Ronnie

Watched it again, still pretty underwhelming. Still not a fan of the home screen, just seems a really weird use of space. Tiny game boxes shoved into a corner, a small game logo in another corner. At the end the guy was saying how they're out of time and can't show you any more, and I was like... why not? You've literally got as much time as you want.

Oh ok thanks for explaining it, Sony messaging is so unclear sometimes often, these days. That's pretty cool then I guess, if you want to replay a specific bit maybe?

Hmmm a bit underwhelming for me. Not a fan of the split menus, one for in-game one for the home screen, especially as they have a different designs. It's all just needlessly convoluted. I was actually really confused with the way they started on the game screen at first, I assumed that was the home screen of the console. The actual home screen seems pretty badly designed, really weird use of space. Games stuck in a small corner of the screen, then a huge gap underneath with a small game logo. I love the store being integrated into the OS though, that's cool, a bit strange how they refused to actually show anything of it though. More confusing messaging... these "Activities" they mentioned, are they the same as Trophies? I assume so cause they showed percentages etc. It's cool how you can click one and be taken straight to that bit in the game, though I can imagine that's only for a select few games. I await Geoff Keighley's clarification...

Oh I totally agree it's probably a good fit for the storyline, it's just not really for me. Can't really put my finger on what it is I'm not keen about these kind of games, the gameplay of Warriors on Wii U just felt a bit mindless to me. I think I made it to the second area (fire I think?) and then got bored, never touched it again

Love that artwork. This game looks fantastic... I just personally wish it wasn't a musou

Nice idea for a thread, a couple of great lists above and it really makes you appreciate how brilliant this generation has been. I'll personally leave off Nintendo from this list, as I saw this topic as more PS4/Xbox/Indies. Action/Adventure Tomb Raider Trilogy - Shadow especially, I adored that game, but the whole series was really well made and modernised Tomb Raider in a brilliant way. Tearaway/Tearaway Unfolded - Criminally under-rated. I bought a Vita for it (and it was pretty much the only thing I played on that thing). Thimbleweed Park - Old school throwback, charming characters and eerie tone made for a fun experience, even if I had to look up solutions every half hour lol God of War - Probably PS4's best this gen. The one camera thing is seriously impressive, loved the mix of satisfying combat, traversal and puzzle-solving. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Massive Star Wars nerd, I was always going to love this. Nothing ground-breaking but mixed a lot of genres together and presented a good story. Control - Really surprised me by how much I fell in the love with the world. The gameplay got a bit repetitive by the end but still, what an experience. Openworld Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - The last AC before Ubisoft went all meaningless busywork and copy/paste on the franchise. Loved Victorian London as a setting. Red Dead Redemption 2 - Probably in my top 5 games ever, left a real impression on me. The openworld genuinely felt alive. Also helped that the visuals were pretty much photo realistic at times. Sunset Overdrive - Played this recently and whilst it probably feels like an early gen game, I still really enjoyed myself. Just FUN. RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda - Another vote for this one, I had a great time with it. Didn't really see what all the hate was about. Darkest Dungeon - Spoken about this game enough, just amazing. Dream Daddy Simulator - A Dad Dating Simulator - Ok not really Platformer Inside - Incredible mood and environmental story-telling. Pretty much a perfect game for what it's trying to be. Celeste - Visuals, audio, gameplay, story-telling, even things like accessibility... it nails them all. A real gem. Racing Forza Horizon 4 - Just absolutely stunning. One of the best looking games I've seen. Metroidvania Steamworld Dig 2 - Digging and making your own paths just felt so satisfying. Polished like a Nintendo game too. Glad they ditched the (pointless) procedural generation from the first game. Hollow Knight - A masterpiece. Just amazing. I'm probably more excited for Silksong than BOTW2. Guacamelee 2 - Under-rated, just tons of fun, brilliantly fast paced with a great world to explore and loads of humour. Combat is really satisfying too. Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps - It's a bit paint-by-numbers for a Metroidvania, but who cares when the world is beautiful and the gameplay and traversal is that much fun. Honourable Mentions to Watch_Dogs (1), Star Wars Squadrons (not finished this yet) and Shovel Knight (I kind of see this as previous gen (Wii U/3DS)

Well done IGN, great tweet

They might have found someone a bit bigger so that the PS5 wasn't the same size as his entire torso!

I sold my PS4 a few months ago, hadn't switched it on since Spider-Man, and have been using my Xbox One X for multiplats. I think Sony have been bungling the marketing for a while now but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The games that I'm interested in are there. As huge as the Bethesda get is for Xbox, I don't play first person games, so will always gravitate towards Sony's brand of third person action games. Definitely getting Ratchet, just for the visuals alone, it's akin to a summer popcorn film.

Tons of references. I'm enjoying Lower Decks too, but they lay on the fan service and easter eggs thick. Literally every 20 seconds there'll be a nostalgic callback to someone/something from Trek's past. It gets a bit much after a while, but otherwise the series is a lot of fun and I'm actually liking the main woman character more than I thought I would. Definitely has a lot more of Trek's "heart" than Discovery or Picard.

It's an RPG, so yeah pretty much!

I guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out in reality. My post was more suggesting that both boxes are impressive in different ways... Microsoft has managed to cram a lot of tech (potentially more) in a much smaller box, PS5's build is impressively tailor-made so that everything works well together. No, we're bringing up how we think the PS5 is ugly. Simple. I'm getting one and I'm not getting an Xbox at launch, so it's nothing to do with what you're suggesting.

Is the PS5 customisable or do do just mean the parts are custom built (surely true of both consoles?) You could equally say that for a console that's more powerful, the Xbox Series X is impressively engineered to be full of that much tech, especially for a device that's not too far off half the size of the PS5 (6.86l v 10.14l). As for the tear-downs I spend more time looking at the outside of a console than the inside or touching it to see which one cools slightly better. If anything the PS5 just looks worse the more I see it. One is the ugliest console I've ever seen and the other is a lovely minimalist box I would much rather have out on display. But at the end of the day, that's a subjective opinion and the look of a console isn't that big a deal anyway.

About the numbers going up, that's why I never saw the point in Gamerscore. Just a large number going up and up, which didn't really mean anything. The achievement system for me has always been about the number of Platinum trophies. That's definitely true, Xbox needs a Platinum equivalent. I thought you can redeem Gamerscore points for purchasing stuff, but I may just be making that up. Sorry by levels I mean telling you how far into a specific trophy you are. Collect 5 Whatevers, if you've collected 3 it'll tell you on Xbox, not on Playstation (as far as I'm aware)

I wondered why I seemed to prefer the Xbox One achievement system, I didn't even realise the Playstation one didn't have levels! About time then. Hopefully there's a purpose to them apart from numbers going up...

Oh ok if you also get a set of free Plus games every month then that's good, I got the impression from their marketing that this was replacing that.

The PS+ Collection seems a bit of a slap in the face to their biggest fans, who've surely already played all those games. Sure there'll be a handful they've not played but it seems a lot lower value in that case compared to new gen games each month. Not sure if you can subscribe to just their online service without the PS+ Collection, if so then that's not so bad I guess, just a shame.

I've not tried the vs AI fleet battles mode yet but I know what you mean about even bog standard TIEs being bullet sponges in the multiplayer modes, it was manned by a real person so obviously isn't about to break at the first volley of fire, but it did feel excessive how much a pummelling they needed to take at times. In the dog-fighting mode you get a ton of XP for sticking with the match till the end, presumably to punish drop-outs. Don't know if that will have an effect in the long-term. Your AI fleet battles sound pretty broken though, I'm sure there are balance patches incoming. That's the TIE Reaper that's given them temporary shields

This game is amazing, confirmed. The actual dogfighting is pretty much perfect. Online is TOUGH, not tried Fleet Battles yet but even the main dogfights mode is intense. I kind of feel like they could do a better job matching players of the same level, but otherwise, it's so much fun. The story missions are fantastic, I wish there were more of them because the various objectives really freshen up the experience.

That's what I was thinking, would explain their vagueness about it all

I don't find the Minecraft look to be particularly appealing, visually speaking, either but I think it has its charm. I look at it like another Mr Game and Watch or Wii Fit Trainer, quirky character quirky art style, even if it's a pretty ugly one, still fits imo

Played the prologue, wow there's a lot going on! I'm used to flight games like this but it was pretty challenging to learn all the controls. Had to invert y axis and I swapped the left and right stick around, and much preferred that. By the end of the prologue I was diverting power and getting the hang of it much better! Awesome fun so far, loving it. Lasers feel so satisfying to shoot and the sound design is top notch. Loved seeing all the little touches like the carriers from Rebels and the cockpits look fantastic. Gonna grab something to eat then dive back in.

EA starting to redeem themselves with the SW license now. Battlefront II's turnaround, Fallen Order and now this. Better late than never!

Reviews are out, getting great scores, it's about 80+ on Metacritic. I've not dived into the write-ups too much but the campaign is around 6-7 hours (longer than I was expecting tbh), the gameplay is apparently a brilliant mix of the Factor 5 games + the old school X-Wing/TIE fighters and is loads of fun. The only negatives I've seen at a quick glance are about the storyline being a bit average. A couple of big Star Wars online voices (SW Explained and Eckhartsladder) both said the game is amazing, good enough for me.

Gotta agree with @Glen-i, Minecraft is up there as one of if not the biggest gaming thing in the world, and in a game that celebrates the whole industry, it's a worthwhile pick for me. Even better!