Comments 202

Re: Stunning Indie Hit GRIS Surpasses One Million Sales

badbob001

This game is stunning and I've platinumed it but the only nagging thing is that I still can't find the ps4-specific content that was supposedly added. It's probably some sort of easter egg and minimal in interactivity, but any excuse to hang out in this beautiful game some more.

Oh, and an art book is coming out soon.

Re: Soapbox: The Sims 4 Is a Travesty on PS4

badbob001

@get2sammyb Not sure how practical, but the PS4 has a built-in magnifier feature. Then as you swish your head around to scan the screen, you can pretend it's a VR game. Else you can just sit a few feet from the TV but that only works if you don't live with your parents.

Re: Reaction: DualSense Reveals Sony's Unrivalled Ambition for PS5

badbob001

@JJ2 I think the only officially announced feature that is new is the adaptive triggers. Haptic feedback is in the Switch. Microphone was in the Wii and even the famicom. To compare with just xbox, then even the Dualshock 4 has more features such as touchpad, gyroscope, speaker, audio jack (compared to earlier xbox one controllers), and light bar. There was a recent sony patent to improve controller response for online games so that may be part of the new controller. Microsoft says they improved the controller response in general, but that may be to just to catch up to Sony. I've read that the DualShock 4 usually has the best response compared to many other controllers. Of course, some would argue that it's all these extra features in the sony controller that is causing its battery life to be shorter in comparison.

Re: Reaction: DualSense Reveals Sony's Unrivalled Ambition for PS5

badbob001

Wow, I didn't think we could get any more articles from just the few DualSense photos. I can't wait for them to show the underside of the DualSense. Yes, it'll confirm if it has back buttons BUT I'm more interested in the screws used. Knowing the type of screws on the controller may tell us what type of screws are used on the console. If they are common non-security screws, then that may tell us that the console is easy to open and has a simple but efficient serviceable design like the new xbox.

Yes, this is sarcasm. The changes to the controller are evolutionary and not revolutionary. Based on photo overlay comparisons with the old controller, the control placements are all in the same place. To most people, it's basically a white dualshock 4.

Re: More Developers Sing PS5's Praises After Tech Specs Reveal

badbob001

On the PS4, detailed textures can greatly make up for simple geometry. I'm thinking of Uncharted 4. In comparison, Resident Evil 7 had some really low resolution textures that just took me out of the experience.

So even though PS5/XBSX has the same 16GB of ram, maybe PS5's super fast SSD will allow it to basically stream very large textures directly from storage and show insane level of detail. 4K on PS4Pro wasn't always as sharp with lower-quality textures and checkerboard rendering, so perhaps this is how the PS5 will fix it smartly and cost-effectively.

Unreal Engine 4 actually has a texture streaming option and so it may be easy for devs to toggle this feature and compare the performance difference. I would imagine PS5 has features that were actually tested with software to see if they actually make sense to have. Gone are the days of the PS3 and Saturn where the one team creates the hardware and then it's up to the software devs to spend months or years to "just figure it out". Would be amazing if multi-platform devs would add a 'mega-textures' option just for the PS5.

Re: More Developers Sing PS5's Praises After Tech Specs Reveal

badbob001

I wonder if PS5 will match xbsx's multiple game resume feature. I would imagine this feature requires at least some of the ram data to be saved to storage (I think the PS4 keeps it in ram, which is why it goes away if power is lost). If the PS5 supports this, there should be an option to save that data to an external usb drive instead of to the precious ssd. Sure it will take longer to resume, but I rather save the ssd space for in-game usage.

Re: More Developers Sing PS5's Praises After Tech Specs Reveal

badbob001

Oh my. All the clues makes sense now:
1) Ready At Dawn dev praises PS5. They only worked on VR games in the last three years.
2) Cerny says SSD is important for load-less viewpoint shifts in games.
3) Some devs says there are still exciting PS5 features to be revealed.
4) Matrix 4 comes out next year.

Conclusion: the secret PS5 feature is better VR support. I guess this excites any dev that has VR plans. Just like how any dev that made dancing games were excited about the kinect. Yay.

Re: Reaction: PS5 Deep Dive Was As Expected, But Was Shockingly Misjudged

badbob001

Cerny did make a point that he rather have fewer but faster CU than more but slower due to the complexity of providing enough work for all the CU. I guess we'll see how this plays out in the actual games or if this is just damage control.

I did especially like how they determined how much SSD bandwidth is needed for nextgen gameplay experience and then designed a system to meet it.

And Sony would be smart if they price the PS5 slightly cheaper than the XB given the slightly lower specs.

Re: Blade Runner, the 1997 Adventure Game, Is Being Remastered on PS4

badbob001

This is playable via ScummVM and the GOG version that you can buy now actually runs on the ScummVM. Apparently the sourcecode was lost so is NightDrive just going to upscale everything, like what was done for Final Fantasy VIII? Maybe they'll just spend 99% of the development time porting ScummVM to the PS4. Also hear that the ScummVM team are working to integrate unused content that are still on the disks.

Re: Rogue Lords Is a Hellish Roguelike That Sees You Take Control of Satan

badbob001

@Jaz007 I'm curious how would the game keep itself from crossing that satanic line when the game involves villains lead by satan. Perhaps the villains are less satanic, despite their boss, if they have likable qualities (eg: funny, attractive, professionalism, heart of gold, loves mom, has a pet, etc). Kind of like Suicide Squad.