RobN

The biggest developers don't need SGF or the Game Awards or E3 or whatever else. EA and Ubisoft and Konami and others can drop a new announcement or trailer any time they want and, for better or worse, it will get news and attention.

Shows like this really help the fringe players - the studios and games that are big enough to get (buy?) time in something like SGF, but small enough not to guarantee an audience on their own. So every time you complain that not every title was exactly what you wanted and you're not excited about every single announcement - that's not an accident, that's by design. You saw trailers and announcements you never would have seen without this event - and THAT is why it matters. If only one resonated with you, that's a huge win for that one developer.

Stop preordering games. Just stop.

When the developer/publisher doesn't let reviewers see it before release, wait. You know why they don't want reviewers to see it early - they're telling you to save your money, so listen to them.

Even if it's a diamond in the rough, buy it six months after release, with patches AND discounts in place. Save yourself the frustration of paying extra to be in the public beta, and just wait.

I'm really very confused why Astrobot Rescue Mission hasn't been ported to PSVR2. I mean, I understand they were working on Astro Bot, and they're still releasing updates to it, but how hard could it be to port what ought to be a sure-fire winner?

I didn't have the first PSVR and I'd love to play the game that introduced Astro Bot - and I expect a lot of PSVR2 owners are thinking the same thing. But I guess that's just not happening.

There's a simple, obvious reason why a studio wouldn't let reviewers see a game in advance - it's the same reason you should reconsider preordering a game ever again.

Six months after release it will cost $60 and have most of the bugs patched out of it.

Two years after release it will cost $20-30 and have more bugs patched, polish applied, and maybe even DLC included.

Why pay more to help beta test on day one? Buy later, save money, and minimize frustration.

Six months after release it will be $60. Two years after release it will be $30. And both versions will have fewer bugs and more polish than the day one $80 version.

I liked both Plague Tale games - but this doesn't feel like the same game. The art style is similar, I'll give them that. But there's no hint of working together with multiple characters, which was a key element of the games. Obviously, as a prequel, it also has a different nemesis - I didn't spot a single rat in the trailer. I'm not so sure what's supposed to win over fans of the first two games to this one, just yet.

@DrVenture69 Check the accessibility menus - they do have options for at least some things to be button presses instead of holds.

On the wishlist already.

Which doesn't mean I'll buy it day 1, I almost never buy day 1.

I just picked up some other PSVR2 games that went on sale today, as part of the new Summer Game Fest sale, so I've got plenty to keep me busy until...whenever this drops. With the Days of Play sale on PSVR2, if you don't have one yet, it's not a bad time to pick one up.

@LikelySatan You'll notice everyone here has the same interpretation of what you said, even after corrections. Perhaps you didn't actually communicate clearly - that's on you.

The 2025 one has been on sale for as little as $10 (US) so far. But not now...maybe not again.

@LikelySatan Just because you don't understand the attraction of something, doesn't make it stupid.

It's fine not to enjoy the same things that literally billions of other people around the world enjoy (rooting for their "home" teams in dozens or even hundreds of sports), but it's a bit bold to even jokingly say billions of other people are losers for having a different perspective than you.

How does Embracer count games? For example, if some big title comes out on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch 2, are they counting that as one game on five platforms, or is that five games?

If I were trying to pad numbers for investors, that would be five games, no question (well, maybe 4, as it's a tougher argument to make that the Steam and Epic versions are different...but maybe I make that argument anyway!)

When the media was dominated by magazines and cable channels, media showcases were big deals. That's not today.

If they took everything they might announce in a showcase and dropped a trailer on YouTube each day, every day, for a week or more - are you sure that wouldn't generate MORE interest and excitement than a showcase would? Especially if they teased it a little so you weren't sure how many were coming, or what's coming next?

Sure not everybody would like everything - but how many people actually watch a showcase compared to how many pick and choose trailers they're excited about, anyway?

I didn't upgrade to Premium for the classics. My first Playstation was the PS3, so most of those classics mean nothing to me (and honestly, most aren't that great today - though the remastered versions of Sly Cooper on the PS3 where awesome!).

I joined Premium for the PSVR2 titles included for free, and for that it's been worth it so far. I'm not sure if I'll still think that when it comes up for renewal in the fall, but for now, it's okay.

@GeeForce It's still full price in the Xbox store.

Right now, maybe - but it's regularly been 50% off for all editions over the years. It's on sale about half the time.

One change in the game I noticed today is that the various things you can buy in order to get wishes (which is where you have the chance to get a 5-star character or weapon) now show you the approximate price per wish for that purchase. I was doing that math in my head anyway, but it's nice to see it spelled out more clearly in the UI.

Sony never really embraced Sackboy as much as I think they could have and should have. I understand the issues they had with hacking the servers led to the demise of the LBP games, and they had similar issues to what the PS Store sees now (thumbnails and descriptions that don't match the content) but without the costs associated with it.

The single player content in LBP was enough to make it more engaging than a lot of the content out there. The idea that you COULD make your own games even if you didn't do much was still powerful. And I think the gaming universe is worse off for losing LBP as an influence.

All that said...with Sony not using him, it was time for Sackboy to retire. Despite the Big Adventure game being the second-best demo for the DualSense for years, Sony has clearly abandoned the game and the character.

I guess I'm in the minority who actually enjoyed Borderlands 3. No, it wasn't as good as the first two - but having annoying antagonists wasn't bad, they were the antagonists, after all. I wonder if the commentary on social media, while admittedly as subtle as a sledgehammer, was a bit too on the nose for some players.

I'm sure I'll play Borderlands 4 at some point, when the extra special super-duper over-the-top edition with ALL the DLC goes on sale for $20, in about 4 years.

I loved Forza Horizon 4, played the heck out of it.

I played 5 on XBox Series S for about a month when it came out, and found it underwhelming. It felt like more of the same, but not in a good way.

If they've nailed the DualSense haptics, I could be convinced to pick this up (on sale) someday. Too bad you don't mention the DualSense at all. Is this actually a review for the Playstation version? It feels like a warmed-over XBox review with "now PS5 players get it, too!" comments thrown in.

I loved Control, and this seems like more of the...well, not quite the same, but similar, and in some ways wackier. I'm not a fan of online games (I prefer to be able to hit pause when I want to), but with my kids grown up I get fewer interruptions than I used to, so I'll definitely give it a shot.

For $10, I'm looking forward to the upgrade, and I hope it's significant. If it's not, I'll probably still do a New Game+ replay, as I really enjoyed the game.

I didn't touch it until it had been out for a year or two and was patched up, so I didn't have the issues so many early players had. That may make a difference in what I thought of it. I'm looking forward to a replay.

I'm actually not sure how much I'll play the horde modes. I guess I'll see once I've got it.

I don't understand why anyone is would be upset - make a super difficult version that puts Souls-like to shame AND a visual novel version that you can click your way through, so long as there's another option somewhere in the middle I can enjoy as a fun challenge that doesn't demand hours and hours to master.

Why do I care how someone else plays the game?

With redemption codes valid until 2099, sounds like it's reasonable to assume the game should work until 2099, assuming your hardware lives that long. That seems to obliterate their legal argument. If this goes to a jury and not a judge, I don't see a good outcome for Ubisoft here.

Even if they win their legal argument - and some fine print may help them win - they're telling the world we cannot trust them. So they say they'll build an offline mode into the sequels - are you stupid enough to believe them? Because if you do, and they don't, they'll just say that it's your fault.

You could say this about each and every game mechanic, not just weapon durability: if developers implement it well it can be a lot of fun, but if they implement it poorly it can be a real pain.

Health, hunger, lives, saves, weapons, armor, skills, upgrades, crafting, cooking, co-op, stealth, dexterity, endurance....

And the companion always-true statement: the very feature some players love, other players love to hate.

One or two really great games I end up loving, especially if I wouldn't have tried them if they weren't free on Plus, can make the year.

I'm not sure that any of these games fit that mold for me. Maybe Robocop, but I already bought it - and that's part of the issue with Plus, is that some of the best games it gets show up only after they've been out for a long time and were deeply discounted before joining Plus.

That's not ALWAYS true, I acknowledge, but it's true more often than not.

This would not be the first time that union action ended up hurting the people it was supposed to help. If you're going to go on strike, be aware of the risk, and don't assume that everyone will always take your side just because you're a union - not everyone blindly trusts unions. Sometimes unions kill the company they're fighting and EVERYONE loses their job.

That said, I don't know enough of the details of what they're striking for to have an opinion, honestly. I DO know that I'm annoyed playing Genshin where some characters have voices and others are silent (due to the voice actors being on strike), and I just want the d@*& thing settled already, and as a consumer I don't care too much which way it's settled. Is that short-term thinking that could come back to bite me later? Maybe. But I don't care. Figure out how to get back to work, already.

Fewer than 10 comments in, and one person is worried fatigue might set in with too many similar titles, while someone else is asking for more. Just goes to show we're all different, I guess.

I like this style of game, but a little goes a long way. I'm not sure I'll be picking this up until it shows up free on Plus next year.

I didn't finish Robocop, but it was good and I don't regret buying it. Maybe this will give me the push to go back to it.

I've never heard of the other two (as games), though the Digimon name is something I'm familiar with (and not interested in). So, a "meh" month for me, but I think a lot of people might enjoy Robocop.

I don't see it. What arcade owner - there are still some arcades out there, just not many - wants something with all those little pieces that are going to get thrown out of the game and into the rest of the room? It sounds loud, too, which will distract from other games near it. They'll have to deal with mechanical jams, running out of the pellets, people trying to reach in to get pellets...plus how do the targets pop up again, I assume it's got to be an entire row at once. But with all the sensors (or cameras?) it's using, it seems like a lot of points of failure.

If this isn't an April Fool's Day joke, it's just a bad idea. I don't see it selling...but then again, I could be wrong.

I understand why studios don't like the second-hand market - but if they succeed in killing it off, I'm not so sure they'll like the results. The people who wait to buy a game second-hand for less will still wait for sales, while some of the people willing to buy day 1 will be less willing to do so when they can't resell their game when they're done. It could end up with lower total sales overall, depending on the sizes of the various groups.

The book industry isn't exactly going gangbusters, but it's faced a used book market for far longer, and manages to survive. It's not really the used market that's the problem, for books OR for games.

That was such a great game - I'll have to pull out my disk and try to finish the platinum and try all the new stuff.

I'm more of a single-player fan myself, so if "up to three players" means I can solo it, I'll give it a shot.

Looks a bit like Control 1.5 (with fewer powers), and I really LOVED Control, so I'm up for it.

Anybody else with PS Plus Premium unable to download this game? It was supposed to be free starting Tuesday, it's now Thursday afternoon (March 20, 2025, US Pacific time) and I still can't download it.

If I go to the PS Store on the web and don't log in, I see an offer to subscribe to Plus Premium to get this game - but when I'm logged in, the only option is to pay $9.99. Anybody else seeing this?

Deliver Us Mars was good, especially if you'd already played Deliver Us the Moon. I already owned Kena and never did finish it - very pretty, but I fell out of it.

This sounds a bit like Yars Rising, which I'm playing through on PC. So far I'm loving it.

If they have the same team working on this one (I don't think it's the same studio names, but I could be wrong), I'm excited.

From the trailer, I'm hoping they make this a PSVR2 title. I don't have my hopes up, especially with no VR hinted in the platform list, but it looks like it should work.

Honestly, I'm more worried about losing my collection in a fire than I am about losing it to disk rot.

I still think it looks like it was created by (badly-trained) AI, and half expect to see a third joystick coming out the side or something.

I hope studios start waking up to reality.

A popular (not necessarily good - POPULAR) live service game can rake in a ton of money, that's true. But an unpopular (same clarification) live service game will fail, and it will fail hard - shut down, remove from stores, not even a chance of being a cult classic later FAIL.

An unpopular single player game has a chance, however small, of finding an audience some day and becoming a cult classic that generates interest and even a little bit of revenue. There's no harm leaving it out on store fronts, bringing in a dollar here or there, maybe even getting some revenue from a bundle deal some day. Some quirk of luck and it might spur interest in someone financing a sequel.

The tails on these types of games are not the same. That live service game not unpopular enough to just kill still costs you money to keep up, and if your players aren't generating new revenue (ie, you're not bleeding them with new DLC regularly) then you're paying those service costs from past revenue.

Now bring Rescue Mission to PSVR2

Nicely done trailer. I like ending it on "that's enough, the rest is spoilers."

I'm worried it's going to feel like being part of someone's therapy session, and I'm not sure that's going to vibe for me. But it does look like something that would appeal to a lot of people - I may point my kids at it.

For Alex (Let's Get Physical) - at least with video games, there's no real difference in quality between the game on disk and the downloadable games. But the same is happening with movies - people are abandoning Blu-Ray and UHD disks in favor of the convenience of streaming, which is almost always at a lower bitrate/quality than what they could have for a similar (or cheaper) price on disk.

Convenience is king. It's just human nature.

Looks like somebody trained an AI on a bunch of icons for the game and said "now, make me an image of a DualSense branded with TLoU images"

At least it doesn't have three joysticks.

Worked for me, too.

First off, I played this for a bit on XBox Series S, and it's not any better than the last version (maybe worse). I got bored with it long before I unlocked everything, while I enjoyed Forza Horizon 4 a lot longer.

I don't expect the PS5 version to be priced differently - but that also means I expect it to go on sale on the PS5 when it goes on sale on the XBox, for about the same price. The $100 edition has already been on sale as low as $45 on Xbox (source: xbdeals.net), so I expect a similar price before the end of the year for the PS5 version.

It shouldn't matter which choice you prefer - there ought to be no complaints about being given a choice.

I will always prefer developers giving me a choice in how I want to play. Sometimes I might play multiple times to try each out, or switch back and forth (or start separate saves, if switching isn't practical). But the choice is always good, and fools who complain about such choices should be ignored.

$10 for an upgrade isn't bad, and seems increasingly common. I wouldn't mind playing it again (done 1.5 playthroughs already), and an upgraded version sounds great.

That said, I'm waiting to see if there are any reviews close to release that cover how much improved it is, before I plunk down my $10. The preorder bonus makes me consider it - it's just $10 - but the principle of the thing is making me wait for now.

@Max_the_German I never had the PSVR, so I never got to play Astrobot Rescue Mission. I'd love to see it ported to PSVR2 - I'm honestly confused why they didn't have it ready for day 1 (though I got mine this Christmas with the sales they had everywhere), it seems like a natural.

They didn't explicitly say, but I expect this is paid DLC like the Nier crossover was.

The fact they didn't announce it was free DLC supports that assumption.

@Max_the_German There was at least one, maybe two, PSVR2 games in that show.