breakneck

@Drago201 tbf most game publications are ***** at remembering the financial stuff or understanding the money side of the business (I think Last Stand Media is the only one that actually understands this well despite not liking the podcast overall) mostly focusing on pushing their agendas (recent Capcom shareholders asking silly questions) while ignoring the actual meat of the calls.

They are especially bad with regards to Sonys financial calls. They pay a lot of attention to Nintendo (especially because of the Switch 2 and how much engagement Nintendo articles get) and Microsoft being the biggest company in the world gets worldwide coverage.

I'm so tired of this. From seem really happy making new IP. Sony don't seem interested. Let it rest. I also think Bloodborne never needed a sequel. Dark Souls 2 and 3 weren't great and 3 especially relied on fan service.

You can't on one hand scream for new games while also begging like children for an old game to be remade/remastered.

If you read the Financial calls early this year Hiroki Totoki specifically name dropped Bungie as being mismanaged/not understanding how to work while praising the work ethic of the SIE studios overall. I'm not surprised by any of the allegations. Especially since Bungie has messed up relations with MS at the peak of their gaming strength, ABK and fumbled independence so quickly that the Sony payout probably saved the studio.

I'm somewhere on the middle where I think the money could've easily been used to incubate new studios but at the same time Destiny Is still a very valuable IP in terms of its universe and multimedia potential (bigger player count than HD2 rn on Steam) and Bungie still have some of the best art design and Gun feel in the industry along with longevity most GAAS games can only dream off.

I think Sony's mistake overall is coming into Live Services very late and while now most of their studios have moved back to SP, the time and money lost on cancelled projects has been costly. Especially when they all over hired during covid.

Bungie management has been bad since Halo 2 though.

When will it hit publishers and devs that there are too many ***** games coming out with no visibility especially in the indie side.

Especially in an age where small releases are expected to come day one on subscriptions. We can constantly bring up that stupid Twitter ' cheaper, shorter, less pretty' nonsense but that is not reality.

I know one thing for certain. Sony is marketing the hell out of this game. In HK I just saw Deadpool 3 in Imax and they had a IMAX TRAILER for this!

Early this year they had Stellar Blade video promos in the train station!

@StrickenBiged it's a double edged sword and something I think Nintendo seems to have a handle on quite well. Let them be approachable/quirky but avoid too many public/live interactions.

Phil Spencer is too approachable to the point that it backfires when he backtracks because he's the friendly one.

Playstation are too quiet atm but I feel it's because they have nothing to show for a while.

I love that it looks like he's having the time of his life working with Indie devs.

On Twitter most of the videos I've seen haven't been gameplay but the menus (they're fluid and look nice) and the character art (they're beautiful).

I bought this game, Robocop and The Sexy Brutale during the recent sale. Im quite excited to play this after Robocop (really fun game BTW) and it'll be my first tactical RPG in over a decade.

@NEStalgia You get Boeing. A company known for quality that became a joke and made aircrafts that killed people.

Aftermath (fantastic site) has some more detail. Apparently all the games currently being worked on will be passed on to a third party to handle publishing. If I were a dev I'd be ***** pissed about the publishers doing this to my game.

Also, as per the Aftermath piece Ziff Davis was upset games couldn't make quick money and needed years of effort for a result. Incompetent piece of donkey crap.

Mega Man was never my cup of tea (don't like trial and error aspects of it) but I did enjoy the Battle Network games as a kid.

@Silenos I called for help. After Eurogamers controversial (but really accurate) review mentioned quitting at the final boss I got a month of PS Plus in case I got stuck. The boss just wasn't fun so I summoned another player to help me.

@Czar_Khastik slalom was the stuff of nightmares.

Surprising with all WBs struggles and recent layoffs at NetherRealm. You'd think they'd want to curtail spending a bit.

My brother who likes Star Wars thought it looked a bit unpolished. The thing is... They're trying to make a Star Wars Uncharted but, Uncharted is one of the most polished franchises out there. If your gonna come for the king you better not miss.

@Shakybeeves similar story here. I prefer Divinity 2 as well purely because the combat didn't get on my nerves. Bg3 quite often required reloading saves because all your companions would mess up turn one or all enemies would get crits on your team. Otherwise it had brilliant writing and exploration.

Those digital Deluxe pre-orders are high on the psn charts. So the launch will be strong. I expect the same on Steam and Xbox.

I'm more curious about the reception after the previews (muted) and the Ign gameplay vid which was not well received online (a lot of people saying it looks a bit janky and unpolished). I thought it looked okay but that it is the kinda game you can wait 3 months for that 30% discount.

It is such an impressive game. Larian had said they don't want to make a game of this scope and size for a while but I don't think gamers will accept that from them just like gamers will be less likely to accept a FromSoft game that doesn't match Elden Rings scope anymore. Once you've taste mainstream success you never want to lose it.

I think I quit shortly after the Steel Foundry mission. Had to go to the hospital for 3 days because of a tendon injury and when I came back I just never went back to it.

This seems like everything LeBlanc Cafe was against (fresh beans, small business, high quality etc). But Corporations misunderstanding the art their teams created seems par for the course (square Enix Ff7 NFTs).

@DennisReynolds this is so true. Even in Hong Kong some of the biggest areas had huge posters for Spidey 2, God of War Ragnarok had a whole display at a major mall. Nintendo for Mario and TOTK put posters in trains and TV spots on local channels. Elden Ring had posters on busses.
Put in the effort and people will notice your game. Xbox are following the Netflix strategy of hoping the fanbase does the marketing for them and it just isn't working.

Xbox seem to be going out of their way to embarrass themselves. 5-6 years ago they could've gotten away with saying this but now after nearly 80 billion in mergers everyone knows it's crap and it's just Microsoft not seeing the point of marketing more likely.

I love murder mystery stuff that spans decades (any epic or Saga or murder mysteries in general are my jam) but I just bought three games today to keep me busy with Jeanne D'arc, Robocop and The Sexy Brutale. This may have to wait a bit.

It makes sense. The reason the PS4 Pro launched with such success was because they had a flagship game like Horizon alongside it to truly show off the difference.

If you don't have that heavy hitter hold on to the hardware until you do. I generally believe Playstation is learning the right lessons from Nintendo by holding on to their cards for longer.

They now just need to sort out their content pipeline with first parties and make more second party deals as well to keep the exclusives coming strong and making sure every member of their base always has something to play.

Is the list only for PS or all consoles? Because I'm surprised no Nintendo game is there.

@ShogunRok my controversial opinion is post FF XIII, the Final Fantasy Franchise has been niche. FFXV sold 10 million units but it had a decade of hype around it and failed to live up.

FF 7 Remake was a divisive game and Rebirth even more so honestly. Those who hated Remake or didn't complete it will not bother with a direct sequel.

Stellar Blade was always going to be bigger in Asia where it had the bulk of its marketing, same with Ronin.

The big issue is people want GAAS and Forever games even if Twitter and game sites hate them.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I was shocked as well but it's true.

As per GamesIndustry.Biz:
It is also making a big increase to starting salaries for new graduate hires in fiscal year 2025, rising their base pay from ¥235,000 ($1,590) per month to ¥300,000 ($2,006) – an increase of 28%

Japanese AAA devs earn nothing compared to European devs and American devs while also having a worse work culture.

@ChrisDeku I feel with Playstation there is a huge amount of negativity being driven just online while those who like the the games are just enjoying them quietly.

It isn't like Nintendo where even their average games or even a weak Direct will be hyped to moon and people online will make fanart etc.

Wrt to the Last of Us hate, it is just online nonsense from people who just really wanted Factions 2 (it is fair to be upset about that) or the new IP that's been rumored for ages. Most normal people just enjoy the game.

@get2sammyb the moment they reduce prices. Alongside Europe, Asia will also have a huge boom in sales.

Places like India jump up in sales with price cuts.

In Japan, The average Capcom newbie earns 300k yen, a PS5 is 60000 yen. It's really a luxury.

@Jswift56 never going to happen since EA can out spend the competition. PES was the much better game but not paying for names and licenses meant nobody gave a crap sadly.

They've been pumping these games so often that it's become Assassins creed for me. I used to love them but now I absolutely detest the series because of how over exposed it is.

I find it very funny that with some of these games you can already tell they're wait for a sale games but then you see they're coming on a subscription day one which just confirms it. Very rare that we get Animal Well level day one drops.

I do appreciate Push Square reviews using the whole review scale more often than it's sister sites. While I usually disagree with the reviews for many games here at least you don't 8/10 every single game

I don't think he's earned it. Looking at his behavior and skill during the Euros it is quite clear that he had Foden-itis where the strength of the team makes the look better than they are.
Or, I'm just really pissed Southgate bottled it and all of these guys go out of their way to protect him.

No will somebody please think of the puritans!

@themightyant also it's in early access. People will come whenever there are major updates. Those numbers are very good.

@BeerIsAwesome tbf Silverstone and Suzuka are usually the highlights of the F1 calendar. Silverstone definitely lived up to it with a brilliant race.

We've discussed this before but there is no longer space for studios that make good but janky games. Games can only be addictive or truly polished/excellent or be a major existing IP or Studio.

The 7/10 studios will be the major ones that suffer throughout the next few years. Especially since every month sees at least 3 major, well received (84+) titles come out ensuring that the only way you find a market in the short period of time is to get lucky with YouTube/Twitch.

@NEStalgia I think I read that TTYD generally did like 8-10% worst than last years Super Mario RPG and did have a worst launch than Origami King too.

Oof launching around so many other JRPGs is not a good idea. Going to suffer on PS and PC with most JRPG people going for Metaphor or DQ.
On Switch I don't see this doing as well with DQ coming out around same time.

The games are cheaper though so maybe they don't need to sell as many units.

@WhiteRabbit I agree. The guy is truly cruel. I'm sure Playstation studios will restart it again after a while from scratch but hopefully it'll be with a decent bloke instead.

@themightyant good to see another person on this comment section that actually has good knowledge of Playstation history. Loved a lot of their games but it was clear they were basically what became Xdev by mid PS4 and focused on support work.

@Batesy125s I mean this year already had Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade (Korean) which both did well in Japan. ASTRO bot by Asobi is coming too. I think they've got the right focus on games.

The problem with Erdtrees difficulty is it seems to almost force players to play it in a DS2 style. Biggest shields, biggest weapons, heaviest armor. If you're like me a medium weight hybrid magic/dex build, Mimic tear and summons are basically a necessity with how hard bosses hit. The camera is also stupid for most bosses. The big ones usually have 2-3 different lock on targets and camera keeps changing them whenever I'm dodging. Then when enemies reappear after teleporting the lock on doesn't usually register for a second or two.

The overworld on the other hand is way too easy with me killing most enemies in two hits maximum (some enemies are tough but they're rare). So they instead focus on grouping them up.

The exploration like the base game rules and is incredible. The combat, bosses, items and structure are still filled with repetition, tedium, bugs and general messiness.

I'm being generous when I give this DLC a 8/10 (base game is a 6 due to the repetitive bosses and terrible endgame)

@TheArt my brother has kept his CC and PayPal of all console stores so the nephew doesn't spend it. They bought a skin once. It happens but it is scary how easy it is to forget these things as a parent. So yeah I can see parents buying physical nintendo games for their kids.

The problem is people have been expecting a new faction since the last 2 months. The games community is toxic and AH actively encourages it. The discord is apparently a mess. People will move on to new things.

@B0udoir performance is more fluid at 60fps in the PS4 version on next gen.

Uncharted 4s verticality and upgraded stealth and platforming make it the better game. For Pete's Sake they had a jeep for maybe two chapters and it is still some of the best bloody vehicle controls in a game with actual terrain feel and traction! The whole pirate colony bit is such good action horror with the slow realization that they descended into madness and greed and how easily that could've been Nate.
The story adds some much needed depth to Elena and Nates relationship too. The ending is one the best in video games. Armored enemies are much easier to deal with.

Lost Legacy. Great game. Love the expanded open exploration concept which was later fleshed out int TLOU2. Nadine gets a much needed character growth to become lovable. Chloe is the best. Asav is a good villain. Love that Final fight.

Uncharted 2 is excellent as well but what holds it back for me on replays is bad enemy placement, the big guys especially are bullet sponges and not fun. The yetis suck.

Uncharted 3. Great set pieces. Some good story moments. Second weakest from what I've played.

Uncharted 1. Introduced iconic characters but that's it. It hasn't aged well.

@Robocod original title not original IP from what we know.