purple_mouse_gaming

@LogicStrikesAgain "Can’t people just ignore a game they don’t like?"

This being the internet, no.

And I will never understand this. In any other walk of life, if there's something I dislike or it's simply not for me, I ignore and move on. Unless any given opinion drives positive change, move on...

If only less developers would , I don't know, maybe look at the product they intend to launch and just go "Nope, it's not quite ready yet - but let's put it out in this state anyway".

It's not too much to ask is it.

Excellent - another opportunity to sit back and watch the pantomime of opinion and speculation play out, whilst I wait for news on what actually matters - what are the games like.

Honestly been a while since a new console has truly delivered on its promise as far as my experience goes.

Played BS1 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Started BS2 shortly after, but ultimately shelved it - probably a bit of burnout from the first. This release seems like a perfect excuse to get back into it afresh 👍🏻

Interesting topic with many levels of interpretation. For me, graphics have always been about artistic style rather than technical excellence. Whether that's quantified by sheer beauty or simply clean visual functionality - a good looking game is a good looking game in my books.

Where I find technical grunt and aesthetic style differ is when you bring the passage of time into play. An almost photo-realistic or heavily detailed game of today arguably trumps a game that was considered so 20 years ago. But a beautiful game of 20 years ago - whatever your yardstick - remains a beautiful game to me today. And really, I find games virtually impossible to rank where the two differing interpretations exist.

I have often considered Shadow Of The Colossus to have some of the most beautiful and magical visuals of any game past and present, but on a technical level it could be viewed as relatively basic when compared to say, Death Stranding for example. For me though, often photo-realism leaves me a little cold, as it robs me of my ability to invest in the game with my own imagination. This is why I will happily play games from years ago that couldn't achieve such visual fidelity, as my mind would fill in the gaps, so to speak, and my enjoyment of the game would be significantly enhanced.

I definitely prefer beauty over power - it ensures that my favourite games remain my favourite games despite the passing of time, whereas those I consider technical paragons of the day often fade away as the years tick by.

Metropolis Street Racer remaster - come on Sega.....

Fundamentally, I don't understand the idea behind bringing Marathon back as something completely different to what is was originally. I understand that I'm not the target audience for this type of game, but I have fond memories of the originals - this sparks absolutely no nostalgia in me at all - which, when I heard the name, is kind of what I thought was going to be rekindled.

This could well be a naive take, but how hard is it to have some system whereby even an installed game won't activate and become playable until it receives a signal online through the PS5 itself, the timing of which is down to the publisher, so they could potentially delay a release date and stop people from playing copies early, even if they stay offline.
I realise this steps on the toes of the those who don't want to be online all the time, but I can't imagine this amounts to many people these days - and also if it's a game they are genuinely up for, going online to have the install activated shouldn't really be a major issue should it?
Obviously this is still subject to waiting on a potentially huge day one patch to install, but it could go some way to stopping people posting entire playthroughs online well before the actual launch date.

So, I reckon this all boils down to how we 'currently' perceive the timing between the decision to press a button and the actual resultant action on the screen, and whether or not this could improve it for us - which is likely to mean an improvement of milliseconds at best. I must admit, I don't really feel that much by way of 'lag' in everyday controller use, but I can see how this would marginally improve timings in games that rely heavily on instantaneous player response, and probably work in competitive play assuming the playing field is level. I can't attest as to how this would be implemented for accessibility improvement, not having any experience in that area. But, as I age, I find myself slower to respond to certain prompts or windows of opportunity, so for me it would be kind of neat to have something that bridges that gap a little, even if only to allow myself to feel slightly more capable as I try to take on bosses with my 50+ year old reaction times!

My only genuine complaint about this game from the PS2 original was that it was too long - it felt like it could have been about half the length. I hope the sequel focuses on quality rather than quantity.

Is the real issue here that they are using AI generated 'art' that looks terrible - or that said 'art' is doing somebody out of a job?
Because if it's just the former, I really can't understand why anyone would care.

DLC? No, simply put, additional content for an existing game does not constitute a separate 'game' in itself. As these are the GAME of the year awards, I see no basis for their inclusion. Remasters and remakes on the other hand - despite the fact they have already done the rounds - do constitute a separate standalone GAME at least, so I think their inclusion is warranted, but maybe in a separate category.

So, all this effort to create and promote a machine that has these incredible enhanced graphical options that 3 out of every 4 people don't really give a monkeys about...

I reckon this was going to be £599 - and then Concord flopped...

As someone who has visited Hong Kong several times, I'm genuinely disappointed to hear of the lack of atmosphere this game has - it's a vibrant and energetic city with activity almost everywhere you look. However, I'm intrigued by the car handling mentioned in the review, but put off by the premise somewhat. I'd like to check it out, but this will be several months down the line.

The day publishers (and developers) treat the customer with a bit more respect and don't release games with these (and many more) issues, is the day that maybe they will more regularly earn my top dollar when I buy games on or around launch. Until then, I'm more than happy to wait until the game is ready to enjoy as intended. I realise that day may never come, but I don't see this as an unreasonable stance.

Yep, must admit this is why I embraced next gen gaming, to play stuff that "doesn't look too shabby".

To be honest, I only ever treat 'reviews' (written or video) as a guide to a games content, the actual opinion of the viewer doesn't really strike a chord with me. I'll base my decision to purchase on what I can glean about its content, structure and appeal - the only real 'opinion' I will place any faith in is my own when I actually decide to play it.

@Futureshark Well done for getting back to Hancocks Half Hour (The Radio Ham). That does age me somewhat!!!!

@Futureshark Much kudos if you - or anyone else on here - can tell me the origin of this phrase without a Google search 😉

Thanks for the comments and advice everyone 👍🏻

So, I've never played Bloodborne, but I am aware of its appeal and I'm not blind to the fact that £7.99 is an absolute steal - but how does it play for someone who has never played a game of its type before. Would you say it's good for a novice?

Watch us have to buy the Season Pass to bypass them...

Had this on Dreamcast years ago. Decent game, but I always preferred Zero Gunner 2 for my chopper action.

Cue the internet starting to expect many wondrous things, whipping themselves into a frenzy by the time the announcements come around - only to lose their minds when they don't get what they all thought they deserved...

Looks to me like they can't tell their R's from their elbow...

Leakers confuse me - what kind of clout are they after exactly, except one 'around the ear'. Anyways, these types leaks are annoying (and damaging), but personally they don't really bother me - I can choose not to engage with them, and leave it to everybody else to ruin their own experience. It appears the art of self control and patience is virtually non existent in these times.

Even if this turns out to be really buggy, remember...

"They'll fix you ... they fix(ed) everything"

"Pedestrians will now try to avoid running into moving vehicles."

Looks like those insurance scams just aren't paying off in Night City these days...

Nope - installed the 360 version on my XBox One this morning and it looks beautiful. More than enough to entice me to play it again. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if R* pull it from the BC list and start charging £50 for it at this point...

Love how in this era of internet stupidity, you get everyone with their 'cool bro' mentality banging on about how they are setting the world alight with their 'individuality' and efforts to stand out from the crowd - but then just seem to constantly follow and copy everybody else. It's a bit like fashion - only with substantially more idiots...

Not a massive fan of recent Codies F1 to be honest, considering how much I loved earlier versions - F1 2010 and F1 2013 especially. Those games had a bit of heart and were all about the racing. All the more recent stuff is just totally soulless to me - which is my current take on modern F1 in reality. If it wasn't for Alonso lighting up the podium regularly, I doubt I'd even bother to watch...

That fade out on the PS1 intro gets me every time. Nice if Sony gave us the option to choose which music to start the PS5 with...

Collectors editions? No thanks - prefer to gradually 'collect' related stuff over the years after having played and fallen in love with the game first. Do this all the time - gradually amass artbooks, soundtracks etc. - don't like the idea of buying a pre-determined collection of stuff in one go that several other people have exact replicas of.

An utterly beautiful piece of writing for an utterly beautiful game - fantastic memories of Ico, and like you, I'm not really in a rush to go back. The wonderment still lives on in my mind over 20 years later...

Hmm, I think I prefer the relative 'funnelling' of a good narrative in a linear game these days - although that opinion is somewhat influenced by my available play time at my time of life.

Several years ago, I finally played Fallout 3 and amassed something like 70+ hours on my playthrough, a sizeable chunk of which was open world content and side missions - and interesting ones at that. And this is kind of where modern stuff lets me down.

These days, I see a lot of the open world content as simply filler, and often not very interesting filler, whilst you wait for the next story beat a few hours down the line. I feel overwhelmed by all the optional activities that open up, and whilst I appreciate the choice, I often find filling my map with places to go and things to do just makes me want to back off from the game. In a linear adventure, I find I am happier to be guided somewhat and don't have to deal with the superfluous stuff, allowing me to focus on the story and get really into it.

Even something like Horizon Zero Dawn - which I absolutely loved - would often offer way too many distractions to me, which obviously I could ignore if I wanted to, but I found the narrative difficult to pick back up if I did too many of them. Compare this to something like Far Cry 5 - albeit a different interpretation of an open world, but at least that had a relatively simple storyline that was easy to pick up, even if I decided to go off and do a ton of optional side activities, which I did very often.

I guess it's all about balance, respecting the players time, but still offering everybody the choice. A difficult balance to strike no doubt, but one that, if done well, can result in some truly memorable games.

It's almost as if, I don't know, simply buying a game and enjoying it is too much to ask these days.

Entertained by the wide variety of opinions on this version of the game that originally had a wide variety of opinions back when it originally launched. As someone yet to play CP, I'm looking forward to finding out for myself which side of the fence I'll end up on.
What I will say is that I firmly believe everyone has their right to come here and crap all over the game, as much as they have the right to come here and applaud it. Taking umbrage with someone else's opinion and elevating your objections to a point where you become borderline disrespectful or outright hostile is just plain childish.
Read the opinion, absorb it, counter it if desired - but always respect it.

I'm really interested in peoples standpoint on this. As a gamer of relatively moderate skill level, I tend to favour difficulty settings between easy and normal, with the possible exception of semi-serious racers, where I like to be challenged. I can appreciate and understand all levels of opinion here, but one thing irritates me - why do people abhor the introduction of an easier mode if the game retains its harder modes for those that want that challenge? It's not like adding them demeans the effort or the respect earned through defeating the game at the higher levels, so I don't understand why people get so upset when something they enjoy at a punishing difficulty has an option to allow the more casual or lesser capable player to set their own level of challenge.

Some games are created to be challenging - that I get. But to detest the adding of a mode that increases the appeal, broadens the gamerbase, whilst still retaining the ability to seriously test the most capable players seems like a very negative mindset to me. I can appreciate the argument that the ultimate fulfilment comes from being beaten down and rising over and over again, resulting in a better and more rewarding path to glory, but some of us just don't have the skill, patience or - frankly - the time to sink into that.

That being said, you might be surprised that I am not against games being initially impenetrable though, and that's an important point I'd like to make - if a developer aims the game at the hardcore market and it presents a very steep learning curve, that's perfectly fine - it's more the attitudes that follow I take umbrage with. I just think the option of a lower barrier to entry is a considerate touch.

I am frequently in awe of players who can tackle the higher difficulty settings and enjoy watching them play - but I don't think anyone really has the right to think certain games should simply be reserved for that type of player. I like to think that I have the maturity and common sense to know my limits, and if I choose to challenge myself or simply take the B-road to satisfaction, I'd like to think others would understand that without judging my decision or belittling my abilities in the process.

Not everyone needs to walk away from a game having had their arse well and truly kicked to consider it time well spent.

Happy New Year to Push Square and this great community - looking forward to a great gaming year in 2022!

As a racing game fan, I still hold Grid Autosport in high regard - indeed, I still play it regularly to this day. I really hoped 2019's Grid reboot would bring back some of that Autosport feel, but I found it sadly lacking. I kind of think Legends may be more of the same, but I'm really hopeful that it turns out good.

@thejoesenone Great comment that not only sums up my feelings about a magnificent game, whilst also acknowledging it's obvious faults - but is also notable for the dignity of the response. Thankyou

I do want to play this, but thankfully I am blessed with incredible patience - so I always said I would wait until it was in a much better state, even if that meant waiting a year or two. Hopefully this 'major' update is worth waiting for...

New trailer hasn't blown me away to be honest - although trailers rarely do these days, but what I have seen looks a bit more in line with SR3, which was one of my favourite games from the XBox 360 era. Hopefully they recapture some of that spirit, although the goofy humour doesn't really do it for me these days.

Very disappointed - no sign of Kenneth Kendall or Anneka Rice. No day one purchase for me. Oh, 'HuntER' - I see now...