Ainu20

I'm really looking forward to these. For some reason, despite playing the hell out of 3 and 4, I don't remember their individual levels as clearly as those from 1 and 2. Especially THPS 4, which was of course the first to remove the time limit and let you explore freely. My theory is the urgency of the earlier games forced me to become more familiar with their layout, as that knowledge was really needed to complete objectives within the time limit.

Anyway, it'll be like discovering them all over again and undoubtedly unlocking a lot of forgotten memories in the process.

Edit: just saw I said something very similar to @Member_the_game. There was just something about those levels in 1 and 2.

@Oram77 I've never read or heard anything about Sony being involved with Wukong's funding. Where does that come from?

I can believe him when he says it was great, but I just can't imagine such an experienced studio going "oops, guess we misjudged that". It leaves too many questions unanswered.

Did Naughty Dog intend this as a live service game since its conception? If yes, why, and how did they not realize how many resources that would take? On the other hand, if not, were they pressured by Playstation management to turn it into one? Were Bungie mandated to judge it viability rather than just offer advice? Etc.

I like Yoshida but the view he's presenting here seems overly simplistic.

I will never understand why so many gamers want to stay in the same metaverse when there is such a wide variety of brilliant games to experience out there. Younger generations seem really into that though, so I guess I'll just have to accept I'm not part of that target demographic.

It can't be a positive evolution for the games industry as a whole. These publishers want to occupy all of your time and get you to spend all of your money with them, instead of spreading it around across the rest of the industry. I can only hope it's a trend that will pass at some point, but I'm not optimistic.

Xbox has become the single largest video game publisher on the planet by an enormous margin, so no surprise they're putting out more games. There isn't really much more to see here.

Why do people keep expecting any sort of Bloodborne news? If it happens, it happens, but this whole getting their hopes up for no reason and then whinging about out afterwards is beyond tedious at this point.

Since it's coming from Jeff Grubb, we can safely assume he's just guessing. Why that guy still gets a platform to spread his claims is beyond me, he doesn't have any credibility whatsoever.

@breakneck I still think there's zero chance of GTA 6 releasing this year.

It's funny to look back on that early 2024 statement from Sony that they wouldn't release any major first-party titles, and yet they ended up dominating The Game Awards with the most nominations and awards as publisher and the most nominations and awards for any single game, including the GOTY, for a first-party title.

@Max_the_German A game with this level of production values would've drawn a lot of attention regardless of who was behind it. It isn't for everyone, but the first game was still a remarkable achievement with a stunningly beautiful world. It's something completely different, and why not.

@itsfoz Same here. I liked the first and I'll play the second, but they've shown it before. A +- 5 minute gameplay segment would be more than enough at this point. Let's give other games a chance to shine.

@zebric21 You're getting the games first, in most cases several years before the PC releases, and you're getting versions that are perfectly optimized for the system (something Sony's first-party studios are still very good at). How that makes you feel like a second class citizen is beyond me.

Does this game even have any live-service monetization elements? If it's just a single-player game with an MP component, I don't think anyone has the right to expect regular content updates, let alone demand them.

It's absurd that some people are against this - but not unexpected, such is the world we live in. Anyway, it seems like common sense finally prevailed at Sony. Optional PSN logins with additional benefits was always the way to go for single-player titles.

As much as I love God of War, this would feel like a predictable and uninspired move. It also feels like it wouldn't really make sense after Ragnarok's ending.

Kratos abandoning his (destroyed) homeland after the original trilogy and moving some place far away made sense, but I didn't really need this series turning into a journey across mythologies, almost like the latest Assassin's Creed games. They need a strong narrative hook for this to work.

I couldn't stand Eternal's combat so I'm glad they took this in a different direction, though I have to say I'm not sold on the increased melee focus and inclusion of a parry mechanic.

@Ralizah Not that it truly matters, but aggregate GOTY site goty.gamefa.com (which almost perfectly aligns with The Game Awards) actually had Horizon Zero Dawn in second place with 14.9% of GOTY awards, ahead of Super Mario Odyssey at 8%. Which surprised me, I too would've expected Odyssey second.

But it's of course entirely possible that a lot of those awards for BOTW would've gone to Odyssey instead of Horizon.

You're just baiting the comment section at this point.

I didn't really interpret that as a joke or tongue in cheek comment. Coming from a former Nintendo exec, that's probably the highest praise you can realistically get.

@Trapdoor Glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. Aside from being a terrible slog, I also felt the writing in Infinite Wealth was awful compared to Gaiden. I wasn't just disappointed with IW, it has actually made me less excited about the future of the series.

@get2sammyb I agree it's wrong to only expect single player games from Sony, a strategy that is becoming increasingly unsustainable. A healthy mix is in everyone's best interest.

Having said that, I think the aversion is largely a reaction to the whole "12 live service games" push by Jim Ryan. The messaging was all wrong, and it was just way too much. It was a PR nightmare that alienated a large part of the player base and made every future live-service project the target of extreme scrutiny and scepticism. It'll take a while to repair the damage that was done.

Like a Dragon: Gaiden was surprisingly great. I went in without expectations due to it being a spin-off, but it's right up there with the likes of Judgement and Yakuza 0 as the best RGG has ever done.

This feels a bit pointless when we already have the excellent Netflix adaptation of Castlevania.

I don't consider GTA to be the pinnacle of video gaming or anything like that, so no, I don't see why I would want to pay more for it. Plenty of other video games have been more valuable to me.

Something about this feels off. It looks like a high res version of CGI cutscenes from the late 90's.

@Godot25 That's not necessarily true, look at Ghost of Tsushima. That was a big single player game that received a free MP component post-launch, and gamers loved it. This sort of thing is an exception, but it shows that it's possible. I think that's exactly the sort of MP content that Playstation gamers would appreciate more of.

On the positive side, if that list is accurate, that means all 12 live service games are accounted for and it looks like there's only 3 more to go, 2 of of which by studios that haven't traditionally delivered single player games for Playstation (Bungie and Haven). Hopefully, that means we're close to the end of this chapter and the worst is behind us.

Probably wishful thinking though.

This is mismanagement on an apocalyptic scale by Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst. I just don't know what else to say.

@Oram77 I don't see it as hand holding, but as a compromise to limit frustration. Demon's Souls had runbacks that were essentially the entire level, give or take some shortcuts, but its bosses were several orders of magnitude simpler than, say, Sekiro. I wouldn't have enjoyed similar runbacks in that game.

Competing for gamers' time and attention? Obviously yes. Competing in terms of power and performance? Obviously not.

That second statement isn't even worth considering, the form factor speaks for itself. As the name suggests, it's the Switch 2 in every imaginable way.

@Oram77 It's interesting reading that now because, when DS3 had just released, a lot of people were saying the same thing about that game compared to older releases, and especially compared to Demon's Souls.

It feels like From Soft's trajectory has been to keep making bosses tougher and faster with more complex movesets but giving us less punishing run backs in return.

I never thought I'd say this but I actually prefer EA's latest PGA Tour game over the last few PGA Tour 2k games (and by extension, The Golf Club games). If this is just more of the same, I doubt I'm going back to it.

I'm sure it's impressive but all this does is make me a little scared of it. My default reaction to incredibly long or large games these days is being intimidated, as I simply don't know how I'll manage all of them.

@Alexface In all fairness, you're not obliged to get the complete edition, or any other edition beyond the standard. Why would you? We'd all be better off if everyone just bought standard editions of games and only purchased extra content once they'd actually decided they liked what they've played and wanted more.

This and Time Crisis 2 were my favourites to play in the arcades back in the day. House 2 was brutally difficult though. I couldn't imagine playing this without a gun controller, that sounds terrible.

During our Japan trip a couple of months ago we were fortunate enough to find an arcade in Akihabara that had all Time Crisis and House of the Dead cabinets side by side. Many hours and countless 100 Yen coins were spent in that place.

I feel like I'm getting increasingly out of touch with the tone of many of the articles on here. PS5 owners should be shocked that PC versions have a much higher quality and performance ceiling than consoles? Like that isn't the most normal thing in the world?

I just don't get the point of presenting it like this. Surely we aren't all so insecure about our PS5s that we can't handle the news of another version scaling beyond it?

I watched the video by People Make Games on it (a channel I clearly need to keep an eye on) and it makes my blood boil. The way people are taken advantage of and their mental health is being destroyed, all against a backdrop of record profits in the largest entertainment industry on the planet, is sickening.

Let's be clear though, Ubisoft have had/still have their own demons to exorcise, but this is not a Ubisoft story. This is about a studio that has done outsourced work for many of the biggest players in the industry, including Sony, Microsoft, EA, Sega and more. And it's probably safe to assume there are plenty of other studios like it.

The last half decade or so, we've seen increased focus on working conditions at high profile developers, which is obviously a good thing, but the issues across the industry clearly go way beyond that. We can only hope we'll start seeing a similar amount of attention for the conditions at outsourcing studios in the future.

@Ralizah I don't think the Lego game in any way reflects interest in the main franchise. They're very different things targeting a completely different audience. I could definitely see a God of War based one failing as well. Successful Lego games have always been based around well known IP with much greater reach than those games: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, LOTR, etc. Lego Horizon was simply a mismatch.

Mario and Zelda are a different matter. They're in a class of their own with many decades worth of guaranteed quality and an appeal so wide it goes well beyond video games.

Obviously Sony try to promote Horizon as much as they can, it's one of their most successful franchises at the moment. Whatever andecdotal evidence people try to use against it, both the critical and commercial figures only point one way. Maybe franchise fatigue will set in at some point, but right now there aren't really any signs pointing in that direction, beyond some very vocal people on the internet.

Speaking about very vocal people on the internet, they are not interesting. I do wish this site would stop giving them attention. On the other hand, I'm commenting on it, so I guess I'm part of the problem.

The whole symmetric vs asymmetric placements of joysticks never really registers with me, and I switch back and forth on a regular basis between the Dualsense, Switch Pro Controller and the Xbox One controller hooked up to my PC. Never understood why people feel the need to proclaim one or the other as superior. Both placements feel perfectly fine to me, and it's all just personal preference anyway.

"Card-based mobile game". Well that had my interest killed before the article had a chance to get going.

In isolation his comment is obviously perfectly fine. But as a response to that original post, it doesn't come across particularly well. Something he must've known while he was typing it.

Another day on the internet, huh? I remember being very excited by the possibilities in the late 90s. This wasn't quite how I imagined it.

Mario Kart 8 is just insane, how is that still selling this much?

Let's be honest, it's not exactly a close race between those two in terms of who is most likely to exit the console market. Microsoft is already pivoting away from traditional console business anyway.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I'm not going to discredit any of your experiences or claim that what you're saying doesn't exist. I'm sure it does and I do think people casually emphasising the perceived weirdness of Asian countries is harmful.

But I simply don't see that in her reaction. Could I see her say the same about Western devs? Yes. We're used to seeing devs and performers get emotional when they win, so I could see the opposite striking her as unusual, regardless of who it was.

Whatever your personal feelings, it still boils down to you throwing accusations her way based on, at best, very shaky grounds. Which is just as harmful.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare This is what I meant by you over-analyzing everything. How was she patronising in her video, and what is so difficult to understand in what she said? She literally said she just found it surprising, because she didn't think studios cared that much. That's all. Seriously.

On top of that, she praised them for their amazing achievement.

Yes, clearly an awful Western journalist out to diminish Asian devs with her strange takes!

@themightyant Yup, I suspect most people don't bother to watch the video (which was really just a small fragment from a longer stream) but just jump on the news bit. She said things like it clearly meant a lot to them, they did an amazing thing and that it was fair that they looked upset. Somehow that got misconstrued as her bashing or shaming the studio or whatever. Edit: ah I see you've posted the full thing now

Can only agree with your conclusion, as usual. People suck.

I still don't get why some people feel like Game Science has somehow been poorly treated by Western media. The game got an 81 metascore, which is pretty damn strong, and got five nominations at TGA, of which it managed to take home two.

The game was clearly celebrated in the West, just not as much as in China, but surely there's nothing wrong with that?

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare You seem to have a habit of over-analyzing everything. There was nothing weird about Alanah Pearce's video, she just gave her take on what she felt was an unusual occurrence, i.e. the public reaction by Game Science's CEO and seeing a member of the team cry.

Also it's pretty funny you're accusing her of passing judgement without knowing the people involved, when your next post is implying she made that video because of her past employer. Pot, kettle, etc.