glennthefrog

Really depends on the new name. I don't think a change is necessary but if it's an agreeable enough name it's fine. If it's unwieldy nonsense it will be a bad move.

Synergy with the larger Sony behemoth is meaningless to me, I don't use or care about anything else they do as a company. Maybe others care about singular branding.

Looks good to me.

@DennisReynolds Cyberpunk was okay-ish on PS4 Pro at launch and a disaster on Standard PS4, just for one example. Standard PS5s are the majority, and that's what I have, so I'll wait for those impressions.

I have no idea what you mean about Asian players either. I've lived in Korea and they have people who bitch about frame rates and whatnot as much as anywhere else. Maybe not the same in other Asian markets, I can't say.

@scottXedgar It's been interesting to see publications circle the wagons on certain titles/topics. I think many bloggers see more common ground with developers as fellow industry professionals than their customers/readers.

It's a tough situation because that divide is obviously driving all the job losses in game development and games media.

It looks like an extremely niche game. Dedicated fan base where the game perfectly clicks, but it's not a mainstream aesthetic at all. The purposefully ugly look is always overestimated by the minority who enjoy it.

I'll have to see how it plays before deciding to pick it up. It could be all flash and no substance or an ugly-but-good gem.

This is an easy 'wait for 5-6 patches plus potential GOTY edition'. I'd be shocked if it wasn't a buggy mess on console at launch since they've done their best to hide that version up til now.

Don't be an unpaid (actually, you paid) bug tester.

Seems like you guys are on a hair trigger on this topic. I don't think many people are that fussed that PS5 is missing out on ports of mid-budget titles that are 2-3 years old (or a mediocre remake of a 15 years old DS game).

It would be another thing if we missed out on FF17, Dragon Quest 12 or something substantial the way Xbox and Nintendo players have in the past. But the games cited in this article are extremely inconsequential and most of them produced well before Sony claimed to have shifted strategy.

Microsoft offered them a money hat and they took it. I can understand it, BD is a niche franchise so the payout is probably enough to make a port worth it financially. I'd imagine their policy of multiplats with no deals moving forward only applies to heavy hitters, not smaller games that struggle to sell. For smaller titles the money hat is the safe choice with little downside.

Another factor that probably played a role is the PS5 (really home consoles generally) floundering in Japan.

It'll hit PS5 eventually most likely, and if not to be honest it's not a big loss. I thought BD was a bit of a bore and JRPGs are my favorite genre.

@psmr Society consistently overestimates the competency of the C-suite.

Stuff like this is a mix of face saving and/or institutional inertia. They aren't willing to commit to Xbox but don't want to be seen as canceling Xbox. Many people will lose their positions, not just the peons but executives, if Xbox is mothballed in a way that looks embarrassing. So we get this half-in half-out situation that is doomed.

@Vertere Good idea. It would probably be hard to easily communicate that to casual customers (since it's one game only) but it should be there regardless for knowledgeable customers who might be on the fence.

Same with Helldivers to be honest. GaaS that cost $40 offering free online would be a nice precedent.

@jeff19023 The real problem isn't that no one wants GaaS, it's that only a handful of GaaS can be viable at the level Sony is pursuing at any one time and bigger fish have already occupied those slots.

People like Fortnite and Arc Raiders but they don't have time to play competitors because those two already monopolize their time and they may have already invested into cosmetics that further anchor them to those games.

@Max_the_German They need to sell 7 million, assuming development costs were around $250m.

I personally don't think this was ever going to be a Concorde-level disaster. It's made by Bungie for one thing, a developer with a large fan base. They will at least buy and try it and that will help them to recoup some degree of the costs.

I think the actual concern is this will be like Anthem, selling a few million but ultimately being a financial loss because it doesn't take off as a successful shop (since that's really the point of GaaS). We'll see though, opinion is very polarized. Concorde and Highguard had no fans, at least Marathon has some.

It's a strange situation, because for comparison Slay the Spire 2 (released on same day) has 5x the peak player count yet barely has more reviews than Marathon on Steam (roughly 9k for Marathon vs 10k for Spire 2).

So an unusually high number of users are leaving reviews compared to another title released same day with significantly more users. It could simply be Marathon players are extra dedicated, or just extra motivated to combat the 'Concorde 3' meme. It is strange though, enough that I'll wait to trust the user score for the moment. Positive review bombing also exists.

I'm in the underwhelmed camp as well. I enjoyed GOT but don't have a lot of interest in this one based on what we've seen. I'd be slightly more hyped if Jin's story was continuing on the Japanese mainland, but the gameplay looks like more of the same either way so it wouldn't make it a day one purchase.

I also might be biased because I can't remember the last Sony sequel that was as good as the original, unless you count Astro Bot as a sequel to Astro's Playroom. Spidey 2, GOWR and TLOU2 all fell flat for me, not terrible but 8/10, whereas their predecessors were all 9.5 or 10s imo.

@Flaming_Kaiser That would be a typical Atlus move. They love making their fans pay for the same thing in several versions over a couple years. Generally after insisting there will be no DLC or Royal/Reload edition at the game's launch.

I half expect them to first sell the P3 Reload with Answer DLC all on one disc in 2026, then wait a year and release P3 Reload Platinum with all the above and FemMC.

I'll buy it when it hits between $20-30 just like the original. If it's a code in a box I'll wait til it's $10 or not bother.

I hope this one is a truly definitive version with all the Golden content included.

P3 Reload was great but it sucks that fans still have to choose between a version with The Answer (and therefore the true ending) or the Female MC.

First one had a few rough edges and some jank but there was the core of a great game. With a bit more time (and budget) to polish I'm hoping they can smooth all that out and give us something really special with the sequel.

To be fair a lot of companies did try their hand at copying Mario Party, they all just bombed spectacularly.

-Sonic Shuffle
-Disney Party
-Shrek Super Party
-Muppets Party Cruise
-Pac-Man Party
-Alien League

Those are just ones I remembered from back in the day. I recall there were many many others though. The key is quality, those games lacked it for the most part. Hopefully this LEGO game is top notch, MP could use some competition.

I'd say it was a good show.

It was similar to what we used to get during the big E3 blowouts, not quite at that level but maybe that on a down year. Compared to previous State of Plays this was a S-tier banger though.

Potentially three seasons to adapt TLoU2 was just an awful idea. It wasn't a universal fan favorite story direction to start with, everyone can at least agree it was quite polarizing. That's not the sort of project you stretch out over what will probably be 3-5 years of development hoping viewers hold interest.

I at least am happy it's becoming okay again to say the plot is lacking without being censored or shouted down. It's had the same polarizing effect in two different mediums now. Obviously it's not beyond reproach.

I regretted buying the first one, and I got it for $15. The reviews and impressions of this one sound like they've magnified every flaw of the original.

It's a shame because Ninja Theory is a really good dev, or have been in the past. Enslaved was an underrated gem.

There are so many problems this one has to overcome to succeed, I just don't see it happening.

-Wrong genre (has to compete with Marathon and Arc Raiders)

-GaaS reputation is mud among PlayStation devotees

-Premise and art style are already looking anachronistic. 'Eat the rich' premise was all the rage when it was green lit but it's cooled off now. The only way they could make it seem less lame is by leaning far into the radical direction, grabbing the Luigi sympathizer audience, but there is no chance a corporation allows that level of transgressive edge in a product this mainstream.

@Oram77 'Best shape' for Bethesda is 6-12 months after launch when fans finish debugging it. Unfortunately console players never get those improvements.

They can save the port costs on this one. It's boring to the core.

I don't pay full price for digital or code in a box, others may have similar purchasing habits. Reviews also made it sound good but not stellar. I'll get it on sale down the line.

Should have been Digital Devil Saga.

But I'll definitely pick this one up anyway. Atlus is always quality.

@AhmadSumadi That's actually a really great feature that should be implemented. Might have to work with a mic to get pronunciation right for unusual names.

But personally I reserve A1 for steaks.

Let's just shoot for profitability first.

Unless they've invested so much it has to be an instant blockbuster or else it's a financial failure, in which case...keep those resumes updated to be safe.

@AverageGamer They have a similar arc as Rareware. Ever since leaving Microsoft they're not exactly bad but also not the same level of quality as the golden age.

I thought this 'design language' was sterile, sexless and boring Current Year slop, not a world I'd care to interact with, but the artist obviously needs to be compensated.

Everything I hear about Bungie since entering the PS fold has been bad. Seems like a very questionable investment so far.

@Damage99 They already did the opposite by splitting 'III' into 'I' and 'II' during the Nintendo Direct trailer so it would be true to form.

If it runs well and they don't censor anything I'll be there day one.

@ATaco It turns out the plot was always shoddy, the idea it was just gamer bigotry or whatever was pure cope. Killing off a beloved father figure (and in this case, star of the show that kept women watching) in that manner is always going to crush enthusiasm because it's bad writing, it was entirely predictable this would happen again.

This is a misuse of the term review bombing.

If viewers genuinely watch the show and find it lacking it's not 'bombing' to give an honest negative review. It's only 'bombing' when reviews are submitted en masse by people who didn't watch the show and only gave it the bad score to do it harm.

Viewers just don't like the direction the series has taken. It happens.

The chasm between critics and users the author refers to is due to the critics by and large being compromised and untrustworthy. It's the downside of access journalism.

Confirming the obvious I think. They're going to milk this cow until it's dead.

Halo 1-3 + Reach/ODST are my most-wanted Xbox exclusives. I just hope they don't drip feed us one game at a time.

I'm honestly very disappointed it's just one game and the not the trilogy. I'm not sure I will jump in day one now, I definitely would have if it were more than just Gears 1, but I do appreciate the lower price.

Spoiler: It won't be coming out in May 2026 either.

If you're going to take the plunge and buy one, do it now. It would be great if Sony didn't raise the price to match competitors but it's almost certain they will in short order.

3 was so bad it made me skip Tiny Tina's game. From what we've seen I don't think 4 will be able to draw me back into the franchise either.

@danzoEX If the reviewer considers grinding a negative, and obviously they do, that makes sense. Suikoden's design holds up much better to modern sensibilities.

@Foxhound I just need these and I'm basically set on classic RPGs that are currently locked to classic hardware:

-Breath of Fire 3+4
-Xenogears
-Suikoden 3-5
-Vagrant Story

I'm shocked we got Lunar. It looked lost a lost cause for so many years due to IP rights. It's great to have two of the genres best remastered.

@thechetearly Yep. And the price being kept secret almost never turns out to be good news in the end, so it sends a bad signal.

Sounds very generous.