Category: 2023

Sony just held a PlayStation Showcase recently and it was generally considered to be quite disappointing. There’s a number of reasons for this from the focus on live-service games, the lack of exciting PC ports and how there were very few games that took us by surprise. However, one of the more disappointing aspects was the number of CG trailers present which left people confused and, sometimes, unsure what the game even is. Therefore, I thought I’d explain why I’m beginning to hate CG video game trailers while also examining why so many companies end up relying on them.

When I was much younger, I would be quite excited about many of the CG trailers that I saw whether they be for Blizzard Entertainment games, Final Fantasy etc. I knew that it didn’t represent what the game would actually be like but I didn’t mind. However, as I’ve grown older, the gameplay of games have become more and more important to me and now I look at CG video game trailers with confusion, hate and scepticism because, ultimately, it may tell us what the narrative may be but it generally tells us nothing of what the gameplay will be like.

I last wrote an article covering Sony and their strategy regarding PC games back in November, 2022, called “What Sony Need To Do To Correct Their PC Strategy.” I had hoped that Sony, unlikely as it were, might come across the article or, more likely, might independently come up with my suggestions themselves. However, my patience with their incompetence is wearing thin so I thought it worth sharing my growing frustration with Sony and the PC releases of their games.

Back when I first learned that Sony was going to be releasing their games on PC about three years ago, I was quite excited. About a year later, I even wrote, having learned that Jim Ryan had said that a “whole slate” of games were coming to PC, an article covering Sony games that I’d love to see a PC release. So a good question to ask at this point is how many of the games I listed have come to PC? The answer, sadly, is zero. Sure, I mentioned Ratchet & Clank in my article but I was specifically talking about the classic games rather than the latest entry which was announced recently. That’s not to say that Sony hasn’t released games for PC, they’ve actually released quite a few at this point. In terms of their first-party offerings they’ve released Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, God of War (2018), Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Returnal and The Last of Us Part 1. While all respectable in their own way, none of these games have fulfilled my excitement from when I first heard about Sony’s porting effort.

The release of Honkai: Star Rail recently has reopened discussion about turn-based combat in video games, an area that I’m particularly interested in. As I’ve discussed before, I generally prefer turn-based JRPGs over action-based ones but that doesn’t mean that I can’t see some of the arguments that have made as being legitimate. As someone who has spent a strong portion of their life playing turn-based JRPGs, I thought I’d share how I believe JRPG turn-based combat can be reformed.

I’m going to start by clarifying that my thoughts are going to be specifically on true turn-based combat systems. I adore the Active Time Battle system of many Final Fantasy games and I also have great admiration for the combat system of the Grandia games but the incorporation of real-time elements results in the systems, while still being predominantly turn-based, becoming a hybrid and also opens too many possibilities up to list here. Therefore, I’m going to stick to turn-based combat systems that don’t incorporate any real-time elements seen in games such as Dragon Quest, Megami Tensei, the Legend of Heroes etc.