Comments 486

Re: Round Up: RAGE 2 Reviews Aren't All Rock and Roll

MrGawain

I get the feeling we’re in the period of the PS4 lifespan where we’ve hit the heights in the mid to mid-late section (Nier, Spider Man, God Of War etc...), and now everything else being judged against those games are never going to hit the same heights. I wouldn’t call it filler, just not as good as the glory days.

I bought Devil May Cry and enjoyed that, but nothing else really springs out to be worth my money.

Re: Feature: Sony Won't Be at E3 2019, But Here Are 7 Reasons to Still Be Hyped

MrGawain

It’s pretty obvious Sony are waiting to see what the new XB is going to be before announcing anything else. From all the rumours Microsoft are going to have the more powerful machine, so the PlayStation is going to have to be a far more financially appealing option. Plus you’ll see Sony gazump a XB2 reveal by announcing some big titles launching with the PS5- they still are going to have a more diverse lineup than the FPS heavy XBox.

Re: Sony's Flogging Days Gone Harder Than a Freaker Who Keeps Getting Back Up

MrGawain

@JoeBlogs

But to the average PS4 owner who is a borderline casual fan (me for example), I don't see the size of the horde. I see a browny-grey looking open world game where you shoot guns and try to avoid zombie monsters. It doesn't have a guy in a Spider suit or a guy with a big flying axe fighting ogres or robot dinosaurs. That's the sort of thing to get the non commited PS4 owner to part with their cash.

Not to say it won't be a great game, but it's a harder sell with this visual/genre hanging around it's neck.

Re: Animated Arcade Game Cuphead Skipping PS4

MrGawain

The truth is XB1 is not a direct competitor to Nintendo. If you want to play high def shooters you own an XB1, if you want to play more quirky family friendly stuff that isn't so bothered with 4K but works as a handheld then you get a Switch. I think most people would agree Cuphead will sell better to the Nintendo audience so it being on the Switch helps the developer.

As for PS4, it's that middle console that's competing for both markets, so it's unsurprising that relations aren't so friendly.

Re: Soapbox: The Destiny Divorce - What Bungie and Activision's Split Could Mean for Destiny

MrGawain

COD. Battlefield. Battlefront. Halo. Titanfall. Rainbow 6. The Division. Over watch. Player Unknown. Warframe. Fortnite. Splatoon. Anthem coming. Dozens more. And Fallout 76!

Maybe... just maybe there may be more online shooters on the market than the market can support? Destiny cost a lot, so maybe Activision aren’t wrong in axing it with the thought of loot boxes being banned. Let’s be honest, cash will come before art because without cash art doesn’t get made.

If I were Bungie I wouldn’t be so certain that Destiny going forward is a viable business model- unless they plan to cut costs or change how the game is paid for- which isn’t so easy in this race to F2P these days.

Re: Sony Made a Bad Decision to Skip E3 2019, Says Pachter

MrGawain

If I sell hula hoops, and 99% of my customers have hula hoops, and I barely have anything new in hula hoop technology to flog for a year, why would I rent a market stall with barely any product on it? Same for Sony, most of the core games market owns a PS4 and they know about the last few bits to come out on it. Showing the same demo's again of those last 3 games is just going to annoy people, and obviously the PS5 isn't going to be ready this year.

In my opinion the next gen of the PS/XB war will be won on who has the best exclusive launch games on their system, which takes a page out of how successful Ninty was with a jam packed first year for the Switch. I doubt that one console or the other will be massively overpowered to the other, so Sony are holding back their big guns to get early adopters next gen- even if they are going to release the last 3 games on both the PS4 and PS5.

Re: Game of the Year 2018: #1 - God of War

MrGawain

Playing through this after getting it for 20 quid in a sale. I'm enjoying it, although it is very stop and start from lots of things attacking to 2 minute dialogue scenes. where you have no control. It's more of a switching brawler game to animated movie thing.

Re: Japanese Sales Charts: PS4 Numbers Increase Dramatically, But Nothing Can Stop Smash

MrGawain

Let’s be honest: at this stage in the life of the PS4 most people who wanted one have bought one, there is far less new games driving sales, an the PS5 is looming on the horizon.

What I do find interesting is how the list of Switch games are all different genres. Nintendo has worked well to make a diverse selection of games and they all seem to be selling well- at least in Japan.

It wouldn’t hurt for Sony to take note and add some wrinkles into the mass of over the shoulder sandbox/story based adventure games.

Re: Obsidian, InXile Will No Longer Make PlayStation Games

MrGawain

@dani_i89

3 games isn’t much to convince a Nintendo fan like me to buy an XB1 though, is it? For the people that like XBox I’m happy they love it, but it definitely has a limited market- just like Nintendo isn’t going to be drawing in people that want shooters and Assassins Creed type games.

For the XB2 (or whatever the name is) to grow it’s user base it needs to draw in a new crowd of players. The XB1 only has 30 million consoles sold, and probably only 20 million people who bought those. Variety in games lineup will bring in more players.

Re: Soapbox: Fans Think PlayStation's Losing Momentum, And Sony's to Blame

MrGawain

Anyone would have thought they had replaced pretty much their entire management team in the past year.

My biggest issue with Playstation is they have put all their eggs into one basket by making lots of similiar sandbox games that they hype forever and a day. That isn't a balanced ecosphere of gaming and I'm starting to get a bit bored of it. Of course Nintendo is exciting at the moment with stuff like Splatoon, Arms, Octopath, Smash, and even Labo which dares to be different. Frankly if I never craft a pair of longjohns out of some cowhide and rivergrass and then stealthily raid a bandit camp it'll be too soon.

Re: Sony Confirms Zero E3 2019 Presence, Will Share New Plans Soon

MrGawain

From a monetary position this makes sense: if they have nothing to say, then why pay a fortune to stand on a stage and twiddle your thumbs?

But from a fan psychology position people are going to ask: ‘so does this mean they’ll be diddly squat new on the PS4 in 2019?’ Does it make people think twice about getting a PS4 for Christmas in anticipation for TLOU2 and Death Stranding next year? It feels like 2016 for the Wii U. Yeah they’ve got 3rd party but COD and Assassins Creed for another year are getting on people’s nerves. I get the feeling I may never buy another PS5 game again (depending on Kingdom Hearts 3).

Admittedly it doesn’t mean XB1 will be stealing players as there isn’t much on the horizon there either, but I do think people will consider in investing in a Switch as what seems the only vibrant platform with big exclusives coming in 2019. Curious to see if the PS5 launches with a heavy weighted games lineup.

Re: Obsidian, InXile Will No Longer Make PlayStation Games

MrGawain

Personally I'm of the opinion that XB suffers from having a lot of grey/brown/beige games where you shoot things and not much else. As a primary Nintendo player their console does nothing for me, whereas PS has a selection of japanese stuff/colourful 1st party games that got me to buy a PS4.

If Microsoft can use these developers to broaden their genres maybe they'll do better, but if all they do is make more Gears of Halo clones then they won't be doing much than making their current fanbase happy.

Re: Rumour: Is Sony Planning More MediEvil Games?

MrGawain

I think the biggest thing Sony are lacking in their lineup is a bit more humourous/lighthearted franchise. Uncharted, GOW, TLOF, HZD, and Spidey are great for their audience, but I get the feeling Ratchet and Clank, Little Big Planet and Knack aren't anywhere in comparison to what Nintendo does. It really wouldn't hurt putting some more good cartoony fun platformers and alike to appeal to a broader cusomer base. I know I wouldn't mind it.

Re: Sony Offers Brief Comment on PS5

MrGawain

Seeing there are 3-5 big 1st party titles left (and they cancelled the PS event this year so they aren't going to anything that big any more), you would guess were around 18 months away from a new generation.

I wouldn't be surprised if they ship it Q1 2020 so they don't experience stock shortages at Christmas.

Re: Sony Cancels PSX 2018 As It Looks Ahead to Next Year

MrGawain

At this point with Nintendo's inspired plan to release the Switch with an absolutely massive tentpole title that sold lots and lots of consoles and then brought out another six months later, I feel Sony would be smart to release the PS5 with The Last of Us 2, then follow it up with Death Stranding. Neither really float my boat, but it would make a lot of Mature PS4 owners early adopters of the PS5. Why waste a 'console seller' on a system that has probably reached full price sales saturation?

Re: Devil May Cry 5 Has Microtransactions for Some Stupid Reason

MrGawain

I’m not sure if I’m more frustrated that Capcom seem to have forgotten that the journey and challenge is what makes this sort of game work, or that there is a group of people out there that will buy this so they can quickly platinum a game to impress a friends list that doesn’t actually care about how clever you are for robbing yourself of the content of a game.

The only reason Capcom does it is because they know people will pay for it.

Re: PS4 Firmware Update 6.00 Released, Available to Download Now

MrGawain

At least I've heard about it now. For a while now I've only turned on my PS4 to watch Netflix and SKY but I hope to be playing Spider-Man soon and there's nothing I hate more than my 'quick half hour' of playtime being eaten into by one of these updates that really don't make owning a PS4 any better for me personally.

Re: Soapbox: Sony's in Danger of Becoming Closed Off

MrGawain

It’s pretty obvious both Sony and Microsoft are in a holding pattern until the next console is ready to announce. There are games left to come and the core fans will eat it up but the magic hype has definitely gone. It wasn’t too long ago where Wii U owners were feeling deserted by the Nintendo PR department. Now the Switch is out and even with a dip in original titles, there is far more hype around the Switch than the PS4. I own both and I just feel more excitement for playing a year old indie port on the go, than Sony’s big autumn title that I’ve known about for two and a half years.

At some point PlayStation will bring its A game and I’ll be interested again, but at the moment it’s a distant 2nd to the white hot Switch.

Re: Guide: Best PS4 Exclusives 2018 - 20 Essential PlayStation 4 Games

MrGawain

Personally I don’t think the PS4 has had particularly good exclusives this gen compared to previous consoles. A lot of the different or kids stuff has been rather ‘meh’, and in recent years there’s been a reliance on sandbox games. Plus quite a few of these exclusives can be played on a PS3 if not so shiny. Separating the exclusives from the massive third party support really does show up a weakness.

Saying that, still leaps a bounds better than XB1. But nowhere as good as the Switch when it comes to diversity in game variety.

Re: We're Making a Huge Bet Every Time We Start a New Project, Reveals Sony

MrGawain

Although I commend Sony in new IP (as in characters, worlds, etc), they are sort of playing it safe in the fact they make a lot of 3rd person open world/semi open world games with a lot of cg cutscenes. E3 highlighted the problem with 4 games that follow the template of that 3rd person open world. Dreams is the only thing in a while that doesn’t fit that formula (and I don’t think many people are aware of what that game is), and we get a few remasterers of stuff like Parappa and Medievil to mix it up- but they are not really risks being rereleases. For me personally I’m a little bored of the collectathon sandbox with 12 story chapters these days, and my PlayStation hasn’t been used to play games for a while.

The risk is not deviation, the risk is playing in the sandbox for too long.

Re: Sony Feels It Has the 'Right Amount' of First-Party Teams

MrGawain

@Paranoimia

“We’re never going to be like Nintendo, holding the lion’s share of the Nintendo platform game business, because that’s not the way we work,” he said, reinforcing the notion that Sony’s exclusives exist to complement its console’s catalogue of third-party titles. “We want to make the PlayStation platform available to all of our third-partners. I think we build success for PlayStation by getting as many people inside the tent as possible that aren’t necessarily controlled by Worldwide Studios.”

To me he's saying Nintendo is stifiling 3rd Party by being mean and releasing to many games in competiton. It's like he's talking to Ubisoft, EA, and Activision and telling them they'll get a fairer deal on PS4 than on the Switch. In reality loads of indie 3rd party games have done really well and Crash has just been a big seller on the Switch.

It just seems the sort of catty remark that I couldn't imagine Kaz Hirai or Andrew House making about the competition. It makes Layden seem like he's having to defend Sony against the first bit of competition they've had in 5 years.

Re: Sony Feels It Has the 'Right Amount' of First-Party Teams

MrGawain

For big good looking games with deep narrative for core games Sony wins.

For unique original games with fantastic control that anyone can play, Nintendo wins.

There are probably more Nintendo games released a year but they aren’t all Breath of The Wild. There is no need to have a measuring contest of who’s is bigger- If you like Sony buy Sony, if you like Nintendo, buy Nintendo, if you like both then pick and choose from both.

The real story here is why Layden feels the need to be so defensive about why Sony is better than Nintendo? They have the biggest selling console by a mile, these little jabs feels like he can feel Miyamoto breathing down his neck.

Re: Sony Explains Its First, Best, Must Philosophy to PS4 Exclusives

MrGawain

‘...the company wants to expand the spectrum of experiences on PlayStation, rather than double-down in categories already well serviced. “We’re not here to create games that steal market share from other publishers,” he concluded.’

So 90% of Sony’s output of recent games have been because 3rd party has been ignoring the Sandbox narrative genre?

Frankly I think what he’s saying is an insult to Sony’s first party studios. It implies they aren’t trying their hardest to create the best they can to give 3rd party a chance. Which is also an insult to 3rd party games as well.

I’m guessing it’s a thinly veiled jab at Nintendo for having first party games that dominate the sales on their systems, but to me all games are competition to each other- people will put their finite money in what they want the most. That doesn’t mean Nintendo should lower game production to force people to buy a 3rd party game in a different genre instead. If you’re spending your last £50 on Spider Man, you won’t be buying Red Dead, or COD, or 4 indie games for the same money. It’s the duty of the game publisher to have a good idea, execute it to the best of your ability so the customer gets a good game for their buck, and expect your competition to do the same.

Re: Sony Issues Statement Regarding Fortnite Cross-Platform Play on PS4

MrGawain

I can remember a time when XBox was the dominant brand in gaming but then with few unpopular policies and some bad PR they lost it all and Sony stepped in. The same could be said with Nintendo with the N64.

Playstation should be wary of ignoring it's customers because there are no guarantees they'll continue their dominance with the PS5 if they fall into complacency and bullishness.