Bieeelak

Locking demos behind the highest PS Plus tier is something I can't wrap my head around. I moght be wrong wrong but Premium feels to me like something aimed at the most devoted fans who probably already either bought Saros or made their minds about skipping it.
I was on the fence about buying Saros. I played Returnal on PS Plus Extra. Liked it but in the end abandoned it after a short while because I didn't really have the energy to master the gameplay.
I read that Saros is more approachable and a chance to actually try it could be the thing that pushes me to buy. As it is, I'm just gonna look elswhere.

It's regrettable, as less choice is always a bad thing, but the writing was on the wall for discs for a while now and if anything, I'm surprised how long they have held out.
I understand the drawbacks of digital games and even so, most of my library is digital nowadays. Plus, I never had any special sentiment for plastic boxes sitting on my shelves (the amount of plastic going into these packagings also bothered me a bit)
Though funnily enough, since I got the PS5 with its fairly quiet (compared to PS4) drive, I started buying more physical editions, both new and used, and was planning to continue doing that. Bummer. Less choice, no second-hand market, ownership v licensing issues and stricted control over pricing and deals.

Man, I pre-ordered Cyberpunk only to cancel the order not because I was worried about the game but because I knew I wouldn't have the time to play it (and I was right). Fast forward to now and the whole CP drama completely missed me. The game's patched, Phantom Liberty is out - it's a good time to visit Night City for the first time!
As for the Witcher 4 and RED's reputation: I like a good redemption arc as much as the next person and believe that they devs won't make the same mistake of shipping an unfinished game again (I have no worries about the substance of the game - just the technical state may in question for me). That being said, I might buy it on day one but a pre-order is a no-no just out of principle.

What's the point of talking about pre-ordering now, when we don't even know the price or anything regarding any potential bonuses? I know some people will buy it regardless of these aspects but this discussion for the rest of us seems premature.

Well, that gives me plenty of time to finish my first playthrough of Ragnarok. Anyway, I just hope they don't rush the release. Let Santa Monica cook and launch it when it's done. It will be one of the biggest titles of any year it releases so I doubt they need to worry about hitting a particular date - people will be there.

I'm not quite convinced, to be honest.
To me this feels like a move away from journalism and towards influencing which to me is bad news. There are already too many individual voices on the Internet and the more balanced, less personal approach is what I personally value at sites like this. The comment section and an occasional note from the author of a given piece were always the place where one could voice personal opinions.
And call me cynical but it feels like a way to avoid responsibility, should some material blow up. It's easier to distance yourselves from some controversial content as well and just claim that it's one person's opinion, rather than the stance of the whole team.
Mind you, I'm not accusing you of ill intentions and will keep coming back here for the forseeable future. I also understand that the media landscape is changing. The thing is, I'm just not sure that it's changing in the right direction. Anyway, @get2sammyb, you wanted honest opinions, so here we are. Cheers!

It's a sad day for Ubisoft and, therefore, the world - to misquote a certain show.
I feel really bad for the people affected, especially since, to be honest, I always kind of liked the Ubisoft formula. Yeah, the games were sometimes samey, but I had fun with them anyway all the way to AC: Odyssey and Far Cry 5. These two were just too bloated for their own good and were released just when my amount of free gaming time shrunk drastically.
And let's not forget Ubisoft did offer some decent post-launch support for many of their games (not all, sure, but still).

Great time to harpoon Dave the Diver, with the DLC just around the corner. I played it back when I was on PS Plus Extra and now that I let my subscription lapse, I'm more than happy to buy the base game and the coming DLC.

God of War: Laufey
Gen Atlas
Star Wars: Zero Company

But honestly, it's really hard to pick just three. Bancho, Wolverine, Stranger than Heaven, Clutch, Control Resonant. My backlog is so long now that I won't be playing any of them on release (I literally just started my first playthrough of GoW:Ragnarok....) but it will be soooooo tempting... I guess I'll end up buying at least one of these so it can look at me judgingly from my pile of shame.

I found it rather good, to be honest. There were three "day-one" games for me there, in addition to some titles I might try later on. That itself qualifies as a win for me.
And even the stuff I have zero interest in actually looks very good. I won't be playing Until Dawn or Silent Hill for example, but they sure look fine and if that's someone's cup of tea, then there are reasons to be excited. So yeah, pretty solid.

I've been a Wither fan long before the games, got the collectors' edition of the first game, got W2 on day one (finished it several years later, my laptop couldn't handle it ). Bought Wither 3 on day one for PC, both DLCs were day one as well, I have it for PS5 as well and I STILL have not even finished even the main storyline from the base game. Not because I don't like it - quite the contrary, it's amazing. I just always wanted to give this game the attention it deserves; play it without distractions, to fully get lost in the world. Fast forward 12 years and it seems I have to give up on that fantasy and use what little time I have left for gaming and just try to enjoy it however I can. I mean it would be nice to finish it before Wither 4 comes out, eh?

Had this on my radar ever since it was announced and boy, am I glad it stuck the landing! Even though my teenage years looked nothing like in the game, the soundtrack was the same.
We need games like this; ones that tell a compelling story, that maybe try something different (whatever that might be), ones that don't go on forever. There seems to be a fair bunch of them: Mixtape, A Musical Story, Route 96, Return of the Obra Dinn, Seasons: A letter to the future, Firewatch, Night in the Woods, Journey/Abzu/Sword of the Sea are ones just off the top of my head.
I have a few of them waiting in my library for the right moment when I ineviteably become tired of the next open-world game that's too large for its own good.
And then when I play one of these thay just feel sooooo good.
So, Mixtape purchased, really looking forward to playing it.

@Ainu20 I totally agree with you about the strengths of Uncharted 4. While I don't have any strong feelings against Uncharted 3, the personal aspect of the story in the fourht installment made it so much more memorable for me. And funnily enough, the thing @Stragen8 mentioned in a comment, the lack of supernatural elements was something I was really happy about. To each its own, eh?

Folks will complain about gaming becoming too expensive yet are happy to part with 10 extra £/€/$ for digital cosmetics.
And it's the case for three out of four games in these screens. (that's probably only because 007 does not offer a premium edition at the moment).
Then again, I can understand why this is the case and people are free to do with their hard earned cash as they please. I just found it a tad ironic.

This feels like a game that could sneak its way to the front of my backlog queue, even ahead all other ACs that I am yet to play (Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage and Shadows - I bounced off Odyssey twice 'cause I found it too grindy but don't feel comfortable skipping it, so I still wait to give it one more try).
Anyway, I've been with this series since the fist game and Black Flag is surely one of my favourites. I remember playing it on my fairly-good-for-the-time PC and I just loved it. The atmosphere, visuals, the Jackdaw, the shanties - it was all there! A perfect pirate adventure. And the music... oh yes!
So, defenitely getting this Resynced, then - it's just a question of when.
I will miss Freedom Cry, though. Adewale's blunderbuss was a riot to use and the story hit pretty hard.

@Glassneedles I totally missed the fact that it was made by the same studio as Contrast. I remember playing that - great visuals, nice soundtrack and story but gameplay-wise it was rather tedious. Good thing it was fairly short. Looks like
South of Midnight is very similar in this sense. Seems like a great mid-budget passion project and the bayou vibes from it are just superb. Good thing it, as you said, doesn't overstay its welcome. I will surely pick it up as soon as I clear some of my backlog.

@jesse_dylan Yeah, Paramount will now free to buy the entire WB, including TV studios, games division and film which should be terrible news for everyone. WB being for sale was already bad news in itself - last thing the media needs is more consolidation. Netflix was the lesser of two evils. The Ellisons getting anywhere near WB is bad news.

I feel like I'm in the minority here but for me the jump from PS4 to 5 was a huge breakthrough, even though I'm still playing games that released originally on the 4. The improvements came where I value them most: feeling of immersion and effective use of the precious little free time I have. DualSense and the fast SSDs make the PS5 so far better as far as I'm concerned that I never once looked back after switching from the 4.
I'm looking forward to the PS6 and will try to make a switch as soon as possible. The fact that the 5 and 5 PRO still have a lot to give is just good news for those of us who wish to stick with them longer, as they will be able to better cope with PS6-first developed games (think how even now games are released on the 4).
Postponing the new generation will not solve any problems of the PS5 (whether they be real or just a mismatch of user expectations and reality).

My sub runs out in half a year, so it might be an opportunity to upgrade my Essential to Extra in order to check out library streaming on my Portal. After that - we'll see.

@get2sammyb

One might say it could become "the greatest expedition in history"

Great update, too bad it's locked to Premium. I can see the rationale from Sony's perspective is to get more people to upgrade their plans but It would be really sweet if this was available across all tiers. Oh well, at least I get to set up a passcode to stop my kid from trying to use my Portal

I recently made a bit of a u-turn when it comes to buying games on discs. Back when I played on PS4 I went full digital because the noise from the disc drive was a bit much. With the base 'fat' PS5, when I want to play, say, Clair Obscur, I literally only hear the disc spinning when the console boots up and when the game launches. After that, the drive goes silent.
This, with better prices and the option to later sell the game made me appreciate discs again. If the PS6 keeps the drive, even as an optional extra, I'll be happy.

Gothic 1 and 2 have achieved a sort of cult following here in Poland. Apart from Gothic games being good or very good overall, the reasons it landed so well in Poland (I think) were:

1) Brilliant Polish voice acting
2) Setting and story more familiar to European medieval aesthetic than whatever you could see in most high-fantasy games
3) Overall grittiness and depressing tone with an occasional dose of sarcasm resonated oh-so-well with our Polish tastes

Anyway, if these games were to release without a full, Polish dub, this would be a huge shame. Hope they include this in the remaster.

Cutscenes and character models feel as if they were lifted from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The game may not be my cup of tea but it's nice to see one of my Ghibli favourites serve as inspiration.

@nessisonett Same here, wanted to try it since release but always figured I'll hold off until I finish Like a Dragon. Well, it's been almost two years, LaD still unfinished... Migh as well try Ishin now.

Well, what do you know - they released a beta test, got lots of feedback, delayed the game and apparently fixed most issues reported during the beta. Well done. And to add to what was said before - the strong, still-not-overused setting could be enough to get people interested in the game even if city builders aren't their cup of tea.

I bounced off Bloodborne after defeating the second boss simply because the time it would take for me to "git gud" was just not worth the reward. Plus, the walk of shame I had to take back to the boss every time I died kind of felt like the game didn't respect my time (shame, though - I loved the aesthetics and combat). Similar story for me is with online PvP games. It took me several month of playing Battlefield 1 daily before I got to the level where I was consistently happy with my performance. I don't have the time to do this anymore and getting 360noscoped every ten seconds in some new game is not my idea of fun. So, for me either casual games with very little challenge like Dave the Diver or games with more control over difficulty settings like Ghost of Tsushima are the way to go.

I'm one of those people and I really rather enjoyed my time with GTA III and Vice City. Playing it with screen controls is a chore, though. Good thing you can pair a DualSense with an iPad (albeit without vibrations).

This story would be much more interesting if the Canadian Minister of Mobile Gaming decided to get involved.