doctommaso

@gipsojo Ah, okay; makes sense.

I’m going to admit I was wrong about this game earlier. I finally completed it, and the last half was far better than the first for me. It definitely had more of a wow factor and didn’t feel like just DLC or an expansion, like the first half felt. In particular, I was impressed by some of the boss battles in the latter half of the game, and the big plot twist pretty much blew my mind. I still have issues with some of the acting and the pacing of the game in the first half, which nearly made me put the game down. While I prefer Elden Ring, I definitely can see why this game deserves to be in the conversation for Gane of the Year.

I went a bit nuts with the Black Friday PS Store sales, so I’m not sure what’s left to buy.

For reviews, I think games should stand on their own merits, without money playing a factor; prices will change over time.

@naruball There is no comparable DLC/Expansion I am aware of. That doesn't change that the game still feels like a large well-done DLC/Expansion.

@dark_knightmare2 Oh my gosh, man — relax; this is an opinion about a game, not a personal attack.

Anyone objective can see that Elden Ring is a huge step forward for the Souls-type genre. I actually think your BotW comparison is a pretty good analogy for Elden Ring, because BotW did for Zelda what ER did for Dark Souls. Also, no one is saying BotW was not an influence on ER (but you can clearly see Souls influences on BotW, as well). This doesn't change the fundamental fact that GoWR is iterative in nearly all respects and feels exactly like a (huge, quality) DLC add-on to the 2018 game — again, I think anyone objective will admit that. I think many people wanted just that, but I expected more.

Having played Elden Ring rather recently, the faux-open level design of the GoW games becomes incredibly obvious and feels like dodging an obstacle course to get to my goal, rather than exploration. Similarly, I can't get invested or drawn into its world, partially because of acting that sounds like reading off of a script but more so constant annoying interruptions regarding puzzles or telling me what to do — a step backward from the 2018 GoW and again much more obvious after playing ER, which is massively open and extremely hands-off.

And I'm sorry, you will never win an argument with me about ER's quality. For one, I completely disagree about ER having a bad latter half, especially compared to some of the prior Souls titles. Regarding the bosses, if you look at the primary bosses (not all the small dungeon bosses, etc.), I think you are dead wrong. As for filler, I spent 340 hours in the game over a couple runs and due to helping others beat end-game bosses numerous times, and I never felt like I was bored — not for an instant. Comparatively, I was bored in GoWR after the first 3 or 4 hours (the first 1.5 hours are epic, however, to give credit where it is due). I've pushed through GoWR to justify the $70 spent and to give it a fair chance, out of respect for the fact that so many people feel it's such an amazing game.

I'm sorry you feel so personally hurt by someone criticizing GoWR, but you need to allow for different opinions and to be able to take an objective look at a game's positives and negatives.

I'll leave the discussion here and have no interest in reading further rather aggressive responses from you.

This game was great in 2018 (not amazing) and is merely good in this 2022 post Elden Ring world. It’s basically just a huge DLC/expansion for the 2018 game. I expected more.

@Sequel lol c’mon

It’s still early, but at this point I am not impressed with God of War Ragnarok. It feels like I’m playing the exact same game from 2018 (which, to be fair, I enjoyed quite a bit). After playing a game like Elden Ring, it’s painfully apparent that GoW revolves around forcing you through corridors into repetitive highly staged battles. The puzzles are the same, and the constant suggestions from your crew as to how to solve them come too quickly, are annoying, and cannot be turned off. The relationship between the main characters feels forced and awkward this time around. I don’t know, I just am not feeling it; I nearly quit on the game about 2.5 hours in. In my opinion, the game is nowhere near the caliber of Elden Ring, and while highly polished and shiny, it might not even be in my top five games of the year (ER, Triangle Strategy, Tunic, Atari 50, and Sports Story are surely going to rank above it for me).

@SoulChimera What a jerk comment.

I predicted this five years ago when my friend was insisting that Sony’s PS5 would be a hybrid like the Switch, in order to compete in the Japanese market. I knew Sony wouldn’t care about the much smaller Japanese market already dominated by phones and the Switch.

@LIMA There’s been a graphical showcase for PS5 since day one. It’s called Demon’s Souls.

@thefourfoldroot1 Some of us find physical copies annoying at this point.

@riceNpea Very well said, but it will never take off until someone comes up with an answer for the marked simulation sickness more than a few experience.

I often end up falling off of these souls-likes before finishing them, so I think I'll pass. I did finish Lords of the Fallen but didn't exactly love it. I also finished Jedi: Fallen Order but found it mediocre at best.

FromSoftware quality is just too superior, and the also-rans just can't keep up.

@racinggamefanatic They can't even release a good game. I wish they'd worry about that before buying even more devs.

@djlard Remaked? lol

@straw-hat-crew My not having Premium doesn't change the fact that you have an awful take. For what it's worth, if Premium had a boatload of retro games available, I probably would have it; so again, it matters.

And based on your attitude in both of your posts, I'm not at all surprised that you find it strange that I might have empathy for others.

@straw-hat-crew @colt3211. Awful take. It’s a reasonable expectation, given the huge amount of great Playstation back catalog titles. People largely bought into Premium because of the promise of classic games, and Sony is not living up to their end of the deal. So people naturally feel ripped off.

I personally didn’t subscribe to the service, because I prefer to purchase classic games when they are available on the store. Still, it’s baffling how there are not more classic titles available. It’s not like it’s difficult for Sony to make sure a couple of old games run on the emulators each month.

Should be “Sony-owned” in the title. Without it, the title is both grammatically incorrect and confusing.

Think you mean shaken, not shook, but the point remains. (Oh, just noticed I"m not the only one who noticed. lol)

Brutally hard unless you use the rewind feature (which I refuse to do). Love it, but it's extremely challenging to get all the characters this way. It's so unforgiving, I think it has to be knocked down to about a 6 or 7 out of 10.

To be frank, Horizon 1, while having quite unique story and gameplay, felt like a bit of a slog to get through. I haven't even had interest in Horizon 2, as a result. Maybe I'll pick it up when it's cheap, but with so many games coming out, plus having a substantial backlog, I'm not sure I want to put in the time. And that's coming from someone who put in over 300 hours on Elden Ring and 80 hours on Triangle Strategy, back-to-back.

Massive travesty if Elden Ring doesn't essentially sweep GotY.

I voted "poor". PS3 games are still streaming only, meaning I have to keep my PS3 set up. Everything I want to play from PS4 and PS5 on that list I've already played or own and am yet to play. The PS1 line-up is pretty much a joke. I'm not a huge fan of the PS2 generation of games. So yeah, this is poor, at least for me. If they had a massive amount of PS1 games that were upgraded, or PS3 games for download, that would make this service worthwhile.

I had moderate interest in Hogwarts until the State of Play, which very much turned me off. The combat looks dull, and I have little to no interest in the "life sim" aspects of the game.

@Korgon Oh I totally agree with you. Well said.

@Korgon I get your point, but options are good. This will allow some people who find the game too hard — or who don’t have hours to put into a game just to get past a single boss — a chance to enjoy the title at a difficulty they feel is appropriate. I haven’t tried it yet but had no interest in playing this game with Elden Ring and so many other games on my backlog or around the corner. So now they just gained a purchase from me (and I bet a lot of other people) by adding difficulty options. At the same time, if I do beat the standard mode, I can play on even harder difficulty settings. So this is a win-win for everyone in multiple ways.

ELDEN RING arrives just one week later. Will push this back and get it on sale.

@Marzwoody It's not complaining. lol Seriously, man, how in the world do you see it that way? This IS a comments section, and I was commenting (i.e., offering my opinion). I simply said I don't feel like putting in the time or exerting the energy on yet another super hard game, and that I think (and I'm not the only one) that it could benefit from offering some difficulty options.

You need to ask yourself why you are so defensive about the idea of developers offering difficulty options for people who are disabled or aren't as good at games as you or me.

Now I'm going to move on to play the plenty of other games I have to play. I suggest you do the same.

@Marzwoody Elden Ring is a big reason why I won’t have the time. I’m going to put tons of hours into that game.

I think I’ve pretty clearly already stated I’m probably not going to play Sifu and that the game is not for me. Your pat answer adds nothing to the discussion and does not address the issue of difficulty for gamers who do not have the skills or who have disabilities. A difficulty option in Sifu would not take away your or others’ enjoyment of it. Sloclap of course as the developer has the right to do whatever they want with it, but I guarantee you the game would do better if it were just a little bit more accessible to a broader audience. But it’s really no skin off my back, I’ve already moved on and it’s not like I’m particularly upset about it. It’s just unfortunate.

@Breekhead Precisely, yeah, gamers with disabilities was pretty much where I was going with my comment. That said, even gamers without disabilities who are simply not as good at reflex gaming could benefit. I have the reflexes myself and may try this if I can find the time, but I'm getting a little tired of so many games pushing the difficulty curve; at some point, it gets tiresome.

@Jeevz That's a pretty elitist and silly thing to say; so tired of comments like this. Some people are simply not capable of playing a game this hard; a difficulty option for them is not making the game any less fun for you. As for me, I'm a pretty good gamer and have beaten some really hard games, but I have no interest in a game like this without some slight modifiers on the difficulty. I simply don't have the time or patience. I'm happy to put in the time on something like Elden Ring, but if this company wants my money, they need to make Sifu roughly 25% easier. And in all honesty, the Soulsborne games would probably be better about 25% easier, as well.

Sadly, I think I'm going to have to pass. I platted/100%'d/etc. Sekiro, but this game looks ridiculously tough, and Elden Ring is just around the corner, which I have massive interest in.

I’m sorry, but you have terrible taste.

Yooka Laylee 2 — outstanding game!

@Styledvinny79 Frame rate and load times are absolutely selling points for a game in today's world. And that's an objective fact. Is Sony cashing in on that? Maybe. But that doesn't meant it's not worth it — especially for $10, which is like a couple cups of coffee at Starbucks. I mean, Naughty Dog did do some work to improve it.

@Ashina Apple is actually bigger/richer than Microsoft, amazingly.

And I don’t think PlayStation can compete in the area of acquisitions, although I hope they can do something substantial. The best thing they can do at this point is continue making exclusive games that are absolute must-buys. Also, Sony has to get complete backward compatibility of all their games from all generations working ASAP.

@Daleaf Pretty sure it will be Gane Pass only, particularly given MS’ previous behavior.

I'd say 15-25, but that's not an option, so I picked 20-30. Some games definitely overstay their welcome past 12-15 hours though. That said, a fair number of games I've put in 60+ hours — especially FromSoftware games.

I still really want to buy into this again, but unless I can be sure that my severe motion sickness would not get triggered, I can’t imagine investing an even larger sum than I did with PS VR. Seems like it would be quite a gamble.

Thanks for spoiling key plot points in your review… smh.

@Palleon While that may help many with milder forms, true motion sickness has to do with your brain recognizing you are not actually moving, while your eyes are telling you otherwise. There would have to be some way to stimulate your inner ear directly (pretty much impossible currently) or possibly through haptic technology applied to your skull to simulate physical movement. So probably you should stop giving snarky arrogant responses when you know nothing about true motion sickness.

Sammy, this article is incomplete without any discussion of motion sickness. I cannot play in VR for more than five minutes without getting quite ill — sometimes it’s less than 30 seconds. While I have always been prone to motion sickness, a friend of mine — who never suffered from it before — has had the same motion issues in VR as I did. So, as others have stated, unless Sony has found a way to curb motion sickness substantially, I cannot invest in such a technology again.

And this is someone who has been wishing for VR for like 30 years.

Does it have a “better game” option?

@nomither6 I can totally see that, sure. It's so different, it could have been a new IP.

@Akurusu Oh yeah, I totally agree with you. I think we should all try to be more objective here.

@Akurusu I love Sony and really liked GoW, but yeah you have to give this award to a Nintendo game, I agree.

@nomither6 I have to be honest, I tried GoW1 Remastered and did not like it.