Mythologue

@twitchtvpat Live services are quite predatory. They also pretty much entirely remove the product from the consumer. What happens if the servers suffer technical issues? What happens if the bottom falls out? I like games that I own, ones that I can see that I own, physically. Live services introduce a lot of concerns with respect to this.

I don't know, it really just sounds like a lot of market talk to me. The resulting product is pretty much guaranteed to be like everything else we've seen. The development process might speed up releases by, what, two or three months per year...? But to the consumer that might just raise more suspicions that devs are cutting corners. We're already cautious when it comes to annual and biannual releases. I also don't like the application of machine learning. It's a cool concept for small teams, but when it comes to big name developers it usually translates to cheap, mechanical, clinical production.

Also, what happened to Git? Doesn't that mostly address the concerns that are listed here?

@Perturbator But couldn't they just use another PSN account?

@Matroska Have to be honest, one of the things I enjoy most about Elden Ring (and most FromSoft games for that matter) is that they DON'T list 'quests' like checklists, unlike in other RPGs. It feels a lot more organic, encourages lateral thinking and focus, allows the player to explore the world without being constrained by distracting waypoints and to carve their path more naturally as an open world should. Reducing these more subtle, secretive quest lines to achievements and trinkets entirely spoils the point of their existing IMO.

@Carl-G Really? That's a huge oversight, or maybe intentional come to think of it. As a bit of a "digital hoarder" myself, I like to keep all my saves purely for posterity, along with captures. Kinda glad I'm still using my PS4 in all honesty. Early adoption of the current gen has seemed quite rough so far.

@riceNpea I guess it's one of those things where the game will ask immediately if you want to turn them on or off in the opening menus.

People need to start recognising that companies will not only continue practices, but also double down on them if they receive enough money for them. Microtransactions and NFTs, as a couple of examples, are only extant because people spend money on them. If a large enough number buy these remasters, they'll probably start doing the same every five years, every two years, maybe annually.

Remasters should be reserved for games that need it, real classics. Burnout 3 and SH2 would be my personal choices.

Newell has a tumultuous relationship with Sony, not least on account of the fact that he worked for Microsoft decades ago. This is a game that PSVR2 absolutely needs, however, and I would probably buy the hardware for this title alone (if I didn't already have access to a Vive anyway).

@FinneasGH It's a Criterion game, so that'll probably be minimal. Criterion games (Burnout, NFSMW and NFSHP) don't usually have voice overs, besides those silky introductions in Paradise and Most Wanted.

Random guess, but is it possible this might be a journalist tier? Like, they're given early access to certain features to review, for example? Although if it has anything to do with completing challenges, that's 100% going to be Jirard the completionist, or Caddicarus for being a madman and getting platinum relics on ALL of the Crash games.

@tameshiyaku Indeed. To say nothing of the fact that at least two of these games are years old. Superhot is borderline ancient by gaming standards.

Call of Duty is only just catching up with Battlefield 3 in the form of Warzone. They need to start seriously innovating or else they're going to get left behind. I mean, even more so.

@GreatAuk I imagine it's a reference to loading screens. So for example, in the original, when riding the tram rail there would be a loading screen and then arrival at the new location. I would guess that there is no loading screen in the reboot, and instead you actually just ride the tram (or maybe all of the locations are immediately connected together?), just as one example.

I'm kinda hoping it's like Black Mesa in the sense that rather than a scene for scene recreation of the original, it is instead rebuilt with a more modern perspective on level design in mind. For example, larger areas, more believable transitions (corridors, ladders, chambers), more open design, etc.

@SamMR Right. PT was OK but the first person view made it feel like something other than SH.

In Silent Hill 2, James receives a letter from Mary. It's only revealed to be half of the letter whereas the rest is revealed at the end of the game. This could just be a new game, but my mind wanders to the letter from SH2 as "the short message". Probably not though.

There were way too many greats last generation, but my favourite by far was Bloodborne. First souls-like game I've ever beaten (I played the first Dark Souls back in 2012 but didn't beat it until very recently) and by far my favourite even today. Only game that competes with it would be Elden Ring. Besides that, there are so many games that I'm still trying to wrack my brains to recall all of them.

It's a fun little idea for trinkets, but beyond that I don't really see it surviving. It feels much more like a gimmick to me, and won't have the longevity that we have seen in trophies and other system-wide 'reward' mechanisms.

@Shigurui I have my doubts that it would come to £5, and certainly that it would exceed that.

Two outstanding titles that look rather intriguing, one of them I have been expecting for a good long while now. Besides that, nothing really struck me as wholly fascinating.

Still waiting on CDPR for Witcher 4, EA and Criterion for NFS, and Bioware for DA4. Possibly (fingers crossed) a decent SH2 from Konami, of course I have my doubts. That's where the current generation will really begin to hit its stride, I imagine.

@thefourfoldroot1 There are any number of problems I have with trophies in games, but this comment has just raised another concern for me. Trophies break how people naturally approach games. With a trophy list, they can beeline towards objectives or act in ways that the trophies deem desirable.

For example, one trophy in Skyrim calls to collect 15 daedric artifacts. Yet, this is ordinarily considered evil. An ordinary player might avoid doing so, and through this, effectively be punished through omission and exclusion. If that same player wants to achieve a full trophy list, they then have to oppose how they originally elected to play (as an evil rather than a good character). The same goes for the dark brotherhood questline, which I believe provides a total of three trophies altogether.

If gaming becomes increasingly centered around these trinkets, roleplaying options are going to continue to shrink.

@Milktastrophe Inversely, earning all trophies doesn't indicate that you've achieved 100% completion. Skyrim doesn't offer any trophies for the bard's college, for example.

I have a feeling it has something to do with multiplayer and competitive culture in the US. In EU and Asia, I can imagine that there's more emphasis on single player, narrative driven titles. For example, Final Fantasy or Dark Souls. In the US, there's probably more of a focus on the likes of Fortnite, Battlefield, CoD, Apex, League, and so on.

@Milktastrophe Trophies don't usually have anything to do with completion. Most are just random, out of the way tasks disparate from the game's main goals. For example, Skyrim: earn a 1,000 gold bounty in all nine holds. Who would even think to do this if it wasn't an achievement?

@jrt87 There was only one live action adaptation that I can recall off the top of my head that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it was the Silent Hill movie (the first one, not that other one). Resident Evil's first few installments were also dumb fun, if you can get past how ridiculous it all is.

I mentioned this before, but if the show were to have an entirely original story then it may as well just become its own original franchise. If it relies on the story of the game, you may as well just play the game. It's why I can't see these adaptations as anything other than lazy cash grabs that rely on brand recognition for success.

The only problem I ever really had with Dark Pictures was its tendency to rely on tired horror tropes. The whole "boo, haunted house" structure was so disconnected from what made survival horror great and wasn't as well crafted and unexpected as Until Dawn's more elaborate twists.

If this is anything like what I've heard about House of Ashes, where the devs have leaned more into subtlety (or as subtle as you can get in a murder hotel, anyway) then I'm all for it. I've been meaning to play one of these but just haven't been incentivised yet.

"Just reload your gun."

God forbid you do something more cerebral, like stop, think, consider. No, just shoot more stuff.

It's almost like a parody.

@Beerheadgamer82 Probably because they don't have the same appeal as original IPs. We've already seen Arkham at least four times, Saints Row four times alongside spinoffs, and it's mostly come to a point now where we've seen more or less all they have to offer. Not to mention the fact that SR peaked at 2, and Arkham with Arkham City (or Arkham Knight, for me personally).

Difficult to get excited about anything like that now that the idea of "new" is quite subjective.

It's probably an unpopular opinion but I was never able to get into Borderlands as a franchise. It always felt hollow and lifeless to me. Even so, Tales From the Borderlands I did quite enjoy.

A film based on a game inspired by another game inspired by a film. Balance.

@UltimateOtaku91 The most accurate comparison for NFT criticism is MLM, or pyramid schemes. It's effectively a con, technically legal but often predatory, especially for vulnerable consumers.

True or no, NFTs need to see these kinds of negative and critical reactions. Like most crypto buzz, NFTs are basically a scam.

It turns out that charging an exorbitant sum for a slightly upgraded version of a game that released around a decade ago in the midst of a cost of living crisis puts people into a bit of a sour mood.

You look at the history of gaming, take a gander at influential titles like the original Mario Bros., Half-Life, Silent Hill, Elder Scrolls, Minecraft, Dark Souls, God of War, Bloodborne, Burnout, Castlevania, Metroid, Doom, and countless others. You look at all of these and pick...TLoU Part II? It's not that opinions can be wrong or anything but, I mean, come on now.

I never really understood the point of adaptations in general. We played the game, so what purpose would a series or film serve? Maybe just watch 28 Days, I Am Legend or The Road?

@Uncharted2007 I find that results often require consolidating in order to cast a wider net. Ecological validility is like to be compromised if the lens is too narrow, for example, only exploring the impact on emotions rather than other more abstract and inexplicable features of the human psyche.

Curious. Is there any mention of the impact of gaming upon creativity, logic, reasoning, empathy, lateral and critical thinking, decision making? Indeed, it is a nebulous thing.

If memory serves, MS's similar service only really offered mostly negligible rewards for substantial game time or commitments. It's to be expected, of course, but it's not something I can say I'm all that excited about solely based on that fact alone.

This is an imminent catastrophe.

When I saw the headline, I was going to write something to the effect of "Oh so they're making live service games?" as a joke, and...

Obligatory "your choices have consequences" mechanic. Intriguing setting, generic promotion.

Is this EA's weird way of trying to gauge the temperature of the current market and their audience?

I'm only just hearing about this service launching and already games are being dropped from it. One of the reasons why I'll never be sold on the subscription / streaming models.

The more I hear about this game, the more uneasy I feel. Can't imagine this is going to be a major success.

It's a bit much for a service that doesn't really offer full backwards compatability with the seventh gen. Proper PS3 support would give Sony a serious edge in the competition, but it currently just feels like they're gunning for second. They've gotten a little too complacent since their astounding success last generation.

Yeah, I think I'm already out on this one. I've never really considered Kojima to be all he's oft rumoured to be, and reading the article I think only really reinforces that belief.

I always like to suggest the hard (possible) truth that the worst part of AC games are the assassinations. The last three have been all out RPGs and they're the best the series has been since Revelations. The franchise needs to drop the boring assassination missions and lean into well established RPG trends instead.

Nothing about subscription models has ever excited me. With PS+ and Gamepass, I can take it or leave it. With that being said, it appears that Sony is second place to Xbox when it comes to this model. Nothing here really captivates me in the same way that seeing the Outer Worlds day one on GP did when I first subscribed.

It's a pity to see this as well, since Sony had absolutely blitzed the last generation with one success story after another (no DRM, indie dev friendly ecosystem, InFamous, Driveclub, Bloodborne, Spiderman, God of War, Last of Us Part 2, etc). It seems they're now slowly sliding into silver medal territory.

A push for hardware and accessories, an emphasis on the new and "improved" PS+, a couple of indie games, then maybe a trailer for a big name title that we've already seen and know is coming. A vageury about their upcoming television shows and films. Finally, a compilation of all of the studios that Sony has a partnership with, perhaps including Bungie depending on how confident they're feeling.