Olmaz

"I guess my point is I don't define companies by their country of origin, their country's politics and I won't tar them all by the same brush."
But what about countries where you can't have a company without being constantly scrutinized and control by government, making you a voluntary or involuntary accessory to that government's crimes? China is just like that. Russia is close to it. Israel is not, companies can be openly opposed to their government there.

"Behind all those governments are just people, like you and I, trying to make a living"
I'm sorry but some people in all three governments you've cited are openly and actively organizing genocides, massacres, mass surveillance and other crimes. This is not "trying to make a living". I come from a country that fell from democracy to autocracy in the span of 10-ish years, and I can tell you that autoritarian/totalitarian government are filled with people happy to participate in all these horrors, and the country where these governments thrive are filled with people gladly profiting from such crimes. Your way of handwaving this away is very very close to the "I was just following orders" justification...

Such a fun game with a lot of interesting and original ideas.
I started it recently and playing it remotely on my phone while my newborn is sleeping in my arms has been quite enjoyable!

"You are partly right that China will often join a market with cheaper alternatives but that doesn’t stop other options succeeding and having a good market share."
The fact that you gave Shein and the clothing market as an example shows that you underestimate the impact of Chinese companies when they invest in a market.
see : https://www.businessinsider.com/clothing-brands-stores-youll-see-less-of-in-the-future-2020-7
and :
https://www.statista.com/chart/32182/biggest-online-fashion-stores-in-the-us/

As for the Chinese high quality products, as I said, it's always the strategy of presenting a few good to very good products so the customers open up to the idea of a Chinese brand, then, when the doors are open, let the cheap product flood the market.

And as for the hypocrisy of dealing with Western companies using cheap Chinese labor, I agree it shouldn't exist, but I still prefer dealing with them knowing I "may" have a chance to influence my own country's politics enough to reduce it (and at least part of the process is more respectful of Human Rights), than to finance directly a Chinese company tied to its government.

Edit: I'm genuinely curious - is there any country for which you'd consider a boycott (or at very least strict commercial and diplomatic restrictions) a good idea?

In 2024 Trophies are so common and expected, this is just weird.

@Zenos what exactly doesn't bother you?

@Zenos while I agree that seeing more and more parts of the world elevate their quality of life is a great thing, seeing countries that openly reject modern basic values like Human Rights getting more and more powerful is frightening to me.

Do you think a new multi-polar world order would make these principles more valued?

@themightyant Fair enough.

My point is this : Chinese companies have always had this approach : insert yourself into a new market with good enough products to attract first buyers and investors, then flood the market with at best mediocre products coming from questionable means of production. All this while being under the strict surveillance and direction of the Chinese government.

I don't see this as a good thing.

Apparently, you seem to think I'm wrong (even racist?!) in thinking this way. Would you care to develop your counter argument?

@themightyant thanks for making my point

And here is a big issue with modern day gaming industry (and to be frank, a lot of other indutries) : there is no way Japanese or Western producers can continue to compete without including China, which is very eager to take on the Western market.

Hence a plethora of products, which will appear at first as palatable (or even good for some) but will utilmately ruin the industry by forcing unrealistic standards of production and lowering the overall quality of the products, while being an open door to a totalitarian regime which controls every company within its borders.

We've already seen how the way China is represented in media changed these last 5 years. Now, there can't be a discussion about it without people defending it, omitting all the atrocities committed by the government and the way all companies are tied to it. Worse, false equivalence is immediately made between Western countries and China. See what will happen in response to this comment.

5 years ago, this would have been inimaginable, as most people agreed that dealing with a totalitarian and genocidal country was not a good idea while denouncing the hyprocrisy of Western government delocalizing their production in China and nearby countries.

@Jey887 I stopped at 2006 FIFA World Cup. The arcady feeling and the "star players" who had kind of superpowers was really fun.
After that, the games went full on simulation mode and I couldn't keep up.

@Bionic-Spencer Please tell me you forgot a /s ...

@IamJT I really don't get how Amy Hennig is still considered someone important in the industry. She hasn't done any meaningful job for 13 years since her work on Uncharted 3, but every project she's attached to at some point is lauded as the next big thing because she's in it.

It's almost as baffling as Jade Raymond's overwhelmingly positive reputation in the gaming media, although she hasn't produced any game for almost 10 years.

This smells like AI tampering the interview to produce a summary of what he said. a bit like what Google Gemini/Overviews is doing to your searches.

You’ll be able to use in-game currency like Drive Tickets or premium currency such as Fighter Coins to purchase songs

And again! For every thing SF6 does incredibly well, they have to add some stupid microtransactions... I love this game but really, they have to sort out these things by making most of what is mtx as unlockables.

With this and FF7's bathsuit scene, I hope the devs get the message about their main audience : we like diverse games, sometimes we seek gritty realism, sometimes over the top sexyness.

"You can now change the time of day after you've beaten the main story."
I mean, of all that is included in this update, this is the one I'm the most surprised wasn't included at launch.

I've recently started streaming my games (a newborn is on the way, my entertainment room is gone). I use my phone with the dualsense and a good phone holder, and I'm stunned at how good it is.
I've got a quite good internet connection, and the PS5 is wired. Once in a while I get connection issues but it's extremely rare.
All in all it's a great way to play games without committing to sitting on the couch and switching on the big tv in the living room. Every indie game I've played played flawlessly, and I enjoyed even bigger 3D games for short sessions.
The only issue I have is for menu heavy games (like Baldur's Gate or Civilization) where the writings can get too small. I don't play online or FPS in general, so I can't comment on them.
But to all who doubt it, just try with your phone and dualsense and see if your connection handles it well, you may be very surprised.

@Americansamurai1 @cuttlefishjones @rjejr Yep, AI is replacing jobs very quickly, and there's not a lot they can do about it.

Do you know where we could get the list of the jobs being laid off, to get an idea of how much could be due do AI? I'd bet IT and art jobs are the first to go, but I may be wrong...

I mean, if those suits are the product of the Gameheads project, I'm not sure we should finance it in any way. Charity or not, the expectation is get a great product at the end...

@Shepherd_Tallon @Enriesto I am extremely curious about this : do you (and other people claiming to book days off fro a new release) really do it, or is it an hyperbolic way of saying you'll play it day one and as much as you can?

@Rob_230 I agree. And I'm frightened to see the gaming entertainment getting more and more Middle-Eastern and Chinese involvement.

A Tencent console could destroy Sony, since it would guarantee the Chinese market while being extremely competitive abroad... And Western companies would jump at the chance to publish games on it.

@Amppari I agree. This could be potentially as big as Sega leaving the console business. This would leave an incredibly big vacuum to be filled, and I'm sure companies like Valve are watching carefully...

@MikeOrator Devs don't make game that scale for every specific PC configuration, as I'm sure you're aware of. On PC, it's expected that the user will tinker out the best settings, with some very broad and popular settings being suggested by the devs.

For consoles, the devs have to test the game all the way from start to finish for every mode they offer, especially if they state the target resolution and frame rate.

So if Capcom said "there are 2 modes : 30fps and 60fps", they'd need to test the game for both modes to make sure the advertisement was right, or get shredded on the internet (starting by Digital Foundry), or even being forced to offer refund if they couldn't meet the targets for most of the time...

So yeah, another graphic mode is a lot of time in QA, unless the game is handling the mode easily (for example, a 1080p60 mode when the console could easily output at higher resolution/frame rate all the time).

At least, that's my take...

@AndyKazama The frame rate range for VRR on PS5 is 48fps-60fps, unless the game has a 120Hz mode, then it's 48fps-120fps (with custom Low Frame Compensation - LFC available).

Sadly, the console doesn't have a option for a permanent 120Hz output, so you can't use all the VRR range unless the game allows it.

So unless Dragon's Dogma 2 comes with a 120Hz mode (like most 1st party Sony games do, for example), then there's not a lot of chance VRR will be any kind of useful if their target frame rate is 30+fps.

"Automatically triggered dialogue will now try to prioritise your avatar as the main speaker"
Finally yes! How many times I needed this!

@DennisReynolds Same. What a game, and what an incredible support from the team!
The only very slight disappointment was the native PS5 version without 4K/120fps but heck, who cares, the game is simply fantastic!

@Dman10 I know I'm against the grain here, don't get me wrong. But personally, going around an empty city/world with a car is boring, and doesn't even get close to the thrill of a well-designed dynamic track.

Please make it so it's not open world. Open world racing games are really not my cup of tea, handcrafted interesting and dynamic tracks are always superior imo.

@ZeD I agree, I am hungry for really good arcade racing games too. The last one that I couldn't put down and that I still play today is Split/Second, and it came out on PS3!

@Titntin No, ChatGPT (at least the free version, couldn't say for any paid version) doesn't use any internet database from before January 2022.

@Jayslow Well, that's not judicious, isn't it? The role of creatives is to create. The role of executives is to manage. Creative people are generally very bad at managing what they create, so they need people to help them monetize and streamline, etc their products.

The issue is when a management that doesn't care about the art/entertainment takes over the creative part of an endeavor that is, in its core, creative like video games (you can apply to any other entertainment) : you get committee produced, MTX riddled, live service pieces of *****.

But let the creative run wild without management and you get niche indies with no funding to have any real scope.

@Loamy To be fair to ChatGPT, her actual note is far worse : https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/24062302/introducing-johanna-faries-as-the-new-president-of-blizzard-entertainment

It's full of gems like this :

A few personal facts about me: my #1 job in life is raising two amazing boys. In addition to parenthood, a typical week for me includes finding time for daily yoga and prayer, and of course, playing video games (big Diablo IV fan over here!).

I'm sure the next-to-be-fired employees who will have to inject microtransactions and free-to-play mechanics into their games are very happy to know she likes yoga and prays regularly.

@Flaming_Kaiser You must be right. This is my first try on ChatGPT with the prompt : "make a note to staff from the new Blizzard CEO, who was the director of the Call of Duty franchise before"

It is important to note that Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm

Do these people hear themselves? Do they still know how normal human beings talk?

I'm skeptical about this being the player select screen of the final game. It's clunky and not user friendly at all.

And even if it was, no way these pics would be the portraits used to select your character : too many different poses and zoom levels.

It's most probably just some character examples distributed in a way to represent a roster screen.

Hopefully the number 164 is right though, but let's wait for a confirmation.

Wait, he's not expecting to be paid for this, right? It's going to be free... right?

I am so hyped for this I can't contain myself! Hopefully it's the true sequel of BT3 we have been waiting for all these years!

Still no permanent 120Hz output mode? We really need this so VRR gets a lot better for all games...

Why but why can't the console get an full-on equalizer usable with every device?

Confirmed : Dragon's Dogma 2 has bikes!

@BeerIsAwesome Good to know, thx for the info!

@windxtravelerx I'm not very sensitive to bad fps, but yeah, it's not perfectly stable for sure.

I never heard of the first Freedom Planet, but damn this is borderline copy-pasting from the Sonic games.

A good case of "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."?

@Boucho11 I'm going to be honest: I bought it on a sale because of all the positive reviews, and I couldn't finish it.
The Positive :

• good enough graphics during gameplay, nothing extreme technically speaking, but the recreation of the movie ambiance is really superb
• fun enough shooting, with good feelings when the bullets hit with gore, but...

The Negative :

• the gampelay is very slow (I know, it's meant to be because you're Robocop, but I found myself asking for more speed and traversal options again and again) and repetitive (not very much else to do than slowly progressing during levels to shoot with the same weapons the same kind of enemies)
• side activities are good throwbacks to the movie but gameplaywise don't bring that much enjoyment
• the cutscenes are some of the worst cutscenes I've played in a very long time : stilted animations, completely out-of-sync or simply non-existent lip-sync, textures loading late, very mid acting)

So it all depends : imo, you have to be a huge Robocop fan with rose tinted glasses to enjoy the game more than a few hours. Take out the recreation of the movie setups, the rest ranges from mid to very very bad. I really hoped it wouldn't be this way, but I can't recommend it at all.

@Pranwell @Max_the_German I think we need to hear both sides here.

Yes, AI is here to stay and will revolutionize every facet of our lives, from industry to entertainment, and mostly for the better, with a lot of caveats and abuses along the way.

And yes, AI will open the door to abuses if every way (politics, media, social, economy, war, etc) of such a scale that it could be civilization ending (or at least a
drastic shift), and therefore has incredibly hard to solve ethical issues embedded in it.

Both sides are right, and extremists of either side are wrong to not consider the other. If only we had people in charge (politics and corpo CEOs and such) with values and principles to make sure a good fine line is ridden during this incredible transition phase. Sadly we don't, which is why we'll probably get the worst of each side whatever we bitch about on forums...

We really need to name these "remasters" correctly : they are ports.
Now, arguably, the added content in this "re-release" could put it in the remaster category, but the game itself is not changed at all.

I would suggest :

• a port : no change of assets and gameplay, simply better resolution and fps -> should be free for those already owning the game due to the current easiness of porting a game to another device
• a remaster : modification of assets (better models, better textures, better lighting, etc) but no significant change of gameplay -> should cost 10$/€ for current owners of previous versions
• a remake : modification of assets and noticeable changes in the gameplay (and even the narrative if applicable) -> should cost 40€/$

Prices to be adapted based on the original price of the game.

Then we would stop feeling conned by marketing departments trying to sell us something that demanded so few efforts and budget

Just in time for my new honour mode playthrough I wanted to start this week-end! Perfect timing!

I've heard very good things about this game, I'll keep an eye on it for sure!

I remember a few weeks ago someone criticizing my take that Sony should boycott media outlets that published the content of the Insomniacs leak, saying it would be Sony shooting itself in the foot.

Here you go then, a good example that a combination of big brands and good games absolutely doesn't need all these outlets to sell. Quite the contrary. I think it's really time we change "gaming journalism" so it's neither PR marketing for the publishers nor ideologically based content copy-pasted from reddit.

Kudos to PushSquare though, it managed to hold its head above the water most of the time during controversies.

@Skeletor85 @PixelDragon Fair enough.

But I'll stay skeptical until I see it. It will come down in the end at where Microsoft sees more benefits : more console exclusives to bring people to their platform, or more direct revenues from selling the games on all platforms...