wildcat_kickz

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?

Once third person is released, I'll be popping back in for sure. I got this when it came out, but found it a bit boring and the parkour a little awkward. I didn't make it that far, so I'm definitely willing to give it the ol college try in December.

@Tr3mm0r It's trolling because you made the comment to annoy people. Otherwise, you wouldn't have posted it. Also, unless you have the gift of premonition and suddenly all LGBT are considered a monolith, it's not a fact.

@SeaDaVie Yeah, the priority should definitely be making sure the main game mode is excellent. I was just mentioning PvP as an incentive to get some Destiny or CoD fans potentially interested.

I'm not super hot on the seasonal wipes in Diablo, but am totally open to it here. They idea is the robots are just avatars anyway, right?

@SeaDaVie Agreed. I didn't play the alpha, but a lot of the comments seem to just be trashing live-service games in general (which pretty much every modern multiplayer game falls into). That said, if @MFTWrecks is right and they don't have much of a meta grind, then retaining players would be a massive problem.

I still think that extraction shooters, at least up until now, have been so niche that you can't bet big on the genre, even with Bungie's pedigree for gameplay. The gameplay loop doesn't have as much variety as I think is required to keep people interested. Maybe if they have a PvP mode, similar to Destiny's Crucible, it might help.

@Tr3mm0r Take your trolling elsewhere, please.

I really don't understand why everyone is so cynical about live-service games as a whole, as if all things wrong with Marathon derive from the fact that it's a live service game.

If they announced Destiny 3 tomorrow, people would sh*t their pants.

I think the premise of Marathon is really cool. I'd love a great console extraction shooter, but Bungie/Sony need to understand that it's a niche genre and they can't put the fate of Bungie on this game. Destiny 3 is really Bungie's best bet forward (though selfishly, I'd love a Myth reboot).

We've seen photo-real still images before, so this isn't all that special to me. Seeing models in motion is where the uncanny valley emerges. If they can inject micro-movements and subtle skin/muscle reactions into character animations, I think that is where the "leap" in photo-real characters will bear fruit. It's not the models themselves, it's how they move.

At the very least, developers should provide the option to switch to base PS5 settings.

It would be interesting if they delved into a different crime syndicate (not Italian). Not sure how that would play out, but having something like an Irish mob game set it New York or Boston during the mid-20th century would be fun. Or maybe Russian mob, etc.

Obviously not likely.

I'd be happy for more Mafia, regardless.

@Czar_Khastik Ahhh, Father Gastropub, you ol bag.

It's funny. I know I would probably really enjoy God of War 2018 and the sequel if I stuck through it, but every time I boot up 2018, I make it like 1 hour and get bored. An Egyptian setting; however, might be just what I need. Such a sucker for that setting. Literally just reinstalled AC Origins last night.

Ok... cool.

I still use my PS4 in my bedroom, so I guess it's nice to know the platform is still being monitored.

Still think the PS4 is the best looking PlayStation console. I really hope the PS6 follows a similar design philosophy.

@ShogunRok @DennisReynolds thank you both!

@ShogunRok Did they add anything to the Hideout (new decorations, buildings, etc.) outside of the new upgrade tiers for the main buildings?

@tameshiyaku I'd love if they took a more direct approach in adapting a Tom Clancy novel into a game.

@DennisReynolds Agreed. I haven't been this excited for a Battlefield game since Battlefield 1.

@TrollOfWar I think that's what the Xbox controllers have. They don't offer resistance, like the DualSense does, but they have dedicated rumble.

@tameshiyaku Yeah, but that would be true for just about every good game. The fact that Siege is a great game is keeping Tom Clancy relevant. This isn't even to mention that The Division 2 is still going strong.

@tameshiyaku Rainbow Six Siege is still huge.

I'm honestly tempted. I just recently bought Star Trek Resurgence and it's gotten me back on board with the Telltale-style games.

For any Trekkies out there, Resurgence is one ugly game, but it absolutely nails the tone and the story (so far) is excellent. Wonderful love letter to 90s Trek.

We're gonna get a Splinter Cell crossover in AC Shadows before we get another game. Green eyes, but blue balls.

The gameplay looks pretty fun, but I've always struggled with the humor of Borderlands. I may be tempted to get this on a steep sale down the road, but we were given 1, 2, and 3 as part of PS Plus, so I'd be more tempted to play those before jumping in here.

As @Northern_munkey says, there are much more interesting games incoming to make space for this one any time soon.

Dreamcast, baby!

I've spent an absurd amount of time building out the hideout in this game. One day, I'll make the effort to put a video on YouTube or something 😂.Looking forward to the expansion!

Very tempted to get this one. Love the art style and seems like a great flow-state game. Only played a little of Journey back in the day (don't @ me) and of Giant Squid's games, I've only played Abzu, but enjoyed it.

Seems like a fun one-and-done weekend game.

@KundaliniRising333 I don't think that's accurate. There are plenty of gamers (like me and my friends) who play plenty of CoD, but also much more. You can't take a franchise that sells 20mil each year and say only a small subset of "true gamers" buy them; that's a very elitist opinion. Call of Duty may be an easy target for ridicule because it's the top dog and is very iterative, but there are maybe a handful of games that even come close to matching the gunplay of CoD.

CoD is graded on a curve, so people love to say "CoD sucks," but if you took the exact same game and gave it a new name, it would be hailed as a masterclass of gameplay.

Not to your tastes? That's fine. But don't pretend like CoD isn't for "true gamers" just because it's incredibly popular. It's popular for a reason.

Always liked the music of the Smiths, but not Morrissey or his vocals. Seemed quite one-note (almost literally).

@BacklogBrad Fair enough. I understand what you're saying; I just disagree.

@BacklogBrad We agree that it would be better for us, the consumers, if there weren't any exclusives, but where we differ is I think it's just bad business for Sony. Aside from the games and the operating system, PS5 and Series X are virtually identical, so I'm not sure how the hardware itself is the selling point.

Yeah, probably not an insane amount of PC gamers will buy a console for GTA6, but GTA6 is going to be the biggest video game launch in history, so I wouldn't discount the impact it's going to have. That said, if I was an Xbox One owner and was waiting to upgrade, there is virtually no reason to buy a Series over a PS5 - and that comes down to exclusives. Xbox got clobbered over the last two generations and so they've had to pivot. Don't be fooled by their "we don't believe in exclusives" moral propaganda. Microsoft believes in making money, not being nice to the consumer. If appearing nice to consumers gets them more business, then that's what they'll do, but they would have never brought games to PlayStation if they didn't think they needed to to keep the bottom line in check.

Day 1 for me, but that was going to be true even without the showcase. I'm a huge James Bond mark. I've read almost all of the Ian Fleming novels and seen most of the movies (the Roger Moore movies are a little too campy for my tastes). As a book fan, I'm really happy to see the cheek scar finally make an appearance.

@BacklogBrad I disagree. While there are plenty of people that will never change lanes (at least until they're forced to), there are plenty of pragmatists that just go where the games are; they just don't switch mid console generation because that would be financially stupid. Think about how many people are going to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series when GTS6 comes out just because it won't be on PC? Do you think they're more likely to buy a PlayStation or an Xbox? If it's PlayStation, why do you think that is? Spoiler - it's because PlayStation has exclusives that Xbox doesn't have.

@BacklogBrad It hurts the game, but benefits the platform. If all games went multiplatform, there wouldn't be a differentiating factor. 1st party games aren't designed to maximize profit for the individual game - they're designed to incentivize people to use the ecosystem where the platform makes most of its money from 3rd party sales.

@gamer153 You know they have access to wigs in Hollywood, right?

@PlushiePlushie I normally play on level 10, but we bumped it down to 7 and still had a really rough go of it! Such a crazy difficulty spike with this update.

@themightyant My thoughts exactly. I can't keep up. If you think there's nothing to play of PS5, then you need a new hobby.

I totally agree.

I hear a lot of things on the Sacred Symbols podcast where the host, Colin, will make some assertion like "people keep saying there aren't any games for PS5" and I keep thinking, "I don't know anyone who says that."

Reddit, Twitter, Discord, etc. all skew towards negativity. It's similar on this website where you'd be forgiven thinking that Call of Duty is the most hated franchise on the planet, but the data clearly shows something very different.

Awesome to hear that Bloober landed the plane. By the screenshots alone, the visuals look fantastic from a graphical and atmospheric standpoint.