Comments 391

Re: Part of the PS5 Controller Is Very Easily Removable

GeneJacket

The whole thing is shockingly easy to tear down, and the majority of the internals are modular. It should not only be easy to get parts for and repair, but it looks like the face buttons and dpad are identical to those used in the DS4, so that should make for some easy customization if one were so inclined.

Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want to Know About PS5?

GeneJacket

I don't know if it's been finalized or if you can talk about it, but how's the storefront on the console? For years I've been using the webstore and wishlist to see what's on sale, but with the recent (god-awful) redesign, that's totally out the window. Is the console storefront more user friendly than the new and terrible webstore/app?

Re: Watch Dogs Legion - The Dullest Ubisoft Open-Worlder Yet

GeneJacket

Man, I could not disagree more. I'm playing on PC, so I can't speak to load times or the visuals on PS4, but everything looks good to me, the load times are maybe 10 seconds at their worst, and I'm having an absolute blast with it.

I do think the lack of a strong central protagonist is a knock against it, but the gameplay is every bit as solid and enjoyable as it was in WD2, and though the "everyone is playable" conceit is paper thin and doesn't add anything of consequence, it's still idea, and I have no doubt someone else will take the idea and really run with it eventually. I've tried out a few other operatives just to see how their distinct skills change the dynamics of a particular mission where it seems they'd be useful...like using an Albion Op to infiltrate an Albion base, but that actually made things more troublesome, so I've more or less stuck with my starter operative and haven't had any issues.

I do agree that London isn't quite as visually interesting or diverse as San Francisco was in WD2 but, as an American, it's still a really cool playground for virtual tourism and it seems like Ubi did a pretty good job of recreating the boroughs (with some creative liberties taken, obviously).

Maybe I'm just an easy mark for cyber-thrillers (I am) and open-world games that aren't so ridiculously massive and sprawling that looking at the map triggers anxiety. Hackers is one of my favorite movies ever, and these games are essentially Hackers: The Game, and I dig 'em (NOT YOU, WD1, you stay over there in the corner).

Re: Unofficial PS5 Faceplate Seller Has to Rebrand After Sony Complaint

GeneJacket

Something about all of this stinks to high heaven.

They say their plates are "based on dimensions released by Sony", except Sony hasn't released the exact specs of the plates that would allow for someone to reproduce them accurately.

So, either they managed to illegally get their hands on a system or set of official plates before they've been released (since these aren't officially licensed), these are pre-orders that won't be produced until the system has been officially released (which, at best, is super dishonest, since they're not listen as pre-orders and supposedly will ship and arrive the same day the system launches), or this is a huge scam....and considering these guys just appeared out of nowhere overnight, I'm leaning toward the latter.

Personally, I wouldn't trust them. Just wait for the system to be released, within a few weeks there will be tons of 3rd party plates available.

Re: Soapbox: I Don't Like Playing Scary Games, But I Do Like Watching Them

GeneJacket

@Deadhunter The REmakes are quite a bit easier than the originals, for the most part. RE1 can still be a pain at times, just thanks to new enemy types, but 2 isn't difficult at all as long as you're smart with your ammo, and they dump ammo/healing on you in 3 so it's a cakewalk. The first REmake still uses ink ribbons to save like the originals, but you find a ton of them, and RE2/RE3 does away with them entirely and you can save as often as you like.

Re: Watch Dogs Legion - The Dullest Ubisoft Open-Worlder Yet

GeneJacket

@lordzand As someone who played about 10 hours of the first one, and mostly hated it, I would say give WD2 a fair shake.

The first one is a miserable slog, but I genuinely loved Watch Dogs 2. A lot of the core mechanics are the same, like the shooting and hacking stuff, but every single other aspect is improved exponentially. The core cast of characters are genuinely good, likable people and both the writing and voicing are shockingly good. The plot is basic cyber-thriller stuff, and largely forgettable, but it's really just there to give the game some kind of forward momentum to get to the excellent character stuff.

Seriously, give it a shot, you might be pleasantly surprised, I certainly was.

Re: Sony Will Grow First-Party Organically, Could Bolster Portfolio with Acquisitions

GeneJacket

@NomNom That's the point, though. Konami doesn't make games anymore, and seemingly doesn't have any interest in doing so, so they're just sitting on some of the most prestigious, legitimately iconic IP in gaming history.

Contra, Castlevania, Gradius, Pro Evolution Soccer, Suikoden, Zone of the Enders, Lethal Enforcers, Bomberman, DDR, and obviously Metal Gear and Silent Hill...all just sitting on a shelf collecting dust or being bastardized for pachinko machines.

At best, Sony could snatch up those IP wholesale, at worst they could license then from Konami and develop/publish the games themselves, mitigating any risk that Konami might be adverse to.

Re: Sony Will Grow First-Party Organically, Could Bolster Portfolio with Acquisitions

GeneJacket

KonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonamiKonami.

BUY KONAMI, YOU COWARDS!

Or, rather, buy their gaming division or IP...not the whole company, they're too big and make too much in other sectors to sell the whole company, but they're doing f**k all with their gaming IP or their in-house studios.

Re: Until Dawn PS4 Improvements Are Unfortunately Wishful Thinking

GeneJacket

Can we maybe not with the conclusion jumping already? They're demo units, the firmware probably isn't final. People who had the Series X demo units couldn't even show the dashboard because it wasn't a final build, I imagine the PS5 has some last minute kinks Sony are working out before it actually launches. Save your pitchforks for when the system is officially out, everything is finalized, and we can test it for ourselves.

Re: Mark Wahlberg Gives Us Our First Glimpse of Sully in the Uncharted Movie

GeneJacket

That looks like a fake mustache, and the guys that wrote this also wrote Transformers :The Last Knight, MIB International, and Morbius, so...not holding my breath that this will be worth a damn.

On the flip side, they also wrote the excellent Punisher: War Zone, and one of the many, many, many, many drafts of the first Iron Man, so who knows, it might turn out ok.

Re: The New PS Store for Web, Mobile Is a Dramatic Downgrade

GeneJacket

Good God, it's just awful. The old storefront had its issues for sure, but at least it was functional, and navigate was clear and defined. This is just a mess of empty, dead space and getting around the damned thing is just a total chore.

How...how TF did Sony think THIS was an upgrade?

Re: PS5 Custom Faceplates Are Already Available to Pre-Order

GeneJacket

I wouldn't be promoting this place unless you can confirm the validity of what they're offering.

Whoever set this up either illegally obtained a system to take molds from so they could produce these, they're pre-orders for a product that doesn't exist yet, or it's a scam.

Considering this place popped up out of nowhere, I'm gonna go with scam.

Re: Goal Machine Robert Lewandowski Has a PS5, Maybe

GeneJacket

I'm genuinely curious what purpose it serves to give celebrities something like a PS5 (or even just the controller) early to post about them on social.

If a person wasn't already interested in gaming, seeing a celebrity they like having one isn't going to make anyone think "Well, _____ has it, so I have to have it, too." Maybe it just boosts the signal and alerts people who may buy consoles but might not know there's a new ones coming, but if they didn't know at this point, then they probably aren't interested enough to care.

Re: WipEout-Style Racing Game Pacer Finally Glides onto PS4 Later This Month

GeneJacket

@doctommaso It's not terrible by any means, there are a lot of things I like about it, it just doesn't feel like Wipeout...which, being a spiritual successor that brought back so many of the original elements, was kind of the biggest selling point.

Don't just take my word for it, though. Like I said, I haven't played in a while and I don't know what they might have changed since the last time I did, so I'd suggest waiting for the reviews and see what others have to say.

If you are looking for a good anti-grav racer at the moment, I'd suggest Antigraviator and Redout, both of which are fantastic. There's also a free game on Steam called Vector that just dropped which isn't strictly a racer, it's more like Distance (which is also super, super cool), but with a super dope neon vector graphic style.

Re: WipEout-Style Racing Game Pacer Finally Glides onto PS4 Later This Month

GeneJacket

@Adol_Xin 14 tracks is totally fine. There were only 7 tracks in the the original Wipeout, 8 in XL/2097, 8 in Wipeout 3 (expanded to 16 in the UK-only Special Edition), and 8 tracks in Fusion. It wasn't until Wipeout Pure and Pulse on PSP that they really expanded the track list. Even Vita's 2048, the last game in the series, only had 10 tracks.

Re: WipEout-Style Racing Game Pacer Finally Glides onto PS4 Later This Month

GeneJacket

I backed it on KS, and have been playing it off and on for a years, and I have to say, unfortunately, it's not great.

It looks and sounds the part, that's for sure. The tDR designs are wonderful, the tracks are well thought out, and the soundtrack is phenomenal...but the feel just isn't there and the ship upgrade systems are so obtuse and completely unneccessary. It's worth noting that the ex-Psygnosis teammates are largely from the Wipeout 3 design team, and didn't have anything to do with how the originals felt to play. I haven't played in a while, so I'm not sure what kind of shape it's in at the moment, but I popped back in when they announced the console release, and I couldn't see how it could be released as a 1.0 release without some serious overhauls/refinements.

Also, Formula Fusion (the original title) was so much more evocative and overall better a name than the boring, generic "Pacer" they changed it to.

Re: Rapper Travis Scott Has a PS5

GeneJacket

I....don't understand the point of this.

Like, he has a PS5 (if he actually does, I don't buy it, but good for him if he does). What does that mean for everyone else? The answer is nothing. This isn't marketing, he's not a "influencer" or youtuber. He's not spreading awareness or giving anyone new info about it. It's just bragging, that's it. None of his fans are going to see that and think "well if he's got one, I need one" (and if they do they're morons).

It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever for Sony to give this one specific guy a PS5 before literally anyone else.

Re: Reaction: Bethesda Acquisition Is a Kick in the Balls for PS5, But Sony's Goals Won't Change

GeneJacket

@Kefka2589 For sure, MS has way, way, way more money to burn than Sony, but the buck has to stop somewhere and they can't afford to lose money forever. I do think they'll keep some of the big Bethesda titles (like Wolf or Dishonored, big-ish stuff, but not HUGE stuff) as MS exclusives to bolster game pass and to entice players over to Xbox, but the biggest of them (like The Elder Scrolls) will almost certainly still be multiplatform because they stand to make so much. We'll see, though, I could be totally off base and after the PS exclusive window for Deathloop and Ghostwire are up they may all become 100% Xbox exclusive...we'll see.

Side note, I do think that majority of Bethesda's titles sell best on PC anyway, and that's not changing, so maybe MS is fine with losing whatever their IP would have made on PS?

Re: Reaction: Bethesda Acquisition Is a Kick in the Balls for PS5, But Sony's Goals Won't Change

GeneJacket

" A kick in the balls" is a bit of a reach, don't you think? Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo are still timed exclusive on PS5, those deals were in place before the acquisition and MS has to honor them.

MS isn't stupid, and Bethesda's brands are some of the biggest in gaming, they're not going to just cut off the millions of prospective PS players. The smaller stuff that don't sell super great will likely be Xbox exclusive. The biggest stuff like Doom, Fallout, TES, etc., will probably be timed exclusives are have exclusive content, but are almost certainly still coming to PS platforms at some point. If you consider that all Bethesda titles will be on Game Pass day-one, virtually giving them all away, skipping PS is just throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars...and they didn't spend $7.5 BILLION dollars to take a loss.

Re: Horizon Forbidden West Built from the 'Ground Up' for PS5

GeneJacket

@get2sammyb I sincerely doubt there will be THAT big a difference. The initial reveal trailer does say "Footage captured from a Playstation 5", however (and this is the most important thing), it does not say it was captured running in-engine, in real-time, a PS5. That trailer is obviously, blatantly not running in real-time. It's certainly in-engine, but it's been graded and had effects added in post and polished to a degree that a game running in real-time simply can't emulate.

Obviously on PS4 it's not going to run as well, it's not going to look as good, it's not going to load as fast, it won't have the haptics or the 3D audio, etc., etc., etc...but I'm willing to bet it will largely play the same, and that's the important part.

Re: PS5 Price May Dip Below $400, Analyst Speculates

GeneJacket

With the exception of Nintendo, because they produce their hardware so cheap, console hardware always, always, always sells at a loss. They'll make that loss up in services and 1st party title sales. The all digital edition especially is going to make up for the loss because everything has to be bought through the PSN, so Sony gets that 30% cut of every 3rd party game sold.

The question is how much of a loss they're willing to take.