Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

It's really happening:

I bet "gamers" online will tear this apart when it releases. It's not an open-world game or Dark Souls, so it's automatically trash.

@Ralizah

How many people think that exactly?

@Dezzy Too many.

Not very many people here, thankfully, which is one reason I like this community. It's free from a lot of the toxic stuff that hangs around so many online gamer communities.

@Dezzy I suspect very few..

I actually suspect that there's quite a big overlap between the fanbases of both games. Both games are pretty niche titles. Anyway, what will become of The Last Guardian? If it's half as good as Shadow of the Colossus, then it too will be remembered as a brilliant game that is sadly overlooked by a lot of people.

Has the mass FFXV doom and gloom started yet?

@Octane People always talk about SotC, but the game this is likely to resemble is Ico. Which was lovely, to be sure, but not nearly as memorable as its spiritual successor.

@Ralizah This game seems to have a lot more character though, I'm sure it'll be more memorable than ICO.

That's why I like this place too.

I stay away from the Nintendo Switch thread now though; it's too easy for folks to take your words the wrong way, even if I explain and apologises afterwards, or perhaps upset their (oft unrealistic) hopes and dreams. I'm a realist, therefore I probably don't belong in that part of this place!

As for The Last Guardian, I fully expect the game to be divisive amongst fans and critics alike. If it is half as good as ICO or Shadow of the Colossus however, I shall be a happy man.

@Ralizah

Are you sure you're not just exaggerating what the people who don't like non-gamelike games (e.g walking simulators, visual novels etc) tend to say?
Cos that kind of person would likely be fine with Last Guardian. It has a fail state. It involves skill and thought.

@Dezzy Obviously there was some level of hyperbole involved in my post, but I have seen an annoying number of people online approach that extreme. My point is that games that got a warm reception in previous generations might not fare so well today in certain quarters of the internet without the nostalgia factor.

Too many paranoid alt right ninnies haunting the net these days.

@Ralizah I think that might've been true 5 or 10 years ago, but to me it feels as if the gaming community in general is far more open to more experimental games, or anything that's not your typical annual blockbuster title. But maybe that's just because I'm more involved with the online community these days than I was 10 years ago.

@Octane I would have to disagree. If anything, people seem less tolerant of experiments these days. Which has a lot to do, I think, with the Western AAA blockbuster model that really came into its own last gen, where developers devote increasingly enormous budgets to increasingly safe blockbuster titles.

What has improved, thankfully, is Joe Public's ability to also get involved with game development thanks to the flourishing indie game scene, increased opportunities for exposure and marketing online thanks to social media, and crowdfunding platforms.

@Ralizah

Joe Public's non-gaming audience don't tend to own PS3s and PS4s though.

That theory would work for PC and smartphone games perhaps. It fails to explain why games like Journey, Firewatch, Ethan Carter, etc were all best-sellers on PSN.

There's also the fact that any large venue is bound to attract an equally large number of sharks and trolls, looking to stir the pot for no reason than to feel the "gratification" of knowing their words had meaning despite being the digital equivalent of screaming into a vacuum. Go anywhere where that "pot" is never allowed to boil, especially a smaller community, and things to go over much smoother on average.

Course, if you're referring to places like Reddit, twitter, youtube, tumblr, etc. I guess Facebook is still a thing?

Social media = the death of intelligent thought, the trumpet heralding the march of the lemmings straight off the cliff. Just cancel out that white noise, man.

/Strawman

PS+ games for December:

Invisible, Inc., PS4
Stories: Path of Destinies, PS4
Hyper Void, PS3
Tiny Troopers Joint Ops, PS3 (Cross buy on PS4 and Vita)
Color Guardians, PS Vita (Cross buy on PS4)
VVVVVV, PS Vita

I thought ICO was boring and awful to play, couldn't finish it after the 6/7th time I was hitting ghost things with sticks and watching out for forced female love interest no 99999999 who just stands there and lets herself get taken. Because having Escort Princess Peach the Videogame With Boring Gameplay was a good idea for the developers apparently. Harsh but what others fawn over the game for I can't stand, nowt about Ueda has never made a bad game will make me think otherwise. He has in my opinion. 50%.

And no before someone goes there I'm not accepting lol CoD/Halo/Doom gamer can't understand this deep game excuse. I love Inside, Telltale's games amongst others with minimal gameplay and emphasis on 'emotions'.

But Ueda only has a 50% bad game ratio because I think Shadow of the Colossus is deserving of being called a masterpiece, though I still can't fathom why people say this is the best game ever made, almost all of the truly amazing games I've played have had more to say for themselves than SoTC and over a longer gameplay time too which is a factor just not the main one. But pretty much every facet of that game that has been praised I agree with, and I also didn't have problems with the game's controls or camera oddly enough. It still has several faults though, need to play it again to best understand them.

So I'm slightly concerned about The Last Guardian as I'd hoped that it would be closer to SoTC than it is but it's not looking like it. Very disappointing that SoTC2 looks like an impossibility.

Still buying it to make my mind up but I'm worried for it.

And if that dog or the boy even gets an Aggroesque death fake-out that will be quite a shame, considering the pedestal people hold Ueda to you'd think he'd be better than using the most tired old trope in videogames multiple times but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Please don't kill the bird dog thing.

Woohoo!

My most awaited indie game of the year, Stardew Valley, is coming out on Wednesday the 14th of December! Already pre-ordered the game on the PlayStation store for £11.99, and it will be a really nice game to hoe (ho ho!) to and fro in-between playing The Last Guardian.

December is usually a quiet month, but it certainly isn't this year!

@Peek-a-boo Stardew Valley is lovely. I played a bit of it on PC. I'm holding out for a portable version, so I guess I'll buy it on the Switch since a Vita version apparently isn't in the cards.

So like God of War, Spiderman won't be at PSX. Guess that means a Spring 2018 release window then.