Messages

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Modern Video Games / Re: Sony shuts down Bluepoint

« on: February 20, 2026, 03:08:09 pm »

I really liked the Demon Souls remake (I know some folks had issues with it, I didn't), so I was hopeful they could move on to other stuff, maybe even something with Bloodborne after they were done supporting God of War, but then it was confirmed that they were working on a live service God of War game that got canceled, I was really disappointed.  To then do that to them, just to kill the company after basically doing nothing other than some support work of God of War: Ragnarok is so scummy.

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General / Re: What studio acquisitions do you predict we could see this year and why?

« on: February 19, 2026, 04:56:01 pm »

This is as good as any place to report this: after acquiring Bluepoint Games in 2021, Sony is closing the studio. Bluepoint Games is most recently known for the remakes of Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls, although their successful history with Sony remakes dates back further. This comes after having been assigned to develop an unannounced and now-canceled God of War live-service game.

It's just insane to see them have success as a port/compilation/remake studio on singleplayer games, they do support work for other singleplayer games, then you shove them into making a live service game, don't even announce it, cancel it, and then a year later, kill off the studio after basically getting nothing from them.  Their decision making the past like 5 years has been the absolute worst in their drive to pump out live service games and it's still dragging on because there's still "FAIRGAME$", a game that hasn't been canceled, but no one has heard anything on it for years now.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 18, 2026, 10:35:10 pm »

9 - Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5 (PC 2026) - BEAT - After playing through the series last year, I was looking forward to this new chapter.  I don't love most mascot horror, mostly just this and Five Nights at Freddy's, but it's impressive how this series has improved in quality. The first chapter is a demo, nothing more, 2nd chapter became what felt like a proper game, 3rd to me felt like it understood what it could become and expand on, and then 4 was where the quality came in, better visuals, improved gameplay. 

Chapter 5 is that level of quality, but I feel like it didn't take the next step.  The hand gimmick in this one is kinda weak and used in less interesting ways and it just feels like less variety, which is a shame.  I think there's less lore learned and such here compared to previous chapters, though I don't mind that as much as Chapter 4 had almost too much like cutscenes and character talking that it felt like it dragged because of it.  I like the characters introduced, but there's just not enough here.  Saying that, I think it's the longest chapter, as I believe I put around 5 hours into it, maybe close to Chapter 4, but there was definitely some wandering padding. 

Overall, it's not bad, but it feels like an inbetweener chapter, more setup for what I think is the big finale of the next chapter.  It's also a struggle to recommend either this or Chapter 4 at 20 bucks each.  Only buy if you can get on like a half off sale.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: February 17, 2026, 12:36:28 am »

Been a few since I watched too much, but saw that 28 Years Later was up to watch and checked it out.  I really loved the first movie, the second movie was just alright, mostly just a really intense opening, but I think I like this third movie more than the second, but probably not as much as 28 Days Later, though it's been years since I've watched it, it's impossible to watch, or it was, seems like it's up on AMC+, but I ain't signing up for anything else anymore, but I'll get to it again someday.

I like this, because it feels more like just telling a simple story, with a couple characters, in tense situations, much like the first movie.  I wasn't sure if I was gonna like the idea of the virus "evolving", I thought it was gonna kinda turn things into more regular zombie flicks (It's sort of a zombie movie depending on how you view the concept, but these are still living, breathing, humans), but I think it works enough here, the infected just becoming functionally angry feral animals, living off the land.  The "Alpha" stuff is a tad sillier, but they explain it just enough to be like "alright, I'll just follow along" lol Main cast are good, solid kid character.  I'm not sure if I love some of the camera work and such, I guess it's almost a throwback vibe to kinda early 2000's filmmaking, more snapshots and odd camera turns throughout, but at least it keeps it interesting.

The ending is tonal whiplash, really absurd, but I think that's sorta supposed to be the point, but I don't know, I guess we'll see how they utilize that with the sequel that just released, which just came out digital, but will be awhile before cheap rental or normal streaming hits.

(Apparently the ending song connects to the opening that I never caught, but now makes it way more crazy with other elements, hope Bone Temple is decent.)

Fantastic Four: First Steps - Finally got around to this one, and it's overall quite solid.  It's a good in progress super hero movie.  The 60's scifi vibe is great, though I hate that once again they hold back on the color, things kinda being abit washed out, wish they'd stop, MCU can often be afraid of vibrancy, especially something that is trying to emulate a property like FF4 where it could be a crazy colorful thing back in the day.  The movie overall reminds me of the new Superman, a similar vibe with the wholesomeness, of people trying to do their best, it's very classic superhero vibes not just in the setting and it's nice to have that.

I do not know where this goes with Doomsday, I'm kinda not feeling it, bringing back folks that had retired from the role in a kinda permanent way, RDJ coming back, but as a Doom, but not a Stark version of Doom or maybe he is, we don't know, I just don't love it.  I'm kinda over the nostalgia tripping, bringing back these people or the fox era X-Men again, I kinda hit my limit of that with Deadpool & Wolverine, where it was a nice final nod to that era of Marvel.  We'll see, maybe the story is good enough, maybe it'll go in very interesting ways, who knows.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Report: PS6 2029 | Switch 2 price increase soon?

« on: February 16, 2026, 03:03:23 pm »

Yeah doesn't bother me if they delay the PS6.  The Switch 2 thing is more annoying as I'm not getting one right now, but when I do, it's gonna get more pricey.  Stupid AI garbage ruining the tech market.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 14, 2026, 09:55:40 pm »

8 - Palworld (PC 2023) - DROPPED - Got a decent chunk of time into the game, about 16 hours, nearly level 30 before I was feeling abit of burnout.  I'm not quitting specifically because of that, but I figured I didn't want to wear the game out before it hits full release as I'm kinda hoping they are gonna do a lot to improve the game in general.  It's overall a solid game, it just needs a good amount of polish across the board, some quality of life features for base management worked in, and perhaps some more features implemented, a little more variety to gear and such.  Polish is the biggest thing, more to music, the audio, interactions, etc...

It might be a game that's just straight ripping off stuff from Pokemon and Breath of the Wild, slapping in a crafting game among that, but I think it's overall decent.  I wish the map was abit smaller as it can feel very barren, very boring to explore with not a lot of distinct, worthwhile things to find.  I'll jump back in for a fresh playthrough when it hits 1.0.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 13, 2026, 01:40:16 am »

Picked up Palworld since it got a sale and it's supposed to hit 1.0 this year.  I played it a little when it first released and was more barebones on Game Pass, but I could see what they were going for, so figured I'd just wait to play more till it neared or hit release.  The game is very creatively bankrupt, the company is not shy about it with Pal designs feeling very bootleg Pokemon and a lot of the games vibe and design is just straight up Breath of the Wild (A thing the company making this has done twice, as their previous game was functionally the same game, just without the Pal's), but it's not the worst.  I think maybe I care less about that just because the state of Pokemon is so garbage, I don't care if someone else is ripping them off lol

The game is a generally fine crafting and creature collector, nothing amazing so far and I think it still needs some work in areas, music is kinda non-existent, only popping up in certain situations (Breath of the Wild again), a lot of sounds effects and creature sounds feel very placeholdery, and there's still some bugs and such strewn about, but very playable.  Not perfect, but fine so far.  Not sure if I'll stick with it through all of the content or just play abit and then wait for 1.0, might just play till Resident Evil 9 releases and then call that good until the game fully comes out.

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Modern Video Games / Re: State of Play | February 12, 2026 thoughts?

« on: February 12, 2026, 07:31:57 pm »

Got sidetracked so didn't watch live, so lets see what looked good.

Never played the first Kena, but the game looks really nice, very vibrant, solid gameplay.  Don't know if I'll check it out or not, but very decent.

Death Stranding 2 PC release means I'm double dipping, loved this game.  Wasn't expecting it quite this early, but 100% buying.

Control Resonant is such a different game from the first, and I don't know if I love that, but that's also not to say it's bad, it's just very different.

Crimson Moon is interesting, in the most positive way possible, it reminds me of a 360 era game that's been remade, with very Doom-Esque/Mick Gordon style music, seems okay.

Apparently Beast of Reincarnation isn't an actual Game Freak game, it's outsourced, so I can't be like "Oh wow, Game Freak was capable of this?", but the game does look cool.

Glad to finally see a release date for Mina the Hollower, though it's weird to not specify a date when Spring is so close, but hopefully not too much longer.

Chicken man? Alright lol It's such a goofy design for such a serious game lol Kinda Dynasty Warriors-like, but with more solid action RPG gameplay.

This Star Wars Galactic Racer is crazy good looking lol Story mode, great visuals, different vehicles, Burnout styled death cams.  Oh yes, this was hype lol

I didn't pick up the Metal Gear Solid Collection Volume 1, but I definitely will soon as I want to check out MGS4 also.

New Castlevania with alike a very stylish animated feeling art style? That's kinda sick...Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, very nice and out this year? Mega Man is returning, Castlevania is returning, fun times lol

First person Silent Hill game? Silent Hill Townfall, that looks pretty good.  Konami is going nuts now.

John Wick action game is interesting, I like John Wick, but not sure I need a game.

Not hyped for Marathon, but interested to check out the server slam test to give it a try.

I'm not really into big tag fighting games, but the art is sick for Tokon.

God of War trilogy remake is cool, good excuse to replay them as I haven't touched them in forever.  Never expected a 2D, pixel art prequel game lol And available today? Fun shadowdrop.


------------------------------------------------------

Some fun stuff here.  Hype things for me were...Death Stranding 2 on PC, Star Wars Galactic Racer looks nuts, very into first person Silent Hill game, and I think the Castlevania game was pretty cool looking.  Not bad at all.  That's all coming out this year too I believe, so that's already a handful of things to look forward to. Oh and the God of War Trilogy Remake is neat, not amped for it, but I might check it out.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Free to play games!

« on: February 11, 2026, 08:04:54 pm »

Well, mass layoffs at the studio that made Highguard.

That's rough, I knew it was gonna be a struggle for them, but I thought at most they'd just tough it out for a few months to try and turn things around, add a lot, patch it up, try to see if they can turn the numbers around, they are a new studio and it's their only game, they kind have to make it work.  To just immediately layoff most of the team makes it feel like they went beyond their means, with expectations far past anything they were gonna get, like they expected this to do Marvel Rivals numbers or something.  Which was never gonna happen, because the game is light on content, it has an odd player count for a mode, and the stuff they were selling were just kinda okay.  It also released in a real sloppy state, as it was clearly not ready for launch and probably needed another couple months of development. 

Kinda wondering if its going to come out that this launch was a thing only because they were looking at running out of funding and so they had to release it no matter what in the hopes it takes off enough to keep funding the game...just sad to see.

*EDIT* It wasn't a studio shutdown level of layoffs, apparently they are going to continue supporting Highguard, so it sounds more like they were trimming jobs to to slim down and then will try to tough it out, see if they can't turn the player numbers around after adding some content and updates.

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Modern Video Games / Re: State of Play | February 12, 2026 thoughts?

« on: February 11, 2026, 01:09:33 pm »

-Resident Evil Code Veronica remake
-Resident Evil original re-remake

We aren't getting those here since they won't announce them before Requiem releases in a few weeks, but I do hope one of those are next, particularly a RE1 remake, well, another remake to match up with the newer remakes lol

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 11, 2026, 12:38:41 am »

7 - That's Not My Neighbor (PC 2025) - BEAT - I got a soft spot for the "Find the thing that's wrong or out of place" sorta games, and this one I had been meaning to check out mostly because a Youtuber I like did a great themed song of the game.  I like the gimmick, try to figure out if a resident is the actual resident or not, sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not.  I ran through the campaign twice which is short, and the nightmare mode once, and it's all fine and entertaining.  Any real complaints I'd have with wanting more content and variety, more characters, is mostly ignored for being a 3 dollar game lol

Overall, decent time, I might play it abit more, wanted to get at least one S Rank day, but there's always a thing or two I'm unsure of how to report and that usually gets my score dinged slightly.

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Modern Video Games / Re: State of Play | February 12, 2026 thoughts?

« on: February 09, 2026, 03:20:45 pm »

A little more hopeful with this than the last Direct which had almost nothing for me, especially with hearing it's one of their longer ones.  I'm not super sure what I'd want to see, just more reasons to use my PS5 really, haven't done much with it since Death Stranding 2 was all the way back in June.  I'm expecting a Wolverine release date which will be nice, that's one of the very few games that's for the system that I know is coming that I'm anticipating, but that's mostly it.

My go to is always Bloodborne something whether it's a remaster, remake, or sequel, so I'll always ask for that lol

I guess if I had something I'd like to see otherwise, something with Twisted Metal would be cool.  Either a collection or perhaps a new game, hell, just give me a remake of Twisted Metal 2, I'd be all over that lol

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 06, 2026, 06:22:33 pm »

Tried playing HumanitZ, it's basically like a less hardcore Project Zomboid, which is what interested me. Zomboid just has too many intricate, hardcore, elements that would drive me kind of wild, and particularly it has viewing limits, so anything you can't see with your eyes, can't be seen.  I hate things like that, it's an understandable realistic aspect, I just don't like it.  Often you then get games like this, which are similar to it, but often abit less hardcore or try different things.  I think the hook of this was less hardcore and I think there's more build freedom in that you can make your own buildings, rather than Zomboid, that I think is mostly about house reinforcement and some stuff to build like fences.

Unfortunately it's very much "We have Zomboid at home" levels.  It's okay, but movement and controls feel bad.  I think it's maybe meant to be built around controller, but it's very unsatisfying to me.  Even with a 1.0 release, it just feels abit lacking, zombies don't really make much noise attacking doors, the "music" was like one long droning note I had to turn off, combat was basic, but clunky...It's one of those things you quickly realize in a half hour won't be for you, but thank goodness for steam refund lol It's not terrible, I'm just way more easily annoyed with wonky feeling controls that aren't immediately satisfying to use these days.

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General / Re: What are some of the worst games you've ever played?

« on: February 05, 2026, 02:02:53 pm »

It's hard to remember bad games sometimes, but I was one of the people that played Superman 64 back in the day, on a N64, so you get like the worst controller with the worst game for all around terrible lol

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase 2.5.2026 thoughts?

« on: February 05, 2026, 01:57:33 pm »

Glanced at Gematsu, didn't see any announcements that were interesting at all for me.  Cool Boarders is neat to see, though I don't think I ever played the original one, nothing about that looks familiar and boy that looks rough lol 12 bucks also seems like a tad much for that too.  If it was a Cool Boarders collection of the PS1 games for like 30 or 40 bucks? That might've made more sense.