Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Ronnie]

How about not putting an even worse battery in a product that costs over £200? If it's impossible to include a physically larger battery (which I doubt), then there's a flaw in their design somewhere. The Switch controller and the thing that inspired the Edge, the Xbox Elite, both last 40 hours. Feels like the Dualsense struggles with 4.

[Dcubed]

10 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

How about not putting an even worse battery in a product that costs over £200? If it's impossible to include a physically larger battery (which I doubt), then there's a flaw in their design somewhere. The Switch controller and the thing that inspired the Edge, the Xbox Elite, both last 40 hours. Feels like the Dualsense struggles with 4.

They're probably just using the same battery as in the Dualsense.  They wouldn't be able to fit a physically larger battery in there unless they completely redesigned the internals (which is probably out-of-scope for this kind of project).

The Dualsense (and the DS4 while I'm at it), were just poorly designed controllers from the get-go.  They're way too battery hungry for the features that they offer.  Then again, Playstation devices in general have never been particularily well designed as far as power consumption goes anyway.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Dcubed

[Ashley]

Yeah I doubt they put in a worse battery, but rather they're asking the same battery to do even more and thus it runs out more quickly. 

It sucks, but I very much doubt they thought "well let's make this part worse". 

[Julius]

19 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The Verge has some hands on impressions with the new controller.

https://www.theverge.com/23517805/sony-dualsense-edge-hands-on-preview-price

As expected, the battery life will be worse than a standard controller. Worrying when you consider the standard controller doesn't exactly have a long battery life to begin with.

The battery life not being up to snuff is a deal-breaker for me unfortunately, at least when it comes to picking one up at launch. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to finally having a first party premier controller for PlayStation!

The battery life of their controllers for me is one of my few hangups with the PlayStation ecosystem these days, and has been for a while; I remember going into this gen really wanting more than we got with the DS4, and at best we got something comparable, and at worse something, well, worse (YMMV and all that). These days, for heavy gaming sessions, I've got three controllers in rotation on my charging stand to keep me going, but honestly I'd love if I could get away with having just one (I'm also one of those that adores the haptics so turning that feature off in most cases just isn't going to happen). I barely use my Switch these days, but when I do, knowing I can handily get through some 30-40 hours of some gigantic game on one charge brings me some peace of mind, whereas last month the day before Ragnarök released, I had to double check all my controllers were charged and so on for a behemoth of a gaming session. 

I can't help but wonder if there are ways around this that they're either not looking for or perhaps are simply ignoring for the sake of their bottom line (or because they simply don't care). @Dcubed you mention the physical size of the controller itself needing to be comparable to the base DualSense and thus there's no space for a bigger battery, but considering how this is a customisable controller with a bunch of modular components, why not just release a (probably separate) battery expansion pack that we can plug in and clip on for some extra juice? If this were Nintendo or Xbox I'd maybe give them a pass considering hardware isn't really their sole focus or within the realm of their pedigree, but despite PlayStation being their bread and butter these days, Sony has always been a consumer electronics company at heart – why not put that to use? 

Also, I agree with @Ashley, it's probably the same battery as the DualSense (for some silly reason) and so with more features comes more energy use. Which, well, just kind of sucks. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by Julius

[Sheikah]

Battery capacity is entirely limited to the physical size of the battery.
The only way to include a “better” battery is to include a physically larger battery, and that would probably have been impossible without increasing the physical size of the controller.

Is that really the case though, you would think they'd be able to create efficiencies by optimising the internal design of the controller to free up space. These things are rarely designed in the most optimal way first time round. A slightly better battery wouldn't be that much bigger.

[Dcubed]

3 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

Is that really the case though, you would think they'd be able to create efficiencies by optimising the internal design of the controller to free up space. These things are rarely designed in the most optimal way first time round. A slightly better battery wouldn't be that much bigger.

Of course that would be possible, but it would require significant re-engineering from the ground-up with how the controller PCB works... which would probably be out-of-scope for a niche product like this (especially for the same console as the existing Dual Sense).

[Ike]

I don't see what feature they've added that would even increase the battery usage so moderately.

[Sheikah]

Of course that would be possible, but it would require significant re-engineering from the ground-up with how the controller PCB works... which would probably be out-of-scope for a niche product like this (especially for the same console as the existing Dual Sense).

For £210 you should expect the most minor level of revision to accommodate a bigger battery. They have already incorporated several extra parts that take up internal space (e.g. the paddles) which aren't on the standard controller.

[drahkon]

17 hours ago, drahkon said:

This little guy keeps me going. Gotta make him happy  

For a while, I gotta do a few suicide runs. 
This is where the way the story progresses falls flat. Not to brag, but I had 22 consecutive successful runs and I barely made progress with the epilogue. 

Gonna just die over and over again a couple of times to increase the bond with the Olympians.  

[Hero-of-Time]

11 minutes ago, drahkon said:

For a while, I gotta do a few suicide runs. 
This is where the way the story progresses falls flat. Not to brag, but I had 22 consecutive successful runs and I barely made progress with the epilogue. 

Gonna just die over and over again a couple of times to increase the bond with the Olympians.  

Yeah, I had to do the same. It's a massive design flaw in the game. The amount of suicide runs I had to do in order to unlock the correct dialogue was ridiculous. Going through a run to find out that the right person wasn't there or the dialogue option wasn't correct was quite draining.

[bob]

Look at these two motherfuckers complaining that they are too good at the game to progress the story.

 

I had no problem progressing the story guys! It was a piece of piss! I didn't even have to try to die enough times in a row to unlock the right dialogue!

[drahkon]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Going through a run to find out that the right person wasn't there or the dialogue option wasn't correct was quite draining.

Indeed.
It's simple for the Olympian gods thanks to the keepsakes. However, I now have reached the point where I need them to give me a "quest" so I can eventually give them Ambrosia...no one has done so, yet.  

[drahkon]

23 hours ago, drahkon said:

However, I now have reached the point where I need them to give me a "quest" so I can eventually give them Ambrosia...no one has done so, yet.  

Wow, I was able to give Ambrosia to ONE Olympian after about 50 suicide and a few successful runs. 

This Platinum hunt has revealed so many flaws...endgame is unnecessary, you unlock the summons way too late (still only have two), the randomness of progression is awful, there is very little variance (boons don't change the gameplay much, if at all, making the game incredibly repetitive) and having to unlock more Heat instead of being able to immediately crank it up to the max is soooooo dumb.

Sadly, I'm now pretty invested in the trophy hunt so giving up is out of the question  

Edited December 22, 2022 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

Really nice interview with Shu. He talks about his experience working for the PS brand all these years, curating and help indies on the PlayStation platforms and what his favourite games and platinum trophies are.  

[EEVILMURRAY]

I'm unsure how I feel about the PS5, the wife has just bought me one for Christmas and I'm mixed about it, whilst next gen stuff is nice, it isn't something I ever thought about getting, and the price I think is too much at the moment.

 

[bob]

I'm unsure how I feel about the PS5, the wife has just bought me one for Christmas and I'm mixed about it, whilst next gen stuff is nice, it isn't something I ever thought about getting, and the price I think is too much at the moment.
 

Did she keep the receipt?

[EEVILMURRAY]

11 hours ago, bob said:

12 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

I'm unsure how I feel about the PS5, the wife has just bought me one for Christmas and I'm mixed about it, whilst next gen stuff is nice, it isn't something I ever thought about getting, and the price I think is too much at the moment.
 

Did she keep the receipt?

I'm sure she has, I haven't broached the subject yet.

Decided to just bollocks with it and enjoy it, invested in thrice games from the Amazon, so should keep going for awhile

Edited December 26, 2022 by EEVILMURRAY

[drahkon]

Been playing Crown Trick for a while now.

It ticks all the right boxes for me. It's a rogue-lite Gameplay is very strategic. Here's a quote from the game's Steam page which describes it quite nicely:

Quote

The game moves as you move, and your enemies will stand still until you decide what’s the best way to attack. Take however long you need to map out your route, decide the best way to avoid traps, or how to use the elements to your advantage.

At first I was too reckless, getting my ass kicked at every turn. Now (while still too reckless at times) I take a bit more time to actually plan some moves. And what a surprise...I've beaten a few runs.

Love all the stats the game throws at you:

Oh no...it's a gacha game?

No need to panic, it's just ingame money

I'm not proud of the amount of gold I've lost to this hell-machine

And here's a helpful tip:

Thanks.

Edited December 29, 2022 by drahkon

[Julius]

Some interesting news coming out of CES. 

Firstly, the PS5 has passed the 30 million mark in total units shipped:

I think they were at 20 million for their EOY financials in May 2022? [EDIT: checked my own post earlier on this thread – they were at 21.7 million at the end of June/FYQ1] So that's kind of nuts and shows demand and supply are finally getting to a sustained point. 

Anyways, much more interesting to me is the announcement of Project Leonardo, PlayStation's own customisable accessibility controller:

It's about damn time. They've set the bar for in-game accessibility across their first party titles as of late, but especially in their titles from Naughty Dog, and so it's about time that they caught up on the hardware front. I don't say that to sound impatient, I recognise these things take time and a lot of R&D, but well...finally. 

I'll be honest, to me it isn't immediately obvious from its design just how functional a design it actually is (to be even more honest, it kind of reminds me of a Bop-It–esque family reaction game), but I trust Sony and their accessibility partners to have got this right. Really looking forward to seeing some reactions from the community looking for a controller like this as we've seen with Xbox's, those videos always put a smile on my face! 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Julius

[Ashley]

Yeah give Microsoft it's due, they have been well ahead of the curve when it comes to accessible hardware (and not just on the Xbox) but it's a shame that they are thus far the standout. It's good to see Sony stepping up too. 

According to a blog post by Sony they've worked with AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up so the design does seem a bit odd but I'm sure there's a reason for it. I do like it though, a lot of tech tends to end up looking the same (controllers included) so it's good to see something different. 

[Dcubed]

Good stuff.  Nice to see Sony finally come out with their own take on the Adaptive Controller.

Right Nintendo, your turn now.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Dcubed

[drahkon]

7 hours ago, Julius said:

Really looking forward to seeing some reactions from the community looking for a controller like this as we've seen with Xbox's, those videos always put a smile on my face! 

But what if the controller sucks and they all hate it

In all seriousness, this is awesome. The more options there are for gamers with disabilities, the better. Nintendo better step up.

Coincidentally I've started playing Far Cry 6 a few minutes ago and the very first time you reach the main menu you get greeted with accessibility settings and - amazingly - audio-description is turned on automatically. It makes so much sense, why isn't this a thing for every game?
I wonder how people who don't see very well (or at all) start games if they don't know where they are in the menus.

7 hours ago, Julius said:

They've set the bar for in-game accessibility across their first party titles as of late,

Indeed. It's been awesome when accessibility settings even get their own videos before release

 

[Sheikah]

9 hours ago, Julius said:

Some interesting news coming out of CES. 

Firstly, the PS5 has passed the 30 million mark in total units shipped:

I think they were at 20 million for their EOY financials in May 2022? [EDIT: checked my own post earlier on this thread – they were at 21.7 million at the end of June/FYQ1] So that's kind of nuts and shows demand and supply are finally getting to a sustained point. 

Anyways, much more interesting to me is the announcement of Project Leonardo, PlayStation's own customisable accessibility controller:

It's about damn time. They've set the bar for in-game accessibility across their first party titles as of late, but especially in their titles from Naughty Dog, and so it's about time that they caught up on the hardware front. I don't say that to sound impatient, I recognise these things take time and a lot of R&D, but well...finally. 

I'll be honest, to me it isn't immediately obvious from its design just how functional a design it actually is (to be even more honest, it kind of reminds me of a Bop-It–esque family reaction game), but I trust Sony and their accessibility partners to have got this right. Really looking forward to seeing some reactions from the community looking for a controller like this as we've seen with Xbox's, those videos always put a smile on my face! 

This is really good. I was at EGX last year and I had a go on the Microsoft accessibility controller, there's a lot of thought that goes into these controllers and they make them super customisable to cover a range of different needs. You could tell the engineers/developers talking you through it were really passionate about it.

[drahkon]

10 hours ago, Julius said:

Firstly, the PS5 has passed the 30 million mark in total units shipped:

Stolen from era:

It's the better game so it's deserved

[Ronnie]

49 minutes ago, drahkon said:

It's the better game so it's deserved

Haha, good one.

Astro was great though, for a freebie. I hope they're working on a new proper game in that series. 

Speaking of, isn't it about time for Playstation to announce some first party games? We have their usual third person openworld fare in Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine coming. And I think that's it? Surely they won't go all year with just Spidey?

Edited January 5, 2023 by Ronnie