Coffeeglitch

I’m cautiously optimistic, really. I’m reducing my investment in PlayStation in the event they decide to just flush my loyalty down the toilet, but there’s a few games I look forward to. Still, I really feel like there’s some major shifts that need to happen for the firm to keep their current momentum. It’s better than it was, but man I cannot smile at the platform’s future when they keep chasing live services and going “yeah we’re gonna keep increasing prices til y’all stop paying.” It’s like Todd Howard has possessed the company.

@redapt as much as I really want to dive into this one, this and Bandai Namcos outrageous pricing model are why I’ll probably never touch it. I didn’t play sparking zero either, because I’m not paying 200 cad for the complete game (dlc and stuff). Even the sale still saw it nearly 150 bucks. It’s sad but this company is outdoing Ubisoft in the greed department.

I loved Cyber Sleuth and even Code Vein, but with their business model over the last couple of years I’m comfortable to leave it be.

Glad that Yoshida also sees it as strange. His usage of “somehow” implies that he’s confused as to why, though he understands the approach as do I. Still, Nintendo is branching out more into territory that’s generally been PlayStation’s, so I’d like to see some more competition from all of this.

@nomither6 I completely agree. I generally will avoid games that have no capacity for enjoyable and progressive single player content, but those games just aren’t meant for me. There’s hundreds that are. I got older and less people play games with their free time, so there’s less friends that stuck around and more of a void for that kind of content. But there’s a new generation of gamers who have that community and they deserve games that appeal to them, just as much as I deserve games meant for me.

A game made for everyone is a game for no one. Kojima is a great example of this, I can’t stand playing his games but good god the art, the world building, characters are all so damn incredible! There are many who love playing them, but while I don’t it doesn’t stop me from admiring them. I wish more people had this mindset.

@Shigurui but like any good klepto, they just can’t help themselves! The art was so shiny and cool!

I see this being cancelled, honestly. Hulst’s comments are not reassuring and really are just meant to placate shareholders. The game isn’t looking horrible gameplay wise, stale and boring is all. But the whole theft of art, assets and overall aesthetic is just…you have to fire both Joes, credit the original artists they (there’s no way it’s just art director Joe that stole this stuff, the game director being completely clueless would just indicate he’s incompetent which I don’t believe) and presumably multiple other higher ups stole from and then somehow also have a stellar launch that isn’t just people going on an in game scavenger hunt for more stolen assets. Covering this up won’t just result in the death of bungie, but Sony will wind up in some absolutely destructive litigation.

There is no way this plays out in any way that ends well for the game or for bungie. Sony, though? That’s up to them.

@ErrantRob translations are always a risky endeavour. I read it as him saying “it’s too straight forward, there’s not enough depth.” Which I can respect, even as someone who won’t play because I don’t find Kojima games to be my style gameplay wise.

Time will tell, but despite Kojima absolutely coming across as narcissistic at times I do genuinely believe he wants to always create something unique. That’s commendable.

Ghost of Yotei, MAYBE Hell Is Us (what I’ve seen so far looks very empty and devoid of much content), Borderlands 4 and that’s pretty much it. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s a stellar year! But I just don’t play most of the kinds of games coming out.

It’s very strange that on one hand, after decades of saying that Nintendo isn’t a competitor, Sony is claiming that competition is good for them and drives them to improve while on the other hand they’re downplaying whatever Nintendo does as “inferior”.

It’s like they’re insecure, which is bizarre. I’ve no love for their live service push but PlayStation is in a good spot and the slate this year is pretty good, with next year looking even better. Whether they like it or not, Nintendo is more of competitor than they’ve ever been given third party studios’ openness about the appeal of the platform.

Man the ps6 might be a historically terrible launch if they can’t justify its existence. While I echo their sentiment around cloud gaming, hardware isn’t going to suddenly fix game design.

@lazarus11 should have been more specific, I mean the ps5 version. Even on pro it’s horrific performance wise. Being a PlayStation fan site I forget that everyone reads here, not just PlayStation players. The game itself is amazing but holy hell, the ps5 version is broken still. It’s a cyberpunk situation, but obviously that’s platform specific unless Xbox also has the same issues.

After the disaster of Tainted Grail, I just can’t buy games at launch anymore prior to reviews and tech takedowns. So makes little difference to me, but I’m sure there won’t be much data on disc either way.

This is really awesome. I’d love to see more small developers eclipsing triple a sales enough to stand on their own two feet. The game was definitely an odd one but I loved it, and I’m glad it did well.

Randy absolutely is on the spectrum, and that’s coming from someone on the spectrum. Very very easy to be too loud and not think before speaking. Unfortunately for him, this is a habit he’s refused to acknowledge well into his 40s and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Take notes kids, be humble and work on your bad habits. Don’t be a Randy.

I was interested and enjoyed an hour or so of play, but the constant scrolling “x player paid money!” banners and the stamina system when the dungeons are painfully short just kinda put me off. Pretty game with fun combat though

I think this game is going to be horrible and one of the worst of the year. That’s based off this guys tantrum, as previously I felt it would be a janky but fun wait for sale romp. I also can’t be bothered to support a studio that deals with criticism so poorly. Grow up.

@Veritas7Ax the star power of the cast has ballooned exponentially since the game originally released. This is without a doubt financially motivated but that is pretty problematic when it comes to just how well the cast of the original was received.

While I wouldn’t be replaying anyway, given the insane amount of time I put into on the vita, this would be a dealbreaker even if I was interested. Not for Yuri, but for Bosch. You can’t recast Adachi. Period. Atlus needs to make a proper sequel to Eternal punishment instead of remakes.

@Ludacritz in its current state, I’d say definitely not. Granted I’m not a pro player by any stretch of the imagination, but the tuning is insanely rough.

I got an early copy and can attest it’s brutal in single player. I’ve killed one night boss (first night) which was enough to unlock Duchess and Revenant, and it’s a fun time to just jump in and get a few curios before chilling. As someone with limited friends (Toronto is weird for that but I’m also 34, not everyone still likes the same things) I still find it enjoyable. I was more reluctant to renew PlayStation plus than to pick up this game.

I just bought the final shape on sale right before the art debacle. Not only did I regret it for gameplay, but also for supporting the studio. Now this? No more, no more. I yield, I yield!

I genuinely have enjoyed the program. The rewards were good and while you often didn’t get points for a new releases due to the “quest” being added two weeks after launch (for some reason) it didn’t bug me too much. Sad to see it go but it also doesn’t change much. I usually buy physical whenever available (still refuse to buy or play Clair Obscur til physical copies come in), so stars wasn’t as kind to me as some.

@get2sammyb that’s the problem. People complain no matter what you do, but when you try to chase trends for the sole purpose of maximizing profits no one is happy. I play several live services (WoW, Wuthering Waves, Diablo, PoE) and I’ve learned to not waste any time on the forums or public opinion forums. So much complaining and often times it’s over some minuscule .01 dps nerf or something tiny. These games are all successful because they have studios that to a large degree care even when they make odd design choices or have management step in and force something bizarre.

The term “clunky” makes this one sound like the studio is aimless. Neither Fortnite nor the Division is clunky, so I’m genuinely surprised at the word being used to describe it. Not hard to avoid that. Either way, it can’t be in worse shape than Marathon.

@Shinnok789 it’s scummy but it’s not fraud. It is a discount, just on the new price. Amusing and annoying but not illegal. Sony is many things but with the marathon delay and presumably cancellation I highly doubt they’d be so foolish as to dip their toes in that pond.

My ps plus sub expired today so good to know to wait! From premium to essential, what a terrible proposition in its current state.

I was lucky enough to get a refund from Sony. I have friends who have legitimately gone from saying “I have no issues at all” to “I can’t play without it crashing in the first few minutes”.

Virtuos has a track record for this kind of negligence, sadly several years and more funding have done very little to improve their skill set.

While it’s always sad to hear this, the idea that HR ever works for anything remotely beneficial to those beneath them is horse poo. Maybe once it was better but these days they’ll throw anyone under the bus to avoid controversy or accountability. Employees, customers, students, makes little difference.

Still not surprise to hear it about bungie though, weird studio without a doubt. Their aspirations to be like activision blizzard at least were achieved in some ways, but maybe not the ways they wanted.

Chicago gone wrong? So I corrupt my save, load it and then it’s Chicago with rainbow buildings and no textures? I can unpatch my OG copy for that.

But seriously, I hope they learned something. I really wanted to love this game but I could never wash out the bad taste, and it’s just one of the many games that I won’t bother with.

I’ll be honest, I don’t care about reveals. I care about release dates and quality titles. Maybe I’m just getting old, but these showcases to say “hey this exists and you can play it in a couple years” are worthless. Hype doesn’t sell your games when the track record is murky at best. Stay quiet, show me what’s ready to rock, tell me not how I should feel but WHY I should care.

These companies forget they’re a business and instead keep marketing like it’s an MLM scheme. Get back to the basics and sell good games that people want.

I mean, I got a couple free games out of it. Unlike Nintendo, though, Sony has been increasing prices without any evidence of improvements to features, infrastructure, etc so this stings a bit more.

Forgot about it. It’s been so long, I barely remember half the games coming this generation. I really miss the days when devs would announce a game, show stuff, release date, maybe a demo, then the next we hear it’s out and we dig it. This whole “get excited for what we’re making for you to enjoy in x amount of years” doesn’t excite the way they think it does.

Long development cycles are definitely a product of the times but I can’t help but feel leadership getting big egos contributes significantly. I expect nothing from Naughty Dog this generation, save for Intergalactic at the end of the consoles life cycle. Sheesh.

I’m very confused, the game was announced with what they claim was gameplay but haven’t even finished casting? Ok cool, it’s vaporware until I see a release date. Weird marketing these days.

@MasterTanookiChief even Aztecross, who is usually way more of a fan than either of those guys, is livid about this. He’s even expressed interest in working with Antireal for his own stuff and implied he’s open to helping navigate legal stuff if bungie decides to be obnoxious or cheap. The whole community, barring a few people who maybe are just too young to understand the gravity of the situation, is up in arms because it’s not just style taken. They literally just copy pasted and faded out her (Antireal) water mark in what can only be described as a juvenile manner. It’s lazy, and they’re acting shocked that they got caught.

@dardel The guy looking pissed is the art director, he’s taking the fall for this but the others are 100% just as complicit if not more so given they’re actually, yknow, leaders in the studio as a whole. He (the sulky guy) is also one of the devs who follows Antireal, the victim of the theft, for years prior to the game even entering development. That just seems really suspicious and whatever frustration he’s going through is his own doing.

@nessisonett agreed. I think pricing people out is the big issue. I’ve had to go from buying each new game that I enjoy to limiting myself to one every other month or so. It was a hard adjustment but worthwhile. I’m 34, I’m not going to skip bills and cat food, quality of life things etc just for a game that will keep me entertained for a few hours.

@matekomlosi very well said. I personally prefer a creative art direction over photorealistic graphics, though sometimes they do go hand in hand. But if it runs at 18 fps unless I turn it to blurry town, even that isn’t enough to bring in my investment.

Key word is “really great” games. A lot of games are not really great, they’re just ok. You also have to factor in time. Dark Ages provides 20 hours on the higher end for a 90 dollar price tag. Clair obscur provides at least 30 for 60 dollars, and that’s assuming you beeline the story and some side quests. Obviously this will change depending on the player, so some will get hundreds of hours out of Doom. I don’t mind higher price tags but I do mind when games are deemed a failure or just not successful by the publisher when they asked too much for too little.

@UltimateOtaku91 it’s a sarcastic quip, you realize? It’s implying the developers had no ability to be successful without plagiarizing. It’s annoying for them to spam it, without a doubt, though.

@MARl0 and it’s worse every time. It’s unbelievably bad this time around, to the point they can’t even show gameplay. The expenses and time involved in fixing it are going to sink the studio, marathon was designed from the ground up based on Antireal’s designs. The art director and several other devs had been following her since 2017 prior to the game entering development in 2018. There’s no way whatever they offer her in terms of compensation is enough, they would have to take Joe’s salary and give it to her. That’s how horrible this is.

@UltimateOtaku91 it isn’t trolling to hold someone accountable for theft. The people telling them to you know what themselves, sure they’re arses. But cmon, crimes are crimes. Not trolling, it’s being told “you did something bad, you need to be held accountable.”

I love destiny’s world, it’s intriguing and unique. But I’m not going to defend bungie for this kind of thing, period.

@REALAIS it’s the first time it’s been such a blatant thing and also in house, as previous issues were at least claimed to be contractors. But at this point, I doubt that claim. It doesn’t get much more ridiculous than this, and there’s not a chance in oblivion leadership isn’t fully aware and was fine with it until they got caught. Reap what you sow.

Ironically this happened right when bungie was already in a bad situation in their current court battle surrounding, of course, plagiarism.

The saddest part is that I picked up final shape during the sale, found it to be lacklustre and nothing new (completed the campaign for it on PC but prefer PlayStation) and now have an additional layer of buyers remorse given how prolific they evidently are of stealing.

Good grief.

@UnlimitedSevens this is where it boggles my mind that so many companies aren’t factoring in digital sales for their targets. If they all want digital sales so badly, what happens when there are no physical games anymore? Will they just report they sold nothing?

@Neither_scene it’s not false, as it depends on the overall gpu and cpu combination, as well as resolution. On a 1440p monitor with a 4060 there’s videos of it running in slow motion with frame gen, and let’s face it this is something devs are relying more and more on. Also getting tired of the whole “I have a high end card and it’s fine” attitude. The issue is that when a developer provides minimum and recommended specs and the user meets or exceeds them, there should be no issues at all.

Downgrading to essential when my premium sub expires on the 24th. Too dang pricy and the demos that were a major selling point aren’t even launching day and date, usually months after release. So I’ll happily stick with the cheapest tier, as the rest has been very mucky.

Poor pc performance outside of the 50 series is also a factor I’m sure, and even on PlayStation I find a 90 dollar game (cad) that offers 20 hours of content on the higher end to be just bad value. Not a bad game by any margin, but multiple factors will run you into some problems.

I’m genuinely ok with live service games. What I’m not ok with is the fact that the vast, vast majority of them do nothing new but instead copy paste existing games and just slap a new coat of paint over it.

Live services can be good. The studios making them just need to be creative and that’s hard apparently.

@LogicStrikesAgain I have no doubt many (if not most) of the developers working on this game are wildly talented and stuck working on something they just don’t want to work on. I would absolutely support Sony canning the game and just reassigning the developers on board, there’s no reason to layoff talent if it can be helped. The graphical style is genuinely pretty trippy, but gameplay I just don’t care for.

@DennisReynolds I was not aware of that. Makes it really apparent that Sony leadership made some bad judgment with their acquisitions and all. I know Jim Ryan gets blamed for a lot but at the same time I can’t imagine he was the only person with any input. What a dumpster fire.