I am wondering what "unbelievably positive" actually means. "unbelievably positive" for the consumer or Sony ?

I find it weird that everybody nowadays is always "concerned" about unreleased games or products. What about just wait and see?

Of course it is possible that Sony looks at the current situation through pink tinted glasses, and dreams of a 1kEUR console without drive which only adds a fancy upscaler, ... and which will horribly flop. But it is also possible that they learned from the PS3 launch something and understand that a 100M install base is not easily achievable with a product too expensive for the average consumer. And that they understand from analyzing the still existing PS4 user base that some incentives are needed to make people move to a new platform.

I would be very excited for a VR version (psvr2) of any of the Talos Principle games

I wish good look to Housemarque that people eventually give it a chance, in particular the people who did not try returnal because they thought that Returnal was a too hard core game.

So far all Housemarque games I played have fantastic game play, and it would be a shame to read that Housemarque got shuttered.

Anyway, Saros was released rather close to Pragmata, Resident Evil. And the latter two got more buzz.

Is Bungie Sony's worst acquisition ? Probably yes.

Not because Marathon is a bad game (rather the opposite Marathon is a fantastic, unique game, outstanding, unique art and sound design, and game play), but because Bungie's core audience is presumably more on xbox and PC, the studio is extremely expensive and probably not super efficient, and the purchase was likely not very organic. Finally the purchase happened basically at a time the player engagement was at its peak due to covid and economic situation, and it went downhill since then. Also Bungie was likely in a difficult situation when it was purchased, and Sony paid premium, maybe because Sony felt to be in dire need of something to counter the MS' Bethesda+Activision acquisitions?

It is not excluded that the ship can be turned around, but it is also possible that Bungie is just too expensive.
In comparison it seemed that BluePoint was the perfect acquisition, an "organic" acquisition with the outlook to get great remasters of old games. But it did not work out. Most people blame Herman Hulst, and Jim Ryan for this unfortunate outcome. But likely blame goes to both sides. BluePoint was clear from the very beginning that they wanted to create original content rather then doing the next remaster, but then they did not manage to pitch anything Sony considered worthwhile after the God of War multiplayer was cancelled. So, a seemingly perfect match is not a guarantee for success either. Will Bungie be shutdown by the end of the year or shortly after? Maybe, but sometimes, something that looks rather bad can be turned around (e.g. Apple went nearly bankrupt in ~1997), and Marathon shows that Bungie clearly has still a lot of talent. So, Sony could sill make something out of this acquisition, but it depends on both sides, I suppose.

@naruball That is so sad. Why bother going to university if one does not want to learn.

@naruball if it is a scientific essay and AI is used to improve the writing. Fine. If it is literary then AI likely removes the personality and the question is whether it should be written at all. If the entire essay is written by AI, then I would say the purpose is very questionable.
I just came across a technical write-up, which initially sounded like an impressive piece of tedious work, but it likely just was the unreflected output of an LLM, and the overall benefit, i.e. learning while writing, or being a "reliable" source of information, is likely not really there.

I don't mind the usage of AI, but the first AI generated image was cool, and interesting, maybe even stunning. The second less so. And now they kind of all look the same. It sounds cool if AI can take away the tedious task of turning physical hair into a model, but generative AI will apply always kind of the same algorithm, so the risk is that in the end all hair will always look somewhat the same. Though, the same is true if people use the same assets, meta human package etc.. In the end if the same tools are used the results will become more and more similar and less interesting. Yes, game development can be significantly faster by using such tools, but the likely outcome will be that most of these games will be significantly less interesting.

But then there are cases where it does not really matter. Do I care if trees (and fauna in general) in e.g. a flight simulator are created and placed by generative AI? Do I care if buildings in such open worlds are created (or assembled from hand crafted pieces) by some procedural algorithm or AI? Do I care if the NPCs in huge open world games, which have no impact on the story or side quests, get an artificial life with the help of a LLM, rather than following a very simple human created script ? Likely not.

On the other hand If I take for example a ubi soft game generally criticized for its generic formula, then I think that most of these "generic" games have excellent linear sections (for example the beginning of syndicate). These parts which are crafted with a lot of care typically stand out. If these parts will be replaced by strongly AI assisted work, if important characters are heavy influence by AI tools, likely the appeal will disappear and these "stand-out" sections will get as boring as the rest.

So, I think it is quite easy to fall into this trap and use common tools, which produce great results very quickly. But in the end if everybody uses the same tools, everything will look, sound, and play the same and will loose its appeal.

I could imagine that AI tools are very useful in prototyping, to get something which is somewhat representative rather quickly, to get an early impression. But the final product will still need a lot of spices. And I have a hard time to believe that largely shared common tools will provide enough spice.

@JoeNobody except for educational games, pretty much all games make You waste time, that is kind of the point.

@pushL7 Have You tried Returnal ?

If not and if You do not mind challenging games then give it a try. It is a very good game. I suck at Returnal, and I am not particular good in games in general, but still consider it to be one of the very best games on ps5. It has a fantastic art direction, sound design, a superb atmosphere in general, and pretty perfect gameplay. While the idea to "always" start from the beginning may not sound very appealing it is also not as bad as it sounds, because although You always start at the same place the environments are re-assembled from a pool, so are always a little bit different and anyway are quite beautiful that it actually is not bad to see them a couple of times.

Certainly no game is for everybody, and I can understand if people get too frustrated by the challenge or dislike this slight horror vibe.

That is a surprise! I heard that the VR adaptation of firmament and there was also an adaptation on psvr1 are not very good. So never tried them. Anyway the pcvr version of riven is supposed to be very good. So, I am looking forward to the psvr2 version. Maybe they nail it this time ?

Anyway not for the players but the lawyers ...

@CaptD Before the vr version of hitman appeared I tried hitman when it hit ps+, and I did not enjoy it at all. But then I played the VR version of hitman 1-3 on both psvr1 and psvr2. But, I played it very differently on psvr2. On psvr2 it is just too tempting to play it as an fps

Not sure whether all these recent mass layoffs in the "VR industry" have much to do with VR being a niche market or psvr2 being dead again every month, but it could also have something to do with meta having jumped from the metaverse to the AI train, and having cut all the funding of unfinished projects many studios were banking on.

But certainly flight sim is a very welcome surprise. Who would have thought, that this would happen. MS delivering a VR game for playstation.

So far I only played the beta of the VR mode (about 15h), and I also only played the VR mode of flight sim. In my opinion it is fantastic and looks generally pretty good in the headset!

Sure there are many things to criticize. The resolution could be better. In particular the small gauges are sometimes hard to read. The aircraft are a bit difficult to control with the sense controllers, it is sometimes not so obvious which buttons or button combos to press. And then it is more a sim than a game. But then it is quite spectacular to fly through the grand canyon, yosemite or over cities in some height. Also flying through averagely dense cities with high-risers is quite something. Although, when flying low to the ground one can see that everything is based on satellite images and some more or less generic assets with many artifacts. Anyway it is a very cool way to get some impression of remote places.

The killer app for psvr2 is actually hitman. And like flight sim, hitman also offers some sightseeing at a couple of beautiful locations.

And please add a VR mode (psvr2; ) for the full game. The VR case file was already awesome on psvr1.

@16BitHero where PC means I suppose, the most expensive PC money can buy . On my PC(laptop) I presumably will only get 10 FPS, if it would run at all ...

Did a fair chunk of tourism with flight sim(beta) on PSVR2. All the criticism, I suppose, is true. Sill it is quite cool way to to explore or revisit some remote areas.

Otherwise I played a bit of one of the best games on PS5: Returnal, and realised that I still suck. Nevertheless, still one of the greatest games on PS5.

They could sell even more copies by adding a VR mode (psvr2).

I would have liked to see the DNA of the fantastic PSVR2 mode of Hitman,. That would have made an instant buy.

It is very difficult to really judge whose fault is what without further information. But I suppose one can say that there are very few leaders who have been or are as passionate about video games as Shuhei Yoshida, and Jim Ryan looked at it more from the business side. Hulst is probably more difficult to read.

People always moan about the closure of Japan studio, ignoring that not enough people bought their games, but rather played fortnite, cod warezone, overwatch or apex legends, or genshin impact.

Now it is obvious that Concord should not have been released at that point in time or not at all. And maybe Hulst really deserves the blame for not recognizing that the game would not have a chance in that state and would have either needed more time or should have been canned. Maybe the situation is more nuanced and other people were involved in that decision.

@Markatron84 I heard that there are a couple of hundred in fs24. So, that should work.

I think it will depend on when the ps6 will release and what the ps6 will offer. Assuming that the ps6 will not cost ~>=1000EUR/GBP,/USD but will be priced similar to a ps5, that there will be an "affordable" ps6 handheld, and the ps6 will be fully backward compatible with ps5 and ps4,, then I could imagine that people will transition much faster from buying ps5 consoles to buying a ps6 instead. If the ps6 launches later than 2027, or is (initially) more a replacement for the ps5pro (i.e. is more directed towards an audience which wants the ultimate fidelity) rather than a new mainstream console, then the ps5 could have a very long live, since there will be very few ps6 exclusive titles, and most people won't care about the slightly better graphics.

Best wishes to Marathon!

I hope more people will give it a fair chance, and overcome their prejudices that all PS live service games are bad, doomed, are only driven by cooperate greed, and that evil Bungie is the reason for the cancellation of the best multi player game ever which nobody has played aka. factions 2 and has to be punished for that, because I think, that Bungie created with marathon something fantastic. Great art design, great sound design, very interesting setting, and plays superb. Is it too difficult or does it require too much of a commitment to attract more people? Maybe. Though this in-balance between total sales and PS only sales (assuming these numbers are roughly correct) are difficult to understand by rational arguments.

I am very curious about how well the psvr2 version will perform. If it performs well enough, I would certainly be interested in travailing the world a bit in VR

I finished Dreams of Another on Ps5+Psvr2. I did not expect this game to be so long, and for me it was a bit too long for what there is. I really like the rendering technique and the music. The dialogues are sometimes very good, sometimes I am not so sure. Overall a cool "game", a bit too long and it feels a bit expensive at full price.

@Vertere I guess one can dislike loosing the loot, or the tension caused by the fear of loosing some stuff.

@Vertere There are many fast VR games stride fates, probably also synapse, even re village or re4 remake have fast action.

Anyway many people get used to this inconsistency between the senses by playing in short sessions and extending them slowly, but never trying to force through. If You can stand kayak VR only for 5 min. Maybe try regularly but limit the session to 4min, until this feels fine. Then slowly extending the time. Or acclimatize yourself first with games which are less likely to cause motion sickness like beat saber, moss, or other stationary games, or games in which You just move and turn physically. Then make sure that You turn up all the comfort settings avoid smooth turning, maybe use teleportation, setup a vignette. At some point Your brain might accept that Your not being poisoned, but there is just this small inconsistency between the motion senses and Your vision, when You wear this helmet. Once You stomach VR, it such a cool experience. The flat version of re village does not get anywhere close to the VR version.

@Jeremist78 So far I only played the server slam. Maybe, the full game is more difficult. For me it worked to avoid attacking groups of enemies, but waiting for the chances to take them out one by one,

@Vertere Marathon is not a particularly fast game, is it ? Or do You think it is significantly faster than e.g. synapse, cross fire, stride fates, hell sweeper (I haven't played alvo, zero caliber or pavlov).

I might be lucky or it is related to my less than stellar vision, and I am used to some disagreement between my vision and my motion senses. There are very few games which make me feel sick. The worst was xing and I think mask masker on psvr1. Both are very slow games. So, for me it is not necessarily related to how fast the movement is. For me it is, I think, more a combination of colors (or illumination) and frame rate. On psvr2, I did not have any significant issues, but If I haven't used psvr2 for some weeks, then I need a little bit of time to acclimate. I play typically at 30% brightness that may help a little. I only turned the brightness up to 60% for one game which was too dark otherwise.

I look at the price if the price feels right for the product and I have the money, I buy otherwise not. In the end I want developers to earn enough money to make better games in the future. So far I only bought once a deluxe edition. Not because I wanted this extra "content", but I really liked what the developer did and wanted to reward the developer. I am fine with people paying less if they have less money (e.g. people from poorer countries). In that sense I don't really care about dynamic pricing. If the price does not feel justified to me I wait for a deep enough sale or skip.

@HonestHick Did You give it a fair shake during the server slam ? I am not really into multiplayer games, but I really enjoyed what I played. I just played solo, and I cannot say that it played much different from a single player FPS, besides that real players spiced up the game. And then I may not have played enough and may have only scratched the surface. Anyway, as I already commented, I think it really shines when played within a good team.

I personally I think the game looks awesome, the sound design is great, it plays pretty good, and I am interested in the story, I just wish that it would have a VR mode ...

In principle I don't really care either way.

1) But, then the more playstation games are on PC, the less incentives there are to buy a playstation instead of a PC. Thus, the platform shrinks and Sony will earn slightly less money since some money goes into the pockets of others. As a consequence of that, Sony will have less money to fund games. Thus, Sony will either make less games or reduce the quality. In summary, in the short term putting games on PC is likely easy money, but In the long term it will certainly impact the platform. Of course You will likely never reach the people who are so heavily invested into the PC ecosystem.

2) in the past PCs were evolving much faster than consoles. Thus, there were always these über-PCs which outshone any console version. But, the graphical fidelity reached a level where people hardly can see the difference. Thus why invest in an über-PC if a basic console does the job? Of course, there are the benefits of modding, and pirating, and one should not forget about game conservation.

3) Manufacturers are currently putting all the emphasize on big AI data centers. Thus, consumer hardware will likely evolve much slower in addition to the already diminishing returns. Thus, games on consoles will likely appear closer and closer to what You get on expensive PCs.

From a platform holder point of view, it only makes sens if there is no realistic chance to grow or at least maintain the platform at its current level, or the platform cost is larger than the money that would not reach the platform holders pocket, when loosing people to other platforms.

@HonestHick You read the article and commented. So, You do care.

@Hylian-Likely live service games exists not because suits force them upon people. but because they are unfortunately incredible popular among people. There are thousands of games to play on all platforms. Nevertheless the majority of the people just play fortnite, gta online, cod warzone, overwatch, etc. . If people would stop spending on live service games. These games would disappear.

I played unity many years after the release on ps4, and really liked it. Sure it was not perfect, but I really liked their creation of Paris.

I played the server slam, and really liked what I played. I do not play much non VR games. So, I will most likely give it a pass, Unless of course a VR mode was announced. But I really liked what I played. Anyway best wishes to a reasonably successful launch.

Currently the only way to play playstation games in vr (besides gt7), is via mod on pc. If then sony uses the "saved" resources to instead add VR modes to some of the games on ps5 I would be more than happy.

I played a couple of mostly very short rounds but just solo. I agree with Aeron, that it looks gorgeous. For me the menus were fine, but I am not saying that everything is and was clear from the very beginning. Most of the rounds I played, had been different enough and I enjoyed what I plaued. I think the setting is really compelling and I am wondering whether there will be more story telling in some form in the full game. It certainly piqued my interest. But then I am not really a multiplayer person (and I suppose the game really shines when playing in a team), I lack the skills for such games, and mostly play VR. But if it would get a VR mode I would definitely try the full game.

There are very few things one "must" own if any. But best played on psvr2: re4 remake, re village, gt7, nms, hitman. The awesome vr game synapse is only playable on psvr2. Then there are many great multi platform vr games, which often play as good or better than on a high end pc. In that sens "must own" is not so wrong.

Maybe some people here have some internal information. To me it just seems that people complain about everything and are unhappy with everything.

Does somebody know what bluepoint really wanted to do ? And does somebody know that Ryan and Hulst forced BluePoint to do some multiplayer game ? The only thing I remember is that bluepoint wanted to do their own thing rather than just remaking games. Maybe BluePoint+Sony overestimated their skills and they just lacked the skill set to do what they wanted to do. Maybe bluepoint really wanted to do a multiplayer game ?

But let's blame everything on Hulst and ignore that the gaming industry stopped growing, that most people just play fortnite, or gta online. Let's ignore that hardly anybody plays any of the gorgeous indie games and just asks for more skyrim or other installments of popular IPs. But let's complain about that there are too many remakes, but bluepoint should just have made another remake anyways, that there are too many horizon games, and that it is disaster that horizon 3 will not come anytime soon because of the multiplayer spin off. Let's complain about Sony just making multiplayer games and rave about arc raiders or buy another copy of gta5 to play gta online. Lets complain about the measly weak 10TF ps5 and ***** on the ps5pro that nobody asked for. Let's complain about the bad performance of some gorgeous looking games and complain about the possible release of the ps6, because nobody wants it.

I just see a lot of people complaining about everything, and ignoring all the good things. PS5's design may not appeal, but otherwise it is a big step up from ps4. psvr2 is a big step up from psvr1. But instead of innovations people want VR rather to disappear, for some strange reason. Globally the graphical fidelity of the majority of the modern games is through the roofs. There are more great games releasing constantly anybody could play, but most of them are ignored, likely because people have difficulties to decide between all the offerings and just fall back to what they know: fortnite etc.

I think it looks great, whether it also plays as good as the main Horizon games is hard to tell from the trailer. But, obviously it is very different in tone. There original games are kind of serious, where this seems more humorous. So, it may appeal to a rather different audience, and may even differentiate itself from the more serious MP games including, I suppose, even Monster Hunter. But, this is fine, not every games needs to be for everybody. Concerning myself, I really liked the original Horizon games. It seems that the gameplay elements which made those games great are also present here, but I am not really into multi player games, and I presumably prefer the tone of the originals.

I liked the watch dogs series and I may have liked legions better than the second installment. But I agree with others that the first one was the best despite its rather implausible main protagonist.

It cannot be the ultimate Horror game without a VR mode ...

I finally picked up Dreams of Another on psvr2. I was intrigued by the game, when it was announced, but I was not sure that I would like it enough for the full price. The current sale was convincing enough, and I played maybe 1-2 hours. Based on what I played so far, I think that it is an extraordinary game! I really like the rendering technique, the writing, the voice acting and the music. Certainly this is not for everybody, and the VR version may not be for people without relatively strong VR legs.

@TheFakulty video games, in general, are a waste of precious time. You should try to make the world a better place instead.

Personally, I think the world, the characters, the effects look very intriguing, and the audio design in the trailers is fantastic. It also seems that people who played the later iterations have been quite happy without what they have played. Unfortunately, it has this sticker "sony-now-makes-only-live-service-games" otherwise people would be less negative about it and give it a fair judgement.

If it had a VR mode, I certainly would give it a shot. Without a psvr2 mode, I am not so sure. I am not really into mutliplayer shooters and mostly play VR games.

Likely it will not matter to the developer, but without a VR mode for the playstation version (psvr2), Ace combat 8 it will sell one copy less.

It is certainly good if the game selection is more curated. And to keep trophies meaningful, if the criteria to obtain trophies are to some degree consistent. So, this sounds like a welcome action.

On the other hand "censorship" is only good if "every" consumer is happy with the applied criteria. Thus, it would be good to know what criteria Sony applied to remove these games. So, hopefully pushsquare gets a reply.