Shinnok789

Nice review but in the end, this game is not for me.
I'll stick with From Software's soulsborne style IP's.

Yeah... because releasing a 2nd season will solve all the important problems the game still has 2,5 months after launch...

It was hilarious how Fergusson stated on stage at Gamescom yesterday, that millions of people are playing D4... that was maybe in June or July, but now the servers are emptying more and more each day. Ppl are getting bored with the lackluster end game activities... Aside from endlessly repeating the same few NM dungeons, there is nothing to do past lvl 70-75.
Not to mention the drag and crawl you have to get through, to get from lvl 50 to 70 in WT3...
Once you play with all 5 characters, that's about it for the excitement, only senseless grind remains. And that too is mostly for nothing... maybe for a 0.0...01% chance at a uber unique, and that too mainly just to be able to brag about it, 'cause they made sure they're useful but not actually needed for any build.

With all the epic games launching this Autumn, they'll be lucky to have a few tens of thousands of players still playing in total in all regions.

For myself I don't think I'll be returning for Season 2... As soon as I'll be done with Starfield, hopefully until 13th of October, I'll be digging hard through Lords of the Fallen of which I'm very hyped...
Then there's Whichfire (early access), then Assassin's Creed Mirage, then Spider-Man 2, then Alan Wake 2, then Alone in the Dark, etc etc...

Ah, so 1-2 years from now, Ubisoft will be Microsoft's next purchase, yes?

1. Lords Of The Fallen - in line to be "Lord of the Souls-like"!
2. Crimson Desert - very curious to see new gameplay;
3. Black Myth: Wukong - superbly looking game

@Arnna You didn't even read the whole comment, or made the slightest effort to understand where it's coming from, but you talk AND name call... Do you even know how to read a book? Or just it's cover is enough? Oh, let me guess, it's best to wait for the movie...

Selling people on bright promises, like "It will be better in the future" or "it will get much better in time" - one of the oldest tricks in commerce and politics alike, that 95% of the time end up much shorter that the masses were led to believe.
Utter shame we have to face it in gaming too...
But since gamers don't stand united, don't have a union that can represent them, and there are scarcely any laws for this entertainment form, all publishers can do pretty much what they want with their games... as Metallica said : "sad but true"

Diablo 4 released as an unfinished game, with a ton of bugs at launch, quite a lot of which are not solved even today.
Take Elemental Resistances for example - a mechanic that exists in the game since the beginning, but is still useless even today, especially when comparing it to DR.
Everything that was fun in this game, they nerfed to hell and back again, until only the barebones and the endless senseless grind remained.
End game content is still spartan even today, the game slows drastically after lvl 50, and becomes utterly boring after lvl 70-75.
Unfortunately, they made so much money with D4 selling us empty promises, that even if the game flops in the future, it won't matter much to them.
And there is no direct competitor for now that can force Blizzard to do better.... the full release of Path of Exile 2 for example, is 1 year away, minimum (Beta is in June 2024...)
But at least come September their servers will be much emptier, as soon as other epic games launch (Starfield in September, Lords of the Fallen and Spider-Man 2 in October etc).
Though I don't think that will make them properly fix the game either...
It seams Blizzard learned nothing from past mistakes.
For Diablo 3 it took 3-4 years for the game to become fun, after the initial team left and another one picked up the pieces, and released the Expansion and all the content that followed.
I wonder how long it will take for Diablo 4 to go through the same process...

@GamingFan4Lyf I'll second this, it's a matter that's been bugging me too for quite a while.

To PushSquare : mentioning only a single platform from the ones the game releases on, as is the case in the present article title, is very misleading, very close to the border of fake news, especially for those of us who game on multiple ecosystems.
It may seem like I'm exaggerating, but there really is no way to know if the "action" you mentioned in the title happens only on PS5 or on all versions of the game. Sometimes it may be logical, but other times not so much...
We would very much appreciate for multiplatform games to either mention all of them, or none of them, depending on the article.
Thank you, and sry for the offtopic ranting!

Heh... I've written the exact same thing on August 16'th as a comment to one of IGN's previews (the one with the first 13 minutes of gameplay I think it was).
They need not only to improve the sound for the release version, but to get ahead of the issue and release gameplay videos ahead of release with the improved sounds - because this problem is spreading and leaves an important mark on the impressions of many potential buyers.
Very glad to see they are listening to us - bravo!
This is one of the most anticipated games for me this year, can't wait to delve in!

No way I'm buying this sorry excuse of a quick buck attempt.
Never played the game, but i heard it was good so I do want to give it a go eventually... but not in this state.
Give me a proper Remake and I'll be there to purchase it day one.

Not interested in Slim, already got the original PS5 disk console

But I'd be interested in the PS5 Pro IF they can demonstrate that they are getting rid of "the choice"... you know, 4k@60fps but only in Performance mode // or Quality but 4k@30fps, and that 4k resolution is never true, most of the time being checkered from 1080p-2k (closer to the former)...
Show it can run at least all the games launched until the console hits the market in 4k@60fps on Quality + Ray Tracing, and that the displayed 4k resolution is either true 4k or at the very least upscaled from 2k but not lower, and I'm game.

Story mode is the main reason i bought MK IX , X and XI (the complete editions, and with various discounts ofc), not a big fan of competitive PVP.
It'll be 1-2 years until I play MK I , but I'll be getting it for sure !

I don't really see the need for the media to give so much attention to this demon.

Even the squishy Necros or Sorcs can kill it without too much effort in WT3 or WT4, especially if he's around the same level.

Not to mention his drops are almost always mediocre - after 15-20 Butcher kills with several characters I have yet to receive a unique item from him, only legendaries that 98% of the time ended up in the grinder. Now i don't even bother killing him anymore, what's the point...

As a side note, you don't even have to fight him if you don't want to... when he appears, just go back towards the cave entrance, dodging from time to time if he hits you with a slow down aura. When you get somewhat closer to the entrance, Butcher will vanish and you can go on with your business, easy peasy - he will not appear in that cave instance again until reset.

Just another useless release to make quick buck, with as less work and dedication to the original as possible, and priced outrageously. Because all of the previous similar cases worked brilliantly...
It seems that someone forgot the pandemics is over, and new games are aplenty, especially now that the summer nears it's end.
What a waste of a good opportunity to bring this good game back in stile...

the game's unique dual-world mechanic
It's impressive, yes, but the concept behind it is not entirely unique. One example is the Soul Reaver trilogy, which had as central pillar (pun intended) exactly the dual worlds mechanic. You could switch from physical to spirit realms at any time or upon death, and back again only at full life and at specific points. And the spirit realm was overlapping the physical one, it was actually a twisted version of it. Useful for traversals and puzzles. Sound familiar?
And those 3 games hit the market around 20 years ago, 1999-2003.
Don't get me wrong I can hardly wait for Lords of the fallen to launch in October, i'm more hyped for it than for Starfield or Spiderman 2... But I don't like borderline false advertisings....

with something of a mea culpa planned to try and soothe the currently outraged hardcore community
No, with carefully planned corporate BS.
As soon as I saw the patch 1.10b notes, it was as clear as day why they made the nerfs: money
They nerfed the Eternal realm as hard as they could by lowering defenses across the board (among many others), then with patch 1.10b they went ahead and added armor on every malignant heart. Ths way all those players that were not gonna play the season because Eternal was good enough, will be "herded" to migrate to the season.
Let me put it this way: Want to make that "actually survivable" Sorc build? Play the season, it's the only way to get more armor on it! And while you play the season, why don't you buy Deluxe and Ultimate versions of the game to get the best experience while looking as cool as possible?
There's no way to wash this out with today's campfire.
The only thing they will do is give back some buffs, which too were planned a long time ago, to actually arrive at the desired level of nerf they wanted all along.... And this way the players feel happy and thankful that "Blizzard listens to the community" (yeah, right...) while gladly accepting the remaining nerfs, and obliviously falling for one of the oldest psychological trap in the negotiation business...

Yes Blizzard, bring those defences even lower.
That's how they "listen" to the community... perhaps those screaming that the Sorcerer and Necromancer classes are too squishy, weren't loud enough... now they have to cope with new nerfed defences, and lower crit damage... that's how you improve a game, by effing up 2 of 5 classes, and decreasing the player's overall joy to play.

BTW - hidden nerf not mentioned in the patch notes (perhaps in those 6600 words they didn't find enough room for this).
The cinders drop rate in Hell Tides was lowered by ~40-50%
It wasn't enough they increased the requirements for the Mystery chests from 175 to 250, now they made it a LOT harder to gather those 250 cinders. With my Necro I could gather ~380-400 cinders in 30 min before the patch, now in 30 min I can barely reach the 250 limit, even though I'm killing them monsters by the hundreds and doing every event I encounter along the way...
If you enter a hell tide area when there are only 20-25 minutes left, and want to get a Mystery Chest, don't even bother to try, set an alarm to catch the next one from the beginning...
Oh and they didn't make any improvements to the Mystery Chest item drops, you get the same sheet as before... so not only it's a lot harder to open one of them, there is no actual incentive to put in the extra effort...

Oh and where are the Gems modifications they promised to include in this patch?? They are still wrecking havoc with the Inventory space... but I guess they were too busy ruining everyone's fun to include crappy stuff like QOL...

Keep it up Blizzard, you'll fall right in the same sheet pit the D3 devs fel into some time after launch... until there were so few still playing the damned game they decided to actually improve it along with the expansion, and make it fun to play. You may have forgotten it, but we, those who paid for the game, surely didn't.
No matter... Path of Exile 2 is not far away, you could certainly do with some tough competition to bring you back on track.

May be in the minority here, but I never could get the hang of this kind of game controls, even back in the day when arcades were at every corner.
Especially for fighting games like Mortal Kombat, always found it much easier to use a 6 button gamepad like the Sega Genesis or Saturn ones.... at least until my hands outgrew them : )
Currently there's the 8bitdo variant of those gamepads, the M30, but the format is longer a good fit pour moi.
If only Victrix Pro BFG wasn't so expensive...

Easier to come by? Not exactly a good choice of words, unless you know something we don't...
It will all depend on the drop chance, which was not mentioned, and which, knowing Blizzard, will be very very low...
So the "easier" part would actually be attributed to a "femto-sized" increase... but I guess we'll see what the community says in the coming days.

Very well, prime time for any looking to buy a PS5 now.
I know the next words will not sit well with many, but I hope they'll launch PS5 Pro by the end of next year... the current hardware will not hold out for 4-5 more years without implementing some heavy graphical sacrifices in future games, which I, for one, am not willing to swallow... I'd rather wait 2-3 years for the PC versions to play them in true 4k ultra@60 fps.

Why is the standard edition only 50 euros?
Not that I mind paying less, but given the standard prices nowadays practiced by the rest of the industry, it makes me wonder if there's something with the game (on the short side, medium quality, etc)

EDIT: Short is not, apparently it takes about 25-30h to complete, which is very good... guess we'll see how it fares in the reviews next month.

Well, a few months back they (ND) mentioned they'd be getting back to a project they love.
Guess this is it then.
It also explains putting a pin into the multiplayer project for now - as I suspected since they announced that it "needed more time", it'll be coming as part of the 3rd game.... probably around 2025-2026, which will be putting it in line with the 3rd Season of the TV show.
The dots are aligning properly, so to speak (or... write).

If it'll be anything less than a Remake, there'll be tons of backlash on social media picking apart every single graphical drawback or outdated mechanic...
So if they think of bringing it back, they should go full throttle, or forget about it.

Still deep into Diablo IV raising my Necro.
But I managed to throw in 5 levels of Sackboy A Big Adventure too, first time playing it - very enjoyable game, and a welcomed temporary change of scenery before going back into the desolating areas of Sanctuary.

In a perfect world, anyone would tell those scalpers to f...k right off. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of wealthy ar$$e rich players out there, for which 500-1000$ is less than what they spend on the morning coffee... The main reason the scalpers still have a booming business. Not to mention the lack of legislation to counter this phenomenon...
I guess we'll see them all again at the next console or GPU launch.

What's there to "demo"?

• Newcomers: play the first game(s), they'll provide more than enough content for a test drive.
• Returning players: if you're returning, then you already like it, otherwise no additional demo will change your mind.

It would be a waste of time and resources to make one, since the sequel is very similar gameplaywise to the first games.
Not to mention, no matter how close to perfection they would make it, even minor issues would no doubt instigate a lot of social media drama, backlash against the devs, and even threats....
They took the best approach from any p.o.v.

Bringing them mechanical puppets to fight against in Wo Long ?

Too much drama for a minor issue with a so-so game...
Can't wait to see the internet explode with minor, unimportant, gripes, after the epic FFXVI launches this week... How long will it take before it gets review bombed, I wonder ?
The social media times we live in...

Wow, no Bloodborne relation mentioned in an article about Lies of P? Now, that's progress!

After playing the Demo, I find the game itself rather average, too much like Steelrising for my tastes, and quite less intriguing than the titans of the genre it's trying to emulate. Definitely not a day 1 purchase, but maybe I'll give it a try if I get it at a good discount later on.

I wish they didn't use those DBZ inspired powers, they fit like a wallnut in a wall in Prince of Persia...
Beyond that, I don't have a gripe with it.
After all the content shown during Ubisoft's show, and after it, I'm intrigued enough to play it once.
If it gets released on Ubisoft+ day one, even better, I'll get 1 month for it.

I'd give it a 8 for now, and I may change it to 9 or more if it'll get better in time.
It's a good game, no doubt, a lot of stuff offered at launch.
There are however a number of important downsides to it.

To avoid writing a novel on this subject, here's just an example (but certainly not the only one) : legendary items lack depth and get boring after a while.
On Tier 3 and Tier 4, you get 1-3 of them per dungeon made, which is, let's say... an ok drop rate.
But the aspects lack variety.. there are... what... about 20-30 of them that are different for a class, and a few that are general, for any class?
They start to repeat quite often, so they're not special anymore, they become useless for your build or in general, and you end up destroying them, like any ordinary junk.
Why? Because:

• most of the time they are attuned to your character class, you can't use them efficiently on another;
• you can't trade them off, can't even gift them to a friend, because trade doesn't exist in this game.
• there are also sacred and ancestral variants of the same items... so if you're glad you found some good legendary items at lvl 50 on Tier 2, prepare to change them off as soon as you switch to Tier 3 or 4 by their sacred versions... which are just souped up rolls of the same stats... lack of imagination on the devs part imo...

They could have made sets out of them for example, giving you new stats if you equipped 2-3-4 items in the same set, and even more for the complete gear.

Again this is just an example, there are quite a few others (useless white and magic items beyond breaking them // lack of runes and runewords, which are sorely missed // lack of set items // no depth to gems beyond their few stats // gems clutter inventory very quickly, especially on Tier 3 and 4 when they drop on all varieties, they sorely need their own tab... etc etc).

BUT .... Diablo IV just launched.
Diablo II (the original) didn't hit it's stride until the patches 1.09 and 1.10 + the LOD expansion. The quality the current Diablo II Resurrected has today is actually based on years of improvements made to the original.
Diablo III was a disaster at launch (remember the real money auction house?). It didn't improve significantly until years later, and a ton of backlash, after a new team got the reigns of the game and released a lot of patches and the expansion.
Path of Exile didn't have the quality it has today on launch day, but it got much better after years of constant improvements, addons and dedication of it's talented dev team.

Overall balance doesn't happen over night in those games, that's a given, they are very complex behind the screen, it's very hard to nail everything down on first release.
But I hope the Diablo IV devs will bring inspired and good quality patches and improvements to it in the coming months and 1-2 years, so we can enjoy it later on as much as we do the previous games today.

People were expecting a more "persian" feeling to the game, not a modernized version of it, even if it's not the promised Sands of Time Remake - hence the negative reception.
I was of course expecting some news on the Sands Of Time Remake, but as long as i know it's still in production, and coming in a few years, it's ok - I don't mind giving Lost Crown a go in the meantime.

Imo the game looks ok, and the music is fine. But I may be in minority here, since for me the best Prince of Persia in the Sands of Time trilogy, is Warrior Within, which was criticized for the same thing, music... but that Godsmack - I Stand Alone tune was such a perfect fit to the game, I could not help but praise the devs choice.
Besides, you can't judge a game by a single trailer. We'll see in a few hours more details, I think they have much more to show that could change people's minds... it'll be a good game in the end.

Diablo IV endgame content, of course!
Lots of stuff to do, renown to gain, Lilith's Altars to check, side quests to complete, helltides to ride, Tree Of Whispers rewards to collect... and the list goes on and on.

@truerbluer They can work out a solution if they want to, that can work in online too, that's not much of a hindrance.
The only obstacle I fear is the obsessive monetization, every new character has to have a price tag attached nowadays... money above all, improving the gameplay experience be damned...

What I hope they bring back is fighting against characters hidden in the world by unlocking said fights via in-game actions, like they did in the original MK1 and 2.
Also at least 2 playable characters hidden in the roster, unlockable via puzzles that have hints hidden around the game arenas.
For the rest of them they can make DLC's or whatever but give us at least 2 that can bring back that sense of mistery and the joy of discovering them...

When they've got no other exclusives and no clear roadmap for the current gen to show, what's the point of showing up, only to get more backlash?
Besides, they'll create their own chances to disappoint their clients, like another dismal State of Play in 2 months or 3... ready to see more of those kitty pirates and bubbly foam fighting games? Can't wait!

Very good show, far better than Sony's was.
They even presented the date for Spider-Man 2, something Sony couldn't even bother to include in it's very own showcase... I mean wth? Don't tell me they weren't ready to announce the date, 'cause it was just 2 weeks ago... They either didn't have anything else exclusive to bring to SGF, which presents a very serious problem for us PS console owners... or they're trying very hard to get people to dislike the PS Showcase by shooting it's knee caps off...

For me this weekend is Diablo IV all the way.

Enjoy your preferred games everyone!

It seems to be suffering from the same fate as PS5: it costs quite a few pennies, has a lackluster exclusive games portfolio at launch and for a good while after that... and in-between releases it spends too much time playing "catch-the-dust".
I fear that by the time Sony gets around to do something about it, it'll be time to replace it... they didn't even build enough confidence in it's future at their flopped PS showcase.

@BeerIsAwesome God of War 2018 was already ported on PC.
Besides, every platform has it's own exclusive games, it's not just Sony.

On the other hand there are ways for smart gamers to buy the games cheaper, ways that give you the freedom to choose the stores that give you the best discounts.

Sony allows users to create multiple accounts on their consoles, AND to play any game bought on any of the accounts on that console.
Make 1 account for US, 1 for UK, 1 for a European country etc.
And for example buy a game on the US account and you can play it on the UK account or the EU country account with no problems.

Why is this relevant - you can buy top up cards from wherever you find them cheaper, and redeem them in their corresponding PS store accounts.
Also, you can take advantage of promotions from all of those regions (PS store discounts don't come everywhere at the same time, or for the same amount).
Not to mention the parities... for example, if you live in a European country, you can buy games from the US account, because given the Euro-Dollar parity, it will be cheaper for you.
You won't be able to use credit cards or Paypal, but you can buy top-up cards from other sites, as I've said above, even at discounts.

Why was this important news about one of the best PS5 exclusives not mentioned in the Showcase, only to be released 5 days later with little to no fanfare ?
Oh, wait : "they didn't know" or "they weren't ready"... pffft riiiight.
I guess for Jim games like kitty pirates and foam fighting are more important going forward...

This sounds eerily familiar...
Aaah, yes... Ubisoft titles :

• Huge games that promise a lot before launch;
• Very good sales numbers from hyped and hopeful buyers;
• Games turn out to be full meaningless stuff.
• A lot of disappointment after actually playing them.

One silver lining though... at least we didn't have to pay to watch the showcase.

@ItsBritneyB_tch That's your opinion, for myself I liked them both a lot, and their respective DLC's.

Saw the gameplay video during the showcase, but I wasn't that impressed...
Even the first 2 games weren't the masterpieces most of the media made them up to be... I would score them at ~8/10. Best Spider-Man games? Probably. But overall ? No, I'd put games like Bloodborne, God of War or Horizon above them.

I have no doubt Spider-Man 2 is gonna be a good game, but I fear it won't stray too much from the same old open world formula...
It's gonna play it safe as many sequels do nowadays, and will stick to being "the first game with improvements"...

Should I mention the rumor that it's gonna take place in New York... again? If true, it couldn't be a less unfortunate choice of locale... will make the 2nd game feel like a DLC and not a sequel.

All I can say with absolute certainty for now, is that I'm reserved... that "hype" mentioned here doesn't apply to me, at least.
I'll wait for reviews on this one before deciding if it's worth my money and time.

Hard to find something specific to allocate my gaming time in, without starting a new game.
I'm waiting for Diablo 4 to launch, and that will take up most of my game time in June at least...
So, yesterday I did a bit of Bloodborne, created a new account on my PS5 to start a new Arcane build character and go for the 3rd Platinum.
Played a few original missions in Starcraft on PC... yeah, nostalgia kicks in sometimes : )
Now I've started a new run in Elden Ring, to try out one of the One-Shot Best Builds I found on YT, and at the same time to do some side quest I missed when I first played it. I won't finish them in a few days, clearly, but they can be done on and off in the long-term.

@practicein2021 Do you really think they do, enough of them to warrant investing millions of $$ into it ? And I don't mean for the first 2-3 months after release, but after that, in the long run.
It'd be nothing compared to the support for a full Part 3 release, with SP+MP combined...

Yep, I'm sure it was all Bungie's idea, and the lack of interest for this release shown by a lot of gamers had nothing to do with its re-evaluation...
Imo ND will be concentrating on The Last Of Us Part 3 main game, and will include Factions into it as a package deal (aka safety net, because the main game will definitely sell like hot cakes)... but time will tell.

Sony just can't seem to catch a break from the disaster-filled ride they're on right now...
PS5 lack of exclusive IP's... increasing the PS5 prices almost everywhere except the US for no reason whatsoever... a 4h battery on the Edge controller... the abysmal "state of" the latest "play" shows... the disappointing Showcase after ~2 years of waiting... their GAAS games receiving more money in the future than their big epic AAA IP's that got them their success... and now this.
What's next?

"Jim's mug will be forever tied to the most disappointing Playstation Showcase to date..."
Huh, whaddaya know... this show was good for something after all !

When your main competitor pokes fun of you for putting other companies offers above your own, you must know you've f.... up bigtime.
Doubt Sony will learn anything from this though...