Topic: PS Now on PS4 - worth it?

Does anybody here have a bit of experience with PS Now? I'm considering it with today's price decrease, but I don't know about anyone actually playing Now on their PS4. Is it a smooth experience? Is it fun? Do you often use it?

Let. Me. Know.

Worth it? Is Knack available on it?

@Octane The first Knack is but no Knack 2.

I'd recommend having a little look through the list of games - https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/10/guide_all_playstation... - and seeing if any/many of them interest you that you haven't played yet.

You get a 7 day free trial if you haven't used it before (or for a certain amount of time, I think) so maybe worth checking out if you're not sure.

I think it's a pretty decent service. The streaming quality isn't perfect, but it's mostly fine from my experience and is certainly playable on any reasonable connection.

The library is vast, but is filled with a lot of small indie games that most people won't have even heard of. There's a lot of great PS3 games on it though.

I use it occasionally and wish they gave it more of a push because I think streaming and subscription services can be great and a key part of gaming going forward. Today's news is hopefully that push!

I think it's a great alternative to how we used to rent games and get demo discs etc.

I’m actually tempted to try it, but after looking at the list of games, there aren’t many that I really am clambering to play. I dunno... For $60 a year, it’s really a good deal, even if you only play 4-5 games all year it’s about a break even point. For me it’s almost worth it so as to not have to boot up the PS3 to catch up on those I missed from last gen that don’t have remasters.

Since we recently did @themcnoisy ‘s seminal poll to rank all the PS3 games, some treasures I missed from last gen have come to my attention. Some are on PS Now like — Mafia 2, Arkham Origins, Killzone 2&3, Resistance 3 ... But many from our top 100 that I’d like to catch up on are missing from PS Now — The Orange Box, Mass Effect Trilogy (I never played the first game), Dead Space 1&2 (for some reason only the much maligned 3rd game is included on PS Now), and The Saboteur, to name a few.

In the end, I’ll probably hold off on subscribing, despite the price point being tempting. I think my internet connection could keep up and I hear that the streaming technology actually works better than expected, but I simply have too large a backlog to add to it right now. If I’m honest with myself, I’d probably rather spend my time pecking away at games I own or have backlogged from PS Plus. We’ll see if my mind changes as they add more titles.

@Th3solution strangely I'm tempted to give this a month's go in December when I have a few days to myself. Gonna drop the sonic Fighters plat (20 minutes work if I remember correctly on xbox) then play the original infamous. I will be sure to let everyone know how I get on. I have a good (but not the best) package from virgin media so can give a fair review.

Like I commented on one of the articles Push Square put up, I looked into signing up a few weeks ago, and there wasn't a great deal that I would play. One if the games I was interested in was Batman Arkham Knight, which I've since got 2nd hand and then came on ps+ lol. Plus i have enough games from my backlog from ps+ which will do for me. Even at the new lower price I will still not likely sign up.

If they offered more recent releases I would be very tempted, so it is more inline with what GamePass offers. For example The Outer Worlds is on there this month when it drops, on PS Now there could be something like Control which j know PS4 had the marketing deal on.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, it will be interesting to see if the service morphs into something more resembling Game Pass where new releases are included too. That might give me the nudge to dive into the service also.

I definitely think it's worth it especially at the new price. Though my biggest complaint is I really wish Sony would allow it on more devices not just PC/PS4. With Xcloud/Stadia right around the corner, I hope they open PS Now (and remote play) to any device with a screen.

@Th3solution I also dislike the whole rotation thing and games only being on the service for a limited period, something which I've never like about gamepass. I like to play games at my own pace and often take breaks from playing some games. If I then have to play a game before it gets dumped that will add a bit more pressure and take some of the enjoyment out of the game for me.

@JohnnyShoulder That’s true. I hadn’t thought about that. I also often take a while to play my games. I’ll string along several at a time so it may take me months to complete the average title. Or I’ll take a break from one for months before I eventually return. If the games rotate out quickly then that’s a no-go for me.

Played a bit of LocoRoco via PS Now stream earlier. I think it's a great service for dipping out of games like that

So I finally got round to PS Now, My 4 year old had nothing to game on and has kept picking up the controller. I was meaning to subscribe anyway and am glad I finally ponied up. We have played some mad games on it already.

Fighting vipers
Lego Worlds
Pooyoos
Pirates of the Caribbean

And some I tried myself;

Nascar 3
Gravity Rush remastered
Altered Beast
Capcom Arcade Collection
Tron R

So I am only streaming to start off with.

The game performance has been OK or poor, in some ways better than I imagined. Though not always.

Most importantly there is noticeable lag. Fighting vipers is almost impossible to pull off the armour break code (7 button inputs dead quick). This was difficult but doable regularly on my last gen console. On Now you have too much lag. I managed to pull it off twice in 5 or 6 fights. Fighting games are really unsuitable for Now streaming on this evidence.

Lego worlds has been the surprise of the selection. Its a similar game to Minecraft, with some tools reminiscent of Dreams. It's perfect for streaming due to its sedate pace. The lag isn't a factor, it was the only game I didn't notice any. Can't wait to play some more tomorrow.

Every other game in that list has had issues. Altered Beast is almost unplayable with the lag, its a game that needs timing and pixel perfect accuracy to play well. It was a hard fought completion in the end using a load of continues and I'm OK at it. Brute forcing my way through from level 2 as its too difficult to play well due to the lag.

I won't bore you with any more but it's worth a punt for slower paced games. You need a card to subscribe to PS Now even though I bought my months pass from CD keys which is another negative. Although my experience has been weak, the fact you can swap into another game at the press of a button is a game changer, rather than waiting for a download.

@themcnoisy I’ve been subscribed to PS Now for a few months and I can tell you there’s way more lag in the last month because of them limiting the speeds on PSN. It’ll play better once that’s all resolved although it’s not completely unplayable just now.

I have no interest in games before PS4, so any games that I'm interested in I will stream and then if I'm enjoying it I will download the game. I played Control and it was nothing game breaking just some pixelation and stuff in places, but downloading sorted all that out. I will continue past the free trial for another month, Shopto also offer cheaper subs too. Even if I just play Control for the month it offered good value for money over buying the game, but I do plan to try more games.

@nessisonett of course. I had forgotten about that.

@JohnnyShoulder Similar to Disney plus, You can sub for a month or two then cancel after you have played everything. Seems like a plan!

I got Now last night (I'm on my third 7 days free since the service launched, somehow)

I'm playing Lone Survior, this game creeped me out back when I tried to play it on Vita. It's pretty great though. Gunna try and polish it off tonight, I think it's only 3-5 hours.

@themcnoisy Well, yeah it is a subscription service just like Netflix and the rest. Not sure why you would stay subscribed if your are not using it.

@kyleforrester87 Never heard of that. Will give it a go later.

@themcnoisy it’s good mate. Salad fingers meets Silent hill! Playing it through separately with a mate, it’s a laugh.