themightyant

@Dalamar73 why would I call you liar? I’m just disagreeing with your opinion. That’s all, it’s not that deep. I thought EGs KCD2 review was fair for someone who clearly didn’t enjoy the game. KCD2 is not for everyone and It would be a boring world if every review was the same.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I agree the coverage for Shadows is OTT, but it’s an anomaly. But it’s one of the highest profile releases of the year so far and currently the most talked about game of the year, even if that’s often for the wrong reasons (culture war, ubisoft’s fate, etc).

KCD2 meanwhile may be a better game for some players but it’s still a low budget AA by comparison, even without the anomaly you wouldn’t expect it to have anywhere near as much coverage as Assassin’s Creed.

But all that is immaterial it HAS had coverage, contrary to what OP said, that’s what I was correcting.

@Dalamar73 not sure I buy any of that. A quick check on Google shows they’ve had at least 4 articles and one video on it since its review a month and a half ago, that’s hardly a “total lack of coverage” and far more than most AA games.

The reviewer said they were reaching for the phone because they found it boring, which is fair enough criticism if you don’t enjoy it.

@Dalamar73 what was wrong with Eurogamers KCD2 review? I read it and they pretty clearly explained what they didn’t like about the game, specifically what they found frustrating. While you may have a different experience and you might have given it a higher score, KCD2 certainly is not a game for everyone and the score seemed fair considering their experience as they described.

Personally I think a review like that is more helpful than dozens that are just layering on effusive praise for a game that won’t hit for many players. Ultimately reviews are just opinions.

NONE! I don't trust myself with MMORPGs, I don't think i'd get anything done. Had I known Genshin Impact was going to be a similar 1000 hour time sink I never would have started it.

At least when I finish something like BOTW after 100-200 hours there is a clean break, with live services that never end, dangerous.

It's probably a better game than FH4, through incremental improvements, but it is SO similar that if you put a lot of hours into 4 it just felt very unrewarding. I put over 100 hours into FH4 and around 10 in FH5.

Utterly unacceptable build quality at this price. Premium price but worse QA than the regular controller.

Wow that's UGGGGLY! Where do I get it again?

That sounds like a clear case of 'wait for patches' to me.

Cool I might play this now. Was holding out after the initial announcement / leak.

Pon Pon Patapon, Block The Xbox Patapon, Pata Pata Patapon
A shame

I can endorse the Backbone as a very solid bit of kit that works brilliantly on my phone (via USB-C so less latency) or via cable with iPad. HOWEVER there is one problem. Their app, which is very good, requires an annual subscription to get the most out of it, otherwise it's features are nerfed. It's a shame because everything else is excellent. I wouldn't have even minded a one off app-cost or minor annual fee but £35 a year seems FAR too much for this and drags the whole package down. A shame, as it was almost perfect.

I love the concept of this so much and hope it succeeds, loved Sensible Soccer back in the day... but I also have no personal interest in it.

@Sensechat it’s CLEARLY marked as spoilers in the subheading. If you click on it that’s up to you. How long should they wait?

@NeoRatt That isn't quite what he's saying though. It's their size AND their worldwide structure AND current market conditions that makes them difficult to manage and a poor buy... unless you are just trying to siphon up IP for a cut price Embracer style and don't care about the staff.

@Tasuki Totally. I'm like you I burn out trying to experience it all. e.g. I really enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima up to a point but by the 15th fox shrine and 9th haiku I was bored and moved on. If I was able to just stay on the critical path I might have enjoyed it more and finished it. Pros and cons.

Absolutely PS6 will. While OVERALL digital sales are much higher than physical, the odds are stacked in their favour, but physical is still MASSIVE for some titles especially AAA in some territories. e.g.

• Astro Bot was 55% physical in the UK
• Ratchet and Clank was 55% physical first week in the UK
• The Insomniac leak showed even higher lifetime physical ratios like Returnal 61% physical, TLOU2 61% physical & Demon's Souls 70% physical.

Xbox is not in the same position, I can easily see them dropping discs... EXCEPT it will cause a big stink, do they want the negative PR at launch of a new console? But I think it will be an optional extra on PlayStation that they will upsell at an even higher premium to try and move people away.

I used to see there was SOME benefit to AA Rechargeblae batteries But ever since I put a 3m USB-C cable next to the sofa, for charging everything from phone to laptop to Steam Deck, i've had zero problems with battery life on PS5 and Switch Pro controllers. I'd take a built in, but replaceable, battery for Xbox now. The cons outweigh the pros.

I love Digital Foundry in many ways but graphics are not usually that important. The Forgotten City looked distractingly last gen, but was one of the best games I played that gen. Hoping to find similar here. Fingers crossed.

@Titntin Totally agree and as a player I LOVE things like environmental storytelling. Whether it be entering a room in Fallout and piecing together what has happened here in the past, or something like the Frank and Bill story in TLOU2 which was much more subtle than in the TV show but the clues were there if you were willing to dig deeper. It just adds to the worldbuilding and makes me more embedded in the world, it makes it all more real. When games don't have this they often feel much more one dimensional.

I remember you said this and saw this post of what the PlayStation Studios are up to this morning. It's not as visually appealing and a lot is based on rumour, as Sony is far more tight lipped nowadays, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Also worth noting Sony consider games like Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade or Rise of the Ronin that they they helped fund and published under PSN Studios as First Party. Same is true for China / India / Mena Hero Projects.

@dskatter @OldGamer999 It's not just the compression tech, it's some fundamental way the two console APIs store information and apply upgrades. There have been many times the Xbox update is many times the PlayStation update. Not a huge deal, but perhaps something Microsoft can improve in future.

@Titntin I used to have a flatmate who would literally run through games, he'd run past all the enemies and keep going if he could, he wouldn't stop to take in the sights, talk to NPCs or search every corner for loot... something i'm probably a bit overly obsessive about. But he, and his like, is the reason for invisible walls around battles in games, without them he'd literally only engage with the game when forced.

We used to rent games through Love Film and he would get so annoyed about how it would take him a day or two to finish many games and me a week or two, he was often left waiting. I'm not saying my way is right, or his was wrong, it's just two different approaches. He couldn't play my way, he'd find it too tedious; and I couldn't play his way, i'd feel I was missing too much of the game/experience. But it did make me think about how games are structured and designed and cater to different players sensibilities in a way other mediums like literature, film & tv can't.

Clair Obscur is my highlight, but don't sleep on Blue Prince.

Pausing in a single player game! So 1985! Retro love /s

No. Though I actually played this one far more than FS2020, but it's still too unfriendly. I do enjoy just flying the skies and "visiting" places from time to time though, especially places I know.

I still think GTA6 might get delayed which would really put the cat among the pigeons and could leave us with a slightly barren autumn/winter. That said my backlog would welcome it! More games released every month than I can ever play.

@Fiendish-Beaver Again I think all that is POSSIBLE I just don't think it's likely. But we've had this conversation many times before in different guises, and probably will have it many times again. At the end of the day we'll just have to wait and see.

Totally agree. Ubisoft is currently just under 20,000 devs

All Microsoft Game Studios, including Zeninmax/Bethesda and ABK is just under 20,000 devs.

If Microsoft purchased Ubisoft one of the first things would be massive job losses.

Nope. But you do you.

@Fiendish-Beaver I agree there's a tipping point and I'm sure you've seen me argue the same point here.

But I don't think we will hit that. I think Game Pass is just too good right now, look at the back to back to back releases with the promise of even more to come. If it's 50% - 80% as you posit (i'm not sure I buy that, but lets go with it and not get stuck in the weeds) I think most of those users will go Xbox again, especially when they also offer a handheld (or cloud/mobile) to keep playing on the go, just like Switch. I think Xbox will have a lot of MOMENTUM going into next gen, which they didn't this gen. A lot of success is driven by that.

Phil Spencer said (I paraphrase) "we lost the most important generation to lose...etc. ... where people built their libraries (on PlayStation) and they aren't going to drop that"... and that is true. But people ALSO built their libraries no Xbox and the same rule applies.

Ultimately we will have to wait and see, but if I had to bet on it, i'd bet on largely the status quo. Xbox remaining between 2:1 and 3:1 behind PS but growing elsewhere and making a LOT of money from publishing and Game Pass. That is enough.

If i've understood this right this introduces another button press to play the game. Press A to select and bring up the hub, Press A to play. It's not a big deal at all, but personally not a fan of that UI ethos. Don't get in the way of the primary task, playing games!

Aside from that I like the layout and info, I just wish it was selected a different way.

@Fiendish-Beaver Maybe, it's possible. But I don't think it will be that catastrophic. It's a worst case scenario. The reality is console Game Pass subscribers had basically stagnated already, Microsoft are more worried about growth in other areas. (edit) Importantly, and commenters online often miss this because typically we are older, they are also looking at the next generation of gamers and how they want to play, which is on any device. We're more stuck in our ways.

I think if Microsoft keep the Game Pass release cadence up, and most of those games are good, and they have compelling hardware, i'd expect the status quo to remain and most XBox players to stay on Xbox and it to be fine. It's not like PlayStation is doing a stellar job of saying we're so much better, come here.

@Dalamar73 My bad, I tagged the wrong person.

@TheGiraffe Steam and PlayStation have a MUCH bigger market than Xbox. I have no doubt it Microsoft had sold 75 million consoles this gen and PlayStation had sold 32m they would be be far less likely to go multi--platform, but that's not the reality of the situation.

I agree 30% becomes a lot quickly but so does selling to 75m + extra PS customers + Nintendo. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

@TheGiraffe Sure. But not every Xbox owner will buy MS games either. It's their POTENTIAL console market that increases. I don't think Microsoft would be taking this strategy if they were going to make less money.

@TheGiraffe Perhaps losing that 30% is an issue for them… or perhaps increasing their potential console market by around 230% (32m vs 74m units) by publishing on PS5 will massively offset that loss and make them much more in the long run. And that’s before you add Nintendo into the equation. Microsoft is a multi-platform publisher now.

Old news. At this point it would be easier to expect every new Xbox game to go multi-platform at some point. It will be bigger news when they don’t.

@Kaloudz Yes it's called 'misophonia'. I used to work with someone who always complained about "noisy eaters" among other irritations that drove her crazy, she later found it was a full blown thing.

@TheGameThrifter That's a fair point. But I don't think Nintendo is in direct competition with PlayStation in the same way Xbox is. I think Nintendo have slightly different demographics and when they cross it's most likely people will have BOTH a PS5 and Switch or Xbox and Switch. Only a small niche of weirdos like me have an Xbox and a PlayStation

@Flugen It's not accurate to say Epic won, the judgement wasn't really in their favour, it was FAR more in Apple's favour, 9 of 10 counts Apple won. But while Apple have to allow links to other stores (that was the 1 of 10) it doesn't work as Epic wanted because Apple will STILL take a cut of that currently. And BOTH Apple and Epic's appeals were denied, so this isn't changing anytime soon.

But more importantly that judgement was for mobile phones which with over 7+ billion smartphone users worldwide is virtually seen as a basic human right that is used in everything from business to life organising to pleasure. The same rules might not apply for a store on a purely entertainment device like consoles with a relatively tiny 250ish million users.

@Coletrain Agreed. Stupid comment by Jez, which is unlike him, he's usually pretty knowledgeable. Also silly from Colt, but that's expected, he's a tool.

I don't think Sony will care one bit about the 2025 Xbox PC handheld. The reality is this market is around 6 million devices right now 4 million Steam Decks and 2 million others including ROG Ally. It isn't major competition for them.

The 2027 Xbox handheld console might be, especially if it's a PC/Xbox hybrid.

@Flugen I don't think this will happen, but protecting your market position isn't petty, it's just sensible business. If it did happen it would be because Sony was worried Microsoft would be getting a leg up on them. They don't have to allow their products where they don't want them.

But my money would be on:

• Xbox handheld PC (2025) - no problem it's just a portable PC
• Xbox handheld console (2027) - not applicable as I don't think it will run Steam, just the Xbox store.

GeForce Now is a horrible comparison. That is about CLOUD delivery and Nvidia didn't get specific permission from publishers to distribute their games this way. It's not the same.

An Xbox branded PC handheld would just be a handheld PC, downloading and playing games natively (assuming you can play Steam / Epic Games on the system) should be fine.

That said it theoretically wouldn't be impossible for Sony to block specific hardware, but it would be hard, and likely not worth the extra effort, but it depends how successful this is and if Sony thought it might be taking a chunk of their market share.

But considering the RELATIVELY small amount non-PlayStation gaming makes Sony - currently about 3.5% of all their revenue from game sales, or 2.2% of ALL their gaming revenue - Sony might just stop selling on PC first if it were to happen and they didn't like it.

It's getting better review scores than I thought. The first review I saw was Push Square's 6/10 but 80 on Metacritic is considerably higher than I thought it would get. Maybe on a sale, or Game pass i'll check it out.

@Kaloudz Oh God! I just watched a bit of a Mukbang video for the first time. Gross. Definitely not for me. Though I am now hungry and craving fast food. And I was amused by all the "watching during Ramadan" comments. Why would you do that to yourself. Self flagellation. lol.

To be honest I don't watch the ASMR videos, just close my eyes and listen. But I can see how some would hate it, as I said I did before. Yet it's an acquired taste, and i'm very selective, some voices or actions are a hard no... add Mukbang to that list... thanks mate! lmao

@Ricky-Spanish Never listened to an "eating one"... that sounds really gross tbh. Whispering, finger sounds (get your minds out of the gutter people. lol) and suchlike are oddly effective for my brain, putting me in a state of deep relaxation really quickly. I can't really explain it - and had you told me this a few years ago I frankly would have laughed - but it just works for me. White noise is OK but not quite as effective for me, ymmv.

Regardless I don't want an ASMR slicing game! lol

@Dalamar73 @Ricky-Spanish @Kaloudz Different horses, different courses I guess. We all like different things.

I really did think ASMR was a hoax for a long while - there's certainly a lot of bad ASMR out there. But after a spell where I slept really badly I was recommended ASMR to relax and now I do find it strangely relaxing. I can't quite explain it, it just does funny things to my brain, especially if I just lie down and cancel out other noise with headphones. I couldn't get on with guided meditation, which was also suggested, but ASMR helped me sleep well again.

Yet I can understand it grating some people, I was one of them before

Brilliant announcement ad. Got a few hearty laughs.
And a brilliant game, enjoy PlayStation fans.

Trying not to get too over-excited for this one, but it's one of my most anticipated games of the year. Praying they pull it off.

Brilliant work well done to all involved.