@HonestHick Halo Infinite was a cracking title and that didn't help. Fact I'd that as far as new games go the shooter genre has died. Nobody plays anything that isn't Call of Duty, Fortnite or CSGO
@nomither6 Clearly this is not true though. The Legend of Zelda is the biggest franchise in gaming and on a careful 5-year Dev cycle for mainline entries. We haven't seen a sequel to Mario Odyssey in 7 years because they're likely cooking up the next one for the Switch 2 launch.
How do we define AAA anyway? Technically superior? Games that last ages? Big open worlds? Regardless I would probably have listed Tetris Effect as the best AAA title of the last generation because of how bloody good it is. 10/10 from most places yet it's still just the Tetris.
I'm not trying to make out Nintendo as a better company that anyone else. I enjoy Playstation titles and only actually own an Xbox as my main console. But they had a plan for the Switch with regards to the ongoing release schedule and it worked.
Fact of the matter is this generation is weird. Sony are only beating Xbox because of the FIFA and Madden crown just wanting the next PS4 to play their annual games on, Microsoft have had way more exclusives out and aren't ahead in any way and Nintendo might actually topped the PS2 with a sequel to the WiiU.
Tomb Raider 1 is a chonky classic Tomb Raider 2 was too Hollywood Tomb Raider 3 was too hard The Last Revelation is the best game in the series Chronicles has some interesting ideas The less we say about Angel of Darkness the better.
@BrettAwesome I get why they wanted to move away from a Tenchu/Tsushima/Onimusha backdrop. Yasuke was a historic character whose story has never really been told before. Just like Adelain in liberation I think it a bold artistic choice rather than a box ticking exercise.
The price for a niche, enthusiast device that wasn't meant to sell in large numbers isn't that bad.
The issue is Sony thinking they can get away with it going forward. Thanks in no small part to Apple, we live in an age of 'reassuringly expensive' that has gaslighted people into thinking cheaper products must be inferior. Taken from a cold start with no prior affinity I'd question for example whether anybody really needs a phone better than a Pixel 8a (say).
If Sony convince the market that £700 should be the going rate for the Playstation 6 then we're in trouble.
Then again the Switch may well go on to becoming the best selling console of all time so what do I know.
Sony doesn’t need to see growth in old franchises; it needs to keep its audience happy. There is nothing wrong with only having 3-4 tent pole first party releases per year if you have cheaper, smaller titles to fill the void.
Would it really cost that much to remaster Uncharted? Motorstorm? Wipeout 2097? How about porting some dead PS3 games whilst we’re there? I could go for a rerelease of Calling All Cars or Rub A Dub.
At the time I really didn’t like it at all. They swapped anime for the cast of Hollyoaks and casting spells made your stats go down.
However time has been kind to VIII and it’s become my favourite game in the series! Triple Triad is a delight and you can really abuse the draw system by converting rare cards into powerful spells. The world is really fleshed out, with governments and politics. It’s less ‘videogamey’ than the nonsensical world of FFVII where a Totalitarian British Gas decided to make Captain America and as a result more believable.
The collegiate atmosphere is brilliant and yes, it has the best soundtrack in the series.
I’m amazed the games actually ‘stream’. Most of these titles are so small they would download in seconds and just live in your RAM until you turn off your device. This way there would be no lag or glitches with only the same data needing to sync back to the server.
"Sony needs a cash cow, because its single player games are costing too much and taking too long to make."
Its called smaller titles. Not every single player game needs to be Horizon or God of War. They funded the PS4 games through extensive remasters of old PSP and Vita titles and smaller games like PS All-Stars.
The PS5 has thus far been a letdown for those of us who loved Sony's quirky, smaller titles and its older franchises. WipEout HD proved that quality can be done on a budget and Omega sold 2.5m copies. Loads of PS3 games still languish: why not do a 4K remaster of Calling All Cars or Super Rub-a-Dub with loads of new levels? Remasters of Motorstorm?
They think too much in percentages. Consoles are far from dead, but as the mobile slice of the pie explodes in size it makes consoles look like they’re shrinking.
Does inflation really have an impact on game development? Wages go up of course as do the electricity bills. But it’s not like making a game uses some finite physical resource constricted by supply chains and shortages. Software and code is ‘infinite’.
Some people will say graphics cards are the fuel of game development, to which I would say only based on your platform of choice. Eric Barone didn’t use a cutting edge rig to build Stardew Valley.
That is to also say I paid £60 for Majora’s Mask in 2000 and £60 for Tears of the Kingdom in 2024
These are the same PS*’s that only seem to exist for some digital collectors mumbo jumbo, right? Or can you exchange them for currency like Nintendo Gold Points?
I think he means that there is a large number of entitled console gamers who think the industry revolves around them. Any game not catering to their tastes and whims is dismissed as ‘casual’. The majority of the games-playing public see it as a feature on another device, not a thing unto itself.
A better option would be to animate it. Get Studio Mir onboard to create the visuals and involve the original creators in writing the scripts. They could do a dual-timeline story fleshing out the world of Sobek and Faro alongside Aloy’s time. It would be a lot cheaper to make.
I really wanted to love Sekiro. The setting and story looked wonderful. But the only way I could even make it past the boss in the prologue was to just leg it.
These games don’t need an easy mode to cater for crap players like myself. They need some cheat codes so we can practice without dying! It wouldn’t hurt to put an invincibility cheat in there would it?
Ignoring the obvious difference in console sales for a second it’s kind of ironic seeing Sony turn to backwards compatibility to fill in a sparse release schedule after Microsoft did the same thing with the Xbox One!
I will not hear the name of Core Design forgotten in these parts. Outside Tomb Raider they made some great games, many of which are also deserving of a remaster.
An HD update of Herdy Gerdy or Project Eden would be great.
Section 50A of the UK Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
“It is not an infringement of copyright for a lawful user of a copy of a computer program to make any back up copy of it which it is necessary for him to have for the purposes of his lawful use.“
Sony’s EULA isn’t worth the bytes of the .txt file it’s typed on.
The law doesn’t just suddenly change because the software code is written to a server instead of a disc of some sort. If I have paid for software and have the receipts to prove it its mine to pass on as I see fit.
@SuntannedDuck2 Sony just about bodges their way through the PS4 era with lots of PSP ports and remasters in between the main course titles and they were all welcome. They also bankrolled titles like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
The PS5 has since seen studio closures and not half the investment in ‘palate cleanser’ titles. Yeah some indie games have worked out but none of these are first party and if you’re not going to release your own games then gamers may as well buy a PC.
The reason the PS5 is doing so well is because casual gamers (who are still a vital part of the market) just want something to play FIFA, CoD and GTAVI on.
The Switch has decimated all the other platforms because Nintendo are committed to a release schedule of one big title per month. This isn’t necessarily a first party title and it might be a niche title that only interests 5% of players at any one time. However it also shows that no audiences are getting left behind.
Fortnite only works because, much like Netflix it met players where they are.
If Sony wants its piece of the Live Service pie it needs to think of those titles as revenue drivers rather than console sellers and bring them to Xbox, PC, Mac, iPad and Switch (2).
@Mythologue The one area PlayStation always pays some attention to is family games. From launching with Sackboy’s Adventure to this, PS5 is a console you can play games alongside your kids on.
One hopes that they lean into the usual Lego games penchant for humour and expand the character roster with some PlayStation favourites. Imagine being able to ignore all the stealth and hunting mechanics and just tear up the machines as a Lego Kratos!
If this is the story of thing that makes videogames players angry then I think they need to go outside for a bit for a walk.
In an age when it should be mandatory for all publishers at a software level we still don’t have things like universal rebinding of buttons for accessibility purposes and not all game soundtracks are available for purchase or streaming. How about the complete lack of any real family centric gaming titles I can play with my kids?
There is a lot in gaming to get irate about but covering up some female body parts ain’t one of them.
Comments 337
Re: LEGO Horizon Adventures (PS5) - Dull Design Lets Down This Gorgeous Spin-Off
To add insult to injury Sony are also asking for £60 for a game that should probably be £30.
Re: Concord Cost Sony Over $200 Million, And Didn't Make a Single Cent
@HonestHick Halo Infinite was a cracking title and that didn't help. Fact I'd that as far as new games go the shooter genre has died. Nobody plays anything that isn't Call of Duty, Fortnite or CSGO
Re: Concord Cost Sony Over $200 Million, And Didn't Make a Single Cent
@nomither6 Clearly this is not true though. The Legend of Zelda is the biggest franchise in gaming and on a careful 5-year Dev cycle for mainline entries. We haven't seen a sequel to Mario Odyssey in 7 years because they're likely cooking up the next one for the Switch 2 launch.
How do we define AAA anyway? Technically superior? Games that last ages? Big open worlds? Regardless I would probably have listed Tetris Effect as the best AAA title of the last generation because of how bloody good it is. 10/10 from most places yet it's still just the Tetris.
I'm not trying to make out Nintendo as a better company that anyone else. I enjoy Playstation titles and only actually own an Xbox as my main console. But they had a plan for the Switch with regards to the ongoing release schedule and it worked.
Fact of the matter is this generation is weird. Sony are only beating Xbox because of the FIFA and Madden crown just wanting the next PS4 to play their annual games on, Microsoft have had way more exclusives out and aren't ahead in any way and Nintendo might actually topped the PS2 with a sequel to the WiiU.
Re: Concord Cost Sony Over $200 Million, And Didn't Make a Single Cent
@get2sammyb I think it's more than the money could have been better spent on a few 7/10 smaller exclusive titles to fatten out the release calendar.
Nintendo knows what it's doing with a fixed budget for games and a 3-year dev period.
Re: Love Classic Lara Croft? Play the Crap Tomb Raider Trilogy on PS5, PS4
This is a bit unfair.
Tomb Raider 1 is a chonky classic
Tomb Raider 2 was too Hollywood
Tomb Raider 3 was too hard
The Last Revelation is the best game in the series
Chronicles has some interesting ideas
The less we say about Angel of Darkness the better.
Re: Insider Report Adds Context to Assassin's Creed Shadows' Big Delay
@BrettAwesome I get why they wanted to move away from a Tenchu/Tsushima/Onimusha backdrop. Yasuke was a historic character whose story has never really been told before. Just like Adelain in liberation I think it a bold artistic choice rather than a box ticking exercise.
Re: Fans Appear to Be Coming Around to PS5 Pro
The price for a niche, enthusiast device that wasn't meant to sell in large numbers isn't that bad.
The issue is Sony thinking they can get away with it going forward. Thanks in no small part to Apple, we live in an age of 'reassuringly expensive' that has gaslighted people into thinking cheaper products must be inferior. Taken from a cold start with no prior affinity I'd question for example whether anybody really needs a phone better than a Pixel 8a (say).
If Sony convince the market that £700 should be the going rate for the Playstation 6 then we're in trouble.
Then again the Switch may well go on to becoming the best selling console of all time so what do I know.
Re: Reaction: Why There Are So Many Unnecessary PS5 Remasters for Games That Don't Need Them
Sony doesn’t need to see growth in old franchises; it needs to keep its audience happy. There is nothing wrong with only having 3-4 tent pole first party releases per year if you have cheaper, smaller titles to fill the void.
Would it really cost that much to remaster Uncharted? Motorstorm? Wipeout 2097? How about porting some dead PS3 games whilst we’re there? I could go for a rerelease of Calling All Cars or Rub A Dub.
Re: 25 Years Ago, Square Released the Best Final Fantasy Game
At the time I really didn’t like it at all. They swapped anime for the cast of Hollyoaks and casting spells made your stats go down.
However time has been kind to VIII and it’s become my favourite game in the series! Triple Triad is a delight and you can really abuse the draw system by converting rare cards into powerful spells. The world is really fleshed out, with governments and politics. It’s less ‘videogamey’ than the nonsensical world of FFVII where a Totalitarian British Gas decided to make Captain America and as a result more believable.
The collegiate atmosphere is brilliant and yes, it has the best soundtrack in the series.
Re: Antstream Arcade (PS5) - Instantly Add 1,300 Retro Releases to Your Console Collection
I’m amazed the games actually ‘stream’. Most of these titles are so small they would download in seconds and just live in your RAM until you turn off your device. This way there would be no lag or glitches with only the same data needing to sync back to the server.
Re: Sony Execs Seem to Think the Company Doesn't Have Enough Original IP
I love new IP. The industry cannot recycle ideas forever. But come on!
Make a new WipEout: sell 3m copies
Make a new Locoroco: sell 3m copies
Make a new Patapon: sell 1m copies
It’s not rocket science here. These are smaller niche IPs that sit well alongside the big budget titles. Make them!
Re: Reaction: PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself
"Sony needs a cash cow, because its single player games are costing too much and taking too long to make."
Its called smaller titles. Not every single player game needs to be Horizon or God of War. They funded the PS4 games through extensive remasters of old PSP and Vita titles and smaller games like PS All-Stars.
The PS5 has thus far been a letdown for those of us who loved Sony's quirky, smaller titles and its older franchises. WipEout HD proved that quality can be done on a budget and Omega sold 2.5m copies. Loads of PS3 games still languish: why not do a 4K remaster of Calling All Cars or Super Rub-a-Dub with loads of new levels? Remasters of Motorstorm?
Re: Failing Manufacturers Are Pushing the Narrative That Consoles Are Dying, Says Ex-Xbox Exec
They think too much in percentages. Consoles are far from dead, but as the mobile slice of the pie explodes in size it makes consoles look like they’re shrinking.
Re: Mini Review: TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2) - Some Steps Forward, Some Steps Back for Final Entry in Famed Franchise
@BecauseBecause 2 is loads better than 1; it’s just it still has a ‘duct taped together’ feeling.
Re: How Much Would You Pay for Your PS5 Games? Dev Says Industry Is Waiting for GTA 6 to Hike Prices
Does inflation really have an impact on game development? Wages go up of course as do the electricity bills. But it’s not like making a game uses some finite physical resource constricted by supply chains and shortages. Software and code is ‘infinite’.
Some people will say graphics cards are the fuel of game development, to which I would say only based on your platform of choice. Eric Barone didn’t use a cutting edge rig to build Stardew Valley.
That is to also say I paid £60 for Majora’s Mask in 2000 and £60 for Tears of the Kingdom in 2024
Re: Mini Review: TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2) - Some Steps Forward, Some Steps Back for Final Entry in Famed Franchise
Timesplitters 2 wasnt really much better than the original, stringing together a loose campaign to pad out its exhaustive multiplayer.
Future Perfect gave it an amusing story and some spit and polish on top of the still top-notch multiplayer. Easily the best in the series.
And yet none of the trilogy have a multiplayer as good as Perfect Dark. I always found that curious.
Re: Preview: PS5's Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Is a Fiercely Loyal Remake
There’s only one thing I need to know: did they bring back David Hayter?!
Re: Sony to Short-Change PS Stars Members with PS Plus Renewals Starting Next Year
These are the same PS*’s that only seem to exist for some digital collectors mumbo jumbo, right? Or can you exchange them for currency like Nintendo Gold Points?
Re: Embracer CEO Says PC, Console Segment the 'Bad Guy', Video Games a 'Volatile' Business
I think he means that there is a large number of entitled console gamers who think the industry revolves around them. Any game not catering to their tastes and whims is dismissed as ‘casual’. The majority of the games-playing public see it as a feature on another device, not a thing unto itself.
Re: Never Has a Game Looked So Good Yet So Jank as PS5's Neo Berlin 2087
I smell pre-rendered gameplay footage. Why is it randomly switching between first and third person?
Re: PS5's Lack of Tentpole Exclusives Isn't Hurting Engagement, Says Sony
Great. Now they’ll make even less.
Re: Bungie to Reveal the Future of Destiny and Its Next Multi-Year Journey Soon
They could start by just enabling all the old campaigns so you can play the whole Destiny 2 story from start to finish.
Re: Naughty Dog Allegedly Found Bungie's Feedback on Binned The Last of Us 2 Multiplayer Extremely Helpful
Why not just make a classic multiplayer title with death match, team death match and some sort of co-op mode?
Halo Infinite never worked as a live service title but my word it’s still a hell of a lot of fun just jumping into a game of Slayer or Firefight.
Re: Reaction: Sony's Billion Dollar Bungie Buyout Is Looking More and More Like a Blunder
A $Billion is a lot of money to stop Microsoft buying them to reboot Halo.
Re: Random: PS3 Last Seventh Generation Console Standing with Functional Storefront
“Did you ever think the sluggish PS Store on PS3 would remain online in 2024 BCE?“
I know Ken’s claims about the Cell were pretty wild but I never knew it could do time travel!
Re: 'PlayStation's Blessed with Marketing Budgets We're Not Able to Enjoy,' Xbox Bigwig Bemoans
What’s he moaning about? Microsoft had a ton of free marketing this very weekend!
Re: Netflix's Horizon Zero Dawn TV Show Reportedly on Ice
A better option would be to animate it. Get Studio Mir onboard to create the visuals and involve the original creators in writing the scripts. They could do a dual-timeline story fleshing out the world of Sobek and Faro alongside Aloy’s time. It would be a lot cheaper to make.
Re: Beloved PS2 Action Shooter Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Is Being Remastered on PS5, PS4
Beloved is a strong word. It was a comfortable 7/10 at the time but not really memorable.
Re: Poll: Can a Game's Brutal Difficulty Put You Off Playing It?
I really wanted to love Sekiro. The setting and story looked wonderful. But the only way I could even make it past the boss in the prologue was to just leg it.
These games don’t need an easy mode to cater for crap players like myself. They need some cheat codes so we can practice without dying! It wouldn’t hurt to put an invincibility cheat in there would it?
Re: Rumour: Sony's Still Working on PS3 Emulation for PS5
Ignoring the obvious difference in console sales for a second it’s kind of ironic seeing Sony turn to backwards compatibility to fill in a sparse release schedule after Microsoft did the same thing with the Xbox One!
Re: Square Enix's Forgotten PS1 Fighting Force Franchise Beats the Count on PS5, PS4
Woah
Woah
Woah.
I will not hear the name of Core Design forgotten in these parts. Outside Tomb Raider they made some great games, many of which are also deserving of a remaster.
An HD update of Herdy Gerdy or Project Eden would be great.
Re: Sony Skips Gamescom Presence for a Fifth Year in a Row
@Neverwild I’m just going by E3.
Re: Sony Skips Gamescom Presence for a Fifth Year in a Row
MIA from Gamescom or the industry at large?
Re: Many, Many More Major Xbox Games Are Being Plotted for PS5
How ironic that Microsoft is filling in Sony’s sparse release schedule!
Re: Random: What Happens to Your Digital PSN Library When You Die?
Section 50A of the UK Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
“It is not an infringement of copyright for a lawful user of a copy of a computer program to make any back up copy of it which it is necessary for him to have for the purposes of his lawful use.“
Sony’s EULA isn’t worth the bytes of the .txt file it’s typed on.
The law doesn’t just suddenly change because the software code is written to a server instead of a disc of some sort. If I have paid for software and have the receipts to prove it its mine to pass on as I see fit.
Re: Poll: What Was Your Favourite Game from State of Play?
@SuntannedDuck2 Sony just about bodges their way through the PS4 era with lots of PSP ports and remasters in between the main course titles and they were all welcome. They also bankrolled titles like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
The PS5 has since seen studio closures and not half the investment in ‘palate cleanser’ titles. Yeah some indie games have worked out but none of these are first party and if you’re not going to release your own games then gamers may as well buy a PC.
The reason the PS5 is doing so well is because casual gamers (who are still a vital part of the market) just want something to play FIFA, CoD and GTAVI on.
The Switch has decimated all the other platforms because Nintendo are committed to a release schedule of one big title per month. This isn’t necessarily a first party title and it might be a niche title that only interests 5% of players at any one time. However it also shows that no audiences are getting left behind.
Re: PC Players Are Fuming Until Dawn, God of War Ragnarok Appear to Require PSN Logins
Why don’t Sony add trophies to these titles that then feeds back into main PSN accounts?
Re: Reaction: PS5 Livestreams Are No Longer Speaking to the Fans Who Built the Brand
Fortnite only works because, much like Netflix it met players where they are.
If Sony wants its piece of the Live Service pie it needs to think of those titles as revenue drivers rather than console sellers and bring them to Xbox, PC, Mac, iPad and Switch (2).
Re: Poll: What Was Your Favourite Game from State of Play?
The audience hype for Astrobot together with Sony’s time given to Concord tells you everything wrong at PlayStation right now.
Re: A Lot of PS4 Owners Have Yet to Upgrade to PS5
My Problems with the PS5:
Re: Rumour: LEGO Horizon Adventures Is Reportedly Real, a 'Realistic' Horizon Game But with LEGO
@Mythologue The one area PlayStation always pays some attention to is family games. From launching with Sackboy’s Adventure to this, PS5 is a console you can play games alongside your kids on.
Re: Rumour: LEGO Horizon Adventures Is Reportedly Real, a 'Realistic' Horizon Game But with LEGO
One hopes that they lean into the usual Lego games penchant for humour and expand the character roster with some PlayStation favourites. Imagine being able to ignore all the stealth and hunting mechanics and just tear up the machines as a Lego Kratos!
Re: Rumour: LEGO Horizon Adventures Is Reportedly Real, a 'Realistic' Horizon Game But with LEGO
Honestly I’d like a Lego Sunwing to sit next to my Tallneck!
Re: Stellar Blade PS5 Fans Irate Over Alleged Censorship
If this is the story of thing that makes videogames players angry then I think they need to go outside for a bit for a walk.
In an age when it should be mandatory for all publishers at a software level we still don’t have things like universal rebinding of buttons for accessibility purposes and not all game soundtracks are available for purchase or streaming. How about the complete lack of any real family centric gaming titles I can play with my kids?
There is a lot in gaming to get irate about but covering up some female body parts ain’t one of them.
Re: Bungie to Undo Controversial 'Sunsetting' of Destiny 2 Weapons
Screw the weapons: let us play through the entire campaign from start to finish. There is no good reason they keep it all vaulted away.
Re: EA Japan Exec Criticises Rating Board for Apparrent Stellar Blade Special Treatment
Perhaps CERO is ran by teenagers? Dismemberment gets shut down but boobs get a free pass.
Re: Sony Reveals PlayStation Overlay for PC Ports, Supports Trophies, Friends List
Now do the same for mobile and release Locoroco on the iPhone!
Re: Apple Lifts Ban on Emulators, But the PS1 on iPhone Dream May Still Be Elusive
How the heck did ScummVM get on the App Store back in December then?
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
They will have found a buyer before the end of the year.
Paying anything more than £20 for a game that becomes useless the moment the servers are gone is a complete waste of money.
Re: Diablo 4 Season 4 Could Boast the Game's Biggest Improvements So Far
@MFTWrecks I never enjoyed this bit. I like being the lone hero against the evil with no back up. Making it online only just spoils the illusion.