Ravix

LG does not even have the NBA app (for shame) so the old PS5 saves the day for that, and the app on Google x Philips is pretty bad at times too, so it's Pro to the rescue. Occasionally I will use the Now app as it functions more consistently on ps5 than the tv apps do, and it has a better fast forward function which is vital for watching live golf on a delay! But half the time I won't bother tbh.

I highly recommend NBA games via PS5 though as it streams them so much better overall than any other version I've used. That is, when MS isnt making the whole league pass service crash at their end 👍

It's too warm to spend time playing console games and making the house even hotter in the day. Maybe watching the Scottish Open and pretending i'm there as it is about 10°c cooler up that way 🙃

By night, who knows? Is drinking copious amounts potentially a good idea? Yes it is, other Ravix, Yes it is.

Miike mode looks incredible! As does the game overall.

I love how much of a badass we seemingly get to be. Jin was very worrisome at times, but it seems like we really get to lean in to the Ghost mythology and character, and our image as someone to be feared. I hope we get to absolutely crucify some motherf****rs and, you know... occasionally feed the wolf 😁

My absolute main wish was always for more boss fights/duels, and it looks like we get that with contracts and encounters.

Let the hunt begin!

Full streaming for everything owned or in the catalogue to portable devices.

A set % discount to subscribers for all SIE published games whether new or already in other sales to promote your own products and reward your users.

Free cloud saves for people that don't subscribe because I bet that is annoying as hell.

Will the physical edition duck down and run right into me, initiating contact, to get fouls called? If so, I'll go digital

@BrockSmith at the moment we are on a similar path. KCD2 then Oblivion (I doubt I will ever finish that though as its a Bethesda game and I don't ever finish them 😂) but I do have Ghost Pre Ordered and my love of Swords and Swordplay might mean that I do indeed play that before Clair and Death Stranding 2. But my God, I just wanted to say... what a year for gaming! If these are the ganes we have to choose between then we are eating well 😁

@somnambulance I kind of get what you mean with that. I have some reservations in the back of my mind about whether they will go the Ubisoft AC Sequel route, or the Rockstar RDR2 style route. So either a new pretty basic character doing the same kind of game stuff, or a new character that you learn to care about for entirely different reasons than the first because of the journey we are about to go on. I do have faith they will nail atmosphere and story beats.

It looks a lot like Mafia to me. Like really a lot. Whole segments look very similar: sneak and stab your way to the mansion is very much like the maze level, going to get guns pre mission is the same, crouching, shooting, driving to objectives, cutscenes etc just it is in Sicilia.

And I was skipping through to not spoil anything for myself. But yes, very recognisable as being the 2kCzech style Mafia gameplay loop.

@Kraven great passionate summary. Death Stranding (1) was a great gaming experience for me, even though there were a few bottlenecks with janky combat and having to replay a couple of segments (damn you, Beach Bound Mads) because of the moments you can make (otter absailing, freeform dance moves using the balance mechanics in time to the 'end' credits music etc and the journey and spectacle itself being so unique) and I've been pondering whether to just buy 2 now, even though I don't think I will be able to get stuck in to it yet because of my current gaming dedication being on the very casual side of the hardcore/casual vendiagram.

But I think... I shall, based on people's reaction like this. I'm even tempted to get the CE, but logic kind of tells me that I don't really need a 15 inch Magellan Man in my life 🤷‍♂️😅 edit: oh no, the box has the otter on it in a new form 😭 'Buy Now' finger is lingering 😭

@Anya-chan because it's a mobile game and any realism or depth would break the game engine 🙈

It will go down as one of the year's most misleading build ups to a game release, I'd imagine. So there's that to look forward to on release day... 🙃 but as long as people know its a free to play game and not something to challenge a Ghost or Wukong experience then there can't be much to complain about (it may even be good for what it is) I just hope people don't get too excited for something different and then end up dissapointed becsuse at first glance it does look like a game that could be something much better.

For anyone interested you can search for gameplay on YouTube from the mobile/PC version that is already out.

I'm half wondering if there's something a little off about this title, some of the action in the gameplay trailers kind of skips the animations you'd expect moving from point a to point b. So a front flip becomes the start of a front flip, and then the landing, with nothing between.

And the story trailer didn't appear to offer much story? It was more of a dance production 🤷‍♂️

Ah, it is genuinely a free-to-play MMORPG with a "non-pay to win monetization blah blah etc" and it is already out in China on mobile and PC 🤦‍♂️

I think its a bit pricey for what it is, but that being said I have it on Pre-Order 😅 I really like the look of the mask, and the digital version is perfect for me anyway as I can play it without a disc drive.

I wanted to maybe find a traditionally made Japanese mask instead but haven't got a clue where to look for one, so this will do.

@Rangers420 It'd be remiss of me not to encourage you to get KCD2 right now

So, that said, it is clearly time for you to join the Legion of Henry's! Everyone's doing it, even random NPC's

I'm sure the 490 people that buy a Rog Xbox Ally will love this massive flex

@SeaDaVie the filings are fascinating. Netease pulled out as a significant influence in April last year.

I think its been falling apart for a very long time 😬

I've also seen suggestions that LB may have taken a consultation fee of around £5million via one of the many similarly named build a rocket companies they control, but its all speculation, i'm sure no one made any significant money from this disaster 👀

Edit: I’m going to stop now, as the focus should be back on the fact the actual staff are the ones being f***ed over here, as usual.

@SeaDaVie interesting. How has the £230m+ number been moved into their distributable reserves as late as December 2024 if it is money that has been available to be used by the company from day one though? Would the number not reflect that as it is seperate from their costs and regular accounts due to its nature as share premium 🤷‍♂️

At least they had some massive tax avoidance, I guess.

@SeaDaVie I can't really be that bothered to get into it too much. But the records are there, just look under filing history edit: never mind you found it.

Basically, they moved the money from the share premium account (the account that holds the excess above share price that investors were willing to pay, but that can't be directly withdrawn) into the distributable funds, which can be used to pay out shareholders Edit: it's the excess paid for shares, not the total lifetime shares, so that would be real money, right?

Of course, what they did with that money is a mystery, but it stood out pre-release as a bit strange, and it stands out even more now that we know that they knew how bad a state the game was in before it was decided to be made available on stores and before a weird campaign to blame some 'mysterious force' funding negativity around the game was started.

Add that to the fact the CFO, and CLO left the company a week before the game release, the rumours of sh** conditions and wild changes of direction by LB and the higher ups. And now the 100 expected layoffs! It just seems like something that someone should look into one day, and I'd be interested to find out all that went on there, because I'm a nosey c*** 😛 And if it turns out someone was up to no good, then f*** 'em, they can answer for it.

@SeaDaVie their public financial records that are available to anyone

"Reduction of the company's share premium account by £233,229,993 from £233,229,993 to £0.00 and the amount by which the share premium account is so reduced be credited to the company's distributable reserves" 20/12/2024

And the £230+million they moved in December so the shareholders could withdraw funds that were otherwise unaccessible to them will mean those at the top truly don't give a f***

Job done 🍻

Someone please investigate this bunch of c***s

@lazarus11 I remember when I first heard about it they mentioned a timer, which felt off-putting, but I'm guessing it will be kind of like a "click on this quest to start and time will change" rather than a fully dynamic day/night cycle with a limited amount of time.

To me, itd make sense if there were a bunch of quests you can do in the day, and a bunch at night, with some crossover quests that require both, and choosing to advance time to complete one part might have to be a decision we think about more carefully as time gets more scarce.

If it is indeed like this, I think it will add to the fun (take your time when you want to, and then make actual decisions that affect the overall story and the time you have left) and whether or not its a hard fail or just an alternative bad ending will have to be seen in-game, I guess.

All I know for sure though is that him saying time doesnt just run out on its own makes it feel like it will still be an RPG you can take your time with outside of the main quest, but maybe with a few consequences that do link back to the time you have.

I like the look of it.

I also picked up that the timer isn't a "timer" its more a "resource"? And the game warns you when its going to tick forward, which I hope means that you can spend ages exploring and slow playing rather than constantly fighting time 😁

Oblivion or BG3... or nothing because the weather isn't really gaming weather. But I do want to RPG at some point, maybe Sunday evening if the golf isn't too exciting 😛

Are You Yanking My GOTY Voting Pizzle?!

Honestly the first map alone of KCDII is probably my favourite RPG experience ever. It's perfection for me.

The weird thing is, overall, I still think KCD1 is better as a complete game and KCDII is clearly tweaked to make it easier for those that couldn't understand how the quests or combat worked in KCD and I would have liked maybe 5 more massive quests that annoyed people, rather than just the one or two sprinkled in 😛 But then they did add a lot more to the game, and it looks and plays great (and technically the end of 1 was supposed to include the start of 2 as its own finale, but they just couldnt manage it at the time) so KCD is kind of like KCD1.5 and KCDII in one game 🙌

I'm saving Clair for later in the year, and no doubt will love it, so 2 Game of the Years in one year is eating very well. And still 2 big Sony exclusives yet to come too!

Less rush in favour of a more mindful approach suits this series so much!
And that's what I hope this kind of thing leads to.

Tsushima, as we mentioned a while back, was just slapping a button as you sprint around the environment to collect lots of everything for no real reason. So what we need is less total stuff to collect in favour of a more considered, sparse approach, and then have the player appreciate they are part of the environment, not just dashing around collecting junk like the suped up roomba that was Jin 😅

Open world design is tough, but simple and realistic is usually better than crammed full and unrealistic.

If we love that he changed it... will he have to change it back? 🤔

It was 13th digitally (UK) pre refund/post release day (which is very bad for a brand new game) But it's actually at #11 now 🤷‍♂️

@Anya-chan that's two confirmed sources saying it now: You, and me. Good enough to be treated as fact, I think 🤷‍♂️🙃

Can we start some early moneyhatting rumours because of that tech demo being exclusively on PS5? 🤑

💰🎩💰🎩💰🎩💰🎩💰🎩💰🎩💰

Sooooo, ignoring the ongoing battle up there... In terms of tech innovation and competition, it's clear Nvidia is driving the push to make better hardware (Switch 2 has proven the power of their upscaling to the mainstream masses)

And Xbox are publishing a lot of games since they bought 2 massive publishers, so publishing competition has increased rather than decreased, if anything as their monopoly begins to form there.

Casual Fifa/CoD/GTA gamers always bought PS anyway, so that hasn't changed.

The cheap Game Pass effect remains the same, for now. Bad for the industry, good for people that don't want to spend much on gaming.

Plenty going on in the industry to focus the minds at PS towers. Cerny vs DLSS must be a personal goal, he'd love to eventually get PS upscaling as good if not better somehow, you'd imagine.

Looks up definition of 'sincere'

Nope.

Hey, Execs... F***off. We all saw it coming, you knew it was coming, and you still released a game that you knew wasn't acceptable

@LifeGirl there's a difference between a bad game and a game no one wanted to buy

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare it does make me wish for more dedicated and investigative gaming journalism. Game developers, companies and the conglomerates that own them (where applicable) are still pretty much only known for games they release, the quality of the games and then the odd story about abuse or layoffs that ends up swept away in no time.

Something smells off with it all and it'd be nice to get some bloodhounds on the trail haha. But I feel we will just get left with 'oh the game wasn't that well recieved and they eventually shut it down' or 'the game did okay and was average and will be forgotten' or whatever. And that will be the public perception of it, just that. And all of the other stuff will just melt away and be forgotten or never even thought about.

If there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for even half the random s*** behind the scenes, then so be it. But there has been a lot of chatter in forums for years by people that have supposedly worked there (there was a lot of staff turnover) and a lot of stuff they say... well, I can't see there being any reason for them to make it up, as why would they have an axe to grind with the execs, the work environment, Benzies and the like, unless they were indeed once employed there. And this is stuff from before 90% of people had even heard of the game or the company, so it isn't band wagon jumping.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare you're right about that. The original Mindseye description was "a premium experience within the free to play Everywhere model"

And word is they had to make some money as Everywhere was/is in development hell which explains why they slapped this out on consoles as a full game without it being close to optimised.

There's also the matter that the company moved the entire £233 million from the share premium account (which can't be distributed) into the distributable reserves in December. But that's a matter for the financial whizzes, of course the companies own chief finance officer did leave a week before the game released, also. So 🤷‍♂️ Just totally normal goings on, i'm sure

@Shepherd_Tallon I do think they distanced themselves from that. But it's hard to keep up with the whole journey as they have changed so many things so many times. A common theme I've seen and heard is Benzies changes his mind a lot, but it could always be investors dictating things as well.

I'm kind of hopeful it sticks around and eventually becomes whatever it is supposed to become, as I'm happy enough to play a story through and make up my own mind on that side of things. I suppose we will eventually know if this ends up as an episodic experience, or can simply be enjoyed as a standalone with a big full stop at the end.

@Shepherd_Tallon they wanted to make a blockchain game originally, remember 🤷‍♂️

I've seen GameRiot has a "Full Game" video that is 8 hours long, so that tells me all I need to know. I'll probably play this at a later date to fill a gap and move on (If it ends up ever working on the pro) I'm not fussed about the DLC or 10 year roadmap as it takes a special game to make me come back to it once I've wrapped the main story.

In fact, I'm glad @AaronBayne was so cutting in this write up now if the performance is legitimately tanking below 30fps. Releasing a game that cant even hold 30fps on the PS5 Pro must take a special level of sh** management and is unacceptable. It should not have released yet, clearly.

@nomither6 no, I'm an Xbox

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother what will I be?
Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?
Here's what she said to me

@Foxx_64740 but MS are trying to get people to buy their games now and has clearly just turned more people off buying this game. Obsidian is a very efficient AA studio with multiple releases and deserve to get good sales on PS.

Game Pass is a flat line (it barely matters what they put on it, it just carries on at the same level) but selling games on PS has been a massive vertical line for sales, but that will start to decline and then what? Numbers have to go up, so game pass price hikes, job losses, budget cuts.

I'm glad they seem commited to Obsidian at the moment, but all it takes is one person to decide 'nope we don't want to fund them any more' and they get shut down and absorbed into Bethesda or something similarly tragic haha.

Sell ToW2 for ~£50/$60 and I (and many others) buy it day one to support them for their quirky niche rpg's. I didn't even finish the first one, but I enjoyed it enough to buy the second at the right price.

@Danloaded @Dan12836666 I thought it was going to be some kind of Quantum Break spin off 🤦‍♂️

The way they had the similar level of actor, the science setting... the 'Monarch' butterfly 😅 and the fact the whole thing looked like Quantum Break, Control and Alan Wake blended in to one.

I guess it's good he's inspiring other studios, it's just a shame it's CoD in this instance 🤦‍♂️

I do think he should consult at other studios though, Remedy can't make as many games as Sam Lake probably could, especially if let loose with unlimited funding and studio resources and a team of people to do most of the work.

Hands up if you thought this guy had a surprise new game coming out and then felt stupid at the end because it was just CoD 🙌

@Starkei @DonJorginho

Glad it wasn't just me. Totally threw me with the first few lines. One of the most important things when using radio calls is the clarity of what is being said, too. So it's no wonder she got herself lost and Thomas has f***ed off somewhere 😛

@Jaxx420 yeah, I've been thinking about keeping E33 for this Autumn/Winter as I like to have a guaranteed great game in the bacn pocket. I'm not sure I'll get stuck in to a great RPG over the summer or not, as there will be stretches where I'm not gaming more than very casually, I guess, and I don't want that to happen if I'm part way through a really great game in case it ruins the flow for me. I just suck at finding games I can complete casually at this time of year and this is when i'm most likely to start and not finish games. I think because I much prefer games that I can immerse myself in, and invest time into just that one game, but that doesn't really suit the season. It's definitely an overthink 🙈😂

I'll probably get Mafia when that is out in August, as it won't be a long commitment. Who knows, maybe Mindseye won't be a total dumpster fire and will fill a void 🤷‍♂️

I ended up playing a bit more of AC Shadows, but nothing really memorable happened again 🙈 at this point it feels like you start a main quest, but the main quest is just a side quest in disguise. Very much the opposite from a good RPG where side quests are main quests in disguise.

I might have to go for Clair regardless if nothing grabs me though, as literally everyone seems to really like it, and I'm not sure how I avoided FOMO with it already, tbh.

@GeeEssEff yep, that's pretty much it. I like everything about it that I normally would I suppose, but I kind of knew it would happen. I'd say I'll leave it until winter, but then it will be directly following Ghost of Yotei 😭

That comfort food of base clearing, riding around the countryside and then doing some main quests isn't really satisfying me when it follows a game like KCD2 where you could talk to any NPC and it possibly lead to a genuinely great time. Rather than another checklist.

I did start to really enjoy using the Kanabo with Yasuke, while having Naoe do pretty much everything else. But I think the main quests got a bit spread out and there is definitely too many damn circles of assassination targets to follow. It got a bit ridiculous with the amount of people on our list to kill. There's about 6 people in the whole of Japan that aren't evil, a guard, or a generic mindless NPC, it seems 😭

I think I might pick it up and see if it's possible to just plough on with the main to get back into it 🤷‍♂️ if not it will have to wait until about February, I guess.

Currently staring at the consoles and deciding whether to do something very stupid. That stupid thing is taking another year of PS Plus Extra/Premium and Re-subscribing to Game Pass 🤦‍♂️ I'm in a total gaming state of confusion where I don't really know what to play or what ill be playing, considering summer is coming (supposedly) and I know I will be gaming less avidly if the weather is nice, but also pondering if there's a game I can finish within a couple of weeks (a couple of hours a day) that takes my fancy before that weather arrives.

I really suck at gaming if there's no one game (prefereably an RPG) I want to commit my gaming time to that I know I will get finished 🫣 AC Shadows (definitely not an RPG) hasn't quite grabbed me as much as it usually would for that comfort gaming hit, and playing it after KCD2 was not wise at all.

Someone inspire me 🤷‍♂️😭🙃

@SJR I mean, it's not celebrities, it's actors... some of whom you might have seen in other things 😛

@LogicStrikesAgain aha, yes, what also gets passed around along with the controller is very much up to each individual 😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️

it's going to be a sleeper hit, I think. And it's genuinely cool seeing these kind of social single player games again. They should totally make a 2 player mode where one controls each leg too ☠️

Romeo is a dead man looked pretty f***ing nuts, too.

@LogicStrikesAgain voting for it isn't hating 😁 I honestly think everyone should get it, have people over, have a few drinks and play pass the controller with it. I can see it being so good for that kind of old school couch play.

I'm guessing they won't be sending review codes after all? Or will you guys get a code and an early patch for review purposes?

I mean, AC Shadows looks fantastic and that is already out. I think people need to calm down on all sides 😅 It's going to look better than a lot of games. It's going to have various performance modes too. But what this was, in essence, was an updated version of the UE5 Matrix demo that was playable on PS5, but with trees instead of buildings.

I like the fact they are, at the very least, aiming for some cool NPC reactivity. But I won't care about that if they don't also say a bunch of silly sh**, so if there was a choice between fancy UE5 stuff, and a bunch of dumb lines the NPCs say, I'd take the lines every time

Yeah, I nearly fell asleep with those predictions and dreams 😛 Hopefully the show is more exciting than this list, or there's no hope for making it through the ad infested show itself haha.

I'm looking forward to the Pragmata "sowwy, we cancelled" video.

Someone trying to convince us Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still a game.

And maybe Star Wars Eclipse for the Trifecta.

Maybe a Crimson Desert release date.

Along with one surprise game that gets a surprise 2025 release (and hopefully not just because investors want to avoid GTA 2026)

Got to be a shadow drop of some kind, too. It's 2025 after all.