Comments 160

Re: PS5 Players Seemingly Skip Marathon as Sales Estimates Look Very Weak

Lysterao

@GamingGod Because Money. Personally I'd love to see a game have time to grow and find it's audience.

Look at Pre MS Bethesda. Elder Scrolls Online launched it a sub optimal state. and even more notably F076 launched in a disastrous state. However both times, Robert Altman (old CEO) went to the teams, and asked them "what do you need to get back on track. And they did, both games are thriving, whatever derision FO76 still gets, it's had about 70 updated and has a very healthy player base. So it is possible.

The problem is for Marathon, so mucblh money was put it to it, and that'd without even considering the 3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie. Chances are they'll have needed this to be a mega hit for it all to be worth it. Updating a game and running it's servers is very expensive in its own right

Re: Microsoft Is Putting 3 Xbox Games on PS5 in Just a Few Weeks

Lysterao

@somnambulance @Grumblevolcano I wouldn't worry too much about Double Fine. It's not like it's the only game they've released recently, or the only game they've got in development. Sort of like Obsidian, none of their games individually have to be huge hits, as they're always making and releasing multiple games on lower budgets, compared to one singular all or nothing AAA games. It likely will under perform, I just doubt it'll be enough to tank them as a studio. That'll depend on whatever the main team is currently working on since Psyconauts 2.

Re: Starfield's PS5 Release Seems Practically Inevitable at This Point

Lysterao

@evan23 That's the perfect way of putting it. Starfield is a wildly ambitious game, but in a way that makes it quite niche and not for everyone. That's not even a particularly uncommon situation for a game, but people just seem to ignore that for Starfield. If I had to guess it's the impossible to ignore comparison to the mass appeal of Skyrim and Fallout.

Re: Hypothetically, Could Sony Stop Its PS5 Ports from Running on Xbox Helix?

Lysterao

@thechetearly I'm not even sure it would be technically possible for them to do for past ports. If helix is just Windows, then certainly not. For future ports sure they could bake that in, but I'm not sure they'd do that either. Like it or not, they do know MS is one of the biggest Publishers on PS at this point, and passing them off purely to mess with what will likely be a relatively Niche High end, low volume Console Esque PC just won't be worth it.

If they don't want their games on Helix, or on the Steam Machine, they just won't release them on PC at all. Picking and chosing like that just opens a can of worms they'd be smart to avoid.

Re: Site News: Where's Our Marathon PS5 Review?

Lysterao

@Retron Exactly. They're right when they say the game will change as content is released, but so can the review then. Waiting until it's "complete" is an exercise in futility with a Live service game, as they're always going to go through highs and lows. Just look at games like Overwatch or Helldivers 2. Their stats are constantly in flux, with players happy or displeased with the games for various reasons.

Review the general feel of the game and it's gameplay loop as it stands now, since the core experience won't change much, then review the swanky new endgame level later.

Re: Opinion: Sony's PC Pullback Is the Right Move for PS5

Lysterao

To be honest, I think the whole exclusives thing makes zero difference to the PS5 at this point. It's basically going to sell what it sells regardless of what Sony does at this point. Hell, they could probably go the rest of the generation without releasing a single first party game, exclusive or otherwise and it wouldn't change much in terms of the consoles sales. People who want a console will buy one, and at this point most of them will buy a PS5 by default.

This is a strategy planning for the PS6 generation, and competitors future shift towards PC hybrids, as THOSE will be a an increasingly attractive alternative to buyers. Especially as the younger generation with far less brand loyalty to PS grows up and has more expendible income to spare.

Re: Sony Goes Silent on Social Media as Fans Turn Feral Following Bluepoint Closure

Lysterao

@DennisReynolds I mean, I wouldn't say that MS got all that much less backlash than Sony did, but I would say their closures were mostly more understandable (to an extent)

A) Xbox really are on the back foot, with a fraction of the install base as PlayStation. They couldn't really generate the same sales through exclusives as Sony and that hurt them. Whereas Sony are doing this while riding high.

B) As great as Arkane Austin were, 70 percent of the studio had left by the time Redfall shipped. Closing the studio sucks but seems inevitable. The Initiative, that one hurt as Perfect Dark looked great, but ultimately they'd never released a game, so there was comparatively less love for the studio from people than there was for the well established Bluepoint.

The closer closure to this one was Tango Gameworks. That one was similar levels of WTF, and absolutely got as much hate from people as this did, it's just a smaller community of people to make noise 😅 And at least they found a way to help that studio avoid closing.

Ultimately they all still sucked, and got alot of backlash, but mostly felt less surprising than this Bluepoint news

Re: Avowed Dev Hopes RPG's Biggest Criticism Has Been Fixed for PS5 Launch

Lysterao

@Dragon83 Having played it, it varies by region. The first and 3rd areas are pretty bright. The 3rd especially.

The 2nd region is probably the worst, and possibly the one you saw. It's too foggy at times in a way that often kind of makes it ugly, which is strange given how pretty the other areas are.

The 4th major region is pretty dark, but in a stark volcanic way.

Overall I wouldn't call it drab other than parts of the second region. Some parts of it are genuinely stunning at times.

Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games

Lysterao

@theSpectre Yeah, Redfall is a weird one. Almost certainly forced on Arkane as part of Bethesdas push for more live service games to be in development so they'd have a more attractive portfolio for potential buyers, rather than because anyone on the inside thinking it was a good idea. It's also the one that it's hardest to blame MS for. As the new owners, they could have their first move be axing a studios in development game (never a great start, and would likely have been crushing for morale), or they could continue with a doomed project. Ultimately Xbox were starved for 1st party games and they chose the later.

For me Tango Gameworks was their real infuriating ***** up. Thank ***** they found a buyer for them before it was truely too late at least, but they'd quickly become one of my favourite Xbox studios, so it was a real shame.

Re: A New Engine for The Elder Scrolls 6? Don't Be Ridiculous

Lysterao

@Balaam_ Creation Engine is also absolutely critical to the feel of Bethesda games. They can't just swap to another engine and make the games the same.

Even if they could fit alot of that reactivity and physics driven simulation of object into another engine, that engine would then just have the same issues.

Ultimately, the bugginess of Bethesda games has less to do with the Creation engine than it does to do with what they're trying to do with it.

Re: Sony Will Offset Soaring RAM Prices by Further Monetising PS5 Players

Lysterao

@Dogbreath They're not competition on the Hardware front, but they are still their biggest competitor (and ironically their biggest 3rd party publisher arguably) in software.

If Sony's plan is the overly monetise their software, it may just drive people towards PC and more affordable options like Gamepass there, which despite it's increases is still very good value if you're playing lots of games (it's just you have to play more games than before to get said value).

Tl;Dr Sony may not have to worry about driving players back to Xbox in a serious sense, but they may drive them out of the Closed Ecosystem console market that PlayStation always thrived off of.

Re: Microsoft Targeting Halo PS5 Release in the Summer

Lysterao

@Dan12836666 The only real reason I can see for an E-day delay is GTA6. I'm 100% sure they'll be ready to launch it this year, the question will be them feeling confident in the launch window. Every Gears game has launched in the Ovtober November launch window in the past, but on the other hand, none ever had to contend with GTA6.

Re: Starfield 2.0 Overhaul Mentioned Yet Again as Wait for PS5 Announcement Continues

Lysterao

@HRdepartment I disagree. I do think Starfield is already a pretty great game, as was Cyberpunk at launch (as long as you weren't playing last gen).

The main difference is, Starfield is more niche. Tonally, gameplay wise, etc... it's just for a more particular group of people.

It's not the high appeal Fantasy of Skyrim, or Post Apocalypse of Fallout. It's a NASA punk, quite niche take on Sci Fi, and the Bethesda Formula doesn't quite map onto the space experience as seamlessly as their more limited open worlds in prior games.

It's going to come down to, can you live with the brief but even more frequent loading screens (understandably many can't) and that the game isn't as well geared towards letting you be morally grey/evil, at least in terms of the companions.

It's more of Bethesda for good or ill, in a more awkward than usual package but with huge possibilities and potential to those who do buy into it.

Re: PlayStation State of Play Is Locked in for February, It's Claimed

Lysterao

When was the last actual PlayStation Showcase? They do the SoPs about 3 times a year every year right, and they tend to have at least some presence at Keighleys Summer Games Fest and TGAs (sometimes ONL at Gameson), but when was the last time they did a proper blowout showcase?

Was it 2020 before the PS5 launch? I really can't remember at this point. Is my memory just *****. (It is, that's a fact, but is that what's going on here)

Re: Hellblade Dev Plotting a More Gameplay Focused Successor, Presumably for PS5

Lysterao

@Vivisapprentice It's more like Project Mara was never really a full game project. From the sounds of it, Mara was more of a test platform/experimental project. Maybe they were considering spinning it out into a full game if it went well, but my personal theory is that the tech they developed for that is part of the tech Kijima is using for OD. He did always say he partnered with Xbox as they had tech crucial to OD, and we've always assumed that was their streaming tech, but I think it's also this.

I mean, if you watch the Mara teaser, then watch the OD trailer, there's something of a shared DNA with those close up face shots of mental terror.

Re: Most Downloaded PS5 Games of 2025 Revealed, as Xbox's Forza Horizon 5 Tops Ghost of Yotei

Lysterao

@PuppetMaster That 60 million budget won't include Yotei's marketing budget. Which could even possibly have doubled it. That said, even in that case Yotei will either already be profitable or rapidly approaching it. Sony will be happy enough.

I think the bigger thing for them those, is that unless it goes on to sell 10s of millions of copies, it just further cements in their mind that single player games aren't where the big money is. Good money sure, 300-500 million returned on stay a 120 total budget is nothing to scoff at, but it's pretty much peanuts compared to the money that the big live service games bring in on a quarterly basis. Especially when Sony only seem to be putting out 1 game, or maybe 2, of that size a year.

If I had to guess, games like Yotei aren't really money makers in their eyes, they're "loss leaders" (emphasis on leader not loss) to make sure people keep buying PS5s. It's why they've usually clustered launches around the start and end of console generations. Mission accomplished in that case.

Re: Xbox Exclusive RPG Avowed Is Coming to PS5 in February with Major New Features

Lysterao

@LogicStrikesAgain It's more like a bit of both. Sony is making money off Xbox's game, and Xbox are selling their games on all the consoles that Sony had to make and sell at a loss (I know they got them to the point wheee they were making money on each one for a time, but with the increases in RAM costs etc... there's no way thats still true) . So it's a bit of a trade.

Re: Game of the Year: Push Square Readers' Top 20 PS5 Games of 2025

Lysterao

@SeaDaVie I mean. Of course both sites are biased 😅 They're self selecting communities of fans of the games that Xbox and PlayStation make respectively.

When your sample population is made of of people who actively like and seek out more of what a certain thing does, it's hardly surpring a poll taken on said population will skew in favour of the thing.

The question is, are said players REALLY liking those games more, or are they somewhat blinding themselves to other titles out of emotional attachment? It's impossible to say really.

Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5 Action Game of 2025

Lysterao

@Rich33 What you're describing is popularity vs critical opinion. Now, despite what the Internet may say, critical opinion is not irrelevant compared to popular opinion, however it's not more important either as both are very useful metric.

That said, Push Square are critics. They take a critical look at gaming in general, and given their more objective attempt at an opinion. This is a critics list, and so no, it's not Obvious that Ghost of Yotai should be Number 1 instead of number 3 on the list.

Far more people will have played it sure, which is a sign that Yotai is a better example of what most people WANT out of their games, but the poll isn't a particularly valid break down of what is the best action game, as very few of the respondants will have played more than 1 or 2 of the games listed.

Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5 Action Game of 2025

Lysterao

@tangyzesty Playing Eternal Strands at the moment and really enjoying it (have sunk alot more time into it than i expected I would), though purely on the action/combat front I don't think it makes the top four. Personally for me it's Ninja Gaiden 4, that combat is just flawless, even though I've never been into that genre before.

But yeah, would be great to see Strands get some wider recognition

Re: Sony Hypes Halo PS5 in Its Hot Games of 2026 Trailer

Lysterao

@GamingGod Halo 1's multiplayer was pretty awesome at the time, though hasn't aged as well as say Halo 3's has.

But Halo Lan parties put Halo on the map just as much as it's campaign, some would argue even more so due to the huge word of mouth it all generated.

So it is strange seeing that part of the package absent, but personally I see why

Re: PS5 Players Ponder Avowed Port as Xbox RPG Delays Its 'Biggest Update Yet'

Lysterao

@Grumblevolcano Their first game this year was Avowed in February. They just waited to avlnnounch most of the release dates at their now yearly Developer_Direct.

Which last year included Avowed, South of Midnight, Ninja Gaiden 2/4, Clair Obscur, and Doom TDA, all of which other than NG4 came out by June. I'm not sure any of them had dates before that? Given between 2020-2023 Xbox delayed pretty much every game they announced, I can't say I blame them for holding those dates until they're pretty much almost out.

But yeah, my money is on Forza Horizon getting a March April release date reveal, to come to PS5 sometime near the end of the year, and also a release date for Clockwork Revolution? While they'll probably save Fable, Gears and Halo for their June show.

Re: Black Ops 7 Dominates PS5 Downloads Despite Backlash

Lysterao

@EfYI Worth noting. That in the US Microsoft had 4 games in the top 10 best sellers.

They may have killed off any growth in their hardware sales, though frankly that was inevitable after the Xbox One disaster gutted their market share at the worst moment, but as a multiplatform Publisher they're having their cake and eating it too in terms of Gamepass and good sales.

Re: PS5 Pro Is Definitely Not the Best Place to Play The Outer Worlds 2 at Launch

Lysterao

@Rich33 I think it's more a sign that their teams aren't all super technically focused.

Credit where it's due, many of their other ports HAVE performed very well on PS5, and they've adopted PS5 specific features like Dualsense controls in many cases. And the upcoming Flight Sim is adding PSVR2 support which is pretty cool.

Obsidian have just never been the most technical studio and this shows. I'd be more inclined to call this an honest screw up developing with a new tech for a new platform they're unfamilar with, rather than a deliberate effort to handicap the PS5 version.

Re: Rumour: Halo Remake Is Coming to PS5, Will Feature 'Modern Gameplay Mechanics'

Lysterao

@get2sammyb Which is a shame, because despite its campaign ending at what was clearly supposed to be the half way point of their obviously more ambitious first plans for the game, the actual gameplay of Infinite is genuinely brilliant.

If the plan IS for all future Halo mainline titles to come to PlayStation as well, then unless they're a hard reboot PS players will be missing out on important (if flawed) campaigns like Halo 5 or Infinite (assuming The MCC does get ported and brings the test)

Re: Here's Your First Look at PlayStation's Next Big Thing, Hideo Kojima's PHYSINT

Lysterao

@get2sammyb Fair enough 🤣 Hard to tell how big it'll be yet, small in length doesn't mean it cant be a hit, look at PT, but you did specify PlayStation that's true.

Though, let's face it give Xbox's recent track record I'd be very surprised if this doesn't come to PS either at launch or close to it! If that wasn't an almost surety at this point Pushsquare wouldn't be writing articles

Re: Rumour: Microsoft to Confirm Forza Horizon 6, Japan Setting Next Month

Lysterao

@lindos I think they're also worried that FM had more direct competition on PS already from GT. As opposed to the FH series which Sony don't compete with personally.

It would be interesting to see if now that they've brought the series to PlayStation with FH5 to great success, they go back and also port over Motorsport now it has more brand recognition on the platform?