Comments 616

Re: Soapbox: This Is Why Physical Games Are Still Important to Me

Ainu20

@Coversnail That point about account bans is crucial. Under no circumstances, no matter how severe the infraction, should an account ban ever lead to losing access to your paid content. That is plain theft. I know you technically only pay for a licence and blah blah, it still amounts to theft.

There needs to be a legal framework for this sort of stuff.

Re: Soapbox: This Is Why Physical Games Are Still Important to Me

Ainu20

I understand all the concerns about ownership, but I can't help it, digital is just so damn convenient. I'm pretty much the opposite of a collector, I don't like having a bunch of stuff around and the idea of a physical game collection taking up space doesn't appeal to me.

With year round digital sales and a patient mindset, it also doesn't really feel like I'd need to turn to physical to save money. I know some people would argue that we can't let physical media disappear, but at the end of the day I'm not going to go out of my way to make purchases that I consider less convenient to me personally.

Re: The Day Before Dev Resurfaces, Blames Failure on 'Gold Rush' of Negative Takes

Ainu20

While it's certainly true that there are a lot of content creators out there that thrive on negativity and destructive criticism, there are simply no excuses for this former studio. They've been completely dishonest from day one and it seems like they still aren't done.

That and the fact that the "game" they released was by all accounts a vapid, barebones experience with such severe technical issues that it was barely playable. They've only get themselves to blame for that.

Re: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered (PS5) - A Near Perfect Package for New and Returning Fans

Ainu20

@Fatewalker I feel like you're both massively overreacting and downplaying the value that was added here, at least based on the review (which is all we have to go on).

The review states they got 18 hours of play time out of the roguelike portion and that it felt fresh and engaging until the end. Obviously your mileage may vary and for some, that mode will not be attractive enough, but still, that is a lot of value for $10.

And... well that's it. You're trying to draw larger conclusions from it, as if "supporting" this will lead to worse. Supporting what, a $10 DLC that may give you over a dozen hours of action? Yeah I simply don't see the problem.

Re: You Should Get 'Comfortable' with Not Owning Your Games, Suggests Ubisoft Exec

Ainu20

I see a lot of comments about physical vs digital here, but isn't that sort of missing the point? This guy isn't just talking about digital, he's talking about subs, that's not the same thing at all.

Sure, digital is already a step back in terms of ownership compared to physical, but if you have sufficient storage, you can technically download your entire digital library and, as long as your storage remains intact, play it whenever you want (depending on online requirements, but that also applies to physical versions).

Subscription services are on another level, you have literally zero control over the availability of games at any given moment there. There's nothing inherently wrong with it as a complementary option, but it would obviously be a complete nightmare scenario if it was the dominant model, or even worse, the only remaining option.

Re: Rapid Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Fast Travel Wows PS5 Fans

Ainu20

I mean, this is pretty good but it seems roughly in line with expectations for exclusive games on these systems, and not necessarily noteworthy? It's nothing compared to something like Ghost of Tsushima for example, which had roughly 6 seconds fast travel on a system as limited as the PS4, and a second or less on the PS5.

Re: Upgraded PS5 Controller with Hugely Improved Battery Life Spotted

Ainu20

@TheMightyImp2 It's a widespread and well documented issue, just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean it's only because people have dirty hands or whatever.

Beyond straight up abusing a controller, it's pure chance. I always have several working controllers that I alternate between, and out of the 5 total Dualsenses I've owned so far, 2 have had drift. But one of my controllers has outlived both of them and is one I'm still using daily. There's no real pattern to it, it's just luck.

Re: Anger as SAG-AFTRA Strikes Deal for AI Voice Acting in Video Games

Ainu20

This seems really strange, how on earth was something like this passed? I've looked up some other articles and it seems like it caught pretty much everyone by surprise and wasn't put to a vote or anything.

Feels like all this will accomplish is alienate almost the entire voice acting community and undermine trust in the union. I wonder if it's just a complete own-goal or if something more sinister is going on behind the scenes.

Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for January 2024?

Ainu20

@Deoxyr1bose Fair enough, the reaction to last month was not warranted. I suspect people were setting unrealistic expectations for the last month of the year.

On another note, I struggle to call Sable a quality title on Playstation. It's by far the worst performing game I've played on the PS5 so far, despite its modest visuals (from a technical point of view). For me personally, it was a potentially brilliant game so utterly ruined by its framerate that I actually had to drop it. I appreciate that it was made by a very small team, but the fact that they haven't bothered to fix this is unacceptable in my opinion.

Re: PS Plus Essential Games for January 2024 Announced

Ainu20

@Darude84 No we didn't. You are getting the Essential and Extra tiers mixed up now. If you're going to throw such harsh criticism around, at least get your facts straight. I see you also got Weird West and Evil West mixed up.

Seriously, do your homework first.

Re: Success of Legendary Edition Convinced Mass Effect Lead Writer to Leave BioWare

Ainu20

@JohntheRaptor He is credited as senior writer on the first Mass Effect, with Karpyshyn as the sole lead writer, then went on to be co-lead writer with Karpyshyn on Mass Effect 2 and eventually became sole lead writer on Mass Effect 3.

Considering how the trilogy evolved, I'm sure that will point him in a negative light for some, but he still had significant writing contributions throughout the trilogy.

Unfortunately for him he's also credited as director for Andromeda, though that game went through 2 other directors before him, so he was probably left to pick up the pieces. At least he wasn't involved in the writing process for that game.

Re: Stare Wistfully at The Last of Us Online PS5 Multiplayer Menu Screen

Ainu20

Is there any reason why this is getting treated as a legit picture in both the article and the comments? In this day and age, I don't trust anything that isn't coming from either an official source or someone with a rock solid track record and accountability, e.g. someone like Jason Schreier. Almost anyone can mock up something that looks extremely professional and authentic these days.

Re: The Last of Us' Cancelled PS5 Multiplayer Was 'More Fun' Than Any Other Online Game

Ainu20

@HonestTruth I believe I addressed that in my post, aside from the remasters, as long as they release a new game in the not too distant future, that would not really be problematic.

They've more than likely not "just" been doing the same thing over and over, they would've been working on one or more new projects at the same time. If you'd argue that the time is approaching to reveal one of those projects, I would agree.

Re: The Last of Us' Cancelled PS5 Multiplayer Was 'More Fun' Than Any Other Online Game

Ainu20

@HonestTruth I think it's been reported since several years ago that they are in fact working on a new IP. The most common rumour seems to be about a sci-fi project, but I guess we'll find out eventually.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with your point though. There's nothing wrong with a studio focusing on a single franchise, like Santa Monica for example.

Obviously just doing remasters/remakes isn't good enough, but at the end of the day it's "only" been 3.5 years since ND's last original release. If they release another game in, let's say 1.5 years, that would not really be an outlier compared to many other AAA studios.

Re: Sea of Stars Replaces 'The Completionist' NPC Following Fraud Allegations

Ainu20

@Marquez Ah I actually had no idea that he was leaving permanently and you're right, that was only shared on the FPS twitter account (and since I'm never on that cesspool, I missed that).

Even though I didn't think he was a perfect fit, I'm still sad to see it come to this point. He was one of the founders of that podcast so it's hard not to feel at least a little bit sorry. On the other hand, if he's as guilty as the reports make it seem, I guess I shouldn't have any sympathy for him, but my understanding of all this stuff is so little I don't really know what to believe.

Re: Sea of Stars Replaces 'The Completionist' NPC Following Fraud Allegations

Ainu20

@Marquez I personally thought he was never really on the same page as the other 3 main members of the podcast, personality and humour wise. Like, the others are all sort of self-deprecating and light-hearted while he always came across as self-aggrandizing and serious, though I might be too harsh on him.

He did bring a heavy indie-focus to the table though, something the others also try to do but are definitely not as deep into as him.

Re: Sea of Stars Replaces 'The Completionist' NPC Following Fraud Allegations

Ainu20

There's always at least one person going on about "innocent until proven guilty" and "censorship" in cases like this, and it's always completely irrelevant and a total misunderstanding of what those concepts mean. I'm just surprised "free speech!!" wasn't mentioned as well.

In this case, it's simply 100% Sabotage Studio's choice whether they want to keep associating with The Completionist. His inclusion in the game was a sort of thank you to him, and if they now feel like they were misled, or that it could harm their own reputation, than they are absolutely free to cut ties. It has nothing to with concepts like guilt or censorship.

Re: Like a Dragon Gaiden's Controversial English Dub Is Selectable on PS5, PS4 Now

Ainu20

Don't really get the hate to be honest. If you don want it, don't use it. It's good that the option is there, but regardless of dub quality, I'd always recommend people to play these games in Japanese.

It's made by Japanese people, set in Japan, features almost exclusively Japanese characters and the subject matter is as Japanese as it gets, the spoken Japanese feels like an important part of that as well.

Plus I'm hoping that after playing hundreds of hours of RGG games and undoubtedly hundreds more in the future, I might actually pick up some Japanese. Wishful thinking, I'm sure.

Re: Naughty Dog Has 'More Than One' Ambitious PS5 Single Player Game on the Way

Ainu20

@Nem Referring to your comment about them doing 4 games in the PS3 gen, then 2 and now 0 so far, that's unfortunately the trend we're seeing across AAA development these days, with only a couple of exceptions (such as Insomniac).

It feels like AAA development in general has become unsustainable and even big studios are only a single failed project away from folding. Sony's first party studios have become pretty much exclusively known for their big, polished AAA releases, so they're sort of stuck continuing that.

I wish some of those studios could take a step back and release something smaller, more like a double A game with that extra Sony polish on top. Surely there's room for games like that, and it would massively improve their release cadence.

Re: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Whips Upheaval in Jingxiang DLC on PS5, PS4

Ainu20

@Petrecis24 Yeah, same here, there's always this threshold with mechanically deep or challenging games, like the DLC expects end-game levels of skill and knowledge. That just doesn't work unless you play a game late enough so the DLC is already available.

It's just another reason to hold off playing games until the inevitable complete edition several years down the line.

Re: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (PS5) - A World We Don't Want to Leave

Ainu20

I've become pretty fatigued by these formulaic, large open-world games, but I have to say it looks stunning. It's clear a lot of work and care went into this, even if it might not be for me at this point. Heard glowing praise about the audio design as well.

A good sale further down the line and I'll probably pick it up.

Re: Call of Duty Devs Walk Back Kratos Voice Actor Criticisms, 'It's Not About the Joke'

Ainu20

It was just a joke, their responses were pathetic. These kinds of roasts happen all the time at movie and tv award ceremonies.

They're now trying to steer the narrative as if Christopher Judge made light of all the job losses and perpetual crunch in the industry, and they're somehow standing up against that. Which makes the whole thing even more pathetic.

Just admit you overreacted and leave it at that.

Re: Review: PS Access Controller - An Innovative But Expensive Game Changer

Ainu20

@TechaNinja I'm not sure it is. For example, the immediate comparison is Xbox's much lauded adaptive controller, which has a base price of $100 but is essentially limited to a unified adapter, requiring several other peripherals to reach the desired functionality. The full price of a suitable controller will depend on one's needs, but it's almost certainly going to be a very expensive affair.

In comparison, this one seems to come with a ton more functionality right out of the box at a lower price and probably requires fewer additional purchases.

Neither are perfect, but then again creating a single solution for such a wide variety of needs is pretty much impossible at a reasonable price.

Re: The Day Before Developer Apologises for Poor Marketing, Denies Scam Accusations

Ainu20

I mean, what did they think? Right from that first reveal trailer, people were skeptical. A no name studio who had never done anything even remotely close to this scale, suddenly dropping the most ridiculously insane looking trailer. Since then, they've shown zero evidence of that game actually existing.

A bunch of shady stories later, and eventually a gameplay demo that looked nothing like the reveal trailer, and they're talking about injustice? Maybe don't blatantly lie to your potential customers?

Also, just look at the state of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKaBaspMbdA

Re: Soapbox: The Wait for GTA 6 on PS5 Will Be Excruciating

Ainu20

Back when I was a kid or young teenager, I felt the same way. After seeing that initial MGS 2 trailer, knowing the game was 1.5 years away, that felt like eternity.

Complete opposite now. I have such a ridiculous list of games that I still want to play, and before I know it, GTA 6 will have released and get added to that list. I've stopped looking forward to games, I'd rather just focus on what is available to me.