I think these games suffer from never taking risks. Look at Warframe: game gets wild new expansions all the time, adding variety to the proceedings. But then you have game like this that expect you to literally do the same exact thing ad nauseum, never adding anything truly new, just more of the same. So they alienate any player for whom that core loop doesn't remain exciting, killing their own playerbase over time as more people grow bored.

Plus, they almost NEVER reevaluate their onboarding processes. New players get absolutely swamped with overwhelming amounts of cruft that rarely gets explained well because modern devs expect players to join a Discord channel or search Reddit communities instead of bothering to design good, informative games.

It never surprises me when such titles crumble under their own misguided decisions.

I couldn't get into the first despite multiple attempts. It felt way too obtuse to be enjoyable, even though I know "annoyingly sparse directives" is acceptable in the genre, for some reason.

I've been in the mood for a Souls-like, so this is a winning month for me.

As a proud new Pro owner, I will be in no rush for a 6 and will likely await the 6 Pro.

Had my wife grab one while out at the store Friday. No way am I having a sub-par GTA6 experience.

And now, if PS6 release/price rumors hold true, I'll stick to PS5 longer and wait for a PS6 Pro. I'm done being suckered into first gen hardware.

I snagged Void/breaker in the Steam Spring sale and it is getting its hooks in me quickly. Real fun movement shooter/roguelike hybrid. Love seeing solo devs succeed.

Ball x Pit still earns runs from me too cause it's so damn addictive.

@PneumaPilot Thank you. Outside the traversal, it's really hard for me to remember which is which.

Where tf can you get a Pro for $700 in the US? I've only ever seen it for $750+

There are two anime gacha GTAs coming. One has superhero-like traversal. Is this that one?

Smaller fps games are where it's at nowadays. The big stuff is too boring.

I've been playing Void/breaker and having an absolute blast. I'm hoping Out of Action comes to PS5 so I can play with my buddies.

@NonbinaryStarr The best games I've played in the last few years have, 90+% of the time, been small indie games. Often times made by less than a handful of people, or even only one, often on shoestring budgets.

Many software development firms are absolutely atrociously run from a business efficiency standpoint. They literally waste millions upon millions of dollars annually.

There's no possible way that game development is any better. In fact, I personally expect it to be far far worse than people realize.

It doesn't surprise me - in an industry rife with creatives, run by many creatives - that the business side can't make things work.

It's also a product of ballooning teams and lack of clear creative vision. AAA games are bloated messes of design with little to anything truly unique nowadays outside of how awe-inspiring their budgets are. It's amazing to me when something can launch that's actually cohesive and well executed.

I have been close to buying this game multiple times. Glad I didn't bother. Had a feeling this would join the PS+ ranks soon enough.

Companies don't actually care about their employees: more news at 11.

This ***** is exactly why you DON'T give them the late nights and the weekends. They. Do. Not. Care.

Know what would have made it sell better? A full single player + co-op campaign to accompany the extraction-based multiplayer mode.

Think of how the Ghost games have a big meaty campaign and then release Legends as an add-on. Had Bungie done that with this, they would have had a banger on their hands. Instead, we got what we got and the game will probably shut down within 2 years, tops. (I sincerely believe Sony will give Bungie a lot of leeway just so that they can avoid the PR disaster of acknowledging how poorly this game truly did.)

I won't know whether I like this until I see how hot Resident Evil characters look with it turned on.

@MrPeanutbutterz Yeah. There's no stash whatsoever. You can't store anything anywhere.

How tf do you hold onto loot and items over a 150+ adventure?! Bonkers.

The PCGamer review highlighted the exact sorts of design decisions that would annoy the ever-loving hell out of me (terrible tutorials, nonsensical story, awful fast travel placement, forced character switching, boss battle stun locking, plus I heard the cutscenes are unskippable). I've abandoned games for fewer transgressions.

If I ever play it, it'll be because it was on a deep deep sale (~$20) or given out on PS+. Whichever comes first. I have way more to play that isn't prone to making me grind my teeth in frustration.

I liked what I played and wish it had time to evolve and grow.

I was just thinking of B4 the other day. Really feels like this game came and went faster than most AAA titles. I've heard next to nothing about it since it released, which is odd since the series sells well. I wonder how it did.

Returnal and Saros are exactly the "size" of exclusive Sony should be investing in to bolster the exclusive library.

They're made with the utmost care, fantastic to play, and they push the system's capabilities in ways many cross-platform games don't. Now all Sony has to do is acknowledge a game like this should be $40-50 and not full price.

@StitchJones Are you me?! I can't play turn-based games. The ludonarrative dissonance required to make sense of turn-based fighting just can't be overcome by my brain.

@StitchJones This is what annoys me. I wanted a sequel that was an improvement, not a totally different genre of game.

If you think Fortnite is the biggest game in the world, you don't understand Roblox.

Space Marine 2 and Metal Eden are 2 big gets off my wishlist!

I never understood why Bungie, of all developers, is afraid to make a single player campaign. They were giants of the industry because of their craft. Now they refuse to touch the damn mode.

I love the aesthetic of Marathon. But I don't think this single mode is my cup of tea. I'd have played the hell out of a story or co-op mode in this world though.

Just for people's reference... Highguard had more modes within a week of its launch. Just saying.

Considering you don't get a cable with their other controllers nowadays, this is at least SOME added value, unless they removed features.

Or... say it slowly with me... don't pre-order games.

It sucks that live service games aren't allowed to mature in today's market. Players want new experiences, we get them, and then they don't do Fortnite numbers over night and get forced to shut down.

It sucks for the developers and players of all types. Games like Fortnite weren't Fortnite on day one. It can take years for games to find themselves. But in today's market, they aren't given the chance. RIP

This regime at Sony has no idea what it wants to do. It has no clear visions whatsoever.

Wish it had the X-Men Genesis games (Clone Wars is goated) but this is still a solid collection.

It's getting supremely annoying that y'all seem to focus your technical reviews on PS Pro almost exclusively these days when the majority of players don't have that hardware. It's doing a disservice to your audience to make Pro hardware the baseline by which you judge how a game plays.

This is another step for me toward going PC first going forward. Playstation has slowly been killing what made it special: its first party output. I see fewer reasons to be faithful to them if they aren't faithful to their own brand and personnel.

Meanwhile, Bungie BLEEDS money faster than its player counts and they're still kicking. Makes no sense.

@WolfyTn Read his name again. But this time, read it more slowly.

@MichaelNau I've always imagined John Wick playing like the Arkham games with the rhythmic combat. Have him use melee to build up the ability to execute enemies at the end of combos.

Put it back in the shadows. This looks awful.

This is literally an all-time dream game of mine, so to say I am hyped is an understatement.

I still can't believe they've never bothered overhauling how absolutely atrocious the build mechanics are. For a game all about building bases, they're some of the worst gameplay systems for actually constructing things.

Every time I get into the game, it's the obnoxious base building and finicky controls surrounding them that push me away. I can just not be bothered to engage with such an awful player experience. It blows my mind that they have never bothered trying to improve on such a core system.

The art style is pretty great to me. The problem is, Horizon HAS an art style. Why develop an all new look and feel for an established IP?

If this style was tied to a new IP I think it would have been received better. I mean, it looks kind of painterly like Arcane and that show won awards aplenty. It's not like it's bad bad. It's just not a fit for this particular IP and I think people are reacting to that.

But then, I'm someone who prefers artistry in my graphics to realism.

This looks like a slightly more stylized Arcane, which literally won awards for its gorgeous art style.

I think it looks far more interesting visually than Horizon itself. I dig the f out of it. But, I love when games go for stylized looks versus realism. It gives them more character and identity, imo.

@VeganH It got a 5v5 mode earlier today.

Also... Remnant is goated in my book. 😂

@Contimaloris It got a 5v5 mode earlier today.

This single mode is more fun than anything CoD has done in years. And I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoyed DMZ. It's more original than anything BF6 has outside player made content.

Apparently the game is too different from everything, but also too similar to some things... I don't know. I have fun playing it. Most fun I've had in a shooter since Apex's own small 3v3 mode they killed off (forget it's name).

The broader reaction to this game's existence is why we can't have nice things in this hobby. And why we're doomed to just get rehash after rehash of the same stuff.

I only played the second one, but I liked it. Sad to see Ubislft shoot themselves in the foot yet again.

It's like they never know what makes their games fun, as they never iterate on good ideas, they just mix and match gameplay elements from other series at random and hope for the best. They have no true identity or direction/soul.

This looks great. Love what indie devs are doing nowadays.

@Zeke68 Lol is this a joke? Insomniac was rather famously thrown off by their internal leak and it is rumored to have impacted multiple titles.

I have had my eye on this for a while. Didn't know it was coming to PS5. I hope a few friends snag it. But I'm also hesitant with Light No Fire on the way.

If you can't remake a proven all-timer that fans were actively clamoring for, then I don't have faith in you to knock it out of the park with anything "new" you may be cooking up.

Ubisoft needs to be wrestled from the hands of that damn family. They are fumbling the company into irrelevance.