It's been a slow start, hasn't it? When you compare the first few weeks of 2021 to the excitement and speculation that came with the PlayStation 5 launch and the 10 months before it, the hand we've been dealt has been comparatively light. That's largely thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the teething problems of a console's first full year on the market, so we're taking this opportunity to do a bit of reflecting. Following an internal chat among the editorial team, we want to know what content you would like to see from Push Square in the future.
During our chat, the four of us agreed on a number of points the site already does well. Those are:
- Accurate, informative, and fun news coverage without ever misleading our readers
- Timely, to-the-point reviews
- In-depth guides campaigns for both major titles and niches (PS5 Guide: Ultimate PlayStation Resource, Astro's Playroom PS5 Guide, The Last of Us 2 PS4 Guide)
- List articles designed to answer questions or advise gamers on what to play (New PS5 Game Release Dates in 2021, Best PS5 Games)
- Prompt, reliable, and up to date coverage of events
- Community engagement
Maybe you agree with those points, maybe you don't. That's okay either way, so we want you to take this Talking Point as a chance to share your feedback with us. If you agree with the six points above, what other content would you like the site to cover? Do you want to see more interviews with developers? Is there a certain genre you don't think we're providing enough coverage? Would you like the community to be involved more as a whole within articles?
We've also got a YouTube channel, where many of our reviews are adapted for video along with original content. Do you feel a connection between the main site and our YouTube page? What other video content would you like to see?
While we think we already do a fantastic job of covering the world of PlayStation and everything that comes with it, we are always looking to improve. There is no Push Square without you, the reader, visiting us on a daily basis. That's why we're asking for your feedback and suggestions as we continue to cover Sony's family of systems. All we ask is you remain realistic and respectful with your proposals. As much as we would love to be covering the reveal of a big first-party title from Sony each and every day, that simply isn't possible. We'll be down in the comments below, responding to your feedback and taking on board what you have to say.
Comments 147
Nude women.
And stuff about Crystal Palace Football Club.
But mainly nude women.
I enjoy this site. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks!
Please less „All PS5 reviews“ etc. updates, these items often seem to cover the half of your items. Please more reviews of smaller games. Many of them also get published on Switch and Xbox , so why don‘t you share more articles with your co-workers from Nintendolife and PureXbox?
More articles about Brie Larson 😉
I do like a good developer interview, definitely more of that please.
I would enjoy seeing some fun competitions which involve the community here as well, with some small prizes for whoever wins. And not the boring comps where you visit a page, subscribe, retweet, etc. Something fun.
Not an easy ask I know. But you did ask!
@nessisonett Only if she's nude.
But even then...
I like the mini reviews. It's good to get a impressions piece on a smaller game.
I like the idea of the Soapbox articles but think it would be interesting to have a similar take from the community as well. Something like a community weekly highlight feature, with user submissions. Would be cool to see some of the commenters with strong views given a chance to air them for debate or discussion. Or even just cool stuff the community is doing. I know we have forums, but it would be cool to capture the community in the mainstream.
Also developer interviews are great, especially when it’s more about their personal guiding philosophy when it comes to gaming. Love hearing about how people shape games
Well certainly not stuff about Arianna Grande -__-
You guys are the best! Keep up the great work! The only PlayStation website I read every day! While I sometimes disagree with review scores and some of the general opinions in the comments section, it's in a healthy way. Can you run another tournament style thing like that #kratosgate thing a few years back.
Also, I second nude women haha
@ShadowofSparta Some kinda 'this month from the forums' feature would be good, I agree. It could highlight interesting discussions taking place. That does happen, right?
Weekly Knack retrospects.
Carry on Lads.....your doing Great in a Crazy World.
Retrospectives of older titles would make quite interesting reads, perhaps focusing on particular aspects of a game. Gaming moves forward at such a fast pace it would nice to look back on the wonderful titles from PlayStation's history.
Never change, Push Square
More reviews of smaller games
fewer facts, more puns
@Keyblade-Dan i don't think this can be emphasized enough
@ShadowofSparta not a terrible idea or i'd even take a Soapbox with two opposing views from the staff. Could be interesting.
It’s all good, I just come here for the funnies. Between this place, Nintendolife and Eurogamer I’m full to bursting, with one in my hand. So to speak.
Fewer articles that are only two paragraphs long with minimal information.
More journalism that doesn't rely on whats been said by people moaning on Twitter or reddit as if their opinion is news.
Articles that you actually care about on topics you personally are interested in. Inspire us 😁
More articles highlighting the indie scene and niche gaming in general.
Articles with headlines that are written in standard English. Theres no need to capitalise every word of a sentence. Eurogamer is the gold standard and they haven't resorted to looking like taboola advertising.
Writers being less sensitive to opinions about their articles, more tolerance for views they don't agree with.
A system where replies to comments are not separated from the original comment so all the correspondence is available at a glance.
Some simple competitions to win a PushSquare mug 😁
Nude Crystal Palace fans.
Only the female ones though.
@hypnotoad no point. They're all covered head to toe in tats 😊
Push Square is a joy to check in on every day. I especially appreciate the wonderful community.
I’d like to see a community tournament make another run like the PlayStation Character Tourney we had a couple years ago.
And any hope of resurrecting the PushSquare podcast?
@Hyperluminal
You've met the mrs then...
Love what you're doing but there does seem to be a LOT of PS5 game reviews, which is a shame as hardly anyone can get their hands on the console.
I do understand it is the next gen console but there is a still a hell of a lot of us will be sticking with a PS4 for a long time.
Review Scores:
I would love to be able to specify what is important to me in a game and have the review scores reflect that.
So someone who needs action and online play, doesn’t care about plot and wants good graphics would see a high score for COD, but someone who has said they want single player games with depth may read the same review and see a lower score.
I think this is achievable via “preferences” stored in cookies or along side user profile information, and have the actual game score on server side broken down into components.
This would solve the age old problem where game x and y are both 8/10 but clearly not equal... or the problem where somehow Journey got a higher score than Nioh....
@Th3solution Damn right !
@hypnotoad hahaha sure have. She beat me in an arm wrestle 😁😁 those Palace girls are tough.
I love that you guys review smaller titles and things that may go unseen on the PSN. I think more of that and the standard you’ve kept up this past year and most of us will be happy.
Less articles about celebrities.
Maybe take Sony to task a bit more, you also have a tendency to overly defend them when they're being criticised in the comments.
Big booty black women on pushsquare.i l🖤ve me black girl😍.haha🤔😱.word up son
All joking aside, this is my go to Playstation site.
I love it.
Apart from the lack of nude female Crystal Palace fans.
Anything with polls.
Always interesting to see what other people think
Push Square has always been my go to site for all gaming
But I hope you consider reviewing more AA games and cover more news from Focus, THQ Nordic, Nacon etc.
Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a decent game that you haven't reviewed for example.
@Mega-Gazz Reviews and scores are useless anyways, I never pay attention to then, too biased by personal opinions and "media" opinions.
I just go to YT, watch trailers and gameplay videos. That's all the review I need to decide if I want to play a game or not.
@hypnotoad Don't be "sexist" lol! Throw in some guys too lmao!
I love the site’s reviews of the smaller games, even the mini reciews, especially when I’m combing through the latest PSN sale and haven’t heard of half the games listed.
I always enjoy watching/reading about the work that went into making our favourite games. Any features you can manage to do that delve into this would be great. I think a greater understanding and appreciation of the monumental work and effort that goes into game development would be beneficial to all of us.
But keep up the good work, this is the only gaming site I bother to visit anymore.
This is my go to site for PlayStation news, and more recently reviews as well. I also like the round ups you do.
Frankly you and Nintendo life are my go to websites. So pleased purexbox got relaunched too.
I do think your guides could be a bit more user friendly though
Positive new ideas from yourselves have been the mini reviews. That's worked out really well for smaller titles that would normally be missed out.
I am not so interested on overall sales figures which seem to jeer up the fanboy crowd but I wouldn't want to have them go just because I am not keen on them.
As an idea, maybe when a reviewer reviews a title there's a short article/paragraph where we know what sort of games the reviewer enjoys.
Games are very subjective and so knowing what games/genres the reviewer enjoys would significantly increase the credibility I would give each review.
Just my two pence. Overall I love this site along with Nintendo Life and the resurrected Pure Xbox. I think these sites straddle the line between genuine fan and game journalism very well.
Help buying a PS5 would be a treat. Other than that just more game reviews covering a broader spectrum
@TheMadRabbid Agreed.
I had the original Playstation from Japan in the January of '95.
I want retro reviews of Ridge Racer and Jumping Flash.
Love the site apart from the celeb stuff wich I found out of place.
Love a recommendation section where Push Square reccomends games we would never play normally, and to get involved in feedback more and no more where to buy a PS5 as there impossible to find lol.
Main thing is we all get a voice and are entitled to our opinion as long as its not abusive or harmful.
But overall its a great site and you never going to be able to please everyone. Thanks for the content guys.
Ill start by saying that i love this community! That's what keeps me around. I like that it's a "safe" place and that toxic behaviour is not tolerated.
What would I personally like to see?...
If you want to give the community what they want then make this article a once a month thing. Ie on the 1st of every month ask US... What kind of articles would be interesting? Then cherry pick from the comments and makes some unique content from it!
-I think there's a definite lack of coverage on horror/fighting/smaller games. Many pass without a trace on the site unless its something trending.
-I'd love to see more articles that are not just general knowledge/existence about a popular game but more original/quirky pieces on a game or genre. Ie. Oh i dunno... How about..
-What would push squares dream games be like in each genre, dream platformer, dream RPG, dream fighter etc etc.
Oorrr
-an article about obvious movie influences in horror games through out play stations life time.
-a weekly write up telling us about the adventures the team pushsquare has had playing online together!
I could come up with interesting topics all day.
You know just little interesting things like that, rather than the constant SONY MADE THIS MUCH IN THEIR MONTHLY SALES,
ANOTHER GUIDE TO THE TRENDING GAME OF THE WEEK,
CELEBRITY X IS YADA YADA (NO ONE CARES ABOUT THESE IDIOTS LOL)
And just these very mundane articles that are weekly and even daily.
Less trending stuff, More inventive content. More looking back to Sony's past, people love nostalgia! Just do it in interesting ways.
I feel like the majority of the push square community are older more distinguished gamers. A lot of us have been around and playing games since the 80s. We don't care if fortnite has a new cardi b skin. I'd rather read a story about how the developers were originally influenced to make the game what remains of edith finch.
And I'd hate to see the site turn into some gross boys club, it seems to be heading that way. When it gets to be too much I'm outta here.
Sorry I'm generalizing something feirce but I hope my point is at least clear and I know it's just my opinion but I would think some of us here might essentially agree.
Drunk/Stoned Gaming
I do enjoy this site, so keep up the good work
Not sure why I even still visit this site. Feels like there hasn't been a Cyberpunk 2077 article in weeks.
Considering this is the only games site I enjoy visiting regularly, I'd say you guys are doing alright in my book.
@PossibLeigh
This site has a forum?
'Accurate, informative, and fun news coverage without ever misleading our readers'
Nobody is perfect and we all learn every day. That's to say you should know that you can do better.
Yes sometimes you can mislead or misinform or even post inaccurate info. That happens to every site, that happens to every one.
I really appreciate that you engage with your readers so please dont get offended by criticism or seemingly not flattering comments because that s more respectful and useful that just giving praise.
Regarding reviews, please understand that it's fair to question your opinion and shouldnt be derided as in 'it's an opinion so move on' like.
Readers are just as entitled to express their opinion and intelligent human beings can learn from one another.
Regarding news. Please move away from the tabloid like format of cutting a source into dozens of articles. Quality content should have one article from that source even long because it s more likely to keep the context and not be misleading. In a word aim more for informed gamers respecting their intelligence.
Regarding you tube. I would appreciate a sort of weekly roundtable podcast easy to listen to on the go.
Thank you
@thefourfoldroot Haha, exactly! Spot on, sir.
I'd like to add that sometimes PS can feel a bit like some boys club (seems even more so these days) so Itd be really great to have a female in house doing some write ups and reviews.
EDIT: and moderating
@Hyperluminal this so much!
I really like PushSquare as it is most of the time, so this comment is actually about what I'd like you folks to stop doing: placeholder Q&A articles. They have no content, just questions without answers. I do understand the need for clicks, but only post this kind of article if you have at least one answer to provide...
Apart from this, excellent work!
@PossibLeigh
I wasn’t even making a point, genuinely didn’t know, lol. I see now that I can scroll the bar across (on phone) to see the option.
Will take a look, Hopefully the community and moderators are not as toxic as at the eurogamer cesspool!
I'm genuinely curious, how does a modern day internet games site Manage things like reviews? I know in the opden days of mags the editors hand out the review assignments, but from what I gather, that's not how it works online? Do writers come to you and say; 'Hey, I've written a review. Are you interested?', or do you assign games to reviewers? If you don't wanna answer from fear of showing us 'behind the wizards robes', that's cool.
@thefourfoldroot I've dipped a toe, but not dived in. Looks sound though. Couple of interesting music chats going on. I've not checked out Eurogamers forum. Sad to hear it's not good. I quite like their comment sections, apart from all the phantom neggers. PushSquare does it better with just upvotes, I think.
This is a fine site. The news, features, and reviews are the parts I'm most interested in. I don't really care for the in depth game guides, if I need help in a game then googling it is my first instinct.
@hypnotoad Alllllllllll glory to the hypnotooooooooad O__o
Push Square have been doing a great job for the most. My main PlayStation site is right here. New content? I guess it would be pretty cool to do more articles on old school games from the PS1-PS3.
Actually talking about games that are out just as much as y'all give attention to games that haven't released yet. It's mostly like the hype comes to a sudden halt right after release.
@Keyblade-Dan All hail and glory.
More retrospectives on gaming genres across different generations. For example, perhaps investigating what people like/hate that have changed. You could use a combination of old school staff and younger staff to discuss changes in genres over time. I think as a community older and younger gamers can have their differences on what a great game is.
Plus I think this site mostly has a good balance between quality and quantity. Some sites seem to spam with lots and lots of irrelevant articles.
@CynicalGamer great idea!
@TeapotBuddha you know of any other ps sites that are female run or whatever? I've never even thought to look but that'd be awesome
Pushsquare is the best site for me! Keep it as it is. It's just great!
This is the only site I visit for PlayStation news, features, reviews etc. Aside from the up to date stuff I would enjoy some retro reviews or features, how do some of the older classics or famous titles stand up today? Maybe tied in with the context at the time and if the titles have a legacy beyond themselves
I come here for everything you guys offer. Really happy I found the site 6 years ago.
Syphon Filter retrospective video
Now we know what we say we want, I'm curious what types of articles actually get the most views and total reading time. There's often a disconnect between what we say and what we do.
As with @PossibLeigh & @MemSec , the reviews for smaller games are great. In fact, that's what first drew me to this site. I've found a lot of fantastic games thanks to this site, especially now that the Sony blog doesn't provide a comprehensive list of new releases.
Also, I was kind of dismissive of the guides when I saw them in the poll, but then I realized that I used your Astro's Playroom guide to find a few missing trinkets. I guess you really can't trust poll respondents!
I'd personally like to see some articles returning to older recent releases. I think with the amount service games, it'd be cool to see some second thoughts after a game has received more updates. Maybe after a year or something. I'm not talking about altering a review score or anything. Just a second look down the line of a game.
What spurred on this thought is I recently bought Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and it is really good actually. The amount of customization you can put into your own experience is really neat, and can make the game into the gritty tacticool game I thought it was, to a straight up looter shooter. The events are really cool too, and you can activate or deactivate them with setting world parameters.
I’m hear for news. Keeps me up to date. I rarely read the reviews and just look at the bottom for what the rating is. I like being able to get all my game news from here and not from 100 different accounts on Twitter.
Keep up the good work!!
Focus coverage on released games rather than adding to the hype cycle of games coming out in 2-3 years. I feel like half the news I have seen this year is has been "publisher x tweeted that they will release more info about game y at some point."
This would be a big ask, for sure, but the best format for reviews I’ve ever seen was found in the old EGM mags where three of the team would review a game. Three write ups, three opinions, three scores. The benefits are twofold: provide readers with a truly balanced and informative review free of bias which in turn keeps the comments section more balanced and content oriented. The ‘site score’ is an average of all three.
You could follow up with an actual discussion around the game, your opinions on it and why you agree or disagree with each other, organically creating more content. You could always experiment one time, if it sucks, forget it. But you never know just what might stick until you try.
Interviews are a standout for me and I would love to see more deep dives into the many different aspects of game making, like you have done with music. Perhaps you could interview animators, artists, level designers, script writers...
Overall I quite enjoy this site, have had some interesting discussions and met some cool folks. I appreciate that your articles are generally noticeably free of any biased sociopolitical nonsense and are informative, accurate and timely. I like that the staff engage readers. You have a good collective nose for interesting gaming news on the platform of my choice. I like that I generally feel free to express my opinion safely, which is frankly not even a thing outside of this site in gaming.
Honestly, I don’t feel the impact of the video side of the site whatsoever. Like, at all. If that is something you want to be more prevalent then more work needs to be done. It needs to be integrated into articles better along with a general higher presence.
Thanks for all of your hard work.
I really enjoy most of what i read on push square..the only gripe i have is on occasion an article has been written that on the surface looks as though its deliberatly trying to provoke an argument between some of us so maybe just a little more thought in how articles may be a bit too provocative..apart from that awesome site and keep up the sterling work..
Stop giving Ramsey all the RPGs to review. I want to see Sammy give Persona 5 the 3/10 it deserves.
@Constable_What That's a quality idea.
I would like more reviews, especially of AA, indies and import stuff.
I would love if you guys could do more "legacy content". PSP, VITA and PS3 need more love.
Features are always fun to read and your guides are useful.
I could live with less news. You put too much emphasis on those, especially rumors.
I do enjoy some of the slightly different pieces like @gbanas92 with his pieces on music in games and interviews along those lines.
I’m not a podcast person particularly but that could be good, particularly after big events.
News and reviews mainly for me, I like the forums too but just don't have enough time to play video games as much as I want never mind talk about them. I quite like the opinion pieces too! You guys do a great job! Have you thought about let's plays?
How about articles covering whatever sale is going on, with staff picks for the best games/deals in each sale. With relevant reviews linked (if they exist) of course.
Also the Nude women of Crystal Palace Football Club thing sounds pretty boss.
I'd like to see more discussion and articles about trophy hunting and its niche community. Otherwise you cover the realm of PlayStation pretty comprehensively.
Firstly, love this site, it's my daily go to.
As a born again gamer from the PS1 era I'm not madly interested in PS5 articles right now, but understand there's a readership for it. Similar to previous suggestions, I like the stuff about older or retro gaming, even relatively recently, and the quirky stuff, and the soapbox pieces.
I get the impression that a lot of the regular audience here is pretty laid back and possibly have come through a few gens of gaming, so anything to cater for that crowd is great.
Keep up the good work!
More reviews of niche Japanese titles. Sure you guys do the occasional ones like Atelier Ryza, however there's always a decent niche game releasing that deserves some more eye balls.
I love what you guys are doing. This is my favorite site, and most days my only site.
That said, I'd like to see more reviews of games that don't get a lot of attention, like Othercide and Cthulhu Saves Christmas.
Also, when you review a game that's Part 3, or Volume 4, or whatever, please don't review it as if you think we've played the first several in the series. There are games I THINK I'd be interested in, but when the reviewer takes for granted that the reader is familiar with anything, it comes up short on good information for someone who hasn't played a previous game.
Love the community here, and you guys should take some credit for that. You are what you eat, you reap what you sow, etc.
Oh, one more thing. I'd like a Bethesda update every day!
@Mega-Gazz Siftd has been doing this for years. You should check it out.
I want more reviews and coverage of new games... But wait... There is nothing coming out. I literally have nothing to play on my PS5 until maybe April, possibly May.
Nothing you guys can do about that. Much like Movie critics have been out of jobs the last year.
I fear we are going to hit a bubble soon where we get a real drought in about 2 years as a direct aftershock from Covid.
@mookysam I can read Metal Gear Solid reviews forever! Great idea
Wow, absolutely loads of responses here to read through. I haven't properly looked yet, but just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions.
I will go through them all for sure!
Honestly, I love the quizzes you guys do every now and then, make me feel like a true gaming geek
I'm a big fan of most of what you guys do. I visit nearly every single day, and I really like both the large quantity of info that you drop and the way that you go about it. But one thing that I would like to see is a lot less blind positivity towards what's coming down the pipe, and more candor and inside information on what so many people are having such a hard time getting their hands on new hardware and/or software. Rather than things like "Good luck to the 90% of you who can't find a PS5!" to actual reasons why things are the way that they are, and informed speculation about what will happen in the coming months and years with regards to that. And the same with regards to games that are known to be in development.
I’ve been following this site and NintendoLife for years, daily, and I’ll be honest I didn’t know y’all had a YouTube channel. To be fair I’m not a huge Youtuber but maybe some more videos linked to the website, some “let’s play” style videos where we get to know who works for the site and see them try new games or play funny co-op together. Besides that y’all Crushing it so keep up the good work
Oh also, small thing but the newest comments in this section are always at the very bottom, which can be annoying to scroll down. Maybe flip that? So newest comments are at the top and more easily viewable 🤷🏽♂️ Sometimes when ps plus games come out I have to scroll down the comments to see what people saying now about a game that’s 4-6 years old, when the first comments you see can be outdated
Like pretty much what u do already. My one gripe is reposted old articles that have no new information on it. That would be my only complaint.
No point in changing the website. Leave it as it is.
Dont just push square, push yourselves. Some deepdives into any elements of the history of playstation games would go down a treat. Serious gamers here and I love the soapbox articles but too little is remarked upon in detail about games any more than 6 months old. As a medium it now ranks alongside novels and movies but it's hard to find this kind of appreciation from IGN and the such. Incredible intros, unique control systems, bad games with unmissable moments, the birth and evolution of gaming tropes (classes, stealth mechanics, what the bloody triangle button is used for!) I would love to see some of the passion we all have directed towards articles that could send us down rabbit holes to discover under appreciated gems. I reckon the discussion on these would be on fire! Anyway, my two cents...
I would actually like a change to the comments section.
It would be nice if it was made easier to track conversations, so replies were underneath the replied-to comment, and also if you could sort by most replied-to or most liked, etc.
Basically make the comments more of a community.
This is the only gaming site I check daily, so I think you guys are doing pretty good.
What I think separates you from the bigger news sites is your gonzo style. It feels a little more personal and interactive and fun. I think the site should play into that further, with more personalized articles.
More opinion pieces from Liam or whoever on the overall state of gaming, hot topics in the industry, hopes/dreams/wants, that type of thing. Flex your creative muscles, don't just report straight news. I know it probably didn't go exactly the way he wanted, but Liam's opinion piece on GaaS last year was much appreciated. Have some real fun with it.
From Sammy, well that's easy - do a 'top 10 most fun platinums of 2021' or some such like that. Dude is obsessed with trophies, so take that passion and turn it into engaging content. Play into each contributor's personality and preferences.
Make the writers the star of the show, not just straight info delivery and news dumps. We can get that anywhere. Frankly, the other bigger sites get that info out faster for whatever reason, and I really don't think straight news reporting is your competetive advantage anyways (and I'm thankful for that).
Think back to the days of PSM magazine in terms of style and content. It's an old Playstation print magazine that ran in the US and had a cult following despite going belly up in the mid 2000s. You guys are the closest thing to them these days. "Ask the authors" sections, art submission contests with small giveaways to the winner, and a lot of opinion/retrospective/deep dive stuff. I miss that rag badly.
Two things is change:
First, if you have a video review then let us know at the top - it’s frustrating to read the review and then see a video I could’ve watched at the end of it
Secondly, the comments section. The down-votes seem to mean nothing. I’d like to see down-vote tallies, so I know what the community agrees/disagree with
I used to love how gaming sites would have articles like "the top 10 explosive barrels" or whatever. Sometimes we take gaming too seriously and, as much as I think it's important to discuss serious issues within the industry, I also think some articles can be about dumb fun.
It's a big ask, but investigative journalism. A lot of "news" is just repeating what you've read or been told - and that's probably how most articles here will always be.
However, generating new and interesting content via investigative journalism is extremely engaging. If the article is about crunch, don't just point us to tweets - contact some developers first hand and get original information.
If a highly anticipated game sucks, make some calls and find out why - if you can't get ahold of people super close to the topic then at least speak to someone who's an expert on the topic.
If you theorize that PlayStation is abandoning Japan, don't just cite the Bloomberg article - get some of your own first-hand information.
It would take time and effort to do this, but you'd truly be able to offer something that people can rarely find elsewhere.
Honestly, I think drop news altogether. Appreciate it ticks a KPI around unique page views or sessions, but it’s kinda boring stuff that you can find on any other site. Also know that news is quick to turn around but that effort could be poured into other aspects of the site. Love to see more in-depth features or build out taking points on YouTube/podcast - more of the taking control of your own narrative because when you do that, the content excels. May feel to go against the grain to ditch news, and the short-mid term you’ll take a hit, but the long term gain will strengthen the brand and your voice.
@PossibLeigh Thanks!
More polls and more questions in those polls. I''m a sucker for a good poll.
@Thrillho Awwww <3
I've been doing some thinking, and I've got some ideas to improve the site.
I got it right here.
1: John Cal McCormick needs to be louder, angrier and have access to a time machine.
2: Whenever John Cal McCormick is not writing the article, all the other writers should be asking, "Where's John Cal McCormick?"
3
This place is already my number one website for all my ps news, I like it's not only covering big games but niche one too 😃
I'd like reviews of older, more obscure games, that are worth playing but got buried in the store...hidden gem reviews, if you will!
Can you cover more Post Malone and Katy Perry? Can't let NL get too far ahead of you. Then you'll never get to compete with the National Enquirer.
Seriously though, most of the 2020 content was great. Great interviews, reviews, news, community engagement. Even real talk about Sony's negatives rather than endless boot licking. It was really solid. It's a lull right now, but i don't have much to complain about how the content was handled. The excessive "random" category content gets tiring in general though. Very social media, not very serious platform fan site. NL has the retro gaming ezine angle, unique to them. In the past I'd have said the writing was too fanboyish, but it's actually pretty balanced in the ps5 era!
This site and Nintendo Life are the only sites I use anymore for gaming news.
As a physical games collector, I love hearing about good indie games getting physical copies. I often hold out on many of them in hopes of seeing a physical version one day. While I usually only collect for Switch there is a lot of overlap of indie games between the two consoles.
Less click bait articles. We all know that cyberpunk was a train wreck at launch, we all know that a small but vocal section of gamers hated the TLoU2, we didn't need dozens of articles to tell us so.
Encourage the community to create more content and feature the best stuff on the main page.
I’ll tell you what I don’t want to see - stuff like that Ariana Grande “news”.
I would like to see more reviews on smaller indie games. Maybe some community competition. Weekly/monthly quiz, haven't had those for a while. This is my go to site so don't change too much
Do an 'Ultimate PlayStation Character II' poll competition series!
Nah for real just keep doing as you are. Still love this site and our community here ❤
I want to echo some of what others have said. The content is great, and so is the community. Unlike almost every other website on the internet, I ALWAYS read the comments on here, but it is sometimes hard to track conversations. Nested comment threads, such as the ones on Eurogamer, would be a wonderful upgrade in terms of funcionality.
In terms of content, I love studio profile features and interviews, so more of these are always welcome.
@JapaneseSonic yeah, what's he talking about?
Like many I'd like to see the comments section changed, even if at the very least you include an option to read newest or oldest comments first.
I think you're alright PushSquare, at least you genuinely try to be positive about gaming and don't make every second story be about identity politics or hate on straight males unlike a few other sites out there.
Articles like ‘All Resident Evil games ranked’ just so we can all loose our minds in the comments and tell each other how wrong we are 😬
One of my favourite sites already, my only comments would be:
Reviews - if you are going to stick with giving games an overall score I wish you'd go deeper i.e. score in multiple categories and roll up to an overall total e.g. Graphics, Gameplay, Sound, Replayability etc. My favourite YouTube reviews include ACG who does this really well (they also include SkillUp who does nothing of the sort!).
Features - obviously it's all about access but in-depth developer interviews would be appreciated whenever possible. They're the best kind of long reads in gaming.
Community - even if it's only half an hour a week with one core subject, what price a podcast (including sticking it on your YouTube channel)?
Keen to know if you think any of this makes sense, in the meantime keep up the good work!
I know you guys need the clicks, but sometimes there are just too many click bait stories.
Better thought through poll answers, not saying they can't be funny. If i recall correctly recently you had a poll about getting a PS5 and your answers assumed everyone here would be getting one literally as soon as they became available. Not everyone shared this opinion.
Robert did add an answer later to accomodate such a response, but this doesn't always happen.
After an article has been live for maybe a day any legitimate comments that have valid points relating to it are generally ignored, i know you probably can't go back and read everything.
But it would be nice to see some responses to comments that aren't made within an hour of the article going live, especially as many are relased in the midle of the night.
I visit this site at least once a day and really like it, i get that you guys are probably gamers first and journalists second, vast majority is great keep it up.
Definitely my most trusted place for reviews! For the YouTube channel I wouldn't mind seeing more discussion videos between all the editors on different topics.
@hypnotoad how about naked zaha?
I’d like you to avoid the (admittedly rare) Ariana grande type celebrity rubbish and do more developer interviews if possible.
Also, more reviews or recommendations of smaller unknown titles.
I realise these two things take much more time.
@TheMysticOne The question I'd then put to you is what do you consider clickbait? Can you provide some examples of clickbait stories we've published?
Genuine question.
1. More reviews on smaller titles.
2. More in-depth info on the smaller titles. So many games are released each week, and most of the smaller games aren’t talked about on other sites. If you’re wanting exclusive content that other sites can’t touch, that’s the ticket.
3. Q&A with smaller devs.
4. When there’s a lull in new games being released, revisit the best games from, say, this month two years ago and rank ‘em against, say, the games released this month three years ago. Include some polls to get user interaction. I love the PushSquare polls.
5. Reach out to devs and get the scoop on games they’re working on. Most indie dev games don’t get any buzz until the week they’re released. That’s a bummer. I want to know what’s in the pipeline!
6. When sales are announced, rank the top 5 deals.
Less Cyberpunk
I do find it baffling that you never seem to cover the elder scrolls online when it is a popular game with a strong fan base. I've also thought for community engagement you could arrange tournaments for certain games with a prize for the winner. But all in all I really enjoy the site it's the only one I use for my gaming news
I would like a cup of tea. Milk no sugar. Thanks for asking.
You guys do a great job. One suggestion - and I understand this is a Sony-focused site, but perhaps how some stuff fits into the wider world of videogames. Ripples of the splash if you will. Looking at trends in Japan, or what a microsoft hit means for Sony, or how games on other platforms took influence from God of War.
@Arugula lol u wot m8?
If you’re gonna do coverage on a game, publishing 12 articles with each one talking about a single feature about the game is strange. Maybe it’s because there’s not much to write about now. It would be great when say, Resident Evil, is released that you write each article greater in depth, rather than one article per game feature.
NINJA APPROVED
@get2sammyb Any way we can see an update to the comments section? It’s in desperate need of some kind of quote feature, so that when people reply to you three days later you know what comment they are referencing.
Sorting by newest/oldest would also be welcome.
NINJA APPROVED
What happened to Indie Bin?
This is my current go-to place for news and semi-substantiated rumors (other than Era) since I got a PS5. I’m hungry for that Death Stranding and TLOU2 remaster/patch!
One way that I’m disappointed is that no one is talking about how disappointing Tempest/3D audio has been save for in two or three games. I want Sony to feel the heat to get this fixed so it at least doesn’t worsen the audio experience for most games. Make it at least as good as Dolby for headphones.
@get2sammyb Hi thanks for responding, sat down for 30 minutes to check a few things out.
The main thing that sprang to mind was back when we first had the PS5 breakdown. Instead of having one article summing up, there were at least 10 short ones, all on the 18th march.
This did eventually morph into the ultimate guide, which is now a guide, not just a series of links.
And whilst i was back in march i came across this
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/03/nioh_2_update_1_05_available_to_download_now_on_ps4
New patch for Nioh 2, if you want to know what it does click this other link.
I have noticed that more recent patch updates have included the notes.
Just on Thursday we had an article at 4.15pm announcing Ratchett & Clank, then another at 5.30pm about the price.
Did we need both?
Having looked back the short articles that i seem to remember that don't really provide any info are now few and far between , so you have my apologies for that, i do think i am mainly refering to articles that could be one that are split up.
However like i said, you guys need the clicks.
Also it is me, if i am looking for something and i find an one of those articles that is a series of pictures that you have to click through to get all the info i just won't read it and will look elsewhere.
Since i found Pushquare it is very rare that i visit anywhere else and that's down to the team you have.
Thanks for reading, keep up the good work.
@get2sammyb if I had to say one thing it would be that sometimes articles are split up more than they should be for my liking, for example quotes from one interview might make up multiple articles. Especially if it’s controversial, the comments section just seems to go round in the same circle each time. I think (from memory, I may be wrong) in the case of the botched Cyberpunk launch, one statement was reported on multiple times in separate articles and it gave the impression CDPR were fighting fires like crazy which wasn’t really representative of how they were responding to the situation.
But then I can see why it is a good idea to split them up sometimes too.
What do I know 🤷♂️
@kyleforrester87 definitely give P5 to Sammy to review. I come here every day in hope 🤣 and to see what you come out with. Genuine lol's
My only issue is when one interview or piece of news is cut into 6 or so articles, which seems a little overkill, but i can see why you do it sometimes (the cynic would say for more clicks, i'll say for brevity and clarity).
Otherwise Pushsquare is my go to site for news, reviews and everything in between. The staff are universally excellent and actually converse with the community with genuine enthusiasm. And the site has, on the whole, attracted a wonderful community - and thankfully most of those who had nothing constructive to say on things like TLOU 2 have either moved on, or can be easily ignored (constructive criticism = good, abuse and toxicity = no place here).
Sammy's review of the playstation 5 was one of the best bits of journalism ive read on the site. It was truly brilliant.
If anything, id like to see more retrospectives on previous titles or generations of playstation
more lists of top 10 games or playststion access style - 7 things all gamers hate, cliched game mechanics etc - could be quite fun, amd a break from the news and reviews.
More integration with your YouTube channel seems sensible. Liam does a great job, but i dont see much in the way of linking the community across to your YT channel, at least not on the website.
From my phone, i often forget the Forum exists too and mainly communicate directly through comments sections on articles, so linking more clearly to that maybe.
Ultimately keep doing what you are doing. Push Square continues to offer a great escape from the real world
More reviews would be good, even if it's mini reviews of smaller releases that wouldn't normally see coverage.
Perhaps a semi-regular Talking Point strand that isn't topical and is geared towards gauging community opinions, attitudes and interests. Generally, a few more opinion pieces would be nice to see. For example - pieces on favourite moments in games; why we play games, what we gain/learn from them; what we would like to see from them in the future.
Community-driven content, perhaps in the way of quality article contributions would be interesting to see.
Quizzes! These are genuinely rather entertaining - keep them going - perhaps a few genre-specific ones?
In terms of video content, personally, I rarely watch any site-produced video content (that goes for all gaming sites, not just Push Square). I simply prefer to read the content, so I wouldn't like to comment on how this area could be improved.
Please, if at all possible, is it possible to expunge the term "Japanese Giant" from the site? I've toyed with using a browser plug-in that can conveniently change this to read "Sony", so I don't have to see it multiple times a day.
Little to no "celebrity" news that is loosely connected to the gaming world.
EDIT: After reading through these comments, I’d like to echo and add a few points.
I think more retrospective articles would be a good addition. On top of What Are You Playing This Weekend?, perhaps there could be a semi-regular piece where the community recommend older titles from past generations. Admittedly, this can and does exist to some extent in the forums, but celebrating past generations and highlighting games which others maybe have missed is perhaps a little more noteworthy and it would be good to see more people participating in discussions.
I see a lot of comments regarding the celebrity news - there seems to be a consensus that this is really not liked. Perhaps it would be an idea to conduct a reader survey to better understand the demographic of your readers? I get the sense that there are indeed a lot of older gamers here, so it is highly likely that those celebrity stories will have limited appeal. A survey that queries age ranges, location, systems owned, amount of games owned, hours played per week, preferred genres etc. would help to provide a broad overview of your readership.
In summary - more retro coverage, less celebrity nonsense and a focus on community-driven content.
@Alexface Interesting about the Guides being more user friendly, can you elaborate on what you mean here? Any examples?
Would be helpful — thanks!
@get2sammyb
I only ever use my phone to use the internet so everything is taken from there.
But generally I find them just not that easy to navigate. I think you guys have an article template and are building it into that. For me it needs a bit more bespoke like the IGN wiki template (when it works) or how gamefaqs works when it's a html base (so contents and navigation in drop downs etc)
@Alexface Good feedback, thanks!
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