whatchu waiting for

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.

Oops wrong thread

This looks fun, but also looks less than ideal for consoles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SflsUI2-Qm0

I saw a preview stream of it yesterday and it looks like it's actually part sandbox, part puzzle/strategy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RKqn05cbSw

Teardown was famous for setting some GPUs on fire in the early days. It's really neat though

OK, so he's playing a PS5 and seems to be doing ok!

I'll wait for this (Dark Forces Remaster)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2292260/?snr=1_5_9__205

Nothing major changing, just adapting to modern hardware etc.

Not sure I actually want to get this but lol:

Are you ready to duke it out to “discover who the one true top is in a world of bottoms?” Drag Her is a 2D fighting game featuring real-world drag performers that the developers describe as a “less gay” Mortal Kombat. In addition to traditional fighting gameplay there’s also auto-combos, campy cinematic specials, and assist characters.

https://kotaku.com/day-devs-game-awards-2023-indie-showcase-1851081586/slides/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZAVznVPMh8

Saw a couple of intriguing games coming up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MGO2kW3xns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYFUXf-kk9w

Venba recipe DLC! https://kotaku.com/venba-dlc-adding-food-recipes-1851220303

Any of the Silent Hill games that make their way to Xbox X/S (f, SH2 remake, etc.). Ascension, the CYOA-type game, seems best watched on YT playthroughs, but The Short Message is getting a few positive reviews. Enough of a stan, hoping the full games are better and not permanently on PS.

I doubt this will/can come to PS5, but this looks fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvezgDni8z4

Brew Barons out tomorrow, but will wait for reviews obv

Indika, AKA weird/psycho Orthodox nun game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR5yBSiUwQ4

Hauntii
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj2WcfUJOT4

Death of a Wish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOr-pX4zFDw

oh wow, Indika looks bananas and that's great

is dragons dogma 2 good ? it looks good

Slay The Spire 2 hell yeh

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

hype

Oh God not again

Vampire Survivors is getting Contra DLC -- which means Konami is on board but they didn't do Castlevania. Pretty funny troll if that's what was intended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Y9-IntWLM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AJBiX-N3Sg

Style for days, at $15 so maybe I'll get it straight away? https://kotaku.com/children-of-the-sun-devolver-sniper-sim-steam-pc-1851403350