@Col_McCafferty - I seem to remember you commenting something along the lines of “maybe the haters should accept they don’t like the game and move on” in regards to TLoU II; just a suggestion, but perhaps you should take your own advice here, instead of sniping at the game and those who enjoy it. 😉 —— What I feel isn’t brought up enough regarding this topic, is that Elden Ring, like most recent From games (Sekiro excluded) do have difficulty sliders, they’re just built in to the game itself in ways very similarly to JRPGs. Want to make the game easier? Level up your character/weapon, summon npc/player spirits to assist, track down some powerful weapons, increase the number and efficacy of your healing potions (and probably some other things I can’t think of). Want to make it harder? Don’t do these things. The way these games are designed, you can fine-tune the difficulty to suit how hard or easy you want it to be, you just have to use the tools the game provides. To that end, I don’t see the point in having a blanket difficulty option, because that kinda makes all those elements redundant. Why bother levelling up your character when you can pretty much blow over everyone regardless? Why bother summoning help when facing a boss solo isn’t that hard? Sure, for some games, a difficulty slider makes sense (e.g. Doom, DMC) but if the game is designed around not having a slider, and where including one takes away from the experience, then I can’t really see it as a benefit, let alone a necessity.
Sounds great, but to be fair, what are we looking at in terms of improvements? Any real reason to replay any of these, or will it be a case of “if you haven’t played them yet, here’s a slightly better version for you to try”? Admittedly, the fact that they’re free means there’s no real downside, so it’s not like it’s any skin off my nose either way, but on the other hand, if there’s little in the way of improvements, then there’s little to get excited about either.
I dunno if it’s already been mentioned, but Team Sonic Racing already being on PS Now isn’t necessarily a problem, as there are a lot of places that don’t have access to it (like where I am), so for them, there’s no overlap at all. As for the lineup in general, it seems decent. Ghostrunner and Team Sonic Racing are games I was curious about, but never enough to buy, so their inclusion is nice, and having access to GTA online means I have fewer reasons to rebuy GTA V now, so that’s something I guess. At the very least, it’s an improvement over this month.
@AV_aka_577_ex-Xbox - So, on the one hand you say they’re not good, but on the other, you say they may be good, but aren’t popular/mainstream enough to be worth including? First off, which one is it? Secondly, if we’re being honest, most of the indie titles you listed off could just as easily be written off as niche titles (Stardew and Hades being perhaps the only exceptions), so I’m not sure if that second argument holds up if you’re suggesting obscure titles like Syberia and Sable as replacements for a AAA EA Sports title (admittedly it’s no FIFA, but it’s still leagues above a lot of indie titles in terms of recognition). And finally, I’m pretty sure Tiny Tina isn’t a Multiplayer-only title; it’s a single player/co-op dlc expansion released as a standalone. ——— While I’m disappointed the Tiny Tina inclusion isn’t the new game (though in hindsight I should’ve realised that couldn’t have been the case), it’s still an okay month for me. Nothing to write home about, to be sure, and a bit of a drop from last month, but I wouldn’t say “it’s a crap selection” like a lot of others seem to think.
Thought the Tiny Tina game was the new one at first; disappointed to find out it’s just the dlc from 2. That brings the overall offerings down a bit imo, though the other two aren’t bad picks considering what’s coming out next month.
@Dethstorm35 - Not quite, there were a few released on the PS2 and PSP, plus a couple of mobile attempts. If you want the full list, you can check it out on Wikipedia.
Got 11/15, which isn’t too bad, though it would’ve been one more if I hadn’t tripped up on the killzone question. Was surprised at how far off I was with the Ratchet question; apparently there are more Ratchet and Clank games than I thought (though I feel the HD collection being listed as a standalone entry is a bit dubious). Also, add me on the list of people who didn’t know the Tenchu question (though in my defence, I’ve never played it)
Gotta admit, I'm surprised I can access this. Last time I tried with something like this, it said it wasn't available in my region, so this is cool. Apparently I played 1404 hours last year (only 11 of which were online), with my top four games being Yakuza 0 (174 hours), RDR2 (165), Mass Effect: LE (161) and Nioh 2 (147) which sounds about right. Also, I was apparently only 9 trophies away from collecting 1000 for the year, which now makes me wish I'd tried just that little bit more last month, but on the plus side, I did end up with 13 platinums, so that's something. All in all, this is a pretty neat feature; be interesting to see how this year turns out.
@ShogunRok - Wouldn't FighterZ also be phoning it in for Bandai Namco? "Oh we'll just hire this dev studio who makes fighting games to make one with the Dragon Ball IP". At least with those two games, they're not only doing it themselves, but are attempting to find new ideas that haven't been done with these IP's before (Because, if I'm being honest, Breakers might not be as polished or high quality as FighterZ, but it's sure as heck a more unique use of the Dragon Ball IP).
On a related topic, I'm not seeing the problem with the core premise here: a 24-player battle royale, where teams of 3 have to work together using their quirks to win seems like a pretty authentic adaptation of the manga/anime. Admittedly, I am a bit behind with what's been happening, so perhaps things have changed, but from what I have read (about 200 chapters or so), team-based battles/challenges makes up a decent chunk of the content. Now sure, it's attached to a FtP game that's also by Bandai Namco, meaning the execution isn't likely to match the idea, but the idea itself, at least to me, sounds fine.
@D3adP00L - "I'm not saying we deserve the latest and greatest every month, but seriously Sony's competition with Game Pass is embarrassing"
To be fair, both are completely different services, that serve different ends. PS+ is about selling online multiplayer (like Nintendo's NSO), with the games and deals included as a bonus, not the main feature. GamePass, on the other hand, is more akin to Netflix, in that it's a big rental service where the games are the focus, not add-ons. A better comparison would be with PS Now, as that's the service Playstation offers that's actually similar to what GamePass is doing, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting it even exists given it isn't available in most regions.
It was decent. To me, this service was always about getting a collection of games you'd otherwise never buy, but might enjoy, for a heavy discount (paying less than the price for a full game for a collection of 36 games) and I'd say it delivered on that, with a couple of gems like Control and Hitman 2 added for good measure. I certainly don't think it was as 'crap' as some of the monthly polls suggested (seriously, the month that gave out Hitman 2 and both Overcooked games(+DLC) was voted crap?) but then, so does the yearly poll, so *shrugs *.
@Jaz007 - it probably is an 8/10 (just like Deathloop) but for at least a couple of the staff here, the game is seen as a 9 or 10/10, which is why its placed so highly. Personally I don’t quite get it (I’ve played the demo, and it wasn’t that great by a long mile); to me, Psychonauts 2 and possibly Returnal were more deserving, but it is what is.
On a related note, I guess this means Deathloop didn’t place, which is interesting, and mildly surprising (though having finished it last night, I can kinda see why).
@BAMozzy - Sorry, but I have to continue to disagree here. "to adjust things like output resolution, frame rate cap etc is no different from a PC player buying a new GPU and then turning up the Graphical settings in game." First off, PC’s are a completely different beast to consoles. Where consoles are mostly limited in their options, PC’s have much greater flexibility due to PC not really being a single console, but an entire line of them that don’t really have nearly as many technological barriers. That said, changing the settings in a PC game doesn't really count, because those options are still baked in the original release.
"Its simply 'porting' the game to a new system and adjusting the setting for that hardware - the same as whether its ported 'up' a generation, ported down a generation or even ported to another platform. Its still a PORT - not a remaster. The Devs are just ensuring the game runs properly and adjusting the settings to optimise it for that hardware, but they have NOT remastered anything - the entire game, all the assets etc are untouched, they have not been 'remastered' at all." You do realise the entire point of remasters, is to simply make them playable on newer systems, right? That’s literally their only purpose. Sure, good remasters go a little further to fix up graphical or other problems, update the assets so they look better on newer systems, but the bare minimum a remaster needs is to make the game playable on a newer system. See the PS3 HD Collections that literally started the remaster trend. All they did was up the resolution, slap on some trophies, and called it a day. They were bare-bones remasters, sure, but they were still remasters because they updated the resolution for newer systems.
"Would you call Assassin's Creed Valhalla or CoD: Vanguard 'remasters' on PS5 because they run at higher visual settings than on PS4? No because they are 'ports' that have just had the settings dialled in for the Hardware. I wouldn't call them remasters because they were released simultaneously. Ports, Remasters, and Remakes are all re-releases after the initial launch, so a game that launches on two systems simultaneously wouldn't count as any of them.
@BAMozzy - "That is not the same as 'porting' the entire 'game and assets' up to new hardware and tweaking a few Graphical settings (like increasing the output resolution, increasing frame rate caps, turning up shadow quality etc - things that were 'dialled' down to run on weaker hardware). That's just a 'Port' as far as I am concerned but often marketed as a Remaster."
I'd have to disagree there. Any visual improvements like that should really classify as a remaster, because you're still bringing them to a new platform generation, which is the entire point of remasters. Ports, by comparison, are usually games transferred from one platform to another within the same generation (e.g. Metal Gear Solid 2 on Xbox), or to a later one with similar or lesser specs (e.g. Xenoblade Chronicles on 3DS). They're not trying to 'update' the game's visuals, just release it on more platforms. That's how I see it anyway.
@Integrity - "Imagine spending 5 years of your life on a game..." To be fair, there is such a thing as spending time poorly, so it's not like that, by itself, necessarily deserves a reward. You can spend 50 years making a game, but if end result is bad, then it's still bad. Similarly, if the end result is a shallow game without much to talk about, then regardless of how much time was spent on it, there's no reason to provide a full review for it.
Also, in regards to your larger paragraph on Praey for the Gods, I get the impression your main point there is just "I thought the game was better than the reviewer did" more than anything; if that's the case, that's just a difference of opinion, not necessarily a good argument for the reviewer going more in-depth into their rationale (also, saying you didn't experience many bugs/glitches isn't much of an argument, as those things always vary wildly; even in a game like Cyberpunk, I've heard people say they didn't experience many bugs on their playthrough, whereas others, well....).
As for my thoughts on the actual review, that seems about right. As much as I'd like to have a proper cricket game, the fact of the matter is, most game devs are still based in USA or Japan, where cricket isn't exactly popular, so it falls to small devs like Big Ant Studios to do what they can with what little budget they can scrounge up.
@Isle_Delfino_Man - "It's shockingly greedy" What, to charge $10? It might be a little greedy, but "shockingly"? Not really. That I think, should be reserved for situations that are actually severe like, for example, GoT charging $30 for less than what this Uncharted collection offers, or the initial Horizon situation where there was practically no upgrade option at all. $10 is only bad if you compare it to those who offer free upgrades, but even then, it's not that much of a difference. Also, "PC is my main platform and I've been playing the same games on increasingly better hardware for 20 years and haven't paid for an upgrade of resolution/frame rate." As a fellow PC gamer, I'm pretty sure I can say the reason for that is because most games don't get upgrades, they just have a range of graphics options out of the box the scale up to your hardware specs (to a point, obviously). That's quite different from console games, which have to pick a particular setting, and stick with it.
Well this makes me wish I hadn't traded in my physical copy of Uncharted 4 several months ago ("Oh it's fine" I thought, "I've got the PS+ version, why would I need a physical copy as well") but on the other hand, it should be easy enough to get a replacement copy, and with the price they're at atm, this is still a pretty decent deal (especially since I never got round to getting The Lost Legacy).
@themcnoisy - "But just imagine an Oscar going to Prometheus pre release as it was set in the Alien franchise. See, crazy." Except we have been able to play the MP, so it's not like they're basing it purely off of it being a Halo game, but their actual experience with what parts of the game they've been able to access. A more apt comparison would probably be giving the Best Picture Oscar to The Dark Knight based purely off of the prologue bank heist sequence that was released prior to the movie. Still a bit iffy, but it's at least based off of something tangible as opposed to just "oh it's part of this franchise, I'll vote for it".
A bit tricky this year, as most of the good titles this year were ones I either hadn’t played, or played on another platform, so I expanded the criteria and ended up with the following: Deathloop, Mass Effect, Psychonauts 2, Returnal, and The Great Ace Attorney. That said, I do wish there were two different polls; one for best game, another for most favourite, as they really are two separate things.
@Bleachedsmiles - sigh That is pretty far from what I meant. To clarify, I wasn’t saying you were selfish for liking gamepass, I was saying you were selfish for not caring for the people who deliver you these services in the first place. In your post, you expressed dismay at people asking how Microsoft can afford GP longterm, asking why people care, before stating your belief that gamers should only care about what they get out of it. Only caring what you get out of a deal is incredibly selfish and a big middle finger at the people who work tirelessly to bring you these products and services. This is what my post was saying.
@Bleachedsmiles - Because that's an incredibly selfish view to take. As gamers, we don't exist in a vacuum, we form part of the videogame ecosystem; it's to all our benefit to care about the entire system, not just what we get out of it. And that goes for devs as well; everyone needs to care about the entire system, otherwise it becomes harder and harder to sustain, and then where will we be?
I think at the moment, there are too many potential obstacles to clear for me to be interested. Firstly, it would have to actually be made available in my region, unlike PS Now. Second, the pricing for the base rate of PS+, unlike Nintendo, is pretty high already (here the regular price for a yearly sub is $80); to throw in not one, but two extra pricing tiers on top of that? I'd probably end up having to pay something like $150 per year, and at that point it does kinda become a bit too much to regularly pay.
On top of that, how many of these old games would be both worth playing, and aren't already playable on a PS4/5? For example, take a look at how much of the PS1's library (Crash, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Castlevania: SotN, even MediEvil) are available in some form on current systems. Not to mention a lot of these are available as remakes, meaning you'd be getting a technologically inferior copy to something that's not only already on the market, but fairly cheap as well.
To be fair, there's plenty of time for more information to be released, and the idea of adding an extra tier to PS+ to allow access to a large collection of old games isn't too bad, it just needs to clear up a few things before it sounds enticing enough, at least imo.
@Balosi - If you look at the nominees, Resi Evil Village was only nominated in the Playstation category (as was Deathloop), much like how Psychonauts was only nominated in the Xbox category. Not sure if they've mistakenly thought those were exclusive to those consoles, or just associated those games with those consoles, but for whatever reason, that's what's happened.
@everynowandben - There are a few I'd pick over Resi Evil Village, but so far, my personal pick for GOTY is probably Psychonauts 2.
I must've not taken a good look at the nominations when they were announced, because looking at them now, it's clear they're somewhat problematic, especially when it comes to multi-platform titles. From such a shaky foundation, it's a surprise the results didn't turn out worse. On the plus side, it was nice to see FFXIV win some awards, and while Returnal was once again snubbed, Housemarque at least managed to get an award for themselves.
@Col_McCafferty, @Korgon, @Longondo, @Ultrasmiles - "But what about "x" game?"
If you look at the larger 'list', there are lot of games that are sitting with around the same score just outside the top 15, including all the games you all mentioned (Skyrim, Infamous, AC, Persona, Ico/SotC, Demon's Souls) so if you want the answer to where they are, that's where (and it was mentioned that this list is going to expand, so you'll likely see these games make it in a future list).
On to the actual list, I don't know about the list as a whole (still not sure about remaster collections, especially if the remaster itself is basic, as is the case with a lot of the "HD Collections"), but that top 5 is pretty solid imo, especially the top 3. The Last of Us, Uncharted 2, and Mass Effect 2 really were among the standout titles of the generation imo, ones that really showcased the cinematic potential of the medium and largely still hold up even now.
As far as which ones I'd personally swap around, I'd probably drop the two HD Collections, as well as The Orange Box and replace them with either Arkham Asylum or City, GTA V, and possibly either CoD 4, Infamous or Dark Souls.
@LiamCroft - I imagine they got in for the same reason the good-but-not-great RE: Village got in: Lack of worthwhile nominees (though I imagine next year won't have this problem).
@captainaverage - "The mere fact Cyberpunk is among the RPG candidates despite the abysmal state it was released in and CDPR's PR BS already makes these awards a farce." Considering how much praise for the game I've heard from those who've played it, the fact it's only being nominated for best RPG (and music) is a testament to those things. If it weren't for the technical problems, you can be absolutely sure it'd be this years runaway GOTY.
Yeah, I was worried something like this would happen; most likely thanks to the pandemic delaying a lot of projects to next year, this year ended up even worse than 2019 (at least there you had a lot of worthy nominees, just nothing that stood out) with the only stand-outs being It Takes Two and Psychonauts 2 (as much as I like Metroid Dread). Of course, as mentioned earlier, if Cyberpunk had a decent development cycle and/or released properly this year, it'd probably be this years favourite, but *shrugs * it wasn't, so, this is what we're left with.
@Col_McCafferty - "Rather play Skyrim on a loop than a million Soulsborne games."
That's.....a take. Any reason why Soulsbourne (or Souls-like) games are so low in your estimation?
Tried getting into it a couple of times, but couldn't really get past the combat, which, despite being the same system that New Vegas used, was much harder to deal with here (likely due to fact the mechanics really work better with ranged weapons than melee) so I never really got that far into it. From what I did play, it seemed okay (combat aside), but nothing approaching the level of reverence I've seen from others.
@Divergent95 - "the whole thing looks janky as hell" I mean, to be fair, so were the originals.
@MaccaMUFC - "What where you really expecting? For them to look like GTA V? They are remasters, not remakes and they are as close to the originals just like Rockstar said they would be."
This exactly. Reading some of these comments, I've got to wonder what they understand when the term "Remaster" is used, because it seems that every time a Remaster is announced and shown off, they expect Resi Evil 2 Remake-esque changes, which is just ridiculous.
Personally, I'm fairly impressed, considering the 'old' releases were what you usually see with remasters, and this is a definite step up from those (I mean, look at San Andreas. That almost makes me want to double dip for the improvements in lighting alone).
That said, thinking on it it a little, I do understand if people are questioning who this is for, because it is a bit weird. I mean, on the one hand, the old fans aren't really going to resonate much with the artistic changes (even I'm not completely sold on the character models, though everything else looks pretty good) and that it's replacing the old remasters (which are probably the closest you can get to the 'authentic experience' on current systems) while everyone else are just gonna wonder (like @Divergent95) why the whole thing looks so janky, so really, who is this really for?
I probably wouldn't play it myself, but considering how many voted yes, along with the fact that it's the only mainline 3D title not available on current systems, it only seems fair to bring IV over as well.
Well this is good timing; I just finished the trilogy again a couple of weeks ago, so now I've got something to (possibly) look forward to. Of course, time will tell if it ends up being worth looking forward to, but I'm hopeful Andromeda and Anthem have taught Bioware some much needed lessons, and that this and Dragon Age will turn out better as a result.
As for the picture, it's a bit too vague for me to draw much from. Bout the only thing I can say is that this ship looks pretty small, but not small enough to be a fighter or shuttle, so I'm guessing this'll be the new main ship? If so, maybe it'll be more like KotOR, where it's literally just you and your small crew (as opposed to the Normandy where you had various no-named npcs walking or sitting around) exploring the galaxy?
Like others have said, I feel GTA V is probably the best of the series, purely by virtue of being the most advanced, polished iteration, that, unlike IV, doesn't come with caveats like an overly realistic tone and atmosphere. As far as which one I liked the most though, it's a toss up between it and Vice City (though I'll admit I've never made it very far in San Andreas).
Would've liked to see MediEvil go on sale prior to Halloween, not immediately afterward, but *shrugs * oh well, better late than never I guess. On a related note, as this game ever gotten a bigger discount than the current 50%? I feel like it has, but I can't remember when.
Personally, these do look a little more like low-budget remakes than straight remasters, but I guess marketing these as remakes would lead to a much more negative reception, so calling them 'remasters' is probably a safer move. Like others have said though, I'm not convinced on the new cartoon style the characters seem to have adopted. Makes some sense, as these games are pretty cartoon-y, but at the same time, I'm not sure how well it's going to mesh with fans who are used to the older style.
Unfortunately, the two games I was looking forward to buying through this sale (MediEvil and Castlevania: SotN+RoB) are, for some bizarre reason, not included, so I’ll probably end up passing on this, this time around.
I'm firmly in the camp of "If your IP is a console exclusive, one that's key to your brand, then it should stay that way"; the only reason why Sony and Nintendo stand out is due to their exclusive library; you remove that, and next thing you know, people suddenly won't care about which console they buy, because now, all of a sudden there's little reason to, because you're just choosing between three near identical boxes.
I've also never really bought into the argument of "But more people get to play it" for a number of reasons, but the number one gripe I have is the idea that it being a console exclusive is some sort of barrier. How? Unless you're a stickler for getting a PS5 (which admittedly seems to remain an unlikely prospect for a few more months at least) there's nothing stopping you from buying a PS4 or a Switch and playing their exclusive titles that way.
AC II is probably still the best AC game overall imo, with Origins and maybe Brotherhood coming the closest. That said, I somehow enjoyed III a fair bit, and Odyssey is pretty good if you see it more as an open-world game set in Ancient Greece than a proper AC game.
It's interesting that the series apparently got better as it went along, considering that in terms of impact, it arguably went in a reverse direction (the first game was a technical powerhouse when it first came out, the second did reasonably well, while the third was quickly forgotten about iirc.). Personally, I've only really played the 2nd one (as well as bits of the 1st and 3rd), but hearing that Crysis 3 is better might incentivise me to give it a proper go.
I guess I'm in a minority here in thinking the original VII is a bit overrated (VII Remake was much better imo), so a bit disappointed (though not terribly surprised) it ended up at the top of the list. However, that disappointment pails in comparison to seeing Dissidia 012 rated so low (19th with a score of 6.57). Are people rating it without playing it? Or is there some reason people are rating it that low?
.......................really? The *one * title (since MK X is already part of the PS+ collection) that would be worth getting, and it's exclusive to Asia? *sigh *
Also, why is Mortal Kombat X here, when, again, it's part of the PS+ collection? (If it was the XL version, with the horror movie characters thrown in, I might understand it, but it's just the same base version, so, what gives?)
Based on which ones I’ve actually played on a playstation console, the ones I’d say were the best would be VII Remake and X (Dissidia 012 and Tactics also qualify if we’re including spin-offs).
That said, if we’re talking favourites and not limited to which ones I’ve played on playstation, then my list would be:
VI
X
VII Remake
XII
—
Dissidia 012
Tactics
To be fair though, most FF games are pretty decent.
As others have said, I enjoyed the demo, for what it was, but I'm hoping they've made some improvements since then, because right now I'm having a hard time justifying getting this when I have Nioh 2 ready to go (which is a shame, since the idea of a FF Nioh game is still a pretty cool one).
Not sure why they didn't put the date in the trailer, but nice to know it's (possibly) not too far away (though I kinda regret re-buying GT Sport now).
"The announcement trailer doesn't reference character customisation at all, opting to show a default female 'Boss' with a rather regular clothing style and short hair."
To be fair, the announcement trailer didn't reference much at all really, besides the basic idea of 'here's the protagonist-gang stealing stuff from other gangs in typical 'protagonist-gang' fashion" so I'm not sure if there's any reason to doubt whether to not a particular feature is being cut or not. (though then again who knows *shrugs *, maybe I missed something; after all, everyone else seemed to see enough in the trailer to decide to hate on the game already, so maybe I'm just not seeing anything).
@Shepherd_Tallon - "I'm inclined to agree. Originally the ending for 3 was pretty short, but then they filled it out and I was pretty happy after that. But yes, I go back and forth between 2 and 3 too. I don't know if I could choose which one I like more." To be fair, I'm pretty sure the original ending for ME3 wasn't even finished (pretty sure the three tinted overlays over the one video were a placeholder that they ended up sticking with because they ran out of time or something) so it was probably a case of 'they went back and finished the ending' (But yeah, once they did that, I was fine with it).
Anyway, unlike EA, I'm not surprised the Legendary Edition is doing well; the Mass Effect trilogy is still one of the most popular collection of video games, and this remastered collection is pretty good, all things considered, so there's not much reason (outside perhaps the exclusion of ME3's MP) to pass it up.
@Fight_Teza_Fight - "The dream anime game would be for Kojima to work on 20th Century Boy."
That......is an idea I didn't know I needed, though I'm not too sure how it would actually play (from what I remember, there's not much in the series that could be mined for gameplay outside a few scenes here and there, but I could be wrong).
Pretty nice list from what I can tell, though admittedly, I've only played 3 of these; FighterZ, Pirate Warriors 3 and Xenoverse 2 (that said, FotNS is so close to Yakuza I feel I could almost count it anyway). Not surprising to hear FighterZ is the best here; it's probably one of the best fighting games full stop, and as has been mentioned before, most anime games tend to be more mediocre cash-ins than interesting adaptations, so the competition isn't likely to be too fierce.
Honestly, I keep wishing they'd turn this into a Mercenaries stand-alone instead of wasting time with this late 2000's multiplayer add-on. They've already got the necessary material, all it would take is a change in direction, and bam, you have yourself a decent product that might actually sell.
That said, I am a bit confused as to why this needs another 6+ months to develop, considering most of it's assets are recycled from previous games, using the same engine. Even in today's development climate, you'd think a quick cash grab like this would be, you know, quick to develop? As it stands, this just seems like a bomb waiting to go off that just keeps getting bigger.
@rjejr - I was thinking more "Well, the PS4 is on the way out, so not much point investing time and money in making these small DLC campaigns playable on those systems" which, to be fair, is normally an understandable move (after all, most do transition to the new hardware within a year or two of it being released). The only wrinkle this time around is that PS5's are unusually scarce, thus making it more difficult for people to actually make the transition to the next-gen hardware than is normally the case.
@LeeHarveyOzgod - I don't know if concern is really necessary here; all that's really happened is that things have reverted to type, which, while disappointing, isn't anything more than what normally happens with Playstation release schedules (one of the reasons why I'm usually against buying consoles at launch).
@Old-Red - May I ask what you're referring to here? Because last I checked, most PS5 re-releases (e.g. FFVII, Nioh 2, Jedi: Fallen Order) offer a free upgrade for those who bought the PS4 version, and even in this case, it's only a small upgrade fee, not the price of a new game. The only cases I can think of where that happened was Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition, and Nioh, and even then, the former was released at a reduced price, and the latter bundled with it's sequel.
"Was it any good?" Depends on what it was supposed to do. Going by the list of announcements, it seems this was meant as a small showcase on the games coming out in the next three months, in which case, it was decent enough I guess. But as the 'replacement' for E3 that some seemed to be hoping it was, it was nowhere close. The closest thing to a big announcement was the new info we got on the PS5 version of Death Stranding, which while cool (I certainly wasn't expecting it to have as much extra stuff as it did) is still just info on the PS5 re-release of a PS4 game released almost 2 years ago.
"To be clear, this collection is not a remaster; these are ports of the PlayStation 3 games, running at a higher resolution and a flawless 60 frames-per-second." Isn't that exactly what defines a remaster? Did you guys forget the PS2 HD Collections released on PS3? Those were remasters (heck, they kickstarted the whole remaster trend) and they did exactly what this does, so why would they be remasters and not this?
Comments 307
Re: Elden Ring Easy Mode Isn't Happening on PS5, PS4
@Col_McCafferty - I seem to remember you commenting something along the lines of “maybe the haters should accept they don’t like the game and move on” in regards to TLoU II; just a suggestion, but perhaps you should take your own advice here, instead of sniping at the game and those who enjoy it.
😉
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What I feel isn’t brought up enough regarding this topic, is that Elden Ring, like most recent From games (Sekiro excluded) do have difficulty sliders, they’re just built in to the game itself in ways very similarly to JRPGs. Want to make the game easier? Level up your character/weapon, summon npc/player spirits to assist, track down some powerful weapons, increase the number and efficacy of your healing potions (and probably some other things I can’t think of). Want to make it harder? Don’t do these things. The way these games are designed, you can fine-tune the difficulty to suit how hard or easy you want it to be, you just have to use the tools the game provides.
To that end, I don’t see the point in having a blanket difficulty option, because that kinda makes all those elements redundant. Why bother levelling up your character when you can pretty much blow over everyone regardless? Why bother summoning help when facing a boss solo isn’t that hard?
Sure, for some games, a difficulty slider makes sense (e.g. Doom, DMC) but if the game is designed around not having a slider, and where including one takes away from the experience, then I can’t really see it as a benefit, let alone a necessity.
Re: Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7 Coming to PS5 with Visual Enhancements, Free Upgrade Confirmed
Sounds great, but to be fair, what are we looking at in terms of improvements? Any real reason to replay any of these, or will it be a case of “if you haven’t played them yet, here’s a slightly better version for you to try”?
Admittedly, the fact that they’re free means there’s no real downside, so it’s not like it’s any skin off my nose either way, but on the other hand, if there’s little in the way of improvements, then there’s little to get excited about either.
Re: PS Plus March 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
I dunno if it’s already been mentioned, but Team Sonic Racing already being on PS Now isn’t necessarily a problem, as there are a lot of places that don’t have access to it (like where I am), so for them, there’s no overlap at all.
As for the lineup in general, it seems decent. Ghostrunner and Team Sonic Racing are games I was curious about, but never enough to buy, so their inclusion is nice, and having access to GTA online means I have fewer reasons to rebuy GTA V now, so that’s something I guess. At the very least, it’s an improvement over this month.
Re: Test Your PlayStation General Knowledge - Issue 3
11/15 - Pretty good considering there was a fair amount I just didn’t know (like the aforementioned Bloody Roar games).
Re: Test Your PlayStation General Knowledge - Issue 2
Got 8 this time; not bad, but there were a couple of questions I feel I should’ve gotten (like the Fallout 3 question).
Re: Poll: Are You Happy With Your PS Plus Games for February 2022?
@AV_aka_577_ex-Xbox - So, on the one hand you say they’re not good, but on the other, you say they may be good, but aren’t popular/mainstream enough to be worth including?
First off, which one is it? Secondly, if we’re being honest, most of the indie titles you listed off could just as easily be written off as niche titles (Stardew and Hades being perhaps the only exceptions), so I’m not sure if that second argument holds up if you’re suggesting obscure titles like Syberia and Sable as replacements for a AAA EA Sports title (admittedly it’s no FIFA, but it’s still leagues above a lot of indie titles in terms of recognition).
And finally, I’m pretty sure Tiny Tina isn’t a Multiplayer-only title; it’s a single player/co-op dlc expansion released as a standalone.
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While I’m disappointed the Tiny Tina inclusion isn’t the new game (though in hindsight I should’ve realised that couldn’t have been the case), it’s still an okay month for me. Nothing to write home about, to be sure, and a bit of a drop from last month, but I wouldn’t say “it’s a crap selection” like a lot of others seem to think.
Re: PS Plus February 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
Thought the Tiny Tina game was the new one at first; disappointed to find out it’s just the dlc from 2. That brings the overall offerings down a bit imo, though the other two aren’t bad picks considering what’s coming out next month.
Re: Test Your PlayStation General Knowledge - Issue 1
@Dethstorm35 - Not quite, there were a few released on the PS2 and PSP, plus a couple of mobile attempts. If you want the full list, you can check it out on Wikipedia.
Got 11/15, which isn’t too bad, though it would’ve been one more if I hadn’t tripped up on the killzone question.
Was surprised at how far off I was with the Ratchet question; apparently there are more Ratchet and Clank games than I thought (though I feel the HD collection being listed as a standalone entry is a bit dubious).
Also, add me on the list of people who didn’t know the Tenchu question (though in my defence, I’ve never played it)
Re: PlayStation Wrap-Up 2021 Available Now, Share Your Gaming Stats
Gotta admit, I'm surprised I can access this. Last time I tried with something like this, it said it wasn't available in my region, so this is cool.
Apparently I played 1404 hours last year (only 11 of which were online), with my top four games being Yakuza 0 (174 hours), RDR2 (165), Mass Effect: LE (161) and Nioh 2 (147) which sounds about right.
Also, I was apparently only 9 trophies away from collecting 1000 for the year, which now makes me wish I'd tried just that little bit more last month, but on the plus side, I did end up with 13 platinums, so that's something.
All in all, this is a pretty neat feature; be interesting to see how this year turns out.
Re: My Hero Academia Is a Free-to-Play PS4 Battle Royale Now
@ShogunRok - Wouldn't FighterZ also be phoning it in for Bandai Namco? "Oh we'll just hire this dev studio who makes fighting games to make one with the Dragon Ball IP". At least with those two games, they're not only doing it themselves, but are attempting to find new ideas that haven't been done with these IP's before (Because, if I'm being honest, Breakers might not be as polished or high quality as FighterZ, but it's sure as heck a more unique use of the Dragon Ball IP).
On a related topic, I'm not seeing the problem with the core premise here: a 24-player battle royale, where teams of 3 have to work together using their quirks to win seems like a pretty authentic adaptation of the manga/anime. Admittedly, I am a bit behind with what's been happening, so perhaps things have changed, but from what I have read (about 200 chapters or so), team-based battles/challenges makes up a decent chunk of the content.
Now sure, it's attached to a FtP game that's also by Bandai Namco, meaning the execution isn't likely to match the idea, but the idea itself, at least to me, sounds fine.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate PS Plus in 2021?
@D3adP00L - "I'm not saying we deserve the latest and greatest every month, but seriously Sony's competition with Game Pass is embarrassing"
To be fair, both are completely different services, that serve different ends. PS+ is about selling online multiplayer (like Nintendo's NSO), with the games and deals included as a bonus, not the main feature. GamePass, on the other hand, is more akin to Netflix, in that it's a big rental service where the games are the focus, not add-ons. A better comparison would be with PS Now, as that's the service Playstation offers that's actually similar to what GamePass is doing, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting it even exists given it isn't available in most regions.
It was decent. To me, this service was always about getting a collection of games you'd otherwise never buy, but might enjoy, for a heavy discount (paying less than the price for a full game for a collection of 36 games) and I'd say it delivered on that, with a couple of gems like Control and Hitman 2 added for good measure.
I certainly don't think it was as 'crap' as some of the monthly polls suggested (seriously, the month that gave out Hitman 2 and both Overcooked games(+DLC) was voted crap?) but then, so does the yearly poll, so *shrugs *.
Re: Game of the Year: #1 - Resident Evil Village
@Jaz007 - it probably is an 8/10 (just like Deathloop) but for at least a couple of the staff here, the game is seen as a 9 or 10/10, which is why its placed so highly. Personally I don’t quite get it (I’ve played the demo, and it wasn’t that great by a long mile); to me, Psychonauts 2 and possibly Returnal were more deserving, but it is what is.
On a related note, I guess this means Deathloop didn’t place, which is interesting, and mildly surprising (though having finished it last night, I can kinda see why).
Re: Video: Reboot, Remaster and Remake - What’s the Difference?
@BAMozzy - Sorry, but I have to continue to disagree here.
"to adjust things like output resolution, frame rate cap etc is no different from a PC player buying a new GPU and then turning up the Graphical settings in game."
First off, PC’s are a completely different beast to consoles. Where consoles are mostly limited in their options, PC’s have much greater flexibility due to PC not really being a single console, but an entire line of them that don’t really have nearly as many technological barriers. That said, changing the settings in a PC game doesn't really count, because those options are still baked in the original release.
"Its simply 'porting' the game to a new system and adjusting the setting for that hardware - the same as whether its ported 'up' a generation, ported down a generation or even ported to another platform. Its still a PORT - not a remaster. The Devs are just ensuring the game runs properly and adjusting the settings to optimise it for that hardware, but they have NOT remastered anything - the entire game, all the assets etc are untouched, they have not been 'remastered' at all."
You do realise the entire point of remasters, is to simply make them playable on newer systems, right? That’s literally their only purpose. Sure, good remasters go a little further to fix up graphical or other problems, update the assets so they look better on newer systems, but the bare minimum a remaster needs is to make the game playable on a newer system. See the PS3 HD Collections that literally started the remaster trend. All they did was up the resolution, slap on some trophies, and called it a day. They were bare-bones remasters, sure, but they were still remasters because they updated the resolution for newer systems.
"Would you call Assassin's Creed Valhalla or CoD: Vanguard 'remasters' on PS5 because they run at higher visual settings than on PS4? No because they are 'ports' that have just had the settings dialled in for the Hardware.
I wouldn't call them remasters because they were released simultaneously. Ports, Remasters, and Remakes are all re-releases after the initial launch, so a game that launches on two systems simultaneously wouldn't count as any of them.
Re: Video: Reboot, Remaster and Remake - What’s the Difference?
@BAMozzy - "That is not the same as 'porting' the entire 'game and assets' up to new hardware and tweaking a few Graphical settings (like increasing the output resolution, increasing frame rate caps, turning up shadow quality etc - things that were 'dialled' down to run on weaker hardware). That's just a 'Port' as far as I am concerned but often marketed as a Remaster."
I'd have to disagree there. Any visual improvements like that should really classify as a remaster, because you're still bringing them to a new platform generation, which is the entire point of remasters.
Ports, by comparison, are usually games transferred from one platform to another within the same generation (e.g. Metal Gear Solid 2 on Xbox), or to a later one with similar or lesser specs (e.g. Xenoblade Chronicles on 3DS). They're not trying to 'update' the game's visuals, just release it on more platforms.
That's how I see it anyway.
Re: Mini Review: Cricket 22: The Official Game of the Ashes - Not Bad But Won't Bowl You Over
@Integrity - "Imagine spending 5 years of your life on a game..."
To be fair, there is such a thing as spending time poorly, so it's not like that, by itself, necessarily deserves a reward. You can spend 50 years making a game, but if end result is bad, then it's still bad. Similarly, if the end result is a shallow game without much to talk about, then regardless of how much time was spent on it, there's no reason to provide a full review for it.
Also, in regards to your larger paragraph on Praey for the Gods, I get the impression your main point there is just "I thought the game was better than the reviewer did" more than anything; if that's the case, that's just a difference of opinion, not necessarily a good argument for the reviewer going more in-depth into their rationale (also, saying you didn't experience many bugs/glitches isn't much of an argument, as those things always vary wildly; even in a game like Cyberpunk, I've heard people say they didn't experience many bugs on their playthrough, whereas others, well....).
As for my thoughts on the actual review, that seems about right. As much as I'd like to have a proper cricket game, the fact of the matter is, most game devs are still based in USA or Japan, where cricket isn't exactly popular, so it falls to small devs like Big Ant Studios to do what they can with what little budget they can scrounge up.
Re: Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection Out 28th January on PS5
@Isle_Delfino_Man - "It's shockingly greedy"
What, to charge $10? It might be a little greedy, but "shockingly"? Not really. That I think, should be reserved for situations that are actually severe like, for example, GoT charging $30 for less than what this Uncharted collection offers, or the initial Horizon situation where there was practically no upgrade option at all.
$10 is only bad if you compare it to those who offer free upgrades, but even then, it's not that much of a difference.
Also,
"PC is my main platform and I've been playing the same games on increasingly better hardware for 20 years and haven't paid for an upgrade of resolution/frame rate."
As a fellow PC gamer, I'm pretty sure I can say the reason for that is because most games don't get upgrades, they just have a range of graphics options out of the box the scale up to your hardware specs (to a point, obviously). That's quite different from console games, which have to pick a particular setting, and stick with it.
Well this makes me wish I hadn't traded in my physical copy of Uncharted 4 several months ago ("Oh it's fine" I thought, "I've got the PS+ version, why would I need a physical copy as well") but on the other hand, it should be easy enough to get a replacement copy, and with the price they're at atm, this is still a pretty decent deal (especially since I never got round to getting The Lost Legacy).
Re: The Game Awards' Final Round of Fan Voting for Players' Voice Award Live
@themcnoisy - "But just imagine an Oscar going to Prometheus pre release as it was set in the Alien franchise. See, crazy."
Except we have been able to play the MP, so it's not like they're basing it purely off of it being a Halo game, but their actual experience with what parts of the game they've been able to access.
A more apt comparison would probably be giving the Best Picture Oscar to The Dark Knight based purely off of the prologue bank heist sequence that was released prior to the movie. Still a bit iffy, but it's at least based off of something tangible as opposed to just "oh it's part of this franchise, I'll vote for it".
Re: Poll: What Is Your PS5, PS4 Game of the Year 2021?
A bit tricky this year, as most of the good titles this year were ones I either hadn’t played, or played on another platform, so I expanded the criteria and ended up with the following: Deathloop, Mass Effect, Psychonauts 2, Returnal, and The Great Ace Attorney.
That said, I do wish there were two different polls; one for best game, another for most favourite, as they really are two separate things.
Re: Reaction: Merging PS Plus and PS Now Makes Sense, But an Xbox Game Pass Competitor Can't Be Half-Arsed
@Bleachedsmiles - sigh That is pretty far from what I meant. To clarify, I wasn’t saying you were selfish for liking gamepass, I was saying you were selfish for not caring for the people who deliver you these services in the first place. In your post, you expressed dismay at people asking how Microsoft can afford GP longterm, asking why people care, before stating your belief that gamers should only care about what they get out of it. Only caring what you get out of a deal is incredibly selfish and a big middle finger at the people who work tirelessly to bring you these products and services. This is what my post was saying.
Re: Reaction: Merging PS Plus and PS Now Makes Sense, But an Xbox Game Pass Competitor Can't Be Half-Arsed
@Bleachedsmiles - Because that's an incredibly selfish view to take. As gamers, we don't exist in a vacuum, we form part of the videogame ecosystem; it's to all our benefit to care about the entire system, not just what we get out of it. And that goes for devs as well; everyone needs to care about the entire system, otherwise it becomes harder and harder to sustain, and then where will we be?
I think at the moment, there are too many potential obstacles to clear for me to be interested. Firstly, it would have to actually be made available in my region, unlike PS Now. Second, the pricing for the base rate of PS+, unlike Nintendo, is pretty high already (here the regular price for a yearly sub is $80); to throw in not one, but two extra pricing tiers on top of that? I'd probably end up having to pay something like $150 per year, and at that point it does kinda become a bit too much to regularly pay.
On top of that, how many of these old games would be both worth playing, and aren't already playable on a PS4/5? For example, take a look at how much of the PS1's library (Crash, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Castlevania: SotN, even MediEvil) are available in some form on current systems. Not to mention a lot of these are available as remakes, meaning you'd be getting a technologically inferior copy to something that's not only already on the market, but fairly cheap as well.
To be fair, there's plenty of time for more information to be released, and the idea of adding an extra tier to PS+ to allow access to a large collection of old games isn't too bad, it just needs to clear up a few things before it sounds enticing enough, at least imo.
Re: Resident Evil Village Wins Game of the Year at Golden Joystick Awards
@Balosi - If you look at the nominees, Resi Evil Village was only nominated in the Playstation category (as was Deathloop), much like how Psychonauts was only nominated in the Xbox category. Not sure if they've mistakenly thought those were exclusive to those consoles, or just associated those games with those consoles, but for whatever reason, that's what's happened.
@everynowandben - There are a few I'd pick over Resi Evil Village, but so far, my personal pick for GOTY is probably Psychonauts 2.
I must've not taken a good look at the nominations when they were announced, because looking at them now, it's clear they're somewhat problematic, especially when it comes to multi-platform titles. From such a shaky foundation, it's a surprise the results didn't turn out worse.
On the plus side, it was nice to see FFXIV win some awards, and while Returnal was once again snubbed, Housemarque at least managed to get an award for themselves.
Re: Best PS3 Games
@Col_McCafferty, @Korgon, @Longondo, @Ultrasmiles - "But what about "x" game?"
If you look at the larger 'list', there are lot of games that are sitting with around the same score just outside the top 15, including all the games you all mentioned (Skyrim, Infamous, AC, Persona, Ico/SotC, Demon's Souls) so if you want the answer to where they are, that's where (and it was mentioned that this list is going to expand, so you'll likely see these games make it in a future list).
On to the actual list, I don't know about the list as a whole (still not sure about remaster collections, especially if the remaster itself is basic, as is the case with a lot of the "HD Collections"), but that top 5 is pretty solid imo, especially the top 3. The Last of Us, Uncharted 2, and Mass Effect 2 really were among the standout titles of the generation imo, ones that really showcased the cinematic potential of the medium and largely still hold up even now.
As far as which ones I'd personally swap around, I'd probably drop the two HD Collections, as well as The Orange Box and replace them with either Arkham Asylum or City, GTA V, and possibly either CoD 4, Infamous or Dark Souls.
Re: The Game Awards 2021 Nominations Revealed, Deathloop Gets Eight Nominations But Returnal Snubbed
@LiamCroft - I imagine they got in for the same reason the good-but-not-great RE: Village got in: Lack of worthwhile nominees (though I imagine next year won't have this problem).
@captainaverage - "The mere fact Cyberpunk is among the RPG candidates despite the abysmal state it was released in and CDPR's PR BS already makes these awards a farce."
Considering how much praise for the game I've heard from those who've played it, the fact it's only being nominated for best RPG (and music) is a testament to those things. If it weren't for the technical problems, you can be absolutely sure it'd be this years runaway GOTY.
Yeah, I was worried something like this would happen; most likely thanks to the pandemic delaying a lot of projects to next year, this year ended up even worse than 2019 (at least there you had a lot of worthy nominees, just nothing that stood out) with the only stand-outs being It Takes Two and Psychonauts 2 (as much as I like Metroid Dread). Of course, as mentioned earlier, if Cyberpunk had a decent development cycle and/or released properly this year, it'd probably be this years favourite, but *shrugs * it wasn't, so, this is what we're left with.
Re: Poll: 10 Years Later, What Are Your Thoughts on Skyrim?
@Col_McCafferty - "Rather play Skyrim on a loop than a million Soulsborne games."
That's.....a take. Any reason why Soulsbourne (or Souls-like) games are so low in your estimation?
Tried getting into it a couple of times, but couldn't really get past the combat, which, despite being the same system that New Vegas used, was much harder to deal with here (likely due to fact the mechanics really work better with ranged weapons than melee) so I never really got that far into it. From what I did play, it seemed okay (combat aside), but nothing approaching the level of reverence I've seen from others.
Re: GTA Trilogy PS5, PS4 Gameplay Shared Online
@Divergent95 - "the whole thing looks janky as hell"
I mean, to be fair, so were the originals.
@MaccaMUFC - "What where you really expecting? For them to look like GTA V? They are remasters, not remakes and they are as close to the originals just like Rockstar said they would be."
This exactly. Reading some of these comments, I've got to wonder what they understand when the term "Remaster" is used, because it seems that every time a Remaster is announced and shown off, they expect Resi Evil 2 Remake-esque changes, which is just ridiculous.
Personally, I'm fairly impressed, considering the 'old' releases were what you usually see with remasters, and this is a definite step up from those (I mean, look at San Andreas. That almost makes me want to double dip for the improvements in lighting alone).
That said, thinking on it it a little, I do understand if people are questioning who this is for, because it is a bit weird. I mean, on the one hand, the old fans aren't really going to resonate much with the artistic changes (even I'm not completely sold on the character models, though everything else looks pretty good) and that it's replacing the old remasters (which are probably the closest you can get to the 'authentic experience' on current systems) while everyone else are just gonna wonder (like @Divergent95) why the whole thing looks so janky, so really, who is this really for?
Re: Soapbox: Please Don't Let GTA 4 Rot on PS3, Rockstar
I probably wouldn't play it myself, but considering how many voted yes, along with the fact that it's the only mainline 3D title not available on current systems, it only seems fair to bring IV over as well.
Re: Mass Effect Will Continue Declares New N7 Day Artwork
Well this is good timing; I just finished the trilogy again a couple of weeks ago, so now I've got something to (possibly) look forward to. Of course, time will tell if it ends up being worth looking forward to, but I'm hopeful Andromeda and Anthem have taught Bioware some much needed lessons, and that this and Dragon Age will turn out better as a result.
As for the picture, it's a bit too vague for me to draw much from. Bout the only thing I can say is that this ship looks pretty small, but not small enough to be a fighter or shuttle, so I'm guessing this'll be the new main ship? If so, maybe it'll be more like KotOR, where it's literally just you and your small crew (as opposed to the Normandy where you had various no-named npcs walking or sitting around) exploring the galaxy?
Re: Best GTA Games
Like others have said, I feel GTA V is probably the best of the series, purely by virtue of being the most advanced, polished iteration, that, unlike IV, doesn't come with caveats like an overly realistic tone and atmosphere.
As far as which one I liked the most though, it's a toss up between it and Vice City (though I'll admit I've never made it very far in San Andreas).
Re: PS Store Remasters & Retro Sale Lists PS4 Games for Cheap
Would've liked to see MediEvil go on sale prior to Halloween, not immediately afterward, but *shrugs * oh well, better late than never I guess.
On a related note, as this game ever gotten a bigger discount than the current 50%? I feel like it has, but I can't remember when.
And agreed; Okami is excellent.
Re: Round Up: What Was Announced During Sony's Latest State of Play Livestream?
I completely forgot this was happening, but looking at the announcement lineup, it seems I didn't miss much.
Re: GTA Trilogy Comparison Shows Stunning Improvements on PS5, PS4
Personally, these do look a little more like low-budget remakes than straight remasters, but I guess marketing these as remakes would lead to a much more negative reception, so calling them 'remasters' is probably a safer move.
Like others have said though, I'm not convinced on the new cartoon style the characters seem to have adopted. Makes some sense, as these games are pretty cartoon-y, but at the same time, I'm not sure how well it's going to mesh with fans who are used to the older style.
Re: Horror and Halloween Are the Theme in Over 550 PS Store Deals
Unfortunately, the two games I was looking forward to buying through this sale (MediEvil and Castlevania: SotN+RoB) are, for some bizarre reason, not included, so I’ll probably end up passing on this, this time around.
Re: PS4 Exclusive God of War Releasing on PC in January
I'm firmly in the camp of "If your IP is a console exclusive, one that's key to your brand, then it should stay that way"; the only reason why Sony and Nintendo stand out is due to their exclusive library; you remove that, and next thing you know, people suddenly won't care about which console they buy, because now, all of a sudden there's little reason to, because you're just choosing between three near identical boxes.
I've also never really bought into the argument of "But more people get to play it" for a number of reasons, but the number one gripe I have is the idea that it being a console exclusive is some sort of barrier. How? Unless you're a stickler for getting a PS5 (which admittedly seems to remain an unlikely prospect for a few more months at least) there's nothing stopping you from buying a PS4 or a Switch and playing their exclusive titles that way.
Re: Poll: Vote for the Best Assassin's Creed Game on PlayStation
AC II is probably still the best AC game overall imo, with Origins and maybe Brotherhood coming the closest. That said, I somehow enjoyed III a fair bit, and Odyssey is pretty good if you see it more as an open-world game set in Ancient Greece than a proper AC game.
Re: Crysis Remastered Trilogy (PS4) - A Franchise with an Identity Crysis
It's interesting that the series apparently got better as it went along, considering that in terms of impact, it arguably went in a reverse direction (the first game was a technical powerhouse when it first came out, the second did reasonably well, while the third was quickly forgotten about iirc.). Personally, I've only really played the 2nd one (as well as bits of the 1st and 3rd), but hearing that Crysis 3 is better might incentivise me to give it a proper go.
Re: Best Final Fantasy Games
I guess I'm in a minority here in thinking the original VII is a bit overrated (VII Remake was much better imo), so a bit disappointed (though not terribly surprised) it ended up at the top of the list.
However, that disappointment pails in comparison to seeing Dissidia 012 rated so low (19th with a score of 6.57). Are people rating it without playing it? Or is there some reason people are rating it that low?
Re: PS Plus Members in Asia Receive Free Bonus PS4 Game for October
.......................really? The *one * title (since MK X is already part of the PS+ collection) that would be worth getting, and it's exclusive to Asia? *sigh *
Also, why is Mortal Kombat X here, when, again, it's part of the PS+ collection? (If it was the XL version, with the horror movie characters thrown in, I might understand it, but it's just the same base version, so, what gives?)
Re: Poll: Vote For the Best Final Fantasy Game on PlayStation
Based on which ones I’ve actually played on a playstation console, the ones I’d say were the best would be VII Remake and X (Dissidia 012 and Tactics also qualify if we’re including spin-offs).
That said, if we’re talking favourites and not limited to which ones I’ve played on playstation, then my list would be:
VI
X
VII Remake
XII
—
Dissidia 012
Tactics
To be fair though, most FF games are pretty decent.
Re: Chaos! Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Schedules TGS Showcase for This Saturday
As others have said, I enjoyed the demo, for what it was, but I'm hoping they've made some improvements since then, because right now I'm having a hard time justifying getting this when I have Nioh 2 ready to go (which is a shame, since the idea of a FF Nioh game is still a pretty cool one).
Re: Gran Turismo 7 Races onto PS5 Next March
Not sure why they didn't put the date in the trailer, but nice to know it's (possibly) not too far away (though I kinda regret re-buying GT Sport now).
Re: The New Saints Row Still Has Character Creation
"The announcement trailer doesn't reference character customisation at all, opting to show a default female 'Boss' with a rather regular clothing style and short hair."
To be fair, the announcement trailer didn't reference much at all really, besides the basic idea of 'here's the protagonist-gang stealing stuff from other gangs in typical 'protagonist-gang' fashion" so I'm not sure if there's any reason to doubt whether to not a particular feature is being cut or not. (though then again who knows *shrugs *, maybe I missed something; after all, everyone else seemed to see enough in the trailer to decide to hate on the game already, so maybe I'm just not seeing anything).
Re: Mass Effect Legendary Edition Sales 'Well Above' Expectations, Says EA
@Shepherd_Tallon - "I'm inclined to agree.
Originally the ending for 3 was pretty short, but then they filled it out and I was pretty happy after that. But yes, I go back and forth between 2 and 3 too. I don't know if I could choose which one I like more."
To be fair, I'm pretty sure the original ending for ME3 wasn't even finished (pretty sure the three tinted overlays over the one video were a placeholder that they ended up sticking with because they ran out of time or something) so it was probably a case of 'they went back and finished the ending' (But yeah, once they did that, I was fine with it).
Anyway, unlike EA, I'm not surprised the Legendary Edition is doing well; the Mass Effect trilogy is still one of the most popular collection of video games, and this remastered collection is pretty good, all things considered, so there's not much reason (outside perhaps the exclusion of ME3's MP) to pass it up.
Re: Best PS4 Anime Games
@Fight_Teza_Fight - "The dream anime game would be for Kojima to work on 20th Century Boy."
That......is an idea I didn't know I needed, though I'm not too sure how it would actually play (from what I remember, there's not much in the series that could be mined for gameplay outside a few scenes here and there, but I could be wrong).
Pretty nice list from what I can tell, though admittedly, I've only played 3 of these; FighterZ, Pirate Warriors 3 and Xenoverse 2 (that said, FotNS is so close to Yakuza I feel I could almost count it anyway). Not surprising to hear FighterZ is the best here; it's probably one of the best fighting games full stop, and as has been mentioned before, most anime games tend to be more mediocre cash-ins than interesting adaptations, so the competition isn't likely to be too fierce.
Re: Resident Evil Re:Verse Won't Launch in July After All, Delayed to 2022
Honestly, I keep wishing they'd turn this into a Mercenaries stand-alone instead of wasting time with this late 2000's multiplayer add-on. They've already got the necessary material, all it would take is a change in direction, and bam, you have yourself a decent product that might actually sell.
That said, I am a bit confused as to why this needs another 6+ months to develop, considering most of it's assets are recycled from previous games, using the same engine. Even in today's development climate, you'd think a quick cash grab like this would be, you know, quick to develop? As it stands, this just seems like a bomb waiting to go off that just keeps getting bigger.
Re: Death Stranding Director's Cut PS5 Upgrade Costs $10
@rjejr - I was thinking more "Well, the PS4 is on the way out, so not much point investing time and money in making these small DLC campaigns playable on those systems" which, to be fair, is normally an understandable move (after all, most do transition to the new hardware within a year or two of it being released). The only wrinkle this time around is that PS5's are unusually scarce, thus making it more difficult for people to actually make the transition to the next-gen hardware than is normally the case.
@LeeHarveyOzgod - I don't know if concern is really necessary here; all that's really happened is that things have reverted to type, which, while disappointing, isn't anything more than what normally happens with Playstation release schedules (one of the reasons why I'm usually against buying consoles at launch).
Re: Death Stranding Director's Cut Dated for 24th September
@Old-Red - May I ask what you're referring to here? Because last I checked, most PS5 re-releases (e.g. FFVII, Nioh 2, Jedi: Fallen Order) offer a free upgrade for those who bought the PS4 version, and even in this case, it's only a small upgrade fee, not the price of a new game. The only cases I can think of where that happened was Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition, and Nioh, and even then, the former was released at a reduced price, and the latter bundled with it's sequel.
Re: Death Stranding Director's Cut PS5 Upgrade Costs $10
@rjejr - "Not that I know what that reason is."
Because the PS4 is on the way out, and PS5 is the way forward?
Re: Talking Point: Was Sony's Latest State of Play Livestream Any Good?
"Was it any good?"
Depends on what it was supposed to do. Going by the list of announcements, it seems this was meant as a small showcase on the games coming out in the next three months, in which case, it was decent enough I guess. But as the 'replacement' for E3 that some seemed to be hoping it was, it was nowhere close. The closest thing to a big announcement was the new info we got on the PS5 version of Death Stranding, which while cool (I certainly wasn't expecting it to have as much extra stuff as it did) is still just info on the PS5 re-release of a PS4 game released almost 2 years ago.
Re: How Closely Were You Watching E3 2021?
10/15 - Decent enough, considering about 2/3 of my answers were either complete or educated guesses.
Re: Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection (PS4) - Cut-Throat Action, Old-School Design
"To be clear, this collection is not a remaster; these are ports of the PlayStation 3 games, running at a higher resolution and a flawless 60 frames-per-second."
Isn't that exactly what defines a remaster? Did you guys forget the PS2 HD Collections released on PS3? Those were remasters (heck, they kickstarted the whole remaster trend) and they did exactly what this does, so why would they be remasters and not this?