glennthefrog

@TrickyDicky99 That right there is precisely the problem.

I doubt the GaaS titles would be getting nearly this level of hate if not for the fact it's obvious resources have been moved away from single-player experiences to chase that trend.

Gamers see development resources as a zero-sum game, and rightfully so given the output this generation, and they're vocally against shifting so many of those resources/teams to GaaS. Luckily Sony has course corrected to some extent by now, however we won't see the fruits of that until either the end of PS5 or early-gen PS6.

@BeerIsAwesome Frankly that just sounds like a bunch of racist assumptions that you're using to hand wave aside the success of Wukong. But indeed, time will tell and the sales figures don't lie.

@BeerIsAwesome What does that even mean? Are you suggesting the Chinese government is directing players to buy Wukong?

The first game was an absolute blast. Like Metroid Prime with a silly sense of humor and loads of anti-corporate satire. I'd highly recommend it and can't wait for this sequel.

@BeerIsAwesome I'm sure if Concord was available in China it would be crushing the sales charts too...

Just seems like cope to me. Chinese players count as much as anyone else.

@Ryall If they left it the same way as P3 FES (which they really should) then it would be possible to jump straight into The Answer from the main menu without completing P3. There are even two separate save files. I hope it's the same with this remake.

The Answer doesn't carry over your levels, or at least it didn't on PS2, so there was no connection between them.

I'm still holding out to see if we ever get a complete release. Atlus has claimed we won't...but they also claimed there would be no The Answer DLC so their word is worth nothing.

If that doesn't happen I'd probably just skip The Answer altogether. I beat it as part of P3: FES back in the day and it was a miserable experience to be honest but I felt compelled to finish it for completions sake since P3 is one of my all-time favorites.

Their media rollout got blown up by the sudden shutdown of Game Informer, who had the world exclusive. So at this point they're scrambling to get info out, and hype up, after the loss of Plan A.

The game will probably suck because Bioware has been circling the drain for years now, but I feel bad for them in this instance. They got hammered by something totally out of their control.

@MFTWrecks Nailed it.

There are only two reasons to buy a Ubi games at full prices, you're either extremely excited and therefore willing to pay top-dollar for an incomplete product just to have it early or you're a total sucker. For the majority of players waiting for the complete edition is the correct decision.

I'm in for any R&C ports, but I really want Crack in Time. Easily the pinnacle of the series imo.

@BeerIsAwesome No one asked for more live service games. If anything the popular sentiment has been very much against with a few noteworthy exceptions. The only people asking for this were corporate execs.

Also, ripping off Overwatch isn't really doing something different.

@Nepp67 I agree with you on the character designs. Just awful, imo. Both aesthetically ugly and incredibly derivative.

The game itself is not bad, though many characters move like slugs, but I'm not investing time or money into these characters. It's like the anti-Overwatch in that regard, a game that ended up being a hit on the basis of its character designs (and porn, to be fair, but that was also due to aesthetically pleasing designs).

@Max_the_German Needs to be cyberpunk, so the American dream would be totally anachronistic. The focus on Americana is nonsensical because in that setting nations have given way to corporations as the primary drivers of society.

I don't mind the little details they mention from an art design perspective but cyberpunk as a genre isn't about national culture whatsoever. They should focus on post-humanism, AI vs organic intelligence, extreme poverty and extreme technological wonders side-by-side. Plenty to explore there and the first game just scratched the surface.

Oh, and a game that actually runs at launch would be swell.

I know several people with the same Days Gone story: passed it over at launch, got it free/cheap years later, and were really blown away by how good it was.

Problem is, those people weren't there paying full price for it (although they might for a sequel) so it doesn't mean much to Sony. Second, and I think more significant, problem is that the zombie pop culture craze had died down since its release. Sony has a finite amount of resources for AAA development, they're already committed to Last of Us and the zombie sub-genre's popularity doesn't really justify a second game dedicated to it anymore. If Days Gone were not a zombie game I think it might get another shot, but it is so it's going to be viewed as redundant.

You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

@DaniPooo I hear you, but that train left the station six FFs ago. From XI forward they've been a huge departure from the original ATB turn-based systems. Your RTS hypothetical doesn't hold much water when they've already genre-hopped to MMO twice now.

At this point FF is an aesthetic with recurring themes/locales/character names. That's all.

I liked it alright, 8/10.

I'm not sure I totally agree it's 'not a Final Fantasy game'. It's a sorta FF game thematically and visually. Like if FF was mixed with bog-standard medieval European fantasy. I don't use gameplay to really determine if a game is FF because if that was the bar the series ended at either IX or X.

In terms of gameplay it's a good action game, not great, for 90% of the runtime. The boss fights are electric, which carried me through the rather blah plot because I knew there would be a payoff every now and then.

I can totally understand why longtime FF fans wouldn't care for it. I can also understand why people like it more than XV (though that game is closer to the FF spirit than XVI imo) because it at least felt coherent rather than thrown together.

XVI was searching for a new audience. I'm not sure if they found it, but that was clearly the goal. As a longtime fan that's disappointing because westernizing JRPGs tends to rob them of their charm a bit. I do hope XVII goes back to the series roots but I don't have much faith it will. It's a shame because other games like Persona 5 and SMT5 are proving there is plenty of life left in turn-based JRPGs if you do them well.

Square-Enix is chasing the western audience. I don't much care for that but I don't expect it to change.

@Matroska Agreed.

It makes just as much sense imo not to show it off at SGF. A new Tales game during Sony's show (for example) would still be overshadowed by Sony's otherwise lackluster lineup being the headline. A new Tales game during Microsoft's show would have been overshadowed by Doom, Perfect Dark, etc. plus Japan doesn't care about Xbox.

Announcing a new Tales a few weeks later when it's going to be the only major headline that day makes sense to me.

@Cloud39472 They released Abyss on 3DS. I think that's what's been holding it up on consoles. I'm with you though, it's long past time to get it back on home setups.

I think it met my expectations, but I expected a middle of the road show in terms of announcements.

Compared to the glory days of E3 it fell far short of that, but again, I don't think it was reasonable to expect that level of hype (and companies prioritizing it) for a far less prestigious venue for announcements.

Microsoft's showcase was probably equal to a classic 1st party E3 show, but Sony and 3rd parties weren't. And the market leader (Nintendo) was totally absent, which also made it basically impossible to create the unifying industry hype machine that E3 once was.

@Rich33 That was an excellent explanation, I really appreciate it. It sheds light on the problem from the perspective of someone experiencing it, which is always interesting to read.

I see so much discussion about how FPS can make a game unplayable but haven't known anyone personally who felt this way except in a strictly snobbish sense (I paid for this great rig, why is it not 60FPS locked?!?). Now I understand why it's such a vital issue to people like you. Thanks for broadening my perspective

@Rich33 @Pranwell What is the difference, if you don't mind me asking? I'm curious because I haven't been bothered by 30FPS or a framerate dip here and there. (And I did try googling the question, just with no success) Is it a vision thing , or that you've been gaming in the modern era so didn't build a tolerance for wonky framerate we suffered through in past eras?

I get it for competitive games with lag. But it sounds really bothersome to you even in single player.

There is a lot to improve in Hogwarts Legacy, so I could see an enhancement being a worthwhile endeavor if they really get ambitious.

More likely though it will just be the equivalent of a decent DLC pack to reel in a few more million sales before the inevitable announcement of Legacy 2.

@Ainu20 It's not so much whether 8K matters to many people, I don't even care about 4K personally, but it was advertised on the box and doesn't exist. That counts as false advertising whether we think it matters or not. It shouldn't have been mentioned at all.

@dskatter I wouldn't call it a huge letdown either, as I'm not one to act as if games aren't perfectly playable at 30FPS.

But Sony did make some strong claims when they announced the PS5 that they've failed to deliver upon. It was touted as having butter-smooth 60 FPS as close to standard for major titles, 4K for many games and even 8K on occasion. The reality has been almost no solid 60FPS games in the AAA tier, even less 4K and no 8K whatsoever. The packaging is a good example of the walkback, it mentioned 8K initially and that has been recently removed. Sony definitely promised more than they delivered in terms of framerate and resolution.

Sony is putting up as many obstacles as they possibly can for this game, and it doesn't even look great to begin with.

Not F2P when that's the genre standard, requires PSN account on PC which is sure to tick off that group. Let's see what they can come up with next to reduce Concord's chances of success.

@Specky Part 1 was always going to get the short shrift, sadly. Naughty Dog's leadership favors Part 2 and doesn't want to admit the first game was simply better from a narrative perspective. All the hate for 2 has made them dig in their heels on that point. So we got a rushed season of the first game and the second's narrative will get room to breathe since it's their favorite. Would have made much more sense to do two seasons each, imo.

I suspect they'll wait as long as possible to kill Pedro Pascal. Either at the end of season 2 or sometime in season 3.

@AdamNovice Yeah, as long as the cut scenes endear the characters to the player it can overcome a lack of plot. Overwatch did a great job of that. OW also had killer character designs though, which helps a lot, whereas this game doesn't imo. So it may require a bit more effort to charm players.

This game looks like absolute slop to me, but maybe it will find an audience, who knows. It will certainly be promoted more than the average hero shooter.

I'm shocked it's not F2P. I think $40 is a big ask for this game, unless it's best in class for the genre. Will the casual audience that will determine its success be willing to take the plunge at that price? Even Overwatch is F2P these days.

It's the intersection of intoxication, overworked staff and less refined clientele (white trash, drug addicts, poor people generally) that creates the toxic brew.

Roughly 10 years I went for an after-party meal with friends at 3am on a Friday night in the Dallas, North Carolina WH. Two women were sniping at one another from across the restaurant as we entered. It escalated to the point that one grabbed the other by her hair and dragged her into the small glass-enclosed entry space (WH customers will know what I mean) and they had an extremely close-quarters brawl as staff and customers alike watched. Went on for about 10 minutes before both combatants slumped to the ground in drunken exhaustion.

Cops came shortly thereafter and arrested the ladies. One of the combatants had ordered a full meal before the brawl and rather then let it go to waste the waitress donated it to my friend who didn't have enough money to buy anything. All in all a very memorable experience. I wish Harada could have seen it, it was an all-american display of the worst (vicious brawl) and best (donating food to the hungry poor) of humanity.

@LifeGirl To be fair, Square also has that issue with their heavy-hitters like FF16 and Rebirth. But they even things out with the mid-budget stuff like Star Ocean, Diofield, Harvestella, etc. Now if only they could not release all those games on top of each other to avoid cannibalizing their sales...

It seems like they've already been The Last of Us studio forever.

@RadioHedgeFund Helldivers 2 is a good example of this. So much of its success comes from Steam users. Any live service game needs to be PC/PS5 on day one at absolute minimum. If they're serious about aiming for the king they have to expand that even further to phones and Switch as you noted.

@Gamer_X It's going to truly wild when the Xbox showcase reveals more interest upcoming PS5 titles than this SOP.

Concord looks like the the 'mom can we get overwatch?' 'no, we have Overwatch at home' meme come to life. Over/under on it's lifespan is 9 months imo.

@Max_the_German The kids market is $10 lower and this needs to appeal to that group to maximize sales, at least imo.

I don't dispute it's going to be great, I love Astro and it will surely be worth 70 for me. I just think they should try to push it against Mario games, which are all at the 50 to 60 price point.

@Nepp67 Yeah, I thought the same. Looked like the original character design was having an allergic reaction.

@Tecinthebrain Not even Nintendo asks 70 for a platformer, iirc the only 1st party title they've ever sold at that price is Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

Astro really needs to be 50. That is the sweet spot imo. Parents can easily find Mario Wonder/Odyssey at that price or lower. Astro needs to target the same audience.

@UltimateOtaku91 The PS5 pack-in tech demo is the best ad they could ever ask for to juice interest in Astro, so I am optimistic it will have an audience.

If it's not a full 70 that would also be a big help, but I'm going to assume it is. I'll be there day one regardless.

Probably going to contend with Rebirth and Infinite Wealth for my GOTY unless Nintendo pulls something truly special out of their hat for the fall.

They want Concord to succeed so bad. Will be interesting to see how people like it during the beta. Right now I can't decide if that 10 minutes of attention is a sign they've got something great on their hands or that the suits demand live service uber alles.

@GagaOooLaLa A lot of their development muscle was tied up in since-canceled live service games until very recently. I think that's the explanation for this.

Astro looked awesome. I'll pass on everything else, but SH and MH will surely please a lot of people. So I voted 'Okay', which honestly seems generous.

@AccessibleDaydream It depends on what you mean. It is turn-based, so similar in that way.

But if you love Persona for the social links then Trails isn't really on that level. You can raise friendship level with playable characters and the dialogue is good, but you usually don't get the emotional arcs of a social link progression.

@ProfessorNiggle I personally loathe live service games, but I do agree it's a sign something has to change. AAA budgets have just gotten totally out of control. Sony, and everyone else in the industry, has to rein that in if they want to avoid a crash.

I'd offer the solution of not releasing bleeding edge hardware and not targeting industry-leading graphics. Sort of like Nintendo has done, except maybe less drastic. Stay one gen behind top of the line PCs and it would reduce costs tremendously. In that scenario the PS6 would only be an incremental improvement over the PS5 Pro, then resume generational leaps with PS7. I think this will be easier to achieve if Microsoft does indeed drop the Xbox hardware, at that point Sony's only competitor would be Nintendo who is likely to be close to a decade behind in hardware even with Switch 2. And they're further hampered by the handheld requirement, so little chance they push the envelope on hardware horsepower anytime soon.

@ChrisDeku I appreciate the breakdown

I think it's extremely presumptuous to expect the majority of that hypothetical 20 million to be $70 purchases though. That's going to dent the profit a bit. I'll be one of those future buyers eventually, for $20 or less most likely. It may not have been on sale yet but that will be the norm for the back end of its lifespan.

@UltimateOtaku91 Sony doesn't keep every cent of that 60 though, some of it's going to Marvel, and for physical a large chunk is going to the retailer who buys the game for less than 60 then sells it at MSRP. Digital is closer to the full 60, so it's good for Sony that the majority is digital these days.

It's a success, but not a half a billion in profit success. Probably closer to 100 million than 500 million after subtracting marketing and whatever retailers/licensee get from each sale. Not as dire as his original comment but not doubling its development costs either. Which is why Sony suits are so keen on live service, I imagine. If a massive success like Spidey 2 gets out-earned by AA live service like Helldivers that gets their attention.

@thefourfoldroot1 I'm in the same boat, except I finished MM. After putting it down I was pretty much done with Insomniac Spidey, I had zero interest in 2, and the first one was my GOTY. It's a fun formula, but it's been milked dry for me. I'll play 2 someday when it's either given away on PS Plus Essential or the physical version drops below $20

And it's weird, because Insomniac has been really good about not doing Ratchet games to death the last two generations. They seem to realize they have to space them out to keep it fresh, sort of like Nintendo only giving us one 3D Mario per console, and yet they haven't made this connection with Spidey. Or they're being forced to churn them out by higher-ups.

@somnambulance I felt like 5 was just another step in the direction that 4 had taken the franchise, but yeah, definitely more action-focused than past REs.

I could still enjoy RE5, but RE6 is the one that went full Bay. Had kaijus-sized infecteds and everything.

@somnambulance Why would RE5 need to be retconned? I thought it was a pretty fun.

Sheva's AI could definitely be improved, or even better allow online co-op with strangers, but aside from that I didn't have any major complaints with it.

Standard operating procedure for S-E, at least for big franchises like FF/KH/DQ. Get the hype train rolling and then no updates because the game was maybe 5% complete when they revealed it. It's pretty dumb, but they are never ever going to stop doing it.

@UncleByron We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I see your point, but to me it just came off as hack writing. I don't want to go into all the spoilers and wall of text, but to me the rationale 'ah well, they're traumatized so bad decisions make sense' seems like a massive cop out more than a reasonable explanation. Still enjoyed the game overall but the narrative didn't strike me as very reasonably constructed. It's a love it or hate it story for more reasons than just Joel's fate.