Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

Well I've got to say that I really enjoyed that state of play, its the first time in a while where I think Sony a lot right.

First Spiderman 2 looks absolutely brilliant, the first one was great and this one looks to build on that, the extra space on the map was really needed as not to feel to similar to 1 and Miles Morales. The fact that we can seamlessly swap between both heros seems like it will be brilliant and I also really love the villains they've chose to go with. Not sure much on the story front but believe insomniac always do a good job so not worried on that front, I was always looking at Spiderman 2 as a game that I would play but not one I was really excited for but I'm definitely looking forward to it more now.

Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty(not exclusive) looks great another reason to jump back into Cyberpunk and honestly I don't see me having a problem with even starting again from scratch with an entire new playthrough, so yeah can't wait for this one.

HellDivers 2(not exclusive) this one took me by surprise, not knowing much about the first one I didn't expect to think anything of it but with the right people to play it with it looks like it could be great fun if there's not alot of bugs! No pun intended.
Intrigued to say the least it gives me gears/outrider vibes so will definitely look into it more.

Final Fantasy Rebirth. As someone who really enjoyed the Remake(nostalgic goggles taking off), by my second playthrough I confirmed I actually preferred it to the original (queue the gasps and moans). I am now really really looking forward to Rebirth, looks amazing and looks like their keeping to how Remake played. Slightly worried about the so called 100 hours as I don't see the need for lots of filler but we'll see how it works.

So yeah overall for me personally alot to look forward to!

@MaulTsir Agree a lot with your thoughts. I didn’t watch the SoP live, but after watching the trailers and promos I am more pumped about Spidey 2, such that I might play at launch, which wasn’t the original plan. We’ll see.

And Helldivers 2 looks quite good, but the reliance on multiplayer will probably kill it for me. I could see it being great fun for a group of buddies though. I wonder if it will be free-to-play. I’ve been assuming it is a ‘for purchase’ game, maybe not $70, could have a lower entry point like $40, but it looks really well made. I have to admit though, I got Avengers game vibes from the footage. 😅 The way you pull up a map from a central hub and choose a quest looks very similar. I’m know many games probably use that mechanic but the only one I’ve played is Avengers and that online MP co-op was the worst part of the game, for sure. And I’ve never played Destiny 2, but Helldivers 2 also seems very similar to that, based on that gameplay.

And like @Kidfried says, FF7 Rebirth looks like exactly what it needs to be — more of what Remake was gameplay-wise (probably the best part of the game) along with introduction of the new party members and areas to make it feel new. The story will be the wild card there. That’s the part that makes me nervous.

I didn't watch it live, but I have to automatically take points off just for the fact that Sony really needs to have a proper 1st party one but they continued to not do that. I don't mean to be a downer, but I was less happy with it given the fact that even the good things were of games we already knew about and mostly have seen before.

Given how much I'm looking forward to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a new trailer and a release date for it automatically keeps this from a total failure though. I didn't bother watching the new Spider-Man 2 trailer as I don't need to see anything else as I've had it pre-ordered for months. Same goes for Phantom Liberty, although I may go back and watch that trailer at some point. I have no interest in Helldivers 2 since I don't play any multiplayer games anymore. The continued lack of Stellar Blade was also a major bummer as there's no reason why it wasn't a part of this show, and it's extremely weird that all we've gotten from it this year was a trailer that announced it's title change. It even got added to the PS Store's database right before their "E3" show earlier this year, which I noticed from the news section of the PS5 Home screen at the time, but now it's been strangely absent from both shows.

Was Push Square just wrong when they reported that it was a 3rd party and indie presentation? Kind of weird to have 2 first party titles at a show that wasn't supposed to have them. Not really a criticism there. Just an oddity.

@Kidfried console exclusive but it's also coming out on steam.

I agree with you on Sqaure Enix, they have dropped a ball on a few recent games like Babylon but overall in the last 10 to 15 years they've been one of in not the most solid publisher.

@Th3solution Spiderman 2 does look really good! I'm not sure I'll be a day one player but it's first sale around Christmas will probably convince me.

Yeah the biggest problem with HD2 will be finding 3 other like minded people to constantly play with. Probably be the games downfall as it won't have a massive player base. I think in terms of being like Avengers and Destiny alot of these multiplayer co op looters shooters tend to follow the same basic model. Not a bad thing though.

And yes FF rebirth has me excited. I get what you mean about the story and I know alot of people where disappointed or in complete up roar with the way the remake sort of handled the story but I personally liked it.

@KilloWertz I can understand your disappointment in the SOP, I said at the begging of my post that for me it was a good show personally because the 4 games I mentioned appealed to me and its been a while since Sony did one where there was multiple stuff for me to get excited about.

Even the Tales Of Arise DLC which seems abit odd because its been 2 years since it released I believe, was a decent surprise as I enjoyed the game.

I think Sony them selves said it was a indie/third party SOP but mabye they wanted to try and "surprise" people with the FF rebirth trailer so they could end it on a high.

@KilloWertz Yeah, I was surprised that Spider-Man showed up since it was reported to be 3rd party/indie. Technically Helldivers 2 is 2nd party, with Sony funding and exclusivity.

@MaulTsir You were begging people to agree with you? Read your post and you'll figure it out.

Anyways, it wasn't all bad. Like I said, obviously the trailer and release date for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a huge deal for me and honestly matters more to me than almost anything else they could announce themselves, but the continued secrecy behind mostly everything they are doing themselves is well passed annoying.

I'm looking forward to Phantom Liberty as Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of my favorite games this gen so far. Again, we've already known about it, so seeing more of it is a bit less exciting, but like Spider-Man 2 I've had it pre-ordered for a while now. Spider-Man 2, well, enough said. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways is something I'm looking forward to as well, probably more than some as I've never had a problem with Ada's voice actress.

So, in the end we both had 4 games/DLC from it that we are looking forward to. Judged solely on what was presented, it was ok. I would have been able to shrug it off solely based on the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer, but the way Sony has been so secretive with their 1st party road map this gen, there has to be a limit to letting them slide.

@Th3solution I was not aware of that about Helldivers 2, but I guess having no interest in online games doesn't help. I have read nothing about the game, and the only thing I've seen from it is from the presentation before this one when I actually watched it live.

@KilloWertz I’m also not really interested in this stable of online MP games that are being developed, but I just remember the first Helldivers from PS3 and Vita and it had a small following. It was completely different as a top down shooter, as I recall, but was MP-centric as well. This sequel looks much more sophisticated.

I’m not sure what the deal is with Arrowhead Studios as to whether it’s a situation like Kojima studios and Quantic Dream studios where they have had such a strong relationship with Sony making exclusives and yet don’t really want to be owned and wish to keep independence, or whether it’s more from Sony’s side that they don’t really want to commit to owning Arrowhead since they aren’t quite confident in their long term productivity. I suspect it’s the latter. And if Sony doesn’t watch out, it’ll end up like Ninja Theory, where the studio makes some banger PS exclusives and drags their feet on acquiring the studio so Microsoft just swoops in and buys them from under their noses.

@Th3solution I have no knowledge of the studio, but Sony is usually good in regards to either buying or keeping developers like that close. Unfortunately a Ninja Theory occurrence does happen from time to time though, and that is a shame as I loved every game I've actually played of their's. It was a smart move by Microsoft though.

@KilloWertz Sony's first party Road map in particular is somewhat concerning to me too. Apart from the upcoming Spider-Man 2 and then possibly Wolverine (although I haven't seen any news/game-play to be sure) are the ONLY games I know of that interest me.

I have zero interest in Marathon, Foamstars, Helldivers 2 or Fairgame$ at all - I know not all are 1st Party, but that doesn't fill me with excitement for the future. I have never really been a fan of 'typical' Japanese Games like Final Fantasy, Nier etc, no interest in VR either so I am concerned about what the road map ahead looks like for me.

With Spider-Man 2 launching soon, that would leave only Wolverine to look forward to and as its Insomniac, how long after will it release? What else can I expect in the 'near' future? Do they have anything that appeals to me?

I am sure that their future line-up will appeal to others a LOT more than some, myself included, but I expect there are others like me who want more games like Uncharted, Infamous, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us etc and have little/no interest in GaaS/MP based games that are really designed to sell Cosmetics in a market saturated by these...

I definitely fall into that camp.

@BAMozzy I am sure they are still making plenty of those signature single player games, but the main problem is we have no idea what they are actually making. I know games take longer to make, but there's no way that at least some of them don't have something to show by now.

Things will probably be fine in the end, and it's not like there's a shortage of things to play on the PS5, but this version of Sony where they keep almost everything they are doing a secret is quite annoying and just borderline lazy.

Speaking of Insomniac, hopefully now that Spider-Man 2 is basically done, that we can get another Ratchet & Clank game along with Wolverine. Given how good Rift Apart was and how it ended, leaving multiple possibilities for future games, I'll be pretty pissed if we only get one Ratchet & Clank game yet again this console generation.

@BAMozzy @KilloWertz It feels like either (could be both) Sony went too heavy into live service territory and went silent because they've realized they made a mistake (Suicide Squad and the May PS Showcase were negatively received) or they're being cautious about announcement timings because of what's incoming on other platforms.

There is the situation of the Activision acquisition (May showcase was announced the day after the EU approved it so something similar may happen if the CMA approve the adjusted deal in mid-October) and Switch 2 (the September Direct made it very clear that new Nintendo hardware is inbound in 2024).

@BAMozzy Yeah, it seems like many of the single player third person games are going to come from second party in the short term — notably Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2, etc.

Still, first party certainly has an Uncharted game, and a single player Horizon game in development (plus all their other Horizon projects like that MMO or whatever). The new Uncharted game won’t be a ND game but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is far enough along that we hear about it within the next year. We also are confident that TLoU part 3 is in development and ND is rumored to have two projects in development so the other project will possibly be first to come out. Factions 2 appears to have been cancelled, I suspect.

We also know Ghost of Tsushima 2 is underway. Probably a couple years out. And Santa Monica is working on something which is apparently not GoW but likely is the genre they are strong with in that 3rd person action space that most of us prefer.

And I feel like we’ll hear about Sony Bend’s project before too long. It’s certainly of the third person narrative action genre also.

The games are definitely in development and that’s just off the top of my head - so about 6-7 of those style games coming from first party, probably spread out over the next 3 years. I would guess we get 2, maybe 3 per year.

But there’s no question that the lack of updates (and even lack of any confirmation beyond rumors for some of these things like Uncharted) is making the Sony fanbase uneasy. So far 2024 is all second party or third party exclusive — Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, FF7 Rebirth, and maybe DS2. Could Wolverine be 2024? I doubt it. So what’s the first party single player game coming next year? Uncharted? Maybe the Bend game? Maybe whatever BluePoint has on deck? Could Housemarque’s game be that close? Doubtful but who knows.

Thankfully we have third party coming through with bangers like the recent Baldur’s Gate 3 and FF16. But yeah, nothing quite scratches the ‘narrative-action’ itch quite like first party.

@KilloWertz I listed some of those up above. But yeah, we don’t know detail about them.

I think part of the lack of info is the silence due to the ABK deal pending, but also because so much grief is thrown Sony’s way from gamers about them being so one-note with their games so they are focusing marketing efforts on everything they have that isn’t a ‘narrative-driven stealth-action third person’ game.

@Th3solution Technically none of them have actually been announced. It's all assumptions. Likely valid assumptions on most, if not all, but Sony has failed to actually announce much of anything from the vast majority of their single player developers.

Obviously I can't say why for sure, but if what you are saying is true, it's still not really an excuse. I'm not criticizing you of course, but hopefully Sony is better with this next year (I'm not expecting anything the rest of the year info wise).

@KilloWertz @Grumblevolcano @Th3solution We don't know for sure that these games are in development at all and whilst I do expect Sony to continue making Single Player narrative driven cinematic style games, the only game officially revealed is Wolverine right now.

I also know that games are taking longer to make - the time between Infamous 2nd Son and GoT by Sucker Punch was 6yrs and Horizon had 5yrs between the first and its sequel. It also seems like Guerillas next project is a Horizon online game and if Factions was cancelled, I doubt we will see a 'new' ND Single Player for a good few years having spent time on Factions and LoU ports to PC.

As far as Multi-platform releases are concerned, I do have alternative choices on where to play as I have PC gaming hardware and a Series X too - so whilst there isn't likely to be a 'shortage' of something to play on my PS5, I don't feel like I am looking forward to playing anything 'specifically' on PS5.

In truth, there aren't enough 'gaming' hours to play EVERYTHING and finish every game I want to every year. Every year, my backlog grows and I still have a LOT of PS4/5 games to finish, let alone whatever 'new' games get added to that. Even if Sony don't release another game this gen that appeals, there is more than enough content to fill my gaming time easily. Its just that the vast majority of it I could play elsewhere and don't particularly feel that Sony in particular have an 'exciting' near future ahead that appeals to me. I am feeling somewhat disappointed right now with the 'immediate' future.

Even when MS had a terrible year in 2022, I still felt that they had a LOT of projects to come that appeal to me and even now, we still have a good idea of what many, not all studios have in development. Arguably you could say that Fable, Hellblade 2, Avowed etc seem to be taking their time but I'd rather have that situation than be 'hoping' that Sony Studio's are making the type of games I expect based on their history all whilst hearing rumours of these studios making GaaS, Online MP games etc

All I am saying is that the recent Sony Shows have done 'nothing' to excite or fll me confidence that Sony in Particular are making the types of games that I fell in love with Sony for. I am sure they will have these games but right now, nothing officially has been revealed and I find it 'difficult' to be excited for the next few years for 'Sony' when the vast majority of games I am excited for on PS5 are playable on PC/Xbox.

I think it's a lose-lose situation as while Sony's silence has created lots of speculation about them ditching single player in favour of live service, the reason we know so much about XGS future is because most of the 1st party games Microsoft announced in 2019/2020 still haven't released yet.

Everwild - Announced November 2019, release TBA
Hellblade 2 - Announced December 2019, release 2024
Forza Motorsport - Announced July 2020, release October 10th 2023
Avowed - Announced July 2020, release 2024
State of Decay 3 - Announced July 2020, release TBA
Fable - Announced July 2020, release TBA
Perfect Dark - Announced December 2020, release TBA

While I dislike the approach with a few announcements like TotK and Prime 4 (those are very long gaps), I feel that Nintendo for the vast majority of the time in the Switch era has handled the timing between announcement and release for games extremely well.

So now you’re a fan of Sony’s first party interactive-movie, one-and-done walking-simulators… you can’t make this **** up 🤣… wait a minute, you just did 😉

@Grumblevolcano I know that MS has announced 'numerous' games that are yet to materialised having been announced within the last 4yrs. But I also remember when Sony had Games at E3 for several years before they arrived and its been 2yrs since Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine were announced. Considering we are 3yrs in to this Gen and apart from Insomniac, we don't have any idea of what Sony devs can actually do with the PS5 hardware as 'most' were built with Last gen releases in mind. God of War: Ragnarok is a 'PS4' game that's been 'enhanced' by the extra resources available in the PS5 hardware. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but I want to feel confident in the future of PS5.

Most of the games you mentioned from MS are UE5 games and were announced as UE5 games before UE5 was even released. Even before Forza was announced, it was known that Turn 10 were taking a break from the 'bi-annual' update to actually build a new Game Engine with Next Gen consoles firmly in mind. In fairness to most of those Studios too, they have released and/or continued to update their games - Rare with Sea of Thieves and its regular content drops, Obsidian with Grounded & Pentiment and Playground with Forza Horizon 5. State of Decay to State of Decay 2 took 5yrs too so I never expected them to turn around a much bigger game, built in UE5 which wasn't out in 2020 - but at least we know what these Studio's have planned to release, what they are actually working on and what we can look forward to in the 'near' future.

Games are taking 4yrs+ in general - even its a sequel with a lot of work/assets/animations/scripts etc etc you can carry forward. So I don't expect to hear about what Studios are working on immediately after they release a game - a year or two later - even if its still several years away. Even if most of those 7 Xbox games, as well as others they have revealed since - Clockwork Revolution (InXile) or South of Midnight (Compulsion) don't come out in the next 6-12months, They are still games to look forward to on Series X (or PC if you play there) coming from Microsoft owned Studios. It gets through 'lean' times (like 2022) knowing that the future is still looking 'solid' and for the next 'few' years at least.

I've already invested in BOTH premium Consoles but if I hadn't yet upgraded or was considering either, Yes Playstation has a LOT of great Legacy Exclusives in their back catalogue, but after Spider-Man 2, its looking somewhat uncertain of what's coming 'next', what exciting exclusive can I look forward to whilst delving into their great Library and 'multi-platform' games until that next big Sony game. On Series X, they too have a LOT of great Legacy exclusives but not so many IP's so seem even more limited than they already are, but after Starfield Comes Forza Motorsport and 2024 onwards looks quite solid too.

With the prices of PS+ going up significantly - already was more expensive than Gold and the direction that Sony themselves are at least 'projecting' to us, their Customer, I am not even sure I want to 'keep' that either for the 'few' Single Player games that require 'online' and/or few online game modes I may enjoy (although most of these are multi-platform). If that happens, then that also would likely to push me further away from gaming on my PS5 - even clearing some of my backlog as that would also mean I'm much less likely to purchase multi-platform games on PS5 and use it ONLY for offline Sony SP Exclusives. I'm not cancelling yet, I still have months left, I just don't know if it's worth considering renewing - because as far as Sony is telling me with their 'Silence' and with what they have Officially stated, I may as well just wait until they come to PC long term and give up PS5. I want to be excited by the upcoming year ahead, and it seems 'bleaker' than MS's 2022, but at least there was a lot of light at the end of that tunnel.

I know that there will still be Exclusive games from '3rd Party' devs to bulk out their own studio output - whether its timed or permanently blocked from releasing elsewhere (inc PC, Xbox, Nintendo, Epic, Steam etc) or just select hardware (Xbox), but Sony themselves aren't making me excited for the future and seem more intent on taking more money from me without providing a 'better' service and or reason to be excited for the future.

It may excite you/others etc but after however many years its been since I got my first Playstation back in the 90's, I know they've had tough times (PS3 launch and then subsequent server hack which forced me to change my GT), they've all had light at the end, something to look forward too...