AK4tywill

As the Game Awards go, I think this has been one of the better ones - at least for Playstation fans.

As always well done Push Square staff on your excellent reporting and for making this useful hub, it's always my go-to resource after the show.

@LiamCroft Views on the game aside, I do also think this is rather unprofessional. As staff you are and should be held to a different standard than other users and you should want your comments section to be a place that invites all expressions of opinion providing they're relevant and are not abusive.

This looks like the most un-inspired style and setting I've seen in years. It feels AI generated.

I just saw Killers of The Flower Moon and it's got me in kind of early 20th century USA mood, so after trying to decide between revisiting Mafia and Red Dead Redemption 2, I've gone with the latter (I know, it's technically 1899).

Still in the phase of getting used to 30fps again. Thanks Rockstar (and 2K for not updating Mafia trilogy).

@Northern_munkey Surely it's 60fps. I can't imagine a world where a game like this is 30fps on PS5. Even crappy shovelware hits 60.

@Czar_Khastik Hahaha very good.

Gravity Rush and Tearaway are probably my 2 favourite Vita games. So glad we got Unfolded and GR2, hoping for more sequels.

I only played the first 3, which were fine games but had dreadful writing. She may be a fantastic writer but considering the recent God of War games have had vastly better stories, writing and world building than Gears of War (at least the first 3 which players regularly claim were the better ones) this is a little concerning.

@roe No, it hi-lights a commitment to ensuring profitability. From what we know, the delay was a result of Bungie's intervention at Sony's request and has been delayed not for quality reasons, but because they no longer have confidence in its potential for player retention and high profitability.

When I look at Bungie's Destiny games (particularly in contrast to previous Naughty Dog titles), that move doesn't feel like one that will necessarily improve the quality of the game.

@tameshiyaku I was literally saving this one for Halloween too. How frustrating. I wonder if the timing is calculated in order to get some extra Halloween sales in.

I kinda love that this comment section has just become a Returnal appreciation thread. Bar the tiresome post-game cipher grind, it's one of the best games in a long time.

On topic: I would love for whatever Firesprite are making to fill the Silent Hills shaped hole that's sat in my heart for years, but based on what they did with the Persistence, I can imagine it will be a different kind of game altogether.

Ok here we are:

1) Dragon Age Inquisition: 383 Hours
2) Red Dead Redemption2: 341 Hours
3) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: 328 Hours

All three are stellar games so it doesn't surprise me. It actually lists Uncharted 4 as The Legacy of Thieves Collection which I've never played, so once I do get around to playing that it'll probably jump to 2nd or 1st place.

Wow. They really picked the worst month to announce their price hike. What were they thinking?

At least I can finally check out Call of The Sea.

I must be honest. I partook in the early stages on this vote which started months ago in May, but quickly lost stamina as it dragged on and on and on. I think the vast majority of voters quit like me, hence why the more recent polls got a handful of votes.

To me, the small sample size makes this vote less meaningful. I would recommend in the future with these polls to make them far more brief (like a week) if you want to get a result that accurately represents the community's opinion. That being said, mad respect to Kidfried for their incredible dedication and endurance to this poll.

Why is he American?

The gameplay and visual styles look great, but almost everything else is a big turn off to me. Honestly this just makes me even more sad we're not getting get Gravity Rush 3.

This looks absolutely marvellous. I can not wait.

I'll be sticking to my PS3 version for another playthorugh. I've actually already unlocked all the multiplayer trophies required for the platinum, thanks to the help of a friendly stranger online and a bug that gave me XP for repeatedly shooting an opposing players corpse (cheap I know, but with the state of the multiplayer and matchmaking, aiming for max level through legitimate means would have been a study in tedium).

Sure the textures will me muddier and the frame-rate less consistent, but in the right frame of mind, there's a bit of nostalgic charm to that (I still prefer playing the Uncharted trilogy on PS3 to PS4).

Had this been a complete overhaul, or at the very least, run at 60fps, I might have opted for a purchase, but as it is (and at that price point), the PS3 version will do just fine.

@nessisonett I double second this. And the sequel!

I really effing wanted this, more than any other announced game, and based on recent comments from Bethesda spokespeople ("it's not exclusive") it sounded like a PS5 release was a surefire thing.

It's honestly so disheartening hearing MS pulled the PS5 version. I was.never fussed about Starfield or Redfall, but losing The Elder Scrolls VI was painful and as a big Indiana Jones/Treasure Hunter fan, this cuts extra deep.

Microsoft's portfolio growth route is the most ugly and cynical one in the industry. If you really can't see the difference between what PlayStation are doing with Spiderman and their other exclusives vs this you're either willfully ignorant or misguidedly trying to adopt an middle ground position.

This is predatory and worsening the video games landscape for consumers. Thank God Microsoft are taking a beating from regulators on the Activision Blizzard acquisition. They want total monopoly and they have the money to accomplish it.

We must always remember why they need to resort to these tactics: because they've proven time and time again that they're the one hardware manufacturer incapable of supporting their development teams properly. They have the most studios, yet the least appealing portfolio of games to consumers. The culture at Microsoft is known to be rotten, and their blitzkrieg of the industry should be stopped at all costs.

Great month for Extra and I'm looking forward to getting sunk into Killzone Liberation too. It always felt like a game that, were it on a platform with two analogue sticks, ought to have twin stick controls, so I'll be curious to see how I find it with just one stick.

While I'm excited for Killzone Liberation, Premium continues to have dreadful offerings and Sony should be ashamed. Even if no third party publisher agreed to put their games on the service, Sony would still have hundreds of their own games they could port to service if they were at all interested in fulfilling their promises to their subscriber base.

Extra is doing great though.

@nessisonett Honestly this reads to me as "But look at this other thing you all hated, you loved it".

I don't know of a single Prince of Persia fan who felt Jake Gyllenhaal was an accurate representation of Prince of Persia.

Is Guerilla Collective at all associated with Guerilla Games?

I sort of wish this wasn't announced so in advance as August feels ages away. Still, should be good. They own so many great IPs now. Fingers crossed for Timesplitters.

Bobby Kotick is a disgusting specimen of human flesh who oversaw and engaged in egregious abuse towards employees at Activision. He is not allowed to be disappointed in anyone's behaviour.

Well that article title gave me a headache.

@BeerIsAwesome Thanks for the heads up, I do want to try that out and it's lying about in my PS+ library somewhere (probably under 'G').

@GymratAmarillo Ohhh, that makes senses and it is great news. Sony cares even if just a little bit. I couldn't for the life of me get my head around it reading the article, I was thinking "aren't any ps classic games that get trophies doing so retroactively, considering they came out on platforms without trophies."

I don't understand this article. Syphon Filter, Ape Escape and Pinball Heroes all had trophies? Why is this new? Why did we eve think this was impossible? Sony said before Premium even launched that some games would have trophy support.

It sounds cool, but it isn't appearing for me.

P.S. How much are HBO/Sony spending on this marketing? It's insane!

Wooo I love these. Overall I played much less than last year, which isn't surprising given how busy 2022 was. Death Stranding was my most played, up from 2nd place last year. Surprised I put so much time into Vice City, but I was going for that platinum so it must have clocked up. Deathloop and Ratchet were great fun, and BF1 is my go to online game for playing with mates (though I rarely play multiplayer).

Top Games:
1) Death Stranding Director's Cut (96 Hours)
2) GTA Vice City Definitive Edition (93 Hours)
3) Deathloop (71 Hours)
4) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (40 Hours)
5) Battlefield 1 (29 Hours)

'November Check In: Play your favourite game on PS4 or PS5!'

Does anyone know how to find out what your 'favourite game' is according to PlayStation?

Yeah the poll isn't working

@Shepherd_Tallon The majority of the market are people who want to play Fortnite, Call of Duty, Fifa and the occasional first party blockbuster that breaks into the zeitgeist. They are largely unaware of the micro-factors affecting the Playstation ecosystem and are uninterested in issues the hardcore base raise, such as diversity of experience in the first party catalogue or closures of studios due to a failure to meet lofty financial targets. The PlayStation brand is sturdy and built on the shoulders of a near-three decade long, largely successful run.

The more hardcore audience such as Push Square readers represent a minority in the market and are overwhelmingly more likely to have already picked up their consoles, so their grievances will have little to no effect (at least in the short term) on sales for the platform.

If you're enjoyment of your experience with PlayStation is dictated by their sales success, you have no reason to worry. If you are, however, an enthusiast gamer with a vested interest in a healthy gaming community and marketplace and your values and desired experiences are being threatened by increasingly profit-driven market moves, I can understand why you might have criticisms to voice - and a gaming news website for enthusiasts is probably a good place to do it.

Personally, I don't love the cinematography or costume design. Production values seem very 'Walking Dead' to me, but hey it's early days.

PlayStation Showcases are not a joke Jim! Millions of gamers suffer every year!

@TheCollector316 Stray just came out last week! No way it'll be on PS Plus Essential for at least a year or two.

There really not giving us much of a heads up are they? Less than a month?

Pac-Mandicoot!

Massive step up for those who are on essential tier and I'm personally delighted to be getting Crash, but for anyone on a higher one this is a bit of a slap in the face. Sony really need to step up their game as this just feels disrespectful to their highest paying customers.

@themightyant Exactly the same situation for me. I'll be digging out my disc copy. Hype!

@dark_knightmare2 I really don't feel like I'm downplaying the Retro list. How many games have they added? From what I can tell most of them were part of PS Now already.

You're right that there are more new high profile additions than I mentioned (Guardians is a great one), but I was only listing examples. The thing is these games still aren't particularly new and they're competing with day 1 launches. I don't mind if Sony want to skip that, but they have to go all in on every other aspect, and so far it doesn't seem like they're doing that. (I will say the one exception I've seen - Stray - is a doozy!)

I do think it's unacceptable that the highest tier is launching with so few classic games, though the mid tier seems to be a better value proposition.

I've been a Playstation player all my life and want them to succeed (I pre-emptively subscribed to the highest tier of plus for the next three years), but I don't think this is how you launch a new brand if you're trying to avoid obscurity and correct the mistakes of PS Now. They easily had the power to do more and give themselves a fighting chance, so it's frustrating that they dropped the ball in so many places.

@daveofduncan This isn't competing with Gamepass five years ago, it's competing with it now.

@dark_knightmare2 Aside from a few high profile additions like AC Ragnarok, Demons Souls and Returnal, the selection is basically just a cut down PS Now catalogue (at twice the price), and the highest tier classic games total about 10 games. This isn't going to make a dent in Gamepass (yes, they are competing), and it's likley to piss off the most faithful Playstation gamers who opted for the highest tier only to get shafted out the gate.

This is dire. I hope Sony get smoked for this, they need to learn a lesson.

The Saudi Arabian government, like, sucks bro

This smells like a load of farts in the wind to me, and I've always been critical of the presumption it would get delayed into '23.

It's as if the gaming community had an over-correction at some point from being too optimistic for early releases and not appreciating the work needed, to suddenly mass predicting that all non-anual games would get a delay because that's what we became used to .

Let's look at this practically. It was originally announced for 2021, and while that may have been a bit unrealistic/marketingy to begin with, it must have had some foundation in reality.

-Last year we also saw gameplay - lots of it, that was no vertical slice. It's safe to say the game had been largely put together at that point.

-Unlike GOW 2018, the foundations for this game were in place. The engine was already built, as we're a large proportion of assets. Basic design decisions were done, the script likely already had a good structure. Essentially there is far less workload and production time needed for this game.

-Artists on the project have long said the game is playable, and Santa Monica were early this year very heavy handed in their affirmations that the game would release this year.

-Voice actors playing major roles on the project have stated their work is finished on the project which means that all those final call-backs for additional dialogue often done very soon before release have concluded.

I think the game is clearly in some sort of near-finished state. The only possible reason I can imagine for a delay to next year would be something catastrophic (I can't say what) or a need to redesign something fundamental due to something like overwhelming negative play-tester feedback, which honestly I doubt knowing the caliber of talent at Santa Monica and the fact that likely 90% of the game mechanics are returning from God of War, and already critic and consumer approved.

It's of-course possible and I could have egg on my face, but it just seems more likely that these "rumours" are the last anxious twitches from the fans and press before the fears are hopefully soon put to bed, likely in a release-dated showcase or trailer coming sooner than people think.

@AdamNovice Even without taking inflation into account, your numbers are off. The three films combined made around $710 million. Uncharted's numbers are still great of-course.

I actually gave this a shot last year and I had a really good time. I wanted to grind up to level 50 for the trophies but it flew by, and I never felt like I was really grinding. That being said, I did stop in the mid fifties and I can understand people who played for longer being frustrated with the lack of new meaningful content.