Westernwolf4

@Skeletor85 I am also frustrated by the sales at the PS Store for the past few years. But I think Push Square does a great job keeping us up to date on PS stuff, and that stuff includes when there is a sale going.

I like the reminders that there is a sale going on, even if I wish the sales were better.

What is the difference between Arkham Knight and Batman Arcade Racer????? I kid, I kid. Knight is great with everything except the tedious tank combat.

I like the claustrophobic nature of Asylum with Joker taunting you constantly on speakers, and I think it is the best. But City is also fantastic.

I am really glad this is good, because not only do I like the Expanse, but it is going to be my Mother's introduction to real gaming.

My Mom is a fantastic person, but she doesn't have much experience with gaming other than supporting mine. She had a Wii when it first came out to do casual gaming, but has never had another console. She is in her 70s, and really enjoyed the Last of Us and Uncharted on TV and at the movies. She wasn't really aware that video games were telling stories instead of being Pac Man or Donkey Kong.

She is coming to visit in a few weeks and wants to play PlayStation to see what these games are all about. She is a big fan of the Expanse and Star Trek (she made me a sci fi fan too!), and so I am going to buy this and the new Star Trek Tell Tale esque game before she comes. I think this will be a good intro-subjects she likes, with a story, and controls that are not too complicated. I don't think starting someone out on the Last of Us or Starfield who has never held a controller before is a great plan for success.

I am proud of my Mom for trying new things, I am looking forward to spending the time with her, and I am excited to share my love of gaming! I also love the Expanse, so I am really looking forward to the game. The books and the series are both great!

@rusty82 Absolutely same! I am also playing Spidey 2 first to avoid spoilers. Too bad that is even a consideration, but in today’s world…..

I think both are going to be great!

I cannot wait for Spidey 2, so I am very jealous of the week Mr. Croft is having!

Until that 10/20 release, I am playing and loving Starfield. I am really and truly hooked.

Just in the last couple months I have played in order: Marvel Midnight Suns, BG3, Hi-FI Rush, Starfield (all excellent). Then we get Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2. What a time to love games! It is an embarrassment of riches.

I was looking forward to Weird West for a long time. However, when I tried it on Game Pass, the console controls were horrible. I don’t often drop a game for frustration with control scheme, but I did here. Did they ever fix it-I heard they made some improvements there? If so, I might give it another go.

As I said in the leak thread: I will absolutely try Callisto for no additional charge.

I finished Cyberpunk when it first came out. It was ok. But I have no real desire to return to Night City or that world.

I will absolutely give Callisto Protocol a try for no additional charge.

This looks a lot like Vampyr-talking to people and deciding their fate. That game had some really interesting ideas, but also some pretty frustrating flaws. I hope DON’T NOD learned from the Vampyr experience and built on it. If so, this could be great.

I am not going to have much to contribute here for a while, because I can’t stop playing Starfield. I love the game. It is slow to start, but now it has its hooks into me really deep.

I am mainly posting today to marvel at how good we have it. BG3, Starfield and Spider-Man 2 all in the same few month span? Amazing.

@Jacko11 The only people that owe you an apology are the people who were supposed to be teaching you the difference between a fact and an opinion.

You are not presenting any evidence. You are cherry picking facts that support the way you want to see the world. The variable you are willfully missing is that what people choose to spend their money on is highly subjective, with a lot of variables that you can’t anticipate. Just because it makes sense to you to pay this money doesn’t mean it makes sense to everyone. They have a different income than you, different family situation than you, and a different value system than you as a consumer. None of the facts you are citing as evidence mean anything, because each individual gives different weight to them depending on their own situation.

Your posts about this are silly.

@Jacko11 You expect somebody to offer a “valid counter” to your personal opinion? When someone has a different personal opinion than yours, it is valid. They just don’t agree with you. That is the point. You think the price hike is fine. Some don’t. You don’t need to justify your opinion about how your money is spent, and neither do they.

Please do some thinking about the difference between fact and opinion. It may make these discussions seem less “crazy”.

@Jacko11 How DARE people decide how they want to best spend the money they earned!!!!!! Animals, all of them!

And if they don’t agree with your personal opinion that PS Plus is still worth their money-well that is just the biggest disgrace of all. They really should get over themselves and just set their money on fire.

@TabulaRasa I agree with you. I have been a member of Plus for a long time, but unless we get something more from the service, I think the cost finally outweighs the benefit for me.

I see a lot of folks saying the point of this is to get folks to load up on short term suns, which is an interesting angle I had not considered. But if that were true: Wouldn’t we get more notice than this? A week is not a lot of time for those subs to roll in.

I tend to think Sony is hoping that this will pass under the radar for many altogether, given the short notice and the fact the announcement was buried at the bottom of a post about the essential tier games for September.

@Smiffy01 You are aware it is still possible to play PS games and comment in these threads without paying for PS Plus, right?

@TabulaRasa Right, but no one is saying they need justification in a universal sense. It is their service, and they can obviously raise prices when they want, and for whatever reason they want.

They do need justification if they want players to decide not to drop the service after a sudden price jump. Like you said: if you decide it is too much, you will drop it. Me too. If Sony doesn’t want a bunch of people to make the same choice, it needs to provide some reason not to. Personally, I am not sure what I get from Plus is worth it at this price.

@4kgk2 Blessedly, I can afford the increased prices if I want it. The question for me-and I suspect others-is whether Plus is worth what we are now expected to pay for it. Sony has raised prices significantly without telling us what new benefits we can expect, if any.

That seems like a problem for Sony, not me.

I have been a plus member for a long time, but this might be it for me. I have some time to decide but-even the essential tier feels like a bit of a rip off at this point. I like the service-but not THAT much.

The additional money is not that big a deal in the grand scheme, but at those price points I am starting to feel taken advantage of for what we actually get. And, as the write up points out, there are no details about the hypothetically fabulous new benefits we will receive for this price hike.

I think Sony went too far. Not the biggest deal in the world, but a little too much for my taste without receiving more from the service.

This month is gross.

The best case scenario for this game is the kind of dumb fun provided by games like Maneater. Which would not be a bad way to pass an afternoon or two.

@Sarcasmatwork Thanks! This response made my day.

@Quintumply As a long time Frogger player I can tell you-Frogs and streets DON'T mix!

I am playing Journey to the Savage Planet, which is simple, straightforward fun. I like games that encourage exploration for secrets, so this game scratches that particular itch.

Honestly: I am just messing around in the ol’ backlog until it is time to play Starfield and Spider-Man 2. Fall is going to be amazing for gaming!

This is all corporate speak. We all know Unicron ate those games.

This game is so great. Probably my favorite game of the PS4 era.

Nothing for me this month, but Death’s Door is really good for those who have not played it.

Wrapped up Dredge last night (really good game, slightly downgraded by some unwelcome grind at the end), and now I have Evil West installed and ready to go. I have played some very time consuming games in 2023 (with Starfield looming) so a linear smash vampies experience sounds perfect right now.

@Hootnoodle Spiritfarer is so great. When my youngest son and I game together, it is usually an action packed Nintendo title (Mario Kart, Smashbros.), but he wandered in on me starting Spiritfarer last year and was hooked immediately. We played through it together, just passing the controller back and forth for boat and island tasks. It was fantastic, and led to some fantastic discussions.

What a great game.

I am actually getting Maneater vibes-fearsome animal grows and gets power and eventually takes over the area. Cheesy graphics, limited story and combat, but good for a few hours of fun.

A new Maneater type of game would be a good outcome here!

There are plenty of games I have my eye on in the sale-but given the state of my backlog, the prices just aren’t low enough to tempt me.

I wonder if other stores are going to start going this way too soon? I walked into a US Target with my family on Sunday, and thought I would take a quick peek at the games section. I was shocked, there were only three physical PS5 games in a section that was once brimming with them (although I did see my first PS5 console in the wild).

I have switched to almost all digital gaming-my wife likes to buy me physical games for birthdays and such so I have something to open, but it has been years since I have walked into a store myself and walked out with a physical game (or ordered one online). But I think it would be a shame to see physical releases go for those who want the option.

@LN78 L Prepare to be judged……..in the comments. 😃

I finished Midnight Suns this week (it was so good!), so last night I started Dredge. I am really enjoying it so far.

I like fishing in games. I like horror in games. Was the development team reading my diary?

Circus Electrique is an under appreciated gem-Darkest Dungeon with clowns!!!

The Ascent is good too if you like Twin Stick shooters.

@Khayl Awesome! You do you my friend. Thanks for the game update.

I have so much gratitude for the great writing on this site, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But……in what world is RoboCop 2 better than the original??????? 😃

I am looking forward to the game!

“He started the Grinch Game, and then many say, his gamer heart shrunk three full sizes that day….”

Yay! I have been meaning to get to Alan Wake!

@Fiendish-Beaver Transformers: Devastation is pretty good, especially if you grew up watching the 80’s cartoon like I did. It is sort of like playing through an episode.

Got a very nice PSN gift card from my wife for Father’s Day-and Evil West is calling my name!

A week after starting and I am throughly addicted to Marvel: Midnight Suns. I can see why the Abbey sections aren’t for everyone-they are long, and the dialogue can be pretty cringe. But as a comics nerd who always enjoyed the “checking in with your crew” parts of Mass Effect, I am finding a lot to like there.

And the combat system is fantastic. Like many I was worried about melding a card system with regular Firaxis turn based, but the system is incredibly fun. And throwing goons through exploding barrels, hitting them with random crates, and dropping them into portals to Hell (!!) never gets old.

Isn’t it wonderful when you pick up a game that looks interesting and it turns out to be GREAT? Father’s Day tomorrow, so there will be lots of time with Midnight Suns guilt free! 😃

I started Marvel Midnight Suns. The combat is hella fun.

Nice! Between this and Starfield, Fall is going to be sweet.

@nofriendo I posted my comment above before reading yours. That is exactly how I felt about Trek as well.

I sincerely cannot remember the last time the games in the essential tier had anything for me that I did not already own. It has been more than a year at least. Fortunately, I see the games as just a bonus.

Trek to Yomi was my biggest gaming disappointment last year. The visuals are great and it has some good ideas, but I found combat achingly dull. It is worth playing, just maybe with lower expectations than I had going in…………

@Texan_Survivor You too! Happy gaming!

@Texan_Survivor I finally played RDR2 last Fall. As the credits rolled I had two strong emotions. Deep satisfaction with the game, and an urge to kick myself for waiting to play that masterpiece for so long.

Glad you are enjoying it! What a game.

I am almost done with Greedfall. It is a good game. There are some problems with it-the combat, quest design and facial animations feel dated even for when it was released a few years ago. But playing it makes me feel like I am playing the original Dragon Age, and I mean that in the best way.

I have also installed Deliver us the Moon, which I have been meaning to get to forever. That’s right: it is going to be a backlog kind of summer!

Me: "Hmm Concord. I like games in space. Could be fun."

Push: "It is a live service game."

Me: "Thanks for the info" (crosses off list).