DVS

@Jayslow Oh my word, I couldn't agree more with your second point. I'm absolutely loving the game apart from Every. Single. Time someone says "Liberal" - rather than Liberl. It's so jarring. And you're right, such a petty point to nitpick. But I can't help but roll my eyes each and every time it happens. Otherwise, this is going to be the only game that pushes Kingdom Come Deliverance II for my personal GOTY.

I have it pre-ordered and without doubt, this is the most excited I've been for a game in years. The Sky trilogy is incredible. This new art style for Trails is wonderful and I am all aboard this train. That said, I won't play the demo until a few days before the game comes out on the 19th, that way I can just roll straight in to the rest of it without having to wait!

Between this, Expedition 33, Trails Through Daybreak II and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - I'm going to have a very difficult time deciding on my game of the year for 2025. What a year this is for videogames!

Going in to this article I thought I'd hate the idea. But, thinking about it now, I see two opposing sides.

FOR:

• Usually before a new system comes out, I'll put £50 away each month for a year to offset the price. So, in this time where a lot of people would struggle to do that, having to not do that, and then instead just pay £20-ish a month for a console just isn't that bad an idea.
• £14 to try out a PS Portal for one month and see if I like it is a genuinely compelling concept.

AGAINST:

• Unlike a mobile phone contract, you don't own the device at the end of your contract.
• Because you don't own it, you can't sell it and get anything back.
• You can guarantee that someone will do this for a PS5 Pro, then sell it because they need money urgently, then not be able to pay the full price at the end of their 2-3 year contract. Where does that leave them? A small claims court? Bailiffs? Bankruptcy? Disaster.

I got the platinum and I'll be really happy to go back to FFXVI. It's definitely my game of the year.
The two most obvious additions these two DLCs could be are:
1. Clive's life in the years after the Phoenix gate incident. (I really hope it's this!)
2. A prequel story about Archduke Elwin and the war with the Northern Territories.

I absolutely loved KC:D. My game of the year 2018. Stunning visuals. Amazing combat. The feeling of riding a horse, cresting a hill and seeing the amazing landscape before you was utterly phenomenal. I really want the sequel (but only when it's ready - don't rush it!)

I really liked TOA. In my opinion it's the best Tales game since Vesperia.
I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. I'll be giving this a listen!

All I'm hoping for is the sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance. If that happens I'll be bloody delighted!

Sorry, but am I the only person that noticed that the Italian statue of Aloy isn't quite finished:
'The Placeholder' 😄😄😄😄😄

I was already interested, and then you said, "there are shades of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture to this".
Day one purchase. Good job. 👍

@mattesdude On PSP they were packaged together. On Vita they were available separately.

There are two PSP games missing from this list.
1) Final Fantasy IV Remake
2) Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

No pitchforks here. It just means that the game doesn't appeal to me personally. But that's alright, there will be plenty of people that are happy about this and I'm sure there will be something else for me to play. Would I like a new single player Battlefield game? Yes. Hopefully we'll get one sooner rather than later. 🙂

I decided early on that I wanted the platinum. Took me seventy hours. But, strangely, the last six trophies were all obtained in the last hour of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Well that's........woof.

@Skoda Try Battlefront V. And yes, the Call of Duty: WWII campaign is fantastic.

Well, for my money Call of Duty: WWII has the best Call of Duty single player campaign since Call of Duty 2 on PS2, so I'm happy that more people will getting to experience that.

I'm not bothered by Star Wars Battlefront II. I still can't quite understand why they added 'hero' characters in Battlefront II on PS2. It ruined the gameplay experience then and it remains ruined still with hero characters being more and more of the focus. I long for the days of the original Battlefront game.

I concur this is by far and away better than the actual cover. The actual cover is frankly...off-putting. I don't really want that on my shelf or on display in any way at all.

And thaaat's...downloading. Cheers, Sammy!

@LeTHaLMiGRaiNe
Are you trolling, my friend? Of course it's debatable. Let us now debate!

1. How have those teraflop figures been worked out when the actual devices don't exist in the public domain.

2. "Xbox made billions more profit." Microsoft, not Xbox. It's an important distinction.

3. "Xbox has millions more Xbox Live subscribers then Sony has playstation plus." Have you got anything to back that up - because that seems absurd.

4. "PSVR's failure." Is having the best selling VR device available on the market a failure?

5. "...having nothing remotely comparable to Gamepass." Have you heard of PlayStation Now?

6. "Xbox has always had the overwhelming consensus best controller in gaming."
Nope. The Xbox 360's control pad was significantly better than the DualShock3 but the Xbox One's control pad is a notable step backwards and the DualShock4 is much the better control pad of the two.

• The announcement that if you subscribe to Gamepass Ultimate not only do you get access to over 200 games, but the DLC for all of them as well
• I will agree here. This is a fair point.

7. Your point about MLB the Show as a reason why Xbox is 'superior' is as astonishing as it is baffling.

• Xbox has actual back compat all the way to the OG Xbox with HDR that works with games that have never even had HDR in them, while ps5 just has access to a few dozen ps4 games using emulators.
• Also a fair point.

9. "while ps5 has 825GB, and no options for storage expansion."
Not true. Cerny confirmed the options for storage expansion on the PS5 - and it isn't proprietary.

10 "Sony will very likely make it's users re-buy better versions. I mean, that's what they have a history of doing after all." - As do Microsoft. This is likely something that both companies will address. Whether by intent or competition, it will still happen.

11. "My conclusion:
Xbox Series X is clearly the superior option. It's really not debatable. Sony has really dropped the ball, and hasn't really been competitive since Xbox One S was released."

• It is debatable. That's what debates are! And as for not being competitive, when one company is releasing top quality game after top quality game and the other has very little to offer but great hardware then it's clear that the two are approaching the competition in a very different way.

@Mega-Gazz They are very, very different games. Don't deny yourself the opportunity - Shadow of the Colossus is many things, but it certainly isn't boring.

@FF7FoLife I have no idea how I missed this priceless nugget of information from November. You are indeed right! Tonight I will sleep a little deeper with a smile in my face. Thank you!

If this is real - which, judging by the angle of the photo, I'm inclined to question - then it just makes me angry that in Europe we got the remake's awful American box art rather than this perfect ode to the original Japanese/European plain white box art.

I'm just glad I'm getting the Deluxe Edition with the steelbook so I don't have to look at that. I'm really disappointed that seemingly only the American box art has been recreated. Proper salty. I would've bought a second copy if the box art had been right.
Final Fantasy VII-XII generally had awful box art in America, compared to Europe / Japan. There's just a storied history of awful box art for the American audience (especially Ico - as already mentioned above.) Good god, I wake up to this? I want to go back to bed.

Let's call a spade a spade: This rumour is 100% nonsense.

85% have said 'No, I have very little interest in subscription services' But how many of that 85% have a Netflix subscription?
Subscription services are the obvious direction that gaming is going in. And personally, I'm all for it. It seems that not enough people have really given time to consider the massive positives of the concept.

It's a cross. It's always been a cross. Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square. These are the four 'Sacred Symbols' as PlayStation calls them.

However, if you want to say 'eX' that's fine. No-one will (/should) judge you.

Have a nice evening.

So here's a thing, I've always called it 'Cross'. As in Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square. It's never really occured to me that it was anything else. Like the other three sacred symbols, it's a shape, not a letter.

When I heard Shuhei Yoshida correct Greg Miller on the old Podcast Beyond by saying 'It's not an 'X', it's a Cross' I had it confirmed that I was right.

Perhaps I've been sheltered, but saying 'ex' over 'cross' just doesn't make sense to me at all.

@hotukdeals Aren't you just a little ray of sunshine!

@nessisonett I'm quietly confident that there's no-one at PlayStation worried about a doctored picture of Nathan Drake being available in Russia.

I never thought I'd say this - but Square-Enix comfortably won E3 last night.

@b1ackjack The Square-Enix store states that this is the first part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series. "Series" being the key word here.

Midgar makes up about one tenth of the total content in the original game. However, it was confirmed on stage that the Midgar section is being massively fleshed out. That's why it's become its own game. (Personally, I'm all for Midgar being fleshed out.)

Realistically, I would expect at least three additional chapters.

I suspect that in the subsequent chapters the world map will be gone, with a more linear Final Fantasy X-esque approach to the world. (Don't worry if that makes no sense.)

I really recommend that that you play the original game on PS4. There are options to speed it up and make it very easy if you're worried about it. It's still one of the all time greats and absolutely worth your time. Then you'll understand all the hubbub and be one of us!

@BowTiesAreCool I'm gradually pushing for a special 'ReMako Edition' at launch. It would come with a figurine of one of the Jenova cell infused former SOLDIER man-monsters in their cute little steam chamber with the rest of the Nibelheim reactor as a cardboard background.

God damn, I mean that thing would practically print money.

Damn it PS. After the VII ReMako release date reveal, Squeenix already have my balls in a vice. A VICE!
Don't thrust this on to me! I was not ready.

@rjejr (3 discs)

@bindiana (Sorry to be that guy, but Gravity Rush was part of the IGC for two years from November 2012. It's for that reason that the PS4 remaster probably can't be offered as a separate entity.)

@LowTech Nope, I'm playing on a base PS4 Pro. No SSD. And yes, I stand by my opinion.
Riding my horse, galloping through a glorious flush field and realising that it's dawn - cresting a hill and seeing the most astonishingly beautiful vista with a castle in the distance is something that happened to me time and time again. Graphically, the environments are STUNNING.

Over a 100 hour play through I noticed the texture load issue for three seconds maybe three to five times. It isn't game breaking and is absolutely overplayed.

Worst game you've ever played, graphically? Really? Come on now.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of my favourite games of recent times. I may have to pick this up for my eventual replay.

Although it takes a bit of time to learn and fully understand, the combat is exceptional. Every time you have a fight it's an experience. The first few fights you have leave you feeling elated that you won. Also magnificent is the horseriding. Plunging through the lush fields, (the graphic are terrific on a PS4 Pro), I kept thinking, 'this game is magnificent.'

Genuinely fantastic, this is my favourite game of 2018 and one of my favourite games ever made. I love it. I really recommend it to anyone.

I absolutely can't wait for the sequel.

@MickOnYourFace Realistically, beforehand. It explains what actually leads to the events of Final Fantasy XV and really acts as a missing opening piece of a much larger story.

@NoxAeturnus Yes. It's pretty fantastic now.

Lest we forget that at one point the Vita had an attach rate of about 18.5.

@Athrum Yeah, Kotaku's been banned in my house. The stupidity they're pedalling of late, most notably their disgusting coverage of Spider-Man dictates that they really aren't worth keeping around. Jason Schrier needs to realise he really is a one man band at that company and should leave them to die and blossom on his own.

(Watches video intently)
.........Yep. I'm in. I'm in deep. Like, balls deep.

Those pesky caveats. Spoiling the fun for everyone.

I've done that mission. Everyone is in camp apart from Sadie. She has gone. To be honest, I hadn't even noticed.

@b1ackjack_ps PlayStation Now?

I have the Spider-Man platinum. And I agree that Naughty Dog's track record of trophy lists across the Uncharted games and The Last Of Us is atrocious. Just terrible. I've accepted now that when I play a Naughty Dog game I don't bother looking at the trophy list because there's just no point.

The lack of a PS3 emulator on PS4 is what kills this feature stone dead. The amount of games available to download isn't huge because the main library, being the PS3 games isn't available. It's a step in the right direction, but without that PS3 emulator I just don't see the point in subscribing.

I've never been able to get in to the games (which is baffling considering my love of Final Fantasy) but I'll give it a look.

@Flaming_Kaiser There already is a wishlist system on the PlayStation store.