thefourfoldroot1

A very sad minority. Everything requires a login. Don’t like it don’t buy the game. In fact don’t buy the majority of games from big publishers. I hope Sony don’t relent. They also need to let people get an account in all countries though.

Well, this Astro game looks like the best platformer that isn’t in VR ever made. A shame it’s not 10 times better by being in VR, but I’ll probably still get it at some point, just not day one. What it does prove is that Sony had no intention of supporting PSVR2 from launch. To not even make it a hybrid game is just scandalous. And sad. Very, very sad. To lose such potential by locking Astro behind a pane of glass like some 80s Superman, forcing him to move in a 2d plane instead of being a true 3D platformer. Why Sony, why ruin things like this?

There were a couple of what looked like decent Japanese games from a dev I’ve never heard of. And it all started with a game that looked like it would have been great if it wasn’t shackled to a live service monetisation campaign (hopefully someone will collate all these CGI scenes into a channel where I don’t have to play the repetitive game, it looks like something I’d like to watch).

Behemoth was a bit more combat focused than I was hoping, with seemingly little exploration, but its early days.

@Pinkman
It’s the ergonomics and parity with dualsense features. Sure I could save £100 and and get a cheap tablet to stream to, but I’ve tried that with phones and various stands and clips and it’s awkward and uncomfortable. And forget about laying down on my back in bed and playing, it wouldn’t be possible. Then you have the easy fast connection and reassurance it will always be updated. For £100 it’s a no brainer for me.

It’s fairer to ask why this and not the steamdeck. But then you’d have to switch the price points around.

@Kalime78
Yes, but I’m lazy. I might look into but it was just quicker to buy a new one.

@Shad361
Fair, but arcades were a bit before my time really. I missed that period as I wasn’t allowed in as a kid and I was born in 83.

This franchise has really reached the end of its life in its current guise. I really enjoyed the first one, but lasted 1hr into MM and can’t bring myself to even start 2. They desperately need to innovate.

@Titntin
That’s bad luck. I’ve personally only had one controller get stick drift in nearly 40 years of gaming, and that was on the Switch. Which I guess is common to almost everyone.

I’d be pissed if my Portal gets it as it’s a lot more to replace it, if there is even stock.

Worst would be if the PSVR2 controller gets it though, I couldn’t even buy replacements there if I wanted to!!

@Titntin
6! What are you doing with them my man!? lol.
I’ve had to replace one, but that was because I dropped it from a large height and the R2 spring snapped on collision.

Looks nice. Doesn’t show us much though. Will keep it on radar.

If it helps support the spiralling costs of AAA real game development then fine, but I’m so glad I didn’t grow up in a time where “gaming” was just hanging out in the same place with your mates and performing the same activity over and over again with a slightly different skin.

I guess it depends on whether things are released on PC at the same time as PlayStation. If there is a year delay or something then it’s possible some will. But largely those who don’t think twice about spending huge amounts on their rig and would see a console as akin to buying a new graphics card.

I’ve been able to put an unhealthy amount of time into Balatro because of my Portal. No longer have to choose between gaming or being cosy in bed after the wife falls asleep, and can play when away from home as long as I have wifi. Its a great device.

Please let a PSVR2 game be Astro Bot!!!!

@Futureshark
Indeed, hooking it up to even a laptop opens up 3D movies in a way Sony has refused to do. And that does include porn of course.

@Burntbreadman
Yes, I didn’t mean my comment to seem critical of the game, it was just a weird angle for the article to take in my opinion. I’ll probably actually get it at some point - it’s an antidote to all the bloody dark horror games, and it seems the characters are done well; I don’t mind the lack of an English dub, (especially as I’m trying to teach myself Japanese at the moment), but the lack of anything to do outside of the main storyline might make it feel a bit repetitive to me. I don’t expect it to be of Yakuza diversity, but the world seems a bit empty. I know the devs have said they are adding side quests so I’ll likely wait for that.

So pretty much the same as the ps1 emulator then? That’s fine enough. I do kind of wish for a “speed up” function for those games requiring grinding out battles, for example; I’m sure the PS5 / PS4 could handle it.

@NEStalgia
What you describe sounds exactly like GAME over here, and that’s going under. CEX is purely games, retro games, some collectors editions and old DVDs. I think I went into one that had some posters.

The only problem is, as with any second hand store, it’s hot and miss what is in there. I’ve still got about £200 worth of credit but not much to spend it on. Especially as they have few VR games.

@NEStalgia
That indeed seems terrible over there!

I use CEX over here (GAME isn’t really a thing any more). A quick glance at some of the last physical games I played shows FFXVI - £25 purchase price, £16 trade back; Infinite wealth - £35 purchase price, £23 trade in; Hubris £25 purchase price, £16 trade back…

Compared to some of these being £50-70 on the digital store (not Hubris of course, VR has very cheap games to make up for the high hardware price), which makes the convenience of digital very expensive. Thats not even considering the advantage of having some games physical for better PS5 performance or to avoid certain patches. These things make physical worth it for me.

Plus I have sometimes made money on the exchange. For example, I bought Blue Reflection for £22 and traded it back for £50 (it’s still holding strong at £36 trade in value).

@NEStalgia
“yeah, I always forget people do the selling thing. Never really got into that. Never really seemed worth it to get a few dollars in store credit, “

This is only really an issue if you buy new then sell after a long time. If you get a game second hand once it’s been out a while you’ll rarely spend more than £10 max on any game after trade back.

Do they have added trophy challenges or are they just the same old games with save and rewind function? I’d like more to get my teeth into than that, so the devs setting new trophy challenges would be appreciated.

Jesus Christ PSVR2 games! Fantastic!!! So pleased about this. Plus I only have 2 of them for now. Will definitely give ghost busters and synth riders a go, plus Walking dead 2 is awesome but I need to finish 1 first. So happy about this.

It won’t make me renew Premium, because VR games are almost all very very cheap anyway, so it’s not worth a Premium prescription, but it would make me renew at essential level. Until I have to decide on that I’m happy seeing them starting to come to the service, even if making it premium is a bit stingy.

Essential is crap of course.

Got £40 of vouchers since November 2022 according to my rewards history. Not exactly anything to write home about, but it’s better than the nothing I was getting before so I’m not complaining. Not foolish enough to buy digital games for £70 though, even if it is a free bonus.

@get2sammyb

I just checked the PSN store and we also have the following (there are a lot more, but these are just the “Announced” ones they bothered to put up)

May 28th
The Exorcist Legion

June
VRSO Bare Knuckle Fighting

July
The Utility Room

2024 -
Building Simulator
Snow Scout

TBC -
Arken Age
Compound
low-Fi
Throwdown

Think I’ll finish of the plat for Hubris, and play some Balatro in between.

@PloverNutter
“ even though they admit the games look better on Quest. Can’t admit that psvr2 is just not as powerful as the quest 3”

Please stop the childish trolling. You are embarrassing yourself.

Quest 3 is great, but not even the most diehard fan would suggest it’s mobile chip can output games anything like the fidelity of the PS5 and VR2, nor do they care for it to do so.

@NEStalgia
I think the reason for this is that, in both cases, presumptions are made that not selling huge amounts of hardware is a death knell, whereas both MS and Sony are likely exactly where they expect to be. They don’t invest millions without having a bit of a better understanding than we bother with lol. The hardware is priced to recoup costs and software makes some money, but it’s always about looking for growth (whether that be cross platform publishing , subscriptions, or a hardware paradigm shift such as VR).

@NEStalgia
As I said, it’s ongoing development which they may as well release to market as not. Do you really expect them to just keep iterating until it has mass market appeal without releasing anything to make money? That’s not Sony lol. Breaking even, with minimal to no risk, while increasing their capability until it becomes a huge moneymaker seems perfectly normal to me.

@NEStalgia
lol, you don’t like Mario 64? As a kid with a new N64 my mind was blown, like it was never to be again until Astro Bot Rescue Mission.

I wouldn’t be so pissed off about PSVR2, not so certain there won’t be a PSVR3. Everyone knows that the tech isn’t cool looking enough to attract casuals, even though it’s an amazing experience, and it was priced well to cover the R&D costs. As will the next one, which allows Sony to be at the forefront of things when the tech matures fully. It’s not an unusual strategy. What would be unusual is if Sony tried to go mainstream price with tech that doesn’t appeal to the mainstream. Somewhat pricy for the enthusiasts is where we are at the moment. Yet pricey games won’t sell enough to cover costs, so cheap development is requirement, and quest ports do well enough for Sony currently it seams. Massive shame of course.But I’ve had more memorable experience with it than I have the last 10 £70 games, so I consider it worth the money easily.

@BusyOlf
Meh, it’s annoying, but it’s been well worth the money even if they never release a single first party game for it again.

If it’s not a PSVR2 game, or hybrid, I’ll be seriously miffed. Astro Bot on PSVR is the greatest platformer of all time, but only because it is in VR. The difference between platformers in VR and flatscreen is like the difference between Mario 64 and everything that came before.

I have actually found these helpful (although they absolutely shouldn’t be locked behind a paywall). I was going to by Balatro on sale last weekend, and remembered I could try it in trial just to make sure everyone in the world wasn’t wrong. Made it easier to drop £11 when I knew for sure I wanted to keep playing.

For this game of course I wouldn’t need that type of assurance, but others might.

So, judging by the graphics I’m guessing another quest port. I wish their tech would catch up already. Still, hopefully fun gameplay. Just weird for this article to focus on the visuals, which are terrible.

As I’ve never heard nor said it before, it doesn’t impact my in the slightest! But I do appreciate the pronunciation given the etymology of the word.

I must admit, while as a teenager they were a staple of mine, as an adult working many hours, I don’t want to have to put more effort into my gaming by thinking too hard.

I’m sorry, but given what Sony has done for Japanese games, and their seeming abhorrence of anything even slightly risqué, I don’t trust them with anime. Not that we have much choice. I can just imagine what they would teach at their academy

It’s never worked has it?

It’s the free to play bit that puts me off. And the current lack of trophy support

Should be continuing with tales of vesperia, but I made the mistake of picking up Balatro in the recent sale…

@TheMysticOne
Sure, I have all those too (in fact, the ps1 and 2 as well, and all the way back to the C64). So I agree. Although I doubt many people who have a PS5 and PS4 still use the latter (what’s the point when everything is back compat?). I only have mine so I can watch 3D movies on my PSVR as PSVR2 doesn’t let me!)

@TheMysticOne
The number of accounts that is a second or more, on PS5s (with the ps5 being shared by multiple accounts in other words) is much more, I’m willing to bet, than the number of broken or in transit consoles. But, I can’t prove that, so it’s just an opinion ultimately. Although an opinion based on decades of me and most people I know owning consoles and having families.

I think I prefer the original name. It’s more unique and somewhat militaristic with “Unit” in the name rather than “Studio.”. But then, conversely, I don’t actually care

@themightyant
Saved me having to type that, thanks.

@LiamCroft
Hopefully, although they have said they are focusing in on “ongoing targeted investments in proprietary technologies to reach and sustain a competitive advantage”. Could just mean the AI assistance they’ve been harping on about, but it is just a matter of time before these publishers seek to force their own stores into the platform holders ecosystem.

So when you say new content could be delivered via the hub or the “animus store”, are these separate marketplaces that cut Sony out (as epic are doing with Apple)? Sorry but I haven’t played an assassins creed game since a short dalliance in black flag.

If so I’m not sure I like that.

As a lifelong JRPG enthusiast, I can think of a good few. But I’d really need them to be given trophy support and that’s very hit and miss.

@NEStalgia
I’m not sure why it matters to the argument what the percentage is of money from whales to standard players. You need to have as much market as possible to addict people into becoming whales. It’s still a numbers game that relies on you capturing enough market share to create those whales in your system.

I don’t buy that “they no longer need those 500M on a couple of prestige games that make no money . Everybody buys their Fortnite adapter by default because everybody else buys that Fortnite adapter. Marketing and social penetration have made it the default, and those big budget games that "nobody" buys that make no money are no longer needed ”

A few reasons I disagree with some of those points: 1) crossplat means you don’t need the same platform as your mates to play the same big game any longer (which is why the market leader in Sony fought so hard against it, and MS where pushing so hard for it); 2) even whales seek out new highs (new games) and those big budget games (and more importantly the social conversation that makes them feel a leading part of a community) will appeal if only momentarily, keeping them engaged in your platform; 3) even if true, it would only be for one generation. Constant marketing is required to not lose the gained advantage. You need to keep attracting (and ultimately addicting and turning into whales) each new generation.

The answer to your final question though, is that whales will always gravitate, not to console or PC, but mobile. They are fundamentally addicts, and a system that lets them always have the drug in hand, like a vaping kid, is the system that will always win out.

@NEStalgia
“ It just no longer makes sense to sell cheap/loss taking hardware when you just sell one or two games to most people buying it. ”

I can’t help but feel this is a little basic. Those people who just buy the one game are profitable as they spend a lot on that game in Microtransactions. The key then is to ensure you get a cut of these Microtransactions as that is where the money is. 30% on everything bought through your walled garden. It could be argued this is better for the platform holders as there is no chance of lending and second hand use.

If it takes spending 500 million on a couple of prestige games that just break even, but that make people feel they should buy your “Fortnite adapter” as you put it, rather than adapter b, then that’s sunk money worth spending as it facilitates the profits from the crap “games”.

G-police brings back memories! The cat quest games are great but I have them. Never played Red Dead 2 so may give it a go if I find the time.

@CaptD
I couldn’t see that as I own them both already, so it just says Purchased, but yes they are definitely well worth it, especially Ancient Dungeon! People moan that the headset is too expensive for them, but great games are insanely cheap usually!

So they are looking to shackle and milk dry existing players. Noted.