@tameshiyaku I agree it’s possible and interesting, I like the idea personally, I just think it’s a prohibitively expensive plan, more likely to happen from ASUS RoG range than PlayStation who have to appeal to the masses.
But perhaps they have an expensive Pro model at launch that does this for enthusiasts.
6/10 was fine, hadn’t played 3 of the games and memory failed me on one more.
Apparently the two playable characters in Enter the Matrix were Ghost (played by Anthony Wong) & Niobe (played by Jada Pinkett Smith)
Who can forget the Great Wall of China at the start of Tomb Raider 2? I remember playing it on launch day and being wowed. I bought the remaster recently but haven’t for around to it yet.
THIS is the problem with these games. They are all very well made and enjoyable but it's the time cost that is an issue for me. It's not really a problem if you only play ONE, or perhaps two, depending how much free time you have, but to play more than that you basically can't play much else. I know @get2sammyb has said similar in the past. It starts to feel like a job.
I just deleted Zenless Zone Zero from my PS5 and phone/tablet this morning because of this. At the end of the day the opportunity cost of playing them is just too much. ZZZ is a good game but at 300 hours already would I rather play that OR play Baldurs Gate 3, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or CyberPunk 2077? My backlog keeps growing. And if I KEPT playing it I could play ALL of those other games, and more... or just ZZZ. It's not a good enough trade to me. YMMV.
Still playing WuWa, HSR and Genshin though! I have a problem!
Still working my way through Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I get majorly distracted on the side quests and just exploring this beautiful world and only just feel I have started pushing the story forward, I meant to do that all last weekend but i'm only just into Chapter 5.
I gave Stalker 2 a quick go (with the Day 1 patch) but had too many bugs and it felt unpolished/unfinished. I'll come back later.
Deleted Zenless Zone Zero from my PS5, phone and tablet so now i'm down to just three timesinks. Genshin, HSR and Wuthering Waves. All good games, including ZZZ, but the opportunity cost of playing them is too much.
@tameshiyaku That sounds great on paper and you make it sound so simple, but it's not. A home console CPU is typically much more powerful than a handheld one which usually needs to run on around 15W of power and the configuration of a handheld device is quite different to a home console. You need a lot more than an eGPU otherwise the handheld nature WILL hold back the home console. Not easy to solve without getting very expensive.
Not at a steam deck price i wouldnt thats for sure!
Steam Deck starts at £349 for the LCD model. What price do you think is reasonable for a higher-end handheld in 2024 and beyond? Because that seems more than fair to me.
@MrMagic I just did. TBH I knew I likely wouldn't be able to get a drive till next year already, but I've got dozens of games to play already digitally. No rush.
I SUSPECT they are waiting for Bluepoint Games to be free to make a proper remake just as they brilliantly did for Demon's Souls. That's the Bloodborne I want, but I wish they had given us a simple 60fps patch in the meantime.
@riceNpea yes there’s a demos section on the store including almost 500 FREE demos. Granted these often aren’t all your big AAA games, but this is up to developers to create a demo and put it on PSN. But there are a few like Metaphor, FF7 rebirth, Diablo 4 etc.
Game trials through PS+ is something different offered through PS+ premium. lol on sticky tape security… don’t know what you are talking about 😂
@riceNpea Demos ARE free to access, they are in the Demos section of the store. There aren't many, but they exist and that is up to devs. They WEREN'T free when you were paying around £5 for OPSM or other magazines, they were completely tied to another payment / magazine subscription.
But this is slightly different, it's not a dev made demo, it's a trial of the first 2 hours of a game. You may think that is semantics, but one is created by the devs and usually a curated slice of the game, the other is created by the platform holder and just the beginning, they aren't quite the same.
I wish they were free for all too, but I don't expect it.
@Kidfunkadelic83 @riceNpea I kind of agree. But don't you think if offering the first two hours of a game is what DEVS and studios wanted they would ALREADY be doing it themselves?
This seems more like to me that Sony is negotiating with devs and studios to allow a select ENGAGED users to have a two hour trial. It seems like this or nothing, in which case I will take this.
There does need to be SOMETHING done about the amount of social media used, and abused, by kids. But i'm not sure an outright ban is the right answer either. That will likely create as many problems as it solves. Law of unintended consequences and all that.
@Paramahansa And if they don't require multiple playthroughs they often require you to follow a stringent guide on your first playthrough to make sure you don't skip any misable items. That's poor game design imho.
Looking forward to this. I've been doing dailies but holding off on a lot of quests and other things waiting for PS5 release. Hopefully it performs better than on mobile/tablet which is pretty bad with a lot of stuttering and frame dips.
JRPGs usually have the WORST trophy lists, often making you grind so much you end up liking the game less, or requiring you follow a guide so as not to miss one step, or making you play a 50-100+ hour game multiple times.
None of that makes the game any better, in fact it makes them worse. Devs really need to look at this and break the mould. Use trophies to make finishing it more enjoyable.
Too many games not enough places on shortlists. There are always deserving games not included, this is normal.
But I’d rather see a new game than a remaster of an almost twenty year old game. For all the critiism Erdtree got for being included at least that was new gameplay. Persona 3 won at least 5 awards when it released, be happy with that.
Congratulations to BMW, it’s a popular game and wins the popularity award.
I think all awards have their place, some are voted for by critics, others by devs and some like this are meant to be a fan voted popularity contest. It’s important to have that range of awards.
I also have a soft spot for the Golden Joysticks as I used to vote by mail in the 80s and 90s. But I don’t think all awards are equal, there are caveats to all voting systems but this has more flaws than most.
Firstly it’s just a popularity contest, completely biased against any smaller games who don’t stand a chance. It’s not a level playing field.
But it’s also not just fan voted. The reality since internet voting took over is that an online fan vote is completely susceptible to brigading (organised online action to make something appear more, or less, popular than it is) and bots. Pewdiepie proved this years ago getting his minions to get a meme game awarded at the Golden Joysticks.
Personally I like to see a better methodology used for GOTY.
@__Seraph Yes it can be done. You used a few examples that generally do it well, but far more do it wrong and just bloat the game or ruin the flow compared to the original.
Besides while Dead Space remake is generally great the backtracking parts were worse in the remake, and many have complained about the additions to Silent Hill 2 dragging the story out in the second half even if the general game is still excellent and likely better overall.
Longer isn't always better. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but it is a concern that you end up changing too much of the game.
I worry that they will try and pad the games out in some way to try and account for the fact that these were both 6-8 hour games, which was fine twenty years ago, but to many isn't long enough now. That might ruin the flow of the game.
Hopefully the fact they are doing both together, making the total 15ish hours will stop that.
Can't speak for anyone else, but decided to play it myself to see if the day 1 patch solved the bugs and had the following issues on XSX in the opening 15 minutes.
Unstable framerate in performance mode even on a HDMI 2.1 TV in 120Hz VRR mode
Audio not always matching with the visuals
Lighting not always working as intended
Scenery items floating in the air
All in all it was in a better state than some of the reviews show but still very unpolished imo and needs plenty of work considering this was just the very start.
As for the gameplay I also had issues with some of the UI and design decisions which seem designed for PC / keyboard and mouse without too much thought to console e.g.
The quick use inventory doesn't show which button to press for each item, nor is it a d-pad shape, so you end up using the wrong item easily
The inventory seems designed for mouse it isn't controller friendly
Lastly I died twice in the opening 15 minutes to an invisible enemy (after getting the first artifact) with not much clue what was wrong. Games don't need to handhold, but they do need to provide some feedback as to what happened so you can learn.
All in all I like the vibe of the game, but i'm happy to wait for this to be improved, even if it's better than in some reviews it also seems pretty rough right now.
@Greifchen Scores don’t always tell the whole story. If you read the reviews most are pretty positive about the game but have ranked it down because it’s buggy and unfinished. Were it in a better state it would score better
Cyberpunk ALREADY gets a reasonable boost on the PS5 Pro without a patch by upping the framerate into an area that is far more often in the VRR window making for a much smoother experience. As it uses Dynamic Resolution Scaling you also get a cleaner image more often.
In other unpatched games like Elden Ring it actually puts the Quality (non-RT) mode above the 48fps VRR window most of the time and means you can play on Quality at a smooth framerate if you have a VRR TV, which if you are spending $700 / £700 on a mid-gen console you likely do.
Not every game needs a Pro patch to see meaningful benefits.
@Mintie So would I... but I think it's a more likely to be HD-2D or nothing, so i'll take HD-2D. Similar with Chrono Trigger. HD-2D is probably easier to not mess it up too.
@ChimpMasta Weird to try and flip this on Sony, it's up to the DEVS what it is in their patches. Sony only lists whether it has had a Pro patch or not, and it has, it's up to the devs to make it up to scratch. (When did everything have to be litigious? No need for the drama)
Tinykin is brilliant. Old school collectible platformer with a modern twist and Honey I Shrunk the Kids / Toy Story vibes exploring rooms in a house from a tiny POV.
@GamingFan4Lyf Overwatch may have aged a little poorly (mostly due to Overwatch 2) but it was an absolute phenomenon in the year it came out and for many years after. I don't even play Multiplayer games but can recognise that in the year it released it was a worthy winner. As would Uncharted, Inside, Doom, Titanfall 2 or ANY game on that list. it was a really competitive year with no clear Elden Ring / BOTW run-away winner.
Firstly there are PLENTY of brilliant indies filling the lower budget tier of games, that isn't the problem area. It's the middle tier 'AA' games that are struggling to find a large enough audience.
Personally YES I want more smaller lower budget / AA original games on paper, and I suspect many other gamers do too. But are we enough? And do we ACTUALLY buy them in enough numbers? The facts are we don't. It's a similar problem in movies whereby it's easier to see ROI on low budget OR high budget entertainment, it's the mid-budget stuff in the middle that is really struggling. Unless enough people buy into that middle AA tier it's going to be hard to get people to finance those games.
But it's a tough sell. A lot of these fall into the 7/10 - 7.5/10 range which may end up being one of YOUR favourite games if you actually play it. But with so many other games on offer rated higher or potentially worse AAA games with known IP sucking up people's time, there are not enough buying AA and we see a lot of studios folding in that area. Sad to see, but the numbers don't lie. We simply aren't buying them enough to make them worthwhile.
As someone who naturally searches every corner and grinds accidentally while doing it this is rarely an issue. But I can see it being super annoying if all you want to do is just play the main story step by step and frequently hit a brick wall. I don't mind difficulty, but choice is good, and uneven spikes are no fun, we should have moved beyond that in 2024.
@Quintumply I don't mind. If it's good enough, it's good enough imo. If they suddenly released it as a standalone £35, which they could, would people feel the same? When the gameplay you actually play would be identical? It's more a content delivery method than anything else. We are judging the gameplay right, not the delivery method? 'Game' of the Year is just the short title, the descriptions says what is included, and it includes expansions.
But I don't feel too strongly, whereas others seem genuinely mad. lol. At the end of the day all drama like this is good publicity for TGAs. Like 'Indies' v 'Independent' last year... either way Geoff wins.
It's this CONSISTENCY over a long period of time that sets apart Nintendo and PlayStation from Xbox imho. I still own a Series X and Game Pass is great, but when it comes to exclusives the other two are superior and this keeps them ahead in many players eyes.
@somnambulance I’ve not played enough of the AAA games to have a fair take on GOTY yet - I often play games years later when they are complete and fully patched - so I don’t have a balanced opinion yet. Ask me in 2-3 years. lol. But Indies I’m far more on top of, my current (overall) GOTY is Animal Well right now.
@Northern_munkey Cyberpunk, Elden Ring, etc. there are many games that are improved without a specific PRO patch. Generally this falls into categories
The game couldn't hold a stable framerate, or in the case of Elden Ring it constantly drops out of the 48fps VRR window. On the Pro it may hold a stable framerate AND/OR be above 48fps meaning on a VRR display the dips can't be seen.
The games uses dynamic resolution scaling and you get a better quality image more often
CHOICE is always good. If you think it's too complicated then just present two options (resolution or framerate) and have an advanced settings toggle that gives access to everything else. Personally I'd take framerate over ray tracing in 95% of examples on console.
Hardly surprising. Entertainment is a results led business and what successes have they had? Far too few, meanwhile every day their studios are making games they spend a LOT of money.
@AhmadSumadi great price, well done! I’m the same, I wasn’t going to buy till I saw the discount and did the maths. I’m happy with what I paid for what I got.
@MattBoothDev I did this too and got the PS5 Pro for around £560, far more palatable. I then sold my PS5 making it around £265 net, happy with that.
The only annoyance is they didn’t have the disc drive bundle in stock when I ordered so I’m still waiting and looking for one of those. I’m in no rush, early next year will be fine.
Did you receive yours incl. the drive? I got mine last weekend.
What is most disappointing of all however, is how often 30fps options continue to crop up
Sony said 75% of users choose performance mode, but that still means 25% were happy enough to play at 30fps with the best visuals, why shouldn’t they be catered for too? If you can run the game at 60fps you can ALSO run the game at 30fps with better fidelity. CHOICE is good and shouldn’t be seen as a disappointment.
@get2sammyb Indeed. I think VERY started this by offering 20% off almost anything if you signed up to a credit agreement (which you didn’t have to use). In the case of the Pro that was a sizeable £140 off at launch, making it £560. While it wasn’t a PS5 Pro specific deal it spread round gaming forums pretty quickly and many grabbed it there instead.
I honestly wasn’t going to buy at £700, but at £560 it was far more tempting, and after selling my launch PS5 for £295 it made the Pro effectively £265. Much more palatable!
If it’s a proper expansion, like Phantom Liberty of Erdtree that gives more content, and brings more new ideas than many full games then I have no problem with it being on the list.
@ChimpMasta @get2sammyb I suspect they are updating the jury list for 2024 as I also can’t get it to load, but the voting Jury for TGAs is usually over 100+ different outlets from over 30 countries including a wide range from:
gaming media websites (Eurogamer, GameSpot, VGC, IGN, etc.)
gaming print media (Edge, PC Gamer, etc.)
news media with a gaming arm (Metro, Guardian, LA times, Variety etc.)
There is no one truth to GOTY but it’s definitely the broadest range of different types of gamers within the industry in an awards that can’t easily be manipulated or brigaded. Unlike something like the 100% fan (& bot) voted Golden Joysticks which previously had more votes but has been influenced in the past by online campaigns.
Personally I think they do a very good job of making the voting jury very wide, getting a range of voices from across gaming while being transparent about the process, rules and jury.
Lastly what do sales have to do with game of the year? If is was based on sales Call of Duty would have won almost every year for over a decade and EA sports games would fill a lot of the shortlist. Something like Astro Bot, the highest rated game this year, wouldn’t stand a chance. Sales are a good way to judge a games success but a terrible way to judge if it’s the best game that year imo.
They did a horrible job of the remasters BUT we don't know if this was down to R* penny pinching and not giving the devs enough time or money OR if it was all on GSG. Regardless the studio did the work and deserve their name on the front. (I know they are still in the end credits)
@Titntin Thanks mate. I didn't read it thoroughly enough to see this is SOLELY for Korean developed titles, my bad. Have deleted my comment as it was wrong. That makes far more sense now.
Comments 5,452
Re: Talking Point: Would You Want a Steam Deck-Like Portable PlayStation?
@tameshiyaku I agree it’s possible and interesting, I like the idea personally, I just think it’s a prohibitively expensive plan, more likely to happen from ASUS RoG range than PlayStation who have to appeal to the masses.
But perhaps they have an expensive Pro model at launch that does this for enthusiasts.
Re: Test Your PlayStation General Knowledge - Issue 30
6/10 was fine, hadn’t played 3 of the games and memory failed me on one more.
Apparently the two playable characters in Enter the Matrix were Ghost (played by Anthony Wong) & Niobe (played by Jada Pinkett Smith)
Who can forget the Great Wall of China at the start of Tomb Raider 2? I remember playing it on launch day and being wowed. I bought the remaster recently but haven’t for around to it yet.
Re: Wuthering Waves Leaves No Time for Backlogs with January PS5 Release
Frmknst wrote:
THIS is the problem with these games. They are all very well made and enjoyable but it's the time cost that is an issue for me. It's not really a problem if you only play ONE, or perhaps two, depending how much free time you have, but to play more than that you basically can't play much else. I know @get2sammyb has said similar in the past. It starts to feel like a job.
I just deleted Zenless Zone Zero from my PS5 and phone/tablet this morning because of this. At the end of the day the opportunity cost of playing them is just too much. ZZZ is a good game but at 300 hours already would I rather play that OR play Baldurs Gate 3, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or CyberPunk 2077? My backlog keeps growing. And if I KEPT playing it I could play ALL of those other games, and more... or just ZZZ. It's not a good enough trade to me. YMMV.
Still playing WuWa, HSR and Genshin though! I have a problem!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 556
Still working my way through Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I get majorly distracted on the side quests and just exploring this beautiful world and only just feel I have started pushing the story forward, I meant to do that all last weekend but i'm only just into Chapter 5.
I gave Stalker 2 a quick go (with the Day 1 patch) but had too many bugs and it felt unpolished/unfinished. I'll come back later.
Deleted Zenless Zone Zero from my PS5, phone and tablet so now i'm down to just three timesinks. Genshin, HSR and Wuthering Waves. All good games, including ZZZ, but the opportunity cost of playing them is too much.
Re: Honkai: Star Rail Teases Enormous Amphoreus Story Update for PS5
Anything will be better than Slumbernana.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Want a Steam Deck-Like Portable PlayStation?
@tameshiyaku That sounds great on paper and you make it sound so simple, but it's not. A home console CPU is typically much more powerful than a handheld one which usually needs to run on around 15W of power and the configuration of a handheld device is quite different to a home console. You need a lot more than an eGPU otherwise the handheld nature WILL hold back the home console. Not easy to solve without getting very expensive.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Want a Steam Deck-Like Portable PlayStation?
Kidfunkadelic83 wrote:
Steam Deck starts at £349 for the LCD model. What price do you think is reasonable for a higher-end handheld in 2024 and beyond? Because that seems more than fair to me.
Re: Random: Even Clive from Final Fantasy 16 Is Begging for Bloodborne at 60fps
@MrMagic I just did. TBH I knew I likely wouldn't be able to get a drive till next year already, but I've got dozens of games to play already digitally. No rush.
Re: Random: Even Clive from Final Fantasy 16 Is Begging for Bloodborne at 60fps
@MrMagic Was about to buy FF XVI, then realised I don't have a drive for my PS5 Pro yet! lol. At £15 might buy it anyway for next year.
Re: Random: Even Clive from Final Fantasy 16 Is Begging for Bloodborne at 60fps
I SUSPECT they are waiting for Bluepoint Games to be free to make a proper remake just as they brilliantly did for Demon's Souls. That's the Bloodborne I want, but I wish they had given us a simple 60fps patch in the meantime.
Re: GOTY Nominee Black Myth: Wukong Bags PS Plus Premium Demo
@riceNpea yes there’s a demos section on the store including almost 500 FREE demos. Granted these often aren’t all your big AAA games, but this is up to developers to create a demo and put it on PSN. But there are a few like Metaphor, FF7 rebirth, Diablo 4 etc.
Game trials through PS+ is something different offered through PS+ premium. lol on sticky tape security… don’t know what you are talking about 😂
Re: GOTY Nominee Black Myth: Wukong Bags PS Plus Premium Demo
@riceNpea Demos ARE free to access, they are in the Demos section of the store. There aren't many, but they exist and that is up to devs. They WEREN'T free when you were paying around £5 for OPSM or other magazines, they were completely tied to another payment / magazine subscription.
But this is slightly different, it's not a dev made demo, it's a trial of the first 2 hours of a game. You may think that is semantics, but one is created by the devs and usually a curated slice of the game, the other is created by the platform holder and just the beginning, they aren't quite the same.
I wish they were free for all too, but I don't expect it.
Re: GOTY Nominee Black Myth: Wukong Bags PS Plus Premium Demo
@Kidfunkadelic83 @riceNpea I kind of agree. But don't you think if offering the first two hours of a game is what DEVS and studios wanted they would ALREADY be doing it themselves?
This seems more like to me that Sony is negotiating with devs and studios to allow a select ENGAGED users to have a two hour trial. It seems like this or nothing, in which case I will take this.
Re: The Story of Shenmue Is Far from Over, Says ININ
On the surface this is great news. But PLEASE just make sure we don't wish it was over. If you are going to do it, do it right.
Re: Australia's Planned Social Media Ban Won't Include PSN After All
There does need to be SOMETHING done about the amount of social media used, and abused, by kids. But i'm not sure an outright ban is the right answer either. That will likely create as many problems as it solves. Law of unintended consequences and all that.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Sequel's Platinum Trophy Won't Make You Want to Jump into a Mako Reactor
@Paramahansa And if they don't require multiple playthroughs they often require you to follow a stringent guide on your first playthrough to make sure you don't skip any misable items. That's poor game design imho.
Re: Wuthering Waves Leaves No Time for Backlogs with January PS5 Release
Looking forward to this. I've been doing dailies but holding off on a lot of quests and other things waiting for PS5 release. Hopefully it performs better than on mobile/tablet which is pretty bad with a lot of stuttering and frame dips.
Re: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Sequel's Platinum Trophy Won't Make You Want to Jump into a Mako Reactor
JRPGs usually have the WORST trophy lists, often making you grind so much you end up liking the game less, or requiring you follow a guide so as not to miss one step, or making you play a 50-100+ hour game multiple times.
None of that makes the game any better, in fact it makes them worse. Devs really need to look at this and break the mould. Use trophies to make finishing it more enjoyable.
Re: Opinion: The Game Awards' Persona 3 Reload Disrespect Is Crazy
Too many games not enough places on shortlists. There are always deserving games not included, this is normal.
But I’d rather see a new game than a remaster of an almost twenty year old game. For all the critiism Erdtree got for being included at least that was new gameplay. Persona 3 won at least 5 awards when it released, be happy with that.
Re: Black Myth: Wukong Declared Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024
Congratulations to BMW, it’s a popular game and wins the popularity award.
I think all awards have their place, some are voted for by critics, others by devs and some like this are meant to be a fan voted popularity contest. It’s important to have that range of awards.
I also have a soft spot for the Golden Joysticks as I used to vote by mail in the 80s and 90s. But I don’t think all awards are equal, there are caveats to all voting systems but this has more flaws than most.
Firstly it’s just a popularity contest, completely biased against any smaller games who don’t stand a chance. It’s not a level playing field.
But it’s also not just fan voted. The reality since internet voting took over is that an online fan vote is completely susceptible to brigading (organised online action to make something appear more, or less, popular than it is) and bots. Pewdiepie proved this years ago getting his minions to get a meme game awarded at the Golden Joysticks.
Personally I like to see a better methodology used for GOTY.
Re: Remedy Is Aiming for Excellence with Max Payne Remake
@__Seraph Yes it can be done. You used a few examples that generally do it well, but far more do it wrong and just bloat the game or ruin the flow compared to the original.
Besides while Dead Space remake is generally great the backtracking parts were worse in the remake, and many have complained about the additions to Silent Hill 2 dragging the story out in the second half even if the general game is still excellent and likely better overall.
Longer isn't always better. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but it is a concern that you end up changing too much of the game.
Re: Remedy Is Aiming for Excellence with Max Payne Remake
I worry that they will try and pad the games out in some way to try and account for the fact that these were both 6-8 hour games, which was fine twenty years ago, but to many isn't long enough now. That might ruin the flow of the game.
Hopefully the fact they are doing both together, making the total 15ish hours will stop that.
Re: STALKER 2's Technical Troubles Likely Fixed by the Time It Comes to PS5
Can't speak for anyone else, but decided to play it myself to see if the day 1 patch solved the bugs and had the following issues on XSX in the opening 15 minutes.
All in all it was in a better state than some of the reviews show but still very unpolished imo and needs plenty of work considering this was just the very start.
As for the gameplay I also had issues with some of the UI and design decisions which seem designed for PC / keyboard and mouse without too much thought to console e.g.
Lastly I died twice in the opening 15 minutes to an invisible enemy (after getting the first artifact) with not much clue what was wrong. Games don't need to handhold, but they do need to provide some feedback as to what happened so you can learn.
All in all I like the vibe of the game, but i'm happy to wait for this to be improved, even if it's better than in some reviews it also seems pretty rough right now.
Re: STALKER 2's Technical Troubles Likely Fixed by the Time It Comes to PS5
@Greifchen Scores don’t always tell the whole story. If you read the reviews most are pretty positive about the game but have ranked it down because it’s buggy and unfinished. Were it in a better state it would score better
Re: 'No Plans' for Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro Patch, CD Projekt Red Confirms
Cyberpunk ALREADY gets a reasonable boost on the PS5 Pro without a patch by upping the framerate into an area that is far more often in the VRR window making for a much smoother experience. As it uses Dynamic Resolution Scaling you also get a cleaner image more often.
In other unpatched games like Elden Ring it actually puts the Quality (non-RT) mode above the 48fps VRR window most of the time and means you can play on Quality at a smooth framerate if you have a VRR TV, which if you are spending $700 / £700 on a mid-gen console you likely do.
Not every game needs a Pro patch to see meaningful benefits.
Re: 13 PS5, PS4 Games Set to Leave PS Plus Extra, Premium Next Month
@Ken_Kaniff All good games. Enjoy!
Re: Final Fantasy 6 Remake Mentioned Again, A Dream Project for Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Producer
@Mintie So would I... but I think it's a more likely to be HD-2D or nothing, so i'll take HD-2D. Similar with Chrono Trigger. HD-2D is probably easier to not mess it up too.
Re: Silent Hill 2 PS5 Pro Issues Are Being Worked on, Dev Confirms
@ChimpMasta Weird to try and flip this on Sony, it's up to the DEVS what it is in their patches. Sony only lists whether it has had a Pro patch or not, and it has, it's up to the devs to make it up to scratch. (When did everything have to be litigious? No need for the drama)
Re: 13 PS5, PS4 Games Set to Leave PS Plus Extra, Premium Next Month
Tinykin is brilliant. Old school collectible platformer with a modern twist and Honey I Shrunk the Kids / Toy Story vibes exploring rooms in a house from a tiny POV.
Re: Sony's Had a First-Party PS5, PS4 Game Nominated for Game of the Year Ten Times in a Row
@GamingFan4Lyf Overwatch may have aged a little poorly (mostly due to Overwatch 2) but it was an absolute phenomenon in the year it came out and for many years after. I don't even play Multiplayer games but can recognise that in the year it released it was a worthy winner. As would Uncharted, Inside, Doom, Titanfall 2 or ANY game on that list. it was a really competitive year with no clear Elden Ring / BOTW run-away winner.
Re: Do You Really Want Devs to Make Lower Budget, More Original Games for PS5?
Firstly there are PLENTY of brilliant indies filling the lower budget tier of games, that isn't the problem area. It's the middle tier 'AA' games that are struggling to find a large enough audience.
Personally YES I want more smaller lower budget / AA original games on paper, and I suspect many other gamers do too. But are we enough? And do we ACTUALLY buy them in enough numbers? The facts are we don't. It's a similar problem in movies whereby it's easier to see ROI on low budget OR high budget entertainment, it's the mid-budget stuff in the middle that is really struggling. Unless enough people buy into that middle AA tier it's going to be hard to get people to finance those games.
But it's a tough sell. A lot of these fall into the 7/10 - 7.5/10 range which may end up being one of YOUR favourite games if you actually play it. But with so many other games on offer rated higher or potentially worse AAA games with known IP sucking up people's time, there are not enough buying AA and we see a lot of studios folding in that area. Sad to see, but the numbers don't lie. We simply aren't buying them enough to make them worthwhile.
Re: Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake's Brutal Difficulty Spikes Are Shocking New Players
As someone who naturally searches every corner and grinds accidentally while doing it this is rarely an issue. But I can see it being super annoying if all you want to do is just play the main story step by step and frequently hit a brick wall. I don't mind difficulty, but choice is good, and uneven spikes are no fun, we should have moved beyond that in 2024.
Re: The Game Awards Under Heavy Criticism for Elden Ring DLC's Game of the Year Nomination
@Quintumply I don't mind. If it's good enough, it's good enough imo. If they suddenly released it as a standalone £35, which they could, would people feel the same? When the gameplay you actually play would be identical? It's more a content delivery method than anything else. We are judging the gameplay right, not the delivery method? 'Game' of the Year is just the short title, the descriptions says what is included, and it includes expansions.
But I don't feel too strongly, whereas others seem genuinely mad. lol. At the end of the day all drama like this is good publicity for TGAs. Like 'Indies' v 'Independent' last year... either way Geoff wins.
Re: There Is a God! Legacy of Kain PS5 Pre-Orders Are Exceeding Expectations
I am generally against pre-ordering, but I am tempted to pick this up now as a VOTE for more LoK.
Re: Sony's Had a First-Party PS5, PS4 Game Nominated for Game of the Year Ten Times in a Row
It's this CONSISTENCY over a long period of time that sets apart Nintendo and PlayStation from Xbox imho. I still own a Series X and Game Pass is great, but when it comes to exclusives the other two are superior and this keeps them ahead in many players eyes.
Re: All The Game Awards 2024 Nominees Revealed, Astro Bot Up for 7 Awards
@somnambulance I’ve not played enough of the AAA games to have a fair take on GOTY yet - I often play games years later when they are complete and fully patched - so I don’t have a balanced opinion yet. Ask me in 2-3 years. lol. But Indies I’m far more on top of, my current (overall) GOTY is Animal Well right now.
Re: All The Game Awards 2024 Nominees Revealed, Astro Bot Up for 7 Awards
That indie list is FIRE.
Re: Disgruntled PS5 Pro Owners Campaign to Disable Support After Slew of Shoddy Patches
@Northern_munkey Cyberpunk, Elden Ring, etc. there are many games that are improved without a specific PRO patch. Generally this falls into categories
Re: Disgruntled PS5 Pro Owners Campaign to Disable Support After Slew of Shoddy Patches
CHOICE is always good.
If you think it's too complicated then just present two options (resolution or framerate) and have an advanced settings toggle that gives access to everything else. Personally I'd take framerate over ray tracing in 95% of examples on console.
Re: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (PS5) - A Timeless RPG, and a Gorgeous Nostalgia Trip
@ShogunRok No worries, replies are always optional, hope you had a lovely break.
Re: Embracer Still Struggling, Despite Cutting Thousands of Jobs
Hardly surprising. Entertainment is a results led business and what successes have they had? Far too few, meanwhile every day their studios are making games they spend a LOT of money.
Re: UK Retailers Are All Discounting the PS5 Pro Already
@AhmadSumadi great price, well done! I’m the same, I wasn’t going to buy till I saw the discount and did the maths. I’m happy with what I paid for what I got.
Re: PS5 Consoles, Controllers, and PSVR2 Discounts for Black Friday Seemingly Revealed
@MattBoothDev I did this too and got the PS5 Pro for around £560, far more palatable. I then sold my PS5 making it around £265 net, happy with that.
The only annoyance is they didn’t have the disc drive bundle in stock when I ordered so I’m still waiting and looking for one of those. I’m in no rush, early next year will be fine.
Did you receive yours incl. the drive? I got mine last weekend.
Re: Review: PS5 Pro - An Impressive Yet Inconsistent Upgrade
AaronBayne wrote:
Sony said 75% of users choose performance mode, but that still means 25% were happy enough to play at 30fps with the best visuals, why shouldn’t they be catered for too? If you can run the game at 60fps you can ALSO run the game at 30fps with better fidelity. CHOICE is good and shouldn’t be seen as a disappointment.
Re: UK Retailers Are All Discounting the PS5 Pro Already
@get2sammyb Indeed. I think VERY started this by offering 20% off almost anything if you signed up to a credit agreement (which you didn’t have to use). In the case of the Pro that was a sizeable £140 off at launch, making it £560. While it wasn’t a PS5 Pro specific deal it spread round gaming forums pretty quickly and many grabbed it there instead.
I honestly wasn’t going to buy at £700, but at £560 it was far more tempting, and after selling my launch PS5 for £295 it made the Pro effectively £265. Much more palatable!
Re: The Game Awards Confirms DLC, Remasters Can Win Game of the Year Days Prior to Nominations Reveal
If it’s a proper expansion, like Phantom Liberty of Erdtree that gives more content, and brings more new ideas than many full games then I have no problem with it being on the list.
Re: The Game Awards Confirms DLC, Remasters Can Win Game of the Year Days Prior to Nominations Reveal
@ChimpMasta @get2sammyb I suspect they are updating the jury list for 2024 as I also can’t get it to load, but the voting Jury for TGAs is usually over 100+ different outlets from over 30 countries including a wide range from:
You can see last years jury here on the internet archive. BTW Keighley never gets a vote.
There is no one truth to GOTY but it’s definitely the broadest range of different types of gamers within the industry in an awards that can’t easily be manipulated or brigaded. Unlike something like the 100% fan (& bot) voted Golden Joysticks which previously had more votes but has been influenced in the past by online campaigns.
Personally I think they do a very good job of making the voting jury very wide, getting a range of voices from across gaming while being transparent about the process, rules and jury.
Lastly what do sales have to do with game of the year? If is was based on sales Call of Duty would have won almost every year for over a decade and EA sports games would fill a lot of the shortlist. Something like Astro Bot, the highest rated game this year, wouldn’t stand a chance. Sales are a good way to judge a games success but a terrible way to judge if it’s the best game that year imo.
Re: GTA Trilogy Dev Implies Rockstar Made a 'D*ck Move' Removing Its Name from PS5, PS4 Remasters
They did a horrible job of the remasters BUT we don't know if this was down to R* penny pinching and not giving the devs enough time or money OR if it was all on GSG. Regardless the studio did the work and deserve their name on the front. (I know they are still in the end credits)
Re: PS5's Stellar Blade Sweeps All Seven Categories at Korea Game Awards
@Titntin Thanks mate. I didn't read it thoroughly enough to see this is SOLELY for Korean developed titles, my bad. Have deleted my comment as it was wrong. That makes far more sense now.
Re: PS5 Pro Gives Dying Light 2 Improved Graphics Modes, Better Resolutions
NICE! Was looking forward to this anyway.