wildcat_kickz

HD2 is such a great game with an addictive gameplay loop. Well deserved success.

My hope is that Sony realizes that the reduced price tag contributed to the sales numbers and this isn't a "missed opportunity" to charge $60 or $70.

MTXs are also some of the most reasonably priced I've seen in modern games, too.

@wiiware The noodie outfit is hard mode, apparently.

@MikeOrator Don't need an up-skirt camera mode. See above.

No Pong paddle?

I bought this on day one and played for a couple dozen hours and fell off. I understand the game is much expanded, which is truly remarkable, though the resource grind is pretty hard to get myself back into.

One day, I'll get myself a VR headset and give this another go. Methinks that's the secret sauce that's needed for me now.

What diverse biomes!

Very curious about AC Red and maybe a new Ghost Recon?

@Yozora146_ Ah, gotcha. I didn't realize that space travel was inhibited by a specific planet's communist robots. I'll need to spread freedom more vigorously in the future!

@-Sigma- @Mostik I (and I assume many others) couldn't drop to Tibit due to a game bug. Never was available for me for the entire time the major order was available.

Too bad we failed to protect Tibit due to Helldivers High Command negligence, disabling our ability to drop to the planet.

I think a solid 8 is fair. I love the exploration and combat - one of the most open-ended games I've played recently. This is a lot of what I wanted out of BotW. That said, the story is (so far) seriously forgettable and I don't think any of the characters are memorable. Very Skyrim-esque in that way.

@get2sammyb I feel like getting an accurate read on player sentiment online is so unreliable these days. Sure, there are plenty of valid criticisms leveled at every game, which should be taken seriously, but so much of the oxygen is taken up by trolls and (let's be honest) emotional/intellectual babies throwing temper tantrums (i.e. puddle-gate). What can we do to filter out the nonsense and make sure that developers/media are putting their focus where it really matters?

@darthvirgin Not everything is a planned marketing beat. Maybe... just maybe... it's funny to write in a tongue-in-cheek, propagandistic way? Just let people have fun, dude...

@JP80 I dunno... I think this is probably gonna be marketed at younger crowds and Asian markets. Definitely not for me, but I don't think I was the target demo, anyway...

@__jamiie Elder Scrolls 6 and Beyond Good and Evil 2

Honestly, I think it's pretty unnecessary, but for enthusiasts, like me, I'll still pick one up. I can't resist a shiny new toy, particularly one that can stabilize the fidelity-to-frame-rates ratio and maybe make ray-tracing a more utilized feature in future games. I have a big ol' LG OLED, so would love some more games to pop.

As mentioned before, though, for a typical gamer, this is a completely unnecessary upgrade. Save your money for the PS6 or... ya know... the games.

@Northern_munkey I actually don't think that's accurate. Pretty sure you can still only have one save file. Definitely a bummer, but on par with the first game.

All welcome changes! Played this non-stop over the weekend and am totally head over heels for this game.

@Skadoosh People acting like they don't have personal agency. "They added microtransactions! I have no self control and it's THEIR fault! I will buy all of it and complain how I'm always broke!"

@AinsleyE I would love a historical game, personally. Maybe western colonial era or Japanese Edo or maybe something even more out there, like a South American setting? Not a retelling of historical events, mind you, but a fictional story, set in a historical time period.

I wonder if they're moving on to Divinity 3 or maybe something outside of fantasy, which I would find particularly interesting.

@Frmknst I see your Godfall and raise you an Immortals of Aveum

@thefourfoldroot1 that would be a lot of excited dragon's dogma fans

No gameplay, no hype. Superheroes are a huge turnoff for me, but the WWII setting is very intriguing! Proof will be in the pudding, but Hennig definitely has the chops to make this good.

@Neither_scene I appreciate the apology, thank you. I think we both know our stuff, but are just coming to different conclusions.

I think it's understood that, as a hardware manufacturer, Sony has a pretty robust R&D department, which is built in and pre-budgeted for. No doubt, they are prototyping not only a PS6, but also a handheld, controllers, TVs, media players, cloud server infrastructure etc. Most of these will never come to market, but innovation requires investment and I think that, broadly, Sony shareholders and leadership accept this as a cost of business.

I also just don't think I agree with the zero sum angle. Sure there's always an opportunity cost for everything, but I don't think it's a fair argument to say "if they didn't do the PS5 Pro, then normal PS5 games would be better." We went through that same argument when the PS4 Pro came out and it just didn't manifest in that way.

I'm in complete agreement that the average gamer couldn't care less about 8K and 120fps. I don't even care about 8K and 120fps. Each resolution and fps bump has diminishing returns and I think 4K 60 fps is pretty much the sweet spot. Any additional GPU headroom should be put towards fundamental gameplay advancements, not how sharp a blade of grass looks on my TV. I have a TV that runs 120hz and I honestly can't really tell the difference, though I do appreciate the 40fps option.

Regarding the economy, sure, world economics are in a different place now, but I'm not convinced that this would really impact PS5 Pro sales. People who can afford a PS5 Pro aren't the ones really hurting from the economy at the moment.

To me, this all is a bunch'o nothing. It's like the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. They both broadly do the same things, but one does them better and costs more. If you want the incremental improvements and can afford it, then have at it!

@Neither_scene Ignoring your blatant condescension, let me break down my perspective as someone who literally works in finance and accounting (I guess I don't understand my profession, though):

Corporations of this size do not operate based on short-term gains. They play the long game. Sony is not operating paycheck to paycheck and is firmly in the black. Therefore, investing into R&D on products (something they are always doing) does not take away from budgets allotted to game devs. These budgets are often determined independently, based on the performance of said teams. 900 canned employees does not manifestly alter Sony's future hardware ambitions.

Regarding dev teams utilizing the capabilities of the PS5 Pro, no, it's not "free," but I also didn't claim it was. But it also does not add a substantial amount of work to the teams when they are optimizing. Games are constantly being tweaked to get the most out of their respective hardware and are typically designed to take advantage of multiple hardware parameters (virtually every PC game ever). If Sony is expecting to bring more of their games to PC anyway, this is something they are already doing. Additionally, the PS5 was designed to be more PC-like in its both its hardware and operating system, making modular changes like frame rate caps and resolution bumps easier to achieve. They already do this to their games! If you have a 120hz TV, a lot of PS5 games will offer additional graphical options that don't even show up in the menus for 60hz TVs.

Hopefully, you can accept this quite obvious rebuttal.

@Neither_scene I think you're missing some points, yourself. Sony has no interest in losing money. Sure, they've invested R&D, manufacturing, and marketing costs into the PS5 Pro, but they fully expect to make that money back and then some. Quite literally, this revenue can help fund the games development you think has been sacrificed to bring this machine about. In addition, claiming a Pro model makes it harder for developers is old hat. We've heard this already when the PS4 Pro came out. Wasn't true then, isn't true now.

@Bagwag82 You will be missed.

@LifeGirl If it's not jealousy driving your distaste for a PS5 Pro, than what is it? Surely, you're not here just to rain on someone else's parade. What about a Pro version is so egregious? Phones and computers do it all the time. Hell, Xbox already has one with the Series X. If a small section of your audience wants a premium version of the console to take advantage of more modern tech, in what universe does that affect someone who doesn't want to buy it?

@GKT No, I think each game would be opt-in for any enhancements to frame rate via a game patch. Maybe the tech would allow for a resolution bump? But 60fps is already easily possible for Bloodborne on PS5, but the game code has the frame rate capped.

All the people in the comments complaining about the PS5 Pro being unnecessary just have really bad FOMO. It's an enthusiast machine. No one is forcing anyone to buy anything. Jealousy is a bad look, folks.

@zhoont So did everyone else 😂

We can only hope for as much profanity in Dragon's Dogma 2 as there is in Deadwood.

@ryanburnsred Very true, though I imagine there will be cross pollination from time to time, especially closer to Witcher's release.

Love both Jedi games, so I'm pretty interested to see what he cooks up next. Hopefully, not more Star Wars, though.

Glad they've put a bow on it. All hands on deck for the Witcher!

Pretty unfortunate that they have to resort to these totally out-of-pocket crossovers to generate any kind of revenue for the game. At least the Witcher and Mass Effect gear look like they are lore appropriate, but a Slimer ghost and a Cadillac? Come on, Sony. You can do better...

These bizarre crossovers are some of the biggest turnoffs in games for me. I want escapism in games - not a constant reminder of real-world marketing deals.

@Rhaoulos I get the frustration, but I think joy of audience participation has been cultivated by FromSoft over the last 15 years. It seems, to me, that each release leans a little more into the obtuse nature of their story telling. It's definitely not for everyone, though.

That said, if you dig the combat and general gameplay of FromSoft, but want a little more of a cohesive narrative, I would highly recommend Lies of P. Seriously, one of the best games of 2023 and I think it holds its own with the very best of FromSoft.

@Northern_munkey Haters gonna hate.

@SamMR I loved all the cerebral gameplay mechanics from the first game (which is undoubtedly in their SH games too), but yeah, totally agree that combat and general traversal is pretty rough. It's like watching an action figure with not enough articulation points moving around.

I'm really hoping they can figure that out, because if they do, they could have a real banger on their hands!

@ZhuckelDror 🙄

God, I hope they improve the character animations (movement, in particular), but you can't deny the charm of the first game. Lovecraftian vibes = chef's kiss

@ZhuckelDror No offense, but I think you're digging your heels in when it's not necessary. If they just called it "exclusive," we'd be having a different conversation, but marketers do go out of their way to indicate a "console exclusive" to specifically delineate the difference.

@ZhuckelDror Language is fluid and not stagnant. The only constant is change.

@ZhuckelDror "Console Exclusive" has been a term used pretty regularly in the industry for the last 2 generations, or so (a decade, thereabouts). Xbox used the term a lot when they started releasing all their titles on PC, and now Sony uses it a lot too, given their penchant for releasing their own titles on PC. I understand that the term is paradoxical, but it's widely accepted in the industry.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Tencent publishing the game. Doesn't China have some restrictions on religious subtext?

I was hoping this would at least hit 40fps for 120hz TVs, but I still stand by my opinion that 30fps is totally fine for 3rd person games, as long as it's stable. If it's hiccupping all over the place, though, that paints a different story. Hopefully, they clean it up a little more by release, but I'll probably be getting it regardless. Just looks like too much fun.

Maybe I'll check it out for a night when it comes to PS Plus in a few months. Maybe

I feel like this is pretty on par, nowadays. You'd be hard pressed to find a full-length title coming in at any smaller than 80GB, especially an open world title.

When everyone was saying that the SSD would make games smaller, it didn't take into account that newer games have higher resolution textures, higher fidelity audio, more complex animations, etc. All of these (especially textures and audio) take up an enormous amount of space.

I really hope this Anvil "overhaul" reintroduces player-character clothing physics, which were puzzlingly removed from Valhalla completely. Mirage has a bit added, but it's still not as good as it was when it peaked with Origins. I wonder if the developer in responsible for that left the company and took their insight with them?

I think this game looks pretty damn good! Only problem is it comes out the same day as Dragon's Dogma 2. Which to chose!?

I get for us Westerners, this looks a lot like Ghost of Tsushima, but keep in mind there's ~600 years between the time periods of the two games. Should make for very different vibes and experiences!