themightyant

@ShadowofSparta there’s no making sense of the anti-DEI crowd. If there’s a woman, a black character or anyone not an able bodied straight white man they start screaming woke, DEI, SBI etc. as if other people can’t be represented. It’s nonsense.

They seem to think bad writing and bad implementations of characters are evidence of DEI, without acknowledging there has ALWAYS been bad writing and poor characterisation in games. In fact the vast majority of characters, writing, plot and dialogue in games is poor, DEI has little to do with that. But some people see shadows everywhere they look. If you want to see something you will. Confirmation bias in action.

The City that never sleeps DLC was the weakest part of the OG Spider-man, better to avoid that. Also isn’t everyone’s always complaining there aren’t enough new Sony games? Do you want Insomniac to work on DLC for a year or a new game?

I think it’s a very game solid with some obvious flaws. It feels rushed at the end, the story needed a bit more time to breathe, and they didn’t nail the landing, hence the story didn’t quite hit unlike the first 2 games.

But what is there is still very good if a little safe, could have done with more variation as the third Spidey game in quick succession.

Personally I’d give that to Dragon Age: Inquisition which even somehow won it at the TGA’s. As we’re talking GOTY it’s still a good game, and hell I put a stupid number of hours into it, but that was part of it’s problem. It was bloated as hell overstuffed with so much awful open world nonsense. I’d take SM2 lean offerings over that any day, at least it respected my time. But that’s my hot take. 😂

Enjoy fellow PC gamers. It’s a good game, though not enough of a change from the first imo, and the story didn’t hit as hard, which elevated the first. Still loved it.

Hopefully Nixxes nails the port.

@Bez87 there were some documented issues at launch ESPECIALLY, but not only, on the unpatched version. Personally I had a FEW issues, nothing too bad, but it did feel like Insomniacs least polished game imo, I had to reload several times to fix minor bugs. YMMV.

But the whole thing was blown massively out of proportion because there were videos circling from disingenuous gamers who were going out of their way to break the game e.g. running the unpatched disc version (there was a day 1 patch that fixed a lot of this) and running around the world in the intro section, with Sandman, where the whole world map was deformed. This bit was not polished at all and NPC behavior was often completely broken as they weren’t programmed how to behave with all the sand obstructions leading to some very odd/funny/broken behaviours. Most people would never see that as the game was patched and they wouldn’t go off the critical path, but it did exist and videos were flying around socials.

Lastly i’ve forgotten which game it was but another exclusive game had recently launched on Xbox and Sony fanboys had gone to town pointing out the bugs and so Xbots were giving it back in kind for this amplifying it all. Tribal warriors being dicks again, making everything worse.

@Loamy I always wondered who it was voting 1… but there’s another few of you out there 😂

30+ hours sounds much better for a turn based RPG, more like back in the old days. Games have become too long and bloated, often 50-100 hours for the genre, which is a hard pass on most titles.

@somnambulance @PSme If it means more great games get made I ain't that picky where the money comes from. Not going to gatekeep like that.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think this is only the second game to launch Day 1 on both services after Sea of Stars.

Anti-consumer moves like this only push me the other way, even if this game gets great reviews I will definitely be waiting for a sale. Not going to support this "Early Access" BS.

This is the right call. If you can't do it properly, try again, and if you still can't don't do it at all.

Hopefully it's a shorter experience that respects my time than most turn based RPGs. Definitely has my attention now.

@IOI Astrobot sized games I completely agree, but that's what I said in my last line, we need more lower budget AAA games (like Astro) from studios like Sonys, not small budget games there are thousands of developers making those now.

@IOI I agree Sony is concentrating on larger budget projects, but is that REALLY a problem. E.g.

Sony used to make smaller games like Vib Ribbon, Parappa the Rapper etc. but is there any need anymore when there are thousands of games of this scope being made by smaller studios. It's not like there is a shortage of those type of games overall, only a shortage of them from Sony, which shouldn't matter. Whereas there IS a shortage of giant budget games by comparison with only a small percentage of these releasing by comparison to everything else.

That said I would like to see Sony make more in the lower budget AAA space with more risk/creative freedom.

Is there a collapse of creativity in gaming?

Absolutely not. There is more creativity than ever, it just isn't coming from AAA. There are more games, and more ideas across the whole spectrum of gaming than ever before. But like movies AA is a bigger risk and we are getting more at the extreme ends of the budget scale, high and low, and less in the middle.

But for AAA studios with spiralling budgets comes less risk, I agree with him on that, we really need to see a few more smaller, riskier titles from larger publishers and studios.

The (ahem) platform-ification of games (sorry) continues. Thanks Fortnite and others.

But it is an interesting, and worrying, situation when they believe this stands a better shot of success as DLC to a popular annual game than it is as a standalone title. Sadly they are probably right.

@roe Agreed. This is why internally a lot of these platform holders and larger publishers aren't just looking at individual sales metrics so much, but also how much of our time they take. How much engagement they get more holistically across their games or platforms.

I thought Jusant was brilliant. But I can see it being a tough sell. I probably wouln’t have bought and played it at launch if it wasn’t on Game Pass. But I can thoroughly recommend it and it got 85% on Metacritic.

Which games are you referring to specifically? Intrigued I looked this up and found no evidence of it on Metacritic e.g.

• Banishers - Metascore 78 / User Score 7.8
• Jusant - 85 / 7.6
• Harmony - 75 / 6.4
• Twin Mirror - 65 / 5.8
• Tell Me Why - 78 / 5.8
• Life is Strange 2 - 78 / 6.6
• Captain Spirit - 75 / 7.0
• Vampyr - 70 / 6.8
• Life is Strange - 85 / 8.6
• Remember Me - 70 / 7.5

That is ALL their games. Audience scores are all within +5 to -12 points, which is pretty normal, except Tell me Why which is still only -20 points. But that is possibly being targeted for obvious reasons, like having a trans main character, though personally I think it’s one of their weaker games.

What data were you basing your statement off?

Most games come out in a ropey state day 1. Until they start polishing the game for release I will continue to buy in a sale months or years down the line once it is in a better state. So called "Early access" only makes me even more determined not to buy into their BS.

@Kalime78 @McBurn Smart money is on 2027 or 2028 (3 - 4 years away). 2026 (2 years) is almost certainly too soon based on the leaks of how far along they are with AMD, and precedent. Whereas 2029 (4+ years away) as you stated is also not that likely else they wouldn't have already been engaging with AMD to develop the hardware so early, they would be waiting for that hardware to improve first.

@Bentleyma Choice is good. Some people prefer visuals over framerate, other prefer frame rate over visuals.

If you drop the framerate in half you can do more graphically, that is NEVER going to change whether it's a PS5 Pro or a super-PC, the PS5 Pro isn't magically changing that. You seem to be expecting something that won't exist.

Instead what the PS5 Pro is offering is the best of both worlds compared to base PS5. So you get base visuals akin to PS5 quality mode, or perhaps higher, at 60fps; OR you can play at 30fps with even higher visual settings than base PS5. But there is always room to do even more, that's why £2000+ PCs exist.

@LifeGirl It's certainly going to be interesting which approach TakeTwo & Rockstar take with GTAVI. Part of me thinks "why would they break a system that has been so wildly successful?". Just sell the game at a premium, sell 30-50 millions copies in the first few months. Make a load of profit. Then release GTA Online and charge for credit just like GTAV and make even more.

To make it an ongoing subscription would massively impact the number of people playing and while they might make as much or more money it slowly eats into the brand which may make it less successful in future. Better to keep player counts higher I feel.

But the reality is they won't fail whatever they do. Even if GTAVI is £100, and Online is F2P or subscription based they will make stupid money. Win Win.

@Voltan Superliminal is great. Enjoy!

@ChrisDeku Genshin Impact shouldn't be coming to Game Pass as it's entirely F2P, but they may have some sort of Game Pass perk to get in game items as they have done on PSN, Epic, Amazon and everywhere else. But I agree the GP lineup looks strong, on paper anyway, you never quite know what will be a hit.

@LavenderShroud Some games do trophies better than others. But when done well it can give a good reason to play, or replay a game in a new creative way and challenge yourself. E.g. Death's Door only using the Umbrella or Dishonored not killing anyone. That in itself is fun and is added to the game by the devs to master their game.

But the reality is many games lists are just dull busywork, it's not a challenge to get, you only need time and patience.

@Voltan Rockstar games are typically only ever added to these services for a few months. From the massive Xbox leak we saw that this is because TakeTwo want an ongoing monthly fee rather than a flat fee to be on these services, and most people who play it will do so early on. Hence it doesn't make good business sense for Sony/Xbox to be spending as much in month 3-6+ as it does month 1 & 2.

Does Arnold Schwarzenegger have some Balatro addiction we don't know of? Much of this list feels like when they bring out non-gaming celebrities at the game awards. Would rather have people who know what they are talking about.

With Neva coming out (currently 88 on Open Critic) it's worth highlighting Gris which was their previous game.

I’ve looked forward to this since the first trailer, but wasn’t aware it was releasing now. Good mini-review (also currently 88 on Opencritic), I look forward to playing it. But damn if there isn’t a lot to play right now, will have to go on the back burner for now.

Anyone saying “there’s no games to play” is utterly mad. There are more games released now then there ever was, not to mention all those older releases. It's more of a struggle to decide what you know you will never get around to playing.

For now my current top game of 2024 is Animal Well surprised is it not on this list. But I haven't played Astro and others yet.

@LifeGirl you are right about fans with nostalgia not being the most objective. But saying it has “aged like milk” is also far too extreme.

While it’s true some mechanics and quality of life may be old fashioned compared to games nowadays, there’s still plenty to enjoy in older games like this, even if playing for the first time.

As an aside. Didn’t you just say you would enjoy playing the recently announced Tomb Raider 4 remaster for example?

Brilliant game. So many memorable moments, from the train opening to collapsing buildings to Chloe coming in to disrupt. The writing was a high bar too, from the start to that ending! Clowns 😂

@Kidfunkadelic83 I doubt the 4G experience is good enough, too low and erratic a ping, it will be laggy. 5G or good WiFi should yield better results. I know some people that do that, but ymmv.

Also if you can connect your home console by Ethernet it should help reduce latency too.

@TheDudeElDuderino the PS Portal isn’t for me, but it’s easy to see millions that could use it. E.g.

I have many friends whose children or partners use the tv which stops them gaming. PS portal simply allows them to game at all, which is brilliant, it’s not quite as good as playing on a big screen but the alternative is not to play at all, or be relegated to another room.

But also dont knock it till you’ve tried it. I tried one of theirs and the 8” screen is fantastic, at arms length it’s akin to playing on a medium to large tv, maybe 47” to 55” in terms of how much of your FOV it takes up, unless you sit really close to your tv. Combine that with the split dualsense controller and headphones and you quickly forget you are playing on a smaller device and just get sucked in. I was really surprised how good it felt, it just feels like you are playing PS5.

One friend also plays in bed to stop him falling asleep on the couch as he can only really play once others have gone to bed. He says it’s improved his sleep patterns which is worth a lot more than £200.

I suspects there are also some kids in a similar situation with siblings and parents.

Additionally now that you can use it remotely, as long as your WiFi is good enough, it’s even more popular with even more people.

As I said at the top it’s not for me, though the falling asleep on the couch bit rings true. But I think with.a product like this FAR too many people think “its not for them” and can’t see how good it could be for others. It’s a weird form of gate keeping imo.

FYI Sony have launched far more than 2. Gran Turismo 7 is a live service, MLB The Show 2024 is a live service (as was 2023, 2022 etc) those are all very successful.

@get2sammyb Thanks, that's longer than I was hoping. We went to Penacony in 2.0 after 1.6 and I was hoping it would be the same for 3.0 after 2.6. I haven't chased leaks to see if there is going to be 2.7, 2.8, etc. as there are usually spoilers.

@QiaraIris Felt the same, really didn't vibe with Penacony, loved the Luofu. Hoping we are moving onto new worlds and new characters soon though, HSR currently feels a bit like Anime Filler episodes.

Good to hear it’s not cancelled. Just do it right.

Stunning, looks like a true labour of love. If they can put half as much effort into the gameplay as the art then could be very special.

@Pushsquarian oh god that fishing line was awful. But that was more a problem with the game design that they wanted you to fish 100+ times but only seemed to have one line. 💀

All in all I don’t think you can go wrong with either any of the voice casts, they’ve spent a lot on all versions. Eng, Jpn, Chn, etc. it isn’t like a lot of these games where they have hired awful/cheap VAs for one version like many RPGs

@Bunchesopuppies @Pushsquarian I kinda get the Eng VA Paimon dislike, she's actually had to change the voice, which used to be more pleasant at the start, as it was ruining her voice. But there is so much talent in the ENG VA cast, I tried JAP but missed Keith Silverstein as Zhongli and Ray Chase as Neuvillette too much. "Osmanthus wine and all"

@Member_the_game As a once through experience nothing beats the elation of Tetris Effect. Pure gaming synesthesia. But I still swear for pure replay value the pack-in Game Boy Tetris is still the most addictive for "just one more run". Sadly that's not in here either making this an interesting curio, but far from definitive.

As someone who works in that industry, IF they had the Meta Pixel (tracking scripts similar to Google Analytics + AdWords) WITHOUT proper privacy notices then it’s a very simple open and shut case. They are guilty.

Though to be honest this happens FAR more often than it should with the marketing department requesting more data, so they add a script to the website, but the left hand doesn’t talk to the right hand and the privacy and cookie notices are never updated by another department.

Additionally frequently it is installed wrong so that it fires BEFORE people have opted in, or opting in/out doesn’t actually stop it tracking. Either way guilty if true, but it is far too common.

Team Asobi is a small team of around 65, and this game had a relatively quick turnaround, it doesn't need to get Horizon / Spider-man / God of War numbers to be a big success. Star Wars: Outlaws on the other hand definitely does.

@Member_the_game Agreed. I wouldn't bought a 1TB model with a drive for £649 or £699 especially if they included some kind of stand, even if it was a cheaper one with the option to buy the fancy one. But £825 with a drive and stand is too much right now, the optics of an additional £125 feel awful.

@Buckster666 To be fair with about 20,000 employees, if any studio is bloated for the amount of content they put out it's probably Ubisoft.

I know the studio got shuttered but get a porting studio to make a 60fps / 1440p - 4k patch. Driveclub still rules.

Menu's are a work of art. The bland dungeons not so much. But you can't have it all.

Technically PS+ is paid, it sure as hell ain't free. But I don't know if they include that.

If I didn't mind adorably all digital the £339.99 is pretty great price for a PS5. That's cheaper than the PS4 cost at launch.