Comments 1,030

Re: Microsoft Accuses Sony of Paying to Block Games from Xbox Game Pass

Richnj

@get2sammyb But aren't marketing deals done to tie that product to your product?

Marketing deals get done and they still allow release on competing platforms. Why have a marketing deal that blocks subscription services, but still allows a game to be sold on a competing platform?

If the concern is that the competing platform will take some of the sales away from you, then you block it all and do a timed exclusive. Only including a subscription clause shows that they don't fear other platforms, but they do fear other sub services.

This is purely money spent to cripple Game Pass while Sony gets their service in order, or even to cripple Game Pass so that Sony themselves don't have to try so hard with PSPlus, because the big titles are safe from other services too. I generally think timed exclusives are scummy but this is so much worse.

Re: Batman Doesn't Kill, But Red Hood Is Pushing It in Latest Gotham Knights Trailer

Richnj

"The character was resurrected in 2005's "Under the Hood" story arc, which saw him becoming a murderous antihero known as the Red Hood"

Second paragraph of the wiki entry. Traditionally, yes, Red Hood is very agressive and kills very freely.

Though, in the Red Hood and Nightwing trailer, the dev said he uses "non-lethal bullets". Which is a departure from other depictions of the character, but that is what they are going with here I guess.

There you go.

Re: GTA 6 Will Set 'Creative Benchmarks' for All Entertainment

Richnj

"By the time the title launches in 2024, it’ll have been over ten years since the last game in the series"

Get use to it. With the expectations of gamers getting more and more out there, and the Devs wanting to create ever larger and more detailed worlds than ever, a handful of studios working ten years to create one game is going to become a lot more common.

Re: Press X for Trophies Is a Sad Indictment of PS5, PS4 Today

Richnj

I want to give my actual opinion here for the people blaming trophies or trophy hunters for this problem. It is not their fault.

These easy plat games serve the same purpose as microtransactions. Companies have seen an easy way to deliver quick and easy (and addictable) dopamine hits while delivering very little in the way of quality content. It's psychological manipulation of people's brains to get their money.

Doesn't matter if it's a big publisher delivering their brand new AAA live service game that lets you have buy colours or a hat for your avatar, or a small organisation that is making cheap and easy games, they give out trophies for little effort. Both are in the business of pumping out lower quality content at small costs in each instance, but that hit that 'feels good' and encourage more spending on that content long term.

And big companies like Sony, they are moving in to live service, looking at NFTs, and allowing poor content, because it brings in money.

If you are upset about this, then you have to be upset about it all. If you are ok with the other stuff, then being angry about this much smaller problem is baffling. Since the only difference between this and what EA, 2K, Sony, MS, and the other big players do, is the fact that this is being done by small companies. Which makes the line drawn appear to be one of big business simping.

Re: Immediate Backlash as Sony Asks Players About Purchasing NFTs

Richnj

@twitchtvpat I didn't say all NFTs are a scam. I wrote a whole piece about how NFTs would worsen the gaming landscape in both a gaming sense and a customer sense.

The fact that you'd respond about me calling all NFTs a scam and not actually addressing any of the issues I raised, is laughable.

Re: Immediate Backlash as Sony Asks Players About Purchasing NFTs

Richnj

@UltimateOtaku91 Besides the NFT scam of hoovering up money from people who think they are obtaining something with value, before that entire market collapses and they end up owning unique digital pieces of code that has zero value at all. NFTs in gaming is an even worse prospect.

The lovely thing about digital items is that they can be endlessly replicated. Nintendo only producing enough product to ensure that their hot new thing is always running out of stock has the benefit of creating the impression that everybody wants this item. It's artificial scarcity, on Nintendos part. Rarity creates desire.

But hardware will always have real scarcity too. Consoles and game discs can only get made in so many numbers, so there is a finite number of these to be had. But we live in the digital age. Our games and our content is all digital now. We can get what we want and in as many numbers as we want. That hot new game? Download it whenever I want. That brand new piece of DLC? There's enough for everyone. unless...

We decide to tie all this to the NFTs and block chain where everything is unique. See NFTs aren't just a different type of microtransaction. They are a way of creating rarity and perceived value in products that are infinite.

You really need to ask yourself. If Sony could sell a digital hat for Aloy for £5, and have that be available for everybody, and have every single penny of that go straight to Sony, why would they be interested in a type of transaction that would allow players to sell the hats they bought, to other players. And why would you buy a digital hat from xxxpro360noscopexxx when you could just buy it from Sony?. It's a rigged system. They'll limit the quantities of digital content that can be bought, and Sony will profit from the idiots that think they are buying something of value because "it's unique" rather than the content just being fun and entertaining in of itself.

If you are interested in really getting a deep dive, you can watch this...

https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g

It's over two hours, but it's a really good video. Most people I've tried to show it to don't have the attention span for that kind of content, or were just too invested in the NFT scam, IDK.

Re: We're Sure Fans Will Be Rational Over This The Last of Us PS5 Clip

Richnj

@naruball Because that's figurative language. That's why.

If we're going to take everything literally, then it would be impossible to be 101%. 100% is the most any one thing can be. And I sure as hell have no idea what's going on with those sports peoples giving 110%. If they had spent a bit more time in maths and a little less time in PE, they'd know this.

Re: We're Sure Fans Will Be Rational Over This The Last of Us PS5 Clip

Richnj

I thought I was looking at the PS5 remaster until it swiped, and this keeps happening to me. It gets me Everytime.

"This is being targeted towards PS5 owners who have come from other formats and have never played it."

Don't k ow why people keep saying this. The PS4 sold nearly 120m consoles. Everybody owned a PS4, and the PS4 remaster is right there for the handful of people didn't play it. Don't know why we're trying to lie to ourselves. This version is 100% aimed at those that already purchased part 1 twice before.

Re: Hogwarts Legacy Could Release In Early December, Just in Time for the Yule Ball

Richnj

@Logonogo The issue is that the fandoms get monetised, and at least a part of that money gets funneled towards hurting the fandoms.

It was the exact same deal with Scott Cawthorn.

So while the first post says "Hogwarts Legacy does not exist in a vacuum" and that is completely true, it is effectively helping the harmful part (the funding and spread of harmful policies), while also shutting down (creating a vacuum on) the counter of the people being harmed by it.

Surely, we can all agree, if we support trans' rights, that this kind of situation must be incredibly frustrating for LGBTQ members?

Re: Sony Sounds Shook by Xbox's Activision Buyout, Says Call of Duty Has No Rival

Richnj

@BAMozzy Yeah, I'd prefer all games be multiplatform, but I can't blame a publisher making exclusive content if they funded the development. Like what we see with Nintendo and Beyonetta, or how we'll see with MS and future titles for the studios they now own, or if the game wouldn't exist without that initial funding. If Sony wanted to make Bungie content exclusive, then fine, because they are footing that bill.

But paying for timed and DLC exclusivity of massive franchises really bugs. It's greed, and I won't feel bad if it bites you in the backside.

Re: Sony Coy on Potential PS5 Price Increase

Richnj

Sony are also the biggest gaming company. They make most of their money from game and microtransaction sales. With MS expanding beyond just console and having a low price console option, for Sony to raise the price of their console would be unnecessary, if not idiotic.

Re: MultiVersus (PS5) - A Worthy Super Smash Bros Rival with Much More to Come

Richnj

@nomither6 You know you could try googling anything you've said and see how you are wrong?

Litterally the opening line on the wiki page;

"In the video game industry, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service. Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called "living games", "live games", or "live service games" since they continually change with these updates. "

Re: Sony to Take Action as PS5, PS4 Owners Play Less Than Anticipated

Richnj

"people are playing our console less than we thought because they are going outside, and we are going to fix that" is probably the most soulless, corporate thing I've ever heard.

They'll have another shock in a decade or so when they realise there's less kids to play their games too. Which ironically, will be a direct result of people like this, who have taken away the work force's time and money to have kids.

I'm guessing the "whales" and "real fans" will end up having to pay to make the losses in profits.

Re: MultiVersus (PS5) - A Worthy Super Smash Bros Rival with Much More to Come

Richnj

@nomither6 "it doesn’t have to have a battle pass"

This would contradict what you said before, when you said that anyone complaining about battle passes and live service are just biased towards single player games.

"“live service” is literally just a new buzzword that’s forbidden here"

It's not. Live service is a game that uses the live service business model. The term was created and used to differentiate between 'online mp titles' as you use the term, and games that have a microtransaction monetisation model, and continuously updated content to fuel that monetisation.

And it's not forbidden. People just hate them because of the quality of the services and the predatory nature of the monetisation. It's one of the reasons people wanted a new word to describe these games.

"we are talking about multiplayer games , as in PvP"

This is the issue of using the terms incorrectly. If you used them correctly, then people would understand what type of game you mean without you needing to clarify.

Pushsquare themselves have a different definition than you and tried to argue that live service meant any game that recieved new content post launch. Even offline single player games, like Bioshock. People obviously hit back, because that's not how it's used. And broadening the definition, dilutes the definition, to the point it just means anything and nothing.

Just going off by "if it has online and PvP, it's live service" would mean that Elden Ring is a live service, and again, no one would agree with that either.

Re: MultiVersus (PS5) - A Worthy Super Smash Bros Rival with Much More to Come

Richnj

@nomither6 "you’re just biased against any game that isn’t a single-player only experience"

Conflating live service with MP is terrible logic. You can have MP games without it being live service or having battle passes. It use to be the case that all MP games weren't like this. And plenty of indie and AA MP titles still skip the model.

Re: Bungie Dials Back Communication Due to Threats on Employees

Richnj

I understand there's logistical headaches and hurdles towards it, but there needs to be a real effort at policing the internet.

Be as rude and annoying as you want, but as soon as you start harrassing and threatening someone, you should face real world implications of that.

Unless it's Randy Pitchford. Then it's ok.

Re: PS5 Folders, 1440p Support Part of New Beta Update Out Today

Richnj

@Goober1 If it was OCD, why would that be a problem? It's game organisation, it hardly has negative effects on someone's life.

After a decade of buying and redeeming games, I have over 800 xbox titles. Scrolling through that many to see what I have, and what I'm in the mood to play, isn't ideal. Creating lists really helps with that. So whether I want an iso RPG, survival horror, 2 player online co-op, 4 player local co-op, or whatever, I have a group to go to see my options. Steam is great because it allows auto groups based on common tags like these.

Why is that unreasonable?

The Switch has 100 groups and 200 games per group. I'm not sure what the limit on xbox and steam is. So when I ask "why the limit?" I'm genuinely curious on why PS5 has such a massive limit compared to a handheld device.

Re: There's 'No Comparison' Between The Last of Us on PS5 vs PS3, Says Dev

Richnj

@Northern_munkey "so really skyrim on the ps5 was a cash grab and a lazy half arsed one"

The PS5 upgrade was free. Kinda hard to cash grab when you don't charge money.

The Anniversary content was a DLC bundle for both PS4 and PS5 and was like £16. Which would be a massive discount on that content if compared to being bought through the original creation club store.

I wouldn't classify 'free and a discount' as a cash grab. Lazy?, sure, cash grab? no.

Re: Soapbox: I'm Sorry, But Your Cute Cat Game Isn't That Great

Richnj

If professional reviews are subjective, and only based on the reviewers' personal opinion, then there's no way to objectively declare Stray to not be "that great".

Doesn't matter if being a cat and being able to do cat things has an impact on gameplay design, as long as it has an impact on the player.

Re: There's 'No Comparison' Between The Last of Us on PS5 vs PS3, Says Dev

Richnj

@NEStalgia Yeah, I think "rebuilt" and not "remade" was purposely worded on their part. "Rebuilt" sounds like "remade", it's certainly not "remaster", but when you think of it, it's also telling. The words do have different meanings, and we don't use "rebuilt" when we talk about remakes in video games. Why wouldn't they just say "remade"?.

"Rebuilt" to me, sounds like you took the original, broke it down, and used the materials to reconstruct it somewhere else. Like putting the London Bridge in Arizona.

Re: There's 'No Comparison' Between The Last of Us on PS5 vs PS3, Says Dev

Richnj

@naruball "You had made up your mind with close to zero evidence."

No, I had the cutscenes. The cutscenes themselves were so identical, it would be near impossible to do that without using the original data. They clearly hadn't been remade as you'd see in a remake.

And if you are using original cutscene animations, why wouldn't they be using original gameplay too?. I've never seen a remake use original cutscenes and brand new gameplay. Never. It usually happens the other way round. Where original gameplay is kept, but cutscenes are redone. Kinda like Halo 2A.

It was an occam's razor deal. Given the available info, it looked like a remaster, so I called it one.

"you just want to confirm your bias. No matter what they say"

No and yes. I'm more inclined to believe what I see more than what I'm told, and if the gameplay had come out and it was clearly remade, I would have said so. But we've seen the gameplay and all the things people were hoping for, aren't there. It's the same game. And now you have the devs outright admitting it.

You don't have to wait for the reviews, if there was some big gameplay changes, ND would be using that to market the game for it's release in about a month's time.

Re: There's 'No Comparison' Between The Last of Us on PS5 vs PS3, Says Dev

Richnj

"And the prone, would have simply broken the gameplay, and the combat space as it wasn't built this way originally."

Not on a remake....

because the combat space and gameplay would have been built up together to incorporate these features.

Unless of course, you just ported over the gameplay and combat spaces like you would in a remaster?

I called it a remaster early on based on the first cutscenes that they showed off, but people were adamant that this was a remake. At this point I'm enjoying the devs trying to defend their game by calling it a remaster in all but name.

Re: Soapbox: No Free PS5 Upgrade for Persona 5 Royal Is an Insult to Fans and the Game Itself

Richnj

@BartoxTharglod "Funny how you make the distinction that PSVR is a separate platform, and yet somehow the PS5 version isn't."

Maybe because the PS5 plays PS4 titles, but it doesn't play PSVR titles without extra equipment. PS4 plays all PS4 titles, PS5 plays all PS4 and 5 titles. It's a continuation of that platform, but the PSVR doesn't play play 4 or 5 titles, and the PS4 and 5 don't play PSVR without a PSVR. It's literally a sub-platform.

It's not just me making that distinction. Even Bethesda made that distinction. That's why they gave the PS5 upgrade of Skyrim away for free, but charged for the VR version.

I just find it funny when people use Skyrim as the prime example as the big cash cow that gets repackaged and resold, and it literally had a free upgrade and released the DLC as a package. If P5 had done this, you wouldn't be seeing articles like this.

If re-release happy Bethesda are under the understanding that charging for next gen upgrades is an outdated concept, what does that say about those that still charge?

Times and expectations have changed.

Re: Soapbox: No Free PS5 Upgrade for Persona 5 Royal Is an Insult to Fans and the Game Itself

Richnj

"how many times has Skyrim been repackaged and sold?"

On PS systems? Twice. (Three, if you want to include VR, but that's basically a separate platform). There's the PS3 version, and the PS4 version.

Every other edition was purely optional, and didn't lock you out of content or features for being an early adopter. Legendary and Anniversary DLC could be purchased individually, and the PS5 upgrade features were free to everyone who owned the PS4 special edition.