Silenos

@rjejr playing on og PS5 here and there are some tech issues with textures and occasional drop-out but at least it seems to have stopped crashing, absolutely agree with all your points - the quality and depth of these F2P games is absolutely amazing (yes ,with the very occasional exception!) - also, the Infinity Nikki 2.0 update is indeed like a whole new game and just as beautifully realised as before

I tried Wuthering Waves but found the storytelling and gameplay incomprehensible, having a much better time in Where Winds Meet, incredibly rich experience which I highly recommend.

The interview doesn't sell the gameplay well, all very much sounding like a reskinned Hitman, this 007 game is not looking any better the nearer we get to release date.

Quantity not quality sadly, the Lego game is really not a good one. That said, looking forward to checking out what they've done with RDR on PS5!

Hot take: RDR 1 was better than RDR 2. Looking forward to checking out this native PS5 version.

@judgmentarrows You're absolutely spot on, a lot of modern gamers can get by enjoying superb free-to-play titles like ZZZ, HSR, Infinity Nikki, Genshin, WWM and more without ever buying some $70 MTX/DLC-riddled AAA slop on a disc. With such choice, time is the most valuable currency nowadays, not so much money.

A 6 seems generous in the extreme for an entry that looks like it's been phoned in.

Pretty disappointing State Of Play, to put it mildly, one expects a lot more from Japan. Nightreign DLC is like having DLC for a DLC. And DLC '1' for Super Robot Wars Y sounds quite ominous.

@Mintie same here! wish they'd get back to doing what they do best - Nightreign feels like an Elden Ring DLC add-on so they could take a couple of years off work... hope I'm wrong about that and they're working on something big

Used to love Genshin but ever since Teyvat was released have completely gone off it, now deleted. Far, far too many incomprehensible new game mechanics, poor writing, tedious bloated quests. It's a shame because the core gameplay and much of the open world is superb.

@judgmentarrows that's a good shout, Infinity Nikki is arguably the nicest implementation of UE5 to date

the free-to-play game space led by Hoyoverse, Infold, Kuro and others is absolutely killing it right now - the ridiculous model of $70+ for new releases of so-called 'AAA', more often than not slop, is being shown to be the rip-off that it always was

@Elfuggingjefe well said, couldn't agree more

@Dalamar this is the site they all come to! nothing wrong with that of course - lots of games this month but in my opinion really not much quality but the excellent return-to-form Ninja Gaiden 4 is the easy winner for me

@JimmyRiddle unfortunately it's all too much time in London, barring some posh leafy areas things truly are like a real-life GTA PvP server

@themightyant yes, 100% with you on the long, convoluted, and often incomprehensible story, it was a blessing they introduced a skip button for all the dialogues!

@Shigurui yes, got into HSR from day one - loved the og Simulated Universe stuff, was really challenging and deep - the 3.6 Anomaly Arbitration is excellent but finished it in a couple of hours! Try-Not-To-Laugh Challenge is also fun but way too easy for longtime players, even more since they give you the necessary characters as 'trials'

The game is amazing, my one and only gripe is the lack of endgame content - there is so little to enjoy with the amazing teams you create (even as a F2Per), am praying that this issue is addressed in a near future update.

Not the best sale at all and Doom Dark Ages is still ridiculously overpriced. I would however happily pay Sony 10 squid for a 60fps patched version of Bloodborne even though I have the game already.

@SeaDaVie they also gave DA Veilguard a ludicrous 8/10 so let's be honest, the scores are all over the place - best just to read the words which are generally pretty fair and a better way to help decide whether to buy or not - this new Ninja Gaiden looks like a lot of fun despite its flaws

Great selection! Several bangers on that list. Tekken 3 was peak Tekken.

@Dogbreath spot on, 2028 at the absolute earliest for PS6, it would make no sense before that

It may or may not be an amazing billboard but still not buying this game. You can see Playstation pumping a lot of resources into pushing the title as hard as possible.

Poor performance on PS5 Pro? Don't people realise yet that this is a "premium game for premium players"?

Has to be said there are some absolute belters at unbeatable prices in this sale! Persona 5 Royal, Metro Exodus, Doom Eternal, Doki Doki, Remnant 2, Sekiro, Zombie Army 4 (4 quid!!) - problem is I've played them all!

This looks like a poor month and unless Green Hell has fixed its woeful PS5 performance issues there is hardly anything here even worth adding to the 'library'. Note to site editor: you do in fact have a review up of the mispelled Fate/Samurai Remnant.

@The_Elder absolutely agree with you, not sure I'm seeing the same thing as others here who are so excited and hyped up by that gameplay footage - looks super janky with some terrible-looking character models to boot, almost like a PS1 game with PS4 graphics - will definitely need to see this again nearer the time of release

@get2sammyb Thanks, Sammy, will definitely look out for this one! Have played nearly all of the gacha games but after dropping Genshin (very early adopter but Natlan was the final straw), ZZZ (felt repetitive but have heard it's now much improved), and WW (just couldn't understand the mechanics or what was going on), am now just HSR and Infinity Nikki.

These clips don't do anything for me: it doesn't look different enough from the original outing which I enjoyed for about 25 hours or so before the routine became too repetitive to finish. As the other commenter mentioned above there were also balance issues once you got levelled up.

The alpha demo was excellent, the open world for the most part works well. Switching between the two fighting styles on the fly is a bit gimmicky (personally I'd rather stick to one style) but most of all I think the graphics engine, pretty much unchanged since the original Nioh, is looking tired.

A bit like how Genshin superficially looked like a Zelda: Breath Of The Wild rip-off but turned out to be something else entirely. Beyond the original screenshot, the gameplay is nothing like Horizon, and actually looks more fun for a start, and more reminiscent of Ark or Palworld, or even Monster Hunter Wilds, if we're looking for a direct comparison.

The projected pricing for this game at release is simply ludicrous. This Randy Pitchford dude is so out of touch. On the other hand, we know it'll be under £20 within 12 months.

I'll be once again all over Origami Bird Clash, absolutely brilliant mini-game!

Assassin's Creed Black Flag, the last good one, urgently needs to get the remake/remaster treatment. The money's on the table.

@get2sammyb hear, hear! I just noticed that all the games I've played and enjoyed this year are from China and Korea

The biggest problem with RDR2 (and indeed many of the major Rockstar titles) are the incredibly clunky control systems. Otherwise I'd be all over this release.

It's not a proper soulslike if there are difficulty options. From Software would never do this. The difficulty is baked into the genre, you simply have to grind more and level up if you want to make a fight easier. This spoiled the otherwise brilliant Expedition 33 a bit for me, there was a boss that I couldn't defeat so switched to 'story mode' and now the feeling of excitement has gone now that I can breeze past most enemies.

It's Designers Republic's art for Wipeout that should be the focus of the complaint here, it's exactly their design language that's been plagiarised. Either way, Bungie is way out of order and this game looks dead in the water.

@ShogunRok all the evidence beyond official Ubisoft press releases full of PR weasel words and spin indicate that this game has been an absolute disaster in terms of sales - the most recent being that even AC Origins is enjoying greater engagement right now, their reticence to report its poor sales is most likely due to trying to assuage their investors at a very sensitive time

@Lup hmm, without Shadows Ubisoft wouldn't be nearly so far in the red, the game has deservedly been an absolute disaster in terms of sales, don't fall for the disingenuous 'players engaged' spin which is a clear red flag indicating it has not met anywhere near expectations

@QiaraIris I don't have Aventurine myself but my understanding is that he is an incredible shielder and provides enough additional healing too, better character than Luocha imo!

Note: copies sold. Not players 'engaged'.

@Dalamar aha fair enough! I managed to fortuitously pull Sunday and he's pretty good support if you have Acheron DPS team, don't have Aventurine but it's said he's one of the best healers (I usually run that other dude Gallagher )

@get2sammyb Sammy, will you be running a story on the disastrous Infinity Nikki 1.5 update?

@Dalamar would you pay to pull Sunday or Aventurine though? quite fond of my maxed-out Gallagher it has to be said

@Wardenknight133 Aloy was the only character in Genshin that I didn't even touch, really incongruous, not sure what Hoyoverse were thinking there!

@DennisReynolds your retort is as shallow as Forza Horizon 5's gameplay, glad you're enjoying it anyway

@DennisReynolds sorry, it's not even close to being the best, lots of empty content and no depth