ZeroSum

With Sony largely pushing the same games in consecutive sales, it means PushSquare can usually recycle the same "Games you should buy..." article! 😂

I don't know about this one. I think Nintendo like to protect their family-friendly image as much as they can, and a dev that openly admits to creating characters to indulge their fantasies of the perfect female body may not fit that image.

I couldn't get past the first 15 minutes of the demo because of how dumb the story started, so I'm not surprised that the dev thinks the story is the weakest part.

You're an elite soldier created to do one thing - destroy your enemies. You're sent on a mission with hundred of other soldiers to clear a planet of enemies, only you get attacked and crash land on the planet. Somehow this surprise attack and crash landing means you've forgotten how to do the one thing you were created for, and you've turned in to a helpless welp that needs to be taught everything all over again.

It just fits the stereotypical view of women being weak so you, the horny teenage boy, get to teach her how to be strong again.

Absolute trash that panders to the horny males.

@KundaliniRising333 over the weekend I picked up a few different cans from a brewery called Field House. They're a small brewery out of Abbotsford, B.C. so their stuff is predominantly local. Anyway, I tried the Dark Sour which is a sour blackcurrant and blueberry based lager. It was nice that it wasn't hoppy, but a bit too sour and berry-centric, kind of tasted like an alcoholic version of those carton drinks you had as a kid. I also tried their Cryo Wheat Lager which is a limited run. It was actually fairly mundane albeit too hoppy for my taste.

Did any of that read as arrogant or elitist, or like I'm trying to cover insecurities? I don't think so, to me it's just a guy sharing opinion on some alcohol he tried over the weekend.

Your decision to label anyone who wants to discuss microbrews as having "sad insecurities masked with arrogance/elitism" seems to say a lot more about you than it does them.

Back on track though - I'd be interested to know what was changed, as I understand that Kojima wants to push the envelope and expand what games are and can be, but could this also be a potential case of self-sabotage?

I really enjoyed FFXVI! Surprised it's considered to not be doing so well... Oh wait, not doing so well by SEs forecast. I'm fairly sure they expect every single living person to buy their products, regardless of whether they own a games console or not.

What they really needed to do to make the game a success was employ a Korean dev team to make the protagonist a female who wears skin-tight clothing that exposes (or gets as close to exposing) everything. It'd sell really, really well if they took that approach!

@tameshiyaku it's a nice concept, but the reliance on a good spec phone is the crux for me - I already know my Pixel 6 struggles with PS2 games. If I were to dive in to retro and needed more power, I'd just pick up a used PS Vita and mod it with CFW.

I keep looking at the Anbernic devices, but can never quite pull the trigger. Having a cellphone with a backbone largely makes dedicated retro handhelds seem redundant - I can just download a ROM/emulator and play it on my cell without needing to spend $100CAD extra on a dedicated device.

@themightyant I read that the recommended level is 81+ for the final fight, and I'm level 50. That being said I just started the Lumiere section and was one-shotting enemies with Maelle, so...

Phil Spencer "Everything will be an Xbox"

Also Phil Spencer "Everything will be a PlayStation"

Everyone complaining about the lack of map, showing how young they are. Back in my day we didn't have cell phones, let alone cell phones with maps on them! We had to go somewhere and just remember the route!

Kids these days would literally be lost without their Google Maps.

I'm going to go shake my fist at some inanimate object for 5 minutes.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the patch. On Act 3, haven't finished it yet because I found it a drag to level up for the final boss fight. Maybe this patch will make it less of a tedious grind!

I never liked the settlements in NMS, it seems so counterintuitive to the purpose of a space exploration game, and got tiresome quickly.

I could be several universes on from my settlement, but I'll still get notifications that my settlement is under attack. I don't care! I didn't fly off planet because I really want to babysit a bunch of inept kids that keep bickering! I flew away because the game isn't called No Man's Daycare. It's No Man's Sky! Sky! Skkkkyyyyyyyyy!

Yeah. Tech demo. It's a safe bet that the game won't look anywhere near this good, as this is a tech demo.

Killzone 2, Watch Dogs, Anthem, PS1's T-Rex, the PS3 Final Fantasy 7 remake...

Tech demos aren't the game. They're proof of concept which is largely scaled back in production.

@Crimson_Ridley I don't think any of that worked! 😂

That aside, I may claim Bomb Rush, but otherwise I can skip this month.

I'll probably give Bomb Rush a whirl, but there really isn't anything in this selection that interests me.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare, yeah that's still the case. The Final Shape is the culmination of the Light/Dark saga, and if you haven't played any of the recent expansions, some of it won't make sense. If the expansions were closed story arcs that you had to play through from start to finish, Destiny may be easier to get in to, but as it is when you're new to the game, you get greeted by a bunch of story cut scenes that won't make sense to you and then prompts to start multiple missions that all overlap as some of them are years old and some of them are new. This is still the case despite the community repeatedly bringing it up to Bungie.

That's a shame. I really liked this brawler for the 10 minutes that I played it!

Currently sitting at 83 "Generally Favourable" critic reviews and 6.8 "Mixed or Average" user reviews on Metacritic.

I'm going to temper that 83 critic review and consider it lower, as if people care to remember the big controversy with Starfield was Bethesda only giving review codes to outlets they knew would give favourable reviews, leading to a higher pre-launch review score than what it got post-launch.

That stuff aside though, I've heard and read enough reviews indicating it's a mediocre game to know that I'll pass.

I wouldn't say the FTC lost this case. I'd say that as the Xbox business model started to collapse, causing Microsoft to quickly pivot and make everything multi-platform, the FTC case became irrelevant.

Basically if Microsoft weren't bleeding money, forcing them to put everything on other consoles to generate revenue, they'd still be looking at using exclusives to sell Xbox consoles, making the FTC complaint valid, but that isn't the case anymore!

I still haven't finished Rogue Trader but would totally buy this! 😭

"This version" is stated multiple times, suggesting there is or may be an alternative version in the works.

Hopefully Sony do the smart thing and launch an alternative, stripped down version that focuses on the core experience of spend money or complete campaigns to earn rewards, removing all of the other fluff that wasn't useful.

I just don't have any interest in it.

Doom 2016 was a great reboot, and Doom Eternal took it up a notch, but Dark Ages is more of the same.

The First-Person Shooter is a genre that I feel is one of the easiest to stagnate, after all the whole core principle of the genre is shooting. Running around and shooting things. You have to do something different to really stand out, and in a genre that's as saturated as the FPS genre, and with so many other games causing a buzz right now, you need to do more than give your protagonist a medieval setting and a shield. 2016 reignited interested in Doom, Eternal took it up a notch with the "rip'n'tear", Dark Ages just seems "meh" in comparison.

And yeah, I'm also playing Expedition 33 and anticipating Death Stranding 2, so even if I were more interested in Dark Ages, that $90 price tag is too rich for a game I'd drop as soon as DS2 launches.

I did not know these games were on PlayStation...

Probably something to do with it running on the Creation Engine. Bethesda are going to keep running that engine despite all of the technical issues, just out of spite at this point, making sure you get the most authentic Bethesda RPG experience!

I'm not pissed at this.

I picked up Tekken 8 based on nostalgia for Tekken 1 though 3. This 'lets give the consumer a basic roster and release the rest as DLC" business model sucks rump, so I have no idea who this character is!

What!? Don't you all have internet access?!

/s

Aping aside, this is to be expected in an industry that moved to the business model of the consumer not owning the product. At least when everyone gets on board digital over disc, manufacturers can stop adding disc drives to their consoles, and publishers can stop worrying about the cost of physical media, resulting in console and game prices coming down, right? RIGHT?!

I'm sure that was something the industry promoted around the PS3 generation...

@Dalamar good point!

I read the article achievements and thought, aside from Astral Chain (which I've never heard of), this guy seems to be more Supporting Cast and less Leading Man.

And why is everyone assuming he doesn't have a hand in the decline of PlatinumGames? For all we know this guy could be THE problem, and everyone is praising him for leaving a sinking ship! 😂

@Gamer83 the game itself is quite good if you're in to hero brawlers. For me the problem IS the skins, as a married 43 year old man, I don't want to be playing a game that features excessive and scantily clad characters around my wife and 10 year old daughter, 'cause it just makes me look like a dirty old man, when all I want to do is play a videogame 😂

Thankfully I never got past the first few rounds of this, so I have no interest in the game nor these skins.

The one thing that annoys me about this game, and I want to believe this will be one of the best extraction shooters out there, is that they chose third person.

If I were to ever find myself out in the wild, scrounging for resources and having to be alert of my surroundings, the last thing I'd want is someone constantly stood infront of me, taking up 20% of my field of vision!

Played a few hours last night and was enthralled! Eager to play through this one!

@Angelus3K as far as I know they didn't bring it back. The start-up screen/noise was the only good thing about the 30th anniversary themes.

Skyrim. While Oblivion is tempting, the $65 price tag is too high for a 20 year old game, so I'm trophy hunting with an obnoxiously OP build in Skyrim (thanks Fortify Restoration loop!).

Original PS1 start-up screen with the iconic sound = Nice!

Horrible images at the top and bottom of the home screen = No thanks!

I played the original on the X360 AND purchased the horse armor DLC (I get to be proud of that, right? Badge of honor?) and was quite interested in this, however a buddy gave the following feedback after he played it for 5-6 hours yesterday -

"Even with all its remasteredness... turns out games have come a long way in 20 years. Not loving it. Combat feels stale. Just is not landing for me."

Less enthusiastic after getting that feedback combined with Polygon commenting that it's very 'brown' and has a washed out brown filter on the visual compared to the original.

I was kind of on the fence on this having only seen Bungos trailers, however I'm leaning a little more in favour of it after watching StoneMountain64's video yesterday, so I'll check out PushSquares coverage as well I suppose.

After the last increase I dropped from Extra to Essential, now I'm contemplating dropping Essential and just picking up monthly subs as and when the game I'm playing needs it.

Also wondering if there are any virtual LAN networks still around to bypass PSN completely for online play...

You know there is some jackass at the back of the room who stays quiet 99% of the time, but when they're brainstorming ideas for their next game, he chirps up "Live Service Battle Royale" sarcastically, and every time they take him seriously...

I just got an email from Sony to inform me that my PSN subscription cost is going up to $109.99 per year, and I'm in Canada, so looks like no country is safe from these hikes!

Lucky for me I'm stacking subscriptions until June 2026 at $94.99, may even tack another year on just to screw Sony out of that extra $15.

Mix of the above, but ultimately Bungie lost me due to gate keeping content and lack of consideration for the solo players.
If I'm to pay $100 a year for content, why is the best content locked behind try-hard raids? Don't get me wrong, challenging content is good, I've completed a chunk of the raids, but the raids that take 2+ hours to complete if you know exactly what you're doing AND have a Fireteam that are excellent at communicating, are inaccessible or impossible for players that don't have the time or friends or groups to do that stuff.

It just became more and more obvious how much time and money I was wasting on a game that doesn't consider solo players.

It's almost as if Switch 2 fans are completely oblivious to Nintendo's preference of creating new consoles from older tech... I think the last generation Nintendo actually went toe-to-toe with their competitors on tech was the 16-bit era with the SNES vs. Sega Genesis/Megadrive.

These 10 year road maps really are getting tiring. It must be something absurd like less than 2% of any player base that actually sticks around for that long. By the time you get to the latter years, the roadmap has normally gone out of the window because the playerbase fell off and the devs are in panic mode trying to draw players back in (looking at you Destiny 2).

Want to create a less toxic voice chat experience?
1 - make it mandatory to also have a webcam on to use voice chat.
2 - setup an algorithm, much like is used in Google Meets or MS Teams that recognizes the user face and zooms in on it. No facial recognition = no voice chat.
3 - apply a default, non-adjustable filter that makes everyone appear to be wearing a French maid outfit on cam.
4 - make the cam of whoever is talking appear in the top right of the screen.

The majority of people that talk smack do so because they know they can't be seen, so make it mandatory for them to be seen. Add in something that makes them, and everyone else, look stupid, and you'll find toxic twerps either won't want to be on cam or it will appear so absurd that no-one will take them seriously.

I hope this succeeds, but I'm also somewhat skeptical. For me, the game will need large maps with missions and PvE elements, otherwise with small maps and PvP being heavily focused on, this would become no different to something like 'Search & Destroy' in CoD where there is an objective, but everyone ignores it, turning the round in to a high-stakes single life deathmatch i.e. whoever can kill the other team first wins.

Give the game large maps, multiple teams, missions, 40 minute time limits and PvPvE, and you'll have teams trying to do X mission for Y rewards, while trying to fight off players and bots and then extract afterwards with your hard earned rewards, creating a lot more tension to the game play.

That being said, if this fails there is always Delta Force on the horizon...

@graymamba I do as well. As a long time Destiny player, I've always enjoyed the shooting mechanics, they usually get that aspect right. My only concern is that the trailer makes it appear to be far more gun-fight-centric, meaning you're always going to be fighting. The best extraction shooters also allow you to avoid other players, to play below the radar as it were. In DMZ, Infinity Ward accommodated this by adding bots, so even if you were avoiding other players you'd still have bots to fight off. This is the only reason I'm on the fence on this one - if it is purely PvP with small maps, it could get too sweaty too fast, driving out the more casual players.

*For clarification, support for DMZ stopped because Activision pivoted Infinity Ward on to their next CoD title, ceasing support for DMZ, at that point hackers were able to work new aimbots etc in unchecked. Hacking became an issue because of the lack of support, but was not the reason for the lack of support.

@graymamba there likely would be enough players interested to make the game worth it. With CoD Warzone a few years back, Infinity Ward added the DMZ extraction mode that became of an unexpected hit, but when the next CoD rolled out a year later, Activision ordered support for DMZ to stop. The mode is still played by a dedicated playerbase today, but a lot of the players left due to hacking and the lack of support, so I'm sure a bunch of us that loved DMZ will give this a go.

@SMJ it takes talent, and talent is not universal.

Take Will Smith for instance. Will Smith is notorious for always playing Will Smith in different situations. Compare that to someone like James McAvoy who can sell you the idea that he's Professor X in one role, a split-personality psychopath next or a caring, compassionate father.

Some people have the talent to act a range of roles. Some don't.

@naruball my thoughts exactly.

I didn't know this show was being considered, but read Sophie Turner to play Lara Croft, just doesn't work.
While she does carry a "posh" air about her, her tone carries her in to the whiney/stroppy aristocracy role a lot of the time. Not a fit.

I'm wondering when Naughty Dog are going to release The Last The Last of Us Remastered Complete Edition, I mean that one, being The Last The Last of Us, will be the one to wait for!

Oblivion was my intro to Elder Scrolls, and I'd like to see it remade on par, graphically, with Skyrim. And horse armor DLC adjusted for today's pricing, so $15 should do it... $60 for the base game, additional $20 for all expansions and $15 for the horse armor (to be sold separately to all other DLC).

Oh man, I have to check to see if I have them before the PushSquare staffers!

Edit: I do not.

Capcom should work out the theoretical quickest possible time, don't alert people of that time, and purge any times that are below that time a second before the challenge ends.

@BiosNova

Found Musk's PushSquare account! 😂

Played for a few hours yesterday. Maybe I don't play enough to notice the nuances of the updates, but game felt the same to me.