8bit4Life

My Switch has always been the secondary console on my desk. Switch 2 will likely be the same, used primarily for Nintendo exclusive titles like Xenoblade and Zelda, while continuing to buy cross-platform titles on PS5 Pro.

I felt an ache in my old man shoulders as I read this and realized the ugly truth that I am the aging console generation. At 45 years old, I have been there since the Atari days in my Grandparents’ basement, later upgrading to the NES at my home in the late 80s. That was an unbelievable step forward in game quality.

I have owned many consoles since then, and dabbled in the realm of PC gaming from 2,000-2018 before coming back to the ease of PS4 Pro and Nintendo Switch. Now I don’t have any inkling to own a Windows PC. It’s Mac for computing and consoles for gaming.

To imagine kids these days enjoying touchscreen games is making me want to shake my cane at them and yell from my front porch to stay off my lawn.

I have been going for 100% in Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition this past week, and my initial reaction to this list of PlayStation Plus Essential games is as the Nopons would say, “Meh, meh..”

This is completely true. I only play single player games lately, even Monster Hunter Wilds in the Single Player Online server.

If it’s a fun or interesting game, I will buy and play it. Xenoblade Chronicles X will be taking my time soon, and Suikoden 1 & 2 are already on my Switch. BG3 is one that I have not purchased yet, but once it hits that $30 sale, I will probably get it.

I have loved Japanese games since childhood. Nintendo is one of the reasons why I grew up loving Japan, eventually learning a bit of their language, and enjoying their culture.

Please keep Japanese games Japanese and I’ll be happy.

Tifa is certainly more likable in the Remakes. Back in 1997, Aerith was Cloud’s girl for me, never leaving the party. Well, … ;(

FF13 and FF5 are the only mainline FF titles that I never completed.

FF5 because I got too busy with other games, and FF13 because after 15 or so hours, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was so hyped for FF13 since the PS3 was dreadfully short on good content at the time.

The visuals and music were great. The gameplay, story, and characters couldn’t keep me interested.

I played a few hours of Indiana Jones on Xbox Series X via Game Pass. From that initial experience, this game is pretty solid. If my PlayStation backlog and current games weren’t so full, I’d definitely play it more. The music and voice acting took me immediately back to my childhood in the 80s to when Indiana Jones was a top tier movie trilogy.

I am still early in the game, having just defeated the flatulent gorilla hippo thing. So far the game does feel less punishing than World did in the early game, but I am also better at the mechanics. I’m happy with how it plays.

I am playing at a relaxed pace, having just reached Hunter Rank 3 so far.

On PS5 Pro in Framerate mode, the experience has been pretty good with few complaints. Visuals are pretty good, even sitting at a desk with my 42” 4K OLED less than a meter away.

It seems like PS5 Pro is the best way to experience this game right now. In its current state, it appears that not only a strong GPU, but a lot of very fast RAM and lighting-fast SSD are needed because of how the data is constantly streaming in. This could be why PC players are having the worst experience, down to optimization.

I realize that Series X and base PS5 is less than ideal as well. When the open beta was running, I downloaded it on my Series X and did notice that textures looked noticeably worse than the same beta on PS5 Pro.

Hopefully this game will receive improvement like Dragon’s Dogma 2 and eventually run respectively across more hardware.

I’m a few hunts in. So far I’ve been enjoying the game. It does seem quite a bit easier to play than when I first played World, but maybe that’s because I know a bit more about how it works.

As for performance on PS5 Pro, it looks pretty good on my 4K OLED in frame rate mode. The only setting I toggled was turning motion blur off.

This game appears to be constantly streaming textures in, so I wonder if slower memory and SSDs are causing the most amount of problems on PC? I have seen people with 4080 cards complaining, so I don’t think it’s entirely related to brute processing power issues.

I’m still waiting to get home from work. It’s about 1:00 PM and I have 4 hours left before I get to leave.

Fortunately it’s pre-installed on my PS5 Pro, so I’m ready to play.

My pre-load is ready on PS5 Pro. Probably won’t get to play until about 6:00 PM Eastern standard time US on Friday.

I would like to be a side quest NPC at a far-off village like Rorikstead that most players would never find, but if they do, it leads to a chain quest leading to the four corners of the map, only to end back at the village to learn that my character passed away and left the player a note of gratitude as the sole reward.

People seem to love FF9, but it was one of my least favorite in the series, along with 13. Part of my distaste for it is the chibi-like art style, and the other is how archaic the 3D sprites on pre-rendered backgrounds felt. Although I did complete it, FF9 is one that I only finished once and never looked back.

FF7 and 8 both used the same 3D with static backgrounds, but at least the art style wasn’t so grating on my eyes. Maybe the remake of FF9 will be better.

I once subscribed to PS Plus Premium and Extra tiers, but I played almost nothing that they offered. It was very irritating to have a couple in my library downloaded and ready to play, but they were no longer available. After that, I went back to Essentials and never felt like I was missing out.

March 2026 earliest. Fall / Holiday 2026 most likely.

The Monster Hunter Wilds beta was the biggest thing I wanted to play. Eventually I was able to, so it wasn’t a huge deal. One other odd thing I noticed during the PSN outage was that my Pawn didn’t show up when I logged into Dragon’s Dogma 2.

I was able to complete the initial hunt and then several others in the open area of the field. I don’t know if extra time is necessary, but definitely welcome. Playing through Monster Hunter Rise last month definitely got me ready, as I only carted once when fighting an electric dragon after beating 3 other monsters. Sword and Shield is my new favorite.

Today I was able to play the Monster Hunter Wilds beta on both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Pro. I was a bit surprised by how much better the PS5 version looks on the same settings. The PS5 Pro enhanced version isn’t out until launch from what I understand, so it could get even better.

@Stickleman I had every bit of personal information stolen in a huge data breach last year, and almost just as much stolen in the T-Mobile breach before that. Honestly, I will be offended if nothing was stolen this time, too.

I was forced to turn on my Xbox Series X and download the Monster Hunter Wilds beta there.

It went live at 10:00 PM for me, so I had time to make a character and complete the initial intro scenes. Great first impression and I can’t wait to play more this weekend.

Microsoft could potentially have success if they make a portable that tops Steam Deck and other handheld PCs in price, performance, and ease of use. The home console market is dominated by Sony, but Sony seems reluctant to make a true handheld right now. If Microsoft makes its own version of the Switch that can run game pass and other PC games, I could see it becoming a hit. It might even force Sony to respond.

I don’t mind PS5 games being on PC. As a former member of the PC master race, now exclusively a console guy (Mac for computer stuff) I am happy as long as my PS5 Pro and Nintendo Switch have games I want to play. To the point about complaints about game performance on PC, I see that as a testament to how well a console can perform, given the limits compared to a pricy PC with that awful Windows OS.

This is the sort of convention I would have loved attending in the late 90s as a teenager, though I would have been too scared to get a photo with the girls.

I loved this game when it released on PS1. Back then I would immediately buy any JRPG that popped up, and Legend of Dragoon filled the need at the time. It isn’t a game that has held up over the years if you compare it to Suikoden 1 or 2 from the same era.

I started a fresh play through of Final Fantasy 15 Royal Edition. This game has held up pretty well for its age.

FF15 could definitely use a current gen patch, but it still looks better than a lot of PS4 games and runs smoothly on Lite mode.

Those bits aside, FF15 is a weird entry in the series, yet it remains one of my favorites due to the characters and the journey.

I will own both systems. Nintendo has always been for first party games and console exclusives. The Switch always felt anemic, but I loved Zelda and Xenoblade games. PlayStation is for multi platform games and everything that can’t be played on Switch.

I haven’t completed this game, but recently I’ve played it on my PS5 Pro and was pleased with how good it still looks and feels to play. The storytelling is still very weird, but nobody plays this series for the story.

Companies need to know their customers / audiences, and cater to what those people want. I have owned PlayStation consoles from the beginning, and the reason I stick with them is because of the great single player experience. Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, Tekken, the first Horizon game. Sure, these aren’t all PlayStation exclusives, but it’s where they thrive and always have. Live service games feel cheap like mobile games. I guess we should feel lucky that PlayStation bosses didn’t jump onto the NFT bandwagon too.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I download a game from Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, it feels less urgent for me to play it. It’s like the quality is lessened. Not always, because I played Jedi: Survivor on Game Pass recently and loved it, but I think that’s the first time for me.

If I were a fan of this genre of game, this would probably be the one I would play. The characters look good to me, seeming to steer towards the comic book style. Overwatch has what I would describe as a Pixar / Disney CG animation kind of style. Now that I think of it, World of Warcraft is increasingly going in that direction too. Maybe that's what I didn't like about it on a recent re-sub.

I am eager to play this game and hear all of the spoken lines. Also, I don't want to get trapped in a garrison like I currently am in the first game. How do I get past that guard? Everyone is telling me to find armor. Oh well, maybe I'll come back after I finish KCD2.

I like the overall design of the SF6 characters over SF5. Male and female characters are still exaggerated, but not as much as in SF5. Have you seen how big their feet were in the last game?

I came to Jedi: Survivor late when it arrived on Game Pass. It's a very good game, one of the few I've ever played start-to-finish on Game Pass. Zero interest in a Star Wars game without light sabers.

I still have not bought BG3. Last night I tried to play Divinity Original Sin 2 again, which is very similar and another game from Larian. The concept and storytelling seem interesting, but the execution just can't hold my interest. Top-down or isometric styles and turn-based, point and click mechanics has forever been something I can't get myself to enjoy, though I have tried many times.

I played a some of a new game on Rebirth yesterday to see how it feels on the Pro. Felt good to look at. Very crisp visuals and smooth. My middle-age eyes, even at 3 feet away on a desk, wouldn't be able to appreciate 2x the frame rate. Especially for many times the cost.

@CamPatUK Really? I have found that the colors and sound are less muted on the XBOX. Maybe it's a setting in PS5 that I need to adjust. Both systems are using high speed HDMI inputs and the cables that they came with.

@Kingy I pre-ordered KCD2 because it looks great, and now am trying to play the first one. Currently stuck in a town and the guard won't let me out until I find some armor.

It was a weekend of Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise for me. Just getting the reflexes back and landing on a new weapon to take into Monster Hunter Wilds next month.

Previously I was a huge fan of Switch Axe and Charge Blade. Still am, but now I'm enjoying the versatility of Sword and Shield. The worst part of the weapon is the short range, but being able to hit with both blunt and severing attacks is quite useful. I find myself hitting the poor creatures in the face with my shield more than the sword.

@glennthefrog After reading up on it, I think you are correct in how you stated it. This letter from Square Enix reflects what's happening in Japan more than a direct reaction to YouTube or X accounts that may oppose DEI or such.

I have an XBOX Series X with about 9 months of Game Pass Ultimate remaining. It's hooked up to the same TV as my PS5 Pro.

The weird thing is that I still barely touch my XBOX, and if a few of these games like Indiana Jones or Starfield were on my PS5, I would play them more, even if I had to buy them.

Interestingly, the XBOX seems to play Ultra HD 4K Blu Ray discs better than my PS5 and PS5 Pro. I tested Lord of the Rings 4K Blu Ray movies and Batman: Dark Knight Trilogy discs. I don't know why this is the case, but I'm keeping my XBOX as a Blu Ray player.

Although I reached the top rank in Stars when I was new, it’s still very weird to use, so I don’t bother much.

A much better rewards system would simply to give points automatically to people who login to PSN on their consoles and play games or make purchases.

I’m definitely jumping in to the beta.

Last week I purchased Monster Hunter Rise during the sale and have been having a great time, so my hunting skills should be slightly up to speed.

I almost never fully shut my PS5 down, but I do fully close games when I’m done.

I have never played a single match of COD multiplayer in my life. There was some version of the game on PS3 that I owned and got a few hours into the single player campaign, then never played COD again.

Battlefield 2142 was pretty fun multiplayer back in the early 2000s.

As a former member of the PC Master Race with a decent Steam library, I am not too worried about PC taking away from PlayStation. Until about 2018 I was pretty much a PC-only player, and then I got a PS4 Pro. At that point I realized that the ease of gaming on console, and the good enough experience made a Windows PC unnecessary in my life, especially as a Mac guy. When I realized that PlayStation store sales usually match the deals on Steam, I began building a big PlayStation library, so it is my gaming home now on PS5 Pro.

I bought the disc drive when I pre-ordered the PS5 Pro. So far I haven’t used it much, and oddly it had some initial troubles reading my Cyberpunk 2077 disc, but nothing else, even though there were no physical defects on it.

Hopefully my drive isn’t defective.

I decided to finally pick up Monster Hunter Rise during the sale. Got it with the expansion for $15. It’s been a lot of fun. The goal was to get my MH skills ready for Wilds, so Rise is a 2 month training exercise.