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Zell

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Posts posted by Zell

  1. Posted

    I played this for a couple of hours yesterday as my copy arrived early.

    Quick tip - I ran into control problems after I unlocked the first ability, I could not work it out and got into a pickle in the first shrine. Turns out that I had changed to the "pro" HUD which hides the control prompts. So you might want to stick to the normal HUD during the prologue area.

  2. Posted

    I'm using an Ikea Markus office chair, it is a very good chair for £150. It's comfortable, sturdy and has a professional look to it. The only negatives are that it doesn't have loads of features, for example the arm rests aren't adjustable.

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, MoogleViper said:

    This is one thing I'm unsure about. How far out will people move to/from? Currently considering places such as Watford, Rickmansworth etc. But are those (particularly Watford) the areas that people will be moving too or moving from?

     

    As for the stamp duty holiday, I'm hoping that means a small drop once that ends next month.

    I really don't know the answer, it's so hard to say what will happen. People still don't have a good idea of what kind of commuting/office commitments there will be and it's going to be different job to job, company to company. My company made an announcement about flexible working a month ago which got some positive press but so far there's no real details or any changes to our contracts. So I have no idea how often I'll be expected to work from an office.

    The risk is in moving to somewhere which is nicer and cheaper to live but not easily commutable to London. If it was say over a 1 hour for just the train journey, how often could you put up doing that in a week, and would you want to pay for that? Having said that, there were people before COVID who did these silly commutes 5 days a week.

    With places like Watford and Rickmansworth, I would guess people from the centre of London would be moving in at the same time as people are moving out to more rural areas but I'm a bit clueless really as to what will happen.

    Do you know what you're working situation will be like post lockdown, do you know if you'll be expected to be in the office 5 days a week?  

  4. Posted

    18 hours ago, MoogleViper said:

    What's everyone's thoughts on the future of property prices, particularly in and around London?

    With covid job losses, brexit job losses, more people going remote working and therefore able to live elsewhere, I keep expecting house prices to go down. But they seem to keep rising.

     

    I still don't understand how that can possibly be. The average salary and average house price don't match up.

    I bought a house a year ago (first time buyer) and I admit I did worry that COVID would cause house prices to collapse but the opposite happened. I now better understand some of the reasons for this:

    • Stamp duty holiday, record low lending rates, easily available mortgages (through a lot of government schemes) and of course demand outstripping supply all key forces at play here. If the cost of buying a house is cheaper for everyone, people will be able to afford more expensive houses at the same average salary
    • People are reassessing where they want to live in a post-COVID/ post-commute world - people now realise they no longer need to be tethered to London so there is an exodus out of London to smaller country towns. This is where house prices are rising the most I believe. In London house prices are rising at a much lower rate
    • It's also business that have been moving out of London (a trend that started before COVID) because places like Birmingham offer cheaper rents and workforce
    • People have a lot of pent up cash and a lot of it is going into property. This COVID recession is different from the previous one in that there is still a lot of cash being pumped into the economy only it's being pumped from different sources in different directions. COVID job losses aren't as bad as you might think because of the furlough scheme and there'll be a post-COVID bounce. As for Brexit, the impact on jobs has been negligible so far, I think the true impact of Brexit will be felt in the coming years

    I can only see house prices continue to rise unless there's a big unforeseen market crash, and no-one wants that. The ideal would be for house prices to stagnate or rise by very low amounts, i.e. below inflation so the wages start to catch up and house prices go down in real terms if not in nominal terms. 

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    For those interested in getting this on PS5, this has now been patched which looks to have resolved most of the previous issues. No need to double select things, framerate is much smoother and the game hasn't crashed on me. They've also added a quick save feature.

    I'm at the end of day 3 and still very much enjoying this.

    • Like 3

  6. Posted

    I'd strongly recommend going through a broker. They will give you independent advice and you will generally get a better rate than going directly to a bank. Some brokers will even have rates/offers that are not available to customers that go direct. 

  7. Posted

    Another key difference with the formation of the Premier League was that it had approval from the FA.

    English football was in dire straits in the late 80s. Crumbling stadiums, rampant hooliganism, poor public image, declining attendances, English clubs banned from Europe etc. It was felt that England was falling behind the likes of Italy and Spain and the big clubs advocated the new league to help rectify the situation. They also needed more money to improve stadiums following Hillsborough. At the time the Football League (different governing body to the FA) managed TV rights (ITV at the time) and distributed the income to all 92 clubs. The TV deal wasn't that lucrative and so as an independent body (the Premier League) they could negotiate a much better TV deal with Sky. The FA didn't like the Football League at the time so was happy to allow this to happen. They also felt that it would help English clubs compete in Europe and improve the game's image.

    So the formation of the Premier League at least had some other postulated benefits outside of enriching the bigger clubs. It was also essentially a reform of the football league system rather than a true breakaway like @killthenet has said.

    • Like 4
    • Thanks 2

  8. Posted

    1 hour ago, Cube said:

    Can someone explain the issue with this super League? All I can tell is that a bunch of clubs are planning on doing some extra matches between them, an I really don't understand the problem with that.

    On social media the theres loads of outrage, calling for bans, points reductions, now allowing any player (many of which will have contracts and no choice) to take part in the world cup and stuff like that...buy no actual reason. All stuff that would usually be called "cancel culture" for some subjects.

    There are calls about greed, but greed is pretty deeply rooted into football, especially FIFA (which is also full of corruption).

    Unless FIFA do something drastic, what exactly will change? These clubs will still be part of the league's, they'll just be in some additional matches that you don't have to watch. I can understand saying that you'll boycott the new league, I just don't understand the calls for punishing them.

    "These clubs will still be part of the league's" - that remains to be seen. Very real possibility that if these clubs go ahead with it without approval from their leagues / governing bodies then they will be kicked out.

    It's greed because what they are essentially doing is having all of the pie to themselves and not sharing. A European Super League would usurp the Champions League as the richest and most prestigious European club competition, the big teams will prioritise it over the rest. The way it is set up is so that the founding clubs have full control and split the money between themselves. The four Champions League spots in the EPL are fiercely contested and missing out means missing out of hundreds of millions of pounds. In the ESL, there'll be no relegation or threat of not qualifying so even if they do badly there's no loss of income.

    The premier league was created in somewhat similar circumstances. Previously the TV income would be distributed to all 92 clubs in the football league. The breakaway to form the premier league meant the top 20 clubs were independent of the football league and could make their own TV deals and split the money between just themselves. This has lead to a growing gap between the richest clubs and the rest in the last 30 years. The ESL will do a similar thing: make the richest clubs richer and let everyone else rot. Doesn't matter how they spin it, it just smacks of greed.

    It's also a slap in the face to fair competition. How can my club Oxford United enter the European Super League? Do we need to be bought by the state of Qatar or something to qualify?

    I am a football fan, but over the last ten years my interest in premier league football has diminished substantially. I just struggle to care anymore. I still follow my local team though, football may not be as good but at least it feels like I'm supporting a real club rather than some IPL franchise.

    • Like 7
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  9. Posted

    Got this on PS5 and have played it for a few hours.

    Word of warning of potential console buyers: make sure you are playing on decently sized TV and/or aren't far away from the screen as the text size is very small and there is a lot of reading. The game gives you the option to increase the text size, but this only affects the dialogue text and not the menu text. Should come as no surprise but this was designed as a PC game primarily and was designed to be played on a monitor - but you will be fine playing on a large TV.

    Controls are also fiddly. You use the right stick to cycle through interactable objects (a cursor would have worked better here) and often have to press the X button twice to actually interact with something: once to move your character into position and once again to actually interact. You do get used to this though and it's not as big of a deal as it seems as you spend the vast majority of game time locked in dialogue.

    One final warning: don't forget to manually save. I once played for about an hour and then died because I had just 1 point of morale and no healing items. 

    Have to say though, I am loving this game so far. The quality of the writing is excellent and I am becoming quickly absorbed in the world. I went with the default intellect build and have been trying to role play as a good detective so far. It will be interesting to start again as a different build and see how the experience changes.

    • Like 2
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  10. Posted

    On the subject of 3D Metroidvanias, the only game I've played recently that feels close is Bloodborne, although it doesn't fully commit to that concept. I don't really see games like Tomb Raider and God of War as being very Metroid-y at all really, they're much closer spiritually to RE4.

    There are a number of great 2D Metroidvanias on the market these days, although at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I don't think any of them quite eclipse Super Metroid.  

  11. Posted

    One of the reasons I got a PS5 was to upgrade of playing experience. I didn't get a PS4 Pro so going from a base PS4 to PS5 was a significant jump. I also bought a new TV to take advantage of 4K and HDR.

    I haven't actually played any "PS5" games yet apart from Astro's Playroom and Marquette. I've spent most of my time playing The Last of Us 2, RDR2 and Bloodborne. None of those of games currently have PS5 upgrades, but it was nice to play such pretty titles like The Last of Us 2 and RDR2 in (nearly) 4K, HDR (even if the HDR is broken in RDR2) and with a smooth performance.

    I was originally against getting a PS5 at launch if there weren't going to be any games out for it I cared about. But playing God of War last year on an original PS4 making the sound of a jet engine with those horrendous load times helped persuade me to make the jump. I figured that I will get a PS5 at some point anyway.   

  12. Posted

    3 hours ago, drahkon said:

    Maybe I'm missing something but I feel the game is more about limitations than freedom. There's so much to see/explore/do and yet, so far, there's so little time to actually do stuff. And that is with me completing palaces in a matter of 2 days.

    That is fundamental to the Persona experience though: not having enough time to do all you could/want to do. It's not like a typical JPRG or open world game where you have all the time in the world to do side stuff before you decide to progress the story. It's forcing you to prioritise and make sacrifices.

    While I understand that this certainly isn't to everyone's taste, I think going into Persona 5 with the wrong expectation of what the game is like can be detrimental to the experience. As a pure JRPG it can feel quite simple or limited compared to others, but the game is all part social sim and arguably visual novel. It's how all these elements interact with each other that really make the game greater than the sum of its parts.

    Having said that, if you are not feeling the plot or not invested in any of the characters, you're going to struggle to get much value out of the game.

    My advice on the first playthrough is to not worry about min-maxing everything or playing "optimally", because you just end up stressing yourself out. The game will cycle between dungeon/free time periods and plot-heavy periods and it's not always that predictable.

    • Like 3

  14. Posted

    @Hero-of-Time I'd argue that you haven't actually beaten the game. Just getting your first ending without going for the other endings (including the true ending which has more content) means that you've missed out on a quite a bit.

    I admit when I was on my first playthrough of the story I didn't get what the fuss was about, but it finally clicked with me and by the time I had got the true ending I was enthralled.

    Can understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me Undertale is one of the best indie games I've ever played and worthy of all the praise it gets.

    • Thanks 1

  18. Posted

    I think I'll be passing on this. I think enough has been said about the motion control issues, but looking past that I still feel this game has some glaring issues that bring down the overall experience. The game is incessantly padded with fetch quests and often has you revisiting the same areas multiple times rather than re-introducing new ones.

    I think there's a good game buried under some questionable design decisions. I know it would never happen, but I would like to see a remake/remaster where they fix some of pacing issues, streamline some of the travel, cut some of the needless repetition and delete Fi. It's a 40 hour game that really only needed to be about 20 hours long.

    Looking back, I also feel that the game suffers from the limitations of the Wii hardware. For example the sky in Skyward Sword is basically just a glorified level select and it feels completed disconnected from the rest of the game because of the loading screens. It's definitely a step back from the Great Sea in Wind Waker and even the likes of Hyrule/Termina Field. I imagine with more powerful hardware they could have created a seamless transition from sky to ground.

    Will be interesting to see peoples' opinions when this comes out, I'm unsure of how well this game will have aged in the last 10 years. Contemporary reviews were quite glowing if I remember correctly, but I never could myself agree with the perfect scores it received.  

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    This whole situation is so fascinating, when I first read about it I had a huge smile on my face. Won't somebody please think of the hedge fund managers!

    Whenever this sort of thing happens you can't help get that FOMO about it, but I've never really delved into share trading and I usually just invest in funds / unit trusts which have always given me a nice return.

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    44 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

    I kinda agree with the point that @Shorty was making off-forum when he said that the criticisms that are levelled at this game in a storytelling sense can only really be made in the first place because the game elevates itself to that level in the first place. 

      Story spoilers (Hide contents)

    To me, the decisions that the characters make were hugely flawed, but I think the purpose of this is to represent how humans/people make stupid decisions at numerous points in their lives or even do things that don't always make sense. From a storytelling perspective, it worked for me. I understood why Abby wanted her revenge and I even questioned Joel's decision in the first game at the time over whether or not he should have been seeking to rescue Ellie, along with the violence that went on in that hospital. I remember that this split a lot of people, who were questioning whether or not there would/should be repercussions from that moment, which this whole game serves as.

    I found that the narrative beats resonated with me and I did my best to roll with the game and the let the story play out from beginning to end before making final judgements. The take that I have with Ellie is that she made numerous stupid/bad decisions that could have been avoided. Going after Abby at the end was needless, despite that she ended up saving her life (in a roundabout way) by cutting her down from the pillars in the final portion. To me, the ending worked but the more poignant ending was the one back at the house where she can't play the guitar anymore, therefore severing one of her bonds/final connections that she made with Joel and the person she used to be. I think it's totally ok for characters to change like this over the course of a single game or over games themselves, as that shows development.

    I never once played Abby's part and thought of it as a B-plot or sidestory, but rather the story from another character's point of view. Throughout the first game, I did wonder what it would be like to see it from the Fireflies' perspective, and we are even told at points that Joel isn't the all-out good guy/hero that we think he is, as he has done some shady stuff in the past. So, for me, Abby's story worked. I do agree that Ellie becomes very dislikeable in this game, but that's the angle that they were trying to push and for me it paid off. There were little snippets here and there that shows that Ellie is redeemable, which I imagine is what the first game will focus on. If this is a story of revenge, I expect Part 3 to be a story of redemption. 

    Overall, I think there's so much to discuss with this game and the story isn't going to be one that pleases everyone. It's going to make people feel "something", which ultimately I think is fantastic. Art should do that, and imo this game is a masterpiece. I imagine that opinions will change on this and it will become more and more "accepted" as time passes. 

    Yeah, I'm only really criticising it in a way I wouldn't with other games because of what it attempts to achieve and because it is a heavily narrative driven experience. I completed the Resident Evil 2 remake before this and although it is a very good game it has a very silly story and makes The Last of Us 2's story look like There Will Be Blood, but it's a completely unfair comparison.

    I'm also being critical because I believe with a stronger narrative this game could have been truly great, but in the end it falls short. But I understand my experience will differ from someone else's. I've seen quite a few reviews/analysis etc now and its remarkable the range of opinions from a lot of reviewers I have respect for, and even for ones I personally disagree with it's very hard for me to say "you're wrong" when ultimately we are discussing the story like we would a novel or TV show. My opinion is that there's some good ideas that were just not executed particularly well.

    Spoiler

    I have heard the complaint from somewhere that the plot is essentially hate-filled people make irrational decisions, but I agree with with that it makes sense from a story telling perspective because they are flawed characters. E.g. it makes sense for Ellie to keep with her mission, even when it becomes increasingly irrational, violent and morally questionable, and that she start's prioritising that over her friends' wellbeing.

    The reason I said Abby's story was a B plot was because Ellie is still the main protagonist and her story is the one that needs closure. Ellie's story is the one we are invested in, not Abby's. Abby's story is ultimately giving the "villain" a backstory and I don't see it as the same story from a different perspective. We didn't need hours of backstory to explain why Abby wanted to kill Joel, it was pretty clear from the start. I was expecting the Abby's path to intersect with Ellie's a lot more but it doesn't at all until right at the end, it is mostly focused on Lev and Yara and the conflict between the 2 factions - this is all a side plot in the grand scheme of things. The only point of it in relation to Ellie's story is to humanise Abby, and they could have done this without spending hours upon hours of gameplay dedicated to her. Abby want's to avenge her father's death, got it. I did think that Lev and Yara were probably the 2 most developed and interesting side characters in the game though.

    One of other things I've seen discussed is the lack of player agency. I thought this game could have really benefited with giving the player some choice as to how they proceed and what actions to take, having multiple endings could have made the game very powerful. Instead we are essentially forced down the route of the story Naughty Dog wants to tell us. Often it felt I was not participating in the story, merely acting it out. Shorty mentioned there were times when he didn't press square to not die at certain points, I think I had some of those moments too. The one that stands out for me is when you play as Abby and fight Ellie. I did not like this part at all and it should have just been a cutscene. I have been playing as Ellie for most of the game, with the main goal ostensibly to kill Abby. So when I died as Abby fighting Ellie, my first thought was "well I guess I just beat the game then". It was just absurd really. If the player's actions have no impact on the story, then why is it a game at all and not a film or TV show. The Last of Us 1 didn't have a lot of player agency either, but in that game it at least felt like I was Joel and my actions were driving the plot: the aim of the game was to get to the Firefly base and the gameplay was part of that narrative (i.e. when I progressed through a hostile area, I was one step closer to my goal). In The Last of Us 2, the gameplay is usually getting the characters from point A to point B to get to the next plot event, at which point it acts out itself. It wasn't my choice to torture that woman in the hospital, so how can I as a player feel guilt or regret. 

    I think there could have been opportunities for your actions influencing story outcomes. For example you can stealth by each encounter without killing anyone. I couldn't help but think of Undertale here (what a game). What if you set out with the goal of just killing Abby and not anyone else (similar to how Abby and co only set out to kill Joel and no-one else), and the ending would have been different? Maybe a happy ending where both Ellie & Dina and Abby & Lev all live happily ever after. That could be contrasted with a sad ending (like the one we got) where choosing to be murderous and carrying out revenge would result in the death or alienation of the ones Ellie/Abby cared about. It would certainly make the message more powerful if it was specifically targeting us as a player.

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  21. Posted · Edited by Zell

    I've just completed the game, there's certainly a lot to unpack. Overall I enjoyed it, even if it did make me feel cold and miserable.

    My spoiler-free disorganised thoughts.

    What I liked:

    • The game is absolutely gorgeous, such a treat for the eyes. I played on PS5 and it looks stunning in HDR. Even at 30fps it is still one of the most visually impressive games I've played
    • The production values and attention to detail really are on another level. During my playthrough I noticed so many neat little touches that other games wouldn't even think about. Cut scenes, voice acting, character animations, direction, visual effects, gore, sound design, fluid controls... it all just adds up to a very immersive experience
    • Beyond the actual plot, they do a great job at world building, such as all the letters scattered about the city
    • I like the improvements to the core stealth-action gameplay. It feels way smoother than the original (I just remember it being kind stiff in places but it was a long time ago) but I love how they made all the "combat arenas" very open. In the first game you felt much more boxed in and the level design was pretty generic. Now you have multiple routes to take and a lot more freedom in how you approach each encounter. You can quietly shank everyone, or set mines everywhere, or bash people's stupid skulls in, or just ruin people with molotovs and a shotty. I would keep things refreshing by trying to change my loadout with each new encounter. Moment to moment gameplay felt satisfying and I never felt like I was fighting the controls
    • Like the first game it does a decent enough job of ramping the action up and down without being too predictable

    What they could have done better:

    • The parts between the missions can be a bit of a slog, borderline padding at times. Finding the next bit of the environment to climb starts getting old. If they make a 3rd game they need to think of more creative things to do between the combat bits
    • There's this open world-ish section at the beginning which I thought was interesting but never occurs again in the rest of the game. Just seemed a bit pointless really since it was so half-hearted. I was expecting the game to embrace this idea a bit more, as in between story points you have a navigate through the same open city and explore more places, but it just ended up being the same linear progression after that
    • While the moment to moment stealth-action is done very well, the game just seems to recycle the same few scenarios: fight a bunch of humans, or fight a bunch of zombies. There's not a lot of variety on offer. Some of the levels are well done (like the bit in the skyscraper) but overall the game stops surprising you and starts to run out of steam towards the end
    • The RPG upgrade system seems a bit unnecessary. The problem is related to the previous point: the enemies don't improve that much, nor do the encounters change. It feels as if you as a player get stronger (more weapons and deadly tools) but the enemies don't to a significant degree. While I like the freedom of choice with which weapons I use, you could very easily go through the game without using half of the gear
    • I played on Moderate difficulty, which was probably a tad too easy once I got into the groove of the gameplay. Even so, it did feel that the game was getting easier rather than harder the further I progressed, think they could have done a better job with ramping up the difficulty within the difficulty setting itself. My worry about playing on a higher difficulty was that I'd end up spending way to long foraging to equipment etc and it would drag the pace of the game down (my experience with the first game was that there was too much stuff between the plot events) 
    • Quick time events needs to bugger off. I am so sick of hammering the square button to open a door to prevent a zombie from biting my face. Just a massive pet peeve of mine

    I've gotten this far without talking about the story, so here goes...

    Spoiler

    Not sure if any of you will agree with me on any of this but here goes.

    I thought they botched it to be honest. I think the idea was good but the execution wasn't there. The message was simple enough (people are shitty, revenge is shitty and hurts people around you, the bad guys are people too with their own motivations etc) but it wasn't exactly subtle about it and you as a player realise this quite early on during Ellie's part. It then just keeps hammering home the point as if we're too stupid to get it. We then spend an unnecessarily long time playing as Abby in what is effectively a B plot, the only point being that we sympathise with her as a character.

    I guess Abby has somewhat of an arc, she starts out all shitty and regains some of her humanity by trying to help those kids. Its message is undermined though by all the murdering you do on the way. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a redemption story but it really didn't feel like it. Abby is pretty unlikeable, which is fine as long as they're interesting, but I don't really find her very interesting. I'm not sure why her companions have put up with her shit for so long.

    Ellie on the other hand is shitty from start to finish, there wasn't any arc. I was waiting for the moment where she realised how shitty she had become but it never happened. She also seems to have had a bit of a personality transplant from the first game - in that game she was the one who restored Joel's humanity and made him a better person. Going into this game I was already invested in Ellie as a character but by the end I found Ellie thoroughly dislikeable. Like I said earlier it's OK for a character to be unlikeable as long as they're interesting, but the resolution did nothing for Ellie's character. They either should have done the tragic downfall type arc (a la Michael Corleone in The Godfather) or a plot where she's realises that revenge is not worth it and gets real closure through a selfless act of some kind. They ended up doing some strange mix, and ultimately the resolution of the plot was not satisfying at all.

    The ending was a real missed opportunity in this regard, I really didn't like it. They could have done something like:

    • Ellie rescues Abby
    • Ellie doesn't kill Abby but asks why she killed Joel
    • Abby says Joel killed her dad
    • Ellie understands because Joel was like a dad to her. Ellie tells Abby that Joel killed to save her
    • Ellie asks Abby if killing Joel gave her closure, Abby says no it didn't and regrets being taken over by revenge, but found closure taking care of those kids
    • They don't forgive each other but go their separate ways as better people

    So it think the ideas were there but it just wasn't written very well.

    It did have its moments though, I thought it started out strong. Joel getting offed at the beginning worked well and does a good job of setting up the plot. For all my criticisms, I did want to keep playing to see what happened next. The flashbacks were well done, the bit with Joel and Ellie was good. It's a shame though how most of the endearing character moments came through flashbacks. Best character was the dog.

    After writing this, I feel like I'm being quite harsh on it. I am holding it to higher standards than I would with other games, but I feel that I need to be this harsh since a lot of people seem to tout this as the pinnacle of video game story telling, when I can think of other games that have far better executed stories.

    So yeah, I'm quite conflicted really. I would still highly recommend it as the things it does well it does better than any other game out there.

    • Like 4

  22. Posted

    The original Perfect Dark was ahead of its time.

    I'll be honest it's hard to imagine a new game capturing the same feel as the original since FPSs have moved on so much since. All I really want from a new FPS is something that gives it a unique identity, thinking about games like Titanfall 2 (and Apex), Doom, Halo etc, as opposed to another COD knock-off. 

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    18 hours ago, Zell said:

    Got an email from Hermes saying they had received my PS5, it's with the courier and will be delivered today. Six minutes later I get another email from Hermes saying they won't be able to deliver today. :blank:

    Well in the end the guy showed up with my PS5 at half 9 last night. Bloke looked a bit disgruntled and after he left I noticed the box had been dropped in what looked like cat poo. Not exactly 5 star service but at least I have my PS5.

    Managed to set up my PS5, move everything across and play about 15 minutes of Astro.

    Initial impressions:

    • The console is mega chonks
    • The Dual Sense is a great step up from the DS4. You could tell just from picking it up for the first time that it felt premium and a good built quality, something I've never felt about any of the incarnations of Dual Shock
    • The haptic feedback is excellent, feels even better than the Switch's HD rumble and that's no knock on the HD rumble at all. Perhaps it's just that Astro makes such good use of it that is really highlights its capability
    • I'm not so fond of how the controller's speaker is used in Astro. I get what they were trying to do (combine the rumble with the speaker sound) but the problem with a controller speaker is the audio quality is always going to be worse than what comes out of the TV
    • Really impressed with the technology in the triggers. Ironically since I'm not used to it yet its a bit immersion breaking since every time it's used in Astro I remember that I'm holding a controller. But I can see how amazing it could be in shooters and racing games where it's used a bit more subtly. The cynic in me is saying that it will lazily be used in QTEs (I'm imagining the next God of War game a QTE scenario where instead of hammering X to lift a boulder you will be using the triggers)  
    • Moving over the my stuff from PS4 was surprisingly quick
    • UI is nice and simple, feels way smoother/quicker than PS4

    Looking forward to the end of today so I get to play it more over the weekend.

  25. Posted

    I made the mistake of only pre-ordering the console and not the accessories, it seems as if the headset and the charging station are out of stock everywhere. I can certainly live without the charging station but would like the headset at some point. I'm hoping they improve the microphone over the newer version of the PS4 Gold headset, was disappointed to find out it was a step down from the original.

    • Like 1
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