JRK

Never write "DLC content." It belies ignorance of the terminology if one has done this on purpose -- and willful ignorance is not acceptable from the proprietor of information, like a news source. Why? Bc it compounds as that information gets passed around to the people, blowing up into a *literal* nonsensical trend.

In science, we call that the *propagation of error*, and every scientist undertakes a duty to attempt the minimisation of error at every stage in the process (the earlier, the better).

Unlike critics, devs should not be separately designing/considering narrative and ludic elements; their job is to construct, whereas the critic's is to deconstruct (analyze). If these elements can't be interwoven, then the potential evolution of overall game design is forestalled. However, titles like Mass Effect, Halo, Hades 1 & 2 prove that they can be.

Microsoft is probably waiting until next generation, and may even jump ahead and release a monstrous console taking a quantum leap forward -- as well as a handheld -- in order to get a head start on PS6.

Why? Because the last time they got a head start with X360, they did very well.

Would there be a PS6 Pro to outdo Xbox Next? Yeah, likely, but there were misgivings and doubts this time around in 2023 or so, and those weren't allayed much with Sony hemming and hawing until last month. Even then the PS5 Pro had a controversial reception.

As with this generation and perhaps the next, the mid-gen refreshes are becoming less necessary. There's currently no need for 8K gaming or anything beyond 120 Hz for living room TVs, AI upscaling is mitigating the need for traditional raw hardware power (more high-speed processing cores, VRAM, etc for more polygonal rasterisation and teraflops), and the raw assets of graphics are providing diminishing returns for the effort required to create them. The pricing point of the PS5 Pro sets a precedent that consumers may be reluctant to follow, too.

Wrong isn't a word to use here. And remember that Joel, perhaps moreso than Marston or Morgan, went pretty far off the ethical compass (different from a moral compass) and ultimately met a fate that would've befallen him had he continued down that road anyway. He was not intended to be received as a classical hero on one of the well-worn "Hero Paths" of literature tropes, and eleven-and-a-half years later even casual fans of the series would know that. (I didn't even play Part 2 and only finished Part 1 on YouTube, since I never kept my PS4 and never bought the subsequent console generations or any of the Sony ports for PC).

Furthermore, the sequel goes to great lengths to portray that perhaps Joel received poetic justice... And note that both games and the show go to greater lengths to prove that there is no true justice there -- nobody was really in the right, if we were to throw around words of morality in our analyses at all.

PS+ has too many titles for people to play, let alone other F2P titles. Squenix, use your precious AI to comb the *web* for this type of commentary so you greenlight projects accordingly.

Thanks for this list. I'm still not burnt out by these types of games, but I've been holding back out of trepidation of being burnt out later. Which is amusing, bc that anxiety produces the same effect as just being burnt out tbw. Lol

I still have yet to get Heartshadow (Duality dungeon's exotic sword), Heirarchy of Needs (Spire of the Watcher's exotic bow), and Buried Bloodlines (Warlord Ruin's exotic "sidearm"). I got The Navigator on my first run of GoTD though, lol. Just recently finally did its catalyst, too.