Dear Internet, we at square enix would like to remind you, with sufficient plausible deniability, that the upcoming pc release of this game is a a deviant art showcase.
@Ralizah I think the problem is that's a Western view. In Japan, students are their true selves and adults are stuffed into their conformist shell, never to leave again. And the light hearted vibe depends on youth. I think adult themes fit better with smt, devil summoner, and now metaphor. Where I cringe is sticking smtv with high school kids too.
Leave persona as persona, a throwback to reliving youth.
@Rich33 I think it's more complicated than that. I think the knock-on effect is the main factor. How important that remains in the face of no serious competition, though, I'm not sure. It ONCE was important as part of the promotional strategy. I'm not convinced it remains significantly so. Again, just looking at real sales of exclusives vs install base, and considering the majority of the exclusives market are the same people across multiple exclusives (I.E. the market interested in exclusives is likely a repeat market for exclusives, thus a lot of overlap in game to game sales in exclusives) it a REALLY small part of their market. 10% or below, generally, with a 20% spike on one or two major titles. Meaning 80% of their install base DGAF about exclusives at all.
MS, on that token realized the same, and with their overall install base being too small to sustain exclusive titles anyway, decided to forget about that. That, though created the media problem, as you say "Xbox has no games, no point buying an Xbox" etc. Most of that really has little to do with "PS's customers are so invested in exclusives that a competitor without an array of compelling counter exclusives lacks appeal" and most of it has more to do with people validating their PS purchase by finding a negative to keep repeating about the competitor, and then the endless people parroting them to sound in the know because the internet is the internet and we haven't really left the Sonic v Mario wars of the 16 bit era in new packaging Problem is Xbox hasn't done a good job justifying why you SHOULD buy their platform. They don't have a USP beyond GP, and that's clearly not it. I don't think exclusives are the answer, but I don't think they have a better one either, so it makes the hyena's cackles ring true.
Where Sony runs into potential trouble, though, is, like you mentioned, the sales show their exclusives isn't really their main draw anymore to most of their market. Inertia is. So if someone else ever decides to compete head on (Apple, Meta, Nvidia itself for that matter, PC adoption and simplification in general) that has some major selling point, Sony could land themselves where Xbox is now, albeit more slowly.
Heck if exclusives were such a huge deal, Game Pass numbers would be a lot higher than they are. The market shifted. Most of the market just cares about the 5 GaaS standards. It worked last gen but I think Sony leaned too hard on their hollywood studio model and it's come back to bite them somewhat as the market changed. The only reason they're still on top and not in trouble is, well, their competitor is Xbox...
@Rich33 Of course someone on Push would have Sony 1st party games as the big incentive, that's kind of a given within the niche community. But it's a bit of a small niche these days and is largely outmoded. When you look at the overall sales figures on those 1st party games, "buying a sony first party every 2 years" just isn't the norm for the overwhelming majority of their install base to the point that if they just shut down all their first party studios today and stopped making games.....the PS install base wouldn't actually change significantly.
Obviously there's SOME amount of the player base that is, but just by the numbers it's a pretty small part of the actual install base these days. There's far more PS players that don't play any PS Studios games than those that do.
But you did highlight the reason they still make them at all. That influencer factor. That 2nd relative that bought because the first did, and that first did because of an exclusive. Overall the exclusives don't actually affect much of their install base, however, for each one that does, there's 5 others that buy it, not for the exclusive, but because someone else bought it, who happened to buy for an exclusive. So in that sense the exclusives matter, but only up to a point, once it's become so big and established that "everyone else plays on PS" they stop really needing those exclusives because "everyone else already plays on PS." That is without a serious competitor anyway, and MS's exit from the exclusives game, ironically, means Sony will need them less over time too.
@Pandalulz LOL I went into the jaded phase in the 2008-2010 time period where if you weren't running custom loop liquid, your system would burn up constantly lol. It was this generation that brought me back to it now that PC has sort of become a lot more predictable, and console has inherited half of PCs problems. I only switched back this past year, but I've been impressed with just how solid the experience has been. My big rig overpowers any of the poor ports, but I spend a lot of time on my Legion and Ally (non-extreme) and am amazed how well things run on something that's a lot weaker than a PS/XB even with windows bloat these days. I think things should run a lot better on weak hardware on console, but my feeling being on both sides of is this past year, is they don't optimize console ports any more than they do PC ports and the consoles have less workarounds to try to "fix" it by stripping it down. I switched from PC to console when it was clear console ports always got more polish. This gen? Most of the devs abandoned that and seem to spend more time polishing PC because it's a larger market.
@Pandalulz Yeah, exactly the same for me. Heck, I was all PC at one point, and between a whole lot of things and the fact that what I really wanted was the nerdy JRPG stuff and almost none of it was on PC and all of it was PS/Nintendo. There's only a few of the other true first parties that matter much to me. Most of the cool first party was Japan studio and they killed it. But flash forward to 2024 and all the nerdy JRPG stuff is on PC first and foremost, which really changed the complexion of PS to me.
@ChrisDeku Who's choice, the old bosses or the new bosses? Old bosses liked closed ecosystems. Balmer tried. Nadella's never been into the closed ecosystem thing, borrowing from Googazonbooks' playbooks on everything.
The character herself seems interesting enough in a cliche hollywood way. I'm more worried about them doing the hollywood big studio thing and shuffling the same actor into every project (reminds me of the period where every major film starred "Tom Hanks as: Tom Hanks Playing a Character") and the general vibe of "cyberpunk space vibe missing the trend by years, leading into planetary gameplay that looks like recycled old gameplay."
In a way it feels like Sony's entering their "WiiU moment" (I don't mean a failure in console sales), where Nintendo didn't catch onto HD development and made all the wrong moves, and it feels like Sony didn't catch onto "modern development" and all their games come out chasing a trend that they've missed by years because the game took so long to make.
But, while some people hold ND in high regard, I've never held them in high regard beyond their gfx engines, so none of that really surprises me. Still, Uncharted is fun popcorn entertainment and this might be too. I like the retro cyberpunk theme, but I'm not convinced from the trailer it'll pull it off well.
@OldGamer999 Their idea of their platform no longer revolves around "exclusive content" - simple as that. They don't have an interest in an Apple/Sony/Nintendo walled garden closed platform. Their interest is in open platforms on any and all hardware more like Googazonbook. They'll make a new machine to play games on and it'll have it's perks like GP, etc, things that make engaging with their platforms more direct. It's just not likely to be built around "here's all the exclusive games you can play on it."
Heck even Sony's backing away from that. Even ignoring the PC ports, they just don't have a huge amount of content anymore. While it's "exclusive", realistically, almost none of their install base buys their machine for their exclusive games anymore going by the sales numbers. They make big noise about their exclusives, etc, but behind closed doors, knowing their numbers, I'm sure even Sony would laugh in the face of anyone that thinks exclusives are the business today and remind them it's not 1995.
@LavenderShroud I'm with you. Don't get me wrong, I like elden ring and armored core, up to a point, but I REALLY don't get the obsession among the Fromsoft fans. It's a bizarre fixation.
I'm loving the cyberpunk space runner synthwave theme. The intro makes me think elite dangerous though, while the second of gameplay looks like another standard over the shoulder melee and guns game. Not sure what to make of it. I've never been an ND fan so I'm not hyped like many are. Their last open freedom game was jak1 and jak 3. I'm hoping this one isn't just another movie on rails with mashy combat which ND is wont to make because it could be so cool if it offers more freedom.
I'm pretty sure the gains in the US are due to the fact that Xbox One sold decently in the US but Series has simply collapsed everywhere, and PS benefits from the conversion. After all, This Is An Xbox.
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare It's true, but I think that's more a commentary on Internet/games media and influencers than the actual state of PC gaming. Just like push doesn't actually come close to representative of the reality of the ps community at large and all our expectations are always wrong. The online presence is this weird little bubble.
Similarly Nvidia would be the first to point out that those 4090s aren't where they're actually making money, and it's why AMD excited that race entirely. The real money is is midrange despite the Internet bubble.. But you're right I think the definitely affects the perception of PC for those that don't already know that.
But I totally agree on the rest. Especially that last bit. As long as PlayStation just tries to be a PC, and now not even a budget PC, just a Sony alternative walled garden PC at the same or similar price to a real PC, it's really killing its purpose to exist. The uniqueness of consoles and their games beyond being just alternative PC hardware, is what made consoles great and forever viable. I had laugh when Cerny said they aren't just building a budget PC... Really? Because that's what it looks like except the forgot the budget part. With what it is it's defeating the main highlight of consoles, that is one size fits all, with unique traits.
What amazes me is how far pc has come. I have a legion and Ally. Other than windows login, is as seamless as using a switch or Vita. Turn it on, have big picture mode (if you're not techy enough for Playnite) and boom, feels like a Switch. (My big rig, different story but only because I have 2 vr platforms, half a dozen vr injection suites, 3 heavy modding platforms for specific games and 8 different peripherals for flight and racing controllers all going nuts but that's on my for doing farm animal things with my rig 😂
I've always held that "PC isn't for everyone" and console is a necessity for many. Yet I'm Christmas shopping for a gaming machine for someone very not techy, and I'm still tempted to get a legion or light duty rig for them instead of ps or xb. I don't think it's too complicated for "normies" anymore, pre built, and long term it's just such a flexible ecosystem I find it hard to justify to anyone not already in a console ecosystem to start into one now.
@Ralizah My hatred of AnimalCraft is extreme. They literally destroyed the game's genre and made it a generic mobile-esque resource grinding game with daily cooldowns to support a hideous, pointless crafting game. Easily my biggest disappointment of the generation. I have more fondness for launch day CP2077 than for the complete nuclear obliteration of Animal Crossing.
I'll be shocked if the next AC isn't steeped in MTX. NH felt like the test run for mobile-ifying the series to milk it's massive casual player base.
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare In some ways, I agree, in some ways I disagree, and in other ways you're kind of agreeing about console eliminating it's point in comparison by going this route.
I think both in PC and console you have to filter out internet chatter. Because somehow even in PC that doesn't represent most of the actual market. There's the appearance PC is focused on that top 5%. But obviously it's not actually the reality, otherwise it wouldn't be the top 5%. In fact the majority of the PC gaming space is still perfectly fine with 1080p and 1400p and not gunning for 4k at all. Appearance vs. reality.
Now where I agree is devs seem to focus on that top 5% and screw everything else. That's actually changing due to the rise of Deck and the handhelds and more overall potato PCs running games, but it's also identical to this mid-gen console nonsense, and how it's being handled - the devs are focusing on those 4090s even to the detriment of console ports sucking, and now you need to join that top 5% in console, too! Defeating the point of consoles.
One thing everone talks about on PCs is "all the sliders", which I can understand, but now we're really blurring that line here. Now we're back to comparing the consoles, benchmarking performance between the hardware, comparing fps, zooming into resolutions, comparing performance, quality, quality with RT, performance with RT, across the two hardware models. Haven't we turned the "it just works" console into exactly what everyone complains about with PC? Just with less options and a higher overall cost? I think PC players tend to be the OCD type. You don't have to mess with all the sliders. It "just works", too, most of the time. We tend to mess with sliders because they're there, because we can, and because OCD prevents us from ignoring them lol. It's not a functional requirement of the system in modern games.
I'm also not sure it's any cheaper. A base PS5 is cheaper than PC, sure. A Pro? Not so much. You can get an $800 PC (same price as Pro with disc) that has a somewhat weaker (4060) but not by a ton GPU, but with a better scaler (DLSS) which is the main show of the Pro, and a much stronger CPU. I'd rank the price pretty much equivalent just with different resulting tradeoffs. Ultimately, your view kind of matches mine that there's a market for it' and it's mostly a convenience no matter the price market.
I feel the same about it now as I did back when it was rumored and I jumped from console back to PC. In fact I feel worse about it, because it turned out to be less impressive than rumored.
Minimal upgrade at maximal price. Console-only audience keeps treating it like it's some amazing technology of the future while anyone that follows PC tech knows it's a blast from the past at a really high price.
In a vacuum it's not that it's a bad machine. The problem is that it's not a particularly impressive upgrade, the price is extraordinary for the modest upgrade it actually is, and maybe more importantly its existence and the tradeoffs that remain present continue to break the entire core reason for the existence of consoles. What makes console desirable is that it's a single, common, core experience, where everyone gets the same experience, and developers can tailor that experience to fit it. Once you get into spec comparisons and benchmarks, you've left behind what makes console a viable concept.
I don't think on it's own it's terrible, but I think the fairly anemic upgrade, for the extreme pricing, and the fact that these mid-gen models break the idea of consoles entirely, moving it into the "GPU upgrade cycle", but in the end you end up spending more and getting less than actual GPU upgrades to keep up, is a very problematic process for the console future.
As it is, at its current pricing, it's meant for people who like to have "the best" even if it's only a modest upgrade, and value convenience foremost, no matter the markup for said convenience. If it were a $550 or even $600 box, it would be much easier to praise it for what it is.
Additionally the 2TB SSD IMO was a recklessly stupid feature for it, by forcing it up into a price bracket that unfairly represents it.
There is so much that is very very very wrong about virtually every aspect of this article that I can't even think of any coherent snarky reply about it. Just take every single part mentioned and undo it, and the world will be a better place. Where's the mind bleach?
@DennisReynolds I can understand the view on level design. I happen to love the exploration, but I can see it's simplicity being conflicting (though I'd level that same charge against GoW2018 but everyone seems to go nuts for that), but art design? I thought that was, if anything the one thing it did have going for it!
Remember in terms of GOTY nominations they're not just looking at the Playstation build but the game itself. Which is primarily a PC game that doesn't fake 60fps.... (Actually irritatingly it does default to framgen being enabled even on PC, but doesn't need to be on "current" hardware.)
The PS build is indeed lousy, but that doesn't hold GOTY back if it's a multiplatform game that performs better on another platform (and is the main platform it sold on.)
IDK if it should be GOTY, but I can say (as a PC player) it shouldn't not be.
@colonelkilgore There WAS a rumor that they were in some kind of talks with Apple, so there may be some work on that front. Much as it's a union that makes it all very much "not for me", they (unfortunately) seem to have similar philosophies these days, and I could see that working out. Only problem is Apple is more Sony than Sony and their cut would be rediculous.
@colonelkilgore Agreed. But like you said, I agree, I think Sony has a long term problem in that they're the default now because they're the default, but their future strategy depends 100% on maintaining the status quo without an outside disruptor challenging that position seriously. And they probably need a plan to migrate away from that, because this status quo prints money for now but that won't last indefinitely, and once disrupted, they have no method really to claw back that market. They probably need to think along the lines of handling that future strategy even if they disrupt their own status quo now to do it. Otherwise you're right, they go extinct. I can't tell if they're actually planning to resolve that or just try to grab all the money while it's there before it's gone. Rumors are they Sony PC launcher which gives me vibes of the old Sony Entertainment music service that was a trainwreck of a closed "me too" storefront with no incentive to actually use it. Not much unlike Xbox/Windows Store now, except that at least has GP as an incentive to use it.
IDK that it deserves GOTY or not, but I can't say it's not a deserving game of the award either. Popularity contest for a crazy popular game in China or not, the game really is seriously good. When all indications are that Keighley, Inc. plans to nominate a DLC that's just more content for 2 years ago's GOTY, it makes it even harder to say this doesn't deserve it, as it's no less competent a game, and while it doesn't break any new ground, it's still a unique blend of attributes that I can't say feels like any other particular game.
@RoomWithaMoose I think it's a game you have to play it to get it. It doesn't do anything new or unprecidented or break new ground, but it puts together a lot of well liked concepts from a lot of games, puts them together very competently, is dripping with atmosphere, and most importantly as an action combat game, just feels incredible to control. IMO I think that's the main thing that makes this game feel so much better than its "objective" critiques is that the feel of actually controlling the game is just addictive, and it's a subtle quality that is the most important quality in a video game most studios not called Nintendo tend to forget. I'm not like a super "OMG best game ever" fan of the game, and the "hard because hard" genre isn't really even my genre at all (not a big From or Team Ninja fan really), but I have to say the game is just addictive, and I find myself thinking about it and wanting to go on "just a little bit more" and I think it all comes down to the feel. It just FEELS good to play it. Like one car vs another, it's all about the handling.
IMO it handles better than Stellar Blade which is a decent game but super overrated, and the only thing that saves it from being "just a Nier Automata Clone with Souls mechanics" is the fact that it openly acknowledges it, leans into it, and actually teamed up for a crossover. Replace the hot jiggly girls in dressup clothes with brooding teenage emo dudes and that game would lose MOST of its following, even though it's a decent game by any measure.
Bloodborne has become a meme. I don't get this obsession with that game like you have no other Fromsoft games to play and that they all don't play pretty similarly. I know it's "more aggressive" but it's not really that different from all the others.
It's funny. I remember in 2013 when all the PS fans were like "Eeew, who'd want Xbox, all it is is just Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty."
A decade later and 80% of CoD is PS.
@colonelkilgore I resemble that description! There's overlap specifically with XB though, because I think XB was from the start positioned as "a cheaper more convenient PC gaming platform" so it always kind of straddled this line between PC and "console", that was its purpose, and I think XB picked up a big market of lapsed PC gamers and would-be-PC gamers that liked the value and convenience, but were looking for a PC-ish experience. So I think there does end up being a lot of overlap where, now that XB has really tried to unify itself with PC it makes the jump a lot more appealing for users that were already half way there. Which they don't mind, that was the original purpose anyway. In fact MS kind of threw away their, at the time growing PC presence in gaming in order to force people into Xbox. They made a mess of PC gaming for a while, as they'd been buying studios and build their PC publishing presence and then suddenly closed it all down to force everything into console exclusivity. So their present is kind of just rewinding and undoing the damage they did back then. As an all PC gamer at the time I REALLY resented the Xbox for a long time lol.
"We've decided that since sales of this game sucked so hard, we can't make any money milking it with DLC and thus will focus on the third installment of a single games' story so the trilogy everyone is actually waiting for can get to market within the same decade"
@Raffles very very interesting results! Glad you followed up! Initially from the leaked specs and Cerny statementsI think all of us thought 4070. Then the printed specs looked 4060ish. But this reality is pretty meh for that price. Better than a $300 GPU, worse than a $500 all for $700.. yeah it's the whole machine but still... The CPU remains poor anyway. Not matching a 6800? Oof.
I suppose they have a market for it and that's a market that likes "better" but doesn't really care if it's that much better and its willing to pay high premium for convenience. IDK, consoles really have to rethink their specs and pricing going forward. This isn't going to be sustainable with hardware like that for pieces like this forever.
I think that launch always goes to the same people basically. The people who reliably buy the new thing every time no matter what. Launch is probably predictable. The longer term will be interesting. Especially in this economy. Gaming, and PlayStation in particular is in a really weird market now.
I paid money for Haze. I wouldn't pay money for this.
I had no idea cod was now just fortnite. I thought it was still a historical fiction American military series with Jerry Bruckheimer presentation. Not shark men shooting glowing aliens. No wonder it's a kids game. Desert Storm didn't make sense to my for modern kids but it really is just a cartoon apparently now?
@nessisonett BroShep is the only Shep, but only because of the comical delivery. FemShep makes ME feel like it's taking itself seriously. BroShep always feels like a total nerdball in space, which is half of the fun.
@themightyant nailed it though. Broshep is like a big puppydog with a gun with Meer's VA. Hale seems like the only viable renegade option because Meer sounds like Mr. Rogers saying he's going to mug you.
Awwww man, I'm conflicted. I hated the idea of continuing the Sylens character without Lance, because the Sylens character is Lance and it just feels completely wrong to have anyone else try to do it with how unique his voice was. But, yet, I love Tim Russ! I might be able to tolerate the change with him. But it's also going to gnaw at me because Lance was Lance and that voice can't be swapped.
Comments 6,997
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director Pleads for Modder Restraint on PC
Dear Internet, we at square enix would like to remind you, with sufficient plausible deniability, that the upcoming pc release of this game is a a deviant art showcase.
Please finally buy this game.
Thank you for watching!
Re: Persona Protagonists Are Invariably High School Boys Due to 'Mental Age'
@Ralizah I think the problem is that's a Western view. In Japan, students are their true selves and adults are stuffed into their conformist shell, never to leave again. And the light hearted vibe depends on youth. I think adult themes fit better with smt, devil summoner, and now metaphor. Where I cringe is sticking smtv with high school kids too.
Leave persona as persona, a throwback to reliving youth.
Re: Xbox Is Eager to Build the Best Games You Can Enjoy Everywhere
@Rich33 I think it's more complicated than that. I think the knock-on effect is the main factor. How important that remains in the face of no serious competition, though, I'm not sure. It ONCE was important as part of the promotional strategy. I'm not convinced it remains significantly so. Again, just looking at real sales of exclusives vs install base, and considering the majority of the exclusives market are the same people across multiple exclusives (I.E. the market interested in exclusives is likely a repeat market for exclusives, thus a lot of overlap in game to game sales in exclusives) it a REALLY small part of their market. 10% or below, generally, with a 20% spike on one or two major titles. Meaning 80% of their install base DGAF about exclusives at all.
MS, on that token realized the same, and with their overall install base being too small to sustain exclusive titles anyway, decided to forget about that. That, though created the media problem, as you say "Xbox has no games, no point buying an Xbox" etc. Most of that really has little to do with "PS's customers are so invested in exclusives that a competitor without an array of compelling counter exclusives lacks appeal" and most of it has more to do with people validating their PS purchase by finding a negative to keep repeating about the competitor, and then the endless people parroting them to sound in the know because the internet is the internet and we haven't really left the Sonic v Mario wars of the 16 bit era in new packaging Problem is Xbox hasn't done a good job justifying why you SHOULD buy their platform. They don't have a USP beyond GP, and that's clearly not it. I don't think exclusives are the answer, but I don't think they have a better one either, so it makes the hyena's cackles ring true.
Where Sony runs into potential trouble, though, is, like you mentioned, the sales show their exclusives isn't really their main draw anymore to most of their market. Inertia is. So if someone else ever decides to compete head on (Apple, Meta, Nvidia itself for that matter, PC adoption and simplification in general) that has some major selling point, Sony could land themselves where Xbox is now, albeit more slowly.
Heck if exclusives were such a huge deal, Game Pass numbers would be a lot higher than they are. The market shifted. Most of the market just cares about the 5 GaaS standards. It worked last gen but I think Sony leaned too hard on their hollywood studio model and it's come back to bite them somewhat as the market changed. The only reason they're still on top and not in trouble is, well, their competitor is Xbox...
Re: Xbox Is Eager to Build the Best Games You Can Enjoy Everywhere
@Rich33 Of course someone on Push would have Sony 1st party games as the big incentive, that's kind of a given within the niche community. But it's a bit of a small niche these days and is largely outmoded. When you look at the overall sales figures on those 1st party games, "buying a sony first party every 2 years" just isn't the norm for the overwhelming majority of their install base to the point that if they just shut down all their first party studios today and stopped making games.....the PS install base wouldn't actually change significantly.
Obviously there's SOME amount of the player base that is, but just by the numbers it's a pretty small part of the actual install base these days. There's far more PS players that don't play any PS Studios games than those that do.
But you did highlight the reason they still make them at all. That influencer factor. That 2nd relative that bought because the first did, and that first did because of an exclusive. Overall the exclusives don't actually affect much of their install base, however, for each one that does, there's 5 others that buy it, not for the exclusive, but because someone else bought it, who happened to buy for an exclusive. So in that sense the exclusives matter, but only up to a point, once it's become so big and established that "everyone else plays on PS" they stop really needing those exclusives because "everyone else already plays on PS." That is without a serious competitor anyway, and MS's exit from the exclusives game, ironically, means Sony will need them less over time too.
@Pandalulz LOL I went into the jaded phase in the 2008-2010 time period where if you weren't running custom loop liquid, your system would burn up constantly lol. It was this generation that brought me back to it now that PC has sort of become a lot more predictable, and console has inherited half of PCs problems. I only switched back this past year, but I've been impressed with just how solid the experience has been. My big rig overpowers any of the poor ports, but I spend a lot of time on my Legion and Ally (non-extreme) and am amazed how well things run on something that's a lot weaker than a PS/XB even with windows bloat these days. I think things should run a lot better on weak hardware on console, but my feeling being on both sides of is this past year, is they don't optimize console ports any more than they do PC ports and the consoles have less workarounds to try to "fix" it by stripping it down. I switched from PC to console when it was clear console ports always got more polish. This gen? Most of the devs abandoned that and seem to spend more time polishing PC because it's a larger market.
We just won't talk about MSFS 2024 lol
Re: Xbox Is Eager to Build the Best Games You Can Enjoy Everywhere
@Pandalulz Yeah, exactly the same for me. Heck, I was all PC at one point, and between a whole lot of things and the fact that what I really wanted was the nerdy JRPG stuff and almost none of it was on PC and all of it was PS/Nintendo. There's only a few of the other true first parties that matter much to me. Most of the cool first party was Japan studio and they killed it. But flash forward to 2024 and all the nerdy JRPG stuff is on PC first and foremost, which really changed the complexion of PS to me.
Re: Xbox Is Eager to Build the Best Games You Can Enjoy Everywhere
@ChrisDeku Who's choice, the old bosses or the new bosses? Old bosses liked closed ecosystems. Balmer tried. Nadella's never been into the closed ecosystem thing, borrowing from Googazonbooks' playbooks on everything.
Re: Naughty Dog Turns Off Intergalactic PS5 Trailer's Comments As Discourse Turns Nasty
The character herself seems interesting enough in a cliche hollywood way. I'm more worried about them doing the hollywood big studio thing and shuffling the same actor into every project (reminds me of the period where every major film starred "Tom Hanks as: Tom Hanks Playing a Character") and the general vibe of "cyberpunk space vibe missing the trend by years, leading into planetary gameplay that looks like recycled old gameplay."
In a way it feels like Sony's entering their "WiiU moment" (I don't mean a failure in console sales), where Nintendo didn't catch onto HD development and made all the wrong moves, and it feels like Sony didn't catch onto "modern development" and all their games come out chasing a trend that they've missed by years because the game took so long to make.
But, while some people hold ND in high regard, I've never held them in high regard beyond their gfx engines, so none of that really surprises me. Still, Uncharted is fun popcorn entertainment and this might be too. I like the retro cyberpunk theme, but I'm not convinced from the trailer it'll pull it off well.
Re: Xbox Is Eager to Build the Best Games You Can Enjoy Everywhere
@OldGamer999 Their idea of their platform no longer revolves around "exclusive content" - simple as that. They don't have an interest in an Apple/Sony/Nintendo walled garden closed platform. Their interest is in open platforms on any and all hardware more like Googazonbook. They'll make a new machine to play games on and it'll have it's perks like GP, etc, things that make engaging with their platforms more direct. It's just not likely to be built around "here's all the exclusive games you can play on it."
Heck even Sony's backing away from that. Even ignoring the PC ports, they just don't have a huge amount of content anymore. While it's "exclusive", realistically, almost none of their install base buys their machine for their exclusive games anymore going by the sales numbers. They make big noise about their exclusives, etc, but behind closed doors, knowing their numbers, I'm sure even Sony would laugh in the face of anyone that thinks exclusives are the business today and remind them it's not 1995.
Re: Elden Ring: Nightreign Announced, a Co-Op Game for PS5, PS4
@JohnnyShoulder I've always contended that soulsborne have ALWAYS been cleverly disguised rogue likes.
Re: Elden Ring: Nightreign Announced, a Co-Op Game for PS5, PS4
@LavenderShroud I'm with you. Don't get me wrong, I like elden ring and armored core, up to a point, but I REALLY don't get the obsession among the Fromsoft fans. It's a bizarre fixation.
Re: Naughty Dog's New PS5 Game Is Finally Announced, Sci-Fi Action Title Intergalactic
I'm loving the cyberpunk space runner synthwave theme. The intro makes me think elite dangerous though, while the second of gameplay looks like another standard over the shoulder melee and guns game. Not sure what to make of it. I've never been an ND fan so I'm not hyped like many are. Their last open freedom game was jak1 and jak 3. I'm hoping this one isn't just another movie on rails with mashy combat which ND is wont to make because it could be so cool if it offers more freedom.
Re: PS5 Sales Still Trending 8% Ahead of the PS4 in USA
I'm pretty sure the gains in the US are due to the fact that Xbox One sold decently in the US but Series has simply collapsed everywhere, and PS benefits from the conversion. After all, This Is An Xbox.
Re: PS5 Fans Willing to Pay a Pretty Penny for a Steam Deck-Like Portable PlayStation
@Boxmonkey is that their black Friday pricing?
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Three Weeks Later?
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare It's true, but I think that's more a commentary on Internet/games media and influencers than the actual state of PC gaming. Just like push doesn't actually come close to representative of the reality of the ps community at large and all our expectations are always wrong. The online presence is this weird little bubble.
Similarly Nvidia would be the first to point out that those 4090s aren't where they're actually making money, and it's why AMD excited that race entirely. The real money is is midrange despite the Internet bubble.. But you're right I think the definitely affects the perception of PC for those that don't already know that.
But I totally agree on the rest. Especially that last bit. As long as PlayStation just tries to be a PC, and now not even a budget PC, just a Sony alternative walled garden PC at the same or similar price to a real PC, it's really killing its purpose to exist. The uniqueness of consoles and their games beyond being just alternative PC hardware, is what made consoles great and forever viable. I had laugh when Cerny said they aren't just building a budget PC... Really? Because that's what it looks like except the forgot the budget part. With what it is it's defeating the main highlight of consoles, that is one size fits all, with unique traits.
What amazes me is how far pc has come. I have a legion and Ally. Other than windows login, is as seamless as using a switch or Vita. Turn it on, have big picture mode (if you're not techy enough for Playnite) and boom, feels like a Switch. (My big rig, different story but only because I have 2 vr platforms, half a dozen vr injection suites, 3 heavy modding platforms for specific games and 8 different peripherals for flight and racing controllers all going nuts but that's on my for doing farm animal things with my rig 😂
I've always held that "PC isn't for everyone" and console is a necessity for many. Yet I'm Christmas shopping for a gaming machine for someone very not techy, and I'm still tempted to get a legion or light duty rig for them instead of ps or xb. I don't think it's too complicated for "normies" anymore, pre built, and long term it's just such a flexible ecosystem I find it hard to justify to anyone not already in a console ecosystem to start into one now.
Re: Ubisoft Reportedly Making a Minecraft Meets Animal Crossing Social Sim
@Ralizah My hatred of AnimalCraft is extreme. They literally destroyed the game's genre and made it a generic mobile-esque resource grinding game with daily cooldowns to support a hideous, pointless crafting game. Easily my biggest disappointment of the generation. I have more fondness for launch day CP2077 than for the complete nuclear obliteration of Animal Crossing.
I'll be shocked if the next AC isn't steeped in MTX. NH felt like the test run for mobile-ifying the series to milk it's massive casual player base.
Re: Hang Out with Geoff Keighley in Fortnite's Island for The Game Awards
@SuntannedDuck2 Sadly, it's a commentary on what makes up the gamer, or at least the gaming media consumer, that what he's doing is working....
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Three Weeks Later?
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare In some ways, I agree, in some ways I disagree, and in other ways you're kind of agreeing about console eliminating it's point in comparison by going this route.
I think both in PC and console you have to filter out internet chatter. Because somehow even in PC that doesn't represent most of the actual market. There's the appearance PC is focused on that top 5%. But obviously it's not actually the reality, otherwise it wouldn't be the top 5%. In fact the majority of the PC gaming space is still perfectly fine with 1080p and 1400p and not gunning for 4k at all. Appearance vs. reality.
Now where I agree is devs seem to focus on that top 5% and screw everything else. That's actually changing due to the rise of Deck and the handhelds and more overall potato PCs running games, but it's also identical to this mid-gen console nonsense, and how it's being handled - the devs are focusing on those 4090s even to the detriment of console ports sucking, and now you need to join that top 5% in console, too! Defeating the point of consoles.
One thing everone talks about on PCs is "all the sliders", which I can understand, but now we're really blurring that line here. Now we're back to comparing the consoles, benchmarking performance between the hardware, comparing fps, zooming into resolutions, comparing performance, quality, quality with RT, performance with RT, across the two hardware models. Haven't we turned the "it just works" console into exactly what everyone complains about with PC? Just with less options and a higher overall cost? I think PC players tend to be the OCD type. You don't have to mess with all the sliders. It "just works", too, most of the time. We tend to mess with sliders because they're there, because we can, and because OCD prevents us from ignoring them lol. It's not a functional requirement of the system in modern games.
I'm also not sure it's any cheaper. A base PS5 is cheaper than PC, sure. A Pro? Not so much. You can get an $800 PC (same price as Pro with disc) that has a somewhat weaker (4060) but not by a ton GPU, but with a better scaler (DLSS) which is the main show of the Pro, and a much stronger CPU. I'd rank the price pretty much equivalent just with different resulting tradeoffs. Ultimately, your view kind of matches mine that there's a market for it' and it's mostly a convenience no matter the price market.
Re: Ubisoft Reportedly Making a Minecraft Meets Animal Crossing Social Sim
OMGOMGOMG Tom Clancy's Animal Crossing is real! It's happening!!!1
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think of the PS5 Pro, Three Weeks Later?
I feel the same about it now as I did back when it was rumored and I jumped from console back to PC. In fact I feel worse about it, because it turned out to be less impressive than rumored.
Minimal upgrade at maximal price. Console-only audience keeps treating it like it's some amazing technology of the future while anyone that follows PC tech knows it's a blast from the past at a really high price.
In a vacuum it's not that it's a bad machine. The problem is that it's not a particularly impressive upgrade, the price is extraordinary for the modest upgrade it actually is, and maybe more importantly its existence and the tradeoffs that remain present continue to break the entire core reason for the existence of consoles. What makes console desirable is that it's a single, common, core experience, where everyone gets the same experience, and developers can tailor that experience to fit it. Once you get into spec comparisons and benchmarks, you've left behind what makes console a viable concept.
I don't think on it's own it's terrible, but I think the fairly anemic upgrade, for the extreme pricing, and the fact that these mid-gen models break the idea of consoles entirely, moving it into the "GPU upgrade cycle", but in the end you end up spending more and getting less than actual GPU upgrades to keep up, is a very problematic process for the console future.
As it is, at its current pricing, it's meant for people who like to have "the best" even if it's only a modest upgrade, and value convenience foremost, no matter the markup for said convenience. If it were a $550 or even $600 box, it would be much easier to praise it for what it is.
Additionally the 2TB SSD IMO was a recklessly stupid feature for it, by forcing it up into a price bracket that unfairly represents it.
Re: Fans of Aquanaut's Holiday Will Want to Pay Attention to This PSVR2 Title
I know exactly who's been waiting for this game.....@Neon-whatever-this-month
Re: Hang Out with Geoff Keighley in Fortnite's Island for The Game Awards
@SuntannedDuck2 he was always just a businessman. What's sad is that he's made a successful business in appointing himself arbiter of gaming culture
@ChopperCampbell Money, marketing, and an insular gaming media echo chamber.
Re: Secret Level's Concord Episode Has a Trailer, and It Feels Really Weird
Cool space opera comic book thing, but what's it got to do with gaming?
Re: Hang Out with Geoff Keighley in Fortnite's Island for The Game Awards
There is so much that is very very very wrong about virtually every aspect of this article that I can't even think of any coherent snarky reply about it. Just take every single part mentioned and undo it, and the world will be a better place. Where's the mind bleach?
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Dev Declares 'Surprises' Still in Store for 2024
@DennisReynolds Yeah, that's fair, there's definitely been spots I've tried to go and just got magically blocked by invisible walls.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Dev Declares 'Surprises' Still in Store for 2024
@DennisReynolds I can understand the view on level design. I happen to love the exploration, but I can see it's simplicity being conflicting (though I'd level that same charge against GoW2018 but everyone seems to go nuts for that), but art design? I thought that was, if anything the one thing it did have going for it!
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Dev Declares 'Surprises' Still in Store for 2024
@DennisReynolds "Black Myth faking 60fps"
Remember in terms of GOTY nominations they're not just looking at the Playstation build but the game itself. Which is primarily a PC game that doesn't fake 60fps.... (Actually irritatingly it does default to framgen being enabled even on PC, but doesn't need to be on "current" hardware.)
The PS build is indeed lousy, but that doesn't hold GOTY back if it's a multiplatform game that performs better on another platform (and is the main platform it sold on.)
IDK if it should be GOTY, but I can say (as a PC player) it shouldn't not be.
Re: Sony Is Going All Out for PlayStation's 30th Anniversary in the UK
Oh, so THIS is the PS5 Slim!
Re: Oct 2024 USA Sales: PS5, PS4 Account for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Sales in the US
@colonelkilgore There WAS a rumor that they were in some kind of talks with Apple, so there may be some work on that front. Much as it's a union that makes it all very much "not for me", they (unfortunately) seem to have similar philosophies these days, and I could see that working out. Only problem is Apple is more Sony than Sony and their cut would be rediculous.
Re: Oct 2024 USA Sales: PS5, PS4 Account for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Sales in the US
@colonelkilgore Agreed. But like you said, I agree, I think Sony has a long term problem in that they're the default now because they're the default, but their future strategy depends 100% on maintaining the status quo without an outside disruptor challenging that position seriously. And they probably need a plan to migrate away from that, because this status quo prints money for now but that won't last indefinitely, and once disrupted, they have no method really to claw back that market. They probably need to think along the lines of handling that future strategy even if they disrupt their own status quo now to do it. Otherwise you're right, they go extinct. I can't tell if they're actually planning to resolve that or just try to grab all the money while it's there before it's gone. Rumors are they Sony PC launcher which gives me vibes of the old Sony Entertainment music service that was a trainwreck of a closed "me too" storefront with no incentive to actually use it. Not much unlike Xbox/Windows Store now, except that at least has GP as an incentive to use it.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Declared Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024
IDK that it deserves GOTY or not, but I can't say it's not a deserving game of the award either. Popularity contest for a crazy popular game in China or not, the game really is seriously good. When all indications are that Keighley, Inc. plans to nominate a DLC that's just more content for 2 years ago's GOTY, it makes it even harder to say this doesn't deserve it, as it's no less competent a game, and while it doesn't break any new ground, it's still a unique blend of attributes that I can't say feels like any other particular game.
@RoomWithaMoose I think it's a game you have to play it to get it. It doesn't do anything new or unprecidented or break new ground, but it puts together a lot of well liked concepts from a lot of games, puts them together very competently, is dripping with atmosphere, and most importantly as an action combat game, just feels incredible to control. IMO I think that's the main thing that makes this game feel so much better than its "objective" critiques is that the feel of actually controlling the game is just addictive, and it's a subtle quality that is the most important quality in a video game most studios not called Nintendo tend to forget. I'm not like a super "OMG best game ever" fan of the game, and the "hard because hard" genre isn't really even my genre at all (not a big From or Team Ninja fan really), but I have to say the game is just addictive, and I find myself thinking about it and wanting to go on "just a little bit more" and I think it all comes down to the feel. It just FEELS good to play it. Like one car vs another, it's all about the handling.
IMO it handles better than Stellar Blade which is a decent game but super overrated, and the only thing that saves it from being "just a Nier Automata Clone with Souls mechanics" is the fact that it openly acknowledges it, leans into it, and actually teamed up for a crossover. Replace the hot jiggly girls in dressup clothes with brooding teenage emo dudes and that game would lose MOST of its following, even though it's a decent game by any measure.
Re: Random: Even Clive from Final Fantasy 16 Is Begging for Bloodborne at 60fps
Bloodborne has become a meme. I don't get this obsession with that game like you have no other Fromsoft games to play and that they all don't play pretty similarly. I know it's "more aggressive" but it's not really that different from all the others.
Re: Oct 2024 USA Sales: PS5, PS4 Account for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Sales in the US
It's funny. I remember in 2013 when all the PS fans were like "Eeew, who'd want Xbox, all it is is just Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty."
A decade later and 80% of CoD is PS.
@colonelkilgore I resemble that description! There's overlap specifically with XB though, because I think XB was from the start positioned as "a cheaper more convenient PC gaming platform" so it always kind of straddled this line between PC and "console", that was its purpose, and I think XB picked up a big market of lapsed PC gamers and would-be-PC gamers that liked the value and convenience, but were looking for a PC-ish experience. So I think there does end up being a lot of overlap where, now that XB has really tried to unify itself with PC it makes the jump a lot more appealing for users that were already half way there. Which they don't mind, that was the original purpose anyway. In fact MS kind of threw away their, at the time growing PC presence in gaming in order to force people into Xbox. They made a mess of PC gaming for a while, as they'd been buying studios and build their PC publishing presence and then suddenly closed it all down to force everything into console exclusivity. So their present is kind of just rewinding and undoing the damage they did back then. As an all PC gamer at the time I REALLY resented the Xbox for a long time lol.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows To Overhaul Series' Sedentary Stealth Mechanics
@nessisonett True though Thief is almost more of a stealth simulator than just a game with stealth mechanics. Dishonored, too.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Not Getting DLC, Part 3 the Full Focus
@MrMagic Yeah, the hype for Veilguard before and after release was indeed really weird proportionate to its actual popularity.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Not Getting DLC, Part 3 the Full Focus
"We've decided that since sales of this game sucked so hard, we can't make any money milking it with DLC and thus will focus on the third installment of a single games' story so the trilogy everyone is actually waiting for can get to market within the same decade"
Re: Opinion: The Game Awards' Persona 3 Reload Disrespect Is Crazy
Is there anyone that hasn't yet figured out that TGA is Pay 2 Win? Seriously?
@Cloud39472 All these years I've misunderstood all the talk about anything from From being really hard
Re: Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake's Brutal Difficulty Spikes Are Shocking New Players
Meanwhile, in SMT...........
Re: Roblox Introduces New Protections in Face of Growing Scrutiny
How dare the ill intended predate upon our underage clientele. We reserve that right exclusively!
Re: The Game Awards Under Heavy Criticism for Elden Ring DLC's Game of the Year Nomination
Why not just choose by popularity and sales? VBucks and Shark Cards can be GOTY every year forever and ever!
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Third Entry 'Won't Cheat' with the Airship
This sounds like an opportunity to implement a mini-game!
Re: PS5 Pro vs PS5: Full Tech Specs Comparison
@Raffles very very interesting results! Glad you followed up! Initially from the leaked specs and Cerny statementsI think all of us thought 4070. Then the printed specs looked 4060ish. But this reality is pretty meh for that price. Better than a $300 GPU, worse than a $500 all for $700.. yeah it's the whole machine but still... The CPU remains poor anyway. Not matching a 6800? Oof.
I suppose they have a market for it and that's a market that likes "better" but doesn't really care if it's that much better and its willing to pay high premium for convenience. IDK, consoles really have to rethink their specs and pricing going forward. This isn't going to be sustainable with hardware like that for pieces like this forever.
Re: The Game Awards Confirms DLC, Remasters Can Win Game of the Year Days Prior to Nominations Reveal
Let's just make fortnite goty for the next 20 years or so. Then we don't have to watch A the Doriton Pope at all anymore. 🤡
Re: In USA, the PS5 Pro Launched with Similar Sales to the PS4 Pro
@Ravix I don't see that problem. Does it play Indiana Jones? Sea of thieves? Doom? Sounds like it's an Xbox just like it says it is.
Re: In USA, the PS5 Pro Launched with Similar Sales to the PS4 Pro
I think that launch always goes to the same people basically. The people who reliably buy the new thing every time no matter what. Launch is probably predictable. The longer term will be interesting. Especially in this economy. Gaming, and PlayStation in particular is in a really weird market now.
Re: Awful PS3 Game Haze a Comparison for Black Ops 6 Fans Complaining About Ridiculous Character Skins
I paid money for Haze. I wouldn't pay money for this.
I had no idea cod was now just fortnite. I thought it was still a historical fiction American military series with Jerry Bruckheimer presentation. Not shark men shooting glowing aliens. No wonder it's a kids game. Desert Storm didn't make sense to my for modern kids but it really is just a cartoon apparently now?
Re: PS5's Stellar Blade Sweeps All Seven Categories at Korea Game Awards
I'm looking forward to the Singapore game awards. Rumor says Skull and Bones may make a clean sweep.
Re: You'll Never See This Potential TV Mass Effect Commander Shepard Pick Coming
@nessisonett BroShep is the only Shep, but only because of the comical delivery. FemShep makes ME feel like it's taking itself seriously. BroShep always feels like a total nerdball in space, which is half of the fun.
@themightyant nailed it though. Broshep is like a big puppydog with a gun with Meer's VA. Hale seems like the only viable renegade option because Meer sounds like Mr. Rogers saying he's going to mug you.
Re: Veteran Trophy Hunter Hakoom Quits PlayStation Over Alleged Account Suspension Storm
I'm sorry, who what did when, now?
Re: LEGO Horizon Adventures (PS5) - Dull Design Lets Down This Gorgeous Spin-Off
This game was always a bizarre thing for existing, and I'm not really sure why it does. Even Concord seems more original.
Re: Star Trek Actor Voices Sylens in LEGO Horizon Adventures
Awwww man, I'm conflicted. I hated the idea of continuing the Sylens character without Lance, because the Sylens character is Lance and it just feels completely wrong to have anyone else try to do it with how unique his voice was. But, yet, I love Tim Russ! I might be able to tolerate the change with him. But it's also going to gnaw at me because Lance was Lance and that voice can't be swapped.