@tselliot They have been added at some point after launch - i played it through twice in the early PS5 days and the messages about the bots werent there then.
I definitely dont think consoles will die out, but i can see them losing an awful lot of users to PC over the years to come particularly if :
1) games continue to come out with poor or sub 60fps performance, or muddy images through low res, due to devs pushing the hardware too far. This will push those that can afford a PC towards PC just to get a decent experience.
2) Console exclusives remain the best way to keep players who are thinking of switching to PC on console, but even Sony are showing signs that they will eventually port all theirs to PC.
I keep hearing that people wont abandon consoles to go to PC due to price and convenience, yet I read lots of comments of people already doing so, and know quite a few considering it as this gen draws to a close.
@ShogunRok I was going to edit my comment but saw you had responded, to add that if they do this (fully optimised 60fps, bug free, every time, AAA £80), they really, really need to stop putting games on sale a month or 2 after launch!
To coin Monty Python "its all getting rather silly!"
@ShogunRok Ive commented on much the same on other articles - if publishers / devs expect people to pay full price, they need to release optimised (locked framerate at 60fps), bug free games every time.
I used to pre order over half my games, now i only pre order 1st party Sony purely because of framerate / technical issues in games (Jedi Survivor was my breaking point as I couldnt play this until 6 months after launch). This has also lead to me buying more in sales.
If they got the above right, then I would be happy to see your true AAA price go up to £80, given the amount of work that goes into them.
@get2sammyb Is it possible all the journalists/sites who are reporting that a deal is / may be in place (referencing your comment it was more than just the 2 in the article) have got their info from the same 'source' ie 1 person feeding the same story out through various outlets.
Doesnt confirm its false, but the lack of Sony exclusive marketing makes me of the opinion that no deal is in place.
@Sequel Cant say i ever thought 4k 60fps was realistic (and i know your not saying that), but there are many games that look fantastic that run at 1440 ish with framerates of min 60fps - that can often run well in excess of this in some / a lot of areas if you have VRR and 120hz.
Insomniac games run with ray tracing and regularly go to 80fps (SM2 got there less often, MM would exceed 90 if i remember). GOWR regularly hits 80+ fps. Hogwarts regularly runs at around 80 or maybe even higher since last summers patch. Demon Souls is capped at 60fps but is incredibly smooth. The new asto at preview stage is capped at 60fps but ran at 1800p approx. Thats not to mention a load of games that (to the best of what I can recall) run near to this like Horizon, Lies of P, Stellar blade etc.
I know some of these drop resolution in busy / fast moving areas, but a clean 1440 image running at 60fps on PS5 is quite easy for good devs, providing they keep realistic about what can be acheived - too many fancy effects and wizz bangs and you end up with pixel porridge, so whats the point.
The end of "Cross gen" (which to me just means the end of support for last gen) imo just means Devs getting too ambitious for what the hardware should be doing, and if thats the case its a sad time.
Free dlc too. Cant wait for this game - it just looks brilliant! (also technically beautifully made - and we learned Mr Cerny has had at least a tiny bit of input).
Just skim read the DF review and the 'poor visuals' (referenced above) i guess would be because the native resolutions are so low - the figures they give are 720-1080@60fps, and 936-1152@40fps.
But then it appears they use ray tracing in some form in all modes... (holds head in hands wondering why they havent learned from all the other times this has been done (except insomniac who can do it well)).
@get2sammyb To be fair i agree with what they have done (and im sure will make the game better) - but then we are talking about a game that was made up purely as a plot mechanic to make Harry more visable to pupils in the school as a hero, in the early years.
Just thought it might have been an idea to leave an option in (even if just for single player) just to keep the diehard fans, who arent as reasonable, happy.
Technical issues = cant spare more than 1 person, as we have a small team and want to launch on a system where we can get actual sales. Oh, and its difficult to use frame gen to get from 15 to 30fps on series S.
My gut feeling is Sony / GS would have advertised the exclusivity if that were the case, not just hidden it.
@Loamy @Ravix Not sure about lawsuits, but this 'patch it later' attitude definitely is one of the biggest issues backfiring on publishers (and devs), and isnt good for anyone.
There have always been those customers who only buy on sale (im sort of ignoring these).
However, there is a growing prevalence of not buying at launch due to the large number of unoptimised / buggy games launched in the last few years. I know ive done it before - game comes out with performance issues, i wait, game is fixed, i wait a little bit longer until its on sale (next sale).
I also know that pre orders are very important to publishers/devs (though i cant see another reason except being locked in at full price). After a few bad experiences culminating in Jedi Survivor (which i couldnt play until they patched it approx 6 months later), and mostly due to fps issues, I stopped pre-ordering last year anything but 1st party Sony (purely because of their excellent track record) - and I used to pre order (well) over half my games.
I did see an article a while back which showed that the average purchase price of games had gone down, even though 'full price' had gone up. Im sure that there is an element of 'if your putting prices up i will wait for sale', but im sure the article showed that actual purchase price average was still going down.
I know im not average in my gaming habits - who is - but i know publisher / devs putting out unoptimised games has completely changed how i buy games over the last year or so, and i now buy far fewer games at full price.
Loamy - i know we spoke about Lies of P recently - this was an exception - i played the pre launch demo, was really happy, so pre ordered.
@Veritas7Ax Not always, but it is very rare - i nearly got caught by one in the last couple of years but managed to avoid it as i was a bit behind others...i just cant remember what game it was...sorry.
Hogwarts Legacy was my favourite game of last year, possibly tied with SM2. Yes, it had minor issues here and there, but the overall package was fantastic and better than the sum of its parts. Technically top notch too. 10/10
@JohnnyShoulder I am sure you wouldnt call people 'fps whiners' if you were so affected by this problem that you couldnt play any game thats framerate fell much bellow 60, or had too many frame pacing issues. Where playing said games, would give you a headache, or make you feel sick, and where you could not 'just get used to it' no matter how long you played.
But then the issues i and others have, have got progressively worse over time with newer TVs, and perhaps even age, more detailed / faster moving images, or too long playing 60fps games, being seemingly big factors; so maybe in a few years time you will be able to experience it first hand. Then you can enjoy being told by people that just because they do not have the capability to see any difference above 40fps means that you can't either, when you know full well that you can see approx 5fps changes all the way up to 90fps (or higher in some cases). Hopefully, by then, more people will be educated as to how different people are in this regard. Granted, not everyone feels unwell, and performance issues just completely ruin the experience so it feels like good money wasted.
@BloodyBlact DF preview said 1800p or slightly higher running at near flawless 60fps, so very close to 4k 60. Of course, for launch they may add an uncapped framerate mode for 120hz VRR TVs like nearly all major Sony titles, which would be fantastic eg most insomniac games, and GOWR all run around 80+ fps in this mode (i think SM remaster & MM were nearer 100), with some drops to the 60's for busy sections.
@Old-Red Couldnt have said it better myself (and was going to try until i read your comment). If this had been a success, no way the money would have gone into anything but live service. They would have more likely scrapped a single player game, to put the dev team onto another live service game. Sony said this live service is good for single player games as it will provide bigger budgets rubbish a while ago, and i think it was a bad idea from a marketing point of view because it just riled people up against this game even more!
@SoulChimera @DrClayman Thanks. Just hope its the Dreamcast version then which i think contained the world tour mode, rather that the arcade which probably didnt.
I had the PS1 edition with the single player mode that ended you up with Shin Akuma (i dont care if he is cheesy) - is this the same, if so i would gladly buy just for that game.
Blue point did such an amazing job with Demon Souls, its a shame they didnt move to do the same with Bloodborne - if they had it would probably have been released already!
We really need to have an end to the story - pretty sure i have played all the games except Blood Omen (1), and the story was never finished... just made somewhat more convoluted.
@Rob_230 "Better that Sony focus on optimising titles for release on the current PS5 imo, and look to delivering a larger technical leap for a likely PS6"
I agree that PS5 games in general need much (much) better optimising, but it is not Sony - their games are always top of the pile in terms of technicals and optimisation. Its the 3rd parties that need to seriously get a grip on this.
Unfortunately, the larger the technical leap for PS6, and the sooner it arrives, the (much) higher the cost will be - they have to time a launch with the tech they are using for it becoming affordable (and thus slightly dated) or we will be looking at £700+ PS6 consoles.
Has it even been confirmed the PS5 pro will have a disc drive?
If so, I still think we are looking at £550 - £650 ($650 - $750), and with this latest news probably towards the top end of that.
Mind you, we may be looking at longer than previously thought for PS6, because if they cant get the PS5 price down, no way will we be seeing a PS6 in 3 ish yrs without it costing way more than PS5 launch.
@Loamy I would guess it was the scrapped watchman (electric robot like puppet, who looked a bit like a policeman) - if so, yeah, he was a bit of a gate keeper because he forced you into playing a certain way (with limited build/weapon options) and not dodging all the time - though i still dodged a lot of the time!
No idea why they all dont add in a simple damage modifier difficulty level to make games like this a little more accessible - I beat melenia (probably about try 20 to 30, no one ive seen/read talks about it but she hates the spell Ancient death rancor), and Nioh 2 including all dlc on NG+ so the the 'git gud' argument doesnt really apply, but I fully appreciate that at least a simple difficulty modifier would only be a good thing for all games of this type.
@Loamy It really was on the harder side, but i thought overall it was fair enough. I completed most of the game pre boss nerfs, but did struggle a bit with the last final boss, who shall remain nameless...
A lot of the bosses did have exploitable weaknesses, but some did have some very OP moves too. They could easily have added a difficulty level just by adding in a damage scaler eg easy mode would be 75% received, output 125% against normal.
Lies of P was an amazing game (in my best 3 last year along with Hogwarts and SM2), with an atmosphere all of its own, but a move to open world / UE5 just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen (so fingers crossed these clearly talented devs keep on top of it).
The linear-ish nature of the 1st game really worked and i enjoyed it more than elden ring (which i thought was ok but overrated) - the characters, combat, and music were all excellent.
The engine and framerate felt really solid too, and i still use it as an example of a 3rd party title done really well on a technical level.
@Blaze215 It failed because a lot of people did not want another GaaS game, wasnt anywhere near good/interesting enough in terms of gameplay and content/originality to pull those who do like this type of game away from their favourite titles that they have already invested a lot of time and money into, and probably because of the decision to charge for it rather than follow a ftp model. It did not fail because millions who were going to buy it, decided it contained "too much" diversity, or some political agenda.
@Jakebrake1895 Sadly we live in a world where a minority of loud, intolerant people like to push their political agenda by using any game/other media which includes any diversity whatsoever, and which has not done amazingly well (it need not have even flopped), just to try and prove their narrative of "go woke, go broke" (makes me sick writing it, even in context).
I know the pro is aimed at fixing UE5 (which i understand is very GPU heavy), and I sadly think that as soon as the Pro is launched UE5 games will run like literal slideshows on base PS5, but I would still like to see a bit more on the CPU side than rumoured.
If things stand as the rumoured specs the Pro will be absolutely essential for UE5 games, but might not do much that you can actually see for games run on other engines.
@PegasusActual93 I think its been happening gradually over a lot of years, maybe accelerating with generation changes, and is probably in part due to larger media / faster download speeds. For example within a single series RE Code veronica was long for a RE game, then RE4 even longer. Even the remakes of 2 & 3 were made longer than the originals, even if by the standards of a few years ago they were pretty short games. I think it is something that has crept up and up, and which most of us gamers from the 80's/90's just forget.
I think most would be happy with Free with No microtransactions.
Im being a little sarcastic, but the amount of complaints when AAA full price games moved to £70 was staggering, and imo unfair when you consider development costs and the relatively low level of price increases over the years.
That said, we desparately need to see the death of microtransactions in full priced games (eg DD2, MK1, WWE 2k##), & the now very common releasing of games that are poorly optimised, or buggy, which seems to be far more prevalent now.
Meanwhile, some gamers will start to get exited by another game which is being released in the same window, and which is being heavily marketed for PS5, and will buy that game instead... leaving Metaphor to be a deep sale purchase later on...
@get2sammyb Someone else may have already said this, and apologies if they have, but i think you hit the nail on the head when you say "They made loads of them on PS3 alongside a bunch of great single player games!".
Sony 1st party AAA single player exclusives have really dried up (I know we have had a couple of 3rd party exclusives), but other than the amazing looking Astrobot, nothing much seems on the horizon from them - which in itself may be more feeling than fact due to the lack of info Sony seem to give out these days.
I think this has whipped up the perfect storm - because this game has taken up a dev team at a time when we have a drought of AAA single player exclusives - which has really been one of the main pulls of Sony's console since PS3 days, and realistically one of the main reasons for their success.
I know a couple of people who tend to play games like fortnight or COD most of the year, but always look forwards to the Sony AAA single player games, and only bought PS5 so they could play these alongside their normal live service / online MP games. NB I dont think a lot of people will see or care if this dev team does or does not have any experience of AAA single player - they just see resource.
GaaS for a lot of people (not all) seem to fit into the you love them or hate them category, and with companies like Sony and WB trying to jump on the live service bandwagon, they are no longer being seen by those who do not like them as just as an alternative (to ignore), but as a threat, generating a more general bad feeling towards them.
For those that do love them (and i think you pointed this out in a recent article), you will find a considerable number have their favourites, and are so invested in these favourites now, both in terms of time and money, that they will see new GaaS games as a threat too.
I love Souls likes (though this moniker gets used far too often), and 3rd person action adventures in general, but whilst i was hoping for a bit more to do between bosses, its the technical side that has really put me off.
It might be OK, but based on experience i stand a good chance of seeing something of what they are doing - whether i would find it off putting i dont have a clue.
That said, without a demo, i see no reason atm to spend good money on a chance, as its very, very clear from the DF review, that the neccessary development was not done to properly target the PS5 spec.
Its not something (quidditch) im too interested in but for those who are, im actually glad they left this out of Hogwarts Legacy last year - they couldnt have done it justice, without impacting on the story based game and (for a rare occasion in this industry) a standalone game appears to be a better idea.
@jrt87 I will say as 'devils advocate' that just looking at performance mode (as the other 2 modes are non starters) that DF did suggest the game ran fairly smoothly most of the time, and a few simple fixes could improve matters for owners of 120hz VRR TVs (which I have).
I would also tend to agree with @northern_munkey (who has actually played it on PS5) that for my part notably purely based on the data provided by DF that this game seems to often run better than a lot of other games.
It seemed most of DFs complaints for this mode were visual quality issues and input latency related to the over use of frame gen. The framerate graph they showed on screen did show some horrible drops - but i am presuming from what they said that these were Worst case, and limited.
Right now i think i will wait a bit and hope for a demo, as no one i know with a PS5 is buying this game, and i am just not convinced atm - i suppose if i had more knowledge as to how i personally react to frame gen i might think otherwise, but i have only played 1 game with it used a bit more sparingly.
The trouble is that DF do not always do follow ups following major performance patches.
Yep, add me to the pile of "its 60fps and good performance or I will not buy, and will go buy a game that is". (Doesnt matter how good the game is - not having good performance at 60fps is literally dead in the water).
I dont really think THEY have a clue what they are doing, and even if a PS5 version of game x or y is in development they dont want to say in case MS changes their mind and lets XBOX keep their exclusive.
Thats the root of the issue imo - MS is forcing XBOX actions, and their wants and needs are just not aligned.
'Be careful what you wish for' has never been truer.
@Northern_munkey Thank you - i try, though sometimes what i write comes out a bit wrong in terms of the way im saying it! I have been gaming since the MegaDrive/SNES properly but did have a NES / Speccy +2, so do understand. Street fighter 2 on Speccy was "priceless".
I have replied to people that were having (genuine) difficulty understanding, a couple of times about how problems with performance really came to the fore mid last decade, and a good part of this is the way in which TVs work / the amount of detail on screen etc. Also that people like myself's tolerance is going down, and this can be attributed to a number of factors including even newer TVs, age, length of time playing at locked 60fps (or higher) etc.
Also from a personal point, that i know i (and others) have had problems with performance for a long while, but it is only more recently that I/we have the knowledge to describe and enumerate this (thanks in part to material from places like DF). Unfortunately because people can have such varied ability to detect performance issues, and tolerance to them even if detected, comments sections can be "fraught". I will give one odd example - RE4 remake (which i generally got on with well), when you return through the village square (its raining and night time but i cant remember what you are doing) - the fps drops and varies, and it literally nearly made me physically ill and certainly gave me a headache. Odd, but true, and consistent on NG+.
I have now seen the DF analysis of BMW, and it really is an odd one. Just talking performance mode they are using frame generation to create additional frames to take the framerate all the way from 30fps to 60fps which it wasnt really designed to do. The source of the issue is that this game was really designed for "elite" PC, not "standard" PC or console. It seems the devs didnt even drop back foliage or effects for performance mode. The quality mode is not capped correctly and oddly runs between 30 and 38fps in a 60hz mode. The game also does not support VRR, only system level VRR. There is much higher input latency in the performance mode than you would expect (due to the way it uses frame gen).
I really think this is going to lead to a mixed bag of viewpoints, and people will see the game very differently (perhaps the TV type will affect this game more than most). It may also work - frame gen made immortals of aveum (got this via PS+ monthly and delayed until it was patched in) playable for me (just), and whilst it isnt always accurate - the DF video did look quite smooth in performance mode to me (and i could see framerate differences on the video), even if there were a lot of artifacts.
After their recent carry on, I dont think I would even consider an Xbox console in the future (and I did move to xbox360, then back for PS4). And i think they (Xbox) may have just killed their future business as a console platform in pursuit of Games Pass (which I still think is 1 of the biggest mistakes / threats to video games as a whole), and massive aquisitions, which they now have to start paying MS back for.
Exclusives are a massive part of what draws people to a platform (and a fair part of what keeps me only thinking about PC, not moving to it), and putting yours on other platforms is just plain silly, when looking at a long term view of customer incentive/trust.
All this on top of their game pass price increases, and backtracking on day 1 GP (which had already been backtracked on imo with their very "early access" for buying customers).
But yeah, my main reason for commenting was that i found what he said to be poorly chosen wording (i mean, in relation to the part i quoted from the article, just look at how you can misread what he said!), incoherent, nonsensical, babble.
Comments 398
Re: Your Astro's Playroom Progress Will Transfer to Astro Bot on PS5
@tselliot
They have been added at some point after launch - i played it through twice in the early PS5 days and the messages about the bots werent there then.
Re: Your Astro's Playroom Progress Will Transfer to Astro Bot on PS5
Thanks for the pre warning and guide, ill jump back in a collect them tomorrow!
Re: Failing Manufacturers Are Pushing the Narrative That Consoles Are Dying, Says Ex-Xbox Exec
I definitely dont think consoles will die out, but i can see them losing an awful lot of users to PC over the years to come particularly if :
1) games continue to come out with poor or sub 60fps performance, or muddy images through low res, due to devs pushing the hardware too far. This will push those that can afford a PC towards PC just to get a decent experience.
2) Console exclusives remain the best way to keep players who are thinking of switching to PC on console, but even Sony are showing signs that they will eventually port all theirs to PC.
I keep hearing that people wont abandon consoles to go to PC due to price and convenience, yet I read lots of comments of people already doing so, and know quite a few considering it as this gen draws to a close.
Re: Let the Astro Bot PS5 Launch Trailer Tide You Over Until Release
Mine is downloaded and ready to play... just have to wait a week...
Re: How Much Would You Pay for Your PS5 Games? Dev Says Industry Is Waiting for GTA 6 to Hike Prices
@ShogunRok
I was going to edit my comment but saw you had responded, to add that if they do this (fully optimised 60fps, bug free, every time, AAA £80), they really, really need to stop putting games on sale a month or 2 after launch!
To coin Monty Python "its all getting rather silly!"
Re: How Much Would You Pay for Your PS5 Games? Dev Says Industry Is Waiting for GTA 6 to Hike Prices
@ShogunRok
Ive commented on much the same on other articles - if publishers / devs expect people to pay full price, they need to release optimised (locked framerate at 60fps), bug free games every time.
I used to pre order over half my games, now i only pre order 1st party Sony purely because of framerate / technical issues in games (Jedi Survivor was my breaking point as I couldnt play this until 6 months after launch). This has also lead to me buying more in sales.
If they got the above right, then I would be happy to see your true AAA price go up to £80, given the amount of work that goes into them.
Re: Dramatic Conflicts as Sony Accused of Signing Secret PS5 Exclusivity with Black Myth: Wukong
@get2sammyb
Is it possible all the journalists/sites who are reporting that a deal is / may be in place (referencing your comment it was more than just the 2 in the article) have got their info from the same 'source' ie 1 person feeding the same story out through various outlets.
Doesnt confirm its false, but the lack of Sony exclusive marketing makes me of the opinion that no deal is in place.
Re: Star Wars Outlaws (PS5) - Open World Pledge Produces a Superficial Space Outing
@Sequel
Cant say i ever thought 4k 60fps was realistic (and i know your not saying that), but there are many games that look fantastic that run at 1440 ish with framerates of min 60fps - that can often run well in excess of this in some / a lot of areas if you have VRR and 120hz.
Insomniac games run with ray tracing and regularly go to 80fps (SM2 got there less often, MM would exceed 90 if i remember).
GOWR regularly hits 80+ fps.
Hogwarts regularly runs at around 80 or maybe even higher since last summers patch.
Demon Souls is capped at 60fps but is incredibly smooth.
The new asto at preview stage is capped at 60fps but ran at 1800p approx.
Thats not to mention a load of games that (to the best of what I can recall) run near to this like Horizon, Lies of P, Stellar blade etc.
I know some of these drop resolution in busy / fast moving areas, but a clean 1440 image running at 60fps on PS5 is quite easy for good devs, providing they keep realistic about what can be acheived - too many fancy effects and wizz bangs and you end up with pixel porridge, so whats the point.
The end of "Cross gen" (which to me just means the end of support for last gen) imo just means Devs getting too ambitious for what the hardware should be doing, and if thats the case its a sad time.
Re: Star Wars Outlaws (PS5) - Open World Pledge Produces a Superficial Space Outing
"The cutesy companion joins a long Star Wars lineage of side characters you'd love to own a plushie of, like R2D2, BB-8, and Chewbecca"
What about BD-1 ?!?
#JUSTICEFORBD1
Lol
Re: Astro Bot's Free DLC Will Add Speed Run Stages By the End of 2024 on PS5
Free dlc too. Cant wait for this game - it just looks brilliant!
(also technically beautifully made - and we learned Mr Cerny has had at least a tiny bit of input).
Re: Star Wars Outlaws (PS5) - Open World Pledge Produces a Superficial Space Outing
Just skim read the DF review and the 'poor visuals' (referenced above) i guess would be because the native resolutions are so low - the figures they give are 720-1080@60fps, and 936-1152@40fps.
But then it appears they use ray tracing in some form in all modes... (holds head in hands wondering why they havent learned from all the other times this has been done (except insomniac who can do it well)).
Re: Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions' Snitch Has Been Dramatically Nerfed on PS5, PS4
@get2sammyb
To be fair i agree with what they have done (and im sure will make the game better) - but then we are talking about a game that was made up purely as a plot mechanic to make Harry more visable to pupils in the school as a hero, in the early years.
Just thought it might have been an idea to leave an option in (even if just for single player) just to keep the diehard fans, who arent as reasonable, happy.
Re: Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions' Snitch Has Been Dramatically Nerfed on PS5, PS4
Why not have 2 options:
30 or 150 points
Game timed or only ends when snitch caught
Re: Sony Accused of Signing Secret PS5 Console Exclusivity Agreement with Black Myth: Wukong
Technical issues = cant spare more than 1 person, as we have a small team and want to launch on a system where we can get actual sales. Oh, and its difficult to use frame gen to get from 15 to 30fps on series S.
My gut feeling is Sony / GS would have advertised the exclusivity if that were the case, not just hidden it.
? Could the same 'source' have spoken to ign?
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Patch 1.0.8 Promises Loads of Fixes on PS5, But No Performance Boosts
I can wait for them to fix, or they can prove its not bad with a demo. Until then, plenty of other games to play.
And if they take too long it will be cheap in a sale, or even cheaper if i forget it exists.
Re: PS5 Fans Who Paid $110 for Star Wars Outlaws Early Access Asked to Restart Saves
@Loamy @Ravix
Not sure about lawsuits, but this 'patch it later' attitude definitely is one of the biggest issues backfiring on publishers (and devs), and isnt good for anyone.
There have always been those customers who only buy on sale (im sort of ignoring these).
However, there is a growing prevalence of not buying at launch due to the large number of unoptimised / buggy games launched in the last few years.
I know ive done it before - game comes out with performance issues, i wait, game is fixed, i wait a little bit longer until its on sale (next sale).
I also know that pre orders are very important to publishers/devs (though i cant see another reason except being locked in at full price).
After a few bad experiences culminating in Jedi Survivor (which i couldnt play until they patched it approx 6 months later), and mostly due to fps issues, I stopped pre-ordering last year anything but 1st party Sony (purely because of their excellent track record) - and I used to pre order (well) over half my games.
I did see an article a while back which showed that the average purchase price of games had gone down, even though 'full price' had gone up. Im sure that there is an element of 'if your putting prices up i will wait for sale', but im sure the article showed that actual purchase price average was still going down.
I know im not average in my gaming habits - who is - but i know publisher / devs putting out unoptimised games has completely changed how i buy games over the last year or so, and i now buy far fewer games at full price.
Loamy - i know we spoke about Lies of P recently - this was an exception - i played the pre launch demo, was really happy, so pre ordered.
Re: PS5 Fans Who Paid $110 for Star Wars Outlaws Early Access Asked to Restart Saves
@Veritas7Ax
Not always, but it is very rare - i nearly got caught by one in the last couple of years but managed to avoid it as i was a bit behind others...i just cant remember what game it was...sorry.
Re: PS5 Fans Who Paid $110 for Star Wars Outlaws Early Access Asked to Restart Saves
If you charge a premium price to play early, and then f it up for these early adopters, you should refund a premium price...
(Didnt buy it myself, im just going by what is fair)
Re: Poll: What's Your Favourite Harry Potter Game?
Hogwarts Legacy was my favourite game of last year, possibly tied with SM2.
Yes, it had minor issues here and there, but the overall package was fantastic and better than the sum of its parts. Technically top notch too. 10/10
Re: Do You Want Astro Bot on PC? Creative Director Wants to Know
Not unless Sony want to start killing off their own console business (and from what i understand, no consoles = no Sony)...
Re: Don't Worry, Tales of Graces f Remastered Is 60FPS on PS5, PS4
@JohnnyShoulder
I am sure you wouldnt call people 'fps whiners' if you were so affected by this problem that you couldnt play any game thats framerate fell much bellow 60, or had too many frame pacing issues.
Where playing said games, would give you a headache, or make you feel sick, and where you could not 'just get used to it' no matter how long you played.
But then the issues i and others have, have got progressively worse over time with newer TVs, and perhaps even age, more detailed / faster moving images, or too long playing 60fps games, being seemingly big factors; so maybe in a few years time you will be able to experience it first hand.
Then you can enjoy being told by people that just because they do not have the capability to see any difference above 40fps means that you can't either, when you know full well that you can see approx 5fps changes all the way up to 90fps (or higher in some cases).
Hopefully, by then, more people will be educated as to how different people are in this regard.
Granted, not everyone feels unwell, and performance issues just completely ruin the experience so it feels like good money wasted.
60fps should be a bare minimum on PS5.
Re: Mark Cerny's Feedback on PS5's Astro Bot: 'Now This Is a Game'
My only pre order so far this year!
Re: Mark Cerny's Feedback on PS5's Astro Bot: 'Now This Is a Game'
@BloodyBlact
DF preview said 1800p or slightly higher running at near flawless 60fps, so very close to 4k 60.
Of course, for launch they may add an uncapped framerate mode for 120hz VRR TVs like nearly all major Sony titles, which would be fantastic eg most insomniac games, and GOWR all run around 80+ fps in this mode (i think SM remaster & MM were nearer 100), with some drops to the 60's for busy sections.
Re: Talking Point: Can PS5, PC Shooter Concord Be Saved?
@Old-Red
Couldnt have said it better myself (and was going to try until i read your comment).
If this had been a success, no way the money would have gone into anything but live service.
They would have more likely scrapped a single player game, to put the dev team onto another live service game.
Sony said this live service is good for single player games as it will provide bigger budgets rubbish a while ago, and i think it was a bad idea from a marketing point of view because it just riled people up against this game even more!
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Is the PS4 Compilation of Your Dreams
@SoulChimera @DrClayman
Thanks.
Just hope its the Dreamcast version then which i think contained the world tour mode, rather that the arcade which probably didnt.
Re: Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Is the PS4 Compilation of Your Dreams
What does the "upper" refer to in SFA3 upper.
I had the PS1 edition with the single player mode that ended you up with Shin Akuma (i dont care if he is cheesy) - is this the same, if so i would gladly buy just for that game.
Re: Preview: Monster Hunter Wilds on PS5 Feels Like Another Generational Leap Forward for the Iconic Franchise
After DD2 no way im getting exited for this until we know what performance is like on PS5 - i've played the DD2 demo and dumpster fire would be kind.
Re: A New Day, a New Bloodborne PS5 Rumour
Blue point did such an amazing job with Demon Souls, its a shame they didnt move to do the same with Bloodborne - if they had it would probably have been released already!
Re: Legacy of Kain Fans Turn Up for Soul Reaver Prequel Comic, Smashing Kickstarter Goal
We really need to have an end to the story - pretty sure i have played all the games except Blood Omen (1), and the story was never finished... just made somewhat more convoluted.
Re: Japan Hit with Yet Another PS5 Price Increase
@Rob_230
"Better that Sony focus on optimising titles for release on the current PS5 imo, and look to delivering a larger technical leap for a likely PS6"
I agree that PS5 games in general need much (much) better optimising, but it is not Sony - their games are always top of the pile in terms of technicals and optimisation. Its the 3rd parties that need to seriously get a grip on this.
Unfortunately, the larger the technical leap for PS6, and the sooner it arrives, the (much) higher the cost will be - they have to time a launch with the tech they are using for it becoming affordable (and thus slightly dated) or we will be looking at £700+ PS6 consoles.
Re: Japan Hit with Yet Another PS5 Price Increase
Has it even been confirmed the PS5 pro will have a disc drive?
If so, I still think we are looking at £550 - £650 ($650 - $750), and with this latest news probably towards the top end of that.
Mind you, we may be looking at longer than previously thought for PS6, because if they cant get the PS5 price down, no way will we be seeing a PS6 in 3 ish yrs without it costing way more than PS5 launch.
Re: Lies of P Sequel Jumping Straight to Elden Ring, Neowiz Seeks Open World Experience
@Loamy
I would guess it was the scrapped watchman (electric robot like puppet, who looked a bit like a policeman) - if so, yeah, he was a bit of a gate keeper because he forced you into playing a certain way (with limited build/weapon options) and not dodging all the time - though i still dodged a lot of the time!
No idea why they all dont add in a simple damage modifier difficulty level to make games like this a little more accessible - I beat melenia (probably about try 20 to 30, no one ive seen/read talks about it but she hates the spell Ancient death rancor), and Nioh 2 including all dlc on NG+ so the the 'git gud' argument doesnt really apply, but I fully appreciate that at least a simple difficulty modifier would only be a good thing for all games of this type.
Re: Lies of P Sequel Jumping Straight to Elden Ring, Neowiz Seeks Open World Experience
@Loamy
It really was on the harder side, but i thought overall it was fair enough. I completed most of the game pre boss nerfs, but did struggle a bit with the last final boss, who shall remain nameless...
A lot of the bosses did have exploitable weaknesses, but some did have some very OP moves too.
They could easily have added a difficulty level just by adding in a damage scaler eg easy mode would be 75% received, output 125% against normal.
Re: Lies of P Sequel Jumping Straight to Elden Ring, Neowiz Seeks Open World Experience
Lies of P was an amazing game (in my best 3 last year along with Hogwarts and SM2), with an atmosphere all of its own, but a move to open world / UE5 just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen (so fingers crossed these clearly talented devs keep on top of it).
The linear-ish nature of the 1st game really worked and i enjoyed it more than elden ring (which i thought was ok but overrated) - the characters, combat, and music were all excellent.
The engine and framerate felt really solid too, and i still use it as an example of a 3rd party title done really well on a technical level.
Re: Things Are Getting Worse for Floundering PS5, PC FPS Concord
@Blaze215
It failed because a lot of people did not want another GaaS game, wasnt anywhere near good/interesting enough in terms of gameplay and content/originality to pull those who do like this type of game away from their favourite titles that they have already invested a lot of time and money into, and probably because of the decision to charge for it rather than follow a ftp model.
It did not fail because millions who were going to buy it, decided it contained "too much" diversity, or some political agenda.
Re: Things Are Getting Worse for Floundering PS5, PC FPS Concord
@Jakebrake1895
Sadly we live in a world where a minority of loud, intolerant people like to push their political agenda by using any game/other media which includes any diversity whatsoever, and which has not done amazingly well (it need not have even flopped), just to try and prove their narrative of "go woke, go broke" (makes me sick writing it, even in context).
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Was Allegedly Being Talked About Openly at Gamescom
I know the pro is aimed at fixing UE5 (which i understand is very GPU heavy), and I sadly think that as soon as the Pro is launched UE5 games will run like literal slideshows on base PS5, but I would still like to see a bit more on the CPU side than rumoured.
If things stand as the rumoured specs the Pro will be absolutely essential for UE5 games, but might not do much that you can actually see for games run on other engines.
Re: Silent Hill 2 PS5 Remake Is Quite a Bit Longer Than the Original
@PegasusActual93
I think its been happening gradually over a lot of years, maybe accelerating with generation changes, and is probably in part due to larger media / faster download speeds. For example within a single series RE Code veronica was long for a RE game, then RE4 even longer. Even the remakes of 2 & 3 were made longer than the originals, even if by the standards of a few years ago they were pretty short games.
I think it is something that has crept up and up, and which most of us gamers from the 80's/90's just forget.
Re: Concord (PS5) - Live Service Debut Beats the Hate with Stellar Presentation and Good Gameplay
@get2sammyb
RE game cost / FtP.
I think most would be happy with Free with No microtransactions.
Im being a little sarcastic, but the amount of complaints when AAA full price games moved to £70 was staggering, and imo unfair when you consider development costs and the relatively low level of price increases over the years.
That said, we desparately need to see the death of microtransactions in full priced games (eg DD2, MK1, WWE 2k##), & the now very common releasing of games that are poorly optimised, or buggy, which seems to be far more prevalent now.
Re: Atlus Really Doesn't Want You to Know Metaphor: ReFantazio Is Coming to PS5
Meanwhile, some gamers will start to get exited by another game which is being released in the same window, and which is being heavily marketed for PS5, and will buy that game instead... leaving Metaphor to be a deep sale purchase later on...
Re: PS5, PC FPS Concord's Poor Player Numbers Have Predictably Gone Viral
@get2sammyb
Someone else may have already said this, and apologies if they have, but i think you hit the nail on the head when you say "They made loads of them on PS3 alongside a bunch of great single player games!".
Sony 1st party AAA single player exclusives have really dried up (I know we have had a couple of 3rd party exclusives), but other than the amazing looking Astrobot, nothing much seems on the horizon from them - which in itself may be more feeling than fact due to the lack of info Sony seem to give out these days.
I think this has whipped up the perfect storm - because this game has taken up a dev team at a time when we have a drought of AAA single player exclusives - which has really been one of the main pulls of Sony's console since PS3 days, and realistically one of the main reasons for their success.
I know a couple of people who tend to play games like fortnight or COD most of the year, but always look forwards to the Sony AAA single player games, and only bought PS5 so they could play these alongside their normal live service / online MP games.
NB I dont think a lot of people will see or care if this dev team does or does not have any experience of AAA single player - they just see resource.
GaaS for a lot of people (not all) seem to fit into the you love them or hate them category, and with companies like Sony and WB trying to jump on the live service bandwagon, they are no longer being seen by those who do not like them as just as an alternative (to ignore), but as a threat, generating a more general bad feeling towards them.
For those that do love them (and i think you pointed this out in a recent article), you will find a considerable number have their favourites, and are so invested in these favourites now, both in terms of time and money, that they will see new GaaS games as a threat too.
Just an opinion.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong (PS5) - A Spectacularly Creative Action Romp
I love Souls likes (though this moniker gets used far too often), and 3rd person action adventures in general, but whilst i was hoping for a bit more to do between bosses, its the technical side that has really put me off.
It might be OK, but based on experience i stand a good chance of seeing something of what they are doing - whether i would find it off putting i dont have a clue.
That said, without a demo, i see no reason atm to spend good money on a chance, as its very, very clear from the DF review, that the neccessary development was not done to properly target the PS5 spec.
Re: Silent Hill 2 PS5 Remake Is Quite a Bit Longer Than the Original
A lot of people do forget sometimes just how much shorter games were on average 20yrs ago.
Re: Magic Takes Flight in Nostalgic Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions PS5, PS4 Gameplay
Its not something (quidditch) im too interested in but for those who are, im actually glad they left this out of Hogwarts Legacy last year - they couldnt have done it justice, without impacting on the story based game and (for a rare occasion in this industry) a standalone game appears to be a better idea.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Black Myth: Wukong?
@jrt87
I will say as 'devils advocate' that just looking at performance mode (as the other 2 modes are non starters) that DF did suggest the game ran fairly smoothly most of the time, and a few simple fixes could improve matters for owners of 120hz VRR TVs (which I have).
I would also tend to agree with @northern_munkey (who has actually played it on PS5) that for my part notably purely based on the data provided by DF that this game seems to often run better than a lot of other games.
It seemed most of DFs complaints for this mode were visual quality issues and input latency related to the over use of frame gen.
The framerate graph they showed on screen did show some horrible drops - but i am presuming from what they said that these were Worst case, and limited.
Right now i think i will wait a bit and hope for a demo, as no one i know with a PS5 is buying this game, and i am just not convinced atm - i suppose if i had more knowledge as to how i personally react to frame gen i might think otherwise, but i have only played 1 game with it used a bit more sparingly.
The trouble is that DF do not always do follow ups following major performance patches.
Re: People Are Already Freaking Out Over Monster Hunter Wilds' PS5 Frame Rate
@jrt87
We definitely do need PS5 pro, and i know UE5 is very GPU heavy, but i would like to see a bit more on the CPU side than rumoured specs.
Re: People Are Already Freaking Out Over Monster Hunter Wilds' PS5 Frame Rate
Yep, add me to the pile of "its 60fps and good performance or I will not buy, and will go buy a game that is".
(Doesnt matter how good the game is - not having good performance at 60fps is literally dead in the water).
Re: Reaction: It's Time for Xbox to Tell Us Which Games It's Bringing to PS5, and Which Games It Isn't
I dont really think THEY have a clue what they are doing, and even if a PS5 version of game x or y is in development they dont want to say in case MS changes their mind and lets XBOX keep their exclusive.
Thats the root of the issue imo - MS is forcing XBOX actions, and their wants and needs are just not aligned.
'Be careful what you wish for' has never been truer.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Black Myth: Wukong?
@Northern_munkey
Thank you - i try, though sometimes what i write comes out a bit wrong in terms of the way im saying it!
I have been gaming since the MegaDrive/SNES properly but did have a NES / Speccy +2, so do understand. Street fighter 2 on Speccy was "priceless".
I have replied to people that were having (genuine) difficulty understanding, a couple of times about how problems with performance really came to the fore mid last decade, and a good part of this is the way in which TVs work / the amount of detail on screen etc. Also that people like myself's tolerance is going down, and this can be attributed to a number of factors including even newer TVs, age, length of time playing at locked 60fps (or higher) etc.
Also from a personal point, that i know i (and others) have had problems with performance for a long while, but it is only more recently that I/we have the knowledge to describe and enumerate this (thanks in part to material from places like DF).
Unfortunately because people can have such varied ability to detect performance issues, and tolerance to them even if detected, comments sections can be "fraught".
I will give one odd example - RE4 remake (which i generally got on with well), when you return through the village square (its raining and night time but i cant remember what you are doing) - the fps drops and varies, and it literally nearly made me physically ill and certainly gave me a headache. Odd, but true, and consistent on NG+.
I have now seen the DF analysis of BMW, and it really is an odd one. Just talking performance mode they are using frame generation to create additional frames to take the framerate all the way from 30fps to 60fps which it wasnt really designed to do. The source of the issue is that this game was really designed for "elite" PC, not "standard" PC or console. It seems the devs didnt even drop back foliage or effects for performance mode.
The quality mode is not capped correctly and oddly runs between 30 and 38fps in a 60hz mode.
The game also does not support VRR, only system level VRR.
There is much higher input latency in the performance mode than you would expect (due to the way it uses frame gen).
I really think this is going to lead to a mixed bag of viewpoints, and people will see the game very differently (perhaps the TV type will affect this game more than most). It may also work - frame gen made immortals of aveum (got this via PS+ monthly and delayed until it was patched in) playable for me (just), and whilst it isnt always accurate - the DF video did look quite smooth in performance mode to me (and i could see framerate differences on the video), even if there were a lot of artifacts.
I really would like to see them put out a demo!
Re: Xbox on Bringing Exclusives to PS5: The Industry Is Changing for All of Us
@riceNpea
After their recent carry on, I dont think I would even consider an Xbox console in the future (and I did move to xbox360, then back for PS4). And i think they (Xbox) may have just killed their future business as a console platform in pursuit of Games Pass (which I still think is 1 of the biggest mistakes / threats to video games as a whole), and massive aquisitions, which they now have to start paying MS back for.
Exclusives are a massive part of what draws people to a platform (and a fair part of what keeps me only thinking about PC, not moving to it), and putting yours on other platforms is just plain silly, when looking at a long term view of customer incentive/trust.
All this on top of their game pass price increases, and backtracking on day 1 GP (which had already been backtracked on imo with their very "early access" for buying customers).
But yeah, my main reason for commenting was that i found what he said to be poorly chosen wording (i mean, in relation to the part i quoted from the article, just look at how you can misread what he said!), incoherent, nonsensical, babble.