Ogbert

Looks terrible, uses environmentally disastrous tech to do it. No thank you.

I don't know if they're charging me more than my friends for the same thing. So yeah they can do one and I'll buy physical, play elsewhere or play something else.

@Stocksy it's relevant that they were designed by women in that often the issue with these sorts of things is they are inherently objectifying of women and not treated them as full people. So it's a point to them not really being that way because women were involved.

I don't know if there's any weight to all the corporate sabotage, espionage, criminal activity stuff... but I do think issuing a public statement about redundancies that was 70% excuses and conspiracy theories was in bad taste. Save that stuff for a different post at a different time when people's livelihoods are not on the line.

@themaladroit the other dates would be 7/11, which is the name of a chain of convenience stores like the one in the game

Oh Slime Rancher 2 is out? Whenever I looked at it on Xbox it said 'early access'

Please just dont go shutting down all those studios you own or shrinking them and replacing the devs with AI. I'm so sick and tired of that story across the industry.

I just dont feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of the PS5 yet. Also, the cost of living crisis is a thing. I need time for people to screw their heads on straight and vote the parties that actually give a damn and will do something about it, into power first so that I can actually afford one.

The visuals in the trailer made it look awesome! But I don't know, does this have a campaign or is it PvP only? A campaign in this world with those trippy visuals would be incredible.

Horizon: Zero Dauntless

I like the art style, it sits in a more general style that's done a lot recently but they've done it well and made it their own. I see why people are comparing it to Fortnite, but it's got a lot more style in the lighting, VFX, general shape language and the silhouette variety of the characters. Also, Fortnite didn't invent that art style. It looks to be very well realised and sitting somewhere between Fortnite and Marvel Rivals, which isn't a bad place to be really. I get why people would be upset if this were the next mainstream entry, but it's a spin-off and I like that they did something different visually for something that plays different.

Overall though it looks to be Dauntless with a Horizon skin, which is fine, Dauntless was fun for a time, but not something that excites me that much as a new game.

@PegasusActual93 They ruined the flow of the game for me.

Every other enemy encounter was run around shooting them with whatever gun you liked (some more effective, but it kind of didn't matter) and then punch them in the face if you're out of ammo. And I really enjoyed that, I bough the game for that.
Marauders then turn up and require you to keep a specific distance, get too close to punch them and they shotgun you dead, get too much distance between you and they set spectral dogs on you that pincer movement you and kill you. It was bad game design and not fun. I almost didn't buy Dark Ages in case they were back, I definitely didn't bother with the DLC for Eternal because of them alone. They killed the fun.

It's like if a racing game was like "having fun going real fast? Ok well now you need to stick to thirty for this road, exactly thirty, or you fail. Thirty two, you fail. Twenty Eight, you fail. Also other cars will still be racing full speed and you still have to beat them."

I preferred The Dark Ages to Eternal, but that's purely because Eternal added Marauders which just entirely broke the game flow for me every time they appeared. 2016 was the best for me, but Marauders aside, I've enjoyed them all.

I want to see Lightning McQueen and Mater sat in the driving seats of another car.

@Arthur_Morgan @AverageGamer is right.

Yeah people have transferrable skills but there are several points here. Firstly they made Forza 6 and Fable at the same time, of course they didn't have the talent to cover both projects and needed to staff up. They have 3 offices in Leamington Spa now. Also if you have a bunch of car / racing enthusiasts and you're still making the top car / racing game you don't want to move them off their passion unless they want moving, you're better off hiring new talent with a passion for fantasy RPGs.

I would also say, whilst you're right studios change, Playground IS still making Forza 6. So it's not the same as going from Crash Bandicoot to moving on completely to The Last of Us via Uncharted. They haven't ditched Forza, they're simultaneously making two very different game with different skillsets required (as well as a bunch overlapping of course), they've less changed so much as expanded.

And yeah the engine of course needed updating to do Fable. Game engines can't just do anything off the bat, they need to be built to do those things. You point out they have engineers to adjust it freely, but you neglect the time that can take, again especially whilst still supporting Forza 6 at the same time.

All this takes time, plus this is a huge game that was always going to take some time to build anyway.

And on the Unreal thing though, it's not the magic engine gamers seem to think it is. It does some stuff really well, others less well and is costs a lot to licence. It's much more preferable to have you own in-house engine, it's just a heavy front-loaded cost and time sink that not everyone can/wants to afford, it's usually a decision not made by devs and engineers but by the people in charge of the budget.

No more Level-5 titles for me then. Clearly pumping out products every couple of years is more important now than crafting a unique experience for players.

I will spend my money elsewhere thanks. There are so many games coming out as it is I’ll have no trouble filling the gaps.

@Weez it means it looks like generative AI was used rather than an artist, and that the primary driving factor behind the prompts was that they wanted something certain vocal male groups on the internet would find hot.

The kind of men who proudly posted pics of Aloy they had used AI to “fix” by giving her plumper lips and mascara.

@Weez No overthinking, I looked at it and immediately thought "that looks like gooner gen AI"

@Weez the face. It looks like an AI generated “hot woman” face. It doesn’t feel like anything else has gone into the design other than she should be sexy. Like why does she need a full face of makeup on? I’m willing to suspend disbelief on these things to a degree, I felt like the last series balanced that really well. In terms of the characters visuals at least.

The costume is fine I guess. A little uninspired with how much of a faithful copy it is but if that is the point they did a good job.

@tameshiyaku yeah I really liked the previous redesign of Lara, this one looks like every AI generated male fantasy. It’s a bland and generic design.

I also agree on making Lara more self-aware in the previous trilogy. Though I think the third did struggle to fully embrace it making Lara do terrible things in misguided and uneducated efforts, making her face that and then being like, ‘no no, she IS the hero still’. I also don’t know why people don’t think she can‘t be self-aware and cocky? They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, people can have depth to their character outside of 1 personality trait and if they are sexy or not.

The game does look good though, I do want to see more. But yeah it does feel a bit of a backwards step in some areas. A sign of the current times as you say.

Wolverine, Saros and 007 look fun.

Seems far more like Echochrome to me, the PSP puzzle game, given that was also based on the mechanics of rotate the world and if you can't see it, it's not there.

Uuuhhh, be right back I need to go re-install Dreams!

Wow big tech giant wants to push AI? No way!!!

Honestly I think we should keep the notification. Much like I like to know if the chocolate I buy has knowingly employed slavery to make it cheaply. I want to know if my games are wilfully burning up the planet and it’s water supply to squeeze a bit more money out of me for the billionaire shareholders or not.

It just helps me put my money in the right places as best I can.

Well now I'm glad they don't make anything interesting anymore.

Studios like this using Gen AI means one thing - they value making a product cheaply over making a product quality.

Let's not get it twisted, these studios can easily afford to pay artists and take time to make a big hit. But they don't want to do that when the option to have a computer churn out half the product for free is there.

And please, can we stop ignoring the MASSIVE elephant in the room when we all talk about the ethics and morality of AI. The fact it's hugely damaging to the environment and uses astonishing amounts of water. And no plans to "offset it's usage by planting trees" is not a solution. Trees take years to grow fully, the damage is being done now.

“…as if there are still people out there who haven't played the single most profitable piece of entertainment in history.”

I’ve not played it. But I don’t really have any interest in it and this won’t change my mind. What an obnoxious bit of writing.

Unreal Engine 5 is just that, an engine. I does not predetermine a style or level of realism, just as choosing not to use Unreal Engine 5 does not preclude a level of realism.

If you want you can use Unreal to make a 2D pixel art platformer and Unity to make a hyper-real open world. You just have to know what you're doing.

Ok but please don't forget Ratchet, Clank, Rivet, Quark and the gang!

Would love to see a Resistance revival/remake too but if I'm picking one to go alongside Marvel I need my fill of Clank puzzles.

I truly doubt I'll be able to afford one at launch the way cost of living is going.

I also just don't know about PlayStation anymore, I don't know if it's for me. There are sporadic great games of course, but the variety is gone. It's all in the third party which I can get elsewhere, or the rivals.

But only time will tell! If it launches with a new Ratchet & Clank I'll have to get my hands on one at some point.

I loved this game! I think I spent as much time making custom characters as I did racing.

This is the sort of thing I miss from Sony.

This is a really disappointing character design.

They've not even tried to make her look Madagascan outside of a slightly darker skin tone. She has the same shaped face and features of all the other female characters and perfectly straight hair.
Her clothing is just a bikini for titillation. I don't think they looked at traditional or contemporary Madagascan clothing at all.

The only thing linking her to Madagascar is lemurs and her 'being at one with the animals'. Which is a lazy trope for this region of the world and seemingly an excuse to give her a fluffy tail and make her do the 'nya' anime pose for fan service rather than character building.

Really lazy.

The Astrobot backpack clip is very cute. But where are Ratchet and Clank?

They've done it undeniably well, especially with TLoU and GoW.

But do I also want to see more light-hearted stories in the mix? Stories about treasure hunters search for lost legends, stories about an alien and his robot pal thwarting a galaxy threatening evil, stories about a small kid gathering apes? Dare I say...stories about something new entirely?

Yeah. Yeah I miss those games being in the mix. Mature doesn't have to mean serious and dour all the time.

You know how some games add a no-insect mode where all bugs and creepy crawlies are replaced with something else? If they add a 'no creepy child' mode that replaces that kid with something else I'd be interested.

Alan Wake 2 and Cocoon are two amazing games well worth your time!

I loved this game right up until the battle pass was added and paywalled all the fun costumes and items. Really killed the whole vibe.

Definitely the sort of thing I've been wanting to see more of on PS5! Willing to forgive a little roughness around the edges for the uniqueness in other areas, hopefully the platforming isn't too bad though.

@Ricky-Spanish Then you are straw-manning the debate for no reason.

People are upset because of the use of AI to try and deceive them primarily. And they are concerned by how easy it is to do now and how, going forward, this will be regulated. The fact AI specifically is what was used is a side, it doesn't really matter, the point is it's deceitful, alarmingly easy and there are currently no protections against it

Additional gripes about AI and it's many unethical elements, are secondary. So if all you are saying it that you don't mind that AI was used, that's not constructive or helpful to the conversation. If AI was an actually beneficial, non-job destroying and carbon-neutral technology, the point would still stand.

But I would urge you to educate yourself on the ethical and moral issues currently surrounding the new technology before declaring your indifference to it.

@GeeEssEff I see people say this all the time about "oh it'll never replace real art and artists" but it already is to an alarming degree. People say this because they want to absolve themselves of the guilt of either doing nothing to stand against it or actively participating in it. Because if you dig just a tiny bit below the surface you can see how big the impact has been in such a short time.

And it's also ignoring all the environmental issues with AI generated content taking up to 32x more energy to produce. Then you have all the misinformation and trickery (this ad being a mild example of it). And the studies that have show the literal brain rot that happens alarmingly fast when people use it frequently instead of doing things themselves.

It's not to say there are no good uses for it. But the ones we are being marketed are not them. It's the tech industry desperately trying to recreate the lighting-in-a-bottle that was social media to please shareholders who insist the line must go up, and the ever greedy entertainment industries trying to cut corners and shed costs of staff.

@Ricky-Spanish "even if everything you are says is true it's not like they are scamming me out of money it just to get me to play a game"

Except that is literally what they are trying to do. If I made an AI advert and I generate, let's say Brad Pitt and I made him say "this game is amazing, you have to play it, it's super good and they just keep improving it, you should really play it, I love it". That is a lie. That is me trying to trick you into buying my game by making you think someone you know is endorsing it. That is a scam, through and through.

Also Kotaku has the sources on them claiming it was a competition and blaming TikTok if you want to read further. None of it makes sense, they knew full well what they were doing and are just biding time to keep the ads up longer.

@Ricky-Spanish I dunno if you're trolling but if you can't see what's wrong with an AI generated ad that is pretending to be people you can trust giving positive reviews for a product...that's insane.

As far as we know, the people who's likenesses were used did not give permission. If they did they would just film the clip, reading it in a much more natural and believable way.

But if they did give permission, why use AI like this? It's incredibly bad for the environment and again, they could have just filmed them to say it for real.

Additionally Nexon are claiming this ad was done by someone who won a competition to make an ad for the game, and are saying TikTok is at fault for not spotting and stopping the copyright infringements. Which is basically admitting they don't have those people's permission and trying to dodge the blame.

They clearly did this with the sole intent of trying to trick people. That's what's wrong with this. It's immoral on several levels.

Yeah that was dumb of Sony, but also remember the creator was trying to get this film made for years and was constantly rejected. So they weren't the most dumb at least.

Last week Golden was number 1 in the UK charts and I think they had 3 other songs in the top 10, plus the film itself being number one in streaming. I can definitely see a sequel or two doing well even if they don't ever quite match the magic of the first. The live action can do one though, stop remaking animated films as more boring!

I bet they're all kicking themselves for not having merch out for this though. Imagine how well dolls of the characters would be selling? Plushies of the tiger? Shirts for the bands? Honestly there's a small fortune just sat there.

I've worked on projects that only happened because Xbox funded them for Game Pass. Did they make huge money outside of that? No. Was that ok? Yeah. Did that make us 'wage slaves'? No. It let us make the game we wanted to make and it meant that we got an audience for that game that we may not have gotten otherwise.

I've also worked on live service or GaaS titles, not one of the Sony ones but in the same vein, and that felt like being a wage slave at times. Constantly churning out new work in the hope it hits. If it doesn't? Throw it out. If it does? Good, do more of that but make it more profitable again next time. Did we see profit sharing and "all that good stuff" when it did hit? Nope.That has absolutely nothing to do with GamePass or GaaS or whatever, that's to do with the crappy way so many places are treating their staff to save more pennies for shareholders these days.

GamePass is not perfect. But it's not all bad either. There's nuance, clearly. And the same does go for GaaS despite my general dislike of them. This comment is just intended to divide people, to reignite the us vs them console war nonsense, and in doing so distract from the negatives that Sony currently has rather than address and sort them.

@themightyant My point with the experimental smaller studios is that they're not being allowed to do that anymore. And yeah the PS4 was also not great for it, so the trajectory is a bad one.

Housemarque did get to do Returnal which was experimental and cool...but that was launch and their next game is for 2026.
Firesprite are just doing Horizon and VR stuff.
Bluepoint are doing remasters.
Media Molecule were trying to support Dreams whilst Sony was just leaving it to die and are probably next on the chopping block as they've put out nothing this gen.
Team LFG is too new to judge.
Asobi is the saviour of this gen.
Support studios are doing great support work.

So all those smaller studios you listed have amounted to 2 games and a demo, on opposite ends of the consoles current lifespan. It proves my point.

Don't get me wrong, the new stuff Sony studios are putting out is great (when not a GaaS flop), it's just all too few and far between. These small studios used to fill some of those gaps with smaller exclusive titles. I know it wasn't perfect and a big help was having the home and handheld systems, I could wait for God of War 3 with Patapon, or play Puppeteer between Killzones, WipEout gaps were filled by Tokyo Jungle. Or just brand new IPs like Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Uncharted, Loco Roco etc. And it still had series like Ratchet & Clank going strong and all the third party content.

Now I have a small handful of sequels and originals, another handful of remasters and the rest is all third party or failed GaaS attempts.

Sure Pixel Opus wasn't performing well. But if they could make a game like Concrete Genie whilst not functioning properly, imagine what they could have done if Sony had got in there and helped them straighten their processes and such out? I'm sure it'd be a lot more interesting than Fairgame$.

But hey, if you are happy with the PS5 gen I am actually glad. I wish I could be. I think Playstation, like many things, has shed the veneer of wanting to be creative and interesting and revealed it's ugly corporate core underneath. We always knew it was there, in many ways it has to be, but it was nicer when they at least pretended that money wasn't the sole driving point and that players were as important as shareholders.

The puzzle grid is interesting, but I can't say it all looks that fun. Perhaps it is to play, but that's not coming across here. Also the little girl is creepy and incredibly off-putting anyway as others have said too.

@themightyant For me I bought a PS5 because I used to love the exclusive games Sony puts out. The third party content is good but I can play that elsewhere, first party is the reason to buy a Playstation over an Xbox or just play on my PC.

I think it's made more frustrating knowing how much they backed GaaS games this gen and how big a flop that's been. And it cost us studios like Pixel Opus and Japan Studio (I know we got Asobi out of the last one but still). Concord infamously cost $400,000,000 only to be gone in a week, goodness knows what the others all cost and how much was wasted overall.

And all that nothingness came at the cost of killing all the smaller, experimental studios that used to fill the gaps between the big cinematic experiences. And I'm expected to be happy with the third party offerings filling the void? I can play half of them for free on my Xbox. Yeah they're good games, but it's not good enough on Sony's part. They've majorly dropped the ball this gen and taken their player-base for granted.

Sequels: 9 +1VR (one arguable)
Ports: 3
Remakes / Remasters: 7
Demos: 1
New IP: 6 +1VR + 1DoA

Wow Sony....don't give me too much to play ok?

I mean...yeah and meh?

I love the new Astrobot levels. I'd have happy paid for them as a larger DLC pack.

The rest of it for me is a technical "very good" support but a personal "meh". I don't care for rougelikes, I don't want to replay the game in a different order and I'm not coming back for a multiplayer mode (I'll try it if it's there at the start).

I'd rather just have some actual new and exciting games. Even if they're smaller games or "only" AA or just odd experiments. But they killed all that stuff so...yeah.

Overall, bar Astrobot, a big ol' "Meh" for me.

I've had it since they launched it and made me need it for online.
Honestly I'd much rather it were either much cheaper and I dont get the games, or it were more customisable.

Really I just want cloud saves and online play. I so rarely play the monthly games now. And I'd like to play some of the retro games but I'm not upping my subscription for it. I would probably add it on in a custom package though.

Environmental cost aside, if you're going to use AI this is how you use it. To create boring textures so that the artists can focus on concept and original design.

It's when companies use AI to generate ideas for costumes or characters or set pieces etc that people should get upset, because is taking away the fun, creative tasks.

But yeah you should just hire a human where possible.

Honestly I am surprised.

I thought the football game market was too dominated and none of the videos and screenshots prior to release looked all that good.

Very glad to be proven wrong and to see this be both really good and be a success!