Olmaz

The sad part is that this cheap marketing tactic is garnering so much positive reaction, especially from the "journalistic" side of gaming.

Larian can put whatever they want in their game, and can decide to use whatever they want in their marketing. But the way people, and gaming news sites, just gobbled up the story, either for the shock value or because they thought it funny/sexy enough to warrant long articles, is depressing.

Sex sells, we know, and I have personally no issue with "sexy" (I even find it missing a bit too much from AAA games lately).. But if we have come to a point where bear sex is viewed as a positive addition to your 100 hour long RPG warranting its special marketing, maybe it's time to review some of the ways we approach sexual content... just a bit... to see where we stand.

@evan23 Yeah, they know exactly what they're doing.
And the worst part : for an extremely small budget, that will make a huge profit, since many many people will buy it, because :

• they don't know it's just a port
• they don't care it's just a port, they just wnat to be able to play RDR on their current console
• they will buy anything RDR related

And Rockstar/Take Two know it... so they do it... it works... and the cycle continues...

Even if I have no way to verify what they say, the fact that they say it so candidly is fantastic. Companies have to understand that customers value honesty and transparency, at least I personally do.
After years of gaming plagued by botched releases, this is refreshing.

@NEStalgia Do you still think Baldur's Gate is niche and not mainstream?

@GamingFan4Lyf Wow, shame on me, I didn't look at the blogpost, trusting PushSquare to give the most important info in their article. But still, I should have done what I generally do : check the source.

So if I understand well, this is allowing any sound produced by the Tempest 3D Engine to output as Dolby Atmos. So in theory, any game should benefit from it (with various degrees of success). That's quite an achievement and, as you say, it must have been some big collaboration between Sony and Dolby to get this thing working!!!

@Perryg92 True Atmos does already work for UHD Blurays... So you may be right, it's maybe only for internal apps, which would be great for those using them.

But for the games, on Xbox there are few dozens of games that are Atmos compatible https://www.trueachievements.com/dolby-atmos/games , and I would love to see them be so on PS5 too, but that would be a huge blow to the Tempest Engine, since Sony had promised it would come to soundbars and home theater systems after tvs...

I'll keep a very interested eye on this though, 3D surround sound can really be incredible for some games.

About Dolby Atmos : no game on the PS5 supports it right? It's for UHD BluRays only?

Good to know intimacy coordinators don't see any problem in simulated bestiality. Another piece of evidence to show it's just another one of these BS jobs our current society loves to create.

@Damage99 Well, not exactly. I mean, pre-rendered cutscenes, diversity and complexity of set-pieces and environment, all of these will bring the GB count up.
So yes, it's not a direct link, but still, if a story based single player game is 100GB, you know it will have a longer campaign than a 20GB one.
Unless it is very poorly optimised...

After a bit of research (should have done this before my previous comment), the game should take 15-20 hours for campaign, +10h for completion.
Seems fair.
https://exputer.com/guides/atlas-fallen-game-length/

Good, this mean it won't be too long and won't overstay its welcome.
Based on what I've seen, it looks like fun, kinetic gameplay, but if all is in the desert, a 100 hour campaign would have been tedious.
Of course, there's still the possibility of it being not only too long, but with always the same assets used along the campaign... Let's hope not.

Wow, that's a lot of grey here!!!

But seriously, I'm... not convinced. While I am a fervent admirer of FromSoft, this doesn't make me immediately play it. I'm afraid it looks repetitive in its gameplay and tedium with the micro management of the mechs. But I guess repetitive and tedium could be used to describe Soulsborne games and I love them so, who knows...

I absolutely loved Dragon Quest XI. So I'm down for another round of Dragon Quest, even if the gameplay is different. What I've seen up to now is quite promising!

@DennisReynolds Reading your comment with the voice and facial expressions of your avatar makes it sound sooooo sarcastic, manipulative even!!!

@LifeGirl 100% agree. Of the 3 very long animes I have watched (Dragon ball, Naruto and Fairy Tail - I've passed Bleach and One Piece), Fairy Tail is the only one that managed to stay consistant until the end, mainly due to some huge revelations they kept until the end, but more importantly because the sense of camaraderie was still present.
Dragon Ball switches to "get a more powerful transformation = get the win" after Namek, and no one except Goku (and sometimes Vegeta or Gohan) really did anything...
Naruto went too filler-y after a while, with interesting designs, but a paper thin plot stretched over hundreds of episodes. It ended for me with Shikamaru vs Hidan, an incredible fight full of feels and smarts.

@Wraggadam Good point!

Great, it's time Patapon comes back, these were very enjoyable games!

A little nitpick : if your logo needs a rewrite in a readable font just under it, then your logo is not good.

Octopath Traveler II

I'm completely hooked! The visuals, the characters, the battle mechanics, this game just manage to find the exact balance between complexity and simplicity that I yearn for in JRPGs!

I struggle to see anything interesting in what was shown. Even NFS is trying to shake things up with weird effects and day/night gameplay modifications.

But in general, I'd love a good discussion about open world vs race tracks for racing games. I personally feel open world makes the racing less personal, more bland, less deliberate and induces a lack of set pieces.

While I fully acknowledge that a lot of people enjoy open world racing games, I simply can't see why...

Can they remake Need for Speed III : Hot Pursuit first?
I really don't like open-world for racing games, I prefer handmade race tracks that bring deliberate challenges and set-pieces, and the first Hot Pursuit was a very good example of this (even if I'm sure I would be disappointed if I were to go back to it today... nostalgia ha!)

@Sekijo Don't you think there is a difference between a game inspired by a cartoon that is meant to mock and criticize society's problems and people's behaviors on one side, and on the other side a serious RPG game that is promoting a romance choice including some form of behavior considered illegal/immoral?

At which point did you think while watching/playing South Park that the devs/producers were promoting the idea that bestiality was good, or even ok?

Here in this game we have the clear promotion of such behavior. And it is included in the marketing of the game just to create controversy while appealing to what they think their main audience want... which is a frightening thought if they are right.

Now, don't get me wrong : I am against censorship of content meant for adults (and even there, how strong will the "For adults" part of this game be enforced?), so if the devs want to depict bestiality in a positive way, they can. I'm just disappointed and disgusted at the positive reactions to it.

@NEStalgia I played Divinity 2 on console and it's glorious, I never felt the lack of mouse hindered my enjoyment so I'd say go for it. At least, grab it on sale you can get it dirt cheap nowadays.

@NEStalgia Frankly, something doesn't have to be Marvel/Star Wars level of mainstream to be mainstream. When you say Dungeons & Dragons, a lot, and I mean a lot, of people will at least have an idea of what I'm talking about. And it's growing. Don't forget that the nerds of the 80s-90s (me included) are in our 40s-50s now, and we manage the brands' awareness.

As for Baldur's Gate 3, it is going to be one the major video game release of 2023, at least if you exclude all the multiplayer focused games. Not calling it mainstream is a stretch. It's not Spider-Man 2 level of awareness, but still.

@Matroska 2 points :

1-Violence and sex are not the same topics, and don't necessitate the same approaches, as laws and morality have shown in every society. Others in this thread have given examples for this (some even have seen their comment deleted just for this... weird). Different ethical dilemmas, different rules.

2-What's your point exactly? Is it : we did a bad job about violence, so let's do the same bad job about bestiality? Or is it that violence is ok, therefore bestiality is ok too?

@Dimitris670 So the "200 year old vampire that looks like a 10 year old girl" in a hentai is not a child, is that it?

@NEStalgia 208 million $ for the Honor Among Thieves movie https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1879410177/
Hasbro buying just D&D Beyond for almost 150 million $. https://www.xfire.com/hasbro-wotc-dnd-beyond-dungeons-and-dragons-fandom-150-million/
Articles in mainstream media : https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/13/dungeons-dragons-had-its-biggest-year-despite-the-coronavirus.html
Wizards of the Coast passing 1 billion $ revenue : https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/wizards-of-the-coast-billion-dollars-revenue/
A 7 hour developper panel about an upcoming CRPG with more than 650k views on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW846h6FyU4

Sorry to burst your bubble, but D&D is mainstream now. I know a lot of people want to pretend their nerdy hobbies (mine too!) are still niche, but they're really not.

@Kylekgh Would you hold the same views if the character in question was transforming into a 10 year old kid instead of a bear? I hope not.

Therefore, since you have your own limits, you should expect other people to also have limits of their own, and bestiality is quite a common ethical limit to sexual intercourse (and its depiction in art and entertainment) in most societies... don't you think?

How the world has changed :

Kotaku (and the comments) in 2015 remembering Sonic kissing a woman : https://kotaku.com/remember-when-sonic-kissed-a-woman-1731219760

Same Kotaku (and the comments) in 2023 applauding being able to have sex with a bear in a mainstream RPG : https://kotaku.com/baldurs-gate-3-halsin-romance-sex-scene-bear-karlach-1850615466

But saying bestiality is being banalized is conspiratorial and a slippery slope, right?

@ShadowofSparta "but in a funny and silly way"
So we're officially in the "bestially is a funny kink like any other" time period now? I though it was slippery slope fallacy to say we were going towards this?

@Cutmastavictory What's that "sockeur" thingy you're talking about? Is it French?

"football" - quotes needed in the title

Is that the Stanley Parable narrator?

If true it's fantastic :

• I always like these COD games on PS+ : I just play the campaign once and be done with it, and they are generally enjoyable
• I wanted to try Alan Wake for quite a while, so here we go
• Endling... I'm not sure I can go through the emotions of it right now, but it looks like a good little game

@themightyant I totally get what you mean with the feeling of a lack of progression after some time, and this is where the free updates and the DLCs came in.
Between making the game fully customizable, new biomes, new weapons, new unlockables, new modes and so on, you really get enough variety to motivate you into playing again.

Need repeating : this is one of the best games on the PS4. Fantastic gameplay, wonderful pixel art, engaging game loop, great music and absolutely incredible support from the team.

Very glad to see it with a native PS5 version, İ hope it will bring even more people to it.

I've tried the demo and it's obviously an humongous fantastic RPG. But damn the characters look boring!

I never felt even a little empathy or connection to these plastic faced characters, talking like they were out of a low budget fantasy movie. Add to that a very bland character design and I'm afraid I won't be invested in them enough to see the game to the end...

We'll see, I hope I'm wrong...

@KidRyan In a way, you're not wrong : there is absolutely nothing that looks like even remotely interesting in this battle pass.

But at the same time I don't think the "it's just cosmetics" is a good one. How the game, and your character, looks is very closely tied to your enjoyment of the game... and producers know that well : this is why they sell cosmetics!

The "it's just cosmetics" is pure corporate BS that has been repeated so many times people have started believing it.

@huyi To be fair, the game is exceptional and there is enough content in the base game to last for months (or a lifetime depending on your degree of involvement in fighting games).

But I agree : battle passes and other ***** mtx should be banned from paid games, and only exist in free-to-play games. I'd say, hopefully nobody will buy this battle pass... but we both know it's not gonna happen. : (

I played Cyberpunk on PS5 after all the updates (when the RayTracing one came out( and it was one of the most enjoyable experience I've played in 2022.
It's an incredible RPG, with Night City as a fantastic playground and a solid story.

I for one am waiting impatiently for the DLC, as CDPR has shown us in the past they know how to do expansions.

@Keyblade-Dan Maybe a simple algorithm search that didn't like the word "buttocks"? That would be funny as I went out of my way to not use a vulgar word! : )

@Nem Yep, I'm not convinced by the kameo feature. Let's see how it ends up being but for sure I'd like the option to turn it off.

@get2sammyb Really PushSquare, so now a non vulgar slight criticism of a in-game character model of a fictional character is getting removed as "inappropriate"?

Please don't become this, you are one of the very few sites where, seemingly, respectful open discussions about video games and adjacent topics can still happen, I'd hate for it to change...

@Keyblade-Dan May I ask what exactly you find good in Kitana's new look/model?

@Pat_trick To be fair, the game actually look stunning when you look at the backgrounds, the physics of the fights, the faces, the character models' details and so on.

But I agree with you with the bland design. This is really bare bone MK style... I was hoping to a return to the more fantastical/cheesy style of MK9. Maybe some alternate outfits (I mean, the kameo character's outfits were from the old games, so one can hope)?

@Matroska I don't know, their model seemed to have weird proportions (long torso and short legs), their clothes are from the MK11 kind instead of the more cheesy/sexy vibes of MK9 which I prefer.
But to each his own on that count, I'm glad some prefer it that way! : )

Looks very very good, and a good evolution from the MK11.
No sold on the Kitana/Mileena design though...

In my Top 5 PS4 games, and soon in my Top 5 PS5 games.

An absolute gem, and we can't celebrate the devs enough for the support in both paid (but very fair) expansion and free updates.

This is the kind of games that gives me hope about the future of gaming.

THis looks really fun, but really, how has it not been adapted to PSVR2 is baffling, it seems like a perfect game for it.