Comments 375

Re: Random: Forward-Thinking PlayStation Gamer Spends $2,000 on 24 Years of PS Plus

Barryburton97

@EfYI

In the grand scheme of things it's not that big an investment and he's generated some internet attention and chat. Fair play to him.

But in no sane world is it a sensible way of "saving" money. It's far too long and there are far too many unknowns. For all we know Sony could withdraw from consoles within 5 years. Or next year he could lose his job, desperately need $1000 for food and rent, and instead has a useless 24 years of PS Plus to his name 🤣.

Re: Opinion: The Price of Playing PS5 Games Day One Is Getting Higher and Higher

Barryburton97

@nocdaes yeah retro games can be crazy expensive, but those prices aren't really about playing video games though. Most old games can be emulated or played for free-ish via ROMs, or have been ported. They also hold or even appreciate in value so it's a different proposition.

They are collectibles and should be compared to comics, trading cards, coins, stamps, antique pants... Whatever floats your boat.

Re: Microsoft Is Investigating Why Devs Are Prioritising PS5 Over Xbox

Barryburton97

It's not about console power, if it was nobody would make Switch games. And solving the type of development niggles Microsoft will identify through this type of research will be little more than a rounding error in total sales. The PS3 was a ball ache to produce games for, but Playstation is so popular that the games got made regardless.

It's purely about the (reduced) money to be made on Xbox.

Same reason people stopped making Saturn and Dreamcast games.

Re: Horizon Zero Dawn's PS5, PC Remaster Is Very Much the Real Deal

Barryburton97

The market for this is PC gamers and new PS5 owners. Us who've already played it aren't the main targets.

It's an excellent game, I much preferred it to the sequel in fact- which was excessively convoluted in terms of combat and gear, and had a story that was nothing but mcguffin-chasing, padded out and forgettable. Looked gorgeous of course, and still fun.

Re: PS5 Players Choose Performance Mode 75% of the Time

Barryburton97

Performance every time if there's a need for the choice.

On the rare occasions I can notice any difference with fidelity mode, the marginal impact wears off after a few minutes as you get used to it. A high frame rate always feels good.

Also, maybe it's my TV, but fidelity modes always look a bit blurry in motion.

Re: 'It Makes Sense Why the PS5 Pro Price Is So High,' Say Tech Experts

Barryburton97

@sanderson72 yes phones aren't a perfect comparison and there's much more competition in that market.

But then again, you can easily buy a tidy PS4 slim and a pile of games for £200 and have 90%* of the fun of a brand new PS5 Pro.

The new game console market is very price sensitive when compared to most others.

(* Not a scientific study.)

Re: 'It Makes Sense Why the PS5 Pro Price Is So High,' Say Tech Experts

Barryburton97

The price has shocked a lot of people. And it's probably not worth it for most.

But Google is casually selling the fancy new Pixel phones for £1,750 and I don't see any uproar. As the article says, it's probably about the expected price.

If it was £649 with the disc drive, it'd be a pretty decent deal.

I think Sony is missing a trick not offering monthly payments like Xbox do (did?).

Re: Concord PS5, PC Scalpers Attempt to Cash In on 'Rare Collector's Item'

Barryburton97

@Zemo55 Asda was an anomaly then, I don't think anywhere else was selling it, outside of eBay and Facebook, since hours after the announcement day. Asda have taken it off sale now anyway.

I ordered it at Shopto and Hit on the 5th Sept as an experiment and they cancelled the orders.

Concord is a special case- Sony issued an order to remove all copies from sale. We're not talking normal dead servers here, with games that still kinda work offline, like with Worms and half of everything Ubisoft's ever sold.

Re: Concord PS5, PC Scalpers Attempt to Cash In on 'Rare Collector's Item'

Barryburton97

I bought a copy from Asda yesterday, mostly for comedy value and just in case it is indeed valuable in future.

It all depends what happens to the multiple thousands of unsold copies. If they are destroyed at Sony's behest then the sold copies might be valuable purely as a collectible. If an "enterprising" person somehow gets hold of boxes of them from the warehouse and floods the market then it'll be pretty worthless.

There are several sold listings for £50-100 on eBay at the moment as well, which is a bit mad.

I can't see them ever going back on retail sale, most likely digital FTP or forever shut down.

Re: Reaction: PlayStation Needs to Take a Long, Hard Look at Itself

Barryburton97

People keep saying that live service/ online multiplayer games aren't what gamers want, when in fact that is where the vast majority of revenue comes from. Money talks. The likes of us who post on Push Square aren't the target for live service games.

I'm happy with high quality single player games, but that's not what the masses are spending on.

The failure here, however, was charging for a mediocre game when its (better) competitors are free, with loyal player bases. It makes Anthem look successful!

Re: A Lot of PS4 Owners Have Yet to Upgrade to PS5

Barryburton97

Quite surprised at all the "there's no games and there's barely any difference" comments. I think the PS5 is fantastic, I'm pretty overwhelmed with how many games there are to play. And it's common to get used to the visual upgrades so it doesn't feel so special. It's like getting used to 4K TV- try going back to an old DVD and it's shocking.

We have been missing some truly enormous and groundbreaking games recently (the likes of Red Dead 2) but that's not really a PS5 problem.

Re: Soapbox: This Is Why Physical Games Are Still Important to Me

Barryburton97

I went for a digital PS5 to stop myself hoarding physical games. A hard stop to an, on reflection , unhealthy habit. Now I only buy a digital game when I need something to play which is getting rarer these days. The decision was easier when you consider that all discs seem to need updating, many games require online connections, internet is blazing fast now (sympathy for those without!), and many games aren't made physical anymore.

Have now whittled down to just a moderate sized collection of stuff I really loved or want to keep for the memories. Anything disc based for PS4 onwards I don't even have a way to play them at home.

I do get the archival argument and I'm happy physical is still going, but it occured to me a while back that I don't personally need to be the one building an extensive archive. Unless the apocalypse hits we'll be able to find stuff if we really want it one day.