Ainu20

@UltimateOtaku91 Doing console exclusives isn't antithetical to what he's saying here. The most important thing is that they retain creative independence and aren't constrained by corporate oversight. He also left that studio not too long after Tencent started sniffing around.

@UltimateOtaku91 That's a strangely cynical comment about someone like Kamiya, who has always valued his creative freedom.

We don't really know Ben Starr's range yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. He was excellent in FF16 and on top of that, he quickly became one of the coolest people in video gaming with all his podcast appearances and interviews. He was basically a one-man marketing campaign, in the best way possible.

It's all well and good posting an article about toxic detractors on Push Square, but the sad reality, as evidenced by this very comment section, is that the situation on here is just as bad as anywhere else. The comment sections have become cesspits.

This is no longer a fun and welcoming space to talk about video games, and that's pretty depressing.

People seem to find fault with everything these days. From Soft's catalogue of bosses is arguably the greatest in the history of our medium, the idea of a game giving us a greatest hits compilation sounds fantastic.

There was a time when such ideas would be celebrated by gamers. Can we please go back?

@Bentleyma Not without first informing the entire internet that it's not for them. Preferably as loud and as often as possible.

Sucker Punch unsurprisingly jumps out as the most stylish one. Astro's is the most joyous and Stellar Blade's looks really cozy. Top efforts.

@Xbox_Dashboard It's not just one journalist's show, it's a vote decided by a large, international panel that contains most of the noteworthy gaming publications. It's about as close to an aggregate global vote as you can get, which is why it's widely recognised as the biggest award show in the industry.

Vincke's words were clearly about the current state of AAA game development, a large part of which takes place in Western countries. Clearly something must've been lost in translation over in China.

This whole episode is another reminder of how pathetic the gaming community is in general, though.

I'd say Okami sequel was the biggest shock announcement and I would've picked that, if it weren't for new Naughty Dog IP. Can't help it, I love their games, and that just about edges it.

@datdere_yute_club I will never understand comments like this. They obviously showed more than "two games that are worth playing and the rest looked like sh*t". Just because they don't interest you personally, doesn't make them unworthy.

What is it with people being unable to acknowledge that other tastes exist? I see it more and more often, not just on here but everywhere on the internet. The world does not revolve around you, many people love something that you don't and yes, their taste is just as valid as yours.

"A game nobody wanted". People on the internet sure do love to speak for everyone. The world doesn't revolve around you.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Concord's marketing was a tone-deaf disaster but to counter that, Astro Bot's marketing has been flawless and I also thought the Ghost of Yotei trailer was incredibly well done.

I just like to look at Playstation Studios as having two sides now: whatever the hell the side is that has Concord and stuff like Fairgame$ on it, and the rest of it with all their traditional single-player studios. I still have plenty of confidence in the latter.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare No I saw that, but people saying it's inspired by those seem fairly harmless. That doesn't mean they're saying it must be good.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I don't really see any of what you're saying. People aren't pretending that this trailer is anything more than it is. As for Sony's games consistently falling short and the fanbase refusing to acknowledge that, well, I feel like I'm not really living in the same reality as you are. But that's ok, just means we have a different opinion.

@Dom_31 If you're feeling completely disconnected from internet discourse surrounding this game (or basically anything in general), welcome to the club. All this relentless negativity.

I touhght it looked cool, the retro sci-fi atmosphere works for me and the little snippet of action at the end has me intrigued about what sort of gameplay we're getting. That's enough to satisfy me for now, I hope we'll see more of it soon.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Expectations are coloured by what a studio has done before, that goes without saying. That doesn't mean it's blind adoration, it just means people are willing to give the benefit of doubt for now. Naughty Dog have deserved that much.

When further footage and details emerge, we can start to have a more defined idea about how we feel about it. For now it's fine to just reserve your judgement. Personally I'm just happy to see new IP by them.

Not that much to go on but I'm loving the vibe of it. Some might say it's been overdone in recent times but I'm always a sucker for a good retro sci-fi atmosphere. That snippet of action at the end has me intrigued.

@OldGamer999 It's not that PSSR was released too early, it's just that this type of tech typically needs a couple of iterations to become solid. It was like that with DLSS and FSR, it's not a surprise to see it with PSSR. The software will improve and so will the implementations in games. By the end of the PS5 cycle we'll be able to properly judge PSSR, and I suspect that the narrative will be completely changed by then.

The rest of your comments are a bit too hysterical for my tastes.

@Fight_Teza_Fight In a bizarre twist that I still don't understand, the Horizon franchise has become some sort of scapegoat to a part of the Playstation fanbase. They'll drag it into completely unrelated discussions and blame it for, well, basically everything.

There's just no point in trying to have a conversation with those people.

Was it such a bad year for Xbox owners that they actually had to go out and get a girlfriend?

• Edit because I forgot about etiquette on internet humour: this is just a harmless joke. Sigh.

@Matroska The article specifically states that Erdtree is not eligible for the Best Game category, so the overall GOTY. Generally speaking, most award runners allow a bit more freedom in the subcategories.

I personally feel the genre-based subcategories like best RPG, best action, etc. should also exclude DLCs, but the others, like best audio, best narrative, etc. are fair game.

Well this is just pointless.

That original PS1 boot sound is basically the soundtrack to my childhood, something I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. As much as I love it though, in terms of UI sounds I actually prefer the PS2.

Why is Push Square so intent on calling this a Horizon rip-off? Sure, the visual style and some other elements are heavily influenced by it, but the gameplay video makes it look like a completely different game to Horizon.

It does look very derivative in general though, like several games thrown together with Horizon just being the most instantly visible component, but that doesn't make it a Horizon rip-off.

It's no War Gods Zeus of Child though.

@Max_the_German There's no correlation between Apple users and video game enthusiasts. It's a pointless comparison.

@Max_the_German People don't buy an enthusiast-priced piece of hardware to avoid dealing with a few graphical options. If anything, the people who buy these things usually relish the idea of having all these options at their disposal, just like people who buy the higher tier GPUs on PC.

Your view doesn't exactly come across as empathy. And regardless, the default setting is almost always perfectly serviceable anyway.

I've been in Japan the past few weeks (currently still in Tokyo) and Dragon Quest is simply everywhere. You can find the typical slimes in every claw machine hall, every Donki store, the DQ section in every game store rivals the Nintendo one, etc.

It's a monster of a franchise over here.

@ThatOneSneak Not even remotely comparable of course, but nonetheless it wouldn't be great for the market.

On one hand, Sony increasing its portfolio of Japanese developers would be very welcome news, on the other, I never like seeing multiplatform studios getting the acquisition treatment. All things considered I hope this remains a rumour.

@Shinnok789 You're probably right, but it's not exactly shocking that a company only reacts when they start to feel it financially, is it? Whatever the reason might be, if AC Shadows ends up being a better and more polished day-one experience as a result, that can only be a good thing.

The customer base voted with their wallets and it looks like Ubisoft got the message.

@themightyant I know exactly what you mean and as a long time viewer of Skill Up's channel, I definitely agree he can dislike games to the extent that his reviews stop being as balanced as they usually are. I continue to appreciate him as probably my favourite reviewer, but I do wish he could sometimes take a step back and let the heat of the moment pass, so to speak.

But like you say, it's his opinion and he still goes to great lengths to explain it, so fair enough. What annoys me more is that he is starting to attract a following that treat his reviews as gospel. The sentiment seems to be that he's the only one with any integrity and the rest are all shills.

That's not how opinions work either, the rest of them aren't any less valid. I think his disclaimer at the start, that it's just his opinion, is just as relevant to that line of thinking than it is to those who start hating on him.

@Carck Those games were notionally still sports games, as ridiculous as that sounds! I don't think any of them were straight up dating games, but I admit I didn't actually get any, ehm, hands on experience.

Feels like they've finally arrived at the genre that this IP was meant for. Only took them 28 years but here we are.

@ro-kurorai I get the theory, but if Larian can put Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox without Game Pass, then Sony can do the same with Helldivers. If the demand is there, Xbox players will still purchase games.

Why would it need a Game Pass deal? Not that I think it'll happen anyway, but if it does, it definitely wouldn't be on Game Pass.

@ThomasHL Somehow I doubt Nadella will change his mind. Xbox's leadership have been winging it for so long that he said "enough is enough, this is how it will be from now on."

@Vault_Mcfly It couldn't hurt Sony to have slightly more variety, but it doesn't help your argument when you include such silly statements like 95% of Playstation exclusives being generic open world games. Looking at releases of the last 5-ish years, only 3 IPs could be counted in that category: Horizon, Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima.

This is up against a list that includes Ratchet & Clank, Gran Turismo, God of War, Astro Bot, Helldivers, The Last of Us and borderline first party titles like Demon's Souls and Returnal. The situation is clearly much better than the picture you're trying to paint, but I'll grant you that a good single player shooter would be welcome. I doubt that the answer is bringing back a franchise that had run its course, whose developer has moved on to vastly more successful things, however.

Yooka-Replaylee is the best terrible remake name I've ever seen. I love it.

@Keyblade-Dan You're definitely not alone in that, it's one of the more absurd recent developments on here, combined with completely fictitious alternative histories where certain older series were wildly successful and beloved.

People on here claim Horizon is being milked to death and we need more Killzone, when there were no less than 4 mainline entries and 2 handheld games in that franchise over a period of 9 years. There's so much stuff being said in comments on here that simply has no basis in reality.

It's not like Sony have never let external devs work on their IP, but they will be very careful in their choice of partners. They're obviously protective of their IP, just like any other company. This appeal seems a little frivolous.

The whole thing is a mess. A colleague of mine who lives like 15km from me still has the €10 option in the app, while I don't even have that. Only differences are that he's on iOS and has Extra while I'm on Android and only have Essential, but who knows.

It's clearly a substantial improvement in detail density, vegetation and lighting, and that's only in stills. In motion, I expect it to be an even bigger difference. It's true to original colour gives it a more unique atmosphere, but that's purely an artistic choice.

The update makes it a little more digestible. It's a shame that they don't get a crack at another game as a team, but good to hear they all kept their jobs.

@DennisReynolds That sounds a bit harsh. At the end of the day, you can't buy every game and even if you could, you can't play them all. Someone might've looked at this game's price and thought, I can buy two other indies instead and support those devs, and then get this one later.

As a side note, I remember getting Tales of Kenzera which was pretty similar and released around the same time, because I felt that studio would need the support more. That team also ended up shutting down, so sometimes it feels like no matter what we do, it all crashes and burns anyway.

@Gewertzx Your posts on this subject lack any sort of nuance. Suggesting the developers didn't do a good enough job when it is among the highest rated games of the year, just because it didn't find commercial success, doesn't make any sense. There's no need to keep repeating it either.

There are obvious other reasons for this apparent failure, such as the unusually high price point for this type of game (seriously, they usually go for half that price), the expectation of deep sales for Ubisoft games and the fact that 2D metroidvanias are still a pretty niche genre after all. It all points to Ubisoft misjudging the market for this type of game, rather than any sort of failure on the dev's part.

And honestly, I'm wondering if it even failed at all. It sold 300,000 copies within 2 weeks, that's a fairly promising start for this type of game. If their expectation was that it would sell millions, well then Ubisoft are even more out of touch than I thought. Not every metroidvania can pull a Hollow Knight.

@get2sammyb Feels very similar to what happened with Hi-Fi Rush. Smaller game, lower price point, universal acclaim, team closed down.

Big AAA games are becoming unsustainable, double A games are becoming more rare and we're seeing critically acclaimed smaller titles fail as well. Do we need a smaller industry, releasing fewer games? No idea what the answer is here.

It pains me to say that I'm part of the problem. Despite loving metroidvanias and having every intention of playing this, I still haven't bought it. There are just so many games and this had a fairly hefty pricetag for this type of game.

It might not have made much of a difference, but still, I wish I had bought it now. Based on my impressions of the demo and the game's reception, the team deserves better than this.

@ZeroSum CoD wasn't really that big of a deal yet back then. When Killzone 1 released, and even when that infamous Killzone 2 trailer aired, we had only had CoD 1, which was more of a cinematic WW2 shooter in the vain of Medal of Honor.

Killzone was actually positioned as a Halo killer, despite the stylistical differences. Obviously, it all went down very differently, but that was how it started.

For what it's worth, I actually thought Killzone 2 was excellent back then, but the series had sort of run its course by the time Shadowfall released. Perhaps it's worth bringing back to life at some point, Space Marine 2 style, but if it never happens, it's worth remembering we got 4 mainline entries out of the franchise.