Jimmer-jammer

Less talk/more walk is always a more satisfying endgame. Hope Sony keeps it up.

My kids are unbelievably excited for this and by extension, so am I.

I’m a bit torn on the micro transaction front as I actually like the idea of being financially choosy with which content to engage in this universe. Disney has become a vast sea of I.P. after all. I’m not sure if it exists already or not, but it’d be nice if there was a tracking system in place for all free to play games that tally all purchases, allowing the user to easily view how much they’ve spent on the game.

This whole Infinity business has me rather intrigued. Playing as your own character through your own animus opens up the potential for some truly interesting modern day interactions. Perhaps something a little more 4th wall breaking…

The excellent Horizon Forbidden West and the bizarre Inscryption. I’d really like to play Steelrising but it’ll have to wait. Happy gaming!

@ShadowofSparta I’m not very familiar with anime and have never heard of Studio Trigger until now so this will be a first for me! Looking forward to it.

I’ve finally started Horizon Forbidden West. At this point I’m still completely mesmerized by just how pretty it all is so my first impressions aren’t particularly balanced. Hope to have it wrapped up in time for Ragnarok. Beyond that, I’ll continue to chip away at Gran Turismo 7, Crash 4 and The Delicious Last Course. Happy gaming!

This sounds far too interesting to pass up. Thanks for the review!

I enjoyed the base game immensely and have been eagerly anticipating DLC. The anime looks interesting also.

Thanks for the video! I’m not really sure how much clearer we can make things here. Naughty Dog made a thing, and now it’s up to everyone to decide if their hard-earned cash is worth purchasing that thing. It’s really that simple. Hopefully the pitchforks can be put away now. Personally, I’m looking forward to a sale.

Well, this should clear things up. Looks awesome!

I think there are a lot of reasons to be excited for this, mainly playing the highest fidelity version of one of my favourite games. I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t spent $90 or more upgrading some of my favourite films over the years from VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray to 4K UHD…But I agree completely that the messaging around this remake should be crystal clear. No one likes to feel tricked, a lesson Naughty Dog should have well learned by now.

Thankfully I haven’t encountered this issue but the SSD did corrupt after an ill-timed power outage. I had to factory reset the machine. I won’t be suing anyone.

Finally took the plunge on Assassin’s Creed Origins. It has a truly beautiful setting and well realized world. Happy gaming!

@Would_you_kindly Me too! There is a fair amount of talk in game of "The new hospital", so there is definitely somewhere for a sequel to go.

Just played through Tormented Souls. It’s an absolute resounding success at being a 20 year old survival horror game. Whether that’s a good thing is in the eye of the beholder. I loved it.

This is just awesome! What a great heirloom symbolizing helpfulness.

Ratchet and Clank completely sold me on this (40fps) graphics mode. Hopefully it becomes a standard inclusion for Sony’s first party output.

Winter just got that much more bearable 😄

God of War Ragnarok, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Steelrising, Forspoken, The Last of Us Part 1.

Really enjoying this so far. High quality DLC.

One of the best months in a while for me!

I really couldn’t be more excited for this and I hope SSM knows that their fan base is so much more than…whatever they’ve been receiving. I for one appreciate the hard work and dedication!

@NEStalgia Interesting! I enjoyed XV quite a bit up until about half way through and just completely fell off of it. I really should get back to it one day and at least complete it, especially now that all of the DLC has been released for it. Maybe the story will make more sense.

I did okay through Nier Automata and thought it was absolutely brilliant. I get what you mean about the hubs feeling somewhat pedestrian though. I’ve never tried a Dragon Quest but have been fairly interested by XI. That and the recent Tales of Arise, another series I’ve never tried. I do like the formula.

Back to FF, I’m hoping Rebirth can improve on Remake. I’m not as bothered as most about the narrative going completely off the rails but I can understand how the bait and switch would be irritating. Hopefully we get more of a return to the series’ roots as far as structure goes. There is something really special about FF as a series and I could really go for some of that magic!

@NEStalgia That last paragraph makes a lot of sense to me. Familiarizing myself with a location and having to operate out of it is a huge part of what I enjoy in a FF. Usually a major story beat will then impact everything you’ve come to know to that point, forcing you to press on to new horizons in your adventure…I’m not sure it’s RPG specific though, as this is very much also a part of, say, Red Dead Redemption’s DNA, and I’m not sure I would classify that as an RPG. With that said, and now that I’m thinking about it, something like RDR2 actually does have a lot of RPG aspects to it - minus the grind of course. To this point, I look at something like the recent Disco Elysium, which I’d say is one of the better RPG’s I’ve played of late, and is completely bereft of a ‘grind’. I guess this all makes me wonder, is JRPG, a genre I’m not overly familiar with, made up specifically of the things you’re mentioning here? I’m not being cheeky, by the way. It’s an honest question.

The best playing FF for me is XII, and I would love to see the gambit system or something like it return, but I’m open to seeing what XVI is all about. It might surprise us yet.

@NEStalgia you make a lot of interesting points. It’s tough cause we don’t really know enough about XVI to speak in definite terms exactly what it’s bringing to the table, but it does seem to be furthering the real-time action based trajectory started around X.

I’m not sure I’ve ever really viewed FF as a full blown RPG. I guess it is, in the way that you can choose which member of your party you want to be a healer or a caster etc. but narratively it has always been an on rails roller coaster ride. Maybe we’ll retain some agency over party members in XVI, we don’t really know yet.

My only real concern right now is that there will be no sense of exploration. XIII leaned far too hard into linear action game territory for my liking (which does signal that there is something specific about about FF that I felt was lost in this case) and I’d be disappointed to retread that ground.

The only certainty for me at this point is that a huge amount is riding on the strength of XVI’s narrative and, well, that can really go either way. What I’m truly excited about is that this feels like a game that’s had a clear idea of what it wants to be from the get go and a solid team committed to executing it. Time will tell how it all plays out.

@NEStalgia You and me both! Can’t say I fully understand it but it’s the reality we live in.

Fair point, though the cost of a state of play and an E3 presence aren’t really comparable in my mind.

Number of views only tell part of the story. The internet, particularly social media, have completely altered the landscape for marketing. There isn’t an event that Sony could engage that would build hype in the way social media does all on its own. There’s a reason that, from bars and restaurants all the way to Dentist offices, being “instagramable” is a key consideration in any modern marketing plan. And E3 is/was marketing for Sony, nothing more. As much as I enjoyed E3, Sony did the right thing. Given the data, I’m sure there was no other option for those in power.

@NEStalgia What I gathered from the article is that Yoshida is producing - Hiroshi Takai is directing. Something said in the article got me thinking:

“In the 35-year history of the Final Fantasy series, it’s always been the guiding policy that each new installment has to be the very best game that the director at the time can put together, no matter how the game world, the characters, or the battle system might change. Because of this, gamers and Final Fantasy fans around the world have very different ideas of what a Final Fantasy game should be…”

What exactly does Final Fantasy mean to me? What specifically makes it Final Fantasy? To Yoshida, it’s “deep story, deep gameplay, cutting-edge graphics and cutting-edge sound” all contributing to the feeling of “playing the leading role in a motion picture.”

I suppose Final Fantasy can mean many different things to many different people. For me, I’m rather excited to see Final Fantasy take a more cinematic, action oriented approach, as I do look back fondly on these moments in past entries, from Sin infiltrating during the blitzball game at the beginning of X to the epic Balamb/Galbadia garden battle in VIII.

Maybe things were different at release as I’ve been playing GT7 and find the economy quite generous. There are so many ways to earn money. I bought a few cars, including a Camaro ZL1 for about $80,000, and earned multiple sets of cars within a few hours.

I’ve never held the original too close but was looking forward to the remake nonetheless. Unfortunately, something didn’t quite come together for me. It’s absolutely gorgeous and has some incredibly thrilling and high moments but as a whole, I don’t know, it just left me with a very so-so feeling. Like I hadn’t gone on an epic adventure. Whatever it takes to communicate the sense of something grand is both what I personally look for in a Final Fantasy and what I’m hoping to see with the sequel.

I’ve been really, really enjoying Ghostwire: Tokyo. As by the numbers and derivative as some of its design elements are, I’ve also never played anything quite like it. Besides that, I’ve been chipping away at Gran Turismo 7, which is as great as ever, and recently started The Quarry with my wife, which seems like a very slow burn but we’re enjoying it thus far. Happy gaming!

XVI for me as well. By all appearances it has a concrete vision, strong team and no real baggage of any kind. Just the combination to get me excited about Final Fantasy again.

Definitely reminds me of God of War(2018), definitely on my radar now.

I struggle to think what could be added narratively to Returnal that wouldn’t take something away from Selene’s journey. It’s a complete and great package as is, where the mechanics support the story and vice versa. Hades opened my eyes to how varied and sustainable a narrative can be within the rogue-like genre and I’m hoping some of it’s concepts find their way into Housemarque’s next project.

At this point I’m expecting Ultimecia to show up.

I’m quite taken aback by his statement that folks in the United States are spending 20% of their time watching T.V.!

@Dodoo It’s a 1952 painting, ‘Galatea of the Spheres’, by Salvador Dali. Depicting his wife, it was apparently inspired by the idea that everything is made up of individual atoms, which never actually touch each other (well, not in the traditional sense). Not surprised to hear you saw it at a rave considering Dali’s proclivity for psychedelic imagery 😄

Really, what does a 48h embargo accomplish? This is just silly. Petty, even.

@BartoxTharglod Eh, children have limited spatial and dexterous capacity and are more concerned with using their imagination to make their own fun with what they have. There’s no shame in it.

“Target demographic” are they key words here. Only the developers really know what that means though.

Been waiting a long time for this. It sounds awesome.

This is exactly when I figured it would release. The whole Fimbulwinter thing plays brilliantly into marketing’s hands. Can not wait!

Excellent achievement for 2 years. Though considering this is arguably Sony’s flagship property, Elden Ring selling through 13 million units in about a month speaks volumes to why Sony aims to tap the PC market.

I’m absolutely stoked for this.

Translation:

“If we acquire a game that comes with an established revenue stream across a number of platforms, the last thing we want to do is reduce our profits,” Xbox Game Studios bigwig Matt Booty declared. “If anything, we feel that it's our job to be caretakers of our shareholders, to be shepherds, to continue to build and nurture that community, not to reduce dividends and let some of it slip away.”

The scope of this game must be much, much larger than 2018’s. Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe that game’s development cycle was about 5 years, and they were developing all of their systems from scratch. Of course, Covid happened and there were reported health issues during the sequel’s development but if this delay is true, I can’t help but think that we’re in for a gigantic game to wrap up the Norse story. I’m still expecting a winter 2022 release.

This one’s bought and paid for already so I’m glad to hear the positive feedback. Hope all’s well on consoles, I’m really excited to give it a go!

@Kopite I see. Yeah, it’s unfortunate we’ll probably never see one on PlayStation.

@Voltan @Kopite @Elodin I paid full price and don’t regret it all. Wonderful game.