Th3solution

@Stevemalkpus On par with the Control Ashtray Maze? If so, I’m really excited because that is one of my favorite gaming moments ever.

I wonder, is another one of these games that plays worse on Pro than on the base PS5?

Not that I’m seriously considering getting this. The content warning is enough to keep me away. I like horror when I’m in the mood for it, but this sounds like it’s over the top. 😅

@Zuljaras Good to know. Got worried about you when you didn’t pop up on WAYP. 😄
Hope you all enjoy it!

Man, I hope @Zuljaras is ok.

Oh, and what I’m playing is Baldur’s Gate 3.

Once again, relieved that I grabbed a Pro with 2TB memory before the price increased. That $700 I paid a few weeks ago is looking more and more like a steal.

Kudos to Push Square actually for posting an article the day before the price increases so I could get it in time to avoid paying more. 😄

@LifeGirl Ah, so true. Although I’ve grown accustomed to the PS5 UI, I still prefer the PS4’s. However, it’s not been enough to keep me engaged with my PS4. I also still much prefer the feel of the DualShock 4. Despite the better UI and controller design, I’ve gradually abandoned my PS4 because of the slower loading and overall inferior performance, even for PS4 games. Also, my PS4 WiFi antenna is temperamental at this point and doesn’t always connect. So it’s basically gathering dust now.

I had already found a solution to fix the usability of some screens — simply turn off the PS4 and turn on the PS5.

@Rich33 Agreed. Definitely would have been better had they just stayed with the original stock 825GB SSD, because for some reason we humans quickly get accustomed to something and then feel robbed when it’s taken away, even though we were fine without it before. And I count myself as a human that does that also, but when I think about it then I realize it’s probably an overreaction.

But yes, they should emphasize the larger SSD on the Pro in their marketing. In fact, the Pro probably needs a better marketing emphasis anyway. Unfortunately I think all this talk of PS6 has people reluctant to consider it. But as you say, if you’re factoring the added SSD space it makes the price feel more reasonable.

@Flaming_Kaiser Yes, ‘should’ be cheaper but apparently it’s not. I have no idea why but @Rich33 brings up a good point about the nature of the drive and the SSD controller. It’s all way above my head but I know that it’s complicated and the economics of it all is different from previous generations.

As far as games getting bigger, I do think they are but, even the very biggest games are still under 200 GB, so conceivably you can fit 4 Call of Duty’s on there. Or 8 Death Stranding 2’s. Or 2000 Balatro’s. 😜

@Godot25 Fair enough. When playing on my launch PS5, I’ve had a couple times when I had to reluctantly delete something that I might want to go back to (but probably never would). Now that I have more space, I find that I merely digitally hoard games onto the drive that I will likely not play again and are just there gathering digital dust. The ability to cloud stream games (by virtue of having PS+ Premium) also makes the extra storage mostly just a luxury.

Still, there’s nothing worse than getting an impulse to play a few races on GT7 or polish off some trophies in Jedi Survivor, only to realize you deleted the game to download something else. Games with a really large file size suffer the most. It’s an inconvenience, for sure. I toyed with getting an expansion SSD for my base PS5 but fortunately it has become moot now with the Pro.

The extra 175 GB is nice to have, but 825 GB is sufficient for the average gamer. Most people aren’t playing more than 2-3 games simultaneously.

For me, I’m just glad I picked up a Pro, with its 2TB storage, before the price hike. The investment not only got me more storage but also the boosted performance.

@Ainu20 Exactly. Although as @nomither6 is saying, the bubble of enthusiasts on forums like these aren’t the people not buying the creative games, rather it’s the masses that drive the main profitability of the business. It boggles the mind that almost all of the top selling PlayStation games of all time are CoD games or Rockstar games.

Although we here on sites like Push Square are the backbone of the industry and Sony really needs to keep us happy, their bread is buttered by the millions of players who couldn’t care less about creativity and innovation and just want their Madden updates. It’s one reason why I actually lament the increasing popularity of gaming, because the more mainstream it becomes, the more sterile the creative output has to be.

Still, as I mentioned, I personally think Sony is trying to do a good job of straddling that line of keeping both crowds in mind as the try to appease everyone.

@PuppetMaster Yes, of those mentioned especially Puppeteer and Gravity Rush 1&2 were quite good and refreshing to play. I actually quite enjoyed Concrete Genie and Bound as other really unique experiences of still look back fondly on. Dreams was the real turning point though, I believe. It was undeniably one of the most ambitious projects in PlayStation’s history, completely different from the previous catalog (and current catalog) and just what people kept saying they wanted from Sony - something that’s not a ‘sad dad’ third person narrative action adventure, family friendly, creative, and groundbreaking. I think there were a few problems along the way in its launch and basic premise, obviously, but it was a large financial disaster. Maybe not on the order of Concord but when time for development is taken into consideration it was probably not far behind it. And just like Concord (and a few of their other live service failures) was the catalyst for abandoning the live service push, I think Dreams was the catalyst for abandoning large scale ‘creative and quirky’ projects. I think PSVR2 is also an investment in doing something different that has financially given them feedback that the safest bet is sticking to their usual formula.

To be fair, I think there’s still some innovation that Sony are doing and although we’re not going to get the volume of different styled games like we did in the PS3 and PS4 era, we will get an occasional deviation from the formula like Astobot. Like even though they are 3rd person action games, I think Returnal and Death Stranding are unique enough to fall into the category of ‘creative’, in my opinion.

I think people forget that Sony has done quite a few unconventional and innovative gaming projects and they mostly fail, despite being of good quality. People say they want creativity and different experiences, but they don’t buy them.

@TrollOfWar Oh man, I really need to work on my speed reading comprehension. Sorry about that. I totally misread the tweet in the article, thinking it was referring to the 3rd game. Having the first game ready on the other platforms in January makes a lot more sense. I wasn’t expecting Part 3 until 2027-2028 timeframe at the earliest (which would still be a quick turnaround). If so, the question I have is whether Part 3 is being developed for PS6 as a cross gen release. Maybe try to launch it on PS5 at the end of the generation and then release a PS6 remaster bundle of the whole trilogy on PS6.

Oh man, I somehow overlooked that Night in the Woods was dropping off. Really intended to play that. Ah well… too many games to play.

It blows my mind that this game is coming out in less than 6 months. It feels like Rebirth just came out! It was just a year and a half ago! If the scope of the game is anything like Rebirth, I’m totally impressed that S-E can get these two games out within a two year window. Average dev times are 5+ years nowadays. Sure, it’s reusing a lot of assets and such, but a lot of developers can barely get out a 5 hour DLC within 2 years.

I’ll go with GT7, Demon’s Souls.
I’ve yet to play Death Stranding 2 or Hellblade 2 or Horizon Forbidden West.

Shout out to the PS4 versions of TLoU2, RDR2, and Detroit Become Human, which outshine many PS5 titles still.

Interesting how this list has evolved. It’s impressive to see some titles that have held position though, even as new games get introduced to the list.

Now 5 years into the console, I still haven’t played many of the top 20. Some of this is due to my decreased amount of free time this generation compared to previous ones, but it also has to do with a sheer volume of releases that continue to come out at a steady clip. For me this generation has been all about the backlog.

@naruball It’s not quite as rare as the “mostest rarest”

It wasn’t just one of the rarest, it was one of the most rarest.

Selection bias.

This list is depressing. So much Call of Duty. And Rockstar. I know that since I’m not into GTA or CoD that I’m going to be biased, but this is just sad that those two series dominate the charts that heavily.

Oh yeah. I forgot about this game. 😄

Difficult for me to see her as Lara… but I guess we can wait and see. I would rather not have recognizable and mainstream actors/actresses to play these video game characters. I didn’t mind the Ramsey and Pascal as Ellie and Joel after I got used to them, but I could never see Tom Holland as Nathan Drake or Cavill as Geralt. I liked Vikander better as Lara than Jolie, but there’s a distinct difference between trying to portray the original Lara vs the reboot Lara.

Making me feel better about getting a Pro two weeks ago before the prices increased. Yeah, it’s $700, but comes with the extra technical upgrades and also a 2 TB SSD.
Although, in fairness, my OG PS5’s 825 GB was sufficient most of the time. A little annoying to constantly clear games off and try to decide which ones to leave on, but it’ll be a nice luxury to not have to juggle games. Reminds me of inventory management in an RPG, trying to avoid becoming encumbered and choosing which armor set to sell to make room for extra potions and alchemy ingredients. 😂

Psychonauts 2 seems interesting. I remember when it came out that it was spoken about with many complimentary reviews and high scores. I never played the first one so I just don’t have any attachment to the franchise. It’s one to put in the backlog for a rainy day.

Stardew Valley is so ubiquitous that I feel obligated to try it too, although I doubt I will get around to it. The Animal Crossing Farming Sim genre of game just isn’t my bag.

Had never heard of Viewfinder before this, so chances of it getting played are very low.

I know I’m in the minority, but I never quite understood the criticism of the story in MGS5. I quite liked the story, and the gameplay as well. One of my favorites from last gen.

I have the remaster on Vita, so I’ll stick with it for now. 😄

Yikes… I know this is just early impressions but it sounds like there’s just too many issue to make it one for my time and money. Honestly, I feel some relief when an anticipated game releases to mediocre reception. I have so many games in the backlog and limited resources so I’ll shelf this one until I knock out some better games first. I’m sure for fans of the genre this game is still worth a try, but I’m not the biggest DMC fan to begin with.

@Old-Red Fairly common knowledge but could have been buried in other stuff if you didn’t see it —
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/01/sony-cancels-bluepoint-bend-studio-ps5-games-one-being-a-live-service-god-of-war-title

@Rich33 I think that Cerny said a new update to PSSR is being released to the Pro in 2026 which will really be an even more significant upgrade and bridge over to what they are wanting to expand on with PS6… Or something like that. 😄

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I don’t have any immediate plans to jump into the LotF series, but I’m keeping an open mind if this one reviews well. The only Souls-like that I plan to try is Lies of P, but only after clearing the rest of the FromSoft games first.

Likewise for SHf, I probably will want to try the recent SH2 remake before doing this new one, although I’m not clear how much carryover content will be present that requires a knowledge of the universe.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Yes, between my jetsetting (😂) I did find time to scan over the highlights and found a few things that piqued my interest.
Both Silent Hill F and RE: Requiem look like really great entries into their respective horror franchises. I’m more of a RE guy rather than SH, but both look solid.

I’m wondering if you think Lords of the Fallen 2 is worth a look. Didn’t you try playing the recent LotF game? It’s supposed to be a good Souls-like but I can’t remember for sure if you tried it.

Onimusha is something to keep an eye on, and of course Ghost of Yotei. Seems there’s plenty of horror and samurai action to go around! 😄

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I think with Concord we now have video gaming’s version of Godwin’s Law! 😜

@AhmadSumadi Don’t forget that on release that people who paid for and played the game early access lost all their saves with the day 1 patch. Maybe that’s not quite a “buggy mess” but it’s pretty bad.

Ubisoft tried to compensate those people, but I think some of the damage had been done and the game had an uphill battle thereafter.

@naruball I also understood your meaning — the use of the term ‘colossal flop’, (and italicized for emphasis to boot) seems a bit exaggerated. I don’t know the exact mathematical difference between ‘colossal flop’ and ‘failed to meet expectations’ or ‘underperformed’ but I question whether Outlaws hit the benchmark to get to that extreme of a descriptor.

To be fair to the article, they are specifically describing the launch as a colossal flop. And Outlaws did stumble out of gate pretty badly, and then seemed to get back on track after a few patches and improved word of mouth. Still, I can name ten games off the top of my head that had worse launches than Outlaws. Although it’s not an excuse and Ubi clearly learned their lesson and did better with the launch of AC Shadows.

Yeah, the statement overall seems fine up until that final phase at the end and then it comes across as a backhanded criticism of the rest of the industry and a bit haughty and lecturing, as if on a crusade against some major injustice in the system. Just state that you’re keeping true to the creative vision of the original and that should be sufficient.

Although there’s probably a segment of the population that will see that statement and buy the game simply because of its claims to be against doing things “in the name of DEI”. So perhaps this will market the game better to its target audience, I don’t know.

@RoomWithaMoose As someone who played the first game, it sounds like instead of having one of a few options (write a haiku, bathe in a hot springs, discover a person to duel, do an archery challenge, etc) when you follow the wind or follow a bird or a fox, it will instead have a variety of destination activities or discoveries.

After writing your 5th Haiku, it loses some of its novelty, after doing your 5th archery contest, it feels less interesting, or your 5th bamboo cutting challenge, Etc. So after doing a few of all the different kinds of activities and/or finding similar collectibles at the end of a diversion off the main path, when the outcome of exploration starts to be repeated events then it grew stale in some people’s opinions (not mine though).

So, in a way maybe you’re right, if you mean “doing the same thing” means riding your horse through a forest toward some rising smoke, or following a trigger in nature like the wind or a friendly animal again and again, then yeah, but I think the “doing the same thing” repeatedly that Sucker Punch is avoiding this time around it doing repeated Haiku’s, duels, and shrines. So when you follow the foxes this time maybe it will sometimes go to a secret encampment, or maybe it will open up a shortcut, or maybe it will be to uncover a treasure chest, or maybe a unique minigame that is only found there (maybe a little like It Takes Two where each discovered minigame is different). At least that’s my interpretation of the statement.

Squeezed out a final 50 points by reloading and booting Returnal again, and it was enough to put me over the top to claim $10. I’m left with only 18 points unused. That worked out perfectly. Now, what to use the $10 on… so many good games on sale!

@SMJ Apparently people who don’t have a clue about public perception. 😂

I guess in the defense of the PR Dept, they likely had no control over what the accounting guys were saying in a financial document and now they have to respond to the bad press.

If by “more fun” they mean “less of a tedious grind”, then yes, being able to buy personalized avatar equipment and progress does make it funner than the alternative slog. 😛

Still proceeding with Tav’s adventures. At Grymforge now. Having a blast with it, but still in Act 1 after 70 hrs… 😅

@Dominator2885 Yeah, I’m a big fan of the Portal cloud streaming. I wish we could do it with our own library. I own Witcher 3 disc, but I’d probably buy it again digitally if it meant I could cloud stream it. I could always stream to the Portal natively from the PS5 but I like the way cloud streaming is so easy to jump in and out of without being tied to the console and making sure the disc is in the machine. 😅 First-world problems.

That all said there’s always plenty of options in the Extra and Premium catalog. Perhaps I’ll retry Cyberpunk now. I didn’t care for it the first time and so I sold back my disc a long time ago.

A little disappointed about Witcher 3. I was halfway planning to play it via cloud streaming on my Portal, but now I guess I’ll have to play it on my console (I still have the disc)

A little tempted by Octopath II. I don’t usually clamor to play all the retro JRPGs but this one seems to call out to me. And it rarely drops in price.

I’m surprised how negative the comments are. The big first party showing from one of the marquee studios and people really don’t seem to like what they’re seeing. Wow.

I had a small part to contribute to Resident Evil Village’s second wind. Being on sale for $10 definitely made pop back up onto the charts.

Certainly been a boatload of layoffs in the industry the last two years. Every other day we have news of games being cancelled and studios been shut down. This is just more than usual all at once from one publisher. I guess they prefer to take the PR hit all at once.

Still, it doesn’t garner much confidence in the company and its forecasted situation. Xbox has doubled down on GamePass and having their games everywhere. For that, the philosophy was always high volume output, so cancelling games and teams doesn’t accomplish that. I can appreciate that they are being fiscally responsible and filtering game production to keep the quality high, but you have to wonder if mismanagement is the main problem here.

I could see a late 2027 release, perhaps 2028. I wish we knew though, because I’ve hovered over the PS5 Pro purchase button for a while and would like to know if the PS6 is going to be sooner rather than later. If we’re looking at 2028 (or beyond) then I feel justified in jumping onto the Pro bandwagon, but otherwise, I’d rather wait.