brakeman90

Oof, yeah - this is sobering. I assumed that physical had a higher impact, but wasn't sure just how disparate the impact of physical game production vs. digital game production was. This will certainly be a part of my calculus moving forward (as a roughly 75/25 physical to digital game buyer right now). Hope we get more data in the future.

That's so cool! I'll check this out ASAP.

Argh, Aloy in China with mythology-inspired robots sounds sooo cool! Wish that could've worked out (though I suppose I'd just have avoided it if it was an F2P mobile game).

@TheFakulty I hear you, but it's worth noting that the game that this is a spiritual successor to (Banjo-Kazooie) is widely remembered for its silly gibberish voice acting. I'd prefer that myself, but understand that it can be grating for others.

Yeah, I think the IGN article is onto something (though I don't think it's necessarily Sony-specific, they're just putting out the most narrative-heavy AAA games recently). It's a lot like the "dad-game" glut of the late 2010s - certain themes, in this case revenge, get a bit beaten to death over a span of five years or so. It doesn't interest me much, so I mostly stick to the titles the writer pointed out that eschew this theme: Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, and Astro Bot to name a few. The themetic similarity won't last too long, I suspect; another one will likely replace it in the next few years.

@MARl0 How is Deck performance? I'm a bit fussy about 60fps in racing games, if only because shakier framerates tend to activate my motion sickness in that genre.

Never played one of these before, so I'm looking forward to this one!

Shoot, I guess I'll finally buy GT7. I'd avoided it due to disappointment about it not having a good standalone physical version, but this much additional content for free is a really good gesture.

This is looking great! I'm a big fan of the original, and - while I'd love to have that version accessible on modern hardware as well - this sounds like a worthy successor. Can't wait to play it!

This looks rad as hell - hoping it sticks the landing!

Would be much cooler if it was a version of PVZ2 and 3 that stripped out all of the micro transaction junk - those are still stranded on mobile IIRC, while PVZ1 is already available on so many platforms. Of course, it's always good to see more PVZ in any form, so I'm not that unhappy

This sounds exceptionally up my alley, moreso than the series' earlier entries. Short and sweet will always be my preferred type of game, and marrying outlandish abilities to a notionally-serious plot will usually put a smile on my face (looking at you, Resident Evil).

That's awesome! I'll be picking up a physical edition this week.

I mostly agree with Iizuka - I just revisited both a couple years ago (via their PS3/X360-era remasters) and they're rough. Even by the standards of the era in which they were made, the mechanics and controls are sloppy, while the voiceover work is charmingly janky. That said, it's reminiscent of making the original Resident Evil trilogy or GoldenEye available to modern players; as long as you're not trying to make it conform to modern gameplay sensibilities, there is an appeal in providing a "warts and all" re-release that functionally duplicates the original experience. If it's a binary, I'd much prefer new Sonic games - Frontiers is my favorite in the 3D series, tbh - but having a small team work to bring the versions that still run on modern PCs to PlayStation without any major improvements would be a nice gesture to the folks who can put up with their quirks.

@DreadfulDragon Respectfully, I thought the review heavily covered gameplay - enough that I (as a person who enjoyed the mechanical aspects of Death Stranding more than its plot or presentation) feel confident I'll enjoy the sequel just as much.

@Kidfunkadelic83 IGN put up a really effective story recap from Death Stranding - that might do the trick! https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/11/15/death-stranding-story-explained

RAD! Can't wait to play it - the first one is in my Top 5 PS4 games, and it's great to hear that this one only improves on its predecessor.

I wouldn't likely have been playing this anyway, but a 30fps cap on PS5 Pro? Good grief, what went wrong here?

That's plainly silly. Games have offered 60fps for decades, and the idea that this one could only be presented at 30fps is goofy. It's not a make-or-break thing, of course, but definitely disappointing.

Can't wait for this! Every Resident Evil game since 7 has been varying levels of excellent, so I'm all-in.

Absolutely incredible news! I'll be picking up a physical edition on Day One.

@Weebleman Well sure, but that would just be appended to functionally everything a person wrote online, right? Unless it's strict facts (game is on PS5, includes characters x, y, and z), then nearly everything we write is an opinion. It becomes a little silly to add "in my opinion" when a reader should just be assuming that.

@carlos82 That makes sense - I didn't play the original, so I'd be especially unable to notice a difference. And yeah, improving the lighting is definitely worth a slightly lower resolution; HDR these days is incredible! I'll give this a look when it goes on sale.

That's genuinely odd - I wonder why the remaster targets a lower resolution than the PS4 original when running at the same framerate.

It doesn't cause any harm, and it may help someone. Net good, if you ask me.

@Cornpop76 What forced politics were in the game?

Good that he's being forced to pay for repairs and engage in community service - that kind of wildly irresponsible behavior is unacceptable in a crisis.

@get2sammyb I've always found the Hookshot Media reviews to be among the best in the business (and your emphasis on accessibility is a big part of that). Cheers for all the good, detailed work on this content!

I love Dynasty Warriors, but tiny text is increasingly becoming a problem for me. Looks like I'll be waiting to see if it gets patched. (I'm continuing to wonder why in the world so many games feature text for ants)

Also, quick note for author Robert Ramsey: great review, thank you for the in-depth coverage! One minor, pedantic recommendation that I have is to swap the phrase "cannot be understated" for "cannot be overstated." The former means that something is so small or poor that it would be impossible to find something smaller or poorer; in this article's context, it would mean that the battles' scale is so small that it wouldn't be possible to be smaller. It's a commonly misused phrase, but your mileage may vary - may not be worth doing an edit for, haha!