Old-Red

PS5 upgraded version on plus seems inevitable now.

I'm looking forward to trying this, but I don't trust fighting games anymore. I'm fully expecting VF5 to be jam-packed full of microtransactions and monetisation. A lot of ps+ games that sound too good to be true end up being glorified demos designed to get you spending.

Another pretty good month. 3 games I probably wouldn't have bought, but I'd like to check out. Got to hand it to Sony with their PS+ games since the launch of PS5, I don't think they get enough credit. If you had offered me what we've got with the 20 collection games at about £15 for 6 months over game pass at more than that each month I'd easily pick +. There's only so many games I can play a month and the smaller indie offerings have gone down nicely with the bigger games. Good stuff, I hope it lasts.

A digital future to look forward to! Honestly you could find most of these cheaper the day they released with a quick Google search. Baffling.

Seems to me that Sony has stuff ready to show but wait to see what everyone else does before deciding how much they want to put in the open or not. A lot will depend on what Microsoft and Bethesda show at E3. If they have a conference that creates a lot of buzz I expect to see Sony come back with some state of play showing a bunch of games. If not then why would they bother showing their hand if it's not needed?

They'll show Horizon Forbidden West this week and see how things go, that's what I think anyway.

I wonder if they'll admit to copying Nintendo's homework. If they can implement some kind of physics system and the ability to climb everything similarly to BotW it could be something special. It would take the series from a solid 8 into the 10s for me. People who don't see the difference between the two games and their systems simply weren't creative enough with what was on offer in BotW.

Got the Platinum this week, best game I've played since the original Dark Souls. The fact that we've received a game better than anything from last gen is pretty awesome. There aren't many games where I get all the trophies and still want to play it. I'm glad the scouts are back in as I got a taste of them in the patch they pulled and it basically offers optional mini bosses with great loot throughout the game.

That said, I still have to stand by my opinion that £70 is too much for not just this but any game. I managed to get it for £55 which I was more than happy with, but it seems Returnal hasn't sold very well and I primarily blame this on the ridiculous price point.

@InvaderJim I'm playing it on grounded with permadeath per chapter. It's good, makes the whole thing really tense again. Highly recommended of you want death to matter.

@MatthewJP it is pretty eye opening. I can't quite believe 30fps was that jarring on base PS4. I'm usually fine with games in 30 but switching between the two with this upgrade is quite telling. I suppose I could adjust after a few minutes if I had to.

Grounded mode it is then! Been waiting for this, it's been almost a year since getting the Platinum trophy too, so nice timing.

Also, it's good that they didn't try to charge for this. This is the kind of approach that makes me feel better about buying Sony games day 1 and goes a long way towards trusting that I won't get shafted as an early adopter of their games.

So, is this it then? They have given away some good games, but you would have thought they would want to finish on a high with at least one noticeable release. Maybe they should have saved Horizon Zero Dawn with a PS5 patch to go with these casino/drug dealer Trojan giveaways.

I signed up for the Demon's Souls and Returnal avatars, so I hope we get those for whatever requirement is needed. It's unfortunate that I just finished both Returnal and Resi 8, so those trophies won't count. I got the Platinum for Returnal too, I wonder if Plats are more valuable towards the count or not.

Crazy game prices aside, the PS5 has had some superb games in its first six months. If the games keep coming and what we've seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the console can do, we're set for a killer generation.

I just hope the numbers bump up sooner rather than later so the online retailers can start selling the games cheaper.

The reason Nintendo games hold their value is because their games generally age exceptionally well and have the best gameplay and gamefeel in the industry.

Sony have a long way to go to come close to matching what Nintendo put out consistently. They are improving however.

I still don't understand why so many gamers are so quick to adopt digital, it must be clear by now that if we go digital only they have no intention of passing the savings onto the customer even a little. You can already get all the PS5/4 exclusives for nearly £20 cheaper, while the digital versions are stuck at the ludicrous £69.99 or what they were 6 months ago.

Ooooh, I hope they release side plates in these colours.

Since being able to find the exclusive games for £55-58 I have been able to get stuff like Returnal day one and pre-order Ratchet and Clank which is nice. I've had to be patient, use coupons (Jeez, now I feel like Alan Partridge reading that back) and build up store credit, but it's possible to get them at a reasonable price.

Playing Returnal and Resident Evil Village this past week has been what getting the PS5 day one was all about for me. A great couple of weeks gaming that has felt truly next gen.

@djdizzy I think it's mainly that the game has only been out a week and most people don't want it to be spoilt. It's a hard game, so even those that have it probably haven't finished it yet.

I'd like to think the planet and what's happening is real to some extent as I'm not a huge fan of 'It was all just a dream!' or 'It was all in her mind!' narratives, but it's hard not go for the suggested story here.

I did wonder if there was an aspect of dementia to what's going on with the whole thing being fragments of Selene's memories mixed up with dreams, aspirations and self identity.

Meh... guns go pew pew real good. That's all that matters in the end.

What's an Ubisoft?

@Juanalf apparently it's cheaper to buy a new copy of the game with the shark card thing than buy the money in the game. That's one of the main reasons it keeps selling physical copies. I don't how true this is, but it would explain a lot.

If this is true, it's pretty irresponsible of Rockstar and TakeTwo to waste all those resources to keep selling copies when they could just make the shark cards cost in parity with the new game offer.

Such a mess. I haven't even bothered with the PS+ version because it's all so mixed up with different versions, varying quality and pricing (either free or £70 for a minor upgrade or £20 secondhand with free upgrade but no dlc... urgh). I've just decided to wait for it all to be totally complete and consider the inevitable super mega massive complete ultimate master's chocobo break wonder edition in 2029.

I always wondered why they don't try to do some kind of replication of a shop with shelves kind of thing.

You could have a vast panel of titles on screen that you can zoom in and check and move around like you would in a store.

It wouldn't solve all the issues, but it would make checking different titles more interesting in my opinion. It wouldn't have to be the front page, but it would be a nice browsing option.

However, the real inclusion I'd like to see, and this would be especially useful on the switch eshop, would be able to hide games I have already bought or I'm not interested in. It would be amazing if you could whittle away at titles you will never buy so the store becomes simpler and more streamlined over time.

I guess this makes the physical copies more valuable in a strange way.

Meanwhile, Sony internals waiting to review Xbox games ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... tumbleweed passes ... ... ... ...

I've heard some rumours that there are much lower print runs of physical games this gen. It seems that Sony aims to keep the prices high by not flooding the market with discs and controlling the digital market at the same time.

I've noticed that the Nioh collection has completely vanished from most stores outside of Amazon and eBay too. I think some physical copies of games might become hard to come by this gen.

I had 3 or 4 crashes on Demon's Souls (70 hours), 1 crash with Miles Morales (20 hours) and I've had 2 with Returnal (about 15 hours) since buying my PS5 at launch. Is that a lot? I'm wondering if I should get my PS5 looked at before the warranty expires now.

I've found that most consoles since the PS3 crash now and then in their lifetimes, but my consoles do get fairly heavy use.

This is the kind of game I like to play during the Xmas holidays, so I'll wait til then probably. As good as it looks the actually gameplay doesn't really promise anything original or even that exciting to be honest. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun if I'm in the mood for it though.

Finished it last week, decided to pick up a few more trophies and found that the fast travel locations trophy doesn't work since the last patch haha. Closed the game and deleted it there and then. Seems a fitting end to my time with the game.

To be fair, I did get 100 hours out of it and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my time with it. I'll probably go back to it on PS5 proper one day, but it's still a great shame the game was released and tarnished this way. Imagine spending 8 years of your life working on something to have it sh@t out like that.

I had my first worrying issue yesterday with my Dualsense controllers having no battery even though they were both fully charged and one of them was even plugged into the PS5 in rest mode.

It can't have been the controllers cause they were both at 0%. I can only think that the PS5 was draining them somehow in rest mode. I hope this is fixed with this update, to be honest I've barely used rest mode after all the scare stories and left it in rest overnight by accident this time.

I don't really care so long as it doesn't push the price up, but I don't really watch films much anymore so it would probably be wasted on me. I'd like to have access to crunchy roll though as I need to keep up to date with anime for work so that would be a bonus.

If this is true then they have to accept that some games will not sell as well as others and they need to consider that all their projects as a whole should support each other. Obviously, if a game is a real stinker then that's a different matter.

@thefourfoldroot UEFA has proposed a new version of the Champions League with 35 teams, but obviously this Super League has ruined that. Honestly, I think the 12 clubs going for the European Super League never really thought it would happen, I think they are trying to push for a higher share of the money from the new CL format.

It has spectacularly backfired though. There is going to be many large portions of humble pie guzzled up in the coming weeks.

@thefourfoldroot as it is, the top 4 teams in each league in Europe get into the European Champions League, which is worth a huge amount of money, based on merit. What these 12 teams have decided is that they will participate in their own version of a European competition midweek every year no matter how well or badly they perform the previous season, with only 5 teams being able to join them on merit. They basically want to fix it so they are guaranteed billions each season no matter what just because they say so.

No only that, they expect to stay in their own respective leagues whilst also taking away any incentive to compete for the other teams with no hope of aiming for European qualification. It's pretty rotten.

The most important thing here in my opinion is that we will still be able to update the games that need patches and download games we've paid money for.

There has to be some reassurance that we can trust them to provide access to our games and updates if they want us to invest in the digital future. I'm not sure I will ever be happy paying money for digital games, but the previous decision to close the store, with patches going AWOL, really killed any hope of me going digital outside of subs and free games.

I would love to see a bunch of classic ps 1,2 and 3 games. Stuff like parappa the rapper, kurushi, vib ribbon, metal gear solid 1,2 & 3, mgs4, resistance series. The sort of games I probably wouldn't pay money for again, but I'd like to have easy access to on my ps5.

I think I'm about halfway through this, but fell off a few years ago. Now I'm waiting for a 4k 60fps ps5 update. I really thought that would come with this, in time for the sequel.

All new PS exclusives will have one single platinum trophy called '£69.99'.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

The Olli Olli games are class!

@LordSteev that was kind of my point, but the truth is the game is too ambitious to run on last gen. They wanted the money and user base, but it's never going to run properly on PS4 and One X.

@ShogunRok it must be a bit of a headache trying to decide what to do with unfinished games and reviews these days, especially when there's such a demand for instant gratification and to stay relevant. I don't envy your position.

I think the hardline approach you took was the right one. It's either that or a 'Not fit for review' pending score which isn't very satisfying.

They should have just released the PC version then PS5 and X a year or so later in a proper state, dropping PS4 and One X. Alas, they chose to take the publicity hit and suck up the PS4 One X sales instead. The sales numbers show why they probably made the right decision in the short term.

@huntbearpig it depends if you plan to play it twice. I stopped playing in December after about 30 hours mainly messing about without doing the story stuff. Since last week I've gone back to play the story missions and it's been pretty good so far, but I plan to play it again one day with a different character with the PS5 update.

I've also played the game as a shotgun thug and just blasted my way through the game so I don't need to worry about stealth and ai nonsense. It's actually been a lot of fun this way. Hopefully the hacking and stealth stuff will be better with the next gen version.

The game is actually playable on PS5 now, dare I say it... good! I wonder if Pushsquare will revisit the review and score eventually.

I've put in quite a bit of time with the game these past two weeks and all I can say is it's almost a gaming tragedy it was released in the state it was.

The police and civilians are still a joke, but if you ignore them, a lot of the game is really good. I still think much of the base mechanics and systems are outdated, but there are some really great stories going on. Such a shame, but at least I'm finally enjoying it.

This is why you collect Nintendo and buy Playstation games on the cheap and move on. Sony's offerings have always been seen by me as throwaway experiences since PS2. This move has simple justified my approach to Sony products since they started releasing barely finished games that required patches to even be playable later on.

They really needed to confirm that game patches will be indefinitely accessible to change this attitude, instead it seems they've done the opposite. All this does is make their games even less valuable to me going forward.

If you can put a whale like me off paying for new releases you've done something seriously wrong. I just cannot see any way they don't reconsider the pricing outside the US.

I replayed it for the Platinum trophy last year in the run up to TLOU2 and it still holds up. I really don't see the point creatively, but it's easy money so I understand why they would want to make it.

I won't be buying any games new on PS5, so this poll doesn't really have any relevance to me. Switch games new, PS5 secondhand for me this gen. I'm sure I'd play it eventually once I can find it cheap secondhand.

Wow, OK. The game's not amazing or anything, but a 4 seems almost personal haha. Different strokes and all that I guess. I'm about halfway through and would say it's a solid 6 possible 7 if it gets better towards the end. Judging the comments though I'm clearly in the minority.

Strange, maybe I'm being more lenient cause I haven't played a game like this for a long time, so it feels fairly fresh in a way and it came with the sub.

Mind Pong 99

Bluepoint remade Demon's Souls from the same generation and did a great job, so why not I guess. It does feel like we're going round in circles a bit though, is it really that hard to find new creatives with some new ideas?

The generation is becoming a confusing mess for me. I want to support new ideas like Returnal this month, but then I refuse to pony up the new prices. Then we hear arguments about new ideas being too risky and not selling.

@Medic_Alert I wouldn't take my offhand speculation too seriously, but to not see how MS benefit from this game and its exclusivity on PS5 being brushed away with the Autumn rush of releases is a bit blinkered.

The game gets a lacklustre release on PS5 and forgotten about then MS get to roll out the red carpet for its gamepass release, with new content most likely, and boast about how much they love and appreciate games like Deathloop. Again, I'm commenting offhand with my first impression.