The Sony news and discussion thread

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Alex79
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah but some on the store are dynamic and have music and change some of the icons etc. I thought maybe people were making their own of those (you could do it on PS3 fairly easily) but yeah it just looks like they're wallpaper for PS4 'non store' themes.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

I've got two codes here for anyone who's interested in trying the PS4 FW5.0 beta. If you use one just say so, so nobody else tries to use it.

5J96 TQN3 RNM9

GER6 T4NC 6PAG
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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It looks like Yakuza Kiwami 2 leaked on the Taiwanese PS store yesterday, although it was quickly taken down.
Can't say I'm surprised, very much looking forward to it, though!
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah I'm really pleased they're doing that. I'd love to be able to play the whole series without going back to PS3.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Now we all know the best kind of mini games in RPGs are fishing games (damn you Witcher 3. Would it really have been too much to ask for a little fishing game to have been included!?) and this week the free to play 'Fishing Planet' launches on PS4.

I'm genuinely a little bit excited about this! As someone who really enjoys a good fishing mini game but would never indulge in the barbaric and cruel real thing, I'm really looking forward to packing some sandwiches and a flask of weak lemon drink to while away a few hours in front of this. Might even put a bowl of water on the floor to dangle my feet in!

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2017/08 ... th-august/
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

Possible PS+ leak ahead of tomorrow's announcement.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dail ... tation/amp

Infamous Second Son and Child Of Light. I'd be very happy with both those. Loved Infamous 1 and 2 and been wanting to play Child Of Light for ages! If it's real, PS+ has seen a real boost in the last couple of months (in my opinion, that is. It's all relative to taste isn't it).
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by Alex79 »

So yeah the leak was true.

September 2017 PS+ titles are:

inFAMOUS: Second Son (PS4)
Child of Light (PS4)
RIGS: Mechanised Combat League (PS4 bonus title – PS VR required)
That’s You (PS4 bonus title)
Truck Racer (PS3)
Handball 2016 (PS3)
We Are Doomed (PS Vita & PS4)
Hatoful Boyfriend (PS4 & PS Vita)

Another cracking month in my opinion. Two PS4 games I've wanted to play and a Vita game (Hatoful) I've been interested in but would have never bought.

Oh, and Fishing Planet was a huge disappointment :(
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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That PSVR choice is interesting. It's almost as if they want to cement motion sickness as the definitive vr experience. :|

EDIT: That's a bit small-minded of me, sorry. From what little I played of the demo it looks like a pretty fine PvP game actually. Anybody who's invested in VR knows the pros and cons and how to approach motion sickness, so me drawing parallels between this freebie and some kind of VR-noobness isn't right. :oops:
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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Haha that made me cackle. Harsh but fair.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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Speaking of PSVR, it's been out for almost a year now. And I can recall the press and various voices on the internet hailing it as a Great Innovation and The Future Of Gaming, etc... I haven't heard about it for months now, so I wouldn't mind hearing from the early adopters themselves. Are you still using yours? If so, for what games? If not, do you consider it to be a worthwhile purchase in retrospect?

PS: If it sounds like I'm wanting it to fail, I'm not. I find the concept itself interesting and I'd like to see it establish itself as more than a gimmick. I just don't think it has done that from what I can tell.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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Impressions from my own point of view:

I'm not exactly an early adopter - I borrowed my brothers PSVR earlier this year and had it for a couple of months. I mostly played demos on it (there are loads of demos) and a couple of games. I was totally blown away, and then last month I had a fit of spenthriftness and decided to get my own PSVR. Then, I saw that the games I was most interested in were ones that used the Move controllers, and I bought those for 80 euros, after which I had some buyer's remorse. I mean, 80 euros, come on! Then there was a PSN sale, so I loaded up on PSVR games. All in all, I'd say I spent 600 euros or so.

After all that, I played through the Batman game and....I haven't turned it on since. :oops:

I should qualify this by saying I fully intend to get back into it. But you know that ennui you feel sometimes when you look at your games and can't choose one to start up? It's like that, except you also have to deal with making space, putting on the helmet and all that jazz. So it's slightly more of a struggle to get going with a game.

I'm not sure about the future. A lot of games are extremely lame, or do not have solid enough gameplay to hold your attention for long. But that's true for gaming as a whole. The best application I have seen so far is horror games, which are phenomenal from the little I have seen. However, ripping-the-headset-off-in-panic-phenomenal is probably a niche market.

The other games that work best (for me) are very simple variations on basic locomotory functions. The game where you head a football back and forth in a type of ping pong was very good. There's one where you stack objects on top of other objects. I know, they sound terrible and they shouldn't even work, but they're very enjoyable.

The big strength is that you really are living the game. The sense of immersion is amazing; it can't be overstated. I was playing the London Heist and there's a shootout on a motorway in a van travelling at high speed. After the shootout was over, I was laughing like a loon and went to lean my elbow out the passenger window (all insouciant like!) and nearly fell off my chair.

So I dunno. There's a lot of shovelware and disappointment and at the same time some things work amazingly. I think personally there's a future in it, it's too amazing of a technology for it not to succeed, though that success may not be seen in its current form. Some of the gaming experiences that have made me shout aloud in wonder and exhilaration, and I don't exaggerate there at all. It could be unbelievable if everything falls right for it. Whether that will happen though...

The big thing at the moment is the headset and the cables are damn inconvenient. But I'm looking forward to getting to the big shooters (Farpoint) and driving games (Dirt Rally, Driveclub) and seeing what they are like. Writing this has made me excited all over again!
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Wow, thanks for the insightful answer, Chopper.

600€ for one playthrough certainly seems a bit steep. But this is the kind of testimony I was anticipating, unfortunately. Like Kinect and others before, I suppose the technology is caught between a rock and a hard place. Make it mandatory, and you will most certainly alienate the majority of your established consumer base who are enthusiastic about traditional gaming. Make it optional, and developers / publishers are disincentivized to spend valuable resources on experimental projects aimed at a comparatively small user base. Which of course leads to the hardware slowly dying off due to the inevitable software scarcity. Unfortunately, that seems to be the current course of action.
Chopper wrote: August 31st, 2017, 5:20 pm The best application I have seen so far is horror games, which are phenomenal from the little I have seen.
This quote seems a bit odd to me, however. Because from what I can tell, it's a very specific type of horror games that is being enhanced by the technology - namely, "first person jump scare shock horror" like Amnesia or Alien: Isolation and the like. But that's only one type of horror game and does not represent the entire genre. I doubt that other, slower-paced types of horror games akin to Silent Hill 2 or the classic Resident Evils would be significantly improved upon by adding VR functionality on top of it.

It may sound like a nitpick, but that's because while I happen to like the latter type a lot, I have a strong aversion towards the former and I think there's an important distinction to be made. With that being said, Resident Evil 7 seems to be an enjoyable experience with VR. And it certainly would have been interesting to see how Silent Hills could have potentially proven how this technology could be implemented with conventional game design.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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My two cents: give it another year and Sony will pull support for PSVR. It's going nowhere fast, and will never, ever be mainstream. Not in our lifetimes.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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Had mine nearly six months now and use it once a week. I would use it more but having a youngster I'm conscious I might miss him crying!.

I always love it when I use it. RIGS is the only game that has given me sickness so far. I don't really like using the move controllers and prefer pad if possible.

Rez Infinite and Batman are excellent but quite short, Robinson The Journey is good and I've been learning the various different actions on Star Trek Bridge Crew. I've got Eagle Flight and Super Stardust but not got round to trying them yet.

I've also picked up a few show pieces where you just sit on a beach etc. I use it to relax occasionally.

It is a great party piece as when I've had friends and family around they have all enjoyed it and wanted to use it.

Totally worth the RRP I paid and with one of my favourite games of all time coming out at the end of the year (Skyrim) I can only see myself using it more.

There seems to be more and more games coming out at the moment so I'm not sure what the lack of support is based on. Just checked the PS Store and there is currently over 100 PSVR titles on there.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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DomsBeard wrote: August 31st, 2017, 6:30 pm There seems to be more and more games coming out at the moment so I'm not sure what the lack of support is based on. Just checked the PS Store and there is currently over 100 PSVR titles on there.
Just to clarify: I was talking about "VR Required" games, that have been built around the usage of the technology from the ground up. Not simply "VR Compatible" titles that are perfectly enjoyable even without VR and who represent a much lower risk and investment from the developers.

You need both quantity and quality of the former if the technology is meant to stand on its own two feet and establish itself as a full-fledged, independent hardware format. Dozens of the latter merely relegate it to the rank of optional (and expensive) gimmick.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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To clarify, I'm not saying it's not being supported, or that owners aren't enjoying it. But I am predicting it'll be dead in a year and won't catch on. I hope I'm wrong because any new ways to play games are great. I just don't think the mainstream is ready for it, and probably never will be. I think it will always remain a fairly niche item for hardcore gamers.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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KSubzero1000 wrote: August 31st, 2017, 5:54 pm
Chopper wrote: August 31st, 2017, 5:20 pm The best application I have seen so far is horror games, which are phenomenal from the little I have seen.
This quote seems a bit odd to me, however. Because from what I can tell, it's a very specific type of horror games that is being enhanced by the technology - namely, "first person jump scare shock horror" like Amnesia or Alien: Isolation and the like. But that's only one type of horror game and does not represent the entire genre. I doubt that other, slower-paced types of horror games akin to Silent Hill 2 or the classic Resident Evils would be significantly improved upon by adding VR functionality on top of it.

It may sound like a nitpick, but that's because while I happen to like the latter type a lot, I have a strong aversion towards the former and I think there's an important distinction to be made. With that being said, Resident Evil 7 seems to be an enjoyable experience with VR. And it certainly would have been interesting to see how Silent Hills could have potentially proven how this technology could be implemented with conventional game design.
Honestly, there is a lot more to it than jump scares. It's amazing at building atmosphere too, to the extent that it can make your skin crawl :D

Having had our discussion about Resi 4 before, I think it would translate fantastically to VR. And the tank controls for the earlier Resi's would translate perfectly I'd imagine ;)

Rush of Blood is an on-rails shooter, and I didn't even get to fire a shot in the demo because the building atmosphere made me tear off the headset. There's another one I can't remember the name of, and it did have a jump scare, but the atmosphere had been building nicely and me getting beaten to death with a metal pipe was quite traumatic when it eventually came.

I bought Resi 7 last night on deep discount so I'll report back if I ever psych myself up enough to play it.

As to projecting VR onto traditional classic experiences and wondering if they'd be 'improved' - it's a different beast and that's a difficult question to answer, especially if the game's design has already resulted in it being a classic. For it to shine, VR games need to be built from the ground up I think. There is definitely one 'classic' game so far imo (a puzzle game called Statik). I need to delve into the whole area more though.
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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Dammit! I thought Child Of Light was sure to be cross buy between PS4 and Vita but it's not. We've got the PS4 and PS3 versions on PS+. I was looking forward to playing that on Vita but it's a separate purchase >_<
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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October's PS+ games are:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
Amnesia: Collection (PS4)
RIGS: Mechanised Combat League (PS Plus Bonus – PSVR Required)
That’s You (PS Plus Bonus – PlayLink)
Monster Jam Battlegrounds (PS3)
Hustle Kings (PS3)
Hue (PS Vita & PS4)
Sky Force Anniversary (PS Vita & PS4)

Another pretty good month I think. Stings a bit I recently bought MGSV and haven't even played it yet, but what can you do. Will be nice to have a digital copy instead of having to use the disc when I finally get round to playing it!

I don't know much about Amnesia, but I love these walking simulators (or whatever you want to call them...) although am not good with scary games so we'll see how that goes!

The PS3 games are pretty irrelevant at this point to me, but it'll be great to have Skyforce on Vita. Decent month, Sony seem to have got their mojo back!
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Re: The Sony news and discussion thread

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I bought MGSV in the psn sale digitally about 6 weeks ago :D

Amnesia I've held off buying several times so that's a good one for me.

I wonder if Rigs staying on for another month means we're getting a VR game every other month?
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