MS7000

@nessisonett I don't think he has been confirmed playable yet, is that correct? If he has, then that is a goof on my behalf as I must of slept. I remember him being in a trailer but not playable yet. It would make sense since he is already there.

Deadpool or Ant-Man. One of the two. Watch this space (probably wrong but eh).

@LiamCroft I still feel like your definition of GaaS is too broad. A game having DLC does not inherently make it GaaS. Otherwise, where is Oblivion's latest DLC? It has been a few years after all. I thought that would also fit GaaS by your own definition.

What commonly separates games with DLC from GaaS is the idea of the game constantly evolving to the point where even the base experience is no longer the same. Street Fighter V could be considered GaaS, as that game is constantly evolving; it has weekly challenges which you either play to earn in game currency, or you pay to play with said currency to earn other content such as costumes. Said content is then unavailable beyond that week, possibly forever (unless I am mistaken, I cannot get the "Asura" costume for Kage now as I was not playing the game at a certain time about a year ago). The game also has new mechanics and moves such as a second V Trigger when the game originally featured one for each character. Not to mention balance patches. The game experience is different now from when I first played ages ago with some content even being no longer available; the inherent nature of a service is what it offers over time changes; this is true for games too.

If we look at Witcher 3, the game itself has not changed over time. The mechanics have stayed the same, and the 16 free DLCs you are referring to was done over a very short period after launch. By the definition which you have in quotations from Wikipedia, the game would not qualify as a service since the game does not offer new content frequently over a long period of time. Most importantly, the base game has not been altered, just additional content thrown on type. Even the expansions whilst they may offer something new, do not change anything about the original game.

Witcher 3 is like adding chocolate sauce on ice-cream; you can still see the individual parts and acknowledge and enjoy them for what they are. Meanwhile, GaaS is a smoothie; it may have started as individual fruits, but the form has changed so much that it is impossible to tell what it was before at a glance.

I feel like I am rambling now, so I shall stop there for now.

Ahh, the wonderful future of gaming. Don't you just love it? Get a good whiff, you'll be smelling a lot of this crap in the near future.

@SirAngry Ha! I did see in your previous comments that you were working to a deadline. Admittedly when I made my comment, I went to bed shortly after. Hope you have managed to get some sleep now and are not currently running on empty.

@get2sammyb "What if I remembered how much I loved Crazy Taxi and then went to play it and the core experience was there, as I remember it? But now I had a ton new drivers to try out, a bunch of ways to customise my taxis, an additional branch of Crazy Box minigames to complete, and a whole new map to explore?"

That would be nice, but it is a moot point because the content would never be free, either because you are paying for it yourself, or because what people in the industry like to call "whales", spend so much on the industry that they can develop the content and release it as "free" for everyone else.

GaaS CAN theoretically be done in a "pro consumer" fashion (in that sense, I would say Liam has a point), but there is no incentive for a game company to do so. And even when it seems like companies are doing this correctly, you could argue that what actually happened is content has been held back on purpose to give the illusion that you are getting extra content for free. Just because something has the potential for good, does not mean it will be, and the industry has given plenty of examples of how GaaS are anti-consumer.

GaaS being good is pointless to think about when the only logical use for it as a business, is to make more money. I do not think GaaS is misunderstood; I think the general understanding and fear of them is fair, and even if GaaS is misunderstood, it is entirely a problem of the industries own making.

Just realised I never commented on the situation with Crystal Dynamics reportedly offering content for free. They may do in the beginning, but only until the point where the game itself no longer sells for full price. Once we reach that point, I fully expect CD to do what every other GaaS does, and add microtransactions and other shady monetisation practices to make the game worth developing for.

I feel like we are arguing about semantics here. The definition given in the article feels too broad.

Also, in the hypothetical situation that there are no caveats to getting more content such as extra characters and the like, there is also the problem that content may not be as consistent since the team will most likely constantly change throughout development. At least with developing individual titles, there is a shared vision which should lead into a solid game even if the experience is ultimately finite.

I also personally do not like "Games as a Service" as the nature of how "Games as a Service" works, renders physical media in a weaker position, as it will never contain the whole game. Probably won't mean much to the average player nowadays, but I still prefer physical, so games that are constantly changing just irk me.

13/20. Some I played, others were educated guesses and process of elimination.

I hope this is true so I can finally find out what the hype is about.

Price has been a sticking point for me in general, though at this point, I think regardless of price I still won't be buying this at launch. I will wait for the time being until I think it is worth my time, or I somehow magically run out of PS4 games to play (huge backlog, so doubtful).

@NomNom I am aware, but it does have caveats such as ads as you have said, not to mention I believe last time I checked, picture quality was lower? I know I sound picky, but I want it in the best quality possible.

Edit: It is useful for previewing an anime before committing to buying though.

Given that Sony already own Funimation, this makes me uncomfortable. To be fair though, Crunchyroll is not a service I use; I believe I have mentioned this before, but I despise subscription services. What I do is I typically wait for recommendations from a friend who more actively watches anime than me, then I just buy the Blu-ray/DVDs and watch that way.

More expensive? Probably in the long run compared to what you would get otherwise. But I don't actively follow anime enough to justify paying the subscription (and again, I hate, HATE, subscriptions).

@GADG3Tx87 Agreed. Although like many things in the industry, this will soon become normal. Companies have mastered the art of going two steps forward and one step back when called out. Time marches ever forward.

I hope I am wrong of course, but I don't think I will be.

Licensing is a bugger, and a bit miffed about having to buy separately but I can understand. I am just glad the meme lives again. Add Knuckles as Sega owns Atlus, and you have the trifecta.

3/10, all 3 were guesses. To be fair, despite the supposed reputation, I have only ever played Uncharted 1 and TLOU. Don't particularly know them that well as a result.

"Micosoft mde tumb raidr exlusive, so y Sny getin calld out fo it?"

Probably because this practice sucks regardless of who does it?

Exclusive games? Sure, only a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Timed exclusives and ongoing perks for one particular platform? S****y. It accomplishes nothing because all you are doing is either making someone wait for no reason, or you are purposely making all versions bar one inferior. If you are planning on being multiplatform, you should be aiming for parity as much as possible. No one benefits from timed-exclusives or exclusive perks.

Pardon me, I just puked up my intestines and 6 litres of blood.

This honestly gives me no hope for the future of gaming. Even if physical games still exist, there is so much crap polluting it such as microtransactions and subscriptions, and the worse part is that there is no incentive for companies to ever change.

@clvr "What's the number that comes after 2? Numbers are hard." -Gabe Newell

Probably explains why he likes the Series X over the PS5. No numbers in Series X, but there is a number other than 1 or 2 in PS5.

We know very little about this game. The first thing that screenshot made me think of is a cleaner more detailed Skyrim. I have yet to make up my mind about whether that is a good thing or not.

Sounds like one to pick-up when cheaper.

Just give us a date for the love of Lucifer!

So the definitive edition being released is a port of the Switch version, meaning better/same resolution as original PS4 release, but looking graphically the same as Switch, meaning less foliage and other details.

I am baffled by Squenix, but at the same time, I find this incredibly funny. I was waiting until payday to buy the Switch version (enjoyed the PS4 original version very much), but then saw this. Knowing what I do now, I think I will continue to buy it on Switch for portability now I know that graphically there won't be much difference. But still, this is amazingly baffling.

Only played two of them (although I do have a copy of Dreams which I got for free, just not played it) so...

Two Point Hospital and Persona 5 Royal.

It feels wierd knowing that they are giving dubs to the games from now on. I thought Judgment was going to be an exception...

Ehh, I'll probably still play with Japanese dub.

Where's Scramble Atlus? There is a definitely an audience for it!

Own 3, platinumed 2 (Horizon and Spider-Man). Don't own FF VII as I still have not played a single game in the series.

@EVIL-C i was honestly expecting more people to disagree with me and say that paying for online is a good thing, or that PS+ is a good deal without the online. The value is subjective of course, but it has never been worth much for me. NSO is cheap, but I have not noticed any real improvement in the quality of online gameplay. I can't vouch for PS+ because I have never owned it, nor do I have experience with online on PS3 to compare it to, so perhaps there is some quality improvement there, I am unsure.

Yeah, I despise paying for online, and the other 'perks' don't really entice me. I will get flack for this, but nothing would make me happier than PSPlus burning to the ground, along with other online subscriptions (Xbox Live Gold and NSO).

...And I just finished the second game.

That's a snub right there. It's okay SEGA, I still love you.

Edit: I am half-waiting for the Yakuza memes. Playstation players doing their own version of Bakamitai.

5/15. To be perfectly honest, I guessed all of them too except one. I owned a PS2, but I did not own a single first-party title except for a couple of EyeToy games. My Playstation knowledge is mainly PS4, and that is it.

I see Persona 4 Golden on that list. The interest is definitely there. Atlus just needs to bring it elsewhere.

This is an interesting strategy. If it works, the pay off will look very tasty indeed, but I feel that the price will be the stickler here. Sony are producing these extra due to the current pandemic and those who are still in lockdown, but there is every possibility that people are beginning to struggle financially if they weren't already due to the length of lockdown/restrictions so far in which case, stock won't shift.

I could be wrong of course, gaming did have quite the increase so far in terms of revenue for the current pandemic and the lack of Switches has very clearly bit Nintendo in the butt, but quite a lot of that was earlier in the pandemic when the lockdown was still new. Months later where people's jobs don't look as secure anymore, and people might be a bit nervous of spending £500 (personal guess) or so on a new console. Sure, the consoles will probably sell eventually, but they could be in a warehouse for months before being sold, which is a waste of inventory space.

Knowing Sony though, this is probably a calculated-risk so they should be fine.

For the most part, no I would not be willing to pay the premium. Mainly because with most of my PS4 games, I never felt the need to pre-order the games. The only real exceptions I can think of are persona games. Otherwise only the odd game I will pay full price for.

You could argue that I am contributing to the problem as people with my mindset are why developers feel they can excuse microtransactions, but realistically, even if I did pay full price for all my games, I still think MTX would exist purely because companies know they can make money off of them.

Agreed, but I can't help but think the extra 10 smackaroos in currency of choice will not prevent these publishers from adding microtransactions. Too much money to be made.

Not enough boulder punching.

@Cornaboyzzz Here you go chief:

Edit: I am an idiot! Ignore this. I misread.

Like above, I believe my tv is also the same. I would upgrade, but my tv is only a year old, and I still think most devs will struggle with 60fps, so ehh. Good feature to have though.

Yeah this should of been baked into the PS4, and definitely in the PS5. The Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS both had activity logs that broke down this information really well (Switch is nowhere near as good).

@spoonard Unless someone was trophy hunting (whilst not hard, Tales of Vesperia comes to mind), why would anyone do that intentiomally? I will admit there have been one or two ocassions where I have fallen asleep playing games but normally the console will shut itself down after a period of time so I don't see that massively skewing the play time.

@Nah900 Honestly, paying for online sucks in general. It makes me sad that all three companies do it now. I probably would buy more multiplayer games if I didn't have to pay for the privilege of playing online. I know some say that it is for service upkeep and better performance; and I can't vouch for Live Gold or PS+, but with NSO, the online doesn't seem to have improved at all which makes the admittedly cheap price still bit steep to me. The games and discounts of PS+ have never felt good enough for me to want to subscribe.

Honestly, I am not even sure which games I own that could make use of the multiplayer...

PS+ Subscriber: sees Sonic Forces Gotta go fast!

Edit: No surprise COD is top dog. I was honestly expecting more COD titles to be up there.

3 out of 15. Hadn't heard of most of these, and the ones I had heard of I don't know enough about to tell you the main concept. Still makes a change from the quiz on NLife, that one was too easy.

I must admit, I am very surprised that Persona 5 Royal has ranked higher than Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I only own two on this list; P5R and Dreams which I got for free.

@ShaiHulud I second this.

@gbanas92 I wasn't sure if that was Watto or not, he sounded different to me, but Watto has plenty of gems of his own in this game.

@Matroska You have to bear in mind that although 100 million PS4s have been sold, a decent chunk of that will be people buying multiple consoles, such as upgrading to a Pro, or getting a limited edition console. Then you also have to bear in mind the more casual audience who buy exclusively for Call of Duty, FIFA, GTA etc, rather than exclusives. Not to mention, not every single game appeals to everyone (for example, I didn't enjoy the first TLOU enough to get the sequel although I may get it down the line when it is cheaper).

If console sales equalled guaranteed game sales, then companies would probably have supported consoles like the Wii U and PS Vita since the sales would still have been a lot (but then again, why add 20 million onto 100 right?). 4 Million is still an impressive number.

Edit: Just to add a little bit on, it is also the same reason why companies are more interested in active users and the like, such as active PSN and PS+ users. It is a bigger indicator of how much money can potentially be made.

You didn't ackowledge the guy doing his little jingle on the results screen or the fact that Anakin has no legs whilst in his pod racer... this is a poor review./s

Seriously though, would of been nice with new content, but I am just happy it could be played again.

Zero Escape The Nonary Games is £15 if for some reason you haven't played those. Two games with great stories and puzzles. Cannot recommend enough.

Ahh, the greatest atrocity to be witnessed by humanity; a man's buttocks!