MrPeanutbutterz

The industry is cooked. I will say that Nacon recently left a sour taste in my mouth with Test Drive Solar Crown - downloaded it via PS Plus, and it wouldn't allow me progress past the title screen without forcing me to make a Nacon account. Instantly deleted.

@dskatter The main thing I miss from owning a Series X is Quick Resume, which is an amazing feature.

And dare I say, I preferred the Series X's aesthetics. An unassuming black box you could plonk down anywhere. One of my mates plumped for one over a PS5 as he felt his kiddo would be drawn to the weird shape of it, whereas the Series X is just a box that sits there.

DonaldGloverGooddotgif.

Good, the progression in FH5 is garbage.

@UltimateOtaku91 That's because they didn't have their homework finished for school this morning and had their digital privileges taken away 😂

@nomither6 Oh look, another totally disingenuous comment. The Switch 2 is clearly a hybrid console and has been pointed out to you, rolled Nintendo's handheld and home console business into one. Want a handheld Nintendo? You buy a Switch 2. Want a console for the home from Nintendo? You buy a Switch 2.

You might be familiar with it's predecessor - it's close to becoming the highest-selling console of all time, and the exact same business model has helped it do so.

Took a notion and played a few PS Plus games. I have Premium but only because it renews at half price, so why not.

First up is Dredge. After two sessions the dashboard says I'm 80% complete. Enjoyed it immensely, but is the type of game I'll probably never play again once I finish it.

Also downloaded Cocoon. I'm not too deep into it (beat the first two bosses), but such a charming art style, and some ingenious level design.

For more hectic gameplay I've got Doom The Dark Ages. Love everything about this bar the soundtrack. It did prompt me to boot up Doom Eternal (the PS4 version) for the first time in a long time and I think that the latter is somehow the better-looking game.

Planning on getting back to either Dark Souls III or Death Stranding 2 this evening.

@Sakai Sony have been bad this gen for sure, but in no universe have they been as bad as Microsoft.

I mean, the Xbox brand is widely considered to be dead now. Unless PlayStation is also widely considered to be dead (hint - it's not) then no, one isn't as bad as the other.

@PuppetMaster Yup. Add Trials to that list too (or at least a native PS5 versionnof Rising that doesn't have loading that takes longer than some of the tracks).

@Oram77 Yep. Wipeout 2097 is my favourite game ever made, and I'm getting those vibes from it too.

PleaseBeGood

I'll riff on what I said in the other thread. Sony effectively bought Mo Salah, then said "okay mate, you're now playing in goals", and then fired him before he even got a game. Madness.

Outside of the console hardware itself (because I'm now deeply entrenched in their ecosystem), I'm finding it very hard these days to care about PlayStation and their output. It's almost like they are incapable of making a game that isn't a third person character-action title (yes, I'm still salty about how they treated Evolution Studios, but particularly Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool). The only game under their banner I'm genuinely looking forward to is Saros.

Hulst needs to go, but at the same time I feel like this is a trickle down of a much bigger problem - the industry is cooked, and with RAMageddon getting into a full swing, it's headed for a crash.

Gaming has to be heading for a crash at this rate.

One of the reasons I was in for a PS5 on launch day was the remake of Demon's Souls. Still looks and sounds better than a lot of games released this gen.

So when I heard that Bluepoint were making an original game, I was kinda confused - Sony bought the best remake/remaster studio in the business, has hit multiple home runs for them doing just that, and instead of tasking them with remake/remastering one of their much-loved but dormant IP, they put them on an original game. That was baffling enough...

... this however, is complete lunacy.

@Balaam_

while I only took a cursory glance at the trophy list it seems well designed (i.e. no online trophies, no difficulty related trophies, no low effort tacked on modes like wave survival or rogue like stuff etc).

For such an "elite" trophy hunter you sure don't like being tasked with anything more complex than booting the game up.

I'd love to see your Platinum collection, bet it's all garbage.

Maybe because I was raised on 8/16-bit/arcade experiences, but this sort of "tweak everything to oblivion" set up actively puts me off games these days.

Almost like "we couldn't balance it properly ourselves so here's access to all the dials".

@HaveTheSauce Yep, nothing beats the feel of the game in your own hands (just ignore the fact that I bought Concord off the back of one of the betas).

Would love a demo for this!

Is it also inspired by games with engaging gameplay? Because Control certainly wasn't as it played a very weak game of third person shooting.

@OldGamer999 You reckon Nintendo didn't have experience making 2D Mario games before Wonder? Lol.

So glad I learned the lesson early that these things just aren't worth it.

This is extremely cool, but I've just got 99% of the experience from watching the video.

@Member_the_game How old that work, exactly? PS Extra/Premium already exist, so GamePass would cannibalise sales of them. And seeing as Microsoft is seeing success on PS5 (look at the sales of Forza Horizon 5), it'd also cannibalise game sales (which is part of the reason why the Xbox brand is dead).

Forbidden West and DS2 are the best looking games this gen to my eyes. Of course, just as amazing art design is necessary to elevate the visuals, but they're not going to do that with any rickety ol' engine.

@Northern_munkey I don't. All moot as there's a forced Nacon login at boot. Can't bypass it without making account.

Won't be engaging with any of that nonsense, so the game is already deleted.

@VeganH Witcher III has difficulty options though. Playing on Death March is a grueling experience over the easiest setting.

@BowTiesAreCool Sometimes artistic vision is immune to the input of the "higher ups".

Or maybe the "higher ups" looked at the success of Elden Ring and said "yeah let's do that".

@Northern_munkey Ta for the reply, that's kinda where I figured it would fall. I'll queue it up for download later so!

@chesheer What's so hard to understand about subjective opinion? Love it or hate it, it's clearly distinctive looking.

Is Test Drive worth a noodle about with now?

I'm very interested in this now, but I'm one of the lost souls who pre-ordered Concord (the open beta was fun, damnit).

So yeah, I'll wait and see.

@Boomers-r-us The first two Nioh games sold about eight million, and swords have been a thing for you know, a very long time.

But yes, everyone is bandwagon jumping with this.

I'm cool with this. I still coo at the graphics of games like Forbidden West and Rift Apart, and more recent releases like the new Doom, and Death Stranding 2. And most of the other games I've played recently are things like Absolum, Shinobi, Dredge, Street Fighter 6. Don't need bleeding edge hardware for any of that.

I think it's plateaued in the sense that there's still room for improvement, but a high fidelity game in 2026 is "good" enough for me, plus killer art design always pure trumps tech.

Just hope my PS5 lasts the distance, as it's a 11xx series unit, and is still barely audible to this day.

Hands up if you're irrelevant and saltier than the Dead Sea about it...

@TrollOfWar

Remember when Insomniac Games said the same about the PC port?

This was back when they were still an independent studio.

@DrVenture69 Yep picked it up in the same sale.

I do actually have Premium (as it auto renews every year for the price of Essential, so I'd be a fool not to keep it) and played the demo there. That sold me immediately on the game. But as you say, it's nonsense that the demo is gated behind Premium.

I've finished the first six chapters now, and so far there's been a nice variation to them all.

@ilyn Pontif was the last boss I put down! Irithyll is a chore for sure.

I've rinsed the Demon's Ruins, have reached both Profaned Capital and Anor Londo. Also at the third bonfire in Ashes of Ariandel.

Like, just get over yourselves, man.

Is that a shred of self-awareness breaking through, Mr. Jaffe?

Doom The Dark Ages Rather enjoying this so far, much more than Etental. The dragon bits seem superfluous, and really missing those Mick Gordon tunes. Still great though.

Absolum Time to jump back in now the big update is out.

Shinobi Art of Vengeance A fab game let down a bit by the overly long levels. I also encountered an issue where I hadn't beaten a boss on an early level (because the game let me "finish" the level without doing so), and I was blocked from progressing later on. The game never communicated this to me, and it took a bit of Googling to find out WTH happened. Poor, poor game design.

Dark Souls III Enjoying my re-roll much more than my initial play years ago. Fromsoftware really have some of the best level design in the business. Dare I say the bosses in this are much better than a lot of what's found in Elden Ring too.

@Dman10 Would you rather if the games went on sale once in a blue moon instead? I'm really not seeing the issue with "popular games that are regularly discounted".

@Excess They're clearly happy with outsourcing. Streets of Rage 4 was (eventually) top tier. Shinobi Art of Vengeance is pretty nifty too (save the overly long levels).

@Dman10 Yeah that's how sales work...

Please call this what it actually is - pay extra to play at launch.

Holy smokes, that art design is off the charts.

@MS7000 Haha, thanks, didn't think I'd get roasted for that comment. I've also 21 upvotes at the minute - the duality of man.

I feel like if your buddy invited you in to see their "whiskey collection" and they showed you two bottles plus a miniature, you'd probably think "oooookay". Moreso if they termed it a master collection.

I'd love to see them all in one spot. And to have a way to play MG Rising on the PS5. That's probably the main game I miss from selling my Series X.

@Jacko11 Pardon me for having something resmbling standards.

The word "collection" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

It's already a sensational looking game on the base PS5, would love to see where a top spec PC could push it to.

In Decimal we trust.

When my console shut off twice unexpectedly on launch day I was jonesing for some stability updates

@Toot1st Well if it was on GamePass the majority wouldn't.

This looks amazing. Some of that Street Fighter art is videogames to me.