I got my one hundred percents in Spiderman and Miles Morales so I'm taking a break from hefty story based/narrative games and casually strolling through the countryside in Day Z. I already got lucky and found a badly fortified French base and let myself in then borrowed some of their supplies. I just need to find a shovel so I can stash the rest in a crates and bury them somewhere safe. I'm going to lower their flag and take that too, for that I need a small axe. Hopefully they are offline for the night. They have quite a lot of things and I can carry only so much. The last time I did this a guy logged back on and I had to quietly hide in the bushes until he left again. So far so good.
I did it just in time and got their flag too. Then headed off into the sunset with the last of their Coke a Cola. Hydration is important. They'll probably blame the clan (PVP server) the next town over (then they'll fight each other) either way they need to work on their defenses. I got in there as a fresh spawn, now I'm fully geared. I thought I'd have to travel further North and risk a visit to the airfield. They removed notes so I can't leave a sorry/thank you note.
Happy gaming weekend Folks, remember to check your doors and windows. Fridges too.
I still have all of the games and couple of guitars. It would be hard to beat the roster on Warriors of Rock and music licenses aren't as cheap as they once were, they might get the hardware down but I can see a lot of paid for DLC tracks. It's half a million to license AC/DC now for a game. They had a whole Rock Track Pack back in 2009. The labels were throwing music at games left right and center, now they want a big pay day. Prices have more than doubled with some labels and so has the system.
I've been following that game for a while now, the trailer footage is months old and was used for test audiences. The Devs confirmed it on their Discord, they are planning better mo-cap. IGN pushed it for Fan Fest 2026, we're seeing a very unpolished version of the game. If anyone thinks it looks dated, that's why.
Piracy increases (could) also be a factor. If you take Spiderman for example there are over three hundred thousand downloads. That's just one tracker, I didn't check the others. It can't not be affecting sales. All of those top cracks are of traditional single player games. Stellar Blade is the most requested on there.
I'm not saying I agree with it, but I do see it regularly. Stellar Blade is not officially cracked, people think Denuvo locked it down and they didn't. On the surface level it's protected but through a certain system it's wide open, one that's not widely available yet, but will be. It's entirely possible that Sony are aware of what's coming. Denuvo can be out‑engineered, virtualisation tech is changing everything and their games aren't safe on there. No software is, if someone wants to steal your product they will.
Console players mean money, PC should mean money but it doesn't always. If they are tracking losses they aren't reporting it and that potential backtracking is getting chatter in those places too, groups are taking notice. Not just console players. They want their 'free games', meanwhile we pay top dollar.
There's something wrong with my copy, when I put it in the PS5 it starts to make loud erratic noises.
But seriously a seven sounds fair, I'll be picking up a copy. I just checked the manual (PS2 days) and it has a trailer for the Original Fast and Furious as an extra. There's also a documentary called Night Warriors. It's a ten minute video and someone under the name Video Game Trailers and Bonus Videos uploaded it to Youtube.
It's not for me, neither is the game but it's hard not to appreciate the extra dimension the water adds. I haven't seen any other collectors editions do that.
This should shock me but earlier today I was doing Spiderman/graphic novel/comic research and saw Spiderman versus Godzilla. It too was recent like Spiderman versus Predator, I'd just played the game and big licenses like that are my main draw for graphic novels and comics. Predator versus anyone and I'll read it, then I saw the Godzilla one. I think Minus One was the last one I saw, I haven't seen any of the others before Roland Emmerich's 1998 one. Maybe one day.
This is a timing thing, he's getting in while there are still lucrative tax options for shooting in the Czech Republic. If he left it a couple of more years it would cost a lot more. It might look like he's jumping ship. Right now it's about to cap at 40% for a cash rebate on qualified local productions (big for investors) up from 25%. It's never been better to shoot there and even better for locals, possibly up to 70%. Crew and logistics have gotten cheaper too, I've seen a lot of partnerships with international studios in the works for next year. He's doing it right.
It's the same reason Resident Evil went to Prague and BladeRunner before it. Cheaper to shoot on location right now than to run a sound-stage in a skeletal Hollywood (they've lost a lot of crew due to cost of living and tax in L.A.) I'd be curious to see what studio picks it up and how much budget is allocated. They already have the natural landscape, locals and so on.
I couldn't even play the mini game of golf in Infinite Wealth so it's a hard pass, but it's good to see Sony being aware that all kinds of people pay for their service.
I played the first two, followed by both True Crime games, for their time they hit the mark. I never felt any draw to the newer ones, they seemed too much like GTA Online but offline and with not so very likable characters or any sense of real direction. Maybe that's a harsh comparison. I have no interest in playing another game from the series. Maybe they were a product of their time (for the right reasons, the music especially) Some franchises don't need to be milked, and when they are it needs to be done right or not at all.
After a busy week at the Winter Olympics I'm finally getting some gaming of my own done in the shape of Insomniac's Spiderman. I'm enjoying the combat especially throwing things at people, people at things, people at people and I definitely enjoy the option for a stealthy approach too. I haven't looked into the other two yet, but I can see why people like the first one. Happy gaming weekend folks.
One of the best things my country ever did was ban that game, perhaps not for the reason that I've have done it but I sleep better knowing that fewer children are being exposed to what I know from experience exists on games like that. Give it a couple of more years and they'll see the real damage, children don't understand the kind of behavior they experience on there.
It's safer to allow your child to play with the 1950's Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab than Roblox. And that kit came with real low-level radioactive uranium ore. I can't voice my true opinion on that game, it would be colourful, very colourful.
I genuinely did find it boring, there were things to do but it was very linear and if there were rewards for exploring I never found them. That's the opposite of every other Bethesda game I've ever played. The whole thing felt like false advertisement and still does.
Once I'm out the door of a vault or out of that tower I ignore the main story and just go exploring and side-questing. That wasn't my experience with Starfield. It felt like a tech-demo or one big promissory note that never delivered. I'd hope they do something about the load times but at this point I'm only picking up a copy for the novelty and so I can distance myself further from game pass.
I've only played the first two on a PS1 not that long ago and they were phenomenal even with those graphics. There are too many now to know where to go next. It felt like missing out on a big part of gaming history, the same for the first Silent Hill. I've read all of the Resident Evil novels, seen all the movies, did a day on one of the movie sets, read every art-book ever released, so many reference books but did most of that before playing the first two games.
There's probably ten more of them. Maybe I'll play the remasters of the first two some day. I watch horror all the time and have a room full of it but being that up-close with that pov, I'm not sure about that.
@MrPeanutbutterz It took seeing Solid Snake in a terrarium for me to come to my senses on special editions. I sent him to to Oxfam, I couldn't even look at his Team America-looking face it was a travesty. You worked in a game store though so you probably saw the best and worst of special editions up close. I should have zoomed right in with a microscope before buying off of Konami.
It’s unclear why this was kept secret for so long, but it’s not looking like the conglomerate will be getting a return on its investment in this instance.
Probably to allow them to put the game out there without the kind of market scrutiny that Tencent drum up when they are seen to be behind something big. It means future development and acquisition is based more on data than public perception, reputation would have been a factor and investor confidence would reflect that. It would also protect investors interests in that live service sphere, there's a lot of copying and piggy-backing, everyone is looking for the next big thing but they don't understand their customer-base at all.
They may have also been looking at long-term growth (live service) and public validation is a distraction, not when you aren't required to disclose your investment. Selective visibility is a lot more common in the games industry than people think, which is also why the industry has lost so much of it's soul and why so many people have lost their jobs. Regulatory scrutiny in China can be volatile and Tencent use multiple methods of investment, not all of them need to be disclosed. I'd speculate that they went through an Exchange-Traded Fund, there's more diversification, less scrutiny and a lot more investor options. China is a complex market, my guess is that they were looking at passive income as a return on their investment and that particular kind of investment didn't require exposure, not like Western markets.
Which is another reason why investors are drawn to companies like Tencent, it suits a certain style of investment and offers the kind of security that I haven't seen in the Western games market. A game will flop and you'll still get paid. The profits in attributable equity to it's holders is unmatched and as long as that continues they can gamble with I.P.s/games and franchises. They are involved in a lot more than the gaming sector.
That's the first time I've seen a hexagonal shell box used for a game, cosmetics companies have been using them for years and they seem to suit games too. Definitely more colourful, I'm more curious about an art-book than anything else. There weren't many last year and mostly digital.
I forgot this was even coming to PS5. I played it for a day on gamepass but didn't have the time to invest into an RPG. It felt like a mix between Skyrim and Borderlands. Really odd aesthetic, a little bland but it was early game so it's hard to tell if it improves. I find it hard to judge any game on gamepass, it's too easy to walk away when it doesn't feel like you invested any money in buying the actual game. That was most of my experience with gamepass, it cheapened too many games.
I still think of this album from years before the game released. Strangely similar from Jakub Józef Orliński a Polish breakdancer and countertenor.
And that right there is why I preserve everything on physical, Sony would have to walk right in and Spirit away my games. Not to mention it preserves the game art/box. Remember when we had collections like that? Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell etc.
Those are all day one MGS releases, I leave some sealed. That paper one I took out of the Zone of Enders box, I still have the original Japanese MSG demo somewhere too. I have a couple of crates full of PS1/PS2 demos. There's others somewhere in my collection like Japanese demos/promos etc but other than that it's cinema reels/VHS/DVD/Books etc. I'm aiming for Fallout levels of preservation. Maybe I need to start with PSP too, at the moment it's PS1/PS2/PS3 and PS4.
Leave them in, I want to experience the originals for the first time in their original form not cut or modified to suit current standards. They are only games, no one is forcing anyone to play them and if they did cut that content it wouldn't really be preserving anything. I'd just go and find the originals instead.
Meanwhile I'm standing at a bar in a pub for a trophy to pop right now, after that it's off to stand in an English phone-box for ten minutes for the next one.
@DrVenture69 I took some convincing by a tour manager to check out some Folk Metal, I never went to the sound checks and waited for them to go on that night. That band was Korpiklaani, then after that the others followed like Eluveitie, Turisas and Ensiferum. Before then Metal to me was Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, Venom etc, some Symphonic and Melodic and a lot of Apocalyptica and unhealthy amount of Screamo (noise)
We've talked about and shared some really random bands in the music thread. Sometimes back and forth for hours into the morning. There's some Slipknot there right now but it's done with animal sounds/dogs barking etc, crows on percussion. It was a weird night. I'll listen to anything, Classical and Metal are my go to. I'm going to check out Ranarim. Swedish Folk Music will be a change from Swedish Death Metal.
I'm only up to 502 on my Spotify list, 3.5K would be a feat. I tend to replay the same piece of music though and I couldn't do that for 3.5K tracks.
When I see those numbers I know it's time to make the list a little bigger. With a list that big you should share some stuff on the music thread, we're always finding new stuff and sharing.
@DrVenture69 If that's on your Spotify then you have very good taste in music. I've played about two hours worth of the game and that music you mentioned reminds me a lot of a piece called Spem in alium. Latin for 'hope in any other'. It's a Renaissance motet by the English composer Thomas Tallis (1500's) I've heard it live a couple of times. The music in that game is very similar, you might think so too if you heard that piece. It's performed by eight choirs with five voices each and many see it as the most important piece of early English music. I'd agree.
That's one of the best renditions you'll find of it on Spotify, the others fall flat compared to how it sounds live and The Oxford Camerata are one of the best when it comes to that kind of monophonic/plainchant. The same technique that would have been used in the game's soundtrack, which is why they sound so similar.
He looks like a man who's never smiled a day in his life and it can't help that they gave that pixel Kratos his eyebrows. If you cover the top part of his hair he looks just like him.
I might be trying Everybody's Gone to The Rapture, depending on how Valentine's Day weekend goes, I could end up anywhere it's always a mystery. I finally finished and one hundred percent'd Infinite Wealth over the week and after that epic journey decided to try my first walking simulator. What Remains of Edith Finch was so good and so well written, so I tried another walking simulator 'The Invincible' which was absolutely brilliant and needs to be experienced by anyone who enjoys good sci-fi and intelligent narrative. It's based on the 1963 novel by Stanisław Lem. I'm hoping The Rapture delivers that same 'amazing', I'll know at some point this weekend. Happy gaming weekend folks.
@Kiefer-Sutherland Killer Frequency and Abiotic Factor were two of my favorite games of last year, Abiotic Factor gets better and better as you progress so stick with it if you think the start is a bit of a slog. Resource gathering gets a lot easier, food and drink too. Not to mention unlockable branching paths that make getting back to your base a breeze. There's a great story buried in there too. I played Half Life on PS2 after getting my hundred percent. I wanted to see if it really was paying homage to the greats and it was in spades.
At first I thought it was a new Lords of Shadows, then Darksiders then Kings Field. It's nice to see some colour and saturation, it looks Diablo 3 before Diablo 4 decided to make everything so brown. That vibrancy alone would make me want to give it a try. It feels like I only see colour now in those kinds of games when someone bumps the saturation for photo-mode. Those Devs know what they are doing.
@SystemAddict We just need that Tenchu 2 level editor but online so we can try other players levels. It's cheating when you know where all of the traps are.
That was three platinums ago now and the grind was never ending, it felt like I'd been playing for weeks. I played it across four time-zones, the story was great, the characters interesting but they locked NG+ behind DLC so I cheated and bought 15 levels on the PSN store for the last trophy needed. The XP after level 55 was dismal even in the dungeon.
That God of War chicken game was something, I'm definitely going to have to try the first Control game now too and that John Wick game looked more Punisher PS2 than anything of recent memory. Maybe Sleeping Dogs. Castlevania looks great too, I loved Dead Cells and that looks like a cross between Dead Cells and Bloodstained Requiem of the Night. Shame there was no Eurotruck Simulator 2, I really want to see how console handles it.
Yakoh Shinobi Ops looks promising too but left me wanting a new Tenchu game, I'm not sure about that massive intrusive cone that was on the UI. Resident Evil just reminded me that I need to play another one other than the first two games, I didn't know what was happening in that trailer or why.
Very good. That Castlevania game looked so much like Dead Cells that I'll probably try it, and if the God of War Trilogy is where the series begins? then maybe I'll finally have a way to give the series a go. Kena 2 was definitely unexpected, and hopefully that game with the rubix cube for a boss doesn't cost people their jobs.
@StitchJones You must have had some very interesting times in shoes of Arthur Morgan. I was out picking flowers while you were changing the course of history. I'm cautious about so many games after Dragon's Dogma 2, it felt like I finished everything in one day and we haven't seen a pixel of DLC and most likely never will. We live in an age of half finished games and pay-walled NG+, I hope Crimson Desert lives up to it's promises or else I'll be waiting for the next Witcher game. I don't mind waiting if the juice is worth the squeeze.
I only recently played Cyberpunk, day one edition would have put me off ever trying again. The current version of the game pushed it right to my top ten of all time. Enshrouded will be my pre-order exception, as soon as that comes to console I'm going to drop everything and jump on. Valheim too, I don't mind playing exclusives on PC but I'd rather support the console market. It increases the chances of further ports.
'Furthermore, you can go fishing, hunting, and mining' Must resist the urge to wait until post-release. I hope we can steal fruit too, not just pay for it like the trailer. I hope this is true too 'Crimson Desert's Open World Is at Least Twice as Big as Skyrim's, and Larger Than the Red Dead Redemption 2 Map' from IGN.
@Oram77 The method has changed for some video-game movies too. What they do now is is call up various agencies and say, 'I'm shooting in X for these parts in X amount of time'. This is because the location is now confirmed before the talent, example the new Resident Evil. I did one day on their set in Czech Republic and they picked that location because of how taxes affect their investors. In Germany for example the loop-hole was a fifty percent return on your investment, through distribution rights alone. If the film flopped you'd still get paid. In Serbia for Silent Hill it was similar, those tax incentives meant the movie flopped but investors saw their return.
Now it's become 'Who do you have that's available?' No auditions or rehearsals, it's that streamlined. It's 'I just want someone with a name' The actors don't care about the script, they just want the payday and they get it. Maybe they spend two weeks doing callbacks and cleared their schedule for a big part they didn't get which too has become common.
Or maybe contract negotiations fell through. Maybe they were on hiatus from shooting a TV show. Whatever it is, those actors weren't busy at that time. That's how I've seen it work from the inside, I still sit in on closed sets, those actors know nothing about the project or the part and so they don't feel the need to do their job properly, just to show up and get paid.
They'll say 'he was made for the role', but really it's what the agency sourced not the studio. It's no secret, people just want to get paid. Zach Cregger (the director for that Resident Evil production) knows what's he's doing with that movie but the producer's ultimately decide on the talent and that's where a lot of those game to movie productions fall flat. Look how badly that Borderlands movie was cast, that was all down to agency availability, nothing else.
They see only the profit not the picture itself, they've already projected the distribution sales and rights for that Resi movie and it's not even in the can yet. I'll look into a couple of sound stages and see if Helldivers has been booked in, I can't see that not being one big CGI/green screen production. My concern is what effects house they'll use, I know one in London that works with Marvel and they put two hundred million dollars into the VFX for just one movie, that includes the 3D scans and particle simulations. I'd like to think Sony would go big but I don't see it. Not when I've seen and heard how game adaptions are viewed at the top.
Post-production is even worse. Colour correction, editing, special effects other than big set piece visuals (like wire removal) are done as quickly as possible since the equipment costs a lot to rent and the people doing the work aren't cheap to hire. Then boom they release the print to the distributors, cash their checks, and return the money to the investors. All before the film is seen by a single person or a single ticket has been sold. That's how Borderlands was done and Silent Hill, followed by the completion bond which means more money especially in a country with cheaper exchange rates.
Basically game adaptions are a license to print money even if they flop and that's why investors love these projects. They aren't looking at projected ticket sales anymore, they are looking at the return on their investment. Everything after that is just an added bonus, distribution right now is a mine-field, few can navigate it, those who can are winning big.
@PuppetMaster It is but there's a lot they pulled from the vaults for their two Japanese released volumes. Much like Fromsoft's Design Works volumes, I'm sort of obsessed with art-books, I don't think much of those Resi Archives made it to the West. Here's what I mean.
The first approved design of Ada.
Storyboards, most of the games had their scenes storyboarded.
It looks like a living art-book in all the right ways, it's a shame more developers can't or won't do that. There's a wealth of art-books and concept drawings from Konami, I think I've seen some of those Mega Man pieces from their Official Complete Works books they put out a couple of years ago. It's strange they didn't focus that much on Resident Evil, maybe it was too violent or gruesome for public display. I especially like the guestbook message at the end. That's very excited hand writing and very humble too. It's nice to see videogames being taken as a serious art-form.
Games I'd like to see but in an alternative time-line: Burnout remastered collection (with every original music track) Mercenaries 3, The Saboteur 2, Rockstar's Agent, a new Wipeout, The Getaway 3, Snowrunner 2, Gotham by Gaslight (cancelled Batman game) This is why I have no expectations but I watch either way.
This will (hopefully) be the weekend I finally finish Infinite Wealth, after Nurmagomedov versus Davis (MMA fight) then it's back to some virtual fighting of my own. I thought two hundred hours for a game was a lot but apparently it's not for that franchise. It never ends, happy gaming weekend folks.
I'd play this just because I did play a Mod of those engines in Train Sim PC and all of the voices were ripped from the show, it wasn't bad. The genuine thing will be so much better. I look forward to seeing Thunderbirds make the jump to Flight Simulator (not really but there is a Mod on PC)
I love some colour but there is such thing as too much. It feels like they oversaturated everything to suit the attention span of a child. Which is fine if that's who it's aimed at but the franchise for me will always be the first two games. The whole idea of a hunter is to slowly and methodically stalk their prey, then wait for the perfect window to strike. I don't like the pace of what I saw. It turns an intelligent design (dinos) into cannon fodder.
Comments 453
Re: He-Man's Retro PS5 Brawler Looks Like a Lost Capcom Classic
@MightyDemon82 You might not want to miss this.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 622
I got my one hundred percents in Spiderman and Miles Morales so I'm taking a break from hefty story based/narrative games and casually strolling through the countryside in Day Z. I already got lucky and found a badly fortified French base and let myself in then borrowed some of their supplies. I just need to find a shovel so I can stash the rest in a crates and bury them somewhere safe. I'm going to lower their flag and take that too, for that I need a small axe. Hopefully they are offline for the night. They have quite a lot of things and I can carry only so much. The last time I did this a guy logged back on and I had to quietly hide in the bushes until he left again. So far so good.
I did it just in time and got their flag too. Then headed off into the sunset with the last of their Coke a Cola. Hydration is important. They'll probably blame the clan (PVP server) the next town over (then they'll fight each other) either way they need to work on their defenses. I got in there as a fresh spawn, now I'm fully geared. I thought I'd have to travel further North and risk a visit to the airfield. They removed notes so I can't leave a sorry/thank you note.
Happy gaming weekend Folks, remember to check your doors and windows. Fridges too.
Re: Guitar Hero Studio RedOctane Is Back with Stage Tour, a New Plastic Instrument Rhythm Game
I still have all of the games and couple of guitars. It would be hard to beat the roster on Warriors of Rock and music licenses aren't as cheap as they once were, they might get the hardware down but I can see a lot of paid for DLC tracks. It's half a million to license AC/DC now for a game. They had a whole Rock Track Pack back in 2009. The labels were throwing music at games left right and center, now they want a big pay day. Prices have more than doubled with some labels and so has the system.
I've been following that game for a while now, the trailer footage is months old and was used for test audiences. The Devs confirmed it on their Discord, they are planning better mo-cap. IGN pushed it for Fan Fest 2026, we're seeing a very unpolished version of the game. If anyone thinks it looks dated, that's why.
Re: Rumour: Sony Backtracking on PC Strategy, Shifting Towards PS5 Exclusivity Again
Piracy increases (could) also be a factor. If you take Spiderman for example there are over three hundred thousand downloads. That's just one tracker, I didn't check the others. It can't not be affecting sales. All of those top cracks are of traditional single player games. Stellar Blade is the most requested on there.
I'm not saying I agree with it, but I do see it regularly. Stellar Blade is not officially cracked, people think Denuvo locked it down and they didn't. On the surface level it's protected but through a certain system it's wide open, one that's not widely available yet, but will be. It's entirely possible that Sony are aware of what's coming. Denuvo can be out‑engineered, virtualisation tech is changing everything and their games aren't safe on there. No software is, if someone wants to steal your product they will.
Console players mean money, PC should mean money but it doesn't always. If they are tracking losses they aren't reporting it and that potential backtracking is getting chatter in those places too, groups are taking notice. Not just console players. They want their 'free games', meanwhile we pay top dollar.
Re: Mini Review: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (PS5) - Unapologetically Old School for Better and Worse
There's something wrong with my copy, when I put it in the PS5 it starts to make loud erratic noises.
But seriously a seven sounds fair, I'll be picking up a copy. I just checked the manual (PS2 days) and it has a trailer for the Original Fast and Furious as an extra. There's also a documentary called Night Warriors. It's a ten minute video and someone under the name Video Game Trailers and Bonus Videos uploaded it to Youtube.
Re: Marathon Collector's Edition Might Be the Best We've Ever Seen
It's not for me, neither is the game but it's hard not to appreciate the extra dimension the water adds. I haven't seen any other collectors editions do that.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for March 2026 Announced
Slime Rancher looks like a cross between Palworld, Stardew Valley and Doom. I might have to give it a try.
Re: Sonic the Hedgehog Faces His Biggest Test Yet in Upcoming Godzilla Crossover Comic
This should shock me but earlier today I was doing Spiderman/graphic novel/comic research and saw Spiderman versus Godzilla. It too was recent like Spiderman versus Predator, I'd just played the game and big licenses like that are my main draw for graphic novels and comics. Predator versus anyone and I'll read it, then I saw the Godzilla one. I think Minus One was the last one I saw, I haven't seen any of the others before Roland Emmerich's 1998 one. Maybe one day.
Re: Kingdom Come: Deliverance Director Ditches Game Development to Work on Medieval Movie
This is a timing thing, he's getting in while there are still lucrative tax options for shooting in the Czech Republic. If he left it a couple of more years it would cost a lot more. It might look like he's jumping ship. Right now it's about to cap at 40% for a cash rebate on qualified local productions (big for investors) up from 25%. It's never been better to shoot there and even better for locals, possibly up to 70%. Crew and logistics have gotten cheaper too, I've seen a lot of partnerships with international studios in the works for next year. He's doing it right.
It's the same reason Resident Evil went to Prague and BladeRunner before it. Cheaper to shoot on location right now than to run a sound-stage in a skeletal Hollywood (they've lost a lot of crew due to cost of living and tax in L.A.) I'd be curious to see what studio picks it up and how much budget is allocated. They already have the natural landscape, locals and so on.
Re: First PS Plus Essential Game for March 2026 Leaked Early
I couldn't even play the mini game of golf in Infinite Wealth so it's a hard pass, but it's good to see Sony being aware that all kinds of people pay for their service.
Re: Saints Row Is 'Dead' Says Design Director After Prequel Pitch 'Ghosted' by Embracer Group
I played the first two, followed by both True Crime games, for their time they hit the mark. I never felt any draw to the newer ones, they seemed too much like GTA Online but offline and with not so very likable characters or any sense of real direction. Maybe that's a harsh comparison. I have no interest in playing another game from the series. Maybe they were a product of their time (for the right reasons, the music especially) Some franchises don't need to be milked, and when they are it needs to be done right or not at all.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 621
After a busy week at the Winter Olympics I'm finally getting some gaming of my own done in the shape of Insomniac's Spiderman. I'm enjoying the combat especially throwing things at people, people at things, people at people and I definitely enjoy the option for a stealthy approach too. I haven't looked into the other two yet, but I can see why people like the first one. Happy gaming weekend folks.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
Great article, sad thumbnail.
Re: Roblox Is Being Played More Than PlayStation and Steam Combined
One of the best things my country ever did was ban that game, perhaps not for the reason that I've have done it but I sleep better knowing that fewer children are being exposed to what I know from experience exists on games like that. Give it a couple of more years and they'll see the real damage, children don't understand the kind of behavior they experience on there.
It's safer to allow your child to play with the 1950's Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab than Roblox. And that kit came with real low-level radioactive uranium ore. I can't voice my true opinion on that game, it would be colourful, very colourful.
Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games
More people out of a job, an absolute travesty of a decision by Sony.
Re: 'If You Found It Boring, This Won't Change That': Starfield's PS5 Port to Be Revealed Soon, But Don't Expect Major Reinvention
I genuinely did find it boring, there were things to do but it was very linear and if there were rewards for exploring I never found them. That's the opposite of every other Bethesda game I've ever played. The whole thing felt like false advertisement and still does.
Once I'm out the door of a vault or out of that tower I ignore the main story and just go exploring and side-questing. That wasn't my experience with Starfield. It felt like a tech-demo or one big promissory note that never delivered. I'd hope they do something about the load times but at this point I'm only picking up a copy for the novelty and so I can distance myself further from game pass.
Re: Resident Evil Requiem PS5 Spoilers Are Starting to Circulate, So Be Safe Out There
I've only played the first two on a PS1 not that long ago and they were phenomenal even with those graphics. There are too many now to know where to go next. It felt like missing out on a big part of gaming history, the same for the first Silent Hill. I've read all of the Resident Evil novels, seen all the movies, did a day on one of the movie sets, read every art-book ever released, so many reference books but did most of that before playing the first two games.
There's probably ten more of them. Maybe I'll play the remasters of the first two some day. I watch horror all the time and have a room full of it but being that up-close with that pov, I'm not sure about that.
Re: Marathon's Collector's Edition May Have the Best Packaging We've Ever Seen
@MrPeanutbutterz It took seeing Solid Snake in a terrarium for me to come to my senses on special editions. I sent him to to Oxfam, I couldn't even look at his Team America-looking face it was a travesty. You worked in a game store though so you probably saw the best and worst of special editions up close. I should have zoomed right in with a microscope before buying off of Konami.
Re: Failing FPS Highguard's Concord Arc Seems Almost Complete as Website Goes Down
It’s unclear why this was kept secret for so long, but it’s not looking like the conglomerate will be getting a return on its investment in this instance.
They may have also been looking at long-term growth (live service) and public validation is a distraction, not when you aren't required to disclose your investment. Selective visibility is a lot more common in the games industry than people think, which is also why the industry has lost so much of it's soul and why so many people have lost their jobs. Regulatory scrutiny in China can be volatile and Tencent use multiple methods of investment, not all of them need to be disclosed. I'd speculate that they went through an Exchange-Traded Fund, there's more diversification, less scrutiny and a lot more investor options. China is a complex market, my guess is that they were looking at passive income as a return on their investment and that particular kind of investment didn't require exposure, not like Western markets.
Which is another reason why investors are drawn to companies like Tencent, it suits a certain style of investment and offers the kind of security that I haven't seen in the Western games market. A game will flop and you'll still get paid. The profits in attributable equity to it's holders is unmatched and as long as that continues they can gamble with I.P.s/games and franchises. They are involved in a lot more than the gaming sector.
Re: Marathon's Collector's Edition May Have the Best Packaging We've Ever Seen
That's the first time I've seen a hexagonal shell box used for a game, cosmetics companies have been using them for years and they seem to suit games too. Definitely more colourful, I'm more curious about an art-book than anything else. There weren't many last year and mostly digital.
Re: Avowed (PS5) - Overlooked Xbox RPG Arrives with Some Big Upgrades
I forgot this was even coming to PS5. I played it for a day on gamepass but didn't have the time to invest into an RPG. It felt like a mix between Skyrim and Borderlands. Really odd aesthetic, a little bland but it was early game so it's hard to tell if it improves. I find it hard to judge any game on gamepass, it's too easy to walk away when it doesn't feel like you invested any money in buying the actual game. That was most of my experience with gamepass, it cheapened too many games.
I still think of this album from years before the game released. Strangely similar from Jakub Józef Orliński a Polish breakdancer and countertenor.
Re: Konami Cruelly Delists Several Metal Gear Solid Games on PS3, PSP without Notice
And that right there is why I preserve everything on physical, Sony would have to walk right in and Spirit away my games. Not to mention it preserves the game art/box. Remember when we had collections like that? Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell etc.
Those are all day one MGS releases, I leave some sealed. That paper one I took out of the Zone of Enders box, I still have the original Japanese MSG demo somewhere too. I have a couple of crates full of PS1/PS2 demos. There's others somewhere in my collection like Japanese demos/promos etc but other than that it's cinema reels/VHS/DVD/Books etc. I'm aiming for Fallout levels of preservation. Maybe I need to start with PSP too, at the moment it's PS1/PS2/PS3 and PS4.
Re: This Is How PS Plus Premium's Time Crisis Will Play with PS5, PS4's Gyro Controls
Hopefully paving the way for Die Hard Trilogy on Premium.
Re: Fans Are Already Debating Whether God of War's PS5 Trilogy Will Cut the Series' Sex Minigames
Leave them in, I want to experience the originals for the first time in their original form not cut or modified to suit current standards. They are only games, no one is forcing anyone to play them and if they did cut that content it wouldn't really be preserving anything. I'd just go and find the originals instead.
Re: These Console Classics May Have the Laziest Trophy Lists in PS5 History
Meanwhile I'm standing at a bar in a pub for a trophy to pop right now, after that it's off to stand in an English phone-box for ten minutes for the next one.
Re: Sony Considering PS6 Delay to 2028 or Even 2029, New Report Says
Delay all the way please Sony, some of us are still catching up with the PS4 catalogue.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 620
@DrVenture69 I took some convincing by a tour manager to check out some Folk Metal, I never went to the sound checks and waited for them to go on that night. That band was Korpiklaani, then after that the others followed like Eluveitie, Turisas and Ensiferum. Before then Metal to me was Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, Venom etc, some Symphonic and Melodic and a lot of Apocalyptica and unhealthy amount of Screamo (noise)
We've talked about and shared some really random bands in the music thread. Sometimes back and forth for hours into the morning. There's some Slipknot there right now but it's done with animal sounds/dogs barking etc, crows on percussion. It was a weird night. I'll listen to anything, Classical and Metal are my go to. I'm going to check out Ranarim. Swedish Folk Music will be a change from Swedish Death Metal.
I'm only up to 502 on my Spotify list, 3.5K would be a feat. I tend to replay the same piece of music though and I couldn't do that for 3.5K tracks.
When I see those numbers I know it's time to make the list a little bigger. With a list that big you should share some stuff on the music thread, we're always finding new stuff and sharing.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 620
@DrVenture69 If that's on your Spotify then you have very good taste in music. I've played about two hours worth of the game and that music you mentioned reminds me a lot of a piece called Spem in alium. Latin for 'hope in any other'. It's a Renaissance motet by the English composer Thomas Tallis (1500's) I've heard it live a couple of times. The music in that game is very similar, you might think so too if you heard that piece. It's performed by eight choirs with five voices each and many see it as the most important piece of early English music. I'd agree.
That's one of the best renditions you'll find of it on Spotify, the others fall flat compared to how it sounds live and The Oxford Camerata are one of the best when it comes to that kind of monophonic/plainchant. The same technique that would have been used in the game's soundtrack, which is why they sound so similar.
Re: 'One of the Worst Decisions Ever Made': God of War Creator Tears 'Total Crap' 2D Title Apart
He looks like a man who's never smiled a day in his life and it can't help that they gave that pixel Kratos his eyebrows. If you cover the top part of his hair he looks just like him.
I gave him a spear, it's uncanny.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 620
I might be trying Everybody's Gone to The Rapture, depending on how Valentine's Day weekend goes, I could end up anywhere it's always a mystery. I finally finished and one hundred percent'd Infinite Wealth over the week and after that epic journey decided to try my first walking simulator. What Remains of Edith Finch was so good and so well written, so I tried another walking simulator 'The Invincible' which was absolutely brilliant and needs to be experienced by anyone who enjoys good sci-fi and intelligent narrative. It's based on the 1963 novel by Stanisław Lem. I'm hoping The Rapture delivers that same 'amazing', I'll know at some point this weekend. Happy gaming weekend folks.
@Kiefer-Sutherland Killer Frequency and Abiotic Factor were two of my favorite games of last year, Abiotic Factor gets better and better as you progress so stick with it if you think the start is a bit of a slog. Resource gathering gets a lot easier, food and drink too. Not to mention unlockable branching paths that make getting back to your base a breeze. There's a great story buried in there too. I played Half Life on PS2 after getting my hundred percent. I wanted to see if it really was paying homage to the greats and it was in spades.
Re: John Wick PS5 Game Has an Original Story That's Part of the Canon, Movie Director Involved
@Messiahbolical Now there are two of you?
Re: Castlevania Finally Returns with a Brand New PS5 Game in 2026
@Zuljaras Your collection just got bigger.
Re: Gothic Action RPG Crimson Moon Announced for PS5
At first I thought it was a new Lords of Shadows, then Darksiders then Kings Field. It's nice to see some colour and saturation, it looks Diablo 3 before Diablo 4 decided to make everything so brown. That vibrancy alone would make me want to give it a try. It feels like I only see colour now in those kinds of games when someone bumps the saturation for photo-mode. Those Devs know what they are doing.
Re: Round Up: What Was Announced in Sony's State of Play Livestream for February 2026?
@SystemAddict We just need that Tenchu 2 level editor but online so we can try other players levels. It's cheating when you know where all of the traps are.
The PS1 was powerful for the time.
Re: 'I Create Every Game Like It Could Be the Last': Like a Dragon Boss Doesn't Have the Series Planned Out
@exile93 Oh we're long past enjoying it.
That was three platinums ago now and the grind was never ending, it felt like I'd been playing for weeks. I played it across four time-zones, the story was great, the characters interesting but they locked NG+ behind DLC so I cheated and bought 15 levels on the PSN store for the last trophy needed. The XP after level 55 was dismal even in the dungeon.
Re: AAA John Wick Game Announced for PS5
Violin Concerto in F Minor, RV 297 'Winter': I. Allegro non molto if anyone is wondering about that piece of music in the trailer.
Re: Round Up: What Was Announced in Sony's State of Play Livestream for February 2026?
That God of War chicken game was something, I'm definitely going to have to try the first Control game now too and that John Wick game looked more Punisher PS2 than anything of recent memory. Maybe Sleeping Dogs. Castlevania looks great too, I loved Dead Cells and that looks like a cross between Dead Cells and Bloodstained Requiem of the Night. Shame there was no Eurotruck Simulator 2, I really want to see how console handles it.
Yakoh Shinobi Ops looks promising too but left me wanting a new Tenchu game, I'm not sure about that massive intrusive cone that was on the UI. Resident Evil just reminded me that I need to play another one other than the first two games, I didn't know what was happening in that trailer or why.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate State of Play for February 2026?
Very good. That Castlevania game looked so much like Dead Cells that I'll probably try it, and if the God of War Trilogy is where the series begins? then maybe I'll finally have a way to give the series a go. Kena 2 was definitely unexpected, and hopefully that game with the rubix cube for a boss doesn't cost people their jobs.
Re: Crimson Desert PS5 Is Also a Full-On Life Sim Game, Last Deep Dive Video Reveals
@StitchJones You must have had some very interesting times in shoes of Arthur Morgan. I was out picking flowers while you were changing the course of history. I'm cautious about so many games after Dragon's Dogma 2, it felt like I finished everything in one day and we haven't seen a pixel of DLC and most likely never will. We live in an age of half finished games and pay-walled NG+, I hope Crimson Desert lives up to it's promises or else I'll be waiting for the next Witcher game. I don't mind waiting if the juice is worth the squeeze.
I only recently played Cyberpunk, day one edition would have put me off ever trying again. The current version of the game pushed it right to my top ten of all time. Enshrouded will be my pre-order exception, as soon as that comes to console I'm going to drop everything and jump on. Valheim too, I don't mind playing exclusives on PC but I'd rather support the console market. It increases the chances of further ports.
Re: Crimson Desert PS5 Is Also a Full-On Life Sim Game, Last Deep Dive Video Reveals
'Furthermore, you can go fishing, hunting, and mining' Must resist the urge to wait until post-release. I hope we can steal fruit too, not just pay for it like the trailer. I hope this is true too 'Crimson Desert's Open World Is at Least Twice as Big as Skyrim's, and Larger Than the Red Dead Redemption 2 Map' from IGN.
Re: Of Course Jason Momoa Stars in the Helldivers Movie, Out November 2027
@Oram77 The method has changed for some video-game movies too. What they do now is is call up various agencies and say, 'I'm shooting in X for these parts in X amount of time'. This is because the location is now confirmed before the talent, example the new Resident Evil. I did one day on their set in Czech Republic and they picked that location because of how taxes affect their investors. In Germany for example the loop-hole was a fifty percent return on your investment, through distribution rights alone. If the film flopped you'd still get paid. In Serbia for Silent Hill it was similar, those tax incentives meant the movie flopped but investors saw their return.
Now it's become 'Who do you have that's available?' No auditions or rehearsals, it's that streamlined. It's 'I just want someone with a name' The actors don't care about the script, they just want the payday and they get it. Maybe they spend two weeks doing callbacks and cleared their schedule for a big part they didn't get which too has become common.
Or maybe contract negotiations fell through. Maybe they were on hiatus from shooting a TV show. Whatever it is, those actors weren't busy at that time. That's how I've seen it work from the inside, I still sit in on closed sets, those actors know nothing about the project or the part and so they don't feel the need to do their job properly, just to show up and get paid.
They'll say 'he was made for the role', but really it's what the agency sourced not the studio. It's no secret, people just want to get paid. Zach Cregger (the director for that Resident Evil production) knows what's he's doing with that movie but the producer's ultimately decide on the talent and that's where a lot of those game to movie productions fall flat. Look how badly that Borderlands movie was cast, that was all down to agency availability, nothing else.
They see only the profit not the picture itself, they've already projected the distribution sales and rights for that Resi movie and it's not even in the can yet. I'll look into a couple of sound stages and see if Helldivers has been booked in, I can't see that not being one big CGI/green screen production. My concern is what effects house they'll use, I know one in London that works with Marvel and they put two hundred million dollars into the VFX for just one movie, that includes the 3D scans and particle simulations. I'd like to think Sony would go big but I don't see it. Not when I've seen and heard how game adaptions are viewed at the top.
Post-production is even worse. Colour correction, editing, special effects other than big set piece visuals (like wire removal) are done as quickly as possible since the equipment costs a lot to rent and the people doing the work aren't cheap to hire. Then boom they release the print to the distributors, cash their checks, and return the money to the investors. All before the film is seen by a single person or a single ticket has been sold. That's how Borderlands was done and Silent Hill, followed by the completion bond which means more money especially in a country with cheaper exchange rates.
Basically game adaptions are a license to print money even if they flop and that's why investors love these projects. They aren't looking at projected ticket sales anymore, they are looking at the return on their investment. Everything after that is just an added bonus, distribution right now is a mine-field, few can navigate it, those who can are winning big.
Re: Of Course Jason Momoa Stars in the Helldivers Movie, Out November 2027
@Oram77 I thought you were joking when you mentioned this on the Starship Troopers article. It's actually happening.
Re: Finally Some Good F***in' Food! The Unorthodox Panty Party Perfect Comes West on PS5, PS4 This Week
I've seen much worse than this in my Steam recommendations and I'd play that game before Call of Duty.
Re: Feature: Capcom's Tokyo Art Exhibition Is a Celebration of Gaming Greatness
@PuppetMaster It is but there's a lot they pulled from the vaults for their two Japanese released volumes. Much like Fromsoft's Design Works volumes, I'm sort of obsessed with art-books, I don't think much of those Resi Archives made it to the West. Here's what I mean.
The first approved design of Ada.
Storyboards, most of the games had their scenes storyboarded.
Original creature drafts and concepts.
Then there's stuff like Resident Evil 1.5
Re: Feature: Capcom's Tokyo Art Exhibition Is a Celebration of Gaming Greatness
It looks like a living art-book in all the right ways, it's a shame more developers can't or won't do that. There's a wealth of art-books and concept drawings from Konami, I think I've seen some of those Mega Man pieces from their Official Complete Works books they put out a couple of years ago. It's strange they didn't focus that much on Resident Evil, maybe it was too violent or gruesome for public display. I especially like the guestbook message at the end. That's very excited hand writing and very humble too. It's nice to see videogames being taken as a serious art-form.
Re: Awful PS5 Dino Shooter Code Violet Will Get a Sequel... for Some Reason
Wow they really quoted Leonardo da Vinci at the beginning of the game, that alone speaks volumes.
Re: Mega State of Play Confirmed for Thursday, Over 60 Mins of PS5 Announcements and Updates
Games I'd like to see but in an alternative time-line: Burnout remastered collection (with every original music track) Mercenaries 3, The Saboteur 2, Rockstar's Agent, a new Wipeout, The Getaway 3, Snowrunner 2, Gotham by Gaslight (cancelled Batman game) This is why I have no expectations but I watch either way.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 619
This will (hopefully) be the weekend I finally finish Infinite Wealth, after Nurmagomedov versus Davis (MMA fight) then it's back to some virtual fighting of my own. I thought two hundred hours for a game was a lot but apparently it's not for that franchise. It never ends, happy gaming weekend folks.
Re: The Team Behind Train Sim World Is Making a Full Thomas and Friends Game for PS5, PS4
I'd play this just because I did play a Mod of those engines in Train Sim PC and all of the voices were ripped from the show, it wasn't bad. The genuine thing will be so much better. I look forward to seeing Thunderbirds make the jump to Flight Simulator (not really but there is a Mod on PC)
Re: Poll: What's Your Reaction to Horizon Hunters Gathering?
I love some colour but there is such thing as too much. It feels like they oversaturated everything to suit the attention span of a child. Which is fine if that's who it's aimed at but the franchise for me will always be the first two games. The whole idea of a hunter is to slowly and methodically stalk their prey, then wait for the perfect window to strike. I don't like the pace of what I saw. It turns an intelligent design (dinos) into cannon fodder.