Mythologue

It's wishful thinking, I know, but a modern Planescape game would slay.

Sounds like a "just buy it on Steam" type of game. Especially given the modding scene. Consoles have tried to dip into that environment but it'll never quite be the same.

@Olmaz Controversy aside, it's not even really that fantastic of a game. There are a bunch of technical issues, weird facial animations, stiff interactions, scripted behaviours, generic open world fare, clunky combat, needless filler, repetitive mandatory tasks, bizarre design decisions, mediocre story, and so on.

I have no doubt that the controversy played some part in it not being present, but it's equally as likely that there was a prevailing opinion that it didn't really raise the bar. Which it didn't.

Does that mean more tedious side missions? I like Yakuza but I don't think I can stomach another slog through meaningless content. Arcade stuff is good, minigames are good, but I imagine that's not what they were referring to here.

Ideal time for me is maybe 20 to 40 hours. At least for core content. It also doesn't help that some of my favourite games of all time are less than eight hours in length.

Torn between "eh" and "a little disappointing". I've played maybe three games on the PS5 so far that didn't release on the PS4. Those were BG3, Demon's Souls, and Ratchet and Clank. Ranging from fantastic to alright.

Yeah, it's OK, but at this stage in the PS4's life cycle I'm sure I'd played far more memorable games in greater density. It also doesn't help that emphasis has been placed on the SSD, which is fantastic, but it's not employed nearly as much as it should be.

I sense that this is the smallest leap between two console generations, possibly ever.

I'd really like to know who was using Twitter integration in the first place. How many play games on the PS5 with their phone next to them? I imagine it's a lot. The majority, surely. So...?

@ShadowofSparta DA2 recycled environments excessively.

This is a really strange piece of hardware. It's not nearly as versatile as the Steam Deck, it's not as portable as the Switch. I'm really having a hard time trying to picture which group, generally, they're aiming to target.

@Jacko11 But it does mention manual flags, which means you probably wouldn't be able to jump to literally anywhere. It would likely still be broken up into "chapters".

Yeah, as if there was ever any doubt. I have to say that the game does definitely drop off in the third act. It's not the quality of the writing, environments, interactions, etc., but the technical limitations. There's a specific house in act III where I'm sure the frames actually drop to single digits.

Besides that, though, it's very well deserved. I don't think I've ever really played anything like it. Personalisation, approach, tactics, writing and acting, character development...this is what moving a genre forward looks like.

Playing through Fable again (not the anniversary version) on Steam. Wanted to try an evil character for once, and it's great, dastardly fun, breaking into houses, pilfering and being generally chaotic. Also tried Daggerfall again (finally got through that damned tutorial). Feeling very directionless. That game is the farthest thing from hand-holding! Stupid big as well.

As for PS5, I thought I'd play through Sleeping Dogs again. It's been a while. Thinking of returning to Diablo IV and maybe subscribing to Game Pass so I can finally give Starfield a go.

Eh. I enjoyed Like a Dragon's reimagining of the franchise as a kinda Persona-style turn-based JRPG. I think I've had enough of the action-based games since I binged all of them from zero to six about a year ago.

People are still arguing over which shiny, glowing box is superior to the other shiny, glowing box, huh? If it matters that much, just buy a PC. There's no equal.

They could call it the "PS5 thick" for all I care. I don't ever see myself buying it.

Unlikely. With that being said, I don't really think that the PS4 is the bottleneck most think it is. I've only played a couple of pure PS5 exclusives that look better than the best PS4 games, like RDR2 and TLoU2. I really think Rockstar would have to go all out to leave the PS4 behind entirely (although that wouldn't surprise me). That was one piece of powerful hardware.

@all3forever It's not shovelware. Its rating is around 90% (roughly 9/10) on Steam.

I hate to be a cynic, but in all honesty, neither of these characters are interesting. Seriously. The best characters in SM were the villains. And just the villains.

As far as I'm concerned, they're effectively replacing a cardboard box with a ream of printing paper (or vice versa, whatever). Why does anyone even care about this?

@KundaliniRising333 I encountered a game breaking bug and I played it around half a year ago. I'm not so optimistic that it's fixed and working presently.

Sony are quite impressive in that they seem to outdo themselves each month with how disappointing these games are. I wonder if anyone actually looks at these and feels attracted to the prospect of subscribing. Remember when we got Motorstorm and Meatboy and Binding of Isaac and Detroit? Wonder what changed.

@Matroska But you were paying to play arcade games. You don't buy modern microtransactions to play a game. They're just shiny, superfluous items that do nothing, and are consistently updated to generate a profit. Some go for around £30 and that's usually just for a couple of outfits. It's grotesque. But for some serious cynicism, check out Star Citizen.

Every month, I'm reminded why I'm no longer with PS+. Every month, I hope to be proven wrong. Gamepass gets Starfield, Forza, Amnesia and Persona. PS+ gets broken, decade old 3PS games. Seriously now, c'mon.

Well, I always wanted a Bloodborne sequel. This is it. This is the canonical Bloodborne 2.

I wasn't convinced from the start. The poster was meant to "trick" the audience into associating it with The Last of Us and Days Gone. It's creatively bankrupt, and even if it were real, it just doesn't look that good. Guaranteed it ends up with mixed reviews or worse when it releases in "early access" (because that's not suspicious at all).

This may have stung more if it was about a game I'd actually ever care to play. As it stands, it sounds like something that might just be forgotten about in a couple of years.

Oh yeah, and AI VO is still trash. Shocker.

@Jacko11 Because they're all established brands, save for Fortnite and Apex. Call of Duty, GTA, MK, any choice of sports game, all perform well beyond the fact that they're just live service titles. It's because they were popular before.

New live service IPs from newly established studios probably won't survive much longer than a year. It's no coincidence that we always see the usual suspects on these lists.

@Jacko11 Published by companies with established reputations (2K, Activision, EA, Rockstar, Epic) that already had a large share in the multi-player market prior to the live service trend. A lucrative market doesn't mean you're going to find yourself with a sizeable share, or any share at all (look at how many live service games shut down this year alone).

I wish that they invested in the one area where they seem to be absolutely starved right now; arcade racing games. Maybe also western informed RPGs. Microsoft are crushing them in that respect right now.

I'm kinda itching to play Like a Dragon again since I never completed it. I'd probably do that, too, if BG3 wasn't absolutely consuming all of my time. It's just way too good of a game to drop.

More BG3. The third act is ridiculously layered. It'll probably be another week at least before I'm done. And then...possibly a second playthrough to catch what I missed.

On Steam, Bioshock. Classic game and still looks great somehow.

@Porco I'd recommend waiting another year or so. There are maybe four games that you'd miss out on right now with the PS5; Returnal (also on PC), Demon's Souls, Ratchet and Clank, and Baldur's Gate 3 (also on PC).

I still don't feel like this generation has really gotten started yet.

The fluidity of navigation and the combat were both strong points for me in the previous game. The story was OK, the characters were just sort of fine (apart from the villains which were fittingly over the top and ridiculous, which is what I expect). But the open world filler was painful. Ubisoft radio towers and pointless collectibles.

If this game dials back the filler and emphasises the story and villains, it'll be more my thing. From what I've heard, there might actually be more filler here. I imagine that makes it a weaker title than the previous one, unless the story is very strong.

As it stands, Elden Ring claims one of my very rare 10/10 spots, BG3 probably gets a 9 or an 8.5, which would probably place the previous Spiderman at an 8 or 7.5. So I'm estimating a personal 7 to 7.5 with this game.

Not a lot for me this week. Thankfully. I feel like I'll still be playing BG3 by the end of next week.

@Kalime78 Even with second hand ownership, you need to account for shipping or travel, which produces more carbon. Physical is burning (or whatever the specific process is), production of the physical medium (cases and discs), shipping, etc.

I'd recommend the 2021 Eurogamer article for more info.

I could never really get into "soulslike" games. After all, why play a soulslike when you can just play a Souls game? It might be fun but I don't think I'd ever be able to shake the sense that I could probably get more enjoyment out of just playing through Elden Ring or Bloodborne again.

@Kalime78 I've read different. Apparently, physical is more environmentally unfriendly (for print, shipping, etc.) and cloud streaming is more environmentally unfriendly compared to digital download.

Just let Sonic go already. After four, five, six attempts, it must be clear at this point that it's a franchise that simply doesn't work in tandem with modern gaming sensibilities.

I'm quite busy with BG3 right now to invest in PS+ for any reason. I have that and AI to play through. On top of that, my cleric-type build playthrough on Elden Ring.

Nothing here looks especially enticing by comparison, and I already own Disco, Alien, House of Ashes...

@tselliot All of those things have practical applications.

AI really is just a blight, huh?

If we were to count the remasters as full releases, and I do because they're full priced, ND have so far released three TLoU games with a fourth apparently on the way.

It was a good franchise when it initially released. But if we're to be fair here, it hasn't really aged well at all. It was a product of the times, a 3PS action adventure with survival mechanics. That doesn't hold up at all today.

Between this and support for flagging live services which are almost guaranteed to be DOA, the present Sony strategy seems catastrophic.

This game would've stormed the charts if it was released on physical. Still, as it stands, I bought it digitally because it's a stellar game and shouldn't be avoided, physical or no.

I bought it recently on sale. I was just hoping that it'd be the fantastic revolutionary title that they'd portrayed it as just prior to its launch.

It isn't. The AI is dated, the level design is bland, and I'm still encountering bugs that I noticed when I first played it on PC about a year ago. Three notable bugs in less than an hour.

I managed to get through about ten hours. After that, I just quit out. I don't think I'll be returning to it. Maybe I will but it's doubtful. I just hope this doesn't portend a poor Witcher 4 release. I'm desperately looking forward to it but I'm just not sure that I should be.

Something like this has been a long time coming. The industry seems to be divorcing itself from consumer wishes and Covid-19 obviously didn't help either.

This is Sony's sunken costs fallacy. They've probably invested a good few million (hundreds?) into GaaS titles. This isn't going to end well for them and we mere mortals have been indicating this for months, if not years.

Callisto doesn't really interest me. I think it looks fine but it's just Dead Space without the character. It's a shame that so many developers want to cling on to the past rather than try to branch out into something fresh and new.

Baldur's Gate 3 (tough but good) and Cyberpunk (still pretty much broken but OK I guess).

On Steam, DA:I. I forgot how huge that game is. Almost 30 hours in and I've still got at least three outstanding areas to explore, plus I don't know how many story missions, plus DLC areas.

@NotSoCryptic This probably isn't a brute force or dictionary search attack. I don't think 2FA would really impact it. If it was, a bunch of people would've been alerted to the attempts at a breach via texts and such. That, or they bypassed 2FA which is very possible even if it isn't necessarily easy (MITM attacks as one example).

I don't even know if this revolves around the accounts themselves, but rather the leaks of PII from a database, or something of the sort. 2FA won't protect you from that.

If it's any consolation, it seems that Bethesda is slowly sinking beneath its own hubris. Starfield is just OK, and is Bethesda's lowest rated game on Steam (apparently). Fallout 4 before it was probably the least well received Fallout game. The less said about F76, the better. It was broken when it released and it's deeply mediocre now. I don't think the community is missing out on much with this divorce.

That's another platinum I'm almost definitely not going to get. I just can't do the whole drawing mental lines between neon points on a map thing anymore. It's too clinical for me.

Maybe this means that big name publishers will finally start taking note and realising that GaaS titles just can't remain afloat, right?

...right?