Amnesiac

@Royalblues Nice - I have the PS2 import of the first one but have never even seen the second. I remember the first having really impressive character animations compared to other fighters at the time. Really looking forward to playing the sequel.

I wish Clap Hanz nothing but the best. They somehow provided me with countless hours of entertainment playing a sport I don’t actually like. I do hope that their latest makes its way to Playstation eventually, since my Switch has been mostly decorative for a very long time.

Ohhh, hunting like in Monster Hunter or Toukiden. I was really confused for a second as to why Koei Tecmo was involved in a game where you dress in camouflage with bright orange accents and attempt to vanquish the mighty white tailed deer.

@Gloamin That makes sense. Still, I like to leave a little wiggle room to the author since what seems natural is dependent on the reader. And while it's true that there are quite a few bad writers out there, they will always be vastly outnumbered by bad readers.

@Gloamin You make some good points, but your first sentence is killing me. What on earth does it mean to naturally include something in a work of fiction cut from whole cloth? Surely anything included by the author is natural if they intend it to be there.

@Smiffy01 You deserve infinite likes for the amazing Ramones reference.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the AO symbol before, and for some reason it looks rather pleasant. Not like that stern looking M for mature.

Fun to say out loud too. Makes you sound like a New Yorker. Ay-oh, watch it, I’m walkin’ here!

Just wait until it gets a Switch port and the good folks at DF will write an article about what a miracle of coding it is. EG will probably retroactively recommend it as well.

@themightyant To echo @XOF, you make an excellent point. It takes some real heavy lifting to make an overpowered character compelling. It’s so much easier to relate to protagonists who are relatively weak compared to what they struggle against. Still, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and plenty of others have managed to make near omnipotence very engaging over the years.

That sounds very ambitious. Thank goodness CDPR is a company that never gets out over their skis…

The comments seem evenly divided between those who want the PS4 UI and those that want a Windows desktop. At least the two sides can agree that petulance and vitriol are the appropriate responses to not liking the home screen on a game console.

@Ralizah I’m definitely hopeful, especially since I have fond memories of Wild Arms (still one of the best opening themes in gaming) and Shadow Hearts. My only gripe with Kickstarter is that it shifts risk directly to the consumer by crowdfunding the traditional role of a producer. Still, there are a lot of things that wouldn’t exist without it, so while I’m still antsy, I’m also glad that its available as a funding option.

Kickstarter makes me antsy, but I’m glad to see these two games get funded. I do wonder why Sony hasn’t combed through some of the old gems from past generations to see what’s worth reviving through a developer partnership. It seems like there’s a lot of interest there.

@Amnesiac Hi me from a year ago! You did indeed buy Toem and you really enjoyed it. There was a bit of annoying backtracking, but overall it was excellent and more than worth the asking price.

@Northern_munkey It’s entirely possible that adding the pride face paint was a small but important gesture for some of the folks who work at Guerrilla. Not sure why its assumed that every instance of outreach is cynical and doesn’t represent people who work for the companies behind it. Then again, maybe Guerrilla only employs white heterosexual males.

Finally picked up the PS5 version of Devil May Cry 5. Receiving a notice that something long buried on my wishlist is finally on sale is a nice way to start the day. Except for Sonic Origins. That price is still not nice.

@Royalblues Exclusivity is the reason some of these games get made in the first place as the deals often cover part of development costs. It’s likely not the case with FF, but SFV, Bayonetta 2, and a host of other games leveraged exclusivity to get development off the ground.

Also, if all games were available on all systems, it would obviate the need for a killer app. I’m sure there would still be plenty of good stuff to play, but a game would just need to be good enough to turn a profit, not sell a system. As with most things, exclusivity has its pros and cons.

Sometimes the best option is to go ahead and miss your targets. It may cause short term pain and a stock dip, but why continue to associate the brand with negativity?

@Wolfie_Pie Thanks for the dose of nostalgia. I played that game so much that more than 20(!) years later the lyrics “Nobody knows me ‘til I say Hi I’m Kelly” are still burned into my brain.

Seeing Sesame Street, TLOU, Taizo Hori, and Tommy Tallarico all mentioned in the span of a few paragraphs automatically makes this one of my favorite reviews in recent memory.

The narrative may not be compelling, but it’s pretty fun most of the time. Besides, looking for a compelling story in a racing game FMV seems like a bit of a snipe hunt.

I really enjoyed GRID Legends and managed to wrap up the story mode before GT7 released and stole all my gaming time. In fact, my only complaint are those stupid ramps sprinkled throughout the truck races that only exist to make me cough up slender leads.

@Blaze215 Just to be ornery, I’ll push back a bit since I play plenty of games that don’t have the most riveting game play, but do have fantastic music, art design, or a great story. My visual novel backlog is deep and highly embarrassing.

@Blaze215 As way of example, if my father walks out of a film in disgust, there’s a good chance I may like it so I make a mental note to check it out. Nothing against my old man, we’re just different people with different ways of looking at the world.

@Blaze215 Seems pretty logical to me. I find that if people I generally disagree with don’t like something, there’s a good chance that I’ll like it just fine, and I’m guessing that @nessisonett feels the same.

@Deoxyr1bose Yeah, Kena was at the very top of my list of favorite games of 2021. It’s such a beautiful and well-made game, I was left scratching my head at some of the stingy review scores it received. Happy to see that its getting an update.

This misinformation distribution seems to follow the old Fox News playbook. Only write stories that fit your ideology and if there’s an unverified rumor that will make your audience foam at the mouth, preface it with “people are saying that…”, just in case its not true.

“It remains to be seen whether this scale of industry consolidation will be a good thing”

Spoiler alert - it won’t!

I’ll be picking this up for nostalgia’s sake, but I hope he’s grown out of his “elephant impersonating” phase.

Whelp, so much for teasing new characters on the log-in screen.

@Korgon Adding a layer of sorting would definitely help, and while I think your category title is spot on, they could go with “bite size” or maybe resurrect the “minis” title to separate them from the herd and keep (almost) everyone happy.

@somnambulance You’re absolutely right. Capcom and Squenix are killing it, and a bunch of other studios are doing good things as well. It’s really impressive how many companies weathered the storm of lock downs, state of emergency restrictions, and a complete shift in how work is done, and are once again hitting their stride.

Rolled the dice and picked this up based on the previews and am happy to see the glowing reviews. Unfortunately, I can’t play a game about fake work until I get some real work done…

It seems to me that Microsoft does a good enough job of holding itself back without help from the competition.

@JJ2 The early Silver Surfer stuff is great, but I’m a sucker for his 90’s Infinity Gauntlet era. That’s a character that could do with a good game. I still have nightmares from the soul crushing LJN Silver Surfer NES game.

And the first Captain Mar-Vell is definitely not getting erased. Marvel is publishing the entire original run in an Omnibus edition early next year.

@Max_the_German Yes, it’s my favorite Mario game by a good distance. That was just a bit of sarcasm in light of the gripes about another excellent game being included as a pack in. I forgot that people can’t hear my snarky voice in the comments.

I remember being forced to buy a Super Nintendo that came with Super Mario World. I’ll bet that game would have been a total flop if it wasn’t bundled with the system…

@JJ2 Unfortunately, the best thing the original Captain Mar-vell did was die. Most of his early stories were kind of a mess with writers struggling to land on a consistent version of the character. Then a young Jim Starlin wrote an instant classic graphic novel that had him die from an incurable disease. Definitely worth reading, but would make for a bit of a somber game. Would probably be a critical darling though.

This is definitely good news, though my fighting game problems are more from skill lag than input lag. It would be interesting to see an in depth explanation of how they managed to pull this off.

You Push Square folks really know how to put together a good guide. I never thought I’d get into a Smash-esque fighter, given that I’m and old SF purist, but this has been a lot of fun. The game is snappy and doesn’t suffer from the mushy input feel I always get with the big N’s offering.

@Ralizah I would prefer Sony to be a bit more judicious in what they sell. All stores, physical and digital, exercise control over what they carry, and their product and marketing managers do indeed make those decisions for you. But having to wade through oceans of crap makes for a tedious user experience and makes the store look bad. I’m not looking for Saks Fifth Avenue, but I’d prefer more curation than the digital flea market we have now.

As with most things in life, a little curation often goes a long way.

Dodged a bullet there. I shudder to think what would happen if the ever-agitated television and movie crowd were to merge with the ever-agitated gamer crowd.

@AdamNovice “ people can moan about China all they want”

If this goes through, I highly doubt anyone at Ubisoft will be able to moan about China. Or make reference to anthropomorphic bears. Oh bother!

Because if the past six months have shown us anything (besides the willful infliction of human suffering), it’s that doing business with countries run by thin skinned, megalomaniacal dictators is a great move. It’s always a toss up whether our comeuppances are born more of greed or stupidity.

Somewhere in my basement there’s an import PS2 copy of The Rumble Fish. I remember being impressed with the animations and style of the game, but it’s been so long that I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. Definitely looking forward to trying this out. Also, I think the name comes from an old Francis Ford Coppola movie, but I might be wrong.

@Olmaz Senran Kagura and Oneechanbara are two of my favorite series. Those games bring back a lot of good mammar…I mean memories.

RayStorm really blew me away back in the PS1 days so I’m really looking forward to this. R-Gear being a Strictly Limited Games exclusive is a bit of a fly in the ointment though. This is a rare case where the things I don’t like about a company are spelled out in their name.

@Teddie-bear Same here. I’m pretty sure most of mine were from Destruction All-Stars where other players were thanking me for being so easy to wreck.

@Titntin I couldn’t agree more. I really connected with Odyssey, partly because of all the Bulfinch's I read as a kid, and partly because I enjoyed playing as Kassandra. I finished Valhalla, and had a lot of fun in Merrie Olde, but it felt a bit gloomy and dour at times, which of course fits the Viking theme to a T.

@Mikey856 Yeah, activity cards are really handy, especially when wrapping up end game stuff. They not only get you in fast, but can load you into specific areas, depending on the title.

I guess if they’re discontinued down the road we’ll have another wall of miserable comments to look forward to. Half from people who have no idea they exist because they don’t pay attention, and half from people who really want everyone to know how useless they are because they don’t personally use them.