TimeDelayedGamer

Merry Christmas, Push Squarians (or Push Aquarians, as my autocorrect insists it should be). Enjoy the festive period whatever you're up to. Good health and good cheer to you all.

@Fishnpeas Agree with everything you said there! Trading Standards should be hitting the video games industry with fines left, right and centre, but it never happens, probably because the legislation has never kept up with the technology.

I've been expecting an ET-style industry crash ever since the Cyberpunk debacle.

Just catching up with all the news. Anything by Naughty Dog is always on my radar. However, I think Project Robot and Okami 2 top my list.

Metroid Prime 2 for me this weekend. I've played the first one a few times but for some reason have never got round to the sequels, so about time I corrected that. At about 25% completion so far, and loving every second of it.

@MeanBeanEgg Well, if there's a general consensus that a game is good, that's usually a good sign. But obviously you have to take that in conjunction with what you know your own tastes to be.

It helps if you know there's a critic or two whose tastes tends to align with your own. Then you can trust the critics you trust...

But yeah, gamers confuse the heck out of me as well. There's been so much condemnation of this game based on some limited previews and the fact it's 1st person. Certain people seem happy to vilify a game based on their own expectations of what it should be, having not played a second of it, rather than keeping an open mind and approaching it with the intention of being entertained. Which when you're speaking about an entertainment product, kind of baffles me.

By all means, condemn a game after you've played it, if it disappoints you and that's your honest opinion...

Anyway, rant over. Personally I think this looks like an interesting take and I'm looking forward to giving it a go, at some point.

Well, I guess the naysayers can shut up now.

Probably.

9/15, not bad. Made a couple of stupid mistakes that I'm kicking myself for.

Finishing up Hollow Knight. I somehow haven't found The Grimm Troupe DLC so going to hunt that down. Had a little go of the Godmaster stuff but soon gave up on it... I hate boss rushes with a passion (and some of those harder versions of the bosses are just insane!). Next, planning to move on to Metroid Prime 2.

Oh, and Push Square, please don't give me a heart attack by telling me it's the last weekend in December 😂 I'm very easily confused don't you know.

@Crimson_Ridley That's because shorts and skirts are the... new jeans.

@ChrisDeku Is it a large portion though? Or rather (as with so many other things) a small but very vocal minority?

Same outcome on the morale of developers, arguably.

This is sad news in any case. It just seems like the industry is being ritually gutted at the moment.

@LifeGirl Also, know your target audience and don't close the studio the second a game isn't an immediate financial success. Some quality games take a while to bed in, and not all games have mass market appeal, but will nonetheless do very well with a certain demographic of gamers. A lot of publishers and investors seem to have an extremely short-term view on these things.

3/10. Yeesh. A lot of those games I've never played though.

Hollow Knight again for me this weekend. I've been taking my time and savouring the game world. The air was blue last night as I found myself in a late-game location with some utterly evil platforming gauntlets to complete. Some of it took me a while just to figure out how to even attempt it. But I conquered in the end and got to a save point... Will see what pain the game has in store for me next, lol... Have a good weekend all.

I remember first seeing Tony Todd in an episode of The X-Files, years ago, as the guest 'monster of the week'. He had such an amazing screen presence, he could stand there seemingly doing nothing and your eyes would be drawn to him.

Hollow Knight again for me this weekend. Made lots of progress over the last week. The game is constantly drip-feeding me new charms to experiment with, areas to explore, new moves to try out, enemies to conquer, and lore to puzzle out, that there's no chance of ever getting bored. It's so good that I'm starting to think this might be up there with Symphony of the Night as my personal favourite 2D Metroidvania. I'm in awe that such a small team put this together. Now for yet another attempt at that second challenge in the Colosseum of Fools...

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Remedy always seem to get screwed over by their publishers, one way or another.

Continuing my playthrough of the amazing Hollow Knight, currently exploring Crystal Peak. I have a week off work next week so hoping to really sink my teeth into it and make some progress.

Meaningless soundbite alert.

This isn't a creative writing class, Sony.

The game that first introduced me to this wonderful series (and one of those games that reminds me why I love videogames). So many fond memories. Definitely getting this.

@Barrymore Cheers! Colin the shopkeeper from Xenon II Megablast... Those were the days...

@LikelySatan Just spent a happy couple of hours exploring the Fungal Wastes. The sense of exploration and discovery is something else!

@KingPev I've played the first Prime multiple times, but for some reason never got round to the other two in the trilogy. Currently intending to play Prime 2 after I'm done with Hollow Knight.

Was intending to start Metroid Prime 2 this week, but I had one of my occasional fits of caprice and decided to plump for Hollow Knight instead. I knew this game was highly regarded before going in, and it didn't take me long to see why - it's just so good. Smooth gameplay, fantastic atmosphere and music, great design, and nothing but flipping roadblocks everywhere, lol - but I'm loving every second of it. Also hoping to start Portal 2 with my daughter this weekend. She was googling to see if there's a cuddly companion cube she can get for Christmas, so I believe she quite enjoyed the first one 😁 Happy gaming everyone, whatever you're playing just now.

Hmm, if I wanted to muck around with settings to get the best image quality vs performance ratio, I'd get a PC.

I completely misread "wallet-busting waifus" at first glance.

What sort of a monster scratches game disks?! 😳

**OCD trigger warning**

@TheEnygma Erm, how would we be fans if we hadn't bought their games?

Websites like Push Square cater to a certain type of gaming enthusiast that is not necessarily representative of the gaming masses that play nothing but Fortnite and Call of Duty etc. So you'll see lots of people lamenting the passing of Japan Studio on here, which makes it seem like a big proportion of gamers, but in reality it's only a small portion of those who own consoles.

All I know is, every game where I saw the Japan Studio logo at the start, I had a fantastic time with it.

To me, they represented so much about what made PlayStation great. The willingness to take risks, be creative, try new things and see what sticks, come up with smaller unique experiences etc. I get that not everything they did was commercial, but that studio gave Sony so much cachet as a company that genuinely loved and nurtured video games as an art form, rather than just a cookie-cutter, copy and paste shareholder profit machine.

@Eduard_Brenton Great minds think alike, I guess... (or fools seldom differ, take your pick).

@Mintie Don't get those two mixed up now 😂

@Eduard_Brenton A gaming... glut? 🤔

Will be playing the incomparable Shadow of the Colossus remake this weekend. I have played this game in it's various forms so many times, and it always takes my breath away every time. It's just so good. Poetry in videogame form.

@scoobdoo This is a new engine they're using for this game.

Falcom's games always look a generation or two behind the times, but personally I like that retro vibe. They're a relatively small developer, but they put a lot of passion into what they make.

Argos are still in business? I thought they went under ages ago.

I remember TR4 as being a great entry with some well done puzzles, but it suffered a lot from the limitations of the PS1 - I hope the developers manage to sew the smaller levels back into the larger levels they were obviously intended to be, rather than having loading screens as you go back and forth. I think it will help the flow of the game a lot. Chronicles was mainly reheated stuff from the earlier games; only the Ireland section felt fresh to me at the time, with the younger weaponless Lara and the creepy haunted shenanigans. Never played AOD, so interested in seeing what that one is like, particularly if the developers can fix the problems the game had in the process of remastering it!

Almost finished on my playthrough of Metroid Prime. I've been playing on hardest difficulty and for some reason the trio of final bosses have been giving me a lot of trouble - like Souls-level punch the air when I actually succeed trouble. On the final boss now and I've been doing fine up until the fourth stage when it always seems to mess me up. The bosses are such damage sponges in hypermode difficulty that it's starting to irritate me. But I've come so far I want to beat it!

Also been introducing my 13-yr old daughter to the joys of thinking with Portals this last week. She loves the twisted sense of humour and air of menace which I think is just pitched right for her age. Listening to her scream whenever one of the gun drones started shooting at her was an absolute joy 😁 Will likely be starting Portal 2 with her this weekend, can't wait to see what she thinks of Wheatley. Have a topper of a weekend all.

6/10, not too shoddy! Annoyed with myself I got the Syphon Filter one wrong though...

Still working my way through Metroid Prime this weekend. I could wax lyrical for hours on what a fantastic game it is: the world design, the lore, the visuals, the soundtrack, all the little graphical touches that bring everything to life, the brilliant way in which the visor is used to make your feel immersed... Just wonderful. Once I'm finished with it, I have the urge to return to the equally magical Shadow of the Colossus remake for yet another playthrough, then I'll be launching into Metroid Prime 2.

FOMO usually wins out in the end.

Looks excellent. Some Okami vibes going on there as well. Glad to hear it's coming to PS4 as well, since I'm still to make the leap to current gen.

Completed Nier Replicant ending A yesterday. I was going to launch into ending B but then the game was expecting me to spend 30 mins reading a novella and I quickly decided I needed a break playing something else for a bit.

So I have forsaken PlayStation for a while in favour of playing Metroid Prime; undoubtedly one of the greatest sci-fi games ever. For some reason I've only ever played the first one, so probably time I fixed that and played the rest of the trilogy. Working my way through the magical original first though.

Hoping to make more progress in Nier Replicant this weekend. I struggled to connect with it at first, partly because I've been a bit under the weather the last week and very tired. I've found some of the genre-shifting and side quests a bit hit and miss, however, I reached the first major story beat a couple of nights ago and I'm now getting a lot more into it. Have a great weekend and happy gaming all.

Congrats to Sony on beating their PS3-era levels of arrogance and consumer disregard.

Night and day, huh? Meh, I've always been a night person.

Wow... Well, as someone who is yet to purchase a PS5 in any form, hopefully this will bring about a price drop for the Slim. Because there's no way I'm paying that price for a console without a disc drive. Crazy.

@Darude84 Thanks! Definitely intending to play Automata - when I was looking up which one to play first, the general consensus seemed to be to go for Replicant both for the story context it gives to Automata, and the fact that it might be difficult to go back to after playing Automata.

This weekend it's NieR Replicant ver. 1.22 etc. for me. It's taken an hour or two for it to click, but I'm starting to really enjoy it now (once a certain book turns up, things get a lot more fun). And that soundtrack is a bit alright, isn't it?!!!

Unfortunately I don't own a PS5 yet (helping my eldest through uni has put a big dent in my gaming budget), so can't jump on the Astro Bot train, but having read the reviews, I'm jealous of those playing it this weekend. Happy gaming all.

Great score. A week of contrasts for PlayStation then!

Let's hope this is a smash hit... and then learn the lesson Sony. Find your soul again.