wildcat_kickz

@get2sammyb typo in subtitle! just an fyi

I think 2027 is a little too soon for me. I'd prefer 2028 or 2029, but I recognize that would be a longer generation than usual. The thing is that with cross-gen games being the norm, there's less and less of an incentive to move on. There's also the fact that I'm getting older and a 7 year cycle is a flash in the pan nowadays compared to when I was a kid.

I'm such a sucker for new tech that I'll probably get a PS6 at launch, but the desire for a new generation is at an all time low.

@PuppetMaster That's certainly possible, even likely, but I still don't find it a good enough excuse. Since they "only get to do one thing" at a time, it stands to assume that they'd never remaster something on their own, since they would presumably prefer to work on something new. So, I say they should stop making excuses and let someone remaster their old games. Sucker Punch is a great developer, but let's not pretend like their games are the apex of the video game art form and shouldn't be touched at all.

It's a bit hard to say if this is good or bad. Maybe a change in AC leadership is exactly what the franchise needs. I love my AC comfort food, but one would be lying if they claimed the franchise wasn't a bit stale.

I personally don't want Sucker Punch to go back to inFamous or Sly, but I don't understand why Sucker Punch is acting like they need to remaster games themselves. Give them to Nixxes, give them to Virtuous, give them to Saber, or whoever. It's a lame argument on their part to say they don't have the bandwidth.

I think this is just a game no one asked for. Remedy is a great developer, but no wants to play an FPS by them.

Treyarch can do all they want, but I'm skipping BO7. I just don't like Treyarch CoD games and I've tried to recently (Cold War and BO6). Gunplay just feels worse when compared to Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer, but the real kicker for me is I just don't like Treyarch's MP maps.

If you boot up MW3 today, you'll have like 50 MP maps on rotation and 90% of them are excellent.

@get2sammyb Yeah, the complaints against SBMM always sounded like someone whining they couldn't stomp n00bs consistently.

"What? I have to try to be #1 on the leaderboard?? Unacceptable!"

The only area where I think this complaint holds up is when you're playing with friends and one friend is better than the rest. It messes up the SBMM and usually results in the lower skill players playing in matches way above their skillset, which can be super frustrating. But that could have been addressed if they wanted to.

Getting rid of SBMM altogether seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

@mary1 Could you elaborate on how a game centering around a former slave in the Civil War would be inherently left-leaning? Aside from the protagonist, we know nothing about what this game was going to be. Since AC games always have historical characters, no doubt Lincoln would have been featured and would likely have been portrayed as a "saint or hero" as you put it.

AC games have never portrayed heroes and villains by their race. I really don't get where you're coming from here.

@nessisonett As a “yank,” I feel reasonably well suited to answer the question about why people fly the Confederate flag, though I am from a northern state, so I guess take a grain of salt with my opinion.

A lot of folks think it’s a symbol of independence and a rejection of federal oppression, though this is something I consider generational brainwashing. At the same time, the flag has been co-opted to signify a pride in being a Southerner. It’s almost the reverse of how a lot of us Americans feel the “Don’t tread on me” flag has been co-opted by a conservative movement in the US and don’t feel comfortable displaying it, despite the fact that it represents a very proud point in our history.

It’s really sad that so many of my countrymen lack the constitution to admit that there have been historic wrongs associated with their forebears. That’s quite literally the story of every culture on Earth, but so many define themselves by their cultural past, rather than defining themselves by how they themselves interact with the world.

@nessisonett We do have quite a bit of media on the Civil War, at least here in the US. It's just that a sizeable portion of the country refuses to recognize the real causes of it and perpetuates the "states rights" false premise. Ken Burns' The Civil War is a must watch.

@TheFakulty AC3 is the American Revolution (mid to late 18th Century). The American Civil War is roughly a century later.

This could have been so damn cool. The fact that it's controversial to say that the Confederacy was bad is such a depressing thought. God forbid we treat the Confederacy as the traitorous movement it was, enacted to perpetuate the subjugation of an entire people.

The American Civil War is such an untapped era for poignant fiction.

@dodgykebaab You do you, man. I'm not going to debate someone who only engages in whataboutisms.

@dodgykebaab With all due respect, the US has plenty of problems, but there's no comparison. The US doesn't behead people for being gay, trans, or an unfaithful wife.

You're free to decide for yourself whether that's enough to buy or boycott a game, but don't act like the US and Saudi Arabia are on the same level with regard to how they treat their populations.

I've been on the fence about BF6, but after playing the BO7 beta, I think I'm committed to getting Battlefield this Friday. I adore BF1, didn't really connect with BF5 or 2042, but I can feel the hype building in muh plumbs on this one.

@get2sammyb It may be a bit 4D chess, but something that hasn't been mentioned yet: BO6 and BO7 are both under the CoD HQ umbrella. Could this be Activision juicing the concurrents to make BO7 seem like a bigger deal at launch? If gamers think more other gamers are playing CoD, they'd be more likely to buy BO7, right? Just a thought...

The only new game I bought in September was Baby Steps, but my vote goes to RE2 Remake 😂

I've said it plenty of times before, but with the abysmal onboarding that Destiny 2 has, once you're out for any appreciable amount of time, you're likely out for good.

On top of that, with Bungie/Sony just chasing $$$ in the wake of them hemorrhaging players, all these IP crossovers (most prominently that Star Wars DLC), Destiny has completely lost its identity.

At this point, I don't see anything saving Destiny 2. They'd be better served by keeping the servers up for people who want to play, but sunsetting the game in terms of new content.

Marathon won't have the same splash that Destiny ever did, so they should fully commit to Destiny 3, resetting the entire project, allowing new or lapsed players a way into the franchise.

After some thought, I do wonder if the "sportswashing" analog is correct.

Don't get me wrong - the Saudi royal family and their regime are abhorrent and their actions shouldn't be excused or encouraged, but with sportswashing, they're trying to divert attention away from their misdeeds by basically applying a "bread and circus" philosophy.

Would this be less of that and more just bringing attention to Saudi history? Since the DLC is funded by the PIF, I'll fully admit that argument is certainly weaker, but it's got my brain all conflicted.

On one hand, I don't want to encourage the Saudi royal family's disgusting human rights track record, but on the other hand, I do love that we're getting more stories told from a Middle Eastern perspective.

I'll probably give it a whirl, but without any pressure to finish it. If it was a paid expansion, I would have passed, since I wouldn't want to directly subsidize the PIF.

That said, the Middle East is a criminally underutilized geographical and cultural area for video games. Despite the fact that Mirage is probably one of the weakest entries in the series, I did love the novelty of exploring Baghdad and seeing that area realized in a video game. I imagine the same will be true with this Saudi region.

This game is gonna mop up this year. I tried the BO7 beta yesterday and bounced off of it hard. It just feels like a worse Infinite/Advanced Warfare. Maybe the maps on release are better, but the beta maps sucked.

Definitely making the choice between BF6 and BO7 much easier.

@Sulleymonster Thanks, this is very helpful! I have a C3, so our experiences would be likely very similar.

Boston cancelled 😢

Awesome! I may actually spin this up. Anyone with Pros: how is the PSSR? I know AW2 was a little gimped at release. Is it basically a crisp RTX experience at 60fps?

I have a suspicion that there is quite a lot of overlap of PS4 and PS5 active users. I have both and keep the PS4 in my bedroom as a "wind down" machine. We always knew they'd end support at some point, but I love that my PS4 is still as reliable as ever, if a bit slower than it used to be.

@Th3solution If someone didn't play Tsushima, I would encourage them to not fear jumping into Yotei first. There are centuries between them and 1000 miles apart, so I assume there is no narrative thread typing them together. You'll probably get nods to Tsushima here and there, but that's likely it.

As much as I'm wary of Tencent, I'd like to at least see how the first few games are before I cast judgement on the endeavor. Who knows? Maybe this will result in better AC, FC, and RS games.

I hope they figure out his gamertag and ban him from the game preemptively. Just rewards, I'd say.

@saffeqwe You're certainly entitled to that opinion, but I disagree. Combat is best in the series, some of the planets were breathtaking (like the blizzard one) and I actually really enjoyed the Star Trek-ish tone and themes.

When are people going to stop dogpiling on Andromeda? The game is not bad, it just wasn't as good as the trilogy and had a different tone.

Wishing them success, but Musous just aren't for me.

@ButterySmooth30FPS Well, that's some legitimately deranged reasoning 😂...😊...🤔...😐...😣...😫...🤮

@ButterySmooth30FPS Did you ask what they would define as 1st party or new? Literally nothing counts, if those games don't.

He's so confident in the streaming future, he should really look into investing in Stadia.

@DennisReynolds We may be a bit spoiled by the masterpiece that is the Jackson trilogy, though I agree that everything looked too clean - especially the clothes. That said, I actually really loved Numenor's look. The Greco-Roman aesthetic was a nice touch, in my opinion. It really is too bad that the writing on the show is probably the worst I've seen in a long time. Turned Celebrimbor into a feckless idiot.

@DennisReynolds I don't know if I've ever been more disappointed in a TV show than Rings of Power. Some of the best visuals with the absolute worst writing.

Since the Lord of the Rings is my favorite fiction of all time, I'll always be pulling for a successful game. Shadow of Mordor and to a lesser extent War were fantastic games and it's been such a bummer to see the IP squandered since they were released.

I bet the PIF are loving the premise of the new Battlefield (the complete collapse of NATO).

Modularity is always a good thing. One of the DualSense Edge's most overlooked features is the fact that you can remove and replace the analog sticks. Really makes me frustrated that it's locked behind a $200 controller and not just a standard feature on all of their controllers.

This has Bungie written all over it. Anyone remember the "reward" Destiny merch?

I love Helldivers 2 (duh), but they will need to continue to make substantial changes over the course of its lifetime if they want to maintain engagement. I'm constantly maxed out on samples and without buying Warbonds, there's not really much of an incentive to grind out missions. The gameplay is Superfun on its own, but even great gameplay can get stale.

Things I would love:
1. Maps with multiple enemy races, fighting you and each other
2. New enemy races (doesn't need to be soon, but will be needed eventually)
3. Tints for armors
4. Larger Warbonds that take longer to grind out
5. Newer ship improvements to use samples on
6. Interior building missions! Caves are a great start, but would LOVE missions that take you into giant humanmade structures

I've never played a Silent Hill game, though I would like to. I've been getting a little more into horror games lately and the SH franchise is obviously on the list. I want to play SH2 before this, though, but even before that (and thanks to PS Plus), Alan Wake 2 takes priority for the month of October.

@Skyliner Yeah, that's true. There are a lot of pretty substantial UI mods and more for BG3, but I wonder if they still use "in-game assets" like the BGS mods are restricted to. Do you know if there are any mods for BG3 that add new audio or new assets?

Nooooooooooo!!!! Such a bummer, but if they need time to get it right, then they should take all the time they need.

Though, I do wonder how gimped the mods are going to be on PS5 as compared to Xbox and PC. As I recall, Sony has some pretty restrictive rules for mods.

Crazy operators have been in the games for a long time (I'm thinking the Grim Reaper in WW2, for example), so if they do some wacky-ish stuff, it's not totally out of pocket, but these ones from the last few games have really jumped the shark. All I want if for them to keep operators within the same artistic style as the game.

If they were left without any backlash, we would have seen a cell-shaded Kool-Aid Man busting through walls.

Great review! Very happy to hear this is basically just the new and improved Ghost. Exactly what you want out of a sequel!

Excellent! I've been hoping this would turn up on PS+ Essential for a while now.

I played this a bit last night and can confirm the following:

1. Ugly game (who cares, it's an indie game)
2. Very frustrating, but fair
3. Very funny - the cutscenes are just great
4. VERY weird

If you like surrealist humor (think: Tim and Eric), then this might be right up your alley.

@OldGamer999 Yeah, Shadow's Pro improvements are excellent, though I think a better barometer would be Star Wars Outlaws, since it's the same developer and engine. Anyone know how that game handles on the Pro?