ShogunRok

@nessisonett Yeah it's gonna take a lot of clever design and optimisation to fit Total War on a controller.

But I suppose similar feats have been accomplished before. There was a time — not even that long ago — when CRPG studios were flat out refusing to develop for console because it was too much work.

Fingers crossed, anyway.

No, it's also about the ads!

Sorry, I needed to get this out of the way in the first comment.

@wildcat_kickz Yeah it's honestly a bit annoying when games come out right at the end of a month (purely from a GOTM perspective).

If something big comes out we try to delay the poll by a few days, but yeah, some games don't really get a chance to properly establish themselves.

If any publishers are reading this, if you want your games to be in with a better shot at our prestigious Push Square GOTM award, release them before the 20th of each month. You've been warned...

@wildcat_kickz It came third in October's GOTM vote for what it's worth.

You can vote for it when our GOTY voting opens as well!

@iNightfarer It could be that Stranger Than Heaven takes over the Judgment side of RGG Studio's business as its second IP. Hopefully it's as good!

@SuperSilverback There's a new scene where Kiryu just pulls a shotgun out when the orphanage is threatened. He's finally had enough.

@BearsEatBeets I agree it's definitely not impossible (and it certainly sounds like they want this to be an iterative trilogy), but I do think it's incredibly hard to imagine given CDPR's track record.

@GamingGod The No Man's Sky devs get to set their own goals and allocate their own resources. If they see additional sales by way of big updates, then they deem the updates worthwhile.

Whereas Ubisoft's studios have to bend to the whims of the company's upper management. If they want to keep working on a game and improving it, they need to convince the suits that the game's still making enough money to justify the costs.

And Ubisoft being Ubisoft, they'll mandate that each AC game needs a DLC / microtransaction pipeline to justify continued support — otherwise the profit margins might take a dip.

In short, one game's from an independent company, and the other is from a studio that has to answer to a corporation.

@Mostik Unfortunately I don't think there's been any official word on a physical release. It could be something they do in conjunction with releasing on other systems down the line, but again, no confirmation yet.

Whoops, someone tell Rockstar they've greenlit the wrong RDR there.

@MARl0 It's interesting that this has always been a trend with Trails games.

Everyone says Beyond the Horizon is the best Calvard game because it builds on the two games that came before.

Azure is often counted amongst the best Trails games because it's just all payoff from Zero.

And in my personal opinion, Cold Steel 3 / 4 are fantastic because they take so many previous games into account.

I suppose it all boils down to Falcom's world building. Most franchises just don't get to use past games as launch pads like Trails does, and it always benefits the storytelling.

@Fiendish-Beaver Definitely one to bring back at a later date, especially if Yotei gets some kind of re-release at some point.

@Lohot Thanks for posting these, they should all be listed in the guide now. I had to wait until the Creations menu actually started working properly to verify what was included!

@Max_the_German It's all a bit murky isn't it? My thinking is that Astro Bot is technically system software, whereas Wii Sports is technically a Wii title that just happens to be bundled with the system.

Definitely room for discussion, though. You could even tie it back into the whole 'sales versus players' debate, as that starts to factor in free-to-play games. The market's changed and all that.

@Gremio108

@FuriousMachine Yeah, it's a new bundle. Includes the base game, all the expansions, and a bunch of Creation Club stuff.

If you already own the base game, you can buy the upgrade, which includes the expansions and the Creation Club stuff.

If you already own the base game and the expansions, you can buy the 'Creations Bundle' to just get the Creation Club stuff.

@Athrum Yeah, no new voiceovers in English or in Japanese — all original.

@Jey887 Yeah it's not a bad place to start at all. It's a very solid game that's quite indicative of what you can expect from the series as a whole.

Like the review says it's also got one of the most balanced combat systems, and it's easy to understand right off the bat.

If you can get around the pacing issues, I think it's a great way to see what the series has to offer.

Just to note, Dispatch won't be counted in this Game of the Month vote since it's an episodic release.

It'll be included in November's Game of the Month poll instead, once all of the episodes are out.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Sorry this one's a bit late, by the way — we only got review code at the end of last week and I wanted to make sure the remaster wasn't hiding any horrible issues!

Xillia was one of my favourite Tales games back in the day, but like the review says, parts of it do feel poorly paced and awkward by today's standards.

Still enjoyed playing it again, though — the core design still holds up.

Thanks for reading!

@somnambulance If it helps you get hyped at all, I still don't have a clear idea of what my personal GOTY list looks like. It'll be an interesting debate this year, for sure.

@SystemAddict A poorly judged side eject as well, it looks like!

@AhabSpampurse Would have made a great typo.

@Robocod You get ranked based on your performance during the dispatch sections, but again, I'm not sure whether this has any real bearing on how things unfold.

Characters did congratulate me on a successful first day when I was done — I assume that's specific dialogue related to your rank.

I don't think there are any immediate consequences to screwing the dispatch gameplay up. We'll have to wait and see!

UPDATE: Our full review's here, complete with a score. If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Ended up really enjoying this one. Thanks for reading.

@Dan12836666 For the most part it's a solid 60fps in performance mode but there are busy areas where noticeable dips happen — and they'll be worse on the base PS5.

Definitely nothing that'll stop you from playing the game, but performance can be a little bit spotty.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

I was a big fan of the first game, so I had fairly high hopes for this sequel. And for the most part, I do think it improves on just about everything. If you loved The Outer Worlds, you'll adore this.

But for me, it just never clicks in terms of story or characters. Obsidian's modern games just have this forgettable quality to them and I'm not sure what the answer is.

And for the record, I should point out that I greatly overrated the first game back when I reviewed it in 2019. Again, still a fan, but it's one of those scores I'd take back in a heartbeat!

Thanks for reading.

@PuppetMaster If this was a remaster or something, then yeah, it'd be criticised for a lack of new features, but it's just an emulated port of the original PS1 release.

Would be nice if Bamco actually cared and did an original Tekken trilogy collection, though!

@Doctor_BK It is possible, but I suppose there's a reason they're not there to begin with. Bamco probably just doesn't want to pay up to have them added.

Which, to me, doesn't make much sense. There are plenty of people who buy (cheaper) games for the Trophies — I'm convinced they'd make their money back on implementing them.

As for potential Trophies being unlocked retroactively, I doubt it. In both cases I wouldn't get your hopes up, unfortunately.

@SuperSilverback Exactly the same here, got my neck snapped. The input reading is absolutely brutal on Hard, but part of me quite likes it.

Tekken 3 was one of the PS1's best-selling games and it helped define a console generation for so many people. No Trophies for such a classic is criminal.

@Flaming_Kaiser Unfortunately it's just the current state of game development for far too many companies. If relying on post-release patches means that you can hit earlier deadlines, a lot of publishers will push for it.

It's sad but it's the way things are right now. Of course, it can easily backfire. Negative reviews and word of mouth can cripple a game's potential if the performance is bad enough at launch.

Still doesn't seem to stop games like this from releasing!

@Vovander To answer your questions...

1) Yeah, it is a bit like Mafia, but the map is smaller than what you'll find in those games, and there are no means of transport. There are collectibles to find, but you'd really need some time to kill to even bother.

2) You might get some okay lore / character insight from doing the side quests, but that's a rarity. The vast majority are just incredibly basic fetch quests with a tiny bit of backstory tied to them.

The Rewards are basically non-existent — you just get experience that unlocks skill points, but unless you want to unlock every optional skill from every clan for the sake of completion, it's barely worthwhile.

3) My playtime's based off my PS5's tracker, which said 17 hours by the time the credits rolled. I did end up skipping some side quests, but I doubt they would have added much time anyway.

I played the vast majority of the game on the normal difficulty, but I tried easy and hard just to see how they were at various points.

@LordAinsley I think quite a few of the issues mentioned in this review are fixable, yes.

The frame rate is the obvious one, but that depends on how badly stitched together the technical side of the game is in the first place.

I do think the combat system can be improved as well — tweaks to enemy balance could make a big difference.

But perhaps most importantly, quality of life improvements are needed if we're seriously looking to make this a better game. Fast travel would be a huge time saver, and the ability to skip Fabien's flashbacks would actually make replays viable.

@Wiceheid Although it was years ago now, I have played the first game. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan but I do understand why some people really love it and its overall vibe. It still feels quite unique even today.

As for the wider universe, I'm not too knowledgeable outside of the first Bloodlines.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

While I think my review score might end up on the lower side of the spectrum, I just can't recommend this game in its current state. It's an absolute shocker.

If the frame rate gets fixed in a patch, then this is probably a 5 or 6/10. Like the review says, it has moments where it's a pretty good game — I liked the story overall — but it is deeply flawed in how it's structured.

If you were expecting a proper Bloodlines sequel, you'll be beyond disappointed — but that's not even the main issue. It's just a bit of a mess of a game in general.

Thanks for reading.

@KundaliniRising333 Oh wow, nevermind — I'm actually shocked it's available!

@KundaliniRising333 Haven't got total confirmation on this, but I'd guess the answer is no, unfortunately. Or at least, that's usually the case with PS4 games on Plus.

@Nakatomi_Uk I think it's because players will be able to join in on multiplayer / co-op and that could upset user statistics / server stuff if the demo's always available.

Like the article says, more games are expected to be confirmed in the official reveal later today. But I think that's a solid start — my nostalgia for Tekken 3 might be powerful enough to knock me out.

@Boxmonkey Come on now, is it that hard to read the article before commenting?

@1UP-HUSKY I feel like I've been saying this for decades, but I still find it insane that there's no traditional Final Fantasy fighting game.

@Amnesiac Ah, our mortal enemies over at Push Screen...

@Jammer It's playable, but far from perfect. Open world frame rate is still a mess in places, even on PS5 Pro, and there are still a lot of bugs.

@Rich33 You're right about Valhalla from what I can remember — Ubisoft basically uprooted the game to fix some fundamental stuff (because the updates had changed / added so much).

I believe Warhammer 40k: Darktide did this multiple times on consoles as well. Every big update required a full redownload of the game, or thereabouts. Fortunately the devs sorted that out over time.

Anyway, interesting that Wukong is getting the same treatment. Here's hoping that it finally smooths the game's performance on PS5.

@morrisseymuse Yeah, they're surprisingly different to play as. The basics are the same across the board in terms of controls, but they each have unique combo routes and abilities.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

For what it's worth, I'm still playing Absolum even though I've seen everything (I think). Really great game.

By the way, here's Mick Gordon's insane metal boss theme in case you haven't heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShiPI-gPeA