Unlike a car, there is no wear and tear. Actually games get better over time due to patches.
Imagine a car that at one year old was still in showroom condition, zero miles, but the engine had grown more powerful and the seats had changed from textile to leather.
They don't really go out of date either visually unless released just before a generation transition and even those get updated with patches these days.
I guess being the latest thing on YouTube and Twitch, and being part of the water cooler discussions, has a value of its own.
Anyway, good game, well worth the lower price, although still more than you could have paid for a month of Gamepass and a decent streaming service if you'd had a burning desire to play it a year ago.
@Gamer83 I think when you read the comments, almost all of those criticising the game have never played so much as 10 seconds of it.
Reminds me of how it was back in the 00's, when all I heard in the pub were guys arguing about which was best out of the Mitsubishi Evo and the Subaru Impreza, and absolutely none of them had driven either car, and they were just regurgitating what they’ve heard on Top Gear whilst they had some crummy Vauxhall Corsa out in the car park.
Taking anecdotal views from forums, doesn’t really gain us much as 99% of them are just regurgitating the review above.
Those who have played the game seem to say that it’s passable, and maybe be worth trying when it drops to 20 quid.
I've only watched play through videos, and what I’m seeing seems to align with the views of those people who’ve played it.
I will probably pick it up when it’s half the current price.
@Stickleman Yeah cracking game. Everything about it, stories, characters, art, music was just spot on. Combat for me wasn't that great as I'd rather it had no combat at all (outside of bosses) and was more of a walking sim/platformer/puzzler-lite.
Every single one of those overarching zone storylines were brilliant and sad.
@DennisReynolds I think you are right that the game will be forgotten. It's definitely not a zeitgeist like Skyrim was in its day. It won't be talked about 10 years later, when the 12th version/remaster of it is released!
But when reviewers sit down to review TES 6, they won't accept a mediocre combat experience having previously experienced better.
Sure, they won't remember where they experienced that something better and may hit Google or ChatGPT-27 to refresh their memory, but the main is that when they play TES 6, it will feel crap to them if Bethesda haven't hit that bar!
My advice to any developer is to use whatever tools are necessary to make a good game. Don't even worry about AI generative art assets. Don't worry about mass redundancies either.
Other firms spit in gamers faces, insult their mothers, spill their pints, put boogers in their Big Mac's, shove them games that stutter and barely run, cut out half the content and sell it back to them as DLC, and yet thirsty gamers still rip out their wallets and make it rain money for them.
Do we really think gamers will boycott a game because a bit of AI was used in its development, that no one can spot?
Give over.
I've witnessed dozens of boycott campaigns over the years, and not one of them ever had a measurable impact on a half decent game.
Fantastic news. By far the best first person RPG combat I have ever experienced.
The more people exposed to that, the better.
It will kill off Bethesda's joke of a system. Once everyone has experienced Avowed combat, Bethesda are cooked and will have no choice but to bring the next TES into alignment.
@naruball yes it’s a wonder that these days people don’t complain about war games depicting a sanitised and glorified version of wars. Not just in relation to the portrayal of consenting participants, but also the innocent victims from conscripts to civilians.
They are oddly selective about what they do and do not care about, and which subjects are off limits.
TLoU was about the mutation of a real fungus. I don’t know the details of this game but I’d have no issue with a mutated Ebola infection leading to something more horrifying in a game plot.
Heck, Resident Evil is based on a lab leak of a virus that was being subjected to gain of function experiments…
Have to say that I’m not really interested in Fable as I think it’s going to be pretty poor.
The small snippet we’ve seen up to now is certainly not promising.
For me, the main problem is that I don’t see where it fits into the 2026 RPG market. Things have moved on dramatically since the originals, we’ve had a lot of damn good games since then, and what was hot back then is not hot now.
I don’t have any faith in them reimagining it for the “modern audience“ without totally stuffing it up.
An Avowed port with a decent Pro upgrade would definitely get my money though, even though I already have it on game pass.
Nostalgia for me having gone to my mates to play Speedball 2 on his Amiga back in the 4th Year (year 10 to all you kids).
Had a cult status back then (1990) in our year at school.
As I always say with a lot of these old IP's though, I wonder what value they really have?
Back then gaming was still a very niche geeky hobby with a bad reputation (you'd get bullied and girls would mock you), and even fewer of those kids could afford what was a very pricey game system for the day: £1000 in today's money.
Of the few who played the game, how many of us are still active gamers at 50? You could fit every single one of us in the UK into a single basketball court.
Not an IP that would bring in many sales on brand recognition. Even in the PS1 days it’s name had faded into obscurity.
It's clear to me that Microsoft want the Xbox hardware side of things to die naturally and quietly in its sleep.
They don't want to be seen as the killer and get a rep like Sega, having let down the loyal fans etc. They just want it to gradually fizzle out with no one noticing.
My prediction is that there won't be another Xbox console.
The next console that has been mentioned on and off will likely be similar to the handheld in that it's just a third party Steambox with an Xbox logo that can run the Xbox store.
Because that's what they are now. A store front with streaming access. They won't say it, but I think MS would be quite happy with a lot of XSX owners jumping ship, buying PS5 Pro's and buying Xbox games on those for the remainder of this generation.
The fewer people still using Xbox hardware when the final reveal (there won't be another Xbox) is "leaked", the better.
It's become a nightmare at my workplace, where e.g. Engineers suddenly believe they are Commercial experts, and vice versa, because they ask AI and believe they know as much as the professionals. As a Project Manager in the middle, it's costing me more time dealing with the issues than it saves us.
The AI answers are almost always like that one guy who manages to say a lot in a meeting, and it sounds very clever, but when you think about it afterwards you realise he didn't say anything of substance or was entirely wrong. Often riddled with weasel words and not something any professional would take seriously.
I know it is effectively being done by a satellite/third party studio, so arguably not taking resources away from Witcher 4, but in my view if they have any good ideas worth my money, I'd rather they be collated into Witcher 4.
Why waste good side quest story ideas on a side show?
I can see why they might want a bit of cash flow to bridge the gap though.
Plus perhaps with the TV series having spritzed a nasty stench over the IP, they might want to release a palette cleanser to create a more recent positive vibe. Don't under estimate the damage that can do - I won't touch a Star Wars game anymore, no matter how good a "game" it is. Witcher is perilously close to that.
Agree that F isn't a good advert and reason to get me excited over annual releases.
Still, in general I'd prefer annual releases of 12 hour games, than the trend with many franchises where we wait many years for 100+ hour titles that I never finish.
I think Capcom are treading a good middle ground with RE, where we see a release every couple of years albeit a mixture of new titles and remasters, and the game length is fairly digestible, to the point that they are short enough such that replaying it is viable, rather than other games that extend their life through endless collectathons.
Not good news, but my PS5 Pro is looking like a fairly smart purchase now.
It's going to be my primary gaming device a lot longer than planned, and the longer I have it, the more the purchase cost is spread in terms of cost per hour of use.
Plus when the PS6 launches, I will likely be able to get a higher price for the Pro when I sell it, than I'd have originally expected.
When I bought my new PC last year, I invested in 64GB too.
Slightly smug feeling, but it was all luck rather than foresight.
I loath exclusives. That's speaking as someone who has always owned all the consoles and maintained a high spec PC.
So there is no FOMO motivation from me, as I can play any game I please regardless of what platform it is on.
What is important is that I want to play the game on the best hardware available, or at least what I perceive to be the best hardware/experience for my preferences.
As an example, and ignoring illegal options, how was Breath of the Wild only being available on a potato beneficial to any gamer worth their salt?
I'd like to see a complete de-coupling of the hardware and software side of the business. Similar to PC but industry-wide.
Game developers compete against other game developers, and hardware manufacturers compete against other hardware manufacturers.
If your hardware e.g. PS6 can't sell on it's own merits, but can only sell via exclusive access to a piece of software, then I'd suggest you get out of the hardware business and go sell burgers instead.
All that is achieved by such arrangements is the perpetuation of mediocre hardware, that consumers would not otherwise purchase if they had freedom of choice.
That includes peripherals. It annoys me to this day that I had to buy a PSVR/PSVR2, which I consider some of the worse headsets on the market with garbage out-of-date last-gen fresnel lenses, in order to play RE7 and RE8 in VR. Those titles would have been commercially viable and profitable if sold on all systems, and would have delivered a vastly superior experience to the consumer on some of the better hardware out there.
Too many times I sit here playing good games on mediocre hardware, when also sat next to me is a system/peripheral that could do the game a lot more justice and give me a more fun experience. How is that pro-consumer?!
It's forcing an unnecessarily inferior experience on the consumer.
We've seen games delayed before, with claims they are finished and that the additional time will allow more polish. Then they release in a pretty botched state.
Once they have decided to delay, they might as well delay it by enough time to ensure it is in an acceptable state. I hope this delay is enough.
This better not release with stutter, performance mode frame rate drops beneath the VRR window, and game breaking bugs...
@SeaDaVie yes my most memorable games are mostly all walking sims.
Soma, Edith Finch, Gone Home, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Still Wakes the Deep, Ethan Carter etc.
They offered practically no resistance, but had stories that stuck with me.
I've played my share of challenging games, especially back in the 8 bit and 16 bit era - games that would make Souls players cry. Like many "difficult" games they primarily challenge your time and patience. I don’t find that memorable at all, I’m more likely to delete them these days.
Whereas games like Soma, challenge me in different ways. For example challenging how I perceive things such as consciousness. That is far more memorable than banging your head against a wall for hours on end.
@Czar_Khastik yup Titanfall 2 was ironically the best COD campaign ever made.
Kienda is in for a treat, as well as feeling depressed that the game was essentially sent out to die, sandwiched between worse games that were better marketed, and we never got the sequel that it setup.
@LifeGirl There is a video out there purporting to show the incident.
I suspect these posters have viewed it and that is what they are referring to.
My concern these days is that often when such incidents occur, internet grifters dig up past footage of unrelated accidents that look like they fit the description of the current event, and then post it to earn clickbait money.
Plus in this day and age AI is a problem too.
So I've not drawn any conclusion as to who the video supposedly shows crashing.
That said, whoever was in the video, was clearly reckless and cared not about innocent members of the public who may have been using the highway.
It's wrong to attribute that to a specific individual without evidence of course, especially as I've seen no mainstream news sites showing even caps from the clip and confirming the footage is genuinely related to this story.
99% of people who buy Larian's games haven't heard about this drama or don't care.
The 1% that do care will lap up their next game anyway.
We've seen the behaviour of gamers all too many times before. A developer could kick them in the nuts and spit in their mothers face, and they'd still throw wads of cash at them!
The biggest hypocrisy of all is outrage over studio conditions. Absolutely no gamer ever, refused to buy a decent game due to how the devs employees were treated.
I've always suspected that consoles are price inelastic. It’s a luxury and you either want it or you don’t. If you want it, you will generally pay whatever the price is.
When the cost is spread a multiple years of ownership, these types of price variations are pretty much insignificant versus spend on games and subs.
By the time this releases, it will be well over a decade since they last released a decent new game (Uncharted 4), and what they’ve shown of this one does nothing for me.
Even Uncharted 4, like TLoU 1, was more about the exploration and environments to me, as I’ve always felt ND combat was workmanlike but nothing exceptional.
I’m sure this will sell based on their name and the media circling the wagons again and giving it hype, but I think it will be profitable but below projections and ultimately disappointing to Sony.
That people will miss time with family and seeing their children growing up, for a product that will release and rapidly be forgotten, seems a bit sad to me.
Good game, even though in many respects I prefer AC Shadows, including the more realistic graphical style which on balance has had more "wow" factor for me, and the English VO of the protagonists.
I know that won't help me win any popularity contests.
@Fizza I feel there is a difference between AI creating period authentic assets for a historical game, versus the endless fake videos and photos I see on social media on a daily basis.
I wouldn't like clothing or cosmetic companies using AI models for example, because it feels inauthentic.
Then again I also hate regular car commercials (with no AI but other techniques like green screen or cgi) where they portray driving a car through the centre of London with no traffic jams and are able to park directly outside their restaurant etc, for the same reason I dislike AI models.
On the subject of green screen, I think I’m in a majority when I say that I dislike the effect in movies and TV, versus good old-fashioned on-location filming.
Video games are by their very nature a fake facsimile of the real world. They are quite literally concentrated green screen/CGI. But I certainly do not feel that AI created accurate assets are inauthentic.
I would like some more human involvement in character design though, rather than just telling AI to design a 30-year-old man who is physically fit. In that instance, I’d still like characters to be based on real actors.
It's amazing how many major game series have (excluding enhancement patches that don't count) actually skipped two generations.
There will be no mainline Elder Scrolls on PS4 or PS5.
OK you will probably get a "pity version" on PS5 but we will be well into the PS6 then.
Anyway, my only other take is that Avowed raised the bar a long way in terms of first person fantasy combat. Bethesda can't ignore that or pretend it hasn't happened, so if they haven't done so already, they need to tear up their work and start again from scratch.
Nothing wrong with AI assets in games. As I've said before, the day will come when you can ask AI to generate furniture items for your medieval castle or victorian home in your game, and it could bang out hundreds of period accurate pieces in record time and at low cost.
We will look back and think how ridiculous it was when people used to do that by hand.
It's not like human artists are doing original work. They are doing exactly what AI will do and looking at photos of museum pieces etc.
It's a shame that worthy uses get mixed in and tarred with all the AI slop out there.
It's been my observation that in both games, film and TV, there is too much evolution for the sake evolution.
The old "modern audience" chestnut. All we know about the "modern audience", based on the franchises targeting them, is that they mysteriously don't seem to spend as much money as the old audience...
I see it as a destructive evolution, with certain individuals saying "we must evolve", but a bit like the story of the emperors clothes, no one sits down to seriously challenge and ask "really? why exactly?".
A lot of firms would have saved a lot of money if only someone had asked the question and others had listened.
Success is hard to come by. If one creates something that is not just successful but becomes a household name, one might want to consider that perhaps it had tapped into something and found a successful formula.
It's a bold person who tinkers with that. 9 times of 10 the audience taste hasn't changed.
A lot of popular characters and stories today, can be traced back thousands of years to stories told around camp fires. All variations of the same thing. The stories settings have changed, having obviously been adapted to contemporary times, but the intrinsic nature of popular characters and plots have evolved surprisingly little.
@Weez I think many people are a bit selective with how they apply suspension of disbelief.
On the one hand many such individuals actively defend/campaign for games set in Medieval worlds to have the same demographic make-up as London in 2025.
Indeed, they even go so far as to criticise anyone who feels that this breaks their suspension of this belief. Their usual argument is “it has dragons in it, if you can accept that then you can accept the stuff you are complaining about”.
Yet on the other hand, they find a young female explorer wearing a bit of make-up to be a step too far. I’d respond by using their own argument against them, in that the game has many supernatural elements and Lara herself exhibits unrealistic climbing skills, strength and physical durability (she'd be fracturing arms and legs all the time), so it’s a bit odd to be complaining about a little eyeshadow and lipstick.
I liked Camilla in terms of voice. The writing wasn't her fault and she did a good job with what they gave her. Her only weakness was the mo cap. She didn't move like a woman who was as physically trained as Lara was, when walking around in cutscenes. She moved like a woman who was slim and fragile from Hollywood actress diets, rather than like some other actresses who have trained for physical roles e.g. Scarlett Johansson. As someone who does a lot of sports photography, that type of thing sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps others didn’t notice but I can tell from form, posture and subtle movement.
I don’t read anything into who the voice actress is for the new one, for much the same reasons. I'm sure most experienced actresses could do a good enough job. It’s all going to come down to mo cap and the writing again and that’s my greatest fear.
The trailers do hint at a return to the original Lara Croft and that would be great for me, as I prefer the bad ass version, but I’m not going to put too much faith in some pre-rendered slop.
Hoping we see some gameplay and some real dialogue soon.
Not opposed to this type of racer, especially those who don't have a Switch and can't play the Fast series of games (the latest one was mediocre though).
But at this point the licence is dragging it down, rather than selling it.
Better to create a new IP or speak to Sony about using Wipeout.
Outstanding game. My GOTY by a country mile. So many memorable moments and so much atmosphere. Absolutely worth a buy, this is not a "wait for PS+" game even though I was lucky to play via Gamepass.
Sad thing is that if it wasn't on Gamepass I'd not have played it and missed out. Don't make that mistake.
I really enjoyed Assassin‘s Creed Mirage, no regrets about buying that one at launch, but those of you who did not are in for a good treat and getting your money’s worth this month.
If only it had been released in the state that it is now, and on the hardware we have available to ourselves in 2025 both in terms of PS5 Pro and PC.
The classic cautionary tale of developers releasing games before they are ready, and having ambition and vision that exceeds the available hardware of the day.
Seriously annoyed about MS canning this. Well partly...
Perfect Dark Zero had some problems, but there were flashes of brilliance. Storming into the nightclub with all the civvies fleeing was awesome.
Joanna Dark is the type of cool AF, kick ass, 90's era female protagonist that the industry desperately needs now, as an antidote to the modern day Mary Sue girl-boss nonsense that has done so much damage.
Of course that's not to say that this game would have been it. In truth it would most likely have been the same old garbage we have been served for the past 10 to 15 years.
Hope the IP gets picked up in the future and we get something true to the original personality of Dark.
As a TR fan, I'm waiting to crushed and disappointed.
If it were commencing development now it would be great. Unfortunately this game has been produced during the period of creative and cultural rot.
Noting the past trilogy was fun to play, but let down by writing, story, characters, I'm deeply concerned.
I feel anxiety rather than excitement. I don't want the franchise terminally damaged by a stinker. My nails have been chewed down to the knuckles already.
@MrPeanutbutterz no, I'm amazed so little effort was put into the PS5 port, such that the Switch version is identical. Given what modders have done with GTA IV as an example.
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Re: Xbox's Avowed Will Be $20 Cheaper When It Launches on PS5
It's funny how games depreciate.
Unlike a car, there is no wear and tear. Actually games get better over time due to patches.
Imagine a car that at one year old was still in showroom condition, zero miles, but the engine had grown more powerful and the seats had changed from textile to leather.
They don't really go out of date either visually unless released just before a generation transition and even those get updated with patches these days.
I guess being the latest thing on YouTube and Twitch, and being part of the water cooler discussions, has a value of its own.
Anyway, good game, well worth the lower price, although still more than you could have paid for a month of Gamepass and a decent streaming service if you'd had a burning desire to play it a year ago.
Re: Code Violet (PS5) - Gooner Shooter Can't Get It Up
@Gamer83 I think when you read the comments, almost all of those criticising the game have never played so much as 10 seconds of it.
Reminds me of how it was back in the 00's, when all I heard in the pub were guys arguing about which was best out of the Mitsubishi Evo and the Subaru Impreza, and absolutely none of them had driven either car, and they were just regurgitating what they’ve heard on Top Gear whilst they had some crummy Vauxhall Corsa out in the car park.
Taking anecdotal views from forums, doesn’t really gain us much as 99% of them are just regurgitating the review above.
Those who have played the game seem to say that it’s passable, and maybe be worth trying when it drops to 20 quid.
I've only watched play through videos, and what I’m seeing seems to align with the views of those people who’ve played it.
I will probably pick it up when it’s half the current price.
Re: Xbox Exclusive RPG Avowed Is Coming to PS5 in February with Major New Features
@Stickleman Yeah cracking game. Everything about it, stories, characters, art, music was just spot on. Combat for me wasn't that great as I'd rather it had no combat at all (outside of bosses) and was more of a walking sim/platformer/puzzler-lite.
Every single one of those overarching zone storylines were brilliant and sad.
Re: Xbox Exclusive RPG Avowed Is Coming to PS5 in February with Major New Features
@DennisReynolds I think you are right that the game will be forgotten. It's definitely not a zeitgeist like Skyrim was in its day. It won't be talked about 10 years later, when the 12th version/remaster of it is released!
But when reviewers sit down to review TES 6, they won't accept a mediocre combat experience having previously experienced better.
Sure, they won't remember where they experienced that something better and may hit Google or ChatGPT-27 to refresh their memory, but the main is that when they play TES 6, it will feel crap to them if Bethesda haven't hit that bar!
Re: Divinity Dev's Boss Backpedals on Generative AI, But Not All the Way
Most gamers are blowhards.
They will buy the game anyway if it's any good.
My advice to any developer is to use whatever tools are necessary to make a good game. Don't even worry about AI generative art assets. Don't worry about mass redundancies either.
Other firms spit in gamers faces, insult their mothers, spill their pints, put boogers in their Big Mac's, shove them games that stutter and barely run, cut out half the content and sell it back to them as DLC, and yet thirsty gamers still rip out their wallets and make it rain money for them.
Do we really think gamers will boycott a game because a bit of AI was used in its development, that no one can spot?
Give over.
I've witnessed dozens of boycott campaigns over the years, and not one of them ever had a measurable impact on a half decent game.
Re: Xbox Exclusive RPG Avowed Is Coming to PS5 in February with Major New Features
Fantastic news. By far the best first person RPG combat I have ever experienced.
The more people exposed to that, the better.
It will kill off Bethesda's joke of a system. Once everyone has experienced Avowed combat, Bethesda are cooked and will have no choice but to bring the next TES into alignment.
Re: Sony Removes 'Temu Resident Evil' Ebola Village Trailer from YouTube
@naruball yes it’s a wonder that these days people don’t complain about war games depicting a sanitised and glorified version of wars. Not just in relation to the portrayal of consenting participants, but also the innocent victims from conscripts to civilians.
They are oddly selective about what they do and do not care about, and which subjects are off limits.
TLoU was about the mutation of a real fungus. I don’t know the details of this game but I’d have no issue with a mutated Ebola infection leading to something more horrifying in a game plot.
Heck, Resident Evil is based on a lab leak of a virus that was being subjected to gain of function experiments…
Hmm….
Re: Code Violet (PS5) - Gooner Shooter Can't Get It Up
@naruball quite obviously.
There are websites that give you a highly concentrated dose of it for free, so no one is spending money on a game exclusively for such elements.
It’s like buying a car just because you want a digital radio. I’d just go out and buy a digital radio from Amazon for £50 and save £25k.
But if I want a car, then a car with a decent digital radio, is better than one with a tinny old cassette player.
Re: Code Violet (PS5) - Gooner Shooter Can't Get It Up
Never heard of this game before or any aesthetic arguments about it.
So I just watched the MKIceandFire play through.
Looks like a typical third person shooter from 2012 but with better graphics. Albeit retaining the stiff animations of something like RE Revelations.
End Of.
Not remotely seeing much in the way of any sexy elements. Just looks normal to me.
As someone who has been gaming 40+ years, including the 90’s and 00’s, it’s something I’ve seen a thousand times.
A total nothing burger. I’m extremely embarrassed for younger generations of gamers if they find this a big deal one way or another.
Re: Big Updates on Massive Xbox Games, Bound for PS5, Later This Month
Have to say that I’m not really interested in Fable as I think it’s going to be pretty poor.
The small snippet we’ve seen up to now is certainly not promising.
For me, the main problem is that I don’t see where it fits into the 2026 RPG market. Things have moved on dramatically since the originals, we’ve had a lot of damn good games since then, and what was hot back then is not hot now.
I don’t have any faith in them reimagining it for the “modern audience“ without totally stuffing it up.
An Avowed port with a decent Pro upgrade would definitely get my money though, even though I already have it on game pass.
Re: Future Sports Series Speedball Resurrected on PS5 This Month
Nostalgia for me having gone to my mates to play Speedball 2 on his Amiga back in the 4th Year (year 10 to all you kids).
Had a cult status back then (1990) in our year at school.
As I always say with a lot of these old IP's though, I wonder what value they really have?
Back then gaming was still a very niche geeky hobby with a bad reputation (you'd get bullied and girls would mock you), and even fewer of those kids could afford what was a very pricey game system for the day: £1000 in today's money.
Of the few who played the game, how many of us are still active gamers at 50? You could fit every single one of us in the UK into a single basketball court.
Not an IP that would bring in many sales on brand recognition. Even in the PS1 days it’s name had faded into obscurity.
Re: Amazon's Tomb Raider TV Show Reveals Completely New Characters and Castings
Big fan of Isaacs, he was the only redeeming feature of Star Trek Discovery.
Pity to see him wasted in this. As DartLOD said, as soon as Waller Bridge was linked to it, it was game over.
That was the equivalent of when I see my dog stop and coopy down. It hasn't come out yet, but I know what's coming out.
Re: Xbox Sales Hit New Low in UK, Barely Competes with PS5 at This Point
It's clear to me that Microsoft want the Xbox hardware side of things to die naturally and quietly in its sleep.
They don't want to be seen as the killer and get a rep like Sega, having let down the loyal fans etc. They just want it to gradually fizzle out with no one noticing.
My prediction is that there won't be another Xbox console.
The next console that has been mentioned on and off will likely be similar to the handheld in that it's just a third party Steambox with an Xbox logo that can run the Xbox store.
Because that's what they are now. A store front with streaming access. They won't say it, but I think MS would be quite happy with a lot of XSX owners jumping ship, buying PS5 Pro's and buying Xbox games on those for the remainder of this generation.
The fewer people still using Xbox hardware when the final reveal (there won't be another Xbox) is "leaked", the better.
Re: Microsoft CEO Really Wants You to Stop Calling Generative AI 'Slop'
It's become a nightmare at my workplace, where e.g. Engineers suddenly believe they are Commercial experts, and vice versa, because they ask AI and believe they know as much as the professionals. As a Project Manager in the middle, it's costing me more time dealing with the issues than it saves us.
The AI answers are almost always like that one guy who manages to say a lot in a meeting, and it sounds very clever, but when you think about it afterwards you realise he didn't say anything of substance or was entirely wrong. Often riddled with weasel words and not something any professional would take seriously.
Re: Game of the Year: Push Square Readers' 20 Most Anticipated PS5 Games of 2026
Worth saving this and comparing it with sales figures at year end.
Suspect it may reveal a large disparity between forums and the wider market.
I think 007 for example will be a LOT lower down the sales charts.
Re: The Witcher 3 Really Could Be Getting a New Expansion on PS5 in 2026
I know it is effectively being done by a satellite/third party studio, so arguably not taking resources away from Witcher 4, but in my view if they have any good ideas worth my money, I'd rather they be collated into Witcher 4.
Why waste good side quest story ideas on a side show?
I can see why they might want a bit of cash flow to bridge the gap though.
Plus perhaps with the TV series having spritzed a nasty stench over the IP, they might want to release a palette cleanser to create a more recent positive vibe. Don't under estimate the damage that can do - I won't touch a Star Wars game anymore, no matter how good a "game" it is. Witcher is perilously close to that.
Re: Silent Hill Producer Aims to Release One New Game Per Year
Agree that F isn't a good advert and reason to get me excited over annual releases.
Still, in general I'd prefer annual releases of 12 hour games, than the trend with many franchises where we wait many years for 100+ hour titles that I never finish.
I think Capcom are treading a good middle ground with RE, where we see a release every couple of years albeit a mixture of new titles and remasters, and the game length is fairly digestible, to the point that they are short enough such that replaying it is viable, rather than other games that extend their life through endless collectathons.
Re: PS6 Could Be Delayed Due to RAM Price Chaos
Not good news, but my PS5 Pro is looking like a fairly smart purchase now.
It's going to be my primary gaming device a lot longer than planned, and the longer I have it, the more the purchase cost is spread in terms of cost per hour of use.
Plus when the PS6 launches, I will likely be able to get a higher price for the Pro when I sell it, than I'd have originally expected.
When I bought my new PC last year, I invested in 64GB too.
Slightly smug feeling, but it was all luck rather than foresight.
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5 Story Game of 2025
I consider South of Midnight to be better than all of them, so I'm not casting a vote.
I don't think titles deserve a vote just because something better isn't eligible due to timed exclusivity nonsense.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
I loath exclusives. That's speaking as someone who has always owned all the consoles and maintained a high spec PC.
So there is no FOMO motivation from me, as I can play any game I please regardless of what platform it is on.
What is important is that I want to play the game on the best hardware available, or at least what I perceive to be the best hardware/experience for my preferences.
As an example, and ignoring illegal options, how was Breath of the Wild only being available on a potato beneficial to any gamer worth their salt?
I'd like to see a complete de-coupling of the hardware and software side of the business. Similar to PC but industry-wide.
Game developers compete against other game developers, and hardware manufacturers compete against other hardware manufacturers.
If your hardware e.g. PS6 can't sell on it's own merits, but can only sell via exclusive access to a piece of software, then I'd suggest you get out of the hardware business and go sell burgers instead.
All that is achieved by such arrangements is the perpetuation of mediocre hardware, that consumers would not otherwise purchase if they had freedom of choice.
That includes peripherals. It annoys me to this day that I had to buy a PSVR/PSVR2, which I consider some of the worse headsets on the market with garbage out-of-date last-gen fresnel lenses, in order to play RE7 and RE8 in VR. Those titles would have been commercially viable and profitable if sold on all systems, and would have delivered a vastly superior experience to the consumer on some of the better hardware out there.
Too many times I sit here playing good games on mediocre hardware, when also sat next to me is a system/peripheral that could do the game a lot more justice and give me a more fun experience. How is that pro-consumer?!
It's forcing an unnecessarily inferior experience on the consumer.
Re: 007 First Light's PS5 Release Date Has Been Pushed Back a Couple of Months
We've seen games delayed before, with claims they are finished and that the additional time will allow more polish. Then they release in a pretty botched state.
Once they have decided to delay, they might as well delay it by enough time to ensure it is in an acceptable state. I hope this delay is enough.
This better not release with stutter, performance mode frame rate drops beneath the VRR window, and game breaking bugs...
Re: Cronos: The New Dawn Update Will Add a New, Easier Difficulty Setting in Early 2026
@SeaDaVie yes my most memorable games are mostly all walking sims.
Soma, Edith Finch, Gone Home, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Still Wakes the Deep, Ethan Carter etc.
They offered practically no resistance, but had stories that stuck with me.
I've played my share of challenging games, especially back in the 8 bit and 16 bit era - games that would make Souls players cry. Like many "difficult" games they primarily challenge your time and patience. I don’t find that memorable at all, I’m more likely to delete them these days.
Whereas games like Soma, challenge me in different ways. For example challenging how I perceive things such as consciousness. That is far more memorable than banging your head against a wall for hours on end.
Re: Vince Zampella, Call of Duty Co-Creator and Respawn Boss, Tragically Dies Aged 55
@Czar_Khastik yup Titanfall 2 was ironically the best COD campaign ever made.
Kienda is in for a treat, as well as feeling depressed that the game was essentially sent out to die, sandwiched between worse games that were better marketed, and we never got the sequel that it setup.
Re: Vince Zampella, Call of Duty Co-Creator and Respawn Boss, Tragically Dies Aged 55
@LifeGirl There is a video out there purporting to show the incident.
I suspect these posters have viewed it and that is what they are referring to.
My concern these days is that often when such incidents occur, internet grifters dig up past footage of unrelated accidents that look like they fit the description of the current event, and then post it to earn clickbait money.
Plus in this day and age AI is a problem too.
So I've not drawn any conclusion as to who the video supposedly shows crashing.
That said, whoever was in the video, was clearly reckless and cared not about innocent members of the public who may have been using the highway.
It's wrong to attribute that to a specific individual without evidence of course, especially as I've seen no mainstream news sites showing even caps from the clip and confirming the footage is genuinely related to this story.
Re: Embattled Divinity Dev to Host Q&A with Fans After Tough Week
Nothing burger.
99% of people who buy Larian's games haven't heard about this drama or don't care.
The 1% that do care will lap up their next game anyway.
We've seen the behaviour of gamers all too many times before. A developer could kick them in the nuts and spit in their mothers face, and they'd still throw wads of cash at them!
The biggest hypocrisy of all is outrage over studio conditions. Absolutely no gamer ever, refused to buy a decent game due to how the devs employees were treated.
Doesn't happen.
Re: Japan's New Language Locked PS5 Hasn't Made a Massive Difference to the Format's Domestic Fortunes
I've always suspected that consoles are price inelastic. It’s a luxury and you either want it or you don’t. If you want it, you will generally pay whatever the price is.
When the cost is spread a multiple years of ownership, these types of price variations are pretty much insignificant versus spend on games and subs.
Re: Naughty Dog Forces Crunch to Get PS5 Exclusive Intergalactic 'Back on Track' for Mid 2027 Release
By the time this releases, it will be well over a decade since they last released a decent new game (Uncharted 4), and what they’ve shown of this one does nothing for me.
Even Uncharted 4, like TLoU 1, was more about the exploration and environments to me, as I’ve always felt ND combat was workmanlike but nothing exceptional.
I’m sure this will sell based on their name and the media circling the wagons again and giving it hype, but I think it will be profitable but below projections and ultimately disappointing to Sony.
That people will miss time with family and seeing their children growing up, for a product that will release and rapidly be forgotten, seems a bit sad to me.
Re: 2016's The Division Now Runs Smoother Than Ever on PS5
I really liked this game. It was super atmospheric at the time.
I think it was Ubisoft doing what they do best, which is creating fantastically detailed and "lived in" feeling worlds.
Re: The FIFA Video Game Will Return, on Netflix of All Places
More red flags than a Chinese military parade.
EA won't be worried.
Re: Ghost of Yotei Wins Big in PS Blog's Game of the Year Awards
Good game, even though in many respects I prefer AC Shadows, including the more realistic graphical style which on balance has had more "wow" factor for me, and the English VO of the protagonists.
I know that won't help me win any popularity contests.
Re: Divinity Dev's Comments on Generative AI Trigger a Total Social Media Sh*tstorm
@Fizza I feel there is a difference between AI creating period authentic assets for a historical game, versus the endless fake videos and photos I see on social media on a daily basis.
I wouldn't like clothing or cosmetic companies using AI models for example, because it feels inauthentic.
Then again I also hate regular car commercials (with no AI but other techniques like green screen or cgi) where they portray driving a car through the centre of London with no traffic jams and are able to park directly outside their restaurant etc, for the same reason I dislike AI models.
On the subject of green screen, I think I’m in a majority when I say that I dislike the effect in movies and TV, versus good old-fashioned on-location filming.
Video games are by their very nature a fake facsimile of the real world. They are quite literally concentrated green screen/CGI. But I certainly do not feel that AI created accurate assets are inauthentic.
I would like some more human involvement in character design though, rather than just telling AI to design a 30-year-old man who is physically fit. In that instance, I’d still like characters to be based on real actors.
Re: 'The Majority of the Studio's on It': Bethesda Gives an Update on The Elder Scrolls 6
It's amazing how many major game series have (excluding enhancement patches that don't count) actually skipped two generations.
There will be no mainline Elder Scrolls on PS4 or PS5.
OK you will probably get a "pity version" on PS5 but we will be well into the PS6 then.
Anyway, my only other take is that Avowed raised the bar a long way in terms of first person fantasy combat. Bethesda can't ignore that or pretend it hasn't happened, so if they haven't done so already, they need to tear up their work and start again from scratch.
Re: Divinity Dev's Comments on Generative AI Trigger a Total Social Media Sh*tstorm
Nothing wrong with AI assets in games. As I've said before, the day will come when you can ask AI to generate furniture items for your medieval castle or victorian home in your game, and it could bang out hundreds of period accurate pieces in record time and at low cost.
We will look back and think how ridiculous it was when people used to do that by hand.
It's not like human artists are doing original work. They are doing exactly what AI will do and looking at photos of museum pieces etc.
It's a shame that worthy uses get mixed in and tarred with all the AI slop out there.
Re: Yakuza Dev 'Exploring a Solution' for Botched Kiwami PS5 Upgrade
Got to wonder at that price, and once store/payment provider fees are deducted, how much money will they actually take from charging.
Re: 'How Do We Help Her Evolve?': Crystal Dynamics on Reimagining Tomb Raider's Lara Croft for a New Era
It's been my observation that in both games, film and TV, there is too much evolution for the sake evolution.
The old "modern audience" chestnut. All we know about the "modern audience", based on the franchises targeting them, is that they mysteriously don't seem to spend as much money as the old audience...
I see it as a destructive evolution, with certain individuals saying "we must evolve", but a bit like the story of the emperors clothes, no one sits down to seriously challenge and ask "really? why exactly?".
A lot of firms would have saved a lot of money if only someone had asked the question and others had listened.
Success is hard to come by. If one creates something that is not just successful but becomes a household name, one might want to consider that perhaps it had tapped into something and found a successful formula.
It's a bold person who tinkers with that. 9 times of 10 the audience taste hasn't changed.
A lot of popular characters and stories today, can be traced back thousands of years to stories told around camp fires. All variations of the same thing. The stories settings have changed, having obviously been adapted to contemporary times, but the intrinsic nature of popular characters and plots have evolved surprisingly little.
Re: This Is the New Voice of Lara Croft in the PS5 Era of Tomb Raider Games
@Weez I think many people are a bit selective with how they apply suspension of disbelief.
On the one hand many such individuals actively defend/campaign for games set in Medieval worlds to have the same demographic make-up as London in 2025.
Indeed, they even go so far as to criticise anyone who feels that this breaks their suspension of this belief. Their usual argument is “it has dragons in it, if you can accept that then you can accept the stuff you are complaining about”.
Yet on the other hand, they find a young female explorer wearing a bit of make-up to be a step too far. I’d respond by using their own argument against them, in that the game has many supernatural elements and Lara herself exhibits unrealistic climbing skills, strength and physical durability (she'd be fracturing arms and legs all the time), so it’s a bit odd to be complaining about a little eyeshadow and lipstick.
Re: 'If I Don't Belong in the Games Industry, I'll Have to Look Elsewhere': Keita Takashashi Moves Back to Japan After To a T Flopped
It may be fantastic in reality, but at a glance I see red flags that my pattern recognition associates with bad games.
I therefore dismiss it within 20 seconds.
Re: This Is the New Voice of Lara Croft in the PS5 Era of Tomb Raider Games
I liked Camilla in terms of voice. The writing wasn't her fault and she did a good job with what they gave her. Her only weakness was the mo cap. She didn't move like a woman who was as physically trained as Lara was, when walking around in cutscenes. She moved like a woman who was slim and fragile from Hollywood actress diets, rather than like some other actresses who have trained for physical roles e.g. Scarlett Johansson. As someone who does a lot of sports photography, that type of thing sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps others didn’t notice but I can tell from form, posture and subtle movement.
I don’t read anything into who the voice actress is for the new one, for much the same reasons. I'm sure most experienced actresses could do a good enough job. It’s all going to come down to mo cap and the writing again and that’s my greatest fear.
The trailers do hint at a return to the original Lara Croft and that would be great for me, as I prefer the bad ass version, but I’m not going to put too much faith in some pre-rendered slop.
Hoping we see some gameplay and some real dialogue soon.
Re: Expedition 33 Breaks the Game Awards Record for Most Gongs in a Single Show
Agree with the first poster RE "game of the moment".
It's a good game, but it isn't perfect and ain't all that.
It's worthy of being on GOTY lists, but it ain't heads above everything else and in "cleans up" territory.
Re: Star Wars Racing Games Are Back in Galactic Racer, Out for PS5 in 2026
More pre-rendered slop that tells us nothing.
Not opposed to this type of racer, especially those who don't have a Switch and can't play the Fast series of games (the latest one was mediocre though).
But at this point the licence is dragging it down, rather than selling it.
Better to create a new IP or speak to Sony about using Wipeout.
Re: Xbox Game South of Midnight Comes to PS5 Next Year
Outstanding game. My GOTY by a country mile. So many memorable moments and so much atmosphere. Absolutely worth a buy, this is not a "wait for PS+" game even though I was lucky to play via Gamepass.
Sad thing is that if it wasn't on Gamepass I'd not have played it and missed out. Don't make that mistake.
Re: Lara Croft Returns in Two New Tomb Raider Titles on PS5
Pre rendered slop. Tells me nothing unfortunately.
Re: 9 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for December 2025 Announced
I really enjoyed Assassin‘s Creed Mirage, no regrets about buying that one at launch, but those of you who did not are in for a good treat and getting your money’s worth this month.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate Cyberpunk 2077, 5 Years Later?
If only it had been released in the state that it is now, and on the hardware we have available to ourselves in 2025 both in terms of PS5 Pro and PC.
The classic cautionary tale of developers releasing games before they are ready, and having ambition and vision that exceeds the available hardware of the day.
Re: Xbox Ruthlessly Cancelled Perfect Dark, But Take-Two Just Hired Its Directors
Seriously annoyed about MS canning this. Well partly...
Perfect Dark Zero had some problems, but there were flashes of brilliance. Storming into the nightclub with all the civvies fleeing was awesome.
Joanna Dark is the type of cool AF, kick ass, 90's era female protagonist that the industry desperately needs now, as an antidote to the modern day Mary Sue girl-boss nonsense that has done so much damage.
Of course that's not to say that this game would have been it. In truth it would most likely have been the same old garbage we have been served for the past 10 to 15 years.
Hope the IP gets picked up in the future and we get something true to the original personality of Dark.
Re: New Tomb Raider Reveal Confirmed for The Game Awards
@Nepp67 Yeah Lara exhibited rare flashes of badassery in 2013 and Rise (none in Shadow), but ultimately degenerated into a feeble wet whiner.
Rise is a such a darn good "game" though, it's worth playing despite the degeneration of her character and awful writing.
Re: New Tomb Raider Reveal Confirmed for The Game Awards
As a TR fan, I'm waiting to crushed and disappointed.
If it were commencing development now it would be great. Unfortunately this game has been produced during the period of creative and cultural rot.
Noting the past trilogy was fun to play, but let down by writing, story, characters, I'm deeply concerned.
I feel anxiety rather than excitement. I don't want the franchise terminally damaged by a stinker. My nails have been chewed down to the knuckles already.
Re: PS5 Players Ponder Avowed Port as Xbox RPG Delays Its 'Biggest Update Yet'
I really enjoyed it. Combat was excellent and the best I’ve ever experienced in a first person RPG.
Quests were pretty good too, as was world exploration.
I’d buy it on Pro if an enhanced version is released, despite having access via Gamepass.
Re: Red Dead Redemption PS5 Another Subpar Re-Release from Rockstar
@MrPeanutbutterz no, I'm amazed so little effort was put into the PS5 port, such that the Switch version is identical. Given what modders have done with GTA IV as an example.
Re: Red Dead Redemption PS5 Another Subpar Re-Release from Rockstar
It's actually amazing how the Switch 2 version is practically indistinguishable even on a large 4k TV.
With the added flexibility of hand held, it made more sense to me to play it there.
My PS5 Pro only really has trophies going for it.