@Ralizah Oh yeah I totally get it, and I consider myself to be pretty particular about games. I just consider this game to be an important contribution to the medium, similar to something like Breath of the Wild.
Even if it is flawed in some crucial ways and can be slow-paced and cryptic, it’s still something worth experiencing yourself.
@Ralizah Whoever convinces you not to pick this one up at some point, don’t listen to them. It’s worth a shot, even if you don’t like these sorts of games. A rare achievement.
I can see an episodic “villain of the week” thing working for the story, but there has never been much intrigue in the games storylines. If they departed from the tone of the games it might work.
@Darude84 That’s not what shovelware is. A 70% review aggregate constitutes the majority of current Ubisoft releases, middling metriodvanias, and janky but still fun RPGs. Also Frogwares games.
Shovelware is typically made by developers who just want to release their game, regardless of the quality.
It’s acceptable. Great graphics and world but let down by glacial pacing and truly awful dialogue. I think when I was younger the Final Fantasy troupes were fine but now I just can’t get into the characters and the storylines are so trite. It wouldn’t be an issue if the plot was just in the background and I didn’t need to be invested in it, but given it’s prominence, it just feels juvenile but not in a fun way. Very 15 year old boy coded.
As a general rule it’s silly to buy consoles day one. I waited a year for the Switch1/ PS5 to actually get some momentum before diving in. The digital games are 60-70 bucks which is the standard price for games now. But leave it to the internet to make a mountain out of a molehill.
The silliest thing about the direct is charging for that Switch 2 demo game lol. The price for the console seems fair though. It’s a higher quality itineration of the Switch concept, and it’ll be awesome to play Elden Ring anywhere.
It’s a great game that is made a classic by the addition of the DLC. I’m a fan of the horror theming myself and the world is incredible. In terms of quality I wouldn’t say that it is any better than the first three Souls games but is better than Dark Souls 3 which felt sorta uninspired by comparison.
Go anywhere, do anything, eat a sandwich, take a nap with the game in the background, or don’t, it doesn’t matter to us. Are you unable to decide between Death Stranding or Elden Ring? Call 555-HELLISUS and talk to one of our licensed professionals.
I want to play Nine Sols as that looks right up my alley, but for me the game of the year was Animal Well. I don’t remember the last time a game so totally blew me away with its creativity and level design.
Man it’s desperate times out there for Bloodborne fans. They are running around like blood staved beast searching for 60 fps, no matter the price to their sanity.
@nessisonett I felt that way at first, but the more I dug into it, the more I realized how cynically designed the game systems are. I’m not sure if this sort of reptile brained “number go up, money get” approach to design is necessarily good. Unless the game is some meta commentary on the nature of video game content, divorced from context, about getting a bunch of stuff with higher numbers. I guess the experience sort of depressed me and made me want to go do something creative with my time. I’m not sure a video game should create that feeling….
Though I have increasingly become tired of JRPGs for similar reasons.
Depends on if the game is worth the struggle. I’ve powered through many games that were difficult because I was enjoying the experience overall. But then there are games where it isn’t worth it for me. A recent example is Tunic. Tried to get into it, but the difficult combat just didn’t interest me at all and the pleasure of exploration couldn’t overcome that aspect.
But some of the best games of recent years have had an effective difficulty curve. The recent trend of “cozy” games, have revealed how shallow an experience could be when everything is just given to the player by grinding. That’s why I’ve given up on so many Jrpgs as well.
I’m getting this dlc eventually but I’m not optimistic about it improving the quality of the final stretch of game. I’m not a fan of how From have ramped up the difficulty of the bosses, so much so you have to choose cheesy builds or memorize a dozen untelegraphed moves to defeat them. Dark Souls 3 had the perfect balance of difficulty and fun.
@Athrum The reason it was written that way was to emulate and partially parody noir fiction written by authors like Raymond Chandler. Also to capture the feeling of “thought” in text, you’ve got to include some digressions. But yeah I suppose it seems pretentious for the video game world, but for literature not so much.
On the “up their butt” end of literary games, see Norco and Kentucky Route Zero where you are forced to watch a 10 minutes stage play on the misery of late stage Capitalism lol
Yeah bring it on. KC:D is one of the most immersive games I’ve ever played. Really had to learn the rules of world to succeed. Hope the next game has a similar quality.
Might get around to Dragon’s Dogma 2 but overall this is looking like a backlog year for me. Other than Shadow of Erdtree and a couple of indie titles, nothing exciting on the horizon.
@thefourfoldroot1 Finally someone who gets it. Shareholders are coming to block our boners! This is starting to make me question my priorities, which is definitely not cool bro. I need a Pocky stick, pronto! Keep the dream alive.
I mean it’s fine, there have been plenty of games that have come out with sexy girl outfits though. I find it an incredibly boring hand to play. There are more exciting character designs than “Korean K-pop supermodel”. This coupled with the fact that the game doesn’t appear to much of a sense of humor, kind of puts it in the aesthetically bland category for me.
This looks pretty floaty hack and slash to me, which was fine a decade ago but now there are way better recent representations of samurai combat in games.
@showface But that isn’t really how electronic entertainment works. People bought an NES because it had Super Mario Bros. on it. They didn’t buy it in anticipation of a great innovative product to come along. PlayStation hasn’t really put their best foot forward in the space yet, and it’s their second iteration of a VR device.
I’m not buying it because the game library just isn’t there yet. I do feel like VR could be the future, but it’s too resource intensive and most of the best developers don’t want to bother with it.
This is a really creatively bankrupt company. The last thing with their name on it that was worth anything was Sekiro and they only published that game. This isn’t so much a video game developer as a IP regurgitation machine.
It’s Baldur’s Gate 3, and by some distance. It totally blows away Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, and many other story RPGs. My time with the game and its characters is one I will never forget.
I like the sound of this one, but I wasn’t a fan of Remedy’s other games. Control looked pretty and was really ambitious but the gameplay quickly got repetitive. I also felt the protagonist and the story wasn’t all that interesting. I’m definitely going to look into giving this one a go though.
@Wilforce But a number will always be an internalized metric to some degree. Maybe the reviewer thought the game was below another platformer they gave a 7 to or it was below the designation of “Good”, which is what a 7 means on this site. “Not Bad” means this game is fine but the things that are unique about it aren’t necessarily well executed. The reviewer has justified that perspective in the written portion of the review.
This reads like 7 but my lunch was an 15, so this should get at least a 12. If Elden Ring was a platformer but better, it would be Sonic Superheroes Stars.
I really like my PS5, but one of the things that I can’t understand is this gatekeeping with proprietary accessories. I just got the AirPod Pros for 200 bucks, I’m not about to spend another 200 on buds I can only use on the PlayStation. I also have tons of Bluetooth speakers that I’m unable to connect natively to the PS5.
Bought Street Fighter 6 and looked online for a controller with a better d-pad. Nothing much under $150. I’d really like to use one of the three 8bitdo controllers I already bought, but they won’t work even with a Bluetooth dongle.
@bindiana It’s a tough game but I really got invested in completing the thing, which is rare for a roguelite. The bosses will cheat and screw you over, but the game allows you to cheat back as well.
@Ralizah It’s a bit of a shame they aren’t iterating on the FF7 combat system here, as that was going somewhere interesting. This feels like Platinum Games-lite. Serviceable but doesn’t stand out.
@Panic_Attache Yeah that lock-on doesn’t work very well. I find it easier to just keep moving the camera with the right stick and play it like a Monster Hunter game.
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Re: Poll: Are You Playing Forza Horizon 5 on PS5?
Never played a Forza Horizon game so I was super stoked for this. The controls and driving mechanics are fantastic. Loving it
Re: Opinion: Baldur's Gate 3 Was Already a 10/10, But Updates Have Made It an All-Time Masterpiece
@Ralizah Oh yeah I totally get it, and I consider myself to be pretty particular about games. I just consider this game to be an important contribution to the medium, similar to something like Breath of the Wild.
Even if it is flawed in some crucial ways and can be slow-paced and cryptic, it’s still something worth experiencing yourself.
Re: Opinion: Baldur's Gate 3 Was Already a 10/10, But Updates Have Made It an All-Time Masterpiece
@Ralizah Whoever convinces you not to pick this one up at some point, don’t listen to them. It’s worth a shot, even if you don’t like these sorts of games. A rare achievement.
Re: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PS5) - Globe-Trotting Adventure Just Got Even Better on PS5
@Westernwolf4 I loved the gameplay and combat of Wolfstein New Order and Colossus. Is the action comparable to that?
Already know Machine Games can deliver on the story front.
Re: Sounds Like Amazon's Tomb Raider TV Show in Jeopardy as It's Reported 'Dead'
I can see an episodic “villain of the week” thing working for the story, but there has never been much intrigue in the games storylines. If they departed from the tone of the games it might work.
Re: Reminder: PS Plus Extra, Premium Lose 8 Excellent PS5, PS4 Games in a Few Days
@Darude84 That’s not what shovelware is. A 70% review aggregate constitutes the majority of current Ubisoft releases, middling metriodvanias, and janky but still fun RPGs. Also Frogwares games.
Shovelware is typically made by developers who just want to release their game, regardless of the quality.
Re: Poll: 5 Years Later, How Do You Feel About Final Fantasy 7 Remake?
It’s acceptable. Great graphics and world but let down by glacial pacing and truly awful dialogue. I think when I was younger the Final Fantasy troupes were fine but now I just can’t get into the characters and the storylines are so trite. It wouldn’t be an issue if the plot was just in the background and I didn’t need to be invested in it, but given it’s prominence, it just feels juvenile but not in a fun way. Very 15 year old boy coded.
Re: Reaction: Switch 2 Looks Solid But the Many PS5, PS4 Ports Won't Spook Sony Yet
As a general rule it’s silly to buy consoles day one. I waited a year for the Switch1/ PS5 to actually get some momentum before diving in. The digital games are 60-70 bucks which is the standard price for games now. But leave it to the internet to make a mountain out of a molehill.
The silliest thing about the direct is charging for that Switch 2 demo game lol. The price for the console seems fair though. It’s a higher quality itineration of the Switch concept, and it’ll be awesome to play Elden Ring anywhere.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Thoughts on Bloodborne, 10 Years Later?
It’s a great game that is made a classic by the addition of the DLC. I’m a fan of the horror theming myself and the world is incredible. In terms of quality I wouldn’t say that it is any better than the first three Souls games but is better than Dark Souls 3 which felt sorta uninspired by comparison.
Re: Hell Is Us Could Be Part of Rumoured State of Play as Pre-Orders Go Live on Xbox
Go anywhere, do anything, eat a sandwich, take a nap with the game in the background, or don’t, it doesn’t matter to us. Are you unable to decide between Death Stranding or Elden Ring? Call 555-HELLISUS and talk to one of our licensed professionals.
Re: Poll: Vote for Your PS5 Game of the Year 2024
I want to play Nine Sols as that looks right up my alley, but for me the game of the year was Animal Well. I don’t remember the last time a game so totally blew me away with its creativity and level design.
Re: Naughty Dog's New PS5 Game Is Finally Announced, Sci-Fi Action Title Intergalactic
I don’t like Naughty Dog games generally, but this aesthetic is cool. Might be right up my alley. Fire me up some Pet Shop Boys, boys!
Re: Bloodborne PS5 Pro Comparison Appears As Consumers Receive Console Early
Man it’s desperate times out there for Bloodborne fans. They are running around like blood staved beast searching for 60 fps, no matter the price to their sanity.
Re: PS Plus Extra's September Cull Has 4 More Great PS5, PS4 Games Added to It, 16 in Total
And why Horizon Forbidden West? That’s a Sony exclusive property that should be one of the selling points of this service.
Re: PS Plus Extra's September Cull Has 4 More Great PS5, PS4 Games Added to It, 16 in Total
Marvel’s Midnight Suns just got added to the service in March and is already getting removed? That’s too quick of a turnover for such a big game.
Re: Mini Review: Vampire Survivors (PS5) - Indie Icon Should Come with a Health Warning
@nessisonett I felt that way at first, but the more I dug into it, the more I realized how cynically designed the game systems are. I’m not sure if this sort of reptile brained “number go up, money get” approach to design is necessarily good. Unless the game is some meta commentary on the nature of video game content, divorced from context, about getting a bunch of stuff with higher numbers. I guess the experience sort of depressed me and made me want to go do something creative with my time. I’m not sure a video game should create that feeling….
Though I have increasingly become tired of JRPGs for similar reasons.
Re: Preview: Cairn PS5 Proves Much More Impressive Than Just a Realistic Version of Only Up
This is an awesome concept. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Re: PS5 RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Stuns in Short Gameplay Trailer
I’m really looking forward to getting lost and running around trying to find a place to eat and take a bath lol. Love the first game.
Re: Never Has a Game Looked So Good Yet So Jank as PS5's Neo Berlin 2087
@Max_the_German Indeed. Living’s mostly wasting time but to live is to fly, all low and high.
Re: Never Has a Game Looked So Good Yet So Jank as PS5's Neo Berlin 2087
@Max_the_German Trying to be positive. The game is probably going to be a turd but maybe worth checking out for a 5er someday.
Re: Never Has a Game Looked So Good Yet So Jank as PS5's Neo Berlin 2087
An unintentionally bad Deadly Premonition could be fun. Honestly the dialogue isn’t much worse than Death Stranding.
Re: Random: Divisive Dark Souls 2 Is Seeing a Resurgence and Some Revisionist History
Yeah it’s a very good game. Though I think Dark Souls 3 is probably the better game, I prefer 2.
Re: Poll: Can a Game's Brutal Difficultly Put You Off Playing It?
Depends on if the game is worth the struggle. I’ve powered through many games that were difficult because I was enjoying the experience overall. But then there are games where it isn’t worth it for me. A recent example is Tunic. Tried to get into it, but the difficult combat just didn’t interest me at all and the pleasure of exploration couldn’t overcome that aspect.
But some of the best games of recent years have had an effective difficulty curve. The recent trend of “cozy” games, have revealed how shallow an experience could be when everything is just given to the player by grinding. That’s why I’ve given up on so many Jrpgs as well.
Re: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5) - Familiar FromSoftware Brilliance
I’m getting this dlc eventually but I’m not optimistic about it improving the quality of the final stretch of game. I’m not a fan of how From have ramped up the difficulty of the bosses, so much so you have to choose cheesy builds or memorize a dozen untelegraphed moves to defeat them. Dark Souls 3 had the perfect balance of difficulty and fun.
Re: Disco Elysium Successor Cruelly Cancelled in 2024 Would Have Been 'Most Hardcore Disco Since Disco'
@Athrum The reason it was written that way was to emulate and partially parody noir fiction written by authors like Raymond Chandler. Also to capture the feeling of “thought” in text, you’ve got to include some digressions. But yeah I suppose it seems pretentious for the video game world, but for literature not so much.
On the “up their butt” end of literary games, see Norco and Kentucky Route Zero where you are forced to watch a 10 minutes stage play on the misery of late stage Capitalism lol
Re: Kingdom Come Dev Teases New Game Reveal for Next Week
Yeah bring it on. KC:D is one of the most immersive games I’ve ever played. Really had to learn the rules of world to succeed. Hope the next game has a similar quality.
Re: Video: Our Favourite PS5 Games of 2024 So Far
Might get around to Dragon’s Dogma 2 but overall this is looking like a backlog year for me. Other than Shadow of Erdtree and a couple of indie titles, nothing exciting on the horizon.
Re: Stellar Blade Dev Shift Up to Secure the Bag As It Plots Public Shares
@thefourfoldroot1 Finally someone who gets it. Shareholders are coming to block our boners! This is starting to make me question my priorities, which is definitely not cool bro. I need a Pocky stick, pronto! Keep the dream alive.
Re: Everyone's Talking About Eve's Outfits in PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade
I mean it’s fine, there have been plenty of games that have come out with sexy girl outfits though. I find it an incredibly boring hand to play. There are more exciting character designs than “Korean K-pop supermodel”. This coupled with the fact that the game doesn’t appear to much of a sense of humor, kind of puts it in the aesthetically bland category for me.
Re: Rise of the Ronin Gets Loads of New PS5 Gameplay Footage, Featuring 8 Different Fighting Styles
This looks pretty floaty hack and slash to me, which was fine a decade ago but now there are way better recent representations of samurai combat in games.
Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
@showface But that isn’t really how electronic entertainment works. People bought an NES because it had Super Mario Bros. on it. They didn’t buy it in anticipation of a great innovative product to come along. PlayStation hasn’t really put their best foot forward in the space yet, and it’s their second iteration of a VR device.
Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
I’m not buying it because the game library just isn’t there yet. I do feel like VR could be the future, but it’s too resource intensive and most of the best developers don’t want to bother with it.
Re: Madden NFL 24 Targets EA Play Addition on PS5, PS4 Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII
Taylor Swift for MVP.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for February 2024?
Not great, but I’ll give Rollerdrome a shot.
Re: Former Call of Duty Dev Says Decisions Made by Bobby Kotick 'Made Our Games Worse'
This is a really creatively bankrupt company. The last thing with their name on it that was worth anything was Sekiro and they only published that game. This isn’t so much a video game developer as a IP regurgitation machine.
Re: Poll: What Is Your PS5, PS4 Game of the Year 2023?
It’s Baldur’s Gate 3, and by some distance. It totally blows away Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, and many other story RPGs. My time with the game and its characters is one I will never forget.
Re: PS Plus Essential Games for December 2023 Announced
Love the lineup! Games I’ve been wanting to play.
Re: New Alone in the Dark PS5 Gameplay Shows Chats, Puzzles, and Combat
Has a Game Boy Color version been announced yet? Been looking for a reason to fire the thing up again.
Re: Larian's Permadeath 'Honour Mode' Seemingly Coming to Baldur's Gate 3
I’ll admit. I’m a lousy save scummer. Not touching this mode. Might try to beat on tactician mode though.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for November 2023?
None of these for me. I’m just waiting to see if extra subscribers are really going to get Teardown this month. Been waiting for that one.
Re: Alan Wake 2 (PS5) - A Nightmare We Never Want to Wake Up From
I like the sound of this one, but I wasn’t a fan of Remedy’s other games. Control looked pretty and was really ambitious but the gameplay quickly got repetitive. I also felt the protagonist and the story wasn’t all that interesting. I’m definitely going to look into giving this one a go though.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Marvel's Spider-Man 2?
I second others and will play in 6 months or so when it comes to plus. Looks fun though.
Re: Sonic Superstars (PS5) - A Solid 2D Sonic Game, If You Play It Solo
@Wilforce But a number will always be an internalized metric to some degree. Maybe the reviewer thought the game was below another platformer they gave a 7 to or it was below the designation of “Good”, which is what a 7 means on this site. “Not Bad” means this game is fine but the things that are unique about it aren’t necessarily well executed. The reviewer has justified that perspective in the written portion of the review.
Re: Sonic Superstars (PS5) - A Solid 2D Sonic Game, If You Play It Solo
This reads like 7 but my lunch was an 15, so this should get at least a 12. If Elden Ring was a platformer but better, it would be Sonic Superheroes Stars.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 (PS5) - One of the Greatest RPGs of Our Time
I already have this downloaded. Just waiting for tomorrow.
But in terms of this being a “new standard”, I’m not sure. I think if this was a new standard very few games would come out every year.
Re: PlayStation Reveals New Official Headphones and Earbuds, Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore
I really like my PS5, but one of the things that I can’t understand is this gatekeeping with proprietary accessories. I just got the AirPod Pros for 200 bucks, I’m not about to spend another 200 on buds I can only use on the PlayStation. I also have tons of Bluetooth speakers that I’m unable to connect natively to the PS5.
Bought Street Fighter 6 and looked online for a controller with a better d-pad. Nothing much under $150. I’d really like to use one of the three 8bitdo controllers I already bought, but they won’t work even with a Bluetooth dongle.
Re: Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy PS5, PS4 Co-Op Trailer Shows Some Unlikely Alliances
Are those people supposed to be friends or do they just forcing randos to play games with them?
Re: 17 New PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Revealed for Huge Update Next Week
@bindiana It’s a tough game but I really got invested in completing the thing, which is rare for a roguelite. The bosses will cheat and screw you over, but the game allows you to cheat back as well.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Feast Continues, Cracks Steam's Top 10 Most Played Games List
Pretty impressive for a game in the CRPG genre.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Final Fantasy 16?
@Ralizah It’s a bit of a shame they aren’t iterating on the FF7 combat system here, as that was going somewhere interesting. This feels like Platinum Games-lite. Serviceable but doesn’t stand out.
@Panic_Attache Yeah that lock-on doesn’t work very well. I find it easier to just keep moving the camera with the right stick and play it like a Monster Hunter game.