@andreoni79 Bloodborne is a fantastic game and the Lovecraftian theme oozes through it, but it isn't scary. There are plenty of worse games that do a better job in that department and I think the list should be aimed at how scary a game is rather than how good/popular it is.
@Neolit I'd probably class TLoU loosely as a horror game at a push, but it certainly doesn't sit in with the sub-header of the article to be the scariest PS4 game. To that end I'd likely not consider Bloodborne to be high on the list for the same reason.
Given we are limited to PS4 games only I couldn't say both shouldn't be on the list, but games like Dying Light and Doom are equally valid given they fulfill the horror category while not being particularly frightening. I would say both the original Outlast and even the Metro games have a stronger shout as horror games though than a lot of the list.
I thought Bethesda had said they were not sending out review code until after its customers had chance to experience the game (that is until after it releases)? Does this mean that they've found that policy hasn't had a positive effect on sales?
I've found I've naturally moved away from the AAA market as it has become filled with more and more of this bull. There are plenty of independents out there who are making great games that they would want to play rather than copying the current hot item or filling them with ways to try to get you to pay to play.
I count a lot of these as action adventures rather than RPGs, the term seems to be becoming meaningless to what it was originally applied to, people argue that even games like CoD are RPGs now just because they have a leveling system. List is missing the excellent Undertale anyway as well as Divinity, Torment and Pillars off the top of my head.
@Tasuki Much like you keep telling us that microtransactions are optional, I'd counter with reading articles you don't like is also optional - why not leave them alone for those of us who do want to discuss these issues and save yourself some time? If you can't see why this is becoming a hot issue or the issues discussed within are not of concern to you I don't understand why you keep discussing them.
Not really a shock, everything about microtransactions seems to be geared to generate more sales, whether it is funneling the player to a store screen, the flashy lights and sounds associated with opening a lootbox or loading screens and in game reminders of the store. I would bet a fair chunk of money that there is a dedicated psychology team working on the best ways to sell these things in all the big publishing houses.
Bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood to name a few of the victims of EA, they are truly harming the creativity of the gaming industry with their by the numbers way of doing business. Dead Space and its sequel were great games and really hit the nail in the survival horror genre, but EA's stink was all over the third game with the likes of co-op and microtransactions added to the game.
From what I heard of Visceral's Star wars game, it was going to be an action adventure which seems to be the genre they were comfortable in and it is sad to see it cancelled due to focus testing. It has been said many times that all focus testing does is get people to tell the interviewer what they think they want to hear or makes them sound clever, I'll expect EA's take on Destiny with Star wars characters in a couple of years then...
The online requirement and lack of single player content is a deal breaker for me. To be fair I'm not the biggest driving game fan around, but I do still enjoy Driveclub which doesn't suffer from my two gripes with this game and can be picked up for next to nothing these days (although I never played that game anywhere near launch when it had its problems).
My major gripe with the first one was the combat got boring pretty quickly, but it sounds from those snippets like they've improved that aspect of the game so it is likely something I'll pick up sooner or later.
Bethesda's decision to hold off review code is a bit odd on this one, given the first game only had a lukewarm reception and there is very little hype for this game it would have done it wonders to have some buzz leading up to launch. I'm left with only two possible conclusions, either the game is bad/buggy or Bethesda are willing to harm sales so they don't have to go back on their no early review code policy.
I have had this discussion before with management and if it's unacceptable in any part of the world it's unacceptable here. If you have a concern on how we run things here, feel free to use a contact form below.
This is the ESRB just clarifying how the law currently views them, as always the law takes a while to catch up with the digital world so I doubt this is the last time this will come up from a legal viewpoint.
It's pretty weird the current way they're getting around it being gambling in the UK under current laws, basically if the items you got out of lootboxes were tradable it would then be classed as gambling as they would then be able to place a monetary value on the items.
@Lonejester While I don't know about this game mode for Fortnite, the main game is drowning in pinatas (lootboxes) which are linked to progressing. If this is successful and brought to the main game expect it to follow a similar path.
Would it be good for gamers to have a bigger player pool? Of course it would, but anyone who thinks this is anything more than carefully thought out marketing by MS is kidding themselves.
Any game which requires an internet connection to play a good portion of it is definitely one to leave until a week or two after launch if you want to be sure of a good connected experience.
This is just bringing the content released since launch on the PC over to the PS4, £20 would have seemed more reasonable, but it is hardly worth the levels of scorn that microtransactions should get. In the grand scheme of things it seems pretty reasonable.
It's funny, a decade ago we used to discuss pre-order bonuses and people would defend them because they were just cosmetic items (sound familiar?), now it is barely mentioned when some of the game is locked behind this practice unless there is a distasteful ad or something about it.
I would be happy on the day pre-order culture died, but it isn't going to happen which is odd as we've seen quite often games released in completely bugged states that may or may not get fixed later, games that don't live up to the pre-launch hype and games that drop to a third of their launch price within a month.
@JoeBlogs On top of what @themcnoisy said you also have to figure in other factors - the market is much bigger for gaming now so it is easier to make a profit at the same cost. Logistics are much cheaper and the internet combined with cheaper media has removed the need to in most case to even ship anything. The actual physical content of games is massively reduced (I don't remember the last time I saw a big box including a large manual and usually some extra bits and pieces outside of a $100+ special edition). I can also say in the UK that while RRP has barely moved, the actual price you pay from the retailer has increased significantly in the last decade.
There are other reasons too, but look at it this way - (big) movies are comparable these day to (big) games in cost to make/market etc, yet movies are a quarter of the cost of games and still make massive profits. The market for movies is so large it can do this, but I've seen data recently putting the game industry as a more profitable industry than the film one and this was before the current set of microtransactions and lootboxes invaded our games.
@OutspokenHuman The problem with that is that games used to have cheat codes and secrets that did the same thing for no extra money, it is another example of content cut out of games to sell back to you for extra money.
They have no place in anything but free games and even then they should be fair and not the cynical nonsense that invades most of the free to play junk that dominates a phone's app store. Look at games like Path of Exile to see how the system can work if both publisher and customer has respect for each other.
I see Overwatch getting a free ride in the comments, but even if you do think microtransactions are justified in a full priced game then you have to at least question the way they are implemented. Lootboxes are unquestionably designed to target that endorphin rush people get from gambling and make getting items you may want a lot harder than if the items were at least sold separately.
The strange thing about microtransactions is they seem to only be found in games that are expected to reach the top of the charts anyway. New (potential) franchises avoid using them, yet still do very well financially which shows they are not needed for games to make a good amount of profit, but instead are there to make even more profit at the detriment to the users experience.
One place I haven't seen discussed here is the effect on vulnerable adults. In the UK people who have problems with gambling can ban themselves from being allowed to gamble, but obviously this will not extend to practices such as loot boxes as the law, as always, takes a long time to catch up with the digital world. By classing loot boxes as what they are, i.e. a form of gambling, the number of safeguards in place would effectively help protect these people as well as making it much harder for children to be exposed to the system.
In the UK the classification of these practices as gambling would have the effect of making the game an 18, disallow credit betting (all transactions would have to be done through either debit card or real money thus making it harder to acrue debt through gambling), force openess of odds on getting items and force the game to have to check whether you have banned yourself from gambling and thus remove all signs of them from the game or not allow the game to be sold at point of purchase or else suffer hefty fines.
To put it another way, it would make this practice so unappealing to companies they would stop invading our games with this rubbish as it would cost them too many sales in the visibility of what they are doing, and it would be much harder for them to sell the game due to the legislation in place over gambling.
@BladeRider Given Tolkien's wishes and the way Warner exploited their LotR license they picked up a very long time ago I would say it has no right existing tbh. It doesn't have to be canon, but beyond the odd name it literally has nothing to do with the material it relates itself to. As I said it is just a generic fantasy game plot and if you have any love for the source material you are going to wonder if there was any reason to use the Middle Earth license other than to make a few more sales through brand recognition. If you're happy with that, that's OK - I'd just prefer them to make a story that actually feels like it could have been something that happened in that world.
Always find it odd in these comment sections why everyone is always saying Fifa or PES is better when it is obvious that Sensible World of Soccer was, is, and always will be the greatest football game ever made. Savages
@OutspokenHuman The problem with that for me is they are telling their own story and trying to force it into Middle Earth. It screams of paying for the license to sell the game under a recognised name rather than for the love of the lore. With a few minor tweaks the game could have been their own IP with no copyright issues towards LotR. I know it isn't an issue for most people though and had I not found the first one only average I would likely have overlooked that issue in favour of just enjoying the game.
@OutspokenHuman My problem with the story is it doesn't belong in the LotR universe, they could call the game Stabby Orc Man (TM) and, apart from brand recognition from the name, it would make no difference. If a game wants to tell its own story that is fine, but if you license someone else's work you should at least try to remain within the bounds of its lore.
To be clear, I have no doubt I'm in the minority on not liking the look of the game from a gameplay view point though, so many people raved about the first one and it got so many awards I'd just put it down to one of those quirks where you find a game everyone loves and can't see why. I can never get around the feeling that pushing forward while holding down a button doesn't relate to the parkour action on the screen.
@fisher The reason people get fired up about MTs is not so much what they are now (although some games are starting to reach a point where they are going to far), but what they will become if not stamped out now. Shadow of War might be fine without spending money (although I've heard from a few reviews the game gets grindy later on), but you can bet they will be slowly tweaking game systems to encourage more people to spend money either through patches or, more likely, in their next game.
@OutspokenHuman No, I'm not vindictive and know what a touchy issue it can be for some people
I think that the rest of the comments though should focus on the good review though as I'm sure there are lots of other places to discuss the entire microtransaction thing. They kind of detract from other issues, both good and bad.
Reading that the story isn't too strong, and as a big LotR fan, I'm not sure this game is really for me anyway. I'm also not a big fan of the Assassin Creed style free running mechanic or the Batman style combat system from the first game, so even without that which I will not mention again this game will be, at best, a deep sale game for me.
@fisher This was your 'point', if it had a point other than to annoy people with valid concerns:
"“Boo hoo, it has microtransactions so no buy for me boo...” - seriously kiddos, grow up will ya?"
Don't really see where the distinction between multi and single player comes in there. In any case they have the same impact in single and multiplayer games - as in things that were just once part of the game now also have a monetary value attached to them. What I don't understand is if you don't have any interest in microtransactions then why are you so bothered by others choosing to not buy the game over them, they're not even protesting to get rid of a feature you use or stopping you buying the game?
@fisher Destiny 2, NBA2K18 and Forza 7 have all shown recently the creep of features removed from previous games to be put in loot boxes. They are a real problem and will get worse if profits remain higher with them included than without them. Feel free to tell the people who are against them to grow up as if you are somehow superior, but it is seen by most sensible people as a bad direction for gaming to travel.
Not a great month from my point of view and it is reflected in the choices. FF IX is good, but it is a remaster of a game I've already played, Destiny is a bit of a marmite game in whether you will be up for its grind or not and the Danganronpa games are ones that I really have to be in the mood for to enjoy. Only thing that piqued my interest this month really was Hob, but I've not even played that. The first few months of the year were strong enough though that I am still making my way through the interesting games from then.
Play my Vita quite often and when I'm not I usually play on my 3DS so I'd guess while the market might not be as big as the home console one there is still a market for portables.
About the poll, I'm not sure that the question "Which of the following is more important to you when purchasing games?" fits in very well or makes too much sense. I'd guess an option about them actually being fun would be winning in that category if it existed.
This is just publishers chasing the current in thing rather than them trying to innovate something new. I honestly can't think of many of these so called service based games that are actually doing well. Wasn't The Division supposed to be big in that market? Or For Honor? Or, well the list goes on much longer than the successes.
I think it's a huge problem when companies like Square announce a game like Tomb Raider was a flop as it only sold 3.5 million copies. Not every game has to sell astronomical figures to do well and developing games for this category seems like a smart move to me. Thankfully there are still developers out there dedicated to making good games without being swayed by current trends and their profits will only increase as the single player area of the market shrinks.
I can't help but be a little suspicious about the intent behind this reversal. There was a lot of bad publicity around this game including loot boxes and the like before this "charity dlc" controversy blew up, so at this point I think they are throwing the community a bone to try to garner some cheap good will. Unfortunately, as any PC gamer knows and most console gamers should, Warner Brothers are a terrible company who have zero respect for their customers.
@BLP_Software I was going to bring that up too, but you beat me to the punch.
Glad to see this game is getting a good reception, although I have to bring up the point that Devolver Digital lied to us at E3, I am literally throwing money at my screen, yet nothing is happening
I like my Vita and it gets a lot of play time, but the system struggled from early on. Sony made the usual mistake of using expensive proprietary solutions to storage and they also went deep into advertising the Vita as a home console experience on a handheld.
That second point of itself isn't bad, but they really didn't deliver on that promise and did their usual of dropping the technology as a lost cause when it hadn't performed as well as they wanted in the first 6-12 months. Funnily enough the 3DS had similar problems in the first year of its life, but Nintendo tried to fix those problems and that system went on to sell really well.
Unfortunately Sony's expectation of failure in their gaming division seems to be becoming a self fulfilling prophecy now as people are getting wise to the risks associated with buying anything outside of their home console and adopting a wait and see attitude before putting down their money.
While it's unfortunate, hype built up around a release is the thing that will sell games before any other consideration. Though I wouldn't say this is in any way an extensive study into proving this point, I would say that if you search Push Square for news on MvC or Project Cars you will find both titles are several degrees lower in coverage than Destiny 2. Most games that do well will have already set themselves up to be in that position before anyone even sees the final product.
This is a game where I had no interest in the DLC, I had a lot of fun up until about half way through which was when, as @Boxmonkey said, the game starts getting repetitive as there is rarely anything new in the game and even entire levels are reused in the name of game length. Definitely an example of why sometimes less is more for me.
Best of the 3D Fallouts, the moral choices were actually meaningful rather than Bethesda's own brand of blow the town up or don't blow the town up being an apparent difficult moral choice. Adding in the faction system helped the game too rather than the idea that everyone knew you'd done bad things even if no one ever saw you do them.
Definitely give them another shot at showing you up Bethesda
While they look into this they could also look into why older games like doom also have similar shooting mechanics and the film Battle Royale has a similar story set-up...
Seriously though the entire industry is mainly about iterations of previous games. Wasn't there a court case many years ago about a game being too similar to Street Fighter which got thrown out and set a precedent in this sort of matter?
Really liked IX, but not buying it on the PS4 as I'm happy enough being able to play the original version on the Vita. Funnily enough that is the same reason as I never bought VII on the PS4, portability is far more important to me than upgraded visuals.
As a few others have said, my first thoughts with this is, with everyone moving to this model, the market will become over-saturated. There is undoubtedly money in that market, but, with everyone trying to push long life products, most people will find their game and stick with it.
There may be less people who are after solid single player experiences these days (I don't know if this is true, but can only assume that it is going on news like this), however with all the big companies moving away from making those games that means the saturation in the market is lower and potentially more lucrative for those willing to make games those people will enjoy.
I think the problem is that there has been so much bull added to games in the past decade that sales of otherwise good games are hurt by these decisions rather than a lack of interest. There seems to be a checklist that every AAA game must abide by these days such as every game must have a multiplayer component, the game must be planned with DLC in mind, microtransactions are needed, pre-order bonuses and all the other rubbish that you know is added due to people who couldn't care less for games and only for money.
A good place that should be looked at for reasons why this is a bad move is the MMO industry. WoW came out, proved the market for MMOs could be huge so everyone tried to release an MMO as close in gameplay to WoW as they could. Not one person asked why anyone would leave after 100s of hours of playing WoW to play another game similar to it. While it may not be exactly the same, it is funny to note that most of these games are shooters.
Comments 304
Re: Guide: The Best PS4 Horror Games
@andreoni79 Bloodborne is a fantastic game and the Lovecraftian theme oozes through it, but it isn't scary. There are plenty of worse games that do a better job in that department and I think the list should be aimed at how scary a game is rather than how good/popular it is.
Re: Guide: The Best PS4 Horror Games
@Neolit I'd probably class TLoU loosely as a horror game at a push, but it certainly doesn't sit in with the sub-header of the article to be the scariest PS4 game. To that end I'd likely not consider Bloodborne to be high on the list for the same reason.
Given we are limited to PS4 games only I couldn't say both shouldn't be on the list, but games like Dying Light and Doom are equally valid given they fulfill the horror category while not being particularly frightening. I would say both the original Outlast and even the Metro games have a stronger shout as horror games though than a lot of the list.
Re: Guide: The Best PS4 Horror Games
Hmm, Last of Us is probably the best game on the list, but not the best game for horror.
Re: Round Up: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus PS4 Reviews Serve Up Strawberry Milkshake
I thought Bethesda had said they were not sending out review code until after its customers had chance to experience the game (that is until after it releases)? Does this mean that they've found that policy hasn't had a positive effect on sales?
Re: EA Moving to More Monetisable Open World Games
I've found I've naturally moved away from the AAA market as it has become filled with more and more of this bull. There are plenty of independents out there who are making great games that they would want to play rather than copying the current hot item or filling them with ways to try to get you to pay to play.
Re: Feature: The 20 Best RPGs on PS4
I count a lot of these as action adventures rather than RPGs, the term seems to be becoming meaningless to what it was originally applied to, people argue that even games like CoD are RPGs now just because they have a leveling system. List is missing the excellent Undertale anyway as well as Divinity, Torment and Pillars off the top of my head.
Re: Site News: Announcing Push Square's Ultimate PlayStation Character Tournament
None of my suggestions made the list
Bit surprised that GlaDOS at least didn't make it.
Re: Microtransactions Are Being Implemented in the Scariest of Ways
@Tasuki Much like you keep telling us that microtransactions are optional, I'd counter with reading articles you don't like is also optional - why not leave them alone for those of us who do want to discuss these issues and save yourself some time? If you can't see why this is becoming a hot issue or the issues discussed within are not of concern to you I don't understand why you keep discussing them.
Re: Microtransactions Are Being Implemented in the Scariest of Ways
Not really a shock, everything about microtransactions seems to be geared to generate more sales, whether it is funneling the player to a store screen, the flashy lights and sounds associated with opening a lootbox or loading screens and in game reminders of the store. I would bet a fair chunk of money that there is a dedicated psychology team working on the best ways to sell these things in all the big publishing houses.
Re: EA Flings Dead Space Developer Visceral into Outer-Space
Bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood to name a few of the victims of EA, they are truly harming the creativity of the gaming industry with their by the numbers way of doing business. Dead Space and its sequel were great games and really hit the nail in the survival horror genre, but EA's stink was all over the third game with the likes of co-op and microtransactions added to the game.
From what I heard of Visceral's Star wars game, it was going to be an action adventure which seems to be the genre they were comfortable in and it is sad to see it cancelled due to focus testing. It has been said many times that all focus testing does is get people to tell the interviewer what they think they want to hear or makes them sound clever, I'll expect EA's take on Destiny with Star wars characters in a couple of years then...
Re: Site News: Gran Turismo Sport PS4 Review - Where's Our Verdict?
The online requirement and lack of single player content is a deal breaker for me. To be fair I'm not the biggest driving game fan around, but I do still enjoy Driveclub which doesn't suffer from my two gripes with this game and can be picked up for next to nothing these days (although I never played that game anywhere near launch when it had its problems).
Re: Round Up: Is the New South Park Game Fractured or Whole?
My major gripe with the first one was the combat got boring pretty quickly, but it sounds from those snippets like they've improved that aspect of the game so it is likely something I'll pick up sooner or later.
Re: Round Up: The Evil Within 2 Reviews Reveal an Improved Fear-Fest
Bethesda's decision to hold off review code is a bit odd on this one, given the first game only had a lukewarm reception and there is very little hype for this game it would have done it wonders to have some buzz leading up to launch. I'm left with only two possible conclusions, either the game is bad/buggy or Bethesda are willing to harm sales so they don't have to go back on their no early review code policy.
Re: Ratings Board Rules That Loot Boxes in Games Aren't a Form of Gambling
I have had this discussion before with management and if it's unacceptable in any part of the world it's unacceptable here. If you have a concern on how we run things here, feel free to use a contact form below.
Thanks for understanding -Tasuki-
Re: Ratings Board Rules That Loot Boxes in Games Aren't a Form of Gambling
@kyleforrester87 He's american (I think) so doesn't realise that is another word for cigarettes
Re: Ratings Board Rules That Loot Boxes in Games Aren't a Form of Gambling
This is the ESRB just clarifying how the law currently views them, as always the law takes a while to catch up with the digital world so I doubt this is the last time this will come up from a legal viewpoint.
It's pretty weird the current way they're getting around it being gambling in the UK under current laws, basically if the items you got out of lootboxes were tradable it would then be classed as gambling as they would then be able to place a monetary value on the items.
Re: Fortnite Battle Royale Gamble Pays Off Big for Epic, Hits 10 Million Players
@Lonejester While I don't know about this game mode for Fortnite, the main game is drowning in pinatas (lootboxes) which are linked to progressing. If this is successful and brought to the main game expect it to follow a similar path.
Re: Xbox Boss Isn't Optimistic About Sony Changing Its Cross-Platform Play Policy
Last gen MS didn't allow Sony to enable cross play as is in evidence here
https://kotaku.com/5813740/i-saw-the-playstation-3-wired-to-play-against-an-xbox-360-but-you-wont
as well as other places.
Would it be good for gamers to have a bigger player pool? Of course it would, but anyone who thinks this is anything more than carefully thought out marketing by MS is kidding themselves.
Re: Gran Turismo Sport's Demo Proved a Roaring Success
Any game which requires an internet connection to play a good portion of it is definitely one to leave until a week or two after launch if you want to be sure of a good connected experience.
Re: Cities: Skylines Gets a Season Pass and a Complete Edition Next Month on PS4
This is just bringing the content released since launch on the PC over to the PS4, £20 would have seemed more reasonable, but it is hardly worth the levels of scorn that microtransactions should get. In the grand scheme of things it seems pretty reasonable.
Re: GameStop's Blunt Assassin's Creed Ad Has Rubbed a Lot of People the Wrong Way
It's funny, a decade ago we used to discuss pre-order bonuses and people would defend them because they were just cosmetic items (sound familiar?), now it is barely mentioned when some of the game is locked behind this practice unless there is a distasteful ad or something about it.
I would be happy on the day pre-order culture died, but it isn't going to happen which is odd as we've seen quite often games released in completely bugged states that may or may not get fixed later, games that don't live up to the pre-launch hype and games that drop to a third of their launch price within a month.
Re: Poll: Where Do You Stand on Microtransactions?
@JoeBlogs On top of what @themcnoisy said you also have to figure in other factors - the market is much bigger for gaming now so it is easier to make a profit at the same cost. Logistics are much cheaper and the internet combined with cheaper media has removed the need to in most case to even ship anything. The actual physical content of games is massively reduced (I don't remember the last time I saw a big box including a large manual and usually some extra bits and pieces outside of a $100+ special edition). I can also say in the UK that while RRP has barely moved, the actual price you pay from the retailer has increased significantly in the last decade.
There are other reasons too, but look at it this way - (big) movies are comparable these day to (big) games in cost to make/market etc, yet movies are a quarter of the cost of games and still make massive profits. The market for movies is so large it can do this, but I've seen data recently putting the game industry as a more profitable industry than the film one and this was before the current set of microtransactions and lootboxes invaded our games.
@OutspokenHuman The problem with that is that games used to have cheat codes and secrets that did the same thing for no extra money, it is another example of content cut out of games to sell back to you for extra money.
Re: Poll: Where Do You Stand on Microtransactions?
They have no place in anything but free games and even then they should be fair and not the cynical nonsense that invades most of the free to play junk that dominates a phone's app store. Look at games like Path of Exile to see how the system can work if both publisher and customer has respect for each other.
I see Overwatch getting a free ride in the comments, but even if you do think microtransactions are justified in a full priced game then you have to at least question the way they are implemented. Lootboxes are unquestionably designed to target that endorphin rush people get from gambling and make getting items you may want a lot harder than if the items were at least sold separately.
The strange thing about microtransactions is they seem to only be found in games that are expected to reach the top of the charts anyway. New (potential) franchises avoid using them, yet still do very well financially which shows they are not needed for games to make a good amount of profit, but instead are there to make even more profit at the detriment to the users experience.
Re: Assassin's Creed Origins Will Let You Spend Your Egyptian Pounds on Loot Boxes
One place I haven't seen discussed here is the effect on vulnerable adults. In the UK people who have problems with gambling can ban themselves from being allowed to gamble, but obviously this will not extend to practices such as loot boxes as the law, as always, takes a long time to catch up with the digital world. By classing loot boxes as what they are, i.e. a form of gambling, the number of safeguards in place would effectively help protect these people as well as making it much harder for children to be exposed to the system.
In the UK the classification of these practices as gambling would have the effect of making the game an 18, disallow credit betting (all transactions would have to be done through either debit card or real money thus making it harder to acrue debt through gambling), force openess of odds on getting items and force the game to have to check whether you have banned yourself from gambling and thus remove all signs of them from the game or not allow the game to be sold at point of purchase or else suffer hefty fines.
To put it another way, it would make this practice so unappealing to companies they would stop invading our games with this rubbish as it would cost them too many sales in the visibility of what they are doing, and it would be much harder for them to sell the game due to the legislation in place over gambling.
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@Flaming_Kaiser You are completely wrong about me being wrong, reread what I said and you'll find I agree that brand name is used to sell more copies
Re: Assassin's Creed Origins Will Let You Spend Your Egyptian Pounds on Loot Boxes
Yay, another game I'll save money on by not buying.
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@BladeRider Given Tolkien's wishes and the way Warner exploited their LotR license they picked up a very long time ago I would say it has no right existing tbh. It doesn't have to be canon, but beyond the odd name it literally has nothing to do with the material it relates itself to. As I said it is just a generic fantasy game plot and if you have any love for the source material you are going to wonder if there was any reason to use the Middle Earth license other than to make a few more sales through brand recognition. If you're happy with that, that's OK - I'd just prefer them to make a story that actually feels like it could have been something that happened in that world.
Re: Review: FIFA 18 (PS4)
@FaultyDroid Amiga era, they did Microprose Soccer in the C64 era though.
Re: Review: FIFA 18 (PS4)
Always find it odd in these comment sections why everyone is always saying Fifa or PES is better when it is obvious that Sensible World of Soccer was, is, and always will be the greatest football game ever made. Savages
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@OutspokenHuman The problem with that for me is they are telling their own story and trying to force it into Middle Earth. It screams of paying for the license to sell the game under a recognised name rather than for the love of the lore. With a few minor tweaks the game could have been their own IP with no copyright issues towards LotR. I know it isn't an issue for most people though and had I not found the first one only average I would likely have overlooked that issue in favour of just enjoying the game.
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@OutspokenHuman My problem with the story is it doesn't belong in the LotR universe, they could call the game Stabby Orc Man (TM) and, apart from brand recognition from the name, it would make no difference. If a game wants to tell its own story that is fine, but if you license someone else's work you should at least try to remain within the bounds of its lore.
To be clear, I have no doubt I'm in the minority on not liking the look of the game from a gameplay view point though, so many people raved about the first one and it got so many awards I'd just put it down to one of those quirks where you find a game everyone loves and can't see why. I can never get around the feeling that pushing forward while holding down a button doesn't relate to the parkour action on the screen.
@fisher The reason people get fired up about MTs is not so much what they are now (although some games are starting to reach a point where they are going to far), but what they will become if not stamped out now. Shadow of War might be fine without spending money (although I've heard from a few reviews the game gets grindy later on), but you can bet they will be slowly tweaking game systems to encourage more people to spend money either through patches or, more likely, in their next game.
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@OutspokenHuman No, I'm not vindictive and know what a touchy issue it can be for some people
I think that the rest of the comments though should focus on the good review though as I'm sure there are lots of other places to discuss the entire microtransaction thing. They kind of detract from other issues, both good and bad.
Reading that the story isn't too strong, and as a big LotR fan, I'm not sure this game is really for me anyway. I'm also not a big fan of the Assassin Creed style free running mechanic or the Batman style combat system from the first game, so even without that which I will not mention again this game will be, at best, a deep sale game for me.
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@fisher This was your 'point', if it had a point other than to annoy people with valid concerns:
"“Boo hoo, it has microtransactions so no buy for me boo...” - seriously kiddos, grow up will ya?"
Don't really see where the distinction between multi and single player comes in there. In any case they have the same impact in single and multiplayer games - as in things that were just once part of the game now also have a monetary value attached to them. What I don't understand is if you don't have any interest in microtransactions then why are you so bothered by others choosing to not buy the game over them, they're not even protesting to get rid of a feature you use or stopping you buying the game?
Re: Review: Middle-earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
@fisher Destiny 2, NBA2K18 and Forza 7 have all shown recently the creep of features removed from previous games to be put in loot boxes. They are a real problem and will get worse if profits remain higher with them included than without them. Feel free to tell the people who are against them to grow up as if you are somehow superior, but it is seen by most sensible people as a bad direction for gaming to travel.
Re: Game of the Month: Top 4 PlayStation Games of September 2017
Not a great month from my point of view and it is reflected in the choices. FF IX is good, but it is a remaster of a game I've already played, Destiny is a bit of a marmite game in whether you will be up for its grind or not and the Danganronpa games are ones that I really have to be in the mood for to enjoy. Only thing that piqued my interest this month really was Hob, but I've not even played that. The first few months of the year were strong enough though that I am still making my way through the interesting games from then.
Re: Poll: Do You Want Another Portable PlayStation?
Play my Vita quite often and when I'm not I usually play on my 3DS so I'd guess while the market might not be as big as the home console one there is still a market for portables.
About the poll, I'm not sure that the question
"Which of the following is more important to you when purchasing games?"
fits in very well or makes too much sense. I'd guess an option about them actually being fun would be winning in that category if it existed.
Re: Why Is Sony Turning Off Gravity Rush 2's Servers After a Year?
Oh no, this is probably my fault for not paying for my gaming tax. Sorry, I mean for PSPlus.
Re: Batman Maker Rocksteady Says Fans Will Lose Their Minds Over Next Game
I think PC users already lost their minds over the last couple of games...
Re: Single Player Games Are Really Struggling Right Now
This is just publishers chasing the current in thing rather than them trying to innovate something new. I honestly can't think of many of these so called service based games that are actually doing well. Wasn't The Division supposed to be big in that market? Or For Honor? Or, well the list goes on much longer than the successes.
I think it's a huge problem when companies like Square announce a game like Tomb Raider was a flop as it only sold 3.5 million copies. Not every game has to sell astronomical figures to do well and developing games for this category seems like a smart move to me. Thankfully there are still developers out there dedicated to making good games without being swayed by current trends and their profits will only increase as the single player area of the market shrinks.
Re: Shadow of War DLC Character Goes Free Following Controversy, Confusion
I can't help but be a little suspicious about the intent behind this reversal. There was a lot of bad publicity around this game including loot boxes and the like before this "charity dlc" controversy blew up, so at this point I think they are throwing the community a bone to try to garner some cheap good will. Unfortunately, as any PC gamer knows and most console gamers should, Warner Brothers are a terrible company who have zero respect for their customers.
@BLP_Software I was going to bring that up too, but you beat me to the punch.
Re: Review: Final Fantasy IX (PS4)
It might have been downgraded to a 9, but it still scored higher than FFXV despite all that extra money and development time
Re: Review: Ruiner (PS4)
Glad to see this game is getting a good reception, although I have to bring up the point that Devolver Digital lied to us at E3, I am literally throwing money at my screen, yet nothing is happening
Re: Sony Doesn't See Much Potential in Portable Platforms
I like my Vita and it gets a lot of play time, but the system struggled from early on. Sony made the usual mistake of using expensive proprietary solutions to storage and they also went deep into advertising the Vita as a home console experience on a handheld.
That second point of itself isn't bad, but they really didn't deliver on that promise and did their usual of dropping the technology as a lost cause when it hadn't performed as well as they wanted in the first 6-12 months. Funnily enough the 3DS had similar problems in the first year of its life, but Nintendo tried to fix those problems and that system went on to sell really well.
Unfortunately Sony's expectation of failure in their gaming division seems to be becoming a self fulfilling prophecy now as people are getting wise to the risks associated with buying anything outside of their home console and adopting a wait and see attitude before putting down their money.
Re: Destiny 2 Is Down for 6 Whole Hours Today
@rjejr Online only, so maintenance means no game for as long as they run it.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Appears to Flop
While it's unfortunate, hype built up around a release is the thing that will sell games before any other consideration. Though I wouldn't say this is in any way an extensive study into proving this point, I would say that if you search Push Square for news on MvC or Project Cars you will find both titles are several degrees lower in coverage than Destiny 2. Most games that do well will have already set themselves up to be in that position before anyone even sees the final product.
Re: TGS 2017: Nioh Cuts Loose with a Complete Edition Later This Year
This is a game where I had no interest in the DLC, I had a lot of fun up until about half way through which was when, as @Boxmonkey said, the game starts getting repetitive as there is rarely anything new in the game and even entire levels are reused in the name of game length. Definitely an example of why sometimes less is more for me.
Re: Another Fallout: New Vegas? Obsidian Would 'Love' To Do It
Best of the 3D Fallouts, the moral choices were actually meaningful rather than Bethesda's own brand of blow the town up or don't blow the town up being an apparent difficult moral choice. Adding in the faction system helped the game too rather than the idea that everyone knew you'd done bad things even if no one ever saw you do them.
Definitely give them another shot at showing you up Bethesda
Re: PUBG Dev Isn't Too Happy About Fortnite's Battle Royale Mode
While they look into this they could also look into why older games like doom also have similar shooting mechanics and the film Battle Royale has a similar story set-up...
Seriously though the entire industry is mainly about iterations of previous games. Wasn't there a court case many years ago about a game being too similar to Street Fighter which got thrown out and set a precedent in this sort of matter?
Re: Poll: Is Final Fantasy IX the Best Final Fantasy?
Really liked IX, but not buying it on the PS4 as I'm happy enough being able to play the original version on the Vita. Funnily enough that is the same reason as I never bought VII on the PS4, portability is far more important to me than upgraded visuals.
Re: Square Enix Wants to Focus More on Multiplayer and Service Games Going Forward
As a few others have said, my first thoughts with this is, with everyone moving to this model, the market will become over-saturated. There is undoubtedly money in that market, but, with everyone trying to push long life products, most people will find their game and stick with it.
There may be less people who are after solid single player experiences these days (I don't know if this is true, but can only assume that it is going on news like this), however with all the big companies moving away from making those games that means the saturation in the market is lower and potentially more lucrative for those willing to make games those people will enjoy.
I think the problem is that there has been so much bull added to games in the past decade that sales of otherwise good games are hurt by these decisions rather than a lack of interest. There seems to be a checklist that every AAA game must abide by these days such as every game must have a multiplayer component, the game must be planned with DLC in mind, microtransactions are needed, pre-order bonuses and all the other rubbish that you know is added due to people who couldn't care less for games and only for money.
A good place that should be looked at for reasons why this is a bad move is the MMO industry. WoW came out, proved the market for MMOs could be huge so everyone tried to release an MMO as close in gameplay to WoW as they could. Not one person asked why anyone would leave after 100s of hours of playing WoW to play another game similar to it. While it may not be exactly the same, it is funny to note that most of these games are shooters.