breakneck

@Nem I feel it was gonna close under Zenimax too. They were not doing well with most of their studios prior to the acquisition either. Dishonored 2, Prey, EW2, Wolfenstein 2 were all sales disappointments. It still sucks but the writing was on the wall imo.

I remember last year some youtuber said that HIFI Rush was a sales failure. It became a bit of a big deal and MS replied saying it was a success for them. It always felt weird how quickly they felt the need to reply to that when Xbox usually loves talking player count.
It always felt like they were pissed that Starfield never got the reception of HFR.

"didn't make the money that it needed to make".
-what the youtuber said

"was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn't be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release."
-Aaron Greenburg of Xbox

Notice the language never responded to what the insider said just broadened the definition of success.

I hope it is good! I wanted to like Inquisition but it was too bloated and the world too empty. Great cast though and fun story and the dragon bosses were great.

I hope they show a non-VR Astrobot or Astrobot with the ability to play both versions like Resident evil. Give me this and I'll be happy.

Well here's the good thing:
Playstation hasn't done day one for its heavy hitters unlike the idiots at Xbox which means they still have a "healthier" ecosystem. The problem, a lot of indies rely on that money and with these payments drying up we me see even more reduced visibility for new indies.

This sucks
During the PS4 Era there were three gems which I bought on sale just because I loved the cover art:
1. Gravity Rush Remastered
2. Prey (2017)
3. The Evil Within 2

Prey was such a great experience and quite frankly the best Arkane game after the first Dishonored (it was much better than all of Lyons other games).

The Evil Within 2 was my horror game of the year and I really did prefer it over RE7 which I just could never click with. The enemy designs are some of my favorites. Especially the Obscura.

@MrMagic Seriously people in Afghanistan, Chad and Togo are probably dealing with far more important stuff like making a living to care about stuff like this. First world problems.

As I said earlier, the PC community has slowly grown more and more toxic since 2020. Every week they have new issues with games. Hopefully Playstation reduce their dependence on the market and start focusing towards consoles again.

@Nepp67 Steam would never put in that much effort.

I just enjoy playing games.

The PS5 is my main gaming machine but since 2022 It's been non-stop releases for games third party, first party sony, timed exclusives or Switch first party.
From catching up with Miles, Integrade, Returnal and Rift Apart to Elden Ring, Forbidden West and Ragnarok, Pentiment.
2023 having Jedi Survivor, FFXVI, Sea of Stars, Humanity, Cocoon, Armored Core, Spidey 2, Alan Wake 2, BG 3, Tchia, CP2077 2.0, Ragnarok Valhalla, Mario, Metroid Prime Remaster, Zelda, Pikmin
2024 still has me slowly going through BG3 while playing through a 80 hour FF7 Rebirth and now Stellar Blade while I haven't had enough time to buy Ronin, P3 Reload or Unicorn Overlord.

These are just the new releases in this time and don't include the fact that there are more classics than ever to catch up on if you missed those games originally.

Seriously there are so many games from AAA and indie devs I genuinely struggle to understand how people have no games to play or can call this gen disappointing. I am too busy juggling all these games to remember ND, Bend and the others exist. I love the first party studios and will buy the games day one if they appeal to me but Single Player gaming on consoles has never been better and most games I mentioned performed well too.
Heck being on Playstation usually means you're getting the best version of the game for a few months until the PC versions are fixed.

Finally done with Rebirth and my oh my was this game a giant disappointment until the very good last chapter and lovely last cutscene. I will be generous and give the game a 6/10 but it is actually a 5/10.

It is so long and so boring for most of the game. Sephiroth (now officially comic relief) pops up twice every two chapters to say "Cloud" and disappear. The cutscenes are so long with very little happening most of the time. Emotional scenes become comedic. The open world is so repetitive it gives Ubisoft a run for their money. Mini-game controls are not great most of the time. The combat is still great but it doesn't have enough depth for a 100 hour completion. Aerith has no role to play for most of the game until the last chapter.
This game didn't under-perform because it is exclusive, it under-performed because it is a 15 hour game stretched to 80 hours with nothing actually happening. I can talk a lot more about its faults but I just want to be done with it.

After uninstalling Rebirth, I started Stellar Blade, So far the combat is great, performance is great on balanced, music is excellent, story slow but has potential, platforming is fiddly. Really fun and a much needed palate cleanser.

stop making games for PC. They are never worth it. The worst group of gaming fans.

***** Larian has one if you want access to your backup saves. Bethesda has one.

@Ken_Kaniff It is probably true especially looking at the Xbox hardware sales figures in the Americas but I hate how he puts speculation as fact and then acts like it is the reader who misinterpreted his comments.

Just another clout chaser looking for virality.

I mean it is the number one accessory in the US for Q1 and I've seen most who own it be quite positive towards it. It is a device for single tv households and I think that it suits that purpose well. It was number 2 on Amazon Japans best sellers in Gaming last month. In the UK it goes out of stock within a day or two.

I think the time has come to just ignore online consensus and actually use critical thinking to understand why a product is being made before passing judgement.

@IOI Also it is Jez Corden and with him it is always 50-50 with accuracy where next week he'll suddenly revise his stance or say it was taken out of context.

The game is just not very good. I've rarely played a game that has 5 hours of actual story spread across 60 hours of game (I dropped the open world stuff by the time I was at Nibel).

The worst part, that 60 hours doesn't give any character additional depth (Aerith is non-existent until the end of the game, the other characters experience zero growth minus Red XIII)

Sephiroth is an absolute joke with how frequently he appears to say "Cloud" like its either a slur or he's horny. Scenes like Barrett and Dyne go on for so long that they shift from sad to unintentionally hilarious. Yuffie's humour falls flat. The open world mini-games suck.

The final cutscene and boss being great is the only thing that saves the game from being a 4-5/10 in my eyes and bring it to a 7/10 (very generous of me if I am being honest).

Remake took itself a lot more seriously for the most part, characters actually had arcs, mini-games were not forced onto you that often, the weird Shinra plot was better integrated.

That leads to my main takeaway: A lot of my criticisms with Rebirth were already discussed when Remake launched. I felt it now but many already felt this way with the 2020 game, the story adaptations (it has gone full Kingdom Hearts without Goofy and Donald) do not really earn their place despite actually being interesting conceptually.

So I can see the huge drop-off, especially in Japan where Yakuza does everything Rebirth does but better.

@Deoxyr1bose When I got my PS5 Frozen Wilds was the first thing I played and I was still stunned by the visuals especially the with the fluid 60fps added. But then I played Forbidden West 6 months later and the tech improvements were a lot more pronounced than I expected.

I don't think a full Remake is needed or wanted by most but the tech improvements are big between the two games.

I keep saying this but while the media is focused more on the AAA layoffs, Indies are in a far worse situation than ever before.

Engines like Unreal and Unity have opened the market to everyone which means there is a constantly overcrowded indie scene and getting noticed in near impossible.

Then you add the subscription services and the day one release system and suddenly the value of most indies drop to "I'll play it when it comes on GP/Plus" for huge number of consumers.

Publishers are nervous about funding games because games are more expensive and riskier than ever before (we are at a point where 10-15 mil budgets are considered indie)

@carlos82 Wow that is fascinating. More interesting that first party playstation is doing so much business physically. Explains why they're pushing those 80 dollar digital deluxe editions.

@carlos82 Can you cite your source? I'm more than happy to be proven wrong since I'm a big advocate for physical still existing,

@ChrisDeku Physical is only worth it when they launch a complete/definitive DLC included in disc collectors set/LRG edition. Those usually have decent profit mark ups. Otherwise physical is absolutely irrelevant right now.
The overall marketing was just pretty non-existent with the occasional trailer dropping every two months.

AW2 had really poor marketing, the game is too weird for the mainstream, lack of Steam and it is generally not a very good "GAME". It is a good youtube movie.

The show is extremely weird to me. It has the bones of a good idea there but it is so scattershot. You have genuinely talented comedy actors like Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Adam Pally (Happy Endings) phoning it in. Knuckles actually disappears for chunks of the episode (Idris was either too busy or the VFX were too expensive). Episode 3 is funny for the wrong reasons (Knuchles).

There are also issues with the very basic framing of shots which again show a lot of cost-saving.

Great! Started playing it today! They've tightened up the controls a bit and the performance on console is "stellar"

I mean critics didn't want to give the game a chance and meet it on its terms so it scored poorly.
In Asian regions it is still in the top 10 digitally on the store with strong word of mouth.
I'm happy for TN as they do feature combat systems that beat almost all other devs.

Anything Returnal/Housemarque related is welcome (easily my game of this generation so far)

These guys wanted SB to review in the 50-60's range so they could blame woke media for hating the game. The game did well critically so now they've had to pivot their argument to something so stupid especially when it isn't even close to the skimpiest outfit in the game.

Also I'm pretty sure Eve is more buxom/shapely than the early footage. Take the win my guys.

@ApostateMage It does but these guys don't understand good fashion.

I got the game but CHAPTER 13 of FF REBIRTH refuses to END!!! So I'll probably start on Monday or Tuesday! Glad to see people enjoy it though, the demo was promising and I cannot wait to play an action game after months of RPGs and Metroidvanias.

I guess the advantages of being able to buy the biggest Third party publishers and their humongous catalogues has their advantages. Yay for acquisitions!

The actual info that interested me is without ABK Xbox saw only 1% growth in revenue. They are in dire need of a better strategy quick.

@LowDefAl Undersold in Asia at least. In HK and Japan it didn't crack the first 5 pages on Best Selling list.

Did not really care for it the first time around (bad story, bugs, little interactivity with the plot, terrible shooting, okay companions, horrible dialogue and VA Work) so it is a no from me.

I am happy to see the playerbase active again and some positivity back. Upset that they always get complacent and mess stuff up before going back and winning people over.

I'm done with online in general so I will not be back but Destiny has been there for so long that I hope they stick the landing and people look back at the game with more positivity than negativity.

@Quintumply Ah my bad it had a demo 6-7 months ago on Steam.

Watch Dogs 2 was really really good and it is so disappointing that they went in the direction they did with Legion. WD2 had a strong cast, good story, a fun open world and decent mission structures. Also it was the last time Ubi had the guts to have a political story with Politically influenced protagonists.

Wasn't this in EA for months? How is it still buggy?

This is actually good news and makes me a lot more interested. The romances in Persona games are quite frankly *****.

@QBGaming12 Normal was quite difficult during the demo so see how comfortable you are. If you struggle turn it down. Have fun!

I think this means a more God of war 2018/Ragnarok approach (open areas followed by linear sections). Honestly, a good decision since I do think it provides the best of both worlds.

So silly and just adds more to the culture war crap that already surrounds the remasters.

It is really ugly. The top half and the font style are excellent but that bargain bin characters walking towards you filling the bottom is so busy. Less is more sometimes. The best thing I can say is it isn't SMT V Vengeance with its really awkward posing.

P3R was incredible cover art.

Sonic team making a sequel to the only Sonic game in recent memory that sold well.

@GymratAmarillo It is a really bizarre marketing deal though it is doing its job as people on twitter seem to think it is a Xbox Exclusive.

Don't like how homogenised all their games are beginning to look personally. Same features (calendar, social links etc too). Probably wait for a sale or eventual Re-release with more content.

@Burntbreadman That does sound like Atlus the king of cutting corners and I also read it like that.

@pyrrhic_victory Yeah I like both but the front cover just has a very 2000's feel to it which seems to be a lot of the games vibe in general.

Rise of the Ronin had both a Cero-D and Cero-Z edition. I wonder if more games could get away with that. Also the way gore and dismemberment are depicted is different in both Stellar Blade (anime gore and dismemberment of monsters) vs Dead Space (realistic hyper gore and dismemberment of humanoids). Again Japan is prudish/conservative in general which is weird since they're the loli country. But I guess it is the way it is.

Psygnosis were always kinda meh to me so... meh to this too.

@DennisReynolds early downloads unlocked on 19th.
Stellar Blade review embargo is April 24th at 7AM PT/ 10AM ET.

@BIG3 1000%. The combat in BG3 goes on FOR SO LONG! And if the start is bad you might as well reload the save because you are screwed.

Nier Replicant which I just finished has an auto-battle system so that you don't need to waste time in combat which is just Fine. More games need these features lol.