@REALAIS Gameplay is certainly solid, just with the story and level design were a bit better. I think the controversy would’ve been skipped if those two things were a little tighter.
Man, I wish they had kids clothes. My son’s Astro Bot t-shirt is getting small from a few years back and he’s defiantly still wearing it because he loves it. Time to give it to his sister, but he totally needs a new one. Redbubble again perhaps? But… as for me… maybe these are for me… on a Black Friday sale because yikes those prices.
It sounds like I won’t be the only person in my friends group using my PS5 all the time then! Lol. It’s seriously sort of a ghost town on there this generation. The last time I saw most everyone playing something, it was Final Fantasy Rebirth and before that, Final Fantasy 16, and before that probably Horizon/Elden Ring. It’s been a weird generation to see so many people switch to PC or go dormant outside massive releases (or worse… turn into casuals!). Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding will get that ever wanted by execs “player engagement” they’re seeking.
@LiamOliver @REALAIS Astro Bot is vintage Sony, so yes it is my preference, but also, just taking OpenCritic scores: Astro Bot 95, Stellar Blade 82, and Spider Man 2 90. By aggregate scores, Astro Bot is the best performing game of that bunch. Yes, while I’ve got a preference toward it as well, it was also critically placed above the other two games, so there’s a bit of data to back up that it’s critical consensus places it as a “better game.” Of course, it’s all perspective. Personally, I think Stellar Blade’s better than Spider Man 2, despite the critical score difference, though I do feel both games were overrated as well. Both solid games, just not new classics.
That’s excellent! For what it’s worth, Astro Bot is a far better game than Spider Man 2 and Stellar Blade. I know a handful of people that have bought only the Final Fantasy games and Astro Bot the past two years and have otherwise moved on to PC gaming, so I think Sony should look at Astro with the perception that this kind of game brings people in. Good games get people on your console, plain and simple.
@SuperSilverback Yeah, I think the story, characters, and just all around world of the game have been 9/10 tier, but traversal and combat are sort of… basically signs of this being a AA release with a lower budget and definitely more or less 6/10 or 7/10 tier, so I think I agree with you that it’s an 8/10, but an 8/10 that I’m biased toward. As of right now, I’ve got it at #5 on my top 10 list for the year, right between Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Life is Strange: Double Exposure. I sort of feel like it’s staying there for now, but if I end up liking the story more, I may put it above PoP, even if I’d say that one’s a 9/10. I like it more than most games that got nominated for GotY for Golden Joysticks for sure. It’s sort of the type of game I feel like is missing in the industry these days. Sure, it’s got some issues, but, man, it’s got some really interesting things going on that feel really fresh.
I had preordered it, based on me loving the studio’s games, but just never started it, and now I’m questioning why I didn’t play it already. After Silent Hill 2, which was more stressful than fun for me, Banishers honestly feels like exactly the type of game I’ve been wanting to play all year.
@NEStalgia Yeah, the two statements don’t quite line-up unless he was forced to rush projects out the door. It’s possible. The free DLC in Astro Bot may have been cut and slowly added to get it out this year (and there’s clearly a second wave, based on how the map is laid out). Concord’s marketing made no sense too. The beta was launched with little fanfare with a release date so close that they wouldn’t realistically have time to react to the beta. It suggests to me that either Hulst didn’t actually feel like it was “the next Star Wars” or he pushed it out the gate because other things could not be rushed through or needed more incubation. I suspect Sony may have sacrificed Concord for Fairgame$ and Marathon (and Herman’s baby the Horizon MMO) because they felt it was least likely to actually hit GoW numbers, but I’m sure it flopped harder than they ever imagined it could. Topping Atari’s ET is sort of an achievement in its own right. I don’t think Concord deserved that fate. I do wish Suicide Squad would’ve had that honor. My friend group was sort of waiting for Concord’s numbers to improve to buy it, honestly. I feel like the internet killed the game and the rest of us that were casually interested didn’t jump because it looked poised to die and we didn’t want to lose money. For the record, I agree with Pushsquare’s review for the game basically verbatim.
I still wonder if Abandoned was a Kojima project that literally existed to be Abandoned. There’s so much about it that doesn’t make sense. If it was an authentic hoax, there’s egg on the face for everyone in Sony that is connected to it. And that’s a lot of people. If it was a marketing experiment, however, it was brilliant.
@TrannosaurusBex @SuperSilverback I’m quite enjoying Banishers. I beat The Beast last night. It’s a strange game, in that, being AA, I have no idea how deep I am into the game. Feels like I should be farther than a first boss, but also feels like I’m still at the surface. But it’s also sort of a game you soak in rather than rush through. I’m quite enjoying it. I do suspect it will be in my top 5 at year’s end. That said, I can’t believe the Golden Joysticks snubbed Red and Antea for best actor in a game! Easily some of the best voice acting in the industry. Easily. Best I’ve seen this year for sure.
For LiS, Don’t Nod only did the first one and LiS2. Square owns the IP and they’ve got the studio Deck Nine making the games now. There’s subtle differences between the studios’ approach to the series, but the series is still well made. It’s a series that you’re better off NOT looking at reviews because all of them have reviewed in the 70s at launch by mostly reviewers that usually aren’t fans of the series, as most people only played the first one, except True Colors, which hit the low 80s at launch. It’s a great series for those that love it. It’s my wife’s favorite game series, for sure, and it’s one of mine. Her favorite is LiS2 and mine is True Colors. The only one we thought was iffy was Before the Storm, which honestly feels like fanbait DLC. We just finished Double Exposure last week and agreed it was better than reviews gave it credit for, but also not the best in the series. I would recommend downloading Captain Spirit and giving that a shot. It’s like a demo for the second game, but it’s with a character that isn’t the main character from the game. It’s a really well crafted little freebie. Many other studios would have made something like that and it would have been DLC.
Also, I highly recommend Jusant. It’s just so incredibly unique. If you like the mountain scaling in BotW, for instance, you’ll like this. It’s a short game, but it’s so well done it doesn’t matter. It’s honestly one of those games that has replay value because it’s fun to play and so unique. Well, for me, anyway!
I hope Don’t Nod keeps going. I absolutely love the games they make. I’m playing Banishers right now (and really liking it and smacking myself for taking so long to get to it, despite preordering the game), in fact, and can’t wait to preorder Lost Records, having finished Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Remember Me is a hidden gem as is Vampyr, and Jusant was one of the best games to ever launch on Gamepass. This is a team that makes great games and they deserve to continue to do so.
@NEStalgia Aye, that is likely true, as much as I appreciate his support for Kojima, but perhaps his support comes from his being unaware what gamers want. Though, the curious thing about Concord and Hulst is that it was stated by him that PS did not have a large release this year, and, as such, was his belief in Concord distorted by the media perhaps? Or, even more baffling, was he truly so oblivious to how Astro Bot would be received? Surely he couldn’t been so removed from reality as to notice Astro Bot’s potential to be the best first party release yet of the PS5 generation! Modern PlayStation is such a confusing place and I suspect that’s mostly Hulst’s doing.
You know, this confusion is bringing me back to Abandoned. Remember when Sony directly advertised that wisp of nothing and gave them a platform only for no one in Sony to know anything about the project other than they marketed it, only for it to vanish after it was the most viral story in gaming for half a year? In fact, Abandoned, if I remember correctly received more views than the games shown off for E3 or the Game Awards, whichever it was, when they were doing that whole teaser nonsense. How bizarre that was that Sony could be so out of touch that they gave that press. Unless there’s still something we don’t know, of course, but that’s hard to believe when they implied the execs themselves know nothing!
@rjejr The Z movies are almost uniformly awful if you don’t have a heavy dose of nostalgia. In fact, in some ways, the Z anime can be quite awful too. For the Z era movies, I’d say Wrath of the Dragon is easily the best of that bunch with Fusion Reborn being second (unless you count the GT era remake of early DB, Path to Power) and then you’re going from movies that are straight up derivative to a cliff dive in content. The first Broly movie is ok, but the other two are toward the bottom of the cliff. Super Broly, however, is Toriyama’s version of Broly and, honestly, could be the best of the films, even better than Super Hero. It takes the most overrated character to come from the franchise and frames him into a sympathetic character that can’t cope with the power within him, a monster against his will. And the great thing is that Toriyama himself worked on most facets of the film, including character designs, storyboarding, and the script. Broly and Super Hero are reportedly the deepest he had ever worked on the franchise in all aspects, even more than OG DB and Z, as he was too busy writing the manga to contribute to the anime in any meaningful way.
@GeeForce Sega right now would rival Nintendo more than when they did rival them. With the way their games sell, I almost think people might want what they’re selling more than current Sony and Microsoft.
@NEStalgia I still think Concord could’ve gotten better than what it was. It was sent to die, but shoot… toss a campaign on there (something Herman used to do better than mp) or even a live service version of a campaign and little minigames or whatever and they would’ve given people an opportunity to meet the characters and get to like them… maybe? Redfall was just sort of poorly made and you can tell Arkane Austin wasn’t interested in the project. If they would’ve change focus on Redfall to what the staff liked, I’d bet you the game would’ve turned out better, even though it would’ve had typical brain dead Bethesda AI.
I really don’t think Herman was ready for the position, which might be why they split it, but he really didn’t get much in the way of results. With gaming though, it takes so long to see results that it’s impossible to guess who will have success or not now. Some games take over a decade to make now and it’s a huge risk. It was certainly different in Layden era in a lot of different ways, so the people that had success it was obvious. Herman had success for Guerilla, though it never became the Halo killer it was promised to be. Perhaps that was the first red flag for Hulst, huh?
I love Splatoon and I definitely think of that, but it’s similar sort of like how Mirror’s Edge is similar to Wipeout. Man, JSR though… that’s the diamond in the Sega treasure chest.
@NEStalgia With how quickly they churn out games, if they made Yakuza, Sonic, and Atlus games exclusive (among their other franchise), a lot of the most vocal console critics would be dropping their PlayStations and Xboxes for a new Sega console for sure.
To be fair, Wukong needed this. It’s a really pretty game at times, but it runs rough in some places too with some issues that are borderline game ruining like input lag. I’m hoping the Pro isn’t a bandaid for games that release in a less than optimal state.
I’m hoping reviews are still made for base PS5 and the Pro is used for consulting
The rise of AI hasn’t seemingly improved the rate at which developers create games or made the quality of them any better.
I wish all these tech firms would just be honest and say they’re looking to reduce their work staff and generate more profit by having AI replace real jobs without the intention of actually making anything better. It sounds scummy, but it’s honest. I can trust honest more than I can trust meaded words.
Seems like there’s faint praise, but it’s a non-essential upgrade. I’ll wait for PS6… if there’s a gaming line-up worth having for that console. The odd thing about this generation is that “graphics” have hardly felt like a focus at all, so I am glad that the Pro is at least bringing visual fidelity back into the discussion this generation. Hopefully solid performance will be back in the discussion now too.
@NEStalgia The Redfall vs Concord comparison is so interesting to me because of Xbox’s reaction vs Sony’s reaction. Phil Spencer looked gutted and confused about Redfall, but seemed apologetic and like he genuinely needed to do some learning. Meanwhile, the response to Concord from Hulst was incredibly cold from a guy that apparently championed the studio. It could be changing times in the industry, but it also felt really different.
I think Jimbo enabled Hulst for sure, but I think Sony jumped to promoting him too soon as well. It’s hard to establish exactly when Hulst transitioned from approving games in Sony and working on Guerilla primarily while also working with the existing studios. By some accounts, it looks like Dreams may have been the first game he greenlit into production, which is interesting. He definitely took a different approach. Interesting too that Sony didn’t trust him enough to actually replace Jim, but for him to do half of what Jim did.
I definitely agree that this is the best Sega has potentially ever been (though, man, was Sega’s output in the Saturn era underrated). Puyo Puyo Tetris is so good it’s hard to put into words. Sonic Frontiers is my favorite Sonic game. I loved their Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog project, strange as it was. Some people love Yakuza and Atlus games with a passion that is now usually unseen in gaming nowadays, even if neither series is for me. I was a Nintendo guy back in the 90’s, but I’m loving what Sega is doing nowadays. I mean, even Super Monkey Ball had a decent game recently and Jet Grind Radio is coming back (and Crazy Taxi, two of the most off-kilter, weird Sega properties that I love). They just seem to be getting better and smarter. I almost expect a new Virtua Fighter game to get dropped that tops Tekken 8 at this point.
@NEStalgia Sony really needs to remember that Nintendo followed the Wii, the console practically all non-gamers owned, with the WiiU, the console even Nintendo diehards didn’t buy. No one is immune to the fickle industry. Even Xbox was previously ahead of PS at one point two generations ago and they flopped massively with the Xbone reveal. Truly, if we move past an exclusive based ecosystem, I do think people may move past the next PS for a more affordable option. If the Switch 2 and Nextbox give the gaming consumer what they want, I don’t believe for a second that people will remain hooked on PS for their existing digital libraries. I think, more than ever, gamers are largely fickle enough to jump ship for convenience and access now.
That said, I think they’re aware of this and is largely the reason for the live service initiative. If they had a Fortnite that was “only on PlayStation,” that’s a secured future for the console. But I sometimes think they forgot that the PS2-4 generations established some qualities that PS gamers now desire and want and frankly expect now. As much as Xbox had a mutiny, Sony fans are more vocally complaining right now. I mean, the Sony fanboys basically killed Concord. It’s not like Concord was the mess Redfall was. Concord was a completely serviceable and well made if bland Overwatch competitor whereas Redfall releasing was truly baffling. Yeah, it flopped, but it didn’t beat ET. The Xbots are at least still largely loyal whereas I do believe the Sony Bros are ready to jump to PC. I think you’re absolutely right that they’ve set themselves up to be undercut without knowing it. The artsy games, the cinematic linear games, it all adds to an ecosystem’s feel, and Sony’s abandoning that. It seems that Sony’s gone silent too, which doesn’t help. Not even Yoshi P’s making much sound these days.
I only have sympathy for Jimbo in that he was given a lot of noise from Hulst that directed his decisions. Honestly, most of his reign as head of PS was solid, not far off in quality from Layden, though the tail end got rough. But again the Sony fanboys abandoned him, just as they already are doing to Hulst.
Sega’s success now is quite interesting to me. I’m not a huge Sega fan, myself, as Puyo Puyo is my favorite Sega franchise and most of the big ones right now aren’t for me (Yakuza, Persona). I am happy to see Sonic NOT be a joke though. 10 years ago, I’d not have believed his renaissance.
@riceNpea Truth be told, I’m going to try Black Ops 6, but it’s definitely not the draw for me. Honestly, Gamepass looks solid this month. Not sure what the brain trust was thinking at Xbox to literally put everything of interest on the console out after GotY season starts for most platforms, but hey that’s alright with me! Nine Sols, Flight Sim, Stalker, Indy, Metal Slug, and even CoD make for a solid value on the service for once. I totally get it if the subs spike end of year for Xbox. It’s good value. I’ve been pretty harsh on Gamepass for maybe two, three years now, so I’ll admit that they’re trying to do better end of year at least.
@VaultGuy415 You’ve got me there! I’m not super familiar with the series. I’m a big Capcom fan, so I try with the series, but it’s not clicked with me. I believe Wilds would be the first Capcom game this generation that I wouldn’t buy, based on how I felt about the beta. World is the one I’d played the most, followed by Rise, but I had never finished either of them. I don’t exactly know many people that play the MH series, so maybe I’m just missing something, but I dunno… maybe I expect too much because the online discourse is loud with MH. I don’t particularly like Atlus games or Like a Dragon either and yet I try and try because I feel like an alien for not being into certain games sometimes. I gave Wilds an honest try though. I just really hope they optimize the game for those that love the series.
Resubbed to Gamepass last night because I was looking forward to trying this one in addition to the rest of the November GP lineup. Glad to hear this one is worth it (and honestly sounds like it could be one of the better Metal Slug games) and not just a curio novelty
@NEStalgia Yeah, unfortunately I see it as a potential path that they may be similar to Kmart/Sears. While Xbox’s fanbase has practically had a mutiny the last year, it hasn’t really affected their brand wide scale. There hasn’t been a Concord. Sony is certainly covering up what a catastrophe that game was by not really saying anything about it, but a 200 million net loss is pretty huge. That’s not something the brand can stomach happening over and over again. I’m willing to bet Fairgame$ will have a similar fate and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a more expensive game than Concord, but they’ve invested so much into it that they sort of have to go through with it. Interestingly, Sega, of all companies, had the foresight to cancel Hyenas, their most expensive game ever when it cancelled , because they knew the development costs were unsustainable for the returns they’d likely receive. Oddly enough, nowadays Sega is an example of a developer doing things right and playing things smart. Sega and Capcom are practically the only two developers that seem to be hitting their sales goals for most projects, based on what we know and both of them smartly look at the industry in broader strokes, I believe. I do think Sony’s trajectory has been baffling as of late. I think we all blamed Jimbo more than we should have. It’s become clear his underlings like Herman had an unsustainable vision, as were largely seeing the sparseness of the line-up he was approving.
Rebirth absolutely is my pick, but I’d be really happy to see Astro Bot win GotY.
I’m practically ready with my own GotY top games list right now too, just one more game to finish and… then I guess I’m waiting for Xbox’s absolutely bizarre choice of releasing their entire release schedule in like two weeks at the very end of the year. Very odd year 2024 has been. Most of the best games this year came out in October.
@VaultGuy415 As someone that was also critical of DD2 but forgiving of it too, I wouldn’t say DD2 lacks the depth of Wilds. DD2 is a pretty complex and robust game in a lot of ways. My problems with that one were more in the dated ways NPCs interacted and the story being sort of meh. But I digress, I don’t think Wilds should struggle to run on PS5. If this game can run on a Series S somehow, we shouldn’t be saying, “Hmm, PS5 Pro and PC are the places to play the game.” At a base level, it should have solid performance on base PS5 and Wilds simply does not. Again, like I said, it feels like most games this generation are still halfway into the generation. We shouldn’t be struggling on a base model because the Pro was introduced. It’s sad to see poor console optimization on this one. Hopefully it’s a beta thing. For me, there’s not much on my wishlist for 2025, so I was going to potentially hop on this one, but now I will not, simply because the beta put me off of it. Love Capcom, can be very forgiving toward them, but this one’s not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons. Glad I tried it first hand to know why it’s not.
@NEStalgia I think PC survives a lot easier than consoles because of the discounts and… less legal modes of gaming, to be totally honest. Xbox will probably have a saving grace in that they turn the Xbox store into a Steam-like service as Nextbox I think will be more similar to a PC than a PlayStation. PlayStation is going to be the console that is at a crossroads more than anything else. Last time PlayStation was in this spot, they threw out the PS3 and basically allowed market share to split to the Wii and 360 in droves. I could see that repeat for the PS6. PlayStation higher ups are too comfortable being at the top to know what a PS3 (or worse, WiiU) feels like and I think it’s likely to happen due to their tone deaf strategy this generation. It’s working now, mostly. A couple more Concords, however, and that’ll really shift strategy, and not necessarily in the way we want it. Man, I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve also gotten strangely accurate in predicting trends the last few generations. Never saw the whale market though. Weird things happen, for better or worse, in gaming. Nowhere else could something like Fortnite exist. And also nowhere else could someone like Kojima exist. That’s the beauty of it, I suppose.
That said, Death Stranding 2 is probably the only game I’d willingly jump to Ubisoft/GTA6 prices for!
@rjejr Daima takes place after Z, but before Super. I wouldn’t recommend Super, as a Dragon Ball fan in the anime format. I’d watch the Super adjacent films, as they’re all wonderful, but the anime is rough as it was clearly not made with consideration for the manga, as it got ahead of it production wise, all the while having sloppy production. The manga is the better format of Super. I like anime Super more than GT, but that’s like saying I like Concord more than Fortnite. Is it much of an argument to have?
@NEStalgia I have a feeling GTA6 will full stop crash the industry. It will arrive with a higher price point than other games, causing them to attempt to increase prices across the industry that only GTA will realistically be able to justify. Sure, people will justify it because GTA will be so massive that it will make sense to most why it is so expensive, but it’ll also be loaded with battle passes and micros that other studios can’t match either. It’ll be quality, sure, but not such a seismic leap that it’ll dwarf everything in 2025, outside of sales where it will be the highest selling game of the generation before it even releases. It’ll be overrated and yet the worst reviewed GTA, but many will argue that it’s because expectations are different now. But when it launches at $90 or whatever it sells for, the issue will be that everything jumps in price as a response and it won’t make sense for the average gamer to purchase as many games that holiday season. Because other games flop from price hikes, more studios close, production costs rise, and rather than attempt to compete, things fold under GTA’s weight. It’s grimdark, sure, but I’m concerned this is the gaming future. An industry that shifts to a few expensive massive AAA games a year and the staple whale bait and gatcha games. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo shifts into being the bastion of retro-stylized indie games yet again as gamers that are distantiated from those methods of game production run to the Switch 2 for cheaper (though still price inflated) and more time friendly experiences.
@VaultGuy415 I played on PS5. I would argue that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is more visually impressive and certainly the last few Resident Evil games. For it performing as poorly as it did, I expect better visuals, unfortunately. If it was clearly Capcom’s best visuals yet, I could forgive iffy performance easier. If the performance was super smooth, I could forgive lesser visuals. You shouldn’t need a decent PC to play a game for a current gen console that is just starting to stretch its legs.
The beta put me off. It was not good. The gameplay felt floaty. The technical issues were more prevalent than Dragon’s Dogma 2. The visuals were a step down from Capcom’s other more recent offerings. I was not impressed, sad to say.
@NEStalgia Man, do I wish the whales would beach, so the industry could focus on fun over “player engagement” again. I do believe you may be right. The trends the industry has gone down suggest that giant, bloated games and live service games are more important than cinematic first party games. Not a fan of that reality, but I probably just need to wake up and realize I will buy less in the future to make space for the whales to buy more.
@get2sammyb I agree. I actively disliked the beta. This year my gaming spending has been down and I have nothing preordered for next year (very unusual for me, though I’m ready for the Death Stranding and Ghost of Yotei preorders the day Sony feels like putting them out), so I was like, “Ok, Monster Hunter doesn’t usually click for me, but I think this is the one…” And nope. I thought it performed worse than Dragon’s Dogma 2 and played worse than the Switch beta I played for Rise. The visuals didn’t feel up to snuff either, irregardless of the other technical issues. Very baffling beta if they’re trying to drum up interest in the game with uninitiated.
As a massive LiS fan, I wanted to post a post-game comment on here. I think this review is harsh, but the reviewing community is typically harsh on the series, and it plays like… Life is Strange. Very much so. If you’ve played every one of them, enjoyed every one of them, guess what? You’ll like this one too. Yes, there’s some jank. Yes, there’s some political messaging. Yes, there’s awkward dialog that feels like it was written 10 years later than it should have been. Yes, there’s not much real gameplay. And, yes, you sort of have to let go of the first game in some ways to get the most out of this one. These are trademarks of the series. If there’s any game that wasn’t reviewed particularly well by the critical community, it’s this one, just as LiS2 was poorly assessed years ago. It’s not an issue with the critical community, but the fact that the series doesn’t follow conventional gaming logic. This is a game that requires a certain type of taste, but it’s not typical gamer taste. For my wife, a mostly non-gamer (she plays about 3 games a year and it takes her a long time to do it), she didn’t want to stop playing the game. When we wrapped it yesterday, we agreed it wasn’t our favorite in the series, but that we liked it as much as most other entries. We thought it was about as good as the original, but True Colors is probably still the one we think is the best one.
@NEStalgia It’s quite strange. You’d think customer retention would continue to generate profits because you have a loyal fanbase. I have a feeling that the moment they finally shift away from being a viable first party developer where people buy a PlayStation for PlayStation games, they’ll lose a huge market share. It certainly feels like most gamers are on PS because there’s no other alternative. I’ve liked the Sony ecosystem for a while, but I know plenty of people that have gone to PS because it’s the console everyone has. I can see the strategy backfiring next generation if they lose consumer support.
@rjejr I would certainly take perpetual silence over Fortnite. But Banishers and Life is Strange will be my gaming pastimes for the next month or so, so I’m not exactly on the common wavelength.
Also, I resubbed to Netflix for Dragon Ball Daima! So yes! Netflix once a week for a while!
I was one of the few that did purchase Concord. I didn’t play it a lot, but I played it some.
@TrickyDicky99 This is likely the biggest problem in the western world and why we’re seeing so much economic instability. I don’t think it’s just execs, but most people that think that way in 2024. We need to return to collective values for collective success, but I digress…
I sort of feel like Sony’s PC strategy is hurting them long term. People buy a PlayStation for the exclusives. Most PC based players I know have a PlayStation and Switch and play the exclusives on those platforms.
For me, I’m more interested in wrapping up the games I’ve yet to beat this year than anything on this list, which is sort of nice to be able to say. I’m loving the games I’m currently playing. I may dip into Dragon Quest because I love the game, but I’ve played it, so I don’t have to get it right away.
I think Platform 8 may be the only game I buy the rest of the year and maybe resub to Gamepass for the first time in forever if Stalker and Indy are indeed worth jumping on (Nine Sols is already good enough to interest me in subbing to GP for the first time since like May, but still…)
Comments 2,979
Re: Astro Bot Sells 1.5 Million PS5 Copies Inside Nine Weeks
@REALAIS Gameplay is certainly solid, just with the story and level design were a bit better. I think the controversy would’ve been skipped if those two things were a little tighter.
Re: Rep PS5's Astro Bot in Style with Official, Adorable Clothing from Insert Coin
Man, I wish they had kids clothes. My son’s Astro Bot t-shirt is getting small from a few years back and he’s defiantly still wearing it because he loves it. Time to give it to his sister, but he totally needs a new one. Redbubble again perhaps? But… as for me… maybe these are for me… on a Black Friday sale because yikes those prices.
Re: Sony Promises It'll Launch Major PS5 Single Player Games Every Year Moving Forwards
It sounds like I won’t be the only person in my friends group using my PS5 all the time then! Lol. It’s seriously sort of a ghost town on there this generation. The last time I saw most everyone playing something, it was Final Fantasy Rebirth and before that, Final Fantasy 16, and before that probably Horizon/Elden Ring. It’s been a weird generation to see so many people switch to PC or go dormant outside massive releases (or worse… turn into casuals!). Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding will get that ever wanted by execs “player engagement” they’re seeking.
Re: Astro Bot Sells 1.5 Million PS5 Copies Inside Nine Weeks
@LiamOliver @REALAIS Astro Bot is vintage Sony, so yes it is my preference, but also, just taking OpenCritic scores: Astro Bot 95, Stellar Blade 82, and Spider Man 2 90. By aggregate scores, Astro Bot is the best performing game of that bunch. Yes, while I’ve got a preference toward it as well, it was also critically placed above the other two games, so there’s a bit of data to back up that it’s critical consensus places it as a “better game.” Of course, it’s all perspective. Personally, I think Stellar Blade’s better than Spider Man 2, despite the critical score difference, though I do feel both games were overrated as well. Both solid games, just not new classics.
Re: Astro Bot Sells 1.5 Million PS5 Copies Inside Nine Weeks
That’s excellent! For what it’s worth, Astro Bot is a far better game than Spider Man 2 and Stellar Blade. I know a handful of people that have bought only the Final Fantasy games and Astro Bot the past two years and have otherwise moved on to PC gaming, so I think Sony should look at Astro with the perception that this kind of game brings people in. Good games get people on your console, plain and simple.
Re: This Time Next Year, You Could Be Playing GTA 6 on Your PS5
Can’t wait for Rockstar to likely be the one that makes the rumor of increased price on games across the industry a reality!
Re: Don't Nod Staff to Strike in Paris, Workers Demand Redundancy Plan Be Abandoned
@SuperSilverback Yeah, I think the story, characters, and just all around world of the game have been 9/10 tier, but traversal and combat are sort of… basically signs of this being a AA release with a lower budget and definitely more or less 6/10 or 7/10 tier, so I think I agree with you that it’s an 8/10, but an 8/10 that I’m biased toward. As of right now, I’ve got it at #5 on my top 10 list for the year, right between Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Life is Strange: Double Exposure. I sort of feel like it’s staying there for now, but if I end up liking the story more, I may put it above PoP, even if I’d say that one’s a 9/10. I like it more than most games that got nominated for GotY for Golden Joysticks for sure. It’s sort of the type of game I feel like is missing in the industry these days. Sure, it’s got some issues, but, man, it’s got some really interesting things going on that feel really fresh.
I had preordered it, based on me loving the studio’s games, but just never started it, and now I’m questioning why I didn’t play it already. After Silent Hill 2, which was more stressful than fun for me, Banishers honestly feels like exactly the type of game I’ve been wanting to play all year.
Re: SEGA Is Delisting a Bunch of Retro Games, And It's Got Fans Thinking
@Dr-M @get2sammyb If it’s behind I sub, they can keep ‘em to themselves… unless Jet Grind Radio is there. Then I’m there day 1! Lol.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia Yeah, the two statements don’t quite line-up unless he was forced to rush projects out the door. It’s possible. The free DLC in Astro Bot may have been cut and slowly added to get it out this year (and there’s clearly a second wave, based on how the map is laid out). Concord’s marketing made no sense too. The beta was launched with little fanfare with a release date so close that they wouldn’t realistically have time to react to the beta. It suggests to me that either Hulst didn’t actually feel like it was “the next Star Wars” or he pushed it out the gate because other things could not be rushed through or needed more incubation. I suspect Sony may have sacrificed Concord for Fairgame$ and Marathon (and Herman’s baby the Horizon MMO) because they felt it was least likely to actually hit GoW numbers, but I’m sure it flopped harder than they ever imagined it could. Topping Atari’s ET is sort of an achievement in its own right. I don’t think Concord deserved that fate. I do wish Suicide Squad would’ve had that honor. My friend group was sort of waiting for Concord’s numbers to improve to buy it, honestly. I feel like the internet killed the game and the rest of us that were casually interested didn’t jump because it looked poised to die and we didn’t want to lose money. For the record, I agree with Pushsquare’s review for the game basically verbatim.
I still wonder if Abandoned was a Kojima project that literally existed to be Abandoned. There’s so much about it that doesn’t make sense. If it was an authentic hoax, there’s egg on the face for everyone in Sony that is connected to it. And that’s a lot of people. If it was a marketing experiment, however, it was brilliant.
Re: Don't Nod Staff to Strike in Paris, Workers Demand Redundancy Plan Be Abandoned
@TrannosaurusBex @SuperSilverback I’m quite enjoying Banishers. I beat The Beast last night. It’s a strange game, in that, being AA, I have no idea how deep I am into the game. Feels like I should be farther than a first boss, but also feels like I’m still at the surface. But it’s also sort of a game you soak in rather than rush through. I’m quite enjoying it. I do suspect it will be in my top 5 at year’s end. That said, I can’t believe the Golden Joysticks snubbed Red and Antea for best actor in a game! Easily some of the best voice acting in the industry. Easily. Best I’ve seen this year for sure.
For LiS, Don’t Nod only did the first one and LiS2. Square owns the IP and they’ve got the studio Deck Nine making the games now. There’s subtle differences between the studios’ approach to the series, but the series is still well made. It’s a series that you’re better off NOT looking at reviews because all of them have reviewed in the 70s at launch by mostly reviewers that usually aren’t fans of the series, as most people only played the first one, except True Colors, which hit the low 80s at launch. It’s a great series for those that love it. It’s my wife’s favorite game series, for sure, and it’s one of mine. Her favorite is LiS2 and mine is True Colors. The only one we thought was iffy was Before the Storm, which honestly feels like fanbait DLC. We just finished Double Exposure last week and agreed it was better than reviews gave it credit for, but also not the best in the series. I would recommend downloading Captain Spirit and giving that a shot. It’s like a demo for the second game, but it’s with a character that isn’t the main character from the game. It’s a really well crafted little freebie. Many other studios would have made something like that and it would have been DLC.
Also, I highly recommend Jusant. It’s just so incredibly unique. If you like the mountain scaling in BotW, for instance, you’ll like this. It’s a short game, but it’s so well done it doesn’t matter. It’s honestly one of those games that has replay value because it’s fun to play and so unique. Well, for me, anyway!
Re: Don't Nod Staff to Strike in Paris, Workers Demand Redundancy Plan Be Abandoned
I hope Don’t Nod keeps going. I absolutely love the games they make. I’m playing Banishers right now (and really liking it and smacking myself for taking so long to get to it, despite preordering the game), in fact, and can’t wait to preorder Lost Records, having finished Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Remember Me is a hidden gem as is Vampyr, and Jusant was one of the best games to ever launch on Gamepass. This is a team that makes great games and they deserve to continue to do so.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia Aye, that is likely true, as much as I appreciate his support for Kojima, but perhaps his support comes from his being unaware what gamers want. Though, the curious thing about Concord and Hulst is that it was stated by him that PS did not have a large release this year, and, as such, was his belief in Concord distorted by the media perhaps? Or, even more baffling, was he truly so oblivious to how Astro Bot would be received? Surely he couldn’t been so removed from reality as to notice Astro Bot’s potential to be the best first party release yet of the PS5 generation! Modern PlayStation is such a confusing place and I suspect that’s mostly Hulst’s doing.
You know, this confusion is bringing me back to Abandoned. Remember when Sony directly advertised that wisp of nothing and gave them a platform only for no one in Sony to know anything about the project other than they marketed it, only for it to vanish after it was the most viral story in gaming for half a year? In fact, Abandoned, if I remember correctly received more views than the games shown off for E3 or the Game Awards, whichever it was, when they were doing that whole teaser nonsense. How bizarre that was that Sony could be so out of touch that they gave that press. Unless there’s still something we don’t know, of course, but that’s hard to believe when they implied the execs themselves know nothing!
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
@rjejr The Z movies are almost uniformly awful if you don’t have a heavy dose of nostalgia. In fact, in some ways, the Z anime can be quite awful too. For the Z era movies, I’d say Wrath of the Dragon is easily the best of that bunch with Fusion Reborn being second (unless you count the GT era remake of early DB, Path to Power) and then you’re going from movies that are straight up derivative to a cliff dive in content. The first Broly movie is ok, but the other two are toward the bottom of the cliff. Super Broly, however, is Toriyama’s version of Broly and, honestly, could be the best of the films, even better than Super Hero. It takes the most overrated character to come from the franchise and frames him into a sympathetic character that can’t cope with the power within him, a monster against his will. And the great thing is that Toriyama himself worked on most facets of the film, including character designs, storyboarding, and the script. Broly and Super Hero are reportedly the deepest he had ever worked on the franchise in all aspects, even more than OG DB and Z, as he was too busy writing the manga to contribute to the anime in any meaningful way.
Re: SEGA Is Bringing Back Its Iconic Virtua Fighter Franchise for PS5
@GeeForce Sega right now would rival Nintendo more than when they did rival them. With the way their games sell, I almost think people might want what they’re selling more than current Sony and Microsoft.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia I still think Concord could’ve gotten better than what it was. It was sent to die, but shoot… toss a campaign on there (something Herman used to do better than mp) or even a live service version of a campaign and little minigames or whatever and they would’ve given people an opportunity to meet the characters and get to like them… maybe? Redfall was just sort of poorly made and you can tell Arkane Austin wasn’t interested in the project. If they would’ve change focus on Redfall to what the staff liked, I’d bet you the game would’ve turned out better, even though it would’ve had typical brain dead Bethesda AI.
I really don’t think Herman was ready for the position, which might be why they split it, but he really didn’t get much in the way of results. With gaming though, it takes so long to see results that it’s impossible to guess who will have success or not now. Some games take over a decade to make now and it’s a huge risk. It was certainly different in Layden era in a lot of different ways, so the people that had success it was obvious. Herman had success for Guerilla, though it never became the Halo killer it was promised to be. Perhaps that was the first red flag for Hulst, huh?
I love Splatoon and I definitely think of that, but it’s similar sort of like how Mirror’s Edge is similar to Wipeout. Man, JSR though… that’s the diamond in the Sega treasure chest.
Re: Early Tests Reveal How PS5 Pro Improves Your Old PS4 Games
I want to see what the Pro can do for PS1 games!
Re: SEGA Is Bringing Back Its Iconic Virtua Fighter Franchise for PS5
@NEStalgia With how quickly they churn out games, if they made Yakuza, Sonic, and Atlus games exclusive (among their other franchise), a lot of the most vocal console critics would be dropping their PlayStations and Xboxes for a new Sega console for sure.
Re: SEGA Is Bringing Back Its Iconic Virtua Fighter Franchise for PS5
@NEStalgia I swear I predicted the future in that other thread. Remarkable.
Looking forward to this!
Re: PS5 Pro Has a Remarkable Impact on Unpatched Games Too
To be fair, Wukong needed this. It’s a really pretty game at times, but it runs rough in some places too with some issues that are borderline game ruining like input lag. I’m hoping the Pro isn’t a bandaid for games that release in a less than optimal state.
I’m hoping reviews are still made for base PS5 and the Pro is used for consulting
Re: Netflix's Recent AAA Studio Closure Part of Planned AI Pivot
The rise of AI hasn’t seemingly improved the rate at which developers create games or made the quality of them any better.
I wish all these tech firms would just be honest and say they’re looking to reduce their work staff and generate more profit by having AI replace real jobs without the intention of actually making anything better. It sounds scummy, but it’s honest. I can trust honest more than I can trust meaded words.
Re: Round Up: PS5 Pro Reviews Love New Tech and a Glimpse of PS6 Potential
Seems like there’s faint praise, but it’s a non-essential upgrade. I’ll wait for PS6… if there’s a gaming line-up worth having for that console. The odd thing about this generation is that “graphics” have hardly felt like a focus at all, so I am glad that the Pro is at least bringing visual fidelity back into the discussion this generation. Hopefully solid performance will be back in the discussion now too.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia The Redfall vs Concord comparison is so interesting to me because of Xbox’s reaction vs Sony’s reaction. Phil Spencer looked gutted and confused about Redfall, but seemed apologetic and like he genuinely needed to do some learning. Meanwhile, the response to Concord from Hulst was incredibly cold from a guy that apparently championed the studio. It could be changing times in the industry, but it also felt really different.
I think Jimbo enabled Hulst for sure, but I think Sony jumped to promoting him too soon as well. It’s hard to establish exactly when Hulst transitioned from approving games in Sony and working on Guerilla primarily while also working with the existing studios. By some accounts, it looks like Dreams may have been the first game he greenlit into production, which is interesting. He definitely took a different approach. Interesting too that Sony didn’t trust him enough to actually replace Jim, but for him to do half of what Jim did.
I definitely agree that this is the best Sega has potentially ever been (though, man, was Sega’s output in the Saturn era underrated). Puyo Puyo Tetris is so good it’s hard to put into words. Sonic Frontiers is my favorite Sonic game. I loved their Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog project, strange as it was. Some people love Yakuza and Atlus games with a passion that is now usually unseen in gaming nowadays, even if neither series is for me. I was a Nintendo guy back in the 90’s, but I’m loving what Sega is doing nowadays. I mean, even Super Monkey Ball had a decent game recently and Jet Grind Radio is coming back (and Crazy Taxi, two of the most off-kilter, weird Sega properties that I love). They just seem to be getting better and smarter. I almost expect a new Virtua Fighter game to get dropped that tops Tekken 8 at this point.
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
@rjejr Happy to help encourage the watching of Daima. If you liked Resurrection F and Super Hero, by the way, you’ll probably really like Broly!
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia Sony really needs to remember that Nintendo followed the Wii, the console practically all non-gamers owned, with the WiiU, the console even Nintendo diehards didn’t buy. No one is immune to the fickle industry. Even Xbox was previously ahead of PS at one point two generations ago and they flopped massively with the Xbone reveal. Truly, if we move past an exclusive based ecosystem, I do think people may move past the next PS for a more affordable option. If the Switch 2 and Nextbox give the gaming consumer what they want, I don’t believe for a second that people will remain hooked on PS for their existing digital libraries. I think, more than ever, gamers are largely fickle enough to jump ship for convenience and access now.
That said, I think they’re aware of this and is largely the reason for the live service initiative. If they had a Fortnite that was “only on PlayStation,” that’s a secured future for the console. But I sometimes think they forgot that the PS2-4 generations established some qualities that PS gamers now desire and want and frankly expect now. As much as Xbox had a mutiny, Sony fans are more vocally complaining right now. I mean, the Sony fanboys basically killed Concord. It’s not like Concord was the mess Redfall was. Concord was a completely serviceable and well made if bland Overwatch competitor whereas Redfall releasing was truly baffling. Yeah, it flopped, but it didn’t beat ET. The Xbots are at least still largely loyal whereas I do believe the Sony Bros are ready to jump to PC. I think you’re absolutely right that they’ve set themselves up to be undercut without knowing it. The artsy games, the cinematic linear games, it all adds to an ecosystem’s feel, and Sony’s abandoning that. It seems that Sony’s gone silent too, which doesn’t help. Not even Yoshi P’s making much sound these days.
I only have sympathy for Jimbo in that he was given a lot of noise from Hulst that directed his decisions. Honestly, most of his reign as head of PS was solid, not far off in quality from Layden, though the tail end got rough. But again the Sony fanboys abandoned him, just as they already are doing to Hulst.
Sega’s success now is quite interesting to me. I’m not a huge Sega fan, myself, as Puyo Puyo is my favorite Sega franchise and most of the big ones right now aren’t for me (Yakuza, Persona). I am happy to see Sonic NOT be a joke though. 10 years ago, I’d not have believed his renaissance.
Re: Dress-Up RPG Infinity Nikki Seemingly Strutting to PS5 in December
Still in the GotY race then…
Re: Mini Review: Metal Slug Tactics (PS5) – Some of the Best Tactics Since Into the Breach
@riceNpea Truth be told, I’m going to try Black Ops 6, but it’s definitely not the draw for me. Honestly, Gamepass looks solid this month. Not sure what the brain trust was thinking at Xbox to literally put everything of interest on the console out after GotY season starts for most platforms, but hey that’s alright with me! Nine Sols, Flight Sim, Stalker, Indy, Metal Slug, and even CoD make for a solid value on the service for once. I totally get it if the subs spike end of year for Xbox. It’s good value. I’ve been pretty harsh on Gamepass for maybe two, three years now, so I’ll admit that they’re trying to do better end of year at least.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta?
@VaultGuy415 You’ve got me there! I’m not super familiar with the series. I’m a big Capcom fan, so I try with the series, but it’s not clicked with me. I believe Wilds would be the first Capcom game this generation that I wouldn’t buy, based on how I felt about the beta. World is the one I’d played the most, followed by Rise, but I had never finished either of them. I don’t exactly know many people that play the MH series, so maybe I’m just missing something, but I dunno… maybe I expect too much because the online discourse is loud with MH. I don’t particularly like Atlus games or Like a Dragon either and yet I try and try because I feel like an alien for not being into certain games sometimes. I gave Wilds an honest try though. I just really hope they optimize the game for those that love the series.
Re: Mini Review: Metal Slug Tactics (PS5) – Some of the Best Tactics Since Into the Breach
Resubbed to Gamepass last night because I was looking forward to trying this one in addition to the rest of the November GP lineup. Glad to hear this one is worth it (and honestly sounds like it could be one of the better Metal Slug games) and not just a curio novelty
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia Yeah, unfortunately I see it as a potential path that they may be similar to Kmart/Sears. While Xbox’s fanbase has practically had a mutiny the last year, it hasn’t really affected their brand wide scale. There hasn’t been a Concord. Sony is certainly covering up what a catastrophe that game was by not really saying anything about it, but a 200 million net loss is pretty huge. That’s not something the brand can stomach happening over and over again. I’m willing to bet Fairgame$ will have a similar fate and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a more expensive game than Concord, but they’ve invested so much into it that they sort of have to go through with it. Interestingly, Sega, of all companies, had the foresight to cancel Hyenas, their most expensive game ever when it cancelled , because they knew the development costs were unsustainable for the returns they’d likely receive. Oddly enough, nowadays Sega is an example of a developer doing things right and playing things smart. Sega and Capcom are practically the only two developers that seem to be hitting their sales goals for most projects, based on what we know and both of them smartly look at the industry in broader strokes, I believe. I do think Sony’s trajectory has been baffling as of late. I think we all blamed Jimbo more than we should have. It’s become clear his underlings like Herman had an unsustainable vision, as were largely seeing the sparseness of the line-up he was approving.
Re: Golden Joystick Reveals Nominations for 'Ultimate Game of the Year'
Rebirth absolutely is my pick, but I’d be really happy to see Astro Bot win GotY.
I’m practically ready with my own GotY top games list right now too, just one more game to finish and… then I guess I’m waiting for Xbox’s absolutely bizarre choice of releasing their entire release schedule in like two weeks at the very end of the year. Very odd year 2024 has been. Most of the best games this year came out in October.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta?
@VaultGuy415 As someone that was also critical of DD2 but forgiving of it too, I wouldn’t say DD2 lacks the depth of Wilds. DD2 is a pretty complex and robust game in a lot of ways. My problems with that one were more in the dated ways NPCs interacted and the story being sort of meh. But I digress, I don’t think Wilds should struggle to run on PS5. If this game can run on a Series S somehow, we shouldn’t be saying, “Hmm, PS5 Pro and PC are the places to play the game.” At a base level, it should have solid performance on base PS5 and Wilds simply does not. Again, like I said, it feels like most games this generation are still halfway into the generation. We shouldn’t be struggling on a base model because the Pro was introduced. It’s sad to see poor console optimization on this one. Hopefully it’s a beta thing. For me, there’s not much on my wishlist for 2025, so I was going to potentially hop on this one, but now I will not, simply because the beta put me off of it. Love Capcom, can be very forgiving toward them, but this one’s not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons. Glad I tried it first hand to know why it’s not.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia I think PC survives a lot easier than consoles because of the discounts and… less legal modes of gaming, to be totally honest. Xbox will probably have a saving grace in that they turn the Xbox store into a Steam-like service as Nextbox I think will be more similar to a PC than a PlayStation. PlayStation is going to be the console that is at a crossroads more than anything else. Last time PlayStation was in this spot, they threw out the PS3 and basically allowed market share to split to the Wii and 360 in droves. I could see that repeat for the PS6. PlayStation higher ups are too comfortable being at the top to know what a PS3 (or worse, WiiU) feels like and I think it’s likely to happen due to their tone deaf strategy this generation. It’s working now, mostly. A couple more Concords, however, and that’ll really shift strategy, and not necessarily in the way we want it. Man, I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve also gotten strangely accurate in predicting trends the last few generations. Never saw the whale market though. Weird things happen, for better or worse, in gaming. Nowhere else could something like Fortnite exist. And also nowhere else could someone like Kojima exist. That’s the beauty of it, I suppose.
That said, Death Stranding 2 is probably the only game I’d willingly jump to Ubisoft/GTA6 prices for!
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
@rjejr Daima takes place after Z, but before Super. I wouldn’t recommend Super, as a Dragon Ball fan in the anime format. I’d watch the Super adjacent films, as they’re all wonderful, but the anime is rough as it was clearly not made with consideration for the manga, as it got ahead of it production wise, all the while having sloppy production. The manga is the better format of Super. I like anime Super more than GT, but that’s like saying I like Concord more than Fortnite. Is it much of an argument to have?
Man, am I loving Daima so far though!
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia I have a feeling GTA6 will full stop crash the industry. It will arrive with a higher price point than other games, causing them to attempt to increase prices across the industry that only GTA will realistically be able to justify. Sure, people will justify it because GTA will be so massive that it will make sense to most why it is so expensive, but it’ll also be loaded with battle passes and micros that other studios can’t match either. It’ll be quality, sure, but not such a seismic leap that it’ll dwarf everything in 2025, outside of sales where it will be the highest selling game of the generation before it even releases. It’ll be overrated and yet the worst reviewed GTA, but many will argue that it’s because expectations are different now. But when it launches at $90 or whatever it sells for, the issue will be that everything jumps in price as a response and it won’t make sense for the average gamer to purchase as many games that holiday season. Because other games flop from price hikes, more studios close, production costs rise, and rather than attempt to compete, things fold under GTA’s weight. It’s grimdark, sure, but I’m concerned this is the gaming future. An industry that shifts to a few expensive massive AAA games a year and the staple whale bait and gatcha games. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo shifts into being the bastion of retro-stylized indie games yet again as gamers that are distantiated from those methods of game production run to the Switch 2 for cheaper (though still price inflated) and more time friendly experiences.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta?
@VaultGuy415 I played on PS5. I would argue that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is more visually impressive and certainly the last few Resident Evil games. For it performing as poorly as it did, I expect better visuals, unfortunately. If it was clearly Capcom’s best visuals yet, I could forgive iffy performance easier. If the performance was super smooth, I could forgive lesser visuals. You shouldn’t need a decent PC to play a game for a current gen console that is just starting to stretch its legs.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta?
The beta put me off. It was not good. The gameplay felt floaty. The technical issues were more prevalent than Dragon’s Dogma 2. The visuals were a step down from Capcom’s other more recent offerings. I was not impressed, sad to say.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia Man, do I wish the whales would beach, so the industry could focus on fun over “player engagement” again. I do believe you may be right. The trends the industry has gone down suggest that giant, bloated games and live service games are more important than cinematic first party games. Not a fan of that reality, but I probably just need to wake up and realize I will buy less in the future to make space for the whales to buy more.
Re: Fans Work Out Why Monster Hunter Wilds Feels So Weird and Weightless in PS5 Beta
@get2sammyb I agree. I actively disliked the beta. This year my gaming spending has been down and I have nothing preordered for next year (very unusual for me, though I’m ready for the Death Stranding and Ghost of Yotei preorders the day Sony feels like putting them out), so I was like, “Ok, Monster Hunter doesn’t usually click for me, but I think this is the one…” And nope. I thought it performed worse than Dragon’s Dogma 2 and played worse than the Switch beta I played for Rise. The visuals didn’t feel up to snuff either, irregardless of the other technical issues. Very baffling beta if they’re trying to drum up interest in the game with uninitiated.
Re: Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (PS5) - Hallmark Series Loses Its Charm
As a massive LiS fan, I wanted to post a post-game comment on here. I think this review is harsh, but the reviewing community is typically harsh on the series, and it plays like… Life is Strange. Very much so. If you’ve played every one of them, enjoyed every one of them, guess what? You’ll like this one too. Yes, there’s some jank. Yes, there’s some political messaging. Yes, there’s awkward dialog that feels like it was written 10 years later than it should have been. Yes, there’s not much real gameplay. And, yes, you sort of have to let go of the first game in some ways to get the most out of this one. These are trademarks of the series. If there’s any game that wasn’t reviewed particularly well by the critical community, it’s this one, just as LiS2 was poorly assessed years ago. It’s not an issue with the critical community, but the fact that the series doesn’t follow conventional gaming logic. This is a game that requires a certain type of taste, but it’s not typical gamer taste. For my wife, a mostly non-gamer (she plays about 3 games a year and it takes her a long time to do it), she didn’t want to stop playing the game. When we wrapped it yesterday, we agreed it wasn’t our favorite in the series, but that we liked it as much as most other entries. We thought it was about as good as the original, but True Colors is probably still the one we think is the best one.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@NEStalgia It’s quite strange. You’d think customer retention would continue to generate profits because you have a loyal fanbase. I have a feeling that the moment they finally shift away from being a viable first party developer where people buy a PlayStation for PlayStation games, they’ll lose a huge market share. It certainly feels like most gamers are on PS because there’s no other alternative. I’ve liked the Sony ecosystem for a while, but I know plenty of people that have gone to PS because it’s the console everyone has. I can see the strategy backfiring next generation if they lose consumer support.
Re: Alan Wake 2 Trapped in Financial Dark Place, 'Most' Development, Marketing Costs Recouped
If any game this generation deserves to recoup its money, it’s Alan Wake 2. Keep the industry interesting, Remedy.
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
@rjejr I would certainly take perpetual silence over Fortnite. But Banishers and Life is Strange will be my gaming pastimes for the next month or so, so I’m not exactly on the common wavelength.
Also, I resubbed to Netflix for Dragon Ball Daima! So yes! Netflix once a week for a while!
I was one of the few that did purchase Concord. I didn’t play it a lot, but I played it some.
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
@TrickyDicky99 This is likely the biggest problem in the western world and why we’re seeing so much economic instability. I don’t think it’s just execs, but most people that think that way in 2024. We need to return to collective values for collective success, but I digress…
Re: More People Are Playing the Original Horizon Zero Dawn Than Its Remaster on PC
I sort of feel like Sony’s PC strategy is hurting them long term. People buy a PlayStation for the exclusives. Most PC based players I know have a PlayStation and Switch and play the exclusives on those platforms.
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
@rjejr I’ll take Concord over Fortnite any day, every day, and always. 😅
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for November 2024?
I’ll try the Death Note game… maybe… I dunno. I’ll download it until I need to delete because I need space for something else, at least
Re: PS5 Goes for the Kill with Fortnite Console Bundle This Christmas
Is it just me or is there a huge influx of Fortnite related news lately?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 553
Life is Strange: Double Exposure for sure and possibly Banishers too. I anticipate those will be my only games til I finish them both.
Re: Upcoming PS5 Games for November and December 2024
For me, I’m more interested in wrapping up the games I’ve yet to beat this year than anything on this list, which is sort of nice to be able to say. I’m loving the games I’m currently playing. I may dip into Dragon Quest because I love the game, but I’ve played it, so I don’t have to get it right away.
I think Platform 8 may be the only game I buy the rest of the year and maybe resub to Gamepass for the first time in forever if Stalker and Indy are indeed worth jumping on (Nine Sols is already good enough to interest me in subbing to GP for the first time since like May, but still…)
Re: Showa American Story Reveals the Craziest PS5 Trailer of 2024
Not sure if this one is for me from a gameplay standpoint, but, my god, I love what I see from a setting standpoint