Everyone I hear talk about Persona 5 seems troubled by their mistakes and what-ifs in that game - I imagine you're meant to miss out on a lot intentionally?

About Transistor, Gregg when you said narrator, did you mean the Bastion narrator? He narrates Transistor?? I thought the protagonist spoke to herself throughout or something like that.

I've been finishing up some odds and ends recently, hoping to move on to Nioh and Nier: Automata soon. Based on the people and critics I surround my ears with, the latter appears to be the dark horse candidate for game of the year. I'm trying to acquire a physical copy, but it's already become something of a rare game for reasons I don't know.

In the meantime I played Lara Croft GO, which I would say is less good than Hitman GO, but still a very fun puzzle game and worth the 8 dollars I paid for it. I also played the rest of The Walking Dead game (Season 3, AKA A New Frontier), and am sadly quite negative on that game. The first two episodes were good (not coincidentally they were the two released last December), the last three were meandering to bad. I really regret buying it because I swore after The Wolf Among Us I would stop giving Telltale money. They temporarily won me back with Tales from the Borderlands, but this new Walking Dead season was the worst Telltale game I've played to date. They seriously need to fix their shitty engine. Unsurprisingly they just announced Season 4, AKA The Final Season, and you'll play as Clementine again. I'll be waiting until the last episode to get on-board that train.

Did anyone here play Telltale's Batman game from last year? I've, again, heard good things, but that was mostly from people who are comic book or DC enthusiasts and therefore not trustworthy enough on the matter.

Here's a true story: A few months ago a couple friends and I went to the movies to see Get Out; it was sold out and, scanning our other options, we settled on seeing the Lego Batman movie. My one friend and I agreed that it was actually one of our favourite Batman stories. As far as Batman movies, I would rank it second only to the king, The Dark Knight. It was a nice surprise.

A couple weeks later we returned to the movies and were finally able to see Get Out, which is the movie of the year in my eyes. It will go unnoticed at big award shows for 2017 movies, and then of course five years from now it will be one of the only movies people remember from this year, and revered as a cult classic. Just wait. I urge everyone on earth to see Get Out. I've rarely felt so satisfied leaving a movie theater. For reference, the last "horror" film I enjoyed as much as Get Out was The Cabin in the Woods. Not that they're similar or anything; just an example of what I'm into.

Pokey said
I finished Soma a few days ago and must admit that it that it is now one of my favorites. It wasn't horror so much as just exploration to advance the story. It is a great story with locations that feel real. After the beginning, I didn't open drawers or lockers, since there usually wasn't anything in them. The recorded stories provided by the dead were helpful and sad. I liked the ending, though it was a bit startling. The game had the feel of System Shock 2 without the terror. It was a bit scary at times.  

Oh I'm so happy to hear that Pokey! I'd just gone on holiday when I read your post so haven't been able to respond.

Haha, you must be tougher skinned than me! I very much saw it as a horror game because it scared and terrified me on a number of levels. There's the odd jump scare in there but they're not overused or cheap either. I definitely think, however, and I agree with you on this, that it's not so much about the horror as it is about the story, and the place. Yeah, the ending is one of my favourites too.

I have The Long Dark, which I'm hoping to play soon, and picked up The Sexy Brutale.

Oh, and I completed Transistor. I was absolutely convinced after a good 8-10 hours playing that I wasn't going to come round to enjoying it. I was wrong. The last third or so of the game totally won me over. I dare say it'll stay with me longer than Bastion did. It's got its quirks but in the end I found it a worthwhile experience, thankfully. Gorgeous Art Nouveau/Art Deco visuals with some lovely Gustav Klimt influences in there too.

I've heard that "beating" Nier Automata once won't fill you in on much of the story, and you need to do it two or three times. I also hear you're not replaying the whole game, and the latter playthroughs have less to no repetition. I thought I had a copy at last, as it was back on amazon, but after two weeks they canceled the order. So I'm back on the hunt for this game.

In the meantime I've been playing Pyre and enjoying it so far. It's from Supergiant (the Bastion, Transistor people) and it feels like a game from them (I've played only Bastion) in that it's just doing its own thing and I dig that. This game is mostly a semi-interactive visual novel, with bursts of a really cool sports-type game that's kinda like weird basketball. The story is band of people cast out of their society join up for road tripping and weird basketball. On the whole it's pretty cool; I've probably put in 6-8 hours already. The first story...twist isn't the right word but, the first sort of story revelation seems kinda same-y and been done already, but I'm sticking with it regardless because the characters and setting have snagged me. The writing is also good enough too.

Quick comment on headphones. I've got a nice pair that are great for going back and forth from PS4 to PC. The Steelseries Siberia 350. Good compromise on quality and price. Their best feature is comfort; they can be worn for hours and won't hurt your ears. Anyone who has experienced this with headphones (I wear headphones a lot) knows what I'm talking about. So yeah, if you're looking for inexpensive, good all-around cans for console and computer gaming (fine for music too!), those ones have my stamp of approval.