Matroska

Some points where my brain tuned out, but overall it was very good. New Ueda game, new Onimusha, new Okami - that is dream tier. Several other amazing things, not least of which are TW4 and the new ND game. But then various bouts of nothing. But I'd say it felt like a great E3 in general.

Thaddeus Sasser sounds like one of the super villains we'll be playing as in future seasons.

Well, I've been vaguely interested in Frontiers but wouldn't buy it unless it was like £6 so that's decent for me. Used to love Sonic as a kid, but like most people from that era, it stayed as something from my childhood rather than being something I kept interest in - at least post-Dreamcast. So it'll be interesting to see how the little smug git is doing nowadays.

Forspoken will be interesting to play just to have a nice soak in a warm bath of absolute cringe for as long as it's entertaining.

I just wish they'd make story mode easier (while still allowing the what-ifs). I bought this game at launch and only played it once because it was so horribly unfun. I loved BT1-3, by the way, and never found them particularly difficult, but this was the least fun I've had playing a game in many years. Well, apart from the minigames in Rebirth. Only case of buyer's remorse I've had in probably at least a decade.

@Briarback Well to be honest, the Game Pass defence doesn't really work on PC because every offline game can just be pirated for free. So every offline game has this free alternative and yet they still normally do way more then 12k. You get crazy things like Palworld being on GP but having over 2 million concurrent players. But like I said, even without GP most games have that free alternative option.

@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy It feels like a weird kind of QVC shopping channel for games. A QVC-type channel where they give awards for the best vacuum cleaners and watches to pretend it's not just a series of adverts. And yeah, E3 had this proper event feel to it, something more weighty and genuine.

@PuppetMaster Yep, I know. That's why I was asking if this restriction was only for GOTY because I knew Left Behind didn't get that but it did win something. It seems odd to count DLC as a game for all categories but one if they're going to take issue with it being treated as a "regular game".

TLoU: Left Behind won a BAFTA despite being DLC. It was later released as a standalone thing but that was the year after it won a BAFTA. Or is this only for the GOTY award specifically?

Yeah, like many others I get what is presumably the first page of it, that'd have my avatar and username displayed, but it just has loading swirls in their place. Then it does the error message others have posted. Sony seem really bad at the technical side of things like this. Same as how awful the PSN shop is, lack of folders etc.

@breakneck @LavenderShroud It sounds much more like he knows Geralt is in it but didn't realise he wasn't meant to announce it, then got told by CDPR to say it was just a misunderstanding.

It'd be kind of weird for the VA of Geralt to hear that he'd be returning to voice the character from some random rumour and not say to CDPR "I heard this rumour I'm coming back but you haven't asked me yet. So am I coming back?" and to instead announce it publicly several times even though, supposedly, no-one from CDPR has asked him.

@dskatter Rocksteady didn't make Origins so if you're okay with a game made by an entirely different dev team (from an entirely different country, even) the lack of original members in Rocksteady shouldn't really matter.

@Gunnerzaurus I was going to say the same thing until I actually read his tweet, so I'm guessing you haven't read it yet and just assumed the same thing I did. He specifically claims the name is copied because of the word "widow" and makes no other claim of similarity between them.

@MeanBeanEgg Yes, the market that Square Enix thought would dramatically change XVI's fortunes. Remember how it was only being on the PS5 that caused it to underperform? Then they release it on PC and it gets outperformed by a NES game with a fresh coat of paint.

The all time peak concurrent players is interesting. This very old school game with basic presentation has almost doubled the count of a considerably more expensive game that turned a JRPG into an action game in order to chase more customers.

@3Above For a basic remake of a NES game, the third basic remake of a NES game, to sell almost a million copies outside of Japan in this short time is pretty amazing.

"adapting this famous old franchise."
Something about that annoys me. I mean, it's a newer franchise than Star Wars, slightly, and I don't think anyone referred to Outlaws as "adapting this famous old franchise".

@LifeGirl How could you personalise the PS1 and 2? What really happened is with each PlayStation they added the ability to customise it and then recently they took it away. 60% of Playstation consoles had zero customisation. If you want to customise your system, why not get a PC? The whole console deal is incredibly limited control but, at least in theory, you exchange that for a really simple user experience. Don't get me wrong, I'd like themes too, but it's an odd complaint about things that are basically budget PCs defined by their total lack of user control.

@Balaam_ It's not as simple as plural and singular for those words, if you think about it. You wouldn't say "I has a sandwich". Nor would you say "everyone are happy", you'd say "everyone is happy" as if it was just one person.
Or "everyone has a problem", not "everyone have a problem". But then to really confuse things, "does everyone have a problem?" is correct, not "does everyone has a problem?"

@Azex Yeah, depends how you look at it. This is basically a birthday for PlayStation. Are these themes the equivalent to the present, which you keep after the event, or equivalent to the party, which only lasts a short time? Seems like they looking at it as the party and we're looking at it as the present.

@TheTraditional Pretty sure they are since you can pirate amiibos using your phone to write the data to NFC tags. And yeah, I agree. BotW becomes pay-to-win with amiibos. They also locked the TP dungeon behind Wolf Link.

@Oxy You're saying that while self-censoring on a site that doesn't allow words that everyone uses every day. I'm not defending Fortnite, I haven't even played it and don't typically like multiplayer games, but it's a pretty ironic post.

Big Big Small Land (it may have a different name, I can't remember) in Mario 64 was the best level.

Finally a videogame character I can relate to.

@Robocrop_Duster Older consoles still sell in poorer countries. In their main run they're too expensive because console prices don't tend to scale for each country. So to make up an example, a PS4 could cost a month's wages on some countries until more recently. And apply that to each console generation.

Definitely, especially if they make all enemies visible. It's one of my favourite games of all time. I didn't like it at first, I think I expected all JRPGs to be like FF back then.

@Godot25 @KyushuTrail "We all live in a simulation" is a famous theory that states we are almost definitely living in a Matrix-like simulation. I have absolutely no idea why he's using it in the context of CoD selling well.

https://academic.oup.com/pq/article-abstract/53/211/243/1610975

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4wMhXxZ1zNM

@BlaizeV I know what you're getting at, but they didn't make or even publish these to begin with. Ever17 came out about 2002 and had nothing to do with them. Never7 is a bit older. These are just two old VNs being brought to modern consoles by them.

DQIII. Man, it puts most JRPGs released since the original to shame with the sense of adventure and exploration. It's brought my Veilguard playthrough to a screeching halt.

>"Sparking! Zero is based upon — the Budokai Tenkaichi series"
It's not based upon them, it's the same series. The Sparking series was called Budokai Tenkaichi in the West to tie them into the Budokai series for marketing purposes. You had Sparking, Sparking Neo and Sparking Meteor, which we got as BT1-3.

I really didn't like FFXVI but Ben seems really cool and like he really appreciates and respects his role in it, and the wider gaming community. "60fps, get 'em Torgal!"

@riceNpea I know, every time I see "tidbit" and stuff like that... I guess that's the issue with being an internet journalist, you're just embedded so much in American culture.

@Zemo55 It's a jokey word used in a lighthearted way, like yank and limey. Also, remember, a word is only offensive if you find it offensive. Australians use it in a bantery way, I can't imagine a British person in Australia being surrounded by Aussies as they're taunted with "pom" while crying. It's just a little fun jab, and we do the same back. Like how you're cheekier with your friends than you'd be with a stranger.

@LavenderShroud Well it should be the least English thing since he's using Australian slang (and is Australian, but he's playing it up here because the article's about Australia) whereas the other writers are English. 😄

@breakneck Wow, Astro seems way more recent to me. Time is going way too fast.

As always, some of these discounts are pretty weak. You can get Sonic for just £4 more on Amazon and that's not a discounted price.

@breakneck It was 45% off on Amazon the other day but sold out almost immediately. There are a few games up there that are newer than Metaphor, I think, like Astro Bot.

@Drago201 Well this one isn't even made by the same company. It's just the same Lego license. Everyone seems to think it's the same devs as the other ones. I don't think any of them are that good, but this seems to be an absolutely bare bones game that would basically be a minigame in another game. The others are basically Metroidvania collect 'em ups.

@danzoEX DQ is, and was, way bigger in Japan than CT.

According to Wikipedia:
"Dragon Quest III sold over one million copies on the first day, with almost 300 arrests for truancy among students absent from school to purchase the game.[59] It set sales records by selling 1.1 million game cartridges in Japan within a day[60] and 3 million in a week,[61]"

And Chrono Trigger
"The game was a best-seller in Japan,[140] where two million copies were sold in only two months.[141]"

Both huge successes, both all time greats, but DQ in Japan is on another level. I think the only thing on its level is Monster Hunter.

@Nem It's not what about I consider an indie developer, it means "independent" as in "independent from a major publisher" the same a with indie music and indie films being independent of a major record label and film studio respectively. If you mean "low budget" then just say that - major publishers like Nintendo or Ubisoft can still do low budget games.

Yes the tone is different with Yakuza and Shenmue but they're both massively about exploring the town you're in and getting really familiar with it until it feels like a real place to you. They're both very character focused. They both typically have stories based on getting revenge for something (a classic martial arts movie trope). In Yakuza you could spend hours playing darts and Virtua Fighter before doing some karaoke. It's not just constant fighting. Even the style of combat is similar, very martial arts movie style, very arcadey - Shenmue combat was modified Virtua Fighter.

@Nem The same indie descriptor is meaningless. Cyberpunk 2077 is an indie game. Bastion, which seems like an indie game, is published by Warner Bros, one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. And Yakuza is clearly built on the ideas in Shenmue. You explore an urban location that's depicted in amazing detail. There's an intimate, almost soap opera style to the story, but crossed with a melodramatic martial arts storyline. The gameplay is basically a beat 'em up. You can play various Sega arcade games. There's life sim elements.

The creator of Yakuza, Toshihiro Nagoshi, worked in AM2 for years under Yu Suzuki, the creator of Shenmue. He was even the supervisor on the first Shenmue game. He was the director and producer of Shenmue in the last months of development despite saying prior to that that he wasn't happy how it had turned out. He's said since there's no one he's learned more about game development from than Yu Suzuki.

@Anke Yeah, to be fair, it does do the feeling of a group of friends really well. Well, for me 4 and 5 did. I never really clicked with 3's cast.

@Anke "the joy and life of a Persona."
The joy of everyone becoming depressed and listless before turning into a coffin? Or the joy of miming a gun suicide thousands of times? Or the joy of an abused schoolgirl attempting suicide? I love the Persona series, I was absolutely obsessed with 4 when it came out, but I don't really link joy with them. Also since so much of it is so mundane, boring daily life - intentionally, I know, but still - it doesn't feel full of life, just that it's depicting the more repetitive and regimented elements of it.

@ApostateMage It was on sale for £35 on Amazon yesterday but it seems it's gone back up again now.

@Balaam_
Yes, very generic. All those anime with... whatever this thing is.

@Wario_Waha You're talking about Sony not making their own games but doing deals for things to be exclusives, then saying you love Nintendo even though they're the same. The companies that make Pokémon, Smash Bros, Kirby and Fire Emblem are all made by companies not part of Nintendo but bound to them with certain games through legal contracts. Intelligent Systems, who make FE, have also made Wario Ware and Paper Mario games.

Then you have Nintendo buying up other companies and stopping them making games for other platforms, like Monolith Soft and the Xeno series. And they've been doing exclusivity deals since the NES with Mega Man, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and just about every third party game that didn't appear elsewhere. This is the company that sued the creator of Fire Emblem for leaving Intelligent Systems and making his own game like Fire Emblem for PS1. Imagine if Sony sued Miyazaki for making a game with similar gameplay to Bloodborne for the Switch.

@MrMagic Well Horizon has 600 not 6000 (and already down to 217 peak in the last 24h) so it's, what, 4th lowest if you add it to that list. But yeah, most of them don't do well. Though it's not exactly a direct comparison since this isn't made by the same devs as the other ones, and doesn't have the same type of gameplay - going off Push Square's review anyway.

@Jrs1 To be fair, it can really pay off. BG3 benefitted massively from doing early access and getting a year or so of feedback from thousands of players. And in a way, games that release in a bad state but later get fixed are effectively in early access, like NMS or CP2077. Better to get the jank out the way before release, though, so it doesn't cause a massive controversy like with those two games.

>"all of this could just be referring to content that was cut from Dragon's Dogma 2 during development. Datamines like this can be difficult to read into"
Yeah, like Shin Megami Tensei 3 has the Star Wars theme on the disc, weirdly. There's a great site detailing loads of examples of cut content:
https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor

Anyway, that'd be cool but I'd rather have more story stuff or gameplay additions.

It looks really cool, I love the style of it, but I just checked on Steam and it has a 'very negative' rating now. A quick scan of it suggests people think it has potential but is nowhere near a decent state now and isn't worth the money.

@somnambulance I think it peaked at 600 concurrent players on Stream, whereas DQ, which is below it on the above chart, has 45,000. So yeah, it not doing well. It's probably only up there so relatively high on the physical charts because it's more of a kids game and parents seem to prefer physical rather than putting credit card details into the console.

Then acquire Kojima Productions so we can rename the main character of Death Stranding to Sony Walkman.

>"Spike Chunsoft is also owned by the Kadokawa Corporation, the studio behind titles like Danganronpa."
And Dragon Quest I to V, when it was just Chunsoft.

I get a feeling Legacy of Kain will have aged like milk, but I have nostalgic memories of playing that at my friend's house when I was about 15 so I'll be checking it out. I basically remember it felt like a slightly janky and somewhat desperately edgelordy LttP, but it's one of those games that just stuck in my memory.