Rich33

@MrPeanutbutterz
Loved SF6's World Tour mode. Its a great incentive for dlc characters too, knowing that the new characters will come along with new moves and stories for world tour mode.
Just wish it had a NG+.

Tekken 8s 'Story mode' was very lacklustre by comparison, and I havent been bothered with going back to the game either.

After all the complaining crusades people have gone on about the Pro (too expensive, no disk drive, too expensive, a couple of games have issues, too expensive, cant see a difference) - I think I will stay away from comments sections for about 6 months after this is announced! - or 12 months if its as expensive as I think it will need to be and only runs PS5 games at potentially reduced quality.

I had issues with the transfer to Pro - found old PS5, held power button until beep, then got error message telling me that it couldnt transfer data a while later. All wired connections.

Sony Technical support were not helpful, but ended up solving it using a back up (via USB drive) from my old PS5 and restoring on my Pro (transferring games via M2 drive / redownloading, and updating a couple of settings on pro like console name, and offline/sharing).
A couple of people here were most helpful in the comments section of the article on transferring.

Hopefully this issue is now permanently resolved with this patch.

After this minor issue, Pro has been fantastic.

Still not convinced. Will see what reviews make of it.

Astro bot, Drago Age Veilguard, and Stellar blade take my votes out of these.

NB I havent played FF Rebirth, Wukong, DD2, or Silent Hill 2 due to technical issues (and general apathy in the case of FF after part 1).
Might pick a couple of them up on sale now I have pro (those with decent enhancements of course).

@DennisReynolds
Not a good look for some of these companies.

So reliant on pre orders / launch period copies sold, yet working to a release broke and fix it later mentality (SWJS has been the biggest culprit for me so far this gen, and we know how their pro patch turned out).

I do see comments here saying its only people like us who care - but thats no longer the case - I have heard a few 'casual gamers' mention this problem now - including the phrase 'they are doing a Cyberpunk'!

@DennisReynolds
So my question is (like SH2), not how these devs dont get it right, but how do they miss it? (And if they dont miss it, what on earth are they up to?!)
These issues, on the rare-ish occasions they occur, seem pretty obvious, and from what you wrote I dont think you needed to play the game long to see it.

PSSR is not the only thing the Pro has - it also has 1.7x the GPU etc to leverage for enhancements.
If the devs playtest and find an issue, they should just leave PSSR off and report to Sony, or if not a major problem (some benefits, some negatives) just put a choice in for players. Its not like the games dont already include upscalers to fall back on.

I hope P is still your character, and it doesnt swap out (I wont go further as I dont want to spoil).

Having spent a few playthroughs with a build / weapons etc I like, for a dlc I dont want to start from scratch. I also think P, a few of the NPCs, and the city itself easily have more story left.

@ShogunRok
Apologies - I may have submitted a review twice.
My phone had a bit of a moment.... (its getting old now) and didnt seem to send, so I re-sent (thankfully I had copied the text) and got the 'thank you for your enquiry' i didnt get the first time.
If you did receive the first time as well - apologies, the text is identical.

@Titntin
I feel sorry for your wallet!
But to be serious - you have 1 pro and as a family are now looking to upgrade a 2nd PS5 to Pro - this should be enough recommendation to anyone!

Ive had mine since launch day, and on a lot of games it would be difficult to go back to base PS5, so I get it.

(I wonder what % of really negative commenters actually genuinely own a Pro!?)

@SilentBluntman
You have probably seen the DF on Stellar Blade, but the Pro enhancement is excellent in the new 80fps target mode ("Pro Mode" I think) - I had a look at it myself and was very impressed. (Just on the visual fidelity side, its better than the new high res mode they also included).

@OldGamer999
Really pleased you are enjoying it (as am I) - I know how excited you were coming up to launch!

Same to anyone else similar who is reading this.

Very happy overall.

All of the games I have played / tested have seen anything from a nice improvement, all the way to a very significant improvement.
Pictures and Youtube videos do not do some of these patched games justice.

To get the most out of it you really need a 4k 120hz VRR TV.

For me, it feels a better jump than PS4 Pro was over PS4.

There are a few 3rd parties who in my opinion have embarrased themselves a bit when releasing patches, which is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected, and clearly Sony still need to upgrade PSSR on an ongoing basis - but it seems in a good place so far, and PSSR (and upgrading it quickly and often) will clearly be one of their very top priorities.

It maybe seems to run a tiny bit cooler than my launch PS5, and any difference in fan noise is negligible. The extra >1Tb SSD (from launch) is welcome.

The biggest downside has not been anything to do with the Pro, Sony, or even a few bad patches - its been the disingenuous negativity from some people in comments sections, polls, etc.

@DonJorginho
I kind of wish more people would give it a go - they might find out that they actually have a good time!

(I am finding some of the team random dialogue to be really funny - particularly if Lucanis is on the team)

@Oram77
Thats an opinion I see, but my feelings about this series are very different - I didnt play the early games (cant remember why), but I did play Inquisition, and for me it was an OK, but highly forgettable game.

Before playing Veilguard I had to look at one of those "previously on Dragon age" videos, to remind myself, and wasnt filled with nostalgic memories.

10 years after Inquisition I had zero interest in this series until I saw some recent footage / info, and read the Pushsquare review.
Im not all the way through yet, but at the moment my feeling is I would love to see a further game in the series.

Still playing this game (and probably will be for a while), and still really enjoying it.

Is it perfect? - No, but it is one of my favourite games this year, and if I were to score it today it would be between an 8 and a 9 (some of its early game issues are resolving as I continue). Playing on Pro.

I do wish your chosen background - particularly faction, had much more affect on dialogue options.

@Mikey856
I think its a few things.

PSSR could clealy be improved, though based on lots of very good examples we have, and going by what experts have said its in a good place. But DLSS wasnt built to be what it is today overnight, and from what I remember, was not ideal to begin with.
A key part of this is in Sony now being able to see real world 3rd party examples of issues, as well as 1st party.
I really do think PSSR will be a critical priority for Sony - if they dont get this spot-on, PS6 may well be a disaster. The earlier they improve it, the better experience devs get with it, and the more cycles of improvement they can get out.
Also, people forget (conveniently) issues with FSR like that awful ghost image when moving - that really does my head in lol. FSR has no hardware ML element, so its ceiling is much lower.

Devs experience will also improve with PSSR and Pro - all we are looking at here is early patched games, some of which but not others may have been rushed.

Sadly, you will always get a few poor results from odd dev teams (which may or may not be their fault) eg SWJS performance mode on base PS5 for the first 6 months - appalling sub 60fps, but RT is included!! (But could be turned off on PC).
Ive been quite critical about this small number of bad patches for Pro because they just should not have gone out in this state. Just the extra GPU power alone would have allowed improvements - if they cannot get PSSR to give a good result, leave it off for now or put a toggle on.

Guesswork here, but I can it going the other way too, and we will see some devs trying really, really hard on Pro, so they can tell everyone their impressive Pro technicals, under the "assumption" that everone who cares about framerates / visuals etc will have bought Pro. Some will only show Pro footage, not base - you see this a lot in PC (ie only showing probably RTX4090 footage).

@DonJorginho
Yeah, forgot the 10fps drop using PSSR on GOWR - though we are talking about a very high framerate (well in excess of 60fps) on Pro, even with PSSR.

The image quality / detail using PSSR, particularly at a distance out, looked better to me when I tried the game 2 weeks ago (as the option was there i did flip it to have a look) - I recall JL from DF saying something similar in a video about a week back (it may have been on their DF clips channel).
It wasnt as dramatic as some games, particularly as both with and without PSSR the mode had other improvements, but I could still see a difference. I think this was one of the games i noticed it more when moving.

Not sure whether I would prefer the PSSR or the extra 10fps in this case as it looks and performs so well now (not that it was ever bad at all) - i only really tested it out for a little bit along with a load of other games - "kid in sweetshop" sort of thing.

@Mikey856
Theres not - just a system toggle for the PS4 game visual improvement (thats in your 'screen and video' settings menu).

GOWR, and at least 1 other game which I cant remember now include an option in game - maybe D Souls or Stellar blade (or both) - games which are much better off using PSSR.

@ButterySmooth30FPS
Yeah, ive heard/read this and about old versions of PSSR being used - no idea if its true.

Maybe its just down to certain devs, maybe its just teething troubles with PSSR which Sony will be revising based on feedback, but the haters (usually just because of price) will still tell you its broken, and the worst thing ever despite the enormous number of games Pro succeeds in significantly improving!

I still say if devs properly QA tested and found an issue, they could have done something - ie put a toggle in for PSSR if there was any problem noted (and reported it to Sony) - the games should still have notable improvements added by devs (even if just pre upscaler res and fps fixes) using the extra GPU power alone, even if PSSR is off.

@Mikey856
Unfortunately, the only games ive seen this option in personally are some of the very best patches / games, where turning PSSR off negatively impacts the visuals (but the devs do include the option).

I find it almost amusing that the main voice actor for a game I didnt buy purely because its framerate in performance mode was a complete and utter dumpster fire outside of combat (I played the demo), is now complaining we cant play a different game at 60fps....

@Sarcasmatwork
Thank you, yes, Ive been playing it for a week or so now (after doing the kid in a sweetshop thing with games once I got my Pro).

Its a good game. Its not perfect (at the moment I feel Pushsquares 8/10 was reasonable), but some of my early issues are resolving the further I get.
I was/am still a bit disappointed in how my selected 'background' for Rook seems to make little difference from a dialogue point of view, particularly early game, and hasnt really been referenced by anyone else except the NPCs belonging to the same background group, and Solas.
However, overall its a very enjoyable game, like you say.

The writing is unsubtle at times, but its no worse than a lot of other very highly rated games, so far.

The hate this game received based on what I have seen so far, is shameful.

Not a good look for the dev team, or their QA process.

If they had said "Some glitches may remain, but we aim to have a further patch out next week to resolve these" it would be different.

It may need a bit more thought, but at its core, I think this is a good idea.

This is no different from:

• Someone who has modded or built their own car, and who shows it at car enthusiast shows, being pleased because they have upgraded the exhaust system.
• Someone being pleased with their work after spending the weekend gardening, putting in some new plants, and telling their husband/wife/ kids about it, having done the same the year before.
• An artist showing their latest work at the local gallery, claiming its their best painting yet.

They are creators who have made a nice improvement to their game through the availability of more powerful hardware, for free, and are happy about it. I'd rather send **** the way of the low effort devs who seemingly have forgotten what QA testing is.

@OldGamer999
Not the best Pro patch, but not the worst by a long way. It could do with some attention, but the image does look cleaner, sharper, and more detailed. After playing so long on Pro the base PS5 image looked kind of blurry to me.

I just cannot see the RT they were supposed to have added (I think it might have been AO), and they need to take this out. This would allow them to use the reclaimed GPU power for something thats actually useful.

I keep hearing / reading that some of these 3rd party issues relate to them using old builds of PSSR (which apparently had the issues noted), and never updating - I have no idea how true this is.
It does makes sense I suppose, considering there has been quite some confusion as to when some of these games were actually patched for Pro from people playing them.
Obviously DAV launched fairly close to Pro but we have no idea when PSSR was added.

@carlos82
Apologies for the belated response, but I only tried RE4 Remake last night. You are quite right - the framerate and maybe visuals (its been a long time since I last played) are much improved.
With 120hz VRR the game is night and day above the base PS5 version, and I have no idea why this game patch isnt getting more mentions (when we keep hearing about a couple of bad patches from poor devs). Thank you.

Have been really enjoying DAV.
Its not perfect, and so far (ive not completed it yet) Pushsquares 8/10 seems the right score, but the game is really quite good.

The hate this game got from a loud minority is shameful.

@UltimateOtaku91
Dont know, but I really liked the game, so I am happy.

@SlipperyFish
If thats the case (and to be clear, im not saying otherwise - I just dont know), maybe Sony need to think about a case by case situation eg BB remake exclusive, ER follow up multi.
Its an odd case as I still think game exclusivity to build/maintain the PS brand is worth far more to Sony than sales of a few games, in terms of their business model, but they may be able to do a deal with Xbox thats beneficial to PS gamers (and be unusually open about it - we release game A on xbox s/x, they release games B and C on PS with full pro support).

@Stickleman
Im not sure about MS, but it seems to have been a near disaster for their Xbox division with them forced to seriously hike Game Pass prices, and release multiple exclusives on PS5 (Im not talking COD here - thats court mandated). I dont think Xbox have done this because they want to, but because MS made them, to try and give their shareholders/investors a return after spending so much.

@SlipperyFish
I will say I dont know individual game sales, but I was talking about the overall 'Game Pass effect' that affects games not on GP ie where a large proportion of Xbox gamers will not buy any game - they pay their Game Pass subscription and think this should provide all the games they want - and to be fair to them (though I think it all a bit ludicrous), this is what Xbox keep telling them.

Im sure I have read a couple of articles now that work out that in generalised terms if you launch a game on Xbox (not on GP), the sales will only be around half of what you should expect given their market share.

This doesnt put off most 3rd parties yet, because they need every sale possible, but Sony have other considerations.

@LordAinsley
"To be fair, last time you didnt have to backdate games for Pro."

Im pretty sure devs did have to go in and patch games for 4 Pro, and I seem to remember the launch list being smaller than 5 Pro's launch. There was a boost mode but I dont think it was as capable as the 5 Pro's.
If I remember right for PS4 Pro boost mode could take advantage of the additional clock speeds of the CPU and GPU, but not the additional GPU compute units - that required a patch.
With 5 Pro boost mode can take advantage of additional clock speeds of CPU/GPU and additional Compute units in the GPU, but not PSSR without a patch - there also appears to be some limiting factor based on what DF have said in regards to full GPU useage without a patch.

@gollumb82
I have no idea what those settings are, but adding RT in performance mode is probably not a good idea.

The CPU boost is mainly responsible for fixing the framerate of certain pinch point areas in the PS5 game, but that doesnt stop them using the additional GPU to increase some settings. A PSSR option might have done wonders for this game.

In terms of them having done enough - certainly not yet in my opinion - granted, they may have been overtaken by a few dev teams like those behind SW Jedi Survivor, in the list of "Devs to ignore their games before a full DF analysis has been done", and they did eventually fix it up on PS5. But, they are still used by most as the poster bearer for releasing a broken game, and a headline like this has sunk them down in my opinion, even if only a bit.

@Cerny @LordAinsley
DF stated something around Pro upgrades mandated by Sony for games launching after Pro - but I cant remember in which Video so I cant go back and check what they actually said. It was in one of the videos before launch, but after they had seen it running in person.

@Atreus97
You may well be right, but I cant see how irritating Sony, or a bunch of customers, is in their best interests atm. They need as much good PR as they csn get.

@themightyant
I dont disagree - 'boost mode' doesnt get the good press it deserves sometimes, particularly given the PS4 Pro 'boost'.
But I still think an amazing patch would have made CDPR look good.

Honestly - its not a game I would replay, so im not that bothered.

However, this is a very bad look for a company that really could do with as much good PR as possible after its fiasco with this game.

I would have expected them to take EVERY opportunity to show how much they have changed in the last 4 years.

The fact we havent seen Bloodborne patched to allow 60fps or a straight 60fps remaster suggests plans are already in place to produce a full Demon Souls type remake, but whether this has got past planning stage is anyones guess. If the aquisition goes through, it will probably see a priority bump.

My guess would be that if this goes through, all FS will become PS5 and PC exclusive, with 1st launch being PS5, and PC following up (potentially soon after).
Sony do not really need to sell games to Xbox gamers. Due to game pass - the number of people, out of a relatively small market share, prepared to pay full price is just far too small. If you arent prepared to pay full price for games, you cant complain when those games dont come.
Of course Sony may do a game by game deal, but they would be silly to overlook brand building in favour of short term gain.

Comparing this to the MS aquisition of Activision is just strange. That aquisition, which was clearly aimed at just trying to buy up part of the market, was much, much larger in scale - so large in fact, it seems to have seriously backfired on Xbox division as MS/shareholders force Xbox to port games onto PS5, and force massive game pass price hikes.

This aquisition seems much more sensible in scale, and fits in (given the manga/anime elements) much better.

@kcarnes9051
You raise a very good point, but I would say dev reputation is more important. We know its a thing when games sell well due to past glories (despite red flags), and maybe only 10-20% of customers care about bad reputation, but given the sales numbers needed to break even - 10-20% can mean the difference between success and failure.
Conversly, an outstanding patch would generate interest, and may go some way to redeeming some reputation.

@Sergo
Plenty have done excellent patches, a few have not. I think it comes down to 2 things.

Low effort. We now have people talking about old builds of PSSR being used and not updated as a cause. Clearly no QA was done on a few - or it was ignored. Maybe they didnt spend a little time getting to grips with it - though we have had a few 3P devs interviewed that have said how easy it is. In a sector where MS only have 30% of the customer base and mandate 2 versions - a decent Pro patch does not seem a big ask of more recent games.

Bad Choices. Using SWJS as an example - the devs slapped on RT again in a game in which it is barely seen - I really did not miss it when it was removed. After the patch that removed RT to fix performance, the remaining problem was Image Quality, and this / further performance is where the extra GPU should have gone. How did they not see the games biggest remaining issue on console, and sacrificed all to the false god of RT again. (See also QA).

Its a strange, strange world when (from what has been reported here) the devs behind this game have put out a decent Pro enhancement, but the devs behind much bigger selling games like Silent Hill & SW Jedi Survivor could not.

@LindyG
I think thats the big trade off - more power vs more messing about.

Selecting parts - I would probably go high spec, for future proofing (and I know nothing about cooling / case size / power supply, well apart from the obvious), but the bit that puts me off is exactly what you describe in your paragraph about tweaking - all the messing around with settings/ drivers you dont know you need to change.
Although i would still need to put it through my main TV (4k Sony, 120hz, VRR, HDMI 2.1) - I have got far too used to the size, and cant put a similar sized monitor anywhere.

That said - I am really enjoying Pro, and think the upgrade from launch model was well worth it. Although it may have been helpful if the CPU could have had a bit more of an upgrade, I think its a really good console.

If Pro hadnt been an option - I might of caved in to the extra power afforded by PC - I love gaming, but sub 60fps really makes me feel ill these days (literally im afraid, a more and more common occurance with people I believe). But I also have a large PS library.

Pro allowed me to "kick the can down the road" a few more years until hopefully Sony can get on top of the info they divulged about 75% of players use Performance modes! (If not, hopefully PC will be simpler then! Unlikely, but I can hope).

"These issues have appeared after running the standard PS5 version on a PS5 Pro"

If this hasnt been enhanced for Pro, the game shouldnt look any different from base console (*), and you are running the base PS5's graphical modes. We havent heard of any widespread issues affecting non patched games.

• The only difference would be the boost mode allowing higher framerates / preventing drops, or preventing dipping dynamic resolutions.

If this has been enhanced for Pro as per @DonJorginho comment above regarding DF confirming this, then I would expect a fair bit more than just PSSR being added - eg fixed framerate in the areas which currently run badly on base, higher pre upscaler res, maybe visual settings.
This sounds like a very disappointing job by these devs (its a recent release and plenty of others have done a good job), and my money can stay in my pocket until they sort this all out.

Silent no longer...

@Coolmusic
I may be misreading but I was going on $2.7bn vs circa $70bn. Comparatively much smaller, but not small. Targetted, not monopolising (at least not in the game space - manga / anime, I cant say).

This sounds like a much more sensible and targetted aquisition than others.
Activision has not proved good for Xbox (game pass price hikes, games on PS5 to appease shareholders etc etc), but this is smaller scale and feels like a much better fit.

@GamingFan4Lyf @LindyG
(@GamingFan - We have discussed similar in the past, I know)

As someone who has thought about switching to PC, would have done without Pro releasing, and may well do at PS6 launch if console doesnt take enough steps to erradicate sub 60 fps, I enjoyed reading your posts about the benefits and negatives of PC - it is nice to see perspectives without this mentality I see of PC being automatically better and with no downside whatsoever!

Console could learn well from PC - one of my earlier posts this artiicle was that I would be all up for all games offering more graphics choices / performance choices, particularly on Pro (which I am very much enjoying). Eg toggles on things like RT (which most of the time I do not want to take the performance hit for) and Frame rate uncapping for 120hz, but also upscaler choice between PSSR and whatever base console uses (FSR / in house). Have pre set profiles for 'casual' gamers, and custom options for others.
But, as you both more or less agreed, I just do not see this micro managing of framerate. I am one of the biggest posters here against framerate issues on console, and less than 60fps is awful, but much higher than 90 (with VRR of course) really feels like diminishing returns - great if it gets to 120 (on TV), but not worth too much effort for a few induvidual frames.
Anyway, enjoy to Pro / PC!

Its a great record - no doubting that, but this is also a curious industry / hobby.
If someone told you 2 years ago, that in 2024, Astro bot would be GOTY or close, I bet most of us would have done a double take.