J2theEzzo

@Yagami Final Fantasy tried it, even before Advent Children with that film, Spirits Within (? I forget the name...) And it was definitely interesting, although I felt mainstream audiences were not yet ready for a full-on 3d animated film. Anime seems to have had its chance to get its hooks into culture, but a lot of cgi films just look a bit weird or uncanny, and that probably puts people off.

Final Fantasy has lost a lot of its core base, due to them no longer wanting to appeal exclusively to said fanbase. Chasing that arpg crowd has cost them a little bit, with ff16 being a rather 'mid' game, with nice presentation. And then they messed up a classic, just for the fun of it, and ruined an otherwise perfect story, by slapping a bunch of nonsense ghosts in it. That's their own fault.

@Fiendish-Beaver My first playthrough, I tried to see and do absolutely as much as possible, and likewise, hit the level cap very early on in act 3. The rest of the time, it's just about optimising gear, but I'd absolutely have loved to eke out a few more levels and see what crazy damage you could do. I've heard that mods support up to level 20, as well as some new subclasses, so would be interesting to see if/how enemies scale!

I'd been waiting for news of this, but now I've got SM2, not sure I'd have time to put into it.

Cockswagglers!

Combat is looking interesting and I'm curious about how it plays. Looks like some moves are contextual? Or there's a crazy long movelist- something I'd like to see in more action games, actually utilising combos and things. Do like the looks of all the wrestling moves and throws, too!

The one thing I feel they did better in the 1st game, is the randomness of levels isn't quite up to par on 2. Played it through with a friend on coop, and every mission I got was the same as he, in structure and everything. Remnant (1) felt like any 2 playthroughs could be wildly different, with alternate bosses and things. Not so the case here, and I got a bit bored of it after 1 run.

@springer17 Yeah, it mostly has done me well in both the base and dlc... until you hit the endgame! Coincidentally, I was previously tempted to respec, but if it's been patched, I'll give it another go

@Nepp67 It's not broken. If you're patient, and figure it out, you can learn to dodge through/ into the waterfowl dance, without taking any damage. It takes a lot of dying, but if you know that she does it as soon as you take a third of her health off, you can anticipate it and just practice till you get it right.

@nedbvai Can I ask what build youre running? Because I'm doing a strength-faith run, and I'll say that he's definitely been the biggest wall in my experience, and I've beat every other boss.

Have been tempted to grab Rogue Trader, but still in the early chapters of WOTR, so it'll have to wait till after I'm done. Happy with my boltrifle, for now.

Sony seem to be thinking that 700 quid is a good deal, for what you get (I don't think it really is), but back in the day, they sold consoles at a loss, because they knew theyd make it back with the games.
Now games are more pricey and take longer to develop, (not fogetting a few very costly and time consuming flops) Sony needs to rake back some cash in the console margins and are back to overcharging for it.

@Fiendish-Beaver They included mod support with Divinity OS 2, and indeed, certain mods would deactivate trophies, so I imagine the same thing here.

We all thought Sony was tone-deaf when they released Concord for 40 quid, then they hiked the price up on the controllers and brought this out- without a disc drive- for double the price of a digital ps5.

I foresee a stock plunge.

@KundaliniRising333 I'm not surprised by this, at all. Astrobot might be a "good" game, but it has 0 appeal to me. I understand Sony have to escape the "sad dad emulator" criticism, but this isn't an aesthetic I enjoy in games. As you say, just like Lego, (or SW Outlaws with its weird axolotl), feels like its pandering a bit to a younger crowd. Rather put some tyranids to the sword in Space Marine 2.

I know it's a "good" game and all, but yeah... the overall child friendly aesthetic just doesn't do it for me, and puts me off quite a bit. I'm not saying I need every game to be "sombre dad vibes", such as Sony have been accused of in the past, but cutesy animals and bright popping colours everywhere just aren't my thing.

@pukana Vegas 2 was one of my favourite multiplayer shooters from back in the day- with a coop campaign, too! I'd have loved to play another one- or splinter cell- but they seem more inclined to chase that online shooter money, that'll inevitably cost them more.
Obviously, Siege did them pretty well, but Extraction and Xdefiant, I'm not so sure about.

I mean, he hit the nail on the head with this:

"Management is focused on pleasing investors by beating quarterly results and not concentrating on a long-term strategy to provide an exceptional experience for gamers."

Games need to be made for gamers again, not investors, which means putting people with an active interest in videogames, i e.- gamers, in senior positions, and able to make informed decisions regarding the state of the market and the best way forward.

@LifeGirl Woah, woah, woah... I'm mostly in agreement with all you've said, but- Zell was cool!
Basically punk Tifa, and sure, he looked like your average 90's grunger, face tattoo excepted (but then, maybe even still?), but he had a lot of personality.

More like Star Wars Outflaws... amiright? 😉😓

@get2sammyb Seems he's a little embittered about not making the sequel, and probably that frustration is getting mixed with seeing his character in a new game, that isn't the one he wanted.

@Rjak I believe it tis

Wow, a pretty equal split between those who intend to play outlaws, and those who likely never will.

On a separate note, I trialled X-defiant, and I have to say, I found it a lot more enjoyable than Concord, and it's characters (all from Ubi games) just generally better/ all equally enjoyable, but yeah... companies keep trying to capture the success of team based shooters, etc. And it just seems that it's been a one-and-done thing. The flash in the pan has passed, and only a small few games can hold the attention of the dedicated player base. I don't really understand why everyone keeps chasing the successes of what will likely never be repeated- far better to get ahead of the curve and create the "next best thing"?

@Sequel They want all the young kid's skibidi bap cap streamer money, and free advertisement, but don't seem to realise they have a limited appeal to new audiences, who are thoroughly entrenched in 44 seasons of fortnite.

@jrt87 I don't understand who's greenlighting all these terrible design based decisions. The dollar sign is so childish and unappealing. The whole cast of concord were equally unappealing. Who are they trying to impress?

Putting the dollar sign for an 'S' and calling it "fair" is almost a step too far. What kind of irony is this?

@AdamNovice Yeah, I was thinking licenses were probably the 1 thing where it'd hit Astrobot hardest. All I really mean though, is I think people are more open to fun "gems" than just getting the same old stuff again, with a new skin. Case in point, I loved Spiderman, borrowed Miles Morales and have yet to play Sliderman 2. I imagine when people say it doesn't seem next gen, they don't just mean visuals, but actually... it's just ps4 Spiderman, with added features. I'm not sure what game I'd truly consider a solid generational leap ahead!

@Pat_trick Hear Hear! Hit the nail on the head. Dismally bland game, with no unique selling point, launching at a too-high price, whilst offering very little substance. Any one could have seen this coming, but you'd never get the 6 figure salary for telling them to can it.

@AdamNovice I don't think every title has to be some big, grand, boundary pushing tech showpiece, but things that are interesting, or feel a little unique to play, yes. Plucky Squire is looking like an incredible game, and people are excited for Astrobot. Neither requires life-sim like graphics, but they'll do well. Possibly cost less to develop, too! The problem with Concord is that it was neither interesting, or innovative, live-service or not.

Just scroll back up and look at the weird, shiny foreheaded, red faced, blue chinned apeman and tell me who thought that was an appealing, or promising, character design?

And everyone likes Beast from X-men, so it's got nothing to do with him being a blue gorilla man.

@LazyLombax I think we're at the point now where 7 needs reevaluating. So many games are a 7 these days, it doesn't mean anything any more. If a game functions, plays reasonably well, but does nothing exceptional... seems to be a 7? But a 7 is a good score, so how about those games in the former category are scored lower.

@MFTWrecks Yeah, seemed like a solid 7, before every other game was also a 7, haha. Seen it's often in the sales cheap, but I suppose there's not going to be a big online community now.

Given some of these games aren't even yet perfectly optimised to run on PS5, without later patches etc. and everyone knows PC is "supreme"... so how are they expected to be able to port to the series S? Isn't Microsoft's own undoing for having a sub and standard console that they've tried to balance as equally important? May as well claim Sony has paid to not port games to Switch.

@MFTWrecks Yeah, I see what you mean. Was it Outriders that came out a few years back? Was a bit Destiny-like, but seemed to be a commercial flop. Another I didn't play, so!

@MFTWrecks 3rd person shooters seem to be doing it better, with a look to Remnant 1 + 2, Returnal (I think? Never played it) and I'm sure there's been a few other good ones across the last few years.

Over-commiserating?

Great review; it's all so true!

@InsaneWade it did, yeah.

@Truegamer79 I think it's fair enough, really. I've been playing games for 30 odd years, and the state of today's industry is nothing much, by my opinion. So many boring, or uninspired games getting released, at such high prices, puts pressure on the increasing costs of production. For every shabby game that gets released, and fails, costs go up for better games that have to recoup losses. Rather there was less saturation, and more outstanding content. But in between GaaS, and having perpetually online games that try to eat up everyone's time, the whole industry looks to be on a downward spiral of chasing trends and profits, rather than making rarer, and more exclusive and interesting games with unique premises.

Can't say that I'm surprised... nothing that I read made this sound like a 'good' game- just a good star wars atmosphere, tied to a lacklustre game. Essentially an officially licensed cash-grab.

MGS4 stands out as a great game that probably still looks good and doesn't need a lot of work. That said, I'd love to play MGS Rising, so if a collection comes out, I'd be tempted to grab it.

Gameplay looks promising, but the art style/ direction puts me off a little. Not super interesting characters?

@JohntheRaptor I definitely know the fromsoft frustrations of thinking "why the fu#k didn't he sip his flask" as I hammer the drink button 20 times mid-bossfight.

@Fishnpeas Everyone in the comments section, apparently 🤣

The Concord killer has entered the room

From the ps store description, sounds like it has a bit of a pokemon/ persona thing going on, with catching and fusing monsters, that you can use/ summon in battle.

Thought the first basic enemies seemed a bit spongey (I don't want to have to slash a grunt 100 times with a sword to take them out...) but boss fights looked good! Feel like there's a tough balance between making the player and the enemies seem/ feel equally dangerous, but this seems to do it well.
As much as I loved Ragnarok, that was a game that belied the strength of the "god of war" by making you duke some regular enemies that'd take far too long to kill!

About 8 years too long, by the looks of it.

Last trailer made the enemies all look so spongey, I'm not sure how well it's going to play (or how fun it'll actually be), despite the nice look of the cel-shaded graphics. Some very empty looking scenery, too.

@Yagami Yeah, that's fair. I'm also not opposed to limiting spellcasting to magic classes, etc. (Witcher 3 struck a good balance, with a mix of ranged attacks, not OP spells, and melee). I've yet to play DD2, but was a big fan of Dark Arisen, and I was always left a little disappointed that you were only able to have 3 skills for the greatsword. Seems 2 has made combat more intuitive with opening up how combat works, so I can't really compare to this, but I'm a simple man who likes having options, haha.

@Yagami I meant just in terms of being able to climb things, and all the variety and fluidity of attacks- having a sword and shield, but also a bow.
The one thing about combat in DD that always put me off, was just how you were limited to only 3 or 4 skills per weapon, so being able to 'multiclass' like this makes me think there will be a more extensive skill list- and I see that as an upgrade.