RoomWithaMoose

@AdamNovice By actually selling hardware, and leveraging the install base of PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. And increasing the revenue of GamePass, but it remains to be seen if they can manage any growth there with the price increase. Heck, even without the price increase, that avenue seemed pretty stagnant.

The better question is: Why does it look boring?

I feel like you can really see the difference between PlayStation fans who just see getting Halo as a victory lap, and actual Halo fans who are weary about how this remake doesn't really capture the right vibes of the original. Personally, I still think it looks pretty good, but entirely too generic.

@ShadowRJ In 343i's defense, I think it had more to do with diminishing returns on a tired formula than any significant drop in quality.

Same problem God of War was having, except Halo never got its GoW (2018) moment.

I know a lot of people think down on Nintendo for pushing the same franchises for decades. But I think they're one of the only companies that can successful keep a series fresh, relevant, and high-quality consistently for long periods of time.

What 'bout Switch, tho...?

@PSbox Admittedly, I haven't sat down and played through Halo 2 since the 360 days. Just a level here and there. So maybe you're onto something.

But still, when playing a level here and there, I'm never too impressed.

@PSbox I love the Arbiter, but his levels in Halo 2 were always lacking, in my opinion. It was cool lore-wise, but The Great Journey was the only one I ever thought was well designed and had enough Combat Evolved DNA. Ridiculous final boss fight notwithstanding. The Great Journey, Delta Halo, and the space station opener I forgot the name of are really the only levels I quite liked from the game. Metropolis has its moments, but the whole Scarab part aged extremely poorly.

In fact, I dislike Halo 2's campaign so much, that I would place 4 and Infinite's above it. 5's is, without a doubt, the most mediocre and forgettable campaign in the entire series.

EDIT: HALO RANKING — BECAUSE F*** IT (campaign only, no Wars)
1. Halo: Combat Evolved
2. Halo 3
3. Halo Reach
4. Halo Infinite
5. Halo 3: ODST
6. Halo 4
7. Halo 2
8. Halo 5

@Questionable_Duck I think Halo 2 is the worst. It did a lot for online multiplayer, but I always thought it easily had the worst campaign. And something always felt off to me about the multiplayer — not bad, but not my favorite.

Halo 3's campaign is pretty good, but doesn't have the level design and atmosphere of the first. I might argue the tight encounters are better designed, but the levels are no where near as memorable for me. ODST is cool for what it is — and absolutely nailed the atmosphere the rest of the series is missing — but I never thought the level design was particularly great. Halo Reach feels like the most polished of Bungie's releases, but it was always just kinda forgettable to me.

@Oram77 Well, they have kept support going for it this whole time. And originally pitched Infinite's multiplayer as a decade-long platform for Halo content.

They might just give up and put all their eggs into the next Halo game. But even just a quick and easy port for just the multiplayer to PlayStation accompanying a new season of content could inject some much needed life into the game. I can see them doing it. Especially if the exclusiveness of the next Halo is still being decided behind-the-scenes, or if they don't actually have a new game anywhere close to releasing.

@Oram77 Probably a lower-budget on this one. Playing the Master Chief Collection, it's perhaps hardest to find a match in Halo:CE, so they probably didn't think it was worth the effort to completely remake one of the least popular multiplayer modes of the series.

Also...maybe they're just gearing up for a big Halo Infinite multiplayer cross-platform rerelease.

@AinsleyE Still kinda think this messes up the art style. It's A LOT better than the Anniversary rendition. But still feels like its missing the original's mystery and allure.

@Oram77 Big L. While the majority of Halo fans would disagree, the sheer late-90s PC game-ness of Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer always had more charm to me than any later entries. The maps were fantastic, the scope was perfect for shenanigans, and the balance was imperfect enough for some good laughs.

Well, s***, I stand corrected.

Prepare yourselves, PlayStation only players, to see how bad of a Halo Killer Killzone actually was. One of the greatest console shooters of all time is about to grace you. The series is only downhill from here, though.

@Art_Vandelay S***, Toboggan, that comment just hit so many nails on the head. Bravo.

@Porco @awp69 I think it's also lost on people that "facts" are malleable. The 'we're just talking facts' crowd usually deeply misunderstands what facts are, and that most of the things they're reading/saying are analysis, conjecture, and opinion — educated or otherwise. And, very often, these "facts" are the result of confirmation bias or deliberate malforming. Facts, themselves, are very dry, and not often loaded. You can say a movie factually brought in an amount of revenue (if that information is publicly available), but typically everything concerning why it did and how it might affect its company is not factual — in the strictest sense. This is why companies hire ANALISTS: to parse through all this information and give them their best educated guesses.

In this case, the entire article is based on a journalist getting inside information on a supposed corporate mandate. That might be factual — I reckon it probably is — but we don't really have a confirmation and don't know if, necessarily, this mandate was enforced or just floating around corporate for a while. It, in and of itself, isn't really a fact. It's an unconfirmed scoop. And any of the following associations between this news and Xbox's business decisions and hurdles is entirely analytical.

Still don't really understand what Battlefield would accomplish with a Battle Royale mode aside from just saying they have one. I'm picturing Warzone with vehicles. Which...is basically just Battlefield.

I guess it'll be a quads free-for-all, which is a little different from the typical Battlefield format. But then we get into if this side mode with maybe a couple years of development will be able to keep up with the likes of Warzone, Fortnite, and Titanfall — I just don't see it.

@awp69 Like the random dig at GamePass, even though GamePass wasn't directly referenced in the actual story. Not to mention the article doesn't even bother to justify implying GamePass isn't more profitable than just putting out full-priced game releases.

And the stuff about Microsoft failing their studios, while true, is not in any way exclusive to them. So it's a little weird to try tying all these things together, and I'd argue outright hypocritical to attribute these things exclusively to Microsoft on a PlayStation site when PlayStation has their own GamePass and has shut down/downsized numerous studios over the years.

@Pompey71 Dunno which comment you're referring to. But I'll take a shot regardless

@pharos_haven I know. The Forspoken aside was more about gorgeous looking trailers with a fantasy setting no longer appealing much to me.

It was admittedly a little clumsy how that allusion was implemented. But I didn't feel like making vast structural changes to that comment after writing it, and felt like the aside was still worthwhile to include to express my specific feelings about this trailer.

@Dogbreath Also, importantly, Skyrim has rightfully been the poster child of needless remasters/rereleases for a decade now. But no other Bethesda game really has as egregious of a history of rereleases as The Last of Us. And that The Last of Us Part 2 got some Skyrim: Anniversary energy rerelease kinda just makes it feel like a series thing — and hence, a studio thing.

Am I the only one that thinks most of these Chinese and Korean games look boring and interchangable? The last game I got excited for because of 'CRAZY FANTASY VISUALS' alone was Forspoken. And we know what that turned out.

Black Myth looked really cool, but only the most PC master race-ass gamers seemed to think it was anything other than a decent action game. There was just that PS-partner game that no one remembers or talks about. And that upcoming PlayStation action game that a lot of people here are excited about, I can't even bother to remember the name of 'cause it just seems like any other one. Hell, even Stellar Blade is mostly just memorable for a&t.

I'm always rooting for Chinese and Korean developers to really establish themselves in the industry. Arguably, they already have. But I've yet to see a single AAA game out of them that looks inspired and like something that could only come out of their culture.

@cainhurst94 Most Nintendo first-party releases seem like successes when they hit 1 million, as far as Nintendo is concerned. If we're talking mainline/major sub-series Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing, or Pokemon, 1 million would be a disappointment. But something like Metroid or Pikmin is likely at least considered worthwhile at 1 million units sold.

I think Nintendo cares a lot more about releasing evergreen titles and keeping prices up rather than first month sales, honestly.

@Judal27 Lower budget, lower priority, and weaker specs than the base SKU.

The ironic thing is that, in this day and age, the Switch 2 version is liable to become the most optimized version. Of course, that's with the caveat of lower resolution, pixelated shadows, worse textures, and usually a 30fps target. But if they put half the optimization efforts into other consoles, every game would run flawlessly.

I don't think they've ever announced a Halo game at not-a-major-gaming-event, so...probably not. The amount of times a game company teases something for a small event, fans assume it'll be a major game announcement, just for it to be DLC/online game season/comic book/etc. is staggering. Given that it's a competitive event, I'm betting on Infinite's next season.

Day 1, baebee!

This, 1000xResist, and Skate Story are really booking up my end-of-year game time. And here I thought I could just peacefully end the year with Metroid Prime 4 — NOPE.

@EfYI I mean, Sony did just randomly, years after the fact, say they sold more units when the Switch was closing in on the PS2. I don't think anyone at Sony or Nintendo actually care — and, ergo, Sony has no reason to lie. And, actually, I thought it was a retired Sony rep that even said any thing (I might be wrong, though. I just also don't care).

But still, I wouldn't call it "Nintendo nonsense." It's a thing that actually happened. Just a lot of Nintendo fanboys latched onto this idea that Sony lied to keep the clout, without considering that it might not matter to to anyone but fanboys what the best-selling game console of all time is.

@nomither6 Eh, I liked the 6th generation more. And the 5th gen was probably the most important one. Personally, I'd go:

1. 6th
2. 4th
3. 5th
4. 7th
5. 9th (basically just a better version of the 8th gen)

@CielloArc This whole 'they didn't announce the numbers, so it must've underperformed' mentality is egregiously misguided. Companies are not expected to announce sales numbers, and often only publicly release them in fiscal meetings. Sometimes companies with an active social media presence like to post about sales or player count, but that's more marketing engagement than anything. Them not doing so isn't indicative of anything, really.

If execs think releasing sales info early might be good for stock prices or investor confidence (i.e. stock prices), they might command it. But that doesn't mean they're going to proudly announce the sales of every single game, and keep fans up to date with numbers on a weekly basis. If the stars align, we'll get data. If they don't announce data, we literally have no indication of success or failure — and it's foolhardy to assume otherwise.

Also, the game hasn't even been out for a month yet. Maybe they'll do a 'X million sales in a month!' post. Or are waiting to hit a big milestone before saying anything. At least wait a while before assuming they're actively being mum on the matter.

@nessisonett I mean, if an anti-representation/diversity person could come up with a specific circumstance in which diversity makes art worse, I think that's a worthwhile conversion to have. Just like how I think having conversations about good and bad representation is worthwhile, even though I'd still personally argue all* representation is good.

*I'm not much of an absolutist, so my "all" probably has some wiggle room.

As for us taking the bait, shrugs Oh well. We still got to express our sincere thoughts on matters; what was catalyst to that is a little irrelevant. It's like, I don't really care if people lie to me in real life about inconsequential stuff. As far as I'm concerned, it's not worth me having to parse through what's true and what's lies. They're the ones that have to live with stifling intimate human interactions by lying. It's not my problem that I often take people at face-value, it's others' problem if they don't present themselves at face-value.

@SleepyNick @SeaDaVie I just try not to assume, despite how sarcastically trolley it came off.

@PullingaBharv "We need representation even at the cost of the story."

Not sure if this is sincere or satire. Either way, though, it's a bad take.

While I'd argue all representation is good representation, if it's done at the expense of the holistic work, the creators are really losing the plot. I'm not sure how exactly even the most lazy, pandering representation would poorly affect a holistic product...but I digress.

And if this is a parody of what some pro-representation person would think...I mean, i-it's not. No one's saying, 'make stories worse, just make sure there are minorities.' Some people might argue, like yours truly, that throwing a minority into a story with no justification for their ethnicity is completely fine. But...I dunno, I guess if it's a story about growing up a white American in white America, and they make the main character Spanish without reworking the story's themes around that ethnicity (the best example I can think of for making a story worse for the sake of representation), I wouldn't endorse that move. And I don't think anyone really would.

@Radekbejbl1 I kinda wish the entire industry of influencers flaming and farming rage with confirmation bias would die off already. YouTube is significantly worse by being polluted with poorly researched hit-pieces with nary an attempt at artistic expression or effort.

@DadJKP I mean, I think the s****y things there are that anyone was fired for vocalizing their opinions and that the Internet was mad at a voice actor for expressing political beliefs.

I don't think those opinions nor beliefs warrant a boycott. Though I do think any attempts to reduce, censor, or punish said opinions/beliefs should be viewed negatively.

@Oram77 Their ideology is just having a moment right now. I can't speak for every country, but it does feel like the ethos of their ideal leaders erodes by the month here in America. If they don't get some actual, socially benefiting results soon — which I highly doubt — the leaders will lose enough respect and influence over moderates to paint a clear picture over how small this 'movement' really is.

@DadJKP I don't think they give out the actual sales numbers with these. That information is usually reserved for companies to disclose, should they choose to.

This is also only data for two days of Yotei's sales, so even having the specific number wouldn't be that useful or tell you much besides day one success.

Well the sexist boycott was stupid, and it'll be nice when racists, sexist, and general bigots stop thinking they're a legitimate cultural movement and not just the jokes of the Internet.

The SP-sponsered censorship, however, is worth taking offense to. I mean, I don't think the whole team or their product should suffer over it, but I wouldn't chalk that up to 'stupid, terminally online losers.'

While I'd call a 5% attach rate successful for a niche peripheral, it doesn't really seem like the kinda success to justify designing your next-gen hardware family around an expanded version. Pretty sure if it wasn't for the Switch, Steam Deck, etc. existing, there would be no PlayStation handheld on its way regardless of this figure.

And maybe the attach rate is higher in other territories — who knows. I kinda doubt it; maybe Europe is a little higher, but that's all I can imagine. But still, it would make more sense, to me, to just keep making the Portal and advertise its compatibility with the future PS6 with those numbers.

Me personally, I have a Pixel Tablet stood up right next to my TV if I need a 'portal' to my PS5. Sony's recent update giving the Dualsense 4 connection signatures has made remote play easier than ever (thank you, Sony). But, ya know...I still just play on my Switch 99% of the time I'm playing off-TV.

@TruestoryYep I always thought Ninja Gaiden had boring environments. Other entries have had 'varied' environments, but nothing really eye-catching.

And, honestly, that goes for, like, all traditional hack-'n'-slash games. Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta,etc. Honestly, if you look at most environments throughout the genre, they're often fairly bland and drab. This is a genre propped up by its gameplay, not its environmental design or storytelling.

DISNEY MONEY! I feel like there's not a lot of overlap between Fortniters and Springfieldites. But I also would've said the same thing about Scoobians, yet I've considered giving Fortnite actual money on several occasions this month for my man Doo. So I guess that was a fruitful crossover, and older gents like me who happen to have Fortnite downloaded despite not caring about it at all will probably inflate that player count for Springfield.

I think the game-changers need to be games, not hardware. The days of novel motion controls and alike mechanisms are gone. Even replaying Super Mario Galaxy 2, I found myself retroactively agreeing, albeit to a lesser degree, with detractors from the time bemoaning the games insistence to use motion controls. None of it was bad, but was any of it as good as the actual game? No. Did Odyssey and Bananza lose something by not having sections dedicated to motion controls? No. And I pretty much feel the same about Astro's Playroom/Astro Bot's use of motion control suits. All of it is fine, but mostly kinda a chore. And those games' use of Dualsense features is cute, but nothing astonishing. (Also, try playing them with the controller speaker off. You'll find out real quick that the magic rumble is mostly just an illusion caused by your brain identifying sounds and associating them with the sensations in your hands... Phrasing...)

No, we need more Baldur's Gate 3s, Breath of the Wilds, Undertales, and...I really wanna give Sony a point here — uhh...I mean, I love Astro Bot, but it's REALLY derivative of Super Mario, so...I dunno, The Last of Uses...? Sure. Software is going to drive this industry forward, not AI and Nvidia, nor SSDs and beefier specs.

We're at a point where even the majority of indie games are either retro tributes or latching onto whatever's currently hot. I know it's not easy to just make a game that reinvents genres, gameplay, interactive narratives,etc., but that's what we need to save the industry from stagnation.

@JohntheRaptor What, you didn't think it was a narrative revelation when that nunchuk dude from the beginning turned out to be the biggest bad of them all?

The "Low-quality visuals at points" con is particularly interesting, because I felt the game looked absolutely stunning in motion — in combat, at least. Not that I'm saying that con is wrong (I'm not 5 years old), and occasional low-quality visuals alongside stylish combat is absolutely possible.

What's interesting is finding that line. What frequency of occasional low-quality visuals warrants mention in a qualitative evaluation? If the visuals in core gameplay are great and add to the action, does that justify duller moments in between? Presuming the "at points" implies it looks fantastic 'at other points,' should it be seen as a holistic con that it doesn't consistently hold that quality?

@SeaDaVie The commercial success of a Microsoft game with no marketing that was presumably green lit to bolster GamePass has little to no barring on the value of PlayStation making smaller budget games. I'm not sure that Keeper's budget is even comparable to something like Astro Bot, they are entirely different markets, and there's still plenty of other examples of sub-God of War priced games that have been incredibly successful elsewhere.

Literally all Nintendo games besides maybe — MAYBE — contemporary Zeldas are cheaper than Sony's AAA. And the majority of them seem to turn a profit. Even Helldivers II was very likely one of Sony's cheaper releases, and it's also one of their most successful.

@DennisReynolds Which is all fine and good. I'm just surprised that people would be calling it a 10-outta-10 with those caveats.

@SeaDaVie I mean, it would do better. That's the point of marketing. Will it be a top seller? No. Like I said, Double Fine historically doesn't sell well. But does its commercial success or failure decide the worthwhileness of all lower-budgeted games. Nah.

Very surprised by the amount of 10s, given the mediocre single-player and not Battlefield-like multiplayer maps. Hell, I'd be surprised by any military shooter getting tons of tens from the patrons of a hardcore gaming site.

EDIT: Although I hadn't noticed the '13 Vote' count at time of writing. So maybe that'll balance out a little better soon.

I thought that's what people liked the most about Rebirth.

I wonder what's causing this trend. With Nintendo, it was presumably the excessive costs of their new cartridges, and lack of storage options.

I wonder if something changed in the supply chain for Xbox...? Maybe something with the burn process? Maybe it has to do with Sony licensing PS5 discs? Or maybe they're just pushing through physical production before the game file is even ready?

@PuppetMaster "Maybe they could tone down their game budget from $200-300 million to $100 million."

There. That's the solution. If PlayStation gamers want to be lame and not support these releases, find a budget that'll make them profitable. They don't need to sell like Spider-Man to be a worthwhile venture, just turn a profit. Actually market them, and make games that appeal to Western sensibilities (since that's where all the PlayStations are).

EDIT: Or the nuclear option: port them to Switch, where there's a proven stable of gamers who like low-budget releases.

@SeaDaVie Literally had no marketing besides a launch trailer on Double Fine's socials. And Double Fine historically hasn't been a top seller.