IamJT

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I don’t think I have ever played a 1/10. A score that low means the game doesn’t function.

@Titntin for whatever reason over the last decade the gaming hobby space has gone from excitement, and a general realization that most games have flaws, to being overly negative. It’s a real bummer. I’m not sure the cause really outside the explosion of social media and online communities/communication which eventually destroys all fan communities.

@DennisReynolds Keanu Reeves is great at what he does. Kinda like John Wayne. I don’t know if he’s a great actor, but he has some all time iconic roles (John wick, the matrix, bill & Ted).

Sonic is a franchise that always puts my world view into perspective. I have never actually met a sonic fan but there are clearly a lot of them.

@BloodyBlact Yea I don’t game on PC either classic sofa console gaming is by far my preferred way.

@Northern_munkey haven’t played in a few years but I played the 2019 one and first multiplayer match I was called a particularly disgusting racial slur (for a race of which I am not) and just muted all matches from that point on.

@clvr Just gonna throw it out there that 99% of Americans don’t care about the “culture war.” As far as I can tell it only exists in online comments and twitter. Never once have I heard it mentioned in real life other than people making fun of it.

@UltimateOtaku91 You’re kinda right in that a Ps5 Pro will outperform the Xbox consoles and the game will run better at a higher resolution. But the “best” place to play would be a high end PC. Regardless, I think we put too much stock in visuals and performance and the “best” place to play is whatever console you own/can afford. So for many, the best place to play is likely the series s with gamepass.

EDIT: my bad, my comment is fairly duplicative of other comments so feel free to ignore.

I think I will be playing this at launch. Been playing a lot of smaller indies lately and some Ubisoft checkbox gameplay might feel nice.

@Frmknst A traitor to a corporation? What are you talking about?

Factions would have had Helldivers numbers. It would have fallen significantly… like Helldivers… but that’s fine. Sony would have made a bundle while it was popular and they could have moved on when the players did. Trying to make these “appeal to everyone forever” games will continue to not work out 99% of the time. The space is to crowded and no one is leaving their current live service dopamine drip for a new version.

@AdamNovice I agree I don’t think they are ugly. I do think they are boring and super derivative though. But as soon as the put in pronouns it definitely set a certain crowd off though which I think is what started the “ugly” conversation. Unfortunately, video games are at the center of the “culture war.” Quotations used because it’s a bunch of garbage with bad actors on both sides.

Death Stranding is an amazing experience. I try and tell my friends how special it is and no one will even try it. If you buy in to what the game is trying to do it’s a truly unique experience and has moments of sheer beauty throughout.

@Icey664 to be fair quidditch isn’t competitive ever. The rules make little sense and griffindor always wins.

This has been a wonderful year for smaller games for me. Dave the Diver, Balatro, Cult of the Lamb... and now Vampire Survivors. I can go another year easy without any big AAA releases at this rate just catching up with these smaller games.

@Dalamar There are a lot of great games that deal with loss which I have found comforting over the years.

@Intr1n5ic I think the lack of launch titles does have something to do with it. I also think GamePass is actually not that good of a deal. The largest subset of gamers play one or two games exclusively. Very few jump from game to game. Unless you are one of the people who like to jump game to game... I think its unlikely you will really get your money's worth from the subscription model. It just appeals to too few people.

Once again, I am completely out of touch with what people want 🤣

@NEStalgia I agree with the market identity issue. At the start of the generation it was clear to me that Xbox had a goal of selling more consoles with an emphasis on gamepass being attached, basically automatically because it’s such a good deal. This would drive console sales and subscription numbers. However, the narrative has changed so much due to their mixed messaging that any person looking to invest in an ecosystem would really need to question the point of Xbox. PS offers extra (which has a ton of good games), PS exclusives (which take years to appear on PC), and now… Xbox exclusives within six months?

The lack of clarity on strategy is really what’s sinking the ship. What I thought they were doing at the beginning of the generation is not at all what they are doing now!

Among the “core gamers” I predict lots of people moving mostly to PC before the next generation. Among the casual audience I expect Nintendo and PS to control with a very small Xbox niche market going forward. It’s too bad… the OG Xbox was so exciting back in the day I wish it was still like that!

Really enjoyed the Godzilla DLC and the platinum run for Dave. Have no idea who the singer is or what the alchemy game is but I love Balatro so it’s cool to see the collab! Will
Check it out!

@nessisonett I don't blame companies chickening out on anything there is a lot of money/jobs on the line!

@nessisonett Such a great idea but waaaaay to risky currently for a developer. They pretty much have to play it safe these days.

I know it doesn’t really matter… but are the trophies still broken for DL2?

This should surprise no one. The game was destined to be huge. I would really love to see how many Series S consoles were pushed during this same period of time vs. PS5.

@breakneck he has a fairly narrow world view but no one makes better predictions or has better analysis on SIE.

At the start of the generation I predicted a huge gain in the console space for Microsoft. Instead they seem to intentionally be killing any reason for purchasing their hardware, including only keeping a six month exclusivity period for a game that they should be positioning as a huge platform exclusive. Essentially they are telling everyone “wait six months and play the patched version on the console you prefer anyways.”

Long story short I know nothing.

He is wrong for many reasons. He is not wrong that the current “core gamer” market is unpredictable. I do believe that’s because the volume is too high. Great games can go unnoticed while flash in the pan games can garner a huge audience. It’s a tough industry but embracer’s plan was doomed from the start and it never really made sense.

@DennisReynolds Okay awesome I handled Stellar Blade so this game probably wouldn't drive me insane.

@WhiteRabbit Very good description I know exactly what I would be getting into now! Thank you!

@WhiteRabbit How would you characterize the difficulty level? Leaning towards FromSoftware or more like Stellar Blade? I am seeing conflicting views on this!

@nick_dizel The complaints about prices are everywhere even though it’s technically the cheapest time ever to be a gamer with the subscription services, deep sales constantly, and even just adjusted for inflation.

@beltmenot A study of the parasocial fanbase or the studios insistence on constant balance updates to a PVE game? Both have been weird.

@LikelySatan I would argue the best multiplayer games are those not meant to last in perpetuity. HD was $40…. All the people complaining likely got their money’s worth within the first few months so it should be quite easy to move on.

Had to guess on most of them this time… not a good showing

@Specky I wouldn’t play either the only Xbox exclusives I think I would get would be a halo 1-3 collections and a gears 1-3 collection.

@Frmknst Hellblade 2 is way smaller than Forza or Starfield on pretty much every metric though…

The dev team is four brothers, which I think is super cool. However, their previous games were pretty poorly received. I don’t have much hope for this game but I love the idea. Sometimes you just want stupid fun.

@breakneck oof so at launch they are doing 80% digital. My guess is pretty soon physical will be limited to steelbook editions for most releases, so if you want physical you pay extra.

@LowDefAl I dunno I think for most people it’s dead. Capcom said they were at like 93% digital sales in a recent article right? I would have assumed RE and MH were games that got a good physical release.

@Malaise Fortnite’s success was when I realized I was old and just didn’t understand these youths.

@Alexface Remedy budgets are famously low for the quality of their games. Unfortunately, reports have been that the game did not sell well.

@MrGawain It’s just aimed at a small audience. If most consumers don’t buy more than a few games a year… why subscribe? You need to be a hardcore gamer, who also plays a wide variety of games, for it to be worth the money and thats a very small portion of the audience. Lots of hardcore gamers only play a few games a year now that there are live service games. So it’s also only a portion of that audience. The recent price increase also hurts any possibility of expansion. I just don’t understand how it’s intended to work.

@DeepEyes Isn’t demolition man about a utopia where people from the past return and destroy it.

I didn’t even remember this from the original game so no big loss. I do agree with some of the points being made on violence in video games. I love when a game gives me the choice not to be a mass murderer. Death Stranding was my 2019 GOTY and I never entered combat unless it was one of the few forced fights.

@DTfearTheBEARD just a heads up it’s super easy to replace the sticks on the regular dualsense as well. I bought sticks on Amazon for like ten bucks popped open the controller no more stick drift.

@Czar_Khastik Yea I currently have presets for Helldivers, Returnal, and RDR2. Mostly just mapping buttons and using the back paddles to make life a little easier in-game. You can switch between them instantaneously and actually setting the presets is easy as well.

@Czar_Khastik It’s a great controller. The custom sticks and back paddles have been great and it has other useful features. The actual controller itself is nice and heavy, which I like, and the presets for different games is super helpful. Lots of people complain about the battery life.. but my couch has usb chargers so that doesn’t affect me.

@Frmknst It’s a great game with a satisfying gameplay loop. You don’t actually have to be negative every time you post it’s not a requirement.

@TheArt the test is going to be whether NCAA moved series s with its launch. That game has the most casual audience most likely to grab the cheapest option jut to play that game.

PS5 gets a lot of flack for being the “worst” ps console and “unnecessary.” I actually think it’s an impressive bit of kit. Load times/download times and the easily expanded storage are great. For the most part the games look and play great. The pandemic and the rapidly changing industry have caused huge problems in an industry with development timelines that are difficult to change.

Also, everything in life has gotten much more expensive, so of course the software and hardware has as well. It’s a bad situation but if labor and cost of living rises… so do hobbies like video games.

Jim Ryan gets a lot of crap, but his supervision of the PS5 launch was epic and is a huge part of the reason why its sales are not far behind the PS4. Sony had to deal with the pandemic, the rise of “lifetime” time-sink free to play games, and MS attempting to buy it’s market share and is still maintaining its position in the industry. Sure it’s a bummer we are not getting first party Sony style games at the same rate we used to, but most of the articles and comments focus on the negative when there is actually a lot to be positive about and a lot to look forward to. The big releases are coming and they will be announced and released on a short timeline, which I think is actually preferable.