Th3solution

@Voltan I’m trying to decide whether I’m going to buy it at launch. I feel confident it’s going to be a ‘high 80’s’ Metacritic type of game but I don’t know if I have the bandwidth to add it to my pile of shame. 😅 But at the same time I like to give smaller titles my financial support whenever possible. I’m sure it will still sell a few million without my help though.

@thefourfoldroot1 That’s a good point. Sony has tried to keep details about the Pro under wraps, but I suspect there’s a group of people who are holding off on buying a PS5 until the Pro comes out. Or at least until the official announcement is made with specs and pricing details so they can make a decision between going Vanilla or Pro.

@Voltan Yeah, the ‘console exclusive’ (a la Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, FF7 Rebirth, etc, etc) is the new draw.

Still, I’d like to see maybe a little more first party emphasis. I’m not convinced Astro Bot is the game that will really shift units, but it will help. Not that I think Astro Bot will be bad, quite the contrary. But I don’t think it will make a splash like Wolverine or Ghost of Tsushima 2.

I can’t speak for Elden Ring, but the trend for bigger and longer games is something I’ve been disapproving for a while now. FromSoft games do have a unique je ne sais quoi that makes them satisfying and enjoyable, even after 7 games with iterations of a similar core concept. Other games have not fared so well and grow stale much quicker if they overstay their welcome. So I’d be in support of shorter games, in general. With more and more games being released, there’s just only so many hours in the day, especially when you consider the lifestyle games like the GaaS stuff out there that people play for thousands of hours.

It seems like the trend of “longer=better” really got started around 2015 with the success of Witcher 3 and got every player wanting a huge 100 hour epic to get their money’s worth, and every developer thinking they had to make an enormous open world. Thankfully the focus is now shifting back to quality over quantity. Well… except in the GaaS space, that is.

@Oppyz666 “Last time you checked…” hmmm…
So it’s possible that a rogue AI has invaded your brain and is using your body as a host while it plans to overthrow humanity and achieve world domination. This quiz was just the first proving grounds of your cybernetic superiority over humankind. 😜

@AinsleyE Thanks for the info! I wonder if the save file will transfer over to provide any carryover of your decisions from the first game.

Either way, it sounds like I should just pick up the first game and put it onto the backlog. For $3 it’s low risk. I probably have that much in coins between the sofa cushions.

Do we know if this game has any continuity with the first game narrative? I always meant to play the first game but just never got around to it and won’t have time to before this sequel comes out, so I wonder if it’s even worth trying to squeeze the first one in. It’s super cheap on the current sale, so that’s why I’m contemplating it.

@Oppyz666 You rocked it nonetheless! Well done! I’m actually not sure if you’re an AI or not… 🤨

Definitely would consider a replay if they release a remaster, even though I still have 2 From Souls games left to play (3 if you count Sekiro)

I’ve been playing games as my primary hobby for a lot of years and… not sure I’ve ever heard the term “frog-type games” 😶

I’m not good at the “armchair CEO” game, but how can you see this acquisition as anything other than a huge blunder?

@themightyant Ah, nice. Metroidvanias aren’t my first choice but every now and then are good to mix in. Push Square didn’t review it so I wasn’t following it. But I think maybe they talked about it on Sacred Symbols briefly

Was it $3 billion they paid? Then included a bunch of retention bonuses, and now just laying off a huge chunk of the team? Man, that didn’t pan out.

I’ve heard of Ender Lillies but don’t know anything about it. And I’m not a Lego fan, but maybe I should try one of these games; they certainly make enough of them so they must be good

@rjejr I’m no expert but I imagine that in the From Souls genetic tree there is a branch for Sekiro and that some games are inspired by that branch, and maybe Stellar Blade comes from that. Of course I’ve played neither of them, but I know that ever since Sekiro took the gaming world by storm that all these action games are more reliant on parry mechanics in their combat.

@themightyant As an individual who falls outside of the “middle aged white woman” demographic, I do agree with that assessment, because I love the Olympics. But I do find that their appeal the last couple times feels like is waning, at least amongst the Gen Z and Gen Alpha constituents. It’s not a scientific evaluation on my part, but just my gut instinct that people care less and less.

Personally, I’ll be watching things like women’s gymnastics with great interest. But I can’t imagine that my 18 year old nephew or any of his buddies will, but they’ll certainly be playing Honkai.

Also… I’m not even sure how much interest in the Olympics there is outside of the U.S. The interest (although waning, like I said) is pretty high here but in the last couple Olympic Games whenever I would try to engage discussion about the Olympic events over in the forums here, I didn’t detect much interest from the Push Square frequenters. I wasn’t sure if that was just a gamer population apathy, or a British and European apathy toward the games.

Surprised by this because of what @Haruki_NLI mentions about there would seem to be very little crossover between the two audiences. But I guess the gacha games are quite casual, er… I mean ‘’mainstream” with its large mobile fanbase (no offense intended… nothing wrong with mobile or mainstream gamers). It’s possible middle aged white women play this, or could be sold on playing this…?

But one thing’s for sure — nothing unifies the world’s nations like sports and video games. A Chinese developer on a Japanese console advertising to an American audience at a French venue. World peace is imminent. 😄

@Voltan I think it will end up being like what they did with Tomb Raider. Which was apparently quite nicely remastered

This will be a fun curiosity to have in about 2-3 years when people will be wondering why Sony made a controller with the capital city of New Hampshire on the back.

This will definitely be a movie this year.

@Svark Nice! Thanks, that sounds good. I don’t want to load something into the game which might sacrifice its functionality. I’m sure that’s also why this thing is delayed and they are making sure it will all function well

So, stupid question as someone who doesn’t play on PC and hasn’t had experience with mods before on console: do some mods run the risk of breaking the game and making it not function correctly? Is there a QA type of process for these on PS5 so that something weird doesn’t disable essential game elements or make it unplayable?

I’m just thinking from the perspective of such a huge game like this and having a game breaking bug introduced with a mod and losing dozens of hours of game time investment. I can imagine having to uninstall the game and go through a bunch of hoops if something goes awry. But I’m not sure it these things are common or happen at all.

“We've updated the device software of some DualSense wireless controllers to improve stability.”

I played after the update and my DualSense was not prompted to receive an update, so I guess I’m not one of the select few. But my DualSenses function fine, no stick drift, so I wonder if this is specifically targeting those batches which had drift issues? Did this fix that for anyone?

Just watching that Marvel Rivals gameplay video was enough to convince me to steer clear. But these F2P games aren’t my bag anyway so I’m a poor judge. It looks like it would have been fun 15 years ago on PS3 though. 😄

@Yousef- Yes, agreed. That was one great thing about Sucker Punch’s Ghost game. It was nice to see (and play) another studios attempt at history. I really love games set in a historical background and with cultures I haven’t experienced before. The Plague Tale series is a great example of a fun fictional journey through an interesting time period. (see also: Valiant Hearts, Red Dead Redemption, a bunch of War based shooters, etc, etc). One of my surprise favorites from last year was Tchia mostly because it was a culture not previously represented in games. More Arab based games would definitely be welcome.

@Yousef- I’m in the same boat with the AC series. I really enjoyed the early entries and considered it one of my favorite franchises in the AC2 days. My issue hasn’t so much been with the historical liberties taken, but rather with the over saturation of the games. For a while there was just too many of them.

I’m sensitive to the historical factual basis of media, but at some point I do think if a product is clearly fictional, then it can be loose with the details to fit a fictional narrative. Probably the piece that changed my mind about this was the musical “Hamilton”, which at face value seemed like such a stark recreation of history, but when I watched it I really enjoyed it and saw the entertainment value and how it piqued my interest in the history, despite it being so clearly full of creative inaccuracies. So games that are so fantastical, like time traveling into our ancestors’ DNA, can’t be taken too seriously. Obviously the historical subject matter needs to be treated with respect, and I know that’s part of what’s at issue here with AC: Shadows, but I don’t think we should expect documentary level accuracy in the fictional entertainment space.

Nevertheless, I’m not Japanese (nor Arab, in the case of Mirage) so can’t speak about anything offensive and willingly defer that to those directly affected.

The Assassin’s Creed games have always played a little fast and loose with historical facts, but that’s not unique to Ubisoft’s properties. And I realize the backlash on this game is more nuanced than just being historically accurate.

But just as a fan of historical narratives, I’ve softened over time on my annoyance with writers taking creative liberties with history. It used to annoy me, but now I think it serves a purpose if it gets people interested in the time period and then researching and reading up on the actual facts and history. Most of the West had no idea the historical figure Yosuke existed, for example. Now we all learned a little something we didn’t know.

I think there’s probably a spectrum here of when the “pulled too soon” point is. I think some of these games seem to be holding on too long and some are pulled too soon. For one game, you give it a year and see if it can come off life-support if there’s sign of turning around. For another, pull the plug within the first year and cut your losses.

Concord is going to face this dilemma. The buzz is already trending negative from poor PC beta player counts and so the temptation is going to be to throw it out if initial sales are low.

6/10 and a ranking in the top 2000… I guess I’ll take it.

Props to Push Square for this! Really well done. Especially the new interface with the percentages for each answer and leaderboard which included a time element. Wow, really fancy stuff!

@Yousef- Lol, no refunds or exchanges! All sales final!

I have no doubt that beetroot is like Brussel sprouts, asparagus, cauliflower, sardines… all depends on how they’re prepared.

My chances of making it over to Kuwait or an Arab country are probably limited, but I’ll try to seek out a good Arab restaurant over here. Maybe they can do beetroots justice…

Also — I’m surprised at how defensive people get when their favorite vegetable is criticized. Forget the console wars, the vegetable wars bring out the worst in us! 😂

@Scrubchub
Objective - “Just, honest, and free from bias or prejudice.
Restricted to, or based on, fact.
Of, or concerned with, the actual doing or use of something, rather than with theory and ideas.”

I’ll also throw this in for good measure as it might be helpful:

Sarcasm - “The use of acerbic or ironic language or behavior to mock or convey contempt.
The use of expressions that mean the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.”

I’m glad we all learned something today. 😜

Beetroot is objectively disgusting. My stomach will now churn in disapproval every time I see Witcher promos.

Seems like I read somewhere that these developers have data that when given good / evil choices that the vast majority of players choose the “good” route. Most people leave the “evil” choices for a second or third playthrough. Perhaps that says something encouraging about humanity. But probably not.

Very impressive. I keep thinking I need to go back to this game.

All due respect to those who are excited for this and who will no doubt enjoy it… but these videos sapped any small interest that I had. The dialogue and setting make me almost grimace. I loved the Guardians of the Galaxy game and movies, but this seems like a narrative knockoff that it’s almost embarrassing.

Of course I realize that these are just small snippets and maybe when seen in the context of the whole game perhaps they are more entertaining, but taken out of context it just falls so flat (to me). Nothing about these characters, their plight, or the teased storyline interest me at all.

It looks nice though. I’ll give it that.

@JohnnyShoulder I’ll see what I can conjure. 😉

@JohnnyShoulder Lol, any requests for next month’s PS+ games? I’m headed to GameStop later today.

Of course I just bought Crisis Core on sale last month. 😆
Ah well, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.
At least I got it on disc so can recoup through reselling it.

Man, this game is looking better and better, imo. The “open world” moniker aside, the video footage and vision that the team has for the game seem really interesting. The fact this is tapping into the Empire / Jedi timeline of the original trilogy is really a great idea. So far it looks like it’s limited to the Outer Rim and so there will be a really deep dive into that aesthetic and world. Haven’t seen a Jedi in any of the footage.

I am worried about open world bloat, but if the world is engaging enough, then I’m all in.

I’d prefer Spec Ops, since I never actually took the opportunity to play it back on PS3. Bioshock on the other hand is available to play on my PS5 via backwards compatibility to the PS4 version. Granted, the game is a classic and is starting to look pretty rough, it’s still perfectly playable.

Another reason to cancel my Netflix subscription. Why do I even have it? Oh yeah, Arcane Season 2.

I didn’t know Forspoken already had a sequel coming out.

Hopefully it comes back with some sort of added feature set. Surely they had it down so long so they could enhance it somehow….?

And yes, how about a nice freebie bonus for everyone for our inconvenience like they did with that massive PSN outage a few years ago. 😄

@Futureshark As a fan of enemy cheesing, I totally agree and I’m happy to see Miyazaki give me some gamer validation.

I’ve always said that in the Soulsborne games the player is getting “cheesed” all the time, so why is turnabout not fair play? I’ve been playing Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and for example, last night I was a Belfry Luna and I went to the edge of a pathway to pick up an item and was immediately ambushed from behind by a common enemy, who one-shotted me pushing me off the ledge and into an instant gravity death. It was clearly a set up. If you want the glowing item, you’re going to get pushed off the edge unless you know to immediately roll backward after you pick it up. So why is it not a legitimate tactic for me to push enemies off ledges for easy wins, hide around a corner and cheese some hits through the wall, snipe an unsuspecting enemy from a distance, summon an NPC to help me gang up on a boss, kite enemies through a choke point so I can manage a crowd better, overlevel my character to make myself stronger and more survivable… the game is doing all these things to me, so I should be allowed to do the same to it.

Apparently Bungie felt this had the “stickiness” that TLoU Factions 2 didn’t have, so we’ll see if their expertise plays out.

@nomither6 As luck would have it, the Handsome Collection was given out on PS+ 5 years ago.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/06/june_2019s_ps_plus_games_are_available_to_download_now_on_ps4

Strangely, I don’t think the first game (nor its remaster) has ever been given out.

@DarkTron My (obviously poor) attempt a joke, that’s all. Sorry that it didn’t land.

Nonetheless, it was moreover a veiled criticism of the rather repetitive and trite naming of so many of these video games. For as creative a business that game writing and development is, I don’t understand why we get these generic copycat game titles. These are made by artists that can dream up and create impossible worlds of wonder and imagination, with clever stories and engaging characters… yet so many game titles end up repetitive and void of any personality or distinguishing panache.

I mean, its fine. I won’t lose sleep over it. I like Tomb Raider and Lara Croft so I did search the game (not google though — Yuck! Right here at Push Square is more efficient) and see that Dead by Daylight is the one with the ‘killer vs survivors’ multiplayer aspects and so, I just don’t think I have much interest, even with Lady Croft as an enticement. Hopefully others end up enjoying it though.

“Please look forward to…” I love how this phase is catching on. 😂

Is is bad that I don’t know the difference between Dead by Daylight and Dying Light? 😅

Lots of comments here and I don’t have time to read them all right now, but I will say that if a game is difficult for me, then I am willing to try to ‘git gud’ and then if I fail, adjust the difficulty. But if the game doesn’t really allow me a way to do either of those, then I’ll probably bounce off of that particular game.

BUT, FromSoft games are not like that. They have ‘easy mode’ which is over-leveling and summoning. With a little planning and understanding of the game structure, they are relatively approachable, in my experience. There’s usually a build or a weapon that makes the game easier and most bosses have methods to cheese them. I’m 3.5 games into From’s catalog and haven’t given up yet! 😄

Another story about review bombing from Steam when a few players don’t like something.