thedevilsjester

@Th3solution Saves would undermine the Roguelike-ness. You could, for example, save mid-run, back up that save, resume, and if you die, just restore the save and try again.

There is no good solution. As much as I would like to have saves, I also understand why they don't exist.

@Lightning_FF13 I see what you did there.

I really hope the long time frame between runs (and thus potentially multiple hours lost) isn't a deterrent to finishing it; it looks like the game will be really enjoyable.

I tend to play games on their maximum difficulty, so I am no stranger to try, try, try again.

From the trailers I expected more of an emphasis on story telling; still excited to play this game, but not as much as I was before the review.

@MattSilverado You make the assumption that games need to fill up the entirety of the RAM when they load, which is not the case. Game worlds tend to be designed in segments that are loaded Just In Time to create a seamless experience.

This mechanic has a big flaw though, if you go to fast, you might reach an area before its loaded; or if you fast travel, its unlikely that that random section is cached. More RAM, all other things being equal, means you could stream in more of these segments, sooner.

This game, as it is, cannot exist on the last gen consoles without sacrifices. If anyone thinks that its just going to be bug fixes and they will magically pull another 15-20 FPS out of thin air; they are deluding themselves. The only way this game gets playable on last gen systems is if it gets seriously neutered in the process.

So far; the only PS5 game I have played on the PS5 was AC, and it was a disappointment. I am really hungry for a next-gen (err, this-gen) experience (there doesn't really seem to be any yet); but I am not certain about day-one for this, although it does look interesting.

@Jayslow People tend to have a centralist point of view, and no matter how far they are in the minority, they feel as if they are in the majority. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to this; but what I find contributes the most is socializing with like minded people; in what eventually just becomes an echo chamber. At some point you just can't imagine anyone not sharing the same opinion; and that anyone that has a different opinion must be either completely stupid, or trolling.

My personal take (on this specific situation) is: The game isn't out on the current generation of consoles yet; so I have no interest in it until it is.

@Breekhead I understand; the problem, at its heart, makes reviews meaningless unless you trust the specific reviewers opinions on that specific type of game.

I generally scan a few reviews from different sites on a game for the key words that would make or break a game for me; and then if it passes that sniff test, I start to dig deeper.

@Breekhead I haven't played this game so its not a judgment on it specifically; just a general statement: A tried and true (non-unique) concept with mediocre graphics can still make an enjoyable game; but a unique concept with amazing graphics can't make a poorly designed game good.

@KayOL77 Its not an apples to apples comparison. There is tech inside of the PS5 that cannot be utilized on games that are cross generational without considerable effort and redesign on the part of the developer.

Take the SSD for example. A games typical design of funneling you through tight spaces, and loading hallways, to hide data streaming is no longer necessary; but cross generational games will still have to keep this behavior in; and its not something you can just turn off on the PS5 because there is quite a bit of level design and sacrifice/balance that go into getting it just right.

@theheadofabroom Its still a series of tubes, but they have been retrofitted to be sewer pipes.

@Porco
What makes you think they are up to 21 patches? If it's the version number, then 1.21 does not mean what you think it does.

To explain, most game and software developers follow the major.minor.revision paradigm (with some opting out of using the decimal separating minor and revision). It's not a counter, not in a classic linear sense. To give a couple of examples, Cyberpunk 2077 has gone from 1.06 to 1.1 with a single patch/update, and from 1.12 to 1.20 with another.

Some do use a linear counter, or even a build number; but thats far less common.

@Loftimus I am not lobbing, I am just offering a counter opinion. Not everyone that has an opinion that's different than yours has an agenda.

@Loftimus Paying the least right now is irrelevant. I would have no problems with paying more (and I often do when I have to pay $20-$40 extra to import titles from the UK that didn't get US physical releases).

The great thing about this is that you can choose not to pay full price, and get it cheaper later. This is not only a good way to save money but it also let's the developers and publishers know what the demand for their game at that price is. It's a lot more effective than whining in a comments section.

@Loftimus it's perfectly accessible. There are thousands of games available to purchase that play on the PS5/4 and most of them for ~$15 or less. Being accessible doesn't mean having all of the latest and greatest must be in reach of the lowest common denominator. You sound entitled.

@Loftimus I have no problems paying $100 USD for a good game. As many have rightly pointed out, just a standard price $50 (USD) NES game in 1985 is ~$125 adjusted for inflation. That doesn't even count the higher end ~$70-$80 games. If we didn't buy games back then for $100-$200 each; then gaming wouldn't have become what it is today.

As @4kgk2 's said, this is an expensive hobby. Sure you can get into the hobby for relatively cheap and there are ways to stay cheap (buying used, years later, etc...) but overall if you want to be on the front lines of this hobby; its going to cost you.

Even with the new standard price of games, with more people buying games, more used copies available, from more sources online; and digital sales and indie titles, its never been cheaper to be a gamer on a tight budget (and this is a perfectly reasonable way to enjoy the hobby), but you can't be a budget gamer and want all of the latest and greatest on day one.

@HuJack007
Yeah, if only we all only cared about the exact things you care about; and nothing more.

Its not just some small nit-picky thing. It can be extremely loud. It can easily drown out the sound in games, shows, and movies; and if you have your system set to auto update, it can easily wake you up in the middle of the night when the update reboots your system and decides to read the disc for no real reason (something I learned the hard way)

@GamingFan4Lyf
I think there are a lot of variables here, most importantly where the PS5 is placed, and if its vertical or horizontal. I have mine placed on a "floating" (mounted to the wall) TV stand, horizontally; and it sounds like a Jet Engine when it spins up, its easily as loud as the Dreamcast if not louder. Using a stable TV stand (floor based) that can disperse the vibrations into the floor and putting it in vertical position where it's more stable and has less surface contact, would likely dramatically reduce the noise.

@get2sammyb
I think its placebo effect still. I have seen no noticeable reduction in the noise since the update.

@zekepliskin To be fair, Microsoft's Xbox Accounts have been hacked multiple times, with quite a few people impacted; it just wasn't on the massive scale that Sony's Playstation Accounts were hacked.

"When you defeat an enemy, you'll be given the option of disarming them, instead of putting them to the sword."
Thats not much of a morality system. You make the choice to get the ending you want.

If you want morality systems, play games like Frostpunk where you have to decide if you allow child labor in the early days, or risk not having enough supplies for all of your people to survive the first cold snap. Where you have to decide if you execute people that speak up against your choices to maintain order and keep everyone alive, or allow freedom of speech and the possible negative consequences that come from that. Where you have to decide if you want to amputate limbs of your critically injured people (who may commit suicide, or may eventually work again), or let them die. Those or morality choices.

(I didn't intend for this to be an ad for Frostpunk, but calling out this game for its singular, doesn't really matter, morality choice does a disservice to games that actually have meaningful, impactful morality choices)

@MatthewJP
If they don't go back and update reviews when major patches fix things; then to be fair they need to review all titles with the base-game. Unfortunately this isn't always possible for two reasons:

1. If they got early review copies, they might not have the day 1 patch that has unfortunately become standard.
2. If they review it later, it might not be possible to download/play the base-game; this is especially true for online enabled titles.

There is no way to be really fair, without going back and doing re-reviews; but that takes a lot of time and effort.

@nathanSF What you are thinking of is more of how PC game patches work. Console patches don't generally work like this. The base game is stored, literally untouched, and the patch is applied dynamically when the game loads.

This doesn't mean what you think it does, as far as piling more code on top of faulty code; the old files either get replaced or "delta" patched (in memory) the same way it would have done on the file system.

@twitchtvpat This is the key for all digital store-fronts. They will ALL end up this way when the amount of money gained by keeping them active drops below the amount of money it costs to maintain.

If it were just one person still using the store, for example, it wouldn't be worth it for Sony (or Microsoft or Nintendo) to keep every copy of every game available to them. Just scale this one person up until you get to the point where it matters. 100? 1,000? 10,000? It's inevitable that the number of users will drop below this threshold.

@Nem I never said I was. I couldn't care less about Bethesda; I just found it odd that a lot of people are holding out hope that it happens one direction; but seeing it as a platform failure if it happens the other direction.

I don't understand. A lot of people are hoping that Bethesda has some agreement place that will let them publish some games on the Playstation still; but if the reverse is true for something like MLB, it's the end of the world?

@Hyperluminal It was less specifically aimed at you, and more that you were the most recent in the chain of similar discussion.

I am (currently) a Sony fanboy, but that comes with caveats. I will drop Sony in a heartbeat if they make sweeping choices I don't agree with, and I will switch to a platform that feels like it better suits my needs if one ever came along. I hate the Xbox and Microsoft (though a little less in recent years); but its a reasoned factual hate, not a blind fanboy hate.

@Turismo4GT I am one of those folks. I mourn the loss of a some of the developers (I loved Dishonored) but as far as Bethesda goes, while I have bought and played every Elder Scrolls and Fallout game, I won't really miss them (they were good, but never great).

@Hyperluminal only idiots think the situation is as black and white as fanboyism. I could list a dozen reasons that I won't ever own an Xbox none of them are fanboy related.

@Wolfie_Pie These are very uncomfortable from the moment I put them on.

@Richnj

The industry has decided that people are less outraged by micro-transaction cosmetics, and so huge chunks of "modern" games are now designed to push gamers to want or use cosmetics, regardless of your choice to participate in the micro transactions.

AC:Valhalla is a prime example of this design choice. Nearly every major quest or task reward is a cosmetic. Tattoos, clothes, boat decals, settlement adornments, hair cuts, etc...

I couldn't care less about micro transactions as a general concept; but there is no way to include them, and make them a desirable addition, without impacting all players, regardless of your choice to participate in them.

@MFTWrecks I wasn't saying it was just cosmetic. I was saying 75% of the games rewards are just cosmetic. Huge swathes of the game only rewards cosmetics and this is a trend to push players to want cosmetics so they will pay for more. My point being that even pure cosmetic micro transactions are not done in a bubble, the core game loop suffers because it is built around funneling you towards these.

@Octane This is the key point that most gloss over.

@MFTWrecks I disagree completely. Even something as benign as cosmetics have a huge impact on the core game. AC:Valhalla is a great example of this.

Instead of giving you rewards (for quests, tasks, etc...) that have some tangible in game benefit, AC:Valalla gives you cosmetics. Everywhere you look the game is just oozing cosmetic rewards. Many modern "micro-transaction" based games are the same, how often was that the case prior to micro-transactions? The existence of micro-transactions in games have fundamentally changed the core game loop and rewards.

@Jaz007 Its not really burried, it just probably isn't obvious.
When you hit the PS button and the cards come up, there are tasks (usually the first couple cards), there is an option on these cards to show more details, which is where this information is. You can see it in action on Astro's Playroom.

Not every game has them though, for example there are none on Assassins Creed (it just shows the same broken progress card for the whole game).

@3MonthBeef I disagree (that's a completely different conversation) but my main point was that I have had as many crashes in AC:Valhalla as many people have had in Cyberpunk, as well as a slew of other non crash bugs.

(I am not trying to defend Cyberpunk, it's a mess, just reframe the discussion a little bit)

@jmac1686 I have had at least a dozen crashes on AC:Valhalla on PS5. (about 65 hours in) More often than not I get stuck in the terrain, or on a ledge and it glitches until it crashes to the PS5 menu.

I have also had other bugs occur that force me to close/restart the game, such as being permanently stuck trying to open a door in a raid, with no one coming to my aid, and it not letting me abort.

Its not the most buggy title out there; but its certainly one of the more buggy I have experienced in awhile.

Cyberpunk gets a lot of flak for the crashing, but I have had AC:Valhalla crash many times as well. Not to mention various other bugs like getting stuck in random bits of scenery and having to reload.

Not that its acceptable there either; but my point is we seem to be focused on how terrible of a game Cyberpunk is, without acknowledging that many of the other current games out there can be pretty awful too. At least Cyberpunk hasn't tried to sell us XP boosts yet.

(With all that said, I will wait for the current gen version to launch, rather than try and play it on last gens systems)

Are any of the rewards actually useful, or are they all cosmetic? This game feels like a delivery system for viking cosmetic items already, the last thing I want is more.

@SweetSummerShunv I sure hope that Ubisofts "support" doesn't set a precedent. Its half-assed at best, an irritant at worst. That goes for all of the PS5 exclusive feature support in this title (Rumble, Tiggers, Activity Cards). I hope that it actually gets supported well by other developers, because this is just lazy.

@theMEGAniggle I am not sure. I do know that Astro worked fine, but I have mostly played PS4 titles thus far except for AC.

It only flip/flops between 0 and 40. I played another 3-4 hours yesterday, and it was stuck at 40% but right before I called it quits for the night, I looked, and it was 0% again.

Even if it "worked" the activity card (there is only one!) is completely useless. It's just a simple game progress indicator with the only listed task being to essentially play the game.

As for the topic at hand, I don't understand the adaptive tigger support in this title. It basically has a "stop" about...25% of the way down, and then it gets a little difficult to pull.

You would assume low power/strength at the stop mark, and full power as you pull it through, but thats not how it works. Power is more-or-less based on how long you hold the trigger (you can hold it at the 25% stop and get full power every time) no need to pull into the resistive portion.

It seems like Ubisoft is just doing the bare minimum here (just like with activity cards). I hope other developers actually put in effort.

@theMEGAniggle Eh, in this title, it's a gimmick. Even Astro's Playroom did better with their bow feedback than AC. The way they included it actually makes gameplay a little bit worse.

The bow has always been finicky in this game though. Often when I press the button to zoom/fire the bow, it does nothing. Now it takes more effort to do nothing. Not sure why it does this (I can't reproduce it in a vacuum) but its pretty regular.

Also, as an aside, ever since I started AC:Valhalla, the "Activity Card" (which is pretty useless in this game) flips between 0% and 40% complete. It's done this since hour 1, and still does this on hour...65?

@LiamCroft I think the problem (for many) is that there is no definitive definition (an exhaustive list if you will) of what exactly is racist, or sexist, or homophobic, etc... (just concepts) There are the extremely obvious instances, certainly (that anyone can point to), but then there are a lot of grey areas, a lot of things that one person may consider in that category, but another might not.

As a parent and a gamer I struggle with both sides of that coin. I don't want my kids exposed to that kind of nonsense and vitrol; but I also don't want them to have to walk on egg shells for fear of offending someone.

@Spoonman-2 You are not missing much. I am about 60 hours in and its just so...meh. About 70% of the content rewards are nothing but cosmetics. Cosmetics for your character, cosmetics for your boat, cosmetics for your settlement, cosmetics for your horse, etc... I find it all just underwhelming.

If it wasn't for the completionist in me, I would have stopped already. This will certainly be my last AC game, the story is good (as well as the writing for the side-quests), but the gameplay is just stale and full of busy work.

@fR_eeBritney They did, and what ended up happening is that games just never got patched. So you would have buggy broken games forever. I would rather have all games freely patchable with a handful that are unplayable day one, than have many many games broken simply because it's too costly to fix.

@Kidfunkadelic83 I think many are waiting for the actual PS5 version.

I don't really sympathize with those that got it on the PS4, simply because this isn't some big unexpected situation, it's had huge red flags for last-gen systems for a long time now.

I canceled my pre-order months ago; the writing was on the wall, and as much as I want to play this game right now, its not worth it, not until the current gen systems get a proper release.

@skxnkwxlkr I exclusively play Playstation, no PC, no multi-platform (unless you count one or two games on Switch), and taking last gen as an example have had well over 150+ games over the lifespan of the PS4, and never once have I had to delete a title (that I am still playing) to make room for another (and I haven't expanded my storage ever). Based on my own anecdotal evidence, backed up by Sonys own statements, I would say its a non-issue for most people. I can understand how it can be an issue for those that play a lot of Multiplayer titles, or those that have a big family/shared console; but for the rest, especially those that sit with an average number of games over the consoles lifespan (~9 IIRC), its not an issue that needs solved.

Unfortunately we don't get to pick and choose which games get to push the limits and which ones must stay within certain restrictions so it's an all or nothing proposition. One of the reasons I abandoned PC gaming decades ago was because the developers had zero incentive to make current hardware work great with the games, they just operated with a "well, they can always upgrade to play the game as intended" mindset. I would personally rather not have that mindset infiltrate the console space.

I understand your point though, and agree. It's a zero sum game unfortunately, with no right answer; but its not a question that we should ever ignore or assume that our point of view is the only legitimate one (which was kind of the point of my original reply)

@Ward_ting It does this even if you are watching YouTube or Netflix. It doesn't matter what you are doing on the system, if there is a disc in, it will read it every 30-60 minutes, and its obnoxious. (I haven't let it sit on the home screen yet, but I would imagine it does it when not running anything at all)

@LiamCroft It's not the first Dual Sense controller update FYI. I had a controller update on day one (well, week two, since my day one was a bit late)

The bug I really want fixed, above all others, is the CD drive spinning up every 30-60 mins for no reason, even if you are not playing a game. The drive is very loud (even more when its sitting on a wall mounted shelf that doesn't absorb vibrations).

@skxnkwxlkr It depends on how you define quality. If I were to list my top ~20 games of last generation, at least 5-10 of them would be indie/non-AAA games, and their quality outshines a lot of AAA games. The same argument has been leveled against consoles for decades, with their extremely limited hardware compared to PC's; yet we have managed to get major block buster titles again and again and again.

Keep in mind that I am not trying to make the argument that we shouldn't have more storage this gen, just that there is certainly a case for anyone trying to make that argument.

@Netret0120 I think this mostly impacts people that play a lot of multiplayer games since there isn't any reason to keep most single player games around after you finish them, with exceptions for games that don't actually end of course.

Since I don't find any enjoyment in multiplayer games, I don't really run into any issues. I play a game, finish it, and delete it.

With proof of how good a Bethesda-like game can be when Bethesda isn't making it (The Outer Worlds) and the dumpster fire that is Fallout 76 (and their responses each step of the way) I don't have any desire to play another title made by Bethesda. I DO have the desire to play an ES-like game though...so someone...please make a good one for the new generation of consoles!

@Netret0120 Not to play the devils advocate; but it's pretty easy to argue against more storage. The more you have, the more they will use.

It's an argument as old as technology (and perhaps, far older). If there is no reason to make the effort (to reduce file size in this case) then they won't. Restricted hardware has made developers push limits on consoles that just didn't seem possible, when you relax those limits, you get immediate gain, but lose out in the log run.

That being said, since Xbox already has storage expansion, that genie is already out of the bottle this generation and we will need storage expansion soon on the PS5 side to keep pace.

I doubt I will ever use up the provided internal storage in the PS5, even with playing/buying 100+ games this generation, so it doesn't really impact me, but I would still like to see the situation fixed, at least archive to HDD on PS5 titles.