You probably could go through Tales of Vesperia rather fast in just two weeks, but that would mean a lot of playtime each day since the game is around 50 hours long.
To those who wonder if the game is worth playing or not, honestly, if this is the only game in the series you have access to (since most of them are on PlayStation systems) and you're interested in trying it out, then I'd say give it a go. But if you have other systems, then I highly recommend to just skip it and play the later Tales games instead. I'm currently playing through Tales of Xillia on the PS3 and it's so much better than Vesperia. Combat is better, the writing and voice acting are better, the game is more cinematic and it's in third-person now instead of having a fixed camera angle and so on.
Vesperia is still a decent experience but it definitely hasn't aged well in so many aspects.
Started up The Evil Within yesterday as part of Game Club and it's pretty good so far. Haven't played much but I'm definitely looking forward to delving more into it this weekend.
Been also playing a lot more on my PS3 lately. After finishing up Tales of Vesperia, I've been for some reason craving more Tales games and so I decided to start up Tales of Xillia, which is so much better than Vesperia in pretty much every aspect so far. On the side, I'll be having some casual fun with Ape Escape and the PS Move since I'm back to playing motion control games now.
Finally, I've been trying to finish up Night in the Woods since I started it up last year when it was added to Game Pass but I never got far into it. Luckily, I bought the game on Switch so I can play it even though it's now left GP. And honestly, the game gets really good later on. I'm very surprised that it's managed to capture my interest now since the opening hours weren't that compelling to me.
@TooBarFoo It's been brought up before but I think the issue is that most Xbox Game Studios are biting off more than they can chew right now, possibly because Microsoft wants them to make more ambitious experiences that can rival PlayStation's IPs. There was a rumour earlier this year that one of the reasons for why Hellblade II is taking so long to make is because the developers are being too ambitious with this game. Supposedly, the sequel is going to be an open world game and that's going to take a lot more time to forge.
It was the same issue with Halo Infinite. 343 had too ambitious plans with that game because they wanted it to be open world and that's why it's taken so long to develop. Then we have studios like Rare that don't even know what kind of game they want to make. Not to mention the other Xbox Game Studios like Compulsion Games that have been quiet for multiple years.
The way I see it, Microsoft is in a hurry to release higher quality games at a faster rate due to Game Pass and that's putting a lot of pressure on most of their studios. This isn't an issue with the ZeniMax studios because they've always been making ambitious experiences, hence why we're going to see steady releases from them every year (Redfall and Starfield next year as two examples). But a lot of Microsoft's other studios just aren't used to making games on a larger scale and I honestly think that Microsoft's approach isn't healthy. It takes a long time for studios to evolve, so to have most of them undergo this process in such a short time is going to cause a lot of issues. Either the games will underperform (e.g. Halo Infinite when it was supposed to come out last year) or they are going to take much longer to be developed (e.g. Hellblade II).
Here's why this makes sense to me: Konami needs to regain the trust of its fans and it would be much better to remake MGS3, which is considered the best game in the series, rather than the older titles. Not to mention that MGS3 is chronologically the first game in the series, so it would make sense to have people play this one first.
It's the same thing with Capcom and Resident Evil, I'd rather have RE4 remake than Code Veronica remake because RE4 is considered the best game in the series. I'm also viewing this from a non-greedy perspective. Who's to say that these companies will continue to remake more games, there's no guarantee that will happen. I'd rather have the best game remade first. If they decide to remake more, then that's great!
So yeah, MGS3 and RE4 first, then everything else is a bonus.
@themightyant It's not like multiple playthroughs in NieR means that you'll be playing the exact same game over and over. For example, there are a lot of games these days that require you to play through the same game but with some additional scenarios here and there in order to reach the true ending. That's not how it works in NieR. Think of it instead like three different games packed into one. Granted, the second playthrough is very similar to the first one but the third one is vastly different.
I played through the game back when it came out and only did the first playthough before taking a break from it and I honestly felt content after only playing through the first one. It took me 25-30 hours I believe but that's including the numerous side quests that you don't need to do if you don't want to. So if you want, you could just do the first playthrough and see if that's enough for you.
@FriendlyOctopus @Deadcow They announced Scarlet Nexus coming to Game Pass at Tokyo Game Show. AI: The Somnium Files will also be added to Game Pass soon.
@FriendlyOctopus It does seem like Microsoft's relationship with Square Enix is very good now. First Outriders back in Spring and now this, on top of all the JRPGs like Dragon Quest XI and Octopath Traveler that they've put on Game Pass. Hopefully this is something that will continue because Square Enix is definitely a major contributor to Game Pass right now.
Well I think that much is obvious considering how few studios Microsoft owned during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 days and now they have 23 studios. The higher-ups at Microsoft definitely didn't care that much at the time in investing in Xbox and now that has changed primarily due to Phil Spencer and the idea of Game Pass. Without Game Pass, Microsoft wouldn't have invested in acquiring so many studios and Xbox would still be making mostly Halo, Gears and Forza titles. Really goes to show how so much can change when you have the right person for the job.
Well considering how collaborative Microsoft has been with Nintendo the past few years by adding games like Ori and Cuphead on the Switch, as well as Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft Steve in Smash Bros and allowing Nintendo to release Banjo-Kazooie as part of the N64 offerings on Nintendo Switch Online, you would think that Nintendo would throw Microsoft a bone and port Bayonetta 2 and 3 to Xbox. Not to mention that Microsoft could even pay Nintendo by also including the games on Game Pass.
Fat chance of this happening, but you never know, crazier things have certainly happened.
Will be playing Tales of Vesperia on Switch, Red Steel 2 on Wii and Hydrophobia Prophecy on PS3.
I'm nearing the end of Vesperia and it's been a fun ride despite the stuff that I didn't like about it. I'm also going back and clearing games that I've had for almost a decade with Red Steel 2 and Hydrophobia. The former is so much fun, I love the motion controls, and the latter is decent enough, but nothing special.
@SplooshDmg Exactly. I've seen so many people say they've spent hundreds, even thousands of hours on titles like Skyrim and that's because these are special games. Bugs aren't enough to dissuade people from playing them. That's not to say that we should accept the bugs, but I think it's unfair to single Bethesda out. Hopefully Starfield will turn out to be better initially compared to previous Bethesda titles.
@StonyKL Dozens of other major companies also make buggy games, but Bethesda is put in the limelight because of the acquisition. It's not anything new that companies make buggy games.
I recently played through Fallout 3 and didn't encounter any bugs whatsoever. I've also played 20+ hours of Skyrim years ago and I've never run into any major bugs. Just like with other games, the bugs get fixed afterwards. So why single out Bethesda?
I still remember that day. I was working on a paper and decided to take a break by going through my Twitter and literally everyone was tweeting about how Microsoft had acquired ZeniMax. I just couldn't believe it, I literally spent hours afterwards just reading about it because it was such a huge thing.
I also remember how there were a lot of people downplaying this acquisition because "Bethesda makes buggy games". Whatever your stance is, Bethesda as well as the other studios are a HUGE get for Microsoft. Not to mention Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Quake, Dishonored, The Evil Within, the list goes on and on. Those are all major IPs. Then we have all the new ones like Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Redfall, Starfield and so on. It's probably the largest and most significant acquisition ever made. Xbox Game Studios finally feels like a force to be reckoned with.
@Widey85 Yeah I've played through Call of the Sea and it was an amazing game! Haven't played Myst yet, so I'm definitely adding that to my list of games to play on GP.
I've been meaning to play this game for a long time and I'm glad that it's on Game Pass now. It looks like such a cool and unique experience. Will definitely be checking it out the next time I'm subscribed to the service.
Will be playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Steins;Gate 0 on PS4, as well as Tales of Vesperia on the Switch.
It's been a while since I've played a Lego game and I've been in the mood for some mindless fun so I thought why not give this game a go. It's so much fun thus far and coincidentally, I'm also craving superhero media right now as I'm watching Supergirl on HBO. So this game is definitely checking all the right boxes for me.
As for Tales of Vesperia, after 25 hours of playing it, I've finally reached a point where the game is actually getting good. The pacing is getting better and the story is getting more interesting. The protagonist is also a breath of fresh air, he has some dark demons and I'm interested to see how he's going to rectify that. I'll also be continuing my playthrough of Steins;Gate 0 as I need a visual novel to help me relax for time to time.
I've already bought these three games on Wii U Virtual Console so I'm all good. What I do want is the DS Castlevania games as they aren't available on Wii U and I really want to play them as well. Hopefully if this collection sells well we can get the rest of the games.
@BAMozzy I agree with @Widey85, what you're saying is basically that you want Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to form a collusion, i.e. a cartel. There will be no competition and all three companies would benefit from working together. That's illegal and will never happen.
@Widey85 It was rumoured last year that Ubisoft would be the next acquisition and at the time, I thought it'd be a good idea because of how many iconic IPs Ubisoft owns. But maybe not anymore, especially due to PR issues as you mentioned. Microsoft is a company that really cares about its image so I highly doubt they'd want to be associated with Ubisoft right now. Which makes me think, maybe they were planning on announcing the acquisition this year but due to all the issues going on at Ubisoft, they've been delaying it or even shelved those plans entirely.
Valve would make sense not only because of Steam but also because of Steam Deck. Microsoft would finally have its own dedicated handheld device and the fact that you'd be able to play PC games as well as Game Pass on it would make it very appealing to own. Not to mention that maybe Microsoft could help revive Valve's franchises such as Portal, Left 4 Dead and dare I say, Half-Life. Imagine if it was announced that Half-Life 3 would finally come out and exclusively on Xbox/PC for that matter. That would be absolutely huge! Also, doesn't Valve own a VR headset as well? There's certainly a lot of devices/peripherals that Microsoft could utilise if they acquired Valve.
No matter who they acquire, I think it's long over due for Microsoft to announce their next acquisition. They need to keep getting more people on board with Game Pass and another major acquisition like ZeniMax would do just that.
I've started coming around for the Motorsport titles recently. Before I preferred the Horizon games but now I'm enjoying Motorsport a lot more than in the past simply because they are very relaxing games to play while listening to a podcast in the background. I've finished Motorsport 4 and 5 in the past month and I'm very glad that I've bought physical copies of these games so that I could play them, as well as copies of Motorsport 6 and 7. Sad to see these games delisted, all the more reason to buy them though.
@BlueOcean Agreed. I'm currently playing through the RE games and I genuinely don't feel like playing through CV. I've heard that there's so much trial and error in that game, not to mention there not being multiple difficulty options and even stuff that can stop you from progressing through the game and force you to start over.
But if there's an RE4 remake coming, then I don't mind that at all. After all, RE4 is considered one of the best games of all time and for it to receive a remake with better visuals and controls would make it the perfect game basically.
Resident Evil 4 Remake, Street Fighter 6, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter 6 seem to be legit then since they are mentioned both here and in the leak from last year. RE4 Remake does make sense since they've already remade 2 and 3.
Would also be cool to see Kingdom Hearts IV, but that may not even come out for another five years or more.
@shamirqushairi Because when you start a conversation by saying something like that, it makes me believe that you think I'm biased to the Xbox platform, when in fact I'm not. I don't have a special love for any of the platforms that dictates my reasoning. I'm just saying how it is, the way I see it.
I totally get the frustration, but trust me you would be even more frustrated if Sony announced games that are way too far off in the future. That's how they used to do back in the day, which is why they don't participate in events like E3 and Gamescom. They even had their own event called PlayStation Experience, which they've stopped doing as well. The reason being that people didn't like that Sony announced something that wouldn't come out until 3-4 years later. They even did that in the latest showcase, Spider-Man 2 won't be coming out until 2023 and Wolverine probably won't even come out until 2024 or 2025.
At least this way, you'll always know what's right around the corner for PlayStation without having to wait too long.
@NEStalgia Fair enough. To offer my perspective, I don't care about Deathloop because I don't like the theme of time loops in media in general. So all of this talk about Deathloop being shown off too much hasn't bothered me because I've done what most people should be doing if they aren't interested in a game, just don't bother with it. If there's an article about it, I don't read it. If there's a trailer for it, I don't watch it. If it's being shown during a live stream, I mute the stream and go do something else for a couple of minutes. It really isn't that hard to avoid partaking in something that is optional.
I do get that PlayStation doesn't have much else to offer for the rest of this year. Which is why I think one should always have another platform to game on in case that happens. I genuinely can't imagine owning only PlayStation platforms, especially now that they're focusing on making massive games that take numerous years to make with nothing else to play in the mean time. Remember the PS3 days when a game from a PlayStation franchise would see a new entry every 1-2 years? Yeah, that time is long gone, lol.
But yeah, I do think a lot of anger stems from owning only one platform. All the bad news about Sony, the lack of games and so on, it's making people incredibly frustrated. I haven't noticed that at all because I game on all three platforms, but I can absolutely see how someone who only plays on PlayStation would feel upset. Still doesn't make it right to take that anger out on a phenomenal game like Deathloop. I genuinely feel sorry for the developers, if that game had come out on Xbox it would've been met with praise right from the moment it was announced until it was released.
@NEStalgia What if instead of Deathloop, they were constantly showing God of War Ragnarok instead? Or Horizon Forbidden West? Would those same people also get tired of seeing too much of those games? While I don't have a concrete example in mind because this is the first time I've experienced something like this in the gaming community, I can guarantee there have been dozens of games in the past where either Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo has shown off all the time and yet people didn't complain about it. Somehow Deathloop is the only one people are reacting to. You don't find that strange at all? Strange as in, why hasn't this happened before? If you have any good examples then I'd love to hear them.
@shamirqushairi "I think you feel that way because of your love towards the Xbox platform mate."
Do you know me? This is the first time I'm talking to you and apparently you seem to know very well about my "love towards the Xbox platform". Not to mention that just because I'm on an Xbox site doesn't mean that I have a special fondness for the platform and that I treat it differently than others. You should probably get to know people first before calling them out.
I know there are PlayStation users who are excited for this, but that doesn't mean that we should neglect the huge amount of people over the past year who have said that they are tired of hearing about the game, which has led to a lot of negativity surrounding it. If you don't think there have been many complaints about it, then I'm sorry but you haven't been following the game so well then on the medias. There has been a lot of unwarranted talk about the game just because a company has done what they always do: market their product. If you're not interested in Deathloop, you could always avoid the articles and the trailers. Nobody has forced you to watch them. It's genuinely not a legitimate criticism to say that Deathloop has been marketed too much, because marketing isn't something that's forced on people. You always have the choice to either watch it or not.
@Nerdfather1 Which is the right approach if you ask me. If you're not interested in something, then just don't bother with it. I constantly see the same people on Deathloop articles who are saying that they aren't interested in the game but they keep writing on those articles every single time. If you're constantly writing about stuff you're not interested in, then I'm going to interpret that as you having an ulterior motive for writing those comments. Because why would you otherwise spend so much time for something you don't care about? Just move on. Plenty of games get marketed a lot and yet this is the only one that people have gotten annoyed by.
Also, how can you even get annoyed by a game for being shown too much? That doesn't make any sense, you're the one choosing to read all the articles and watch all the trailers for that game. You're not strapped down on a chair against your will and being forced to watch it. It just doesn't make sense to me, it's absolutely ridiculous.
I've said this multiple times, it's not about Sony doing something and Microsoft having to do the same thing. It's about Microsoft needing to offer variety because they now have a service that they want to appeal to everyone. In order to appeal to everyone, you need to have all kinds of games on that service. This includes narrative-driven games as well as superhero games and more, i.e. games that Sony is offering a lot of.
Simply put, it doesn't matter that Sony is doing it. If Microsoft wants to make Game Pass more appealing to everyone (which they want because that's their goal with the service), then they have to offer these games as well.
Personally, I've grown fond of superheros in media. I love watching Marvel/DC TV shows on Netflix and HBO and I enjoy the video games as well. I would love to see Microsoft invest more in this area. Perhaps we could see more DC games, I'd definitely love that.
Here's the thing that I don't get, this game is being praised far and wide and yet, before it came out, PlayStation users were constantly stating that they're tired of seeing it everywhere. And now that it's out, people are saying "finally, now we don't need to hear more about it anymore".
I've been an active gamer for the past 15 years and never in my life have I seen a community outright say that they're tired of seeing a certain game everywhere. Never. Why is that? Deathloop is getting high ratings everywhere and people are just glad that they won't hear more about it.
Are people genuinely that upset that it's made by a studio that is now owned by Microsoft? I've already seen plenty of people saying that they won't buy Deathloop because of that reason, not to mention everyone who is "sick of seeing this game".
There have been hundreds of games that have been marketed much more than Deathloop, yet this one is getting singled out because it's a game made by an Xbox first-party studio on a rival platform. How far have we come to let console wars dictate which games we want to like. It's so pathetic.
Yeah I was afraid this was going to be the case, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered opening with it. It's so unnecessary, this definitely feels like the sort of game that should be on all platforms considering how beloved the original game is.
@NEStalgia I'm at the part where the dragon lady (Judy I think she was called) and Flynn have joined us. Some kind of tower with a bad guy with red armour at the top that we need to defeat. I'm about 17 hours into the game now so I still have quite a ways to go.
@NEStalgia I have a very hard time following the story. I just don't understand what our overall goal is. Yuri needs to find the Blood Alliance, we need to restore the blastia, this random evil guy needs to be stopped. It's just so hard to follow along because something else always comes along and interrupts the moment and suddenly we're on a completely different quest than we were before. The story is just all over the place, which isn't helping me stay motivated at all.
The combat is extremely basic. Mash the B button for your standard attacks, hold Y to defend and press A along with a direction to perform a special attack. Other than the "over limit" aspect, the combat doesn't change over the course of the game at all. It's just not fun, it's very repetitive and if you're going to try and make real-time battles then you have to nail the movement. But all you're doing is walking in a 2D plane and it's very janky. There is an option to move in 3D, but you can't attack while doing so. Not to mention that there are tons of difficulty spikes early on in the game and I've grown sick of them that I'm just going to put the difficulty on easy just so I can blast through the story.
I do like the variety of characters and it's nice to hear banter between them every now and then.They're just not very likeable characters.
@StonyKL Before Sunset Overdrive came out, you probably thought "Insomniac Games doesn't mean anything to Xbox owners". But then it did. You don't know what games would've come out on Xbox if Housemarque, Bluepoint and Firesprite were still independent. There's no knowing that anymore.
@Jaxx420 My point was that it doesn't matter if you think acquisitions are good for business or not as long as you don't slander one company while glorifying the other. Everyone has their opinion on things and I'm fine with that, but saying Microsoft is awful for acquiring studios while praising Sony for doing the same thing is nothing short of hypocrisy.
I'm genuinely curious to see how many studios Sony acquires before someone will say "okay, maybe they're going a bit too far now". I just don't like how Microsoft gets all the hate for acquiring studios but when it comes to Sony, it "makes sense".
How doesn't it make sense that Microsoft needs more first-party studios as well as games to bolster Game Pass and that's why they needed to acquire ZeniMax?
"Because Microsoft is taking away games from PlayStation users"
And Sony is taking away games from Xbox users with their own acquisitions as well. Nothing is set in stone, just because a company is making games for Sony one moment doesn't mean that they won't be making games for Microsoft in the next. The example I keep bringing up is Sunset Overdrive, an Xbox exclusive made by Insomniac Games who is now owned by Sony. It's not out of the realm of possibilities that all these studios could've made games for Microsoft but now it's 100% the case that they won't.
"It's not on the same scale as the Bethesda acquisition"
Which is why I'm asking how many studios will it take for people to say that Sony is doing the same thing as Microsoft. They've acquired another studio today, tomorrow they're supposedly going to announce the Bluepoint acquisition during the PlayStation showcase according to a rumour and if they don't, we all know it's coming because PlayStation Japan already leaked it. So how many studios will it take? It doesn't look like they're stopping anytime soon.
Just please stop the hypocrisy. If you don't like acquisitions, then don't say one side is better for doing it while the other is worse. Either they're all worse or it doesn't matter to you.
@SplooshDmg Yeah, there are just so many JRPGs coming out that you have to prioritise some games over others. I mean, a decade ago there were nowhere near as many JRPGs coming out here in the West and now we have a plethora of them. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why people love Vesperia so much because it came out during a time when there weren't that many JRPGs and it probably was many people's introduction to the genre, especially if you've only been an Xbox gamer. When there aren't that many other games to compare it with, a game will be perceived with much higher regard.
But yeah, Yakuza LAD seems like a good one, definitely looking forward to playing it. I'm going to be slowly working my way through Vesperia just because I want to finish it since it's my first Tales of game. Next JRPG I'll be playing will definitely be a better one, perhaps Xenoblade Chronicles or something like that.
@SplooshDmg Tales of Arise honestly looks much better than Vesperia. I'm actually playing through Vesperia right now on the Switch and after 15 hours of playing it, it's just underwhelming. The voice acting is bad, the writing is poor and sometimes disjointed, the animations are bad, the combat is stiff and slow. It's even hard for me to care about the characters because they are your typical anime characters and their background is as generic as it gets.
I know I'm very negative about this game but after playing masterpieces like Persona 5 Royal and Trails of Cold Steel IV, I guess I'm just spoiled. Vesperia genuinely feels like a mediocre game to me. I'm more interested in playing Arise in all honesty.
@SplooshDmg Lol, well at least you realised that and changed. I don't think the guy I talked to will ever change. Not that I care, I stopped talking to him years ago, lol.
@electrolite77 I used to talk with a guy who was really into Fire Emblem and at the time, I was new to the series so I preferred to play the games on Casual difficulty with no permadeath on. He would constantly nag at me to play the games "the way they were intended" and while I get what he was saying, all his talk made me enjoy the series a lot less because he wouldn't let me play the games the way I wanted to play them.
Ever since then, I never appreciate the people who take away enjoyment from others this way. Gaming is fun, let people have fun for crying out loud.
@UltimateOtaku91 Totally understandable, everyone is different and people should have the option to choose how they want to play a game. I still believe that certain games like the Souls titles will have to be experienced a certain way in order to get the full intended experience but it doesn't mean that you still can't get a decent experience from playing them on an easier difficulty setting. Even if I grinded a lot in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I still liked the games a lot. But I still would've liked to have played them differently. It doesn't mean though that everyone will feel like me and I don't want that either. Video games are meant to be fun and when we all have fun, we all win. Everyone should be able to play whichever games they want however they want without feeling demoralised by the community. People who do that take gaming a bit too seriously if you ask me.
@UltimateOtaku91 I think they say that because they believe the experience is ruined by playing the games on an easier difficulty, which I agree with because I've played through both Dark Souls and Bloodborne by grinding and I made the game much easier on myself and I regret doing that.
However, when I look at the survival horror genre, I see plenty of franchises like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Space that offer easier difficulty levels and you can arguably say that by playing those games on easier difficulty levels, you're ruining the experience by e.g. having an abundance amount of ammo and easier time killing the enemies. But the developers still added that option there and nobody bats an eye to those games.
Simply put, it doesn't ruin anything by offering options to people. Forcing people to play a certain way is something I believe all developers should avoid doing in their video games. In the beginning, I played through most horror games on the easiest difficulty setting and now I'm choosing to play on normal because I've become better at them. Everyone has different ways of learning and that's something people should try to keep in mind.
Will be playing Resident Evil 0 on PS4, Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One and Tales of Vesperia on Switch. Gonna take a break from Psychonauts 2 for a while since my Game Pass has run out, but I'll be resuming it once I've finished a couple of other games first.
@oconnoclast Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Ratchet & Clank Q-Force/Full Frontal Assault and as you mentioned PlayStation All-Stars.
The reason there weren't more is because of the circumstances at the time. Cross-Buy was introduced as the PS3 was on its way out, not to mention that Sony decided to drop support for Vita almost immediately after its launch. Furthermore, I think it would've been hard to port PS4 titles like inFAMOUS: Second Son to the Vita. Therefore, you didn't see much support from Sony themselves. However, they still encouraged other developers to utilise this feature.
Also, look at the circumstances now compared to before. Sony was all in on developing next-gen only titles for PS4 as the PS3 was on its way out. While now, they're all in on developing cross-gen titles. In other words, Cross-Buy would be more fitting now than it was back then because Sony is actually developing the same games on two systems, something that wasn't the case during the PS3/PS4 transition. They have the chance to bring back Cross-Buy in full force now and regain trust from consumers but they aren't willing to do that. I mean, they even had "Cross-Buy" titles last year with Miles Morales and Sackboy but only because those were "launch" titles. Why would they suddenly stop now?
I've been an avid PlayStation gamer since 2012 and trust me when I say this, Sony has most definitely changed in the past decade. How they went from heavily marketing Cross-Buy as a "buy one, get all versions" incentive for consumers to choose their systems over the competitors' to charging twice for the same game is beyond me.
@oconnoclast To be fair, the "Buy one license, own all versions" has actually been the traditional model for PlayStation systems for numerous years until recently. Sony called it "Cross-Buy"; buy the game once and get access to the PS3, Vita and PS4 versions with no extra charge. Naturally, Sony dropped support for the PS3 and Vita over time, so most developers started to release their games only on PS4. Now that there's a second PlayStation system, the fact that Sony hasn't gone back to Cross-Buy where you buy the game once and get access to the PS4 and PS5 versions with no extra charge speaks volume at how much they've changed during the past decade. I know that there are certain titles that offer that, such as The Pathless, but the fact remains that Sony isn't encouraging more developers to do that and help set a standard like Microsoft is doing with Smart Delivery. It doesn't help either that consumers are just willing to let publishers walk all over them.
Where have these people been the past decade? It's always been like this with digital CoD games and I've even stated this before on this site that CoD games are abnormally expensive compared to other franchises even if they're now over a decade old. Most of the time it's not even worth buying pre-owned copies of the games if you only want to play the 6-7 hour campaign in each game. Some titles are worth it though such as Black Ops 1 and the Modern Warfare games due to how great those campaigns are, but I would never pay that much for a used copy of Call of Duty 3 for example.
I just want to see more Japanese games on Xbox. Maybe we'll finally get to hear what Kojima has been working on with Microsoft. Or some partnerships with Japanese companies, such as Atlus, in order to bring games like Persona 5 Royal to Game Pass. It's true that the announcement of an acquisition may not be fitting for TGS, although it has been almost a year since the ZeniMax acquisition was announced. Maybe it is time to announce the next acquisition? I think it would personally be awesome if Microsoft's next acquisition was a Japanese company just to prove to us that they care about bringing more Japanese games to Game Pass.
@FriendlyOctopus While most people may not agree with me, I really hope that Microsoft continues to acquire more studios just so that we can receive their games on Game Pass. Take DoubleFine as an example, I paid €10 for Game Pass to play Psychonauts 2 and that game is absolutely phenomenal. That wouldn't have been possible if Microsoft didn't acquire DoubleFine. People will bring up the argument that they'd rather buy physical games than play rented titles through Game Pass. But let's be reasonable here, there are hundreds of games coming out every year. I don't have the space to keep these hundreds of games in my place, nor is it financially feasible for me to buy all of them at full price. That's why I'm glad we have Game Pass, it's a service that we absolutely need in this day and age.
I mean, the way Microsoft seems to be doing things is that they're making all new games like Starfield and Redfall release exclusively on Xbox while letting older titles such as Quake remastered come out on multiple platforms. Seems like a reasonable approach if you ask me.
Will be playing Psychonauts 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One as well as Tales of Vesperia on the Switch.
Really liking Psychonauts 2 so far, it improves upon the first game in pretty much all aspects and it's just a more enjoyable game to play overall. I feel like now we're getting a true taste of what Game Pass is going to consistently offer us in the future. Like I've only paid €10 for Game Pass and I get to play the entire game for that small price. It still boggles my mind, what a great service.
@John117 I think you're confusing the two indie showcases from this year. The first one was four hours long and nobody liked it from what I've seen due to how long it went on. The second one was better since it was only two hours, but there was still way too much talking. Naturally, Microsoft's E3 conference was great!
It just feels like the Gamescom showcase was mostly filler. If they had included Halo Infinite, more gameplay of The Gunk, shown off Scorn and so on, then it would've been a much better show overall. But they didn't and hopefully they can improve upon this in the future.
Agreed, this year's Gamescom seemed so pointless. There weren't enough announcements to warrant two full showcases. Most of the stuff announced could've just been conveyed through blog posts, especially the stuff shown in Microsoft's showcase. Even if they set up expectations by telling us beforehand what to expect, you're still having a 90 minutes showcase at Gamescom, which will make people think that it's an important thing to watch. But it really wasn't and all that did was hurt Microsoft. Sometimes it's better to not show anything at all than show up and disappoint most people.
I read a couple of comments that said that Microsoft is doing great with Game Pass and first-party titles but they absolutely suck at presentations. I agree with this sentiment, the indie showcases haven't been good in the slightest and Gamescom further solidified this reasoning. At this rate, Microsoft should just take notes from Sony. If you have something significant to show us, then by all means. If not, then keep it simple with blog posts or trailers on YouTube.
Comments 962
Re: Another Six Games Will Leave Xbox Game Pass Soon (October 15)
You probably could go through Tales of Vesperia rather fast in just two weeks, but that would mean a lot of playtime each day since the game is around 50 hours long.
To those who wonder if the game is worth playing or not, honestly, if this is the only game in the series you have access to (since most of them are on PlayStation systems) and you're interested in trying it out, then I'd say give it a go. But if you have other systems, then I highly recommend to just skip it and play the later Tales games instead. I'm currently playing through Tales of Xillia on the PS3 and it's so much better than Vesperia. Combat is better, the writing and voice acting are better, the game is more cinematic and it's in third-person now instead of having a fixed camera angle and so on.
Vesperia is still a decent experience but it definitely hasn't aged well in so many aspects.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 2-3)
Started up The Evil Within yesterday as part of Game Club and it's pretty good so far. Haven't played much but I'm definitely looking forward to delving more into it this weekend.
Been also playing a lot more on my PS3 lately. After finishing up Tales of Vesperia, I've been for some reason craving more Tales games and so I decided to start up Tales of Xillia, which is so much better than Vesperia in pretty much every aspect so far. On the side, I'll be having some casual fun with Ape Escape and the PS Move since I'm back to playing motion control games now.
Finally, I've been trying to finish up Night in the Woods since I started it up last year when it was added to Game Pass but I never got far into it. Luckily, I bought the game on Switch so I can play it even though it's now left GP. And honestly, the game gets really good later on. I'm very surprised that it's managed to capture my interest now since the opening hours weren't that compelling to me.
Re: Rumour: Hellblade 2 Is 'Planned' To Be Shown At The Game Awards 2021
@TooBarFoo It's been brought up before but I think the issue is that most Xbox Game Studios are biting off more than they can chew right now, possibly because Microsoft wants them to make more ambitious experiences that can rival PlayStation's IPs. There was a rumour earlier this year that one of the reasons for why Hellblade II is taking so long to make is because the developers are being too ambitious with this game. Supposedly, the sequel is going to be an open world game and that's going to take a lot more time to forge.
It was the same issue with Halo Infinite. 343 had too ambitious plans with that game because they wanted it to be open world and that's why it's taken so long to develop. Then we have studios like Rare that don't even know what kind of game they want to make. Not to mention the other Xbox Game Studios like Compulsion Games that have been quiet for multiple years.
The way I see it, Microsoft is in a hurry to release higher quality games at a faster rate due to Game Pass and that's putting a lot of pressure on most of their studios. This isn't an issue with the ZeniMax studios because they've always been making ambitious experiences, hence why we're going to see steady releases from them every year (Redfall and Starfield next year as two examples). But a lot of Microsoft's other studios just aren't used to making games on a larger scale and I honestly think that Microsoft's approach isn't healthy. It takes a long time for studios to evolve, so to have most of them undergo this process in such a short time is going to cause a lot of issues. Either the games will underperform (e.g. Halo Infinite when it was supposed to come out last year) or they are going to take much longer to be developed (e.g. Hellblade II).
Re: Konami Is Reportedly Set To Remake Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Here's why this makes sense to me: Konami needs to regain the trust of its fans and it would be much better to remake MGS3, which is considered the best game in the series, rather than the older titles. Not to mention that MGS3 is chronologically the first game in the series, so it would make sense to have people play this one first.
It's the same thing with Capcom and Resident Evil, I'd rather have RE4 remake than Code Veronica remake because RE4 is considered the best game in the series. I'm also viewing this from a non-greedy perspective. Who's to say that these companies will continue to remake more games, there's no guarantee that will happen. I'd rather have the best game remade first. If they decide to remake more, then that's great!
So yeah, MGS3 and RE4 first, then everything else is a bonus.
Re: Surprise! Scarlet Nexus Is Joining Xbox Game Pass Today
@themightyant It's not like multiple playthroughs in NieR means that you'll be playing the exact same game over and over. For example, there are a lot of games these days that require you to play through the same game but with some additional scenarios here and there in order to reach the true ending. That's not how it works in NieR. Think of it instead like three different games packed into one. Granted, the second playthrough is very similar to the first one but the third one is vastly different.
I played through the game back when it came out and only did the first playthough before taking a break from it and I honestly felt content after only playing through the first one. It took me 25-30 hours I believe but that's including the numerous side quests that you don't need to do if you don't want to. So if you want, you could just do the first playthrough and see if that's enough for you.
Re: Surprise! Scarlet Nexus Is Joining Xbox Game Pass Today
@themightyant NieR: Automata is a personal favourite of mine because of how imaginative it is, so I'd definitely recommend playing that one.
And if you haven't already, I highly recommend Yakuza 0 as well.
Re: Four More Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (September 30)
@FriendlyOctopus @Deadcow They announced Scarlet Nexus coming to Game Pass at Tokyo Game Show. AI: The Somnium Files will also be added to Game Pass soon.
Re: Marvel's Avengers Is Heading To Xbox Game Pass This Thursday
@FriendlyOctopus It does seem like Microsoft's relationship with Square Enix is very good now. First Outriders back in Spring and now this, on top of all the JRPGs like Dragon Quest XI and Octopath Traveler that they've put on Game Pass. Hopefully this is something that will continue because Square Enix is definitely a major contributor to Game Pass right now.
Re: Microsoft CEO: Xbox Is Now A Much More Central Part Of The Company
Well I think that much is obvious considering how few studios Microsoft owned during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 days and now they have 23 studios. The higher-ups at Microsoft definitely didn't care that much at the time in investing in Xbox and now that has changed primarily due to Phil Spencer and the idea of Game Pass. Without Game Pass, Microsoft wouldn't have invested in acquiring so many studios and Xbox would still be making mostly Halo, Gears and Forza titles. Really goes to show how so much can change when you have the right person for the job.
Re: PlatinumGames: Tell Nintendo If You Want Bayonetta 3 On Xbox
Well considering how collaborative Microsoft has been with Nintendo the past few years by adding games like Ori and Cuphead on the Switch, as well as Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft Steve in Smash Bros and allowing Nintendo to release Banjo-Kazooie as part of the N64 offerings on Nintendo Switch Online, you would think that Nintendo would throw Microsoft a bone and port Bayonetta 2 and 3 to Xbox. Not to mention that Microsoft could even pay Nintendo by also including the games on Game Pass.
Fat chance of this happening, but you never know, crazier things have certainly happened.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 25-26)
Will be playing Tales of Vesperia on Switch, Red Steel 2 on Wii and Hydrophobia Prophecy on PS3.
I'm nearing the end of Vesperia and it's been a fun ride despite the stuff that I didn't like about it. I'm also going back and clearing games that I've had for almost a decade with Red Steel 2 and Hydrophobia. The former is so much fun, I love the motion controls, and the latter is decent enough, but nothing special.
Re: It's Officially Been A Year Since Xbox And Bethesda Joined Forces
@SplooshDmg Exactly. I've seen so many people say they've spent hundreds, even thousands of hours on titles like Skyrim and that's because these are special games. Bugs aren't enough to dissuade people from playing them. That's not to say that we should accept the bugs, but I think it's unfair to single Bethesda out. Hopefully Starfield will turn out to be better initially compared to previous Bethesda titles.
Re: It's Officially Been A Year Since Xbox And Bethesda Joined Forces
@StonyKL Dozens of other major companies also make buggy games, but Bethesda is put in the limelight because of the acquisition. It's not anything new that companies make buggy games.
I recently played through Fallout 3 and didn't encounter any bugs whatsoever. I've also played 20+ hours of Skyrim years ago and I've never run into any major bugs. Just like with other games, the bugs get fixed afterwards. So why single out Bethesda?
Re: It's Officially Been A Year Since Xbox And Bethesda Joined Forces
I still remember that day. I was working on a paper and decided to take a break by going through my Twitter and literally everyone was tweeting about how Microsoft had acquired ZeniMax. I just couldn't believe it, I literally spent hours afterwards just reading about it because it was such a huge thing.
I also remember how there were a lot of people downplaying this acquisition because "Bethesda makes buggy games". Whatever your stance is, Bethesda as well as the other studios are a HUGE get for Microsoft. Not to mention Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Quake, Dishonored, The Evil Within, the list goes on and on. Those are all major IPs. Then we have all the new ones like Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Redfall, Starfield and so on. It's probably the largest and most significant acquisition ever made. Xbox Game Studios finally feels like a force to be reckoned with.
Re: Superliminal Is Getting Plenty Of Praise Since Joining Xbox Game Pass
@Widey85 Yeah I've played through Call of the Sea and it was an amazing game! Haven't played Myst yet, so I'm definitely adding that to my list of games to play on GP.
Re: Superliminal Is Getting Plenty Of Praise Since Joining Xbox Game Pass
I've been meaning to play this game for a long time and I'm glad that it's on Game Pass now. It looks like such a cool and unique experience. Will definitely be checking it out the next time I'm subscribed to the service.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 18-19)
Will be playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Steins;Gate 0 on PS4, as well as Tales of Vesperia on the Switch.
It's been a while since I've played a Lego game and I've been in the mood for some mindless fun so I thought why not give this game a go. It's so much fun thus far and coincidentally, I'm also craving superhero media right now as I'm watching Supergirl on HBO. So this game is definitely checking all the right boxes for me.
As for Tales of Vesperia, after 25 hours of playing it, I've finally reached a point where the game is actually getting good. The pacing is getting better and the story is getting more interesting. The protagonist is also a breath of fresh air, he has some dark demons and I'm interested to see how he's going to rectify that. I'll also be continuing my playthrough of Steins;Gate 0 as I need a visual novel to help me relax for time to time.
Re: Castlevania Advance Collection Has Been Rated For Xbox
I've already bought these three games on Wii U Virtual Console so I'm all good. What I do want is the DS Castlevania games as they aren't available on Wii U and I really want to play them as well. Hopefully if this collection sells well we can get the rest of the games.
Re: 'Crazy' Xbox Acquisition Rumour Causes Speculation To Run Rampant
@BAMozzy I agree with @Widey85, what you're saying is basically that you want Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to form a collusion, i.e. a cartel. There will be no competition and all three companies would benefit from working together. That's illegal and will never happen.
Re: 'Crazy' Xbox Acquisition Rumour Causes Speculation To Run Rampant
@Widey85 It was rumoured last year that Ubisoft would be the next acquisition and at the time, I thought it'd be a good idea because of how many iconic IPs Ubisoft owns. But maybe not anymore, especially due to PR issues as you mentioned. Microsoft is a company that really cares about its image so I highly doubt they'd want to be associated with Ubisoft right now. Which makes me think, maybe they were planning on announcing the acquisition this year but due to all the issues going on at Ubisoft, they've been delaying it or even shelved those plans entirely.
Valve would make sense not only because of Steam but also because of Steam Deck. Microsoft would finally have its own dedicated handheld device and the fact that you'd be able to play PC games as well as Game Pass on it would make it very appealing to own. Not to mention that maybe Microsoft could help revive Valve's franchises such as Portal, Left 4 Dead and dare I say, Half-Life. Imagine if it was announced that Half-Life 3 would finally come out and exclusively on Xbox/PC for that matter. That would be absolutely huge! Also, doesn't Valve own a VR headset as well? There's certainly a lot of devices/peripherals that Microsoft could utilise if they acquired Valve.
No matter who they acquire, I think it's long over due for Microsoft to announce their next acquisition. They need to keep getting more people on board with Game Pass and another major acquisition like ZeniMax would do just that.
Re: PSA: Forza Motorsport 7 Is Being Delisted From Xbox This Wednesday
I've started coming around for the Motorsport titles recently. Before I preferred the Horizon games but now I'm enjoying Motorsport a lot more than in the past simply because they are very relaxing games to play while listening to a podcast in the background. I've finished Motorsport 4 and 5 in the past month and I'm very glad that I've bought physical copies of these games so that I could play them, as well as copies of Motorsport 6 and 7. Sad to see these games delisted, all the more reason to buy them though.
Re: Unannounced Xbox Projects Discovered In Nvidia Database Leak
@BlueOcean Agreed. I'm currently playing through the RE games and I genuinely don't feel like playing through CV. I've heard that there's so much trial and error in that game, not to mention there not being multiple difficulty options and even stuff that can stop you from progressing through the game and force you to start over.
But if there's an RE4 remake coming, then I don't mind that at all. After all, RE4 is considered one of the best games of all time and for it to receive a remake with better visuals and controls would make it the perfect game basically.
Re: Rumour: Unannounced Xbox Projects Discovered In Nvidia Database Leak
I'm fairly convinced now that the Capcom games are real because as some may remember, Capcom got hacked last year and it revealed tons of upcoming projects: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/11/rumour_massive_capcom_leak_reveals_dragons_dogma_2_street_fighter_6_new_monster_hunter_onimusha_more
Resident Evil 4 Remake, Street Fighter 6, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter 6 seem to be legit then since they are mentioned both here and in the leak from last year. RE4 Remake does make sense since they've already remade 2 and 3.
Would also be cool to see Kingdom Hearts IV, but that may not even come out for another five years or more.
Re: Xbox Game Studios' Deathloop Becomes One Of The Highest Reviewed PS5 Games Of 2021
@shamirqushairi Because when you start a conversation by saying something like that, it makes me believe that you think I'm biased to the Xbox platform, when in fact I'm not. I don't have a special love for any of the platforms that dictates my reasoning. I'm just saying how it is, the way I see it.
I totally get the frustration, but trust me you would be even more frustrated if Sony announced games that are way too far off in the future. That's how they used to do back in the day, which is why they don't participate in events like E3 and Gamescom. They even had their own event called PlayStation Experience, which they've stopped doing as well. The reason being that people didn't like that Sony announced something that wouldn't come out until 3-4 years later. They even did that in the latest showcase, Spider-Man 2 won't be coming out until 2023 and Wolverine probably won't even come out until 2024 or 2025.
At least this way, you'll always know what's right around the corner for PlayStation without having to wait too long.
@NEStalgia Fair enough. To offer my perspective, I don't care about Deathloop because I don't like the theme of time loops in media in general. So all of this talk about Deathloop being shown off too much hasn't bothered me because I've done what most people should be doing if they aren't interested in a game, just don't bother with it. If there's an article about it, I don't read it. If there's a trailer for it, I don't watch it. If it's being shown during a live stream, I mute the stream and go do something else for a couple of minutes. It really isn't that hard to avoid partaking in something that is optional.
I do get that PlayStation doesn't have much else to offer for the rest of this year. Which is why I think one should always have another platform to game on in case that happens. I genuinely can't imagine owning only PlayStation platforms, especially now that they're focusing on making massive games that take numerous years to make with nothing else to play in the mean time. Remember the PS3 days when a game from a PlayStation franchise would see a new entry every 1-2 years? Yeah, that time is long gone, lol.
But yeah, I do think a lot of anger stems from owning only one platform. All the bad news about Sony, the lack of games and so on, it's making people incredibly frustrated. I haven't noticed that at all because I game on all three platforms, but I can absolutely see how someone who only plays on PlayStation would feel upset. Still doesn't make it right to take that anger out on a phenomenal game like Deathloop. I genuinely feel sorry for the developers, if that game had come out on Xbox it would've been met with praise right from the moment it was announced until it was released.
Re: Xbox Game Studios' Deathloop Becomes One Of The Highest Reviewed PS5 Games Of 2021
@NEStalgia What if instead of Deathloop, they were constantly showing God of War Ragnarok instead? Or Horizon Forbidden West? Would those same people also get tired of seeing too much of those games? While I don't have a concrete example in mind because this is the first time I've experienced something like this in the gaming community, I can guarantee there have been dozens of games in the past where either Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo has shown off all the time and yet people didn't complain about it. Somehow Deathloop is the only one people are reacting to. You don't find that strange at all? Strange as in, why hasn't this happened before? If you have any good examples then I'd love to hear them.
Re: Xbox Game Studios' Deathloop Becomes One Of The Highest Reviewed PS5 Games Of 2021
@shamirqushairi "I think you feel that way because of your love towards the Xbox platform mate."
Do you know me? This is the first time I'm talking to you and apparently you seem to know very well about my "love towards the Xbox platform". Not to mention that just because I'm on an Xbox site doesn't mean that I have a special fondness for the platform and that I treat it differently than others. You should probably get to know people first before calling them out.
I know there are PlayStation users who are excited for this, but that doesn't mean that we should neglect the huge amount of people over the past year who have said that they are tired of hearing about the game, which has led to a lot of negativity surrounding it. If you don't think there have been many complaints about it, then I'm sorry but you haven't been following the game so well then on the medias. There has been a lot of unwarranted talk about the game just because a company has done what they always do: market their product. If you're not interested in Deathloop, you could always avoid the articles and the trailers. Nobody has forced you to watch them. It's genuinely not a legitimate criticism to say that Deathloop has been marketed too much, because marketing isn't something that's forced on people. You always have the choice to either watch it or not.
Re: Xbox Game Studios' Deathloop Becomes One Of The Highest Reviewed PS5 Games Of 2021
@Nerdfather1 Which is the right approach if you ask me. If you're not interested in something, then just don't bother with it. I constantly see the same people on Deathloop articles who are saying that they aren't interested in the game but they keep writing on those articles every single time. If you're constantly writing about stuff you're not interested in, then I'm going to interpret that as you having an ulterior motive for writing those comments. Because why would you otherwise spend so much time for something you don't care about? Just move on. Plenty of games get marketed a lot and yet this is the only one that people have gotten annoyed by.
Also, how can you even get annoyed by a game for being shown too much? That doesn't make any sense, you're the one choosing to read all the articles and watch all the trailers for that game. You're not strapped down on a chair against your will and being forced to watch it. It just doesn't make sense to me, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Re: Talking Point: Is Xbox Missing Out By Leaving The Superheroes To PlayStation?
I've said this multiple times, it's not about Sony doing something and Microsoft having to do the same thing. It's about Microsoft needing to offer variety because they now have a service that they want to appeal to everyone. In order to appeal to everyone, you need to have all kinds of games on that service. This includes narrative-driven games as well as superhero games and more, i.e. games that Sony is offering a lot of.
Simply put, it doesn't matter that Sony is doing it. If Microsoft wants to make Game Pass more appealing to everyone (which they want because that's their goal with the service), then they have to offer these games as well.
Personally, I've grown fond of superheros in media. I love watching Marvel/DC TV shows on Netflix and HBO and I enjoy the video games as well. I would love to see Microsoft invest more in this area. Perhaps we could see more DC games, I'd definitely love that.
Re: Xbox Game Studios' Deathloop Becomes One Of The Highest Reviewed PS5 Games Of 2021
Here's the thing that I don't get, this game is being praised far and wide and yet, before it came out, PlayStation users were constantly stating that they're tired of seeing it everywhere. And now that it's out, people are saying "finally, now we don't need to hear more about it anymore".
I've been an active gamer for the past 15 years and never in my life have I seen a community outright say that they're tired of seeing a certain game everywhere. Never. Why is that? Deathloop is getting high ratings everywhere and people are just glad that they won't hear more about it.
Are people genuinely that upset that it's made by a studio that is now owned by Microsoft? I've already seen plenty of people saying that they won't buy Deathloop because of that reason, not to mention everyone who is "sick of seeing this game".
There have been hundreds of games that have been marketed much more than Deathloop, yet this one is getting singled out because it's a game made by an Xbox first-party studio on a rival platform. How far have we come to let console wars dictate which games we want to like. It's so pathetic.
Re: A Knights Of The Old Republic Remake Is Coming, But Not For Xbox... Yet
Yeah I was afraid this was going to be the case, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered opening with it. It's so unnecessary, this definitely feels like the sort of game that should be on all platforms considering how beloved the original game is.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Tales Of Arise
@NEStalgia I'm at the part where the dragon lady (Judy I think she was called) and Flynn have joined us. Some kind of tower with a bad guy with red armour at the top that we need to defeat. I'm about 17 hours into the game now so I still have quite a ways to go.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Tales Of Arise
@NEStalgia I have a very hard time following the story. I just don't understand what our overall goal is. Yuri needs to find the Blood Alliance, we need to restore the blastia, this random evil guy needs to be stopped. It's just so hard to follow along because something else always comes along and interrupts the moment and suddenly we're on a completely different quest than we were before. The story is just all over the place, which isn't helping me stay motivated at all.
The combat is extremely basic. Mash the B button for your standard attacks, hold Y to defend and press A along with a direction to perform a special attack. Other than the "over limit" aspect, the combat doesn't change over the course of the game at all. It's just not fun, it's very repetitive and if you're going to try and make real-time battles then you have to nail the movement. But all you're doing is walking in a 2D plane and it's very janky. There is an option to move in 3D, but you can't attack while doing so. Not to mention that there are tons of difficulty spikes early on in the game and I've grown sick of them that I'm just going to put the difficulty on easy just so I can blast through the story.
I do like the variety of characters and it's nice to hear banter between them every now and then.They're just not very likeable characters.
Re: PlayStation Acquires Firesprite, The Team Behind The Persistence
@StonyKL Before Sunset Overdrive came out, you probably thought "Insomniac Games doesn't mean anything to Xbox owners". But then it did. You don't know what games would've come out on Xbox if Housemarque, Bluepoint and Firesprite were still independent. There's no knowing that anymore.
@Jaxx420 My point was that it doesn't matter if you think acquisitions are good for business or not as long as you don't slander one company while glorifying the other. Everyone has their opinion on things and I'm fine with that, but saying Microsoft is awful for acquiring studios while praising Sony for doing the same thing is nothing short of hypocrisy.
Re: PlayStation Acquires Firesprite, The Team Behind The Persistence
I'm genuinely curious to see how many studios Sony acquires before someone will say "okay, maybe they're going a bit too far now". I just don't like how Microsoft gets all the hate for acquiring studios but when it comes to Sony, it "makes sense".
How doesn't it make sense that Microsoft needs more first-party studios as well as games to bolster Game Pass and that's why they needed to acquire ZeniMax?
"Because Microsoft is taking away games from PlayStation users"
And Sony is taking away games from Xbox users with their own acquisitions as well. Nothing is set in stone, just because a company is making games for Sony one moment doesn't mean that they won't be making games for Microsoft in the next. The example I keep bringing up is Sunset Overdrive, an Xbox exclusive made by Insomniac Games who is now owned by Sony. It's not out of the realm of possibilities that all these studios could've made games for Microsoft but now it's 100% the case that they won't.
"It's not on the same scale as the Bethesda acquisition"
Which is why I'm asking how many studios will it take for people to say that Sony is doing the same thing as Microsoft. They've acquired another studio today, tomorrow they're supposedly going to announce the Bluepoint acquisition during the PlayStation showcase according to a rumour and if they don't, we all know it's coming because PlayStation Japan already leaked it. So how many studios will it take? It doesn't look like they're stopping anytime soon.
Just please stop the hypocrisy. If you don't like acquisitions, then don't say one side is better for doing it while the other is worse. Either they're all worse or it doesn't matter to you.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Tales Of Arise
@SplooshDmg Yeah, there are just so many JRPGs coming out that you have to prioritise some games over others. I mean, a decade ago there were nowhere near as many JRPGs coming out here in the West and now we have a plethora of them. Now that I think about it, maybe that's why people love Vesperia so much because it came out during a time when there weren't that many JRPGs and it probably was many people's introduction to the genre, especially if you've only been an Xbox gamer. When there aren't that many other games to compare it with, a game will be perceived with much higher regard.
But yeah, Yakuza LAD seems like a good one, definitely looking forward to playing it. I'm going to be slowly working my way through Vesperia just because I want to finish it since it's my first Tales of game. Next JRPG I'll be playing will definitely be a better one, perhaps Xenoblade Chronicles or something like that.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Tales Of Arise
@SplooshDmg Tales of Arise honestly looks much better than Vesperia. I'm actually playing through Vesperia right now on the Switch and after 15 hours of playing it, it's just underwhelming. The voice acting is bad, the writing is poor and sometimes disjointed, the animations are bad, the combat is stiff and slow. It's even hard for me to care about the characters because they are your typical anime characters and their background is as generic as it gets.
I know I'm very negative about this game but after playing masterpieces like Persona 5 Royal and Trails of Cold Steel IV, I guess I'm just spoiled. Vesperia genuinely feels like a mediocre game to me. I'm more interested in playing Arise in all honesty.
Re: Xbox Says ‘Gatekeeping And Elitism’ Have No Place In Gaming
@SplooshDmg Lol, well at least you realised that and changed. I don't think the guy I talked to will ever change. Not that I care, I stopped talking to him years ago, lol.
Re: Xbox Says ‘Gatekeeping And Elitism’ Have No Place In Gaming
@electrolite77 I used to talk with a guy who was really into Fire Emblem and at the time, I was new to the series so I preferred to play the games on Casual difficulty with no permadeath on. He would constantly nag at me to play the games "the way they were intended" and while I get what he was saying, all his talk made me enjoy the series a lot less because he wouldn't let me play the games the way I wanted to play them.
Ever since then, I never appreciate the people who take away enjoyment from others this way. Gaming is fun, let people have fun for crying out loud.
Re: Xbox Says ‘Gatekeeping And Elitism’ Have No Place In Gaming
@UltimateOtaku91 Totally understandable, everyone is different and people should have the option to choose how they want to play a game. I still believe that certain games like the Souls titles will have to be experienced a certain way in order to get the full intended experience but it doesn't mean that you still can't get a decent experience from playing them on an easier difficulty setting. Even if I grinded a lot in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I still liked the games a lot. But I still would've liked to have played them differently. It doesn't mean though that everyone will feel like me and I don't want that either. Video games are meant to be fun and when we all have fun, we all win. Everyone should be able to play whichever games they want however they want without feeling demoralised by the community. People who do that take gaming a bit too seriously if you ask me.
Re: Xbox Says ‘Gatekeeping And Elitism’ Have No Place In Gaming
@UltimateOtaku91 I think they say that because they believe the experience is ruined by playing the games on an easier difficulty, which I agree with because I've played through both Dark Souls and Bloodborne by grinding and I made the game much easier on myself and I regret doing that.
However, when I look at the survival horror genre, I see plenty of franchises like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Space that offer easier difficulty levels and you can arguably say that by playing those games on easier difficulty levels, you're ruining the experience by e.g. having an abundance amount of ammo and easier time killing the enemies. But the developers still added that option there and nobody bats an eye to those games.
Simply put, it doesn't ruin anything by offering options to people. Forcing people to play a certain way is something I believe all developers should avoid doing in their video games. In the beginning, I played through most horror games on the easiest difficulty setting and now I'm choosing to play on normal because I've become better at them. Everyone has different ways of learning and that's something people should try to keep in mind.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 4-5)
Will be playing Resident Evil 0 on PS4, Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One and Tales of Vesperia on Switch. Gonna take a break from Psychonauts 2 for a while since my Game Pass has run out, but I'll be resuming it once I've finished a couple of other games first.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's Upgrade Path Has PS5 Buyers Wishing For Xbox's Smart Delivery
@oconnoclast Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Ratchet & Clank Q-Force/Full Frontal Assault and as you mentioned PlayStation All-Stars.
The reason there weren't more is because of the circumstances at the time. Cross-Buy was introduced as the PS3 was on its way out, not to mention that Sony decided to drop support for Vita almost immediately after its launch. Furthermore, I think it would've been hard to port PS4 titles like inFAMOUS: Second Son to the Vita. Therefore, you didn't see much support from Sony themselves. However, they still encouraged other developers to utilise this feature.
Also, look at the circumstances now compared to before. Sony was all in on developing next-gen only titles for PS4 as the PS3 was on its way out. While now, they're all in on developing cross-gen titles. In other words, Cross-Buy would be more fitting now than it was back then because Sony is actually developing the same games on two systems, something that wasn't the case during the PS3/PS4 transition. They have the chance to bring back Cross-Buy in full force now and regain trust from consumers but they aren't willing to do that. I mean, they even had "Cross-Buy" titles last year with Miles Morales and Sackboy but only because those were "launch" titles. Why would they suddenly stop now?
I've been an avid PlayStation gamer since 2012 and trust me when I say this, Sony has most definitely changed in the past decade. How they went from heavily marketing Cross-Buy as a "buy one, get all versions" incentive for consumers to choose their systems over the competitors' to charging twice for the same game is beyond me.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's Upgrade Path Has PS5 Buyers Wishing For Xbox's Smart Delivery
@oconnoclast To be fair, the "Buy one license, own all versions" has actually been the traditional model for PlayStation systems for numerous years until recently. Sony called it "Cross-Buy"; buy the game once and get access to the PS3, Vita and PS4 versions with no extra charge. Naturally, Sony dropped support for the PS3 and Vita over time, so most developers started to release their games only on PS4. Now that there's a second PlayStation system, the fact that Sony hasn't gone back to Cross-Buy where you buy the game once and get access to the PS4 and PS5 versions with no extra charge speaks volume at how much they've changed during the past decade. I know that there are certain titles that offer that, such as The Pathless, but the fact remains that Sony isn't encouraging more developers to do that and help set a standard like Microsoft is doing with Smart Delivery. It doesn't help either that consumers are just willing to let publishers walk all over them.
Re: Xbox Fans Call Out 'Activision's Greed' Over Call Of Duty Digital Prices
Where have these people been the past decade? It's always been like this with digital CoD games and I've even stated this before on this site that CoD games are abnormally expensive compared to other franchises even if they're now over a decade old. Most of the time it's not even worth buying pre-owned copies of the games if you only want to play the 6-7 hour campaign in each game. Some titles are worth it though such as Black Ops 1 and the Modern Warfare games due to how great those campaigns are, but I would never pay that much for a used copy of Call of Duty 3 for example.
Re: Xbox Teases 'Exclusive News' For The Tokyo Game Show 2021
I just want to see more Japanese games on Xbox. Maybe we'll finally get to hear what Kojima has been working on with Microsoft. Or some partnerships with Japanese companies, such as Atlus, in order to bring games like Persona 5 Royal to Game Pass. It's true that the announcement of an acquisition may not be fitting for TGS, although it has been almost a year since the ZeniMax acquisition was announced. Maybe it is time to announce the next acquisition? I think it would personally be awesome if Microsoft's next acquisition was a Japanese company just to prove to us that they care about bringing more Japanese games to Game Pass.
Re: Bethesda And Xbox Shut Down Speculation About 'Starfield Coming To PS5' (Again)
@FriendlyOctopus While most people may not agree with me, I really hope that Microsoft continues to acquire more studios just so that we can receive their games on Game Pass. Take DoubleFine as an example, I paid €10 for Game Pass to play Psychonauts 2 and that game is absolutely phenomenal. That wouldn't have been possible if Microsoft didn't acquire DoubleFine. People will bring up the argument that they'd rather buy physical games than play rented titles through Game Pass. But let's be reasonable here, there are hundreds of games coming out every year. I don't have the space to keep these hundreds of games in my place, nor is it financially feasible for me to buy all of them at full price. That's why I'm glad we have Game Pass, it's a service that we absolutely need in this day and age.
Re: Bethesda And Xbox Shut Down Speculation About 'Starfield Coming To PS5' (Again)
I mean, the way Microsoft seems to be doing things is that they're making all new games like Starfield and Redfall release exclusively on Xbox while letting older titles such as Quake remastered come out on multiple platforms. Seems like a reasonable approach if you ask me.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 28-29)
Will be playing Psychonauts 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One as well as Tales of Vesperia on the Switch.
Really liking Psychonauts 2 so far, it improves upon the first game in pretty much all aspects and it's just a more enjoyable game to play overall. I feel like now we're getting a true taste of what Game Pass is going to consistently offer us in the future. Like I've only paid €10 for Game Pass and I get to play the entire game for that small price. It still boggles my mind, what a great service.
Re: Reaction: Gamescom Has Proved Not Everything Needs A Digital Showcase
@John117 I think you're confusing the two indie showcases from this year. The first one was four hours long and nobody liked it from what I've seen due to how long it went on. The second one was better since it was only two hours, but there was still way too much talking. Naturally, Microsoft's E3 conference was great!
It just feels like the Gamescom showcase was mostly filler. If they had included Halo Infinite, more gameplay of The Gunk, shown off Scorn and so on, then it would've been a much better show overall. But they didn't and hopefully they can improve upon this in the future.
Re: Reaction: Gamescom Has Proved Not Everything Needs A Digital Showcase
Agreed, this year's Gamescom seemed so pointless. There weren't enough announcements to warrant two full showcases. Most of the stuff announced could've just been conveyed through blog posts, especially the stuff shown in Microsoft's showcase. Even if they set up expectations by telling us beforehand what to expect, you're still having a 90 minutes showcase at Gamescom, which will make people think that it's an important thing to watch. But it really wasn't and all that did was hurt Microsoft. Sometimes it's better to not show anything at all than show up and disappoint most people.
I read a couple of comments that said that Microsoft is doing great with Game Pass and first-party titles but they absolutely suck at presentations. I agree with this sentiment, the indie showcases haven't been good in the slightest and Gamescom further solidified this reasoning. At this rate, Microsoft should just take notes from Sony. If you have something significant to show us, then by all means. If not, then keep it simple with blog posts or trailers on YouTube.