Vovander

What a convenient excuse for £700 ps6😉

@Neonix @ Exerion76 can I join your club, guys?

I am very tempted to try this franchise due to its aesthetic, but 100+ hours is just too much…

Only feasible if all new trilogy games are the scale and scope of W1/2, rather than W3 or CP77. Not sure this will align with audience expectations (but I personally would be very happy)

I finished the original a couple of months ago. I hope they do something about balancing combat encounters - those dragged for too long!

Is “two states of the game world” mechanic that unique, though? I can remember something similar in the 1st Senua game and Titanfall 2 (and there are many others for sure), and those games did not require SSD for that.

It seems that lessons from Black Ops 4 were not learned at all)

“With the conclusion of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, there’s probably going to be a much wider audience for Final Fantasy as a whole”.

That is quite an optimistic take. Just checked the latest figures: FF7 original - over 15 mil; FF7 remake - over 7 mil; FF7 Rebirth - no definite figure, but I would estimate it between 4-5mil.

A lot seems to hang on the assumption that there are millions of players just waiting for part 3 to release and then play trilogy in one go…

@ShogunRok understood, thanks for detailed answers!

@ShogunRok thanks for a timely review!
Unfortunate that it is not a more positive one.

Could you please elaborate on the following:

1) open-world aspect, besides it being bad. I feel like it is Mafia-style: moving from one main mission to another, with minimum interaction (like picking collectibles);
2) side quests: any interesting lore / mechanics there at all? Or just dialogue/combat/reward loop?
3) playtime - what’s your estimate of total game completion in 15 hrs? I read that developers were saying 20-25 hrs for main story, and up to 40 for total completion. Also, if you could tell your difficulty setting please?
3)

I see so many parallels with Cyberpunk 2077: a shift from RPG to action adventure; a supporting character living in your head who is a subject of lengthy boring flashback; and of course that 4/10 score)

Can’t wait to fight Sephiroth, Jenova, the Turks, Rufus and a bunch of other characters for the 3rd or 4th time, do long qte sequences and beat Jules again at whatever exercise he fancies that day!

@Darude84 Rebirth on Steam: 77% overall, 71% recent positives. GOTY material.

That’s the kind of competition wars I like! Not interested in zombies or multiplayer, but will power through the campaign over the weekend.

@Neither_scene I was looking for a comment like yours - absolutely valid points that are often ignored in this discussion.

Also, gamepass did (and still does) bring value to customers. It is not our job to worry whether it was sustainable or not.

@katamariUK I have not played Nintendo games in a while, but maybe this is because their games are more “gameplay-driven”, vs Sony’s “story-driven”, so it is easier to ignore repetition in stories there?

Can’t fully agree about stories, but can feel it in the way they are delivered. It seems that many 1st party releases use the tools of Last of Us to tell their story, without considering how it fits the particular genre/story. These include: slowly following an npc which dumps exposition; a “settlement” area where you can eavesdrop on npc’s conversation; pseudo-gameplay sections, which are not technically cutscenes, as you have some control, but in practice it’s just press forward and X; noc notes everywhere.
It worked wonders in 2013, but after a decade+ of seeing this, I can’t say they are effective in conveying the necessary emotions anymore.

I was just researching Gamepass deals today…
Well, GP was fun while it lasted) Looks like they don’t care about competing with PS Extra/Premium anymore

Would have sounded much more credible if they disclosed sale numbers, as Capcom habitually does.

Glad I am not the only one fatigued by 100+ hrs RPGs (and games of other genres)!

Amazing animations, but I just don’t understand how people can accept this level of “realism” in group combat. The last enemy is just standing and watching his mate getting sliced, not even raising a sword!

WWE is part of Humble bundle this month.

LoK:D was fun, but I never finished it.

Have no idea what most of the rest of the list is about…

@Don if the release is delayed till 2029 - maybe)

@wildcat_kickz PS6 must be more powerful than PS5Pro. I can’t see how PS6 can be priced cheaper than PS5Pro, and the range you gave will required $150-250 (20-33%) price cut on Pro when 6 is released. Looks remote to me.

@QBertFarnsworth 😁

Good luck to all those still hoping ps6 will cost under $700 or equivalent.

A rate instance when I completely agree with PS on the score completely! An absolutely balanced and well-written review, again highlighting that even “mid” games might have redeeming qualities which might justify a playthrough.

Good for Sony, but I hope these (or more up-to-date) data points will be used in the inevitable discussions about £80 first-party PS6 games. But I am sure even then there will be plenty of people defending Sony’s decision…

Awesome news for DMC and I hope it means the sequel has at least been greenlit!

Separately, much praise to Capcom for being transparent about sales, unlike some other fellow Japanese publishers

@JB_Whiting fair, but when there is a noticeable discrepancy between critic and user scores, would have been nice if it was mentioned in the article.

75% user score on MC, 75% on steam (66% recent) does not exactly scream well-regarded…

Would be nice if Sony added their 1st party games on a consistent basis: 1 year after release, as EA does, would be great. Most of high-profile 3rd party games were heavily discounted already (or even given away for free) by the time they joined PS Extra.

@Chupa_loyzer It was fun, I don’t deny that, but PW used the same concept and actually moved it forward. And that was 3 guys + composed and some outsourced help - vs a full studio (a modest one, but still).

I hope the game designers played and learned from Project Wingman. I enjoyed AC7 a lot, but it was very much ps2/3 game in all aspects apart from graphics.

The multiplatform strategy is working - nice!

Liked both the base game and MotB expansion. Just hope people don’t expect BG3 level of interactivity from them.

Painkiller reboot is on the horizon and no mention of it in the article about the original developers?(

Best of luck to all people being let go

I remember the days when ps+ subs had 50% discounts - looks like those are long gone…

@Artois2 I don’t see how it would help if these trailers were 10 mins long, but showing the same dated mechanics.
Ok, let’s continue this chat in the review article comments.

@Artois2 I can see boring driving, boring weapons, boring enemies in these videos. What am I missing? Of course, the game can turn out better than that, but I would appreciate some reasoning for that, rather than blindly giving it a benefit of the doubt.

@ChrisDeku I have not played SOL, but yes, this is what I’ve heard of it: pretty standard run cover shooter elevated by its story. So that would be the best case outcome for Mindseye.

But even then, Yager had a quite distinct setting and showcased how sand will affect gameplay in pre-release trailers.

Here we were promised cyberpunk, drones, ai, implants and stuff, and the only gadget just highlights enemies?

@NonbinaryStarr I did not call it 1/10) my forecast is 6/10.

I agree with you that it would be nice if more people gave more nuanced reactions. Something like “looks janky, but I am interested in this setting/hungry for a new contemporary open-world/want to support smaller developers”, rather than “gta in cyberpunk setting, from ex-gta directors, yay, gonna be a banger like Exp.33!”

@ChrisDeku gameplay videos are the best piece of evidence (before release) we can have to figure out what the game will be like. Even then, they can be heavily edited and not representative of the final result. All other information is even more unashamedly altered to flatter. What’s your take on these gameplay videos?
@themightyant yes. But I can’t see why they would conceal supposedly the best parts. The reasoning why it should turn out better than it looks is “made by ex-GTA director!” (literally one of the comments I received here), which sounds like highly concentrated copium.

@ChrisDeku would unearned, unconditional praise be better?

I will be baffled if after these clips people will still come to game’s defence arguing that one of GTA’s co-creators can’t fail.

Tried the demo, and judging by your review, it is representative of the full experience. If they removed stamina and weapons breaking, I would be tempted to play the full version.

Unfortunate if true for me. Platinumed the first one, and was looking to do the same in the sequel. But I expect that there will be at least as much side content, and 150+hrs is a bit too much.

Like the cinematic part of the trailer; the gameplay part looked a bit generic and like a mobile game. Need a better look, but overall interested in the idea.

@ShogunRok understood, thanks for a detailed explanation! Yes, I thought too about this as a way of balancing - a big negative for me then(

@ShogunRok thanks for a timely and well-argued review, and hope you have not been left burnt out!
Are there any difficulty settings?
How is combat with multiple opponents? From what I saw in trailers, only 1-2 were actively attacking, and the rest slowly circling around…

@ProfessorNiggle agree! This jarred me most in the first aerial kill - an abrupt cut which felt like about 5 seconds worth of animations were missing.