Comments 1,752

Re: Nintendo's New Playtime Tracker Has the Granular Gameplay Activity Data We Want from PS5

Max_the_German

@nomither6 Yes, they do quite a lot, especially with more and more games getting ported over from that systems to Switch 1 and 2. But also comparisons of the two-tier Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) service, which is the first such Nintendo service to pay for, with PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass and their ever-increasing prices.

Nintendo Life seems to have much self-esteem, and the fanboiism of both the authors and readers is comparatively low. There‘s a reason why it’s the leading Nintendo-focused website.

Re: Leaked Cross-Buy Icon on PS5 Hints at Mysterious Pro-Consumer Move from Sony

Max_the_German

I doubt that „CROSS-BUY“ stands for PS5+PC or PS6+PC, because of the colours of this symbol. They resemble the colours of the face buttons of a PS controller, that is VERY PS console and PS brand specific. On a PC, you can use other controllers (whether you should is a different question).

I think it could be used to indicate games which can be cross-bought for PS5 and PS6. The symbol could already be in use with the PS6 kits in development, and the system developers added it for testing this feature on the PS5 as well.

Re: PS2 Set to Remain King of Consoles as Nintendo Switch Sales Start to Stall

Max_the_German

@DrVenture69

I just replayed TotK on Switch 2, and it was a huge difference compared to my first playthrough on Switch 1. Getting 20 fps when using Ultrahand reduced the fun in a way that I stopped experimenting with it. On Switch 2, I had SO MUCH more fun with it. Also, the higher framerate made it a bit easier in the hardest battles, so less frustration there.

My initial reception of TotK was mediocre, and thanks to Switch 2 with its stable 60 fps, I could appreciate the game much more for what it is. Unfortunately, I still dislike its story and pacing, and with the improved graphics on Switch 2, they stick out more, but that‘s a different story.

Re: PS5's PUBG Port Will Target a Lower Resolution Than Xbox Series X, Trophies Won't Transfer

Max_the_German

@wildcat_kickz

Xbox Series hardware is custom as well. It supports some features the PS5 doesn’t, but for most game engines, they are just ignored.

The bigger difference lies in the arrangement of the graphics units: Xbox Series X has more cores (52 compared to 36 in PS5), but on lower clocks. The resulting raw power of Series X is ca. 20% higher, but in real life it’s more complicated. Think of two departments of the same type, one with 52 workers, the other with 36 significantly faster workers (heavy simplification). Organising the tasks with fewer workers is easier, they are earlier available to take the next task, unproductive downtimes are reduced.

That’s the reason why in many games, especially with a lower level of optimisation by the developers, the PS5 is on a same level as the Xbox. Other developers are better skilled or spend more resources into optimising and can therefore benefit from Xbox‘s advantage in raw performance. I don’t think that this is the case here for PUBG: The real resulting resolutions will probably much closer than „1440p vs. 4k“ suggests.

Sony‘s main advantages of its approach: Fewer cores reduce the expensive chip space, and 36 cores is the same number as for PS4 Pro, so PS4 Pro optimised games greatly use the PS5 hardware for backwards compatibility.

Re: PS2 Set to Remain King of Consoles as Nintendo Switch Sales Start to Stall

Max_the_German

@DrVenture69 DKB feels like a 3D Super Mario game turned up to 11. And it’s just so full of charm and heartwarming moments. The worst part is the pacing: It starts with a bang, but then it slows down quite a bit. But after the midpoint of the story (you know it when you’re there), the pull becomes stronger and stronger, and the finale and the past-game are just madness, with a tough-but-pleasant difficulty.

There are very few games I play to completion, collecting stuff is a chore to me. And in DKB, I collected ALL of the more than thousand (?) items. Give DK a try!

Re: GTA London Will Remain a One-Off, as the Series Needs Guns and American Culture, Says Dan Houser

Max_the_German

I‘m still thinking that the divided Berlin in the 70s would be a good setting. It was heavily militarised (thousands of soldiers from the US, UK, France and the Soviet Union), had (and still have) an international organised crime and attracted the weirdest people, like David Bowie. Many cultural conflicts of today
can be traced back to this period. And soldiers of the Allies were allowed to cross the sector borders without permission any time.

They could create a game with an American soldier as protagonist, who is doing illegal business in East Berlin with communist, and his boss finds it out and starts chasing him. And discussion today’s cultural trends in this satirical setting can be more funny, subtle and impressive than doing it in a setting of today.

Re: 'It Happens on PS5': New PlayStation Adverts Mark Five Years of PS5

Max_the_German

I think I finally understand these adverts. The message: „You can experience this crazy situation in an ultra-realistic environment on PS5, and not on a Switch 2.“

Third-party games are doing the job and generate the most of the revenue and profit. First-party is just not needed at this point, with Xbox Series a non-competitor now and Xbox games available on PS5. PCs are still too expensive and uncomfortable for many people out there, let’s see if Microsoft can change that with its next Xbox generation.

I hope that the presumable end of the „high-profile console competition“ will not reduce the efforts of SIE for high-profile first-party games.

Re: 'It Happens on PS5': New PlayStation Adverts Mark Five Years of PS5

Max_the_German

@Megabeenz SIE could also bring Astro Bot into these adverts. Such a positive and playful vibe, and the best face for PlayStation I can imagine.

Or making a reference to the huge catalogue of great games: Instead of sitting in a bus on top of the Empire State building, the protagonist could also sit in a train wagon, hanging vertically over a gorge.

Re: Obsidian's Already Trying to Improve The Outer Worlds 2's Poor Presentation on PS5 Pro

Max_the_German

@Rich33 Thank you! I think I‘ve heard about this „bad position of PSSR in UE5‘s rendering pipeline“ before, but I wasn’t certain about it; your explanation helped me a lot.

I‘m quite optimistic that FSR4 AI upscaling will receive much better software support than PSSR, because also the base PS5 is compatible with non-AI FSR4, and it will probably be a very, very long cross-gen phase.

Re: Obsidian's Already Trying to Improve The Outer Worlds 2's Poor Presentation on PS5 Pro

Max_the_German

@themightyant Maybe the term „to blame“ has a harsher and more emotional sound in English than the equivalent term in German. The better question is „What is the technical root cause for the low harmony between UE5 and PSSR?“

And I‘m still interested in this. Because I want to better understand the future of PSSR. In case it has an architecture which doesn’t fit well to middleware like UE and it gets replaced soon by FSR4, I wouldn’t be surprised if PS6 skips PSSR support entirely and uses the base model game version if no FSR4 is available.

Re: Obsidian's Already Trying to Improve The Outer Worlds 2's Poor Presentation on PS5 Pro

Max_the_German

@Megabeenz Well, maybe I was naive and expected sober explanations from experienced professionals. And no, I am pretty unemotional about the PS5 Pro hardware. I am sceptical about the strategic decision of SIE to bring a second PS5 system to the market in this late stage though.

But your tip actually helped: While Google wasn’t successful, I found this article:

https://wccftech.com/playstation-5-pro-bad-pssr-older-version/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

It says that older PSSR versions could be a problem. If this is the case here, I‘m surprised that Obsidian would use an older PS5 SDK.

Re: Obsidian's Already Trying to Improve The Outer Worlds 2's Poor Presentation on PS5 Pro

Max_the_German

@Oram77 Of course I remember. I see a triangle of requirements for a good technical implementation: skill, means (time + budget) and motivation.

Many engineers love sophisticated technologies and their mastery due to their own pride (at least in my experience), so motivation (or „lazyness“ as the lack of) should in many cases be less of an issue.

I guess in this case it was a combination of a lack of skill (i.e. the lack of experience with PSSR) and the means (late introduction of PS5 as a target platform, while keeping the autumn 2025 release date). The flawless results on Xbox Series demonstrate that Obsidian has great software engineers, and they are probably those who are the saddest about the mediocre results on PS5 (Pro).

The fragmented landscape of upscaling technologies reminds me of the early days of PC gaming, when you needed a specific graphics card to get a nice image quality. In the end, only nVidia and ATi remained, and so we will probably see a concentration in the upscaler market to DLSS and FSR as well.

Re: Obsidian's Already Trying to Improve The Outer Worlds 2's Poor Presentation on PS5 Pro

Max_the_German

@Oram77 I don’t single out the PS5 Pro. I just ask for the reason for the generally poor image quality of PSSR in UE5. Is PSSR different from other upscalers in its pipeline, which doesn’t work well in combination of UE5‘s pipeline? Did Epic just a bad job, or was it intentionally (which would be very surprising to me)? Or are the developers just not experienced enough in handling these various upscaling technologies?

Re: Thief PSVR2 Game Gives VR Players Something to Look Forward To

Max_the_German

@Alps_Stranger This argument of „No PSVR2, so no focus on building up a PSVR2 games library“ is really convincing.

This whole PSVR2 story is a story of many broken hearts. Imagine how many people inside of SIE spend years of work to create the hardware and its operating software, and then they found out what Jimbo and Hermen planned as SIE games for it.

Re: Talking Point: Is PS5 Really in Competition with TikTok?

Max_the_German

There‘s no doubt that smartphone activists in general are taking away time you could also spend on gaming. But I wouldn’t limit it to TikTok:

Smartphones are so popular because you always have them with you, they fit into your pocket or bag, and you can easily use them on the sofa, in a bus, in other places.

And because we are all so used to it, THAT‘s why handheld gaming will dominate in the next few years!

Edit: And a nice article indeed!

Re: Rumour: PS Portal Could Be About to Get Even More Compelling

Max_the_German

That‘s the next logical step: streaming parts of your own digital library to PS Portal. I imagine that quickly increasing the number of available games is a priority for the streaming team at SIE.

And why shouldn’t Sony make PS Portal a fully capable alternative to the PS console? I mean, not selling controllers and other peripherals hurts, but they don’t earn a lot with selling the console itself. What they earn their money with is selling games and microtransactions.

But as RoomWithAMoose already mentioned: Xbox now offers streaming with its lowest tier Game Pass, which is the equivalent to PS Plus Essential. And Microsoft doesn’t offer a compelling streaming hardware!

So, please Sony: Make streaming available on PS Plus Essential, and flood the market with PS Portal. There’s so much potential in it!

Re: Loulan: The Cursed Sand Looks Like Another Must Play PS5 Console Exclusive

Max_the_German

„Must Play“ is liberally used by PushSquare:

  • Atomfall: https://www.pushsquare.com/previews/atomfall-proves-a-must-play-mystery-on-ps5-ps4?utm_source=chatgpt.com
  • Pixel Ripped 1978: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/05/pixel-ripped-1978-will-be-a-psvr2-must-play-for-retro-gamers?utm_source=chatgpt.com
  • Pac-Man World Re-Pac, and
  • Tin Hearts: https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/5-new-ps-plus-games-you-must-play-on-ps5-ps4-this-month?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Re: Random: Fans Can't Believe Halo Is Coming to PS5 Before Killzone

Max_the_German

While Killzone is dead from Hermen‘s perspective, I can’t believe that Sony tricked us so badly with its PSVR2 support. I invested more mony in my PSVR2 than in my PS5 console, and all what SIE offered me was Horizon, a patched GT7, Firewall Ultra (?!) and a non-game called Climate Station.

Sorry, I saw some outrage here and wanted to vent my anger.

Re: Halo PS5 Is Great, But Why Doesn't It Have Competitive Multiplayer?

Max_the_German

I think that there will be a MP Halo game, and it makes sense to me to seperate them:

  • SP campaigns and MP are different regarding maps, balancing, networking and other aspects. Development should become much easier if you focus on just one aspect and try to make it great. Halo Infinite seems to be lacklustre in both aspects.
  • SP games typically have shorter cycles than MP-only games. As a publisher, you want to keep the MP audience on your existing game as long as possible to expand that specific ecosystem.

A semi-good example is CoD: People expect a SP and MP mode in a new CoD game, but Activision wants us to stay on Warzone as long as possible, because this should be their cash cow. A yearly CoD with campaign and MP is needed to keep the brand fresh and interesting, but it’s probably not the focus anymore.