JohnGrey

More than anything, I think it's a commentary on the element of frustration in life in the 2020s. When everyday life is going swimmingly well, the difficulty curve of a complex RPG or strategy game can be rewarding. When real life is a constant zero-sum exercise of competing necessities and horrific external threats, one more source of frustration and difficulty is seldom welcome.

Can't wait for them to patch in the loot boxes once the review period is over. The already lost a whole 5 000 euros to PEGI for obfuscating that fact. But by all means, BEST DIABLO EVER!

@nessisonett

For better or worse, every single creative decision came down to Kojima and so this will at best be a pale imitation.

Good, if someone on Konami's side can tone down Kojima's coked-out, San Fransokyo version of Western action, I'm all for it.

Fingers crossed they're using delta in the sense of change and this represents the start of a much less rathouse crazy timeline than we originally got with Kojima.

"Refreshingly linear".

That's an altogether odd and overly charitable way to describe what is a game that essentially charges one $10 per hour to play it.

Not after Skill Up's review.

5/10 for me. The controls and mechanics are decent enough. The RPG elements seem totally tacked on, a feeling reinforced by that laughable map exposition, challenge, and leveling requirements. Story is a mostly a snooze, but I didn't go into it expecting God of War so that wasn't much of an issue. The visuals were meh, which make the level of pop-in all the more unforgivable. Nothing that looks like it does should have that degree of pop-in on a PS5 or PC that's mid-tier or better.

The biggest turn-off to me is the design language, and it's a problem that it shares heavily with Sonic '06. It's incredibly jarring to see cartoonish Sonic in a realistic world; I didn't like it in Mario Odyssey when there was a photorealistic T-Rex and a giant anthropomorphic rabbit in a mumu in the same level, and I don't like seeing Sonic in Death Stranding at medium settings. Said realism also made it more difficult to rationalize a world populated by levitating rails, bumpers, and platforms.

I'm convinced that there's a truly amazing 3D Sonic somewhere, but this ain't it.

Sure they did.

I've tried playing this game on four separate occasions and I cannot tolerate the art style, nor the faff by the game's devotees that it forces you to IMAGINE what's happening in your own mind.

@ShogunRok Way ahead of you.

I think that criticism is often rooted in expectations prior to the game's release.

Imagine that you love golfing. You grew up with it, you and your friends played it, but in most places with a median income under $130,000 finding a way to play is next to impossible, so it's just a bougie pastime that means a great deal to you.

Along comes a games company. We'll call it Cassette Project Blue. They say, "you love golf?! We love it too! We've got some of the best golfers of all time as consultants and we're going to build the best golf game of all time. All of the complexity, nuance, skill, chance, even romance of the game will be right there for you to enjoy! It'll take eight years, but boy will it be worth it!'

Eight years pass. The game comes out. The only things you can do in it are valet park cars, mix the same three drinks in the clubhouse while talking to the same 30 personalities with different meat sleeves, and drive balls on the same three ranges, and each shot that you take has a 20% chance of exploding, causing you to drop the terrain or spawn a 50-meter Arnold Palmer that misses you by centimeters but causes you to die from the fall damage of stumbling. In short, it's the biggest farce of a golf game possible.

14 months pass. Cassette Project Blue releases their next generation update. Gone are the exploding golf balls, the gargantuan cocktails, and impromptu descents into the abyss. It's still a game where you mix drinks and mindlessly hit balls on driving ranges.

If there were expectations that posters here would be raw about in this hypothetical scenario, they're expectations that those posters didn't make up out of whole cloth. That, evidently, would be the 95% of the workload at Cassette Project Blue. Hypothetically.

@GalacticBreakdown

Oh, here we go with the dude that comes to a review site that uses 40 point number ratings to cap off their reviews and shrieks that numbers don't matter. Jesus, you showed me with that 200 IQ move.

Again, that's my problem with this review.

8/10 does not equal "not a perfect game but still good"
8/10 is just below Horizon Forbidden West. It's the same score given to Spider-Man: Miles Morales. To Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. To put CP2077 in its current state against the quality of either of those games is laughable.

It's not being glass half empty, it's about deciding what's important to you. Some people can tolerate schlock films. Some people listen to Captain Beefheart unironically. My problem is not with people's tastes. My problem is when Sharknado is elevated to the same level as The Other Man, or the amelodic musical flavour of the week is compared to Billie Holiday, or Albert King, or The Who.

@bozz People should be open to change.

Perhaps the changes don't address the fundamental problems that people have with the game. "People" should recognise that for some a fumigation and stable frame rate do not a good game make.

@PhhhCough That's sort of the issue, though, they do speak for a particular community, namely the PushSquare publication as a whole. The revolving door of reviewers means that PS lacks any sort of editorial or critical consistency. They're not the first or last to suffer from it, but that doesn't mean ridiculous inconsistencies shouldn't be pointed out.

@bozz At least with Wendy's I expect and welcome mediocrity walking through the door.

Amazing how a thoroughly mediocre looter shooter garners an 8/10 for suddenly being stable. That is, ONE point below Horizon Forbidden West. Take that in, people. Something with the polish and improvements of nearly every mechanic allows for an arguably miraculous vaulting of the bar set by it's predecessor surmounts this middling, though thankfully now-extinguished, dumpster fire by a mere single point. The long march of the editorial staff toward absurdity continues unabated.

@Atreus97 Speaking entirely for myself, I'm very hyped for HFW and there's nothing that CDPR can announce that will supplant it.

@RainbowGazelle Same. If the last two years of releases has taught me anything, it's wait a year for the best possible version.

STIPULATED APOLOGETICS: THE REVIEW!

@GKO900 You definitely aren't the only one. I've said for years that TW3 was grossly overhyped and overrated for a modestly well-written and mechanically flawed action-adventure game slathered with half-baked RPG elements. Talk about gamers acting like I gored a sacred ox.

@suikoden And lose 40% of their week 1 sales? That was never, ever in the cards. It's not an accident that CDPR refused to release anything but very carefully curated console footage, and gave no console review codes at all. What we're seeing is a managed descent of a crippled aircraft. The idea is to get the thing on the ground where it can be fixed, with a minimum of losses or liability.

I was in the minority for The Witcher 3, in that I felt it was a reasonably well-written story in an iron mask of buggy (at least initially) and incredibly mediocre combat and progression systems, basically an action-adventure game with an RPG veneer. I expected the same from Cyberpunk and that's precisely what was delivered.

Crash 4 and nothing else till it gets platinumed. It's one of the best modern sequels I've ever played. Animations are fantastic, and all of the classic mechanics have been improved upon.

Hopefully with Shuhei running the indie side of the shop now, we will see Sony get back to supporting those studios and some different, new ideas will result.

With someone like Jim Ryan in the center seat, I have no confidence at all in Playstation or SIE putting art on even equal footing with profitability. He gives the impression of a shameless pettifogger that would cut your stomach open if he thought you'd swallowed a penny. I suppose we shall see.

@kappasig390

The annual sports and COD entries selling millions just reinforces it for Sony, and I can't blame them for it, but for gamers like you wanting a new experience, they are few and far between.

From a business perspective, I can't fault them. They're a business and their duty to their shareholders is to maximise profit.

I've been a gamer since I got the Nintendo Action Set for Christmas of '87 and I have difficulty not describing myself as a gamer, but increasingly I'm realising that the modern trends of gaming aren't for me. The last game I played on my PS4 was Death Stranding (abysmal), the last game on PC was Disco Elysium (tedious but at least had some novel mechanics).

I don't know why, I just feel tired. Very little in games excites me now.

@hush404 Even 25% would be too generous for the games I care about but your post basically expresses my experience.

@InsertUsername From where I sit, you seem incredibly easy to please. Interesting how that can be turned around, eh?

@kappasig390 As I stated in my original post, I'm not upset I'm utterly indifferent to the system based on what's currently on offer. The hardware reveal was whatever, it's a box so I couldn't care less how it looks. Very little that I saw felt unique.

HFW: Sequel
Spider-Man DLC: More of the Same
Demon's Souls: Remake
GTA V 12: Just trying to challenge Bethesda for Skyrim's most-system-releases crown.
Soulstorm: Abe's Exodus remake
Pragmata: Feels like Death Stranding again, which I abhorred

The rest was just meh. The only things that seemed remotely interesting to me, oddly enough, was Stray. That's an experience I haven't had a blue million times.

@Chryssy75

100% real. I despise racing games, Spider-Man wore out its welcome, HZD was thematically and mechanically one of the most mediocre games I played in 2017 and a sequel is not high on my list of must-plays (disregarding the fact that it'll be on Steam within a few years of release), I have no interest in playing Demon's Souls again after completing six playthroughs on PS3, and Ratchet & Clank do not merit a US$500+ outlay.

So yeah. Thoroughly disinterested thus far. Perhaps when I see more of Ghostwire Tokyo it might pique my interest, and Kena has some potential, but it's early yet.

My most anticipated game in the bunch is the sequel to one of my least favourite of 2017. I'm not sure what that sort of indifference is called but it doesn't bode well.

Do better, Sony.

@IanDavid Marsden is a phenomenal comedic talent. Sadly, his classic good looks and strong dramatic ability mean that he's mostly never used for comedy. If you want to see more of him in that type of role, he did an excellent supporting turn in 2007's Hairspray.

'Discount' on Shenmue III. Selling a ten quid game for twenty-two.

Sony seems bound and determined to have my not buy their products in the upcoming generation.

@GKO900 Same, at any given time I have enough of a Steam backlog that waiting a few years for PS exclusives to come to PC is palatable. Not a good look for PS5 at the moment.

@QualityGeezer

Looks like a combination of Hugh Jackman and Scott Eastwood to me.

@LiamCroft Just like Bethesda say no PTW items in the Atomic Shop?

This is merely Sony talking out both sides of their mouth. The bean counters know that it's far cheaper to be software only but they also don't want to Osborne the PS5 when it's already coming down the pipe.

So they'll say just how committed they are to hardware whilst acclimating us to having Sony's system sellers come to PC. I had every intention of buying a PS5 but there's no point when I can just play the games 6 or 12 months later with better graphics, higher framerate, and mod support.

Day one purchase.

I won't buy a single game that comes in this cardboard rubbish, I don't care what the game is. If I'm going to pay $60+ for what will undoubtedly be a barely finished product, they can offer a nice case.

I'd be a hypocrite if I argued in favour of P5 remaining a PS exclusive whilst arguing that Bayonetta should come over as a multiplat. Nintendo took an expensive chance on Bayonetta 2 and it seems to have paid off enough that a second sequel will be with us before long. It should reap all the benefits of that gamble.

Looks amazing, I can't wait for P5R and P5S to drop. Poor 2077 will be sidelined for quite some time.

Dark Souls. It's the only game of the modern era to replicate the difficulty and sense of achievement that came from the gems of the my youth.

@Akurusu Glad I’m not the only one. Witcher 3 is a passable RPG vehicle for an adulterated version of Sapkowski’s mythology, hampered by an absurd movement/combat system, a clunky control scheme and an unending blizzard of menus.

That the game exhibits the same foibles as games that came out nearly two decades ago is not ambition. It is the hubris of a man who admitted he doesn't play games, only makes games to take things outside of games and stuff them in, and refuses to improve or learn.

My anticipation could not be greater.

MP voice Shame!

@KratosMD

And that's how two people can respect each other's position even whilst vehemently disagreeing about the quality of a particular game. Well done, us. Cheers!

@KratosMD To me that's no more innovative or interesting than the end of Subnautica when you can leave materials and a helpful message that a random player will receive. There's no interaction, it might just as well be randomly generated by the game for the manner in which those so-called strands tie anyone together.

@KratosMD

Death Stranding introduced an innovative new way of online interactivity.

I keep seeing this assertion and even now, after 33 hours of play, I'm still mystified. What precisely was so innovative about the so-called asynchronous MP?