@torquex Yes, it appears that you can skip cut scenes. I didn’t do so because (1) having never played the game before, I wouldn’t know what the heck was going on/what the story was if I skipped the cut scenes and (2) I had no idea they’d be so long: I kept thinking “ok, now the cut scenes are gonna end and I can start playing,” but they just went on and on and on, back-to-back.
To be clear: my issue isn’t that the cutscenes are “weird.” And I played and generally liked MGS V, which is another reason I wanted to give this one a shot. My issue is that, at least so far, the cut scenes are extremely long, so poorly written, and almost laughably poorly acted. (Having spent $70 on it, though, I find little humor in the situation).
I normally don’t post here at all and certainly don’t go out of my way to bash games. But I felt obliged to in this instance to balance out the mostly glowing reviews which I think are influenced by such a heavy dose of rose-tinted nostalgia that they gloss over these issues completely. So here’s what I’d say:
If you played this as a kid (or as an adult, I guess) when it first came out and liked itt, I imagine you’d enjoy revisiting this and wouldn’t be as put off by the issues I’ve mentioned, since you apparently enjoyed it despite them when you first played it.
If you’re anyone else, I wouldn’t buy it. And definitely not for $70.
(And I haven’t even mentioned that the visuals are weak and the controls/movement are janky)
And to be clear: I’m not like “super-gamer YouTube kid in their 20s who’s only ever played modern cutting-edge blockbuster AAA games.” I’m old enough that I’ve played and enjoyed quite a few games that fall well below modern standards in acting, writing, and gameplay over the years. But this game is, to me, absurdly bad. Maybe it’s the particular era it was originally released in: according to the interwebs, the original was released in 2004. I was busy having kids then, so I missed that era of gaming - thankfully, it seems. (Then again: I recently played the entire Gears trilogy on Xbox and enjoyed it. It was dumb - the story is trite, the writing ain’t great, and the acting is pretty bad too - but it was dumb fun, and none of its very obvious flaws run as deep as those of Metal Gear Delta. Or at least they’re compensated for enough by other aspects of the game that I could enjoy it. So it’s not like I’m a gaming snob.)
But: if you’re a gaming writer who’s now in your late 20s-late 30s, that means you were a kid/teen when it originally came out, lending some credence to my theory that there must be a heavy dose of nostalgia and fond memories influencing the many effusive reviews of this remake.
Based on how much hype this game has been getting, I went ahead and bought it. And now having started it, I’m regretting it. I’ve spent at least the first 20 minutes of the game passively listening to poorly-written and poorly-acted exposition, during which I’ve only touched the controller once…
It’s “vinyl,” not “vinyls.” The plural of vinyl is vinyl. (Like the plural of “deer” is “deer”.) If that looks/sounds too weird to your eyes/ears, then “records” or “vinyl records.”
Thank God; I despise games that refuse to have difficulty adjustments. Day One buy for me; I was gonna get it eventually anyway, but will now get it Day One to support their decision to avoid the “git gud”/soulslike train.
@DTfearTheBEARD Agreed. I just checked today after downloading the update: the new Balanced mode looks much sharper, with a very nice frame rate (all with PSSR left on, not toggled off). Too bad I’m now like 80% finished with the game…
I don’t mind difficult games per se; it’s more the way that souls-like games implement difficulty that I find to be boring, frustrating, and a waste of my time.
I’ll definitely play the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC - but on a PC and with mods that balance out the difficulty to something reasonable.
Glad to hear this, as I truly dislike souls-like games with no difficulty options. (Elden Ring excepted because there are ways in the game to somewhat compensate for the lack of difficult options. And even so, I played it on PC with difficulty mods enabled.)
I am very glad to hear that it has difficulty settings and that the parrying and such is more God of War than Souls-like. I truly despise the lack of options for the player to choose difficulty settings in Souls-like games. On the other hand, I’ve played and beaten both of the modern God of War games on the second-highest difficulty settings; and while I often got my *** kicked many times in fights, it felt like a fair ***-kicking (unlike Souls-likes). So this game has just shot up very high near the top of my list! Will be pre-ordering the physical edition (These days, I try to buy physical whenever I can in order to support those companies who continue to offer a choice between physical and digital).
Wow! This is the nudge I needed to jump back into this game. I spent many enjoyable hours playing it a few months ago but then got pulled away; now seems like a great time to get back into it.
@theSpectre Interesting. I really really disliked the “sensitive frat boy with a tortured soul” character of Owen. I quite liked all these other side characters (especially Mel, but that’s mostly because she was voiced by Ashly Burch).
It’s been quite a while since I played Death Stranding; but if I recall correctly, “the beach” in the game is a kind of limbo/transition area that some people go to when they die. So, the subtitle would make sense given the game’s lore.
I really very strongly dislike roguelike games but love God of War. So, the prospect of getting some additional story beats via the DLC would be very appealing if it were any genre other than roguelike. I’m sure I’ll play it once or twice to see if it surprises me (for example: Returnal was a roguelike, but I really enjoyed it because it was structured in such a way as to minimize most of the things that annoy me about the genre). If not, I’m sure I’ll get annoyed with it quickly and just read the spoilers to get the story…
The USA pre-order link is currently live. It went live at least 6 minutes early, because I logged on at 9:54 and was able to add it to my cart and place my order. This seems to be a pattern with the PlayStation direct limited edition sales, because I’ve seen the link go live early several times before. Just word to the wise; but I really wish they would stop doing that… The link shouldn’t go live til the time it was advertised as going live, in order to give everyone a fair shot.
Is there a link to the PlayStation Direct pre-order page for the WLF edition? I don’t see any links in the article above and also can’t find a pre-order page on the PlayStation Direct website.
I’ll definitely be buying the $10 upgrade: it’s one of my all-time favorite games, so this is a no-brainer. Looking forward to all the extra content, but what I really cannot figure out is how they can possibly make it look better graphically. With the remaster of Part 1, yes; the graphics of the PS4 version were outdated and the remaster of Part 1 is a definite and strong visual improvement. But Part 2 is already one of the most visually stunning games that exists (exceeded in my opinion only by Horizon Burning Shores) : I just can’t imagine much room for improvement in that regard. We shall see, I suppose. (But I remember thinking the same thing when the Horizon Burning Shores DLC came out, given how good the base Forbidden West game is visually: “how could they possibly improve it?” But Burning Shores definitely upped the ante visually; hopefully this remake will be able to do the same!)m
I bought one and am pleased so far. I’m actually more impressed with it than I thought I would be. Very comfortable to hold, and the remote play connectivity is miles ahead of what I get when using remote play with a controller and my laptop.
So far, I’ve only used it in the same house and on the same network as my PS5; and have only used it to play a couple of hours of Resident Evil 4. I’ll be taking it on a trip next week and will see how it does with remote WiFi access from a different network. But for its most common use case for which it seems to be designed (as a second screen in the same house as your PS5), it’s pretty darn good.
Still think they should have made an actual handheld with its own system software and its own storage, though. Perhaps one day…
If true, I’ll be buying it. I don’t know whether I’ll ultimately “click” with this kind of game, so if I don’t, having a disc version will at least allow me to sell it and recoup some of my costs. Plus, given the massive sales success this game seems to have already had, I imagine they easily could have forgone a physical version (like has been done with Alan Wake 2), so I also want to support their decision to nonetheless release a physical version.
If there were a “not buying it because there’s not a physical version” option, I’d select that. It’s a shame, because I really enjoyed Alan Wake 1 and Control. Just can’t be a part of encouraging companies to eliminate player choice of buying digital vs buying physical.
@Nepp67 Or, this is what you get when you cast a poor actor (reportedly; I haven’t played it) in this particular instance. “Authenticity” and “good acting” aren’t mutually exclusive.
Loved Red Dead 2; never got around to playing the original. I have it on my Xbox, so there’s no way I’d buy this port; but even if I didn’t, I still wouldn’t buy it for $50 unless it had some PS4/5 specific upgrades, which it doesn’t seem to. I truly hope sales are abysmal, because they really shouldn’t be rewarded for this.
This does remind me to put Red Dead next in my Xbox game queue, though.
The two lead actors are two of my all time favorites, but I’ll need to see more before deciding whether to pick it up. I’m all for tighter and better games that don’t take a billion hours to complete, but four hours seems awfully short.
Since this appears to be a “souls like” game, I’ll have to pass. I just have no interest in getting my ass kicked endlessly due to ultra-hard non-adjustable difficulty. I’ve learned my lesson after buying and trying Demon’s Souls, Sekiro, and Wo Long: just not my cup of tea. (Elden Ring worked for me, but it’s quite different from other games in this genre; plus, I played on PC and used minor mods to effectively adjust the difficulty.)
I returned mine after about 2 weeks. Don’t miss it. At all. In my case, it wasn’t due to a lack of games: I just found that it fell far short of the hype in terms of image quality and useability (constant struggle to find and stay in the “sweet spot;” low-resolution image quality; etc). Playing Resi Village in VR was a bit of fun, though.
I’m playing it on PC now. No problems whatsoever in the first two hours of playtime, and I have all the settings set to Ultra even though I “only” have a 3080Ti. I don’t doubt the negative experiences being reported; just noting that I haven’t had any. Perhaps because I waited to start until the “shaders” finished “compiling.” (No idea what that really means because it’s beyond my technical expertise: but I just thought it would be wise to wait for it to finish doing it before I started the game since the popup notification basically explicitly said it’d run best once it was done.). Even if that is the case, though, I’m still surprised that Naughty Dog’s testing wouldn’t have caught this issue: after all, many (perhaps most) consumers are just going to ignore the “compiling shaders” popup and fire up the game right away. So you’d think that their testing scenario would have accounted for that.
Glad I didn’t shell out for the PS5 Firefly Edition on eBay! Will be picking this up on PC.
One thing I don’t understand about the recommended specs is where my 3080Ti would fall. The specs jump from the 2080Ti to the 4080, with no mention of the 3080/3080Ti. Would I be able to run the Ultra settings with a 3080Ti?
I would urge those folks who believe that the blurriness, graininess, and lack of sharpness of the PSVR2 visuals that many people are experiencing is simply due to user error to take a look at this video:
@NEStalgia Thanks for the suggestion! I’m playing the demo of Song in the Smoke now: seems like a cool game. Unfortunately, it still to me has the same graininess/blur/low-res/haze as every other game I’ve tried thus far.
I’m going to exchange/return mine and try another unit: while visuals are somewhat subjective, of course, what I’m experiencing is just miles away from the “incredible, amazing, etc.” graphics that others are apparently experiencing. Mine is “fine” at best (and less than fine as to certain aspects of image quality). So, my hope is that there’s something wrong with my unit and that a new one will have the outstanding image quality that others are describing.
@neonpizza Thanks. Already did all that; didn’t change anything for me. (And to be clear, the blur I’m experiencing is not motion blur: it’s that everything looks low resolution, unsharp, and grainy to me. To use a digital photography analogy: it’s like someone blew up a 12 megapixel file into a 3 x 4‘ print but forgot to upscale properly and run unsharp mask before printing it).
@Styledvinny79 This is my point: I cannot figure out why some folks’ subjective impressions with PSVR2 are so wildly different. That’s why I specifically phrased my comment as the visuals being unimpressive to me rather than as a statement of objective fact.
I finished this in the regular PS5 version and am now about 3 hours into a replay on the VR version. I have to say that I haven’t had the same experience regarding the visuals as the reviewer and several commenters. While the immersion is really impressive, the visuals leave much to be desired for me. This review stated that “From afar, backdrops and the haunted locations of the remote dwelling look fantastic,” for example. To the contrary, I’m finding backdrops any distance away to look like a grainy, low-res out of focus mess. (Yes, I am familiar with distance blur/plane of focus. It’s not just that they’re out of focus, they’re grainy and out of focus in a way that’s not pleasing.). There’s also significant screen door effect/graininess everywhere, even when viewing objects nearby, especially in any dark/shadowed areas.
I’m beginning to wonder whether I have a defective unit or perhaps VR just isn’t for me. My experience is just wildly different from what I’m reading of so many other folks. (Horizon, for example, looks to me like there’s a thin film of Vaseline over everything, while reviews and other players find the visuals to be tack-sharp, stunning, etc.)
I’m not lazy and I don’t hate VR in general or the PSVR2 in particular. To the contrary, I was a Day One pre-order; was really excited about it; am fairly tech-savvy; and am a huge PlayStation fan in general. And yet, I am one of the many people who have struggled with finding and maintaining the sweet spot, and who have been less than overwhelmed with the image quality in terms of softness, graininess, etc., at least so far. So please stop over-generalizing and minimizing others’ experiences.
That said: I am finding it’s getting better day by day. Some of that is just me getting better at adjusting the headset; a lot of it may be my brain adjusting, as others have said.
My advice so far, based on four days of owning and playing with it, is basically this: unless you have other pressing financial needs, use the whole 30 day return window to try it out and see if it’s to your liking. As noted, my experience is incrementally improving each day.
My head is completely shaved and I’ve had massive problems finding the “sweet spot”, so I don’t think hair is the issue.
I agree with the article that this is a major design flaw. A consumer-oriented product shouldn’t require this degree of precision in order to be used properly. The average consumer is not going to want to go through this every time they put the headset on: they’ll just return it. Indeed, even though I’m now much closer to being able to hit the sweet spot now than on launch day, I’m still considering returning it myself because it’s still a pain in the butt (and still somewhat blurry, even in the sweet spot; and still somewhat grainy and low-res). And as this article notes, even a very slight slippage of the headset during gameplay results in losing the sweet spot unless I tighten the headband so tightly that it becomes uncomfortable and leaves me with a severe headache.
It’s frustrating because I can see the potential: other than finding and keeping the sweet spot (and the resulting blurry-ness of you don’t hit it precisely and keep it for the entire play session), the immersion is very impressive. But this is such a big issue that it may outweigh all the other positives, at least for me. Still going to keep trying for a few more days; but again, most consumers simply will not be able to or want to invest this amount of time into getting what is supposed to be just a fun toy to work properly.
Just FYI: after really struggling with the blurry-ness mentioned in my comments up-thread, I gave it another go last night. Although I had indeed followed all the setup instructions I could find, I didn’t quite realize how low on the neck the strap needed to be and how high on the forehead the visor needed to be in order for it to fit in a way to maximize the sweet spot. When I first tried angling it in this way as someone advised up-thread (and thanks again!), I thought “This can’t possibly be right - it’s now at way too extreme of an angle.” Well, it was right!
And now I see what the fuss is about. After getting it set up to hit the sweet spot, I loaded RE Village VR. Very impressive! I was blown away by the immersion.
I will say that I’m still noticing some ghosting/halo’ing around white text; and even though things are no longer blurry, they are still grainier/lower resolution than I would have expected (but it’s my first foray into VR).
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Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Metal Gear Solid Delta?
@marciolsf Thanks for the insights; but life’s too short for me to wade through it in the hope that a good game will reveal itself at some point…
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Metal Gear Solid Delta?
@torquex Yes, it appears that you can skip cut scenes. I didn’t do so because (1) having never played the game before, I wouldn’t know what the heck was going on/what the story was if I skipped the cut scenes and (2) I had no idea they’d be so long: I kept thinking “ok, now the cut scenes are gonna end and I can start playing,” but they just went on and on and on, back-to-back.
To be clear: my issue isn’t that the cutscenes are “weird.” And I played and generally liked MGS V, which is another reason I wanted to give this one a shot. My issue is that, at least so far, the cut scenes are extremely long, so poorly written, and almost laughably poorly acted. (Having spent $70 on it, though, I find little humor in the situation).
I normally don’t post here at all and certainly don’t go out of my way to bash games. But I felt obliged to in this instance to balance out the mostly glowing reviews which I think are influenced by such a heavy dose of rose-tinted nostalgia that they gloss over these issues completely. So here’s what I’d say:
If you played this as a kid (or as an adult, I guess) when it first came out and liked itt, I imagine you’d enjoy revisiting this and wouldn’t be as put off by the issues I’ve mentioned, since you apparently enjoyed it despite them when you first played it.
If you’re anyone else, I wouldn’t buy it. And definitely not for $70.
(And I haven’t even mentioned that the visuals are weak and the controls/movement are janky)
And to be clear: I’m not like “super-gamer YouTube kid in their 20s who’s only ever played modern cutting-edge blockbuster AAA games.” I’m old enough that I’ve played and enjoyed quite a few games that fall well below modern standards in acting, writing, and gameplay over the years. But this game is, to me, absurdly bad. Maybe it’s the particular era it was originally released in: according to the interwebs, the original was released in 2004. I was busy having kids then, so I missed that era of gaming - thankfully, it seems. (Then again: I recently played the entire Gears trilogy on Xbox and enjoyed it. It was dumb - the story is trite, the writing ain’t great, and the acting is pretty bad too - but it was dumb fun, and none of its very obvious flaws run as deep as those of Metal Gear Delta. Or at least they’re compensated for enough by other aspects of the game that I could enjoy it. So it’s not like I’m a gaming snob.)
But: if you’re a gaming writer who’s now in your late 20s-late 30s, that means you were a kid/teen when it originally came out, lending some credence to my theory that there must be a heavy dose of nostalgia and fond memories influencing the many effusive reviews of this remake.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Metal Gear Solid Delta?
Based on how much hype this game has been getting, I went ahead and bought it. And now having started it, I’m regretting it. I’ve spent at least the first 20 minutes of the game passively listening to poorly-written and poorly-acted exposition, during which I’ve only touched the controller once…
Re: Phantom Blade Zero Dev Reiterates Yet Again That PS5 Stunner Is Not a Soulslike
Thank god… not only do I personally strongly dislike “soulslike” games, it’s good to see that (maybe) developers are jumping off of that bandwagon.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate State of Play for June 2025?
It was disappointing for me: there was literally only one game shown that I have any interest in whatsoever (Yotei) and that one was barely shown…
Re: Get Silent Hill 2's PS5 Soundtrack on 6 Beautiful Vinyls for $155
Sorry, but have to note:
It’s “vinyl,” not “vinyls.” The plural of vinyl is vinyl. (Like the plural of “deer” is “deer”.) If that looks/sounds too weird to your eyes/ears, then “records” or “vinyl records.”
Re: The Last of Us-Themed PS5 Controller Available to Pre-Order Now
Am I missing something? The pre-order link just goes to the main PlayStation direct page, not to the Last of Us controller…
Edit: never mind; it’s working now.
Re: PS5's Phantom Blade Zero Does What Souls Games Don't with Four Difficulty Options
Thank God; I despise games that refuse to have difficulty adjustments. Day One buy for me; I was gonna get it eventually anyway, but will now get it Day One to support their decision to avoid the “git gud”/soulslike train.
Re: Alan Wake 2's Latest Update Tackles PS5 Pro Problems, Includes Toggle for PSSR
@DTfearTheBEARD Agreed. I just checked today after downloading the update: the new Balanced mode looks much sharper, with a very nice frame rate (all with PSSR left on, not toggled off). Too bad I’m now like 80% finished with the game…
Re: Poll: Can a Game's Brutal Difficultly Put You Off Playing It?
I don’t mind difficult games per se; it’s more the way that souls-like games implement difficulty that I find to be boring, frustrating, and a waste of my time.
I’ll definitely play the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC - but on a PC and with mods that balance out the difficulty to something reasonable.
Re: Phantom Blade Zero PS5 Not Another Soulslike, Offers Multiple Difficulty Options
Glad to hear this, as I truly dislike souls-like games with no difficulty options. (Elden Ring excepted because there are ways in the game to somewhat compensate for the lack of difficult options. And even so, I played it on PC with difficulty mods enabled.)
Re: Horror Hit Alan Wake 2 Is Getting a Retail PS5 Release Because You Wouldn't Shut Up About It
Finally! They should have done this in the first place, but at least they’ve done it. Will be preordering it today!
Re: Preview: Stellar Blade Is the PS5 Exclusive Enthusiasts Have Been Praying For
I am very glad to hear that it has difficulty settings and that the parrying and such is more God of War than Souls-like. I truly despise the lack of options for the player to choose difficulty settings in Souls-like games. On the other hand, I’ve played and beaten both of the modern God of War games on the second-highest difficulty settings; and while I often got my *** kicked many times in fights, it felt like a fair ***-kicking (unlike Souls-likes). So this game has just shot up very high near the top of my list! Will be pre-ordering the physical edition (These days, I try to buy physical whenever I can in order to support those companies who continue to offer a choice between physical and digital).
Re: Seismic Free No Man's Sky Update Transforms Space Stations on PS5, PS4
Wow! This is the nudge I needed to jump back into this game. I spent many enjoyable hours playing it a few months ago but then got pulled away; now seems like a great time to get back into it.
Re: The Last of Us HBO Season 2 Announces Castings for Manny, Owen, Mel, and Nora
@theSpectre Interesting. I really really disliked the “sensitive frat boy with a tortured soul” character of Owen. I quite liked all these other side characters (especially Mel, but that’s mostly because she was voiced by Ashly Burch).
Re: Death Stranding 2 Reportedly Subtitled 'On the Beach', Re-Reveal Expected at State of Play
Re: the “On the Beach” subtitle:
It’s been quite a while since I played Death Stranding; but if I recall correctly, “the beach” in the game is a kind of limbo/transition area that some people go to when they die. So, the subtitle would make sense given the game’s lore.
Re: Get a Crash Course in God of War Ragnarok's Free Valhalla DLC on PS5, PS4
I really very strongly dislike roguelike games but love God of War. So, the prospect of getting some additional story beats via the DLC would be very appealing if it were any genre other than roguelike. I’m sure I’ll play it once or twice to see if it surprises me (for example: Returnal was a roguelike, but I really enjoyed it because it was structured in such a way as to minimize most of the things that annoy me about the genre). If not, I’m sure I’ll get annoyed with it quickly and just read the spoilers to get the story…
Re: Where to Pre-Order The Last of Us 2 Remastered WLF Edition
The USA pre-order link is currently live. It went live at least 6 minutes early, because I logged on at 9:54 and was able to add it to my cart and place my order. This seems to be a pattern with the PlayStation direct limited edition sales, because I’ve seen the link go live early several times before. Just word to the wise; but I really wish they would stop doing that… The link shouldn’t go live til the time it was advertised as going live, in order to give everyone a fair shot.
Re: Where to Pre-Order The Last of Us 2 Remastered WLF Edition
Is there a link to the PlayStation Direct pre-order page for the WLF edition? I don’t see any links in the article above and also can’t find a pre-order page on the PlayStation Direct website.
Re: PlayStation Users Set to Lose Hundreds of TV Shows They Paid For
And this is why, when it comes to games, I refuse to buy any game that’s digital-only (lookin’ at you, Alan Wake 2).
Re: The Last of Us 2 PS5 Remaster Announced, Has a Brand New Survival Mode, $10 Upgrade Path
I’ll definitely be buying the $10 upgrade: it’s one of my all-time favorite games, so this is a no-brainer. Looking forward to all the extra content, but what I really cannot figure out is how they can possibly make it look better graphically. With the remaster of Part 1, yes; the graphics of the PS4 version were outdated and the remaster of Part 1 is a definite and strong visual improvement. But Part 2 is already one of the most visually stunning games that exists (exceeded in my opinion only by Horizon Burning Shores) : I just can’t imagine much room for improvement in that regard. We shall see, I suppose. (But I remember thinking the same thing when the Horizon Burning Shores DLC came out, given how good the base Forbidden West game is visually: “how could they possibly improve it?” But Burning Shores definitely upped the ante visually; hopefully this remake will be able to do the same!)m
Edit: might be spending more than $10 anyway, because I just read the full announcement, which includes info about the “The Last of Us Part II Remastered W.L.F. Edition!” https://blog.playstation.com/2023/11/17/the-last-of-us-part-ii-remastered-coming-to-ps5-on-january-19-2024/
Re: Poll: Did You Buy a PS Portal?
I bought one and am pleased so far. I’m actually more impressed with it than I thought I would be. Very comfortable to hold, and the remote play connectivity is miles ahead of what I get when using remote play with a controller and my laptop.
So far, I’ve only used it in the same house and on the same network as my PS5; and have only used it to play a couple of hours of Resident Evil 4. I’ll be taking it on a trip next week and will see how it does with remote WiFi access from a different network. But for its most common use case for which it seems to be designed (as a second screen in the same house as your PS5), it’s pretty darn good.
Still think they should have made an actual handheld with its own system software and its own storage, though. Perhaps one day…
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Physical Deluxe Edition Announced, Is Two Discs on PS5
Ordered mine! (And yes, I was waiting for the option of a physical edition before buying).
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 PS5 Physical Version Set to Be Announced This Week
If true, I’ll be buying it. I don’t know whether I’ll ultimately “click” with this kind of game, so if I don’t, having a disc version will at least allow me to sell it and recoup some of my costs. Plus, given the massive sales success this game seems to have already had, I imagine they easily could have forgone a physical version (like has been done with Alan Wake 2), so I also want to support their decision to nonetheless release a physical version.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing Alan Wake 2?
If there were a “not buying it because there’s not a physical version” option, I’d select that. It’s a shame, because I really enjoyed Alan Wake 1 and Control. Just can’t be a part of encouraging companies to eliminate player choice of buying digital vs buying physical.
Re: No New The Last of Us Game or TV Show Announcements Tomorrow
Is there a link somewhere to the livestream?
Re: Resident Evil 4's Separate Ways DLC Shows Off Ada's Moves in Launch Trailer
@Nepp67 Or, this is what you get when you cast a poor actor (reportedly; I haven’t played it) in this particular instance. “Authenticity” and “good acting” aren’t mutually exclusive.
Re: Alan Wake 2 Really Does Look Like One of the Best PS5 Games of the Year
If there were a physical version, I’d buy it day one; it looks great. But since it’s digital-only, I’ll be skipping it entirely.
Re: Poll: Will You Be Buying Red Dead Redemption on PS4?
Loved Red Dead 2; never got around to playing the original. I have it on my Xbox, so there’s no way I’d buy this port; but even if I didn’t, I still wouldn’t buy it for $50 unless it had some PS4/5 specific upgrades, which it doesn’t seem to. I truly hope sales are abysmal, because they really shouldn’t be rewarded for this.
This does remind me to put Red Dead next in my Xbox game queue, though.
Re: Sci-Fi Game Fort Solis Wants You to Binge Its Four PS5 Episodes
The two lead actors are two of my all time favorites, but I’ll need to see more before deciding whether to pick it up. I’m all for tighter and better games that don’t take a billion hours to complete, but four hours seems awfully short.
Re: Lords of the Fallen Really Is Shaping Up to Be a Surprise PS5 Stunner
Since this appears to be a “souls like” game, I’ll have to pass. I just have no interest in getting my ass kicked endlessly due to ultra-hard non-adjustable difficulty. I’ve learned my lesson after buying and trying Demon’s Souls, Sekiro, and Wo Long: just not my cup of tea. (Elden Ring worked for me, but it’s quite different from other games in this genre; plus, I played on PC and used minor mods to effectively adjust the difficulty.)
Shame, because it does look stunning…
Re: Feature: PSVR2 Three Months Later - The Good, The Bad, and The Worrying
I returned mine after about 2 weeks. Don’t miss it. At all. In my case, it wasn’t due to a lack of games: I just found that it fell far short of the hype in terms of image quality and useability (constant struggle to find and stay in the “sweet spot;” low-resolution image quality; etc). Playing Resi Village in VR was a bit of fun, though.
Re: Steam Deck Support Not Naughty Dog's Focus as It Fixes The Last of Us
It’s running fine on my steam deck so far.
Re: New Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Update Makes the First Boss Easier
Finally! I stopped playing after getting my butt kicked by that first boss like 30 times. (And I’m pretty good at such games). Will jump back in now.
Re: The Last of Us on PC Attracts 'Mostly Negative' Reviews for Crashes, Poor Performance
I’m playing it on PC now. No problems whatsoever in the first two hours of playtime, and I have all the settings set to Ultra even though I “only” have a 3080Ti. I don’t doubt the negative experiences being reported; just noting that I haven’t had any. Perhaps because I waited to start until the “shaders” finished “compiling.” (No idea what that really means because it’s beyond my technical expertise: but I just thought it would be wise to wait for it to finish doing it before I started the game since the popup notification basically explicitly said it’d run best once it was done.). Even if that is the case, though, I’m still surprised that Naughty Dog’s testing wouldn’t have caught this issue: after all, many (perhaps most) consumers are just going to ignore the “compiling shaders” popup and fire up the game right away. So you’d think that their testing scenario would have accounted for that.
Re: Express Yourself with Tchia's Intricate Customization Options and Analogue Photo Mode
The more I see of this, the more I’m liking it!
Re: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Update 1.04 Available Now, Here Are All the Patch Notes
Did they re-balance the difficulty of the first boss?
Re: The Last of Us: Part I's PC Specs Will Make Mincemeat of Your Computer
Glad I didn’t shell out for the PS5 Firefly Edition on eBay! Will be picking this up on PC.
One thing I don’t understand about the recommended specs is where my 3080Ti would fall. The specs jump from the 2080Ti to the 4080, with no mention of the 3080/3080Ti. Would I be able to run the Ultra settings with a 3080Ti?
Re: PSVR2 Early Adopters Are Struggling to Find the Sweet Spot
I would urge those folks who believe that the blurriness, graininess, and lack of sharpness of the PSVR2 visuals that many people are experiencing is simply due to user error to take a look at this video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NvajYqgA1Bw&feature=youtu.be
Re: Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
@NEStalgia Thanks! I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Re: Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
@NEStalgia Thanks for the suggestion! I’m playing the demo of Song in the Smoke now: seems like a cool game. Unfortunately, it still to me has the same graininess/blur/low-res/haze as every other game I’ve tried thus far.
I’m going to exchange/return mine and try another unit: while visuals are somewhat subjective, of course, what I’m experiencing is just miles away from the “incredible, amazing, etc.” graphics that others are apparently experiencing. Mine is “fine” at best (and less than fine as to certain aspects of image quality). So, my hope is that there’s something wrong with my unit and that a new one will have the outstanding image quality that others are describing.
Re: Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
@neonpizza Thanks. Already did all that; didn’t change anything for me. (And to be clear, the blur I’m experiencing is not motion blur: it’s that everything looks low resolution, unsharp, and grainy to me. To use a digital photography analogy: it’s like someone blew up a 12 megapixel file into a 3 x 4‘ print but forgot to upscale properly and run unsharp mask before printing it).
Re: Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
@Styledvinny79 This is my point: I cannot figure out why some folks’ subjective impressions with PSVR2 are so wildly different. That’s why I specifically phrased my comment as the visuals being unimpressive to me rather than as a statement of objective fact.
Re: Resident Evil Village (PSVR2) - An Even More Intense Version of a PS5 Great
I finished this in the regular PS5 version and am now about 3 hours into a replay on the VR version. I have to say that I haven’t had the same experience regarding the visuals as the reviewer and several commenters. While the immersion is really impressive, the visuals leave much to be desired for me. This review stated that “From afar, backdrops and the haunted locations of the remote dwelling look fantastic,” for example. To the contrary, I’m finding backdrops any distance away to look like a grainy, low-res out of focus mess. (Yes, I am familiar with distance blur/plane of focus. It’s not just that they’re out of focus, they’re grainy and out of focus in a way that’s not pleasing.). There’s also significant screen door effect/graininess everywhere, even when viewing objects nearby, especially in any dark/shadowed areas.
I’m beginning to wonder whether I have a defective unit or perhaps VR just isn’t for me. My experience is just wildly different from what I’m reading of so many other folks. (Horizon, for example, looks to me like there’s a thin film of Vaseline over everything, while reviews and other players find the visuals to be tack-sharp, stunning, etc.)
Re: PSVR2 Early Adopters Are Struggling to Find the Sweet Spot
@PhantomMenace84
I’m not lazy and I don’t hate VR in general or the PSVR2 in particular. To the contrary, I was a Day One pre-order; was really excited about it; am fairly tech-savvy; and am a huge PlayStation fan in general. And yet, I am one of the many people who have struggled with finding and maintaining the sweet spot, and who have been less than overwhelmed with the image quality in terms of softness, graininess, etc., at least so far. So please stop over-generalizing and minimizing others’ experiences.
That said: I am finding it’s getting better day by day. Some of that is just me getting better at adjusting the headset; a lot of it may be my brain adjusting, as others have said.
My advice so far, based on four days of owning and playing with it, is basically this: unless you have other pressing financial needs, use the whole 30 day return window to try it out and see if it’s to your liking. As noted, my experience is incrementally improving each day.
Re: PSVR2 Early Adopters Are Struggling to Find the Sweet Spot
@HeyDrumstickGuy Could you share the tips regarding using chromatic aberration as a guide? I must have missed that.
Re: PSVR2 Early Adopters Are Struggling to Find the Sweet Spot
@Olmaz I wear glasses. That’s one issue I’ve had no problems with whatsoever: it works just fine with my glasses.
Re: PSVR2 Early Adopters Are Struggling to Find the Sweet Spot
@theheadofabroom
My head is completely shaved and I’ve had massive problems finding the “sweet spot”, so I don’t think hair is the issue.
I agree with the article that this is a major design flaw. A consumer-oriented product shouldn’t require this degree of precision in order to be used properly. The average consumer is not going to want to go through this every time they put the headset on: they’ll just return it. Indeed, even though I’m now much closer to being able to hit the sweet spot now than on launch day, I’m still considering returning it myself because it’s still a pain in the butt (and still somewhat blurry, even in the sweet spot; and still somewhat grainy and low-res). And as this article notes, even a very slight slippage of the headset during gameplay results in losing the sweet spot unless I tighten the headband so tightly that it becomes uncomfortable and leaves me with a severe headache.
It’s frustrating because I can see the potential: other than finding and keeping the sweet spot (and the resulting blurry-ness of you don’t hit it precisely and keep it for the entire play session), the immersion is very impressive. But this is such a big issue that it may outweigh all the other positives, at least for me. Still going to keep trying for a few more days; but again, most consumers simply will not be able to or want to invest this amount of time into getting what is supposed to be just a fun toy to work properly.
Re: Out Today: PSVR2 Brings Next-Gen VR to the Masses
Just FYI: after really struggling with the blurry-ness mentioned in my comments up-thread, I gave it another go last night. Although I had indeed followed all the setup instructions I could find, I didn’t quite realize how low on the neck the strap needed to be and how high on the forehead the visor needed to be in order for it to fit in a way to maximize the sweet spot. When I first tried angling it in this way as someone advised up-thread (and thanks again!), I thought “This can’t possibly be right - it’s now at way too extreme of an angle.” Well, it was right!
And now I see what the fuss is about. After getting it set up to hit the sweet spot, I loaded RE Village VR. Very impressive! I was blown away by the immersion.
I will say that I’m still noticing some ghosting/halo’ing around white text; and even though things are no longer blurry, they are still grainier/lower resolution than I would have expected (but it’s my first foray into VR).
Re: Out Today: PSVR2 Brings Next-Gen VR to the Masses
@NEStalgia Thanks! Yes, I did remember to release the visor.