gaston

Can this be played in VR on psvr1 ?

Such a shame that not more players engaged with dreams, and that sony shutdown dreams just before the ps5 and psvr2 port was done ...

I finished Of Lies and Rain on i*Psvr2*. Overall really enjoyed the game. But without reading all the journal entries and many of the reports one would miss most of the story.

Then I started Pools on Psvr2. Not much of a game but great to walk (and slide) through these environments. I wish it had more levels!

And I am still playing Ghost of Tsushima ... for another couple of months at this rate.

Returnal is an unforgivable omission. I also would agree that Final Fantasy 16 belongs on that list. For people with psvr2 I would place Re Village just above Re4 just because of the awesome sequences in the castle. I would also argue that GT7 belongs on this list for people with psvr2,

@Perturbator No I never played half life alyx. Though, I suspect the comparison between that and Of Lies and Rain will not go very much further beyond the gravity gloves, and a slightly more advanced interactivity or physicality of the world. I think one gets a good idea about what the game is and how it plays when playing the demo. There is enough variety, that the demo does not give away the entire game.

I personally think it is a great game with a great story. Not without its flaws. For some people it may be too slow and may lack a true challenge. And one misses most of the story if one does not read the journal entries scattered around the world and a good fraction of the reports.

I am very curious about Ghost Town. While I really liked The room VR: A Dark Matter. I hope ghost town has a more ambitious story and larger environments to explore.

@Dogbreath Not sure I relate, none of the games I played this year and have been released this year have been horror games or had baby toy puzzles.

I haven't played ghost town, so I do not know what this game really is about, but I doubt it is a "horror" game. I would assume it is a "spooky" or mysterious game.

@4fold Indeed! All games should have VR versions.

I finally got into Of Lies and Rain. Graphics wise, I think, it is ps3 or early ps4 level of graphics. Though sometimes it looks very good. It is quite interactive, but some of the interactions are a bit janky. The story and voice acting is quite good (the story might even be better than the story in most vr games), and it has a couple of really nice ideas. It is not necessarily the most challenging game. Overall, I quite like it, and I would recommend it to people who like adventure games.

And I played a bit of Tetris effect and Beat saber on Psvr2. Shame that meta stopped to support for the psvr2 version.

After finishing Stray (PS+) far to quickly. I did not quite know what to play. I still haven't finished Ghost of Tsushima, but tried Of Lies and Rain on Psvr2. I really liked the demo, but somehow did not get into it. I stopped just a little bit further after the end of the demo and played some more Reach on "Psvr2, which I actually really enjoy. I am currently trying to find the collectibles, but have a hard time to find even half of them. And I also played some Beat saber and Tetris Effect on Psvr2, which are still awesome games.

@SpecialT GT7 is awesome, but best played on psvr2, just saying.

I played through Reach on psvr2 nearly twice and I am still far from having found all the collectables.

I paused Ghost of Tsushima for a bit to free some time for Stray on ps+ before my subscription runs out (which I may or may not extend immediately). I always wanted to play Stray but somehow never bought it. Great game so far (scenery, story, score). Playing the game I am always thinking how great it would be if one could see the world in VR. Though, I would not have a good idea how a VR adaptation could look like (likely just a 3rd person platformer like Astro Bot Rescue Mission or Max Mustard).

Then, many new psvr2 games just released. But, I have not decided yet which ones to pick up. Likely, I will start with of Lies and Rain, since I really enjoyed the demo.

Will this make their games better or worse ?
Likely worse, since games will be developed for the least common denominator, won't support all the features of a platform they could use, and they won't have the bag of money and/or support from a platform holder to help with the development.

@Striker21 right by increasing the game pass price i.e. instead of paying for online directly You pay for it indirectly ....

good luck with that !

@Striker21 and that is why they will reduce their revenue even further by giving up on online fees ? I am pretty sure they'll find a way to recoup that money.

I finished Reach on Psvr2, much faster than expected. While I share some of the criticism of all the rather negative reviews for this game, overall I really enjoyed it. I think that it looked for most parts rather beautiful in the headset, and I had a really fun time with the game, and that's why I finished it rather quickly.

I restarted Ghost of Tsushima. When I started to play it the first time at some point I did not feel like continuing, maybe because I got too side tracked by all the side quests ? So, far I am enjoying my second attempt. Very beautiful game and great score (it does not have the spectacle and epic-ness of FF16, which I finished recently, So it is a rather big contrast). I am not sure whether I am interested in the story though. At the moment I am just surprised how unlikable most of the characters are which are supposed to help You in Your mission.

The believe in MS/xbox to make gaming cheaper does not seem to know any limits. Didn't they just raise the price of their subscription services ? And didn't they just talk about their lofty goals of a 30% profit margin ? Where will they get the money from if they lower the service fee ? Maybe reduce the cost of developing games by just AI-generating them ?

Anyway somebody has to pay the cost for running cloud service for multiplayer, cloud saves, streaming (electricity, hardware, maintenance). So the MP fee will be just moved to somewhere else e.g. game price or game pass, or the game quality or scope will be reduced.

Good things cost money. If nobody is willing to pay for them they will disappear.

Overall, I enjoyed Reach. The combat does not reach synapse I would say, but it is still fun and adds some new ideas. It might be a bit too easy. The difficulty was fine for me, and I also did not try to crank up the difficulty level.

Not sure what exactly is meant by "duller world", if this means that there are not so many interactive elements scattered around in the underground or that there are few npcs to "talk to" than I would agree. But, I thought, the underground areas looked quite good and had enough variety to not get bored.

I finished Final Fantasy XVI (ps5) much faster than expected. It grabbed me and I could no stop playing. Incredible score, overall an awesome spectacle and a very good story. Sometimes the story is a bit too straight forward but I enjoyed it overall very much. Currently I am wondering whether I should play the DLC or whether that would ruin the impressions the game left on me. Also, the story does not seem to leave any ends that need to be explored further.

Then I picked up Reach on psvr2. I played maybe 1h or a bit more. I have to say that I am bit disappointed. The beginning feels like an old quest2 game, very simple geometry, low res textures, the environments feel very empty and lack atmosphere. Once underground graphics are a bit more interesting, but still feel a bit empty. The parkour mechanics feel okay but also are not ground breaking. I have no idea how it performs on other platforms, but the psvr2 version feels very unoptimised. .Hopefully future patches will at least rectify the technical shortcomings.
[UPDATE] I played a bit more today, only the underground areas, and it looked much better. But at some point some low res textures appeared. So, there is likely something not fully correct with texture LOD, and maybe the eye tracking was a bit off Yesterday, or I got used to the reprojection. Anyway today the game played fine and I am actually looking forward to continue.

What about a VR mode ? That would be something that would truly change the game, and it would also be quite fitting to what "avatar" is about ...

I started to play 90' extreme skiing on psvr2, not the most beautiful game but looks better in the headset than one would guess from the trailers, the music and voice over may not be the greatest either, but are kind of fitting to what this game is going for. With this negativity out of the way, the sense of speed and the jumps are amazing! For the sale price a strong recommendation. Some people say that You may need a strong stomach. I haven't experienced any problems in this regard.

Then I am still playing FF XVI on ps5. Awesome visual and acoustic spectacle! The main story is strong, In my opinion, though a bit less surprising than what I was hoping for, and the side quests are a bit underwhelming like in most games. Overall I am still enjoying my time with it.

I was wondering how long in advance a console launch has to be fixed. Dev kits go out about a year before launch, but I suppose the slots to produce 5M chips need to be reserved well in advanced and cannot be easily moved years into the future. But, maybe I am wrong and one could still decide in 2025 whether a new console should be launched in 2027.

So far the only thing we know about the ps6 is better ray tracing and better upscaling (provided the kinks of pssr/fsr4 can be ironed out). Likely wrt to the ps5pro the raytracing differences and upscaling differences will appear even smaller than the jump from ps5 to ps5pro. How can one be excited about that, if that was everything. I think we have to hear more to really get excited.

2027 sounds quite early given Mark Cerny's comment concerning the PS6 ("... in a few years " and that currently "... it is just a simulation...")

Anyway it is fun to speculate what a ps6 could offer that a ps5 cannot. For me the biggest improvement ps4->ps5 are the instantaneous load times (and of course psvr2) and that most games now offer a 60 fps mode. Maybe also the dual sense controller. The prettier graphics are the icing on the cake.

I would buy a ps6 if more games would offer VR modes. I cannot think of anything else. I think it will be a difficult sell If the only differentiator is significantly faster raytracing and dlss like upscaling. Most people are even fine with the switch. But maybe ps6 games would offer more interactive or interesting NPCs thanks to the AI capabilities of the ps6?

I mostly finished The Tale of Onogoro" on *psvr2. Great animations, great music, and interesting puzzles. I am just not that interested in the story they try to tell (do I not understand the meaning behind it? Maybe). And in my opinion the last bit is too tedious. Other than that I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I played a tiny bit of Max Mustard" on "psvr2 which is/was? currently on a steep sale. There is nothing negative to say about this charming platformer other than that it is so close to astro bot rescue mission that it is hard not to compare it to that. And astro bot rescue mission just has this extra bit of polish and max mustard pales in comparison. Any way it is a great addition to one's psvr2 collection in particular for the current prize.

But then I am still playing Final Fantasy XVI on Ps5 which consumes a lot of my play time. I very much liked about the first (probably) half. Now I reached a point where I either made too many side quests and it feels too repetitive or the story reached a point where there are not so many surprises any more. Anyway at the moment my character is too powerful, and the latest side quests I did, did not add much. Presumably I still prefer FF7 over FF16, and the only other FF game I played is FF15, which I did not get into at all. Overall so far a great game and I am surprised that it was not received with more applause (or didn't I pay attention to that? Also possible.)..

Now only psvr2 support is still missing.

I am on the last stretch in The Tale of Onogoro on psvr2. Likely an underappreciated game! Wonderfully animated, great Japanese voice acting, and very interesting and sometimes very good music. Only the environments are a bit bland. Anyway really liking it.

I may play some more hitman on psvr2 since the freelancer mode is now playable in VR! Very nice surprise!.

But then after playing and liking the demo of Final Fantasy XVI, I picked up the full game on ps5 and I just may spend more time with that. I am really enjoying this visual feast, and spectacle (the frame rate might not be the greatest, but after some getting used to it, it does not bother me all that much). Anyway, likely also a game which more people should play. Maybe not those who do not like long cinematics.

Finally I played a bit of B99 on psvr2 which is on a steep sale right now. It is kind of cool and better than what the trailers suggest, but I haven't fully understood how it is supposed to be played. What can I do with second hand ? How do I get rid of the skull which starts chasing me ? I also was hoping for more interesting music. Up the now the music is a bit too repetitive, but maybe I do not survive long enough for it to take off ?

Maybe this is the rumored "show case" ?

complain, complain, complain ... . Why watch a trailer if You are already sold on the game ?

@TimeDelayedGamer The messenger looks and sounds really great! Not sure it is something for the big screen or is it ?

I started to play The Tale of Onogoro on psvr2. I gave the psvr1 version a pass because it never really looked very convincing in the trailers or streams. Now I have to say that I am really surprised. The animations, the character (and boss) design and the Japanese voice acting are great, the music is partially great, partially maybe just interesting. The backgrounds look often very bland. Certainly that is not were the money was invested in and that is what put me off in the first place. Also the game is segmented in very small sections, and the puzzles occasionally feel a bit repetitive, but some of them are quite clever. Overall playing it in short doses is very enjoyable. I bought it on sale, and I am not sure I would pay full price for it. But, if You need a Japanese story for Your VR life, this would be a good addition.

Otherwise, I am not really sure what to play (Corvette grinding in NMS? I only replayed hitman 1 and 2 on psvr2, so could continue with hitman 3?), so I tried a couple of demos. I played outlaws a bit, which partially is very cool and partially the pacing feels too interrupted (not sure how to phrase this). Anyway not bad, but likely also not great either.

Then I played the Final Fantasy 16 demo. I played it in cinematic mode on ps5+psvr2. What a ride ! I cannot believe that there was not more excitement for this game. Obviously I haven't played the full game yet. But I certainly can recommend the demo.

I suddenly would get very excited about this james bond game if Ioi adds (or announces the) VR mode ...

Maybe beavis and butthead skins ?

I played the demo a bit. I really liked the beginning. At some point it started to loose its mystery for me a bit. Maybe I was progressing too slowly or struggling too much with the combat. Anyway this review re-ignites my interest.

While playing I was thinking that this could be an awesome VR game. Clearly combat would have to be completely redone which would be a lot of work, but there are VR games which could serve as a model, I would say. The menu could just become a pad like the one in alien rogue incursion. It is a shame that the VR crowd is not large enough to give developers enough incentives to do such things.

@Questionable_Duck Not sure we know what Sony really thinks. Maybe Sony just follows MS and just looks at the player count: "if we sell on more platforms, put the games on subscription services, the player count goes up, how could we be that wrong all the time, thinking that exclusives will driver players to our platform and will increase profits on the long run", or Sony rather thinks that a fair amount of exclusives is needed to actually give consumers an incentive to move to playstation, but also sees the importance to make some advertisement on competing platforms for their titles in the form of playable, purchasable ports rather than just videos. And moreover sees the importance of multiplayer / live service titles to be on as many platforms as possible, because otherwise it will be very hard to compete with similar titles which are on more platforms in this very competitive space.

@StrickenBiged I suppose if there is a way to transport a message in a flat cinematic, there is likely also a way to transport it in a similar way in VR which may require to adjust the camera position e.g. just a from a bit further away. But maybe it would be more difficult to trigger a comparable reaction of a person experiencing that scene in VR compared to a person just watching the cinematic on a flat screen than I think it is.

@StrickenBiged There are certainly some challenges in a VR adaptation. Not everything can be easily or directly ported to VR, to not lose the impact or creating the same emotions. It is also possible that I am too naïve but the first part should adapt rather well.

@ilyn There are not that many golf games with psvr2 support, so I would neither mind a golf game in the last of us universe

very surprising to see that after only buying half the gaming industry for 80 billion dollar, MS managed to become the biggest game publisher. Also very surprising to see that if You sell on more platforms You make more money. The big gaming platforms have been all wrong all the time, there is no benefit in exclusives. It is a myth that exclusives attract customers to Your platform. It is also a myth that games developed for a single platform better exploit the features of a platform. All games should just be multi platform, that will drive innovation and increase profits. /s

To give Sony more ideas, what about a PSVR2 adaptation of the last of us ? I am pretty sure that there is a non-negligible market for that (depending on the price of course).

Still surprised that a game based on a movie whose main feature was 3D and in which the main character looks through the eyes ov an avatar, does not have a VR mode. Maybe a VR mode would be too demanding, or the result would be too low res. But the game already has a 60 fps mode doesn't it? Psvr2 has dfr to only boost resolution in the focal region, and there are games like Re4, Re8, Gt7, NMS, Hitman which run very well on psvr2.

Anyway I am wondering whether there are more people who cannot or do not want to play games in first person perspective than there are people who pretty much exclusively play in VR.

Just had a quick look at main robocop game which I got through ps+. Just was thinking how great this would be if there was a psvr2 version. It seems the ideal game for VR. Not sure whether there will be bigger areas later in the game (just played the opening hostage situation), but compared to e.g. hitman it does not look like something that would be impossible to achieve. Anyway a shame that so few developers try to elevate their games to the next level.

Still playing Tetris Effect on Psvr2, which I got on sale recently. Before I only played the demo and thought that it does nothing for me. But I think that I did not give it the chance it deserved, since it actually is really great in VR.

Then I looked into the demo Of Lies and Rain on Psvr2. It looked rather unspectacular to me in all the videos despite the praise it got. Anyway I wanted to just have a quick look and got sucked in for more time than I wanted. In terms of art design it is clearly not a big budget title, but it generates a very good atmosphere, sound design and voice acting are very good and if You glance over the sometimes lower res textures, and lower poly objects, it can look very convincing. And in particular the VR interactions are very well done! All in all a big surprise for me. I have not completed the demo yet, but it is supposed last for 90min and I played already for more than that, so I am presumably close to the end, and soon I will be waiting for the full game hoping that the full game has more to offer than what is already in the demo.

Other than that I don't know. I only replayed the Psvr2 version of hitman 1&2 and still have 3 to re-finish and most of the elusive targets , or I might finally pick up *Hell Sweeper" or "Ancient Dungeon" which are currently on sale and are depending on whom You ask good or great games.

@blockfight That is certainly true.

Sounds fantastic why not spice it up with a psvr2 mode using ideas of e.g. hell sweeper and synapse ?

I finished The Midnight Walk on psvr2. Gameplay is not its strong part and "smooth" turning and movement might feel a bit choppy. Still an awesome journey in visuals, sound, music, voice acting, in particular the last ~2h.

If there will be some rain, I might play on Psvr2 either The House of Da Vinci, continue Tetris effect or pick up Hitman again from which I took a break after playing through 1 and 2 on psvr2.

@blockfight kind of makes sense. Personally I'd rather play something like death stranding over 2 years, every now and then 1 hour and do something else when not having access to a big screen, then missing half of the visual (and likely acoustic) experience. Same for movies.

I understand the appeal of playing something at a location without a screen or in bed on a portal or handheld. On the other hand why would You want something as cinematic as death stranding on a tiny screen ? Maybe my eyes are too bad if I had better eyes I would understand that the focal point is so tiny any ways and that a big screen does not change anything. But personally I would rather be surrounded by the screen than having to look at a stamp sized screen for something like death stranding. Thus, I do not understand why so many people are so excited about handhelds, and so few developers are interested in given their game a VR treatment (not that I would have a good idea how to make death stranding playable in VR. Perhaps an observer VR camera and the game is played with the dual sense as on the flat screen ? Or rather a first person adaptation? But how would the weight of the packages be transported ? )

a vr mode would be cool, since the psvr1 version did not make the jump to psvr2.