nathanSF

@thedevilsjester Do'h! thanks, that sounds obvious now you mention it.

So Quill is a West ham fan according to the sweatband on the bedside chest

@thedevilsjester
Thanks, that's very clear. especially the "Second Issue" you address.
I'm no programmer, I'm just going on what I understand about blocks of modular structures, notions of elements, attributes and relationships and simple connection rules like, IF-THEN-ELSE-AND-OR, I'm not sure if we are talking about different things or different functions of the same thing, or the same thing from different angles.
I can see where your analogy will apply when talking about environments, lights, shading, audio, dialogue, apparel etc, where a bulk of data resides in a physical location and needs to be called on.
I can see how a slow moving, pedestrian, horseback etc environment can do more than a fast paced, contemporary urban environment like cyberpunk might present different challenges.
I'm now assuming it is the case that both (a) calls on physically located fixed assets - and (b) rule-based random generation and (c) other processes I'm unaware of, work hand in hand.
I assume there's a unique rule based routine that randomly generates NPC characters.
I imagine a library of physiology and clothing attributes linked to 'adult/child/ - male/female/ base model from which various character and diversity of gender types can be generated
A similar function would go for Level 1 - 10 Characters. so the physical location of the routines is irrelevant once it is pulled into system memory to run and generate the characteristics of the enemy/villain/character.
It would then make sense that if a player picks easy/normal/hard/crushing/ etc mode the game constantly filters responses through that routine.

@TheRedComet This is all very interesting.

@theheadofabroom Useful and interesting info. Thanks for that.
I pre-ordered the physical Deluxe edition for PS5 a week or so back after thinking about it for a while.

@thedevilsjester Indeed, though I was of the understanding that modular design of games did away with duplicate code.
So for example there is only ever one iteration of villain type 'x' code which is then called whenever needed and either has one or more fixed attribute variables added to 'level up' to fit given game progression stage or difficulty level, or if a 'commoner' / 'resident', has randomly generated set of physical attributes (from a global wardrobe with its own set of rules) or even personality traits/back story (from global text library of character traits with its own grammatical rules), to create a diverse population - which is where the super-efficient compression creates more variables in less space and super fast 'decompression' delivers seamless gameplay.
For example, maybe in Cyberpunk 2077 they did not write in a rule that said "IF there is a person x with attributes y in a given zone, Then do not repeat generation rule." But wanting to populate a city zone, they got lazy with the code which looped/ called back to the same character code. They could have written a complex algorithm to randomly generate characters but were not up to it so we have sparsely populated areas with people of some variation. Didn't assassins creed do a better job of crowding out streets?

@artemisthemp
Perhaps...
If I remember rightly, A faster cpu and smarter OS can do a much better job of decompressing (more streamlined & compressed) data on the fly.
So I guess the PS5 HW/SW allows for on one hand a more streamlined compression that contains more data in fewer lines of code, and on the other hand a much faster system of restoring then presenting the data as playable software.
There is no loss of quality at all, in fact, better compression algorithms can accommodate even more data with fewer lines of code.

@WanderingBullet
Now that was good!

Once again, the love of decision flowcharts and process logic (I did an MSc in this kind of stuff) over rides realworld situations where people learn to co-operate, learn, improve, improvise, assist.
It only takes one 'bully' to ruin team spirit.
The model disregards those finer qualities human interaction and co-operation and encourages self-interest, impatience.
Most of us are pretty good at self-regulating and staying or leaving depending on how well we fit with a team.
Do we really need this (im)balance?

They are brilliant. Haven't seen the Aloy and Drake ones, will keep an eye out for them

@Juanalf Good point. In fact, I enjoy story/mission based games more than the MP online element too. Perhaps because of the expanding GTA5 world, there might be more of a reason to keep GTA 6 as a single player game.

With so much expansion, why on earth are people clamouring for a GTA 6?

Would have been interesting to see the comparative stats.
of those who said (a) the following voted for ,1,2,3,4 etc.

@Feena Thanks, that's very helpful. In fact, I've found this whole discussion thread useful. I was looking for something lightweight after a traumatic realization when playing the first Uncharted for the 3rd/4th time that Nathan Drake is a deluded serial killer so fixated on his goal he has no awareness of the path of death and bloodshed in his wake . Damn, any normal guy would have been sickened by his actions after the first few kills, but not Nathan Drake. The man's a psychopath who's allowed an older man and fit young woman, both not a real threat to his 'manhood', into his trusted circle.
So, I might give Kena a try

@Feena Interesting, is it possible to compare?

That sort of takes me back. I used have a Suzuki 250 and Honda 200. Scared the s**t out of my pillion passengers when I took the corners. lol

@get2sammyb Thanks, that makes the game a little more appealing. I'm trying to convince myself to pre-order and your review did push the potential forward a little.

@BowTiesAreCool Did you read the more recent iteration of Thanos's childhood story up to how he became the mad tyrant we all know and love. His history & relationship with 'Lady Death' is a pretty smart take.

@OmegaStriver Cautiously optimistic pretty much nails it.

@get2sammyb I was tentatively looking forward to this game. The review here is a bit 50/50 as as incentive. Please tell me there's none of that planetary mining drudgery to upgrade the ship etc. That put me right off Mass Effect

They could easily do the Doctor Strange story where the "bill comes due" and all his magic is taken from him and he travels the universe in search of magic artifacts to restore his powers.
Y'know, because it transpires that magic costs and Doctor Strange has been running up one helluva debt.

@hypnotoad @GoodGame.
50? 55? Pah! you youngsters haven't lived.

@sajoey Agreed, I enjoyed 1 and 2 immensely, and the spooky vampire one. Second Son was good, but not great.

Agreed, much as i loved the first game they can keep this overpriced PS5 sting

If you pledge 40 quid or more you get soft cover issue 1 and 2 only 38 left as of 20th august 16.30pm.
I've chipped in for this bundle.
hurry hurry...

@The-Sega-KiD
Ah, where would we be without riff-raff and their scurrilous ingenuity; their brazen disregard of mundane, pedestrianised deference to gaming conventions?

What a crappy, mediocre selection this month. I'd take the tennis and give it a shot if it were PS5.. opps awp69 must have read my mind.

@Logonogo
My thoughts exactly. Watching the trailer, I thought ' looks like more of the same'
I tried a restart and it did feel very repetitive.

Well, having read the review and all the comments here, I'm sold. Just need to finish Procession to Calvary.

I was going to say something but the washing machine just pinged; the dog cushions are clean and ready to be dried. I just wish the Matrix was a bit more exciting.

My last foray into EA was Anthem, and I'm happy to say that was my last and final contribution to EA coffers.

@Flaming_Kaiser
Football got lost on the way home and ended up in Italy. I guess it's true even in football, this year at least that: "All roads lead to Rome."

@reek There's this concept called ideology or in common terms, 'false consciousness'; a system of beliefs and values that can be manipulated by government, and those with control over media and education. It's a system you are born into so you think 'the way things are' and the way you see the world is "Reality" and true in some way.
Maybe back in the day teams did represent and arise from the local community, but that isn't real anymore. Even for some national teams where some players play for a country because a grandparent was from there.
Nevertheless, you can still know all this - be free from all this patriotism crap, and still support a team because it's fun (and sometimes other not so fun emotions) to do so, along with friends, go along for the ride. EA, like the FA, Premier League, UEFA, FIFA etc are simply profiting from this 'ideology' - oh, teams too with their extortionate season ticket, merchandise market and the billions they make off this sometimes naive 'loyalty'. Most of us are happy to disregard and not think about this commercialisation and corruption and just enjoy the immediate experience.

The long and the short of is, "Playstation is in Crisis".
When things are going swimmingly people are happy to talk about how well things are going and all their plans, hopes, expectations for the future.
When swimmingly turns into knee deep in s**t, it's a different story. Sony, indies, retailers, supply chain, hardware manufacturers have all been hit hard by Coronavirus and Climate Change.

Excellent call Ubi. If only CDPR took the same approach and put all their time, energy and resources into Cyberpunk 2077 being a current- gen game rather than kowtowing to money-focussed investors with no idea or understanding of the technology and game development who forced a broad last-gen (and even Fricking Stadia) release. Thank God they didn't push for a Nintendo release, then we'd really be screwed.

So this is Ken from Barbie and Ken, using all his outfits to solve crimes. How divine, a game for our times. What's not to love?
Actually, I played the CSI game on playstation and the Crime and Punishments. In the end I decided that I preferred the Sherlock Holmes written stories and went back to reading them. Oh, that and Burn Notice on Star/Disney+

"--"Siren Head". This is being used as another link to Silent Hill--"
Both begin with SH.
Plus all those other 'coincidences' you don't have to be a Zodiac Cryptographer to figure out these clues.
But much kudos to "aidthisfellowuser" on Reddit for pulling it all together. Surely the person needs an award - even if it's all wrong - to provide us with such a delectable arrangement of connections

@JechtUltima
From my experience and what I've heard from friends who played it on the PS5, Problems on the new machines are few and far between.

This may be excellent news as it could be arriving with the PS5 upgrade and maybe more content.
Putting aside the legitimate criticisms of the initial release and the subsequent rat-tag bandwagon of ranters and puerile comments of wannabe satirists - this is a Damn fine game. I was more than happy to have a crash every 4-5 hours of play; which was never a problem due to the frequent autosaves.
I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll get.

@fR_eeBritney
I will go one better , what is Gamora?
No really, what is that?
I just saw the 11+minute gameplay, the character look and outfits are slightly jarring, like cosplay from someone with a vague memory from having seen the film once on release.

@MrGawain Agreed. BGE2 was the one and only thing I looked out for.
I can only hope they are reserving it for a "surprise" /thanksgiving / Christmas / Superbowl. release
The only thing worse than release of unfinised, buggy games, is false hope.

I'm really in two minds as to whether to buy this. I had the last game and found some challenges excruciatingly frustrating, especially when they came in middle of some truly immersive fun.

@TheFrenchiestFry Both are incorrect, its Spider-Man

@Daveuppercut you get the award for my first PushSquare laugh of the day. Well done.

@RudeAnimat0r Agreed, roundabout the time Drake gets his iconic gear on - when we get a possible teaser for a sequel.

Theia is a hypothesized ancient planet in the early Solar System that, according to the giant-impact hypothesis, collided with the early Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, with some of the resulting ejected debris gathering to form the Moon. So from that point of view the planet is the mother and the creatures being unconscious representations of how Selene internalised the different facets of her mother. At the Same time, Selene sees herself as the mother battling her own internal monsters. So in this sense Selene is both the protagonist (daughter-mother)and the antagonist (Mother and internalised-aspects-of-mother) The Son/Sun Helios is the source of power/light. Power in that it gives Selene purpose, agency and is also something unattainable. Her character identity, by becoming an explorer of her own or mother's internal world means she has abandoned the source of light that gives her life meaning/purpose thus making her like the narcissistic, neglectful mother. In every narrative, the child dies/is abandoned. The pregnant body represents the incomplete/unfulfilled/abandoned mother.
etc etc...

@Rob_230 Oxenfree, definitely, a very pleasant game and one I would recommend

Just goes to show how much CDPR dumbed down to get Cyberpunk 2077 crude enough for old-gen consoles, stadia and X-Box. Damn, just think what Night City would have been like if Cyberpunk 2077 was built as a PS5 exclusive.

Can't see why they can't have portals into your games in Home. So if you and friends have the game, the portal is visible to you all and if you jump in from Playstation Home you all join the same co-op / team game

@thedevilsjester Thanks, that's very interesting and useful to know. Appreciated