RBMango

I'll watch it, but if the writing is similar to the game, I won't enjoy it.

I'm more annoyed that they chose Concord over every other PlayStation IP to get a dedicated episode. We could have gotten an animated Astro Bot short or anime Horizon bit, but no...

@get2sammyb Do you think it's fair to say this might be the biggest first-party financial flop in the company's history? There have been worse PlayStation games released than Concord, but for how much money they've sunk into it, I can't think of another PS game that has performed this abysmally. Even if PS5 had 20 times as many concurrent players as PC this weekend, that's still an awful turnout for a first-party title.

"These killing blows can be particularly savage and gory, with a very satisfying crunch when you slam a shovel off an enemy's head. It might feel a bit too over the top..."

This is the best thing I could have heard because this level of violence from Indiana Jones fits the character. I like that MachineGames isn't hiding how violent Indy can get. He directly murders many people in the original trilogy, and that brutality (especially in Raiders and Temple of Doom) is part of why I adore those movies.

I can't even imagine the morale at Firewalk right now. Even if there are ten times as many players on PS5, this is catastrophic for a live service with what I assume to be an 8 or 9 figure budget.

@AdamNovice I'm not sure if my reasoning will be compelling, but I'll try to give my perspective on these characters as succinctly as I can.

The reason I think these characters are hideous has to do with a combination of a really strange-looking color palette and costume design for a lot of them that isn't given any kind of pop or appealing visual cohesion by the semi-realistic graphics they decided to go with. I compare how they look in the game to those animated shorts Sony has been releasing. Because the animated shorts take these characters and put them in a much more personally appealing cel-shaded art direction, their colors aren't so muted and that focus on semi-realism is gone. It-Z goes from a creepy cat lady with oddly bland color tones to a much more visually interesting character with vibrant colors and a more cartoon-like face that fits the new art.

Monke taking over the world.

Shame Pakistan isn't on the list of supported countries. They have a cool underground gaming scene, especially for fighting games. I know it technically isn't part of the "Middle East", but still.

@WhiteRabbit Maybe you can climb on the plants you can "water".

I'm jealous because those Astro t-shirts are so much better than the ones we can buy from Sony's online store.

I can't wait for Kojima to show improvements to Sam's peeing mechanic. Maybe this time his piss will make a whole tree grow instead of just mushrooms.

Phil Spencer might as well have been wearing a clown wig and a red nose while sitting there and saying this.

Xbox is wishy-washy in many areas of its business, but it is very particular about corpo speak.

Also, I can't wait until Phil Spencer's cult of personality puts on their fake happy masks and proudly states that "console exclusives are bad for the industry" just to cope with Indiana Jones going to PS5.

This was the worst gaming presentation I've ever sat through. I felt like the games were scientifically chosen just to maximize my boredom.

I still have reservations about this, but this trailer and the 30 minutes of gameplay I saw from VGC today have sold me on SH2 Remake far more than anything Konami has shown over these past few years.

Kingdom Hearts IV 🤡

Ehhhhhhh I'll wait for a sale then.

September is insane for me. Astro Bot, Ace Attorney, Zelda, and now Plucky Squire. Wild.

@Jaz007 There have definitely been some much-appreciated buffs. I won't take that away from Arrowhead. But changing how fire works to be less effective and more "realistic" right before dropping a war bond centered around fire damage baffles me. Things like this make me wonder if the balance team even playtest their own game.

Ever since the first round of balance patches back in March, there seems to be an ever-growing divide between Arrowhead and fans like me as to what the design philosophy should be. And the leads at Arrowhead haven't done themselves any favors by publicly playing both sides of the argument, so it just makes their mission statements and balance explanations all the more confusing and inconsistent.

I also think the online noise has drowned out a lot of legitimate and fair criticism of the game and how Arrowhead have handled it since launch. Rather than go on that cesspool of a subreddit and blast the devs day in and day out, I'd love to chat with Pilestedt over a beer and express how much I love the game and why I have been disappointed with some of their design decisions.

If it's $40 or $50, I would be tempted to pick this up because the visual improvements impressed me in this trailer.

@Nepp67 True, but within 60 days other games are coming out that my circle of friends who played Helldivers II and I would rather play during our short bursts of free time.

I can sympathize with Arrowhead in that they were unprepared for the meteoric success the game got at launch, and that's created a case where they are not equipped to deal with a hardcore fanbase that wants a version of the game that clashes with Arrowhead's intended design philosophy. But, at the same time, Arrowhead has had six months to take in the lengthy and detailed feedback that's out there, and it seems they're incapable of balancing the game based on more than stats on a spreadsheet. I loved Helldivers II at launch, but the version I loved kind of doesn't exist anymore after all the updates. I wish there were a way for them to revert to the weapon balancing of the launch version because that's when the game was the most fun for me. This "give us 60 days to improve the game" thing doesn't impress me since this is an issue they stupidly stumbled into multiple times, and it's frustrating to watch. Unfortunately, my friend group and I will have moved on well before 60 days from now.

Ah well. Stuff like this is why I rarely bother with live services.

Those cosmetics they previewed are even more hideous than the character designs. I feel second-hand embarrassment for anyone willing to fork over money for those skins.

It's still the scariest thing I've ever played. I'll never forget the feeling of my blood running cold when I heard that voice on the radio demanding me to look behind me for the first time.

Their early 2020's live service push has been a frustrating and fascinating chapter in PlayStation's history. I'd pay good money for a book documenting all the juicy details of how this happened and what went wrong behind the scenes.

I'm really glad John Johanas is back. Guy's very talented.

The most frustrating part of this for me is that I thought they mostly nailed the difficulty balancing at launch. There were definitely some overpowered weapons, but that shouldn't have mattered with it being PvE and all. Arrowhead struck a really good balance between manageable and outright chaos on higher difficulties. It was FUN. But, ever since the first balance patch that nerfed a bunch of weapons I enjoyed and screwed up the enemy spawning, the game has slowly gotten less and less fun for me over time. The final straw for me was seeing Arrowhead nerf how fire damage works to be more "realistic" before dropping a battle pass centered around FIRE DAMAGE. Like, seriously?

@ear_wig Nice! Congrats!

@zenarcher GameStop forcing people to subscribe to Pro for this thing is typical GameStop bull***t scummery. No wonder they're bleeding to death.

@ear_wig It's on Amazon now too! Hurry and you might grab one.

This was an unmitigated disaster on the US side. I thought PS Direct was improving at handling traffic for highly sought-after pre-orders, but NOPE. And GameStop can burn in hell for allowing only Pro members to pre-order.

EDIT: I FINALLY managed to snag one from Target of all places.

Astro Bot crashed PS Direct. That's insane.

I think the panic acquisitions centered around building an in-house live service infrastructure in response to Xbox getting ABK turned out to be some of the worst mistakes during Jim Ryan's tenure, and Bungie is the biggest screw-up of them all.

Killer7 is a wild ride. I'd be happy to see it come back.

I really hope it's a new IP, but my gut is telling me this is Until Dawn 2.

Maybe if there were a PSV2-exclusive Team Asobi game, I would bite. Without one? No, I'm good. I'd rather put that $350 towards the PS5 Pro.

THERE IS A GOD AND HIS NAME IS ASTRO BOT

Just 40 more days, people. We're almost there. We will get through this wait together!

To be fair, these characters and Haymar were the only ones from the beta I consistently liked playing as. It-Z (Jesus Christ, that name...) in particular had those teleporting powers that were fun to screw around with. With much better writing and a unique art style, I could see these four working in a fun PvE co-op game.

They need to bring that incredible Astro Bot pinball to other countries. Maybe set it up along with the demo at various stores around the world. I would gladly drive out of my way to try that thing and the demo.

I wish the game itself had more of this cel-shaded art direction. It makes the characters look less bland.

I'm one of those people who doubts its authenticity, but I'm more than happy to be proven wrong. It does look really cool.

If Astro Bot doesn't get a limited edition controller but Concord does, there is no justice in the world.

No battle pass is a good thing, but they need to speed up the progression and give out better rewards when leveling up. The cosmetic rewards in the beta were total crap for the fourteen levels you got stuff for. I'm also curious how generous they'll be with the premium currency since we all know damn well it will have a rotating item shop at launch with skins. If it's anything like how Helldivers II does it, then cool. But if it makes the progress and getting actually good cosmetics a lot more annoying, I can see that becoming a problem too.

@Rich33 I played on performance mode and noticed the framerate hitches would consistently pop up when performing certain actions in the open world regardless of which chapter I was on. Also, the framerate would sometimes be inconsistent during the bigger story action scenes with more NPCs on-screen. Hope this helps!

I'm fully convinced of Concord's incoming failure as much as most people, but I don't think comparing it to Marvel Rivals is fair at all. I think a more interesting comparison is comparing Concord's beta performance with how Valve's unannounced hero shooter Deadlock did in closed testing over the same weekend. A game that hasn't even been publicly revealed yet had more players than Concord's open beta, which is crazy to me.

It really is a terrible collab. I resist the urge to flip off anyone I see driving this ugly monstrosity in my city.

@Czar_Khastik This update definitely comes across as a desperate move after Concord's successful beta. 🤡

@Atreus97 I agree with your take on this in theory, because addressing portfolio gaps and diversifying is smart. But, I would argue Sony already reaps the rewards from live services being a console manufacturer and digital store owner, and their attempted live service pivot was so ludicrously excessive that it has caused obvious splash damage to their studios, project management pipeline, and outlook to their hardcore audience. Outside of Helldivers II, their live service push has been an objective failure because their approach has not been smart nor calculated. The live services can't financially contribute towards the expensive single-player games if they keep bombing or getting canned.

Also, I don't even think delaying the full release and adding a PvE mode is the solution, because the writing and character designs suck. Do you guys really want a campaign mode with these ugly-ass characters constantly spewing quips and dull exposition? I certainly don't.

At this point, the best PlayStation can do is bite the bullet when it releases in August and then forget it exists once Astro Bot comes out. I'm sure most of the negative PR around Concord will dissipate if Astro Bot is the enormous win I think it will be for them.

As for Firewalk, if this beta period is any indication of their future, they'll be finished within a few years.