These rat races aren't my biz, but I'm honestly with Microsoft on this one. For all their hardware limitations and policy oddities, the PlayStation family are still a legitimate bonanza of versatile gaming experiences for those who can make use of them (which, going by PS4 sales alone, is quite a crowd), including a lineup of own projects. If some audiences were to be lost for want of CoD and literal lack of anything to hook them on the current and past gen hardware... are they even a worthwhile market slice to cling to in the long run? Especially now that the bulk of multiplayer kids seem to be more into freemium BRs these days anyway? And for PS+ online baits, even not counting its recent additional incentives, there will always be EA stuff.😏
Only Injustice 2 isn't on Switch here, but if I ultimately do splurge on the 3 month renewal over the next few days (as September's NFS Heat and Granblue Fantasy Versus have been tempting me to), all three will get tossed into my library as usual. Still on the fence due to the respective region's sub cards costing an arm and a leg now (especially when your local banks gleefully buy Russian ruble for the pre-war ~3.3 BYN per hundred and sell for 4.2 BYN with equal glee - this is Belarus, baby!😏), but I'll have to renew at some point before New Year anyway or say goodbye to the bulk of clouded Vita saves (six months, was it?), so hey.
Reliance on ratings rather than the games' merits is bound to make the list weird anyway (Gravity Rush, Tearaway, NFS MW12... all HOW low here?), but it's still an eyebrow raiser that Soul Sacrifice is listed twice while something arguably even more peculiar among the MH inspirations like Toukiden or God Eater misses out. After all, the only pragmatic reason to indulge with such top charts at all is the spotlight value it can provide in regards to the titles different folks may have overlooked or never heard about, plus a testimony to the ultimately impressive library of what I still consider the best PlayStation console to date. Hot take? You haven't seen hot takes yet - I even genuinely enjoyed Resistance: Burning Skies!😜 But of course, few lists short of the full Wikipedia ones can do justice to everything that arguably bears mentioning on Vita dear - from the likes of Rollers of the Realm, Knock-Knock and Exile's End to the likes of Assassin's Creed Liberation, Oreshika and Odin's Sphere. Many of the gems are still not on Switch and some might never be for variably obvious reasons, so even ten years on, this lovable handheld offers quite a backlog to sink teeth into.
The most tangible attempt to date, credit where due. The design even tries to solve the problems of blocking the typical 3.5 mm port placement on most phones but should still cover the charger port (both being the reasons I opted out of a similar form factor and reluctantly picked up a less wieldy flip holder model earlier this year) which may be an issue if your battery is worn out... oh wait, it's for iPhones only, I forgot their owners aren't supposed to wear the battery out.😅 But even on Android, between these peeves and the price (plus a controller premium sub? That better not paywall the RP compatibility itself) which is guaranteed to get further bloated on import, I'd think twice about such a purchase despite the benefit of a full button set. As far as clunky peripherals go, a dedicated Vita grip is still cheaper and you'll still be streaming your PS4 games to a device that isn't simultaneously busy updating a truckload of messengers, weather widgets and whatnot in the background.
But to reiterate, credit where due. If your phone is the only option for properly portable RP (which, in the predictable yet bitter case of PS5, it pretty much is), this here may well be the best compromise to date, and it could still mean someone's difference between played Forbidden West once a day and once a month.
@tselliot and others like, say, Japanese. Which is why I've mentioned the possibility myself; point is, I wonder how easy it would still be to make this particular kind of mistake while engaged with the medium where titles with the proper "of" usage are an absolute multitude throughout the video game history. Heck, the very model design they snatched is normally associated with "God of War", not with "War of God".😅
Forget PS5s with tickets, the Buss case should be mercifully transparent with its notion that a sports team boss could be promptly DM'd by a crowd like people in the market for a PS5. It's like someone's account hacking prowess somehow marks the extent of their Twitter knowledge.😅
Forget models, how does one arrive at a title like "Zeus of Child"? It's one thing to lack command of a language, but if you're involved with video games, one would think you've come across no shortage of examples illustrating how the preposition works.🤔😅
Solves the holder necessity, at least, but still a compromise incomparable to a proper handheld like Vita in this regard. And if you're an Android user, the peripheral costs suddenly escalate to the price of an iPhone.😅
Honestly, far be it from me to consult Sony on their policies, but between stunts like PlayStation Classic and Chinese third parties dishing out handheld gaming devices by the dozen, would it be TOO expensive and commercially unviable to just release, I dunno, some kind of a Playstation Legacy - two pairs of shoulder buttons, clickable sticks, the rest being a good ol' Vita with optionally somewhat beefier hardware (to make room for at least limited PS2 emulation)? At least three or four platforms' worth of aforesaid legacy content plus PS4 and PS5 Remote Play with adequate controls (maybe minus some DualSense schticks to cut costs, but I'm sure the current library would still be more than playable), maybe even streaming Premium's PS3 titles since a Vita tier resolution would be more stream-friendly... what's not to love? Or does dedicated portable gaming hardware really have no purpose in other companies' corporate eyes than to one-up Nintendo? Time will tell, but if there's one positive thing about the subject of this post, it's that basic accessibility for gamers above the college age is something Sony isn't entirely dismissive about after all.
This has to be the first time I've ever seen PSP Go described as a "peripheral device".🤔
@Smash41 it's pretty much what left me outside the market for the new console. Duct-taping DualSense to the phone sure doesn't sound like a good alternative (and frankly, neither does streaming via what is essentially a palmtop PC constantly using the very same network connection for a truckload of other apps and features), only emphasizing how Sony has deliberately given up portability this gen.
All three titles on PS4 and none on Switch! Although ironically enough, I might not even add them - as I've mentioned elsewhere, my sub is expiring this week, and the increasingly rare 12 month cards for the currently infamous region my account is tied to are being offered for roughly 110-130 bucks.😅 So I don't rule out a hiatus, but time will tell.
GoW is a promising first party classic I don't imagine getting my hands on otherwise (no PS5, no suitable PC hardware, lack of motivation to buy PS4 stuff directly in the face of the Remote Play control scheme roulette and low odds of upgrading to Extra in the visible future), so it makes the lineup for me by itself even though I'm not likely to install the others (as mentioned before, they're already much more portable elsewhere). As for fans bellyaching about PS+... what else is new?
Don't tell me it's taking a full remake to add the motion controls back.😅
@WaveBoy "RE7 on a TV for example pales in Comparison to experiencing it in VR even with the low pixely visuals and semi down graded environments. The motion head aiming alone makes a world of a difference, aside from feeling like you’re actually IN the bakers house"
YMMV. RE7 in VR was the definitive proof that the tech was really not for me. I never felt like I was any more "in the house" than on the TV screen, all the convenience mostly boiled down to easier navigation of various drawers and such (as expected of what is essentially a headmounted right stick alternative) but was eventually outweighed by the imposed control limitations (the garage skirmish was a particular headache, no pun intended). I wasn't even motion sick, just very underwhelmed because if there's any "transformative experience" the likes of @getsammyb praise, I expected to find it in this kind of game. But true VR truly remains the property of fictional domains like .hack, SAO, Bofuri or the more recent (and less gaming-oriented but technically superior) example in Belle. Our world doesn't appear any closer to it than it is to widely affordable cloud gaming and whatnot.
Only GoW has any odds of being actually installed (the other two are on Switch IIRC), and probably not until I ever get around to play through the original series (I even have GoW3 from the service's way back when). But FWIW it does appear to be the kind of game you could comfortably play on Vita, which only cements it as this month's highlight.
@Milktastrophe I've already commented on why having another option on the lower tier is a good thing due to the comparative distribution specifics. On the other hand, this said option will be gone two weeks after the higher tier's launch, so those it somehow rubs against the fur don't have much to "endure". Although I also don't quite see the point of using five specific games to advertise a tier whose primarily selling point is about offering dozens at a time.
@TrickyDicky99 but last time I checked, that one already had quite a few games that used to be on IGC prior. What's one more? And that only applies to the lucky PS5 owners (besides some folks who arranged their account to be temporarily assigned to another person's PS5😄), whereas the current majority of subscribers can still be safely assumed to remain on PS4 for the oft-discussed variety of reasons.
I honestly fail to see the problem here. On the one hand, higher tiers come with enough of a truckload to make the content of standard IGC offerings feel like a footnote if you sign up for them. On the other hand, the PS Now/Game Pass DNA of these tiers comes with the risk of lineup rotations, so every Extra title temporarily also offered on Essential is a title you have a month-long opportunity to "secure" on your sub rather than leave it at Sony's mercy. Where are the downsides, exactly?
Seeing as they aren't bailing out of the Switch version (which is good news for me because where else would I realistically play it?), it certainly seems like the unmentioned but the equally big factor is dropping Gen 8 in favour of the modern stuff. Compared to the new TV-hooked kids on the console block, Switch and PS4 are both "limited hardware", but guess which one of them can get away with certain downgrades and has QoL flexibility to trade performance/visual parity for. And by 2023, its sales will outnumber that of PS4 as well.
That said, it's an undeniable bummer for all the PS4 folks who don't plan to or still can't upgrade to PS5. (-_-)7
@Grumblevolcano it's been discussed ad nauseaum (by audiences and game devs alike) that "a more powerful Switch" wouldn't open up the gate for more demanding ports as long as they all have to be made with the other models in mind as well - and the ever unlikely "New 3DS" alternative is all the less realistic now as the original "Switch family" sales are well over 100 million now. By now it only makes sense to discuss a Gen 10 successor, but its announcement and launch will heavily depend on the component industry climate since, as has been also discussed more than once, Nintendo will hardly want a PS5 situation on their hands. And if either it or the mythical "Pro" were already on schedule for next year, wouldn't other big announcements like No Man's Sky be targeting a 2023 release as well?
Just as .hack, SAO and Bofuri showed us what the real VR is supposed to be like, Belle recently demonstrated what a real and proper metaverse can be like - boasting tech aeons beyond the level of even SAO's NerveGears (for one, the user doesn't have to lie like a log all session long) and once again establishing that our own world appears at least another decade away from all that. Yaying or naying it until then is not unlike debating the purchase of a land plot on the moon.
I would appreciate these frequent updates more if not for the recent FWP of them being mandatory for Remote Play nowadays. I used to easily update the system through Vita itself, now it's NS-16157-0 every damn time and I have to ask for the home console to be updated on site before I can access anything therein. Biggest irony is, as mentioned elsewhere, I recently had a whole week of ultrarare opportunity to spend time with the PS4 at home, so I brought it over and could have easily installed the new update then... so OF COURSE Sony waited until a week later to push it out.😆
Speaking of updates, Vita just got its own - apparently in line with PS3 and likewise removing a portion of profile management functionality. But I thankfully have no reason to expect any apparent issues in RP connectivity from that, at least.
Odd, even on Russian PSS with its proverbial latest limitations, the game pages are still accessible via console app search - just checked it again to be sure. Or does the error pop up when trying to process a purchase?
I'm not much for FIFA and Curse of the Dead Gods is on Switch, but Tribes of Midgard [still] isn't and promises a peculiar blend of inspirations from Diablo and Don't Starve which coincidentally might paint decent odds of adequate Vita controls. Don't mind if I do!
It is apparently tricky to add new PS+ games at the moment, but between two titles also on Switch and one that reportedly lacks a single player mode, I suppose even missing out on April lineup completely would be a bummer of a limited size.😅
No surprises here, alas. Not even much of a point in excusing this with hardware challenges - not only a good bunch of Vita exclusive classics didn't seem to heavily use them, but the ones that did never stopped Sony from releasing PlayStation TV way back when. But then again, I have no stake in this matter (I've already commented that I don't picture myself playing such games on PS4 which I'd have to stream to the same damn Vita); it may be more of a bummer for home console users who never had the handheld.
Sounds like I'll be sticking to Essential. Premium briefly turned my head, but... STREAMING PS1 and PSP titles to PS4? Streaming a natively portable game to a home console? Yeah, no. Besides, PS4 normally doesn't seem to allow any streaming apps while casting a Remote Play session to begin with, so we'd be talking "literally unplayable" for the extra 70 bucks in my case. 😅
EDIT: on second look, seems like PS1 and PSP might be downloadable as well. But for a PSP and Vita user, Remote Playing them off a PS4 would still feel downright surreal.
GoTL doesn't sound like something I'd prefer to play ahead of the main game (even if it has enough single player content), and the rest is on Switch (yes, including Ark - that port is almost guaranteed to control better, and the recent hijinks of the local 4G could just as easily emulate its fan-maligned performance if I were to try the PS4 one here😅), so not many stakes in this month for me. But objectively, it's a commendably varied lineup genre-wise, and it's not like I won't be adding them to my PS library. Except maybe GoTL? Is there something exclusive to the standalone release like it reportedly was to the Tiny Tina one from last month?
@Voltan I thoroughly enjoyed Eternals. MCU did one hell of a hat trick in the epic department last year overall, but this one was particularly packed. Tough luck for those bored by it - what I saw was a wild ride packed with delicious info.
Planet Coaster is off limits for me, but while I'm rarely hungry for wrestling games, they do sound like something comparatively cooperative with Vita controls. The Borderlands bit is actually not so bad precisely BECAUSE Handsome Collection features it on Switch and supplied it here in a previous IGC month - the standalone release is said to be just a handful of extra content, so how many of us would honestly invest in it separately? PS+ sounds like an ideal vessel for it...
...or would if Borderlands wasn't a shooter. I may have more luck with the earlier claimed PC giveaway of it, too.😅 Ah, screw all this, if things play out, maybe I'll invest some of my summer funds and try to ship one of those AliExpress "grips" that similate trigger input mechanically. Even though it promises to be a rather expensive purchase (by itself AND on arrival since our customs tax any shipment over 22 euros🙄).
@AlexSora89 yeah, some folks' vocal disdain for so-called "portbeggars" on otherwise platforms has proven to be quite a boomerang.😅 PlayStation fans were confident that superior raw specs secured them pretty much everything third party under the sun; Microsoft is now asserting that the number of zeroes in a corporate wallet can be a raw spec as well.
@RevGaming no offence, but people requiring "review scores" to base their fiction purchases on come across as someone who, for fear of gambling with their own tastes, turn to gambling with those of complete strangers. Which feels honestly pitiable (if not borderline disturbing), but thankfully like a minority.
Most "scores" and "reviews" out there are deficient and borderline useless to a sensible audience (take it from someone who used to write equally guilty VG articles for several years), but we aren't living in the effin' 1983 anymore - people "on the fence" have infinitely more effective ways of leaping off this fence than someone's caustically verbose personal opinions and assertions are meant to sound like expertise but insult a lot if not all about the idea of fiction analysis. Gameplay footage (including the reputable folks who upload it without commentary) pops up in a matter of days, wikias aggregating actual informative info like the game's structure and mechanics (as a gamer, I want to know what the game can offer me, not how many synonyms to "masterpiece" or "crap" the report can come up with) pop up in a matter of weeks. If you don't have time to do your own research, you either roll the investment dice instead or wait until those investment dice become reassuringly smaller during sales that happen to 99% of games out there. Only those desperate for having new releases ASAP should find themselves outside the coverage of these options, and such folks would be rather recommended professional help... but end up preyed on by tabloids, "score aggregator" sites, fanblogs, "influencers" and the like instead.
@RevGaming a game's quality is also more important than the yellow metacritic numbers (and the delusions of quality "assessment" they represent). But kidding is still obvious here - as if Sony, a corporate entertainment tech business, would rank personal opinions (however pretentious) over the money made at the end of the day. Metacritics don't budget future games, and quite thankfully so.
Almost surprising to see a metroidvania hit PlayStationland before Switch these days, but I suppose Sony's hand in the funding that some comments here mention is quite explanatory... and suggests that Switch may not be getting this one at all. At least this genre can be expected to play nicer with Vita controls, so perhaps I'll come to play this on PS4 someday.
glances back at dozens of Switch metroidvanias in his library ... emphasis on "perhaps".
Still sounds like an aesthetic gimmick headmounted first-person camera controller, but as someone who wouldn't likely be compelled even by the true VR tech depicted in cyberfantasy fiction, I guess I'm not in a position to raise eyebrows anyway.
Cheers for those who may come to enjoy it, but I also remain biased against VG narratives and worlds remaining exclusive to this niche (as opposed to the ones you have the option to experience conventionally) - few things scream "home-chained" louder than VR games, with Remote Play having zero hope on salvaging them even back on the consoles that DID have proper Remote Play (even Labo VR isn't exactly portable entertainment, all things considered), so it all automatically goes to "maaaaybe in my retirement years, assuming I live to be the retirement age in the first place" drawer.😏
P5S is on Switch and the other two belong to red zone genres when it comes to Remote Play, but outside this context it would be a pretty awesome lineup. I mean, a racer, an action RPG and a first person shooter starring space dwarves? And once again, no PS5-only items either.
By now, I can confidently call it my favourite PlayStation console, all the moreso considering its two platforms' worth of backward compatibility (even if the limited digital distribution and region locks do mean the need to use a hacked unit for many of their contents) and the similarly imperfect but recurrently legitimate ability to access one's PS4 library (and with it, potentially a few PS2 titles if their respective control schemes behave). But even Vita's own library remains something else even despite the lackluster first party and western big wig support, giving birth to some of the finest PlayStation games like Gravity Rush and Tearaway. Some of those are still more portable and thus more accessible than their home console "remasters", others like Freedom Wars and Oreshika remain platform exclusives to this day. And even among indies, the industry segment that you'd be excused for assuming has migrated to Switch in its entirety, Vita still remains THE portable option for gems like Exile's End and Papers, Please. My own Vita journey will have lasted six years soon, and I still don't see myself ever running out of games to play on it, even without taking the aforementioned BC and Remote Play into account.
Discontinued, dismissed by many, diswhatever - live long and prosper, Vita. Much older consoles still do after all their decades since launch - you deserve and are capable of no less.
I was admittedly more excited until learning Godfall's fine print, but I'm still getting a Mortal Shell out of this month (even though googling up the control scheme has revealed at least one attack mapped to R2 - et tu, ARPG genre?), so hey.
Gotta admit, If PS+ wanted to take a page out of NSO, I'd prefer them to go for a perpetually available library, not SP versions.😅 A kinda left field decision and, while I'm usually [trying my best to be] not half as dramatic about these things as the average commenter, this case does leave me questioning this library addition for once as well. I see little point in consuming a work of interactive fiction without its otherwise very present "fiction" part, and if I decided to buy the full game in the hypothetical future, can I be sure having this "edition" in my active sub wouldn't interfere with the purchase? It seems like the first time PS+ pulls off such a move, so I'm not sure what to expect.🤔
No PS5-only items, one available on Switch but both that aren't double as action RPGs with a focus on melee, which may raise the odds of a Vita-friendly control scheme. Pretty neat!
At least the myriad of previous server shutdowns has long contributed to my breakup with the trophy fever. As long as the single player mode remains fully functional (and hopefully doesn't have any major content locked behind online activity), I'm still getting both of these. With Freedom Wars being a higher priority so far.
@lolwhatno as an active user of TWO Vitas to this day, I can confirm it isn't. But we get [auto]biographies of people whose life is thankfully far from over, so why not chronicle an amazing but blatantly stepchilded and consequently often underrated console? Especially since the official end of new Vita releases has the upside of a finite game database to enclose, and this book promises as much.
Credit to Ryan where due, then... but are these mails a public thing? Or is Schreier acting under permission to read and/or publish them? Or, a better question, why do I even bother asking what I may already know?🙄
Comments 1,225
Re: 4X Strategy Game HUMANKIND Delayed Indefinitely on PS5, PS4
Clearly because Nintendo has made the consoles so underpow- wait.
Re: Microsoft Says PS5, PS4 Would Still Be Bigger if Every Call of Duty Player Switched to Xbox
These rat races aren't my biz, but I'm honestly with Microsoft on this one. For all their hardware limitations and policy oddities, the PlayStation family are still a legitimate bonanza of versatile gaming experiences for those who can make use of them (which, going by PS4 sales alone, is quite a crowd), including a lineup of own projects. If some audiences were to be lost for want of CoD and literal lack of anything to hook them on the current and past gen hardware... are they even a worthwhile market slice to cling to in the long run? Especially now that the bulk of multiplayer kids seem to be more into freemium BRs these days anyway? And for PS+ online baits, even not counting its recent additional incentives, there will always be EA stuff.😏
Re: PS Plus Essential PS5, PS4 Games for October 2022 Announced
Only Injustice 2 isn't on Switch here, but if I ultimately do splurge on the 3 month renewal over the next few days (as September's NFS Heat and Granblue Fantasy Versus have been tempting me to), all three will get tossed into my library as usual. Still on the fence due to the respective region's sub cards costing an arm and a leg now (especially when your local banks gleefully buy Russian ruble for the pre-war ~3.3 BYN per hundred and sell for 4.2 BYN with equal glee - this is Belarus, baby!😏), but I'll have to renew at some point before New Year anyway or say goodbye to the bulk of clouded Vita saves (six months, was it?), so hey.
Re: Best PS Vita Games
Reliance on ratings rather than the games' merits is bound to make the list weird anyway (Gravity Rush, Tearaway, NFS MW12... all HOW low here?), but it's still an eyebrow raiser that Soul Sacrifice is listed twice while something arguably even more peculiar among the MH inspirations like Toukiden or God Eater misses out. After all, the only pragmatic reason to indulge with such top charts at all is the spotlight value it can provide in regards to the titles different folks may have overlooked or never heard about, plus a testimony to the ultimately impressive library of what I still consider the best PlayStation console to date. Hot take? You haven't seen hot takes yet - I even genuinely enjoyed Resistance: Burning Skies!😜 But of course, few lists short of the full Wikipedia ones can do justice to everything that arguably bears mentioning on Vita dear - from the likes of Rollers of the Realm, Knock-Knock and Exile's End to the likes of Assassin's Creed Liberation, Oreshika and Odin's Sphere. Many of the gems are still not on Switch and some might never be for variably obvious reasons, so even ten years on, this lovable handheld offers quite a backlog to sink teeth into.
Re: Hardware Review: Backbone One: PlayStation Edition - The Best Way to Enjoy Remote Play
The most tangible attempt to date, credit where due. The design even tries to solve the problems of blocking the typical 3.5 mm port placement on most phones but should still cover the charger port (both being the reasons I opted out of a similar form factor and reluctantly picked up a less wieldy flip holder model earlier this year) which may be an issue if your battery is worn out... oh wait, it's for iPhones only, I forgot their owners aren't supposed to wear the battery out.😅 But even on Android, between these peeves and the price (plus a controller premium sub? That better not paywall the RP compatibility itself) which is guaranteed to get further bloated on import, I'd think twice about such a purchase despite the benefit of a full button set. As far as clunky peripherals go, a dedicated Vita grip is still cheaper and you'll still be streaming your PS4 games to a device that isn't simultaneously busy updating a truckload of messengers, weather widgets and whatnot in the background.
But to reiterate, credit where due. If your phone is the only option for properly portable RP (which, in the predictable yet bitter case of PS5, it pretty much is), this here may well be the best compromise to date, and it could still mean someone's difference between played Forbidden West once a day and once a month.
Re: Random: This Crappy God of War Knock Off for Xbox Does Not Look Legal
@tselliot and others like, say, Japanese. Which is why I've mentioned the possibility myself; point is, I wonder how easy it would still be to make this particular kind of mistake while engaged with the medium where titles with the proper "of" usage are an absolute multitude throughout the video game history. Heck, the very model design they snatched is normally associated with "God of War", not with "War of God".😅
Re: Random: Maybe Don't Buy PS5 Stock from Celebrities on Twitter
Forget PS5s with tickets, the Buss case should be mercifully transparent with its notion that a sports team boss could be promptly DM'd by a crowd like people in the market for a PS5. It's like someone's account hacking prowess somehow marks the extent of their Twitter knowledge.😅
Re: Random: This Crappy God of War Knock Off for Xbox Does Not Look Legal
Forget models, how does one arrive at a title like "Zeus of Child"? It's one thing to lack command of a language, but if you're involved with video games, one would think you've come across no shortage of examples illustrating how the preposition works.🤔😅
Re: PS5, PS4 Finally Go Portable with Officially Licensed PlayStation Backbone One
Solves the holder necessity, at least, but still a compromise incomparable to a proper handheld like Vita in this regard. And if you're an Android user, the peripheral costs suddenly escalate to the price of an iPhone.😅
Honestly, far be it from me to consult Sony on their policies, but between stunts like PlayStation Classic and Chinese third parties dishing out handheld gaming devices by the dozen, would it be TOO expensive and commercially unviable to just release, I dunno, some kind of a Playstation Legacy - two pairs of shoulder buttons, clickable sticks, the rest being a good ol' Vita with optionally somewhat beefier hardware (to make room for at least limited PS2 emulation)? At least three or four platforms' worth of aforesaid legacy content plus PS4 and PS5 Remote Play with adequate controls (maybe minus some DualSense schticks to cut costs, but I'm sure the current library would still be more than playable), maybe even streaming Premium's PS3 titles since a Vita tier resolution would be more stream-friendly... what's not to love? Or does dedicated portable gaming hardware really have no purpose in other companies' corporate eyes than to one-up Nintendo? Time will tell, but if there's one positive thing about the subject of this post, it's that basic accessibility for gamers above the college age is something Sony isn't entirely dismissive about after all.
Re: Sony Appears to be Interested in Adapting Previous-Gen Peripherals for Modern Consoles, According to Patent
This has to be the first time I've ever seen PSP Go described as a "peripheral device".🤔
@Smash41 it's pretty much what left me outside the market for the new console. Duct-taping DualSense to the phone sure doesn't sound like a good alternative (and frankly, neither does streaming via what is essentially a palmtop PC constantly using the very same network connection for a truckload of other apps and features), only emphasizing how Sony has deliberately given up portability this gen.
Re: God of War Ragnarok Dev Sony Santa Monica Demands Respect After Unsavoury Week
Sadly, toxic passion is what defines fanship to begin with.
Re: PS Plus Essential PS5, PS4 Games for July 2022 Announced
All three titles on PS4 and none on Switch! Although ironically enough, I might not even add them - as I've mentioned elsewhere, my sub is expiring this week, and the increasingly rare 12 month cards for the currently infamous region my account is tied to are being offered for roughly 110-130 bucks.😅 So I don't rule out a hiatus, but time will tell.
Re: F1 22 Will Let You Feel Debris on the Asphalt Thanks to PS5's DualSense Controller
Grid Autosport Switch players: "First time?"
Re: The Legend of Heroes Overall Story Is 'About 60-70%' Finished, Says Falcom
Kingdom Hearts: "First time?"
Re: Bill & Ted's Excellent Retro Collection for PS5, PS4 Is Totally Bogus
Virgin Switch publishers: opt for mandatory downloads to squeeze their releases on as small a card as possible.
Chad LRG: issues Blu-rays with a NES game and a Game Boy game thereon.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Games for June 2022?
GoW is a promising first party classic I don't imagine getting my hands on otherwise (no PS5, no suitable PC hardware, lack of motivation to buy PS4 stuff directly in the face of the Remote Play control scheme roulette and low odds of upgrading to Extra in the visible future), so it makes the lineup for me by itself even though I'm not likely to install the others (as mentioned before, they're already much more portable elsewhere). As for fans bellyaching about PS+... what else is new?
Re: Resident Evil 4 Remake Announced for PS5, Out March 2023
Don't tell me it's taking a full remake to add the motion controls back.😅
@WaveBoy "RE7 on a TV for example pales in Comparison to experiencing it in VR even with the low pixely visuals and semi down graded environments. The motion head aiming alone makes a world of a difference, aside from feeling like you’re actually IN the bakers house"
YMMV. RE7 in VR was the definitive proof that the tech was really not for me. I never felt like I was any more "in the house" than on the TV screen, all the convenience mostly boiled down to easier navigation of various drawers and such (as expected of what is essentially a headmounted right stick alternative) but was eventually outweighed by the imposed control limitations (the garage skirmish was a particular headache, no pun intended). I wasn't even motion sick, just very underwhelmed because if there's any "transformative experience" the likes of @getsammyb praise, I expected to find it in this kind of game. But true VR truly remains the property of fictional domains like .hack, SAO, Bofuri or the more recent (and less gaming-oriented but technically superior) example in Belle. Our world doesn't appear any closer to it than it is to widely affordable cloud gaming and whatnot.
Re: PS Plus June 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
Only GoW has any odds of being actually installed (the other two are on Switch IIRC), and probably not until I ever get around to play through the original series (I even have GoW3 from the service's way back when). But FWIW it does appear to be the kind of game you could comfortably play on Vita, which only cements it as this month's highlight.
Re: PS Plus Members Bemused by Potential God of War Inclusion Across Multiple Tiers
@Milktastrophe I've already commented on why having another option on the lower tier is a good thing due to the comparative distribution specifics. On the other hand, this said option will be gone two weeks after the higher tier's launch, so those it somehow rubs against the fur don't have much to "endure". Although I also don't quite see the point of using five specific games to advertise a tier whose primarily selling point is about offering dozens at a time.
Re: PS Plus Members Bemused by Potential God of War Inclusion Across Multiple Tiers
@TrickyDicky99 but last time I checked, that one already had quite a few games that used to be on IGC prior. What's one more? And that only applies to the lucky PS5 owners (besides some folks who arranged their account to be temporarily assigned to another person's PS5😄), whereas the current majority of subscribers can still be safely assumed to remain on PS4 for the oft-discussed variety of reasons.
Re: PS Plus Members Bemused by Potential God of War Inclusion Across Multiple Tiers
I honestly fail to see the problem here. On the one hand, higher tiers come with enough of a truckload to make the content of standard IGC offerings feel like a footnote if you sign up for them. On the other hand, the PS Now/Game Pass DNA of these tiers comes with the risk of lineup rotations, so every Extra title temporarily also offered on Essential is a title you have a month-long opportunity to "secure" on your sub rather than leave it at Sony's mercy. Where are the downsides, exactly?
Re: Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown the Next Game to Cancel PS4 Version
Seeing as they aren't bailing out of the Switch version (which is good news for me because where else would I realistically play it?), it certainly seems like the unmentioned but the equally big factor is dropping Gen 8 in favour of the modern stuff. Compared to the new TV-hooked kids on the console block, Switch and PS4 are both "limited hardware", but guess which one of them can get away with certain downgrades and has QoL flexibility to trade performance/visual parity for. And by 2023, its sales will outnumber that of PS4 as well.
That said, it's an undeniable bummer for all the PS4 folks who don't plan to or still can't upgrade to PS5. (-_-)7
@Grumblevolcano it's been discussed ad nauseaum (by audiences and game devs alike) that "a more powerful Switch" wouldn't open up the gate for more demanding ports as long as they all have to be made with the other models in mind as well - and the ever unlikely "New 3DS" alternative is all the less realistic now as the original "Switch family" sales are well over 100 million now. By now it only makes sense to discuss a Gen 10 successor, but its announcement and launch will heavily depend on the component industry climate since, as has been also discussed more than once, Nintendo will hardly want a PS5 situation on their hands. And if either it or the mythical "Pro" were already on schedule for next year, wouldn't other big announcements like No Man's Sky be targeting a 2023 release as well?
Re: Sony Reveals Vision for the Metaverse
Just as .hack, SAO and Bofuri showed us what the real VR is supposed to be like, Belle recently demonstrated what a real and proper metaverse can be like - boasting tech aeons beyond the level of even SAO's NerveGears (for one, the user doesn't have to lie like a log all session long) and once again establishing that our own world appears at least another decade away from all that. Yaying or naying it until then is not unlike debating the purchase of a land plot on the moon.
Re: The Tomorrow Children Will Feature Community-Designed Islands in PS4 Revival
Damn, a freemium revived as a retail title? Can't believe I've only heard of it now. These occurrences are worth their figurative weight in gold.
Re: PS4 Firmware Update 9.60 Is Available to Download Now
I would appreciate these frequent updates more if not for the recent FWP of them being mandatory for Remote Play nowadays. I used to easily update the system through Vita itself, now it's NS-16157-0 every damn time and I have to ask for the home console to be updated on site before I can access anything therein. Biggest irony is, as mentioned elsewhere, I recently had a whole week of ultrarare opportunity to spend time with the PS4 at home, so I brought it over and could have easily installed the new update then... so OF COURSE Sony waited until a week later to push it out.😆
Speaking of updates, Vita just got its own - apparently in line with PS3 and likewise removing a portion of profile management functionality. But I thankfully have no reason to expect any apparent issues in RP connectivity from that, at least.
Re: PS Vita's PS Store Says Content Is No Longer for Sale
Odd, even on Russian PSS with its proverbial latest limitations, the game pages are still accessible via console app search - just checked it again to be sure. Or does the error pop up when trying to process a purchase?
Re: PS Plus May 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
I'm not much for FIFA and Curse of the Dead Gods is on Switch, but Tribes of Midgard [still] isn't and promises a peculiar blend of inspirations from Diablo and Don't Starve which coincidentally might paint decent odds of adequate Vita controls. Don't mind if I do!
Re: Classic Games Including PS1 Curiously Expiring on PS3, PS Vita
Suikoden and Driver are the only PS1 titles I have currently installed, nothing suspicious about them so far.
Were any of the affected titles ever on PS+? Because it's much weirder that an expiry date would even show up on anything beyond that.🤔
Re: PS Plus April 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
It is apparently tricky to add new PS+ games at the moment, but between two titles also on Switch and one that reportedly lacks a single player mode, I suppose even missing out on April lineup completely would be a bummer of a limited size.😅
@mrbone
> Another Sight and Hue
> "rubbish"
Re: PS Vita the Only Console Snubbed in Sony's New PS Plus Premium Subscription
No surprises here, alas. Not even much of a point in excusing this with hardware challenges - not only a good bunch of Vita exclusive classics didn't seem to heavily use them, but the ones that did never stopped Sony from releasing PlayStation TV way back when. But then again, I have no stake in this matter (I've already commented that I don't picture myself playing such games on PS4 which I'd have to stream to the same damn Vita); it may be more of a bummer for home console users who never had the handheld.
Re: PS Plus, PS Now Merged Service Revealed, Goes Live in June
Sounds like I'll be sticking to Essential. Premium briefly turned my head, but... STREAMING PS1 and PSP titles to PS4? Streaming a natively portable game to a home console? Yeah, no. Besides, PS4 normally doesn't seem to allow any streaming apps while casting a Remote Play session to begin with, so we'd be talking "literally unplayable" for the extra 70 bucks in my case. 😅
EDIT: on second look, seems like PS1 and PSP might be downloadable as well. But for a PSP and Vita user, Remote Playing them off a PS4 would still feel downright surreal.
Re: PS Plus March 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
GoTL doesn't sound like something I'd prefer to play ahead of the main game (even if it has enough single player content), and the rest is on Switch (yes, including Ark - that port is almost guaranteed to control better, and the recent hijinks of the local 4G could just as easily emulate its fan-maligned performance if I were to try the PS4 one here😅), so not many stakes in this month for me. But objectively, it's a commendably varied lineup genre-wise, and it's not like I won't be adding them to my PS library. Except maybe GoTL? Is there something exclusive to the standalone release like it reportedly was to the Tiny Tina one from last month?
Re: Uncharted Movie Opens with $21.5 Million in Takings Before US Release
@Voltan I thoroughly enjoyed Eternals. MCU did one hell of a hat trick in the epic department last year overall, but this one was particularly packed. Tough luck for those bored by it - what I saw was a wild ride packed with delicious info.
Re: PS Plus February 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
Planet Coaster is off limits for me, but while I'm rarely hungry for wrestling games, they do sound like something comparatively cooperative with Vita controls. The Borderlands bit is actually not so bad precisely BECAUSE Handsome Collection
features it on Switch and supplied it here in a previous IGC month - the standalone release is said to be just a handful of extra content, so how many of us would honestly invest in it separately? PS+ sounds like an ideal vessel for it...
...or would if Borderlands wasn't a shooter. I may have more luck with the earlier claimed PC giveaway of it, too.😅 Ah, screw all this, if things play out, maybe I'll invest some of my summer funds and try to ship one of those AliExpress "grips" that similate trigger input mechanically. Even though it promises to be a rather expensive purchase (by itself AND on arrival since our customs tax any shipment over 22 euros🙄).
Re: Crysis 4 Confirmed a Decade After Crysis 3
Once the title is announced, more details are bound to follow soon. Right, The Elder Scrolls VI?
Re: Will Call of Duty and Other Activision Blizzard Games Come to PS5, PS4?
@AlexSora89 yeah, some folks' vocal disdain for so-called "portbeggars" on otherwise platforms has proven to be quite a boomerang.😅 PlayStation fans were confident that superior raw specs secured them pretty much everything third party under the sun; Microsoft is now asserting that the number of zeroes in a corporate wallet can be a raw spec as well.
Re: Days Gone Also Sold Over 8 Million Copies on PS4, Claims Director
@RevGaming no offence, but people requiring "review scores" to base their fiction purchases on come across as someone who, for fear of gambling with their own tastes, turn to gambling with those of complete strangers. Which feels honestly pitiable (if not borderline disturbing), but thankfully like a minority.
Most "scores" and "reviews" out there are deficient and borderline useless to a sensible audience (take it from someone who used to write equally guilty VG articles for several years), but we aren't living in the effin' 1983 anymore - people "on the fence" have infinitely more effective ways of leaping off this fence than someone's caustically verbose personal opinions and assertions are meant to sound like expertise but insult a lot if not all about the idea of fiction analysis. Gameplay footage (including the reputable folks who upload it without commentary) pops up in a matter of days, wikias aggregating actual informative info like the game's structure and mechanics (as a gamer, I want to know what the game can offer me, not how many synonyms to "masterpiece" or "crap" the report can come up with) pop up in a matter of weeks. If you don't have time to do your own research, you either roll the investment dice instead or wait until those investment dice become reassuringly smaller during sales that happen to 99% of games out there. Only those desperate for having new releases ASAP should find themselves outside the coverage of these options, and such folks would be rather recommended professional help... but end up preyed on by tabloids, "score aggregator" sites, fanblogs, "influencers" and the like instead.
Re: Days Gone Also Sold Over 8 Million Copies on PS4, Claims Director
@RevGaming a game's quality is also more important than the yellow metacritic numbers (and the delusions of quality "assessment" they represent). But kidding is still obvious here - as if Sony, a corporate entertainment tech business, would rank personal opinions (however pretentious) over the money made at the end of the day. Metacritics don't budget future games, and quite thankfully so.
Re: Soapbox: Don't Let F.I.S.T. Pass You By
Almost surprising to see a metroidvania hit PlayStationland before Switch these days, but I suppose Sony's hand in the funding that some comments here mention is quite explanatory... and suggests that Switch may not be getting this one at all. At least this genre can be expected to play nicer with Vita controls, so perhaps I'll come to play this on PS4 someday.
glances back at dozens of Switch metroidvanias in his library ... emphasis on "perhaps".
Re: Talking Point: Do You Read All the Crap in Games?
I literally use my Skyrim copy as an occasional reader app on Switch. Need I say more?
Re: PS5's New PSVR Headset Officially Named PlayStation VR2, Full Specs Revealed
Still sounds like an aesthetic gimmick headmounted first-person camera controller, but as someone who wouldn't likely be compelled even by the true VR tech depicted in cyberfantasy fiction, I guess I'm not in a position to raise eyebrows anyway.
Cheers for those who may come to enjoy it, but I also remain biased against VG narratives and worlds remaining exclusive to this niche (as opposed to the ones you have the option to experience conventionally) - few things scream "home-chained" louder than VR games, with Remote Play having zero hope on salvaging them even back on the consoles that DID have proper Remote Play (even Labo VR isn't exactly portable entertainment, all things considered), so it all automatically goes to "maaaaybe in my retirement years, assuming I live to be the retirement age in the first place" drawer.😏
Re: PS Plus January 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
P5S is on Switch and the other two belong to red zone genres when it comes to Remote Play, but outside this context it would be a pretty awesome lineup. I mean, a racer, an action RPG and a first person shooter starring space dwarves? And once again, no PS5-only items either.
Re: The PS Vita Is Now 10 Years Old
By now, I can confidently call it my favourite PlayStation console, all the moreso considering its two platforms' worth of backward compatibility (even if the limited digital distribution and region locks do mean the need to use a hacked unit for many of their contents) and the similarly imperfect but recurrently legitimate ability to access one's PS4 library (and with it, potentially a few PS2 titles if their respective control schemes behave). But even Vita's own library remains something else even despite the lackluster first party and western big wig support, giving birth to some of the finest PlayStation games like Gravity Rush and Tearaway. Some of those are still more portable and thus more accessible than their home console "remasters", others like Freedom Wars and Oreshika remain platform exclusives to this day. And even among indies, the industry segment that you'd be excused for assuming has migrated to Switch in its entirety, Vita still remains THE portable option for gems like Exile's End and Papers, Please. My own Vita journey will have lasted six years soon, and I still don't see myself ever running out of games to play on it, even without taking the aforementioned BC and Remote Play into account.
Discontinued, dismissed by many, diswhatever - live long and prosper, Vita. Much older consoles still do after all their decades since launch - you deserve and are capable of no less.
Re: Poll: Are You Happy With Your PS Plus Games for December 2021?
I was admittedly more excited until learning Godfall's fine print, but I'm still getting a Mortal Shell out of this month (even though googling up the control scheme has revealed at least one attack mapped to R2 - et tu, ARPG genre?), so hey.
Re: Sony Set to Combine PS Plus and PS Now to Create Xbox Game Pass Competitor on PS5, PS4
Removed
Re: Godfall's PS Plus Version Is All Endgame Content, No Story Campaign
Gotta admit, If PS+ wanted to take a page out of NSO, I'd prefer them to go for a perpetually available library, not SP versions.😅 A kinda left field decision and, while I'm usually [trying my best to be] not half as dramatic about these things as the average commenter, this case does leave me questioning this library addition for once as well. I see little point in consuming a work of interactive fiction without its otherwise very present "fiction" part, and if I decided to buy the full game in the hypothetical future, can I be sure having this "edition" in my active sub wouldn't interfere with the purchase? It seems like the first time PS+ pulls off such a move, so I'm not sure what to expect.🤔
Re: PS Plus December 2021 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
No PS5-only items, one available on Switch but both that aren't double as action RPGs with a focus on melee, which may raise the odds of a Vita-friendly control scheme. Pretty neat!
Re: PS Vita Exclusives Freedom Wars, Soul Sacrifice to Have Servers Shuttered
At least the myriad of previous server shutdowns has long contributed to my breakup with the trophy fever. As long as the single player mode remains fully functional (and hopefully doesn't have any major content locked behind online activity), I'm still getting both of these. With Freedom Wars being a higher priority so far.
Re: 400-Page Hardback Book Documents PS Vita's Ten Year History
@lolwhatno as an active user of TWO Vitas to this day, I can confirm it isn't. But we get [auto]biographies of people whose life is thankfully far from over, so why not chronicle an amazing but blatantly stepchilded and consequently often underrated console? Especially since the official end of new Vita releases has the upside of a finite game database to enclose, and this book promises as much.
Re: PlayStation's Jim Ryan Admonishes Activision in Internal Email to Employees
Credit to Ryan where due, then... but are these mails a public thing? Or is Schreier acting under permission to read and/or publish them? Or, a better question, why do I even bother asking what I may already know?🙄