themightyant

If they stop releasing NEW ports then this doesn't matter. No one is going to buy/not buy a system because of a handful of much older games.

But THEORETICALLY i'm sure they could patch their games to do some sort of hardware sniffing that would cripple performance or stop the games running on XboxPC (or any other fixed hardware)

But this would create such a lot of negative press, for only a handful of games, why bother? Not to mention possible legal issues.

There seems to be a correlation between highest salary, least hours overtime and job satisfaction... who would have guessed...

@DualWielding They weren't in Japan.

@twitchtvpat 100%. ML upscaling and other technologies mask many differences nowadays. You can have the same hardware but the game looks a lot better on DLSS4 than FSR3. It's why I think Sony / Cerny were really smart in adding PSSR to PS5 Pro and getting ahead of the game. I look forward to hearing more in due course as I always like new tech!

What a bizarre decision to remake a story game that still looks fantastic. In fact a lot of the lighting was better in the original.

After that it's no surprise sales were weak, and that, sadly has consequences.

It's a fair question but I think I have an idea how they might make most gamers pick the Xbox store. Or at least how I would do it.

1. Don't discount convenience. Most users will just use the default option, especially if Microsoft make you have to jump through hoops to install games from other stores on their Xbox. (e.g. look at Android where you can side-load apps if you are techy, or use third party payment processors... but the VAST majority of users don't. They add JUST enough friction)

2. Better performance on their store version. Custom hardware blocks on the console that developers can use on the "Xbox" games, plus optimising for fixed hardware, meaning you get better performance than on the Steam / PC versions on the same Xbox hardware.

3. Better user experience. Having games optimised on the "Xbox" store for this hardware, including things like pre-optimised graphical settings, pre-compiled shaders etc. It will feel more like a console.

4. Play anywhere. Pick your games and saves up and continue right where you left off on any device that supports 'Xbox' or cloud.

I still think it's a bit of a risk, but if I was them this is how I would try and make users prioritise their Xbox store for buying NEW games, while also allowing other stores for their existing libraries. Only time will tell if i'm right... and if I am if it works.

@Balaam_ I agree but looking forward Xbox Project Helix looks like it will blow PS6 out the window in terms of leaked specs, if all users want is better performance in their games. of course Price is a key factor too.

Been happy with mine day 1 overall. It's a great system.

Where there a few teething problems with PSSR? Yes, but these were overblown in media imo. The reality is most games perform much better, only a handful had issues, and most are fixed.

PSSR2 is just the icing on the cake. Looking forward to seeing what it can do.

Really enjoyed FFXVI. It's an excellent game I recommend.
Haven't played DD2 so that might be a win.

Weird. Why not just make it a new game. Still sounds cool.

It’s true “Clair Obscur” is a quite niche French phrase derived from the Italian “chiaroscuro” which is a painting style used to symbolise light and dark. Anyone that’s played the game will know how apt this title is.

However would we allow other games or related media like comics to be called “Mario” or “Halo” or “Uncharted”? These are far more common words than “Clair Obscur”. It’s a tricky position.

My guess is it will depend on whether and how Sandfall have protected their brand name. Certainly wouldn’t be the first thing to have to rebrand because they are infringing on an another brand.

However this is all probably good publicity for the comic, a LOT more people probably know about it today than yesterday. I think he’ll be better off at the end of the day.

@Glotny they did say this, but Returnal ALSO had permanent weapon upgrades, micro-progression. But that wasn’t really the problem, it was having to do the whole run again to get powerful enough to take on the part where you died. That took an hour or more.

Yes there were shortcuts and you could skip to the later stages more quickly BUT, and this is the crucial part, you would be weaker and be making the challenge harder, virtually impossible for normal players.

It’s a bit like Breath of the Wild where you COULD go straight to the final boss and skip the game but you would’ve been so weak you’d die unless you have super human reflexes. You’d have to play perfectly to win.

It’s true they hinted that this was different but devils in the details, until I see if it actually has an impact and means not spending an hour or more to come back at the same power level i will be on the fence.

I don't want to know ANYTHING about the story, all I want to know is if they streamlined the deaths a bit from Returnal. Dying and losing over an hour to get back where you were, possibly to die again and repeat this repeatedly for days, was one of the most demoralising intended gameplay loops I have experienced in gaming.

I'm not expecting no grind, but it was just too brutal and let down what was otherwise a generational game.

@Metonymy Physical media already changes price depending on location, store, stock etc. In fact the most expensive games are hard to find physical games.

But I agree about supporting physical media regardless.
CHOICE is good.

You already get dynamic pricing in the real world when you go store to physical store, depending on stock and other factors.

I am worried about how this COULD potentially be used, but there's no evidence this is being used for nefarious purposes, right now it's like people seeing AI and imagining Skynet. Willing to wait and see before making more knee-jerk assumptions.

On the one hand great to see versus the usual list, on the other... RE3 remake wasn't great.

Push Square has a Cave Troll.

@ElectricWizard That's fair, but it's one store... they still exist!

@ElectricWizard It's a lot more than 30, Loaded alone has over 150 and it's had recent titles like EA Sports FC26 , COD Blops 6 etc. My point isn't that there's a lot, as I said it's less than others, but that they are available, which your first post didn't mention.

@ElectricWizard FYI PS5 games can also be bought on 3rd party websites like Loaded (formerly CD Keys). It isn't as many as Xbox or Nintendo, but they're still available.

It is a lot of money, no doubt but so is a comparable PC. That seems to be more the market they are aiming at.

Personally i'd rather spend this sort of money on a powerful CONSOLE like experience than on a PC, IF it ticks the right boxes (Steam machine doesn't). But I realise I am in a small niche of gamers that may want this.

Also happy that it seems Sony is going for a most cost effective PS6.

@get2sammyB FYI It's not JUST Sony that is struggling with their console like games on PC.

Xbox's own first party games like Avowed (19k), The Outer Worlds 2 (18k), Hellblade 2 (< 4k), South of Midnight (1.4k) etc. which released day and date have even lower concurrent players on Steam than Spider-man 2 (28k) which reportedly only sold 700k units. Obviously there's Game Pass PC, but that's not going to suddenly make them a huge success on the PC platform.

While concurrents aren't everything, I think there's 3 major things happening here:

• PC players buy different games.
• PC players are less likely to buy Day 1/ full price, will wait for a sale
• Too many games released, especially on PC, market is saturated

It's a problem for a lot of publishers.

@Boxmonkey My understanding is that one of the reasons GTA5 keeps selling so much is that in many territories the bundle with the game and "shark cards" (GTA Online in game currency) are cheaper than buying the shark card on it's own in other territories so the credits can be sold online on the grey market.

Make no mistake the game is still super popular and would have sold 100-150+ million anyway, but probably not 225+ million.

I haven’t played THIS game yet, but it seems a bit disappointing to me. However i still want to see Sony invest in more smaller titles like it, whether from first party or partners.

@Dyd87xz it’s true attachment rates for first party are very high on Nintendo (they are an outlier with that, no one else has the same) but it’s wrong to say games like God of War, The Last of us, Spider-man, Horizon, Uncharted etc aren’t system sellers, of course they are. But I’d agree there haven’t been enough this gen.

But let’s ignore Nintendo. I also bought an XSX to play Halo, Gears, Forza and other games (before they went multiplatform). Exclusives sell consoles, that was my point.

@CaptD I just purchased one from Ebay with almost everything. Headset, Camera, V2 base unit (with 4K HDR passthrough), PS5 adapter, 2 move controllers and charging dock. Got a bit of a steal.

Yes HotUkDeals is great, been using them for years.

Thanks for the suggestions.

100%. I NEVER would have bought a Switch or Switch 2 if Nintendo published their games on better hardware.

@CaptD ooh Skyrim. That could be very dangerous. lol. Thanks for the suggestions.

That would be a real shame. This looked EXCELLENT and I was hoping for a slightly grittier take on organised crime than Yakuza.

@Mostik Thanks. Don't mind cockney geezers having grown up in The Big Smoke. They're almost family.

@Perturbator Thank you, much appreciated. Especially the YT channel.

@naruball I play a bit of mostly everything to be honest. I already have Astro Bot Rescue mission, Moss, Star Wars Squadrons and ace Combat 7 I think through PS+. Plus drive club and a few others.

I probably won’t play RE7. I tried the demo… nope. 🤣

Just finishing Donkey Kong Bananza and then probably onto Planet of Lana 2 and planning for PSVR1.

Anyone got any PSVR1 recommendations?

I hope the game does well. Else Bungie might be next.

But early PSN reviews are usually high and change quickly. E.g. GoW Sons of Sparta was 4.8 after a couple of days and a few thousand reviews, now it's 4.2. Considering few major games get less than 3.5 the scale is a bit odd.

I don’t think so. PS5 and Pro are selling really well, they won’t want to do anything to disrupt that.

At most I think we’ll have a “leak” to someone more reputable that 2027 is happening, perhaps with a few specs.

@ElectricWizard totally agree the mid-gen PS5 Pro likely makes some PlayStation gamers less interested in next gen than Xbox gamers who didn’t get one.

Additionally, as I said on the other article, I think PS5 players (and Sony themselves) are happier with the state of PS5 than Xbox players and Xbox are with their how their generation has panned out. To me, who’s part of both communities, it feels like Xbox NEEDS to turn the page and move move forward to a new chapter, which a new gen might do, in order to shake off much of the negativity surrounding the brand. A new start. I don’t think PlayStation gamers feel the same as much in fact they’d largely be happy to keep PS5 a few more years.

@d-slice I just tried it and i'm not seeing it, same price for AC: Unity logged in or logged out.

The explanation from PS Prices does make some sense however, that this may be some sort of A/B testing to see how sale pricing affects purchasing.

If true, that is effing dirty. I don't think it should be allowed at all as it's FAR too likely to be abused at scale, based on dirty algorithms.

DISLIKE!

UPDATE: I did just try this myself and AC Unity is £3.74 whether I login or not, using a different browser + VPN, so it is selective.

Was that REALLY 4/5 years ago. Wow! I still have the demo... err... glorified title screen app on my PS5.

I LOVE an underdog story, would be great if they could actually turn it around and make a worthwhile game. At least one person is rooting for you Hasan! You can do anything you set your mind to!

I don't think hardware is going to get any cheaper by 2028 or 2029, in fact I think it might get more expensive, so I don't see many reasons to delay it. Especially if Xbox is launching in 2027 as is now expected.

I'm sure i'll be there day 1. Will sell my PS5 Pro to likely cover a fair chunk of it.

Over 35 is 'old' now. Eff off! lol

Though I do wonder if this is just an excuse for a poll to gauge your own demographics... eh?

@Michael2008ish Yes, THIS! Console experience is just much more streamlined. Press a button on PS5 and through HDMI-CEC it boots up my TV, Soundbar as well as the console and I am back playing where I left off in seconds. No driver updates or having to optimise settings for performance yourself. When gaming time is limited this is important.

As someone that was thinking of building a new gaming rig i'm excited for this announcement. I'd prefer to play in front of a TV and if this can play ALL my Xbox games and ALL my PC games (literally over a thousand games) at a super high fidelity and with the convenience of a console like experience then I will drop a lot of cash on it and just build a much cheaper PC for work.

Steam Machine sounded good as an idea but the low specs (slower than current gen) left me cold.

Why would you be more interested in owning the follow-up to a console that flopped and less interested in one that was a success?

@get2sammyb I think people feel that PS5 (and Pro) still has a lot of potential, whereas the Series X, as good as the hardware undoubtedly is, just feels DEAD in a lot of ways, it's hardly selling. For Xbox to push on they need a new start. That doesn't mean I think they will succeed, the odds are against them, but i'm hoping they do better. PlayStation is at their best with competition.

Also PS5 had the Pro for enthusiasts to get a hardware upgrade already, and it seems popular, Xbox players haven't had that.

I suspect they are trying to get ahead of Crimson Desert not Saros!

@cragis0001 Don't get it twisted I don't think Steam Machine, or Xbox is going to take a huge chunk out of PlayStation's market share all of a sudden. But I think PC's in ALL guises, whether that's desktop PCs, PC's under the TV, people moving to handheld PCs as they become more viable, more console like PCs like Steam Machine and yes XboxPC have a chance to slowly start chipping into PlayStation's numbers. And a trickle can become a flood given time.

I see this as Sony wanting to TRY and combat that early. In 10 years will we be talking about PlayStation v Xbox, or PlayStation v PC?

@AhmadSumadi I thought it was much harder than souls games (on the hardest difficulty). But more than anything the difference was 'fairness'. When I die in Souls games 99% of the time I know it's MY fault, 'I' made a mistake and can do better next time. The games also trains you to become better through normal enemies.

Kena had these wild difficulty spikes that came out of nowhere, no training, and then bosses had attacks that would track you in midair while you were rolling away. It felt CHEAP and made me rage more than any souls game.

I actually ended up quitting my hard playthrough of Kena, as it just wasn't slightly fun and would have made me hate the game. Which is a shame as it was brilliant apart from this. A bizarre creative decision.

@Haruki_NLI While I agree, I think most people have forgotten what traditional Castlevania is. If you asked 100 people, 95 would probably talk about Metroidvania. That's kinda just what it is now.

I missed Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 2 in the last sale. I'm trying to buy less games unless I know I will play it in the next few months. But it's on my wishlist. First was great.

@JoeNobody I'd give it a 6 at most, spiked to an 8 but dropped to a 4 at times. But I'm happy you loved it more. Opinions eh? Where everyone is correct! I did finish it, though it was a struggle.

@Logonogo THIS exactly.

Didn't love it at all. But there was a LOT of potential for a better sequel if they actually act on fair criticism. The first hour or so of worldbuilding was great... but also too long to get you into the game. After that it started to fall apart.