Comments 369

Re: Poll: Are You Playing Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores?

koffing

Just started Burning Shores. Enjoying it. It’s beautiful. The story is beautiful. So far easily worth $20 but dang I need to play some smaller games this year. Zelda is up next. Gulp.

Oh and There are clearly some bugs to work out. Seyka got stuck/frozen at one point and I had to reset. Camera mode sometimes doesn’t let me move the camera.

Re: U.S. Senator Says Sony Has 'Monopoly' on High-End Japanese Game Market

koffing

The implication in the article and the follow up in the comments all suggest that this Senator is corrupt. PushSquare, if you believe that just say it.

I don’t know her. I’d have to look at her voting record and all the conversations surrounding this topic rather than a single soundbite to have a real opinion on whether she has “been bought.”

That said, I wish Sony could just stop caring about losing Call of Duty.

Re: PSVR2 to Receive Renewed Competition from Meta Quest 3 This Year

koffing

With Carmack leaving it’s pretty clear that Meta is going for a premium experience versus a cheaper more accessible one. That approach will limit who uses it.

VR and AR are interesting but they lack killer apps and the interaction model is too complex.

On AR: think the movie Her is probably the best depiction of an AR future where we converse with an AI using natural language which is close to the ChatGPT + AirPods tech that is already present.

On VR: I think people to-date have preferred just putting more screens everywhere (in cars, in pockets, tablets, on wrists, on fridges) than walking around with one strapped to our faces. I think games are driving some adoption here and there is a dedicated fanbase that is funding the tech year after year so maybe it will grow, but I am still not seeing the necessary tech to do it well which would need 8k microled screens and even more power efficient chipsets. VR needs a Nintendo Wii like moment.

I am most interested to see what Apple is going to bring to the table here but I suspect even if they have amazing hardware there still won’t be a killer app. Apple doesn’t really care about games and I am not going to pay $500-1000 for a personal AppleTV movie theater or an Apple Maps driving directions experience.

And oh Meta, I have no interest in your corporate virtual business meeting dystopia.

Re: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Producer Says Narrative Changes 'Necessary' to Keep Players Interested

koffing

They are in too deep into existing FF7 lore. Remake’s storytelling — especially at the end — was clearly for those who knew FF7 in and out and would notice and appreciate deviations. I had to look stuff up. While I liked the game’s opening I found the final act confusing and not very enjoyable. I was a bit relieved when it was all over and I am not eager to go back. That said, I only played FF7 once 20 years ago and now I am much more likely to buy the original when it’s on sale for $8.

Re: Sony Cuts PSVR2 Launch Sale Estimates by Half, New Report Claims

koffing

@Sil_Am (1) Sony could sell it at a profit. (2) Also they can just expect that a large percentage of the user base would not do that but would stick to PS5. (3) The approach I describe would be similar to Sony’s current PC strategy and would help grow the userbase to achieve economies of scale. It’s like when Apple finally allowed Window users to use iTunes and use iPods without a Mac.

@naruball discretionary money is discretionary money. 🤷‍♂️

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Xmas 2022 Edition

koffing

Finishing Lego Builder’s Journey. Playing Persona 5 Royal very slowly (third time playing the game, but first time on the Switch). On PS5 I am very focused on Horizon Forbidden West. It’s delightful. I am not finding the story as compelling as the first Horizon, but the characters, world, graphics, gameplay, and just overall experience are imo so much better. I am going to be playing this one for a while.

Re: Horizon Forbidden West DLC Takes Aloy to the Burning Shores Only on PS5

koffing

When 3d cgi cartoons started being successful in the early 2000s Disney abandoned hand drawn animation for it. We learned later part of the reason for that was morale and talent retention: many of their people wanted to work on the new exciting trends in animation. I can imagine the devs being pretty excited to work with 2 year old hardware instead of 10 year old hardware and now is the perfect chance. Base game upgrade to PS5 is free, stock issues abating, PS5s are starting to show up in stores, this is just DLC, gives Guerilla and their Decima team a chance to work on a modern platform. Seems like a win for everyone.