PS Blog readers showed up for Guerrilla’s long-awaited follow-up, but Elden Ring fans made a strong effort.
It was a fierce battle, but Guerrilla’s far-future follow-up rose to the top of the Players’ Choice poll for February 2022. Tarnished around the world didn’t go out without a fight, though — FromSoft’s exemplary open-world debut took the runner-up spot for the month. Congratulations to both teams on the well-deserved recognition!
Salutations! This is going to be a tough one — I can only fit three games in that image up top, but there have been some quality releases these past few weeks. Are you finding time to play everything you want to, or are you having to make some tough decisions?
Hit the comments and let us know what’s claiming your gamin’ time… after voting in the poll, of course.
How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation.Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. Soon thereafter, we’ll close the polls, tally your votes, and announce the winner at PlayStation.Blog. PlayStation Store will also showcase some top Players’ Choice winners throughout the year.
What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? In keeping with our long tradition in the Game of the Year Awards, remastered or re-released games won’t qualify. Ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds and remakes like Demon’s Souls and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will.
How are nominees decided? The PlayStation.Blog and PlayStation Store editorial teams will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll. Write-in votes will be accepted.
It is a shame but what bothers me more is the inconsistency and bias in the media and with critics.
Forbidden West is a better game than Horizon Zero Dawn. In virtually every area it’s significantly improved yet it has a lower Metacritic. The reviews honestly baffled me. I saw so many that read like 10 out of 10 only to give it an 8 or 9. IGN started their review by comparing forbidden West to the most improved and greatest second acts in recent history. Uncharted 2 and AC2. The reviewer absolutely gushed over the game and went on to specify in detail why it’s than Zero Dawn. I know different journalists review different games but it just looks bad when you go on about how much better this game is yet your publication gives it a worse score. HZD scored 9.3 and HFW scored 9. It’s still a fantastic score but that review definitely read like a 10. I saw many other of you say it was better and only give it an 8. Then you had about four 6 out of 10 scores that were pathetic reads.
Stevivor is known to have a bias and a vendetta against Sony and somehow got his hands on a code and gave the game a 6.5. He gave Halo a 9.5. He scored quantum break higher than 2018 God of War. He gave State of Decay 2 the same score as The Last of Us 2. He gave Demon’s Souls Remake of 7.5 (92 Meta) and Zero Dawn a 6 or 7. I can’t imagine what he will give gt7.
Another site that was on Metacritic gave Forbidden West a 6 while admitting it’s a really good game they said they just didn’t feel the magic. Every game is going to have one or two egregious reviews but this was too much. The game deserved better. And on top of that Elden Ring scores 97 while having some significant undeniable flaws just by observation. I’m sure the game is absolutely spectacular but to score a 97 with the technical issues that game reportedly has and the reused assets, animations, and formula for a new IP. They did evolve by adding an open world and other elements and the game probably deserves great scores but to get so many perfect scores while having issues baffles me. Then forbidden West gets deducted for pure nonsense in many cases.
killfeedgaming
Your wrong it didn’t get overlooked this time people loved it and were expecting it because of the 1st but it still doesn’t hold a candle to elden ring especially since forbidden west is just more of the same nothing to new I’ve played thru the whole thing already
Strangeheaven
@Iamtylerdurden1
Dont pay any attention to these critic reviews. Half of them can’t even write English properly let alone play the full game from start to finish. Also it is known for some reviewers to receive back handers to bump the score higher.
As for Horizon Forbidden West, well I have not played the game yet. I did play the first game. I never did like Aloy as a character. She is annoying and blabs on about something about nothing all the time. I use to dread when she got in a conversation with someone. 😱💤
I did like the gameplay, combat and the machines. The Machines are the stars of the game.
I will buy Forbidden West later this year when it’s half priced simply for the Machines and combat alone. I’m not interested in the story and Aloy, I’ll skip all that rubbish this time around.
yentair
Yeah HFW will get overshadowed once again, which is a shame. They have such bad timing on release dates.
@Strangeheaven – I’m the complete opposite of you. I loved all the lore and backstory of the world. Horizon has an amazing sci-fi setup. Sorry you don’t care of any of it, because it’s the main draw for me.
iamtylerdurden1
@killfeedgaming
Forbidden West is just more of the same and Elden ring which is supposed to be a new IP isn’t?
You are absolutely kidding yourself if you think Elden ring doesn’t copy and reuse mechanics, formula, animations, assets and basically everything. The game is so janky it’s honestly embarrassing. The story seems to be another convoluted mess and the animations are literally pulled from demon Souls 2009. The open world is huge and that’s awesome but a lot of it is pretty empty. The controls are clunky and terrible. The visuals are mediocre. It can’t even hold the frame rate it’s one of the worst frame rates I’ve seen for a recent triple A. It disconnects and boots you and crashes. It uses the same clouded map and the same Ubisoft Tower principles. They added some minor things and put it in an open world with a jump button it’s no revolution.
I’m tired of people acting like Eldon ring is perfect and like there is something wrong with forbidden West when forbidden West is 10 times the production. I mean I sort of like graphics and production value but that’s just me. Elden ring has the same garbage NPCs who don’t move. I hate comparing games like this but if people start it I’ll finish it. Forbidden West graphically is levels above. The combat is superior. The story is levels above. The production value is a different ballpark. We can look at voice acting and open world activities and setting and protagonist and characters I can go on. All Superior in Forbidden West.
It’s actually laughable that people think forbidden West is just the same old thing but ER is somehow revolutionary. What’s even more pathetic is people who think forbidden West is lazy but Elden ring isn’t. Alden ring is a technical disaster with such lack of Polish it’s staggering considering this was supposed to be the big AAA George RR Martin new IP that’s going to sell 25 million copies easy.
SubtleBoarder
It’s not fair for my wallet. I bought Dying Light 2. Then HFW and then Elden Ring.
All purchased within a month. Then Triangle Strategy dropped plus all the great stuff coming out. I don’t even know what I am missing out on!
Ranger_River
What a month!
They are great games. They are all good.
for me Undoubtedly Horizon: Forbidden West
I really love #HorizonForbiddenWest.
iamtylerdurden1
This is one of the best release periods I have ever seen from January to May. If you own a PlayStation 5 the world is your oyster. Even if you have a PlayStation 4 the wealth of options are still enormous. And gt7 released today. Anno is in 2 weeks and then ghostwire, Salt & Sacrifice, Forspoken, and more all with imminent release dates. And stray is rumored to be coming soon. I’m also interested in weird West at the end of the month. Crazy.
iamtylerdurden1
Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most impressive games I’ve played in a while and a massive improvement. Quite frankly it’s a better game than Zero Dawn.
Blown away by improvements to the open world. Ruins are fantastic, NPCs mo capped, gear/skill tree is totally redesigned, combat is deeper, underwater exploration, mount racing, machine strike board game, settlements are improved, loads of new enemies, puzzles, your own base, better side quests, and QoL improvements across the board. The 3D audio and dual sense implementation is fantastic and it’s probably the best looking game I have ever played.
Horizon forbidden West definitely gets my vote but it truly has been jaw-dropping to see how many quality games are releasing on PS5. I’m knee-deep in Horizon and GT7 just arrived.
Tolq
“I am all for crunch to give me the most optimize game. Every facet of life has crunch to get something done especially in the last leg of a goal to obtain. All this no crunch is BS culture sensitive society garbage.”
What a load of rubbish. Whatever other point you may have been trying to make, this sort of entitled tone-deaf nonsense just makes sure that nobody sane will take you seriously.
Tolq
Lol, and here I am replying to the wrong comment. Nice going me 😉
iggie0716
I vote Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires, because this is the game I’ve been waiting for 2 years when it was announced in TGS 2020
darkangelgodzill
Can we please have our next state of play we really wanna buy god of war hogwarts ( or at least a new trailer along with Gotham knights and more
TheCollector316
The Witch Queen has been dominating my play time, so I have to vote for that one. What a great game Destiny 2 is.
SubtleBoarder
Let us pick top 3. This is a golden month for gaming. Dying Light 2, H:FW, and Elden Ring within the span of weeks? How am I supposed to decide. Yeah, Elden Ring and H:FW are amazing when compared to DL2, but if DL2 launched without them around, that would be THE game to play.
killfeedgaming
Of course it would be if the other 2 weren’t released because that would be the only one to pick to pick not very good at math are you