Comments 1,437

Re: Updates and Brand New PS5 Announcements at THQ Nordic Showcase This August

Fiendish-Beaver

I'm desperate for another mainline Darksiders, although I will happily have another Genesis game too.

Very keen to see Remnant 3 as I absolutely loved the first two games (although admittedly, I couldn't beat the final boss in the second game).

Also looking forward to seeing what they do with the remake of Gothic, and whether it is going to be a decent version, or a poor effort (much like Oblivion was pretty poor really)...

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 2.3 Delayed Beyond This Week, Confirms 'Similar Scope' to 2.2

Fiendish-Beaver

Really happy that they are still tending to 2077. I played it when it first came out, and put about 100 hours into the game (with a great deal still to do at that point), when I hit a bug that meant part of the story was inaccessible to me, so I stopped playing with the intention of returning to it at some point. I now fully intend to play the game very soon (though I may now delay it in order to replay Death Stranding before starting the sequel), so I'm more than happy for them to keep fixing the game. I just have to hope they have fixed my progression bug, because I intend to restart the game (because I really don't remember it at all).

Just have to finish off The Witcher 3 first, and I have a long way to go with that yet...

Re: Mini Review: TRON: Catalyst (PS5) - A Deftly Delivered Return to the Grid

Fiendish-Beaver

I was about 18 when I played Deadly Discs, @sciteach, and I remember one night being on such a fantastic run that I played until gone 4 in the morning before the run ended because you couldn't save your game. If you turned it off, you had to restart. I don't remember my score, but it was something like 3 or 4 million, and not a score I ever bettered.

It was obviously of its time, but back then it was so much fun. I didn't think anyone here would have even heard of the game, let alone having also played it... 😂

Re: Final Fantasy 16 May Have Underperformed on PS5, But It's Doing Terribly on Xbox

Fiendish-Beaver

I think there are a number of reasons why FF16 is doing badly on Xbox:

1. It's an older game, and people will always be looking to play the most recent games first and foremost.

2. The price point for an older game is too much, and that will be resented by some. Thus, many will await a sale before picking it up. It has, after all, been cheaper in a sale on the PlayStation than the current asking price for the game on the Xbox.

3. Many Xbox owners also own a PlayStation, and so will have played it there already.

4. There have been a succession of decent games on the Game Pass (and Xbox in general) of late, and so jumping on an older game that is priced incorrectly, when you have so many other recent choices means it will be overlooked.

5. Many will expect this game to go on Game Pass at some point, as other Final Fantasy games have.

6. FF16 was criticised a lot on the PlayStation, and many on the Xbox will be aware of this, and so won't buy it as a consequence.

7. PlayStation has historically been seen as the home of Final Fantasy. Even though other games in the series are available on the Xbox, they are not seen in the same light there.

8. People only like exclusives when they are on their console of choice, thus games that are ported over never see the same success on the later platforms because people don't like the practice when carried out by third-party publishers.

Edit: 9. As pointed out below, it was also shadow-dropped, and not everyone will have been aware that it even came out due to the lack of publicity surrounding its arrival.

Ultimately, FF16 was never going to have the same success on the Xbox that it saw on the PlayStation...

Re: 'Competition Pushes Us to Innovate': Sony Weighs in on Xbox's Potential Exit from Console Business

Fiendish-Beaver

Truthfully, Sony have already grown complacent (under the previous leadership, anyway) following their success during the PS4 era, and that has come back to bite us this generation. If Microsoft do leave the console market (or release something that is so different as to be somewhat niche) then Sony will grow still more complacent.

Let us remember that there were rumours prior to the PS5 launch that Sony were looking to charge much more than they ended up charging for the PS5. Sony waited until Microsoft announced the cost of the Series X before revealing the price of the PS5. In other words, Sony were forced to match the price of the Series X rather than charge more as they had initially wanted. Thus, if Microsoft leave the traditional 'high-end' console market, Sony will be gifted free-reign to charge what they really want for the PS6, and you can bet your life that will not be favourable to us gamers. Therefore I'm sure that Sony would absolutely love it if Microsoft were to leave the console space...

Re: Reminder: Look Out for PS5 Logos in Today's Xbox Showcase

Fiendish-Beaver

I've been saying this (and asking this) ever since Spencer made the announcement, @OldGamer999. When they say the PlayStation logo will be on the trailer, do they mean for games that release day and date on both platforms? Do they intend the logo to be there for games releasing 6 months later? 12 months? Or does the absence of a logo mean it will never, ever be ported?

When you consider what Spencer said, he will left themselves will a huge amount of wiggle room, and left us gamers with a huge number of unanswered questions, which, of course, is what Microsoft do all the blasted time. How are you supposed to make an informed decision when you don't have all the answers...?

Re: Round Up: What Was Announced at Summer Game Fest 2025?

Fiendish-Beaver

Really looking forward to RE9. For me, they Summer Game Fest was bookended by two games that I particularly want (Mortal Shell 2 and RE9). Other than that, it was a pretty so-so effort with just a couple of highlights; Code Vein 2 is another one that I am looking forward too, as well as the Lies of P DLC (which I shall buy tomorrow) and Dying Light: The Beast, and of course Mindseye, which I already have on pre-order. Atomic Heart 2 looked pretty bonkers, so I must get round to playing the first game...

Re: Round Up: What Was Announced During Sony's State of Play Livestream for June 2025?

Fiendish-Beaver

I wasn't talking about exclusives, @UltimateOtaku91, as you will see if you re-read my comments. I was talking about output, and indeed, what that output consisted of.

Microsoft are now basically a fully third-party publisher with a side-line in consoles (which they have little regard for now). I expect pretty much every game they show at their showcase to also have the PlayStation logo on it.

Regardless, that was not the point of what I was saying. What I was saying is that Sony's output is about half what it was during the PS3 era, and that most of that output has not actually been original / new games. I didn't mention Microsoft or Xbox, However, seems as you bring them up (for whatever reason) what I would say is that I expect 90% of what Microsoft show at their showcase to consist of new games, not remasters or re-releases. I also expect to see Microsoft release far more games that Sony, albeit that they do obviously have more studios, but less of a tendency to work with outside studios so in that respect it's half a dozen of one, and six of the other...

Re: Round Up: What Was Announced During Sony's State of Play Livestream for June 2025?

Fiendish-Beaver

Sony released around 80 first-party games on the PS3, @ChrisDeku. They were of varying scales, but all first party, how many of them released within the first 5 years, I don't know, but if you average that over the 7 years that's roughly 11 games a year.

There have been around 30 exclusive games thus far in the first nigh on 5 years of the PS5, but not all them have been first-party, and a fair few of them have either been PS5 upgrades (4 games), or a remaster (8 games). Oh, and I include Concord and All Stars in that 30. There have been 18 new Sony games since the PS5 came out, and I include each iteration of MLB The Show, which accounts for 5 of the games. Regardless, with around 30 games, Sony are currently averaging 6 games a year, which by my reckoning means they are putting out about half as much as they used to.

That list includes:

New Games

Astro Bot
Firewall Ultra
God of War: Ragnarök
Gran Turismo 7
Helldivers 2
Horizon Forbidden West
Lego Horizon Adventures
Spiderman 2
Spiderman: Miles Morales (an expansion really)
MLB: The Show x 5
Nioh 2
Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart
Returnal
Ruse if the Ronin
Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Re-releases

Death Stranding Director's Cut
Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut
The Nioh Collection
Uncharted Collection

Remasters

Days Gone
Demon Souls
Horizon Zero Dawn
Spiderman: Remastered
The Last of Us Part 1
The Last of Us Part 2
Until Dawn

Cancelled:

Concord
Destruction AllStars

Thus, you can be a defensive as you like over Sony's output, that is your right, but they are not providing the same sort of games, nor the at the same cadence as they used to.

Yes, they release some absolute bangers, but many of the games we enjoy as exclusive are not actually made by Sony, but published by them having been bought as exclusives...

Re: Round Up: What Was Announced During Sony's State of Play Livestream for June 2025?

Fiendish-Beaver

I think from a standpoint of these are the games coming to the PlayStation, then yes, this was a decent showcase. However, this may as well have been a third-party showcase because there were very, very few actual PlayStation first-party games on show here. If you view it as a State of PlayStation then you would have to admit that it is in fact in a bit of a state!

Sony's push into Live Service content has allowed the well of first-party content to run dry. And to cap it off, Sony have then cancelled the vast, vast majority of those Live Service games too. Thus, even if Sony switched emphasis once again to non-Live Service games a couple of years ago, with games now taking 5-7 years to make, it is still going to be 3 or 4 years before we see the regular first-party drops that we were used to during the PS3 and PS4 eras.

Tis a bit of a sad state of affairs, truth be told, though at least I think we will be back on track (more or less) when the PS6 releases...

Re: When Is Summer Game Fest 2025?

Fiendish-Beaver

The showcase that I am most looking forward to is the PlayStation showcase on Sunday the 8th. It'll be presented by Phil Spencer, but regardless, you know we'll be getting all the games on the PlayStation day one too... 😉

Re: Hundreds of Thousands Living a Fantasy Life in Level-5's Grand Return

Fiendish-Beaver

Not a question of being defensive, @Titntin. I have stood up for fairness my entire life. It's what I did until I retired! Comparing this game to Doom on Steam, was not a fair comparison simply because of Game Pass. Had the article gone on to say that Doom had also released on Game Pass, I would have let it slide, but then the author would not have done that because then it would have shown it to be an unfair comparison, and the real point of that comment was to bash Doom or (more likely) Microsoft, because that plays to the crowd here on Push.

So am I alright? Absolutely! However, I will always stand up for truth and fairness, without that, the world descends into a free-for-all. And whilst someone putting up some kind of reasoning that actually gives clarity to the situation may not be the most popular thing to do on this site, as the saying goes, for evil to prevail it only takes the good to turn a blind eye... 😉

Re: Hundreds of Thousands Living a Fantasy Life in Level-5's Grand Return

Fiendish-Beaver

If you call an 8 out of 10 garbage, @PlatinumMikey, with a score of 85 on Metacritic, then I can only assume you barely play anything. Even on this site, 60% of people rated the game as 8 or above, and if you include the 7s (which consider the game to be Great) then that rises to 75% of people. And then on Steam the game is rated as Very Positive from 86% of over 12,000 reviews.

So it would seem that the game is far from garbage, but hey, you can dislike Microsoft as much as you like, and you are entirely within your rights to think that Doom: TDA is garbage, and I'm not going to tell you to think otherwise. However, the stats do tend to suggest otherwise... 😉

Re: Hundreds of Thousands Living a Fantasy Life in Level-5's Grand Return

Fiendish-Beaver

That's all true, @UltimateOtaku91. However, PC Game Pass has been growing steadily since Call of Duty arrived there last year. Indeed, it is the only part of the Service that is growing, but that is a whole other matter.

What we have seen is a steady influx of high quality games on the Game Pass since CoD last year, and this has drawn in a lot of new subscribers to the Service, particularly on PC. That is why so many more are playing Doom on Game Pass.

When Palworld, etc. released, PC Game Pass was not as popular as it is today. It is as simple as that...

Re: Hundreds of Thousands Living a Fantasy Life in Level-5's Grand Return

Fiendish-Beaver

It's a very disingenuous comparison to make between this and Doom, @get2sammyb. Doom is on Game Pass and that is where the vast majority of people played it, meaning that it was never going to do as well in the Steam charts. Had the game not been on the Game Pass, it would have likely figured far, far higher, and as a games journalist, I'm pretty sure you would know this. I get you want to play to the crowd, and that bashing Microsoft always plays well here, but it is a false comparison, and I'm sure you know it... 😉

Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Attracts 3 Million Players, Over 2 Million Estimated on Xbox

Fiendish-Beaver

I guess the proof in the pudding, @lazarus11, is whether we see another Doom game. If it did too poorly to warrant another game, then we'll know soon enough.

Regardless, there are about 30 million Game Pass subscribers (not 35 million - and that number is falling on console (but that is a whole other story!)), and even if 2 million played it on Game Pass, that's still, at a lot of money made from subscribers. And this is just the first week.

Plus many people on the Xbox bought the Premium add-on, or outright bought the game (as I did), and yet more will play the game via Game Pass in the months and years to come. That's all money coming in, no matter what way you paint it. Without Game Pass, it would undoubtedly have sold more copies, but to dismiss the revenue that Game Pass brings in is an unwise thing to do. Game Pass has the tendency to suck people into it too; with people joining to play one game, and then continuing to subscribe to play something else. It's all revenue for Microsoft at the end of the day...

Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Attracts 3 Million Players, Over 2 Million Estimated on Xbox

Fiendish-Beaver

And what this means is that if three million people have played it, and two million of those played it on the Xbox, then it has sold at least one million copies, which is not to be sniffed at. Bear in mind also that those playing on the Xbox are also paying for Game Pass, so money will be earned that way, together with those that paid for the Premium Upgrade, and also those, like myself, who bought it on the Xbox (I bought the Collector's Edition).

All told, I would say that it has done pretty well thus far...