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pikashoe 1 day ago
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Manlytears said:
pikashoe said:

I'm not sure why you are only mentioning Naughty Dog, when your original comment was about playstation as a whole. Sony has relied a lot more heavily on pretty bland sequels this gen. Gow Ragnarok, spider man 2, horizon forbidden west, ghost of yotei. These are all mostly ok games, but it does feel a lot more iterative and safe than what they were doing ps3/ps4 games.

I could write a thesis on the issues with the last of us part 2. Which is unfortunate the game had a lot of potential and a lot of the ideas could have worked. But unfortunately the game ended up feeling overstuffed and many aspects felt under developed or rushed. Also the story has such a painful over reliance on contrived writing and coincidence to keep the plot going, to a level that just becomes comical at time. Like when Ellie drops a map with the hideouts location circled on the ground in the aquarium, a moment that made me facepalm with how clunky it was, like something from a cheap B movie. The game is littered we these kinds of issues. I guess it comes down to how easily a person can ignore this type of writing.

The story at it's core isn't really anything special, just a basic cycle of revenge story that shows things from the perspective of the other character. If you've read many books, watched much TV, or seen some of the great films this really isn't anything particularly mind blowing. I'm glad you enjoy the game. But for me it unfortunately missed the mark on so many occasions.

For a moment I actually considered that, you talking about all of Playstation. But I didn't see a direct mention of PlayStation as a whole, and there was a direct mention of TLoU... meh... irrelevant.

Anyway, back to the topic.

I have to agree: the lineup of titles was stronger in the PS4 era. I mean, the line of games from 2013 to 2020 is just amazing!

Overall Game of the Year Award Winners (and Runner Ups) from 2013 to 2020:

2020- The Last of Us Part II | Ghost of Tsushima | Hades

2019- Death Stranding | Resident Evil 2 | Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

2018- God of War (2018) | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Marvel's Spider-Man

2017- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Horizon Zero Dawn | Super Mario Odyssey

2016- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End | Overwatch | Doom (2016)

2015- The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt | Fallout 4 | Bloodborne

2014- Dragon Age Inquisition | Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor | Mario Kart 8

2013- The Last of Us | Grand Theft Auto V | Bioshock Infinite

I know some people will say, "I don't value game journalists and awards," but when you see these results, it's impressive... 

8 years... 8 years in, and PlayStation has delivered the Game of the Year 5 times.

5 GOTY wins and 4 runner-up spots! There are sufficient arguments to conclude, objectively, that no other console of the past decade comes close to the PS4 lineup.

All that said, let's go back to PS5 age... It's always worth remembering the COVID years (2020 to early 2023), which heavily impacted game production. Creating entirely new IPs would likely have been a hindrance; besides, most titles were either the first sequel of a new IP or completely reinvented old IP... Imho, I don't see a major issue there.

On top of that, there was the disastrous Jim Ryan "era," which unfortunately created an obsession with GaaS within Sony. Sony went through a phase that—hopefully—is over... (With any luck, Herman Hulst will return the focus to single-player games or step down from leading PlayStation Studios.)

PlayStation's output failed to meet the amazing output of PS4 age, it's a fact... Still, it managed to reach an acceptable level compared to its rivals.

From 2020 to 2026 (PS5 era):

Astro Bot (GoTY), TLoU Part II (GoTY), GoW: Ragnarok (Runner-up), Ghost of Tsushima(Runner-up)/Yotei, GT7, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank, Returnal, Demon's Souls Remake... plus upcoming titles like Wolverine and the next GoW.

I don't think Nintendo or Xbox holds the advantage when comparing releases between 2020 and 2026. When compared to the others, PlayStation doesn't lag behind, it just looks weaker compared to the monster that was PS4.

I personally don't care about GOTY awards at all. Also how did fallout 4 get more than Bloodborne, that's hilarious. Bloodborne is far and away sony's best release over the last 2 console generations. With Astro Bot in a distant 2nd place.

I had a quick look and Nintendo will have close to 70 retail releases between 2020 and the end of 2026 (not including basic ports like 3d allstars, pikmin 1+2, skyward sword hd etc.). Sony are coming up on 30 (6 being mlb games, 1 concord rip, a few others are multiplat). Microsoft is confusing mess to sort through. Most are multiplat and a lot were mostly developed before they bought certain companies. 

So I would say Sony are definitely lagging behind Nintendo at the moment.