Finally got a bit of time with my co-op partner to finish A Way Out. Very fun to play through with a friend, lots of things to goof around with and a good story. A lot of fun little easter eggs too, especially if you’re Swedish.
That’s a +1, @PhantomFox .
Finished the third, and last, DLC for Just Cause 3; Bavarium Sea Heist. More blowing things up, this time with a very OP missile boat in the centre of the story. The rewards for this DLC would make mopping up the rest of the main game a lot faster… Insane weapons!
Well, that’s it for mopping things up… now it’s back to Game Pass haha.
That’s a +0.5 for me, @PhantomFox .
Another zero-pointer for me.
Bought and played through Bayonetta 3. Big Platinum fan here.
It’s great! It also has problems!
It runs poorly, pretty often. It looks about as good as a Switch game can, so there’s that. The big sin for me is the input lag. It just doesn’t feel very tight, especially when you aren’t playing as Bayonetta. The kit you have is the best in the series, but the game feel still hasn’t achieved the highs of Bayonetta 1, in my opinion. I also feel like I’ve soured on the Switch Pro controller over time.
It has a really great ending (in typical Platinum fashion) and it leaves room for more, of course. In general, the level design is wider and less focused than previously, which I personally didn’t care for very much, but it’s still fun on occasion to hunt for secrets and such. A lot of combat encounters are off the critical path, be warned. In terms of levels, it’s probably the most varied the series has ever been, but also, you don’t play as Bayonetta for a large portion of the game…and the game just isn’t as good when you aren’t playing as Bayonetta. Also, you fight a few of the same bosses/mini-bosses more than once or twice.
Overall, I enjoyed myself, but I don’t see myself replaying this one any time soon, and certainly not on this hardware. Determine for yourself how you feel about the voice actor controversy (not getting into it here) but there is a good game here.
The real shame is that Platinum isn’t making stuff for Xbox these days.
God of War Ragnarok is up next. Don’t bother changing my score for this one - I’ll finish it within a week or two.
edit - another zero pointer for me while I was waiting for God of War Ragnarok to arrive
Bought and finished The Pathless.
Highly recommended from me. It’s coming to Xbox soon (I played on PS5, it’s also on PC and mobile via Apple Arcade) so I hope more people will check it out. Annapurna/Giant Squid (makers of Abzu, another little gem). Kind of a shorter game - you can finish it in 6ish hours.
My copy of GoW Ragnarok has arrived, so that’s my main focus for the foreseeable future.
Shout out to Vampire Survivors for being an easy way to earn achievements for MS Rewards, too!
Works for me! If everyone else is good with it, we can go ahead with that. And I’m doing pretty well!
I’m gonna take a -1 for Sonic Frontiers myself. Having a lot of fun with this one, genuinely the most fun I’ve had with a game in quite a while! Should be done with it relatively soon, then it’s on to Pentiment!
Leaderboard - November 10th, 2022:
Sounds good to me.
No completions for me recently. I am 90 hours into Persona 5 Royal. I haven’t even made it to the third semester yet (think I have one more palace to go before that, but not sure).
That is literally all I have been playing, other than a few hours on A Plague Tale: Requiem. Between those two, Pentiment, and Sommerville I probably won’t touch my backlog until sometime in December at the earliest.
When does this year’s competition officially end? Don’t we have a window at the end of the year where we can buy games with no penalty?
It’ll end December 12th! So yeah, between that date and the new year, you can buy whatever without any sort of penalty.
+1 for me! Just finished Persona 5 Strikers.
Enjoyable story, but doesn’t compare to the Persona 5 Royal. Gameplay was decent, but I have nothing really to compare it to (this was my first musou).
I hope we get to see these characters again soon (they heavily imply more at the end of this), but we shall see with the presumed Persona 6 being on the way soon.
Zero Pointer Today
+1 Beat Pokémon Y.
-1 Bought Pokémon Violet.
Pokémon Y has to be my least favorite mainline game (I haven’t played Sw/Sh yet).
+1 Beat Pokémon Violet
The game itself is alright. Some really cool quality of life improvements, being dragged down by heavy technical issues, some bugs (at least I hope they’re bugs), and some weird design decisions.
I could really see this being a solid base going forward for Pokémon on console, but I truly hope the next game launches in a much better state.
This was the first game in the series since Black/White where I was able to enjoy a new entry with friends at launch. Had a little party Friday night with a couple buddies, then Saturday had 6 of us just gaming the day away. Was quite a fun experience and one that will probably lift my feelings on this game overall.
Looks horrible but then I have never cared for Pokémon in any shape or form. Glad you kinda enjoyed it though lol.
You’re on a roll lately! I’m buried deep in Game Pass and MP games still…
+1 for Sonic Frontiers! Very fun game, it’ll be exciting to see how they build on this game’s foundation. The open zones were a lot of fun to traverse around and fight minibosses in. The physics in Cyberspace felt a bit off, but I still found them to be really fun to replay. And the bosses, holy crap they went hard on these.
Leaderboard - November 22nd, 2022:
I just wish they could put more budget and time into the games. Pokemon with Xenoblade-level graphics would be amazing. But I guess they have no reason to, with how well they sell regardless…
Finished God of War Ragnarok last night. So, another zero pointer.
If you liked the 2018 game, this is more of that, turned up to 11. If you didn’t, this won’t change that. Me? I enjoyed the 2018 game, but it had some things I didn’t quite adore. Those issues still largely remain here, but the overall quality of the game shines through regardless. I’d probably give it a 9/10, maybe a little higher. I played on PS5, but I remain impressed they were able to get that game onto PS4. Giving those fans a workout! Anyway, I could say much more about the game but I don’t want to get into spoilers or nitpicks. It’s a great game, and you probably know by now if it’s something you’re interested in. It deserves a lot of the awards nominations it received (though I still think Elden Ring will win GOTY at most places) and I’d like to see this kind of game from more publishers…such as Microsoft!?!
As for what’s next…more Game Pass stuff, GOTY mop up, and maybe some backlog stuff if @profjjj wants to give me some competition before things finalize. (Some extra notice would be nice!)
Ha. I think I will finally finish P5R today. After that I will probably be playing some of the Game Pass releases from the last couple of months. So, I don’t think I am going to make a run at you in the last few weeks of the challenge.
If my plans change I will give you notice. 
Are you going through the DLC/true ending stuff?
Yes. Just finished. 1000/1000. I don’t care about perfect Gamerscore in most games, but I figured this one was worth it.
I enjoyed the story in the third semester. I would say it’s definitely worth playing for anyone who enjoys the game enough to finish the “base” game.
Overall, it is a fantastic game, but I was definitely ready for it to be over by the end. That’s not a knock on the quality, but at 125+ hours I was just ready to move on.
+1 for me. Beat Sonic Generations.
To say this one was a long time coming is a massive understatement (I unlocked my first achievement for this game on August 13, 2015). The last couple years I’ve been meaning to get back to this one and beat it, but just haven’t committed. Today that changed. Instead of buying Sonic Frontiers, I pushed myself to finish a Sonic game in the backlog while I wait for another sale.
Overall, I love the concept of Generations. Taking memorable moments from three eras of Sonic and mashing it up into one crossover game featuring the two most famous renditions of the blue blur. The controls were a bit hit or miss at times (as most Sonic games tend to be) and learning new mechanics even late in the game can be a bit annoying, but overall I enjoyed my time with this one.
Got a few more Sonic games in the backlog to go back to (Unleashed, Mania, and Colors specifically), but we’ll see if I get to any of those before I check out Frontiers.
Totally get what you mean, but glad it seems you still enjoyed it! 
Cool. The DLC was some of my favorite stuff from that game. (I played it on PS4 back when it launched in 2020, otherwise I would have been playing via Game Pass this year.) Great game!
@NierlyCrazy I own Sonic Generations via GwG and have a nearly finished Sonic Mania playthrough on Switch…maybe I’ll give them a go! Thanks for the inspiration.
edit - a few more zero pointers for me, Stray and Vampire Survivors. I’m not as dour on Stray as some people here, though I think it’s a wee bit overhyped. There’s still a nice game there. Vampire Survivors was a game I bought a few months ago on Steam, but didn’t mention here because it’s sort of a roguelite, and there was some discrepancy on whether those count for this challenge or not. Well, I rolled credits on it on Xbox this week, so my journey with it has mostly come to a close. It’s a cool game, and great for podcasts.
@profjjj We’re coming down to the wire here, with the contest closing next week. I’m able to spend my weekend playing some stuff to further my lead, but I’d rather work through Game Pass/GOTY season stuff. Gentleman’s agreement - do I need to change my plans?
+1 Finished Fire: Ungh’s Quest.
Not sure if we should count this one or not, but I finished Crazy Taxi too. I’m fine either way on this one.
My backlog if I find a PS5 in the Free buy window:
You and me both man.