Octane

I've only played the demo so far. I didn't see any issues with her character's dialogue, I wasn't a fan of the bangles though. Gameplay was a bit rough and the world seemed quite bland. I'll get it when it's on sale.

@Ken_Kaniff Yeah, it's crazy considering they are about as big as Santa Monica, and way smaller than Naughty Dog. Wolverine will be their fourth PS5 game.

@NEStalgia If you also get a PS+ sub, that's a bunch of good PS4 games you may not have played. The monthly ''free'' stuff, and of course the more expensive tiers have more available games to play. And of course digital sales. The game sales don't reflect games sold in bundles either. You can get a ton of games before ever thinking about buying your first physical copy.

On Nintendo... fewer digital sales, less storage space. Maybe people are more inclined to go physical over there?

@TooBarFoo Wireless is more expensive because it needs a battery. That also means that the headset will be substantially heavier, you have to worry about keeping it charged so that you can play it at any time (the Pico 4 has a max battery life of 3 hours, with demanding games this will be even lower). And the battery degrades over time. So wired is definitely the way to go IMO.

And I personally don't like the idea of a Li-ion battery strapped to me head either.

Also, the Pico 4 doesn't have the haptics PSVR 2 does. It only goes up to 90 Hz instead of 120, and doesn't even have OLED HDR. It's definitely not the "better" option.

@TooBarFoo How?

@DukeeDukems A wireless headset requires a battery that degrades over time. It also makes the headset a lot heavier and less comfortable to wear. And you need to keep it charged at all times if you want to pick it up and play at any given time. The addition of a battery also makes it more expensive.

I rather have single wire.

LMAO, make better games then.

@Ambassador_Kong I wasn't too bothered by this episode, but I agree that leaving some stuff up to the viewer's imagination would've been good. Like if they left out that part where Bill said he put the pills in the bottle, it may have hit harder when Joel and Ellie read the letter. I don't know. But it felt like they had to spell everything out. I think one or the other would've been enough.

And yeah, Bella's acting wasn't as good as the first episode IMO. Hopefully it improves.

The most glaring thing still is the grey beards IMO. The characters don't look old, they look like middle aged people with dyed beards

@Constable_What Bill was definitely mentioned in Part II. It was very early on, but Ellie mentioned him and talked about his trap-ridden town during their first day in Seattle. Maybe it was optional dialogue, I don't know.

It was a good episode, but a big departure from the game. Would've loved to see Bill and Ellie interact on screen. And the Bloater, I was mentally prepared for that one. But seeing how we've barely seen any clickers, I kinda should've expected that.

The car and the garage were the same as the one in game though, that was a cool touch.

@tallythwack You've never seen Game of Thrones I presume?

I couldn't care less about the characters in Horizon tbf, so I doubt this game will change that. All I care about is that the gameplay is good.

@nessisonett I don't know if they do any make up to make her look younger in the show, but she's already the age Ellie is in Part II. The only ''issue'' is that she may not appear to have aged a lot in 5 years. I think that's where her acting skills will show if she can pull that off.

Such a shame, because I can sort of see the potential. I was intrigued, but the demo played like a mess, and the reviews confirm it.

@Constable_What Same here. I prefer HZD over FW, but even then I think HZD was pushing it towards the end. These games are humongous. So was The Witcher I guess, but that one kept me interested for the whole ride and all its DLC.

@mariomaster96 LMAO exactly, but they're more regular controllers than anything else.

Bummer to read that you're locked to on-rails during combat, just let me walk around. Just make the machines a little slower to make up for the fact that you won't be rolling around like a crazy video game character.

@ROTTIEMAN16 Oh thanks! Good to know, just give me stick controls!

@Stevemalkpus I got it like within a week of requesting it. You should try and order it again, or send customer support an email!

I don't hate the concept, the game just looks awful.

@AdamNovice Yeah, but 10 in the next three years? Over half are bound to fail. Who has that much time to play all these live service games?

Sony only gets like 3 or 4 major releases every year, so if 3 of them are going to be live service for the coming years that would be a disappointment.

The question is also whether this is a replacement for the digital edition, the disc edition or both. If it replaces the digital edition and offers a way to add a disc drive, I don't see any issues. But I prefer the disc edition anyway, and in that case I'd like it to have built in rather than another separate device.

@NEStalgia That's some wicked dystopian horror right here. You get kidnapped, wake up with an explosive-rigged headset strapped to your face, with the Dark Souls title screen in front of your eyes. Only then you discover you're not holding a controller, but you're standing on a Dance Pad.

@KaijuKaiser For what it's worth, I never had any issues with the first PSVR. I usually takes brakes after 60 minutes of playing anyway (even during regular gaming), so I haven't had the headset on for more than that.

I don't get car sick or seasick, so I don't know if it's different for people who do.

@RBMango It's mostly going to be a third-person action game, mainly focused on hunting monsters, dragons and other fantasy creatures. But instead of a large sprawling open world, they have this miniature top-down map you use to travel between locations. I'm not certain if that was always part of the plan, as it came to me by surprise in the PS5 showcase trailer, but it could be a good compromise between wanting to create a large scale world and handcrafting each location. It reminds me a lot of old school JRPGs actually.

The original Kickstarter went live 8 years ago, with a promised release date of 2015 (on Wii U even). So I'm used to the waiting. I want it to be good, rather than rushed. Another year or two isn't going to hurt.

They are a small team, and updates are sporadic, but that was always the case. At least they have a stable funding through Sony now, so I don't worry too much.

@theGoodChap But the thing is that it's entirely a fan-made term. Publishers never use the word ''second party''. If a project is funded by Sony they consider it first party software (even if developed by an external studio). If and external studio publishes something on Sony hardware it is third party software (by a third party developer).

@PegasusActual93 And just a FYI, I looked up the budget for the Star Wars series, and they were around $15 million per episode, or around $100 million per season. Horizon Forbidden West had a budget of $110 million reportedly. So the costs a CGI-heavy TV series and a big budget video game are about the same.

If Sony (and Netflix) are willing to invest in their franchise, budget shouldn't be a problem. Especially since they also invested $120 million in the Uncharted film.

@PegasusActual93 ''Star Wars films are two and a half hour movies''

Mandalorian (2 seasons), Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and the upcoming Ahsoka and Mandalorion S3 are all CGI-heavy SW live-action series, spanning anywhere from 6 to 12 episodes, rangingen between 30 minutes to an hour. Andor had 12 episodes that were around 45-50 minutes each.

And you'd be surprised how much green screen GOT had, along with post-production CGI for background elements.

And yes, I know the costs of CGI. A friend of mine is a CGI artist, and has worked on a variety of films and series. Mostly non-fiction stuff too. The amount of background elements that are edited, removed or added, even in a mundane living room or office environment is quite baffling. There's so much CGI in visual media we don't even see, because we don't even expect it there to be in the first place.

Netflix won't give it the budget it needs, but it's definitely possible. Especially if they focus on the human-human interactions and have the machines limited to one or two encounters per episode.

@tameshiyaku As a fan of the franchise, I'd agree. But I think people not familiar with TLOU would be disappointed to find out that instead of moving the story forwards, S3 is a retelling of S2 from a different perspective. Especially after 1 or 2 years of waiting for S3. People already don't like Abby (for all kinds of stupid reasons), so I don't think that will do the character any favours unfortunately.

@GreatAuk @tameshiyaku Part II is about twice as long in terms of playtime. But that kinda makes sense, because you do play the game twice in a way.

Makes me wonder if S2 will be focused on Ellie, and S3 on Abby? Or will they just alternate between the characters, with half the episode spent on each? Doing it like it was in the game would definitely be more confusing for the viewers who have to wait another year to get the other perspective, so they will probably just do them side by side.

@PegasusActual93 All the Star Wars series and GOT/HOTD have a ton of CGI and that works fine for the budget they have. It's not a small budget, but it's not impossible. Netflix won't do it justice, but HBO's output is mostly quite decent. Just think of Westworld, that was mostly CGI too.

I reckon Guerilla already has way higher resolution models of the machines we see in game.

@PegasusActual93 Not that I care about a Horizon adaptation, but why would it be impossible?

@GuttyYZ Haven't you played the secret DLC chapter?

@theGoodChap ''second party'' doesn't exist. It's either first (internal) or third (external). Long story, but the ''second party'' in this terminology refers to the buyer, i.e. the customer, but's it's rarely used that way.

@NEStalgia I agree. Killzone Shadowfall is definitely one of the typical average launch games. Cool when it came out, because of the shiny new graphics, but doesn't hold up in hindsight. Mediocre to average at best. Though maybe with two (or three) Horizon games under the belt, they can innovate the franchise somehow. It wouldn't surprise me if Sony panicked a little when they realised they didn't have their own shooter franchise anymore, and with COD going to Microsoft, it makes all the more sense to double down on an FPS. In that case, it's probably easier to restore Killzone's reputation, than to launch a new IP with zero brand awareness among the general public.

There's a reason why most games are either first person or third person. So I don't think many third person games will have a first person camera just for VR. But yeah, first person and VR just make too much sense. Astro Bot Rescue Mission was third person on PSVR and that plays really well, I wouldn't want that game to be first person though. Though technically it is a first person game, because you are a Mario 64 Lakitu-esque robot that follows Astro Bot. There are a few levels with reflective surfaces where you can see ''yourself''. Pretty neat.

@dschons LMAO, imagine that, faking the video, but learning the precise steps and inputs to match the events on screen so that they perfectly match throughout hours and hours of livestreams.

If you're that good, it's easier to do it for real.

10. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Who would've taught a 3-year-old re-release of a 10-year-old Wii U game, the fourth uninspiring sequel in its series, originally released in a year that already saw the release of another NSMB game, would make it in the top 10 of 2023?

Put Mario (or Pokemon) on the box cover and it sells millions, regardless of what it is.

@NEStalgia Guerilla is supposedly working on something Killzone related. If true, that game will definitely be first person.

And Horizon! ...on PSVR2.

Good.

Looking forward to the reveal of Factions though. They've been working on it for so long that it's bound to be more than a simple TLOU2 multiplayer mode. Will it have a story campaign? I also really enjoyed the TLOU2 gameplay loop, so I definitely would like to see how that plays out in a mp setting.

GT7 is one of the few I skipped at launch, but I'd rather play it for a bit with the VR headset so I'm fine with that.

Afeela this is bound to flop.

2am, I'm up for that challenge.

@IOI I don't like it either, but it's a weird unwritten rule that one has to cram as many synonyms for people/locations/companies as possible into a single article.

@Nexozi They're not saying there will be more cutscenes in their next game. They're just talking about collaborating with other writers. Nothing suggests it's going to be a TV show, or episodic release.

@Nexozi I bet 90-95% of the game is pure gameplay. The cutscenes are around 1.5 hours, and the game took me around 30-35 hours to beat.

@Nexozi Why?

@nessisonett IMO, every open world game is better when its trimmed down to a more linear experience. I'd love a Horizon game that's more like a TLOU or GOW in nature.

@nessisonett Belgium 2019, 40°C for two days straight at a festival. I've never looked forward to sunset more than I did back then.

@Constable_What I put the game on easy for all the end game stuff, but even on easy I got killed during that 3v1 fight. I went for the twins first, since you only need to defeat one to beat both. Then the other one was easy. I think focusing on the right one first helped a lot. Don't go for the big one first.