JPL

31 minutes ago, Stanley said:

For the sake of accuracy it’s £54.99, at least on PlayStation it is anyway. 

£57.98 on Xbox. I can leave it a while though, I’m in no rush.

11 minutes ago, Benny said:

I find it weird the amount of people in the thread going: "I've already played this". Erm, I mean, no, you literally haven't. Unless you mean you've seen the events in the story before, then sure. But everything else about how the game plays, how it feels, how it looks, how it's directed, is almost entirely new.

 

I could understand saying that about The Last of Us Part 1, or even Demon's Souls, as that's more or less 1 for 1 the same game with new visuals. Based on the demo though, this is not like that. And it's actively exploiting your knowledge of things you remember to do things a bit differently.

It’s more the price for me. £60 for something by that isn’t totally new to me seems a bit steep, even something of RE4’s pedigree.

What a quality demo. The little changes they’ve made to fuck with your expectations are really well done.

I’m not paying £60 for it though, as I’ve played it loads of times over the year, so I’ll wait for it to come down a bit in price first.

1 hour ago, makkuwata said:

Very much so.

 

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That just makes me think they should have put more infected in the show. I know there’s the threat of the people they meet on their journey, but I think removing the secondary threat of the infected was the wrong move. It makes it feel like there are so few infected, that it takes the importance off Joel and Ellie’s quest, as that few could have been easily dealt with by the army years ago.

27 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

I imagine it's a lot. But tha'ts not really the point I think Sony want to make anyway (I don't think - not read the recent documents)

 

It isn't about a direct loss of revenue from CoD game and in-game sales.

 

It's about players who own a Playstation (or will most likely) switching to XBox because CoD is only available or better on that platform.

But nobody will if MS do as they're saying and continue to support it on PlayStation. I can't imagine many CoD players would be that arsed if it looked slightly better on Xbox or whatever.

How much of PlayStation's revenue does CoD actually make? Is it the biggest selling game on there by a long way or something?

I really enjoyed the trials. Funny to hear people saying they didn’t.

3 minutes ago, deerokus said:

It doesn't. But just because Sony make them doesn't mean everyone else has to. Nintendo don't make that sort of game either and it doesn't hurt them.

 

Ok. It was just an observation that I think would help them gain more customers.

7 minutes ago, deerokus said:

 

I'm not sure it is a problem. Thing is Sony have that style of game perfected pretty much. If you want that then you get it on ps.

 

How does buying those kind of games on PlayStation help MicroSoft?

Are they still using 'the volume', or whatever it's called, for this? It's the one thing that makes it feel cheap to me, making it feel kind of cramped all the time, so I hope they've finally given them some budget to do some more location work.

15 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

This from Forbes, probably why Phil was talking about hitting the limit on consoles:

 

FY2022 – 72.88% target, 28.07% actual

FY2021 – 47.79% target, 37.48% actual

FY2020 – 71% target, 85.75% actual

 

Edit:

 

But there’s really no indication that Game Pass’s wild growth should continue this far into its lifespan. Phil Spencer recognizes the obvious here in a quote he gave during a WSJ Tech show:

“I’ve seen growth slow down, mainly because at some point you’ve reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe.”

 

Forbes article

I said this before, although not sure if it was in this topic, but their main drawback is the lack of tentpole games to pin their offer on. They desperately need to get some AAA games out there. Yes, I know it's that old cliché, but in the general public's eyes, who are their main target, all these lovely indie and off-beat games we get on Gamepass mean absolutely fuck all. They want the big cinematic story games, as Sony have demonstrated.

They need a Last of Us, Spider-man, God of War, Horizon, etc. I suppose Call of Duty might help them a bit, but they need a roster of them that they can drop on the service every 6 months or so. However many billion they're trying to buy Activision for seems absolutely ludicrous to me, but I'm no market analyst. Personally I'd rather they invest in smaller, more talented devs and fulfil on their years and years of broken promises.

42 minutes ago, Cheeko said:

Totally disagree, I was fully invested with Joel and his daughter and that was less than one episode. How they’ve made Ellie is the problem and no amount of time can fix it.

I liked the opening with Joel's daughter, but it wasn't a patch on the game for me.

49 minutes ago, Stevie said:

The pacing is all wrong and the story is all over the place. 

I agree. Not enough action, so very minimal threat, too much time spent on incidental characters, not enough time with Joel & Ellie.

I do like the way these stories are there to show what’s shaped Joel & Ellie into the people they are, but we’re not really spending enough time with them to see this pay off.

I dunno, I still like it, but it’s not as amazing as a lot of people are making out, for me. I think structurally it’s a bit of a mess.

1 hour ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

It's there in the title, though, isn't it? "The Last of Us" doesn't refer to Joel and Ellie, they're not the last two people left alive, it's a show about the survivors of the human race. It's about the people in the QZ, about FEDRA, about Bill & Frank, about the occupants of Kansas City, about Tommy and the residents of Jackson, and so on. It's about the different ways people cope with change, and loss, and what kinds of lives they make for themselves in the aftermath. You see that through Joel and Ellie's eyes, and they themselves have their own story to tell, but it's not aiming to tell a straightforwardly linear story and if you're going into it thinking "oh my god I wonder how they are going to get a battery this week" then it's probably not the show for you.

 

The podcast described it as a show about love, and I think that's spot on. Joel and Ellie have their own relationship, which changes and deepens over time, but so does everyone they meet. Bill and Frank have a life-affirming love, Sam and Henry have a tragic love, Kathleen has a twisted love, and so on. I think it's probably a better and deeper show than most people here are giving it credit for, and maybe the fact it came from a videogame (which necessarily has a narrower focus on a single playable character) has distracted people from what they are trying to do here.

Yep, I know all that and agree mainly. It's great to see all these other people's stories and how they're feeding into what's shaping Joel & Ellie into the people they become. But, as I've said, even though I'm really enjoying it, I do think the pacing is a bit fucked mainly down to them having to condense it so much. They simply can't fit enough into each episode and I feel it's lacking in certain areas because of it.

15 minutes ago, BitterToad said:

These "pointless characters that we lose in an episode" also thematically all feed into our two leads and where they end up going in their stories. 

 

The following has spoilers for the show up until now and both games!

 

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Bill and Frank - Bill's a sort of cypher for Joel. Initially closing himself off from the world but then finding something to care about in Frank. It seems like a beautiful story but it ends in tragedy, and Joel only gets to see this side of things rather than the beautiful love story the audience has been through. Hence backing up Joel's "do not connect with anything" mantra and complicating his feelings towards Ellie. 

Henry and Sam - Henry ultimately isn't strong enough to stop what happens to Sam, triggering or at least confirming Joel's doubts about his own ability to look after Ellie later on. He's found someone he cares about but can't go through the pain of losing Sarah/Tess again and Henry/Sam reinforces Joels fear of not being strong enough. 

The lady from togetherness who wants to kill Henry - a clear mirror of Ellie's descent into uncontrollable jealousy in the second game/presumably season. 

Riley - Fairly obviously and explicitly sets Ellie up to not want to lose Joel in Left Behind. 

 

It's clever storytelling and the idea of the show is to show two characters going on their story over a long period of time. The other characters are there to mirror and shape our protagonists rather than become leads in their own right. It might lose the impact of a Walking Dead style death but also means we don't have to hang around with fucking Gabriel for 15 seasons of him learning the same lesson over and over. 

Oh, I get it and agree with a lot of your points. I just think the balance is a bit off. They could have definitely done with more episodes to let the core relationship breathe, as @Poposays.

18 minutes ago, Darren said:

@JPL I think that’s a strength not a weakness. All of those stories of the people they met on their journey and/or in their pasts are part of who they are by the time they reach the end. (I presume, as I don’t know how it ends.)

I'm in two minds to be honest, I like that 'The Last of Us' can relate directly to Joel & Ellie, as everyone else falls aways, but I can also see it's a frustrating watch for her as it all feels very throwaway.

It definitely shows the fragility of any relationships that develop in the world, but I think they might have leaned a bit too heavily on that at the expense of giving us any secondary characters to care about. I'm still enjoying it, but I can definitely see her point of view.

My only downer on it is the lack of action. As I said above they're leaning heavily into character study, but that's at the expense of any decent action. It's probably down to the show moving at such a pace and I think it would have been better if they'd have had more episodes to play with to get the balance better.

Mr girlfriend made a good point last night, in that pretty much every episode we're introduced to new people; Tess, Bill & Frank, Kathleen, Henry & Sam, Riley, etc, and they're killed off before we really get to know them. They get an episode to show how much we should care about them and their struggles, then they're gone. Making the investment feel pretty pointless and redundant.

For me, I can fill in a lot more as I've played the game, but for her it's quite a frustrating experience because just as these interesting characters are being brought in, they're out almost immediately. Not only that, but so much of the runtime is being spent on these new characters, that she's not really getting enough time to see Joel & Ellie's relationship grow.

I'm inclined to agree with her if I think about it from the perspective of someone who hasn't played the game. It feels very story of the week and the only through narrative is Joel & Ellie, which often takes a backseat.

I'm also worried with only 2 episodes left, they're not going to have time for Joel to recover and the big finale. I hope the next 2 episodes concentrate purely on Joel & Ellie, or else I don't think it'll have the emotional impact the game had at the end.

Caught up on this over the weekend and thought it was absolutely terrible.

I thought the original was crap and was the beginning of Marvel’s decline for me, and this has come along and totally sealed the deal that it’s pretty much done.

There’s just so much wrong with it, I don’t know where to start. Boring, pointless story, terrible villain, too long, shit effects, uncharismatic lead, too many characters, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.

The only plus points I’ll give it were the tribute to Boseman and Angela Bassett’s display of grief. Everything else was a mess.

It doesn’t sound Ant Man is much better either, so I’ll wait for that to appear on Disney+.

I hope he does George of the Jungle 2 next.

7 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

 

We know they're not hitting subs numbers. Targeted 73% growth last year. Got 28%. Still over 25 million subs.

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-misses-xbox-game-pass-growth-target-for-second-year-running

 

But I assume the above was really about whether it had helped them close the gap in the "console war". It doesn't seem to have massively changed their fortunes versus PlayStation in install base but whether that matters is debatable.

Thanks for the link. I wasn’t aware of that.
 

I honestly think their lack of big games to shout about is really doing them harm. They need to start coming good on their promises.

As for catching Sony, I don’t think that’ll ever be possible. No matter what they do, they’re always associated with their parent company and it’s never had a good image, plus Sony can seemingly do whatever they want, but as long as they keep putting out a steady stream of AAA titles all is forgiven.

I do think MS deserve a place at the table, as they do so many things right, but their lack of AAA titles is their biggest handicap and that’s something they should be doing everything they can to address. Without those games, nothing else really matters.

1 hour ago, mushashi said:

 

Globally, the race was pretty tight in the end, with nobody actually being declared the winner as both refuse to divulge final sales figures. Microsoft cruised to victory in the Anglo markets so felt they could enact phase 2 of their master plan to dominate the living room with "input one", forgetting they were still weak elsewhere and not even the Americans were that interested in the central idea being pitched for the Xbox One.

 

Considering how people seem to think the X1 was a major failure, the userbase hardly shrank disastrously in the Anglo markets, they just ceded all their gained ground everywhere else.  But this gen might see them lose more ground in the Anglo markets if they don't figure their shit out, and the competition isn't taking a fag break or tripping over their own shoe laces this round.

 

Microsoft's big strategic bets this generation (XGP and xCloud), which seemed entirely designed to go around the Sony console roadblock aren't really showing signs of working well so this is just the latest strategic swerve in a long line of them from Microsoft.

What makes you think Gamepass isn’t working? Have they released figures or even said what their projected subscribers are?

Has anyone got a reliable stream for this please?

1 hour ago, Twinbee said:

Thanks folks, that’s really helpful. It sounds like I should at least give it a go. 
 

A mate of my son has it, so I might see if I can borrow it for a while. That is, if he’s not still deep in it!

Just don’t be under the illusion you’ll get through it before the new Zelda is released. I’m still playing it a year after launch!

31 minutes ago, Gabzy said:

I’m too nervous/excited/terrified already. This could be such an pivotal moment for the team!  … but it could also put a real dampener on everything. 

I suppose it's testament to how far we've already come under Ten Hag, that losing a final could be seen as putting a dampener on everything.

I'm optimistic personally. I think confidence is with them and they know how much some silverware would mean to the fans. That's not to take anything away from Newcastle, who are doing really well, but it definitely feels like United have the edge to me. Then again, it could go either way as cup finals usually do.

21 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:

I should play the game first right?

I’ve not watched any of this, but you should definitely play the game. It’s brilliant.