Comments 2,996

Re: Apple Insinuates iPhone 15 Pro Will Be a Better Games Console Than PS5, PS4

Constable_What

I actually want an IPhone now. Wow. Maybe after my current deal is done in a few years I will get one. USB C will make using a controller a snap as well. It's cool to see all the competition in the game's industry, it's the sign of a healthy industry when the consumer has a lot of choice for where they spend their money and time. It's amazing to see it still growing so fast.

If Apple doesn't charge to play online, and they keep iterating on their tech like they are keen to do, I can see this being a competitor in the console market, especially if they release a dock and design a controller.

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@Shad361 I completely disagree about the Road Warriors not being in SF6. That's like if Liu Kang, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Sub Zero, and Scorpion weren't in MK. There isn't any issue with either game's roster, and Street Fighter's characters have more than twice the amount of moves you can do, with variations that can be had with Drive Rush and Impact, and 3 supers.

EVO means a lot in fighting games. 7K participants signed up to fight, and it's viewed by over 100K people during the stream with clips and videos of the event totaling in millions of views. I never said anything about participating, I said watching, and MK is has never been all that popular to watch competitively with a couple exceptions of course. It's not an interesting game to watch.

Guilty Gear is shaking things up in response to a lot of feedback due to watching the game as well as playing it. No one wants to watch Happy Chaos vs Happy Chaos mirror matches, and people don't like playing that either. It matters.

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@Shad361 a Blanka player made it to grand finals at EVO and it was a hype moment, and a ton of people play Blanka. JP and Luke, who are new, get a lot of play just as much as Ken, and and Ryu. Honda is annoying, but most people in SF6 play multiple characters as well.

Who is clamoring to see MK played at EVO? I can probably count them on my fingers. It's the Call of Duty of fighting games essentially, no one wanted to sit through 10 matches of Shieva stomps in MK11, and no will want to want watch Johnny Cage do the same string to make a combo 3 times either. And King of the Hill is a boring mode...at least Kombat League, which sucks, has some actual stakes involved.

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@Flaming_Kaiser They both run the same I think.
They have similar if not the exact same hardware performance.

They both had very BAD lag in online matches. I think it's getting better faster in MK1, but it's not as good as SF6's netcode.
I notice a lot of lag during Fatal Blows, and it is really jarring, and it's consistent enough to where you will totally drop inputs a lot, but practicing online helps a lot with the weird timing.

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@Shad361 Yeah that 1 extra character really makes a difference buddy. You really do feel that difference. LMAO

I see Lilys and Zangiefs all the time in SF6 who ate considered the worst in SF6, and I'm in Platinum for most characters, and Diamond for Juri and Ryu.

Have never ran into a single Nitara, never ran into a single Geras, have only played 2 General Shaos. Game has only been out for a few days counting Early Access. Give people a chance to "settle" as you say.

Also, Street Fighter 6 has a tendency to give you repeat matches against characters you lose against. It's to help you learn the match-up I think. I lose a lot to Guile, and so I get 2 - 3 Guile matches in a row sometimes.

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@Flaming_Kaiser there are combo trials that might teach you the basics of your character, but sadly, that's as much as the game will go to help you learn.
You get a sheet in the option menu as well, with frame data, and the inputs for MK are really simple and responsive, but just held back online by bad netcode.

I would look at the combo trials for a character you want to play. I did that for Nitara, and then knew almost immediately I did not want to play her. Lol

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@DennisReynolds Yeah it's mostly opinion, and MK 1 is still fun, and I like playing it. I don't mind the overpriced MTX in SF6, as I don't buy them and play on PC anyone and have mods, and if it's funding the game and offsetting the work they did especially for the netcode then its tolerable.

I would rather have that than Kombat League and obscene amounts of lag online. I also don't like that they have these paid skins just ready at launch, that kinda rubs me the wrong way, but they're not expensive, so it's tolerable.

Hopefully when skins for the main cast come out they aren't as expensive as the TMNT skins...and those skins were for the avatar as which is such a rip off lmao

Re: Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) - Good But Not a Flawless Victory

Constable_What

@DennisReynolds Definitely nowhere near as good as Street Fighter 6. Story is fun, and the gore is goofy which is great, but online play is lag city, and oh man does this entry really cement my belief that, aside from being at the highest skill level, MK is definitely the scrubbiest fighting game. The things you can get away with due to lag, bad netcode, and awful character balance is hilarious.

The story mode in SF6 is also over 50 hours long with a TON of unlockables for your avatar, and the game doesn't need that much more to unlock when online play is immaculate and you have a great ranked mode with a fully featured arcade, a fully featured lab, and even party modes.

Kombat League SUCKS aside from unlocks, but those are basically just recolors as well. There were so many complaints from MK11 about Kombat League, and Neatherealm didn't listen at all. When I play I'm not trying to get better I am just trying to get my unlocks for the season, because I have no idea where I'm at skill wise, and the game wants to pit me against Apprentices and Kombatants when I'm in Champion which is just a big waste of time with me taking all the risk and no reward. I might as well just leave and requeue so I can get a match that will give me better rewards for playing a set. It SUCKS. It's basically a battle pass the trick into thinking is a ranked mode.

Invasion is OK, but it's obvious it was an afterthought, and it gets really boring after an hour or two with the only incentive being unlockables.

I agree, MK1 has better unlocks than SF6, but I thought this was a fighting game, not a Kollectathon. MK1 is definitely better at that than SF6 though.

Re: Secret PS5 Firmware Update Feature Spotlights Your Wall of Shame

Constable_What

Genshin Impact: 1177 hours
Destiny: 888 hours
Warframe: 719 hours

Most of those hours in Warframe was spamming Infested Defense with OG Nova.
No idea why I did it, but I made some good friends I'm still friends with after almost 10 years. Wow.

Kind of a wall of shame for me, besides Genshin and Warframe to an extent. I'm pretty much done with that game for now, as I'm deep into HSR, but there were good times.

Sadly, I won't be beating any of those hours. As I'll do that kind of gaming on my PC now. Sony has really disappointed me this year, with their output, their pay increase for Plus, and I talked to their customer "support" and aside from being absolutely useless with their reps just seemingly reading things off Google that I already found, they were kinda rude. Last straw tbh.

Re: Unity Closes Multiple Offices, Cancels Town Hall Following Death Threat

Constable_What

@Jaz007 Can you name any that show beheading? I know there are a few games where you can behead creatures...and I guess you're technically right, but that's not in the spirit of the discussion. lol

Now that I think about it, I can only think of Stormtroopers in Star Wars TFU, but it's not really graphic. There's no blood or faces, they're basically just robots.

Re: Unity Closes Multiple Offices, Cancels Town Hall Following Death Threat

Constable_What

@LifeGirl Uhhhh. Gore immediately gets you a 17+ rating (M) in America. Beheading is considered Blood and Gore, and guess what? Sex in video games are given that same rating if it leaves just a bit to the imagination.

And there are games and movies so violent they are hit with an AO rating or NC17+, like the the Punisher video game and Terrifier respectively.

You're trying to make a point where there is no point to make, society has already got you got you covered bud.

Re: Ubisoft's XDefiant Fails PlayStation, Xbox Certification

Constable_What

Basically, to any who are interested in learning what a compliance bug is, if your game is on Xbox and Playstation and there is crossplay available, the iconography for the platform that the user is not on must be a generic icon. In addition to that, all iconography for the respective platform needs to be correct, no Playstation user showing up as generic console users, or Xbox icons, or any PC platform icons. All icons for controller need to be correct as well, and you can't have any reference to other platform controllers either.
Also, if there are assets that clearly depict another console on the user's console, that is not allowed either, you can't have Xboxes in Playstation game worlds or vice versa.

Sony is VERY strict about iconography on their platform. You will immediately fail cert if it's wrong. The company I work for has a few teams dedicated to finding first party compliance bugs. It's very rigorous, it's monotonous as all hell, it's taken very seriously. Failing cert really sucks.

And while that doesn't mean that the quality of XDefiant is bad, as there are different teams that handle the functionality, art, crash, etc. bugs. It still really sucks when that happens, and is surprising for a big publisher...

Re: Looks Like One of PS5's Best Games Is Getting a Complete Edition

Constable_What

@NotSoCryptic I think you nailed it on why I love Elden Ring, and don't like FW.

FW is BLOATED. It's uninspired. Exploring is joyless as there are map markers everywhere that take all of the surpise out of finding things. The story is so far up its own ass I would have thought it was satire if it was insistent on taking itself so seriously.

It doesn't need to be Elden Ring. Elden Ring is already Elden Ring. I just don't find FW's open world, characters, and story at all compelling after my time with it...

Re: Baldur's Gate 3 PS5 Is Comparable to Ultra Settings on PC, But There's Room for Improvement

Constable_What

@Northern_munkey The GPU alone for something comparable to a PS5 is gonna be more expensive than the 400 - 500 dollars a PS5 costs, or it's gonna be nearly as expensive.

I think in terms of GPU power, the PS5 has something akin to a 2070 Super, but let's just say to be fair (20 series cards are...REALLY OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive right now for some weird reason) and say we can substitute a 3060 TI which is cheaper and offers slightly better performance at around 300 - 400 dollars. Let's say 300.

Cool got a GPU for 300. Now we need:

A motherboard
RAM
M.2 NVMe SSD
A CPU
A CPU fan
A case
A WIFI card or adapter
Mouse and keyboard
Maybe a controller

Yeah, I don't think I need to price all that out for you to see that you're not going to build a PS5 equivalent PC for 500 bucks.

It is not possible man.

Re: FromSoftware Still Can't Get the Frame Rate Right in Armored Core 6, PS5 Analysis Shows

Constable_What

@Th3solution my message was too long originally, but I just want to say this as well:

Perspective is key and your perspective as a gamer without QA experience is just as valuable as my perspective. Because you represent the end user, and that end user experiences is very meaningful, and in a lot of ways what really matters, but with that meaning it's also important to note that there's somewhat of a responsibility to hear and listen to outside perspectives. Which I think you're nailing btw
All in all, you aren't wrong. It's your experience with the game, that can't be wrong after all. It's all important data when you look at everyone's perspective objectively.

I think most people would agree an amazing game at 30 FPS is preferred to a mediocre game at 60, and some people (myself included) would prefer an amazing game at higher than 30, but not quite hitting 60!

Re: FromSoftware Still Can't Get the Frame Rate Right in Armored Core 6, PS5 Analysis Shows

Constable_What

@Th3solution I think it's important to note, that we should look at each instance on a case by case basis.

Personally? I think in the case of Fromsoft's performance issues, it is considerably overblown. I think Digital Foundry can be a little disingenuous sometimes with their wording. Do AC6 and ER hit their target consistently? Across the entirety of the game, it does. There are dips and instability sometimes, but those games were never unplayable even in the worst instances, and most of the time those games seemed adequately stable, as in the performance has a low chance of interrupting gameplay.

Gotham Knights? Rightly criticized. That game barely looked any better than Arkham Knight a game that released years before it, and the reasoning behind the 30 FPS cap was due to the seamless multiplayer the game requires. Multiplayer that no one asked for. A lack of 60 FPS performance just adds to the game's negative perception.

Plague Tale? I believe that game was only included in the conversation because it launched around the same time as Gotham Knights. A lot of the conversation I remember is why is GK getting crap and not Plague Tale? Simple answer. It's a better game, lack of 60 FPS was the only strike to the game's perception. That being said, that game did have some issues keeping consistent frame pacing, but it had a low chance of interrupting a play session.

Starfield and TOTK are how games targeting 30FPS should launch on a console. It is stable. It almost never dips. The frame pacing prevents hitching, and they are quality experiences that are very fun. Keep, in mind in Starfield's case, that Bethesda has a perception of releasing buggy messes.

Should devs continue to target 60FPS? Yes. Absolutely. These technological benchmarks are important for advancements and innovation in the industry. Just look into the R&D Nvidia is doing in the name of performance! AI assisted DLSS that allows Path Tracing while also keeping a stable framerate is black magic that wouldn't have even be thought about if companies abandoned the idea of pushing frame-rate targets.

Do all games need to do that? Not at all, but just because your project doesn't need that, doesn't mean you shouldn't try and achieve it. Often times targeting an unrealistic goal leads to achieving a goal anyway, and if you can get a stable 30FPS after trying and failing to target a stable 60 that's somewhat of a win.

I don't know where you've read statistics that most gamers opt for fidelity modes, or even the validity of such a study when taking into account the platform spread of users taking said study. I would say that that is dubious at best. Seeing as how most games have "performance" mode as default, and I don't know how many people even bother with their option settings.

You also can't forget that Starfield isn't just on a console, it's also on PC gamepass, and it runs at 60 FPS or higher on the recommended settings. There are CONSIDERABLY more PCs than Xbox Series consoles as well, it'd be interesting to see the margin of people playing on PC versus Xbox, but I'd be willing to take an educated guess and say the split is in favor to PC if only marginally.

Re: FromSoftware Still Can't Get the Frame Rate Right in Armored Core 6, PS5 Analysis Shows

Constable_What

@Th3solution I got it digitally with the day zero patch, and immediately had screen tearing issues on Coruscant. Koboh was even worse, in the fort area with all the bandit enemies and droids it was, no hyperbole here, running at around 20 fps with constant stuttering and dips it almost felt like the game was freezing and about to crash, but leaving that area fixed that issue. The quality mode was more stable in that launch period, but still not ideal as the implemented FSR was bugged and made everything look jagged and blurry.

They did say that a day zero patch fixed those issues, but it was still present, noticeable, and unacceptable for a huge number of people that played. If it was better after that review period because of the patch, I can imagine how bad it was before then.

But bear in mind, In my experience, because I work on unfinished games as a career, I know when a game is not finished. I know what to look for, and can see it without even looking for it most of the time. Jedi was not polished. I've tested projects months from release that didn't have as many issues. I could fill a month's worth of my Jira quota in a couple days of playing Jedi at launch, it was so bad in my experience.

That being said, even with how bad it was polished it is still probably my favorite Star Wars game. If it weren't for Starfield, which is surprisingly stable and polished (for a Bethesda game lol) on my PC, I would revist Jedi Survivor for NG+ after this latest patch. I love that game, but just because I love it doesn't make me blind to the poor experience I had with it in those few days during the launch week.

And no, it's got nothing to do with my PS5. If that were the case, literally thousands of users across all platforms must have issues with their hardware. You might not notice them, and that's fine, but they are noticeable, and demonstrably so. Like I said, I work in the industry testing games, and there's no way they didn't have these issues across multiple platforms reported in their Jira... I HIGHLY doubt EA is less stringent in QA protocols than the company I work for, but deadlines need to be met, and if it's not a showstopper bug, you push it under the rug to push the game out.

Polish be damned, CAIP bonus be damned, reputation be damned.

Re: FromSoftware Still Can't Get the Frame Rate Right in Armored Core 6, PS5 Analysis Shows

Constable_What

I didn't really notice too many significant dips in performance just from eyeballing it, but there were some issues. The sand crawler mission had some dips, especially the 3rd run version, but that was just during the set-piece of it being destroyed, and there's some noticeable hitching during IB01, but that boss would be dogwater even if there wasn't any.

The very last boss also had really noticeable hitching from everything that is going on in that fight, but it clears up during the 3rd phase, which is the most difficult part.

Not really too big of an issue, and neither was Elden Ring.
It's not like Star Wars Jedi Survivor which was actually unplayable in certain spots at launch due to the framerate constantly stuttering and hitching and had horrible AWFUL screen tearing to boot (setting foot in that bandit fort place at launch is enough to give anyone a headache I think, it was like a satanic PowerPoint, the visual equivalent of being three inches near a fire alarm going off), and the performance for AC6 and ER is not nearly as bad as Remnant 2 which wasn't nearly as bad as Jedi.

Re: Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 Has a New Developer, Out in 2024

Constable_What

Although their games aren't my cup of tea, The Chinese Room is a quality studio full of talented people. I don't think they've ever done a combat heavy game or an RPG, so it will be interesting to see how they adapt to this new challenge! I hope they can deliver, and if they do, they will have proven themselves as an incredibly versatile studio.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Armored Core 6?

Constable_What

@Nyanko Yes! I hated that! There's one boss in particular that is just so infuriating with the talking... Not only can't he not be quiet, but there's a door in front of him you have to open, and then you have to wait for him to get into position before you really start the fight. So annoying.

IB01 is almost as bad. Your handler just won't shut up about the boss, and neither will Ayre, and it's hard to listen to audio cues.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Armored Core 6?

Constable_What

@JB_Whiting Yep. The ol' double Gatling gun, double Stun Needle Launcher tank build to brute force most of the bosses is a big letdown for me, and it feels like that's how it is designed to be as well because even getting so much as sneezed on triggers ABS as a light build.

I wish they just leaned less into Soulslike, because the game is worse off for it. It's a half step into being AC4, and a half step into being Sekiro and it feels off to me.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Armored Core 6?

Constable_What

I've done all three playthroughs, got all the endings, completed every mission, and got the full experience I think. I'm done with the game, and don't see myself ever going back to it tbh. It was a disappointment in my opinion. Arena was WAY too easy, and the non-AC bosses and C-Weapon bosses were so frustrating and mostly unfun, and in the case of the Ice Worm, just boring. And any enemy that isn't an AC, or the very first LC with a shield (Holy crap that guy. That guy is cracked lol) is little more than target practice, they barely shoot back or stand much of a chance. So pretty boring on repeat playthroughs.

I liked it, though! I think a 7 is a generous score and more or less what it deserves. I'd give it a 7. It'd be an 8 or 9 if more weapons like missile launchers, Assault rifles, and more of the energy weapons were viable, if the bosses didn't mostly suck, and if the music and story were at all memorable.

Re: PS5, PS4 Owners Are Understandably Irate with PS Plus Price Hike

Constable_What

I only play Street Fighter online these days, and with crossplay being more and more prevalent, I will just play MP games on PC. Loads of free games there, I am grandfathered into not having to choose games on Humble Bundle, and MP gaming is free. Bought SF 6 on PC. I'll just be playing there from now on.

Sony can suck it with their price hikes.

Re: Armored Core 6: How to Beat IB-01: CEL 240

Constable_What

@Wandering-Nomad Cope harder about that garbage boss I beat it before I commented, and two more times before you decided to show how insecure you are by making an equally garbage comment.

The only person that is malding is you seeing as how you were so mad at seeing an opinion that isn't yours you decided to make a whole account and hurl insults instead of explain your side. Like I said. Insecure. Garbage. Like IB01. Reddit is down the hall, go back there lol.

Boss is bad. Like most of the bosses in this game. They are either way too easy, and unsatisfying to fight, or unsatisfying frustrating bosses, and If not for the AC fights, mech customization, and the gameplay itself, which is great, this game would suck because the story, music, characters, most of the bosses, and the frankly PATHETIC enviroment and level design (Ooooh look at that ANOTHER flat plane to fight a garbage tier boss on!) would not be able to save it.

But hey, at least this game is better than ACV and Verdict Day. Those games actually suck.