@Smiffy01 On this I agree 100%. I'm currently prone to say the late PS3, early PS4 era was the best, with all the modern gaming without most of the messed up BS we get today!

@RudeAnimat0r As far as I can see in this trailer, these characters look like how people think a stereotypically woke person should look, talk and behave. Now I'm not saying people like this don't exist at all, but I really doubt the general gaming audience will recognize themselves in these characters.

The whole game, characters included, smells of corporate wokeness, of a checklist needed to get budget or to be consider for awards and so on. I may be wrong, but we've seen enough examples of this to make it plausible.

This added to some technical issues like you pointed, it doesn't bode well for the game.

@PixelDragon Fair enough! : )

@Sil_Am I agree, but we've seen many times wonderful ideas and artistic talents wasted by a lack of rigorous development process.

I guess we need all of these (talent, vision, direction, ingenuity, rigor, money, and so on) to get these fantastic games we get (which explains why we get so few of exceptional games!). And I really want this game to be just that!

@PixelDragon Hey, calm down, I'm not making "wild assumptions" and I'm speaking for myself alone.

Of course some people will disagree, and I may even be completely wrong and all these may well end up being bestsellers, who knows.

But just by saying what I feel about these games, and expressing a more generalized view of what I think the general gaming landscape is is not something to warrant such a reaction, let's just talk about it.

I am also what you could call a retro gamer (but just in his early 40s!), as I love to go back to old games I've played (and some I've missed). But every time I do this, I have to acknowledge how far games have gone and how hard it is to play some of these old games. And to me, these early 3D games are the worst culprit of aged graphics + insufferable gameplay.

Every once and a while I get this nostalgia rush and I go play the first Tomb Raider or Unreal Tournament. And while I see why they were fantastic at that time, no way I can play them more than an hour before being frustrated.

@Geep Let me guess, you were a teenager at that time? : )

No issue with people loving it, but I will maintain that these games have almost no appeal to anyone who hasn't played them back then (and those who just really don't want to go through the torture again), unlike the pixel art ones of the generation before that can be still playable today with just a bit of quality of life added.

I said a few months ago that we will be flushed by remasters/ports of games from the early 3D era, or new games in the same vein, because the people who feel nostalgia for it are now full fledged devs (and producers love to bet on nostalgia).

And now here we go : Quake 2, Dark Forces, Turok 3 and so on.

I have played through this generation of games and how I don't want to go back to it one bit. This is what almost took me out of the hobby in the late 90s/early 2000s. People have to understand these early 3D games haven't aged as well as the pixel art ones from the 16-bit gen. If they are going to do them, a full on remake is needed. "Remastering" isn't enough.

Just for example, I really wonder how many people who bought the Quake 2 remaster will play more than a few hours of it. I'd love if the devs would put these stats up at some point.

@Sanquine Thanks! This explains a lot actually!

@Sanquine I'll say I'm not surprised that this is funded by the EU, but do you have the source for this?

Here are my sincere, heartfelt and constructive impressions of this game based on the trailer :

The characters are extremely stereotypical, the devs would be well to try and make characters that feels more relatable to a wider audience.

The general design is trying to appeal to what people think the 20 somethings like. Seeing what is selling today in the entertainment industry, I doubt this is really the case. They could really tone down the, again, stereotypical use of color, clothes and accessories we see in the video.

3-The voice over is trying to be smart by using the "Words have power" sentence in 2 ways : the way the game is played and the view that language is one of the main way power expresses itself in our society. While the try is not bad in itself, combined with all the on the nose stereotypes shown here, this, imo, will be too much for a lot of people. Shoving an ideology down people's throat rarely works in a game.

So unless they are really aiming for a very small and specific audience, it seems the devs are damning their game to failure, which I find sad as I wish success to every video game devs as I love this hobby.

The art looks really great! But the movement and fighting feels slow and very generic. Hopefully they'll manage to add more complexity, and maybe some speed, to it.

I really hope this will end up great! It has all what I want : a slick action RPG in an expensive anime world with a gripping story... Fingers crossed this will give us everything we hope for.
In some ways, all these delays are maybe a good thing, this could mean the devs are taking the task seriously!

@deathaxe @TheMysticOne Thanks!

@BeerIsAwesome "Players will play as both the famous Hercule Poirot and his new sidekick"

I understand by this that this new sidekick is an equal (at least equal enough to warrant gameplay as her). Not just a side character meant to elevate Poirot, as was mainly the role of his many sidekicks.
I really wonder how they will manage Poirot's ego with him working with someone else, if this someone is close to his abilities.

I have read most of Poirot's stories, but not all : do you know of a story where he's working in tandem with another detective of equal (or at least close to equal) abilities?

"the famous Hercule Poirot and his new sidekick Joanna Locke"
Do we really need to shoehorn "sidekicks" (female or not) to iconic fictional characters for "reasons"? And here, this is so on the nose : after Joan Watson for Sherlock Holmes in Elementary, here comes Joanna Locke for Hercule Poirot...

Doesn't bode well but I'll keep an eye on it, I'm a sucker for good detective games...

"Unnecessary gear system"
This seems to be one of the main problem of all big budget games nowadays. Almost every game has a plethora a gear, divided in small parts, that you can upgrade, modify and so on. Most games absolutely don't need this, as it only add tedium to what should be action.

@LordOfTurnips Don't get me wrong, I know emulation is generally not used by people who already own the game, and I fully condone this, especially when the systems and games are not officially available. I was just pointing out a technicality.
But I'm with you on emulation, there is no chance in hell I will buy the games I played on my Master System or my SNES 30+ years ago! : )
And yes, f*** Konami!

@LifeGirl Emulation is not technically illegal if you own the game you're playing. At least, it's a grey area and will depend on the console, the producer and the means used to emulate.

And torrents have not disappeared... why would you think this?

I have tried this series multiple times. I have tried to play MGS1 3 times. I have tried MGS2, MGS3 and MGS5.

The franchise has everything I should enjoy : stealth action, over the top cutscenes, interesting esthetics.

But somehow, it never clicked. I always felt the games to be clunky and relying too much on try and error. I know it must be me, but still...

To the subject of this article... I mean... what did we really expect from Konami?

Thanks, and fair enough about the Fate game!

And a Made in Abyss game as good as the Fairy Tail RPG would be my dream... but alas, we got this weird abomination of a game a few months ago...

@UltimateOtaku91 Thx for the reply!

Even in musou games, some are better than others. The franchise of course is important there, but also the specific mechanics the games will add. Good enough graphics are a plus.

So if you take away the franchise (you admitted being a Fate fan), I really don't see what could make this game different : the fighting mechanics look very simple and generic, the graphics look good in screenshots, but a lot less good in motion.

And even if you consider yourself a fan of the franchise, is this really what you expect from it? For example, I'm a big Fairy Tail fan, and I absolutely loved the Fairy Tail RPG that came out in 2020. It was everything a fan could expect, but I wouldn't have hyped it up for anyone else than the fans.

So is this a simple discussion of musou fans against non musou fans? Or even just a Fate fans vs non fate fans? Because I enjoy a good musou now and then, and I've enjoyed some of the Fate animes, but I still don't see what looks good enough in this game that a bunch of outlets are hyping it up... I'm just curious as to why it's happening... If the author of this article is a Fate fan and this is the reason he's loving what he's seeing, he should mention it, and not make readers think there is anything special in this game beyond the franchise.

@UltimateOtaku91 Why would you assume people not being convinced by the trailers and gameplay aren't so simply because they don't understand the genre?

Please, I love animes, I enjoy musou games when they're good, convince me : what do you see I'm not seeing that makes you think this will be anything better than very average at best?

@Lup I want to be convinced, really, as I tend to like anime hack & slash when they are good enough.
Can you tell me what you think looks "awesome" in this game?

@KaijuKaiser Adventure of Dai looks brilliant, but I'm biased about Dragon Quest...

This looks extremely generic, why is this so hyped up by some outlets?

I've just finished Hogwarts Legacy and... what a game! Extremely fun from start to finish, a real delight!

Now I'm playing A Plague Tale : Requiem, and enjoying it a lot, as much as the first one. We really need more of these very polished AA games...

@Loamy Yeah, I've just watched the DF video and, weirdly, FSR2 is not used to upscale on PS4pro/PS5, only for anti-aliasing...

No, the game is not running at 4K. It's running at 1080p upscaled with AMD FSR 2.
Better than nothing, but not native 4K.

@kungfumongoose I mean, I'm sure it's a nightmare to optimise any graphical mode for consoles. To make sure it's stable, to get the right graphical settings so it doesn't get under 30fps unless in exceptional situation (think something like : "Jim, should we set the particles to 12.9 or 13.2, it looks like the game is at 28fps on the second room within the waterfall temple when it's set at 14?").

So any extra mode is going to be a lot of work, and a lot of quality control. So unless you expect early buyers to do the majority of quality control (ahem...), this is time and money. All for a 40fps mode that concerns only a fraction of your player base.

It makes for great DF content, though, so that's good publicity.

People seem to not understand why companies don't do the thing 2 guys in their basement can do. It's simple economics.

Let's say you are a big manager at Activision Blizzard. You see engagement on social media about a potential 60fps update for CTR on PS5. (this is the first hurdle : will your social media managers report this to you, especially in a time where acquisition from Microsoft is going on... this could be seen as some kind of opposition to the buy-out from the employees...).

So now you know some fans would like it. So you put up to the task a planning manager or something : someone who will be able to give you a detailed plan of what should be done to make it happen.

In this plan there are :

• marketing costs (if you do it, you have to advertise it - this will have a cost, even if it's a few post on social media and a press release to media outlets, with graphical design, content writing and so on)
• development costs (how long will it take? which team will do it? what are the current devs of this team doing? is it going to be paid as extra hours or will the devs doing it be taken from their current jobs? all of this has a cost)
• quality control costs (when 2 amateurs guys can do it on their own and don't care about the end results, Activision has to make sure the 60fps is constant, especially if there's not a toggle between 30fps and 60fps modes. If a toggle must be present because 60fps is unstable, that means more coding. So quality control has to be here and will take time... and money).
• deployment costs (every update on the PSstore cost money, and not a small amount)

All of this will amount in minimum, I'd say, 10.000$ (and this is being veeeery optimistic!).

So then you ask the planning manager if this will result in an increase of sales of the game that could create profits. Most probably not. People interested in the update are generally fans who already own the game.

So unless you need some good publicity at the moment, or a new game in the franchise is coming soon, I see absolutely no reason for a publisher to do this.

I know it sucks, but we gamers back in the day always wanted our hobby to become big, now we pay the price of success with this kind of BS, and microtransactions, and season passes, and so on...

Every game really needs a 40fps mode. I know not everyone has a 120Hz tv, but these tvs are getting cheaper and more available. And really, the difference between 30fps and 40fps is huge!
I'll take 1440p40 over 2160p30 or 1080p60 at every opportunity! Especially if the 40fps mode maintains the bells and whistles of the "quality" modes.

@GamingFan4Lyf Thanks for staying on the issue, really appreciated. But your results makes the situation even weirder to me.

For me it's :
TV passthrough -> Soundbar : "PCM" for every setting on PS5 (it's 5.1/7.1 surround PCM though - but the sound doesn't change at all when switching between settings)

TV Auto ->

• PS5 LPCM -> Soundbar : "PCM" (albeit it's stereo)
• PS5 Dolby/DTS -> Soundbar : "Dolby Surround multi-ch PCM" (which should mean it's due to Dolby MAT)

My take : the PS5 recognizes the Dolby MAT capacities of the soundbar when the tv is in passthrough and so send an audio formatted in PCM whatever the setting chosen. For the soundbar, it's all the same.
But when the tv is in Auto, the tv makes the audio stop to decode it. This is where the PS5 gets confused and send only stereo PCM for LPCM, and sends Dolby MAT signal for Dolby. It's now the tv that sends the signal to the soundbar which recognizes them a bit differently. This most probably, at the end, is only a naming difference between Sony, LG and JBL that causes all these issues...

@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah, PushSquare really needs some kind of DM function for these situations! : )
But to come back to your question : yes, all my HDMI inputs are set to Bitstream.

I have another theory : can the PS5 output with an audio encoded in Dolby MAT? https://hifiaudios.com/home-theater/what-is-dolby-mat/ Maybe one of these "stability" update brought this. Or maybe an update on my soundbar brought compatibility with it, who knows. Apparently, this would make possible to get Dolby Surround, but also Atmos, while still in PCM. Could it be what is happening to my setup? This could explain why changing the output on the PS5 wouldn't change anything, as the PS5 would still procure Dolby MAT to the soundbar (via the TV's passthrough).

Or I am absolutely talking out of my a** and it's just a weird bug! : )

@GamingFan4Lyf Wow, looking at this http://kr.eguide.lgappstv.com/manual/w19_mr/dvb/Contents/settings/sound/soundout_e_a_t/eng/w45__settings__sound__soundout_e_a_t__eng.html , I can now confirm the behavior of my tv is not normal : when set to passthrough, it shouldn't output PCM when the PS5 is set to Dolby. But it does output PCM 5.1 ...
That's seriously weird, and makes me think something odd is going on.

@Gamer_Guy I get this. This is technically true.
But do you doubt that sometimes, depending on the devices, the setup and the listener's preferences, Dolby may sound better than raw LPCM?

@GamingFan4Lyf Wow thanks for this, much appreciated!

The JBL 9.1 is not HDMI 2.1 compatible, so connecting the PS5 is not an option.

As for when connecting it through the tv, here where I stand :
When I set the LG CX is set to passthrough, I get multichannel PCM on the soundbar, whatever option I select on the PS. Switching from LPCM to Dolby has no impact whatsoever. It's weird, but something along the PS5>LG CX>JBL is forcing the console to output multichannel PCM. In this case, I find the sound to be not as pleasant and balanced as in Dolby.

When I set the tv to Auto, if the PS5 is set to LPCM, I get Stereo PCM on the soundbar, and if the PS5 is set to Dolby or DTS, I get "Dolby Surround multi-ch PCM". The sound with Dolby is a lot better to my ears, and really makes the soundbar sing, but sadly there is a noticeable audio lag.

The audio sync of the tv and the soundbar doesn't allow for negative audio delay, and even it was the case, it would only increase the input lag.

I am confused by your claim that choosing Linear PCM on the PS5 gives the decoding duty to the tv. When set to passthrough, I'd guess the tv just let pass the sound as is.

My (wild) guess is that when the tv is set to passthrough, the PS5 recongizes the LPCM 5.1 capacities of the soundbar and outputs LPCM in every case, as it's the "most untouched, uncompressed" sound you can get. The issue is that "most untouched, uncompressed" does not mean it sounds better to the user as everyone has different audio expectations.

I guess I should just be happy with my soundbar outputting 5.1 LPCM without delay, it's not the case for everyone. But I really want to understand why the PS5 can't change its audio output format when the tv is set to passthrough, this is such an odd behavior and makes me dread something is wrong in the audio pipeline...

@JohnnyShoulder I have eArc connection enabled. I've seen a few comments on forums sayig disabling eArc could help.
But I also have a PC > JBL 9.1 > LG CX setup that could get hurt by disabling eArc?
I don't know, I'll try... again... frankly it's disheartening to see al these wonderful advancements in video and audio but the mess that is the compatibility between devices. These companies really need to get everything sorted out.

@VRjunky Got it, thx.
So there is no configuration where the PS5 is not doing the processing? No directly sending raw PCM to whatever audio device you have?
This could explain some weird instances I have of elevated voices if both the PS5 and the audio device are doing their own processing of the sound...

@JohnnyShoulder Got it. Is your PS5 connected to the tv or your audio device?

My setup is PS5 > LG CX > JBL 9.1

When I set the LG CX to passthrough, I can get PCM 5.1/7.1 without lag, but there is something weird with the sound where voices coming from the rear speakers are really too loud, it's weird. With these settings, I can't get Dolby (when I select it, the soundbar doesn't even acknowledges an audio output change).

When I set the LG CX to Auto, I get PCM stereo (PS5 set to LPCM) and I can get Dolby (the soundbar shows "Dolby Surround multi-ch PCM"). This actually sounds better, more balanced (I know purists will say Dolby is compressed and therefore worse than LPCM, but purists are going to be purists eh), but there is a noticeable audio lag.

I've seen countless posts on every forum about these issues, I'm just trying to make sure this "Atmos update" for the PS5 could solve them at least it this mode...

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I saw that on the DF video. It's nice to know users seem to don't have any issue.
Just to be sure I understand : you have noticeable audio lag in Dolby, but not in Dolby Atmos?

3 things :

• "the Tempest engine would render the information in the Ambisonic channels into headphones, stereo TV speakers, and 5.1 and 7.1 audio setups"
  Huh? So the PS5 doesn't do sound pass through when you don't select 3D audio? Every sound goes through the Tempest Engine? I thought it was only to give the 3D effect? That seems weird to me. Is this what causes audio delay with Dolby?
• "also note the rendering latency for these new speaker setups is identical to what it has been in the past for stereo, 5.1 and 7.1"
  Seeing how many people have issue with audio delay when using Dolby on PS5, I hope he's not talking about the same kind of lag!
• "they are ..."
  What? Why is this sentence cut off?
• "It is true that the game teams could not test with these speakers setups but support should be automatic"
  That's a big "should" considering how many compatibility issues occur between modern devices. Let's hope for the best, I really want my Atmos system to make my games sound even better!

@Kidfried I know what you are trying to do and I won't bite into it.
Hope you have a nice week end.

@MikeOrator You're welcome, I also have the sad tendency to write long comments on forums like this, to the annoyance of most, so I get you!

I don't disagree completely with "capitalism is the issue", but it's an easy shortcut. Capitalism itself is not an issue, but a tool. How to reign it and use it efficiently should be the goal. But let's not delve into a deep analysis of our economic system here on PushSquare, I'm pretty sure it's not the right place! : )

But to get back to our issue, even if video game marketing is just another symptom of the disease, it shouldn't stop us making evident to everyone how bad the symptom is. Finding a cure always start by exposing the symptoms. ; )

@MikeOrator Ok I'll bite :

1-Loot boxes are evil, I agree, in whatever form they come. So for example Reda's chests in AC Origins were just this.

2-You're underrepresenting the amount of grinding you need to get enough currency to even buy one cosmetics. And forgetting to say that some of the grinding can't be done over and over the same day. By giving you just a bit of currency, Ubisoft is just trying to push you to buy more.

3-Well, you acknowledged how you sound, so I won't push it too far, but a company has always the choice to not dabble in practices that are obviously against the customer. This is another marketing BS publishers are trying to sell us (like the "it's only cosmetics" one). So no, when you look at the money video games are racking up right now, companies don't "need" to put microtransactions in full priced games. They can do that in their free games.But where I'll concede a bit is that fiduciary duty on the ceo makes them obligated to pursue such tactics. Sad world indeed.

4-Come on, apples and oranges here! Arcade games in the 80s/90s and home console games today are really not the same thing, and the industry has transformed completely.

5-I personally consider season passes as evil as microtransactions. Monthly subs are something else, some models make sense... but since I don't play multiplayer games, so I can't really defend them too much.

6-On this we agree. Which makes these tactics even worse since the publishers are using the ignorance of most of their customers to earn even more profit. So making as much people as possible aware of what they're getting and why it's bad is a good thing on our part.

So no. ; )

@munkholt @Jettstyles @twitchtvpat @Korgon The "but it's only cosmetics, it doesn't impact gameplay" argument is one of the most incredible marketing BS that gamers have been gobbling up for 2 decades now.

Unlocking new cosmetic items by playing the game and setting challenges, and looking at your character with a sense of accomplishment is a big part of a good game. When you remove it (completely or part of it), you remove some of the value of the game, and some of the fun you can have with it.

Think about it just a moment : it's because cosmetics are an important part of how people enjoy their game that they sell it. If it was so meaningless, they wouldn't earn any money doing it...

@Skeletor85 have you been able to try the Atmos compatibility? I've heard very different feedback on the net about it.

@djlard Sound is so important in games, and I often get the feeling it's not a major point of focus for the devs. Especially the mixing. I can't tell how many games I've played where sounds where not coming from the right place, where sounds from far away where louder than closer ones, where the music could not be heard or drowned everything.
And don't get me started on the "audio settings" in games that generally offer you no explanation as to what they do (tip : it's often just a difference in dynamic range). On that point, Ghost of Tsushima is a great example of sound implementation and explanation of the settings.