Dogbreath

Really good game. Deserves the hype and praise it got.

But I recall Angry Joe in his review stating that basically the Bethesda "thing" had reached the end of the line and whilst he was giving it a pass that one final time, this was the last time the jank would be tolerated.

Alas Bethesda didn't listen.

I defend 76 now that it's been patched up, and I defend Starfield as a decent if not exceptional game, but I am seriously annoyed by all these Skyrim and Fallout 4 rehashes and editions that don't fix bugs that have been there 10 or 15 years.

I don't find it cute when my anniversary edition Skyrim character is blacksmithing and holds the hot end of the metal and hammers the cold end.... It was funny for a couple of months in 2011. It wasn't funny in 2021.

Whilst I believe the PS6 will launch later than many suspect, I believe this remark about life cycle is a bit of misinformation or people reading into quotes what they want to see.

I believe that the phrase life cycle refers also to the years of the cross gen period, and not the life of the console as the primary flagship product.

People understandably would like to believe that they don’t need to shell out on new hardware for another five years, but unfortunately that is wishful thinking.

The boycott didn't happen because the boycott was cancelled as I understand it.

Obviously there will always be a handful of vocal minority extremists who want to continue even though the issues they were concerned about were addressed.

The rogue employee was fired, so that element was resolved.

Reviews and early let's plays alleviated concerns that the protagonist would be an obnoxious "girl boss" Mary Sue stereotype.

Therefore the majority who had concerns were satisfied.

End of story. No need for inflammatory discussions as the matter is closed.

PS4 Pro version on PS5 looks rough compared to XOX version on XSX.

It's not just the frame rate that's needs improving for PS owners.

5 minutes! The humanity!

My ZX Speccy games took long than that to load every time I wanted to play!

I think "Premium only" is a fair shout from Sony.

GF Now is £200 a year just for streaming, or £240 a year if you want to pay monthly rather than lump some up front. There is no catalogue of games with that like you get with Premium.

The tech isn't free. They are having to run all these games on pricey hardware in their server centres.

When streaming was first implemented, I was actually impressed in that it felt better than streaming from my console (yes my console is wired).

Only issue with the Portal, regardless of whether streaming from PS5 or Cloud, was that darker games were a problem. It was hard to see in darker scenes, either due to the screen or excessive compression crushing blacks. Although I never saw the compression artefacts you'd expect to see in that scenario which is why I wasn't sure if it was the screen to blame instead.

Consumer is King.

You all have the power but choose not to exercise it.

You all know that your online game can be switched off at any time, or even patched in a way that fundamentally changes the product and how it plays, from what you originally purchased.

Desirable features can be removed and undesirable features can be added.

The solution is to not buy games where such a risk is present, and only buy those games that don’t rely on the publisher and developer maintaining the server systems and software support required for the game to keep running. Or, only purchase such games from publishers and developers with a solid track record of keeping older products live for a significant period of time.

For example, the developers of Guild Wars 1 have kept the game running despite the release of Guild Wars 2.

That is obviously different to most single player games that don’t rely on the server to function and only require that it remain downloadable for installation (which most developers and publishers do, as it allows them to keep selling the game even if that’s at a low cost and a small trickle of revenue).

If you behave like responsible consumers, the market will respond. Publishers and developers want to make money. Games that don’t sell, do not make money…

Alas what can I say. How many of you hammered in those pre orders for Concord.

Reap what you sow and all that...

As I pointed out in a post the other day, a large percentage of PlayStation owners are young people who do nothing other than play Fortnite/Minecraft, plus adults who perhaps bought the console for one game some years ago, and now only use it as a Home streaming system.

I pointed out that if you only consider users who are active and regular game purchasers, the install base of the Portal is significantly higher percentage than the install base being reported here.

It’s therefore not surprising that Portal owners are far more engaged than the average PlayStation owner. The Portal is therefore a significant product and has been a roaring success for Sony, amongst the customers who actually slam cash down on the countertop and pay the bills at Sony HQ.

@MrPeanutbutterz I think you both make pretty valid points there.

Would be interesting to know the crossover rates.

A lot of people here are completely dedicated to the PS ecosystem and own nothing else.

That in my opinion tends to be a psychological trait that is exclusive to PlayStation owners. It's a uniquely PlayStation mindset in my experience.

Outside of children who can't buy/play GTA anyway, most adult owners of Switches, as well as PC and Xbox owners, have a far more diverse gaming life and tend to own multiple systems. Many would certainly be prepared to buy a PS5 for GTA, if they don't already own one.

You may be right that anyone releasing games on those systems might well have to be aware that GTA could indirectly affect consumer spending within those ecosystems too.

However, from the perspective of a lot of PS owners who stovepipe themselves within PSN, I can understand why they'd think that there would be no impact on those systems that aren't receiving GTA at launch.

So it really depends on how the numbers fall.

I play Halo for the campaign/story and the open nature of Infinite didn’t deliver.

There is a myth that the original was open world, just because it wasn’t in narrow corridors like some games of the era.

The campaign needs a narrow, heavily directed linear design. Like Titanfall 2 which for me is the best campaign in an fps of all time.

Infinite was dull and unfocused.

After Veilguard's "return to form" bombed so hard that it left a Voidout crater, you have to wonder what direction MA was headed in prior to Veilguards release. I assume MA was being developed using the exact same philosophy.

Presumably following the Veilguard wake up call, they are desperately de-Veilguarding MA.

Having done a 180 on Veilguards GaaS elements, they no doubt performed a 180 on those elements in MA too, but in this case they do have more time in which to more thoroughly unpick it.

Suspect it will be a similar issue with the tone and writing.

It's going to be quite a substantial piece of work to cleanse all those elements, even to the point that they will need to re-do significant parts of the game from scratch.

I'd suggest that a lack of news and big delays, would be good news for the product we receive at the end of it.

I maintain that because Nintendo priced the Switch 2 properly such that if you really wanted it, you could find one in stock, people wrongly believe it didn't sell well.

As for physical media, the actual game carts have by far the slowest load times. Plenty of comparisons where in many scenarios they get hammered by the internal storage and memory cards. Often 50% longer to load than internal storage for example.

Simply can't have it all - capacity, speed and an acceptable cost for a game.

I don't support key cards either. The days of carrying around bits of plastic everywhere, and having to swap them over when you fancy a different game, are over.

I can still play my Steam games I purchased over 20 years ago, so I'm not too worried about Nintendo shutting down servers!!!

This is why people should focus on what exists on the shelves now, or is set for release within a few weeks.

Not get obsessed with vapourware.

Have to blame developers, publishers and the media too. Why are we so often seeing trailers, ads or even preorders for stuff that is six months to three years away.

As a PC gamer, I understand why so many people want everything to be on Steam.

I also understand why that is a bad idea and risks PC suffering the same rip-off pricing as consoles due to the lack of competition.

I actually think a PlayStation launcher and storefront does stand a chance of success.

Especially so if only games installed via that launcher or purchased via that store, have the cross purchase feature which delivers added value.

I’d also suggest that the PlayStation launcher should be the only way in which trophies can be earned on PC.

I'd have no objections, and I’d actually appreciate having the flexibility to flick between PlayStation and PC. The greatest benefit will be for example using the PlayStation at the start of each generation and being able to switch to PC later in the generation as the console tech becomes obsolete.

As a WoW player I feel that ESO is a far better fit for console play.

I'm not sure there is a massive market for WoW on console, who don't/haven't already played it on PC.

It's a game that requires significant time commitments at the expense of being able to play other games. If one is that interested in dedicating themselves to the game, acquiring a cheap mini PC or laptop is a relatively small barrier, and one they would’ve hopped a long time ago.

It’s a bit like what I said about Halo on PlayStation. Like you really want to tell me you are £80 desperate to buy this game, and yet couldn’t be bothered to grab an Xbox for £20 at a car boot sale and play it years ago??? I’m sure 99% of those buying Halo on PS5 will have already played it in one form or other in the past and just want to see the fancy graphics. That will not be applicable to World of Warcraft, as I’m sure the console version would look identical as per elder scrolls online.

So you want to pay £50 for World of Warcraft and then a £10 a month subscription, plus dedicating 30 hours a week to playing it. You are that desperate to play it yet you couldn’t be bothered to buy a cheap PC?

That makes about as much sense as the Chewbacca defence. Such people either do not exist or they are a very very very small vocal minority and not enough to sustain the product..

I remember the outrage when it was announced, and everyone saying it would flop.

I was one of the few voices on gaming forums arguing that it would be a success, and pointing out that 99% of Nintendo Switch handheld usage, takes place within the same Home and Wi-Fi network that the dock is located in.

If I am going to play handheld, I’d rather have the full home console experience in my hand, rather than a crippled experience trying to get games running using onboard processing, just for the sake of the 0% of the time that I’m gaming at the skate park like the fake actors in the Switch Lite commercials.

Doesn’t happen in real life, just like all the empty roads in the car commercials. Doesn't mean that both types of products cannot coexist though, it’s just that the vast majority of the handheld market do not require onboard processing..

Pretty obvious that in 2025 we shouldn’t be shipping pieces of plastic across the globe unnecessarily.

The fact that we have reasons for preferring the plastic is not an excuse to keep doing it.

That’s the entire point with climate change initiatives. Often the harmful activity we are engaged in, is something that we like and is lower cost than the alternative.

Being green isn’t easy or cheap, no one said it was - if politicians told you otherwise then I’m afraid they are liars (what’s new).

Sacrifices have to be made, whether that is paying a bit more for a digital game copy, driving a smaller car, taking fewer car journeys or not flying abroad on holiday.

Can’t criticise the Trump‘s of this world when you won’t even make the most basic and frivolous of sacrifices.

Half the PC players are bots and have aim assist...

That's the reason I quit multiplayer on PC and sought shelter on console back in the day.

@StitchJones 100%.

RDR2 has many great qualities, but take the gameplay in isolation and it is utter horse manure.

The second-by-second third person gameplay is atrocious. As you say, it controls like a forklift on a sand dune!

Imagine if MindsEye had identical gameplay. Reviews that score by category would give gameplay 4/10.

Stick the Rockstar and RDR badge on it, and add some pretty graphics (on XSX and PC at least) and suddenly it's game of the century.

I personally desperately wanted GTA V single player DLC (ideally two packs like GTA IV) and was bitterly disappointed by the focus on online rubbish instead.

The truth is they'd rather milk the credit cards of fools than make proper expansions. I'm not buying the RDR2 explanation/excuse at all.

Personally I'm not a fan of RDR2 anyway. It's clunky, sluggish and fully of unnecessary busy work that doesn't add to the experience. Prefer the original.

I'd take the GTA V expansion thanks.

Aren't car manufacturers legally obliged to ensure the supply for spares for something like a decade after the car is produced?

Seems reasonable that video game manufacturers should have to guarantee a similar level of service (server support for say 2 or 3 years), or alternatively can "buy themselves out" of the obligation by offering pro-rata refunds based on how long the game had been out.

If going for the former, they could outsource server support to third party firms, with funds to support it being ring-fenced for that purpose at launch.

South of Midnight was my GOTY, and awards or the opinions of other gamers, do not validate or detract from that.

@themightyant yup, I’ve seen plenty of PSSR implementations that looked absolutely fine to me. Even in games where it is criticised, it is certainly not on a par with the original grass shimmer in Horizon Forbidden West at launch.

I am very sensitive to frame rate and frame pacing, but for example even the flickering that has been demonstrated in Outer Worlds 2, is not something I tend to notice when zipping around the place shooting.

In the real world, we do not zoom in on a few square inches of screen and hold it static such that we can observe these artefacts.

Not saying PSSR is perfect of course, as a regular user of DLSS on my PC, it is clear that PSSR still requires a bit more time in the oven. That said, I’d rather use it than not use it, and my default position in any game menu is to turn it on.

Ultimately policing AI is the same as policing me.

You don’t ban me from watching your work, and I don’t see that you can ban AI from training on it either.

We (humans or AI) can both produce our own work, using what we’ve observed of others as inspiration.

The test is whether that individual work infringes on copyright e.g. per the Horizon case.

@REALAIS I totally respect that position for heavy gamers. When World of Warcraft released in my younger years I easily spent more than a hundred hours a month on it. 40 hours a week minimum I expect!

Nowadays I'm nearly 50, career, partner, community volunteering at weekends etc. I get 90 minutes gaming a few nights a week so don't come near the limit.

So for people of my age or lifestyle, that's where actually because our gaming hours are low, spending £2500 on a PC with a £1000 GPU upgrade every 2 years just doesn't make sense versus a £200 per year sub (which often comes with a £60 game).

I'm prepared to pay a premium for a curated online play system on console, to avoid all the cheating on the more open PC systems.

My complaint is with Cloud saves. I'm paying good money for the game, yet they want to make me pay extra for them to store a tiny little save file?

That is truly heinous.

It was alright actually. Personally we preferred Mario Kart back in the day though so I wouldn't agree with those critics.

However I dislike the way Mario Kart has gone since then with its massive wide sweeping tracks (it's hardly "karting" anymore) and the RNG weapons getting even more annoying.

So for my money and time, I'd take Street Racer over any other variant of Mario Kart bar the original.

I hated World and would have seriously regretted buying it if it wasn't bundled with the console.

I remember playing the 2014 Thief game on PC back in the day using NVIDIA's short-lived 3D vision thing.

I'd hoped by 2025 that such graphics were possible in VR, but this looks a step back and not as atmospheric graphically as the 11 year old title.

I can accept that if it is running at native res/frame rate though.

Guessing it will play similarly to Vampire: The Masquerade, so I guess it will ultimately be judged against that.

£4.99 v £22.99 hmmm

@Dalamar I'd recommend 7, 8 and 4 Remastered in VR.

Might change your perspective!

The only "action" in RE4 Remastered when you break open a snake crate in VR, will be in the vicinity of your rectum!!!!

@BAMozzy hundred percent agree. There is nothing original in Horizon to copy. The game is itself a collective of existing generic ideas.

Something like The Great Giana Sisters (for those old enough to remember) is where I think the line is drawn.

Or the misleading store front images of all the Truck Sim games on various consoles. They in my view try to trick consumers on consoles by making them think via the name and thumbnail, that they are part of the exceptional Truck Simulator series on PC, when in reality you are getting dross.

I am definitely seeing this as a cross-gen title, and that is despite the fact I think PS6 won’t appear until 2028.

Even in the worst case scenario, I predict a very short window between this game being released and the PS6 launching.

So in my view anyone with an interest in this game, and who is considering buying a PS6, should avoid playing this game on PS5 so as to avoid having the experience unnecessarily held back by hardware.

At the minimum, I expect a small backwards compatibility patch when the PS6 launches, but more likely a native PS6 version showing off all the new hardware features.

Although in truth, what I’ve seen so far of the game, which isn’t very much, doesn’t get my juices flowing.

@Northern_munkey all of them?!

Even that giant godzilla one with all the various lasers and launchers that my parents couldn't afford?(my god did Horizon rip that off!)

Damn you Sir!

@Northern_munkey mate I'm nearly 50! Had plenty of Zoids and you are absolutely right!!!

When Horizon was announced, that was the FIRST thing I thought of!

No way was Horizon an original idea; I guarantee Zoids was the inspiration!

Yes I do remember those little windup motors and how they just seemed to shuffle and turn on the spot rather than actually going forward!!!

Sorry but would any of you have accidentally bought this game, mistakenly thinking it was Horizon?

Thought not. This won't cost Sony a dime in lost sales.

I think back to the 90's when I bought countless Doom clones, and how the market could be damaged if firms were able to lockdown such basics as robotic animals with LED lights on them.

I’m Gen X and have always viewed gaming as the “new” disruptive tech that killed off pastimes of old from the 70’s and back, like Airfix, Scalextric, board/tabeletop gaming and Subbuteo.

But wise up old man, you are past it!

I need to accept that Video games are becoming the Airfix and Subbuteo. The kids these days see it as the old, and whilst many enjoy it, they have screen time activities that were science fiction to me in the 80’s and 90’s.

Every time I see Bend mentioned, I bang my head on my desk.

When I bought my original PS5 I was looking forward to Days Gone 2 within a few years.

It would have made a tidy profit. The stupidity is off the scale. Everyone lost.

Developing these Live Service games is like spending all your spare cash on lottery tickets instead of putting it in savings or shares.

You have a one in a million chance of winning big, but in reality are guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Where as the other option will always leave you with a nice pot.

@CallMeDuraSouka using GFN means no root kit DRM (Denuvo etc) that risks slowing or messing up my PC (that I use for my side hustle photography) and requiring a complete fresh Windows install to clear it off. Can't afford the downtime.

No fan noise. No excess heat (especially in the summer with no AC).

Parity of experience - 4k, 120fps, HDR, VRR.

Ability to switch the PC off, go to the living room, fire up the OLED and Nvidia Shield and continue from where I left off.

That's why. Plus as I've said before, for the same price as a bungled PS5 Pro port, I can buy a PC key and month of streaming sub. Zero cost.

You guys must be really wedded to your precious trophies, to tolerate developers chucking sloppy conversions at you and charging the earth.

It goes both ways though. I bought Borderlands 4 on my Pro as the PC port was trash.

Something about eggs and baskets....

@rjejr yes I'd concede that "enormous" is not really accurate.

I actually think Sony thought it would flop like PSVR 2.

It was almost as if they'd developed the thing, knocked out some stock and thought "Damn this ain't gonna sell, but let's send it out to die and recoup what we can".

I was one of the few voices who were saying that it would be a success at the time. I think Sony were actually shocked at how well it’s sold, especially as the marketing has been a bit half hearted, and still is.

So perhaps replace the word "enormous" with the word "surprise"!

@REALAIS rich?

PS5 is the expensive "money to waste" option.

My PS5 Pro cost the equivalent of 3 years of GFN, for which you get a vastly superior experience, no subscription for cloud saves and far cheaper games.

Just saying if we keep receiving garbage ports, I'm going to divert my money to other platforms. Sony needs to crack some heads and get a grip.

Nothing to do with Xbox (I sold my XSX).

Thank you to those who paid extra in order to beta test this for us and the developers.

Very kind and generous.

I'll still be playing via Gamepass on Geforce Now rather than on my Pro.

@Exerion76 you are forgetting the survey a month or so back that showed a vast percentage of gamers buy less than one game a year.

Loads of PS5's are owned by kids with no money who literally just play Fortnite, and a lot of adults who played COD once a few years back and use it only as a home movie streaming box.

We on this site are a tiny niche and not representative.

So to sell a £200 peripheral to 5% of people who typically bought the main product for the 55" or larger sofa experience, is pretty good going.

We probably on this site who buy loads of stuff, are in the top 10% to 20% of gaming consumers.

So they have sold this thing to a quarter to half of us! Us being the market for this device.

I was disappointed by the good launch sales, given the poorly optimised bungling technical state it was in.

Looks like outside of the hardcore day-one fans, gamers have done me proud though.

A Kojima Matrix game released between the first and second films would have been ace.

Damn I wish they'd stopped after one film and didn't destroy the IP. It's another damn Star Wars/Aliens/Terminator.

This is the future. Every game in your library [within reason) available to stream from launch via the cloud.

The disaster that is ADSL is dying out. Soon practically all homes will have fibre or something similar to my Virgin 1gb connection. New WiFi standards proliferating as ISP’s upgrade your hubs.

Streaming with no detectable latency or compression.

GFN is already superior to playing locally on PS5 Pro, and why would you select “potato” graphics quality on your heavy, hot, expensive, battery thirsty Steam Deck or the rumoured new PS handheld, when future variants of portal run at “ultra” and you are only holding a lightweight screen and tiny battery.

I’ve crossed a line this year in that I’ve purchased games on Steam and played them to completion on my PC and TV, without even having Steam installed, let alone the game.

@Jacko11 I'm not a heavy user of mine admittedly, but I never examine it closely when I do use it.

This convo just prompted me to grab it off the hook and take a close look.

Looks like new, same as it looked when I pulled it out the packet on release day. Immaculate.

Around the exact same time I bought the Elite, I also purchased a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 4's to use with my iPad. Not exactly cheap (£200 ish) and they are in an absolutely disgraceful state. The black stuff is flaking off the ear cushions.

My SteelSeries Arctis 7X get a LOT of use with my PC and they are also mint like the Elites. Despite being my most used headphones. Highly recommend their quality.

@Stevemalkpus I've been a massive TR fan since a sweaty-palmed 20 year old version of myself purchased the original for PS1 on launch day!

Personally I think I'd rather have nothing, than have whatever they were going to spew out. They have no respect for the IP and no creative passion or real talent.

They simply have the IP and need to shove it out there to earn some money for them.

I'd prefer if they'd let it sit in the wilderness for a good 10 years. Start working up some early concepts in the mid-2030's, release in the early 2040's if I'm still alive then.

I'd like to see a big leap. Similar to the jump from the 1996 to 2013 versions. I don't see the in-development game really doing much that Rise/Shadow didn't do. Just prettier graphics but with a low frame-rate and a load of stutter.

I'd still rather play it on a streaming handheld console at full graphics settings, than play a compromised and cutdown version on a standalone handheld with onboard processing, given that I can count on one hand the number of times per year that I’d play outside of my own or a friends/family network.

That’s just in terms of the graphics alone, let alone the extra cost, weight and heat of a standalone handheld.

I do take my switch on holiday, where there is a very poor Wi-Fi network, but that’s an entirely different kettle of fish with an entirely different type of game collection and experience. I don’t buy games like Witcher or cyberpunk for it as an example.

@Gremio108 LOL!

Liam must be slapping himself around the face in frustration for missing that obvious punchline under the article headline!!!!

Some parts will, some parts won't.

I don't want to explore spaces dreamt up by an AI. It's a bit like procedural generation (see Starfield). It has no soul.

I'd rather explore a space that a living breathing human crafted from their imagination.

However, I'm sure AI will be smashing out building-block art assets in no time. You can imagine AC Syndicate if it were made in the future, with AI using historical photos as a reference to churn out masses of high quality authentic assets.

Gameplay as well is something I think only a human could understand what is good and bad.

AI won't create games until AI is capable of reviewing games and telling me why I should buy it or not. I don't think Push Square staff have anything to worry about for decades.

Really like this game. Controversial take.... but for a few minor issues I'd prefer it over GoY.

The dual protagonist thing really started to grate on me. E.g. turning up at a quest giver and then suddenly in the cut scene the other character is there with you?!?! Appearing like the shop keeper in Mr Ben as if by magic. What the hell?!

Yasuke should really have had his own DLC where he was the only playable character and Naoe had the main campaign.

Or done the Odyssey/Valhalla thing where you pick one.

But otherwise I really love the graphics and prefer it to the arty style of GoY/GoT. Enjoyed the gameplay of both characters too in their own way.

Shock horror a third party title that runs great on Pro too. Glad they are supporting it continuously. May go back at some point.

My recollection (has been a long time) was that particular level was the most egregious for copy-paste repeating scenery.

It felt like you were going in circles through the same section 20 times, whilst be attacked by a bunch of balls.

Although many levels had that problem, and repetition goes at least as far as Halo 4 from what I can remember although I quite enjoyed that first 343 exclusive game.

Can't recall much of 5 as I hammered through it in co-op with my brother and it was pretty forgettable bar a few moments.