Comments 203

Re: PS5, PS4's Gran Turismo 7 Continues to Get Better and Better

Mortal

@Luigia being cross-gen didn't hold PD back - PD built GT7 using the same game engine they've used previously, they simply improved the engine for PS5 and built GT7 to maximize that engine from the start of production. The decision to go cross-gen was made well into production, and was an option because the engine is scalable.

GT7 was always going to look and perform like it does on PS5, being cross-gen had no impact on that.

Re: Sony Allegedly Pausing PSVR2 Production Due to Surplus of Unsold Stock

Mortal

"according to an article by Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki, who has had his stories corrected by the manufacturer in the past."

It's around about this point that you would normally stop writing your article and either completely remove reference to the source or throw the article in the trash, as the poor sales of PSVR2 isn't news - the device has a niche market and high cost, it's sales were always going to be low which would impact production, but writing an article based on an account from a dubious and questionable source is tantamount to peddling gossip that you know is likely inaccurate.

Lots of gamers use PushSquare as a primary source of PlayStation related news. Do better, PushSquare. Instead of peddling gossip for clicks, go to the source and get facts to report on. If there are no facts, there is no story.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?

Mortal

About 35 hours in. 8/10.

The open-world aspects of the game, while engaging in the first area, tend to drag the pacing down later on. The main story missions start to build up tension that you want to focus and build on, but then you get spat out into an open-world area that has you completely ignore the main story for a few hours.

Overall it's a great game, I just wish it stopped trying to remind me of certain Ubisoft games...

Re: Everyone's Talking About Eve's Outfits in PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade

Mortal

@Sanquine my point was that Larian didn't push that content to the front of all of their media. It exists. It is there. It was not made to be the focus of the game.

I don't think anyone is "pissed" about the decision to focus so much on the outfits. From what I've read, people are simply stating that the game isn't for them due to how the game is focusing on the sexualization of the protagonist, rather than what a game actually needs to be good, like well written characters, or a unique game mechanics etc.

Re: Everyone's Talking About Eve's Outfits in PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade

Mortal

I'm steering clear of this one. To the people that compare this situation to Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate - a big difference is that CDPR and Larian didn't push the sexual content in those games as if it's what they were most excited to bring, where as the Stellar Blade devs push these outfits ahead of any other aspect of the game. The dev interviews I've seen, they come across like horny teenagers trying to create their perfect girlfriend in a videogame, but were told they had to do something else with the game as well.

Re: Horizon Dev Reportedly Loses 10% of Staff After PlayStation Layoffs

Mortal

Yes, it sucks that more people have been layed off, but it's also a part of this industry - developers hire staff to work projects, and then lay them off once the project is done. The pandemic lock-downs simply amplified the amount of staff hired due to more demand for digital content and services.

What I'd like to see in these articles is a tally of what the developers staffing levels were pre-pandemic vs. the amount of staff layed off. Bungie for instance layed off 100 staff, yet had increased their staff levels by around 25% since Covid lockdowns started.

Re: Poll: What Do You Think of PSVR2, One Year Later?

Mortal

@Member_the_game same here.

Interested? Yeah.
Willing to pay that much for it? Hell no. It costs as much as the PS5 itself and will only ever have a small collection of good games for it, making it way too expensive for what it is.

There are a handful of companies that will rent you one for a reasonable price though...

Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth PS5 Demo Patch Available Now

Mortal

@MUG3NHC I can't tell if you're joking, sarcastic or serious. For well over a decade those of us that played and loved the original on PS1 have been asking for a remake, and now not only do we get a remake, but it's a reimagining that promises to rewrite the story in a ways fans will draw nostalgia from and enjoy, all in modern graphics.

And then we've got you being a sour-puss, stomping your feet and complaining that it's not good enough. Maybe Square-Enix should have called it in and reimagined the tale, but with PS1 era graphics...

Re: 13 More Games Coming to PS Plus Extra, Premium This Month

Mortal

Tales of Arise will be it for me.

I wouldn't say NFS Unbound was overlooked as much as it was looked at and passed over after people saw the garish cell-shading special effects they chose to add, trying to make the game seem edgy and cool. Either make the entire game cell-shaded, or leave it alone out.

Re: Xbox Has Allegedly Insisted It Won't Stop Making Consoles, As PS5 Port Rumours Mount

Mortal

Still making consoles but not focusing on beating Sony in sales fits Microsoft's approach to gaming. Since the Xbox One their approach has been "What else?"
"What else can we get the console to do?"
"What else will gamers want the console to do?"
"What else can we put GamePass on?"
"What else can we do to increase our stake in the industry?"

They focus on everything but the games, leaving that to the developers, and considering making a console their only prerogative.

You'd think having failed to dominate in sales that they would realize "What else?" isn't what gamers, the people buying their consoles, actually want. Instead they've added "What else can we put our games on?" to the list.

All they need to actually do is focus on the console, support their first party devs more and help them make better games!

Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About All of the Xbox Multiplatform Rumours?

Mortal

Aside from finding humor in Microsoft buying developers, pushing them to make Xbox exclusive games and then suddenly pivoting on that, I'm indifferent to it.

It doesn't really matter who makes the game, as long as the game is good.

Aside from Gears of War, Xbox doesn't have anything that'd interest me.

Re: Rumour: Xbox Console Exclusive Starfield Is Setting a Course for PS5

Mortal

Bethesda: Hey, let's make a Skyrim in space! It'll be multiplatform and expansive! Have a great story and allow you to "visit" thousands of planets!

Microsoft: Hello Bethesda. We're going to buy you now, okay? And that Skyrim in space is going to be exclusive to Xbox, okay?

Bethesda: But what about what we've done so far for the PS5 version?

Microsoft: Just cancel that stuff. We'll make it worth your while. We'll push it hard as an exclusive, it'll be the focal point and a console seller! It'll be GOTY and make us millions!

Starfield releases to middling reviews and sees player base fall after a few months

Microsoft: Hey Bethesda, you still got that PS5 code hanging around? We may want to release on other consoles... The game didn't do so well and we need to make some money quickly...

*I will not be buying Starfield unless it's free.

Re: Insomniac Devs Forced to Speak Out Against Social Media Abuse Over the Lack of Spider-Man 2 Updates

Mortal

@theSpectre the amusing thing is that forums have existed for millennia as a way to express opinions, except as far back as ancient times, it was always a representative that took the feedback of their people to those in power, same as we have today in constituents and politicians. It was always this way because there has always been people who resort to violence, threats, intimidation and vulgar acts if given the freedom to. Social media just removed the barrier, bypassing the representative, allowing people to truly show what they think without their representative editing the feedback to make it civil.

Re: Insomniac Devs Forced to Speak Out Against Social Media Abuse Over the Lack of Spider-Man 2 Updates

Mortal

It could maybe not be that these people feel entitled, or that they're doing it because they "love" the game. It could just be malicious, knowing that sending abusive messages or creepy voicemails gets attention and ruins someone's day.

Personally, if I were a dev I'd stay off of social media. If fans want to contact me, they'd have to go to the company website and send an email. There would be a filter setup to delete any email containing abusive language and block the email address. If the offending sender's email address is registered to an in-game account, that account gets terminated.

Don't give these delinquents attention. Mute them.

Re: Microsoft, Activision Cut 1,900 Jobs in More Video Game Layoffs

Mortal

Mike Ybarra quitting is quite a telling signal. It's likely that Activision/Blizzard had forecasts for the year that were okay, but after the acquisition, Microsoft likely took a look at their current revenue forecasts, decided it wasn't enough against the $69bill they just spent and so cuts would have to be made to reduce operation costs and help increase gains against the cost of acquisition, resulting in Ybarra deciding it isn't worth sticking around.

None of Microsoft acquisitions have performed well post-acquisition.

Re: The Day Before Dev Resurfaces, Blames Failure on 'Gold Rush' of Negative Takes

Mortal

It's not the bloggers fault! It's my mum's fault!

She raised me to question everything, especially when it comes to investments. When the game launched in a buggy state, missing core features and being revealed to have been built using assets purchased online, I decided not to buy it.

If me mum hadn't raised me to be cautious, I'd have purchased it without question and the game would still be alive today! Totally me mum's fault!

Re: More Cars, Events for Gran Turismo 7 in 1.42 Update on PS5, PS4

Mortal

@JAMes-BroWWWn

Wiki defines GAAS as "In the video game industry, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service. Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game."

Aside from the initial buy-in, there is no content locked behind season passes, all updates are free and monetization is not pushed as PD do not rely on gamers buying in-game currency to keep the game alive. GT7 does not qualify as GAAS.

Re: Baldur's Gate 3 on PS Plus Is Probably Never Going to Happen

Mortal

Yeah, I agree with Swen. He's a good guy.

While I do use Spotify, I still have a sizeable physical music collection as there is stuff that you just can't find on the various music streaming services (someone go find QueenAdreena's cover of Jolene or The Feeding album by American Head Charge on a music streaming platform). If consumers are willing to get used to not owning their games, then they also have to be willing to accept that if the platform goes under or delists the game, they no longer have access to it... And no-one will be okay with that.

Re: Suicide Squad Teases Major Post-Launch Support, 'Hundreds' of Build Combinations

Mortal

It depends on the price-point. One of the highlights of the recent beta for me was the story and interactions between characters - if they nail that through-out the main story, it may be worth picking up if it's cheap enough. People are upset about the "live service" aspects, but you can play the main story and put the game down once done, never engaging in the end-game live service stuff.

Re: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Previews Are Far from Positive

Mortal

@Bamila... tell me you haven't played Marvel's Midnight Suns without telling me you haven't played Marvel's Midnight Suns!

Avengers and Anthem were Live Service games. Live Service being a game where there is content continually added to the game to keep people playing past the main story, the additional content being end-game content. Marvel's Midnight Suns does not have that. It had a DLC "season pass" that gave you 4 additional characters and their related missions, but once you were done the main content, that was it.

Further to this, Midnight Sun's is a turn-based deck building action game. Nothing like the live action of Live Service games like Destiny 2 or Fortnite!

Re: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Previews Are Far from Positive

Mortal

I had the pleasure of playing the recent beta, and took away an almost identicle opinion to what's been expressed by the gaming media - the interactions between characters and cut-scenes are humorous and fun, the rest of the game not so much.

To the people harping on about "live service killing this game" - live service isn't what is going to kill the game. It can't. Live service in this respect is end-game content that rotates to keep the players engaged. Live service can sustain a game with end-game content, but not kill it. As previews (and those of us who played the beta) attest - the problem the game has is filler missions and basic, repetitive objectives. You can completely remove live service from this and still have the same filler missions and repetitious attack or defend objectives. Live services has nothing to do with that. It's a design choice Rocksteady made to try to expand the core story to make it feel bigger and less like an on-the-rails story focused game, like the Batman/Arkham games.

Re: Sony's Third-Party Chief Explains How PlayStation Makes PS5 the Best Place to Play

Mortal

@Nem I agree! As someone who wears a ring I found that if my grasp isn't tight, the vibration of controller against the ring makes a loud "BRRRR" noise, ruining immersion.

What Sony need to do is create profiles in much the way a laptop has power profiles - if my controller is plugged into power, have the adaptive triggers and rumble on. If it is not plugged in to power, allow me to turn rumble off and reduce adaptive trigger/turn that off.

Re: ISPs Seemingly Clamping Down on Downloads of Stolen Marvel's Wolverine Build

Mortal

Working at one of Canada's largest ISPs I can say that it's rarely ever the ISP that initiates this stuff. Usually the copyright holder tracks the IP address to the ISP, issues a warning that one of their customers is downloading copyrighted material and the ISP issues a warning to the customer. The ISP has no interest in punishing the customer unless the copyright holder pursues it and punishes the ISP.

Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Targeting September 2024, Will Have Proprietary Upscaling Tech

Mortal

@DennisReynolds I agree, sir.

As we saw with the PS4 Pro, devs won't actually make games specifically for the Pro console - they'll continue to target the base console and maybe release a patch that improves frame rates on the Pro console. Maybe.

The prospect of the console being able to use machine learning and super sampling is interesting, but ultimately people will be amazed by it for a little while and then forget it and get on with playing whatever game they're playing.

Re: The First Descendant Touches Down on PS5, PS4 in Summer 2024

Mortal

Having played the recent beta and read some of the feedback and news from the developer, Nexon Games, I'm quite optimistic! They're taking players feedback and have been working to balance progression so it has a meaningful effort vs. reward cycle.

It's free-to-play, and so people writing it off just because it's free-to-play and a looter-shooter, without ever actually having played the game, are just selling it short because that's the trend. It's free-to-play, so it'll cost you exactly $0.00 to play the game when it comes out and form an opinion based on how the game actually plays!