The demo wasn't for me. It didn't scratch that Unicorn Overlord (or FFT) itch like I was hoping. Man, I hope Vanillaware makes another one of those. FE Three Houses didn't do it for me either. They really wanted to wedge some Persona / Cold Steel elements into it, and man does it feel forced. Just couldn't get into it. I liked Path of Radiance though.
Anyone have recommendations for other FE entries / games with a similar vibe?
This looks interesting indeed. Reminds me of the newer Alone in the Dark. On disc, I'd pick it up now at full price. Without, I'll grab it if it hits $7.99.
Not a thing! I'm on vacation with my son. We caught the Steelers / Packers game on Thursday and have otherwise been exploring the beautiful city of Pittsburgh.
I enjoyed the first game a lot. Really neat, snappy combat. I also bought it for like $7 years after it released. It's not one that I wished I had bought earlier. I also bounced hard off of Alan Wake II - something about having to place a Polaroid on a wall with perfect precision really irked me.
With how stacked September is, I'm fine pushing it off. Onimusha plus two Trails releases is plenty to buy in one month. October should have a few too with Final Fantasy Resonance and possibly Village in Shade.
I'm also looking forward to price drops of games from earlier in this year like Crimson Desert and Adventures of Elliott.
In short - I'm not enough of a Remedy head to get this one at launch. Looking forward to playing it perhaps in 2028.
It makes for a handy coding assistant. I'm a one man team, so I use it for code reviews and to sniff edge cases that I missed. That kind of AI is invaluable, but to me it also means that we should be seeing games bug free at launch.
If it had been a glow up port with no nonsense multiplayer at $39, Halo would be dominating. It would have gone even better if they had done that with Halo 2 instead.
Beloved character seeking to find peace with his identity and those he loves in the first game
Second game kills him off
Main character goes on a quest for revenge for violence against her loved ones and kills a lot of people
Doesn't go through with it at the end, "Violence is bad, vengeance hurts the soul" message
Goes back to the woman she loves to raise a child
Was that Ghost of Yotei or The Last of Us Part 2? Why, it's both of them. Atsu is Ellie, Ellie is Atsu. I watched some parts of a Let's Play, and it just wasn't worth it to me. Atsu may be a badass, but I feel like I've already played that game, mechanically and visually impressive as it may be.
I haven't decided yet. I spent time with Resident Evil Requiem last weekend despite having the Platinum. It was just too fun.
I have so many games in flight at the moment, mostly unfinished RPGs. I swear that I love the genre, I'm just terrible at finishing them. A copy of Castlevania: The Dominus Collection will be arriving today, so it may very well be Portrait of Ruin that gets my time. My son and I are heading out to my dad's place to get some work done on his property this morning, then I'm thinking sushi for lunch. After that, we'll see.
@8th_Observer That's fair, and I think what you mentioned is a great way to be able to read between the lines and judge whether or not a game will meet your expectations rather than somebody else's.
@8th_Observer I agree with your statement whole-heartedly, but it's less about somebody else's biases and opinions and more about what they can tell you that's objectively true about a game. If there's a significant shift in how the game plays versus previous entries, significant technical issues, and other such pieces like that, then I think it's important to make an informed decision.
@BentIeyma People have been falling into that trap for years.
Resident Evil 6. Final Fantasy XIII. Mass Effect: Andromeda. Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
People know what they're getting into until they don't. Maybe it'll be fine, but its still kind of wild to preorder anything prior to reviews in this day and age.
@Ashkorsair 100%. I'm glad some people like the games; I'm happy for them. This trilogy for me has been the biggest disappointment of this gaming generation. I have a hard time finding any redeeming qualities outside of some of the presentation. The player character models are very well done, and the summons were impressive.
It is what it is at this point. I'm not going to stress about it anymore. I'm going to continue building my physical collection. I'll continue to play and enjoy my PS5 for years to come. I'll buy a PS5 Pro when the end of production is on the horizon; I already have a disc drive for it.
The lack of physical closes the door on choice in the PlayStation ecosystem. Digital codes at retail are a pale imitation. You still don't own anything but an empty box and a revocable, nontransferable license. If people are ok with that, then power to them. I think a lot of them are. The PS6 is for them. It won't be for me.
I'll build a new HTPC PC about when I would have bought a new console. I think maybe around the time my son graduates. SteamOS? Bazzite? Windows? Something else? Choices. Maybe I'll dual boot. I can patronize GOG, Steam, and Epic. Install mods. Switch over to my PS3 when it's time to replay Spec-Ops: The Line, back to the PS5 when Ghost of Tsushima calls my name. I adore the Mass Effect Trilogy so much that I bought it three times - on 360, PS3, and the Legendary Edition on PS4. I'll continue to enjoy that.
I love collecting. I'm going to keep doing it as long as discs are out there. When the market really starts to dry up, I'm going to miss it. It's going to be alright.
I do wish we could be kinder to each other. I like a lot of you guys.
They're no longer beholden to the almighty shareholder. 20 billion in debt isn't great, but they have ways of recovering that in chunks.
They could break up studios and sell IP for example. If they do choose to go all in on Madden, FC, and Battlefield, they could sell off Mass Effect and Dragon Age for example. Today's Bioware isn't capable of handling either franchise in any meaningful way (and by that, I mean capturing the core audience along with new audience while being profitable - something that both Andromeda and Veilguard failed to do on both counts, regardless of your opinion of the games themselves).
Could you imagine the next Dragon Age developed by CDPR or Warhorse Studios? A Mass Effect game developed by Owlcat or Archetype?
Another way to monetize is to compete directly with Epic and appeal to other studios - market Frostbite as the cheaper, less janky version of Unreal. If they threw resources behind making it friendly to develop with, they'd have something there. I don't know why more studios with proprietary engines don't do this.
I'm going to be watching out for moves like this. Let's see what happens.
One more release - Falcom is releasing the Crossbell Duology (Trails from Zero / Trails to Azure) on PS5 September 10th. The PS4 versions are rather pricey on the secondary market, so this will be a great opportunity for someone to grab both games for $35 a piece. Zero is my favorite in the series, so I'm not ashamed to triple dip on this one
He has a knack for Drax, but beyond that, I don't think he's very good. His best attribute was always his physique, and father time has claimed that from him.
Is it really better for them to recast the role and reshoot everything rather than wait for Ryan Hurst to rehab? Seems wasteful.
I don't have PS Plus, but for anyone that does, is a fan of classic survival horror, and somehow hasn't played Signalis yet, it's a masterwork that deserves your time.
@StrickenBiged That's my major sticking point too. My collection has 30 years behind it - if I die today, my wife and son could sell it and buy a car or pay the mortgage for most of a year. That's something tangible. My digital collection is just gone.
The Resident Evil catalog is routinely on sale for $5. I'll pull the trigger on $5 and have repeatedly. Shoot, I own 3 physical copies of the original RE2, but I played the digital one this past weekend.
What's the share of physical to digital on games released this year? That's what I'd like to know.
@Oram77 100% agree - Naughty Dog's gameplay mechanics are top notch. You can see the massive influence that The Last of Us had on the genre in the way that Resident Evil's UI has evolved. I disliked TLoU2's story a great deal, but I finished it because the controls were tight, the shooting was excellent, and I thought the enemy AI was pretty good too.
@AdamNovice I would rather imagine that we watched the same presentation. What I see, how I interpret it, and my tolerance for it is based upon my perspective, experience, and so on - just as how you see it is based on yours.
What I see is a writing staff who made a character ("Hey guys, let's call it Frank but spell it funny, isn't it so ironic?!"), selected a frequently type-cast screen actor ("Let's get that guy from The Boys, he's so popular!"), and just asked him to play himself, which amounts to him sounding like he could be the guy taking my smoothie order ("That'll be like, so relatable and ironic!") rather than the personality of an immensely powerful artifact. It's immersion-breaking for the sake of the writers' vanity - heaven (Valhalla?) forbid they allow anything to be taken too seriously - that just wouldn't be subversive or ironic enough. If you disagree, that's fine. If you like that kind of thing, that's also fine.
Frankly, I don't need your permission to have an opinion that's different from yours. I see what's in front of me and form an opinion. If I saw what I wanted to see, it sure wouldn't be that.
They're about a decade late with whatever multi-verse shenanigans they're planning for it to be original. The series is so divorced from its core identity that it's hard to even view it as the same series in which we slew Ares, Helios, Hades, and Zeus while portraying the ultimate badass. The little bit we've seen of Laufey is boiler plate "well THAT just happened" millennial slop. What a waste of a good character concept.
Just restarted Tomb Raider (2013) on PS3 last night. What a looker. The last time I played it was December 27th 2013, and I managed to make it 57% through. We'll see if I can clear it.
Been picking at Raidou Remastered too - it's neat so far, about 2 hours in. I bought the original when it came out, never opened it, and then it became a "Well, I'll emulate it or play it if it gets re-released."
Lastly, Final Fantasy IV from the Pixel Remaster collection is a good one. The story segments are succinct to a fault. They exist to support and direct the gameplay, which is great.
Announcements like this remind me that I need to play the survivor trilogy. I have the first one on PS3, and I remember it being really, really good. I can't remember why I stopped playing it. Is the PS4 version a significant enough jump to justify getting it, or is the PS3 good to go?
@Th3solution The PS3 was very digital. My first purchase when I got one was Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection - which never had a physical release, funny enough. Mass Effect didn't get a physical release on PS3 until the collection came out. Then there were the PS1 games, the Vita/PS3 cross platform games, and of course PS+. My apartment had pretty good internet at the time - I think we had a 50Mb connection on cable. Pretty sturdy - my roommates and I played Gears of War online every night for several months. Man, now you've got me all nostalgic.
If you can sell 37 million of something, it's still profitable. I think it's incredibly odd that they went straight to turning off the tap. No finishing out the game generation, no hiking up disc prices to be more expensive than digital, no offering small runs and limited prints - just quitting cold turkey. I strongly believe that this has everything to do with wanting to be the sole retailer.
Don't get me started with the "But they're going to sell codes at retailers!" Those will sell dismally if it all - nobody wants them, and they won't be priced competitively. They cost next to nothing to produce and - unlike a game disc - can be rendered inert pieces of cardboard. The retailer carries zero risk, so they have zero reason to discount them because the sales model between PlayStation and the retailers will be completely different.
Streaming is interesting technology, but physics gets in the way - even with ultra low latency networking, playing a game hosted in a data center a couple hundred miles away still has lag that local machines don't.
I have messed with it a bit - Luna had Resident Evil 2 Remake available, and I have a lot of time into that game between PS4, PS5, and PC, so it offered a good comparison. It just didn't feel right. It wasn't quite as responsive. It didn't look nearly as good as even the PS4 version. If I was up a creek with nothing else to play, maybe I'd spend time with it as a last resort? I just think that even people who don't play games as much as we do would notice that it didn't feel as responsive as a game should.
I love a good zombie movie. It's unfortunate that every single professional adaptation of my favorite gaming franchise has been dog water. This one looks like it could be an OK zombie movie, but Resident Evil? I had hoped that we'd get an adaptation similar to what we saw in the Arklay proof of concept. I'm not going to be watching it in the theater or anything, but I'll catch it on Bluray if the reviews are any good.
I've never been a fan of their games (not my cup of tea), but boy their efficiency and business acumen are both worth celebrating. What an accomplishment for them.
It's been a few years. I'll probably wait a bit on this one since the first compilation is selling for less than $20 - I don't imagine it will take long for this one to follow suit. I've already bought a silly amount this year, and September isn't going to be kind.
@MrMeeeseeeks It is heavily skewed that way - that's why these numbers are so misleading. Alinea tracked RE Requiem to be about 28% physical vs digital. (With a healthy number of complaints online about people not being able to get ahold of the physical edition at launch). That's not insignificant.
I also have to wonder how they tracked PS5 free upgrades. Example: I bought Diofield Chronicle second hand. That particular purchase doesn't count for their purposes. It does, however, have a free PS5 upgrade. When I added that to my library, did that then count as a digital purchase?
If that's the case, consider what happens to the numbers for people who bought a game like Resident Evil Village for PS4 on disc. After purchasing the Shadows of Rose DLC on PS4, then getting the free PS5 upgrade, then getting the PS5 version of Shadows of Rose, well, that's counting three digital purchases toward one physical purchase for someone who just wanted the disc in the first place. Lots of 'ifs' in there, I'm happy to be corrected if that's not the case.
I can't stand this guy's cryptic drive-bys. What games? What are the actual numbers? How do they compare to the digital numbers? What does over 100k mean? 100,001, 250k, 500k? How reliable are these numbers? Where does Circana get them? Are these copies sold to customers or copies sold to companies? Impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions without these data points and more.
@rjejr Pronounced dong-WAH - it's Chinese animation, in the same way that anime is Japanese animation. It's kind of a silly distinction to be honest. If we just use "anime," everyone knows what we're talking about. I just brought it up to be cheeky.
The premise is reminiscent of something like Power Rangers or some of the late 90's cartoons - advertisements for products (toys, games, whatever) posing as shows. I'm always down for a good show (do we call it anime or is it donghua?), so maybe I'll be in for episode 1 and feel it out from there.
Helping my nephew and his wife get moved this morning. Had to say goodbye to our 15 year old dog yesterday. That sucked.
When I get some time, I'll be moving between Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster, Raidou Remastered, and Resident Evil 2 (1998) Leon B - I haven't played that scenario in years.
@MrPeanutbutterz Hah, yes, same era here - I started as a US EB Games ASM just before the 360 launch right around the GameStop buyout, got my own store, and left about a year after PS3/Wii. Those kinds of phonecalls were daily!! Wow, it's incredible how small town Ireland and small town Arkansas people can sound equally like bumpkins, isn't it? Middle management was huge on those silly Gameplay Guarantees. Oh, reservations and subscriptions too! We'd fall all over ourselves to get $5 out of someone to reserve a game or $15 to subscribe to Game Informer. I felt slimy after work. I left when we get a new district manager that told us on a weekly conference call that trained monkeys could do our jobs better. That was a whole saga unto itself.
It's one of those jobs where you're glad you did it so you at least know what it was all about, but maybe you wish you hadn't because knowing how the sausage is made makes it less appealing. I'm glad I don't work in retail anymore; the respect that I have for those that do is boundless. I'm glad you got to leave on the note you did - getting on with your life's work, that's just the best.
If they're anything like the Oblivion remaster, they can keep them. I sincerely hope that they outsource them to another studio who's good with the engine.
Comments 851
Re: Brigandine Abyss (PS5) - A Tactical RPG That's No Fire Emblem, But Still Mildly Entertaining
The demo wasn't for me. It didn't scratch that Unicorn Overlord (or FFT) itch like I was hoping. Man, I hope Vanillaware makes another one of those. FE Three Houses didn't do it for me either. They really wanted to wedge some Persona / Cold Steel elements into it, and man does it feel forced. Just couldn't get into it. I liked Path of Radiance though.
Anyone have recommendations for other FE entries / games with a similar vibe?
Re: 'Tiny Team' Working on Next Horizon Single Player Game, Years Away from Release
PlayStation is so poorly-managed that it blows my mind every time I read something like this.
Re: The Sinking City 2 (PS5) - An Admirable Resident Evil-Lite Experience
This looks interesting indeed. Reminds me of the newer Alone in the Dark. On disc, I'd pick it up now at full price. Without, I'll grab it if it hits $7.99.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 646
Not a thing! I'm on vacation with my son. We caught the Steelers / Packers game on Thursday and have otherwise been exploring the beautiful city of Pittsburgh.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Re: Phantom Blade Zero PS5 Demo Leaks Before Next Week's State of Play
Demos are tried and true, especially for new IPs. It's a good move for them to put one out - I'll definitely give it a shot.
Re: More Classic Lord of the Rings Games Are Coming Back, Dev Confirms
@SuperSilverback Those are the same two that came to my mind as well. Third Age was underappreciated.
Re: 'A Must-Have Day One Purchase': You Only Need to Buy Control Resonant in September, Remedy Reckons
I enjoyed the first game a lot. Really neat, snappy combat. I also bought it for like $7 years after it released. It's not one that I wished I had bought earlier. I also bounced hard off of Alan Wake II - something about having to place a Polaroid on a wall with perfect precision really irked me.
With how stacked September is, I'm fine pushing it off. Onimusha plus two Trails releases is plenty to buy in one month. October should have a few too with Final Fantasy Resonance and possibly Village in Shade.
I'm also looking forward to price drops of games from earlier in this year like Crimson Desert and Adventures of Elliott.
In short - I'm not enough of a Remedy head to get this one at launch. Looking forward to playing it perhaps in 2028.
Re: The Next Black Myth Game Won't Use AI to Speed Up Development
It makes for a handy coding assistant. I'm a one man team, so I use it for code reviews and to sniff edge cases that I missed. That kind of AI is invaluable, but to me it also means that we should be seeing games bug free at launch.
Re: Halo's Big Budget PS5 Remake Battered by Basic Black Ops Ports in Official PS Store Charts
If it had been a glow up port with no nonsense multiplayer at $39, Halo would be dominating. It would have gone even better if they had done that with Halo 2 instead.
Re: Opinion: Ghost of Yotei Was a Weirdly Disappointing Sequel After Loving Tsushima
Was that Ghost of Yotei or The Last of Us Part 2? Why, it's both of them. Atsu is Ellie, Ellie is Atsu. I watched some parts of a Let's Play, and it just wasn't worth it to me. Atsu may be a badass, but I feel like I've already played that game, mechanically and visually impressive as it may be.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 645
I haven't decided yet. I spent time with Resident Evil Requiem last weekend despite having the Platinum. It was just too fun.
I have so many games in flight at the moment, mostly unfinished RPGs. I swear that I love the genre, I'm just terrible at finishing them. A copy of Castlevania: The Dominus Collection will be arriving today, so it may very well be Portrait of Ruin that gets my time. My son and I are heading out to my dad's place to get some work done on his property this morning, then I'm thinking sushi for lunch. After that, we'll see.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Re: 'Discs Don't Really Make Sense': GTA 6 Boss Says 'Sony Understands That' as It Kills Physical Games
Personal jets and $5,000 Italian silk suits don't make sense to me, but I won't crap on Mr. CEO's preferences.
Re: GTA 6 Pre-Orders Are 'Exceptional' So Far, Says Take-Two Boss
@8th_Observer That's fair, and I think what you mentioned is a great way to be able to read between the lines and judge whether or not a game will meet your expectations rather than somebody else's.
Re: GTA 6 Pre-Orders Are 'Exceptional' So Far, Says Take-Two Boss
@8th_Observer I agree with your statement whole-heartedly, but it's less about somebody else's biases and opinions and more about what they can tell you that's objectively true about a game. If there's a significant shift in how the game plays versus previous entries, significant technical issues, and other such pieces like that, then I think it's important to make an informed decision.
Re: GTA 6 Pre-Orders Are 'Exceptional' So Far, Says Take-Two Boss
@BentIeyma People have been falling into that trap for years.
Resident Evil 6. Final Fantasy XIII. Mass Effect: Andromeda. Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
People know what they're getting into until they don't. Maybe it'll be fine, but its still kind of wild to preorder anything prior to reviews in this day and age.
Re: New Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Gameplay Confirmed for Gamescom Opening Night Live
@Ashkorsair 100%. I'm glad some people like the games; I'm happy for them. This trilogy for me has been the biggest disappointment of this gaming generation. I have a hard time finding any redeeming qualities outside of some of the presentation. The player character models are very well done, and the summons were impressive.
Re: With Digital Game Sales at 90%, Capcom Appears Unfazed By Sony's Disc-Free Future
Of course they sell more digital units. Most of the Resident Evil catalog is almost always on sale for $5 a pop.
How's the split on new releases when people are paying full price?
Re: Disc-Based PS5s Now Warn Buyers About the Impending Death of Physical Games
It is what it is at this point. I'm not going to stress about it anymore. I'm going to continue building my physical collection. I'll continue to play and enjoy my PS5 for years to come. I'll buy a PS5 Pro when the end of production is on the horizon; I already have a disc drive for it.
The lack of physical closes the door on choice in the PlayStation ecosystem. Digital codes at retail are a pale imitation. You still don't own anything but an empty box and a revocable, nontransferable license. If people are ok with that, then power to them. I think a lot of them are. The PS6 is for them. It won't be for me.
I'll build a new HTPC PC about when I would have bought a new console. I think maybe around the time my son graduates. SteamOS? Bazzite? Windows? Something else? Choices. Maybe I'll dual boot. I can patronize GOG, Steam, and Epic. Install mods. Switch over to my PS3 when it's time to replay Spec-Ops: The Line, back to the PS5 when Ghost of Tsushima calls my name. I adore the Mass Effect Trilogy so much that I bought it three times - on 360, PS3, and the Legendary Edition on PS4. I'll continue to enjoy that.
I love collecting. I'm going to keep doing it as long as discs are out there. When the market really starts to dry up, I'm going to miss it. It's going to be alright.
I do wish we could be kinder to each other. I like a lot of you guys.
Re: Don't Worry, PS5 Has Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave at Home
@AndyKazama I thought the same about Diofield - Unicorn Overlord was another story. For me, it was better than any FE since Path of Radiance.
Re: 'We're Entering This Next Chapter from a Position of Strength': EA Completes $55 Billion Buyout
Well, let's try for optimism.
They're no longer beholden to the almighty shareholder. 20 billion in debt isn't great, but they have ways of recovering that in chunks.
They could break up studios and sell IP for example. If they do choose to go all in on Madden, FC, and Battlefield, they could sell off Mass Effect and Dragon Age for example. Today's Bioware isn't capable of handling either franchise in any meaningful way (and by that, I mean capturing the core audience along with new audience while being profitable - something that both Andromeda and Veilguard failed to do on both counts, regardless of your opinion of the games themselves).
Could you imagine the next Dragon Age developed by CDPR or Warhorse Studios? A Mass Effect game developed by Owlcat or Archetype?
Another way to monetize is to compete directly with Epic and appeal to other studios - market Frostbite as the cheaper, less janky version of Unreal. If they threw resources behind making it friendly to develop with, they'd have something there. I don't know why more studios with proprietary engines don't do this.
I'm going to be watching out for moves like this. Let's see what happens.
Re: Reminder: The PS5 Release Schedule Is About to Become the Busiest It's Ever Been
One more release - Falcom is releasing the Crossbell Duology (Trails from Zero / Trails to Azure) on PS5 September 10th. The PS4 versions are rather pricey on the secondary market, so this will be a great opportunity for someone to grab both games for $35 a piece. Zero is my favorite in the series, so I'm not ashamed to triple dip on this one
Re: Ex-Wrestler Dave Bautista in Talks to Take Over from Ryan Hurst as Kratos in God of War TV Show
He has a knack for Drax, but beyond that, I don't think he's very good. His best attribute was always his physique, and father time has claimed that from him.
Is it really better for them to recast the role and reshoot everything rather than wait for Ryan Hurst to rehab? Seems wasteful.
Re: Sony's New Spider-Man Movie Obliterates Expectations with Global $927 Million Haul
It was ok - very entertaining summer flick. I don't suspect that I'll ever watch it again. I maintain that Andrew Garfield was the best Spidey.
Re: Poll: Vote for Your PS5 Game of the Month (July 2026)
Games came out this month?
In all seriousness, it was a slow one when it's headlined by two remakes.
Re: These 12+ PS5 and PS Plus Games Are Coming Out Next Week (3rd-9th August)
I don't have PS Plus, but for anyone that does, is a fan of classic survival horror, and somehow hasn't played Signalis yet, it's a masterwork that deserves your time.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 644
Rotating between a few titles to see what sticks. Trails in the Sky FC, Raidou Remastered, Final Fantasy IV, and Tomb Raider 2013. We'll see.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Re: 'We Are Not Seeing Any Impact on Our Business': Sony Says Physical Disc Backlash Is Having Zero Effect
The disdain for the people who are upset is so strange.
Re: 8 Ways Sony Must Improve the PS Store for Our All-Digital Future
@StrickenBiged That's my major sticking point too. My collection has 30 years behind it - if I die today, my wife and son could sell it and buy a car or pay the mortgage for most of a year. That's something tangible. My digital collection is just gone.
Re: Will Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Get a Physical PS5 Edition? Director Can't Confirm Anything Yet
I certainly hope that they can work something out for fans of the trilogy.
Re: Amidst Sony's Disc Debacle, Capcom Sales Data Is a Brutal Reality Check for Fans of Physical Media
The Resident Evil catalog is routinely on sale for $5. I'll pull the trigger on $5 and have repeatedly. Shoot, I own 3 physical copies of the original RE2, but I played the digital one this past weekend.
What's the share of physical to digital on games released this year? That's what I'd like to know.
Re: Naughty Dog's Intergalactic Targeting 2027, Reliable Snoop Says
@Oram77 100% agree - Naughty Dog's gameplay mechanics are top notch. You can see the massive influence that The Last of Us had on the genre in the way that Resident Evil's UI has evolved. I disliked TLoU2's story a great deal, but I finished it because the controls were tight, the shooting was excellent, and I thought the enemy AI was pretty good too.
That said, I'll be skipping this one.
Re: Celebrating 30 Years of Lara Croft at Derby's Tomb Raider Exhibit
Fantastic work, Liam. Thanks for showing this off.
Re: 'It's Setting Up for Something So Amazing': Sony Confirms New God of War Starring Kratos
@AdamNovice I would rather imagine that we watched the same presentation. What I see, how I interpret it, and my tolerance for it is based upon my perspective, experience, and so on - just as how you see it is based on yours.
What I see is a writing staff who made a character ("Hey guys, let's call it Frank but spell it funny, isn't it so ironic?!"), selected a frequently type-cast screen actor ("Let's get that guy from The Boys, he's so popular!"), and just asked him to play himself, which amounts to him sounding like he could be the guy taking my smoothie order ("That'll be like, so relatable and ironic!") rather than the personality of an immensely powerful artifact. It's immersion-breaking for the sake of the writers' vanity - heaven (Valhalla?) forbid they allow anything to be taken too seriously - that just wouldn't be subversive or ironic enough. If you disagree, that's fine. If you like that kind of thing, that's also fine.
Frankly, I don't need your permission to have an opinion that's different from yours. I see what's in front of me and form an opinion. If I saw what I wanted to see, it sure wouldn't be that.
Re: 'It's Setting Up for Something So Amazing': Sony Confirms New God of War Starring Kratos
They're about a decade late with whatever multi-verse shenanigans they're planning for it to be original. The series is so divorced from its core identity that it's hard to even view it as the same series in which we slew Ares, Helios, Hades, and Zeus while portraying the ultimate badass. The little bit we've seen of Laufey is boiler plate "well THAT just happened" millennial slop. What a waste of a good character concept.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 643
Just restarted Tomb Raider (2013) on PS3 last night. What a looker. The last time I played it was December 27th 2013, and I managed to make it 57% through. We'll see if I can clear it.
Been picking at Raidou Remastered too - it's neat so far, about 2 hours in. I bought the original when it came out, never opened it, and then it became a "Well, I'll emulate it or play it if it gets re-released."
Lastly, Final Fantasy IV from the Pixel Remaster collection is a good one. The story segments are succinct to a fault. They exist to support and direct the gameplay, which is great.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Re: Lara Croft's Newest PS5 Game Tomb Raider Catalyst Delayed to 2028
Announcements like this remind me that I need to play the survivor trilogy. I have the first one on PS3, and I remember it being really, really good. I can't remember why I stopped playing it. Is the PS4 version a significant enough jump to justify getting it, or is the PS3 good to go?
Re: Physical Game Fans Won't Like This New Data About US PS5 Sales
@Th3solution The PS3 was very digital. My first purchase when I got one was Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection - which never had a physical release, funny enough. Mass Effect didn't get a physical release on PS3 until the collection came out. Then there were the PS1 games, the Vita/PS3 cross platform games, and of course PS+. My apartment had pretty good internet at the time - I think we had a 50Mb connection on cable. Pretty sturdy - my roommates and I played Gears of War online every night for several months. Man, now you've got me all nostalgic.
Re: Physical Game Fans Won't Like This New Data About US PS5 Sales
If you can sell 37 million of something, it's still profitable. I think it's incredibly odd that they went straight to turning off the tap. No finishing out the game generation, no hiking up disc prices to be more expensive than digital, no offering small runs and limited prints - just quitting cold turkey. I strongly believe that this has everything to do with wanting to be the sole retailer.
Don't get me started with the "But they're going to sell codes at retailers!" Those will sell dismally if it all - nobody wants them, and they won't be priced competitively. They cost next to nothing to produce and - unlike a game disc - can be rendered inert pieces of cardboard. The retailer carries zero risk, so they have zero reason to discount them because the sales model between PlayStation and the retailers will be completely different.
Re: PS5's War for Attention Finds a New Foe with Games on Amazon Prime
Streaming is interesting technology, but physics gets in the way - even with ultra low latency networking, playing a game hosted in a data center a couple hundred miles away still has lag that local machines don't.
I have messed with it a bit - Luna had Resident Evil 2 Remake available, and I have a lot of time into that game between PS4, PS5, and PC, so it offered a good comparison. It just didn't feel right. It wasn't quite as responsive. It didn't look nearly as good as even the PS4 version. If I was up a creek with nothing else to play, maybe I'd spend time with it as a last resort? I just think that even people who don't play games as much as we do would notice that it didn't feel as responsive as a game should.
Re: Sony's New Resident Evil Movie, Directed by Zach Cregger, Looks Superb in New Trailer
I love a good zombie movie. It's unfortunate that every single professional adaptation of my favorite gaming franchise has been dog water. This one looks like it could be an OK zombie movie, but Resident Evil? I had hoped that we'd get an adaptation similar to what we saw in the Arklay proof of concept. I'm not going to be watching it in the theater or anything, but I'll catch it on Bluray if the reviews are any good.
Re: Xbox Paid More Than It Cost to Make STALKER 2 to Keep It Off PS5 for a Year
I've never been a fan of their games (not my cup of tea), but boy their efficiency and business acumen are both worth celebrating. What an accomplishment for them.
Re: Here's How Much Better Metal Gear Solid 4 Looks on PS5
It's been a few years. I'll probably wait a bit on this one since the first compilation is selling for less than $20 - I don't imagine it will take long for this one to follow suit. I've already bought a silly amount this year, and September isn't going to be kind.
Re: Sales Data Paints a Very Grim Picture for Physical PS5 Games in the USA, UK
@MrMeeeseeeks It is heavily skewed that way - that's why these numbers are so misleading. Alinea tracked RE Requiem to be about 28% physical vs digital. (With a healthy number of complaints online about people not being able to get ahold of the physical edition at launch). That's not insignificant.
I also have to wonder how they tracked PS5 free upgrades. Example: I bought Diofield Chronicle second hand. That particular purchase doesn't count for their purposes. It does, however, have a free PS5 upgrade. When I added that to my library, did that then count as a digital purchase?
If that's the case, consider what happens to the numbers for people who bought a game like Resident Evil Village for PS4 on disc. After purchasing the Shadows of Rose DLC on PS4, then getting the free PS5 upgrade, then getting the PS5 version of Shadows of Rose, well, that's counting three digital purchases toward one physical purchase for someone who just wanted the disc in the first place. Lots of 'ifs' in there, I'm happy to be corrected if that's not the case.
Re: Sales Data Paints a Very Grim Picture for Physical PS5 Games in the USA
I can't stand this guy's cryptic drive-bys. What games? What are the actual numbers? How do they compare to the digital numbers? What does over 100k mean? 100,001, 250k, 500k? How reliable are these numbers? Where does Circana get them? Are these copies sold to customers or copies sold to companies? Impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions without these data points and more.
Re: This PS5 RPG Will Expand 'Beyond the Game' with an Official Anime
@rjejr Pronounced dong-WAH - it's Chinese animation, in the same way that anime is Japanese animation. It's kind of a silly distinction to be honest. If we just use "anime," everyone knows what we're talking about. I just brought it up to be cheeky.
Re: This PS5 RPG Will Expand 'Beyond the Game' with an Official Anime
The premise is reminiscent of something like Power Rangers or some of the late 90's cartoons - advertisements for products (toys, games, whatever) posing as shows. I'm always down for a good show (do we call it anime or is it donghua?), so maybe I'll be in for episode 1 and feel it out from there.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 642
Helping my nephew and his wife get moved this morning. Had to say goodbye to our 15 year old dog yesterday. That sucked.
When I get some time, I'll be moving between Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster, Raidou Remastered, and Resident Evil 2 (1998) Leon B - I haven't played that scenario in years.
Have a great weekend everybody.
Re: 'It's Totally, Totally Irrelevant': GameStop Boss Unfazed by Sony's Physical Discs Decision
@MrPeanutbutterz Hah, yes, same era here - I started as a US EB Games ASM just before the 360 launch right around the GameStop buyout, got my own store, and left about a year after PS3/Wii. Those kinds of phonecalls were daily!! Wow, it's incredible how small town Ireland and small town Arkansas people can sound equally like bumpkins, isn't it? Middle management was huge on those silly Gameplay Guarantees. Oh, reservations and subscriptions too! We'd fall all over ourselves to get $5 out of someone to reserve a game or $15 to subscribe to Game Informer. I felt slimy after work. I left when we get a new district manager that told us on a weekly conference call that trained monkeys could do our jobs better. That was a whole saga unto itself.
It's one of those jobs where you're glad you did it so you at least know what it was all about, but maybe you wish you hadn't because knowing how the sausage is made makes it less appealing. I'm glad I don't work in retail anymore; the respect that I have for those that do is boundless. I'm glad you got to leave on the note you did - getting on with your life's work, that's just the best.
Re: 'It's Totally, Totally Irrelevant': GameStop Boss Unfazed by Sony's Physical Discs Decision
@MrPeanutbutterz Same, same. TOH, RSBs, and marketing relays can bite me.
Re: Fallout 3, New Vegas PS5 Remasters Confirmed by Bethesda
If they're anything like the Oblivion remaster, they can keep them. I sincerely hope that they outsource them to another studio who's good with the engine.