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Ben’s Week In Review: July 24

No, I'm not playing Pokemon Go . I've always hated that series and now I loathe it more than ever. 😉

So it took HOW many years for Sega to realize that Sonic should always be in 2D?

I'm not saying there weren't some decent 3D Sonic the Hedgehog adventures, dating back to the Dreamcast days. I am saying that not one even came close to the brilliance of the old-school side-scrolling 2D adventures.

2011's Sonic Generations helped remind us that for this particular franchise, 2D was vastly superior to 3D simply due to the game's inherent design and blinding speed. It just made more sense in the original format. And after repeated failed attempts for the past two damn decades to cram the legendary blue mascot into the 3D mold, Sega has finally figured it out. I saw they announced two new Sonic games , both of which will celebrate the IP's roots.

Well, it's about damn time. That's all I have to say.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's branching paths sound awesome

I've always loved Deus Ex ( Human Revolution was one of my favorite games last generation) and I've been looking forward to the new entry for a long time.

And I really like how the developers have embraced the freedom of choice option this time around: Not only can we play entirely non-lethal if we choose (and this includes the boss fights, apparently), but our gameplay decisions will also impact the story . It makes the New Game Plus option that much more attractive, and also makes you wonder, "what might've happened if I'd gone the other way, or opted for a more direct approach?" I typically try to remain balanced in the Deus Ex games while leaning more toward stealth, and I'll probably do that again. But never before did I really have to ask if a decision I made would be significant; i.e., if it would affect something other than my character's progression.

Only one more month!

Personal gaming update

I'm loving I Am Setsuna and I'm not surprised in the least at the generally lukewarm reception . Firstly, it's a classic JRPG and we all know critics have never given these games their just due (dating back to the obscenely stupid 6 GameSpot gave the original Suikoden ). It's just one of those genres that should only be reviewed by certain people, plain and simple. However, that being said, there are several issues with the game that many reviews have pointed out, and the critics in question were right to do so. For instance, there's too much vagueness with the combat and progression system: The Talismans aren't different enough to matter much, primarily because a lot of the boosts are either a flat-out mystery or they don't factor into battles often enough.

Then there are the Flux elements, which nobody has any clue about. Even the game calls them a "mystery" and they can just randomly show up in battle. I hate all randomness in my classic JRPGs (one of the reasons I despised characters like Cait Sith), so this doesn't sit well with me. Plus, as I said last week, the game feels a little one-toned and flat, primarily due to the lack of cut-scenes, which no critic is going to say but it's the truth. These games needed that extra story media.

But I still love it because it's a true-blue JRPG. 🙂 After I'm done, I have to make a decision: Wait for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or jump into the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt . Guess we'll see how long it takes me to finish I Am Setsuna …I hear it's only around 20-25 hours, which is mildly disappointing, but I tend to play these games slower, anyway.

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Jalex
Jalex
7 years ago

I've pre-ordered 'Mankind Divided' already, but it will have to wait until I finish 'Alone with You.' Extremely impressed with 'Home', how it did so much with so little, and I'm curious how that approach will work in a 'sci-fi romance adventure.'

trinichinese
trinichinese
7 years ago

dear , psx extreme, i have notice that there have not been any post for Titan fall 2 , correct me if am wrong. and was wondering as a gaming site how come we have not seen a topic as of late .

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

Because we have almost no writers, no backing by the owners (who are making a huge mistake because there is something here that can be cultivated as a one of a kind in the world) and are a sinking ship.

Banky A
Banky A
7 years ago

PSXE has practically been shut down brother!

Hexen
Hexen
7 years ago

Even if the site was still alive I doubt anyone would have covered that particular game.

TrueAssassin86x
TrueAssassin86x
7 years ago

You know i think that i think the owner of this site should just sell it to someone who knows what there doing. Instead of letting this site go to waste

Godslim
Godslim
7 years ago

Was gonna say, havent seen many articles since ben left. :(((((((

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

The other possibility is to open it up. Make it into a big blog where we can talk about games, and give people a chance to try writing about games. Since the site is basically volunteer anyway.

Also it seems harsh to rip on the owner of this site. They havent shut it down yet, even if they are hands off, so we still have that.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

If you meant me Wack, I wasn't trying to rip on them. Call it constructive criticism. There is something here that doesn't exist anywhere else and it could be saved and expanded. I wasn't name calling or saying mean things, I was saying it's a mistake to let what this place was die instead of noticing the potential. If I had the money I'd do it myself because I can see an amazing future here by building on a base.

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

No World not in particular. Just more the thought of lets not say anything bad about the owner of the site, since at least he still has it up. Some others have alluded that perhaps the person could be a better owner and do something here, but as long as it is open we can do with it now.

I do come here most every weekday, just dont always comment, so I'd like to see something more myself. But at least now we get the occasional article by you guys and a sunday thing from Ben, so Im not gonna complain to loud.

Akuma_
Akuma_
7 years ago

Unfortunately, this site isn't what it used to be, even the community itself has dwindled, and I can understand the reasons why people have left.

Wackazoa – Why can't we criticize? The die hard community at PSXE is the reason why it still stands at all. The owners need to make a decision, they can A) shut it down B) sell it or C) gift it to the community. Leaving it to languish in it's current state is only continuing to contribute to it's downfall. For example, since March this year, SimilarWeb estimates that PSXE has lost around 20% of it's monthly views, and this trend is continuing at a loss of about 5% per month.

World – one of the problems this site faces, is that the community itself doesn't seem like it wants to rebuild, you guys have access to write articles but based on what I see now this hasn't helped. It seems that not even the die hard community has enough time and patience to build the site back up. Perhaps the lack of compensation is the reason why? after all, devoting your time and effort to something when you get absolutely nothing in return would be difficult. Which goes back to what I said, if members of the community actually had ownership of the site, maybe that would encourage more activity. Find a group of people who care about the site, and give them complete control. I personally am no writer or journalist, but I could contribute, both in talking about gaming, and updating the site itself.

Today is my first time coming here in a long time, having previously been a member of this community, and it's a very sad thing to see the site in such a poor state. If a new user was to 'find' this site, they would find absolutely NOTHING to make them want to come back. The site offers hardly anything of interest, not even to gamers any more.

World is correct in saying that this site COULD become something unique, and we started to see that with the increased community contribution, but there needs to be a committed decision from the people responsible for this site. Do they want to see it rise from the ashes? Or would they rather let it burn?


Last edited by Akuma_ on 7/26/2016 11:46:52 PM

TrueAssassin86x
TrueAssassin86x
7 years ago

Frankly who is even the owner ? In my two years coming here i never once read anything from the owner. I ment no disrespect to the owner when i said sell it to someone who knows what there doing but i am starting to feel sorry for the people who been coming here for longer then me this is just f'ed up……

Underdog15
Underdog15
7 years ago

It is too bad. The owners should have sold it 5+ years ago. They'd hired the one main employee (Ben) who basically held it together singlehandedly.

So much opportunity… with just SLIGHTLY more support, they could have really fleshed out that video section (Heck, we go our own showing in PS Home)… could have taken advantage of PS's share play feature to make some excellent mini video reviews to complement the written ones… And that's just the tip of the iceberg. But you need more than 1 guy to do it (3 would have been fine).

With an updated skin (I swear volunteers from the community could have done it) and support, a valuable asset has been pissed away.

Akuma_
Akuma_
7 years ago

Completely agree with you Underdog.

For years now, the site has been a passion project, without the passion needed to grow it.

I really do believe that certain members of the community COULD revive this site, but it will take a bit of effort.

As mentioned, I would personally assist where I can, including updating the sites design with a more modern approach.

Maybe a few members of the community should approach Arnold with the idea?

@TrueAssassin86x
If you navigate to the "About Us" section of this site, you can see the staff. There are two co-founders, but the only 'owner' who has been on this site for the past 10 years is Arnold.


Last edited by Akuma_ on 7/28/2016 2:40:27 AM

HANZ64
HANZ64
7 years ago

You need a constant supply of 'decent' content rolling, for there to be any excuse for a community to even hang around, let alone comment.

This is a problem that I stated would occur a while back (when it was announced that Ben would no longer be writing full time).

What we have/(had?) here however, was something special. I think the only way to 'revive' the site without gaining the funding of a new owner would be to 'gift it to the community' (as Akuma_ suggested). A kind of open source, passion driven site, where any member can contribute to writing articles, comment, fund and donate themselves etc. (Of course there needs to some level of administration/moderator that approves of articles and such, but the power of publication needs to be handed down to the community if this site is to ever to survive in the long run.)

With the format we have now, it really boils down to the efforts of the selected contributers, (and I think it is unfair/unrealistic to expect these few dedicated individuals to maintain and keep the site going in return for… what?)

This was and still is a passion driven project, and I think we still have the opportunity to do something very unique here; once an open source format is made available.

I believe it was Highlander who kindly opened up a separate forum (linked here: http://forum.psxcommunity.net/). Should this site happen to go down, the members here will have the option to sign up, and meet up once again in that forum. But just like the forum of this site, it didn't take very long for the new forum to die down…

Like I said, there needs to be a strong incentive to bring about any real community interaction. A forum itself isn't enough for that, there needs to be a strong base site that has a strong/unique/interesting/worthy line up of content, constantly rolling. This was once accomplished by a few writers, including Ben, but then it was just Ben alone, and now we are reliant on a few contributers, and well… It seems like Ben is still keeping up with his Sunday blogs.

Lol we should just rename this site "Ben's Sunday Blog", because that's the only real consistent content that we get on here atm. (don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Ben's writings, and am very happy to still be able to read something from him, but this site has the potential to become something more. It doesn't have to die down like this…)

Those who are somewhat in charge of this site, seriously need to consider the open source idea, where the actual members themselves can publish articles (how many site even do that?).

There should also be a patreon like donation system, where the community itself is given the freedom to fund this passion project themselves, and keep it going if they so desire.

But there is no option for any of this right now, so of course this site will just crumble away and eventually die, if we remain with the current format.

What incentive is there to keep this going?

We need a new format.

Banky A
Banky A
7 years ago

Well I do work in a web dev team/company. So I'm able to help with any of the backend and frontend stuff if they ever want to give out access and rights.

Banky A
Banky A
7 years ago

Apparently it's still under Poise Media which is/was owned by Arnold's brother Val. Arnold co-founded this when he was 14 haha.

I also visited PSXE's Twitter and learned it has a bunch of followers :O

Underdog15
Underdog15
7 years ago

I was going to try and contribute daily since personal life stuff had calmed down after my mom's passing. But not gonna lie… I got super discouraged when I found out reviews aren't even tallied on Metacritic anymore. Both the Mighty No 9 and the Doom review didn't get counted. So even on that level, the site has become a ghost.


Last edited by Underdog15 on 7/29/2016 1:21:00 AM

TrueAssassin86x
TrueAssassin86x
7 years ago

I signed up on the other site i can help with the news over there if needed 🙂

Deadman
Deadman
7 years ago

Well it's great to see that everyone now sees how little this site is cared for. Maybe if this dialog had taken place over the last 2-3 years when the site was beginning it's decline something positive could have been done. It makes me as sad as it does angry when I see the state that not only the main page is in but the ghost town the forums became as well. World is right this place was special, it's unique, I can't name of another site on the internet where you can truly discuss our favorite hobby without it devolving into fanboy rants, racial slurs, or homophobic remarks.

And I can only give Ben so much credit for trying to keep this place afloat. Because he had a hand in it's inevitable decline to. Getting confrontational with posters, rather than having an open conversation and listening to the other side of an argument with an open mind and ear, really turned alot of good people away.

I loved this site! This was my home within my home. Over the last 8 years or so I have made so many friends here. frostface, dillonthebunny, chinook, dso are all people that I game with regularly and chat with offsite.

It makes me so sad that it became this. Complaining about it now is too little too late. Well hopefully we can turn the community page into something just as special overtime.

trinichinese
trinichinese
7 years ago

to . Hexen

Even if the site was still alive I doubt anyone would have covered that particular game.

so why not ? why would any one not cover Titan Fall 2 as it is a AAA game to be launch on PS4 . curious why you think that.

Underdog15
Underdog15
7 years ago

@Deadman
The discussion had taken place behind the scenes. Remember when Ben had even tried to do the videos some years back?

There was talk of trying to convince of a sale 5 or more years ago.

I don't know for sure, but my only guess is that they just simply didn't care.


Last edited by Underdog15 on 8/1/2016 10:30:58 PM

Beamboom
Beamboom
7 years ago

It's true that the discussions and suggestions for this site has been going for many years, as many (most?) of us saw where it was heading a long time ago. It's just not possible for a single person to run a site like this forever. It can't be done.

Ben was always a great writer – one of the very best imo – but quite poor at managing. He's not a motivational leader by nature, and that's a requirement, especially for a site like this where the money is sparse. So he kept on working alone for all these years despite several attempts to recruit writers, simply cause he didn't have the leadership abilities. He just handed out keys and expected it to work.

This site only needed one more key person. If only Ben was left to write articles and reviews and keep him off the tiresome and exhausting community confrontations, with someone else handling recruiting, community and further development of the site (design and feature-vise) the history of this site would have been very different.


Last edited by Beamboom on 8/2/2016 4:43:42 AM

Underdog15
Underdog15
7 years ago

The confrontations aren't really relevant points other than being yet another unproductive opportunity for slander, but you are right. A second PAID employee was needed.

I've been supervising volunteers for the better part of 10 years now in various capacities. In no agency can you rely on any particular group of volunteers to actually RUN something. They can only be used as a passing, and presumably temporary, resource. You need to be able to continue the work for the day volunteers suddenly stop showing up. (It's rare to get a long-term and awesome volunteer. They gotta pay their bills, too.)


Last edited by Underdog15 on 8/2/2016 10:35:15 AM

frostface
frostface
7 years ago

Underdog, the confrontations are completely relevent. It's not slander either, there's plenty of proof in the pudding if you go back over comment sections. Lets say for arguments sake we don't attribute all the conflicts fault on Ben, it still wasn't exactly the community at its best and definitely not enticing to any new people passing through. It was more unfortunate that the person who's running the site and who should have been the shining example of how to conduct yourself in discussions was the most hot headed. As said above, he didn't have leadership skills.

Deadman
Deadman
7 years ago

How are bringing up the confrontations slander? People were posting looking for genuine conversation about games, but if their opinions differed from his oh boy look out. Cause they didn't know what the hell they were talking about. That attitude drove people away. I've never heard of anyone being successful by alienating their user base.

Ben did a ton to keep this place going, single handed too, the man deserves credit for that. He also deserves the credit for the state it's in now as well.

The community is what made this place great. The comments are what kept me here over the last 8 years. But the conversation gets pretty stale really fast when everyone agrees. The people who had anything interesting to say were driven out.

dillonthebunny
dillonthebunny
7 years ago

Underdog, you seem to have something on your top lip there..


Last edited by dillonthebunny on 8/3/2016 6:07:02 AM

shaytoon
shaytoon
7 years ago

well i offered to write things up bc i have a lot of free time on my hands, but was declined, but i guess thats not my problem anymore.

[insert kermit sippin tea pic here]

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

Sounds like I'll be passing on Setsuna until it's a flash sale. I found a neat TPS shooter gem called Scourge for PS3 that's like 8 bucks. I finished Gone Home, that game is a piece of F*cking garbage. I though it was horror! I payed money to hear the letters of a lesbian love story, which would have been nothing if it were heterosexual? You want a real, really well done lesbian love story then get Nights of Azure. That was expertly done.

Played Layers of Fear again but somehow for the same ending. (there are 3) Next week is my birthday and I'm going to give Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter a go, praying to GOD that it doesn't leave me high and dry not knowing what to do like the last two. I just need to stimulate my brain.

Also, Layers has inspired a story that I'm gonna try to finish writing for a contest this week.


Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 7/24/2016 2:45:22 PM

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

Heard bad things about Sherlock. Might wanna wait for a sale on that one.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

I did too, but then all those games get bad ratings. Thankfully I'm not paying for it.

Hexen
Hexen
7 years ago

It looks like Sega is finally waking up, I hope that they make enough that they consider getting back into the console business. If only they could make a gimmicky game like Pokemon Go, damn that thing is popular.

Is sad to see a once great site dwindling down to nothing, at this point were all just waiting for the day when we get an error page when we click on the site.

On a positive note who's loving all these Comic book movies coming out? Got Suicide Squad in two week's which I hope does well since villans deserve their own movies too and Doctor Strange in November with next year jam packed. Lots of props to DC and Marvel for bringing all these characters to life.

trinichinese
trinichinese
7 years ago

why would they not cover the game ? curious.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

Dreamcast 2!

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

By the by, looks like the Nintendo NX is gonna be an interesting sell? Portable gets the Asian markets possibly, but what about the the west? Think Nintendo is settling for 3rd?

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

its a portable?

Temjin001
Temjin001
7 years ago

It's a good move by Nintendo. If the system has the power to handle palatable ports of Xbox One and PS4 games it could be a great way to play AAA third-party offerings on the go or from your TV.
While Sony and MS scale up hardware to meet massively sized 4K televisions, Nintendo can sit comfortably at a 720 to 1080 resolution. A res that still looks gorgeous on a handheld and not bad on a TV.

Price is the big question.

This system could be what the Vita could've been.

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

Yes and No World. From what Ive read, also Digital Foundry breaks down the hardware (I love hardware articles), it will have a similar CPU/GPU hardware that the Nvidia Shield has. But the leaks say that it will be a portable with a base it can fit into to play on the TV. Think the Wii U controller where the thumbsticks and buttons come off. Very interesting.

Temjin, I too am intrigued. If it ties into a Pokemon GO type thing it could sell lots. Problem is that phones do portable way better than a portable console ever could, 3DS not withstanding (but even so not as popular as phones), so Im not sure that a dedicated portable console unit priced probably $200-300 range would be a big seller.

Also the X1 chip in the Nvidia Shield is more or less just better than X360/PS3. So it wont compete with the current console hardware, and truthfully maybe thats what Nintendo intends.


Last edited by wackazoa on 7/26/2016 4:58:22 PM

Akuma_
Akuma_
7 years ago

The number of confident leaks would suggest that it is definitely a portable, with the option to stream your games to a HDTV via an attached docking station.

Nintendo is changing their gaming vision from about handheld and dedicated consoles, to one that supports both.

It's a good idea, but the execution is everything here. They also need to drop the 3DS after NX launches.

The market has shown two things in recent times, 1) portable gaming is where Nintendo make their money now. 2) Dedicated consoles have a much larger consumer base than the industry ever expected. I hope Nintendo can harness the best of both, otherwise this could be the last 'console' Nintendo make.

Temjin001
Temjin001
7 years ago

Can't say I'm excited for Sonic Mania. A game that remixes old games sounds like something Nintendo tried a few years ago with their properties. I guess old school fans might really dig that. But for those who havent finished the classics Sonic Mania is remixing might as well just play those and then see if they want to play them again… remixed.

I'm more interested in what the other Sonic game is. It's by the team that made Sonic Colors and Generations. Sonic Generations is probably the best Sonic game I've completed, and I have played a good number of them. Had Sonic 4 episode 2 been a full length offering that may have earned top honors from me.

PGU: Finished Darksiders II. It was great. Story is lacking by today's standards. Bosses were great. Dungeons and puzzles were strong. I still prefer the more action heavy formula of the first game but it was still a worthwhile and satisfying entry. I'm curious if DS3 will also remix the formula as DSII had done.


Last edited by Temjin001 on 7/26/2016 3:32:48 PM

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
7 years ago

Well I finally got my PC back. Sort of, Asus was unable to fix my old one so I had to trade it in for a new one. Anyways the point is without having to rely on the mobile version of this site I can go back to commenting… should there be anymore articles soon.

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

What you got in it? And do you play any games with it?

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
7 years ago

Asus G501 JW. i7, native 2.6ghz. Supposedly it will overclock up to 3.6 but I haven't figured it out yet. Nvidia 960m. Works great at 1080, the screen will do 4k, but I'm not sure modern games on a 960m will go much beyond single digit frame rate at 4k. The solid state drive is a super plus. It's not the best gaming laptop, but I can't complain for a trade in deal.

Right now I'm picking up where I left of in Deus Ex:HR Director's cut and a little bit of RAGE.

wackazoa
wackazoa
7 years ago

Sweet. With the CPU you shouldnt need to overclock and with it being a laptop I wouldnt recommend it unless you got some serious cooling, overclocking creates heat which laptops dont do well with. The 960m is a decent card, just not as powerful as the desktop version, and with it you shouldnt have any issues doing 1080p at high settings.

The SSD is fantastic compared to a HDD, but depending on the amount of space you might want to pick up a external drive if you plan on storing much on you laptop. Of course you could go the delete/reload route but it can get a bit of a pain if you want to play now.

Sounds like you got some nice hardware there. Get some indie games, Ori and the Blind Forest is beautiful if you like metriodvanias, and play the triple A's on your console.

Also, while it seems crap now due to its early access alpha, a game to look out for is We Happy Few. Depending on how the early access and the story work out it seems like it could be a very interesting game.


Last edited by wackazoa on 7/27/2016 3:30:18 PM

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
7 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions. Steam is great for indies. There everywhere.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to take Deus Ex Mankind Divided rout on PC and No Man's Sky on PS4 or the DE:MD on PS4 and NMS on PC. I'm leaning towards the latter. It would probably be a better fit hardware wise… and, if I can afford it, I want the special edition of Mankind Divided which uses a physical copy of the game. The Solid State is worth it, but no more bring DVDs with me on long trips.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

We is died.

TrueAssassin86x
TrueAssassin86x
7 years ago

-plays taps- R.I.P Psextreme Gone but never forgotten.

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
7 years ago

Is this confirmed? Is there really no hope anymore!?

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
7 years ago

No I was just saying, we didn't even get a last update sunday. I'm askeered.

HANZ64
HANZ64
7 years ago

I wonder where highlander went.

He did say that he had an article coming on this specific issue, (regarding the survival of this site/community or what should be done about it etc).

Now would be a good time…

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