AtlanteanMan

If you're a fan of dark and/or dystopian themes, extreme violence, gore, and profanity/vulgarity, this has been your year as far as these gaming shows are concerned. If you're a gamer who prefers a more rounded selection, it's as dry as a lakebed in the Western US right now. I own both a Series X and PS5 and frankly neither has come close to justifying the investment for this console generation for me so far. And looking at what's on offer, that won't be improving for the foreseeable future.

I've played a couple of missions thus far from the demo, and while I intend to complete the demo, right now I have to say that I'm still on the fence. This game has the feel of a rushed project; the placeholder verbal phrases spoken EVERY TIME over written dialogue get downright nonsensical and don't take long to get old; if there's an actual, meaningful storyline to be found here, this approach will absolutely get in its way. The characters and other models look decidedly last-gen (if not PS3-level, regardless of the 4K capabilities); your character awkwardly lurches around your base as you explore it, with all the requisite collision detection issues of a third-rate project. As for the maps I've played on thus far, they're BLAND. Isolate one or two enemy soldiers, surround and attack them, finish them off with a special move or two, rinse, repeat. And I don't care for the inability to micromanage my units more effectively; they're tiny on the screen and can easily be badly damaged before you realize it.

I've mentioned this before, but another turn-off is definitely the overall DARKNESS in the presentation. Every screen, map, and environment is dominated by blacks and dark coloration, to the point of frankly being depressing to look at. I'm not a fan of the character designs (I'll leave the absurd names because they don't even deserve mention) for the same reasons that FE: Three Houses never really "clicked" with me (and I played over 150 hours of that one): those muted colors and dark "gothic" vibe simply become downers to look at.

I love SRPGs and generally try to support them when given a chance, but The DioField Chronicle just feels so ROUGH for a SquareEnix game, like a project that one of their "B" teams worked on because they felt it didn't merit a full effort. I know that I've listed a lot of complaints for a title that I still claim to be on the fence about, but I really do try to give games I'm intrigued by a fair chance. But as literary agents will tell you, don't come to them saying "the good part" of a book submission starts AFTER such-and-such; they want to be blown away from Page One. The same principle applies to selling full versions of videogames with demos; so far, The DioField Chronicle is really struggling to earn my investment.

@tameshiyaku Valkyria Chronicles is an amazing franchise and hands down Sega's best since they left from making consoles, and I would absolutely support a new installment just as I have the previous ones. But I would be even more excited to see a proper SRPG return of Shining Force for consoles; SF III for the Saturn had an incredible story (something the Genesis versions could never accomplish from a technical perspective) and some of the best, most manipulative villains ever seen in a videogame (I kid you not). Western gamers in particular could benefit from finally seeing the complete, three-Scenario storyline instead of being cut off at the First Scenario by Sega's ambivalence.

But that's the problem; Sega doesn't want to bother with most of their old IPs not named "Sonic" anymore, so I'm not holding my breath.

The gameplay mechanics look promising, but there's one thing that's just a turn-off for me personally: the visual aesthetics. Everything is so DARK. The screen is dominated by black, grays and so on, and even the character art has that same depressing vibe that kept me from really falling in love with FE: Three Houses despite playing probably 150 hours. And not only that, but the environments are stark, flat, and lifeless, full of 90-degree angles (so far I haven't seen any natural environments or even vegetation of any sort during the battles). Normally I'm one to jump all over SRPGs, but I have to say I'm still on the fence with this one. I'll probably at least wait for the reviews to come out to make as informed a decision as possible, although the upcoming demo may indeed help me decide before then.

@IonMagi That's a far bigger loss for Sony than I think they realize. The PS5 is BADLY struggling to show me ANYTHING that justifies the investment I put into it as it is, and Hot Shots/Everybody's Golf was a big go-to staple for me with past Sony consoles. I can't name a single existing or upcoming title on PS5 that is remotely similar to this, either visually or thematically. Way too much focus on dark, ultra-violent, regurgitated tropes from the industry anymore where I'm concerned. Without genre variety and a return of more of those great IPs we used to see (ModNation Racers is another), the hobby I've loved and supported since the Atari 2600 is losing much of its lustre.

I still miss the ATV Offroad Fury games, especially the first two. I'd spend hours making ridiculously long and complex courses and then race them against three of my friends/relatives via splitscreen. We had some that ran through barns, up staircases, and had some absolutely insane jumps. And even then many of our races still ended up being nail-biters. Great times; I wish developers still included modes like that, but sadly endless replayability and value aren't exactly the first thing on their minds anymore.

One of the key reasons I will NEVER pay a subscription to stream games. I buy what I want so I can keep it and play it when it's convenient for me, not at the mercy of anyone who can pull the plug on some other end. To each their own, but subscriptions are a Trojan Horse from a business angle, folks; it's all about CONTROL and eliminating what little is left of basic consumer rights and ownership.

I'm not going to bet on what's going to happen, but I have a few thoughts on what NEEDS to happen:

1) Every PlayStation console thus far has had at least one iteration of Everybody's Golf/Hot Shots Golf. It's family-friendly, supports up to four players, and has a large following of players who've sunk a TON of time into the series over the years. It's time for the PS5 to announce this generation's Everybody's Golf. There's simply nothing for PS5 that checks the boxes that this one does, a year and a half after launch.

2) A sequel to ModNation Racers, please.

3) That TimeSplitters reimagining is just about due for its big reveal, if I'm not mistaken. Another awesome series where you could sink countless hours just creating maps. Just do it RIGHT and stay away from Loot Crates or business models that ruin the game for the fans (looking hard at Halo Infinite).

Does Sony need a Summer Showcase? Well, if Sony likes hardware and software sales, then people have to know there are games they want to play coming for their platform. And when 1 1/2 years in your first-party selection and other genuine exclusives consist of Horizon: Forbidden West and not much more, then YES, I believe Sony needs a Summer Showcase. And one that will blow gamers away, at that. Brand loyalty is a fickle thing when it comes to entertainment, and people will go where they feel their interests are best represented.

@Matroska I wasn't referring to in-game billboards; I'm referring to the same type of ads that interrupt your Youtube and other media online. Imagine companies sneaking that crap into "loading screens" that otherwise wouldn't be necessary but which you either have to sit through or simply lose interest and turn the game off in frustration.

If they want to insert that garbage into F2P games, have at 'em because I never touch that stuff anyway. But if they EVER do it with games I've legally paid for, I'm done with the hobby.

Ads had better NEVER, EVER come to regular games that we pay for. If they do, I suspect there would be a mass exodus of people from the hobby...and I say right here and now I would be one of them.

Don't play with fire, Sony.

If Sega actually does go that route with any "reboots" or remakes after literally making us wait for DECADES, then it truly would be a deliberate and unforgivable slap in the face to their fans. They'd better tread carefully or what little is left of their once esteemed reputation in the hobby will go up in smoke.

I backed Hundred Heroes on KS even though its release was (at least) three years away at the time, but I never warmed to this spin-off, partly because it felt like the team had taken a detour from the primary thing they actually raised money to develop. I'm optimistic about Hundred Heroes given the pedigree of the developers (I really love the Suikoden franchise), but I think dividing your attention and efforts after the fact before you've fulfilled your obligations is never a good look.

There are countless games from over the decades that deserve another round of exposure to the current generation of players. Some would be absolutely fine without any remastering or remaking whatsoever (for example, a compilation of Sega's Arcade coin-ops from Zaxxon, Pengo, and Congo Bongo through Afterburner, Out Run, and Super Monaco GP, to the later ones like Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship, Virtua Fighter, and Super Star Wars Arcade). Others would certainly need modern-day upgrades to their visuals but otherwise would blow gamers away, like Skies of Arcadia, Shining Force III, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc.. I realize this list is Sega-centric, but the most important issue is the willingness of a publisher to revisit its dormant IPs, and aside from a smattering of titles outsourced to smaller developers to mixed results (the most recent being The House of the Dead Remake), Sega has been notoriously stingy outside of their myopic focus on Sonic.

Aside from remakes/remasters, certain entire genres have pretty much vanished for many years now, and perhaps none more so than light gun games. Time Crisis, the Point Blank series, The House of the Dead, and many others would likely find a welcoming audience today if the tech to work with current flatscreen displays would surface (THOTD Remake's control issues on Switch highlight the challenge of translating such titles to standard controllers), but there might be another avenue for them to make a comeback: VR. Even on-rails shooters would likely be awesome experiences in VR, and both help to fill out the catalogs of various VR platforms while giving light gun games a new lease on life.

Don't forget the Point Blank series. Some of the best 2-player party games I've ever experienced, and hilarious to boot.

Pretty much the same review remarks every single year: a solid game with incremental improvements and tweaks. I'm not saying that San Diego Studios needs to blow everything up and start from scratch, but MLB: The Show came to share very similar problems with Madden years ago: with no real competition due to control of the MLB license there's really no incentive for them to go out of their way to make substantial improvements or changes. Not even with the grass textures the article mentioned with the franchise now a full extra year into a new console generation.

"We can only assume Sony San Diego Studio has big improvements planned for future instalments." Not until MLB: The Show has genuine competition with the MLB license on consoles, I would wager, the way World Series Baseball used to go head-to-head with the likes of MLB back during the PSX/Saturn and PS2/XBox eras.

One of the very WORST things that's happened to videogames has been licensing issues, whether monopolized by a single company, expiring rights (the Forza Horizon series disappearing regularly as music license rights expire), and IPs being tied up by ownership tug-of-wars (Ms. Pac-Man, Marvel Vs. Capcom, etc.). Sadly, I don't see a way for gamers to do much about the situation.

I'm only interested in backwards compatibility if I can permanently purchase and OWN the games that I choose. Subscription models may be all the rage (and let's not forget that it's the INDUSTRY who wants it that way), but users have zero control over content or when/if the plug will get pulled from the other side. Give us the option to buy, Sony; otherwise, no deal where I'm concerned.

@ColdHandGee I have a brand new PS5, yes. Not in any hurry to open it up, though (see my reply above).

@themightyant Thanks to you and BAMozzy for clarifying the warranty situation; I had a bad experience with the PS4 Pro when I cleaned it after it started sounding like a lawnmower and ended up bricking for no apparent reason when reassembled (though will say that thing made it an absolute PAIN to get to the parts that actually needed cleaning). Glad to know the PS5 is a simpler matter, though I still think many of us could've lived with a higher MSRP if it had included a more substantial storage capacity to begin with.

Looking long-term, storage capacity was the one thing both the PS5 and the XBox Series X/S sacrificed in order to keep their hardware costs down to a certain price point. And it will prove to be a serious problem before too long for a lot of consumers, especially with the PS5 since A) these SSDs are so ridiculously expensive on their own and B) you must install them by opening the console and messing with its internal components (and in doing so both voiding your warranty and playing roulette with a $500 console). Just bad, shortsighted design in a crucial area where the real cost is going to inevitably be borne by the consumers.

I've been a platform-agnostic hobbyist who's owned thousands of games across pretty much every machine that's come out since the NES and Sega Master System. I already had both a Switch and an XBox Series X (both of which I have dozens of games for, especially thanks to the latter's BC titles), and although I'd been on the fence I grabbed a PS5 during a Best Buy Black Friday sale and received a $75 PlayStation Store gift card over the holidays...that so far has remained unspent, and here is why: there's simply nothing current-gen that piques my interest from Sony, aside from Horizon: Forbidden West.

Now, history says that more games support is coming. But what KIND of games support is the question, and that goes beyond merely who the publishers are. I've personally never gravitated toward the glut of FPS/third-person, post-apocalyptic/zombie apocalypse, ultra-violence, kill-them-before-they-kill-you, dark tropes that routinely dominate shows like E3 as well as the mega-publishers' presentations (like the half-dozen Ubisoft titles you could swap the names of and no one be the wiser every year). I enjoy a wider variety of genres, especially JRPGs, SRPGs, and Strategy, but also delve into retro Arcade games and compilations, platformers, and anything else that suits my personal taste. Franchises like Everybody's Golf/Hot Shots Golf, the next Dragon Quest, the next Trails of trilogy (and the Crossbell duology), stuff like Civilization, I can play countless hours of. And I loved making tracks, maps, etc. in games like ModNation Racers and TimeSplitters for the PS3 and PS2, respectively.

The problem? Some of these (like ModNation Racers) Sony seems to have abandoned, and last I heard Clap Hanz was looking into exploring other projects besides golf, so it's anyone's guess as to when/whether Everybody's Golf may be announced for PS5. And the other franchises I mentioned can all be found on other platforms; heck, Sony's even sharing MLB: The Show now.

My point is that Sony's real problem is A) exclusive, VARIED first-party support (hey, not everyone is into God of War) and B) while likewise lagging behind their system's launch (due to COVID or whatever), Microsoft beat them to the punch by getting some must have first-party titles out this past Christmas (though I still fault them and 343 for launching Halo Infinite roughly 70 percent complete while prioritizing wannabe Fornite skins to further monetize it). Simply put, 2022 is make-or-break for the PS5; Sony MUST get must-have exclusive games out for the console, and that means they can't all look, sound, and play similarly to 98 percent of everything else on the market.

And yes, I realize that I (and many other posters here) don't represent a significant percentage of anyone's hardware or software sales, so that's why they see an acquisition like Microsoft just made as such a threat. Sony needs to look hard at Sega, who sat atop the entire industry during the 16-bit era and had literally bungled their way out of the hardware business only two console generations later. NO ONE is too big to fall.

For those still unsure of exactly what NFTs are or what they do, please allow me to break it down to the simplest terms: they're the latest fad to enable companies to make money without actually making or improving GAMES. I mean, look at some of the most popular business models utilized by the industry right now; 343 just released a 70 percent complete "AAA" game that's making $$$ for them after the original point-of-sale via wannabe Fortnite skins. It's ALWAYS about more profit and control after the sale; anyone who thinks it's in any way about value for the consumer anymore is deluding themselves. Those days are LONG gone.

I mean, it's Sega, after all. It's not as if they ever made disastrous mistakes like abandoning all their beloved IPs not named "Sonic" or "Yakuza", like Shining Force, Shinobi, Skies of Arcadia, Dragon Force, or any of their iconic Arcade franchises (it's only been, what, a couple decades, a little more?). Or ran themselves from a perch atop the industry to being out of making consoles altogether. Why would anyone be worried?

Mobile games may have made $116 billion in 2021...but not a single penny of that came from me.

And it never will.

As a gamer since the Atari 2600 days, I know full well what it's like to be "left behind" when the industry pulls up stakes and moves on to "greener pastures". 2D platformers pretty much disappeared for two entire console generations following Super Mario 64's release. SRPGs like Shining Force and Front Mission got bastardized into mediocre action games and we never saw them in their proper, original forms since. Once prolific companies like Sega now churn out endless iterations of their most profitable IPs like Sonic and have left mountains of beloved franchises untouched for years or even decades. FPSes and violent tropes became so dominant that a Japanese developer at E3 2010 remarked "You Americans must really enjoy war" (and since then most Japanese, foreign, and smaller publishers have stopped bothering to attend the show because they were constantly ignored in favor of the media coverage for the latest Call of Battlefield: Madden's Creed).

I'm not saying that mobile and console games can't or won't coexist, but I have seen enough to realize that industry priorities shift to where they think the money is. And that always, ALWAYS comes with a price that affects gamers. And though I realize that individually I don't mean anything to these companies, I still intend to keep voting with my wallet and hope there are others out there who will do the same.

One thing that I suspect has kept many folks from delving into VR thus far isn't a lack of interest, but rather two semi-related factors: cost and competition. Just as many people only have the financial ability to support a single (maybe two) consoles and/or a PC, there's a choice laid out before them as to which platform might offer them the most value for their money should they invest in a VR setup. Right now the PC is probably the hand-down winner, but again, many folks currently don't have a machine capable of effectively running VR games. Sure, some VR systems like Oculus Rift may be in part self-contained, but their game libraries are still relatively small and hit-and-miss. And as the article mentioned, PlayStation still has a long way to go to really justify an additional high-dollar purchase (it's always, ALWAYS about the GAMES), and while Microsoft is rumored to be considering something VR/AR-related, it's almost certainly a long way off still.

VR is essentially another console investment. For some dedicated (and more financially well-off) gamers that might not be a deterrent, but it's absolutely a barrier for many others, especially when relatively few games truly take advantage of and have become showcases for the technology (say, in the way Half-Life: Alyx does).

While it may not be the solution that Sony, Microsoft, or other major manufacturers may prefer (or will ever implement), I personally think that cross-platform compatibility is essential to growing and sustaining VR (just as the lesson has been learned with regard to cross-platform gameplay as of late by the industry), and that means both software AND hardware. Are most folks going to invest in both an Oculus Rift AND a PSVR? Not likely. But if either was completely compatible with the other's platform(s) and games, it would literally be a game-changer for the industry. Better to have half of a pie from new consumers by sharing an emerging market than no pie at all, after all.

Just more and more games looking and feeling the same (dark environments/themes, ultra-violence, and generic antagonists/enemies) anymore. These shows and ones like E3 haven't been "celebrations" of the industry for some time now; they;ve become indictments of its proclivity to mimic others' successes and to play it safe. As a Japanese developer remarked at E3 2010, "You Americans must really enjoy war" with regard to the glut of FPSes at the show). Now such developers (along with smaller ones from overseas) rarely even bother attending E3 anymore because the media focuses on the same big-budget cookie-cutter IPs from the mega-publisher every single year. And that creative laziness has spread into outright greed and sloppiness (examples: Switch Online's "expansion" price and 343's handling of Halo Infinite, with no local splitscreen, campaign co-op, or Forge even after a year's delay...although they had time to build a F2P model with thousands of $$$ worth of skins).

All in all, three hours I really wish I had back.

The ability to purchase and permanently own specific games on my account is very important to me. I've never cared about subscription services because games constantly rotate in and out and I want to enjoy a given game at my convenience, on my own terms (and anyone with a substantial backlog knows how easily even great titles can get pushed down your priority list). From a business perspective, subscription services aren't so much about convenience as they are CONTROL, gating user access to anything they can and especially taking the rights of the end user away (this is why they insist that those $60-plus, legal PURCHASES you make are "licenses").

And if Sony is in fact adding PSX, PS2, and PS3 titles to the mix then they can surely employ a feature similar to the XBox Backward Compatibility program. I personally have dozens of digital purchases on my PS3 along with several for the PSP that being able to merge onto my PS5 via my PlayStation account would add tons of value. If they can implement one means of bringing these games to current hardware then they can do the other.

I've enjoyed PS Plus as is, honestly, but the current price point is as far as I'm willing to go. No ability to permanently purchase and own games would be a hard pass, regardless.