Lysterao

@Runex2121 while I'm happy to play many games on easy, I often find "Story mode" difficulty makes thing a little too trivial. I do want it to actually feel like a game! Fair enough though

@ATaco yeah, faces clearly aren't Playgrounds forte. Given how long they've spent making car games, I can't say I blame them too much.

The main story characters seem to look a fair bit better at least, and not all the NPCs are that bad.

@get2sammyb Knowing how they handle age ratings in games and movies. It's probably due to the vague allusions to dating and sex in the game.

Of course it's fine to mow down hordes of soldiers like they're daisy's, but heaven forbid you even mention sex!

@DualWielding I might be wrong, but I believe some of the skulls start unlocked. If so, it's probably one of those

@MasterVGuides It could also just mean download is required for the DLC skins

@johncalmc This is already coming to PS5. Unless you mean a port of the OG Fable? In which case, that's not happen

@MathiasBS Oh, the humour and whimsy will be in the game. This just felt like a more story focused trailer.

Fable always had fairly dark main stories, with the humour coming from the world more than the story being a straight up comedy. We've seen the humour and silliness in earlier showings

@BonezKnowz I know right, I was hoping they'd have Matt Berry, so having her in as well could be a little WWDITS reunion if he is

@johncalmc I get why they were vague with P6 though. You don't want to show too much of P6, when you have P4R out fairly soon, given that I expect it looks alot better than P4R. Not smart to undercut your own game

@UltimateOtaku91 You've made almost the same post on multiple threads now, it comes across pretty salty.

As for P6, they've always teased them pretty vaguely first time in the past. P5 was just some chairs.

@Barry_vV You are being sarcastic right? With all the saltiness in these comments I can't be sure

@AdamNovice I mean, it's not like they've gone back amd forth on Gears, they never said which platforms it was on.

And as for the overall direction, this is basically the first we've seen of the new leaderships direction. Halo was already announced for PS5 before they took charge, they were hardly going to unannounced it.

@1970sGamer It's not about the pixels, it's about the real world consequences that inevitably follow the normalisation of sexualising under aged characters.

But you're probably smart enough to figure that out for yourself.

Otherwise, the game looks great. That aspect is just genuinely concerning.

@DarianStarfrog She looks and acts exactly like a 14 year old girl... does it matter if she's technically an android? If that's the sort of slexcuse you have to make, then maybe we should be checking your hard drive. Get a grip yourself, normalising stuff like this leads to very real consequences for very real ACTUAL human girls. The creeps aren't going to stop "oh, my bad, you looked exactly like an indistinguishable android to me, but you're not, so I'm going to leave you alone"....

@Greifchen It's not even so much that the protag looks 14, but that she looks 14 AND they're trying to sexualise her... feels a little Epsteiny

@Naughtyottsel92 Grounded is frankly fantastic. Maybe actually try it with a few friends, you'll have a great time

@BearsEatBeets It was for the Crossfire world, I don't think that episode was at all related to this particular game.

@Dom_31 Funny example chosing Bethesda for that analogy. They're usually the best at revealing games when they're as close to possible to launch. Other than the insane ES6 early reveal, but even then, I can see why they did It just so people would know it was happening.

@Fiendish-Beaver can confirm it is Debra playing Faye

@ElusiveBounty Hell, at least Microsoft are working on new IP (Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, Keeper, etc...) alongside their endlessly pumped out legacy IP. They've got enough volume to do both.

@get2sammyb You're absolutely right it's not the full picture. It's a complex equation of numerous shifting variables, of which sales figures are only one. Price tags for those games being another as you pointed out. Multiply those together and you get revenue which is the important figure But there is a 3rd piece of the (high level) puzzle, and that's install base. However we look at it, it seems catastrophic that first party game sales would be plummeting despite a rising install base.

The whole point of trying to seel as many consoles (even when you're not selling them at a loss), is to drive software sales where the real money is made. The PS5 is roughly launch aligned with the PS4, and yet, the software sales are following a reverse trajectory. Now, it's not all doom and gloom since 3rd party sales are doing well, but I worry for the future of their first part studios at this current rate.

@MasterChiefWiggum Exactly. I know some people wanted more narrative in FH6, but frankly I'm fine with what we got. Some light framing stuff, some super optional little day trip stories, but mostly just a whole lot of game. It's not even that story is bad, it's just effort that could have gone to more important stuff.

Doubly so when Playground are also making Fable! If they are wasting even a single talented writer on Forza when they could be doing work on Fable? That would be counterproductive

@MFTWrecks I think the real trick to writing truely good comedy like this, especially British self deprecating humour is picking the movements to take yourself seriously. Mostly being silly, and funny with the occasional moments where the veneer slips and the underlying seriousness is clear.

@RBMango I'd be curious to check the timeline for their May/June ones. I feel like these are the ones they do usually announce a bit earlier than their other more "normal" SoPs 🤔

@DennisReynolds But that's why they post much xbox news, as most of Xbox's content is either on or coming to PlayStation 😅 At least for this gen. Will be interesting to see if they do try going back to exclusives next gen, but I doubt it. Not fully.

@Skinny-Pete There are bands to these things. There's, how much to break even, how much is decent profit, and how much to higher profit expectations.

I imagine this falls somewhere between what they needed the port to make to be considered a success in terms of, "was it worth doing the port?" But less than "well that was as successful as we could have hoped for.

@UltimateOtaku91 Kiln was a small sub team within a relatively small studio. Sure that studio is owned by Xbox, but it is a tiny tiny investment compared to something like this or Concord. It's also probably got tlmost of it's players on Gamepass rather than Steam. I doubt it's doing particularly large numbers, and will probably underperformed somewhat even for it's small size, but it's very likely not as bad as it seems, and not a studio sinker.

(Also, it's just a multiplayer game, not a Live Service title)

@Grumblevolcano This trailer is because the Xbox and PC launch date is only a week or so today. Nothing to do with GTA6. Now, the games eventual PS5 launch date probably will have been moved to avoid GTA6, unless it was already planning to launch later before the end of August.

50%? Yikes. I though the 33% Xbox drop was bad. On the other hand, this was with a price raise so so that's probably a big part of the reasoning, coupled with the cost of living crisis gutting consumer demand for either console. I know GTA6 will probably lead to a spike in console sales later this year, but I'm afraid that it'll be a much smaller spike than industry estimates will have previously assumed. Which will in turn lead to funding pulled from more games, and more layoffs

@darylb24 I think Playground just have a much larger technical department than Obsidian who are much more narrative/art/level designer heavy. Playground alongside Turn10 have their own engine, that they're clearly experts with, especially as they've managed to adapt it to make RPGs for Fable. Obsidian on the other hand have never been about making cutting edge performance and visuals.

The more surprising one was MSFS 2024, I'd have thought that would be a bigger upgrade on Pro, but maybe the bottleneck there is more CPU/cloud streaming in assets based?

I've been playing it again since the big update on Xbox. The first week it was alot buggier and more prone to crashing than it had been the last time I played, and I had about 5 crashes in 10 hours. I haven't had any further crashes in the past week or two however.

It's the sort of game they'll never get entirely crash free just due to the way it's designed, because of all the CPU intensive Physics and NPC stuff that can randomly spike and tank performance, but overall it's back in a place that playing it isn't an exercise in frustration. From a technical standpoint. Gamewise, the loop is still pretty love it or hate it depending on personal taste.

@johnedwin because you're strong disbelief is based off so many facts and figures....

@Scottyy Honestly Highguard stood a better chance than this, despite that being an absurdly low bar. It at least had a reasonable player base for about a week before dropping off a cliff.

I'm not sure I see Fairgames even getting one in the first place

@Max_the_German While they could do that, what would be the point? Playground are an Xbox Games Studios studio. Even if they technically have Bethwsda "publish" it rather than XGS... all that changes is a title screen logo.

I'm not saying they'll they won't and should keep putting some games on PS, because they will, but I just think that won't be the avenue they take.

Chances are, XGS games will shift back more towards timed exclusivity. Quote possibly significant periods of it rather than just 6 months or so. Bethesda games, will be a game by game basis situation as they already are. ABK games will just stay fully multiplatform. That would be my guess for what they do in the short run

@Mes_Urson I'd say give it a go if you like the look of it. There's alot of fun to be had if you enjoy racing. It's like a semi sim, semi arcade racer.

@danzoEX Also important to remember that lies are intentional. Making an announcement and then plans changing isn't lying.

@CrispyMango92 I think they're realllllly hoping GTA 6 hype will be enough to stop that. I doubt it will, but it'll probably smooth the descent somewhat?

@LogicStrikesAgain True, but the money the invested in Deviation first, and then the money to set up the studio internally still adds up. It'll have been less disastrous money wise than buying an established studio like Bluepoint and then closing it.

@KonstantTrouble A thing being popular doesn't make it objectively good.... I mean, look how many copies CoD sells every year, whether it's a good entry in the series or not.

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah, but the same is true for other publishers on the list. Ultimately it's a ranking of Publishers, and First party games, DLC and, 3rd part Published content are all what define a publisher.

The Indiana Jones DLC dragged Xbox back slightly as well for example.

Sonys score reflects a publisher with that had a yeah with high highs, and low lows. Averaged out to "good".

Others, had a higher average. That's really all this means.

@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

@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.

@Boomers-r-us The loading screens aren't broken. They're an important part of how the game handles it's persistent object tracking and NPC simulation etc...

What they had added is the ability to seamlessly fly between planets within a solar system, which is the most necessary improvement regarding loading screens the game needed.

@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.

@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.

@StitchJones It's won multiple awards. Games for Impact at the Game Awards, and more peominently 'Outdtanding Achievement Achievement in Animation' at the DICE awards. Probably should have won one for music as well.

@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.

@Leechmonger_DeS It's not really a reveal, more of a "Despite what you may have heard from rumours recently, we're still planning on making another one", without actually acknowledging the "sunsetting Xbox" rumours.

@Skippermonkey Bethesda have never claimed it was a 2.0 patch, that was just a rumour. Todd says that it's a reasonably large update but NOT to expect 2.0 levels of improvement

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.