AK4tywill

What is a "more aesthetic combat experience"?

I thought it was good, but missing that one big announcement to cap it off (like Saros or Yotei). I think they were hoping for 007 or the Marvel Capcom to serve that role, but the former was known and the latter caters to a very specific audience.

I'm honestly so pumped. So many fond memories of Goldeneye and Nightfire from when I was a kid. I'm expecting this to be very different, but anticipate it will be good based on the talent.

@PegasusActual93 Haha. It's a reference to a famous mafia film that partially takes place in Sicily.

@nessisonett I went to Sardinia as a wee sprite as well and had a similar experience. We were staying in a fancy resort (one of those Granada Telly competitions my mum won) which was all lush and island-vibes in that overly pristine way they do.

Then we headed to the city and it was a stark contrast, some odd contrasting vibes between the tourist luxury and the blokes shooting up in alleyways. Felt a bit like a Fellini film in hindsight. Would like to do Sicily soon so I can finally get married (and then widowed).

Honestly, I miss the excitement of these events dearly. We didn't know how good we had it in the PS4 days.

@ChrisDeku I was deliberately trying to avoid talking about this topic as my point was addressing the perceived messaging and political motivations of Druckman's work that has long plagued TLOU2 discourse, along with the way it has affected people's sentiments towards him as a story-teller.

Back when the game was released, there was a lot of criticism that the story was a repetitive, shallow reinforcement of the "Revenge bad" mantra. Many of us (myself included) felt that this was reductive, overly-simplistic and in many ways inaccurate.

In the context of the genocide there has been a new wave of criticism, often from the same people who challenged the "revenge bad" critique, that the game is in fact "both sides"-ing the argument. My point is that I believe this is another misinterpretation of the themes of the story, motivated by Druckman's perceived support for the genocide (which I think is somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction in the heat of the moment and remains unproven at this time).

So my point to Nessisonett isn't about the genocide (on that I suspect we agree on much). It's about the dangers of perceiving a messaging from something because of the current political landscape, of assuming some-one is a bad actor because we live in a world of bad actors, and responding to reductionist rhetoric with your own reductionist rhetoric. I could be totally wrong about what Nessisonett, or Druckman (or both) are thinking and saying, but I'm trying to respond on what the evidence shows.

I don't want to get into a conversation on Palestine here, because the PS staff understandably hate things getting political and off topic, but I do think the mentality you presented in your comment is probably what Nessisonett was criticising, and I would join them in that criticism. 'Both-sides'-ing gets nobody anywhere closer to addressing the systems and cycles that perpetuate violence, and plays into a historical narrative that supports imperialism and genocide. I just don't believe that's what Druckman was trying to do in his writing.

@nessisonett I've always got the impression from your posts that we have similar politics ,and so think I understand the perspective that motivates this, though I do think that it's based off a misreading of TLOU2.

@MrMeeeseeeks I know right? After enormous flops like checks notes The Last of Us and Uncharted 4.

You're one poll short this month guys. Where's 'Which Premium game are you most looking forward to?'

It feels tough to judge Raymond for her rocky career these past few years. The games industry is really treacherous these days, especially on such high budget games with long development cycles. There's so much room for things to go wrong, unlike in the PS2 era where development cycles were so fast there was a lot less time (and money on the line) for things to go off the rails. Lower stakes, fewer focus groups too.

I'm a big fan of Amy Hennig, and so feel I'd be a hypocrite to judge Raymond too harshly when Hennig hasn't gotten a game out the gate since 2011's Uncharted 3. It sounds bad on the face of it, but when you look at what happened in each individual case, she was really thrown around by what seems like an uncaring industry.

Yeah, there's no way to spin this as a positive for Fairgame$$$ (£&!#@$$$), whose one appearance vIa a CGI trailer already left a sour taste in the mouths of those of us tired of empty, performative and tone-deaf 'eat-the-rich-by-eating-your-fellow-proletariat' messaging.

That being said, I'd really like to see another showing, maybe less on the asinine social commentary and more on solid gameplay. I think after Concord, any studio head with some humility should be able to allow some room for course correction (could that have been the fork in the road here?).

@wiiware Why do you think it would be censored and in what way?

@RBMango Two, arguably, considering how well Nixxes' Horizon: Zero Dawn remaster was received last year.

@ProfessorNiggle Oof that hit me in the feels. HD2 actually really made me nostalgic for Starhawk when it released, which was aesthetically similar to HD both in the setting and in the orbital drop mechanic (for both spawning and calling in equipment).

Unfortunately most of the Warhawk audience didn't follow the devs to Starhawk and it sold a paltry amount, which is a true shame because it was a more than worthy successor with lots of great additions, like deployable turrets, structures, hover-bikes and a very fun co-op mode.

I'd love to have Warhawk back, but I actually think Starhawk could resonate with audiences more if it were to get a free-2-play remaster today. Alas, it's a dream that will likely never materialise.

I think I'll just wait until PS6 to play this one then.

I'm playing the remaster of God of War Ghost of Sparta on PS3 after having platinumed Chains of Olympus. It's honestly up there with the best of them imo.

Other than that, I've recently returned to Horizon Forbidden West for some post game missions and may pick up the Burning Shores expansion while it's on sale. I'm remembering how much I enjoyed the exploration and combat.

Am I misunderstanding? I've considered all Mafia games to date to be open-world. Does this mean that in TOC you can't explore between missions (like you can in Mafia 1 & 2) and that there is no open-world exploration at all or is it simply that it's not a side-quest filled sandbox?

@HallowMoonshadow Have they confirmed this? It's a big 180 for me if his voice isn't in it. That's going to be an enormous share of the nostalgia sale for Brits.

@Frmknst Even with PC players, that can't possibly be true. Netflix manages 300 million, which is itself a monstrous amount.

That figure would mean more than 6% of all living humans were active gamepass users.

After some great recent controller designs (Annivesary, Astro and especially Helldivers), this feels like a let down - which is a shame because DS2 is my most anticipated game.

It just looks like a standard black DualSense with a few logos printed on. I really don't like having a 2nd shade of black on the grips either, serving as background to the text.

I think I would have preferred something that employed a two colour scheme, maybe with the orange from the metal of Robo-Higgs.

It's a shame because MGSV might have had the most beautiful special edition DualShock 4. I guess I was hoping for something bolder, like that variant.

@Simu001 I had this with Death Stranding. The moment I got to the 2nd map I just felt overwhelmed and quit. It was more because of the amount of mechanics I was being introduced to and becoming frustrated because I wasn't understanding how to utilise them properly (also, I just found so much of the moment to moment gameplay stressful and probably needed a break).

Then I came back a year or so later when Director's cut came out (back then the upgrade was only £5) and tried again. It became one of my all time favourites - goofy ass dialogue, wacko story and all. I decided, in the end, I was probably overthinking it.

But I've also experienced this with MGS. The only one I've actually finished is MGS4 back in '09. I've not allowed myself to play V (even though it looks great) because I want to play the earlier Naked Snake games, but I've started Snake Eater twice and never followed through. I'm going to try again this year.

So yeah, I do think it's a thing with Kojima games. For some of us, you have to force yourself through a little bit. Both times I've done so, though, I've ended up loving them.

Let's fu**ing go!

Fake PS5 or unannounced PS5 super slim? They have real controllers after all...

@Mintie I have no idea what any of this means but it sounds very sarcastic.

I'm getting déjà vu. I thought I remembered this being announced (not leaked) months ago.

Today is a sad day then. I was really looking forward to this. Thematically and stylistically it's totally my jam. Maybe maybe maybe worth a pick up in a deep sale.

@personauser93 Surely you'll need a console to play said games though?

The comments on X are awful. Not even grasping the point being made, just berating the dev and OP. Makes me more grateful that I don't use X have the far more well-rounded Push Square community to engage with.

A PS5 Housemarque collection with native versions of Alienation, Super Stardust, Resogun, Dead Nation, Matterfall, Nex Machina and Outland would be amazing.

@LifeGirl This is a poor comparison though, as nobody is going to have the time to play 500 games in a year, and none of the games on the service cost full retail price: they're either priced lower than full retail at launch or are added to the service some time after launch when the value is significantly reduced.

On top of that, they all have an undisclosed, limited time on the service and can be pulled at any time, which can essentially make them more of a trial. The only way to guarantee you'll have at least a few months to play is to start a game on the month it's been added. This invisible shrinking window might be OK for smaller games (which, again, have a lower value anyway), but the larger 'meatier' titles which require longer playtimes can often result in the consumer needing to purchase the title anyway, in order to finish it. I guarantee that this is factored into licensing by publishers as helping provide additional sales when these deals are made.

So the truth is you're not getting 500 games for the price of three, but instead limited and temporary access to a selection of games, many of which you may have to end up buying anyway if you want to see them through. Having been a Premium member previously, I did the maths and found I would have saved a fairly substantial portion of money had I bought the games that I'd played (during a year long subscription) outright, not to mention that I would have also been able to keep or re-sell them.

@SeanOhOgain I mean, it does feel like that right? They only just added them a few months ago. Why else remove them so soon?

Looks cool, but for a hot second I thought I'd read 'Sunset Overdrive' and was going mental. Alas, the day shall come.

4 days? We get 4 days notice?

To me the obvious answer with the voice acting is handling it like Spyro Reignited did the music. Record new dialogue, but have a toggle in the settings to switch to the old audio files. Everyone's happy.

Premium games are, once more, really weak - it's basically just one PS1 game. Have Sony given up on this initiative again?

I know they're limited in resource at Implicit Conversions, but if that's the issue then Sony need to expand or start porting in-house. There are still so many obvious 1st/2nd party titles to draw from like Motorstorm: Artctic Edge, Socom Fireteam Bravo 1-3, Untold Legends, The Getaway, Gangs of London, Modnation+LBP PSP, JetX, Downhill Domination etc etc. These are titles that Sony fully own so don't even need to go to other publishers for.

That's not even to mention the big franchises like Ratchet and God of War (which I personally hope get a bit more effort than just straight emulation when they finally come to PS5).

I wish I was surprised by how this has seemingly petered out, but this has unfortunately become a known trend for Sony's Playstation initiatives.

As someone who tried and struggled to stick with Destiny, I'm actually quite hyped for something new from Bungie. Hopefully a more focused, tight, accessible game that people can jump into without so much world-building, grinding etc.

It was given away for free on Epic Games' Store for a while which I imagine could equate to a few million, but that's nonetheless a huge milestone for what seemed at first to be very much in the shadow of Metal Gear Solid. Clearly a game that found a lot of its audience after launch day, myself included.

I am the target audience here. I love the concept of each game getting it's own T-shirt...

...but these are kind of...meh. The design is so uninspired and similar from one to the next. I can't bring myself to pay £25 for one, as much as I'd love an Ascension T shirt - this ain't it.

Well this looks great.

This is almost certainly an attempt at getting some free press. The claim obviously doesn't hold water.

Just bought this on sale for £3.19 and haven't yet started. This is a very pleasant surprise.

@Jey887 My advice is to start getting real strict about adding new games to the backlog. I decided about a year ago to stop buying games that I knew would just build it up and focus on playing (and finishing) the games that I already had and truly wanted to play.

It's made gaming a lot more enjoyable - I'm able to focus more on one game at a time and am realising that I was accumulating too much. I loved the thrill of a deal but was then paralysed by choice afterwards.

@Oram77 They actually emailed me yesterday and said this:

"As a reminder, all Croc games were sold as a pre-ordered, limited edition, made-to-order product, with an expected shipping window of Q2 2025 (April–June). The good news? Production is right on schedule!"

@Rabid_Gamer Absolutely not. You deserve to live with your shame and your Hannah Montana: The Movie platinum trophy.

I've never played Rainbow Six Siege, but I do hope Rainbow Six Siege Twitter does good things for them as they do need it - and for all the valid (and invalid) criticisms levied against them I wouldn't want to see what is essentially the largest French VG employer go under.

Despite increasingly popular opinion, it is a company full of talented and experienced developers who do produce good games, even if that's more often a 'comfort food' good than it is an 'industry defining' good.

Siege is popular, but it feels like it's always been at the tipping point of breaking into the wider zeitgeist. To me the logical next step is going Free to play, which will probably anger some of its current base but will likely open them up to a much wider audience which might be necessary to ensure its longevity.

Whatever they have planned, I'm curious to see their announcements come March.

I hope it does well. The endless ragging on Ubisoft is getting seriously old at this point.

A slight improvement, but I'll be getting the PS4 version, for this and the fact that I'll be able to use a dualshock 4 on the PS5, which is my preferred controller - especially for older games.

I guess I'm in the minority, and I hate to be a downer, but this looked like the most disappointingly generic dystopian near-future
-shoot-robots-cyber-mind-hack garbage to me, all the way from the boring character-less environments to the endless clichés and repetitive droney action-sci-fi music.

Hope I'm wrong though.

@Zeldorf Agreed. Their PSP run alone was the best of any dev on the platform. I always felt like the Order was a game that just needed a little more dev time, a little more content. AAA games today struggle to have such a rich character, atmosphere and visual identity.

@somnambulance Aye, but in direct sequels that immediately follow the first game, on the same architecture and/or engine, there's often a ton of asset/animation/mechanic/design work done already that can be brought over from the first game. With a new IP, a lot more has to be done from scratch.

I really wouldn't expect this sooner than 2026.