@Kidfunkadelic83 Nah she won't think that. It's absolutely harmless with a really imaginative world design, a great colour palette, responsive controls, well composed music, a unique narrative and a lot to see and do. It's also highly addictive which is the only reason I stopped playing, I loved every second with the game but I've had a problem with grindy online games before and I can't put that much time in or I'll never get out. If anything that should be her only complaint. People treated the game a little weirdly at launch, there was the 'Am I a perv to want to try this game?' and 'Will people think I'm gay for trying it?' those were the kinds of questions I got from friends. Maybe 20 or so PSN messages because they saw me playing it and knew I'd give an honest answer.
People overthink games too much now, they forget games are supposed to be enjoyable and a welcome escape. Especially a game with that kind of world and atmosphere. I think you'll be fine honestly. Also the scantily clad part, that's all down to what the player chooses their avatar to wear. When games (not this) are sexualized they feel even worse because there's always someone who points it out as if they are superior because they prefer something more bland or 'normal', as if that even exists. Very weird times.
There's my last look in the game, it's honestly harmless and it's free so that alone should be reason enough for people to try it. I felt bad for not being able to pay for it. My time with the game felt polished, professional and extremely addictive. I've paid for Triple-A games that couldn't even accomplish one of those points.
As much as it was a slog to start I ended up really liking it. The character didn't haven't be likable for that kind of apocalyptic setting and if he were I think it would have been even more unrealistic. He's a 1%'r they aren't cute and cuddly. The world did get more interesting as did the story, and the bike and gear upgrades were a welcome addition. I think a big part of the hate was 'I played this on PS4' I didn't. I played it free on PS5 along with a bunch of other free games that were equally brilliant.
I never ran into one single bug, it looked great, sounded great and performed fine. I put almost 150hrs into the game and apparently got platinum too. In many ways I'm glad I never played it on PS4, if it was buggy and broken I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. The performance on PS5 was a big part of my enjoyment with that game, now that it's being remastered it will no doubt do the same for someone else.
I did actually play it all the way through. I'm not jumping on the 'I hate this game' bandwagon just for the sake of it. I saw the exact same thing happen to AtomFall. Honestly half the time I question if people have even played the game they are hating on. That's not an attack on anyone, just an observation based on reddit and elsewhere. The last guy couldn't even tell me what happens in the first five minutes of the game, even-though he quit after the first twenty minutes.
@johnedwin Busy developing them? Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2 were Playstation games the last time I checked. They aren't lost just because they aren't currently showcasing the games they're still working on. Maybe they are being more careful after leaks like Wolverine happened and they don't want to show something off before it's ready.
Patience has always led to some damn good Playstation games. An exclusive showcase for any game on the platform doesn't mean the platform is lost, it means the platform was chosen because it's got that much reach. I respect the hustle regardless if I like the game or not.
@AgentMantis It makes you wonder if they know their job is on the line when they get forced into those situations. The handful I knew all worked on the same MMo. They hated upper management and were frequently forced into making changes that they didn't agree with. Every single one of them left, their Glassdoor exit reviews for the company said it all. This is one of them:
No company culture. Everything has to be done ASAP, with very little room for creativity and experimentation. Stress levels keep everyone on edge. Very little time to take a deep breath and enjoy work. The proprietary engine used is years old and hasn't seen a lot of modernization. The dev teams are unable to steer the games or company in any direction other than what is dictated by the top two or three Directors. Quality of the games are an afterthought, as the primary goal is to create systems and mechanics that will monetize well. Most of the teams here do NOT play the games that they build. This is disheartening when trying to have a conversation about what works or not, and are shushed by someone who has only played a single level 20 toon (and only due to a bonus requirement).
That kind of thing made me more careful about which companies and publishers got my time and money. That review is ten years old now but matches what a lot of current devs have said about online shooters and Fortnite clones. I think I'd rather work in a coalmine than for a company like EA.
They should have learned from XDefiant. Ubisoft said it wasn't dying then three months later (at Christmas) let go of 300 people. It's not too much of a stretch to think that if that Titanfall game did get released, and it did flop that those 300 to 400 people would have still lost their jobs. It always feels like adding insult to injury when you hear that someone put time and effort into a project, the project got cancelled meaning their work was for nothing and then to top it off they lost their jobs.
@UltimateOtaku91 I'm trying to. It depends on how the classes play. I need to see the endgame loop too, I liked the chaos system from Wonderlands. BL3 had some good endgame elements but it was so easy to cheese. It never felt like that on Wonderlands, until you met a hacker who would nuke the entire map.
@Bentleyma Absolutely. I thought the game world and terrain in Skyrim was better too until I saw the draw distance and terrain in the remaster. A little too much of Skyrim felt like verticality for the sake of verticality. This feels a lot more natural which adds to the realism. I haven't found much flat land anywhere in Oblivion. It doesn't feel like some locations/forts were built separately then dropped as assets into the game world either. Where they are placed seems to exist for that asset, not the other way around.
Right now I'm on Gnoll Mountain looking down on the city of Bruma, it looks like it's always been there and was built there for actual fortification. I missed details like that on the original, we didn't have the draw distance. Now we do and the world is breathtaking, especially when you increase the FOV.
Very fair and unlike some publications you put the hours in. I do actually prefer the quests and dungeons in Oblivion over Skyrim but that's probably nostalgia too. I'm at (checks) 75hrs now, lvl21, it's been nearly impossible to put the game down. Elden Ring was the last game to take up that much of my time. My personal life and professional life are all being impacted by the game and I couldn't be happier.
@DrVenture69 Thank you, it's something I never thought about until I had to. I'm the opposite, I collect and preserve everything. I'd prefer it all go to charity than just disappear one day when an account gets taken offline. I knew a couple of people who passed when I played an Mmo, we had little tributes and things for them but their accounts would eventually get closed. I think it was because the game required Plus+ and once their subscription ended the account was permanently offline. I only ever heard from one family member in one of those cases, they thanked everyone for the friendship etc. It's actually how we found out. A couple of days later their profile wasn't there. I've seen their trophy list logged on different sites, but that's about it.
I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic. BL3 (story-wise) felt like a desecration of the first two. I'd expect that for a DLC, but not the main game. Normally I'm onboard for a new Borderlands, the dry character models don't give me a lot of confidence. With such an established franchise, so many artists and resources, I just expected more. They look like four normal enough people going for a stroll, Lillith, ZerO, FL4K, Mordecai all look/play great.
That said I haven't seen how these new characters play. I'm just not feeling the hype I felt for the previous games. It's a sci-fi shooting action game, the main protagonists should represent that world. They look like they came from a Zoolander walk-off. I should care more about the gun-play, the loot, the world design and game-play loop. Instead it's very hard to not zero in on how much they look like NPCs, not vault hunters. There's usually a booth in the game that lets you mix n' match outfits and even heads. Maybe I'll do that.
@Nik4972 I didn't think I'd mention this because it's still fresh but my sister passed not too long ago. All of her media but for eight CDs were digital, her books were Kindle. I had to jailbreak her phone, contact everyone from Spotify to Facebook to get access so I could close her accounts (it's what my Mum wanted) I backed up everything off Facebook (they allow that, even put it in directories for you) there was nothing to back-up on Spotify, I just took screenshots of playlists and burned them onto CD's for my nephew because one day he's going to ask what his Mum liked and I'm going to have to be ready for that.
When my Dad passed he left behind a lot of vinyls, as a child the artwork and size of them caught my attention. Someone played them for me, it got me into Rock music, where I ended up working. Some day I'll be gone too and I want whoever inherits my belongs to have something real to remember me by too. I didn't realize so much of my sisters life was digital, we take it for granted. I took it all for granted, then went looking for pictures of her and everything was on a phone or site. I've printed a lot of them out.
Digital steals something from people that thankfully not a lot of us have experienced yet. It's why I'm so strongly against a digital only future. We live so much of our lives in that format and when it's gone it's gone. I remember when a family friends son passed, they gave me his Nintendo and I was hooked. I still have it and all the games. He's technically gone but who he was and what he enjoyed isn't, and I think that matters. Especially if so many people do invest heavily in their games, not just money but time too.
@Balaam_ It gets worse when you look into how digital translates to what happens if you die. End User License Agreements universally prohibit the transfer of digital assets. Meaning legally that account is tied to the person.
You are entitled to use the Content and Services for your own personal use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Content and Services to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Content and Services to others.
That means a person could spend years buying digital games, get hit by a bus tomorrow and legally if a sibling or spouse were to use the account they would be breaking the EULA. With physical they can take the item and resell it. Companies like Sony don't verify death, but the EULA is clear on what it terms as ownership. I don't think we'll ever have a system of death verification on our accounts but if it were to happen it could potentially put our purchases in limbo. It's not something a lot of people think about, I was asked to close some accounts for a family member before. It made me look at digital in a whole other light. Grim, but it's something people aren't talking enough about.
@MrPeanutbutterz That's not daft, that's how I managed to finish the game. For some bosses I muted the music and just listened to each attack, then I made a mini rhythm game of it. I did it with something else not too long ago, maybe Bannerlord. It helped me get through a lot of area battles where your AI teammates get destroyed and it's just you left to fight 2 guys on horseback, 2 archers and possibly a guy with an axe. The actual large scale battles are brilliant, but rely more on commanding your troops. learning RL attack formations and then riding in and slashing away if you like.
But the AI goes into murder mode after you take a certain amount of castles/land. It's a constant back and forth of, war, peace, war, peace, you eventually lose it all because the game doesn't want you to win. They cut your passive income and supply lines down to nothing, if you can't feed your troops they desert you. Such a good game, I never expected to see it on console. Or for the battles to run as well as they do.
Green are my troops. You can lay sieges to other kingdoms and when you do there's the option to let it just play out from the maps perspective or get in there yourself and manually command/fight your way to victory. It's got a steep learning curve.
Difficulty level improvements (many consider Adept too easy, while Expert is too difficult) - and Framerate (though turning of reflections like Gnomish said works great, it really improved my experience with the game) also they need to adjust whatever it's called when it looks like there's a rave in the forest with all of the lights.
Difficulty would be a great change. It took me about 10 arrows in one deer until it went down, that was just Expert. I've played a lot of hunting games, it doesn't take 10 arrows to drop a deer. They are tanks now. Even the little fallow deer.
Wolves one shot me on Master, until they adjust it gear has little meaning. I've managed to stay with Expert for now, it's got a kind of Souls feel to it but it's not a Souls game and it needs to be balanced to match peoples expectations. Everyone I mentioned Expert to said they got steamrolled by the local wildlife.Timber wolves can still end me fast if I don't see them before they see me. It's actually brutal. I had to run past all of the Dread Zombies, they already regen HP so fast. Luckily I lost them because they are idiots, fighting them just isn't possible above Adept.
@MrPeanutbutterz I'm going to try it again. I had to unlearn years of Dark Souls habits to stop myself from being kicked around the place. It was a smoother experience when I learned to play more with my ears and not rely as much on visual queues, they never felt like they arrived on time. Now it sounds like we'll have both.
@ButterySmooth30FPS Only one way to find out. I've always looked at comparisons on a bigger screen to decide whether it's worth a buy. Sometimes I'll run them through Adobe Colour or other programs to see. It makes sense if you already have tools available, I do it through work. If we get skin tones/palettes wrong it costs the client money. It's not a simple case of just adjusting a RAW image, it has to be balanced for each platform and since so many screens, Apps and browsers handle colour slightly different it's a constant effort to keep up to date. Games should be no different. When they are selling it on specific visual changes? yeah it's important they get it right or people will pick it apart based on how they are seeing it on any other device or platform, other than the actual platform/device/machine you built it for.
@SteveJaye I hope they get there with Primal too. I made the mistake of trying to 100% that a couple of months ago and almost every cut-scene caused the game to crash. Even when I skipped them the game would crash. Some boss fights had to be done three times over. It's the last open world platinum I have, just because the experience was so rough. I still think it's something to do with how Ubiconnect was running, when I took the console offline I didn't get as many crashes.
If they could fix the crashes, and make it so a wild animal doesn't Rick roll you every 2 meters, it would be a great game. There's a lot to see and do but you don't get a moment to yourself when every animal in a mile radius locks on like you have a 1.5K bounty in Oblivion. At a low level it was Conan Exiles all over again, being held hostage on a rock while animals try to murder you.
For all their many faults this is a great move. Maybe they will do the same for Far Cry 3, they locked classic edition to 30fps. It gets to 60fps on the Steamdeck, hopefully they push it to 60fps on PS5.
This was a really good game on Steam. It was a little short like Untitled Goose Game but it was really enjoyable. If there's a platinum you'd probably achieve it in about 6 to 7hrs. The main story took me just over 2hrs. I could have gotten over 2hrs if I'd taken my time. I definitely agree with Mantis, it felt like a Plus+ game through and through.
I did think we were getting the soundtrack with the game, instead they sold it separately for about about ten pounds. It's a small soundtrack with mostly 2min pieces, it doesn't look like it's being bundled with the PS5 version either. It's a minor gripe, it just would have made £25 that little bit more reasonable.
I'm not buying it again but I am 50/50 on buying a copy for a friend who lost their cat a while back, the cat in the game looks just like them. They talk about them all the time. The technical term is emotional support animal. There's a whole certification process involved to get a new one, but I know they have a PS5.
Sometimes I swear the difference sometimes between base model and Pro is white balance. Pro will look warmer and the base model will look like it went through bleach by-passing. I say that as a Pro owner, it's a great machine but when it's a static image comparison I default to how a camera sees it and the differences become so TTL (through the lens) I just see someone toggling the white balance and going 'Pro' 'base model' I'm still buying the game, I have some really good memories of that game.
@themightyant Why should writers be singled out? Because that's how it's done in the industry for every other medium that passes through The Writers Guilds. By leaving the writers out they are continuing a system of exclusion that affects other writers and creatives working in the games industry when and if their work gets adapted. It's not about one individual case, it's about all writers going forward for the foreseeable future. The more this kind of thing happens the harder it's going to be to change it. Credits in writing aren't seen as 'this entity' they are seen as this person or persons.
Supermassive Games is the entity that got the credit, the writers under them didn't. This same thing happened in TV and until they established guidelines and followed them. They haven't done that for game-to-movie adaptions, despite the issue been raised many times. When people see game-to-movie scripts and screenplays go off the reservation right? they ignore the source material? that's all part of that same arrangement. If writers were recognized we could see more faithful adaptions. And then people say 'well this is terrible it's not like the game at all', of course it's not and this is one of the reasons why.
@Matthewnh It's potential royalties. If the unions get their way it could mean writing credits like that result in royalties but it's a very old rule-book and they are meeting a lot of resistance.
Sony Pictures don't control how that's all done, it all passes through The Writers Guild and they are just as corrupt and archaic as the Ratings Board. The part that really sucks is Until Dawn was greenlit as movie inspired, that's how it went through most of production meaning the writers of the game probably did expect a mention. Then it hit marketing with 'the most original horror movie this year' it's technically not original. If the original source material was connected to a book, the rules of The Writers Guild state that credit is given. They've created a deliberate distance between video games as an art-form and video games as a source of entertainment because it saves them money and undermines the gaming industry.
An industry they are quietly at odds with. Yes we get movies like Minecraft and the studios snatch up the profits but there are a lot of people who don't want to see game-to-movie adaptions because they think it may push more people into that gaming landscape and away from theaters. It's not rational thinking but that's how a lot of studio heads see it right now. They think games are for the uneducated and they see absolutely no artistic value in them. It's thinking like that and behind the scenes NSFW activities/mentalities that made me get out of that industry. I've always loved gaming, it does have artistic value. It deserves artistic recognition, especially if studios are going to profit heavily off of just the name alone.
Sony/Screen Gems can't push for a credit, the same way they can't push for a rating. There's a lot of red tape involved. There's a sort of mini betrayal there too that's barely noticeable from the outside but when you've been on the inside you know how they operate and it doesn't come as a surprise. Courtesy in Hollywood always has a dollar amount.
@Ravix It's really odd when you say it like that but really true too. There are games I could play on PC tonight that I end up wish listing on the PS5 with 'I can't wait to play this!' I technically don't have to wait and I could play them now but you get locked into that pattern. Cyberpunk is already 5yrs old now, and Elden Ring 3yrs. It's kind of crazy to even expect to see either games released as 'new' on any platform let alone a new system. I don't doubt Nintendo can do it, I just have concerns about their pricing. If the price of a game on one console is twice as much as the same game on another console then I'd find it hard to justify a buy. I'm really curious to see how the Switch 2 does, especially with those older games.
There was so much hype for Elden Ring's original release, now in 2025 it's going to happen again but for Nintendo, weird times we live in. And I'm saying that as I play a 19yr game that is currently technically new.
@StylesT Same universe, similar premise with clues etc, similar timeline but most people haven't seen it yet so elaborating too much would spoil it. I think the ending is reason enough for the original writers to deserve a credit.
"But there's no courtesy in show biz." absolutely sums it up. It also shows how out of touch studios can be when handling the source material, it shouldn't have happened with Until Dawn because it's Sony Pictures but it still did. They can simply add a credit for 'inspired by the work of' followed by 'written by' but they didn't. It costs them nothing to add a credit, there's no royalties involved just recognition. They've been talking about unionizing video game writers for so long now and never did it, Hollywood don't understand the games industry at all.
Edit: It also shows what I mentioned before about Hollywood not viewing video game writers as true artists It has to be what they deem by definition as art. It might seem small but the more that kind of thing happens the further the drift from that source material. Companies like Amazon already know how to do it right but Hollywood refuses to budge. They won't admit that the only reason they won't do it is (A) it sends more of their audience to the gaming platform which they see as major competition (B) they want to avoid a scenario that might result in two sets of writers being paid. I wouldn't blame Sony Pictures directly, that's the way the industry is run.
@Jey887 Thanks Jey, when people say passion projects that's my one. It's been something I've been able to return to time and time again throughout a big chunk of my life and I always come away from it feeling like it was time well spent. Memory is a strange thing I can remember what show or movie I watched while working on specific parts of the build. Key moments in my life too. If I ever have children I'm buying them games like that. A friend who built levels on LittleBigPlanet went on to work for a games company. They were that impressed by the advanced logic in his levels that they offered him a job. I've heard it's happened with Minecraft too but I don't mix with the community. Those few pictures above I think are the only ones I've shared online. I've done similar things with Cities Skylines. If I had to move anywhere instead of relying on GPS I'd just build it in the game and drive around in-game until I got my bearings. Which actually worked really well. I moved again not too long ago and I haven't gotten lost once, all thanks to Cities Skylines. It doesn't need an article but I do appreciate the kind words, I figured most people would find it boring. It's great to even have games like that on console.
That might not look like much but that interchange was absolute bliss. It handles all of my lanes of traffic without any cars having to slowdown and there's zero issues with gridlock or even switching lanes. When you see people with model railways and they sit there watching their trains zooming around, I get it. I sat there and watched that interchange for an hour when it was finished. Just seeing it now makes me want to boot the game up.
Just like the bike in the game it was slow and clunky at the beginning but got progressively better and faster. It wasn't bad looking either. I kind of liked that the main protagonist was unlikable too, his lack of empathy wasn't something I'd seen more of in other games. I appreciate wholesome and relatable but sometimes a change is good too. It's a shame we can't upgrade the Plus+ version.
@DrVenture69 Did you see how good those Oblivion stages look? I've been in a few to farm Sigil Stones. You can save/reload before you pick it up to roll for the one with the stats you want then use them on your jewelry/gear. Lvl17+ is what you'd want to be aiming for if doing it, that's when you unlock the Transcendental stones. That's also where I expected Fps issues and it was flawless. I had a crash fast traveling to a fence. I think the game was thinking '700 item weight is a bit much' and had a stroke. It was fine once I booted it back up. I haven't had any other crashes yet, but probably will now that I've jinxed it.
I tried but their Pulse headphones are too heavy. One of the best things Sony did for the PS5 was allowing people to plug earbuds into the controller. I only ever saw the extra options with the Sony headset, not the earbuds? I probably need to play around with the settings some more. Oblivion has a really satisfying THUNK when an arrow hits a skeleton now, and that shattering sound that follows is fantastic. It might be so buried in the settings that I missed it.
Edit: It was so buried in the settings that I missed it, thank you.
@Ravix That's almost word for word what I was told but not about a drone because I wouldn't use one near a flight path. This was about photographing different terminals/areas. I'll use Google Earth for the runways/aerial layout.
@MrSensical Maybe in ten years? If we're all still around. I had to send one off to the firm who built the Salesforce tower. I still don't know what they did with it. I've done some other countries too but London is the one I keep returning to. It took me from casual gamer to whatever this is.
@Kidfunkadelic83 Thanks! It's I suppose a lifetime project. Whenever I have time off I return to build some more onto it. I've managed to make some friends in different architectural firms by requesting floor-plans, once they realized what it was actually for they always stayed in touch. One of my favorite architects told me I was in the wrong line of work, which really meant a lot and is probably true. It's just awkward with the police, if you keep getting spotted taking close to half a million photographs of different landmarks and buildings around major cities they start to ask questions. I was taken in once because of political ties etc/I'm sure they thought I was a spy. Which sounds funny but it really wasn't. There were no charges, just suspicion, and I got an apology.
I've even made friends with some train drivers too because I would watch their go-pro streams to figure out the parts of the underground I can't see, naturally they asked why I had an interest in subterranean infrastructure. Then there are places like restaurants, stores, and so on. The render distance is so good now that I can actually see my Gherkin from Wood Wharf, which means it will have to be moved. That thing took forever to build, you have to get the pattern on a surface that's warping as it rises with an integrated swirl in the exo-skeleton. The yacht is there because small scaled vehicles look ridiculous. I built maybe 30 ships, and again learned as I went along. I haven't made it out to London City Airport yet or the Dome, those will be interesting.
I love the little houses to the right. That's Thame's Quay. I moved to that side of the river when the real life quay on the opposite side slowed down it's development and then changed the concept plans to save money.
@get2sammyb Ah true I often forget there is such a thing as casual gaming. Minecraft is one of those top selling casual games and well I've been working on a 1:1 scale project since 2013. All the way up from PS3, to PS4, to PS5. I just finished 17,000,000 sq ft of Canary Wharf but have to keep pausing to wait for the actual real life developments to finish before I can continue. It's tricky now to send up drones around London, the ministry of defense aren't too happy about it. I also do the interiors and various underground stations and lines. It's very therapeutic so maybe that does fall under casual. Or under insanity considering how much of London I've actually built. It's fun to watch non-UK friends who've visited get lost for hours. Minecraft got me into architecture in a big way so casual games definitely have their place.
I would have finished Westferry Circus if Oblivion hadn't come along. English road markings are really hard, when you are using blocks especially. It took hours to get the calculations needed to include the two-level road interchange. It becomes advanced Cities Skylines very fast. The best update ever for Minecraft was raising the ceiling, it made buildings like One Canada Square and Heron Tower so much more doable on console.
@DarkTron I was going to buy a physical copy because I enjoyed it on Plus+ But then Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 happened and now I want them to take the number one spot even more so I bought that instead.
Who's buying that many copies of Hogwarts Legacy? Especially with it now being on +Plus. It's a great game but it's been up there now for weeks. Amazon must have a warehouse dedicated just to that game.
I just hit the 60hr mark and had only 2 bugs. The frame rate was easily fixed by turning off reflections (thanks whoever on here mentioned that, it's buttery smooth now) I'm about to finish a second guild line too so I'm quite far in and haven't run into anything game breaking.
This is by far my favorite bug so far. My Khajiit became Christ. A simple reload fixed it.
@MaelysSedisia Theaters set the price themself. The distributor has a set price and it's up to the venue to balance the cost of getting the picture (sometimes 30K per reel/just transport and insurance) and then playing the picture for a set time. Once it's done they can make up the difference by sending the same reel to a smaller venue (much more common now) Most theaters operate at a loss for the first week, this is why there is such a push for price hikes in concessions/food and drink. The box office gets sliced in many different ways and the theaters aren't getting the biggest piece.
Ticket prices are about to go up again due to power consumption/upcoming heating costs and a 40% hike in logistics (in Europe) from the distributor. It's not set in stone for the actual film budget either. I know people who haven't been paid for months (on location) because the picture went over budget which meant they went over schedule too. Release forms had to be resubmitted, insurance had to be resubmitted. It's happening more and more, which is why so many productions are focusing on sound stages. You should see the cost of accommodation for an entire film crew now, not counting riders for the main talent. The studios are talking about making the production crews pay for it. We're starting to see the same thing in music, the labels are struggling and it all eventually falls back on the consumer (of live events)
You're right no one complains about it because no one is seeing the hidden cost, the venue takes the hidden cost and does what it can to balance a bad box office. Almost twenty theaters closed in the UK last year, that might not sound like a lot but it adds up. It's almost May and the remaining ones are already operating at a 3% loss. The only way they can prevent more closures is to raise the cost of tickets again. It's coming, once the Summer rush ends and we hit early October theaters are going to start charging a lot more. It's not out of greed, it's survival. And that's without even mentioning streaming, the entertainment industry (excluding gaming) is in a very bad way right now. We're all feeling it.
Many gaming publishers are greedy just for the sake of it, they see gamers as soft targets. They exploit the love of a franchise and they run with it. Theaters/film/music don't see the franchise, we don't see the genre we see people and numbers. We don't raise and lower the cost per genre, it's the booking fee of the band and theaters operate the same way. The distributor ends up being the band and if you can't meet their demand you don't get their picture. Everything has a hidden cost at all levels and there are many levels before a film makes it to the viewer. They do actually cost more depending on the picture, you're just not seeing that end result. Or in many cases people are and aren't recognizing it until a theater near them closes.
The day I realized that most of the day one games I buy aren't played for weeks later, maybe longer and then decided to wait for sales and discounts was the day it felt like I cracked the code. I get that not everyone wants to but it becomes really hard to want to when you know these companies are doing it because they can. Meanwhile Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is only £39.99. I did day one buy Oblivion but I've already gotten (checks) 59hrs out of it (I'm on there right now) Civ 7 was only 13hrs, I forget how much that cost but it wasn't cheap. I've definitely become a more cautious buyer.
It was a bit rough releasing Oblivion with Expedition 33 but it goes to show how well built Clair Obscur is to stand beside such a massive release and still do so well. As much as I love indies I don't know that Twitter/X are the best places to advertise your game, they get the numbers but they also get the drama. There are a lot of other platforms like Twitch (to actually showcase your product) or even offer a demo on the various storefronts. Time was every game had a demo and you didn't need a subscription to play them.
Indies don't have a big marketing budget, but so many platforms are free, it sounds like a cop out. It's baffling how it's never been easier to promote a game but some companies don't even try, they expect they will release something and buyers with automatically snatch it up. You have to grind to advertise, complaining isn't the way. There are countless things they could have done to get the game out there.
I've seen the argument a few times on different forums and when I do go to check out their game I can hardly find a mention of it anywhere. It's not a good look for them when so many indie developers are almost brought to tears when they thank people for buying their game and making their dream possible.
@PlatinumMikey Yeah you'll need to link your PS5 to a Microsoft account, it prompts you the first time you start up the game. They made it official last month, I think Minecraft was the first one to do it. Which left me with 3 copies of the game and little idea as to which account works with which game. I'm sure my PC one is lost to the void too.
@Steeleye50 I read 'chicks' as 'cheeks'. I forgot that movie even existed, I watched it for Brandon Lee. It was right before Rapid Fire and The Crow. The Crow would make such a great game, a great city, great music, violence where violence is needed, supernatural powers.
Oblivion, it's pretty much my entire weekend and the first game I played in a while now where objectives went out the window and pure good old exploration took the drivers seat. Also mischief.
Stat-wise I'm at: 31hrs played (I've been sleeping) lvl14, 3.7k items borrowed, 53 items borrowed from pockets, 70 days passed, sneak to 60, security to 60, and I'm saving up 47k gold to buy a home and upgrade it. Once I have a place to put all of my stuff I'll focus more on questing. I've had to leave all of my gear outside in barrels then sneak into stores with nothing but my lockpicks. It sounds like something out of the movie Manhunter (original Silence of The Lambs) but it just means I can carry more.
I'm trying to arrange a Nyotaimori (naked sushi) on this man.
I'd really like to see how well games would do without Gamepass. I think it ruined the release of Atom Fall, too many people told me they played it for 20mins then deleted it. If they'd owned a physical copy and had invested cash into it then maybe they'd have given it more of a chance. I've played some really bad games in the previous generations of Playstation but because I'd actually bought them I forced myself to keep going, it seems like Gamepass will be the reason a lot of games get passed over (no pun intended)
I love to see Oblivion doing well, I've been playing nonstop but the Gamepass numbers sort of muddy up the figures for me, as opposed to someone walking into a store and picking up a copy. It's the whole 'playing' versus 'purchased'. When I'm browsing through Gamepass it feels like the system is cannibalizing itself, at least with day one games. And now we're getting so many Microsoft games on Playstation, we might not have even ended up with Oblivion on PS5. You could feel the anxiety in chat during that reveal, I still half expected them to either lock it down as an Xbox exclusive or a timed exclusive. It's very weird to see this side of Microsoft.
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Re: Infinity Nikki's Biggest Ever PS5 Update Prompts a Grovelling Apology, Free Compensation
@Kidfunkadelic83 Nah she won't think that. It's absolutely harmless with a really imaginative world design, a great colour palette, responsive controls, well composed music, a unique narrative and a lot to see and do. It's also highly addictive which is the only reason I stopped playing, I loved every second with the game but I've had a problem with grindy online games before and I can't put that much time in or I'll never get out. If anything that should be her only complaint. People treated the game a little weirdly at launch, there was the 'Am I a perv to want to try this game?' and 'Will people think I'm gay for trying it?' those were the kinds of questions I got from friends. Maybe 20 or so PSN messages because they saw me playing it and knew I'd give an honest answer.
People overthink games too much now, they forget games are supposed to be enjoyable and a welcome escape. Especially a game with that kind of world and atmosphere. I think you'll be fine honestly. Also the scantily clad part, that's all down to what the player chooses their avatar to wear. When games (not this) are sexualized they feel even worse because there's always someone who points it out as if they are superior because they prefer something more bland or 'normal', as if that even exists. Very weird times.
There's my last look in the game, it's honestly harmless and it's free so that alone should be reason enough for people to try it. I felt bad for not being able to pay for it. My time with the game felt polished, professional and extremely addictive. I've paid for Triple-A games that couldn't even accomplish one of those points.
Re: Days Gone's Review Scores Have Been Rising Over Time, with PS5 Version Coming Highly Recommended
As much as it was a slog to start I ended up really liking it. The character didn't haven't be likable for that kind of apocalyptic setting and if he were I think it would have been even more unrealistic. He's a 1%'r they aren't cute and cuddly. The world did get more interesting as did the story, and the bike and gear upgrades were a welcome addition. I think a big part of the hate was 'I played this on PS4' I didn't. I played it free on PS5 along with a bunch of other free games that were equally brilliant.
I never ran into one single bug, it looked great, sounded great and performed fine. I put almost 150hrs into the game and apparently got platinum too. In many ways I'm glad I never played it on PS4, if it was buggy and broken I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. The performance on PS5 was a big part of my enjoyment with that game, now that it's being remastered it will no doubt do the same for someone else.
I did actually play it all the way through. I'm not jumping on the 'I hate this game' bandwagon just for the sake of it. I saw the exact same thing happen to AtomFall. Honestly half the time I question if people have even played the game they are hating on. That's not an attack on anyone, just an observation based on reddit and elsewhere. The last guy couldn't even tell me what happens in the first five minutes of the game, even-though he quit after the first twenty minutes.
Re: State of Play Set for Wednesday, 20 Minutes of Borderlands 4 Gameplay
@johnedwin Busy developing them? Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2 were Playstation games the last time I checked. They aren't lost just because they aren't currently showcasing the games they're still working on. Maybe they are being more careful after leaks like Wolverine happened and they don't want to show something off before it's ready.
Patience has always led to some damn good Playstation games. An exclusive showcase for any game on the platform doesn't mean the platform is lost, it means the platform was chosen because it's got that much reach. I respect the hustle regardless if I like the game or not.
Re: EA Confirms Heavy Layoffs, Titanfall Game Cancelled
@AgentMantis It makes you wonder if they know their job is on the line when they get forced into those situations. The handful I knew all worked on the same MMo. They hated upper management and were frequently forced into making changes that they didn't agree with. Every single one of them left, their Glassdoor exit reviews for the company said it all. This is one of them:
No company culture. Everything has to be done ASAP, with very little room for creativity and experimentation. Stress levels keep everyone on edge. Very little time to take a deep breath and enjoy work. The proprietary engine used is years old and hasn't seen a lot of modernization. The dev teams are unable to steer the games or company in any direction other than what is dictated by the top two or three Directors. Quality of the games are an afterthought, as the primary goal is to create systems and mechanics that will monetize well. Most of the teams here do NOT play the games that they build. This is disheartening when trying to have a conversation about what works or not, and are shushed by someone who has only played a single level 20 toon (and only due to a bonus requirement).
That kind of thing made me more careful about which companies and publishers got my time and money. That review is ten years old now but matches what a lot of current devs have said about online shooters and Fortnite clones. I think I'd rather work in a coalmine than for a company like EA.
Re: EA Confirms Heavy Layoffs, Titanfall Game Cancelled
They should have learned from XDefiant. Ubisoft said it wasn't dying then three months later (at Christmas) let go of 300 people. It's not too much of a stretch to think that if that Titanfall game did get released, and it did flop that those 300 to 400 people would have still lost their jobs. It always feels like adding insult to injury when you hear that someone put time and effort into a project, the project got cancelled meaning their work was for nothing and then to top it off they lost their jobs.
Every-time I swear.
Re: State of Play Set for Wednesday, 20 Minutes of Borderlands 4 Gameplay
@UltimateOtaku91 I'm trying to. It depends on how the classes play. I need to see the endgame loop too, I liked the chaos system from Wonderlands. BL3 had some good endgame elements but it was so easy to cheese. It never felt like that on Wonderlands, until you met a hacker who would nuke the entire map.
Re: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (PS5) - The Largely Fantastic Revival of a Landmark RPG
@Bentleyma Absolutely. I thought the game world and terrain in Skyrim was better too until I saw the draw distance and terrain in the remaster. A little too much of Skyrim felt like verticality for the sake of verticality. This feels a lot more natural which adds to the realism. I haven't found much flat land anywhere in Oblivion. It doesn't feel like some locations/forts were built separately then dropped as assets into the game world either. Where they are placed seems to exist for that asset, not the other way around.
Right now I'm on Gnoll Mountain looking down on the city of Bruma, it looks like it's always been there and was built there for actual fortification. I missed details like that on the original, we didn't have the draw distance. Now we do and the world is breathtaking, especially when you increase the FOV.
Re: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (PS5) - The Largely Fantastic Revival of a Landmark RPG
Very fair and unlike some publications you put the hours in. I do actually prefer the quests and dungeons in Oblivion over Skyrim but that's probably nostalgia too. I'm at (checks) 75hrs now, lvl21, it's been nearly impossible to put the game down. Elden Ring was the last game to take up that much of my time. My personal life and professional life are all being impacted by the game and I couldn't be happier.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Updates in the Oven, Bethesda Wants Your Feedback for Improvements
@DrVenture69 Thank you, it's something I never thought about until I had to. I'm the opposite, I collect and preserve everything. I'd prefer it all go to charity than just disappear one day when an account gets taken offline. I knew a couple of people who passed when I played an Mmo, we had little tributes and things for them but their accounts would eventually get closed. I think it was because the game required Plus+ and once their subscription ended the account was permanently offline. I only ever heard from one family member in one of those cases, they thanked everyone for the friendship etc. It's actually how we found out. A couple of days later their profile wasn't there. I've seen their trophy list logged on different sites, but that's about it.
Re: State of Play Set for Wednesday, 20 Minutes of Borderlands 4 Gameplay
I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic. BL3 (story-wise) felt like a desecration of the first two. I'd expect that for a DLC, but not the main game. Normally I'm onboard for a new Borderlands, the dry character models don't give me a lot of confidence. With such an established franchise, so many artists and resources, I just expected more. They look like four normal enough people going for a stroll, Lillith, ZerO, FL4K, Mordecai all look/play great.
That said I haven't seen how these new characters play. I'm just not feeling the hype I felt for the previous games. It's a sci-fi shooting action game, the main protagonists should represent that world. They look like they came from a Zoolander walk-off. I should care more about the gun-play, the loot, the world design and game-play loop. Instead it's very hard to not zero in on how much they look like NPCs, not vault hunters. There's usually a booth in the game that lets you mix n' match outfits and even heads. Maybe I'll do that.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Updates in the Oven, Bethesda Wants Your Feedback for Improvements
@Nik4972 I didn't think I'd mention this because it's still fresh but my sister passed not too long ago. All of her media but for eight CDs were digital, her books were Kindle. I had to jailbreak her phone, contact everyone from Spotify to Facebook to get access so I could close her accounts (it's what my Mum wanted) I backed up everything off Facebook (they allow that, even put it in directories for you) there was nothing to back-up on Spotify, I just took screenshots of playlists and burned them onto CD's for my nephew because one day he's going to ask what his Mum liked and I'm going to have to be ready for that.
When my Dad passed he left behind a lot of vinyls, as a child the artwork and size of them caught my attention. Someone played them for me, it got me into Rock music, where I ended up working. Some day I'll be gone too and I want whoever inherits my belongs to have something real to remember me by too. I didn't realize so much of my sisters life was digital, we take it for granted. I took it all for granted, then went looking for pictures of her and everything was on a phone or site. I've printed a lot of them out.
Digital steals something from people that thankfully not a lot of us have experienced yet. It's why I'm so strongly against a digital only future. We live so much of our lives in that format and when it's gone it's gone. I remember when a family friends son passed, they gave me his Nintendo and I was hooked. I still have it and all the games. He's technically gone but who he was and what he enjoyed isn't, and I think that matters. Especially if so many people do invest heavily in their games, not just money but time too.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Updates in the Oven, Bethesda Wants Your Feedback for Improvements
@Balaam_ It gets worse when you look into how digital translates to what happens if you die. End User License Agreements universally prohibit the transfer of digital assets. Meaning legally that account is tied to the person.
You are entitled to use the Content and Services for your own personal use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Content and Services to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Content and Services to others.
That means a person could spend years buying digital games, get hit by a bus tomorrow and legally if a sibling or spouse were to use the account they would be breaking the EULA. With physical they can take the item and resell it. Companies like Sony don't verify death, but the EULA is clear on what it terms as ownership. I don't think we'll ever have a system of death verification on our accounts but if it were to happen it could potentially put our purchases in limbo. It's not something a lot of people think about, I was asked to close some accounts for a family member before. It made me look at digital in a whole other light. Grim, but it's something people aren't talking enough about.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@MrPeanutbutterz That's not daft, that's how I managed to finish the game. For some bosses I muted the music and just listened to each attack, then I made a mini rhythm game of it. I did it with something else not too long ago, maybe Bannerlord. It helped me get through a lot of area battles where your AI teammates get destroyed and it's just you left to fight 2 guys on horseback, 2 archers and possibly a guy with an axe. The actual large scale battles are brilliant, but rely more on commanding your troops. learning RL attack formations and then riding in and slashing away if you like.
But the AI goes into murder mode after you take a certain amount of castles/land. It's a constant back and forth of, war, peace, war, peace, you eventually lose it all because the game doesn't want you to win. They cut your passive income and supply lines down to nothing, if you can't feed your troops they desert you. Such a good game, I never expected to see it on console. Or for the battles to run as well as they do.
Green are my troops. You can lay sieges to other kingdoms and when you do there's the option to let it just play out from the maps perspective or get in there yourself and manually command/fight your way to victory. It's got a steep learning curve.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Updates in the Oven, Bethesda Wants Your Feedback for Improvements
Difficulty level improvements (many consider Adept too easy, while Expert is too difficult) - and Framerate (though turning of reflections like Gnomish said works great, it really improved my experience with the game) also they need to adjust whatever it's called when it looks like there's a rave in the forest with all of the lights.
Difficulty would be a great change. It took me about 10 arrows in one deer until it went down, that was just Expert. I've played a lot of hunting games, it doesn't take 10 arrows to drop a deer. They are tanks now. Even the little fallow deer.
Wolves one shot me on Master, until they adjust it gear has little meaning. I've managed to stay with Expert for now, it's got a kind of Souls feel to it but it's not a Souls game and it needs to be balanced to match peoples expectations. Everyone I mentioned Expert to said they got steamrolled by the local wildlife.Timber wolves can still end me fast if I don't see them before they see me. It's actually brutal. I had to run past all of the Dread Zombies, they already regen HP so fast. Luckily I lost them because they are idiots, fighting them just isn't possible above Adept.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@MrPeanutbutterz I'm going to try it again. I had to unlearn years of Dark Souls habits to stop myself from being kicked around the place. It was a smoother experience when I learned to play more with my ears and not rely as much on visual queues, they never felt like they arrived on time. Now it sounds like we'll have both.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@MrPeanutbutterz Thanks I didn't even know Sekiro had 60 Fps on PS5, for a game so reliable on timing I can only imagine how well it will play now.
Re: Days Gone PS5 Is a 'Really Good Piece of Work', Say Tech Experts
@ButterySmooth30FPS Only one way to find out. I've always looked at comparisons on a bigger screen to decide whether it's worth a buy. Sometimes I'll run them through Adobe Colour or other programs to see. It makes sense if you already have tools available, I do it through work. If we get skin tones/palettes wrong it costs the client money. It's not a simple case of just adjusting a RAW image, it has to be balanced for each platform and since so many screens, Apps and browsers handle colour slightly different it's a constant effort to keep up to date. Games should be no different. When they are selling it on specific visual changes? yeah it's important they get it right or people will pick it apart based on how they are seeing it on any other device or platform, other than the actual platform/device/machine you built it for.
Re: Days Gone PS5 Is a 'Really Good Piece of Work', Say Tech Experts
@ButterySmooth30FPS They do on a PC screen.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@SteveJaye I hope they get there with Primal too. I made the mistake of trying to 100% that a couple of months ago and almost every cut-scene caused the game to crash. Even when I skipped them the game would crash. Some boss fights had to be done three times over. It's the last open world platinum I have, just because the experience was so rough. I still think it's something to do with how Ubiconnect was running, when I took the console offline I didn't get as many crashes.
If they could fix the crashes, and make it so a wild animal doesn't Rick roll you every 2 meters, it would be a great game. There's a lot to see and do but you don't get a moment to yourself when every animal in a mile radius locks on like you have a 1.5K bounty in Oblivion. At a low level it was Conan Exiles all over again, being held hostage on a rock while animals try to murder you.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@SteveJaye Have you played Far Cry 5 on PS5 Steve? It's one of the best in the series and runs great on console now.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
@kailun Be sure to let us know when that happens.
Re: Far Cry 4 Gets Surprise 60fps Patch for PS5, Update Available Now
For all their many faults this is a great move. Maybe they will do the same for Far Cry 3, they locked classic edition to 30fps. It gets to 60fps on the Steamdeck, hopefully they push it to 60fps on PS5.
Re: Pawsome Open World Little Kitty, Big City Brings Cosy Cat Vibes to PS5, PS4 At Last
This was a really good game on Steam. It was a little short like Untitled Goose Game but it was really enjoyable. If there's a platinum you'd probably achieve it in about 6 to 7hrs. The main story took me just over 2hrs. I could have gotten over 2hrs if I'd taken my time. I definitely agree with Mantis, it felt like a Plus+ game through and through.
I did think we were getting the soundtrack with the game, instead they sold it separately for about about ten pounds. It's a small soundtrack with mostly 2min pieces, it doesn't look like it's being bundled with the PS5 version either. It's a minor gripe, it just would have made £25 that little bit more reasonable.
I'm not buying it again but I am 50/50 on buying a copy for a friend who lost their cat a while back, the cat in the game looks just like them. They talk about them all the time. The technical term is emotional support animal. There's a whole certification process involved to get a new one, but I know they have a PS5.
Re: Days Gone PS5 Is a 'Really Good Piece of Work', Say Tech Experts
Sometimes I swear the difference sometimes between base model and Pro is white balance. Pro will look warmer and the base model will look like it went through bleach by-passing. I say that as a Pro owner, it's a great machine but when it's a static image comparison I default to how a camera sees it and the differences become so TTL (through the lens) I just see someone toggling the white balance and going 'Pro' 'base model' I'm still buying the game, I have some really good memories of that game.
Re: Until Dawn Game Writers Aren't in the Movie's Credits, and Some Aren't Happy About It
@themightyant Why should writers be singled out? Because that's how it's done in the industry for every other medium that passes through The Writers Guilds. By leaving the writers out they are continuing a system of exclusion that affects other writers and creatives working in the games industry when and if their work gets adapted. It's not about one individual case, it's about all writers going forward for the foreseeable future. The more this kind of thing happens the harder it's going to be to change it. Credits in writing aren't seen as 'this entity' they are seen as this person or persons.
Supermassive Games is the entity that got the credit, the writers under them didn't. This same thing happened in TV and until they established guidelines and followed them. They haven't done that for game-to-movie adaptions, despite the issue been raised many times. When people see game-to-movie scripts and screenplays go off the reservation right? they ignore the source material? that's all part of that same arrangement. If writers were recognized we could see more faithful adaptions. And then people say 'well this is terrible it's not like the game at all', of course it's not and this is one of the reasons why.
Re: Until Dawn Game Writers Aren't in the Movie's Credits, and Some Aren't Happy About It
@Matthewnh It's potential royalties. If the unions get their way it could mean writing credits like that result in royalties but it's a very old rule-book and they are meeting a lot of resistance.
Sony Pictures don't control how that's all done, it all passes through The Writers Guild and they are just as corrupt and archaic as the Ratings Board. The part that really sucks is Until Dawn was greenlit as movie inspired, that's how it went through most of production meaning the writers of the game probably did expect a mention. Then it hit marketing with 'the most original horror movie this year' it's technically not original. If the original source material was connected to a book, the rules of The Writers Guild state that credit is given. They've created a deliberate distance between video games as an art-form and video games as a source of entertainment because it saves them money and undermines the gaming industry.
An industry they are quietly at odds with. Yes we get movies like Minecraft and the studios snatch up the profits but there are a lot of people who don't want to see game-to-movie adaptions because they think it may push more people into that gaming landscape and away from theaters. It's not rational thinking but that's how a lot of studio heads see it right now. They think games are for the uneducated and they see absolutely no artistic value in them. It's thinking like that and behind the scenes NSFW activities/mentalities that made me get out of that industry. I've always loved gaming, it does have artistic value. It deserves artistic recognition, especially if studios are going to profit heavily off of just the name alone.
Sony/Screen Gems can't push for a credit, the same way they can't push for a rating. There's a lot of red tape involved. There's a sort of mini betrayal there too that's barely noticeable from the outside but when you've been on the inside you know how they operate and it doesn't come as a surprise. Courtesy in Hollywood always has a dollar amount.
Re: Elden Ring Sells 30 Million Units, and It's Still Not Done Yet
@Ravix It's really odd when you say it like that but really true too. There are games I could play on PC tonight that I end up wish listing on the PS5 with 'I can't wait to play this!' I technically don't have to wait and I could play them now but you get locked into that pattern. Cyberpunk is already 5yrs old now, and Elden Ring 3yrs. It's kind of crazy to even expect to see either games released as 'new' on any platform let alone a new system. I don't doubt Nintendo can do it, I just have concerns about their pricing. If the price of a game on one console is twice as much as the same game on another console then I'd find it hard to justify a buy. I'm really curious to see how the Switch 2 does, especially with those older games.
There was so much hype for Elden Ring's original release, now in 2025 it's going to happen again but for Nintendo, weird times we live in. And I'm saying that as I play a 19yr game that is currently technically new.
Re: Until Dawn Game Writers Aren't in the Movie's Credits, and Some Aren't Happy About It
@StylesT Same universe, similar premise with clues etc, similar timeline but most people haven't seen it yet so elaborating too much would spoil it. I think the ending is reason enough for the original writers to deserve a credit.
Re: Until Dawn Game Writers Aren't in the Movie's Credits, and Some Aren't Happy About It
"But there's no courtesy in show biz." absolutely sums it up. It also shows how out of touch studios can be when handling the source material, it shouldn't have happened with Until Dawn because it's Sony Pictures but it still did. They can simply add a credit for 'inspired by the work of' followed by 'written by' but they didn't. It costs them nothing to add a credit, there's no royalties involved just recognition. They've been talking about unionizing video game writers for so long now and never did it, Hollywood don't understand the games industry at all.
Edit: It also shows what I mentioned before about Hollywood not viewing video game writers as true artists It has to be what they deem by definition as art. It might seem small but the more that kind of thing happens the further the drift from that source material. Companies like Amazon already know how to do it right but Hollywood refuses to budge. They won't admit that the only reason they won't do it is (A) it sends more of their audience to the gaming platform which they see as major competition (B) they want to avoid a scenario that might result in two sets of writers being paid. I wouldn't blame Sony Pictures directly, that's the way the industry is run.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@Jey887 Thanks Jey, when people say passion projects that's my one. It's been something I've been able to return to time and time again throughout a big chunk of my life and I always come away from it feeling like it was time well spent. Memory is a strange thing I can remember what show or movie I watched while working on specific parts of the build. Key moments in my life too. If I ever have children I'm buying them games like that. A friend who built levels on LittleBigPlanet went on to work for a games company. They were that impressed by the advanced logic in his levels that they offered him a job. I've heard it's happened with Minecraft too but I don't mix with the community. Those few pictures above I think are the only ones I've shared online. I've done similar things with Cities Skylines. If I had to move anywhere instead of relying on GPS I'd just build it in the game and drive around in-game until I got my bearings. Which actually worked really well. I moved again not too long ago and I haven't gotten lost once, all thanks to Cities Skylines. It doesn't need an article but I do appreciate the kind words, I figured most people would find it boring. It's great to even have games like that on console.
That might not look like much but that interchange was absolute bliss. It handles all of my lanes of traffic without any cars having to slowdown and there's zero issues with gridlock or even switching lanes. When you see people with model railways and they sit there watching their trains zooming around, I get it. I sat there and watched that interchange for an hour when it was finished. Just seeing it now makes me want to boot the game up.
Re: Days Gone Remastered (PS5) - The Definitive Version of a True Fan-Favourite
Just like the bike in the game it was slow and clunky at the beginning but got progressively better and faster. It wasn't bad looking either. I kind of liked that the main protagonist was unlikable too, his lack of empathy wasn't something I'd seen more of in other games. I appreciate wholesome and relatable but sometimes a change is good too. It's a shame we can't upgrade the Plus+ version.
Re: Oblivion Remastered PS5 Patch in Limbo as Xbox Users Get a Performance Boost
@DrVenture69 Did you see how good those Oblivion stages look? I've been in a few to farm Sigil Stones. You can save/reload before you pick it up to roll for the one with the stats you want then use them on your jewelry/gear. Lvl17+ is what you'd want to be aiming for if doing it, that's when you unlock the Transcendental stones. That's also where I expected Fps issues and it was flawless. I had a crash fast traveling to a fence. I think the game was thinking '700 item weight is a bit much' and had a stroke. It was fine once I booted it back up. I haven't had any other crashes yet, but probably will now that I've jinxed it.
Re: PS5's Newest Firmware Feature Is Not Getting Enough Attention
I tried but their Pulse headphones are too heavy. One of the best things Sony did for the PS5 was allowing people to plug earbuds into the controller. I only ever saw the extra options with the Sony headset, not the earbuds? I probably need to play around with the settings some more. Oblivion has a really satisfying THUNK when an arrow hits a skeleton now, and that shattering sound that follows is fantastic. It might be so buried in the settings that I missed it.
Edit: It was so buried in the settings that I missed it, thank you.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@TheFakulty Those are physical numbers. Oblivion Remastered is only digital, unfortunately.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@Ravix That's almost word for word what I was told but not about a drone because I wouldn't use one near a flight path. This was about photographing different terminals/areas. I'll use Google Earth for the runways/aerial layout.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@MrSensical Maybe in ten years? If we're all still around. I had to send one off to the firm who built the Salesforce tower. I still don't know what they did with it. I've done some other countries too but London is the one I keep returning to. It took me from casual gamer to whatever this is.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@Kidfunkadelic83 Thanks! It's I suppose a lifetime project. Whenever I have time off I return to build some more onto it. I've managed to make some friends in different architectural firms by requesting floor-plans, once they realized what it was actually for they always stayed in touch. One of my favorite architects told me I was in the wrong line of work, which really meant a lot and is probably true. It's just awkward with the police, if you keep getting spotted taking close to half a million photographs of different landmarks and buildings around major cities they start to ask questions. I was taken in once because of political ties etc/I'm sure they thought I was a spy. Which sounds funny but it really wasn't. There were no charges, just suspicion, and I got an apology.
I've even made friends with some train drivers too because I would watch their go-pro streams to figure out the parts of the underground I can't see, naturally they asked why I had an interest in subterranean infrastructure. Then there are places like restaurants, stores, and so on. The render distance is so good now that I can actually see my Gherkin from Wood Wharf, which means it will have to be moved. That thing took forever to build, you have to get the pattern on a surface that's warping as it rises with an integrated swirl in the exo-skeleton. The yacht is there because small scaled vehicles look ridiculous. I built maybe 30 ships, and again learned as I went along. I haven't made it out to London City Airport yet or the Dome, those will be interesting.
I love the little houses to the right. That's Thame's Quay. I moved to that side of the river when the real life quay on the opposite side slowed down it's development and then changed the concept plans to save money.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@get2sammyb Ah true I often forget there is such a thing as casual gaming. Minecraft is one of those top selling casual games and well I've been working on a 1:1 scale project since 2013. All the way up from PS3, to PS4, to PS5. I just finished 17,000,000 sq ft of Canary Wharf but have to keep pausing to wait for the actual real life developments to finish before I can continue. It's tricky now to send up drones around London, the ministry of defense aren't too happy about it. I also do the interiors and various underground stations and lines. It's very therapeutic so maybe that does fall under casual. Or under insanity considering how much of London I've actually built. It's fun to watch non-UK friends who've visited get lost for hours. Minecraft got me into architecture in a big way so casual games definitely have their place.
I would have finished Westferry Circus if Oblivion hadn't come along. English road markings are really hard, when you are using blocks especially. It took hours to get the calculations needed to include the two-level road interchange. It becomes advanced Cities Skylines very fast. The best update ever for Minecraft was raising the ceiling, it made buildings like One Canada Square and Heron Tower so much more doable on console.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
@DarkTron I was going to buy a physical copy because I enjoyed it on Plus+ But then Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 happened and now I want them to take the number one spot even more so I bought that instead.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Expedition 33 Debuts in Second Place, Almost All Sales for PS5 Version
Who's buying that many copies of Hogwarts Legacy? Especially with it now being on +Plus. It's a great game but it's been up there now for weeks. Amazon must have a warehouse dedicated just to that game.
Re: Oblivion Remastered PS5 Patch in Limbo as Xbox Users Get a Performance Boost
I just hit the 60hr mark and had only 2 bugs. The frame rate was easily fixed by turning off reflections (thanks whoever on here mentioned that, it's buttery smooth now) I'm about to finish a second guild line too so I'm quite far in and haven't run into anything game breaking.
This is by far my favorite bug so far. My Khajiit became Christ. A simple reload fixed it.
Re: Ghost of Yotei's PS5 Price Provokes Fresh Switch 2 Fury
@MaelysSedisia Theaters set the price themself. The distributor has a set price and it's up to the venue to balance the cost of getting the picture (sometimes 30K per reel/just transport and insurance) and then playing the picture for a set time. Once it's done they can make up the difference by sending the same reel to a smaller venue (much more common now) Most theaters operate at a loss for the first week, this is why there is such a push for price hikes in concessions/food and drink. The box office gets sliced in many different ways and the theaters aren't getting the biggest piece.
Ticket prices are about to go up again due to power consumption/upcoming heating costs and a 40% hike in logistics (in Europe) from the distributor. It's not set in stone for the actual film budget either. I know people who haven't been paid for months (on location) because the picture went over budget which meant they went over schedule too. Release forms had to be resubmitted, insurance had to be resubmitted. It's happening more and more, which is why so many productions are focusing on sound stages. You should see the cost of accommodation for an entire film crew now, not counting riders for the main talent. The studios are talking about making the production crews pay for it. We're starting to see the same thing in music, the labels are struggling and it all eventually falls back on the consumer (of live events)
You're right no one complains about it because no one is seeing the hidden cost, the venue takes the hidden cost and does what it can to balance a bad box office. Almost twenty theaters closed in the UK last year, that might not sound like a lot but it adds up. It's almost May and the remaining ones are already operating at a 3% loss. The only way they can prevent more closures is to raise the cost of tickets again. It's coming, once the Summer rush ends and we hit early October theaters are going to start charging a lot more. It's not out of greed, it's survival. And that's without even mentioning streaming, the entertainment industry (excluding gaming) is in a very bad way right now. We're all feeling it.
Many gaming publishers are greedy just for the sake of it, they see gamers as soft targets. They exploit the love of a franchise and they run with it. Theaters/film/music don't see the franchise, we don't see the genre we see people and numbers. We don't raise and lower the cost per genre, it's the booking fee of the band and theaters operate the same way. The distributor ends up being the band and if you can't meet their demand you don't get their picture. Everything has a hidden cost at all levels and there are many levels before a film makes it to the viewer. They do actually cost more depending on the picture, you're just not seeing that end result. Or in many cases people are and aren't recognizing it until a theater near them closes.
Re: Ghost of Yotei's PS5 Price Provokes Fresh Switch 2 Fury
The day I realized that most of the day one games I buy aren't played for weeks later, maybe longer and then decided to wait for sales and discounts was the day it felt like I cracked the code. I get that not everyone wants to but it becomes really hard to want to when you know these companies are doing it because they can. Meanwhile Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is only £39.99. I did day one buy Oblivion but I've already gotten (checks) 59hrs out of it (I'm on there right now) Civ 7 was only 13hrs, I forget how much that cost but it wasn't cheap. I've definitely become a more cautious buyer.
Re: PS Plus Essential Game for May 2025 Possibly Leaked Early
Great addition if it's true. Looks like it's just in time for the movie too, well played Sony.
Re: Not Everyone Loved Oblivion Remastered's Shadow Drop
It was a bit rough releasing Oblivion with Expedition 33 but it goes to show how well built Clair Obscur is to stand beside such a massive release and still do so well. As much as I love indies I don't know that Twitter/X are the best places to advertise your game, they get the numbers but they also get the drama. There are a lot of other platforms like Twitch (to actually showcase your product) or even offer a demo on the various storefronts. Time was every game had a demo and you didn't need a subscription to play them.
Indies don't have a big marketing budget, but so many platforms are free, it sounds like a cop out. It's baffling how it's never been easier to promote a game but some companies don't even try, they expect they will release something and buyers with automatically snatch it up. You have to grind to advertise, complaining isn't the way. There are countless things they could have done to get the game out there.
I've seen the argument a few times on different forums and when I do go to check out their game I can hardly find a mention of it anywhere. It's not a good look for them when so many indie developers are almost brought to tears when they thank people for buying their game and making their dream possible.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Tops 4 Million Players in Just a Few Days
@Michael2008ish May your road lead you to warm sands. Unless you are an Argonian, then may they lead you to the basements of Castle Leyawiin.
Re: These 11+ New PS5, PS4 Games Are Coming Out Next Week (28th-4th May)
@PlatinumMikey Yeah you'll need to link your PS5 to a Microsoft account, it prompts you the first time you start up the game. They made it official last month, I think Minecraft was the first one to do it. Which left me with 3 copies of the game and little idea as to which account works with which game. I'm sure my PC one is lost to the void too.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 578
@Steeleye50 I read 'chicks' as 'cheeks'. I forgot that movie even existed, I watched it for Brandon Lee. It was right before Rapid Fire and The Crow. The Crow would make such a great game, a great city, great music, violence where violence is needed, supernatural powers.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 578
Oblivion, it's pretty much my entire weekend and the first game I played in a while now where objectives went out the window and pure good old exploration took the drivers seat. Also mischief.
Stat-wise I'm at: 31hrs played (I've been sleeping) lvl14, 3.7k items borrowed, 53 items borrowed from pockets, 70 days passed, sneak to 60, security to 60, and I'm saving up 47k gold to buy a home and upgrade it. Once I have a place to put all of my stuff I'll focus more on questing. I've had to leave all of my gear outside in barrels then sneak into stores with nothing but my lockpicks. It sounds like something out of the movie Manhunter (original Silence of The Lambs) but it just means I can carry more.
I'm trying to arrange a Nyotaimori (naked sushi) on this man.
Re: Oblivion Remastered Tops 4 Million Players in Just a Few Days
I'd really like to see how well games would do without Gamepass. I think it ruined the release of Atom Fall, too many people told me they played it for 20mins then deleted it. If they'd owned a physical copy and had invested cash into it then maybe they'd have given it more of a chance. I've played some really bad games in the previous generations of Playstation but because I'd actually bought them I forced myself to keep going, it seems like Gamepass will be the reason a lot of games get passed over (no pun intended)
I love to see Oblivion doing well, I've been playing nonstop but the Gamepass numbers sort of muddy up the figures for me, as opposed to someone walking into a store and picking up a copy. It's the whole 'playing' versus 'purchased'. When I'm browsing through Gamepass it feels like the system is cannibalizing itself, at least with day one games. And now we're getting so many Microsoft games on Playstation, we might not have even ended up with Oblivion on PS5. You could feel the anxiety in chat during that reveal, I still half expected them to either lock it down as an Xbox exclusive or a timed exclusive. It's very weird to see this side of Microsoft.