@arsmolinarc Yeah, I think Konami did the right thing getting rid of him. He's definitely overrated. It seems all he's capable of is coming up with some interesting ideas but they're always poorly executed and disjointed, leading to very inconsistent plots.
His ego is over the top too and some people act like he alone created everything about Metal Gear, as if there weren't other people working on level design or gameplay.
@PlatinumMikey How is PC gaming hidious? For the majority of games, they look way better on PC, making console gaming look hidious in comparison.
If people can afford a PS5 Pro, they can save more for a PC at this point to not only enjoy PC only releases but also Xbox and PlayStation games. I went to PC and haven't looked back.
@Scottyy There's a optional mode just for Stellar Blade fans where the game is third person and every time the character takes a step, her ass cheeks jiggle and clap together.
@LifeGirl Is it even a good game? Every comment here and elsewhere is just "sex sells" which tells me the game doesn't have anything else going for it.
I think if it weren't for the protagonist, people would be saying it's a 5/10 game.
MLB The Show? Which one? It's a established franchise with a yearly release going all the way back to 2002, Gran Turismo 7 is also a single player game and 13th entry in a long established racing game franchise and Destiny 2 was built off of the first game's reputation as well as Bungie's when Activision was the publisher. Bungie built its reputation making Halo for Xbox.
So Sony's only real success with an actual strictly multiplayer live service game AND one that is a new IP is Helldivers 2.
So after 5 years, they only have one successful game. That's pretty bad.
@ShadowofSparta People forget Rockstar worked on RDR2 after GTAV.
GTAV in 2012, RDR2 6 years later in 2018 and GTAVI 8 years later in 2026. It means maybe 10 years till their next game if you want to go by pattern and technically, RDR is kinda GTA anyway just in an period setting.
Meanwhile Shenmue fans had to wait 17 years for a third game and will probably have to wait 30 for Shenmue 4.
Half Life fans meanwhile have been waiting over 20 years for the third game in that franchise.
People having to wait for GTA 6 is kinda nothing in comparison as they've had RDR2 too. I'm surprised the wait time is even a meme but I imagine most of it comes from kids who have never had to wait long before for a sequel to a game. Most kids nowadays have only played Fortnite, Minecraft and GTAV.
@ATaco In my experience, people who automatically refer to religious people as "religious nuts" are normally the real nuts.
Christians, Jews and Muslims haven't said anything about any video game tackling religion (most of them handle this subject poorly in the first place, i.e Assassin's Creed).
Meanwhile the secular left were acting exactly like incel chuds themselves over Hogwarts Legacy and sending death threats proving they're no different to the right wingers upset about The Last of Us.
Left? Right? Most of us are sick of all your cultural war nonsense and today, every single video game "controversy" is always purely driven by secular ideologies not religious ones. You're clearly from ResetEra which is just as reactionary as KotakuinAction. Why can't any of you just learn to enjoy video games and avoid ones you don't like? It really is that simple.
@TheArt Not a lie, he's speaking the truth. The RDR games, like GTA, are linear in their missions. Unless you're from an alternative universe where those games having branching paths and multiple solutions?
@spazuluwarrior Imagine if Rockstar made GTA like an open world Deus Ex with branching paths, multiple solutions and outcomes or having emergent gameplay during missions. That's kinda what I would have expected by now. Instead we will likely still have the same scripted linear missions where any deviation from the objective results in a mission failure state.
@LifeGirl Agreed. It's the same with how Red Dead Redemption 2 was just the first game still but with new graphics and attention to detail.
Ultimately however, every Rockstar game uses the same formula. All the mission structures are the same and even many mission types are still used (the boring missions where you ride/drive while listening to someone talk, trailing missions, escort missions etc). Any minor deviation from the mission objective ends in "mission failed." Red Dead Redemption 2 was exactly the same.
I can't imagine GTA6 being like an open world Deus Ex with branching paths, multiple solutions and outcomes or having emergent gameplay during missions.
Last GTA I played was San Andreas and after RDR2, I'm not falling for the hype again. GTA6 would be like RDR2 for me I imagine, it'll be fun for the first few hours but would get old fast.
@Judal27 Is it? Even if Concord had cool looking characters + fan service, weren't the rest of the problems to do with the gameplay too? Like the old saying goes: you can't polish a turd. Concord would still have died in 11 days.
That twitter post is from someone who isn't really thinking. 1 million sales isn't enough for a big developer like Square Enix. Even indie games achieve that. It would have to outsell the latest Final Fantasy for his point to even stand.
If it doesn't reach the 7 million sales of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, then this guy just ends up embarrassed.
@Wiceheid The new ones aren't about chem trails and black helicopters though. Yeah the conspiracy stuff is there but they're also heavily about artificial intelligence, terrorism and societal effects of augmentation. This stuff has been relevant since the release of Mankind Divided in 2016. It was the perfect time for a Deus Ex game then and still is now.
In fact, some of the themes being explored actually being relevant to real world current society makes the last Deus Ex games all the better. Art and media is allowed to explore real world issues.
@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr Prey sold 1.5 million copies and both Dishonoured games have sold 8 million. Deus Ex on the other hand with the last two entries have sold 12 million. Deus Ex is the bigger franchise.
However, if you look, publishers expect bigger numbers than these. Dishonoured 2 was considered a flop that didn't meet sales expectations either. Earlier this year in January, former Arkane Lyon designer Julien Eveillé confirmed this. Raphaël Colantonio, the former co-founder of Arkane, isn't even confident there will ever be a Dishonored 3 given that Bethesda was disappointed in the sales of the second game.
This is the problem publishers see with the immersive sim genre. They do sell well as far as we all regard but not to publishers who want these games to reach 10 million copies sold.
And really? Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come 2? They haven't inspired anything yet and I'm not sure what influence BG3 would have since it's hardly done anything new for the CRPG genre. Even Kingdom Come 2, outside of its combat systems has hardly done anything new for open world RPGs. There doesn't seem to be many games influenced by the first KC game so I think that says it all.
And where's Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Devil May Cry or Resident Evil? Not a single Castlevania? You can't add Dark Souls but ignore the very games that clearly influenced it (NG, Castlevania, Metroid).
No one can tell me that they don't see the Castlevania and Metroid influence especially with the first game having a interconnected world like a Metroidvania game and speaking of that, these two games created that genre just as Soulslike is named because of Demon's Souls inventing that.
Skyrim, what's that doing there? It wasn't innovative in any possible way and did nothing new apart from dumb down the genre. And if we can choose multiple games from a franchise, then I'd say the first Zelda game should be there for being one of the first games to popularise the open world formula.
No Deus Ex or System Shock either... honestly we need a bigger list than just 21 games.
@ButterySmooth30FPS Nintendo fans don't beg for remasters as much as Snoybabies though and when they do ask for remasters, it's of genuinely old games from generations ago that many of us missed out on.
But who missed out on Days Gone, The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima etc? They are also backwards compatible. The Last of Us 2 remastered and Days Gone remastered don't even look any different unless you squint your eyes.
And it's 2025 and the PS5 is still lacking big exclusives. The funny truth is, the Nintendo Switch 2 will probably have more first party exclusives on its system next year than the PS5 from its whole lifetime, most of which are already on PC now.
That means PS5 is left with Dark Farts Bollywood Smell edition, a remake of Demon's Souls, two Astro Bot games, a couple of VR games, some random mobile type shovelware and future PC releases (Ghost of Yotai and Death Stranding 2). That's after 5 years...
@Max_the_German I wouldn't have even known this weird game existed if not for this article and I suspect many are in the same boat as me.
So I doubt people who don't play games would think of or mention some random niche sexual Japanese game upon hearing someone say "yeah I play video games." They'd probably think of Call of Duty, Fortnite and FIFA.
And if they thought of or mention some weird sexual games in response to someone saying they play games, that says more about them or the company they keep. They're practically just outing themselves. It's like telling someone you're a big movie fan and their response is "oh, like porn?" I'd be the one looking at them weirdly and making judgement on them lol.
At the same time, Nintendo and other Japanese companies like Sega also put in LGBT characters where they are literal caricatures there to be laughed at. Take Vilia, the crossdresser character in Zelda Breath of the Wild: Link is required to talk to Vilia to acquire the outfit to disguise himself as a woman to enter Gerudo town, the whole interaction with this character plays out as a joke at their expense with Link also being able to say in dialogue "You're a man!" and the cutscene also playing it for laughs by having the wind blow Villia's face mask off after he makes a comment about being a woman, with him quickly hiding his face and Link shaking his head upon seeing this in third hand embarrassment.
If we consider the character as actually transgender, then that means Link is even able to purposely mock their identity by saying they're still a man just for player laughs.
Bolson meanwhile is portrayed as potentially gay for laughs, being a literal stereotypical flamboyant gay caricature that would be considered offensive or old fashioned if portrayed in any Western media.
SEGA has also featured such characters in the Yakuza series. Some portrayed relatively normally and without mockery like in that one sub story in Yakuza 3 but the rest are there for the butt of jokes. Yakuza 1 & 0 especially featured a few who Kiryu will happily fight against despite them identifying as transgender women. Most of these characters are played for laughs or even portrayed as sexual assaulters like the one in the The Truth about Beauty sub story in the first game.
Western developers wouldn't do any of these things. Japanese developers do because as you said, relatively few people in Japan really care enough to make it an issue.
@Ilyn This game has also been rebooted in development like three times right? That's obviously never a good sign. Meanwhile The Chinese Room has never done a game before that has any gameplay beyond walking. Of course they could suprise everyone here but they still seem like a strange developer to pick for a game with combat in it.
Haven't played the first so the least I would expect out of it is a decent narrative driven action RPG. However I don't have high hopes. I'll be surprised if it's good.
I doubt anything will be announced for the anniversary. I hope after this, those constantly asking for a remake or remaster finally stop. Because it'll be clear nobody is listening.
@Uromastryx Nah, they're still crying about the game and how it's the worst thing to happen in history because of Yasuke. Crazy how one black guy in a video game has completely and utterly destroyed their minds.
I just picture them waking up and Yasuke is literally the first thing in their heads doing that Shrek smile at them, that one where he's crouched down and then looks up smiling lol.
@ThaBEN I doubt the Japanese audience care that much. Also Ubisoft can't be blamed for any of the outrage here.
All the "controversy" isn't because of legitimate concerns like it being another boring Assassin's Creed game or having what I presume will be the usual repetitive open world Ubisoft formula. It's all about Yasuke and how one black guy has single handily driven racists mad and caused them to collectively meltdown.
And they're not upset about historical accuracy because these games were never historically accurate. They're literally lame sci fi games with their apple of eden and a prior advanced civilisation that created humanity stuff. Even the origin of the Assassins is different to their real life counterparts. The whole plot is basically scientology.
All these games have fictionalised historical people. They made people who should have been Christian or Muslim into atheists including the founder of the Assassin sect who irl was a devout Muslim. They even had a female Templar warrior in the first game, yet irl there were no female Templars.
So these games were never about being historically accurate or true to historical characters. It's a bit late for these people to claim outrage about that. Where were they in 2007? Apparently consuming all this "historically accurate" slop lol.
@mountain_spider @arsmolinarc Satire right? I've only ever heard bad things about that game. I sincerely doubt it can even hold a candle to any Metro game.
And yes Nazis are bad. In Metro you regularly fight against them. In Atomic Heart...you fight robots.
@AhmadSumadi What proofs are you looking for? If we're talking about the historicity of religions then there are proofs. We know Jesus and Muhammad were both historical people for example.
The concern I have is that this game will fall down the usual hole of promoting the opinion of "religion = bad" rather than attempting to offer a nuenced, balanced and mature take.
@KeanuReaves Bloodborne wasn't about religion though. The Healing Church, despite its name, wasn't a religious organisation. Everything they were doing along with the other groups such as the college it came from, related to scientific human experimentation and attempts to contact literal extraterrestrials to force human evolution. The game simply added religious symbolism and quasi-religious rituals to all their unethical science. As you navigate the higher positions of the Healing Church, it resembles literally a scientific lab/hospital.
@16BitHero "Faith and religion - things that historically and currently cause conflict, intolerance, persecution and suffering but also resilience, hope, community and healing."
That's every ideology in general including secular and political ideologies which incidentally are the two things causing the most conflict currently in the Western world including with the whole culture war wokes and anti wokes are a part of.
Xenogears: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
Vagrant Tale: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
FFX: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
Honestly I imagine that's what those games are about. Literal storytelling that sounds like something a 12 year old edgy atheist on Reddit would write.
If this game is going to be the same, as I expect from Western media, portraying some corrupt theocratic society or religious cult (most likely modelled on Roman Catholicism) then it's not doing anything new, interesting or unique. It'll simply be joining a long list of media that have all told this same old story.
@Northern_munkey What? Streets of Rage 4 has a hell of a lot to keep you coming back. Multiple characters, unlockable moves, boss rush, survival mode etc etc. I much prefer Streets of Rage 4 to Sifu and it offers that traditional 2d beat em up arcade experience unlike Sifu. For me, SoR4 is the best available.
Crazy how there's people out there who would defend this. Crazy how it reviewed so well too. Like I said in another post, the game is a big technical mess and the Digital Foundry video confirms that, along with confirming that it also still has the textures of a PS3 game.
Very mixed reviews though due to the terrible optimisation and performance. I just saw the Digital Foundry video from a link on Reddit and they say the same.
The thing is, @UltimateOtaku91 and @Fiendish-Beaver the things you both said are equally applicable towards the PS5.
What reason do I have to get a PS5 when I'm literally able to play the majority of its games on PC? Rise of the Ronin next month... Stellar Blade later in summer. Playstation "exclusivity" is timed before games release on PC.
It's not like Playstation is coming out with many bangers anyways. They've spent half this generation on live service flops and VR that nobody is playing. Even the Wii U still has more exclusives than the PS5, even after having most of its library ported to the Switch.
Entry to the PC market is already cheaper than a console now simply because the games are cheaper on PC when they're on sale. With PS5 Pro being £700...what do you think the next gen of consoles is going to cost? £800? £900? If you can afford that...you can save a little more for a PC or even a gaming laptop.
Consoles don't have that excuse of being cheap anymore. Games are releasing at £60 too. What are you saving?
Nintendo is literally the only real option left with actual exclusives.
@ChrisDeku For a "GOTY" Astro Bot sold very poorly. Same sales as Dragon Age Veilguard.
Truth is, PS5 right now doesn't have many exclusives most people want and the few ones people do want...end up on PC.
Second truth, Nintendo Switch 2 will likely release with more exclusives in year 1 than PS5's entire lifespan...
Ignoring VR games and shovelware...PS5 now only has Astro Bot, Astro Playroom, Dark Farts: Bollywood Smell Edition (yes a real PS5 exclusive), Demon's Souls Remake and Finger Fitness...a mobile port...as the remaining PS5 only console exclusives.
I've not played The Last of Us Part 2 but I loved all the memes. Abby was made out to be the literal embodiment of Gigachad lmao.
So it's a case now of the Virgin HBO Abby Vs the Chad game Abby.
Abby from the game goes to the gym, lifts weights everyday, is a great player at golf, regularly strikes bodybuilder poses and uses those poses as taunts during fights and simply doesn't care about realistic priorities during an apocalypse. She's going to get those gains one way or another!
@wiiware The controversy started because some people were upset about one of the protagonists being black. That's it.
"It's historical" doesn't cut it about Assassin's Creed. It's like Nioh but sci fi. Instead of fighting Yokai, the plot is about aliens. Meanwhile Altair would have been executed in real life, day one for being an atheist and an apostate of Islam by the Assassins as they were devout Shia Muslims. Ezio would have been burnt at the stake for being bisexual, also for being blasphemous. The Templars meanwhile were a devout Christian group, not atheists.
The series has always been historical fiction and bad.
@Zeldorf Dragon's Dogma 2 sold only 1 million more copies than Veilguard, so a bad example to use. For a more successful single player Capcom game... choose any Resident Evil.
@tameshiyaku I agree with you. I've lost interest in the Yakuza series. Asides from the emphasis on heavy fanservice, decline in good stories (imo) and hyper focus on silliness, I'm just burnt out with all the reused assets from the animations to attacks.
And definitely the over the top silliness is especially something I'm not a fan of. Some people say "but Yakuza was always this silly" but they're wrong or being disingenuous. I'm half convinced some of those people haven't played the earlier titles too and have only seen "Yakuza silly moments" and think that stuff was what the earlier games only consisted of. Yeah, it had silly moments and there were a few silly optional attacks in combat based around some heat moves that were practically like superpowers but that stuff wasn't there all the time nor was every heat action unrealistic. Kiryu wasn't using Dragon Ball Z powers with literally every regular attack, flying and attacking enemies in the air like Ninja Gaiden and then summoning King Kong to fight alongside him like we're seeing here. I think the earlier titles had the perfect balance between some realism and occasional silliness. For me, that made the silly moments more memorable.
Project Century however looks great and it looks like that'll be completely different from Yakuza in that every asset for that game will be new. It also looks like it'll be more focused on being a lot more serious, realistic and gritty, so I guess people like us can still get the more grounded game we're looking for after all.
Comments 286
Re: Japanese VTuber Usada Pekora Is in Death Stranding 2, and We Don't Know Why
@arsmolinarc Yeah, I think Konami did the right thing getting rid of him. He's definitely overrated. It seems all he's capable of is coming up with some interesting ideas but they're always poorly executed and disjointed, leading to very inconsistent plots.
His ego is over the top too and some people act like he alone created everything about Metal Gear, as if there weren't other people working on level design or gameplay.
Re: Sony Temporarily Cuts the Price of PS5 in China as It Seeks to Build Market Share
@PlatinumMikey How is PC gaming hidious? For the majority of games, they look way better on PC, making console gaming look hidious in comparison.
If people can afford a PS5 Pro, they can save more for a PC at this point to not only enjoy PC only releases but also Xbox and PlayStation games. I went to PC and haven't looked back.
Re: Sony's PS5 Indie Program Might Have Found Another Winner
@Scottyy There's a optional mode just for Stellar Blade fans where the game is third person and every time the character takes a step, her ass cheeks jiggle and clap together.
Re: Stellar Blade PC Appears Poised to Be a Humongous Hit
@LifeGirl Is it even a good game? Every comment here and elsewhere is just "sex sells" which tells me the game doesn't have anything else going for it.
I think if it weren't for the protagonist, people would be saying it's a 5/10 game.
Re: Fairgames, One of Sony's Last Live-Service PS5 Games, Loses Studio Founder Amid Internal Worries
@themightyant
MLB The Show? Which one? It's a established franchise with a yearly release going all the way back to 2002, Gran Turismo 7 is also a single player game and 13th entry in a long established racing game franchise and Destiny 2 was built off of the first game's reputation as well as Bungie's when Activision was the publisher. Bungie built its reputation making Halo for Xbox.
So Sony's only real success with an actual strictly multiplayer live service game AND one that is a new IP is Helldivers 2.
So after 5 years, they only have one successful game. That's pretty bad.
Re: GTA 6 May Not Have Been in Dev As Long As You Think
@ShadowofSparta People forget Rockstar worked on RDR2 after GTAV.
GTAV in 2012, RDR2 6 years later in 2018 and GTAVI 8 years later in 2026. It means maybe 10 years till their next game if you want to go by pattern and technically, RDR is kinda GTA anyway just in an period setting.
Meanwhile Shenmue fans had to wait 17 years for a third game and will probably have to wait 30 for Shenmue 4.
Half Life fans meanwhile have been waiting over 20 years for the third game in that franchise.
People having to wait for GTA 6 is kinda nothing in comparison as they've had RDR2 too. I'm surprised the wait time is even a meme but I imagine most of it comes from kids who have never had to wait long before for a sequel to a game. Most kids nowadays have only played Fortnite, Minecraft and GTAV.
Re: Intergalactic PS5 Star 'Bootcamp-ing' with Neil Druckmann to Ignore the Haters
@ATaco In my experience, people who automatically refer to religious people as "religious nuts" are normally the real nuts.
Christians, Jews and Muslims haven't said anything about any video game tackling religion (most of them handle this subject poorly in the first place, i.e Assassin's Creed).
Meanwhile the secular left were acting exactly like incel chuds themselves over Hogwarts Legacy and sending death threats proving they're no different to the right wingers upset about The Last of Us.
Left? Right? Most of us are sick of all your cultural war nonsense and today, every single video game "controversy" is always purely driven by secular ideologies not religious ones. You're clearly from ResetEra which is just as reactionary as KotakuinAction. Why can't any of you just learn to enjoy video games and avoid ones you don't like? It really is that simple.
Re: Mafia: The Old Country Looks Glorious in Gameplay Trailer, PS5 Release Date Confirmed
@TheArt Not a lie, he's speaking the truth. The RDR games, like GTA, are linear in their missions. Unless you're from an alternative universe where those games having branching paths and multiple solutions?
Re: Meet the Cast of GTA 6, PS5's Craziest Group of Criminal Misfits Yet
@spazuluwarrior Imagine if Rockstar made GTA like an open world Deus Ex with branching paths, multiple solutions and outcomes or having emergent gameplay during missions. That's kinda what I would have expected by now. Instead we will likely still have the same scripted linear missions where any deviation from the objective results in a mission failure state.
Re: Meet the Cast of GTA 6, PS5's Craziest Group of Criminal Misfits Yet
@LifeGirl Agreed. It's the same with how Red Dead Redemption 2 was just the first game still but with new graphics and attention to detail.
Ultimately however, every Rockstar game uses the same formula. All the mission structures are the same and even many mission types are still used (the boring missions where you ride/drive while listening to someone talk, trailing missions, escort missions etc). Any minor deviation from the mission objective ends in "mission failed." Red Dead Redemption 2 was exactly the same.
I can't imagine GTA6 being like an open world Deus Ex with branching paths, multiple solutions and outcomes or having emergent gameplay during missions.
Last GTA I played was San Andreas and after RDR2, I'm not falling for the hype again. GTA6 would be like RDR2 for me I imagine, it'll be fun for the first few hours but would get old fast.
Re: This Is One Way for PS5 Sensation Marvel Rivals to Print Money
@AhmadSumadi Yeah, it's hypocrisy and imo, micro transactions of any type suck
Re: This Is One Way for PS5 Sensation Marvel Rivals to Print Money
@Judal27 Is it? Even if Concord had cool looking characters + fan service, weren't the rest of the problems to do with the gameplay too? Like the old saying goes: you can't polish a turd. Concord would still have died in 11 days.
Re: Sony's Long Anticipated Lost Soul Aside Has Been Delayed Again on PS5, PC
This is a developer who clearly cares about having a polished final product, I imagine the optimisation should be good too on both console and PC.
Re: Expedition 33's Sublime Success Sparks Chatter About Final Fantasy's Future
That twitter post is from someone who isn't really thinking. 1 million sales isn't enough for a big developer like Square Enix. Even indie games achieve that. It would have to outsell the latest Final Fantasy for his point to even stand.
If it doesn't reach the 7 million sales of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, then this guy just ends up embarrassed.
Re: Rumour: New Deus Ex Game Pitched, But Publishers Aren't Biting
@Wiceheid The new ones aren't about chem trails and black helicopters though. Yeah the conspiracy stuff is there but they're also heavily about artificial intelligence, terrorism and societal effects of augmentation. This stuff has been relevant since the release of Mankind Divided in 2016. It was the perfect time for a Deus Ex game then and still is now.
In fact, some of the themes being explored actually being relevant to real world current society makes the last Deus Ex games all the better. Art and media is allowed to explore real world issues.
Re: Rumour: New Deus Ex Game Pitched, But Publishers Aren't Biting
@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr Prey sold 1.5 million copies and both Dishonoured games have sold 8 million. Deus Ex on the other hand with the last two entries have sold 12 million. Deus Ex is the bigger franchise.
However, if you look, publishers expect bigger numbers than these. Dishonoured 2 was considered a flop that didn't meet sales expectations either. Earlier this year in January, former Arkane Lyon designer Julien Eveillé confirmed this. Raphaël Colantonio, the former co-founder of Arkane, isn't even confident there will ever be a Dishonored 3 given that Bethesda was disappointed in the sales of the second game.
This is the problem publishers see with the immersive sim genre. They do sell well as far as we all regard but not to publishers who want these games to reach 10 million copies sold.
Re: Dodgy List of Most Influential Games Ever Puts 2-Month-Old RPG in the Top 10
Some games on the list make sense.
And really? Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come 2? They haven't inspired anything yet and I'm not sure what influence BG3 would have since it's hardly done anything new for the CRPG genre. Even Kingdom Come 2, outside of its combat systems has hardly done anything new for open world RPGs. There doesn't seem to be many games influenced by the first KC game so I think that says it all.
And where's Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Devil May Cry or Resident Evil? Not a single Castlevania? You can't add Dark Souls but ignore the very games that clearly influenced it (NG, Castlevania, Metroid).
No one can tell me that they don't see the Castlevania and Metroid influence especially with the first game having a interconnected world like a Metroidvania game and speaking of that, these two games created that genre just as Soulslike is named because of Demon's Souls inventing that.
Skyrim, what's that doing there? It wasn't innovative in any possible way and did nothing new apart from dumb down the genre. And if we can choose multiple games from a franchise, then I'd say the first Zelda game should be there for being one of the first games to popularise the open world formula.
No Deus Ex or System Shock either... honestly we need a bigger list than just 21 games.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Thoughts on Potential $80 PS5 Games?
@Nem You could always sail the high seas if you're on PC...
Re: Reaction: Switch 2 Looks Solid But the Many PS5, PS4 Ports Won't Spook Sony Yet
@ButterySmooth30FPS Nintendo fans don't beg for remasters as much as Snoybabies though and when they do ask for remasters, it's of genuinely old games from generations ago that many of us missed out on.
But who missed out on Days Gone, The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima etc? They are also backwards compatible. The Last of Us 2 remastered and Days Gone remastered don't even look any different unless you squint your eyes.
And it's 2025 and the PS5 is still lacking big exclusives. The funny truth is, the Nintendo Switch 2 will probably have more first party exclusives on its system next year than the PS5 from its whole lifetime, most of which are already on PC now.
That means PS5 is left with Dark Farts Bollywood Smell edition, a remake of Demon's Souls, two Astro Bot games, a couple of VR games, some random mobile type shovelware and future PC releases (Ghost of Yotai and Death Stranding 2). That's after 5 years...
Re: Stylish Archery the Focus of New Elden Ring Nightreign Character
Bloodborne spiritual successor just got announced exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 lol.
Re: One of the Strangest Games Ever Made Is Officially Coming to PS5, PS4
@Max_the_German I wouldn't have even known this weird game existed if not for this article and I suspect many are in the same boat as me.
So I doubt people who don't play games would think of or mention some random niche sexual Japanese game upon hearing someone say "yeah I play video games." They'd probably think of Call of Duty, Fortnite and FIFA.
And if they thought of or mention some weird sexual games in response to someone saying they play games, that says more about them or the company they keep. They're practically just outing themselves. It's like telling someone you're a big movie fan and their response is "oh, like porn?" I'd be the one looking at them weirdly and making judgement on them lol.
Re: Japan's Game Industry on Impressive Rise as Western AAA Development Struggles
@RoomWithaMoose
At the same time, Nintendo and other Japanese companies like Sega also put in LGBT characters where they are literal caricatures there to be laughed at. Take Vilia, the crossdresser character in Zelda Breath of the Wild: Link is required to talk to Vilia to acquire the outfit to disguise himself as a woman to enter Gerudo town, the whole interaction with this character plays out as a joke at their expense with Link also being able to say in dialogue "You're a man!" and the cutscene also playing it for laughs by having the wind blow Villia's face mask off after he makes a comment about being a woman, with him quickly hiding his face and Link shaking his head upon seeing this in third hand embarrassment.
If we consider the character as actually transgender, then that means Link is even able to purposely mock their identity by saying they're still a man just for player laughs.
Bolson meanwhile is portrayed as potentially gay for laughs, being a literal stereotypical flamboyant gay caricature that would be considered offensive or old fashioned if portrayed in any Western media.
SEGA has also featured such characters in the Yakuza series. Some portrayed relatively normally and without mockery like in that one sub story in Yakuza 3 but the rest are there for the butt of jokes. Yakuza 1 & 0 especially featured a few who Kiryu will happily fight against despite them identifying as transgender women. Most of these characters are played for laughs or even portrayed as sexual assaulters like the one in the The Truth about Beauty sub story in the first game.
Western developers wouldn't do any of these things. Japanese developers do because as you said, relatively few people in Japan really care enough to make it an issue.
Re: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Bites an ESRB Rating
@Ilyn This game has also been rebooted in development like three times right? That's obviously never a good sign. Meanwhile The Chinese Room has never done a game before that has any gameplay beyond walking. Of course they could suprise everyone here but they still seem like a strange developer to pick for a game with combat in it.
Haven't played the first so the least I would expect out of it is a decent narrative driven action RPG. However I don't have high hopes. I'll be surprised if it's good.
Re: A Song About PlayStation Is Topping the Charts in Japan
The only good song about Playstation is the "ONE GAME I DON'T KNOW WHY" song.
Re: Bloodborne Fans Wait with Bated Breath as Iconic PS4 Exclusive Turns 10 Today
I doubt anything will be announced for the anniversary. I hope after this, those constantly asking for a remake or remaster finally stop. Because it'll be clear nobody is listening.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows Soars Past 1 Million Players at Launch
@Uromastryx Nah, they're still crying about the game and how it's the worst thing to happen in history because of Yasuke. Crazy how one black guy in a video game has completely and utterly destroyed their minds.
I just picture them waking up and Yasuke is literally the first thing in their heads doing that Shrek smile at them, that one where he's crouched down and then looks up smiling lol.
Re: Capcom Celebrates Dragon's Dogma 2's 1st Anniversary, But There's Still No Sign of an Expansion
@Makeshift Black Myth hasn't even been out for a year yet. It makes sense that there's no expansion yet.
Re: Ubisoft Will Reportedly Fight for Assassin's Creed Shadows, Anti-Harassment Plan in Place
@ThaBEN I doubt the Japanese audience care that much. Also Ubisoft can't be blamed for any of the outrage here.
All the "controversy" isn't because of legitimate concerns like it being another boring Assassin's Creed game or having what I presume will be the usual repetitive open world Ubisoft formula. It's all about Yasuke and how one black guy has single handily driven racists mad and caused them to collectively meltdown.
And they're not upset about historical accuracy because these games were never historically accurate. They're literally lame sci fi games with their apple of eden and a prior advanced civilisation that created humanity stuff. Even the origin of the Assassins is different to their real life counterparts. The whole plot is basically scientology.
All these games have fictionalised historical people. They made people who should have been Christian or Muslim into atheists including the founder of the Assassin sect who irl was a devout Muslim. They even had a female Templar warrior in the first game, yet irl there were no female Templars.
So these games were never about being historically accurate or true to historical characters. It's a bit late for these people to claim outrage about that. Where were they in 2007? Apparently consuming all this "historically accurate" slop lol.
Re: Next Metro PS5 Game Reworked to Tell Darker Story as Series Turns 15
@mountain_spider @arsmolinarc Satire right? I've only ever heard bad things about that game. I sincerely doubt it can even hold a candle to any Metro game.
And yes Nazis are bad. In Metro you regularly fight against them. In Atomic Heart...you fight robots.
Re: Intergalactic PS5 Game All About Faith, Religion, and 'Being Lonely'
@AhmadSumadi What proofs are you looking for? If we're talking about the historicity of religions then there are proofs. We know Jesus and Muhammad were both historical people for example.
The concern I have is that this game will fall down the usual hole of promoting the opinion of "religion = bad" rather than attempting to offer a nuenced, balanced and mature take.
Re: Intergalactic PS5 Game All About Faith, Religion, and 'Being Lonely'
@KeanuReaves Bloodborne wasn't about religion though. The Healing Church, despite its name, wasn't a religious organisation. Everything they were doing along with the other groups such as the college it came from, related to scientific human experimentation and attempts to contact literal extraterrestrials to force human evolution. The game simply added religious symbolism and quasi-religious rituals to all their unethical science. As you navigate the higher positions of the Healing Church, it resembles literally a scientific lab/hospital.
Re: Intergalactic PS5 Game All About Faith, Religion, and 'Being Lonely'
@16BitHero "Faith and religion - things that historically and currently cause conflict, intolerance, persecution and suffering but also resilience, hope, community and healing."
That's every ideology in general including secular and political ideologies which incidentally are the two things causing the most conflict currently in the Western world including with the whole culture war wokes and anti wokes are a part of.
Re: Intergalactic PS5 Game All About Faith, Religion, and 'Being Lonely'
@PuppetMaster Let me guess:
Xenogears: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
Vagrant Tale: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
FFX: God is evil so we must kill him and get rid of religion.
Honestly I imagine that's what those games are about. Literal storytelling that sounds like something a 12 year old edgy atheist on Reddit would write.
If this game is going to be the same, as I expect from Western media, portraying some corrupt theocratic society or religious cult (most likely modelled on Roman Catholicism) then it's not doing anything new, interesting or unique. It'll simply be joining a long list of media that have all told this same old story.
Re: Tencent Increases Stake in FromSoftware Parent, Closing the Gap on Sony
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare That's true but I've yet to see censorship in their games.
Re: Streets of Rage 4 Dev Reveals Stunning Original Beat-'Em-Up Absolum for PS5, PS4
@Northern_munkey What? Streets of Rage 4 has a hell of a lot to keep you coming back. Multiple characters, unlockable moves, boss rush, survival mode etc etc. I much prefer Streets of Rage 4 to Sifu and it offers that traditional 2d beat em up arcade experience unlike Sifu. For me, SoR4 is the best available.
Re: Capcom's Crappy Microtransactions Are Back in Monster Hunter Wilds, Including Paid Character Edits
Crazy how there's people out there who would defend this. Crazy how it reviewed so well too. Like I said in another post, the game is a big technical mess and the Digital Foundry video confirms that, along with confirming that it also still has the textures of a PS3 game.
Re: Monster Hunter Wilds Breaks Records within Hours of Releasing
Very mixed reviews though due to the terrible optimisation and performance. I just saw the Digital Foundry video from a link on Reddit and they say the same.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Sold a Humongous Number of Copies on PS5
@Logonogo This is definitely a minority take. Also the final fight was amazing. One of my favourite boss battles in years.
Re: Xbox to Put PS5 Logos in Future Showcases, Says Phil Spencer
The thing is, @UltimateOtaku91 and @Fiendish-Beaver the things you both said are equally applicable towards the PS5.
What reason do I have to get a PS5 when I'm literally able to play the majority of its games on PC? Rise of the Ronin next month... Stellar Blade later in summer. Playstation "exclusivity" is timed before games release on PC.
It's not like Playstation is coming out with many bangers anyways. They've spent half this generation on live service flops and VR that nobody is playing. Even the Wii U still has more exclusives than the PS5, even after having most of its library ported to the Switch.
Entry to the PC market is already cheaper than a console now simply because the games are cheaper on PC when they're on sale. With PS5 Pro being £700...what do you think the next gen of consoles is going to cost? £800? £900? If you can afford that...you can save a little more for a PC or even a gaming laptop.
Consoles don't have that excuse of being cheap anymore. Games are releasing at £60 too. What are you saving?
Nintendo is literally the only real option left with actual exclusives.
Re: Some Fans Think This Smile Is Proof Avowed Is Coming to PS5
@ChrisDeku For a "GOTY" Astro Bot sold very poorly. Same sales as Dragon Age Veilguard.
Truth is, PS5 right now doesn't have many exclusives most people want and the few ones people do want...end up on PC.
Second truth, Nintendo Switch 2 will likely release with more exclusives in year 1 than PS5's entire lifespan...
Ignoring VR games and shovelware...PS5 now only has Astro Bot, Astro Playroom, Dark Farts: Bollywood Smell Edition (yes a real PS5 exclusive), Demon's Souls Remake and Finger Fitness...a mobile port...as the remaining PS5 only console exclusives.
Re: Street Fighter 6's Crummy PS5, PS4 Battle Passes to Get Better in the Future
Removed
Re: PlatinumGames Seemingly Spills More Top Bayonetta, Astral Chain Talent
@Porco Ninja Gaiden 4 looks fine. The only thing that looks bad about it is the edgy anime design of the new protagonist.
Besides, Team Ninja is involved so the game is in good hands. It is ultimately their franchise after all.
Re: Abby's Muscles Less Relevant to HBO's The Last of Us Adaption
I've not played The Last of Us Part 2 but I loved all the memes. Abby was made out to be the literal embodiment of Gigachad lmao.
So it's a case now of the Virgin HBO Abby Vs the Chad game Abby.
Abby from the game goes to the gym, lifts weights everyday, is a great player at golf, regularly strikes bodybuilder poses and uses those poses as taunts during fights and simply doesn't care about realistic priorities during an apocalypse. She's going to get those gains one way or another!
Re: Rise of the Ronin PC Port Announced for March 2025
As predicted, as Nioh 1 + 2 came to PC as well.
PS5 is really just another Xbox now since its games all come to PC too and released as the definitive version on PC.
Re: Ubisoft Follows Up with Hype-Inducing Assassin's Creed Shadows PS5 Story Trailer
@wiiware The controversy started because some people were upset about one of the protagonists being black. That's it.
"It's historical" doesn't cut it about Assassin's Creed. It's like Nioh but sci fi. Instead of fighting Yokai, the plot is about aliens. Meanwhile Altair would have been executed in real life, day one for being an atheist and an apostate of Islam by the Assassins as they were devout Shia Muslims. Ezio would have been burnt at the stake for being bisexual, also for being blasphemous. The Templars meanwhile were a devout Christian group, not atheists.
The series has always been historical fiction and bad.
Re: Ninja Gaiden 4 Announced, Slashes to PS5 This Year with PlatinumGames Co-Developing
Finally! Glad to have Ninja Gaiden back.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard, FC 25 Underperform, Force EA to Lower Financial Forecast
@Rich33 They said it performed below expectations. It hasn't done ok.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard, FC 25 Underperform, Force EA to Lower Financial Forecast
@Zeldorf Dragon's Dogma 2 sold only 1 million more copies than Veilguard, so a bad example to use. For a more successful single player Capcom game... choose any Resident Evil.
Re: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Unloads PS5, PS4 Combat Overview Trailer
@tameshiyaku I agree with you. I've lost interest in the Yakuza series. Asides from the emphasis on heavy fanservice, decline in good stories (imo) and hyper focus on silliness, I'm just burnt out with all the reused assets from the animations to attacks.
And definitely the over the top silliness is especially something I'm not a fan of. Some people say "but Yakuza was always this silly" but they're wrong or being disingenuous. I'm half convinced some of those people haven't played the earlier titles too and have only seen "Yakuza silly moments" and think that stuff was what the earlier games only consisted of. Yeah, it had silly moments and there were a few silly optional attacks in combat based around some heat moves that were practically like superpowers but that stuff wasn't there all the time nor was every heat action unrealistic. Kiryu wasn't using Dragon Ball Z powers with literally every regular attack, flying and attacking enemies in the air like Ninja Gaiden and then summoning King Kong to fight alongside him like we're seeing here. I think the earlier titles had the perfect balance between some realism and occasional silliness. For me, that made the silly moments more memorable.
Project Century however looks great and it looks like that'll be completely different from Yakuza in that every asset for that game will be new. It also looks like it'll be more focused on being a lot more serious, realistic and gritty, so I guess people like us can still get the more grounded game we're looking for after all.
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5 Open World Game of 2024
Dragon's Dogma 2 was one of the biggest disappointments of the year. That's my award for it.
Crimson Desert next year looks set to be what Dragon's Dogma 2 should have been.