Art_Vandelay

@RoomWithaMoose "There are many reasons products succeed and fail."

Bingo.

I never said that culture is the only thing that matters. All we're saying is that it does matter. To what degree? We can agree to disagree on that, because time will tell.

And stop fixating on identitarian characteristics, man. It's not about that. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I'm freaking Latin, ok? Race, gender and so on should not matter at all. We need to look past this stuff and see each other as just fellow human beings.

@RoomWithaMoose If you can't see the trend by now, I don't know what else to tell you.

@RoomWithaMoose "you should consider the myriad of other reasons a game called 'Unknown 9' might've failed"

Now, you're missing the forest for the trees.

"When a live-service title set in the God of War universe is cancelled, it's difficult to have much confidence in something like Fairgame$ making it to market either."

I mostly agree with the article, but not with this quote. Releasing a disastrously bad GOW live-service game could have severe implications for the franchise. It's probably better to risk burning a new IP.

Oh man, Bend is probably the worst case of mismanagement among PlayStation's first party. Sony really made an effort to screw these guys.

Sure, the competition is stiff with Bungie and Firewalk but, at least with these two, there's the excuse that Sony bought damaged goods.

It's a shame, because I really think Days Gone was criminally underrated.

If there is one game that can afford to be priced at $70 and still make exorbitant amounts of money, it's GTA.

Hell, this game will probably sell over 100 million copies. If they charged $10, it would still recoup the estimated one billion cost.

@Th3solution Yep, but those people were always fighting against common sense, right? A misture of naivete, bias and downright deceitfulness. Everyone is happy while all bellies are full. The surprising part is that people that weren't really invested in Game Pass just went along. Or weren't they?

"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."

They're terrified. This is a make-or-break release for Ubisoft.

It's a little depressing how far ahead Nvidia really is. Mark Cerny just gave a presentation raving about the CNN (convolutional neural network) based PSSR, and a few days later Nvidia presents the Transformer-based DLSS 4 that looks so much better that it immediately renders CNNs obsolete.

I don't game on my PC for a number of reasons and Nvidia's gear does come at a cost, but the technical gap between PCs and consoles does seem to be widening.

@StopBeingTribal "Perfectly good" is not good enough. Lead characters have to be awesome to carry an IP, and Aloy just doesn't cut it for most people. Again, the two mainline games are great, but not because of her.

Sexual appeal is surely one way to make a character stand out, but it's far from the only one.

@DennisReynolds If Aloy was more appealing, I bet the online hatred would be very different.

@get2sammyb It is totally fair to separate the Horizon games from the Horizon IP. The two mainline entries are excellent games, but the IP is just not that exciting. If you think this is some wild social media conspiracy theory, you're surprisingly disconnected from the mainstream sentiment.

Do you really want to use games sales as a barometer? Ok, so how well is Lego Horizon doing so far? Do I need to remind you that it has a "Lego" stamp and that it's out on the Switch? This should be making waves, but it came and went like a fart in the wind.

Why? Because the game is just fine, and the IP is not strong enough to carry it.

The key words in that statement are "so far". The PC strategy is not proactive. It's a reaction to the ballooning costs of games development and the downstream shareholders' pressure. Anyone who thinks it's not risky is looking at the sprint, but the prospects for the marathon aren't so hot.

Just look at the Steam Deck and think about a screenless high-power variation aimed at your living room. This is the most obvious prediction ever, and it's coming from both Valve and Microsoft.

Sure, it might be a little more expensive than a PS6, but games are cheaper, online is free and it runs "exclusives" from every publisher. What incentive would anyone have to opt for PlayStation besides blind loyalty and inertia? That doesn't last for long.

Maybe Sony simply sees streaming as the inevitable future, so it doesn't really matter at the end. In that scenario, PlayStation would eventually become a games publisher just like Microsoft. But I still think it's way too early to place that bet.

@MichaelNau I cannot enjoy FPS games on the flatscreen at all. It feels like I'm just controlling a camera, which technically is the exact case. And aiming with the thumb is clunky and finicky, so it never feels immersive. Not to mention the claustrophobic field of view (or the alternative distorted world).

But VR turns all of those issues on their head, and I'm loving every second of many FPSs. Just finished Arizona Sunshine Remake, and I can tell you that nailing headshots on those zombies never gets old.

Also, do not sleep on Synapse. It's easily one of the best VR experiences I've had. And of course, you also don't wanna miss RE4 and Village. Give one of those a try and you won't look back.

@Max_the_German Yes, Microsoft has been moving in that direction, but I don't think it can work for the following reasons:

1) Windows sucks, plain and simple, and its heavy legacy makes it impossible to fix.

2) Valve is doing the same, but way better.

3) The Xbox PC will either be too weak or too expensive (or somewhat weak and somewhat expensive).

All in all, it sounds like an idea that is as bad as Game Pass. It's the typical death spiral: a weak market position that leads to a bad idea that leads to a weaker position that leads to an even worse idea and so on and so forth.

I like Digital Foundry's videos as pure entertainment, but I really don't like the increasing need to watch their stuff in order to make a more informed decision as to what modes and settings I should use.

The whole idea of consoles is to be a turn on and play device. Devs and QA should really be doing the leg work here, tailoring the experience to what they judge will offer the best user experience. Sure, having "fidelity" and "performance" modes is fine, but anything beyond that should be reserved for PCs.

@RoomWithaMoose Aspirational? Not necessarily, that I agree. Breaking Bad is the best TV show ever. But appealing? C'mon, man.

Look, you're entitled to your opinion (obviously). But when your opinion doesn't align with the vast majority of gamers, it makes for very bad business decisions.

Like it or not, games need to sell. If there's one thing that Concord taught us, is that creative intent needs to meet market demand.

The real problem with Intergalactic's lead character doesn't have anything to do with identitary characteristics, and it's not about Joel either. The issue here is that it's pretty stupid for a studio to design a game around a protagonist that comes across as being so damn smug and obnoxious.

That won't fly in 2026 or so, pardon the pun.

@JustMyOpinion I get that, but let's face it: it's not that simple. If you're a fan of videogames, a new ND release used to be one of those rare special moments worth of savoring.

To see the studio descend into a dark path of bad business decisions is quite depressing, to be frank. There is an ongoing cultural shift that will leave many behind, and it worries me that one of Sony's crown jewels might be among them.

@glennthefrog You're right, and the fact that comments were disabled from the beginning is quite telling. ND is aware that the character is controversial, and afraid of the public's reaction. But they're willing to double down on it anyway.

Sure, they have every right to do whatever they want from a creative standpoint. But from a business perspective, it's a decision that fails at reading the room temperature, whether you agree or disagree with the "far right haters".

Money talks.

@Rich33 True, this is very much a 60fps game.

@Rich33 Yep, performance mode is pretty bad on the base console. Anyway, the 40 fps mode at 120 Hz looks promising if you have a TV that supports it. Might be the sweet spot, potentially offering a more stable framerate and image quality. Also hoping the PSSR implementation is a good one, but I'm not holding my breath.

So, it's like a souls like rogue like. Not sure if I like it.

@Rich33 At first, I had the same thought. But note how they worded it:

"The input response has been improved in Performance Mode."

The performance mode is really bad on the base PS5 because it uses FSR3's frame generation, which adds a lot of input latency. Maybe they leveraged the extra GPU power on the Pro by simply removing frame gen, which could actually be pretty great considering what kind of game this is.

It remains to be seen how well it performs, though.

@AfroMario "If there were pretty anime girls bouncing around and the rest of the game was exactly the same it would be an 8 out of 10 on Push Square"

... and it would be qualified as "cozy".

How ironic is it that the game that most desperately needs a Pro patch is the one solemnly ignoring it?

@1UP-HUSKY Why do you think the PC adapter sold out immediately?

The premise is awesome, but the trailer looks a little too interpolated and effects heavy, which kinda ruins it for me. The charm of stop-motion is in its dry low framerate aesthetic, which this trailer lacks.

@The_Wailing_Doom "It seems like Sony shareholders are not concerned with the treasonous felon's tariffs in the U.S."

I guess the market speaks louder than any pushed narrative. "Trump trade" predicted the elections.

This is literally not Trump's first rodeo. He is a businessman first and foremost. Tariffs are leverage, plain and simple.

@themightyant "It was more that the characters were dull, there wasn't enough content/game modes and the game never grabbed an audience."

That is precisely what happens when you have forced agendas.

Tales from the Galaxy's Edge is the perfect PS+ game. I would never have bought it, but now I'm definitely going to play it.

"It's hard to tell how far along this is, and whether the tech will be implemented into PSVR2 games".

It's reportedly been available to developers in the SDK for months now.

@blockfight As my Pro arrived, the first thing I checked out was the new positional reprojection in GT7. Then I proceeded to try the new ray tracing modes on the flat screen, and man oh man... it was like going from a modern 65" to a 14" TV from the 80s.

I'm glad that more people will get to enjoy what I think is the very best gaming experience on the PS5. Sure, it's not for everyone but, for those on the fence, this is a great opportunity.

@Alps_Stranger Dude... you're in for a treat! Now, I must say that a decent racing rig is essential for the true driving experience. It's not cheap and takes a lot of space, but if you have any interest in cars, it's totally worth it.

I'm sorry, but the fact that a 3D platformer and a DLC are the top two games of the year is proof enough that, yes, 2024 was kinda weak.

Don't get me wrong. Astrobot and Erdtree are fantastic, but they're not that "generation-defining" kind of title. 2024 has nothing up there in the Pantheon of history's greats such as Red Dead 2, GTA IV, The Last of US, God of War 2018, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring itself. It's not even close.

And the fact that two of the aforementioned games came out in 2018 along with Spider-Man gives you a good point of reference of what a strong year looks like.

Yes, 2024 is full of great titles. But it does feel weirdly empty all things considered.

Wow, I haven't seen a comments section with that much positivity around here for ages. That's the magic of VR, I guess.

PSVR2 is a marathon, not a sprint. It's an avenue for future growth, and a value add for the PS5 ecosystem. Sony hasn't been perfect, but there's a strategy at play.

I can see how they would match PS5's GPU power by simply running the games at a low ~800p resolution. But it's just not possible to match PS5's CPU on a handheld, and there's no easy way to automatically scale it down.

The only path I see is to require explicit support from devs. It's not exactly the same as the Vita, which required a separate SKU, but something more along the lines of the PS5 Pro (although in the reverse direction).

@GamingFan4Lyf Yep, Microsoft has managed to turn Xbox into a brand that is as boring and unexciting as its parent company. But who cares, they're making rivers of money, which is awesome for the fans!

@DonJorginho "Consistency in dev implementation is the issue."

It's not that simple. Dev implementation is only one of many variables that could explain the issue:

1) SDK version has been reported to make a difference. First-party studios might have early access to newer versions.

2) Input resolution has also been pointed out. Sony's games seem to be implementing 1440p > 4K, while others are rendering natively at much lower resolutions and are getting worse results with PSSR then they were getting with FSR2.

3) And lastly, PSSR seems to be causing graphical glitches when combined with certain raytracing effects such as ambient occlusion.

Now, these patches shouldn't have been released in the first place, but I'd bet there are contractual obligations at play here. And most of what I described above is actually on Sony's side.

Finally, I don't think there is much to worry about at the end of the day. DLSS was pretty bad when it first launched, which is par for the course when it comes to AI upscalers. Machine learning is resource intensive and time consuming. PSSR will get better with time.

"Xbox Series down about 49 per cent".

It's very ironic that Xbox's "biggest generational leap ever" will be a handheld. Does it even make sense to release a true Series X/S successor at this point?

@Danloki John participated in a preview event for the media, before the Pro launched.

@Whately86 lol the unhinged carioca.

Btw, keep f*ck*ng that chicken.

It sounds like this is 90% done.

I now expect a full on Bloodborne remake to launch with the PS6.

These issues have seemingly been caused by an older version of PSSR. Which is par for the course for brand new hardware, especially considering it employs a piece of tech that gets better with time by definition (machine learning's gotta learn).

A clear indication of this is how Sony's first party implementations have been stellar. It's expected that Sony would give its studios early access to the latest versions of its SDK.

Granted, this is not great for people who got the Pro on day one, but it's also expected that early adopters would have to endure some troubled waters. It's also not a great look for the console, but these things do tend to be quickly forgotten provided the issues are ironed out in due time.

The silver lining here is that Sony is getting an important head start in the console race by being the first to deploy AI-based upscaling. This tech should be an important foundation of the PS6, and it will be very mature by the time the next-gen console comes out.

@Whately86 lol fox all the way. You vulture?

@UltimateOtaku91 These are very different experiences, and I admittedly have no interest in handhelds, but I can tell you that PSVR2 has refreshed my passion for gaming in a way I wasn't expecting at all.

There has been a lot of discussion around the industry about how to grow the user base, how to beat competitors, how to grab the attention of the newer generations and so on.

Even though these are all valid concerns, it is bewildering that Sony can't get the fundamentals right. This Pro enhanced confusion is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how bad the PlayStation Network user interface is. Especially the web front-end.

I have experienced numerous times the unforgivable issue of using the search function for a particular game and coming out with no results, or with suggestions that have nothing to do with what I was looking for. And that often happens even when I type the exact word match. Sure, it doesn't occur with big games, but it's incredibly common with smaller titles, especially VR which I search a lot.

How can this be?

@Dampsponge Yeah, because eeeveryone thinks exactly like you and nobody cares about graphics in games.