@Fenbops This "whole 'metavserse' garbage" basically IS PS Home, or at least something similar. Perhaps when VR is better and cheaper it will really take off.
The thing is, Ready Player One imagines this virtual universe that encompasses everything - it's the sole platform for games, education, virtual travel, social events, and so on. Ultimately that's the goal of everyone shouting "meta" right now - including the goal that THEY will be the ones owning and controlling that universe that everyone is inside, not someone else.
And that's just not practical in today's world, with trademark and copyright licensing and monetization of content. It works in the story (book or movie) because it's a monopoly that is the framework for everything - but, for example, no matter how awesome something like Unreal 5 may be, not EVERY game developer is going to use that platform for their games so it could be the framework for everything - and major studios that DO leverage it will still want to customize and extend and make it their own. If the idea of the common framework is so awesome and so inevitable, why are we having this conversation on an independent site instead of something built inside Facebook?
The idea that everything will live in a single platform is becoming more possible, but it will probably never come to fruition - not because of the technical hurdles, but because of the social and political hurdles. Monopolies don't innovate the same way that competitors do. We may have virtual worlds, but they'll be multiple platforms you hop between, not one virtual universe to rule them all (and in the darkness bind them).
I love TLoU a lot, and heard so much bad about TLoU2 that I never picked it up - yes, I was scared off. A revisit might not be a bad idea, if it's really improved dramatically - but I've been down this road already, playing it on the PS3 and PS4, so a PS5 version would be a THIRD trip for me. I'm more likely to dive into something new.
I have a question I've not seen asked or answered anywhere.
I know if you have, say, a year of Essential and want to upgrade to Extra, you can pay the different for the year. But what if I have a year of Extra and want to downgrade to Essential? Will they tack on a few months to the end? Or if I try Extra (or buy a year for the discount), am I locked into Extra until my expiration comes?
I'll stick to white (despite getting a galactic purple controller). If they were half the price they're asking, I might be tempted. If they were a third the price I'd probably buy one.
I'd be more excited about the Steam Deck if I knew for sure it supported PS Remote Play. It doesn't seem to, though it's hard to get a clear answer.
I don't have a ton of Steam games, but I've got enough to give me some options if I had one...but I might just remote play my PS5 or even PS4 more often than not.
@Max_the_German While I get your point, this is a sniper game. The point of the game is literally to kill people IN A TIME OF WAR - it's the beginning, middle, and end of the content. It's not about going on a bloodbath murdering innocent civilians or mowing down waves of zombies, it's about contributing in a very specific way to fighting a war, where you are one small part of a larger team you may never see, saving lives you will never meet.
I'm more concerned about glorifying war in general than I am about whether you kill Hitler in a video game with a headshot or a balls shot, or get special rewards for creative assassinations. I would argue a game like this doesn't desensitize people to killing a fraction of the amount something like Fortnite does - despite its effort at increased realism. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd worry about battle royal games before I'd worry about this.
I discovered this series when version 4 was free on Plus, and will absolutely pick this up - and now that my kids are older, I might even play it in front of them. When they were little, games like this were only for well after they were tucked in.
@bozz That's getting harder and harder to do in EA-branded games - they're being increasingly aggressive at pushing the story mode (and various "Ultimate Team" modes) at you when you start the game.
I'm not an F1 fan - but I generally HATE story mode in games like this. Let me play the simulation I came to play, not some lame story mode. Don't try to overwhelm me with soundtracks and glitzy menus (and worst of all, ads for DLC), let me set up the race and get to the start already.
But honestly, as much fun as it was and as much as I enjoyed it, it wasn't ready. It may not have been as bad as 2077, but it had some game-breaking bugs all the same, and even a few crashes, and was way to janky in way too many places. The game today is a lot better than it was that first week.
Hopefully they'll do better with the DLC and Horizon 3...but part of that is the fans remembering that giving them more time to polish isn't the end of the world, and we shouldn't throw temper tantrums when release dates change. Quality control takes time.
People enjoy different things. I don't oppose having the red-light district of easy platinum trophies around for those who just want a quick thrill without any commitment - it's just not my thing.
@GamingFan4Lyf You may think it doesn't make sense, but he's right. FreeSync is a specific implementation of VRR - it's not the only one, and it's not the one Sony is using for the PS5.
This also addresses @Gator_Rican who was asking about HDMI 2.1.
There are currently THREE flavors of VRR in the market - Freesync and G-Sync are not the same, as they're from different vendors (and work with older HDMI specs). HDMI 2.1 VRR is not the same, either. It's the HDMI 2.1 version of VRR - and that's what Sony is using. If you have an HDMI 2.0 monitor with Freesync or G-Sync support, it won't work with the 2.1 VRR that Sony's using - you need an HDMI 2.1-compliant monitor.
EDIT: I should point out, this isn't news - it was actually explained before the PS5 hit the market. Found an article from summer 2020 explaining the differences and which ones the PS5 and XBox SX would support. Though it didn't predict that backwards-compatible games would be treated differently, or that the PS5 wouldn't get VRR until April 2022, but it did predict it wouldn't get Freesync, because Sony said so way back then.
So if I want to upgrade from Essential to Premium, and my Essential plan ends in 18 months, I'd have to pay 18x$8 (US), right?
What if I have 18 months of Premium and want to downgrade to Essential? Will I have my subscription extended by another 12 months or so? Or is there even an option to downgrade?
Meh. They closed a loophole. I'll be honest, I was going to try to take advantage of that loophole, but that's the thing - I knew it was taking advantage of a situation, to get more for less than I'd have to pay later.
I was about to try to take advantage of the situation, but luckily I heard early enough that I'd fail. They could have communicated better, but I doubt the majority of their users were caught by this - just those of us trying to take advantage of their timing.
Now, Microsoft went the opposite direction when they started Game Pass, and I bought a two or three year pass at a discount to get a huge discount on that. It's finally expired, and I'm not about to pay full price - and MS doesn't offer annual discounts like Sony does.
I'm one of those Americans who thinks football is played with an oblong object and who doesn't understand the strategy in soccer enough to want to play a virtual soccer game. I'd rather watch USFL than FIFA, and USFL isn't all that great. So while I recognize FIFA is a major title, it has no interest for me.
For the rest of the world that has the opposite preference...well, good for you. I won't begrudge you the game. I'm just getting a bit annoyed at how it feels multiplayer and rogeulike are the major categories for Plus lately...
Hood: Outlaws and Legends - multiplayer Slay the Spire - roguelike FIFA - multiplayer Tribes of Midguard - multiplayer Curse of the Dead Gods - roguelike
I'm a single player sort of guy. I may be in the minority, but card decks, roguelike, and multiplayer-centric generally aren't my thing. So, I guess I'll cross my fingers and wait for something I'll like better.
@LimitedPower Not at all. I played season 1 of the game without watching any of the show. Later watched some of the show, but never did watch all of it.
You got Zombies. The characters need to learn how to stay alive, so you'll learn along with them. It works just fine as a standalone.
If there are call-outs to the show, then I just missed them. Don't care.
I get why they have music in the trailer to boost the drama, but please tell me it isn't going to be the overblown mess Madden has become in recent years. I can listen to music wherever I want - I don't need a soundtrack built into a football game, or splashy menus that take forever to load because they're trying to overwhelm me with glam. Just let me play the dang game.
A great single-player experience and a great multiplayer experience CAN coexist - but most of the time, one gets more attention and resources than the other. And if the live service game is built that way to facilitate play across devices - like picking up the same game on your phone, on your PC, or on your console - then it can be a powerful tool even for a primarily single-player game. And with Sony saying they want to branch out more into mobile, that approach is feasible.
But we're not all kids with unlimited free time to play online with our friends who also have unlimited free time - some us are adults, with families, who can't guarantee we can sit through an hour-long team event where one person dropping out because a kid is crying dooms the entire effort.
I'll reserve judgement until we see what they actually release. I'm hopeful, but wary.
@Milktastrophe You got me. Honestly, I forget Games with Gold entirely. And while I thought of PS Now when writing my post, I did what everyone in the media has done since it came out (and doubled-down on when Game Pass was announced), and pretended Now doesn't exist.
I'm not sure the PS Plus Super Duper Edition, or whatever they're calling it, will be a success - but at least by pulling in Now as an extension to Plus, it might get some attention and stop being ignored. We'll see.
The rest, though, is largely true. Now works financially for Sony and their partners because it's games that have already pulled in most of the revenue they were going to get that end up on it, mostly. I don't see how day 1 releases on any streaming service make financial sense for third-party studios, though - not without some other monetization scheme, which means P2W or DLC or something.
The one thing Microsoft Game Pass has going for it with vendors that Sony, to this point, does not is that the stint on GP is limited. There for three or six or twelve months, and then gone, and players have to buy the title to keep playing.
How much does that matter, when if you like it you finish it before it's gone, and there's always a new title on the service to play? And it's likely half price by the time it leaves the subscription service? Ask how many people buy movies when they know they can play them on Netflix or Apple or Vudu or Disney "for free" sooner or later.
I see how the subscription model works for first party studios - they don't care if they have 10 titles released in the year each with 5 million sales each - if they can get 10 million subscriptions for those same 10 titles, they actually make more money (especially since GP doesn't offer discounts for annual subscriptions like Sony does). I can also see how it works for small indies with low-budget releases, especially if they get guaranteed money.
I just don't see how the subscription model is a winner for third party studios trying to make big budget games. Is their hope to spin up interest and yank it out of the subscription store before people finish, so they pay to keep playing? Or do they plan on microtransactions or DLC campaigns to bring the money in?
@SegaBlueSky Just like Virtual Reality has been just around the corner for 20 years, right? As far as the mainstream is concerned, it's still on the way.
So yeah, something resembling "the metaverse" is coming, but I guarantee you it won't look anything like...well, anything you see before 2030. There will be at least one or two generations of building it and throwing it out before anybody makes something useful - and it won't be relevant until the hardware to make it use is ubiquitous and affordable. Which means, not soon.
But there's a lot of money to be made convincing venture capitalists they'll miss the next great revolution if they don't invest NOW.
@LN78 Yeah, I think I'd say my gameplay had way too many bugs and glitches.
The entire game has crashed or hung and needed to be restarted 2-4 times, and there are a lot of glitches. There's a place where I hunt Stalkers where two trees pop into existence after being in the area (and shooting arrows through where the trees will appear) for 2-5 minutes - I've been stuck inside one of them when it spawned around Aloy twice.
There are plenty of bugs and glitches. Yet, despite being annoyed by them, I've loved the game. I don't have the platinum yet, but finished the story and all story-based side quests have improved a ton of weapons and armor. So it hasn't prevented me from playing and enjoying the game, and it's been getting better over time. I don't really regret playing it in the state it was in, but there have been several times I've been frustrated by it, too.
Once they add New Game + (please, Guerilla, add New Game +) I'll play the whole thing again with 60fps instead of the high-quality 30fps on my PS5.
This looks like Plus, with Now broken into two pieces (streaming included or not) and added on for a lower additional cost, but not an option to have without Plus. MAYBE with some PS1 and PS2 games thrown in on the most expensive tier?
So if you liked Plus before, you'll like Essentials now. If you had both Plus and Now before, you'll save a little money now with Extra or Premium depending on what you play. If you hated Plus or Now, then you'll hate this this, too. Does that about sum it up?
There's little evidence so far that there will be big changes in what's offered with Now/Premium/Extra, though we'll know more this summer.
MS Game Pass offers no discount for buying a year - so in the US, it's $10 or $15/month, or $120/180 a year, depending on which version you get.
Sony's bottom two levels look similar in pricing, but offer a savings if you buy a quarter at a time, and a bigger savings if you buy them annually. That's one reason my Plus is set to expire in late 2023 - discounts off the annual price can make it ridiculously cheap.
So, it will be interesting to see what the benefits of the Premium tier really are (specific titles and benefits), but Extra sure looks like a good deal if you like any of the titles it has and don't own them already.
Details of how Sony converts accounts for people with both Plus and Now will be interesting. MS really boosted their Game Pass numbers by being generous with their conversion rules when they introduced it (a month of Gold translated to a month of Game Pass, at the time, so I bought a 2-year membership at a rare price discount).
Weren't they saying VRR would be out in the coming months on release day?
I'll be interested in seeing how it works. I got a new TV after I preordered my release-day PS5, which now has VRR support added in (took Sony a year, but they did it). So we'll see how that works with the PS5 when it finally rolls out - and if the tradeoffs are worth it. I'm hopeful, but not ecstatic.
I don't want to spend $70 on a game just to turn around and spend more to unlock cars. Wake me when they've had a year of updates, more game modes and tracks have been added, and I can get more content than is available today for half the price.
But wait, there's the inevitable day when they'll retire this game - and we've already seen what happens when they shut down the servers. Give me the "play offline" patch before I spend real money.
I can afford to wait - I'm more a fan of arcade racers over simulators, but your mileage may vary.
@Odium "You’ll be able to play solo with AI if you really want to,"
So, it CAN be single player. If it's any good that way, that will be the way I play. One line salvaged my interest (and from what I see, the interest of a lot of people posting here).
Either they needed more capital to finish the game, or Sony is just really impressed with what they've seen and don't want to risk someone else making an offer and losing them (or maybe someone else DID make an offer and Sony had to react).
Never gave Rockstar a dollar for GTAnything. Tried it when it was free on PS+ briefly, and couldn't believe how badly cars handled - driving is supposed to be a big deal in this game, right? Do the controls get better after the opening where you repossess some cars?
Might give it a try on the PS5 for $10, given all the praise that's been heaped upon it. Then again, maybe if I wait until some time after it goes back to full price, it will show up free on Plus to announce GTA6.
My kid laughed out loud at the TMNT Collection video - she has zero nostalgia for them, and without that nostalgia that's just a disappointing offering. So it's funny to see all the comments - so many people say that reveal saved the SoP for them.
I think a "State of Play" really ought to be more than just a trailer dump. But given 20 minutes of Japanese studio games, a trailer dump was all I expected. We saw a lot of different games, some weirder than others, with only a few gems I was interested in. As such, I think it was just fine - I wasn't expecting them to cater to my tastes, given the description.
Never did complete it - about the time I was getting close to killing the first boss I started playing something else, and when I went back I was failing badly. Need to spend some time on it, but now I'm fighting my way across the Forbidden West, so it will be a while...but I'll come back. Again and again, as many times as it takes.
Three people in the house fighting over PS5 play time means none of us are done with the story, even the one playing in Story Mode who has hit the level cap already.
I've made it to San Fransisco (not a spoiler, with the Golden Gate in the game art...though I haven't actually seen the Golden Gate in-game just yet), and I was the last one of us to get there. I'm also the only one with a 40 hour/week job...dang kids. Lots of fun.
Have an annoying bug, where all the people who tell rumors act like they desperately want to talk to me (calling Aloy over, exclamation mark above their head), but when I go up to them they have a "Not right now" text above their head and they won't talk. Sent in a bug report, but I hope I'm not missing content.
Never did buy this. Tried it a couple times when it was free for a limited time with Plus, I think, or maybe one of the few times I got PS Now, and just hated the driving experience so much I ragequit. Driving is supposed to be such a key part of this game, but it felt so awful - is it just me, or is it really different/worse than so many other driving games?
@Reyren I started with Guided, but changed to Explorer.
Early on, when you're just trying to figure out what the world looks like, excessive handholding to say "take THIS road to THIS intersection and then turn HERE" may be helpful - that's Guided.
But the more you play, the more you might want to skip a road and just go cross-country and see what you encounter. Or the more you might need to see where the objective is in relation to where you are, not just where to find the next-closest road which will help you get to your objective. That's Explorer.
Guided is turn-by-turn direction. Explorer is reckoning (I want to go South, how do I get there from here?).
EDIT: As for which is "the default, normal setting," there isn't one. I've seen some games with navigation more like Guided, and others more like Explorer. This one does both. I recommend you try Guided until you get annoyed when it sends you three times as far because it routes you around some empty field you could easily walk through, and then try Explorer until you get stuck finding a path up a sheer cliff. Then figure out which you like best.
I think the UFC game is the first time I haven't actually at least added a Plus game to my library when I had the chance. There are some games I've added I expect I'll never touch, but that one just seemed too much.
I love football (American football, that is) - but while I can play the newest Madden while I have a few months of EA's pass, I can't stand all the BS they put around the game and ended up deleting it. It takes forever to load on a PS5, and makes me say I don't want to buy stuff ALL THE TIME. I can't imagine how awful that extra garbage is for a sport I don't really care about.
@PenguinL Upgrade your firmware, PS4 disks haven't done that on my PS5 for ages. They will SHOW the PS4 version of the game on the menu, but they won't try to install that version when the PS5 version is installed unless you select it.
Slow down with your button mashing, pick the PS5 edition before you hit X, and you should be fine.
I'm more likely to wait for a more substantial price drop, but the video caught my interest. Depending on what the control scheme is like for all that fancy hand-waving spell-casting, it could be interesting and fun...or way too fiddly to bother with. Not sure.
@OneWingedAngel It benefits the companies being picked up, as it gives them at least some temporary stability as they don't have to worry about making payroll. Long term, they'll find they're at the mercy of their new masters, and if Microsoft decides to downsize or consolidate studios, then the studios no longer have control over their own destiny.
Which is why Bungie wanted to guarantee control over their own Destiny. Ba-da-boom. Thanks, I'll be here all week.
@GeneJacket It's been so long, I don't know if I can even remember Borderlands 2. But I seem to remember the hole that Tiny Tina hid out in, where I went to play this back when it was originally DLC.
I saw Tiny Tina and got SO excited because I thought it was the new one. It's not - it's the old one from Borderlands 2. While I recall that was a lot of fun, the whiplash will leave me sore all day.
Never picked it up, but it's on sale again, now - so if I'm not interested in creating and only in playing, is there a lot of good content in Dreams, or will I burn through the good stuff in a weekend? Does it cost extra?
Microsoft can buy as many studios as they want - but if they run them into the ground, then it will be a waste of money. I see a possibility that in 2032, people look back at Bethesda and Activision Blizzard the same way we look back at Atari - with fond memories and a lot of nostalgia (heck Activision made games for the Atari 2600, back in the day) of a dead company.
Will that happen? Don't know. But neither does anybody else. Shake up the company to get rid of the sexual harrassers, change the ownership, shuffle enough things around...and maybe it looks nothing like itself when you're done. Maybe the next CoD is so bad everybody abandons the franchise. It could happen - we all know it can. You're only as good as your last game. So, can Microsoft keep these studios healthy and productive over the long term, especially when they essentially give away their games on Game Pass? Maybe. We'll see.
People who love to hate on PS for lack of backwards compatibility need to stop and think about WHY for a second.
XBox has been a PC-in-a-box since the original. It's mostly standard components running a modified version of Windows. That's it. It's no harder to run an old game on the newest XBox than it is to run an old Windows game (or maybe even a DOS game) on a new PC. The issues are known, the hardware is basically the same but faster, so emulation - if it's even needed - is relatively simple.
Playstation wrote their own OS and had hardware that was unique - particularly the PS3, which even today they can't get an emulator to work with games that were really written to take advantage of the full power of the multiple cores (games that were written for PC and ported and don't take much advantage of the unique hardware are much lower-hanging fruit). Emulating hardware that is fundamentally different than the hardware you're using is much harder than emulating a slower version of the same thing. And it's uncertain if today's beefy computers can emulate the PS3 hardware fully and completely at full speed - it was just DIFFERENT.
The reason the PS5 can be backwards compatible with the PS4 is that, for better or worse, both are basically PC-in-a-box just like XBox. Upgrading from one known architecture to another is MUCH simpler, even if it has issues like clock speed (as addressed in this patent) to consider.
Finally, Sony wants to make money. How much development time do you want them to spend making an emulator so you can play your old games for free? Sure, you can complain they're greedy - but is that different from us wanting them to spend their money on something they know they can't recover the costs of development from? I'd rather they spend those resources improving the PS5 and working on PSVR2. But that's just me.
I think the more interesting question is, are you willing to pay more money for a game that takes longer to "finish" (whether that's main story, platinum, whatever)? What kind of price-to-time ratio is right?
Even then, I think "time" for a game is a weird metric, since we play differently, but if we're going to talk about length, I guess it's the best metric we've got.
Most of the time I'd rather spend a short time on an intense experience, a great story, an interesting mechanic, and/or a fun combat setup than spend a long time hunting an enormous map for some widget I missed. What you're doing with those hours matters.
While I like posts like the fourth one, from @pushL7, that break it into different categories, I'd suggest that's misleading as well. An open world game doesn't automatically need more time just because it's open world, and an Indie game can be compelling for a lot more than a few hours if the mechanics are right and it's re-playable. I'm old enough to remember a time when Minecraft was an indie.
Quality matters over quantity. A long, bad, painful experience is actually worse than a short, bad, painful experience. But there have been games I didn't want to put down, where I ran around the map trying to find that last widget because it was so dang fun to run around the map (INfamous, I'm looking at you).
Play style matters, too - what you call a 10 hour game I might call a 40 hour game, because I may play differently and spend more time at each stage. It's a weird metric.
This is why you build APIs. Developers shouldn't have been writing code that read exactly what the Move controller was doing - they should have been using an API that gave them the info they need. Then, Sony writes an API for PSVR2 that gives the same info for that setup, regardless of the different hardware.
That's the theory, at least. How well that works in practice (without a significant performance hit) might be part of Sony's evasiveness right now.
@sanderson72 - you never needed a DS4 to play PS4 games on the PS5, not even on day 1 - it's just that you CAN use a DS4 to play PS4 games, while PS5 games require the DualSense. The DualSense will work with PS4 games as well (though it's now banned for that purpose in our house, as I've already replaced - under warranty - both controllers I had when I got my day 1 PS5 for drift, while the PS4 controllers I've had for years still don't have any drift).
This is the main reason I hear "cross-play" and say "no thanks." I don't play a lot of multiplayer, but when I do, I prefer to play with people on the same console I'm on, and avoid playing on PC entirely. I tend to disable cross play when doing so is an option.
Comments 626
Re: Sony Reveals Vision for the Metaverse
@Fenbops This "whole 'metavserse' garbage" basically IS PS Home, or at least something similar. Perhaps when VR is better and cheaper it will really take off.
The thing is, Ready Player One imagines this virtual universe that encompasses everything - it's the sole platform for games, education, virtual travel, social events, and so on. Ultimately that's the goal of everyone shouting "meta" right now - including the goal that THEY will be the ones owning and controlling that universe that everyone is inside, not someone else.
And that's just not practical in today's world, with trademark and copyright licensing and monetization of content. It works in the story (book or movie) because it's a monopoly that is the framework for everything - but, for example, no matter how awesome something like Unreal 5 may be, not EVERY game developer is going to use that platform for their games so it could be the framework for everything - and major studios that DO leverage it will still want to customize and extend and make it their own. If the idea of the common framework is so awesome and so inevitable, why are we having this conversation on an independent site instead of something built inside Facebook?
The idea that everything will live in a single platform is becoming more possible, but it will probably never come to fruition - not because of the technical hurdles, but because of the social and political hurdles. Monopolies don't innovate the same way that competitors do. We may have virtual worlds, but they'll be multiple platforms you hop between, not one virtual universe to rule them all (and in the darkness bind them).
Re: The Last of Us PS5 Remake Allegedly a Major Holiday Release
Honestly, I'm torn.
I love TLoU a lot, and heard so much bad about TLoU2 that I never picked it up - yes, I was scared off. A revisit might not be a bad idea, if it's really improved dramatically - but I've been down this road already, playing it on the PS3 and PS4, so a PS5 version would be a THIRD trip for me. I'm more likely to dive into something new.
Re: PS Plus Memberships: All Three Tiers Explained
I have a question I've not seen asked or answered anywhere.
I know if you have, say, a year of Essential and want to upgrade to Extra, you can pay the different for the year. But what if I have a year of Extra and want to downgrade to Essential? Will they tack on a few months to the end? Or if I try Extra (or buy a year for the discount), am I locked into Extra until my expiration comes?
Re: PS5 Console Covers in Blue, Pink, and Purple Release Next Month
I'll stick to white (despite getting a galactic purple controller). If they were half the price they're asking, I might be tempted. If they were a third the price I'd probably buy one.
Re: Play Days Gone on the Broken Road with Steam Deck Support
I'd be more excited about the Steam Deck if I knew for sure it supported PS Remote Play. It doesn't seem to, though it's hard to get a clear answer.
I don't have a ton of Steam games, but I've got enough to give me some options if I had one...but I might just remote play my PS5 or even PS4 more often than not.
Re: Shoot Hitler in the Balls and Unlock a Sniper Elite 5 Trophy
@Max_the_German While I get your point, this is a sniper game. The point of the game is literally to kill people IN A TIME OF WAR - it's the beginning, middle, and end of the content. It's not about going on a bloodbath murdering innocent civilians or mowing down waves of zombies, it's about contributing in a very specific way to fighting a war, where you are one small part of a larger team you may never see, saving lives you will never meet.
I'm more concerned about glorifying war in general than I am about whether you kill Hitler in a video game with a headshot or a balls shot, or get special rewards for creative assassinations. I would argue a game like this doesn't desensitize people to killing a fraction of the amount something like Fortnite does - despite its effort at increased realism. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd worry about battle royal games before I'd worry about this.
I discovered this series when version 4 was free on Plus, and will absolutely pick this up - and now that my kids are older, I might even play it in front of them. When they were little, games like this were only for well after they were tucked in.
Re: First Impressions: F1 22 Skips Story Mode for More Authentic, Flexible Racing
@bozz That's getting harder and harder to do in EA-branded games - they're being increasingly aggressive at pushing the story mode (and various "Ultimate Team" modes) at you when you start the game.
Re: First Impressions: F1 22 Skips Story Mode for More Authentic, Flexible Racing
I'm not an F1 fan - but I generally HATE story mode in games like this. Let me play the simulation I came to play, not some lame story mode. Don't try to overwhelm me with soundtracks and glitzy menus (and worst of all, ads for DLC), let me set up the race and get to the start already.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Patch 1.13 Out Now, Here Are All Patch Notes
@Dezzy70 This was a great game on release day.
But honestly, as much fun as it was and as much as I enjoyed it, it wasn't ready. It may not have been as bad as 2077, but it had some game-breaking bugs all the same, and even a few crashes, and was way to janky in way too many places. The game today is a lot better than it was that first week.
Hopefully they'll do better with the DLC and Horizon 3...but part of that is the fans remembering that giving them more time to polish isn't the end of the world, and we shouldn't throw temper tantrums when release dates change. Quality control takes time.
Re: Pay for PS5, PS4 Platinum Trophies Is Rampant on PS Store Right Now
People enjoy different things. I don't oppose having the red-light district of easy platinum trophies around for those who just want a quick thrill without any commitment - it's just not my thing.
Re: Just an FYI, PS5 VRR Doesn't Work on PS4 Games
@GamingFan4Lyf You may think it doesn't make sense, but he's right. FreeSync is a specific implementation of VRR - it's not the only one, and it's not the one Sony is using for the PS5.
This also addresses @Gator_Rican who was asking about HDMI 2.1.
There are currently THREE flavors of VRR in the market - Freesync and G-Sync are not the same, as they're from different vendors (and work with older HDMI specs). HDMI 2.1 VRR is not the same, either. It's the HDMI 2.1 version of VRR - and that's what Sony is using. If you have an HDMI 2.0 monitor with Freesync or G-Sync support, it won't work with the 2.1 VRR that Sony's using - you need an HDMI 2.1-compliant monitor.
EDIT: I should point out, this isn't news - it was actually explained before the PS5 hit the market. Found an article from summer 2020 explaining the differences and which ones the PS5 and XBox SX would support. Though it didn't predict that backwards-compatible games would be treated differently, or that the PS5 wouldn't get VRR until April 2022, but it did predict it wouldn't get Freesync, because Sony said so way back then.
Re: Sony Confirms PS Plus Subscription Stacking Has Been Blocked
If this was asked already, I haven't seen it...
So if I want to upgrade from Essential to Premium, and my Essential plan ends in 18 months, I'd have to pay 18x$8 (US), right?
What if I have 18 months of Premium and want to downgrade to Essential? Will I have my subscription extended by another 12 months or so? Or is there even an option to downgrade?
Re: Sony Confirms PS Plus Subscription Stacking Has Been Blocked
Meh. They closed a loophole. I'll be honest, I was going to try to take advantage of that loophole, but that's the thing - I knew it was taking advantage of a situation, to get more for less than I'd have to pay later.
I was about to try to take advantage of the situation, but luckily I heard early enough that I'd fail. They could have communicated better, but I doubt the majority of their users were caught by this - just those of us trying to take advantage of their timing.
Now, Microsoft went the opposite direction when they started Game Pass, and I bought a two or three year pass at a discount to get a huge discount on that. It's finally expired, and I'm not about to pay full price - and MS doesn't offer annual discounts like Sony does.
Re: PS Plus, PS Now Members Will Be Upgraded to PS Plus Premium for the Duration of Their Longest Subscription
I've got more than a year of Plus right now.
So, if I sign up for one month of PS Now in late May or early June, I should have a year of Premium...? Hmmm...sounds like a plan to me.
Re: Rumour: PS Plus PS5, PS4 Games for May 2022 Leaked Early
I'm one of those Americans who thinks football is played with an oblong object and who doesn't understand the strategy in soccer enough to want to play a virtual soccer game. I'd rather watch USFL than FIFA, and USFL isn't all that great. So while I recognize FIFA is a major title, it has no interest for me.
For the rest of the world that has the opposite preference...well, good for you. I won't begrudge you the game. I'm just getting a bit annoyed at how it feels multiplayer and rogeulike are the major categories for Plus lately...
Hood: Outlaws and Legends - multiplayer
Slay the Spire - roguelike
FIFA - multiplayer
Tribes of Midguard - multiplayer
Curse of the Dead Gods - roguelike
I'm a single player sort of guy. I may be in the minority, but card decks, roguelike, and multiplayer-centric generally aren't my thing. So, I guess I'll cross my fingers and wait for something I'll like better.
Re: Video: How Telltale Nailed The Walking Dead's Opening Scene
@LimitedPower Not at all. I played season 1 of the game without watching any of the show. Later watched some of the show, but never did watch all of it.
You got Zombies. The characters need to learn how to stay alive, so you'll learn along with them. It works just fine as a standalone.
If there are call-outs to the show, then I just missed them. Don't care.
Re: First-Person PSVR2 QB Sim NFL Pro Era Puts the Ball in Your Hands
I get why they have music in the trailer to boost the drama, but please tell me it isn't going to be the overblown mess Madden has become in recent years. I can listen to music wherever I want - I don't need a soundtrack built into a football game, or splashy menus that take forever to load because they're trying to overwhelm me with glam. Just let me play the dang game.
Re: Video: Is Live Service Really the Way Forward for PlayStation?
It's all in the details.
A great single-player experience and a great multiplayer experience CAN coexist - but most of the time, one gets more attention and resources than the other. And if the live service game is built that way to facilitate play across devices - like picking up the same game on your phone, on your PC, or on your console - then it can be a powerful tool even for a primarily single-player game. And with Sony saying they want to branch out more into mobile, that approach is feasible.
But we're not all kids with unlimited free time to play online with our friends who also have unlimited free time - some us are adults, with families, who can't guarantee we can sit through an hour-long team event where one person dropping out because a kid is crying dooms the entire effort.
I'll reserve judgement until we see what they actually release. I'm hopeful, but wary.
Re: PS Plus Deal Devastates Oddworld: Soulstorm Developer
@Milktastrophe You got me. Honestly, I forget Games with Gold entirely. And while I thought of PS Now when writing my post, I did what everyone in the media has done since it came out (and doubled-down on when Game Pass was announced), and pretended Now doesn't exist.
I'm not sure the PS Plus Super Duper Edition, or whatever they're calling it, will be a success - but at least by pulling in Now as an extension to Plus, it might get some attention and stop being ignored. We'll see.
The rest, though, is largely true. Now works financially for Sony and their partners because it's games that have already pulled in most of the revenue they were going to get that end up on it, mostly. I don't see how day 1 releases on any streaming service make financial sense for third-party studios, though - not without some other monetization scheme, which means P2W or DLC or something.
Re: PS Plus Deal Devastates Oddworld: Soulstorm Developer
The one thing Microsoft Game Pass has going for it with vendors that Sony, to this point, does not is that the stint on GP is limited. There for three or six or twelve months, and then gone, and players have to buy the title to keep playing.
How much does that matter, when if you like it you finish it before it's gone, and there's always a new title on the service to play? And it's likely half price by the time it leaves the subscription service? Ask how many people buy movies when they know they can play them on Netflix or Apple or Vudu or Disney "for free" sooner or later.
I see how the subscription model works for first party studios - they don't care if they have 10 titles released in the year each with 5 million sales each - if they can get 10 million subscriptions for those same 10 titles, they actually make more money (especially since GP doesn't offer discounts for annual subscriptions like Sony does). I can also see how it works for small indies with low-budget releases, especially if they get guaranteed money.
I just don't see how the subscription model is a winner for third party studios trying to make big budget games. Is their hope to spin up interest and yank it out of the subscription store before people finish, so they pay to keep playing? Or do they plan on microtransactions or DLC campaigns to bring the money in?
Re: Sony Invests a Further $1 Billion into Fortnite Maker Epic Games
@SegaBlueSky Just like Virtual Reality has been just around the corner for 20 years, right? As far as the mainstream is concerned, it's still on the way.
So yeah, something resembling "the metaverse" is coming, but I guarantee you it won't look anything like...well, anything you see before 2030. There will be at least one or two generations of building it and throwing it out before anybody makes something useful - and it won't be relevant until the hardware to make it use is ubiquitous and affordable. Which means, not soon.
But there's a lot of money to be made convincing venture capitalists they'll miss the next great revolution if they don't invest NOW.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Patch 1.11 Out Now, Here Are the Patch Notes
@LN78 Yeah, I think I'd say my gameplay had way too many bugs and glitches.
The entire game has crashed or hung and needed to be restarted 2-4 times, and there are a lot of glitches. There's a place where I hunt Stalkers where two trees pop into existence after being in the area (and shooting arrows through where the trees will appear) for 2-5 minutes - I've been stuck inside one of them when it spawned around Aloy twice.
There are plenty of bugs and glitches. Yet, despite being annoyed by them, I've loved the game. I don't have the platinum yet, but finished the story and all story-based side quests have improved a ton of weapons and armor. So it hasn't prevented me from playing and enjoying the game, and it's been getting better over time. I don't really regret playing it in the state it was in, but there have been several times I've been frustrated by it, too.
Once they add New Game + (please, Guerilla, add New Game +) I'll play the whole thing again with 60fps instead of the high-quality 30fps on my PS5.
Re: PS Plus, PS Now Merged Service Revealed, Goes Live in June
This looks like Plus, with Now broken into two pieces (streaming included or not) and added on for a lower additional cost, but not an option to have without Plus. MAYBE with some PS1 and PS2 games thrown in on the most expensive tier?
So if you liked Plus before, you'll like Essentials now. If you had both Plus and Now before, you'll save a little money now with Extra or Premium depending on what you play. If you hated Plus or Now, then you'll hate this this, too. Does that about sum it up?
There's little evidence so far that there will be big changes in what's offered with Now/Premium/Extra, though we'll know more this summer.
Re: Poll: Will You Subscribe to Sony's New PS Plus Tiers?
MS Game Pass offers no discount for buying a year - so in the US, it's $10 or $15/month, or $120/180 a year, depending on which version you get.
Sony's bottom two levels look similar in pricing, but offer a savings if you buy a quarter at a time, and a bigger savings if you buy them annually. That's one reason my Plus is set to expire in late 2023 - discounts off the annual price can make it ridiculously cheap.
So, it will be interesting to see what the benefits of the Premium tier really are (specific titles and benefits), but Extra sure looks like a good deal if you like any of the titles it has and don't own them already.
Details of how Sony converts accounts for people with both Plus and Now will be interesting. MS really boosted their Game Pass numbers by being generous with their conversion rules when they introduced it (a month of Gold translated to a month of Game Pass, at the time, so I bought a 2-year membership at a rare price discount).
Re: VRR Support Officially Coming to PS5 'In the Coming Months'
Weren't they saying VRR would be out in the coming months on release day?
I'll be interested in seeing how it works. I got a new TV after I preordered my release-day PS5, which now has VRR support added in (took Sony a year, but they did it). So we'll see how that works with the PS5 when it finally rolls out - and if the tradeoffs are worth it. I'm hopeful, but not ecstatic.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Gran Turismo 7?
Would rate it a did-not-play, but didn't bother.
I don't want to spend $70 on a game just to turn around and spend more to unlock cars. Wake me when they've had a year of updates, more game modes and tracks have been added, and I can get more content than is available today for half the price.
But wait, there's the inevitable day when they'll retire this game - and we've already seen what happens when they shut down the servers. Give me the "play offline" patch before I spend real money.
I can afford to wait - I'm more a fan of arcade racers over simulators, but your mileage may vary.
Re: Who Ya Gonna Call?! Your PS5, PS4 Pals for Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
@Odium "You’ll be able to play solo with AI if you really want to,"
So, it CAN be single player. If it's any good that way, that will be the way I play. One line salvaged my interest (and from what I see, the interest of a lot of people posting here).
Re: Sony Acquires Haven Studios, the New Developer Led By Jade Raymond
Either they needed more capital to finish the game, or Sony is just really impressed with what they've seen and don't want to risk someone else making an offer and losing them (or maybe someone else DID make an offer and Sony had to react).
Hopefully Sony knows what they're doing here.
Re: Hands On: Is GTA 5 PS5 Worth It?
Never gave Rockstar a dollar for GTAnything. Tried it when it was free on PS+ briefly, and couldn't believe how badly cars handled - driving is supposed to be a big deal in this game, right? Do the controls get better after the opening where you repossess some cars?
Might give it a try on the PS5 for $10, given all the praise that's been heaped upon it. Then again, maybe if I wait until some time after it goes back to full price, it will show up free on Plus to announce GTA6.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Sony's Latest State of Play?
My kid laughed out loud at the TMNT Collection video - she has zero nostalgia for them, and without that nostalgia that's just a disappointing offering. So it's funny to see all the comments - so many people say that reveal saved the SoP for them.
I think a "State of Play" really ought to be more than just a trailer dump. But given 20 minutes of Japanese studio games, a trailer dump was all I expected. We saw a lot of different games, some weirder than others, with only a few gems I was interested in. As such, I think it was just fine - I wasn't expecting them to cater to my tastes, given the description.
Re: Returnal: Ascension Adds Co-Op Play and Survival Mode in Huge Update
Never did complete it - about the time I was getting close to killing the first boss I started playing something else, and when I went back I was failing badly. Need to spend some time on it, but now I'm fighting my way across the Forbidden West, so it will be a while...but I'll come back. Again and again, as many times as it takes.
Re: 13 Per Cent of Horizon Forbidden West Players Have Finished the Story on PS5, PS4
Three people in the house fighting over PS5 play time means none of us are done with the story, even the one playing in Story Mode who has hit the level cap already.
I've made it to San Fransisco (not a spoiler, with the Golden Gate in the game art...though I haven't actually seen the Golden Gate in-game just yet), and I was the last one of us to get there. I'm also the only one with a 40 hour/week job...dang kids. Lots of fun.
Have an annoying bug, where all the people who tell rumors act like they desperately want to talk to me (calling Aloy over, exclamation mark above their head), but when I go up to them they have a "Not right now" text above their head and they won't talk. Sent in a bug report, but I hope I'm not missing content.
Re: GTA Online Players Transferring from PS4 Get a Free Car Supercharged for PS5
Never did buy this. Tried it a couple times when it was free for a limited time with Plus, I think, or maybe one of the few times I got PS Now, and just hated the driving experience so much I ragequit. Driving is supposed to be such a key part of this game, but it felt so awful - is it just me, or is it really different/worse than so many other driving games?
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Guide: Walkthrough, Tips, and Tricks
@Reyren I started with Guided, but changed to Explorer.
Early on, when you're just trying to figure out what the world looks like, excessive handholding to say "take THIS road to THIS intersection and then turn HERE" may be helpful - that's Guided.
But the more you play, the more you might want to skip a road and just go cross-country and see what you encounter. Or the more you might need to see where the objective is in relation to where you are, not just where to find the next-closest road which will help you get to your objective. That's Explorer.
Guided is turn-by-turn direction. Explorer is reckoning (I want to go South, how do I get there from here?).
EDIT: As for which is "the default, normal setting," there isn't one. I've seen some games with navigation more like Guided, and others more like Explorer. This one does both. I recommend you try Guided until you get annoyed when it sends you three times as far because it routes you around some empty field you could easily walk through, and then try Explorer until you get stuck finding a path up a sheer cliff. Then figure out which you like best.
Re: PS Plus' Ill-Received February 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Will Be Rotated Imminently
I think the UFC game is the first time I haven't actually at least added a Plus game to my library when I had the chance. There are some games I've added I expect I'll never touch, but that one just seemed too much.
I love football (American football, that is) - but while I can play the newest Madden while I have a few months of EA's pass, I can't stand all the BS they put around the game and ended up deleting it. It takes forever to load on a PS5, and makes me say I don't want to buy stuff ALL THE TIME. I can't imagine how awful that extra garbage is for a sport I don't really care about.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5?
Picked up a used disk for under $10 back when it was on sale. Played a tiny bit, but not enough to even say "played but didn't finish."
Downloaded the PS5 version and will check it out eventually...after I'm done with Horizon.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Graphics Modes Analysed by Digital Foundry
@KundaliniRising333 Show me the $500 PC build (I'm even throwing in the controller) that can perform as well as a PS5. I'll wait.
...until 2025 or later, probably. At which point the PS5 will be discounted.
Re: Remember to Buy Horizon Forbidden West on PS4, And Not PS5
@PenguinL Upgrade your firmware, PS4 disks haven't done that on my PS5 for ages. They will SHOW the PS4 version of the game on the menu, but they won't try to install that version when the PS5 version is installed unless you select it.
Slow down with your button mashing, pick the PS5 edition before you hit X, and you should be fine.
Re: PS Plus Discount Available for Ghostwire: Tokyo PS5 Pre-Orders
I'm more likely to wait for a more substantial price drop, but the video caught my interest. Depending on what the control scheme is like for all that fancy hand-waving spell-casting, it could be interesting and fun...or way too fiddly to bother with. Not sure.
Re: Reaction: Sony's Bungie Buyout Means Little for PS5, PS4 Fans Right Now
@OneWingedAngel It benefits the companies being picked up, as it gives them at least some temporary stability as they don't have to worry about making payroll. Long term, they'll find they're at the mercy of their new masters, and if Microsoft decides to downsize or consolidate studios, then the studios no longer have control over their own destiny.
Which is why Bungie wanted to guarantee control over their own Destiny. Ba-da-boom. Thanks, I'll be here all week.
Re: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep Loots Standalone PS4 Release
@GeneJacket It's been so long, I don't know if I can even remember Borderlands 2. But I seem to remember the hole that Tiny Tina hid out in, where I went to play this back when it was originally DLC.
Re: PS Plus February 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
I saw Tiny Tina and got SO excited because I thought it was the new one. It's not - it's the old one from Borderlands 2. While I recall that was a lot of fun, the whiplash will leave me sore all day.
Re: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Rights to Movie Being Painted in PS4 Game Dreams
Never picked it up, but it's on sale again, now - so if I'm not interested in creating and only in playing, is there a lot of good content in Dreams, or will I burn through the good stuff in a weekend? Does it cost extra?
Re: Reaction: Activision Blizzard Buyout Is Devastating for PS5, PS4
Microsoft can buy as many studios as they want - but if they run them into the ground, then it will be a waste of money. I see a possibility that in 2032, people look back at Bethesda and Activision Blizzard the same way we look back at Atari - with fond memories and a lot of nostalgia (heck Activision made games for the Atari 2600, back in the day) of a dead company.
Will that happen? Don't know. But neither does anybody else. Shake up the company to get rid of the sexual harrassers, change the ownership, shuffle enough things around...and maybe it looks nothing like itself when you're done. Maybe the next CoD is so bad everybody abandons the franchise. It could happen - we all know it can. You're only as good as your last game. So, can Microsoft keep these studios healthy and productive over the long term, especially when they essentially give away their games on Game Pass? Maybe. We'll see.
Re: Updated PlayStation Patent Has Fans in Backwards Compatibility Frenzy, But It's a Reach
People who love to hate on PS for lack of backwards compatibility need to stop and think about WHY for a second.
XBox has been a PC-in-a-box since the original. It's mostly standard components running a modified version of Windows. That's it. It's no harder to run an old game on the newest XBox than it is to run an old Windows game (or maybe even a DOS game) on a new PC. The issues are known, the hardware is basically the same but faster, so emulation - if it's even needed - is relatively simple.
Playstation wrote their own OS and had hardware that was unique - particularly the PS3, which even today they can't get an emulator to work with games that were really written to take advantage of the full power of the multiple cores (games that were written for PC and ported and don't take much advantage of the unique hardware are much lower-hanging fruit). Emulating hardware that is fundamentally different than the hardware you're using is much harder than emulating a slower version of the same thing. And it's uncertain if today's beefy computers can emulate the PS3 hardware fully and completely at full speed - it was just DIFFERENT.
The reason the PS5 can be backwards compatible with the PS4 is that, for better or worse, both are basically PC-in-a-box just like XBox. Upgrading from one known architecture to another is MUCH simpler, even if it has issues like clock speed (as addressed in this patent) to consider.
Finally, Sony wants to make money. How much development time do you want them to spend making an emulator so you can play your old games for free? Sure, you can complain they're greedy - but is that different from us wanting them to spend their money on something they know they can't recover the costs of development from? I'd rather they spend those resources improving the PS5 and working on PSVR2. But that's just me.
Re: Poll: How Long Should Games Be?
I think the more interesting question is, are you willing to pay more money for a game that takes longer to "finish" (whether that's main story, platinum, whatever)? What kind of price-to-time ratio is right?
Even then, I think "time" for a game is a weird metric, since we play differently, but if we're going to talk about length, I guess it's the best metric we've got.
Re: Hands On: God of War PC Is a Great Way to Play a PS4 Classic
When you can show me the $500 PC that can play this as well as my PS5, then let's talk. Until then, forget about it.
Re: Poll: How Long Should Games Be?
How is the time being spent?
Most of the time I'd rather spend a short time on an intense experience, a great story, an interesting mechanic, and/or a fun combat setup than spend a long time hunting an enormous map for some widget I missed. What you're doing with those hours matters.
While I like posts like the fourth one, from @pushL7, that break it into different categories, I'd suggest that's misleading as well. An open world game doesn't automatically need more time just because it's open world, and an Indie game can be compelling for a lot more than a few hours if the mechanics are right and it's re-playable. I'm old enough to remember a time when Minecraft was an indie.
Quality matters over quantity. A long, bad, painful experience is actually worse than a short, bad, painful experience. But there have been games I didn't want to put down, where I ran around the map trying to find that last widget because it was so dang fun to run around the map (INfamous, I'm looking at you).
Play style matters, too - what you call a 10 hour game I might call a 40 hour game, because I may play differently and spend more time at each stage. It's a weird metric.
Re: Nothing to Announce on PSVR2 Backwards Compatibility, Says Sony
This is why you build APIs. Developers shouldn't have been writing code that read exactly what the Move controller was doing - they should have been using an API that gave them the info they need. Then, Sony writes an API for PSVR2 that gives the same info for that setup, regardless of the different hardware.
That's the theory, at least. How well that works in practice (without a significant performance hit) might be part of Sony's evasiveness right now.
@sanderson72 - you never needed a DS4 to play PS4 games on the PS5, not even on day 1 - it's just that you CAN use a DS4 to play PS4 games, while PS5 games require the DualSense. The DualSense will work with PS4 games as well (though it's now banned for that purpose in our house, as I've already replaced - under warranty - both controllers I had when I got my day 1 PS5 for drift, while the PS4 controllers I've had for years still don't have any drift).
Re: PlayStation Integration in Discord Spotted
@TheRedComet This.
This is the main reason I hear "cross-play" and say "no thanks." I don't play a lot of multiplayer, but when I do, I prefer to play with people on the same console I'm on, and avoid playing on PC entirely. I tend to disable cross play when doing so is an option.