What do I want? What the showcase should have been last year, focusing more on their other studios that are working on single player games. I get why the live service games were there, and that's fine, but to have basically nothing else there was an enormous disappointment and fail on Sony's part. If one happens next month, hopefully it finally delivers as there's no way these developers are just sitting there playing solitaire and/or watching porn instead of developing games.
Works for me being a big Life is Strange fan and looking forward to trying Banishers someday. It's also nice to read something positive about a game developer or publisher for a change.
@get2sammyb You mention that the combat is not what the game initially looked like it would be, and that's very similar to Bayonetta/Devil May Cry. Is it as difficult as some of the Souls games or others like that? I'm not a fan of Souls games at all as I find them far more frustrating than fun, so I would unfortunately have to pass on Stellar Blade if it's much more like them than initially thought.
First month in a while I won't be claiming anything. I would have considered Immortals, but with so many other games to play, I don't see myself ever getting to a game that's considered average at best. I still might claim it for the hell of it, but that would be the only game. Skul is supposed to be good, but I don't enjoy any version of a rogue game, so I'll pass on that one.
I'm not going to really cry about the bad month or anything though, as like I said, I already have plenty of other games to play. Good free games are always nice, but an off month is not a big deal in the end.
@TrickyDicky99 They were designed for both consoles. It's not like the games magically looked better, ran better, and loaded faster. Yes, it is ironic that people were clamoring for developers to end cross-gen games and go full current gen, only to then get games come out that actually run worse than those said cross-gen games.
Obviously you are missing the point, and continue to do so, so I'll just end it there. You are 100% right and I have no idea what I'm talking about obviously.
@TrickyDicky99 The whole point was just to mention how ironic that some games ran better when they were cross-platform rather than these PS5 exclusives that aren't optimized well at all. It wasn't me criticizing anybody, other than developers, and more of just an observation that I find to be a little amusing.
If it's not game design, then whatever it is, these developers like Capcom and Square Enix are heavily dropping the ball when developing some recent current gen exclusives. In the case of Dragon's Dogma 2, they could have made the game run better if they didn't make some of the game's design decisions. I put 100% of the blame on developers that can't get their games to run properly.
@TrickyDicky99 Yes, I know why PS4 games run well on the PS5. I was just saying it's ironic that people were saying that the PS4 would hold those games back when in fact they are games that are better in certain ways because of the fact that they run better. In a sense, even though people expected games to get better once they abandoned last gen, in fact some have gotten worse in certain ways. No real need to question if I know what I'm talking about.
@TrickyDicky99 It's kind of ironic though that some of these cross gen games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok run better than actual PS5 games like this one or even Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in Performance Mode (more looks than anything on Rebirth). The PS4 was holding them back, but yet some developers then got lazy and dumb when leaving the last gen behind?
@ORO_ERICIUS Not every game is broken though. Yes, almost every game receives patches and have glitches, but there are several games that release properly optimized at least. Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, even the PS5 port of Final Fantasy VII Remake, etc. all released and looked and ran well. Yes, Guerrilla had to fix the Performance mode graphically since it had bad shimmering and such, but it still looked and ran great otherwise.
Nice to see them starting the process of actually fixing the game, but maybe by the time I'd be ready to even consider playing this it'll be where a $70 current gen game should be technical wise. I'm glad in a way that I have so many games to play that I have no reason to consider this one given how badly the developer botched optimizing this game, no matter how good the game is otherwise.
Hopefully this is a secondary game to whatever they've already been working on. There's nothing saying they aren't staffing up for a live service game because a lot of their staff is working on a single player game like they already mentioned. It's wild that people just jump to the conclusion that this live service game will now be the only game they are working on without any facts to back it up.
Do I care about live service games? Of course not, as that's why I'm a PlayStation fan and not just on Xbox playing online anymore. I want single player experiences like a lot of other people here do, and obviously it would be damaging for yet another studio to shift their focus, but there's nothing to suggest that here yet.
Not sure whether I will give the demo a shot or not. I have it pre-ordered, but given that it's $70 it might not be a bad idea to try it first. I'll figure it out whenever the time comes, and I may or may not be done with Rebirth in time for the full release anyways.
@SgtTruth True. Ubisoft gets a lot of crap, and sometimes rightfully so, but at least their games usually look good and run well enough. They have bugs elsewhere, but that's another story.
As for DD2, it's more or less a case of them going too far with their ambitions and failing to realize that there was no way they could optimize it to actually run respectably. If it ran well, I could excuse the lack of decent dialog animations, but that combination is inexcusable. It's a shame as it is likely a game that actually does deserve at least a bunch of 9's.
@Rich33 Most of my response is already above, but adding to that, I prefer to play games in 60 FPS now as well. There are rare exceptions where you can work around it and it's fine in 30 FPS, such as Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Their performance modes are both disasters in terms of resolution and the latter looking worse than a PS4 port of Remake, but they did such a good job with the 30 FPS Graphics modes that it's not a big deal. The difference with Rebirth is barely noticeable thanks to an option to speed up camera movement and the fact that the characters already move a bit "heavy" anyways. My brain rarely registers the difference thanks to the option that makes camera panning significantly faster than most everything else in 30 FPS.
I know that's off topic, but it goes to show that while Square Enix should also be criticized for not being able to properly optimize two straight PS5 exclusives' performance modes, at least it isn't as bad of a case like DD2. I'm glad people are enjoying it, but still.
@Rich33 Not even factoring in the microtransactions, as them dropping the score at all seems to be a hot button topic, I agree that at least the game being so poorly optimized should keep a game from getting 9's or 10's.
There's really no excuse at this point for developers to fail to properly optimize their games. It's not that the PS5 can't handle games at a solid resolution and a solid 60 FPS. There's plenty of examples, but then you get developers that are either lazy and/or incompetent. It seems this one falls into both as it's not just that the game is poorly optimized, but they also are pushing things too far (too many NPCs and forced RT), automatically setting it up to fail technically. A PS5 Pro shouldn't be needed to properly run the game.
The extremely lacking dialogue animations should be factored in more too. There's no excuse for that either at this point in time. I'm not expecting every game to be on the level of Horizon Forbidden West, which is probably still the standard in that area, but it should be factored in more when they are lacking this much.
Just mentioning major issues but not really taking much of anything off the score is being generous. And it's also sad that every time a developer fails to actually do the work and optimize their games, it's the hardware and PS5 Pro talk starts up again.
@DennisReynolds In regards to the MTX, yes, I can see that being ignored in game reviews. The performance shouldn't be though. It's great that you are able to still enjoy the game through it, really, but there's no way a game that is this poorly optimized should be receiving a single 10/10 (or even maybe 9/10). It just reeks of sheer laziness and/or incompetence, and that shouldn't be just shrugged off when other developers actually put in the work. Heck, Capcom's own developers (Resident Evil 4) outdid their own DD2 team.
@Pranwell @jt887 @carlos82 A PS5 Pro shouldn't be needed to improve the graphics of the game in performance mode. When a port of a PS4 game looks better than this does in performance mode (Remake), it's all on the developer and not the hardware. They didn't optimize this properly at all for a PS5 exclusive.
Given how well they actually made the game in Graphics mode, just upping the speed of camera movement is a good enough solution to having to switch from 60 FPS. The camera panning isn't anywhere near as noticeable and the characters already move with enough weight that you don't notice it much in character movement either.
@NEStalgia I was not aware of that as I stopped following the game after a while, so thanks. Kind of weird to do that when they had to undoubtedly pay the others as well, but whatever I suppose.
Yeah, another Marvel game may not sound exciting on the surface, but I'm more looking forward to it as a chance for Hennig to get some "redemption" even though she didn't write much of Forspoken. Even if it is just another Marvel game, I'll take another game done by her over some of the other crap.
Other games that look beautiful are much better optimized. The problems with this game are not the PS5 or the Series X. It's the developer failing to optimize the game properly. Yes, Guerrilla is a first party developer, but still, there's no reason why other developers are struggling. Put in the work instead of being lazy and maybe fixing the game someday. Square Enix and now Capcom are the two latest companies to fail on that front.
I'm glad the actual game itself seems to have turned out to be really good, but even if I wasn't going to be knee deep in Rebirth for quite some time, I wouldn't be buying this game at launch. No way I'd be paying $70 and playing what is essentially a broken game when I could play something that isn't broken from a technical perspective. Developers being lazy and then some people blaming it on the hardware is getting extremely old.
Definitely looking forward to this. Amy did a great job with the Uncharted series until she couldn't, and I'll forgive her for Forspoken since she was only one of several people to get credit for writing that. I'm treating this as a fresh start.
@The_Pixel_King Yeah, it strangely doesn't feel that much different outside of the camera panning being a bit choppy in 30. That's why I adjusted the camera speed, as it brings it as close to the camera panning in 60 as you can get. The characters move somewhat heavily or whatever you want to call it, so I barely noticed any difference in that regard when I switched.
I started this much later than most people, so I'm only about 12 hours in right now, but I'm loving it. Not surprising given how much I loved Remake, but it's still a good thing regardless.
@The_Pixel_King In Graphics mode, the game looks fantastic overall. Performance mode is a blurry mess though. Yes, it still looks ok, but a game for the PS5 should not look blurry like that. They are working on it, so if they can fix the resolution, it will look great in both modes. I just switched to Graphics mode and adjusted the camera speed, so it looks great and still moves close enough to 60 for now.
@jt887 Exactly. The features being available to use if you choose to is fine, but to force them onto the Home screen is just dumb and unfortunate given undoubtedly how much work went into designing the PS5's firmware in the first place.
@LifeGirl As far as firmware goes, I'd say we have gone backwards for the most part. It looks nice, but when they forced the activity cards on us, it took away the nice artwork a lot of games had for their backgrounds on the Home screen. A real shame that they never gave us the option to revert back if we wanted to, especially if you're somebody like me who has never used an activity card.
The fact that we are this far into the PS5's life cycle and certain things that should be considered crucial are either still missing (folders, news feed from the PS4, etc.) or aren't fixed (the playtime tracking for games, etc.) is pretty bad.
I don't feel the PS5 has been a waste by any means though as there's been plenty of great experiences (Rebirth being the latest), but the team in charge of the system's firmware has been a massive step down from whoever worked on the PS4. There's no way it's all the same people given how reliable the firmware was and the team was at fixing issues.
Part of the reason PlayStation exclusives are usually so special is because they are exclusives. Do I still think they will be great even if they are multiplatform games? Sure, but again, part of the reason why they are so special is that the developers can focus on whichever PlayStation system they are working on and maximizing that. Look at what they did near the end of last gen. Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II looked so good it was like a preview of what the PS5 was going to be.
Looking forward to finally digging into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I've had it since launch, but haven't been able to start it. I did play it for a little bit yesterday, but the weekend is when I can game a lot more usually.
Looks like it could be really good to me. I've never been a huge fan of the actual game series for whatever reason, but I'll definitely be checking this out. Who knows, maybe it will make me go back and give 3 or 4 another chance.
The timing of the release is poor for me, but seeing how good this turned out to be, it's definitely on the list of games I want to play that have come out around Rebirth that I can't get to yet.
There's not a ton of really good games like this on non-Switch hardware, so it's nice to see a game like this end up on PlayStation hardware and turn out to be pretty good as well.
I never played the first one, but I do love a good RPG, so I may give this one a chance at some point. No, not because of the "surprisingly" sexual content.
@Th3solution You are right, but in this case, Square Enix definitely deserves to be criticized. While other developers actually optimize their games properly even with costs increasing, Square Enix has released two PS5 exclusives in a row that are poorly optimized. When a PS5 port of a game has less issues than this game does, that says something.
Like I've said multiple times already, this won't change how much I enjoy such a highly anticipated game, but it's still sad.
@Enuo In people's defense, there is no excuse for this. When a PS5 port of the first game does it better than a game built for the PS5 exclusively, that's pretty sad. Regardless of whether you feel the need to take shots at people complaining about it, which in reality is just somebody wanting to take shots at people without actually thinking it through, Square Enix deserves to be criticized for failing to properly optimize two PS5 exclusives in a row (the other being FF16).
Will this change my enjoyment of a game that's been my most anticipated one in years? No, but again, there's still no excuse for the lack of optimization on the part of Square Enix.
At least we'll still get a steady diet of the same damn thing rather than anything different. Oh, wait, we're not even getting that anytime soon...
Some great games obviously, but this still doesn't really sit well. It basically confirms we will continue to get primarily 3rd person action adventure games with little variety otherwise outside of 2nd party titles they buy the publishing rights for or 3rd party timed exclusives.
I can understand smaller companies or companies that bought more than they could afford having downsizing like this, but when it's somebody that's completely dominating the video game industry right now (along with Nintendo), I find it hard to believe this is truly necessary to "future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead". It comes off as more like "everybody else was doing it, and some of our studios already did it previously, so let's try to line our pockets even more."
@ShogunRok I commented yesterday ripping into Square Enix for not being able to properly optimize two straight PS5 exclusives' Performance modes. Then the thought hit me hours later that maybe the review copies were all out without the Performance mode upgrades that the demo patch provides. I've yet to play the demo as I want to wait for the full game, but does that demo patch actually address many of the problems with the Performance mode for Rebirth? A bit long winded, but thanks in advance.
This is in no way cooling off my excitement for Rebirth with it still being one of my most anticipated games in a long time, but how Square Enix is struggling with their graphics engines this gen is baffling.
I'm wondering if Remake actually looks just as good as this. That ended up looking pretty nice overall when ported to the PS5, so to see 2 PS5 exclusive games in a row from Square Enix have rough looking performance modes is ridiculous. In no way should this be even discussed about games developed specifically for the PS5 at this point in the console generation.
Not super exciting as it's games that we pretty much figured would be coming and not any heavy hitters, but I'll still gladly play Hi-Fi Rush on my PS5. Maybe even Pentiment at some point too.
I passed on this on Switch because of potential issues with the difficulty, and the fact that I used my Switch sparingly, but I might give this more consideration now that it's coming to the PS5 (my primary console).
This was about as bad of an announcement as Sony's showcases/SoPs from last year. Probably worse. You don't announce something a week or so in advance, only to literally fail to do what you promised.
Where's the strategy they were supposed to lay out? We know little more than we did before this. Weird that they dropped the ball on this so badly after such a great show last month.
I had forgotten about this game until I saw the review on the front page. I will wait on the game like others since the first few months are pretty stacked, but it might be for the best in the end to give them time to iron out some of the issues with patches.
I would love to buy the game right away to support them in hopes this does well enough to get a sequel, but I can't with Rebirth coming soon. I hope things go good for the game in the meantime though.
I don't really see a big deal with it. Unless I'm missing something, it's just making you aware of your relationship and the side quests would have been available regardless. Seems like an overreaction to me that they are just making you more aware of your budding relationship and your choices in the game.
It's even worse given how everything Naughty Dog has put out so far for the PS5 is either a remake or a remaster (or a re-release in the case of Uncharted). I really do hope this never comes true as they've already done more than enough of these, even though I'm a huge Uncharted fan.
@Churchy Thanks for that. I just assumed based on the fascination with that kind of a game that it was possible this would be another, but now I'm more interested than before.
Hopefully the Uncharted remake, as much as I love Uncharted, never becomes true. Naughty Dog has already done enough remakes and remasters for a whole console generation so far, so as long as we get new games from here on out, I'll be good.
Comments 1,472
Re: Rumour: Sony to Host Big PlayStation Event Next Month
What do I want? What the showcase should have been last year, focusing more on their other studios that are working on single player games. I get why the live service games were there, and that's fine, but to have basically nothing else there was an enormous disappointment and fail on Sony's part. If one happens next month, hopefully it finally delivers as there's no way these developers are just sitting there playing solitaire and/or watching porn instead of developing games.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 522
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Gladly continuing on the journey...
Re: Don't Nod Has Seven Games in the Works, Four of Them Unannounced
Works for me being a big Life is Strange fan and looking forward to trying Banishers someday. It's also nice to read something positive about a game developer or publisher for a change.
Re: Preview: Stellar Blade Is the PS5 Exclusive Enthusiasts Have Been Praying For
@get2sammyb You mention that the combat is not what the game initially looked like it would be, and that's very similar to Bayonetta/Devil May Cry. Is it as difficult as some of the Souls games or others like that? I'm not a fan of Souls games at all as I find them far more frustrating than fun, so I would unfortunately have to pass on Stellar Blade if it's much more like them than initially thought.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for April 2024 Announced
First month in a while I won't be claiming anything. I would have considered Immortals, but with so many other games to play, I don't see myself ever getting to a game that's considered average at best. I still might claim it for the hell of it, but that would be the only game. Skul is supposed to be good, but I don't enjoy any version of a rogue game, so I'll pass on that one.
I'm not going to really cry about the bad month or anything though, as like I said, I already have plenty of other games to play. Good free games are always nice, but an off month is not a big deal in the end.
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
@TrickyDicky99 They were designed for both consoles. It's not like the games magically looked better, ran better, and loaded faster. Yes, it is ironic that people were clamoring for developers to end cross-gen games and go full current gen, only to then get games come out that actually run worse than those said cross-gen games.
Obviously you are missing the point, and continue to do so, so I'll just end it there. You are 100% right and I have no idea what I'm talking about obviously.
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
@TrickyDicky99 The whole point was just to mention how ironic that some games ran better when they were cross-platform rather than these PS5 exclusives that aren't optimized well at all. It wasn't me criticizing anybody, other than developers, and more of just an observation that I find to be a little amusing.
If it's not game design, then whatever it is, these developers like Capcom and Square Enix are heavily dropping the ball when developing some recent current gen exclusives. In the case of Dragon's Dogma 2, they could have made the game run better if they didn't make some of the game's design decisions. I put 100% of the blame on developers that can't get their games to run properly.
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
@TrickyDicky99 Yes, I know why PS4 games run well on the PS5. I was just saying it's ironic that people were saying that the PS4 would hold those games back when in fact they are games that are better in certain ways because of the fact that they run better. In a sense, even though people expected games to get better once they abandoned last gen, in fact some have gotten worse in certain ways. No real need to question if I know what I'm talking about.
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
@TrickyDicky99 It's kind of ironic though that some of these cross gen games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok run better than actual PS5 games like this one or even Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in Performance Mode (more looks than anything on Rebirth). The PS4 was holding them back, but yet some developers then got lazy and dumb when leaving the last gen behind?
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
@ORO_ERICIUS Not every game is broken though. Yes, almost every game receives patches and have glitches, but there are several games that release properly optimized at least. Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, even the PS5 port of Final Fantasy VII Remake, etc. all released and looked and ran well. Yes, Guerrilla had to fix the Performance mode graphically since it had bad shimmering and such, but it still looked and ran great otherwise.
Re: Big Dragon's Dogma 2 Updates Incoming as Capcom Confirms List of PS5 Improvements
Nice to see them starting the process of actually fixing the game, but maybe by the time I'd be ready to even consider playing this it'll be where a $70 current gen game should be technical wise. I'm glad in a way that I have so many games to play that I have no reason to consider this one given how badly the developer botched optimizing this game, no matter how good the game is otherwise.
Re: Days Gone Dev Bend Studio Staffing Up for 'AAA Live Service' Game
Hopefully this is a secondary game to whatever they've already been working on. There's nothing saying they aren't staffing up for a live service game because a lot of their staff is working on a single player game like they already mentioned. It's wild that people just jump to the conclusion that this live service game will now be the only game they are working on without any facts to back it up.
Do I care about live service games? Of course not, as that's why I'm a PlayStation fan and not just on Xbox playing online anymore. I want single player experiences like a lot of other people here do, and obviously it would be damaging for yet another studio to shift their focus, but there's nothing to suggest that here yet.
Re: Stellar Blade PS5 Demo Drops This Week, Progress Carries to the Full Game
Not sure whether I will give the demo a shot or not. I have it pre-ordered, but given that it's $70 it might not be a bad idea to try it first. I'll figure it out whenever the time comes, and I may or may not be done with Rebirth in time for the full release anyways.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 (PS5) - The Apex of RPG Adventuring
@SgtTruth True. Ubisoft gets a lot of crap, and sometimes rightfully so, but at least their games usually look good and run well enough. They have bugs elsewhere, but that's another story.
As for DD2, it's more or less a case of them going too far with their ambitions and failing to realize that there was no way they could optimize it to actually run respectably. If it ran well, I could excuse the lack of decent dialog animations, but that combination is inexcusable. It's a shame as it is likely a game that actually does deserve at least a bunch of 9's.
@Rich33 Most of my response is already above, but adding to that, I prefer to play games in 60 FPS now as well. There are rare exceptions where you can work around it and it's fine in 30 FPS, such as Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Their performance modes are both disasters in terms of resolution and the latter looking worse than a PS4 port of Remake, but they did such a good job with the 30 FPS Graphics modes that it's not a big deal. The difference with Rebirth is barely noticeable thanks to an option to speed up camera movement and the fact that the characters already move a bit "heavy" anyways. My brain rarely registers the difference thanks to the option that makes camera panning significantly faster than most everything else in 30 FPS.
I know that's off topic, but it goes to show that while Square Enix should also be criticized for not being able to properly optimize two straight PS5 exclusives' performance modes, at least it isn't as bad of a case like DD2. I'm glad people are enjoying it, but still.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 521
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
This will be my answer for many weekends to come. 20-some hours in, loving it, and know I have dozen of hours left.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 (PS5) - The Apex of RPG Adventuring
@Rich33 Not even factoring in the microtransactions, as them dropping the score at all seems to be a hot button topic, I agree that at least the game being so poorly optimized should keep a game from getting 9's or 10's.
There's really no excuse at this point for developers to fail to properly optimize their games. It's not that the PS5 can't handle games at a solid resolution and a solid 60 FPS. There's plenty of examples, but then you get developers that are either lazy and/or incompetent. It seems this one falls into both as it's not just that the game is poorly optimized, but they also are pushing things too far (too many NPCs and forced RT), automatically setting it up to fail technically. A PS5 Pro shouldn't be needed to properly run the game.
The extremely lacking dialogue animations should be factored in more too. There's no excuse for that either at this point in time. I'm not expecting every game to be on the level of Horizon Forbidden West, which is probably still the standard in that area, but it should be factored in more when they are lacking this much.
Just mentioning major issues but not really taking much of anything off the score is being generous. And it's also sad that every time a developer fails to actually do the work and optimize their games, it's the hardware and PS5 Pro talk starts up again.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Slated for Adding Sinister PS5 Microtransactions at Launch
@DennisReynolds In regards to the MTX, yes, I can see that being ignored in game reviews. The performance shouldn't be though. It's great that you are able to still enjoy the game through it, really, but there's no way a game that is this poorly optimized should be receiving a single 10/10 (or even maybe 9/10). It just reeks of sheer laziness and/or incompetence, and that shouldn't be just shrugged off when other developers actually put in the work. Heck, Capcom's own developers (Resident Evil 4) outdid their own DD2 team.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's PS5 Graphics Enhanced, Here Are the Patch Notes
@Pranwell @jt887 @carlos82 A PS5 Pro shouldn't be needed to improve the graphics of the game in performance mode. When a port of a PS4 game looks better than this does in performance mode (Remake), it's all on the developer and not the hardware. They didn't optimize this properly at all for a PS5 exclusive.
Given how well they actually made the game in Graphics mode, just upping the speed of camera movement is a good enough solution to having to switch from 60 FPS. The camera panning isn't anywhere near as noticeable and the characters already move with enough weight that you don't notice it much in character movement either.
Re: Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra the Official Name of Amy Hennig's Marvel Game, Out in 2025
@NEStalgia I was not aware of that as I stopped following the game after a while, so thanks. Kind of weird to do that when they had to undoubtedly pay the others as well, but whatever I suppose.
Yeah, another Marvel game may not sound exciting on the surface, but I'm more looking forward to it as a chance for Hennig to get some "redemption" even though she didn't write much of Forspoken. Even if it is just another Marvel game, I'll take another game done by her over some of the other crap.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 (PS5) - This Could Be the Apex of RPG Adventuring
Other games that look beautiful are much better optimized. The problems with this game are not the PS5 or the Series X. It's the developer failing to optimize the game properly. Yes, Guerrilla is a first party developer, but still, there's no reason why other developers are struggling. Put in the work instead of being lazy and maybe fixing the game someday. Square Enix and now Capcom are the two latest companies to fail on that front.
I'm glad the actual game itself seems to have turned out to be really good, but even if I wasn't going to be knee deep in Rebirth for quite some time, I wouldn't be buying this game at launch. No way I'd be paying $70 and playing what is essentially a broken game when I could play something that isn't broken from a technical perspective. Developers being lazy and then some people blaming it on the hardware is getting extremely old.
Re: Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra the Official Name of Amy Hennig's Marvel Game, Out in 2025
Definitely looking forward to this. Amy did a great job with the Uncharted series until she couldn't, and I'll forgive her for Forspoken since she was only one of several people to get credit for writing that. I'm treating this as a fresh start.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 520
@The_Pixel_King Yeah, it strangely doesn't feel that much different outside of the camera panning being a bit choppy in 30. That's why I adjusted the camera speed, as it brings it as close to the camera panning in 60 as you can get. The characters move somewhat heavily or whatever you want to call it, so I barely noticed any difference in that regard when I switched.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 520
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
I started this much later than most people, so I'm only about 12 hours in right now, but I'm loving it. Not surprising given how much I loved Remake, but it's still a good thing regardless.
@The_Pixel_King In Graphics mode, the game looks fantastic overall. Performance mode is a blurry mess though. Yes, it still looks ok, but a game for the PS5 should not look blurry like that. They are working on it, so if they can fix the resolution, it will look great in both modes. I just switched to Graphics mode and adjusted the camera speed, so it looks great and still moves close enough to 60 for now.
Re: New PS5 Firmware Update Available to Download Now
@jt887 Exactly. The features being available to use if you choose to is fine, but to force them onto the Home screen is just dumb and unfortunate given undoubtedly how much work went into designing the PS5's firmware in the first place.
Re: New PS5 Firmware Update Available to Download Now
@LifeGirl As far as firmware goes, I'd say we have gone backwards for the most part. It looks nice, but when they forced the activity cards on us, it took away the nice artwork a lot of games had for their backgrounds on the Home screen. A real shame that they never gave us the option to revert back if we wanted to, especially if you're somebody like me who has never used an activity card.
The fact that we are this far into the PS5's life cycle and certain things that should be considered crucial are either still missing (folders, news feed from the PS4, etc.) or aren't fixed (the playtime tracking for games, etc.) is pretty bad.
I don't feel the PS5 has been a waste by any means though as there's been plenty of great experiences (Rebirth being the latest), but the team in charge of the system's firmware has been a massive step down from whoever worked on the PS4. There's no way it's all the same people given how reliable the firmware was and the team was at fixing issues.
Re: Exclusivity Is the Achilles' Heel of Huge Blockbusters, Says Former PlayStation Exec
Part of the reason PlayStation exclusives are usually so special is because they are exclusives. Do I still think they will be great even if they are multiplatform games? Sure, but again, part of the reason why they are so special is that the developers can focus on whichever PlayStation system they are working on and maximizing that. Look at what they did near the end of last gen. Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II looked so good it was like a preview of what the PS5 was going to be.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 519
Looking forward to finally digging into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I've had it since launch, but haven't been able to start it. I did play it for a little bit yesterday, but the weekend is when I can game a lot more usually.
Re: Please Stand By for Official Fallout Prime Video Trailer
Looks like it could be really good to me. I've never been a huge fan of the actual game series for whatever reason, but I'll definitely be checking this out. Who knows, maybe it will make me go back and give 3 or 4 another chance.
Re: Unicorn Overlord (PS5) - An Utterly Brilliant Strategy RPG
The timing of the release is poor for me, but seeing how good this turned out to be, it's definitely on the list of games I want to play that have come out around Rebirth that I can't get to yet.
There's not a ton of really good games like this on non-Switch hardware, so it's nice to see a game like this end up on PlayStation hardware and turn out to be pretty good as well.
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Gets Mature Rating, Mentions Blood, Gore, Surprisingly Sexual Content
I never played the first one, but I do love a good RPG, so I may give this one a chance at some point. No, not because of the "surprisingly" sexual content.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Graphical Problems Are Clear in Digital Foundry Report
@Th3solution You are right, but in this case, Square Enix definitely deserves to be criticized. While other developers actually optimize their games properly even with costs increasing, Square Enix has released two PS5 exclusives in a row that are poorly optimized. When a PS5 port of a game has less issues than this game does, that says something.
Like I've said multiple times already, this won't change how much I enjoy such a highly anticipated game, but it's still sad.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Graphical Problems Are Clear in Digital Foundry Report
@Enuo In people's defense, there is no excuse for this. When a PS5 port of the first game does it better than a game built for the PS5 exclusively, that's pretty sad. Regardless of whether you feel the need to take shots at people complaining about it, which in reality is just somebody wanting to take shots at people without actually thinking it through, Square Enix deserves to be criticized for failing to properly optimize two PS5 exclusives in a row (the other being FF16).
Will this change my enjoyment of a game that's been my most anticipated one in years? No, but again, there's still no excuse for the lack of optimization on the part of Square Enix.
Re: Unannounced Games from PlayStation Studios Have Been Cancelled
At least we'll still get a steady diet of the same damn thing rather than anything different. Oh, wait, we're not even getting that anytime soon...
Some great games obviously, but this still doesn't really sit well. It basically confirms we will continue to get primarily 3rd person action adventure games with little variety otherwise outside of 2nd party titles they buy the publishing rights for or 3rd party timed exclusives.
Re: 900 PlayStation Employees Laid Off, London Studio Closed
I can understand smaller companies or companies that bought more than they could afford having downsizing like this, but when it's somebody that's completely dominating the video game industry right now (along with Nintendo), I find it hard to believe this is truly necessary to "future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead". It comes off as more like "everybody else was doing it, and some of our studios already did it previously, so let's try to line our pockets even more."
Re: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - Strong Sequel Seeks a New Direction
@ShogunRok I commented yesterday ripping into Square Enix for not being able to properly optimize two straight PS5 exclusives' Performance modes. Then the thought hit me hours later that maybe the review copies were all out without the Performance mode upgrades that the demo patch provides. I've yet to play the demo as I want to wait for the full game, but does that demo patch actually address many of the problems with the Performance mode for Rebirth? A bit long winded, but thanks in advance.
Re: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - Strong Sequel Seeks a New Direction
This is in no way cooling off my excitement for Rebirth with it still being one of my most anticipated games in a long time, but how Square Enix is struggling with their graphics engines this gen is baffling.
I'm wondering if Remake actually looks just as good as this. That ended up looking pretty nice overall when ported to the PS5, so to see 2 PS5 exclusive games in a row from Square Enix have rough looking performance modes is ridiculous. In no way should this be even discussed about games developed specifically for the PS5 at this point in the console generation.
Re: Xbox Games Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Grounded All Confirmed for PS5, PS4
Not super exciting as it's games that we pretty much figured would be coming and not any heavy hitters, but I'll still gladly play Hi-Fi Rush on my PS5. Maybe even Pentiment at some point too.
Re: Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance on PS5, PS4 Confirmed, Out in June 2024
I passed on this on Switch because of potential issues with the difficulty, and the fact that I used my Switch sparingly, but I might give this more consideration now that it's coming to the PS5 (my primary console).
Re: Xbox Fans Petitioning for Helldivers 2 to Launch on Xbox
If they want Helldivers 2, then make Microsoft give us Hellblade 2. Seems fair to me.
Re: Reaction: Xbox Is Bringing Some Great Games to PS5, But Rumours Will Remain Rampant About What's Next
This was about as bad of an announcement as Sony's showcases/SoPs from last year. Probably worse. You don't announce something a week or so in advance, only to literally fail to do what you promised.
Where's the strategy they were supposed to lay out? We know little more than we did before this. Weird that they dropped the ball on this so badly after such a great show last month.
Re: Looks Like This Is the New Lara Croft in PS5's Next Tomb Raider
@Bentleyma Uhhhh, no.
Re: Falcom Action RPG Ys X: Nordics Sails West on PS5, PS4 This Autumn
Yes please. That is all.
Re: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (PS5) - Storytelling Great Has Gameplay to Match
I had forgotten about this game until I saw the review on the front page. I will wait on the game like others since the first few months are pretty stacked, but it might be for the best in the end to give them time to iron out some of the issues with patches.
I would love to buy the game right away to support them in hopes this does well enough to get a sequel, but I can't with Rebirth coming soon. I hope things go good for the game in the meantime though.
Re: Persona 3 Reload Is Atlus' Fastest Selling Game Ever
@RawnDawn Atlus has promised there won't be a Royal or Golden edition of the game.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/02/no-expanded-royal-or-golden-edition-for-persona-3-reload-atlus-promises
Re: Final Fantasy 7's Coolest Companions Won't Fight in PS5's Rebirth
No big deal. Like others have said, there's already plenty of other playable characters. This is going to be huge.
Re: Stellar Blade PS5 Pre-Orders Go Live, Two Versions to Choose From
I'll be pre-ordering it from PlayStation Direct eventually. No rush, but I'm definitely looking forward to finally getting this in April.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tracks How Much Your Crush Hearts You on PS5
I don't really see a big deal with it. Unless I'm missing something, it's just making you aware of your relationship and the side quests would have been available regardless. Seems like an overreaction to me that they are just making you more aware of your budding relationship and your choices in the game.
Re: Rumour: A PS5 Remake of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Is Possibly on the Cards
PS5 - Remakes Have No Limits
It's even worse given how everything Naughty Dog has put out so far for the PS5 is either a remake or a remaster (or a re-release in the case of Uncharted). I really do hope this never comes true as they've already done more than enough of these, even though I'm a huge Uncharted fan.
Re: One of PS5's Most Promising Games Just Got a Seriously Stylish Trailer, Demo on the Way
@Churchy Thanks for that. I just assumed based on the fascination with that kind of a game that it was possible this would be another, but now I'm more interested than before.
Re: Sounds Like Naughty Dog's Next Game Won't Be The Last of Us 3
Hopefully the Uncharted remake, as much as I love Uncharted, never becomes true. Naughty Dog has already done enough remakes and remasters for a whole console generation so far, so as long as we get new games from here on out, I'll be good.