Th3solution

Well, I hear From Software is hiring.

@ROTTIEMAN16 Yeah, I guess we would have a good idea by looking at the Series X version of the equivalent game since it doesn’t have the compression tech? I’ve not looked at a comparison but it would be interesting to see

@DennisReynolds Oh, thanks for the clarification. I’m not a tech guy and certainly don’t know about the programming side of things. I was led to believe that the fast speeds of the SSD made having duplicate assets unnecessary since single files could be accessed just as quickly as making redundancy in the code, thereby allowing some of those files to be omitted. Or something like that. As far as turning a larger game into a smaller one, it was true of many cross gen games though — the PS4 version was larger than their PS5 counterpart. Many of the early cross gen games were this way (granted not a 50% reduction. More like a 10-20% reduction, if I recall correctly), but this may have been due to the compression tech rather than saving on unnecessary assets.

Wow, these file sizes have just ballooned this gen. Started with these promises of smaller downloads due to the SSD and now most new AAA games are all 80 GB + and slowly creeping higher!

@Grumblevolcano Hasn’t Ghost of Tsushima 2 been confirmed?

Saints Row is the surprise there. Even with it being a PS Plus game.

I don’t understand the obsession with voice commands. Not just the PS5, but everything I own has them. I never use Siri. Never use the voice commands in my TV. Don’t have an Alexa. Why every electronic appliance has to have some AI assistant with voice commands is beyond me. I’m perfectly happy to click a button. Guess I’m old fashioned.

The Order: 1886 says hello.

@Afroducc “Please Sony, lets have a couple of new IP from your first party.”

I’m in total agreement that I want to see a steady stream of new IP mixed with the sequels and remasters, but I do think they have more than a couple coming. We know about Concord and Fairgames. There’s also heavy rumors about Bend working on a new IP and also a second Naughty Dog team cooking a new IP in the background alongside TLoU3. Pretty sure Bluepoint has a new IP, if their current game isn’t Bloodborne 2. Also based on what they said about their current project, Housemarque isn’t making a Returnal sequel, so it’s probably a new IP. Almost certainly Media Molecule isn’t doing Dreams 2 either. 😅

But yes, as far as Insomniac, it would be interesting to see what novel IP they could create on their own.

I like choice based story games, but… uh, no.

Still working through FF16. It’s quite a lovely game. Just oozes with high end production value. I’m really liking Clive.

I dropped in on Humanity to do a couple levels last night. It gets quite difficult quickly. I’m on sequence 3. I still really enjoy it for a change of pace game or if I just have 30 minutes to get a quick level or two done

@Ooccoo_Jr Yeah, I’m starting to be reluctant to grab some of these games on sale due to the tendency of games recently on sale dropping into Extra. I had picked up Disco Elysium a while back on sale and have yet to play it, for example, and now I could have just played it through PS+. Fortunately I did buy it physical, so I can resell it if I want.

So the games I’m buying lately are either at launch, in physical disc so as to have the ability to flip them, or on a discount when it’s a game I don’t suspect to ever go on PS+, like FromSoft games.

@PenguinLtd I think that’s a good price for Jedi Survivor and well worth it, imo. I bought it at launch and paid full price and quite enjoyed it. Spent almost 90 hours on it. The launch technical issues are mostly ironed out (and imo were largely overblown anyways) although the performance mode can still be inconsistent at times. If you’re one of the ‘60 fps or bust’ crowd then you might have some concerns, but if you’re someone who can give a little leeway to these huge open world games that have so much content and will have a frame hitch from time to time or are fine just playing the 30 fps mode, then you’ll really enjoy it. Provided you liked the first game, because it’s similar, although quite a bit larger and has more varied combat and traversal options.

@3Above I do agree that it seems like some publishers don’t strategize their release dates very well.

In fairness, this Jan-Feb window has some big games but they are slightly different genres and won’t be necessarily competing against each other directly. I guess Granblue and FF7 are probably vying for the same crowd. And maybe Helldivers and Suicide Squad overlap, as do the 2D side-scrollers PoP and Unicorn.

But even though there’s a variety in that release period, there’s only so many games one can play at a time.

I have the original PS5 with the disc drive and wouldn’t be interested in a digital only machine.
Props to Sony for coming up with this idea, since I think a few people want the modular capability.

I need to play the base game first. Too many games, too few hours in the day.
I am trying to at least play all the Dark Souls games first, so I have DS2 lined up to play hopefully later this year.

As for the other early 2024 releases (and it feels crazy to think that 2024 is less than 3 months away), I probably will only get FF7 Rebirth from that list, but could be swayed on a couple others depending on reviews. Really curious if that Suicide Squad game is going to be the dumpster fire that the preview trailers showed.

Really good month. Several games that I want to play (Gotham Knights, Disco Elysium, House of Ashes).

I think they have all been on sale recently in the PS Store. That pattern has potential to backfire over time, since I’m becoming more reluctant to buy games on sale if they just go to PS+ immediately afterward

I’d rather have Part I, but this is still a nice get. I wouldn’t mind replaying Part II but I want to replay Part I first.

I’m going to try to save as many thoughtless and libidinous teenagers as I can in The Quarry.

Then some time with Clive and friends in FF16.

One potential problem I see is that Sony has already started making deals with all the other streaming services. So I wonder about the likes of HBO’s The Last of Us, Netflix’s Horizon Zero Dawn, Amazon’s God of War, Peacock’s Twisted Metal, etc, etc… It would be great to have all the PlayStation shows and movies under this one Sony app, and then to give access to them for PS+ subscribers on their PS5.

I’m not sure how these contracts work, and likely they’re each unique, but I suspect at least some of these deals specify that the outside production entity (such as HBO for example) has exclusive rights to keeping the show on their platform. But hopefully Sony had the foresight to keep rights to these shows for their own service.

There seems to be a lot of Bloodborne inspired games.

@ShogunRok Apologies if I missed it in the review, but does the game have any substantial modern day storyline or connection to an overarching Animus backstory with the other games? I haven’t played an AC game since Origins, but I know they were still trying to keep some semblance of “playing as your ancestor” narrative loop, or have they abandoned that completely?

Also… how do you pronounce “chocobo”? I’ve been saying “choke-a-bow” but they’re saying “chauk-a-bow” in FF16. What?!

This is as monumental as them telling us the “X” button on the PlayStation controller is actually called the “cross” button. Preposterous!
What next? Sackboy is actually 8 feet tall?!

@stu123 glad I’m not a “Graham” 😂
I think the Push Square lexicon now has a new entry. Poor guy didn’t know his name will now forever stand for “someone who is uninformed of something that the rest of the Push Square user base is well aware of”

I’m playing The Life and Times of Clive Rosfield

I think having these smaller titles launch day 1 on the service has been a really nice compromise to the GamePass day 1 release model. Sure — Stray, Tchia, Humanity, Sea of Stars, and Teardown aren’t Starfield, Forza, or COD, but it’s really giving the service a shot in the arm to have some quality indie games at launch.

Curious if this will affect the inclusion of the base game on PS+ Extra. Best case scenario they include this new complete edition on the service, like they did for Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, etc. Worst case scenario they pull HFW off the service in hopes of selling more copies of the CE. With the recent PS+ price hike, I hope for their sake it’s the former.

I think that statement at the end is the real nugget to this story. The fact he reluctantly consented to including Fallout76 as a one-off against his overarching philosophy of “if you want this game, you gotta take the whole portfolio.”

In the context of Call of Duty, that’s a scary position for Xbox to take. I know all publishers do this, as he mentions in the email (incidentally, I think that’s how PlayStation ended up with the underwhelming Forspoken, since I suspect it was handcuffed to Final Fantasy XVI and FF Rebirth, most likely as a package deal). Xbox has already agreed that COD will stay on PlayStation for 10 years, but this is in direct opposition to that last statement in the email and would suggest he’d want to leverage COD in order to prop up their portfolio in other ways on PS.

I’m embarrassed to admit I was a PS Home junkie for a while. I’m not sure if it would fit into my current lifestyle, but at the time I really loved it. I met a few friends, which are gone now, but I think he’s right about it being a concept that was ahead of it’s time. It was like a poor man’s Yakuza crossed with Fortnite. It had several mini-games to engage with like bowling, chess, basketball, and also had community events to attend with other people. Nothing on the order of a virtual Ariana Grande concert, mind you, but it was an small embryo of what would follow. Oh yeah, and the cosmetic microtransactions… it had those too. 😅

On second thought — curse you, PS Home!

@nessisonett True. Playing FFXVI right now and there’s is a lot of voice actors in that game, for sure. And yeah, I also didn’t think about the fact that a lot of voice actors do both — screen acting and voice work. There is a lot of overlap. It behooves the entire acting community to all be on board. The numbers are probably a lot bigger than I initially thought.

Well done! A worthy victor. Bloodborne was my first From Software game and the opening hours were very frustrating, but after getting accustomed to the gameplay loop, it became one of my absolute favorites.

And many thanks again to @Kidfried for organizing this colossal effort. Exceptional job!

Good voice acting does indeed enhance a game. And bad voice acting can almost ruin an otherwise good game.

I am curious about the voice actors’ group and what kind of numbers we’re talking about here. We all know a handful of famous voice actors (Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Nolan North, etc, etc) but I don’t reckon it’s a very large group, at least compared to screen actors. And with voice acting, they often have a much less recognizable quality which could be more readily switched out (which I think a commenter alluded to above) as compared to media where the visual likeness is displayed. So I do wonder how well this negotiating will go, and it’s good to see the whole SAG-AFTRA helping them out. When it’s a group of 90% unknowns, then the game industry isn’t likely to feel as much pressure.

The success of this developer is impressive, but I’ll steer clear. Unless I lose my job and suddenly have unlimited free time. And even then, I have a backlog to keep me busy for a few years.

I didn’t realize that one of the founders of PlatinumGames was the director of RE2 and Okami. Very different games compared to the typical style of Platinum.

But yeah, there’s something strange going on over at PlatinumGames. The studio seems to have lost its way since Babylon’s Fall. This would appear to confirm that. It’s a weird quote too — leaving “based on his own beliefs.” Not sure what that means.

I loved the first game and have been excited to see what they can do with the sequel, so it does disappoint me slightly that it is previewing as being too note-for-note with the first one.

The key elements of the first game definitely should be kept intact, such as the pawn system, and large enemies that you can scale, and the classic dragon-based storyline. But I would like to see some evolution to make the game feel like a current gen leap outside of faster loading and upgraded visuals. For example, I’m hoping for some increased depth in the pawn system and in the character progression. Things like the online pawn you’re employing from another player having more detailed conversations with you about the quests they’ve already done, and more useful hints and guidance. Stuff like that.

I’m going to probably get into Final Fantasy XVI finally.

And a little Humanity on the side.

I’m a little disappointed. Vincent was my favorite party member. Well worth the optional extra effort to find him and have him join the party in the original FF7.

I was never a Cait Sith fan. I did use Red XIII, but my favorite party members were Vincent and Tifa.

@Darude84 I would think, yes - if you’re a fan of Death Stranding then the MGS games are likely going to hit for you. Especially if you enjoyed the Kojima styled quirky narrative and flair.

If roaming the open world was your favorite part of DS, then these early games might not be up your street. MGS5 is the main game which has an open world that feels a little like DS.

However, these early games are going to definitely feel rough, gameplay-wise. Especially the first game. There’s a good chance that these remasters will improve some of the controls and modernize some of it, but time will tell.

I have the BluePoint remaster HD Collection on Vita, so not sure I’ll get this. MGS1 is the difference though, since of course that was conspicuously missing.

I do wonder how the Psycho Mantis boss fight is handled in this…

We should rest here, Arisen.

What kind of name is Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]?

It’s not clear to me what the timeframe is on these fees. Is that $300 million per month? Hopefully not. Maybe for a year?

I have been curious as to how much it costs to include a game on PS+. For an PS + Essential game it’s effectively a permanent giveaway (as long as subscribed), vs Extra and Premium tier which are more like GamePass in that the games are presumably just there temporarily.

I’m not interested in mobile phone gaming, even if it’s AAA console games like Death Stranding.
I do need a new phone though. I’m like 5 generations behind in the phone space. It might finally be time to upgrade. Then maybe the Push Square videos would load up more consistently for me. 😅

I have wondered if and when the ABK acquisition goes through, is that a signal to Microsoft and the rest of the industry that everything else is fair game? If the regulatory bodies won’t stop the acquisition of the largest publisher in the industry, then would they halt anything else, based on that precedent?

I don’t play sports games anymore, although there was a time when I did. The microtransactions definitely are a turn off to getting into this series. I mean, I took a chance with GT7 and was pleased at how minimally intrusive the MTX was, but EA seemed to have pushed the envelope with this. Certainly they know people will buy the game in droves regardless and so that’s sad indeed. It sounds like maybe this needs to be two separate games, one that’s complete with all the basic franchise mode stuff and then a separate free-to-play or low cost extra release for the modes that rely on all the MTX. They’ll never do that though, as long as people do both - pay $70 for it and then also spend $100 on MTX.

I already own 13 Sentinels and Nier Replicant, both of which I picked up on a steep sale at some point. I have played about 6-8 hours of 13 Sentinels and I was liking it fine but I dropped off and need to go back. It’s a very unique game, I’ll definitely give it that. It’s a mix of visual novel, adventure game, and real time strategy combat. If you don’t like anime or Japan styled storytelling where the protagonists are invariably composed of high school students, then you might find it difficult to get into. But I give it points for doing some things I’ve never seen done before in a game.

Nier Replicant is one I definitely need to get to eventually. Automata is one of my favorites from last gen.

This sounds fantastic. I’m happy to see they sprinkle a little BotW inspiration on top of the standard open world formula, but not too much. Similarly to HFW and GoW:R in the sense it appears to take the prior game’s recipe and just iteratively perfects it, rather than changing the whole core gameplay

Now I feel guilty for the times I install a game (from PS+ or a F2P) and then never play it.

@NorrinRadd I personally would agree that TLoU2 would be higher. I’d probably have it top 50, maybe top 30. The first game did finish #3 though, which is probably about right.

My personal GOAT finished #7

This poll has been epic and extremely well organized by @Kidfried
Props to the Kid for all the exceptional effort and to all the Push Squarites for participating!
Two very worthy finalists!