RazielReaper

Altering between Killzone Shadow Fall and Tales of Berseria. I finally reached 400 challenges on the former and working my steady way on gaining 1 million points, so it will be the one I might pursue more.

Personally I also get burned out by how formulaic the narratives are. You play some increasingly bland plank fighting off a hugely charismatic villain who is the real star of the show, mainly overthrowing their tyrannical reign.
Like yeh, I get that nowadays one of Far Cry's defining characteristics is some marketable villain and ending a regime of cruelty and insanity but ngl I'm getting tired of it.

@playstation1995 Spiders has already been acquired last year by another publisher, Nicon, IIRC. Kojima would be a nice addition, though.

@Scollurio Likewise. Part of why I took the time to break down the sales news was because I was so sick of those back-and-forth hostile debates about the game. Honestly all this negativity in general has been tiring. I want to talk about the game, about its highs and faults, but most of the time it's either people refusing to acknowledge issues within the game, or people refusing to notice its good parts. And this game in particular has been so tiring from the moment the leaks dropped. Hell, even before that. Some justified reasons, others... not so much.
Also I have to admit that as much as I love TLOU2, I too personally would have preferred TLOU to be a thematic series with TLOU2 following a new set of characters. TLOU is a masterclass of world-building, there is so, SO much left to do with it. The fact that the series has only been set in the States with a passing mention to Canada/Mexico only reinforces the setting's potential.
Also I definitely agree with your final point. The media just feels so controlled, carefully calculated and disregarding, and influential voices within it encourage extreme viewpoints.
And again, likewise! It's refreshing to just talk about stuff and discuss it.

@Scollurio Well, for what it's worth, I agree with you on some of it. ND's reputation as one of the worst crunching studios in Santa Monica should never be overlooked, no matter how much one loves their games and especially their. And as much as I personally adore TLOU2, you can definitely see the scars of a stressful, disjoint production on it.

While it's not completely unwarranted imo, I also agree that the Sony-ND went with the copyrighting was a 'little' overboard, though at the same time I can't really blame them that much given how offensively negative the reactions to the leaks were. And I don't mean the legitimate concerns and discussion about the nature of the direction, but more about the bigoted comments and videos that frankly, were disgusting. Neil can be a massive, pretentious a-hole, but I can't really blame him or his team about trying to stop the leaks especially in light of some of the toxic comments. The handling was poor and included wrong targets, but seeing your work getting mangled like that long before its release and already in the final stages of development is definitely demoralizing. Still no excuse for crunch periods, and never will be.

As for the misleading trailers... Mmmmm, I find there is less justification for the Q4 2019 trailer, though I personally don't mind it too much. Given that some leaks already began back then, I wonder if it was an early attempt to throw off suspicion. I understand people feeling off about that ordeal, but I have to admit it didn't bother me a whole lot.
As for the story trailer, well, I understand this one too. It was meant to throw the leaks into a state of confusion. Though at the same time it doesn't really hurt my enjoyment or appreciation of the game, but that's just me; I don't find it too bothersome due to the circumstances surrounding the game and because, ultimately I don't feel particularly misled by the final product. Thankfully it's also far from the worst misleading trailer that I've seen, so there is that I guess.

Finally, yeh, I don't really want a Part III. It's unnecessary for what I consider a complete saga, though some spin-off that ramps up the horror factor would be nice imo. The Infected are a glorious monster faction, and having a more horror-focused game about them would be fun.

Commercially I think the game will do fine. Maybe not as successful as it was expected, but good enough.

Regarding the sales drop of 80% that I've been seeing, afaik it's not that uncommon, and drops of varying sizes happened to many of Sony's titles this gen. Spidey had a 40-41% drop, yet it stands at 15 million copies rn, God of War had a 60% drop, and it's over 10m now. Days Gone was a notable downplayed example, with a drop below 40%, and while official numbers have never been shared, it's estimated to have sold about 5-6 million copies, if not more.

Most tellingly, Uncharted 4 sold over 2.7m copies in its launch week, and witnessed a nearly as big drop of 78%, yet by December it reached over 8.7m copies - eclipsing Uncharted 3's lifetime sales. Not to mention it ranks among Sony's best selling games alongside the og TLOU, at around 16-20 million copies.

So, while the 80% drop of TLOU2 could be a sign that it got hit, it should be also remembered that most people who wanted to get the game already got it, which is about 4m in physical copies iirc. So I dunno, I would wait a few more months before I'd declare it to be the game's commercial downfall.

Well, my opinions are generally positive. I liked the direction the story took, I liked Abby's character and story arc, I liked its technical advancements in terms of detail and visual fluidity, I loved how flexible the gameplay and world design were.

But the one moment that stands out for me was the hotel/hospital level. If Naughty Dog will ever make another horror game, that's a good example of how effective an atmosphere they can make.

Also that Rat King was freaking awesome, design-wise. Wish we got more Infected breeds besides this one and the Shambler.

Got TLOU2 Special Edition two days ago and been putting hours into it ever since. A very interesting game, I'll give it that.

Man it's so surreal to me that we are finally getting Ghost of Tsushima, and not too long after TLOU2 too!

Can't wait to see Santa Monica's tribute; theirs are always my favorite.

@Jslade Pretty alright overall. It's obviously p small nowadays, but it's not hard to find deathmatches, usually there are about 2-4 active ones at any given time.

Still munching on Killzone Shadow Fall's multiplayer. Hopefully by the time my TLOU2 copy arrives I will finish some of the challenges I need to get the 400 challenges trophy and the Assault ability trophy. Doubt I'll reach the 1 million points this weekend tho, lol.

I'm glad that my Sackpeople returned

Horizon Shadow Dawn
Horizon New Dawn
Horizon Eclipsed Dawn
Horizon Down Dawn
Horizon Bright Dawn
Horizon Frozen Dawn
Horizon Dawn-ish Dawn
Horizon Red Dawn
Horizon Glorious Dawn
Horizon Wild Dawn
Super Horizon Odyssey

Huh, shorter than I was expecting. I kinda wished for a launch trailer in the spirit of the original game's, which was a p great launch trailer.

@KahnArtizt07 Same here. This is the first time in a long, long while that I've been so excited to get a game, and boy oh boy, I know I'm gonna be very depressed as I power through it... Fun, fun, fun!

Interested to see their big project.

Chew chew, all aboard, last call before the train to the state of crippling depression and crying your eyes out (both out of joy and despair) at what ND cooked for all of us.

Oh, The Last of Us, I can't wait!

This is beautiful.

Well, after powering through The Last of Us Remastered for the first time (and also the first time I played the game in either of its releases since 2015), I think I'll invest in its multiplayer for a while and try to hunt a few trophies head-on so I will be able to Platinum it a while later.

Other than that, I should prolly resume cleaning up Yakuza 4 and finishing Yakuza 5, which I placed on hold to play Killzone Shadow Fall again.

Man now I was reminded of Guerrilla/SCE Cambridge and I'm sad that such a developer studio is no longer active.

@JJ2 @redd214 Ditto here. Too early to dismiss this game imo, perhaps it can still surprise.

PS5 is so fast you install a game and it already rolls the credits.

I love the animation of the guy slowly crawling backwards in fear as the Freakers rush into the area. It's those little details that really help immersing myself in games.

Hopefully Days Gone will get more and more appreciated as time goes on.

Honestly it's a tough pick for me between their 2015 E3 and their 2016 E3.

I prefer this one over the actual boxart, by far.

@Rob_230 Considering the potential updates, you might need three PS4s to support it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War: Cold War Warfare - World at War Edition: Black Ops IIIII

@JJ2 I saw, and I think it's not the first a company moves or changes stuff to spite a leaker. Given his current record, I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt and see if that Mel Gibson tease that should come up before the event is true.

@JJ2 Yea that's fair dude, I personally find him to be friendly and approachable but I can see how others might consider him abrasive and rude. Maybe I'll see more of this behavior in the future.
Also in regards to the PS5 demo, IIRC it was said that Epic/Sony/SGF (not sure which one) sent videos/copies of the demo to several publications including his, so I assume he watched it before most other people.
One thing for sure, I do hope what he said is true and we will get "an entire slate" of games in a couple weeks. I usually try to avoid getting excited but that does tingles my anticipation, especially with so many rumors nowadays.

Yakuza 3 free roam and Killzone Shadow Fall multiplayer.

@JJ2 While I don't necessarily agree with some of the things he said, he has his own opinions, and frankly none of them is that 'controversial' imo.
He has some valid points regarding the Geoff-IGN tweet (and points out it's not so white and black). He is hardly the only one divided by the recent GoT showcase (which I personally warmed up to after a couple more views), which many people - even several here - said they don't find it as impressive the 2018 demo. As for the corridor remark, I haven't seen it, but I assume he made it before Epic said it wasn't for loading, but idk for sure.

I only learned about him recently due to his timeline tweets, but frankly he comes off as one of the less hostile and pretentious gaming-related accounts on Twitter, and seems friendly and reasonable enough to discuss with.

In general tho, I will say I'm surprised he just flat out reveals a rough outline of the Summer Game Fest, which I assume can cause some burned bridges if not already? But idk for sure. Either way, so far he seems to be on-point, so i'm inclined to believe his reports so far.

Sony Interactive Universe.

10/10, the car games were difficult but I managed

8/8, "True Assassin" lmao

@redd214 Prolly because of how MS has been handling Xbox Series X so far, made people waiting for PS5 feel like Sony ain't doing sh*t in comparison to the previous time around.

Welp, guess Imma delete RDR2 when the time comes.

@b1ackjack You won the internet today, my good sir.

Well, I hope it's more like AC4 and AC Origins than AC Odyssey if Ashraf is directing it.

@Jayofmaya Finished it not long after getting it on launch, even managed to platinum it which I rarely do. Excellent game.

@Jayofmaya Ayyyy, congrats dude!

@Jomac3db From what I've heard, apparently it was one designer (not sure if studio employee or freelancer) furious at ND over a payment dispute.

When I woke up today I didn't think about suddenly remembering The Quiet Man's existence.

Bruh I will cry tears of joy if Resistance will suddenly be revived.

I usually don't like the subtitles beneath the article titles, but dear god, this one made me crack a laugh lol.

Why, Code Veronica ofc! Personally I don't feel like RE4 needs a remake, but CV is old and clunky enough to be worthy of a REmake imo.

@Ralizah I assume because Nier is better regarded among people and since it's rather standalone connections to Drakengard aside, it might be easier and cheaper to just remaster one game instead of the Drakengard trilogy.

I think the thing that caught my glimpse the most is that the playstation logo in the end of the trailer reminded me of the original PS3 logo. Good times.

Ah yes, Nintendo's cease tradition. Always disappointing to see this stuff happen from any big publisher. iirc Sony also did that to a PC edition of LBP.

@ShogunRok And the likes!