pip_muzz

@get2sammyb That £500 console can probably be sold by most people for a profit due to the stock shortages still.
And this just sadly confirms my believe that Sony are trying to tie in everybody so tightly into their infrastructure that they feel price bound and unable to leave.

£70! That's the price of the game that contains the sort of MTX mechanics one would find in a free-to-play title.
Sony still charging £10 for the PS4-PS5 upgrade path, essentially charging people more who fork out just shy of half a grand for their new console.
It is genuinely the same level of greed and arrogance that MS showed back with their XOne launch/reveal.
How the days of cheering when the PS4 announcement of all offline games feels so so so long ago....

@get2sammyb It's the classic switcheroo from Sony though. Release the game to great reviews then patch in aggressive microtransactions after you have the "advert friendly" review scores. I don't doubt that the game will be playable again within the next 24hours, but the tinkering of the in-game economy to push the MTX's in a full price £70 game is nothing short of a car salesman scummy move.
Gran Turismo 1 is in my view, the most important game in the racing genre in gaming history. The current Sony leadership are not fit to hoist the flag in my view

Sony is more and more resembling the high school sweetheart that one used to love back in the day, then at the high school reunion you realise they're horrible, bitter and nothing like you remember them to be.

£90 is a lot, but I most definitely want one!

@Dr-M Yeah, Platinum games made a TMNT game a while back. TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan (or something similar)
It was delisted very quickly digitally so physical copies go for around £25+ on PS4 and XOne.
I enjoyed it. It had the Platinum games depth of combat, but the level design was not up to the usual Platinum standard. Worth a play through for sure buddy.

Great review, if a little harsh on Milton Keynes 🤣 I actually enjoyed Platinum's Ninja Turtles game but this really does look like an absolute stinker all round.

I love these quizzes. A perfect mix of old and new. Mainstream and niche. Keep them coming!

DMC 5's Dante Must Die mode is harder than any Souls game. Metal Gear Rising's hardest mode was harder than any Souls game. The sense of accomplishment by overcoming something extremely difficult does not have to come at the expense of an option.
I love that these games are designed, ground up to be difficult, that's ok. I still don't see why there isn't an old school "cheat mode" for those who want to cheese it. Everybody wins in this case.

@naruball I presume you're referring to Sony there for censoring something so pointless.

That explains why it isn't launching onto Game Pass on day 1. It's launching onto PS Now instead.
Not entirely unprecedented as Fall Guys also hit PS Now day 1 but that was a multiplayer title so made sense then. Devolver Digital seem to be very partisan with their releases.
So long as Sony understand that the day 1 is a big draw of Game Pass then their own alternative should do well.
Edit: Thanks for the clarifications. My bad. I was confusing PS Plus with PS Now

I feel sorry for Grid Legends which is also releasing the same day as this 😅

I cynically wonder if SE have such unrealistic sales targets as a way out of paying developer bonuses and the like. The game had sales a fair few other companies would be envious about

@Shepherd_Tallon Well The Departed isn't even as good as Infernal Affairs which is what the film is a remake of. So if a critic is comparing something to The Departed then they clearly don't know their stuff

So from what I understand about people who bought the PS5 version in the comments. You've essentially spent £10 on cosmetic horse armour.

And this is why I am anti-Sony at the moment. There are times in gaming history when it's clear one company is being a total arsehat above all others. It's previously been both Nintendo and Microsoft at times but at the moment the arsehat is currently being worn by Sony.
The worst thing is this behaviour of theirs is being rewarded. Fanboyism at its worst. It was good for gaming when the Xbox One launch was criticised and resulted in the gaming narrative change. It'll be good for gaming when the same happens for Sony as they stand.

@ShogunRok I also remember they were surprisingly violent. I vaguely recall the mole character sticking his paw into the opponents chest and the blood sprayed out afterwards. I got into them back when the PS magazines had demo discs and one had a demo on it I played for ages so I ended up getting the games too.

Loved the bloody roar question. My lord that takes me back. I used to love those games.

I turned off trophy notifications years ago and never looked back. I found it annoying to have key story moments interrupted with a "ping" sound constantly as I played. I sometimes check my score/list every couple of months but thankfully this also stops me looking at trophies and potentially spoiling things for myself.

In fairness, the weekend is nearly upon us and I'm pretty sure we'll all knackered.

Quick edit. You've got the release date as January 18th instead of February 18th. I know lots of people are excited for the game but turning back time to play it quicker is unfortunately not something us normal folk can do.

If Sony can afford $3.5 Billion+ on purchasing Bungie, then they can sure as hell stop overcharging £70 for their first party games and stop trying to continuously charge £10 for a PS4-PS5 upgrade. My takeaway from all this is that Sony isn't the bleeding piggy bank they painted themselves to be, and I'm still not happy they're charging £70 as if it's the same as $70!

Well it's save to say that the "Monopoly" prevention clause of the Activision purchase by Microsoft won't be going ahead then.

A decent Anime adaptation of my favourite game, Lan Di Sama will be pleased...

@UltimateOtaku91 This turd of a man transcends PlayStation/Xbox/Nintendo. If he's gone it's only a good thing, regardless of what console we play on.

After watching (even with lowered expectations) the last showcase I shan't be watching this one live.
I'll be here the following day to catch up on the news instead.

Wahoo. Guilty Gear Strive won something in a Game of the Year category!
Such a superb game and whilst I realise fighting games are becoming more and more niche these days, I do recommend people wishlist it for sales or just take the plunge and buy it.
In my view, this is THE Playstation exclusive that Xbox doesn't have.

A superb game and one of my top 3 games of the year. It may not have the Pixar polish of Ratchet and Clank, but it has more to say and a longer staying power than it. In a day and age when 3d platformers aren't the powerhouse they used to be, and when everyone raves about Astrobot I'm still surprised this isn't higher.

Thank you Push Square for a super job this year. Despite my recent run in with yourselves I think this website is one of the fairest there is for gaming and I respect the independent views of the reviewers here more than most other sites. Merry merry Christmas Sammy, Robert, Liam, Stephen (and anyone else I've forgotten sorry, a few beers in here now). Have a great new year all.

Thank you for not forgetting this game. I've got it on PS4 and it is phenomenal. May be Arc's best game yet (though I still have a soft spot for Dragonball FighterZ). If the inclusion on this list gets a few more people to play the game it's worth it!!

The overriding theme on most of these predictions is optimism. I think actually this year was probably harder hit with knock on effects due to the pandemic compared to last year.
Anyhow, onwards and upwards with 2022.

@ShogunRok Thank you.

Played on PC. It is very fun and well worth a play. Lots of the negative reviews were about the lack of story (or how pointless it was) and also how the gameplay isn't anything new.
That said, it's one of the best FPS' I've played last gen. Old school fun, doesn't babysit the player, music is amazing, gameplay is smooth. Even this site would probably give it a 7/10 but it'll be one of the best 7/10 games you'll ever play.

There's a reason Insomniac Games often tops many of the best places to work in the world polls. Their reasoning is also correct in this case too. Bigger isn't always necessarily better.

This rumour has been going on for so long, the game could have a full development cycle between the time the game was rumoured to when it'll be announced.

@Shigurui I definitely liked Ascension myself, but felt that the series definitely needed a makeover after that one in order to avoid going stale. In that regard GoW 2018 did the job fantastically.
Also would rate Chains of Olympus lowest, the game felt a bit too obvious as a PSP title which Ghost of Sparta somehow magically avoided. As a game series I'd rate it as one of the all time greats.

@naruball then by voting for God of War above Elder Scrolls, Portal, Witcher and StarCraft it tells me that you don't play a wide range of video games and focus more on story based cinematic ones...
What about God of War 2018 does it do better than other games? I can think of lots of other games that do each part of the new GoW game better. Story, combat, gameplay, puzzles... GoW isn't the best in any of these categories?!

@Shigurui This x1000. God of War 2+3 are a tie for my favourite. I totally get GoW needed a fresh lick of paint after Ascension, but the new one isn't the best in the series. It lacks the puzzle design of earlier games (no gems like Hera's M C Escher style gardens), combat is lacking the depth of the earlier ones and the platforming is relegated to following the O button prompt around ledges.
The only thing it did better for me was tell a better story and have shinier graphics.
Seems story and graphics is all people look for in games these days anyway...

Just shows that IGN is mostly read by teenagers.
God of War is a good game and all, but when actual long lasting classics are all beaten by recent releases it just shows the average age of the voters and a reason once again to ignore polls like this in the first place.

Is this forced online data collection the community engagement Jim Ryan was talking about on Thursday?

Nintendo Switch games don't require online for single player. The other Sony first party Games don't require online for single player. It's unnecessary and uncalled for.

If this was GT Sport 2 it'd feel different, but this game is being billed as GT 7, and therefore single player should be offline if people choose it that way. With Forza 8 not coming out for a year Sony have an open goal here with the racing simulator game for next-gen. Having online as a requirement for single player would turn that open goal into an own goal

I wonder if Venom will be the main villain, or rather an initial enemy you face before teaming up with Peter and Miles against Carnage or something else?!
I definitely predict that Venom will be a playable character in the new game.

I'm calling it now. Venom will be playable at some point in the story ala Ultimate Spiderman!

Can we finally, finally all agree that if the Silent Hill Sony produced game doesn't appear then it's not coming and doesn't exist!

The atmosphere and story and interesting... But the central mechanic of the "dual worlds, one screen" is so painfully simply used. It never does any genuinely interesting gameplay ideas or puzzles with the mechanic.
My least favourite Blooper game to date 5/10.

@feral1975 The game was never announced for either PS5 or Series X until after Microsoft purchased the company.

Consider this, it would be equally ludicrous for Insomniac Games to release a special edition of Sunset Overdrive for the PS5 (since they're now a Sony company) and then Xbox fans whine they're not getting the Sony produced new version on Series X.

The Series X version is something Microsoft have very clearly pumped money into to promote the Series X. But the existence of that "next gen" version doesn't detract from the version for PS4 and Xbox One. Everyone here seems to forget that the PS4 version is identical to Xbox One, are Microsoft also abusing their own Xbox One users with the Series X version?!

As for not being able to afford all three consoles, what are you complaining about?!?! The game has been released on a Sony platform?! It's like it should be a PS exclusive or nothing else matters with some people.

@BamBamBaklava89 It's nothing to do with company defending.
If PlayStation is your console of choice, then you're getting a lesser version. That's clear. However to not play a great game simply because it's a "lesser" version, that's the baffling part.
I have played many a shoddy port in my gaming years simply because that was the only version of the game I had access to at the time. And guess what.... I enjoyed it still!
Bottom line. PS4 has a fantastic new game released on the console and people are refusing to play it for the most roundabout of reasons. Like I said. I like games first and foremost. Seems not everyone feels the same.

Edit: it's also not one specific audience. People who only own a Xbox One (there must be some of those people still right?!) are also getting the exact same version as PS4 owners.