2026 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[twiztor]

2 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

I will say that I'm going to disagree slightly and suggest that Galactic Pinball is a legitimate hidden gem; though it was well-received at the time that it was made, I think it reaches that level, and I'll explain why shortly.

EDIT: There's a video on Nintendo Today that says that V-Tetris and Space Invaders are on their way...along with the previously unreleased Dragon Hopper and Zero Racers. Holy shit! I remember reading a GamePro preview for Dragon Hopper!

i'll defer to your take on Galactic Pinball- i'm not really a fan of video pinball. i suck at the real tables, but i do enjoy playing them. with video game pinball, i just suck and don't enjoy it.

and i remember reading about Zero Racers. probably a magazine ad. that was one i wanted to play back then!

[odessasteps]

I know my pal Andre has done a couple videos so far on the new/old VB this week and he was def hyped for that F Zero game. 

[Eivion]

Finished Dragon Quest XI. Didn't 100% or anything as that isn't really my deal, but I finished Act III and the final boss. Enjoyed a lot of the story bits though I wish there was a more cohesive narrative. The end credits being a celebration of the mainline games was neat. Always amazes me how much a jump 7 was from the first six and 8 an even bigger one from 7 and the rest. XI is pretty similar in that regard. I wish they would release the offline version X. It looks neat.

Anyways with that done I'm trying to decide if I will move onto to VII's remake. With Destiny's next big update massively delayed I'm guessing I will though I also have a backlog of anime , reading, and wrestling I should probably dip into.

[Casey]

Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games

[JLSigman]

Also, Ubisoft Toronto laid off 40 people

[Ramo2653]

22 hours ago, Casey said:

Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games

Woah! 

[Zimbra]

Oh, so Xbox is like dead dead

[Casey]

This feels more like an ousting, since Phil Spencer is leaving on Monday and Sarah Bond is gone effective immediately.

At least I got a 4K UHD player out of the deal and some really cheap game deals that wouldn’t have happened at the time on PS5 or Steam (example: Dead Space Remake for $2 a year or two after it released) but goddamn what a disappointment the Series turned out to be. Series S was a good idea for gamers on a budget but it just hamstrung game development in most cases - either due to devs not wanting to optimize for it, or because of the low specs.

The next iteration of Xbox sounds cool, but with the former AI person at the helm and some of the stupid shit that’s come out of the Microsoft AI side, yeah I’m probably out.

[RIPPA]

Officially Spencer is retiring and will be working as an advisor

What was interesting is the former AI President telling staff that she wants to "commit to human-made work and reject “soulless AI slop.”"

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Officially Spencer is retiring and will be working as an advisor

What was interesting is the former AI President telling staff that she wants to "commit to human-made work and reject “soulless AI slop.”"

The broader context of that quote is a little more alarming:

Third, future of play.  We are witnessing the reinvention of play.  To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.   As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us. 

[supremebve]

1 hour ago, Chaos said:

The broader context of that quote is a little more alarming:

Third, future of play.  We are witnessing the reinvention of play.  To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.   As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us. 

I have to say, I thought my reading comprehension skills were pretty top notch, but that seems like it was written by someone who had nothing to say, but had to say something.

[Eivion]

5 hours ago, Zimbra said:

Oh, so Xbox is like dead dead

Knew Spencer would be out in a few years after he admitted Microsoft lost the console wars and pushed to buy Activision Blizzard. Game Pass was obviously his hail may attempt, and that success was never going to be the type that would keep him his job beyond a few years.

[JLSigman]

14 hours ago, supremebve said:

16 hours ago, Chaos said:

The broader context of that quote is a little more alarming:

Third, future of play.  We are witnessing the reinvention of play.  To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.   As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us. 

I have to say, I thought my reading comprehension skills were pretty top notch, but that seems like it was written by someone who had nothing to say, but had to say something.

As if it was written by AI, maybe?

[Tabe]

On 2/18/2026 at 8:17 PM, twiztor said:

i'll defer to your take on Galactic Pinball- i'm not really a fan of video pinball. i suck at the real tables, but i do enjoy playing them. with video game pinball, i just suck and don't enjoy it.

I suggest trying the challenges on Pinball FX3. You can do the 5-minute challenges or the practice modes to offset being terrible. I like doing the challenges also to offset bad/unfair design in the tables themselves. 

[RIPPA]

Amazon announced that they are shutting down the servers for King of Meat on April 9 (The game only came out on Halloween 2025)

They will give full refunds to anyone who purchased the game

Another body for the live service game grave

[Raziel]

Not to clog up any other threads, but since this month's Humble Choice has a game I already own, if anyone wants a Steam Key for the PC Resident Evil Village, DM me.  First come first serve.

[RIPPA]

I am embarassed at how long it took me to realize Courtenay Taylor was one of the voice actors in Outer Worlds

[Casey]

Nacon has filed for insolvency. Which sucks, I liked the RoboCop game, and the Terminator RTS is on my Steam wishlist.

[Raziel]

24 minutes ago, Casey said:

Nacon has filed for insolvency. Which sucks, I liked the RoboCop game, and the Terminator RTS is on my Steam wishlist.

The positive is that they were only the publisher for Rogue City, the Dev house that made it is still going so there's a chance for more.

[Casey]

1 minute ago, Raziel said:

The positive is that they were only the publisher for Rogue City, the Dev house that made it is still going so there's a chance for more.

Ahhhh that's good. I really liked the first RoboCop game (haven't played Unfinished Business yet) and Terminator: Resistance.

Those games being so quality compared to the Rambo game they did was a huge surprise.

[dogwelder]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Nacon has filed for insolvency. Which sucks, I liked the RoboCop game, and the Terminator RTS is on my Steam wishlist.

Doesn't bode well for Greedfall 2.

[SirSmUgly]

More Virtual Boy NSO notes:

• It feels like more light leaks in from the bottom of the plastic case's visor than when using the original visor. I need to find a way to set this up that is both comfortable and that limits light getting in. Otherwise, the immersion is top-notch.
• Kazumi Totaka's OST for Wario Land is fantastic.
• I really need that Virtual Boy controller sold on NSO. Playing Teleroboxer on analog sticks sucks. I can fire off attacks with ease on the left because I can use the D-Pad on the Switch 2 Pro, but I do not like the feel
• I need that Mario's Tennis release ASAP. The OST is amazing and I love the graphics and art direction.
• That's actually what I'd say about Wario Land, too. Even shaded in blood red tones, it's a gorgeous game. I want to play it in green when the color options are available, actually. 
• As undeniably cool as getting D-Hopper and Zero Racers is, and as cool as a Bound High release would be, rumor has it that Nintendo R&D might also have a fully-finished version of Virtual Boy Mario Land floating around unreleased. If true, and if it gets released on this service, that will maybe be my one big holy grail of gaming that I'd hope to play. 

I cannot wait until the week is up and I have some more time to spend with this. 

[twiztor]

On 2/25/2026 at 1:40 PM, SirSmUgly said:

 

• As undeniably cool as getting D-Hopper and Zero Racers is, and as cool as a Bound High release would be, rumor has it that Nintendo R&D might also have a fully-finished version of Virtual Boy Mario Land floating around unreleased. If true, and if it gets released on this service, that will maybe be my one big holy grail of gaming that I'd hope to play. 

if that is true it would 100% get me to sign up for this service.

[SirSmUgly]

1 hour ago, twiztor said:

if that is true it would 100% get me to sign up for this service.

I understand why Nintendo stopped making mini versions of their past consoles with a bunch of ROMs loaded onto them, but boy, do I wish we'd have gotten a mini-line GB/GBC with color toggle and a Virtual Boy (though those would have probably been the same exact size as the originals). 

It's very dumb that I bought a hundred-dollar shell that will be a nice decoration piece on my shelf next to the Jeremy Parrish Virtual Boy book if and when the VB NSO app becomes available. 

Even so, if VB Mario Land exists and gets released, that would have been enough for me to jump in on this too. Honestly, I think D-Hopper would have been enough to get me to jump in because I remember being excited for a Zelda-like on Virtual Boy and was sad when it never saw the light of day. 

[Raziel]

Several hours into RE9, They bounce you back and forth between the 2 characters in the beginning, now in a LONG segment with Grace, which plays exactly like RE7, which is a good thing.  Leon plays exactly like RE4 REmake, which is also a good thing.  So far so good, but so far not a ton of story dropped yet.