Old-Red

Well, it certainly ain't for nothing, from what I gather it's about £70. You know what, I think I've had my fill of The Last of Us.

It's very sneaky the way Sony have slowly diminished the quality of offerings on ps+. Now they are including the new more interesting games like stray with the new more expensive plus tiers and the media is giving them a pass, acting even happy or complementary with it, saying that finally Sony are competing with Gamepass with exclusive 3rd party indies when they were already doing this with Bugsnax, Maquette and Oddworld. It's so frustrating seeing these blatant slight of hand tricks working so easily.

I haven't been interested in a ps+ game for over 6 months now. Done with it to be honest. It's time for them to drop what was ps+ and make online play part of the original cost again, especially after raising the prices of games this gen.

It's unfortunate for me personally that Sony are doubling down on the type of games I don't have time for and no interest in anyway. I can't help but feel it's a waste of time and resources from a personal standpoint. you just need to look at GT7's gross monetisation to see the direction this is heading.

Thinking it will help improve the single player output seems a little naive too. As we've seen, companies will chase the money and double down if it works. I do not for one second believe this new direction will result in more conventional high-quality single player content if they succeed with GaaS. It's already detracted from the pot with Naughty Dog spending considerable time and effort on TLoU GaaS entry coming up.

I recently came back from Japan with a Sega Saturn and a bunch of games. It's been so much fun playing games that are designed to entertain and nothing else. I've barely switched my PS5 on in the past month outside of NG+ on Elden Ring. I simply cannot see the new output from Sony being designed to entertain the player instead of going for addictive tactics and intrusive monetisation first and foremost. I'm sorry, I just can't see it going any other way.

I'll be happy to be proved wrong though.

I prefer to have fewer but more meaningful platinum trophies for games I love. I wish there was a way to delete unwanted trophies from my list.

At this point it feels like Sony are actively trying to level the market share out with Microsoft.

Shambles

I'm still amazed that this kind of thing actually works on people. It's all so messy and confusing, all this has done is push me further away from buying in to the subscription model. I've got the + sub sorted for the rest of this gen after buying multiple years in a sale, mainly to make the annoyance of paying to play the games I've already paid for online go away. But after that I'm out, with ads creeping in too now, which will probably end up in all games eventually, let's face it, I think it'll be time to move over to retro + pc after PS5.

Haha, what?! Didn't the game come out a few weeks ago? They're not even trying to hide that they are taking chunks out of games and selling it as dlc anymore. Proper rotters.

CDPR need to stop announcing games so early. You'd think they'd learn and wait until they know when a game will be ready before announcing it and building unnecessary unwanted expectations. But no, not only have they disappointed with a simple Witcher 3 upgrade twice they've also added Witcher 4 to the mix, so they can waste everyone's time for the next 8 years and probably delay and disappoint with that game too. Talk about not learning from previous mistakes.

This is the "games lost to piracy are equal to lost sales" on steroids. To be fair, he doesn't actually try to say it would have sold the same amount. However, the unfortunate truth is the game was simply average, bordering dull, and sold badly because of that probably.

These prices are exactly why physical releases and a healthy, competitive secondhand market are so important. If the publishers are able to control prices through digital only access it will only get worse.

An agressive secondhand seller to keep Cex in check would be a godsend right about now. Having spent some time in Tokyo recently, they still have a buzzing secondhand and retro market that's such a pleasure to engage with and sift through. It's like it was in the UK 10-15 years ago, where you can go out with £50-60 and come back with a bunch of interesting titles that'll keep you going for while. It's crazy that that won't even get you a new current gen game here.

A remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga would be welcome, but only if it was done right. Bluepoint would do a good job I think.

How cool?... So cool!

Both games are great, but have different approaches to how they learnt from breath of the wild imo. Horizon Forbidden West decided to take some mechanics like the glider and climbing, while Elden Ring took the exploration and essence of discovery from Breath of the Wild. Personally, I will always support From Software as long as they continue to treat gamers with the respect they do in terms of quality and value.

The real deciding factor here is the price I think. When you can get Elden Ring for £40-45, why would you pay £60-70 for Horizon Forbidden West? Unless you're a super fan it makes sense to buy the cheaper of the two and wait for the more expensive one to drop in price. HFW is already down to £50 at most retailers.

Really pleased for Housemarque, this was the game that gave me the real new gen excitement and was the only game I thought about for a month or so. Great game.

I would be very surprised if this wasn't locked behind the new Premium option of Plus, "free" access at least.

It's awesome to see that Demon's Souls and Elden Ring are regarded so highly by the readers.

I'm also looking forward to going back to Horizon Forbidden West at some point and experiencing the moment where is suddenly switches into an RPG. I had no idea 😝

What a mess.

@lolwhatno yeah, it's probably just that they have put a date on it, and tend to be quite reliable.

@lolwhatno not really. It's just stuff based on speculation and rumours that leads to what's already covered here. I'm more interested in why Schreier and Miller are the ones allowed to blow the whistle early, while other journalists have to keep quiet and pretend to feed off them, even though they've probably known just as much about it for months. It's like these two have become gaming journo mafia heads or something.

The fact that I know what it is and all I have is a few friends in the industry and putting 2 and 2 together, means it must be pretty common knowledge for anyone who isn't just a punter.

I'm on the "I wish they'd make online play free again, so I can drop the annoying sub." train. I don't need more games to play, I need more time and better quality games that don't try to take over my life and suck every penny out of me. If they try and double the price of plus just to play to online, they can do one.

I've got over 100 games in my ps+ library and I've probably played 5 at most. That's a pretty awful hit rate.

I know I'm old and out of touch, but I really just want to go back to picking a game I like, paying for it, playing and enjoying it and moving on to a new game.

To be pleased with an in-game currency payout of value that is set by the company itself is pretty foolish. Let's be real here, they have still got away with charging over £50 for individual cars and an always online model in a £70 premium release. They simply came in hard with the fullest, dirtiest approach, before slightly retracting and everyone laps it up (pun most definitely intended). Sigh.

The fact that people even feel the need to find ways to cheat the system of earning in-game currency to enjoy a £70 game shows there's something really wrong here. It's such a shame to see Sony edge in this direction.

This should have been a free to play game. With all the in game ads and car sponsorship, it makes me sad that people keep giving money for and encouraging this approach. I was actually really hyped to play a new GT7 when they announced it, but the always online single player campaign and massivetransactions put me off. Looks like I made the right decision. Shame.

Also, on a side note, it should be illegal to release a physical version of a game that is always online. What a waste of resources. I know most games don't work from disc these days, but this is pretty irresponsible.

Am I the only one who thinks Harry Potter is a bit ****?

It's great news that From Software have had such a big success. However, I hope they don't lose sight of what makes Miyazaki's games so important. I'm really not that bothered about any of the IPs themselves, it's the gameplay, world and level design that are the main reasons they've got where they have.

I instantly dropped it after Elden Ring came out. I did intend to play both simultaneously, however, Elden Ring has turned out so well, it didn't stand a chance for me. I'm not dissing the game, it's fine, but fine can wait.

Eh? You can just exit the game at any time and it will start you off exactly where you left off. If you're really in a bind to stop, then you can also just hold the home button and close application. I don't know why this is such an issue for everyone.

It's an outstanding game that's a true gift in an industry that's fast losing its way. In truth, to me, this game is so good it's beyond scoring, like a priceless work of art. Giving it a 10 doesn't even do it justice.

It's everything I could have hoped for, easily one of the best games ever made. After playing Horizon Forbidden West the week prior, Elden Ring is simply in another stratosphere. I don't know why people keep trying to compare them, HFW is deeply average in comparison.

Once again, here we are with this pointless debate. The souls games do have various difficulty settings, they are just baked into the games themselves. If you want the game to be easier, just search where to find the best equipment and summon other better players to help you with difficult bosses.

@get2sammyb yup, which I can and have easily avoided. I don't understand this obsession with spoiling everything months before anything even comes out. You could have easily just used the Elden Ring logo and put something like "New enemy looks amazing".

Well gee, thanks for completely ruining that surprise with your thumbnail and article title.

More games like Returnal.

I'm currently finishing off the the Frozen Wilds dlc after finishing the main game last year. It's pretty impressive, but I'm not in love with it as an IP. It doesn't help that Elden Ring is coming a week later, unfortunately for Horizon that ring will rule them all! I'll save Forbidden West for the summer slump. I hope it's great for all those looking forward to it though. Some mates are squeaking about all over their chairs waiting for this to come out.

@Shepherd_Tallon interesting read that. I don't think it's a coincidence that MS are going for companies that embraced in-game monetisation. This is how they're hoping to make Gamepass sustainable in my opinion.

Hopefully the talent behind the creative studios caught in the crossfire will leave and start their own like that article suggests. It's certainly an interesting development, and after a few days to take it all in, things don't seem as dire as they initially did.

Actually, to be fair, they are buying up all the worst companies. Maybe MS really are trying to clean up the industry a bit... nah, it's probably all just about money, power and control.

Is this an out-of-season April's Fool joke?

I've said this in another post, but if MS want to take Activision and EA away into a pocket of the industry that I can easily avoid, them I'm all for it. If they could take Ubisoft with them while they're at it, that would be great too.

It is interesting to note that most of the studios MS are snuffling embrace the less pleasant side of monetisation in gaming, which suits and fits in with the gamepass model nicely. Something to think about.

If they start taking away more interesting and creative studios, then we have a problem. I'd probably just duck out of the whole thing if that were to happen to be honest. The more MS buys like this without adding anything to the industry, the less I want to give them any money.

It makes me really sad to think what could have been done with $70b going towards new studios and interesting projects that help progress the medium. Instead all that money has gone to the pockets of a few people who activity fostered an abusive workplace. Meh, meh I say.

I agree with this.

I'm currently halfway though the first one and have physical copies of both. The first one isn't cheap for some reason. It's alright, I like that is has it's own thing and it's fun to play once you get used to the controls.

@Culjoseth that as well, but only after decimating the industry first.

Odd situation for me, as I am not interested in any of those games personally. I do recognise that losing COD would be a huge blow to Sony's wallet, but this actually might be good for me in the long run.

So far Microsoft has poached all the companies and IPs I'm not too bothered about (maybe Doom and Shinji Mikami games), so it's possible that the Playstation ecosystem could be heading to a place that tailors more to my sensibilities. Hopefully anyway.

I actually think it might be nice if all the games as a service and full of microtransaction/lootbox nonsense will shift to gamepass and PC and Nintendo and Sony will be a place to buy quality games and escape all that funk in the industry. If they can take Ubisoft and EA with them next I'll actually be pretty happy about all this.

Even by Microsoft's standards, I'm surprised they have done this. It's awful for the industry and I can't even imagine Xbox fans being that ecstatic about the move. They might act pleased, but I imagine everyone is thinking '****, this is a bit too much.'.

Buying Bethesda was a bit annoying and I have no interest in Activision games, but this feel like Microsoft are coming for my hobby. It has to be their way and I have no choice, like an annoying rich guy who wants to be your friend and won't leave you alone no matter how much you try to avoid them.

The question should really be 'How long do you think playstation consoles can last with Microsoft throttling Sony into submission?'

@MickOnYourFace careful now.

I kind of wish Sony leant away from the sub model to catch all the people like me who are fed up with them. I know they haven't, and will try, and fail, to match Microsoft. A suprise would be nice, something unexpected that offers quality and actually adds to the industry.

@get2sammyb aren't you a little worried that this might be the beginning of the end for sites like push square? I for one won't bother with a PS6 next gen if I know that all the games will come to PC eventually. Once the console platforms start to dwindle or fade out, where does that leave sites like this one? Not saying they will vanish, but if the exclusive hook is gone and the platform isn't there, what will you cover? PS studio games only?

Sony have spoilt more than anyone could by showing some of the new robots anyway, so this doesn't really affect me tbh, it's not exactly award winning storytelling. Aloy will get in a scrape or two, meet a few tribes, fight a few robots, save the world, but only enough for there to be potential for another sequel. The end.

Seeing new bosses, enemies and environments in Elden Ring is far more of a worry for me personally.