Bob_Tempura

I'd imagine it's because the PS5 features announced so far are just that, features (Dual Sense, Tempest Audio etc), which are debatable as to how much that enhances a game to be deemed "play best on".
They can make the game more immersive, sure, but "play better?" 🤷🏻‍♂️
For that we'll have to wait and see what the performance is like on each system, and even then it's gonna be fun on whichever platform you go for... With the slight caveat of how much of a sacrifice is made for the Series S.

@get2sammyb is the upgrade priced at the 20 (insert currency denominator) difference on the NZ store, or are they charging a bit extra if you choose to go down the upgrade path? Thanks.

The only saving grace for the physical version being a code in a box (for me anyway) is that I can now get away with buying one physical copy (cheaper than RRP) and game share it with my Mrs.

That is unless she wants the Ultimate Edition content of course! 😂 (I've shown her what's listed here and she's already thinking it over 🤔😂)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm remotely happy with not having a disc in the box. But if that's the way they're gonna play it, I'll go for the cheapest option available for us so we can both play, and especially for co op when Online arrives.

@Vorflynn there's not even a disc in the physical editions box, so unfortunately no... It looks like this time RockStar are going all in on maximising their profits through purely digital

@LiamCroft The FAQ has now been updated and states that PS Plus isn't required at all for offline play, including split screen co-op. Obviously it's still required for playing online, as standard, and to play the game at all you'll still need an XBox gamertag to link to.

Either someone didn't understand how the PS Plus subscription service works and made a mistake putting that FAQ together, or Microsoft have seen the chaos this information has caused and made the necessary changes to separate out offline play from having an online requirement.

From the FAQ:

"PlayStation 5®: If you’re playing splitscreen local co-op on PlayStation 5®, both players will need to be signed into PlayStation accounts and be linked to Microsoft accounts. A PlayStation Plus account is NOT required for local splitscreen co-op. Online network co-op play requires an active PlayStation Plus subscription."

So after reading through this again, I suspect this may well be the sticking point:

"you will need a Microsoft account and XBOX Gamertag, regardless of the platform(s) you play on. This enables both cross-platform play and cross-platform progression."

What that says to me is that someone at Microsoft has tied in the requirement of having an XBox account to mandatory "cross-platform play and cross-platform progression"... Which clearly should be an optional feature (you want to play online cross platform / progression, then sure, you need PS Plus!), but if you're playing locally surely there's no need to even touch that feature...Just have a toggle in the game if you want cross progression (like many other games do), and cross play obviously could only apply if you're playing online anyway.

It sounds like someone with a bit more competency over at Microsoft needs to take a look at this as if this is indeed the issue, it should, in theory, be a relatively easy fix.

@get2sammyb "My guess is that this is because Microsoft wants you to sign in to an Xbox account, which makes the "local offline play" technically "online"."

That's the only "logical" reason I can think of too. (not really logical, but you know what I mean).

Ironically if you're game sharing with another console you should still be able to play with one PS Plus account! The main account holder has PS Plus and buys the game, it's available to play on the second console set as their "primary" console, which also allows the other users access to PS Plus, just without automated cloud saves, and the primary account plays it on their own console... So this makes absolutely no sense. In theory, a second account on a "primary" console with PS Plus access should just work anyway...but again, you shouldn't need Plus for offline co op play anyway! (a game "requiring an Internet connection" for additional downloads isn't the same as playing online after all).

Someone somewhere needs a slap, and then to go back to the drawing board and fix this.

@Jayslow if you don't mind me asking, how come you didn't like Matterfall so much? I never got around to picking that one up so just curious as to what makes it the exception for you. Thanks.

You mean the rest of the team didn't want to be part of the "we love gatcha games" catch all 😉

I jest...This makes sense tbh. While the "we" approach has always been used as a point of authority (as you say), it's also felt outdated for some time, especially when (and I'm not referring to Push Square here specifically) a reviewer especially likes or dislikes something with the "we felt the game..." pre text, it can take away the onus from the person that actually played & reviewed the game.
Thankfully most of the reviewers here are open to questions and discussions in the comment section about their own experiences, which is refreshing.

A big fat nope from me.
Essential games release on the first Tuesday of the month.
Extra/Premium games on the third Tuesday of the month.

Why change that? Everyone knows where they are with that cadence, both for the new releases, and for the "games leaving this month" also being the third Tuesday of the month. This seems like an absolutely unnecessary change to an established system... And I can't see people caring that much to come back at the other dates unless it's a game you were waiting for. Like for this month, if all you're interested in is Final Fantasy 16, that's the time you're gonna be checking in if you've already seen the availability schedule... And if you haven't seen it, then sure, maybe you'll check the store each week waiting, but you're just as un/likely to try out some of the other games as you would have been with them appearing on the same day.

I can't see it making any sense, other than if Sony are wanting to parade some sort of faux narrative that they're adding games to the service "more frequently" 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yeah, I'm not a fan of these mandatory downloads for physical games. Day one patches are standard, the devs often have a month or two between going gold and the release date so why not let them continue making improvements... But when your disc is a coaster without a download? Remember when we used to get multiple discs in the box to compensate for larger games?

That said, I'd still take a physical copy with a mandatory download over the digital in most cases as I can get physical games considerably cheaper than their digital counterpart. The only exceptions I make are for co op games I plan to play with my Mrs, in which case digital is the way to go so we can game share.

I think everyone is surprised by this news, especially us early adopters... It really felt like Capcom had just left DD2 by the wayside and moved on, and their complete communication blackout around the game really didn't help either.

I'd like to think Crimson Desert gave them a prod to get a move on and get that expansion out, but more realistically they were waiting on getting the game up and running well (you'd have to hope!) on the Switch 2 first to release as a complete package.

This is great news for sure, but even as a huge DD fan I'm finding it hard to be excited right now. That said, it'll give me a good reason to get back into playing 2, and hopefully these two updates will give us some meaningful performance (PSSR 2!) and QoL changes 🤞🏻

@get2sammyb if it wasn't a podcast video I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to have found out it was someone to do with the development team that "accidentally" uploaded it.
It's not like the developers made statements during interviews about how excited they were to bring Gears to a new, and broader audience after all... 🤦🏻‍♂️

Clockwork Revolution looks like it could be good, but it's one I'll be waiting on reviews before checking out.

Disappointed we still don't have a release date for Forza Horizon 6 yet though. I guess XBox wanna eek that one out a li'l longer.

You really should have had an option for "No, I've already played it and don't feel any need to buy it again.

@MidnightDragonDX lol, very true... Although isn't that eerily close to XBox's marketing right now? 👀

@THEBrew I feel like Starmer's patch notes would be something like "lessons have been learned. With this new update we've turned a corner, and we'll continue to listen to our gaming people". 😂

@Hyena_socks 😂 that one was a classic!
In true comic fashion it'd have to be the "For the players" lettering at a presentation, with the "L" falling off leaving "For the p ayers" 😂

Are we sure Playstation didn't employ Theresa May to write these firmware update notes? I seem to remember "strong and stable" being her main shtick... 😂

I've got the trial downloaded and ready to give it another good go. Hopefully I'll get to spend more time with it than the server slam, but I still can't help but wish they'd give us a full campaign mode for the game.
The question right now is, is this going to be enough to entice me away from Saros, and making a start on Warhammer 40K Darktide 🤔

It's been mixed, but I have to vote no overall due to the studio closures, miss steps, lack of first party PSVR 2 support, and cancelled projects.

From my time with Saros so far, I'm really enjoying it. It's a fantastic game.

It's just a game that's priced £20 - £30 higher than it should be. Unfortunately that's on Sony and their insistence on making their first party titles full RRP.
I'd like to see Saros get a price cut down to £50 or £45, but realistically, Returnal is still up for £70 so it's probably not gonna happen.

Locking game trials behind the Premium pay wall has always seemed dumb to me. I get that Sony want to try and add value to a tier that, outside of streaming, has very little to offer (the retro/classics are nice, but their release cadence is glacial), but all it really does is limit the amount of people who can actually try out these games, which directly impacts potential sales.

@Fighting_Game_Loser Lumines and Taokaka from BlazBlue?
I see you are a man of culture too 😎

I still think it's wild that this was originally going to be a £60+ retail release!

I can't remember whether it was just included in PS Plus for a month or two in the end, but at least that was the right move after the complete lack of enthusiasm from the reveal.

@ear__wig I hear you... I think the total sense of loneliness in Returnal added to the overall sense of dread.

I'm enjoying Saros and how things are unfolding with the Echelon teams, both via those who went before, and the remaining crew of Echelon IV, but it does take away somewhat from the total mystery of Selene's adventure... And that bleak, helpless feeling she conveyed every time she wakes up after a failed run...

@Nepp67 ❤️ I hope that info helps you to decide whether or not you want to give Saros a try further down the line.
You also get 3 save slots in the game, I assume so you can start fresh runs on each... So you could play through with the skill tree perks to get a feel for the game, then start over on save slot 2 and go in for the full challenge if you wanted to.

Once you see the skill tree though you'll see there are some pretty nice perks in there. You can only unlock perks up to a point until you defeat the next boss too, so there's still an element of keeping power creep in check.
You can get permanent stat boosts to your;

• Resilience: max health.
• Power: your power charge meter for your secondary super weapon, meaning you can get more/longer uses out of it when fully charged (the bar grows bigger as this increases so it'll take more bullet absorption from the shield to fully charge it).
• Proficiency: like Returnal, your overall Proficiency determines the level of the weapons and items you find in the world, so upgrading this means you can start with higher level weapons. It's especially helpful when you want to just run later Biomes without having to partake in a longer run to power up.
  (the weapons all still have their own familiarity levels too, which unlocks additional perks on them the more you use them, as per Returnal).

I suspect you're really going to enjoy it as a fellow Returnal (and perhaps Housemarque?) fan... But hold off until you have some free time or can pick it up on sale if you're unsure.

If I were Sony, these are exactly the sort of games that they should be adding free demos for everyone to try out for themselves.

@Nepp67 you can literally ignore everything that's been added that makes Saros more accessible if you want.

There's a skill tree that you can unlock permanent perks from, but you don't have to engage with it. AFAIK you could play the entire game without unlocking a single skill from here (I can't confirm for sure as I'm still on my first play through and have unlocked skills, but there was nothing to force me into doing so).

There's also a modifier section that allows you to select game modifiers to make things easier, or more difficult/challenging. It's based around a scale (each mod has a weighting to it) so you can't just equip all the easy mods, you'd have to balance with some negative ones the more easy ones you want to equip... But you're able to equip more of the difficulty enhancers (the scale allows you to tip into "overdrive" for more challenge).

So overall, while there are systems in place that make Saros more accessible (and honestly, as a fan of Housemarque’s work and both games, these systems are very welcome imo), you can completely ignore them and make the game even more challenging than it is by default.

@TrollOfWar I agree with you, it's all about those business decisions and what looks like it'll be the best return on investment for the corpos.

It would have been nice to see Sony realise that they not only had that live service experience with Bungie, but also some best in glass FPS gunplay and world building. It's hard to say whether the current Bungie could handle an engrossing campaign focused game as they've obviously been heavily involved in the MMO style fetch quests for a long time now.

I'd like to try and remain an optimist though, and hearing good things about Marathon's lore, I'd just really love it if they can add a story based campaign in, or as a new title, giving those of us old enough to remember the original games something more akin to what we hoped for.

I also find it crazy that Sony have picked up several well known developers / development teams to work on their FPS portfolio, and nothing much has really come to fruition.

A new/reboot/remake of Killzone would be more than welcome. We also have Resistance, although perhaps not as popular... And of course not to mention going into games like SOCOM. So much untapped potential just being left to rot.

Nice 😎 I like the sound of Screamer, but it's always felt like it's one of those games that really does need a demo, as you're either going to love it or hate it over that control scheme!

I would have said fairly important as they need to show people they have some interesting games in the pipeline, but in light of the recent studio closures, failed live service push and price hikes I can't help but feel this showing should be very important. Gamers are getting more than a bit fed up with all this 💩 recently and Sony really could do with some wins to get people back on side.

If Sony had any sense they'd put Bungie to work on a campaign focused shooter (single player / co op) with a PvP mode either at launch or to release as a free add on later... Let them cook with what they do, or should that be did best before they went live service, i.e. best in class FPS gameplay accompanied with an interesting campaign story. No MMO, no live service (OK, perhaps more maps for said PvP mode later on), just a damn good FPS action Sci Fi with a ton of replayability.

And no more of this vaulting content nonsense!

100% agree. Even if by some miracle it looks like it'll be amazing now, give it it's own reveal outside of the SoP. Anything else is just going to drag the show down, regardless of quality...

Hell, I fully expect the haters to be out in force over any new footage for Intergalactic too. For whatever reason a sub set of gamers have already decided that it's "woke" and the hate the main character design (even though she's literally an actress being scanned and mo capped to play that role for the game).

I stopped playing CoD something like 14 years ago(?!!) and honestly haven't missed it one bit.

They caught lightning in a bottle with CoD 4: Modern Warfare, and then seemed intent on trying to recreate that after the next few outings, and it's really not something you can force. The fact they keep regurgitating the old "classic" maps from that golden era tells you all you need to know.

I guess some people are still on board like those that buy yearly sports outings, but at some point you've gotta realise it's just the same old 💩 just with slightly different packaging. Or perhaps that's part of the appeal for those who buy in each year 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm almost excited for the new Crazy Taxi as I am for the new Jet Set Radio! (hopefully more Jets Set Radio Future than the orignal as ditching the timer and opening the world up was a fantastic move).

I really hope they don't go all in on multiplayer and/or live service with these though... We need that pure arcade style magic to shine through, it's what made these games so damn great in the first place!

Also... Let's not forget Outrun is listed in the games making a comeback too 😎

Cool, leave Destiny 2 running as is with no more support so those who want to can still play (like Destiny 1, which I assume you can still play?).

I actually hope Bungie work on something completely new and not Destiny 3 tbh. Those games were decent, but they're kinda done now. I feel like a 3rd game just isn't all that necessary. Instead, take that top tier gunplay Bungie are known for and spin up a new Sci Fi universe for us to explore... Or hell, even give us a proper Marathon reboot focused on the campaign and story.

I've spent many hours playing D1 & D2, and I can't say I'm really bothered about playing more of it, especially after all the "vaulting" of content and endless monetisation. I'd rather see something new and actually interesting rather than another "wake up Guardian, you got the amnesia! Time to find a Ghost and go fight those same enemies again... Sometimes in different colours!"

The only new Horizon game I'm interested in right now is Forza Horizon 6... Hoping for a release date in that State of Play 🤞🏻

@HerlockSholmes exactly this. The same thing happens with the price increases to Game Pass, so many people willing to just write it off as "it's just a few extra quid a month", "an extra £24 a year is nothing" etc etc, but it all adds up... Microsoft overplayed their hand with their last price increases, with many stating they weren't renewing / moving to Playstation etc, which forced them to reduce the prices again, albeit with CoD no longer being a day and date franchise, and the prices still being higher than they were before the orignal increase that kicked it all off.

@get2sammyb "I honestly don’t know where the industry goes from me, but I also could have told you Spellcasters Chronicles would end up in this situation the moment it was announced. (so) ... why are studios continuing to make these ridiculous bets?"

I think the issue we have right now is that 3 - 5 years ago publishers & developers wanted in on the "live service Holy Grail" so that's where all/most of their resources were focused, and why we're now seeing so many of them releasing due to the development cycle coming to their conclusion.
Just look at games like this one from Quantic Dream, and Firebreak from Remedy... No one asked for these games from studios that specialise in single player, story driven games, and yet they still decided to shoot their shot.

After finally realising that it's actually incredibly difficult to break into the GaaS space, let alone retain a healthy player base, it's quite clear to see why Sony pulled the plug on so many of their live service projects. We all called it when they announced that drive, because as gamers we know where we're spending our time and money, but it's too much of a golden goose for the investors to turn down. It's just a shame in Sony's case that they cancelled the projects that people were genuinely interested in (TLoU Factions, Twisted Metal), and ignored other franchises which could have been potential smash hits with players like Warhawk & SOCOM.

I'm hoping that we're reaching the tail end of the live service explosion across the gaming industry (can't really call it a boom), and we'll start seeing developers returning to regular gaming... The question now is how long a lead into that development time has the live service drive eaten into...and what further fall out has it caused, with so many talented studios being closed down already through collateral damage.

Despite the fact that I've enjoyed a fair few of the games included on Essential, I voted "no", because we shouldn't have to play to play online. That alone devalues the service.

The subscriptions should be optional to gain access to the library of games, which is what gives value to PS Plus Extra and Game Pass, but in both cases (and for Nintendo too), the pay wall to play online should be removed.

@belmont ah apologies, I thought you meant for PS5 games (that has the visual bug).

Just had a look at PS4 and you're right, it's 100GB but limited to 1000 items.

Taken from Playstation Support;

You can save up to 100 GB of PS4 saved data and 100 GB of PS5 saved data. The number of PS4 saved data files you can store is limited to 1000.

@belmont FYI re:

"there is a hidden limit on the amount of cloud saves you can have that I have exceeded"

It's only a visual bug. All your games are being backed up so no need to worry. It's been a known issue for a long time now but Sony aren't in any rush to fix it.

Your backups are all there, but that screen only displays the last few you played as active and in sync. If you were to go check cloud data on any other game it'll report its all synced up.

I'm looking forward to this one. A new Forza Horizon game is always greeted with excitement, but being set in Japan is the cherry on the cake 😎

@ear__wig the comment about the price of gas was purely to put the price & value of things into perspective in regards to your frankly flippant comment of "saving a few bucks".

Like you say, games are a luxury item, so people can be picky about what they do or don't buy, and how much they're willing to pay for them.

You then make a remark that many people are complaining about the price of Saros in these comments... Does that not make you think for a second that perhaps, you know, Sony got the RRP wrong on this one? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm not really sure why you're intent on defending high prices? ... Like I said before, you're just coming across as a sales persons dream customer.

And if your point is that it's a AAA game, please allow me to introduce you to Pragmata, Crimson Desert, Resident Evil Requiem and many more AAA titles that released recently that all have lower RRP's than Saros...

That's a pretty solid month!
I'll definitely be checking out a few, if not the majority of those (I only own RDR2 so everything else is a bonus).

Been wanting to try out Outlaws for a while, and I love point and click adventures so Broken Sword is a must.

I've been wanting to play Warhammer 40K Darktide for a while too and noticed it's down to a particularly low price in the current sale... Makes me wonder if that'll be coming to PS Plus soon too. It was a Game Pass day one title so I suspect there was a timed exclusive deal in place before it could be on a competing service. It'll be 18 months next month too so 🤞🏻

@ear__wig I mean, if it was £5 or £10 you'd have a point, but a £25 saving is whopping 1/3 off the price of the game.

Or to put it another way, that's also 1/3 a tank of gas in the current economy.

I'd hardly call that for the sake of "saving a few bucks"... And if that's how you see it then you must be a salesmans dream customer.

@somnambulance yup, this is what I've been saying all along. I love bullet hell games, and I'm partial to a decent rogue like, but £70 isn't the sort of price tag I would pay for those genres... Put them together and it becomes even more niche. Not to mention those players who were undoubtedly scared off by Returnal too.

It's a shame Sony seem intent on sticking to that £70 price tag for games they push as AAA blockbusters. They did the same thing with Lost Soul Aside, an obvious AA indie passion project that got swept up by corporate marketing, hype, and price point.

I just hope they're at least taking note that games like Pragmata and E33 show there's absolutely still a place for very good mid range games. This is where Sony should focus their efforts to build out their current portfolio too imo.

I still standby the opinion that this just isn't a £70 genre. £50 would have been the sweet spot.
.
I have a copy on the way to me atm, £45 on ebay which seemed like a fair price to me. It sucks that my money doesn't go towards supporting Housemarque, but that's on Sony.

@GeeEssEff @Slayer25c @captainsandman @Cliffj oh for sure, I know the cloud infrastructure well as I work in the IT industry and cloud computing/server hosting. Thank you for the replies though as they're all valid points and useful information for those not in the know.

Unfortunately (for me) that was a quick post before I dashed off to answer the beep of the oven so I cut it short...

What I was trying to get at is that there should be a limited space for cloud saves included as standard so everyone can choose which games are important enough for them to back up, say a couple of gig per user tops (or maybe a maximum of 10 save games at a time for example), especially as we used to be able to back up to USB (now we can only perform a full system backup to USB, which is hardly practical), but now the only option for save data backup is to subscribe to PS Plus. It's no different to what Nintendo are doing to be fair, but I still believe there should be a way for everyone to safeguard their save data, subscription or not.

I wouldn't expect Sony or anyone to give away 100GB of storage. Not even Microsoft or Google would do that with OneDrive or Google Drive... Like you guys say, they're running a business after all!

As an aside, I'm pretty sure Sony are using Microsoft Azure services for their cloud data and streaming services, unless that changed in the last few years... I don't blame them though, MS have the most reliable and stable cloud infrastructure out there.

@darylb24 100%...there's zero reason to lock cloud saves behind a subscription other than greed.

Edit to add: clarified what I meant in a post below.