Veritas7Ax

@RoomWithaMoose

Oh for sure, and it's that nuance that's important to bear in mind, that, like you said, this isn't the Oscars, budget differences, sponsor differences, etc. However, I do think some of the issues like the one I highlighted could be mitigated slightly by maybe trying to budget time more appropriately (sponsors, advertisers, etc. willing!) Not easy, I'm sure but yeah.

And at the end of the day, I'm half having a laugh, half pointing out what I and many others thought were bad optics. That social media post of the stage cue sign saying "Please wrap it up" toward the speakers is just burned into my brain.

The Game Awards: we love to celebrate our creators. Look at these inspiring people speaking!

Also the Game Awards: get the FU*K off the stage, you’re talking too much!

Very cool coincidence as I just finished the first game, the special edition release from LRG. As my first time playing the game ever, it was really enjoyable and surprisingly in-depth for a PS1 game.

Definitely gonna keep an eye on this.

"A character [dies] in the middle of the game [...] the character who replaces them is really a carbon copy, and they get all your stuff, and you can continue without a hitch.

Dart: LAVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITZ

Ok, but seriously, LoD is in my top-2 favorite games of all time, so call me biased, but I think it IS as good as you remember, Mark. I've probably played it like two dozen or more times over the years. Seeing it get trophies was a dream come true.

I would love a remake or surprise sequel, but I know it's wishful thinking.

@Briarback

Thanks man! You can totally get there, you sound like a pretty dedicated gamer yourself, and you remind me of my buddy in some ways, especially splitting time with PlayStation and Xbox like he does sometimes.

I also get "stuck" with some games, for good reasons, usually lol. Just enjoying them for a while, Borderlands, Destiny, etc. Just fun to enjoy games too and not always get lost in trophy hunting. But... hunting is also fun hahaha.

And lastly, I'm proud to say I have no shovelware on my profile haha. There are a handful of autopops in there, like maybe 5-6 total, but otherwise it's all legit stuff. Closest and "cheapest" game I've ever done was Inksplosion, and that at least had some nuance and small strategy to it. It wasn't just a "hit x to get 10 gold trophies" game. Was like 30+ min plat.

That sounds fantastic. Marathoning the series in 2022 was peak gaming for me. Especially when I got to the current trilogy, I was just having a blast. Love the methodical and thoughtful nature of each level, and approach.

If it is Diablo 4, I think the only thing that puzzles me is wasn't the game really badly received at launch and the months following? Maybe it's kind of leveled off since then, but doesn't seem like the game that would normally call for this kind of PR thing.

I like the format! Informative, especially since it gives me insight into a game I’ve not played. I’ve been trophy hunting for a long, long time. Unsurprisingly then, my first platinum was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on PS3.

And now years later I have just hit 500 with Ghost of Yotei.

I don't even need to weigh in on the AI aspect. I think this game lost me during its announcement when they said it was PvEvP. Ew, other people.

Glad that purchasing at least guarantees I can still play it. I bought the collection a while back and still need to finish Yakuza 0.

This is how people used to feel (and still do) about Capcom. It's basically been an inside joke/meme.

"You gonna get the new Street Fighter?"

"No, I'll just wait for the Hyper Ultra Turbo Remix Classic Rush Edition"

@AK4tywill

Dude, same. As I noted earlier, it was literally in my cart last night. My wife and I were talking gift exchange and I held off for the time being. So clutch lol.

Saved by the announcement! I literally had Lego Horizon in my cart. Was waiting, and waiting, and waiting for it to get a good digital sale and it was never budging below $40 so I was like "screw it, $20 for a disc is hard to pass up" so I almost pulled the trigger.

Also interested in Neon White, so that's cool.

"No question about it. I am ready to get hurt again." ~Michael Scott

I like the concept. Definitely will take a look at this, sounds fun!

Still need time to pore over all the deals, but I did notice the sales for Forza are not at their lowest price.

Forza Horizon standard - BF price $38.99 / All-time low $29.99
Forza Horizon Premium - BF price $64.99 / All-time low $49.99

Maybe I'm being too demanding of a BF sale, but to not even match the previous low price feels like a trap to get people to jump on a vague BF "deal" when it's not even the best deal.

Other than that, I do see a few good deals here and there that I might jump on.

If Agent 47 has to impersonate a rapper and do a rap battle, I’m unironically here for it lol.

@Oram77

Yep, just popped the Plat 4 days ago. Time to turn my Homura back around.

I say this every year because I’ve gotten burned a few times, but friendly advice is to be aware another sale will almost certainly kick off a day or two before BF ends on the PSN store. I’ve had several times where I bought a game, then the deluxe edition of that game went on sale for just $5 more a few days later. Pretty frustrating.

So please be aware of that, in case there’s a game with extra content you really want (sometimes some of that stuff is junk, but you never know). Sony seems to usually pull the sale page just before the sale ends, but the prices will still be live as the new page/sale is implemented.

I wanted to try Surviving Mars, so that's a bummer. Maybe I'll pick up the Relaunched version if it goes on sale in the future.

Looks like I got to eat a little crow on this one, I admit. I was pretty darn sure Yotei would make the nomination list. Didn't think KCD2 would make the cut over it, so I was wrong there.

That's awesome, happy for them. I am hoping to contribute soon and pick it up. Just got so many other games on my plate still.

AI is, sadly, not going anywhere, any time soon, so I think as these issues keep coming up, regulation will most likely come into play. Labor/creator issues are obviously very tightly entangled with this, and that might be the tipping point as that friction increases. It might also be some huge misinformation campaign that does it.

reads the comments

Ok wild to hear the thought that Ghost of Yotei won't get a nomination. It's unlikely to win GOTY, yes, but a nomination at the very least, I'd wager money on that. I guess anything is possible, but that would be a shock to me.

Anyway, like others, I expect E33 to get a lot of love here. Think it has a pretty strong shot for GOTY but you never know. Hope it happens but we'll see. Hope Hades 2 gets one of the lesser awards as well.

@BusyOlf

While we're at it, bring over Portal 1 also, with trophies!

The PS4 version didn't have the MP trophies, right? Hoping this will be the same.

This is definitely one I've got my eye on. Looks promising.

Ah, Pacific Drive is the "I bought this game a few months ago on a nice sale and it's in my backlog now" game of the month for me. To be fair, I had a nice streak of checks notes .... one month since the last time this happened!

Joking aside, this seems like a solid lineup of additions. Definitely will check a couple of these out like Talos.

@Odium

Appreciate the insight, it's very helpful. A friend in my discord had similar comments so I think I'm definitely gonna have to check it out for a bit and evaluate for myself. Hard to ignore the hype with this one! Thank you.

I stayed on Marvel Rivals for about a week after I platinum'd it and haven't gone back except to try out Human Torch for a bit.

Gambit might make me come back for a bit just because he's my favorite of the X-Men. Been waiting for him to get more video game rep since Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel vs Capcom 2!

I like BlazBlue (the plot skews a bit toward Kojima-level convoluted) but I suck at fighters, so I'm actually kinda intrigued by this.

I need to watch some gameplay/streams on this. Call me a wuss, but the PVP factor gives me pause. Never been a fan of those games where loyalty only lasts until another player is ready to shoot you in the back for your stuff.

I 100% understand that kind of game creates a very unique level of drama and tension, so I respect it, but I just don't think it's ever been my thing. I'm at least willing to give this a look.

I imagine the people complaining forgot that the game was this hard. Because the same thing happened to me. I played a lot of the ogs on Genesis, then years later when there was a PS2 collection, I grabbed it thinking "oh yeah, I was kinda sorta competent at this game." And I got absolutely destroyed by the cpu. Like the thrashing was so bad I assumed the collection was set to a high difficulty by default.

So yeah, I think it's really silly they're complaining for getting the "original" experience, but to each their own. If they're not happy with it, then fine. Technical issues aside, it wasn't trying to hide as something else.

Edit: It reminds me of when I went to buy Demon's Souls from GameStop and the guy was like, "just so you know a lot of people are returning this because it's so hard."

@FatalBubbles

My experience with Armored Core VI in a nutshell. It has never been under $35.99 on the PSN store, but as low as $14.99 for the disc. And I'm not anti-physical by any means, but some games, I just would rather get digitally.

Started getting into this tradition a couple years ago. Been pretty fun. This year I'm doing Dead Space Remake and The Forest. The Forest in particular is pretty darn unsettling at times.

Nothing for me in this one (unless that battle simulator game is worth a look), but that's ok. I've accepted not all of them are gonna be winners. Stray is solid for those who have not played it yet.

@DennisReynolds
Good catch. After I posted it I was feeling a bit uncertain and checked. I guess SCIII had no guest character, so I think that threw me off.

This was the one that had Yoda/Darth Vader/Starkiller right? But Yoda/Darth Vader were console exclusive I believe. Or am I thinking of IV?

Edit: I guess SCIII had no guest characters, so I think that was throwing my memory off a little bit.

I only ever played 1 & 2 on the og Xbox back in the day. The rest of the series will be a new experience to me.

I do have friends who have "thoughts" on what 343 did with the series. Seems like a mutual feeling for a lot of the community.

@soyabean135876

Oh wow! I will keep my eye out for that, I'm very curious. Thanks for mentioning it.

The way-finding thing is really interesting too. I vaguely remember having that problem (this was a long time ago though lol), but more so with Halo 2. I remember a giant wide open area in Halo 2 that I had no idea where to go haha.

@Toot1st

Thanks, I’m either blind or that was added later (probably the former).

I was excited to see it in the gameplay but they didn’t show it. Oh well.

I can only skim through the footage at the moment. No update for ADS as rumored? I feel like that would be a welcome QoL update. And that's ironic coming from me who hasn't played this game in 20+ years lol.

Either way, I'm sold. Can't wait.

I keep hearing conflicting rumors that Microsoft is making a new console to go alongside the PS6 but also rumors that they're gonna drop out of the console market completely, which information in this article kinda implies.

@Jrs1
Oh yes, Sunset Overdrive! Bring Insomniac home... again!

I will probably wait for the full release. My time with the demo didn't quite tell me enough on the gameplay side. I was having a hard time feeling like if my choices for heroes on specific assignments was "making sense".

On the non-gameplay side, I really liked the visuals, voices, and etc. And yeah, as the article mentioned, there is a decent amount of swearing lol. I'm a New Yorker, and as I say, "'Fu*k' isn't a word, it's a comma." But even I was a little surprised at that.

@Oram77

Nice, I'll take that for now. And yeah I'm with you on NV, I've heard such good things! I heard it was so rough on PS3 though for completionists. If it never makes it over in a remaster, I'll probably just try it on PC at some point.

Does this mean there won't be any remasters/new releases for FO3/NV? I really wanted to play those on PlayStation but have heard they are pretty bad with the infamous Bethesda memory leak problems. NV especially.

My friend and I were discussing Ghost of Tsushima and how it seems a small number of the Bounty targets can be found organically in their "last seen" area without doing all the investigation steps, and how we really liked that.

This prompted a larger discussion about Bethesda, Bioware, Arkane, etc. Those games with that fun level of openness that mostly deliver on giving you a lot of freedom to approach situations. An NPC warns you of someone waiting up ahead, you can use persuade to talk your way out. You can find intel in another room that helps you convince the attacker to back off. Or you just missed that NPC completely and run into the fight organically while exploring and have no way out.

We realized we LOVE games like that. I don't know how else to describe them but they're fun. It sounds like Outer Worlds 2 is in that vein. I'm assuming the first one is as well?

Can't wait. Keep bringing more Katamari games to PS5 (and beyond).

With so much on my plate, as much as I want to play this ASAP, I am probably gonna wait til November.

@Dalamar

I mean, fair. I guess it would be more apt to say that for the vast majority of AAA studios, those days are gone. Some studios and franchises might be able to still pull it off, but they're sadly outliers. Good on them though.