@Rich33 I didn't mean anything bad by it Soulslike are just typically too hard for me, and not exactly my thing as I like my gaming more casual. Easier difficulty might actually do wonders here, as I'm intrigued by the world they created..
I've already downloaded, got angry with, and deleted Lies of P before. But I'll be doing it again, just to check if my emotions still get that high for gaming...
Out of all that data, my biggest surprise is how well MH Rise did. It's most successful in the franchise I love that game (primarily played on Switch) and it's scaled down approach. Very nice to see the world agrees.
In a twist I didn't foresee, an excellent month of games. Cyberpunk has become an amazing game, and I'm interested in Banishers, Twisted metals, Tropico 6, Risk of rain 2,.. yeah, good list:)
@Danloaded same thing for me, it was a bit convoluted where I had to install a non default standard version, and a second game choice from a dropdown I don't know what the choices within it actually are.
I'll give Diablo 4 another try. I did play it when it originally hit GP and wasn't really fond of it. Over the years Diablo has just grown old on me. But, I'm looking forward to King of Fighters (Jusant is another game that didn't stay installed for long on my machine).
Kind of always expected Like a Dragon series and Atlus titles could not have been as mainstream appealing as media made it out to be. Honestly, I can have fun with Like a Dragon game, but will almost always (except maybe Judgment subseries) wait for it to appear on a subscription. Atlus games I just don't understand the buzz of (and I see myself as an average consumer).
I might be the only one, but I really hope we don't move the way of branded PC boxes. Years ago I've stopped being a PC gamer due to all the issues and friction between me as a consumer and an operating game, and I don't wanna go back. Console experience is what has held me in the gaming market for this long (basically 30 years).
I love how I played first few hours of the first game, can watch this trailer and understand absolutely nothing. Nothing has been spoiled for me, because I didn't get anything. Not sure if beautiful or just bizarre..
Khm, if you train your user base not to buy games (GP), they totally unexpectedly won't buy games! And will only play what they are provided through subscription service. Amazing how that works.
Definitely agree competition is pushing all market players to innovate. It is unfortunate Microsoft has decisively lost in traditional console space and is looking to exit. I believe we will all only lose due to that. However, it does need to be a competition, one can not support alternative just for the sake of it.
Additionally, Switch is not a direct competitor, and that will be reflected on prices and future Sony hardware
Ohhhh.. it takes an unplayable game for Sony to issues refund. How did they mess up this bad? Interestingly, devs always seem to be sorry after the fact, once the sales don't pickup..
I would love this feature!! Ideally, same controller would work on PS5, PC, and Android without having to repair all the time. DualSense is my preferred controller, and I still use some others simply because I'm too lazy to re-pair all the time and these ones were either around from old consoles or are 3rd party cheapos.
Damn, this was a tough one to choose. There is like 1 game in that list I'm not interested in. Seems public agrees as votes are all over the place. Amusing to see, generally positively accepted show without clear favorites..
Absolute banger for me. It was one of those presentations that reminded me why I love gaming (and it's not live service or quadruple A corporate "products").
Recently I got into The sinking city Remastered. Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One was quite good, but I felt like earlier games were not that great.. Anyway, I decided to buy Sherlock Holmes: The Darkest Mysteries Bundle (Game) for €7,19. Is either of the games in the bundle any good?
@OldGamer999 well you say that... I don't own a Sony TV and wouldn't be able to comment on them, but I do run LG C1 (which is not spring chicken anymore) and it only has a single HDMI 2.1 port and a different HDMI for eARC. Which luckily for me is enough, but not ideal.
Not a month for me, but I believe most people will love addition of new NBA. In a similar sports spirit, I kind of hoped they would add F1 24 with 25 just coming out..
Only thing these upgrade discounts have caused in my behavior is that I have allowed my PS Plus sub to expire twice now. And I'll be doing it again. So GG Sony.
Second series was just plain bad, no way around that. And I understand there are many challenges adapting a story like TLOU2 (which by the way is amazing game, better of the 2), but man, they basically butchered central characters journey and development - along with many support characters ofc. To conclude, I don't expect it to recover
Few of their latest WRC games were perfectly fine, so I'm glad licence is back with Kylotonn. I even liked Generations more then EA WRC, so there's that.
As predictable as PS5 release was, I'd also predict this to be first Xbox studios PS release dud. Sequel was a way worse "game" compared to the original, literally a tech demo that can be "played" with same level of interactivity through YouTube in 4K.
Sea of Stars is on sale. It used to be part of PS Plus Extra lineup, and it received a free DLC with about 10 hours of extra story content (and other fixes), so I believe it's perfect time to jump in or return (at least I'll be showing my support and buying the game).
No idea why people are laser focusing on Doom performance last couple of days. I loved Eternal and I'll probably like this. Unfortunately, based on reviews and reviews alone, gameplay might speak to me a little bit less and I'll be picking it up later down the line when on sale. If I still had GP sub, I'd prioritize Expedition 33 over it, so yeah, it might just be slightly worse accepted compared to last one and that's fine. It's a different type of game, it was always going to be an expectation reset.
Tried the demo.. Perfect example of why MercurySteam needs external IP. Just look at how well they did with Metroid Dread. This latest game obviously shines decent mechanic through, but setting and finishing touches are just disappointing.
Sure, awesome. I shall be switching my focus to Switch 2 I guess. Maybe try acknowledging that your core audience does not want to be engaged with a single game for a long period of time, and instead wants to purchase one off licences, stay engage for month/s, and move on. Then adapt budgets according to that goal. Instead of trying to forcefully re-educate your audience and move them into an unwanted model (and fail miserably if latest news are to be trusted). This doesn't seem to be that hard, just build stuff people tell you they need and you'll be fine.
Not really happy about anybody losing their job, but Jade Raymond hasn't delivered anything in 8 years. She is slowly approaching Peter Molyneux territory of unreliability.
Is this really surprising though? The game was a known and acknowledged commercial flop. As a customer who bought it I don't like what happened, but surely you can't expect developer to continue pumping out content for a failed game beyond 2 years..
Very cool. I don't own a Steam Deck but it's always a good sign performance-wise when a game can target such a low spec profile. Bodes well for future tech reviews and word of mouth in general.
MS working really hard to lose any good will they might have earned last couple of months. As a friend of mine used to say "fear of success is a genuine thing".
One of the worst decisions ever made by Ubisoft to disband that team, and that is telling a lot. Would love to get more, but I'm scared Ubisoft will turn it into AC as they seem to do with every IP they invest in.
As I've said after Nintendo announcement, they were just first to make it public (and ate the proverbial negative PR bullet). Decisions like these were contemplated and decided much earlier than Switch 2 reveal, MS just held of from going public so Nintendo can be sacrificial lamb.
Only thing that could turn me away is going to be game pricing. Console as such is way beyond what I and most expected, and people who are trying to say otherwise are just delulu..
It's sad to see he felt like he had to comment on it. Not every game needs to be a modern live service borefest. They made an awesome game, and budget and scope defined are just proof that bubbled up budgets and cut-throat practices AAAA teams practice are wrong and bound to fail.
@Fiendish-Beaver well, what you propose is just one possible reality Maybe MS doesn't buy or make games in Ubis less popular IPs, like the ones you mentioned. Maybe they take PoP and make a live service game out of it. Them making another good metroidvania from the IP is realistically not a most probable outcome (mentioning that as I rather liked how PoP got reinvented). So, if the question then becomes would I rather have old IP stay dormant and untarnished while making space for new IP, vs. have a giant exploit it for easy cash grab, I'd choose option one.
@Fiendish-Beaver I wouldn't necessarily agree, as I'm not worried about MS not putting games on PS (if there are enough interesting exclusives I'll just buy the platform, which I tried with XSS but opted out), I'm worried about market getting monopolized by extremely large corporations with different priorities vs. fun gaming. I'd say the same thing (and I did when they acquired Bungie) for Sony. I would rather have AAA market with ultra safe, boring releases crash; and for second coming of indie gaming to happen, than to have one of these giants take whole space for itself.
I got refunded a few times, for either buying the wrong version or actually getting a DLC from incorrect region. Assuming you get to a human being, didn't run the game/DLC, they are pretty understandable. However, if you ran the product, they used to have zero tolerance policy in place (well, maybe only Nintendo really has zero tolerance policy).
Comments 557
Re: August 2025 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now
@Rich33 I didn't mean anything bad by it
Soulslike are just typically too hard for me, and not exactly my thing as I like my gaming more casual.
Easier difficulty might actually do wonders here, as I'm intrigued by the world they created..
Re: August 2025 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now
I've already downloaded, got angry with, and deleted Lies of P before. But I'll be doing it again, just to check if my emotions still get that high for gaming...
Re: Devil May Cry 5 Sales Spike After TV Show, Even DMC 4 Outsells Monster Hunter Wilds in Q1
Out of all that data, my biggest surprise is how well MH Rise did. It's most successful in the franchise
I love that game (primarily played on Switch) and it's scaled down approach. Very nice to see the world agrees.
Re: Phantom Blade Zero Looks Utterly Outstanding in Over 20 Minutes of PS5 Gameplay
@UltimateOtaku91 4 difficulty options in a soulslike: hard, extra hard, nightmare, hell. Accessible!
Re: Poll: Are You Sold on Ghost of Yotei?
Yeah, this will slap. Totally ok with Sucker Punch taking my money.
Re: 10 New PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Announced for July 2025
In a twist I didn't foresee, an excellent month of games. Cyberpunk has become an amazing game, and I'm interested in Banishers, Twisted metals, Tropico 6, Risk of rain 2,.. yeah, good list:)
Re: Some PS Plus Users Can't Download Diablo 4
@Danloaded same thing for me, it was a bit convoluted where I had to install a non default standard version, and a second game choice from a dropdown I don't know what the choices within it actually are.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for July 2025 Announced
I'll give Diablo 4 another try. I did play it when it originally hit GP and wasn't really fond of it. Over the years Diablo has just grown old on me.
But, I'm looking forward to King of Fighters (Jusant is another game that didn't stay installed for long on my machine).
Re: SEGA's Accidentally Outed Sales Numbers Put a Lot into Context
Kind of always expected Like a Dragon series and Atlus titles could not have been as mainstream appealing as media made it out to be. Honestly, I can have fun with Like a Dragon game, but will almost always (except maybe Judgment subseries) wait for it to appear on a subscription. Atlus games I just don't understand the buzz of (and I see myself as an average consumer).
Re: The Next Xbox Is a PC, So What Does That Mean for PS6?
I might be the only one, but I really hope we don't move the way of branded PC boxes. Years ago I've stopped being a PC gamer due to all the issues and friction between me as a consumer and an operating game, and I don't wanna go back. Console experience is what has held me in the gaming market for this long (basically 30 years).
Re: This Death Stranding Story Recap Is Essential Viewing Before PS5 Sequel
I love how I played first few hours of the first game, can watch this trailer and understand absolutely nothing. Nothing has been spoiled for me, because I didn't get anything.
Not sure if beautiful or just bizarre..
Re: Final Fantasy 16 May Have Underperformed on PS5, But It's Doing Terribly on Xbox
Khm, if you train your user base not to buy games (GP), they totally unexpectedly won't buy games! And will only play what they are provided through subscription service. Amazing how that works.
Re: 'Competition Pushes Us to Innovate': Sony Weighs in on Xbox's Potential Exit from Console Business
Definitely agree competition is pushing all market players to innovate. It is unfortunate Microsoft has decisively lost in traditional console space and is looking to exit. I believe we will all only lose due to that. However, it does need to be a competition, one can not support alternative just for the sake of it.
Additionally, Switch is not a direct competitor, and that will be reflected on prices and future Sony hardware
Re: Sony Approves MindsEye PS5 Refunds as Dev Issues 'Sincere Apology'
Ohhhh.. it takes an unplayable game for Sony to issues refund. How did they mess up this bad?
Interestingly, devs always seem to be sorry after the fact, once the sales don't pickup..
Re: DualSense PS5 Controllers Will Soon Be Able to Pair with Multiple Devices At Once
I would love this feature!! Ideally, same controller would work on PS5, PC, and Android without having to repair all the time.
DualSense is my preferred controller, and I still use some others simply because I'm too lazy to re-pair all the time and these ones were either around from old consoles or are 3rd party cheapos.
Re: Invincible VS Is Another Tag Team Fighter to Anticipate on PS5
It seems like they felt they had to show this off in light of Marvel Tokon, but man it does not compare well.
Re: High on Life 2 Brings Another Dose of FPS Madness to PS5 This Winter
Yeah, first game was dreadful. I'm ok skipping sequel..
Re: Poll: What Were Your Favourite PS5 Games from State of Play? (June 2025)
Damn, this was a tough one to choose. There is like 1 game in that list I'm not interested in. Seems public agrees as votes are all over the place. Amusing to see, generally positively accepted show without clear favorites..
Re: Reaction: Sony Finally Understands the Assignment with One of the Best State of Plays of the PS5 Era
Absolute banger for me. It was one of those presentations that reminded me why I love gaming (and it's not live service or quadruple A corporate "products").
Re: 2,500+ Killer PS5, PS4 Games Get Massive Discounts on PS Store
Recently I got into The sinking city Remastered. Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One was quite good, but I felt like earlier games were not that great..
Anyway, I decided to buy Sherlock Holmes: The Darkest Mysteries Bundle (Game) for €7,19. Is either of the games in the bundle any good?
Re: PS Plus Subscription Sale Takes 33% Off, But There's a Big Catch
@Nalim you sir are correct. For some reason I was under the impression only the rear HDMI port was 2.1 : facepalm:
Re: Very Fittingly, Expedition 33 Has Sold 3.3 Million Copies in 33 Days
@diegooliveirafhc indeed, when you actually succeed you don't hide behind number of people who have interacted with our games title screen.
Re: PS Plus Subscription Sale Takes 33% Off, But There's a Big Catch
@OldGamer999 well you say that...
I don't own a Sony TV and wouldn't be able to comment on them, but I do run LG C1 (which is not spring chicken anymore) and it only has a single HDMI 2.1 port and a different HDMI for eARC. Which luckily for me is enough, but not ideal.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for June 2025 Announced
Not a month for me, but I believe most people will love addition of new NBA. In a similar sports spirit, I kind of hoped they would add F1 24 with 25 just coming out..
Re: PS Plus Subscription Sale Takes 33% Off, But There's a Big Catch
Only thing these upgrade discounts have caused in my behavior is that I have allowed my PS Plus sub to expire twice now. And I'll be doing it again. So GG Sony.
Re: HBO's The Last of Us Sees a Dramatic Decline in Season 2 Finale Viewers
Second series was just plain bad, no way around that. And I understand there are many challenges adapting a story like TLOU2 (which by the way is amazing game, better of the 2), but man, they basically butchered central characters journey and development - along with many support characters ofc.
To conclude, I don't expect it to recover
Re: Nacon Reclaims WRC Licence, Will Release Official Rally Games Starting in 2027
Few of their latest WRC games were perfectly fine, so I'm glad licence is back with Kylotonn. I even liked Generations more then EA WRC, so there's that.
Re: PS5, PC Live Service Fairgames Is a 'Super Clunky' Cross Between Fortnite and The Division
I'll be surprised if anybody except reviewers actually buys this.
Re: Hellblade 2 Announced for PS5, Out This Summer
As predictable as PS5 release was, I'd also predict this to be first Xbox studios PS release dud.
Sequel was a way worse "game" compared to the original, literally a tech demo that can be "played" with same level of interactivity through YouTube in 4K.
Re: Another 2,000 Must-Play PS5, PS4 Games and DLC Discounted on PS Store
Sea of Stars is on sale. It used to be part of PS Plus Extra lineup, and it received a free DLC with about 10 hours of extra story content (and other fixes), so I believe it's perfect time to jump in or return (at least I'll be showing my support and buying the game).
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Attracts 3 Million Players, Over 2 Million Estimated on Xbox
No idea why people are laser focusing on Doom performance last couple of days.
I loved Eternal and I'll probably like this. Unfortunately, based on reviews and reviews alone, gameplay might speak to me a little bit less and I'll be picking it up later down the line when on sale.
If I still had GP sub, I'd prioritize Expedition 33 over it, so yeah, it might just be slightly worse accepted compared to last one and that's fine. It's a different type of game, it was always going to be an expectation reset.
Re: Blades of Fire (PS5) - Steely Action with Blunt Art and Storytelling
Tried the demo.. Perfect example of why MercurySteam needs external IP. Just look at how well they did with Metroid Dread. This latest game obviously shines decent mechanic through, but setting and finishing touches are just disappointing.
Re: Sony to Focus on PS5 Engagement, First-Party Showing Greater Financial Discipline
Sure, awesome. I shall be switching my focus to Switch 2 I guess.
Maybe try acknowledging that your core audience does not want to be engaged with a single game for a long period of time, and instead wants to purchase one off licences, stay engage for month/s, and move on. Then adapt budgets according to that goal.
Instead of trying to forcefully re-educate your audience and move them into an unwanted model (and fail miserably if latest news are to be trusted).
This doesn't seem to be that hard, just build stuff people tell you they need and you'll be fine.
Re: Fairgames, One of Sony's Last Live-Service PS5 Games, Loses Studio Founder Amid Internal Worries
Not really happy about anybody losing their job, but Jade Raymond hasn't delivered anything in 8 years. She is slowly approaching Peter Molyneux territory of unreliability.
Re: Mortal Kombat Fans Are Fuming MK1's Support Appears to Be Over
Is this really surprising though? The game was a known and acknowledged commercial flop. As a customer who bought it I don't like what happened, but surely you can't expect developer to continue pumping out content for a failed game beyond 2 years..
Re: Stellar Blade Dev Shows Off Silky Smooth Steam Deck Gameplay
Very cool. I don't own a Steam Deck but it's always a good sign performance-wise when a game can target such a low spec profile. Bodes well for future tech reviews and word of mouth in general.
Re: PS5 Fans Furious As Microsoft Ships DOOM: The Dark Ages with Just 85MB on the Disc
MS working really hard to lose any good will they might have earned last couple of months.
As a friend of mine used to say "fear of success is a genuine thing".
Re: As Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Passes 2 Million Players, Ubisoft Teases More to Come
One of the worst decisions ever made by Ubisoft to disband that team, and that is telling a lot.
Would love to get more, but I'm scared Ubisoft will turn it into AC as they seem to do with every IP they invest in.
Re: Xbox Now Selling PS5 Games for $80, Joins Switch 2 in Price Increase
As I've said after Nintendo announcement, they were just first to make it public (and ate the proverbial negative PR bullet). Decisions like these were contemplated and decided much earlier than Switch 2 reveal, MS just held of from going public so Nintendo can be sacrificial lamb.
Re: State of Play Set for Wednesday, 20 Minutes of Borderlands 4 Gameplay
Can't wait to hear from Randy how surprised they are B4 failed commercially..
Re: Massive PS Plus Clearout Announced for May, 22 Games Leaving
Sony is working really hard on making PS Plus Extra/Premium a deal I can refuse.
Re: Reminder: PS Plus Extra, Premium Lose 8 Excellent PS5, PS4 Games in a Few Days
Isn't Disco Elysium getting removed too?
Re: Poll: PS5 Fans, Are You Sold on the Nintendo Switch 2?
Only thing that could turn me away is going to be game pricing. Console as such is way beyond what I and most expected, and people who are trying to say otherwise are just delulu..
Re: Japan's Game Industry on Impressive Rise as Western AAA Development Struggles
Who knew there would be a limit to how many times you can sell same s*it with a fresh coat of paint.
Color me surprised!
Re: Astro Bot's Big Success the Result of Keeping Scope Small and Simple, Says Director
It's sad to see he felt like he had to comment on it. Not every game needs to be a modern live service borefest. They made an awesome game, and budget and scope defined are just proof that bubbled up budgets and cut-throat practices AAAA teams practice are wrong and bound to fail.
Re: After Gobbling Two Publishers, Now Xbox Has Been Sniffing Around Ubisoft's IP
@Fiendish-Beaver well, what you propose is just one possible reality
Maybe MS doesn't buy or make games in Ubis less popular IPs, like the ones you mentioned. Maybe they take PoP and make a live service game out of it. Them making another good metroidvania from the IP is realistically not a most probable outcome (mentioning that as I rather liked how PoP got reinvented).
So, if the question then becomes would I rather have old IP stay dormant and untarnished while making space for new IP, vs. have a giant exploit it for easy cash grab, I'd choose option one.
Re: After Gobbling Two Publishers, Now Xbox Has Been Sniffing Around Ubisoft's IP
@Fiendish-Beaver I wouldn't necessarily agree, as I'm not worried about MS not putting games on PS (if there are enough interesting exclusives I'll just buy the platform, which I tried with XSS but opted out), I'm worried about market getting monopolized by extremely large corporations with different priorities vs. fun gaming.
I'd say the same thing (and I did when they acquired Bungie) for Sony.
I would rather have AAA market with ultra safe, boring releases crash; and for second coming of indie gaming to happen, than to have one of these giants take whole space for itself.
Re: After Gobbling Two Publishers, Now Xbox Has Been Sniffing Around Ubisoft's IP
Microsoft can you please try not to buy gaming, others want to have fun too. Thank you.
Re: 12 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for March 2025 Announced
Few games I wanted to try, UFC 5 I'll probably get into. For anybody who hasn't already played/beat it, PoP is an awesome game, very underappreciated.
Re: Sony Seemingly Issuing Isolated Refunds for Civilization 7 on PS5
I got refunded a few times, for either buying the wrong version or actually getting a DLC from incorrect region. Assuming you get to a human being, didn't run the game/DLC, they are pretty understandable.
However, if you ran the product, they used to have zero tolerance policy in place (well, maybe only Nintendo really has zero tolerance policy).