Amnesiac

@themightyant I think you hit the nail on the head. As much as the PS+ refresh was needed to make the service more competitive, it was also a smart way to boost revenue per subscriber. Subscriptions seem to be at the saturation point as a business model, but introducing tiers to a service is a pretty surefire way to get some of your established customers to trade up.

Midnight Suns is a wonderful game crafted by talented people, some of whom have had their lives turned upside down by the whims of a billion dollar company. Here’s hoping they land on their feet.

I respect this review and acknowledge that this is likely a mediocre game at best. Nevertheless, on to the wishlist it goes.

@rawzeku What exactly are they getting away with? The game has reviewed abysmally and will likely sell poorly, which will undoubtedly have dire consequences for the people who worked on it. I’m not a fan of bad games, but the degree of contempt directed at people who make games that miss the mark is depressing.

@Green-Bandit I think the trailer suffers from being a bit dumb as well as the VR curse of having to promote immersive 3D games with 2D trailers. The first game on PSVR was pretty intense. I’m generally not a fan of zombies or first person shooters, but I played the original to completion and will probably pick up the sequel just for the adrenaline rush.

Well I feel silly. I always thought it was ME-as-ma, which would have given us the more jaunty, Mario-esque “It’s a kicking Me-Ass-Ma” sub heading. Thank you for educating me PushSquare.

Doesn’t seem bad at all given the price point and with it only available directly from Sony. I have to wonder what effect, if any, the relentless circulation of Bloomberg’s false numbers has had on consumer perception though.

I expect this list to remain Zelda-centric for quite a while. I feel the same way about these new fangled Zelda releases that I do about Beyonce albums. I know that each new release will sell millions and critics will throw their backs out hurling superlatives at them, but they’re just not my thing.

@Danloaded I played through it and would cautiously recommend it if you’re looking for an open world game to zip around. As the PS review mentioned, the best spells, and by extension the most entertaining combat, are locked away in the final third of the game. Still, it managed to create that “I’ll just play a little longer to see what’s over there” feeling for me, which carried through to the credit roll. The magic cats are cute too.

@LifeGirl I’m not sure what gave me a bigger chuckle; that one of the most popular You Tube reviewers is named Angry Joe, or that someone who calls themself “Angry Joe” hates things. Modern life really shades close to satire I guess.

I remember reading this in the monthly issues as a kid. If memory serves, it was a crossover between Amazing, Spectacular, and Web Of which made it tough to track down issues at the local convenience store. I was probably too young for it, but it definitely left an impression, especially the art in the spider munching panels.

I was a fan of the early Peter David story ‘The Death of Jean Dewolff’ as well, which also took the friendly neighborhood web slinger to darker places. That story blew my young mind when I realized that Spiderman and Daredevil knew each other and lived in the same city. Ahhh, nostalgia.

@SplooshDmg @Ralizah If memory serves, the E-shop has substantial discounts on first party titles about twice a year, which is when I tended to pick them up. The Japanese E-shop has some good deals too on occasion. For me, the best thing Nintendo did this generation is unify versions of games sold through the different E-shop regions. I wish Sony would do the same.

If they had found a way to include Monty Don, it would have been a day one purchase for me.

What a wonderful time to be a fan of classic games. As someone who remembers the days of digging through used game bins, I feel a bit spoiled by the range of retro titles getting digital releases these days.

This looks delightful and the asking price is more than reasonable. I do wonder why the developer’s name is in all caps, though. Every time I read it I feel like I’m getting yelled at in French.

Man, I waste a lot of time…I mean wisely use my time to enrich my life by reading this site, and I totally missed Dredge. On to the wishlist it goes.

This list looks like an invitation to rate fighting games during my coffee break. Challenge accepted.

I enjoyed the first Pixel Ripped outing, but the collaboration with Atari seems like its making this something special. I can’t believe I’m saying this, in the year of our lord 2023, but Atari has been on a bit of a roll lately.

@LAA I keep wondering if I’m missing a scene on the beach that forces you to attend a political rally for a socialist Quen or an right wing Oseram because I don’t get the connection between politics and who one person (or imaginary character) falls in love with. People carry their baggage with them, I guess. Even into their escapist hobbies.

This looks fun, and the semi-chibi design isn’t without its charms, but I think I would have preferred abs of steel Marian from River City Girls 2 rather than gun toting Marian. Slight Rolling Thunder 2 vibes from her, though, so there’s potential!

I’m loving the expansion, but I’m really just here to applaud the sub heading. Bravo!

@Simon_Fitzgerald That game really blew me away. I’m surprised it didn’t make more of a splash as it remains one of my favorite PSVR games.

@AtlanteanMan I was wondering when you’d get around to this: “believing a behavior is amoral isn't bigotry.” That’s some spectacular hair splitting given that what makes someone LGBT is that they exhibit LGBT behavior. By that logic, theft is immoral but thieves are A-OK. I have some modicum of sympathy for those who are uncomfortable viewing displays of same sex affection, but to say that an entire group of people is immoral because of who they happen to love is just appalling, and a textbook example of bigotry. Fortunately, there are a dwindling number of people with similar views, as even in a country as conservative as the U.S., less than 30% find same sex relations morally wrong. (Gallup, 05/2022)

While I’m here, I may as well address some of the other pachyderms in this room full of elephants. Your blank slate avatar argument doesn’t really stand up in this age of character driven games. Are you really making the case that characters that aren’t tabula rasas, characters like Lara Croft, Solid Snake, and Cloud Strife haven’t stood the test of time? And for heaven’s sake, sexuality has been in video games since Golgo 13 on the NES, or if you have terrible taste, Custer’s Revenge on the 2600. I don’t think it’s caused the industry too much over the past 40 years.

In any event, I apologize for the length of my screed, but not the content. I hate long posts but sometimes a downvote button just doesn’t get the job done.

I went with a 9 just because tying down a machine, leaping in the air while grappling to it, stabbing it and then blasting it with an arrow doesn’t seem to get old.

@FenIsMightier I dipped in and out of the first one for a long time until I finally beat it. There was a lot to like about it, but at the same time I thought some of the dungeons got to be a bit of a drag. I have the second one but haven’t jumped in yet. Glad to hear it has a good soundtrack!

@Jill_Sandwich Rather easy to look good in a situation that doesn’t involve you. I came out of the Fox News/Dominion lawsuit smelling like roses, if I do say so myself.

Anyone with a passing interest in racing games or good old fashioned FMV cheese should give GRID Legends a try. I had a lot of fun with it, especially the campaign, before GT7 launched and stole away my racing game heart.

Oof, I need to start fortifying my wallet’s defenses immediately! This and the New Year’s sale are double trouble since there are usually good deals on both the US and JPN stores.

I picked up Wild Hearts during a recent sale because of the strong reviews. It’s nice to see another take on a genre that’s been dominated by a single title for quite a while. I hope it does well, but even if it’s sales performance doesn’t warrant a sequel, it will be a nice, well-made one-off from Koei Tecmo.

Looks like its time to grind sand worms again. Good times!

“The game is supposedly coming out in a few months, yet you have done nothing to show us anything.”

This is an amazingly obnoxious sentence. If they were going for a combination of petulance and rudeness, mission accomplished.

@mrraditch Yeah, I had to go back and make sure I watched the right trailer because it looks fantastic to me. To be sure, there’s a bit of a glut of unattractive pixel style games, but this really doesn’t seem to be one of them.

@z0d15g0d You’ve really helped my case. I didn’t have to rebuy SFV, I just bought the roster expansion DLC at a fraction of the cost of the full game. My younger self spent untold hours doing chores to save up for annual Street Fighter upgrades (II, CE, Turbo, Super Turbo) I just think this way works better. Imagine if EA took this approach to sports games instead of going with annual full price releases.

@at-the-Ripper I’m hard pressed to think of another time outside of the early 90’s when there were so many excellent releases from both major players and smaller companies. Arc System Works, Namco (Tekken 7 is a masterpiece and 8 looks like it will be sublime), SNK, French Bread and many more have released great games in recent years. Also, a number of older, hard to find games have finally seen the light of day again, so yeah, it feels like fighting games are in a good place.

Complaining also seems to be having a renaissance in the gaming community though, so I’m not surprised the impression you got was negative.

@MrList Or DLC has removed the need to buy new versions of fighting games every year, allowed for continuous balancing, and helped maintain interest in a genre not known for having a long shelf life. We’re in a fighting game renaissance, in no small part because of DLC, not in spite of it.

@WallyWest Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but melee is pretty much just for human enemies, right? I mean, there’s not much point to bopping the robo dinosaurs with your pointy stick. In human to human scuffles I found the melee much improved. Especially the combos that bounce you off of enemies and give you a free ranged shot.

Stepping into Burning Shores from the base game is like taking off a pair of cheap sunglasses and suddenly getting hit in the face with how detailed and beautiful the world is. I feel a strong urge to hop into my little skiff and just do some sightseeing while playing Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” on repeat.

@Matroska I tried it out as well and the racing and tracks are really well done. It does seem a little on the tough side, but I’m wondering if difficulty is tied to performance/lap time in the tutorial. I might be wrong, though.

And yes, the number of currencies and ways to level up are both baffling and appalling. Is this method really better than, I don’t know, selling a complete game and then charging for future updates? Isn’t there another kart racer out there that’s found a bit of success in doing that?

@Sakai I enjoyed the story, for the most part, but the ending was disappointing. Without getting into spoilers, it felt like they sacrificed any sense of closure for the sake of set up. They should have let it breathe a little. I’m curious if you have a similar take.

That being said, I found the wacky sci-fi stuff and all the different tribes really enjoyable. They also did a great job with the supporting cast, with several going from grating to endearing over the course of a few side quests. In a medium overpopulated with one note, throw away characters, it was nice to get a little depth, even if they missed the mark a few times.

I liked HZD a great deal, but I mostly remember the big moments. I find with HFW, it’s the smaller moments that have stayed with me.

Oh, and quoting Eurogamer regarding anything Horizon related is definitely shaky ground. I can’t wait to see how they tie themselves in knots trying to explain why Burning Shores is no good. Should be good for a chuckle.

“Australian dollarydoos” is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. I’d have called ‘em chazzwazzers though.

The Sonic underwater sections are completely to blame for the dread I feel any time I start to virtually run out of air. Each one was like a tiny scene of horror, with the bell tolling, the music speeding up, and that last burst of bubbles escaping from the mouth of a soon to be dead hedgehog.

That being said, go get the mask and the underwater sections become some of the most beautiful parts of HFW.

Hmm…looking at the screenshots, I’m noticing that the itty bitty controller symbol icons are the wrong colors. Blue square? Green cross? What sort of confusing madness is this?

Thanks for the review! This sounds much more interesting than what I had initially thought, and so onto the wishlist it goes.

Woke up to find that my game progress had dropped from 100% to 77%. That’s a lot more Horizon to look forward to!

I’ve been a fan of ZEN pinball’s different incarnations for many years, but this reboot has been messy. There’s a lot of fun to be had here, for sure, but I think I still prefer Pinball FX 3 and the Farsight pinball collection at this point.

It’s been more than 20 years and I still don’t think I really have the hang of Fantavision. It’s fun, for sure, but half the time I think I’m scoring in spite of myself.

Is it just me, or is Ratalaika really branching out lately? I have this in my wishlist, just waiting for tomorrow’s release. Can’t wait to play it, and given the development era, can’t wait to hear what it sounds like too. So many great game soundtracks from that period.

One of the best things about this game is that it keeps you humble. There’s nothing like meticulously picking apart an Apex Thunderjaw only to let your guard down and get pummeled by a pack of angry robot kangaroos.

@Gaia093 Just to balance things out, I’m in the buyer’s satisfaction camp with Kayak VR. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it beautifully. Makes for a nice change of pace between more action focused titles, but your enjoyment is entirely dependent upon how much you like to explore for the sake of exploring.

I don’t really understand all the “About time! Make a proper game!” comments. Just about every studio that exists develops press X to jump/shoot/confirm games. Only one studio was developing a press X to create anything you can think of game. Whatever they do next, I hope it’s exactly what they want to do.

I’ve been enjoying this quite a bit. While it doesn’t match the frenzied pace of WarioWare, the mini games here have more meat on their bones than Nintendo’s offering. It makes the additional time allotted per challenge welcome in my book.