Quorthon

I have been waiting for this one for a while. I'd love a good sim game for the PS4 and haven't had a sim title in a long time.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi

What does being a video game have to do with anything?

This looks and sounds pretty cool. I've had a recent itch to scratch concerning old-school styled games, which started when I got Orcs & Elves for the DS. Later, I got The Keep on the 3DS--and both of these are old-school styled dungeon crawlers. Shadow Warrior was one of my first PS4 games, and it, too, scratched a different old-school FPS itch, reminding me of the early days of the "Doom clones."

I'll have to give this a look. I like the art style and concept.

I would like to see a real picture of this Portal Lego set.

While I find "the rapture" to be the most ridiculous of end times scenarios, I'm still willing to give a nice post-apocalyptic title a look.

@Vineleaf

I think the Vita could be given new life with only two decisions from Sony.

1. Completely redo the memory cards: Lower the price, make them bigger, include at least a 16GB with every Vita.
2. Drop the price $50~75.

I think that would move a lot more Vitas. Because it's a shame, it really is a very nice system.

@outburst

I'm really not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that online gaming is on the disk and Sony locked it away? Or... something?

@Tasuki

I would like to point out that I was in no way violating rules or attacking anyone, but attempting to grow up above the issues from before and have a conversation. I made a fair comment to get clarification. It is his choice to cast aside the olive branch, or accept it.

Talking about video games--or anything when a person is passionate--will always come with it's heated moments, exciting debates, and energetic moments. I can handle that, and it can oftentimes be fun and can and has even led to camaraderie in the past.

I can admit error in moving to aggressive comments in the past. The solution isn't to just sit there, arms crossed, face twisted in a grimace and avoid everyone.

By all means, if I responded differently to him than anyone else here, or targeted him in some specific manner to his self, it's only fair to point it out.

@GraveLordXD

By all means, that's your flavor. The other element is that, while paying for online helps shore up infrastructure and ensure it is maintained, having the freebies is a nice bonus. If you don't like it, then you don't like it. They aren't actually demos and you do keep your Trophies, after all. Whether you like it or not, the service has value.

A strange, abstract, but interesting artistic choice. I was never much of a Manson fan, but have found some of his older stuff more enjoyable in recent years. I think it might be more for striking a bit of nostalgia for that era.

I guess this isn't really that surprising. Microsoft's strengths have long been in the United States, and Sony dominates elsewhere. Nintendo really doesn't even matter in this generation anymore, which is sad, but that's what happens when you go for gimmicks, weak hardware, and an endless parade of the same old Mario-Zelda-Pokemon games over and over instead of advancements, modernization, and giving third parties the tools they need to survive.

Hmmm... commit virtual suicide. This sounds a bit like the film Strange Days in which the "drug of the future" (read:1999) was to be able to experience the memories and experiences of another person, and the most dangerous part of that was to experience a person dying or being killed.

@get2sammyb

Seems like this is some kind of standard for major corporations when a major issue hits--slow communication.

But to be fair, it would be irresponsible for any company to go rushing out with some kind of "hey, stuff's broken" announcement before they have all the facts on it. I think, at most, an response that they're aware of issues and looking into it should suffice. This won't make everyone happy, but not everyone understands reality or that it takes time to fix wide-reaching issues.

I'm still just surprised Konami would be stupid enough to nix this game. Silent Hill? Guillermo Del Toro? Norman Reedus? This thing was going to print money, no matter what. And it sounds like Konami seriously needs money.

I'm sure the new Mass Effect will show up at E3 this year. Until then, we can just ignore all this stuff.

I think I prefer Bloodborne's camera where it is. Except for that time it got stuck in a wall during a boss battle. Boy was that a tense few seconds.

I can't believe I actually won that one.

I may still give it a try, but with a sale, unfortunately. I'm always up for more shmups.

@BertoFlyingFox

Actually, Nintendo has had three years of pretty notable losses while the Wii U was, unfortunately, bombing. When they last posted profits, it was based more on "weak Yen" than increased income from sales. The next fiscal year may well see actual profits (ending March 2016), and NX looks like it'll be here in late 2016, which would match Iwata's comments about "returning to Nintendo-like profits" for the fiscal year ending March 2017.

I do agree in that I could also see Disney buying up Nintendo, but I'd just rather they go third party and continue to thrive under their own merits. I just don't think Nintendo would "spread the love" the way Sega did when they went third party. I think Nintendo would try to partner with someone for exclusive access to their games, and I'd expect that partnership with Sony well before Microsoft or Valve. Maybe Google. I'm kind of tired of Disney owning everything. They have a bit too much.

@Kage_88

So... because PSN was hacked, that makes it bad? Because losers outside of the company committed an assault against the company, PSN is automatically bad? With that kind of thinking, the whole of the internet is bad and you should never pay for it or use it. Honestly, do you call Comcast and demand it be free when it goes down for maintenance? Do you call Century Link when it's out because someone broke something? That's a little like saying that your grandma is bad because she "allowed someone to mug her" on the streets.

Do you judge all things by a few notable negatives over a plethora of positives?

Or are you just upset that I said something accurate about Nintendo?

@GraveLordXD

When you take everything offered together as value, then it's worth the whopping $5 per month. They make it worth your while. Besides which, it'd be highly unrealistic to allow players to keep the free games afterwards, as that would cut very deep into potential revenue, particularly in this current consumer market of waiting until nearly every game is on sale or buying everything used.

MS has adopted this standard now as well, which I think is vastly better than what they were doing before, which was basically giving you games that you could keep--but they were also games almost everyone using Live already had, several years old.

No online infrastructure is perfect, but yes, I have experienced quite a bit of stability in the PS4 online thus far. Occasional issues will always come up, that doesn't magically mean the service isn't worth it. For that matter, that means they then have the funds to address issues that do come up.

Expecting everything for free is just selfish narcissism. Games cost money to develop. Online services cost money to maintain. Either pay a small monthly fee and be happy, or demand an alternative that is awash in advertisements. But don't expect people to work on making it for no money.

@JaxonH

Actually, nothing was ever said about responding to you. That'd certainly be an odd demand from a mod--"don't talk to that guy." For that matter, even if accurate, why would they give you private information stated to me? Ha, did they say to just avoid me? That'd be funny. Anyway, public forum. You could just be an adult and respond in a friendly manner or ignore me. It's your choice to turn to hostility. Try not to turn everything into a personal battle of persecution. I treat you no different than anyone else. I see something that sparks a response, I respond--and in that, Sony did not take away privileges from anyone.

@JaxonH

Sony didn't take away anyone's online privileges, nor did they remove anything from their online. It's not like they offered a great online experience and then showed up later to take away all of it's value by removing things, like voice chat or something. They took a paid service, made it robust, and improved upon concepts developed by Microsoft.

MS and Sony both have paid online, with loads of bonuses and solid infrastructure. On the other hand, Nintendo's online is free, weak, and worthless. Clearly, that money is used to make these services better.

This article kind of washed over some of the stiff overall losses Sony has still incurred--the vast bulk of which are sitting squarely on the shoulders of the mobile division. It's fantastic to see the Playstation division chugging away, eating up profits. I think Sony is really returning to form with the Playstation brand--returning to the industry-dominating position they held with the PS1 and PS2.

Now, with any luck, if the NX bombs like the Wii U, Sony will be in a position to merge their gaming division with Nintendo so Nintendo's games can finally be on good hardware.

@ryanorly

My issue was the extensive slog through story sequences. I get called pretentious and arrogant on a regular basis (so, people see me as both superior and are angry about it, apparently), but even I found the story to be pretentiously overly-arty to the point that my eyes glazed over and I just shut it off.

I tend to actually enjoy quirky and very arty games, but the bizarre anthropomorphized "day-dusk-night-dawn" cycles "fighting" each other was just incredibly dull and so abstract as to come off as annoying. Almost like the developer was trying too hard to come up with something creative and melodramatic and they only way they could have stacked the achingly brooding melodrama higher would be to have Billy Corgan narrate it sadly into a tissue.

The story sequences went on forever and simply refused to be interesting. By the time I got to the gameplay, I felt it was interesting, but not exactly fun. There were some good ideas, but I didn't feel the implementation was very solid and in a day and age where platformers have reached the heights of addictive perfection a la Rayman Legends, this just felt bland.

I really like to give indies a shot and the benefit of the doubt, but just couldn't get past this one. There was an overwhelming impression of "trying too hard" yet an unrefined element to the whole thing, and the pretentious packaging didn't help things. It's a freebie, so everyone should give it a try, but it's just overly front-loaded with "LOOK AT ALL THIS ART" to the detriment of pretty much everything else.

I have yet to play a Gundam game, despite enjoying the original trilogy and Gundam Wing. One day. One day...

So... it's like the UK version of The Show.

I read the subtitle to this article as if the game had been cancelled. I would not be surprised to see a sequel to this.

@Splat

Exactly. While there is still an element of self-serving attention here, a good deed is still a good deed.

I already have Super Guacamelee and Unfinished Swan, but I'll still give all of these a fair chance. No complaints here.

@BLPs

My biggest and best ideas remain in conceptualization form only so far. I want to become more established (so we can work full time) before we start working on some of those.

@rjejr

Ahh, well the TMNT one isn't on consoles... yet. Which is probably why I didn't notice it--but there you go, I guess that leaves Cartoon Network and Warner Bros.

There's even a version of this for Transformers right now, but you buy actual "fun" toys, scan a sticker on them, and--per my understanding--use the character in a mobile game then. It just uses visible emblems over RFID. The Transformers themselves are not particularly impressive, in my opinion--and this is my other expensive hobby besides gaming. I have untold numbers of these things, but the game-related figures are of a design I don't really care for. Grimlock looks ridiculous. I put "fun" in quotes for this reason. Most Transformers are fun, but not the lame "easy switch" figures from the last movie, and these things look cheap. The Combiner Wars figures on the other hand--holy crap are they impressive.

I think, even if MS and Sony do built-in RFID technology next time around, I think these things are still a fad--like most things of this nature--with a limited life expectancy. I don't necessarily think retail outlets need them, though. They take up way more space than video games for a fraction of the revenue, and this year, the PS4 and XBO will be settling into their groove, which means way more games will be filling out those retail spaces.

My girlfriend and I noticed yesterday that the PS4 and XBO are finally starting to push the PS3 and X360 games out in places like Target. This year will be the first in a solid 3~5 years of PS4 and XBO gaming and library growth. Suffice to say, there will be plenty to fill shelf spaces at those retailers once these toys reach their inevitable wall of backlash.

I still would not be surprised to see at least one more major title appear to compete with Skylanders, Legos, Infinity and maybe Amiibos (though they don't have the same draw and I think they're going to feature a much shorter shelf space for a few reasons) before the fad crashes--like motion controls and plastic instruments did last generation.

It'll be quiet again for these things, and then there will be something else. Maybe, next generation, someone will test the waters again with a new franchise or revival--like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are getting now--but their popularity is going to be short-lived.

That's always how it goes for these things--fads. Maybe then VR will take over as the cool fad. Hell, VR may actually help topple the fad of the toys-to-games. Or games-to-life, or however the hell they're being classified. "Stupid plastic toy games one day guaranteed to fill garage sales, second-hand stores, and discount bins."

@get2sammyb

Which is why Nintendo is trying to sell the New 3DS, most obviously, to people who already own the system.

The 3DS is gradually slipping away the same as the Wii U--which is slipping away fast, but both systems are almost completely lacking in 3rd party support with only occasional, rare exceptions.

Sony is clearly returning to form, as it were, concerning their stance and hold over the industry during the PS1 and PS2 eras.

I thought Unfinished Swan was already a PS+ game, but then remembered that I bought it super cheap in a sharp sale a couple months ago, along with Super Guacamelee.

Whatever, I'm not upset by any of this--still lots to play.

@MinerWilly

Don't forget John Wayne, Hamburger, Pizza, Cowboy, Bang Bang, Flash, Rocket, Baseball, Hockey, Building, Dinosaur.

I thought you were just putting a bunch of words together in an "Americany" way like an Asian stereotype.

@rjejr

Baltimore? Does that qualify as a "too soon?"

I've always enjoyed Legos, but not Lego games, and certainly not anything that requires spending oodles more on extra toys just to use certain features. It's a gimmick that will be burned out before this generation is over. Just like "plastic instrument games" were last generation. Yeah, we're seeing a small creep back to them--another try--but the genre still collapsed for a while.

These plastic toy games will also collapse this generation. Skylanders, Infinity, Amiibo, Legos, and I'm betting we'll see another one show up from somewhere else. Hey, you know who has a huge catalog of cartoon franchises that haven't been turned into plastic toy-games yet? Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros.

I would not be surprised at all to see at least one more of these things occur to coincide with everyone just getting sick of them. I would estimate around 2017~2018.

@ShogunRok

Yeah, $3.8 million is a lot to average shlubs like us, but in gaming, that's still an A or AA-level game. Judging it against, say, Rayman Legends which had far more millions backing it would be grossly unfair and unrealistic. Merely that it has a publisher does not mean said publisher paid for development of the game. After all, Nintendo published Ninja Gaiden 3 for the Wii U, but they didn't fund any part of it--the opposite of Bayonetta 2.

@BLPs

My team failed Kickstarter twice (it was poorly planned and focused, but we learned a lot from the experience), but still released our game on Android. Later, we used that to get approval from Nintendo and upgraded the game for the Wii U. Used that release to get approval from Sony. We are now done with that game and moving onto something more interesting now.

Kickstarter has a lot of generally unfair hatred thrown at it by gamers, so you almost shouldn't do it unless you're damn near ready to release. Also, I wouldn't advise making your first release something you've wanted to do for a long time. Make your first couple learning experiences because, no matter what, things will go wrong that are practically out of your control.

@BLPs

Then you better make your game so good that it revitalizes the genre.

NO PRESSURE!

I'm still not even sure I'm going to get this Batman (didn't finish the last one), but if and when I do, I won't be getting that Season Pass. I can get full games for that much money elsewhere.

I don't think the game looks bad, and to judge it off one screenshot or early alpha-level footage is stupid. Besides that, it's not how it looks, it's how much fun it plays.

Gamers lament the "death of A and AAA games" but could really help things by not judging such games--especially graphically--by the absurd standards of those with AAA money.

@rjejr

That Batman Season Pass is freaking awful. That makes the price of the full game $100 already. That's too damn much. I was already annoyed that to access all of Splatoon's on disk content I'd have to pony up $95 for plastic toys that will be impossible to find.

As a whole, I think gamers should stop buying Season Passes or placing pre-orders. I would estimate that 85-95% of the time, it's totally unnecessary. You can still find day-one editions of the last Assassin's Creed in stores. No one needed to preorder that.

Pre-orders are really only valuable for games that do not get major releases--so if it's AAA, there's no reason to pre-order. I tend to only bother with pre-orders if the game is likely to be difficult to find, and even then, I generally pre-order online. So, rarity is about the only reason, unless it's a game I really, really want--and the last two Mortal Kombats are the only titles I preordered and bought season passes. Aside from that, I don't bother.

Norman Reedus also posted a Tweet indicating that the project might be dead. I am displeased. The P.T. demo really got my attention to what was possible with moving forward, so it's a bummer this is apparently not going to happen now.

Boo Konami! Boo!

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/04/27/konami-confirms-silent-hills-cancelation-but-series-still-alive.aspx

Certainly doesn't look like a typical Tekken fighter. Not sure if I'm interested in going back to this franchise again. It's been on a pretty steady decline after part 3.

What were the Trophy problems? I play this with my kid every once in a while, and didn't notice any Trophy issues in that time. What was broken?

I think it's odd that this "First Impressions" article also says "our final thoughts" right away.

Ahh crap. I'm out of space on the Vita and the PS4 and the PS3. The months are flying by too fast! I don't have time to replace my harddrive or buy the bigger memory card!

@Mrskinner

Where do you find the time? I have work, game development on the side, my kid, and general life. I get maybe one night a week to play Bloodborne right now. Last night, I accidentally ended up in a new area and have to figure out how to get out--moments before I was going to shut it off to go to bed.

On top of this, the PS4 still has, by far, the most exclusives of any platform for 2015: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/01/14/2015-video-game-release-schedule.aspx

Just do a quick search for "(PS4)" and you'll see bigger numbers there than for (Xbox One) or (Wii U). The PS4 even has more than PC in this regularly-updated list.

I just made a comment about this in the Black Ops III article. Mostly noting that I found it odd that anyone thought Sony only had Uncharted 4 (originally) for the 2015 Holiday season, and nothing else. Of course Sony has other games coming--maybe not as big as Uncharted 4, but that's not the only thing they had. I'm fine with them holding U4 until a quieter time to rebuild hype. There is always plenty to play until then.