Bots on Super Helldive are much tougher than they were prepatch (I don’t think enemies take more damage but there are more of them and they aim better).
I lost half the six rounds I played but a big part of that was everybody (including me) trying to figure out the new toys so it’s hard to say how much tougher things are.
@TrollOfWar I agree the introduction of the SSD and the single login/user ID to console gaming by MS vi the Xbox hugely changed the console landscape but I don’t think it made things more complicated. On the contrary I’d say it helped simplify things for developers and gamers.
I can imagine scenarios where people want to play different games or even the same game under different names but generally having one online login rather than have to construct a new one for each game is easier for both a player and people in their social circle (of course that doesn’t mean requiring subscription fees).
One could say something similar about hard drives. Physical has its merits (I own a couple hundred disc based movies and games all mixed together on two bookshelves) but being able to start downloading a game while eating breakfast and having enough of it ready to start playing the game when I go downstairs twenty minutes later is pretty cool as is the ability of a designer to patch in new content (free or paid) without needing me to buy a new ‘special’ edition of the game (shakes fist at Street Fighter 2).
I concede different currency valuations and tariff rates and trade restrictions and suchlike can change the value proposition of consoles vs PCs quite a bit from country to country and I agree if one owns a PC for gaming, work or school, jumping into a PC storefront is cheaper than buying dedicated hardware provided you aren’t looking to play anything too demanding.
@nomither6 1) I agree most hardware is just getting plugged in once. Still while PCs are far better than they used to be, ease of setup and use are still higher on consoles.
2) I agree online co-op is bigger but the fact that couch co-op options persist in games like Split Fiction, sports games, kart games, Double Dragon and Diablo type games show that the appetite for couch co-op is still quite substantial.
3) I agree the fact PC online gaming being free is a huge point in its favor when looking at affordability though I stand by my point that PC gaming hardware generally quite pricey.
4) I agree with you that most developers meet gamers where they are at rather than build for hardware most don’t own. One can do well making games aimed at (broadly) current gen console specs like Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Clair Obscur, Cronos: The New Dawn, Astrobot, Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2, but those requirements put many gamers out of reach. Roblox (which rivals Steam in daily player count), Minecraft, Schedule 1 and lots and lots of games made by small or even single person teams can run on pretty much anything including the phones everyone has in their pocket.
Last of all, as I’ve said before (including in this thread) the fact console prices for even the PS5 and Switches (let alone the Xboxes) are higher than they were at the start of the generation is a huge issue. Historically most consoles are bought years after launch, at which point their price points have fallen multiple times (the PS1 started at $300, but fell to $100 by the end of the generation). No doubt millions of kids are now gaming on their cellphones (which when I was a teen were viewed as luxuries for the ultra rich but are now regarded as basic necessities) and maybe whatever old hardware (be in consoles or PCs) their parents have lying around because their parents aren’t willing or able (broadly prices are rising, wages are flat and layoffs are common) to splash out several hundred on dedicated hardware.
@TrollOfWar I agree with you about PCs being more flexible and customizable than consoles but I think ‘plug and play’ is a big part of the appeal of consoles.
It’s true some people love to tinker but some just want to get into it. That is why so many rival storefronts have had problems getting traction against Steam though all offer free access and some hand out free games periodically.
Another big part of the appeal of consoles is the subsidized hardware. While consoles are pricier than ever and thats bad, the problem is the skyrocketing price of computer components. The makers of consoles not named the Xbox are willing to sell their hardware at a loss (making profits through cuts of 3rd party sales, first party sales and of course subscription fees) but computer hardware sellers (even Valve during its forays into hardware selling) refuse to eat losses.
I started Battlemarked: Demeo x D&D, a squad based strategy game which mimicks the look of a board game with very detailed miniatures.
You pick up the pieces, move them around and roll dice to determine how effective a move is. Each character’s moves are executed via a deck of cards. Some cards are single shot (think a consumable object like a potion) some are limited (certain spells) some are infinite (arrows for an archer). I’m playing on whatever the default difficulty is but past the tutorial level it quickly gets tough. I love the abundant, well done yet somehow cheesy voice work.
I’m also still playing Helldivers 2 (the squid part of the current major order might not get done because they are a lot of diver’s least favorite faction though they are arguably the weakest), Roboquest VR (a fast moving roguelike fps whose half a dozen classes and dozens upon dozens of weapons and enemies make it highly replayable) and Demon’s School (an indie game inspired by Persona but which feels very different especially in terms of combat and tone).
After being impressed by the demo, I’m jumping into DQ for the first time this week.
I’m also probably picking up Aces of Thunder, a VR flight combat simulator featuring WW2 and 1 planes (fighting separately iagainst their historical opponents). It’s been in development seemingly forever and delayed multiple times but the final version (now with a meaty campaign and a mission creator though the initial focus was MP) is in the hands of reviewers and it’s slated to hit on the 3rd for 30 bucks.
Most of the previews floating around center on the PC version but there is an hour plus of PSVR2 gameplay at the link below.
Consoles have controlled access to devkits and certification so PCs being the default choice makes perfect sense.
I think the Xbox’s big problem is the forced parity between the S and the X which makes their console the hardest one to develop for. The current Xbox is neither the first nor the last console to offer two different iterations but forcing support for both raises costs. Below is a five year old article but there are lots of more recent ones saying similar things.
Streamlining the transition from PS4 to PS5 is the most important thing Sony can do, and it actually solved that issue a while back. The PS5 has not only been built from the ground up to play, support, and boost PS4 games on a logical level, but it's x86 architecture is also extremely similar to the PS4's. This means devs can easily carry their PS4 games over to PS5 for cross-gen play and ramp up resolution and technical features accordingly. Cross-gen will remain extremely important until 2024, Sony says.
——— Leadbetter also says that some Xbox devs are having issues with Microsoft's new General Development Kit (GDK) software, namely because it's spread across multiple platforms like PC, Xbox Series S/X, and the Xbox One family. This is something we've expressed concern with in the past, namely with Microsoft devs having to scale and optimize games across six different platforms in 2020: PC, Xbox One (2013), Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, and the Xbox Series X.
Struggling to hold onto audience is pretty much the day to day reality of online games. I listen to The Game Business podcast quite a bit and last year they talked (separately) with two guys involved with games that massively overperformed commercially (Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2) who had previously made games in the same space that were commercial successes with much smaller player numbers (The Finals and Helldivers 1).
Both guys talked quite a bit about planning for lean times and striking the right balance between sustainability, fidelity to one’s creative vision, and giving people what they want.
Interestingly while Helldivers 1 largely flew under the radar of the press The Finals had been subject to years of doomposting (‘The Finals started off good but saw a 90% drop off with a few months! Stick a fork in it!’). It’s probably relevant that H1 came out long before The Finals (and never came anywhere near its numbers) , back when multiplayer games were getting less intense day to day scrutiny.
Of course it’s possible Highguard isn’t/won’t achieving the numbers it needs to be viable and I just don’t enjoy PvP anymore but I have nothing against the game and wish it well in the same vague sense I wish most people and things well. I might be indifferent to, bored by or even disgusted by a new restaurant, brand of coffee or book but that doesn’t mean I am going to be happier or my life is going to be better if it fails 🙄.
Cool. My first acquisition will probably be the Xiaomi just because I already have a couple Porsches.
I participated in a Power Pack race this morning that went pretty well until it didn’t. I raced ten practice laps, then when I got a good feel for the track and the car, did the qualifying laps and placed pretty high (6th) but during the proper race against 19 (AI) opponents I made the mistake of focusing too much on my opponents and not enough on proper braking and wound up skidding out twice in a row early in the series when the pack was tight and lost several spots. Good times and decent virtual money though.
I love what I’ve experienced of Larian’s work (Divinity and BG3) but that complaint is idiotic. Reviewers are people who like all people come to everything with their experiences and preferences. All we can reasonably demand of them is honesty.
I ignore numerical scores because I find a lot of reviews even those with widely divergent scores/tones all agree on a lot of stuff, they just disagree about what’s important.
The only sorts of reviews which piss me off are the ones which omit tech issues because the developer has told the reviewer that said stuff will be solved soon so there is no point immortalizing it in a review (nods towards some early reviews of Star Wars Fallen Order and Cyberpunk 2077).
I want to know what the reviewer experienced and why they did or didn’t enjoy it, not be told what he thinks I want to hear or to not be told about stuff the developer has promised will quickly go away.
I view the messages as reasonable but likely to be ineffective. The problem is while Sony isn’t the worst out there is terms of raising hardware prices the PS5 is $50 more expensive than it was at launch. Historically most PlayStations sold years after launch at which point the price had been cut several times.
I have been an avid gamer for 48 years (first started gaming on my dad’s Magnavox Odyssey) and love my PS5 but honestly life is getting more expensive and that is going to force some people to opt out of or never opt for dedicated hardware. If a family is struggling to pay bills or even if they are just on the edge it’s better to game and let your kids game on ubiquitous generalist appliances like cellphone and tablets rather than splash out several hundred dollars.
Of course I speak as an American but I think the pricing trend/problem is broadly true globally.
It doesn’t interest me because I don’t enjoy team based PvP like I used to. *Scratches increasingly gray beard * Trolling and throwing in competitive multiplayer seem to be more common than I remember in the days of Warhawk and Overwatch 1 though I recognize the problem might be me getting old and fussy rather than the world getting worse 😋.
While my multiplayer poison of choice is Helldivers 2 but I bear Highguard no ill will and hope it finds enough of an audience to keep it going.
Another warbond has been unveiled. It’s named Siege Breakers and seems to be the opposite of Redacted in that it focuses on heavy armor, a new stationary bubble shield, a sledgehammer with an explosive head (looks hilariously badass), and a multibarrel laser gun whose beams are so powerful they powerful they slice through normal robots. Last but not least is what looks to be the most powerful Expendable Anti-Tank missile (nuclear warhead, single shot) in the game.
Fine by me. Due to skyrocketing component prices in particular and inflation in general consoles are now more expensive than they were at launch. That is insane. Until/unless things change rolling out new hardware at higher than ever price points would be a very bad idea IMHO.
I’m eager to see what Media Molecule is cooking. Not everything they becomes a commercial success but their games are all lovingly crafted big swings and I tend to enjoy their work quite a bit.
Of course I’d be cool with seeing more of Saros and Wolverine too.
Shrugs Staggered ports can improve the quality of ports since they allow a team to focus and test versions more thoroughly rather than hoping the XBX, PS5, PS Pro, XBS, Switch 2, PC, and Steambox versions all run the same. I understand there is a lot of overlap nowadays in terms of development (more so than ever before) but there are clearly still lots of quirks/points of differentiation.
I’m enjoying the new stealth warbond and stealth oriented ‘commando’ missions in Helldivers 2. The missions are radically different than the norm due to extremely limited air support and reinforcements being stored in cryo chambers scattered throughout the map. Still while there are inevitably a rage quitter or two in every new group, those spots get filled quickly and teams collectively tend to succeed.
Right now the commando missions are specific to one bot planet but I expect they’ll find a way to add stealth missions to the squid and bugs eventually.
I’m also continuing to chip away at Roboquest VR. I’m focusing more on unlocking all the classes and their abilities than winning. That’s how I console myself each time my run comes up short anyway 😋.
I’m not surprised the Pro has held up its end. We are in rough economic times with no end in sight but gaming remains a popular hobby and the sorts of high quality TVs that can benefit from a Pro are relatively cheap. I sold my PS5 for $500 right before the Pro hit and I’m happy with the jump.
My most played games on the Pro include but are not limited to Helldivers 2 (in the unending war for liberty the extra clarity helps), Gran Turismo 7 (which I play in VR), BG3, Ghost of Yotei (whose lighting is ridiculously gorgeous), Stellar Blade, Days Gone Remastered, RE4 and Roboquest VR (the postlaunch 90 fps native patch might be an option for base PS5s but it certainly helps the game’s visuals on the Pro).
The Redacted Regiment warbond hit today. I haven’t unlocked the explosives yet but the stealth armor and the silenced weapons work well (enemies not staring at you as you take somebody down tend to miss you).
There are new (thus far robot specific) commando missions which give you extremely limited air support and thereby encourage you to play stealthy. Unusually for H2 there are cells of dormant soldiers implanted in the ground scattered around the map. You need to activate each cell to make their contained reinforcements (a couple soldiers) available. Once a soldier dies and a reinforcement order is put in someone in the activated cells is randomly defrosted.
The missions are challenging tough but doable even for randoms (which is how I play multiplayer most of the time and how I played this morning). There were a few rage quitters but most people got the hang of things (stay moving, strike bases hard but judiciously, try to avoid getting into it with patrols) pretty quickly.
Meta has fired the studio leads, laid off most of the staff, and cancelled the games of Camouflaj (Batman) though they haven’t technically shut down the studio it’s a distinction without difference,
Interesting list. I don’t consider myself a huge cozy games guy (I’ve played a lot of The Sims over the years, not sure if that counts) but I heard good things about Tiny Bookshop from a friend.
@HotGoomba I think the problem isn’t big companies per se but big companies that spend crazy amounts of money hoping for unrealistic levels of market growth. Facebook was burning over a billion a month in the hopes that VR was going to become a ubiquitous appliance like cellphones have become. That spending was great for lots of VR developers but meant they weren’t scaling for the actual (modest) size of the market, they were building for the mass market Facebook hoped for.
I love VR but realistically its immersion is a double edged sword that means it only appeals to a fraction of core gamers (who are of course greatly outnumbered by casual gamers). There is money to be made but expectations need to be realistic because the biggest pots of money are elsewhere (though there are no easy, safe, big bets anywhere).
I don’t think anybody is going to replace Facebook but I’m hoping Valve’s headset grows the ecosystem and Sony steps up a bit though there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm in its current stable outside of Polyphony Digital and Media Molecule (bows towards Dreams). Team Asobi did wonderful things in VR but realistically they don’t seem to want to come back.
Meta is far and away the biggest publisher/funder of VR (they’ve literally lost tens of billions) and it’s clear it’s not going to break out anytime soon so the shoe was bound to drop eventually. I hope the laid off land on their feet.
Not sure what you mean by balance but Helldivers 2 caters to the power fantasy crowd more than it did in its first several months (there are a lot of ridiculously powerful weapons like backpack nukes, recoilless rifles and rifles that fire rounds that explode in shrapnel).
However enemies have also gotten bigger and more numerous. The toughest enemy is hands down the Hive Lord, a train sized burrowing worm covered in heavy armor that is very deadly and hard to kill. It can be killed but it survives stuff that annihilates everything else in the game.
None of the current missions is all that tough for solid teams who stay mostly on mission but periodically there are time limited crazy hard ones that pop up like invasion repulsion (illuminate ships land randomly all over that map and start churning out enemies and teams lost if 12 ships landed at once and won if they took out 50) and platinum extraction (landing in the middle of a giant enemy base and trying to transport a bunch of platinum bars to a container for extraction while the bots threw everything at you).
I am generally not a stealth player (quite the opposite) but I have snuck into a few bases to detonate a backpack nuke so I’m open to a stealth warbond.
Silenced sniper and assault rifles are well and good but the firearm that jumps out at me is the re-educator (a pistol that fires chemical darts that induce a brief bout of delirium, the same way poison gas does). The explosives also look fun, especially the remotely detonated C4 charges.
I haven’t played it recently, but I played Detroit several times when it came out and enjoyed it immensely. If the team eventually manages to get something new in a similar vein out of the door I’ll give it a look.
This weekend I played a lot of Roboquest VR (which is a Flat2VR port of the cellshaded roguelike fps). I’ve been playing it since launch but decided I needed to focus on it in order to get better.
You use everything from shotguns, pistols, hand grenades and miniguns to bows with explosive arrows, boomerangs, swords and guns that shoot fire, ice, electricity and bees..
Low level weapons just perform their basic function but high level ones (you find increasingly powerful weapons as you progress but you can also upgrade weak ones) have multiple bonus effects such as doing extra damage to flyers, bouncing bullets, generating shields and suchlike. Enemies are tough and there is at least as much enemy variety as gun variety so fights tend to be intense. Good stuff.
Fine by me. I’m just going to repost a prior comment of mine.
———- Unsurprising list but I don’t really get why people are angry or disappointed about it. When looking at the commercial state of the industry I think it’s useful to look at what succeeds (by the standards of the developers) rather than merely what sells best. For example games like Dragon’s Crown, Returnal, Street Fighter 6, Disco Elysium, Helldivers 2, Balatro, Baldur’s Gate 3, Pacific Drive, Returnal and Stellar Blade all met or exceeded the expectations of their developers. Their success encourages (and enables) the developers to keep doing what they are doing and encourage other developers with similar visions to try their luck.
Xbox adopting the PC model of selling hardware for a profit doesn’t mean much to the PlayStation. There are lots and lots of things competing for people’s attention nowadays (the Nex Playground is an interesting competitor).
The big challenge IMHO is current gen hardware prices have going in the wrong direction for a lot of reasons (many outside the control of the industry). The PS1 started at $300 but eventually dropped to $100. The PS5 started at $500 and is now $550. Yes it’s a small increase compared to the massive one the Xbox has seen but the sorts of more casual and/or budget minded gamers who jump into consoles mid gen clearly aren’t being drawn in in the numbers they could be.
Finished my first playthrough of Dispatch yesterday (I started playing it early Christmas morning). From the perspective of a longtime fan this is easily Telltale/Ad Hoc’s best game.
Anyway, dispatching superheroes is a pretty deep because there are multiple missions requiring different skill sets which often can benefit from more than one hero being involved, though that might mean you have the wrong people or even no one on hand to deal with subsequent events.
I have only played through the one time at the time of this post but I know (because the game told me at the end of each episode) how big choices I made in my character’s personal life shaped things and it’s also nice how you can upgrade heroes (they have ability points as well as short upgrade trees) and they get more comfortable with each other over time if they are dispatched together (some of them start off pretty comfortable).
The writing is strong, the characters are vibrant, the art direction is gorgeous and the music fits the game very well. I eager to play the next season of Dispatch (I am fine with waiting so long as the episodes are released in close proximity).
Just finished Dispatch for the first time. Telltale is back (as Ad Hoc). I did fairly poorly on the minigames and dispatching but I avoided strategy guides and now that I understand everything better through bitter experience I aim to rise above the bottom 1% of dispatchers 😅! Also I can think of several different choices/potential alternate paths I’d like to explore.
Exclusivity means a lot to gamers making lists on the internet but in and of itself means nothing to the overwhelming majority of gamers.
If someone enjoys a game (whether it is an exclusive like Astrobot or a multiplatform game like Dispatch) they buy it and maybe recommend it to friends, if they don’t they ignore it.
I have enjoyed a lot of exclusives over the decades and I expect I will continue to do so but I don’t hold being multiplatform against a game.
Luminees Arise is a spiritual sequel to Tetris Effect with even more gorgeous and trippy audiovisuals. The way some of the puzzle pieces and stages morph as things progress (my highlight is the vegetable stage) is really crazy.
Shrugs I don’t worry much about rankings or awards (it’s a very rare year when I’ve played every game in contention and I don’t like all genres equally) I’m just glad that like most other Enhance games Luminees seems to have found an audience.
As I noted before Larian should have seen this coming since all of the excitement about the game is based on their promises (the trailer was very cool but contained no gameplay).
While there is a vocal group of online skeptics of AI use in game creation I doubt the average gamer cares. Clair Expedition 33 and Arc Raiders have/are experiencing some turbulence over their use of AI but clearly lots of gamers are squarely focused on the games rather than their creation. Another interesting point of comparison is the latest CoD, whose relatively cool reception is partly a result of AI being used in ways gamers felt lessened the stuff they care about.
I respect people who are skeptical of or even opposed to AI vs human made art but it’s cheap in a competitive industry struggling to both catch the attention of people in a world saturated with entertainment options and keep costs down. I believe kind of like CG FX vs practical stunts in movies the games industry is going to wind up encompassing them both depending on not just audience reaction but what individual creators are enthusiastic about.
Shrugs Based on my experience with Divinity 2 and BG3 I am very enthused about Larian’s next game and that feeling won’t change unless the gameplay they show of the next Divinity is sloppy.
Well deserved. Polyphony Digital has always been a quirky team who often finds themselves on the right side of things.
I remember an old preview of the original GT which questioned the economics of Gran Turismo (which included 200 or so cars when the genre average was a small fraction of that) and its focus on driving (a separate but related thing from racing) all sorts of cars including sedans and minivans ordinary people use in their everyday lives rather than just racing with supercars built to win competitions snd look real cool doing it.
Last but not least as a PSVR2/Pro owner I appreciate Polyphony’s continued willingness to support new tech which offers enthusiasts a deeper way to engage with their games (their use of the haptics of the dual sense is also exemplary). I never saw it first hand but years ago I watched videos of GT5’s multi monitor mode and thought ‘Yamauchi must not hear ‘no’ a lot’ 😋.
Gran Turismo 7 is great fun and the oldest game in my regular rotation and I don’t see that changing until GT8 sometime in the distant future.
I was a huge fan of Peanuts when I was a kid (read the comics in the newspaper and enjoyed the holiday specials) but I have skipped all the modern (post-Schulz) stuff. Don’t have any feelings about Sony buying it but it’s nice Peanuts is still popular.
The hardware numbers make sense. Consoles going up in price rather than down (the PS1 launched at $300 but eventually fell to $100) is clearly keeping a big chunk of people out of the market.
If I were a hardware maker intent on releasing new hardware I’d wait for overall inflation/ram prices/tariffs to fall (not sure when that’s going to happen, probably no time soon).
I think the reaction to the AI talk (Larian says they are using AI but it’s not that helpful and no AI generated stuff will be in the final game) is excessive but Larian knows it is an enviable position where CG trailers and words can excite a big chunk of gamers so their surprise and irritation over the strong negative reaction to their latest batch of words is bizarre.
I personally don’t get excited by CG nor do I focus on stuff real far out (‘We are working on something too early to show, but get hyped now!’) but based on my experience with the original Divinity 2 and BG3 I’m sure whenever Larian’s next game comes out it will be phenomenal if they maintain their old standards.
Shrugs Windows of exclusivity are still a thing for a variety of reasons (one of which is moneyhatting another of which is the benefit of developers being able to focus since platform optimization is time consuming). I’m fine with the practice so long as developers are upfront about their plans.
To go on a somewhat related rant, Disgaea 7 is an example of the sort of exclusivity that bothers me. I splashed out the money for the ‘Complete’ PS5 version of Disgaea 7 at launch but NiS subsequently sold some dlc exclusively to Nintendo of America for an undisclosed period of time. That will give me and other PS5 or PC gamers pause the next time NiS comes around asking us to pay for not just the base game, but future content.
To a T is a very weird, sweet game about a disabled boy who wanders around doing and learning stuff with the aid of his dog, his loving mother and a growing circle of friends. The gameplay consists of a handful of simple minigames/challenges the boy faces as he navigates through life but despite visual similarities it’s a very different design than that of his breakout hit Katamari Damancy.
I really enjoyed To a T and loved its world but I’m not shocked it didn’t do well commercially. More games are released per day than the average gamer buys in a year, the rare successes tend to have long tails (which is good for them and their fans, bad for other games) and there are more clicks to be had hating or hyping stuff everybody knows than trying to sell people on unknowns. Such is the industry.
I hope Mr. Takahasi continues to work in the industry (it seems he is looking for a publisher) and create original content but I get he has a family to support and no matter the choice he makes I wish him well.
I don’t watch the show for the awards but giving the best strategy game award to a FFT remaster over The Alters or Two Point Museum (I didn’t play the other nominees) indicates to me there weren’t many strategy game fans among the voters.
Spent the weekend playing Roboquest VR (hectic and tough but fun first person roguelike), Sektori (hectic and tough 2D roguelike in the vein of Geometry Wars), Two Point Museum (whose zoo expansion has some cool twists including animal rescue) and of course Helldivers 2 (been practicing with the backpack nuclear bomb and friendly casualties have been minimal and enemy casualties have been massive).
I also watched that Johnny Cage animated movie Cage Match. It was even more of a comedy than I was expecting but it’s fast moving, dumb fun. The visuals are great, very reminiscent of Miami Vice.
This reminded me a bit of the parts of Ghost Yotei where while on horseback you can gallop among hordes of wild horses. I need to see more but I’m very interested.
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Re: Helldivers 2 Adds a Tank in Major Update, More Hard-Hitting Weaponry in New Warbond
Bots on Super Helldive are much tougher than they were prepatch (I don’t think enemies take more damage but there are more of them and they aim better).
I lost half the six rounds I played but a big part of that was everybody (including me) trying to figure out the new toys so it’s hard to say how much tougher things are.
Re: GDC Survey Reveals Developers Are Twice as Interested in Making Games for PS5 Than Xbox
@TrollOfWar I agree the introduction of the SSD and the single login/user ID to console gaming by MS vi the Xbox hugely changed the console landscape but I don’t think it made things more complicated. On the contrary I’d say it helped simplify things for developers and gamers.
I can imagine scenarios where people want to play different games or even the same game under different names but generally having one online login rather than have to construct a new one for each game is easier for both a player and people in their social circle (of course that doesn’t mean requiring subscription fees).
One could say something similar about hard drives. Physical has its merits (I own a couple hundred disc based movies and games all mixed together on two bookshelves) but being able to start downloading a game while eating breakfast and having enough of it ready to start playing the game when I go downstairs twenty minutes later is pretty cool as is the ability of a designer to patch in new content (free or paid) without needing me to buy a new ‘special’ edition of the game (shakes fist at Street Fighter 2).
I concede different currency valuations and tariff rates and trade restrictions and suchlike can change the value proposition of consoles vs PCs quite a bit from country to country and I agree if one owns a PC for gaming, work or school, jumping into a PC storefront is cheaper than buying dedicated hardware provided you aren’t looking to play anything too demanding.
Re: GDC Survey Reveals Developers Are Twice as Interested in Making Games for PS5 Than Xbox
@nomither6 1) I agree most hardware is just getting plugged in once. Still while PCs are far better than they used to be, ease of setup and use are still higher on consoles.
2) I agree online co-op is bigger but the fact that couch co-op options persist in games like Split Fiction, sports games, kart games, Double Dragon and Diablo type games show that the appetite for couch co-op is still quite substantial.
3) I agree the fact PC online gaming being free is a huge point in its favor when looking at affordability though I stand by my point that PC gaming hardware generally quite pricey.
4) I agree with you that most developers meet gamers where they are at rather than build for hardware most don’t own. One can do well making games aimed at (broadly) current gen console specs like Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Clair Obscur, Cronos: The New Dawn, Astrobot, Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2, but those requirements put many gamers out of reach. Roblox (which rivals Steam in daily player count), Minecraft, Schedule 1 and lots and lots of games made by small or even single person teams can run on pretty much anything including the phones everyone has in their pocket.
Last of all, as I’ve said before (including in this thread) the fact console prices for even the PS5 and Switches (let alone the Xboxes) are higher than they were at the start of the generation is a huge issue. Historically most consoles are bought years after launch, at which point their price points have fallen multiple times (the PS1 started at $300, but fell to $100 by the end of the generation). No doubt millions of kids are now gaming on their cellphones (which when I was a teen were viewed as luxuries for the ultra rich but are now regarded as basic necessities) and maybe whatever old hardware (be in consoles or PCs) their parents have lying around because their parents aren’t willing or able (broadly prices are rising, wages are flat and layoffs are common) to splash out several hundred on dedicated hardware.
Re: GDC Survey Reveals Developers Are Twice as Interested in Making Games for PS5 Than Xbox
@TrollOfWar I agree with you about PCs being more flexible and customizable than consoles but I think ‘plug and play’ is a big part of the appeal of consoles.
It’s true some people love to tinker but some just want to get into it. That is why so many rival storefronts have had problems getting traction against Steam though all offer free access and some hand out free games periodically.
Another big part of the appeal of consoles is the subsidized hardware. While consoles are pricier than ever and thats bad, the problem is the skyrocketing price of computer components. The makers of consoles not named the Xbox are willing to sell their hardware at a loss (making profits through cuts of 3rd party sales, first party sales and of course subscription fees) but computer hardware sellers (even Valve during its forays into hardware selling) refuse to eat losses.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 618
I started Battlemarked: Demeo x D&D, a squad based strategy game which mimicks the look of a board game with very detailed miniatures.
You pick up the pieces, move them around and roll dice to determine how effective a move is. Each character’s moves are executed via a deck of cards. Some cards are single shot (think a consumable object like a potion) some are limited (certain spells) some are infinite (arrows for an archer). I’m playing on whatever the default difficulty is but past the tutorial level it quickly gets tough. I love the abundant, well done yet somehow cheesy voice work.
I’m also still playing Helldivers 2 (the squid part of the current major order might not get done because they are a lot of diver’s least favorite faction though they are arguably the weakest), Roboquest VR (a fast moving roguelike fps whose half a dozen classes and dozens upon dozens of weapons and enemies make it highly replayable) and Demon’s School (an indie game inspired by Persona but which feels very different especially in terms of combat and tone).
Re: These 10+ PS5, PS4, and PS Plus Games Are Coming Out Next Week (2nd-8th February)
After being impressed by the demo, I’m jumping into DQ for the first time this week.
I’m also probably picking up Aces of Thunder, a VR flight combat simulator featuring WW2 and 1 planes (fighting separately iagainst their historical opponents). It’s been in development seemingly forever and delayed multiple times but the final version (now with a meaty campaign and a mission creator though the initial focus was MP) is in the hands of reviewers and it’s slated to hit on the 3rd for 30 bucks.
Most of the previews floating around center on the PC version but there is an hour plus of PSVR2 gameplay at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/live/nsbrFXxqeSk?si=mLpqyw-eSlBdOdYT
Re: GDC Survey Reveals Developers Are Twice as Interested in Making Games for PS5 Than Xbox
Consoles have controlled access to devkits and certification so PCs being the default choice makes perfect sense.
I think the Xbox’s big problem is the forced parity between the S and the X which makes their console the hardest one to develop for. The current Xbox is neither the first nor the last console to offer two different iterations but forcing support for both raises costs. Below is a five year old article but there are lots of more recent ones saying similar things.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/75258/playstation-5-is-easier-to-make-games-for-devs-having-issues-on-xbox/index.html
Streamlining the transition from PS4 to PS5 is the most important thing Sony can do, and it actually solved that issue a while back. The PS5 has not only been built from the ground up to play, support, and boost PS4 games on a logical level, but it's x86 architecture is also extremely similar to the PS4's. This means devs can easily carry their PS4 games over to PS5 for cross-gen play and ramp up resolution and technical features accordingly. Cross-gen will remain extremely important until 2024, Sony says.
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Leadbetter also says that some Xbox devs are having issues with Microsoft's new General Development Kit (GDK) software, namely because it's spread across multiple platforms like PC, Xbox Series S/X, and the Xbox One family. This is something we've expressed concern with in the past, namely with Microsoft devs having to scale and optimize games across six different platforms in 2020: PC, Xbox One (2013), Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, and the Xbox Series X.
Re: Highguard Is Already Struggling to Hold Players' Attention
Struggling to hold onto audience is pretty much the day to day reality of online games. I listen to The Game Business podcast quite a bit and last year they talked (separately) with two guys involved with games that massively overperformed commercially (Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2) who had previously made games in the same space that were commercial successes with much smaller player numbers (The Finals and Helldivers 1).
Both guys talked quite a bit about planning for lean times and striking the right balance between sustainability, fidelity to one’s creative vision, and giving people what they want.
Interestingly while Helldivers 1 largely flew under the radar of the press The Finals had been subject to years of doomposting (‘The Finals started off good but saw a 90% drop off with a few months! Stick a fork in it!’). It’s probably relevant that H1 came out long before The Finals (and never came anywhere near its numbers) , back when multiplayer games were getting less intense day to day scrutiny.
Of course it’s possible Highguard isn’t/won’t achieving the numbers it needs to be viable and I just don’t enjoy PvP anymore but I have nothing against the game and wish it well in the same vague sense I wish most people and things well. I might be indifferent to, bored by or even disgusted by a new restaurant, brand of coffee or book but that doesn’t mean I am going to be happier or my life is going to be better if it fails 🙄.
Re: Silent Hill 2, Cronos Studio Seemingly Teasing Its Next Game
After the SH2 remake and Cronos I am very interested in seeing their next project.
Re: Gran Turismo 7's Free Updates Keep on Coming After First Paid DLC, New Cars This Week
Cool. My first acquisition will probably be the Xiaomi just because I already have a couple Porsches.
I participated in a Power Pack race this morning that went pretty well until it didn’t. I raced ten practice laps, then when I got a good feel for the track and the car, did the qualifying laps and placed pretty high (6th) but during the proper race against 19 (AI) opponents I made the mistake of focusing too much on my opponents and not enough on proper braking and wound up skidding out twice in a row early in the series when the pack was tight and lost several spots. Good times and decent virtual money though.
Re: Larian CEO Swen Vincke Sticks His Foot in It Again, Thinks Game Reviewers Should Also Be Reviewed
I love what I’ve experienced of Larian’s work (Divinity and BG3) but that complaint is idiotic. Reviewers are people who like all people come to everything with their experiences and preferences. All we can reasonably demand of them is honesty.
I ignore numerical scores because I find a lot of reviews even those with widely divergent scores/tones all agree on a lot of stuff, they just disagree about what’s important.
The only sorts of reviews which piss me off are the ones which omit tech issues because the developer has told the reviewer that said stuff will be solved soon so there is no point immortalizing it in a review (nods towards some early reviews of Star Wars Fallen Order and Cyberpunk 2077).
I want to know what the reviewer experienced and why they did or didn’t enjoy it, not be told what he thinks I want to hear or to not be told about stuff the developer has promised will quickly go away.
Re: Sony's Sending Messages to PS4 Players Encouraging Them to Upgrade to PS5
I view the messages as reasonable but likely to be ineffective. The problem is while Sony isn’t the worst out there is terms of raising hardware prices the PS5 is $50 more expensive than it was at launch. Historically most PlayStations sold years after launch at which point the price had been cut several times.
I have been an avid gamer for 48 years (first started gaming on my dad’s Magnavox Odyssey) and love my PS5 but honestly life is getting more expensive and that is going to force some people to opt out of or never opt for dedicated hardware. If a family is struggling to pay bills or even if they are just on the edge it’s better to game and let your kids game on ubiquitous generalist appliances like cellphone and tablets rather than splash out several hundred dollars.
Of course I speak as an American but I think the pricing trend/problem is broadly true globally.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Highguard?
It doesn’t interest me because I don’t enjoy team based PvP like I used to. *Scratches increasingly gray beard * Trolling and throwing in competitive multiplayer seem to be more common than I remember in the days of Warhawk and Overwatch 1 though I recognize the problem might be me getting old and fussy rather than the world getting worse 😋.
While my multiplayer poison of choice is Helldivers 2 but I bear Highguard no ill will and hope it finds enough of an audience to keep it going.
Re: Helldivers 2 Support Continues in the Latest Warbond Drop, Out Next Week
Another warbond has been unveiled. It’s named Siege Breakers and seems to be the opposite of Redacted in that it focuses on heavy armor, a new stationary bubble shield, a sledgehammer with an explosive head (looks hilariously badass), and a multibarrel laser gun whose beams are so powerful they powerful they slice through normal robots. Last but not least is what looks to be the most powerful Expendable Anti-Tank missile (nuclear warhead, single shot) in the game.
https://youtu.be/z2q23CtnqUA
Re: Highguard Doesn't Do a Concord, But Reception Is Lukewarm
I didn’t play it (Helldivers 2 fills my multiplayer time) but I thought the trailer looked reasonable and I’m glad it got a decent start.
Re: Sony Set to Delay PS6 Release Date, Claims Financial Report
Fine by me. Due to skyrocketing component prices in particular and inflation in general consoles are now more expensive than they were at launch. That is insane. Until/unless things change rolling out new hardware at higher than ever price points would be a very bad idea IMHO.
Re: PlayStation State of Play Is Locked in for February, It's Claimed
I’m eager to see what Media Molecule is cooking. Not everything they becomes a commercial success but their games are all lovingly crafted big swings and I tend to enjoy their work quite a bit.
Of course I’d be cool with seeing more of Saros and Wolverine too.
Re: Xbox Will Try to Deliver PS5 Ports on Launch Day More Consistently
Shrugs Staggered ports can improve the quality of ports since they allow a team to focus and test versions more thoroughly rather than hoping the XBX, PS5, PS Pro, XBS, Switch 2, PC, and Steambox versions all run the same. I understand there is a lot of overlap nowadays in terms of development (more so than ever before) but there are clearly still lots of quirks/points of differentiation.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 617
I’m enjoying the new stealth warbond and stealth oriented ‘commando’ missions in Helldivers 2. The missions are radically different than the norm due to extremely limited air support and reinforcements being stored in cryo chambers scattered throughout the map. Still while there are inevitably a rage quitter or two in every new group, those spots get filled quickly and teams collectively tend to succeed.
Right now the commando missions are specific to one bot planet but I expect they’ll find a way to add stealth missions to the squid and bugs eventually.
I’m also continuing to chip away at Roboquest VR. I’m focusing more on unlocking all the classes and their abilities than winning. That’s how I console myself each time my run comes up short anyway 😋.
Re: Despite Its Price, PS5 Pro Enjoyed a Very Respectable 2025 in USA
I’m not surprised the Pro has held up its end. We are in rough economic times with no end in sight but gaming remains a popular hobby and the sorts of high quality TVs that can benefit from a Pro are relatively cheap. I sold my PS5 for $500 right before the Pro hit and I’m happy with the jump.
My most played games on the Pro include but are not limited to Helldivers 2 (in the unending war for liberty the extra clarity helps), Gran Turismo 7 (which I play in VR), BG3, Ghost of Yotei (whose lighting is ridiculously gorgeous), Stellar Blade, Days Gone Remastered, RE4 and Roboquest VR (the postlaunch 90 fps native patch might be an option for base PS5s but it certainly helps the game’s visuals on the Pro).
Re: Helldivers 2 Support Continues in the Latest Warbond Drop, Out Next Week
The Redacted Regiment warbond hit today. I haven’t unlocked the explosives yet but the stealth armor and the silenced weapons work well (enemies not staring at you as you take somebody down tend to miss you).
There are new (thus far robot specific) commando missions which give you extremely limited air support and thereby encourage you to play stealthy. Unusually for H2 there are cells of dormant soldiers implanted in the ground scattered around the map. You need to activate each cell to make their contained reinforcements (a couple soldiers) available. Once a soldier dies and a reinforcement order is put in someone in the activated cells is randomly defrosted.
The missions are challenging tough but doable even for randoms (which is how I play multiplayer most of the time and how I played this morning). There were a few rage quitters but most people got the hang of things (stay moving, strike bases hard but judiciously, try to avoid getting into it with patrols) pretty quickly.
Re: PS3's Sly Cooper Team Shut in Oculus Layoffs, Two Other Devs Closed
Meta has fired the studio leads, laid off most of the staff, and cancelled the games of Camouflaj (Batman) though they haven’t technically shut down the studio it’s a distinction without difference,
https://www.resetera.com/threads/camouflaj-creators-of-batman-arkham-shadow-might-have-been-shut-down-by-meta-yesterday-update-not-shut-down-but-affected-by-layoffs.1406413/page-2#post-150084910
Re: 26 Under the Radar PS5 Games to Watch Out for in 2026
Interesting list. I don’t consider myself a huge cozy games guy (I’ve played a lot of The Sims over the years, not sure if that counts) but I heard good things about Tiny Bookshop from a friend.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro's Big PSSR Update Releasing by March, Improves Graphics and Performance
Works for me. I’m happy with my Pro but I’m fine with ‘even better’.
Re: PS3's Sly Cooper Team Shut in Oculus Layoffs, Two Other Devs Closed
@HotGoomba I think the problem isn’t big companies per se but big companies that spend crazy amounts of money hoping for unrealistic levels of market growth. Facebook was burning over a billion a month in the hopes that VR was going to become a ubiquitous appliance like cellphones have become. That spending was great for lots of VR developers but meant they weren’t scaling for the actual (modest) size of the market, they were building for the mass market Facebook hoped for.
I love VR but realistically its immersion is a double edged sword that means it only appeals to a fraction of core gamers (who are of course greatly outnumbered by casual gamers). There is money to be made but expectations need to be realistic because the biggest pots of money are elsewhere (though there are no easy, safe, big bets anywhere).
I don’t think anybody is going to replace Facebook but I’m hoping Valve’s headset grows the ecosystem and Sony steps up a bit though there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm in its current stable outside of Polyphony Digital and Media Molecule (bows towards Dreams). Team Asobi did wonderful things in VR but realistically they don’t seem to want to come back.
https://youtu.be/jFe5ZGIQMxo
Re: PS3's Sly Cooper Team Shut in Oculus Layoffs, Two Other Devs Closed
Meta is far and away the biggest publisher/funder of VR (they’ve literally lost tens of billions) and it’s clear it’s not going to break out anytime soon so the shoe was bound to drop eventually. I hope the laid off land on their feet.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-platforms-lost-73-billion-165823364.html
Re: Helldivers 2 Support Continues in the Latest Warbond Drop, Out Next Week
Not sure what you mean by balance but Helldivers 2 caters to the power fantasy crowd more than it did in its first several months (there are a lot of ridiculously powerful weapons like backpack nukes, recoilless rifles and rifles that fire rounds that explode in shrapnel).
However enemies have also gotten bigger and more numerous. The toughest enemy is hands down the Hive Lord, a train sized burrowing worm covered in heavy armor that is very deadly and hard to kill. It can be killed but it survives stuff that annihilates everything else in the game.
None of the current missions is all that tough for solid teams who stay mostly on mission but periodically there are time limited crazy hard ones that pop up like invasion repulsion (illuminate ships land randomly all over that map and start churning out enemies and teams lost if 12 ships landed at once and won if they took out 50) and platinum extraction (landing in the middle of a giant enemy base and trying to transport a bunch of platinum bars to a container for extraction while the bots threw everything at you).
Re: Helldivers 2 Support Continues in the Latest Warbond Drop, Out Next Week
I am generally not a stealth player (quite the opposite) but I have snuck into a few bases to detonate a backpack nuke so I’m open to a stealth warbond.
Silenced sniper and assault rifles are well and good but the firearm that jumps out at me is the re-educator (a pistol that fires chemical darts that induce a brief bout of delirium, the same way poison gas does). The explosives also look fun, especially the remotely detonated C4 charges.
Re: PS5 Reportedly Hands Forza Horizon 5 an Additional 5 Million Sales
Impressive numbers on their own made even more impressive by the fact non-Kart arcade racers have had a tough time of it in recent years.
Re: Former PS4 Exclusive Detroit: Become Human Has Now Sold 15 Million Copies
I haven’t played it recently, but I played Detroit several times when it came out and enjoyed it immensely. If the team eventually manages to get something new in a similar vein out of the door I’ll give it a look.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 615
This weekend I played a lot of Roboquest VR (which is a Flat2VR port of the cellshaded roguelike fps). I’ve been playing it since launch but decided I needed to focus on it in order to get better.
You use everything from shotguns, pistols, hand grenades and miniguns to bows with explosive arrows, boomerangs, swords and guns that shoot fire, ice, electricity and bees..
Low level weapons just perform their basic function but high level ones (you find increasingly powerful weapons as you progress but you can also upgrade weak ones) have multiple bonus effects such as doing extra damage to flyers, bouncing bullets, generating shields and suchlike. Enemies are tough and there is at least as much enemy variety as gun variety so fights tend to be intense. Good stuff.
Re: ARC Raiders Battles Sports Games for PS5 Download Dominance in December
My December purchase was Dispatch which thrilled me as an old Telltale fan (tips hat to The Walking Dead) and as a superhero fan.
The PvP aspect takes it off the board for me but I’ve heard nothing but good about Arc Raiders and am glad it is continuing to succeed.
Re: You'll Never Guess the Most Played PS5, PS4 Games of 2025 in the US
Fine by me. I’m just going to repost a prior comment of mine.
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Unsurprising list but I don’t really get why people are angry or disappointed about it. When looking at the commercial state of the industry I think it’s useful to look at what succeeds (by the standards of the developers) rather than merely what sells best.
For example games like Dragon’s Crown, Returnal, Street Fighter 6, Disco Elysium, Helldivers 2, Balatro, Baldur’s Gate 3, Pacific Drive, Returnal and Stellar Blade all met or exceeded the expectations of their developers. Their success encourages (and enables) the developers to keep doing what they are doing and encourage other developers with similar visions to try their luck.
Re: Xbox Sales Hit New Low in UK, Barely Competes with PS5 at This Point
Xbox adopting the PC model of selling hardware for a profit doesn’t mean much to the PlayStation. There are lots and lots of things competing for people’s attention nowadays (the Nex Playground is an interesting competitor).
The big challenge IMHO is current gen hardware prices have going in the wrong direction for a lot of reasons (many outside the control of the industry). The PS1 started at $300 but eventually dropped to $100. The PS5 started at $500 and is now $550. Yes it’s a small increase compared to the massive one the Xbox has seen but the sorts of more casual and/or budget minded gamers who jump into consoles mid gen clearly aren’t being drawn in in the numbers they could be.
Re: Industrious Horror Dev Bloober Team Teases Potential New Project
Cronos was great. If Bloober’s next game hits the PS5 they will probably get my money.
Re: Game of the Year: #5 - Dispatch
Finished my first playthrough of Dispatch yesterday (I started playing it early Christmas morning). From the perspective of a longtime fan this is easily Telltale/Ad Hoc’s best game.
Anyway, dispatching superheroes is a pretty deep because there are multiple missions requiring different skill sets which often can benefit from more than one hero being involved, though that might mean you have the wrong people or even no one on hand to deal with subsequent events.
I have only played through the one time at the time of this post but I know (because the game told me at the end of each episode) how big choices I made in my character’s personal life shaped things and it’s also nice how you can upgrade heroes (they have ability points as well as short upgrade trees) and they get more comfortable with each other over time if they are dispatched together (some of them start off pretty comfortable).
The writing is strong, the characters are vibrant, the art direction is gorgeous and the music fits the game very well. I eager to play the next season of Dispatch (I am fine with waiting so long as the episodes are released in close proximity).
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 613
Just finished Dispatch for the first time. Telltale is back (as Ad Hoc). I did fairly poorly on the minigames and dispatching but I avoided strategy guides and now that I understand everything better through bitter experience I aim to rise above the bottom 1% of dispatchers 😅! Also I can think
of several different choices/potential alternate paths I’d like to explore.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
Exclusivity means a lot to gamers making lists on the internet but in and of itself means nothing to the overwhelming majority of gamers.
If someone enjoys a game (whether it is an exclusive like Astrobot or a multiplatform game like Dispatch) they buy it and maybe recommend it to friends, if they don’t they ignore it.
I have enjoyed a lot of exclusives over the decades and I expect I will continue to do so but I don’t hold being multiplatform against a game.
Re: Game of the Year: #7 - Lumines Arise
Luminees Arise is a spiritual sequel to Tetris Effect with even more gorgeous and trippy audiovisuals. The way some of the puzzle pieces and stages morph as things progress (my highlight is the vegetable stage) is really crazy.
Shrugs I don’t worry much about rankings or awards (it’s a very rare year when I’ve played every game in contention and I don’t like all genres equally) I’m just glad that like most other Enhance games Luminees seems to have found an audience.
Re: Embattled Divinity Dev to Host Q&A with Fans After Tough Week
As I noted before Larian should have seen this coming since all of the excitement about the game is based on their promises (the trailer was very cool but contained no gameplay).
While there is a vocal group of online skeptics of AI use in game creation I doubt the average gamer cares. Clair Expedition 33 and Arc Raiders have/are experiencing some turbulence over their use of AI but clearly lots of gamers are squarely focused on the games rather than their creation. Another interesting point of comparison is the latest CoD, whose relatively cool reception is partly a result of AI being used in ways gamers felt lessened the stuff they care about.
I respect people who are skeptical of or even opposed to AI vs human made art but it’s cheap in a competitive industry struggling to both catch the attention of people in a world saturated with entertainment options and keep costs down. I believe kind of like CG FX vs practical stunts in movies the games industry is going to wind up encompassing them both depending on not just audience reaction but what individual creators are enthusiastic about.
Shrugs Based on my experience with Divinity 2 and BG3 I am very enthused about Larian’s next game and that feeling won’t change unless the gameplay they show of the next Divinity is sloppy.
Re: 'Sony's Never Experienced This Phenomenon Before': PS5 Smash Hit Gran Turismo 7 Getting Stronger Over Time
Well deserved. Polyphony Digital has always been a quirky team who often finds themselves on the right side of things.
I remember an old preview of the original GT which questioned the economics of Gran Turismo (which included 200 or so cars when the genre average was a small fraction of that) and its focus on driving (a separate but related thing from racing) all sorts of cars including sedans and minivans ordinary people use in their everyday lives rather than just racing with supercars built to win competitions snd look real cool doing it.
Last but not least as a PSVR2/Pro owner I appreciate Polyphony’s continued willingness to support new tech which offers enthusiasts a deeper way to engage with their games (their use of the haptics of the dual sense is also exemplary). I never saw it first hand but years ago I watched videos of GT5’s multi monitor mode and thought ‘Yamauchi must not hear ‘no’ a lot’ 😋.
Gran Turismo 7 is great fun and the oldest game in my regular rotation and I don’t see that changing until GT8 sometime in the distant future.
Re: Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
I was a huge fan of Peanuts when I was a kid (read the comics in the newspaper and enjoyed the holiday specials) but I have skipped all the modern (post-Schulz) stuff. Don’t have any feelings about Sony buying it but it’s nice Peanuts is still popular.
Re: PSVR2's Highly Anticipated Aces of Thunder Locks in a 3rd February Release Date
Seems like this game has been hovering around for at least a year. If the campaign is good it will get my money.
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
The hardware numbers make sense. Consoles going up in price rather than down (the PS1 launched at $300 but eventually fell to $100) is clearly keeping a big chunk of people out of the market.
If I were a hardware maker intent on releasing new hardware I’d wait for overall inflation/ram prices/tariffs to fall (not sure when that’s going to happen, probably no time soon).
https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3ma6vnwvjmk2h
The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US during November 2019 was $235. In November 2025 it was $439.
3.9 million units of video game hardware sold in the US in November 2019. In November 2025 it was 1.6 million.
Re: Divinity Dev's Comments on Generative AI Trigger a Total Social Media Sh*tstorm
I think the reaction to the AI talk (Larian says they are using AI but it’s not that helpful and no AI generated stuff will be in the final game) is excessive but Larian knows it is an enviable position where CG trailers and words can excite a big chunk of gamers so their surprise and irritation over the strong negative reaction to their latest batch of words is bizarre.
I personally don’t get excited by CG nor do I focus on stuff real far out (‘We are working on something too early to show, but get hyped now!’) but based on my experience with the original Divinity 2 and BG3 I’m sure whenever Larian’s next game comes out it will be phenomenal if they maintain their old standards.
Re: PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Phantom Blade Zero for at Least 12 Months
Shrugs Windows of exclusivity are still a thing for a variety of reasons (one of which is moneyhatting another of which is the benefit of developers being able to focus since platform optimization is time consuming). I’m fine with the practice so long as developers are upfront about their plans.
To go on a somewhat related rant, Disgaea 7 is an example of the sort of exclusivity that bothers me. I splashed out the money for the ‘Complete’ PS5 version of Disgaea 7 at launch but NiS subsequently sold some dlc exclusively to Nintendo of America for an undisclosed period of time. That will give me and other PS5 or PC gamers pause the next time NiS comes around asking us to pay for not just the base game, but future content.
Re: 'If I Don't Belong in the Games Industry, I'll Have to Look Elsewhere': Keita Takashashi Moves Back to Japan After To a T Flopped
To a T is a very weird, sweet game about a disabled boy who wanders around doing and learning stuff with the aid of his dog, his loving mother and a growing circle of friends. The gameplay consists of a handful of simple minigames/challenges the boy faces as he navigates through life but despite visual similarities it’s a very different design than that of his breakout hit Katamari Damancy.
I really enjoyed To a T and loved its world but I’m not shocked it didn’t do well commercially. More games are released per day than the average gamer buys in a year, the rare successes tend to have long tails (which is good for them and their fans, bad for other games) and there are more clicks to be had hating or hyping stuff everybody knows than trying to sell people on unknowns. Such is the industry.
I hope Mr. Takahasi continues to work in the industry (it seems he is looking for a publisher) and create original content but I get he has a family to support and no matter the choice he makes I wish him well.
Re: All The Game Awards 2025 Winners
I don’t watch the show for the awards but giving the best strategy game award to a FFT remaster over The Alters or Two Point Museum (I didn’t play the other nominees) indicates to me there weren’t many strategy game fans among the voters.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 611
Spent the weekend playing Roboquest VR (hectic and tough but fun first person roguelike), Sektori (hectic and tough 2D roguelike in the vein of Geometry Wars), Two Point Museum (whose zoo expansion has some cool twists including animal rescue) and of course Helldivers 2 (been practicing with the backpack nuclear bomb and friendly casualties have been minimal and enemy casualties have been massive).
I also watched that Johnny Cage animated movie Cage Match. It was even more of a comedy than I was expecting but it’s fast moving, dumb fun. The visuals are great, very reminiscent of Miami Vice.
Re: Good Dog! Atmospheric Adventure The Free Shepherd Rounds Up a 2027 Release on PS5
This reminded me a bit of the parts of Ghost Yotei where while on horseback you can gallop among hordes of wild horses. I need to see more but I’m very interested.