Comments 153

Re: Reaction: PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself

patronmacabre

I honestly think the best thing PlayStation could have done for its live service push is completely off the table now.

But I genuinely think if Sony had bought Mihoyo instead of Bungie in 2022 (if Mihoyo was willing to sell), then PlayStation would be in a much, much stronger position these days.

However, I don't think that is realistic anymore — or good for the industry at large.

Re: Become a Combat Coach, Adopt a Pet, and Win the Wardance in Honkai: Star Rail's Next Huge Update

patronmacabre

@Shigurui
I get you. My E2 Firefly team can already 0-cycle, Firefly is just my favorite character so I want to get Lingsha.

Feixiao will probably fit a very similar role to Firefly in the long run, being really good in MoC and AS but lacking in PF. Acheron teams, by contrast, are significantly worse in AS but significantly better in PF.

I think the nice thing for a heavily invested player is that there will be three "ideal" teams after Feixiao and Lingsha's release that don't have any overlap with each other.

Acheron/Pela/Jiaqiu/Fu Xuan
Firefly/Harmony Trailblazer/Ruan Mei/Lingsha
Feixiao/Topaz/Robin/Aventurine (though this might be subject to change).

Re: Become a Combat Coach, Adopt a Pet, and Win the Wardance in Honkai: Star Rail's Next Huge Update

patronmacabre

"One thing worth noting is that there’ll be a special Warp Event during the first phase of the update which will plot the return of Black Swan, Robin, and Kafka all at once, so we sincerely hope you’ve been saving your Primogems."

Erm! Ackshully. The standard unit of premium currency in Honkai Star Rail is Polychrome.

But, seriously, 2.5 is going to wreck my wallet. I only have 18 warp tickets saved and I want Feixiao, Robin, and Lingsha.

Re: New Chinese Rules Could Change Some of PS5, PS4's Biggest Games

patronmacabre

Genshin and HSR are perfectly reasonable F2P games if you ONLY spend money on the daily currency and the battle pass.

However, purchasing currency directly in those games is extremely predatory. I have to commit to never buying currency directly, because it is very easy to spend 100 dollars just to get a 5-star you want.

Hopefully, these changes will improve the monetization of the game for the better.

Re: Sony Will Have More PS5 Presentations This Year, Sources Say

patronmacabre

@Vivisapprentice I think Helldivers 2 could be fun. It's definitely not my kind of game, but it's a game I would be willing to buy on discount.

I am a tiny bit worried about Wolverine, but that's entirely because I've been an Insomniac fan for over twenty years. Insomniac games tend to be very movement focused, and Wolverine needs a hook to make it stand out.

Also, Vivi is fantastic!

Re: Sony Will Have More PS5 Presentations This Year, Sources Say

patronmacabre

I try not to be a Playstation doomer. I was reasonably open to the GAAS shift if it was done well...
But the Showcase and the fallout really managed to singlehandedly kill my interest in Playstation Studios games for the foreseeable future (outside of Spider-Man).
Hopefully, we can see some games that I will be interested in.

Re: Reaction: Sony's PS5, PC Live Service Strategy Won't Work If It's All Samey Shooters

patronmacabre

Sony has plenty of titles that could make excellent transitions into live services if Sony wanted it.

Hot Shots Golf would make an exceptional live service game.
Mihoyo has shown that a game like Dark Cloud could be super relaxing and super profitable with a live service spinoff.
Rhythm games need live service models to succeed.

But when they're all shooters they're all going to cannibalize each other until everyone goes back to playing Fortnite.

Re: UK's Regulator Responds to European Commission's Decision to Pass Xbox's Activision Buyout

patronmacabre

@heavensdenon Xbox is doing fine and they have the backing of a 2 trillion dollar company.

I'm not sure where you heard that Microsoft and Sony are owned by the same entity — one is an American company and the other is a Japanese company. Maybe you mean overlap of executives?

While Xbox will be fine, the same can't really necessarily be said for Activision. It's very likely that they put a lot of stake into getting acquired and probably didn't plan to be stuck in legal limbo for what will probably be several years.

Re: UK's Regulator Responds to European Commission's Decision to Pass Xbox's Activision Buyout

patronmacabre

@heavensdenon UK, US, and EU are the three commissions that need to win approval. Other commissions are not sufficiently large enough markets to influence the decision.

FTC opposes the deal, but they have to prove in court that the merger harms competition, which is really hard to do. FTC is trying to stall indefinitely. CMA blocks the deal, but an appeals process will happen. EU passed the deal.

Theoretically, the merger could go through without the UK, but it will probably be a logistical nightmare.

The only thing that's certain is that nothing is going to happen for a very long time. The legal process is extremely slow. If MS does manage to get the merger approved, don't be surprised if the PS6 and Xbox successor are about to come out.

Re: UK's Regulator Responds to European Commission's Decision to Pass Xbox's Activision Buyout

patronmacabre

So, doing my research into the Competition Appeals Tribunal. It's relatively new so there just isn't that much in the way of decisions.

On the one hand, I think people are overstating the difficulty of appealing to the CAT. The reality is that it's fairly new and there just aren't that many cases. So, low sample size means there's a lot of room for surprises.

On the other hand, it is incorrect to assume that the CAT will be more open to MS's position than the CMA. On some key cases, it has remanded the CMA's decisions for being too open to accepting remedies.

But the horrible reality is this: between the CMA and the FTC, this whole debacle is going to take YEARS.

Re: Sorry, But the Drama Over Xbox's Activision Buyout Ain't Over Yet

patronmacabre

@get2sammyb
This is my understanding of the differences:
With the US and the FTC, Microsoft didn't really seem to care about the FTC's decision. This is because the FTC has to prove its case in court that the acquisition would hurt competition. While the current FTC is very anti-big tech, the US judiciary is extremely pro-business and almost always sides with businesses against federal agencies. Even if the FTC manages to win their case before administrative court, MS has options to appeal. The effectiveness of this depends on the particular appeals court, but MS will certainly shop around for the circuit most likely to side with them. And even if MS fails, they can appeal to the Supreme Court which is also extremely pro-business. Basically, the FTC's goal has been to stall the acquisition for as long as possible, realizing that the case was basically unwinnable given political conditions.

The reason the CMA is so much harder is that the CMA has a LOT more power in these decisions. Even if MS appeals the case, there's only a 1/3 chance that the Appeals Court will even hear the case. If they do successfully appeal the case, there's only a 1/3 chance that it will come out in MS's favor. Even if they successfully appeal the case, the appeal comes out in MS's favor, then the CMA has to apply the specified changes from the appeal. And then the CMA reviews the process again. It's not a different agency. So winning a case against the CMA is about as close to impossible as the FTC winning the case against MS.

Re: Soapbox: I No Longer Think Subscriptions Like PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass Are the Future of Gaming

patronmacabre

I think gaming subscriptions are great for a very, very tiny subset of the playerbase that plays a lot of shorter games.
But the reality is that there are very people like that.

The bigger problem is that the writing has been on the wall for a while now that subscription services just aren't profitable. They require constant growth and need to constantly be in customer acquisition mode. Once the streaming service eventually raises the price to what it needs to be, people no longer find the services good value.

Re: Activision Boss Disappointed by Sony, But Commits to Best Games Possible on PS5, PS4

patronmacabre

So obviously, I want to begin with screw Bobby Kotick and everything he stands for. He does not deserve to get the golden parachute he'll inevitably get.

With that out of the way, I wonder if Sony had played ball with Microsoft, if they could have gotten better contractual conditions.

Do you think there is any way Sony and Microsoft would have agreed to a 10-year contract that would have put all franchises previously on Playstation systems (so, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Hellblade, etc.) on Playstation for the duration of the contract? I wonder if the Sony lawyers tried that and MS refused.

Re: Japanese PS5 Hardware May Be Being Sent Overseas, Explaining Soft Software Sales

patronmacabre

I'm sure this accounts for some percentage of the Japanese sales, but the reality of the situation is that it's probably much smaller than people are led to believe.

Scalping, while incredibly annoying, just really isn't that lucrative a business especially when you have to account for overseas shipping costs, import taxes, and transaction fees.

I would be genuinely surprised if scalping accounts for 10% of sales in Japan.

Edit: The only way I can see this happening at a large scale is if the grey market is being used as a way to avoid the many transaction costs associated with scalping. Even then, the unemployment rate in Japan is 2.5% — scalping is extremely time and effort consuming and there are better ways to spend your time.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give God of War Ragnarok?

patronmacabre

I gave it a 9, but really it's a 9.5. Between it and Elden Ring, I could be convinced either way which one is better.

Game is excellent overall. The two major issues are that it is clearly held back by the PS4 and the game handholds you so much during the main story puzzles. The latter problem can be easily fixed with a patch. I absolutely adored upper Vanaheim and thought it was the highlight of the game, but apparently some other people disagree with that sentiment. Similarly controversially, I really liked the "localization" choices made, especially with Odin and Thor. These Norse Gods are supposed to sound like intoxicated jerks, not pseudo-Shakespearean actors. The voice acting conveyed that.

The story is simultaneously more interesting and less artistic than God of War (2018). I definitely loved the commitment of 2018, but I found its story meandering and underwhelming at the end. Ragnarok started off incredibly slow, but just constantly got better and better. It was very satisfying and I loved Kratos' character arc over the course of the entire series.

Re: Poll: Did You Buy The Last of Us: Part I?

patronmacabre

I bought it. While it is definitely overpriced, I do love the game.

The visuals are a remarkable improvement. AI is also noticeably better and the game feels more fluid. Most sections seem slightly easier than in the original version, however, the dreaded hotel basement section is markedly more difficult because that AI is so much better.

Game feel is also significantly improved, though not up to the level of the sequel. Guns feel weightier and more powerful, especially the shotgun.

Regular enemies seem slightly less bullet spongey, but Bloaters seem much, much more powerful than in the original version.

Re: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Devs Considered a Two-Game Series Instead of a Trilogy

patronmacabre

I think there was a very clear route for the game to follow as a trilogy.
Part 1: Midgar
Part 2: Up to Aerith's death
Part 3: The rest of FF7 (which was honestly mostly bad in the original.)

I fully expect part 3 will be very divergent from the original, simply because so much of the original story (like all of the huge materia questlines) were so boring and unnecessary.

Re: Xbox Appeared to Embargo PS5, PS4 Versions of Some Showcase Games

patronmacabre

While this is stupid, it's mostly harmless.
No timed exclusivity will ever top the stupidity of Disgaea 6's timed exclusivity, though.
It was available on PS and Switch in Japan at the same time, but was a regional timed exclusive to Switch for like six months... even though you could, like, have a Japanese account and buy it on Playstation if you didn't care about reading.

Re: Poll: Will You Buy The Last of Us: Part I?

patronmacabre

Shadow of the Colossus Remake came out about 12 and a half years after the original, and 7 years after the remaster.

Demon's Souls Remake came out 11 years after the original.

The Last of Us Part 1 comes out 9 years and a few months after the original and 8 years and a few months after the remaster.

These timelines are all roughly in line with each other. They are low-intensity projects that can be made on a short timeline and help videogame studios recover between intense projects. Remakes like these are good things.

The only problem with TLOUP1 is the price. It should be 50 dollars, not 70 dollars.

Re: Reminder: Last Chance to Add Persona 5 to Your Library Through PS Plus Collection

patronmacabre

@Milktastrophe
Persona 5 original completely falls apart in the second half of the game. The first half is fantastic, sure, but the second half of the original is just terrible. The only thing that redeems the terrible second half of Persona 5 is the incredible additional chapter in Royal.

Please, readers, you can get Royal for less than 30 dollars. It's about a 120 hour long game. You cannot transfer your data from the original to Royal. If you have are lucky enough to have a PS5, your time is infinitely more valuable than 30 dollars.

Re: Best Free Games on PS5

patronmacabre

Genshin is an absolutely fantastic game. I genuinely and sincerely think it has a better open world than both Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring.
If you pay the 5 dollars for the monthly blessing, it's a great deal.
You can probably justify the battle pass too, but it's skippable.
For the love of everything good in the world, do not buy primogems outright.