@nomither6 to throw my hat in the ring, I own a 4080s with a 7800x3d and 64gb ddr5.
Predominantly use it for my photography via lightroom and photoshop where it's good for crunching AI denoise on 600 RAW files, and for World of Warcraft.
For any other gaming I use my Pro. It delivers excellent results with fewer problems.
I believe I heard the other day that the recommended spec for a lowly 1080p on high settings in Death Stranding 2, is a 4070?
Not verified that myself so just going off what I heard, but surely that's a joke? I'd take a Pro anytime over that.
This will ultimately live or die based on the writing, and at the current time based on what we've seen in recent years, there is about a 20% chance this will be any good.
I sold my PS5 to get the cash, and paid the extra marginal cost to buy the Pro at launch.
That was always the smart move to optimise the cost per hour played of the Pro over the period of ownership.
At the time I didn’t realise how much AI would impact the console market and delay the release of the PS6. Whilst I can’t claim credit for having had foresight, this has made my PS5 Pro an even smarter purchase.
People got a bit too hung up on short-term thinking, and focused too heavily on the early Pro patches and the perceived minimal improvement of the early patches.
The console is now coming into its own, and will become even more valuable as this generation persists far longer than should’ve been the case, and the original PS5 becomes longer in the tooth.
In my view now it’s still a very good time to sell your base model PS5's (plenty of demand with GTA6 coming) and upgrade to a Pro.
You will get a good few years of high-quality use out of it, and it will hold its value well when you sell it to fund your PS6, due to it still being a desirable console over the cross gen period.
With Xbox effectively dead, I guess Sony are going for gold and attempting the full monopoly.
With the cost of PC hardware going through the roof, and games on PC being even more poorly optimised than those on PlayStation, Sony must surely be smelling blood.
I can’t fault them for seeing the opportunity. Despite having a pretty decent PC (4080 super) I only use my PC for those unique PC specific games like World of Warcraft, and tend to buy everything else on console - which since the demise of Xbox, means PlayStation alone.
Is that good for the Games industry and gamers in long run? Absolutely not. It’s good for Sony though.
I miss the days a decade ago when I had PC Xbox and PlayStation as viable gaming platforms. Whereas now, one is a bungling overpriced mess for millionaires, one is out of the game, and the other will soon start exploiting it’s monopoly to take every penny I have.
Even if it could run at 60fps, I would reject the compromises required to achieve that, and run it on 30fps quality mode or ideally a 40fps balanced mode.
I played and competed GTA V quite happy at 30fps on PS4.
That's an entirely different experience to the sub-30fps on PS3, where I did half a dozen missions and sold it in disgust a few days after launch.
I will be happy with GTA6 on Pro if it is a rock solid 30. I won't buy it if it is anything less.
As a PC gamer, I am not a big fan of frame generation. I do not like the latency, and I do not like having to run at an uncapped frame rate such that my GPU is in a runaway state and pumping out a load of heat and fan noise.
Yes, it is better than the type of motion smoothing you see on televisions, but I for one can still detect the latency.
I’d much prefer a game to be locked to a frame rate target, and achieve that via dynamic resolution.
Better still, developers know the hardware they are dealing with, so how about designing the games to actually run on that hardware instead of designing them for hardware that will not exist until 10 years time, and then using tricks to desperately upscale or invent frames to make it playable.
The problem with dynamic upscaling tech, including PSSR, is not so much the tech itself, but that bungling developers are designing games that can only run natively at ZX Spectrum resolutions on the hardware we have, and are pushing the upscaling too far.
I was a hardcore Xbox fan, who from the OG console onwards, always "mained" my Xbox over PlayStation.
I still owned every PlayStation for exclusives-only (usually buying one cheap near the end of the generation), but all my third party games were bought on Xbox which was my priority console.
The minute I smelt Microsoft deprioritising their console business, effectively killing the XSX through price increases, not releasing a "Pro" version and putting big exclusives on PS5....
I was DONE. There is no coming back from that. They are Sega circa the late 90's.
They can try to make amends and release their Dreamcast, but it's too late.
I'm 50, with a partner, elderly parents and other responsibilities.
The same people crying about spoilers as a result of advanced copies being leaked, are no doubt all over the Internet and forums spoiling games long before someone like me has a snowman in Hell’s chance of even getting halfway through the game.
Most people are extremely selfish, in that their definition of “spoiler“, is essentially “someone completing the game before I got my hands on it“, with no consideration for when they finish games before people with less spare time get a chance to do so
I deal with it by blocking and muting anyone spoiling. That includes telling YouTube to stop recommending channels who have spoiler thumbnails on their videos, etc.
Wonder if there is still a market for these games. You'd think the main gamer demographics would be into it but it seems in recent years they are more into online games like The Division and with Rainbow Six having gone down that road and Ghost Recon apparently not being something for which there is much of a market.
I personally would like to see a return of those games with strong single player campaigns, and more grounded and realistic with the technology a bit less Sci Fi.
Gaming for me is not a desirable industry to invest in. Risk v Reward is out of whack.
Unlike other industries where if products under-perform you can lose a bit of money, with gaming you can incinerate £100m in a flash if a game bombs.
People need to imagine that they have slaved away for years saving up £50k for a deposit on a house. Where would you invest it?
A high street ISA savings account that only gives you 3.5%, but that is a guaranteed return and your investment is 100% safe?
Or into a gaming project where you "might" get 6.8%, or your entire savings could be set alight and burned to charcoal?
Explains why companies/investors prefer safe bet products like Call of Duty sequels, which might under-perform, but at worse will break even or match that 3.5% of the high street ISA.
Where as you put the money into a game that turns into a MindsEye, Ashes of Creation or Concord...
The big investors are gambling our pension funds, do we want our retirements hanging on gaming? Not at the current margins/risks...
Games haven't run from discs for decades, it was purely a distribution method.
Nowadays with practically nothing of use on the disc, and widespread unmetered broadband, it's just a licence key.
Even then, a lot of licenced content like extra missions and cosmetics are recorded on your digital account and not the disc.
PC's went full digital in the early 00's.
At this point console is a joke. All that plastic and CO2 shipping tat around the world for a dwindling number of luddites.
Unlike vinyl music that has a distinct sound and can justify its existence in a Spotify world, this stupid disc media debate needs to end and the world leave the past behind.
I would not say that performance mode is always the best way to play. It may have been patched and adjusted since I last played it, but I felt AC Shadows looked clearly and obviously better in balanced mode versus performance mode.
As far as PS5 Pro support in general is concerned, I did not purchase this console with an expectation of seeing greatly enhanced graphics.
Rather, we had a spate of bungling garbage PS5 games, that stuttered and could not maintain their frame rate target. I purchased the Pro in order to play those games at a locked frame rate with consistent frame pacing.
The PS5 Pro has quite literally been the difference between me buying games that I otherwise would not have touched with a barge pole.
Sony are no longer facing any real competition from Microsoft.
Nintendo has always been operating in a separate market segment and most PlayStation owners will never move from the ecosystem to something as alien as PC.
If I were Sony, I'd be exploiting the demise of Microsoft and my monopoly position, to squeeze gamers for absolutely every penny I can. I'd have to bet that I can milk them dry and very few will stop gaming or jump ship to PC.
If I were Sony, I'd certainly be using AI as a convenient excuse because "muh margins have been hit, I'm barely making any money poor me. RAM prices have to be passed on somehow".
It's single player. Why wouldn't it have difficulty options, including a "just the story" setting? On the other hand, it can also have a "Souls" difficulty setting for those who want it.
A single mode fails to please hardcore and casual gamers alike. In that respect no self-respecting "good" or "above average" gamer would be opposed to difficulty settings, as the default "one mode for all" would be too easy for them.
I mean who gives a monkeys what other people do with the game? It's how much you enjoy it that counts.
If some gamers want all the enemies to roll on their back and die as soon as it boots up, so what?!
Who, or to be specific, who with a healthy sound mind, cares one iota?
I'm not the best or the worst gamer. I'm 50, have a hectic career, a partner, in charge of a volunteering group, have caring responsibilities for parents etc, I'm not tolerating my time being wasted on a game, and having to grind unnecessarily to over come hurdles.
Either the game suits me and respects my time, or they don't get a penny of my money. I was already going to hold off as the performance on PS5 Pro is almost certainly a bungling catastrophe, but this moves it into permanent "no buy" territory.
Please remember what I've said about PS6 being delayed, and lazy developers having been producing games that require a PS6 to run properly for the past few years.
If you want developers to shape up and produce games that run on the hardware you are going to be stuck with for the next 4 years, you need to hit them hard in the pocket.
Don't buy games like this, that don't run properly. At most, wait until they fix it, but even then given the time elapsed, refuse to pay launch prices. Wait for a sale + fix.
There is a commercial argument for censorship if it will substantially lower the classification to the extent that the additional sales to new players, will offset the loss of sales to the older players who want an authentic nostalgic experience.
Unfortunately I doubt it will come come down to cold hard business decision based on sales projections, but rather will be related to pressure from the Neo-Puritans who have infested the industry.
Consumers should vote with their wallets as that's the only way to cleanse the industry of such people and attitudes.
The main problem with this comes back to developers. For years they have been designing games that don’t run properly on a PS5, and in many ways are not worth purchasing until the PS6 exists.
You can bet your life that many games currently in development are targeting a predicted PS6 spec, with the developer planning to trim and get it running "just about" on a PS5.
Developers really need to shape up and start tempering their visions and designing their products to run correctly on the hardware that exists now. Especially if that hardware may persist for another three or four years.
AS I always say, if you go back to the day of the ZX spectrum, many developers had a fantasy in their head of a game like GTA5, but had to limit their dreams and produce games for the hardware they were given.
Pity that the “poisoning the well” brigade have dragged this thread down when there was a good discussion to be had on the topic of this specific game.
He is very much right about this game from what I’ve seen, albeit not in the way I’d say it.
I also believe he is right about some of the poor design and tutorials in Metroid games, which were poor and in places are still poor in Beyond.
I certainly agree with him on the old “Jaffe room” issue. Some people can’t accept the emperor has no clothes, but no title should be beyond criticism, even those regarded as classics are not untouchable.
The problem is that first person makes YOU the character.
The issue there is that these games are about telling the story of the authors character and the trauma they have been through.
I haven't killed my wife, or been beaten by my alcoholic father, so it doesn't really work. I need to view the events from the third person perspective because I am a fly on the wall, watching someone else's story and life unfold.
Whatever though, I will likely buy it anyway. Just hope the combat isn't too excessive and annoying.
The survey will be no more accurate than the online dialogue. Let’s analyse the type of people involved when these things occur:
1, players who had no intention of buying the game, but want to stick the boot in to join the dog pile.
2, those who criticise the game and talk about boycotts, but the sales figures show that a large number of them do not back up the tough talk, and go out and buy it (The Last of Us 2).
3, Ardent supporters of the title who fight to defend it on social media, but the sales figure show that these people never actually buy games and only support certain types of games on social media as part of their political ideology. They never slam cash down on the countertop (Veilguard and every other major flop in recent years).
FWIW I had absolutely no intention of ever buying/downloading and paying for mtx in this game, as at age 50 I have no interest in competitive or cooperative play.
I think it looks absolutely terrible and I believe the target audience will reject it. However, it is not my place to complete a survey.
Remember folks, everything you have seen of this game will have been recorded running on a £3000 RTX5090, with the rest of the kit like the CPU and RAM costing a four figure sum on top.
I'd draw your attention to the bungling catastrophe that was the performance, pop in and fuzzy graphics of Dragons Dogma 2, a game that was far smaller in scope than this one.
FF16 also ran like a bag of nails and wasn't even open world.
I've had a PS5 since launch day, and a Pro since launch day.
In that time, the console itself has never crashed.
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve only ever had one single game crash, and that was Silent Hill 2 when I was nearing completion in the final hotel section a couple of days ago.
Pretty solid, so I have no idea what stability issues they are constantly tweaking!
@Nepp67 that's the old Naughty Dog excuse they pioneered in TLOU 1.
Explain sluggish and laggy controls away by saying "but he's just an average guy" (even though Joel wasn't "average" given what he'd been doing for a living since the apocalypse).
Since when did average guys have that problem though?
My 77 year old arthritic father has more mobility and dexterity than James, let alone me. I'm 50 and could run rings around him.
I'm playing on a pretty pricey modern OLED with exceptional low latency too, so I'm experiencing it as good as it gets!
That's before we get to the excessive and repetitive insertion of mannequins to the point they cease being scary and become a boring drag.
First play through, completely blind, no guides, got a decent number of Collectibles and took about 25 hours. It didn’t need to be more than 15. It’s just padded out with annoying repetitive filler, a number of superfluous puzzle sections that don’t seem to add anything other than padding, and excessive enemies that are laughably easy and present no challenge in themselves, and are only remotely a problem because of the frustration you feel from the controls acting as an artificial barrier between you and the character.
@Nepp67 it seemed to have a lot of latency and was very sluggish. It felt like wading through treacle.
The developers acknowledged this because they even went to the trouble of giving you a button to turn 180° partly due to their propensity of cheesily having enemies ambush you from behind in combination with the protagonist having a turning time of an oil tanker.
@Nepp67 I would very much hope it is a walking sim.
I recently gave up waiting for a Pro patch for Silent Hill 2 and so have only just completed it; my first experience of an SH game.
My assessment was that it was a great world and great story ruined by absolutely appalling and repetitive combat, relying on cheap jump scares and shockingly bad controls to provide any challenge.
When the credits rolled I reflected on how much better it would have been if it had 10% of the enemies or none at all.
I gather "f" has the same problem, and if Bloober are remaking the original game, I'm not remotely hopeful that they won't repeat the same blunder.
I pray we get something that leans more into the world, story and experience, and focused less on appealing to "gamers" with action for the sake of it.
I don't wish to white-knight for this game again, and it certainly isn't a classic, but as I said the other day, it's on a par with Skyrim and Fallout 4.
If those games released today they'd face the same criticism.
Starfield is only really guilty of not moving things on and progressing with the times, but if you are still someone who plays Skyrim/Fallout 3/Vegas/4, you will love this.
FWIW I spent more time in Starfield than I did in The Outer Worlds games before bailing.
Graphics were pretty decent too. Walking around Neon on a decent modern OLED TV with good HDR, is quite eye popping. Nothing on the scale of Night City, but graphically I thought it wasn't far off Cyberpunk in places.
@NavalHistorian I'm assuming you don't have a decent gaming PC, so the superior (on balance) Quest 3 is off the table.
I'd say when taking the PSVR2 for what it is, the headset is a good buy at that price. It has loads of cross-platform big hitter VR titles (Metro etc) as well as great exclusives like the RE games. There are literally many dozens of titles worth buying for it.
As much as everyone goes on about Alyx, the PSVR2 isn't short of must-have full-length games.
As others have said, Aces of Thunder doesn't have a campaign as such. If you ever played Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat back in the day (as a fellow old guy), it's like taking the WW2 section from that game where you have a dozen preset scenarios (I wouldn't go so far as to call them "missions") with a bit of scripting. Hoping they add more.
Much like Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat, you can have endless play from the custom mission maker where you make your own scenarios.
As a guy brought up on the same old school flight sims as you, Aces of Thunder is like an ultimate fantasy. It's not enough to warrant £400 on a headset, but with the rest of the PSVR2 library it is justified.
The response was 2000000% predictable. People don't want this type of product, characterisation and art style anymore. It is 2026, not 2016.
What is their next step?
Well if they had a shred of awareness, they'd know that teaming up with the legacy games media to abuse, insult and smear gamers, probably won't work given all the previous developers/publishers who tried it and are now driving Ubers for a living.
Then again, if they had the IQ level required to figure that out, they'd never have revealed this embarrassment in the first place.
I am really enjoying it. I just use the PSVR2 controllers with some careful button mapping and using the L3 menu for some functions.
I have no intention of buying an expensive joystick, with a bigger problem being the requirement for a desk set up.
For that reason I am only playing single player and will never play online.
I hope we can receive a lot more single player missions and campaigns. If we have to pay for them then fair enough, I’m enjoying it enough to justify it.
I've done the obvious and watched videos on Youtube, and honestly I don't think it's that great.
I'd prefer Revolution and Rage Racer to be released on Premium.
As far as Arcade racing games go, I'd love games like Chase HQ, Power Drift, Super Monaco GP and Continental Circus etc rather than the early 3D games.
You'd think it was a Veilguard level catastrophe based on the narrative.
It's actually to the shame of the games media that they scored Veilguard higher than Starfield. If they had any credibility left, they'd have lost it all there.
But yeah it's not Skyrim or Fallout 4. Well actually it is, but it's not 2011 anymore. If those games released today they'd be on a par with Starfield.
Shadows is like Far Cry 6 in that recent releases were damn excellent (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, FC3, FC4, FC5) but Shadows and FC6 were a tiny step back.
There was some trash that detracted (scout system, base building, dual ammo system), where the focus was on systems that went in the wrong direction.
Still good games but getting a bit tired and those ideas to keep them fresh ended up backfiring.
Given that this will likely run horribly on a base PS5, I’d rather they did not enhance it for the Pro and just focused on running the PS5 graphic settings at a locked 30 FPS.
I really enjoyed Avowed, the combat, exploration and all the secrets to find were excellent.
I hope they make another, but I fear that they will make another Pillars game after seeing the success of BG3.
In reality, I think they should make another first person game in the universe, with the same combat system as Avowed, but with the darker art style that the early previews of that game had.
Pity about the Outer Worlds, but it was always missing something including the gunplay being very average. The universe was very much an acquired taste, and not on a par with Fallout if we are honest.
I'm seeing comments expressing concern that a Portal purchase at this stage is too close to PS6 to be justified.
Just wanted to question that narrative - "question", not disagree per se.
Unless there is a significant controller revision with new buttons that are essential to play PS6 games, why would it not be capable of streaming PS6 games, any more than your TV would not be capable?
Indeed, with the PS5 to PS6 cross GEN period likely to be one of the longest ever experienced, even if the current portal couldn’t play PS6 games, you would still be streaming the PS5 version without issue, many years after the PS6 has launched.
Heck, many people are excited for this rumoured new handheld with onboard processing, which will only be slightly better than a PS4…
The screen is not enough. The compression of the stream tends to crush the blacks in my experience, causing a loss of detail in dark scenes that wasn't helped by the poor screen.
In addition to the OLED it needs a higher bitrate. If not possible with console to Portal streaming, at least the web streaming should be improved.
The Chinese Room are one of my favourite devs and they were utterly wasted on this.
Sums up the current generation in general, the industry taking fantastic developers and having them produce pure trash against their will and often cancelling it. End result we get nothing/slop.
Ironically best game I've played this gen is Still Wakes the Deep.
Anyhow, I too have heard that most of the problem is the false marketing that has fans of the original criticising it, but it's decent in its own right.
I might give it a go one day just because I like the dev, but I don't really have much interest in the subject matter.
I've previously expressed concerns about it's performance on console, balancing issues, grind etc.
However one of the biggest issues I have is when Eastern developers make Western RPG's or games set in Western-esque settings with Western looking characters.
Dragon's Dogma being one example, FFXVI, countless Korean MMO's or even Resident Evil.
Something always feels "off" and "weird" to me. Like it's familiar but not quite right, almost an uncanny valley feeling. Whatever it is, it prevents me suspending disbelief and buying into the world.
It would no doubt be the same in reverse if I tried to make a game in fictional setting that closely resembled Korea or Japan.
I am concerned though that if you take too long to develop a game, you run into problems where parts of it become outdated before the game is released, so then you have to delay to modernise the stuff you built first.
I can see that turning into a vicious circle.
Even to the point you have to move to an entirely new engine.
You start off making something of AAA quality at the time, and the next thing you know it looks like a budget indie title and about 10 years behind what a few kids can produce in their bedroom using UE5.
Comments 582
Re: Sony Confirms Big PS5 Pro Upgrade Is Out in March, Better PSSR Upscaler
@nomither6 to throw my hat in the ring, I own a 4080s with a 7800x3d and 64gb ddr5.
Predominantly use it for my photography via lightroom and photoshop where it's good for crunching AI denoise on 600 RAW files, and for World of Warcraft.
For any other gaming I use my Pro. It delivers excellent results with fewer problems.
I believe I heard the other day that the recommended spec for a lowly 1080p on high settings in Death Stranding 2, is a 4070?
Not verified that myself so just going off what I heard, but surely that's a joke? I'd take a Pro anytime over that.
Re: Here's Your First Look at the God of War TV Show
This will ultimately live or die based on the writing, and at the current time based on what we've seen in recent years, there is about a 20% chance this will be any good.
Re: Resident Evil Requiem 'Head and Shoulders' Ahead of All Consoles on PS5 Pro
I sold my PS5 to get the cash, and paid the extra marginal cost to buy the Pro at launch.
That was always the smart move to optimise the cost per hour played of the Pro over the period of ownership.
At the time I didn’t realise how much AI would impact the console market and delay the release of the PS6. Whilst I can’t claim credit for having had foresight, this has made my PS5 Pro an even smarter purchase.
People got a bit too hung up on short-term thinking, and focused too heavily on the early Pro patches and the perceived minimal improvement of the early patches.
The console is now coming into its own, and will become even more valuable as this generation persists far longer than should’ve been the case, and the original PS5 becomes longer in the tooth.
In my view now it’s still a very good time to sell your base model PS5's (plenty of demand with GTA6 coming) and upgrade to a Pro.
You will get a good few years of high-quality use out of it, and it will hold its value well when you sell it to fund your PS6, due to it still being a desirable console over the cross gen period.
Re: Rumour: Sony Backtracking on PC Strategy, Shifting Towards PS5 Exclusivity Again
With Xbox effectively dead, I guess Sony are going for gold and attempting the full monopoly.
With the cost of PC hardware going through the roof, and games on PC being even more poorly optimised than those on PlayStation, Sony must surely be smelling blood.
I can’t fault them for seeing the opportunity. Despite having a pretty decent PC (4080 super) I only use my PC for those unique PC specific games like World of Warcraft, and tend to buy everything else on console - which since the demise of Xbox, means PlayStation alone.
Is that good for the Games industry and gamers in long run? Absolutely not. It’s good for Sony though.
I miss the days a decade ago when I had PC Xbox and PlayStation as viable gaming platforms. Whereas now, one is a bungling overpriced mess for millionaires, one is out of the game, and the other will soon start exploiting it’s monopoly to take every penny I have.
Re: PS5 Pro Upgrade Details Spotted, as Sony Patents PSSR 2.0 Tech
@DennisReynolds I agree RE GTA 6 on Pro.
Even if it could run at 60fps, I would reject the compromises required to achieve that, and run it on 30fps quality mode or ideally a 40fps balanced mode.
I played and competed GTA V quite happy at 30fps on PS4.
That's an entirely different experience to the sub-30fps on PS3, where I did half a dozen missions and sold it in disgust a few days after launch.
I will be happy with GTA6 on Pro if it is a rock solid 30. I won't buy it if it is anything less.
Re: Resident Evil Requiem (PS5) - Two-in-One Horror Not Quite an All-Timer
ACG and Skill Up loved it, although a mainline RE game isn’t in the category of game where I base a purchase decision on reviews anyway.
I mean, who here was seriously going to read a review that say gave it 7 out of 10 and then not buy it?
Re: PS5 Pro Upgrade Details Spotted, as Sony Patents PSSR 2.0 Tech
As a PC gamer, I am not a big fan of frame generation. I do not like the latency, and I do not like having to run at an uncapped frame rate such that my GPU is in a runaway state and pumping out a load of heat and fan noise.
Yes, it is better than the type of motion smoothing you see on televisions, but I for one can still detect the latency.
I’d much prefer a game to be locked to a frame rate target, and achieve that via dynamic resolution.
Better still, developers know the hardware they are dealing with, so how about designing the games to actually run on that hardware instead of designing them for hardware that will not exist until 10 years time, and then using tricks to desperately upscale or invent frames to make it playable.
The problem with dynamic upscaling tech, including PSSR, is not so much the tech itself, but that bungling developers are designing games that can only run natively at ZX Spectrum resolutions on the hardware we have, and are pushing the upscaling too far.
Re: 'The Plan's the Plan Until It's Not the Plan': Xbox All Over the Place on Future PS5 Ports
I was a hardcore Xbox fan, who from the OG console onwards, always "mained" my Xbox over PlayStation.
I still owned every PlayStation for exclusives-only (usually buying one cheap near the end of the generation), but all my third party games were bought on Xbox which was my priority console.
The minute I smelt Microsoft deprioritising their console business, effectively killing the XSX through price increases, not releasing a "Pro" version and putting big exclusives on PS5....
I was DONE. There is no coming back from that. They are Sega circa the late 90's.
They can try to make amends and release their Dreamcast, but it's too late.
Re: Capcom Issues Reassurances as Resident Evil Requiem PS5 Leaks Run Rampant
This whole leak thing is overplayed.
I'm 50, with a partner, elderly parents and other responsibilities.
The same people crying about spoilers as a result of advanced copies being leaked, are no doubt all over the Internet and forums spoiling games long before someone like me has a snowman in Hell’s chance of even getting halfway through the game.
Most people are extremely selfish, in that their definition of “spoiler“, is essentially “someone completing the game before I got my hands on it“, with no consideration for when they finish games before people with less spare time get a chance to do so
I deal with it by blocking and muting anyone spoiling. That includes telling YouTube to stop recommending channels who have spoiler thumbnails on their videos, etc.
Re: Splinter Cell's PS5 Remake Survives Significant Ubisoft Studio Cull
Wonder if there is still a market for these games. You'd think the main gamer demographics would be into it but it seems in recent years they are more into online games like The Division and with Rainbow Six having gone down that road and Ghost Recon apparently not being something for which there is much of a market.
I personally would like to see a return of those games with strong single player campaigns, and more grounded and realistic with the technology a bit less Sci Fi.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
@themightyant this is very true.
Gaming for me is not a desirable industry to invest in. Risk v Reward is out of whack.
Unlike other industries where if products under-perform you can lose a bit of money, with gaming you can incinerate £100m in a flash if a game bombs.
People need to imagine that they have slaved away for years saving up £50k for a deposit on a house. Where would you invest it?
A high street ISA savings account that only gives you 3.5%, but that is a guaranteed return and your investment is 100% safe?
Or into a gaming project where you "might" get 6.8%, or your entire savings could be set alight and burned to charcoal?
Explains why companies/investors prefer safe bet products like Call of Duty sequels, which might under-perform, but at worse will break even or match that 3.5% of the high street ISA.
Where as you put the money into a game that turns into a MindsEye, Ashes of Creation or Concord...
The big investors are gambling our pension funds, do we want our retirements hanging on gaming? Not at the current margins/risks...
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
Sony is not your friend.
They don't care about you. Their primary concern is NOT producing the games you'd prefer.
Their corporate goal is to stamp on your head and screw every penny they can out of you.
They now have a monopoly in the AAA console space. Good luck guys, especially those who cheered the decline of Xbox.
Re: Sony Makes Shocking Decision to Shut Down Bluepoint Games
They could have produce a string of high quality updates of classics.
Instead we get nothing.
Along with all the other highly competent developers who wasted years producing cancelled projects, leaving us with nothing.
But rejoice, we do get that utter trash Horizon Fortnite/Marvel wannabe instead.
Don't stand there and take it, hit Sony where it hurts. Don't even download that tripe.
Re: Seems Like PS5 Will Be the Only Console You Can Play Silent Hill Townfall at Launch
I will buy it for my PS5 Pro (pending reviews), but I do not think this type of shenanigans is good for anyone.
It was not good when Microsoft did it with Tomb Raider, and it is not good now.
Re: Here's Why Shawn Layden Thinks Sony 'Can't Get Away' with Making PS6 Digital Only
Games haven't run from discs for decades, it was purely a distribution method.
Nowadays with practically nothing of use on the disc, and widespread unmetered broadband, it's just a licence key.
Even then, a lot of licenced content like extra missions and cosmetics are recorded on your digital account and not the disc.
PC's went full digital in the early 00's.
At this point console is a joke. All that plastic and CO2 shipping tat around the world for a dwindling number of luddites.
Unlike vinyl music that has a distinct sound and can justify its existence in a Spotify world, this stupid disc media debate needs to end and the world leave the past behind.
Re: Xbox RPG Avowed Snubs PS5 Pro Support
I would not say that performance mode is always the best way to play. It may have been patched and adjusted since I last played it, but I felt AC Shadows looked clearly and obviously better in balanced mode versus performance mode.
As far as PS5 Pro support in general is concerned, I did not purchase this console with an expectation of seeing greatly enhanced graphics.
Rather, we had a spate of bungling garbage PS5 games, that stuttered and could not maintain their frame rate target. I purchased the Pro in order to play those games at a locked frame rate with consistent frame pacing.
The PS5 Pro has quite literally been the difference between me buying games that I otherwise would not have touched with a barge pole.
Re: Sony Will Offset Soaring RAM Prices by Further Monetising PS5 Players
Sony are no longer facing any real competition from Microsoft.
Nintendo has always been operating in a separate market segment and most PlayStation owners will never move from the ecosystem to something as alien as PC.
If I were Sony, I'd be exploiting the demise of Microsoft and my monopoly position, to squeeze gamers for absolutely every penny I can. I'd have to bet that I can milk them dry and very few will stop gaming or jump ship to PC.
If I were Sony, I'd certainly be using AI as a convenient excuse because "muh margins have been hit, I'm barely making any money poor me. RAM prices have to be passed on somehow".
Re: Avowed (PS5) - Overlooked Xbox RPG Arrives with Some Big Upgrades
Can I import my Xbox/PC save (per how you can in games like Witcher 3 with its great cross save feature), or am I starting from scratch?
I have to say, having played around 20 hours on Xbox/PC, it's utterly insulting to give this game the same score as Veilguard.
Avowed isn't perfect, but it's like comparing a truffle to a dog turd. Avowed is vastly superior by every metric going.
Re: Don't Expect Crimson Desert to Be Easy, PS5 Open Worlder Won't Have Difficulty Options at Launch
It's single player. Why wouldn't it have difficulty options, including a "just the story" setting? On the other hand, it can also have a "Souls" difficulty setting for those who want it.
A single mode fails to please hardcore and casual gamers alike. In that respect no self-respecting "good" or "above average" gamer would be opposed to difficulty settings, as the default "one mode for all" would be too easy for them.
I mean who gives a monkeys what other people do with the game? It's how much you enjoy it that counts.
If some gamers want all the enemies to roll on their back and die as soon as it boots up, so what?!
Who, or to be specific, who with a healthy sound mind, cares one iota?
I'm not the best or the worst gamer. I'm 50, have a hectic career, a partner, in charge of a volunteering group, have caring responsibilities for parents etc, I'm not tolerating my time being wasted on a game, and having to grind unnecessarily to over come hurdles.
Either the game suits me and respects my time, or they don't get a penny of my money. I was already going to hold off as the performance on PS5 Pro is almost certainly a bungling catastrophe, but this moves it into permanent "no buy" territory.
Re: High on Life 2 (PS5) - Slick Skateboarding and Shooting Suffocated by Poor Performance
Please remember what I've said about PS6 being delayed, and lazy developers having been producing games that require a PS6 to run properly for the past few years.
If you want developers to shape up and produce games that run on the hardware you are going to be stuck with for the next 4 years, you need to hit them hard in the pocket.
Don't buy games like this, that don't run properly. At most, wait until they fix it, but even then given the time elapsed, refuse to pay launch prices. Wait for a sale + fix.
Re: Fans Are Already Debating Whether God of War's PS5 Trilogy Will Cut the Series' Sex Minigames
There is a commercial argument for censorship if it will substantially lower the classification to the extent that the additional sales to new players, will offset the loss of sales to the older players who want an authentic nostalgic experience.
Unfortunately I doubt it will come come down to cold hard business decision based on sales projections, but rather will be related to pressure from the Neo-Puritans who have infested the industry.
Consumers should vote with their wallets as that's the only way to cleanse the industry of such people and attitudes.
Re: Sony Considering PS6 Delay to 2028 or Even 2029, New Report Says
The main problem with this comes back to developers. For years they have been designing games that don’t run properly on a PS5, and in many ways are not worth purchasing until the PS6 exists.
You can bet your life that many games currently in development are targeting a predicted PS6 spec, with the developer planning to trim and get it running "just about" on a PS5.
Developers really need to shape up and start tempering their visions and designing their products to run correctly on the hardware that exists now. Especially if that hardware may persist for another three or four years.
AS I always say, if you go back to the day of the ZX spectrum, many developers had a fantasy in their head of a game like GTA5, but had to limit their dreams and produce games for the hardware they were given.
Re: 'One of the Worst Decisions Ever Made': God of War Creator Tears 'Total Crap' 2D Title Apart
Pity that the “poisoning the well” brigade have dragged this thread down when there was a good discussion to be had on the topic of this specific game.
He is very much right about this game from what I’ve seen, albeit not in the way I’d say it.
I also believe he is right about some of the poor design and tutorials in Metroid games, which were poor and in places are still poor in Beyond.
I certainly agree with him on the old “Jaffe room” issue. Some people can’t accept the emperor has no clothes, but no title should be beyond criticism, even those regarded as classics are not untouchable.
Re: Some of SEGA's Retro Revivals May Release within the Next Year
For the life of me I never understood the appeal behind Jet Set Radio.
It felt like something the media and a select group of fans raved about, but I never met a single person in real life who liked it!
Then again I was the only person I knew IRL who owned a Dreamcast at the time!
Give me Golden Axe every day of the week though!
Re: Silent Hill: Townfall Is the Next Series Entry to Get Excited About, Out on PS5 in 2026
Not sure about first person.
The problem is that first person makes YOU the character.
The issue there is that these games are about telling the story of the authors character and the trauma they have been through.
I haven't killed my wife, or been beaten by my alcoholic father, so it doesn't really work. I need to view the events from the third person perspective because I am a fly on the wall, watching someone else's story and life unfold.
Whatever though, I will likely buy it anyway. Just hope the combat isn't too excessive and annoying.
Re: Here's Your Chance to Tell Sony What You Think of Horizon Hunters Gathering
The survey will be no more accurate than the online dialogue. Let’s analyse the type of people involved when these things occur:
1, players who had no intention of buying the game, but want to stick the boot in to join the dog pile.
2, those who criticise the game and talk about boycotts, but the sales figures show that a large number of them do not back up the tough talk, and go out and buy it (The Last of Us 2).
3, Ardent supporters of the title who fight to defend it on social media, but the sales figure show that these people never actually buy games and only support certain types of games on social media as part of their political ideology. They never slam cash down on the countertop (Veilguard and every other major flop in recent years).
FWIW I had absolutely no intention of ever buying/downloading and paying for mtx in this game, as at age 50 I have no interest in competitive or cooperative play.
I think it looks absolutely terrible and I believe the target audience will reject it. However, it is not my place to complete a survey.
Re: Crimson Desert PS5 Is Also a Full-On Life Sim Game, Last Deep Dive Video Reveals
Remember folks, everything you have seen of this game will have been recorded running on a £3000 RTX5090, with the rest of the kit like the CPU and RAM costing a four figure sum on top.
I'd draw your attention to the bungling catastrophe that was the performance, pop in and fuzzy graphics of Dragons Dogma 2, a game that was far smaller in scope than this one.
FF16 also ran like a bag of nails and wasn't even open world.
Re: New PS5 Firmware Update Available to Download Now, Here's What It Does
I've had a PS5 since launch day, and a Pro since launch day.
In that time, the console itself has never crashed.
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve only ever had one single game crash, and that was Silent Hill 2 when I was nearing completion in the final hotel section a couple of days ago.
Pretty solid, so I have no idea what stability issues they are constantly tweaking!
Re: Big Silent Hill News in Next Silent Hill Transmission Livestream This Week
@Nepp67 that's the old Naughty Dog excuse they pioneered in TLOU 1.
Explain sluggish and laggy controls away by saying "but he's just an average guy" (even though Joel wasn't "average" given what he'd been doing for a living since the apocalypse).
Since when did average guys have that problem though?
My 77 year old arthritic father has more mobility and dexterity than James, let alone me. I'm 50 and could run rings around him.
I'm playing on a pretty pricey modern OLED with exceptional low latency too, so I'm experiencing it as good as it gets!
That's before we get to the excessive and repetitive insertion of mannequins to the point they cease being scary and become a boring drag.
First play through, completely blind, no guides, got a decent number of Collectibles and took about 25 hours. It didn’t need to be more than 15. It’s just padded out with annoying repetitive filler, a number of superfluous puzzle sections that don’t seem to add anything other than padding, and excessive enemies that are laughably easy and present no challenge in themselves, and are only remotely a problem because of the frustration you feel from the controls acting as an artificial barrier between you and the character.
Re: Big Silent Hill News in Next Silent Hill Transmission Livestream This Week
@Nepp67 it seemed to have a lot of latency and was very sluggish. It felt like wading through treacle.
The developers acknowledged this because they even went to the trouble of giving you a button to turn 180° partly due to their propensity of cheesily having enemies ambush you from behind in combination with the protagonist having a turning time of an oil tanker.
Re: Big Silent Hill News in Next Silent Hill Transmission Livestream This Week
@Nepp67 I would very much hope it is a walking sim.
I recently gave up waiting for a Pro patch for Silent Hill 2 and so have only just completed it; my first experience of an SH game.
My assessment was that it was a great world and great story ruined by absolutely appalling and repetitive combat, relying on cheap jump scares and shockingly bad controls to provide any challenge.
When the credits rolled I reflected on how much better it would have been if it had 10% of the enemies or none at all.
I gather "f" has the same problem, and if Bloober are remaking the original game, I'm not remotely hopeful that they won't repeat the same blunder.
I pray we get something that leans more into the world, story and experience, and focused less on appealing to "gamers" with action for the sake of it.
Re: Rumour: Starfield PS5 Port Skips State of Play, Set to Be Announced in March
I don't wish to white-knight for this game again, and it certainly isn't a classic, but as I said the other day, it's on a par with Skyrim and Fallout 4.
If those games released today they'd face the same criticism.
Starfield is only really guilty of not moving things on and progressing with the times, but if you are still someone who plays Skyrim/Fallout 3/Vegas/4, you will love this.
FWIW I spent more time in Starfield than I did in The Outer Worlds games before bailing.
Graphics were pretty decent too. Walking around Neon on a decent modern OLED TV with good HDR, is quite eye popping. Nothing on the scale of Night City, but graphically I thought it wasn't far off Cyberpunk in places.
Re: Mini Review: Aces of Thunder (PSVR2) - Immersive Spectacle Throws You to the Wolves
@NavalHistorian I'm assuming you don't have a decent gaming PC, so the superior (on balance) Quest 3 is off the table.
I'd say when taking the PSVR2 for what it is, the headset is a good buy at that price. It has loads of cross-platform big hitter VR titles (Metro etc) as well as great exclusives like the RE games. There are literally many dozens of titles worth buying for it.
As much as everyone goes on about Alyx, the PSVR2 isn't short of must-have full-length games.
As others have said, Aces of Thunder doesn't have a campaign as such. If you ever played Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat back in the day (as a fellow old guy), it's like taking the WW2 section from that game where you have a dozen preset scenarios (I wouldn't go so far as to call them "missions") with a bit of scripting. Hoping they add more.
Much like Chuck Yeagar's Air Combat, you can have endless play from the custom mission maker where you make your own scenarios.
As a guy brought up on the same old school flight sims as you, Aces of Thunder is like an ultimate fantasy. It's not enough to warrant £400 on a headset, but with the rest of the PSVR2 library it is justified.
Re: The Internet Has Not Been Kind to Horizon Hunters Gathering
What were the thinking?!
The response was 2000000% predictable. People don't want this type of product, characterisation and art style anymore. It is 2026, not 2016.
What is their next step?
Well if they had a shred of awareness, they'd know that teaming up with the legacy games media to abuse, insult and smear gamers, probably won't work given all the previous developers/publishers who tried it and are now driving Ubers for a living.
Then again, if they had the IQ level required to figure that out, they'd never have revealed this embarrassment in the first place.
Re: Mini Review: Aces of Thunder (PSVR2) - Immersive Spectacle Throws You to the Wolves
I am really enjoying it. I just use the PSVR2 controllers with some careful button mapping and using the L3 menu for some functions.
I have no intention of buying an expensive joystick, with a bigger problem being the requirement for a desk set up.
For that reason I am only playing single player and will never play online.
I hope we can receive a lot more single player missions and campaigns. If we have to pay for them then fair enough, I’m enjoying it enough to justify it.
Re: The Arcade-Only Rave Racer Drifts onto PS5 This Month, Console Archives Also Coming Soon
Never played Rave Racer.
I've done the obvious and watched videos on Youtube, and honestly I don't think it's that great.
I'd prefer Revolution and Rage Racer to be released on Premium.
As far as Arcade racing games go, I'd love games like Chase HQ, Power Drift, Super Monaco GP and Continental Circus etc rather than the early 3D games.
Outrun is great on my Switch.
Re: Rumour: Starfield PS5 Release Date Is Set for 7th April
@Divergent95 couldn't agree more. It was solid.
You'd think it was a Veilguard level catastrophe based on the narrative.
It's actually to the shame of the games media that they scored Veilguard higher than Starfield. If they had any credibility left, they'd have lost it all there.
But yeah it's not Skyrim or Fallout 4. Well actually it is, but it's not 2011 anymore. If those games released today they'd be on a par with Starfield.
It's a 9/10 if released 12 years ago!
Re: Another Key Assassin's Creed Dev Leaves Ubisoft
Shadows is like Far Cry 6 in that recent releases were damn excellent (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, FC3, FC4, FC5) but Shadows and FC6 were a tiny step back.
There was some trash that detracted (scout system, base building, dual ammo system), where the focus was on systems that went in the wrong direction.
Still good games but getting a bit tired and those ideas to keep them fresh ended up backfiring.
Re: You'll Want to Play Crimson Desert on PS5 Pro for Dedicated Enhancements
Given that this will likely run horribly on a base PS5, I’d rather they did not enhance it for the Pro and just focused on running the PS5 graphic settings at a locked 30 FPS.
Re: The Division: Definitive Edition Out Now, But Not on PS5
An absolutely baffling decision and pricing.
A fully enhanced PS5 version, with pro support, PS5 specific trophies, at about half the asking price, would likely have sold pretty darn well.
Re: Xbox's Obsidian Seemingly Kills The Outer Worlds, Third Game Not Planned
I really enjoyed Avowed, the combat, exploration and all the secrets to find were excellent.
I hope they make another, but I fear that they will make another Pillars game after seeing the success of BG3.
In reality, I think they should make another first person game in the universe, with the same combat system as Avowed, but with the darker art style that the early previews of that game had.
Pity about the Outer Worlds, but it was always missing something including the gunplay being very average. The universe was very much an acquired taste, and not on a par with Fallout if we are honest.
Re: PS5 Open Worlder Crimson Desert Seems Destined to Be a Hit, Tops 2 Million Wishlists
It is almost certainly a 7 out of 10, suffering from poor performance, balance and grind.
I wish that this game and lots of games turned out to be excellent, but my default assumption is that they are awful, based on past experience.
That way, I can only be surprised in a good way and won’t lose any money. No doubt many people have already pre-ordered. They never learn.
Re: The Last of Us TV Show Might Be Over After Season 3
@Zeroo if it had been doing massive numbers, they'd be handing Druckmann a blank cheque and asking him to help write a season 4 and 5.
Re: Cairn (PS5) - This Uniquely Tactile Climbing Adventure Is Summit Worth Playing
I'd love to play this, but fear I'd find it too stressful.
But that's all academic as I have zero tolerance for performance issues, especially for games that look like that.
Does it have Folding at Home running as a trojan in the background?!?!
Re: Rumour: PS Portal OLED Version Coming This Year
I'm seeing comments expressing concern that a Portal purchase at this stage is too close to PS6 to be justified.
Just wanted to question that narrative - "question", not disagree per se.
Unless there is a significant controller revision with new buttons that are essential to play PS6 games, why would it not be capable of streaming PS6 games, any more than your TV would not be capable?
Indeed, with the PS5 to PS6 cross GEN period likely to be one of the longest ever experienced, even if the current portal couldn’t play PS6 games, you would still be streaming the PS5 version without issue, many years after the PS6 has launched.
Heck, many people are excited for this rumoured new handheld with onboard processing, which will only be slightly better than a PS4…
Re: Rumour: PS Portal OLED Version Coming This Year
The screen is not enough. The compression of the stream tends to crush the blacks in my experience, causing a loss of detail in dark scenes that wasn't helped by the poor screen.
In addition to the OLED it needs a higher bitrate. If not possible with console to Portal streaming, at least the web streaming should be improved.
Re: Publisher Admits Bloodlines 2 Bombed, But DLC's Still Coming in 2026
The Chinese Room are one of my favourite devs and they were utterly wasted on this.
Sums up the current generation in general, the industry taking fantastic developers and having them produce pure trash against their will and often cancelling it. End result we get nothing/slop.
Ironically best game I've played this gen is Still Wakes the Deep.
Anyhow, I too have heard that most of the problem is the false marketing that has fans of the original criticising it, but it's decent in its own right.
I might give it a go one day just because I like the dev, but I don't really have much interest in the subject matter.
Re: Crimson Desert Deep Dive Tries to Prove Its Crazy Potential Is Reality
I've previously expressed concerns about it's performance on console, balancing issues, grind etc.
However one of the biggest issues I have is when Eastern developers make Western RPG's or games set in Western-esque settings with Western looking characters.
Dragon's Dogma being one example, FFXVI, countless Korean MMO's or even Resident Evil.
Something always feels "off" and "weird" to me. Like it's familiar but not quite right, almost an uncanny valley feeling. Whatever it is, it prevents me suspending disbelief and buying into the world.
It would no doubt be the same in reverse if I tried to make a game in fictional setting that closely resembled Korea or Japan.
Re: New Kingdom Come: Deliverance PS5 Version Seems Real in PS Store Leak
I bought it on my PS5 Pro a while ago and it looked pretty decent (edit: actually it looked damn good still).
It wasn't exactly screaming out for a higher frame rate as its a very slow game.
Don't think fans of 2 should be put off of trying the original if there isn't an update.
At the same time it does feel like now would be a good time to release one and exploit the interest that 2 has generated.
Re: Judas PS5 Dev Spent 5 Years Perfecting Its Core Mechanic
I'm more interested in this than GTA.
I am concerned though that if you take too long to develop a game, you run into problems where parts of it become outdated before the game is released, so then you have to delay to modernise the stuff you built first.
I can see that turning into a vicious circle.
Even to the point you have to move to an entirely new engine.
You start off making something of AAA quality at the time, and the next thing you know it looks like a budget indie title and about 10 years behind what a few kids can produce in their bedroom using UE5.