I thought that Microsoft buying Activision would’ve been bad for the industry, but i never could’ve predicted how exactly it would be bad. Not even a year after the acquisitions and I’m pretty sure in retrospect it was a mistake. The Xbox division spent $69 billion dollars on this acquisition, and the suits at Microsoft are now demanding a return on investment, which is why they’re doing job cuts, going multiplatform, doing all digital, and maybe even other things (they might begin increasing Gamepass prices, or putting ads on Gamepass). The Xbox model is incredibly unsustainable, and the Activision acquisition only made it worse. They already had a good enough studio lineup + Bethesda, I don’t see why they needed Activision.
Who could’ve predicted that industry consolidation only lead benefits for executives and no one else? Literally no one could’ve seen this coming… (in all seriousness it’s sucks that the people at one of the last creative beacons in Activision were treated like nothing. Idk how better or worse the transition to remote will be, but the job cuts aren’t a good sign)
there are years where i think Japanese games do better, there are years where i think Western games do better. This year tho? Yeah Japan is absolutely clearing. The only Western game announced for this year that I really care about are Prince of Persia, Plucky Squire, and Silksong (if it comes out), and 2 of those are indie. Palworld, Like a Dragon IW, Tekken 8, Granblue Relink, Persona 3, FF7 Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin, Thousand Year Door Remake, Metaphor ReFantazio, and if you want to include Eastern games in general look at Stellar Blade and Wukong.
As a college student who really wants to play Hi-Fi Rush but doesn’t want to spend on a PC or Xbox, them porting that would be great.
As someone invested in the future of our industry, this is definitely the wrong move. Xbox fans who were sold on the promise of exclusives were essentially lied to, PlayStation would have essentially an unchecked monopoly allowing them to do more anti-consumer stuff, and nothing would stop Xbox from pursuing more industry consolidation.
@gymratAmarillo Mortal Kombat 11 wasn’t in the original 2020 lineup, which was only a year after it came out. MK11 was also way more of a success than MK1 was. Also I don’t know to what extent Sony controls the game lineup itself. Does Sony really want 3rd Strike of all games? No, the FGC does.
Unironically surprised Mortal Kombat 1 made it in. I thought it was gonna get MvC I’ed, especially with how NRS games haven’t been that big in general for the greater FGC.
@Matroska I haven’t played Granblue yet. All my efforts been in Persona 3 Reload and I’m about 10 hours in. If reviews are like stellar stellar, I’ll probably pick up 7Rebirth over Granblue, but as of now Granblue is my next priority after Persona. Then again I’ve played the Granblue demo and not the FF7 one yet
Man I wish Persona 3 and Granblue didn’t come out right before this. 100% gonna buy Rebirth but not at launch. I really liked XVI, but there was something whimsical about 7 remake that wasn’t in XVI. Going back to FF7 will be magic.
Probably gonna play it in Korean. Theres not a lot of games made where the language isn’t either English or Japanese, so that seems like something that’ll give it a bit more uniqueness
I love the aesthetic and demo and the fighting game, I’m just preoccupied with Persona 3. With new games being $70 it’s hard justifying trying to balance new releases especially when I have a backlog. It’s especially hard when all the games you care about come out in the first four months of the year and the rest of the year is barren (seriously after Stellar Blade I can’t think of much im interested in besides maybe TTYD)
What’s the catch, like seriously. Is this a vertical slice for Silent Hill if? Is it gonna be removed in like a couple months? Is it F2P like a mobile game? There’s no way Konami just pumped this out with no motive.
Actually a pretty great showcase. Stellar Blade is launching sooner than I thought, the Sonic Generations remaster looks more than impressive, The Short Message looks fun, Judas looks great as well, Death Stranding 2 looks insane as always, and we’re getting a new Kojima espionage game in probably 5 years. No Silent Hill 2 date and no first party stuff were the lowlights.
These games trials have been pretty disappointing so far. What PlayStation fan who subscribed to the premium tier of PS+ would need a 2 hour trial of the biggest Sony release this generation to be the deciding factor on whether to buy it? Theres so many more games that would benefit from these types of demos and trials. PS+ premium is a joke.
Kinda related, but I really wished we could see what the budget of games like these. It clearly has a lot of marketing behind it, but the production values definitely aren’t as huge as something like Suicide Squad or FF7Rebirth. Even if those games sell more, this might be the most profitable release of February (especially considering the Microsoft marketing deal)
Really expecting this is gonna water down a lot of the drama regarding TLOU2’s development. Crunch, leaks and the initial wave of hate and transphobia among the fanbase that spawned, Druckmann’s Israeli Palestine inspirations, inspiration behind incredibly controversial story decisions. I doubt that something like this would touch on these things.
There were 9000ish layoffs from last year across the entire gaming industry reportedly. This alone is about 5% of that. Combine that with the 2,500 that was previously reported last week and we’re already at about 1/3rd of the total estimated layoffs from 2023. It’s January 22nd. If there isn’t an implosion of almost every AAA dev by the end of the year I’d be shocked.
There have already been 2.5k layoffs this year, and we’re only halfway through January. This year is 100% gonna be worse than last year in terms of layoffs.
@InsaneWade I mean it would help. A $10 DLC with costumes, cut levels, a developer commentary, and a new mode with new playable characters is a much easier sell. Advertise it as a PS5 exclusive DLC first and foremost like Burning Wilds, then call it definitive edition or something.
They really should’ve called this director’s cut instead of remastered. I feel like that would’ve stopped a lot of the negative feedback towards the game. Remastered brings an expectation of it with visual improvements especially. The fact that Metroid Prime Remastered and TLOU2 Remastered both share the same label is laughable.
The gameplay looks very arcadey and honestly kinda fun when viewed in isolation from the purple = weakness, live service, and barely representing the actual elements of The Suicide Squad things. I honestly think if their original IP multiplayer wasn’t a live service, it could’ve been pretty well received.
I think this is gonna be an even worse year for the industry than last year. We’re only a couple days into the year and so many big tech companies have already done layoffs. It’s the same state without the big releases for many companies bringing in revenue.
For Sony specifically, I think we’re gonna see Xbox 2022 levels of bare releases. Sony, besides the PS5 blow out showcase, has tended to announce their first party releases far in advance. So far the only games on the horizon are Fairgame$, Concord and Wolverine. Two of them are live service (one of them having no info and the other one being hated) and the other one not releasing this year. I don’t think Sony will reveal and release something like GoT 2 in a year. I think Jim Ryan’s push for live service is gonna affect this gen more than people realize. Dev times have gotten way longer, so if any first party games get announced they’re either gonna be single player games very far out from release, or live service games with some process (which isn’t an ideal scenario either way).
@sd7232 I mean that’s only in Japan. Worldwide, system sales are on a decline. It’s been 7 years since the Switch launched, it’s appropriate timing for a successor. Not to mention next year’s lineups gives all the implications of a successor being on the way like the last years of the Wii and 3ds before their successors came out (Smaller scope remakes and remasters and smaller eshop sized games).
More worrying is the lack of any PS5 games in the top 10 software sales besides the game bundled with a lot of PS5s. Theres more large scale Japanese appealing games not on switch coming this year (Granblue, Persona 3, Rise of the Ronin, FF7Rebirth, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8, Stellar Blade), but idk if it’ll be able to crack the Nintendo stronghold. Sony really needs to invest in smaller games. Idk if the reports of Sony not considering $100 million dollar games AAA are true, but if that’s what they consider mid budget then they’re completely out of touch with a decent portion of the gaming audience.
It’s unfathomable that Warner Brothers, with their current absurd debt and negative image, is looking at the single player Hogwarts Legacy selling 22 million copies during Feb last year vs this inevitable train wreck coming out at the same launch time and going “yeah, we should double down on live service player engagement games”. I didn’t like Hogwarts Legacy but I thought it could actually have a good impact by Warner Brothers increasing their single player output.
Sega really has never had a completely cohesive amazing era. Even during their Genesis days there was a ton of infighting between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. They’ve been putting out good games recently, but all of those have either been RGG or Atlus games with a lot of the other games being pretty mid. If leadership actually has good expectations, good practices, and if these upcoming throwback games are great then I think we’re in for maybe the best SEGA ever.
@jamison1993 Yeah I don’t even need to mention the Star Wars fandom. The internet has definitely facilitated more harassment in entertainment industries, especially to groups that have historically received hate. People are more connected, and thus it’s easier to become numb and feel disconnected with the words you’re saying and how they impact real people.
There is a lot of misogyny within the gaming community, especially towards real life people. Look at how Laura Bailey was treated for her role as Abby or Lily Gao for RE4 remake. Look at how a lot of people hate character designs for prominent female characters like Aloy just because they aren’t sexualized. It’s not just one gaming fandom, there’s seeds in all of it. There needs to an accepting culture facilitated across the entire gaming industry. I don’t know how we get there, but it’s absolutely a necessity.
Them porting Hi-Fi Rush to switch or PS5 would be my favorite and worse mistake they could make. I am genuinely considering picking up a Steamdeck for Hi-Fi Rush, and if Xbox makes a native gamepass app for Steamdeck I honestly might subscribe. However, I’d rather just get it on switch or PS5. The worst part is how this signals what Microsoft believes to be their priorities. I do not care at all for really any other Xbox first party series or games. However, Hi-Fi Rush just clicks with me so much that it makes me the most envious I’ve been of an Xbox game since forever. If they don’t think Hi-Fi Rush is worthy enough to be a system seller, than why should I buy an Xbox if the games that matches what I want are likely to be ported to other platforms?
@KundaliniRising333 I could see this with Last of Us Part 1 Remake but not with this. It’s a simple remaster with a small amount yet interesting new content. It’s not like Naughty Dog chose to release this over a brand new from the ground up Jax and Daxter game. Remasters usually supplement output from studios making new games in terms of development time and effort, not overtake it.
I keep on saying I wanna replay Last of Us 2 or buy the remake for Last of Us 1, but everytime I think about it I lose the motivation to do so. I still want to do so, maybe if ND announces LoU 3 I’ll play it again in preparation. I don’t understand how this remaster got so many people mad tho when it’s pretty much just $10 DLC.
It’s so weird that in all the discourse about Tekken 8’s colorblind filter, barely anyone brought up tons of the other blindness filters, covering multiple blindness and color blindness to varying degrees. It honestly looks like the best visual accessibility in any fighting game. The Tekken 8 team should do more effort to describe the intended functionality and purposes of each filter so someone with one form of blindness doesn’t unintentionally use the other filters which could potentially be harmful to their needs. It’s not a quick addition but the work the Tekken 8 team has done should be admired.
@somnambulance I think we can see Stellar Blade as well. But idk with how long development times are getting and Sony’s sudden push and reported shift away from live service, I think it’s more likely that this is a quieter year for Sony than not.
@Grimwood It looks great, it just won’t be eligible for this site. @somnambulance I mean a lot of those big AAA games a lot of us say are GOTY usually have a kinda long reveal to release cuz of increased development times. There’s not really many officially announced undated ones I could see coming out. Hopefully publishers stop announcing games more than like 2 years from release and maybe we could even see some surprises for this year.
It’s gonna be so interesting seeing what’s gonna be the reader’s GOTY next year. There’s not really a major high profile traditional 3rd person action adventure game on the level of previous years. Doesn’t mean next years bad for games tho.
I think Larian and Capcom are the two closest for the best game developer. One developer put all of their attention and resources into not only one phenomenal game, but also the community of that game. The other released multiple fan favorites in beloved series, have announced exciting upcoming games, and has been rereleasing a lot of older games as well. They’re like a way higher level RGG. I know a lot of people are gonna say Insomniac but I think it’s less for this year and more for the PS5 gen in general, not to mention how I feel like Spider-Man 2 definitely was not that polished and rich as some other games released by developers this year despite having Sony backing.
This was the same scenario as last year. A sequel to a Sony first party game that built off of a critically acclaimed original won this site’s GOTY over the general GOTY winner which was a massively critically acclaimed RPG which is seen by a lot as a magnum opus of the genre. However, I feel like history’s gonna be a lot more kind to God of War Ragnarok than Spider-Man 2. The general criticism of both of them is that the story of the original was better, however Ragnarok was trying to do something a lot more fundamentally different with its story than Spider-Man while also fixing and improving the 2018 version dramatically more. I’m not really mad that Spider-Man 2 won this site’s GOTY, I just think these parallels are interesting to analyze.
I think last year everyone was comfortable with the first party PlayStation game taking this site’s GOTY over the choice most outlets chose cuz God of War Ragnarok was just that phenomenal… but Spider-Man 2 is not that phenomenal.
Looking at the result of the poll, it really does feel like people judge the quality of PS+ based on if there’s a cinematic 3rd person action adventure game in the lineup.
Honestly I’m surprised Like a Dragon Gaiden isn’t on here (assuming top 3 is Baldur’s Gate, Resident Evil 4, and Spider-Man 2). It was on a lot of your staff’s top 5s, and it seemed very high up there as well.
This is tough cuz like, Final Fantasy XVI is one of my favorite games of the year. However as an RPG, I think it’s pretty lacking. It’s my favorite RPG of the year but at the same time stuff like Octopath II and Sea of Stars were way better on the RPG front.
Next year looks literally insane for JRPGs tho. Like a Dragon 8, Persona 3 Reload, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma, Unicorn Overlord, and Rise of the Ronin the first three months
Im predicting SM2 is gonna be on this list, which is gonna be weird seeing it in the upper half of this list when it was only rated an 8/10 on this website. I know this is a site wide list and a review only has a couple of reviewers at most, but yeah idk fascinating regardless.
I really liked Spider-Man 2 but man it does highlight how kinda a poor year Sony had and is facing next year. Their only games this year were a VR game and a licensed game that, while great, was a lot more evidently flawed than some of their previous output. It dominated the conversation for not only being Spider-Man, but for being the only big game PlayStation fans wanted to sink their teeth into. It looks true for next year as well, the only exclusive Sony games are 3rd party deals and Helldivers 2. The only upcoming single player party game mentioned is another Marvel game that will probably takes multiple years to come out. Hate to be pessimistic over this simple poll but yeah (Sony if you release Ghost of Tsushima 2 next year I’ll take back literally everything I said)
Makes sense Alan Wake would go on sale this fast. Despite the acclaim it hasn’t been selling a lot. Really think a physical edition would’ve helped out a lot. Yeah most games are bought digitally nowadays but Alan Wake is a moreso niche series with a dedicated fanbase, and if you’re really into it you’d want a physical copy.
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Re: Microsoft's Recent Layoffs Contradict Activision Blizzard Buyout Pledges, Says FTC
I thought that Microsoft buying Activision would’ve been bad for the industry, but i never could’ve predicted how exactly it would be bad. Not even a year after the acquisitions and I’m pretty sure in retrospect it was a mistake. The Xbox division spent $69 billion dollars on this acquisition, and the suits at Microsoft are now demanding a return on investment, which is why they’re doing job cuts, going multiplatform, doing all digital, and maybe even other things (they might begin increasing Gamepass prices, or putting ads on Gamepass). The Xbox model is incredibly unsustainable, and the Activision acquisition only made it worse. They already had a good enough studio lineup + Bethesda, I don’t see why they needed Activision.
Re: Crash Bandicoot Developer Toys for Bob Struck by Layoffs, Office Closure
Who could’ve predicted that industry consolidation only lead benefits for executives and no one else? Literally no one could’ve seen this coming… (in all seriousness it’s sucks that the people at one of the last creative beacons in Activision were treated like nothing. Idk how better or worse the transition to remote will be, but the job cuts aren’t a good sign)
Re: Recent Steam Concurrent Player Data Suggests Japanese Games Are Thriving
there are years where i think Japanese games do better, there are years where i think Western games do better. This year tho? Yeah Japan is absolutely clearing. The only Western game announced for this year that I really care about are Prince of Persia, Plucky Squire, and Silksong (if it comes out), and 2 of those are indie. Palworld, Like a Dragon IW, Tekken 8, Granblue Relink, Persona 3, FF7 Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin, Thousand Year Door Remake, Metaphor ReFantazio, and if you want to include Eastern games in general look at Stellar Blade and Wukong.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About All of the Xbox Multiplatform Rumours?
As a college student who really wants to play Hi-Fi Rush but doesn’t want to spend on a PC or Xbox, them porting that would be great.
As someone invested in the future of our industry, this is definitely the wrong move. Xbox fans who were sold on the promise of exclusives were essentially lied to, PlayStation would have essentially an unchecked monopoly allowing them to do more anti-consumer stuff, and nothing would stop Xbox from pursuing more industry consolidation.
Re: Evo 2024 Games Announced, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 Headline
@gymratAmarillo Mortal Kombat 11 wasn’t in the original 2020 lineup, which was only a year after it came out. MK11 was also way more of a success than MK1 was. Also I don’t know to what extent Sony controls the game lineup itself. Does Sony really want 3rd Strike of all games? No, the FGC does.
Re: Evo 2024 Games Announced, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 Headline
Unironically surprised Mortal Kombat 1 made it in. I thought it was gonna get MvC I’ed, especially with how NRS games haven’t been that big in general for the greater FGC.
Re: Preview: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Feels Like a Strong Step Forward from Remake
@Matroska I haven’t played Granblue yet. All my efforts been in Persona 3 Reload and I’m about 10 hours in. If reviews are like stellar stellar, I’ll probably pick up 7Rebirth over Granblue, but as of now Granblue is my next priority after Persona. Then again I’ve played the Granblue demo and not the FF7 one yet
Re: Preview: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Feels Like a Strong Step Forward from Remake
Man I wish Persona 3 and Granblue didn’t come out right before this. 100% gonna buy Rebirth but not at launch. I really liked XVI, but there was something whimsical about 7 remake that wasn’t in XVI. Going back to FF7 will be magic.
Re: Stellar Blade's Japanese Dub Won't Be Available Worldwide, But Korean Will
Probably gonna play it in Korean. Theres not a lot of games made where the language isn’t either English or Japanese, so that seems like something that’ll give it a bit more uniqueness
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink?
I love the aesthetic and demo and the fighting game, I’m just preoccupied with Persona 3. With new games being $70 it’s hard justifying trying to balance new releases especially when I have a backlog. It’s especially hard when all the games you care about come out in the first four months of the year and the rest of the year is barren (seriously after Stellar Blade I can’t think of much im interested in besides maybe TTYD)
Re: Free Silent Hill Game The Short Message Out Today on PS5
What’s the catch, like seriously. Is this a vertical slice for Silent Hill if? Is it gonna be removed in like a couple months? Is it F2P like a mobile game? There’s no way Konami just pumped this out with no motive.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate the Latest State of Play Showcase?
Actually a pretty great showcase. Stellar Blade is launching sooner than I thought, the Sonic Generations remaster looks more than impressive, The Short Message looks fun, Judas looks great as well, Death Stranding 2 looks insane as always, and we’re getting a new Kojima espionage game in probably 5 years. No Silent Hill 2 date and no first party stuff were the lowlights.
Re: PS Plus Premium Adds Spider-Man 2 PS5 Trial Next Week
These games trials have been pretty disappointing so far. What PlayStation fan who subscribed to the premium tier of PS+ would need a 2 hour trial of the biggest Sony release this generation to be the deciding factor on whether to buy it? Theres so many more games that would benefit from these types of demos and trials. PS+ premium is a joke.
Re: Japan's Shibuya Station Decked Out with Awesome Persona 3 Reload Ads
Kinda related, but I really wished we could see what the budget of games like these. It clearly has a lot of marketing behind it, but the production values definitely aren’t as huge as something like Suicide Squad or FF7Rebirth. Even if those games sell more, this might be the most profitable release of February (especially considering the Microsoft marketing deal)
Re: The Last of Us 2 Dates Its Grounded Documentary for 2nd February
Really expecting this is gonna water down a lot of the drama regarding TLOU2’s development. Crunch, leaks and the initial wave of hate and transphobia among the fanbase that spawned, Druckmann’s Israeli Palestine inspirations, inspiration behind incredibly controversial story decisions. I doubt that something like this would touch on these things.
Re: Riot Games Is Laying Off 11% of Staff, Some 530 People
There were 9000ish layoffs from last year across the entire gaming industry reportedly. This alone is about 5% of that. Combine that with the 2,500 that was previously reported last week and we’re already at about 1/3rd of the total estimated layoffs from 2023. It’s January 22nd. If there isn’t an implosion of almost every AAA dev by the end of the year I’d be shocked.
Re: UK Sales Charts: The Last of Us 2 Remastered Beats Prince of Persia to the Podium
Can’t wait for Suicide Squad to top the charts over the 2 other better games releasing that weekend just because of the IP
Re: GDC Report Finds One-Third of Developers Hit by Layoffs in Past Year
There have already been 2.5k layoffs this year, and we’re only halfway through January. This year is 100% gonna be worse than last year in terms of layoffs.
Re: Video: The Last Of Us 2 PS5 vs PS4 Graphics Comparison
@InsaneWade I mean it would help. A $10 DLC with costumes, cut levels, a developer commentary, and a new mode with new playable characters is a much easier sell. Advertise it as a PS5 exclusive DLC first and foremost like Burning Wilds, then call it definitive edition or something.
Re: Video: The Last Of Us 2 PS5 vs PS4 Graphics Comparison
They really should’ve called this director’s cut instead of remastered. I feel like that would’ve stopped a lot of the negative feedback towards the game. Remastered brings an expectation of it with visual improvements especially. The fact that Metroid Prime Remastered and TLOU2 Remastered both share the same label is laughable.
Re: Before Suicide Squad, Rocksteady Was Reportedly Developing an Original Multiplayer Game
The gameplay looks very arcadey and honestly kinda fun when viewed in isolation from the purple = weakness, live service, and barely representing the actual elements of The Suicide Squad things. I honestly think if their original IP multiplayer wasn’t a live service, it could’ve been pretty well received.
Re: 18 PS5 Predictions for 2024
I think this is gonna be an even worse year for the industry than last year. We’re only a couple days into the year and so many big tech companies have already done layoffs. It’s the same state without the big releases for many companies bringing in revenue.
For Sony specifically, I think we’re gonna see Xbox 2022 levels of bare releases. Sony, besides the PS5 blow out showcase, has tended to announce their first party releases far in advance. So far the only games on the horizon are Fairgame$, Concord and Wolverine. Two of them are live service (one of them having no info and the other one being hated) and the other one not releasing this year. I don’t think Sony will reveal and release something like GoT 2 in a year. I think Jim Ryan’s push for live service is gonna affect this gen more than people realize. Dev times have gotten way longer, so if any first party games get announced they’re either gonna be single player games very far out from release, or live service games with some process (which isn’t an ideal scenario either way).
Re: Japan Sales Charts: PS5 Can't Quite Topple 100k in Final Weeks of Year
@sd7232 I mean that’s only in Japan. Worldwide, system sales are on a decline. It’s been 7 years since the Switch launched, it’s appropriate timing for a successor. Not to mention next year’s lineups gives all the implications of a successor being on the way like the last years of the Wii and 3ds before their successors came out (Smaller scope remakes and remasters and smaller eshop sized games).
Re: PS Store Sales Charts: Few Surprises for PS5, PS4 Over Crucial Christmas Period
Only unique thing is seeing Baldur’s Gate and Alan Wake get boosts from The Game Awards. Rest is just generic top selling shlop you always see.
Re: Japan Sales Charts: PS5 Can't Quite Topple 100k in Final Weeks of Year
More worrying is the lack of any PS5 games in the top 10 software sales besides the game bundled with a lot of PS5s. Theres more large scale Japanese appealing games not on switch coming this year (Granblue, Persona 3, Rise of the Ronin, FF7Rebirth, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8, Stellar Blade), but idk if it’ll be able to crack the Nintendo stronghold. Sony really needs to invest in smaller games. Idk if the reports of Sony not considering $100 million dollar games AAA are true, but if that’s what they consider mid budget then they’re completely out of touch with a decent portion of the gaming audience.
Re: Rocksteady Lifts Suicide Squad NDA Early In Apparent Bid to Counter Damning Previews
It’s unfathomable that Warner Brothers, with their current absurd debt and negative image, is looking at the single player Hogwarts Legacy selling 22 million copies during Feb last year vs this inevitable train wreck coming out at the same launch time and going “yeah, we should double down on live service player engagement games”. I didn’t like Hogwarts Legacy but I thought it could actually have a good impact by Warner Brothers increasing their single player output.
Re: PS1 Veteran Shuji Utsumi Appointed SEGA's New Western Boss
Sega really has never had a completely cohesive amazing era. Even during their Genesis days there was a ton of infighting between Sega of Japan and Sega of America. They’ve been putting out good games recently, but all of those have either been RGG or Atlus games with a lot of the other games being pretty mid. If leadership actually has good expectations, good practices, and if these upcoming throwback games are great then I think we’re in for maybe the best SEGA ever.
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man's Mary-Jane Face Model Calls for an End to Unacceptable Behaviour
@jamison1993 Yeah I don’t even need to mention the Star Wars fandom. The internet has definitely facilitated more harassment in entertainment industries, especially to groups that have historically received hate. People are more connected, and thus it’s easier to become numb and feel disconnected with the words you’re saying and how they impact real people.
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man's Mary-Jane Face Model Calls for an End to Unacceptable Behaviour
There is a lot of misogyny within the gaming community, especially towards real life people. Look at how Laura Bailey was treated for her role as Abby or Lily Gao for RE4 remake. Look at how a lot of people hate character designs for prominent female characters like Aloy just because they aren’t sexualized. It’s not just one gaming fandom, there’s seeds in all of it. There needs to an accepting culture facilitated across the entire gaming industry. I don’t know how we get there, but it’s absolutely a necessity.
Re: Podcast Chit-Chat Prompts Fresh Xbox First-Party on PS5, PS4 Rumours
Them porting Hi-Fi Rush to switch or PS5 would be my favorite and worse mistake they could make. I am genuinely considering picking up a Steamdeck for Hi-Fi Rush, and if Xbox makes a native gamepass app for Steamdeck I honestly might subscribe. However, I’d rather just get it on switch or PS5. The worst part is how this signals what Microsoft believes to be their priorities. I do not care at all for really any other Xbox first party series or games. However, Hi-Fi Rush just clicks with me so much that it makes me the most envious I’ve been of an Xbox game since forever. If they don’t think Hi-Fi Rush is worthy enough to be a system seller, than why should I buy an Xbox if the games that matches what I want are likely to be ported to other platforms?
Re: Poll: Which Persona Game Has the Best Opening?
Persona 4 Golden being that much higher than Persona 4 base is wild to me. The original is such an amazing vibe that Golden just tramples on.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Remastered's No Return Mode 'Not Recommended for Weak Hearts', Warns Dev
@KundaliniRising333 I could see this with Last of Us Part 1 Remake but not with this. It’s a simple remaster with a small amount yet interesting new content. It’s not like Naughty Dog chose to release this over a brand new from the ground up Jax and Daxter game. Remasters usually supplement output from studios making new games in terms of development time and effort, not overtake it.
Re: The Last of Us 2 Remastered's No Return Mode 'Not Recommended for Weak Hearts', Warns Dev
I keep on saying I wanna replay Last of Us 2 or buy the remake for Last of Us 1, but everytime I think about it I lose the motivation to do so. I still want to do so, maybe if ND announces LoU 3 I’ll play it again in preparation. I don’t understand how this remaster got so many people mad tho when it’s pretty much just $10 DLC.
Re: Tekken 8 Director Says Accessibility Concerns Unwarranted, or Just 'Misunderstood'
It’s so weird that in all the discourse about Tekken 8’s colorblind filter, barely anyone brought up tons of the other blindness filters, covering multiple blindness and color blindness to varying degrees. It honestly looks like the best visual accessibility in any fighting game. The Tekken 8 team should do more effort to describe the intended functionality and purposes of each filter so someone with one form of blindness doesn’t unintentionally use the other filters which could potentially be harmful to their needs. It’s not a quick addition but the work the Tekken 8 team has done should be admired.
Re: Round Up: All Our Game of the Year 2023 Winners
@somnambulance I think we can see Stellar Blade as well. But idk with how long development times are getting and Sony’s sudden push and reported shift away from live service, I think it’s more likely that this is a quieter year for Sony than not.
Re: Round Up: All Our Game of the Year 2023 Winners
@Grimwood It looks great, it just won’t be eligible for this site.
@somnambulance I mean a lot of those big AAA games a lot of us say are GOTY usually have a kinda long reveal to release cuz of increased development times. There’s not really many officially announced undated ones I could see coming out. Hopefully publishers stop announcing games more than like 2 years from release and maybe we could even see some surprises for this year.
Re: Round Up: All Our Game of the Year 2023 Winners
It’s gonna be so interesting seeing what’s gonna be the reader’s GOTY next year. There’s not really a major high profile traditional 3rd person action adventure game on the level of previous years. Doesn’t mean next years bad for games tho.
Re: Game of the Year: Push Square Readers' Top 10 PS5, PS4 Games of 2023
@themightyant bro why do you keep calling Baldur’s Gate fans furries it’s so weird
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5, PS4 Developer of 2023
I think Larian and Capcom are the two closest for the best game developer. One developer put all of their attention and resources into not only one phenomenal game, but also the community of that game. The other released multiple fan favorites in beloved series, have announced exciting upcoming games, and has been rereleasing a lot of older games as well. They’re like a way higher level RGG. I know a lot of people are gonna say Insomniac but I think it’s less for this year and more for the PS5 gen in general, not to mention how I feel like Spider-Man 2 definitely was not that polished and rich as some other games released by developers this year despite having Sony backing.
Re: Game of the Year: #1 - Marvel's Spider-Man 2
This was the same scenario as last year. A sequel to a Sony first party game that built off of a critically acclaimed original won this site’s GOTY over the general GOTY winner which was a massively critically acclaimed RPG which is seen by a lot as a magnum opus of the genre. However, I feel like history’s gonna be a lot more kind to God of War Ragnarok than Spider-Man 2. The general criticism of both of them is that the story of the original was better, however Ragnarok was trying to do something a lot more fundamentally different with its story than Spider-Man while also fixing and improving the 2018 version dramatically more. I’m not really mad that Spider-Man 2 won this site’s GOTY, I just think these parallels are interesting to analyze.
Re: Game of the Year: #2 - Baldur's Gate 3
I think last year everyone was comfortable with the first party PlayStation game taking this site’s GOTY over the choice most outlets chose cuz God of War Ragnarok was just that phenomenal… but Spider-Man 2 is not that phenomenal.
Re: Game of the Year: Top 10 PS5, PS4 Soundtracks of 2023
No Final Fantasy XVI is actually criminal and the most baffling omission in any of these lists
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for January 2024?
@Ainu20 Last month had Sable and PowerWash simulator, both very quality games but in niche genres, and people hated that month
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for January 2024?
Looking at the result of the poll, it really does feel like people judge the quality of PS+ based on if there’s a cinematic 3rd person action adventure game in the lineup.
Re: Game of the Year: #4 - Alan Wake 2
Honestly I’m surprised Like a Dragon Gaiden isn’t on here (assuming top 3 is Baldur’s Gate, Resident Evil 4, and Spider-Man 2). It was on a lot of your staff’s top 5s, and it seemed very high up there as well.
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5, PS4 RPG of 2023
This is tough cuz like, Final Fantasy XVI is one of my favorite games of the year. However as an RPG, I think it’s pretty lacking. It’s my favorite RPG of the year but at the same time stuff like Octopath II and Sea of Stars were way better on the RPG front.
Next year looks literally insane for JRPGs tho. Like a Dragon 8, Persona 3 Reload, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma, Unicorn Overlord, and Rise of the Ronin the first three months
Re: Game of the Year: #6 - Street Fighter 6
Im predicting SM2 is gonna be on this list, which is gonna be weird seeing it in the upper half of this list when it was only rated an 8/10 on this website. I know this is a site wide list and a review only has a couple of reviewers at most, but yeah idk fascinating regardless.
Re: Push Square's PlayStation Quiz of the Year 2023
PushSquare ruined my Christmas by reminding me FairGame$ is a game that exists
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Wins Big in PS Blog Awards, Including PS5 Game of the Year
I really liked Spider-Man 2 but man it does highlight how kinda a poor year Sony had and is facing next year. Their only games this year were a VR game and a licensed game that, while great, was a lot more evidently flawed than some of their previous output. It dominated the conversation for not only being Spider-Man, but for being the only big game PlayStation fans wanted to sink their teeth into. It looks true for next year as well, the only exclusive Sony games are 3rd party deals and Helldivers 2. The only upcoming single player party game mentioned is another Marvel game that will probably takes multiple years to come out. Hate to be pessimistic over this simple poll but yeah (Sony if you release Ghost of Tsushima 2 next year I’ll take back literally everything I said)
Re: Almost 5,000 PS5, PS4 Games Discounted in Colossal Christmas Sale
Makes sense Alan Wake would go on sale this fast. Despite the acclaim it hasn’t been selling a lot. Really think a physical edition would’ve helped out a lot. Yeah most games are bought digitally nowadays but Alan Wake is a moreso niche series with a dedicated fanbase, and if you’re really into it you’d want a physical copy.