JJtheTexan

I played this for the first time in 2025, which is fitting since the game takes place in 2025, a time of economic upheval and a crazy person in the White House. Imagine that! Anyway, as much as I want to love this game, it's pretty repetitive and even a little boring at times. It finally lost me when I failed on the boss fight at the end of a mission... and I had to start the entire mission over from the very beginning. No checkpoints? I don't want to waste my time. Bleah

I remember when you could rent consoles from home video stores when I was a kid. I don't recall seeing the Neo Geo AES as a rental, but I've read SNK originally intended it as a rental-only product. They eventually made it available for purchase due to high demand.

I feel bad for the developers. I hope they are all discreetly saving as much of their work as possible, because they are all going to be "downsized" about a week after this game either comes out and flops or gets canceled without ever seeing the light of day.

I believe Nintendo owns the Picross name, but any company can make games like that series, which are based on an pen-and-paper game called a nonogram.

@LogicStrikesAgain rumored to be helpful

@Lanmanna I was half-joking there, but serious answers:

Gradius = I always thought it was "GRAH-dee-us", but the Nintendo Direct announcer today pronounced it "GRAY-dee-us."

Darius = Most people say "DARE-ee-us" but game history researcher and author Jeremy Parrish says it's supposed to be "dah-RYE-us" as per the original Japanese. The name comes from a historic Persian Empire ruler so idk

Gaiden = I think it's supposed to be "GUY-den" but I have heard many say it as "GAY-den."

Of course most British people's pronunciation of "Mario" and "Yoshi" sounds wrong to me too. lol

OK, now do Gradius, Darius, and Ninja Gaiden

I really feel for Australian gamers. You already have to pay more for everything because of imports, taxes, etc. and your government is probably the most heavy-handed in the English-speaking world when it comes to media censorship.

Vtuber fans may recognize one of the voices as hololive's Usada Pekora, who of course appears in the video as the bunny girl

If I understand this correctly, Epic wants to launch its own competing app store on iOS and Android systems, which Apple / Google ostensibly would be required to allow in order to avoid anti-monopoly laws, and Epic is betting it can lure publishers away from the major stores by offering a better deal.

Epic Game Store hasn't done much to challenge Steam's supremacy on PC as far as I know. It might be a different story on mobile, but consumer habits die hard.

Just looked at this developer's GitHub page. If they really are a high school student, what tremendous talent at such a young age! They have a bright future in whatever they pursue.

I voted for GTA6, but I have zero belief it will release next year.

I thought Jo Wyatt was great as Ciri in The Witcher 3. I'm disappointed she won't return, but I'm happy to give Ciara Berkeley a chance. I'm still very much looking forward to W4!

It's not as if it matters all that much. You'll see posts on websites like this one stating "CoD fans outraged / disappointed / fuming / etc." for any particular reason, followed a few days or week later by "Latest CoD breaks more sales records." There's a reason Activision essentially forced all of its remaining studios into CoD support.

Everything looks absolutely FANTASTIC, 10/10. I wish I could afford it all, but I'll be happy if I can find a DualSense controller.

How am I feeling about Terry Bogard? OKAY!

I have more than 230 hours of Vampire Survivors on my Nintendo Switch. Please send help

Seriously, it's worth checking out for the price, and odds are good you'll have a great time.

I misread the headline as "Iconic 90FPS DOOM"

That said, I'd love to play DOOM at 90 FPS just to see how it looked

I would rather have too many Souls-likes than too many live-service games (and there are way too many live-service games).

(6 months later)

"Warner Bros. Closes Player First Games, All Employees Sacked"

I'm not a console wars guy, and I enjoy games from all platforms equally, but...

L M A O

Easily my favorite announcement today, and a Day One buy for me. I hope it sells really well, to let Sony know that there is an audience for games like this.

Unsurprising and stupid. They could have easily called it Madden 2025, but they don't care. This is the same company that also released two mostly unrelated Star Wars Battlefront games and their identically-named sequels a decade apart.

@SoulChimera I remember how excited I was when 90s Arcade Racer was announced. Seems it got scrapped sometime after Nicalis acquired publishing rights. I just checked their website, and it's still "coming soon" after 10 years in development hell, but if Distance can come back, why not 90s Super GP?

Just adding to the list: I've got about 300+ hours in this game across both PC and Nintendo Switch. It's so addictive. Generally, it has been priced very cheap, so it's absolutely worth trying when it comes to PlayStation. Check it out!

The company will also be known as Tirer Vers le Haut in France, Cote d'Ivoire, and Quebec, Canada.

I wasn't interested in the game until I saw all its Game Awards nominations, and I watched a few streamers play it. Now I definitely want to try it myself, as soon as I finish the first game. I imagine there are many others like me who will buy it later, too.

The entire basis of this article is two responses to fan questions on Twitter. Did anyone at Push Square bother to ask Xbox or Nintendo if they really did decline to permit this game on their platforms?

I think the more likely explanation is the developer didn't want to port it to those systems for whatever reason, and just called it "too crazy" for them on Twitter. Looks like he got some free publicity out of his offhanded remarks!

Do better, Push Square!

@Netret0120 and Twin Snakes from GameCube, while they're at it ^_^

(I know, literally zero chance of that happening)

Sorry to pile on, but the majority of commenters are correct here, Push Square staff. This headline was very misleading. I assumed it meant Konami had literally removed his name from each game's credits. It didn't, and it has no obligation at all to name him in the collection's credits since, you know, he had nothing to do with making it.

The way Konami has treated Kojima-san and many of its properties over the last decade-plus is deplorable, but this isn't a case of anything nearly as egregious as it's been made out to be here.

(Senator Palpatine voice) "Review it."

@TechGuyChris well said. How quickly some forget that the best-selling DVD player (and best-selling home video media device ever produced) was... the PS2.

Sony made video games and multimedia entertainment inseparable, starting with the PS1. There are still some audiophiles today who swear by OG PS1 consoles as being the among the best audio CD players you can buy.

PLEASE review this game, Push Square! It will be worth 40 pounds or so to give us all a good laugh. Lord knows we could all use one lately.

I'm exceedingly happy with my "first-gen" PS5. No problems or complaints at all, and no reason to replace it.

Great news! I must admit, I did kind of hope they would cast the "cheap Ringo Starr impersonator" voice of Vincent in FF7 Abridged, though.

I realize this is a British website, but as an American I am baffled by the disconnect between the headline and the content... sarcasm? Do we define "stupid" and "joke" differently? I clicked this expecting to see a paltry slate of games and instead it looks pretty darn good. Help me I'm an idiot Texan who takes everything literally

Apple's best video game console was the Pippin and I will not be quiet about this

@MikeOrator Hogwarts Legacy was, as of last month, the best-selling game of the year so far, at 15 million units. I completely understand where you're coming from, and I say this with respect to the communities who feel marginalized: the controversy had nothing to do with the game, was a lot of very loud shouting from a small number of people, and apparently had negligible effect on the game's sales.

At any rate, it was a blockbuster in the sense that a whole lot of people bought it. I definitely agree with you that the discourse surrounding the game made it impossible to view the game strictly on its merits, and as a result I do not expect it to get any nominations at The Game Awards, for whatever that's worth.

ESA can try to bring back E3 all they want. Every single major publisher has withdrawn support and is unlikely to return. Why should Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, EA, etc. pay huge sums to participate in an event they don't control, when they can just do their own thing and not have to compete with each other for screen time?

@nessisonett I lol'd at this xD

I have CTR on my Switch, where it looks and runs fine at 30fps... I was astonished to learn, in this article, that it is *not already 60fps on PS5. The fact Mario Kart 8 - a very similar game in most respects - easily runs 60fps on vastly inferior hardware, but Beenox couldn't get CTR to 60 on PS5, is a real head-scratcher to me. Is there not even a performance mode?

This reminds me a little bit of the minor scandal 11 years ago when respected indie developer Phil Fish, responding to an audience question at GDC, quipped that "Japanese games suck."

Since then, Fish has gone into self-imposed exile, Japan-based developers have continued to produce some of the greatest games of all time, and the guy who asked Fish for his thoughts on games from Japan went on to become CEO of his own gaming company, in Japan. (Makoto Goto, founder of Game for IT)

I first noticed this on the Nintendo Life Pikmin 4 review yesterday. It's a wonderful feature, and I hope you'll be able to add it to older game reviews as well!

Since we're talking in hypotheticals, here's another one: Microsoft continues to lose money on its consoles, is unable to compete in the hardware market, and follows in SEGA's footsteps by becoming a third-party publisher to PlayStation and Nintendo, along with Steam, Epic, iOS, Android, etc.

Microsoft admitted in testimony that it has never been especially competitive in the console market sales race. It more or less tied with GameCube for sales in the PS2 era, finished third behind Wii and PS3, finished a distant third to PS4 and Nintendo Switch, and is badly lagging behind PS5.

If any company has a right to be concerned about its future in the gaming space, it's Microsoft. But they'll be just fine, even if it means GamePass becomes a stand-alone subscription on PS6 or whatever.

(Quick edit: I don't really believe any of this will happen, but my point is we just can't draw any meaningful conclusions about the MS acquisition of ABK at the moment.)

I love this series! Looks like another promising release.

@Cashews I admit I was being generous to SE, but Babylon's Fall was REALLY bad and I assume a disaster financially. Developed by PlatinumGames, though.

SE has much bigger problems with its overall leadership if you ask me...

A major studio can release a huge bad game, eat the loss, and move on. EA, Square Enix, and CD Projekt have all done so recently.

A small studio can release a smallish bad game, quickly pivot to its next project, and survive.

A medium-sized studio is probably in the worst situation to survive a disastrously bad game, I would guess. But Gollum is so gosh-darn awful, it basically destroyed Daedalic's reputation. No one will want to buy another game they developed for the foreseeable future.

Similar scenarios killed off Comcept, Ion Storm, Timegate, and Free Radical. At least Daedalic has its publishing arm to limp along for a while.

So to recap:

• Not free-to-play
• Uses "live service" mechanics
• Isn't Wumpa League (which infuriated hardcore Crash fans)
• Puts characters from a platforming / kart racing series into a MOBA-type game

To quote another video game mascot character, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Well said, Sammy. I do think subscription services provide great value for a lot of gamers, and will have a place for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, they are not exactly friendly to many publishers, at least at current price points.

What makes the most sense to me is a Netflix-style library of older titles that can be downloaded / streamed and which are always available to enjoy, rather than the current "rotation" of games that come and go.

I started playing this in 60fps mode on launch day in December, expecting it to keep me occupied until a certain game comes out next month... and I'm still going at it, 100 hours in and enjoying every minute of it.

I still experience occasional weirdness and brief crashes but it is what it is. I'm loving the game regardless. This is only my second play-through, and first in several years, so I'm having a blast.