lindos

Sony get it right. Obv this is a PS site and there aren't going to be too many Xbox fanboys (although most of us enjoy both consoles). imho the issue Xbox have is that they released the all you can eat model without having any quality food on the table. They literally closed down their games production options and then opened the eat-all-you-can restaurant - and then scrath their heads when it failed.
Too late now for Xbox. They have about 20% of this gens market and I would be very surprised if they become anything other than a publisher going forward.

tbh there is a lot of immense skill in that video above anything the shield does for the player.

qq : If I had already just begun a NG+ run in the core game and then make my way to the DLC, is the DLC then at an even more difficult level (because I entered from a NG+ run) or does it know that its my first time in the DLC and therefore remains at base difficulty for the DLC?
This is my actual sit, and I'd rather go in with my L175 character than start fresh and get a second blokey up to spec.

It can. Hollow Knight is my case in point. I paid for the full game but will never get to play half of it because its just beyond my skill level.
I love and have 100% completion on all FromS games (ER DLC to come) but I would vote for them having a difficulty option in the menus - after all no one loses out do they? There literally is no downside.

@Bunchesopuppies really? you never played games before trophies were a thing and only play them for trophies? wow never knew there were folks that keen on trophies.
I play them for the game itself, perhaps weird i know.

Genuine comment, honest..... I've tried DE about 3 times but always give it up about 5 mins after I get out of my apartment, so perhaps 30 mins in to the game - I dont think I 'get it' because everyone raves on it and its just coming across as meh to me.
I assume its some sort of point n click adventure with RPG stats/build elements - but its just not biting.

Is it a case of it coming together and the magic happening in the next hour, or perhaps I should watch a playthrough of the first hour to help the magic along - or is it if you aren't up for a point n click 80s adventure it probably isnt for you?

LOL - Just noticed the comment above mine says exactly the same, much more succinctly though.

Hate to an an arse butnot sure you can call a single insallment a franchise. The Ben Hur franchise featured one film then?

@Shepherd_Tallon yup, still £4 on C*KEYS, and 3 and NV £1.

@Old_Man_Harper Agreed. Its works for some like yourself, but for others, like me, I prefer to pick just a handful of games a year, usually on sale. Thus the £20x6 games per annum is better value than the £17x12 GPU subscription when I may not even get the 6 games I really want to play on the sub service.

Horses for courses.

I think a few of the folks in these comments have hit the nail on the head. Its an art-house game with a blockbuster budget. That was always going to be a hard equation to balance.

I have it sitting on my drive waiting to be booted for the first time from the £20 Epic Christmas sale; but it doesn't feel like a priority - and thats the issue; art-house is great for those moments, but its not pizza; its not what you could have every week.

@Yorozayu I am not sure you can have a plural of greatest. I think the work greatest implies some sort of 'top of the list', i.e the one. But fair point, I guess you like it.

@MiaowMinx Not mutually exclusive.
It is, AFAIK, humanly possible to be smart, successful, athletic, and talented in many areas of life and also be attractive and have some sexuality - even attractiveness you are happy to show a little of to the world.
Crikey - the PC crowd will outlaw sex next.

@nessisonett each to their own. But You'd go hungry and cold if you were to boycott goods from every organisation that has an unsavoury boss or two. Contrary to popular opinion the world isn't 100% 'nice' folks. Sorry to break it to you.

Dont Atari like to relaunch themselves every couple of years. Have they actually done much of substance on the last 30 years since the heady days of the Jaguar, Atari ST and the 2600?

@BAMozzy LOL so it's your favourite from the 2 you've
played out of 10.

As if anyone on PC would run a game at 30FPS.

What gets me is how can a meeting go along the lines of.....
"we could do the game at 1440p and 30FPS which will be incredibly janky, with stutters, a lack of control, fluidity and flow and with poor latency, or we could do it at 1080p, let FSR2 do the upscaling so no one will notice the resolution difference and run it at a super fluid 60 FPS that plays so much better"......

How do we vote guys............. 30 FPS please. FGS.

@Balie3000 It is an interesting point. I suspect that in actuality the % of folks that feel aligned to one extreme or the other is much the same as its always been (humans dont evolve that quickly) but what has changed is the ability to communicate widely and at pace. Thus we have many more people able to latch-on to the latest band-wagon or group-think : perhaps because thats what the cool kids (in their blinkered view) are saying, perhaps they want to belong, perhaps they want to momentarily stand out. In actuality they are really no more extreme than aunt Matilda from Blackburn and will align to the next fad-think just as willingly and fleetingly.

Anything less then 60fps is a no pay. Jeez its 2024, PCs haven't entertained anything less than 60 for over 10 years. It is, imho, ridiculous that the question even has to be asked.

For anyone on the fence, try playing Control at 30fps; its a joke and will tell you all you need to know as to why its an insult to those spending almost £500 that they are served such nonsense.

@matekomlosi Indeed mate. The console pushers (Microsoft/Sony) always appear to label their console for the generation +1.
The Xbox One / PS4 they claimed 1080p but no they were 720P and we had to wait to get 1080p on the XBO-X and PS5, the XBO-X and PS5 they claimed 4K60 but no, that will be the pro and so on.

The term procedurally generated has always struck me as a negative, i.e. as if the universe didn't really matter because it was all random and everyone had a different one. But if I now understand it correctly that is not the case - everyone shares the same universe, its just the case that the single universe was generated by a mathematic equation as such - but its the same for all and we all live and breathe and explore the same.
This makes it much more real, and much more valuable for me. And tbh is they stopped using the procedural term I think they would sell even more - it is seen as a negative not a positive.

Day 1for me if we see a roadmap of Sony exclusives that can take advantage of the performance.
For x-platform games I'm afraid the Xbox S holds everything back, whilst its not everything we will have a 33TF console towering over a 4TF console - thats just ridiculous to try and code for them both.

Thats a very good point. tbh whilst some will argue it allowed more budget constrained fans to jump on this generation I think a key part of the failure of the generation (i.e. lack of a step-change in the content) is the xbox Series S. I have every console, always have so have no fanboy flag to fly - but releasing a console that is 25% the power of the other two units it shares the generation with (the XBX and PS5) has meant that all games have to be essentially crippled to run on the S. It has surely held the generation back, and thats why we aren't ready for the next half step of a generation to the Pro.

have they patched in left handed controls though or still ignoring accessibility options?

Well done PS, thats the best layman's outline of these 'downres and upscale' options I have read.
The key is that the upscaling is so good that the lower res image, e.g. 1440P can be made to look like a native 4K image, and thus you get 1440P performance but with 4K image like quality.

Sincerely best explanation ever.

Such a shame.
At £299, with back-compat this could have been a killer.
Heart goes out to all those who helped bring it to market.

tbh even if this is nothing but false rumour it is about as dead as they come - its only the imminent death rumours that give it any airtime these days - and that aint good.

@Zenos agreed. both consoles released under the propaganda of 4K60 and neither can do it. sometimes 4k sometimes 60fps but never both consistently in a complex game. this is a welcome introduction to true console 4k gaming. day 1 for me. 35tflops is about upper-midrange PC spec and with the benefits of a closed system that could be awesome.

You guys really holding off a value £25 remaster of 3 of the finest games ever made, put in to one compilation with nothing taken out, and shined up with one of the finest remaster treatments ever because some virtual gold stamps from year 2 primary aren't perfect? Wow. Hate to see what you thought of TLOU remaster.

@sanderson72 simply pull your guns out temporarily and then it works. But no, its not fixed.
It does a whole lot better though. Really shows how a remaster should be done. Perfect.

@Anguspuss Agreed. Looks like the screenshots taken off the Switch tbh. Very 1990s.

@WallyWest In fairness mate I value your thoughts but suggesting people can't talk of a certain characteristic unless they themselves have that characteristic is nonsense.
I know you are promoting a fair, open and loving society, which most of us do; but dont go down the 1930s route of suggesting that there is only one voice of truth and you either use those words or no words at all. Didn't turn out well for those who tried that in the 30s did it and thank god.

I would suggest the math on SM2 be considered. If they had sold 10M and if each sale had netted $60 on average (some countries more than others etc) then thats still only $600,000,000 in revenue . However of course the actual money that gets back to Sony, i.e. to pay off that $300,000,000 cost is a fraction of that total - with much going to retailers, distributors, marketing etc etc. In fact I'd be surprised if Sony saw $30 from each of those $60 sales. Thus my guestimate would be that it was breakeven at best.

There's usually two options for profit, (1) sell more, at lower cost and price or (2) sell fewer at higher cost and price. Only apple has really mastered the magical art of (3) sell more at higher cost and price.

The ridiculously long wait between major IP releases just screams of too long, too slow, too costly. They've tried option (2) and it isn't working. I really think going back to option (1) with lower cost, but more releases is the answer.

Always saddened to see these things. Best wishes to all those impacted; I am sure you're many and vast talents will fund their place and rewards elsewhere. Take care.

tbh and of course imho it came out with its main competitor being almost half the price, i.e. the Quest 2 at £299, and having perhaps 2% of the games that competitor has access to via PCVR, and finally not having the freedom and immediateness of the Quest 2 in standalone mode.

Its literally as-if Sony didn't look at the competition.

Its still over priced, it still has very few games, it still has no access to the vast expanse of PCVR games because Sony elected to make it proprietary, and of course it will never be standalone.

Makes you wonder which execs said "Yes".

@Pat_trick Yup, definitely. If it were genuine then great, but it does have the whiff of flavour of the month about it.

@DennisReynolds good result - the first game was a masterpiece and this couldn't possibly fall too far from that greatness.
This is what makes Sony so special, the mass market appeal of quality AAA exclusive blockbusters.

tbh Sony need a use for all those PSVR2 screens they wont be selling

Loved the PSP and Vita, if only it had an HDMI dock then it would have been a Switch killer before the Switch was a twinkle in the eye. (and yes I had the PS thing that did have a HDMI out but no screen, that was a little late to the party).

Great to see the Vita back, just needs that dock and native PS4 strength and its a winner.
Plenty of room for switch and Vita handhelds; very different games.

tbh I dont think we should be seeing this sort of misinformation on a respected site. I appreciate the news here is that the developer is spreading misinformation - but as with the nuttz on 5G and all the other nonsense we've half-heard these last few years; its better to let them mutter amongst themselves and not give them the respect airing their views would imply.

@species Thats the most sensible thing I've read in all this debacle.
Calling it a remaster, accepting everyone appears to now understand that word means far less than remake, is the mistake.

Directors Cut would be perfect. And £10 for a new mode and a couple of mini pre-alpha levels feels fine. Dont even mention the graphics.

@Nem You mean a remaster of the remaster of course.
Its their IP and their money to make; but I can't help but think they could have done so much more with their time and money.

If there were a hierarchy of innovation were :-
New IP>sequel>remake>remaster then this appears to be something even further to the right of the line. Perhaps reissue?

Digital Foundary put out a good piece and they are usually very on board with the blockbuster titles but even they could hardly notice any difference from that already released as a free PS5 patch years ago.

Good for those that missed it first or second time round, but you can't help but be thinking what was the opportunity cost of them working on this and not something else?

@colonelkilgore quite the opposite mate. I think the world lapped this up as a masterpiece on day 1 - glad you liked it, just like the mainstream did.

Is this a remaster (appears to be the word generally used for this one) or a remake? i.e. is it plugging in some higher-res textures and allowing the PS5 to run at full pelt or is it a from the ground up rebuild ala RE2/3/4 remakes?
I suspect the former.

Doesnt take away from the essence of the game and if you liked it first time round it wont lose that appeal I am sure; but for consumer awareness I think it would be good to know. There's a massive difference tween a remaster and a remake and I'd just like to be clear

@species its a game matey, not a spaceship. its whatever makes you happy, fave music, fave team, fave film...its just a preference and fgs how boring would it be if we all had the same preferences on everything.

As we mature we relish variety, give it time.

There's nothing quite as effective at spoiling an ending or twist as saying "that ending".
Well done.

Normally I'd say Sony have other things to put their efforts to but I have one example that stopped me playing a game I loved; Hollow Knight. I must have sunk 50+ hours in to that and got perhaps 60% thru; but there's no way my old eyes/brain/hands were going to get me to 100%. I literally missed almost half a game I loved just because the devs thought it cool to enforce 'git gud' on everyone.
Thus I salute Sony and welcome this change.
And now I am a PC gamer it reminds me to see if someone has modded in an easy mode I can go play........

just to clarify. DLSS raises fps by lowering resolution. it doesn't increase resolution.
i do wish this was made clear. it's not magic. lower the resolution and you get more fps. we've all been doing that since the 90s.
what it does special is anti aliasing on that lowered resolution image so that it's not as bad as the same low resolution without anti aliasing.
simple.

@somnambulance You can vote in the poll, you dont have to do it in a reply.

Sale prices at £40 !!! I remember not too long ago AAA games in a sale attracted a price of £19. I think greed has got the better of the publishers, the high prices then drive people not to buy as many games, and then the overall revenue falls i.e. the volume dip is greater than the price rises.
Ultimately the user loses out on playing games and the developers lose out - sometimes with their jobs.

Publishers really need to get another spreadsheet, one that looks at overall revenue and long term growth, not micro fluctuations in profit on a handful of sales.

No, if I fancy a game I walk to my games room and have a game.
I tend not to find myself with 'game time' and not able to access my game room.

I guess if for some reason you have a big 'down time' in your day, e.g. an enforced 2 hours lunch break, then you could have the game itch away from home, but I've never been in that boat.