UnlimitedSevens

The children, they yearn for the mines. I say send them.

Overwatch won in 2016? Yuck.

Uncharted 4 got mugged on that one.

The Bloodborne remake rumor just will not die.

Couple thoughts:

• Let's have a proper 'Best Horror Game' category. It's not 2005 anymore and heavy hitters are releasing every year.
  • Coming from a big Erdtree fan, it shouldn't be on the Game of the Year list. Silent Hill 2 should have its spot. I'm cool with Balatro, it's nice to have an indie represented in there.
  • At least Luke Roberts was recognized for his - friggin phenomenal - work voicing James in SH2. I don't take notice of voice acting generally, it's just there. But I took notice of his voice lines in that game and went to look his name up after finishing it.

Sony really has a tendency to poop the bed and roll around in the sheets.

Microsoft is an American company. And culturally, on the mean, striking over work from home disagreements is not acceptable here. Just to clarify for our European friends.

Silicon valley and white collar jobs fall into a different, more permissive category but the average working class American would not condone this. Puritan roots, staunchly meritocratic and individualistic, and a longstanding culture of defining your personal value by your work ethic. We are draconian in certain ways that I still think a lot of people across the pond don't get. We scoff at other countries that institute 32 hour work weeks as incredibly lazy.

I'm no friend of corporations and certainly no fan of Microsoft, but this is not France. At the end of the day, you are only worth what you can produce to a business here. That's just the hard truth. My overall point is it isn't just the corporations that peddle this philosophy, they actually generally have full buy in from the workers (outside of the silicon valley and tech job bubbles). That is our culture and there won't be any changing this belief in the short term.

This guy is the human embodiment of the PlayStation trophy system and all the missed opportunities for meaningful implementation (trophy leaderboards / social aspects).

Pope holding out for a sale. Okay, you got me with that one. Well played.

FF XIV is a behemoth.

Yeah, I mean once you cut through all the noise like 'Biggest Single Player Release on Steam' articles, which were just a taaaad disingenuous considering EA released on their own platform Origin until recently, I think most of us were generally tracking this wasn't setting the world on fire.

As the article points out, if this had decent to good sales, the publisher would be trumpeting from the rooftops. We don't have much data, but the Steam and PSNprofiles info tells a certain story. You can make some decent (if highly imperfect) extrapolations from that data.

That said, the important question is does it matter? And the answer is probably not. If you enjoy the game, enjoy yourself and that's alright. I'm not fan of EA or modern Bioware but who am I to get into he way of other people's enjoyment?

Have fun, that's what matters.

Social media is the absolute poison of society. But as others have said, once Pandora's Box is open, it doesn't get shut again.

And certainly not for freedom loving Australians. I heard much like us in the States, they are an unruly bunch. And I admire that. Both our countries started as glorified penal colonies to an extent and propagated by subjugating an indigenous population, and I think that gives us a special connection 😆

Our equally messed up cousins. Go Australia!

Hey 10/10 and I didn't have to guess on any. Well alright.

Base PS3 was a beast of a machine.

Thanks for the heads up 👍.

I will say, as sour as I am about the constant scalper debacles on Sony's Direct website, it was cool they offered this for free. For all 10 of us who have a VR headset.

Sony still pulls off a rare consumer friendly move every once in a blue moon.

When scalpers lose, we all win.

@NEStalgia

Ah apologies, I misread. It seemed insanely low, I guess I should have put that one together.

So that's an attach rate of 1.2 games per console sold. That's... not good. The PS4 attach rate was 9.6 games per console sold. Historically, the attach rate hovered around 4-5 for consoles prior to the PS4.

I'm not exactly hearing any ringing endorsements in any of those reviews.

Silent Hill 2 or Astro Bot? That's a tough one.

Shape forces the mind

@Mikey856

Listen I am a discerning consumer and I know what I want. Cerny could make the consciousness transfer happen, he is just saving that for PS7. I mean, he made Knack - the man is capable of anything.

Pretty astounding stuff. How does Sony do it?

For $700, it better allow me to transfer my consciousness into it so I can achieve immortality.

Our bodies are not ready. I am undertaking a naked spirit quest in the woods in the lead up to the Pro release to cleanse my spirit, so that I may properly take communion with its glory.

I bought a physical copy day 1 after the ill-advised decision by their publisher to release digital only. Not Remedy's fault that happened, not their call. Talented group of people.

This game looks mad skibidi Ohio.

That moment you die in Call of Duty multiplayer and an eight year old comes over the mic and starts smack talking you. That's what it's all about.

@Darylb88

You are absolutely right, EA doesn't need us to speculate in this video game website comment section on an article about game sales. I mean it's just shameful, really.

-slowly leans back in armchair-

Now then, where were we...

"You gotta pump them numbers up. Those are rookie numbers."

@Futureshark

You are playing the short game there, partner. Everyone knows the smart play is to wait for the PS7.

Who wouldn't trade their firstborn for 4K AND 120 FPS. I mean, wow how do they do it. It's a Pro thing, you regulars wouldn't understand. That Cerny is a straight up wizard or something.

Have fun playing with your Okama Gamespheres and Ouyas, haters.

You want yer disc drive? Here's yer disc drive! * proceeds to hit customer with folding chair, then mugs them before running into a nearby crackhouse *

-Sony, probably.

@Orpheus79V

If you say that three times fast and turn off the lights, the ghost of Concord will appear behind you in the mirror.

I mean, Baldur's Gate 3 was 472,000 on launch day. Call of Duty 6 somewhere around 229,000.

Probably apples to oranges, but do with those numbers what you will. I guess time will tell whether EA considers it a financial success. Apparently publishers are expecting bigger and bigger numbers these days as AAA costs balloon.

Loved Origins and Inquisition too to a lesser extent, but still on the fence about this game due to personal qualms with the art style and lighter tone. I've waited 10 years, I can wait another 12 months for a definitive edition.

I look forward to the impending PushSquare article about Veilguard getting review bombed. I really wish there was an option to filter out all the 1/10 and 10/10 user reviews on sites like Metacritic. Eliminate the noise.

All those brave culture warrior soldiers will be battling it out against one another in the review sections of every aggregate website shortly. Wish we could throw them all on an island sort of Hunger Games style and just watch them enact their holy war against one another in real time away from the comfort of a computer or phone. Now wouldn't that be a sight to see?

As someone who has soured on Sony lately, I'll concede one thing to them: they have a tough job ahead of them in their games division. The "fans" are not a monolith, it's all kinds of people in all different walks of life.

You got the kids using their parents' credit to buy v-bucks in Fortnight, the high-spend dedicated AAA consumer that wants more of that, the old farts that want the return of old IP and the introduction of new IP on a steady basis. And dozens of variations in between.

As Playstation has passed 30 years and counting, the market has become increasingly segmented and "spread out" to multiple demographics with different priorities, and I just don't think Sony has what it takes to meet all their expectations adequately.

Ideally they could meet the expectations of all their different customer bases, but it's just not realistic. Even a Fortune 500 company has only so much resources. And of course, they have to consider that almighty return as well.

What I think Sony has been doing - maybe smartly - is prioritizing the younger gamers at the expense of their original customers. PushSquare readership is not the younger segment of the market they are catering to, hence all the recent bad feelings in the online discourse. Do I blame them? No. Am I disappointed in this strategy? Oh definitely.

What can I say? Age happens and things move on. Gaming is like that too. It's a really fun hobby but as odd as it sounds it's a natural evolution for us to be left behind somewhat. I think modern gaming is gonna progress to a point that is entirely unrecognizable to us in the near to mid-term future.

Three points of consolation: 1.) Retro gaming will always be there and is more accessible than ever right now with emulation. 2.) I don't think the older market segment will ever be completely abandoned, as they are high-spend consumers with oodles of disposable income, and 3.) There are always alternative hobbies to consider, like golf or restoring a Buick 😆

A lot of independent reviewers I trust are throwing up some big red flags for this game.

Sticking points seem to be the extremely simplified combat, the Disney-esque art design, and juvenile writing/dialogue. Sounds way far off the mark for me.

One thing is for sure, this game is going to be divisive down the road. I'll have to wait and see where the reviews actually land in a few weeks, especially considering some accusations floating about Bioware / EA engaged in access journalism and declined to provide review code to outlets that gave middling feedback to the preview event.

Then again, Mortismal Gaming loved it and he is a CRPG freak. I usually line up with his tastes pretty close. I guess it's just wait and see at this point.

I am legitimately confused at this point haha. I guess I will have to do the unthinkable and just formulate my own opinion.

@Colour

I wouldn't bother haha. I mention this in nearly every PushSquare 'Top 10 Horror Games' article. Visage, Darkwood, and Signalis get snubbed every time for more mainstream (read: less scary) stuff. I mean, I know it's all opinions at the end of the day, but at this point I suspect there are not any huge horror fans among PushSquare's staff.

You get the standard AAAs and a couple flavor of the week indies which benefit from recency bias in these lists, but don't go expecting deep dives or to see any deep cuts like Darkwood on here.

Why not, if they have the resources? More the merrier for a live service title like this.

That said, I never bought into the widespread idea exclusives are bad, an idea that seemed to get some steam around 2020 and usually used as some way to malign Sony. Exclusives built the industry, built Sony into a market leader. How do you attract users to your box, your ecosystem, if you don't have unique experiences and every console does the same thing?

I don't think the people that argued it ever thought about it too hard or are very aware of the history of the video game industry.

@MrPeanutbutterz

Sure! Here in the states, you get 10 points per dollar spent. You need 1250 points for a $5 store voucher. Meaning, you have to spend $125 dollars to get $5 back. 5/125 is 0.008, or in percentage terms, 0.8%.

They obfuscate the low return by not using round numbers (in this case, 1250 points to redeem a $5 voucher.) This is a tactic seen commonly in premium currency sales (not using round numbers, like 1000). But some straightforward math always tells the tale.

Welp. We've reached the critical mass of greed, where returning less than 1% of your purchases in PSN funny money is just too high an ask of this multimillion and record-profiting company. Literally less than 1 cent back... One. Cent. (Not even an actual cent because it is store credit, but I digress...)

Sony is so greedy they snatched the penny back. And it's actually become hilarious how much of a meme they've become for this stuff recently.

We've reached Mr. Krabs levels of insane greed.

Well apparently returning 1 cent for each dollar spent was just a bridge too far for old Sony.

Edit: My bad, after running the numbers it is less than 1% back. Comes to 0.008 of a return on spend. So by any metric or comparable reward program it's among the worst I've ever heard of.

And that was too much for them? Fortune 500 company here, folks. 😆

I was aware it was a good game and I'm in to Metroidvanias big time but I didn't buy. I just don't have the time for all these releases.

Brass tacks, I worked 76 hours last week. Trying to keep the lights on and meeting financial goals has become harder for most of us in recent years and the most valuable resource - time - is in precious short supply. Just too many games.

I had just enough time to plat Silent Hill 2 this month and honestly I'm surprised I was able to even do that. Cost me some much needed sleep but soooo worth it.

Had a whole lineup of horror games I wanted to get to for spooky month but nope, absolutely not happening. Just threw the games on the 750+ game backlog like throwing bodies in a mass grave.

@babybilly

I dunno, they just released a Doom compilation Collector's Edition that came with a steel book case but all the games are digital codes (no actual disc included). As crazy as it sounds, it happens.

Further back, several PS3 games did this as well. Marvel vs Capcom 2 and DuckTales come to mind. They sold empty cases with code vouchers inside at retail. One wonders what a person does with a game case that doesn't come with a game...

Definitely will give it a preorder. Gotta support physical.

Waited over a year after release for Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, and Psychonauts 2 because the lack of physical editions this gen, and was waiting for this as well. You love to see it, even if the new normal is to expect delays. I guess that's what backlogs are for.

Lance Reddick is still the GOAT. Great actor and phenomenal voice work as well. In my alternate timeline he is still around.

@Khwarezm89

Nah, The Medium has around a 70% aggregate review score, plenty of people liked it well enough. It probably had the most actual gameplay of any of their games, which were all straight up walking simulators up to that point.

@Oram77

It was alright. Just alright. I liked it well enough. Some cool perspective tricks. Sort of like an off-brand Amnesia game, and I don't mean that necessarily as a bad thing.

The part where the ghost baby repeatedly runs into the wall in the looping corridor had me laughing out loud. They took that part out for the Layers of Fear remake unfortunately :/

@PegasusActual93

Awesome example.

Another company I'd add to the list: SquareSoft. They were releasing straight garbage for years, dud after dud. Uninspired clones of better games.

Then, under threat of the studio being shuttered, they released a little game called Final Fantasy. The title was actually meant to denote it might very well have been their final game. The rest is history.

You just never know. Maybe it's time for Bloober's hot streak.

I dunno, I think sometimes it takes a small studio time to find its specialty. I mean, I collect From Software games. You should see the utter crap they put out the first ten years of their existence.

From Adventures of Cookies and Cream to Elden Ring. Wow

I don't think any of their games were terrible. But (with the exception of Observer) they were all aggressively average.

Layers of Fear was their first game and while rough, it was decent. Problem was, they could never manage much better than "decent". Until Silent Hill 2.

Oh, and the voice actor for James (Luke Roberts) deserves a best performance award or something for this. Angela's voice actor knocks it out of the park too. I actually thought Mary's voice work was a slight step down though, but the original voice actor (Monica Horgan) was legendary so that was a tough hill to climb.

I normally don't even notice voice acting in a game, it's just there. But this was really good stuff.