NoxAeturnus

The new Ape Escape game looks lit.

In all seriousness though...

"need to eat, drink, and sleep to stay alive"
Well that sounds realistic, but not very fun. If they've sacrificed fun of the game for realism, they deserve neither.

"the lack of map and objectives"
You either like this kind of game, or you really, really don't. A pure exploration game with no objectives needs lots of things to discover, both in terms of numbers and variety. It also benefits greatly from emergent gameplay mechanics. I'll need to see more than just tree traversal to be convinced this game is a good idea. I'm all for making my own fun, but right now it's an environment to walk around in, and not much else, lending it a feeling of blandness - and I'm not falling for another walking/photography simulator.

How the mighty have fallen. Or can't fall. Who's even keeping track of these bugs anymore?

Haytham is the best part of AC3. This one is not worth a revisit for me.

It seemed to me that PSVR was always testing the waters for Sony. Comparing to Vita is disingenuous. Vita was a culmination of everything they learned from PSP and meant to compete with Nintendo's hundred million selling DS handhelds - the expectations for Vita were much higher from the start. PSVR is a successful VR headset. When it launched, I certainly didn't expect them to support it as much as they did. Those sales figures are super impressive, especially considering the cost for entry. It's clear it's been enough of a success to warrant future investment, and I'll be interested to see where they take it from here. They can't relegate it to expensive peripheral forever if they really want to move in this direction, and they really should because they've got the jump on their major competitors, and they've got the gaming chops to make it great.

I will not be surprised if PS5 launches with two SKUs - a base model and a hobbyist model with a PSVR2 packed in.

Happiness is largely about expectations. It was a fine starting point. I expect if they plan to continue this throughout the year they'll likely ramp them up as we go.

Remember the knee-jerk reactions to Sony pulling out of E3?Without Sony E3 is a husk. Microsoft continues to move towards a streaming future and Nintendo will air a direct (which could quickly and easily be divorced from E3). Honestly, the first time Nintendo did a direct in place of their E3 press conference was the moment they sneakily pulled out of E3. They can pivot so much more quickly on that marketing avenue. Sony's wise to follow in their footsteps, and as a baseline, State of Play can only go up from here.

It's mummies. It's always mummies when it's under wraps.

DOS II is an awesome co-op game, but I can't find the time to play it. There are 0 trash fights, and I feel like I spend an hour in inventory management for every hour of play time. And since a fight takes an hour sometimes, progress feels abysmally slow. It's not that it's not fun, it's just that I keep feeling like I'm not getting anywhere unless I give it a solid 3-4 hour session, and I just can't seem to find those consistently enough to remember what I was doing the last time I sat down to play. I didn't play DOS 1, so I don't have an opinion on comparing the two.

"The loot in ANTHEM is shockingly bare-bones, a lot of it amounting to nothing but icons on a menu screen that, when equipped, make numbers increase."

This is how I feel about the loot in most games.

I'm still so ambivalent about it. I'm going to buy it, and play it, and I'll probably like it well enough, but it just sounds so similar to every other action game. More generic. I like those games, but there are plenty of them. Something about DS/BB has been lost in this one, and to me that's a shame.

@Bonbonetti Two things:

First, none of these reviews are saying this game is bad. They're saying it's mediocre. That's not the same thing. And being mediocre in this particular genre is not good enough when there are SO MANY similar experiences to compare it to. Hitman's score is not a fair comparison for that reason.

Second thing - Driveclub was TERRIBLE at launch. It's only a darling now because of how much it was fixed through patches and updates. Edit: to be fair that could happen to Anthem too, but first impressions are important.

@ShogunRok Thanks, it's only a minor quibble. I hope I didn't come off as too aggressive, attacking you or the article. In fact, thanks for bringing this game to my attention because I love Furi's art style. I'm more frustrated with Sony and their lack of solid local co-op than anything. But hey, that's a major reason I own a Switch, and indies have been filling the gap on that front for a while too. So it goes.

@ShogunRok Too soon, that's fine.

I just feel like it's disappointing to read about a cool multiplayer game (especially co-op)...only to find out later that the multiplayer is online only. Even reviews sometimes don't bother making a distinction, and it's kind of important for some people. It's also a reason why the "Best co-op games on PS4" article that resurfaces from time to time on Push Square is so disappointing to me personally. There's not enough local co-op on Playstation. My wife and I like to play games together, and we really can't afford nor have the space for two setups. Thank goodness for games like Divinity 2.

Online or local co-op? I really feel like the answer to this question should be standard in any article about multiplayer.

Edit: Even if the answer is just "We don't know yet."

FF is a victim of its own success.

SE - We're releasing DQ on Switch with extra content to help drive sales since it's a year late and many gamers with both a PS4 and Switch will have already played it.

PS4 fans (Who are enjoying arguably the greatest generation of all time - the largest number of console exclusives, an unbelievably strong game lineup, and a powerful online capable system): "They're spitting on me, a player who supported the original release at launch."

No. You got a game with over 100 hours of content when you bought it at launch, for just $60, and you didn't have to wait an additional year so that they could add a few sidequests and a soundtrack. I'd say they delivered for you.

Did Kingdom Come ever get better? It looked good, but it had some pretty big faults at launch and I was hoping they'd be patched out, but then I forgot to ever check.

@SirRealDeal Spot on. I totally missed the point. Sorry @Hapuc, well played.

Edit: To be fair, Sony DOES have more exclusives than the other platforms combined even without Dreams. So you can see my confusion, right? Like I said, they've been killing it.

@Hapuc Easily, but it's not really a fair comparison. Switch has been on the market half the time and has half the number of exclusives as PS4, which is pretty decent considering, but XBox is really dragging that combined number down, what do they have... a dozen maybe? No doubt though, Sony has absolutely killed it this generation. I can't believe how many great looking games are still waiting in the wings as we're starting to talk about PS5. Sony's position makes me both excited and nervous about PS5 - there's no reason to think they'll lose momentum...but they have made missteps when they've been on top in the past. We shall see...

What's weird is we associate uncleanliness and lack of hygeine with the Middle Ages...but man they loved their baths. Seriously. The Middle Ages was very into hygeine, maybe even to a fault. It was only really after the Black Death in the 14th century that people started believing that over-cleanliness was a cause of disease and things got a little bit... muckier. I mean, obviously this game is focused on a tough and dirty time in history, so it makes sense here, but it's still an oft used trope - the past was dirty, the present is clean.

It baffles me a bit that they're releasing this as a ps4 exclusive "game" instead of as a standalone game engine or game design platform. It's super impressive and looks like such a powerful tool.

@ellsworth004 Ha! Nailed it. Says the guy with the Hollow Knight avatar. Seems like everyone here is on point today.

@Agramonte I was wondering the same thing. Activision? More like Dormantvision.

@Knuckles-Fajita is spot on with his comment #25. This is what they've been working towards for a while. Activision was only a means to an end, and with the big investment from NetEase, they're able to step up their plans. They obviously needed the Destiny rights as well, because it's their only real money-maker until they can start launching and supporting multiple worlds - like they've been saying they want to do for years. It'll be interesting to see what they come out with next.

@JoeBlogs While I agree that From would risk pigeon-holing themselves as a developer by repeating the same formula over and over again, I disagree that Souls has become stale. We've seen, what, three good major Souls-like games/franchises? Medieval style, Lovecraft style, and Japan style (Nioh deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as From's works). The things that distinguish Souls have a lot of value to some players, and I don't think it's wrong for those players to want to have games that are fun for them.

My hope is that Sekiro is just an experiment. From Software has always created worlds with deep lore, but very little direct narrative. Deracine and Sekiro seem like they're experimenting with direct narrative. If they can marry that with the Souls formula's deep lore, we might see something truly special if they return to the Souls formula later.

@jdv95 There are a lot of great games out there. I like games that are not Souls. I like Souls. The souls formula has distinguished it from other action RPGs in a lot of ways that I find extremely rewarding and fun and that have (subjectively) made games like Nioh, Bloodborne, and Demons Souls some of my favorite games of all time. Sekiro will probably still be a great game. It's definitely going to attract a wider audience - so in that regard it's a good business decision. As I've said previously, I'll probably play it, and I'll probably enjoy it. However, each announcement makes it seem like it's going in a direction that won't scratch that Souls itch because it seems to be replacing mechanical systems that previously distinguished it with "new" mechanics that have been prevalent in a lot of other action RPGs for years. If that's not becoming more generic, I don't know what is, and if you can't see how that's disappointing for fans of the series, I can't help you.

As a huge fan of souls, the fact that this doesn't seem likely to scratch that itch is disappointing. It looks like a fun game, and it will probably find a bigger audience as a result, but there's something magic about souls that seems to be lacking in Sekiro. I guess I'll find out when I play it, but it's feeling more and more generic with each announcement.

This change makes me a bit hesitant. The progression system in souls is one of its defining features, and frankly this sounds a lot more generic and less interesting to me. There was a lot of power in the Let-It-Ride gamble, and a lot of tension in the rush to recover a dropped pot.

I'll be interested to see whether or not they've achieved that tension in other ways. I'll probably still play it, I might even enjoy it, but I'm suspecting more and more that it's not going to scratch the same itch as Bloodborne and Nioh.

Sorry, what was this article about? I was too busy salivating over that Ghost of Tsushima screenshot. That game can't get here soon enough.

I have no idea what to be excited for anymore. I'm just still reeling from the unending stream of awesome games in the last two years.

I bet they haven't even started development yet.

I gave Divinity, Detroit, and VC4 some love, but obviously GoW or RDR2 will win it with Spider-Man as a dark horse.

Wait, Pachter thinks it's a bad idea for Sony to skip E3? Guess that's just indisputable proof that they made the right decision then.

Why would E3 be relevant for Sony? Doesn't the trade show know they're on PS4, about to be PS5? E3 is like 1-2 PS's out of date.

@ShogunRok Yes. And he's on review duty for all of them.

With Nintendo also releasing mobile games with a heavy microtransaction focus, I'm curious if these two big console makers at least aren't just eager to get a slice of that money pie. Maybe this is also a clever and subtle way to reinforce the stigma of shallow cash-grab f2p mobile games that pale beside the deeper experiences on console. It serves a kind of dual purpose and they get no backlash for it, because this kind of game is expected on mobile. Or you know, it's just a happy accident.

Fair enough, whether or not they detract is wholly subjective and depends both on the game and the person playing it.

I'd like to point out that your visceral reaction was likely because you took part of my sentence and isolated it out of context (though not, I think with malicious intent), which is a classic strawman. I didn't say, "No one has any issues with DLC." What I said was: "No one has any issues with DLC...unless for some reason the game is incomplete without the DLC."

I too disagree with the generalization that no one has any issues with DLC, and I probably would have jumped on it just as you did. However, in my statement the second clause qualifies the first one in an important way. It's certainly still a generalization, though arguably I think it also implies "No one [reasonable] has..."

And that's far more than you likely wanted to read about what already happened. Have a fine day fellow gamer!

@themcnoisy I...what? What did I say? I said Obsidian's stance is great. I also said no game NEEDS microtransactions, and strongly implied that no game needs DLC either. My point was that whether its DLC or microtransactions, if the content is not necessary, there's nothing wrong with making it available for those that want it. If that content IS necessary, well then it's not cool to lock a game's fun behind a paywall...which I also said. If you think that's an unreasonable opinion, too bad. You're not going to convince me that microtransactions are always the-source-of-all-evil, because to say so IS overblown.

@themcnoisy Hey, I'm happy with Obsidian's stance, don't get me wrong. Games never NEED them. But I don't fault companies for wanting to make more money off their games. No one has any issues with DLC...unless for some reason the game is incomplete without the DLC. Same thing, different scale.

@ApostateMage I agree...unless they break the game to push the monetisation. Some games lock their fun behind a paywall, and I certainly won't buy those games. But I get what you're saying. The automatic hate when the word microtransactions comes up is largely overblown.

So remember that time Panic Button used some sort of evil witchcraft to get a couple Bethesda games on Switch? Are we now seeing the backlash from that use of dark magic?

Oh Badthesda, what will you think of next?

@Spectra "Back in my day..."

I heard it'll be a combination waffle maker and griddle, so that we can have deeply immersive crafting and cooking simulations in games (Sony PS5 food packs sold separately).

@ShogunRok I'm also still hopeful, but it'll probably never happen. Atlus did that fan survey a while back. One year ago? 2? I can't remember. It was after P5 released I think. Totally checked the box for P3 remake on that one. It needs it. It's still a great game, but it has not aged well even just comparing it to P4, let alone P5.

@ShogunRok Dreams? I thought for sure that would be on the list. Surprised no one mentioned in yet.

This is the kind of update I've most wanted to see. Time to dust off the 'ole space ship.

I don't like seeing FFVII and KH in the same sentence.

@Party_Cannon What's puzzling? I didn't say I was out yet. I said I'd be out if they double down on VR. I didn't engage in inane hyperbole, such as VR will cause this system to fail to sell. Those opinions always baffle me - like one person's personal disappointment determines the system's fate. Even if they go full VR, it could be very successful, but I personally wouldn't buy it. You don't bake expensive tech like VR into your system unless you expect it to be used. If it's an add-on, it's just a gimmick. I'm good with that. If it's not, well then I have to consider the value I'll get for the money - how many games will be available that don't use that tech? If VR is standard I'll certainly wait a year or two before buying the system to see what kind of games library emerges. Pretty simple. Look at Nintendo, especially Wii era Nintendo. Some people love motion controls, some people hate them. If you hate motion controls, you have to weigh how many games will be available for you to enjoy on the system against the costs of owning that system. It detracts from the value equation for that person. As you say, the rumors are probably crap anyway, so the argument is probably moot.

@FullbringIchigo I hope you're right, and it could be a load of bull. It's a rumor after all. But if they're truly doubling down on VR I will be a bit disappointed. I haven't met a VR rig yet that didn't make me feel sick. Sony's riding high right now though, so I wouldn't put it past them to make some sort of costly misstep.

@FullbringIchigo Never suggested the V in PSV was for VR. Vomit? Yes. I did suggest that. Obviously what it actually means is 5, which you so astutely pointed out. Thanks for that. Never would have guessed. No, my comment about VR was because the article said this: "According to the so-called “insider”, the new console's controller will include a camera for improved virtual reality tracking."

@AdamNovice Agreed. For now. However, if they bake VR into PS5 I expect there will be less for me to do overall unless it's totally optional. At which point it's just a gimmick, like the 3D of the 3DS.

@playstation1995 What? Of course I'm talking about VR. From the article: "According to the so-called “insider”, the new console's controller will include a camera for improved virtual reality tracking."

@Fight_Teza_Fight You don't bake in an expensive feature like VR, or a camera in your controller, unless you expect it to be used. It's a bit more tech than a light bar or a share button.

So, doubling down on VR then? If so I'm out. PSV. The V is for vomit due to motion sickness.