Let's see, what Playstation IP would use Irish vocals? I feel like that should narrow it down quite a bit.
Folklore: Unlikely - this game flew under the radar and I don't think the public will exists to remake it, to the extent they would re-record the soundtrack, as it was a super niche game. Also, the soundtrack was firmly more a whimsical affair, not Celtic inspired (think Danny Elfman). No Celtic vocal tracks as far as I know, all orchestral stuff. Sadly, I don't think we will ever see Folklore again, outside of a basic re-release.
Metal Gear Solid: As another commenter mentioned, the main theme of MGS1 was 'The Best is Yet to Come'. Beautiful song that prominently featured Gaelic vocals throughout.
Chrono Cross: Used strong Celtic-inspired percussive and woodwind elements in its soundtrack (considered one of the best game soundtracks ever made and a personal favorite). HOWEVER, the single vocal track was sung in Japanese, not in Gaelic. Also, a very unlikely pick for a remaster in general, for a variety of reasons.
Xenogears - Like Chrono Cross, music was heavily inspired by traditional Irish style (same music producer!) Featured several vocal tracks, two of which were sung by famous Irish singer Joanne Hogg - BUT, the songs were sung in English. No Celtic language tracks in the game. Also just not a realistic choice for a remake for about a thousand different reasons.
Sorry guys, I know you are tired of hearing this, but it 1000% points to the first Metal Gear Solid game. Its the only game in Playstation history - to my knowledge - that features a Gaelic voice track... and its the friggin' main theme of the game.
If the info reported here is accurate, it is Metal Gear Solid.
Back on topic, the games they released for free were absolute bangers and I'm glad they did. The more sets of eyes you can get Ratchet and Clank in front of, the better.
The writing is on the wall. I just hope if/when they go to a streaming platform in the near or distant future, physical discs are still an option.
I like to own the stuff I buy. Netflix of gaming doesn't sound too appealing to me. My bet is GamePass is gonna devolve into a live service/microtransaction extravaganza to fund the service. Kind of what we see in free mobile games. They gotta make the money somewhere. Maybe not to that degree, but in the ballpark.
2022 is shaping up to be a fine year. I'm actually a bit more excited about 2023 though, especially if any of these rumors about MGS and Silent Hill bear fruit.
If I could suggest anything, it would be for Sony to diversify its genres a bit more. Car combat, flight sims, RPGs, and horror games would be very welcome. Just any of those under-represented niche genres it has strayed away from in the recent past.
Its really mindblowing just how good a year it was.
As an aside, I played Symphony of the Night around 2010 (way late to the party) and it still holds up very, very well. The Requiem collection is on sale right now on PSN for like 9 bucks and includes SoTN. Add me on PSN (UnlimitedSevens) and I'll send you a download code for it. Can't recommend it enough.
This is the correct answer you guys. PS1/PS2 era is sacrosanct. Sprinkle in the other years as necessary.
PS3 era was like Playstation going through an awkward puberty phase or something. Oddly enough, my working theory is people will pick the year they hit 13-15 years old as the "best" year. Which means two things:
1.) Guessing the author of the article is around 21 to 23 years old.
2.) We have a lot of youngsters in the crowd judging by the comments.
Dang, didn't realize Chrono Trigger came that late to the party. I'm thinking @Integrity is confusing the SNES release of the game. 26 years ago... I'm old lol.
Depends on when you started playing games. I don't think all these people saying 2018 were even around during the PS1 days. 2018 was good (and 2022 is shaping up nicely), but 1997 through 2001 is called the Golden Era for a good reason.
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy Tactics
Resident Evil 2
Xenogears
The above games could each sit comfortably near or at the top of any "Best Games of All Time" list.
If you look at 1997 to 1998, the releases were just out of this world. But '98 edges out '97 by just a bit as the best year in Playstation history in my book.
My first promise as the future totalitarian ruler of the US is to establish a job placement program for everyone at EA to be placed at other development companies... then to promptly nuke EA to dust from orbit, make a national holiday out of it, then spread all their ill-gotten wealth to HIV research (since this company is the corporate equivalent of HIV).
Also, sports gamers will be sent to re-education camps.
The overpriced cosmetics aren't gambling, the FUT stuff is (blind loot boxes as you call them).
Just a little less acceptable for a game that already has gambling lootbox mechanics to also throw in overpriced cosmetics on top of that. But this series is completely shameless; however, that isn't really news.
I think the story here was it was just odd for anime themed cosmetics to land in FIFA. Not exactly a peanut butter and jelly match-up right there.
I see what you are saying. I guess my reply wasn't really addressing your point and I agree completely. I definitely will be adding the term "legal golems" to my lexicon though haha.
I love this game. Best thing I've played in years, and still my favorite PS5 first party release, or anything on PS5 I've played for that matter.
I know 1.4 million is good if you consider the ratio of sales to current PS5 owners (over 10% of people who own a PS5 bought this game - yikes!). But still, I want to see that number higher, as it is truly deserving.
I like expensive walled gardens. Keeps the riff-raff out (GaaS in this context). Give me $70 games over microtransaction-infested service titles that are half finished at launch. Hope Microsoft ditches that microtransaction philosophy too whenever they, uh... actually release a game. But something tells me their Gamepass model is going to rely heavily on GaaS titles and microtransactions going forward. Hope they prove me wrong, fingers crossed.
I'm not kidding myself that Sony are the "good guys", but yes - Microsoft is evil, in the way most corporations are evil. I don't want a game streaming service, I want good games. Two out of the three console manufacturers are delivering good games right now, one isn't and hasn't been for awhile.
Microsoft isn't liberating anybody. They are making a smart play, eating losses on Gamepass to capture more subscribers, at which point prices will shoot up dramatically, i.e. Netflix 2.0
Sony is just a brand of evil I can stomach a bit easier.
Twisted Metal 2012 was alright but it was frustrating because the single player story felt tacked on and undercooked. Only three characters. It had some good ideas, like the Talon helicopter and cool arenas... but overall I was disappointed that they moved away from the single player elements the series was famous for. I think it was trying to cash in on the online multiplayer craze of the time.
Sony was trying to sell online passes for its games at the time and it seemed like every game released had to have a multiplayer component as kind of a money making scheme.
For all intents and purposes, Jaffe parted ways with Sony long, long before the PS4 era. He worked in a limited capacity with Sony during that time (they published his games as he founded and shut down three game studios, one after the other), but he was already persona non grata by that point.
He is a victim of himself, not Sony. I'm sure Sony have screwed some people over, don't get me wring, but Jaffe ain't one of them. They gave him more leeway than he deserved for years based solely on his name.
I'll give you the "dirt" on Jaffe. Sony gave Jaffe three chances after leaving voluntarily to create his own studio - with Calling all Cars (game bombed, Jaffe went on record to say the game was a mistake), Twisted Metal 2012 (poor sales and widely criticized for lack of single player content), and then Drawn to Death (multiplayer-only shooting game that bombed prompting him to melt down online).
Whatever he used to be, he isn't that anymore. And Sony has been pretty benevolent towards him all things considered, giving him repeated chances as all his games bombed critically and commercially.
Sony could have easily kept Bluepoint doing remake after remake as a safe bet, but they are letting them stretch their wings, with all the risk and added expense that brings. That's commendable.
Thought the three variations per fighter system really held this game back. Like I was playing with a third of the moveset for each character... glad they canned it later for MK11.
Also the focus on the new special forces kids was a bummer - they all seemed pretty boring and their inclusion as all being relatives of existing characters seem pretty hackneyed and weak storytelling-wise. The game existed in a really awkward place.
If you are looking at this review because the game came to Plus, just get MK11. Its really cheap these days.
I agree with your thesis good sir, if I understand what you are saying correctly. The savvy choice would be to keep Jim Ryan away from cameras altogether, given his lack of social graces.
Let me plant a dark thought in your head though. Jim Ryan seems to have a certain inability to "get" his target market. That I agree with. But I don't necessarily think it matters. You talk about the company being maneuverable under a savvy leader, as opposed to an excel-sheet worshipping accounting reject who somehow found himself in a CEO role of a Fortune 500 company. While that sounds like common sense to you and me, I am not so sure anymore.
The dark and frankly depressing realization I've come to is he most likely understands the market in a more macro way than we do, in terms of marketing, investment, and overall strategy - which is a numbers game borne out by data analytics and other boring terms reserved for college statistics courses.
While we have a clearer "on the ground" view of the hobby, his boring vanilla business acumen approach is superior in that it gets financial results and actually gets good games made. Games which no doubt to him are just entries on a data sheet and for which he has no real appreciation. If you or me ran Sony with our pretty similar philosophies on the subject, we would not do as well as he is doing... and that's the depressing part. Our worldview is inferior to his clinical approach in terms of results, I think. That's a difficult idea to accept, but I believe it is true.
Its an interesting topic, but I try not to think about it. Games should be for fun. You start to get too analytical about the business side of things in the hobby you love, it takes the magic away. It becomes work and you end up writing rambling essays on forums like yours truly. You begin to dwell too much on what ifs and what-could-be's instead of what is actually in front of you. What we actually have is a wealth of gaming options and higher quality than has ever existed. I'm not even going to present that as an opinion, that's empirically true. When I see people complain about this or that, I just want to stop and tell them Things are good right now, relax. We've come a long way since the Pong and Pac-Man days. It's a good time to be into videogames.
Doesn't mean don't point out problems when you see them (and you raise legitimate issues I'd like to see corrected too), but keep a balanced view of where things actually stand as you do that.
I don't know how my reply devolved into a psuedo-spiritual commentary on seeing the good side of things... and I hope to never use the term "data analytics" in a video game forum post again haha. My point is... let's play some damn games and leave the business decisions to boring people like Jim Ryan. Someone has to lead the sad existence of running a corporation, let's just be glad it isn't us.
Jim Ryan is not what I would call a charismatic man. But really, from the perspective of how Sony is doing performance-wise, you can't fault him. They are doing well financially and they are delivering the goods on the software side.
Their overall business ethos doesn't concern me so much, since all businesses are inherently more or less evil money vacuums, and that just goes without saying regardless of how fan-friendly their front men/women are. Personable CEOs/execs just suspend our disbelief for a minute that these companies aren't soulless corporations. But they are. They always are.
I don't need a friendly PR guy to interface with me, the end result is the same regardless. I'll give it to you though, this man is boring and may be a robot.
Not a terrible lineup, but not the best either. In my humble opinion, it was super weak and I think most people forget that. Most of these games didn't review all that well if memory serves, or at least not as well as PS5's first-year lineup, which includes 11 first party games at this point (that's a lot).
I respect it's your opinion, but I haven't heard anyone try to make the case PS4 had a better lineup out of the gate. PS4 really came into its stride a bit later in its lifecycle. Aggregate review scores, sales, sheer quantity of titles - any way you slice it PS5 gets the edge.
I'm pretty biased though. The Demons Souls game you disregarded as just a remake not worth consideration is worth more than that entire PS4 launch library, combined. And then you have Ratchet and Clank and Returnal waiting in the wings, which completely stomp on anything in that above list with prejudice (imo). And I could go on and on about Miles Morales, Sackboy, Ghosts of Tsushima... but I should cap it there.
TL;DR Version: Unless you really, really liked Infamous and Resogun, PS4 was weak out of the gate. Opinions.
The infrastructure is all there to do it, as is made evident by third party services like psnprofiles.com.
Problem is, psnprofiles' info is pretty inaccurate since it only tracks roughly 10% I think of registered accounts.
Exploring ways to further expand the "meta" aspects of gaming which were started with achievements and trophies is where I want to see things go in the future.
As of today, Sony's first party studios have released:
Demon's Souls
Astro's Playroom
Spiderman Miles Morales
Spiderman Remastered
Sackboy's Big Adventure
Destruction All-Stars
Returnal
Ratchet and Clank
MLB The Show 21
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
Death Stranding Director's Cut.
That's 11 games in 10 months. From one publisher. All, with one exception (Destruction All-Stars) reviewed very highly. Six of those games are only playable on PS5. By aggregate review scores, this is the strongest launch in Playstation history.
2.) A system to look up people you played with online, so you can add them as friends later - PS3/PS4 support this.
3.) Folders
4.) Something to replace the What's New/Communities/Playstation Home of yesteryear. PS5 is severely lacking in social features. Anything that makes using PS5 a more social experience if you are into that sort of thing.
Legends mode is the best free DLC update of any game I have ever played. Highly recommend this mode, even if you don't normally go for multi-player games. It's strictly PVE - you just work with others to beat missions/kill enemies and it works so damn well.
I just bought a pair of the Sony 1000 MX4 noise canceling headsets. They are expensive (a piece of me died paying the asking price) but the noise canceling alone is straight up eerie in how effective it is. And they come in black!
Also have the Gold, the Platinum, and the Pulse... they are good but just come nowhere close. I'm no audiophile, but I was blown away.
Yeah, I can see how - cumulatively - it adds up. The change from a 60 to 70 price tag makes me hesitate a little too, which is weird. It's not much more money in absolute terms, but that 7 looks so much more imposing in the moment. Its just hard to justify for an entertainment product, whatever your financial situation may be.
I think the reason the price of new games stagnated at $60 for so, so long was their market research probably demonstrated people just were not willing to shell out that tiny bit more. And while some would pay the higher prices, the net effect would be a loss in revenue due to the disproportionately larger decrease in unit sales. $60 was the magic number - it was exactly the most they could get away with charging. They smartly bypassed this theoretical price ceiling for a time with psychological tricks such as $70 - 100 deluxe editions which only added a few digital extras. The cost was added after the initial purchase on the back-end via DLC, bypassing the "sticker shock" response.
Sony seems to have decided their games have so much goodwill and esteem in the industry, they can bypass that voice in our heads telling us $70 is just too much. Maybe that is what their research has shown them. Overall though, their pricing message has been confused and disjointed, with games costing $20 (Destruction All-Stars), $50 (Sackboy, Miles Morales, Death Stranding DC), $60 (Horizon Forbidden West), and $70 (Demons Souls, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal). MSRPs are all over the place.
I think they are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
I think they are testing the market to see what it will bear. Experimenting with prices... that's the only way I can explain why Ghosts of Tsushima is $70 on PS5 while Death Stranding Director's Cut is $50. Both added content, so who knows the reasoning.
If the point of contention is a $10 PS4 to PS5 upgrade fee, that's a weird hill to die on considering how rampant predatory business practices are across this industry, i.e. microtransactions/live service shenanigans.
Your 10 bucks is getting you something tangible at least. Could it be a free patch? Absolutely. SHOULD it be a free patch? Well, that's a debate for the philosophers I suppose.
You are right though, its getting out of hand with all these remakes/re-releases.
No accounting for taste - Madden is terrible. Sports gamers have very, very low standards judging by what EA and 2K get away with year after year. Basically that weird sub-group of bro gamers that play nothing but Call of Duty and Madden every year, and nothing else, keeps a lot of the garbage business practices afloat.
I could put a Stealers logo on a literal turd and sell it to one of them for 20 bucks, and you'd better believe they'd buy it.
Got a few friends who fall into this category and god bless them for their many positive qualities, but they are neanderthals when it comes to video games in general. They have never even heard of Ghosts of Tsushima and couldn't tell you the difference between Mario and Sonic.
I'm on the MGS1 Remake hype train too to be honest. There is a slim, very very narrow possibility MGS6 will be made - someday - if MGS1 Remake is in fact real and does well. Hey, they may even bring Kojima back even if that is in a limited capacity. Pipe dream? Probably, but stranger things have happened.
I think MGS6 would itself be a remake of the original two Metal Gear games (the MSX titles made in the '80s), as thats the only piece of the timeline left untouched at this point. MGS4 pretty much put a bow on things story-wise, so there isn't much to go on moving forward from there in the chronology.
All I know is the internet is thirsty for a MGS remake and I have no qualms with that.
I get what you are saying - physical ain't physical anymore, due to day one patches and multi-player components that will get shut down.
Despite most games getting massive patches on day one, they are still playable without. More bugs than you can shake a stick at sure, but playable. Also, I'm not aware of any single player game that requires an online connection to play - maybe a few very isolated cases but definitely not the norm. These blu-rays will be playable long past their digital brethren, I'd bet you a silver nickel.
BUT its a zero-sum argument at the end of the day because even pristine blu-ray discs have a shelf life - even when perfectly cared for. Around 40 years I think under the best circumstances?
We just really need them to be archived like another commenter mentioned. They are a piece of history.
So... it's really up to preference. I want to feel like I own something, even if it is (partially) an illusion. Digital being superior to physical though... it's a stretch is what I'm saying but I get you really dig the convenience factor.
Yeah I think we all need to admit to ourselves the truth. We collect physical to appease our inner magpies. And the nostalgia factor. I do get a sense of warm comfort looking at my collection - a lot of good memories.
Also, collecting is part of the game too - the challenge of finding that rare copy, etc... it's fun/rewarding in its way.
For sure, for sure. It's all a personal value judgement - if that extra 20 seconds to switch a disc is worth a price hike and the diminished ownership rights, I say live your truth!
I am a physical collector. Like you (I'm assuming), I have less time for games, and money isn't as much of an issue anymore. My job consumes my life unfortunately. But even I, who places an extreme premium on my own time (responding to PushSquare comments notwithstanding) will take 20 seconds to switch a disc.
But if you aren't into that, knowing the many tradeoffs, I can understand and do not judge. Kids can be terrors on electronics/discs, and digital downloads do have a considerable convenience factor in that you do not have to actually go out and get them/order them.
For me, storage has been the bigger issue - I always waffle back and forth between displaying my games by the entertainment center but after a certain point it becomes garish. Several hundred games displayed by the TV doesn't really fit the decor. First world problems I guess. Seems to be the main issue with collecting from talking to other folks on here. Digital solves that. Just too many negatives (for me).
Physical is inferior to digital... because you have to switch discs? Well, I must say that is an interesting point of view. I haven't heard that one before, to be honest.
With physical you get a tangible product, something real, something more than a glorified rental. Resell value, trading with friends and family, no bandwidth-sapping downloads required, AND best of all, you don't have to worry if it will be available to play in 10, 15, or 20 years.
Not to mention the massive price difference. Sometimes digital can be cheaper though. Sometimes.
But uh... yeah... you do have to switch the discs.
I've got a lot of baggage when it comes to anime. Cosplying strikes me as ridiculous on its face and probably the ultimate expression of nerd-dom. There's always this undercurrent of social awkwardness for those that do that stuff. Like broader society ousted them and that's how they cope and find meaning, by participating in that uber-nerd community. It drips of smelly teenage angst and self-consciousness.
Its an old school of thought and it is sort of gatekeeping. Its like, you can be this nerdy but don't cosplay, that's going too far. I understand it is irrational in a way, believe me.
I play a lot of video games and board games, and I understand to some that makes ME the nerd! Being a geek is cool now in 2021 so I'm told. I just need to get with the times (I am getting old and come from a different era).
Also, I completely agree people rarely pull off cosplay of anime characters without just looking like a weird, melted caricature of whoever they are dressing up as. Fantastical elements of anime are at odds with a real-life reproduction. Some do pretty good jobs though.
Comments 685
Re: A Big PlayStation Remake Is to Be Announced This December, Says Irish Artist AVA
Let's see, what Playstation IP would use Irish vocals? I feel like that should narrow it down quite a bit.
Sorry guys, I know you are tired of hearing this, but it 1000% points to the first Metal Gear Solid game. Its the only game in Playstation history - to my knowledge - that features a Gaelic voice track... and its the friggin' main theme of the game.
If the info reported here is accurate, it is Metal Gear Solid.
Re: PS Store Plunges the Price of Over 400 Hidden Gems
@tomassi
I might have a problem haha. The thing is, I do intend to play them all, someday... just haven't figured out how that is gonna work yet.
Re: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Looks Like a Total Cheese Fest
This looks ridiculous... in the best kind of way. Also, the trailer music made me laugh out loud as I watched it.
Is that a HUNK reference there at the beginning of the trailer? (The guy in the gas mask?) And where is Wesker?
Re: Play At Home Pushes Over 60 Million Downloads on PS5, PS4
Well this comment section took a dark turn.
Back on topic, the games they released for free were absolute bangers and I'm glad they did. The more sets of eyes you can get Ratchet and Clank in front of, the better.
Still need to try Paper Beast.
Re: PlayStation Boss Wants a Future Where Sony Games Aren't Gated from a Wider Audience
The writing is on the wall. I just hope if/when they go to a streaming platform in the near or distant future, physical discs are still an option.
I like to own the stuff I buy. Netflix of gaming doesn't sound too appealing to me. My bet is GamePass is gonna devolve into a live service/microtransaction extravaganza to fund the service. Kind of what we see in free mobile games. They gotta make the money somewhere. Maybe not to that degree, but in the ballpark.
Re: Sony: The Pipeline of Games for PS5 Is Just Fantastic
2022 is shaping up to be a fine year. I'm actually a bit more excited about 2023 though, especially if any of these rumors about MGS and Silent Hill bear fruit.
If I could suggest anything, it would be for Sony to diversify its genres a bit more. Car combat, flight sims, RPGs, and horror games would be very welcome. Just any of those under-represented niche genres it has strayed away from in the recent past.
Good time to be into games.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@Integrity
Well played sir.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@nookie_egg
Not a problem, happy to do it! Looks like your account settings are preventing me from sending you any messages though!
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@nookie_egg
Its really mindblowing just how good a year it was.
As an aside, I played Symphony of the Night around 2010 (way late to the party) and it still holds up very, very well. The Requiem collection is on sale right now on PSN for like 9 bucks and includes SoTN. Add me on PSN (UnlimitedSevens) and I'll send you a download code for it. Can't recommend it enough.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@nookie_egg
Don't forget Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! Amazing year.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
1998 > 2001 > 1997 > 2018 > 2015 > 2011
This is the correct answer you guys. PS1/PS2 era is sacrosanct. Sprinkle in the other years as necessary.
PS3 era was like Playstation going through an awkward puberty phase or something. Oddly enough, my working theory is people will pick the year they hit 13-15 years old as the "best" year. Which means two things:
1.) Guessing the author of the article is around 21 to 23 years old.
2.) We have a lot of youngsters in the crowd judging by the comments.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@ChrisDeku
Dang, didn't realize Chrono Trigger came that late to the party. I'm thinking @Integrity is confusing the SNES release of the game. 26 years ago... I'm old lol.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@Integrity
Gex was released in '94 I believe. I wouldn't really use that game as an example of the best of the best of Playstation releases in any case.
Chrono Trigger, Suikoden, and Soul Edge were legendary though.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
@Americansamurai1
Depends on when you started playing games. I don't think all these people saying 2018 were even around during the PS1 days. 2018 was good (and 2022 is shaping up nicely), but 1997 through 2001 is called the Golden Era for a good reason.
Re: Video: Was 2011 the Best Year Ever for PlayStation?
1998 says hello:
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy Tactics
Resident Evil 2
Xenogears
The above games could each sit comfortably near or at the top of any "Best Games of All Time" list.
If you look at 1997 to 1998, the releases were just out of this world. But '98 edges out '97 by just a bit as the best year in Playstation history in my book.
Re: PS Store Plunges the Price of Over 400 Hidden Gems
@GamerDad66
Can confirm Nex Machina is great and addictive.
Re: PS Store Plunges the Price of Over 400 Hidden Gems
@gollumb82
Love MGS5. Gameplay is superb. Definitive edition includes Ground Zeroes and includes a bunch of neat extras for the main game.
Re: PS Store Plunges the Price of Over 400 Hidden Gems
@tomassi
Good picks! Picked up Minit, Castlevania Requiem, and Matterfall for about the same amount.
That's... 413 games in the backlog now. I give up.
Re: FIFA 22 Goes Full Anime with Pricey Premium Cosmetics
My first promise as the future totalitarian ruler of the US is to establish a job placement program for everyone at EA to be placed at other development companies... then to promptly nuke EA to dust from orbit, make a national holiday out of it, then spread all their ill-gotten wealth to HIV research (since this company is the corporate equivalent of HIV).
Also, sports gamers will be sent to re-education camps.
Do I have your votes?!?
Re: FIFA 22 Goes Full Anime with Pricey Premium Cosmetics
@rjejr
The overpriced cosmetics aren't gambling, the FUT stuff is (blind loot boxes as you call them).
Just a little less acceptable for a game that already has gambling lootbox mechanics to also throw in overpriced cosmetics on top of that. But this series is completely shameless; however, that isn't really news.
I think the story here was it was just odd for anime themed cosmetics to land in FIFA. Not exactly a peanut butter and jelly match-up right there.
Re: Reaction: Sony Has Quietly But Confidently Grown Its First-Party Lineup
@Spiders
I see what you are saying. I guess my reply wasn't really addressing your point and I agree completely. I definitely will be adding the term "legal golems" to my lexicon though haha.
Re: Demon's Souls PS5 Has Sold More Than 1.4 Million Copies to Date
I love this game. Best thing I've played in years, and still my favorite PS5 first party release, or anything on PS5 I've played for that matter.
I know 1.4 million is good if you consider the ratio of sales to current PS5 owners (over 10% of people who own a PS5 bought this game - yikes!). But still, I want to see that number higher, as it is truly deserving.
Re: Reaction: Sony Has Quietly But Confidently Grown Its First-Party Lineup
@Spiders
I like expensive walled gardens. Keeps the riff-raff out (GaaS in this context). Give me $70 games over microtransaction-infested service titles that are half finished at launch. Hope Microsoft ditches that microtransaction philosophy too whenever they, uh... actually release a game. But something tells me their Gamepass model is going to rely heavily on GaaS titles and microtransactions going forward. Hope they prove me wrong, fingers crossed.
I'm not kidding myself that Sony are the "good guys", but yes - Microsoft is evil, in the way most corporations are evil. I don't want a game streaming service, I want good games. Two out of the three console manufacturers are delivering good games right now, one isn't and hasn't been for awhile.
Microsoft isn't liberating anybody. They are making a smart play, eating losses on Gamepass to capture more subscribers, at which point prices will shoot up dramatically, i.e. Netflix 2.0
Sony is just a brand of evil I can stomach a bit easier.
Re: Twisted Metal Creator Hurt by Sony Snub Over Rumoured New Game
@Flaming_Kaiser
Twisted Metal 2012 was alright but it was frustrating because the single player story felt tacked on and undercooked. Only three characters. It had some good ideas, like the Talon helicopter and cool arenas... but overall I was disappointed that they moved away from the single player elements the series was famous for. I think it was trying to cash in on the online multiplayer craze of the time.
Sony was trying to sell online passes for its games at the time and it seemed like every game released had to have a multiplayer component as kind of a money making scheme.
Re: Twisted Metal Creator Hurt by Sony Snub Over Rumoured New Game
@wiiware @Spanky
For all intents and purposes, Jaffe parted ways with Sony long, long before the PS4 era. He worked in a limited capacity with Sony during that time (they published his games as he founded and shut down three game studios, one after the other), but he was already persona non grata by that point.
He is a victim of himself, not Sony. I'm sure Sony have screwed some people over, don't get me wring, but Jaffe ain't one of them. They gave him more leeway than he deserved for years based solely on his name.
Re: Twisted Metal Creator Hurt by Sony Snub Over Rumoured New Game
I'll give you the "dirt" on Jaffe. Sony gave Jaffe three chances after leaving voluntarily to create his own studio - with Calling all Cars (game bombed, Jaffe went on record to say the game was a mistake), Twisted Metal 2012 (poor sales and widely criticized for lack of single player content), and then Drawn to Death (multiplayer-only shooting game that bombed prompting him to melt down online).
Whatever he used to be, he isn't that anymore. And Sony has been pretty benevolent towards him all things considered, giving him repeated chances as all his games bombed critically and commercially.
Re: Bluepoint Games Developing a Brand New Title, Not a Remake
Sony could have easily kept Bluepoint doing remake after remake as a safe bet, but they are letting them stretch their wings, with all the risk and added expense that brings. That's commendable.
Re: Sony Finally Confirms Acquisition of Demon's Souls PS5 Dev Bluepoint Games
About time. Bluepoint is an institution and their work on Demon's Souls was amazing.
Future looking pretty bright.
Re: Mortal Kombat X (PS4) - Get Over Here and Play This Skull-Cracking Fighter
Thought the three variations per fighter system really held this game back. Like I was playing with a third of the moveset for each character... glad they canned it later for MK11.
Also the focus on the new special forces kids was a bummer - they all seemed pretty boring and their inclusion as all being relatives of existing characters seem pretty hackneyed and weak storytelling-wise. The game existed in a really awkward place.
If you are looking at this review because the game came to Plus, just get MK11. Its really cheap these days.
Re: Jim Ryan to Discuss PlayStation's Past and Gaming's Future in Fireside Chat
@NEStalgia
I agree with your thesis good sir, if I understand what you are saying correctly. The savvy choice would be to keep Jim Ryan away from cameras altogether, given his lack of social graces.
Let me plant a dark thought in your head though. Jim Ryan seems to have a certain inability to "get" his target market. That I agree with. But I don't necessarily think it matters. You talk about the company being maneuverable under a savvy leader, as opposed to an excel-sheet worshipping accounting reject who somehow found himself in a CEO role of a Fortune 500 company. While that sounds like common sense to you and me, I am not so sure anymore.
The dark and frankly depressing realization I've come to is he most likely understands the market in a more macro way than we do, in terms of marketing, investment, and overall strategy - which is a numbers game borne out by data analytics and other boring terms reserved for college statistics courses.
While we have a clearer "on the ground" view of the hobby, his boring vanilla business acumen approach is superior in that it gets financial results and actually gets good games made. Games which no doubt to him are just entries on a data sheet and for which he has no real appreciation. If you or me ran Sony with our pretty similar philosophies on the subject, we would not do as well as he is doing... and that's the depressing part. Our worldview is inferior to his clinical approach in terms of results, I think. That's a difficult idea to accept, but I believe it is true.
Its an interesting topic, but I try not to think about it. Games should be for fun. You start to get too analytical about the business side of things in the hobby you love, it takes the magic away. It becomes work and you end up writing rambling essays on forums like yours truly. You begin to dwell too much on what ifs and what-could-be's instead of what is actually in front of you. What we actually have is a wealth of gaming options and higher quality than has ever existed. I'm not even going to present that as an opinion, that's empirically true. When I see people complain about this or that, I just want to stop and tell them Things are good right now, relax. We've come a long way since the Pong and Pac-Man days. It's a good time to be into videogames.
Doesn't mean don't point out problems when you see them (and you raise legitimate issues I'd like to see corrected too), but keep a balanced view of where things actually stand as you do that.
I don't know how my reply devolved into a psuedo-spiritual commentary on seeing the good side of things... and I hope to never use the term "data analytics" in a video game forum post again haha. My point is... let's play some damn games and leave the business decisions to boring people like Jim Ryan. Someone has to lead the sad existence of running a corporation, let's just be glad it isn't us.
Re: Jim Ryan to Discuss PlayStation's Past and Gaming's Future in Fireside Chat
@NEStalgia
Jim Ryan is not what I would call a charismatic man. But really, from the perspective of how Sony is doing performance-wise, you can't fault him. They are doing well financially and they are delivering the goods on the software side.
Their overall business ethos doesn't concern me so much, since all businesses are inherently more or less evil money vacuums, and that just goes without saying regardless of how fan-friendly their front men/women are. Personable CEOs/execs just suspend our disbelief for a minute that these companies aren't soulless corporations. But they are. They always are.
I don't need a friendly PR guy to interface with me, the end result is the same regardless. I'll give it to you though, this man is boring and may be a robot.
Re: Haven Studios' Jade Raymond to Discuss Setting Up Sony-Backed Developer During a Pandemic
I'm ready to sit on Jimmy Ryan's lap as he whispers sweet nothings into my ear.
Re: Sony's Biggest UK Studio, Firesprite, Has Just Made an Acquisition of Its Own
Man, soon all these big publishers are gonna run out of talent to buy.
Re: PS5 Has Reached 1 Million UK Sales Faster Than Any Other PlayStation Console
@__jamiie
This was PS4's first year line-up in a nutshell:
Not a terrible lineup, but not the best either. In my humble opinion, it was super weak and I think most people forget that. Most of these games didn't review all that well if memory serves, or at least not as well as PS5's first-year lineup, which includes 11 first party games at this point (that's a lot).
I respect it's your opinion, but I haven't heard anyone try to make the case PS4 had a better lineup out of the gate. PS4 really came into its stride a bit later in its lifecycle. Aggregate review scores, sales, sheer quantity of titles - any way you slice it PS5 gets the edge.
I'm pretty biased though. The Demons Souls game you disregarded as just a remake not worth consideration is worth more than that entire PS4 launch library, combined. And then you have Ratchet and Clank and Returnal waiting in the wings, which completely stomp on anything in that above list with prejudice (imo). And I could go on and on about Miles Morales, Sackboy, Ghosts of Tsushima... but I should cap it there.
TL;DR Version: Unless you really, really liked Infamous and Resogun, PS4 was weak out of the gate. Opinions.
Re: Feature: 12 PS5 Firmware Updates We Want to See
Trophy leaderboards
The infrastructure is all there to do it, as is made evident by third party services like psnprofiles.com.
Problem is, psnprofiles' info is pretty inaccurate since it only tracks roughly 10% I think of registered accounts.
Exploring ways to further expand the "meta" aspects of gaming which were started with achievements and trophies is where I want to see things go in the future.
Re: Sony Has a Long List of 'Interesting, Exciting, Fantastic Ideas' for Future PS5 Firmware Updates
As of today, Sony's first party studios have released:
That's 11 games in 10 months. From one publisher. All, with one exception (Destruction All-Stars) reviewed very highly. Six of those games are only playable on PS5. By aggregate review scores, this is the strongest launch in Playstation history.
Chill.
Re: Sony Has a Long List of 'Interesting, Exciting, Fantastic Ideas' for Future PS5 Firmware Updates
1.) Trophy Leaderboards!!!
2.) A system to look up people you played with online, so you can add them as friends later - PS3/PS4 support this.
3.) Folders
4.) Something to replace the What's New/Communities/Playstation Home of yesteryear. PS5 is severely lacking in social features. Anything that makes using PS5 a more social experience if you are into that sort of thing.
Re: Ghost of Tsushima Legends Gets a New Survival Map, Another Coming Next Week
Legends mode is the best free DLC update of any game I have ever played. Highly recommend this mode, even if you don't normally go for multi-player games. It's strictly PVE - you just work with others to beat missions/kill enemies and it works so damn well.
Re: PS5 Pulse 3D Wireless Headset Available in Midnight Black Starting Next Month
I just bought a pair of the Sony 1000 MX4 noise canceling headsets. They are expensive (a piece of me died paying the asking price) but the noise canceling alone is straight up eerie in how effective it is. And they come in black!
Also have the Gold, the Platinum, and the Pulse... they are good but just come nowhere close. I'm no audiophile, but I was blown away.
Re: August 2021 NPD: Ghost of Tsushima Up 108 Places Into Second Thanks to Director's Cut
@NEStalgia
Yeah, I can see how - cumulatively - it adds up. The change from a 60 to 70 price tag makes me hesitate a little too, which is weird. It's not much more money in absolute terms, but that 7 looks so much more imposing in the moment. Its just hard to justify for an entertainment product, whatever your financial situation may be.
I think the reason the price of new games stagnated at $60 for so, so long was their market research probably demonstrated people just were not willing to shell out that tiny bit more. And while some would pay the higher prices, the net effect would be a loss in revenue due to the disproportionately larger decrease in unit sales. $60 was the magic number - it was exactly the most they could get away with charging. They smartly bypassed this theoretical price ceiling for a time with psychological tricks such as $70 - 100 deluxe editions which only added a few digital extras. The cost was added after the initial purchase on the back-end via DLC, bypassing the "sticker shock" response.
Sony seems to have decided their games have so much goodwill and esteem in the industry, they can bypass that voice in our heads telling us $70 is just too much. Maybe that is what their research has shown them. Overall though, their pricing message has been confused and disjointed, with games costing $20 (Destruction All-Stars), $50 (Sackboy, Miles Morales, Death Stranding DC), $60 (Horizon Forbidden West), and $70 (Demons Souls, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal). MSRPs are all over the place.
I think they are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Re: August 2021 NPD: Ghost of Tsushima Up 108 Places Into Second Thanks to Director's Cut
@NEStalgia
I think they are testing the market to see what it will bear. Experimenting with prices... that's the only way I can explain why Ghosts of Tsushima is $70 on PS5 while Death Stranding Director's Cut is $50. Both added content, so who knows the reasoning.
If the point of contention is a $10 PS4 to PS5 upgrade fee, that's a weird hill to die on considering how rampant predatory business practices are across this industry, i.e. microtransactions/live service shenanigans.
Your 10 bucks is getting you something tangible at least. Could it be a free patch? Absolutely. SHOULD it be a free patch? Well, that's a debate for the philosophers I suppose.
You are right though, its getting out of hand with all these remakes/re-releases.
Re: August 2021 NPD: Ghost of Tsushima Up 108 Places Into Second Thanks to Director's Cut
@Netret0120
No accounting for taste - Madden is terrible. Sports gamers have very, very low standards judging by what EA and 2K get away with year after year. Basically that weird sub-group of bro gamers that play nothing but Call of Duty and Madden every year, and nothing else, keeps a lot of the garbage business practices afloat.
I could put a Stealers logo on a literal turd and sell it to one of them for 20 bucks, and you'd better believe they'd buy it.
Got a few friends who fall into this category and god bless them for their many positive qualities, but they are neanderthals when it comes to video games in general. They have never even heard of Ghosts of Tsushima and couldn't tell you the difference between Mario and Sonic.
Basically, godless heathens.
Re: Feature: Our PS5, PS4 Predictions for PlayStation Showcase 2021
@munstre
I'm on the MGS1 Remake hype train too to be honest. There is a slim, very very narrow possibility MGS6 will be made - someday - if MGS1 Remake is in fact real and does well. Hey, they may even bring Kojima back even if that is in a limited capacity. Pipe dream? Probably, but stranger things have happened.
I think MGS6 would itself be a remake of the original two Metal Gear games (the MSX titles made in the '80s), as thats the only piece of the timeline left untouched at this point. MGS4 pretty much put a bow on things story-wise, so there isn't much to go on moving forward from there in the chronology.
All I know is the internet is thirsty for a MGS remake and I have no qualms with that.
Re: Alan Wake Remastered Listed for PS5, PS4 Release on 5th October
Nice! Literally one of the only Xbox 360 era games I wanted to play but never got a chance to.
Better late than never!
Re: PS Store Essential Picks Sale Houses Many PS5, PS4 Game Deals
@Barryburton97
I get what you are saying - physical ain't physical anymore, due to day one patches and multi-player components that will get shut down.
Despite most games getting massive patches on day one, they are still playable without. More bugs than you can shake a stick at sure, but playable. Also, I'm not aware of any single player game that requires an online connection to play - maybe a few very isolated cases but definitely not the norm. These blu-rays will be playable long past their digital brethren, I'd bet you a silver nickel.
BUT its a zero-sum argument at the end of the day because even pristine blu-ray discs have a shelf life - even when perfectly cared for. Around 40 years I think under the best circumstances?
We just really need them to be archived like another commenter mentioned. They are a piece of history.
So... it's really up to preference. I want to feel like I own something, even if it is (partially) an illusion. Digital being superior to physical though... it's a stretch is what I'm saying but I get you really dig the convenience factor.
Re: PS Store Essential Picks Sale Houses Many PS5, PS4 Game Deals
@CynicalGamer
Yeah I think we all need to admit to ourselves the truth. We collect physical to appease our inner magpies. And the nostalgia factor. I do get a sense of warm comfort looking at my collection - a lot of good memories.
Also, collecting is part of the game too - the challenge of finding that rare copy, etc... it's fun/rewarding in its way.
Re: PS Store Essential Picks Sale Houses Many PS5, PS4 Game Deals
@ChrisDeku
For sure, for sure. It's all a personal value judgement - if that extra 20 seconds to switch a disc is worth a price hike and the diminished ownership rights, I say live your truth!
I am a physical collector. Like you (I'm assuming), I have less time for games, and money isn't as much of an issue anymore. My job consumes my life unfortunately. But even I, who places an extreme premium on my own time (responding to PushSquare comments notwithstanding) will take 20 seconds to switch a disc.
But if you aren't into that, knowing the many tradeoffs, I can understand and do not judge. Kids can be terrors on electronics/discs, and digital downloads do have a considerable convenience factor in that you do not have to actually go out and get them/order them.
For me, storage has been the bigger issue - I always waffle back and forth between displaying my games by the entertainment center but after a certain point it becomes garish. Several hundred games displayed by the TV doesn't really fit the decor. First world problems I guess. Seems to be the main issue with collecting from talking to other folks on here. Digital solves that. Just too many negatives (for me).
Re: PS Store Essential Picks Sale Houses Many PS5, PS4 Game Deals
@ChrisDeku
Physical is inferior to digital... because you have to switch discs? Well, I must say that is an interesting point of view. I haven't heard that one before, to be honest.
With physical you get a tangible product, something real, something more than a glorified rental. Resell value, trading with friends and family, no bandwidth-sapping downloads required, AND best of all, you don't have to worry if it will be available to play in 10, 15, or 20 years.
Not to mention the massive price difference. Sometimes digital can be cheaper though. Sometimes.
But uh... yeah... you do have to switch the discs.
Re: Naughty Dog Borrowed InFAMOUS: Second Son Assets to Help Build The Last of Us 2
Sucker Punch really came into their own these last few years. Infamous was good, Sly was good, but Ghosts of Tsushima was on another level.
Re: PlayStation Studios Boss: I Encourage Our Teams to Be Fiercely Daring
@3MonthBeef
I've got a lot of baggage when it comes to anime. Cosplying strikes me as ridiculous on its face and probably the ultimate expression of nerd-dom. There's always this undercurrent of social awkwardness for those that do that stuff. Like broader society ousted them and that's how they cope and find meaning, by participating in that uber-nerd community. It drips of smelly teenage angst and self-consciousness.
Its an old school of thought and it is sort of gatekeeping. Its like, you can be this nerdy but don't cosplay, that's going too far. I understand it is irrational in a way, believe me.
I play a lot of video games and board games, and I understand to some that makes ME the nerd! Being a geek is cool now in 2021 so I'm told. I just need to get with the times (I am getting old and come from a different era).
Also, I completely agree people rarely pull off cosplay of anime characters without just looking like a weird, melted caricature of whoever they are dressing up as. Fantastical elements of anime are at odds with a real-life reproduction. Some do pretty good jobs though.