"Either way, purchase the title you should, as it's really shaped up in recent weeks"
I disagree that we "should" purchase the title. The publisher and Sony both behaved so poorly over the Driveclub launch I really don't think they deserve to be rewared (with our cash) for this title.
Buying Driveclub now just sends them the wrong message - that it's fine to release a poorly tested, buggy, AAA title with a AAA pricetag. That it's also fine to promise a "free" PS+ version, not deliver it, but to continue to sell the full version - initially at full price and now at this cut-down price. Not only that but lets not forget that following the launch they point-blank refused any kind of refund on their broken product when customers rightly requested one.
And while I'm at it, people need to stop pre-ordering games until they've read the reviews. Pre-ordering just encourages these companies to release unfinished products that don't live up to their earlier demos and marketing hype. They make a stack of cash regardless of how many features have been removed and/or how buggy their games are. Stop pre-ordering, people!
So, when it comes to Driveclub I'll consider buying it when I've played the PS+ version and have had a chance to decide for myself if it's worth the money. Having said that I might just not buy it at all though (on point of principle).
One way or another I won't be spending a penny on it until I've played the PS+ version. And if they never release the PS+ version I'll never buy it!
Don't forget under eu (and UK) law all electronic goods come with an implied 2 year warranty (not sure if it would be Game or Sony's responsibility to fix/repair a ps4 after 12 months but one of them would be responsible right up until 24 months since the purchase date).
If Sony were selling its services to business it would be expected to agree a minimum uptime. This would usually be agreed along the lines of how many 9's follow after 99.9%. For example 99.999%. My guess is that Sony have delivered less than 99% uptime since I took out my ps+ sub last April. This is way short of an acceptable level for a paid service.
With respect to the people who keep trotting out the mantra that you can't defend against a ddos attack you're missing a key point: Sony (and MS) have made their "networks" single points of failure. They urgently need to let the games companies support their own online infrastructure and take psn completely out of the online "loop". Then you no longer have Sony or MS as single points of failure for all of the console's online services and ddos attacks no longer make much of a noticeable impact (you may get individual games' online services attacked from time to time but the impact is an order of magnitude smaller than what we saw over Christmas).
So, Sony and ms need to fundamentally change how their consoles rely on their own vulnerable services and instead distribute the online services more broadly. This is all software so they really have no excuses here for fixing these issues.
And remember they only manage to hide behind the "can't defend against ddos attacks" excuse because no one's calling them out on the flawed architecture that relies one everyone being constantly logged in to psn.
The console software should be better designed to fail gracefully. If the psn Web service that logs a console in isn't available the machine should use locally cached credentials. This stuff is really basic. The lack of a network service should not bring all services on a console to a halt.
People are defending Sony and ms and while I agree they cant 100% prevent dos attacks their systems should be developed to expect them and at least continue to operate client-side until online services can be restored.
Ask yourself why Amazon doesn't get dos attacked like this. In short it's because their systems have been designed from the ground up to be resilient to attacks and to failures. MS and Sony should have enough cloud computing expertise to put them ahead of the dos attackers (as amazon seem to be)
If they just let publishers untie their online services from psn the attack surface would be too large for hackers to bring down all ps4 games in one attack.
Sony needs to take a good look at its online model and consider whether the psn single point of failure is soon going to be costing them more than it benefits them in both revenue and good will.
@get2sammyb
So it's OK to call the police "spoil sports" if they stop the game's character's lewd and what, in the most countries, would be illegal behaviour, but idabrigs710 can'tuse the word **** because it might offend some of your visitors?!
I like pushsquare but this sort of moral double standard doesn't add any credibility to the site.
I played GTAV last night for a few hours (although much of this time was spent trying to connect to online which kept failing when I used my transferred character [from PS3] but worked* when I used a new character).
when I say "worked" I mean I managed to connect to a server but I was the only one in the session
The things I tried while online [alone!] were limited due to a lack of time on my part. But the experience was very positive.
It feels like a very polished, mature, update of the PS3 version. The police radio coming from the controller, the 1st person mode, and the smoothness of the graphics all add up to what feels like a truly impressive game. I think the improvement in frame rate - at least the lack of slow redraws when things get busy - makes it way more playable, especially when driving some of the faster cars.
As a slight aside I notice it's possible to modify your character's appearance now. Was this always possible on the PS3 version? (may be a dumb question but I always thought I was stuck with the ugly mug I made when I first went online!).
In summary I'm glad I spent the money on this (note that I don't buy many games - especially not at full price). I did think I'd skip the launch on this until the price dropped (especially as there was no upgrade discount) but I don't regret this purchase - at least on first impressions.
I thought the fact that this was version "2" would mean it might actually include some big changes / improvements. IMO this is just a point release - definitely not worthy of a whole number increment!
I'd like to say I'm looking forward to version 3 (or whatever comes next) but I think I'll just focus on the upcoming games now (such as GTA V) and not pin any hopes on Sony adding any significant new features to the PS4's OS.
BTW I still don't know if I can pause downloads (I'm at work at the moment). Has anyone tried this?
The copy/paste nature of the facebook updates from DriveClub doesn't add credibility to the "it's getting better ever day" mantra that they seem to want their customers to believe. And the responses from their customers (on facebook) would seem to paint a different picture to one where things are noticeably improving.
The longer this goes on the more I wonder if, rather than working through server software bugs one at a time, the developers are trying to fix something that has fundamental design flaws. I hope for their sake this isn't the case.
I'm as disappointed as any PS4 owner about how the DriveClub launch has gone, but my sympathy right now is for the developers working on this (the pressure they'll be under from their managers/studio/Sony will be immense).
Comments 112
Re: You Can Now Buy DriveClub for £19.99 with PlayStation Plus
"Either way, purchase the title you should, as it's really shaped up in recent weeks"
I disagree that we "should" purchase the title. The publisher and Sony both behaved so poorly over the Driveclub launch I really don't think they deserve to be rewared (with our cash) for this title.
Buying Driveclub now just sends them the wrong message - that it's fine to release a poorly tested, buggy, AAA title with a AAA pricetag. That it's also fine to promise a "free" PS+ version, not deliver it, but to continue to sell the full version - initially at full price and now at this cut-down price. Not only that but lets not forget that following the launch they point-blank refused any kind of refund on their broken product when customers rightly requested one.
And while I'm at it, people need to stop pre-ordering games until they've read the reviews. Pre-ordering just encourages these companies to release unfinished products that don't live up to their earlier demos and marketing hype. They make a stack of cash regardless of how many features have been removed and/or how buggy their games are. Stop pre-ordering, people!
So, when it comes to Driveclub I'll consider buying it when I've played the PS+ version and have had a chance to decide for myself if it's worth the money. Having said that I might just not buy it at all though (on point of principle).
One way or another I won't be spending a penny on it until I've played the PS+ version. And if they never release the PS+ version I'll never buy it!
Rant over.
Re: PSN Is Down for Some, Sony Says It's Due to Heavy Traffic
@WARDIE
Don't forget under eu (and UK) law all electronic goods come with an implied 2 year warranty (not sure if it would be Game or Sony's responsibility to fix/repair a ps4 after 12 months but one of them would be responsible right up until 24 months since the purchase date).
Re: PSN Is Down for Some, Sony Says It's Due to Heavy Traffic
If Sony were selling its services to business it would be expected to agree a minimum uptime. This would usually be agreed along the lines of how many 9's follow after 99.9%. For example 99.999%. My guess is that Sony have delivered less than 99% uptime since I took out my ps+ sub last April. This is way short of an acceptable level for a paid service.
Re: Sony Extends PlayStation Plus Subs Due to Xmas PSN Outage
@Faruko
Quite agree.
With respect to the people who keep trotting out the mantra that you can't defend against a ddos attack you're missing a key point: Sony (and MS) have made their "networks" single points of failure. They urgently need to let the games companies support their own online infrastructure and take psn completely out of the online "loop". Then you no longer have Sony or MS as single points of failure for all of the console's online services and ddos attacks no longer make much of a noticeable impact (you may get individual games' online services attacked from time to time but the impact is an order of magnitude smaller than what we saw over Christmas).
So, Sony and ms need to fundamentally change how their consoles rely on their own vulnerable services and instead distribute the online services more broadly. This is all software so they really have no excuses here for fixing these issues.
And remember they only manage to hide behind the "can't defend against ddos attacks" excuse because no one's calling them out on the flawed architecture that relies one everyone being constantly logged in to psn.
Re: PSN Offline for Second Day as Attackers Bring Servers Down
The console software should be better designed to fail gracefully. If the psn Web service that logs a console in isn't available the machine should use locally cached credentials. This stuff is really basic. The lack of a network service should not bring all services on a console to a halt.
People are defending Sony and ms and while I agree they cant 100% prevent dos attacks their systems should be developed to expect them and at least continue to operate client-side until online services can be restored.
Ask yourself why Amazon doesn't get dos attacked like this. In short it's because their systems have been designed from the ground up to be resilient to attacks and to failures. MS and Sony should have enough cloud computing expertise to put them ahead of the dos attackers (as amazon seem to be)
Re: Sony Investigating as Christmas Traffic Pulls PSN Offline
Sony has created a singlepoint of failure (psn).
If they just let publishers untie their online services from psn the attack surface would be too large for hackers to bring down all ps4 games in one attack.
Sony needs to take a good look at its online model and consider whether the psn single point of failure is soon going to be costing them more than it benefits them in both revenue and good will.
Re: You'll Be Taking Pictures of Panties in This PS4, PS3 Game
@get2sammyb
So it's OK to call the police "spoil sports" if they stop the game's character's lewd and what, in the most countries, would be illegal behaviour, but idabrigs710 can'tuse the word **** because it might offend some of your visitors?!
I like pushsquare but this sort of moral double standard doesn't add any credibility to the site.
Just my opinion of course.
Re: First Impressions: Coming Home to Grand Theft Auto V on PS4
I played GTAV last night for a few hours (although much of this time was spent trying to connect to online which kept failing when I used my transferred character [from PS3] but worked* when I used a new character).
The things I tried while online [alone!] were limited due to a lack of time on my part. But the experience was very positive.
It feels like a very polished, mature, update of the PS3 version. The police radio coming from the controller, the 1st person mode, and the smoothness of the graphics all add up to what feels like a truly impressive game. I think the improvement in frame rate - at least the lack of slow redraws when things get busy - makes it way more playable, especially when driving some of the faster cars.
As a slight aside I notice it's possible to modify your character's appearance now. Was this always possible on the PS3 version? (may be a dumb question but I always thought I was stuck with the ugly mug I made when I first went online!).
In summary I'm glad I spent the money on this (note that I don't buy many games - especially not at full price). I did think I'd skip the launch on this until the price dropped (especially as there was no upgrade discount) but I don't regret this purchase - at least on first impressions.
Re: Round Up: Your Ultimate Guide to PS4 Firmware Update 2.00
Excellent (thanks!)
Re: Round Up: Your Ultimate Guide to PS4 Firmware Update 2.00
I thought the fact that this was version "2" would mean it might actually include some big changes / improvements. IMO this is just a point release - definitely not worthy of a whole number increment!
I'd like to say I'm looking forward to version 3 (or whatever comes next) but I think I'll just focus on the upcoming games now (such as GTA V) and not pin any hopes on Sony adding any significant new features to the PS4's OS.
BTW I still don't know if I can pause downloads (I'm at work at the moment). Has anyone tried this?
Re: You Can Download PS4 Firmware Update 2.00 Right Now
Is it possible to pause downloads now? I just saw a feature list and that wasn't on the list
This list (fyi): http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3259/image_325967_full.jpg
Re: What's the Latest on PS4 Racer DriveClub's Online Issues?
The copy/paste nature of the facebook updates from DriveClub doesn't add credibility to the "it's getting better ever day" mantra that they seem to want their customers to believe. And the responses from their customers (on facebook) would seem to paint a different picture to one where things are noticeably improving.
The longer this goes on the more I wonder if, rather than working through server software bugs one at a time, the developers are trying to fix something that has fundamental design flaws. I hope for their sake this isn't the case.
I'm as disappointed as any PS4 owner about how the DriveClub launch has gone, but my sympathy right now is for the developers working on this (the pressure they'll be under from their managers/studio/Sony will be immense).