Comments 168

Re: All The Game Awards 2024 Nominees Revealed, Astro Bot Up for 7 Awards

Balie3000

I'm all for DLC being included (ok.. maybe they should have their own category), given how substantial some additional content, like Shadow of the Erdtree and Phantom Liberty for example, have become. Those are like whole new games and better than a lot of full games in my opinion. A lot of work also goes into projects like those and I think they are worthy of recognition. Shadow of the Erdtree made me fall for Elden Ring all over again and it was glorious.

Re: PS5 Pro Will Reportedly Boost PS4 Games, and Reduce PSVR2 Motion Sickness

Balie3000

I wish we can just get some solid info on this and not these vague explanations 🤦🏻‍♂️ I think we can already guess that the AI will upscale the resolution, but the current PS5 already boosts PS4 games with variable frame rates just fine, so we need to know if locked 30fps games will get some sort of boost. That's what the people want to know! 😬 Give us the numbers!

Re: Sniper Elite: Resistance Delves into Occupied France on PS5, PS4 Next Year

Balie3000

I've been playing the Sniper Elite games since V2 came out and the series has consistently been an absolute blast! Always improving in some way, pushing the boundaries of AA gaming. Never too fussed with realism for the sake of just being really fun. The difficulty options and new mechanics in recent titles really changed the way I play and added some more challenge. Interested to see how they innovate in this new title.

Re: The Obligatory Helldivers 2 Isn't As Popular As It Was Headlines Have Started to Emerge

Balie3000

I've been playing since launch and I can say from personal experience that the game has grown a bit stale. Me and the boys have been running around doing mostly the same missions, fighting the same enemies for months for now. The core gameplay is still fun but the game needs more content for a live service. The major orders are getting really old and the last two warbonds didn't blow out hair back. Arrowhead would need to drop a massive expansion with a new enemy type and game mode (where the heck is horde mode??) if it wants to pull more people back in. They will need to plan something substantial if they want to compete with Starship Troopers Extermination when it launches. My squad of Roughnecks are definitely checking that out!

Re: Ex-Sony Boss Shawn Layden Explains How to Make Games Faster, Cheaper

Balie3000

Other issues with the industry are all the dumb mistakes developers and publishers are still making. Games releasing in extremely buggy states, marketing being misleading or over-hyped, closure of amazing studios, mismanagement from higher-ups, chasing live service, bloating your game with loot, not getting the gameplay right etc etc. These are all things that have been figured out and perfected before...
Games also need to adjust with the times. Be a little bit more self-aware about what your game will be competing against.

Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows Pre-Orders Already 'Looking Very Strong'

Balie3000

People so quickly forget that Ubisoft has actually released a few bangers recently (AC Mirage, PoP: The Lost Crown, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora) and that you can confidently preorder one of their games, knowing that it will be quality. Just ignore all the haters and politics.. you'll be a lot happier in life.

Also, why is no one talking about the fact that you can just buy a one month subscription to play the game?? You even get all the preorder stuff. That's how I've been playing their games and it's saving me a boatload of money. I'll play them now on the sub and then buy them later when they are heavily discounted. Seems like a win-win to me.

Re: Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Fail to Meet Expectations on PS5

Balie3000

It's the shift to making FF games $70 now and not matching that price with quality imo. FF16 had awful performance issues at launch and graphically only looked really good during large boss fights. I didn't buy FF7R and am not interested to because of how blurry it looks in performance mode (judging from the demo) and it's $70 for the continuation of a story without a conclusion yet, which is nonsense. Had these games launched at a lower price, without issues and crisp visuals it might have been a different story. People sometimes hold off on buying games until they get patched, which affects early sales numbers.

Re: Fans Positively Review Bomb Hi-Fi Rush in Wake of Xbox’s Closure of Tango Gameworks

Balie3000

@InvaderJim I know what it seem like now, but a few years back all the heads of Xbox were left to do what they wanted and Phil Spencer was given a seemingly blank cheque to gobble up studios and grow the business. He has now screwed it up by making investments that haven't bore much fruit yet and by leaving some studios to mismanage themselves, making games that missed a console launch, took too long and were less than stellar. There's nothing that comes close to what the PS studios are pumping out. Also the PR from those three guys I mentioned have just been bad over the years. Phil especially talks in such circles sometimes with the most non-informative, fugazi talk I have ever heard. I agree the guys up the chain also need to go, but regardless, all the execs involved need to be replaced.

Re: Founders, Long-Time Employees Reportedly Say Xbox Now Effectively Microsoft Gaming

Balie3000

@Fiendish-Beaver It's not just to do with the ABK acquisition. There have been a few big fails before that - Halo Infinite not launching alongside the Series X (as was planned), Gamepass losing steam and actually not being a profitable business model, Phil Spencer saying great games won't shift console sales, Xbox just leaving studios to mismanage themselves and either release trash games or just sit on an IP for ages (Gears of War)... just to name a few. I'm not saying Sony is perfect but Xbox has really stumbled a lot more.