Daweii

I am now awaiting Season 1 to start. I was going to level a character to 100 in pre-season, but when I realised it was going to take 150+ hours, I decided to save that for Season 1. I have levelled three characters to Level 60 to learn how they play, and figure out some builds, but I am done with the game until Season 1 starts. Outside of not wanting to level to 100 in pre-season, I was also offput by Blizzard constantly nerfing everything, while not buffing the root cause of certain issues. For instance players were resorting to running the same few dungeons 900 times because the XP and loot was better than Nightmare Dungeons. So instead of buffing Nightmare Dungeons to be more rewarding, they instead nerfed the standard dungeons by reducing mob density/elite density, which means XP gain and loot gain is even lower than before. I'm hoping these nerfs make sense once the seasonal theme and seasonal gameplay mechanics are added, but right now it feels really bad to see any build that is fun and powerful get nerfed, while players attempts to shorten the 0-100 grind by a few hours is also being eliminated. Nerfs without buffs elsewhere feels really bad. The game is very good when everything is synergising and you have a build that can overcome the overbearing level scaling, but the Diablo team are making it very hard to enjoy the game at endgame currently.

I went with Sorcerer in the end which has been pretty fun so far.

I think ultimately it'll depend on what you want from Diablo. Diablo 3 is a power fantasy in every sense of the word. The gameplay is very fast, the action is very fast, and levelling is very fast. You go from weak to very powerful within 20 hours. The main downsides of Diablo 3 are that its end game is non-existent which forces players to run greater rifts endlessly until they get bored. Diablo 4 isn't a power fantasy, I mean, you'll be killing swarms of mobs, but depending on the world tier you'll also be taking plenty of damage in return. Diablo 4 is also a lot slower, and getting to level 100 is said to take the average player well over 100 hours. As someone now at end game (level 53 currently), I can say the games main strength is in its endgame as even at launch the game has 2-3x more content than Diablo 3 had as of last week. So, while the grind is slower and progress is slower in Diablo 4, I feel like players will likely have more fun over a longer amount of time in Diablo 4. So, it ultimately comes down to what you want from a Diablo game. Diablo 4 itself is fun, but it's a similar speed to Diablo 2 which might be jarring to those that are used to how Diablo 3 operated.

It's releasing on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

I imagine our plans will be the same, we'll just have an easier time landing some of the more ambitious names now that those players won't be giving up European football to join us.

Fairgame$, Concord, and Marathon are all first party live service games that are launching on PS5 & PC simultaneously, and in the case of Marathon it's also launching on Series X|S at the same time as PS5 & PC. Live service is Sony's focus going forward. Their recent earnings call outlined that single player spending would be decreasing (by 5%) to 40% between now and 2025, while live service spending will be increasing to 60% in the same span of time. It'll be curious to see how this plan works out for them, but I imagine many people didn't buy a PS5 to play live service multiplayer games. Also as a reminder, Sony wanted to have 10 live service games out by 2025. Now, that number may have dropped recently as Sony did recently cancel two games that were in the works, but we don't know if those cancellations were live service games, so best case scenario it's now 8 live service games by 2025 which isn't much of an improvement.

Overall it was not a great show if you were looking for the future of PlayStation as an exclusives driven entity. There was Spider-Man 2 which is great for those that liked the first game, but overall I was surprised at how many multiplatform games they showed at this event. There were big games, but many of them are games that people can buy elsewhere. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is on PS5, Series X|S and PC. Dragon's Dogma 2 is likely on PS5, Series X|S and PC. Alan Wake 2 is on PS5, Series X|S and PC. A lot of the indie games are likely coming to other platforms and many of them are likely also tied to a Game Pass deal because Xbox are good at that. It wasn't a bad show, the games shown were good games aside from some of the weird as shit live service games that were shown... Foamstars? Go home Square Enix you're drunk. I just think I was expecting more because this was the first PlayStation Showcase in 2-years, but I guess many of Sony's first party studios just aren't ready to show their stuff yet unfortunately.

A remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn for PS5 has been something I have heard quite a bit of talk about, so it very well could show up at this showcase if that talk was legitimate. NCSoft are also working on a Horizon MMO on behalf of Sony last I heard, so lots of things potentially happening with Horizon, but I'm not sure how much of it is anything the fans have been asking for. As for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, I think with Square Enix showing so much of Final Fantasy 16 in the last month or so that I think they have opened the floor for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth to have its moment in the spotlight.

My predictions for the PlayStation Showcase; - Spider-Man 2 Gameplay (Release September 2023) - Insomniac Games - Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater Remake - Virtuos - Castlevania Reboot - Bluepoint Games - Spellbound - FromSoftware - Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Gameplay - Square Enix - Silent Hill 2 Gameplay - Bloober Team - Mortal Kombat 1 Gameplay - Netherrealm Studios - The Last of Us Factions - Naughty Dog - Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster - Guerrilla Games - Persona 6 - Atlus With over an hour to fill and lots of Sony's studios working on unknown things, it is very hard to predict what else might appear. PS. While Snake Eater Remake will be multiplatform, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ape Escape mini-game from the original game is recreated as a cute little PlayStation exclusive addition.

That's the cycle of Zelda. Reviewers and gamers alike chat hyperbolic bollocks about how the latest Zelda is the best game ever made, and then by the time the next Zelda is out they've cooled on the previous one enough to mostly realise it wasn't actually the best game ever made. Was BotW decent? Yes. Was it great? Some may say it was (not me). Was it the best Zelda game ever made? Not even close. I am happy for those that liked BotW and for those about to embark on the next 60-100 hours of TotK, but I can't wait for Nintendo to move on to something else. I really hope the next Zelda is something slightly more traditional and less of an open-world physics sandbox.

The seat map as of 6:50pm GMT tonight; A lot less blue than I was expecting with zero matches announced. If they announce Stings retirement match for All In then wrestling fans from around the globe will be buying up those remaining seats. I got an even higher resolution image here: Imgur Link

It was from WrestleTix on twitter, I'll link to both tweets. I did misread the initial tweet somewhat as they stated AEW have likely sold over 60k and had 6,100 or so tickets remaining, and then an hour later posted that AEW had opened up the whole stadium. So, the ticket allocation was probably closer to 70,000 before opening up the rest of the stadium. First Tweet Second Tweet

AEW have now opened up the whole stadium, so they're going for 90k or as close to it as they can get. They had sold over 60k before they opened up the rest of the seats and the number of tickets allocated before opening up the whole stadium was 66,000, so I can only assume they hit that allocation, or got close enough to require opening up more seats. Over 60k sold without a single match announced is insane. I mean, WWE did the UK last year and sold 62,296 tickets for Clash of the Castle at a venue that can hold over 78,000 when set up for wrestling/boxing. I know WWE claim they sold 80,355 tickets to Summerslam '92 (the last wrestling event to do Wembley), but from what I've heard it was closer to 76,000 sold. AEW might not sell out Wembley, but they might beat Summerslam '92. Not too bad for a company that isn't WWE.

The first of the many pre-sales started yesterday, it was the O2 Priority pre-sale today, and the Live Nation/Ticketmaster pre-sale will be tomorrow. Already over 43,000 tickets sold with general sale starting on Friday.

It's very weird that the game didn't ship with a performance mode on Series X|S. I'm playing the PC version and the frame rate is smooth as silk at 100+ FPS. I'm very curious what issue they hit on Series X|S to not be able to deliver 60FPS at launch.

Redfall is Arkane Austin's attempt at something new for them and it didn't work out well at all. Arkane Austin were the devs behind Prey (2017) which is one of the greatest sci-fi immersive sims since Deus Ex, but they largely ignored what they were good at with Redfall to make an open-world looter shooter. Now, there is some immersive sim DNA in this game, I don't think Arkane can make a game without multi-layered level design and buildings with 9 different ways to get in, but while that DNA is there, it's largely let down by the rest of the game feeling so hollow and lifeless. It's also buggy as shit. I have had enemies t-pose and slide across the screen. I have had quest markers not vanish from the map. Flickering textures, dancing shadows, and textures just not loading. I have had the AI completely break on numerous occasions, which in a boss fight is rather anti-climactic. I'd usually say that it needed to be delayed instead of releasing it in this state, but Redfall was already delayed for almost a year before this, so if it just wasn't coming together then I don't think Bethesda/Xbox Game Studios had much choice other than to release it and hope someone out there liked it.

Dead Space 3 suffered from EA meddling. EA wanted a game that would sell 5 million copies at launch or in their words "they wouldn't continue the franchise". Now, Visceral weren't new to the games industry and knew that horror doesn't sell big unless you're Resident Evil, so what did we get? A co-op action game filled with microtransactions so players can make it as easy as they want. How did that work out? Dead Space 4 was cancelled and Visceral Games were shut down a couple years later.

I think it's too early to say how it's going to go with remakes. Of course the recent crop of remakes have been from popular IP, but that's how you get enough people on board to start remaking stuff that won't sell 10 million copies. Resident Evil 2 Remake is walking so the RE: Outbreak Remake can run at some point (hopefully). Square Enix put their best foot forward by remaking FF7. Capcom have put their best foot forward remaking RE2, 3, and 4. Capcom have also only skipped Code Veronica so far, so the assumption is that RE5 and RE6 Remake are coming at some point between now and 2030. EA started their remake journey with Dead Space to revive that very dead IP. I think it's only natural to do that and then go off the beaten path once customers are firstly used to remakes, and secondly know that they aren't just mindless cash grabs. You need to remake games that people are going to play or they won't know that many of these remakes are actually better than the originals. That said we do have companies making remakes to lesser known stuff. Destroy All Humans 1 and 2 have been remade. System Shock 2 has a remake this year (May 30th). Like A Dragon: Ishin! was a remake of a Japan-exclusive release from 2014. GOTHIC the cult-classic eurojank RPG from the early-2000's is getting a remake. So, there are less popular games (from a mainstream perspective) getting remakes as well, but all the marketing is on the bigger remakes because those cost a lot of money and have to sell 10+ million units. I think with regards to remakes, I think we have a good balance right now. We have a decent amount of high profile remakes, but also a good amount of lower profile remakes. I think as the industry moves forward, I think the number of lower profile remakes will start to massively outweigh the number of high profile remakes. Companies both big and small just need to know if remakes have an audience and then I think the floodgates will open.

I knew I was getting it wrong, but couldn't put my finger on why "guerrilla position" didn't look right. I appreciate the correction.

Finished my S+ Professional difficulty playthrough last night. I think I'm done with the remake until Mercenaries mode releases on April 7th.

Finished RE4 Remake last night and my impressions are mostly positive. The main issues I had with the game are issues I also had with the original game, so in that regard it's a very faithful remake. I think 85% of RE4 is a masterpiece while the final 15% is pretty damn average. That said the remake improves the combat, improves Ashley and improves how the story flows which does make it the definitive edition even if I don't like the final few chapters much.

It also assumes that everyone with a gun is going to be a hero. There are some that will throw themselves into the line of fire and I respect those people, but most humans are not that person.

Sony are going nowhere and if Microsoft buying ABK while keeping CoD multiplatform is enough to sink PlayStation then PlayStation was ultimately built on weak foundations. The games that Microsoft are likely to make exclusive from the ABK deal are the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Spyro, Skylanders, Guitar Hero, and games like that which won't even cause the CEO of Sony Interactive to lose sleep. The only thing the ABK deal does is widen the gap between PlayStation being the place where you pay £70 for games, and Xbox being the place where you get everything for "free". Now, could that at some point be a big enough factor that PlayStation loses considerable marketshare? Sure, but that's going to take a while and will likely be reliant on more factors than just Game Pass getting more day one releases. I think Sony's output would also have to decline as people won't leave PlayStation while the first party games are good. PS. The fact that the CMA dropped their console concerns means that the CMA don't even believe that this deal will hurt PlayStation in any real way.

Not much they can change either. Rocksteady will polish the game up some more, but while I could be wrong, I'm not sold on the idea that Rocksteady will remove all the live service stuff which is a hope some hold online. This delay is likely more about moving the game away from Zelda, Diablo 4 and FF16. They would have been hopeful of the games success before the trailer released, but now they're likely hoping that the new release date later in the year is less competitive.