Hyena_socks

It'll be a toss-up between Double Exposure, which I never finished, before LiS Reunion, Crimson Desert which I'm just going to try out (I played Cyberpunk at launch and still had fun), and more of the near-endless Divinity: Original Sin 2 - over 100h in I might finally make it to Act 3 of 4/5.

But it's also a nice day so maybe I'll guilt myself out to enjoy it.

Looks a no-no sense blast of fun, excellent! Though enemies look a bit bullet-spongey, I like good meaty shotguns and physics in these sorts of games.

A new Judge Dredd would be fantastic, loved their PS2 game. I felt the latest Robocop came close to that

I'm definitely intrigued - looks like an interesting premise, a fun mix of genre and a distinct art direction. Could be one to watch.

@ShogunRok great review! I have a base PS5 but lots to entice me still.

But I have a feeling I'll die a lot in this game - is there a 'save anywhere' option, or generous auto saves if there's only save points?

@johncalmc how very dare you go after the Chuckle Brothers like that, two of them made a career out of four words. If they were running PlayStation...I have no idea actually, but I bet it would be better.

But I also completely agree with the sentiment, Sony seems to be cutting costs and focusing in all the wrong places.

I'd love to see a new entry in the franchise - I don't think a remake would have been great, the gameplay and story really became its own in 2 and 3, one was very fun but simplistic.

The sequels were entirely their own thing - unless I've missed the other cuddly side-kick family games holding a dark, 'mature' (in the loosest sense) theme that blended GTA bedlam with platforming.

Closest we got was High on Life, but even that was worlds apart.

@Ambassador_Kong disappointed or negative comments on a bad game are one thing.
But there's also been a shouty contingent at this game's throat from first announcement, who take annoying pleasure in a game missing the mark they don't like. Which is a bit sad really.

But a game that looked promising missed the mark, it's a shame, let's all move on with our lives and go back to shouting at inanimate objects we injure ourselves on.

Who knew a medieval lesbian adventure game would attract such passionate comments, delighting in its low score and/or getting conspicuously defensive?

It's a shame the game's not great though - it's always a fascinating setting, and had a unique hook for it that could have been fascinating to properly explore.

Maybe I'll just check out the OST on this occasion though.

@Yousef- I love the LiS games, particularly Max & Chloe iterations, but it would threat to become the new new "Jack Bauer's daughter has been kidnapped." If it wasn't being marketed as the end to their canon storyline.

@1970sGamer using the luddites as an insult doesn't really work, they were right - industry did destroy their livelihoods.

AI is directly affecting livelihoods and creative roles are being particularly hardly hit. This is a relatively minor example, but the more you give the more will be taken.

If you want a world where creative endeavours are the product of devoured and regurgitated assets, go ahead and big-up AI.

I believe it can be a useful tool, but never for directly creating content. To explore ideas, education, boring busy work, sure - but you have to ensure it never goes in a final product.

Hi @LiamCroft, I think there's a small error here, it says we have until '20th January' to play them, hoping that's 20th April?

I need to play Bloom & Rage, it deleted my save and I couldn't be assed replaying Tape 1 through again straight after, but it's been long enough and I want to see how it ends

Looks like I have a choice to make, which divisive time sink with the poor narrative but fun exploration do I pick up: Avowed, Starfield or Crimson Desert?

That's right, none of them, because Britain is a bad western where all the town mayors own your utilities and push up prices at the slightest provocation, meaning I can only afford Life is Strange: Reunion this month.

None of that sounds a major disappointment, it sounds exactly like it always did - a game that's taken the best of all other open world games, but may not have the heart & soul.

It sounds fun, a game to lose yourself in for a while, and the sort of game some will grow bored with and others will absolutely adore.

I'll see how PS5 reviews are, then pick it up soon when I'm done with my backlog.

Why did they kick up such a fuss around not showing base PS5, it looks fine!
You'd expect a graphical drop-off, so if they'd just said plainly "it runs fine, please note it won't be as pretty" everyone would understand.

I am still going to wait for reviews, Cyberpunk, BG3 and others all had a noticeable drop in quality later into the game - something hopefully reviews will identify.

This is pretty standard these days, not that I like it. But about 99% games released always need a day one patch to avoid various states of dismay.

As long as it’s good to go without internet after that, it’s still nice to have the box.

As always, just waiting on the reviews with my money sat waiting.

I’ve not heard of a game running perfectly on PS5 Pro but not base PS5, so this all sounds perfect. I can live with a game that’s not as pretty, as long as it doesn’t crash as soon as I’m out of the tutorial area.

More importantly, looking forward to hearing if the game is FUN. Sometimes people get so caught up they forget to look for that.

The first one was…weird. I genuinely don’t know if I lover it, if I hated it. It was just kind of bland but also kind of fascinating but also I can’t remember a single character although I remember there being good roleplaying.

Looks like this sequel is completely in the same vein. I’ll give it a go at a discount or PS+, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy my time with it.

As long as they’ve ditched the world’s worst made up language/accent. Great idea, abysmal execution

I bought both of these at launch, ploughed hours and hours into them, and somehow not finished either.

DD2 is genuinely different, quite a unique experience and incredible combat that gets very wild at times:
battling a dragon, a gryphon and bandits, jumping onto the gryphon as it takes off and killing it mid-air before leaping off and delivering the final blow to a dragon.
And all that unscripted, not a set piece, just (bad? Good?) luck.

FF16 has TERRIBLE pacing, but when it’s at a peak it’s edge of your seat, tremendous story telling. Some of the strongest in the series

Anyone know if this is a ‘save point’ game, or are there generous checkpoints?

I do sometimes like a good horror (which I don’t finish because I wuss out), but having to replay long stretches always gets on my nerves and removes the tension for me.

I wonder if the Game Over scene is you being bricked up alive, true to the lore.

I was thinking of this the other day, couldn’t for the life of me remember the title.

I miss those heady days fresh out of the worst of the lockdown, excited for what the PS5 could give us. Now there’s numerous games that look as good, with better frame rates, and there’s no other real hook provided.

‘Old’ indeed! Just because the youth of today are weird idiots, holding their phones and having conversations on speaker, and making up dumb words, does not make me ‘old’.

Anyone younger is just doing their best to act especially young - are they 25 or 15? Who knows. Maybe they’ll yell it into their phones at the back of the bus.

Back in my day zombie dogs jumped through windows, and the world was a better place for it.

I don’t trust it, the name sounds too sensible. Also I imagine it’ll be the same as it always is, the consoles leap frogging with one being more powerful and more expensive than the other. It’s Xbox’s turn this time.

I’ve never played any of the SAO games, but this looks a solid starting place. A bit of a less weird Dragon’s Dogma meets Elden Ring with a good bunch of classic JRPG thrown in the mix.

@Randomninja that’s a wild take my dude, the original Halo was an incredibly influential game on PC and later Xbox. And, frankly, it’s still a wonderful experience.

That said I’ve had very little interest in their games as they’ve moved away from single player experiences, and have zero interest in this.

It’s unusual to release a game and then say “but don’t review it yet, we’re not finished!”, but intriguing.

But people, it means we’ll never see the mods PC gamers can create. We’ll never see the Ghost of Yotei defeating the Yotei Six with a slinkie, or play an arcade shooter blasting enemies away with a Thomas the Tank Engine Gatling Gun.

This is a tragedy.

I do also hope Microsoft don’t respond in kind, Sony might lose out if we’re pushed to buy a computer or Xbox for their exclusives.

@undeadly to be fair gamers these days get a worse, if not broken game, at launch for a tidy sum more than they used to cost. Nor can thry rent them over a weekend to check them out these days.

I’ve ‘only’ been a gamer for some 30-ish years, but things are very different.

All that said, gamers are a whiny lot regardless, and always have been. But sometimes it’s justified

I can’t help but imagine another Cyberpunk - I think it’ll be an excellent, very fun game, but just have a feeling we’ll see massive technical issues given its scale.

More than happy to be proven wrong, I’m putting money aside to buy it new…after reviews come in.

This looks sick - reminds me of a much more modern Drakengard in its visceral, bloody 1 vs 1000 style.

And that leads me onto the largely unrelated quandary that plagues me constantly, how the cluck is it 2026 and we have so few (do we have any?) good modern dragon games.

An honest to god cheat code! That takes me back. Don’t know why you’d need a tank in co-op GoW though

I know it’s dated, but I still don’t trust anything ‘free-to-play’ - if it seems too good to be true, it always is.

Either it’ll draw you into spending money with something you can’t resist, further down the line when you’re hooked, or it’ll be a details farming exercise. Or possibly it’s great for the consumer, just maintained by exploiting workers

But then I’m old fashioned and still get blown away there are games other than Snake and Angry Birds on phones. I did enjoy my time with ZZZ before I realised it had me feeling I HAD to play daily, and coming close to popping those cheap purchases for one more try.

Does it have a particular hook that sets it apart, besides a big budget? Looks fine, but I’ve not seen anything that’s particularly stood out yet.

@Judal27 I mean we’re already there, it can’t make things any worse.

This is interesting news though, I can imagine he’ll pen an amazing story in the universe. Wonder if we’ll have to stream the first half three times to unlock the rest

@Issen_Mode Drakengard Reignited: now with extra babies.

“I regret that upon giving everyone a loaded gun and ordering them to shoot themselves in the foot, some of you decided to shoot yourselves in the foot. We will therefore have to finish the job, it’s for your own good.”

Shocking! They’re a truly incredible studio, who were on another level technically.

They deserved a chance to give us an IP that wasn’t a live service game they were strong armed into before it was cancelled. Really disappointing news.

If your horse doesn’t soar to the heavens after you jump off, or if you go over a rock, is it even an Elders Scroll game?

That said it would be novel to play a Bethesda game not drowning in glitches and technical tomfoolery every two minutes. But would it be as fun?

@JayJ it’s the same writer - so maybe you’re more disappointed it’s more of the same?

But this looks fun, I’ll pick it up in a sale or, like the original, when it comes to PS+.

I enjoyed the first one as a bit of silly fun, but it has the most anti-climactic end to a game I’ve ever experienced. It just sort of stops after an underwhelming final boss

@TheArt that’s my thinking, that it’ll be as much an RPG as Red Dead Redemption 2 - immersive, levelling up, but just sling for the ride narratively.

I don’t think the narrative will be on the same level - but hopefully it’s fun enough, and the combat doesn’t get repetitive.

Great month for Extra, lots there I’ve been intrigued by but never had the spare money. Few nice shorter indies too to slot into a busy life

I’m feeling this will be a flawed release performance wise, maybe glitch-heaven and a sea of generic side quests you drown in.

But I’m also feeling it’ll be one of those games some people, including myself, will absolutely love, warts and all.

I’m not going to preorder, but I’ll keep my money ready for reviews and a couple patches down the line.

@1970sGamer this sounds like you’ve never shook a fist at a cloud. You’re missing out dude.

With Suda51 games you can guarantee you’ll have a uniquely frustrating but mesmerising experience. Definitely interested but I’ll wait for a sale or PS+ drop

I’m intrigued, The Last of Us is a superb adaptation, but this also seems a bizarre choice.

The amount of variables involved, whichever they go for it’ll disappoint fans. Or they go for a multiverse, which has been a bit overdone and can negate stakes if not handled well.

Also if they can’t get the OG voice actors for the main cast, fans will hate it. AND you’re dealing with the notorious WotC licensing.

Still, intriguing!

@AverageGamer That’s exactly my point though - the issue is the people wanting more and more at an equally or faster rate. It’s not on businesses to make their employers work later and later, harder and harder, to satisfy a hunger that only grows.
Gamers need to just get used to waiting, it’s frustrating but it’s not life threatening to wait.

Looking at general work practices, there are different expectations elsewhere. Japan has one of the most demanding work ethics, for example, but it also has multiple people literally dying from being overworked, high suicide rates, rates of alcoholism etc.

At the end of the day we’re humans, we can work hard but we live in a modern world where we shouldn’t have to work ourselves to exhaustion. And especially not for something not life threatening. If people are impatient it’s their issue.

@AverageGamer it’s impressive you can put that time in, but it’s also not healthy for everyone, and at those hours it can start to really impact life outside of work. For some, that’s absolutely fine, but it should be a choice not an expectation. I was working late every day for at least a year, unpaid OT, and eventually burnt out for 3 months

I personally never mind about delays, games take as long as they need, or you get a Cyberpunk 2077 situation.

I think the answer isn’t people throwing themselves towards burnout, but more an issue with people’s attention spans these days, and out of control business mindsets of getting as much money as quickly as possible, ignoring the impact to employees.

People before profit - simple line, rarely followed. In regards to games, wait an extra few months isn’t going to kill anyone, people need to just suck it up and wait.

@AverageGamer it’s not being soft to enforce good work/life boundaries, especially given how hard fought our workers rights are.

We should never feel bad about enforcing and upholding them, not for company profit (healthcare etc. is different, but that’s not the gaming industry).

This game looks interesting though, likely employing a huge amount of people. But I don’t like the way live service games have you feeling like you HAVE to play them regularly for your perks and bonuses, so will see if this has any of that.

Are they actually scared of leaks? What could be spoiled, it’s GTA, people don’t buy it for the plot.

They know what they’re getting each game - there’ll be a few new additions, everything will look and play better, but there’s no spoiler I can imagine ruining my enjoyment.

Unless you’re now playing a cop and it fails your game if you kill an NPC with a grenade launcher to the face. In which case it should be spoiled, save people the purchase.

It’s gutting that it’s taken almost two decades and IF it comes out in our life times, it won’t even address the bloomin’ cliffhanger ending of the first game. Bet we get a film before then.

Looks very clunky, shield bash and all, but if there’s decent freedom and roleplaying this could be a lot of fun. A bit of a ‘Warriors of Might & Magic’ vibe.