110°

An Overview of Knack and Why It Was Overlooked

GE:

I’m sure a number of you will have watched the Playstation Meeting just last month, February 20th, where Sony unveiled the first details for the Playstation 4 and was also the platform where they debuted of a handful of next gen games. But one of the things I found to be slightly bemusing is the absence of coverage for the first game we were all shown...

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gaming-enthusiast.net
miyamoto4051d ago

Crash Bandicoot
Spyro the Dragon
Jak and Daxter
Ratchet and Clank
Resistance
Uncharted
Knack.....
... Muh, Muh, Muh, My Sharona!

NewMonday4051d ago

didn't know Knack is made using the Unreal Engine 4

thought it would be a Sony 1st party Engine

Arai4051d ago

Eurogamer reported that it's using UE4, maybe they have a reason for doing so.
Still weird considering that it's a game developed by Sony.

Tbh I never liked UE because of the textures in most games and the plastic look it brings.

Jagsrock4051d ago

He still looks kinda Ganondorf like to me.

r214051d ago

When he's blown up and huge, he kinda does but when he's tiny and smaller, not so much.

clintagious6504051d ago

This is one of my most anticipated ps4 games. I was wondering why not many ppl was talking about it. Looks fresh & innovative. Cant wait to see more on this game and abilities.

guitarded774051d ago

I don't know that it was necessarily overlooked. When a new console is announced, most people are looking at the most visually stunning titles, and Knack's art style doesn't make it stand out when compared to Killzone or Deep Down. With new consoles, many are looking at "How real can it look". One thing about Knack I found intriguing is how as he grows, each piece of his model is interdependent and moving together. When you look at it from that perspective, it's really impressive tech.

clintagious6504051d ago

"One thing about Knack I found intriguing is how as he grows, each piece of his model is interdependent and moving together"

Thats exactly why I liked it was because it look so different yet the potential is huge & is why i want to see more abilities because it looks like alot of fun. I dont just play games to enjoy it, I also write down notes on possibilities u can add to the game that would make the game even better. My dream is to become a developer but one that has so many IDEAS to create that ULTIMATE experience.

talisker4051d ago

My thoughts exactly. Playing a character which is entirely based on physics will be much fun. Same applies to Infamous; Second Son. Those particle effects... I hope they utilize the compute units a lot. Superheroes made of particles or liquid not only look awesome but can also introduce new quality into game mechanics.

Mark Cerny, fingers crossed for you and I'll buy it day 1.

raytraceme4051d ago

Knack was underlooked because this generation of gamers don't care for platformers. The gaming community is crap now and all most gamers care about nowadays is the the next big POS fps garbage.

I support Playstation and Nintendo because they still support platformers and a huge variety of games.

Microsoft and XBOX played a big role in dumbing down gaming and their fanboys just don't care about variety and platformers like Knack so they are just bringing it down.

I give a big middle finger to MS their fanboys and their payed off media outlets.

People seem to forget that with the ps1, gamecube, and ps2 games were actually hard and the sp of many top games were more than the 5-7 hours of a typical game nowadays. Remember the time when gameplay mattered?

Knack to me reminds me of the good old days when 12 people bought the xbox and everyone else got a ps2. This was when gameplay and story mattered and there were different genres of games.

TheFallenAngel4051d ago

I still play Mario games on my niece's DS and they are fun. It reminds me of my childhood. Kudos to Nintendo for making really fun Mario games. I enjoy them a lot. LittleBigPlanet was fun too.

Soldierone4051d ago

This is why I personally miss last generation. I had so many different style games, it was great.

This generation its shooter after shooter, and everything has to be "realistic" when it isn't a shooter. What happened to animals and cartoon characters etc?? Creativity? Stuff that wasn't "well its realistic, but not realistic" stuff. They are even making the next Ninja Turtles game "realistic" I mean come on....

Anything that isn't a shooter or a "realistic" game struggles to see a major release. And if it doesn't sell like Call of Duty, then big publishers dump it.

_QQ_4051d ago

The question is why should i care about this or any other game when i can play aliens colonial marines?

badz1494051d ago (Edited 4051d ago )

lol!

back on topic;

I'm looking forward to Knack too! platformers is my favorite genre!

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30°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers3h ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

130°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg15h ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos15h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion14h ago(Edited 14h ago)

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola10h ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

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280°

Sony Taps Bungie's Head of Revenue to Lead Live-Service Games

Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.

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techraptor.net
ChasterMies20d ago

Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.

just_looken20d ago

The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.

Cacabunga20d ago

PlayStation officially losing it.. fans will never support gaas games

just_looken20d ago

@car

The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Redemption-6420d ago

@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.

Huey_My_D_Long20d ago

@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.

Einhander197220d ago

Cacabunga

Helldivers 2...

Redemption-64

In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.

So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.

FinalFantasyFanatic20d ago

@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.

@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.

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DivineHand12520d ago

True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.

Joe91320d ago

I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.

Obscure_Observer20d ago

Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.

Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.

S2Killinit20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.

Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.

Joe91320d ago

I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.

S2Killinit19d ago

Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.

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Christopher20d ago

I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.

CrimsonWing6920d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?

GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.

I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.

S2Killinit19d ago

Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.

Abnor_Mal20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.

Christopher20d ago

They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.

just_looken20d ago

Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.

You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.

700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out

Einhander197220d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Christopher

I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.

There are tons of live service games that are profitable.

Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.

I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.

Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.

FinalFantasyFanatic20d ago

I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.

romulus2320d ago

Correction, they have no issue playing good live service games

shinoff218320d ago

Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.

S2Killinit19d ago (Edited 19d ago )

I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.

And Im a single player gamer.

mastershredder20d ago

How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.

crazyCoconuts20d ago

Headline truncated:
"... off a cliff"

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