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@Rich33 Another thing that needs consideration when legislating is that massive job redundancy caused by AI will eventually crash entire economies if let get out of hand.

I feel like you can replace AI in that sentance with any other technical innovation in the last 50 years and it would still hold true. AI is just the latest development that allows companies to streamline and become more efficient in the endless quest of more for less. In that regard I see it no worse than advancements to ERP systems which have allowed businesses to downsize admin and office teams because you can automate or forecast without having to work everything out manually.

Job losses are never great, but unfortunately they are a natural side effect of advances in technology, and at what point do you say stop.

@DonkeyFantasy I don't think people have really twigged just how much RAM has increased in cost. A digital console on black friday was cheaper than than RAM on its own before you even start to factor in Mobo, CPU, GPU, PSU, M.2 plus what ever peripherals you need to buy. Its not a good time to be getting into PC's.

@Ainu20 your answer is the closest to summing up my own feelings here. Self publishing should not matter as long as the publisher is not a mega publisher. If I recall correctly Valhiem was made by four people and published by a tiny publisher. That' game was pure indie despite not being self published.

As for budget and team size it's all about scale, 10m is a big budget compared to games like vampire survivors, but a tiny budget compared to bigger games. It feels wrong to gauge it by budget because more ambitious design will always cost more. Which also ties in to the vibe factor, where I think the real truth lies for a lot of people. Its budget graphics or pixel styling that people equate as indie in their mind.

@get2sammyb I also find it a bit confusing the way he's saying it's not really useful but at the same time saying they need to use it.

In this regard its no different than many forms at technology which at a time will also have been viewed as not really useful. Bookkeepers probably had the exact same view when computers started replacing physical ledgers. You have to use the technology to stay current and then work out how and where it can be applied to save time, or you become irrelevant in a few years.

@HonestHick Blizz have always been the gold standard for trailers, I don't think they have ever had a bad one tbh

Total War getting the Warhammer IP has been very good for them and is a guarenteed money spinner due to the amount of fans Warhammer has. Old world did well, but this will have people throwing money at it as they unlock factions.

Great Game! Night City was really well done and they made traversal fun to the point that I rarely ever bothered with fast travel. Keanu also elevated the game far more than I expected as he had plenty of screen time with amusing dialogue which led to him being a fleshed out character.

@BearsEatBeets If they are using the same engine and just iterating on what they already made for BG3 then I imagine that would help them speed up dev time by a decent amount. Then throw in 12m of early access for act 1 and it could be about right.

@theSpectre Yeah its a standard Team Ninja games with all the weapons / item sets, at different rarities, that can be upgraded at the Blacksmith with it being gated so you pretty much hit +9 items by end game. Then you can upgrade them further if you go into NG+ where there are also new much better item sets. The main annoyance is the DLC really ramps it up by assuming you have the 5* NG+ gear.

The main difference is that there are only 5 stats you put points into, but you still mainline one stat to 50 and put minor investment in one or two others. As I mentioned above its similar to Nioh, just not as good in any area.

Wo Long is a decent grab for anyone who has not yet played it. It never managed to reach the same level as Nioh for quality but was enjoyable in its own right.

My only issues with the game was the final boss in the final DLC is overtuned to hell as its designed assuming you are on NG2 with the equivalent gear.

@Oram77 It is but I imagine that it will do less numbers than nightreign as a Switch 2 only release. I wouldn#t be surprised if they have another project in the works as these all feel very much like side projects.

@CielloArc My original bet was D4 and I am still not ruling that ou because every company will deny its them until the show. That said POE2 was my potential second as the eye / tentacles has a vaal feel to it. I just don't know if GGG would go the statue route just to announce it coming out of pre release.

@Chip-Douglas Not a chance of that happening, ER sold 30m and Nightreign 5m. Its had a great return for them but they ain't giving up the single player stuff for it.

@Shinnok789 The story and Lore of SR2 was better but in other ways it felt like a real backslide as the combat and general gameplay was worse, plus the elemental forges all felt samey.

I still love the entire series tho and wish it was brought back as the world of Nosgoth was great.

Shogun was incredible but I wish they were doing more of that rather than GoW as there is not a chance it will measure up.

@StitchJones I do think its slightly different when talking about a live service game as their DLC's are not a one and done and instead the start of 12-18m of content. MS have also changed it up for Blizz and are pushing their games a lot more outside of just Blizzcon.

@Dogbreath You are not that much older than myself and I find I am regularly having this discussion with lots of people as to the real increase of costs. Back in the late 90's the other difference is that people didn't pay for Netflix, Prime, Disney+. Spotify and everyother subscription under the sun. In the UK you had a single TV licence and a few families had cable or sky. We also didn't pay for a mobile phone contract at £30+ a month or pricy full fibre broadband, or take lots of holidays abroad.

In reality whilst everything as gone up the issue now is people don't want to compromise and live within their means. They want all the latest devices, with the latest cars, expensive holidays and experiencs and then moan about consoles which have not really increased much at all.

It more a state of detachment from what is a neccessity vs luxury, and what are people willing to sacrifice as you can't realistically expect to have everything.

The console itself is great and a marked improvement over the PS4. I had upgraded the drive in my PS4 to make load speeds better, but the PS5 has improved on that again and its the stand out of the generation for me.

The controller is also brilliant with just a few niggles. Stick Drift and Battery Life. However I have not really noticed stick drift to much and its only really reared its head on a few games that had the sensitivity turned up far to high.

PSVR2 was enjoyable and I don't regret buying it at all. There is plenty to play on the platform regardless of who makes the experience. The same applies to PS5 games, the gen has had plenty of belters regardless of if they are crossgen / Sony studios.

Great consoles with good peripherals and games

@LogicStrikesAgain If you go back about 10 years then Steam on average was normal £10 - £15 cheaper. Infact I would say PC prices were cheaper overall but that has long since been the case. I think people just like to continously parrot that reason because it was true at one point in time.

@11001100110zero No worries man, we have all been there 😂

@Oram77 I came away with the same feeling. It was the only game showed that I had any interest in and I came out with less interest as the fight encounter felt overy scripted with to many cutscene moments doing the bulk of the work.

people are clearly missing who this device is aimed at. Its not aimed at PC builders who have a 4000 or 5000 series gpu and regularly update their rigs. They make up a very small % of steam users, probably around, or less than 5% at a guess.

Its aimed at the people using a general laptop / work device to play some games in the evening. It doesn't need to be super shiny or top spec for them, it just needs to do its job at a reasonable price. Steam also don't need to shift 50m units for this to succeed as its an extra channel to get people using their storefront which is where they make the money. Its running the exact same games as normal so as long as they shift 1m units I can see it being classed as a success.

Same as every year where people complain about the same non issue that applies to almost every single business. Companies will always give better offers to attract customers in, its the same with Internet, Phones and almost any sub service.

It may feel sucky but long term not allowing people to stack subs on the cheap probably helps keep the price more stable.

I feeel like GTA6 shouldn't get a place for most anticipated when they miss deadlines and keep pushing the game back. Its just taking the spotlight away from other games that deserve it.

Wolverine, Witcher 4 and Requim are all big and even 007 could be good but I need to see more there.

It not for me as I don't really do mobile games, but I can see its appeal. It looks like it has a Monster Hunter vibe and being mobile it will likely appeal to eastern markets more.

Hopefully it will do well as there is decent money to be made in that area even if its not something I would play. It's not unlike Diablo Immortal which was slated but did incredibly well financially for Blizzard.

@Oram77 Yup, its the same as the live service push. People might be up in arms about them chasing these markets but they are incredibly lucrative if you land a hit.

That is a tough list as most of those franchises are really good. Notable shoutout to F.E.A.R. as a brilliant horror experience that still holds up today. Siren Blood Curse also deserves a mention as one of the creepiest games I have ever played.

The Tiktok generation is just the latest trend, even before Tiktok you had texting, youtube, vime and snapchat which all distracted kids, and some adults, away from other media sources. Phones can make it easier, but its still been an issue for a while.

The other big changes that impacts gaming in the current generation is that younger people today place a much higher value on being active for mental and physical wellbeing. Gym Time and Outdoor activities like Paddleboarding, Hiking, Wild Camping and Wild Swimming are more popular than ever (in part popularised by social media feeds).

The other question I have regards the next box being a PC is how the multiplayer would work, regardless of cost. At present whilst most online play games are crossplay, they have the option to disable it to level the playing field. If the next box just runs the PC version of games then would that just have them playing the PC players because I imagine that could cause upset.

I think there could be a kernel of truth in this but I could also see it being a smoke and mirrors statement where Online play will technically be free.. but they will tie in something to the gamepass tiers, so you still keep paying for it.

Its just to much money to leave on the table otherwise.

Looks good, hopefully its got the depth to back it up.

@SMJ After that they will both go back to locking their exclusives to their own apps.

Just to understand you here, and following my previous reply, are you saying an exclusive locked to a storefront is acceptable providing the stores are available on every platform?

If so then I would not be against that as its a reasonable stance. I am still not sure how you would get around the hardware issue however as any device would require an OS and if that was a windows based device I think there is a clear path for imbalance.

The real question is will this one get a PSVR version as its the perfect game for VR.

@TrollOfWar Exclusive games might help companies to hold their market position, but it also prevents other hardware manufacturers to enter the console market, as they don't have the means to develop their own exclusive games nor the connection and supply by 3rd party publishers. Having more hardware choice would actually be great, especially if that would result in more competitive console prices and innovative hardware, do you agree?

I would 100% agree if we could say with absolute certainty that every game being available on every platform would result in a net positive, I am just not confident it would. I think the danger of zero exclusivity is that it would be more likely to go the other way with people quickly identifying the "best" box and the others dying off along the way as they now have little extra to offer.

I would say this single unified platform already exists in PC format as @SMJ has mentioned. That however has its own issues when you start to look at the OS. Microsoft would love a single unified only PC gaming universe because it would benefit them immensly as Windows have the market share and other companies would simply not be able to compete. Storefronts all operating on one OS just shifts the power dynamic in another direction where one company holds all the power.

Love it or hate it I just think the current system is the lesser evil, and that includes us needing Xbox firing on all cylinders and going head for head with Sony.

@SMJ Music, books and films don't tie you down to one place to listen, read or watch.

Except they do all tie you down as to where you can access the media. If you buy a movie on one platform you can't stream it from any other platform. If you buy a book in waterstones you can't read it on a kindle, same as how not all books are ebooks and vice versa.

They may not tie you to a physical location in the world, but media absolutely has platform limitations and not all media is on every platform.

@TrollOfWar They have been saying it for a while, but they it didn't stop them releasing exclusives during that time which makes their words a bit hollow. Not to mention those exclusives where from studios they own, so they could have easily backed up their beliefs if they really felt that way.

Personally I see no issue with the exclusives, Whilst it would be nice to play everything everywhere, I don't think it would be great for business. Exclusives are a tool to seperate your product from the competition. Would Switch have been as popular if they had released all their titles to the more powerful PS / Xbox day 1? Something tells me it would have hurt sales.

I best get around to giving Synapse a go then as its one the backlog of stuff to play. If its good then I may pick it up as a I like having a few quick to play VR titles to showcase the device when people come round and fancy a go.

I think if the first DLC had been well received we would have already seen a PS version, but unfortunately it tanked pretty hard. I suspect they are now waiting for the second DLC and a cyberpunk style 2.0 version in the hope it improves the game so much that it gives it a much better shot at being well received.

Stuff like this really annoys me as it's just wasteful. If you are going to the effort of producing physical media then put the game on the disc. Having a disc where you still have to download 99% of the data is just utterly stupid.

@Oram77 I have not played GOY yet but I saw a video the other day of the fire lighting where you use the touchpad for the striker and then blow on the controller to give oxygen to the fire. Things like that are very cool and whilst I appreciate it may be annoying for some, its a really good use of the tech.

What makes me chuckle is you still see posts hating on the Dualsense whilst also saying Sony never innovate. The Dualsense when fully used has probably been one of the biggest innovations to immersion for this generation imo.

I need to finish off The Devil in Me before it leaves PS+. It's a great game but my god the tension in this one is bothering me way more than then others. The directional microphone part was horrible for how tense it was.

Other than that I'll do a bit more on Baldurs Gate 1 as I fancied a retro revisit.

I was a big fan of the original, and also VtM Redemption which came before it but it was always obvious how much this game was going to tank. I'm surprised they didn't just pull the plug and call it a day a long time ago.

I get why companies chase live service multiplayer because regardless of what anyone says, it is where the money is at. That said I can't see this succeeding as they don't have the pedigree to make this genre of game.

I have really enjoyed everything Quantic Dream have done, all the way to back The Nomad Soul, which was utterly compelling just because of how bizarre it was.

I hope this works for their sake, but I just think this is a bad call on their part and will probably backfire.

Its looks great for the most part, the $1000 is still a very hard sell however. People mocked the PS Portal but more and more I can see why they went for a barebones streaming device to keep the cost manageable. Both devices are good at what they do, but I just don't think I would ever pay the premium price asked for a PC Handheld.

@Jammer I know I am firmly in the minority here but I personally didn't even think Sekiro was that good of a game. People just seem to love it solely because it was a challenging game, but the main challenge is just be a parry master or gtfo.

You travel the same main area 3 or 4 times just with slightly different enemies. The trash mobs are basically stealth kill / hide / repeat and don't serve to teach you anything about how the game is played. The boss difficulty curve is all over the place with Genichiro being incredibly difficult early on followed by a series of much easier fights. Prosthetics are pretty meh overall and the skill system is just poorly implemented, costly and time consuming to earn, with no way to respec if the talent ends up being naff.

It was not terrible, but it was 7/10 imo and not the masterpiece its made out to be

@get2sammyb The original is decent provided you set your expectations accordingly. Its no where near as indepth as or challenging as other soulslikes. Its also a lot shorter with a lot less weapons types / magic to choose from, which limits build options. Thats not a neccessarily a negative however as not every game needs to be 100h or more.

Where it excels however is that its utterly dripping in style. All the enemies and bosses look excellent and the character creator is fantastic.Also certain zones work because of the anime style, the cathedral zone thats entirely white is a prime example imo.

@Fiendish-Beaver Obviously appreciate your mate won't be able to leak anything regarding the actual machine. Do you know how long the time frame is from Dev kits going out to launch usually is, just to give an idea what quarter Sony are looking at?

Not a great move imo as the star rating is currently good enough. Also unless they heavily moderate it and actively remove reviews that contain rage bait red flags it will just be another target for trolls. If they are going to do it, then at the least they should also tie it to a minimum time played (5h) to ensure reviews are from a proper sample of what a game has to offer

For myself it can vary as I only buy games when I am ready to play them, so rarely jump in day 1 unless its a title I know I must play. For the most part I can be picking up a game 12-18m after release. I also tend to only play one proper game at a time either on PC or PS. So at the moment I am playing Control after recently playing Alan Wake and was likely going to pick up Alan Wake 2 after it. PS+ has saved me buying that for now, the same happened with Lies of P also.

Brilliant addition to the service.