Julius Posted May 30 Posted May 30 Here we go! Looks freaking fantastic, that trailer gave me Mario Odyssey at E3 2017 vibes with how bonkers it got towards the end 2
Hero-of-Time Posted May 31 Posted May 31 This looks spectacular. It's exactly the kind of stuff I want to see from Sony. Happy to see that the series still has cameos from other PlayStation IP. Both Astro Bot games are up their with Nintendo's platforming games and so I have high hopes for this latest entry. 1 1
Glen-i Posted May 31 Posted May 31 Big lol at the PS5 making a more convincing looking spaceship then an actual console. But yeah, this looks great. After my disappointment with Mario Odyssey, seeing a game that takes a similar approach to level design as Mario Galaxy is the kind of game I really need these days.
Dcubed Posted May 31 Posted May 31 Like I said in the SOP thread, it looks good! If it comes to PC? I’ll get it
Julius Posted May 31 Author Posted May 31 More details from the PS Blog post: Quote In this brand-new game, you will explore 6 galaxies and over 80 levels in search of Astro’s scattered crew. Hold on tight to your Dual Speeder and dive down to each unique planet, from lush forests, sandy beaches, hot volcanoes to more surprising locations such as a gigantic hourglass or the canopy of a singing tree! To get help on his mission, Astro can use over 15 new abilities offering unique play styles. As you would expect from an Astro game, these take full advantage of the DualSense controller, its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers so you can feel every little step along the journey. Among the many new powers, you will find Barkster, the Bulldog Booster that lets you air-dash and smash through enemies, metal and glass, the Twin-Frog Gloves that offer long-range punching and the ability to swing and the Giant Sponge that lets you suck up water from the environment to grow huge and cause massive (and slightly moist) destruction. Combined with improved Astro controls, these new powers take the Astro platforming experience to new heights, while remaining accessible for all. We can’t wait for you to get your hands on these and let us know how they feel. We also cranked up the number of baddies too with over 70 new types, including massive bosses at the end of each galaxy. Special mention to the deadly cobra queen Lady Venomara who appears in the trailer, waiting for you in her golden lair. Defeating each boss will uncover a wonderful secret but we don’t want to spoil that, so our lips are sealed😊. And for the brave ones of you craving even more challenge, the game comes packed with die-and-retry levels to test your reflexes. But that’s not all, during this epic adventure, Astro will reunite with many friends from the PlayStation universe. The trailer shows only a few but we double down on the cast and hope to delight every PlayStation fan out there. And who knows, maybe this time, these characters will play an even bigger part in saving the day? (wink) We’ll be back soon with more details about the game as well as pre-orders opening up June 7. Until then, power up your DualSense, Team Asobi and Astro are taking you on a PlayStation space adventure to remember! And we also have the game's official box art from the same blog post: 80+ new levels, 15 new abilities and 70+ new enemies?! Good lord think this is pretty safely my most anticipated game of the rest of the year, can't wait!
Julius Posted May 31 Author Posted May 31 (edited) Watched the trailer a couple more times, and yeah, it's hype as all hell. Crazy that they went that hard with the first trailer, though I guess we are just over 3 months away! Only just realising they pulled a bit of a PIXAR with the PlayStation Studios logo in the standalone trailer, neat touch Anyways, this shot in the shuffle of all the action towards the end has cracked me every. single. viewing. It's not even Wander and Agro, it's the fact that there's another bot who has been roped into playing Mono and just lying down for eternity Edited May 31 by Julius 1
drahkon Posted June 1 Posted June 1 (edited) I love that little robot. Edit: Are these pics blurry for all of you? I got them from here, just in case. Edited June 1 by drahkon
Dcubed Posted June 1 Posted June 1 It’s really nice to see at least a small part of Playstation actually pay homage to their legacy. Sony does actually have a back catalogue that’s worth celebrating, and it’s criminal how much Modern Sony has shoved aside their legacy; when they should be proud of where they came from. A sight for sore eyes
Julius Posted June 3 Author Posted June 3 Been watching the trailer some more and man, that electric guitar riff towards the end just gets wild. Anyways, I've also been thinking about the game some more – just realised that there's no word on the speed run mode from Playroom returning. Maybe it's still to be announced or it'll be patched in (or even unlocked as a type of post-game?) but I had a blast with it in Playroom and would love for it to make a return here. Very curious about how this game will be priced, too. Part of me expects Sony will want this at their premium £70 tier, but another part of me says that it's a much easier sell at £50. Anyone got thoughts on pricing for this? On 6/1/2024 at 9:12 AM, Dcubed said: It’s really nice to see at least a small part of Playstation actually pay homage to their legacy. I was catching up on Kyle Bosman's reaction stream and he asked his chat if it made sense that Astro has this affinity towards hardware in a standalone title like this compared to Playroom (a fair question, I think, due to it being packed in purely to sell some of the new PS5 features), to which someone in his chat responded "Astro's learning about his heritage" Gave me a good chuckle 1
drahkon Posted June 3 Posted June 3 20 minutes ago, Julius said: Part of me expects Sony will want this at their premium £70 tier, but another part of me says that it's a much easier sell at £50. Anyone got thoughts on pricing for this? It would be an even easier sell at 20 bucks. It's a fully-fledged game, it's gonna be sold at the current, normal price for video games. Always confuses me, when people think any other platformer aside from Mario games should be sold at a lower price. 1
Julius Posted June 3 Author Posted June 3 1 hour ago, drahkon said: It would be an even easier sell at 20 bucks. It's a fully-fledged game, it's gonna be sold at the current, normal price for video games. Always confuses me, when people think any other platformer aside from Mario games should be sold at a lower price. Oh yeah, totally - to be clear, I will very happily pay £70 for this game if that's how much it ends up being I guess my question is coming less from a consumer "want" in terms of people potentially wanting it to come in at a lower price (I mean, that would just be nice for everything, and I doubt anyone would disagree ), and more so trying to understand what PlayStation might want to do, considering they've been keen to position games at so many different (and sometimes confusing?) prices throughout this gen. So me saying "£50 will be an easier sell" isn't saying that that's the case for me, but more trying to think that I could see PlayStation seeing it that way if the aim is to get a wide range of people picking up this game at full price. Do we think that PlayStation themselves hold Team Asobi and Astro Bot to the same potential pricing as a new God of War, Last of Us, or even Ratchet & Clank? I think it's also worth asking because Astro has never been in a full price game before, and I think that also gives PlayStation a bit more to think about when pricing this game. The Playroom was a free download for PS4 owners if I'm remembering right, the same was true with Astro's Playroom for PS5, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission comes in at £35, which is below a lot of big name offerings like Iron Man VR and Skyrim VR, despite being viewed as one of the best games released for the PS VR platform. I think that PlayStation will have the numbers from Astro's Playroom to support whatever they decide to do in terms of pricing - I feel like just going off the number of Platinums and completions, and even downloads will be more than enough data to get a fair idea of what they should be expecting in terms of interest - and while maybe not the most fairly representative way, on the PlayStation YouTube channel it is currently the third most-watched of the new trailers from the State of Play (behind Monster Hunter Wilds and...Infinity Nikki? Holy heck that game currently has nearly as many views as the State of Play itself!) so I don't doubt that there are eyes on it, I do just wonder what their sales expectations are for a game like this. I mean, especially for launch, where the price is going to be a big sticking point for a number of people before it inevitably drops, as pretty much every non-Nintendo game is known to do. Where Astro has been included in games or experiences before which were unique pack-ins or smaller scale in the case of Rescue Mission, added to being on a platform with a relatively small install base, how do you scale up sales projections based on those previous outings? I don't know, I hope this game crushes and then some. But we all know just how fickle PlayStation has been these last few years, moving on from an amazing selling game like Days Gone because it wasn't up to snuff on Metacritic, and where I don't doubt for a moment how much quality will be packed into this game, I can't help but wonder about its sales potential and their expectations for it, and what might happen if it doesn't perform 1
Hero-of-Time Posted June 4 Posted June 4 Yeah, the pricing on this is going to be tricky. Ratchet and Clank is probably the closest comparison that can be made and that launched at £60-£70. However, that is also a well established franchise that has a decent sized fan base. If it does launch at a premium price (£60+) then I'll be giving it a miss until it is cheaper. I've said a few times now that I can't justify splashing that amount of cash on a single game. Given the size of my backlog, I'm more than happy to wait for games to reduce in price to what I find an acceptable level.
Julius Posted June 6 Author Posted June 6 (edited) Reminder that pre-orders for this game will start going up tomorrow, and while it seems like we'll be waiting until then for the prices to drop, we do have news on the different editions of the game courtesy of the PlayStation Blog. The Blog itself includes some nice short clips of Astro and buds goofing around in some of the pre-order items listed below, so well worth checking out All pre-orders, regardless of edition, will include: Quote • The Astro Lovestruck Lyricist outfit • The Glorious Graffiti Dual Speeder paint color • 2 Astro Avatars Anyways, onto the editions... Physical standard edition + pre-order items Quote Physical poster PaRappa Lovestruck Lyricist outfit Glorious Graffiti Dual Speeder paint color 2 Astro Avatars We also get a nice sneak peek of the included poster, and it's great: And if you take a closer look at the first one... Digital standard edition + pre-order items: Quote PaRappa Lovestruck Lyricist outfit Glorious Graffiti Dual Speeder paint color 2 Astro Avatars Digital deluxe edition + pre-order items Quote On top of this, the Digital Deluxe Edition also adds the following early unlocks: Astro’s Yharnam Tourist outfit Astro’s Golden outfit The Neon Dream Dual Speeder paint color The Champion’s Gold Dual Speeder paint color The official Soundtrack and Digital Art Gallery 10 Astro Avatars The outfits and the Dual Speeder paint colors listed above will become available during the adventure as you unlock their respective buildings on the crash site. So yeah, just wanted to put that in bold: some of these are early unlocks and will still be attainable in the main game. I LOVE the Yharnam Tourist outfit (also, outfits and paint schemes confirmed I guess?)! And we'll be unlocking respective buildings on the crash site? Did someone say Comet Observatory from Galaxy with PlayStation buildings of interest which we'll build up?! Closer look at the avatars: Curious to see if a physical deluxe edition gets announced? Would seem strange to me to list it as the "physical standard edition" and not simply the "physical edition" if there weren't any plans for one. Would also suck if the Digital Deluxe Edition was the only way to get my hands on all those other avatars! Aloy, Nate, Traveller, generic GT driver and Lady Maria are A-tier; Selene is absolutely S-tier!!! The one red and one blue eye? Looks so cool! Anyways, looks great. Curious about price but, well, this is somehow just 3 months away and is going to be a great way to round off the summer! Edited June 6 by Julius 2
Julius Posted June 7 Author Posted June 7 (edited) Before I went to sleep last night the physical edition of the game had turned up on a European store for ~€70, and while still not up on the PlayStation Store proper, it has now turned up as ~$100 in a number of Australian stores and for $60 at Walmart in the US. So, that very likely means an RRP of £60/US$60/€70, and I've got to imagine a number of physical edition retailers are going to push that down a bit closer to the £55 mark in an attempt to take your hard earned cash off your hands. Edited June 7 by Julius
Hero-of-Time Posted June 7 Posted June 7 Yeah, it's up for pre-order on Amazon now for £59.99. Shopto have it for £55. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted June 7 Posted June 7 Astro's Playroom just got a free surprise update and new trophies. 1
Julius Posted June 7 Author Posted June 7 18 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Astro's Playroom just got a free surprise update and new trophies. And here I was with nothing much to do this evening besides Elden Ring prep (super rusty btw, I think I might need to start a new file to prep for Shadow of the Erdtree...) Time to get this downloaded!
drahkon Posted June 7 Posted June 7 (edited) Looks like it's a bunch of nothing for now Edit: Nevermind Edited June 7 by drahkon
Julius Posted June 7 Author Posted June 7 19 minutes ago, drahkon said: Looks like it's a bunch of nothing for now Did you find the... Spoiler clock? That they've gone full ARG with this is pretty funny to me love the new gatchas added, was 100 coins short of getting them all in one go because of that stupid can live that there's a countdown space to Astro Bot, and that you can see parts of the trailer on the Portal!
Julius Posted June 7 Author Posted June 7 Aww she moves to the countdown portal Seen some mention that it might be the case that each Bot is only made obtainable after we reach a certain number of days out from Astro Bot proper: 90 days (today), 60 days (7th July), 30 days (6th August), and launch day. Makes perfect sense when reading back the description for the trophy you get for getting them all. Is there a way to play this fresh without overwriting my save and without needing to use a different profile? Now that's the real riddle here
drahkon Posted June 7 Posted June 7 6 minutes ago, Julius said: Is there a way to play this fresh without overwriting my save and without needing to use a different profile? Now that's the real riddle here Upload the save, disable auto-upload, start a new file. When you need the completed file again, download it. But that would erase the "new" file for good. Should work, but don't quote me on that
EEVILMURRAY Posted June 8 Posted June 8 On 01/06/2024 at 9:12 AM, Dcubed said: It’s really nice to see at least a small part of Playstation actually pay homage to their legacy. Sony does actually have a back catalogue that’s worth celebrating, and it’s criminal how much Modern Sony has shoved aside their legacy; when they should be proud of where they came from. A sight for sore eyes The majority of Astro's Playroom did that, which I thought was a great nod. But I am a bit concerned they're doing it (what seems) a fair bit this time, I don't want them to rely too much on the memberberries aspect, when the gameplay was awesome.
Glen-i Posted June 8 Posted June 8 44 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said: The majority of Astro's Playroom did that, which I thought was a great nod. But I am a bit concerned they're doing it (what seems) a fair bit this time, I don't want them to rely too much on the memberberries aspect, when the gameplay was awesome. It's a fair concern, but one that I think can be dispelled if the game capitilises on the opportunity this can provide. Now what if, instead of just "Hey look, remember this franchise?" Some of these Robot versions of Sony characters help Astro Bot out in certain parts and actually directly change the kind of gameplay you go through? For example, this guy comes along and now you're playing a kid-friendly version of Uncharted. There's potential here, and I hope they capitilise on it. 1
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