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It's time once again for Sacred Symbols x Defining Duke! This time, a trio of us -- yours truly (Colin), Cog, and Dustin -- take some time to go through our ecosystems' two dueling consoles, the PS5 and XSX. With two years on the market and lots of user engagement and promising numbers for both machines, we thought we'd reflect on how they've done over the last 24 months: The highs, the lows, the games we loved and those we thought missed, and more. We also delve deeper into games we've been playing as of late, from God of War: Ragnarok and Pentiment to Warzone 2 and Somerville, to get some more of those good old-fashioned opinions out into the atmosphere.

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Shane Geis

Called Halo a 7 lmfao it scored a 88 was peoples choice GOTY…..DOMINATED the gaming industry for 7 weeks at the holidays……it lacked content…..Lmao at Colin smarmy faux outrage over halo….worry about your sad dad simulators

LastStandMedia

I'm not outraged; I think it's hysterical a company that big couldn't even handle their biggest IP. Embarrassing.

Shane Geis

They struggled with live service elements like almost every single live service game ever has……but to act like it’s not a phenomenal game that was critically reviewed and dominated gaming for 6 weeks is just funny

Shane Geis

Lets see how Factions does as a game and with its live service……and that’s much easier since they don’t have to build a whole story campaign off of it also….it should be phenomenal with no issues.

Out_Of_Focus_Bigfoot

Definitely did not have 'Colin shouts out Kotaku for good writing' on my 2022 bingo card, but here we are. What a time to be alive

Noah Friscopp

The worst part about Halo is how beautiful that first amount of time with it was, despite the issues. It is appalling. Forge is awesome but way too late.

Tick Dickler

Cannot recommend pentiment enough too, colin. The only satisfying murder mystery I’ve ever seen in a game.

Jim Capron

This was a great discussion. Regarding God of War, I actually agree with Colin in that I significantly prefer Horizon Forbidden West (and Zero Dawn) over both God of War games. To each their own though.

Anonymous

I don’t know if maybe you misspoke Colin, but why would you think God of war ragnarok and horizon forbidden west couldn’t be played on Series S when they are playable on ps4?

thefury4815

I 100% believe that gamepass is gonna go up in the next 2 years. If you don't have an Xbox going through all access is the best way to get one because it comes with 2 years of gamepass at a flat rate. I pay like $35ish a month for the series x with gamepass. I could pay it off faster if I wanted but it's interest free. And it'll not go up in price. Even when gamepass goes up it doesn't matter because you got 2 years upfront with the purchase of your Xbox.

Ryan Zimm

I think the reason Horizon doesn't quite work for me and others is because the characters are just awful. Alloy and side characters are just really bland and unlikable. The other issue is that the game is gorgeous....but the premise of the game is absolutely ridiculous. So it just feels off. We have these hyper realistic characters that talk like Joe from down the street....yet they are dressed like they just came from a bad comicon. It just doesn't work for me. If the art direction was more stylized, it wouldn't be so intrusive. That said, only a crazy person would think the story and characters are worse in God of War

Mark Whittington

We need more of Colin and Cog together so I feel less like an old git compared to all the younglings. Agree with Colin though, platform holders are best when their backs are to the wall, when they're on top they get lazy, greedy and complacent. MS were guilty of this going into the XBO gen, and we got Gamepass out of it as they tried to come back, same as we got PS+ when Sony needed to claw back PS3 market share.

Mark Whittington

I don't think anyone doubts it. However they've got a lot of room to maneuver before it's so expensive I'd rather buy games individually again.

thefury4815

I still buy a lot of games individually but it's a nice service to try stuff out and play first party games

Craig Mcguire

Halo is simultaneously 343s best offering for a Halo game (it is a good game) but also one of the worst attempts at a live service in recent memory. I remember after the game launched and HCS Raleigh happened the Halo community was energised, there was so much good will and excitement for the future...... shame.

Dennis Johnson (edited)

Comment edits

2023-01-05 01:33:00 I think the people "sleeping" on Forbidden West and GT7 are entrenched in the gaming community. All the normals are buying these titles and loving them. We just don't hear because they aren't listening to podcasts or in message boards. Forbidden West is easily my game of the year, and I had a fun reminiscent of GT3 with GT7. Ragnarok has definitely gotten way better and I think it'll jump over 2018 for me, but so far 25 hours in, it's still second fiddle to Forbidden West, which to me, is a great thing for PlayStation. It shows that even when they start to make live services titles, these core games will resonate with the audiences well outside of our tiny super niche community.
2022-12-01 17:32:01 I think the people "sleeping" on Forbidden West and GT7 are entrenched in the gaming community. All the normals are buying these titles and loving them. We just don't hear because they aren't listening to podcasts or in message boards. Forbidden West is easily my game of the year, and I had a fun reminiscent of GT3 with GT7. Ragnarok has definitely gotten way better and I think it'll jump over 2018 for me, but so far 25 hours in, it's still second fiddle to Forbidden West, which to me, is a great thing for PlayStation. It shows that even when they start to make live services titles, these core games will resonate with the audiences well outside of our tiny super niche community.

I think the people "sleeping" on Forbidden West and GT7 are entrenched in the gaming community. All the normals are buying these titles and loving them. We just don't hear because they aren't listening to podcasts or in message boards. Forbidden West is easily my game of the year, and I had a fun reminiscent of GT3 with GT7. Ragnarok has definitely gotten way better and I think it'll jump over 2018 for me, but so far 25 hours in, it's still second fiddle to Forbidden West, which to me, is a great thing for PlayStation. It shows that even when they start to make live services titles, these core games will resonate with the audiences well outside of our tiny super niche community.

Raymond Stuart

Great episode. But COG, my man, you missed some key points on Xbox and Colin’s view that “these aren’t Xbox’s games” - Psychonauts 2 - dev said without Xbox, they would have had to cut 30% of the game - Starfield - probably would not have been allowed to be delayed without Xbox backing; Bethesda would have been under more pressure to generate revenue - Grounded and Pentiment probably wouldn’t have been created without GamePass and Xbox support And Halo Infinite is not the complete disaster that people say it is. Just compare Battlefield 2042 vs Halo Infinite Launches and, as much as multiplayer has been panned, had an 87 on metacritic despite not having coop or multiple biomes for the single player campaign. Phil Spencer has created a culture that empowers his teams, gives them support and freedom, and is truly focused on the player.

Raymond Stuart

We all have blind spots. None of us, including myself or you, are truly unbiased. But in our honest attempts at analysis it is not weakness to give credence to other views even when we don’t agree. Nothing I said invalidates your criticism but I think they are reasonable nuances to consider. Keep up the great work.