RobN

So, it's a phone game, ported to console. Those are always awesome.

If it's included at some point in some Plus bundle, I might give it a shot. Nothing against the people who work on these, but that phone-to-console path doesn't have an amazing track record.

I'll probably know a lot more about this game after tonight's State Of Play - want to bet it's stuff like this that dominates it?

I hate to see this go - what I really wanted was to see it FIXED, with some real care and storytelling effort devoted to it. I enjoyed it with Desmond quite a bit, and in the original it truly helped make the game into something new that you actually cared about.

But if the choice is between a few awkward bits with severely underdeveloped characters and nearly no story because they can't be bothered to put in any effort or nothing at all, I suppose nothing at all is better. But that's a painful choice, and it didn't have to be this way.

@tomassi Yep. I tried them in the beta, and tried to give feedback at how awful they were.

The ONLY positive thing I have to say about PS5 "folders" is that you can add a game to more than one. That's something of a benefit over the PS3 and PS4 implementations, I would say. But pretty much every other single thing about this implementation is worse. It's awful. Adding games is painful, just getting to them is painful, there's no sorting once you're there...it's just bad and I hate it.

They went through the trouble of putting the little circle-square-triangle-cross icons on the thing (in the light grey area), but don't actually include any photos where it's clear that's what they did. It's a painfully bad marketing job.

Pause the video about 5 seconds in, and you'll see what I'm talking about. That kind of saves the design for me - I'm interested. Not enough interested to buy the plates, which seem like they cost double what they ought to cost, and not enough interested to go hunting for this controller, specifically - but if it's on sale when I need a new controller, I'd grab this one.

@AgentGuapo Not a problem if it's worth the price for you. Vote with your money - and if you like stuff like this and are willing to pay for it, then there's nothing wrong with that just because not everyone agrees.

As for me, I'll wait for a sale, or the inevitable inclusion on a PS Plus tier. By Christmas 2023 this will be bundled with the LoU2 for PS5 (you know it's coming) for $100+, and by Christmas 2025 the bundle of the two will be $20. I can wait for 2025.

@KundaliniRising333 Picked up the disk for $5 back before the PS5 upgrade was available - between that and having it free on PS Plus Extra, I'll get to it some day, and I expect to enjoy it even if I'm not blown away by it.

That said, I never did finish Witcher 3. Looking forward to the PS5 version, coming sooner or later, and probably patched to be playable just before the PS6 is announced.

@Suda51ueda Most people aren't mad at being charged again - a few are, but not most.

Most people who complain are upset that a game where significant development costs simply don't exist (because the art direction, script, motion capture, set design, voice acting, and a lot more were already complete) shouldn't cost full price.

It's like paying artisan prices for store-bought ramen. You expect store-bought ramen to be cheap, because it's mass-produced and a lot of the work in making it is done already. If some store wants to charge you what the restaurant down the street charges when they make it from scratch and serve it to you already cooked, then many people will shake their head and move on.

@hi_drnick
1. Yes, sometimes I complain about the price of a loaf of bread - have you seen the prices these days? Inflation is real, and discretionary spending - like entertainment - is what typically gets shut out. As much as I love video games, I'd rather eat. So the rising costs of bread make me MORE sensitive to the rising costs of video games, not LESS sensitive to it.

2. Your analogy is awful, as so many have pointed out. If every loaf of bread required coming up with a new, unique recipe which contributed to the price, then when someone used the same old recipe for a new loaf of bread (thus eliminating huge costs of research, writing, art direction...er, pan-crafting) then yes - I'd expect that loaf to be priced lower, since it's using the same old recipe. In fact, that's reflected in real life - the bread churned out by a factory bakery is typically much less expensive than the "artisan" bread hand-crafted by your local baker.

I'll probably buy this when they bundle it with the LOU Part 2 PS5 super-bundle, for just $150. It might be two years away, but c'mon, you all know that's coming. Though honestly, I'll wait for that bundle to hit $35 or PS Plus - by 2025 at the latest, I'd wager.

The improvements look pretty solid, mostly - though I still think I prefer some of the original player models over some of the changes, just aesthetically. But it's a game I've played twice already, and I'm not quite ready to dive in again - not for $70. Sure, it looks prettier, but I'm constantly told it's about the gameplay and not the pixel count, right? So...I've enjoyed this gameplay twice already, I need some more distance before I dive in again, though I expect to enjoy it when I do.

@naruball The criticism may be fair, or not - that wasn't my point.

My point is that this is EXACTLY what I expected, and I'm genuinely confused why non-casual consumers who would be answering surveys on a site like this would have expected anything else. Did you think Sony was suddenly serious about investing time and resources (and perhaps licensing fees) in bringing more PS1 and PS2 games to this service? What made you think that? More pointedly, where did Sony promise you that? And if they didn't promise it, why infer it?

Because the current state is exactly what I expected. Not saying it's right - but it's what I expected.

How long did PS Now exist? In all those years, they didn't do monthly dumps of new (to the service) PS1/PS2/PSP games, right? They added some PS3 and PS4 games every month - mostly PS4 - and called it good, didn't they? Am I misremembering??

Why would ANYBODY expect that monthly dumps of PS1/PS2/PSP games are going to suddenly start just because Sony repackaged it all and gave it a new name? Are you all really that naive? You've got what they promised, and they didn't promise you more than what you've got. If you don't like it, that's on you for assuming Sony was going to do more than they promised.

That sounds harsh. Maybe I'm wrong, and someone can point to me where Sony said they'd add more games to the Premium level every month - but I never saw such a promise.

@Danloaded "Is there a particular reason why we have had this influx of rubbish on the ps store?"

Any chance it's because the "PlayStation Stars" loyalty program that's supposedly spinning up soon, and will offer some sort of rewards for playing games (and, presumably, for getting trophies)?

@NEStalgia "Even when the film is good, it ends up diminishing the book that's often significantly more involved."

I don't see it that way. A movie doesn't change a single word in the book - the ink doesn't move on the page when the movie comes out. At most one can affect the popularity of the other, but that's not the same as affecting the actual work itself.

@Juanalf My first playthrough was in English. I started my NG+ in Japanese to see how it went, but I abandoned it when I realized much of the side character dialog was not subtitled. There are so many comments from the NPCs in the villages or camps you can overhear as you walk by, but they aren't subtitled. It annoyed me and I switched back to English.

What does that have to do with a movie? For me, nothing, really - I can handle a subtitled movie just fine (though given a choice I prefer a quality dub). But there are a LOT of people out there who don't read as easily and as quickly as the average participant on a discussion board. Just as they wouldn't come here because reading isn't enjoyable for them, such people won't like subtitles and are unlikely to consider a movie without an English dub. That's simply the truth - you don't have to like it, but you're foolish to ignore it.

I'd wager there are more people (in the US, not the world) who would avoid a movie without an English audio track then there are who would avoid it without a Japanese audio track. Would they make up enough in ticket sales from Japan and the rest of the world to make up the difference? Not a clue - but some bean counter is trying to come up with projections.

I don't think much of anything about it, yet - it's hard to tell from this trailer what it is.

You've got racing, with boost, and with crazy tracks with some element of in-race customization - but no explanation of how that customization works. That's...all we really know, right?

I guess I'm hopeful, without being optimistic (or pessimistic) just yet.

Sony paying developers to keep their games off Game Pass is hardly the same as paying them to keep their games off XBox. When they do the latter, they bolster Microsoft's argument - but the former isn't that big a deal.

If it's "we'll pay you to only put your game in the store on both platforms," then who really cares? Unless Microsoft isn't paying developers anything when their games are on Game Pass (yeah, right), I don't see much hypocrisy there. That's not to say hypocrisy doesn't exist, just not in that specific case.

The stronger arguments of hypocrisy are paying for actual or timed exclusives, and then complaining about the chance Microsoft would do the same. Even that argument is weaker as more and more Playstation Studio games to go PC.

@IonMagi Cheapest? I guess, if you're not counting hardware costs.

If you're turning on all the bells and whistles people are talking about, you'd better have a $4k video card and some money sunk into the rest of your setup, too. If a $4k+ rig can't beat a $500 PS5, y'all should be embarrassed.

But I've got a UHD Blu-Ray player that plays some great games which I'll enjoy even if they're not quite as shiny as on your setup, for a fraction of the overall price. I'm okay with that.

I might consider a gaming rig again some day in the distant future - but I don't miss the constant hunt for the next component to upgrade to keep it all running the latest stuff at the highest settings. PCs can easily be bigger money pits than consoles.

@tameshiyaku Almost certainly doesn't meet the criteria of fair use - at least not under US copyright law - which is why I'm sure their lawyers told them to comply with the order to take it down.

People think "fair use" means "I want it so I can do it," but there are actually rules about it. One of those rules is that you can't use the entire work but only excerpts, and only enough of an excerpt to make your point for commentary or educational purposes. If they read the entirety of whatever script they had, that's pretty clearly NOT fair use.

The thing is, if they get 0.1% of the player base saying "Sure, we'll pay $45 for that skin!" then they're happy, and it will be profitable. It costs them almost nothing to make and to host, so 0.1% of, say, 100,000 players is $4,500. Increase the player base or get that percentage up to 1%, and you're making a lot of money for something that's practically free to make.

Why do you think those idiots keep sending emails or calls for extended car warranties, or that the prince of Nigeria needs your money laundering skills? They don't care if 99.9% of the people don't fall for the scam - they make enough money off the 0.1% to be profitable. Same deal here.

I've never enjoyed skating games, so while I recognize the popularity of Tony Hawk, I wouldn't give it a go if it weren't free. I doubt it will change my mind, but I'll give it a shot.

Meanwhile, I nearly pulled the trigger (pardon the pun) a couple times on Like a Dragon, so I'm really happy about that one.

To be fair, I don't play online games a lot, and when I do I tend to play them solo, so there's been no opportunity for me to give or receive accolades.

But given the personality of those who are more likely to enjoy online multiplayer, they also seem the least likely to participate in such a system, at least not without some tangible (er...in-game) rewards for doing so. I should add the disclaimer that I'm not a psychiatrist and am not qualified to make blanket statements about personality traits, but I also call 'em like I see 'em.

@Fenbops But unless they mess it up, 9/10 should be a low-end review for this. The PS3 version was a great game, the PS4 remaster was a great game, and if judged solely on how it plays, I expect this to get at least 9/10 everywhere, with maybe even some 10/10.

I don't think anybody has said this game will be bad. We've said it doesn't appeal to us because it feels like a minor upgrade priced as a new major release.

If anybody gives it less than 9/10 I assume it will only be because of the value given the price and the availability of the PS4 version for much, much less.

I upgraded to Extra to pick up Stray and a few other games. I'm working now, but they're downloading while I work.

But your survey is missing some choices. I'm really more of a dog person, while my wife and kids are more of cat people. So we compromised, and have three cats. The first one we had decided I was her person, despite me being the only not-cat-person in the family. Go figure.

In the US, 11/11 is a national holiday (Veteran's Day, the anniversary of the end of the first World War). That means no postal delivery that day (don't pre-order for delivery via USPS if release day was 11/11, though some other delivery services might deliver packages on that day - but they also might charge extra for a holiday delivery).

Letting it drop a couple days earlier means people have a chance to play it on a day off...if they work in a job that gets those days off.

I was laughing at a studio that did this on XBox last week - released the PS5 version on time, but indefinitely delayed the XBox Series version the day before release. And here we are on the other side.

I have mixed feelings about these. A delay is better than releasing something that's not ready, but surely they didn't just figure out today that they were really pushing the deadline for their bug fixes. I don't know how they're making these sorts of decisions and what other factors are in play - does a F2P lose money if it's delayed??? - but I'm not sure if this trend is good for gamers (and game-makers). Why not postpone it a week ago?

I guess I still come down on the side of believing bad news of a last-minute postponement is better than bad news of an awful, buggy experience that chases away interest and gives you a bad reputation.

@BoldAndBrash My kid got me Driver SF for Christmas...18 months ago, and I haven't finished it yet (yes, I still have a PS3 connected to my TV). Mostly wanted to play it for the "second person" level that appears to be somewhat unique, but I found it quite interesting long before I got there. A bit repetitive on the car models, but for the era it was pretty solid.

You know, now that you mention it, I'm more interested in going back to that game than Crew 2.

Crew 2 was the type of game I expected to love - not just open world cars, but planes and boats too?!?! And a compressed US where I could hit a few iconic locations? Sign me up!

I played it on the PS4 Pro a few times when I had access to it through a free weekend or some such bonus, yet somehow it never really clicked into enjoyable for me. It always felt like a slog and rarely like fun. I don't know what the missing mojo was - or if it was even the game's fault - but I just never enjoyed it.

So hearing the 60fps patch killed the graphics just kind of ruined any interest in giving it another chance. It's nice that they're spending resources on updating older titles, but do it right (the first time!) or don't bother.

While I voted (cash grab), honestly I want to wait to see what's actually released. I never preorder any more - stung way too often on that - and six months after release the price will be more reasonable.

For me it all depends on what they deliver. How much will be new and different - no, not different, BETTER - and feel like I'm not playing the PS4 remake but something even more enjoyable? It's still going to be the same story, the same characters, the same locations...and honestly, the new player models don't always scream "better" to me, at least not in the screenshots released so far.

From the company's perspective, it's probably a way to keep their staff employed between titles, so they don't lose talent while they ramp up production on whatever's next. Any profit they get from that to help them keep the lights on and keep their talent from fleeing is worth it. Does that make it a cash grab? Yeah, it kind of does - but there are people who argue that EVERY game is a cash grab and they ought to be making this stuff for free out of the goodness of their hearts (though how the developers are supposed to put food on the table seems to be ignored).

Seems like this is appropriate given where the comments section is going.

A dog sees that their person cares for them, provides them a house and a bed, gives them food and water, and thinks - they must be gods!

A cat sees that their person cares for them, provides them a house and a bed, gives them food and water, and thinks - I must be a god!

People make this sound a lot harder than it is. I got an XPG S70 1TB, and a third-party heat sink, and it's worked awesome - feels slightly faster than the internal, with slightly less pop-in for some games - for less money than WD without the Playstation logo. And copying things TO it is crazy fast - it writes in Gigs per second, something the internal storage simply can't handle.

And for the fanboy conversation, this storage solution is one place where the PS5 beats the XBox. Yes, Microsoft's solution is simpler - there's no choice, buy the one expansion offered from the one vendor offering it, at a price that hasn't dropped since it was released. But Sony's is more consumer-friendly in the end, with costs that are already lower than Microsoft's, and bound to continue to drop in the months and years to come. Other brands may not negotiate the PS logo (and fee that undoubtedly comes with it), but they'll still offer solid solutions at lower price points.

Unless you want to store 10TB of content locally, in which case swapping SSDs in the PS5 is less convenient than doing it on an XBox, but still...

If the announcement is delayed because the game is delayed...okay, cool. Finish and polish the game.

I'm enjoying H:FW a lot more now than I did on release day, with fewer bugs (most of the rumor-givers in the game wouldn't talk to me until one or two patches ago), better graphics. That level of polish SHOULD have happened before release. I still had plenty of fun with it, but some significant frustration as well.

If there's a chance GoW will have similar issues, take the time for the polish. It's worth it.

@rawzeku I wouldn't mind it if they let you add all the Plus games at once, like they used to several years ago, so it's a single email for all the stuff you picked up - or if it waited, say, an hour and if you were still "buying" free items it bundled them all together into one email.

If it's a real purchase with real money (including wallet credit), sure - send the announcement email immediately, and multiple announcements for multiple purchases. If it's a $0 transaction, queue them up and send them as a single one at the end of the day, or at least after an hour of store inactivity.

@get2sammyb I would have struck the last three words from your comment, but that's just me...and a bit harsh. I suppose SOMEBODY out there will dearly love this and the early unlocks it includes - but I expect in a year or two these disks will be $10, used, at GameStop.

I've got PS3 controllers - multiple - and none have drift.

Multiple PS4 controllers - none have drift.

Launch day PS5 - I've already replaced two controllers under warranty for drift, and one of the replacements is starting to drift again. I use DualShock (PS4) controllers for backwards-compatible games on my PS5 now, and only use the DualSense for actual PS5 games.

This generation is absolutely worse. The question is, would a "pro" controller with replaceable parts be any better, or would the replaceable nature make it so much more expensive it would be cheaper to buy a new regular controller? Would it last longer? If they DO release it today, we won't know for another year, anyway.

So in JUNE, they're teasing a reveal in SEPTEMBER?

Sounds like they're not ready to show anything and afraid of being left out of summer announcements. Announcing they're going to announce something next quarter just feels lame.

They should just stay quiet until they have something to say - instead, they try to pump the hype. Come September they'll get upset at unrealistic, hyped-up expectations that they created themselves.

In the US, Costco has 4 $25 PSN cards in a bundle, for $90 (June 2022) - available online with digital codes sent via email. Members only.

@ZombieJ1967 No way. They will not be offering an upgrade.

Wait a year and it will be $20, and wait 2 years and it will be a free game on Plus (or maybe on PS Plus Extra Super-Deluxe, or whatever they call it).

I'd kept my expectations very low, so perhaps I was more impressed than I should have been - but this felt like a home run. I loved the surprise Horizon Forbidden West patch announcement - remoted to my PS5 while I watched the stream to start the patch download.

I'm not sure I'd call this the best State of Play ever, but it was very solid. It delivered on what they said they'd deliver. I'm not thrilled with every game, but that's inevitable - there was some variety here to interest most anybody.

@OmegaStriver I think you missed something. I didn't see any 2022 dates on any PSVR2 title - there were things coming in 2022 with "PSVR2 in development."

If I'm wrong...that's awesome! Point me at the trailer I missed!

@paulbuck1996 That release date for Stray was leaked a few weeks ago, but it's nice to see it's official. And being on Plus Extra is nice...perhaps. I won't have Plus Extra at first, and will wait to see how they handle upgrades (and maybe downgrades, too) before I consider switching. So I may be waiting for a price announcement.

@twitchtvpat Thanks, I might still try Unity some day - I think I got it on PC for free.

I still remember the very first AC (on PS3, I believe), being SO impressed with it and wondering where they'd go, and Brotherhood might be one of my favorites. I've not been completely happy with all their choices (wish they would pay more attention to the modern world side of the story again), but generally I've enjoyed the series when I get wrapped up enough in the story and rhythm that it doesn't feel like a slog.

Still...fell out of it and haven't played Origins or anything since. This is probably the kick I need to go back to it.

I don't understand why being part of Summer Game Fest would change anything from when we didn't know it was part of it. So what? Why would that change my expectations of what's to be announced?

Recently Sony has gotten better at trying to manage expectations, yet people still seem to try to pump the hype for everything and then rage that they didn't hear what they wanted. Expect PSVR2 titles to be teased, and some indy trailers for non-VR games, but don't expect any first party ANYTHING (unless it's PSVR2) and don't expect any dates/prices for anything PSVR2.

If there is a big shock reveal (don't bet on it), it will be the release date of PSVR2 itself (I almost said release date and price, but Sony probably won't announce both at the same time, they like to drag things out).

Skipped Unity (too much bad press), loved Syndicate, own Origins and never got into it for some reason. Time to start over and give it another try.

I expect about a half-dozen snippets of PSVR2 games, but no release dates for any of them - just some chatter about how awesome PSVR2 will be, with no price or release date. Maybe a release quarter (4th quarter 2022, 2nd quarter 2023) if we're lucky.

Stray is one of the best bets for a new trailer, if the leaked release date of late July is accurate. In that case they could be making it official here.

After that...I'm not expecting any surprises, unless it's a couple trailers for indie games we've never heard of.

I didn't understand all the hype - Fallen Order felt like a poor Tomb Raider knockoff to me. It was extremely linear, and the looped paths back to the start in each world started feeling very repetitive, but it also seemed oddly lacking in great set pieces for such a linear game. If it wasn't for the Star Wars tie-in I wouldn't have gone as far into it as I did.

I wouldn't say it was awful, just that it was repetitive and derivative and felt like I'd played it already (but not in a fun way).

But hey, if they can improve on it, maybe I'll appreciate the next one more.

I'm more hyped about the Magician/Empire series under development, to be honest. Been waiting for that for...gosh, pushing 30 years, now.

But we'll see - just because you enjoy the source material doesn't mean you'll enjoy the adaptations. The good news is, the adaptations don't change the source material - a movie based on a novel doesn't change the text of a novel, and a TV series based on a video game doesn't change the game.

I watched the Uncharted movie, and it didn't totally stink (at least not until the flying things at the end). But it wasn't a great Bond movie ripoff, and I'm not going out of my way to watch it again.

So Sony tries 7 things - 8 if you count the Uncharted movie - and hope one or two are big hits, and that the rest at least make back their production costs. For TV in particular, that's probably about right. Some of these may not get past a pilot - heck, some may not see a pilot actually getting made. But you don't know until you try.

It's all about the execution. Do they get the right actors, the right writers, the write story (sorry, bad pun), the right direction, to pull together something good? No - not for all 8, no way. But maybe for one or two or even a few.

I'm hopeful that complaints and press (places like here) helped change Sony's mind on this one. It was a ridiculous policy.

Will this mean I pay for the upgrade from Essential to Extra for the year+ remaining on my subscription? Maybe. Certainly it's more likely now than it was immediately after this news broke.

I've spent...let's see...about $35 over more than a year of playing, on Genshin Impact. Much of that was discounted credits from my PS card or $5 off a $10 PSN card from Gamestop, but yeah - $35 in credit. And I enjoyed it, because they've made a reasonably fun game they keep adding content to, to keep it fresh and fun and enjoyable.

I don't begrudge the $35 to a free game nearly as much as I'm annoyed by the microtransactions (and pushy ads - OMG, the pushy ads!) of games that aren't free, like Hot Wheels Extreme I picked up on sale this week, or any EA Sports title.

If we could keep the microtransactions to FTP and ban them from anything you have to buy, I'd be much happier. Even if I could just disable the menus and ads in games I've paid for, I'd be thrilled. Heck - Genshin Impact is FAR more subtle in trying to get you to spend money than EA is, even if they rig their rewards to really take advantage of psychology.

It's not that surprising to me.

If you don't like Plus, you stop paying for it, right? So many of the people who really hate it aren't in the population being polled. If they polled all PS4 and PS5 owners, they'd get a different percentage, but that's not the question they're asking.

Now, I'm not thrilled with many of the releases so far in 2022 - but I have games I own from prior years that I don't necessarily want to lose access to, and for less than $60/year I don't need a hit every month to make me happy. If I was paying $10 every month, it would be different, but when I got a year for $40 around Christmas, I can't complain much when a few months go by without something I really want - I'm paying something like $3.33/month average.

Now, if they want me to pay a fortune to upgrade to the next tier when it rolls out in the US, I'll probably just skip the upgrade. But it's still decent value at $3.33/month - a fraction of Game Pass, especially the $15/month version everyone says is the bomb, which rarely has discounts (at least publicly) for buying a multiple months in advance.

Own Origins, never got into it. Definitely will take another look if it's patched for 60fps on my PS5.