For most of this gen, I’ve been having a bit more trouble enjoying video games. Most games just haven’t done it for me; none of them could bring back the excitement that the games of yesteryear could.
Then I found a little game called Demon’s Souls.
I became engrossed in this game, more addicted than I have been to any other game in years, and I just couldn’t stop playing. Every night when I would go to sleep, I would lay there thinking of which level I should attack the next day, what weapons I should develop, spells to learn, and most of all, what was the best way to take down each individual enemy.
All the tales of frustration I had heard from other people meant nothing to me. Every failure encouraged me even more, and I never, not once, became anything other than enthralled while playing this game. It gave off a sense of satisfaction that no other game had this gen, in fact; I really hadn't enjoyed a game as much as that one since I was ten years old. To this day, it is the only platinum I have gotten. I wanted to achieve everything in that game, and, after I did, I still wasn't tired of playing yet.
Demon’s Souls (and Dark Souls of course) has something almost every other game this gen doesn’t have, other than the difficulty. It gives you the feeling that you are in complete control of your character, which is something other action games just don’t do. For example, when you use the melee in Infamous or Batman (both of which are good games, don’t get me wrong), you don’t really know how that attack will go down. Cole or Batman will automatically head towards the nearest enemy and throw a punch or kick. In Demon’s Souls, there are normal, strong, running, and rolling attacks, and these attacks will perform the same movements no matter if there is an enemy on the receiving end or not. See, in these other games, you press a button to tell your character to perform an ACTION. You tell him to attack an enemy, and he does it on his own. In Demon’s Souls, you tell your character to perform a MOTION, and YOU have to guide your character into landing the hit. You have maintain a certain distance from your target so your attack won’t fall short, and you have to time this motion so that you land your hit before the enemy can. This is an incremental part of gaming which has started to be ignored in recent years in favor of cinematics over gameplay.
Let me give some other examples of gaming being a bit too cinematic. Assassin’s Creed, you’re sitting above an enemy, and you see the word assassinate next to the square button. You press it and Ezio gracefully jumps onto this particular enemy and takes him down. What did you do? Not a whole lot. Splinter Cell: Blacklist, you can tag enemies, press a button, and Sam will run out and take down every enemy on his own in a flashy action sequence. What did you do? Again, not a whole lot. Or look at almost any fps campaign this gen. You go down a linear path with some A.I teammates, and you point and click your way through the game. There were barely any choices of where to go or what to do, you just moved on and repeated the same actions over and over. YOU, the player, are slowly being taken out of the equation.
These games just don’t feel like games to me.
Think back to the N64 and PS1 days. Mario front flips through the air, kicks off of a wall and lands on a nearby goomba. You did that with your own skill, and you used a precision that isn’t allowed in most games nowadays because they would have to hold your hand through the jumping process. All the moves you learn in Banjo Kazooie perform the same way each time, and you have to use them appropriately to defeat bosses and move through levels. In Goldeneye, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Ghost Recon, nobody is telling you how to get to your objective. You can go where you want; you can do what you want. How has gaming evolved since then? Compare older games to their sequels or newer games of the same genre, and what do you find? A betrayal of gameplay and a new focus in scripted sequences and actions. Look at Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, or Resident Evil.
See, it isn’t just the difficulty that makes Demon’s/Dark Souls feel so fresh compared to today’s games, it’s the way they play. The gameplay is incredibly skill based, and there's no auto help anywhere in the game, it's all you. The Souls games are how I always imagined games to evolve, with gameplay and online elements that weren’t possible with old games. However, when you look at other games, the gameplay tends to be less satisfying then it was in the 90s, even if the controls were harder to get used to at first. How many games really feel exciting when you beat a boss? Usually it just feels like you are watching another cut scene.
In my opinion, video games are starting to lose what really made them video games. Nowadays, they are all about cinematics, linearity, and hand holding. Video games aren’t really games anymore, they’re becoming interactive movies. There have been some exceptions of course, but overall games are constantly getting dumbed down into experiences that are visually exciting, but unfortunately not a whole lot else. I can understand why others like these games, but they just aren’t for me. I hope, I really do hope, that at some point we will see a revival of the old school style of games like Demon’s/Dark Souls. Games that focus on the experience through the actual gameplay, not cinematics. Later this year I’ll be buying PS All Stars, but until then, it’s just emulators and HD collections for me. Thanks for reading, be sure to leave comments below and tell me what you think.
Dear team,
Xbox has always been different.
We started with a simple idea. Games should bring people together through shared experiences. That led to the first Xbox in 2001, Xbox Live in 2002, and new ways to connect, from friends lists and achievements to parties and play across devices. Today, Xbox reaches over 500 million players around the world, with some of the most important franchises in entertainment.
re-evaluating exclusivity 💀
PS players will need to go back to pretending to dislike Xbox games
Or meaning since it’s doing so good they might just do everything day 1.
They didnt say re-evaluating their multiplatform approach.
🤣🤣🤣 Xbox is so dead. I know you scared🤣🫵ӿ 97;
Aww you’re hurt that they’re going back to exclusives!
The mask has slipped… we know you PS gamers LOVE Xbox games
Hurt over video games 🤣🤣
Lmao we all grew and got jobs but apparently you stayed home broke 🤣🤣.
Man I love loyal dogs like you. MS kicked Spit and slapped you around but you still come back on all 4s.
Good little boy 🤣🤣
My only question is what games are PlayStation gamers gonna play now? They don’t really come out with new games anymore. I’m looking forward to wolverine, but after that then what?
Lmao
There’s no way after everything it’s going back, the damage is done
What you are seeing now is the new management telling what the core fanbase (aka…you) want to hear so they are pumped full of hope and are more likely to invest in the next Xbox console
When Phil took over after the awful Xbox One reveal he did the same thing, he told people what they wanted to hear for damage control.
It’s crazy people are getting suckered into this again.
And you'll now go back to again thinking exclusives suddenly matter, that multiplatform is no longer the future, or that revenue from multiplatforms doesn't matter, like all you flop flopping xbox grifters lol.
The whole post just sounds like the previous phil corpo slop talk to me, whole thing reads like a nothing burger lol.
“re-evaluating exclusivity”
She also said this.
“The model that got us here won’t be the one that takes us forward.”
There's a bunch just like him but that's what happens when some rely on dreams, hope and wishful thinking. lol
"pretending"? Bro gears hasnt broke 1mil on ps5, and starfield hasn't passed 200k, Hellblade 2 was even stated to be a financial disappointment in sales on its own console, let alone ps5. Im not saying people don't like them, but they certainly aren't setting the community on fire, Forza may be different tho
Xbawx is ''re-evaluating exclusivity''... Translation: After throwing all sort of crap to the wall to see if something sticks but clearly nothing worked, we, including our lord ''in charge'' Phil came to the conclusion that exclusives indeed do matter so please forget if we ever said otherwise.
Yup, I feel it in my gut, next gen belongs to xbox, PS6 is cooked...
If they go back to exclusive games it at least shows that they are finally getting it. They would be turning down immediate money for something that will potentially workout in the long term.
Only issue is they've already opened Pandora's box. A lot of their base has moved to PC or jumped to PS. So will be a long road to get back on track.
We have been saying this from day one exclusives are a must if you are going to be selling hardware look at Nintendo and Sony before Jim Ryan. That's the proven formula. You had some that were deluded and blinded by loyalty accepting that multiplat was the future and that MS was merely getting ahead of where the industry was headed, but at least they can finally see the light and agree with what everyone has been saying for a decade+
True, blame it on the rabid fanboys. MS can do no wrong and spinner this multiplatform move. While the actual fans moved on.
I feel like with the new Xbox coming they are hoping to bring back those old fans and then if it goes well. Bring back exclusives.
If the new console is performing like series x and one. Naw they staying multiplatform.
Funny world where Sony is pro consumer and Xbox is not? At least according to what you loyalists have been saying all this time 🤭
@itveds For how many years have you been doing this sad stuff? For how many years have you been creating fake accounts to troll? For how many years have you always been cl vnn
I think it's too late, xbox sales were diving even before ABK, they got even worse since then even long before the full multiplatform push. I'd be surprised if they even went back to timed exclusivity at this point, Helix is basically a PC and is going to be expensive, they already struggle to sell cheaper xbox consoles, it will be low volume and they'll have a very small 'console' base to sell to, which has already been conditioned to just play via gamepass anyway.
Despite all of that, it's clear that Microsoft's Xbox division is broken beyond repair.
PlayStation is currently draining money on flop after flop. It's Sony that needs to re-evaluate their strategy
It isnt. But I dont think they mean in 'games', rather, footprint.
They own the OS but as far as gaming is concerned, Steam dominate. I imagine the VAST majority of people who use the Xbox app/launcher are PC gamepass subs. No ones buying their 3rd party PC games through Xbox PC.
Insider Gaming writes: "Marathon was one of the best-selling video games in March 2026 in the United States. On Wednesday, Circna released the best-selling games of the month, and it featured six new releases along with two games returning to the top 20 after previously falling out."
Is it April fools day again?
The game is dead.
EDIT: the numbers are fudged. “digital sales on Nintendo and Xbox weren’t included in the data”
well it's not on Switch / Switch 2.. so their number would be zero.
The game had a decent launch however the userbase numbers are dwindling on Steam.
“ Is it April fools day again?
The game is dead.
EDIT: the numbers are fudged. “digital sales on Nintendo and Xbox weren’t included in the data”
Does it hurt you to hear a SONY game was BEST selling ?
You gotta let go of those OBCURED feelings 🤷🏿
I mean the only reason MLB was the best selling title was because it was multi-platform. Likewise with Marathon. Will ring true for MS games. Only Nintendo titles are truly flexing their muscles when they chart as they are only to be found there.
Yeah sure, yet the player count is no where near what they want for a AAA game with so much money behind it
Why people are trying to spin this game like it’s done overly amazing is baffling to me.
It won’t even be a blip on peoples radars by the end of the year .
The release on Steam of the anime-style gacha-less open-world RPG DragonSword: Awakening is facing a legal challenge from its gacha publisher.
Gaming is becoming casual in general, I play mostly driving sims but I am partial to other games. Splinter cell being one of them, the new one button kill 20 people is not splinter cell, I like to be challenged, to have to think my way through a level and it just doesn't happen. Even in driving sims you get a stupid number of driving aids resulting in people who have no clue how to race plaguing the online lobby's, crashing into you, pulling of stupid moves and generally ruining the experience for the people who come on to race.
It's good to see others who think like myself. I have personally poured 250+ hours each into Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. I have both the Black Phantom Edition and Deluxe Edition of Demon's Souls still sealed because I absolutely adore the games so much and had to have them. I still play both games regularly and I can't wait for Artorias of the Abyss DLC for Dark Souls!
I was just talking to a friend about this the other day:
"Remember the good ol' days when you slapped in a cartridge, turned on the console, pressed Start, and within 10 seconds you were actually playing the game?"
Games these days are trying WAY too hard to be a Hollywood movie. Don't get me wrong. I like games with a good story, but games need to focus on being GAMES again instead of trying to find ways to insert more QTEs and more cutscenes.
I must say that I agree with you - but only to an extent.
I see where you're coming from - and I too liked the old-school tendencies conveyed by respectively Demon's and Dark souls. Progressing past a single enemy felt like a monumental achievement, akin to progressing to that FINAL Sonic (or w/e) level you had never seen before..
But where I disagree is in regard to the disdain for a cinematic and 'interactive' experience. Take, for instance, a game like Heavy Rain, one of my all time personal favourite games. It does not allow you to fail, nor does it contain any "gameplay" in the traditional sense of the word - yet, it is something new that no other game has done before. I is in engrossing cinematic emotionally involving interactive experience... And no amount of Sonics nor mario lives is ever going to top that (from my perspective, mine solely). The same applies for the feel that Journey and/or Limbo entails - they have so much atmosphere and radiance to them that you just didn't HAVE back in the Nes/Snes/N64 days.
I believe that the "void" left by the old-school gameplay mechanisms has been filled with a greater focus on story-telling (for better or worse, depending on the eyes of the beholder).
As much as I love a good story (and I do, I really do - I utterly adore titles such as Heavy Rain, Metal Gear,Uncharted and Assassins Creed) - very few of those game keep me coming back in the same sense that I rented (end re-re-rented) 'Aero the Acrobat' on a weekly basis during my childhood only to re-re-replay it to get to that new boss battle.
td;dr: I, too, miss the oldschool gameplay mechanics of old - but I believe that the void has been filled with a far greater emphasis of creating a vivid, living and breathtaking experience - and that, to me, is worth even more.