Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

@NEStalgia Ok, after reading half of it, taking a nap, and then reading the rest of it.... I am ready to respond.

It does make some sense when factoring in you having to buy a replacement controller anyways. Hopefully you don't experience stick drift with it if you decide to go through with it. As for the DualSense itself, it probably doesn't hurt that they made the design of the controller similar to the Xbox as far as form factor goes, which I thought was a plus. Unlike some people, I don't find it too big at all. Honestly I thought their previous controllers were all small.

True, and a perfect example is Final Fantasy VII Remake. It was only supposed to be exclusive for a year, but then that time ended and Square Enix handed it over to the PC. Their exclusivity window for both formats is long expired, but for some reason it will never appear on an Xbox console (0% chance now since it's now been almost 3 years since it released on the PS4.

For me, Nintendo's greed has been a turn-off after getting the Switch earlier last year. It's absurd that you still have to pay full price the vast majority of the time on titles that released digitally all the way back at launch in 2017. That's by far my biggest problem with Nintendo after buying that Switch.

@KilloWertz LOL! With controllers, I'm amazed that these companies don't make small and large or something. It seems like you're either in the camp that thinks the XB controllers are egronomic perfection, and DS5 being more like XB is the biggest improvement they could make to their cramped old controllers, and the other camp thinks DS3 was the best controller ever made and anything you can't palm is too huge. For me? Yeah, the XB controllers feel just right, and every prior PS controller was small, cramped, and cheap, so DS5...I still like XB's ergonomics more, but it's the next best thing. DS4 I "hated less" than DS3. DS3 is the single worst video game controller I've ever held. I think I'd put the no-name generic pads above it. PS3 is possibly my favorite PS but that controller.....it was soooo bad....

My theory for FF7R is that it became "generational exclusive" meaning it may appear on Series Z but not X or something. Though that's still sketchy because if Sony had actual exclusivity they would be marketing that exclusivity, so I don't know how much of that is Square alone being extortionate and trying to shake down MS for GP money or how much is some really sleazy (as in legally questionable) stuff between them and Sony that can't be public. But yeah, that's the kind of stuff that has to go and makes me really uneasy about the companies. If you bought it you bought it, good for you, but if there's a handshake in a smoke filled room to wash each other's backs by knifing the competition.....that's as dirty as it gets. And it's the kind of stuff that exists not to benefit their own customers but only to hurt their competitor's customers. It's like mob dealings.

Speaking of the mob. Nintendo! Nintendo's greed's been turning me off since the 80's but Stockholm syndrome runs deep and here I still am... A friend of mine back in the 00's had done a cost chart comparing the Wii and all the required attachments accessories and a game to get a complete system, vs the "six hundred ninety nine US dollars" nightmare PS3, and the numbers actually came out that TCO on PS3 Phat was cheaper than Wii! That's Nintendo in a nutshell. Of course Hiroshi "Totally Not A Yakuza, Honest!" Yamauchi was still running the show from behind the shadows back then, so they've slightly softened in their old age. Only slightly. Mario gets a $5 sale now and then....

@NEStalgia I am using my PS3 again at the moment to finally finish a game I had played and stopped almost 13 years ago, and I agree on the controller. The system is definitely the most influential PlayStation for me, completely changing gaming for me once I got it mid-gen, but the controller is obviously small and cheap. It's battery life is decent at least, and it's the last PS controller to not have the stupid touchpad, so it's not all bad I guess. Aside from the stupid touchpad, I obviously think the DualSense is their best controller ever.

I doubt we'll ever really know what happened with FF7R. I know the Yuffie DLC for the PS5 version renewed the deal until the game went to PC, but anything that's ever been noted is long over with. I've gotten the impression that it's Square Enix just not bothering at this point, but who really knows. Maybe they're all part of the Japanese mob.

For all the crap that Sony rightfully gets for being greedy, Nintendo comes off as the worst. I got a Switch a little under a year ago and my excitement to jump into an ecosystem I had rarely experienced in my life was quickly extinguished when I realized how expensive most of their games are regardless of how old they are. It's an absolute joke that even games that were launch titles like Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild are still $60 on their eShop and rarely ever go on sale (even then it's lazy sales). Physical copies can be had for cheaper, but even they should be $30-$40 at this point before any sales. Me coming in 5 years after most everybody else and having to pay the same prices is an absolute joke.

@KilloWertz lol the touch pad... I admit theres one and only one place that is actually indispensable:. FFXIV. That terrible UI is so bad, and so dependent on a mouse, the touch pad is actually useful. If not essential. But the "map button" is otherwise the most useless thing. I can't believe they kept it for PS5!

I'm hoping the edge is their best controller ever once they bill me

Square with the mob? Nah, Sega, Konami absolutely. Nintendo was born of the mob. Square? The mob doesn't deal with bumbling like that lol. Yeah I really can't tell if Sony or square is the offensive party. I figure Sony doesn't have true exclusivity if they're not advertising it otherwise there's no point. But otoh why would square bring crisis core to xb yet not 7? It's not like they don't think that franchise has sales potential there, so their hands must be tied. All so weird.

Oh no doubt the biggest complaint I have about Sony is that they're becoming more Nintendo-like. Getting into the Nintendo ecosystem definitely has advantages in that there's just so many games, as far as Japanese games anyway, that you can't get elsewhere. But... Yeah the "switch tax" isn't myth. 1st party games are price fixed to "not dilute brand value". Heck WiiU games are still full price on a 6 year dead console that failed on launch. Not even Sony could get away charging $60 for the ORIGINAL PS3 tlou version. But Nintendo does it! They've always been that way. I love the handled nature of switch but it's definitely an exclusives machine. But the exclusives sure are expensive. And you know they'll do $70 for switch 2. And that's means permanently $70...

I do love my switch in general, but, I definitely have cut down what I buy on it and buy more for ps/xb on sales end got a phone/controller set up for streaming locally from the power consoles rather than use switch for a lot of purchases. But then falcom had to go and make the switch version of trails better than the ps version.......

@NEStalgia They kept it because it's actually needed on certain PS4 games, so with the backwards compatibility it pretty much had to be there. They could have shrunk it or moved the buttons slightly away from it so you wouldn't touch the edge of it from time to time by accident. The only other option would have been to remove it and then allow people to use the DS4 on the PS5.

Yeah, it's hard to believe Sony doesn't have something to do with it, but who knows. Given that Crisis Core is on all systems, obviously Sony didn't bother paying for that.

I have less of an issue of PS5 games being $70 because I know they will drop in price. If you are all digital, the price will still be $70 from time to time, but eventually games are part of almost every sale, so no big deal there. I'm physical more often than not when I am able, so eventually games drop in price permanently. You don't get it on the one time an exclusive is on a digital sale on the Switch and you're screwed. Some games physically seem to have been on sale for a long time via Best Buy like Breath of the Wild and such, but even so there are so many exclusives that are $55-$60 still even physically. If I grew up a part of the ecosystem, it'd be different, but there's no way I'm supporting that level of greed given that I'm completely new to the ecosystem. It's not like I don't have more than enough to play regardless even by skipping most Switch games.

@KilloWertz I think the touch pad would be more useful if it had a screen. I know that's shades of WiiU, though really shades of Dreamcast... But thatwould be a useful controller innovation. I'm still amazed that Sega had a more advanced controller in the '00s then anyone has in 2023 for 4x the price. I don't think it would have been a problem for bc if it used ds4 controllers or allowed mapping of touch like phone apps do, but yeah I guess they're stuck with it going forward.

The price thing is really insane. The only reason to be ok with current pricing is if you know you won't be spending it. You'd think setting a price the whole market will pay makes more sense than day 1 gouging then running sales to the real price but.... Yeah on the Nintendo side.... Even if there's a digital sale it's $5 off or something. They did that voucher program with pre paying $100 for 2 games that was ok. But in the US they ended that after a few months, while they keept it up in other territories. It's just a giant middle finger from them always. It's definitely turned me off from them. I used to buy everything back on 3ds where everything was 40-50, but permanent 60 on switch is offensive except specific games. It's extortion, though, Nintendo doesn't have that cod/fifa money rolling in for nothing like Sony/Ms do so I suppose they do need higher margins. And physical, even used, holds value because sellers know street price isn't really going to change.

But yeah they've always been like that. Worse really. It was Sony rolling in with big money that finally put them in their place, but they're returning to their old ways and now Sony wants in on that racket. I'm hoping MS can put both in their place but then I worry for 15 years from now who will be able to put MS back in their place.

It wasn't long ago that Pokemon games were always cheaper than normal prices. With switch they just realized everything sells like crazy no matter the price and doubled down on it. Kart 8 is a, what, 2014 game? And it's still in the top no 10 charts like gtav but at $60....

I think the touch pad on the DualSense/DualShock actually works pretty well, it's just underutilized.

Using it to navigate menus in Days Gone was perfect. And some PlayStation games used it for zooming on maps, or scrolling through text. I still think it's a neat idea

Putting a screen on a controller won't enhance immersion in my opinion. You get immersed by looking at one screen. Switching between them kills immersion. The light on the PlayStation controller is stupid for the exact same reason. Using it to identify player controllers was the only good usage. The Wii U pad was a dumb idea and therefore not used. The touch pad is a fine idea, but not a gamechanger.

@Kidfried I just hate that with the touchpad I can never quite guarantee it’ll work.

With GoW: Ragnarok you open the map by pressing the left side of the map and at least half the time the first attempt at pressing it results in the main menu opening up instead.

@NEStalgia If you thought the battery life was bad already...

I get that Nintendo can get away with doing that since people still buy their games 5 years later, but I only really consider than an excuse fanboys use to justify something that is still just pure greed. It's true, but still greed. If their games are still what they prefer, that's their business and I'm not saying to abandon Nintendo, but it makes it difficult for somebody like me who was planning on jumping into the ecosystem brand new. Oh well I guess.

Even if Xbox is able to bounce back to close to what they were in the Xbox 360 era, PlayStation and Nintendo have established themselves enough that I don't see them running away with things. Either of them would have to do something epically dumb like they did with the PS3 or WiiU's launches to really set themselves back that far. It'll be an interesting rest of this generation at the very least.

@KilloWertz pfft, yeah some reviews are coming in with 5-7 hours vs 7-10. I can't imagine how Sony managed to screw this up but they somehow did. B meanwhile the unboxing here says it feels about the same as a normal ds5 and Kotaku raves how is feels so much more premium. 😂 I guess 3 days till I find out and my wallet gets light....

Nintendo....I mean just take a look at patriarch Yamauchi and tell me with a straight face you're not dealing with the Yakuza They actually have a clause in their publishing contract where you have to swear that you and your employees are not Yakuza members. No joke that's seriously in their publishing contract. I'd file that under "takes one to know one" 😆.

Yeah, it's greed. And they don't have much third party major titles to compete with, and they know everyone buys Nintendo for Nintendo games. I love their games, I'll always buy them.... But I buy less than I used to. May even skip the current fire emblem. Toothpase-chan isn't grabbing my interest enough. And I'm still waiting for square to have a triangle strategy sale. But they do have enough that you just can't get elsewhere....

I'd like to get to a point where all 3 are fiercely competitive. But the history of video games has always been that they all get overly arrogant and screw themselves over then someone else is dominant. MS definitely needs to get more powerful to give Sony the kick in the pants they need.. But not so powerful Sony can't keep up with their wallet.

@get2sammyb Super Stardust Portable has just been updated for PS5 and PS4 with trophy support. Free on PlayStation Premium now.

Bit weirded out by the journos on Twitter falling over themselves to defend the Forspoken dialogue as ‘actually good’ and that we’re all the idiots for thinking that the trailers have shown incredibly badly written dialogue. Will be interesting to see if there’s a link between the sites that got review code and the vocal defenders of the game, because Squeenix have been very very stingy with codes.

@NEStalgia It's pretty obvious Sony doesn't care about battery life. If they did, they would have put a better battery in the DualSense and the Edge. I have a hard time believing it would be to keep cost down or anything because they are both technically already overpriced.

Just because it killed my enthusiasm for jumping into their ecosystem for the first time doesn't mean that people should stop being a fan. If that is what you love, then obviously you just pay. PlayStation exclusives are really expensive, but I still pre-order some of them and pay it because I want the games. Obviously it will always be a shame that Nintendo is so greedy, but I guess it is what it is.

Good luck with the Edge. I hope it does end up being good when you get it in a few days. I probably already said that, but oh well.

@KilloWertz I can see nickel and dime Sony scrimping on battery to save some cash. Officially they say it's to keep the same form factor and cram more functions into it. The replaceable stick modules seem kinda huge and that probably took vital battery space... But.... How they can put out a top price controller with terrible battery is beyond be. I know a lot of the pro market runs wired anyway, mostly for competition purposes, but these days even scuf and razer are doing wireless
With better batteries.

Still... Looking forward to getting it. And then using my regular controller when the battery dies. Until that battery dies too... 😂. I don't think many people around here are into it so it'll be interesting.

@nessisonett I mean, they're journos on Twitter.... Like.... Of course they'd think that dialog is actually good... That's exactly who is supposed to appeal to... 😆

If Rob doesn't do a P.J. and review it in the game's own writing style we riot.

@NEStalgia I have my doubts that they still couldn't have put something better in either of the DualSense controllers. With all of the tech in it, I know the battery wouldn't last as long as a more basic controller, but I highly doubt better batteries would have been that much larger to fit. I manage and thankfully it's really simply to recharge them with the Dual Charging Station, but I will always believe they could have done better.

@KilloWertz Definitely. There's no excuse. Nintendo's little fish stick controllers have better battery life and they ALSO have an "advanced" rumble (HD Rumble is one gen behind the "Sense" haptic module, they all buy the modules from Immersion, it's basically the same tech.) I think the lights on the controller drain battery a lot, I'm going to try with bright and dim on the edge. Those feedback triggers also do some damage. PS4 games don't drain them nearly as bad as PS5 games that use them. OF course they're just a switch away to disable on the Edge so that's a plus. I've found few games that benefit from them and a majority of games suffer for them. Those motors that have to resist your fingers definitely draw serious power from an already small battery. I suspect energizing the touch pad takes some juice too.

I don't use the charging station (used to use them on PS4 but they take so much space and always end up causing trouble) but I love the Elite v2 where the little clamshell case it comes with IS the charging cradle! It's great, you just put it in the case and it charges. Sony's more expensive Edge just comes with a velcro flap so you can stick your USB cable inside..... Sony really amazes me with how underdeveloped their "premium" products can be....

@NEStalgia While I don't like the DualSense's battery life, it isn't fair to compare them to Joycons in any way. Buying from the same manufacturer doesn't equal same technology. That's like saying you can't understand why the GameCube's graphics are so much worse than the PS5, because they both use AMD.

And yea, the adaptive triggers are a big power draw. These past few months I mostly played PS4 games and didn't ever get a battery notification, despite often forgetting to put my controller in the charger. I started Sifu last week, and am already experiencing how much faster the battery drains.

As the owner of a charging station and two DualSenses for me the trade off battery life vs. experience has so far been worth it. But it's a bit weird that this feature, and therefore loss of battery life has been forced on everyone.

@Kidfried Hah, true to a point, but the Immersion tech is their own development and it's not really custom for PS or anything. Nintendo DID implement the latest Immersion offered with HD Rumble, and Sony then implemented the next iteration with the Sense. Both are the same lineage of newer enhanced rumble than last gen (which XSXS still uses, though it has 4 motors rather than 2 for the feedback triggers, so it does have a more varied feedback than at first glance.) Even on Nintendo's end the full size Pro Controller implements the same version of rumble but with larger motors for the larger controller. There's just no reason to believe PS's slightly more updated version of the motor has significantly more power draw than the previous version Nintendo has in the Pro controller which runs for days and days and days and days, or that the teeny tiny motors in the Joycon are that much more efficient it can be run by an even teenier battery so much longer than a DS5 let alone Edge.

Even for PS4 games that don't use the features though, PS controllers just have awful batteries.

But yeah, the adaptive triggers by nature just are huge power guzzlers, and not equipping a proper battery, especially in the Edge is kind of inexcusable. The motor has to resist human force. That takes some decent power. It's not just causing vibrations but counter-acting your applied force on the trigger using a battery that was already borderline. My feeling on the Edge is that they both expected that most "pro" players are running wired most of the time (which is somewhat true), and they expected most "pro" players would be using the trigger locks most of the time which disables the motors (which is also true.) But for a first party controller, I still expected better planning to provide an ideal runtime with all features, especially when their competitors offer MORE run-time in the battery on pro-controllers that have wireless.

@NEStalgia Compared to the competitors it's hard not to argue that Sony is the lesser deal.

On the other hand, the competition has very weird analog stick placement. 😅