Shepherd_Tallon

@IMustardMitt Same! Always loved Dalton. He remains my favourite.

I want it to do well but it's not doing enough right now to generate any real excitement in me. Keeping an eye on it. Maybe it will surprise me at launch.

The other issue is that I've had no free time for anything outside of Crimson Desert, Saros and Pragmata. When I finish with all of them (assuming that's before 007 First Light comes out) Yotei Legends is where I'll be spending my co-op time for the foreseeable.
I can't see this game pulling me away from that.

There are camels?
I'm 226 hours in and I've just gotten to the desert for the first time.

Gonna find me a camel.

• Pragmata: Finished the story last night but I still need to 100% each area and do a few other things.
• Crimson Desert: Almost 215 hours in and still not bored.
• Saros: If I wrap things up in Pragmata today I'll start this.

@Oram77 "Leak industry" at this point.
Ruining the fun and the surprise by leaking everything early is a profitable business model these days.

@cainhurst94 @themightyant
I'm very fussy about which YouTube channels I follow because of this exact reason, but in the past few days my feed filled up with recommended channels where "influencers" were presenting speculation as fact, and people were lapping it up.

We even have staff asking about "Sony's new DRM policy" in our company chat this morning, so the update from Sony on this hasn't circulated as widely as I would have hoped yet.

It looks fun to me. I saw the trailer for it a month or two back and added it to my wishlist.
I'll give it a go when I need a break from the bigger games.

I finished Screamer last night (great game!), so I'm moving on to Pragmata today.

• Crimson Desert
• Pragmata
• Yotei Legends

@shonenjump86 This.
I would love if they'd give me a reason to be excited about having an Xbox again.
My Series X is criminally underused.

@get2sammyb Right? They've been sounding more like a political party than a gaming platform for years.
(Makes me wonder if Sony don't have the right approach by being mostly silent.)

For me this just means I'm less likely to buy Fable. If there's a sequel and it's only on XBOX then it's no good to me.
Which is a shame - It's the first XBOX franchise I've been hyped for since the 360 days.

Just got the email but the address looked kind of weird. I figured I'd wait until I saw an article here before I did anything. Wasn't expecting one so fast.
They already have my phone number so I'll go with that and nothing else.

I don't think we have the social media age restrictions in Ireland yet. Sony getting ahead of it before it happens?

Update: "An error occurred during communication with the server." 🤷

I gave it a go last year on Steam and loved it. I only stopped because I wanted to wait for the PS5 version.

This game just won't let me go. 🥷

• Crimson Desert
• Screamer
• And I might start Pragmata if there's time

Been feeling the hype since that first reveal and AMA. Can't wait for this one.

@MrPeanutbutterz Yeah it's much easier than the first two. It's not a walk in the park or anything, but feels far more accessible. And bosses don't seem to scale for co-op either so if you get stuck on one just summon two players to clear the way.

@Nyne11Tyme I need to play more of it. I loved the original, but Crimson Desert is eating up so much of my free time.

@MrPeanutbutterz I'm loving it. The art style is gorgeous and the driving mechanics are fun. There's a nice story weaving through it between races in the campaign mode too.
I don't think it's for everyone though, I've seen some people not happy with how the drift mechanic works.

Good luck with Nioh 3! I finished it a few weeks ago. It's a fantastic game.

Same as last two weekends;

• Crimson Desert
• Screamer
• Yotei Legends

Same as last weekend;

• Crimson Desert
• Screamer
• Yotei Legends

@AdamNovice Had the same thought. It would be a safe bet.

@Dogbreath The game definitely has its issues. Most of us here have been listing them since launch.

I get you're looking for some honest feedback too, and you'll absolutely get it here. Just try to avoid calling those of us who are enjoying the game liars when we say we're not having the same issues with it that others have.

Cons:

• Performance has been an issue on base PS5. Frames have been bad. I haven't seen much of that myself because of my setup, but it's absolutely an issue for others.
• I still see visual artifacts when I'm in interior areas or for example when I watch birds flying against a cloud.
• The UI and controls at launch were very clunky. In some cases I questioned if they had simply released it in an acceptable state because they absolutely had to hit the launch date.
• Apparently the story is bad, but I've barely touched that side of it.
• Alas, it doesn't enable us to make tea between frames.

Pros:

• A lot of the issues from launch have been fixed. Controls are improved and they've done some QoL adjustments with the UI.
• It's been a long time since I've played in a fantasy world this engaging. I saw @Retron reference Ocarina of Time above, and I fully agree. I legit feel like I'm back in school playing Ocarina of Time again for the first time.
• It's a high fantasy free sword life simulator. If you're into that, or if you grew up reading 80s and 90s heroic and high fantasy, this is your game.

Again I can't speak to frames still being an issue because it hasn't been a noticeable problem for me (not a liar, you can make of that what you will 🤷‍♂️), but others still complain about it being a problem on base PS5.

I would give you the same advice I gave my friend last week - It's the fantasy game I've been waiting forever for, but don't get it yet unless you have a PS5 Pro and a TV with VRR.
Otherwise you'll hit performance issues.

@Tatarimokke Same for me, I'm just not seeing the difference between those two modes.
Although I will say that if you're doing the archery tournament put it on performance mode. The extra frames make hitting the target before your opponent much easier 🤷‍♂️

But I get what you mean. It reminds me of when I was a kid in school buzzing to get home to play whatever I was playing at the time.
It doesn't seem to happen very often anymore.

@Dogbreath Speaking only for myself re your "lying about the frame rate or lying about how much they had played and hadn't reached the boss" comment - between VRR, playing on Pro and using balanced mode, I just haven't seen frames as an issue so far.

As for the Crow Caller, I've genuinely never heard of it.
I'll probably pass 70 hours today but like we've been saying, there's just so much to do.

I've just picked up a bounty now in my game and I've put the kettle on because I'm going to ride my horse back to the barracks at a canter so I can spend 15 minutes or so taking in the scenery while I have my tea.

@Boomers-r-us Exactly that.
By the time I realised I could get behind the waterfalls I think I had already found 5 or 6. Was happy to go back to each of them and collect the loot.

I'll tell you what, this makes me glad I've spent 63 hours farting around in the first 3 chapters.
It'll be nice playing the majority of the game with these improvements.

Store all selected items and the extra mounts, these two are very nice.

Edit: Just logged in thinking I'd have missed out on some of the new rewards, but had a bunch of them added now "based on your past game activity".
Nice.

Picked "Yes, I'd be there day one" but that's only because I'm starting to set funds aside for it now. I'd still dread to see it at that price.

Ideally I'd love to see Sony double down on PS5 for the next few years. I understand that contracts etc are part of the equation, but surely the better long term bet would be to wait for now (said without any insight).

@ErrantRob tbh Crimson Desert is soaking up most of my gaming time so I've only spent a few hours with Screamer, but I'm really liking what I've played of it so far.
The visual style is gorgeous and I love the arcade feel of it.

That said, I don't think the drift mechanic is for everyone. I like it, but I've heard some complaints.

If you're not sure my advice would be to wait for a sale.

I have to work until lunch, but after that;

• Crimson Desert
• Marvel maXimum Collection (but probably just the X-Men game)
• Screamer
• Yotei Legends
• Edit: Marathon if I can find the time...

@Eduard_Brenton Good luck with the P switches!!!
I got all of the ? panels and gave up on the collectibles after that.

@dskatter I hadn't heard that news about Google! Just looked it up after reading your comment.
Some hope then. Maybe.

The level-headed article I've been waiting for.
Thank you, @get2sammyb!

I have nothing else to add.
Obviously this all sucks. I have a real fear that if things don't change in the world some big names in our industry could go under.

@Vertere Loving your comments here 👍

Not surprised by the hike everywhere else (not happy but not surprised), but I would have been floored if they'd raised it in Japan too.
@get2sammyb With Nintendo's dominance there they must have been thinking that increasing the price of PS5 would be borderline suicidal.

@cainhurst94 Exactly the points I was alluding to, thanks.
Stephen covered it in that paragraph at the end of the article too. I guess I missed that on my first read.
My bad.

Surely PS6 will be pushed to 2028 now.
If PS5 has gone this high, I just can't see PS6 launching successfully at this or an even higher price.

@get2sammyb @Quintumply Is there anywhere to get an estimated breakdown of how much it costs to produce and ship a PS5?

There are a lot of comments in this thread stating why this increase is happening, many of them contradict each other but all are sure they're correct.

Maybe some info would help folks to understand why this has happened.
How much ram costs, the state of world supply lines, etc.

Edit: Just saw the paragraph at the end 👍

@ShogunRok Bang on 👍
tbh reading the article was like reading all of the thoughts I've had about the game since last week.
It's an 8-9 out of 10 game for me based on what I want from a game of this type (and I'm more easily pleased with my games than others, I know), but the technical issues are there unfortunately.

It's not beyond repair though which is great. I just wonder why they didn't delay the launch a month. They clearly had a deadline they had to hit.

It's hard to disagree with anything that's written here.

I think the VRR on my TV and my Pro are doing a lot of heavy lifting, because I don't come across any noticeable framerate issues, but the metallic effect on some of the characters and the visual artifacts when you're inside a building have definitely happened a few times.

I'm obsessed, I love it, I'm 50 hours in so far and I just finished watching some streams for the latest Twitch drops. I can't wait for work to finish so I can get back into it.
There's a level of ambition in the world that I personally have never seen in a single player game before.

I described the game to a friend of mine the other day as the fantasy game that I've been waiting forever for - It feels like I'm in an 80s heroic fantasy novel at times.
But when she asked would I recommend it I simply told her no, not yet.
It's nowhere near the mess Cyberpunk was, but even so, wait for the rest of the patches.

@spcspc I think what we're seeing is Sony reorganising themselves.
A bit of a reset back to what works seems to be underway (although in this case I think market conditions were the cause).
Hopefully they dont become too afraid of taking risks...

@get2sammyb The whole thing never felt like more than a concept car to me. How would you insure something with that many things distracting the driver?

@CielloArc Yeah tbh that's the real problem as far as I can see - Lack of transparency re how it works.

Is it a standard sale, and then a deeper sale for loyalty customers or something?
Not sure what to make of it without knowing how it works.

@Flaming_Kaiser Agreed on Bungie, but I think Square Enix would have been a mistake now (although I thought it was a good idea at the time too).
As much as I will always love Final Fantasy, they just don't draw the numbers they used to.
Kadokawa/FromSoftware still looks like the one that got away to me.

@Flaming_Kaiser I think it was as much panic as it was greed.
During the pandemic gaming exploded. It was lockdown proof and it looked like one megacorp or another was going to buy up Sony's third party GAAS partners. So they lost their heads and decided they had to have a massive live success at all costs.

As it turns out, from the outside looking in, investing in and publishing third party projects seems to have been the way to go. Helldivers has been great TBF, and Tokon looks very exciting. Both made by external teams.
The gatcha games have been huge for Sony too, and I'll be surprised if they don't market GTA VI in a big way.

But yeah, greed and panic were the order of the day. And what we're seeing now with the closing of these studios and dumping of internal GAAS projects looks to be a huge course correction.

@Carnage Well put. I feel like I've been saying this for ages.
I didn't factor first party games into which consoles I bought until The Last of Us came out at the end of the PS3 gen and I saw what Sony's studios were capable of.

I bought the PS1 initially for Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil.
PS2 was for Final Fantasy X.
PS3 was Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles.

First party games are great, but like you say, they're just one piece of the library.

Folks, do the hours you're contracted to do and no more unless you need the OT pay, and if you're sick go to the doctor.
I used to kill myself working too, until I woke up on the floor beside my desk one day with no idea how I got there, then had to go to the hospital with stress and exhaustion.

Lesson learned.

None of the suits even know our names anyway, and when push comes to shove they'd let us all go in a second if it was the easiest move for them.
We all get let go at some point no matter how hard we've worked.

Loving this game.
I'm back at work today and all I'm thinking about is a puzzle I found last night before I went to bed and the boss it took me two hours and most of my resources to kill yesterday.
I'm obsessed.

They've fixed every issue I had with it 🤷‍♂️ It's just a great game now. Glad I had the foresight to take today off work, because I can't stop playing.

@Gremio108 You beautiful person!
I'll check it this evening. It has to be something that's locked to a story mission, and something that early one would make sense 🙏

Crimson Desert, Yotei Legends and I might try to chase down the platinum in Nioh III. I finished the game during the week with 4 trophies left (not counting the plat), but for the life of me I can't find the last myth or the last hot spring...

@Brumblescope I found that confusing myself. It left me doubting my own memory of how the intro had played out for me.

The main thing I'm enjoying about the game is that it feels like it's trying to be a game for me specifically, rather than be a game for everyone.
It feels like it grew out of the old 80s and 90s PC D&D games, and I'm here for it.

@Titntin One thing that struck me about the side missions, many of the early ones are preparing us for some of the meatier side features that come later I think.
Taken in isolation they're just fetch quests, but put them together and it's gotten me a little excited to see what's ahead.

"I never thought this game would be for everyone, and I can understand why. But it IS for me, I'm happy so far."
This for me too.

I'm still half playing this game like it's the Witcher 3, but it's nothing like that.