Bob_Tempura

Bob_Tempura

Too weird to live, too rare to die.

Comments 119

Re: 'Exclusives Are Absolutely Not Happening': Xbox Helix Will Share Library with PS6

Bob_Tempura

@RoomWithaMoose exactly this. And if the PSVR 2 adapter works with it then it could potentially be attractive to PSVR 2 gamers too.
A PC device capable of playing VR games for around Β£1500 or less would certainly be a lot more appealing than building a PC where the graphics card alone will cost you a similar price!

But it's all speculation for now. Hopefully they'll deliver us some real info on the specs in the coming weeks.

Re: 7 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for March 2026 Leaked Early

Bob_Tempura

I don't know why you guys insisted the rumour said Dragon's Dogma and Final Fantasy were coming this month πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ (it didn't, just that they were coming to Extra).

Anyway, Space Marine 2 is great for anyone who hasn't played it. Well worth checking out.
Persona 5 Royal is a win too (didn't we get P5 standard on Plus some time ago?).

Metal Eden is meant to be decent too so will take a look at that one. Can't say the rest are doing anything for me though.

Re: 'Exclusives Are Absolutely Not Happening': Xbox Helix Will Share Library with PS6

Bob_Tempura

I wouldn't be surprised if it launched at Β£1200 tbh, I've been expecting to see it in the Β£1200 to Β£1500 range if it's going to be anything like the rumoured specs are true.

I've also been saying for a long time that it's not going to be a console that plays PC games, but a PC in a box that also plays XBox games... The only question I have there is whether it uses a dual boot system (XBox OS and a Windows OS), or just runs a modified Windows 11 OS and uses the XBox Gaming Mode they pushed out with the Asus device. I'm expecting it'll be the former, and I really hope they steer clear of just whacking Win 11 in there and running with it, it's not exactly their best OS and comes with a number of its own issues.

Ultimately this is going to be an expensive device, and I think it'll probably irk the more casual XBox fan boys (and no doubt some enthusiasts too!), but even at Β£1500 it could still be a much cheaper way to get into PC gaming than trying to buy an equivalent gaming PC, especially in the current economy.
Hell, if it can handle running Steam games with mods and support VR headsets with decent settings this could even appeal to the VR enthusiasts over the Steam Machine, which I'm guessing is gonna come in around Β£600 - Β£800, if not slightly more.

Re: 'We're Discussing Ways to Improve': Marathon Dev Tweaking Monetisation and Difficulty as FPS Fails to Blow Up

Bob_Tempura

"Moving forward, $10 will net you 1,120 LUX, enough for a skin."

You know what would have made more sense? Adjusting the price of the skin to 1,100 LUX πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ why mess around with keeping an additional fiddly bit extra when there's a much cleaner solution?

There's no excuse for the artificially inflated prices outside of currency packs forcing people to spend more if they want to buy a skin (in any game), and there should be regulations in place to prevent this practice.

Re: Marathon PS5 User Reviews Remarkably Positive After String of Live Service Disasters

Bob_Tempura

@Northern_munkey lol I know what you mean with the audio... I spent a good while in the Server Slam just pootling around listening to the ambience sounds and music, and enjoying the scenery & locales.
I do really wish Bungie had added a campaign to play through so everyone could experience the atmosphere and have more time to take in everything they've built here. As much as the Extrafil gameplay is slower paced than a typical FPS, you still don't wanna be caught with your pants down (so to speak!) looking at the scenery (or in a loot bag, if you've seen the Ninja video πŸ˜‚).

As much as my personal experience from the Slam being "probably not for me", I'm always willing to try different games and genres, and the things I'm hearing from the full release are certainly making me more enticed to try again. Unfortunately that won't be for a while as I just don't have the money for it right now, but if I do get a ticket to Tau Ceti in the future I'd love to give you guys a shout if you're still recruiting for more Runners! 😎

ETA: thanks for the detailed reply. This is the sort of genuine hype the game needs more of.

Re: Marathon PS5 User Reviews Remarkably Positive After String of Live Service Disasters

Bob_Tempura

@Northern_munkey "it's much improved over the server slam I played last weekend."

This is exactly why there should be in progress reviews rather than the approach a lot of sites, Push Square included, are taking of just keeping up their server slam impressions and waiting for the Cryo Archive release before writing up a review.

I'd imagine the game could become a lot more appealing to many of those left with doubts or questions after playing the server slam when hearing feedback about the final product, but it seems the media are shying away from doing that.

You're spot on that there are too many people who just want to spread doom and gloom about Marathon, and equally there are many who would die on the hill of defending the game & Bungie even if it absolutely sucked, so it's good to read actual impressions from familiar faces on here

Re: Site News: Where's Our Marathon PS5 Review?

Bob_Tempura

By this logic though you should never put a score on the game then as there will be more maps and content coming in future updates post Cryo Archive πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ

A reviewer should critique and praise the current product, not a future promise or iteration. This is the game as it's meant to be played, is it not? And if not, then why release it now?

Surely it would make more sense to include an addendum to the review once the Cryo Archive becomes available?

Re: PS6 Competitor from Xbox Revealed as Project Helix

Bob_Tempura

Cats like Felix, like Helix!

What a weird way to confirm the hybrid console.

Personally I feel it's way too soon for a next gen upgrade, and with the tech economy being so screwed right now pricing is gonna be way up there too.
This is definitely an interesting concept, but let's not pretend this is anything other than a PC in a box that can also play XBox games. Not that that's a bad thing, but I suspect we'll see the XBox console games side of things slow down, especially from third party devs. Why spend so much time on an XBox specific version when you can just put a "Helix spec" mode in your PC version.

Re: Hands On: Marathon Is Dense, Demanding, and Drop Dead Gorgeous

Bob_Tempura

I gave it a fair crack, but ultimately the gameplay loop just didn't do anything for me. I found the whole thing rather vapid, tedious and boring

The whole time I was playing and the game was trying to chuck lore my way all I could think was how this would have been so much better as an actual campaign with the extraction stuff added as a separate game mode.

And those menus and items. Oof. I dunno what they were smoking when they came up with those, or how they made it through internal and external play testing to this point. Everything is so convoluted, items look samey to the point of needing to read the text each time to know what they are (which isn't what you want in a game where you're supposed to be watching your back), and the whole factions and contracts thing feels like it was tacked on to give people a sense of something to do.

I dunno, if you enjoyed it then more power to you I guess, but I just found the whole experience dull. There wasn't any excitement or thrill.

All of the above coupled in with today's announcement that your progress will be reset each season just solidified that this game won't be getting my money.

Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for March 2026?

Bob_Tempura

Monster Hunter Rise is the only one that really interests me here.

Elder Scrolls Online is good though, well worth a play seeing as it's included. I've already spent way too long playing this years ago, but it looks like this will give me a bunch of dlc that I don't own... Not sure how claiming this on PS Plus is going to affect the digital licence from where I already bought it though 🫠 that's kinda a worry... Although I suppose you need Plus to play online anyway, so might be a moot point in this case.

Re: Poll: Are You Playing Resident Evil Requiem?

Bob_Tempura

As I mentioned in other Requiem threads, I'm waiting on them ideally adding a PSVR 2 mode.

That said, the performance on the Pro is definitely tempting, and makes the prospect of playing through the game in flat mode a lot more appealing!
I may well grab a copy when it's on sale. In the meantime I think I'll replay RE4 & Village in VR, and I may even bust out the old PSVR 1 to play through 7 again because that game in VR is just chefs kiss

Re: Resident Evil Requiem (PS5) - Two-in-One Horror Not Quite an All-Timer

Bob_Tempura

Nice review

Obviously I haven't played it myself yet, but by the sound of it perhaps Capcom should have gone down the Resident Evil 2 route and had the complete game path playable as either Grace or Leon from their perspective (without the switching between the two), with you only seeing the other character when their paths cross. It could have made it more cohesive and might not have felt so lopsided. Perhaps even to have this available as an option or an unlock after completion.

Anyway, it sounds good! I think I'll wait on picking it up though. If it was straight up survival horror (RE7 style) it would have been more appealing to me, and the lack of any PSVR 2 mode means I'm in no rush... Although I guess there is the fact it looks and runs particularly good on the Pro which helps motivate me towards playing the game in flat mode.

Re: 'I'm Confident in the Direction We're Headed': Under-Fire PlayStation Boss Tries to Explain Baffling Bluepoint Closure

Bob_Tempura

No matter what you say Hulst, we all can see that you're having to make cuts because your live service push failed. That same push that put renowned single player adventure game studios to work on online multi player live service games in the hope you'd find a cash cow.
If the live service push hadn't happened studios like Bluepoint would have been years deep into developing their next new title that people actually wanted.

Imagine if Bluepoint had been tasked with making that Bloodborne remake a reality? You would have been rolling in money.

The worst thing here is that it's clear other studios involved in that live service push may also be affected... I honestly wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bend Studios is up next.

Re: The Internet Has Not Been Kind to Horizon Hunters Gathering

Bob_Tempura

If this had the same art style as the main Horizon games, allowed you to create your own character and play co-op with a Monster Hunter vibe it would have been far more appealing.

Let's face it, no one asked for Horizon re-imagined as a Dauntless imitation, and especially not as a live service hero game. You'd have thought Sony would have learnt people are sick of live service hero games with Concord, and yet here we are again πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ
The crazy thing is, the graphics aren't even bad! It actually looks pretty good for a cartoony art style, but it's so far removed from the other games it's jarring. It almost feels like they're trying to appeal to the younger crowd, but completely missing the mark in all respects, and in doing so putting off their older demographic too.

Re: Fable Announced for PS5, Releases in Autumn 2026

Bob_Tempura

I'm remaining cautiously optimistic for this one. I love the orignal trilogy, despite it really peaking with the first game/parts of the second, but you never know what you're going to get with a Fable title (the whole second act in the third game for example!)...plus we have a new studio developing this title, so everything has a question mark over it.

With that said, it's looking rather nice, and it's great news to see that a) it's not fallen fowl to being cancelled, and b) it's coming to Playstation day and date. If it's Pro enhanced it should be the best place to play too (outside of having a top PC).

Re: Prince of Persia Remake and 5 Other Games Cancelled by Ubisoft

Bob_Tempura

Sadly not too surprising to see UbiSoft taking this approach, but it is mind boggling to scrap the Sands of Time remake when it seemed like it was near enough ready to go. I can only assume it was because they couldn't find ways to milk it with micro transactions πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ

Unfortunately this leads on to the larger issue here, namely that UbiSoft are looking for IPs that they can leverage for "sustainable growth".
They make it quite clear with the statement "exceptional AAA games, when successful, have more financial potential than ever" that they're not focusing on what the player base wants, more what they believe will be a financial success, and we already know that UbiSoft have quite the disconnect between what they think gamers want, and what gamers actually want.
In short, it sounds like we're in for a lot more UbiSoft cookie cutter open world "go here, do this" template games.

Re: Star Wars Racing Games Are Back in Galactic Racer, Out for PS5 in 2026

Bob_Tempura

@Veritas7Ax I suspect you'll probably love Burnout 2, but FYI there's no takedowns, they were introduced in 3... Burnout 2 is straight arcade racing, but my god is it good. I have fond memories of chaining burnouts while staring at the road in the horizon watching for traffic up ahead. When you complete a race still boosting on that very first burnout from the start chefs kiss

It would really make the perfect pairing with Burnout 3 for a remake/remaster compilation as they're the best two games showing both sides of the series. If you do get a chance to play, I hope you enjoy!

Re: Bungie's Marathon Locks In March 2026 Release Date on PS5, Priced at $40

Bob_Tempura

This game faces so may different problems and issues, but right now it has the massive hurdle of trying to convince people as to why they'd want to play this troubled extraction shooter over the rather excellent ARC Raiders.

I wish Sony would have sucked up the initial cost and made Marathon free to play to give it a fighting chance (or stick it on PS Plus at the very least), but I guess we'll have to wait til March to see what happens.

From what I've played I suspect this is going to score around a 7 from most review sites, and I'm not sure it has enough going for it to keep players interested long term.

Re: Star Wars Racing Games Are Back in Galactic Racer, Out for PS5 in 2026

Bob_Tempura

@Veritas7Ax we share a similar dream! Although my ideal "reboot" / remaster / remake scenario would be Burnout 2 & 3. They were arcade racing at its peak.

Unfortunately I found Revenge too easy since they added the traffic checking... It required far more skill when you couldn't just plough through most of the traffic in your travelling direction πŸ™ˆ

Re: Another Nioh 3 Demo Is On Its Way to PS5, Out 29th January

Bob_Tempura

@Silenos agreed. Both my Mrs and I are huge Nioh fans, we played through all the demos and both games, both individually and together and had an amazing time...but even we balked at the pricing for Nioh 3, especially as we'd want the season pass bundle πŸ˜“

It's a definite purchase for us, but it's got us considering just waiting a couple of months for a sale. It's not like we don't have anything else to play in the meantime... In fact, we'll probably still be getting stuck into Wo-Long seeing as it's hitting PS Plus Extra.

Re: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Revealed, Soars onto PS5 in 2026

Bob_Tempura

@CaptainGoodnight my thoughts exactly! This will be amazing in VR (just like 7 was), but if they manage to make the full game playable in VR it'll have the air combat genre covered, while Flight Simulator 2024 will cover the realistic simulator side of things.

Maybe we'll see Aces of Thunder enter the fray too, but I think most of us are firmly in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp on that one these days.

Re: Talking Point: The Game Awards 2025 Nominations Announced: Who Are Your Winners?

Bob_Tempura

A pretty safe and predictable list of nominees tbh... E33 was always going to be nominated (and likely win) in a variety of the categories.

I'm kinda surprised to see Ghost of Yōtei pop up considering it's been such a strong year and GoY didn't really bring anything new to the table. I'm not knocking it, but in a year that brought us E33, KCD2, Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bananza and so on, it'd be easy to see Yōtei not making the finalists.

Re: Exclusive: Your First Look at Astro Bot in Lumines Arise, and How the Crossover Happened

Bob_Tempura

@rjejr it was complete at launch. Everything added since then has been free bonus content (levels and challenges) added in version updates, not dlc.

While I get you may want a physical copy with everything on the disc, it's highly unlikely they'll release a Game of the Year edition as everything is already avaliable to everyone (with Internet access) for free when the game updates to the current version.

Re: After Xbox's Contraband Cancellation, Don't Expect Another Just Cause Game

Bob_Tempura

That sucks. The Just Cause games were over the top mayhem... I always wished they had co-op though, like Mercenaries did. That would have been chefs kiss

It sounds like the current team are (understandably) pretty disheartened after Contraband's cancellation. Hopefully they're able to find the motivation and enthusiasm for a new project, and that this isn't the end of yet another studio.