Comments 110

Re: Sony Won't Be Holding a Traditional Press Conference at E3 2018

DVS

Uh no. Read this excerpt from polygon:

"Layden said that Sony’s pre-E3 showing will “feature exclusive looks and deep dives” on four big titles from SIE Worldwide Studios: Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding, Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2 and Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima."

So it's Sony's PRE-E3 SHOW that will focus on those four games. THE PRE SHOW. The Sony-centric stream that happens just before the actual conference.

Last your Sony's pre-E3 show was fantastic. (They announced Guacamelee 2 in it.) It seems as though everyone's completely missed that he was talking about the pre show in his comments.

Re: Is the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Sneaking to PS4?

DVS

Quite frankly, it would need all of the first four core titles for me to be interested. I don't see that happening.

Konami will milk that series for all it's worth but the sad truth is that Metal Gear Solid is done. And, being honest the story is complete now so we should let it go to its watery grave.

Re: Is Subscription Service EA Access Finally Coming to the PS4?

DVS

I always get the immpression that most PlayStation folk don't actually know what EA Access is or what you get for your money. The comments above certainly seem to cement that theory.

EA Access is a fantastic service that is such, such good value for £20 a year. That regularly updated game vault is insane. Plus up to ten hour trials of new games. In the last six months I've played so much from it that it fully justifys the £20.

As a (currently) exclusive service, it's pretty much the best thing the Xbox One has going for it at the moment.

Re: PGW 2017: PlayStation Boss Comments on Controversial Last of Us 2 Trailer

DVS

I can't understand the logic behind the "controversy". The trailer was a great insight in to one of the events in TLOU2.
It was violent. Yes. But had those characters that were subject to the violence been men, would this even be a thing?
Remember when Sony showed TLOU at E3 back in 2012 and Joel shot a man on the floor, in the face, with a shotgun, at point blank range? No? No.

This controversy, to me, appears to simply be SJWs getting gripey because they (wrongly) think they have a reason to.

And that comment above about 'the point of games is fun' is just ignorant and sets the medium back thirty years.

Re: Insomniac Wants to Find a Publisher for a Sunset Overdrive Sequel

DVS

I tried and tried with Sunset Overdrive but I just didn't find it fun so I stopped playing. Just something about the movement really turned me off. The guns weren't effective and made the gunplay in every fight a slog when combined with the painful movement problems.

If those issues could be addressed I'd definitely pick up a sequel.

Re: Poll: Should Sony Allow EA Access on PS4?

DVS

It's got to be said, this vote is somewhat skewed by the fact that - judging by the comments - no-one seems to know or understand what EA Access is or why it's great value for money. Let me clear some things up:
1. The cost is £20($30) for an entire YEAR.

2. The main feature of the service is that it puts all of EA's older games in to one downloadable library that you can download to your console for no extra cost. You can download and delete as many times as you want.

3. For example, if you had an Xbox One and signed up to EA Access right now you could download: Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, FIFA 17, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: Battlefront, Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3 and a whole load of other games.

4. In addition to the game library, you have access (aha) to 10% off the cost of any EA game purchase that you make from the Xbox Live store. That includes preorders.

5. Some new games recieve a ten hour trial for Access members so that you can try the full version that latest game and see if you then want to buy it. And if you do, you get 10% off.

6. If you preorder an EA game, for a fair few of them you get to download and play that game three days before anyone else.

EA Access is pretty much the only reason I own an Xbox One at this point. It's a FANTASTIC deal. It's a great way to give you the incentive to play an older game that you may not have wanted to buy when it came out. For example, I didn't buy Battlefield: Hardline but I downloaded it from the EA Access library and I had a blast.

If Activision, Ubisoft or Square Enix want to do the same I would encourage them to do so. If they were £20 each for a year then it would cost just £80 a year for a never ending source of great gaming from the four biggest independant games publishers.
Unless there was something that you specifically wanted to buy at launch, you might never need to buy a new game again. It could revolutionise the games industry and make it far more accessible to all income levels.

To be honest, there is no reason why EA Access shouldn't be on the PS4. It just seems greedy from Sony that they don't want to allow it.

Re: Poll: Should Sony Allow EA Access on PS4?

DVS

@Fight_Teza_Fight I don't think you understand what EA Access actually is bud. You pay £19.99 a year to have access to EA's backlog library of games. You can have trials of certain new games coming out and the opportunity to play a new game for ten hours before it comes out if you've preordered it.
The main reason you'd sign up is for the game library. Which at this point is just fantastic value.

Re: It's Hard to Believe Final Fantasy XII Is a PS2 Remaster

DVS

@Reanfan7 In fairness, ztpayne7 isn't wrong. The story of FFXII is notably bad compared to other Final Fantasy games. So many things were shoehorned in. The development team admitted years later that Square-Enix execs had directly forced a change of the central protagonist from Balthier to Vaan. Vaan and Penelo didn't exist until they were forced in for fears that 'the younger audience' might not understand a more 'mature' story and characters.

Re: Your Free February PlayStation Plus Games for PS4 Have Leaked

DVS

I wrote a Blog on this recently, sorry it's a bit long, but it may help people to understand some things about PS Plus:

I constantly see people commenting on websites, Facebook and Twitter about AAA games on PlayStation Plus - particularly on the PlayStation 4. Now there's no one-sentence way to clarify this situation, so today I'm going to explain the PS4's PlayStation Plus games from a business standpoint.

Disclosure: I am not an employee of Sony. What I am about to say is constructed from the understanding of a scholar of the console gaming industry as a whole over the last twenty-four years.

Firstly, understand this key point: If they're going to charge to get access to online gaming on the PS4, in all honesty, Sony don't really have to give anything extra. Back in the days of the Xbox and Xbox 360, Microsoft used to charge £40 a year for online gaming and the occasional discount on digital games - and people were paying it without any concern.

PS Plus was originally a watershed moment in gaming that was rather brilliantly carried out. It was part of the start of the resurgence of the PS3 that ultimately led to Sony pulling away in the final few years of the last console generation. It was done with a two part purpose: A) Boosting console sales and B) Getting PlayStation owners used to the idea of a yearly subscription service - ahead of the PS4.

One of the great things about PS Plus from the beginning was that it got people playing games that they wouldn't normally buy. Following which the development studio would get a higher amount of praise/recognition and higher sales when they release their next title. This then garnered more money in future digital sales for Sony and boosted the industry in the process.
Moving to the PS4, Sony openly embraced this notion as it was very good for them financially.

On PS3 in 2012 PS Plus had a large number of older AAA titles that Sony were happy to pay out for, for two reasons:
1. Sony were second in console sales and were desperate to find a way to catch up.
2. People saw these inclusions as 'consumer-friendly', despite absolutely no business sense in their inclusion. Those AAA games had virtually no benefit for Sony going forward. They were considered old and the people that would have bought them in a launch window already have. And yet people still lapped this up and heralded Sony for these inclusions.

Flash forward to 2015 and, frankly, when consumers keep requesting games like Knack, Killzone: Shadowfall or inFAMOUS: Second Son to be part of the Instant Game Collection over a newer digital game - this is a baffling concept to market executives from a business point of view.

If you look at it from a business stance, those games are now two years old and subsequently they are very affordable. Anyone that wants to play them can acquire them with ease. In addition, someone who enjoys gaming as a medium is likely to have played at least one, if not all of those titles, already if they had wanted to play them.

So then who benefits from the inclusion of two year old AAA games? Well, the brutally honest but unpopular answer - people too cheap to actually buy those AAA games in the first place.

Crucially, Sony are the current market leaders over the Xbox One. That is why they don't really need to put AAA PlayStation games on PS Plus. They know that the people they need to keep happy are the core gamers, their bread and butter - the people that more than likely already bought inFAMOUS: Second Son when it was first released and wouldn't really want to be given it free now, two years later.
Comparatively, from the other side, Microsoft do now feel the need to place AAA games on Games With Gold for the Xbox One. As Sony were experiencing with the PlayStation 3 in 2011/2012, Microsoft are no longer the market leader. Placing AAA games on Games With Gold is seen as a way to entice gamers to switch to the Xbox One - a tactic that Sony found so effective in 2012.

Now, for a large number of PlayStation 4 owners, because of the way that the service was run on PlayStation 3, the way that the 'free' games on PlayStation 4's PS Plus service are coordinated has become largely misunderstood. And inevitably opinion on what IS available has become clouded by people expecting older AAA games, rather than newer digital, independent or second party titles.

Here's the thing: it's always, ALWAYS about money. And the simple truth of the matter is that the people baying for AAA games on PS Plus are generally not the people that Sony are targeting for their future profit margins.

Look at it like a business equation:
Paying to put old AAA games on PS Plus = Sony lose money with slim to nothing future returns.
Paying to put newer digital / independent titles on PS Plus = Sony make money in the future through higher coverage / word of mouth sales / sequels.

Boiled down to its barest bones, Sony needed PS3 console sales when they were putting AAA games on PS Plus. They're not worried about sales of PS4 consoles right now and it doesn't currently benefit Sony to put AAA games on PS Plus, it does benefit them greatly to put digital / independent games on PS Plus - so that's what they're doing.

Re: Yep, We're Definitely Seeing Dragon Quest XI Tomorrow

DVS

@RegalSin I suppose the primary reason is that DQVIII is arguably the best title in the series and it was a PS2 exclusive. Showing what the series could do on a modern home gaming console was an absolute blast.
Personally I'd much rather see a triumphant return to the big screen for the main DQ series than a version on a 3DS system that is now hopelessly underpowered compared to the competition. Sure I'd love a Vita version, but Squenix will want this to be huge.
PS4 is the only answer, in that respect.

Re: Uncharted 4's Neil Druckmann Hints at Nathan Drake's Departure

DVS

I still maintain that the 'Thief' that will 'End' is Sully. I think that the consistent trolling is all to take away from that voiceover at last year's E3 that practically screamed out 'Sully is going to die in this game and Nate's replacement partner in the series is his brother.'

Re: Talking Point: What Freebies Would You Like in June's PlayStation Plus Update?

DVS

I really enjoyed Knack. I feel that a lot of reviewers played Knack and compared it to Battlefield 4 (I know, bonkers right.) In fact, IGN's review of Knack is one of the worst things I've ever read. It just completely missed the point of it. Knack is a fun game. Simple as that. And it would be a great addition to PS+. So many people think that it's garbage without having played it. It's sad really.

Re: Review: Toukiden: Kiwami (PlayStation Vita)

DVS

@ederenzi78 I've been thinking the same sort of thing. I've never played a Monster Hunter game as I don't know if they'd appeal to me. So yeah, I'd very much like to know if, as a keen Vita user, this would be for me.

Re: Game of the Year: Best PS4 Games of 2014

DVS

@ferrers405 - I totally agree. The positioning of PT simply doesn't reflect how good a year we've had for smaller digital titles. Either Child of Light or Valiant Hearts should have been bronze, with DA: I in at least silver.

Re: UK Retailer GAME's Got Some Big PS4 Bundles In Stock

DVS

@Carl-G GAME are doing what they must to take advantage of this fairly uncommon situation. They are a business. They are out to make money. They sell a product that people like you and I want. But they want people to buy games with them, not go elsewhere (ie Amazon). So yes, it takes the p***, but just about any company would do the same. So don't hate GAME just because they've got the stock and they're doing what they are because they are the only ones who can at this time.

Edit: Also, how can you say 'it's a shame GAME didn't go bust' - do you have a clue how disasterous that would be for the UK gaming scene?

Re: Knack Rattles and Rolls in Cinematic Launch Trailer

DVS

I'll be getting it launch night here in the UK. Having played it a number of times I'm really looking forward to co-op with the wife. I know it's got a few bad reviews, the worst review I've read, in terms of actually discussing the game, is on IGN. I really don't think the reviewer, Steve Butts, gets it at all. It's really fun and is right at the front of the list of next-gen games I want to play. I can't wait to play Knack!

Re: Rumour: Do These Images Confirm Journey and The Unfinished Swan for PS4?

DVS

@benrawr I am genuinely baffled. At Journey's conclusion I just sat still for five minutes to think about how much I had enjoyed the experience. I class it as one of the very best games I have ever played. Of course everyone has different opinions on things - but did you not gain any enjoyment from Journey at all? Seriously??