Kienda

It’s gonna be a royal rumble when the DEEEER Simulator sequel comes out.

Yeah, I don’t want this in games.

I’m actually okay being forced down dialogue and story paths.

It’s the same way that I don’t want interactive books with multiple endings either. I’m happy experiencing a story as it is intended and me playing through a characters predetermined path.

I was halfway through this game when my Xbox 360 got the ‘red ring of death’ and I never completed it.

I still have the game and have been tempted to put it into my Series X and play it…

@Enigk I agree with you. I think this whole rental thing is too expensive.

I was just thinking about the face grease those VR headsets must accumulate. Hehe

@Enigk probably for the deep clean it needs before the next rental.

“Most important is the pub's average Metascore…”

This is why it’s important to support your local drinking establishment.

@thefourfoldroot1 yeah, the infrastructure isn’t there for playing it everywhere. But I found problems even at home.

I would be willing to pay extra money for a dongle that I could stick into my PS5 and get a good connection to on the sofa.

I’m not a fan.

The Portal is the only product I’ve ever returned from the big gaming companies.

I couldn’t get a smooth connection from it and it just ruined my immersion. All I wanted was a WiiU like experience of playing my PS5 on handheld and having seamless 60fps gameplay with no input delay while my wife watched TV. Instead it was a jittery nightmare.

I get much better results from my laptop, which I still use for remote play.

I know people love it, but for me it is a massive disappointment. A real missed opportunity.

Kinda cool having a split review.

I wouldn’t mind two people playing single player games and reviewing them in future for multiple perspectives.

@nomither6 pay is one thing.

However, it doesn’t change the fact that people pour a lot of themselves into creative works and to have that work (years of it) now be effectively thrown in the trash and never see the light of day is still not a good feeling.

I want game developers to be in their jobs for more than just money. Because I play these games for my passion and I want passionate people in the industry making the best games possible.

This type of thing is heart breaking for the fans, gut wrenching for the wider gamer community, and absolutely soul destroying for the developers who have poured so much into it.

I feel for them all.

The execs on the other hand…

@nessisonett has Richard done some controversial things or something?

@get2sammyb I agree, Sammy, these acquisitions suck. It is frustrating that we as gamers are often so powerless to stop these bad moves.

I don’t think it is necessarily wrong that some cheer them on (although it is naive). I think it is okay for gamers to have hope that an IP they love could be revitalised or saved because of an acquisition. Or that a studio they admire is getting some much needed funding.

There are only a few who praise these acquisitions for the potential that they will damage their rivals in the console wars. And those people are just toxic and either don’t care about or don’t understand the industry outside of their narrow selfish desires.

The thing is, most gamers are not paying as much attention to the industry as people like yourself.

Not many can predict what the people at the top will do when they try to save themselves a few bucks, even if it comes at the expense of thousands of people losing their livelihoods and the expectations of millions of gamers being thrown down the pan. (Although, I think even the most naive are starting to understand the pattern…)

The lack of a built in disc drive killed my interest for it.

@KidRyan thanks for the info. I will check it out on Prime.

@Nakatomi_Uk the nostalgia!

Even though kids these days have everything at their fingertips, few will ever experience such greatness.

A couple of months ago I was singing the Samurai Pizza Cats theme song while cooking and my kids questioned my sanity.

I never imagined there was enough interest in this series for a game to be made. I am over the moon.

Plus, the top comment on the video alerted me to the fact the entire series is on YouTube. I can force my kids to watch it with me now. Happy days!

@Oram77 deflecting blame to Microsoft doesn’t change the fact Sony is doing anti-consumer moves.

The difference is Microsoft allows accounts to be made in many more countries. So do Ubisoft, EA and so forth.

Sony is limiting access simply because it can’t be bothered with the certain countries. (A whole 130 of them). And that’s the problem.

Steam is available in those countries. Sony is restricting people in those countries because of their own requirements.

That’s not good.

@ButterySmooth30FPS what can we hope to achieve?

Well, maybe we could all learn to chill out and not fight each other and have reasoned debates and discussions rather than slinging mud.

We could mobilise a meaningful campaign that puts pressure on Sony in a positive way to open up their PC gaming to all gamers.

I’m not sure we are going to achieve gaming world peace here though. 😅

@Northern_munkey I tried to make clear I wasn’t against PushSquare. It is only the headline that was the click bait, the article was well formed and helped me understand the issue. Unfortunately it is just the way these things work. I work in marketing, the behaviour of many people is to read a headline then jump to the comments. Not everyone reads the full details of an article. This is why media outlets can manipulate narratives while still technically giving all the details.

This article and the comments are a prime example of how we all fight each other rather than dealing with the actual problem.

In this case the media (PushSquare) makes a headline that is primed to rile up the target audience (PlayStation fans) while it demonises ‘the other’ (PC Gamers).

The target audience take the bait and attack ‘the other’ who are then ridiculed. Then others come into defend and attack etc.

The result is a big fight in the comments section amongst each other while the real perpetrator (Sony) gets off freely because the media has effectively set the different groups to fight each other rather than looking up and fight above. (PushSquare isn’t bad btw, they just know how to get clicks and comments with well pitched articles).

Anyways, we all need to wake up.

A multi-billion-dollar mega corporation has just made an extremely anti-consumer move that is bad for the industry and hurts individual gamers.

Sony deserves bad press here, not PC gamers.

@Bagwag82 I’m the same. I have dabbled in them but after dying and losing things over and over, I just gave up. I have limited time to game and I enjoy seeing progress that sticks. I don’t have the time or willpower to tough it out and get good.

Having said that, I have bought Elden Ring so I will give it a fair try one of these days.

To best honest, there are probably quite a few gamers that have given these FromSoftware games a couple of hours and come to the conclusion they don’t like the game.

They are great games but they are not for everyone. And that is fine.

Also, I think these games becoming more widely available as a proper third party studio has also been good for the franchise. FromSoftware still honoured Sony with exclusives despite initially being disrespected and it seems Sony is trying to fix what they damaged.

Don’t give a long answer…

It’s a simple Yasuke / Naoe question. 🥁 😅

Physical all the way.

I was playing FF16 all day without knowing there was an outage. In the future I can play my collection or sell them.

It’s the same with cash. Cash keeps money in the hands of the consumers.

We will lose these things because people value convenience over everything else.

Yes.

If games supported it, I would use it for all first person shooters.

Unfortunately I can’t afford a top end PC, so the best experience I get is on PS5.

This is actually a brilliant take.

All digital is a privileged position to be in. It’s a luxury and convenience which is great for many.

Physical allows people from less developed countries to be able to take part. It also helps those on a budget who want to trade in games to buy more.

I know digital makes the most sense for Sony moving forward, but I will keep supporting physical until it’s gone because it is better for the consumer.

If they are able to improve the game noticeably by giving it more time in the oven, then it makes you wonder what would happen if they really did give the developers time to try and create a masterpiece rather than forcing them to churn out games on a schedule.

As a nerdy kid I always got excited when games ‘broke out’ into the real world. I remember hearing a Final Fantasy orchestral song on Classic FM and getting excited as a kid.

It also happens the other way, like in Final Fantasy 15 when you see the wedding dress is designed by Vivienne Westwood.

@Oram77 yeah, I was being a bit cheeky, Sunshine is a good game.

But, we all have our preferences and I would still choose the other 3D Mario’s (including 3D Worlds) above Sunshine.

And to be honest, I don’t really know why.

Personally, I think it’s an amazing thing for gaming to see kid friendly games like Astro Bot doing so well.

It will challenge Nintendo to be more creative, it will challenge other developers to try their hand at it, and all of this can only be a good thing.

@Oram77 of course nothing is coming close to Mario Sunshine…

Because Mario 64, Galaxy 1&2, Oddyssey, and now Astro Bot are so far ahead of it.

😅

I’ve never played it but heard many people saying this is their favourite open world Assassin’s Creed so I’m happy to give this a go as I missed it first time round.

I’ll keep my aye-ayes on this one!

Is this a game that if you stop playing you fail to keep up with things on and fall behind other players or does that not matter so much?

@dskatter thanks for the tip. I will try it out.

@PushDiagonal thankfully I have a wife to help me with the everyday stressful stuff like deciding where to eat, what to wear, or anything related to thinking and making choices in life.

But when it comes to gaming I have every console and a gaming PC and she just says, “play what you want.”

Somehow your recommendation to add to the stress has actually left me feeling less stressed. I will download and partway play all of them and increase my gaming backlog.

Your guidance is appreciated.

When I read, “smooth as butter,” I didn’t expect that phrase to actually represent what I was about to see.

Let’s hope the game is close to this quality.

@Reform thanks for the info.

I’m going to just leave mine as it is as I’m assuming that is very rare.

@N0CYmr0k of that there is no doubt.

It’s a mixture of both for me.

Rest mode during the day. Off at night.

However, sometimes I don’t manage to get back into the console and I forget to turn it off so it will be on rest mode for a couple days.

It would be nice if there were some more advanced settings.

For example:

• Rest mode for 3 hours to charge controllers then turn off.
• Rest mode for 12 hours to do downloads then turn off
• Rest mode if left unattended but turn off after a certain time.

Things like that might be helpful?

@Reform wait, what’s the issue with the PS5 being upright?

Mines been standing tall on my living room floor since I got it as it doesn’t fit in the TV cabinet. Are people experiencing problems?

It’s one of those months when I wonder if adding the games to my list is worth it.

Does it just add stress subconsciously because even though I think I will never play them, they are there to potentially be played, thus increasing my backlog of games.

If I don’t download them, will I regret not adding these to my collection, thus making me more stressed than if I just downloaded them?

Is this monthly dilemma slowly driving me insane?

Final Fantasy 16

I’m about 55% through according to my PS5 and while I initially wasn’t into it because I was playing on easy with combat assist items so in combat I literally just had to ‘Push Square’ 😉 and watch Clive combo everything. It got boring quick.

So, I upped the difficulty, took off any aiding items, learned all the combos and things (not that complex) and now the combat is fun and fluid and with a bit of challenge.

I’m actually really enjoying the game.

This wasn’t Ubisoft’s fault at the start, but it on them to fix it now is.

Ubisoft is willingly selling a game to people that they know is broken. This isn’t good for the customers who have a right to play what they have paid for and I’m saddened that people don’t get that.

Ubisoft is big enough to put resources into this to fix it. The customers can’t review bomb Windows to solve this problem, they have to target the one who can actually fix it.

This seems like a legitimate reason to review bomb in my opinion. I don’t think this is about hating Ubi, I think it’s more about gamers warning others not to buy a faulty product and trying to force a fix on a game they have invested time and money into.

The readers (customers) know best! 😇

I’m still not over the madness of FF7 getting 7th in the Push Square staff list.

The top four games are all fantastic (imho) and personally 2024 was a great year of gaming.

I’m one of the ones who bought Elden Ring.

It was only £22 from Game Collection. Bargain!

Wish me luck. It’s my first FromSoftware game… 😬

@Max_the_German I never said anything about a man’s face. I think you are mixing me up with another commentor.

The face is misshapen and deformed. It’s not good (imho).

Happy New Year PushSquare!

It was a great year apart from some controversies like the whole Concord debacle, a DLC up for GOTY, and of course you guys putting FF7:Rebirth at 7th in the GOTY contest 😅. Crazy stuff.

Here’s to more dodgy takes in 2025, cheers! 🥳

I mean, I’m living in love and all that jazz, but we are seriously just going to gloss over the face of the first image?

That face needs redoing. 😅