Max_the_German

THE game the world waited for to spend precious time and money.

Obviously, The Game Awards is an advertisement at its core, positioning itself as a prestigious event where the accolades matter.

@Coffeeglitch @GMaster7

With PS5, Sony changed the button layout for Japanese systems from the „Nintendo pattern“ = „O okay, X cancel“ to the „Xbox pattern“ = „X okay, O cancel“, what we in the west are used to.

I assumr that this was seen in Japan as an ignorant move by Big Jimbo and his European gang in California, a symbol for what PlayStation has become.

Let’s see whether SIE under new Japanese leadership will change this back for PS6 in Japan.

At least PS5 could beat Switch 1 by 459 units (35786 vs. 35327). Switch 1, a system from 2017 with a technical performance not much better than that of a PS3.

The animations are not very good imo. Often no fluent transition between two moves, poor collision detection when jumping on the walls. But it’s not bad enough that my jaw dropped.

The AI hysteria gets out of control.

The Switch 2 version supports DLSS and mouse support, while PS5 and Xbox Series get the bare minimum. Looks to me like the Switch 2 version was the focus, and the other versions were added so that nobody feels ignored here.

For this purpose, the quality is okay.

I think that AI will lead to many more pictures in the internet overall, the demand rises with the means. And so there will still be enough tasks for high-quality man-made images and designs, especially brand-related.

I see Geoff on stage:

„Hell Grave is a brand new multi-platform free-to-play MMO from Tencent, coming to PS5, Xbox Series and PC in August 2026. Here is a first look on this awesome looking action-loaded rouge-lite RPG!“

@LiamCroft

A voting like this must be so easy to understand that you don’t need to read a separate text, because nobody expects that. A simple sentence directly above the list like „GTA VI can’t be selected, because it won this category last year“ would be an easy solution.

@Americansamurai1

I grew up with The Simpsons, so I’m used to see 4 fingers per hand and 4 toes per foot.

@themightyant

Yes, why no GTA? And why no Embark for studio?

For GTA: Maybe only games with some level of console exclusivity are included. Or they just know that no PS Studios game has any chance of winning if GTA is selectable.

@CaptD

Ghost Town: I‘m always looking for great PSVR2 games. In the Edge review of the Quest version from May, it got a 7/10, which is higher than the usual 70%, a solid to good. And I find these Edge scores highly fitting to my personal experience of those games.

Unfortunately there are not that many great VR games in general and PSVR2 in particular out there.

Half-Life 3, what else?

Neon White is good, and Switch is its natural home.

The very definition of casting pearls before swine?

@Orpheus79V Why? Don’t you see the big advantages of a higher degree of automation? People were afraid of the loom, the locomotive, the industrial machines. In the 70s, „machine taxes“ were discussed, because now robots could weld car chassis, faster, more precise, 24/7. But working went on, with a higher living standard than before. If you don’t believe me, check the prices for furniture in the 70s and today: How many hours does an average employee have to work for a Billy?

A major part of my work is to negotiate agreements between parties with opposing interests (I‘m not a lawyer). I use AI tools on a daily basis. Will people accept proposals from an AI for a deeply human problem without a human interaction? I don’t think so.

In Europe we have an aging and shrinking population. To hold and increase overall productivity with less workforce, we need better tools, and AI is one of them.

@themightyant

And it still was almost perfect AT LAUNCH when played the PS4 Pro code on PS5. And it’s still in a poor shape when playing the PS5 code on PS5 or PS5 Pro. Where have we seen significant improvements over time? From the analyses I‘ve seen, there are none.

@themightyant

I bought the PS4 disk to play it on PS5 in the upcoming months, and I think that combination was almost perfect from day one. I understand that this cannot be the basis for scoring a game though.

@Korgon

Yes, I can only see three outstanding games on this list, with Astro Bot, BG3 and Edith Finch, while Elden Ring is missing. And „outstanding“ is Hookshot‘s definition of a 10/10.

Astro Bot had 76 levels? It’s hard to believe, given it had only 6 worlds. Definitely a banger of a game, that’s for sure!

@Megabeenz

Noone is downplaying the commercial success. The discussion here is about the artistic success.

@BecauseBecause

The tone of an instrument is played by an musician, recorded and used thousands of times. The computer replaced the musician.

@Npc1987

Heretic! It’s made by PS Studios, and PushSquare gave it a 9/10. How dare you calling it „pretty boring“ on that very website?

I don’t see complaints when an orchestral soundtrack is made on a computer:

„But all the musicians loose their jobs.“

Why is the reception so different? Because in the early days of videogames, there was not enough storage for CD music, and MIDI was the norm?

I‘m so tired of this rage about AI.

@PuppetMaster

It‘s not about sequels in general. It’s about sequels which look and feel almost the same. In that article about „too many sequels“, it was mentioned that there are 24 Super Mario entries. Except for Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan („The Lost Levels“) and Galaxy 2, there are no direct sequels, the titles play totally differently. Galaxy 2 is more like Ragnarök, Forbidden West, Miles Morales, Rift Apart and all the other examples we all know well.

A new IP doesn’t mean that Hirogami is more or less successful. If the game is mediocre, that’s the problem.

Expectations for PS Studios games are just extremely high, created by Sony with the firework of PS4 exclusives.

I find this announcement a good thing. Otherwise many people would be disappointed, and internet comments from disappointed people are not always balanced and fair…

@Oram77 I saw the cover picture, and my initial thought was „Oh, a PSVR2 horror game“…

The show suffers from all the trailers „nobody“ cares about. If they would show only the 5-8 best trailers, the general reception would be transformed.

@Boxmonkey

You sound so serious, I got the impression that you are terminally ill.

I hadn’t had a PS4, these fantastic games were totally new to me, and I could enjoy all of them in perfect 60 fps.

Be it because they already targeted 60 fps on PS4 (God of War, Dark Souls 3), they got a 60 fps patch (Horizon, The Last of Us Part 2), or they got native PS5 versions (Death Stranding).

While these games were already very good on PS4, I just can’t accept 30 fps, fan noise and long loading times anymore. PS5 delivered this snappy experience I had on my Super Nintendo back then, and that is great.

@Jacko11

I‘m sure that without the competition by Xbox Series X and Game Pass, the inital price of the PS5 would have been 50 USD higher, and there wouldn’t have been a PS Plus Collection (which was gold for me, because I hadn’t had a PS4).

With the next Xbox likely being a PC with a high price compared to classical consoles, the PS6 pricing will be wild!

@Medic_alert

This is also what I do when starting a new VR game: setting controls to maximum automated, but without auto-aiming. Aiming in VR is so much fun!

@invictus4000

Yes, controls in RE8 and especially RE4 are much better than in Hitman, reloading becomes very intuitive, after a few hours you don’t think about it anymore.

But map handling is another example: In RE8, it is located somewhere at you bottom, and it in many cases you miss it with you hand. RE4 needs only a button press, and with its 2D screen, it’s much sharper and easier to read. The map in RE8 on the other hand can be used while moving, which is great.

Maybe developers should limit the number of item locations to 3-5 on the front of your body and avoid locations on your rear.

@Vermines

I started Hitman VR a few weeks ago, and the controls are so fiddling, I stopped playing after two hours. Maybe I will go back, but not in the upcoming months.

I don’t like this „immersion“ of grabbing your stuff at different positions of your body, especially on your back (which isn’t recognised reliably), instead of simply using buttons on controller. There’s a reason why Wii and Kinect are a thing of the past!

Now I bought Max Mustard, after its price was permanently reduced to 8 euros. Heard good things about it.

Yeah, and suddenly I don’t look like a poor man anymore, after watching a documentary about Kongo.

This gives me hope: If an experienced studio like Bungie doesn’t hit the taste of its target audience, then AI won’t either. It needs daring human talents like those from Sandfall or Embark to create something remarkable and loveable.

That means:

Some of the very best video games ever made performed significantly worse. And that’s a bit sad.

I found the whole release process of Silksong quite anti-climactic. In contrast, the shadow drop of Metroid Prime Remastered was great marketing.

You can‘t make a general rule out of that, but: With the myriads of game announcements these days, a shadow drop can generate the attention which makes the difference.

I understand why Sony is considering to stop porting to PC.

One important aspect wasn’t discussed yet: Games published by SIE (includes games from PS Studios and others like Stellar Blade) are costly to produce, but their direct financial effect seems to be quite low.

-> Sony is mainly the platform holder of PSN now. It’s exclusives are just that extra something to make PlayStation interesting, not more.

@CielloArc

I think it wasn’t the customers, it were the platform holders themselves who decided to go region-free, to avoid the manufacturing of different versions of physical media. The model of region locking stems from a time with different TV standards in different parts of the world. But today, we all watch streams in 60 Hz on our phones.

Region locking for games, and it is a thing for streaming. Our individual opinions about this topic hardly matters, sadly.

Sony‘s UI designers have some spare time for this stuff. If PS6 would release in two years, I would expect that they are actively working on its UI plus an adaptation for PS Portal.

What to make of this?

Will Sony follow here the approach of Breath of the Wild? While it was the „Wii U Zelda“ for the longest time of development, being the top release game for Switch changed the whole reception.

You can’t compare the system numbers of PS5 and poor Wii U, sure. But if the PS6 shows a phenomenal graphical improvement over PS5, Intergalactic could become THE PS6 game.

In hindsight, it’s always clear what the smart decision was and who have made it. The people at Microsoft‘s purchasing department are probably not more or less clever as those at Sony‘s. These contracts can be pretty tricky, and it’s always a kind of bet.

It’s especially hard for the purchasers when the own manufacturing numbers are not planned far into the future. That can be the case here, because the extent of the subsidies for Xbox Series unit prices and therefore the sales numbers are certainly difficult question for Microsoft to answer.

Instead of saying „MS purchasing department is stupid“ I‘d rather say „Microsoft‘s Xbox strategy is a big mess with many possible negative effects on operation“.

@Elfuggingjefe

The Sony executives of today think that way. Hermen and Big Jimbo didn’t: two European megalomaniacs, who wanted to show Hollywood what the biggest contemporary entertainment industry is.

@CielloArc

Why might it sound crazy? Most people would do this I guess, it’s rational.

On the other hand, though, people buy cars with bigger engines in countries with a general speed limit. NOT so rational.

Here in Germany, every electronics market now offers the PS5 (without disk drive) bundled with FC 26 for only 350 euros.

This will shift huge numbers, especially in the anticipation of GTA6.

The big news from this table is Anno 117 on #2, above FC 26, Battlefield 6 and Pokemon. That’s an incredible success for such a niche of genre. And maybe it’s the bestselling game Made in Germany of all time.

His message is very much „Sony wants us to only work on PS2 emulation because they are not happy with it yet, PS3 is explicitly not part of the ongoing contract, and Sony is not showing any real interest in making a new contract anytime soon. I want to increase the pressure on our contract partner Sony with this public interview, but I‘m not sure if this is a good idea.“

@Oram77 Not exclusives or prioritising, but designing a game around the specs of a certain platform. Hades 2 and Silksong are designed around the specs of NS1, GTA6 around the specs of PS5, etc. And as a publisher, I would target NS2, PS4 and SteamDeck to address a very big market (which also includes lower-spec PCs).