To be frank, even today the "plaza" is a glorified web page. Heck, you'd be surprised how many things are glorified web pages. But now, screenshots and videos are few and far between in the Store - one of the most head-scratching decisions I've ever seen, from a company with a lot of head-scratching decisions.
I never did kick the tires on this game, despite putting it in my cart a few dozen times. Once Plus came out, I always expected it to show up as a Plus title, right up to the day they stopped releasing PS3 games on Plus.
Why would Microsoft pay billions for Activision? What is the benefit to them? They can negotiate Game Pass deals without buying the studio, so it's not that.
Well, look at their purchase of Bethesda. Look at what they're doing there (honoring agreements already in place, but then promising exclusives after that), and Microsoft basically said "Duh, why did you expect us to do anything else?"
Listen to them. Why would you expect them to do anything else with CoD? They'll make it an exclusive as soon as they can, which is why they want to make pinky promises to continue to release it on Playstation, and not binding agreements with regulators as a condition of the deal.
@Hindenburg Makes you wonder why the same thing won't happen to Activision, doesn't it? Five years after the sale goes through, will they manage to kill CoD and anything else worth buying?
Or is CoD's name such a juggernaut that they could release warm poo and still sell it? I don't know - I don't play it, but there's no denying it's a mover and shaker in the industry.
@Hindenburg Gave you three requirements. You got 1/3. That's a fail.
And if you think anyone spends billions "just because they can and it will generate a lot of passive revenue," you're a fool. Or Elon Musk. Some people would say I repeat myself, but with that I'm out.
Nearly 3x the price and I still can't play my UHD movies on disk.
You missed the word BUDGET. The GPU alone costs more than a diskless PS5.
And 99.99% of that "99% of software ever written" isn't stuff I want to run, anyway. As someone who once taught an intro to Visual Basic by having everyone build their own calculator, trust me when I say that volume isn't anything to brag about, at least when it comes to number of applications.
I'm not dissing anybody who chooses PC gaming - I did it once upon a time, and I won't rule out doing again (probably after I'm retired). But it's not for me these days - and it's not for many, many people for a variety of reasons. Heck, most people have more computer power in their phone than they need, and if it weren't for word processing they might not use a PC at all.
And the point - that people pick their consoles based on the exclusives for them - Microsoft wouldn't be spending billions to buy Activision if there wasn't some truth to that, and if you believe otherwise I have a good deal on a long bridge you might be interested in.
(PS - better deals on the SSD these days - you should be able to get a 1TB with heatsink under $100 - I was looking at a 2TB to replace my 1TB that was going to be around $170, but decided to save the money and shuffle games, instead)
@Jaz007 Honestly, I use a web browser and terminal software (I prefer MobaXTerm, for those rare times I need to run XWindows apps remotely - Oracle installers are notorious for that) most of the time, so what I use isn't really that alien. What I do with it might be, and the things I ask for from other IT employees likely would be.
If his aunt worked where I work, then I'm the person the help desk would call if his aunt called for help with that "internal software," and they couldn't figure it out themselves.
Anyway, if this wasn't off-topic before, it sure is now. I'll drop it, unless he comes through with the $500 PC that can beat my PS5, because that would be interesting to see.
@Hindenburg Excellent. My budget is $500. Spec me a new PC that can outperform a PS5, AND can play my UHD movie disks. Heck, you've got Black Friday deals coming, that should help. The SSD alone is going to be nearly a fifth of that budget, and a UHD drive is probably going to be more than a quarter. Good luck.
Oh, you can can do a lot better than a PS5 for $1k+, and likely even match it now (if not two years ago, when I bought mine) sub-$1k. But even then, I'll probably have to deal with Windows Updates, won't I? Meh.
You're trying to convince me it's cost-effective - it's not cost-effective to buy more than I need, and most people agree - or else the units sold of gaming computers would be higher than they are.
@Hindenburg Sure, I've made a living working with computers for 25+ years, but I don't know what a PC can do. Run with that - it's a good look, and doesn't make you look arrogant at all.
@Hindenburg I've been in IT for 25 years. I've built my own PCs. My first gaming rig had a state-of-the-art CD-ROM so I could play the new Betrayal at Krondor CD-ROM game with a CD-quality soundtrack (that same disk is now signed by Raymond Feist, for those that care).
And I don't own a gaming rig today. A PS5 is way more bang for the buck than anything else I would put together. No need for anything with horsepower to browse the web, which is 99% of the non-game computing that 99% of people do these days, including me.
And yes, I chose a PS5 because of the games that I had and that were coming. I also picked up a Series S, which gathers dust - wouldn't have bothered if the trade-in of my old XBox didn't make it darn near free.
Neither compares to a $1k+ computer, sure, but all my bases are covered with little fuss. After troubleshooting servers and third-party software all day, I want simple and uncomplicated at home. I don't need to spend time figuring out which video card is the best bang for the buck, when they all cost more than my console - I just want to use an axe to break a few chests (for kills or for loot, depending on the type of chest).
I literally forgot this game existed. After what I was reading after release I took it off my wishlists and forgot about it.
I expect I'll give it a try when it inevitably shows up on one of the Plus tiers, even if it's for Christmas next year or the year after. Until then, I'm not too stressed about missing out.
@lindos Everything announced says it is NOT a patch - it's a new, PS5-native game that won't be playable on a PS4 (and XBox Series game that won't be playable on XBox One).
Now, that doesn't mean it's a full remaster - it may be 99% the same code with some spit and polish, closer to a patch than a remaster. We'll see when it's released.
@themightyant In the US at least, but I believe also under the international copyright treaty, copyright means that derivative works are owned by the original copyright holder, not the creator of the derivative. While it hasn't been fully tested in court for mods, in practice this probably means that mods are owned by the original game publisher and NOT by the mod author.
You want to own your own work, create your own work. You piggyback on someone else's work (fan fiction, mods, etc), and you may not own it.
Free is always a good price. I don't blame people for hoping for free - but they shouldn't expect it.
Except @KundaliniRising333 makes a good point - they promised a lot to make this right, and they've backed off many of those promises. We got an outfit, right? Whoohooo!!!!! That SO makes up for it all!
I don't think they're going to live down the Cyberpunk launch this quickly. If the Witcher 3 current-gen upgrade is half as buggy as the Cyberpunk launch was, they're going to hear it, too. They threw away the good will they had, and people are skeptical and untrusting of the company now, until they show they can really do better.
I got the best of all worlds - I picked it up on disk for $5 before the PS5 version came out, and I'll start playing it for real some time after Ragnarock. Since it keeps getting improvements, I'll play the game they should have released - about the time they should have released it, apparently.
Don't care what the music is, so much as I care about questions like, can I flag songs that bug me to remove them from the list, or play my own music instead? I start with the soundtrack the game gives me, but sometimes there's a song that I just HATE and want it gone, or I want to play to whatever earworm I've been listening to elsewhere. Is it flexible?
@Digit2021 Somehow, I suspect developers are looking at more data than just a Pushsquare poll - actual sales data, perhaps. I doubt the people who come here and answer polls are representative of the market at large.
Note, that's not a criticism of the poll - just of reading too much into it.
@kyleforrester87 Sure it's possible, but if the physical disk was missing, it would be easier to notice - the weight would be off by more than just missing a slip of paper, and automated systems could detect that more easily.
I'm sure they have QA ready and expecting a few glitches, but it's a shame stuff like this happens at all.
I wonder if somebody out there didn't get their DLC, but rather got two codes for the game. Wonder if they're upset about that or not.
People have developed this weird idea that THEIR opinion is somehow part of them, of who they are as a person, and anyone who disagrees with that opinion is, therefor, attacking them directly and personally - which justifies them attacking back, directly and personally. It's obscene, is what it is.
I expect I will love GoW Ragnarock. But it doesn't hurt me at all if other people absolutely HATE it - that doesn't affect my enjoyment one little bit. Likewise, if I decide it's really not my thing and I don't love it as much as I hope to, reviewers here giving it 10/10 doesn't hurt me at all - it just means I would disagree this time.
Really, stop acting like your own opinion is somehow more than just a personal opinion. It's fine if people disagree, you should never attack them because their priorities and preferences happen to be different. [That's directed at the wide Internet, who will surely ignore it entirely, not at Push Square staff or reviewers]
Will almost certainly start at Favor Quality + HFR + VRR @40fps unlocked - feels like the fewest compromises. You need the TV to pull that off, though.
I have a 120mhz TV (with VRR finally patched in - thanks, Sony!), and the difference between 30 and 40 is big enough to feel incredibly responsive. You can still feel the difference going to 60fps, but it usually feels like a smaller difference. A lot depends on the visual quality hit between 40 and 60, but unlocked with a target of 40 ought to work really well.
Will be interested in the inevitable comparisons from Digital Foundry, to see how well it handles unlocked frame rates and what the visual difference really is. I've seen 1080p that looked darn good, and 4k that wasn't that impressive - so much is in the details (literally).
I played point-and-click games back when they were a serious technical leap from typing "look door," and you were impressed if there were more colors on the screen than you could count on your fingers and toes. The King's Quest PS4 series from a few years ago was a fix for me.
I skipped the Monkey Island series, for some reason, so the nostalgia is not strong with this one. I'll probably pass.
Sackboy had no PC presence before this game, did he? Little Big Planet was a Playstation exclusive, and Sackboy is as well. There's no existing market - it's all new IP to the PC world.
There was almost no marketing, as has been pointed out.
Put those two together, and it could be the best game ever, but it would take time for anyone to notice.
And while it's a fun game with a few particularly awesome levels (and better on a PS5 where it benefits from the DualSense controller), it's more fun with couch multiplayer than it is by yourself or online. It's really an experience that's best for console and doesn't translate as well for the traditional PC setup.
Then again, even poor sales will probably make Sony and the developers at least some profit, right?
Never quite finished the first one (on Game Pass), and was actually looking forward to replaying it on the PS5. Won't have that done anywhere near next week (since I haven't started, yet), so I expect I'll wait for this to hit a sale - but it's already on my wishlist.
@mariomaster96 You CAN say that for every game that has a disk version, at least - they need to have a version to put on the disk, and the "gold" version is what gets on the physical media. This doesn't mean there won't be a day 1 patch for Ragnarok - in fact, I'd put money on there being a day 1 patch, because there are always day 1 patches these days.
I bet the team doesn't even get a real break between now and November 9, they're probably still hard at work finding/squashing bugs and building another layer of polish for that day 1 patch.
Didn't they have a somewhat disastrous launch of Witcher 3, where they had to scramble to regain good will - and did such a good job that suddenly they became the darling that could do no wrong? Surely they learned from the mistakes of Witcher 3 and wouldn't repeat that with Cyberpunk 2077...right?
In 5-10 years we'll be saying the same thing. Memories fade. People will forget the angst and the stock drop, and remember the total sales numbers and the stock rebound. It's easy to say you won't have crunch or release a buggy game when your deadline is years in the future - it's a lot harder when your deadline is in the past, especially years in the past.
I'm skeptical. But I'm skeptical of EVERY game until I can see someone in the real world play the release version themselves. Preorders are for fools.
IF it's a free upgrade - or even a $10 upgrade, I think most people would be fine with it. But...I think Sony is showing us who they are, now.
This isn't the same Sony that stepped up to the podium and said "two ninety-nine." This isn't the same Sony that went through the list of things people hated after the XBox One announcement and showed how the PS4 would be different.
This is the Sony that said they want new games to cost more for the PS5, that charged that new higher price on the LoU remake, and who thinks a 1% return on buying games is just a wonderful Stars benefit we should all be thanking them for.
I'd love to see an inFamous port to the PS5 - I played the heck out of that game on my PS3. Sony should be using resources on games like THAT over an upgrade to Horizon, IMO - it was a solid game that I think would still hold up today, though its open world is a bit small by today's standards.
Loved Sly, Loved Ghost...awesome games coming from this studio.
@Bez87 I watched the trailer, and I couldn't tell if the "anime stuff" was part of actual gameplay or not. I want a gameplay video, to see what's really IN THE GAME, and not just the marketing mumbo jumbo in the trailer.
It might be brilliant. It might be stupid. I can't tell.
I don't think that trailer told me much of anything about the game itself. I don't care about most of what they seemed to focus on in the trailer - I care what gameplay looks like. Show me two or three minutes of actual gameplay, and then I'll know if I'm getting excited or shaking my head.
Why do people keep saying CDPR will learn from their mistakes and the issues with crunch or a buggy release won't happen again? Why do you think that?
I didn't get into the Witcher 3 until well after it was released as a bundle with all the DLC - but I'm old enough to remember it had some problems when it was first released. The good will they earned wasn't from releasing a great game that worked well on day 1, it was from continuing to fix and improve their game, and throwing their customers a few carrots (like haircuts) for free to help show they cared.
Then 2077 came out about a year or two early after being overhyped for a decade, give or take. Now, some of you are all ready to forgive and assume they learned their lesson. Why? What makes you think they learned it? I won't believe it until I see it, and you shouldn't, either. It's easy to say at the beginning of a development cycle that you'll avoid crunch - when it's a year after their estimated release and it's still not where they want it to be, THAT'S when they need to be committed to avoiding crunch or releasing a half-finished game. THAT'S when the pressure will be on - not now.
I'm curious how these compare to something like the last-gen Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, which aren't specifically for gaming but are among the best noise cancelling headphones out there for about the same price. Would the H9 work for commuting or a plane ride, or does the stick mic relegate this to at-home use, only?
Does anybody use the WH-1000XM4 or WH-1000XM5 for gaming? I've been considering getting one of those for conference calls, music at work, and the occasional flight, and I could see using them with the PS5, too, either wired to the controller or wireless with Bluetooth - how would that compare to the H9?
It's getting ever cheaper to buy internal SSD storage for the PS5 (unlike Microsoft's proprietary storage expansion, whose price hasn't dropped much since day 1). I've got a 1TB internal, which I might swap it for a 2TB in another year or two. I'm fine, even with games from Plus I've downloaded but aren't playing right now.
If they're going to do one, I see it in October or 2023. Once you hit November, there's less of a need for one - Ragnarock is out, holiday season is here, and January is the next-best bet.
@NEStalgia You keep arguing "it's not that simple," but then you use examples that really repeat what I was saying already. I think we agree more than we disagree.
Of course I'm simplifying - this is a forum post, not a doctorate dissertation - but I think it's fair and honest simplification. There's some question of which comes first, sure, but businesses fund what they think will sell, and it truly IS that simple. You don't convince Sony to spend more on JRPGs by telling them they're losing their identity - you convince them by showing them they're losing profit.
This article is about one game Sony didn't fund. Sony may have had 100 different reasons not to fund it (competes with IP they own, didn't believe in the developers, whatever) that might even have had nothing to do with the genre. But just as someone said there were so many games coming out they were reserving their money for the sure-fire proven franchise titles, Sony and other game developers (and movie developers, too) do the same thing - BECAUSE they know many of us choose to spend our money on the established franchises. They're making what they know (well, think) will sell. That's rational.
And yes, a game that costs a fraction of a AAA title only needs a fraction of the revenue to turn a profit. But if you're going to invest $X, and the one title estimates a 100% return while the other estimates a 5% return, it may not matter that $X is a lot smaller for the 5% return. Or maybe it does. Companies evaluate and manage their risk/reward, and make decisions as best they can. The worse they do, the sooner they perish.
There was a wishlist in the old PS Store before the PS5 came out - primarily accessible through the web version of the store.
It is nice that it's better integrated to the console now, but really...so what? Unless I can save money by wishlisting a game before it's released, I'm not sure I care much.
I still think the old PS3 store search was among the best features that's never been fully duplicated. You'd start picking letters in your search, and the list of matching items changed in real time as you picked letters. It seemed so much faster than anything since.
@Ryu_Niiyama Transmog means you can make gear/weapons have the look of one item you own, but the stats of a different item you own. So you can have the look you want without sacrificing stats.
Not a fan of EA's FIFA (or of what the rest of the world calls "football," either - I just don't get the strategy, it looks like keep-away for an hour with the rare kick at the goal), but if this ends up free on PS Plus a month or two before the next year's version comes out, I'll give it a shot just to play as Roy Kent and be coached by Ted Lasso.
@NEStalgia To continue with the analogy...sure, your pizza company doesn't stop investing in mushrooms. But if pepperoni sells 50x more than mushrooms, no pizza company should invest equally in pepperoni and mushrooms - they're probably going to spend, I'm spitballing here, about 50x as much on their pepperoni supply as their mushroom supply, especially when they're selling them for the same price (but in Sony's case, they're probably not selling for the same price, which makes the disparity worse).
It's not that you can't invest in something that doesn't sell much, or even be willing to take a loss on something to draw in customers. But it sure can't be all you do, and you sure can't take huge losses on a lot of things - you have to be narrow and selective on what you're willing to take losses on, or you risk losing EVERYTHING.
But if customer demand shifts, if suddenly people want mushrooms and pepperoni in equal measure, than no pizza company would survive if they still spent 50x as much on pepperoni as on mushrooms. You're all acting like Sony is a gatekeeper, preventing games from being made - but we're all collectively the gatekeeper when we withhold success by not buying something. If you want more mushrooms, buy more mushrooms, and get the whole market to move with you in buying more mushrooms. It's really that simple...or impossible.
Now others have said "but there's so much to choose from, we can only afford one or two toppings." Well - if that's what drives a 50:1 disparity, then tell me where it makes sense to invest? Somehow it's Sony's fault they aren't giving you more mushrooms, AND it's their fault there's too many toppings to choose from? I can't keep up.
Sony invests in what sells - that's what businesses that survive do. Business that invest in things that don't sell don't survive. That's true for video games, cars, pizza ingredients, overpriced screwdrivers, and everything else you can think of.
AAA games sell better than JRPGs right now. So Sony invests more in what sells better. This isn't rocket science. If you want more games like X, then buy more X and get everyone else to buy more X, and we'll all get more X. If you can't convince your friends to buy it, how do you expect to convince Sony to invest in it?
It's not like you need a huge budget to make something that gets a huge audience - see also: Minecraft.
@stvevan I totally agree - no hype until I know a price. If this is priced out of my league, it doesn't matter how awesome it is, I won't care because I won't have one.
In many ways this is a terrible time to release a new, expensive item like this - not Sony's fault, the timing is just awful. With inflation becoming a global concern, they've got to be worried whatever price they set will cost them more and more in losses in coming months and years without a price hike - but they don't want to price this out of reach day 1, either, because discretionary spending is dropping for most of their customer base. It's going to be a tough call for them.
Sly Cooper definitely doesn't feel as dated as Jax and Daxter. Genuinely fun. Not going to fire up my PS3 to play it some more, but it's genuinely fun.
I'm more interested in Deathloop - didn't pick it up while it was an exclusive, figure I'll take a look now. And I'm wondering about Watch Dogs 2 - hated the first, it had so much potential it seemed to just miss on delivering, but I've heard the second does it better.
There goes my PSVR library from having Plus all these years and picking up a few games here and there when offered for free. Oh well. Like many here, I'm not surprised - but I was more hopeful than I should have been, apparently.
The best games (whose developers are still around) might get ported to PSVR2 - I assume it would cost less to port an existing game than to build a whole new one. Not sure I'd expect patches, though - new purchases may be more likely, which will probably tick some people off if developers can't at least offer discounts for upgrades.
@TheArt Is it silly [to take an existing multiplatform hit and make it exclusive]? It depends on your priorities and goals. If your goal is to make the most money in the short term, then sure - release each game on as many platforms as you possibly can.
But if your goal is to try to seriously injure or kill a competitor so you can dominate the market and set your own prices for everything, then the strategy will be a LOT different.
There's a sign that Microsoft can leave a studio alone, at least enough to continue making multiplatform releases - Minecraft speaks to that. But there's evidence they're buying studios to bolster XBox against Playstation - Bethesda speaks to that. So how does Microsoft really truly view Activision Blizzard and all its IP?
And will their answer during antitrust investigations persist, or will it change once the deal goes through? Microsoft themselves may not honestly know the answer to that.
Comments 626
Re: Random: Oddball PS3 Catapult Game PAIN Celebrates 15th Anniversary
To be frank, even today the "plaza" is a glorified web page. Heck, you'd be surprised how many things are glorified web pages. But now, screenshots and videos are few and far between in the Store - one of the most head-scratching decisions I've ever seen, from a company with a lot of head-scratching decisions.
I never did kick the tires on this game, despite putting it in my cart a few dozen times. Once Plus came out, I always expected it to show up as a Plus title, right up to the day they stopped releasing PS3 games on Plus.
Re: Sony Throws EA's Battlefield Under the Bus to Make a Point on Call of Duty
Why would Microsoft pay billions for Activision? What is the benefit to them? They can negotiate Game Pass deals without buying the studio, so it's not that.
Well, look at their purchase of Bethesda. Look at what they're doing there (honoring agreements already in place, but then promising exclusives after that), and Microsoft basically said "Duh, why did you expect us to do anything else?"
Listen to them. Why would you expect them to do anything else with CoD? They'll make it an exclusive as soon as they can, which is why they want to make pinky promises to continue to release it on Playstation, and not binding agreements with regulators as a condition of the deal.
Re: Microsoft Admits Its Games Are Worse Than Sony's
@Hindenburg Makes you wonder why the same thing won't happen to Activision, doesn't it? Five years after the sale goes through, will they manage to kill CoD and anything else worth buying?
Or is CoD's name such a juggernaut that they could release warm poo and still sell it? I don't know - I don't play it, but there's no denying it's a mover and shaker in the industry.
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Hindenburg Gave you three requirements. You got 1/3. That's a fail.
And if you think anyone spends billions "just because they can and it will generate a lot of passive revenue," you're a fool. Or Elon Musk. Some people would say I repeat myself, but with that I'm out.
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Hindenburg FAIL.
Nearly 3x the price and I still can't play my UHD movies on disk.
You missed the word BUDGET. The GPU alone costs more than a diskless PS5.
And 99.99% of that "99% of software ever written" isn't stuff I want to run, anyway. As someone who once taught an intro to Visual Basic by having everyone build their own calculator, trust me when I say that volume isn't anything to brag about, at least when it comes to number of applications.
I'm not dissing anybody who chooses PC gaming - I did it once upon a time, and I won't rule out doing again (probably after I'm retired). But it's not for me these days - and it's not for many, many people for a variety of reasons. Heck, most people have more computer power in their phone than they need, and if it weren't for word processing they might not use a PC at all.
And the point - that people pick their consoles based on the exclusives for them - Microsoft wouldn't be spending billions to buy Activision if there wasn't some truth to that, and if you believe otherwise I have a good deal on a long bridge you might be interested in.
(PS - better deals on the SSD these days - you should be able to get a 1TB with heatsink under $100 - I was looking at a 2TB to replace my 1TB that was going to be around $170, but decided to save the money and shuffle games, instead)
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Jaz007 Honestly, I use a web browser and terminal software (I prefer MobaXTerm, for those rare times I need to run XWindows apps remotely - Oracle installers are notorious for that) most of the time, so what I use isn't really that alien. What I do with it might be, and the things I ask for from other IT employees likely would be.
If his aunt worked where I work, then I'm the person the help desk would call if his aunt called for help with that "internal software," and they couldn't figure it out themselves.
Anyway, if this wasn't off-topic before, it sure is now. I'll drop it, unless he comes through with the $500 PC that can beat my PS5, because that would be interesting to see.
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Hindenburg Excellent. My budget is $500. Spec me a new PC that can outperform a PS5, AND can play my UHD movie disks. Heck, you've got Black Friday deals coming, that should help. The SSD alone is going to be nearly a fifth of that budget, and a UHD drive is probably going to be more than a quarter. Good luck.
Oh, you can can do a lot better than a PS5 for $1k+, and likely even match it now (if not two years ago, when I bought mine) sub-$1k. But even then, I'll probably have to deal with Windows Updates, won't I? Meh.
You're trying to convince me it's cost-effective - it's not cost-effective to buy more than I need, and most people agree - or else the units sold of gaming computers would be higher than they are.
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Hindenburg Sure, I've made a living working with computers for 25+ years, but I don't know what a PC can do. Run with that - it's a good look, and doesn't make you look arrogant at all.
Re: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Has Better PC Launch Than Sackboy, Uncharted
@Hindenburg I've been in IT for 25 years. I've built my own PCs. My first gaming rig had a state-of-the-art CD-ROM so I could play the new Betrayal at Krondor CD-ROM game with a CD-quality soundtrack (that same disk is now signed by Raymond Feist, for those that care).
And I don't own a gaming rig today. A PS5 is way more bang for the buck than anything else I would put together. No need for anything with horsepower to browse the web, which is 99% of the non-game computing that 99% of people do these days, including me.
And yes, I chose a PS5 because of the games that I had and that were coming. I also picked up a Series S, which gathers dust - wouldn't have bothered if the trade-in of my old XBox didn't make it darn near free.
Neither compares to a $1k+ computer, sure, but all my bases are covered with little fuss. After troubleshooting servers and third-party software all day, I want simple and uncomplicated at home. I don't need to spend time figuring out which video card is the best bang for the buck, when they all cost more than my console - I just want to use an axe to break a few chests (for kills or for loot, depending on the type of chest).
Re: Huge Saints Row Patch Out Now on PS5, PS4
I literally forgot this game existed. After what I was reading after release I took it off my wishlists and forgot about it.
I expect I'll give it a try when it inevitably shows up on one of the Plus tiers, even if it's for Christmas next year or the year after. Until then, I'm not too stressed about missing out.
Re: The Witcher 3 PS5 Has 'Dozens' of Improvements, Integrated Mods, and New Netflix Show Content
@lindos Everything announced says it is NOT a patch - it's a new, PS5-native game that won't be playable on a PS4 (and XBox Series game that won't be playable on XBox One).
Now, that doesn't mean it's a full remaster - it may be 99% the same code with some spit and polish, closer to a patch than a remaster. We'll see when it's released.
Re: The Witcher 3 PS5 Has 'Dozens' of Improvements, Integrated Mods, and New Netflix Show Content
@themightyant In the US at least, but I believe also under the international copyright treaty, copyright means that derivative works are owned by the original copyright holder, not the creator of the derivative. While it hasn't been fully tested in court for mods, in practice this probably means that mods are owned by the original game publisher and NOT by the mod author.
You want to own your own work, create your own work. You piggyback on someone else's work (fan fiction, mods, etc), and you may not own it.
Re: Yes, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Is a Paid Expansion, Makes Headlines for Some Reason
Free is always a good price. I don't blame people for hoping for free - but they shouldn't expect it.
Except @KundaliniRising333 makes a good point - they promised a lot to make this right, and they've backed off many of those promises. We got an outfit, right? Whoohooo!!!!! That SO makes up for it all!
I don't think they're going to live down the Cyberpunk launch this quickly. If the Witcher 3 current-gen upgrade is half as buggy as the Cyberpunk launch was, they're going to hear it, too. They threw away the good will they had, and people are skeptical and untrusting of the company now, until they show they can really do better.
I got the best of all worlds - I picked it up on disk for $5 before the PS5 version came out, and I'll start playing it for real some time after Ragnarock. Since it keeps getting improvements, I'll play the game they should have released - about the time they should have released it, apparently.
Re: Need for Speed Unbound's PS5 Soundtrack Will Make You Feel Old
Don't care what the music is, so much as I care about questions like, can I flag songs that bug me to remove them from the list, or play my own music instead? I start with the soundtrack the game gives me, but sometimes there's a song that I just HATE and want it gone, or I want to play to whatever earworm I've been listening to elsewhere. Is it flexible?
Re: Poll: Did You Buy God of War Ragnarok?
@Digit2021 Somehow, I suspect developers are looking at more data than just a Pushsquare poll - actual sales data, perhaps. I doubt the people who come here and answer polls are representative of the market at large.
Note, that's not a criticism of the poll - just of reading too much into it.
Re: Some God of War Ragnarok Collector's Editions Are Missing the Actual Game
@kyleforrester87 Sure it's possible, but if the physical disk was missing, it would be easier to notice - the weight would be off by more than just missing a slip of paper, and automated systems could detect that more easily.
I'm sure they have QA ready and expecting a few glitches, but it's a shame stuff like this happens at all.
I wonder if somebody out there didn't get their DLC, but rather got two codes for the game. Wonder if they're upset about that or not.
Re: God of War Ragnarok PS5, PS4 Reviewer Threatened Over Lower Score
People have developed this weird idea that THEIR opinion is somehow part of them, of who they are as a person, and anyone who disagrees with that opinion is, therefor, attacking them directly and personally - which justifies them attacking back, directly and personally. It's obscene, is what it is.
I expect I will love GoW Ragnarock. But it doesn't hurt me at all if other people absolutely HATE it - that doesn't affect my enjoyment one little bit. Likewise, if I decide it's really not my thing and I don't love it as much as I hope to, reviewers here giving it 10/10 doesn't hurt me at all - it just means I would disagree this time.
Really, stop acting like your own opinion is somehow more than just a personal opinion. It's fine if people disagree, you should never attack them because their priorities and preferences happen to be different. [That's directed at the wide Internet, who will surely ignore it entirely, not at Push Square staff or reviewers]
Re: Need for Speed Unbound's Takeover Mode Is All About Driving with Style
The video makes it look like a guided version of Burnout Paradise's Stunt Runs - chain together tricks to keep the multiplier increasing.
Re: Official God of War Ragnarok PS5, PS4 Graphics Modes Revealed
Will almost certainly start at Favor Quality + HFR + VRR @40fps unlocked - feels like the fewest compromises. You need the TV to pull that off, though.
I have a 120mhz TV (with VRR finally patched in - thanks, Sony!), and the difference between 30 and 40 is big enough to feel incredibly responsive. You can still feel the difference going to 60fps, but it usually feels like a smaller difference. A lot depends on the visual quality hit between 40 and 60, but unlocked with a target of 40 ought to work really well.
Will be interested in the inevitable comparisons from Digital Foundry, to see how well it handles unlocked frame rates and what the visual difference really is. I've seen 1080p that looked darn good, and 4k that wasn't that impressive - so much is in the details (literally).
Re: Mini Review: Brewmaster (PS5) - All Hail the Best Beer Brewing Sim on PlayStation
Charge even more if it's gluten free.
Re: Return to Monkey Island Lands a PS5 Version Next Week
I played point-and-click games back when they were a serious technical leap from typing "look door," and you were impressed if there were more colors on the screen than you could count on your fingers and toes. The King's Quest PS4 series from a few years ago was a fix for me.
I skipped the Monkey Island series, for some reason, so the nostalgia is not strong with this one. I'll probably pass.
Re: Ben Stiller Is Kratos in God of War Ragnarok Ad with John Travolta, LeBron James
The James quote in the article should have been in the commercial, it would have made the commercial better.
It nails the "kids are embarrassed of their fathers, even if their fathers are wildly successful" vibe - but it's not like that's a hard take to nail.
Re: Sackboy: A Big Adventure Has Proven Very Unpopular on PC
Sackboy had no PC presence before this game, did he? Little Big Planet was a Playstation exclusive, and Sackboy is as well. There's no existing market - it's all new IP to the PC world.
There was almost no marketing, as has been pointed out.
Put those two together, and it could be the best game ever, but it would take time for anyone to notice.
And while it's a fun game with a few particularly awesome levels (and better on a PS5 where it benefits from the DualSense controller), it's more fun with couch multiplayer than it is by yourself or online. It's really an experience that's best for console and doesn't translate as well for the traditional PC setup.
Then again, even poor sales will probably make Sony and the developers at least some profit, right?
Re: Cyberpunk 2077, Mass Effect, Ubisoft Games on Sale This Weekend
So glad I picked up a physical copy of Cyberpunk for $5 when it was at peak fail. I still haven't played through it yet, but it's probably time.
Or...maybe it will be time after Ragnarock. Hate paying full price, but I might just have to this time.
Re: PS Plus Expiry Dates Return to the PS Store, Because Sony
So one way you COULD phrase it is that Sony heard the negative feedback, and responded by putting the expiration dates back.
But that's supposition, unless Sony were to actually communicate something like that, or that they were removed in error, or SOMETHING.
Re: Reminder: PS5, PS4 Loyalty Scheme PS Stars Arrives in Europe This Week
Don't get your hopes up.
Re: Amicia Displays Her Deadly Crossbow Skills in A Plague Tale: Requiem's Latest Trailer
Never quite finished the first one (on Game Pass), and was actually looking forward to replaying it on the PS5. Won't have that done anywhere near next week (since I haven't started, yet), so I expect I'll wait for this to hit a sale - but it's already on my wishlist.
Re: Yes, You Can Turn the Effects Off in Need for Speed Unbound
Choices are good.
Let the people who love the look enjoy the look, and the people who feel it's distracting avoid the distraction. Player choice is [almost] never bad.
Re: Need for Speed Unbound Looks Super Stylish in Short Gameplay Clip
If you can turn them on or off, then who cares? If you love them, rock them, and if you hate them, drop them.
Now I want to see more gameplay. This is the most we've seen so far, and it's still not a lot.
Re: God of War Ragnarok Goes Gold Ahead of November Release Date on PS5, PS4
@mariomaster96 You CAN say that for every game that has a disk version, at least - they need to have a version to put on the disk, and the "gold" version is what gets on the physical media. This doesn't mean there won't be a day 1 patch for Ragnarok - in fact, I'd put money on there being a day 1 patch, because there are always day 1 patches these days.
I bet the team doesn't even get a real break between now and November 9, they're probably still hard at work finding/squashing bugs and building another layer of polish for that day 1 patch.
Re: CDPR Is Betting Big on Cyberpunk 2077's Sequel
Didn't they have a somewhat disastrous launch of Witcher 3, where they had to scramble to regain good will - and did such a good job that suddenly they became the darling that could do no wrong? Surely they learned from the mistakes of Witcher 3 and wouldn't repeat that with Cyberpunk 2077...right?
In 5-10 years we'll be saying the same thing. Memories fade. People will forget the angst and the stock drop, and remember the total sales numbers and the stock rebound. It's easy to say you won't have crunch or release a buggy game when your deadline is years in the future - it's a lot harder when your deadline is in the past, especially years in the past.
I'm skeptical. But I'm skeptical of EVERY game until I can see someone in the real world play the release version themselves. Preorders are for fools.
Re: Hardcore PlayStation Fans Seem Dead Against a Horizon Zero Dawn Remake or Remaster
IF it's a free upgrade - or even a $10 upgrade, I think most people would be fine with it. But...I think Sony is showing us who they are, now.
This isn't the same Sony that stepped up to the podium and said "two ninety-nine." This isn't the same Sony that went through the list of things people hated after the XBox One announcement and showed how the PS4 would be different.
This is the Sony that said they want new games to cost more for the PS5, that charged that new higher price on the LoU remake, and who thinks a 1% return on buying games is just a wonderful Stars benefit we should all be thanking them for.
Re: Ghost of Tsushima, Sly Cooper Dev Sucker Punch Celebrates 25th Anniversary
I'd love to see an inFamous port to the PS5 - I played the heck out of that game on my PS3. Sony should be using resources on games like THAT over an upgrade to Horizon, IMO - it was a solid game that I think would still hold up today, though its open world is a bit small by today's standards.
Loved Sly, Loved Ghost...awesome games coming from this studio.
Re: Need for Speed Unbound Runs 4K, 60fps on PS5 with Full Crossplay
@Bez87 I watched the trailer, and I couldn't tell if the "anime stuff" was part of actual gameplay or not. I want a gameplay video, to see what's really IN THE GAME, and not just the marketing mumbo jumbo in the trailer.
Re: Need for Speed Unbound Is Unlike Any Arcade Racer You've Seen Before
Can we swap the soundtrack? I'm one of those people who think rap is a four-letter word (the c is silent).
Re: Need for Speed Unbound Is Unlike Any Arcade Racer You've Seen Before
It might be brilliant. It might be stupid. I can't tell.
I don't think that trailer told me much of anything about the game itself. I don't care about most of what they seemed to focus on in the trailer - I care what gameplay looks like. Show me two or three minutes of actual gameplay, and then I'll know if I'm getting excited or shaking my head.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Codenamed Project Orion Announced
Why do people keep saying CDPR will learn from their mistakes and the issues with crunch or a buggy release won't happen again? Why do you think that?
I didn't get into the Witcher 3 until well after it was released as a bundle with all the DLC - but I'm old enough to remember it had some problems when it was first released. The good will they earned wasn't from releasing a great game that worked well on day 1, it was from continuing to fix and improve their game, and throwing their customers a few carrots (like haircuts) for free to help show they cared.
Then 2077 came out about a year or two early after being overhyped for a decade, give or take. Now, some of you are all ready to forgive and assume they learned their lesson. Why? What makes you think they learned it? I won't believe it until I see it, and you shouldn't, either. It's easy to say at the beginning of a development cycle that you'll avoid crunch - when it's a year after their estimated release and it's still not where they want it to be, THAT'S when they need to be committed to avoiding crunch or releasing a half-finished game. THAT'S when the pressure will be on - not now.
Re: Hardware Review: Sony INZONE H9 - Taking Your Audio Experience to the Next Level
I'm curious how these compare to something like the last-gen Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, which aren't specifically for gaming but are among the best noise cancelling headphones out there for about the same price. Would the H9 work for commuting or a plane ride, or does the stick mic relegate this to at-home use, only?
Does anybody use the WH-1000XM4 or WH-1000XM5 for gaming? I've been considering getting one of those for conference calls, music at work, and the occasional flight, and I could see using them with the PS5, too, either wired to the controller or wireless with Bluetooth - how would that compare to the H9?
Re: God of War Ragnarok Could Weigh in at a Whopping 90GB on PS4
It's getting ever cheaper to buy internal SSD storage for the PS5 (unlike Microsoft's proprietary storage expansion, whose price hasn't dropped much since day 1). I've got a 1TB internal, which I might swap it for a 2TB in another year or two. I'm fine, even with games from Plus I've downloaded but aren't playing right now.
Re: Talking Point: Is a PlayStation Showcase Really Happening This Year?
If they're going to do one, I see it in October or 2023. Once you hit November, there's less of a need for one - Ragnarock is out, holiday season is here, and January is the next-best bet.
But I know nothing. It's all speculation.
Re: Sony Wasn't Interested in New JRPG from Ex-Wild Arms Devs
@NEStalgia You keep arguing "it's not that simple," but then you use examples that really repeat what I was saying already. I think we agree more than we disagree.
Of course I'm simplifying - this is a forum post, not a doctorate dissertation - but I think it's fair and honest simplification. There's some question of which comes first, sure, but businesses fund what they think will sell, and it truly IS that simple. You don't convince Sony to spend more on JRPGs by telling them they're losing their identity - you convince them by showing them they're losing profit.
This article is about one game Sony didn't fund. Sony may have had 100 different reasons not to fund it (competes with IP they own, didn't believe in the developers, whatever) that might even have had nothing to do with the genre. But just as someone said there were so many games coming out they were reserving their money for the sure-fire proven franchise titles, Sony and other game developers (and movie developers, too) do the same thing - BECAUSE they know many of us choose to spend our money on the established franchises. They're making what they know (well, think) will sell. That's rational.
And yes, a game that costs a fraction of a AAA title only needs a fraction of the revenue to turn a profit. But if you're going to invest $X, and the one title estimates a 100% return while the other estimates a 5% return, it may not matter that $X is a lot smaller for the 5% return. Or maybe it does. Companies evaluate and manage their risk/reward, and make decisions as best they can. The worse they do, the sooner they perish.
Re: Sony Expects More PS5 Owners to Wishlist Games When They're Announced
Crazy how people treat this like it's new.
There was a wishlist in the old PS Store before the PS5 came out - primarily accessible through the web version of the store.
It is nice that it's better integrated to the console now, but really...so what? Unless I can save money by wishlisting a game before it's released, I'm not sure I care much.
I still think the old PS3 store search was among the best features that's never been fully duplicated. You'd start picking letters in your search, and the list of matching items changed in real time as you picked letters. It seemed so much faster than anything since.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Player Numbers Have Exploded Since the Edgerunners Update
@Ryu_Niiyama Transmog means you can make gear/weapons have the look of one item you own, but the stats of a different item you own. So you can have the look you want without sacrificing stats.
Re: FIFA 23 Ropes in Ted Lasso, AFC Richmond for PS5, PS4 Soccer Sim
Not a fan of EA's FIFA (or of what the rest of the world calls "football," either - I just don't get the strategy, it looks like keep-away for an hour with the rare kick at the goal), but if this ends up free on PS Plus a month or two before the next year's version comes out, I'll give it a shot just to play as Roy Kent and be coached by Ted Lasso.
Re: Sony Wasn't Interested in New JRPG from Ex-Wild Arms Devs
@NEStalgia To continue with the analogy...sure, your pizza company doesn't stop investing in mushrooms. But if pepperoni sells 50x more than mushrooms, no pizza company should invest equally in pepperoni and mushrooms - they're probably going to spend, I'm spitballing here, about 50x as much on their pepperoni supply as their mushroom supply, especially when they're selling them for the same price (but in Sony's case, they're probably not selling for the same price, which makes the disparity worse).
It's not that you can't invest in something that doesn't sell much, or even be willing to take a loss on something to draw in customers. But it sure can't be all you do, and you sure can't take huge losses on a lot of things - you have to be narrow and selective on what you're willing to take losses on, or you risk losing EVERYTHING.
But if customer demand shifts, if suddenly people want mushrooms and pepperoni in equal measure, than no pizza company would survive if they still spent 50x as much on pepperoni as on mushrooms. You're all acting like Sony is a gatekeeper, preventing games from being made - but we're all collectively the gatekeeper when we withhold success by not buying something. If you want more mushrooms, buy more mushrooms, and get the whole market to move with you in buying more mushrooms. It's really that simple...or impossible.
Now others have said "but there's so much to choose from, we can only afford one or two toppings." Well - if that's what drives a 50:1 disparity, then tell me where it makes sense to invest? Somehow it's Sony's fault they aren't giving you more mushrooms, AND it's their fault there's too many toppings to choose from? I can't keep up.
Re: Sony Wasn't Interested in New JRPG from Ex-Wild Arms Devs
Sony invests in what sells - that's what businesses that survive do. Business that invest in things that don't sell don't survive. That's true for video games, cars, pizza ingredients, overpriced screwdrivers, and everything else you can think of.
AAA games sell better than JRPGs right now. So Sony invests more in what sells better. This isn't rocket science. If you want more games like X, then buy more X and get everyone else to buy more X, and we'll all get more X. If you can't convince your friends to buy it, how do you expect to convince Sony to invest in it?
It's not like you need a huge budget to make something that gets a huge audience - see also: Minecraft.
Re: PSVR2 Not Looking Cheap as Impressive Features Debut in Hype-Inducing Ad
@stvevan I totally agree - no hype until I know a price. If this is priced out of my league, it doesn't matter how awesome it is, I won't care because I won't have one.
In many ways this is a terrible time to release a new, expensive item like this - not Sony's fault, the timing is just awful. With inflation becoming a global concern, they've got to be worried whatever price they set will cost them more and more in losses in coming months and years without a price hike - but they don't want to price this out of reach day 1, either, because discretionary spending is dropping for most of their customer base. It's going to be a tough call for them.
Re: 17 New PS5, PS4 Games Join PS Plus Extra, Premium Tomorrow
Sly Cooper definitely doesn't feel as dated as Jax and Daxter. Genuinely fun. Not going to fire up my PS3 to play it some more, but it's genuinely fun.
I'm more interested in Deathloop - didn't pick it up while it was an exclusive, figure I'll take a look now. And I'm wondering about Watch Dogs 2 - hated the first, it had so much potential it seemed to just miss on delivering, but I've heard the second does it better.
Re: PSVR2 Isn't Backwards Compatible with PSVR Games, Sony Confirms
There goes my PSVR library from having Plus all these years and picking up a few games here and there when offered for free. Oh well. Like many here, I'm not surprised - but I was more hopeful than I should have been, apparently.
The best games (whose developers are still around) might get ported to PSVR2 - I assume it would cost less to port an existing game than to build a whole new one. Not sure I'd expect patches, though - new purchases may be more likely, which will probably tick some people off if developers can't at least offer discounts for upgrades.
Re: Sony Won't Let Microsoft's $69 Billion Activision Acquisition Go, Stresses It's Bad for Gaming
@TheArt Is it silly [to take an existing multiplatform hit and make it exclusive]? It depends on your priorities and goals. If your goal is to make the most money in the short term, then sure - release each game on as many platforms as you possibly can.
But if your goal is to try to seriously injure or kill a competitor so you can dominate the market and set your own prices for everything, then the strategy will be a LOT different.
There's a sign that Microsoft can leave a studio alone, at least enough to continue making multiplatform releases - Minecraft speaks to that. But there's evidence they're buying studios to bolster XBox against Playstation - Bethesda speaks to that. So how does Microsoft really truly view Activision Blizzard and all its IP?
And will their answer during antitrust investigations persist, or will it change once the deal goes through? Microsoft themselves may not honestly know the answer to that.