Kingy

@Romans12 I'm still playing through the first game but I imagine the sequel works the same way. The game automatically makes a save of its own whenever you start and finish quests. And you can make manual saves by sleeping in any bed that isn't owned by an npc, or save on the spot using a specific consumable item that you can either buy or brew yourself with alchemy.
Losing hours of progress is pretty tough to do, just like any game you're gonna naturally have consistent autosaves from quests and your own manual saves between them.
Most I've ever lost is like 20 minutes of time spent meandering in the woods before getting ganked by a random encounter.

Still trucking through the first KCD and absolutely loving it. Not at all bored with the world and mechanics either, so I'll likely jump into the sequel immediately after.

So much potential wasted on a garbage live service model. I'm sure we'll be seeing a new Smash Bros. soon anyways.

Not surprised in the slightest due to its positive reception. But SH2R is not a good game and an even worse remake. I've made no secret of my hatred for this game in previous articles lol.
Rest assured I am malding and seething over the inevitable botched remakes of SH3 and possibly SH1.

Considering the Remake writers don't understand anything else about FFVII it's no surprise they'd be wrong about this too lol.

Normally I'd urge people to not buy the game if they want to protest against censorship... but uh... the people already seem to be ahead of the curve on that one lol.

I'm kingdom coming after those beastly Cumans. Kunesh is next. Jesus Christ be praised!

Bad game doesn't meet sales expectations, bad company loses money. The world makes sense, even if just this small moment.

Way to shoot yourself in the foot right out of the gate.

As someone born in 1772 I can confirm we are in a golden age of gaming. Stick with hoop was always mid and anyone who says otherwise is just clouded by nostalgia.

@8bit4Life Same here, I've heard nothing but good things about the first game so I bought it in anticipation for the sequel. I've only put a couple of hours into it so far, but it leaves a hell of a first impression. Looking forward to getting back to it when I'm finished unlocking all the extra modes in RE2.

How tf are they gonna enforce this??? I assume they're referring to partnerships with youtube channels or something, cause I have no clue how they'd stop someone from buying and playing their games.
So silly, the only way to stop the internet bullies is for you to log off. Simple as.

@rusty82 See the two comments above for my thoughts.

@Deljo All in all I believe Konami weren't interested in remaking SH2 so much as they wanted their own version of RE2R. And by some combination of poor concepts and poor choice in developers, they created a poor man's version of both.

I don't think it holds up to the high standards Team Silent set, I don't think it compares to the qualities of RE2R (that sets itself apart from its own source material despite not being a great remake of it). And I don't find it to be a good game in its own right.
I'm glad people are enjoying what I couldn't but I am expecting reception of this game to sour after the honeymoon period ends, similarly to RE Village. But for me the best thing I can say about it is that it wasn't the worst Silent Hill game to release in 2024.

@Deljo Two major issues really killed it for me.
1) The remake is extremely padded and it ruins the pacing. Average first playthrough is around 15 hours (an hour short of my own playthrough) which is nearly three times the runtime of the original. You'd think that would mean there's a substantial amount of new things to experience but there really isn't, it's just longer treks between major events in the story.
A whole lot of meandering through linear segments where you squeeze through one of four variations of little gaps in the walls. And an EXTREME emphasis on combat, that - while technically more engaging than the original - is not nearly polished or variable enough to justify how much more prevalent it is in the remake.
For reference, I was nearly three and a half hours into the game and I was extremely fatigued with Wood Side Apartments. Not Blue Creek, WOOD SIDE! Everything was such a tedious slog that by the time I did actually reach Blue Creek I could only groan, knowing I was only halfway through the whole level. A feeling that came in waves throughout the whole game and had me tempted to quit on multiple occasions. In summary: Between exploration and combat this game does not respect your time, and doesn't have many new ideas of its own to differentiate it from the original nor make use of its extended runtime.
2) The story of SH2 is overall weaker in the remake. I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers for others reading who may want to play it for themselves, but the remake suffers from bad direction in its cutscenes. The script is mostly the same from the original (with a couple of nice if unnecessary additions, a few changes/removals, some understandable and some appalling) but camera angles are mostly flat in the remake, leading to many cinematics looking very dull. And Bloober Team could never quite replicate Team Silent's perfect atmosphere, it was always lesser, either by a bit or by a lot, which was a shame, but not unexpected.
The REAL problem was the voice direction, particularly for Maria and Mary, who sound terrible in the remake. The voice actress sounds like she's reading her lines half-heartedly off the script, and it really sucks the emotion out of every scene they're in. And whenever she does emote it sounds incredibly hokey, like amateur theater acting.
The only performance I have full praise for is James. I wouldn't call it superior to the original (for story reasons) but the new VA was great enough in his own right and something new to appreciate. The other characters I'm neutral on, with Angela being the most mixed in the game.
In summary: the cutscenes feel like Bloober Team were working with a transcript rather than referencing the original material, with voice acting being the biggest sour spot. I recommend giving a few of them a look to compare for yourself to see if you might disagree (eg James and Angela's convo in the graveyard for one I'm neutral on, and Maria's argument with James in Brookhaven for one I think completely misses the mark)

Silent Hill 2 Remake wound up being a supreme disappointment. I fell for the positive reception at launch and got burned big time when I actually got around to playing it.
But at the very least it got me to play the original Silent Hill 2 for the first time, and that game is indeed a masterpiece.
So as a palette cleanser I've been playing Resident Evil 2 and will play RE2R afterwards to compare, since I have a pretty high opinion of both.
Also dipped my toes into Kingdom Come: Deliverance and it did a pretty quick job of sucking me in. I'll probably be playing that game for months to come.

Lol Eve looking like a lost Mario brother with that nose in the first picture.

I think this misses the issue. It's not necessary to keep providing endless sequels to old IPs, we will likely never see another Jak & Daxter again and that's fine.
The problem is Sony is tasked with keeping up the variety of games their old library offered, which they've been struggling with for a long while.

Bummer, I was really hoping this would come early next year, but I suppose at the very least it'll be a better game by the time it finally is ready for the PS5 release.

Concord, y'know it got off to a rocky start, but it's wonderful to see the game flourishing now and I can't wait to see what Firewalk has in store for the game in 2025 and beyond.
I'd like to shout out Dragon Age: the Veilguard for having dialogue so cringe that it made me psychically react - like a full on recoil - that's no small feat, the writers ought to receive an award for their hard work.
And who can forget my personal darling and return of a survival horror classic, Silent Hill: The Short Message and it's incredibly subtle and moving narrative. Will be remembered for generations to come 👏

Looking forward to playing Astro Bot given it's outstanding reputation.
Unicorn Overlord is a masterpiece. Incredibly engaging strategy RPG with a knockout presentation from Vanillaware. It just barely got inched out of my GotY by Emio - The Smiling Man, which is a contender for one of the best narratives period.
Stellar Blade, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Zenless Zone Zero are all bombshell action games. They each have their individual flaws but they still get high marks.
Oh, and honorable mention to Crow Country for being a cute little survival horror gem that manages to emulate FFVII's pre-rendered graphics without actually being pre-rendered.
Even though I didn't play too much new stuff this year, 2024 was pretty damn good.

Nice, I was looking at this one just yesterday! Imagine an expanded version of this game where it includes a bit of everything from Falcom's library. Brandish, Popful Mail, Zwei, Gurumin, etc. And obviously there's a truck load of new characters to pull from every game after Ys Seven and Trails in the Sky the 3rd. I know there's already a few support characters from other games in this one, but they're not playable fighters.
Hell go crazy and make the next "this company vs that company" game lol, I wanna see Adol fight Ryu Hayabusa in Falcom Vs Tecmo!

Breaking: Shill site covers the latest in two shills heated shill-off on whether or not the monkey man was indeed coping, seething, or malding. Stay tuned for more info!

@premko1 You beat me to it lol

And that was the sound of the last pearl in the world being clutched. We're out of pearls.

Now I don't just have to worry about buying a psychical copy relatively early lest they be turned over to second hand sellers that balloon the price... NOW I also get to flip a coin on whether or not Falcom will make it redundant with new version two years later. COOL!!

Yosuke's like, "Dude wtf, why are you ***** here man, you're so old, where's your wife, go home to your family, dude."
Chie proceeds to point and laugh at laugh at me : (

Which event has the superior commercials though... 🤔

@nessisonett I'm upholding a standard to defend both despite not having strong feelings about the subjects of either, because censorship is abhorrent as a practice.
By all means though, continue with the moral grandstanding.

@nessisonett Maybe if there was a larger collective of people with staunch anti-censorship ideals rather than two sides being picky about what deserves to be censored and what doesn't, then this sort of thing wouldn't happen when the pendulum inevitably swings and the things that appeal to you start being censored.

But who needs principles when you can get your snipes in on the incels, right?

Seems they already fixed it as the fade is really light rather than the character completely disappearing in that one video, and you need to get to a really low angle to activate it. That already addresses my concern that the camera could be a hassle when using the 3D models as an art reference. It's very workable.

The game is... it's unplayable now...

Lol this is lame but not unexpected. Mihoyo has the CCP to answer to, I'm actually shocked by how much they've been able to get away with this far.

@__Seraph
1. (is it really criticism) Yes, it is definitionally criticism. That isn't an opinionated matter either, something is either criticized or it isn't. What you're wanting to say is that it's bad criticism or irrelevant criticism (which is something I've already expressed).

2. (where the majority of criticisms are coming from) Never once did I insinuate the majority of the trailer's backlash was or was not coming from a political angle. I have no idea how many people are criticizing the trailer for baldie's baldness vs how many people are criticizing / praising it for other reasons. This is your perspective that you're expecting me to have and idk why you'd even bring it up because it doesn't have anything to do with what I've said. Are you attacking my criticism of Push Square? They lied in both articles and I believe they engage in manipulation to paint an exclusively positive image of games they're financially incentivized to promote. You're welcome to disagree with the latter but the former is a fact.

3. (GuyA/GuyB) All you're doing here is picking which guy you agree with. Agree or disagree with whichever, I disagree with both. I'm sure the guy who thinks the video game industry is being torn apart by the woke agenda finds you to be extremely reductive with your constant moralizing of his opinion. You can have whatever perspective you want on anything and I'm allowed to agree or disagree with it and vice versa.

4. (Retaining neutrality til the final product) Agree to disagree. Trailers are representatives of their product and are meant to be judged, preferably positively. I judge this one negatively, maybe the next one will move me in the other direction but for now that is my impression of Intergalactic. Sorry if you're not happy with that impression but that's why I'm me and you're you.

5. (TLoU2) I've never played the Last of Us 2, I have a limited perspective for that game. I'm aware of criticisms levied against Elie's sexuality and Abby's appearance, just like I'm aware of several more criticisms like it's generally poor writing, mistreatment of characters from the previous game, shoehorned gameplay mechanics and so forth. If you want to zero in on those two points and say how horrible they are you're welcome to do that. But just like with the bald brigade I don't really care about those, they're empty criticisms and I'd rather move on to something more substantive.

I find it very tiring how in one breath you'll exclaim that everything is subjective, and the next establish a moral high ground against anyone who disagrees with you. Your repeated accusations that I'm lying are also not appreciated. Please don't waste my time with bad faith arguments.

@__Seraph I generally do not engage with politically motivated arguments for the reasons I stated before. That is unless they're actually relevant to another point I'm making, which in this case would me attacking Push Square's poor attempt to deflect criticism and intentionally lying in two articles relating to this topic. I understand you may have a more charitable view of this site or the author of the article, but I do not.

I also never said not to judge, that would be ridiculous. I'm clearly judging this trailer negatively based off the shallowness of its content, and specifically my point was that any positive reaction to that trailer is equally superficial to the negative ones.
Guy A hates it cause she's bald, guy B loves it cause 80s nostalgia and Naughty Dog. There's no superior take here, they're both bereft of substance, and that's mainly due to the trailer being bereft of substance.

To your next point, anyone can criticize whatever they want for whatever reason, which includes others people's perspectives and arguments. This trailer is the first ever look at this game and it reflects poorly on it, I am currently less inclined to buy this product than when I didn't even know it existed and Naughty Dog now has an uphill battle to convince me to. That's not a direct criticism of the game (because there is no game to criticize) but the result is effectively the same. You say you can't judge an album based off the clip of a single song but what if the clip is the only thing available and it sounds like ass? Should you be expected to retain neutrality until the full album is released? I don't think so, obviously a negative impression will be carried on until you're presented with something better from the artist.

And I agree, studios get held to different standards, I hold Naughty Dog to a higher standard than most because they're one of the most prolific studios in the industry and have access to resources most other studios do not. Currently what I do know is they're not meeting that standard.
Finally you're gonna have to be more specific about TLoU2 if you want me to understand your point about it. It was a controversial game that received all kinds of criticisms, some better than others. Idk what would be backwards about that.

@DennisReynolds True, there's more than likely an element of "we need to have something to present at Keighley's big show", the same kind of pressure I assume came with having something ready for E3.
That could be an explanation why so many of his world premiere's were exclusively cinematics.

@RoomWithaMoose It's why I deliberately never entertain any arguments about it one way or another, it's just a ***** slinging contest from two castes of deranged ideologues, there's literally no reason to ever get mixed in with that crowd.

Some contingent of gamers don't want to play as a bald chick for reasons that have nothing to do with the content of the game itself. Who cares.
What sites like Push Square are doing is using this controversary as a smokescreen to label ALL detractors of Intergalactic as toxic man-children, because anything south of a positive reaction is unacceptable to them. It's the kind of dishonest journalism I've come to expect here.

To me, the game's main character is currently just generic. Design is pretty uninspired, maybe an indication that there will be selectable costumes, and the personality on display is a plucky hero / antihero who's headstrong to a fault. Nothing wrong with that per se, but devoting the majority of four and half minute trailer to establish an incredibly basic character archetype... well, there's the reason why there isn't much to say about the trailer beyond the MC's appearance and the studio making the game.
They should've waited until they had gameplay to show, at least then we could judge Intergalactic as game and appeals to the character being ugly really would be entirely irrelevant.

@DennisReynolds This was the main thing that had me going in the previous article.
The Intergalactic trailer contains nothing of substance, in the same way that the negative reception is unreasonable given what we've seen, there's no reason why anyone should be so positive on it.

"Game looks so interesting, story is full of promise" I've heard. Does it really? All we've seen is some bald bounty hunter chick have a drawn-out stilted conversation with her agent, which competed in run time with a truck-load of superficial references to the 1980s... and most importantly - NO gameplay. This trailer sucks as a first impression to whatever world they're trying to introduce us to, and it should go without saying that no it absolutely does NOT look like an interesting game, because there was NO GAME shown.

I feel like I keep on having to tell people to expect and demand better from these multi-million dollar games, including their trailers. The longer our collective standards for media are so low, the longer we will keep on receiving slop that is mediocre at best and dysfunctional at worst. And at the budget that these games are made, that should not be acceptable to anyone.

These cringe ass culture war arguments do nothing but play on the ego of the reader and ultimately only distracts us from that wider issue.

Misinformation huh? Like Push Square willfully lying about WHEN Naughty Dog turned the comments off on their trailer? Hmmm...

I don't really give a ***** about what culture warriors on either side have to say about anything. The thing that vexes me is that there's a positive reception to this trailer at all. Is it just because Naughty Dog's name is on it? Cause when I saw that I just said "Oh, guess that explains why the dialogue is so awful." lol

There's nothing of substance here, I get pushing back on people having such a huge knee jerk negative reaction to the trailer for silly reasons, but at the same time, there's no reason why you should have a largely positive one. Demand better from VIDEO GAME trailers please!
Also yeah, others have brought it up but the person who wrote this article is conveniently leaving out the fact that Naughty Dog had the comments disabled from the start, likely to make the discourse sound worse than it actually is. Honest journalism? Never heard of it.

Technically Ninja Gaiden because an actual game was shown. But Project Robot would probably be the thing I want to get my hands on the most since its the next Team Ico project. Can't wait to see it in twelve years. Okami and Onimusha next, Capcom's got way more hits than they do misses, it's safe to assume anything they announce will be good.

@twitchtvpat Literally all six GotY nominations included gameplay in their reveal trailers, I can absolutely expect it. It's a video game, not a movie.

@AdamNovice Maybe. Judging from the stuff they showed in the 1.4 presentation trailer they're gonna involve not only Section 6 but every previous faction too. 1.2 could barely handle its own self-contained story, so I'm worried we get another one of those scenarios where we get like an hour's worth of overworld dialogue placed between a handful of five minute combat missions.
They really ***** up the pacing by ripping the exploration mode out of the story, and idk if there's been enough time for them to make a proper engaging replacement for it.
Not good for the story or the gameplay experience.

Guess I'm in the minority that the show was as boring as it is every year. Maybe I'd feel differently if any of the games announced that I was interested in showed gameplay, but other than Ninja Gaiden at the very start it was all cinematics.

@Callmegil Yeah seems like a lot to conclude in a single chapter. This game actually got me pretty invested in this plotline but if 1.2 and 1.3 are any indication it seems like they're gonna start rushing through it. Which is a shame.

He is an excellent voice actor, and he does a pretty good impression of Harrison Ford. His performance is bit too monotone in the game though, idk if its because he can only manage the voice in that one tone or maybe the voice director told him to stick to it. But Harrison has a lot wider range of emotion in the trilogy and I feel like Troy is only capturing a small bit of it.
Doesn't help that the story so far is bland and script lacks any of the wit the movies had, which is a shame, but not unexpected.

Lmao Zenless sweep, let's goooooooo!

I thought the initial trailer was extremely corny and this new one isn't really moving me from that. Idk man, making a cute colorful game where the protagonist has trauma and mental health issues, that's not exactly uncharted territory for indies. Maybe it's a little too charted, it was a bit of a meme for a while.

That isn't to say the game can't be good on its own merits or won't be well written, it absolutely can, but how noteworthy is "subverting the cozy game" nowadays really?
I suppose to its credit there's less subversions of the life sim genre than other genres (that I'm aware of). But obviously this game is meant to be a narrative experience disguised as a life sim rather than being a life sim with a narrative, and whenever I see stuff like that it comes off as a bit disingenuous. Maybe just not for me.