Comments 795

Re: Deals: Not Feeling the PS5 Pro? PS5 Slim Consoles Are Currently $50/£50 Off

Rich33

@sanderson72
The PS6 is likely to be only a fairly modest boost in power over 5 Pro - DF i believe used the term iterative update or similar recently, and they seemed quite sure of a cross gen period (where all games would need to run on PS5) for longer than this generation had.
This will likely be due to a price point that is higher than launch PS5, so will take longer to go mainstream, but not high enough in price that would enable them to really add a lot of Power, but completely alienate mainstream.
1 big caveat is the same could be acheived via a mainstream priced but comparatively weak console, and a much more expensive Premium console similar to the MS X/S idea.
So yes, even PS6 may be shackled to 5 for a fair while at least.

The PS5 Pro is actually a fair upgrade I think, given the world we live in and the refusal of parts to drop in price over time like they used to - it certainly isnt just a 'warmed up GPU' (but yes, will unfortunately be shackled to the 5 base console, with its results very much depending on how devs use it).

The PS6 will very much rely on AI tech including PSSR to make a 'generational leap', and they very much do NEED serious adoption of this by devs in order to develop it further so that a PS6 can reach its potential.

Re: Deals: Not Feeling the PS5 Pro? PS5 Slim Consoles Are Currently $50/£50 Off

Rich33

@MrPeanutbutterz
In part I agree with you, but when I posted my original comment I was thinking more of those on the fence (unlike myself) - ie those wondering do I buy a Pro or a Slim?
In this case i definitely think Sony would prefer a buyer to buy the Pro, as whilst there may not be much in it, the Pro will have a slightly higher Profit value; and is certainly a much higher turnover value.
I also think that even though its a niche product, Sony really needs the Pro to be well adopted or it could have serious implications for PS6, including (as per DF) that they need devs to adopt and practice use of PSSR.
Its not what they have done, its the timing of it.

Re: Hogwarts Legacy PS5, PS4 Could Be Getting Up to 15 Hours More Content

Rich33

@Maubari
No sarcasm (at least not to you - maybe a little bit to the person who thought it no better than ubisoft / outlaws).

The combat system was fantastic, and i loved the curse mechanics once you filled the skill tree.

Performance was a high spot for me - it launched in a great state, and after an improvement patch last year (during late summer i think), it ran at around 80fps a fair amount of the time (providing you have it uncapped and can use 120hz).

Agree with the small tombs, but part of the reason i liked the game is once transmog was added, and providing you had your beasts sorted, it was easy to upgrade all your gear whenever needed. There was no - do i hold onto this or that item of clothing because it looks good, or has x unique effect, etc you see in a lot of games.

Re: Video: Top 10 Best PS5 Games of 2024 (So Far)

Rich33

Astro (GOTY) and maybe Stellar blade.
Sadly i feel this year has been a fair few Technical messes (eg BMW and its frame gen, FF7R's muddy looking performance mode, Rise of Ronin's launch state framerate, Silent Hills framerate particularly early game), or just so-so games.

Re: Hogwarts Legacy PS5, PS4 Could Be Getting Up to 15 Hours More Content

Rich33

This game is easily one of my top games this generation - I have a few 100% playthoughs under my belt and will still play through again sometime after pro is released.
@NEStalgia said it right, it was special.

As for what I would like to see-

Higher difficulty in end/post game, but not forced by making enemies invulnerable to certain spells / mechanics. Just have larger, higher level mobs more frequently.

A continuation to Sebastians story, or maybe a large story arc set post game/companion questlines - where a group of Ranrok / Rookwood loyalists are set on revenge against you (and your friends), which involves all companions and lets you pick and choose the accompanying companion for a number of the missions.

Expecto Patronum and Dementors added.

Re: Aug 2024 USA Sales: Console Sales Take a Sharp Decline, But PS5 Is Still King

Rich33

Weren't we still in Sony's post shortage very high sales year this time last year? If so a drop of a third doesnt sound too unusual at all to me.

Though I would agree with @gollumb82 that lack of true AAA exclusives (except Astro) may be starting to have an effect.

Maybe Pro will stem the flow of customers over to PC a bit but they need to start properly advertising it! The general consensus of people who have actually played the thing / seen it running in person is them coming away highly impressed.

(NB despite what Sony thinks I do believe people are moving over to PC in some numbers now due to poor optimisation on games from 3rd party and the exclusives situation).

Re: Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (PS5) - Budokai Tenkaichi Returns as a Stunning, Super-Hype Brawler

Rich33

@ShogunRok
To be honest, I think you have already covered this in the review, but how is this game for someone who has never really read / watched Dragonball?

I ask because this was the exact same case for me with Naruto, until I played Ninja Storm 2 which did a fair job of filling in the story (and backfilling the 1st game), and i was hooked all the way to the end of Ninja Storm 4.

Re: Boy! God of War Ragnarok Will Be PS5 Pro Enhanced

Rich33

@__jamiie
I was just trying to give an equally silly but opposite argument, hence why i put it in quote marks.

I think that mid gen hardware is a very good thing, and much needed to keep a fair proportion of the userbase happy when we get to this point in the generation where the base console just cant keep up (unless the dev is a Sony 1st party).
This part of the userbase, which includes myself, may be the minority, but its loss to either PC or Xbox (if they get more powerful hardware out 1st) would still be very damaging to Sony long term.
Of course, 1 remedy for this is to cut each generation much shorter at 5 years, but again you have the need for more frequent hardware purchases.

I hope that PS6 is going to be priced lower than Pro, but i think we need to be realistic to some degree.
PS6 is not likely to be anywhere near the power jump from 4 to 5 (which was quite large despite disappointment from some), and will rely very much on PSSR - in fact if you read an article from DF, they suggest that without PRO succeeding in this regard, with devs getting plenty of practice with it on PRO, PS6 could be off to a bad start.
I think £600 is very likely for PS6, with or without the success of Pro - people buying base PS5s at scalper prices, and the general trend reducing the price reduction over time for Silicon Chips, have probably sealed this.
We are probably 3-4 years away from PS6, making the Pro even more needed as devs already target powerful PC hardware.

Of course 1 may mitigate the other eg higher price, bigger power difference or visa versa; or longer wait, lower price or more power, but something will have to give.

Re: Boy! God of War Ragnarok Will Be PS5 Pro Enhanced

Rich33

Very glad this game is getting an upgrade, as its one of my favourite games of this gen (and ever).

Though i will be intetested in what they improve as on PS5 it already looks fantastic, runs at 1440p, and more importantly runs at 80-90fps average. This is far better than most games this generation.

Re: Boy! God of War Ragnarok Will Be PS5 Pro Enhanced

Rich33

@BrettAwesome
Thats like me saying that "I hope PS6 & the next Xbox come out at a higher price than PS5 Pro so all these people cant afford it".

I completely understand not being able to afford/justify the price of Pro, but dont hope for it to fail - let others enjoy it.

From what I have read and listened to, from people who know about Pricing of more advanced tech, Sony appear to have been in a catch 22 situation - Bigger upgrade but even higher price, Lower price but smaller upgrade. It may be true that Sony are likely not subsidising Pro like they did PS5 early on (ie making a loss).

Re: Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5) - Brilliant, Memorable RPG Is One of Atlus' Finest Works

Rich33

@EfYI
120Hz TVs (or higher in the case of monitors) would not exist if Humans could not see above 60fps - and I can assure you, I can see well above - I still see 60fps with a slideshow like effect, which disappears somewhere around 90fps, but I can still see an improvement in 120fps over 90fps, albeit more minor. Most PC owners im sure will agree.

I think im right in saying that VR devices try to target 90fps.

Glasses / break - at my last eye test my sight was found to be as 'close to perfect as they had seen in anyone in the last year' except 1 small floater. In terms of a break, the effect is near instant - it can be about 1 minute on the feeling sick front, and less than 5 minutes for headaches, though this will depend on how bad the framerate is.

3D is a possibility, but CRT TVs dont seem to cause the issue anywhere near as much, if at all - its also worth noting that 60fps is not a new thing though i cant remember the point we went down to 30fps.

Also, with the lack of information and education before around 10ish years ago, most who suffered these problems just didnt know what caused it and I would include myself in that - some still dont.

A less technically minded (casual gamer) friend of mine a year or so ago said that a game was giving them a headache, they thought due to flashing images or something - i looked at it and found the performance option as they were playing in graphics mode or whatever it was called in that game - problem solved. They didnt have a clue about modes before that and just used the default.

Re: Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5) - Brilliant, Memorable RPG Is One of Atlus' Finest Works

Rich33

@EfYI
I play games for the enjoyment, as probably do most people, unfortunately bad framerates (which for me is anything much under locked 60fps) literally kill any enjoyment in a game for me. I can tolerate small dips here and there, but much more than that is a no-go.

The thing is, you are looking at the problem from your own tolerance level, and as I have said in previous posts, people are very different - you are likely able to tolerate issues, but bad framerates or much less than 60fps literally gives me headaches and make me feel sick, and I cant get any enjoyment in that situation.
Therefore if i was scoring this game it would be an automatic 0 - I would actually get more enjoyment out of a 60fps locked game that was only worth a score of say 5, limited as it may be.

This is not as uncommon as you might think (and even today some do not understand what is causing their problems), and it is only exascerbated by newer TVs, and maybe age, exposure etc - it has certainly got worse for me.
The problem being that some people still believe that it is a case of 'I dont like' rather than 'I cannot tolerate' .

So, "Uuuuuuuuunplayable" - Yes, "30 frames per second? I would rather die!" - No, thats a little ridiculous, but completely unenjoyable, Yes.

The other point is that framerates like this are completely uneccessary on PS5, and usually down to Devs ambitions exceeding their ability, or poor/lacking optimisation (which may well be down to publishers forcing out games) - we have had many examples of games that look very good that easily when uncapped (with 120hz VRR) run at around or in excess of 80fps most of the time.

Thats why we usually get 2 modes - 'Performance" should be 60fps, and sacrifice everything needed to achieve that, 'Graphics' on the other hand should be the opposite, and is for those that dont care about framerates.

Re: Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5) - Brilliant, Memorable RPG Is One of Atlus' Finest Works

Rich33

@tameshiyaku
The reviewer here says 'some chugging frame rates' and its a common complaint for the demo - its possible you cannot see framerate issues until they get bad enough as peoples perception varies greatly - some find 30fps fine, others 40fps, others like myself find anything much under 60fps to be complete no-go territory (even then 60fps is not what i would classify as 'buttery smooth' ).

Edit: i have no idea what caused an emoji to be placed but ive got rid of it now.

Re: Big Star Wars Outlaws PS5 Update Takes Aim at Stealth, Performance

Rich33

@Petrecis24
Sadly its come to the point where i believe the only devs that deserve my 'support' ie full price launch purchase, are those that can manage a well performing, optimised and mostly bug free game at launch.
You would think that some devs/publishers only want sale price purchases the way they carry on!

Re: Watch Unreal 5's Seriously Impressive MegaLights Tech Demo, Running on a PS5

Rich33

If it can run in game locked at 60fps or above, then it looks fantastic, if not its (at present) just a waste of time - another "look what it can do in a demo but not in game" scenario.

Now, if they had shown a demo of a new version of UE5 that didnt eat GPU's and CPU's like they were junk food whilst giving only modest output, that would be an amazing use of time.

Re: Report Finds Lack of Star Wars Outlaws Sales Disturbing

Rich33

When companies release lacklustre / buggy / unoptimised games, they get a reputation - they may get a few passes, but once a reputation sticks.... (This is how i feel about capcom at the moment).

  • everyone knows Ubi put everything on sale in like month 2, often with a lot off.

Re: PS5 Pro 'Absolutely Rocks', According to No Man's Sky Engine Programmer

Rich33

@Pranwell
The DF article Pushsquare referenced yesterday includes a section where he is talking about the inability due to cost of doubling the GPU when making this gens Pro machine (as opposed to PS4 Pro from PS4 which did). He then goes on to state that despite this, the addition of machine learning / AI hardware this time has given an upgrade which gives "similar, if not outright superior results".
So its not just the odd developer that thinks its good.

Re: PlayStation Fans Gleefully Snitch on 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro Scalpers

Rich33

@Czar_Khastik
You raise an intetesting question. Presuming that the covers do fit slim & pro (which is a bit up in the air as I have read both ways on this, with PS Support saying slim plates do not fit pro), Sony were not making much money on these 30th editions - I wonder if it would have gone anywhere near as stupid if Sony had just sold the covers & pads? (Still keeping the 1 per address rule).

The pads and slims were much easier to get last Thursday. Remotes even easier i think?

If Sony sold the covers even for a premium price of £100, how much could scalpers have got for them... lets go with an extreme £500. A mark up of £400.
These 30th pro consoles are being marked up by 1000's of £ - would the lower mark up be as intetesting to them?

I would never pay scalper prices, but the proliferation of scalping is only made worse by these big paydays for them, and the perception of how much they can make in 1 'hit'.

Re: PlayStation Fans Gleefully Snitch on 30th Anniversary PS5 Pro Scalpers

Rich33

i hate this practice (scalping).

Sony clearly made enough Pro's and coupled with the price this has (so far) detererred scalpers.
But in the case of limited editions, I just dont see it ever stopping.

Scalpers only need 1 of these to make a lot of money so the old 'no more than 1 per address' isnt going to be of much use.

Im sure Sony and others have tried on a purchase system front, but I was there and in on the site within a minute or so of the queue opening last Thursday - everyone on hold was given a random place in the queue - and i dont know if i could have completed a purchase. These 30th Pros went fast.

The cancelled ebay resales will just be put back up after launch...

So either:
1) dont have limited runs, or
2) Forever ban resales of Limited Runs

Re: Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out

Rich33

@mountain_spider @StrickenBiged
Ok, so i was interested so had a quick look about. Apparently:

Tech Radar (I havent seen the article just mentions of it) reported that the slim covers fit the pro, with the wider centre strip covering the size difference.

Sony support have told at least a couple of people who have posted on reddit the covers do not match.

So b#####ed if i know!

Re: Bickering Begins Over PS5 Pro's Inability to Sell Out

Rich33

@Oram77
Very unlikely - im pretty sure all Sony consoles going forward will be without drives, but with add on drives available seperately. You may well get an offer of console + seperate drive for £xx off the total though, particularly from somewhere like game in the uk (providing drive stock has returned to normal).