Tag: Talking Point - Page 18
Talking Point How Does Sony Solve a Problem Like Xbox One Price Cuts?
Pricing predicament
Microsoft resembles a certain other green giant right now: you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry. While the Xbox One has been doing reasonably well over the past year, it’s been outpaced heavily by the PlayStation 4 around the globe – and that’s put the American company on the back foot. It’s not immensely surprising...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 43
The fault in our stars
Regardless of whether you’ve had a good week or a bad week, it’s time to forget your worries, and get stuck in with some good old fashioned gaming. As has become more regular than a Mario Balotelli blunder, we’re back with another edition of What Are You Playing in order to kickstart your two days away from work. As...
Talking Point Do You Ever Stump Up for Season Passes?
Chump change
The so-called Season Pass has become the latest way for publishers to extract even more money from cash strapped gamers. What started life as L.A. Noire’s largely innocuous Rockstar Pass – a pre-purchase for several additional cases in the sandbox detective game – has, much like the Online Pass that preceded it, evolved into an...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 43
Sweet talker
Like a particularly aggressive salesman, WAYP refuses to get out of your face. It only feels like a few days ago that this editor was compiling Issue 42, but already Issue 43 is here – we’ll be penning the Christmas special soon. Until then, it’s business as usual: we’ll tell you everything that we’re playing, and then open...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 42
Chirp, chirp
The songbirds will keep on singing, and we’ll keep on playing video games. With the thrust of the holiday season now in full swing, there’s no shortage of titles to choose from – as is evidenced by the variety outlined by our team of writers below. Of course, with reviews to write and news to report on, there’s no real time to...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 41
Neon pie
We’re teetering on the precipice of gameageddon. Our super secret review document is filled with titles, reviewers have been assigned, and Push Square Towers is awash with complaints regarding the length of certain releases. Anybody would think that we’d entered the third circle of Hell or something. Still, with such animation behind...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 40
Pad it out
I don’t care if Monday’s blue, Tuesday’s grey and Wednesday, too; Thursday, I don’t care about you – it’s Saturday, I’m in love. Alright, we lazily adapted the lyrics, but you get the idea, right? Unlike ordinary editions of What Are You Playing, this has been organised extremely early, because much of the Push Square team...
Talking Point Would You Play Destiny in Third-Person?
Out-of-body experience
There's absolutely no doubt that Destiny is an incredibly smooth and polished first-person shooter: its controls are silky, its aiming is snappy and fast, and its gunplay in general is immensely satisfying. But what if the game adopted a third person viewpoint? What if you could see your Guardian at all times, essentially...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 39
The week before EGXmas
That’s another week out of the way, which means that we’ll be writing the next edition of What Are You Playing from the showfloor at EGX London. Those of you in the UK will spot us eyeing up any PlayStation titles with shirts proudly emblazoned with the Push Square logo, so do stop us and say hello if you’re heading to...
Talking Point Is Japan Finally Back in the Game?
Land of the rising fun
Every year, the Tokyo Game Show causes something of a dilemma at Push Square Towers. As the last high profile game convention in our calendar, we’re obliged to cover it, of course – but it’s always a difficult thing to prepare for. Regional issues make it challenging for us to, for example, put together predictions posts...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 38
A date with Destiny
You’re witnessing Push Square history here. For the first time ever, every single staff writer but one will be playing the same game – way to send this editor’s obsessive compulsive disorder into disarray, Jamie. And what is that game, we hear you ask? Here’s a clue: it’s got really bored talking cubes in it. Sammy...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 37
It's coming from the moon
Do you hear that in the distance? We're not exactly sure what it is, but it's probably either the sound of millions rejoicing as Destiny finally enters the Earth's atmosphere, or the sound of the PlayStation Network crumbling like the soggiest biscuit that you can possibly imagine. Either way, next week's going to be a big...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 36
All night long
Ah, the weekend – that quiet period where real work is cancelled in favour of household chores. Assuming that you get a break from doing the cooking, cleaning, and fixing that wonky shelf in your bathroom, then you’ll probably be investing it in front of your favourite PlayStation format. Here’s what we’re going to be up to...
Talking Point Is Indie Becoming a Defunct, Dirty Word?
Term worm
Indie is the video game equivalent of Marmite: a sector of the medium so divisive that it’s simultaneously culpable of both dismay and delight. The very website that you’re reading is evidence of that, but we’re not alone: scuffles and skirmishes more heated than the format wars themselves can be attributed to the increasingly taboo...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 35
Shake off the work week blues
The problem with running WAYP on a weekly basis is that your humble host is invariably going to forget to put together the article from time to time – as this issue evidences. Your editor needed a firm reminder from news reporter Nicola Hayden, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this in the first place. To be fair,...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 34
Let's try something new
You wanted it, so we’re doing it: WAYPTW will now be published on a weekly basis. In order to make this work, we’re not changing the format, but we’re going to keep the actual article portion more condensed than ever before. This is simply to help us to turn these pieces around much quicker. Otherwise, it’s the same...
Talking Point What Are Your Hopes and Fears for PS4 and Vita at Gamescom 2014?
Panic presentations
Every convention comes with a combination of excitement and trepidation. Sony’s always had a decent presence at Gamescom, so we’re expecting nothing less this year – but with the event being livestreamed all around the world, there’s always the worry that it could drop a Powers-esque press conference clanger and let...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 33
Quick and dirty
Gamescom 2014 is right around the corner, which means that the Push Square team is enjoying one last weekend of freedom before the madness begins. And what better way to unwind than with a spot of gaming respite? As is now tradition, we’ve rounded up a handful of staff writers in order to outline what’s going to be keeping us...
Talking Point Would You Pay for an EA Access Subscription on PS4?
In the game
Whether you like it or not, gaming is gradually becoming much more service driven. The wheels have been in motion for a while, with Season Passes and long-tail downloadable content business models designed to keep you spending more on a single game for longer. However, the announcement of EA Access overnight – a PlayStation Plus-esque...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 32
Sticks and stones
Introducing bi-weekly editions of ‘What Are You Playing This Weekend’ is a bit like doing daily chores: no matter how hard you try to shake it up, there’s only one effective way of getting the job done. So, as usual, this unnecessary pre-amble is here to inform you that, yes, we’ve once again collated as many Push Square...
Talking Point Why PS4's Christmas Offering Is Much Cleverer Than You Think
An excellent excuse
We’ve written so much about the PlayStation 4’s holiday lineup that we’re beginning to sound a little bit like a Skrillex record that has bass drops so heavy that the needle gets caught in its cavernous grooves. Much like the PlayStation 3 before it, there’s a narrative developing that Sony’s next-gen super machine is...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 31
Fruit cocktail
This particular editor may have been lost at sea and unable to steer the ‘What Are You Playing This Weekend’ ship last time around, but dry land is once again beneath your humble host’s feet, and so normal service has resumed. Not that replacement Robert Ramsey did a bad job – he actually remembered to contact the rest of the...
Talking Point Are Publishers Taking Pre-Order Bonuses Too Far?
Spoilt for choice
Pre-order bonuses used to be exactly that: pre-order bonuses. Retailers would compete over little knick-knacks such as t-shirts, keyrings, and action figures in order to secure your business, and you’d shop at the store that was giving away the specific goodie that you wanted. It was a largely harmless practice, with the...
Talking Point Should More Games Try to Teach Us Something?
Swat the swots
Edutainment is a dirty word. We typically associate the embarrassing portmanteau with low budget trash such as Mario Teaches Typing and Donkey Kong Jr. Math – or worse still, the borderline archaic Flash and Shockwave minigames that litter government websites. However, are we letting bad examples impede the true potential of...
Talking Point Should More Games Emulate PS4 Exclusive inFAMOUS: Second Son's Photo Mode?
Say cheese
You could never accuse Seattle-based first-party studio Sucker Punch of not listening to its fans. Many berated the first entry in its superhero series inFAMOUS for the obnoxious personality of supporting star Zeke, and so it spent the entirety of the PlayStation 3 title’s sequel trying to redeem the character – a measure which...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 30
Gaming with the window open
It's been a long and warm Summer week for this Associate Editor. Android-like boss Sammy abandoned his post to run away on a lovely country holiday, but we've somehow made it through without the site catching fire or exploding — and you know what that means. Indeed, it's time to set aside your worries and relax by...
Talking Point Should Sony Ditch E3 Stage Shows Like Nintendo?
A different direction
Very few people earnestly enjoy change. This author gets the jitters if Chart-Track’s weekly UK sales data isn’t ready to write about first thing on a Monday morning, and don’t even mention routine rupturing Bank Holidays. It was little wonder, then, that the web was awash with cynicism last year when Nintendo opted to...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 29
Short and sweet
Stop the world and let us get off, because everyone at Push Square towers is pretty pooped this weekend. While the sheer excitement of E3 2014 has kept the sleepiness away, there’s no doubt that it’s taking its toll on all of us right now – and you’re probably feeling a little groggy after those late night press conferences...
Talking Point How Did the Three Major Manufacturers Fare at E3 2014?
Compare and contrast
E3 2014 is over, and we’re breaking the fabric of time and space in order to celebrate. In this inaugural cross-platform, cross-network, cross-website extravaganza, the editors of Nintendo Life, Pure Xbox, and, er, Push Square have put aside their boxing gloves, and joined forces to bring you this industry wide look at all...
Talking Point What Does E3 2014 Tell Us About the Future of the PlayStation Vita?
Handheld hysteria
Ask a non-gamer to yawn through Sony’s meaty E3 2014 press conference, and they’ll probably come away with the assumption that the Japanese giant is a single console manufacturer. Much like Microsoft before it, the PlayStation 3 barely registered as a blip during its media briefing, and the PlayStation Vita only obtained a...
Talking Point Why Is Sony Saving Its PS4 Reveals Until the Last Minute?
Let it cook
There was a sense of disbelief when LittleBigPlanet 3’s logo nonchalantly appeared on Sony’s sizeable E3 2014 press conference screen. These media briefings have become so pre-meditated over the years that it’s often easy to predict the types of titles that are going to be shown – after all, our pre-show predic
Talking Point Will Sony Have Enough PS4 Material to Topple Microsoft's Game Heavy Show?
Games, games, games
Microsoft’s heavily hyped E3 media briefing this year was always going to be about redemption for the put upon platform holder. With new gaffer Phil Spencer attempting to turn around the organisation’s image, the press conference was filled with phrases aimed directly at fans. “Thank you” was a statement that seemed...
Talking Point What Are Your Hopes and Fears for PS4 and Vita at E3 2014?
Greatness awaits
The clock is counting down to the most important convention in the gaming industry, and Push Square towers is in a state of panic as the seconds seep away. Beyond our soggy brows and short tempered conversations, though, there’s a real sense of both excitement and trepidation surging through the office. Will the ill-fated Team ICO...
Talking Point Why the Low Expectations for PS4 at E3 Could Work in Sony's Favour
Off the rails
Everyone loves an underdog. The plucky pretender that fends off match point against the future Wimbledon champion is always treated to the biggest applause on Centre Court, and the same is true in almost all other walks of sporting life. This mentality appears to extend to the gaming industry, too, with Sony’s troubles with the...
Talking Point Will the PS4 Get a Price Drop at E3 2014?
The million dollar question
No convention is complete without some speculation regarding hardware prices. It’s hard to believe that this time last year, the PlayStation 4’s recommended retail price was very much still up in the air, with many expecting Sony to plump up for a more costly figure than its nearest competitor. As it happens,
Talking Point What Are Your Fondest Memories of the PSP?
The whole world in your hands
There’s something poetic about the PlayStation Portable bowing out just as the PlayStation 4 claims its place at the head of the home console space. Back in the hazy days of 2004, a much more lucrative Sony was on top of the world, with the PlayStation 2 blowing away its competitors, and the Japanese giant’s...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 28
Panic stations
There are now just ten days until the industry turns on its E3 press release machine, leaving many of us at Push Square towers dabbing our nervous brows. Fortunately, video games offer ideal escapism, so we’ll be spending our weekend trying not to think about the avalanche of information that’s heading our way. After all, when all...
Talking Point Is Watch Dogs Proof That You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
Greedy guts
There’s no shortage of gamer clichés capable of sending groans through the office each time that we encounter them, but this editor has a particularly vehement distaste to the vapid criticisms pertaining to game length. While we can appreciate that gaming is an undeniably expensive hobby, we find it frustrating that consumers are...
Talking Point Has Watch Dogs Hacked Your PS4's Heart?
ctOK
We’ve been watching Watch Dogs for a while. When we checked out a behind-the-scenes demo of the ambitious sandbox last year, we hinted that the hands-off nature of the presentation didn’t bode well for the open world escapade. Our misgivings certainly weren’t misplaced, as the title was delayed mere weeks before its intended deploy date,...
Talking Point What if PS4 Title The Order: 1886 Removes Its Top Hat 'Til 2015?
Old fashioned fail
Rumours suggest that God of War: Ghost of Sparta developer Ready at Dawn may have spent too much time watching Sam Mendes’ television smash Penny Dreadful to finish The Order: 1886 ahead of the holidays. While it’s nothing more than alleged ‘insider’ speculation at the minute, it’s a believable
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 27
Here comes the sun
The sun is shining, the weather is sweet – and already this editor is acting like a classic Brit by complaining about the scorching temperature outside. It’s all shorts, flip-flops, and closed curtains here at Push Square towers, as we attempt to avoid the heat and enjoy some good old-fashioned gaming time. Regardless of the...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 26
This little light of mine...
... I'm gonna let it shine. Oh, sorry about that, we didn't see you there. Ahem. It's time for another 'What Are You Playing This Weekend', in which the majority of the team will be delving into a little game that our very own Mat Growcott described in his review as a "painted paradise". But what does this Bank Holiday...
Talking Point Why PS4's Delays May Be a Blessing in Disguise
Midas touch
You could almost sense the falling fire and brimstone in forums when both DriveClub and Watch Dogs were delayed mere weeks before the PlayStation 4’s release. While the platform holder had acted impeccably leading up to the next-gen syste
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Easter Edition 2
Cracking good time
The long Easter weekend is upon us, which means that this editor will be spending his lie-ins hoping that Jessica Rabbit hops by with a chocolate heart. Curious fantasies aside, it’s been over a year now since we started the ‘What Are You Playing This Weekend’ series, meaning that this is the second Easter Edition that...
Talking Point How Frequently Do You Want PS4 Firmware Updates?
Time for a change
Firmware updates on the PlayStation 3 were serious business. Take a gander at some of our older articles on the subject and you’ll spot more than a handful of prickly jabs pointed at people that complained about the constant need to update the console. In hindsight, it was a problem, with the system seemingly taking an age to...
Talking Point Is The Last of Us Remastered Enough to Carry PS4 Until Christmas?
Something to fight for
Sony clearly intended to make a bigger splash with The Last of Us Remastered before it leaked. The platform holder admirably attempted to shrug aside the mistimed comments made by Turkish executive Sercan Sulun late last month, but it couldn’t gloss over the big gaping banner advertisement that it acc
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 25
Somebody put out the moon
The winding road ahead may well be a mine field, but we’re here to steer you through your weekend with our bi-weekly gaming itineraries. As is customary for this filler feature, you’ll find our schedules directly below, but we want to know what will be keeping your consoles hot over the coming days. Peruse our plans,...
Talking Point Has Sony's Dithering Turned Off PS Vita TV's Chances?
Change the channel
As expected, Amazon broadcast its arrival into the microconsole space today. The straightforwardly named Fire TV is a miniscule set top box designed to stream media applications such as Netflix and Hulu to your television. However, in addition to being a conduit for video content, the miniscule machine can also be upgraded with a...
Talking Point PlayStation's Big Employment Perception Issue
In and out
Sony’s Worldwide Studios got a lot lighter this month. There’s been more hiring and firing within the platform holder’s pool of first-party developers than an episode of The Apprentice of late, with departures seemingly occurring every day. The end of SCEA president Jack Tretton’s colossal tenure was sad enough news at the...
Talking Point Are We Starting to Expect Too Much from PlayStation Plus?
More, more, more
You can have too much of a good thing. Way back in 2010 when PlayStation Plus first launched, this editor greedily gobbled up the single free PlayStation Mini that was given away as part of the premium service every month. It was a real novelty when you got a full game – a selection of SEGA Mega Drive ports fleshed out the...
