If it means devs design from the start to have a planned single player offline mode when the game ends, with all content maintained, then great. As to the elements of games that need a constantly updated multiplayer environment well, frankly, I don’t give a damn about that. Sorry.

Terrible for me. No interest in online multiplayer at all.

So they will only do the right thing by people who complain about their unfair treatment? People shouldn’t need to take extra time out of their day to jump through hoops. Just let people who bought after their promise upgrade. If they can’t separate those from people who already owned the game then tough.

I just finished the hades 2 platinum this morning. So now, will probably carry on with RD2. Its great. I can tell that. But everything about the game at the moment is somewhat laborious. I wish everything was just a bit snappier. It puts me off playing it a bit.

The only way of getting more people to buy Xbox fast enough to make non-multiplatform publish approach profitability is to both cut the budgets of the studios and games, and do what everyone was scared of when MS went on their spending spree - remove the likes of COD from PlayStation. Of course they may have legal difficulties there now, but they have the money to ride out the courts, and if they do it at the same time as releasing a new console a year before Sony they may have a flood of people return to them.

Not that I want them to do that, but it’s the only strategy where taking a big initial financial loss makes sense. If you aren’t doing it to build something quickly, removing multiplatform publishing is just crazy.

Not a genre for me, but very glad that some devs do understand that accessibility modifiers should always disable trophies.

@rat-paradise
So basically the government have made anyone who allows people to communicate scared they’ll be liable for what people say. Utter ridiculousness.

I hate this crap (even though it doesn’t impact me as I don’t play multiplayer games online anyway). Not Sony’s fault though, it’s the bloody government listening to all the self righteous activist morons.

Well why can’t they just make the DLCS free then? Problem solved?

@Killionaire
This is about the trial, that’s still running. I can wait for another sale if I think it’s good enough.

I’m actually going to try Absolum at the weekend. Been on the fence.

I’m not opposed to using my phone for some games. Deck builders and the like especially. But they need to be proper games. I would be far more interested too if these games were connected to the PSN trophy system.

Oh well, can’t have something interesting every month. This one truly is terrible though

Hopefully they don’t start doing this with the Black Friday Deal, where I always get Premium for just over £80. Because I stream to my portal a lot I’m pretty locked in.

Extra and premium are great value, essential not so much (I don’t play multiplayer online). Not sure why everyone complains about Premium over extra. It’s less than £2 a month for one or two retro games and the ability to stream all your ps5 games and more. If it was an extra £10 a month I could understand, but less than £2. Can’t be anything other than great value. Unless you never stream or like any of the games over several months. But that’s like saying a car is bad value if you never drive it - not really a value issue, more a buying something you don’t want issue. Again, less than £2 a month.

Never heard of it, but I like the premise. Might look up some reviews.

@themightyant
In that situation I’d have a policy that you can get your account back after a year of inactivity from the date you contacted them. Not an ideal solution, but I imagine it would stop these scammers getting any really valuable accounts and stop many trying due to the uncertainty.

@ShogunRok
I very much find re-reviews useful thanks. In fact bordering on essential. I understand that it would be a nightmare for you if you had to constantly be deciding what to go back to though. I suggest some type of reader poll.

This sounds great. But I still have KCD2 and even RDR2 to finish first. The game can only get better over time though. We need more of these single player games. Will definitely pick it up at some point.

This and horizon 6 are the only Xbox games that interest me, so happy about this.

3.6B on a developer they knew had 1 IP which was winding down with the franchise beyond that no longer in active development. They had to have known before purchase. I mean clearly they put a lot of value on the staff…who are now being made redundant in large numbers. Total shambles. Would have been infinitely cheaper to set up their own studio and just get these people and other experienced staff members during the next round of inevitable industry layoffs-offs.

@Max_the_German
Don’t know about this season rubbish, but didn’t think that COD and FIFA stuff was given on Plus (or Gamepass these days). Unless you just mean online play, but then you are talking about Essential, which I clearly wasn’t referring to given the prices I listed. But if your claim is that you are only going to use it for 3 months a year then sure. But how would you know without knowing what games would be added the other 9 months

As long as the yearly isn’t rising I’m fine with it. Why would you pay £44 pound for 3 months when you can get 12 months for £80?

Going to give red dead redemption 2 a go, but is a PS5 version not available? Thought there was an update. Or is it just not on offer?

Well, I guess that settles the question of whether I should play RDR before RDR2. Straight to the sequel it is.

I get a bit of a rush whenever the new games are announcing, but realistically I just pay £80 a year for Premium so I can stream my games to the portal.

I renew just before my premium expires during the Black Friday sales every year. But I’m guessing sale prices will be higher now even though I’m an existing subscriber, and the “remain the same for existing subscribers” just counts for those that let it auto renew at full price.

@nomither6
Because, as this article makes very clear, single player games are not where the growth is. Not where the big bucks are. Not where the players are.

Do you know how many single player games Sony could have made with the billions wasted on Bungie and other live service initiatives?

I don’t have RDR2, and want to give it a go, but it’s so long. So long that it’s probably better to buy it second hand after my sub runs out…but then I haven’t had it run out in years and need premium for the Portal…maybe I should just play it. But then it might leave before I’ve finished it. Does it say how long it’ll be on the service for?
Also, should I play the first one first? Any connection?

@For-Kier
You are aware PSVR2 plays hundreds of other games right? I mean, I even mentioned some in the comment you are replying to.

Unfortunately the hobby I’ve had for 40-+ years is being slowly strangled by these live service forever hang out activities on our consoles.

No. You can play a far inferior version. Don’t deny yourselves people, just like the resident evils, Gran Turismo, Astro bot, etc, these games are vastly superior in VR

I think looking at this would just depress me.

The future of gaming is VR as far as I’m concerned. As soon as it doesn’t make people look silly and is comfortable and fast anyway. And ideally they solve some of the remaining sickness issues for some.

Sure it’s a bigger install base, but there are also many more games to draw our attention. Plus Returnal was seen as one of the only games to showcase the PS5 at the time if I remember correctly. I’ll be getting Saros at some point, but no intentionnofngettingnretyrnal, which I think will frustrate me from what I’ve read of its structure.

Well, without rumble it’s a no go, but having just had my first controller that developed stick drift (and I mean the first if any controller I’ve ever owned going back multiple generations), I’m a bit more interested in replacing it with where I won’t have to worry about it happening again.

This is actually quite a good idea. I don’t care about the social aspect, but there are so many gaming feats I achieved, especially as a kid, that I would like to look over again.

@get2sammyb
You misunderstand. The Switch has been getting the exclusives of the games Sony decided weren’t appropriate for their image back in 2018. I’m not talking about a few big franchises, but innumerable smaller ones. Now Sony has no exclusive games that appeal to the demographic we are discussing here. VR was the main reason I continued with PlayStation. The other games I like I can get elsewhere if needed. In many cases only elsewhere now. It was a big mistake for Sony to distance itself from a market that helped grow its fan base originally.

“ But the real problem for PlayStation is that it simply doesn’t have the games Japanese gamers want to play.”

This.

And it’s not even just Japanese gamers, but all us PS1 OG’s who loved Japanese games have n PlayStation before the effective purge Sony instigated in 2018 and have continued since.

Pointless without the light gun or PSVR support. Shame, had this on PS1 and loved it. Real great gaming memories. Too much to hope for for a VR patch I suppose.

Humanity is lazy by “design”. Conservation of energy and all that. It’s a large part of the reason for the scourge of religion and extremist politics. Far easier to just be told and believe.

Downright wonderful you mean. It’s embarrassing to be embarrassed by beauty. This is fantasy, stop expecting realism and just let men and women enjoy.

@get2sammyb
This is actually appealing to me, which is not usual for a free live service game. But I am wondering how demanding of my time it is. How grindy if you don’t pay anything? And are there any time sensitive aspects? I’m really not someone who puts up with FOMO.

Years of story? Or a few mediocre story updates with years of tedious repetition in between?

It’s a shame that profit is put above providing more amazing experiences through the wonder of VR, but this is true of flat games too. Mass redundancies everywhere. Still, enough PSVR2 games out, and upcoming releases, to keep me busy until the end of the generation anyway.

At this point, my digital gaming catalogue and my trophy history would be very hard to walk away from.

Great reviews most other places, if you want to read about someone’s actual experience with the game there are better options.

Oh, and not mentioned, but it’s 90fps without reprojection. That’s sometimes a dealbreaker for me, so nice to see it done well here.

@CWill97
I’m enjoying them both thanks took a break from CO right at the end when having to tidy up all the side stuff, do all the trials and such.

h2 is great, although I must say, not enjoying it as much as H1, there seems to be a bit less variance, and the runs seem to drag on a bit longer, although I’m yet to play much with the fear system yet and haven’t unlocked everything. I do think progression and resource collection just take a bit too long too.

Nothing at all for me, but that’s fine, still in deep with Hades 2, Clair Obscur and Gordian Quest

Hades 2 still for me.

I’d like an offline animal crossing game on PlayStation. They are chill and offer a nice sense of progression.