Jump to content
NEurope

Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing most liked content on 04/13/21 in all areas

  1. 4 points
    Always love me an indie showcase. Silksong? Axiom Verge 2? Bear & Breakfast? Garden Story? Dare I even suggest Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion?!
  2. 4 points
    Saw this earlier and thought "that colour looks nice" and I've just realised why I thought that; someone tweeted it's close to the GameCube purple.
  3. 3 points
    Physical book seems to be delayed to May, according to Amazon, but the Kindle version is available now.
  4. 3 points
    They released that weird Wii Mini after the Wii U came out. I wouldn't hold much stock in Nintendo making sense 😋
  5. 3 points
    Time to get moving! I've just spent the past few days burning through Blast Corps on Rare Replay. What an absolute gem this game is. Even to this day it is still a super unique experience. Like B-K, it's been a number of year since I've played this, must be at least 15. The game holds up incredibly well considering its age and the fact it's a very early 3D game. The amount of variety on offer in terms of challenges and different vehicles is solid, and I think it took me about 8-9 hours to gold every stage on Earth (just got a couple of the extra planets to gold now, but they are much harder). I think the challenge the game offers is what really struck me this time round. It is expertly balanced, ramping up steadily as the game progresses but never into the realms of impossibility. Some of the carrier missions are very tough but there's always the belief in the back of your mind you can do a little better, go a little faster or get rid of that building a few seconds quicker. Golding some of the racing stages or building destroying stages, where there is no carrier, encourages you to really master the controls and find the perfect run in each level. There were instances in the races where I was shaving 0.1 seconds off my lap, every lap. I love that kind of stuff! And the handling (for the most part) is very good. The game is absolutely chock full of secrets to find in order to unlock the post game content, and while I remembered where most of the satellites or scientists were, there were a couple of occasions where I really had to search high and low to get them. I'd also completely forgotten about the Pac-Man inspired levels, which were a great surprise towards the end of the game. The variety in the missions is definitely a big plus for this game. Don't feel like stressing out over the harder carrier missions? Do a couple of races or wander around a finished level looking for secrets and demolishing the remaining buildings. The amount of freedom the game offers is something that is rarely seen in modern games. It took me a good few goes on some of the final carrier missions and some of them are long, like 10-15 mins long and if you mess up right at the end, there are no checkpoints or save states, so it's right back to the start you go. That really adds to the rewarding feeling when you finally do it. Oyster Harbour is a fine example of that. You have shoot a hole into a bunch of buildings to give yourself access to a crane from the start. Once you get there on foot, you have to lower TNT from a crane onto a bridge, then hop into a bulldozer and put some blocks into the ground, but two of them are hidden so if you don't get them, you're done. Following that you have to line up three boats, two of which are quite far away. Do them in the wrong order, you're screwed. You also have to take your bulldozer with you or you don't have time to run back. Then finally, once the carrier is safely across the water, it's a mad-dash back in the final boat for some TNT stranded on an island so you can demolish the final building, which your bulldozer is too small to tackle. It's here where the game really shines, learning the levels and then finally being able to do everything as quickly as possible. There are countless other examples where you're hopping in and out of different vehicles to clear the path quickly and effectively. A couple of levels see you starting in a train with a great view down a valley with the whole level mapped out before your eyes, a great way to build up the tension as your mission begins. The J-Bomb is undoubtedly the best vehicle of destruction - a huge mech suit which slams down on buildings from above. A couple of other smaller mech suits allow you to summersault and jump into buildings from the ground with satisfying 1-up like noises as they crumble. All your traditional construction vehicles are there as well. The Backlash, while a novel idea, is the only one that is genuinely frustrating to use. It's weak at the front and powerful at the rear meaning you have to powerslide your way into buildings to down them quickly, and I can just never get this right. This was the only real moment of frustration as I just couldn't see the link between what I input on the controller and what happened on the screen. I often ended up missing, do too short a slide or too long a slide. Horrible when the clock is against you. The little voice overs have been engrained in my memory from childhood and the OST is still just as good as it ever was, especially Simian Acres. A Banjo before Banjo. Fits perfectly with the "Mid-Western" vibe the game has. Also reminds me of Cotton Eye Joe, which I'm almost certain was the inspiration. Overall, Blast Corps is a classic. A game that stands up extremely well to the test of time and is just a hell of a lot of fun to play while providing a solid level of challenge. It speaks volumes about the sheer talent that was situated in Twycross in the 1990s that this, essentially a B-tier project, managed to accomplish so much. It's an easy 10/10 from me and I'd recommend everyone who hasn't played it to at least give it a go if you can, there is truly nothing else like it. You're just trying to impress me.
  6. 2 points
    Indie World Showcase to be broadcast on Wednesday 14th April at 5PM UK time Up on the main page. We'll have the full roundup article with the press release etc up on the main page shortly after the event airs tomorrow. No expectations for this, aside from perhaps Panzer Dragoon Z.W.E.I. Remake being that it's due out this year... ...also, yep I saw that the first remake was on sale the other day, and I missed it again. Anyway, it has been four months since the last Indie World Showcase, so let's see what happens.
  7. 2 points
    Credits have rolled. Not a huge fan of how the story evolved after the 7th palace. I think it was pretty unnecessary, but that's mainly 'cause I would've enjoyed another more personal story (or to have the game end after palace #7 had resolved). I did love the aesthetics of the final dungeon/enemies/bosses, though. Shame that I never had to fight against anything other than the bosses as me being at level 99 meant that ambushing enemies killed them instantly Nothing to be mad about, though, because the game became ridiculously easy over time, anyways. Especially with that one accessory I mentioned in some of my previous posts. And that ultra strong Persona I created was way too good Soooo, what do I think about the game? Overall I'd say it's a great one. 9/10. It's a quirky, yet surprisingly deep story which eventually was a bit too "out there", for my taste. As a JRPG + visual novel it excels in pretty much every aspect. I did have to push through the first 25 hours, mostly because I hated the fact that whenever a new activity was introduced you immediately got locked out of it for a while. Once you were taught everything, the game got so much more enjoyable. Couldn't put it down, at times. Sadly, some palaces overstayed their welcome and especially the final dungeon was a little long. This and the first 20-25 hours mean that I have to take one point off Still...very happy I played and finished it. Almost a masterpiece. Definitely one of the best games out there As for the Platinum: Apparently I need to play through NG+ for a while to have access to what I need to do for the remaining few trophies. Not today, though. Had a massive gaming session after work and need a break There's also the fact that I have to watch Bayern Munich get eliminated from the Champions League in a few minutes
  8. 2 points
    Official comparison trailer from Bioware: Looks great!
  9. 2 points
    Upgraded my power and armour charms this morning; just checked the item combination bit and I had the parts to do so, just need the zenny to rebut the original charms again now 🤷‍♂️ Magnamalo Lance is fully upgraded now (after defeating the high rank version about 3 times, got to be a record!) Got high rank armour but nothing specific, just the best I can get to get me through. Once I've finished the hr7 quests I'll look properly at decorations etc and get myself a decent set together ready for the cap ceiling to be lifted 😎
  10. 2 points
    You say built to a formula but many of those games are very different, and there's a good amount of totally new IPs there too. Compare this to Nintendo who rely on almost all sequels for their big games, or Xbox who have very few exclusives, and they're still doing a much better job than everyone else. Gotta agree with @Ronnie on the point he just made. Nintendo's biggest IP's may rely on sequels, but those IP's cover a wider variety of genres then Sony's current big hitters. Zelda has action adventure covered while Smash Bros is a unique take on the fighting game. Mario Kart is a cartoon racer with Animal Crossing being some kind of life sim(?) And when Nintendo commissions another company to handle one of their IP's, it normally ends up being a different genre. (Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule are good examples of this, both Zelda games, both play noticeably differently to the source material) And then you've got games made by other smaller studios like Kirby (2D Platformer with a focus on the combat more than the actual platforming) and Pokémon (Monster collecting RPG). It's all come from years of curating a franchise out of them, while Sony tends to drop IP's after a while and rely on third party support to cover other genres.
  11. 2 points
    "story driven third person adventure games" is such a vague description that can describe some extremely different games. Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Odyssey, infamous, Fable, Alan Wake, Control, Metroid Other M, Pikmin, Gears of War, Mass Effect.
  12. 2 points
    When I read your post on Friday, I kid you not, I laughed and then realised we were over a week removed from April Fool's Day. First: the leak of The Last of Us remake. I've been thinking about it over the weekend, and the question which keeps springing to mind is "What the hell are they thinking?", not to mention my continued disapproval of Schreier's reporting stance being that it's fine to leak the existence of secretive projects. Maybe it's just me, but it's very, very rare that the existence of a game is leaked before it's official reveal and actually benefits from it (Mario + Rabbids comes to mind as one of the few examples, and that's simply because people were so against it that it leaking actually had people positioned to be blown away by how it was presented). I think back to Elden Ring's reveal at E3 2019, and everyone just immediately going "Oh, hey, look, it's Elden Ring". Can you imagine just how big that reveal would have been if it had never been leaked beforehand? Instead, I've got friends who are big fans of Game of Thrones and G.R.R. Martin but had no idea the game existed for the longest time, because it never wound up in their social media feeds, because it was expected and it felt like there wasn't nearly as much traction to it as there should have been for a game developed by From Software and worked on (to some extent) by G.R.R. Martin. It's an industry largely driven by hype these days, so yes, I do think you're robbing developers of their moment in the spotlight to some extent if you're revealing what they've been working on ahead of any official word. This isn't to say that a potential The Last of Us remake would be met with applause from all directions, but I know that for myself, even having just played the original for the first time last year and it easily being up there as one of my favourite games, I can totally see myself getting excited if you nail the reveal trailer (and this is a first party PlayStation game, so you know they can at least put those out in excellent fashion). Now, if and when it does get revealed, it's people rolling their eyes and going "urgh, it's The Last of Us". Hell, even just think back to The Last of Us Part II's reveal at PSX 2016 and people initially thinking it was something we'd already seen like Days Gone. So yeah, I'm not here for Schreier leaking these things, even if he does good work in bringing light to the plight of many developers out there. I don't think anyone's even come forward to comment on the leak of TLOU's remake in particular and corroborate it, so I think it was fairly shortsighted of Jason to just outright name it (oh, and as if Naughty Dog hasn't gone through enough over the last year or so when it comes to online drama and The Last of Us). Does the article really lose that much if you don't outright say it? I don't think it would, if you just highlight the fact that PlayStation are remaking a legendary first party game from a couple of generations ago...I don't know. There are a few games that could be in my mind, and I think it's pretty different to found footage leaks where companies haven't done their due diligence in keeping their materials safely under wraps (I'm thinking the Elden Ring leaked trailer from a couple of months ago, or the Harry Potter leak we had years ago now). Yeah, agreed. Again, I played it for the first time last year, and that game holds up really well, not to mention the updates it's had over the last few months which have virtually cut loading times out. One of those where if it was a big visual upgrade beyond what The Last of Us Part II managed I could see it doing well with a reveal trailer, but being shared with us for the first time in this way just completely kills it in its tracks for me. I'm just thinking of the first game in Part II's engine when I read this, and well...anyone who's played Part II understands. But back to the article itself, yeah, I agree with H-o-T in not liking how Jim Ryan has run PlayStation since taking over. The problem with only having tentpole releases and being this risk-averse is that you end up with, well, what cinema (and the box office in particular) largely became over the last decade: a collection of reboots and sequels founded on already beloved IP decimating smaller projects. And don't get me wrong, there are some directors who can still thrive when times are like this (Christopher Nolan and Hideo Kojima are quite alike in this regard I feel), but those are very rare exceptions. I think of how Days Gone flourished in Japan in particular, and I do wonder if Jim Ryan and co. just couldn't give less of a damn about Japan (think it's become increasingly clear over the last few months that they don't give them a second thought), and I think it sucks massively that Sony Bend won't get another crack at it - and this is as someone who hasn't played the game themselves, but I mean, it's a massive first party game which is free on PS+ this month, and has been part of the PS+ Collection for PS5 since launch too? Having only big games just puts too much pressure on the team, but more than that, it stifles creativity. Think about some of the biggest trilogies in film and more often than not you'll find directors and writers working on other projects inbetween, and I think it helps to stave off burnout, but also to just flex other creative muscles and ideas. Christopher Nolan in particular comes to mind again, because between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight you had The Prestige, and then between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knights Rises you had Inception; there's a "one for you, one for me" kind of attitude with it, such as we see with many actors who take up bigger gigs so that they can comfortably work on projects their passionate about (I think of those under the Disney umbrella, and actors like Adam Driver in particular). No doubt Naughty Dog has other things in the works, and so does Bend seemingly, but as a producer and distributor, PlayStation needs to recognise that they're getting in the way of some of the industry's most talented minds. Couple this article with the closure of Japan Studio (what the hell happened to their rumoured Rayspace game? And what's going to become of that heavily, heavily rumoured Silent Hill game, seeing as Keiichiro Toyama left with others some six months before the studio closed to start their own studio?), and I do think it's a bit concerning. The difference in messaging between Jim Ryan and Shawn Layden is scarily different, though, and I do think it's very telling that I can't find a Wikipedia article on Jim Ryan. Make of that what you will. It's very clear today - and I think was to some extent back then - that this was a key part of the internal power struggle which resulted in Layden leaving. There isn't a face to attach to PlayStation these days - Shuhei Yoshida has been given the Lucius Fox treatment, Adam Boyes becoming the CEO of Iron Galaxy, Andrew House stepping down, and of course Shawn Layden stepping away from PlayStation. Don't get me wrong: Jim Ryan is a terrific businessman, even if he does say some silly things at times. I still think PlayStation is doing the right thing by focusing on single player games, partnering with studios like Jade Raymond's, and still (for now) being the dedicated home console of choice for most of the big Japanese developers, whether it be marketing deals, timed exclusivity, etc. I still care about the games first and foremost, and for now and the foreseeable future, they're still going to be there. And, of course, it's on Mumbauer and his team to quite an extent that it would have been a TLOU remake (my first thought was genuinely that this was to get to grips with a new engine), as they're the ones who proposed it, but what does it say that they seemingly proposed a remake to a game less than a decade old, and not in the greatest need of it? I guess the underlying message to the article is that it hints not that PlayStation are demanding these games, but that their own internal teams are playing it safe to some degree, which is even more concerning to me. Also, I'm more surprised that they didn't propose an Uncharted remake (which in my opinion needs it much more than The Last of Us, because that game definitely feels aged) or spinoff, and I don't understand the surprise that a TLOU remake would end up at Naughty Dog. Like...yeah, that does seem like it was pretty inevitable. I haven't seen it here, but obviously elsewhere, this has renewed the beaten to death console war narrative. Xbox is doing interesting and different things to PlayStation, as is Nintendo, but I suppose my main concern with Xbox and their single player games in particular right now is how their new studios are actually going to be managed. Buying up studios left and right is going to count for nought if they aren't effectively managed and overseen, and while I want to see them do well, I do think Phil Spencer and co. have a lot to manage over there, because unnatural growth is almost always going to result in some growing pains. We'll have to wait and see, but I hope that Playstation doesn't make a mistake in turning away from what made the PS4 such a runaway success. While I do think quite a bit of Schreier's article is spiced up for obvious reasons, the messaging in Layden's E3 2014 speech I'm sure went pretty under the radar back then, and sounds like generic E3-presenting stuff, but is very different today to the direction they seem to be taking today. Whereas the PS4 seemed to be a place to experiment and grow, the closing of Japan Studio and the secret San Diego team at PlayStation effectively going bust before it was ever made official, never mind all of the internal changes leading up to the release of the PS5, has made for a bit of a rocky ride, looking in from the outside at least. Hopefully it smooths over soon. Good to hear you're enjoying it! If I'm not mistaken, I think @WackerJr has also been looking at playing that games over the last few months. I picked it up myself back at launch but it's just been gathering dust on my shelf as other games have taken precedent and I've got busy with other things, but maybe I'll get to it after Yakuza 6! Managed to find the buried thread for it from last summer.
  13. 1 point
    So this is a topic I've been thinking about for a while now. When you think about it, film and/or literary genres are fairly straightforward: romance, action, horror, comedy, thriller... these are all succinct and direct ways to describe the general tone or point of a traditional work of fiction. Sometimes things get silly, like some people might claim that "Historical", "Medieval", or "Sci-Fi" are genres (they're settings, after all), but that's far as it goes. But videogames get complex about it. It isn't enough to describe general tone, videogame genres need to be able to describe a game's mechanics, level design philosophy, specific variations thereof, and that's all before we take tone or setting into account. Hybrids are very common as well, and there's always the general necessity to describe which genres are getting mixed, instead of forcefully fitting it into a single one: for example, I've noticed Back to the Future is either described as an "Adventure" or "Comedy" but rarely both, but with videogames, we have no issue in calling a game a "roguelike twin-stick shooter". As such, things can get complicated, and arbitrary lines can be drawn in the sand. Like, how come we all agreed that "Metroidvania" and "2D Platformer" are separate genres? What distinguishes an RPG from a regular Adventure game? Tetris and Portal share the same genre, and that's really weird when you think about it. And which genre is Pac-Man, anyway? Hence this thread. I'm hoping this can be the place where we discuss the specifics and minutia of these things. And here are a couple of questions to get us started: 1. Is there such a thing as a 3D Metroidvania? If so, which games qualify? This question is self-explanatory. Metroidvanias are normally synonymous with 2D games, but should it be so? 2. Does "Action/Adventure" describe anything? How can we do better? The quotes I selected are tangentially related to this issue. Mainly, a lot of games are plainly described as "Action/Adventure", and while I can see why, that does feel overly generic, and not really representative of anything specific about the game in question. I mean, all it says is that there is combat (action), and explorable environments (adventure), and that's nearly all videogames! Should we do more to subdivide these types of games? If so, how? ---------- So yeah, hopefully we'll get some interesting discussion going Any other topic about videogame genres should be welcome here, so feel free to bring them up if you ever think of one.
  14. 1 point
    Ok, I'll bite. Which games are you talking about here? By "often" I'm taking that to mean at least half, and "new" must mean within the last few years? So which are these games with "barely distinguishable" gameplay? I can't think of two recent new IPs where the gameplay is even remotely similar. God of War is nearly all close melee combat, Horizon Zero Dawn is primarily bow fighting and using wire traps to topple big robot animals, Days Gone is mostly gun fighting hoardes of zombies. Ghost of Tsushima is swordplay, standoffs and stances, Dreams is a game builder, Astrobot is a platformer. Honestly, which games you talking about? I don't want to believe this is a hyperbolic statement, don't disappoint me now.
  15. 1 point
    My bike saddle is far too uncomfortable on long rides, so I ordered a new one. And then I figured I may as well replace the handlebars, as the current ones are rusty. And then I realised I'd need new grips too. And then I figured that I may as well replace my old mirror at the same time, as the old one was a bit tatty and barely hanging on. And then I figured I'd order some other things, because why not? I bought in the end: I spent far too much...
  16. 1 point
    We already have a release date for that one; comes out April 22nd.
  17. 1 point
    It's a loss leader, before slowly phasing out owning games and increasing costs. Phil Spencer's goal is removing consumer rights, his attempt is working better than the previous one.
  18. 1 point
    The Yuffie content will be officially titled Episode INTERmission. That's a very Nomura-sounding title Cast, character renders, and some more gameplay details:
  19. 1 point
    @Nicktendo thank you for such a thorough response! I actually have a One S at the moment myself, so the leap to a Series S would probably be substantial enough...but I kinda want to go Series X as and when I make that leap 😎🙈 Agree with the Phil Spencer praise, I'm sure he can be a ball breaker as much as I'm sure Miyamoto is as well behind the lovely Mario and Zelda veneer, but he's turned the Xbox ship around quite a bit; I still think Sony will (possibly are already) win the "console war", but I think MS are creating their own market and way that they bring their experience to consumers...with the caveat of having a seemingly unlimited budget for it all, I don't understand how they are financing Game Pass but, for a consumer, it's great 🤷‍♂️
  20. 1 point
    ...and then you list pretty much every feature of that update
  21. 1 point
    Damn, some nice stuff in there, particularly what it mentions about pre-downloading updates, customising game library (does this mean I can finally hide FIFA from myself without having to uninstall it? Because that would be an absolute win), and screen zoom. The trophy settings and updates are nice too, as is cross-generation Share Play. Being able to manage storage from the app before you find out you haven't get any space left is also a great win too
  22. 1 point
  23. 1 point
    Sony ripped off the Capcom CPS Suicide Battery
  24. 1 point
    Something else to consider is that even Sony’s new IPs do tend to follow a very similar design template as already used in their existing games. I know you’ve all seen the meme picture, but the reason why it’s funny is because it’s based on truth. All of Sony’s modern western games share very similar characteristics. You’re going to have a crafting system, you’re going to have a skill tree, you’re going to have light RPG mechanics & XP, it’s going to be a 3rd person shooter/action game that is focus tested to hell & back, it’s going to focus primarily on telling a paternalistic story ahead of anything else, hell it’ll probably even have a forest that looks just like the meme picture somewhere along the way! Even Sony’s new IPs are often barely distinguishable from each other in terms of gameplay (not setting; important distinction to make). Just like with Ubisoft and From Software (now there’s a good analogue to Sony WWS!), Sony struck gold with a winning formula; and by God are they gonna keep milking it. Just like From Software, Sony WWS used to produce all manners of experimental and unique games (not always winners, but certainly a lot of variety and different types of games); but now? Basically everything they make now follows this winning formula, just like with From Software; who now make Souls and nothing else. The days of Sony WWS making stuff like Puppeteer, The Last Guardian, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, Fat Princess, Killzone, Tokyo Jungle, The Unfinished Swan, The Eye of Judgement etc are long gone. Sure, you’ll still get the odd exception to the rule like Rachet & Clank (itself on its 11th entry, with each game sporting near identical gameplay) or Gran Turismo 7/8/9 (however you want to count it); but if there is a new IP coming from Sony? Chances are very high that you’ll be seeing it follow that Winning Formula that they’ve been perfecting ever since Uncharted. It’s all just so incredibly risk averse. When all of their new IPs play so similarly, are they even new IPs anymore? Sony’s games are all the safest stuff you could really imagine them making. There’s no risk taking anymore. And nothing personifies that better than the shuttering of Japan Studio.
  25. 1 point
    I've just discovered the joys of Remote Play, so it'll be the perfect game to play in bed (or when the other half is watching TV). Honestly, I completely underestimated remote play and how excellent it is. I'm just over half way through Shadow of the Colossus (remake) and I've split my time between playing in bed on my Macbook and playing on the TV. If there's lag, it's not noticeable.
  26. 1 point
    Oh yeah, love Blast Corps! Such a unique little gem. It’s shocking how few games like it there are out there. The concept is so base and simple; I mean, fundamentally speaking, blowing stuff up is fun! It’s the expertly crafted level design and bevy of unique vehicles & scenarios that really make it so much fun though. It’s almost like Rare’s take on Pilotwings, in a weird, roundabout way. It’s a game that is both extraordinarily chill and also really intense & hard when it wants to be! Great game!
  27. 1 point
    At this point I hope that they've knocked it out of the park just for you @drahkon crazy that we're two and a half weeks away from launch and it's pretty quiet, have to imagine it will ramp up next week? Unfortunately I'm going through a weird time with games in general and not playing as much as I have over the last year or so, though think that's more to do with what's going on elsewhere. I've actually cancelled most of my pre-orders because, while I'm still looking forward to them, I've still got games left over from last year, and I don't reckon I'd be playing them immediately (due to the myriad of other games, and just not feeling like I'm in the mood). Think the only pre-orders I've kept are Nintendo games, and that's almost solely because their price won't budge anyways. So yeah, look forward to getting this down the road, but don't think I'll be playing it anytime soon. Hope it's good fun for all those that do, I really hope Housemarque have a success story on their hands!
  28. 1 point
    No, I'm not arguing that at all - just using your logic in the reverse situation. If games can be criticised as being "too similar" for having stories with depth, then equally we can criticise Nintendo's output for mostly all having too simplistic stories. I don't agree with any of these criticisms, by the way. Just showing you that this reasoning doesn't make any sense.
  29. 1 point
    People don't play Mario for the story because the story is rubbish. Doesn't mean there isn't a story driving the experience though. There is literally a story and reason given for why you must go and do the things you must do in Mario Odyssey. You're basically criticising the other games for having a good story, not because they are "story-driven games". And that's pretty mad when you think about it - arguing that games are too similar because they all have some depth to their story. You could just as easily argue that Nintendo games are too similar for having basic, shallow stories, no?
  30. 1 point
    Pre-ordered Returnal digitally. Reinvested some of the money I got from selling my Switch in a 75€ PSN credit which I got for 57 bucks. Given my financials, that deal came at the right time. For some reason I also wanted to go digital. I would never resell a Housemarque game Anyway...I am fucking hyped
  31. 1 point
    Your argument really doesn't make any sense. What does "story-based" even mean? If it has a story that's driving the experience then it's story based, no? So Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon are all story-based games. If you look at games like Bloodborne where the story is told in a way similar to Metroid Prime (via lore and notes), you can't be suggesting that it's the same category as, say, TLOU? Or Spiderman? The storytelling and depth to the story is so varied between all these games. It's making your attempt to lump together these games as "all the same" seem really silly. Nobody is playing Ghost of Tsushima and walking away from that thinking the storytelling or presentation of the story is similar to TLOU. Nobody!
  32. 1 point
    But that variety comes at the cost of fatigue. Nintendo's big games are mostly sequels to games we have seen time and time again. Can you really talk about diversity in their big games when a lot of that comes from the 10th (or whatever) iteration of Mario Kart? Or Smash, Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon? In terms of staleness or the "seen that before" feeling that diversity is supposed to combat, Nintendo's output simply does not do that, because their series are ancient and made to a formula. The other games you're mentioning like Hyrule Warriors are some of the most stale, overdone games out there, even if more work than normal was put into the Zelda version. People can complain that there's a lot of third person "adventure" games on PS4 but as you can see, within that category the games can be very different (e.g. compare Bloodborne to The Last of Us, or to Spiderman - completely different games). In fact "third person adventure" is such a ridiculous catch all descriptor that seems to have been made up here to try and win an argument, given how much diversity there can be within that category. It'd a bit like complaining that the SNES had one too many 2D games.
  33. 1 point
    Why am I now talking about sequels? Because you're complaining that the PS4's exclusive games are all very similar ("third person adventure games") and "made to a formula". I'm saying that there's nothing more similar and formulaic than sequels to games we have played before, of which we see many on other consoles. Your list is also incomplete, you're missing off new exclusive games like Bloodborne too. In terms of third person new IP exclusives on PS4 there was Bloodborne, Horizon, Days Gone, Concrete Genie, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, The Last Guardian, The Order 1886. How many new IP exclusives (that were big games) came out on Switch or X1? Maybe a lot of Sony's exclusives are third person but they're all very different games, and at least a lot of them are new IPs. You're making the point that Sony are risk averse - yet Sony released far more big new IPs than the other two last gen. Far more.
  34. 1 point
    Ohhh boy, I had a lot of time left after finishing the 7th palace Had to pretty much sleep through two weeks 'cause there was nothing left to do... Compendium is now at 98% and according to a list I found I have to wait until I'm almost done with the story and NG+ to complete it. Other than that it's now just a matter of finishing the game. I also looked up how to create a powerful Persona and I found a useful guide. After a bit of fusing (and spending a shit ton of money) I'm now a proud owner of a level 99 Persona that can absorb a few elements and has a super strong physical skill. Haven't used it, yet, but it should carry me through the remainder of the game (I also have another level 99 Persona with access to a few elemental spells just in case).
  35. 1 point
    I've heard of consoles with batteries failing, causing them to lose the internal clock, meaning that you need to reset it every time you play, such as with the Dreamcast or GameCube. But for an internal battery to fail, and then require you to connect to a store which might not even be there one day, lest you not be able to play physical games? That's just flawed design... or, it could even be construed as planned obsolescence, if it never gets patched, and even if it does, it's not an ideal solution. I look at the library of PS4 games which I built up over the years, and there aren't even than many games in it which I genuinely want to play any more... That PS4 tower... will likely have half of the games sold from it, then whatever is left from the PS3 games can go alongside them, as that's probably a better use of shelf space. Yakuza Collection, Capcom games (Resi, DMC, Monster Hunter) Bioshock, NieR Automata, Shenmue I&II + III, God of War, InFamous Second Son and a few racing games. Those are what I'd choose to keep, as everything else, I don't really have any desire to play. - - - - - PS3 games, there are a few which I'd like to play... again, I'd maybe keep around thirty, as there are some good games on the system which I never bothered to play. Vita... well, I'm sure there are a few games on the system, mostly digital PS1 games, they might get some play time on the PS Vita TV. PSP... I have a PSP Go, I got it in some kind of giveaway years ago, nice machine, it came with some games, I like the console more than the original release, even though it's all-digital. - - - - - Once the stores go, I'll still have use for them, but I won't be trawling through like I did when the Wii had its Shop Channel deactivated. I might have a quick look though, see if there's anything that I really want for the consoles digitally, but I'm done putting money into consoles with uncertain futures. To that end, I can't see myself buying a PS5, or even an Xbox Series X for that matter, and I'm fine with that. I'm grateful for the games across the various Sony Playstations that I got to play over the years, but I have very little nostalgia for the platforms. It can be troubling, acknowledging how disposable gaming has become, along with all other forms of entertainment, especially if you really value it as well, but it can also be refreshing, forcing you to really weigh up what you really value, out of all this content. Ultimately, nothing lasts forever, though I understand the drive of people who want to preserve all of it, for as long as possible, so that others might still gain some enjoyment from being able to experience these titles in the future, even though these games are just distractions, as with all forms of media, they certainly serve a purpose. It's nice to be able to enjoy them, for what they are, and to escape into these digital realms, for a time. In the future, I expect people will experience these games in any way that they can, in whatever form they are preserved in. If games still remain playable, you can almost guarantee that they will still be played and enjoyed for quite a while.
  36. 1 point
    I can't speak for others, but I'm thinking of publishers. Developers can definitely fall into a genre they excel at, but I can't help but notice that Sony are slowly narrowing the kind of games they give the go-ahead over time. You mention some of the games in the PS4 era, but I can't help but notice that it's, well, noticeably less than the PS3 era (and the PS2 era before that) Back then, I was under the impression that it was because of increasing difficulty and costs when it comes to game development over the past decade, but if this report is accurate, it shows that Sony are starting to think that only multi-million smash hits are worth investing in. Which sounds fine from a purely business point of view, but fans who only have access to a Sony console for whatever reason, as well as developers that may want to work with Sony on a project, they may find themselves suffering as a result. It's actually quite similar to The Pokémon Company's worrying steps in regards to what they helped to fund over the past few years. Outside of the main Pokémon games, what Pokémon titles have there been that didn't have some kind of microtransaction stapled to them? Not many. It's gotten a little better, what with Rescue Team DX and the upcoming New Pokémon Snap, but it's not as varied as it was back in the days of the DS. I can't help but see similarities between that and this direction Sony is taking. And it's not good.
  37. 1 point
    Are we talking about Sony as developers here or publishers? It's hardly uncommon for studios to find a genre they groove with and stick to that. But as publishers they actually published fairly diverse things during the PS4 era that aren't story-driven third person action/adventure; Drive Club, Knack, MLB, Dreams, Sackboy, Everybody's Gone to Rapture, Unfinished Swan, Everybody's Golf etc. Is it weird TLOS is (was?) being remade? Sure, a little. Is it surprising? No not really.
  38. 1 point
    "Crush it with the inside of your thighs!" I mean, Ring's commentary is a minefield of accidental innuendo, but that one made me drop the Ring-con (it was in between said thighs) in laughter! Inadvertently made me take a five-minute break because I was having one of those laughing fits where it actually starts to hurt. Although that might have been exacerbated by the previous excerise. 17 days in now, I'm on World 5 now. The "Mountain Climber" exercise I was introduced to today is the first time where I couldn't pull it off. It was excruciatingly exhausting! I don't like it one bit! Had to cut my session short because it left me gasping for breath. I apologise, squat exercise, there are far worse things for me to attempt.
  39. 1 point
    I mean, I like a Vita joke as much as the next person, but that did feel like kicking a guy while he's down, @Ronnie. It may be kinda niche, but it's a fantastic way of playing old PS1 games.
  40. 1 point
    I got this physically on Xbox One for £30 - as suspected I love the art style and graphics, the aesthetics just scream NiGHTS and 2000's era SEGA. I have 25 Balan Trophies now and have helped the farmer, the poor girl whose dolphin turned evil and the bug girl - Through the power of balan (platforming lol), we managed to show her friends how cool bugs can be as an ugly caterpillar turned into a beautiful Butterfree right before their eyes! After my first play-through of the first 3 worlds I didn't have quite enough Balan Trophies to unlock the next set of levels but at that point I'd unlocked a bunch of new outfits and abilities so I went back and swept up things I couldn't previously nab, Yooka-Laylee style. The hub world is very sweet, you collect eggs hidden throughout the levels which can then be hatched in the hub world. To add to that there's a marble-run type contraption that the tim's mess around on and a clicker goes up unlocking more to the elaborate run when certain numbers are reached. You can feed the tims gems you've collected throughout the levels and when they've been fed enough they double in size, at which point you pick up a little tim, throw it at a big one and BAM - an egg pops out. So yeah, I've been farming tim's like crazy just because it's so welcoming coming back to the hub world with a big flock. Gameplay-wise I'm really enjoying it but that's because I still play and enjoy Dreamcast/Gamecube era platformers, I can see why people were not thrilled with this if it's not their cup of tea, to me it feels like a lost Dreamcast title which is why I'm really enjoying it but I can totally see why that would be a nightmare for many, especially given the initial asking price. Also the graphics would be nice but the resolution is absolute ass, it's barely any better than the Switch demo while playing on Xbox and at times it looks like a Wii game so I wouldn't be surprised if it dips to around 500p. I don't quite get why either as it's not really demanding, I've played the likes of Billy Hatcher and Sonic Heroes lately in HD on Dolphin and graphically there's not a huge difference apart from textures so it is strange to me why it struggles so much. Anyway, that's all for today but I'll keep ploughing through! Do I enjoy it? YES! Do I suggest it? Not really unless you're a die hard Dreamcast-era 3D platformer fan, of which I'm sure there's 10's of us worldwide!
  41. 1 point
    Speaking of Castlevania music I'm playing through Symphony of the Night and I will definitely agree, all Castlevania games have such great soundtracks. I hadn't really heard much of Michiru Yamane's stuff but man, she's done some amazing music... ^ (This song was also in Smash Bros. but the Judgement version. The original is far better imo) (This boss theme rocks... literally!) Surprised this one didn't make it into Smash tbh... (The last two got into Smash too)
  42. 1 point
    Agreed. It’s not a very common approach for a remake to take with its soundtrack (even amongst those that might be considered full “Retellings”; like Metroid Zero Mission), but I do wish that more remakes would take a similar approach! It’s really great when it does happen! Actually, come to think of it... some games DO do this when they include rearrangements of music from previous entries in the series... The “Final Fantasy Prelude” is perhaps the best example that immediately springs to mind... You might be fooled into thinking that what you know as the “Prelude” has always been what it is, but you would be WRONG! Here is the original version... Here is Final Fantasy 3’s version... And HERE is Final Fantasy 4’s version; where the additional section that we know today was added... This isn’t that uncommon of an approach for a long running series to take with recurring themes, but it IS uncommon to see in a remake.
  43. 1 point
    I've been thinking about a certain kind of remix today. Mostly because I've started playing most of the console entries of the Wonder Boy series (I'm dubbing that the "Wonder Bender"). The kind of remix I'm thinking about is the remix that subverts expectations by adding a new section to an original track in some way. Whenever I think about this, Death Mountain in A Link Between Worlds comes to mind. Here's the original. A pretty great song. But the version that appears in it's 3DS version is one that I absolutely adore. You hear that? That little extra bit at 42 seconds? It's a small thing, but I think it really elevates the track while not sounding out of place. The way it flows into the last few notes of the song is just brilliant. Anyway, moving on to Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, the game that got me thinking about this in the first place. Here's a song from the Master System version. Pretty catchy, huh? Nice beat to it. Here's the remake version. OK, it has to be mentioned, but taking that original version and making it sound absolutely melancholic in comparison is already pretty amazing, but that's not even the aspect I'm thinking about. At the 1:20 mark, just when you're thinking "Oh, it's looped, that was quick" the song takes a sudden swerve from melancholy to bombastic! It's such a powerful moment and it gives me goosebumps. Speaking of goosebumps, back to Zelda and the game that takes subversive remixes to the extreme, Link's Awakening. It's 51 seconds long, and while it does have some atmosphere to it (as atmospheric as the Game Boy can do, in reality), it can get really repetitive. Enter the Switch version. I mean, wow. What else is there to say? I might have spent 5 minutes standing still in the first room of that dungeon just to take it all in. Apart from 80% of the Link's Awakening Switch soundtrack, I have to say, I can't think of many other examples of this kind of thing. Which is a shame, because I think it's really powerful when done right.
  44. 1 point
    Absolutely the right decision as far as I’m concerned. So long as you’re not really into Sony’s first party exclusives (save for MLB The Show ), going Xbox over Playstation this generation is a no brainer.
  45. 1 point
    Jason has posted a good article over on Bloomberg about how there is a lot of unrest over in the PlayStation camp. Yeah, I'm not liking Jim Ryan's running of PlayStation at all at the moment.
  46. 1 point
    I'm abso-bloody-lutely loving it!! It is such a sleek machine. Quick resume is a game changer, load times are basically a thing of the past, it is a real beauty! I would say, given your situation (which I think is having a One X, right?), the S might not be the best option. The S is basically a One X in terms of power with more modern architecture which makes it perform slightly better and use less power. Right now, bar a few One games that run in 1440p or 4K, or even 120zh, if that's your bag, there is no real difference. Halo MCC, for example, has been optimised for 120hz at 1080p, but not 4K, which I'm pretty sure it could manage on the One X - so it runs at a lower res than on PC for me. Bit of a kick in the balls... but great to have quick resume and no load times. Then there's the issue of storage. 365gb is criminally small. I filled it up pretty fast and now have the majority of my games stored on a brand new 2TB HDD. All non-optimised games run off that, without the benefits of lightning-fast loading. Honestly, for someone who's pretty deep into the ecosystem, I do think you'd be better off biding your time waiting for a Series X. I have been out of the Sony / MS loop for over 10 years now, so this feels super fresh and exciting to me despite the machine not being a beast relative to its brethren. I don't think you'll see much improvement over the One X for the money you'll pay (while losing your disc drive!!), and I'd say it's likely you'd just want an X when the big games start dropping, I know I do... I couldn't justify an X right now, but this seemed tempting as an impulse buy and a "sampling", if you will, of what's going on outside Nintendo and Steam. I'm genuinely impressed with what MS are bringing to the table. I'll share a few thoughts with you having spent a week with my Series S now. - Game Pass is the real deal. I got signed up to Ultimate for the first month for £1 and then bought a 12-month sub off CDKeys for £102. There is almost too much content on there for anyone to get through given there are only 24 hours in a day. It's the variety that I have been impressed with most. There are the first party games from MS over the past few years - your Forza 7, Horizon, Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, Gears 5 etc. Then you've got the big hitters from EA and Bethesda, with Square Enix and the Sega (Yakuza Series) also heavily represented. There are enough AAA games to shake a stick at, if that's what you want. The vast majority of these I've never played, outside of a few hours on PC. I'm hopeful that Death Stranding will come soon so I can play it at a framerate and resolution it deserves. GTAV is coming back on today. If you've had a PS4, there is PLENTY of exclusive and third-party content from the past 5 years there. - Indies are extremely well represented. Granted I've played many of these on Switch, I'm already working my way through three of my favourite indie games again. Celeste, Enter the Gungeon and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. They have the added bonus of achievements, obviously, if you're into that. Yooka looks absolutely mouth-wateringly sexy and looks like it runs in 4K60, but I'll have to check that! There are also a bunch of indie games I haven't bought on Switch or that have not come to the platform. With Game Pass, I have the option of trying them out at least. There's a solid 50 or so well-regarded indie games on the list. Again, too much choice. - Classic games are also fantastically represented. Rare Replay was one of the BIG reasons why I was always tempted by a One back in the day. It's on there of course and I've been having a blast with some classic N64 games - all of them running without any framerate issues whatsoever. I get that some people are purists, but for me, I don't have the space or the time to mess about with original hardware and just want something that works on a modern TV. There's a superb list of 360 games, many of which I'm diving back into or trying for the first time. Skate 3 was an instant download as I'd only played the first and absolutely loved it. It really is wonderful. I still don't know how I'll feel when some of these games get removed and I'm sat there with them unfinished and unpurchased, but MS do give you fair warning that something is on its way out. Subbing to gold / game pass / ultimate also gives you extra discounts to buy games in the store as well. I was surprised when I went into the store for the Spring Sale that's currently on to see that many of the AAA games in Game Pass are on sale for £5-20 each, often the deluxe or ultimate version too. So if you really don't want to lose something, I'm pleased to see that deep, Steam like sales seem to be a thing here. Might pick up the Witcher 3 for a fiver, just to have the option of playing it on the TV rather than the PC. They really have done a stellar job with this machine, bar the obvious space limitations. Once the year is up and some proper next-gen games have been announced, I'd seriously consider upgrading to an X and just dropping PC as a main platform altogether with the exception odd RTS and indie game where a mouse and keyboard are crucial. Gaming on a console on the living room TV without needing to piss about with wires and settings and the like is always so much more satisfying.
  47. 1 point
    Welp, 10 days into my Fit adventure with Ring. I've gone from "ARGH! MY LEGS!" to "ARGH! MY LEGS!", except 10 minutes later than usual. Seriously, squats absolutely kill me. I have about as much stamina as a wet paper bag, I always knew this, but I am slowly being able to last a bit longer. About to fight Dragaux in World 3, he still cracks me up whenever he makes an appearance. Such a ridiculous character design, that I can't help but laugh. Game's great fun though.
×