MrPeanutbutterz

Nathan Drake as the new Bond. What a time to be alive.

@Brockybrock Well I agree with you there, but find AC better than FM. So FM on PlayStation would be a total nothing-burger.

Shades of "we have GT at home".

@Propaperpusher

The lackluster sales just proves I'm not the only one tired of games that skip being what made games great. Capcom is doing it right, Konami is trying.

What made games great is the gameplay, which Saros has by the bucketload. It gets a lot wrong, but the gameplay has near unanimous praise. Pragmata on Lunatic difficulty is about as difficult as Saros. Ever play Street Fighter 6 online? Saros is a stroll through a grassy meadow compared to how difficult that is.

I do not want my games with ridiculous difficulty plus rogue like, wtf. I like my games like I like my book story driven.

This is the studio's easiest game by some margin. The in-game modifiers and constant upgrades of your abilities (plus accessibility options) means you can trivialise it.

But if you're that desperate for a story then maybe stick to the books? It's not like games have (outside of a literal handful of exceptions) have engaging writing (particularly when compared to books).

I grew up playing games that had interesting stories, experiences and creative all around. Sometimes the difficulty was just bad designed, now difficulty is by design.

So did I. I also grew up with games that didn't roll the credits just because I pressed start on the title screen. They expected me to engage with the gameplay mechanics.

I'm home with two toddlers, my life is already super difficult. I do not want to escape to play something that's difficult for difficult sake. My badge of honor is getting through the day with both my kids alive and smarter than the day before.

Happy for you that your kids are doing well, but most of us also have lives and various difficulties going on too.

@Brockybrock Assetto Corsa exists. Playground Games don't develop FM, that was Turn10. The last great FM was FM4 on the 360, so if one of the newer games showed up on PlayStation, it would simply be an alternative to GT that does the same things, just not as well.

@Oram77 It's amazing that they bought the biggest multiformat publishing house (on top of one of the other biggest), and only then realised that a lot of the worth and value of them stems from them being multiformat.

@sanderson72 Your continued devotion to the PS4 Pro and rubbishing of the PS5 sure is a choice. Ever stop to think people bought Returnal because they were also fans of Housemarque? And/or like challenging games?

@BrettAwesome The title is a period of astronomic time releating to eclipses, which is one of the central themes/mechanics of the game.

@Boxmonkey Conversely, I went to buy Doom The Dark Ages from my local CEX in the new year and it was €60. Instead I bought it digitally on sale for €26. Other random examples of the current sale - Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - €45 from CEX, €35 in the PlayStation Store Sale. Expedition 33 - €55 from CEX, deluxe edition from the Store is €47.99.

I still buy physically (Pragmata, Saros, Nioh 3 all on my coffee table on disc), but the fact is 85% of software sold on PS5 is digital, and if you can track down a disc, it's not always cheaper.

So no, they're not usually dreadful vs. a secondhand retailer that's got a very limited set of locations. In fact, they're frequently better than CEX pricing.

2, Lost Legacy, 3, 4, 1.

The pacing of 4 is garbage and the game is bloated.

Clearly the games industry has grown exponentially over the last decade

It absolutely has not grown exponentially since 2016.

I'm also not seeing how the negative reaction to this game is "weird". It's barely a videogame. That clip posted above, you couldn't pay me to twiddle a controller to this sort of barely interactive trash.

@Boxmonkey Loads. Besides, Sony have already made considerable bank from the amount of copies it's sold.

So yes, it's a success.

@rjejr What if it doesn't? Err, nothing. Unless Rockstar are planning to cancel GTA6 outright, but it would still be mostly nothing.

Besides, in a lot of the world your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

@ErrantRob I've picked up the disc launcher for the first time about ten minutes ago... did the have to make the UI for it so noisy? Why is there a big rotating circle that makes the battlefield trickier to read around me when engaging enemies?

I was looking forward to unlocking the last few weapons, but this disc launcher is an instant "nope".

The only Housemarque game I've ever dropped is Matterfall, but I've a feeling that this could be joining it (in contrast I pumped 120 hours into Returnal).

@Frmknst dude did you casually ignore how a significant majority of games sold are sold digitally these days? So the vast majority of the five million people who bought it "still has the game".

Saros

It didn't make the best first impression, then when I made it to the second biome it became an amazing game. I put down the fifth boss last night, just about to enter the sixth biome and it's very much back to being meh.

It's a fantastic game in many ways, it has corrected most people's complaints about Returnal (mine included), while introducing a bunch of its own.

The weapon variety is remarkably poor. Handguns are peashooters, the shotgun isn't effective vs. the bosses as most of them are fought at a distance, the automatic bow just feels mushy to use, while the charge one has terrible rate of fire. Which leaves the rifles. There's three. And they're all so similar they may as well be different fire modes on one.

I've three power weapons, and only the default rocket launcher feels useful. You unlock the lance at the same time as the bow, and it's effectively another bow.

I had to consult a guide to figure out what the weapon stats meant. I also didn't realise if I defeated a boss and had corrupted artefacts they were cleansed.

Despite the frustrations Returnal is the better game. I'm also left sad that we haven't had any arcade bangers like Resogun or Next Machina from Housemarque in a very long time.

@Flippygruffle I'd like to think they've ditched the rubbish puzzles, exposition, teen dating simulator (that was the Iron Woods) and gone back to the pure gameplay of the Greek games.

You missed the "who cares?" option in the poll.

@RadioHedgeFund You said "gamers are hungry, feed them" not "gamers want very specific types of snacks" which is what you claim to be implying.

@RadioHedgeFund They can't just spin up games that aren't already in the pipeline. And they did just release two big first party games within the space of a month.

Now if you like them or not that is of course your own valid opinion (taste being subjective of course), but they're both quality releases (and one comes in at a much more playable price point than a lot of games).

@Coolmusic Username checks out!

@BusyOlf Agree. Was absolutely sick of him when they added a stage with him to Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and that was one stage to a game 14 years ago.

He's also fine with MAGA money too these days, so you know, ***** him.

With the price probably being significant, the further erosion of game ownership and consumer rights, and the fact that games take aeons to develop and this gen saw a very poor cadence of first party releases, I'm good.

It's sad as gaming has been such a part of my life for so long, but the last few years really have made me double down my resources on other hobbies. Once I wrap up Saros, Nioh 3, and pick up screamer the ol' PS5 (my only gaming device) will be gathering dust for the foreseeable.

@MidnightDragonDX And they've just announced a price increase for the Switch 2! But yep, Sony are the only ones doing this, apparently.

@MidnightDragonDX The narrative that Sony are the big-bad and Nintendo and Microsoft are the do-gooder underdogs is always comedy gold.

Nintendo games barely go on sale (and even then it's by a small amount), their hardware has been potato-spec for a long time, but still costs a decent wedge.

Microsoft tried to buy their way to the top of the industry, but wouldn't you know that a sizeable chunk of the value of the multiformat publishing houses they bought was the very fact that they were multiformat. Then when people didn't flock to Xbox they were left with egg on their faces (about 76 billions worth) and pivoted to multiformat publishing.

@TheDarts Wrong. But it's an action game. I'm there for the action gameplay not whatever secondary school-level fiction writing that's framing it.

@TheDarts And what emotion do you think that was?

It's an action game. I'm playing it for the action sequences. Nothing else.

@TheDarts The only thing this made me "feel" was a wish for a mute butt9n for Diana.

@get2sammyb There's no "deals" tab on the PS App either. There is however a "best sellers" banner (with zero discounts contained within).

@chatbot If the sales don't come back you might have a point, but until such time that happens I'll leave my pitchfork in the shed. My comment was poking fun at people who are somehow never satisfied about the fact that there's been a perpetual sale on the store for about a decade. Now they've got their wish - no discounts.

@Voltan Same here! It really does seem like a bug/error as both titles were on sale from the previous one that expired at midnight last night.

Maybe they read the usual comments here under the sales articles and concluded there's no point putting games on sale as people either have everything already or think they're all garbage?

@Dogbreath They've rectified most of the design issues with Returnal, and the PS5 has a much larger install base now than when Returnal released.

@D6rkLordS6t6n I actually paid €5 less for Saros at launch than I did Returnal at launch.

And while the overall mess here isn't as bad here as the US, we're also feeling the pinch of the Cheeto President's actions.

I was due to meet a friend on Thursday for lunch, she cancelled on me today because the price of diesel here is too much to justify the trip (I'm in Ireland FFS).

@SuplexingTrains

See, this is the sort of comment that doesn't make sense to me. If the devs didn't care about the story, they wouldn't have had one. But with Returnal (haven't played Saros), there are so many audio logs... The flashbacks... The cutscenes when you die.

The logs are all easy to ignore, and the cutscenes are skippable. So yes, people wave away the complaints as "gameplay-first", because that's exactly what it is.

But of course there's something resembling a story. Go play the first Mario game. There's a "story" to that, but it's there to accommodate the gameplay.

@SuplexingTrains Okay, congrats, I guess? I never claimed my ancedotal experience was anything more than that. And who else's anecdotal experience am I supposed to relay?

One hour of this game at original launch was all it took for me to realise the Series X I owned was very much surplus to requirements.

So I boxed it up, sold it to a buddy who was looking for a Series X to play Starfield as he's a diehard Bethesda fan. He hated it too (though kept the Xbox).

@dasd2 Modern gamer self-entitlement. What's needed is for you to go play games you're actually interested in.

@PuppetMaster I just can't comprehend it. Like did they walk into an arcade thirty something years ago, see Metal Slug, and say "I don't think Marco has any depth as a war hero, game is 0/10". Or throw their NES controller at the wall when they finished World Two of Super Mario Bros. and say "of course she's not in this castle either, such predictable writing!".

I always felt that the name of the medium should be the big giveaway. Videogames. They're quite literally games. Like I'm not into sports (well, I enjoy cycling, but you get what I mean), but I wouldn't go to a tennis match or tune into the snooker for the narrative, characters, etc. I would to observe the game.

Though the funniest thing for me in all of this is anyone I've ever met that is a "story-first" gamer doesn't read because plot-twist, the medium whose entire purpose and hook is to tell a story is infinitely better at telling stories than the medium where the hook is using interactivity and direct control to overcome various fail-states (AKA "winning the game").

What your poll reveals is a large proportion of poll participants have a combination of poor taste, self-entitlement, and subscription service brain-rot.

Isn't saying the Pro version will look best kinda redundant? Of course it will be.

It's like Pure Xbox saying the Series X version will be better looking than the Series S.

@Americansamurai1 I couldn't give a honk about how you spend your money. I'm here to discuss (checks notes) games. I'm assuming you are too. So I'm curious about the mindset of someone that takes a gameplay-first game (as in, that's 95% of the appeal of it), then says "nah, there's a goofy story beat" and skips it.

Seeing as the gameplay is getting almost universal praise, what you're doing is akin to skipping one of the best steakhouses in town because their side salad that almost no one orders isn't good.

@species Yup, voting with your wallet is your right and something to use when you see fit.

I guess I seem to be an outlier with modern games. I skip every cutscene. I don't even know the name of Saros' protagonist, yet have already played 16 hours, it's my GotY so far (and will be right up there come December).

I'm here almost exclusively for the gameplay, very little else.

@Dom_31 Yeo, had more or less the same experience.

I wanted to cash out after the second biome's boss, ended my run there, etc. Jumped into the third and got slapped. Went back via the start and blasted through it.

I was worried because it was being made out the game would be a breeze vs. Returnal, but it's really not.

@Americansamurai1 @species You guys are skipping a gameplay-driven game because of some goofy story ending?

Saros for me (barely). After a shaky start in the first biome, it's come alive beautifully. Housemarque really do have some of the best gunplay in the business. My only complaint about it is it's kinda made Returnal redundant.

Pragmata is so very close to it. The hacking/shooting is something I've never seen before, and there's a great heft to the gunplay as well. I didn't care for the story, and was thoroughly sick of listening to Diana by the end.

I anticipate precious little being up there with those two at the end of the year.

@ErrantRob Just use the Carcosa Modifiers to stack the odds against you? Don't buy upgrades after a run?

It took me a lot longer to beat the first biome in Saros than Returnal's (and I breezed through the rest of Returnal after that. No such breezing happening with Ssros).