Korgon

I thought the opening ceremony was really great actually. I like how it actually used the entire city instead of being set only in the stadium like usual. It kind of felt like a tour of Paris as well as a show. Plus Arno running about with the torch was a very cool touch as well!

I know its just a teaser but GOOD GOD IM HYPED!

I mostly only play Fromsoft's Souls style games. They just have that special flavor that is tough to emulate. Though there are some I want to get to at some point.

That said I wouldn't say no to some more hack and slash games being more arcady-like. Like Devil May Cry for example.

I'm up for DLC. Love Stellar Blade and would also be up for a proper sequel later down the line!

I can't wait for the show. Really hoping they do it justice.

I think the best place to start for newcomers is either 0 or 7. 0 if you really want to know all the history of the characters and story. 7 if you aren't ready to commit to the entire series but are intrigued by the newer ones turn-based battle systems.

Knew I was right not to trust them! RFK Jr. all the way! No seriously I'm so done with both major parties at this point. Trump, Kamala, two sides of the same coin as far as I'm concerned.

They really want us to like these characters huh? As someone who genuinely liked the beta I will say I do agree with the sentiment that the majority of the characters aren't very likeable. I only really liked 3 out of the 16 which isn't a great ratio. Jabali, Haymar, and Star Child were cool. The rest were a bit on the generic side.

Still, I'm rooting for the game. It's got an uphill battle for sure.

Seems like the beta test for the GT7 Twisters expansion is looking good. We just need some flying cows next and we are golden!

The GOTY just keeps getting better!

I'm in such a weird spot with Concord. I ended up really liking the beta more than I thought I would. I want to purchase it. The $40 price tag doesn't really bother me much...but at the same time I don't want to waste money on it if there is no community there.

It's quite the conundrum. If it at least had some sort of campaign I'd be more willing to jump in. At the moment I think im going to wait to see if a community forms around it.

It's sounding better all the time though. I'm really interested in how it does.

@TheAmbienWalrus
Damn that sounds really rough! Hang in there!

I try to do more outdoor activities during Summer when I get the chance. I like to play Golf and Tennis. I also go fishing, catch a baseball game if I can, swim, etc.

All that said I still play games in the summer. Just not as much as the Winter since well all the activities I layed out are Summer activities.

I'm planning on doing my 3rd playthrough here soon for the platinum too so perfect timing!

The most annoying part about all this is that many of the same people upset with the Yasuke situation would have still been upset if they went with a Japanese man instead. Then the complaint would've been "Typical Ubisoft. No originality. Just copying Ghost of Tsushima." Blah blah blah.

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. I'm done debating this whole thing. Feel however you want about it. I'm just ready to play the game.

I have basically no interest in him but hey good for the people excited for him. That Top 6 last night was fantastic though! Congrats to Punk!

LUCY!? Damn. I might have to pick up GG.

That's too bad. It really is much better than people give it credit for. Hopefully Firewalk gets another shot as they definitely have some talent but I just don't see Concord performing well even if it deserves to find an audience. It's just an incredibly difficult genre to step into.

Samurai Jack is a pretty awesome pick. I like it!

Good ol' scrappy Microsoft. Such an underdog story.🤣

Personally, this doesn't really bother me much. If someone REALLY wants to play 3 days early and are willing to pay the price who am I to do l stop them? It's their money after all.

Do I see the value in doing this myself? No, but you can't blame publishers for doing this when clearly it works.

@s22222
I'm thinking Hikaru if I had to make a guess. Granted I'm biased since he uses my main AKI. 😄

I'm definitely going to be playing it in between watching EVO coverage. Hopefully more people on PC give it a go now that the pre-order requirement is gone. It really is much better than people are giving it credit for.

I really hope it finds an audience!

Appreciate the schedule. SF6 will be my main focus but I usually try to at least watch the top 6 for all of the games. Should be a good show!

That's a shame. I actually really ended up enjoying the no respawn modes a bunch. I have a feeling a lot of folks tried the standard TDM mode, didn't click with it, and moved on. I did not like the TDM modes either but once I unlocked the no respawn modes I felt like the game clicked after that. Those modes really force you to be effective with multiple characters in the cast and the crew system really fed into it nicely and gave it something that sets it apart from a crowded space.

I'm still looking forward to playing the open beta this weekend but I think im going to wait a bit at launch to see if there is a community or not here. It's too bad it doesn't have a campaign of some sort. I'd be more willing to jump in if I knew I'd at least have something to go back and play even if the multiplayer doesn't take off.

I'm really hopeful for this one. Splitgate 1 was a really incredible first attempt and if Splitgate 2 improves on the faults of the first one this could be a mainstay on my system for my shooter fix. I'll be keeping an eye on it for sure.

I would be fine with whatever from RGG of course. If it truly is a "surprise" though, my guess would be the new Virtua Fighter. After all, RGG was behind the most recent re-release of VF5 a couple years ago so I don't think it's too far-fetched.

I ended up really liking the beta (well, the no-respawn modes anyway) but this part of the game I have almost no faith in. Yes the Marvel dialog is pretty bad. Yes the character designs aren't the best. However, the main reason I highly doubt I'm going to care about anything story related in this game is simply because narrative and competitive multiplayer just don't mix. It's just not a good format for story telling.

Thankfully the gameplay is good on the other hand so a bad narrative isn't going to be a deal-breaker for a game like this. I'm not 100% on board with Concord but I'm getting there.

I had a great time with Splitgate so I'm certainly interested in what they have in mind! My only real problem with Splitgate was that the updates were a bit too slow and while the game played well it just felt a bit cheaply made.

If this just has a bit more polish and content I could be convinced to give it a go.

I will say after getting to the no respawn modes last night it finally started to click for me. I genuinely had a blast with it! I think it might have been a mistake to lock those modes until lvl 6 as the more standard TDM modes are just not great for this game.

I'll try to squeeze some more matches in tonight before it closes as my time will be limited next weekend.

I think it's a solid shooter...but I'm definitely not as hot on it as the author of this article. I disagree with the idea that the characters are all evenly balanced. There are definitely some that felt more powerful than others, and not in a good way.

Overall I'm very back and forth on it. I think the maps are well done but the TDM and Kill Confirmed modes don't fit very well with the pace of the game. I still haven't played the objective based modes to be fair so there is that.

I'm not writing it off completely yet but I can understand how some folks are going to bounce off pretty quickly. It's divisive for a reason.

Trails through Daybreak primarily. That game has been really fantastic so far. Falcom doesn't miss!

I'm also playing the Concord beta. It's an interesting one. I'm very much in the middle on it. I don't hate it but I'm also not fully on board either. The gameplay is solid. The characters are varied but I got to say the only one I kinda like is the guy with the hat that heals. Javaldi or something? Can't remember his name but he's cool. The rest of the cast is just kind of whatever.

I'll keep playing the beta for the weekend but at the moment it's a "I like it but I don't think I'd buy it" sort of game.

@nomither6
Yes that's true but he specifically called out needing to pre-order the game. I was just saying that isn't the case anymore is all.

@Esperandast
They changed the pre-order requirement for this beta. It's now open to all PS+ members. Just so you know.

Haven't had the chance to try it yet but I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

I really enjoyed Star Rail for a while but eventually the grind did get to me and I bounced off. ZZZ does look cool though. Maybe I'll give it a go whenever my schedule clears up a bit. I'm too busy with Trails and I'm also back into SF6.

@Mikey856
That would be appreciated as well.

Definitely the right move. These two beta phases could be the determining factor of if this game has a chance to succeed or not and locking it off with pre-orders always seemed like a strange choice to me.

I'm actually really looking forward to giving it a go. Would I rather get a new Killzone or Resistance from Playstation? Absolutely but I don't see either of those happening any time soon so maybe Concord could fill that Playstation shooter-sized hole.

If I had a PSVR2 I'd be all over this. Love the Metro games.

Something had to give eventually. To their credit, Ultimate is still a pretty good deal for some folks. I prefer the a la carte method myself personally but yeah something had to change with Game Pass eventually.

@Kienda
Fair enough. And I'm not trying to tell anyone how they have to feel about it. If it offended someone they are free to feel that way. I'm more just trying to understand where everyone is coming from is all.

@Kienda
But that's because it wouldn't make sense with the story they are telling to have someone that wasn't from the land that the game was set in. Here we have a real person from this era and setting so it makes a bit more sense. If Yasuke was not real and they just put in a random black guy then I could see your point but that's not what is happening here.

As for the Naoe not being a samurai but a shinobi instead...I mean she is in the Assassin Brotherhood. A Shinobi just makes way more sense than if it was a samurai. Yasuke isn't in the Brotherhood so it also makes more sense why he is the more brute force samurai instead. It's a creative choice Ubisoft made. It's fine not to like it but I just don't see how that makes it culturally inappropriate.

@Kienda
But again there is a Japanese protagonist in the game, Naoe, and you didn't mention her at all. (Not trying to single you out, just something I've noticed multiple times when discussing this game) That is what I don't understand. It's like people are only paying attention to Yasuke, who like I said is real but they are clearly taking creative liberties with, and just blatantly ignoring the fact that there is a second protagonist that is much more the traditional AC protagonist.

This is also not the first time AC has taken creative liberties with a historical figure. Leonardo DaVinci did not create a Renaissance era battle tank for the most blatant example.

I don't claim to be an expert on Japanese culture but I just think people should hold their horses a bit before calling this a mockery of Japanese culture. We got two trailers and a short demo. I just don't think there is nearly enough evidence to judge it one way or the other.

@Carck
And that's fine. You don't need to pay full price if your not liking what it has to show.

The hip hop battle theme didn't really bother me personally. Hip hop is a thing in Japan too so I'm not really sure what your getting at there. Have you listened Lotus Juice? He has worked on the soundtrack for lots of anime and games including his most popular work with Atlus and Persona.

Sure hip-hop obviously wasn't a thing in Japan when Shadows is set but then again, AC has a modern day storyline connecting it all together too so that doesn't really feel too out of place to me.

@Carck @Yagami
But you see thats what I don't understand. Yasuke was an actual person that the team is taking some creative liberties with, something AC has done literally since the earliest games in the series. Plus they have a proper Japanese protagonist in Naoe yet people seem to just ignore that.

And finally we don't really know just how well they handle anything story or culture related yet because the game isn't even out yet. I understand being skeptical considering the team doesn't have any Japanese developers on staff but I also remember people had the same worries about Ghost of Tsushima leading up to its launch and look how that turned out.

It just seems like people are jumping to too many conclusions before we have really had a good taste of what the game has to offer. Criticism of the gameplay is fair as we do at least have some idea of how that will be but story/culture criticism just doesn't make any sense to me, at least not not yet anyway.

It feels like this game has a target painted on its back for some reason. I can't wait to play it myself but it seems like some people really have it out for this game.

I highly doubt there was any intention to offend anyone behind this situation. It was just a simple mistake is all but of course people make a mountain out of an ant hill. I just don't get some of the hate this game has gotten.

Well that's intriguing to say the least. Wonder what they are cooking up!

I haven't had much time to put into Daybreak yet but from the little that I've played it's making a very good first impression so I'm happy to see the next one is already right around the corner.

Trails really has become one of my all-time favorite series so I'm glad to see it doing so well for itself!

Eek. I actually like the idea of a Mrs. Freeze but that character design is...not working. It kind of looks like Ellen Degeneres. 😆

I wonder how much longer this game can hold out. I still hold out hope Rocksteady can come back from this with a new game but no doubt the deck is stacked against them.

Definitely never cared about manhole covers while playing but okay.😐

Still looking forward to the sequel whenever it comes around!

I don't think I got the skills for Ranked but I'm looking forward to all the new stuff. I'll have to try to get some time into it soon.