jgrangervikings1

I prefer twin-stick shooters to first- or third-person shooters, because they don’t cause motion sickness issues. Third-person are better than first-person, though, so I’ll hopefully be able to play the game.

I can look behind the curtain? Ok, but I already know who the bad guy is. Unless that changes, big deal.

Severance from Microsoft: Here’s a gift card for three free months of game pass—one month for each year of employment—and here’s an EXTRA large box for your belongings, because, hey, you’re worth it!

Have any VR-only games ever made the list? I’m curious how well Vertigo 2 sold.

Isn’t the layoff trend something that happens around this point in every video game system’s generation? It’s over 3 years into this console generation and a developer’s first (or second) wave of video game releases has passed.

Based on game sales and profits from the first game or two, the developers and the companies they work with have to decide whether to move ahead with their next big planned game(s) as-is, scale down or increase the budget, or cancel the next game all together.

With so many games flooding the market (at least 660 for PS5 so far), a video game company has got to have one heck of a good game…or a great marketing campaign…to make a profit these days. It’s a rough, tough business. And it really sucks that so many talented people are losing their jobs. Still, the cream will rise to the top. I’m hopeful the really talented folks who’ve been laid off will find their way onto—and up!—the next ladder they climb.

I never understood the appeal of the New Game + feature. Maybe it’s just because I have such a backlog of games that the idea of playing through the same game again just seems like a waste of time. Still, for those who like the feature, it sucks that it’s not included in the base cost. 😕

That said, I understand Sega’s perspective, too. 🤔 They ain’t no non-profit organization, and for every game that’s a success💰, there are countless others that aren’t. They gotta get that 💵 while the gettin’s good.

Here’s a jacka💰💰 tip from an old guy (me): Wait 4 months until the game is on sale and THEN buy it. At that point, the combined cost of the base game and New Game + DLC will still be cheaper than what the base game used to cost on day 1. (Yeah, I know. It’s no fun to wait.)

Yeah, it sucks that PS+ raised its subscription cost, but for the past three or four years, the sub cost has gone on sale right around Christmas time. Watch for the sale, man. It’s only 12 months away! 😋

I see Tiny Tina’s Wonderland is available to download in the monthly games area now. That’s cool.

Before it goes away, I need to drag out my VR headset and its 500 cords and play some more Ace Combat 7. BTW, the VR mode on Tekken 7 is a joke. If I remember right, it’s one practice fight. Oy.

In re: Subscription service vs. owning games: Everyone here has talked about Microsoft and Sony, but I see it differently. Just watch what Nintendo does.

Whatever Nintendo does, the others will follow. Why? Because Nintendo captures the youth crowd. What someone grows up with is what one comes to expects later in life.

Rock on! Glad to hear this is a good experience. The only regret is not being able to show this game to my dad, who passed away a few years ago. He LOVED building train sets.

@jaymartin and @quintumply Any chance we can get an interview on PushSquare about Toy Trains, its creation and its creators, any challenges it encountered during its development process, and the health or lack of health of the PSVR2 market?

Specifically, I’d love to know about the art style. It’s cool. Was there any debate as to whether to go with this art style vs. a more photo-realistic style and why was this style chosen?

Also, Vertigo 2 and Bulletstorm are releasing at the same time, and we just had Resident Evil 4 VR mode release two days before Christmas. As a huge fan (and fairly recent convert) of VR, I want all of these games to succeed to help grow the VR community. Toy Trains is great because it’s different and unique and totally the opposite of an adventure shooter, a blood & guts action shooter, and a survival horror shooter, but I’m concerned the media may overlook Toy Trains because everyone’s so focused on the dang shooters. How can we help get the word out about Toy Trains? Any chance we’ll see/play a demo?

Ok, but can you play Gran Turismo with the wheel? Or would you still need to buy an expensive add-on wheel? 😋

Maybe it’s just me, but it looks like a $19.99 or $24.99 mid-budget indie game that might have been lauded if it were a new IP. Is it Strider in a desert setting? Is it Guacamelee in a less-cartooney animation style but without a switchable living/dead worlds, no multiplayer, and no chicken?

I mean, the game looks fun enough, but…after all these years, THIS is the Prince of Persia game we get? Ok, I guess. It scored an 8, so kudos on that. Doesn’t look groundbreaking, though. But, I guess it doesn’t have to be groundbreaking to be a good time. My expectations were higher. That’s on me. My bad.

In two weeks, it’ll be another forgotten game in the PSN game list (if you can even find it in the game list with the bazillion other games listed there). That said, I hope I’m wrong. I’d like it to succeed.

2024 needs to have at least three out of these four major PSVR 2 games on the way:
1) inFamous VR
2) The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 VR
3) Uncharted VR
4) Little Big Planet VR

**If Bethesda can do it with Doom VFR, Sony can do it.
**If Square Enix can do it with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sony can do it.
**If Bethesda can do it with Skyrim, Sony can do it.

Sony CAN do it. Do it.

—For that matter, I’d also love God of War VR, Warhawk VR, and, heck, how about a new Syphon Filter game in VR? That’d rock!—

@Papa_Godzilla Funny. That was my first thought. It’s mis-titled. To heck with Son and Bone. It’s Turok and Doom.

I’m probably the only one who’s disappointed this isn’t a top-down twin stick shooter. Don’t get me wrong; the graphics look great, and it looks fun. It also looks like it could just as easily be a serious EDF game. Anyway, still looking forward to hearing more about it.

I picked up the Stanley Parable for $10 (PS4) and Walkabout Golf for PSVR2 for about $10.

I have Super Mega Baseball and it’s fun. Haven’t tried any of the newer ones, though. It might be worth giving EA Play a go again sometime soon. I tried it out one other time for a month and played all the games I was interested in, but I see Dead Space is available on it, and so is Super Mega Baseball 4! Sounds good to me!

@riceNpea It’s funny you say Cricket is an international sport, as it’s popular all over the world except for the US (and probably Canada, I’d guess). It’s literally not played AT ALL in the US. That said, as a person from the US, I’d love to get a good Cricket game for the PS5. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t sell well in the US because of an overall lack of exposure to the sport. I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos of Cricket, and it seems like it’d be fun to play, and I also played a bit of Don Bradman’s Cricket game for the PS3 on PS+. It was kinda cool, but, ya know, it’s a PS3 game, so it’s old and needs some work.

Sports we don’t play or know much about in the US (at least in Minnesota) include: Cricket, Polo, Water Polo, Rugby, Australian Rules Football, Lacrosse, or Handball. We do have a rugby field at the nearby college, but that’s not saying much…I mean, we have a hammer throw area, too. 🤣🤣 Anyway, rugby’s not a sport that’s big overall in the US, and most people don’t know the rules. NFL football, NBA basketball, MLB baseball, and NHL hockey are the big four popular sports in the US—in that order. We do have some major league soccer teams becoming more popular as time goes on, though. (Go Minnesota United FC!! Go Loons!!)

In case there are game developers reading this: Please consider making PSVR 2 games of Frisbee Golf, Badminton, Pickleball, Raquetball, and Croquet. I’d also like to see VR games for axe throwing, cornhole, and professional tag…oh, and a cool bubble hockey game in VR would absolutely ROCK!! 😀😀

When you quit and the company gives you more than a few banks-full of money on the way out the door, you no longer need to work for a living. You just need to install a super-fancy security system and hire a security staff to protect your compound and the booty that’s been stashed within it. He has an estimated net worth of USD $7,000,000,000.00 or GBP £5,538,680,000.00. It’s insane.

The game I played most was likely Diablo IV and then Battlefield 2042. Beyond that, I’m not really sure. Not many games really captured my attention this year. I’m trying to get into Resident Evil 4 because it’s now got VR2 playability, but when I tried it in VR I got motion sick pretty quick, so now I’m just playing through it with a controller. I’m sure I’ll give it a few more tries in VR, though.

This is really unfortunate, and I’m concerned it’s an omen for the future of VR gaming. I doubt VR is going away, but the notion that it’ll become a mainstream form of gaming with full-fledged AAA game support is regrettably losing steam. Why? Sony has done an absolutely pitiful job of showing off their tech to the masses.

Where are the VR2 in-store displays? Where can interested gamers try on a VR2 headset and run through a game demo prior to plopping down a whopping $550-600? Nowhere in my area that I’m aware of, anyway.

I’m in Minnesota (US), and the headquarters of both Best Buy AND Target are both less than 100 miles from me, and so is the place where they publish GameInformer magazine & website!!! As far as I know, there’s not even a place in the Mall of America that has a VR2 demo booth. If I’m completely wrong on this, PLEASE, let me know!!

Here’s the bottom line: VR is AWESOME, but very few people have the big bucks in disposable income to toss at a gaming platform that they’ve never tried—especially when there are no absolute, must-have AAA games to use it with. No Uncharted. No The Last of Us. No inFamous. No God of War. No GTA. No Red Dead 2. Resident Evil 4 and Gran Turismo 7 are probably the closest things we have to killer apps, but it’s not enough.

Here’s the sad thing: I bought a used PSVR a few months back (you can get ‘em refurbished online from GameStop for under $70!), and I showed it off to a couple of my friends…and now my friends have their own used PSVR headsets! My skeptical friends were DAZZLED by PSVR’s tech and game immersion, and PSVR is LAST GEN—it’s, what, 7 or 8 years old at this point?! If only Sony could let its gamers try VR2, the gamers would buy it! I’m absolutely 100% convinced of that—even with its large price point. But, Sony hasn’t learned a damn thing about introducing new gaming technology to the masses. They failed with the Vita, failed with the Move, failed with PSVR, and are now on the precipice of failing with PSVR2. 🙁

In the sale, I noticed the DLC for Mutant Football League (PS4) indicates it works with PSVR. The base game, however, doesn’t say anything about PSVR. Can anyone confirm if this add-on stuff really does make Mutant Football League PSVR compatible?

Dissenting opinion here. Not every Naughty Dog game needs to be a 20-hour AAA masterpiece. They’ve been weighed down for, what, 10 years on The Last of Us-related content and damn near 20 years on Uncharted?! It’s gotta be tiresome working on the same properties over and over again. Get those creative juices flowing and do something different with a shorter development period. Their games are all awesome regardless of what they’re doing, so more is better!

Don’t get me wrong, though. If Naughty Dog were to come out with more AAA fare related to TLoU, Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, or Crash Bandicoot, I’m all in.

Ultimately, I’m just sayin’ that, based on their track record of awesome game experiences, if Naughty Dog were to work on something totally off-the-wall, like some weird chiropractor simulator called Prognathous Ossein Pain Points (POPP! for short) or, heck, an officially licensed Goodyear Tire Tread Designer game, I’d buy those, too. Naughty Dog is my favorite developer, and I’m convinced they could make a game about glue mixing both fun and engaging.

Everyone’s lamenting the purchase of digital media and lauding physical media, but my PS3’s disc drive has been replaced once and it’s on the fritz again. And, my PS4 disc drive keeps spitting out discs and won’t take any in. But, hey, I still have a disc drive on my PS5…even though it doesn’t work with PS3 discs…or PS4 discs…or PS2 discs…or PS1 discs…or even music cds. So, I got that goin’ for me.

Power Wash Simulator is overrated. I got it thinking I’d have some fun playing a relaxing game, and I found it maddening to try to get all the little sides of the thing you’re washing 100% cleaned. It’s like, I washed the bejesus out of the underside of that big umbrella on the patio and it looks great…but I missed something…and five minutes later, I’m still rewashing it to get it done…and, oh, there it is…I must have missed that microscopic, undetectable-by-the-human-eye speck of debris on the wingnut. Oy. And why doesn’t it have local co-op multiplayer? Bah! Ah, well. I hope others enjoy it.

I’ll try the Lego driving game, because, well, why not?! Sable? Hmm…ok. I’ll try that one, too, if I can download it without having to free up space on the hard drive.

One of the big rips in the Sable review is the number of bugs and frame rate issues you’ll encounter. Are the bugs still issues or have they been resolved?

Pinball FX still doesn’t have 2 player, does it? That was one thing I really liked about Zen Pinball—it was something I could play together with my wife.

Dare I ask: Is Neon Koi going into Uncharted waters?

Remember Atari’s 720 degrees skateboarding game? I’d love to see ‘em work with the makers of OlliOlli and Rollerdrome to make a fantastic retro skating game. Yeah.

Until then, Digital Eclipse looks like a good partner to roll with.

Probably not. If I do, it’d likely just be the tracks Paint It, Black and Sympathy for the Devil. Start Me Up could be fun, too.

The problem with using a famous detective story is we already know who done it. Playing this game would feel a lot like playing Clue when you already know who did it, what weapon was used, and in what room it took place. What fun is that?!

On second thought: I did buy Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo on PS5 a few months ago, and I really enjoyed that game (I’d give that one a 7.5 to 8 out of 10). But, here’s the thing: Vertigo had all different characters and different settings and it was told from a kid’s perspective…. Heck, if the game hadn’t told me it was Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, I wouldn’t have had a clue.

Third thought: Why couldn’t the developer have picked one of Agatha Christie’s other titles that no one likely knows anything about: Sparkling Cyanide or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Both are considered fantastic stories, two of Christie’s best. And, beyond that, Sparkling Cyanide is a kickass title for a detective video game.

To sum it up: Unless the “refreshing” of the story changes the outcome in some meaningful way, I just don’t see myself plopping down $40 plus tax on Murder on the Orient Express. Maybe I’ll pick it up if and when it’s a $9.99 Discounted Murder on the Oriental Trading Company. 😋

The stupid thing is that the local Best Buy already has a lot of open space in the store with nothing in it. Might as well close down the store and move Best Buy to a little strip mall.

I didn’t believe a new Assassins Creed game was being released. I thought it was a Mirage.

I’m still praying for Assassins Creed: Acts of the Apostles, but, Christ, at this point, it’d take a miracle.

Just sell the ip to Sony so we can get our Uncharted Tomb Raider 2-player game.

A word on the Sniper Ghost games and my interest in Sniper Ghost Contracts 2…

I played Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 through PS+ and played it for a few hours. It was fine, but, let’s face it, it’s a PS3 game and I wanted to play something more current, so I switched to playing something else.

So, I went out and bought Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 for the PS4, and I initially was underwhelmed…it was just ok, I thought. I was hoping it’d be more like a Sniper Elite 4 or 5 game, but it’s not. Ultimately, whether you like that one comes down to expectations. Ultimately, SGW 3 is pretty good for what it is: A Frostbite-engine Far Cry FPS clone with a slightly more than budget/bargain bin feel; emphasis is on drone flying and sniper fire mechanics (wind speed, distance, bullet drop) until the enemy spots you, at which point it becomes a more typical shooter.

I then bought Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts for PS4, and I liked it. I thought it needed more polish, but the contracts were cool. Problem is, I bought it on disc for PS4, and about 2 weeks later I got a PS5. So, I only spent about 3-4 hours playing it before putting it down for games I could play on PS5.

Now comes Sniper Ghost Contracts 2, and I can play it on the PS5 through PS+. I’m actually a little excited! I feel like I now know what to expect from the game. I’m just hoping for a Sniper Ghost Contracts game with a bit more polish. If that’s what it is, it’ll be a good month!

I’m not disappointed at all. I don’t have any of the three games, so I’m interested and intrigued. I’ll give ‘em a whirl.

@Trousersnake Yep, I run the PSVR through the PS5. It works great that way. I’ve only used VR on the PS4 to play Everybody’s Golf VR because I got that one on disc.

I’ve never tried this game, but I’m semi-interested. I bought a used PS VR (NOT VR2) a couple weeks back. Perturbator mentioned the VR version is blurry. Can anyone else comment on this game and their experience with PS VR (NOT PS VR2)? Is it worth a buy? Or…do you think I’d be wasting my time and I should save up for the PS VR2 and the PS VR2 version of No Man’s Sky?

A few folks have said the XBox will be just a cloud-based system in the next ten years. Whether it is or isn’t, Microsoft could make it happen just by calling the next system the XBox Nimbus.

I’m sure it’s just all those German folks who want PS VR2 and they realized they need a PS5, too. 😋

Does anyone in the US (other than the extremest of extreme video game diehards) even know what an Armored Core game is? Nope.

Maybe Bandai Namco should invest a few bucks for some fancy bus graphics in the US. Just a thought, anyway.

I’m amused by Guile’s great big, broad shoulders, meaty abs…and his itty bitty head. Nice to see him sporting a different hairstyle after all these years.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first one. I might just pick it up!

Is Dreams compatible with keyboard and mouse or are we still stuck using a controller to create and edit? It’s been quite a few years since I played it last, but the recent articles about it have piqued my interest again. After I tire of Diablo 4, I may just swing back into Dreams and see what I’ve missed. It’s a pity that Sony didn’t give Dreams away in PS+ until now. A couple of years ago, it would’ve been a good, relevant and topical PS+ addition. To release it on PS+ now just seems like a last supper before an execution.

Treasure goblins haven’t shown up as often as they did back in Diablo III, and Robert is right; the loot has been underwhelming. Three cheers for bigger booty! 😁

I want to know how much Greg Miller invested. On those old Beyond! podcasts, Greg was always lobbying Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida for Patapon remasters, remakes, and sequels. Well, cheers to you, Mr. Miller! You may just get your wish after all!!

For the last 30 years, I’ve been calling these games “Nobunga’s Ambition.” Doh! 🤣

@Mauzuri So, you wrote a post just to mock me and my opinion? Seems a bit juvenile, but ok.

I’m tired of Sonic. Been tired of him for 15 years. Sega became a great company through its games with an arcade-y feel: Hang On, Afterburner, Space Harrier, G-Loc, Shinobi, Fantasy Zone, Kid Chameleon, Golden Axe, Alex Kidd, and Zaxxon. All of these games should see reboots. Heck, even Seaman should be rebuilt from the ground up. Segagaga should get done again, too. Go back to the roots, Sega. A whole new generation of gamers are waiting.

Looks fine, but I long for a fancy, updated version of Paperboy. (The VideoKid is ok for a while, but there’s still more that can be done to build upon Paperboy.)

Looks good to me, if the price is right. For $29.99 or less, I’m totally in. If it costs more than that, we’ll see. I kinda wish a football game would take a different view than Madden’s. How ‘bout a left to right perspective for a change?

Seems kinda dumb to go by EA Entertainment as the “Arts” in the name “Electronic Arts” already indicates the output from the manufacturer is for entertainment purposes. Just go by Electronic Arts. Anything else is redundant.