Comments 1,589

Re: PSVR2 Playable for the First Time at TGS 2022

theheadofabroom

@Nexozi No, I said I don't care about release date, just price - it's always good to see progress, but it doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not sure how you read what I wrote and came to that conclusion.

I'll be keeping up with the news obviously, but I'm in the middle of a house move so it's hard to prioritise something that I won't have a usable space to set up in for a while.

Re: Watch 10 Minutes of Forspoken PS5 Gameplay in New Overview Video

theheadofabroom

I've been incredibly sceptical of this game from the get-go, and honestly this gives me some hope that the gameplay might make up for some of the general jankiness that's so obviously on display (Nothing really seems to fit together - there's a lot that's individually ok or maybe even impressive, but it doesn't mesh well with the stuff it interacts with, which makes the whole much less than the sum of its parts), but I still think nothing short of it turning out to be a gameplay revolution (which it doesn't look like) will make up for voice acting that makes me want to claw my own ears off.

And speaking of voice acting - did they use text to speech for the presenter, or did they really find someone that unable to emote and make the game seem interesting?

Re: PSVR2 Playable for the First Time at TGS 2022

theheadofabroom

@zebric21 It is just a brand new article?

I'm glad that this shows progress towards launch, but currently it doesn't mean anything to me. I just need a price, release date doesn't mean much to me if it's the first half of next year, as I'm likely to wait until my birthday in July anyway.

Re: Poll: How Much Would You Pay for the DualSense Edge PS5 Pro Controller?

theheadofabroom

Currently I wouldn't buy it, I already have two controllers, but if one conks out I'd happily pay up to £100, but more than that I'd likely pay up to £125 if both of my controllers died.

The thing that would change that is if they supported multiple switchable pairings, but they've not advertised it, so I'll assume they don't.

I wouldn't worry too much about hall effect sensors, some third party will release a replacement module, like with the Steam Deck and the Switch

Re: One of PS5's Best and Most Popular SSDs Now Has an Even Better Successor

theheadofabroom

@Jtheripper because this is commodity hardware it'll come down in price as the market dictates.

The fact that the latest computers support gen 5 and this is gen 4 means that within a year or two things will come down further. The reason why XBox storage expansion is cheaper per terabyte is because it's only gen 3, but as the fab processes move on then gen 3 storage isn't going to get any cheaper (if anything it'll be more expensive due to lower manufacturing volume), so while Microsoft's strategy looks better at the start of the generation, Sony's will pull ahead significantly soon.

Backwards Compatibility means that you'd be able to use gen 4 and 5 chips in either console, but on Xbox there's the added complication of adapting it to their proprietary interface, and both consoles will be limited to the speed of their storage interface. This means that Xbox Series is limited to gen 3 speeds (which it currently reaches) and PlayStation 5 is limited to gen 4 speeds (which it's approaching, and has a theoretical maximum speed of double gen 3) so when gen 5 starts to become mainstream (with again double the theoretical speed of gen 4) then NAND packages and controllers that saturate both previous generation interfaces should be pretty cheap, meaning that you're paying the extra with Xbox to get half as fast storage in a proprietary form factor.

Re: Sony's Death Stranding Special Delivered to PC Game Pass on 23rd August

theheadofabroom

Wake me up when a PS5 exclusive makes it to PC within 2 years - we get the same outrage with every PC port of a PS4 game, and people prophesising day one PC releases of first party games.

Not that I'd be against it personally, but I don't think monetising the previous generation's games to people who haven't bought the console when given almost it's entire lifespan in which to do so speaks to that as a strategy.

Re: Poll: Is PS Plus Premium Good Enough?

theheadofabroom

For me Premium was never going to be a good value proposition, and Extra is where it's at - I haven't owned a PlayStation before the PS5 so I'm not interested in nostalgia from games I either never played, or are in my Steam library already, and I'm not interested in streaming stuff I could just as easily play locally.

That said, those are both things a lot of people are interested in. I would guess there are a lot of awkward issues with who holds copyright for a lot of the back catalogue, but one would hope that they'd be adding first party stuff every month until their entire catalogue is on there. If it was all there day 1 then fair enough, but I don't get the impression that's the case?

The streaming isn't nothing though, as for those who share a PlayStation, or even don't have one, it means you can play on PC.

Re: Horizon Forbidden West Has Its First GOTY Award Already

theheadofabroom

@Constable_What @Tecinthebrain

A year can also be any period of 12 months, Develop: Brighton run theirs in the summer, rather than the winter, and consider the games released during the preceding 12 months.

Edit: just saw that themightyant already made this point, but somehow not all the comments had loaded.

Re: Reaction: We Need to Talk About PS Plus Premium

theheadofabroom

I am only subscribed to Extra, rather than Premium, because almost everything that appeals to me is on Extra. There's maybe 2 games on Premium currently that I want to play more than anything in my existing backlog, so either when I'm done with my backlog, or more likely a couple of months before I'm due to renew, I'll upgrade to Premium, play those, and then let me sub lapse and resub back at Extra, which is astonishingly good value for money.

Re: Gaming Spend Will Continue to Decline in US as Living Costs Increase, Says NPD Report

theheadofabroom

@The_Moose An opinion piece in an American publication by a Conservative commentator? You're going to have to try harder.

It's widely acknowledged that they're Social Democracies and I have multiple friends who live in Denmark, Sweden, Norway who either moved there, or returned there after spending years in the UK, specifically because of Socialist welfare policies and more representative democratic systems.

Re: Gaming Spend Will Continue to Decline in US as Living Costs Increase, Says NPD Report

theheadofabroom

@nessisonett do you think it's worth pointing out to @GreatAuk how much better Nordic countries are doing under Democratic Socialism versus our Conservative and Unionist Party's austerity policies that have resulted in one of the largest tax burdens in the world, rampant inequality which UN special rapporteurs have described as human rights violations, and the most corruption the UK has ever seen?

Re: First Photo of PSVR2 in the Flesh Emerges

theheadofabroom

Personally I'm really hoping that there will be hybrid games where, for instance in a third person Open World I can play the majority on a flat screen, but if I get into a car I can put on my headset and have a vr driving experience (because I have yet to pay an Open World game in which I can reliably do a three point turn, reverse around a corner, bay park or parallel park without hitting things or mounting the curb, despite doing these things on a regular basis. Driving fast should feel dangerous, etc etc etc)

Re: UK Sales Charts: Only Three Top 10 Games Are Available on PlayStation

theheadofabroom

@munstre I think the main reason it's hanging around in the top 10 is that a large part of its market want to play it on PS5, maybe don't realise they'd get a free upgrade when they can find a console, and this means that instead of selling most of its units in the launch window, it's a much slower drip than most franchises get to see. Similar to how Miles Morales was right up to the announcement the it would be free with Plus Extra.

Obviously none of us can know for certain, but given how few bundled units there are out there in any given month, and the success of the first game, it seems like a much more likely scenario.

Re: Call of Duty's Anti-Cheat System is Punishing Cheaters in a Suitably Hilarious Way

theheadofabroom

It would be even better if the cheater wasn't aware they were being penalised, for instance they do low/no damage, but on their end it looks like they're getting kills, still have weapons, etc. Meanwhile everyone else sees them armed with NERF guns, running straight past other players or breaking off engagements where they've barely tickled their opponent. I'd guess it would mean more comedy value for legit players, and the cheaters are more likely to stay on so their exploits can be analyzed.

Re: PS5's Rumoured Pro Controller Could Have a Sturdy Solution to Stick Drift

theheadofabroom

For me, whether I buy this depends on how the extra buttons appear on PC - I'm fairly happy with the Dualsense on PS5, but it doesn't quite replace my Steam Controller on PC. The Steam Controller feels kinda cheap and nasty in comparison, but the rear paddles and the fact the left stick is a trackpad (as is the right "dpad") make it 100% better for PC games. If the Dualsense Pro (or whatever they call it) exposes the back buttons directly, rather than just duplicating other input, then I'll forego the easy-to-reach left trackpad (because mouse aiming is superior for FPS, and it works better on the desktop/in RTS type interfaces too) for the premium construction and the fact it'll likely still see support of years to come. Using it with the PS5 too would be a bonus.

Re: Here's What the Card-Based Combat of Marvel's Midnight Suns Looks Like

theheadofabroom

Basically what @get2sammyb said. It's not what I was expecting/hoping for, but it looks awesome.

@thefourfoldroot: the guys in the video seemed to think no microtransactions, but I'm not sure how much they actually know/what they're basing that off - they didn't say whether they'd asked the devs or whether it's just that the current build (which was still buggy) didn't include them.

Re: Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Games for June 2022?

theheadofabroom

@Milktastrophe I think the difference with GoW is that not only has it been in Now for ages, not only is it part of the Collection for PS5, bit it's also one of the titles that was always going to be part of Extra. So on top of being frequently under £5, it has already been part of two giveaways, and was already scheduled to be (or in some regions already) given away a third time.

The fact that it's in the Collection means it's irrelevant for PS5 owners, which means that you can ignore 20 million people with a higher than average attatch rate for PS+ subscriptions, of which there are <50 million globally, so that's likely 30-40% of subscribers who already own it through that. Now is likely responsible for another 5-10%, especially when that translates into Premium or Deluxe with the switchover. That leaves you with 50-65% of Plus subscribers who haven't been given it through one of those channels, or 25-30 million subscribers on PS4. A load of those will have bought the game long ago, and a load of them will have been planning to upgrade to Extra or Premium. Out of those who remain, how many of them do you expect have any interest in playing the game?

I'd guess maybe 10% of subscribers will be receiving a copy of GoW that they don't already have access to and are interested in eventually playing. To those 10% it's worth £5, which means that to the average plus subscriber it's worth £0.50.

I won't complain about months where games I don't like, but which others are looking forward to, are given away, because I can recognise that on average it's valuable to the subscriber base, and eventually these things shake out, I'll get mine some other month. This however devalues their other offerings and provides very little value on average. As usual I'm not going to say "it's a crap selection", but I'm certainly "not very happy" and "not looking forward to any of them".

Re: Reaction: Sony Kickstarts the Summer with Sizzling State of Play

theheadofabroom

@KundaliniRising333 Sony's only comment about day 1 releases on PS Plus was about first party games, which makes sense to me. As much as I'd love to be able to pay my sub and never have to buy anything else, it's not a good business model for Sony. Striking a deal for third party games to appear on day 1 is a very different proposition and one that has precedent.

I think a lot has been made of day 1 releases on the sub without people appreciating the distinction, especially with an indie game versus one which takes a team of many hundreds around the globe the best part of a decade to put together.