Adam Tyner

We finished this a couple of days ago, and I do feel like the second half of the game is much more successful in making me feel invested in these characters and their relationships. It's a dangerous thing to say with so much of 2021 still remaining, but this is going to be hard to unseat as my Game of the Year. It's unreal just how many different mechanics are introduced (with a fair number of variations as well) and that every single one of them is executed perfectly.

No, and I hadn't forgotten about Destruction All-Stars or Sackboy Adventure either, but those also were developed by external partners. Which is probably a meaningless distinction to make since they're exclusives that Sony's paying at the end of the day, but I wonder if that's going to be standard practice going forward: blockbusters are internal; farm out the other stuff.

But isn't the point that Sony has taken things off the menu? I get that Japan Studios wasn't exactly churning out one barnstormer after another, but that I had games like Puppeteer and Gravity Rush to look forward to was a big part of what invested me in the PlayStation ecosystem. Sure, they could farm that out to an external developer, spin up a new team, or fund a unique IP that's equally/more compelling, but it doesn't seem like that's where Sony's attention is focused. I think at least some of your concerns are a conflict between the way Jason approaches longform articles vs.

How is it poorly researched? He interviewed a bunch of people. There are quotes. Names are named. Though yeah, I do agree with Romier that Jason's being at least a little disingenuous when saying "oh, the real story is the people..." It's both, and that's okay.

There's an incredible article by Jason Schreier on Bloomberg: Sony’s Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire. While it's no great mystery that Sony is only interested in home runs and couldn't care less about singles, doubles, or even triples (at least from their internal studios), there are some astonishing revelations in here. The universe revolves around Naughty Dog, Guerilla, and San Diego; other studios are losing their autonomy and being treated like support studios (including Bend) A Last of Us remake is in the works, but not by the t

Well, we’re getting The Frighteners; just not any time soon.

Is anyone else playing this? My wife and I are in the final levels of It Takes Two now, and it's in the running as my all-time favorite couch co-op game. (And we've had a good run recently, especially Bowser's Fury.) Cooperation is woven into pretty much every facet of the game -- not just "do this one thing at the same time to open a door" -- and I love how the mechanics are so different in every level with optional mini-games tossed in for even further variety. Nothing ever has a chance to get stale. I did feel kind of sad when I saw how many LFGs there were on the

My progress carried over from the PS4->PS5, but I did see someone on Twitter mention that their campaign progress completely reset. I was planning on replaying the campaign in the next couple of weeks, but I'm leery about doing that if it's going to reset my level 50 / 150 Ms. Marvel back to 1.

For whatever reason, I had a good enough time playing through the Hawkeye DLC to finally tackle more of the post-game content. I finished the Avengers Forever quest line at long last, and I’m close enough to the platinum that I’m thinking about subjecting myself to that, even though some of what’s left looks awfully grindy.

Delayed.

Mondo Macabro indicated that they have plans for Ultra HD Blu-ray. We don't know what they are, but we know what they aren't: Brigade of Death, which Mondo Macabro is collaborating on with Le chat qui fume. Their European partner is giving it a UHD release overseas, but it won't be English-friendly. Mondo Macabro didn't think it was the right title to experiment with on these shores, since they have a different business model.

Best Buy has a poll on their site to vote for which UHD releases should get a steelbook, including Tommy Boy, Galaxy Quest, and The Guns of Navarone. Presumably that means that these are on the way.

No definitive release date, footage, or screenshots yet, but a tentative 2021 release was mentioned today by Megapixel (or whoever handles Panzer Dragoon Remake's Twitter). Just when Romier thought he was done...!

I've had terrific luck ordering from Arrow directly (and I have Oldboy and the Demons set in today's mail from them, coincidentally!), although because shipping ain't cheap, it might be worth waiting for a sale and/or until you can stack it with some other titles you're interested in.

Yes! When the first of my XB1 controllers started to suffer drift, that was the telltale sign: opening up a game like Overwatch and struggling to start the game because it'd just start cycling through all the menu options. 😛