Sheikah

The Steam Deck is pretty crud though. Someone has to say it. I remember playing it for a good hour or so at EGX one year; I played a fair bit of Elden Ring and wondered why anyone would ever want to play it that way. Honestly, for a game of that quality it doesn't do it justice. It did not run well at all when I tried it, regardless of settings. And the stick and buttons felt very uncomfortable/difficult, especially for the kind of game that Elden Ring is which requires you to quickly roll and circle round enemies while poking. Fair enough, if you're travelling or away from home then the Steam Deck has a use, but you're kidding if you think most people will want to play that way, especially when most play at home where they can use their TV. It's also uncomfortably heavy to use for long periods. And I think you know it's not the magic bullet you're presenting it as - since the deck clearly hasn't replaced the PS5 like you're suggesting. It's a niche product. Also if Steam Deck 2 provides a boost then so will PS5 Pro/PS6, so it'll always be behind. You can't expect a small-ish handheld that has to compromise to match the power of a full size console. And "works out of the box". Ca'maaan, no it doesn't. Since it's underpowered you often need to tinker with settings for individual games to get decent performance. The only things that work out of the box are consoles.

To be honest it doesn't matter if a company will simplify the PC building process somewhat, assembling a PC for your average gamer is not easy and so most will not do it. It's also more expensive than a console and many people want to play PlayStation games that aren't on PC or at least not at launch. There are just too many reasons why consoles will continue to lead in terms of your average gamer.

Building a PC isn't easy for your average person, let's not kid about. Not even 10% of gamers will be building a PC, it does require research into what parts you need and how to put them together. Put it this way - you can spend maybe £500 and buy the PS5 Pro and just plug it into your TV and it works. Or you can faff about buying parts and put them together, and let's be honest it will be a lot more than £500 if you want considerably better performance than the PS5 Pro. What do you think your average gamer will pick?

I built a gaming PC about 10 years ago for the purpose of gaming on TV and it was all a bit of a faff. For starters, forget using a keyboard and mouse on a sofa - it's not comfortable. So you're basically dependent on a controller set up. The main issue though was that a lot of PC games are not optimised for playing on TV from a distance. The amount of times text or UI elements were too small, it ruined playing a lot of games for me.

The majority will never take to PC as their main gaming platform. Expensive, inconsistent and not well suited to being used on a TV - which is important for many. Those who say it's superior to console are looking at a spec sheet and not the practicalities of modern life.

Whatever the situation, his anus knows who's going next.

At the rate you complete them you could drop them on eBay for all your money back, haha.

It sounds as though if you did want to just jump into DD2 you wouldn't be missing anything story wise, in case you did want to do that. But the first game is still extremely playable today.

Really happy this is reviewing well and sounds like it doesn't lose what made the first one so special.

But look at how well the PSVR2 did...they've discontinued production because units are piling up. They must surely realise that people aren't in the mood to be spending so much at this time. They need to get the sweet spot right where enough people will buy it.

Almost certainly the PS5 base model will be officially reduced in price soon, so I wouldn't go adding £100 onto the current RRP. The base model is already unofficially reduced - being sold for £389 just this/last week on Amazon and reduced at many other places too. I think the PS5 Pro will be £529 to £549 at most or thereabouts. Don't think they will go to £579 or £599 though, that would be just too much and put people off.

I thought a 45% boost is bigger than PS4 Pro was, no? I do think the PS4 Pro was much more necessary though, given how weak the base console was even at launch. I think it'll be interesting if all console rumours come true - i.e. the PS5 Pro and revised Xbox models. You'd have thought Xbox would release a Pro model too - I don't think it'll go down well if they're just launching discless models with no other upgrades.

Yeah, that, and you can play it anywhere. I know you can take the Switch anywhere but I already take my mobile everywhere and the battery lasts much longer, so there's that.

I'll be waiting for the mobile versions - seems like it will be the perfect fit.