PS Plus Premium – Sony’s biggest mystery (pic: Sony)
The Thursday letters page has an explanation for Sony’s rumoured new PS5 model, as one reader offers his review of The Callisto Protocol.
PLEASE NOTE: We’re currently preparing our content for over Christmas and the New Year, which will include several Reader’s Features. So if you have an idea for an article you want to write, about any gaming related subject you like, now would be a great time to submit it, at the email address below.
To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]
Surprisingly bad
Fanboys can bicker back and forth, but one thing I will never, ever understand about Sony is what they’re playing at with PS Plus Premium. PS Plus Extra is pretty good so why is Platinum such a ridiculous joke? One new PS1 game in six months? Only 14 games in total, almost none of which are major classics? Even if I believed (which I don’t) that third party publishers had refused to put their games on the service where are all the Sony games? How can they at least not have all of theirs?
There’s no explanation and Sony sure isn’t going to explain themselves, which leaves me to wonder how there can be anyone in the world that’s possibly happy with Platinum. For me it is the worst subscription I’ve ever heard of, for games, TV or anything.
Even as I type this, I feel there must be something I’m missing or forgetting about it but no, it really is that bad – and for no good reason! It almost takes more effort to make it this bad than to make at least a half-hearted effort. The only thing I can think of is that someone at Sony demanded three tiers and so they had to put it out no matter what but, no… that still doesn’t explain the mind-numbing awfulness of it all. I’m genuinely flabbergasted.
NeoZeo
Next Christmas
So basically Spider-Man 2 is Sony’s big game for next Christmas. That’s fine, I think most people would’ve assumed that. I liked the first game but based on recent sequels I’m doubtful as to how much is going to change in the sequel. I hope there is co-op because that could shake things up, but I’m doubtful. Especially after how it hobbled Gotham Knights.
But what else will Sony have out next year? It’s very hard to guess beyond these rumours of Uncharted 5. It seems to early for that though and probably Ghost Of Tsushima 2, although I think we’ll at least see that announced next year. I really want to know what Housemarque do after Returnal too, but I’m sure that won’t be out next year either.
Hopefully that means that most of the new games will be… new, but that’s probably wishful thinking. I agree I don’t particularly want to see more of Horizon, but beyond that I look forward to be surprised nd excited.
Tezer
Cheer up
I’m totally up for more Uncharted but I would be shocked if Nathan Drake was still the main hero. It’s definitely going to be his daughter or someone else. Nolan North is too old for motion capture now and if the series is being taken over by a new developer that’s the perfect time to switch up the leads.
I just hope that whatever Naughty Dog does next is not another grimdark affair. Uncharted is the only cheerful game they’ve made since the PlayStation 2 era and I feel they’re all going to end up depressing the hell out of each other, and everyone else, with either The Last Of Us Part 3 or a new IP. The world can be filled with happiness as well as misery you know, guys.
Revali
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Secret past
Does anyone else feel that the Norse God Of War games skate over what Kratos was like originally just a bit too much? I don’t think anyone who has only played the two most recent games, which is going to be a lot of people, will have any idea that he murdered countless innocent people for no reason, including women and children.
Old (or rather young) Kratos was the ultimate edgelord and while it’s great that he’s not anymore, and I do like his character in the new games it really doesn’t seem likely. We never really see how he met his new wife or what she saw in him. I can’t imagine what going on a date with Kratos is like, especially if he only just stopped being a murdering psychopath.
It’s a game, so being a murdering psychopath kind of comes with the job but I think there’s a limit to how seriously you can take the story and characters once you start thinking about them properly.
Strider
Relatively soon
It’s coming up to that time of year where GC will be asking us, soon, for our votes on top five favourite video games from this year. I got an idea of mine with four out of five of them listed as my most played on my PlayStation 2022 wrap-up. The odd one out being Resident Evil – Code: Veronica.
Where I do keep changing my mind though is with Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection and The Last Of Us Part 1. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of them. They are among my favourite franchises so got them as I wanted the best versions of the single-player story. Which I think that they are.
Trouble is though they are not new games. Just the same ones with better graphics. So finding it difficult to justify including them in my top five. At the moment I will be voting for them but that may change nearer the time. Especially once I have got through a few more in my backlog!
Tony- -1975 (PSN ID)
Currently playing: God of War Ragnarök (PS5) and Return To Monkey Island (Switch)
GC: We’ll publish our 20 top over Christmas but, to clarify to others, the readers’ vote isn’t until the end of January.
Reasonable explanation
I thought the reason behind Sony making a PlayStation 5 without a disc drive is that I predict that they will stop manufacturing the disc version and just have this new discless one with the attachable drive.
That way they can provide the console at a cheaper price, even though with the disc drive included it would probably be the same price as the current disc model. Not that matters much though, for people when they see the price on the shelf.
Angry_Kurt (Twitter)
Now playing: Evil West (Xbox Series X) and Slay The Spire (Steam Deck)
I wonder if the PS5 Slim with a detachable disc drive is something to do with streamlining the production line? Just having one console model without a disc drive presumably makes it cheaper for Sony, assuming a separate production line for a disc drive is cheaper than for a whole other console.
FoximusPrime81 (gamertag/NN ID/Twitter)
GC: Yeah, that’s probably it.
Royal command
So if Hidetaka Miyazaki isn’t the director on Armored Core 6 that means he’s probably working on a new Soulsborne, right? Likely Elden Ring DLC but maybe something different, because it’s weird he hasn’t just come out and said that’s what it is.
Personally I’m hoping the next game will be a reboot of the King’s Field series. It’s very similar to Dark Souls, which might make it seem like it’s not worth bringing back, but it’s first person and I’d like to see that in a modern game, especially as that’s how a lot of early action role-players were, even things like Dungeon Master.
Tolly
Mixed Protocol
I’ve just beaten The Callisto Protocol and I have very mixed feels. Ultimately, it was a bit of a slog to beat but there’s a lot of good stuff in there, that I just don’t think they used effectively. The graphics are fantastic, for a start, some of the best I’ve ever seen but they’re not really used to show anything very interesting as it’s all just sci-fi corridors for most of the time. Getting out on the surface makes such a difference.
The heart of the problems though is the focus on combat, even though it’s not especially good or interesting. The game could have been so much but the exploration and puzzle-solving is super basic and almost the entire game is just punching and shooting monsters.
This is no Resident Evil though and, really, Dead Space wasn’t like this either so I don’t know where this idea came from. Because you’re fighting all the time there’s no chance for the game to be scary either. If you know you’ve got a good chance of pummelling a monster with your bare hands you’re not exactly going to be quaking in your boots.
A real missed opportunity and I’m not sure I really want a sequel, even if they do try and change things up.
Gasman
Inbox also-rans
Totally agree on your Rogue Legacy 2 review. A great and, as you, sadly not one I ever hear people talk about. I hope there’s going to be a third one anyway though.
Benson
Not really video game related, or at least not yet, but I imagine GC and readers might be interested in this new movie 65, since it has spaceships and dinosaurs in it. It looks like shlock nonsense, but could this be the game to finally convince Capcom to make a new Dino Crisis?
Gabbo
This week’s Hot Topic
As the year comes to an end, for this weekend’s Inbox we want to know what you thought of 2022 in gaming?
The pandemic might be over, but it still casts a long shadow over the games industry, with release schedules and preview events still adversely affected. But what did you think of 2022 overall? What did you think of the standard and volume of games and what were you favourites?
What did you consider were the major trends in terms of gameplay and the industry at large? And which news stories do you feel will go on to become most important for the future of gaming?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
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The Thursday letters page has an explanation for Sony’s rumoured new PS5 model, as one reader offers his review of The Callisto Protocol.
