Silenos

@Pat_trick spot on! all those types of comments I interpret as "it's not fair, they didn't make the game for ME!!"

@get2sammyb absolutely cannot wait for this to come to PS5 - even the main HSR is pretty much an autochess game if you have the setting on 'auto' like I do!

This issue isn't about share prices or sales charts really though, is it? The problem for Sony is the potentially irreparable damage to the Sony brand since their clumsy announcement of digital only coming off the back of several other disastrous PR events. Once your brand starts taking big hits, that's when things start to go pear-shaped. As in the hospitality business, it's customers who no longer appear at your restaurant who know the answer to your problem, not the ones who do still come.

@get2sammyb Firstly, the 6.7% figure is heavily skewed by including PC sales where physical is effectively nonexistent - therefore doing the maths means the physical share of console sales is around 20%.
Secondly, for some reason Capcom treats Nintendo Switch 2 Game Cards as digital rather than physical.
Thirdly, limited print-runs and stock shortages for new titles suppress physical numbers independently of demand (in addition to Pragmata, also widely reported as true for say Crimson Desert and Expedition 33). I recall reading also of some countries where digital is already the sole option available.
Put this all together and it all points to the opposite conclusion to that inferred. I applaud yours personally and PS's balanced coverage of this issue up to now but this article with its leading tagline are not up to that standard, in my opinion.

@get2sammyb hi Sammy, respectfully, this article is a complete misrepresentation of the data and I'm not sure what motives for that there would be but the actual evidence points in completely the opposite direction to what is being erroneously inferred

Ubisoft? Yeah, I'll pass. Far Cry 2 was the last good one and that was a long time ago.

Tried but could never get into this game - it's pretty but the game loop is too long for a roguelike and ultimately samey, nor could I relate to the main protagonist/story.

Sony just keeps stepping on turds. This is an abysmal selection, maybe even a new low.

Another line in Sony's long suicide letter. This is just slop. Terrible month.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is an absolute steal at just a fiver while Borderlands 4 is not even worth that much, let alone full price.

Not the worst month, not the best. FF XVI feels like it should be a bigger deal than it actually is. Will give Blades a shot.

Let's be honest, this does not augur well for the rest of the line-up.

@UltimateOtaku91 yeah, this is the kind of month when accusations of multiplayer slop actually hit hard, fortunately there was enough in last month's offerings to keep us going

@Balaam_ 'tiny indie team'! nearly spat my tea out at that one, well played! only funded by the free-spending daughter of a centibillionaire with added top-ups from the Australian government, perpetual music licences and custom assets - yep, this one is as AAA as it gets!

It's a great line-up and I'd go so far as to say that the two AAA games, Outlaws and RDR2, are the least interesting.

This is exactly the same kind of moral panic that kicked off when drum machines and synthesisers in music became a thing.

Ahem, I think you mean 'cock-up' rather than 'cock up'.

The principle reason that people believe all kinds of nonsense on social media sites is due to the complete collapse of trust in legacy outlets, who are equally inclined to spread misinformation.

This minor revised 'corrected' version of the story is arguably even worse than the one doing the rounds on Twitter and YouTube! It's definitely not helping sell the game, if that's the idea. Mystery why it merited an entire article on PushSquare, much more interesting and fun things to be talking about.

@twitchtvpat Shadows was an absolute disaster for Ubisoft, it was their last big roll of the dice and really should have been massive - the company's stock has tanked 90% in 5 years.

'Charismatic' isn't what I'd describe this new young Bond character as, guy looks about as milquetoast as it's possible to be. What seems clearer by the day is that this is a kind of reskinned Hitman, maybe with a bit more running around shooting things. And that may very well not be a bad thing.

Fantastic review, thanks, Sammy! After 25 hours or so, my thoughts: art and overall aesthetic is top-notch, beautiful settings and character animations, game runs very well on base PS5, generous amount of free stuff so perfectly playable as F2P, HOWEVER, menus/UI are horrendously user-unfriendly (actually much like their previous game) and need a complete redesign, far too much yapping, and finally not sure if it's got the USPs to be able to stand out from the fiercely competitive pack once Ananta lands.

It's hard to argue against new options but am not sold on options to re-fight bosses and re-blockades (outside of NG+), didn't like the introduction of difficulty sliders either when difficulty level is already built into the game design - much prefer the Dark Souls way of doing things.
On a side note finally managed to take down my nemesis the dreaded Antumbra Staff boss!

Is this Hitman Reskinned? Was hoping this would be more like Goldeneye, or at least focused on less stealth and more all-out action.

@THEBrew My suspicion is that it'll actually in some ways be worse than the original! The trailer doesn't look that promising and the changes introduced are ones nobody asked for. The og Black Flag looks and runs amazingly well despite its age and costs next to nothing.

@For-Kier The og Black Flag, which still looks and plays amazing despite its age, is arguably Ubisoft's finest moment but I am actually apprehensive about this 'resync' - at this stage I simply don't trust them not to to ruin it with 'resynced' visuals and new game mechanics that nobody asked for.

Nice game though Saros might be, reading all that was a bit of a slog to be honest!

Nothing much to mourn here. Mortal Shell was a promising soulslike but the balance and variety was just not quite there.

@Jacko11 I think an old garden gnome could do better than Slot at this stage!

@KundaliniRising333 Well said, this is by far the best, most rational well-articulated comment here amongst all so much false equivalence if not outright bias.

@DennisReynolds These so-called 'bog-standard' features like hide helmet/shield, that were included soon after release, never had any significant impact on the game's playability or can be claimed to render the game 'unfinished', the framing that is being used to rationalise the silly review.

@ShogunRok Would appreciate you at least acknowledging that PS got the review horribly wrong, it really wasn't that bad when it was released, at worst a bit clunky. This is even more so after the questionable grace that Marathon and Starfield were given post-release.

Very much enjoyed it so far (F2P) and have just run out of meaningful things to do, the factory aspect has limited appeal, exploration is lots of fun but the combat is a little bit on the shallow side. Look forward to seeing what they add to the game!

It's not just an opinion of some random reviewer when you represent a brand like IGN, or Push Square (also part of the IGN Entertainment group incidentally), your score is henceforth going to be associated with said brand which in turn affects overall credibility and will be painfully brought up for years to come, particularly as contrasted with the ludicrously glazed scores of other games that shall remain nameless - the motivations behind both these 6/10 reviews is a separate discussion.

@lazarus11 50 hours in and the base PS5 version of Crimson Desert is rock solid for me, not a single crash, quite remarkable for a new release of this ambition - did I mention that I haven't left Hernand yet? GOTY

@Northern_munkey yes, good point, underrated feature!

@Th3solution yes, bought it on disc a while ago, definitely one for the souls connoisseurs! that sale price is very good actually

It's best to wait for a deep sale, truth is it's a pretty ordinary game off the back of a great one. Sucker Punch missed a huge opportunity to do something special with Ghosts Of Yotei but made some more poor choices, one of which was playing it safe.

@Th3solution Can echo that sentiment. I've religiously played most every soulslike going back to the og DEMON'S SOULS on PS3 and also think that LOTF is the best non-From Software iteration yet - another good one to look out for, one which isn't spoken about so much, is BLEAK FAITH.

Every game has a shelf-life of gaming interest, some longer than others and First Descendant was indeed genuinely fun for a couple of months but the gameplay loop didn't have enough staying power beyond that. The sexy costumes are a red herring either way but some of the characters were a little bit uncanny valley I thought. The 3/10 review was ludicrous considering some of the glazing for certain other much lazier games, don't get me started on that.

There's a simple dichotomy here between gamers wanting instant gratification hits in the form of hand-holding and yellow paint and those enjoying a completely open-ended experience where you craft your own adventures albeit with friction, much like say the original Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Just add a bit of IGN-style anti-Korean/Chinese confirmation bias to the mix for good measure.

@lazarus11 getting destroyed with total justification, they're not even hiding their bias against Korean and Chinese developers any more - I too bought the also amazing Witcher 3 at launch and recall all kinds of often game-breaking bugs and performance issues which took literally months to get fixed - yes, any review is just someone's opinion but the outlet is going to forever have to live with the potential embarrassment of it, as IGN are finding out

@Almost_Ghostly Exactly, Sony is deliberately pushing that narrative to hide from their horrendous financial decision making in recent years for which we as customers are now paying.

It's got a little bit to do with RAM and a lot more to do with the horrendous financial losses Sony have suffered with their top-level decision making (e.g. the insane cost of buying Bungie, blowing ludicrous sums on developing Concord etc etc). Us consumers and their lower level employees are the ones paying the price and picking up the tab for these calamitous decisions. All this talk of 'the economy' and 'tariffs' is a massive smokescreen to cover up for that.

Some nice City Pop sounds on the pre-reg page there! Let's see what this one is like, looks promising.

@DennisReynolds Yes, I should have emphasised that my suggestion of bias is directed towards mainstream gaming outlets in general and not PushSquare in particular. Sammy, especially, has been a fantastic champion of Asian developers, including many of the less well-known ones too. Yes, MC reviews have been good and reflect the love/hate you allude to: either 9s and 10s alongside the frankly silly 6s or worse bestowed by others. The Steam rating has gone from mid-50s to almost 80% in just a few days which also reflects Pearl Abyss's prompt addressing of a great many technical issues. I do however respectfully disagree with your assessment of Black Myth: Wukong which, while not a classic, I did find thoroughly enjoyable!

Sad to say, this review score is disappointingly predictable, especially contrasted with some of the ludicrously inflated scores of other recent games, that shall go unnamed. I'm old enough to remember that undoubted classics like the original Demon's Souls were given 6s and 7s from so-called mainstream outlets with almost the exact same rationalisations. The fact that the review is long and detailed does not detract from its erroneous premises of performance issues that, for a large part, have been ironed out since the review window closed. The issue of clunky controls is valid but also applies to games like 10/10 Red Dead Redemption 2 or latter-day Assassin's Creeds. There is a suspicion, as with Black Myth: Wukong and others, that there is a bias against Korean and Chinese developers, something that is troubling if true. Fortunately, despite the detractors, Crimson Desert is proving exceptionally successful and popular with gamers like myself, and I believe in time to come it too, as with the early From Software titles, will be recognised as an absolute masterpiece.

If you're into hardcore soulslikes, I very much recommend BLEAK FAITH which you can get in the sale for 12 notes.

Absolutely fantastic game once you get used to the core switching mechanic, probably the best non-From Software soulslike out there. Also recommend Bleak Faith to those who may have overlooked it.