Fizza

There's undoubtedly an air of awkwardness surrounding this announcement given how they're probably only doing this because CotW has underperformed (at least in the eyes of SNK's owners 🙄) but this is still a great bit of news to see all the same, especially in conjunction with the massive free update out alongside it 👍

now if they really wanna redeem CotW's public image they'd finally bite the bullet and remove Ronaldo/Ganacci from the game but I know damn well that ain't happening 😭

@Swirly The FAQ outlines that access to the PS Store alongside purchasing games from it is still grand to do after these restrictions are rolled out.

Took a read-through of the provided FAQ and one section in particular caught my eye: it says that the act of 'joining parties or group sessions' would be disabled if you haven't verified your age with PlayStation yet. Does that mean you wouldn't be able to play with friends whatsoever until your age has been verified? 😭

oh brother here we go again 💀

I play almost exclusively single-player games on PS5 myself (with the lone exception of Marvel Rivals) so this won't affect me a ton but it still sucks to see such overbearing oversight be implemented yet again when they still can't (and most likely never will) guarantee your data won't get compromised despite all their insistence to the contrary.

Been a big fan of Vampire Survivors for quite some time (even to the point where I nabbed the Platinum for it in prep for this coming out) so naturally I am all over Vampire Crawlers as well, especially given how one of my other roguelike loves is Slay the Spire XD

I've got a bit of work to take care of beforehand but once that's out of the way, I'll absolutely be jumping into poncle's latest (magic) banger 😎

Seems like Yoshida didn't seem all too confident in the live-service initative Ryan and Hulst would go on to push and was foisted out of his main leadership role as a result (though letting him hang around as the primary chief for indies on Playstation was a smart move at the very least).

I have my own qualms with Yoshida for a number of reasons (particularly with how detached he can be from the average consumer when discussing topics like game pricing and such) but he certainly loved all of Playstation rather than only a specific chunk of it and I feel like that aspect is sorely missing in our current era 😅

@Nightcrawler71 I had an old €50 shopping voucher lying around from Christmas time so I was able to get a physical copy of Pragmata for free because of its lower RRP, I was over the moon XD

Been hammering away at Pragmata for the past couple days myself (managed to snag a physical copy and everything) and have been having the absolute time of my life with it roughly 8-10 hours deep. It feels like such a Capcom-ified take on the standard dad-core games we've become accustomed to since TLOU first burst onto the scene but with some truly outstanding core shooter-action gameplay that makes it more than just the sum of its parts. I can't wait to wrap it up within the next day or so and am thrilled its managed to do this well so early on because man: the world needs more games like Pragmata in it 💙

@TechaNinja I'd wager that's a leftover from when the release window was still listed as 'Autumn 2026' for months on end, they should update soon enough 👍

I may be more inclined towards SotN-style Castlevania compared to the more classic entries but I still do love me a good Classicvania when its done well like Rondo of Blood or Bloodlines so I'd definitely like to give this a go once my schedule is a bit quieter (plus its hard to say no when the barrier to entry is only a tenner XD).

well there goes the entirety of my free time from mid-September onwards XD

I haven't been able to stop thinking about Trails from the moment I first played through Trails 1st earlier this year and have been eagerly awaiting a release date for the sequel as a result. Granted September is actually a fairly busy month for me so its not ideal timing or anything but regardless I cannot wait to pour another 60+ hours into what I've heard is one of the best JRPGs of all time 🧡

I have no clue what Sony's fixation on this game is. Like genuinely what on earth do they see in a project which was so roundly mocked on reveal, criticised endlessly in private playtests and has had absolutely zero buzz from anyone other than the people anticipating another Concord-level failure? They could've positioned this as a proper multiplayer heist game to finally give Payday some actual competition but nah, just chuck it into an already overstuffed shooter subgenre and call it a day 💀

@Areus If Capcom weren't cowards we could also have Haunting Ground here too but alas 🥀

Wild Arms is a series I've been meaning to get around to for ages myself as a general JRPG connoisseur and seeing that Sony is finally willing to add the PS2 entries to PS Plus gives me a lot of incentive to finally dig into the franchise (at least for the first two PS1 games anyways, still hoping WA3 gets put on the more modern PS2 emulator soon XD).

also while I'm here, I must ask: is there precedent for bugs in classic games getting patched for PS Plus rereleases? A lot of the issues listed for WA4 sound pretty detrimental for the overall experience (especially on the European end 😅)

This doesn't change a damn thing in the slightest since they're still implied to be blood-related (which still makes it incest) and they even made it worse in a way since that short-story Nakayama shared basically retcons the familial relationship they had back in SF3 (yknow, the game Alex was the protagonist of???).

Genuinely don't have a clue why the SF6 dev team is so insistent on making Alex and Patricia into a romantic couple (to the point of marriage at that) when the reaction from pretty much everyone in the community has been that of horror and anger 💀

@somnambulance

@Areus Same here otherwise we'll be getting war flashbacks to the rerelease of Legend of Dragoon a couple years back 💀

@Areus The issue with the PS4 version of WA3 though is that its running on Sony's old PS2 emulator which is infamous for not running particularly well on PS5 (Ape Escape 2 being a prime example of this) 😭

I was personally hoping they'd rerelease it under the new PS2 emulator like they've done for Jak & Daxter and Siren but I think I'll have to wait another day for that unfortunately XD

Wild Arms 4 is an awesome retro game drop but its hampered a fair chunk by WA3 not being on PS5 and also by being the only retro game on offer for a PS Plus drop yet again 🙄

Aside from that then the main game lineup isn't anything too special which feels fairly in-line with the past couple PS Plus announcements unfortunately (even if HZD Remastered is fairly surprising given its relative recency).

@GamerDad76 @themightyant @DennisReynolds At this rate I feel pretty confident that Sony will bring an updated version of Bloodborne back to the masses.....as a PS6 launch exclusive 💀

This might actually be the single most insane headline I've ever woken up to XD

'R-Rated animated Bloodborne adaptation produced by Jacksepticeye' feels like an idea I'd come up with after a night out in the town but to be fair here, Sean certainly has a long history in the realm of film-producing if memory serves me (granted nothing to the scale of THIS but still XD) so I'll reserve judgment until I actually see a trailer for myself because the concept of Bloodborne getting an animated adaptation sounds almost too good to be true right now XD

I understand Pokemon's had a rocky reputation built up this past half-decade but surely there's better ways to 'stick it to the man' than blatant ripoffs 💀

anyways take this as my recommendation to go play Cassette Beasts, that's a Pokemon-like which actually does its own thing separate from its primary inspiration 👍

Purposefully skimming through the review to avoid spoiling myself but hearing that Pragmata was worth the six-year wait has me absolutely elated after having my own anticipation for it reach a boiling point after the past couple trailers its had XD

Hoping to snag this on or as close to release as possible and am over the moon that Capcom has been able to continue its 2026 hot-streak 🙌

I'm a massive fan of Yokai Watch pretty much since the series hayday in the mid-2010s but man I'm finding it really hard to get even remotely excited about Holy Horror Mansion being positioned as a spiritual successor to it when not only does the in-game footage looks very rough but the entire concepting/prototyping phases have been done using Gen-AI 😵‍💫

Time will tell how it all pans out I guess but man everything I see of this just makes me more and more depressed about the current state of Level-5 as a developer (and how royally screwed they're gonna be when the AI bubble inevitably pops).

I'm happy more people can finally experience Layton but god the series being on non-Nintendo consoles is the strangest feeling ever XD

Had a lot of my own personal concerns put to rest with this latest trailer (particularly with how the SotN-style RPG elements like level ups and item drops are back in full force) and I was already eagerly anticipating Belmont's Curse to begin with so now I'm doubly excited for its release later in the year! 😁

Oh and in regards to many of the comments above, I personally have no qualms with the visuals myself. Yeah its certainly different compared to previous games but Castlevania has never hung around in any particular art style for that long as is (Ayame Kojima only worked on five mainline games and two remakes for instance) and the sheer execution of BC's art style is utterly breathtaking in a way that gives me major Order of Ecclesia vibes with its bold primary colours for the environments, very big fan ^_^

Had a mate playing through this on PC lately and they've compared it to Cyberpunk 2077 in the sense that there's a delightful game buried under horrid optimisation/technical issues and based on what I've seen of it myself? I'm kind of inclined to agree with them XD

Still though, it doesn't sting quite as bad as Cyberpunk did back in the day since this is only $25 as opposed to a full $60/70 but I'm hoping they get these issues sorted out ASAP because its a rough look to put it mildly.

@KoopaTheGamer 'Perpetual' instantly set off every red flag for me because that single word essentially means that Sony can use your face for whatever they want in years/decades to come and you can't do s*** about it 😭

Isn't lending your likeness towards model creation something you typically get paid for in modern game development? Like face modelling is a job in its own right so this feels a bit like Sony's trying to exploit their fanbase into doing otherwise paid work for free 😵‍💫

I wanna love Level-5 so badly but god they have made it very difficult to do so lately XD

@PuppetMaster I mean you ain't wrong technically as those who consistently play Street Fighter on the competitive end only really care about function at the end of the day. However, the characterisation and lore of fighting game characters is what draws people into these games to begin with and can generally be what keeps the more general/casual audience invested in an otherwise very skill-dependent genre.

Its essentially like that one Futurama clip: do a fighting game story right and nobody bats an eye but do a fighting game story wrong and everyone and their mother will hound you ad infinitum until its changed XD

This is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way (really does feel like a perfect interpretation of Ingrid's bizarre existence in a modern style) but man I can't help but feel like they fast-tracked this trailer to divert people away from the lore-shaped elephant in the room (spoiler: it won't work 💀). Still though, I hope Ingrid is done justice in SF6 because Capcom has their work cut out in terms of rebuilding faith in their SF dev team (or more specifically their writing staff) XD

I personally believe Pragmata is to Mega Man what Devil May Cry is to Resident Evil in the sense that it started out as a new game in an existing IP before morphing into something so drastically different that it became its own thing instead but I do love how much they're linking the two series together due to the coincidences they share with each other XD

anyways I concur with the masses on this, please let this outfit be a proper unlockable in-game, it'd be so perfect 😆

Modern games always have smaller file sizes than the previous gen for the first year or so as all eyes dart towards the shiny new console but once the initial novelty wears off, file compression/optimisation typically takes a nose-dive for the remainder of a console's lifespan (the only one who wasn't really like this was Nintendo with Switch 1 but even they've started ballooning file sizes into 20-30GB territory nowadays) so to me this story basically reads 'Sony is damaging the PS6 in the long-term in exchange for short-term gain' 😵‍💫

I concur with @Fighting_Game_Loser here: its not exactly a deal if the 'deal' in question is just getting stuff for what they used to cost 3-4 years back, is it? XD

Welp that's all but confirmed that the PS6 will be over €1000 when it inevitably releases now, thanks Sony 🙃

I remember thinking I was overspending when I got a PS5 for €450 on Black Friday 2024 but in retrospect I managed to get it for the cheapest it will ever be 💀

not the first time Maradona's dealt with divine intervention tbf

@get2sammyb Wasn't there a rumour going around prior to Marathon's delay that it needed to chart in the overall Top 10 for 2026 releases in order to meet Sony's expectations? This is a bit dire if that reporting was accurate 😭

Jason Blundell is a stronger man than me because if I had both of my studios shuttered by the same parent company within the span of two years, I'd just quit the games industry altogether 😭

My heart goes out to all those affected by this but yet again the leadership who is ultimately at fault for these closures will escape unscathed while those below them burn away, how many more times must this happen before people like Hulst actually get comeuppance for their decision-making 💀

Glad I got my Marvel Rivals matches for the day done this morning in that case, I remember the last outage went on for a whole day so hopefully it doesn't get to that point again 😅

@Boybeales Hmm that's an interesting coincidence, is there something in the latest system update which caused online connectivity to get tangled up I wonder?

@HRdepartment Warhammer is getting a Survivors spinoff with the direct blessing of Poncle (same engine and everything) so I'd say that's the closest you'll get as of now (though the existing Castlevania DLC for OG VS is so gargantuan it may as well be called VS2 anyways XD).

Good lord I already had Darwin's Paradox and Pragmata on the slate for April, now Vampire Crawlers is coming out near the end of the month as well? XD

Very happy to see this though, I've been keeping up with Vampire Crawlers pretty much since the moment they announced it as a big fan of both Vampire Survivors and deckbuilders/roguelikes so I will absolutely be on this day-one 🙌

@UltimateOtaku91 The aspect that makes this whole storyline so bizarre though is that Capcom generally does not do s*** like this in their games. Yes there is the occasional sus moment in earlier Ace Attorney games (back when there wasn't the expectation that the series would leave Japan) but by and large Capcom designs their games with an international audience in mind and while this type of story development isn't particularly taboo in Japan, it is extremely frowned-upon basically everywhere else in the world so why they thought something as creepy as this would go down well with a character as long-established as Alex is beyond me 💀

I don't necessarily mind them making Alex into a family man (kinda like a new-age Guile if you will) but having him get together with his adoptive sister who was also confirmed in the same game to be blood-related? Jesus man I have no clue what Capcom was thinking with this, especially when the Arcade/World Tour content heavily indicates they thought this would be perceived as wholesome instead of horrifying 💀

I'm personally hopeful this will be retconned into oblivion soon enough (especially given the suspicious silence from all the SF socials following this revelation becoming known) but good lord man this is such a profoundly idiotic writing choice 😭

Jesus this is an absolutely terrifying precedent to set: they legit just made this lost media out of nowhere for anyone who didn't already buy this beforehand 😭

Yes you could say 'but what about Concord!' but at least that had a PC version and physical release to try and kickstart a preservation effort, this didn't have either and now its just....gone.

@MrPeanutbutterz

I'm praying they go back and retcon it entirely with a different slate of lore pieces because Capcom managed to do the impossible and make themselves the main target of ire today rather than the Tekken faithful getting yet another dud patch (which given the nuclear reception to T8 Season 2 is truly a feat for the ages💀).

@MrPeanutbutterz SF6 Alex looks so good from a presentation and gameplay angle....and then you see his Arcade/World Tour story content 💀

Been seeing Tekken players talking about retirement following this patch so that's already a strong start to the reception of S3 XD

@Reyzore Still blows my mind that Sony hasn't capitalised on the anime gacha market yet outside of a single limited-time collab with Genshin and Horizon a couple years back. Gacha games like Hoyoverse's output are consistently some of the top-performing games on the PS Store, Sony's desperate for a proper live-service hit and people have been wanting Sony to break away from hyper-realistic visuals for their games for quite some time now (Astro Bot being a particularly prominent example of the success such a move can have from recent history).

Not a bad idea to be honest, VTuber fanbases would find a way to resurrect extinct species if their oshi told them to do it XD