Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[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

[Julius]

10 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

As an aside, 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?

I don't really think they're going to be in any rush this year to make announcements, to be honest. This could easily be wrong come some surprise State of Play next month but...eh, I'm not holding out for one. 

For one thing, I feel like the first half of their year is going to be understandably concentrated on a big push for the PSVR2 (launching next month), which I think faces a bit of an uphill battle in the face of everything going on with the global economy – I'm happily letting it and the Edge controller pass me by until things calm down a bit. With that they can push first- and third-party exclusives like Resident Evil 8 VR, Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7 VR, and plenty more. 

Outside of that, in terms of software for the PS5 proper, you're right in thinking that it looks a bit thin on the ground, because I think right now there's only the Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC (April) and Spider-Man 2 (Fall) announced to be coming this year from their first-party studios. Oh, and MLB The Show I guess? I think there's the potential for a smattering more this year, like the The Last of Us live service game, potentially something from Bluepoint (this really depends on if the team has been sized up after their acquisition and if their next title is a remake/remaster or something original) as Demon's Souls was 2020 and they've never gone more than three years without releasing a new title, and I would seriously hope something from Asobi for Astro at this point, considering there's literally nothing else for those fine folks to be working on right now and Playroom was a lovely but shorter pack-in title, like you said.

I'm sure there's room for a surprise or two throughout the year from them, but as always with PlayStation, their third-party marketing and exclusivity deals definitely takes a bit of the weight off their shoulders from my POV. Forspoken (Jan) is console platform exclusive, Final Fantasy XVI (June) is completely PS5 exclusive at launch, and games which they have marketing deals for like Like A Dragon: Ishin! (Feb) and Resident Evil 4 (March) always sell best on PlayStation. Oh, and there's also potentially Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, though whether that sneaks into Q4 2023 or is instead a Q1 2024 title remains to be seen (thanks for the ambiguous Winter timeframe on that one, S-E!). 

It looks to be a pretty standard year by their standards set since the launch of the PS5, to be honest – probably a few first-party titles supported by third-party marketing and exclusivity deals, but nowhere near the heights of where we got to with the PS4's release slate. It's a shame, but that's what happens when you close up shop on a talented studio like Japan Studio I guess 

[Sheikah]

Luckily Sony don't need to make too much, they have third party support.

[Dcubed]

Yeah, this is probably gonna be a very 3rd party heavy year for Sony.  Most of their studios have put out a title or two within the last year or so, so I wouldn't expect anything major coming out of SIE in 2023; outside of Spiderman 2 from Insomniac.

[Sheikah]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Yeah, this is probably gonna be a very 3rd party heavy year for Sony.  Most of their studios have put out a title or two within the last year or so, so I wouldn't expect anything major coming out of SIE in 2023; outside of Spiderman 2 from Insomniac.

I think as well already noted you have big games coming like Spiderman 2, FFXVI and possibly FFVII-2, then you have the usual annual fodder like COD, FIFA (whatever the new series will be called), and so on, as well as PSVR2. I don't think people will think at the end of year that there's been a lack of content by any means.

[Ronnie]

You know it'll be a lean year when you see COD and FIFA brought up as major PS5 software releases this year.

I'm also not convinced they're going to support PSVR2 much, given their track record with the last PSVR, Vita etc but we'll see. I'm actually tempted to get one, but they're not doing a great job selling it thus far.

Just a shame that the PS5 should be hitting its stride now, in its third year. Assuming Spider-Man 2 doesn't get delayed, that's PS Studios's only AAA tentpole release in 2023. I hope a Showcase is coming soon to announce more games because at the moment it's tough to get excited for the future of a console that (imo) has been really ho-hum so far, exclusive wise.

[Sheikah]

They are major releases though, they're the best selling games every year. The point is that PlayStation and Xbox get these games so there's less of a gap to fill.

[drahkon]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:06 PM, drahkon said:

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

I'm addicted to gambling. Thankfully only in-game Just spent 1.5k gold and I won...nothing.
Made some more progress with Crown Trick and reached "Day 3" and its boss (which I assume is the final boss). Got my ass kicked, though.

I'm very much enjoying this one. UI is a bit of a mess at times (there's so many status effects, it's crazy...) and the controls could use some fine tuning but other than that it's great.

Started playing Syphon Filter to get some use out of my PS+ Premium sub and ooohhh boy, it has not aged well Tank controls are so bad...and it seems to be a "where the fuck do I go?" kind of game.
The cutscenes and voice acting/dialogue are hilariously bad. I actually laughed out loud a few times.
Only played the first mission but I'll keep going. It's interesting to see where Bend Studio has come from. I'm hoping we'll see Bubsy 3D on the sub eventually.

Edited January 6, 2023 by drahkon

[Julius]

Powerwash Simulator finally arrives on PlayStation on 30th January! 

Also got half an eye on Season: A letter to the future based on its previous State of Play presence. NeverAwake has piqued my interest a bit too 

[drahkon]

The Solitaire Conspiracy has no right to be this good

Played this for two hours straight just now. It's Solitaire with a twist.
Instead of the classic suits you get different "groups" with a specific skill each. It works like this:
Place an ace in the middle and the group's skill is ready to be used. You can do that by placing the face cards. One group, for example, "explodes" the pile you place its face card on, meaning the cards in that pile get randomly distributed on the other piles (and yes, you can place face cards anywhere you like, which is different form regular Solitaire but we're not playing that, are we?).

It's stupidly addictive

There's also a plot about some spy shenanigans told via FMV cutscenes, but I don't care. Skipped 'em all so far and will skip the rest. Just gimme that juicy gameplay.

Oh and the soundtrack is amazing:

Sadly, there are only 5 songs but they are all incredible. And way too epic for a game like this

[Julius]

Tchia is coming this Spring:

 

[Julius]

PlayStation are promising a steadier supply of PS5s in the wild this year, which they announced alongside the release of a new TV spot:

 

[Ronnie]

Can they promise a steadier supply of first party games while they're at it??

[Ronnie]

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED PRE-ORDERS WOULD DISAPPOINT, I AM SHOCKED. 

You would think after all these years and after their experience with the PSP, Vita, or looking back to things like the Game Gear v Game Boy, that someone at PlayStation might just realise that top of the line specs and a huge price tag don't = sales. Especially in a niche market. And no backwards compatibility is another slap in the face idiotic move.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Ronnie

[Sheikah]

WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED PRE-PRDERS WOULD DISAPPOINT, I AM SHOCKED. 

You would think after all these years and after their experience with the PSP, Vita, or looking back to things like the Game Gear v Game Boy, that someone at PlayStation might just realise that top of the line specs and a huge price tag don't = sales. Especially in a niche market.

Worked for the PS5 though, that's £480 now and still flying off the shelves.

 I think VR is facing a few problems right now - it doesn't have the novelty factor it did last generation and it's a "nice to have" supplementary accessory (which is going to be a hard sell in the current climate). In terms of value though you're actually getting a much better deal than you did with the original headset (in terms of specs and the included controllers).

 Last thing to say - I wouldn't call this top of the line VR at all in terms of price, at least not compared to some of the PC offerings.

[Ronnie]

Doesn't matter if the price tag is 'cheap' for the tech included, the price tag is too high. Dumb move. Could see its failure coming a mile off.

[Sheikah]

30 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Doesn't matter if the price tag is 'cheap' for the tech included, the price tag is too high. Dumb move. Could see its failure coming a mile off.

Hardly a failure, you're writing it off too soon. It will get cheaper down the line and I can see it enjoying reasonable success across the generation.

It was clear from the original PSVR that skimping on specs had dire consequences down the line (note that the original PSVR wasn't actually cheap after you bought the necessary camera and recommended controllers, yet it was still a low-fi device). They need a headset that is actually capable and will last the generation.

Also consider that this will have been designed a while ago, before world events led to the record levels of inflation we have now. Their options were to either sell at a big loss or charge more, so not really sure how you can say the price tag is a dumb move.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Sheikah