@riceNpea I think the “hardcore gamers” they’re referring to are people that have been playing and buying games at least since the PS4 generation — and before PS+ Extra existed — and therefore would already own or have played most of the games offered on the service.
It’s only a good value to newcomers to the PlayStation ecosystem, or people that only buy a few games a year (due to budget or interest).
@Danloaded They claim to have already done it, and they are technically telling the truth. It’s just that the only PS2 games included with Premium are the ones they already ported to PS4 last generation. No new ones have been released or even announced.
So far the only newly emulated games have been PS1 or PSP titles. Unless they have a big announcement at the next State of Play or Showcase, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever make new PS2 ports. They seem to be committed to making PS+ Premium a complete waste of money for most people.
I’m only sorta looking forward to Rally Cross, but that’s only because I believe I bought the PS1 Classic on PS3, and thus would get this new port for free (as long as it’s not behind the Premium paywall like some are, at least for a period of time).
I doubt I’ll play much of it. I never played the game during the actual PS1 generation, and I don’t remember playing much of it on PS3. If I’m gonna play a PS1 rally game, it’ll be V-Rally 2, or one of the Colin McRae games.
The graphics were good, and the game ran smoothly; I’ll give them credit for that.
But the control scheme was way too complicated for the fast-action type of game it was trying to be. There were three different buttons for traversal, when it could have been one. The right trigger was used for shooting and melee, when they needed to be different inputs.
They also had too many different systems in place for combat. The aforementioned confusion about when you were going to melee or shoot, with a move that required you to melee, then shoot. All while trying to maneuver around the area with the three types of traversal, which if you didn’t hit the right inputs in time would leave you missing the ledge you were trying to reach or miss a grapple point, sending you to the ground or into the abyss. While also having an active reload. And a convoluted way of gaining shield, having to shoot the enemy’s legs and then get close enough to melee them.
And then there’s my questions about why this game even uses the Suicide Squad as protagonists. The first thing the game does is give each character tech that mimics the powers of other heroes/villains. And then just uses guns as the main combat mechanic, leaving the powers for movement and special attacks. All while fighting brainwashed heroes that would wipe the floor with those particular characters, new powers or not.
I gave up playing not long after playing two (two!) tutorial stages. The stage after that was mostly a wild goose chase, going to a marker on the map where a hero was supposed to be, only to find just another wave of generic aliens to shoot. They did this four or five times, only to trigger a lengthy cutscene where the heroes fought each other for a bit, leaving us to chase after them again. That coupled with the fact that — for all of the powers and combat mechanics they introduce — you could just shoot at things with yours guns and ignore all the other stuff. Thus rendering the use of the distinctive characters moot.
At this point, I think they should just cut their losses, and use the assets they have made for this game to make an entirely different game altogether, even though that would probably take another ten years to build.
I’ve always been better at racing games with a controller, despite owning a wheel. I still use it, just to increase immersion with driving games. If controlling a car with a DualSense becomes a reality, I’d be able to use a controller for racing games and still feel like I’m steering like in real life.
My requirements for a good month of Plus Essential:
At least one game I don’t already own (3/3 this month)
At least one game I’m interested in playing (also 3/3)
At least one game that hasn’t had a significant discount yet (3/3)
So, very good month for me. Especially looking forward to Evil West. The epitome of a PS3-era 6/10 game that I’ll love like an 8/10 game. Perfect for PS+ because I’d be waiting a long time for it to go down to price I’d be willing to pay for that kind of game.
@Godot25 Correct. I cannot separate a “successful business” — which to you means “profit margins are the only thing that matters” — with the human cost of running that business. Where you can ignore the lives and wellbeing of employees, as long as you get your multi-million dollar bonuses. Where you have workers that can’t afford to buy food from the company cafeteria, get laid off by the hundreds, and are brought past the point of suicide because of the harassment they face — and the only consequences you face are $89 million in fines (pocket change for the corporation), and nearly $400 million extra in your bank account just for walking out the door.
I’m so sorry that I care more about people than I care about money. I’m funny like that. 🤷♂️
Anyways, have a good day, and happy holidays! I sincerely wish you the best! ✌️
@Godot25 @CielloArc Jeez, Bobby, there’s no need to make two alt accounts. — we know it’s you! 🤣
And while there’s no argument that Activision is a successful company — there’s a reason Microsoft paid $69 billion for them — the way he made it that way is by doing exactly what Microsoft is doing now, by splashing their cash around, buying their way into the IP and talent.
And the way he ran the company was based solely on profit, with no regard to the art of making video games, or the people that make and play them.
They ran popular IP — like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk — into the ground, releasing so many of them in a short period of time, with a steady decline of quality, that people got sick of them.
They got lucky with Call of Duty, where it caught on with a mainstream audience, so that it would thrive no matter the quality of that year’s release. So much so, that they began to put all of the studios they had acquired over the years onto making CoD, letting other IP rot away.
Blizzard was successful, but only because Activision left them alone to do their own thing after they acquired them, a situation that has been eroding in recent years.
They exploited game players with an egregious amount of microtransactions and loot boxes, taking free-to-play tactics from (also acquired) King, their mobile division, and putting them in their full-priced games.
All while treating their own developers like garbage, underpaying them, union busting, and laying them off — while ignoring a toxic environment of sexism, discrimination, and harassment.
But all of that’s fine, because he made the investors, shareholders, and himself very rich. Got it. 🤔
Kotick is set to make $375 million from the acquisition, and he's expecting a golden parachute of $14.6 million.
A disgusting billionaire, being given millions on his way out the door. All of that money should be going to the ABK employees that had to endure the hostile workplace he oversaw for 22 years.
All of the complaints about this are disgusting and discriminatory. I felt the same way when people complained about Mario’s ass downgrade in the Super Mario Bros. movie.
Assless people — like myself — need representation too! 🤣
Strange that they’re advertising the 50 Stars points for playing a Plus Essential game, since they’ve been doing that every month since Stars began. That, and 50 points is worth about 20 cents. Whatever it takes to increase engagement, I guess. 🤷♂️
@Rob_230 I think in order to call it a series, there’d have to be more than one game released. Unless you consider the remasters as separate games. In that case we’ll have a trilogy! 🤣
It might be a language barrier kinda thing. But the person who asked the question specifically asked if it was Konami that had the power to release news updates, and the answer just confirmed that, making it sound more blunt out of context.
@Fiendish-Beaver Well, technically they did. They charged $59.99 USD ($79.99 CAD) instead of adding the $10 new-gen tax — making it $69.99 USD ($89.99 CAD) — which they said they would “have” to add if they released a physical version. How nice of them! 😕
@Czar_Khastik @DonaldMcRonald I second that! Didn’t like your comments at first — they were just another negative comment in a sea of them — but once I finally read your username out loud in my head, I’ve come to appreciate them (I’m a bit slow) 🤪
Give it a year or two, and this team will be laid off and/or the studio shut down, after the parent company “restructures” in order to “meet the demands of the evolving marketplace.”
I hate to be so negative, but with the way 2023 has gone for the industry, it’s hard not to be cynical. All of the people that have lost their jobs so the executives and investors could have a coupla million dollars extra in their pockets.
I wish this developer well! I hope they don’t become another statistic.
I know I’m gonna love this game. Articles like this make me happy, reassuring me that the game is gonna be even better to play when I can afford to play it, making the wait more bearable. Just have to wait for a sale (it’s $94 in Canada — before taxes — just for the standard digital version! 😖).
@J2theEzzo Haha, yeah, I never used them, but there were definitely a few people that swore by them. They were a good in-between technology, between CD and MP3 players — at least until MP3 players got more storage.
When I worked in retail, we sold MiniDiscs for a brief period. But they were soon pulled from the shelves, due to the lack of demand, after selling very few of them.
But there was one customer that bought them. He ran a local radio station, and loved the things. But he only bought them one at a time, roughly every six months. So when they were taken off the shelf, we had a full case of unsold stock.
He still came in to look for them, though. So every few months, I would have to dig through the stockroom to sell him another one.
He eventually broke down and bought a whole bunch of them all at once, and never came back looking for them again. I think there were still a few left last time I looked 🤣
@Olliemar28 “Can I ask how people might have felt manipulated?”
Not the original poster here, but I’ll give you my interpretation anyway.
All of the things that are outlined here — the “free” content, Deluxe Edition, Battle Pass — are all forms of audience manipulation.
The free content is designed to keep people returning to the game, even after they’ve played enough of the game already. Instead of having that content in the game from the start, they drip-feed it over time, to get people to stick with the game and get roped into other monetization.
The Deluxe Edition pulls people in by sectioning off certain content (that’s already been developed) and getting earlier access to the game, in order to convince people to spend an extra $30 by playing on their FOMO tendencies.
The Battle Pass sucks people in by offering more rewards (or exclusive rewards) more quickly than when you don’t pay for it, again triggering a sense of FOMO.
All of these are specific marketing and monetization strategies are designed to make profit by manipulating people to spend more money than the initial launch investment. In a game with the base price of $70 USD ($90 CAD). Those tactics are already scummy (and even more aggressive) in free-to-play games, but are especially bad in a game that already has a premium price.
When you add in people that are less-informed, neurodivergent, or literal children, you see how publishers take any advantage they can to get maximum profit from as little as possible effort.
@Olliemar28 @NarutosBiggestFan You’re correct, in the fact that this game could turn out to be very good, and that people are a bit hyperbolic when it comes to the disdain directed towards it.
But there are many reasons for this backlash, and why reading the comment sections can feel so negative.
For one, it’s Rocksteady developing the game. They made three beloved single-player Batman games in the past, and people are disappointed that they’re not doing the same with another DC property.
Adding to that is the development time it took to release it. After the many years since their last game, people were really anticipating something special from Rocksteady, but were presented with a generic-looking co-op live-service shooter that doesn’t take advantage of the characters they’re using. Any fandom — in this case DC fandom, but it could be any — is going to be more critical of how their favourite property is being used.
Also, there’s live-service fatigue. So many live-service games are crashing and burning these days because the market is so full of them that none can get a foothold over the more established games that are already out. Again, a result of the long development cycle that started way back when the live-service model was booming.
And finally — in terms of the overly negative comments here on this site — you have to consider the demographics of the people who visit an enthusiast website and bother to sign up to comment on an article. Very more likely to be hardcore capital “G” Gamers (and I don’t necessarily mean that to be the negative connotations that term elicits), that have specific tastes when it comes to video games, and are more likely to be fans of more niche varieties of games — as opposed to the FIFA/Call of Duty crowd that a game like this might target. In other words, a very small sample size compared to the majority of game-playing people.
All of that adds up to a game like this — which may end up to be a great game for the genre that it’s in! — getting dunked on heavily, due to expectations and tastes.
@MattBoothDev I didn’t say that none of their technology wasn’t good! Without their innovations, the media landscape would be much different than it is now, whether their formats caught on, or made the competition do better.
But make no mistake, their main priority — like all large corporations — is to make money. CD, DVD, MiniDisc, and Blu-ray all innovated when they pushed media formats forward, whether they were better than what was available at the time, or just cheaper to produce.
When it comes to situations like the Vita memory cards or the PlayStation Link on the Portal however, that is purely profit over convenience — at least in a world where SD cards and Bluetooth are pretty much universal standards at this point. Link might be better quality in the long run, but not also including Bluetooth on the Portal is just plain anti-consumer.
@Ravix Yeah, what you describe is currently their long-term plan, fer sure — buy everything until no-one can compete with them anymore.
But, plans can change. Especially when they look at what Epic tried to do; they swang their Fortnite money around trying to compete with Steam, and five years later the Epic Store is still not profitable — and they’ve spent more money than they made with Fortnite in their attempt. See also: Embracer Group.
Whether Microsoft will actually learn those lessons is another thing entirely. Unlike those companies, they have the cash to stay afloat no matter how badly things work out for them.
@ROTTIEMAN16 Yeah that would be the extremely negative consequence if that happened. PlayStation is bad enough when they’re in the lead (in terms of sales and popularity). I’d hate to see what it would be like if they had no competition at all. Nintendo would have to release a console with specs comparable to PS5 (or PS6) for real competition to occur.
But then again, maybe things go the way of movies or PC gaming, where games (or subscriptions) would be available on all devices. Of course, that would only happen if Nintendo would also go along with all of it. I could see a world where that would work out
PlayStation releasing their first-party games on PC was already a step in that direction. And games like Minecraft and MLB The Show show what it’s like when first-parties release games on other consoles. Imagine Mario, Halo, and The Last of Us releasing on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC. That might actually work! (however unlikely that might be 😕)
@Oz_Momotaro Yeah, that would definitely be part of their plan, if things went that way. EA and Ubisoft have already laid the blueprints out for that, by putting their games into optional subscription services. Game Pass could easily fit on PlayStation, as long as it was Microsoft-owned game only.
@cuttlefishjones That’s just typical Sony for ya. They always try to push their own proprietary media formats, and they almost always fail to catch on. MiniDisc, UMD, Memory Stick, PSVita Memory Cards — they always put a potential increase in profit ahead of customer convenience.
The only thing they pushed that was successful were Blu-ray Discs, and that was only because HD-DVD was pretty crap. It certainly wasn’t because they used it for PS3 — like how the PS2 made DVD catch on more quickly — because that console was definitely not as popular as Xbox 360 was at the time.
I know this has already been said by others, but I think Microsoft should get out of the business of selling consoles. With the purchases of Bethesda, Activision, Obsidian, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, etc., — plus their own first-party games — they would be the biggest third-party publisher in gaming. They would make a whole lot more money putting all of their games on PC, Switch, and PlayStation — and save a whole lot of manufacturing costs — by not having their own dedicated machine.
Unfortunately, I think we’re still a console generation or two from that happening, unless the next Xbox tanks as badly as the Dreamcast did for Sega. That, and the fact that they have money to burn, may still keep them in the console race.
Just like I guessed, WB has left what they hope will be enough time passed between the disastrous State of Play trailer and now. They’re gonna try to do what Cyberpunk 2077 did before its launch, trying to get as much hyped-up marketing out as possible to try to convince people that this game is gonna be good.
Unlike Cyberpunk though, nobody is anticipating the release of this game. But much like Cyberpunk, the game is gonna disappoint. And I don’t think enough people will buy it to justify overhauling the game in three years time. It’s gonna go the same as Square’s Avengers game.
I’ve said it before — whenever anyone complains about cross-gen games holding back developers from really taking advantage of the current-gen hardware — a game being designed for lower-spec hardware will run better than ones that are only current-gen. It makes (good) developers get creative with optimization, resulting in smoother gameplay on the newest consoles. This being a great example of that.
For an example of the opposite of this effect, just look at Gotham Knights. As soon as I heard that they were dropping last-gen versions of it, I knew it meant that they were having trouble optimizing the game. Sure enough, the game was only 30fps on PS5, and it had a hard time even hitting that framerate.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I’d rather have a game that runs smoothly, versus one that looks amazing but runs like a slideshow.
I have a hard time believing that GTA6 will live up to the expectations and anticipation built up for it over the last decade. I can see this game disappointing a lot of people, even if it turns out to be very good.
I hope I’m wrong! 🙏🤞But I think people should temper their excitement a bit, lest we get another Starfield or Cyberpunk 2077. It would be nice if this ended up more like a Balder’s Gate 3 situation.
Twitter was always kind of a hellhole, but Musk taking it over has somehow made it worse. It’s a shame, because so many people use it as their main method of communication and contact with the world.
But I definitely understand why PlayStation would pull away from it, so as not to be seen as associated with the platform in its current form. Elon might offer up a truckload of money to keep the integration, but I don’t think Sony would accept it — and I don’t think they should.
@Kidfunkadelic83 Awesome. I’ve heard mixed reviews, so I wasn’t sure. Still haven’t got my full time outta 9 yet, but when I do, I’ll probably pick the others up when they go on sale.
Pretty much the score I expected, enough for a RoboCop fan like myself to warrant a purchase. As long as it didn’t get a score below 5 I was gonna be interested. I’ll have to read some other reviews, to see if anyone mentions performance issues and bugs.
Even then, it’s still gonna be hard to keep my strict policy of “wait for a sale, when the game will be cheaper and patched.” I might see how much I can save with my PlayStation Stars points.😄
@DonkeyFantasy IIRC, the first Dirt game was a rebranded sequel to the Colin McRae games. But over time, the Dirt sequels became more and more arcade-y. The Dirt Rally games were made to give people a more hardcore sim series — alongside the Dirt releases — and this EA WRC game is a rebranded sequel to those.
Personally, I didn’t like the latest games in either of those series. Dirt Rally 2.0 was so hardcore that it took the fun out of rally games, and Dirt 5 is unrecognizable as a rally game.
I prefer the older games with the WRC branding, made by completely different developers. I’ve really only played WRC 9, so I can’t speak for the older games — or the two newer games in that series — but I feel like it has a better balance between realism and fun-to-play. But I might be in the minority in this opinion; it seems like most people prefer Dirt Rally.
So I don’t know if I’ll like this game or not. Especially now that EA has their microtransaction-y hands all over it.
@all3forever Same here. Sure, I’ll play a Venom game, if that’s what they want to make, but I’d be much more interested in a Spider-Gwen game. Got my fingers crossed that they introduce her in 2 the way they introduced Miles in the first game🤞
@Stocksy Runs well on Steam Deck? Did you play the same demo I did?
I turned down the graphics settings as low as they could go, and I still couldn’t get a consistent framerate. And, of course, it didn’t look very good because of that. And it hard-locked my Deck twice.
Despite all of that, I still got a good enough impression of the game to know that I’m probably gonna like it. I’m still not sure if having the slow-moving RoboCop run around the streets doing sidequests is a good idea (why doesn’t he get back in his car? 😅), but the combat was awesome, and that’s what I care the most about when it comes to RoboCop. I’m such a fan, I will put up with the extra fluff to get to the stuff I like. And it’s gonna be hard to stick to my policy of not buying games at launch, to wait for patches and discounts.
But I’m definitely getting it on PS5. It might still be an unoptimized, buggy mess — even after patches — but it’s got to run better than it did on Steam Deck.
Asymmetrical sticks + higher price than the Edge = nope from me.
I can’t afford the Edge itself, let alone something even pricier. I tried looking at SCUF as well, but they’re still too expensive. Hell, the regular DualSense is also too expensive. But it looks like I’m stuck with vanilla controllers for the foreseeable future. ☹️
@lankieBD Yeah, my Steam Deck did not like that demo at all. The fans were going crazy, the framerate fluctuated wildly at the lowest possible settings, and I it locked up/crashed on me twice 😅
At least I still got to play enough of it to know that I’ll probably like the game, despite its flaws.
But I’m definitely playing it on PS5 and waiting for a sale or two before buying it. Running around the streets doing sidequests to gain XP doesn’t feel like a good fit for a RoboCop game, but the combat felt good and that was the most important part for me.
I would think a streaming service like this would be a great bonus perk for a company to add to a subscription service that just received a price increase.
Unfortunately, Sony is not that company.
You have to pay for the higher tiers of PS+ (which PlayStation has recently made unaffordable to a lot of customers), and even then you only get a handful of old movies for free.
Hopefully it runs well enough on it that I get the proper impressions of the game. I really hope this one turns out good when it releases on PS5. I’ve always been a big RoboCop fan.
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Re: PS Plus Essential Games for February 2024 Announced
Three games I don’t own, with two that I’m interested in playing. So good week for me.
Re: Legendary Metal Gear Solid Protagonists Snake, Raiden Now Live in Fortnite on PS5, PS4
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Us assless people need representation too!
Can’t stand all of this discrimination, like people complaining about Mario’s butt in the Mario Movie, and now this with Snake in Fortnite.
I think it’s great that these popular characters can be used to highlight the plight of the bum deficient 🤣
Re: Focus Entertainment Inexplicably Rebranding to PulluP Entertainment in April 2024
@Nebbuless They’re a big kid now!
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for January 2024?
@riceNpea I think the “hardcore gamers” they’re referring to are people that have been playing and buying games at least since the PS4 generation — and before PS+ Extra existed — and therefore would already own or have played most of the games offered on the service.
It’s only a good value to newcomers to the PlayStation ecosystem, or people that only buy a few games a year (due to budget or interest).
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for January 2024?
@Danloaded They claim to have already done it, and they are technically telling the truth. It’s just that the only PS2 games included with Premium are the ones they already ported to PS4 last generation. No new ones have been released or even announced.
So far the only newly emulated games have been PS1 or PSP titles. Unless they have a big announcement at the next State of Play or Showcase, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever make new PS2 ports. They seem to be committed to making PS+ Premium a complete waste of money for most people.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for January 2024?
I’m only sorta looking forward to Rally Cross, but that’s only because I believe I bought the PS1 Classic on PS3, and thus would get this new port for free (as long as it’s not behind the Premium paywall like some are, at least for a period of time).
I doubt I’ll play much of it. I never played the game during the actual PS1 generation, and I don’t remember playing much of it on PS3. If I’m gonna play a PS1 rally game, it’ll be V-Rally 2, or one of the Colin McRae games.
Re: Rocksteady Lifts Suicide Squad Alpha NDA in Apparent Bid to Counter Damning Previews
I was in the alpha test, and I was not impressed.
The graphics were good, and the game ran smoothly; I’ll give them credit for that.
But the control scheme was way too complicated for the fast-action type of game it was trying to be. There were three different buttons for traversal, when it could have been one. The right trigger was used for shooting and melee, when they needed to be different inputs.
They also had too many different systems in place for combat. The aforementioned confusion about when you were going to melee or shoot, with a move that required you to melee, then shoot. All while trying to maneuver around the area with the three types of traversal, which if you didn’t hit the right inputs in time would leave you missing the ledge you were trying to reach or miss a grapple point, sending you to the ground or into the abyss. While also having an active reload. And a convoluted way of gaining shield, having to shoot the enemy’s legs and then get close enough to melee them.
And then there’s my questions about why this game even uses the Suicide Squad as protagonists. The first thing the game does is give each character tech that mimics the powers of other heroes/villains. And then just uses guns as the main combat mechanic, leaving the powers for movement and special attacks. All while fighting brainwashed heroes that would wipe the floor with those particular characters, new powers or not.
I gave up playing not long after playing two (two!) tutorial stages. The stage after that was mostly a wild goose chase, going to a marker on the map where a hero was supposed to be, only to find just another wave of generic aliens to shoot. They did this four or five times, only to trigger a lengthy cutscene where the heroes fought each other for a bit, leaving us to chase after them again. That coupled with the fact that — for all of the powers and combat mechanics they introduce — you could just shoot at things with yours guns and ignore all the other stuff. Thus rendering the use of the distinctive characters moot.
At this point, I think they should just cut their losses, and use the assets they have made for this game to make an entirely different game altogether, even though that would probably take another ten years to build.
Re: PS5's Controller Used to Drive Sony's Real-World Car on Stage at CES 2024
I’ve always been better at racing games with a controller, despite owning a wheel. I still use it, just to increase immersion with driving games. If controlling a car with a DualSense becomes a reality, I’d be able to use a controller for racing games and still feel like I’m steering like in real life.
I feel vindicated 🤣
Re: Game of the Year: Best PS5, PS4 Developer of 2023
@Czar_Khastik
Lead Trophy: GameMill Entertainment, for two of the best games this year, Skull Island: Rise of Kong and Walking Dead: Destinies
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for January 2024?
My requirements for a good month of Plus Essential:
So, very good month for me. Especially looking forward to Evil West. The epitome of a PS3-era 6/10 game that I’ll love like an 8/10 game. Perfect for PS+ because I’d be waiting a long time for it to go down to price I’d be willing to pay for that kind of game.
Re: Push Square's PlayStation Quiz of the Year 2023
Only 11/20. I remember almost all of these news stories, but I’m really bad at remembering specific numbers and dates 🤷♂️
Re: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Is Stepping Down on 29th December, 2023
@Godot25 Correct. I cannot separate a “successful business” — which to you means “profit margins are the only thing that matters” — with the human cost of running that business. Where you can ignore the lives and wellbeing of employees, as long as you get your multi-million dollar bonuses. Where you have workers that can’t afford to buy food from the company cafeteria, get laid off by the hundreds, and are brought past the point of suicide because of the harassment they face — and the only consequences you face are $89 million in fines (pocket change for the corporation), and nearly $400 million extra in your bank account just for walking out the door.
I’m so sorry that I care more about people than I care about money. I’m funny like that. 🤷♂️
Anyways, have a good day, and happy holidays! I sincerely wish you the best! ✌️
Re: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Is Stepping Down on 29th December, 2023
Removed
Re: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Is Stepping Down on 29th December, 2023
@Godot25 @CielloArc Jeez, Bobby, there’s no need to make two alt accounts. — we know it’s you! 🤣
And while there’s no argument that Activision is a successful company — there’s a reason Microsoft paid $69 billion for them — the way he made it that way is by doing exactly what Microsoft is doing now, by splashing their cash around, buying their way into the IP and talent.
And the way he ran the company was based solely on profit, with no regard to the art of making video games, or the people that make and play them.
They ran popular IP — like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk — into the ground, releasing so many of them in a short period of time, with a steady decline of quality, that people got sick of them.
They got lucky with Call of Duty, where it caught on with a mainstream audience, so that it would thrive no matter the quality of that year’s release. So much so, that they began to put all of the studios they had acquired over the years onto making CoD, letting other IP rot away.
Blizzard was successful, but only because Activision left them alone to do their own thing after they acquired them, a situation that has been eroding in recent years.
They exploited game players with an egregious amount of microtransactions and loot boxes, taking free-to-play tactics from (also acquired) King, their mobile division, and putting them in their full-priced games.
All while treating their own developers like garbage, underpaying them, union busting, and laying them off — while ignoring a toxic environment of sexism, discrimination, and harassment.
But all of that’s fine, because he made the investors, shareholders, and himself very rich. Got it. 🤔
Re: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Is Stepping Down on 29th December, 2023
From the original article:
A disgusting billionaire, being given millions on his way out the door. All of that money should be going to the ABK employees that had to endure the hostile workplace he oversaw for 22 years.
Re: Death Stranding Movie Partners with A24, and There's a T-Shirt
I was thinking about who they might cast to play Sam in this movie, but then I realized the obvious.
It’ll be Kiefer Sutherland. 😉
Re: PlayStation Fans Quickly Noticed Solid Snake's Fortnite Booty Nerf
All of the complaints about this are disgusting and discriminatory. I felt the same way when people complained about Mario’s ass downgrade in the Super Mario Bros. movie.
Assless people — like myself — need representation too! 🤣
Re: Free Avatars, PS Stars Points, PS5 to Win in PS Plus Season of Play
Strange that they’re advertising the 50 Stars points for playing a Plus Essential game, since they’ve been doing that every month since Stars began. That, and 50 points is worth about 20 cents. Whatever it takes to increase engagement, I guess. 🤷♂️
Re: Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Re-Release Appears Imminent
@Rob_230 I think in order to call it a series, there’d have to be more than one game released. Unless you consider the remasters as separate games. In that case we’ll have a trilogy! 🤣
Re: Bloober Team Wants You to Pester Konami for Silent Hill 2 PS5 Updates
It might be a language barrier kinda thing. But the person who asked the question specifically asked if it was Konami that had the power to release news updates, and the answer just confirmed that, making it sound more blunt out of context.
Re: Promising PS5 Vehicular Survival Pacific Drive Will Get a Physical Release
@Fiendish-Beaver Well, technically they did. They charged $59.99 USD ($79.99 CAD) instead of adding the $10 new-gen tax — making it $69.99 USD ($89.99 CAD) — which they said they would “have” to add if they released a physical version. How nice of them! 😕
Re: Returnal Director Is Leaving Housemarque After 14 Years
@Czar_Khastik @DonaldMcRonald I second that! Didn’t like your comments at first — they were just another negative comment in a sea of them — but once I finally read your username out loud in my head, I’ve come to appreciate them (I’m a bit slow) 🤪
Re: Arguably PS5's Best and Worst Games of 2023 Now Have Trials on PS Plus Premium
@Czar_Khastik Out of the 1,000,000 games released this year, it’s definitely in the top 999,999, easily beating out Skull Island: Rise of Kong.
Re: One of PSVR2's Biggest Developers, nDreams, Has Been Bought Up for $110 Million
Give it a year or two, and this team will be laid off and/or the studio shut down, after the parent company “restructures” in order to “meet the demands of the evolving marketplace.”
I hate to be so negative, but with the way 2023 has gone for the industry, it’s hard not to be cynical. All of the people that have lost their jobs so the executives and investors could have a coupla million dollars extra in their pockets.
I wish this developer well! I hope they don’t become another statistic.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Hotfix 11 Live on PS5, Astarion's Awkward Kissing Up Next
I know I’m gonna love this game. Articles like this make me happy, reassuring me that the game is gonna be even better to play when I can afford to play it, making the wait more bearable. Just have to wait for a sale (it’s $94 in Canada — before taxes — just for the standard digital version! 😖).
Re: Sony Says PS Portal Wasn't Designed to Make a Profit
@J2theEzzo Haha, yeah, I never used them, but there were definitely a few people that swore by them. They were a good in-between technology, between CD and MP3 players — at least until MP3 players got more storage.
When I worked in retail, we sold MiniDiscs for a brief period. But they were soon pulled from the shelves, due to the lack of demand, after selling very few of them.
But there was one customer that bought them. He ran a local radio station, and loved the things. But he only bought them one at a time, roughly every six months. So when they were taken off the shelf, we had a full case of unsold stock.
He still came in to look for them, though. So every few months, I would have to dig through the stockroom to sell him another one.
He eventually broke down and bought a whole bunch of them all at once, and never came back looking for them again. I think there were still a few left last time I looked 🤣
Re: Free Villains, Weapons, Events Set for Suicide Squad PS5 After Launch
@Olliemar28 “Can I ask how people might have felt manipulated?”
Not the original poster here, but I’ll give you my interpretation anyway.
All of the things that are outlined here — the “free” content, Deluxe Edition, Battle Pass — are all forms of audience manipulation.
The free content is designed to keep people returning to the game, even after they’ve played enough of the game already. Instead of having that content in the game from the start, they drip-feed it over time, to get people to stick with the game and get roped into other monetization.
The Deluxe Edition pulls people in by sectioning off certain content (that’s already been developed) and getting earlier access to the game, in order to convince people to spend an extra $30 by playing on their FOMO tendencies.
The Battle Pass sucks people in by offering more rewards (or exclusive rewards) more quickly than when you don’t pay for it, again triggering a sense of FOMO.
All of these are specific marketing and monetization strategies are designed to make profit by manipulating people to spend more money than the initial launch investment. In a game with the base price of $70 USD ($90 CAD). Those tactics are already scummy (and even more aggressive) in free-to-play games, but are especially bad in a game that already has a premium price.
When you add in people that are less-informed, neurodivergent, or literal children, you see how publishers take any advantage they can to get maximum profit from as little as possible effort.
Re: Free Villains, Weapons, Events Set for Suicide Squad PS5 After Launch
@Olliemar28 @NarutosBiggestFan You’re correct, in the fact that this game could turn out to be very good, and that people are a bit hyperbolic when it comes to the disdain directed towards it.
But there are many reasons for this backlash, and why reading the comment sections can feel so negative.
For one, it’s Rocksteady developing the game. They made three beloved single-player Batman games in the past, and people are disappointed that they’re not doing the same with another DC property.
Adding to that is the development time it took to release it. After the many years since their last game, people were really anticipating something special from Rocksteady, but were presented with a generic-looking co-op live-service shooter that doesn’t take advantage of the characters they’re using. Any fandom — in this case DC fandom, but it could be any — is going to be more critical of how their favourite property is being used.
Also, there’s live-service fatigue. So many live-service games are crashing and burning these days because the market is so full of them that none can get a foothold over the more established games that are already out. Again, a result of the long development cycle that started way back when the live-service model was booming.
And finally — in terms of the overly negative comments here on this site — you have to consider the demographics of the people who visit an enthusiast website and bother to sign up to comment on an article. Very more likely to be hardcore capital “G” Gamers (and I don’t necessarily mean that to be the negative connotations that term elicits), that have specific tastes when it comes to video games, and are more likely to be fans of more niche varieties of games — as opposed to the FIFA/Call of Duty crowd that a game like this might target. In other words, a very small sample size compared to the majority of game-playing people.
All of that adds up to a game like this — which may end up to be a great game for the genre that it’s in! — getting dunked on heavily, due to expectations and tastes.
Re: Sony Says PS Portal Wasn't Designed to Make a Profit
@MattBoothDev I didn’t say that none of their technology wasn’t good! Without their innovations, the media landscape would be much different than it is now, whether their formats caught on, or made the competition do better.
But make no mistake, their main priority — like all large corporations — is to make money. CD, DVD, MiniDisc, and Blu-ray all innovated when they pushed media formats forward, whether they were better than what was available at the time, or just cheaper to produce.
When it comes to situations like the Vita memory cards or the PlayStation Link on the Portal however, that is purely profit over convenience — at least in a world where SD cards and Bluetooth are pretty much universal standards at this point. Link might be better quality in the long run, but not also including Bluetooth on the Portal is just plain anti-consumer.
Re: PS5 Is Now Above PS4 in USA, While Its New-Gen Rival Flounders
@Ravix Yeah, what you describe is currently their long-term plan, fer sure — buy everything until no-one can compete with them anymore.
But, plans can change. Especially when they look at what Epic tried to do; they swang their Fortnite money around trying to compete with Steam, and five years later the Epic Store is still not profitable — and they’ve spent more money than they made with Fortnite in their attempt. See also: Embracer Group.
Whether Microsoft will actually learn those lessons is another thing entirely. Unlike those companies, they have the cash to stay afloat no matter how badly things work out for them.
Re: PS5 Is Now Above PS4 in USA, While Its New-Gen Rival Flounders
@ROTTIEMAN16 Yeah that would be the extremely negative consequence if that happened. PlayStation is bad enough when they’re in the lead (in terms of sales and popularity). I’d hate to see what it would be like if they had no competition at all. Nintendo would have to release a console with specs comparable to PS5 (or PS6) for real competition to occur.
But then again, maybe things go the way of movies or PC gaming, where games (or subscriptions) would be available on all devices. Of course, that would only happen if Nintendo would also go along with all of it. I could see a world where that would work out
PlayStation releasing their first-party games on PC was already a step in that direction. And games like Minecraft and MLB The Show show what it’s like when first-parties release games on other consoles. Imagine Mario, Halo, and The Last of Us releasing on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC. That might actually work! (however unlikely that might be 😕)
Re: PS5 Is Now Above PS4 in USA, While Its New-Gen Rival Flounders
@Oz_Momotaro Yeah, that would definitely be part of their plan, if things went that way. EA and Ubisoft have already laid the blueprints out for that, by putting their games into optional subscription services. Game Pass could easily fit on PlayStation, as long as it was Microsoft-owned game only.
Re: Sony Says PS Portal Wasn't Designed to Make a Profit
@cuttlefishjones That’s just typical Sony for ya. They always try to push their own proprietary media formats, and they almost always fail to catch on. MiniDisc, UMD, Memory Stick, PSVita Memory Cards — they always put a potential increase in profit ahead of customer convenience.
The only thing they pushed that was successful were Blu-ray Discs, and that was only because HD-DVD was pretty crap. It certainly wasn’t because they used it for PS3 — like how the PS2 made DVD catch on more quickly — because that console was definitely not as popular as Xbox 360 was at the time.
Re: PS5 Is Now Above PS4 in USA, While Its New-Gen Rival Flounders
I know this has already been said by others, but I think Microsoft should get out of the business of selling consoles. With the purchases of Bethesda, Activision, Obsidian, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, etc., — plus their own first-party games — they would be the biggest third-party publisher in gaming. They would make a whole lot more money putting all of their games on PC, Switch, and PlayStation — and save a whole lot of manufacturing costs — by not having their own dedicated machine.
Unfortunately, I think we’re still a console generation or two from that happening, unless the next Xbox tanks as badly as the Dreamcast did for Sega. That, and the fact that they have money to burn, may still keep them in the console race.
(I just want Elder Scrolls VI on PS5, dammit! 🤣)
Re: Become a Suicide Squad Insider with Story, Gameplay Details This Week
Just like I guessed, WB has left what they hope will be enough time passed between the disastrous State of Play trailer and now. They’re gonna try to do what Cyberpunk 2077 did before its launch, trying to get as much hyped-up marketing out as possible to try to convince people that this game is gonna be good.
Unlike Cyberpunk though, nobody is anticipating the release of this game. But much like Cyberpunk, the game is gonna disappoint. And I don’t think enough people will buy it to justify overhauling the game in three years time. It’s gonna go the same as Square’s Avengers game.
Re: Larian's Xbox Series S Optimization Efforts May Benefit Baldur's Gate 3 Across All Platforms
I’ve said it before — whenever anyone complains about cross-gen games holding back developers from really taking advantage of the current-gen hardware — a game being designed for lower-spec hardware will run better than ones that are only current-gen. It makes (good) developers get creative with optimization, resulting in smoother gameplay on the newest consoles. This being a great example of that.
For an example of the opposite of this effect, just look at Gotham Knights. As soon as I heard that they were dropping last-gen versions of it, I knew it meant that they were having trouble optimizing the game. Sure enough, the game was only 30fps on PS5, and it had a hard time even hitting that framerate.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I’d rather have a game that runs smoothly, versus one that looks amazing but runs like a slideshow.
Re: GTA 6 Reveal Trailer Debuts in Early December, Rockstar Says
I have a hard time believing that GTA6 will live up to the expectations and anticipation built up for it over the last decade. I can see this game disappointing a lot of people, even if it turns out to be very good.
I hope I’m wrong! 🙏🤞But I think people should temper their excitement a bit, lest we get another Starfield or Cyberpunk 2077. It would be nice if this ended up more like a Balder’s Gate 3 situation.
Re: Elon Musk May Try to Stop PS5, PS4's Twitter Integration Removal
Twitter was always kind of a hellhole, but Musk taking it over has somehow made it worse. It’s a shame, because so many people use it as their main method of communication and contact with the world.
But I definitely understand why PlayStation would pull away from it, so as not to be seen as associated with the platform in its current form. Elon might offer up a truckload of money to keep the integration, but I don’t think Sony would accept it — and I don’t think they should.
Re: EA Sports WRC Launch Trailer Is Firing on All Cylinders
@Kidfunkadelic83 Awesome. I’ve heard mixed reviews, so I wasn’t sure. Still haven’t got my full time outta 9 yet, but when I do, I’ll probably pick the others up when they go on sale.
Re: RoboCop: Rogue City (PS5) - A Servicable Shooter for Nostalgia Enthusiasts
Pretty much the score I expected, enough for a RoboCop fan like myself to warrant a purchase. As long as it didn’t get a score below 5 I was gonna be interested. I’ll have to read some other reviews, to see if anyone mentions performance issues and bugs.
Even then, it’s still gonna be hard to keep my strict policy of “wait for a sale, when the game will be cheaper and patched.” I might see how much I can save with my PlayStation Stars points.😄
Re: EA Sports WRC Launch Trailer Is Firing on All Cylinders
@DonkeyFantasy IIRC, the first Dirt game was a rebranded sequel to the Colin McRae games. But over time, the Dirt sequels became more and more arcade-y. The Dirt Rally games were made to give people a more hardcore sim series — alongside the Dirt releases — and this EA WRC game is a rebranded sequel to those.
Personally, I didn’t like the latest games in either of those series. Dirt Rally 2.0 was so hardcore that it took the fun out of rally games, and Dirt 5 is unrecognizable as a rally game.
I prefer the older games with the WRC branding, made by completely different developers. I’ve really only played WRC 9, so I can’t speak for the older games — or the two newer games in that series — but I feel like it has a better balance between realism and fun-to-play. But I might be in the minority in this opinion; it seems like most people prefer Dirt Rally.
So I don’t know if I’ll like this game or not. Especially now that EA has their microtransaction-y hands all over it.
Re: RoboCop: Rogue City's Trophy List Needs You to Be Ruthlessly Efficient for the Plat
@Darylb88 I’m guessing that it’s gonna be more like a 5 or 6 out of 10… that I’m gonna love like a 10 out of 10 😆
Re: Venom Spin-Off Game an Option for Insomniac, If Fans Want It
@all3forever Same here. Sure, I’ll play a Venom game, if that’s what they want to make, but I’d be much more interested in a Spider-Gwen game. Got my fingers crossed that they introduce her in 2 the way they introduced Miles in the first game🤞
Re: Skipping RoboCop: Rogue City on PS5? You're Going to Need a New Plan
@Stocksy Runs well on Steam Deck? Did you play the same demo I did?
I turned down the graphics settings as low as they could go, and I still couldn’t get a consistent framerate. And, of course, it didn’t look very good because of that. And it hard-locked my Deck twice.
Despite all of that, I still got a good enough impression of the game to know that I’m probably gonna like it. I’m still not sure if having the slow-moving RoboCop run around the streets doing sidequests is a good idea (why doesn’t he get back in his car? 😅), but the combat was awesome, and that’s what I care the most about when it comes to RoboCop. I’m such a fan, I will put up with the extra fluff to get to the stuff I like. And it’s gonna be hard to stick to my policy of not buying games at launch, to wait for patches and discounts.
But I’m definitely getting it on PS5. It might still be an unoptimized, buggy mess — even after patches — but it’s got to run better than it did on Steam Deck.
Re: Hold the Phone, Hotline Miami's Getting a PS5 Version
It’s been a while, so I might give the first one another go. But given the enormous size of my backlog, I probably shouldn’t 🤔
I never got far with 2, so I’ll definitely check that out as well… or at least til I get to the point where I remember why I didn’t play more of it 😖
Re: PS5's Pro Controller DualSense Edge Will Get Strong Competition
Asymmetrical sticks + higher price than the Edge = nope from me.
I can’t afford the Edge itself, let alone something even pricier. I tried looking at SCUF as well, but they’re still too expensive. Hell, the regular DualSense is also too expensive. But it looks like I’m stuck with vanilla controllers for the foreseeable future. ☹️
Re: Watch This RoboCop: Rogue City Gameplay, You Have 20 Seconds to Comply
@lankieBD Yeah, my Steam Deck did not like that demo at all. The fans were going crazy, the framerate fluctuated wildly at the lowest possible settings, and I it locked up/crashed on me twice 😅
At least I still got to play enough of it to know that I’ll probably like the game, despite its flaws.
But I’m definitely playing it on PS5 and waiting for a sale or two before buying it. Running around the streets doing sidequests to gain XP doesn’t feel like a good fit for a RoboCop game, but the combat felt good and that was the most important part for me.
Re: Sony Pictures Core Movie App Launches Today on PS5, PS4 with Exclusive Benefits
I would think a streaming service like this would be a great bonus perk for a company to add to a subscription service that just received a price increase.
Unfortunately, Sony is not that company.
You have to pay for the higher tiers of PS+ (which PlayStation has recently made unaffordable to a lot of customers), and even then you only get a handful of old movies for free.
Re: Watch This RoboCop: Rogue City Gameplay, You Have 20 Seconds to Comply
A demo on PC you say? To the Steam Deck I go!😄
Hopefully it runs well enough on it that I get the proper impressions of the game. I really hope this one turns out good when it releases on PS5. I’ve always been a big RoboCop fan.
Re: Red Dead Redemption Remaster Update 1.03 Adds 60FPS Option on PS5
Still not gonna go and get this right away — I’ll still wait for a price drop — but I’m very happy that this option is there when I do buy it.