If it gets too bad you can bunk up with us over here across the pond. The good news is, you can say / write virtually anything you want. The bad news? We dont really have our affairs sorted out either. Like two dysfunctional cousins sharing a flat, could be fun?
It's meant as good natured ribbing, I promise. Plus, I heard the country in question hasn't quite figured out the whole separation of church and state thing just yet, so I thought it was fair game. But I might just be a dumb American (I totally am).
I like this idea for a series. Pursuing trophies as a hobby is both pretty dumb and pretty fun. Its a paradox. I used to rationalize it as I wanted to see everything in a game the developer created, but I later realized that's just a funny way of saying I have neurotic tendencies. 215 platinums and counting.
Rocket League for a first platinum is tough. My first was Midnight Club: Los Angeles which took some serious grinding. My proudest is Wipeout HD (Beat Zico).
I like trophy hunting quite a bit, I do feel it genuinely enhances a game to have this underlying metagame progression to push you to play the hard mode or go for that speed run. Just to experience the game a different way, push you out of your comfort zone, etc.
It's even broadened my horizons to play games I never would've before. Trophies turned me into a fan of racing games - I was into basically just RPGs and horror before PS3, but I "discovered" this genre pursuing trophies and realized I liked it better than my old mainstays. I never thought I could play hard modes and always went for easy. Now, hard and extreme modes aren't that intimidating at all and brought me into tougher games like Demon's Souls. I certainly would've dodged these games thinking they were too tough if not for trophies, which would've been a shame.
Now we just need Sony to properly implement a trophy leaderboard.
Final Fantasy X was rightfully panned at the time for being pretty linear and eliminating the overworld map. I think it was overblown at the time (2000), but I'll never see this game as the pinnacle of the series for those reasons.
Good? Yes. The best? Not even close (for me).
I can imagine a scenario where a person who played X first likes it the best. A lot of the time these discussions come down to where / when you jumped in. Played VII first? Then that's your favorite.
FF VI was my first and favorite, and pretty much the baseline for what a FF should be in my eyes. Through that lens, X is pretty much a bastardization (read: different) of the series as a whole.
Having owned all playstation platforms up to this point, and trying to be fair about all this:
If PS2 is the benchmark at a 10 / 10, then PS5 lands at a 7.5 for me personally. Very good but just short of great. That would have been a 9 if the PS5 kept its phenomenal launch and early release schedule up, but they tripped around the third year - it feels like a console that has never gotten to flex it's muscles.
Mileage may differ because for me it's all about the games and 1.) I care virtually not at all about things like UI and other stuff like that, and 2.) What games are "good" is so subjective, and 3.) I can't in good conscience include the PS4 backwards compatibility though it is appreciated and makes the console better as a package.
I still don't think we've had anything on the level of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart or the Demon Souls remake graphically or technically, and those were launch games. Its been a late bloomer. Death Stranding 2 might be a recent exception that proves the rule.
Now third party has been absolutely killing it but I left that out this. Just referring to first / second party output - and that's been middling compared to, say, PS1 or PS2. If we were including third party, this has been the best generation I've ever experienced (hail Capcom).
Semi open world and highly, highly similar in the action genre, pedantry aside. More similar than, say, a flight sim.
And yeah, I didn't play Zero Dawn or Forbidden West at release. After I played the others. So you can understand the genre fatigue. I should have specified. They all landed in roughly the same time frame when you look at Sony's output over it's entire history, and you can definitely see a pattern - regardless of which technically released before the other.
Never really cared for Horizon as a series. Not because it's bad or anything on its own merits, but because the open world third person action genre had become so saturated by the time Guerilla came onto the scene.
InFamous, Days Gone, God of War 2018 / Ragnarok, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman. Very different games sure, but all in (roughly) the same narrow genre. Horizon was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me, one too many games in the same style. It doesn't help that open world games don't really respect your time and good games release weekly these days.
There's dozens upon dozens of genres. Car combat, flight simulator, sim, fighting, beat-em-ups, on and on. Try some different genres Sony. Never understood why they are "locked in" to this one type of game the last two gens.
Already played through on every difficulty, got the platinum. Hard combat setting is a decent challenge. Not fussed about adding difficulty modes for people who want to enjoy the game.
Overall, I really liked this game and the unique angle / story it was telling, but I see why some were put off by the (very minimal) actual story connections to the wider SH mythos and the huge emphasis on action in the latter third of the game. It felt like I was playing Dark Souls at certain points... and that's okay for a one off experimental title. I wouldn't prefer it to be the norm going forward, but I'm fairly certain it won't be in any case.
Also, I like that the actual story is completely hidden, requiring two to three playthroughs to unravel, but I can also see how this would be an absolute deal breaker for some. The main plot conceit of the entire game is only really revealed as the second playthrough begins, and evolves from there. I think it was a bold decision and I've actually never seen the story structure hidden across multiple playthroughs of a game before like this (never played Nier Automata, though I know it does something similar).
The AI input reading is a well known aspect of MKII for better or worse. There are easy combos / strats you can basically repeat ad nauseum to defeat the CPU on any difficulty though. Jump - sweep - uppercut.
Not sure if it's a bug or a feature, I'm just saying there's methods around it. Honestly I thought the curb appeal of this compilation was the player vs player multiplayer modes, not the CPU ladder modes.
I don't trust any dev to properly rebalance the AI, so just leave it as it is in its original glory, warts and all. And if someone understandably doesn't help with MKII for whatever reason, there's like 10 other games in the compilation to try out.
I've read a good deal of your commentary here. It's a quite substantial amount so I didn't get to it all...
I'd break it down like this:
Basically the Sony exclusives don't bring down the house in terms of sales, at least not in a way that would sustain their business by itself. The exclusives were never about creating profit directly, I always saw them more as a marketing vehicle to attract people to their ecosystem, after which they get the real money from a 30% cut of Fortnite micro transactions. It's been that way for a long time. Which has worked really, really, really well for them.
We get the big money isn't in the next God of War game, but the question is how does a company get a player to play Fortnite on their system? Sony seems to have cracked the code on that - by offering critically acclaimed games you can't play anywhere else, you bring in the players and make the money off live service after locking people into their walled garden.
So fast forward a bit, Sony is really entrenched in terms of their market share now. I don't see how Xbox offering a probably pricey premium PC hybrid console is gonna tempt any third parties away from Sony, especially when Xbox exclusives aren't in the conversation anymore.
What do they have left to win market share? GamePass has stagnated and I'm guessing the numbers took a bit of a dive recently. Their current console isn't selling like hotcakes. Nothing they are doing is setting the world on fire.
I think handing Sony 30% of their revenue on each game, basically going the publisher route is their only play left now. To borrow a console war-ism, they well and truly "lost," and subscription models and the cloud aren't coming to the rescue like they hoped.
It's over. They tried, they failed. I always hated the concept of GamePass but it was a brave and disruptive strategy, I'll give them that. Couldn't generate the market share they needed and have no path forward to do that now. That's business / life. Just grateful for the original Xbox and 360 for providing such great memories.
I wish Sony would take this much interest in all the rampant IP theft going on in the shovelware releases on its own platform. But, Sony doesn't own those.
I mean LaBuBu Battle Royale, seriously? What is the quality control process to submit a game onto PSN?
Really digging this soundtrack so far, especially the opening theme. Very Silent Hill-esque but in it's own distinct way to reflect the 1960s Japan setting.
Probably wouldn't go for a physical soundtrack but will be adding some of the tracks to my creepy Halloween playlist, to join the underappreciated Downpour Daniel Licht tracks.
No Code made the awesome indie horror game Stories Untold. That combined with the Townfall trailer (which essentially is just a dude talking, but I found super intriguing) had me more hyped for this project than any other SH thing they announced.
No Code seems like a perfect dev that "gets" what Silent Hill is about and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do.
Just looked and I've purchased 312 games physically since January 1st and maybe another 30 cheap ones digitally, but that's mostly retro PS1 and PSP so that's probably not part of the conversation.
I think I'm probably skewing the averages and probably need to analyze my gaming budget. Thing is I work 60+ hours a week so time is the real currency. I've been able to 100% or platinum only about 30 games this year (I try to play all games to completion), so the math ain't mathing it seems.
I was under the impression an attach rate of 3-4 is actually pretty much the historical standard for consoles, but PS4 upped that significantly to 7-8 per player?
Yeah my bad, I was wrong about that. Thanks for educating me. Sony and Nintendo don't directly compete is the main thrust of what I was saying. Who "wins" is a nebulous concept and depends on what you are looking for. I'm looking for higher fidelity, with first and third party (complete on disc) physical releases.
I get it, but I think the thing is... nobody trusts what Microsoft executives say anymore. They've not followed through on a lot of different stuff and proclamations they've made (changing plans and all that). The article you are referencing by Jez calls them "schizophrenic," and I think that's a solid way to describe them.
Other side of it is, if Microsoft was theoretically planning on exiting hardware, they certainly wouldn't publicly own up to it under any circumstances - it would hurt sales of their current consoles and services if they were openly admitting they were throwing in the towel.
Basically, I don't believe their denials hold much water. I'm looking at their actions, not what MSoft execs (or insiders for that matter) say.
I see what you are saying. Re-reading both, I can see the message is different, my bad on that.
Here's my personal take though: Everyone has been so quick to proclaim Xbox dead. It's happened pretty frequently since 2013 and it's still here. I've been around since the first Xbox (a great system), and haven't been impressed by anything MSoft has put out since. But I've never bought into the doom-saying... until this GP price increase. I don't buy into knee jerk reactions but what Xbox is doing right now is a play by play cashing their chips in move.
We've seen other tech companies transition to removing a focus on growth to moving to a strategy of trying to extract as many dollars from whoever's left when things got bad. And it has never, ever worked. It's always a Hail Mary pass. I'll say, after all this unnecessary (and possibly unfair) doom saying over the years, I truly think this is it for Xbox hardware as we knew it.
The other sources aren't really refuting this source, just using different wording. Pick between "Up in the air" with "Plans remain unchanged... At least for now".
Both kinda conveying the same thing, that being an element of doubt in the future of Xbox proprietary hardware. It's a maybe right now, not a for sure thing as many people are commentating.
That said, I don't think you can trust Xbox executives' (or insiders') statements any further than you can throw them. So don't look at what they say, look at what they are doing and make your own inferences. They jacked up hardware prices enormously. They jacked up GP prices enormously. They did this while in a distant third place. They are entering a new, very different phase of their Xbox business - that's for sure. Make your own conclusions.
Oh yeah, but I wanna say if you go for those second tier GPU upgrades every 5 or so years (not the bleeding edge stuff), you are still beating the average costs. I'd have to workshop that to say it definitively, but yeah I think that tracks.
Still, PC isn't for me as the main gaming event as a collector. I have been so ambivalent about this whole GamePass / PS+ / Nintendo Switch Online phenomenon because I can't stand not owning and controlling what I buy. Everyone argues about GamePass constantly, and I'm over here buying 30-year old PS games. The gaming industry as a whole is done with me haha. PS5 still offers the option though, and that's worth it's weight in gold for weird people like me.
I'll just be over here playing Crash Bandicoot on original hardware while people go gaga about Call of Duty 18: Electric Boogaloo.
PC is one of those situations where you spend more up front, but save money in the long run. Big up front investment for lifetime savings.
Also, as always, PC requires a little more knowledge and troubleshooting. It's gotten better but it's not plug and play like console.
Lastly (and this is the reason I don't have PC as my primary go-to): no physical games. Long time PC players probably laugh at the notion, it's been so long since they had anything physical, but honestly it's why I stick with PS. They are the only company offering this at the moment. And who can say for how long, but that's their competitive edge for me.
I agree though, if physical games don't matter, PC is 100% the way to go.
I'll really miss those Xbox fans telling us what a great value GamePass rentals were and how stupid we were for actually buying games. I'll miss people telling us Phil gets games because he wore gaming T's. I'll miss them cheering on a mega corporation's consolidation of the video game market.
Microsoft just pulling the plugs at this point. Goodbye Xbox, hello Microsoft Gaming.
Speedrunning the destruction of their brand they spent over 20 years building... I remember the Halo LAN parties back on the original Xbox. It was an iconic system. It kinda sucks to watch this happen in real time.
I think they are full send on exiting the hardware business and are grabbing as much profit as they can on the way down, damage to the brand be damned.
We just got Ghost of Yotei this month, chill. Enjoy your game key card $80 Mario Kart fellow gamer.
Nintendo's famous for three things: regurgitating the same franchises over and over and over again, an especially rabid fan base, and suing people. That's their competitive edge. I don't think Nintendo registers on Sony's radar anymore.
I think Pachter realized a long time ago being right in his predictions was not a prerequisite of his employment as a 'video game industry analyst'. (I'll go to my grave disputing this is in fact an actual job).
So WotL had other issues besides the performance. They messed with the drops and changed some of the items around (can't steal Genji Gear from Elmdore - changed it to be locked behind the PSP's lackluster ad hoc multiplayer mode). They've brought it back to its original form with this and I'm cool with that.
This the same Famitsu that gave Nintendogs a 40/40? Yeah, this reviewer is tabloid trash as far as I'm concerned. I think PushSquare has published an article or two on their questionable reviews, particularly towards Japanese games.
That said, I hope Silent Hill f is as good as they say and I like what I've seen gameplay-wise. I'm gonna be waiting on some trusted reviewers though. I'm sorry but in this climate I hardly trust any publications, let alone Famitsu of all things.
Also 13-14 hours for a survival horror game is on the long side as far as genre contemporaries like RE and Silent Hill go.
Makes sense in a way, since that was when the global gaming population increased super quickly (don't quote me on this haha), after stagnating in the latter years of the PS4 and into the PS5 era. Massive, but not growing at the rate it used to I mean. So these games would be the sales powerhouses.
I like a lot here don't hitch my wagon to these types of games but I do see the appeal to the mainstream.
Love the PS5 for what it is, and I've accepted what it isn't going to be at this late hour in the console's life cycle. It's not a bad system.
That said, Sony have failed in selling me on why I would possibly consider a PS6 at launch. The extended PS4 / PS5 cross-gen period cost them my day one purchase and some of my confidence in their product. I'll be breaking my day one adoption streak unless they release something immediately phenomenal with the next console.
I still haven't seen that release that makes me say, yes, THIS is a PS5 game. The ones which came closest were the PS5 only launch window titles, which kinda ties into my point PS4 cross-gen held things back, and badly, this gen.
I gotta disagree. MGS2 from a nuts and bolts perspective was nonsensical. The prophetic message about AI and the themes of 'meme, gene, and scene' were awesome. Raiden's story arc (the entire narrative thrust of the game) was so bad and ridiculous they retconned it by MGS4.
I'm referring to (spoiler, but not really a spoiler because it was retconned) the whole Big Shell incident being an elaborate ruse constructed by the Patriots to turn Raiden into the next Solid Snake, by basically fabricating the whole central conflict of the game. The S3 program or whatever it was called. That was so dumb even me as a teenager couldn't handle it, and I'm all there for Kojima's weirdness normally.
Then you have a samurai sword fight with the former President of the US on the roof and well, yeah. I think they retconned the US President part of Solidus' backstory too, someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. And somehow Raiden is an ex child soldier who fought under that same ex President... in Africa? I mean, what? Maybe I missed something in my couple playthroughs haha. And oh yeah Ocelot is possessed by Liquid's arm (retconned).
The themes (AI, identity) were cool. The actual narrative, the story being told, was... straight bonkers to the point even later MGS games, being as crazy as they are, said nah to all that. MGS4 spent a decent portion of its narrative trying to un-screw all the insanity from MGS2's plot and turn it into something cohesive. Had to turn to a macguffin (nanomachines) to undo the damage created by bisexual immortal vampires and possessed arms.
I like MGS2 overall though as a whole. But let's call a spade a spade on that plot.
Yeah, I can't say I'm on the Kojima conspiracy train as far as all that goes though it is interesting. But he is the guy that did a whole fake marketing campaign for Metal Gear Solid V, so who knows. Maybe the guy intentionally sabotaged the game to get out of doing MGS finally. I've seen the Kojima interview where he says the game was meant to evoke a feeling of something missing, but I didn't take it to mean he intentionally cut out a whole act of the game, on purpose. I know things are wacky in Kojima land, but I just can't believe that wacky.
I like most of his games, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't describe any, including MGSV, as outright bad. Death Stranding is on my play list if I can ever find the time. I just think his course with MGS ran out.
And I am just intensely curious, what thematic overlap is there between PT and MGS? This is a whole other level of analytical deep dive I have never encountered. All interesting though. I guess that's a testament to his work.
What's your first favorite? MGSV is low on the list for me personally. I've never heard that the game was meant to make you feel it was incomplete - that's an interesting theory and very meta if true. Kojima certainly succeeded in making me go "That's it?" at the end haha.
I'll acknowledge what MGSV did right story wise. The interplay between language and culture angle to the story had some real meat on its bones, I just don't think Kojima actually succeeded in the story he was trying to tell. It all fell apart into loose threads by the end, although eliminating your own soldiers at Mother Base was impactful.
I think he had a really, really good idea and failed at implementing it with MGSV with the vocal cord parasites dealio. I just see the potential greatness in this game, which makes how it all turned out more disappointing.
Comments 841
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@N1ghtW1ng
If that innocuous Muslim joke offends you, just wait until you hear my Catholic jokes.
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@JustMyOpinion I admit it was a cheap shot and probably not that funny anyways. Hey, it was the best I could come up with at 2 am!
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@Jammer
If it gets too bad you can bunk up with us over here across the pond. The good news is, you can say / write virtually anything you want. The bad news? We dont really have our affairs sorted out either. Like two dysfunctional cousins sharing a flat, could be fun?
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
@JustMyOpinion
It's meant as good natured ribbing, I promise. Plus, I heard the country in question hasn't quite figured out the whole separation of church and state thing just yet, so I thought it was fair game. But I might just be a dumb American (I totally am).
Re: Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
Removed
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
@AhmadSumadi
My first platinum as well waaaay back in 2009. Kind of a tough, grindy one - props on that.
Re: Going Platinum #1: Rocket League
I like this idea for a series. Pursuing trophies as a hobby is both pretty dumb and pretty fun. Its a paradox. I used to rationalize it as I wanted to see everything in a game the developer created, but I later realized that's just a funny way of saying I have neurotic tendencies. 215 platinums and counting.
Rocket League for a first platinum is tough. My first was Midnight Club: Los Angeles which took some serious grinding. My proudest is Wipeout HD (Beat Zico).
I like trophy hunting quite a bit, I do feel it genuinely enhances a game to have this underlying metagame progression to push you to play the hard mode or go for that speed run. Just to experience the game a different way, push you out of your comfort zone, etc.
It's even broadened my horizons to play games I never would've before. Trophies turned me into a fan of racing games - I was into basically just RPGs and horror before PS3, but I "discovered" this genre pursuing trophies and realized I liked it better than my old mainstays. I never thought I could play hard modes and always went for easy. Now, hard and extreme modes aren't that intimidating at all and brought me into tougher games like Demon's Souls. I certainly would've dodged these games thinking they were too tough if not for trophies, which would've been a shame.
Now we just need Sony to properly implement a trophy leaderboard.
Re: Final Fantasy X Was the 'Ultimate Perfection' of the Series, Says Dragon Quest Creator
Final Fantasy X was rightfully panned at the time for being pretty linear and eliminating the overworld map. I think it was overblown at the time (2000), but I'll never see this game as the pinnacle of the series for those reasons.
Good? Yes. The best? Not even close (for me).
I can imagine a scenario where a person who played X first likes it the best. A lot of the time these discussions come down to where / when you jumped in. Played VII first? Then that's your favorite.
FF VI was my first and favorite, and pretty much the baseline for what a FF should be in my eyes. Through that lens, X is pretty much a bastardization (read: different) of the series as a whole.
Re: Poll: Five Years of PS5 - How Would You Rate Sony's Console?
Having owned all playstation platforms up to this point, and trying to be fair about all this:
If PS2 is the benchmark at a 10 / 10, then PS5 lands at a 7.5 for me personally. Very good but just short of great. That would have been a 9 if the PS5 kept its phenomenal launch and early release schedule up, but they tripped around the third year - it feels like a console that has never gotten to flex it's muscles.
Mileage may differ because for me it's all about the games and 1.) I care virtually not at all about things like UI and other stuff like that, and 2.) What games are "good" is so subjective, and 3.) I can't in good conscience include the PS4 backwards compatibility though it is appreciated and makes the console better as a package.
I still don't think we've had anything on the level of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart or the Demon Souls remake graphically or technically, and those were launch games. Its been a late bloomer. Death Stranding 2 might be a recent exception that proves the rule.
Now third party has been absolutely killing it but I left that out this. Just referring to first / second party output - and that's been middling compared to, say, PS1 or PS2. If we were including third party, this has been the best generation I've ever experienced (hail Capcom).
Re: 'I'm So Happy': Japanese Players Rejoice Over Finally Buying Cut-Price PS5
Good they are trying something to claw part of the Japanese market back.
Abandoning Japan will be one of the many aspects of Jim Ryan's tenure for which he will be remembered as the worst CEO in Playstation's history.
Re: Expedition 33, Ghost of Yotei Have Started Scooping Up GOTY Awards
I haven't played alllllll the nominated games but would like to see Cronos and Silent Hill f get some love. Great year for horror.
Re: The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans
@SeaDaVie
Semi open world and highly, highly similar in the action genre, pedantry aside. More similar than, say, a flight sim.
And yeah, I didn't play Zero Dawn or Forbidden West at release. After I played the others. So you can understand the genre fatigue. I should have specified. They all landed in roughly the same time frame when you look at Sony's output over it's entire history, and you can definitely see a pattern - regardless of which technically released before the other.
Re: The Next Horizon Game Is an MMO for Mobile and PC, Prompting Fury from PS5 Fans
Never really cared for Horizon as a series. Not because it's bad or anything on its own merits, but because the open world third person action genre had become so saturated by the time Guerilla came onto the scene.
InFamous, Days Gone, God of War 2018 / Ragnarok, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman. Very different games sure, but all in (roughly) the same narrow genre. Horizon was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me, one too many games in the same style. It doesn't help that open world games don't really respect your time and good games release weekly these days.
There's dozens upon dozens of genres. Car combat, flight simulator, sim, fighting, beat-em-ups, on and on. Try some different genres Sony. Never understood why they are "locked in" to this one type of game the last two gens.
Re: Silent Hill F Made Easier in Difficulty Overhaul, Adds Casual Mode
@Propaperpusher
Ah yes, Silent Jill 2. The fan made mod where you play through Silent Hill as RE's own Jill Valentine. Love that game.
Re: Silent Hill F Made Easier in Difficulty Overhaul, Adds Casual Mode
Already played through on every difficulty, got the platinum. Hard combat setting is a decent challenge. Not fussed about adding difficulty modes for people who want to enjoy the game.
Overall, I really liked this game and the unique angle / story it was telling, but I see why some were put off by the (very minimal) actual story connections to the wider SH mythos and the huge emphasis on action in the latter third of the game. It felt like I was playing Dark Souls at certain points... and that's okay for a one off experimental title. I wouldn't prefer it to be the norm going forward, but I'm fairly certain it won't be in any case.
Also, I like that the actual story is completely hidden, requiring two to three playthroughs to unravel, but I can also see how this would be an absolute deal breaker for some. The main plot conceit of the entire game is only really revealed as the second playthrough begins, and evolves from there. I think it was a bold decision and I've actually never seen the story structure hidden across multiple playthroughs of a game before like this (never played Nier Automata, though I know it does something similar).
Tldr: Love this weird game.
Re: Sony's Allowing Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection Refunds Because the PS5, PS4 Compilation Is a 'Downright Nightmare' for Some
The AI input reading is a well known aspect of MKII for better or worse. There are easy combos / strats you can basically repeat ad nauseum to defeat the CPU on any difficulty though. Jump - sweep - uppercut.
Not sure if it's a bug or a feature, I'm just saying there's methods around it. Honestly I thought the curb appeal of this compilation was the player vs player multiplayer modes, not the CPU ladder modes.
I don't trust any dev to properly rebalance the AI, so just leave it as it is in its original glory, warts and all. And if someone understandably doesn't help with MKII for whatever reason, there's like 10 other games in the compilation to try out.
Re: 'Our Biggest Competition Isn't Another Console': Xbox Doubles Down on Multiformat After Halo PS5 Shock
@Striker21
I've read a good deal of your commentary here. It's a quite substantial amount so I didn't get to it all...
I'd break it down like this:
Basically the Sony exclusives don't bring down the house in terms of sales, at least not in a way that would sustain their business by itself. The exclusives were never about creating profit directly, I always saw them more as a marketing vehicle to attract people to their ecosystem, after which they get the real money from a 30% cut of Fortnite micro transactions. It's been that way for a long time. Which has worked really, really, really well for them.
We get the big money isn't in the next God of War game, but the question is how does a company get a player to play Fortnite on their system? Sony seems to have cracked the code on that - by offering critically acclaimed games you can't play anywhere else, you bring in the players and make the money off live service after locking people into their walled garden.
So fast forward a bit, Sony is really entrenched in terms of their market share now. I don't see how Xbox offering a probably pricey premium PC hybrid console is gonna tempt any third parties away from Sony, especially when Xbox exclusives aren't in the conversation anymore.
What do they have left to win market share? GamePass has stagnated and I'm guessing the numbers took a bit of a dive recently. Their current console isn't selling like hotcakes. Nothing they are doing is setting the world on fire.
I think handing Sony 30% of their revenue on each game, basically going the publisher route is their only play left now. To borrow a console war-ism, they well and truly "lost," and subscription models and the cloud aren't coming to the rescue like they hoped.
It's over. They tried, they failed. I always hated the concept of GamePass but it was a brave and disruptive strategy, I'll give them that. Couldn't generate the market share they needed and have no path forward to do that now. That's business / life. Just grateful for the original Xbox and 360 for providing such great memories.
Re: Sony Strikes Back at Tencent's Horizon Rip-Off, Says Light of Motiram 'Jeopardises' Future Success
I wish Sony would take this much interest in all the rampant IP theft going on in the shovelware releases on its own platform. But, Sony doesn't own those.
I mean LaBuBu Battle Royale, seriously? What is the quality control process to submit a game onto PSN?
Re: Silent Hill F's Physical Soundtrack Release Cancelled Due to 'Various Circumstances'
Really digging this soundtrack so far, especially the opening theme. Very Silent Hill-esque but in it's own distinct way to reflect the 1960s Japan setting.
Probably wouldn't go for a physical soundtrack but will be adding some of the tracks to my creepy Halloween playlist, to join the underappreciated Downpour Daniel Licht tracks.
Re: 8+ New PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Confirmed for October 2025 on PS5, PS4
Silent Hill 2 Remake, for my money, is this best thing ever created in the video game medium.
Play it on Hard is my only recommendation (it's really a bit too easy on Normal).
Plus, spooky season. Enjoy.
Re: Want More Silent Hill on PS5? You May Not Have to Wait Long
No Code made the awesome indie horror game Stories Untold. That combined with the Townfall trailer (which essentially is just a dude talking, but I found super intriguing) had me more hyped for this project than any other SH thing they announced.
No Code seems like a perfect dev that "gets" what Silent Hill is about and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do.
Re: People Don't Buy Anywhere Near As Many Games As You Think
Just looked and I've purchased 312 games physically since January 1st and maybe another 30 cheap ones digitally, but that's mostly retro PS1 and PSP so that's probably not part of the conversation.
I think I'm probably skewing the averages and probably need to analyze my gaming budget. Thing is I work 60+ hours a week so time is the real currency. I've been able to 100% or platinum only about 30 games this year (I try to play all games to completion), so the math ain't mathing it seems.
I was under the impression an attach rate of 3-4 is actually pretty much the historical standard for consoles, but PS4 upped that significantly to 7-8 per player?
Re: Oblivion Remastered's Anticipated Physical PS5 Release Will Require the Internet
@DaveJaVu
Yeah my bad, I was wrong about that. Thanks for educating me. Sony and Nintendo don't directly compete is the main thrust of what I was saying. Who "wins" is a nebulous concept and depends on what you are looking for. I'm looking for higher fidelity, with first and third party (complete on disc) physical releases.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@ILuvGames
I get it, but I think the thing is... nobody trusts what Microsoft executives say anymore. They've not followed through on a lot of different stuff and proclamations they've made (changing plans and all that). The article you are referencing by Jez calls them "schizophrenic," and I think that's a solid way to describe them.
Other side of it is, if Microsoft was theoretically planning on exiting hardware, they certainly wouldn't publicly own up to it under any circumstances - it would hurt sales of their current consoles and services if they were openly admitting they were throwing in the towel.
Basically, I don't believe their denials hold much water. I'm looking at their actions, not what MSoft execs (or insiders for that matter) say.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@Dman10
I see what you are saying. Re-reading both, I can see the message is different, my bad on that.
Here's my personal take though: Everyone has been so quick to proclaim Xbox dead. It's happened pretty frequently since 2013 and it's still here. I've been around since the first Xbox (a great system), and haven't been impressed by anything MSoft has put out since. But I've never bought into the doom-saying... until this GP price increase. I don't buy into knee jerk reactions but what Xbox is doing right now is a play by play cashing their chips in move.
We've seen other tech companies transition to removing a focus on growth to moving to a strategy of trying to extract as many dollars from whoever's left when things got bad. And it has never, ever worked. It's always a Hail Mary pass. I'll say, after all this unnecessary (and possibly unfair) doom saying over the years, I truly think this is it for Xbox hardware as we knew it.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@awp69
The other sources aren't really refuting this source, just using different wording. Pick between "Up in the air" with "Plans remain unchanged... At least for now".
Both kinda conveying the same thing, that being an element of doubt in the future of Xbox proprietary hardware. It's a maybe right now, not a for sure thing as many people are commentating.
That said, I don't think you can trust Xbox executives' (or insiders') statements any further than you can throw them. So don't look at what they say, look at what they are doing and make your own inferences. They jacked up hardware prices enormously. They jacked up GP prices enormously. They did this while in a distant third place. They are entering a new, very different phase of their Xbox business - that's for sure. Make your own conclusions.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@graymamba
Oh yeah, but I wanna say if you go for those second tier GPU upgrades every 5 or so years (not the bleeding edge stuff), you are still beating the average costs. I'd have to workshop that to say it definitively, but yeah I think that tracks.
Still, PC isn't for me as the main gaming event as a collector. I have been so ambivalent about this whole GamePass / PS+ / Nintendo Switch Online phenomenon because I can't stand not owning and controlling what I buy. Everyone argues about GamePass constantly, and I'm over here buying 30-year old PS games. The gaming industry as a whole is done with me haha. PS5 still offers the option though, and that's worth it's weight in gold for weird people like me.
I'll just be over here playing Crash Bandicoot on original hardware while people go gaga about Call of Duty 18: Electric Boogaloo.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@BAMozzy
PC is one of those situations where you spend more up front, but save money in the long run. Big up front investment for lifetime savings.
Also, as always, PC requires a little more knowledge and troubleshooting. It's gotten better but it's not plug and play like console.
Lastly (and this is the reason I don't have PC as my primary go-to): no physical games. Long time PC players probably laugh at the notion, it's been so long since they had anything physical, but honestly it's why I stick with PS. They are the only company offering this at the moment. And who can say for how long, but that's their competitive edge for me.
I agree though, if physical games don't matter, PC is 100% the way to go.
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
@EfYI
I'll really miss those Xbox fans telling us what a great value GamePass rentals were and how stupid we were for actually buying games. I'll miss people telling us Phil gets games because he wore gaming T's. I'll miss them cheering on a mega corporation's consolidation of the video game market.
Godspeed to whatever their next endeavor is. 🫡
Re: PS6 May Go Uncontested as Rumours of Next-Gen Xbox Cancellation Spiral
Microsoft just pulling the plugs at this point. Goodbye Xbox, hello Microsoft Gaming.
Speedrunning the destruction of their brand they spent over 20 years building... I remember the Halo LAN parties back on the original Xbox. It was an iconic system. It kinda sucks to watch this happen in real time.
I think they are full send on exiting the hardware business and are grabbing as much profit as they can on the way down, damage to the brand be damned.
Re: Oblivion Remastered's Anticipated Physical PS5 Release Will Require the Internet
@bluemage1989
We just got Ghost of Yotei this month, chill. Enjoy your game key card $80 Mario Kart fellow gamer.
Nintendo's famous for three things: regurgitating the same franchises over and over and over again, an especially rabid fan base, and suing people. That's their competitive edge. I don't think Nintendo registers on Sony's radar anymore.
Re: Silent Hill 1 Remake Now a Big Focus at Bloober Team, Could Make Cronos 2
Silent Hill 1 is my personal favorite of the series (I know, weird), so I'm psyched for this.
Re: Sony Is a 'Terrible Company' That's 'Blowing It in the Games Business', Says Michael Pachter
I think Pachter realized a long time ago being right in his predictions was not a prerequisite of his employment as a 'video game industry analyst'. (I'll go to my grave disputing this is in fact an actual job).
Re: Sony Is a 'Terrible Company' That's 'Blowing It in the Games Business', Says Michael Pachter
That lint licking dingle sniffer...
I shake my fist at you Michael ✊. Have at you, charlatan!
Re: Mega Publisher EA Agrees to $55 Billion Buyout by Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake, Affinity Partners
The culmination of a cartoonishly evil company's awful legacy.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (PS5) - Still the Benchmark for Turn-Based Tactics
My absolute favorite FF game and I've played just about all of them. This game is genuinely iconic.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (PS5) - Still the Benchmark for Turn-Based Tactics
@PuppetMaster
So WotL had other issues besides the performance. They messed with the drops and changed some of the items around (can't steal Genji Gear from Elmdore - changed it to be locked behind the PSP's lackluster ad hoc multiplayer mode). They've brought it back to its original form with this and I'm cool with that.
Re: Metal Gear Solid Delta's Delayed Fox Hunt Multiplayer Mode Arrives Next Month
@Oram77
MGO in MGS4 was a lot of fun and very, very broken.
Re: The First Silent Hill F Review Score Is Now Live
This the same Famitsu that gave Nintendogs a 40/40? Yeah, this reviewer is tabloid trash as far as I'm concerned. I think PushSquare has published an article or two on their questionable reviews, particularly towards Japanese games.
That said, I hope Silent Hill f is as good as they say and I like what I've seen gameplay-wise. I'm gonna be waiting on some trusted reviewers though. I'm sorry but in this climate I hardly trust any publications, let alone Famitsu of all things.
Also 13-14 hours for a survival horror game is on the long side as far as genre contemporaries like RE and Silent Hill go.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Adds 'Cheats' on Switch 2, Xbox, But No Mention of PS5
Adding the "I Want to Play Daddy / Video Game Reviewer' difficulty mode for the Xbox players.
Re: 60+ PS5, PS4 Games to Buy in PS Store's Autumn Adventures Sale
Been playing The Midnight Walk. Man, the atmosphere, I'm really loving it and it is my favorite PSVR2 game so far.
Re: Poll: Did You Buy a PS1 at Launch?
It would be the GOAT, if not for a little thing called the PS2.
Re: USA's Top 20 PlayStation Games of All Time May Surprise You
@kuu_nousee
Makes sense in a way, since that was when the global gaming population increased super quickly (don't quote me on this haha), after stagnating in the latter years of the PS4 and into the PS5 era. Massive, but not growing at the rate it used to I mean. So these games would be the sales powerhouses.
I like a lot here don't hitch my wagon to these types of games but I do see the appeal to the mainstream.
Re: USA's Top 20 PlayStation Games of All Time May Surprise You
That list is a Dude Bro Shooter paradise.
Re: Rumour: PS6 Will Have a Detachable Disc Drive, Much Simpler Design
Love the PS5 for what it is, and I've accepted what it isn't going to be at this late hour in the console's life cycle. It's not a bad system.
That said, Sony have failed in selling me on why I would possibly consider a PS6 at launch. The extended PS4 / PS5 cross-gen period cost them my day one purchase and some of my confidence in their product. I'll be breaking my day one adoption streak unless they release something immediately phenomenal with the next console.
I still haven't seen that release that makes me say, yes, THIS is a PS5 game. The ones which came closest were the PS5 only launch window titles, which kinda ties into my point PS4 cross-gen held things back, and badly, this gen.
Re: Metal Gear Solid Delta Sneaks Past the One Million Sales Milestone in First 24 Hours
MGS1 Remake, here I come baby! Let's have Hayter actually re-record his lines this time. Kojima who?
Re: Poll: What Are Your Thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 5, 10 Years Later?
@PuppetMaster
I gotta disagree. MGS2 from a nuts and bolts perspective was nonsensical. The prophetic message about AI and the themes of 'meme, gene, and scene' were awesome. Raiden's story arc (the entire narrative thrust of the game) was so bad and ridiculous they retconned it by MGS4.
I'm referring to (spoiler, but not really a spoiler because it was retconned) the whole Big Shell incident being an elaborate ruse constructed by the Patriots to turn Raiden into the next Solid Snake, by basically fabricating the whole central conflict of the game. The S3 program or whatever it was called. That was so dumb even me as a teenager couldn't handle it, and I'm all there for Kojima's weirdness normally.
Then you have a samurai sword fight with the former President of the US on the roof and well, yeah. I think they retconned the US President part of Solidus' backstory too, someone correct me if I'm wrong on that. And somehow Raiden is an ex child soldier who fought under that same ex President... in Africa? I mean, what? Maybe I missed something in my couple playthroughs haha. And oh yeah Ocelot is possessed by Liquid's arm (retconned).
The themes (AI, identity) were cool. The actual narrative, the story being told, was... straight bonkers to the point even later MGS games, being as crazy as they are, said nah to all that. MGS4 spent a decent portion of its narrative trying to un-screw all the insanity from MGS2's plot and turn it into something cohesive. Had to turn to a macguffin (nanomachines) to undo the damage created by bisexual immortal vampires and possessed arms.
I like MGS2 overall though as a whole. But let's call a spade a spade on that plot.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 5, 10 Years Later?
@somnambulance
Yeah, I can't say I'm on the Kojima conspiracy train as far as all that goes though it is interesting. But he is the guy that did a whole fake marketing campaign for Metal Gear Solid V, so who knows. Maybe the guy intentionally sabotaged the game to get out of doing MGS finally. I've seen the Kojima interview where he says the game was meant to evoke a feeling of something missing, but I didn't take it to mean he intentionally cut out a whole act of the game, on purpose. I know things are wacky in Kojima land, but I just can't believe that wacky.
I like most of his games, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't describe any, including MGSV, as outright bad. Death Stranding is on my play list if I can ever find the time. I just think his course with MGS ran out.
And I am just intensely curious, what thematic overlap is there between PT and MGS? This is a whole other level of analytical deep dive I have never encountered. All interesting though. I guess that's a testament to his work.
Re: Cronos: The New Dawn (PS5) - Captivating, Twisted, and Wickedly Entertaining
Bloober does it again. What a great studio. Nobody does horror like Polish people.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 5, 10 Years Later?
@somnambulance
What's your first favorite? MGSV is low on the list for me personally. I've never heard that the game was meant to make you feel it was incomplete - that's an interesting theory and very meta if true. Kojima certainly succeeded in making me go "That's it?" at the end haha.
I'll acknowledge what MGSV did right story wise. The interplay between language and culture angle to the story had some real meat on its bones, I just don't think Kojima actually succeeded in the story he was trying to tell. It all fell apart into loose threads by the end, although eliminating your own soldiers at Mother Base was impactful.
I think he had a really, really good idea and failed at implementing it with MGSV with the vocal cord parasites dealio. I just see the potential greatness in this game, which makes how it all turned out more disappointing.
Phantom Pain indeed, haha.