Th3solution

@OnlyGaming Lol, very true, the not being perfect part, that is. Not having good taste, well, also possibly true. 😅
If it’s any consolation, Skyrim is one of my favorite games of all time. Why I have a mental block on Fallout I can’t explain. I think I’m put off by what I saw of the VATS or VAMS or whatever that system is. The description and small amount of gameplay footage I saw seemed gimmicky, I don’t know. Also, as with many long running series, I feel a little strange jumping in at the midway point. Even if the games are each standalone, there’s a sense that as a newcomer you’re missing out on some inside knowledge or existing momentum. But that’s where the TV show may help. If it is a good entry point for the uninitiated, it might segue more easily into playing these latter entires like FO4 and 76. I refuse to turn on my PS3 unless my PS4 and PS5 both die, so I don’t reckon I’ll play FO3 or New Vegas anytime soon.

@rusty82 Blast, I had been trying to not buy any games until I whittled down my backlog but that RE4 price is really good for just being out a year. I don’t think it’ll drop lower than that for a while.

@thefourfoldroot1 I would love a more sophisticated way to display and organize trophies. I’m not a VR adopter, but if they could also have just a standard virtual trophy room that one could enter to see/display trophies, that would be sweet. I’d even just take just a simple filter and organizing function for the list. Like let me see all my platinums at a glance, or all my PS3 trophies together, or maybe have a search function so I can go straight to a specific game’s list. I guess PSN Profiles and other third party sites can do some of this, but I would rather it be native on my console and in the app.

@OnlyGaming Indeed. They literally gave me Fallout 4 and I couldn’t be bothered to play it. 😂

Hmmm… a native PS5 version might be enough to get me interested enough to play my first Fallout game ever. I have FO4 in my library from that PS+ Collection that Sony just gave away like 20 awesome games to anyone who bought a PS5 that first year. FO4 has been one of the few from that collection that I’ve never played and has been gathering dust in my library

Well, I did once tape the joystick on my controller to run my car in circles for the last mileage trophy in Dirt 5. Other than that, I feel like the grind in most games is not a huge problem. …or maybe I avoid those games altogether, who knows.

I really enjoyed this game, and it’s even more impressive as the studio’s first effort in the space. Much better than the gaming output of more seasoned developers who’ve been making games for decades

Well these poll results are a bit surprising to me. I guess now I know why publishers embrace the DLC strategy so much. Personally, I just can’t get behind the whole concept. First of all, it’s partially because some DLC does feel like cut content that’s been held back to sell later (notice I said some, so everyone hold your horses) which feels a little scummy, and then secondly (and more importantly) because there’s a complete loss of momentum after completing a game that makes it difficult to go back to a game you shelved many months ago.

But hey, you do you. I personally can’t recall a single DLC I’ve ever purchased separately, and only engage with post release content if it’s my first playthrough and the game has been out for a while and already has a complete edition.

@DaniPooo Yeah, that’s fair. Maybe it’s not the length per se, but the pacing. Although I think I logged 80 hrs and that’s about the limit for me on almost any game before I start to get restless to move on.

I think my main issue with the pacing was how the final chapters tried to tie everything together on all the side characters all at once. So there’s this big crescendo toward the climax that then gets stalled by doing 10 different side quest wrap ups on on the NPCs. They specific storylines were nice to see and get closure on a lot of the characters, but I wish they wouldn’t have dumped them all in that one chapter because it made it feel like it was dragging. I would have like to have that content spaced out over a couple earlier chapters that had less side quests in them. By the time I wrapped up everyone’s stories and got to the last final boss and closing main story points, I felt like it had lost a little momentum.

Still loved the game though!

I think CD Projekt started off with an attempt at Baldur’s Gate, which turned into the Witcher. Perhaps it’s time to come full circle and give them a try again. Although they’re probably too busy now with Witcher 4.

Wow, I’m surprised about the buffs. I felt like the difficulty was just about right. Although many of the enemy encounters did feel quite “spongy”, perhaps they are responding to those complaints. But the hunt board encounters and boss battles were the right level of intensity and satisfaction when you finally prevailed. Those will probably be quite a bit easier now.

Overall, with the side quest completion warping and the buffs it looks like they are trying to streamline the game and improve the flow, which I think is good. I loved the game but it was probably too long.

Yeah this is the disadvantage to a sub service. But honestly, I can’t really complain. Most of the time they cycle out games that are of lesser popularity and so the net result is usually that there’s more on the service to play than I have time for.

This time around, it’s not the Final Fantasy games that bother me (I’ve played them all except FFXV and they gave that out with that PS+ collection for early PS5 adopters, so I’ll still have access to it) but more so I’ve been meaning to play Artful Escape and Last Stop. @Widey85 Thanks for the recommendation, and I can probably find time to at least play one, if not both, of these before they leave.

That is surprising. It didn’t seem like a game that lit the world on fire at the time. I think I even have it in my library from PS+ and have never even considered downloading it.

I don’t need to play the Rebirth demo, I’m getting that game eventually regardless. (Gotta clear the backlog a little first. Mostly Crisis Core) But for Stellar Blade, having the demo was definitely a plus. After playing it I’ve decided to hold off until later and only pick it up if it reviews well. It was good, just a little more difficult than I was expecting. Not a fan of timing based parry in my combat, so I’m glad I got to try it first.

Another day, another failing live service game.

Excited to see Deliver Us Mars.
I just need to play Deliver Us the Moon now. 😅 I’ve had it in my backlog for a couple years

I also might give Dave the Diver a try and see what all the hype is about. It doesn’t look like my kind of game, but I’m open-minded.

Like others have said, I definitely think a hard reset is in order. Hopefully they’ve learned from recent experience that you have to keep the game approachable to a new audience in order to keep the player base from dwindling.

@ChrisDeku For sure, the early access is a frustrating trend. Paying extra for early access never tempts me; 3 days is a blink and it amazes me people don’t have patience to wait that long. I guess if one is wanting the extra stuff in the Ultimate or Gold edition anyways, then early access is an added bonus, but it still floors me.

I said it over on the other article about the confusion of these different editions and passes, but even season passes / battle passes seems so egregious to me on a game that’s months away and has no previews or real solid information about how it plays. It’s like a glorified kickstarter project by giving money to help a struggling creator finish their work. I’m not sure Ubisoft needs the added patronage.

Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of season passes, battle passes, gold editions, etc. It’s basically glorified Kickstarter support — giving them money months in advance to fund a project not yet released. Not to mention that maybe you won’t even end up liking the game, so you’re buying future content on a future game, sight unseen, that we’re not even sure is going to be that good. It’s like pre-ordering a pre-order.

“…chance to play the game three days early if you pay for the cash for either the Gold or Ultimate Edition of the game, meaning you could start playing from 27th August 2024. This also means Star Wars Outlaws will have a season pass promising DLC after release, like most Ubisoft experiences.”

Ugh, multiple editions and season passes, pay for early access… not a fan of all that, but it’s the reality of the situation. I’ll probably wait then until it’s more content complete in a year or two. We’ll see.

It seems like the game has sold fairly well and has charted in the game’s early weeks, yet no one is playing it. Unfortunately, for a GaaS the game sales is only a small piece of the equation and player count is the more important metric.

Ironic how the peak player numbers for Gotham Knights were higher than Suicide Squad. 😂 Given SS is a live service game that relies on online player engagement, that baffles the mind. I think to date Marvel’s Avengers was also out performing SS, and that was considered a colossal flop.

There’s still time for Rocksteady and WB to turn this thing around, but the window appears to be closing.

The demo was surprisingly challenging for me, even after I switched down to story mode. The parry is quite essential to perform, from what I experienced, and I stink at parrying. I prefer to dodge roll, and even the dodge roll is hard to nail in the demo.

In story mode it does give you some prompts for when to execute a parry or special dodge move, but it was still quite quick and frantic and the prompts only show every once and a while. It was a little like the Arkham style prompts, except they don’t appear with every attack so it’s tough to get into any kind of rhythm with the combat if you try to rely on the prompts. You just have to ‘git gud’ from what I could tell.

@awp69 I was thinking the same thing — I fear many are ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater,’ as the saying goes. Opting to dismiss really good games based on one aspect of the game’s makeup. The Lord of Ring: Gollum example is a good one. Versus say, DD2 or even Tears of the Kingdom, which is the example I usually use.

The flip side is that 37% are not too fussed about high frame rates. That’s quite a lot. So over 1 out of 3 users. And like Rob says in the article, this poll has a fairly heavy selection bias and you can easily increase that number many fold if you were to broaden the poll outside of the enthusiast bubble. I suspect if you took the market at large, its much closer to 50/50.

I’m not saying that I don’t want 60 fps, by the way, but I am saying that the sky isn’t falling nearly as catastrophically as some would claim when we still have sub 60 fps releases. I choose fidelity mode more often than performance mode and enjoy my games immensely. I’d love to have 8K/120fps, but a good game is a good game, so we take what comes.

@Rich33 I see. Well, here’s hoping things move to a point where all players can get what they want from game visuals. Thanks for the clarification.

For me, the graphical fidelity is the thing that sticks out if it’s low res. Having played many games going back to PS1, I somehow enjoyed very low resolution games for many years, but I have become accustomed to sharper visuals. As an example, when I played Demon’s Souls Remake, I had searched online for videos to help me with some sections of the game and at times the PS3 version walkthroughs would come up and they looked so blurry it was hard to even tell what was going on. 😅 Especially with the very neutral color palette, one could hardly make out the enemies and passages in low lighting situations. Nevertheless, the OG game still is one of the greats.

Or if I were to compare the original FF7 to the new remakes, there’s no comparison graphically. The original FF7 looks like garbage comparatively. But I would still consider it a 10/10 game which is absolutely worth playing on its other merits alone.

But I do think that you are on to something about the way new TV’s work as being a possible reason these issues have come up lately. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m playing on OLED and a much larger screen than when I was a lad, and the sheer size and the way these TVs process and display images probably magnifies things like muddy textures and lower frame rates. I don’t know.

@Rich33 Yes, I think you’re probably right

I do wonder though, and I don’t intend this to be antagonistic but rather is an honest question — did you have problems with the lower frame rates on prior generations? I’m not saying we should settle for older technological standards, but I honestly wonder what people who can’t tolerate sub 60 fps did for the last 20 years. Did you not play games until the PS4 Pro, or did you just live with the headaches or nausea or whatever symptoms that 30 fps causes that make them unplayable? Again, not intending to be rude, just trying to understand and am legitimately curious and fascinated by this notion.

I won’t spend time reading all the comments, but it is validating to see that I’m at least not alone in being okay with lower frame rates. The very vocal 35% minority (or if you add the second category in the poll, then roughly 60% small majority) has been gaslighting me into thinking that there is something wrong with me and perhaps my enjoyment of playing at 30fps is somehow a delusion.

I’m still trying to catch up with the deluge of quality games from 2023. Haven’t bought a single 2024 release yet.

The more I see of this game the less inclined I am to try it. Looks really cringey.
That last scream/moan at the end… enough to make a grown man blush.

@__jamiie Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties was clearly robbed! The people polled obviously have no culture.

Both titles are doing fairly well. Given the Japanese historical focus of Rise of the Ronin, it does make sense that it would get a boost from that. It’ll be interesting to see if the same pattern holds in the West

This list is garbage. Everyone knows Frey should be #1. Closely followed by Ash and the cat from Stray.

@GMaster7 Thanks, that’s good to know. I’ll keep an eye on those other outlets. I assumed PS Direct would get them first so didn’t think to keep track of other storefronts.

I’m still waiting for stock to be available in the U.S., Sony. I’ve got $200 with your name on it but I can’t hold onto it forever! 😄

We’ll probably get Concord and Silent Hill 2 updates. And this after The Final Shape presser that’s coming up. None of those light my fire at all.

Which is fine by me because I have plenty of games from the last 3 years to keep me busy, not to mention the games from this year already.

Nonetheless, I am very curious about what’s going on at BluePoint, Bend, and Sucker Punch. It’s been really quiet there.

@Jedihillis Lol, I like how it’s being shortened to just “Mr. Literature Club”

The only scenario that I can get behind them is in free-to-play games. But even then, I feel like they can become exploitative, which is why I just avoid F2P games. If a publisher wants to add some fully optional or cosmetic MTX in order to keep a game’s price down then that’s okay in theory, but too often it becomes a temptation to still charge full price for the base game, and then also have game altering MTX on top. The outcry against MTX has mostly kept publishers in check, but there seems to always be a push for them to add them later on.

In an industry rife with lay-offs and canceled projects, it’s good to see developers expand the AA space and actively strategize that way. Clearly the temptation to make “AAAA” games has backfired immensely. We don’t need more big budget games, we need more of these mid-tier budget games. There’s a place in the industry for all levels of game creation, but the majority of development costs have ballooned out of control.

Hopefully they learned a lesson with Banishers, because although I haven’t played it, I’ve now heard several players say it starts out strong and then just loses steam toward the latter parts. I think it sounds like a good AA effort, but seems it fell into the trap of extending the game beyond the length it needed to be and ironically could have been a stronger game to have been shorter and also ironically cheaper to make.

Give us more of these creative worlds and diverse storylines, but with solid well-crafted 12-18 hour playtimes.

There was some kind of newsworthy quote a couple months ago which was a hint that Immortals of Aveum was coming to Plus. Seems like that was about 3-4 months ago, so I guess that’s the time frame of how far in advance they make the selections and negotiate the deals.

I do think both of these games (RotR and DD2) will have some longevity as far as sales go. The fact they both dropped on the same day to a very similar demographic is not helping either game. Also, both have had some online backlash which should calm down in weeks to come as the word of mouth levels things out because it seems like most people who are actually playing the games are having a good time.

I personally want to play them both eventually, but didn’t buy either yet. And that’s on account of just too many backlog games to deal with right now.

@Afroducc Agreed. It would be better if it was just “Heretic Prophet”, or even simply “Intergalactic”, which is too reminiscent of the movie title “Interstellar” but is at least better than that gibberish. 😂 It won’t be the first game with a baffling name though.

I just want Hellblade. And maybe Indiana Jones. I’m not sure the rest of their stuff interests me that much.

I haven’t played this yet and it’s mostly due to having many more games on deck to play first, but I have a feeling that many people on both sides of the fence here haven’t played the game either — both those flaming Capcom and those defending them.

I always give more credence to those who’ve actually played the game, and especially those that have completed the game. So far I’m seeing a lot more of the people who are playing the game are defending it, stating that the issues are exaggerated.

I felt that way about Jedi Survivor. I played at launch and was seeing none of the reported problems that apparently made the game unplayable. Some of this is just weirdly good luck, I admit, but I had a blast with it.

But alas, I do think there’s a typical hyperbole going on, as is often the case on the internet, from both perspectives. It’s an election year here in the States, so I’m used to mudslinging over-dramatization.

@breakneck Yeah, that’s usually my approach. I start in quality mode and play for a few hours. If I’m enjoying the visuals, then I may not even try performance mode. Often I’ll dabble in it after a while just to see how much difference it makes. Rarely will I stay in performance mode, although sometimes I will.

I played FF16 and Jedi Survivor in quality/fidelity mode and thoroughly enjoyed them. Both were beautiful games and I had very few technical issues like those that were reported online.

I heard AW2 had some really egregious lighting and blooming effects when played at 60 fps. It’s another example of a GOTY contender that seemed to get a pass from the masses, despite poor technical performance.

Also, as an interesting aside for perspective, there was some real world data pooled recently (I can’t find the source now but it was quoted on Sacred Symbols a few months ago) which confirmed that most gamers play in quality mode. All the polls and sites like these have heavy preferences for performance mode, but out in the real world of… ‘less enthusiastic’ gamers, they tend to leave their settings on default quality mode.

Of course these are the same hoards of people that buy FIFA and COD every year and play a lot fewer games than most of us, so I’m not sure what can be concluded about it — but they do make up the majority of money spent in the industry.

@mariomaster96 Yeah, and also Tears of the Kingdom. Pretty much consensus #2 last year and although it’s 30 fps and apparently has some minor technical hiccups (I’ve heard of quest breaking bugs within the game), people love the game and gave it and Baldur’s Gate 3 the benefit of the doubt because they were such good games otherwise and were really pushing boundaries of game design. That’s why is seems strange to me to hear gamers say unequivocally that they won’t touch a game that is only 30 fps.

I guess I’m not very sensitive to frame rates, compared to other people. Sure, 60 fps is nice, and after playing a 60 fps game when I go back to 30 fps it is a little jarring, but I adjust after a couple hours and can’t tell the difference. Wasn’t the majority of the PS4 generation in 30 fps? I don’t remember it bothering me.

Maybe it’s because I wear glasses. If I don’t wear them for a while then putting them on creates this weird pseudo-motion effect, especially when you turn your head (glasses wearers will know what I’m talking about), but after a few hours you don’t notice it anymore. Your brain adjusts to the different input and it feels normal after a while.

@Yozora146_ Thanks, friend. It’s not keeping me up at night, just a thing that would be nice for me. Not sure if the reason the U.S. sells out so quick is because of higher demand here or if it’s because the supply is being prioritized to go to UK and Europe first, or maybe a little of both, but I suspect within the next few months that they’ll be much easier to find. Was hoping to give myself a little Easter treat in the form of a new toy, but I’ll have to find another excuse later. 😄

@Yozora146_ Yeah, you might be right. The Vita flopping still stings for a lot of people, but what people seem to forget is that it’s poor adoption doesn’t negate the fact it was a great little handheld. It could have been much better handled with better first party software support and the use of non-proprietary save cards, but I loved Vita for what it was. For a while there was still plenty of games to play on it and actually, I still have a Vita backlog. I haven’t turned mine on for ages now, but I still have a couple games I wouldn’t mind getting back to (the most recent game I was playing was MGS2 remastered. I have Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2 that are still on it, among others that I never got around to) but at this point I’d rather play my PS5, so I choose to spend my limited time there.

And there’s where the Portal is enticing to me. As far as time management, it makes a lot of sense. We all have enormous PS4/PS5 backlogs now, with the access to PS+ catalogues. Yes, the Steam Deck or the Switch has a greater use case with the ability to download your games on the go, but why would I subject myself to entering a whole new gaming ecosystem, with its requisite additional costs to build a library there, when I have 400+ games on PS5 I’d like to get to? I could buy a Steam Deck for $500 then Baldur’s Gate 3, Horizon Forbidden West, and Elden Ring for $60 each (so now my investment is reaching $700… and that’s just 3 games) when I already own those games and can play on a mobile for a mere $200 instead. Oh, and I get 60 fps instead of 30 fps and DualSense quality of life features and I don’t have to have a degree in I.T. to get the games running. 😜 I understand with “a few simple steps” you can make the Steam Deck into a Portal type of experience and stream from your PS5, but it just gives me a headache hearing about the workaround and I’m just not a computer guy. It’s why I game on console and not PC! 😅

When I think of what makes me a bigger “idiot” or “whale”, I think paying $700+ (and for a lesser experience, mind) instead of $200 is what would make me feel like I was foolish.

Anyways, a bit of a rant I went on there, but I’ve thought about it a lot. And I’ve finally decided to buy one… and I can’t get one because they’re always sold out! 😂

It’s weird how some people (including some in this comment section) seem to react like it’s a personal affront to them if other people buy (and enjoy) a Portal. So much so that they feel the need to insult them, call them names or imply they are of inferior intelligence if they buy it. That’s such a strange and harsh reaction. I mean, is Sony killing babies with every sale of a Portal or something? Why does it bother people like buying a Portal is some kind of crime against humanity? 😅