liathach

everyone is going on about the hardware, but a games console should be about the games, and Sony's most expensive piece of games hardware is being shortchanged on the games. I have to say ive hardly taken mine out the box since March. Switchback VR was a system seller for me, but it got poor reviews so i avoided. Most titles seems to be running-gun titles and/or hand-me-downs from PC VR. The contrast with the PS5 catalogue couldnt be starker. PSVR 1 did okay on the background of an optimistic tide of 3rd party VR games, PSVR 2 won't have that. Hopefully there is something interesting in the pipeline or this is going the way of the Virtual Boy, 32X, Kinekt....

The blindingly obvious thing to say that this would be a much more compelling value proposition if it could handle cloud streaming in addition to remote play streaming. I am really not sure why it can do one and not the other, unless Sony are holding that back as a feature until PS5 cloud is confirmed. PS Plus on PC is not a portable solution and for some reason they won't release it on IOS. The potential for this device is clear, but again Sony seem to make inscrutable decisions about device capabilities and the overall customer experience.

It's one of the best games on PS Plus. Not only does it look great, as you might expect, the combat has a great feel. Also a nice length given the bloated state of so many titles. I'm surprised they didnt build on the achievement with a sequel. I guess the PS5 games market is a bit more crowded.

Tren is great and shows what can be done. The root problem with Dreams is that success required a strategy for developing a social platform where the focus has been on making a development/creator platform. The ratio of consumers to producers is always going to be at least 9:1. Producers need a consumer audience to incentivise them to create. The core problem is Dreams put the social platform behind a paywall, limiting the number of consumers from the outset. To succeed the product needed the support and promotion of Sony to build the social network - to make consumption free within a 'creator' tier of PS Plus, perhaps, whilst the development tool could carry the cost. Really, the bold thing would have been to integrate it into the PSN platform for free. The issue with that is that this would cannibalise gaming time, potentially hurting sales and subscriptions, and the bottom line. As with Home, Sony hasnt known what to do about something which is powerful but potentially disruptive and left it to wither on the vine.

It Takes Two is a lot of fun for anyone who hasnt tried it and worth the price of admission alone. Otherwise, it follows that pattern of a couple of recent well-recieve d games from the last year and slimmer pickings. anyone who thinks this is poor value for about £4 a month on top of everything else that is already in the library needs to take a reality check. 1st party games and day ones are a special treat not the rule.

Agreed this is not a consumer device. At that price maybe even one for the fanboys/girls (if such a thing still exists) to skip. There may be industrial/military/media applications and Apple may want to get the imaging technology out there to collect field data and refine. Thats me trying to be kind. On a personal level i think it looks ridiculous and being tethered or strapping a battery pack to you like a 1950s sci-fi film is lame. The video doesnt suggest any use outside of browsing the internet and watching movies. Maybe i'll get to try it and it will rock my world but it looks DOA to me.

As a PSVR2 owner, I'm nervous for the first time as to Sony's commitment to a very expensive peripheral. Maybe they'll do a follow-up showcase but it was slim pickings and it seems that the only commercially viable genres for it are FPS, tactical team shooters and rhythym action games. I thought Sony would show more imagination and have updated some of their better 1st party PSVR titles, but at this rate its DOA.

And cloud gaming. 'More details later in the year'. C'mon guys open up the tap a little bit wider. Still no PS5 cloud streaming on PS5 or IOS PS Plus streaming - which is ridiculous.

You can only keep your powder dry for so long.

PS Plus also supports PS4 streaming games as an alternative to download as well as PS3 from the catalogue - and it works pretty well

@Mostik Yes, this is what happened with me. The difference is about £16 per year, but i was offered a time-limited discount of £9 per year for the two remaining years of my sub to go from Extra to Premium. I have no real interests in the classics, but i found waiting to download PS4 games in the library a pain, so I paid the small premium (no pun intended) to get access to streaming and i've picked up and played many more games from the catalogue using the feature. Plus trials are useful. It's not a huge amount extra, but for the price of a couple of cups of coffee...Also, there were rumours that PS5 games would soon be streamable. That would be a major quality of life improvement for those of us with unexpanded storage. Make that will be announced tonight?

I will be playing Zelda - when it arrives. I’m several hours into Kena and really enjoying it. Downloaded Ghostwire Tokyo out of curiosity and already played the hour trial of Sonic Frontiers which I also thought was not bad. Trying to get more use out of the PS plus sub.

I just completed Burning Shores at the weekend and the final boss sets a new bar in visual terms and i think points the way to what PS5 games, unshackled from previous gen limitations can offer. The series is not without its faults - combat can be extremely messy and the story and dialogue laden with turgid exposition rather than real character development but it frequently thrills.

@RudeAnimat0r It could be funded by debt. However, Sega's quarterly revenues were $2.1bn, and about 292m profit, with 17% growth so bankruptcy doesnt look imminent. As has been said there is a great amount of brand equity in Sonic and other video game properties going back to arcade and 16-bit era. The purchase of Rovio probably fits with doing more mobile branded casual games. Rovio has the mobile platform know-how but been unable to expand beyond its Angry Birds brand. You can see the synergy.

I remember reviewing/playing this on megadrive back then and it was not regarded as a classic: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogamingmagazines/comments/u3muaa/zool_mega_drivegenesis_review_from_mean_machines/

Sony should have given Dreams away for free or added it to PS Plus to encourage creators and the market place. it could also have been great for creating PSVR2 experiences and helping with the limited software support for that. The lack of joined-up thinking is frustrating.

They don't want God of War or Spiderman - they want the Kinect. Stadia was a fool's errand and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Consumers are not going to pay full price for games that they know the provider can pull the plug on...as Google did literally within a couple of years. It should have been a rental service. The technology wasnt really at fault - the business model was.

what we need is cloud streaming of PS5 games, and a cloud streaming app for the whole library on IOS devices.

This is a masterclass in how not to market a video game. I too got the PS Plus version and never bothered to play it on my PSVR. I am completely mystified as to what my upgrade options to PS5 and bundle options with the new chapter are. The new game is meant to be out today but appears unavailable. The publisher could have done a better job.

Writing off PSVR2 one month in, and on the basis of a single game underperforming expectations sounds premature. The technology is great although is does look like Sony has under-invested in software development to support it. I think what is more likely is more games will have VR modes rather than big standalone titles. As for Supermassive, its a pity they seem to have struggled to repeat their form of years ago. Both Rush of Blood and Tumble VR were fun titles for PSVR at launch - and quite a bit cheaper.

So back in January there was a rumour doing the rounds that the 7.0.0 release was called 'Cronus' and would enable PS5 games to be streamed. Last week's release came around and it wasn't included and nobody mentioned it. I upgraded (at time-limited discount) to PS Premium on the basis that it might follow on behind at some point...

all very good. but when i went back to GT7 tonight to try and start a new game to begin again with PSVR2 (after 28 hours of progression) it seems impossible to do that without creating an entire new PSN account and PS5 profile. I gave up. Bonkers.

I tried the demo at the weekend, which has two small puzzles. Once you get your head around the controls (the tutorial doesnt have any instructional text and needs its own tutorial) it is quite relaxing and quite satifsfying when the model comes together. I'm not quite sure there is enough interest/longevity to justify the price tag - even at £16.

There should be a way of activating the pass through from the controller without touching the headset (unless there is and I don’t know about it). I find myself doing this a lot and moving the position of the headset slightly as I fumble for it.

If those four games were in a poundshop bin (which is effectively what they cost) i dont think anyone would pass by. I think its the best selection in months. Paradoxically, i am a bit cheesed off by the inclusion of OlliOlli World, which i think is best in the group, because i really wanted to get that for my Switch to play on the go, but it's never been less than £16 and is current £25 - so puts the value into context.

That's really interesting: so the Xbox version cost nothing to produce, while the PS5 one cost millions..? The reality is that Microsoft are subsidising their video games division for long term strategic reasons and that means the fantasy economics of gamepass. They do this because, whilst being in the business for 20 years, and spending billions on acquisitions that have failed to deliver, they have failed to build a creative, studio ethos and anything more than niche properties. Running gamepass as a huge loss leader is their one USP.

So one hour of gameplay isn’t a trial but a demo. A demo is a marketing tool not a feature. Really publishers should be grateful that potential customers are prepared to engage. Sony are attempting to monetise marketing activities as a ‘premium feature’. Don’t reward the cynicism by engaging.

Stray is a good example of how Sony crank the hype machine. In previous State of Play it looked awesome and as an early exclusive for PS Plus Extra it generated excitement. The city 'adventure' sections look fantastic and were clearly a labour of love, and are initially fun to explore. But the gameplay there is basic - i've played ZX Spectrum adventures with more complexity. The actions sections are (literally) pedestrian, and can be traversed with ease. The gameplay challenge hasnt been balanced. A weapon is introduced in the midgame that is too powerful and can be used with a technique to eliminate almost any risk. It shouldnt be scoring 9s and 10s on that basis. It goes back to what makes a 'game': as a short sci-fi interactive novel it is charming and ideal for a service like PS Plus, but its looks flatter to deceive.

In addition to costing £100 to purchase, it appears it requires an app sub of £43 per year to work. That's half as much as an annual sub to PS Extra, just to keep a peripheral working.