Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

@JohnnyShoulder It's my favourite official corporate account on Twitter, along with Devolver and a few others.
PlayStation AU is also better than most but not this good.

@Voltan Ay, those are pretty good too!

SW Jedi Survivor is delayed until April 28. Right in between the Horizon DLC and Zelda.

@Octane Given the fact that a lot of folks criticised Jedi: Fallen Order for being a bit buggy at launch, I'm actually a tad impressed that EA allowed Respawn a little extra time for polish. Means I might have to rush Burning Shores though, or wait until I'm done with Cal before getting it.

You're gonna be one heck of a busy gamer this spring, then!

@RogerRoger Yeah, for sure! I decided to give Hogwarts Legacy an additional two months of patches before buying it (I have a feeling it will need it), and PSVR2 and SW were launching soon after anyway, but now April-May is looking incredibly busy! I may get Hogwarts Legacy at launch after all!

@Octane For me, I think these kinds of decisions come down to what I'm most likely to see spoilers about, and then I prioritise accordingly. You're right though, as good as I'm sure Hogwarts will be, it also looks pretty massive, and so I'd say the chance for bugs will be high.

If you end up getting it right away then, for your sake, I hope I'm wrong!

@RogerRoger I’m not sure why I’ve never considered that tactic but it’s a good approach (prioritizing game order based on risk of seeing spoilers). I’m fairly lucky at avoiding spoilers though, seeing as Push Square users are mostly conscientious, especially in the launch period, and I rarely stray too far into the quagmire of other sites or YouTube unless I’m going straight there for a specific purpose. (Incidentally thanks for the spoiler warning on your recent MG Rising review. I’ll need to return to it after I get back with MGS2).
I’ve still mostly been able to stay naïve to the stories of Horizon Forbidden West and GoW Ragnarok, despite their popularity. Still, I do think I’ll do SW Jedi Survivor at (or around) launch. Same for Hogwarts. We’ll see. The launch bugs are definitely a deterrent though. There are already people saying that the Hogwarts performance mode looks pretty bad in the early access version.

@Th3solution No problemo. I'm always overly-cautious when it comes to spoilers anyway, but there's definitely been an uptick of clickbait headlines that seem to have a cavalier approach to spoilers. When you use an aggregate site like Google to quickly catch up on a certain topic, there's always a risk that the third headline in the list will blurt out a major cameo from the latest release. It's why I won't worry about Burning Shores spoilers too much (and therefore might delay getting it) because I get all my PlayStation news from this site, and I know that Sammy won't go sticking major endgame spoilers in his headlines. I do occasionally, however, stick "Star Wars" into Google and have a wider browse.

Of course, some spoilers are inescapable. I remember going to see The Rise of Skywalker at the cinema, a few weeks after Jedi: Fallen Order had come out, and a trailer for the game (naturally) played before the film got underway. Said trailer ended on a shot of Darth Vader and immediately, a guy sitting a few rows back from me swore, saying "Well, that's my Christmas ruined, then."

And if there's another franchise as ubiquitous as Star Wars, then it's Harry Potter. People will literally be buying hardware to play Hogwarts Legacy, and there'll be headlines about it everywhere, regardless of the game's state at launch, so I'd tread very carefully indeed.

@Th3solution I seem to be OK on the spoiler front as I've managed to avoid them for so far on such games as Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok.

@RogerRoger I caved in and bought a copy of Hogwarts Legacy. I don't really have a spine, I know.

@Octane If it's any consolation, I watched the latest preview about an hour ago and did the same thing. It looks bloody good.

@Octane Well, I doubt the game will expect you to play it standing up, so you'll be fine.

Awful jokes aside, I really hope it's in a decent state at launch. Sometimes release schedules just shake out this way, and it's fun to climb aboard a hype train every now and again.

@LN78 At least previews seem to be positive.

@RogerRoger LMAO. There's little hype though for me. I like the world and lore, but the game doesn't look amazing IMO. I'm also afraid they will gamify it too much and it will look out of place. I remember how the old HP games threw in these weird platforming sections in these enormous rooms that were suddenly there in the castle. I want them to keep it realistic, but with plenty of secrets for you to discover on your own, from hidden passageways and shortcuts, to hidden spells. Imagine sneaking into the forbidden section in the library at night, and finding a new spell in a book you wouldn't otherwise learn. I think my expectations are just too high, but we will see. I haven't really the latest trailers and gameplay videos either.

Not digging the create your own character though. I rather have a premade one. The ones I've seen in the trailers have no personality, they all look so bland. Just give me an established character, I don't feel the need to play as an avatar of myself in the game. Gameplay aside, something like Forspoken has so much more personality, solely based on the main character alone. Character creators never live up to premade characters IMO.

@Octane It might be a specious comparison but I got major "Arkham Asylum" vibes from the preview - that and a decent discount (to under £50) convinced me to pull the trigger on it.

@LN78 Yeah, I got it for €55 (<£50) as well, €25 cheaper than most games.

@Octane I agree that sometimes an established protagonist lends itself to a stronger narrative potential than a player created one, especially story-heavy games, but for an RPG in an established universe I think it can be advantageous to have a “create-your-own” character. I guess we’ll see how it turns out, but I like the idea of having an avatar of my own creation that I’m attached to for a game like this. Plus I think it was important to build in the options to create transgender characters. (not to open up the controversy, but it’s been explicitly clarified by marketing). Alas, we shall see, and sometimes player-created protagonists end up looking like they were dropped into a game and don’t belong there. However, I do feel like the world of Hogwarts will be the “star of the show” rather than the actual protagonist, so I think it will work out.

@Octane I get what you mean, on both points simultaneously. It's selling itself as "Hey folks, you can attend Hogwarts!" which is a lofty goal, and the frustrations will be found when you try and do something you wanna do and can't because the game has to limit itself for gamification reasons. If that true freedom isn't there (or can never be there) then sure, I can see how a pre-defined protagonist would sidestep that disappointment entirely. Here's hoping you don't hit too many limits.

On the flip of that, I do agree with @Th3solution that the real star of the game will likely turn out to be Hogwarts itself, and that simply "being there" will help compensate for any story shortcomings.

Shout out to those old games, though. I only ever played The Philosopher's Stone on PSone and you're absolutely right, as neat as it was to wander around Hogwarts and its grounds, it was forced to adopt its own cartoonish style to justify its level and gameplay design. It bore little to no resemblance to the movie it was released alongside, nor the book I'd just finished reading. Bless it.

@RogerRoger I played Chamber of Secrets on the GBA, which was fine, because it was a 2D turn-based RPG. But I played Prisoner of Azkaban on the GameCube, and I wasn't a fan of it. It tried to emulate the film and book, but fell short because it couldn't offer the same excitement. There's just a lot of expectations that come with a free-roam 3D game set in the HP universe.

Has anyone managed to install Forspoken off a physical disk? I’ve just tried and it’s not recognising the disk. My PS5 reads other PS5 game is fine, and it’s a completely new disk with no damage.

@Ryall Maybe it's a factory error?