Comments 174

Re: All The Game Awards 2024 Nominees Revealed, Astro Bot Up for 7 Awards

Vovander

@Zemo55 you might benefit from rereading a) the wording of the poll; b) my comment;)

I think Rebirth will win GOTY (and PushSquare’s poll later) based on the sentiment I see on Metacritic and here. I have played it, and don’t think it deserves that because of the many problems it has, and its best parts largely being repeats from Remake.

Re: God of War Ragnarok's PC Launch Trailer Reminds You It's a Classic

Vovander

@MrPeanutbutterz in that case, why have subscription services, and by the same token, discounts at all? Pony up for quality!

I don’t expect day one release, but almost 2 years later, it’s about time for “dvd stage” (to use movies as analogy), no?

For sub services, number of users is critical, and what better way to increase that than putting a tentpole 1st party title on.

Re: Japan Hit with Yet Another PS5 Price Increase

Vovander

Kind of amusing to watch this, and then recall CMA’s arguments to block ActiBlizz acquisition, to prevent MS doing something similar.

I think this confirms predictions that PS5 is past its peak sales, and Sony is trying to squeeze as much as it can from falling volumes. Still, sucks to see 60% inflation over 4 years.

Re: Borderlands Dev Set to Join Saber in Leaving Embracer Group

Vovander

Interesting. I think the title is a bit misleading, as I understood it as Gearbox being bought by the same party as Saber.
I checked the terms of the initial purchase -$360m initially and about $1bn deferred over 6 years. Wonder how much loss Embracer will post on both of these transactions?

Re: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - Strong Sequel Seeks a New Direction

Vovander

Thanks for an informative review! Disappointed about the bloat - based on earlier coverage, I hoped for 50+hours story, plus 20-30hrs of optional content, so that the first “completionist” walkthrough would amount to around 80hrs. Looks like it’s gonna be much more than that - not sure I am going to plat this one then(

Re: Little Devil Inside Finally Resurfaces with New Trailer, Kickstarter Update

Vovander

Charming stylisation, but I can sense why Sony got cold feet: fps is visibly below 30 in scenes with heavy weather effects, combat looks like your average indie Souls wannabe, and all internal deadlines must have been missed by a mile. Still, wish them luck to salvage what they can and ship it eventually, even if that means some downscaling.

Re: 17 New PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Revealed for Huge Update Next Week

Vovander

From the PS blog:

“ Lost Judgment once again puts players in the sneakers of lawyer turned street-fighting detective Takayuki Yagami. Joined by his partner, ex-yazuka 😂🤣Masaharu Kaito, the crime-fighting duo is called on to investigate a seemingly perfect crime whose lead suspect has an airtight alibi”

Will probably try Spellforce 3. Otherwise meh month for me.

Re: 38.4 Million PS5 Systems Sold as Sony Records Its Best Q4 Results

Vovander

No mention of PSVR2 in the slides.
The relevant stream - Others - is almost 3x to Q4’22, but it includes revenues from other peripherals and sales on other platforms (PC, I guess).
This probably corroborates earlier reports about PSVR2 sales below expectations, otherwise Sony would likely brag about it.

Re: Poll: Are You Playing God of War Ragnarok's New Game Plus?

Vovander

I finished GoWR only recently, and wanted more, so started NG+ in GoW2018. It’s nice to breeze through some previously difficult encounters, but I am not sure I’ll see it to the end. Difficulty in optional activities (doing muspelheim trials now) indeed seems to be ramped by lenghtening health bars/increasing enemy counts/stricter time limits.
GoWR is too long, too recent, relies too much on “cinematic” storytelling, and has too many traumatising boss encounters for me to play again.
Re: ng+ modes in general, no big deal for me personally, but l would prefer them to be implemented more widely, instead of bloating games. Rather than having a 100+hrs game with same-y optional activities, I would prefer a 50hrs game, with hand-crafted content. NG+ is then for those hungry for more.

Re: God of War Ragnarok Testers Weren't Bothered by Early Puzzle Spoilers

Vovander

I am about 1/3 into the game. Did not have any complaints at first, but when a new companion joined the team, they started to shout hints almost immediately. Also, it seems to be limited to puzzles in story and side missions. If there is an open-world puzzle (eg Nornir chest), I don’t remember when was the last time I was given a clue.

Re: UK Determines Xbox's $69 Billion Activision Buyout Could Harm Gamers

Vovander

Disappointing( It seems that CMA has made up their mind and just looking for supporting arguments.
“More expensive console and games” - happens regardless, as demonstrated by Sony in recent years.
“An important field of cloud gaming” - Sony started offering streaming capability on PSNow years before MS, could have been market leaders by now if they wanted.
“Access to content” - again speculative. Also ignores multiple (time-limited) Sony exclusives.

The way people here ignore tangible, imminent, highly probable benefits this acquisition (entire ABK catalogue on gamepass + day1 releases there) but drum up potential negative consequences at some indeterminate point in the future kinda reminds me of another important debate in the UK society;)