Grindagger

Grindagger

Gritty, Tough, But Velvety At Once.

Comments 496

Re: Poll: Has Xbox's Bethesda Buyout Made You Reconsider a PS5 Purchase?

Grindagger

It's a no from me, but for a variety of reasons.

1) All my friends play Playstation. I'm not going to go and play by myself on Xbox.

2) Sony haven't done anything for me to feel that my allegiance to their vision, their console and their future products should be shaken, just because a megacorp like Microsoft can snap up a huge video game developer like Zenimax.

3) I have a PC and can play most of what I want on there regarding Xbox products, so I see zero point in getting a console

4) Sony is cooler

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow How about the joy it brings me to use their products? Or has that become not a cool thing to do these days? Everything has to be "extra" in todays society (something I also disagree with).

This kind of attitude is representative of everything I dislike.

Entitlement rule, and anything that doesn't serve to my standard shall be henceforth cast into the pit, and cancelled from existence, everyone else needs to gather round as well and agree with me, on point of death....rolls eyes

It swung YOUR decision, it didn't swing mine, or many others. So, no, it's not a fact. Get off your high horse and realize you, as an individual are not the arbiter of whether something is a fact or not. FACTS are what decide if something is a fact or not, not an opinion of a single person. It's one thing to say "I reckon its seriously closed the gap between Xbox and Sony" it's another to say "This has closed the gap, it's a FACT".

Rule of thumb. Do you have quantifiable data to back up your claim that something is a fact? Yes. Ok, then show it. If you don't have any quantifiable data to back up something, that's called an opinion. This also works for "objective" and "subjective" comments.

We're beating a dead horse on the brand loyalty thing, we differ in opinion, you've said your piece I've said mine, lets put that one to bed.

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow "YOU said Sony cares about its consumers. Those were you words. I'm saying they don't care anymore that anybody else."

Yeah.....I did, and? Because you had a bad experience that means they don't? haha.

"Obviously the gap closing between Sony and Microsoft is not quantifiable. It's ridiculous to suggest it would. Of course it's opinion. What's your point?"

" I'm saying that Xbox have seriously closed the gap. That's not a lie"

Do I really have to recopy my last post to prove my point. You said it's "not a lie" that xbox has closed the gap, but it is, because it's pure speculation. C'mon man, at least read the posts before you reply.

"No. It OBJECTIVELY delivers more than PS Plus."

No, no it doesn't, because the quantative value is different, and that statement is disingenous. It's a distortion and a half truth to push a predetermined perspective. You should try getting some yourself, and take some of your own advice.

"One: I have owned every single one of Sony's consoles. Every. Single. One."

This means nothing. I had an Xbox and an Xbox 360. What's your point?

Corporate loyalty can be stupid, but depends on the context. Blind corporate loyalty, yes. I think, overall Sony has a good image in the public, sure they've made a few blunders over the years, but not anything within the realm of Activision or EA for example. Equally, I'd admit Microsoft, keeps itself fairly outside of the shady area of business on the whole, and also has a good image. So, really, both companies are in good stead, and it's not wrong to have allegiance to either, in terms of loyalty. To say otherwise is stupid. It's ok to have a love for something, providing that love is not distorted by half truths, lies and propaganda driven rhetoric hint hint.

Also, for the record, whilst I may be a strong advocate for Sony products, I'm equally not one to go around sticking it to Xbox players when Sony had reached X milestone during the current generation. I think that kind of fanboying is stupid. What I don't agree with is people trying to push agendas that aren't accurate in order to subliminally convert people to a certain viewpoint either directly or subversively. It's fine, have an opinion, just don't tout it off as fact.

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow

"Pretty much every Series X launch title is going to be on there. Yes, it's a LOT more expensive than Plus, but it delivers much more. That's not Sony bashing, it's just an objective truth."

Here you state it's an objective truth that it delivers more, which is correct, but you've deliberately tried to mislead because whilst it's objectively true they offer more, it's only half true because there is a pricepoint different, which in honesty completely makes the point redundant to begin with.

" I'm saying that Xbox have seriously closed the gap. That's not a lie"

Where is your objective truth they've closed the gap? Oh right, you have zero, because there's no information on how much the gaps been closed, it's just people like you trying to sway their hidden shill agenda to the people who are going to eat that up.

You've no proof any gap has been closed, that's just your subjective opinion.

You obviously didn't read my comment properly regarding CS as I said it affects ALL corporate enterprises, that includes microsoft. It's just a moot argument to try and say "I've had a bad experience with a customer services representative, therefore X product is rubbish, because I say so!".

It's fine that you're a Microsoft shill, you've shown your hand in that respect, and as someone so poignantly pointed out, I'm a Sony fanboy, and I don't have a problem with that either, I'd rather be honest about my position, and at least give opinions rather than push an agenda that is being put cross as fact, or conjecture that's based off of nothing, but a mere opinion.

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow I didn't have a problem with you saying gamepass was good, I said I had an issue with you calling it objectively better, when it can't be fairly directly compared. Maybe you meant subjectively?

In regards to Microsoft supposedly being the better choice now, Xbox have done no such thing, what gap have they closed? They've bought one studio out of hundreds. You talk as if it's doomsday for Sony, when in reality it just means they'll get a few games a bit later than Xbox will, big. deal.

You may well not be anti-sony, but boy you sure do like pushing that microsoft shill button with some of your extremist viewpoints that don't amount to anything but exasperating, scaremongering rhetoric.

Nothing has even been announced as to how this will impact Sony, and yet people are happy to jump ship and then go on the warpath about how Sonys losing the edge. It's just not true, sorry. It's conjecture at the very best, and nonsense at the worst.

And lastly on your point of customer services (whilst I don't think it's that relevent to the subject at hand) I've never had to personally call or deal with them regarding my Playstation or at any point in my history of owning one of their consoles, but I'm sure you're right that their customer services are bad, a lot of corporate enterprises have terrible customer services, and for every one person comes away thinking it's an amazing experience, there are 5 more that are left sorely disappointed. You'll find disgruntled people everywhere when it comes to customer service experiences, mainly because it's something they want, but aren't necessarily entitled to. That's another matter, and frankly since CS is such a volatile experience, commentary surrounding it isn't really worth its weight in gold.

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow Sure, Sony doesn't care about me as an individual, but they care about their consumers, in the same way that a pop singer cares about their fans. Maybe not on an individual level, but as a collective they certainly do. Sure, it's a business, but at the end of the day, the people there doing the work, do so because they love what they do, and because they want to deliver for their consumers.

Secondly, your "objective" truth is a strawman, because you're comparing something that's more expensive against something that's cheaper. Apples and oranges, so your comment is misleading and disingenous.

Thirdly, like I said, you have your reasons to switch, because you're worried you won't be able to play a few select games that Bethesda make (Microsoft have said they're going to honour the PS exclusives in the immediate future), and I'm fairly certain the games released from Bethesda will be nothing more than timed exclusives. Youve just made a panicked, uninformed decision in my eyes.

If you look at other xbox owned studios like Mojang, Minecraft is available on Sony platforms, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar with Bethesda, the IPs are too big for Microsoft not to recoup that investment back from the money they can acquire from the Sony platform, also it would further back up their insistent claims for community cohesion on multiplayer compatibility across all consoles, and show good faith, which is a much better opportunity to raise their PR status and gain peoples trust.

So, no, I don't think my loyalty is misplaced, because I don't make decisions based off of an acquisition without first looking at previous examples as a matter of fact, and/or kneejerk reactions and turning on a coin flip when something happens and go into a panic.

Nothing you've said is objective without a nuanced strawman to back it up, your reasons for moving are based on no evidence or review, but pure reactionary action without seeing whether it affects the platform or the games or not. As I mentioned above, it's not proven to be an issue previously with microsoft acquired studios, I don't see why it should do now.

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

Grindagger

@Darylb88 Being one of those people myself, I can concur that this was a big reason I bought into sony products when they first emerged on the scene.

However, in regards to numbers and selling figures, I fear you're a bit misguided on your numbers. Whilst Japanese games do have a following, specifically for the really big ones like Final Fantasy or the FromSoftware titles as examples, these are mostly cross platform. What you're referring to is the niche JRPGs and other such Japanese themed games which cumulatively have a fanbase, but ultimately do not represent a large proportion of the average console purchaser.

Having said that, I don't doubt for a moment that this particular market share does have it's devotees such as myself, and other like minded individuals, and it definitely serves it's own purpose on console sales, but ultimately, it accountancy for overall sales figures is decidedly small.

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

Grindagger

@Deadcow Not murdered, but to be frank you're talking mostly nonsense.

Sony's latest offering gives access to a plethora of back catalogue games that previously were all triple A titles. Sure gamepass is stellar in it's own right, but you can't just dismiss Sonys offering as substandard, when it's clearly not. In fact, they're on a much similar line now then they ever were before for the subscription services.

Furthermore, whilst I do not for a minute doubt that in your mind, and for your own reasons you feel that your move to Xbox is a valid decision, please note that there are those of us that do believe in brand loyalty.

At this point, I don't feel Sony have done anything untowards or detrimental to it's fans other than a blunder with pre-orders (which considering the current situation is reasonable to understand), and not like a spoiled, precocious child, something as minor as this is not going to warrant me doing a 180 and turning my back on them.

If there was legitimate reason to switch sides, due to some horrible company practices, or underhanded tactics, then sure, but they haven't. I believe that Sony are still going to deliver this generation, and Xbox have resorted to having to spend fortunes to try and get the upper hand.

Whilst this may appear to be big right now, and may assuage your decision to jump ship, majoritively because of an acquisition, shows that your faith in Sony was never there to begin with, even when they've proved time and time again, in the face of adversity that they can come out ahead of their competition.

Re: The Elder Scrolls, Fallout Developer Bethesda Bought By Microsoft

Grindagger

@Jarobusa That's not the point I was making. I'm not talking about money.

Having said that, I still don't think it's going to change things much.

Just look at Mojang for that, not like microsoft has stopped selling Minecraft to Sony, so I don't see why they'd do it with Bethesda.

In my opinion, Xbox should just jump out of the console war, and focus on games.

Re: Two New Demon's Souls PS5 Screenshots Have Shown Up Alongside Placeholder Box Art

Grindagger

@SirAngry To be honest, this is exactly how I feel. A lot of people have been saying Demon Souls won't be a release title, but, this would seem fairly illogical.

Demon Souls has yet to be experienced by probably a large portion of the fromsoftware gaming community that were either very young when demon souls came out on PS3, or weren't yet invested in the souls games.

Now this game has bridged a generation, and Sony I'm sure are aware of it's potential console shifting power, and in my estimation would of thought they would endevour to get this released on schedule for PS5 release in order to get as many people on board with the PS5 as humanly possible.

But I digress, not going to know anything until the lineup has actually been announced, however at this rate, we're more likely to have a tortoise finish the London Marathon before we hear anything prior to the console getting shipped.

Re: Two New Demon's Souls PS5 Screenshots Have Shown Up Alongside Placeholder Box Art

Grindagger

@IonMagus Depends. The original Japanese box art didn't have the external red glow, that was only really the NA box art. EU was a very white blue glow.

I think it looks fine as it is. The glow look is quite outdated nowadays, and the striaght white looks quite striking and clean.

The box art itself could definitely do with a change up though. Looks like a screenshot from the game.

Re: Soapbox: Let's Give Activision a Bit of Credit, Yeah?

Grindagger

@JapaneseSonic imho it's never silly to hold people accountable for ignorance. Ignoring it just breeds more ignorance.

Also no one is stating you have to be angry with push square, but it's not exactly hard to understand why people are. If you cant see that then there's not much more I can say on the matter.

Re: Soapbox: Let's Give Activision a Bit of Credit, Yeah?

Grindagger

@JapaneseSonic I'm sorry you feel that way, truly I do.

Just to clarify I'm not here to shame anyone, merely point out some truths. I appreciate you have your own blogs and news outlets to read, that for whatever reasons you like to pigeonhole to cover certain criteria, just understand that not everyone sees the world in such a black and white manner when it comes to voicing their opinions on important matters.

Re: Soapbox: Let's Give Activision a Bit of Credit, Yeah?

Grindagger

@JapaneseSonic I'm not sure how you can possibly try to make a strawman argument like this, that is completely disregarding an important aspect of the company in question.

It's akin to pointing out the good points of a serial killers personality, and how they might of done X amount of good things in their lives, leaving out.... oh, i don't know, the part about them being a serial killer.

Context, it's important.

Activision are a scummy company, and don't deserve any small amount of praise. Period. Certainly not when they have several high profile moral atrocities to their name that are often discounted in the same manner as this article, and the likes of you trying to trivialize an important integral factor of what this company stands for, in place of giving them some "credit" for a few recent game releases. Sorry, but excuse me (and others here that share my perspective) for having a memory that is longer than a goldfish.

Re: Soapbox: Let's Give Activision a Bit of Credit, Yeah?

Grindagger

@JapaneseSonic To be honest, this just isn't acceptable.

If you're a journalist, and responsible for putting out articles to the public, what you say has to be held to account. This is not a facebook wall post that you're sharing with friends, it's an article in the public domain, and therefore it needs to be accountable to cover the facts. Rather than just blindly praising a company, without explaining the reasons why people feel vitriolic disdain for companies like Activision.

Equally, I can see why some people are referring to the writer as a "shill", because he's provided zero context, but just tried to convince people why we should give Activision credit (when it's definitely not due).

As you can see, a lot of people here are completely ignorant of the reasons why, and articles like this don't exactly help holding corporate entities and their rubbish values to account.

Re: Soapbox: Let's Give Activision a Bit of Credit, Yeah?

Grindagger

People here defending Activision are clearly ignorant of the practices involved by the company.

People don't hate Activision because they make bad games (that's purely a matter of taste), people hate Activision for their slimey, grubby and downright disgusting business practices. Just because some people here want to remain blithly ignorant of the matter, does not excuse the company from the facts in how they do business.

Activision deserves ZERO praise. They are a morally reprehensible company, corrupt to the core, and thoroughly devoid of any redeeming qualities (that is unless you're willing to put their games ahead of your integrity).

Re: Ghost of Tsushima Has the Most Impressive Metacritic User Score of the Console Generation

Grindagger

To be fair the metacritic scoring for users is mostly pointless.

Without verifiable proof that the persons review has come from actually playing the game it leaves the score open to unscrupulous exploitative methods.

That's not to say that a lot of the games that have user ratings are inaccurate, as some "neutral" games that don't pull the ire of the gaming community tend to have fairly well balanced scores. But polarizing games that have political agenda attached to them tend to be the biggest culprits of inaccurate, and basically pointless scoring.

As @nessisonett said, add some sort of verifiable process that the person has bought and played the title, so that their contribution can be validated, or just remove it entirely, or come up with another way for users to review the game. Maybe add some sort of questionairre that would need you having to either go and do some research, or have to had finished the game in order to know the answers.

Re: Don't Panic, But More PlayStation Exclusives Will Come to PC

Grindagger

@SeverinMadara Believe me, Sony cares. PC may not be a direct console competitor, but it's tied in with Xbox as they're under the same company, furthermore if the exclusives weren't coming to PS4, then there would be a lot less reason to get a PS4 than say a PC. The exclusive IPs literally allow Sony to keep ahead on their sales, by enticing customers to their console by means of exclusives. People are a lot more inclined to purchase a console if there are top tier games on it that can't be played elsewhere.

The difference here (at least at this point in time) is the exclusives being ported are literally years old, and their IP have been all but consumed, and sales have likely dried up to the point that anyone on PS4 that wanted to play those games, has played them by now. Hell, Horizon Zero Dawn must of been through about 30+ sales since it's release on PS4, hence my earlier comment about throwing a dog a bone.

An expensive bone it may be, but it is a bone nonetheless.

Re: PS5 Won't Play PS3, PS2, or PS1 Games

Grindagger

@japongt I was going to respond, but @theheadofabroom pretty much covered what I had to say in regards to Xbox BC.

To be honest, if you'd done some research yourself before you responded, you could of saved yourself the necessity of writing that completely pointless comment.

Re: PS5 Won't Play PS3, PS2, or PS1 Games

Grindagger

A lot of ignorant people here, who don't understand how backwards compatibility works, or the cost involved in introducing it into their consoles.

The reasons for not offering backwards compatibility in newer systems boil down to one thing: money. For the stripping of PS2 compatibility on the PS3, the reason was cost. It cost extra money to include the PS2’s processors in each PS3, and these processors weren’t necessary for the PS3’s base functionality. Thus, BC was deemed an unreasonable cost. But when full software emulation surfaced for PS2 Classics, Sony decided to not allow all PS3s to play PS2 discs for the purpose of selling PS2 Classics on the PlayStation Store.

PS3 compatibility on the PS4 was never intended due to the likely-extravagant costs of developing a software emulator to allow it. Note that the PS2, PS3, and PS4 all have wildly different processor architectures. (The PS1 and PS2 use different generations of MIPS, the PS3 uses PowerPC, and the PS4 uses x86–64. GPU architectures are different too, with the PS3 using a custom nVidia GeForce, and the PS4’s CPU including an on-board AMD Radeon graphics unit.) Short of including the previous generations’ hardware in the system, software emulation is the only way to have backwards-compatibility. It’s just not feasible for Sony to develop a PS3 emulator for the PS4 within a reasonable financial or time constraint. This also applies for the PS4 to PS5 in the same manner, they would of already invested a lot of cheese just to get PS5 running with PS4 BC, to add other systems with completely different infrastructure would be pointless, costly, would only cater to a small minority of their userbase and most importantly would take up space in the PS5 which would reduce it from being a better, more advanced, feature rich next gen console.

If you're going to spew ignorance over the internet, at least try to have some level of argument rather than "WAHHH, I WANT MY BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY!!! WAAAH"

Re: PS5 Won't Play PS3, PS2, or PS1 Games

Grindagger

@Stocksy On digital titles, I can agree with you. Just to clarify my argument is on physical copies from older consoles, not the digitized versions on PS3 onwards.

On the position on PS3 digital games, I feel that it's unfortunate for a lot of people who purchased those games, as the group of people doing so back then was far far smaller than on the PS4, which is likely why it's been overlooked. It sucks, but that's business for you.

Lastly, I think this articles is meant to represent physical copies, as anything before PS3 was physical anyway, there was no digital options.

Correct me if Im wrong here, but from my understanding, any games that were purchased in the PS4 store, would fall under "PS4 Games" irreguardless of whether they were PS1, PS2 or PS3 games created to play on the PS4 platform.

Re: PS5 Won't Play PS3, PS2, or PS1 Games

Grindagger

@Stocksy How on earth is that criminal?

If people have bought PS1 games, they are playable..... on a PS1!

I think, moving forward this compatibility thing is a much more important issue due to the rise of digital libraries.

If you've got a library of old PS1, PS2 or even PS3 games, there is nothing to stop you playing them on the old systems respectively.

The reason backwards compatibility is such a big deal right now, is there are a lot of people who have invested potentially thousands into a digital back catalog. Even then, if you wish, you could continue to play these games historically on your PS4 (I still don't see this as a terrible thing), however, for conveniences sake, and also to align themselves more to the likes of Steam, a digital library that is accessible across generations is a necessary theme as we move into a new era.

Old eras can continue as they were. Want to play an old game, play it on an old system, simple.

Re: Sony's Finally Resolved the PS Store's Biggest Flaw

Grindagger

The only time this would be redundant, is if the game is multiplayer only.

Here, you can buy this game if you no longer have PS Plus, but you'll need PS plus to take part in the multiplayer, so therefore the purchase would be completely unnecessary. I hope these instances have been locked off.