StrickenBiged

Sorry Bliz, I just don't believe you anymore. I'm going to give it at least a year before jumping in, if at all.

For the Emperor!

I started XV the other day - still in the very early stages of it. My first FF experience (save for occasionally glancing over a friend's shoulder when he was playing VII way back in the early 00's on his laptop). My only gripe so far is that the menus are a bit clunky and you can't dismiss the popups that come up when you turn in a quest or a hunt, which slows down the boring bits. Combat is very different to what I'm used to, but I'm cool with having something which is a bit more chill to actually play. If that's only 13th on this list, and based on my enjoyment so far, then it looks like I'm going to have a good time poking around this franchise.

4:17 - The NPCs got quite existential there, didn't they...

Well a biopic is much more interesting than what I assumed the movie was going to be - some drole racing drama.
Yeah, the slogan absolutely sucks. "From Gamer to Racer" is pathetic. How about "From Virtual to Reality; one man's journey to the chequered flag"? You could probably delete everything after the semi-colon, but this was suggested to me by ChatGPT, and is far better.

I wonder how much use they made of the haptic feedback...

@OrtadragoonX Not quite correct to say that the CMA's decision had nothing to do with Sony. Sony's "Theory of Harm 3" in their responses to the CMA's preliminary decision focussed on cloud gaming. See page 15 onwards here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/637cecede90e076b8043d8cd/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment.pdf

I have to say, I have been wondering why neither MS nor ABK have bothered to make any statements actually criticising the decision and explaining why its incorrect, but are attacking the consequences (as they see it) of the decision in terms of their investment decisions, etc. Do they not have an answer to the CMA's findings? Or can they not come up with another remedy which wouldn't require ongoing regulatory oversight (which is not supposed to be the CMA's job)?

Perhaps they're keeping their powder dry rather than prejudice their appeal by making inconsistent statements now.

When it comes to games developed in Japan, I'm not convinced that Sony is actually locking those down in every case. XB has a tiny, tiny market share there, which is its own fault for not making games or products that appeal to that market. If I were a Japanese dev making a game, I'm not sure I'd bother with all the hassle involved in developing, certifying, keeping patched and updated, etc, for a console where I don't expect to sell very many copies.

I'm looking forward to the court case. We got such an interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the gaming industry from the disclosure in Epic v Apple, and (despite the redactions) in the submissions made by Sony and MS to the various regulators in relation to this acquisition. Personally, I hope this thing runs and runs and we continue to get these tid-bits of information that the companies usually keep to themselves.

@Kidfried I was already lamenting the loss of any potential Sekiro sequel. My favourite of the Souls-likes so far.

But at least we'd always have Bloodborne... right PlayStation... right... please?

@stua12t Well, we have MS' word for it, but no insight into how they reached that conclusion. Do they, for instance, include the foregone sales of full priced game releases? Or is it just a calculation based on "we made X in gamepass subscriptions, and spent Y on acquiring licences to put games on gamepass. X exceeds Y therefore we are profitable"?

Fascinating.

Given their comments, I assume that MS and ABK must have had advance notice of the decision. If not, then announcing an appeal before your lawyers have had a chance to review the decision is never a wise move. Keep your cards close until you're ready to play and all that.

I bet Ryan is popping champagne.

I'd be playing already if I could get the damned save-transfer system to work! My NG+-ready save is trapped on the PS4 version of the app, and CDPR's save transfer system just refuses to work for me despite repeated attempts!

I'm not entirely sure this is good news. By implication, isn't he saying that the overheads provided by the PS5 meant that they didn't have to spend so long optimising the game? If so, that may not bode well.

Thanks for the heads-up. Nabbed it.

On reflection, I downgraded Elden Ring from a 10 to an 8. In the last year I just haven't been able to enjoy a repeat playthrough or NG+. I think once the sense of discovery is gone the game loses a lot of its magic and its flaws become a lot more apparent.

@NEStalgia My assumption too. You'd have thought that the director or producer would step in and say something.

Why do the actors in these things always hold and press buttons on the controllers weirdly? Like how they stab at the buttons, don't rest their fingers on the triggers, etc.

I'm waiting to see what the monetisation is like before I touch D4 with even a bargepole. Sadly, Blizzard has lost my trust on that front with their more recent releases.

I'd love to buy one, but at that price I've got more pressing priorities. Appreciate it's probably the best VR out there at the moment, but all the same a big price cut needed.

Sackboy and this rat game sound good to me.

@Beerheadgamer82 I can top both of these. Was on the deck of a ferry waiting to depart. There were a lot of seagulls around. I said to my mate "we're going to get shat on standing here". Looked up at the sky, just in time for a large amount of seagull poo to hit me right between the eyes and splatter across my entire face. My friend was literally rolling on the floor laughing his head off for a good while.

Bond should be fun. I hope they're looking to the older films and what have you for inspiration. I want disappearing cars with machine guns hidden behind the headlights, watches that can saw through things, exploding pens, eye glasses that can scan for intel, that sort of thing. Silly as Hitman can get when you set things up right, it's much more grounded than Bond.

@Clankylad I'd have thought they could easily fill in Season 2 of the TV show by showing us what happened in-between Part 1 and Part 2 of the games. That sort of time jump makes more sense in gaming, or even a sequel to a feature film, but I'd have thought it would be more jarring in a TV show.

@WizzNL Story quality is debatable. Personally I thought it was full of plot holes. I can appreciate what the writers were going for and thought they mostly nailed it, but I thought they could have got there in a more intelligent, and possibly a more emotionally impactful, way. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those rabid detractors who 'hated' the game, I enjoyed it a lot, but thought Part 1 had a much better story.) I recommend you play it for yourself, and maybe you'll see what I mean.

@nomither6 Appreciated, thanks! Baffled as to why they felt the need to re-invent the nomenclature used in their platform - calling it a "server" made it sound far more techy than it needs to be!

Is there a guide for how to use Discord in the first place? I've tried to use that platform many times and I just can't seem to get my head around how it's organised. Maybe I'm following the wrong/badly organised channels, but I find it utterly impossible to use.

It's just a crying shame that Hogwarts Legacy doesn't feature a time-management system a-la Bully, where you had to attend classes according to a schedule, and that the being-a-student role-play is somewhat lacking. They could have given you time to do longer quests with the time-turner device from the books. I've been doing so much side content already, I don't think I've set foot in the school grounds in what must be at least an in-game month! The professors must think I died somewhere.

@get2sammyb Thanks! When it comes to FF7, I'm thinking I might wait until they have remade the whole thing. I'm expecting a "complete edition" to drop, hopefully not in vain.

I'll move FFXV up my backlog I think. I'm enjoying Hogwarts for the moment, but eager to try something completely new to me after that's done.

I've never played a FF game. I think I've got FFXV in my PSN Library through the PS Plus Collection. Can I just jump in there?

The State of Play killed my (admittedly, already low) interest in this game entirely.

Yes, DA:O with remade animations, graphics, and a streamlined UI and class system (I seem to recall that you could waste skill points on perks that didn't suit your build if you didn't know what you were doing) would be ace. It had a great story that I replayed many times to see all the permutations of the story, and interactions with the world and party members based on your choices.

Strong Lemmings vibes here too.

I came from XB360 in the previous gen. After watching both conferences, my wife remarked - quite rare of her to humour me and watch this sort of thing with me, but she did so there you go - that "Xbox didn't have much on the games". I thought I would stick with XB for the last gen, but her unprompted non-gamer remark made me reconsider. Glad I switched horses and became a Sony Pony, I'd have missed many great exclusives had I not done so.

Too many reviews highlighted it's similarity to MH for me. I played MHW, became obsessed with it for a while, and then put it down. If I wanted to scratch that itch again, I know where MHW is. The building mechanic doesn't seem like it offers enough differentiation to me, and in fact seems overcomplicated. I liked the purity that came with carefully crafting your weapon, gear and tools in MHW, and then flawlessly executing on a hunt with others.

Enjoyed the first one much more than many reviewers and commenters led me to believe I would. My midi-chlorians are ready.

Is BeatSaber available in PSVR2 yet? I keep banging on about it, but it's my favourite VR game so I'm keen to know how that fares on this platform. Particularly keen to know how the controllers feel while playing it, as the two rings around the wrist look like they might get in the way of fast wrist flapping motions, and/or collide when you have to make simultaneous cuts in opposing directions in some of the tracks.

@Constable_What "The outcome I foresee, is this deal goes through, but with a caveat that CoD remains accessible on Playstation platforms indefinitely."

Not sure about any other jurisdiction, but I don't think that such a caveat would be enforceable in the UK as it would infringe too much on MS/Activision's property rights in the CoD franchise.

I recall that one of the CMA's possible remedies was that the CoD business would be spun off into a separate business. PlayStation and MS would then be able to compete on more equal terms to do business with the new CoD publisher/developer, as they currently do with third parties.

Has Kotick only just figured that out now? If so, MS should knock a few billion off the price.

I only really use VR currently for BeatSaber. So I'll be looking at how PSVR2 lands among that community in particular before making any decision about the headset. I'm particularly concerned about the PSVR2 controllers, which look like they won't withstand being accidentally smashed together at high speed while you're pulling off some of the moves required in that game.

"there’s a quiet understanding that not every project in its portfolio needs to be a success: if one of its ten titles hits even half as hard as Fortnite, then it’ll have a multi-billion dollar game in its catalogue."

This. Only one needs to hit to make megabucks. The non-financial downside of cancelling or killing some of the others that don't make the cut is that Sony will earn a reputation in the eyes of its customers for being an unreliable publisher. The gamble is that the payoff of the hit will outweigh the loss of player goodwill.

As a fan of the tabletop game who doesn't get to play anywhere near as often as I like, I'm looking forward to this.

@tgt She doesn't though. JK's point is that reforms such as de-medicalised self ID make it easier for people who are NOT trans (such as predatory men) to PRETEND to be trans to gain access to women's spaces and potential victims.

The game being published by WB, I'm heartened to read that there are no microtransactions in it. But now I'm scared that it will do what Activision did with Crash Team Racing and simply wait until they've had glowing reviews across the board before sticking microtransactions in at a later date. While I'm keen to play this game, I think I'll hold off for a little while to see whether that comes to pass. It doesn't hurt that my backlog is sure to keep me busy while I wait.

I agree with other commenters that the second and third paragraphs of this review detract from the piece as a whole, and are not relevant to the discussion of the game in any way. I'd remove them, personally.
They are arguably a slur on the creator of the Harry Potter franchise and universe. While the Glamour article linked in the first comment gives a one-sided re-hash of Rowling's alleged 'transphobia', other journalists have looked into it too (and more recently) and reached different conclusions. See, for instance: https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/jk-rowling-transphobic-how-i-went-from-spreading-this-false-narrative-to-seeing-right-through-it-ej-rosetta-3961211
I agree with PushSquare's right to moderate it's comments as it sees fit. It does however strike me as hypocritical to take a stance in the review and then forbid discussion of that stance.
In case it makes any difference to a moderator, I support both trans-rights AND women's rights. As the father of a little girl, I share Rowling's concerns over women's spaces being opened up to anyone who claims to be a woman (which is available to anyone under a de-medicalised system of gender self-ID). This is not even a view on trans-folks, but a view on safeguarding women, because predatory men (again, emphatically NOT the overwhelming majority of law-abiding trans-women) have and will continue to avail themselves of any loophole they can to gain access to victims. I view this stance as also being supportive of trans-rights, which will only lose political support as scandals occur (as for example in the recent Scottish cases involving rapists being placed in women's prisons).

All depends on the terms of this offer. SIE's filings with the CMA show (although the numbers are redacted) they need parity with MS when it comes to CoD. That means parity across multi-game subscription services also.

Great if true. I've been itching to replay ME.

Well deserved. I'm 31 hours in and the game just keeps getting better. I'm doing a lot of the side content, and then I stumbled upon a whole new area in one of the realms which is absolutely stuffed with sorely needed upgrade materials and side-missions. Sorry main quest-line, you're going to have to wait a while.

I'm about 23 hours into Ragnarok. Taking my time and savouring every morsel of content on this one, doing as much side-content as I can as I progress the main story.