Topic: Ideas for the site.

FWIW I do think traditional reviews are a bit outdated (even if I stil read them myself).

I like it when we have the "review round ups" on here for big games. Podcast and YouTube shows are probably my favourite form of reviews at the moment because you can often just get a natural conversation about a recently released game and two or more people can just go back and forth on what they liked and disliked. Written reviews are always a little too formal.

@roe I think reviews are still relevant in as far as warning of general bugs but one man's rubbish is another man's gold, I would never base my buying preferences on a review but it's still nice to hear an opinion

I actually like text reviews over video or audio reviews for the most part. I find audio and video reviews take much longer and therefore more work to get through. I can read a review quickly, a video review? I really want that review because that's a lot more time and effort. I don't understand why a video review is supposed to be easier unless you weren't taught to read well or something. It doesn't make any sense at all. It takes a lot more time.

@Jaz007 A video review you can have in the background and still listen while you do something else. You don't necessarily have to watch it as most of the time it is just gameplay footage.

As it's a new year, I just wondered if there's anything content-wise you wanted to see? Something maybe that you're getting from other sites that you feel we aren't doing a good job at? Or maybe something you wished you could get from a games site that no one is doing?

@get2sammyb More retro reviews and stuff from @JamieO

@get2sammyb I’d love more VR reviews, even though I understand time and returns might not allow for it as much as I like.
Follow up articles for polls. You often poll us, but there’s never a follow up to see the result. I feel like it would make for an easy extra talking point. A reason to see the results after a week or so.

@Tasuki Love it! Did you hear that @JamieO? The people have spoken, man!

@Jaz007 I absolutely love doing the VR stuff, it's always been a bit of a passion project for me. We'll definitely be carrying on with that. I quite like the idea of follow-ups on Polls, I'd never really thought about that. Good suggestions!

@KratosMD This is an ace idea, but I think the reason we don't do more of it is because it can be hard to fit stuff like that in — especially when the games are already flying under the radar to begin with. I hear you, though — good suggestions!

@get2sammyb The site has great content in general and is my daily “go-to” for PlayStation information. That said, a few ideas come to mind.
1) I’d enjoy more game hands-on previews if possible. I know sometimes information is limited and privileged but it would be awesome to see a few official preview features of some of the most anticipated games. The site does a great job at breaking news about upcoming games and snippets about new info and has the “FAQ / Everything You Need to Know” bullet point features of the big games, but I’d like written reports of, for example - what are the gameplay features of Days Gone, what are the characters in Sekiro, how does Metro Exodus handle and what is the mood of the game ... etc. Basically, how is a certain highly anticipated game shaping up so far. I guess similar to the cover stories Game Informer does on upcoming titles, but less voluminous and wandering, and more targeted for a quicker read like your reviews are. I clicked on Push Square’s heading ‘features’ and then clicked on ‘previews’ and the last official hands on preview that came up for the site was Yakuza 0 on January 12, 2017. I know you all have breaking info on upcoming games in different formats, but an actual hands on preview would be good for the big games. I realize you mentioned reviews are not particularly a big draw for the site, so maybe previews would also be a poor use of resources, I don’t know. Just an idea.
2) I liked the PlayStation character tournament we did last year. That was great fun. It went a little long, but i’d love to do another similar ongoing feature where we vote in a tournament style.
3) I really like the “Soapbox” feature articles. They are some of my favorite because it is a person’s thoughts and ideas and are usually about a hot topic, a debatable issue, or sometimes a forgotten niche aspect of a person’s gaming views. I know the comments sections can get a little testy on the controversial topics, but I just enjoy it when you all get on your soapboxes.

That’s all for now. 😄

@Tasuki and @get2sammyb — Great stuff, thank you kindly for mentioning my retro reviews here, mate. I appreciate the shout-out!

I'm away for most of this weekend, but I have an idea for a PSone retro review that relates to a big PS4 remake releasing on Friday 25th January, so I'll pitch the review to Push Square next week.

Have a good weekend, and cheers again!

@JamieO love your articles always!

@get2sammyb Anyway, I would love a podcast or original video content, like a talkshow. I know that's too much to ask, though!

@Th3solution Thanks for all the feedback. I think the previews tab in the menu isn't working properly so that needs to be fixed, but I agree with you that more hands on articles would be good. Access is the issue in these cases, but that's a good suggestion.

Yeah, definitely something we could explore with regards to a new character tournament type thing maybe in the future. And I think we all like writing Soapboxes, so that sounds good to me.

@Kidfried Not too much to ask, just needs to be viable and time effective. Thanks for the suggestion!

@JamieO Not a problem mate. I really enjoy your insight on the retro scene and especially loved your write up on the Castlevania collection. Enjoy your weekend!!!

It’s useful to know when game being reviewed it’s similar to another game and whether that game is better or worse.

The ads here are getting worse lately. I've noticed a lot of annoying viagra adverts here in the last day or so. Any chance of getting them blacklisted or removed from the site?

(And before anyone asks, it has nothing to do with my internet search history. I've not looked at any viagra products, and I still get those ads even if I've logged out of Push Square and using private browsing on a different device.)

Image of one of the ads:
https://i.imgur.com/swxabsU.png

@crimsontadpoles As you are based in the UK I think you need set your ad prefences to personalised. That is what I've done since GDPR came in and I get ads from sited like Shopto and GAME.

@JohnnyShoulder Yes I'm in the UK, though I'm reluctant to enable personalised ads. It's more tracking, and from past experience their suggestions are just as useless as regular ads.

@crimsontadpoles I see your point but the way I see it, it is the lesser of two evils. It takes awhile for it to kick in I found.

Edit: I also found that on some sites it doesn't work and I still get random ads for stuff like DFS or apartments in London (I don't live in London and have never ever shopped online for a sofa lol), but I don't recall seeing anything for vigara. But these are sites that I don't typically sign into.

@Kidfried Sorry for my late reply, but cheers lots for your kind comment on the previous page.
I'm really pleased that you enjoy the retro content on Push Square. Nice one!

@antdickens Can you make the way lists are handled in the comments differently?

If I write a sentence starting with a * or a - in the comments, it just removes that character. I don't think we need a complex listing styling for the comments, but not removing the bullet character would make more sense than how it is now.