Amnesiac

@z0d15g0d You’ve really helped my case. I didn’t have to rebuy SFV, I just bought the roster expansion DLC at a fraction of the cost of the full game. My younger self spent untold hours doing chores to save up for annual Street Fighter upgrades (II, CE, Turbo, Super Turbo) I just think this way works better. Imagine if EA took this approach to sports games instead of going with annual full price releases.

@at-the-Ripper I’m hard pressed to think of another time outside of the early 90’s when there were so many excellent releases from both major players and smaller companies. Arc System Works, Namco (Tekken 7 is a masterpiece and 8 looks like it will be sublime), SNK, French Bread and many more have released great games in recent years. Also, a number of older, hard to find games have finally seen the light of day again, so yeah, it feels like fighting games are in a good place.

Complaining also seems to be having a renaissance in the gaming community though, so I’m not surprised the impression you got was negative.

@MrList Or DLC has removed the need to buy new versions of fighting games every year, allowed for continuous balancing, and helped maintain interest in a genre not known for having a long shelf life. We’re in a fighting game renaissance, in no small part because of DLC, not in spite of it.

@WallyWest Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but melee is pretty much just for human enemies, right? I mean, there’s not much point to bopping the robo dinosaurs with your pointy stick. In human to human scuffles I found the melee much improved. Especially the combos that bounce you off of enemies and give you a free ranged shot.

Stepping into Burning Shores from the base game is like taking off a pair of cheap sunglasses and suddenly getting hit in the face with how detailed and beautiful the world is. I feel a strong urge to hop into my little skiff and just do some sightseeing while playing Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” on repeat.

@Matroska I tried it out as well and the racing and tracks are really well done. It does seem a little on the tough side, but I’m wondering if difficulty is tied to performance/lap time in the tutorial. I might be wrong, though.

And yes, the number of currencies and ways to level up are both baffling and appalling. Is this method really better than, I don’t know, selling a complete game and then charging for future updates? Isn’t there another kart racer out there that’s found a bit of success in doing that?

@Sakai I enjoyed the story, for the most part, but the ending was disappointing. Without getting into spoilers, it felt like they sacrificed any sense of closure for the sake of set up. They should have let it breathe a little. I’m curious if you have a similar take.

That being said, I found the wacky sci-fi stuff and all the different tribes really enjoyable. They also did a great job with the supporting cast, with several going from grating to endearing over the course of a few side quests. In a medium overpopulated with one note, throw away characters, it was nice to get a little depth, even if they missed the mark a few times.

I liked HZD a great deal, but I mostly remember the big moments. I find with HFW, it’s the smaller moments that have stayed with me.

Oh, and quoting Eurogamer regarding anything Horizon related is definitely shaky ground. I can’t wait to see how they tie themselves in knots trying to explain why Burning Shores is no good. Should be good for a chuckle.

“Australian dollarydoos” is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. I’d have called ‘em chazzwazzers though.

The Sonic underwater sections are completely to blame for the dread I feel any time I start to virtually run out of air. Each one was like a tiny scene of horror, with the bell tolling, the music speeding up, and that last burst of bubbles escaping from the mouth of a soon to be dead hedgehog.

That being said, go get the mask and the underwater sections become some of the most beautiful parts of HFW.

Hmm…looking at the screenshots, I’m noticing that the itty bitty controller symbol icons are the wrong colors. Blue square? Green cross? What sort of confusing madness is this?

Thanks for the review! This sounds much more interesting than what I had initially thought, and so onto the wishlist it goes.

Woke up to find that my game progress had dropped from 100% to 77%. That’s a lot more Horizon to look forward to!

I’ve been a fan of ZEN pinball’s different incarnations for many years, but this reboot has been messy. There’s a lot of fun to be had here, for sure, but I think I still prefer Pinball FX 3 and the Farsight pinball collection at this point.

It’s been more than 20 years and I still don’t think I really have the hang of Fantavision. It’s fun, for sure, but half the time I think I’m scoring in spite of myself.

Is it just me, or is Ratalaika really branching out lately? I have this in my wishlist, just waiting for tomorrow’s release. Can’t wait to play it, and given the development era, can’t wait to hear what it sounds like too. So many great game soundtracks from that period.

One of the best things about this game is that it keeps you humble. There’s nothing like meticulously picking apart an Apex Thunderjaw only to let your guard down and get pummeled by a pack of angry robot kangaroos.

@Gaia093 Just to balance things out, I’m in the buyer’s satisfaction camp with Kayak VR. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it beautifully. Makes for a nice change of pace between more action focused titles, but your enjoyment is entirely dependent upon how much you like to explore for the sake of exploring.

I don’t really understand all the “About time! Make a proper game!” comments. Just about every studio that exists develops press X to jump/shoot/confirm games. Only one studio was developing a press X to create anything you can think of game. Whatever they do next, I hope it’s exactly what they want to do.

I’ve been enjoying this quite a bit. While it doesn’t match the frenzied pace of WarioWare, the mini games here have more meat on their bones than Nintendo’s offering. It makes the additional time allotted per challenge welcome in my book.

Volatile sludge. A young lady can just never have enough volatile sludge.

@Matroska The realms are definitely on the dainty side. In a way, it reminds me of the first Kingdom Hearts, where a world could consist of a few smallish rooms. Of course, KH is a classic, and while Disney’s Dreamlight is not a classic, I find it pleasant enough to pop in now and then.

I think I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt. I’ve been on a David Lynch kick lately, so my tolerance for wild tonal shifts is unnaturally high. After all, sometimes when you’re struggling against primordial all-consuming evil, a fish gets stuck in the percolator.

Can’t wait! Inin games is really doing fine work breathing new life into old games. Their Ninja Ja Ja Maru collection is fantastic, though the three separate releases is a bit confusing.

@glassmusic You still have access to the games that the dlc was originally purchased for, don’t you? Quite frankly, playing Pinball FX3 on PS5 is a better experience than the newly released Pinball FX, which needs a ton of polish. I might get some of the new tables for Pinball FX, but my old tables are doing fine right where they are.

@Almost_Ghostly These rip off devs who let me import tables I bought in 2013 across two system generations and one handheld free of charge? I’m thinking at some point the dlc I bought more than a decade ago stopped putting food on anyone’s table.

@FinneasGH I completely agree. The single player game, especially playing from Kamala’s perspective, is top notch with quite a few memorable moments. Fleeing the Hulk and visiting space come to mind. And yet for the life of me I still can’t navigate the war table. For a game that inspired a lot of pointless anger from the internet hive-mind, it had a nice long life.

@LN78 Yes, very few things manage to pull off looking gorgeous in a non-visual way.

@Sil_Am I think of it as Switch games getting an extra point or two just because they’re able to run on the hardware.

Just waiting for the timer on the home screen to finish ticking down so I can hang out with Ryza and her crew again. After what I thought was a bit of a misstep with Sophie 2, which felt like a slog at times, I’m really looking forward to the snappier battle and alchemy systems of the Ryza series.

Looks fun, but is making me hungry. Kinda makes me wish I lived in a reality where smellavision was a thing.

@ShogunRok Great interview! Kind of a nuts and bolts question, but did you use an interpreter or were questions and answers submitted and translated via text? However it was done, it reads very well.

@JamieO What a great read. Since you wrote this more than five years ago, I guess its now a retro review retro review. Maybe a retro retro review? Throwback classic retro review has a nice ring to it. That’s a series I would read.

Another game that I shrugged at when I saw that dreaded combination or rogue and lite. This review and some of the PushSquare regulars have made a strong case for putting my biases aside and giving it a go, though.

Surprised he didn’t go on a rant about how “Today I feel like a developer during crunch!”

@Balosi That will teach me to be too lazy to check myself. What I have is a Negcon, also by Namco. Never had a Jogcon, but it looks pretty amazing.

@Balosi The white controller with red accents that you twisted in the middle to turn? I had one too, and was terrible at using it. It was a neat idea though, and besides racing it would probably be great for Pong, Breakout, and other classic paddle games.

Well, what do you know. For once being a giant scaredy cat has paid off.

I’m a little late to the party having just started HFW a few weeks ago, but what a wonderful and rewarding game. I would say that I’m looking forward to the expansion, but what I’m really looking forward to is work being over so I can get back to the base game.

Ghost of a Tale looks interesting and I’ve come close to picking it up a few times but never pulled the trigger. Maybe Moss has scratched my “play as a rodent” itch. Good to know there’s still a little time to stick a toe in the water, though.

I’m guessing that some of the dissatisfaction with the series around these parts comes from (over)familiarity with the source material. A quick look around the non-gaming interwebs shows that a lot of folks were shocked and impressed with the finale, so the story seems to have done its job. It’s a bit like watching an adaptation of a favorite novel. It’s a lot more fun to enjoy it as its own thing rather than a ‘spot the difference’ exercise.

Ah, it wasn't just me then. I didn’t have any issues with the PS4 version, but the PS5 upgrade came bundled with a few bugs that have crashed the game a couple of times. I do hope there’s a patch soon because the game is truly lovely when it works properly.

One again a PushSquare VR review has nudged a game onto my wishlist.

@Svark Having played Moss on the original headset, I have to say that the PSVR2 version is jaw dropping. It was already a great experience, but boy does it sing on the new headset.

@Sakisa Glad you mentioned Fight ‘N Rage. The free PS5 upgrade was a nice surprise. It really seems like we’re in something of a beat ‘em up renaissance. With these, River City Girls 2, and some of the other Kunio-kun stuff, my square button is taking a pounding lately.

@somnambulance I was really having fun with Forspoken, taking my time and getting a kick out of parkouring all over the place, until the Sila’s Pact quest popped up after downing the first Tanta. That quest is pummeling me into reconsidering my play style.

I really don’t think the traditional “game was unfinished” gripes hold water here, since many of the improvements were made in response to player feedback. People forget that games have always been released in varying states of completion and quality, and you used to have to live with what was on the cartridge. I can’t see how a developer adding quality of life improvements post release can be seen as a negative.

The other moldy complaint about dialogue is a personal preference thing, I guess. My take is that it has its ups and downs, but the line repetition is a bit much. I’ve heard the Newark/New York gag about a hundred times too often.

Still, on the whole I’ve really enjoyed Forspoken. I just need to figure out how to finish Sila’s Pact so I can move on and continue to enjoy it.

@ThaBEN I thought I was going to have to do a lot of hunting and pecking when setting up a gamelist for VR, but adding games via the options button is quick. I guess you still have to search for the games you want to add, but it’s not as bad a system as I first thought.

This is why these reviews are so helpful. I instantly turn away from anything “co-op multiplayer”, but seeing that its from the developer of Arizona Sunshine has made it worth a second look to me.

@awp69 I see no need to attack you, but I might raise an eyebrow and wonder why you think a Playstation site would be improved by having less coverage of a huge hardware launch.

Also, I had no idea this was made by Owlchemy Labs! My interest is piqued, so onto the wishlist it goes for when the dust from this new game barrage has settled.

"Well, this just makes me even less likely to support Microsoft.", I thought to myself while waiting for Windows to finish updating so I could download a report hosted on Azure, import it into Excel, and send it to my boss via Outlook before my next Teams meeting.

Glad you mentioned the HDR issues. I thought my eyesight was going.

I poured hours into the old Zen Pinball on a bunch of different Sony systems and got way more entertainment value out of them than what I paid for more than10 years ago. I don’t mind buying them again on a new system with a few touch ups.

What I do mind is the piecemeal DLC/season pass stuff. I understand that the model of make a comprehensive game and sell it may not be viable long term, but surely this amalgamation of annoying monetization practices isn’t the best way forward.

@Deoxyr1bose You have a point, but if developers don’t announce early, games inevitably get leaked and they lose control of the narrative. Kind of damned if you do damned if you don’t unless development goes exactly as planned.