Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Julius]

New feature update available.

Download and restart, like, now - don't go asking any questions 

 

Just...chills.

Also we kind of get themes now?!

And generation-specific sound effects?!?! 

Can we keep these please?!

Edited December 2, 2024 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

That anniversary trailer was great. 

6 minutes ago, Julius said:

New feature update available.

Download and restart, like, now - don't go asking any questions 

  Reveal hidden contents

Just...chills.

Also we kind of get themes now?!

And generation-specific sound effects?!?! 

Can we keep these please?!

I just got the update but didn't bother restarting. I was kicking off because it was yet another update for the console. Yeah, I'll allow this.

[Julius]

Which of the 30th anniversary themes has everyone settled on using? 

After toying around with all of them there was only one real choice for me:

(PS2 ofc)

With the 30th anniversary upon us, curious if anyone's got some interesting memories to share, or perhaps a ranking of the PlayStation consoles – not necessarily by library, but by what they mean to you? 

For me I think it would be:

1. PS2 - the first console I bought myself not too long before the PS3 kicked off, so many great games played at the time and so many games originally released on it which I've played through remasters or ports on other consoles since over the years. 

2. PS4 - my love for the games may have started elsewhere in flashes before getting the PS4, but this is the console which really awakened my passion for the medium. And what a console to help you fall in love with a new medium it was. 

3. PS1 - where it all began for me. I was really young when I played the PS1 back in the day, and so memories of the console are loose, but what I remember I remember very strongly. Much simpler times. Like the PS2, so many games I couldn't play at the time I've got my hands on some other way since and the brilliance of the system still shines through. 

4. PS3 - simply because it's the only one I didn't have during or around its generation cycle, you may remember I didn't pick one up until just before COVID lockdown settled in back in March 2020. What I've played on it I've loved, but it definitely shows its age at times. 

5. Vita - wrong place, wrong time. Vita may be life but picking one up as an adult who prefers to play on a TV or monitor...it was always a tough sell. Especially with how many games have either been ported to console or how many stupidly haven't been. I simply haven't played it enough - or enough of its library - to grow a level of attachment to it. First console I imported from abroad, though, and damn does it feel so premium in the hand. 

PSP - never owned one...

Jury, of course, is still out for the PS5. But with half the generation gone at this point? I feel like there have been great games but not nearly enough of them, and I am still playing PS4 games in the best way possible more than I am current gen games. Second half of the PS4 generation was where it really sang, though, so I'm not about to give up hope on it just yet. 

Happy 30th PS, and here's to 30 more 

[drahkon]

8 hours ago, Julius said:

With the 30th anniversary upon us, curious if anyone's got some interesting memories to share, or perhaps a ranking of the PlayStation consoles – not necessarily by library, but by what they mean to you? 

Don't wanna do a ranking, because I'm a lazy sob, but:

The PS1 is probably the one that changed gaming for me. It was the first console (+ game) I bought with my own hard-earned money I saved from my allowance back in 1998.
I saved for quite a long time and once I had the cash ready, my parents took me to a local store only to find out that it had a "buy a PS1 and get Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped for free" available. Lucky me

I've also told this story a few times: with the PS1 I've bought/played my first Final Fantasy (IX) game and have been in love with the series ever since

[Hero-of-Time]

I just went with the standard 30th anniversary theme. 

I'll write about a couple of the consoles here and maybe a few more later on, if time allows.

PS2

I didn't buy one at launch but instead waited for a few games (Onimusha, Escape From Monkey Island, The Bouncer, Gran Turismo 3) to be released. I think all of these arrived the June and July of 2001. I then went to Charlies (independent game store that used to be in Newcastle) and snapped up the console and all of these games. I played the hell out of all of them and GT3 was often talked about amongst the lads at my place of work at the time.

Later in the year, Jak and Daxter, Devil May Cry, Simpsons Road Rage, Tony Hawk's 3 and Grand Theft Auto 3 were released. It was a hell of a winter line up.

The original Jak and Daxter remains one of my favourite platformers of all time and solidified my love of Naughty Dog. They had managed to combine the colourful platforming of Nintendo games but added some great characters, voice acting and story to the mix. It was a generation where the PS platform outdone Nintendo when it came to platformers. Both this and Ratchet and clank were miles above Mario Sunshine, which was ultimately a disappointment. 

Grand Theft Auto 3, that game was a cultural phenomenon and went on to shape many games in the industry. At the time, I had played nothing like it and to this day it still remains a magical game. I played and platinumed it a couple of years ago on the PS4 and even though the controls are very clunky by today's standards, the game has a very special place in my heart. 

Tony Hawk's 3 is a hell of a game and it's still my favourite in the franchise. I never owned any of the first 2 games but only had the demo from the Official PlayStation Magazine. I played this game so much and spent ages unlocking everything the game had to offer. This meant playing through the whole thing multiple times with each of the characters. For me, this is where the series peaked and even though I played a few other entries after this one, they never felt the same.

The Simpsons Road Rage was a weird one. Yeah, it was a licensed game but it was stupidly fun. Driving around Springfield, learning the map and hearing all of the sound clips/voices from the show made for a great time. I actually preferred this to both Crazy Taxi and Hit and Run.

The following year seen the release Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy X. These are two games brought the hype to a whole new level. 

While not my favourite in the series, Metal Gear Solid 2 was something very special. With the rise of the internet and AI, the message it tells has only got better with age. The fact that Kojima was able to do the old switcharoo with the main character was an amazing thing to pull off. This is something that would be very difficult to do now, what the internet being a far bigger place and people loving to spoil things for everyone else. The game was probably the first bit of software to really show what the PS2 could do. I remember watching trailers over and over again, just being in awe of the graphics and the theme tune, which sadly the can no longer use.

This was the game that many people, myself included, bought Zone of the Enders for.  

Final Fantasy X was another game where my hype was through the roof and the game certainly lived up to the hype. It's still one of my favourites in the franchise. I know a lot of people didn't care for how linear it was but it's something that never bothered me. I loved the pilgrimage/journey that all of the cast went on and the themes of the game have certainly resonated with me more as time has gone by. A lot of the religious themes were kinda of lost on me when I played this a youngster but playing it again when the PS4 remaster arrived, things hit a lot harder and made more sense. 

I can't talk about Final Fantasy X without mentioned one of my favourite bits of videogame music ever created.

 

 

The piece is so moving and the way it is used in the game is just perfection. I often toy with the idea of having it as my funeral song. Morbid thought, I know. 

Those were just a handful of titles that shaped the PS2 for me. Worth mentioning though is the backwards compatibility. Any console that allows for a previous generation's games to be played gives it a massive boost in my eyes. The PS1 had an amazing library of games and having that available on the PS2 was just the cherry on top of a very sweet cake. Oh, and it being a DVD player was also a fantastic addition. The Switch will eventually take it's sales crown but the PS2 will always be king to me.

PS4

It's 11 years since the release of this console and I'm still playing on the thing. Yet again, it's a console that I didn't buy at launch but it went on to be one of my favourite consoles ever and has smoked every console since. It was the generation where Sony came back swinging and hit all of the right notes. Microsoft will never forget this...

It was console that was priced right, powerful enough, appealed to pretty much every developer, easy to develop for and had an abundance of games, both exclusive and 3rd party. I don't think there has been a console where I've played so many games on it.  It was also where I went all in on trophies, after leaving the Xbox/achievements ecosystem behind me. I dabbled on the PS3 but here is where I truly got into it. 

This is the console that really saw Japanese developers get back in the swing of things. The 360/PS3 generation was a mess when it came to releasing JRPGs and they were few and far between. The PS4 really correctly this probably and done so in an amazing fashion. Dragon Quest XI, Persona 5, Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts 3, Tales of Berseria, Dragon Quest Builders, World of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts Collection, Final Fantasy Pixel Collection, Nier: Automata, Valkyria Chronicles, Trails of Mana, Final Fantasy VII: Remake....not to mention the PS Classics range that seen the likes of Wild Arms and Legend of Dragoon getting released. It was fantastic to see the revival of this genre on home consoles.

The Yakuza franchise had been around for some time but it never really hit it big. The release of Yakuza 0 on the PS4 changed that. The game quickly found success and with it, the entire franchise was eventually made available to the PS4. It took me a couple of attempts to get into the series but once it clicked, It has now become one of my favourite gaming series ever. The story, characters and writing and unlike anything that the rest of the industry puts out and the franchise only seems to get stronger with each new release. You would think that they would have ran out of idea by now but this isn't the case at all.

The PS4 seen the return of Monster Hunter on a PlayStation platform. The franchise had finally come home. I had endured years of the series being stuck on handhelds and underpowered hardware and I had been screaming for ages that it would do stupid numbers if it returned back to a home console. Thankfully, this finally happened with the release of Monster Hunter World and it paid off MASSIVELY for Capcom. The game has went on to sell over 20 million units and another 7 million with the Iceborne expansion. It had proved that there was indeed a huge market on consoles and PC just waiting to jump into the franchise and the game delivered on every front. I'm eager for the release of Wilds to see just how that fares and if the series is still attractive to the console userbase.

Another series which I fell in love with on the PS4 were the FromSoftware games. Bloodborne was my first attempt at getting into the Souls games and I took to it very quickly. Years of playing Monster Hunter and grinding in JRPGs pretty much were all the training I needed when it came to playing these games. After Bloodborne, I eventually played Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3, Sekiro and Elden Ring. All of these games have certain things in common but also feel very unique. Each of them were a fantastic experience to go through and really pushed me as a gamer. A lot of games are quite forgiving these days and that's fine because it does make them more accessible to a wider audience but it's great to see a developer who stood by their ideas and simply told people to get better in order to progress. I'll say again what I've said over the years, the games aren't really brutally difficult. It's more about patience more than anything else.

Yeah, 11 years on and still going strong. I could probably not buy any games for a year, stop playing my other consoles and still not catch up with PS4 games. Insane.

[drahkon]

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

my other consoles

So...guess it's time to rename "Nintendo Gaming" to "Other Consoles"

Man, Final Fantasy X is so freaking good. Probably the best turn-based battle system ever made!

[Dcubed]

15 hours ago, Julius said:

With the 30th anniversary upon us, curious if anyone's got some interesting memories to share, or perhaps a ranking of the PlayStation consoles – not necessarily by library, but by what they mean to you? 

I was quite late in getting into Playstation platforms myself, though I did start with the PS1.  Growing up, I was naturally a Nintendo kid, but my friends did have a Mega Drive and a PS1; so I did live that experience vicariously to some extent.  But I didn't actually own a PS1 until the early 2000s (think it was early 2004 when I got my one).  I was older, had more money and was now in a position where I could and wanted to experience a wider world of gaming, so I went ahead and got my hands on a PS1 alongside some of its biggest and most well known titles like Final Fantasy 7-9, Metal Gear Solid etc.  Loved them (Well, except for FF8, hate that one to bits ), though my physical PS1 collection would remain reletively small and my time spent exploring the PS1's library in-depth wouldn't come until a few years later... when the vast majority of the PS1's most noteworthy releases would end up getting released at far more affordable prices via the PS3's PSN service (more on that in a bit).

It wouldn't be long until I got my hands on a PS2 though.  The GCN was winding down by early 2005, with a pretty barren looking software schedule, the PS2 slim had just been released (a much nicer model than the awful Atari-Reject Fat PS2 design), and I really liked the look of the then-upcoming Shadow of The Collosus and God of War.  The time felt right for me to jump in and catch up on the PS2's library of heavy hitting exclusives.  Not only that, but PS2 would also go on to be my very first imported home console (I had previously imported various handhelds, but this would be a first as far as home consoles go); which I imported from the US for that oh so glorious 60hz output.  And it was pretty great! Thoroughly enjoyed the likes of DMC 1 & 3 (With DMC 2 becoming the PS2's equivalent to FF8 for me ), FF10, MGS 2 & 3, Silent Hill 2 & 3, Okami, Tales of The Abyss etc... and of course, God of War & SOTC did not disappoint.  The PS2 came into my house at just the right time, keeping me happily playing up until the 360/PS3/Wii came out and all three entering my living room... Speaking of which...

The PS3 was the first Playstation console I bought on launch day.  Now working a job, I could afford all three consoles this time around... no regrets about buying the US import 60GB model on day 1.  While the initial software lineup didn't have all that much to get excited about, I had a blast using it to play my PS1 and PS2 libraries; as well as the array of smaller PSN only releases in the console's early days, like Calling All Cars.  Bigger and more exciting games would come later of course, but my best memories with the PS3 actually lie with its vast array of PS1 and PS2 re-releases.  I went ham on buying up all the PS1 re-releases I could; absolutely loving the likes of Castlevania SOTN and Chronicles, Silent Hill, The Adventures of Little Ralph, Thunderforce 5, Einhander, Vagrant Story and Xenogears.  And many of the best PS2 games would go on to get HD remasters and emulated re-releases, such as God Hand, Zone of the Enders, Sly Cooper, Gradius 5 and Maximo.  Eventually, big releases like Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet, and God of War 3 would finally hit, but the later years of the console would also make way for some surprise smaller hits as well like 3D Dot Game Heroes, Project Diva f 1 & 2, and Puppeteer; all which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Ultimately, my tastes were becoming less aligned with the route that Sony was taking with their titles though, so I didn't end up jumping in on the PS4 until...

The Last Guardian came back out of nowhere at E3 2015.  The long anticipated follow up to Ico and Shadow of the Collosus was easily my most wanted PS3 game, and I was crushed that it never happened.  So when TLG finally resurfaced as a PS4 exclusive, I had no choice.  I went out and bought a PS4 slim for this one game and one game only.  It did not disappoint, easily justifying the console purchase for that game alone.  I ultimately didn't really get anything else for the PS4 outside of the SOTC remake afterwards, as I had basically lost interest in Sony's first party lineup by that point; and the gaming world had since transitioned into a multiplatform landscape, where everything got released on everything (or at least ended up on PC).  And by this point, I had swapped over to being Nintendo/PC only.

And the PS5 remains unpurchased.  But that's not all to tell of my Playstation tale, as there are two other platforms I need to mention...

Like with the PS1 and PS2, I was a bit late getting into the PSP.  But it was the release of God of War: Chains of Olympus that got me to finally take the plunge.  I'm glad I did, as it ended up developing a very respectable library of its own that resembled a nice middle ground between the PS1 and PS2.  Games like Lumines, Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins, Dissidia, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Locoroco, Tactics Ogre: LUCT, MGS Peace Walker and the myriad of retro compilations made for a nice contrast and counterbalance against the DS' library.  Thoroughly enjoyable stuff; though I was never the biggest fan of the hardware itself (the buttons and form-factor were never the most comfortable, and the UMDs meant long loading times and poor battery life)... that would eventually be fixed...

I got a Playstation Vita on day 1, and it was the best PSP I ever owned.  It had basically fuck all in terms of its own exclusive libary (I had Lumines: Electronic Symphony and that was basically it), but it was a killer PSP! Fixing basically every issue I had with the original PSP hardware, I played the shit out of all my PSP games on that thing!   Lovely hardware, but a damn shame that its library ended up being so utterly anaemic.  While it did end up being a popular device amongst indie game developers, sadly it doesn't have much of a legacy of its own, as it ended up being a dumping ground for ports that would end up on Switch eventually anyway; erasing any need for its own existence.  Still, it's a phenomenal device for playing PSP games on!

With the above in mind.  Here is how I rank the various Playstation consoles...

1st: Playstation 2

2nd: Playstation 1

3rd: Playstation Portable

4th: Playstation 3

5th: Playstation 4

6th: Playstation 5

7th: Playstation Vita

Edited December 3, 2024 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

Loving the 30th anniversary PS Stars challenges. Getting a little memory card and Polygon Man rewards are great.

I wish they would do something more substantial with the service. The thing still isn't even integrated to your console. Saying that, given the problems they have had getting it run correctly on a mobile app, it's probably for the best that they stay the hell away from the PS5.

[Hero-of-Time]

Quote

Sony has confirmed that the annual PlayStation Wrap-Up will become available very soon.

Each December, PS5 and PS4 players can login online and get their very own PlayStation Wrap-Up, providing all sorts of fun stats and information about your gaming habits and achievements for the year.

From 10th December, you'll be able to get your Wrap-Up for 2024, as revealed on the official PlayStation website.

Love it when this arrives but I don't like how they do it in early December. I get a lot of gaming done over the Christmas period and would prefer for that to be included. Ah, well.

After going for the platinum, I guarantee Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be the top spot for longest time spent on a game this year. Exoprimal will probably get the second spot.

[drahkon]

10 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

After going for the platinum, I guarantee Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be the top spot for longest time spent on a game this year. Exoprimal will probably get the second spot.

Spoilers

[Julius]

11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Love it when this arrives but I don't like how they do it in early December. I get a lot of gaming done over the Christmas period and would prefer for that to be included. Ah, well.

After going for the platinum, I guarantee Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be the top spot for longest time spent on a game this year. Exoprimal will probably get the second spot.

Yeah, agreed. Am I misremembering or did we not get the 2021 Wrap-Up in January of 2022? I remember Red Dead Redemption 2 making it onto mine that year despite binging it over the Christmas period (it did weirdly cut off at 60-something hours iirc rather than the full 70+ I put in, so maybe they cut it off on like December 29th? Idk). 

I think last year I didn't even look at mine (wasn't very well at the time), and not sure if I will this year either - maybe out of curiosity and just as a quick thing to share if it's remotely interesting, but honestly, I spreadsheet and make enough notes about what I'm playing that I could probably guess pretty accurately what my playtime is for a lot of games  honestly I find it's often more just a reminder of how much I haven't played rather than it is a celebration of what I have. 

Which is funny to me, because I love Spotify Wrapped and it sucked ass this year and I'm pretty sure cut off one of my top artists (again), so 

[drahkon]

20 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Love it when this arrives but I don't like how they do it in early December.

For me it's going to be 10000000 hours of Path of Exile 2 that's going to be missing. Early Access releases tonight and I can't wait.
Well, I can wait because I will get it on Monday as I will be quite busy over the weekend (who am I kidding, I'm going to buy it tonight and play all night).

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, drahkon said:

For me it's going to be 10000000 hours of Path of Exile 2 that's going to be missing. Early Access releases tonight and I can't wait.
Well, I can wait because I will get it on Monday as I will be quite busy over the weekend (who am I kidding, I'm going to buy it tonight and play all night).

Aaaaand I just bought the Early Access with some credit from PS points and I got 25€ PSN credit for 19.99€.

Gonna be a long night

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Gonna be a long night

A long night of sleep.
The PoE website is down due to traffic and it looks like the devs already put out a statement that servers won't hold

Well, guess I got more time for DQ3

[Hero-of-Time]

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, Famitsu asked readers to vote for their favourite PS games.

 

Quality list. The inclusion of FFX, FFVIII, MGS3, Kingdom Hearts 2, Wild Arms, MH World and MH Unite pleases me.

MH Unite is the best of the classic MH games and I'm not surprised it was ranked so high by Japanese players.

[drahkon]

17 hours ago, drahkon said:

The PoE website is down due to traffic and it looks like the devs already put out a statement that servers won't hold

Managed to actually play 45 minutes last night before going to bed.

It's freaking great!
A lot slower than the first installment but that makes it even better. Playing as a Monk and melee is so much fun. You actually gotta dodge

 

[drahkon]

I fully understand why GGG wanted to keep PoE 1 and 2 separate games.

They play very differently (at least in the early stages). It's all very deliberate with the second installment. It kinda feels like - and I hate throwing this term around, but... - a Souls game.

I'm getting my ass handed to me by a boss and it's all my fault. Usually with ARPGs, now would the time to level up and/or farm some gear. And while that's definitely an option, too, it's also very clear that I can beat that boss without doing any of that. It's simply a matter of "git gud"

Thoroughly enjoying my time with this and very happy that I dished out money for the early access (which also grants some currency for future stash tab sales, which are important if you wanna play the game for a long time - and I intend to do that ).

[Hero-of-Time]

I have no idea what @drahkon is talking about but he seems happy.  

 

So many iconic games and memories. 

[bob]

On 12/6/2024 at 6:01 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, Famitsu asked readers to vote for their favourite PS games.

 

Quality list. The inclusion of FFX, FFVIII, MGS3, Kingdom Hearts 2, Wild Arms, MH World and MH Unite pleases me.

MH Unite is the best of the classic MH games and I'm not surprised it was ranked so high by Japanese players.

No expense spared on that list graphic.

[drahkon]

On 12/9/2024 at 9:12 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I have no idea what @drahkon is talking about but he seems happy.  

Indeed I am

I'm talking about Path of Exile 2, the game that will redefine the ARPG genre. MARK MY WORDS

[drahkon]

On 12/5/2024 at 2:03 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

Sony has confirmed that the annual PlayStation Wrap-Up will become available very soon.

It's here!

And as every year, it's broken

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, drahkon said:

It's here!

And as every year, it's broken

 

 

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, drahkon said:

It's here!

And as every year, it's broken

[Julius]

While we wait for the Wrap-Up to come good, I've just spotted that PlayStation's 'Upcoming Games in 2025' trailer/ad went up earlier today:

If you'll remember back to the start of the year, there was a bit of a stir when 2024's version released and the Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2 remakes both featured, as we hadn't heard anything about a release date for either game at that point. Silent Hill 2 has since released to plenty of praise, while funnily enough, not only is Snake Eater's remake MIA – it's not featured in the 'Upcoming Games in 2025' video at all 

Anyways: if you could pick only three games shown off in the video, what are you picking? Essentially: which games of those shown are you most excited for? 

For me it's (from most anticipated to slightly-less-than-most-but-still-very-much anticipated):

1. Ghost of Yōtei 

2. Mafia: The Old Country

3. The Midnight Walk

[Hero-of-Time]

1. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza
2. Monster Hunter Wilds
3. Death Stranding 2

Lots to look forward to in that video. 2025 is already looking stacked.