MinervaX

I have dabbled but not big into fighting games in general. In fact I’m terrible at them, and the few times I tried to play online I get slaughtered in seconds. I might get SF6 at some point simply to play the World Tour mode, since it sounds fun, but not at this time. Maybe on a deep sale.

I’m not sure we will get to see Venom in this game. From what they said, the symbionte is a big part of Spider-Man skill tree, maybe half of his skill tree. Given we don’t get venom until the symbiote is removed, I have a feeling either we simply don’t get Venom in this game, or Parker is left out of commission for a big chunk of the ending, leaving Venom up to Miles.

I do think it’s more likely the final boss in the game is Parker himself, as some have theorized.

Venom might end up being the focus of a “smaller scale” 2 & 1/2 release, similar to how we can look at Spider-Man Miles Morales game as “Spider-Man 1 & 1/2”, either that or we will spend a long time waiting for SM3 to finally have to deal with Venom.

@NEStalgia no other chore simulator has ever appealed to me, but decided to test this one via streaming on Game Pass a while back while listening to a podcast and fell in love with it. Ended up 100% ing the game, at least until DLC gets released. I’ll likely give it another visit once all DLC is out. I would advise at least giving it a play test via streaming.

This actually looks interesting…
Tangent: first time I head of this game was back in the SNES days, it was teased as one of the first potential games for the canceled SNES CD Drive addon. Given it was post-reveal, think it was post the embarrassing Sony/Nintendo fiasco that resulted in the PlayStation being born.

Something about this game always has attracted me even if I have never tried to play it…

I’m a huge AC fan but I can’t visualize AC as a VR friendly experience. I never even heard before about that Eagle Flight game, will have to hunt down some video on that.

@HotGoomba you might be joking, but this is the first game thad has me tempted to try out VR at all. Unlikely to throw $500 at a device just for it, but it’s a big example of something that just screams “this is what VR is all about”.

This is, at the end of the day, Square Enix. It’s very likely they signed an exclusivity agreement with Meta for a year or who knows how long.

Hoping to see more about the scope and size of AC Mirrage, and somewhat hopeful we get a look at that Star Wars game.

Bit curious about what that Avatar game will play like. I don’t care about Avatar IP at all, but I would play a fun game if the fun, and there are various UBisoft formula takes (far cry/assassins creed) that could convince me to play the game even without interest on the source material. I have never played The Division, Ghost Recoon (however you spell that) or Rainbow Six so not sure if I would care about the game following if it ends up playing more like those.

Would also love to see a resurrection of Rayman in the form of an open-world platformer (think Bowsers Fury) but this is more of a dream than any realistic expectation.

@wiiware me too!!!

I’m actually a bit disappointed there is only one Moggle, according to the quote. But I’m glass there is at least one. My only one gripe with FF7 was the only “presence” of a moggle was a kid in a furry suit.

Moogles are part of what make the worlds of Final Fantasy distinct, and every time a game avoids adding them for grittier “more realistic” themes I get very annoyed. It’s like saying pixies can’t be in a fantasy setting just because the story is dark. It’s absurd, it’s fantasy for bleeps sake!!

@NEStalgia interesting. One of these days I might give a shot to one of these things. So far not crazy about the concept of VR, but eventually a game might sell me on it. Got to say, the idea of Power Wash Simulator on VR is a very very appealing one, but at the same time avoid all things Facebook.

@commentlife I will take a “formulaic” open world game over yet another over-the shoulder level by level formulaic interactive movie any day.

At the end of the day: every game type is “formulaic”. Some enjoy the freedom of an open world, some prefer not having to think were to go next and not having to worry about traversal. It’s all about taste, but I can’t see how anyone that truly enjoyed everything about the last two entries would find SM2 disappointing.

@NEStalgia @get2sammyb

That fabric strap, though!

I am not yet finding VR appealing, but find a fabric strap actually a lot more attractive since I am a member of the Vin Diesel club (zero hair on my head.) Having a fabric strap is a lot more comfortable than having a plastic one against my skin for prolonged periods of time.

Plastic gets sticky and sweaty fast. Cloth is more breathable, absorbent and really requires a lot of activity to ever feel sticky. Going way outside my comfort zone but I use a cpap, so headgear and strap materials are something I had to think about for years.

I guess “the free press” is an outside source.

@ChrisDeku

The IOS store by comparison has no competitive pricing mechanism at all.

Apple does sell Apple Gift cards that are the same as PSN Credit cards, can be used for iTunes, App Store and even to buy anything from the Apple retail stores. It’s also not that rare to find them on discounts during holidays.

Edit:

As for credits being an alternative to directly buying from the retail, not really. These gift cards come at pre-set values of $10, $25, $50 and $100. If you are looking to buy something that is not within those brackets, or reachable via a combination, you will be forced to over-spend in credit.

And yea the same applies to Apple (and Google play) but they multiple jurisdictions have been working hard to force Apple and Google to allow third party app stores in their devices. That should “address” the issues eventually.

@NEStalgia I posted an update on a follow up reply. The digital codes for those Xbox games are listed as separate products, not options, that’s why I missed them.

Switch games seem to always list them as options under the same page entry.

@AverageGamer after looking a bit more it does seem there are some Xbox digital games, but they are separate listings instead of options under the same listings.

It also seems to be very limited, might be publisher based. Nintendo seems to offer practically every first party game.

@Green-Bandit from what I am seeing, the RCC has a point here. From the closing paragraphs on the article, Sony used to allow retailers to sell keys. Nintendo still does. Xbox seems to not do it (anymore or ever?) I didn’t check but am sure we can get Steam keys from many retailers.

So this is indeed an oddity were both Xbox and Sony are cutting off the middle men from selling digital keys to increase their profit margins (since there retailers obviously take a cut of the sales.)

Although I don’t think allowing this would necessarily lower prices, certainly would not in the large scale, it does prevent it happening at all. I recall l, for instance, buying the Breath of the wild DLC from Best Buy very cheap during a rare sale, those are savings that would had been impossible for me to enjoy if Nintendo cut off retailers from also selling keys.

@AverageGamer I just edited my post, didn’t do a deep search but a quick spot check seems to show no ability to buy Xbox digital keys from Best Buy either, only Switch.

I didn’t realize that Sony had stopped third party retailers from selling digital codes. Could had sworn I could still buy digital games off Amazon and Best Buy, but never actually tried so it might be either just memory from when they did it or only noticed it for competing consoles.

Edit: just went to Best Buy app to do a quick spot check. RE Village is only available physical for both Xbox and PlayStation.

Final Fantasy VII Reunion is only physical for PS5, PS4 and Xbox, but can buy a digital code for Switch directly from them.

It seems that this issue is an issue with bot, Xbox and PlayStation, and in an odd twist of events, Nintendo plays nice with third party retailers. Heck I actually remember buying Digital DLC for Breath of the Wild from Best Buy.

Don’t make a girl a promise you can’t keep.

I hope this is not a raw MP affair. I mean, it’s ok if it’s an always online game, given its coming from the people behind Destiny, but hopefully it has story driving it, if it’s going to be carrying the Marathon name. Story was a strong focus of the original Marathon games.

@RadioHedgeFund they already stated the console exclusivity is based on them taking a deal from Sony, and Yoshi P basically said that’s how all console exclusivities are handled inside SE.

They approach platform owners with the premise of the game, listen to offers, and take the most appealing offer.

Sounds interesting. Having some shared upgrades might also put some stress away from the fear of upgrading a character only to find that character is entirely locked out for the next mission or two.

@AverageGamer I blame Square for their ridiculous naming conventions. From now on I’m just calling it Final Fantasy 7 Remake 2, or FF7R2 for short.

If FF7 Reunion is coming this year, or early next one, they are likely obliged to have a showcase by their exclusivity agreement.

Really don’t expect much from them for this year. Some claim Sony is changing but I doubt they will ever announce a full triple A game sooner than 12 months away from launch, and this worries me about what will be on the docket for next year. If next year is about Wolverine and Ghost of Tsushima 2, we would basically need to hear about GoT by the end of the year.

Crazy but actually wishing we got some remake reveals, since those would be much more likely to be announced within 3 to 6 months from release. Or a lesser budget game like a Sackboy platformer or another Miles Morales scale spinoff to... anything.

Edit: Although we might still see Death Stranding 2 in the summer show…

I see a lot of people wanting a PS5 exclusive to somehow have these ridiculously leap on visual fidelity. It’s not going to happen. Last Gen might not had been able to push 4k/60 visuals, hell, ir was barely able to push 1080p/30, but the techniques used to generate art were top notch.

There is no extreme new leap in tech that will impact visuals outside of higher res and frame rate. Main characters already were using polygon counts that made it near impossible to see angles edges.

It is especially hard to make brightly lit scenes have high impact, and Spider-Man is a game that takes place mostly outdoors with sun light shining everywhere.

Any leap in visual quality going forward won’t come from horse power, but from new techniques that we are yet to see used.

Bit concerning to hear. I’ll keep a skeptic mind about this one.

@FenIsMightier I dont play Destiny so i hace no clue what they are doing over there, but as far as I hear they don’t do worse than most other GAAS.

That aside, if Sony is really giving Bungie this much veto power over all GAAS development, it’s only a matter of time before this starts causing huge morale problems within other Sony studios. It’s a dangerous direction for Sony to take.

Are you kidding me??? This has to be a joke…

@FenIsMightier

I'm slightly triggered by that alleged comment from Bungie, because they don't keep players engaged; they exploit the dependent and addicted.

And that is the point. Sony wants them to direct their GaaS initiatives so they can have more games that can equally or even more successfully "encourage" a continuously "engaged" audience to keep coming for more.

@get2sammyb I don’t think it’s so much “how much money MS will lose if they make CoD Xbox console exclusive” and instead be “how much relevance will CoD lose if it becomes an Xbox console exclusive”.

Yes, MS likely can afford the losses, but they are much more likely to want to keep that gargantuan IP and GAAS model going full speed across the world.

Tldr: MS can afford the losses. Call of Duty itself can’t.

My prayers were heard! Go look up my posts, I precisely asked for the MSX2 originals to not be forgotten!

I voted Poor, there were some good announcements, mostly multi-plat, that kept it from being terrible.

The whole thing could had earned an OK from me had it been drastically trimmed. Remove all the cinematic trailers for service games, remove dumb hardware announcements, remove movie trailer, remove the indie stuff (can’t let indies be the main source of gameplay footage for a platform showcase) and open with that phantom zero game, and that same presentation would had been “OK”.

If I was grading it as a platform specific show, I would give it the lowest grade.

Of all expectations this one was very unreasonable. As the article states, there is no way Square would shift the focus away from FFXVI. Expect more info on Rebirth a couple weeks after XVI launch at the earliest.

I honestly want to see some positive impressions for this thing. I mean, anyone out there that is actually hyped for this. So far the reactions seem to be nearly universally negative, to the point I would not be shocked if this was canceled outside of Japan.

Going to be as positive as I can:

• Spider-Man 2 was amazing, even if I worry the gliding might take away from web slinging.
• Phantom Blade Zero looks fantastic, Voice acting aside. If it offers original voice acting option, I would play it that way.
• Metal Gear Solid Delta, had this not been one of the worst kept secrets in the industry, it would have on its own made the show a gigantic success.
• Arizona Sunshine 2 was a fun looking game, made me wish it was not VR only though.
• Assassins Creed: Mirage, multi-plat games count, and it is very common for Ubisoft to side with Xbox on AC marketing, so having this in this show is actually a slight win for Sony.
• Alan Wake 2: Don't care for it, but many do, and its an IP that was originally associated with XBox, so revealing it here is a bit of a win for Sony.

Now going to be negative:

• Movie trailer... oh lord... I might never get over complaining about adding a movie trailer in the middle of this...
• Next to no gameplay for anything other than Spider-Man and indie titles.
• Sony's Wii Q pad. 'Nuf said.
• Oh and earbuds... am sure those will have a high profit margin...
• 3 first party service games, all CGI, none had a date, Concord had a vague 2024
• 2 additional third party console exclusive service games: Hell Divers 2 with minimal gameplay shots and Foamstars, at least with some decent amount of gameplay footage. Ended up feeling too service game loaded. Also, I feel Square will regret Foamstars being PS console exclusive.
• Did I complain about a movie trailer in the middle of this mess?

This trailer was actually rather funny and caught my interest but is it VR only? I dismissed it mostly for being in that section of the show.

@themightyant I could not be more hyped. It looks like all the advancements of the new engine and models, with the rooftop parkour and multiple infiltration options of older games. The Siege of Paris played a bit with those things, but it still felt like bubbles in a big map.

I’m so looking forward to getting lost climbing buildings to get feathers or what not 😅

@Kidfried

Days Gone was one of my favorite experiences on PS4

Funny you say this, in retrospect, for me the two most memorable first party games of the PS4 Gen were Days Gone and Infamous Second Son. Never got play on the later, might give it another run one of these day.

Yea yea I loved Spider-Man, but for some reason it didn’t engrave itself as much in the back of my mind as these two. Unlike most people, I was not that crazy on God of War.

We know that, while Bend Studio’s next project won’t be a sequel to Days Gone, it will build upon some of the systems and ideas introduced in that game.

In other words: their next game will have swimming. 😅

@UltimateOtaku91 Halo Infinite has a single player campaign.

Grounded can be played solo.

Sea of Thieves took years to become successful, was poorly received at launch.

I persoally don’t care who makes the game, if it’s MP focused with no solo offline play, I don’t care for it (unless your name is FFXIV.)

Even before terrible launch I said I didn’t care for RedFall unless it was playable solo and offline.

@themightyant even the AC mirage footage was, to my eye, actual gameplay but recorded from a non-game camera, giving it a more cinematic look than it would ever have. I had to watch that trailer like 3 times to realize it was likely in-engine but not the actual player camera.

But again: my biggest issue is overuse of cinematic shots for multiplayer focused games. A single player experience, for me, makes sense being showcased in a more cinematic way.

But multiplier, you just want to get a feel of the action.

@Somebody I’m a bit the other way around. A few dsys ago I was certain it would arrive around March.

Now that they put Fall out there, they better be sure even if they need to launch December 20th.

@themightyant I might have to look at that again but I recall just split frames done from a shooting perspective in between a ton of cinematic angle shots that can’t realistically be gameplay.

I can see it being in-game engine cinematic but still, that’s cinematics.

@themightyant not first party, but wasn’t the second trailer for Hell divers 2, another service game and console exclusive with just CGI?

Every time you log on is the beginning of a new adventure and every match is an opportunity for a new story. It’s these ideals that define Concord, its unique universe of vibrant worlds, and its rich cast of colorful characters.

Yikes, this is a while lot of nothing PR speak…

The showcase would had been a lot better with a lot of trimming and some reordering.

I would had opened with Phantom Blade Zero, an actual third party exclusive that looks quite impressive.

I would had not shown any of the service game pre-rendered trailers. Sony needs to remember, the Warzone aside, the biggest service games out there (Fortnite, Apex, Fall Guys, etc) they didn’t come with marketing hype, they nearly shadow dropped and exploded like an unexpected grande.

Movie trailer in this showcase was tone deaf.

Remove the hardware stuff, both things were terrible duds, and would not be shocked if that Wii Q pad gets canned.

The indie stuff should had been a rapid-fire montage instead of individual trailers.

The Immortal trailer was already out there, re-showing it here was dead weight.

@Somebody they said fall. If it slips to next year, this will be seen as a terrible calendar year for Sony, and this being the highlight of the show, it will be seen for a long time as the worst Sony showcase in recent memory.

I am seriously hoping this game launches in fall, that basically means they got until Christmas to deliver.

If it’s good news, it would be smart of them to give us a trailer with a release date right after, or during, the Xbox showcase. You know, to try drown any potential positive Xbox headlines.