@Sweetz in my experience there’s a fair amount of people who are running PC games dramatically below recommended specs. I know a friend of mine who was playing it on a 2012ish AMD CPU (which was back in their bad CPU design days) who was playing with everything minimal as possible and I think getting a very stuttery 20-30 at best. No idea how the hell they compensated but they managed to play decently in the game.
They were on a mechanical drive till I went round and installed an SSD for them. I’ve got some similar friends who have only updated to an SSD in the past year or so despite copious badgering from me (and in 1 case actually bought the SSD but couldn’t be bothered to install it or do a windows install until the whole PC broke).
How are Valve funding it - They take a 30% cut on Steam games and are privately owned so not beholden to stock holders.
You can use whatever controller you want as long as it has bluetooth or a dongle. Steam Input is a universal translation layer so you can use all kinds of controllers pretty seemlessly.
If it's like the Steam Deck (which I assume it will be considering it has the same OS) most games auto detect well enough that you don't need to go into settings. Some games like Cyberpunk have a Steam Deck graphics mode where it goes to their pretuned settings automatically.
Unless you install Windows on it you won't get gamepass unfortunately. There are fairly easy ways to get games from GOG or the Epic Game Store on Steam Deck using a 3rd party launcher but nothing for Gamepass yet.
Power supply is in the machine itself, it just has a standard figure 8 power input on the back.
I do think Sony will lose revenue from this but not in any meaningful way. I haven’t bought a game on my PlayStation since I got my Deck and consequentially built a new PC (my old PC was getting long in the tooth but I split my time fairly equally between PlayStation, Switch and PC but now I’m 95% PC and the rest is Switch) and there’s statistically gonna be another person like me with this but yeah, I don’t see this making a big impact.
Doesn’t change that it feels like Christmas for me with all the announcements!
@ButterySmooth30FPS I thought the same about the Steam Deck before I got one and it’s very comfortable to use. The beauty of PC is you can just use an Xbox or PlayStation controller no problem if that works better for you, this is for the weirdos like me who want the trackpads and capacitive bits for gyro. Based on how fervent many fans of the Steam controller are and the response to the Decks controls by its owners I see this being a way bigger success than the first one. Almost certainly still niche though.
But seriously the original steam controller fans were Valve’s secret weapon with the Deck. Near launch every old non controller supporting game that I tried out on it already had at least 1 community profile that translated things pretty well.
They might be releasing it with some of the graphics options they had in the PC port last year. The frame rate limit of that is 144 (I think it can be modded to be higher but my monitor is 144hz so I didn’t bother), it’s an older game and with some use of FSR (which the PC version supports alongside DLSS) and I don’t see why there can’t be a 120hz mode in a PS5/Xbox series version of the game.
@Foxhound yeah I bought it day one for £35 and was not very satisfied with it for that price. For comparison I paid full price on release for Nirvana Initiative and was content with that.
It is not a bad game at all just very much a side story thing. Uchikoshi didn't write it either, Kazuya Yamada did. He was a sub director on the second game and a planner on the first.
The escape room parts were good fun and they used the same sound effects for things as the Nonary Games which instantly hit me right in the nostalgia.
So word of warning about this one it isn’t the same level of quality as the previous two. This is very much a side thing with a smaller and less consequential plot. On steam it took me 15 hours to 100% it.
If you go into it just wanting more time with the characters then I think you will enjoy it but do not expect something the same quality as the previous ones. I’d give both of those a 9 out of 10 and this is very much a 7.
Very excited for this! I’ve always been curious about the Trails series but never found he momentum to get started but I flew through then trails demo and then finished the game in a few weeks. Going to wait for the remake of second chapter (oh though I do have the original sitting in my Steam library) and through the recent sale they had on Steam picked up what I didn’t have from Cold Steel and Zero so got plenty ready to go once the next remake is out. Might wait if they announce a remake of the third in the same manner as the second chapter one though.
I’m probably still going to buy it. I’ve read some reviews on other sites and they are more positive. I am a big fan of the setting (own a lot of the TTRPG books) and was a launch weekish or so buyer of the first one (I was 15 and half life 2 just came out so that was the priority). It helps I was planning on playing on PC and that supposedly runs better. The PCGamer reviewer has the same specs as me (13900K and a 4090) and it ran around 60 for him, bit ridiculous that you need a 4090 to get that but eh I’ve made worse financial decisions around video games before!
Crunchyroll thought it was a good idea to introduce new software they use to translate anime at the same time as a new season of anime. The new software is much worse with the font being way less legible because it’s not dropshadowed and the new one doesn’t support on screen text translation so if there is Kanji on screen it’s now not translated at all.
Plus what @GameLord said they appear to be using AI to do translations now. So they consolidated the 2 biggest anime focused streaming services and made the overall product worse. Standard monopoly practices. There has been a huge outcry about this all online so hopefully someone high up will use common sense for once but I’m not holding my breath.
@ShieldHero I had heard about the Neptunia stuff on Switch, I have the first game on Vita but I never got around to giving it a go. I'm mainly a PC gamer these days so I just default to non exclusives on Steam which has all those games available.
Are you looking at those games more for the JRPG or anime side of them? If it's for the JRPG side I'd recommend looking at some of the PS2 classics they have on PSN like Dark Cloud 1&2 and Rogue Galaxy as they are solid JRPGs that sadly are stuck on PS2/emulatable on PS4.
Animewise not a lot springs to mind that isn't on Switch but maybe the Nonary Games series if you are into Visual Novels? Very anime aesthetic and are a mixture of visual novel and escape room puzzles, the first 2 are great and I haven't played the 3rd but have heard mixxed things about it.
Also maybe check out Gravity Rush as that's one of Japan Studio's best games and some older VanillaWare titles like Odin Sphere and Dragon's Crown are on Playstation but not Switch and they tick both JRPG and anime boxes. Also since you listed AstroBot maybe try the Ratchet and Clank PS4 game? It's a hybrid shooter but is a pretty solid platformer too.
I just finished Trails in the Sky on Steam and it has 100% converted me to a Trails fan after circling the series for about a decade so that is an easy recommendation no matter what system you get it on. And bonus if you do end up with a Playstation of some sort you can play Cold Steel 1&2 on there! Due to some publisher shenanigans the Switch port of those never got released outside of Japan so to play them here your options are PS3/4/5, Vita or PC.
PS5 Pro was the first Sony hardware I didn’t get at launch since the PS2. It was too expensive to justify considering 95% of my time is spent on PC now with a 4090. Maybe if they weren’t releasing games on PC or PSVR2 actually had some games (I originally got the 4 Pro for better VR) I’d get one but was just too much to justify. Probably going to be the same way with the PS6 unless it’s substantially cheaper than expected. Handheld is interesting would once again depends on price and features. I already have a Switch 2 and a Steam Deck OLED.
@ShieldHero what ps4 games are you getting the console for? And what ps5 exclusives had caught your eye?
@PuppetMaster Dragon Quedt 8 is my favourite ps2 game and one of my favourite games of all time and if you didn’t like DQ11 I don’t see how 8 is going to win you over. It’s fairly similar to 11 just 10+ years older and 2 console generations older.
Was there anything specifically you disliked about 11?
@GeeEssEff my secret has been to use Satisfactory calculator to do all fiddly calculations for me. With the computer factory I just said I want X number of computers a minute (then turned this down a bunch till I got a number of refineries that didn't make me want to cry) and then followed that. Still ended up building 28 refineries for those 15 computers a minute but at least I got to use the heavy oil left over to power the whole factory.
The friend I'm playing with is more like you and loves their spaghetti mess! We've made an agreement that I will have designated connection points in the factories for them to connect stuff up without messing up my (slightly) neat and orderly system.
@GeeEssEff Yeah this game is crack. I’ve put 70 hours into it in about 3 weeks after starting a co-op game with my friend. Just finished a computer factory yesterday that makes 15 a minute and am currently getting ready to make a 20 per minute heavy modular frame factory.
Seriously do not play if you value your free time (you will have an absolute blast if you do decide to start though)
Like with the Doom/Quake remasters if you already owned this on Steam you get the new version automatically so I haven’t had to spend a penny on any of these thanks to my compulsive Steam game habit.
Roll on Quake 3/4 and Wolfenstein 3D/Return! And doom 3 why the hell not.
@Odium I don’t think it’s not deep. Not everyone has your level of foresight and an elaborate diagram to reference. I just think they got greedy after Nintendo’s move with Mario Kart.
@Blofse they are still up for sale on Steam. The summer sale is on so you can get both of them for £6.50 currently. Wouldn’t normally mention Steam on here since you know PlayStation but you said emulation so chances of having a PC capable of running these is higher.
@NEStalgia It's Win+Alt+B to turn HDR on and off. I just leave it on all the times now, I used to use the built in auto HDR feature which works like the one on Xbox Series consoles but I've switched to RTX HDR now which just seems to work better.
Only issues I really have with leaving HDR on all the time is the built in snipping tool does not play nice with it and you can get very washed out screenshots (this is apparently being fixed) and the Meta PC app is washed out. Note that is the app on your PC, doesn't affect in headset at all.
Oh and pleased to say it only uses 200-250w of my GPU so I'm able to play the demo without my GPU acting like a space heater and turning the room into a sauna.
So just played the first 40 minutes on my PC and unsurprisingly (13900K & 4090) it ran really well. I started off at 4K with DLSS quality (so 1440p upscaled) and I got a fairly stable 140ish with some dips down to 120 at worst. I tried frame gen and it boosted it up to 200-260ish but I only have a 144hz 4K display so just turned that off but useful for when I upgrade to one of the new 4K 240hz OLED monitors.
Once I got through the opening training bit I turned off DLSS just to see how it ran in that open area and seemed to get a fluctuating 80-120. Have noticed that the hair in cutscenes has horrendous ghosting that look likes TAA artifacts and turning on and off DLSS and so on didn't seem to fix it.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see FSR 3 so hopefully the PS5 version gets patched with this at some point. Also had FSR Frame gen so maybe that gets added like Immortals of Aveum, wouldn't do much for any input latency issues but would definitely help smooth the frame rate out for performance mode.
Like @GamingFan4Lyf didn't really spot many differences between this and the PS5 version except resolution and framerate.
@GamingFan4Lyf I pretty much exclusively use Humble Bundle as if you are a humble choice member you get a flat 15-20% off basically everything. Final Fantasy 16 is already £55 for the complete edition there. I think that only kicks in after a year of membership though.
Humble Choice is a pretty good monthly service where you get 8 or so games that they picked out. Normally 1-2 big ones and then smaller indies. If you don’t like a specific month then it’s easy to pause the subscription for that month.
Other reason I like humble is they work with the game publishers so all the keys are legit. The other 2 I use one occasion are greenmangaming.com and fanatical.com as they similarly work only with the publishers.
Then you get into the slightly more murky resellers who are normally legit but I’m still a little bit wares of like cdkeys. I would echo what a previous poster said and avoid Kinguin I’ve heard some bad stories there. With resellers quite often you get people selling stuff they got in bundles on other sites or purchased directly from the publisher but I’ve heard of people bulk buying keys with stolen credit card info and then the publisher being left in the unenviable position of choosing whether to revoke those keys or not as they lost out on money from it (credit card fees) vs pissing off people who didn’t know fraud was involved.
Some developers have even said they would prefer you pirate a game over using a site like Kinguin.
I bought it on Steam despite having access through Gamepass and PS Plus. With RPGs my favourite way of playing them is curled up in bed late at night like I did as a kid. I have a Steam Deck so can play on that or my big PC.
@anon_pel222 sounds like you just prefer the Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk. I’m the other way, Cyberpunk is one of my favourite genres and I’ve got all the Cyberpunk 2020 books.
The Witcher 3 is a way better game but I still load up Cyberpunk and just drive or go for a walk for the ambiance.
I do find it way more enjoyable taking the game slow so try for an hour or two just exploring a district and maybe doing a gig or two (I’m a big fan of Japantown). It might just not be for you. My brother has put 20-30 hours into Cyberpunk but has gone through The Witcher 3 multiple times.
@Mad001 The game is up for preorder at Ubisoft's homepage and I am vaguely hopeful that it is less microtranaction oriented. There are only 2 editions and the deluxe one is only £5 more (£49.99 vs £44.99) and includes a 40 thieves quest with no mention of the usual rubbish they pack into their expensive editions.
Of course there is still time for this all to change and it to be the usual store focused mess but I live in hope.
@ShogunRok to be fair if someone was born when FF12 came out they would be 17 when this game comes out (16 if you go by EU date) which is prime time for getting super engrossed in an RPG. (
Funnily enough this was me at 17 super hyped for FF12 the first game in the franchise to release when I was a fan.
Apologies for hitting you with the time realisation it makes me sad too
Sweet, lets see if we can get all the way back to Black Flag! Now we just need them to work on AC Syndicate/AC Trilogy (which is in 4k but no 60fps and on Xbox it's 60fps thanks to performance boost but 900p) next.
@Ghostngoblins have you had yours crash yet? I gave up yesterday after the 6th crash. I want to 100% it and am trying to get through all the side content on Portland before any of the gangs are hostile but it seems to be impossible with crashing ruining any paramedic, vigilante or fireman run at some point.
I'm just going to wait for the first patch and try again.
@Sknarfm I’ve heard it was good (I’m too big of a baby to play horror games). I was more trying to forestall any people bringing up Wii motion controls as an argument against optional gyro aiming in general rather than disparage an console and every game on it. I had a Wii and while it’s my least favourite Nintendo system (well that I’ve owned, never had the displeasure of owning a Virtual Boy) it still had some good games on it. Just not as many as other systems and it was quickly buried under an avalanche of wiimote plastic crap and shovelware.
@anoyonmus I know that but outside of games on switch (even those with versions on other consoles) it’s slim pickings. I’d like gyro controls to be an option on any PS4/5 game that it would be suitable for. No use on the Xbox with its lack of gyro but it baffles me why developers are reluctant to even offer it as an option.
@MrSensical Agreed. I shudder at the mention of a Wiimote like most people but breath of the wild reallymopened my eyes to how good gyro could be as a fine tuning element for aiming. I played Horizon Zero Dawn afterwards and it was the one feature I missed. I don’t think this should be mandatory or anything but I hope the popularity of the switch and the upcoming Steam Deck popularise this feature.
I’ve been trying to platinum San Andreas recently and the thing that keeps stopping me from playing the is the driving school. I know I don’t need to get golds on everything but I want to and the need to get 100% on each one is driving me crazy.
I actually went back to it a few days ago but quickly realised that the multi month break eroded my muscle memory enough to make it that much harder to get back….
That’s the main change I’d want to see to San Andreas at least. Make the schools a bit easier. Revamped controls and mission checkpoints would be nice too.
I had somehow not realised this was meant to be a big event until I got an advert on youtube for it. Trying to hold onto lack of hype so I'm not inevitably disappointed.
San Andreas was the game I bought my PS2 for. I had played 3 and Vice City on PC but knew I wasn't going to be able to wait the 5-6 months for it to be ported. Luckily enough they released the slimline PS2 at the same time so I got a sleek unit at a reduced price.
I was only 15 but always looked older so didn't have any problems buying the game (not that my parents really cared). A few months later I happened to be in the Game downstairs in Churchill Square when another teen asked if I would buy it for him as he had been rejected already. I said sure but gave him a warning I was only 15 so might be rejected when he said he was 17. One successful GTA purchase later he had his copy. If you happen to be reading this random teen from the Brighton area hello! Hope you enjoyed the game.
@nessisonett I recently watched a video Modern Vintage Gamer did where he went into the technical side of things of cell emulation and it looks like it is crazy difficult. With 10 years of development RPCS3 has gotten to around 60% of the library playable.
Now of course Sony has all the technical documentation and so on that makes it easier to develop but according to the people MVG interviewed it’s still a massive engineering task with a pretty questionable ROI. As we’ve seen with Microsoft’s approach they haven’t been able to bring everything over due to licensing issues and I doubt the people buying old PS3 games digitally would make back the investment.
I’d love to be proven wrong though but I think we are much more likely to see them port across any more PS3 games they think will sell. Off the top of my head I’d like Motorstorm Trilogy, Ratchet Games, Resistance trilogy, Infamous, Killzone trilogy and maybe the ps2 had collections they did if they don’t do further ps2 classic stuff. It could be a fairly cheap way to continue new titles coming to PS4 once the ps5 mainly has exclusives and they would be forward compatible of course.
This however doesn’t excuse the lack of ps1 and ps2 emulation however. PS1 was already fully software emulated on the PS3 and PS2 could be done easily now. They could have it so you can put any ps1 or 2 disc in but with no guarantee on how well it runs but have trophy supporting ones on the store guaranteed to work (discs should work for these too). I’ve got boxes full of ps1 and ps2 games just begging me to put them back on the shelves and this would be the excuse I needed.
@Odium the combat in the game is basically throwing rocks at Parshendi and a Chasm Fiend. There’s a bit where you lash yourself to a chasm wall and Syl is flitting about like Navi in ocarina of time. No flying or anything sadly as I imagine it was very low budget.
If you are looking for a game with a similar feel to wind running I would suggest Gravity Rush 1&2. Aesthetically it is completely different but the main characters powers over gravity are surprisingly close to wind running as I discovered when I replayed it after finishing the latest book.
I wasn't expecting them to announce the next major Tomb Raider game but I was hoping for something along the lines of the Tomb Raider Ultimate Experience thing that got reported on last August.
I'd love to replay the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games again. When the rumour was going around last August I did boot up my PS3 and give the original 5 a quick go and I very quickly bounced off them. If they had good save state support and maybe rewind then I could see me getting through at least the second one.
@Odium yeah it was disappointing to me too when I first read some reviews of it but I was well aware when I bought it. It's probably worth watching on Youtube if you are interested. It won't quite be the same as experiencing it in VR but it's a nice visualisation of the shattered plains.
@Odium I was annoyed the original PS VR game didn't get the Stormlight Archives thing but it was one of the first things I purchased when the Quest got PC VR support and it's not that great. It isn't really a game and is 30 minutes long if you take your time. It was more of a proof of concept thing they used to shop the series as a TV show/Movie
@BranJ0 I played through the trilogy on my Switch exclusively on the TV. I have played through the originals so many times on my DS/3DS though that the novelty of seeing it on a 55" TV was great.
Been tempted to pick it up on PS4 again just for the trophies but would need a bigger discount to quadruple dip on the original trilogy.
@NEStalgia with the quest using it on PC compresses the image using x265 compression and it works well enough for me to play through boneworks, Alyx and countless other games. Apparently if you switch between a rift s and a quest you can tell the difference but it’s not easy to see.
@Jaz007 with the Quest you can use a USB cable to play PC VR games. It works pretty flawlessly on my computer and I’ve played a lot of Half Life Alyx and Boneworks because of it.
There’s also a wireless option in virtual desktop that lets you stream everything over WiFi but you need a pretty good network setup to get the most out of it.
@thefourfoldroot yeah I know what you mean about wireless not necessarily desired. I’ve used the WiFi in my house to stream games to my quest (before anyone comments about upgrading my WiFi I get 400MB/s 5.8ghz on my quest and everything except the quest is connected through gigabit Ethernet using commercial grade equipment) and it can get a bit finicky at times. I often use it wired connected to my pc as I’m lucky enough to have more free space around my pc than my tv.
The main pain points for me are the controls however. If the new PS VR has comparable controls to the quest then I will probably pick one up. Any fancy finger or eye tracking would be nice but having accurate motion controls that work outside a very small window (with analogue sticks) would dramatically improve the quality for me. I can deal with it needing a bit more set up than my quest.
@thefourfoldroot for me actually plugging it in to play was fine that only took 20 seconds or so (I have a female to female HDMI connector stuck to the top so I can get HDR with my original version with the least amount of fuss) but if I wanted to do anything other than sitting down and play something with a dualshock I needed to move furniture, set the PS Camera up on the high spot it worked best in (but was a bad place to leave it permanently) and that took me a good 5-10 minutes with adjusting everything.
Now when I want to play VR I use my Oculus Quest which as it's wire free I can use in bits of the house that are already clutter free. Since I got my Quest in 2019 I've used the PS VR like 3-4 times max.
Now a PS VR 2 with a single wire will still require me to move furniture but if it has an inside out tracking system I can cut down on the set up time massively and I would be able to play the PS VR games I've been grabbing in hope of a second one (I decided to still support Sony with their VR exclusives as the VR part of the industry is still fairly small).
@Rhaoulos pffft Blu-Rays are so 2006. It’s all about the UHD Blu-Ray now! (For anyone tempted to well actually me I know uhd Blu rays are just standard Blu rays but on 4 layer discs).
@Mysterio glad to see you already saw! I was going to tag you if you hadn't. Bit annoyed I finished it last week now but I've still got most of the trophies to get through so patch will serve me well there!
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Re: Helldivers 2 on PC Sees Massive Reduction in Install Size Thanks to Sony Studio Nixxes
@Sweetz in my experience there’s a fair amount of people who are running PC games dramatically below recommended specs. I know a friend of mine who was playing it on a 2012ish AMD CPU (which was back in their bad CPU design days) who was playing with everything minimal as possible and I think getting a very stuttery 20-30 at best. No idea how the hell they compensated but they managed to play decently in the game.
They were on a mechanical drive till I went round and installed an SSD for them. I’ve got some similar friends who have only updated to an SSD in the past year or so despite copious badgering from me (and in 1 case actually bought the SSD but couldn’t be bothered to install it or do a windows install until the whole PC broke).
Re: Poll: Does the Steam Machine Pose a Threat to PS5?
@rjejr
How are Valve funding it - They take a 30% cut on Steam games and are privately owned so not beholden to stock holders.
You can use whatever controller you want as long as it has bluetooth or a dongle. Steam Input is a universal translation layer so you can use all kinds of controllers pretty seemlessly.
If it's like the Steam Deck (which I assume it will be considering it has the same OS) most games auto detect well enough that you don't need to go into settings. Some games like Cyberpunk have a Steam Deck graphics mode where it goes to their pretuned settings automatically.
Unless you install Windows on it you won't get gamepass unfortunately. There are fairly easy ways to get games from GOG or the Epic Game Store on Steam Deck using a 3rd party launcher but nothing for Gamepass yet.
Power supply is in the machine itself, it just has a standard figure 8 power input on the back.
Re: Poll: Does the Steam Machine Pose a Threat to PS5?
I do think Sony will lose revenue from this but not in any meaningful way. I haven’t bought a game on my PlayStation since I got my Deck and consequentially built a new PC (my old PC was getting long in the tooth but I split my time fairly equally between PlayStation, Switch and PC but now I’m 95% PC and the rest is Switch) and there’s statistically gonna be another person like me with this but yeah, I don’t see this making a big impact.
Doesn’t change that it feels like Christmas for me with all the announcements!
@ButterySmooth30FPS I thought the same about the Steam Deck before I got one and it’s very comfortable to use. The beauty of PC is you can just use an Xbox or PlayStation controller no problem if that works better for you, this is for the weirdos like me who want the trackpads and capacitive bits for gyro. Based on how fervent many fans of the Steam controller are and the response to the Decks controls by its owners I see this being a way bigger success than the first one. Almost certainly still niche though.
But seriously the original steam controller fans were Valve’s secret weapon with the Deck. Near launch every old non controller supporting game that I tried out on it already had at least 1 community profile that translated things pretty well.
Re: Red Dead Redemption 1 on Its Way to PS5, New Age Rating Suggests
They might be releasing it with some of the graphics options they had in the PC port last year. The frame rate limit of that is 144 (I think it can be modded to be higher but my monitor is 144hz so I didn’t bother), it’s an older game and with some use of FSR (which the PC version supports alongside DLSS) and I don’t see why there can’t be a 120hz mode in a PS5/Xbox series version of the game.
Re: No Sleep for Kaname Date Sheds Switch Console Exclusivity, Investigates PS5, PS4 Next Year
@Foxhound yeah I bought it day one for £35 and was not very satisfied with it for that price. For comparison I paid full price on release for Nirvana Initiative and was content with that.
It is not a bad game at all just very much a side story thing. Uchikoshi didn't write it either, Kazuya Yamada did. He was a sub director on the second game and a planner on the first.
The escape room parts were good fun and they used the same sound effects for things as the Nonary Games which instantly hit me right in the nostalgia.
Re: No Sleep for Kaname Date Sheds Switch Console Exclusivity, Investigates PS5, PS4 Next Year
So word of warning about this one it isn’t the same level of quality as the previous two. This is very much a side thing with a smaller and less consequential plot. On steam it took me 15 hours to 100% it.
If you go into it just wanting more time with the characters then I think you will enjoy it but do not expect something the same quality as the previous ones. I’d give both of those a 9 out of 10 and this is very much a 7.
Re: Highly Anticipated RPG Remake Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Confirmed for 2026 Release
Very excited for this! I’ve always been curious about the Trails series but never found he momentum to get started but I flew through then trails demo and then finished the game in a few weeks. Going to wait for the remake of second chapter (oh though I do have the original sitting in my Steam library) and through the recent sale they had on Steam picked up what I didn’t have from Cold Steel and Zero so got plenty ready to go once the next remake is out. Might wait if they announce a remake of the third in the same manner as the second chapter one though.
Re: Persona 6 Gets an Official Mention in New Atlus Survey
@Questionable_Duck if you count each episode as a separate entry and include Alyx we too are waiting for Half Life 6.
Re: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (PS5) - A Disastrously Paced, Technical Mess of a Sequel
I’m probably still going to buy it. I’ve read some reviews on other sites and they are more positive. I am a big fan of the setting (own a lot of the TTRPG books) and was a launch weekish or so buyer of the first one (I was 15 and half life 2 just came out so that was the priority). It helps I was planning on playing on PC and that supposedly runs better. The PCGamer reviewer has the same specs as me (13900K and a 4090) and it ran around 60 for him, bit ridiculous that you need a 4090 to get that but eh I’ve made worse financial decisions around video games before!
Re: Sony's Increasing Power Over Anime Is Starting to Raise Some Eyebrows
Crunchyroll thought it was a good idea to introduce new software they use to translate anime at the same time as a new season of anime. The new software is much worse with the font being way less legible because it’s not dropshadowed and the new one doesn’t support on screen text translation so if there is Kanji on screen it’s now not translated at all.
Plus what @GameLord said they appear to be using AI to do translations now. So they consolidated the 2 biggest anime focused streaming services and made the overall product worse. Standard monopoly practices. There has been a huge outcry about this all online so hopefully someone high up will use common sense for once but I’m not holding my breath.
Re: PS6 Release Date Touted for 2027, Cheaper But Less Powerful Than Next Xbox
@ShieldHero I had heard about the Neptunia stuff on Switch, I have the first game on Vita but I never got around to giving it a go. I'm mainly a PC gamer these days so I just default to non exclusives on Steam which has all those games available.
Are you looking at those games more for the JRPG or anime side of them? If it's for the JRPG side I'd recommend looking at some of the PS2 classics they have on PSN like Dark Cloud 1&2 and Rogue Galaxy as they are solid JRPGs that sadly are stuck on PS2/emulatable on PS4.
Animewise not a lot springs to mind that isn't on Switch but maybe the Nonary Games series if you are into Visual Novels? Very anime aesthetic and are a mixture of visual novel and escape room puzzles, the first 2 are great and I haven't played the 3rd but have heard mixxed things about it.
Also maybe check out Gravity Rush as that's one of Japan Studio's best games and some older VanillaWare titles like Odin Sphere and Dragon's Crown are on Playstation but not Switch and they tick both JRPG and anime boxes. Also since you listed AstroBot maybe try the Ratchet and Clank PS4 game? It's a hybrid shooter but is a pretty solid platformer too.
I just finished Trails in the Sky on Steam and it has 100% converted me to a Trails fan after circling the series for about a decade so that is an easy recommendation no matter what system you get it on. And bonus if you do end up with a Playstation of some sort you can play Cold Steel 1&2 on there! Due to some publisher shenanigans the Switch port of those never got released outside of Japan so to play them here your options are PS3/4/5, Vita or PC.
Re: PS6 Release Date Touted for 2027, Cheaper But Less Powerful Than Next Xbox
PS5 Pro was the first Sony hardware I didn’t get at launch since the PS2. It was too expensive to justify considering 95% of my time is spent on PC now with a 4090. Maybe if they weren’t releasing games on PC or PSVR2 actually had some games (I originally got the 4 Pro for better VR) I’d get one but was just too much to justify. Probably going to be the same way with the PS6 unless it’s substantially cheaper than expected. Handheld is interesting would once again depends on price and features. I already have a Switch 2 and a Steam Deck OLED.
@ShieldHero what ps4 games are you getting the console for? And what ps5 exclusives had caught your eye?
Re: Dragon Quest 7 Remake Graphics Comparison Shows Just How Far This Classic RPG Has Come
@PuppetMaster Dragon Quedt 8 is my favourite ps2 game and one of my favourite games of all time and if you didn’t like DQ11 I don’t see how 8 is going to win you over. It’s fairly similar to 11 just 10+ years older and 2 console generations older.
Was there anything specifically you disliked about 11?
Re: Satisfactory, the Popular Open World Factory-Building Game, Is Finally Coming to PS5
@GeeEssEff my secret has been to use Satisfactory calculator to do all fiddly calculations for me. With the computer factory I just said I want X number of computers a minute (then turned this down a bunch till I got a number of refineries that didn't make me want to cry) and then followed that. Still ended up building 28 refineries for those 15 computers a minute but at least I got to use the heavy oil left over to power the whole factory.
The friend I'm playing with is more like you and loves their spaghetti mess! We've made an agreement that I will have designated connection points in the factories for them to connect stuff up without messing up my (slightly) neat and orderly system.
Re: Satisfactory, the Popular Open World Factory-Building Game, Is Finally Coming to PS5
@GeeEssEff Yeah this game is crack. I’ve put 70 hours into it in about 3 weeks after starting a co-op game with my friend. Just finished a computer factory yesterday that makes 15 a minute and am currently getting ready to make a 20 per minute heavy modular frame factory.
Seriously do not play if you value your free time (you will have an absolute blast if you do decide to start though)
Re: Holy Sh*t! 90s Hack 'n' Cast Classics Heretic and Hexen Launch on PS5, PS4 Today
Like with the Doom/Quake remasters if you already owned this on Steam you get the new version automatically so I haven’t had to spend a penny on any of these thanks to my compulsive Steam game habit.
Roll on Quake 3/4 and Wolfenstein 3D/Return! And doom 3 why the hell not.
Re: Xbox Backtracks on $80 Price Tag for The Outer Worlds 2 Following Public Outcry
@Odium I don’t think it’s not deep. Not everyone has your level of foresight and an elaborate diagram to reference. I just think they got greedy after Nintendo’s move with Mario Kart.
Re: 'Aw, Nah! This Ain't Happenin'!': SEGA on Potential PS5 Sonic Adventure Remasters
@Blofse they are still up for sale on Steam. The summer sale is on so you can get both of them for £6.50 currently. Wouldn’t normally mention Steam on here since you know PlayStation but you said emulation so chances of having a PC capable of running these is higher.
Re: Incredible Looking Trails in the Sky Remake Is Real, But PS5, PS4 Players Will Have to Wait
@Ainu20 first one at least worked fine for me on Deck. Not got to the other 2 in the trilogy yet.
Re: People Are Already Freaking Out Over Monster Hunter Wilds' PS5 Frame Rate
@NEStalgia It's Win+Alt+B to turn HDR on and off. I just leave it on all the times now, I used to use the built in auto HDR feature which works like the one on Xbox Series consoles but I've switched to RTX HDR now which just seems to work better.
Only issues I really have with leaving HDR on all the time is the built in snipping tool does not play nice with it and you can get very washed out screenshots (this is apparently being fixed) and the Meta PC app is washed out. Note that is the app on your PC, doesn't affect in headset at all.
Re: Final Fantasy 16's PS5 Exclusivity Ends in September as PC Launch Is Locked Down
Oh and pleased to say it only uses 200-250w of my GPU so I'm able to play the demo without my GPU acting like a space heater and turning the room into a sauna.
Re: Final Fantasy 16's PS5 Exclusivity Ends in September as PC Launch Is Locked Down
So just played the first 40 minutes on my PC and unsurprisingly (13900K & 4090) it ran really well. I started off at 4K with DLSS quality (so 1440p upscaled) and I got a fairly stable 140ish with some dips down to 120 at worst. I tried frame gen and it boosted it up to 200-260ish but I only have a 144hz 4K display so just turned that off but useful for when I upgrade to one of the new 4K 240hz OLED monitors.
Once I got through the opening training bit I turned off DLSS just to see how it ran in that open area and seemed to get a fluctuating 80-120. Have noticed that the hair in cutscenes has horrendous ghosting that look likes TAA artifacts and turning on and off DLSS and so on didn't seem to fix it.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see FSR 3 so hopefully the PS5 version gets patched with this at some point. Also had FSR Frame gen so maybe that gets added like Immortals of Aveum, wouldn't do much for any input latency issues but would definitely help smooth the frame rate out for performance mode.
Like @GamingFan4Lyf didn't really spot many differences between this and the PS5 version except resolution and framerate.
Re: Final Fantasy 16's PS5 Exclusivity Ends in September as PC Launch Is Locked Down
@GamingFan4Lyf I pretty much exclusively use Humble Bundle as if you are a humble choice member you get a flat 15-20% off basically everything. Final Fantasy 16 is already £55 for the complete edition there. I think that only kicks in after a year of membership though.
Humble Choice is a pretty good monthly service where you get 8 or so games that they picked out. Normally 1-2 big ones and then smaller indies. If you don’t like a specific month then it’s easy to pause the subscription for that month.
Other reason I like humble is they work with the game publishers so all the keys are legit. The other 2 I use one occasion are greenmangaming.com and fanatical.com as they similarly work only with the publishers.
Then you get into the slightly more murky resellers who are normally legit but I’m still a little bit wares of like cdkeys. I would echo what a previous poster said and avoid Kinguin I’ve heard some bad stories there. With resellers quite often you get people selling stuff they got in bundles on other sites or purchased directly from the publisher but I’ve heard of people bulk buying keys with stolen credit card info and then the publisher being left in the unenviable position of choosing whether to revoke those keys or not as they lost out on money from it (credit card fees) vs pissing off people who didn’t know fraud was involved.
Some developers have even said they would prefer you pirate a game over using a site like Kinguin.
Re: Despite Being on PS Plus Extra, Sea of Stars Tops 100k Sales in One Day
I bought it on Steam despite having access through Gamepass and PS Plus. With RPGs my favourite way of playing them is curled up in bed late at night like I did as a kid. I have a Steam Deck so can play on that or my big PC.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty Expansion Is So, So Much More Than PS5 DLC
@anon_pel222 sounds like you just prefer the Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk. I’m the other way, Cyberpunk is one of my favourite genres and I’ve got all the Cyberpunk 2020 books.
The Witcher 3 is a way better game but I still load up Cyberpunk and just drive or go for a walk for the ambiance.
I do find it way more enjoyable taking the game slow so try for an hour or two just exploring a district and maybe doing a gig or two (I’m a big fan of Japantown). It might just not be for you. My brother has put 20-30 hours into Cyberpunk but has gone through The Witcher 3 multiple times.
Re: PS5, PS4's Next Assassin's Creed Could Be Sneakily Close
@Mad001 The game is up for preorder at Ubisoft's homepage and I am vaguely hopeful that it is less microtranaction oriented. There are only 2 editions and the deluxe one is only £5 more (£49.99 vs £44.99) and includes a 40 thieves quest with no mention of the usual rubbish they pack into their expensive editions.
Of course there is still time for this all to change and it to be the usual store focused mess but I live in hope.
Re: Gallery: Final Fantasy 16 Is Jaw-Dropping In New PS5 Screenshots
@ShogunRok to be fair if someone was born when FF12 came out they would be 17 when this game comes out (16 if you go by EU date) which is prime time for getting super engrossed in an RPG. (
Funnily enough this was me at 17 super hyped for FF12 the first game in the franchise to release when I was a fan.
Apologies for hitting you with the time realisation it makes me sad too
Re: Assassin's Creed Origins 60FPS Patch Likely as Ubisoft Investigates
Sweet, lets see if we can get all the way back to Black Flag! Now we just need them to work on AC Syndicate/AC Trilogy (which is in 4k but no 60fps and on Xbox it's 60fps thanks to performance boost but 900p) next.
Re: GTA Trilogy Patches and Updates Already in the Works for PS5, PS4
@Ghostngoblins have you had yours crash yet? I gave up yesterday after the 6th crash. I want to 100% it and am trying to get through all the side content on Portland before any of the gangs are hostile but it seems to be impossible with crashing ruining any paramedic, vigilante or fireman run at some point.
I'm just going to wait for the first patch and try again.
Re: GTA Trilogy Adds Waypoints, Mission Restarts, and GTA 5 Controls on PS5, PS4
@Sknarfm I’ve heard it was good (I’m too big of a baby to play horror games). I was more trying to forestall any people bringing up Wii motion controls as an argument against optional gyro aiming in general rather than disparage an console and every game on it. I had a Wii and while it’s my least favourite Nintendo system (well that I’ve owned, never had the displeasure of owning a Virtual Boy) it still had some good games on it. Just not as many as other systems and it was quickly buried under an avalanche of wiimote plastic crap and shovelware.
Re: GTA Trilogy Adds Waypoints, Mission Restarts, and GTA 5 Controls on PS5, PS4
@anoyonmus I know that but outside of games on switch (even those with versions on other consoles) it’s slim pickings. I’d like gyro controls to be an option on any PS4/5 game that it would be suitable for. No use on the Xbox with its lack of gyro but it baffles me why developers are reluctant to even offer it as an option.
Re: GTA Trilogy Adds Waypoints, Mission Restarts, and GTA 5 Controls on PS5, PS4
@MrSensical Agreed. I shudder at the mention of a Wiimote like most people but breath of the wild reallymopened my eyes to how good gyro could be as a fine tuning element for aiming. I played Horizon Zero Dawn afterwards and it was the one feature I missed. I don’t think this should be mandatory or anything but I hope the popularity of the switch and the upcoming Steam Deck popularise this feature.
Re: GTA Trilogy Trophy Art Leaks Online, References in Rockstar Launcher
@Would_you_kindly noooooooo. Bully is on my list to do after San Andreas it’s just I’ve been stuck on that and Jak 2 trophies for a good few months.
Re: GTA Trilogy Trophy Art Leaks Online, References in Rockstar Launcher
I’ve been trying to platinum San Andreas recently and the thing that keeps stopping me from playing the is the driving school. I know I don’t need to get golds on everything but I want to and the need to get 100% on each one is driving me crazy.
I actually went back to it a few days ago but quickly realised that the multi month break eroded my muscle memory enough to make it that much harder to get back….
That’s the main change I’d want to see to San Andreas at least. Make the schools a bit easier. Revamped controls and mission checkpoints would be nice too.
Re: Soapbox: After a Year of Silence, Today's PlayStation Showcase Can't Afford Dead Air
I had somehow not realised this was meant to be a big event until I got an advert on youtube for it. Trying to hold onto lack of hype so I'm not inevitably disappointed.
Re: Random: These Fake PlayStation Showcase Leaks Are Hilarious
If you are going to go for bonkers rumours then really go for one.
I predict Sony will retroactively brand the PS Vita the PSP2 and then immediately announce a PSP3.
Re: Soapbox: GTA: San Andreas Is Still an Open World Classic
San Andreas was the game I bought my PS2 for. I had played 3 and Vice City on PC but knew I wasn't going to be able to wait the 5-6 months for it to be ported. Luckily enough they released the slimline PS2 at the same time so I got a sleek unit at a reduced price.
I was only 15 but always looked older so didn't have any problems buying the game (not that my parents really cared). A few months later I happened to be in the Game downstairs in Churchill Square when another teen asked if I would buy it for him as he had been rejected already. I said sure but gave him a warning I was only 15 so might be rejected when he said he was 17. One successful GTA purchase later he had his copy. If you happen to be reading this random teen from the Brighton area hello! Hope you enjoyed the game.
Re: PlayStation Emulation Patent Raises Hopes of Retro Support
@nessisonett I recently watched a video Modern Vintage Gamer did where he went into the technical side of things of cell emulation and it looks like it is crazy difficult. With 10 years of development RPCS3 has gotten to around 60% of the library playable.
Now of course Sony has all the technical documentation and so on that makes it easier to develop but according to the people MVG interviewed it’s still a massive engineering task with a pretty questionable ROI. As we’ve seen with Microsoft’s approach they haven’t been able to bring everything over due to licensing issues and I doubt the people buying old PS3 games digitally would make back the investment.
I’d love to be proven wrong though but I think we are much more likely to see them port across any more PS3 games they think will sell. Off the top of my head I’d like Motorstorm Trilogy, Ratchet Games, Resistance trilogy, Infamous, Killzone trilogy and maybe the ps2 had collections they did if they don’t do further ps2 classic stuff. It could be a fairly cheap way to continue new titles coming to PS4 once the ps5 mainly has exclusives and they would be forward compatible of course.
This however doesn’t excuse the lack of ps1 and ps2 emulation however. PS1 was already fully software emulated on the PS3 and PS2 could be done easily now. They could have it so you can put any ps1 or 2 disc in but with no guarantee on how well it runs but have trophy supporting ones on the store guaranteed to work (discs should work for these too). I’ve got boxes full of ps1 and ps2 games just begging me to put them back on the shelves and this would be the excuse I needed.
Re: Next-Gen PSVR Controllers Revealed, Includes Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers
@Odium the combat in the game is basically throwing rocks at Parshendi and a Chasm Fiend. There’s a bit where you lash yourself to a chasm wall and Syl is flitting about like Navi in ocarina of time. No flying or anything sadly as I imagine it was very low budget.
If you are looking for a game with a similar feel to wind running I would suggest Gravity Rush 1&2. Aesthetically it is completely different but the main characters powers over gravity are surprisingly close to wind running as I discovered when I replayed it after finishing the latest book.
Re: Instead of a New Tomb Raider Game, Here's a Cookbook
I wasn't expecting them to announce the next major Tomb Raider game but I was hoping for something along the lines of the Tomb Raider Ultimate Experience thing that got reported on last August.
I'd love to replay the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games again. When the rumour was going around last August I did boot up my PS3 and give the original 5 a quick go and I very quickly bounced off them. If they had good save state support and maybe rewind then I could see me getting through at least the second one.
Re: Next-Gen PSVR Controllers Revealed, Includes Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers
@Odium yeah it was disappointing to me too when I first read some reviews of it but I was well aware when I bought it. It's probably worth watching on Youtube if you are interested. It won't quite be the same as experiencing it in VR but it's a nice visualisation of the shattered plains.
Re: Next-Gen PSVR Controllers Revealed, Includes Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers
@Odium I was annoyed the original PS VR game didn't get the Stormlight Archives thing but it was one of the first things I purchased when the Quest got PC VR support and it's not that great. It isn't really a game and is 30 minutes long if you take your time. It was more of a proof of concept thing they used to shop the series as a TV show/Movie
Also great username!
Re: PS Store Prequels & Sequels Sale Has Few Noteworthy PS4 Deals
@BranJ0 I played through the trilogy on my Switch exclusively on the TV. I have played through the originals so many times on my DS/3DS though that the novelty of seeing it on a 55" TV was great.
Been tempted to pick it up on PS4 again just for the trophies but would need a bigger discount to quadruple dip on the original trilogy.
Re: Sony Delighted by Reaction to Next-Gen PSVR Headset Announcement
@NEStalgia with the quest using it on PC compresses the image using x265 compression and it works well enough for me to play through boneworks, Alyx and countless other games. Apparently if you switch between a rift s and a quest you can tell the difference but it’s not easy to see.
Re: Sony Delighted by Reaction to Next-Gen PSVR Headset Announcement
@Jaz007 with the Quest you can use a USB cable to play PC VR games. It works pretty flawlessly on my computer and I’ve played a lot of Half Life Alyx and Boneworks because of it.
There’s also a wireless option in virtual desktop that lets you stream everything over WiFi but you need a pretty good network setup to get the most out of it.
Re: Sony Delighted by Reaction to Next-Gen PSVR Headset Announcement
@thefourfoldroot yeah I know what you mean about wireless not necessarily desired. I’ve used the WiFi in my house to stream games to my quest (before anyone comments about upgrading my WiFi I get 400MB/s 5.8ghz on my quest and everything except the quest is connected through gigabit Ethernet using commercial grade equipment) and it can get a bit finicky at times. I often use it wired connected to my pc as I’m lucky enough to have more free space around my pc than my tv.
The main pain points for me are the controls however. If the new PS VR has comparable controls to the quest then I will probably pick one up. Any fancy finger or eye tracking would be nice but having accurate motion controls that work outside a very small window (with analogue sticks) would dramatically improve the quality for me. I can deal with it needing a bit more set up than my quest.
Re: Sony Delighted by Reaction to Next-Gen PSVR Headset Announcement
@thefourfoldroot for me actually plugging it in to play was fine that only took 20 seconds or so (I have a female to female HDMI connector stuck to the top so I can get HDR with my original version with the least amount of fuss) but if I wanted to do anything other than sitting down and play something with a dualshock I needed to move furniture, set the PS Camera up on the high spot it worked best in (but was a bad place to leave it permanently) and that took me a good 5-10 minutes with adjusting everything.
Now when I want to play VR I use my Oculus Quest which as it's wire free I can use in bits of the house that are already clutter free. Since I got my Quest in 2019 I've used the PS VR like 3-4 times max.
Now a PS VR 2 with a single wire will still require me to move furniture but if it has an inside out tracking system I can cut down on the set up time massively and I would be able to play the PS VR games I've been grabbing in hope of a second one (I decided to still support Sony with their VR exclusives as the VR part of the industry is still fairly small).
Re: Rumour: Konami to Outsource Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania IPs
@Rhaoulos pffft Blu-Rays are so 2006. It’s all about the UHD Blu-Ray now! (For anyone tempted to well actually me I know uhd Blu rays are just standard Blu rays but on 4 layer discs).
Re: Share Your Gaming Stats with Spotify-Esque PlayStation Wrap Up 2020
I doubt anyone will beat me for embarrassing results.
1, Watch_Dogs 177 hours
2, Far Cry Primal 104 hours
3, Infamous Second Son 47 hours
At least I have the platinum in all 3 now!
Re: God of War Gets Full PS5 Support with 4K 60FPS Patch Coming Tomorrow
@Mysterio glad to see you already saw! I was going to tag you if you hadn't. Bit annoyed I finished it last week now but I've still got most of the trophies to get through so patch will serve me well there!
Just need The Last Of Us part 2 and Horizon now!