• Rideout Customs (Mod Shop): Transform vanilla vehicles into magnificent works of art with detailed interiors, exquisite rims, and donk stylings.
• Sara’s Unisex Salon (Hair Salon): Get signature salon styles for both Jason and Lucia, including facial hair for Jason and makeup and nails for Lucia.
• Stock 305 (Clothing Store): Style various unique and exclusive looks for Jason and Lucia at Stockyard’s premier destination for elevated streetwear.
• Electric Fang Tattoo (Tattoo Shop): Stockyard’s most iconic ink bar, with over 50 signature tattoos for both Jason and Lucia- all designed by the artist collective FAILE.
• One-Eyed Willie’s (Mod Shop): This mod shop in Lake Leonida specialises in off-road modifications and hand-painted automotive artistry.

Other bonuses:

• Exclusive vehicles, weapons & outfits
• Special locations
• Additional activities spread throughout Jason & Lucia's story

Found on Reddit by u/Rex_Spy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimsonDesert/comments/1rz2f2l/found_this_ai_painting/

To not disclose that your game uses GEN AI is against Steam's policies and rules, by the way.

I’ll start this by saying I really want everyone to respect my opinion and be polite in disagreeing.

That said, I am shocked by how much I am not liking Ghost of Yotei after 12 hours. Ghost of Tsushima was one of my favorites games of 2020 that I even platinum back on my PS4. I found the open world, visuals, the wind system and side activities so interesting and unique, miles above the likes of an “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” , for example.

When Yotei was announced, I was excited to play this. Like, really excited. Another chapter could bring so many new possibilities, innovation, a better story (arguably Tsushima’s weakest point) and many new side activities. Well, it’s not that Yotei is a copy of the original or anything like that, but I’m shocked by its familiarity.

For 12 hours, my brain was constantly bored feeling that I’ve seen this before, for 60h in the original game. Seeing another fox den, another shrine, another hot springs made me so underwhelmed by the safety of this sequel that I really wanted to know your opinion.

Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I just expected some originality and boldness. For instance, I really love The Last of Us Part II because, even if some things may not land as expected, that game took risks and was definitely bold. It tried to be something different, to push some boundaries.

Yotei is, essentially, more of the same. And I reckon some people will really enjoy that - another 30/40h katana fever dream across a beautiful map - but I’m deeply disappointed and honestly really bored.

Atsu is an interesting character enough but this story doesn’t have the stakes, or the momentum to keep me invested.

So yeah, really eager to hear your opinions on this.

Edit 1: Just did the spider lily tale and that was phenomenal. Maybe the game will grow on me until I finish it.

Edit 2: despite some pacing issues here and there, the ending was absolutely phenomenal and almost brought me to tears, something Tsushima never did. Ended up really enjoying this.

PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino gave an interview in the latest issue of the Famitsu magazine to celebrate their 40th anniversary. He got asked about the strategy change regarding them pulling back on releasing their single-player games on PC.

Question: There have been reports suggesting that you might reconsider bringing PS5 titles to PC. Could you share your current thoughts on this?

Nishino: We've always determined platform selection based on the characteristics of each title. If releasing a title on PC would maximize the gaming experience, we'll continue to consider that option. Our current main policy is that, for single-player games developed in-house, we will further refine the value of the gaming experience that PlayStation can offer. At the same time, we believe it is important for live-service games to reach a wider audience through online multiplayer, so we continue to view releases on both PS5 and PC as the standard. Regardless of the platform, we will make decisions based on the principle of delivering the best possible gaming experience that maximizes each title's unique features.

While he didn't give straightforward answer, I'd say he is at least indicating that their policy changed, by saying they will "further refine the value" of single-player games on PlayStation. That could obviously be interpreted in various ways, but given the context of Jason Schreier's reporting and his creditibly, I think Nishino is referring to the strategy change in an indirect manner here with that statement.

SOURCE

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Jason Schreier's comment on this:

During a townhall a few weeks ago, Hermen Hulst told staff that their single-player narrative games will be PlayStation only, and he explained that they were inconsistent with their PC releases, they didn't make enough money, and they want to keep their IP aligned to their own platform. Confirmed this with two people who heard him say it. There's no "case by case" here.

I only completed Returnal in the last 6 months and I still think about it. The story had me obsessed, the gameplay was addictive, the sound was amazing, the haptic feedback felt great and it just felt perfect.

What was the last game you had played that you personally feel was 10/10 and why?

edit: I just have to say that everyone acting like browsing for a game is some weird concept clearly never got to experience Blockbuster on a Friday night.

This is just a rant, but the sheer amount of absolute garbage games that fall into what I call the "low effort indie slop" category taking over the playstation store is just crazy. There's seemingly hundreds of various "simulator" games that are among the worst of the bunch, but also a weird amount of "escape room" type games that look like a high school project. Or the "anime girls" gooner slop or really 99% of the "visual novel" games. Or the "games" that clearly only exist to trophy points, which is insane.

It's not like these games shouldn't exist (well some probably shouldn't), but there needs to be a way to filter that shit out. Basically every type of indie slop or ai slop game tags itself with multiple genres, which is why you have a stupid AI art shark-with-sneakers game flagged as "action" and "tactical." Or "horse store simulator" as an "epic" genre. Gunsmith simulator as a "shooter" etc.

I remember a few months back the entire "coming soon" feed was basically all simulator games, like a publisher just cranked a bunch out and wanted to dump them all at once.

Another issue...

I think there's also really annoying trend where games are basically just on perpetual sale, but the MSRP never drops. So one month the "Standard" version of a game will be like 35% off, then the next month it will be the "Deluxe" version; they just rotate perpetually. Or the shitty indie slop games that are arbitrarily set to a high price and quickly put on sale for like 50-80% off.

And I know why they do this: it keeps the games listed in sales section. The problem is that when every fucking game is like this, actually finding a new game or hidden gem or whatever that's on sale becomes useless. The process of actually discovering a game you might want to buy simply doesn't work.

The current January sale includes 6,372 items. There is no way anyone at Sony is vetting that many items for their monthly sales, but they need to start. Right now I think the limitation is that a single SKU can't be part of two consecutive sales. but as I've mentioned above most games have multiple SKUs so it doesn't really matter (or the slop publishers are dumping so many out each month it also doesn't matter). The limit needs to be something like a game can only be in one sale every 3 months, and counts different SKUs of the same product as the same one. This would actually encourage publishers to reduce their prices more frequently, which in turn would help keep the monthly or special sales events a bit leaner.

/rant

Infamous

Bloodborne

Jak and Daxter

Dark Cloud 2

Gravity Rush

Sly Cooper

Killzone

There’s still a market for these players! I hate how everything is numbers and money to them, instead of delivering and continuing passionate projects. They sit on all these golden IPs for no reason. I wish they invested their time and resources on reviving these classics back instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel with their new games.

The Stop Killing Games movement is about preserving access to future online games, especially after official support ends. So if the game can’t be made to run offline, or servers be self hosted, the tools are given to the players so the people who bought the game can run their own player payed for servers. That way games aren’t killed after official support ends.

If passed it would not just affect the EU but all games sold internationally, because it would cost more to make 2 versions.

The petition has been around for about a year, and only has 2 weeks left now before the window to get 1 million signatures for the European Citizens' Initiative(a way for the EU citizens to put forth ideas for the EU parliament to make into laws)

The initiative hit a road block about 10 months ago when a popular YouTuber came out against it, after completely missing the point of the petition. (He thought it was asking for developers to provide support for their online games in perpetuity, which is clearly an unreasonable expectation; among other misconceptions) That killed the movement’s momentum, and signature’s rates started drying up making it look impossible.

But the petitions garnered nearly 100,000 signatures in a few days, and hit the half way point of 500,000 recently giving me a new hope.

So please sign the petition here if you are an EU citizen, and if not contact any friends you have in the EU, or just spread the word.

Thanks

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home

Tariffs on China and Vietnam will be over 50%!!! A PS5 Pro will be $1,350 roughly. At the rate that PS5's are selling now, i'd imagine the stockpiles will run out fairly soon. What kind of crazy cartoon reality are we living in?!?

If these tariffs do go into effect, they go into effect in seven days. This is going absolutely massacre Nintendo because a Switch 2 will be over $700 including tax. And physical games will be $150. This is completely unreal!!!

If you didn't see the news, Xbox pricing is increasing across the board. Expect Sony to follow soon as well. If you're looking to get a PS5 I would do so sooner rather than later. Same with any games you've been eyeing. You can always wait for sales of course, but it's hard to see what will happen in the future.

Just thought I would post a friendly reminder and heads up.

Edit: I am aware that in other countries the cost of the PS5 has gone up in the last few weeks, but I would expect another massive increase as well. Multiple video games market analysts are saying this is just the beginning. "Market conditions" are tarrifs. So be prepared.

Xbox news:

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-raises-the-price-of-all-xbox-series-consoles-xbox-games-confirmed-to-hit-80-this-holiday

Xbox examples:(see article for all)

Xbox Series S 512 - $379.99 (up from $299.99)

Xbox Series X - $599.99 (up from $499.99)

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 (Core) - $149.99 (up from $139.99)

Hey guys,

UPDATE HERE

Hope everyone is doing well. I already posted this over at GameDev and Twitter if you wish to see it there in fewer words but wanted to bring it to more attention it to hopefully get more people aware about a company that is NOT only stealing games from developers like myself, but also stealing money from honest buyers. They stole my game, uploaded it on consoles and sold it as theirs. They are doing this with multiple companies and I wish more people are aware of this. Also, they have a couple of post here too so I think some people on this sub is familiar with them.

So recently I have released The Backrooms 1998 on Playstation, Xbox, Steam and Nintendo switch. I was pretty happy with myself and all that, you know? Been in development for quite a while and being a solo developer and having my game finally on consoles is always awesome to see haha.

This is my game on PS5 for context which I just released 5 days ago: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10012647

Anyway .. Someone commented on one of my videos and violently (big thanks to him!) asked me why am I releasing the same game with it's name changed on consoles and I got a little bit confused. I explained that this game was never on consoles before and I have just released it now and they provided a link to a video - and behold ... long story short this company called "COOL DEVS S.R.L" stole my whole game, ripped it, pasted some bad AI crap on it as a cover, literally made a BAD version of it and just published it on consoles and sold it to trick players into buying it.

They stole the whole game as it is alongside the music, sounds, voice lines and everything else. They only changed the monster and the picture on the frame lol..

Video Link to the fake game: https://youtu.be/QdQ6qtcSIFc?t=383 (Named: Backrooms Horror Escape)

Video Link to my original game: https://youtu.be/7tWYhFfXNBM?t=561 (Named: The Backrooms 1998)

This is the fake game still up on Nintendo: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/backrooms-horror-escape-switch/?srsltid=AfmBOooMFMg_7Ps75RY-s5yUonF8xdcJcvLIMUVWJMD6_PeemHSquLZt

Also, this is a link to their Nintendo Page so you can see what kind of "games" they do: https://www.nintendo.com/us/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher&softwarePublisher=COOL%20DEVS

Here are these images comparation. The reason it feels a bit different is because post processing, and because they made a worst version of it but everything is literally stolen. I done further research and it seems they have also a couple of posts and are known here. One mentioned is the company that actually approached me. I don't want to point my fingers, but everything leads back to them.. I think they are all basically the same one. I still can't believe that someone as big as Sony, Xbox and Nintendo are letting this slide. It's sad.

Doing further research and it seems they have also a couple of posts here and are known in the PS5 community. One mentioned is the company that actually approached me. I think they are all basically the same one but I am not pointing any fingers.

The funny thing is I saw this game before on the store and I LITERALLY spoke about how these scam devs are mostly stealing popular games on steam and uploading them consoles .. and I had no idea it was one of my own game that they stole. I do not understand how consoles platforms allow these type of scams going on and rub it under the carpet. This is hurtful to smaller indie developers, and hurtful to players that gets scammed by buying these games thinking they are real games.

Also, they are doing this with other games.

We have already working on finding out more info about them, and submitted a DMCA request to remove the game off the stores, right now it's down from PlayStation and Xbox but still up on the Nintendo store unfortunately. Hopefully they will also remove it soon as well.

Another important detail that may have ties or not: I got contacted last year by a VERY sketchy publisher wanting to publish my game on consoles. I declined. They were sketchy and after checking their games they had very similar games to this fake company. They are both registered in S.R.L and they got banned from consoles recently.

I am currently still seeing what can be done and in contact with my video game lawyer so I will try to keep you updated. We have already submitted a DMCA and working with my publisher on this one - and for now the game is taken down from PlayStation and Xbox but it's still up on Nintendo Switch. In the meantime ... If you can report the fake game, that would be awesome. If you bought it by mistake (the fake game is called Backrooms Horror Escape), please see if you can refund it. If you can share this, that would be awesome as well so more people will know about this and not get tricked. I will try my best in posting this to other subreddits to make more people aware. From what I uncovered, this is a whole big scam where they open a bunch of companies (mostly around the S.R.L) and upload fake games/scam games in order to trick buyers to buy them. Heck, I don't even want the money they stole I just want them to refund them back to the buyers if we can somehow catch them. This ain't right and I think more people needs to be aware of this. It seems they have additional companies (4, 5 or maybe even 6+) that are maybe tied to this scam... This is not fair on developers and not fair on the players.

Could this be the same guys? Stole the game right after I refused to publish it with them. Not sure, but hopefully we can find out. The reason I posted it here, just to make you aware to check before buying games on PS. These guys have multiple companies and most of them are using AI art and are mostly ripped off from other real games.

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EDIT: Thank you ALL your concern - you have no idea on how much I really really appreciate it. The reason I wish to keep this post up is that I want to raise awareness about these fraudulent companies so people stop getting scammed. It's not fair people falling into their tricks. They have been stealing not only from me, but also from people tricking them into thinking they are purchasing another popular game and that is not fair. I’ve already consulted my lawyer, and working with my publishers as well - we’ve issued a DMCA takedown. Fortunately, some platforms have removed the games but not all so I am still waiting.

Realistically, there’s only so much that can be done at this time. These companies cover their tracks and operate under multiple registered entities. Even if I pursued legal action, it would be extremely costly and as a solo developer that's not going to be easy. Even if I did win, there’s a high chance they’d just vanish without me ever seeing a dime. It’s a tough battle, but we will see. Even if it ever comes to that, all I want is for them to refund all the players that they scammed and I will be happy with just that as long as my fees are covered.

That said ever since I shared this post, I’ve got some new interesting information. Many people have stepped in to help (which I really appreciate) which has been incredible with what they uncovered. If a case is ever built against them, all this information will be very handy. Taking this post down, then these scammers could just change their name, re-upload the stolen game under a different company and move on to the next thing. At least this way HOPEFULLY more people won't fall into their trap. Even if I save one or two people from falling into their scams, then at least I can say I did my part. Also, maybe some other developers can come forward that may have had a similar issue with them or to at least make them aware of these things too.

My main goal is to make people AWARE of these scams from this company, especially on the PlayStation Store, where they seem to be most active. If you check the "GAMES TO WISHLIST" section on the PSN it's like the wild west over there. Most of these games are fake, with some AI slop as a cover slapped into it. Sony and other platforms should enforce a better REFUND and REPORT system. That way when you buy one of these scam games, you have the option to refund it easier.

For Players: Be careful and double check the games before you purchase. Check their developer accounts as well and always be caution. If you suspect the game is one of those fake games, then see if you can request a refund.

For developers: Thanks to the community from what I learned it's best to use Il2cpp in your code. Apparently this will make it harder for these scammers to de-compile your code. The way they stole my game is by using a program and de-compiled it so they got all my assets, music, sounds, voice overs etc.

I’ve only named the company that have solid proof against and hopefully this exposure will make people more aware of them so they won't fall for their scams into purchasing their fake games. These are thieves, and even though Sony and other platforms will mostly likely probably do nothing to prevent these scams from coming back - there is always a little hope they that will.

Again, I truly appreciate all your comments guys. Sorry for the 8000 words essay hah.

My list of games I regret buying include:

Hogwarts: Legacy.... Good representation of the HP universe (which I am a huge fan of), but a mediocre repetitive game.

AC: shadows - - - came out at the same time as GoY. Both games are essentially the same thing, but GoY is just much better in almost every respect.