Titntin

@Deljo lol! Thanks for the correction, never was a speller, if its not red I'll post it 😊

@riceNpea
Appologies, I must have been unclear. I never intended to suggest Sammys viewpoint, as expressed here, was naunced. I intended to suggest that for many titles, the differences between Gaas and live service elements may be naunced, so trying to characterise things merely in terms of 'good' or 'bad' is a little simplistic.

I believe Sammy is a smart guy and knows exactly how to get site engagement. You dont get that by being naunced, you pick a direction. He wont be troubled at all by what us rabble are saying, as long as we are saying something.

@riceNpea Lol! Nice reply 😂
To me a live service game is any game which has post release content and features, weather the extra and new content are paid for or not. If you watched the countdown in Astros playroom, you cant deny it has a live service element.
GAAS games however are designed to monetise extra content and are fundementaly desined to encourage 'engagement' to make purchases more likely.
There are of course a lot of crossover areas, and it certainly would appear many people have their own definition. People still dont like naunce, its black or white, left or right etc etc. In reality everything is a different shade of grey.

Aah Sammy. You know people dont like to be challenged on their beliefs, and those without the intellect to consider more than two positions, like their black and white interpretation and want a 'live service = bad' uncertainty.
Anyone displaying a modicum of thought will understand that many games have benefitted from their live service elements, and the vast majority of titles these days have at least an element.
However people dont like complicated naunces, so they will simply argue that your definition is wrong, certain in their belief that the world is black and white.
You know the above of course, so I applaud your article stirring this hornets nest - maybe one or two will change their outlook rather than double down on the 'all live service is garbage' falicy.

Huge disappointment. 'Always online' and then these tech issues mean I dont trust this game to be there when I want to play it, and the lifeless environments with quite frankly embarrassing player avatars and the whole design seem calculated to turn me off.

This is normally my fave genre and I had envisioned countless hours playing this with my wife. However, its clear this game has issues that cannot be fixed quickly including design and concept ideals they cannot change now. Pretty gutted with what they have delivered to be honest.

I'm really excited to play and enjoy this.
Playroom was exceptional and to see it expanded and improved in this way is a joy!

What a great piece, interesting throughout and some decent questions asked - thank you Robert!
I was unaware of Fantasian before, but I'm an old school RPG player and having read this excellent piece I'm now waiting for this one with some anticipation!

Its pieces like these that make me a supporter of the sites.

@Pranwell Probably the most balanced take I'll read on Pushsquare today.
People like drama, and Sammy knows how to stir it up to get engagement.
You can bet there are people in the company asking the questions about how this happened right now, but they don't stop the huge sales success or the desirability of the PS5 and its games. It does show they have at least one higher up who can't smell the BS when its in front of him, and you need better instincts to drive this business. For the rest of us, it's business as usual playing great games.

@WhiteRabbit I've only just gone back and platinumed playroom much to my shame. Hoping to go and pick up the bots before Friday Can I ask, did it take you long?

@Unffclcntrllerpd Thanks for the heads up mate, I'm not normally a sports fan, but I'll give this one a go

@wiiware It was PSNow back then and many of us have been subscribers since the initial launch of the service - which was streaming only to start with.
That's just ancient history though, and the three titles each month for £6.66 a month is pretty excellent value for many, even counting the months when nothing really appeals - especially seeing as how you need this service if you want online play and cloud save backups. If you don't think so, just cancel it.

Incidentally, if you buy your PSN credit carefully online (I just type 'cheap psn credit' into google) you normally get about %16 off if you look through the deals (current one is £42 for £50 credit), so that applies to anything you buy including your sub. So that's £5.59 per month - you can't get two decent coffees for that.

@riceNpea Just wanted to take the time to congratulate you on such a well articulated post (#2).
I came into this section with the intention of posting something similar, but I doubt I would have phrased it quite as well.

The world is a very dynamic place and some changes will unfortunately affect the relevance of some people's skills. Many concept artists I've used in the past for games design are now finding it very hard to land a gig. I tried using AI generated concepts in different styles recently and was slightly saddened that the results were so good so quickly, that I'd probably not use a single human concept artist again for this type of work. Its a shame, but you cannot 'uninvent' technology.

Its a wild west world of misinformation out there. Wild views and gosip get amplified out of all proportion and the truth ends up being whatever you want to believe..

4/10, and one of them was a guess!

@Mortal well done mate.
If people wish to cheat, they use an alternate account to view and reasearch the questions, before logging in on their main account and speed answer them. Dont know why people would bother, but thats what they would do....
Personally it takes me 40 to 50 seconds to read the questions and answers, but Im old!

7/10 is more than I normally manage!

@Northern_munkey That mate, is definitely the best reason for needing a drive 😊
I digitised all my blu rays and dvds a few years back and put them on my server, so I play all my own stuff via plex on tv and got rid of all the shelves and cupboards full of video discs. If I hadn't, I would be in the same situation as you and need a disc drive for the same reason!
Its pretty weird, all my adult life my places have been full to the brim with physical media _shelfs on every wall, huge units full of rows of discs etc. Getting rid of all that was a scary move, but so liberating. It made my house seem twice the size it had been. My server backs up to the cloud (backblaze), so im covered if the place burns down!

PS. As I bought Wukong digitally, it cost me £46.20...always 16% cheaper unless you buy psn credit full price.

@Northern_munkey For once, I couldnt disagree with you more.
Ive never bought a single physical game on PS5 and my launch PS5 with disc drive has never had a game in it. The drive is literally redundant.
As you can save %16 on psn credit with a few clicks, get a few £5 top ups from the stars program, and always get good deals on sales, I dont feel i pay more at all, and can get what I want without getting a code in a box (all games need updates, so you download them anyway).
It doesnt suck one bit...

People pretending £70 is expensive dont have history to back up that point of view.
When ps4 launched we all bought games at £50. That would over £80 in todays money, so games should be more expensive not less, especially given the rises in dev costs.

Ive no desire to see prices rise of course, but its clear many jump on the 'too expensive' bandwagon simply cause they heard someone else say it.

I do despise the 'Special Editions' though, they are designed to fleece money from the gullible, and Ive never bought one and never will.

BS from a dishonest xbox appologist. Sad that this is even an article here.. Reporting one highly dubious twitter post as news is poor journalism.

Anyone after a counterpoint to this review should check out the review on pure xbox. PJ is the best reviewer on the sites imo, and my own tastes more often align with his than anyone elses.

Weather you enjoy the game seems to be heavilly relient on weather you are there for the vibe of a living star wars world or not..

Still playing it? With my reactions I'll still be playing at Xmas!

Love it and not desperate for any performance uplifts, it feels fantastic anyway.

Legacy is the only one I've played and its a fantastic game irrelevant of HP. This is just as well as I'm not a fan

@The_Wailing_Doom Yes mate I felt the same way. We have two PS5's here, an original disc based one and a later digital.
Having only ever put in a disc to test a 4K blueray once since launch, its clear to me that I can happily survive without the disc.
At least there is an option for people who wish to retain the disc functionality - or at least we are all supposing there is!

@LowDefAl
If you are not interested in the official figures of how people consume their games, then there's only guesswork - which obviously suits you more than facts.
I would suggest a company like Sony do their due diligence to ensure they are serving the needs of the majority, which is why they continue to make products that people want.

"Yeah because Data Centres run on air." There are lots of studies that show conclusively that manufacturing a disc and a plastic wallet, printing the associated paper, then distributing this all over the world so that you can take it home and THEN HAVE TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF THE GAME ANYWAY, is many times more harmful than simply downloading the product to start with. You just keep putting your fingers in your ears and not listening if you want, but I take at least a little responsibility for how I consume.
(edit: please note this is a different scenario to consuming music or video via streaming, where I think having a disc might be more ecologically sound than using a data center for life. Getting a game is one off download that disc users almost always have to do anyway)

No disc drive , no care.
Why burden people with the extra cost of a drive when the majority simply don't want it? Its also the most likely cause of hardware failure and the only thing that's not silent.
Those shaking their pitchforks are the remnants of a bygone era, but they are still served by an external disc drive if they wish to continue consuming the earth's resources for a product that's designed to be delivered digitally.

Im loving its vibe and enjoying its challenge. I think its a really well designed game, but it has flaws that will either put you right off, or you can easilly overlook.
Invisible walls can break immersion a bit, and the choice to not have a mini map, so you cant see where you can or cannot go, ensures you are always testing an invisable boundary. There must of been a way to better handle that?
.... And it IS hard, especially for an old man like me. Its a little rougue like though, in that you can keep levelling up and gaining more skills and stats before attempting a boss you are struggling with. I needed that in Elden Ring, and I need it in this.
I am besotted with it though, and if I had to mark it right now it has to be a strong 9..

It's a shame they felt they couldn't compete with what's out there.
The market for this type of title is huge so they must of done some focus testing which delivered them some pretty bad results to decide to write off this development cost.
I would have liked to see what they cooked up! No chances of that now...

@IamJT
Yes mate, I agree wholeheartedly with your post, that's exactly as I see it. It should be remembered though, that these overly negative views tend to be purely in the online space and vast majority of gamers are still enthused and excited by games. The issue is that there's so much media desperately seeking any kind of 'news' that they amplify almost any non issue into a big deal, simply so they can get clicks.
It's a shame as it cant help but slightly mute the excitement I've always shared for video games since the inception of the business and my subsequent work in this space. As someone who's seen every single generation, I can confidently state we've never had it so good, but you wouldn't know that if you relied on online sentiment to measure. Too many people equate their 'growing up' and moving away from game nights with their pals to 'its just not as exciting as 'insert gen here' days were. It is, your just not into everything anymore

@puddinggirl You clearly haven't even bothered looking before spouting nonsense. No lightsabres' in this game, pick another hate reason please!

I rate PJ over on Pure Xbox as the best reviewer on any of these sites - my tastes seem to very often align with his. He loves the vibe 8/10.
The fact that this is a vibrant world which nails the atmosphere of the universe is all I want from a game of this type - some have even said some of the game is good as well I'm all over this and will enjoy every second of it and care not for the naysayers on this site who are often quick to tear into a game with no experience of it at all. You just carry on hating games, I still love playing them.

I'm not in a hurry (backlog is huge), but I will look forward to playing a game or two of this in the future as I really enjoy civ 6.

Changing civs in this game is appreciated by me - I'm not playing a historically accurate game here, and would not want to. Why would I care about that in the context of this game?

@dark_knightmare2 Glad you are enjoying it mate. I have two tvs in the front room, both with a ps5 attached, but I cant look at the game in anything less than performance mode on either set, almost instantly motion sick.
I used to run an older lcd in here till a couple of months ago, and that was much more forgiving with lower fram rates, even while the c1 oled wasnt. Unfortunately the new 120hz mini led set also shows the low frame rates, so I can only play in performance. Really enjoying it though...

@dark_knightmare2 i dont notice any lag at all, but Im old. Nobody mentioned it till the DF breakdown... funny that.

Nice fair review and well written. Im loving it myself, but only in performance mode - both other options leave me a little noxious.

This is simply not a big deal, and it will affect few.
If theres a story about stars thats of some relevance, it will be that its still not available to people on their actual console! Fix that and make it so that pre purchase or day one purchases count towards tasks aded a few days after launch and most users would be pretty happy.

@GamingFan4Lyf That spirit will be available at a later bonfire under the heading 'lost spirits'. You dont lose anything if you kill that mob before yiu can grab the spirit. Nothing missed mate.

@UltimateOtaku91 i believe thats sign ups from mobile devices.
There wont be 12 mill from PS - nobody gets that kinda buy in on console 😁

I know I shouldnt, but I love the look of this no matter how 'text book cute' it is. Im not suprised at the number of sign ups, it looks fantastic.

@jrt87 I cannot deny the truth of your statement.
But I can respectfully disagree with someone who has played for themselves and sees it differently, whereas someone who is simply jumping on a 'meh' bandwagon with no personel experience is simply after attention.
Ultimately I shouldnt really care, I paid £46.20 for this game and Im loving it, I feel value in my purchase.
My only concern is that those who parrot concerns without any experience to add to the debate, are potentially putting off many who are on the fence, and they may miss a good time simply due to comments by those who have no idea. I share my experience, like many others, to help people make more informed choices based on real gamers feedback. In performance mode with vrr on, Ive not noticed a frame drop yet, zero. Im am early mind you, maybe that will change.

@LifeGirl I see it as a recognition of how games playing has changed. When I played point and click advetures back on release I could and often did spend days trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle. These days if its taking more than 30 minutes Im on google looking for an answer to move on.
Given the difficulty of many solutions, having some slight help in game might stop people turning to walk throughs, which I think would help people enjoy it more.
I think you can acknowledge peoples modern playing habbits without suggesting people are stupider?

Id like to play through this again, I have fond memories of..

Its funny how the vast majority of people who have 'concerns' for the games performance havent played it and simply quote DF.
Yet the overwhelming experience being shared by those who have actually played it, is very positive in performance mode.
Whilst I cant play it in quality or balanced mode, performance mode with vrr on has been smooth as silk, and the hit on image quality to achieve this is more than good enough.
I would suggest that most people reading these comments want peoples real shared experiences, not those who quote another article and get hissy at those who are playing and having a good time....

Loving it. Its destroying me, my 60 yo reflexes are struggling big time, but its fun enough I dont mind the grind. Early days, but it looks like this will be in my goty considerations...

If that was all in a 30 minute show, Id have been happy enough as theres at least half a dozen titles I want to play. Spread out over 2 hours though and it was a yawnfest.
It was clear to me that Sony would show nothing. They have new hardware to launch and will be saving the games to show at their own event, hopefully next month...

@LifeGirl I know, weird right?
A game I really love and I'll look at trophies to maybe extend playtime or I might even reach for a platinum. But a game from previous gens, it really doesnt matter, and other than simply a sense of entitlement, I've never heard a reason why it should matter...

This runs great and is a blast. If you buy your psn credit cheap (you can easily save %16 in a few minutes) then this is £46.20.
I'm feeling the value here and Im glad this launched for my birthday (tomorrow, and Im 60 - how the hell did that happen?)

I cant speak for late game, but it seems glitch free so far and runs dead smooth in performance mode with vrr.

Only expecting Death Stranding 2 really. Maybe the big MS game we know is being launched for ps5 this week..

I expect Sony to have a proper show in September with their hardware launch, so I dont expect many titles here from them.

@WhiteRabbit Agreed. But I've seen plenty of the game from the PC build. Hard too see through youtube encoding, but this fight at least suggests it's pretty decent res and smooth frame rate, so I take a positive view based on this until I see any proof that there are issues.
I don't get caught up in the 'prophecies of doom' that so many that post here do. Unless or until there are reports suggesting issues, I will assume there are none and simply wait for the reviews

Certainly reasons to be optimistic from this trailer, I guess all will be revealed shortly. Im not rushing to any judgement..

Im delighted to hear that much of our fears and concerns appear to be wasted. It would be great if they can land this and prove the doubters wrong. Im cautiously optomistic now that they can, so thanks for the preview....