Dreakon13

If they bust out some sort of "pay $1 to convert all of your current subscription to the highest tier" like Microsoft did with Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate... I'll do that in a heartbeat, just for some extra options of games to play (not that I need it). If it's not a ridiculous deal though, I don't really want/need anything more than the basic PS+ service so I'll just stick with that.

Was excited for the first one when it came out, but didn't really know what to expect so kept my hype in check. Started slow but pushed through and ended up really enjoying it. Probably one of my favorites from last gen. Having a little trouble motivating to keep going through the PS5 re-release, but not really the games fault... it's a better second playthrough than I thought it'd be. I'm down for a Part 2.

As the saying goes... "damned if you do, damned if you don't". I would guess they aren't cancelling those versions for no reason. Probably just don't want to Cyberpunk themselves and release a game that really shouldn't have been on the older consoles.

a. Don't want to get into an argument or a longer discussion about why you don't want to talk b. Don't want to hurt anyones feelings, if someone seems like they might take it personally c. Some people may legitimately not have a mic, or maybe not realize what can be used as a mic, or that the PS5 has one built-in I don't really find myself in this position... since if I play online its either with IRL family and friends who I don't mind voice chatting with, randoms who I'd just silently ignore petitions to voice chat, or in games that have text chat (like FFXIV). I understand why people might lie about it though. I probably would.

Nothing happens overnight, but I'm looking forward to the day that Microsoft/Xbox's resurgence (mostly due to aggressive Game Pass marketing) translates to better service and better deals for Sony fans. That's the only point where competition matters for the consumer. As it stands this elevated tier of PS+ is their answer to Xbox's only real selling point at the moment (besides maybe availability) but it's still more or less the same cost, just bundled. I think. In any case, it's not a very enticing price. Let me convert the life of my current PS+ subscription to the highest tier for a dollar like MS did and then we'll be talking.

I don't do conventional pre-orders really any more. All it does is lock me into one retailer on release day and more often than not they don't deliver on time, and in some cases even physically lost my copy so I couldn't go pick it up. What's the point of a pre-order if it doesn't even guarantee you a copy anymore? I just go pick it up myself now on release day from the first place I find nearby with a copy in stock, usually works out. However, I have a list a mile long I'm waiting on from various limited print publishers... 😄 Unpacking (Switch) Postal REDUX (Switch) Shadow Man Remastered (Switch) ENDER LILIES: Quietus Of The Knights (Switch) Monster Sanctuary (Switch) Narita Boy (Switch) Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (Switch) Song Of Horror (PS4) Supraland (PS4) Quake (Switch) Axiom Verge 1 & 2 Double Pack (Switch) Axiom Verge 2 (Switch) Where The Water Tastes Like Wine (Switch) DARQ: Complete Edition (Switch) Super Meat Boy (Vita) Super Meat Boy Forever (Switch) Super Meat Boy (Switch) Shadow Warrior 3 (PS4) Death's Door (Switch) Broforce (Switch) Demon Throttle (Switch)

Having a big event where all of the years biggest announcements came from from the industries heaviest hitters, was always kinda fun for me. Probably the last 5-10 years or so in particular I'd make a point to watch it. Got worse once Sony and others started dropping out. No E3 at all is kind of an end of an era really. I can't really wrap my head around why people prefer the sporadic, slow drip of gaming news trickling through social media... but to each their own.

Maybe instead of going around criticizing everything, thinking up fodder for your next rant... just take a breath, smile, talk to people, laugh with them, try to make them laugh. You'll find that the evil things you think could happen if the exaggerated versions of everything in your head keep going on, aren't really that big of a deal.

Somewhere in the pile of games I'm going to try to start sometime after Elden Ring, I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. I hope it'll be a good JRPG fix in this break I'm trying to spend away from Final Fantasy XIV lol. People seem to like it.

I'm fortunate to not be overly concerned about the money aspect of it, but agree with the first part of this. Not for trophy reasons... but more and more games are designed to just be massive time sinks, and when you only have a few hours a week maybe to play (if I'm even in the mood for it in those pockets of time), a decision on what to play ends up being weeks and months instead of hours or days. It's one thing if it's like an MMO or a longer term game where you expect to take breaks, play or do other stuff, and come back... but single player games you don't necessarily want massive gaps in the middle of in order to appreciate the story or keep up a certain focus/skill level. In that sense, I'm a bit apprehensive of starting new games. Dunno if I'd call it anxiety persay.

I think that team is better at a slower paced open world RPG than they are at a sci-fi GTA. I think they were in totally over their heads from the start with Cyberpunk, and at some point a suit forced the games launch. I'm sure the next Witcher game will be great.

Fair enough on VR. I'd consider Game Pass and the Switch conceptually to be more impactful on the industry, and much bigger risks/shake ups with much bigger pay offs for their respective companies. VR, Move controllers, DualSense... maybe I should give Sony more credit for at least trying some stuff (even if it's mostly somewhere between niche, unsuccessful and a nothingburger)... but I wouldn't necessarily be sitting here giving Microsoft kudos for the Kinect either so /shrug. Sony has been on top for so long, it might be silly to want them to stir their own pot more (why risk everything for no reason) but it's stagnation all the same. Like I said... I don't agree with the dramatic opinions, but I can see where the ammunition for said opinions might be coming from. Playstation isn't going anywhere... though complacency may someday lose them the crown, and if they ever get as low as "post-Xbox 360 launch success, pre-Game Pass" Xbox, who knows. The concern with naming isn't infrastructure. I'm sure their servers, wherever they are, are running admirably... the concern is that they didn't know enough to generate accounts with a unique identifier that wasn't their name lol (as evidenced by the fact that changing the name severed the connection in so many places). That's database management 101. It's like they hired a freshman in college, a particularly bad one, to design their backend. Who knows what else is going on back there.

Obviously that particular random prediction is bullshit, however Sony/Playstation have stopped even trying to innovate really. Where Nintendo/Microsoft have taken pretty significant risks that have mostly paid off between the handheld/console hybrid and Game Pass just dominating their portfolios, Sony has gotten very complacent just riding their exclusives and branching out as little and as risk averse as possible. To say they'll just up and disappear is ridiculous, but I'm not really sure where the Playstation brand is heading at this point. And that stagnation and uncertainty is probably where these dramatic opinions come from. They aren't as unstoppable as they think they are, and I'm not sure how the landscape looks if they realize that too late. EDIT: I'm also of the opinion that PSN is about as poorly built as a service of its caliber can be, from an outsiders perspective. Things like how difficult and poorly implemented name changes were (once they finally got around to it), show it was designed with virtually no forethought and makes you wonder where other bottlenecks might be. As the digital age requires more and more out of these services, I think PSN is going to have a harder and harder time keeping up.