Comments 548

Re: Next Gran Turismo 7 PS5, PS4 Update Could Be a Big One

Art_Vandelay

@Andee Sure, and I'm right there with you: single player from stem to stern. And I do feel like the old man yelling at clouds sometimes.

What I'm trying to convey though, is that relaxing our stance a little can be beneficial to our own selves. Especially in the case of GT7 as, some have pointed out, is "live service done right".

Re: Next Gran Turismo 7 PS5, PS4 Update Could Be a Big One

Art_Vandelay

@Andee I second @Critonic. Are you really that worried about protecting your $70 investment? I get the sentiment, but it makes no sense when you think objectively.

There will be a much better iteration of Gran Turismo years before the GT7 servers go down. Then again, I get the retro/nostalgia kick people get from playing old games, but that really shouldn't stop you from enjoying one of the best titles on the PS5.

Re: Next Gran Turismo 7 PS5, PS4 Update Could Be a Big One

Art_Vandelay

@Andee The MTs are only an issue if you don't like racing. Which is another way of saying that it's a non-isue that's been widely overblown when the game came out. If you just boot up the game and play, you'll soon find yourself with plenty of money to buy whatever car you want.

As for the online requirement... is you ISP really that unreliable? What's your worry, specifically?

Re: PS5's Astro Bot Doesn't Support PSVR2 Because It Was Never Designed to Do So

Art_Vandelay

@Malaise Honestly, I'm not upset at all. PSVR2 has completely killed my interest for flat games, and I still have a backlog that could last for a lifetime.

Getting VR games on PS+ and PC compatibility are just the icing on the cake.

And btw, I'd be happy with GT7 alone. As a fan of the series from the very first iteration, GT7 VR is a dream come true.

The doom and gloom out there just seem to completely miss the point of this accessory. People need to understand that this is a niche product for ultra enthusiasts, and the fact that Sony would cater at all to the relatively few of us calls for celebration, not hate.

Re: PS5's Astro Bot Doesn't Support PSVR2 Because It Was Never Designed to Do So

Art_Vandelay

As a PSVR2 enthusiast, I'm disappointed but I get the decision. Sony clearly wants to make Astrobot its next mascot, and limiting the next game's audience to VR would just not cut it.

Regarding a Rescue Mission port, people seem to miss a key point. That game is designed around a feature that PSVR2 doesn't have: gamepad tracking.

Yes, they could compromise and either rely on the DualSense gyros or remake the whole thing to use the VR Sense controllers. But both of these options are half measures that don't seem to be up to Team Asobi's standards.

And btw, those same standards were the reason a hybrid was discarded as an option, as they alluded to.

Re: 14 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games Announced for June 2024

Art_Vandelay

I'm really glad that Sony has finally started to put PSVR2 games on PS+. I was a little disappointed that they restricted it to Premium, but it's understandable. VR is for enthusiasts, and so is Premium. And the VR games also add to this tier's value, which has been a little iffy.

Kayak is the perfect Plus title, and it seems the VR game addition may become a regular thing. I was about to downgrade from Extra to Essential, but ended up going the opposite way and now they have me by the balls.

Re: PSVR2's PC Adapter Available on 7th August, Costs $60

Art_Vandelay

@NEStalgia Three wires: USB-A, DisplayPort and power.

The power provided by USB ports on PC vary widely between setups, and PSVR2 was never designed to work on that. So, having power coming from an outlet was the most reliable and compatible way to design this thing.

Funny how this adapter totally gives me PSVR1 breakout box vibes. Full circle, I guess.

Re: Behemoth Is All Brutal Combat and Big Baddies in PSVR2 Gameplay Trailer

Art_Vandelay

+1 this is easily the most exciting game from the show.

I've been playing Synapse over the last few days, and it clearly highlights how much of a difference there is between watching gameplay on a 2D screen and playing it in VR. I remember seeing it on a previous State of Play and thinking "this looks fine". But as soon as you do the Jedi thing in the game for the first time, it's like "holy fff***, this is AMAZING!".

Maybe my brain is already doing the translation, but I'm looking at this Behemoth trailer and actually thinking "wow", so...

Re: PS5 Is Sony's Most Profitable Console Generation to Date

Art_Vandelay

This story and overall conversation around the topic just go to show how the number one thing missing on the internet discourse is nuance.

No, the gaming industry is not desperately struggling. And no, it's not living through its most prosperous years either.

The most common mistake people do in financial investments is making decisions based solely on historic data. And this article makes that exact mistake. Sure, the last paragraph sort of mitigates that error, but not sufficiently.

The truth is the future does look a little bleak, and the industry needs to course correct. And in fact, this is already underway, but we've only seen the early beginnings.

Re: State of Play Officially Confirmed for 30th May, Updates on PS5, PSVR2 Games

Art_Vandelay

I'm hopeful that there will finally be a proper push for PSVR2:

  • $100 off the headset.
  • 4 games included in the Premium PS+ tier.
  • PC adapter just approved by regulators in Korea.

Now, the icing on the cake would be the announcement that the new Astro game would be fully playable in VR. At this point it's fair to assume it will be a hybrid, but still...

I've been playing Synapse over the last few days and, man! When a VR game hits, it's something truly special. It's such a shame that Sony hasn't fully committed to the platform. But hey, maybe it was Jim Ryan's fault all along. It kinda feels like Sony has suddenly woken up to PSVR2. Better late than never?

Re: Braid, Anniversary Edition (PS5) - A Gorgeous Revisit of an Indie Classic

Art_Vandelay

@LordAinsley The fact that I don't know if you're being sarcastic or careful when referring to the pandemic as "a certain global event" is a pretty good indication that the skeptics have been right all along.

And yes, separating the art from the artist can be liberating. The Witness was a bit much for me, but Braid is right up there with Journey in the pantheon of the GOAT non-AAA titles.

Re: Reaction: Why You Shouldn't Worry Too Much About PS5's Year-on-Year Decline

Art_Vandelay

Yeah, there is no major catastrophe in sight, but the future does look very challenging for Sony.

Hardware production costs are not falling at the pace that they did in previous generations. That means it is very unlikely that the PS5 will sell nearly as well as the PS4 at the end of the generation.

At the same time, software production costs have increased dramatically.

Now, the PC expansion strategy may be a saving grace in the short to mid-term, but it obviously has an impact on the console's appeal, further contributing to poorer sales in the long term.

And last but not least, the upcoming generation is just not as into consoles as previous generations. Kids love their phones and tablets and Roblox and so on. At that age, I was glued to my sweet Master System controller.

Re: Gaming Subs Like PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass Aren't Growing At All

Art_Vandelay

I know it's kind of implied in the article, but I feel it should be made clearer: the problem is not lack of growth per se. It's lack of growth at a point where the subscribers base is much lower than it needs to be for the service to be profitable.

Game Pass is stuck at thirty something million users, whereas it must get to the hundreds of millions to become the money-making machine Microsoft envisioned.

Now, they're really between a rock and a hard place, especially after the ABK deal.

Re: Helldivers 2 PSN Requirement Backtracked on PC After Brutal Review Bombing Campaign

Art_Vandelay

This is the typical strategy of announcing something controversial, letting it fester for a while and then backtracking, only to propose it again down the road when people have acclimated to the new reality.

Not that this was Sony's original intention, but the backtracking will be valid for Helldivers 2 alone. Future games will definitely require the PSN login.

This is very similar to how Microsoft is conducting their multiplatform strategy: leak that Halo, Gears and Forza are coming to PlayStation, let the uproar take over the internet and then say "no no no, only these four". Yeah, right.

Re: Microsoft 'Meeting Players Where They Are' as Xbox Games Among PS Store's Bestsellers

Art_Vandelay

@Kanji-Tatsumi They can claim credit for these games in a financial sense, but most definitely not in a creative one.

And that's what I hate about Microsoft. It's a soulless money making machine.

Look, I'll be the last one to parade the anti-capitalist mumbo-jumbo. Companies exist to turn a profit first and foremost, but that just can't be your only reason to exist. Cause that ends up reflecting on your products, apart from the few exceptions that just happen to prove the rule.

Re: Sony Reveals PlayStation Overlay for PC Ports, Supports Trophies, Friends List

Art_Vandelay

@NEStalgia You're right, this seems to be the path. But I don't like it one bit. The PCfication of consoles has pretty much ended the days of exotic, sexy hardware designed specifically for the living room. Those were the days.

Now, we get the same bloated general computing device that is unoptimized for games. Which then calls for similarly bloated APIs and SDKs, not to mention general purpose game engines that seem powerful from a feature set point-of-view, but result in games that often look and run worse than the previous generation.

I know, old man yelling at the clouds here. But that doesn't make my opinion wrong. The market does dictate reality, which in turn doesn't make it good.

Re: Game Pass Woes for Indie Devs as Microsoft, Epic Funding Reportedly Drying Up

Art_Vandelay

@Shepherd_Tallon Right, and I believe Valve will try to get back to that Steam Machines well, too. So, we should have Valve and Microsoft competing in the consolized PC space, while Sony and Nintendo compete in the more traditional console business model for the foreseeable future.

I personally hope that the old model prevails, but the industry has kinda been moving towards this PCfied games machine for years now, unfortunately.

Re: Game Pass Woes for Indie Devs as Microsoft, Epic Funding Reportedly Drying Up

Art_Vandelay

"many indie devs have come to rely on these deals to finance their projects"

This was a strategic mistake that borders on stupidity. Look, anything that seems too good to be true usually just is. Game Pass has always been an obviously unsustainable proposition from the start, as I (and many others) have been trumpeting for years.

Now, the inevitable future has arrived and those who believed in fairy tales are suffering the consequences for being so naive. I hope they learn from their mistakes, but I'm not holding my breath.