@themcnoisy to be fair, it's a game that works well on mobile phones and they've actually put some effort into the presentation and such - it's also ridiculously addictive. Given that you generally play a smartphone game to pass 5 minutes when there's nothing else available, I can see why it'd be so well-received.
That said, I'm not overly sure I'd want Pac-Man 256 or Crossy Road on a console - they're not the kinds of games I want to sit down and play for hours on my lovely big-screen TV, and I don't think I'm alone in those regards.
That said, I'll probably buy it anyway, because I do like to support the developer, and I'd hope a "premium" console version would eliminate the need for ads and microtransactions in the smartphone version.
Given SEGA Europe's deafening silence over the past 10 or so days, it's looking doubtful. They've been silent on the 3DS game 7th Dragon Code:VFD ever since its announcement back in February, silent on Hatsune Miku Project Diva X, a game confirmed to have a near-simultaneous launch (on PS4) in Japan and the US; and in the case of Valkyria Chronicles PS4, are giving it considerably worse treatment than their US division, who have gone to the expense of making a lovely steelbook edition of the game.
I'd rather not import, but if it came to Persona 5's European release either being given considerably worse treatment or an inexplicable delay, I'd rather import than act like such things are okay.
Edit - Of course, if SEGA Europe has absolutely no interest in publishing these kinds of games, I think they should just come out and say that. Rather be openly told they're not interested in my money than hold on to some vain hope that they'll see the light.
The Witch & The Hundred Knight Revival for £11.99 is a wonderful deal, especially if you've never played it on the PS3. Oh, and EDF 4.1 for £19.99 should be on everybody's list, because Sandlot games are excellent.
On the Vita front, Digimon is absurdly cheap (£15.99) and the latest Senran Kagura is half-off at £14.99 (though not on PS4, strange!). Both definitely well worth the asking price for how much gameplay they have to offer.
I'm probably a little bitter that Digimon is this cheap this soon, but apparently, Bandai Namco were happy with the launch sales, which bodes well for future Digimon games.
I can second the performance issues majorly impacting my enjoyment of Stories. Multiple times, I've got Reynardo stuck in the level geometry smashing inanimate objects (the quips of the narrator are totally worth it); and due to the lack of in-chapter checkpoints, I have to repeat the segment after quitting and reloading my save. That said, I'm yet to experience any major slowdown (six different endings so far, three of the four truths unlocked); but I -have- experienced one of the alternate routes just... not appearing. No idea if that's an issue related to the game being ported forward from Unreal3 to Unreal4 (I think it's been indev long enough for that to be a potential "thing"), or just a game specific thing.
Regardless, with a patch, I couldn't recommend this enough. In its current state, even at the relatively low price for a good 20+ hour RPG... I'd pass unless you're willing to put up with technical hiccups.
@Boerewors To be fair - the 3DS sells so well because Nintendo's handheld IPs - Pokémon, New Super Mario Bros., et cetera; are hard to compete with when appealing to a mainstream audience. It's having similar problems to a lesser scale - struggling to break 50 million in 5 years when its predecessor was at over 100 million in the same time. The dedicated handheld market died in the mainstream when tablets and smartphones became capable enough gaming devices to satisfy most; and the Vita never had enough quality software to gain a "base" beyond fans of its mix of low-budget indie and Japanese titles.
That's not to say the Vita doesn't have plenty of amazing games; because it really does; but when they're -incredibly niche- games, it's not hard to understand the system's eventual fate.
Still, as long as developers are finding success on the Vita and are willing to bring software to it, there's plenty of life left in the system, even if it paints a grim picture for the future of Sony handhelds.
That said, gaming in general has been changing a lot over the past few years, the Vita's an unfortunate victim of this transitionary period, and I sincerely hope that when things even out once more and the market is less unstable, Sony takes another stab at handheld gaming.
Months like these make me wary to buy Indie games when they're new. I mean, Galak-Z and Flame Over are decent games and definitely worth the money I paid for them, but knowing I could have got them for technically-free six months down the line really stings. Still, it's only 40 quid a year, I'm hardly going to complain about one or two months that are bad for me.
Reality fighters, though? The only people fighting reality are the Sony marketing execs claiming Plus incentive games are "top rated".
It was pretty much a given that Sony would eventually find some way to market this, considering the sheer number of games coming to both PS4 and PC, but not other platforms, we've been getting. The logo looks a little out of place, though, unless they plan to rebrand the "Only on PlayStation" one to look the same.
A name change would be rather nice. I've had my PSN name since the PlayStation Forums days... it'd be nice to go back and tell my 12 year-old self that having a 666 at the end of your username is nowhere near as cool as you seem to think it is.
Failing that, PSOne Classics support is definitely do-able and probably not that much of a pain, as far as logistics are concerned. Or, for something actually on the poll - custom backgrounds would be pretty nice. I mean, I really like the PlayStation 20th Anniversary theme and background, it's the only one I've ever cared enough about to use; but sometimes I get fed up of the plain grey background, so something new wouldn't go amiss. Sure, I could just pick another theme, but I like the way the icons are themed in the 20th anniversary theme, so there. I'm picky. Let me be picky :B
I'm impressed by the unit sales - 22,000 units and considerably fewer (charting) games, with the sales of all charting PS4 games combined only reaching 17584. I highly doubt 5,000 people are buying PS4s to just stare at them, though, which makes me curious about what, exactly, Japanese consumers are buying alongside their consoles, if anything.
@Anchorsam_9 Just wait for a fairly high-profile gaming youtuber to die from cancer, and then we'll get the "link between violent video games and cancer found" articles.
I find the Daily Mail hilarious - a paper supposedly committed to family values that has on at least one occasion ran a "femail" column encouraging women to cheat on their husbands.
And video games are the biggest problem in society right now. Sure, guys.
@themcnoisy the bikes in PGR were awful, but the bikes in Motorstorm were probably the most fun vehicles to drive. Hopefully, the end-result is more Motorstorm than PGR.
If MN9 is anything but a big, fat disappointment; I'll be pleasantly surprised. If it sells well enough to non-backers to justify a sequel, I'll purchase a hat for the sole purpose of eating it.
To be fair, this isn't the first cross-generation title to have its last-gen versions mysteriously disappear this year - Mortal Kombat X was pushed back multiple times prior to its quiet cancellation; and I expect this to take the same route - either because it's just not feasible to port, period; or because it's not cost-effective to do so. Most likely the latter.
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for Vita is quite cheap now, and if you're looking for another unique JRPG to add to the already huge list, definitely worth a look at the £8.99 it's going for.
That said, if you only have enough time in your life for one JRPG, Demon Gaze is probably the best first-person dungeon crawler I've played in a while, and only £6 to boot.
@Dodoo To be fair, the title is about as bananas as the whole game's concept. Dragon Quest has no business being such a good fit for Dynasty Warriors-style gameplay, but there it is. It's a shame it hasn't sold better, but there have been multiple Dynasty Warriors style games released on PS4 in the past few months, with One Piece and Saint Seiya's crossovers instantly coming to mind.
@Matroska I work with people who buy consoles solely for FIFA. I have seen, first hand, the exact reason why the UK gaming marketplace is so poorly regarded by most people. Frankly, I don't give a toss. They can keep buying expensive consoles solely for FIFA, while I enjoy the wealth of great games the rest of the industry has to offer.
Also, aren't you the guy who posts the same thing every damn week?
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Now that, I can get behind. I'd happily buy a second PS4, even at an inflated cost, if they made a non-limited version of the 20th anniversary PS4.
Of course, my PS Plus is due a renewal, so I'll pick this up like a diligent sucker.
As much as I'm enjoying Transformers : Devastation, I think it's safe to say that; even at a budget price and with the most appealing art style I've ever seen in a Transformers game, a TF game banking on G1 nostalgia just doesn't have the power to sell when all hell's breaking loose and it's right in the eye of the storm.
I'm in the minority voting for Armello. It's not the most accessible of the games on the current list, for certain, but the developers seem to be inspired by Redwall; and that's more than enough for me to be interested. The fact there are very few good console games in its general vein also makes me think it should get the chance to be introduced to a wider audience.
I don't quite get why the majority's -this- excited for Grow Home. It's a good game, sure, but the general consensus from Steam reviews seems to be that it's an incredibly short game; and for an open world game, there's very little actual reason or incentive to explore - which I'd consider the kiss of death for any open world. Length is hardly a compelling argument, granted, but when Grow Home is up against something considerably more "gamey", that I'm more likely to get more value out of, I find it hard to be excited.
As for Zombie Vikings... it looks like a Castle Crashers clone with "HA HA I'M SO WACKY LOOK AT ME BEING WACKY AREN'T I SO FUNNY GUYS" humour. Stick It To the Man was similarly "wacky", and while that was a good point-and-click game, the writing made it very hard to get invested enough to continue to the actual game bit, in my experience. I'm sure the sense of humour has its niche - just not me. Or most other people I know.
@Markos74 Chart Track only tracks new sales of retail games, the PSN has its own monthly sales charts, though, and I expect FIFA 15 to be high this month because of the current sale.
@ShogunRok @SteveButler2210 I'd rather what we have than the clashing art-styles we would have otherwise got, mind you. It looks fairly generic and standardised when everybody's modelled in the style we got, certainly, but it does at least provide a more consistent look to everybody. The attention-to-detail in practically every other area more than makes up for not having everybody be true to their original works.
@NomNom It reminds me of the Dragon Ball Tenkaichi series and the Gundam Vs. Series in terms of gameplay; so if you're okay with a fighting game that isn't overly technical, but is fast-paced enough to keep your attention, it's definitely worth a buy if you're a fan of Shounen manga and recognise enough characters to make it worth your while; especially on the PS Vita where it's a good 10-20 quid cheaper than the home console versions.
On the one hand, it's great to see games that, even five years ago, would have -never- been localised get Western releases. On the other hand, I don't see this being the kind of thing retailers would even bother to stock in the event of a physical release, so I guess that resigns it to Digital-Only and makes me wonder why Inti doesn't just self-publish on the PSN store.
... I'd probably buy it either way, I have basically every other weird Japanese game localised for the PS4 at this point.
Final Fantasy 12 is easily my favourite of the Final Fantasy games (Final Fantasies?) on the PS2; and I'd happily purchase it yet again, especially with the level of work and care Square-Enix generally puts into its HD Remasters. While we're on that note, the oft-rumoured Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 PS4 releases would be pretty nice, too, I'd double-dip on those just so I didn't have to dust off a dualshock 3 to play them.
It's no wonder it's selling so well - the PS Plus "Upgrade" version of the game is twenty quid. With the season pass, fourty quid total, and you get more content there than certain other racing games I could name would provide out-of-the-box for the same price. Evolution have -really- turned DriveClub around, and some of the gestures to the community - like making the first DLC pack free-for-all, making extra, really good, DLC to ensure season pass owners aren't short-changed and the free concept car DLC, my most favourite of which being the Motorstorm Dune Buggy - all show just how much they care about ensuring the customer gets their money's worth.
Now here's hoping their next game is a return to the Motorstorm series - Apocalypse was probably my most-played PS3 racing game by a good margin.
I think Naughty Dog as it currently is would not be a good fit for the Jak series, particularly when Jason Rubin and a lot of "old" Naughty Dog have left the company. On the other hand, in reference to what @get2sammyb said, I still think Sucker Punch could make a good new Sly Cooper game, and while 4 was decent enough, I'd like to see the original developers return to the series, particularly with their experience in making open-world games with platforming elements from the Infamous series.
@Anchorsam_9 " but I'm pretty sure a PS Plus game has to be rated 8 or higher on the store" - the condition, for the EU lineup anyway, was that the game had to have a metacritic rating of 70 or higher to be included. I don't know if that's still the case, but it's made kind of moot by games debuting on plus - particularly more divisive ones like last year's Metrico for PS Vita - which may or may not meet the Metacritic 70 requirement when reviews do finally hit.
Overall, really enjoyable article. I do feel like there's a stigma attached to an independent title launching on Plus that isn't always fair; and I'm glad that the service has introduced me to games like Resogun, Don't Starve, Woah Dave!, Mercenary Kings and a list of others about as long as my arm. I understand that they're not to everybody's tastes, sure, but when a title like Rocket League is one of the most well-received Plus titles in the history of the service, I'm obviously not alone in thinking that merely having the option there is a major incentive to at least give them a proper try.
I, for one, am glad I decided against backing MN9 in the end. I know people, people I otherwise respect, who have put ridiculous amounts of money into the game; and they're yet to receive anything tangible for it - in fact, some of them have been banned from the Backers' forum for being critical of pre-release Betas and videos they have seen and played.
I sincerely hope somebody out there is making records and compiling every last negative thing to come out of Comcept - it'd really serve as a master class in how to not handle any game development project, let alone a crowdfunding project. Not just because of the lessons Comcept could serve when they're being made an example of, but also to ensure Inafune only ever gets work through incredibly nebulous publishing deals made with shady Chinese companies in the future.
@sajoey I think it was Hideki Kamiya who referred to Inafune as "A businessman, not an artist" and warned people against backing MN9. As somebody who's held that opinion for years, I'm enjoying all the humble pie people who accused Kamiya of being bitter at the time are being forced to eat.
@SteveButler2210 Activision only had the rights to publish the Deadpool for about six or so months due to a poorly negotiated contract, and therefore massively underprinted it. I doubt it'll, even as a result of this, become some Earthbound-esque cult classic people sell for $200+ 20 years down the line; but that at least explains the high market value of the few physical copies around.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi I think that there's nothing inherently wrong with packaging a game+DLC together for latecomers; provided the DLC gets a bundle or price drop to allow those who bought the game first-time to get the DLC at a more reasonable price without double-dipping. The problem, however, is that I can't think of any instances where this has happened. That's a real problem.
There's nothing wrong with incentivising your old products to attract new customers, there's considerably more wrong with not giving your early adopters similar (or the same) incentives.
Well, there are worse ways to get rid of unsold inventory. Hopefully the bundled PS TVs go to good homes and don't just end up in random CEXs across the country.
@drpepperdude100 I... get your point, but if you quite seriously think DBZ alone would sell this game... Dragon Ball XenoVerse has English Language VA and is a very similar style of game to this. Were I just interested in Dragon Ball... it'd be a considerably better proposal for me than a game with three DB characters and 20-or-so I'm just not interested in.
As for fewer sales in the NA market... the increase in sales, historically speaking, doesn't actually account for the increase in cost. I doubt that will change any time soon, unfortunately.
@drpepperdude100 Considering that, for a good third of the roster, there are no official English voice actors; and the other two-thirds are scattered between multiple companies, an English dub for this kind of game would be prohibitively, ridiculously expensive; more expensive than the sales for a game so ridiculously niche could justify. Would dubbing positively contribute to sales? I don't know, probably! For a decent amount of time, publishers like Bandai Namco have avoided these sorts of games because they feel like the "no dub no buy!" mentality has enough of a hold to make the localisation of these games prohibitively expensive - it's only recently that they've realised that the community actually buying these niche games just doesn't care - if the game's based on an anime, chances are their target audience is watching it subtitled anyway, particularly if they plan on staying up-to-date.
Don't get me wrong, it is a bit disappointing that the potential audience is so small the publishers need to cheap out on a localisation... but anything to save me from the horribad English voices of Naruto and Sasuke is a net positive in my book.
Takaki is such an endearing guy, seriously. Say what you will about his games or his general attitude, but he always comes across as actually caring about his fans and the quality of his output. Based entirely upon streams of the Japanese version, he's achieved his goal of cuteness with Estival Versus, and I look forward to getting my hands on it... pun probably intended.
As silly a feature as it is to get excited about, automated screenshots for every trophy sounds like a fun way to keep tabs on my backlog... and annoy my friends if they automatically share to every social network under the sun.
Also, proper suspend/resume is long, long overdue. Guess I should just be happy it's actually there.
PS Mobile always felt like an afterthought to me. An attempt by Sony to replicate the minor success of the Xbox Live Indies service on the 360, only with very little in the way of promotion or support for either the service or the games on it. The lack of trophies and the limited use of the PS Vita (you could not, for example, use the rear touch panel or cameras with the PSM SDK, though that may no longer be the case) clearly helped things along, too.
I'm sad, however, that certain games (Tokyo Jungle Mobile, for example) will be lost to the ages as a result of the closure of PSM, but it's hardly a shock - the real shock, really, is that it took Sony this long to axe it.
The PS3 isn't going to die any time soon, regardless of how much some people seem to want it to. After the big publishers realise that the cross-gen route only works with certain games (such as yearly sports titles and Call of Duty); I imagine the PS3 will accompany the same space the PS2 did between 2008 and 2012 - a system for smaller Japanese developers and publishers, mixed in with yearly sports games and kid-friendly IPs. This is, naturally, only a good thing - it offers a lower cost system to families and gamers in poorer countries with a large library of inexpensive titles and a healthy secondhand market; while not compromising the experience of those with current gen systems.
Those who can remember 2005-2007 may also remember a large number of "next gen" titles on the PS360 that were either up-ported PS2/Xbox games, or in-development PS2/Xbox games hastily moved to the newer systems mid-cycle. If you can't... look back at the Xbox 360's launch lineup, that applies to about 75% of the games there. In other words, the industry is cyclical as all heck, and it's easy to predict that certain trends (such as every other game being cross gen for no discernible reason) will be dead and gone by the end of this year.
@Enobmah_Shards When the game was accidentally put on a European store update a couple of months back, it was cross buy, so I'd assume that remains the case.
Comments 88
Re: Pac-Man 256 Is Chomping a Path to Your PS4
@themcnoisy to be fair, it's a game that works well on mobile phones and they've actually put some effort into the presentation and such - it's also ridiculously addictive. Given that you generally play a smartphone game to pass 5 minutes when there's nothing else available, I can see why it'd be so well-received.
That said, I'm not overly sure I'd want Pac-Man 256 or Crossy Road on a console - they're not the kinds of games I want to sit down and play for hours on my lovely big-screen TV, and I don't think I'm alone in those regards.
That said, I'll probably buy it anyway, because I do like to support the developer, and I'd hope a "premium" console version would eliminate the need for ads and microtransactions in the smartphone version.
Re: You Better Hope SEGA Publishes Persona 5 in Europe, 'Cause NIS America Won't Be
Given SEGA Europe's deafening silence over the past 10 or so days, it's looking doubtful. They've been silent on the 3DS game 7th Dragon Code:VFD ever since its announcement back in February, silent on Hatsune Miku Project Diva X, a game confirmed to have a near-simultaneous launch (on PS4) in Japan and the US; and in the case of Valkyria Chronicles PS4, are giving it considerably worse treatment than their US division, who have gone to the expense of making a lovely steelbook edition of the game.
I'd rather not import, but if it came to Persona 5's European release either being given considerably worse treatment or an inexplicable delay, I'd rather import than act like such things are okay.
Edit - Of course, if SEGA Europe has absolutely no interest in publishing these kinds of games, I think they should just come out and say that. Rather be openly told they're not interested in my money than hold on to some vain hope that they'll see the light.
Re: Save Big This Spring with European PlayStation Store Sale
The Witch & The Hundred Knight Revival for £11.99 is a wonderful deal, especially if you've never played it on the PS3. Oh, and EDF 4.1 for £19.99 should be on everybody's list, because Sandlot games are excellent.
On the Vita front, Digimon is absurdly cheap (£15.99) and the latest Senran Kagura is half-off at £14.99 (though not on PS4, strange!). Both definitely well worth the asking price for how much gameplay they have to offer.
I'm probably a little bitter that Digimon is this cheap this soon, but apparently, Bandai Namco were happy with the launch sales, which bodes well for future Digimon games.
Re: Review: Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4)
I can second the performance issues majorly impacting my enjoyment of Stories. Multiple times, I've got Reynardo stuck in the level geometry smashing inanimate objects (the quips of the narrator are totally worth it); and due to the lack of in-chapter checkpoints, I have to repeat the segment after quitting and reloading my save. That said, I'm yet to experience any major slowdown (six different endings so far, three of the four truths unlocked); but I -have- experienced one of the alternate routes just... not appearing. No idea if that's an issue related to the game being ported forward from Unreal3 to Unreal4 (I think it's been indev long enough for that to be a potential "thing"), or just a game specific thing.
Regardless, with a patch, I couldn't recommend this enough. In its current state, even at the relatively low price for a good 20+ hour RPG... I'd pass unless you're willing to put up with technical hiccups.
Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the PlayStation Vita?
@Boerewors To be fair - the 3DS sells so well because Nintendo's handheld IPs - Pokémon, New Super Mario Bros., et cetera; are hard to compete with when appealing to a mainstream audience. It's having similar problems to a lesser scale - struggling to break 50 million in 5 years when its predecessor was at over 100 million in the same time. The dedicated handheld market died in the mainstream when tablets and smartphones became capable enough gaming devices to satisfy most; and the Vita never had enough quality software to gain a "base" beyond fans of its mix of low-budget indie and Japanese titles.
That's not to say the Vita doesn't have plenty of amazing games; because it really does; but when they're -incredibly niche- games, it's not hard to understand the system's eventual fate.
Still, as long as developers are finding success on the Vita and are willing to bring software to it, there's plenty of life left in the system, even if it paints a grim picture for the future of Sony handhelds.
That said, gaming in general has been changing a lot over the past few years, the Vita's an unfortunate victim of this transitionary period, and I sincerely hope that when things even out once more and the market is less unstable, Sony takes another stab at handheld gaming.
Re: Your PlayStation Plus Games for March Have Been Revealed
Months like these make me wary to buy Indie games when they're new. I mean, Galak-Z and Flame Over are decent games and definitely worth the money I paid for them, but knowing I could have got them for technically-free six months down the line really stings. Still, it's only 40 quid a year, I'm hardly going to complain about one or two months that are bad for me.
Reality fighters, though? The only people fighting reality are the Sony marketing execs claiming Plus incentive games are "top rated".
Re: Street Fighter V Scores Console Exclusive Box Branding
It was pretty much a given that Sony would eventually find some way to market this, considering the sheer number of games coming to both PS4 and PC, but not other platforms, we've been getting. The logo looks a little out of place, though, unless they plan to rebrand the "Only on PlayStation" one to look the same.
Re: Feature: 5 Firmware Updates the PS4 Desperately Needs in 2016
A name change would be rather nice. I've had my PSN name since the PlayStation Forums days... it'd be nice to go back and tell my 12 year-old self that having a 666 at the end of your username is nowhere near as cool as you seem to think it is.
Failing that, PSOne Classics support is definitely do-able and probably not that much of a pain, as far as logistics are concerned. Or, for something actually on the poll - custom backgrounds would be pretty nice. I mean, I really like the PlayStation 20th Anniversary theme and background, it's the only one I've ever cared enough about to use; but sometimes I get fed up of the plain grey background, so something new wouldn't go amiss. Sure, I could just pick another theme, but I like the way the icons are themed in the 20th anniversary theme, so there. I'm picky. Let me be picky :B
Re: Japanese Sales Charts: Even with Declining Numbers, PS4 Manages to Stay at the Top
I'm impressed by the unit sales - 22,000 units and considerably fewer (charting) games, with the sales of all charting PS4 games combined only reaching 17584. I highly doubt 5,000 people are buying PS4s to just stare at them, though, which makes me curious about what, exactly, Japanese consumers are buying alongside their consoles, if anything.
Re: 'Violent Video Game Addict' Is to Blame for Recent Hacking Scandal, Says Consistently Crap Newspaper
@Anchorsam_9 Just wait for a fairly high-profile gaming youtuber to die from cancer, and then we'll get the "link between violent video games and cancer found" articles.
Re: 'Violent Video Game Addict' Is to Blame for Recent Hacking Scandal, Says Consistently Crap Newspaper
I find the Daily Mail hilarious - a paper supposedly committed to family values that has on at least one occasion ran a "femail" column encouraging women to cheat on their husbands.
And video games are the biggest problem in society right now. Sure, guys.
Re: Paris Games Week: DriveClub Bikes is Probably Getting Announced Today
@themcnoisy the bikes in PGR were awful, but the bikes in Motorstorm were probably the most fun vehicles to drive. Hopefully, the end-result is more Motorstorm than PGR.
Re: So That's Inafune Already Thinking About a Mighty No. 9 Sequel
If MN9 is anything but a big, fat disappointment; I'll be pleasantly surprised. If it sells well enough to non-backers to justify a sequel, I'll purchase a hat for the sole purpose of eating it.
Re: Activision Should Cancel the PS3 Version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
To be fair, this isn't the first cross-generation title to have its last-gen versions mysteriously disappear this year - Mortal Kombat X was pushed back multiple times prior to its quiet cancellation; and I expect this to take the same route - either because it's just not feasible to port, period; or because it's not cost-effective to do so. Most likely the latter.
Re: PS4's Until Dawn Discounted in Spooky EU Hallowe'en Sale
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for Vita is quite cheap now, and if you're looking for another unique JRPG to add to the already huge list, definitely worth a look at the £8.99 it's going for.
That said, if you only have enough time in your life for one JRPG, Demon Gaze is probably the best first-person dungeon crawler I've played in a while, and only £6 to boot.
Re: UK Sales Charts: PS4 JRPGs Infiltrate Best Sellers List
@Dodoo To be fair, the title is about as bananas as the whole game's concept. Dragon Quest has no business being such a good fit for Dynasty Warriors-style gameplay, but there it is. It's a shame it hasn't sold better, but there have been multiple Dynasty Warriors style games released on PS4 in the past few months, with One Piece and Saint Seiya's crossovers instantly coming to mind.
@Matroska I work with people who buy consoles solely for FIFA. I have seen, first hand, the exact reason why the UK gaming marketplace is so poorly regarded by most people. Frankly, I don't give a toss. They can keep buying expensive consoles solely for FIFA, while I enjoy the wealth of great games the rest of the industry has to offer.
Also, aren't you the guy who posts the same thing every damn week?
Re: This Is the Flashiest PS Plus Voucher You'll Ever Buy
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Now that, I can get behind. I'd happily buy a second PS4, even at an inflated cost, if they made a non-limited version of the 20th anniversary PS4.
Of course, my PS Plus is due a renewal, so I'll pick this up like a diligent sucker.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Uncharted PS4 Nabs the 8th Biggest PS4 Launch of 2015
As much as I'm enjoying Transformers : Devastation, I think it's safe to say that; even at a budget price and with the most appealing art style I've ever seen in a Transformers game, a TF game banking on G1 nostalgia just doesn't have the power to sell when all hell's breaking loose and it's right in the eye of the storm.
Re: Vote for One of Your Free PS4 PlayStation Plus Games This Week
I'm in the minority voting for Armello. It's not the most accessible of the games on the current list, for certain, but the developers seem to be inspired by Redwall; and that's more than enough for me to be interested. The fact there are very few good console games in its general vein also makes me think it should get the chance to be introduced to a wider audience.
I don't quite get why the majority's -this- excited for Grow Home. It's a good game, sure, but the general consensus from Steam reviews seems to be that it's an incredibly short game; and for an open world game, there's very little actual reason or incentive to explore - which I'd consider the kiss of death for any open world. Length is hardly a compelling argument, granted, but when Grow Home is up against something considerably more "gamey", that I'm more likely to get more value out of, I find it hard to be excited.
As for Zombie Vikings... it looks like a Castle Crashers clone with "HA HA I'M SO WACKY LOOK AT ME BEING WACKY AREN'T I SO FUNNY GUYS" humour. Stick It To the Man was similarly "wacky", and while that was a good point-and-click game, the writing made it very hard to get invested enough to continue to the actual game bit, in my experience. I'm sure the sense of humour has its niche - just not me. Or most other people I know.
Re: UK Sales Charts: A Rare Change at the Summit
@Markos74 Chart Track only tracks new sales of retail games, the PSN has its own monthly sales charts, though, and I expect FIFA 15 to be high this month because of the current sale.
Re: Review: J-Stars Victory VS+ (PS Vita)
@ShogunRok @SteveButler2210 I'd rather what we have than the clashing art-styles we would have otherwise got, mind you. It looks fairly generic and standardised when everybody's modelled in the style we got, certainly, but it does at least provide a more consistent look to everybody. The attention-to-detail in practically every other area more than makes up for not having everybody be true to their original works.
@NomNom It reminds me of the Dragon Ball Tenkaichi series and the Gundam Vs. Series in terms of gameplay; so if you're okay with a fighting game that isn't overly technical, but is fast-paced enough to keep your attention, it's definitely worth a buy if you're a fan of Shounen manga and recognise enough characters to make it worth your while; especially on the PS Vita where it's a good 10-20 quid cheaper than the home console versions.
Re: Gal Gun: Double Peace Plans on Bringing Its Risqué Pheremone Business West on PS4 and Vita
On the one hand, it's great to see games that, even five years ago, would have -never- been localised get Western releases. On the other hand, I don't see this being the kind of thing retailers would even bother to stock in the event of a physical release, so I guess that resigns it to Digital-Only and makes me wonder why Inti doesn't just self-publish on the PSN store.
... I'd probably buy it either way, I have basically every other weird Japanese game localised for the PS4 at this point.
Re: Rumour: Is Final Fantasy XII Coming to the PS4 Next?
Final Fantasy 12 is easily my favourite of the Final Fantasy games (Final Fantasies?) on the PS2; and I'd happily purchase it yet again, especially with the level of work and care Square-Enix generally puts into its HD Remasters. While we're on that note, the oft-rumoured Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 PS4 releases would be pretty nice, too, I'd double-dip on those just so I didn't have to dust off a dualshock 3 to play them.
Re: PS4 Exclusive DriveClub Passes Two Million Sales Milestone
It's no wonder it's selling so well - the PS Plus "Upgrade" version of the game is twenty quid. With the season pass, fourty quid total, and you get more content there than certain other racing games I could name would provide out-of-the-box for the same price. Evolution have -really- turned DriveClub around, and some of the gestures to the community - like making the first DLC pack free-for-all, making extra, really good, DLC to ensure season pass owners aren't short-changed and the free concept car DLC, my most favourite of which being the Motorstorm Dune Buggy - all show just how much they care about ensuring the customer gets their money's worth.
Now here's hoping their next game is a return to the Motorstorm series - Apocalypse was probably my most-played PS3 racing game by a good margin.
Re: Weirdness: This Is the Jak & Daxter Sequel You'll Never Play
I think Naughty Dog as it currently is would not be a good fit for the Jak series, particularly when Jason Rubin and a lot of "old" Naughty Dog have left the company. On the other hand, in reference to what @get2sammyb said, I still think Sucker Punch could make a good new Sly Cooper game, and while 4 was decent enough, I'd like to see the original developers return to the series, particularly with their experience in making open-world games with platforming elements from the Infamous series.
Re: Soapbox: Why PS4's Indie Influx Isn't as Bad as You Think
@Anchorsam_9 " but I'm pretty sure a PS Plus game has to be rated 8 or higher on the store" - the condition, for the EU lineup anyway, was that the game had to have a metacritic rating of 70 or higher to be included. I don't know if that's still the case, but it's made kind of moot by games debuting on plus - particularly more divisive ones like last year's Metrico for PS Vita - which may or may not meet the Metacritic 70 requirement when reviews do finally hit.
Overall, really enjoyable article. I do feel like there's a stigma attached to an independent title launching on Plus that isn't always fair; and I'm glad that the service has introduced me to games like Resogun, Don't Starve, Woah Dave!, Mercenary Kings and a list of others about as long as my arm. I understand that they're not to everybody's tastes, sure, but when a title like Rocket League is one of the most well-received Plus titles in the history of the service, I'm obviously not alone in thinking that merely having the option there is a major incentive to at least give them a proper try.
Re: Rumour: Mighty No. 9 May Say Nein to 2015 Release
I, for one, am glad I decided against backing MN9 in the end. I know people, people I otherwise respect, who have put ridiculous amounts of money into the game; and they're yet to receive anything tangible for it - in fact, some of them have been banned from the Backers' forum for being critical of pre-release Betas and videos they have seen and played.
I sincerely hope somebody out there is making records and compiling every last negative thing to come out of Comcept - it'd really serve as a master class in how to not handle any game development project, let alone a crowdfunding project. Not just because of the lessons Comcept could serve when they're being made an example of, but also to ensure Inafune only ever gets work through incredibly nebulous publishing deals made with shady Chinese companies in the future.
@sajoey I think it was Hideki Kamiya who referred to Inafune as "A businessman, not an artist" and warned people against backing MN9. As somebody who's held that opinion for years, I'm enjoying all the humble pie people who accused Kamiya of being bitter at the time are being forced to eat.
Re: Store Update: 21st July 2015 (Europe)
@SteveButler2210 Activision only had the rights to publish the Deadpool for about six or so months due to a poorly negotiated contract, and therefore massively underprinted it. I doubt it'll, even as a result of this, become some Earthbound-esque cult classic people sell for $200+ 20 years down the line; but that at least explains the high market value of the few physical copies around.
Re: Street Fighter V May Be the Most Consumer Friendly Fighter Ever
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi I think that there's nothing inherently wrong with packaging a game+DLC together for latecomers; provided the DLC gets a bundle or price drop to allow those who bought the game first-time to get the DLC at a more reasonable price without double-dipping. The problem, however, is that I can't think of any instances where this has happened. That's a real problem.
There's nothing wrong with incentivising your old products to attract new customers, there's considerably more wrong with not giving your early adopters similar (or the same) incentives.
Re: At Launch in the UK, the 1TB PS4 Will Come Bundled With a PlayStation TV Console
Well, there are worse ways to get rid of unsold inventory. Hopefully the bundled PS TVs go to good homes and don't just end up in random CEXs across the country.
Re: Review: J-Stars Victory VS+ (PS4)
@drpepperdude100 I... get your point, but if you quite seriously think DBZ alone would sell this game... Dragon Ball XenoVerse has English Language VA and is a very similar style of game to this. Were I just interested in Dragon Ball... it'd be a considerably better proposal for me than a game with three DB characters and 20-or-so I'm just not interested in.
As for fewer sales in the NA market... the increase in sales, historically speaking, doesn't actually account for the increase in cost. I doubt that will change any time soon, unfortunately.
Re: It's The Weekend, So Of Course PSN Is Down
Don't worry, lads, the PlayStation Store is still up, so you can still spend all of your money on those online games you cannot play!
... at least, it is for me, both PS4 and webstore. I should probably shut up before that goes down too.
Re: Review: J-Stars Victory VS+ (PS4)
@drpepperdude100 Considering that, for a good third of the roster, there are no official English voice actors; and the other two-thirds are scattered between multiple companies, an English dub for this kind of game would be prohibitively, ridiculously expensive; more expensive than the sales for a game so ridiculously niche could justify. Would dubbing positively contribute to sales? I don't know, probably! For a decent amount of time, publishers like Bandai Namco have avoided these sorts of games because they feel like the "no dub no buy!" mentality has enough of a hold to make the localisation of these games prohibitively expensive - it's only recently that they've realised that the community actually buying these niche games just doesn't care - if the game's based on an anime, chances are their target audience is watching it subtitled anyway, particularly if they plan on staying up-to-date.
Don't get me wrong, it is a bit disappointing that the potential audience is so small the publishers need to cheap out on a localisation... but anything to save me from the horribad English voices of Naruto and Sasuke is a net positive in my book.
Re: Girls are Cuter on the PS4, According to Senran Kagura Creator
Takaki is such an endearing guy, seriously. Say what you will about his games or his general attitude, but he always comes across as actually caring about his fans and the quality of his output. Based entirely upon streams of the Japanese version, he's achieved his goal of cuteness with Estival Versus, and I look forward to getting my hands on it... pun probably intended.
Re: Feature: What's New in PS4 Firmware Update 2.50?
As silly a feature as it is to get excited about, automated screenshots for every trophy sounds like a fun way to keep tabs on my backlog... and annoy my friends if they automatically share to every social network under the sun.
Also, proper suspend/resume is long, long overdue. Guess I should just be happy it's actually there.
Re: Sony Hangs Up on Failed PlayStation Mobile Push
PS Mobile always felt like an afterthought to me. An attempt by Sony to replicate the minor success of the Xbox Live Indies service on the 360, only with very little in the way of promotion or support for either the service or the games on it. The lack of trophies and the limited use of the PS Vita (you could not, for example, use the rear touch panel or cameras with the PSM SDK, though that may no longer be the case) clearly helped things along, too.
I'm sad, however, that certain games (Tokyo Jungle Mobile, for example) will be lost to the ages as a result of the closure of PSM, but it's hardly a shock - the real shock, really, is that it took Sony this long to axe it.
Re: Talking Point: Is This the End for the PlayStation 3?
The PS3 isn't going to die any time soon, regardless of how much some people seem to want it to. After the big publishers realise that the cross-gen route only works with certain games (such as yearly sports titles and Call of Duty); I imagine the PS3 will accompany the same space the PS2 did between 2008 and 2012 - a system for smaller Japanese developers and publishers, mixed in with yearly sports games and kid-friendly IPs. This is, naturally, only a good thing - it offers a lower cost system to families and gamers in poorer countries with a large library of inexpensive titles and a healthy secondhand market; while not compromising the experience of those with current gen systems.
Those who can remember 2005-2007 may also remember a large number of "next gen" titles on the PS360 that were either up-ported PS2/Xbox games, or in-development PS2/Xbox games hastily moved to the newer systems mid-cycle. If you can't... look back at the Xbox 360's launch lineup, that applies to about 75% of the games there. In other words, the industry is cyclical as all heck, and it's easy to predict that certain trends (such as every other game being cross gen for no discernible reason) will be dead and gone by the end of this year.
Re: January's Free PlayStation Plus Games include inFAMOUS: First Light on PS4 and More
@Enobmah_Shards When the game was accidentally put on a European store update a couple of months back, it was cross buy, so I'd assume that remains the case.