Comments 5,452

Re: Veteran Trophy Hunter Hakoom Quits PlayStation Over Alleged Account Suspension Storm

themightyant

I remember the early days of achievement hunting (before trophies) when it seemed so fun and honest, just a light bit of competition. But then it all got so serious, abused and spoiled with games that you could unlock 1,000gs in seconds, or people playing multiple versions of the same game simultaneously to boost their score. Many of the top players lists didn’t hold up to much scrutiny either with them popping far too soon or in the wrong order. It was clear people were finding loop holes to cheat. It was the equivalent of doping in athletics and sucked all the fun out of it. It’s the same in the trophy hunting community now.

Re: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (PS5) - A Timeless RPG, and a Gorgeous Nostalgia Trip

themightyant

@ShogunRok Thanks for the review. Are there any QoL features like adjusting game speed or adjusting battle rewards? You mention encounter rate, one thing I love that some other RPG re-releases do is allow you to reduce the encounter rate 2x, 3x, etc. but increase the rewards 2x, 3x etc. so it all balances out.

I love Dragon Quest 3 but not sure I can stomach that many random battles in 2024. Might get it on PC where someone will make a patch/hack if not.

Re: Dead Rising Remaster Adds PS5 Pro Support, Casual Mode

themightyant

I find the coverage about the Pro a bit odd to be honest. Most articles seem to talk about minor visual fidelity changes like this, which do exist, but aren't likely to sell a £700 console.

The FAR more important change is improved framerates imho. Almost every game I have thrown at the Pro runs smoother and FEELS better. I realise that is far harder to test and visualise to readers but it can make quite a difference especially if you have a 120Hz VRR enabled TV.

Is that worth £700? Money is always subjective but i'd still say NO. For most users, it's an unnecessary upgrade. But you can sell your PS5 to help fund it - I was also lucky getting 20% off - and after selling my PS5 it cost £265 net (without a drive), that's far more palatable.

More than anything while it's advantages are limited right now, I believe the Pro will show it's worth more and more as the generation rolls on. I didn't judge the base PS5 on day 1 games alone. We will see more games like FF7 Rebirth and Dragon's Dogma that struggle on base PS5 and in almost every other game there will be less compromises to be made. It's still a tough sell for most, but for enthusiasts like me that is worth the cost for the next 3-4 years.

Re: Play Has No Limits in Sony's Latest Live-Action PS5 Ad

themightyant

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I have little idea what the younger generation wants. I look at my nieces, nephews, their friends and my friends kids mostly aged around 10 - 21 and I see a pretty wide mix, though of course they still only represent one small slice of their demographics.

They ALL like co-operative fun games like Among Us, Mario Kart etc. There is a lot of evergreen / live service gaming from creative games like Minecraft, Roblox, Jurassic World Evolution to Fortnite and Genshin Impact etc. Cost seems a really important factor. None of them REALLY care about graphics and framerates, as this costs too much for them. I found my nephew "happily" playing Jurassic World Evo at about 12fps for example, it's all his PC could handle and he didn't want to pay more to play it. I dug out an old graphics card of mine that was an upgrade for him and upped that a little but it's still woeful to my eyes, he can see past it.

But my nephews and his friends (16 - 21) are starting to move into PlayStation and PC gaming from mobile/Switch. But more than anything most of them have a far wider range of hobbies, gaming is just a small portion of their lives they can get sucked into for weeks on end, and then not play for months.

Re: Play Has No Limits in Sony's Latest Live-Action PS5 Ad

themightyant

Amused seeing the range of opinions from "pointless" to "loved it"

Personally I thought it was another brilliant advert that expresses the fun and playfulness of gaming to a wider audience. There are plenty of adverts and videos online to show gameplay, this it something different, for a different audience, we are already sold.

Re: Sonic X Shadow Generations Producer Wants to Remake the Worst Game in the Series for PS5

themightyant

@Pat_trick On TLOU Pt1 I agree, but that is the exception not the rule, VERY few games fall into that category, it's a rare outlier.

As for this game... can't polish a turd. It wasn't mediocre it was objectively poor in a lot of ways. With all of Sega's release history THIS is the game he wats to remake? At that point just make a new better Sonic game than waste time and dev cost on this.

Re: PS5 Slim Price Drop Confirmed, $380 Until 24th December

themightyant

Smart business by Sony, they already dominate this gen vs Xbox in terms of units sold, but cleverly timed deals at crucial times of year like the run up to Christmas will help them cement that even further.

It will also likely stop people just waiting to see if they can get a great deal on Black Friday. Sensible business all around.

Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Sales Keep Pace with Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in UK

themightyant

@ChrisDeku I agree with you that basing off the most expensive games is a bad idea, every studio is different, but equally I think many of those are examples at the other end of the scale and not that relevant to this game. E.g.

We know Remedy is run on a shoestring, they make AAA looking games on more like a AA budget knowing where they can smartly cut corners. Similar with Quantic Dream and Detroit.

Witcher 3 was made in Poland at a time when salaries and cost of doing business were much lower than they are now. (Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly cost $436 million for example)

Bloober Team has generally been a low budget / low expected sales AA studio.

Horizon is the only really interesting analogue to me but again it's an older figure, the sequel reportedly cost $212+ million, though I understand what you are saying about Sony and budgets.

But really I was basing it off EA and Bioware's recent history with Mass Effect Andromeda reportedly costing over $100 million (incl. marketing) on a much smaller dev schedule. EA keep their numbers close to their chest, but I can easily see DA:V costing $100 - $150+ million considering their history and the length of development.

Either way, I don't really care, I hope the game succeeds.

Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Sales Keep Pace with Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in UK

themightyant

@ChrisDeku I agree with all your post except the last part, I think it likely did cost a LOT to make, possibly hundreds of millions. It was in development for 10 years and reportedly got rebooted twice including starting life as a live service, that adds up significantly over time.

But it is super-weird how some people are desperate to show this game failed. Personally I think it's done ok SO FAR, but as you say sales aren't all in week 1. Whether it continues to do ok and turns a profit who knows, but all this brigading won't help.

Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Sales Keep Pace with Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in UK

themightyant

@Boxmonkey that’s very disingenuous. Why have you picked the lowest point? It hit 60k on Sunday, down from 90k the week before. Yesterday it hit 47k down from 70k the Monday before, and that’s only Steam, it’s also on PlayStation, Xbox, Epic & EA Play as part of their Pro subscription.

It’s so weird that some of you are going out of their way to twist stats to make it seem like the game did worse than it has.

Re: Hands On: PS5 Pro Injects More Magic into Hogwarts Legacy

themightyant

@Medic_alert Didn't they announce (or perhaps it was a leak) a Remaster is coming with more content? (reportedly with Rocksteady working on it as penance) Perhaps I'll wait for that.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I can understand that, and perhaps a longer consolidated article would be better for us... but we need the information somewhere.

Re: PS5 Pro Brute Forces Better Performance in Monster Hunter Wilds' Beta

themightyant

@Lofty1985 I find it baffling that people don't think a PlayStation-centric site isn't going to have dozens of articles covering the latest major hardware release. Many PlayStation players want to know how the Pro performs in each game, so that they can make an informed choice on whether to spend their money or not, expect far more.

Re: Genshin Impact's Already Enormous Open World Grows Even Bigger in New PS5, PS4 Update

themightyant

@McBurn it’s a combination of things.

1. It’s a massive game that is always expanding with new lands to explore, new mechanics, new characters, new stories.

2. Their update schedule is insane. New content every 6 weeks, new lands to explore typically every 12 weeks, new characters often every 3.

3. Levelling characters does take time. But the real end game is a loot grind for better artifacts. (Not that you need them for the story, nor do you ever need to spend if you don’t want to, as long as you have willpower)

4. They reward you for logging in daily on top of the new content. Even 10-15 minutes a day adds up over 4 years. Add the weekly, monthly or other events and it quickly becomes a lot of time over time. If it is your only live service it’s totally manageable imo, but

It’s a strange one. On paper I am against many of the practises in this game, part of me wishes it was just a complete 20-500+ hour RPG… yet I KNOW I wouldn’t be so embedded into it in that case, some of the appeal is having lived in it for years. I also know it would be impossible to make at this size, scale and quality with a normal business model. Like GTA and other almost “no expense spared” games, it’s nice to have something unique.

I do often wonder what it would be like to wait for the main story to complete and just play start to finish. It would be a VERY different experience, but I wonder if it would be as captivating. Hope that helps try to explain it, there’s a lot more to it.

Re: Sony Promises It'll Launch Major PS5 Single Player Games Every Year Moving Forwards

themightyant

@Medic_alert Totally agree. I didn't care that games come to PS4 as well, in fact I welcomed it becuse more players and more sales meant bigger budgets. Most of those games would have been smaller in scope if they were just on PS5 with a much smaller group of active players. Personally I've had a great time this gen. But we're past the first party cross-gen period and i'm excited to see what they can do.

Re: Genshin Impact's Already Enormous Open World Grows Even Bigger in New PS5, PS4 Update

themightyant

@get2sammyb @AhmadSumadi 2000 hours is conservative. It's hard to know how many when it's split between PS4, PS5 and Phone/Tablet but I think 3,000+

I once calculated that I could have basically completed my backlog OR played Genshin Impact... and yet... I'm not sure i'd have it any other way. Comfort gaming FTW.

You also make me feel far more rational with that 12k hours. Thank you.

Re: Genshin Impact's Already Enormous Open World Grows Even Bigger in New PS5, PS4 Update

themightyant

New lands to explore, my favourite patches! Shame Neuvillette is before Arlecchino rerun and Mavuika because I am saving for those, but also want to add Neuvi's weapon. Having played the game for years i'm at the point where i'm mostly more interested in vertical investment, upgrading the players I do use, than getting new ones. But I do want Arlecchino, and Mavuika is an Archon, gotta catch them all!

Re: Sony Ships 65.5 Million PS5 Consoles, in Line with PS4

themightyant

@ChrisDeku I agree with virtually everything you have said here except that Concord was a "bad game", it wasn't really. There's a lot of revisionist history about this game now it's failed financially but they put out a decently made game, if a bit thin and uninspired, it just never found an audience.

A lot of the previews were pretty positive from people who actually played the game, so much so it's quite fun to go back and read them, but it never caught on with the wider audience. The only time I think they really ***** up was when the open beta happened and no one turned up, that should have had alarm bells ringing and made them rethink their strategy. Something just didn't resonate with players.

@GamingFan4Lyf No worries dude. It's good to disagree sometimes and see other perspectives. Have a good one.

Re: Sony Ships 65.5 Million PS5 Consoles, in Line with PS4

themightyant

@GamingFan4Lyf So you think Sony execs should be sacked?

This is illogical. They also greenlit breakout successes like Astro bot, Helldivers 2, MLB The Show, created partnerships for FF7 remake, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin. You can't win them all, there will always be failures, but they've had FAR more successes than losses this year. Overall they have succeeded in THEIR job, as the bottom line shows. So why should they go?

Whereas Firewalk's job was to get out ONE profitable game... and they failed at it catastrophically. All the workers at Firewalk have paid the price for it, including their leaders who led them down the gangplank.

Do you see the difference? One succeeded in their job overall the other didn't, their targets are very different.

Could Sony management have done better at overseeing them? Perhaps. That will be a learning experience for them, but usually Sony are known to be quite hands-off with their creative teams and let them cook. It's why we usually see better results for it.

Re: Sony Ships 65.5 Million PS5 Consoles, in Line with PS4

themightyant

@GamingFan4Lyf But Sony DIDN'T make massive money off the backs of Firewalk staff, in fact it's quite the opposite they made massive LOSSES on this project. Hundreds of millions of dollars of losses.

I can understand being frustrated about people losing their jobs, that always sucks, but these are the realities of business, if you fail at something this spectacularly there will be cuts. Businesses can't usually just prop up a failing division with income from others, that route leads to disaster eventually.

I can tell you from bitter experience that one of the tough things about running a business is having to cut off failing parts of the business knowing that will mean firing staff, no one enjoys it, but it's sometimes necessary.

Re: PS Store Makes Launch Day Easy with Dedicated PS5 Pro Category

themightyant

@Yusuo Indeed. I had said £700 + a drive was too much for me, but I would have bought at £550 - £600 without a drive, which this discount effectively did.

You have to sign a credit agreement with Very online first and use code WELCOME to get the 20% off, just pay it all at once and cancel after. I didn't expect them to honour it tbh but it seems to have worked for many people and they have taken the money and dispatched the Pro, due tomorrow.

It's not a necessary upgrade, but I just got paid and decided this was my Xmas present a bit early! Happy days.

Re: Sony Ships 65.5 Million PS5 Consoles, in Line with PS4

themightyant

@GamingFan4Lyf Bro, you've got to check your history here because it's all muddled.

Firewalk were making the game LONG before Sony arrived on the scene, it was a creative led project, not some Sony/evil corporation led "you must make a live service or die" situation. If anyone it was Firewalk themselves who were chasing trends.

Sony then supported them, and bought them, but their project failed and failed spectacularly. No creative business can lose this amount of money without there being job losses or closures. Doesn't matter if it is a live service or single player game.

Re: Sony Ships 65.5 Million PS5 Consoles, in Line with PS4

themightyant

@ChrisDeku Totally right. People often ask why some gamers care how a corporation like Sony is doing financially. For me it's because the better they do the more likely they are to take risks and put more money back into gaming. If they do badly they will make safer, more boring, bets.

Re: Don't Forget PS5 Pro Also Makes Big Improvements to PSVR2

themightyant

@jdv95 You will see some benefits in terms of increased fidelity and games playing more smoothly at or nearer 60. How important that is to you is subjective. Pro is only an incremental upgrade anyway, but on your tv the advantages will be less. I'd say is far from an essential upgrade in your position.

To make the most of a PS5 Pro you really need a bigger TV (where the fidelity changes will be more obvious) and for games that don't hit a stable 60fps (Elden Ring, Dragon's Dogma 2 etc.) VRR will help as they are more likely to be in the VRR window (48-60fps).

I can't advise you what to do, as value is subjective, and dependant on our financial situation. So i'd perhaps ask this instead. Are you happy with your PS5? If so you don't need a Pro. Just my 2 cents, but hope it helps.

Re: PS Store Makes Launch Day Easy with Dedicated PS5 Pro Category

themightyant

I folded and bought the Pro. One reason was the sheer number of games with a Pro patch announced, many I already own on my backlog, plus many games get a boost without a patch. Several devs have leaked how easy it is to implement and I expect it to be well supported going forward.

While it is only an incremental upgrade - I'm under no disillusions - I'm content with that, and having to make fewer compromises at 60fps.

The final decider was Very offering 20% off a first order if you sign a credit agreement (something I won't use and will cancel asap), saving £140. That will make the Pro cost around £275 net without a drive once I sell my PS5. I can live with that.

Re: Poll: Did You Buy a PS5 Pro?

themightyant

@Titntin I wasn't going to but.... someone told me Very is offering 20% off a first order if you sign up to their credit agreement. As I have zero plans to use their credit service I have paid in full and will cancel it after I have the console so it's effectively £140 off... which conveniently puts it right into the bracket I said I would pay... so I put my money where my mouth is. Should arrive Saturday.

Also just saw I can sell my PS5 for £250 - £300 so it evens out at around £275 for the console.

Now I just have to find a bloody disc drive! Willing to pay a little over as I saved £140 but prices are crazy.