Comments 2,904

Re: Poll: What's Your Most Anticipated PS5 Game of 2024?

Paranoimia

If that's a list of everything currently known for 2024, then... nothing.

I just bought Planet of Lana on Steam. I'm interested in Pacific Drive, but I wouldn't say I was "highly anticipating" it. Same with TLOU2 Remastered... love the game(s), but it feels like yet another unnecessary remaster and a money-grab from ND, regardless of what new modes they put in it... would rather they got on with something completely new, or Uncharted 5.

Other than that... probably Helldivers 2 if its co-op is any good, as me and a couple of mates should enjoy it.

Man, it really has been a poor few years for new games... in my personal opinion. I'm not sorry I bought my PS5, but if I was still stuck with only my PS4 Pro, I wouldn't be too disappointed. And the speculation around the PS5 Pro is ridiculous - why release an upgrade to a system that has hardly been pushed to it's limits yet? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Re: Players Reporting PSN Account Bans in Seemingly Widespread Issue

Paranoimia

That issue with removing the shows/films purchased should be against the law. People paid in good faith. Licencing issues are between Sony and whichever other companies are concerned, and the customer should not be left out of pocket as a result. I don't care what the EULA says, it should be illegal under law.

If they're going to remove access to items people have purchased, they should be legally required to refund them in full. Whoever pays for that, these multi-billion dollar companies can decide amongst themselves... but it should never be the customer. One would hope that an incident like this, with this amount of items involved, would see some change in the law.

Re: Guide: PS Portal FAQ - All Your Questions Answered

Paranoimia

I wasn't interested in this, but a recent and unfortunate change in family circumstances means I might well pick one up.

The only thing that really bugs me is that you need an internet connection even if you're right next to your PS5. This really should be able to connect directly to the PS5 WiFi if you're within range, to give the maximum reduction in any lag.

Re: Twitter Wants to Dramatically Improve PS5, PS4's Integration

Paranoimia

I didn't use the integration much, but it was handy for sharing the occasional screenshot or video clip if something funny or unexpected happened in a game. I did have it set up to post platinum trophies as well.

I'll miss the convenience as using the app is more clunky. I hope they come to some agreement to keep it, but I won't lose any sleep if they don't.

As for X/Twitter itself, I still use it, but less than I did... mostly because they blocked 3rd- party apps on mobiles and started charging for TweetDeck on desktop. I don't like the official app or website because of the way they keep messing with your feed and showing you what the algorithm thinks you'd like to see.

Re: PS5's Twitter Integration Now Offline

Paranoimia

I used it occasionally and it was handy, but it's not something I'll miss.

Most amusing thing is that I said this might happen when they started charging for the API, and was told it didn't use the API and I didn't know what I was talking about. Yet... here we are. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Re: Poll: Are You Playing Marvel's Spider-Man 2?

Paranoimia

Nope. Not really interested. I bought the original in a sale long after it released, and enjoyed it for a while but it became quite repetitive.

I got Miles Morales with my PS5 in July 2021, and installed it but have yet to play it. I love the Spider-Man movies, but have never really been interested in superhero games. Maybe in a year or so when it's cheap, and if I've played Miles Morales by then, I'll consider it.

I'm sure it's a great game, but if you're not really into the genre, it doesn't really matter. Personally, I'd much rather have had Days Gone 2.

Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for September 2023?

Paranoimia

Not interested in MMO games. Never been interested in Saints Row.

I bought GenZ on Steam a few months ago, and even several years after launch, it's a buggy mess... and apparently the console versions are worse than PC.

A couple of friends and I bought GenZ for the co-op, but we had to give up playing it... after several hours of gameplay (so too late to refund), it started crashing consistently in one area of the map, and then enemies stopped appearing for me as the host, and I just had to watch my buddies apparently shooting at nothing, over and over. No enemies to kill means no loot and no progression. When I looked into it for a solution, I discovered via the official forums that this is a known bug that's been there since launch and has no solution. So we gave up on it.

It's okay as a single player game, but not as much fun, and many of the missions still bug out.

With the recent news of price increases with no obvious improvements to the service in terms of features, they're going to have to start doing much better on these monthly games. I rarely take any of the games (usually between 4 and 6 a year), so I basically only use it for the online play and cloud storage - and £60 a year isn't worth it. I'm actually paid up for Essential until September 2026, so by the time I next need to renew it's likely to be even higher... probably £70 or £80.

Re: PS Plus Essential, Extra, Premium Price Increases Announced by Sony

Paranoimia

Didn't it only go up a little while ago? 🤔

With no new or improved features announced, it seems difficult to justify. I hope they are least going to make an effort to improve the quality of the games offered each month. They've got Generation Zero next month, a game which I bought a while back on Steam and is a buggy mess... even moreso on consoles, as far as I'm aware.

I stuck with Essential when they added the other tiers, and added 2 years to mine in June during the sale, so I'm good until September 2026. I'm scared to think how much it will cost then, and will probably let it lapse.

At this point, I wish they'd consider a budget level for just online play and cloud saves at, say, £20 per year. I only really bother with it for online play, and even that is rare; the 'free' games I rarely take and can easily do without.

I've been okay with the price increases to this point, because it still gave me value for money. This will tip it past my personal line in the sand, though.

Re: Poll: Are You Sold on PlayStation Portal?

Paranoimia

Aside from the price, the biggest sticking point for me is that they say it requires an internet connection.

If I want to play a single player game on the sofa while someone else is watching TV, it should connect directly to the console, either via a direct WiFi link or through the router. No internet should be required.

Re: You Can Play The Crew Motorfest for Free in Trial Period at Launch on PS5, PS4

Paranoimia

@captainsandman Enough for me to dislike the obnoxious "dudebro" presentation, to dislike the handling model, to tweak the steering controls because the defaults were very sluggish, and to decide the handling model generally sucked.

I switched it to the most realistic handling straight off the bat, but the handling reminded me of some rally game I bought on the PS1 - instead of steering properly, the cars rotate around a central pivot point, and I've never got on with that way of doing things.

I might give this another go when the freebie time is available, just to see if things have improved - after all, that's what a beta is for - but I certainly won't be pre-ordering.

Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads

Paranoimia

I once said I didn't see the point of Twitter. Then I joined, and 14 years later I'm still there.

I don't use it as much as I once did, but that usage decline has nothing to do with Musk... it started before him, a few years ago when the whole atmosphere began to change, the mobs began to form, and anyone without the "correct" attitude started to get hounded. And I don't make any comment about what the "correct" attitude is, because people on all sides harass those they believe to be "wrong". I just do my best to stay away from it.

So my social media usage dropped significantly. I deleted my Facebook account in June last year, though I still have my Instagram account for now. I didn't move to Mastodon, I won't be moving to Bluesky, and the absolute last thing I want is another Zuckerberg/Meta/Facebook app; I only keep WhatsApp because some friends refuse to move to Telegram, but that may well go soon.

So I'll stay on Twitter, where I've had no issues at all yet. If it dies, so be it. But I doubt that it will.

Re: Sony Eager to Ensure PS Plus Remains Relevant and Offers More Value

Paranoimia

Not sure what they could do to make it any more worthwhile for me.

I maintain my Essential sub for online, basically, and renewed for 2 years during the Days of Play sale. I take maybe 4 of the "free" Plus games each year, as most on offer are usually of no interest to me... and nothing on the higher levels is worth the money either, as far as I'm concerned. I have no interest in replaying PS1 or PS2 games, I still have my PS3 if I want those games, my PS5 will play my PS4 games, and I've zero interest in streaming games.

Re: Poll: Which PS5 Blockbuster Will You Be Playing in June?

Paranoimia

Personally, I think 2023 has been pretty dire for games so far. Certainly not interested in any of these. Off the top of my head, I can't actually think of anything for the rest of this year that I'm particularly bothered about either. 🤷🏻‍♂️

At least 6DiF hits Steam early access later this month.

Re: Reaction: Sony Flubs First Proper PS5 Presentation in Over 18 Months

Paranoimia

I went in not really expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed.

Except... I was disappointed.

I was expecting one or two things I'd be interested in, and about 50 minutes of apathy and disappointment.

I was wrong!

What I got, personally, was an hour and twenty minutes of apathy and disappointment. Too many CGI "not actual gameplay" trailers, and not a single title that I was interested in.

Sure, Spider-Man 2 looked pretty, but I bought the first game in a PSN sale ages after release, and while I found it fun initially, I was finding it pretty repetitive by the end. I got Miles Morales with my PS5 in July 2021, but while I did install it, I haven't been bothered enough to play it yet. And SM2 looked like even more of the same, so... meh. Not that it's bad, it's just that superhero games generally just don't do it for me... never have.

Oh well, there's always next time.

The Remote Play gadget needs to cost no more than a game, so £50 to £70 at most, but you just know they'll over-price it and then drop it when it doesn't sell. And I think the earbuds will be a silly price as well.

Re: Days Gone 2 Could Have Released 'a Month Ago', Says Game Director

Paranoimia

Would have loved a sequel to what for me was the best game of the PS4 generation. Hordes on PS5 would have been something special, I bet.

I'm seeing lots of people on the Days Gone subreddit who have picked up the game and are absolutely loving it. I think Sony badly miscalculated on this one.

Of course, it would also have given them something to release during what can only be described as a significant lull in major first-party blockbuster output. These first few years of PS5 have been quite disappointing as far as I'm concerned, given there haven't been many great first-party releases, and what there has been hasn't really made best use of the new system because it's hamstrung by needing to cater for last gen; I only got mine in July 2021, but while I love the system, I wouldn't be too bothered at this moment in time if I'd stuck with my PS4 Pro.

Re: GTA 6 Publisher Is Anticipating a PS5 Pro

Paranoimia

They need to stop with these "pro" systems, in my personal opinion. It diminishes the impact of new generations.

I tried to get a PS5 at launch but couldn't, and I didn't get one until July 2021. Yet to be honest, I could quite happily be without it at this moment in time.

Loading speeds aside, at this point in time, it's not proven to be that big a step up from my PS4 Pro, and there's a dearth of games taking full advantage of it because everyone's still catering for last gen. Add to that the fact that most of Sony's first-party studios completed their last games not long before PS5 was due, and nearly 3 years in we still find ourselves with very few of their own blockbuster titles.

So please, Sony... forget the PS5 Pro and focus on the PS6 in another 4 or 5 years. Let's get some games that properly take advantage of the hardware we have, before you start trying to convince us to make another unnecessary half-step upgrade.

Re: Promising PS5 Shooter ARC Raiders Just Changed Its Entire Genre

Paranoimia

Had never heard of it, and might have been interested if it was co-op PvE.

PvP? Forget it. There are more than enough PvP shooters, and they all devolve into the same crap. There need to be way more co-op PvE shooters.

I'd never heard of Deep Rock Galactic before it hit Plus. I downloaded it out of curiosity and it's one of the most fun games I've ever played... I put in hundreds of hours last year and still go back to it. It also has one of the best, most fun-loving, least toxic communities of any multiplayer game, and that can't be a coincidence.

Devs need to learn that PvP is not a necessity.

Re: Battlefield Will Return in an Entirely New Way on PS5, EA Exec Has 'Extraordinary Confidence' in Team

Paranoimia

I've been enjoying 2042 with a couple of friends against the AI since we picked it up 'free' on Plus.

I haven't bought any Battlefield game since BF4 at the launch of PS4. Never really did enjoy competitive FPS and much prefer those with a decent length single-player and co-op.

I know it won't be, but I would actually love it if Guerilla's next game was a Killzone title with a lengthy campaign and upto 4-player drop-in/drop-out co-op.

Re: The Last of Us PC Is Not 'Naughty Dog Quality', Developer Admits

Paranoimia

Naughty Dog quality is still a thing... on PlayStation. As I understand it, this wasn't made directly by Naughty Dog.

This is what happens when you have a multitude of hardware options - a game never runs the same for one person as it does for another. That's why I game on PS5 whenever possible, despite having a perfectly capable gaming PC.

Re: Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores Introduces the Waterwing in New Footage

Paranoimia

Oh, don't go plugging the new machines. Let us be amazed when we encounter them in-game. 😞

As much as I loved HFW, there wasn't really any feeling of wonder when encountering new machines for the first time, because they'd already been outed.

It's inevitable that people will start plastering it all over social media when it releases, but they can be largely avoided; when the devs do it and all the news outlets start writing about it, it's tougher to do.

Leave us something to marvel at, dammit!

Re: PSVR2 Sales Off to a 'Slow Start', New Report Claims

Paranoimia

It's a lot of money for something you know is going to have a handful of decent titles and a ton of average shovelware.

I haven't looked at figures for a while, but last time I did (which was probably 2 or 3 years ago - I think PS4 had sold around 90 million units at the time), about 4 or 5 percent of PS4 owners had bothered with PSVR. Given equivalent time periods after the launch of each device, it had sold significantly worse than the Vita. And here we are wondering why a significantly more expensive version may not be doing too well... and that's without accounting for the cost of living issues.