@Titntin true but the implementations are opposite. Xbox targets you with discounts on genres you have spent on previously. It's 'almost' rewarding. Sony is, from all examples I've seen, giving discounts to lower spenders hoping to make them spend and letting the people willing to spend more (their most supportive base) just continue to do so unrewarded.
Both are bad, but the way they are implemented has different degrees of bad
Period accurate hair with a reasonable reason for a woman adopting a mans haircut means that it doesn't detract at all for me personally. But I literally hadn't even heard of the game before today. Having literally been at a medieval exhibition, and a separate samurai exhibition in the same weekend I came home and was looking for medieval/samurai games to play. Settled on reattempting to get into ghost of tsushima, bounced off it again after another 12 bored hours. Might have tried this if I'd known. But guess I'll wait and see if any patches make it feel better to play
Social media would make you think this game was so much worse than it actually was lol.
Xbox is 3rd on my console list (I have all 3) but I played it. Recognised it was good but wasn't what I wanted from a game at the time and comfortably went to find something I wanted to play at the time (think it was like tactics ogre or something).
The comments section on this site was pretty bad for it. Even now while it sits on 83 on metacritic (yes the user scores are lower but cmon it was getting largely review bombed as the big Bethesda game to be console exclusive) people will still call it bad and praise games I personally found to be worse like stellar blade or rise of the ronin
I simply do not understand how people can call an 8/10 game mid. 7/10 is where if any game hits I at least look into if the pros and cons match my preferences.
Many many games that were 8/10 have been so positively received here. Stellar blade? Black myth wukong?
@UltimateOtaku91 on a Sony site? Plenty of people are here to defend Sony and plenty are here looking for reasons to dump on them. Same with any and every group out there. A 78 is solid.
It's always a solid score to start with before people start matching whether or not the game suits their preference.
I think the people coming here to dump on the game for a good but not top tier score are just silly. Especially when it's only critics scores so far
@nomither6 well to put it simply compare xboxs meagr player base to steams player base. So % wise how much of each player base was even willing to give highguard a try at f2p. And yet steam concurrent players is regularly used as a sign of overall popularity
1. It's a game in a franchise I love and tend to collect physicals for - Pokémon, Yakuza spring to mind
2. A game impressed me enough that I want to own a physical copy (usually limited edition at that) and support the devs twice over.
Most of the time I buy digital. I have several hard drives (hdd for older titles to save money) of old games so I'll never need to worry about redownloading I less something destroys my hard drives. just as possible to happen to physical discs and on the past I've paid an arm and a leg to re purchase a personal favourite because I wore the physical version out.
Delistings etc rarely come, rarer still without prior warning to download it and back it up. And in the worst of worst case scenarios I will pirate the game guilt free knowing I supported the game originally.
Finally I like digital for day one playing. Worst feeling is booking time off work for a new release and then having the physical copy delayed while the internet and my friends are playing away
@Scottyy even before game pass was announced, especially in its original, backwards compatibility focused start the Xbox one sold less than half the PS4 numbers.
Relying on strong first party games when ofc playstation also had strong first party games coupled with the entrenched communities for FIFA and cod that had developed on playstation, the latter boosted by exclusive promotion wasn't going to push the majority of players back to Xbox.
Pulling away from the kinect and TV focused stuff to push out an originally 'consumer first' version of game pass while buying studios to increase first party output was literally about as much as was feasible in the timespan they used.
The top AAA games of the time were taking half a decade to develop. Doing a full 180 midway through the Xbox one era while already behind was literally impossible. I don't think it was handled perfectly at all but I firmly believe simply emulating the pre online culture mindset would have gotten them nowhere
@DennisReynolds fire red/leaf green low-key become near top of my anticipated soon releases... Again. Now I just need to sit down and find a team I haven't already beaten the game with in the past
@Scottyy personally I don't think the old styles and simply releasing good 1st party games would've been enough to change anything for Xbox downward trajectory. They simply lost the most important generation.
The generation where people began getting entrenched in a growing digital library and digital friend groups. The Xbox intention of winning the next phase of gaming in the future of 'cloud based gaming' coupled with becoming a digital platform across all places to play was their only hope and the tech wast there yet before ai rose to be the next focus point
Majority of gamers don't buy many games a year and stick to live service social gaming. And will continue to do so on the platform the rest of their friends are on
Yakuza 3 was the one that almost gatekept me out of the franchise with it's combat and pacing issues. Kiwame 3 fixes most of these. It might not be perfect, and it certainly doesn't carry the nostalgia of the original but it is still leagues above most games released nowadays and anything less than an 8 is just people looking for reasons to be butt hurt
My opinion to this day is that Xbox was doomed before Phil took over. And even through all his not always good decisions he was playing what little hand he had.
The generation he turned up in it was already too late. They missed the dawn of online social and digital gaming. Once people had a library and their friends were on an online ecosystem it becomes much harder to drag them away.
And Sony had momentum. No matter how Phil tried to roll back the kinect, TV centric stuff they would bleed numbers the whole way. Numbers that got firmer and firmer as digital libraries and communities grew. Those left playing on Xbox are largely there because they themselves have this community and library. Nintendo meanwhile have some of this but more importantly stay adjacent to it. Always the 'secondary console'
Phil has done what he could to save a dying brand. Even if now it is in publisher form for someone else to destroy.
@ButterySmooth30FPS I agree of course. I don't buy games based on reviews. I have had decades to learn my wide and yet somehow narrow preferences in games and I know to look for them in videos. For many normal gamers reviews matter. Be it online articles or influencers. The fact that reviews are less reliable than the old days still seems apparent to me and something I can lament
@graymamba if you had actually managed to grasp the entire point of my original post you would see that I was specifying the 7/10 region for a reason.
People do NOT look at 9-10/10 and decide a game is simply worth less value of it's a cheap game at that range. When you do so you open the doors for worse and worse infringment.
Eventually you end up with comments like 'astro bot can't be goty, it's only a platformer'.
When a game is solidly above 9.0 it is a good game worth buying. That is the entire consensus and point. Games like slay the spire and hollow knight are in no way worse games than Spiderman 2 simply because of production value and graphical fidelity. (Exactly same metacritic scores)
That train of thought is entirely why publishers bloat games and justify that bloat as a reason to inflate price.
Case in point all the mid ubisoft games. You aren't buying quality. You are buying bloat, production value and a brand name. Cost == end quality even if it makes the starting lines different
Meanwhile the 7/10 range is so muddied that whether a game is objectively good or bad in that value is impossible to say. It becomes entirely subjective in that area which was my entire point and my point of comparing games of different publishers, genres and budgets.
Finally I don't think you understand just how hard it is to actually give what you say any value when you end almost every reply to someone with condescension, if it wasn't the entire tone of the reply as you did to other people here. It's like watching a interviewing grifter telling someone that they would agree with him if only they were on their level.
@graymamba why shouldn't review scores be objective? What should a fresh consumer go deep diving knowledge wise for before trying to read review scores?
Is there a set of rules that say a 7/10 is good if x,y,z conditions are fulfilled but bad if it has a,b,c? I think pentiment and yotei are both great games deserving of the score that they received and see little issue with comparing them in review score alone. Of course gamers can be expected to at least know what genre they are looking for which of course separates them but what else should they know going in?
Should they know to add a 1.5 to a game by X company because it always gets review bombed even if good. Or minus 1 to any rpg from japan just in case traditionalist reviewers still think of the old days?
A review isn't telling stories about why a game needs this score. It should simply be a review on how the game plays and what genre it is. Full stop. There shouldn't be any background reading into a 'whole story'
@ButterySmooth30FPS comparing sons of Sparta to lets say south of midnight by Microsoft which have similar review ratings and the online talk about both is very starkly different. A lot of people who claim no camps will see the same scores and tout that as being okay for one and bad for the other. In both directions. Even the likes of avowed at 7.5-8 is treated worse than sons of Sparta in many circles despite (in my opinion) being a better all round game
7/10 is the most annoying score imo. Third the 7/10 games should be lower and third should be higher. This is in the 3rd category that actually is a 7/10.
Solidly average which in itself feels disappointing as a solid Sony IP and exclusive. I've played far better recent 7/10 games that are msft exclusives. Though I am a primarily ps gamer now. Other 2 systems just being for exclusives.
Getting back to 7/10, people here defending a 7/10 as good are the same people that will laugh at a 7/10 if it's from a company they don't back. Just based on what I see on this site
@Max_the_German it was the highest placed single player title in one list and a single place behind the goty single player game in the other list. Not exactly sure what point you think you are managing to make
@get2sammyb personally I feel that outside of critic reviews that any game simply published under a negative social media spin tends to simply review at least 5-10% lower than critics scores if not more.
Compound in that the people most likely to exist in comment sections and review sites are those most involved in those media talks and you will just see than consensus online versus both reviewer and average gamer opinions is just plain different.
Microsoft is hit very hard by these motions. I firmly believe both of the last 2 obsidian rpg releases have much lower public review scores on metacritic and public consensus than if they had simply released under their own power. As much as I too largely dislike the cod machine I don't truly believe the latest title is a 1.9 kind of game
This is also extremely evident in the review scores of several Nintendo releases recently such as legends z-a and mario kart world where online backlash translated to significantly lower review scores and sentiment but definitely don't reflect the mindset of their targeted audiences and their reflected sales figures.
I would say Sony have their own fake share of this happening when controversy does arise as has happened with some last of us releases or forbidden west. But it's very common on Sony releases to even have public review scores exceed that of the critic reviews scores.
@themightyant the flight mechanics and the vertical level design truly were genuinely very good mechanically in a vacuum.
As a big (old) destiny fan I was very prepared for a live service western mmo styling. And I believe the gameplay was serviceable enough. I don't really think the game was far from being a worthwhile game if it just had better direction in the short and long term as well as a better release and a less loaded set of studio names backing it.
Reminds me of halo infinite that itself has very very good traversal, gunplay and overall feel but was letdown by a lack of direction and content on release for multiplayer as well as very negatively viewed publishing and dev teams
Wow the number of voters that didn't play the game that also somehow feels they know enough about how it actually played and felt to vote on the second part is wild. Really feels like a 'cool to hate it's moment
@DennisReynolds I think it's an extremely narrow view to call Xbox gamers 'beta testers'. Most games these days have polishing done or dlc released within a year. And Sony have had a LOT of timed exclusives themselves. History has shown that for a large proportion of single player games that unless you release within the initial Zeitgeist the majority of normal players aren't bothered by a new platform release. For example the final fantasy pc releases. There is always a new shiny toy.
@Oram77 my personal favourite ending too though it is the unpopular choice. I think it comes from being a biiiiig fantasy and sci-fi book fan.
The concept of several 'tiers' of beings without dismissing the lives of those on the bottom is easier for me. Most people seem to see the people in the paintings as of less value than maelle being outside of the painting and the painting destroyed because she is effectively one of their gods and a 'tier' higher. For me I like to think that although her ending isn't necessarily optimistic for her chances of recovery it at least still has to possibility of those in the painting living If she does recover
@MrPeanutbutterz 9 times out of 10 I agree. I almost always play for gameplay over story. Unless the gameplay exists just to serve a better story. I don't need 150 hours of great gameplay but bloat making me take so long I lose the correct impact of story beats.
I think e33 got the balance right. Iirc I saw an article recently that says e33 was the game this year with the highest completion rate. To me that often is a solid indicator of gameplay -story- bloat ratios. For reference silksong was 2nd, DK bonanza 3rd with the likes of dispatch, doom, and silent hill F also rating very high.
Genres are important ofc as people bought silent hill F specifically as genre fans. The more mainstream open world games with good gameplay but a bit of, in my opinion, bloat didn't make the cut like yotei as people just take a break and never come back
Absolutely loved it. Characters take longer than previous titles to become likeable. I blame not having an inherent connection to the idea of struggling parents as opposed to simply 2 different, abrasive personalities learning to like each other in spite of the faults.
There have just been TOO MANY great games this year for me but I have no issues with this being high on anyone's goty lists. By the 2nd half of the game I did genuinely like the characters.... And the pig level is one of the most entertaining experiences gaming with my partner in years
I am currently playing through trails now and am most of the way through and it's... Ok. Like completely middle of the road feeling RPG as it stands. I'm hoping some big twists pull it up at the end for me
@DarianStarfrog the game length of dispatch is averaged according to the internet is 8 1/2 hours. That's as long as some of the greatest FPS campaigns in history including modern warfare 2, Titanfall 2, gears of war or even a lot of very well acclaimed games like firewatch, inside, limbo or even a single playthrough of undertale. So clearly game length only matters with games people already don't like. If the gameplay is your issue then that just speaks to subjective taste, text based adventure games have been around for many decades and are a very enjoyable genre for those who like them, as for the dispatching side of the game that is something I also found an enjoyable if easy strategy aim I'd love to see expanded on.
@tselliot the ones below a 5 must be a trolls. I get that the fact it's a game that's almost entirely story and characters over gameplay (though I loved the actual dispatch side enough to have wanted a full game with dozens of heros to hire/fire and manage), and that the choices are personality and character oriented over large story scale changes seems to offend a certain type of modern gamer that want size and spectacle over more tight knit experiences but even so it is polished and well delivered enough to never be a 'bad' game
@StitchJones what you did - call someone with an account older than yours that they shouldn't be on the site if they don't like modern 1st party Sony games (somehow not gate keeping) and called them a clown.
What I did - called what you did gatekeeping and advocated for people's rights to subjective, non insulting opinions. Without any insult (somehow this is the gatekeeping...)
@EvenStephen7 the only issue with crap like that is when people start disparaging any and every game after for not then living up to something like rdr2.
@StitchJones the ones that start ***** don't leave comments so short. What he posted was nothing more or less than a negative opinion and his own stance. Not all criticism has to be constructive, not when it's an openly subjective criticism. No comments disparaging Sony quality or anything of the like. Just opinions.
His comment would've gone no farther if you hadn't built on it as it was literally a nothing comment
@StitchJones you don't have to like Sony games to be primarily playing on the console system with the highest player base and therefore want news for said system...
I have every mainline console and a pc. I like some Sony games and not others. I generally like marvel games. So 2026 will be fine for me for 1st party.
Even so that person's comment really wasn't one that needed a reply or was asking for any sort of opening a dialogue and especially a gatekeeping of their right to use the site
@Oram77 outside of those chronically on the internet most gamers are not as interested in the excessive high end graphics of games. Even valve themselves have just come out and said most pc gamers are playing on setups worse than the average console and yet the internet would have you believe pc is mostly for those who want a graphical experience above that of the standard console. Graphical fidelity is generally used as a marketing ploy, for the largest, tentpole franchise's and both SE and capcom make a wide cut of games and their games were historically high sellers in Japan, especially in the case of the aforementioned final fantasy and monster hunter. A declining market of those franchises in Japan is not what investors would want to see and the fact that the primary way to play in Japan is on smaller, weaker systems is not something these investors will want their companies to simply ignore
And here was me thinking it was because I wasn't letting the final mission drag on long enough succeeding every mission but not finishing coupé/sonar. And if course 4 runs for hacks on finding coupe, sonar, waterboy, phenomaman first. Despite being the same missions I assumed they were considered separately
Anyone saying it's not a finished product because it lacks some adult scenes originally considered are just stupid. All games have things considered and dropped for various reasons. The game is already a complete package and people who refuse to buy great games for such reasons do not help the industry on the slightest
I may not like or buy this cod myself (I've played on a friend's copy for the campaign) but blaming ms for this cod is pretty ludicrous. Absolutely nothing about this cod seems like anything other than exactly what Activision would've pushed out themselves regardless.
What's going to happen is the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' sentiment for the money monster cod is will suddenly find itself very much being scrutinised and 'fixed'. Then it'll be ms fault
@Questionable_Duck 100% agree. Most people who comment on sites like these are people who already experience a lot of internet encouraged discourse in gaming. Most news sites like ps, px, nl and all the rest also encourage it for engagement. So yeah probably a good majority of commenters on most news sites are negative or already pre biased
@Andee yeah the choices don't change the overarching story. That aspect is very linear.
What you control is the MC and your relationship with other characters. You more change your own personality and it is reflected by others. The writing (if it suits your taste) and the performances carry the rest.
Though I also enjoyed the dispatch minute game itself a lot. Especially min maxing on a 2nd run
Having played the campaign it's definitely still a better campaign than what battlefield offered hands down.
But the lack of checkpoints coupled with being kicked out by updates is pretty hard to overlook. One of those things I can understand. The always online nature of it is almost expected with AAA games nowadays though
I find an 8 out of 10 to be very low for this game.
It may be more culturally appealing to western demographics but even so it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had recently in gaming.
The choices DO matter. Yes they are mostly in small ways that characters bring up your past comments rather than outright entire branching lines of the game but you very much do feel like the characters are responding to who you are choosing to be. It's only on trying for more than 2 repeats that it gets tedious. Playing the 3 runs required for platinum is pretty perfect.
The QTEs not mattering is intent. If you fail them you just get different scenes. You can choose to turn them off and play cinematic mode. As the set pieces and cinema are very much the forefront of those scenes not the QTEs. They only exist for player preference.
My only issue with the game is not being able to fast forward cutscenes on repeats like some other games with choices allow. Still a solid 9.5-10/10 game for me and the developers will have my money on their next project too if it is anything like this standard
@Northern_munkey I do somewhat roll my eyes at the wording of most Microsoft adjacent articles on push square now. The wording around most cod news alone is getting tiresome in its intent. And I'm not even a cod fan in the slightest
Comments 159
Re: Here's What a Jak & Daxter PS5 Remake Could've Looked Like
17 years since the last entry means it wouldnt trigger my remaster/remake issues...
Re: PS5's Dynamic Pricing Debacle Appears to Extend to the US Now
@Titntin true but the implementations are opposite. Xbox targets you with discounts on genres you have spent on previously. It's 'almost' rewarding. Sony is, from all examples I've seen, giving discounts to lower spenders hoping to make them spend and letting the people willing to spend more (their most supportive base) just continue to do so unrewarded.
Both are bad, but the way they are implemented has different degrees of bad
Re: PS5 Players Seemingly Skip Marathon as Sales Estimates Look Very Weak
@RBMango Paul Tassi has released a Forbes article saying these numbers similarly match what his sources in bungies have told him
Re: Mini Review: 1348 Ex Voto (PS5) - An Intriguing But Disappointing PS5 Console Exclusive
Period accurate hair with a reasonable reason for a woman adopting a mans haircut means that it doesn't detract at all for me personally. But I literally hadn't even heard of the game before today. Having literally been at a medieval exhibition, and a separate samurai exhibition in the same weekend I came home and was looking for medieval/samurai games to play. Settled on reattempting to get into ghost of tsushima, bounced off it again after another 12 bored hours. Might have tried this if I'd known. But guess I'll wait and see if any patches make it feel better to play
Re: Xbox's Starfield Rockets to the Top of the PS5's Pre-Order Charts
Social media would make you think this game was so much worse than it actually was lol.
Xbox is 3rd on my console list (I have all 3) but I played it. Recognised it was good but wasn't what I wanted from a game at the time and comfortably went to find something I wanted to play at the time (think it was like tactics ogre or something).
The comments section on this site was pretty bad for it. Even now while it sits on 83 on metacritic (yes the user scores are lower but cmon it was getting largely review bombed as the big Bethesda game to be console exclusive) people will still call it bad and praise games I personally found to be worse like stellar blade or rise of the ronin
Re: Crimson Desert's Mixed Reviews See Dev's Share Price Drop Almost 30%
I simply do not understand how people can call an 8/10 game mid. 7/10 is where if any game hits I at least look into if the pros and cons match my preferences.
Many many games that were 8/10 have been so positively received here. Stellar blade? Black myth wukong?
Re: Crimson Desert's Mixed Reviews See Dev's Share Price Drop Almost 30%
@UltimateOtaku91 on a Sony site? Plenty of people are here to defend Sony and plenty are here looking for reasons to dump on them. Same with any and every group out there. A 78 is solid.
It's always a solid score to start with before people start matching whether or not the game suits their preference.
I think the people coming here to dump on the game for a good but not top tier score are just silly. Especially when it's only critics scores so far
Re: Flop FPS Highguard's Stats Show Steam Concurrents Are Just One Piece of the Puzzle
@nomither6 well to put it simply compare xboxs meagr player base to steams player base. So % wise how much of each player base was even willing to give highguard a try at f2p. And yet steam concurrent players is regularly used as a sign of overall popularity
Re: Flop FPS Highguard's Stats Show Steam Concurrents Are Just One Piece of the Puzzle
The fact that Xbox had higher stats than pc says a looooooot more
Re: Physical Game Sales Hit All-Time Low in the US
For me I buy physical in 1 of 2 situations.
1. It's a game in a franchise I love and tend to collect physicals for - Pokémon, Yakuza spring to mind
2. A game impressed me enough that I want to own a physical copy (usually limited edition at that) and support the devs twice over.
Most of the time I buy digital. I have several hard drives (hdd for older titles to save money) of old games so I'll never need to worry about redownloading I less something destroys my hard drives. just as possible to happen to physical discs and on the past I've paid an arm and a leg to re purchase a personal favourite because I wore the physical version out.
Delistings etc rarely come, rarer still without prior warning to download it and back it up. And in the worst of worst case scenarios I will pirate the game guilt free knowing I supported the game originally.
Finally I like digital for day one playing. Worst feeling is booking time off work for a new release and then having the physical copy delayed while the internet and my friends are playing away
Re: Original Xbox Creator Shares Brutal Opinion of New Leadership, Believes This Is the End of Xbox
@Scottyy even before game pass was announced, especially in its original, backwards compatibility focused start the Xbox one sold less than half the PS4 numbers.
Relying on strong first party games when ofc playstation also had strong first party games coupled with the entrenched communities for FIFA and cod that had developed on playstation, the latter boosted by exclusive promotion wasn't going to push the majority of players back to Xbox.
Pulling away from the kinect and TV focused stuff to push out an originally 'consumer first' version of game pass while buying studios to increase first party output was literally about as much as was feasible in the timespan they used.
The top AAA games of the time were taking half a decade to develop. Doing a full 180 midway through the Xbox one era while already behind was literally impossible. I don't think it was handled perfectly at all but I firmly believe simply emulating the pre online culture mindset would have gotten them nowhere
Re: Wait! Some Fans Will Be Playing Horizon's Divisive PS5, PC Multiplayer Game This Weekend
@DennisReynolds fire red/leaf green low-key become near top of my anticipated soon releases... Again. Now I just need to sit down and find a team I haven't already beaten the game with in the past
Re: Original Xbox Creator Shares Brutal Opinion of New Leadership, Believes This Is the End of Xbox
@Scottyy personally I don't think the old styles and simply releasing good 1st party games would've been enough to change anything for Xbox downward trajectory. They simply lost the most important generation.
The generation where people began getting entrenched in a growing digital library and digital friend groups. The Xbox intention of winning the next phase of gaming in the future of 'cloud based gaming' coupled with becoming a digital platform across all places to play was their only hope and the tech wast there yet before ai rose to be the next focus point
Majority of gamers don't buy many games a year and stick to live service social gaming. And will continue to do so on the platform the rest of their friends are on
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties?
Yakuza 3 was the one that almost gatekept me out of the franchise with it's combat and pacing issues. Kiwame 3 fixes most of these. It might not be perfect, and it certainly doesn't carry the nostalgia of the original but it is still leagues above most games released nowadays and anything less than an 8 is just people looking for reasons to be butt hurt
Re: Phil Spencer Stepping Down, Sarah Bond Leaving Microsoft in Huge Xbox Shake-Up
My opinion to this day is that Xbox was doomed before Phil took over. And even through all his not always good decisions he was playing what little hand he had.
The generation he turned up in it was already too late. They missed the dawn of online social and digital gaming. Once people had a library and their friends were on an online ecosystem it becomes much harder to drag them away.
And Sony had momentum. No matter how Phil tried to roll back the kinect, TV centric stuff they would bleed numbers the whole way. Numbers that got firmer and firmer as digital libraries and communities grew. Those left playing on Xbox are largely there because they themselves have this community and library. Nintendo meanwhile have some of this but more importantly stay adjacent to it. Always the 'secondary console'
Phil has done what he could to save a dying brand. Even if now it is in publisher form for someone else to destroy.
Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games
This is a studio that has legitimately pretty much put no foot wrong... Right? I'm pretty sure that's right. And they aren't even safe?
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
@ButterySmooth30FPS I agree of course. I don't buy games based on reviews. I have had decades to learn my wide and yet somehow narrow preferences in games and I know to look for them in videos. For many normal gamers reviews matter. Be it online articles or influencers. The fact that reviews are less reliable than the old days still seems apparent to me and something I can lament
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
@graymamba if you had actually managed to grasp the entire point of my original post you would see that I was specifying the 7/10 region for a reason.
People do NOT look at 9-10/10 and decide a game is simply worth less value of it's a cheap game at that range. When you do so you open the doors for worse and worse infringment.
Eventually you end up with comments like 'astro bot can't be goty, it's only a platformer'.
When a game is solidly above 9.0 it is a good game worth buying. That is the entire consensus and point. Games like slay the spire and hollow knight are in no way worse games than Spiderman 2 simply because of production value and graphical fidelity. (Exactly same metacritic scores)
That train of thought is entirely why publishers bloat games and justify that bloat as a reason to inflate price.
Case in point all the mid ubisoft games. You aren't buying quality. You are buying bloat, production value and a brand name. Cost == end quality even if it makes the starting lines different
Meanwhile the 7/10 range is so muddied that whether a game is objectively good or bad in that value is impossible to say. It becomes entirely subjective in that area which was my entire point and my point of comparing games of different publishers, genres and budgets.
Finally I don't think you understand just how hard it is to actually give what you say any value when you end almost every reply to someone with condescension, if it wasn't the entire tone of the reply as you did to other people here. It's like watching a interviewing grifter telling someone that they would agree with him if only they were on their level.
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
@graymamba why shouldn't review scores be objective? What should a fresh consumer go deep diving knowledge wise for before trying to read review scores?
Is there a set of rules that say a 7/10 is good if x,y,z conditions are fulfilled but bad if it has a,b,c? I think pentiment and yotei are both great games deserving of the score that they received and see little issue with comparing them in review score alone. Of course gamers can be expected to at least know what genre they are looking for which of course separates them but what else should they know going in?
Should they know to add a 1.5 to a game by X company because it always gets review bombed even if good. Or minus 1 to any rpg from japan just in case traditionalist reviewers still think of the old days?
A review isn't telling stories about why a game needs this score. It should simply be a review on how the game plays and what genre it is. Full stop. There shouldn't be any background reading into a 'whole story'
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
@ButterySmooth30FPS comparing sons of Sparta to lets say south of midnight by Microsoft which have similar review ratings and the online talk about both is very starkly different. A lot of people who claim no camps will see the same scores and tout that as being okay for one and bad for the other. In both directions. Even the likes of avowed at 7.5-8 is treated worse than sons of Sparta in many circles despite (in my opinion) being a better all round game
Re: God of War: Sons of Sparta (PS5) - Series' Boldest Bet Is Also Its Slowest Burn
7/10 is the most annoying score imo. Third the 7/10 games should be lower and third should be higher. This is in the 3rd category that actually is a 7/10.
Solidly average which in itself feels disappointing as a solid Sony IP and exclusive. I've played far better recent 7/10 games that are msft exclusives. Though I am a primarily ps gamer now. Other 2 systems just being for exclusives.
Getting back to 7/10, people here defending a 7/10 as good are the same people that will laugh at a 7/10 if it's from a company they don't back. Just based on what I see on this site
Re: Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Gameplay Comparison Is Absolutely Crazy
After finishing chapter 1 completely I probably won't buy this 2nd one. I just found almost every aspect of chapter 1 underwhelming 🤷♂️
Re: 'Respect the Original, But Don't Rely on It': Yakuza Kiwami 3 Director on Remaking a 'Rough' Game
Has one of my favourite Yakuza plots but yeah gameplay is rough
Re: Most Downloaded PS5 Games of 2025 Revealed, as Xbox's Forza Horizon 5 Tops Ghost of Yotei
@Max_the_German it was the highest placed single player title in one list and a single place behind the goty single player game in the other list. Not exactly sure what point you think you are managing to make
Re: Hellblade Dev Plotting a More Gameplay Focused Successor, Presumably for PS5
@get2sammyb personally I feel that outside of critic reviews that any game simply published under a negative social media spin tends to simply review at least 5-10% lower than critics scores if not more.
Compound in that the people most likely to exist in comment sections and review sites are those most involved in those media talks and you will just see than consensus online versus both reviewer and average gamer opinions is just plain different.
Microsoft is hit very hard by these motions. I firmly believe both of the last 2 obsidian rpg releases have much lower public review scores on metacritic and public consensus than if they had simply released under their own power. As much as I too largely dislike the cod machine I don't truly believe the latest title is a 1.9 kind of game
This is also extremely evident in the review scores of several Nintendo releases recently such as legends z-a and mario kart world where online backlash translated to significantly lower review scores and sentiment but definitely don't reflect the mindset of their targeted audiences and their reflected sales figures.
I would say Sony have their own fake share of this happening when controversy does arise as has happened with some last of us releases or forbidden west. But it's very common on Sony releases to even have public review scores exceed that of the critic reviews scores.
Re: Talking Point: Did ANTHEM Deserve the Hate?
@themightyant the flight mechanics and the vertical level design truly were genuinely very good mechanically in a vacuum.
As a big (old) destiny fan I was very prepared for a live service western mmo styling. And I believe the gameplay was serviceable enough. I don't really think the game was far from being a worthwhile game if it just had better direction in the short and long term as well as a better release and a less loaded set of studio names backing it.
Reminds me of halo infinite that itself has very very good traversal, gunplay and overall feel but was letdown by a lack of direction and content on release for multiplayer as well as very negatively viewed publishing and dev teams
Re: Talking Point: Did ANTHEM Deserve the Hate?
@PuppetMaster I absolutely adore jade empire. One of the most underrated gems in gaming
Re: Talking Point: Did ANTHEM Deserve the Hate?
Wow the number of voters that didn't play the game that also somehow feels they know enough about how it actually played and felt to vote on the second part is wild. Really feels like a 'cool to hate it's moment
Re: Xbox Exclusive RPG Avowed Is Coming to PS5 in February with Major New Features
@DennisReynolds I think it's an extremely narrow view to call Xbox gamers 'beta testers'. Most games these days have polishing done or dlc released within a year. And Sony have had a LOT of timed exclusives themselves. History has shown that for a large proportion of single player games that unless you release within the initial Zeitgeist the majority of normal players aren't bothered by a new platform release. For example the final fantasy pc releases. There is always a new shiny toy.
Re: Game of the Year: #1 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
@Oram77 my personal favourite ending too though it is the unpopular choice. I think it comes from being a biiiiig fantasy and sci-fi book fan.
The concept of several 'tiers' of beings without dismissing the lives of those on the bottom is easier for me. Most people seem to see the people in the paintings as of less value than maelle being outside of the painting and the painting destroyed because she is effectively one of their gods and a 'tier' higher. For me I like to think that although her ending isn't necessarily optimistic for her chances of recovery it at least still has to possibility of those in the painting living If she does recover
Re: Fans Can't Believe How Much Sword and Fairy 4's Remake Looks Like Clair Obscur
@MrPeanutbutterz 9 times out of 10 I agree. I almost always play for gameplay over story. Unless the gameplay exists just to serve a better story. I don't need 150 hours of great gameplay but bloat making me take so long I lose the correct impact of story beats.
I think e33 got the balance right. Iirc I saw an article recently that says e33 was the game this year with the highest completion rate. To me that often is a solid indicator of gameplay -story- bloat ratios. For reference silksong was 2nd, DK bonanza 3rd with the likes of dispatch, doom, and silent hill F also rating very high.
Genres are important ofc as people bought silent hill F specifically as genre fans. The more mainstream open world games with good gameplay but a bit of, in my opinion, bloat didn't make the cut like yotei as people just take a break and never come back
Re: Game of the Year: #3 - Split Fiction
Absolutely loved it. Characters take longer than previous titles to become likeable. I blame not having an inherent connection to the idea of struggling parents as opposed to simply 2 different, abrasive personalities learning to like each other in spite of the faults.
There have just been TOO MANY great games this year for me but I have no issues with this being high on anyone's goty lists. By the 2nd half of the game I did genuinely like the characters.... And the pig level is one of the most entertaining experiences gaming with my partner in years
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5 Remake or Remaster of 2025
I am currently playing through trails now and am most of the way through and it's... Ok. Like completely middle of the road feeling RPG as it stands. I'm hoping some big twists pull it up at the end for me
Re: Yakuza / Like a Dragon Celebrates 20th Anniversary, Kiryu Fans Won't Want to Miss It
Yakuza 0 coming to game pass was what got me to first try the games. Have since bought and finished almost every single game in the franchise
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Dispatch?
@DarianStarfrog the game length of dispatch is averaged according to the internet is 8 1/2 hours. That's as long as some of the greatest FPS campaigns in history including modern warfare 2, Titanfall 2, gears of war or even a lot of very well acclaimed games like firewatch, inside, limbo or even a single playthrough of undertale. So clearly game length only matters with games people already don't like. If the gameplay is your issue then that just speaks to subjective taste, text based adventure games have been around for many decades and are a very enjoyable genre for those who like them, as for the dispatching side of the game that is something I also found an enjoyable if easy strategy aim I'd love to see expanded on.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Dispatch?
@tselliot the ones below a 5 must be a trolls. I get that the fact it's a game that's almost entirely story and characters over gameplay (though I loved the actual dispatch side enough to have wanted a full game with dozens of heros to hire/fire and manage), and that the choices are personality and character oriented over large story scale changes seems to offend a certain type of modern gamer that want size and spectacle over more tight knit experiences but even so it is polished and well delivered enough to never be a 'bad' game
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
@StitchJones what you did - call someone with an account older than yours that they shouldn't be on the site if they don't like modern 1st party Sony games (somehow not gate keeping) and called them a clown.
What I did - called what you did gatekeeping and advocated for people's rights to subjective, non insulting opinions. Without any insult (somehow this is the gatekeeping...)
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
@EvenStephen7 the only issue with crap like that is when people start disparaging any and every game after for not then living up to something like rdr2.
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
@StitchJones the ones that start ***** don't leave comments so short. What he posted was nothing more or less than a negative opinion and his own stance. Not all criticism has to be constructive, not when it's an openly subjective criticism. No comments disparaging Sony quality or anything of the like. Just opinions.
His comment would've gone no farther if you hadn't built on it as it was literally a nothing comment
Re: Don't Expect Intergalactic PS5 to Launch Until at Least 2027
@StitchJones you don't have to like Sony games to be primarily playing on the console system with the highest player base and therefore want news for said system...
I have every mainline console and a pc. I like some Sony games and not others. I generally like marvel games. So 2026 will be fine for me for 1st party.
Even so that person's comment really wasn't one that needed a reply or was asking for any sort of opening a dialogue and especially a gatekeeping of their right to use the site
Re: PS5 Sales Collapse in Japan as Sony Readies Overdue Rescue Plan
@Oram77 outside of those chronically on the internet most gamers are not as interested in the excessive high end graphics of games. Even valve themselves have just come out and said most pc gamers are playing on setups worse than the average console and yet the internet would have you believe pc is mostly for those who want a graphical experience above that of the standard console. Graphical fidelity is generally used as a marketing ploy, for the largest, tentpole franchise's and both SE and capcom make a wide cut of games and their games were historically high sellers in Japan, especially in the case of the aforementioned final fantasy and monster hunter. A declining market of those franchises in Japan is not what investors would want to see and the fact that the primary way to play in Japan is on smaller, weaker systems is not something these investors will want their companies to simply ignore
Re: Dispatch's PS5 Platinum Is Currently Impossible to Get Thanks to One Bugged Trophy
@Deadhunter I just save scammed that one. Spend an entire shift sending everyone to the worst possible matchups and then reset day if it failed
Re: Dispatch's PS5 Platinum Is Currently Impossible to Get Thanks to One Bugged Trophy
And here was me thinking it was because I wasn't letting the final mission drag on long enough succeeding every mission but not finishing coupé/sonar. And if course 4 runs for hacks on finding coupe, sonar, waterboy, phenomaman first. Despite being the same missions I assumed they were considered separately
Re: Episodic Hit Dispatch Is Only Getting More and More Popular
Anyone saying it's not a finished product because it lacks some adult scenes originally considered are just stupid. All games have things considered and dropped for various reasons. The game is already a complete package and people who refuse to buy great games for such reasons do not help the industry on the slightest
Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 UK Sales Plummet 61% Compared to Black Ops 6
I may not like or buy this cod myself (I've played on a friend's copy for the campaign) but blaming ms for this cod is pretty ludicrous. Absolutely nothing about this cod seems like anything other than exactly what Activision would've pushed out themselves regardless.
What's going to happen is the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' sentiment for the money monster cod is will suddenly find itself very much being scrutinised and 'fixed'. Then it'll be ms fault
Re: Xbox Partner Preview Officially Confirmed for 20th November, Includes 'Brand New Reveals'
@Questionable_Duck 100% agree. Most people who comment on sites like these are people who already experience a lot of internet encouraged discourse in gaming. Most news sites like ps, px, nl and all the rest also encourage it for engagement. So yeah probably a good majority of commenters on most news sites are negative or already pre biased
Re: Superhero Adventure Dispatch Projected to Hit Three-Year Sales Target in Three Months
@Andee yeah the choices don't change the overarching story. That aspect is very linear.
What you control is the MC and your relationship with other characters. You more change your own personality and it is reflected by others. The writing (if it suits your taste) and the performances carry the rest.
Though I also enjoyed the dispatch minute game itself a lot. Especially min maxing on a 2nd run
Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Single Player Campaign Is Being Torn Apart
Having played the campaign it's definitely still a better campaign than what battlefield offered hands down.
But the lack of checkpoints coupled with being kicked out by updates is pretty hard to overlook. One of those things I can understand. The always online nature of it is almost expected with AAA games nowadays though
Re: Dispatch (PS5) - Interactive Superhero Show Is a Damn Good Time
I find an 8 out of 10 to be very low for this game.
It may be more culturally appealing to western demographics but even so it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had recently in gaming.
The choices DO matter. Yes they are mostly in small ways that characters bring up your past comments rather than outright entire branching lines of the game but you very much do feel like the characters are responding to who you are choosing to be. It's only on trying for more than 2 repeats that it gets tedious. Playing the 3 runs required for platinum is pretty perfect.
The QTEs not mattering is intent. If you fail them you just get different scenes. You can choose to turn them off and play cinematic mode. As the set pieces and cinema are very much the forefront of those scenes not the QTEs. They only exist for player preference.
My only issue with the game is not being able to fast forward cutscenes on repeats like some other games with choices allow. Still a solid 9.5-10/10 game for me and the developers will have my money on their next project too if it is anything like this standard
Re: Ghost of Yotei PS5 Sales Surpass 3.3 Million Units, Crush Boycott Nonsense
@Northern_munkey I do somewhat roll my eyes at the wording of most Microsoft adjacent articles on push square now. The wording around most cod news alone is getting tiresome in its intent. And I'm not even a cod fan in the slightest