"At the same time the hardware is still being stressed for most cross platform games else why are we seeing so many 30fps 4K modes or 60fps with cut down settings?" Settings are lowered until it runs sufficiently well. Few studios take the time to really optimise the game for a platform. First party typically does, so typically they look so much better on the the same hardware. But the more the focus is on multiplatform the less also first part will optimise for the their platform and ultimately much more power is needed to get the same result.
" You had asked what was the point of developing something like a PS5… well it gives a LOT of benefits over a PS4. Especially in areas like load times, resolution, frame rates and pushing many of the sliders up increasing the fidelity and immersion possible. It’s far more like a PC upgrade in that regard, and worthwhile." I wanted to say what is the point of trying to implement cool ideas like this I/O chip which directly decompresses into vmem, why implement something like tempest, why think about new controller features, if in the end most of these features are not used. Why not take the pieces from the shelf (i.e. mostly what xbox does) and save development cost ?
"if you make a game for only one platform you reduce the amount of money that game can make. " on the other hand if you focus just on one platform You can eventually make something more special which is not possible to that degree on other platforms, something much more desirable compared to something more in line with what everybody else does. For example apple supports fewer devices and delivers in the end a more seamless experience.
"Earlier exclusive games were lower in budget (Returnal) or remakes (Demons Souls) or likely loss-leaders (Rachet) barely expected to make a profit. It’s a tough position to be in." Not sure how true this really is. The games will also sell throughout the life of the platform. You typically start with lower budget titles because they are also faster to develop, which is key for a new platform.
But now we kind of reached a point where the differences from platform to platform become incremental (not necessarily by numbers but by perception). The majority of time is spent on creating assets, acting, composing and the hardware is not so relevant anymore. In that sense going multiplatform makes sense because the differences due to a different platforms are for most people imperceptible. But this will also slow down progress, because it takes much more time to push a new feature to all platforms.
"Plus to REALLY make use of the hardware developers have to wait for, or develop, new tools, new engines and new mindsets to really push them. This all takes time." True. But do You want progress or not ?
I don't think there will be a showcase any time soon. I don't mind to be wrong, though. A state of play, is more likely. There might be a showcase for the ps6.
@themightyant resolution is scalable and you can chose a lower lod, reduce details for shadows, reflections, yes. But physics are likely scaled down until the game runs on all platforms sufficiently well to avoid possible disadvantages. Levels will be designed to fit into the memory of the lowest tier device. In the worst case games are designed to run okay with multiple input schemes e.g. mouse+keyboard, controller, touchscreen, controller + streaming latency, and are also playable on tiny screens like a phone.
Since there are so many devices to support, the optimisation stops once it runs sufficiently well. The power of modern console are less exploited than in the past when there were fewer devices to optimise for. So, in that sense multiplatform use platforms less efficiently and in a limited way, because the lowest tier device will limit the overall game design. Therefore exclusives are nice because they could use a platform to its fullest potential.
@themightyant concerning exclusivity: exclusives also mean that a title only needs to be optimised for a single platform, thus it better exploits the available features and might perform better. Though, nowadays hardware is so powerful that titles are presumably not so much limited by the lack of optimisations but more by the enormous amount of time it takes to create content ...
I was looking forward to playing stride fates but given how unsatisfactory the port seems to have turned out I gave it a pass and "played" "stray gods" instead. The "role playing musical" is not much of a game, but there is some game there and maybe it is sufficient to increase engagement with the characters? Anyway sometimes it is fantastic, sometimes I did not like it much, mostly because I did not like some of the interpretations of some of the singers of their roles, I think. I really liked the artwork and the orchestration, though. It is a short "game" but the length feels correct for what is on offer and the asked price, in particular since it is on sale right now, feels justified.
@NEStalgia Certainly price and friction holds VR back but then also the lack of very recognisable, popular games e.g. ex-fifa, cod.
The VR enthusiasts were all hoping that the majority of games would get a VR mode. But apparently the industry thinks otherwise for some reason. If one looks at the numbers of e.g. re4 it seems that one could make back the investment in a VR mode but presumably not much more. So from a financial stand point it presumably is not interesting to add VR modes, which might be the problem. As a future investment and maybe just from the perspective of an enthusiast (which hopefully still exist in the gaming industry) it would make sense at least for titles which sell well and do not seem to throw in many obstacles for a VR adaptation e.g. car games with cockpit views). Also why not a VR mode for helldivers 2, and yes why not a third person VR cam for stellar blade ?
one way to make a platform appear more dead than it is by ignoring everything that is appearing on that platform - even bigger games like madison. But, in the end it is a subjective choice also not all flat games are reported here I guess.
"Stride: Fates", "Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye", "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes" seem to be missing (May), Arken Age (tba). It is difficult to judge the quality, but stride fates is already out on another platform and seems to be quite good. You also seem to have missed the already out version "madison vr".
@NEStalgia Personally I would say, what harms VR the most is not the display technology of any of the headsets, it is more that the majority of games on offer are quite a bit behind flat indie games In terms of art and audio design and also on the technical level. Anyway, I rather play a game with slightly low res visuals like the psvr2 versions of re4, re village and call of the mountain than playing a super highres, super sharp version of what the bat. There are outliers like red matter, which has a very good art design, looks apparently really good on all headsets and has very high resolution. It really hides its simple (less detailed) graphics mostly really well.
@TrickyDicky99 is ps5 dead because there are more remasters than anything else ? Anyway vr is a niche less than 5% of ps5 owners have a psvr2 (not much different from psvr1), so it is not surprising that in terms of quantity there are also only 5% of games with VR modes or build for VR, and re4 just got its vr mode in december. Though, I agree that at the moment there is nothing big announced and the future is very unclear. But outside of some GAASs there is also little known about the future games on ps5.
I finished vampire the masquerade justice. Not the most detailed and most beautiful game on psvr2 that pushes the hardware, but it looks fine, the levels feel bigger than they are, and there is enough variety. The voice acting and audio design is quite good. All in all I really enjoyed it. Initially I wasn't too sure whether I would like "role playing" as a vampire, but it worked out. Then I am still in my second cyberpunk 2077 play-through. This time including phantom liberty (I encountered more bugs in the phantom liberty bit than during the entire 1st and 2nd play-through of the base game [crashes, crawling frame rate, annoying audio clips not stopping]). For me the best bits are the main story and the world they created. I really wish one could explore the world in VR (one day hopefully). On the negative side, the combat always feels a bit unsatisfactory, and driving in cockpit mode is often impossible, because it is impossible to see where one is driving. Anyway I would not play it a 2nd time if I would not like it overall.
@NEStalgia the quest3 only has better lenses and color cameras nothing else is better. The screen is only an lcd (no hdr and less bright, but does not suffer from mura). haptics are inferior, no eye tracking, smaller field of view, no display port. for quest different sacrifices were made, and presumably it is still subsidized, where psvr2 is likely not (psvr1 was not).
@TrickyDicky99 But then there are these absolutely fantastic games or better said VR modes only available to psvr2 (gt7, resident 4 remake, resident evil village, no man's sky. and now, I suppose, can also add Madison to that list). For some just gt7 or nms alone could be reason enough to get psvr2. Psvr2 is certainly expensive, has its short comings, but You won't get anywhere close elsewhere in terms of experience for the price of ps5+psvr2.
Obviously if everybody things it is failure and does not buy it, it will not sell.
@ROTTIEMAN16 I was talking about connecting a quest to a ps5. A quest pro has eye tracking. So, it could also support dynamic foveated rendering unlike other quest models. So, with a quest pro one would only loose the haptics of psvr2, HDR, field of view, and binocular overlap.
@NEStalgia Isn't it the director of cotm who left firesprite ? So, I suppose a large fraction of the team is still there. I suppose nobody knows whether firesprite is working on some kind of VR support for something (in addition to other projects) or is now doing a mobile mp game.
@NEStalgia A quest pro might give You a similar graphical fidelity but a quest with out eye tracking will not allow for dynamic foveated rendering. So You will end up with significantly downgraded visuals. You may have a "sharper" image without mura, but You will loose detail, resolution and have duller colors. You will also loose a large fraction of the haptic feedback which adds significantly to the overall experience. On top You will get the compression artifacts. So, not sure whether people would be more happy with e.g. a q3 on ps5.
@Flaming_Kaiser I also played Syndicate and I only really liked the linear opening. I don't recall whether there were other quests I enjoyed. I did not like the level design very much (too many too wide streets, everything felt too similar). The opening on the other hand was very good, and I think that is why I continued.
Not sure whether it is bad or good do discontinue an IP. On one hand I liked the ideas in watch dogs and also enjoyed the games. On the other hand it is also good to start something new. The game mechanics of watchdogs will reappear e.g. cyberpunk had similar mechanics.
Personally I liked the first one best despite its not particularly consistent main character (the "good" guy who mass murders everybody often without any good reason other than achieving personal goals) and the rather poor story. But, it had a great atmosphere and the "hacking" game mechanics had been new at that time, I think. The 2nd which most people liked best, I liked the least. For me it was only a loosely connection of tiny individual story bits. It improved in some areas upon its predecessor, but lacked in atmosphere and, I think, one had too many hacking capabilities from the start. It lacked a sense of progression, I think. Legion, on the other hand, I enjoyed. London was fantastic, it had some very good quests and to me it had more of a consistent story. Not sure I liked the final story arc very much, though. It also had some very good characters, in my opinion. And I also liked the possibility to swap between characters and pick the one which felt best suited for a quest. I think one of the problems was that not all of the characters were equally good in terms of dialogues and how they played and it is also possible that depending on which characters one recruited one liked or disliked the game.
... lays off only 5% of its workforce not 10% like the others (to spin this in a positive direction). It could also mean that development on gta6 is mostly done and these 5% are not needed anymore.
Anyway one can only hope that all these people who lost their job land on their feet and maybe start something new and fresh.
@Flaming_Kaiser I kind of agree. In terms of game and story the best parts of for example origins were the more linear, constrained sections in my opinion. The huge world on the other hand is full of repetitive tasks and not particularly deep and elaborate stories.
But the world itself as a scenery and something to explore was amazing, including the NPCs which fill the world with some life (although there is little to no interaction with the NPCs). In that sense I still would say, that ubisoft creates fantastic worlds. The gameplay typically lacks.
Assuming the ps5pro will feature DLSS like upscaling, that is certainly a nice addition and the people who want a higher resolution will be served.
At the same time a ps5pro will reduce the visible gap between a ps5 and a ps6. The times that performance increases by a factor 10 from generation to generation are over.
Between the ps4 and ps5 there was maybe a factor 7. But from ps4pro to ps5 only a factor 3-4. If the rumored ps5pro specs are correct, one cannot expect a much bigger jump than a factor 2-3 from ps5 to ps6. So, I am really interested to see what Sony plans for the ps6. A paradigm shift and go full raytracing ? (unlikely). Hardware acceleration for nanite i.e. micro triangles? A significant price "reduction" by making it a cloud streaming stick?
Already the ps5 feels to many people just like a more powerful ps4 and it at least significantly reduced loading times and added the extra haptics.
Anyway I am really curious to see what would make a ps6 a must buy. But, we will have to wait another 4-5 years for that.
@J2theEzzo No, not really. I am fine with people preferring short games, or not enjoying games because of this or that reason. What I don't like is that people jump on some "outrage trains" without any good reason.
@Flaming_Kaiser I did not have the impression that origins or far cry6 for example had been overpriced or had been lacking content without the dlcs, also people like valhalla, in my understanding, and that seems to be a massive game even without the dlcs. Anyway what I wanted to say, without knowing what exactly You get for the asked price it is hard to tell whether it is overpriced or not. If it is as good as e.g. fallen order but has twice the content, the price would be justified. On the other hand If it is skull and bones in space it might be difficult to find the value.
@J2theEzzo I agree quantity is absolutely not equivalent to quality. But If You have a good game and a good game that has twice the content, twice the price is justified, I would say.
At this point it is not clear whether outlaws is a good game, looks good and is polished and has a lot of content. Therefore it is not clear whether it is worth the asked price. But, it is also not automatic a rip off. It could well be a good game with a lot of content. And here everybody assumes it is a skull and bones in space with a star wars price tag add-on, without having played a single second.
@J2theEzzo I haven't played helldivers but I am pretty sure that it is less expensive to create a game like helldivers than a narrative heavy game, with more "architectured" worlds. This does not mean that helldivers has to be automatically less fun. You also can have a lot of fun with minesweeper. But, if You take games in similar style and quality, then twice the price is justified if the game is twice as big at the same level of quality.
I don't think anybody here has enough idea of what outlaws and its scope is to argue whether it is overpriced or not.
One can argue whether ubisoft games typically have enough "quality" to justify the price. I haven't played all ubisoft games but I for example really liked the worlds ubisoft has created for origins and unity and also watch dogs legion. There are many things You can criticize about these games, but a lot of work went into crafting these worlds. You may not be interested in that and rather want to have well designed controls and more challenging or skill based game play, You may dislike that the ubisoft open world games are mostly a bunch of "mini games" "randomly" scattered over the map, but there is certainly a lot of content with high quality graphic and sound design and (mostly) okay story bits.
I don't think many people have played outlaws yet, so I doubt that anybody here knows whether your "greed" argument is true, or whether outlaws is indeed a very vast game with high quality graphics and sound design. It is unlikely that the control scheme and gameplay will be very different wrt. their other games, so if You don't like those, You will likely not like outlaws.
I guess a price of 2 * 70 $ is justified if You get twice the "enjoyment" from this game plus season pass than from smaller "similar" games e.g. if the enjoyment from playing outlaws is similar to the enjoyment You would get from jedi fallen order and survivor combined.
Anyway pay according to what You think is a justified price. If You only try to make a bargain You will at some point only get bargain games.
@Konks I only played Odyssey for a bit when it was free over a week-end and did not like it much, neither the characters and story nor the environments. So maybe I should give it another shot. I certainly would if that was the AC game that gets a VR mode (:_;)
I guess I am alone with my opinion, but I think that ubisoft created some incredible worlds. I would like to see some of their old games brought to new live in VR. It is a shame that they distanced themselves from VR after the nexus launch. Anyway I'd love to revisit Paris (unity) and Egypt (origins) in VR. I also liked Yara quite a bit. Anyway that is what I would be most excited about ... unfortunately it will not happen ....
Will it this time be the over-the-top show case ? Or again just a state of play with very cool games but games which will not fulfill all the unrealistic expectations ?
Magic and VR are a good match. Why not differentiate from other games by adding a VR mode ? Sure, this will not sell millions of copies but there is a non negligible VR fan base. But, I suppose every penny has to be counted ...
@BeerIsAwesome studios are closed if they do not provide a compelling reason why they still should be funded. The name of the studio means nothing it is the team plus an idea. There is no guarantee for a successful sequel, in particular not because people are moving around frequently.
I hope he doesn't forget that playstation also is where it is right now because of all the quirky, weird, smaller games which probably do not make all that much money but elevate the image.
The same could have been said about the ps4 pro but people favored a different narrative. Games looked fine on a ps4, but looked better on a ps4pro. Ultimately the games played the same and the differences where understated by people without a pro and overstated by people who had one. Anyway if there was enough untapped performance people would not boost about their master race pc, if higher resolution would not be relevant people would not count pixels and complain about blurry visuals, count blades of grass, marvel about slightly more realistic reflections because of more raytracing. Anyway I have the impression that the case is pretty much as strong as the case for a ps4pro was. But somehow people have decided to follow MS' narrative that there is no need for a mid gen refresh. In the end some people will want this extra bit of power and most people won't care similar to the ps4 refresh. Though the economic situation is different, so I guess less people will give in.
Anyway choice is good, and the mid gen refresh worked out for the ps4, so it will for the ps5. And since now more and more devs lean towards ps5 versions only, the games will still be crafted for essentially two systems.
@jt887 I think what I wanted to say is if You have 100 New Zealand Dollars and somebody gives You 200 Hong Kong Dollars You do not have 3 times the money but only 40% more.
I have a hard time to believe that a ps5 pro is 3 times more powerful than a ps5. I could believe that a ps5 pro has ~30 TF but the extra 20 TF are presumably special lower precision flops only useful for AI. I could believe that a ps5 pro has dlss like upscaling and maybe is 50% more powerful than a ps5. But I would be really surprised if it is 3 times more powerful. I don't see any technology that exists right now that would allow this if the power budget is ~200 watts.
When I just saw the title image, I was not interested. After watching the trailer and knowing what it is about, now I am curious and looking forward to some gameplay reveal captured on ps5.
And yes a bladerunner-esque world in VR would obviously be awesome. I wonder how long we have to wait until enough VR enthusiasts invaded all studios and studios add VR modes against all odds ....
Did anybody expect that psvr2 will be positioned as something that will sell 100M and not as something that will sell 5M with luck 10M ?
VR is still a niche, will stay a niche for some time and will never reach everybody. So, to expect as many VR titles as flat titles does not seem to be realistic. psvr2 got 2 first party titles at the same time there was spiderman and the burning shore dlc on the flat side. I don't really understand what people expect. No other headset got so many big titles during the first year even their lifespans.
Sure it would be nice if there was a new astro bot and an uncharted or last of us vr adaptation, and it is also puzzling why not all the remasters did not get a VR mode at the same time. But with respect to the expected market share, one can presumably not expect much more. Does meta do so much better in comparison with its 20M headsets sold ?
playstation has demonstrated with gt7, re village, re 4, call of the mountain, NMS what ps5+psvr2 can do. And together with all the smaller titles, I would call this a solid first year for psvr2 titles.
Since playstation does not talk, it is now to be seen what will come next.
I finished vertigo 2, which I really enjoyed overall. It is not half life alyx, and You see its budget. It has stronger and weaker sections, but a lot of variety and many ideas.
Not finding any psvr2 games at the moment I'd fancy, I started plague tale requiem, which I got through ps+. What a beautiful game ! So far, I really enjoy the story, the twists and turns. I am not fully on board with the button-prompt controlling scheme, though.
Obviously, it would be very cool if the beautiful world could be experienced in VR, maybe even with the dualsense on the couch in third person? One day we will be getting there and VR headsets will be just like higher resolution screens or streaming accessories, and motion controls like steering wheels for car games.
Comments 581
Re: Hermen Hulst, Hideaki Nishino Replace Jim Ryan As PlayStation CEOs
"At the same time the hardware is still being stressed for most cross platform games else why are we seeing so many 30fps 4K modes or 60fps with cut down settings?"
Settings are lowered until it runs sufficiently well. Few studios take the time to really optimise the game for a platform. First party typically does, so typically they look so much better on the the same hardware. But the more the focus is on multiplatform the less also first part will optimise for the their platform and ultimately much more power is needed to get the same result.
" You had asked what was the point of developing something like a PS5… well it gives a LOT of benefits over a PS4. Especially in areas like load times, resolution, frame rates and pushing many of the sliders up increasing the fidelity and immersion possible. It’s far more like a PC upgrade in that regard, and worthwhile."
I wanted to say what is the point of trying to implement cool ideas like this I/O chip which directly decompresses into vmem, why implement something like tempest, why think about new controller features, if in the end most of these features are not used. Why not take the pieces from the shelf (i.e. mostly what xbox does) and save development cost ?
"if you make a game for only one platform you reduce the amount of money that game can make. "
on the other hand if you focus just on one platform You can eventually make something more special which is not possible to that degree on other platforms, something much more desirable compared to something more in line with what everybody else does. For example apple supports fewer devices and delivers in the end a more seamless experience.
"Earlier exclusive games were lower in budget (Returnal) or remakes (Demons Souls) or likely loss-leaders (Rachet) barely expected to make a profit. It’s a tough position to be in."
Not sure how true this really is. The games will also sell throughout the life of the platform. You typically start with lower budget titles because they are also faster to develop, which is key for a new platform.
But now we kind of reached a point where the differences from platform to platform become incremental (not necessarily by numbers but by perception). The majority of time is spent on creating assets, acting, composing and the hardware is not so relevant anymore. In that sense going multiplatform makes sense because the differences due to a different platforms are for most people imperceptible. But this will also slow down progress, because it takes much more time to push a new feature to all platforms.
"Plus to REALLY make use of the hardware developers have to wait for, or develop, new tools, new engines and new mindsets to really push them. This all takes time."
True. But do You want progress or not ?
Re: Poll: Will the Rumoured PlayStation Showcase Be Announced Soon?
I don't think there will be a showcase any time soon. I don't mind to be wrong, though. A state of play, is more likely. There might be a showcase for the ps6.
Re: Hermen Hulst, Hideaki Nishino Replace Jim Ryan As PlayStation CEOs
@themightyant resolution is scalable and you can chose a lower lod, reduce details for shadows, reflections, yes. But physics are likely scaled down until the game runs on all platforms sufficiently well to avoid possible disadvantages. Levels will be designed to fit into the memory of the lowest tier device. In the worst case games are designed to run okay with multiple input schemes e.g. mouse+keyboard, controller, touchscreen, controller + streaming latency, and are also playable on tiny screens like a phone.
Since there are so many devices to support, the optimisation stops once it runs sufficiently well. The power of modern console are less exploited than in the past when there were fewer devices to optimise for. So, in that sense multiplatform use platforms less efficiently and in a limited way, because the lowest tier device will limit the overall game design. Therefore exclusives are nice because they could use a platform to its fullest potential.
Re: Hermen Hulst, Hideaki Nishino Replace Jim Ryan As PlayStation CEOs
@themightyant absolutely true. And many games nowadays feel like mobile games .
But why develop something like a ps5 if non of its technology is really used ?
Re: Hermen Hulst, Hideaki Nishino Replace Jim Ryan As PlayStation CEOs
@themightyant concerning exclusivity: exclusives also mean that a title only needs to be optimised for a single platform, thus it better exploits the available features and might perform better. Though, nowadays hardware is so powerful that titles are presumably not so much limited by the lack of optimisations but more by the enormous amount of time it takes to create content ...
Re: Random: Stellar Blade Has Reached Peak Marketing with a Limited Edition Burger
the burger looks like its rather eating yourself then You eating the burger ...
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 529
I was looking forward to playing stride fates but given how unsatisfactory the port seems to have turned out I gave it a pass and "played" "stray gods" instead. The "role playing musical" is not much of a game, but there is some game there and maybe it is sufficient to increase engagement with the characters? Anyway sometimes it is fantastic, sometimes I did not like it much, mostly because I did not like some of the interpretations of some of the singers of their roles, I think. I really liked the artwork and the orchestration, though. It is a short "game" but the length feels correct for what is on offer and the asked price, in particular since it is on sale right now, feels justified.
Re: Helldivers 2 on PS5, PC Is Sony's Fastest Selling Game of All Time
If there was a VR mode I'd happily bring democracy to virtual worlds.
Re: Square Enix to 'Aggressively' Pursue Multiplatform Strategy from Now On
I suppose if they go multiplatform they may not get the sony money. But who knows maybe they do better that way.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@TrickyDicky99 which is maybe not great but also not bad given that many people (20M) just got their ps5.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@NEStalgia Certainly price and friction holds VR back but then also the lack of very recognisable, popular games e.g. ex-fifa, cod.
The VR enthusiasts were all hoping that the majority of games would get a VR mode. But apparently the industry thinks otherwise for some reason. If one looks at the numbers of e.g. re4 it seems that one could make back the investment in a VR mode but presumably not much more. So from a financial stand point it presumably is not interesting to add VR modes, which might be the problem. As a future investment and maybe just from the perspective of an enthusiast (which hopefully still exist in the gaming industry) it would make sense at least for titles which sell well and do not seem to throw in many obstacles for a VR adaptation e.g. car games with cockpit views). Also why not a VR mode for helldivers 2, and yes why not a third person VR cam for stellar blade ?
Re: Capcom Hits Record High Profits for Seventh Year in a Row
must be driven by the VR modes for Resident Evil 4 remake and Village I don't see any other explanation
Re: New PSVR2 Games Release Dates in 2024
one way to make a platform appear more dead than it is by ignoring everything that is appearing on that platform - even bigger games like madison. But, in the end it is a subjective choice also not all flat games are reported here I guess.
Re: New PSVR2 Games Release Dates in 2024
"Stride: Fates", "Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye", "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes" seem to be missing (May), Arken Age (tba).
It is difficult to judge the quality, but stride fates is already out on another platform and seems to be quite good.
You also seem to have missed the already out version "madison vr".
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@NEStalgia Personally I would say, what harms VR the most is not the display technology of any of the headsets, it is more that the majority of games on offer are quite a bit behind flat indie games In terms of art and audio design and also on the technical level. Anyway, I rather play a game with slightly low res visuals like the psvr2 versions of re4, re village and call of the mountain than playing a super highres, super sharp version of what the bat. There are outliers like red matter, which has a very good art design, looks apparently really good on all headsets and has very high resolution. It really hides its simple (less detailed) graphics mostly really well.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@TrickyDicky99 is ps5 dead because there are more remasters than anything else ? Anyway vr is a niche less than 5% of ps5 owners have a psvr2 (not much different from psvr1), so it is not surprising that in terms of quantity there are also only 5% of games with VR modes or build for VR, and re4 just got its vr mode in december. Though, I agree that at the moment there is nothing big announced and the future is very unclear. But outside of some GAASs there is also little known about the future games on ps5.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 527
I finished vampire the masquerade justice. Not the most detailed and most beautiful game on psvr2 that pushes the hardware, but it looks fine, the levels feel bigger than they are, and there is enough variety. The voice acting and audio design is quite good. All in all I really enjoyed it. Initially I wasn't too sure whether I would like "role playing" as a vampire, but it worked out. Then I am still in my second cyberpunk 2077 play-through. This time including phantom liberty (I encountered more bugs in the phantom liberty bit than during the entire 1st and 2nd play-through of the base game [crashes, crawling frame rate, annoying audio clips not stopping]). For me the best bits are the main story and the world they created. I really wish one could explore the world in VR (one day hopefully). On the negative side, the combat always feels a bit unsatisfactory, and driving in cockpit mode is often impossible, because it is impossible to see where one is driving. Anyway I would not play it a 2nd time if I would not like it overall.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@NEStalgia the quest3 only has better lenses and color cameras nothing else is better. The screen is only an lcd (no hdr and less bright, but does not suffer from mura). haptics are inferior, no eye tracking, smaller field of view, no display port. for quest different sacrifices were made, and presumably it is still subsidized, where psvr2 is likely not (psvr1 was not).
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@TrickyDicky99 But then there are these absolutely fantastic games or better said VR modes only available to psvr2 (gt7, resident 4 remake, resident evil village, no man's sky. and now, I suppose, can also add Madison to that list). For some just gt7 or nms alone could be reason enough to get psvr2. Psvr2 is certainly expensive, has its short comings, but You won't get anywhere close elsewhere in terms of experience for the price of ps5+psvr2.
Obviously if everybody things it is failure and does not buy it, it will not sell.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@ROTTIEMAN16 I was talking about connecting a quest to a ps5. A quest pro has eye tracking. So, it could also support dynamic foveated rendering unlike other quest models. So, with a quest pro one would only loose the haptics of psvr2, HDR, field of view, and binocular overlap.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@NEStalgia Isn't it the director of cotm who left firesprite ? So, I suppose a large fraction of the team is still there. I suppose nobody knows whether firesprite is working on some kind of VR support for something (in addition to other projects) or is now doing a mobile mp game.
Re: Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
@NEStalgia A quest pro might give You a similar graphical fidelity but a quest with out eye tracking will not allow for dynamic foveated rendering. So You will end up with significantly downgraded visuals. You may have a "sharper" image without mura, but You will loose detail, resolution and have duller colors. You will also loose a large fraction of the haptic feedback which adds significantly to the overall experience. On top You will get the compression artifacts. So, not sure whether people would be more happy with e.g. a q3 on ps5.
Re: Returnal Studio Housemarque Teases News for Tomorrow
VR support for returnal would be awesome. ... but, also very unlikely ...
Re: Returnal Studio Housemarque Teases News for Tomorrow
@aj21009 kudos to resogun ! One of the best games on ps4!
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@Flaming_Kaiser I also played Syndicate and I only really liked the linear opening. I don't recall whether there were other quests I enjoyed. I did not like the level design very much (too many too wide streets, everything felt too similar). The opening on the other hand was very good, and I think that is why I continued.
Re: Rumour: Watch Dogs Is Dead, and Legion Reportedly Killed It
Not sure whether it is bad or good do discontinue an IP. On one hand I liked the ideas in watch dogs and also enjoyed the games. On the other hand it is also good to start something new. The game mechanics of watchdogs will reappear e.g. cyberpunk had similar mechanics.
Personally I liked the first one best despite its not particularly consistent main character (the "good" guy who mass murders everybody often without any good reason other than achieving personal goals) and the rather poor story. But, it had a great atmosphere and the "hacking" game mechanics had been new at that time, I think. The 2nd which most people liked best, I liked the least. For me it was only a loosely connection of tiny individual story bits. It improved in some areas upon its predecessor, but lacked in atmosphere and, I think, one had too many hacking capabilities from the start. It lacked a sense of progression, I think. Legion, on the other hand, I enjoyed. London was fantastic, it had some very good quests and to me it had more of a consistent story. Not sure I liked the final story arc very much, though. It also had some very good characters, in my opinion. And I also liked the possibility to swap between characters and pick the one which felt best suited for a quest. I think one of the problems was that not all of the characters were equally good in terms of dialogues and how they played and it is also possible that depending on which characters one recruited one liked or disliked the game.
Re: GTA Publisher Laying Off 5% of Workforce and Cancelling 'Several' Games
... lays off only 5% of its workforce not 10% like the others (to spin this in a positive direction). It could also mean that development on gta6 is mostly done and these 5% are not needed anymore.
Anyway one can only hope that all these people who lost their job land on their feet and maybe start something new and fresh.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@Flaming_Kaiser I kind of agree. In terms of game and story the best parts of for example origins were the more linear, constrained sections in my opinion. The huge world on the other hand is full of repetitive tasks and not particularly deep and elaborate stories.
But the world itself as a scenery and something to explore was amazing, including the NPCs which fill the world with some life (although there is little to no interaction with the NPCs). In that sense I still would say, that ubisoft creates fantastic worlds. The gameplay typically lacks.
Re: New PS5 Pro Leak Points to Significant Graphics Push from Sony
Assuming the ps5pro will feature DLSS like upscaling, that is certainly a nice addition and the people who want a higher resolution will be served.
At the same time a ps5pro will reduce the visible gap between a ps5 and a ps6. The times that performance increases by a factor 10 from generation to generation are over.
Between the ps4 and ps5 there was maybe a factor 7. But from ps4pro to ps5 only a factor 3-4. If the rumored ps5pro specs are correct, one cannot expect a much bigger jump than a factor 2-3 from ps5 to ps6. So, I am really interested to see what Sony plans for the ps6. A paradigm shift and go full raytracing ? (unlikely). Hardware acceleration for nanite i.e. micro triangles? A significant price "reduction" by making it a cloud streaming stick?
Already the ps5 feels to many people just like a more powerful ps4 and it at least significantly reduced loading times and added the extra haptics.
Anyway I am really curious to see what would make a ps6 a must buy. But, we will have to wait another 4-5 years for that.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@J2theEzzo No, not really. I am fine with people preferring short games, or not enjoying games because of this or that reason. What I don't like is that people jump on some "outrage trains" without any good reason.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@Flaming_Kaiser I did not have the impression that origins or far cry6 for example had been overpriced or had been lacking content without the dlcs, also people like valhalla, in my understanding, and that seems to be a massive game even without the dlcs. Anyway what I wanted to say, without knowing what exactly You get for the asked price it is hard to tell whether it is overpriced or not. If it is as good as e.g. fallen order but has twice the content, the price would be justified. On the other hand If it is skull and bones in space it might be difficult to find the value.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@J2theEzzo I agree quantity is absolutely not equivalent to quality. But If You have a good game and a good game that has twice the content, twice the price is justified, I would say.
At this point it is not clear whether outlaws is a good game, looks good and is polished and has a lot of content. Therefore it is not clear whether it is worth the asked price. But, it is also not automatic a rip off. It could well be a good game with a lot of content. And here everybody assumes it is a skull and bones in space with a star wars price tag add-on, without having played a single second.
Re: Everybody's Golf Dev Skips PSVR2 for New VR Golf Game
On one hand a shame, on the other hand it looks worse than every bodies golf on psvr1.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
@J2theEzzo I haven't played helldivers but I am pretty sure that it is less expensive to create a game like helldivers than a narrative heavy game, with more "architectured" worlds. This does not mean that helldivers has to be automatically less fun. You also can have a lot of fun with minesweeper. But, if You take games in similar style and quality, then twice the price is justified if the game is twice as big at the same level of quality.
I don't think anybody here has enough idea of what outlaws and its scope is to argue whether it is overpriced or not.
One can argue whether ubisoft games typically have enough "quality" to justify the price. I haven't played all ubisoft games but I for example really liked the worlds ubisoft has created for origins and unity and also watch dogs legion. There are many things You can criticize about these games, but a lot of work went into crafting these worlds. You may not be interested in that and rather want to have well designed controls and more challenging or skill based game play, You may dislike that the ubisoft open world games are mostly a bunch of "mini games" "randomly" scattered over the map, but there is certainly a lot of content with high quality graphic and sound design and (mostly) okay story bits.
I don't think many people have played outlaws yet, so I doubt that anybody here knows whether your "greed" argument is true, or whether outlaws is indeed a very vast game with high quality graphics and sound design. It is unlikely that the control scheme and gameplay will be very different wrt. their other games, so if You don't like those, You will likely not like outlaws.
Re: $130 Version of Star Wars Outlaws Under Fire as Ubisoft Prices Increase
I guess a price of 2 * 70 $ is justified if You get twice the "enjoyment" from this game plus season pass than from smaller "similar" games e.g. if the enjoyment from playing outlaws is similar to the enjoyment You would get from jedi fallen order and survivor combined.
Anyway pay according to what You think is a justified price. If You only try to make a bargain You will at some point only get bargain games.
Re: System Shock Remake Will Launch at Its Very Best on PS5, PS4
Seems like another missed opportunity to make this something truly special by also adding a VR mode.
Re: Ubisoft Forward Is the Next Summer Gaming Event to Mark on Your Calendar
@Loamy I think I refuse to play avatar. How can an avatar game not have a VR mode in times in which it would absolutely be possible ?
Re: Ubisoft Forward Is the Next Summer Gaming Event to Mark on Your Calendar
@Konks I only played Odyssey for a bit when it was free over a week-end and did not like it much, neither the characters and story nor the environments. So maybe I should give it another shot. I certainly would if that was the AC game that gets a VR mode (:_;)
Re: Ubisoft Forward Is the Next Summer Gaming Event to Mark on Your Calendar
I guess I am alone with my opinion, but I think that ubisoft created some incredible worlds. I would like to see some of their old games brought to new live in VR. It is a shame that they distanced themselves from VR after the nexus launch. Anyway I'd love to revisit Paris (unity) and Egypt (origins) in VR. I also liked Yara quite a bit. Anyway that is what I would be most excited about ... unfortunately it will not happen ....
Re: Rumour: Sony to Host Big PlayStation Event Next Month
Will it this time be the over-the-top show case ? Or again just a state of play with very cool games but games which will not fulfill all the unrealistic expectations ?
Re: Immortals of Aveum Getting Futuristic FSR 3, HDR Support on PS5
Magic and VR are a good match. Why not differentiate from other games by adding a VR mode ? Sure, this will not sell millions of copies but there is a non negligible VR fan base. But, I suppose every penny has to be counted ...
Re: New PlayStation CEO Hiroki Totoki Starts Temporary Role Today
@BeerIsAwesome studios are closed if they do not provide a compelling reason why they still should be funded. The name of the studio means nothing it is the team plus an idea. There is no guarantee for a successful sequel, in particular not because people are moving around frequently.
Re: New PlayStation CEO Hiroki Totoki Starts Temporary Role Today
I hope he doesn't forget that playstation also is where it is right now because of all the quirky, weird, smaller games which probably do not make all that much money but elevate the image.
Re: Devs Allegedly Pondering the Point of Sony's PS5 Pro Upgrade
The same could have been said about the ps4 pro but people favored a different narrative. Games looked fine on a ps4, but looked better on a ps4pro. Ultimately the games played the same and the differences where understated by people without a pro and overstated by people who had one. Anyway if there was enough untapped performance people would not boost about their master race pc, if higher resolution would not be relevant people would not count pixels and complain about blurry visuals, count blades of grass, marvel about slightly more realistic reflections because of more raytracing. Anyway I have the impression that the case is pretty much as strong as the case for a ps4pro was. But somehow people have decided to follow MS' narrative that there is no need for a mid gen refresh. In the end some people will want this extra bit of power and most people won't care similar to the ps4 refresh. Though the economic situation is different, so I guess less people will give in.
Anyway choice is good, and the mid gen refresh worked out for the ps4, so it will for the ps5. And since now more and more devs lean towards ps5 versions only, the games will still be crafted for essentially two systems.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Is Up to Three Times Faster Than PS5 as Specs Surface
@jt887 I think what I wanted to say is if You have 100 New Zealand Dollars and somebody gives You 200 Hong Kong Dollars You do not have 3 times the money but only 40% more.
Re: Rumour: PS5 Pro Is Up to Three Times Faster Than PS5 as Specs Surface
I have a hard time to believe that a ps5 pro is 3 times more powerful than a ps5. I could believe that a ps5 pro has ~30 TF but the extra 20 TF are presumably special lower precision flops only useful for AI. I could believe that a ps5 pro has dlss like upscaling and maybe is 50% more powerful than a ps5. But I would be really surprised if it is 3 times more powerful. I don't see any technology that exists right now that would allow this if the power budget is ~200 watts.
Re: Nobody Wants to Die Looks Too Good to Be True on PS5
When I just saw the title image, I was not interested. After watching the trailer and knowing what it is about, now I am curious and looking forward to some gameplay reveal captured on ps5.
And yes a bladerunner-esque world in VR would obviously be awesome. I wonder how long we have to wait until enough VR enthusiasts invaded all studios and studios add VR modes against all odds ....
Re: Video: One Year Later, Is PSVR2 Doing Enough?
Did anybody expect that psvr2 will be positioned as something that will sell 100M and not as something that will sell 5M with luck 10M ?
VR is still a niche, will stay a niche for some time and will never reach everybody. So, to expect as many VR titles as flat titles does not seem to be realistic. psvr2 got 2 first party titles at the same time there was spiderman and the burning shore dlc on the flat side. I don't really understand what people expect.
No other headset got so many big titles during the first year even their lifespans.
Sure it would be nice if there was a new astro bot and an uncharted or last of us vr adaptation, and it is also puzzling why not all the remasters did not get a VR mode at the same time. But with respect to the expected market share, one can presumably not expect much more. Does meta do so much better in comparison with its 20M headsets sold ?
Re: Poll: What Do You Think of PSVR2, One Year Later?
playstation has demonstrated with gt7, re village, re 4, call of the mountain, NMS what ps5+psvr2 can do. And together with all the smaller titles, I would call this a solid first year for psvr2 titles.
Since playstation does not talk, it is now to be seen what will come next.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 516
I finished vertigo 2, which I really enjoyed overall. It is not half life alyx, and You see its budget. It has stronger and weaker sections, but a lot of variety and many ideas.
Not finding any psvr2 games at the moment I'd fancy, I started plague tale requiem, which I got through ps+. What a beautiful game ! So far, I really enjoy the story, the twists and turns. I am not fully on board with the button-prompt controlling scheme, though.
Obviously, it would be very cool if the beautiful world could be experienced in VR, maybe even with the dualsense on the couch in third person? One day we will be getting there and VR headsets will be just like higher resolution screens or streaming accessories, and motion controls like steering wheels for car games.