I’ll probably not be playing any soulslikes this weekend - don’t have anything to play right now. However, we’re at a friend’s birthday today, and they’re getting a physical copy of Bloodborne for PS4 from us. :)
Speaking of physical media: Sony have lost their minds. Sure, the move away from physical media has been ongoing for the past years, and it was very likely that Sony would not have offered a PS7 with a disk drive. However, to hear that they’ll be outright stopping production of disks by early 2028 is such a gut punch. Sony already have a monopoly on console gaming pretty much, next to Nintendo maybe, so they can do whatever the fuck they want with their store. Physical games always left you the possibility of opting for a cheaper used or on-sale copy, though.
I have more or less abandoned console gaming around a year ago when I built my first PC ever, and I’m quite content with it. However, this is just another nail in the coffin for me to just not bother consoles or Sony specifically moving forward.
Like, all the soulslikes I’ve played on PS5 are on disk. DS 1-3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, Lies of P etc etc. To think that moving forward people won’t have that “luxury” (it hurts me so much to even call this a luxury) of playing a game whatever way they want is just so infuriating.
What’s your stance on this? What’s your split of digital to physical games? What about your soulslikes?
I don’t know what I’ll play this weekend, I started Wanted: Dead yesterday but after that and today’s session I’m at 118 minutes and I think I might do something I basically never do - use the Steam refund policy. I don’t have time to play shit games these days. There are too many good ones to waste my time on something I’m not having fun with. I hate runbacks and time wasting and this is a game developed by people who apparently adhere to the 80s game design school of “what is a checkpoint?”. I’m not interested in a game that has me redo gruelling sections of 10+ minutes of wave after wave of constant combat before retrying a miniboss that can kill you almost instantly if you slip up once. I’m sure there is someone out there who loves that type of challenge, and good for them. To me, the combat in this game isn’t even juice that’s worth the squeeze to begin with. Stiff, clunky, awful controls… ugh. And don’t get me started on the writing and voice acting, some of these characters sound like old TTS - not even AI! I thought Road 96 was full of terrible voice acting but this might be a new low water mark.
We’ll see what I pick next. Probably The Drifter, although I did actually pick up Hell Is Us and Salt and Sanctuary on the sale too, so maybe I’ll play an actual Soulslike soon?
I’m personally the wrong person to ask about physical media. I haven’t bought a physical game in something like 15 years. It’s not like games sold on discs are complete anyway these days, with the prevalence of day-one patches and DLC and continued post-launch support with patches and updates. I think we should focus on game preservation like GOG is doing instead: DRM free offline installers you can save on your own physical media if you want.
That sounds much better to me than churning out discs that degrade anyway and 99% of the people find more of a hassle than a benefit.