Comments 2,932

Re: PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads

Paranoimia

I once said I didn't see the point of Twitter. Then I joined, and 14 years later I'm still there.

I don't use it as much as I once did, but that usage decline has nothing to do with Musk... it started before him, a few years ago when the whole atmosphere began to change, the mobs began to form, and anyone without the "correct" attitude started to get hounded. And I don't make any comment about what the "correct" attitude is, because people on all sides harass those they believe to be "wrong". I just do my best to stay away from it.

So my social media usage dropped significantly. I deleted my Facebook account in June last year, though I still have my Instagram account for now. I didn't move to Mastodon, I won't be moving to Bluesky, and the absolute last thing I want is another Zuckerberg/Meta/Facebook app; I only keep WhatsApp because some friends refuse to move to Telegram, but that may well go soon.

So I'll stay on Twitter, where I've had no issues at all yet. If it dies, so be it. But I doubt that it will.

Re: Sony Eager to Ensure PS Plus Remains Relevant and Offers More Value

Paranoimia

Not sure what they could do to make it any more worthwhile for me.

I maintain my Essential sub for online, basically, and renewed for 2 years during the Days of Play sale. I take maybe 4 of the "free" Plus games each year, as most on offer are usually of no interest to me... and nothing on the higher levels is worth the money either, as far as I'm concerned. I have no interest in replaying PS1 or PS2 games, I still have my PS3 if I want those games, my PS5 will play my PS4 games, and I've zero interest in streaming games.

Re: Poll: Which PS5 Blockbuster Will You Be Playing in June?

Paranoimia

Personally, I think 2023 has been pretty dire for games so far. Certainly not interested in any of these. Off the top of my head, I can't actually think of anything for the rest of this year that I'm particularly bothered about either. 🤷🏻‍♂️

At least 6DiF hits Steam early access later this month.

Re: Reaction: Sony Flubs First Proper PS5 Presentation in Over 18 Months

Paranoimia

I went in not really expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed.

Except... I was disappointed.

I was expecting one or two things I'd be interested in, and about 50 minutes of apathy and disappointment.

I was wrong!

What I got, personally, was an hour and twenty minutes of apathy and disappointment. Too many CGI "not actual gameplay" trailers, and not a single title that I was interested in.

Sure, Spider-Man 2 looked pretty, but I bought the first game in a PSN sale ages after release, and while I found it fun initially, I was finding it pretty repetitive by the end. I got Miles Morales with my PS5 in July 2021, but while I did install it, I haven't been bothered enough to play it yet. And SM2 looked like even more of the same, so... meh. Not that it's bad, it's just that superhero games generally just don't do it for me... never have.

Oh well, there's always next time.

The Remote Play gadget needs to cost no more than a game, so £50 to £70 at most, but you just know they'll over-price it and then drop it when it doesn't sell. And I think the earbuds will be a silly price as well.

Re: Days Gone 2 Could Have Released 'a Month Ago', Says Game Director

Paranoimia

Would have loved a sequel to what for me was the best game of the PS4 generation. Hordes on PS5 would have been something special, I bet.

I'm seeing lots of people on the Days Gone subreddit who have picked up the game and are absolutely loving it. I think Sony badly miscalculated on this one.

Of course, it would also have given them something to release during what can only be described as a significant lull in major first-party blockbuster output. These first few years of PS5 have been quite disappointing as far as I'm concerned, given there haven't been many great first-party releases, and what there has been hasn't really made best use of the new system because it's hamstrung by needing to cater for last gen; I only got mine in July 2021, but while I love the system, I wouldn't be too bothered at this moment in time if I'd stuck with my PS4 Pro.

Re: GTA 6 Publisher Is Anticipating a PS5 Pro

Paranoimia

They need to stop with these "pro" systems, in my personal opinion. It diminishes the impact of new generations.

I tried to get a PS5 at launch but couldn't, and I didn't get one until July 2021. Yet to be honest, I could quite happily be without it at this moment in time.

Loading speeds aside, at this point in time, it's not proven to be that big a step up from my PS4 Pro, and there's a dearth of games taking full advantage of it because everyone's still catering for last gen. Add to that the fact that most of Sony's first-party studios completed their last games not long before PS5 was due, and nearly 3 years in we still find ourselves with very few of their own blockbuster titles.

So please, Sony... forget the PS5 Pro and focus on the PS6 in another 4 or 5 years. Let's get some games that properly take advantage of the hardware we have, before you start trying to convince us to make another unnecessary half-step upgrade.

Re: Promising PS5 Shooter ARC Raiders Just Changed Its Entire Genre

Paranoimia

Had never heard of it, and might have been interested if it was co-op PvE.

PvP? Forget it. There are more than enough PvP shooters, and they all devolve into the same crap. There need to be way more co-op PvE shooters.

I'd never heard of Deep Rock Galactic before it hit Plus. I downloaded it out of curiosity and it's one of the most fun games I've ever played... I put in hundreds of hours last year and still go back to it. It also has one of the best, most fun-loving, least toxic communities of any multiplayer game, and that can't be a coincidence.

Devs need to learn that PvP is not a necessity.

Re: Battlefield Will Return in an Entirely New Way on PS5, EA Exec Has 'Extraordinary Confidence' in Team

Paranoimia

I've been enjoying 2042 with a couple of friends against the AI since we picked it up 'free' on Plus.

I haven't bought any Battlefield game since BF4 at the launch of PS4. Never really did enjoy competitive FPS and much prefer those with a decent length single-player and co-op.

I know it won't be, but I would actually love it if Guerilla's next game was a Killzone title with a lengthy campaign and upto 4-player drop-in/drop-out co-op.

Re: The Last of Us PC Is Not 'Naughty Dog Quality', Developer Admits

Paranoimia

Naughty Dog quality is still a thing... on PlayStation. As I understand it, this wasn't made directly by Naughty Dog.

This is what happens when you have a multitude of hardware options - a game never runs the same for one person as it does for another. That's why I game on PS5 whenever possible, despite having a perfectly capable gaming PC.

Re: Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores Introduces the Waterwing in New Footage

Paranoimia

Oh, don't go plugging the new machines. Let us be amazed when we encounter them in-game. 😞

As much as I loved HFW, there wasn't really any feeling of wonder when encountering new machines for the first time, because they'd already been outed.

It's inevitable that people will start plastering it all over social media when it releases, but they can be largely avoided; when the devs do it and all the news outlets start writing about it, it's tougher to do.

Leave us something to marvel at, dammit!

Re: PSVR2 Sales Off to a 'Slow Start', New Report Claims

Paranoimia

It's a lot of money for something you know is going to have a handful of decent titles and a ton of average shovelware.

I haven't looked at figures for a while, but last time I did (which was probably 2 or 3 years ago - I think PS4 had sold around 90 million units at the time), about 4 or 5 percent of PS4 owners had bothered with PSVR. Given equivalent time periods after the launch of each device, it had sold significantly worse than the Vita. And here we are wondering why a significantly more expensive version may not be doing too well... and that's without accounting for the cost of living issues.

Re: Report: How PlayStation Is Failing Indie Developers

Paranoimia

An alternative view...

Martijn van der Meulen on Twitter:

Can't say much but our games ship on all major platforms and PlayStation represents over 50%(!) of our sales.

And "PS Store submission is so complicated one dev wrote its own set of instructions" is the norm on all platforms. Shipping games is hard.

https://twitter.com/yesdogman/status/1410974844397797382

So the questions are: how many indies were asked, were there any different responses, and are we only seeing quotes in the article from the ones who fit the narrative?

I'm not looking to blindly defend Sony. Clearly there is room for improvement, but just as clearly, the issues mentioned here are not common to all.

Re: Media Molecule Is Collaborating with (Checks Notes) Mercedes-Benz on Dreams Project

Paranoimia

Media Molecule - British company.

Mercedes - German company.

Sony/PlayStation - Japanese company.

Dreams x Mercedes trailer - global release.

So of course, use the date format only used by the US. 🙄

To 99% of the world, 07/08/2021 is 7th August 2021. When these companies use trailers globally, they really should use the name of the month - it would remove any doubt and be much easier for everyone.

Mini-rant over. 😜

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 Is Returning to the PlayStation Store, Supposedly

Paranoimia

I was never overly interested in this, but decided against it completely thanks to the issues.

I still commend Sony for removing it from the store, however I feel that's an action they should take more often, with any game suffering such issues.

Case in point: I bought Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 in a sale in November 2019, at which point it had been out and on the store for two-and-a-half years. I had no end of crashes in that, one every few hours... but they never removed it from sale. I guess it wasn't high profile enough, and not enough people bought it for complaints to be widespread enough to draw attention.

Re: Reaction: Xbox Game Pass Is the Thorn in PS5's Side

Paranoimia

Made no difference to me. They had one game that I was interested in with Back4Blood, but I lost interest in that when they announced the card system several weeks back.

As for Game Pass... I'm just not interested in it, or any subscription gaming service beyond Plus. I wasn't interested in Stadia, I'm not interested in PS Now.

I turn 50 next birthday, so maybe I'm just a bit old-fashioned, but I actually like to buy and own my games, movies, and music, and not rent or stream them... which is also why I still buy movies I really enjoy on disc, and music I really like on CD, and why I don't bother with things like Spotify.

I mean, I've got a gaming PC, and I don't even sub to Game Pass on that.

Re: Battlefield 2042 Goes Near Future on PS5 and PS4, Out in October

Paranoimia

I wanted current-day or near-future. But I also wanted a campaign.

Online-only and multiple battle passes per year means I'm 100% out.

Far Cry 6 is looking far more attractive, as is Six Days in Fallujah. And I know Guerrilla have moved on, but I'd love another Killzone. Too few single-player FPS games these days.

Re: Battlefield 2042's First Year Will Be Marked by Four Battle Passes

Paranoimia

Well, I wanted a current or near-future setting, but with no single-player and multiple 'season passes', I won't be bothering with this. I just don't play online enough to justify the costs, and as I'd probably be at a major disadvantage without the passes, I won't bother at all.

It's now official, though... EA has gone from my one-time favourite publisher to a company with zero products I'm interested in.

I used to buy almost everything they released during the C64 and Amiga years, and the 90s and 00s on PC and PlayStation, up through the first half of the PS3 years. Since the launch of PS4, I've bought BF4, and 2 or 3 FIFAs... FIFA19 being the last I bought.