wildcat_kickz

@RoomWithaMoose Oh, certainly. It's definitely not business as usual. Things are definitely not going according to plan, that's for sure.

I guess the point I was trying to make is that just because things are trending down now doesn't mean that it will ultimately spell doom for Fortnite. It may plateau at a new normal, which might be sustainable with all the cost-cutting they're doing. Who knows? Maybe things will grow again after stabilization, but I doubt they'd staff up again like they did before.

@RoomWithaMoose I just don't think we have the data to support that. They've probably passed peak engagement and will have to find a new normal, but saying that it's a "grandiose decline" is putting the cart way before the horse.

The people in the comments thinking this is the end of Fortnite don't really understand what's happening here. Fortnite is not struggling - they're spending more than they are making, but they are making a lot.

I never spent a ton of time playing Hardline, but I do remember liking the campaign, as well as the unique game modes. The mode where the capture point was a car was a really cool idea.

I haven't played Fortnite in many, many years, but do feel for the 1000+ people about to lose their jobs. Maybe it's different in Europe, but for the US, those severance packages seem very generous, though.

@Boxmonkey Seriously, dude. Why are you commenting on every article that has to do with Marathon? You're pretty quick to say people who played Cryo have "no life." There's a metaphor about a pot and a kettle somewhere. Nope nothing comes to mind.

@Zeke68 Well, I'm an American, so I'm sure I'd have some beef with what you describe as the "American way" of doing business, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone for not cheering on corporations. I hate how pretty much every large corporation acts, regardless of where they're headquartered. There's no such thing as a benevolent for-profit, publicly-traded company.

My point was that this being a PlayStation website is not a relevant fact because Microsoft publishes games on PlayStation.

Love your Hunter's Mark icon, btw.

Bummer. I'm a huge sucker for medieval settings, but this gets a hard pass from me.

@Zeke68 I totally get that, but Microsoft is a huge player in the Sony ecosystem now, so I'm not sure it's fair or realistic to ask PS downplay their coverage. This isn't a dig at all, but there may also be a sort of negative confirmation bias thing happening (not sure if I'm using that correctly). This is to say, because you don't like the Xbox coverage, it sticks out more and seems more abundant that it actually is. I'm not saying you're wrong, btw. I guess it just doesn't bother me as much.

@Zeke68 It's the same as having a Square Enix headline or a Sega headline or a Capcom headline or an EA headline. Xbox is just a third-party publisher, who happens to be one of the largest, if not the largest, publishers on PlayStation.

Should they ignore games that are coming to PlayStation just because Microsoft is the company that announced them? Make it make sense.

@TrollOfWar I'm not sure Sega would be confident that their old formats would work for a modern release. People who grew up with those games are middle-aged. I'd imagine that Sega is relying on more than just nostalgia for these releases. Don't get me wrong - Crazy Taxi is one of the most formative games for me and I'd be over the moon for a new one that was just more of the same, but it is a very "time-and-place" type game: arcade mode, time trials, and punk rock.

I'm very interested in the Expanse game. I've never played an OwlCat game, but the switch to an over-the-shoulder shooter has my attention. I've also never read the Expanse books, but the show is freaking awesome. It looks like OwlCat is leaning into the more "grounded" part of the Expanse, too.

@Globo People use "AI" in such a broad way that it's basically impossible to have a realistic conversation about the pros and cons.

I'm still very much against using generative AI in most end-user products, but using AI as a productivity tool is pretty great. LLMs are fantastic and have such a wide use case. For example, having an LLM act as your lore bible repository when creating a fictional universe is so helpful.

The more I think about this, the sillier it feels to me. The PSN name actually has a lot of utility to distinguish itself from hardware. Saying the network is down is much more informative than saying PlayStation is down.

I'd give it a 7 or an 8, personally. The gunplay is rock-solid and I absolutely love the art style. The only things holding it back are my own skill and the game's inaccessibility to more casual gamers. I don't know if it's my new "forever game," but I've put probably 50 hours in so far and have been having a blast.

@Boxmonkey I really don't think they are. It's standard practice to not release a final review of a live-service game until a little bit after release, so reviewers can judge the live environment of the game. This is true for Marathon, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Destiny, etc., and is accepted practice amongst just about any reputable reviewer platform. People posting a "final" review after the game being out for a day are engagement farming.

Push Square has bent over backwards to be transparent about this, too. They posted an article explaining why a final verdict would take a while, then posted a review-in-progress, only to be dragged by people like yourself, who won't be happy with any outcome.

For someone who has no interest in playing Marathon, you're constantly criticizing Push Square over their coverage and also go out of your way to call Marathon "half dead," which is, at best, hyperbolic, and at worst, disingenuous rage-baiting.

Pick your poison, but regardless, you aren't putting your best foot forward.

@Boxmonkey A recent quote from Jeff Kaplan about criticizing games you haven't played comes to mind when reading your comments.

It is a nice shorthand for "Sony's online infrastructure," but ultimately, it doesn't really matter all that much. Acronyms are always fun, though.

Who can forget the "Bi-Angular Directionally-Assisted Stapling System"? /s

@somnambulance @Fluberuper In order for Sony to retain the Spider-Man movie license, they need to release at least one movie every 5 years, so expect many, many more Spider-Man movies in the future.

I'm so wildly tapped out on Marvel movies, but even I'm excited for this one.

@StrifeInMidgar Read his name out loud, haha.

@Divergent95 Some people need to understand that they're impressing absolutely no one.

@RomanRiz Of course that's what you took away from my comment...

@RomanRiz You do understand that rage baiting is one of the lamest, most unattractive things a person can do, right?

@RomanRiz Wow, what an original joke!

Keith David for the win, baby!

If their reveal isn't emblematic of what the tech does, then why on earth did they lead with it? I really hope the tech is better than what they've shown, but the criticism is 100% valid because it's all they've shown.

This is gonna be great for the drunk folks at the barcade. 😂

@LogicStrikesAgain Ah fair deal, I misread the article and didn't see that. My fault! In that case, I'd broadly agree. Nothing worthwhile is free and as the great Goro Takemura once said, "That which is free often proves the most costly." 😋

@LogicStrikesAgain Who's calling it slimy? The article isn't antagonistic and the comments aren't really either.

Sigh. Yeah, I'm one of those people. I'd prefer to not have Premium, but somehow, there's less latency when using cloud streaming to my Portal vs. streaming from my PS5. I don't really understand how that works, but there you go.

I'm sorry, but a potential spoiler is not a good enough excuse to demand an online connection for a game fully on-disc. I hate spoilers, but those are small potatoes compared to being able to play the game at all. I've haven't purchased a single PS5 game on disc, but even I'm not happy about this. This harkens back to the registration keys of yore.

This is completely separate from game preservation, mind you. I've never found that as a good excuse for anything. Game preservation doesn't mean that you need to be able to play anything you want for all time. It means keeping the game in historical context at a museum or an archive or something. There are plenty of things that you can't buy anymore that are not lost to time.

@Stragen8 There are still plenty of free mods, but there are a bunch of sanctioned paid mods as well. Same thing as Skyrim and Fallout 4.

The lighting tech is actually very impressive, but the way DLSS 5 is messing with the character models is quite upsetting, though not in every case. I actually think the characters are markedly improved in Starfield, but the beauty filter look in RE9 just sucks.

This shows promise, but they need a lot of work to make sure the upscaler isn't changing the artistic direction of the game itself.

@Balaam_ @LifeGirl I get why you would want to delete incomplete trophy lists. I have plenty of games that I bounced off of, only to have one trophy popped. However, I did hear a pretty good reason for not having the feature, which is security focused. For example, if someone hacked your account or a family member got into your account, they could delete your trophy data, which would be way worse than having incomplete trophy lists.

@get2sammyb My hope is the Portal has full compatibility with PS6. I feel like people would understandably throw a fit if they made you upgrade the Portal, too.

@Atreus97 fingers crossed

Really hope they add more RTX than shadows. Didn't really add anything to the presentation and was definitely not worth playing the game at 30fps.

Edit: Just give me Witcher 3 with RTX at 60fps!

@Gunnerzaurus "For select usage, we also pay them for the approval to license their voices through text-to-speech for lines that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience, mostly ping system audio."

To be honest, I didn't really notice/care about the AI voice lines for the ping system, but am glad they're getting replaced all the same. If they had used AI voices for the actual dialog from quest givers, that would have been way too far for me.

@viktorcode Destiny is completely based around multiplayer.

@Americansamurai1 I think they did because they see similar behavior in some of the audience at Push Square. It shows just where that road leads and why you shouldn't walk it.

Sammy's right: all games are for profit. Different monetization models, same goal. Live-service isn't inherently worse than anything else.

Very cool! I never beat Control and haven't played Alan Wake 2 yet. Time to jump back in!

@EvenStephen7 We are if you play AAA games exclusively, but there are tons of very creative and experimental indie games out there!

Not for me, but hope people like it!

@Balaam_ There's a very strong likelihood that when he quit, he was provided a severance package that had an NDA attached to it. It's also possible that when he was promoted to that job in the first place, there was an NDA attached to it with a sunset clause after termination.

Edit: The second option is more likely. A lot of high-up positions have these sorts of agreements so that people can't become a turncoat and spill all the beans after they find another job.

This game just looks effin nuts, haha. Absolutely love the ray-traced GI. Don't care much about reflections or shadows, but the GI makes suuuuch a huge difference in games.

I'd love to see this implemented at the ESRB.

@GgGames No, that's not what I'm saying. I understand why people are upset - a logged out price shouldn't be higher than when you're logged into PS Plus, but these things are never as simple as folks in the comments pretend they are. This practice isn't new, nor is it uncommon. PS Plus exclusive discounts are dynamic pricing. Bulk discounts are dynamic pricing. Xbox's "Deals for You" are dynamic pricing. Brick and mortar stores do this all the time, too - not on a customer-by-customer basis, but usually by location.

I do not like pricing on a customer-by-customer basis. But I also think that if $8 is pricing you out of something, you're being irresponsible spending money on something like this. I'm not wealthy and actually live relatively modestly, but I also believe in personal responsibility of your own finances. If you don't think something is priced fairly, don't buy it.

It's almost like real-world problems aren't binary. Crazy, I know.

I understand the frustration, but this "greener grass" mentality will only get you so far. When you buy something, you should be evaluating if the price is worthwhile to you.

If the difference between $3.75 and $10 is a make-or-break jump, you should be saving your money instead of buying games, anyway.