@Toot1st "Do I need a PlayStation plus membership to play the dem, Cancelled mine a while back"
I was wondering that as well. I don't play FPS so I'm not the target audience but I currently am playing 3 different online games on my PS5, Fortnite, Disney Speedstorm and Zenless Zone Zero, all for free, none of them require PS+. If this game is $40 AND you need to pay for one of the 3 currently overpriced PS+ levels, well good luck to Sony with that plan. 🤑
I thought I just took a few games off of my Wishlist last night on my PS5 but I suppose I could be misremembering @FinneasGH Were you on the App, website, or PS5? I was on all 3 b/c I couldn't recall my password so was trying to purchase something any way possible. 😜
Edit: Just checked on my PC web browser and the games are off the list. Then it dawned on me you might have one of the PS+ levels, which I currently don't, so maybe that has something to do with it? 🤷♂️
Thought this article might be about the lack of PS app notifications. I used to get them almost weekly whenever a game on my Wishlist went on sale but I hadn't gotten one for awhile. Looked at my Wishlist last night and 2 or 3 games were on sale.
I actually bought FF8 "Remastered" (couldn't even be bothered to make it widescreen 😝) b/c it was on sale FOR ONLY 4 MORE HOURS and the FOMO got me & my wife. I told my wife we could just put our PS1 discs into our PS3 that we use to play blurays but she was like "but 3x speed", so purchased. Which I probably would have done 2 weeks ago when it went on sale but Sony never told me, which was my point.
@NEStalgia Funny, you ninja'd in when I hit the Reply button but your long winded rant about the prices of hardware must have already been in the internet ether b/c I touched upon it a bit. I mean mostly mine reads like I'm just a cheap penny pincher but what you said was what I was getting at.😁
"Maybe Patcher was right in 2013 after all"
If you are 11 years early you aren't right, just guessing. 😉 That said, if Xbox can cloud stream it's game on those pitifully underpowered Amazon Fire TV sticks (I've changed all of mine out for Roku's) then do we really need consoles at all? Can't we just USB-C to Displayport our phones in a couple of years like we do now w/ laptops? Wireless HDMI a few years after that? We all need $500 phones, we don't all need $500 toys. 🤷♂️
@sanderson72 I think, and it's not a great mind blowing argument just common sense, that the US is the only place Sony competes w/ Xbox so they need to keep their prices low here, feels like everywhere else PS dominates Xbox. Maybe the UK but they can just blame that on Brexit. 😁
In Japan it's basically just Nintendo and smartphones at this point. 🤷♂️
So yeah, Sony caters to the US, but I still have to pay about 10% tax, so that $500 console costs $545, putting it a little bit more in line w/ EU prices I think.
I do miss the days of price reductions though. I understand inflation is real, but I bought my Gamecube, Nintnedo's last powerfully competitive console, when it hit $99. Not $199, just $99. PS2 for $199 I think. I mean they're really just toys to play videogames, why do they need to cost so much? A lot of people are playing HD-2D games and the like, a $199 console should be able to run those. 🤑
@naruball @get2sammyb Reduce the price? Didn’t Sony actually RAISE the price of the new discless version while keeping the disc version the same? After 4 years.
To point out the “prices are never going lower” factor look at controllers. 4 years after launch the $70 controller now has a few $75 colored variants, a $200 version, and several 3rd party $150 controllers, there is not one single 3rd party faux controller either by a known 3rd party like PowerA or some unknown knockoff. I’ve been looking for like a year. As I’ve taken apart 2 of my controllers to clean them to fix the drift. (Meanwhile my 2 PS4 controllers are still perfect after a decade.)
I’m honestly surprised there hasn’t been a “collusion” lawsuit in the US over the lack of 3rd party controllers, that’s how strange this is to me. A year or 2 okay, takes companies awhile to reverse engineer things, but 4 years and no $40 or $50 cheap knockoffs? That’s not normal.
I don’t think a Pro needs more than a months notice between announcement and launch otherwise you are just hurting sales of the current pair of models. Or is it considered 1 model sold with or without an accessory I forget?🤷🏻♂️
I don’t think we need one but I really don’t think they need more than a month to promote it, so there’s still 2 or 3 months left for it to be announced and launched in 2024, even if I did vote no.
Should we assume someone is paying Sony to do this?
Either way, seems weird to picture just Genshin Impact and not Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero as well, 3 fer 1. Though if Sammy has be seeing them in his life overseas maybe it's just a really old box design? 🤷♂️
That artwork also seems very brown, more like a mosou game than the green wide open world Breath of the Wild Zelda look I think of with Genshin.
Oh well, good for Japanese gamers who want it I suppose.
Just so we're clear, as I don't play the game, this isn't actually supposed to be Africa and South America, correct, just some fantasy ideas "based on?"
I really wouldn't expect anything MiHoYo makes to be culturally representative OF THE PLANET, just China, and I've watched way too many Chinese movies in my life and can't recall any famous African Americans or Latins.
Now if they are supposed to be representing an actual God from one of those places, a little skin color would be nice, but I don't know if it's their God or just the name? I recall there have been more than a few white folk upset seeing a Spanish guy named Jesus (FYI it's pronounced HAY-Zeus not Gee-zus) so a name alone doesn't necessarily represent a certain person.
It's a Chinese company making fantasy games for Chinese people to play on their mobile devices, it isn't the sitcom "Friends" set in NYC. I'm still worn out from that fight, don't' need any new ones, thanks.
I originally was going to give it a 6 but then I remembered it was free and I’ve been having fun for most of my 20 hours so bumped it up to a 7.
After a very great start with interesting characters, story and the potential for world building I’m now 87% done w/ chapter 1 and the past few days have just felt like a pointless grind where I’m having to actively try to seek out stuff to do. I have the 3 Hares maxed out to 20, more than half the coins, and I’ve done Soldier 11 and all available missions and VR missions. Wise just asked me to go look into finding new tapes from the namecards we got so I turned it off, wasn’t interested.
The fighting is great, I like the maze path mini game in the hollows, and I don’t even mind walking around a little bit, but I really am interested in the overarching story involving Fairy and what’s up with that, and it’s basically been forgotten. Hoping things change when I get to chapter 2.
I should say it’s my first MiHoYo game so there is way too much minutiae going on for me that hasn’t been explained. I have way too many W-engines, not sure what I need more Bangboo for and not enough Agents. I understand this is just a time waster but I don’t even know what the batteries are for, been at 400/240 for days, a million Dennie’s I rarely use, and 5,000 color forms. I think they spent too much time creating all these things that they forgot to explain what to do with them.🤷🏻♂️
Still no deals on PS5 controllers and still no cheaper 3rd party knockoffs after nearly 4 years? That’s crazy.
Anyone in the US know of a way to get another free Prime trial, I had my last 1 in December and haven’t been able to find any. Usually if I put enough various items in my cart they’ll offer me a week for $1.99 but nothing the past few days. Haven’t seen anything worth the $15 for a month yet, saving $10 on Crisis Core is about it.
Trials of Mana was good, looking forward to Visions. After Inplay Tails of Arise which I bought years ago but just haven’t got to yet. Probably going to seem lame after finishing Rebirth last night, probably need a JRPG break first,maybe GoW: R next.🤷🏻♂️
Got it working in NY by “Offloading” the app and reinstalling it on my iPad b/c I’m not really an Apple guy and I couldn’t figure out how to force stop it. 😝 My 753 points and level 3 are still in tact, not much else for me to do except play PS4/5 games. I’m so not the target audience for this.😂
"But the game does still require a PhD in free-to-play to get to grips with: a bounty of currencies, resources, skill checks, and time gates await, all filtered through a seemingly never-ending list of gameplay challenges and grinds."
As this is my first MiHoYo game I feel seen. Though Disney Speedstorm did have a ton of stuff that they narrowed down to basically only 4 things, or 5 or 6. 🤷♂️
“ Huge Genshin Impact Rival Wuthering Waves Could Be Coming to PS5, PS4 Sooner Than Expected “
I read the title and thought “Rival Wuthering Waves” was the new Genshin Impact dlc map coming out soon but coming out sooner on Sony systems. I just don’t understand why this website hates punctuation so much?😝
Disney Speedstorm did something very similar a month or so ago, the "purchase pass w/ in game currency" option was removed, you now need to pay real cash, and the season was split into 2, so 2 passes, AND, they added extra sets of single player races that have their own Vault Pass you need to buy to unlock stuff.
Have to imagine it's only a matter of time before Fornite goes this route, and I can finally stop playing. Well that or first person view, which I can't and won't do. I spent $8 on Fortnite about 3 years ago and have purchased every season pass since, plus a few extra in season ones here and there, at no extra cost. Not sure how they make so much money.🤷♂️
@AverageGamer Never played any of the Persona games so I have no concept to compare it to. My wife walked in while I was playing and she said "Astral Chain". Doesn't quite look like Astral Chain, just more of a theme being in a city and in a Hollow, which was weirder in Astral Chain. Doesn't surprise me no one on a Sony focused site would mention Astral Chain, and with ZZZ not being on Switch it won't come up there either.
It's not the same game or look, more of a vibe or feel. 🤷♂️
@AverageGamer FIVE THOUSAND?!?! So, not a small little indie then? 😂
Thanks for the reply, sent me to do some research, well if reading Wiki counts as research, about Hoyoverse, MiHoYo and Cognosphere, and well I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of it. Reddit kind of settled it well enough.
Funny thing, I thought Hoyoverse was a Chinese company but then I read they were in Singapore but then I realized MiHoyo was IS a Chinese company doing all the work and Hoyoverse was basically a front in Singapore I'm guessing so the world wouldn't associate all of these games with the Chinese government? Yeah, I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut. 😁 Cognosphere just seems like the business name for Hoyoverse.
I'm about 2 hours into ZZZ and you're correct about the lack of gameplay. I think that's the point these days though for some reason.🤷♂️ I mean look at all the life sims on Switch. This game has an "Astral Chain" vibe in which half that game was collecting empty soda bottle or some such. Boring. The lack of gameplay in ZZZ is at least mitigated somewhat by the funny anime going on. So I'm just looking at it as an interactive anime where they tell the story and they let us do the very limited fighting.
@ATaco Thanks for all of that, it certainly seems daunting. My guess is I never see the end but the story has me hooked enough - Belle is waiting to go bed the first Saturday morning after a long night - that I'll probably keep going until I can't. Playing on easy/story mode should help me get decently far. I have no desire to get every character or every character I want or desire, just what I need. Really I could probably play a 30 hour game w/ just Nicole, Anby and Billy, I don't feel the need to get anyone else. We'll see how it goes but I'm on board for now, even if I have no idea how some of the gatcha stuff works, they haven't really seemed to explain anything yet, my guess is they think everyone playing this already played something similar, which I haven't. I did manage to get my 3 mains up to level 10, 5 and 5, and I have 8 W-engine cores from doing a thing. And I do plan on redeeming all of the codes found here, so that should help a teeny bit.
Guess they aren’t giving Genshin Impact players reason to go over to ZZZ. Hoyoverse must be a really large company to have 3 of these gatcha games going at one time with all of the content they get.
So I downloaded what feels like a demo and played for about an hour. Seems like a fun little playable anime, reminds me a lot of “Astral Chain” which I’m assuming no one here has played, but I’m afraid once I need to start spending all of those currencies on whatever it will be too much for me. But so far it’s fun.
Ok most important question that all game guides should have but never do b/c some games are stupid in explaining it:
How do I save? How do I quit the game back to the title screen so I can then quit with the PS button back to the PS5 Home Screen?
So far I’ve been going into “Other” and choosing “Log Out” but I have no idea if this saves it or not, the game doesn’t ask if I’d like to save.
Also, when I log out it puts me back to the main screen and I have to watch it load data, and I’m worried if I press the PS button while it’s loading data something will inevitably get corrupted.😝
So far I’ve quit the game twice, in the video store which seemed like a safe place, and first time on the street before going to the newsstand for the first time.
Besides that it’s been a fun little anime to watch, not sure how I’ll feel when I have to start spending the numerous currencies. Reminds me abit of Astral Chain.
@Malaise "Having said that, not everything is for everyone"
49 million of the 50 million downloads were probably in Japan on mobile.😉
Oh and anime appeal is most certainly a thing in the US. My wife publishes manga and their company basically exploded over covid, they couldn't keep up w/ demand. So I do think there is something to that as well, manga, anime & video games appealing to that group.
And again it doesn't hurt how well received Genshin Impact was, and still is. Genshin has 60 million monthly players, so this 50 million is basically just all of them. Think of it like a new FIFA (now FC or whatever) or COD.
@Malaise 50 million DOWNLOADS b/c it’s free to download and start playing, so I’m guessing free is the special sauce. 😂 Probably helps that after all the good word of mouth about Genshin Impact people know about Hoyoverse now so this isn’t completely new. I played Genshin for a couple of hours but stopped b/c the voice of the sidekick was too annoying, but from what I’ve read you can basically play the entire game for free.
Some day we’ll find out something nefarious about Hoyoverse b/c all of these games are starting to seem to good to be true.🤷🏻♂️
Ugh, ok, I’ll probably give this a shot, though I prefer the Genshin Impact setting to this but the gameplay itself seems better here. I was looking for something to replace Disney Speedstorm now that they keep locking mandatory characters behind a paywall that used to be unlockable for free.😩
It’s possible I never play any of these games, I have very limited taste and about a 3 year backlog, but I am watching my kid play FF7 Rebirth and it’s really good, would be better if my kid didn’t have their “no items” rule, too many rogue likes and Souls games for that kid. 😂 So I voted for FF7R.👍
@invisibot @PuppetMaster I couldn't find the link so just went into the app on my tablet and looked in the store under "Demos" and it was the first one, but thanks. 👍
I played it, the demo, for about 30 minutes yesterday, not really to my liking. The sort of 2D but not really as they hid away half the villagers threw me off, as well, just did about everything else. 😂
This is some seriously stupid nonsense. People are running around with bionic bodies and gamers are worried about the light posts? I get it when the game is buggy and broken and all of that but if you can’t enjoy a game b/c of the lack of “reality” just don’t game and take a walk outside.
I’m not opposed to them hiring more people and making the game in America but don’t worry about the small stuff make the game playable at launch.
@PuppetMaster Thanks for the in depth comment. I don’t know anything about this game other than there’s a demo. You did make it sound a bit like the tower defense missions in Monster Hunter Rise, which I didn’t play too many of b/c that’s not why I play MH but you’ve intrigued me. Now if only I could find the link.😂
@LazyLombax I played a bunch of Destiny 2 b/c my kid plays it but I couldn't handle the platforming in first person view. My kdi said that was in part b/c I picked a character who can't double jump, like it was my fault. Anyway I don't have PS+ now so a lot of that "free" stuff is no longer free to me. And well I really just don't like any first person games.
Plucky Squire has been my number one for awhile now but Lego Horizon beats it out b/c of the couch co-op. Which also got Cat Quest 3 at number 5 as my wife and I just started CQ 2 a couple of nights ago and after a first rough night w/ too much confusion we figured it out last night and had some fun. Funko Fusion is on my list in hopes of couch co-op, though it’s admittedly looking unlike.
Wow really? My kid has spent a whole lot of money on that game the past few years for a "free to play" game. 🤑
While technically you may be correct, what % of people do you think are playing it for free and what % are paying to play the game? I know some gatcha games get by on a few "whales" paying a lot of money while others skirt free, I have like 300 hours free playing Disney Speedstorm and I pretty much have and play everything, and 500 hours in Fortnite tho I did pay $8 for a season pass over 2 years ago that I keep rolling over, so I do think there is a very big difference between free to play where you get everything, like the Hoyoverse games, and free to play like Destiny 2 where people are paying season passes to get the new content.
Guess I believe in nuance for these types of things while the industry just wants to lump them all together.
@DarianStarfrog But "different strokes for different folks" would kind of imply that all or at least most games would get an audience, b/c of the different folks having different likes, but w/ many of the live service games failing as of late it's more like "few strokes for most folks and no strokes for a lot of folks".
I mean, there seem to be almost more failures than successes.
I think I tried playing this once or twice but I could never get past the Squenix sign in despite having an account with them practically forever. MMOs aren’t really my thing so it wasn’t like a priority or anything, there’s always something else to play.
I owned an Xbox for a few months and played this and I really enjoyed it, wish it had come to a Sony console instead b/c I think the fan base would have appreciated it a whole lot more. It was a fun colorful Infamous type game w/ a wacky story.
I don't think I'd buy it again but I would play it again just to see what it was like on newer hardware.
I’m slowly beginning to realize I have no idea how the gaming industry works anymore, regarding what works and what doesn’t and which is the best monetization method.
Games like Destiny 2 and CoD that are $60 to start and then have yearly seasonal passes on top of that shouldn’t work, it’s way too much money to play a game, plus to have to pay to play online on console, when there are free to play games like Fortnite on the same console that don’t even require paying to play online. Then you have $60 live service games like Splatoon which are 4 v 4 but basically have no added expense besides the online. And then all of those Hoyoverse games. Who has time to play and pay for all of these games and how are we supposed to guess in advance what will succeed and what will fail?
So I don’t know if this will work or not, but I know I’m steering clear.🤷🏻♂️
Not playing myself but talking to my kid every day. They said they spent about 5 hours last night beating 1 boss. They didn’t seem to be complaining, just telling me about it. They’re in college and have the summer off so they have nothing but time. Don’t think they’ll complain unless they get stuck. Don’t see that happening though.
@Flaming_Kaiser I always have more than enough games to play, finding the time to play them all is the problem. And I don't think I'll have time for this.
@Chapapa "Oh the humanity!"
Humanity would mean that pic on top on the front of the video that looks like a Colorform playset on top of a Saturday morning cartoon background would resemble the game. If they like they're pixelated graphics so much why not have the tile page look like them? Maybe b/c they know more people would skip watching the video at all? 🤷♂️
Still trying to remember where I played something nearly exactly like this. Ori? Rayman? Some Nintendo game? Sans the pixels. Every time I think I want to play this I see all those pixels and then I don’t.
I wonder if the revised story has something to do with the 3 games being released in a different order? Since this was released last originally but first now maybe they are going to change some dialogue to hide a few things that will happen in the first and second games which are now the second and third games.🤷🏻♂️
Still not sure about playing these but the more I read the more it’s growing on me. Maybe when they finally release 1 & 2 (now 2 & 3) there will be a financial incentive to get them in a bundle? I bought FF7 Rebirth digitally b/c it included FF7 Remake and the Yuffie dlc at no extra cost.
@get2sammyb “here’s every game from the latest Nintendo Direct coming to Sony’s systems“
It’s possible you got a different Direct in whatever country you watched this in and from but the US version also had “Funko Fusion” in it that is coming to PS4/5 so that your list doesn’t include “every” game in the Nintendo Direct also coming to PS consoles.
You know, just in case that 1 game brings it to exactly half of the ND games coming to Sony consoles.😉
Edit: Wait, did you also leave out “Hobbit Life”? Maybe you should have waited another few hours before writing your “These Are All” article. You know, until it was all of them.😂
Comments 12,282
Re: There's Already Concern Over Concord's Player Count as Open Beta Begins
@Toot1st "Do I need a PlayStation plus membership to play the dem, Cancelled mine a while back"
I was wondering that as well. I don't play FPS so I'm not the target audience but I currently am playing 3 different online games on my PS5, Fortnite, Disney Speedstorm and Zenless Zone Zero, all for free, none of them require PS+. If this game is $40 AND you need to pay for one of the 3 currently overpriced PS+ levels, well good luck to Sony with that plan. 🤑
Re: We Find This PS5 Wishlist Issue Irrationally Irksome
I thought I just took a few games off of my Wishlist last night on my PS5 but I suppose I could be misremembering @FinneasGH Were you on the App, website, or PS5? I was on all 3 b/c I couldn't recall my password so was trying to purchase something any way possible. 😜
Edit: Just checked on my PC web browser and the games are off the list. Then it dawned on me you might have one of the PS+ levels, which I currently don't, so maybe that has something to do with it? 🤷♂️
Thought this article might be about the lack of PS app notifications. I used to get them almost weekly whenever a game on my Wishlist went on sale but I hadn't gotten one for awhile. Looked at my Wishlist last night and 2 or 3 games were on sale.
I actually bought FF8 "Remastered" (couldn't even be bothered to make it widescreen 😝) b/c it was on sale FOR ONLY 4 MORE HOURS and the FOMO got me & my wife. I told my wife we could just put our PS1 discs into our PS3 that we use to play blurays but she was like "but 3x speed", so purchased. Which I probably would have done 2 weeks ago when it went on sale but Sony never told me, which was my point.
Re: PS5 Simply Can't Match the Pace of 2023 in Europe
@NEStalgia Funny, you ninja'd in when I hit the Reply button but your long winded rant about the prices of hardware must have already been in the internet ether b/c I touched upon it a bit. I mean mostly mine reads like I'm just a cheap penny pincher but what you said was what I was getting at.😁
"Maybe Patcher was right in 2013 after all"
If you are 11 years early you aren't right, just guessing. 😉
That said, if Xbox can cloud stream it's game on those pitifully underpowered Amazon Fire TV sticks (I've changed all of mine out for Roku's) then do we really need consoles at all? Can't we just USB-C to Displayport our phones in a couple of years like we do now w/ laptops? Wireless HDMI a few years after that?
We all need $500 phones, we don't all need $500 toys. 🤷♂️
Re: PS5 Simply Can't Match the Pace of 2023 in Europe
@sanderson72 I think, and it's not a great mind blowing argument just common sense, that the US is the only place Sony competes w/ Xbox so they need to keep their prices low here, feels like everywhere else PS dominates Xbox. Maybe the UK but they can just blame that on Brexit. 😁
In Japan it's basically just Nintendo and smartphones at this point. 🤷♂️
So yeah, Sony caters to the US, but I still have to pay about 10% tax, so that $500 console costs $545, putting it a little bit more in line w/ EU prices I think.
I do miss the days of price reductions though. I understand inflation is real, but I bought my Gamecube, Nintnedo's last powerfully competitive console, when it hit $99. Not $199, just $99. PS2 for $199 I think. I mean they're really just toys to play videogames, why do they need to cost so much? A lot of people are playing HD-2D games and the like, a $199 console should be able to run those. 🤑
Anyway, I digress. 😜
Re: PS5 Simply Can't Match the Pace of 2023 in Europe
@naruball @get2sammyb Reduce the price? Didn’t Sony actually RAISE the price of the new discless version while keeping the disc version the same? After 4 years.
To point out the “prices are never going lower” factor look at controllers. 4 years after launch the $70 controller now has a few $75 colored variants, a $200 version, and several 3rd party $150 controllers, there is not one single 3rd party faux controller either by a known 3rd party like PowerA or some unknown knockoff. I’ve been looking for like a year. As I’ve taken apart 2 of my controllers to clean them to fix the drift. (Meanwhile my 2 PS4 controllers are still perfect after a decade.)
I’m honestly surprised there hasn’t been a “collusion” lawsuit in the US over the lack of 3rd party controllers, that’s how strange this is to me. A year or 2 okay, takes companies awhile to reverse engineer things, but 4 years and no $40 or $50 cheap knockoffs? That’s not normal.
Re: Doubt Cast Over PS5 Pro Actually Releasing This Year
I don’t think a Pro needs more than a months notice between announcement and launch otherwise you are just hurting sales of the current pair of models. Or is it considered 1 model sold with or without an accessory I forget?🤷🏻♂️
I don’t think we need one but I really don’t think they need more than a month to promote it, so there’s still 2 or 3 months left for it to be announced and launched in 2024, even if I did vote no.
Re: Amazon's Excellent Fallout TV Adaptation Up for 16 Emmy Awards
Not a fan of the games, thought the show was really good. Walton Goggins Ghoul was Boyd Crowder zombified, which is about as good as it gets.
Re: Free-to-Play Phenomenon Genshin Impact Gets Its Own PS5 Console Bundle in Japan
Should we assume someone is paying Sony to do this?
Either way, seems weird to picture just Genshin Impact and not Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero as well, 3 fer 1. Though if Sammy has be seeing them in his life overseas maybe it's just a really old box design? 🤷♂️
That artwork also seems very brown, more like a mosou game than the green wide open world Breath of the Wild Zelda look I think of with Genshin.
Oh well, good for Japanese gamers who want it I suppose.
Re: Sea of Stars Dev Offers Brief Update on Story DLC, Co-Op Mode
Skipped this one, would probably buy if it gets couch co-op though.👍
Re: Genshin Impact Fan Frustration Boils Over As Backlash Goes Viral
Just so we're clear, as I don't play the game, this isn't actually supposed to be Africa and South America, correct, just some fantasy ideas "based on?"
I really wouldn't expect anything MiHoYo makes to be culturally representative OF THE PLANET, just China, and I've watched way too many Chinese movies in my life and can't recall any famous African Americans or Latins.
Now if they are supposed to be representing an actual God from one of those places, a little skin color would be nice, but I don't know if it's their God or just the name? I recall there have been more than a few white folk upset seeing a Spanish guy named Jesus (FYI it's pronounced HAY-Zeus not Gee-zus) so a name alone doesn't necessarily represent a certain person.
It's a Chinese company making fantasy games for Chinese people to play on their mobile devices, it isn't the sitcom "Friends" set in NYC. I'm still worn out from that fight, don't' need any new ones, thanks.
https://www.wmagazine.com/story/friends-co-creator-marta-kauffman-regrets-white-legacy-90s-sitcom
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Zenless Zone Zero?
I originally was going to give it a 6 but then I remembered it was free and I’ve been having fun for most of my 20 hours so bumped it up to a 7.
After a very great start with interesting characters, story and the potential for world building I’m now 87% done w/ chapter 1 and the past few days have just felt like a pointless grind where I’m having to actively try to seek out stuff to do. I have the 3 Hares maxed out to 20, more than half the coins, and I’ve done Soldier 11 and all available missions and VR missions. Wise just asked me to go look into finding new tapes from the namecards we got so I turned it off, wasn’t interested.
The fighting is great, I like the maze path mini game in the hollows, and I don’t even mind walking around a little bit, but I really am interested in the overarching story involving Fairy and what’s up with that, and it’s basically been forgotten. Hoping things change when I get to chapter 2.
I should say it’s my first MiHoYo game so there is way too much minutiae going on for me that hasn’t been explained. I have way too many W-engines, not sure what I need more Bangboo for and not enough Agents. I understand this is just a time waster but I don’t even know what the batteries are for, been at 400/240 for days, a million Dennie’s I rarely use, and 5,000 color forms. I think they spent too much time creating all these things that they forgot to explain what to do with them.🤷🏻♂️
Re: Amazon Prime Day 2024 - Best Deals on PS5 and PS4 Games, Controllers, SSDs, 4K TVs, and More
Still no deals on PS5 controllers and still no cheaper 3rd party knockoffs after nearly 4 years? That’s crazy.
Anyone in the US know of a way to get another free Prime trial, I had my last 1 in December and haven’t been able to find any. Usually if I put enough various items in my cart they’ll offer me a week for $1.99 but nothing the past few days. Haven’t seen anything worth the $15 for a month yet, saving $10 on Crisis Core is about it.
Re: 13 More PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Are Available to Download Now
Might play Crisis Core, kid just finished Rebirth last night, if I can find a free trial, guessing I’d only need a week.
Re: PS Plus Extra Loses Five More PS5, PS4 Games in August
Thanks for putting Extra in the title.👍
Trials of Mana was good, looking forward to Visions. After Inplay Tails of Arise which I bought years ago but just haven’t got to yet. Probably going to seem lame after finishing Rebirth last night, probably need a JRPG break first,maybe GoW: R next.🤷🏻♂️
Re: PS Stars Finally Coming Back Online in North and South America
Got it working in NY by “Offloading” the app and reinstalling it on my iPad b/c I’m not really an Apple guy and I couldn’t figure out how to force stop it. 😝 My 753 points and level 3 are still in tact, not much else for me to do except play PS4/5 games. I’m so not the target audience for this.😂
Re: Zenless Zone Zero (PS5) - Characterful Character Action Makes for Another Gacha Great
"But the game does still require a PhD in free-to-play to get to grips with: a bounty of currencies, resources, skill checks, and time gates await, all filtered through a seemingly never-ending list of gameplay challenges and grinds."
As this is my first MiHoYo game I feel seen. Though Disney Speedstorm did have a ton of stuff that they narrowed down to basically only 4 things, or 5 or 6. 🤷♂️
Re: Huge Genshin Impact Rival Wuthering Waves Could Be Coming to PS5, PS4 Sooner Than Expected
“ Huge Genshin Impact Rival Wuthering Waves Could Be Coming to PS5, PS4 Sooner Than Expected “
I read the title and thought “Rival Wuthering Waves” was the new Genshin Impact dlc map coming out soon but coming out sooner on Sony systems. I just don’t understand why this website hates punctuation so much?😝
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/07/celebrate-the-summer-with-massive-new-open-world-map-in-genshin-impact-on-ps5-ps4
Huge “Genshin Impact” Rival “Wuthering Waves” Could Be Coming to PS5, PS4 Sooner Than Expected
No one is ever going to convince me it isn’t easier to read that way.🤷🏻♂️
Re: Apex Legends Demands More Cash in New, Dodgy Battle Pass Strategy
Disney Speedstorm did something very similar a month or so ago, the "purchase pass w/ in game currency" option was removed, you now need to pay real cash, and the season was split into 2, so 2 passes, AND, they added extra sets of single player races that have their own Vault Pass you need to buy to unlock stuff.
Have to imagine it's only a matter of time before Fornite goes this route, and I can finally stop playing. Well that or first person view, which I can't and won't do. I spent $8 on Fortnite about 3 years ago and have purchased every season pass since, plus a few extra in season ones here and there, at no extra cost. Not sure how they make so much money.🤷♂️
Re: Celebrate the Summer with Massive New Open World Map in Genshin Impact on PS5, PS4
@AverageGamer Never played any of the Persona games so I have no concept to compare it to. My wife walked in while I was playing and she said "Astral Chain". Doesn't quite look like Astral Chain, just more of a theme being in a city and in a Hollow, which was weirder in Astral Chain. Doesn't surprise me no one on a Sony focused site would mention Astral Chain, and with ZZZ not being on Switch it won't come up there either.
It's not the same game or look, more of a vibe or feel. 🤷♂️
Re: Celebrate the Summer with Massive New Open World Map in Genshin Impact on PS5, PS4
@AverageGamer FIVE THOUSAND?!?! So, not a small little indie then? 😂
Thanks for the reply, sent me to do some research, well if reading Wiki counts as research, about Hoyoverse, MiHoYo and Cognosphere, and well I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of it. Reddit kind of settled it well enough.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/18y2zw5/mihoyo_vs_hoyoverse_vs_cognosphere_what_exactly/
Funny thing, I thought Hoyoverse was a Chinese company but then I read they were in Singapore but then I realized MiHoyo was IS a Chinese company doing all the work and Hoyoverse was basically a front in Singapore I'm guessing so the world wouldn't associate all of these games with the Chinese government? Yeah, I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut. 😁 Cognosphere just seems like the business name for Hoyoverse.
I'm about 2 hours into ZZZ and you're correct about the lack of gameplay. I think that's the point these days though for some reason.🤷♂️ I mean look at all the life sims on Switch. This game has an "Astral Chain" vibe in which half that game was collecting empty soda bottle or some such. Boring. The lack of gameplay in ZZZ is at least mitigated somewhat by the funny anime going on. So I'm just looking at it as an interactive anime where they tell the story and they let us do the very limited fighting.
Re: Gacha Sensation Zenless Zone Zero Surpasses 50 Million Downloads Across All Platforms
@ATaco Thanks for all of that, it certainly seems daunting. My guess is I never see the end but the story has me hooked enough - Belle is waiting to go bed the first Saturday morning after a long night - that I'll probably keep going until I can't. Playing on easy/story mode should help me get decently far. I have no desire to get every character or every character I want or desire, just what I need. Really I could probably play a 30 hour game w/ just Nicole, Anby and Billy, I don't feel the need to get anyone else. We'll see how it goes but I'm on board for now, even if I have no idea how some of the gatcha stuff works, they haven't really seemed to explain anything yet, my guess is they think everyone playing this already played something similar, which I haven't. I did manage to get my 3 mains up to level 10, 5 and 5, and I have 8 W-engine cores from doing a thing. And I do plan on redeeming all of the codes found here, so that should help a teeny bit.
https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/zenless-zone-zero-all-codes-and-how-to-use-them
ZZZFREE100 - 300 Polychromes, 30,000 Dennies, 2 Senior Investigator Logs, 3 W-Engine Modules (Expires 12th July)
ZENLESSLAUNCH - 50 Polychromes, 2 Official Investigator Logs, 1 Bangboo Algorithm Module, 3 W-Engine Power Supplies, 12,666 Dennies
ZZZ2024 - 50 Polychromes, 6,000 Dennies
ZENLESSGIFT - 60 Polychromes, 6,666 Dennies.
Re: Celebrate the Summer with Massive New Open World Map in Genshin Impact on PS5, PS4
Guess they aren’t giving Genshin Impact players reason to go over to ZZZ. Hoyoverse must be a really large company to have 3 of these gatcha games going at one time with all of the content they get.
Re: Gacha Sensation Zenless Zone Zero Surpasses 50 Million Downloads Across All Platforms
So I downloaded what feels like a demo and played for about an hour. Seems like a fun little playable anime, reminds me a lot of “Astral Chain” which I’m assuming no one here has played, but I’m afraid once I need to start spending all of those currencies on whatever it will be too much for me. But so far it’s fun.
Re: Zenless Zone Zero: All Codes and How to Use Them
Ok most important question that all game guides should have but never do b/c some games are stupid in explaining it:
How do I save?
How do I quit the game back to the title screen so I can then quit with the PS button back to the PS5 Home Screen?
So far I’ve been going into “Other” and choosing “Log Out” but I have no idea if this saves it or not, the game doesn’t ask if I’d like to save.
Also, when I log out it puts me back to the main screen and I have to watch it load data, and I’m worried if I press the PS button while it’s loading data something will inevitably get corrupted.😝
So far I’ve quit the game twice, in the video store which seemed like a safe place, and first time on the street before going to the newsstand for the first time.
Besides that it’s been a fun little anime to watch, not sure how I’ll feel when I have to start spending the numerous currencies. Reminds me abit of Astral Chain.
Re: Gacha Sensation Zenless Zone Zero Surpasses 50 Million Downloads Across All Platforms
@Malaise "Having said that, not everything is for everyone"
49 million of the 50 million downloads were probably in Japan on mobile.😉
Oh and anime appeal is most certainly a thing in the US. My wife publishes manga and their company basically exploded over covid, they couldn't keep up w/ demand. So I do think there is something to that as well, manga, anime & video games appealing to that group.
And again it doesn't hurt how well received Genshin Impact was, and still is. Genshin has 60 million monthly players, so this 50 million is basically just all of them. Think of it like a new FIFA (now FC or whatever) or COD.
https://www.charlieintel.com/games/how-many-people-play-genshin-impact-player-count-190314/
Re: Gacha Sensation Zenless Zone Zero Surpasses 50 Million Downloads Across All Platforms
@Malaise 50 million DOWNLOADS b/c it’s free to download and start playing, so I’m guessing free is the special sauce. 😂 Probably helps that after all the good word of mouth about Genshin Impact people know about Hoyoverse now so this isn’t completely new. I played Genshin for a couple of hours but stopped b/c the voice of the sidekick was too annoying, but from what I’ve read you can basically play the entire game for free.
Some day we’ll find out something nefarious about Hoyoverse b/c all of these games are starting to seem to good to be true.🤷🏻♂️
Re: Gacha Sensation Zenless Zone Zero Surpasses 50 Million Downloads Across All Platforms
Ugh, ok, I’ll probably give this a shot, though I prefer the Genshin Impact setting to this but the gameplay itself seems better here. I was looking for something to replace Disney Speedstorm now that they keep locking mandatory characters behind a paywall that used to be unlockable for free.😩
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Zenless Zone Zero?
This seems like a good game for me to start in the dead of winter when I don’t want to leave my house.
Re: Talking Point: What's Your PS5 Game of the Year for 2024 So Far?
It’s possible I never play any of these games, I have very limited taste and about a 3 year backlog, but I am watching my kid play FF7 Rebirth and it’s really good, would be better if my kid didn’t have their “no items” rule, too many rogue likes and Souls games for that kid. 😂 So I voted for FF7R.👍
Re: Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Demo Out Now on PS5, PS4
@invisibot @PuppetMaster I couldn't find the link so just went into the app on my tablet and looked in the store under "Demos" and it was the first one, but thanks. 👍
I played it, the demo, for about 30 minutes yesterday, not really to my liking. The sort of 2D but not really as they hid away half the villagers threw me off, as well, just did about everything else. 😂
Re: CDPR Says Boston-Based Dev Studio Will Make Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel More Authentically American
This is some seriously stupid nonsense. People are running around with bionic bodies and gamers are worried about the light posts? I get it when the game is buggy and broken and all of that but if you can’t enjoy a game b/c of the lack of “reality” just don’t game and take a walk outside.
I’m not opposed to them hiring more people and making the game in America but don’t worry about the small stuff make the game playable at launch.
Re: Feature: Push Square Readers' 20 Most Anticipated PS5 Games for the Second Half of 2024
Hope Team Asante finds out about this poll.👍
Re: Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Demo Out Now on PS5, PS4
@PuppetMaster Thanks for the in depth comment. I don’t know anything about this game other than there’s a demo. You did make it sound a bit like the tower defense missions in Monster Hunter Rise, which I didn’t play too many of b/c that’s not why I play MH but you’ve intrigued me. Now if only I could find the link.😂
Re: Zenless Zone Zero PS5 Will Get You Started with 100 Free Gacha Pulls
“ Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse “
All this time I thought the name of the company was just “Hoyo” making all of these games “Hoyoverse”. Too many superheroe movies I guess. 😁
Also, what @XanderTigerclaw said. All the currency names scared me off.😂
Re: Round Up: Concord PS5 Previews Seem Torn on Sony's New Shooter
@LazyLombax "Although you could just equipped a sword and play in third person while platforming to make it easier on yourself"
My kid, nor anyone else, has ever mentioned that to me. Thanks. If I ever give it a shot again I'll be sure to do that. 👍
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for July 2024?
I’m part of the 2% that doesn’t have PS+ so that’s how I voted but these games do make me happy that I’m not paying for it. 😁
Re: Round Up: Concord PS5 Previews Seem Torn on Sony's New Shooter
@LazyLombax I played a bunch of Destiny 2 b/c my kid plays it but I couldn't handle the platforming in first person view. My kdi said that was in part b/c I picked a character who can't double jump, like it was my fault. Anyway I don't have PS+ now so a lot of that "free" stuff is no longer free to me. And well I really just don't like any first person games.
Congrats on not spending any money.👍
Re: Talking Point: What's Your Most Anticipated PS5 Game for the Second Half of 2024?
Plucky Squire has been my number one for awhile now but Lego Horizon beats it out b/c of the couch co-op. Which also got Cat Quest 3 at number 5 as my wife and I just started CQ 2 a couple of nights ago and after a first rough night w/ too much confusion we figured it out last night and had some fun. Funko Fusion is on my list in hopes of couch co-op, though it’s admittedly looking unlike.
So that’s my Sony 5.
Lego Horizon
Plucky Squire
Cat Quest 3
Astrobot
Funko Fusion maybe
2024 is my year of AA games I guess.
Re: Round Up: Concord PS5 Previews Seem Torn on Sony's New Shooter
@LazyLombax "D2 is F2P"
Wow really? My kid has spent a whole lot of money on that game the past few years for a "free to play" game. 🤑
While technically you may be correct, what % of people do you think are playing it for free and what % are paying to play the game? I know some gatcha games get by on a few "whales" paying a lot of money while others skirt free, I have like 300 hours free playing Disney Speedstorm and I pretty much have and play everything, and 500 hours in Fortnite tho I did pay $8 for a season pass over 2 years ago that I keep rolling over, so I do think there is a very big difference between free to play where you get everything, like the Hoyoverse games, and free to play like Destiny 2 where people are paying season passes to get the new content.
Guess I believe in nuance for these types of things while the industry just wants to lump them all together.
@DarianStarfrog But "different strokes for different folks" would kind of imply that all or at least most games would get an audience, b/c of the different folks having different likes, but w/ many of the live service games failing as of late it's more like "few strokes for most folks and no strokes for a lot of folks".
I mean, there seem to be almost more failures than successes.
https://gamingbolt.com/15-live-service-games-that-were-complete-failures
Re: Dragon's Dogma 2 Gets a Free Trial for a Limited Time on PS5
May give it a go, kinda between games at the moment. Thanks for the advice about the character creator.
Re: Final Fantasy 14's In-Universe Tural Tourism Board Invites You to Take a Tropical Holiday
I think I tried playing this once or twice but I could never get past the Squenix sign in despite having an account with them practically forever. MMOs aren’t really my thing so it wasn’t like a priority or anything, there’s always something else to play.
Re: Sunset Overdrive PS5 Port Not Happening, Insomniac's Too 'Busy'
I owned an Xbox for a few months and played this and I really enjoyed it, wish it had come to a Sony console instead b/c I think the fan base would have appreciated it a whole lot more. It was a fun colorful Infamous type game w/ a wacky story.
I don't think I'd buy it again but I would play it again just to see what it was like on newer hardware.
Re: Round Up: Concord PS5 Previews Seem Torn on Sony's New Shooter
I’m slowly beginning to realize I have no idea how the gaming industry works anymore, regarding what works and what doesn’t and which is the best monetization method.
Games like Destiny 2 and CoD that are $60 to start and then have yearly seasonal passes on top of that shouldn’t work, it’s way too much money to play a game, plus to have to pay to play online on console, when there are free to play games like Fortnite on the same console that don’t even require paying to play online. Then you have $60 live service games like Splatoon which are 4 v 4 but basically have no added expense besides the online. And then all of those Hoyoverse games. Who has time to play and pay for all of these games and how are we supposed to guess in advance what will succeed and what will fail?
So I don’t know if this will work or not, but I know I’m steering clear.🤷🏻♂️
Re: Broken, Battered Elden Ring Players Review Bomb Shadow of the Erdtree for Being Too Hard
Not playing myself but talking to my kid every day. They said they spent about 5 hours last night beating 1 boss. They didn’t seem to be complaining, just telling me about it. They’re in college and have the summer off so they have nothing but time. Don’t think they’ll complain unless they get stuck. Don’t see that happening though.
Re: Indie Gem Pepper Grinder Confirmed for PS5 and PS4, Out in August
@Flaming_Kaiser I always have more than enough games to play, finding the time to play them all is the problem. And I don't think I'll have time for this.
@Chapapa "Oh the humanity!"
Humanity would mean that pic on top on the front of the video that looks like a Colorform playset on top of a Saturday morning cartoon background would resemble the game. If they like they're pixelated graphics so much why not have the tile page look like them? Maybe b/c they know more people would skip watching the video at all? 🤷♂️
Re: Indie Gem Pepper Grinder Confirmed for PS5 and PS4, Out in August
Still trying to remember where I played something nearly exactly like this. Ori? Rayman? Some Nintendo game? Sans the pixels. Every time I think I want to play this I see all those pixels and then I don’t.
Re: Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake Has a 'Revised' Story, PS5 Performance Mode, and New Difficulty Levels
I wonder if the revised story has something to do with the 3 games being released in a different order? Since this was released last originally but first now maybe they are going to change some dialogue to hide a few things that will happen in the first and second games which are now the second and third games.🤷🏻♂️
Still not sure about playing these but the more I read the more it’s growing on me. Maybe when they finally release 1 & 2 (now 2 & 3) there will be a financial incentive to get them in a bundle? I bought FF7 Rebirth digitally b/c it included FF7 Remake and the Yuffie dlc at no extra cost.
Re: Preview: Tales of the Shire Lets You Live a Homely Hobbit Life Set Before Lord of the Rings
Someone needs to mod some Little Orphan Annie skins over this and have all the Hobbits walking around singing
🎶 It’s a Hobbit’s life, for us.
It’s a Hobbit’s life, for us!” 🎶
Re: These Are All the PS5, PS4 Announcements from the Latest Nintendo Direct
@get2sammyb “here’s every game from the latest Nintendo Direct coming to Sony’s systems“
It’s possible you got a different Direct in whatever country you watched this in and from but the US version also had “Funko Fusion” in it that is coming to PS4/5 so that your list doesn’t include “every” game in the Nintendo Direct also coming to PS consoles.
https://www.funkofusion.com/
You know, just in case that 1 game brings it to exactly half of the ND games coming to Sony consoles.😉
Edit: Wait, did you also leave out “Hobbit Life”? Maybe you should have waited another few hours before writing your “These Are All” article. You know, until it was all of them.😂
Re: Fairy Tail 2 Brings the Anime Franchise Back as an Action RPG on PS5, PS4 This Year
Thanks for linking to the first game, had never heard of it and the 2 threw me off.
That is a lot buttons in that HUD though, maybe not for me. Well maybe for me, but too many other games to play instead.