Talking Point News, Talking Point Features

Shock and awe

Sony’s marketing team often bears the brunt of the entire industry’s ire. Forum posters lament the company’s inability to successfully build excitement around its products, journalists and bloggers ridicule the department’s shortcomings, and developers no doubt privately ponder why their titles aren’t receiving the...

Add to basket

We desperately want to love the new PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3. The redesign – which was introduced in customary calamitous fashion late last year – promised a prompter, prettier shopping experience. There’s no doubt that it delivered on the latter, with large ic

Storage insanity

The announcement of the PlayStation Vita’s price sent rapturous applause throughout the industry. At the time, many pundits had predicted that the handheld would cost upwards of $350 – a figure not unreasonable for a company that’s famous for the extortionate price of its consoles. The firm eventually disappointed its...

Smiles like sunshine

The sun has set on another work week, and like many of you, our attention is firmly focused on another weekend of gaming gluttony. To maintain tradition, we’ve caught up with a number of team members in order to learn what’s on their agenda over the next couple of days, but we’d love to know what’s keeping your consoles...

Upgrade incentives

With the PlayStation 4 now mere months away, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that its predecessor is not simply going to step aside. Sony has always done a stellar job of supporting its systems throughout the entirety of their ten year lifecycles, bu

Devil in disguise

The mere suggestion of Soul Sacrifice selling its spirit to the PlayStation 4 in yesterday’s Talking Point pushed some posters into a Black Rite-esque fury. Their argument: the PlayStation Vita needs exclusive games if it is to reverse its current retail predicament. It’s a fair response – Sony’s flags

Death and demons

Sony learned a lesson or two from Demon’s Souls. The platform holder actually helped From Software construct the cult title, publishing the release as an exclusive in Japan. However, the company passed on a western version, a decision that Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida rues to this very day. Following a successful...

Next generation sequel unsheathed?

Among the excitement for Ratchet & Clank’s big screen debut, the announcement of Heavenly Sword’s cinematic adaption sort of got lost in the shuffle. The flick was backhandedly referenced in a

Fresh to death

The heavens have opened where we are, which should give us the perfect excuse to spend the weekend inside. But regardless of whether the sun’s shining in your neck of the woods, we want to know what’s keeping your consoles busy over the next couple of days. We’ll go first, but don’t forget to leave your gaming agenda in the...

Early access and bonus maps

With third-party exclusives slipstreaming the saola on the rotten road to extinction, platform holders are putting a much greater emphasis on exclusive DLC deals. Typically, these arrangements ensure that content remains restricted to a particular system for a set period of time (sometimes indefinitely), with financial...

Move aside?

Contrary to what Sony initially promised, the PlayStation Move didn’t really change anything at all. You’ll struggle to find a bigger fan of the two Sports Champions games than this particular author, but the motion device seems to have fizzled out swifter than a budget sparkler on a stormy Bonfire Night. Despite this,

Increased attention

For as few exclusives as there are these days, the word still gets a lot of mileage on message boards. Lists have become a profound form of ammunition among system soldiers, with elite titles compared and contrasted in increasingly heated wars of attrition. But how important is exclusivity to you? And does the aging concept...

Pay, create, share

The current goodwill surrounding the PlayStation 4 will almost certainly come to an end at some point. There comes a moment in every system’s build-up where the early enthusiasm is replaced by a wave of negativity. This onset of scepticism typically stems from the hardware in question’s price – or, in the PlayStation...

Breaking tradition

Sony’s been frighteningly non-committal regarding the launch timing of the PlayStation 4. While the platform holder flashed up the words ‘Holiday 2013’ during its big PlayStation Meeting press conference earlier in the year, it’s failed to really elaborate on the window since. “The precise details, as I say, for exact...

All of the day, all of the night

With the curtains closed on another week of work, it’s time to put away your pens and focus on some good old gaming. Once again, we’ve managed to coax several Push Square team members into sharing their plans for the weekend, but we want to know what’s filling your itinerary, too. Feel free to submit your...

Setting the scene

While it’s difficult to topple the trembling sense of anticipation that comes when you greedily tug at the cellophane concealing a brand new piece of hardware, watching said system’s startup screen for the very first time gives the momentous occasion a run for its money. Ever since the very first PlayStation took the world by...

Head-on collision

A console launch wouldn’t be complete without a racer to highlight the hardware’s technical strides. DriveClub, a new team-based vehicular experiment from MotorStorm developer Evolution Studios, represents the PlayStation 4’s first foray into the high-octane arena of next generation motorsport. But while the social...

Chugging along

Buzz is an important thing in this industry. Publishers invest millions of dollars into marketing teams, community managers, and press events to ensure that their games launch with the maximum amount of excitement surrounding them. New hardware releases tend to manufacture that anticipation all on their own, but just because the...

Better, faster, stronger

We love our good old pal the PlayStation 3, but even we can acknowledge that the console is not without fault. Its complex architecture has proved a headache for developers ever since its release almost seven years ago – and it's resulted in some less than desirable ports being published for our favourite machine. But...