Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

@render I hope not So far Sony's been steering clear of that and I'd rather they kept it that way.
Either way, I won't mind funds getting added to my wallet just for playing games

@render So the Push Square piece says it's not NFT's but I'm not sure where they got the info from
Edit: the other Push Square piece clears it up

@Voltan sounds pretty interesting that… about time Sony done something akin to Xbox rewards.

@Voltan That's great to hear as I really hate the idea of NFTs. It'll be interesting to see what these actually entail then, weather you get some form of digital collectables shelf on the console or something like that.

Agree with @Voltan
If Sony wants to occasionally give me funds for the wallet for playing games, getting trophies then they have my permission and my blessing. Not as if I wasn't going to be playing games on my machines anyhow...

Why is there so much hype around the game Stray? Can anyone explain?? I'm sure I saw some video of it on one of the state of play thingies and it looked ok but Not earth shattering. I am surprised by the amount of comments about people's anticipation for it on various articles.
Anybody?

@JudgeDredd basically...

@JudgeDredd
I thought there must be more to it than that but that I had missed something.
I don't particularly like cats.
I think they are disloyal and duplicitous.
...
Also you can play as a cat in Cat Quest. And you get to kill dragons with swords in that.

@sorteddan I've always wondered that myself. It could end up being a very good game, but I've never been that interested in it. I get it to an extent now that people will get to play it for "free", but still, nothing other than the graphics really stood out to me.

Of course, there's always a chance that we'll look back on Stray at the end of the year and wonder why we didn't get it at the time. It's original, so I'll give them credit there. I still just have the base PS Plus, so I won't be playing it anytime soon, but I probably will give it a shot someday if it gets really good reviews. I'm just not on the hype train.

@KilloWertz
Totally, I'm not averse to it or anything, I didnt think it looked bad I just wasn't blown away by anything I saw or heard and was therefore surprised at how much people were anticipating it as a big deal. Like you say, if it reviews well I'll probably keep it on my radar as well.

@sorteddan I agree, I think the hype is a tad overblown and likely the announcement of it coming “free” to the service day 1 helped to boost its anticipation in the community. I think the Sony fandom look to it as a large boon in the race to keep up with the Jones’s over on GamePass. So it being the first release day inclusion has boosted the hype.

Overall, I imagine it will be pretty good though. It does sound like a creative and unique set-up. And I definitely give extra points to games that innovate or try something new.

Of course, no one really knows and the game may end up being a boring clone of every other game we have just with a photorealistic cat protagonist. But on the surface it looks unique.

But I am not a cat person either. Completely perplexed as to why people love them. And why cat people can’t just have one or two and have to have 15. So weird to me.

But I’m sitting on the fence about the game and waiting for reviews. If they light it up on the review scores then I’ll probably plop down the upgrade fee to play it on PS Extra. Maybe.

@sorteddan You play as a cat. Cats are cool.

Personally with Stray it just looks a bit different to the norm. And you play as a cat. Not sure what people have got against anyone being hyped for any game? I don't get the appeal of tons of games but leave people that enjoy them alone.

We always had cats and dogs in the household when I was growing up, so anything that highlights them get bonus points to me. Of course, that is not the be all and end all, if the game ain't any good I won't be playing it.

@JohnnyShoulder
I certainly didn't mean to suggest I was against anyone being hyped for the game, or any game for that matter. I was just looking for someone to explain what it was specifically that they were looking forward to about it.
So far all I've heard back is that it's a unique character and/or its going free day one. Which is fine, like I've said earlier I thought maybe I had missed out on something that some of our more attentive members may be more clued up on.

@sorteddan sometimes something just perfectly surfs the zeitgeist like Kelly Slater… It reminds me a bit of how excited everyone was for Biomutant prior to its release. Absolutely no shade to those excited… and I’m hoping it turns out great (as I do all games)… but apart from the fact that it’s from the Annapurna stable, I personally don’t currently see a great deal hang your hat on (and that’s from someone who loves cats).

@sorteddan I kind of got the impression that its 'Graphically' pretty and like most 'pretty' games, there is certain hype. It doesn't matter if the Game-play, story etc is strong or weak, first impressions matter and I feel that this is very much the case with this. The way the environment looked and some animations too sold the 'hype' for this.

I'm not saying Stray will have a weak game-play loop or Story, but that the visual artstyle is what contributes a LOT to the hype of a game prior to release. None of us know how it 'feels' to play and whether or not its 'engaging' enough to make us want to finish the game. Its also benefits from Sony's marketing and an 'exclusive' too.

Personally, I think graphically it looks quite impressive but nothing about the Game-play loop, Platforming around as a cat and the 'mystery' of why its world is populated by all 'robotic' humanoids doesn't intrigue me enough to want to spend money on discovering the answers. I'd rather put that money towards other games coming soon or maybe buy 'sale' games...

Its almost always the case where a game gets a lot of hype because of some CGI or carefully edited together collage of Game-play, Cinematic, theatrical camera angle, CGI and buzzword laden trailer and when it finally releases, the Game-play, story and even the Visuals in some cases don't live up to the hype. So much hype for Quantic Dreams 'Star Wars' announcement - just a CGI trailer and an idea of what era its set in - nothing really to get hyped for yet. However, a good first impression creates a lot of hype and I really do think that sometimes, people look at the 'visuals', get taken in by the artstyle and that stays with them until release, reviews or some other trailer/information impacts that - things like visual downgrades, F2P/NFT/MTX/Lootboxes, overly expensive pre-orders, lack of clarity about the game-play, poor reviews etc can all impact that hype.

Each to their own of course and as we all have different interests and preferences, I'm sure that some will absolutely love Stray and others will not. There will be some that complete the game at least once, and others that may only play an hour or so before moving on.

The way I look at it is I have a 'limited' amount of time to play games and EVERY game is competing for my time (some for my money too). Whether its AAA or Indie, 1st or 3rd party, brand new or 'playable' on my current hardware (via BC, Streaming or local), they are ALL ultimately competing for my time. If Stray interested me more than all the other games I have access to on PS5, Series X or PC (the Hardware I have set-up), then I'd buy it because I want to play it 'more' than anything else. However, if I have 5 games in my backlog, several other games of interest in Game Pass/PS+ etc and my 'limited' game time is completely filled, then I am not wasting money on something I am not likely to play - at least not until I have played 'everything' else that interested me more...

@BAMozzy Yeah, I think you described what for me happened with Forspoken. When I saw the earliest artwork, screenshots, and minimal gameplay they released I was so hyped. I counted it as my most anticipated PS5 game over and above HFW, Ragnarok, etc. But then we got to see more and the character dialogue came across so bad and the game world started to seem bland and my hype quickly took a nosedive. So I think there’s some strategy when marketing to show just enough, but not too much. I think human nature is we tend to be more curious about things that have a level of unknown mystery to them and we give some products the benefit of the doubt even when we don’t know what the full game is going to be. I think we all do it to an extent, because these things are all individual and subjective.

Don’t know how true this is but VGC just tweeted that PlayStation owners will be able to play through Stray for free this week, even if they don’t have a paid PS Plus subscription.

Sounds a little too good to be true but who knows?

Edit. In addition to the tweet, just found the article.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-owners-c...

@colonelkilgore The title is definitely clickbait - all they mean is you can apparently get a 7 day free trial for any PS+ tier if you're new to the service.

@Voltan ahh makes sense. I was in no rush anyway… think I saw a few posts about people wanting to play it at release though, so thought it might be of interest.