Hopefully Sony can learn some lessons from AllStars’ struggles here and apply them to the future.įollow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Sony has never really had an answer for that. Not that Microsoft is the master of live service titles either, but they do have a leg up in multiplayer generally (Halo, Gears). But generally speaking, this seems like an area Sony is going to need to really focus on to improve. My guess is one of the biggest upcoming experiments for this idea will be Naughty Dog releasing The Last of Us: Factions, a multiplayer spin-off of that series, building on the MP from the first game. When you think of all Sony’s classic hits, pretty much none of them are in this genre at all. Destruction AllStars is one such example, clearly, but I also seem to remember how badly Sony botched another stars-based game, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which should have theoretically been its own Smash Bros, but was just…not very good. Once players get past the clunky tutorial and can customize their gameplay to suit them, Destruction AllStars is a fine example of what an accessible game could and should be.But Sony has not shown they’ve got a good handle on this genre like they have with their narrative-based games. And of course, haptics are all customizable in the PS5 system settings if you find them too much or too annoying. From the vibration you’d expect from crashes to gentle tap tap tap of your character’s footsteps. Also scalable are the incoming danger warnings that show directionality and how imminent the danger is via color (default colors are orange for “hey maybe get out of the way” and red for “you’re about to die in a second, MOVE.”)Īnother notable feature in Destruction AllStars is its use of the DualSense controller. Icons on the minimap have size options (the largest size is shown above) and the minimap itself is resizable as well (the middle size is shown above). While scalable subtitles are fairly standard these days, one thing I really appreciated about Destruction AllStars is how many of the UI elements and visual cues players can scale as well. They obscure some other important UI elements but the dialogue isn’t constant, so that shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Shown above are the subtitles at their largest size. Players can select the text color as well as the background color, size, and background opacity. There’s a dedicated accessibility menu offering a high level of customization for all the things you’d expect, including extensive customization of the subtitles. More than that, launching into a tutorial without allowing gameplay customization tells disabled players that the game wasn’t designed to include them organically (organically? Sure, it’s early, let’s go with that.) Making some players start the game, quit the game, and relaunch it just to be able to access it doesn’t exactly say “Welcome.” Had Mark not replied to my frustrated tweet, I never would have seen all the incredible accessibility options Destruction AllStars offers because like most people, I don’t enjoy feeling like I’m failing at basic tasks. It sets players up for failure and leaves them with a poor impression of the game. Like launching into a cinematic without allowing players to first toggle subtitles on, launching immediately into a tutorial without allowing players FULL access to settings is a trend I’d like to see disappear. Mark Friend from PlayStation suggested I quit and relaunch which would allow me to bypass the tutorial that kept me from customizing the settings. My first few minutes left me feeling like a failure, unable to even get beyond the tutorial, and I uninstalled the game, intending to never touch it again because I couldn’t customize anything to suit my needs. Controls are fully customizable, players can customize nearly every aspect of the UI and visual cues, and the subtitles are simply fantastic.īut this wasn’t my initial impression of the game. Destruction AllStars, the new F2P multiplayer vehicular combat game released this week for PS5 is a solid illustration to Sony’s commitment to accessibility.
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