Regardless of what you might think of the game (for me good gameplay mechanics, serious story issues), any time developers pull back the curtain on their art, any serious gamer or aspiring developer should sit up and take notice. Every time I see one of these I learn something, and appreciate once again the sheer amount of human effort that goes into making a slick to play, beautiful looking game like this. Can't wait to watch ❤️
@STOBO You're sure? Because TLoU and Uncharted have a lot in common - great visuals, super linear story, simple controls, look for yellow things to follow, lots of rollercoaster style setpieces. Sure Uncharted has more climbing but I find them pretty similar to play to TLoU games... the latter's first entry has the superior storytelling though, I find. Never really cared much for Nathan Drake as a character, kind of an okay but not particularly interesting Indiana Jones/generic action hero pastiche.
Not to play it in a regular fashion, more to go out of bounds to see cut content using the "get drunk in a cave" exploit on the west of the map. You can get to Guarma that way, and also to the remnants of Nuevo Paraíso 🇲🇽 or Tempest Rim (east of the Grizzlies) with Arthur and not get killed by the invisible sniper if you're careful and don't stray to close to New Austin. Out of bounds treks in the Forbidden Plains are super fun, especially when animals just stand there because they lack AI pathing in those areas.
@Bri-Die Agreed, more love for Lies Of P the better. I have it on PS5 and it runs well, plays great, one of the best Soulslikes ever made. I stopped playing it because my love of Gran Turismo among others got in the way, but I really should finish it.
Honestly I don't know what they could have done with it to make it better because they were adding slightly more polish to something already highly polished and optimised so insanely well for the PS4. Really, as much as I might not like the story - the gameplay is good, story is a muddled mess with whiplashes of tone and time periods, ugh - it already looked and ran brilliantly so what could they do?
The thing is if you watch Digital Foundry or Nick930 (ideally both) do a comparison, yes you can tell the difference. If you use still characters. And zoom in. And put them side-by-side. Some assets are a little less blurry. The dithering on hair and other things is slightly less obvious. Big whoop.
So $10 isn't a bad deal to get a tiny visual upgrade and a new game mode, plus some other token stuff no one will care about in a few years beyond the developers that put them there, but the original PS4 version is now an even better deal because it's basically identical and will drop in value as the PS5 version supercedes it.
It's kinda like how the original PS5 CUH-12xx series is basically identical internally to the PS5 Slims and arguably not much prettier outside, but because "new + shiny = better" has a higher perceived value, while not really doing anything differently (slightly more SSD space from stock, big whoop again, you can add your own M.2 SSD if you like, and I do).
@nomither6 "sonys arrogance was bad with the beginning of ps3 , then its much much worse now ."
Yep exactly, and that's the problem isn't it. The hubris of being in the lead and coasting, doing whatever they want because they're so far ahead of the competition. nVidia are doing the same thing in the GPU market, and I suppose Apple are too with every product they make, judging by the way they've done the M3 product launch (deliberately throttling the memory bandwidth by firmware on lower end models is such a d*** move) - it's all very stagnant and arrogant in the tech sector in general right now with incremental product improvements coming at a massive price premium and in gaming so many broken releases and lazy expensive ports of decade old games.
Bring back Japan Studio and have them re-release (at a reasonable price) little fun cult indie derived classics like Tokyo Jungle at a reasonable price - there's a port I could get behind.
Put the Jim Ryan years behind you by communicating better with fans. Doesn't have to be a glut of information, just have a regular newsletter/bi-monthly State of Play as normal things.
For the love of God, support PSVR2. I don't like it, never will have it, but there's a devoted fanbase who love this thing and the tech behind it is super impressive, but it's dying on the f**king vine because there's no titles for it.
Fix "Remote Player" (working name for "PS Portal"). It's a joke. It's overpriced and laggy and stuttery, totally not at a point where it deserves to be a PlayStation product. If it's not fixed you've got hundreds of thousands of these things heading to the ground as eWaste.
More emphasis on little/fun titles rather than triple A tentpole releases with the same open world or totally linear conceit every time. You can't rely on Insomniac, Guerrilla and Naughty Neil studios forever. You need variety. PS3 at three years into it's life cycle had something for everyone, and yet now there's a very narrow range of genres which is pretty disappointing.
Fix the PS5's crappy UI. I hate the layout and lack of folders. If I'm not playing games on the thing I'm griping about how crappy the navigation is - not that the PS3 was perfect (nor the PS4) but they were a little less loathsome than this. Theme colours alone to get rid of the drab grey would be nice, it's almost as sterile as the Switch, but at least the Switch is cleaner (again no folders though).
Stop locking old PS2/PS3 content behind the PS Plus paywall and have more of it released into the Store as affordable downloads. So many great older titles are forever locked away on old hardware, and a company of Sony's size could show more respect to their legacy and heritage by sorting out the rights and getting old games up and running with a native emu, not a cloud based laggy one.
Worrying about the price of cosmetics that represent one game, in a totally different game, sounds like the definition of a first world problem.
Not ragging on people who care to customise their character but I've never seen the appeal of digitally playing dressup in a video game; I prefer games where either you don't choose the outfit, or you do and it doesn't matter. I don't get the conceit that people can "express individuality" via character outfits etc, all you often end up with is a mess of kiddy dayglo clown nonsense in first person shooters etc.
Just my opinion of course, acerbic as ever, before some smartass goes "how dare you state opinion as fact" when I didn't 😂
Up to 12 hours (when new) is still worse than my DualShock 3s, Switch Pro and a few other controllers with integrated batteries. If you count removable AA battery ones too, then the DualSense also can't get anywhere close to a One/Series Xbox controller or a WaveBird 🤭
That and they tend to acquire stick drift as they age. Essentially the DualSense combines innovative features with poor build quality and battery life.
@MrMagic "Actually if you compare the prices of some of the games in the sales they are regularly cheaper on PlayStation."
Never said they weren't! Just that when I've been looking at specific times for specific games, in a lot of cases I've bought the Series version as the price was more competitive. I wasn't nor have I ever made a blanket statement saying Xbox is always cheaper than PlayStation for online digital; it's not, sometimes PS edges out over Xbox, like in the January Sale (which has been running since mid-December 🤷🏻♂️ yeah makes sense) there's a few that are cheaper to buy on PS than Xbox stores.
In some cases both are cheap enough at various times that I eventually end up owning a title on both the PS5 and Series X (or PS4|PS5 and Series X|One X if there are crossgen bundle deals) which means I can compare performance, graphics etc on the same displays as I have my consoles running through a HDMI splitter to a 4K SDR Samsung gaming monitor, a 1080p SDR Sony Bravia TV and a 4K HDR 120Hz Sony X Series Google powered TV.
"I guess it's because Xbox just doesn't sell half as many copies, also sure some last generation games do look better because of the Xbox One X version"
Yep, Xbox Series consoles have been distant third to Switch and PlayStation 5 for quite some time now. This can work in your favour due to how desperate they seem to make sales and if you're tenacious can end up spending £50 and getting a lot of triple or double A games that were expensive only a year or three ago for your money.
"also sure some last generation games do look better because of the Xbox One X version"
They definitely do. I was A/B looking at PS5/Series X for Red Dead Redemption II last night, both games using Arthur and the white Arabian horse in similar areas of the map, and there are some very weird dithering and LoD popping issues with the "PS4 on PS5" version as compared to the "One X on Series X" version. Mostly I noticed this on foliage and horse hair (the mane looks like crap on the PS5, on a 1080p SDR display) and the game in general looks worse in motion to the point where it's distracting.
Both run at a steady 30FPS though, I'll give them that. Really would be nice if they both had 60FPS modes; I'd be a lot quicker to tolerate LoD popping and dithering (I assume the latter is due to the legacy checkerboarding introduced for the PS4 Pro) on either version to double the framerate and make gun fights that much smoother.
"PS5 wins the majority of the digital foundry current gen game comparisons and has for a long time now."
As a regular viewer of DF for the past three years especially, you and I both know the answer is more complex than that. It never comes down to "the PS5 is flat out better across the board and always wins" - if that's what you're taking away from their tech breakdown comparisons, it sounds like you're going in with a massive confirmation bias that is allowing you to hear what you wanna hear.
It's often the case it's a very close run thing, or the PS5 does certain things better yet the Series X does other things better, and one or the other clinches it by a nose but there's not a huge amount in it. One I remember semi-recently was Resident Evil 4 remake where the graphics were a shade better on the Series X especially for stuff like foliage, however there were some control issues due to the way the analogue sticks worked on the Series X, stuff like that.
For me, all this stuff is essentially statistical and interesting because I'm platform agnostic; I own a PS5, Series X and Switch plus a bunch of retro consoles so the element of "my console is better than your console" kiddy table nonsense doesn't exist.
@Llamageddon "that did make me chuckle and sounds like an absolute nightmare!"
It can lead to some pretty hilarious moments though; shooting a sheriff at the police desk in Saint Denis (aka "Sann Denny") in the elbow from an accidental quick draw because you can't remember the layout and watching as Arthur gets shot by 20 police rushing towards him from the back, for example 😂
"totally agree which is why I use it almost exclusively for Indies or Xboxs future AA offerings like towerborne, dungeons of hinterberg, south of midnight. " You know, I have two friends with the Deck and although I don't think they play those specific games, it seems to be the case they use it for older triple A stuff that's less demanding and newer mid-tier double A/indies as well.
"Will possibly pick up a series console at the end of the gen if they have some AAA's I really want to play"
Well now might be a good time to buy. With some digging you can get a Series S around the £100 mark and I recently got a Series X unboxed with controller, excellent condition for £180 so the deals are out there - not sure if this applies to Malta though, just UK private used seller market.
Series X with Dev Mode enabled does a wickedly good job of GameCube emulation, and alright at PS2 if that's your thing (personally my Wii U can do GameCube fine via Nintendont and I have a 🇯🇵 PS3 CECHA00 with the PS2 hardware inside so I don't need it now, but it was useful in the past) so there's some added value to make up for the admittedly pretty poor current gen library the Series consoles have, as do performance improved versions of older games like Dishonored and Fallout: New Vegas with their 60FPS boost and Auto HDR.
@Llamageddon "Appreciate the detailed response and that all seems reasonable enough"
Same goes! I like a polite discussion rather than picking holes in other people's opinions, as a lot of narrow-minded gamers seem to do these days. Much more fun rather than the pointless bickering some people turn up to Push◻️ for.
"For me the constant switching back and forth to different controller layouts would drive me crazy, maybe I'm just a bit simple though😃"
Yeah I guess, but it's not the moving between PS5 and Series X that does me in for layouts. It's moving between Switch and Series X because the damn face button letters are reversed - X/Y and A/B. Trips me up a lot when going from RDR1 on Switch to RDR2 on Series X because I'm often pressing B rather than A based on the game prompts. 🤯 Often means I end up kicking someone in the head on my horse, rather than getting off the horse, and then sheriffs come 🔫🤠
"Personally I have a PS5/steam deck setup so I have a portable option and don't miss out on pc/Xbox only. Happy gaming for 2024"
The Steam Deck is great but like the Switch it owes it's existence to, it's already starting to struggle with graphically innovative games, sadly.
@ChrisDeku "This is a pretty terrible example as Control Ultimate Edition launched day one as a PS Plus(old PS plus basic, keep forever) game."
You had no problems with the other examples eh, just this one? 😂
No Chris, in my case it's not a terrible example because I don't use or want PS Plus. I'm sure online gaming is important to some players, but not to me, so an outright purchase was the way forward, and Series X was the right platform in more ways than one; it also made sense because at the time I had both a One X and a Series X, so the crossgen was useful although sadly the saves weren't transferrable between versions. But hey, free cloud storage saves across Xbox platforms, no Game Pass subscription required! On Sony's consoles cloud saves are a paid for extra, right? If you don't want to pay, Sony deliberately makes it difficult to keep/transfer saves. On the PS5 you have to make a full system backup including your PS5 saves and restoring a backup with only saves means you lose any games on internal storage (definitely pays to have an M.2 SSD installed). With PS4 saves you need to manually transfer to USB stick. My, that's convenient. Meanwhile on the Series X I still have a save I made for Red Dead Redemption on my long-sold Xbox 360 Halo Slim that dates back to 2013. Not being a fanboy here as I own consoles from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft but that kind of user friendly design is a) super surprising from the same company that makes the often user-hostile Windows and b) very convenient when moving between consoles.
"Also I just checked the price tracking websites and Control Ultimate edition on PS5 was £9.84 on PSN at the end of 2021 at the same time it was £10.49 on Xbox. Also, it’s been as low as £8.24 on psn but never below £10.49 on Xbox."
Good for you for having the time on your hands to pull those stats, I guess, so eager were you to prove me wrong (or should I say wrong in your opinion)? I just did an email inbox search that took 5 seconds.
"You also can buy discounted credit for PSN and save another ~14% very easily whereas credit for Xbox is never discounted(you can buy game keys from key websites instead though)."
Are you not aware of the rewards scheme Microsoft do then? It's pointless busywork which I refuse to waste time on now (I tried it before years ago when I had more time to spare), but you can get Xbox points that lead to discount vouchers on digital games, stuff like that. Even buying a game now accrues points which can take money off the next one, and so forth.
@Andy22385 If that works for you, fair, but the original models it's best to have a stand for the ventilation holes underneath when vertical. Although horizontal means less dust accumulates in the fins on top.
@Smooshy Excellent satire about unrealistic gamer expectations. It's amazing we've all had so many great open world games in the past two decades, considering how hard they are to make...
"The PS5 controller is good and I really like the speaker in the controller, the haptics and trigger tensions seems to lose its appeal after a while but it’s still a nice to have."
The DualSense has good features but the battery life is awful, really even worse than the DualShock 4, don't you find? And even if you're careful it seems they develop the dreaded drift a lot earlier than the DS4 too.
I agree the clever rumble is a great feature... in theory. However due to cross platform game development, it's already gone the way of HD Rumble in the Switch, which was the same basic thing, a more involved approach that could have been great but isn't used for much that I can remember outside of Astro's Playroom and Returnal, maybe some slight uses of it in Spider-Man titles but nothing as grand as the other two. So for me I wouldn't say it loses appeal, more it's lost support among developers who just aren't bothering to code for the advanced haptics, meaning they're a bit of a waste, perhaps a feature that Sony thought justified the poor battery life but without it, poor battery life is the only result.
I find with regular Series and also Elite I/II Xbox controllers, eventually the top bumpers on the shoulders go especially among CoD players and they can develop drift too. Bit disappointing that older controllers form 15-20 years ago often work perfectly today, yet well treated ones from PS5/Series can break even with careful use after a couple of years due to being made poorly as compared to the old stuff.
@OldGamer999 "Sony are slowly losing it for me and I’ve been with them since day one but more so since the PS3 in a main way."
Yeah I totally agree with that statement even though I wasn't majorly impressed with the PS3 at launch, not because of the price or the hubris around the company about it but the lack of games I liked! Resistence didn't do anything for me, although the visuals have mostly held up well.
However in retrospect, a fully backwards compatible PS3 that can run 99.5% of PS2 games perfectly is a formidable machine, even now, and it has just a stunning library. Even Ridge Racer 7 which I turned my nose up at the time, I've revisited and been super impressed with. Wish we'd gotten an 8 to be honest, but at least the series had a super impressive peak right there.
"But then again why try hard now when you sell so many consoles just for Sony smiling at people."
Yeah that's the problem isn't it; they're totally coasting on hubris and brand recognition. They can't be doing that when the PS5 at this point in it's life - over the 3 year mark - does not have what PS1-PS4 had by this point, where it should be solid gold, ten great games to own regardless of what styles you prefer (as in, not everyone's 10 would be the same, but everyone would have at least 10) and more on the horizon. Looks a bit bare.
@Llamageddon "why do you choose the series X over PS5 for 3rd party?"
I'm sure they can answer themselves, but in my case the answer for that is some third party exclusives are quite a lot better on the Series X than the PS5.
For the longest time the Series X had an improved version of The Witcher 3 which was the One X version except it was solid/stable 60FPS everywhere (One X dipped), true 4K output, and it was only when CDPR dropped Complete Edition that the crappy, locked to 30FPS, massive input latency PS4 version running on the PS5 was finally banished and there was a decent 4K60 version with tight feeling controls. Cross-play saving works amazingly well; I can move between the Switch/PS5/Series X versions without issues, other than the Switch version looking very blurry. Not a slight on Saber Interactive's work; they did an amazing job getting this game to a mostly 30FPS solid on the Switch, just the way it is.
Same currently applies to Red Dead Redemption 2 - the visual quality is quite noticeably worse on the PS4 on PS5 version (even on a 1080p SDR display the PS5 is notably less crisp especially in motion), yet the One X on Series X version looks sharp and clean, and that gulf widens when you go up to a 4K HDR display. Still only 30FPS though, and knowing Rockstar there shall be no free upgrade, it'll be a paid option like GTA V was and even then, it won't be a massive improvement. That's just how they do - same applies to Definitive Edition and Red Dead Redemption 1.
In other cases it's just price - I managed to get Control: Ultimate Edition at a stupidly cheap price on Series X which also gives you crossgen One version too, and it took a long time for the PS5 version to get close to what I paid - £10.49 in 2021 apparently. There's not as much in Control: UE between the two consoles and in fact I think the Series X suffers a bit in places where the PS5 doesn't, but money talks eh?
"It also sounds like the usual Nintendo Direct in February will also be a thing." Way to be low-key derogatory of Nintendo there, Liam 😛
If the article is anything to go by, it makes me wonder if we're going to be seeing another empty-handed Sony with very few finished first party titles to show, including for the already wilting on the vine PSVR2 which is plagued by a dearth of games. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise us.
What I'm most intrigued about seeing is if the State of Play will give us a different attitude and tone from the Ryan year ones. Are we going to see a direction that makes Sony a bit more gamer friendly again, listening and responding to the fanbase and acting on it rather than telling them what they're getting being the only setting? Criticise the Layden and Ken/Kaz years all you like but at least there was a bit more harmony between platform provider and console gamer. Never too late to get it back and make that Xbox gap even wider...
@HotGoomba Yup, Slim Disc is a bit more fugly than original because you can't make the Blu-ray drive physically that much smaller; I can't see Sony releasing games on GameCube sized Discs, can you? 😂
I still think it's a bit rich that the metal vert stand is a paid for extra compared to the two-way stand provided with the original models; cheap plastic sure, but it did the job just fine so they've managed to make an already crappy design decision (needing a stand in the first place) worse. But that is 2023 Sony all over.
Anyone notice they did that red/white/blue thing in 2011 with the PS3 Slims? Seems appropriate that they're doing it again with the PS5 Slims 12 years later; I still have a blue DualShock 3 from back then and it still lasts 20-30 hours on the original battery.
A Sony that respects their heritage a bit more, really? Guess JR being shown the door is already giving us minor improvements if this is anything to go by.
Knowing Sony, they won't release any of those colours for the original style PS5s, which is a shame as blue is my favourite colour and their rendition of Cobalt Blue is nice if a bit too white (could be stage lighting though). I still think they really dropped the ball on custom colours though; companies like dbrand really ate their lunch on stuff like that.
@ecurb7 Not sure how you can criticise stuff that's just my opinion; it's so clearly worded as such I'm a bit miffed that anyone could think it was anything different 🤷🏻♂️🙄😂
I'm taking about general UI behaviour not specific stuff like syncing trophies, which to be fair if you do regularly doesn't take long (it's not a background process like PS4/5 because it was a "tacked on later" feature introduced to compete with Xbox Achievements, but you knew that, right? PS3 wasn't built with that as an integral feature). Original Phat PS3s with OS stored on flash NAND are actually pretty quick, more so if you replace HDD with SSD, the damn things fly. Later ones stored the OS on HDD and that hit performance a bit. Have you tried PS3s in various configs to see which ones are faster?
Not trying to be "deliberately contrary to try to get attention" again **just stating a preference**. If it's contrary so what, would be boring if everyone thought the same. It's like you're being po-faced and suggesting I'm trashing things for no reason. I've been a PS gamer since about '96 myself, still own three PS3s, a PS5, a PSP, a Vita, a modded Phat PS2 etc etc. So what, don't see how lifetime membership factors into rightness when talking about one's opinion. You can explain the train of thought behind that if you like, because I don't see the sense in it.
"trying to claim in 2023 that PS3 is better than PS4 or PS5 is really pushing it" - again better here is a relative term, I'm not wrong because I **prefer** an older console am I... unless you're suggesting you're so intolerant you're telling someone their opinion is wrong? Say it ain't so.
"Time to stop living in the past!" Riiiight. That must be it. 🙄 Even though the original thing I wrote mentions having a PS5, yeah? Which gets used several times a month. I could turn to you based on the tone of what you wrote and say, time to be a bit more tolerant and not see someone else's opinion as a slight on something you like, or as a personal attack when it wasn't addressed at you?
I just think the PS3 has the better library; most of the stuff I enjoy on the PS5 beyond newer titles like Returnal and Lies Of P (one of the greatest Soulslike games I've ever played that came out in 2023...) is the better PS4 stuff which is actually tolerable to play on a PS5 because the fans don't go nuts and spin at volumes loud enough to drown out the games, that sort of thing.
"I've been a playstation gamer since PS1, and there's no way I'd go back to the pre-PS4/5 eras"
Hey there Jim Ryan 👋🏻
Seriously though, that's your prerogative, and I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, like you've told me I'm wrong.
There's some games that never got ported across (either as a classic or a remaster), and some games that are just flat out better to play on older consoles for nostalgia and other reasons - for example GTA San Andreas as an original PS2 with the original soundtrack and heat haze effect intact rather than the trashed Definitive Edition versions which are an insult to the GTA 3D era.
Another cult favourite that springs to mind that never got out of the X360/PS3 editions is Lollipop Chainsaw, a hilarious and ridiculous zombie slasher game which is pure stupid fun and actually pretty tough in some places. Also the aforementioned Gran Turismo 6 - you can either play that on a PS3 (cheap) or a PC emulator (expensive if you want decent upscaling with performance) so it's obvious which I'd choose and a lot of people would. I suppose that applies to Metal Gear Solid 4 too, there's bunches of titles. And I'd definitely rather play the original HD collection remaster/ports of MGS2/3 than pay Konami for crappier versions of the same on PS4/5, stuff like that. Tons of good reasons to keep the old hardware around; if you don't see that, fine, but you don't get the right to criticise anyone who loves their PS3s more than their PS4s and PS5s, do you...
I'm still playing and enjoying my PS3 more, to be honest. Even when it bothers me that PS2 games without ports don't have trophies. I think there's still between 1 and 2 million active users on the PS3 side, so although $ONY might not care about the PS3 any more, plenty of gamers do, especially for games that never got ports, or only got ones that were bad.
Never liked the PS4; boring design (physical console and UI), noisy under load, needed an SSD to bring it alive really otherwise everything was sluggish. I tried the original, Slim and Pro, never could keep them. Shame as some of the games were decent - inFAMOUS: Second Son is great even years later (I don't care how many Gen Zoomers describe it as "mid", a word I'm coming to hate as much as "based" for a representation of how crappy modern slang is - I prefer the 90s surfer whoah dude stuff, Bill & Ted style)
What amazes me is I bought Gran Turismo 7 recently on the PS5 and yep the graphics are better, but the UI and career progression were so kiddy table and lame (I hate the whole "chat heads" thing) I went back to Gran Turismo 6 where both the gameplay and the menu system is tolerable, despite 1080i plus screen tearing being the highest res on that game, even with a slightly overclocked RSX. It's just more fun, and graphics always take a backseat (literally) to raw gameplay goodness.
@Craigybear91 Not in cases where the port looks barely any different from the original, and/or has bugs and flaws the original did not due to how bad the port is.
@Vladspartan Or do what I did and buy a backwards compatible PS3 so you can play the original HD remasters from PS2/PS1 titles where actual effort was involved, or original PS2/PS1 titles in cases where they don't exist.
It's probably a lazy port with AI upscaling performed at minimal expense to fleece fickle fans. That's what big publishers and game devs do these days, right?
In your opinion it is, in mine it isn't. I'm aware of that form of doing it; if so it should be "will creep" not "Will Creep" for example, otherwise you're mixing Proper Title Case with only proper noun title case, for example. It's poor form/style even for a quick article, for those who care about quality of writing.
It's one of those situations where success doesn't mean quality.
Yeah the PS5 is the most successful but it's not really because Sony had a great year of games releases. Almost feels like they tried to delude us on that by deluging with hardware - PSVR2 (niche, no backwards compatibility with PSVR1 even though the console can play PS4 games, go figure), those Pulse wireless earphones that fall out of your ear, PlayStation Portal (stutters and even scalpers can shift them - I've been keeping an eye on Marketplace and it's hilarious watching them all compete to price cut each other. "IN HAND" indeed, where it'll stay). And finally the Slim redesign, where they've managed to make the cheapness of the original even cheaper and the ugly design even uglier. The Disc Slim looks like it has a giant hump size tumour because you can't change the size of Blu-rays. Still, dumb people lap that s**t up because newest means best and better, right? Nope the Slim is functionally the same as the 1200 series Phat models, no die shrink on the APU, slightly more SSD space (like that matters when they all share an M.2 slot). Sony knows some of it's customers are dumb, hence seeing what they can get away with as they're lazily out in front.
What makes me laugh is a lot of the game "releases" from big studios this year and last are the same that I can literally play on my 17 year old launch Japanese PS3 because they're ported - Red Dead Redemption, The Last Of Us, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and probably others. The game industry as a whole is lazy and stagnant, in fact the whole tech sphere looks that way to me because even smartphones now all they do is make the cameras bigger and uglier too, because that's how optics work and you can't get good pictures without enough glass.
There's been a few outliers and exceptions though - Lies Of P is great but even still, it's a cross platform game that PS4 owners can get so it's not special and exclusive. And PS4 owners can put it in whatever folder they choose 😂 on the "flagship" console we don't have that "luxury".
Funny thing is, I remember when the PS3 came out it was roundly lambasted for having a poor launch lineup compared to 360 and Wii, but you look back now and there were some absolute bangers like Ridge Racer 7, Resistance: Fall Of Man, MotorStorm etc, still titles I love and in the case of RR7 play to this day. The quality bar was much higher in the mid 2000s, and although I hated the UI and noise of the PS4s (yep, I've had all of them and even the Slim makes a racket when it's been on a few hours) and find the PS5 better, I still prefer the PS3 and use it way more. Gran Turismo 6 is still my favourite because hey, look at that, even though in 2018 they switched the servers off the entire game continues to function. Oh and if you wanna skip the grind and just gift yourself lots of credits to buy halo cars, custom firmware lets you do that.
Anyway, here we are ending year 3 since release and starting year 4, Spider-Man 2 is one of the few tentpole Sony exclusives, it's all a bit disappointing. In previous generations it'll be full speed ahead now and we'd have so many exclusive bangers we would have a half dozen games in backlog for Sony first party alone. Instead it's more a limp to the barn.
Wait, is this trying to breed wistful nostalgia for something that never even released?
Don't worry, a data leak in future will produce a playable beta or alpha version, like what happened with the original Duke Nukem Forever incomplete build circa 2001, or the Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye or that early playtest footage of GTA VI or so on... all hackers need to know is that something exists, and they'll go after it.
I was gonna say if it doesn't have Lies Of P it's a bad list, but it does so Ken is safe!
I actually think it's better than Bloodborne in many ways, the longer I play it. Certainly the fact it runs at 60FPS with no frame pacing stutters helps I'm sure, even though there is some LoD popping every now and then on the PS5 version (a worthy tradeoff). Some of the bosses you fight are scarier than the Eldritch lumps of horror in that, maybe because it feeds into the fear of automatons and clowns a lot of people have. There's a mini boss fight with Survivor which is basically a sword fight and it's brilliant - better than any Hunter duel. Bloodborne wins on level design though because Lies Of P is clearly drawn on a grid, it's too linear and square like as pointed out in Joseph Anderson's YouTube critique.
Music in the Hotel Krat section continues to play in my head after I've stopped playing the game...
To summarise what the DF boys said in yesterday's Direct, what happened to games just having multiplayer built in at launch that isn't monthly sub monetised? Letting that drive sales rather than games as a service nonsense if you will. Seems a lot of devs have forgotten you can do that.
Fortnite has a lot to answer for because it's inadvertently driven the GaaS business model. I certainly think it's responsible for Minaj being in CoD - I personally find her fake plastic hideous but if CoD players find her attractive then it makes me hate the franchise even more 😂
He's right though, isn't he. Year on year the CoD campaigns get shorter and shorter, and I'm convinced only get "made" (read: recycled) as a way to tutoralise new players or returning ones who might not have bought a new title for the past few years. That's it. It actually reminds me of the super short tutorial missions in the original Counter-Strike at this point, but at least those were more obviously just brief tutorials to prime you for online competitive play modes, which weren't commonly known to all players at the time like they are 2 decades or more later.
It's not exactly a well-kept secret if you know the games industry, and it's kinda refreshing for a somewhat high profile voice actor within it to call it out with a joke at an event.
Also draws attention to an increasing social problem especially online - people's inability to take a joke, and react to it in the most po-faced defensive way possible rather than simply acknowledge someone might have been indulging in the dying art of tongue-in-cheek humour. However, Infinity Ward staff reacting like that inadvertently proves his point, because most jokes have a grain of truth so it hit home.
@sanderson72 obviously you never played games like Returnal and Astro's Playroom where you can feel the increased nuances of the newer haptics as compared to the DS4 which was about the same as the DS3 and back. Not every game uses them deftly which is a shame but then without cross platform support features like that do get neglected.
I disagree that the DS4 is a better controller. Same disappointing battery life as the DualSense, a bit less likely to stick drift, but overall not as well thought out a controller. I think both of them lose to the DualShock 3 though. Best controller Sony ever made, my thumbs don't slide off the sticks as much, the battery life is amazing, never seen one contract stick drift.
Oh wow. Sony finally released a new product this year with actual utility and value, not just a disappointing revision of an existing console, VR system that will gather dust and a Remote Play accessory with latency and stuttering issues.
The article is incredibly well-written, clear, honest. The sort of review we used to get lots of in the 90s and were spoilt by.
Although Microsoft beat them to it, and was the first thing I thought of when this was revealed, seems like Sony innovated after all. A win for accessibility.
As concerns the price, well, it's still cheaper for two of these than a DualSense Edge. And they have better battery life. People buy the Edge for better control, so you might say this is the Edge Accessibility Edition.
I don't think much of Jim's tenure so I'm glad he's left. Maybe they can get someone who actually cares about the games as least as much as profit, who will undo some of the damage he's done like closing down Japan Studio.
Since he'll never use the cool custom DualSense he's been given with the console, he'll never have to put up with it's poor battery life and tendency to contract stick drift. I seriously get better battery life out of my decade old DualShock 3 controllers, and those haven't developed drift despite being that old and used lots. Seriously, I use my PS3 more yet I only charge the main DS3 once or twice a month. The DualSense needs doing once or twice a week.
@Th3solution Some might say, myself included, that the gripping narrative was explicitly contained within the first game, and if you removed the pretty decent gameplay from the sequel you'd be left with a pretty weak and at times stupidly nonsensical borderline painfully woke story that lacks the grace, elegence and relatability which the first had. Personally I think the first game has and will continue to stand the test of time, whereas the sequel is a product of its time. YMMV
"Naughty Dog Drops Explosive The Last of Us 2 Remastered No Return PS5 Gameplay"
This headline is so poorly worded that I genuinely thought our good friends over at the Dog had decided to call the game The Last Of Us: Part II Remastered: No Return which makes it sound more like a WWE Pay Per View event. Colon cancer indeed.
"Naughty Dog Drops Explosive Gameplay From New Roguelike Mode In The Last of Us 2: Remastered"
Better headline, partly because more people know what a Roguelike is than what the new No Return mode is, so you might even get more clicks. That is partly what you want, right? 🤔😂
@Kalime78 Oh I see, I was trying to have a sensible and civil debate about things like that and you're saying spurious things like "You're like someone saying 6 seater cars are just novelty to a family of 6". No buddy, actually that's nothing like what I'm saying, which you'd know if you'd actually read what I said properly, but that's fine I know I don't have to waste further time trying to politely converse with someone lacking in common sense. All the best.
@Kalime78 It should be clear from the way I worded it that I'm not trying to dismiss it, simply saying that you only really know something has staying power and is a good piece of tech if it keeps getting used outside the initial novelty.
I remember all the people I spoke to who raved about their new 3DTVs over a decade ago, saying they were watching everything with the shutter glasses on, most of them gave up doing that and used it like a regular TV after the novelty wore off. I remember my 1080p 55" Sony had 3D features and I kept forgetting they were there as I never needed them. Talking of 1080p TVs, if you have so many gamers in the household why not pick up a couple of cheap 1080p panels? I've been able to get a few for retro PS2/PS3 gaming as everyone is shifting them now they have 4K TVs and the price has been between £10-£30. Solves the problem.
Some things are fun to try enjoy briefly and then forget about (that's how I feel about VR) and some are genuine good innovations that live on, like analogue sticks have been since the 90s.
@Kalime78 The acid test is if it's still being used regularly in 6 months to a year, then you'll know if the Portal has staying power or it was just a novelty that wore off, as so many things are.
Sony really can't seem to release a good new product without some or other medium to major flaw(s) this year eh.
PSVR2 is a good product with (still) a poor library. They're turning up on the used market in quantities already, after Xmas you'll easily be able to get an as new barely used set for under 300 I'm sure.
PS Portal is a device solely for Remote Play. The same Remote Play with the same problems it's had for years. Lazy product that'll make a disappointing Xmas gift for millions of gamers. By January I expect the used market will be flooded with them.
New PS5 "Slim" redesign somehow manages to make the ugly original design even uglier, but hey now you can pay 30 for a seperate stand! The split matte/glossy panels are worse than on the launch PS4. Just pick one or the other. No die shrink on the APU so not significantly smaller either.
And now PS Pulse headphones, which are overpriced and won't apparently do much if anything better than a cheap set of wired ones. Wired ones that will probably be more comfortable, and won't be sending compressed and/or laggy audio to your eardrums a la Bluetooth.
The thing is, as Nintendo and Microsoft haven't released that much in the way of gaming hardware this year (the revised Series S in black with 1TB seems, to me, even lazier than the PS Portal), Sony still look better by comparison, don't they, even though they're releasing half-arsed products. They win by default. Yay.
For so many people, gaming is CoD and FIFA (or FC as it is now). So their reference pool is going to be previous versions of those, and unless they were significantly bad or broken as compared to before, the ones who lap these games up aren't going to notice or care.
@dschons If the official RP app has been like that for ages, what makes you think they'll fix it just because they released a device specifically to use that app?
Comments 654
Re: The Last of Us 2's Dev Documentary Grounded II Available to Watch Now
Regardless of what you might think of the game (for me good gameplay mechanics, serious story issues), any time developers pull back the curtain on their art, any serious gamer or aspiring developer should sit up and take notice. Every time I see one of these I learn something, and appreciate once again the sheer amount of human effort that goes into making a slick to play, beautiful looking game like this. Can't wait to watch ❤️
Re: Poll: Are You Playing The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered?
@STOBO You're sure? Because TLoU and Uncharted have a lot in common - great visuals, super linear story, simple controls, look for yellow things to follow, lots of rollercoaster style setpieces. Sure Uncharted has more climbing but I find them pretty similar to play to TLoU games... the latter's first entry has the superior storytelling though, I find. Never really cared much for Nathan Drake as a character, kind of an okay but not particularly interesting Indiana Jones/generic action hero pastiche.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 512
Red Dead Redemption II
Not to play it in a regular fashion, more to go out of bounds to see cut content using the "get drunk in a cave" exploit on the west of the map. You can get to Guarma that way, and also to the remnants of Nuevo Paraíso 🇲🇽 or Tempest Rim (east of the Grizzlies) with Arthur and not get killed by the invisible sniper if you're careful and don't stray to close to New Austin. Out of bounds treks in the Forbidden Plains are super fun, especially when animals just stand there because they lack AI pathing in those areas.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered?
@Bri-Die Agreed, more love for Lies Of P the better. I have it on PS5 and it runs well, plays great, one of the best Soulslikes ever made. I stopped playing it because my love of Gran Turismo among others got in the way, but I really should finish it.
Re: Poll: Are You Playing The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered?
Honestly I don't know what they could have done with it to make it better because they were adding slightly more polish to something already highly polished and optimised so insanely well for the PS4. Really, as much as I might not like the story - the gameplay is good, story is a muddled mess with whiplashes of tone and time periods, ugh - it already looked and ran brilliantly so what could they do?
The thing is if you watch Digital Foundry or Nick930 (ideally both) do a comparison, yes you can tell the difference. If you use still characters. And zoom in. And put them side-by-side. Some assets are a little less blurry. The dithering on hair and other things is slightly less obvious. Big whoop.
So $10 isn't a bad deal to get a tiny visual upgrade and a new game mode, plus some other token stuff no one will care about in a few years beyond the developers that put them there, but the original PS4 version is now an even better deal because it's basically identical and will drop in value as the PS5 version supercedes it.
It's kinda like how the original PS5 CUH-12xx series is basically identical internally to the PS5 Slims and arguably not much prettier outside, but because "new + shiny = better" has a higher perceived value, while not really doing anything differently (slightly more SSD space from stock, big whoop again, you can add your own M.2 SSD if you like, and I do).
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want from Sony and PlayStation in 2024?
@nomither6 "sonys arrogance was bad with the beginning of ps3 , then its much much worse now ."
Yep exactly, and that's the problem isn't it. The hubris of being in the lead and coasting, doing whatever they want because they're so far ahead of the competition. nVidia are doing the same thing in the GPU market, and I suppose Apple are too with every product they make, judging by the way they've done the M3 product launch (deliberately throttling the memory bandwidth by firmware on lower end models is such a d*** move) - it's all very stagnant and arrogant in the tech sector in general right now with incremental product improvements coming at a massive price premium and in gaming so many broken releases and lazy expensive ports of decade old games.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want from Sony and PlayStation in 2024?
Re: Fan Outcry Leads to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Item Pricing in Apex Legends Being Lowered
Worrying about the price of cosmetics that represent one game, in a totally different game, sounds like the definition of a first world problem.
Not ragging on people who care to customise their character but I've never seen the appeal of digitally playing dressup in a video game; I prefer games where either you don't choose the outfit, or you do and it doesn't matter. I don't get the conceit that people can "express individuality" via character outfits etc, all you often end up with is a mess of kiddy dayglo clown nonsense in first person shooters etc.
Just my opinion of course, acerbic as ever, before some smartass goes "how dare you state opinion as fact" when I didn't 😂
Re: Upgraded PS5 Controller with Hugely Improved Battery Life Spotted
Up to 12 hours (when new) is still worse than my DualShock 3s, Switch Pro and a few other controllers with integrated batteries. If you count removable AA battery ones too, then the DualSense also can't get anywhere close to a One/Series Xbox controller or a WaveBird 🤭
That and they tend to acquire stick drift as they age. Essentially the DualSense combines innovative features with poor build quality and battery life.
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@MrMagic "Actually if you compare the prices of some of the games in the sales they are regularly cheaper on PlayStation."
Never said they weren't! Just that when I've been looking at specific times for specific games, in a lot of cases I've bought the Series version as the price was more competitive. I wasn't nor have I ever made a blanket statement saying Xbox is always cheaper than PlayStation for online digital; it's not, sometimes PS edges out over Xbox, like in the January Sale (which has been running since mid-December 🤷🏻♂️ yeah makes sense) there's a few that are cheaper to buy on PS than Xbox stores.
In some cases both are cheap enough at various times that I eventually end up owning a title on both the PS5 and Series X (or PS4|PS5 and Series X|One X if there are crossgen bundle deals) which means I can compare performance, graphics etc on the same displays as I have my consoles running through a HDMI splitter to a 4K SDR Samsung gaming monitor, a 1080p SDR Sony Bravia TV and a 4K HDR 120Hz Sony X Series Google powered TV.
"I guess it's because Xbox just doesn't sell half as many copies, also sure some last generation games do look better because of the Xbox One X version"
Yep, Xbox Series consoles have been distant third to Switch and PlayStation 5 for quite some time now. This can work in your favour due to how desperate they seem to make sales and if you're tenacious can end up spending £50 and getting a lot of triple or double A games that were expensive only a year or three ago for your money.
"also sure some last generation games do look better because of the Xbox One X version"
They definitely do. I was A/B looking at PS5/Series X for Red Dead Redemption II last night, both games using Arthur and the white Arabian horse in similar areas of the map, and there are some very weird dithering and LoD popping issues with the "PS4 on PS5" version as compared to the "One X on Series X" version. Mostly I noticed this on foliage and horse hair (the mane looks like crap on the PS5, on a 1080p SDR display) and the game in general looks worse in motion to the point where it's distracting.
Both run at a steady 30FPS though, I'll give them that. Really would be nice if they both had 60FPS modes; I'd be a lot quicker to tolerate LoD popping and dithering (I assume the latter is due to the legacy checkerboarding introduced for the PS4 Pro) on either version to double the framerate and make gun fights that much smoother.
"PS5 wins the majority of the digital foundry current gen game comparisons and has for a long time now."
As a regular viewer of DF for the past three years especially, you and I both know the answer is more complex than that. It never comes down to "the PS5 is flat out better across the board and always wins" - if that's what you're taking away from their tech breakdown comparisons, it sounds like you're going in with a massive confirmation bias that is allowing you to hear what you wanna hear.
It's often the case it's a very close run thing, or the PS5 does certain things better yet the Series X does other things better, and one or the other clinches it by a nose but there's not a huge amount in it. One I remember semi-recently was Resident Evil 4 remake where the graphics were a shade better on the Series X especially for stuff like foliage, however there were some control issues due to the way the analogue sticks worked on the Series X, stuff like that.
For me, all this stuff is essentially statistical and interesting because I'm platform agnostic; I own a PS5, Series X and Switch plus a bunch of retro consoles so the element of "my console is better than your console" kiddy table nonsense doesn't exist.
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@Llamageddon "that did make me chuckle and sounds like an absolute nightmare!"
It can lead to some pretty hilarious moments though; shooting a sheriff at the police desk in Saint Denis (aka "Sann Denny") in the elbow from an accidental quick draw because you can't remember the layout and watching as Arthur gets shot by 20 police rushing towards him from the back, for example 😂
"totally agree which is why I use it almost exclusively for Indies or Xboxs future AA offerings like towerborne, dungeons of hinterberg, south of midnight. " You know, I have two friends with the Deck and although I don't think they play those specific games, it seems to be the case they use it for older triple A stuff that's less demanding and newer mid-tier double A/indies as well.
"Will possibly pick up a series console at the end of the gen if they have some AAA's I really want to play"
Well now might be a good time to buy. With some digging you can get a Series S around the £100 mark and I recently got a Series X unboxed with controller, excellent condition for £180 so the deals are out there - not sure if this applies to Malta though, just UK private used seller market.
Series X with Dev Mode enabled does a wickedly good job of GameCube emulation, and alright at PS2 if that's your thing (personally my Wii U can do GameCube fine via Nintendont and I have a 🇯🇵 PS3 CECHA00 with the PS2 hardware inside so I don't need it now, but it was useful in the past) so there's some added value to make up for the admittedly pretty poor current gen library the Series consoles have, as do performance improved versions of older games like Dishonored and Fallout: New Vegas with their 60FPS boost and Auto HDR.
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@Llamageddon "Appreciate the detailed response and that all seems reasonable enough"
Same goes! I like a polite discussion rather than picking holes in other people's opinions, as a lot of narrow-minded gamers seem to do these days. Much more fun rather than the pointless bickering some people turn up to Push◻️ for.
"For me the constant switching back and forth to different controller layouts would drive me crazy, maybe I'm just a bit simple though😃"
Yeah I guess, but it's not the moving between PS5 and Series X that does me in for layouts. It's moving between Switch and Series X because the damn face button letters are reversed - X/Y and A/B. Trips me up a lot when going from RDR1 on Switch to RDR2 on Series X because I'm often pressing B rather than A based on the game prompts. 🤯 Often means I end up kicking someone in the head on my horse, rather than getting off the horse, and then sheriffs come 🔫🤠
"Personally I have a PS5/steam deck setup so I have a portable option and don't miss out on pc/Xbox only. Happy gaming for 2024"
The Steam Deck is great but like the Switch it owes it's existence to, it's already starting to struggle with graphically innovative games, sadly.
Re: New PS5 Slim Faceplates Spotted at CES
@SlipperyFish Wow thanks, I learnt something today!
https://direct.playstation.com/en-gb/buy-accessories/ps5-console-covers-cobalt-blue
At £49.99 though, not exactly what I'd call value. I could buy several games on sale for that amount. I'll stick with OG white plates then 😂
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@ChrisDeku "This is a pretty terrible example as Control Ultimate Edition launched day one as a PS Plus(old PS plus basic, keep forever) game."
You had no problems with the other examples eh, just this one? 😂
No Chris, in my case it's not a terrible example because I don't use or want PS Plus. I'm sure online gaming is important to some players, but not to me, so an outright purchase was the way forward, and Series X was the right platform in more ways than one; it also made sense because at the time I had both a One X and a Series X, so the crossgen was useful although sadly the saves weren't transferrable between versions. But hey, free cloud storage saves across Xbox platforms, no Game Pass subscription required! On Sony's consoles cloud saves are a paid for extra, right? If you don't want to pay, Sony deliberately makes it difficult to keep/transfer saves. On the PS5 you have to make a full system backup including your PS5 saves and restoring a backup with only saves means you lose any games on internal storage (definitely pays to have an M.2 SSD installed). With PS4 saves you need to manually transfer to USB stick. My, that's convenient. Meanwhile on the Series X I still have a save I made for Red Dead Redemption on my long-sold Xbox 360 Halo Slim that dates back to 2013. Not being a fanboy here as I own consoles from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft but that kind of user friendly design is a) super surprising from the same company that makes the often user-hostile Windows and b) very convenient when moving between consoles.
"Also I just checked the price tracking websites and Control Ultimate edition on PS5 was £9.84 on PSN at the end of 2021 at the same time it was £10.49 on Xbox. Also, it’s been as low as £8.24 on psn but never below £10.49 on Xbox."
Good for you for having the time on your hands to pull those stats, I guess, so eager were you to prove me wrong (or should I say wrong in your opinion)? I just did an email inbox search that took 5 seconds.
"You also can buy discounted credit for PSN and save another ~14% very easily whereas credit for Xbox is never discounted(you can buy game keys from key websites instead though)."
Are you not aware of the rewards scheme Microsoft do then? It's pointless busywork which I refuse to waste time on now (I tried it before years ago when I had more time to spare), but you can get Xbox points that lead to discount vouchers on digital games, stuff like that. Even buying a game now accrues points which can take money off the next one, and so forth.
Re: New PS5 Slim Faceplates Spotted at CES
@Andy22385 If that works for you, fair, but the original models it's best to have a stand for the ventilation holes underneath when vertical. Although horizontal means less dust accumulates in the fins on top.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077's Next Patch Is Expected to Drop Very Soon
@Smooshy Excellent satire about unrealistic gamer expectations. It's amazing we've all had so many great open world games in the past two decades, considering how hard they are to make...
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@OldGamer999
"The PS5 controller is good and I really like the speaker in the controller, the haptics and trigger tensions seems to lose its appeal after a while but it’s still a nice to have."
The DualSense has good features but the battery life is awful, really even worse than the DualShock 4, don't you find? And even if you're careful it seems they develop the dreaded drift a lot earlier than the DS4 too.
I agree the clever rumble is a great feature... in theory. However due to cross platform game development, it's already gone the way of HD Rumble in the Switch, which was the same basic thing, a more involved approach that could have been great but isn't used for much that I can remember outside of Astro's Playroom and Returnal, maybe some slight uses of it in Spider-Man titles but nothing as grand as the other two. So for me I wouldn't say it loses appeal, more it's lost support among developers who just aren't bothering to code for the advanced haptics, meaning they're a bit of a waste, perhaps a feature that Sony thought justified the poor battery life but without it, poor battery life is the only result.
I find with regular Series and also Elite I/II Xbox controllers, eventually the top bumpers on the shoulders go especially among CoD players and they can develop drift too. Bit disappointing that older controllers form 15-20 years ago often work perfectly today, yet well treated ones from PS5/Series can break even with careful use after a couple of years due to being made poorly as compared to the old stuff.
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@OldGamer999 "Sony are slowly losing it for me and I’ve been with them since day one but more so since the PS3 in a main way."
Yeah I totally agree with that statement even though I wasn't majorly impressed with the PS3 at launch, not because of the price or the hubris around the company about it but the lack of games I liked! Resistence didn't do anything for me, although the visuals have mostly held up well.
However in retrospect, a fully backwards compatible PS3 that can run 99.5% of PS2 games perfectly is a formidable machine, even now, and it has just a stunning library. Even Ridge Racer 7 which I turned my nose up at the time, I've revisited and been super impressed with. Wish we'd gotten an 8 to be honest, but at least the series had a super impressive peak right there.
"But then again why try hard now when you sell so many consoles just for Sony smiling at people."
Yeah that's the problem isn't it; they're totally coasting on hubris and brand recognition. They can't be doing that when the PS5 at this point in it's life - over the 3 year mark - does not have what PS1-PS4 had by this point, where it should be solid gold, ten great games to own regardless of what styles you prefer (as in, not everyone's 10 would be the same, but everyone would have at least 10) and more on the horizon. Looks a bit bare.
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
@Llamageddon "why do you choose the series X over PS5 for 3rd party?"
I'm sure they can answer themselves, but in my case the answer for that is some third party exclusives are quite a lot better on the Series X than the PS5.
For the longest time the Series X had an improved version of The Witcher 3 which was the One X version except it was solid/stable 60FPS everywhere (One X dipped), true 4K output, and it was only when CDPR dropped Complete Edition that the crappy, locked to 30FPS, massive input latency PS4 version running on the PS5 was finally banished and there was a decent 4K60 version with tight feeling controls. Cross-play saving works amazingly well; I can move between the Switch/PS5/Series X versions without issues, other than the Switch version looking very blurry. Not a slight on Saber Interactive's work; they did an amazing job getting this game to a mostly 30FPS solid on the Switch, just the way it is.
Same currently applies to Red Dead Redemption 2 - the visual quality is quite noticeably worse on the PS4 on PS5 version (even on a 1080p SDR display the PS5 is notably less crisp especially in motion), yet the One X on Series X version looks sharp and clean, and that gulf widens when you go up to a 4K HDR display. Still only 30FPS though, and knowing Rockstar there shall be no free upgrade, it'll be a paid option like GTA V was and even then, it won't be a massive improvement. That's just how they do - same applies to Definitive Edition and Red Dead Redemption 1.
In other cases it's just price - I managed to get Control: Ultimate Edition at a stupidly cheap price on Series X which also gives you crossgen One version too, and it took a long time for the PS5 version to get close to what I paid - £10.49 in 2021 apparently. There's not as much in Control: UE between the two consoles and in fact I think the Series X suffers a bit in places where the PS5 doesn't, but money talks eh?
Re: Sounds Like Sony's Next State of Play Livestream Isn't Far Away
"It also sounds like the usual Nintendo Direct in February will also be a thing." Way to be low-key derogatory of Nintendo there, Liam 😛
If the article is anything to go by, it makes me wonder if we're going to be seeing another empty-handed Sony with very few finished first party titles to show, including for the already wilting on the vine PSVR2 which is plagued by a dearth of games. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise us.
What I'm most intrigued about seeing is if the State of Play will give us a different attitude and tone from the Ryan year ones. Are we going to see a direction that makes Sony a bit more gamer friendly again, listening and responding to the fanbase and acting on it rather than telling them what they're getting being the only setting? Criticise the Layden and Ken/Kaz years all you like but at least there was a bit more harmony between platform provider and console gamer. Never too late to get it back and make that Xbox gap even wider...
Re: New PS5 Slim Faceplates Spotted at CES
@HotGoomba Yup, Slim Disc is a bit more fugly than original because you can't make the Blu-ray drive physically that much smaller; I can't see Sony releasing games on GameCube sized Discs, can you? 😂
I still think it's a bit rich that the metal vert stand is a paid for extra compared to the two-way stand provided with the original models; cheap plastic sure, but it did the job just fine so they've managed to make an already crappy design decision (needing a stand in the first place) worse. But that is 2023 Sony all over.
Re: New PS5 Slim Faceplates Spotted at CES
Anyone notice they did that red/white/blue thing in 2011 with the PS3 Slims? Seems appropriate that they're doing it again with the PS5 Slims 12 years later; I still have a blue DualShock 3 from back then and it still lasts 20-30 hours on the original battery.
A Sony that respects their heritage a bit more, really? Guess JR being shown the door is already giving us minor improvements if this is anything to go by.
Knowing Sony, they won't release any of those colours for the original style PS5s, which is a shame as blue is my favourite colour and their rendition of Cobalt Blue is nice if a bit too white (could be stage lighting though). I still think they really dropped the ball on custom colours though; companies like dbrand really ate their lunch on stuff like that.
Re: There Are More People Playing PS5, PS4 Than Ever Before
@ecurb7 Not sure how you can criticise stuff that's just my opinion; it's so clearly worded as such I'm a bit miffed that anyone could think it was anything different 🤷🏻♂️🙄😂
I'm taking about general UI behaviour not specific stuff like syncing trophies, which to be fair if you do regularly doesn't take long (it's not a background process like PS4/5 because it was a "tacked on later" feature introduced to compete with Xbox Achievements, but you knew that, right? PS3 wasn't built with that as an integral feature). Original Phat PS3s with OS stored on flash NAND are actually pretty quick, more so if you replace HDD with SSD, the damn things fly. Later ones stored the OS on HDD and that hit performance a bit. Have you tried PS3s in various configs to see which ones are faster?
Not trying to be "deliberately contrary to try to get attention" again **just stating a preference**. If it's contrary so what, would be boring if everyone thought the same. It's like you're being po-faced and suggesting I'm trashing things for no reason. I've been a PS gamer since about '96 myself, still own three PS3s, a PS5, a PSP, a Vita, a modded Phat PS2 etc etc. So what, don't see how lifetime membership factors into rightness when talking about one's opinion. You can explain the train of thought behind that if you like, because I don't see the sense in it.
"trying to claim in 2023 that PS3 is better than PS4 or PS5 is really pushing it" - again better here is a relative term, I'm not wrong because I **prefer** an older console am I... unless you're suggesting you're so intolerant you're telling someone their opinion is wrong? Say it ain't so.
"Time to stop living in the past!" Riiiight. That must be it. 🙄 Even though the original thing I wrote mentions having a PS5, yeah? Which gets used several times a month. I could turn to you based on the tone of what you wrote and say, time to be a bit more tolerant and not see someone else's opinion as a slight on something you like, or as a personal attack when it wasn't addressed at you?
I just think the PS3 has the better library; most of the stuff I enjoy on the PS5 beyond newer titles like Returnal and Lies Of P (one of the greatest Soulslike games I've ever played that came out in 2023...) is the better PS4 stuff which is actually tolerable to play on a PS5 because the fans don't go nuts and spin at volumes loud enough to drown out the games, that sort of thing.
"I've been a playstation gamer since PS1, and there's no way I'd go back to the pre-PS4/5 eras"
Hey there Jim Ryan 👋🏻
Seriously though, that's your prerogative, and I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, like you've told me I'm wrong.
There's some games that never got ported across (either as a classic or a remaster), and some games that are just flat out better to play on older consoles for nostalgia and other reasons - for example GTA San Andreas as an original PS2 with the original soundtrack and heat haze effect intact rather than the trashed Definitive Edition versions which are an insult to the GTA 3D era.
Another cult favourite that springs to mind that never got out of the X360/PS3 editions is Lollipop Chainsaw, a hilarious and ridiculous zombie slasher game which is pure stupid fun and actually pretty tough in some places. Also the aforementioned Gran Turismo 6 - you can either play that on a PS3 (cheap) or a PC emulator (expensive if you want decent upscaling with performance) so it's obvious which I'd choose and a lot of people would. I suppose that applies to Metal Gear Solid 4 too, there's bunches of titles. And I'd definitely rather play the original HD collection remaster/ports of MGS2/3 than pay Konami for crappier versions of the same on PS4/5, stuff like that. Tons of good reasons to keep the old hardware around; if you don't see that, fine, but you don't get the right to criticise anyone who loves their PS3s more than their PS4s and PS5s, do you...
Re: Little Nightmares: Enhanced Edition Will Creep onto PS5, According to ESRB
@Kaiten_the_Hero Quite.
Re: There Are More People Playing PS5, PS4 Than Ever Before
I'm still playing and enjoying my PS3 more, to be honest. Even when it bothers me that PS2 games without ports don't have trophies. I think there's still between 1 and 2 million active users on the PS3 side, so although $ONY might not care about the PS3 any more, plenty of gamers do, especially for games that never got ports, or only got ones that were bad.
Never liked the PS4; boring design (physical console and UI), noisy under load, needed an SSD to bring it alive really otherwise everything was sluggish. I tried the original, Slim and Pro, never could keep them. Shame as some of the games were decent - inFAMOUS: Second Son is great even years later (I don't care how many Gen Zoomers describe it as "mid", a word I'm coming to hate as much as "based" for a representation of how crappy modern slang is - I prefer the 90s surfer whoah dude stuff, Bill & Ted style)
What amazes me is I bought Gran Turismo 7 recently on the PS5 and yep the graphics are better, but the UI and career progression were so kiddy table and lame (I hate the whole "chat heads" thing) I went back to Gran Turismo 6 where both the gameplay and the menu system is tolerable, despite 1080i plus screen tearing being the highest res on that game, even with a slightly overclocked RSX. It's just more fun, and graphics always take a backseat (literally) to raw gameplay goodness.
Re: PS5's UK Sales End 2023 Down by 19%, But Still the Leading Console
I got an as new, never booted, fresh in box PS5 for £300 and a Series X in excellent condition unboxed for £180, so I paid £480 for both consoles.
Re: Tomb Raider Trilogy Remaster Has 'Plenty More to Share' as Fans Question Lack of Gameplay
@Craigybear91 Not in cases where the port looks barely any different from the original, and/or has bugs and flaws the original did not due to how bad the port is.
Re: Tomb Raider Trilogy Remaster Has 'Plenty More to Share' as Fans Question Lack of Gameplay
@Vladspartan Or do what I did and buy a backwards compatible PS3 so you can play the original HD remasters from PS2/PS1 titles where actual effort was involved, or original PS2/PS1 titles in cases where they don't exist.
Re: Tomb Raider Trilogy Remaster Has 'Plenty More to Share' as Fans Question Lack of Gameplay
It's probably a lazy port with AI upscaling performed at minimal expense to fleece fickle fans. That's what big publishers and game devs do these days, right?
Re: Little Nightmares: Enhanced Edition Will Creep onto PS5, According to ESRB
In your opinion it is, in mine it isn't. I'm aware of that form of doing it; if so it should be "will creep" not "Will Creep" for example, otherwise you're mixing Proper Title Case with only proper noun title case, for example. It's poor form/style even for a quick article, for those who care about quality of writing.
Re: Little Nightmares: Enhanced Edition Will Creep onto PS5, According to ESRB
"Little Nightmares: Enhanced Edition Will Creep onto PS5, According to ESRB"
Jesus. Either title case the whole thing or don't; the way this is Written makes It Very hard to Read because It's Randomly jumping Between the Two.
Re: Analysts Peg PS5's 2023 Sales at Around 22.5 Million Units Worldwide
It's one of those situations where success doesn't mean quality.
Yeah the PS5 is the most successful but it's not really because Sony had a great year of games releases. Almost feels like they tried to delude us on that by deluging with hardware - PSVR2 (niche, no backwards compatibility with PSVR1 even though the console can play PS4 games, go figure), those Pulse wireless earphones that fall out of your ear, PlayStation Portal (stutters and even scalpers can shift them - I've been keeping an eye on Marketplace and it's hilarious watching them all compete to price cut each other. "IN HAND" indeed, where it'll stay). And finally the Slim redesign, where they've managed to make the cheapness of the original even cheaper and the ugly design even uglier. The Disc Slim looks like it has a giant hump size tumour because you can't change the size of Blu-rays. Still, dumb people lap that s**t up because newest means best and better, right? Nope the Slim is functionally the same as the 1200 series Phat models, no die shrink on the APU, slightly more SSD space (like that matters when they all share an M.2 slot). Sony knows some of it's customers are dumb, hence seeing what they can get away with as they're lazily out in front.
What makes me laugh is a lot of the game "releases" from big studios this year and last are the same that I can literally play on my 17 year old launch Japanese PS3 because they're ported - Red Dead Redemption, The Last Of Us, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and probably others. The game industry as a whole is lazy and stagnant, in fact the whole tech sphere looks that way to me because even smartphones now all they do is make the cameras bigger and uglier too, because that's how optics work and you can't get good pictures without enough glass.
There's been a few outliers and exceptions though - Lies Of P is great but even still, it's a cross platform game that PS4 owners can get so it's not special and exclusive. And PS4 owners can put it in whatever folder they choose 😂 on the "flagship" console we don't have that "luxury".
Funny thing is, I remember when the PS3 came out it was roundly lambasted for having a poor launch lineup compared to 360 and Wii, but you look back now and there were some absolute bangers like Ridge Racer 7, Resistance: Fall Of Man, MotorStorm etc, still titles I love and in the case of RR7 play to this day. The quality bar was much higher in the mid 2000s, and although I hated the UI and noise of the PS4s (yep, I've had all of them and even the Slim makes a racket when it's been on a few hours) and find the PS5 better, I still prefer the PS3 and use it way more. Gran Turismo 6 is still my favourite because hey, look at that, even though in 2018 they switched the servers off the entire game continues to function. Oh and if you wanna skip the grind and just gift yourself lots of credits to buy halo cars, custom firmware lets you do that.
Anyway, here we are ending year 3 since release and starting year 4, Spider-Man 2 is one of the few tentpole Sony exclusives, it's all a bit disappointing. In previous generations it'll be full speed ahead now and we'd have so many exclusive bangers we would have a half dozen games in backlog for Sony first party alone. Instead it's more a limp to the barn.
Let's hope new leadership shakes it up in 2024.
Re: Stare Wistfully at The Last of Us Online PS5 Multiplayer Menu Screen
Wait, is this trying to breed wistful nostalgia for something that never even released?
Don't worry, a data leak in future will produce a playable beta or alpha version, like what happened with the original Duke Nukem Forever incomplete build circa 2001, or the Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye or that early playtest footage of GTA VI or so on... all hackers need to know is that something exists, and they'll go after it.
Re: Game of the Year: Ken's Top 5 PS5, PS4 Games of 2023
@kendomustdie I know right? That's such a nice touch. Geralt and Pinocchio have the same problem - cats hate them 😂
Re: Game of the Year: Ken's Top 5 PS5, PS4 Games of 2023
I was gonna say if it doesn't have Lies Of P it's a bad list, but it does so Ken is safe!
I actually think it's better than Bloodborne in many ways, the longer I play it. Certainly the fact it runs at 60FPS with no frame pacing stutters helps I'm sure, even though there is some LoD popping every now and then on the PS5 version (a worthy tradeoff). Some of the bosses you fight are scarier than the Eldritch lumps of horror in that, maybe because it feeds into the fear of automatons and clowns a lot of people have. There's a mini boss fight with Survivor which is basically a sword fight and it's brilliant - better than any Hunter duel. Bloodborne wins on level design though because Lies Of P is clearly drawn on a grid, it's too linear and square like as pointed out in Joseph Anderson's YouTube critique.
Music in the Hotel Krat section continues to play in my head after I've stopped playing the game...
Re: The Last of Us' Cancelled PS5 Multiplayer Was 'More Fun' Than Any Other Online Game
To summarise what the DF boys said in yesterday's Direct, what happened to games just having multiplayer built in at launch that isn't monthly sub monetised? Letting that drive sales rather than games as a service nonsense if you will. Seems a lot of devs have forgotten you can do that.
Fortnite has a lot to answer for because it's inadvertently driven the GaaS business model. I certainly think it's responsible for Minaj being in CoD - I personally find her fake plastic hideous but if CoD players find her attractive then it makes me hate the franchise even more 😂
Re: Former The Day Before Dev Dishes on Chaotic Studio Situation
Noclip should make a documentary about this. And it should be something new studios watch to know what to avoid.
Having said that, it seems like a pretty clear cut case of bad leadership. Perhaps part of the reason Jim Ryan "left" Sony recently.
Re: Kratos Voice Actor Underfire for Roasting New Call of Duty Campaign
He's right though, isn't he. Year on year the CoD campaigns get shorter and shorter, and I'm convinced only get "made" (read: recycled) as a way to tutoralise new players or returning ones who might not have bought a new title for the past few years. That's it. It actually reminds me of the super short tutorial missions in the original Counter-Strike at this point, but at least those were more obviously just brief tutorials to prime you for online competitive play modes, which weren't commonly known to all players at the time like they are 2 decades or more later.
It's not exactly a well-kept secret if you know the games industry, and it's kinda refreshing for a somewhat high profile voice actor within it to call it out with a joke at an event.
Also draws attention to an increasing social problem especially online - people's inability to take a joke, and react to it in the most po-faced defensive way possible rather than simply acknowledge someone might have been indulging in the dying art of tongue-in-cheek humour. However, Infinity Ward staff reacting like that inadvertently proves his point, because most jokes have a grain of truth so it hit home.
Re: Review: PS Access Controller - An Innovative But Expensive Game Changer
@sanderson72 obviously you never played games like Returnal and Astro's Playroom where you can feel the increased nuances of the newer haptics as compared to the DS4 which was about the same as the DS3 and back. Not every game uses them deftly which is a shame but then without cross platform support features like that do get neglected.
I disagree that the DS4 is a better controller. Same disappointing battery life as the DualSense, a bit less likely to stick drift, but overall not as well thought out a controller. I think both of them lose to the DualShock 3 though. Best controller Sony ever made, my thumbs don't slide off the sticks as much, the battery life is amazing, never seen one contract stick drift.
Re: Review: PS Access Controller - An Innovative But Expensive Game Changer
Oh wow. Sony finally released a new product this year with actual utility and value, not just a disappointing revision of an existing console, VR system that will gather dust and a Remote Play accessory with latency and stuttering issues.
The article is incredibly well-written, clear, honest. The sort of review we used to get lots of in the 90s and were spoilt by.
Although Microsoft beat them to it, and was the first thing I thought of when this was revealed, seems like Sony innovated after all. A win for accessibility.
As concerns the price, well, it's still cheaper for two of these than a DualSense Edge. And they have better battery life. People buy the Edge for better control, so you might say this is the Edge Accessibility Edition.
Re: Incredible PS1-Themed PS5 Console Spotted at Jim Ryan's Farewell Party
I don't think much of Jim's tenure so I'm glad he's left. Maybe they can get someone who actually cares about the games as least as much as profit, who will undo some of the damage he's done like closing down Japan Studio.
Since he'll never use the cool custom DualSense he's been given with the console, he'll never have to put up with it's poor battery life and tendency to contract stick drift. I seriously get better battery life out of my decade old DualShock 3 controllers, and those haven't developed drift despite being that old and used lots. Seriously, I use my PS3 more yet I only charge the main DS3 once or twice a month. The DualSense needs doing once or twice a week.
Re: Naughty Dog Drops Explosive The Last of Us 2 Remastered No Return PS5 Gameplay
@Th3solution Some might say, myself included, that the gripping narrative was explicitly contained within the first game, and if you removed the pretty decent gameplay from the sequel you'd be left with a pretty weak and at times stupidly nonsensical borderline painfully woke story that lacks the grace, elegence and relatability which the first had. Personally I think the first game has and will continue to stand the test of time, whereas the sequel is a product of its time. YMMV
Re: Naughty Dog Drops Explosive The Last of Us 2 Remastered No Return PS5 Gameplay
"Players will need to fight tooth and nail through a series of randomized encounters"
Tooth and Nail are new characters in the series? Is it like Rocksteady and Bebop from TMNT?
Re: Naughty Dog Drops Explosive The Last of Us 2 Remastered No Return PS5 Gameplay
"Naughty Dog Drops Explosive The Last of Us 2 Remastered No Return PS5 Gameplay"
This headline is so poorly worded that I genuinely thought our good friends over at the Dog had decided to call the game The Last Of Us: Part II Remastered: No Return which makes it sound more like a WWE Pay Per View event. Colon cancer indeed.
"Naughty Dog Drops Explosive Gameplay From New Roguelike Mode In The Last of Us 2: Remastered"
Better headline, partly because more people know what a Roguelike is than what the new No Return mode is, so you might even get more clicks. That is partly what you want, right? 🤔😂
Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues
@Kalime78 Oh I see, I was trying to have a sensible and civil debate about things like that and you're saying spurious things like "You're like someone saying 6 seater cars are just novelty to a family of 6". No buddy, actually that's nothing like what I'm saying, which you'd know if you'd actually read what I said properly, but that's fine I know I don't have to waste further time trying to politely converse with someone lacking in common sense. All the best.
Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues
@Kalime78 It should be clear from the way I worded it that I'm not trying to dismiss it, simply saying that you only really know something has staying power and is a good piece of tech if it keeps getting used outside the initial novelty.
I remember all the people I spoke to who raved about their new 3DTVs over a decade ago, saying they were watching everything with the shutter glasses on, most of them gave up doing that and used it like a regular TV after the novelty wore off. I remember my 1080p 55" Sony had 3D features and I kept forgetting they were there as I never needed them. Talking of 1080p TVs, if you have so many gamers in the household why not pick up a couple of cheap 1080p panels? I've been able to get a few for retro PS2/PS3 gaming as everyone is shifting them now they have 4K TVs and the price has been between £10-£30. Solves the problem.
Some things are fun to try enjoy briefly and then forget about (that's how I feel about VR) and some are genuine good innovations that live on, like analogue sticks have been since the 90s.
Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues
@Kalime78 The acid test is if it's still being used regularly in 6 months to a year, then you'll know if the Portal has staying power or it was just a novelty that wore off, as so many things are.
Re: First PS5 Pulse Earbuds Review Notes Worrying Design and Fit Issues
Sony really can't seem to release a good new product without some or other medium to major flaw(s) this year eh.
PSVR2 is a good product with (still) a poor library. They're turning up on the used market in quantities already, after Xmas you'll easily be able to get an as new barely used set for under 300 I'm sure.
PS Portal is a device solely for Remote Play. The same Remote Play with the same problems it's had for years. Lazy product that'll make a disappointing Xmas gift for millions of gamers. By January I expect the used market will be flooded with them.
New PS5 "Slim" redesign somehow manages to make the ugly original design even uglier, but hey now you can pay 30 for a seperate stand! The split matte/glossy panels are worse than on the launch PS4. Just pick one or the other. No die shrink on the APU so not significantly smaller either.
And now PS Pulse headphones, which are overpriced and won't apparently do much if anything better than a cheap set of wired ones. Wired ones that will probably be more comfortable, and won't be sending compressed and/or laggy audio to your eardrums a la Bluetooth.
The thing is, as Nintendo and Microsoft haven't released that much in the way of gaming hardware this year (the revised Series S in black with 1TB seems, to me, even lazier than the PS Portal), Sony still look better by comparison, don't they, even though they're releasing half-arsed products. They win by default. Yay.
Re: Despite Crap Reviews, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Boasts of Engagement Records
For so many people, gaming is CoD and FIFA (or FC as it is now). So their reference pool is going to be previous versions of those, and unless they were significantly bad or broken as compared to before, the ones who lap these games up aren't going to notice or care.
Re: Rediscovered Patent Suggests PS Portal Was In the Works Since at Least 2015
@dschons If the official RP app has been like that for ages, what makes you think they'll fix it just because they released a device specifically to use that app?