breakneck

@CWill97 Mad Max is quite similar but overall a easier game. You upgrade the car, you have arkham style free flow with more difficulty, the open world is fun to traverse, story is good. Days Gone does most of it better but the Wasteland and art direction of Mad Max is better.

@somnambulance Usually when I have that mood, I replay a short old game like a Mario, Ratchet or something light hearted or I move to other media like movies or tv shows. Also hope your family gets well soon!

@xeofate Yeah you cannot go wrong with Mario then. It is fun and short especially if you have a partner to co-op with you.

@xeofate Depends on if you have no games on the horizon to buy. Wonder is quite short. Maybe 12 hours to 100% if you suck like me. Balatro will never let you go.

FF7 Rebirth: in Nibelheim now. This game is really quite weak compared to Remake that had a lot more forward momentum. The biggest issue to me is the game literally did not move forward plot wise since you leave Junon until Cosmo Canyon. Then you have sequences like Dyne's which are unintentionally comedic and it is just a disappointment. I'm hoping the last few chapters are good and save my overall feeling of "MEH" towards the game. The open world stuff absolutely sucks and falls far more into Ubisoft territory than Horizon or Witcher territory. The mini-games are awful for the most part and mandatory often enough to make you actively hate them. 6-7/10 so far.

Nier Replicant: A fascinating game that does the Found Family dynamics a million times better than Rebirth, is funnier, more emotional and much shorter. Also less minigames and you don't need to waste time on side quests. 8.5/10 so far.

BG3: This game will never end!!! Just reached the lower city and there is so much to do! But it is consistently fun and high quality though there is a big pacing drop in Act 3. 9/10 so far.

Hoping Stellar Blade gets positive reviews so I can pre-order it but given the recent Kotaku and Inverse articles and the way certain journalists online are behaving I do not expect it. Just bad discourse from every side.

So this will be the third Persona-like this year with Reload, SMTV Vengeance and now this. I hope they do enough to separate the three.

@pzadvance No. those are basically PS Plus essential games. You redeemed them, you keep them.

Not a big loss wrt FF. They've been on the service for nearly two years which is more than enough time for those who seriously wanted to play to play it. Also, most of those games are on every alternate sale at dirt cheap prices.
I played FF7 Remake when it came on Plus same for Artful Escape. They've been on there for a long time.

It goes against the point of the game. You ARE a COG in a nonsensical war and you're nothing but a slab of meat going to the grinder.

Destiny and MHW have characters you get attached too as part of the MMO-esque structure they aim for.

@Deadlyblack That was my problem. I liked it well enough casually but as a person who got all the platinum relics in NST and all trophies, this game destroyed my sanity, I ended up hating it.

Sounds like XVI did exactly what it should've done that too on a single console and with the majority of RPG/FF gamers wanting it too fail.
The problem with FF7 Remake is it isn't really great for newcomers and caters towards those who grew up with FF7.

I liked the game a lot when it was not focused on the politics of the world (such a poor job tackling complex topics) and I loved Clive and Joshua as protagonists (that whole thrid act was amazing and the ending had me in tears as a older brother). I hope the DLC does Jill well since she was quite poorly handled.

The discounts have been pretty massive so I am not too surprised. Do PS+ Downloads count or is it just sales? Because some companies consider those sales as well.

Personally? I disliked it quite a lot after the initial wow factor. Levels were too long, the reverse levels sucked, too many hidden crates, the relics were irritating, Polar was a mess to control with horrible hit boxes. I liked the mask abilities, the music and the graphics though.

@Deadlyblack It was a pre-order weapon originally. Now it is free for everyone.

@CWill97 Exactly Most of the JRPGs are fighting for the same audience and all of them are 80-100 hours.

FF7 Rebirth: I feel like the story has just started in Gongaga after basically going MIA since the boat trip. Chapters 5 to 8 have really killed the pacing and IMO didn't need to be as long as they were. The characters are still a joy though I think Aerith has been given the short end of the stick and has almost no character moments so far. I can see why this game undersold.
It is TOO MUCH and the burn out feels very real. The mini games are TOO MUCH.
The weird way the women over emote in cutscenes to be Kawaii is TOO MUCH (not seen this level of weird women animations since Catwoman in AK).
This game oscillates between a 5 to 10/10 so quickly.

Nier Replicant: A very very good story. Unsure if I'll grind out everything for ending C and D though. I've cried at least twice so far. The emotional moments in this hit a lot harder than Rebirth and it is weird to see a game so much more focused on its characters while retaining a semi similar open world structure. I think this game is proof that AAA open worlds are way too big for no reason.

BG3: in Act 3... Overwhelming but my god this game is so consistently excellent in a way people claimed Elden Ring was. The combat is my only major issue with the game because of how many people are on screen in some fights now. Turns are way too long lol. The story also feels a little disjointed after Moonrise Towers but I'm hoping it picks up soon.

Final Fantasy has a problem where it doesn't seem to be getting new, younger players into the franchise. Square (and most game companies) in general are struggling with it. Octopath, FF all have been disappointments. People are saying going multiplat will solve it but I don't see it happening.
FF7 Remake with PC barely crossed 7 million (during a pandemic). I don't think Rebirth would've been able to cross those figures.
Also, we have to remember the PS4 had double the units in the market when Remake released. Remake was also very divisive and Rebirth is the same. I've seen people who loved Remake not like the ending of Rebirth.

@J-Dubs I wonder that myself. I've never understood how Ampere gets their data

Rebirth was the sequel to a very divisive first game. Those who were out were never coming back. Stellar Blade got a lot of interest due to controversies online, positive word of mouth and overall interest due to the promotions from Sony who are treating it like a proper first party title. Both Ronin and Stellar Blade are getting insane promotion in Asia especially.
Also, the demo was great. I've probably fought the Stalker 5-6 times because the combat feels so good.

do platinum trophies make or break a purchase for potential buyers? I'm genuinely curious. I used to be a bit of a trophy nut but never to the point that I would not buy a game if it didn't have a platinum.

@mrbone They keep doing it in every article. Not surprising since gamers have been more positive overall towards ROTR and their 6/10 was stupidly harsh considering the high praise they gave DD2 despite also having performance flaws and failing to do anything new in the 10 years since Dark Arisen. Every negative DD2 article (about MTs etc) also has them praising the game.

Ronin is not perfect but as Stephanie Sterling's review put it: it actually likes its players unlike DD2.

@anon_pel222 You are right that it is over saturated with RE2-likes right now. Last gen everything was like Amnesia/Outlast and even that got stale. The problem with horror is everyone is a copycat.

@trev666 I would agree but when the author is Kat Bailey or Rebekah Valentine then you know they are legitimate. Some of the best investigative writers in games right now.

I like the art style. It is unique and clean for gameplay purposes. The rogue-like aspect is an instant put-off in general since if there are three genres I've grown to hate in the last 5 years (overstauration and a lack of good ideas) it is 2D Rogues, 2D metroidvanias and Souls-like combat in games.

I think Grubb may have misunderstood his sources more likely. Because everyone has confirmed DS2 ain't happening. The question is did it ever enter the concept stage as Grubb states or was it never even discussed as per IGN.

We all know Dead Space Remake wasn't successful commercially at least not to the levels EA would've wanted and while critically well received it was completely overshadowed by RE4 Remake. So they just probably don't see any need to make a sequel/remake-quel

@__Seraph I've said this before and the response was "you want to live in a bubble" by someone. Personally it is really cool to see some interesting indies get the spotlight.

@get2sammyb Some people will never be happy with the selection. Best to ignore them. Playstation could put 10 new day one games and they'll still complain.

It would be odd to have two live services with Marathon also coming out. But I do feel with Sony playing the tough guy and reining in some of Bungies excess but giving Bungie all the creative control they need. They could learn from their mistakes and make a consistently good live service rather than the up and down cycle they seem stuck in.

I wish them well, they've been through a lot in the last year.

Looks pretty cool also nice to see it having 100k+ players on Steam recently and some decent word of mouth. Hope Bungie can nail the Final Shape and get back some of the goodwill. Just wish they didn't keep having this up and down cycle.

Probably Rebirth for me. 2024 has been disappointing with too many REALLY LONG games and all overstay their welcome by at least 7-10 hours.

Otherwise from that list in general the Last of Us II still holds up as a 10/10 and Pentiment when I played it on Xbox was imo the ONLY EXCELLENT Xbox game of the last 12 years

After finding out how much Disney takes in licensing costs I cannot say I'm surprised at these prices. I will be getting the base edition. If the DLC are good I can always buy the season pass later.

Looking at how many pre-orders are usually for deluxe editions I think 80USD is the maximum limit they can go for a long time for base editions. I do think the future is in re-finding that balance of 2 70USD games and 3-4 50USD a year for console manufacturers and big publishers.

@Michael2008ish Yeah I was saying that the fact that Weiss and Nier joke about it just nails how much people hated backtracking even at the time that it was played for a joke. The beauty of Nier is the world is so small and you run so fast that you can be anywhere on the map in 2-3 minutes and massacre most enemies in the area.

@SgtTruth The funny thing is I'm playing Nier Replicant and the characters joke about having to keep killing enemies because they cannot fast travel for the first half of the game. That means this has been poor design for a long time. I understand what DD2 was trying to do, they just failed the execution.

@B0udoir Wouldn't say it sold well... yet (it has started well but if ROTR is expecting to sell 5 mil units, DD2 probably aims for 8-12 mil being on three systems). The drop-off in the PS store has been quite quick and in Asian markets is already almost out of the top 10-12 games. A game with this level of marketing/advertising would've wanted to have more staying power.

I do find the disparity between gamers and critics with this game to be surprisingly different. Maybe proof that there are too many critics cut from the same cloth/tastes and not enough who have unique voices/tastes?

My brothers birthday, well I know what I'm getting for him.

So lets look at the two games mentioned: FF7 Remake had a more mixed reception among japanese gamers for the changes to the story and the heavy action oriented jrpg combat system, so I'm not surprised people are more apprehensive about Rebirth. DD2 has generally been poorly received in Japan with Ronin getting far better word of mouth.

The Nintendo domination is not surprising especially with the handheld nature of the Switch and the strong association to many of the IP. A native handheld console like a Ps4.5 or ps5.5 could do huge there.

@LikelySatan They're starting to come more often but the moderation team is pretty good at getting rid of their comments.

@pyrrhic_victory like how bravely default had JRPG encounter rates as a slider. I actually really like the idea lol!

@CrackmanNL Again Jim Ryan is a lot smarter than people want to give him credit for. He saw the issues with profitability coming and looked into recurrent revenue streams and based on how many of those games have been cancelled in development it is obvious he and his team saw the strength of HD2.
These cancellations mean his team still cares about the overall quality of output with the PS Brand. His only mistake which may yet work out in his favor is Bungie (the new update has been well received and people seem to again be enjoying the game).
He was also ridiculed for calling GamePass unprofitable and disliked by many studios despite being proven right two years later.

Some games like Spider-Man 2 and God of War absolutely require 60fps. Others like Alan Wake 2 and FF7 Rebirth don't need it. I think first party and action/platform oriented games should absolutely require 60fps to showcase the strength of the console. I also think this gen we've been caught in between a shift of technological prowess (too expensive to invest in optimisation or engine overhauls).
We are seeing games that are too technical to run well and games that look so outdated that run well. I think the Sony first party games are the only ones this gen that don't sacrifice either graphical fidelity or performance to heavily in either of their modes.

@trev666 Especially on PC where from what I read most people buy games during steam sales. selling this at 30-40 bucks is basically that. Enough for PS Gamers not to fell bad about paying for Plus and enough for PC gamers to actually buy the game.

I'm still mixed on whether I should get this or Paper Mario in May. My heart leans towards this since I love immersive sims but I've also read very positive things about Paper Mario.

Once again I said this and Push didn't listen but Asia has LOVED Ronin a lot more. They have in fact questioned the West and their taste in games based on the metascore. Look at the HK and Japanese store to see Ronin doing well digitally while Dogma 2 has nearly dropped out of the top 12.

The clothes are cool but the way people on Twitter are reacting and the weird ass horny posting is already creating discourse of the negative variety.
Generally stupid discourse from the left (who are okay with Leon being modded nude or in BDSM clothes but complain about this) and the right (horny posting and saying gaming will be saved from Woke because of this).

@Cikajovazmaj They're relatively small titles and Playstation doesn't do it very often and when they do it is only with Indies where the lost sales don't really hurt them too much.

@Brydontk It also isn't surprising, their reviews have always hated backtracking for little gain. Hence their negative impressions for Death Stranding when it released. They also had issues with how laborious certain aspects of RDR 2 were again especially with back tracking and irritating fast travel.

They are consistent with these critiques.

I keep saying this but the time has come for these "small" Japanese companies to be held to the same standards as their Western competitors in every regard. This was Capcom being overconfident because gamers and Game Journos have let them get overconfident.

These issues have been there since Monster Hunter world with the stupid uncapped framerates but we could overlook them due to the age of the hardware.

I've said this for years but SEGA, CAPCOM and Bandai can easily give WB, EA and ABK a run for their money in the monetisation *****.
Gamers and Journalists have long chosen to bury their head in the sand when it comes to the Japanese companies though and they let it get this far and as a person who only buys their games on sale I can only say "y'all deserve it".

Not surprising. Playstation always knew how expensive these were. We saw in the leaks just how much research they do before they implement something. Epic and Xbox true to American capitalism threw money in the hopes of disruption that affected no one but their own businesses.

Even for first party day one: Playstation saw the damage it did to HFW sales when that came out on Plus a year later. Microsoft are losing so much money in their subscription business if you look at how well Starfield would've sold in the initial launch period.

I wonder if they were all hired in the last 3 years because that would mean they're laying off covid/embracer era hires which is interesting.