Ogbert

I'm happy in so much as it's not added to my backlog. But it would have been nice to have at least one game of the three added to my backlog, even if it was a small 1-2 hour indie game.

I’m waiting for the physical release as my PS5 is basically out of storage and I have a big backlog as it is. Granted it’d jump to the top of that but I’m trying to take the time to clear it out a little.

Not for me but I have more than enough in my backlog so that's fine

All that matter is if the games are fun and varied. I think there are certainly some more Marvel characters that could be very fun to play as.
Ant Man's size abilities could be amazing fun, but potential for utter chaos that might have to be reigned in, which might then prove frustrating? But a good dev could do it proud! Black Panther could be great fun especially set in Wakanda. And I seem to be in the minority but Hawkeye with all his trick shots and special arrows, I think that has huge potential!

Man the snark and grump on the site are getting tiring. Video games are awesome and fun enjoy them!

I’ll be getting Deathloop as soon as I finish the two games I’m currently playing.

Huh, I thought it was pretty good! I know a lot of the games we already knew of in some context (personally I'll never get tired of seeing Deathloop trailers, it's stylish as flip!) but I feel like most expanded on what we know about them nicely.

All the stuff I wasn't excited for was because it wasn't really my kind of game (Space Clancy, Gran Turismo, Star Wars), but it all looked decent. I guess the only thing I'd have personally liked to have seen was maybe more bright and family friendly stuff. I'm not going to ask for another Ratchet & Clank so soon but I would have been nice to have more than just Tchia in that vein. I swear Sony used to have a lot more of that and it's mostly been dropped for older audiences, which is fine I like them too but Sackboy, Astrobot and Ratchet just show how well they can do those games as well!

I've no interest in Predator and have played Overcooked all the way through on Switch so I don't need that again (although I can now actually get the bonus content that only came with the All you Can Eat bundle I guess).

Hitman isn't a series I've ever given much attention, but I might give this one a go now.

I don't want lots of blood and viscera, but the effect when chomping a thing felt a little underwhelming.

Cool art style though, visually much more appealing than Maneater for me.

Yeah there’s something really condescending about calling these “kids games” rather than family friendly or games suitable for kids. It implies they’re made for kids, not for adults as well, when most of these are made with both in mind.

But I don’t think that’s how the article intends it so no harm! It’s a good list on the whole!

I've been playing this on Switch and I'm really enjoying the general mechanics and pacing of the game. It's pretty chill.

My only gripe is the controls feel very poorly mapped to the gamepad and there appears to be no way to remap or edit them, and I assume they will be the same for Playstation.
Some of them are fine, the main issue is the sticks. My brain expects the camera movement and the item placement to be one and the same on the left stick, with the item I'm placing stuck in the middle of the screen. However the camera movement is on the left stick, whilst the item placement is on the right stick and the two move independently. It sounds more flexible but it's not really and means there is no way to tilt the camera for a more top-down view as the right stick is taken, which feels restrictive. It also means rotating the island is now on the triggers, which means that zooming in and out is mapped to the d-pad. It all works, it's just never when your brain expects it to be.

It also means that rotating the camera causes things you've lined up to place, to move about the island as you rotate. As the rotation point is the centre of the screen but the item I'm building is off-centre though keeps it's position relative to the screen not the island, so the island rotates underneath it. If that makes sense?

I'm slowly getting used to it but it does make an otherwise super chill game occasionally and unnecessarily, mildly frustrating. Hopefully they will patch in alternative inputs or input mapping.

Love the look of this! The art is top notch! Probably going to get it for Switch though.

This looks awesome! LOVE the art style!

@Legacy2K It's the 5th season of content. That's way beyond "we need to entice people back".

Also if I recall the Avengers content was promised up-front, so they are now obliged to create the content regardless.

@Legacy2K Yup, lots of people still do. Hence the continuation of new content for it.

Why is everyone so hung up on GamePass? Yeah in a year it'll be on there and you can get it for the cost of GamePass rather than full launch price. Also in a year it'll likely be in regular sales for £20-30 or less. A year after that it could drop to £10-15. It might also appear on PS+ at some point.

GamePass is presented like some wonderful magic money saver but games like this always get crazy discounts a year or so since release anyway. The GamePass element seems moot to me.

Sad times, they made a bunch of the titles I loved the most in the PS3 / PSP era, some of which I still count in my top 10. But I had quite a hard time finding anyone else who had played them, and some difficulty convincing those who hadn't already to give them a go.

If it wasn't for a few bugs (a couple that have involved a 'restart checkpoint') it'd be a solid 10/10 for me. It's visually amazing, well written and animated, the control implementation is fantastic, and above all it's just really good fun!

It's really just Elden Ring for me, though I'm cautiously optimistic about Atomic Heart.

But I had to pick 3 so Monkey Ball got a vote even though that'll definitely be a switch purchase.

I often have this conversation with colleagues who question why people would pay full price for a new release or pre-order, which I often do and they don't, when GamePass is so much cheaper, which they have and I don't. And the answer has always been simple for me: I don't want to play those games, I do want to play this one.

I really dislike Rocket's beard look.

I didn't hate the singing or the voice overs, but I am put off by the co-op live service thing.

@Shepherd_Tallon Mine arrived too but I only have tomorrow booked off! I was a fool!

@themightyant Oh teamwork is essential in game development. And being friends with your team is great and can really help. It's only when that's abused and pushed as a way to take advantage of staff that it's an issue.

Staff working extra hours to push themselves harder than others is a more complicated one. Yes if you want to do that and feel comfortable with the return from that, from your personal perspective that's ok. But if you are so inclined, or are a company with staff who are so inclined, you have to be aware of this and cautious not to allow it to become a company culture where others start to feel they need to do that as well or for those people to burn themselves out. I've worked with people like that before and I've worked with higher management to help them strike a better work-life balance when it became unhealthy.

But that's self-imposed. That is nuanced and the solutions are varied often much more complicated and subtle. Especially if it is self-imposed due to financial reasons, that is a separate thing entirely and many companies have systems or departments to help staff there. The issue is the company enforced crunch, which is what people are referring too when they talk about how bad crunch is.

@themightyant The worst of it is the issue though. If it was simply optional overtime paid at a matching or higher rate, it'd be mostly fine and it wouldn't really be crunch as such.

@GamingVeteran You're making a lot of assumptions about the nature of the crunch and the reasons for it and the people being forced to do it.

Firstly crunch isn't the same as overtime, I'm not sure if you are making the distinction, you may be, but it reads to me like maybe you're not? I'm unsure so to be clear overtime is being asked or sometimes contractually obliged to work additional hours outside of your regular contracted hours for a day or two here and there because it's needed. That's fine, it happens. Crunch is a culture of relying on this to get the product/project done, and forcing staff to do this for much longer hours, everyday and weekends for months at a time. Crunch, as with overtime, isn't always paid, let alone paid at a higher rate. Essentially companies that use crunch as using it to try and fit a project that should take say 4 years, into 2 and a half by relying on the fact they can get staff to work more than their contracted hours. Like trying to cook a pie faster by just cranking the oven up higher. And like that, it often doesn't even work anyway.

Crunch also often involves employees being pressured to skip lunch breaks and not take holidays.

"If people don't like it they can say no" - this is one of the main issues, they can't. Aside from the fact that many are not necessarily in the financial position to be able to do this, companies that rely on crunch often prey on those new and naive and essentially gaslight them into believing this is the way it just works. People are conditioned into believing they can't say no. The games industry is a highly desirable industry to get into and the thought of working on something like GTA or The Last of Us is very alluring. Companies know this, and they abuse it. They push sentiments like "we're like a family here" and "everyone is so proud of what we make we all want the best" and whilst those can both be true and positive, they're essentially used a guilt trips and gaslights to make people feel obliged to do whatever the studio asks of them here. That then creates an internal culture where staff end up pressuring each other into staying. If you get up and leave on time, someone else is going to end up having to cover that. So you have to stay, because now it's not just a case of it affecting you it's affecting you 'work family'.

And the more it happens, the more people get burnt out and tired, and the more they just accept it, until eventually something breaks. When there are widespread reports of both mental and physical health conditions resulting from crunch, relationships strained to the point of breaking and lives being generally ruined as a result...all to aid poor management? I don't see how anyone can support it.

And the fact that it happens in other work areas? Yeah that's bad too. That also needs to stop. And for games at least, the fact a AAA, insanely high quality game such as this can be made without it. That proves it's not needed. It's not something the product needs, it's not something the company has to rely on. So again...why would anyone support it? It's basically saying "I think it's ok for companies to use their position to abuse, damage and break their employees , knowing that it's not necessary, doesn't aid the final product and can be avoided entirely".

Is that a statement you're willing to stand by? Because it is what you're saying.

I love the black but have no need for one right now.
The red looks kinda pink which I quite like. Would love a straight up magenta one!

I'm happy in that it's not going to cause my backlog to grow like most months. No really, I'm actually very happy about that! You guys all enjoy these games, I'm gonna do some catching up on my backlog.

@Amnesiac @SirRealDeal Dreams doesn’t require PSVR but, for creation especially, relies heavily on the Move controllers which require the camera. Media Molecule issued a statement after many others in the same boat as me complained saying that if you called the helpline rather than going through the website, which does indeed require the PSVR serial number, they would honour it. And when I called they said they would and instead took my PS5 serial number. But it took weeks and I’m still waiting.

The fact they they just excluded a chunk of their audience from the start was pretty crappy. Why not just ask for the PS4 camera and PS5 console serial numbers? Why is PSVR the only situation they bothered to make this for? Even if they just put the adaptor up for sale and I had to pay £30 at least I’d be playing by now.

But as it stands I can’t play Dreams. Trying to create content with the pad is a nightmare.

Still waiting for Sony to send me my camera adaptor so I can continue to play Dreams on my PS5. It's been about 4 months since I called the helpline (I don't have PSVR). Waited over a month before they send the confirmation email of my enquiry being looked into, then they wanted me to send all my info over again, that took a month to process, then they said ok cool we'll let you know when it's on it's way which took a month, that email said minimum 2 weeks, a month later still nothing.

Tried to get The Witness on my PS5 and it says 'Unavailable' if I ask for more info it tells me I can't purchase it because I already own it? It's true I already own it on PS4, same as Abzu but I seem to be able to download that just fine.

Seems really odd that it won't let me download a free game at all, let alone for the reason of me already owning it. Which if anything should mean I can download it whenever I want anyway. Anyone else having this issue?

I tried 'Restore Liscenses' but it didn't do anything.

@Futureshark I'm not a fan of swearing in dialogue simply for the sake of it or as a way of upping the maturing of something. A prime example when Bayonetta randomly shouts "f-off" in amongst her flirty battle quips, it feels really out of place and unnecessary.

But in the context here, it seems perfectly normal to me. Who wouldn't drop and f or mf-bomb in that sort of situation? I know I would! A dragon just appeared! The c-bomb just isn't that kind of reactionary swear though, that really would have felt out of place and like they were trying to get swears in.