based rpg from the Vampire Survivors guy.

SAROS. New one from the Housemarque (Returnal) folks. Sitting on my PS5's hard drive ready to play after work. Stoked.

xp I wouldn't call Vampire Crawlers a turn-based RPG exactly. It's a turn-based Vampire Survivors-like. I've put in maybe around 2 hours and I'm having the same frustration I had with Survivors: it just doesn't engage me. I'm given so many options and choices, and none of them seem to matter all that much. There's a little bit to think about in terms of deck building and the order you play your cards, but it isn't much. It's no Slay the Spire. And maybe it's not trying to be, but I'm not sure I get the appeal of what it's going for.

Vampire sociology is one of those genres where the hardcore fans will eat up any old shit so it doesn't really matter

sociology?

Yeah tongue in cheek but that whole "how vampire society works" and general world-building vibe, it definitely has a fandom

vampire survivors was very abstract, if it had world-building i missed it

yeah Vampire Survivors has absolutely zero world building or story elements to it, just a miserable little pile of Castlevania references (couldn't help myself with that one)

I forgot yeah it's just some twitch shooter right? Ignore my nonsense, I do struggle to relate to the vampology community tho, gods bless them anyway

VS added a story mode at some point but i was out of it long before that got in. I should really revisit, they seem to have added an enormous amount of content since release

I forgot yeah it's just some twitch shooter right?

It's not even that, it's an auto-shooter (I've also seen reverse bullet hell or bullet heaven), the only input you have is moving your character around the map and picking your powerups.

bullet hell auto-shooter - you are mostly dodging and upgrading your stats and powerups. sounds simple, but amazingly addictive

I have terrible addiction issues but not when it comes to perseverance

xp I wouldn't call Vampire Crawlers a turn-based RPG exactly. It's a turn-based Vampire Survivors-like. I've put in maybe around 2 hours and I'm having the same frustration I had with Survivors: it just doesn't engage me. I'm given so many options and choices, and none of them seem to matter all that much. There's a little bit to think about in terms of deck building and the order you play your cards, but it isn't much. It's no Slay the Spire. And maybe it's not trying to be, but I'm not sure I get the appeal of what it's going for.

the appeal is a zero friction vehicle for dopamine hits when it throws lots of flashing lights and sounds at you. it's slot machine stuff basically. i agree that it's pretty terrible and i kinda despair at the state of games criticism for generally giving it a pass

i did not like vampire survivors and found all the slot machine stuff to be actively frustrating, but i can at least understand the appeal of having a game that's just the barest minimum required to be engaging. vampire crawlers is somehow even stupider because it's a slot machine in the shape of a strategy game, which is a much stupider fit - a strategy game that doesn't really require any thinking! all the micro-level play is pretty much meaningless and the deckbuilding decisions are incredibly uninteresting

I'm a survivors fan but this isn't fully doing it for me. I like some of the card synergies, like how you can manipulate the combo system. But it kind of nerfs the fun of the flashing lights and chaos and doesn't replace it with much of anything.

intrigued by this weird meta mystery game about investigating a fictional JRPG

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2809660/The_Remake_of_the_End_of_the_Greatest_RPG_of_All_Time/

I think I met the dev once at GDC!

The Hitman games are tons of fun, but the new James Bond game is getting rave reviews for taking the system even further.

my current unreleased games on my wishlist

Dystopian Nights
PACS
Frostrail
GANGSTALK
Space Hauler
Full Fathom
Deep Snow Delivery
Long Dark 2
Vuntra City
Dandelion Void
Odd Town
Project Shadowglass
Darkwood 2
Little Martian (been on the list for a while this one)
Slow Roads
Nivalis

(Slow Roads does have a web version on Itch.io)

xp to Josh

i'm playing the new Bond game (bought it mostly cuz i'm a Hitman stan) and it's quite fun! wouldn't say it takes the Hitman concept 'further' though, it's more like Uncharted with some light Hitman dressing.

Interesting. I'm trying to recall the specifics, but iirc I've heard or read that what it may lose in terms of open world sandbox traits it gains in detail, level design, character and combat.

Hitman is a stealth game, Bond is an action adventure game. They’re very different really despite some surface similarities.

Combat, narrative, character, First Light def wins there. Never been primary concerns of Hitman. Kinda pointedly.

Level design though? Fuuuck no, Hitman is kind of untouchable on that front. Could conceivably drop 100+ hours on some those maps and still discover new things.

I think I meant just the detail of the levels, not the levels themselves, because hitman is the ultimate sandbox in that regard.

the visual version of text-based detective game Type Help is coming out soon. i never got around to playing that despite hearing good things so i'll probably check it out in this form

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3641000/The_Incident_at_Galley_House/

Can't imagine the game being even a fraction as good with graphics. You're kind of robbing yourself of a major aspect of what made the game special imo

fair enough!

I mean who knows... could be great. I just loved the experience, and parsing the information was a fundamental part of it

yeah i'll def wait to see how people who have played both feel about it. using a different name feels like an acknowledgement that they know they're changing the game by changing the presentation

Yeah, pretty much agree with you, polyphonic. I did think that if they kept it simple then it could be a good way of getting it to a wider audience without ruining it too much. But it looks like they've added an awful lot to it. It'll probably still be good, and I'll probably still buy this version, but ehhhh... it won't be the same.

using a different name feels like an acknowledgement that they know they're changing the game by changing the presentation

Tbf the name wasn't ideal for it in the first place. It's not a bad name in itself, and it did at least tell you the first thing you need to do, but it didn't really fit the story or atmosphere.