Shepherd_Tallon

Still in stock on Smyths IE if that's useful to anyone.
Edit: They won't deliver outside of Ireland though.

With Astro Bot on the way and looking as good as it does, I can safely say that I'm anything but frustrated with SIE atm.

I started playing GoT: Legends again last weekend and I'm hooked all over again. A lot of my PSN time is being spent there.

As for the rest of this year so far, I wouldn't know where to start. There have been too many games. I've had to give up trying to find time to play Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. They'll have to just sit on my shelf until the next time there's a drought.

@naruball I've been told I have to wait another year for fibre.
They have it down the road, up the road, across the field... but not here.

On topic though, if my internet can handle Portal, or I should say if the Portal can handle my internet, then I'm sure yours will be fine. Let us know how it goes for you!

@Mattock1987 You can only run one app at a time on your PS5. You definitely can't stream a game to your Portal from your PS5, and also run Netflix on the same PS5 at the same time.

@Troubbble For me I really enjoy "smaller" games on it.
I've been playing Bulwark on it for weeks now, and I'll play Unicorn Overlord on it too.
But the likes of Elden Ring and Ghosts of Tsushima I save for the big screen.

As for lag, I only really play solo games on it, but I'm not having any input issues etc.

You won't need a super strong internet connection. Off the top of my head I think it needs 5-15mb upload/download to function. I have very low upload speeds where I am. 5mb is a good day for me and I get on okay.

I finished with Erdtree and Bulwark, so I'm going back to Ghost of Tsushima Legends mode and Helldivers II for a bit of a palette cleanse.
Unicorn Overlord and V Rising are next on my list. Maybe I'll start them next weekend. After that I'll be going back to do NG+ runs in FF VIII Rebirth and Dragon's Dogma II.

@BloodyBlact
True. For that much we could get 13.86 pints between us 🤔

Had one ordered just after midnight on Amazon UK but cancelled it when I found it cheaper on Smyths.
It's still available on the Smyths Irish site if anyone wants it.

I never played these games, but I knew a guy in college who twisted a nard.
He had to spend a week in hospital.
I never asked him how he did it. Some things you just don't want to know the answer to.

The first season of Twisted Metal was great though.

@RubyCarbuncle I've been realising the same thing since GameStop left. I never would have used Smyths for much before, but now I rely on them for almost all of my gaming buys.

Just found it on Smyth's Ireland store for a little cheaper than Amazon UK.
Ordered it there instead and cancelled my amazon order.

@Bio_Max My friend just ordered one from Smyths UK. Might be worth a shot if you're still trying elsewhere.

Edit: Seems to be sold out there now too.

@Bio_Max I only got it because the PlayStation Australia YouTube account posted an update about it at an ungodly hour last night.

Grabbed one on Amazon UK last night.
I don't bother with limited edition controllers usually, but this one is too nice.

Sony has gotten good at figuring out new ways to get money out of me. 🤔

They sound confident again anyway. That's great to see.

My main take from this is that there was a PlayStation Access livestream and I missed it 😔

@Americansamurai1 '25 and '26 will definitely be big. In that last financial call they mentioned that they were expecting a significant return from first party in 2025.

Ender Lilies for me anyway. Been thinking about giving that a go for a few months now.
Nice timing adding it to Plus.
(Now I just need the time to actually play it.)

@Darude84
I've been tempted to give it a go myself lately.
It's definitely worth a try in your view then?

Still Erdtree and Bulwark for me 🫠
All of that Bungie talk during the week has given me an itch to play Destiny or Killzone Shadowfall today too though.

At the time I assumed they knew what they were doing.
Why wouldn't they?
But the stuff I've been reading today paints a strange picture.

Sony knows how all of this works and they would have had their own accountants and lawyers looking over everything. If MS could see that Bungie were burning money then surely Sony could see it too.
I don't get it.
Were they happy to just overpay and then give the Bungie brass enough rope to hang themselves with? Or were they genuinely tricked?

@MikeOrator
Liking all of your comments.
Agreed on all points.

Put them working on a Killzone project. Get them back to what they're good at.

It almost sounds like the same kind of quirky that we would have gotten out of Japan Studio back in the PS3 days.
I'm intrigued at least.

Regardless of whether or not it was a mistake to buy Bungie (remains to be seen imo), being bought by Sony might be the luckiest thing to happen to the studio.
They'd be in a far worse position right now without Sony propping them up.

Also, I wonder if the other project being spun out to SIE is the reason why London Studio's project was canned. They sound a little similar.

I don't know if the live service strategy is in tatters just yet.
Maybe it will be eventually, but they got off to a decent start with Helldivers.
Concord is a lot of fun but I just don't see it finding much of a base outside of a core community unfortunately. Although, I said the same about Helldivers.
And The Final Shape did well in the end too.

We'll see what we see I guess.

Nice month for me. I was going to buy Ender Lilies the other day but hesitated in the cart. Will try before I buy now.

@get2sammyb I was saying something similar earlier - There are a lot of great games on PSVR2, but because only two or three of them begin with "SIE Presents" there's a false narrative that the hardware is not supported or that there's nothing to play on it.

Behemoth is looking very special. Legendary Tales is great. GT7, Moss II... 🤷

More Erdtree and Bulwark for me.
Going to a BBQ first though.

I'm less of a soulslike fan and more of a FromSoftware fan. The only soulslike games I tend to play are the ones they make.
Nothing against the rest. I just don't have time to play them, so I stick to what I know I'll love.
Because of that I don't really feel like there are too many for me.

@madmaxrules We were never going to have too much from first party I think. The plan they stated from the start was to invest in third party and to take a rising tide approach, with a few SIE games mixed in.

It'll be interesting to see sales in the UK after this price drop though. It's a pretty nice piece of hardware.

Finally.
This and Behemoth are two games that I'm craving more info on.
Looking forward to seeing what comes out of Gamescom.

@michaelf Excellent. I might download it this weekend and try it, just to see how it goes.
Thanks for the input!

@thefourfoldroot1 I have to say the same.
For me I'm playing games on it that I wouldn't normally devote a lot of time to. The likes of Bulwark, I can't get enough of it on Portal. I'll give Dredge a go after that too.
I never would have played either of these games much on PS5, but they feel excellent to play on Portal.

I wonder how Tunic plays on it...

@Czar_Khastik
Phase 4: Physical media eats man. Woman inherits the Earth.

As opposed to what yer man from Ubisoft was saying the other week.

@Czar_Khastik This is the comment I came for. 😌

@ATaco Nah I know.
I chuckled at your comment. And I was legit surprised at how long it took me. I thought I flew it.

@ATaco I was eating dinner and watching Walking Dead when I did it. My score isn't showing up for me now but it took me over 4 minutes.

I was certain I knew who made Folklore.
And I won't lie, I had no idea about that Metacritic question. I took a wild guess, and I guessed wildly wrong.

@UltimateOtaku91 Indeed.
And launching as it is, it just doesn't seem to have enough to convince people whose minds are already made up. There's just not enough interest in it as it stands. It's unfortunate because again, it's a decent game.

It's a shame because it's a decent game. Not amazing, but definitely something I would play with the lads for an hour or two on a Friday night.
I read an article last night describing it as the Team Fortress/Destiny spinoff I didn't know I needed, and I have to agree. It really feels like playing old TF.

Maybe the initial reveal should have skipped that CG character trailer? I'm not sure it would have helped.

At this point maybe it needs something drastic like a big delay and a campaign mode.

I'm still playing Erdrtee and Bulwark.
Although my main focus this weekend will be reading the last few chapters of Empire of the Damned, finally.

My X-Men buzz is back too, so I might dig out that old X-Men 2: Clone Wars game on Mega Drive 🤔

@ApostateMage I was just thinking about this ad. One of my favourites.

It feels like GamePass was their only plan.
It's obvious that they're a tech company and not an entertainment company, but surely marketing is important regardless.
Really worrying about XBox now.

I enjoyed the first beta in the end, but it's not looking good is it?
Makes me wonder what will happen with Fairgame and the rest.

Edit:It sounds more and more like Sony need to launch it on PS Plus and give anyone who pre-orders the digital or physical versions a founders package or something.

@Czar_Khastik 😂😂
Never change.

I'd be pretty hyped about getting it, but I won't complain if it's delayed to 2025 either.

Happy to let the story tellers tell their story and see where it goes.

Excellent list. The top three especially. I wouldn't argue with any of this. Delighted to see Unicorn Overlord in there too.

Now I'm hyped to play Rebirth again. I just need to get through Erdtree, Stellar Blade, Unicorn Overlord and Rise of the Ronin first...

I'm being reminded of Paragon now - A perfectly good game that just couldn't pull in a player base.

Personally I'm happy to pay €40.00 upfront if it means all additional characters are added later at no extra cost and without the need to grind for them. If I had to pay for characters later I'd be complaining that it's just a P2W mess.