Ralizah

This seems like the sort of game I'd pick up for $5 in a sale and quit playing after a few hours.

@LowDefAl Astro Bot also isn't some major Japanese IP or (like Metaphor) coming from a studio that's fairly popular in Japan. My understanding is the game didn't do great in Japan, but is succeeding overall.

Imagine that: PS5 games that actually appeal to gamers in the region tend to sell well. I expect Monster Hunter to blow up the charts and drive PS5 sales for a while as well in February.

Anyway, extremely happy with how well Metaphor is selling worldwide. It improves on the Persona formula in all the right ways (a cast that's diverse in age; a far more balanced combat system; tighter pacing; etc.) without sacrificing the elements that make the modern Persona games so enjoyable in the first place.

@UltimateOtaku91 I imagine there'll be a veritable flood of delayed eighth and ninth-gen ports once the successor drops and developers don't have to spend months wrestling with wildly underpowered hardware.

For the biggest games? Probably. Putting more and more money on the line is naturally going to make the money men a bit more conservative about trying new ideas.

There's still a ton of good stuff coming from indies, AA Japanese studios, and even some AAA developers, though. I really, really wish people would look deeper into the hobby and not decry the state of an entire entertainment medium because a few of the biggest players are being their usual gross selves. Restrict yourself to Western AAA and nothing else, though, and, yes, I'm sure things seem a little bleak atm.

Happy to see both Silent Hill 2 and Metaphor: ReFantazio selling well. Wild month for games on PS5/PC.

Insomniac's games have great art-styles and tend to be well-optimized for everything they release on, so you're not going to see really transformative differences compared to other releases.

I finally played Marvel's Spider-Man this year on PS4 and was blown away by how good it looks on a 4K set, even on ancient hardware.

It's surreal, but also incredibly exciting, to see a game like this fully embrace turn-based combat. Really hoping this one sells well.

It's an incredibly gross practice I refuse to support on principle.

That said, these days, there's less incentive than ever to buy a game at release. Waiting even a few months will almost always net you a cheaper and more complete version of the game than what people at launch experienced.

lol Screw that noise, I'll just play the PS1 Classics version I have on my Vita.

Metaphor is selling faster than any previous Atlus game to date, attracting a surprising amount of mainstream attention online, and Silent Hill 2 appears to be succeeding. Astro Bot sold reasonably well. Live service rubbish like Concord and Suicide Squad crashed and burned.

Despite everything going wrong with this industry, I remain hopeful.

Awesome. Was so cool to see Terrifier 3 topping the US box office this last weekend. Terrifier 2 was a top five slasher, and it clearly really helped to cultivate a following.

Wish the actual game itself was gorier, though, c'mon.

Eyes flash red

Just according to keikaku.

Man, the writers for this site really don't seem to like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, for some reason. It's (currently) PS5 exclusive and is one of the highest-rated games of the year at a 92. I get these lists are opinions, but certainly that should put it in a top ten GOTY shortlist for PS5, right?

Anyway, SMT V: Vengeance is probably my favorite release of the year so far, but Metaphor is quickly racing up behind it.

@Yagami tbh with Stellar Blade, Astro Bot, and FFVII Rebirth, 2024 has been a much more tempting year for me as a non-PS5 owner than previous ones. If their games stayed exclusive, it'd have already pushed me over the edge to buying one.

Thing is, those games are almost certainly going to PC anyway, so why not wait a bit?

There's just no reason to buy a Series console. Microsoft's games underwhelm. They're jacking up subscription prices and dropping acclaimed developers. And the system is an afterthought for numerous developers.

I agree they're largely ceding the home console space to Sony. More money to be made as a software publisher than competing with hardware. I think they'll keep a console option around, but I also think most of their games will go to rival platforms in the future.

@NEStalgia Soul Hackers 2 is the one you play when you've platinumed every other Atlus game on the system and are still desperate for more MegaTen. It has its place.

SMT V wasn't that bad on Switch. At least not in the bit you played, lol. Third area was a bit of a slideshow at times. And yes, the game feels wonderful on Steam Deck as well. Locked 60fps, pretty much. It can hold 90fps much of the time, but I can't really tell a difference from 60, tbh, so it's not worth the additional battery drain.

@NimrodNation20 In general, I feel like demos benefit good games overall.

If you end up loving this, there's a lot of Atlus goodness on PS5. Catherine: Full Body, Persona 5 Royal, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance are all fantastic as well.

Awesome. I feel like the demo + positive reviews really helped boost this close to launch.

Metaphor is a terrific game so far, despite some optimization issues. Studio Zero never misses. And, in this case, the combat is balanced in a way that makes it a lot more satisfying in many respects than Persona 5.

Junah looks like she was ripped straight out of a 70s shoujo manga.

God forbid a woman who regularly engages in high-intensity, full-body exercises be depicted as having a bit of muscle on her.

Anyway, this looks interesting. I really need to play the recent trilogy first, though.

I actually got my Wii U "refurbished" directly from Nintendo and never had a single issue with the thing ( aside from the giant software droughts ), so I'd be inclined to trust this.

I guess it is A way to get a cheaper PS5. $400 is a good price if everything's in good shape.

@Art_Vandelay Oh, I totally agree. I don't own a PS5, and it's because I know pretty much all of their games are going to the PC or PS4 I already own.

I'm a big proponent of manufacturers investing heavily in their own ecosystems to reward their playerbases and incentivize further buy-in. It's why I love Nintendo's steadfast refusal to port their games elsewhere. They understand and invest in bringing longer-term value to their brand and hardware. It strengthens them over time, and it's the primary reason Switch is the only must-own console today.

The best long-term play for Sony to continue thriving as a console manufacturer is to aggressively maintain exclusivity and prioritize software development in their ecosystem. Ideally, like Nintendo, they'd have negotiate with third-parties to develop games for unused first-party IPs, do crossovers with prominent third-parties (like Tokyo Mirage Sessions from Atlus or the various Nintendo-themed Warriors spinoffs, among many others), and develop games across a range of budgets to ensure a continual stream of first-party content that only goes to their hardware.

Unfortunately, the Playstation brand is no longer Japanese or operated like a Japanese console business. It's operated like an American one. And American corporate culture is very big on appeasing shareholders with ill-advised moves that increase profitability more immediately, while sacrificing trust and reputation in the long term.

Anyway, if Sony is gonna keep porting stuff to PC, I'm certainly not wasting money investing in them.

@NEStalgia "This game is definitely a lot more DDS/SMT/Devil Survivor-fan oriented in feel and tone"

I knew exactly who they were aiming for the moment an enemy blocked my elemental skill and it erased two of my turns.

In terms of how there's no demon system, but full press turn, it feels closest to DDS to me. Just with a LOT of Persona structuring and stylizing to it.

Atlus is on fire this year. I feel like I'm back in the PS2 era where they just regularly dropped absolute bangers throughout the generation.

Nah. I snagged a preorder of Metaphor: ReFantazio for cheap ($40). I'll be focusing on that and other games in my backlog for the time being.

Will definitely pick up SH2R when the game is patched and price has gone down a bit, though.

@colonelkilgore It's not really animosity. Sony is regarded with the same suspicion they have for most large publishers who mandate third-party accounts. Literally nobody would care if this stuff was optional.

I agree it wouldn't happen any time soon. Valve is deeply trusted and entrenched at this point, and if a competitor comes along puffing out its chest and trying to muscle away market share (lol EGS), it's going to be violently rejected. This is why even Ubisoft is now crawling back to Valve.

But, you know... things change wildly over time, politically, socially, and economically. I can't say for sure what the future holds, but I do know that a company doesn't get anywhere if it's not trusted by its audience.

Sony needs to lead with the carrot rather than the stick. The only way they'll make headway with PC gamers is if they incentivize integrating into a new ecosystem instead of forcing it.

There's a reason Valve is top dog in the PC space. It's not just because they were the first major digital storefront. It's also because of their long-term commitment to building up an ecosystem of services and hardware that are integrative and consumer-serving.

At this moment, Sony is mandating more on PC than they are in their own walled-garden ecosystem, considering you can play PS5 games physically without a PSN account. Not a great place to begin growing trust with a new audience. Especially one that is already wary of publishers demanding they create accounts, download launchers, etc.

My big hope is this succeeds and inspires Bloober to shift their horror game design philosophy. We have a few indies making survival horror experiences, but I'd love to see a more prominent Western team push the genre in the West.

Loved this. I stopped when I was only a couple trophies away from the platinum, though.

Haven't really enjoyed other games in this vein quite as much.

@colonelkilgore

"as we all know consoles won’t be a thing for ever."

I don't know that, actually. I know I've heard people repeat this line continuously over the years, but console gaming is, frankly, bigger than ever.

I'm sure Sony probably has contingency plans in place if things start going that way. For now, even long term if they wanted to eventually challenge Valve, their best play is to move slowly and build trust with PC gamers.

@colonelkilgore They're already simply a publisher on PC, so I doubt any kicking or screaming will be involved. They've been pretty good about fully supporting Steam's features. The only indication they might want something more is the PSN account integration requirement, but that could just be to boost their numbers and nothing more.

@colonelkilgore The issue is that there's no reason whatsoever to buy games on other services. Steam is the most convenient, pro-consumer service I've seen in the industry, and, frankly, Sony's games aren't big enough to incentivize buy-in on another platform. They'll just make less money overall if they try to fight Valve. EGS literally gives away games constantly and can't make a dent in that market.

One option is to remain on Steam, make PSN account integration optional, and launch a competing storefront where you can also buy their games that integrates more completely with their console ecosystem. So, trophy support and the like.

OK, look.

Persona 3 Reload. SMT V: Vengeance. Metaphor: ReFantazio. Unicorn Overlord. LAD: Infinite Wealth.

Sega is unquestionably the publisher of the year (fully counting Atlus as Sega, since they're a subsidiary).

@colonelkilgore Yeah, if Sony's intent longer-term is to set up a launcher and storefront on PC, it's not going to end well. If they want to keep tapping the PC audience, it really is just better if they drop games on Steam without third-party account requirements or, god forbid, try and mandate a third-party launcher like some companies.

PC is a huge market, but it's largely Valve's territory now, outside of services like itch.io and GOG that rarely directly compete with them. A huge chunk of the PC gaming audience just ignores games that aren't on Steam.

The issue is that Sony's games cost so much to develop now that they're not satisfied with merely the 1 - 10 million units they're selling on PS5, and PC ports are one of the less expensive ways of leveraging their IP to find new revenue streams. Probably the same reason they're licensing out all their properties now for TV/movie adaptations (and I'm sure the success of The Last of Us, Mario movie, etc. has accelerated that tremendously; the video game movie will be the superhero movie of the 2020s IMO).

The hard truth is nobody cares about Sackboy or Until Dawn outside of this console ecosystem.

I assume this is also another game that requires you to connect a Playstation account, which is also going to alienate a portion of their potential audience.

As others have pointed out, the novelty of this was playing through a bad, tropey horror movie plot via an interactive medium. Turning it into a movie removes its one redeeming property.

@GreatAuk Ohhh, kind of like the Clue movie and its different endings depending on which cut of the film you saw. That's a cute idea.

Medieval Persona, basically. Feels like a throwback to the older games when there was more of a focus on challenging gameplay and dark, compelling stories over social simulation. It's fantastic so far. Really looking forward to playing through this during the remainder of the year.

@Jayslow Japanese developers are why I stay a gamer.

It doesn't look awful. I'll pick up the version of the game that's $20 on Steam with all the updates if they make sure it's Verified for the Deck.

@Nydius Because the PS4 wasn't backwards compatible like the PS5 is, and a ton of PS4 owners never owned a PS3.

Same reason I'm cool with Switch ports of Wii U games.

I guess it's a good thing they have nothing left I'd want to support, lol.

@GamingFan4Lyf Davide Soliani already left Ubisoft. Pretty much the only worthwhile team left is the one that made the recent Prince of Persia.

Problem is a lot of these big Sony games are designed around the expectation that somebody is going to be flapping their lips constantly. It's why they constantly shift you over to forced walking.

The joys of being a game developer in the middle of a boring cyberpunk dystopia.

Par for the course for an American tech company in 2024, unfortunately.

I don't know the lore of Fortnite.

...there's a race of banana people with a monarch?

So if Yasuke and Naoe fight together, does hip hop music still play, or is that exclusive to Yasuke in single-player mode?

@nessisonett Yeah, right before you "die" and wake up in the diner. First five minutes or so of the game. It's an incredible build-up atmospherically. You're walking through that alley with lots of little things signposting that SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG. Then the siren starts blaring, the environment gradually darkens, industrial clangs become louder in the soundtrack, to almost deafening extent, and then, yeah, it becomes like Hell.

Silent Hill 1 is very raw in terms of its scare factor, which I've always appreciated about it.

@nessisonett What also works out in RE2's favor is that it amped up the creep factor in many respects and provided new scares that took into account the behind the shoulder camera.

Looking at this boss fight... in the original, it feels like you're trapped in the room with something barely seen and nightmarish. In the remake, it's like playing whack-a-mole, lol.

The Silent Hill games were really ahead of the curve in terms of their camera work. Nothing will ever stick in my brain quite as permanently as the nightmare sequence at the beginning of SH1, which felt like a literal descent into Hell, and the twisting, dynamic camera was a big part of that.

I think both games will be good (despite certain misgivings about SH2R). That said, Famitsu reviews tell one almost nothing.

It feels like even Microsoft is prioritizing PS5 over Xbox Series consoles these days.

I guess that's what happens when you train your playerbase to pay a monthly fee and not actually buy games.

Look how much creepier the lighting and tight camera angles in the PS2 original make that boss fight. So much more atmospheric.

Honestly just looks sort of goofy in the remake.

Sorry, but you're a bit of a dummy if you think delaying the game for a few months would be enough time for Ubisoft to fully replace a main character in a AAA video game. Are you kidding me?

@Paramahansa In fairness, I feel like mentioning Dustborn isn't really helping your point. The game literally turned cancelling people and getting triggered into in-game mechanics, lol.

Testing the waters.

Half expecting PS6 to blast you with McDonalds adverts on day one.

@nessisonett It's a really jarring shift away from the down to earth and accessible vibe of early Playstation. Heck, from early-mid PS4, even.

I desperately want a modern equivalent to the "we want people to work more hours to buy PS3" line that almost sank the brand back then, lol.

Although it wouldn't now without real competition in the same space.

@Major_Player If it's a well-known fact, you have a source for that assertion, right?

I feel like consoles should be available when they 'launch' if the companies are doing everything right. Especially mid-gen upgrades.

Why do we have to preorder everything we want months ahead of time just to get it on release?

@Major_Player Yep, clearly Nintendo needed to generate "artificial demand" for the console that's about the lap the PS2 in all-time sales in a fraction of the time, lol.

That conspiracy theory was stupid then, and it's still stupid now.