The Sony news and discussion thread

[Joshihatsumitsu]

I did not upgrade at all to the PS4 pro, even with a 55" UHDTV, and no regrets. My 500g older model does the job just fine, and like the others say you can add an external drive nowadays anyway.

Also, region free gaming. The only quirk is that DLC is still region-locked. I learned that with my American copy of Persona 5 recently. Fortunately, setting up accounts for other regions outside of your own is possible, so there is a work around. So not only am I Australian, I'm Japanese and American too!

And it is totally worth mentioning those other regions, because there are little gems that are not released everywhere. However, you will need to buy region-specific PSN cards as PayPal or Credit Card options are locked again to where you reside (which for security reasons makes sense).

That's my 2 cents.

[Chopper]

Really jealous of someone coming to Sony at this stage.

Access to David Cage's whole back catalogue, and of course a couple of other minor exclusives.

[kintaris]

Thanks all!

I had a PlayStation, 2 and even briefly a 3 back in the day, but when that packed in and I went off to university I decided to stick to one console.

Even back then though I wasn't particularly video game savvy, only playing the big blockbusters. So there's plenty of remasters, rereleases and so on for me to catch up on as well. As soon as I get myself a job I'll pick up a PlayStation 4 as a reward!

Thanks for the heads up regards region locks as well!

[Alex79]

Kinda cool in Japan for PS+ this month in addition to whatever their free games are they've been able to vote on the games previously given away and three of them have been 're-given away'. Cool for anyone late to the party and has missed out earlier on. Also a 10% off voucher for all customers who've been subbed for a year and a discount on renewal, all in celebration of 7 years of PS+ (seven years!? Jesus. Has it been that long!?)

Can't see the EU or US store following suit!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.playst ... -2017/amp/

[Alex79]

July's PS+ games:

Until Dawn – PS4
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series – PS4
That’s You – PS4 (4th July onwards)
Tokyo Jungle – PS3
Darkstalkers Resurrection – PS3
Don’t Die Mr Robot – PS Vita (cross-buy with PS4)
Element4l – PS Vita

Pretty pleased with those. I've been wanting to play Until Dawn for ages, and a new Telltale adventure I've not played yet is always welcome.

[Alex79]

Brilliant line up for August PS+

Just Cause 3 (PS4)
Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry (PS4)
That’s You – PS4 (bonus title)
Super Motherload (PS3)
Snake Ball (PS3)
Downwell (PS Vita)
Level 22 (PS Vita)

Well pleased with that! 2 PS4 games I really wanted to play, Downwell on Vita, best month for ages!

[Flabyo]

Freedom cry is very very good. Black protagonist, and it covers an area of history more people need to know happened.

[Alex79]

Yeah all I knew was it was stand alone DLC for Black Flag, but reading up on it made it sound very interesting, and a subject I'd like to know more about.

[Alex79]

PS+ price increase:

Take a look at @eurogamer's Tweet: https://twitter.com/eurogamer/status/89 ... 47072?s=09

Now I know that in reality, the free games you get are worth 50 quid a year. But even so, a 25% price hike is a huge jump!

[KSubzero1000]

But even so, a 25% price hike is a huge jump!

Especially for those of us who aren't really interested in the "free" games and only subscribe for the multiplayer...
I wish they'd introduce a two-tier system, with the cheaper one offering the basic functions like discounts and multiplayer, and the monthly games being relegated to the more expensive one.

[Alex79]

Yeah that would work. PS+ and PS+ Pro or something. I'd happy pay a tenner a month for the 'free' games and PS Now bundled together.

[KSubzero1000]

And I would be happy not to. That way, everybody would get what they want, instead of frustrating their customers by making them pay more for the same thing.

[Beck]

I'm not too fussed about a price increase, I managed to grab a 12 month voucher for this years prices which was handy. I've put a good 100 hours into the PS Plus games this year and I've still to play quite a few of the games that have my interest. A two tier system would be great though, I have friends who don't bother with the plus games but have to pay for the subscription to play online which is a bit shit.

My only complaint about the price increase is the insane mark up on the pay monthly options, a cost of £84 a year if paying by monthly compared to a £50 if paying annually seems more than excessive.

[ratsoalbion]

It's less than £1 a week still, which seems reasonable for something I get a lot of fun out of. Even cheaper if you buy from somewhere like cdkeys: https://goo.gl/pc5Wyh

[mikeleddy83]

I'm not sure if they still operate this way but it does look a bit sketchy getting a scanned in receipt in your inbox with the code, regardless I've been doing it for a long while. you can get 12 months+ of gold too for around £20 at regular intervals in the year and best of all they stack so whilst I haven't broken the 2020 barrier with either service yet that's an option for sure.

[KSubzero1000]

Oh, and tangentially related: If they're gonna increase the price like this, they should probably make sure to implement a reliable and system-wide reporting system, instead of handwaving the issue and hoping someone else (read: developers) will take care of it for them.

Let's just say I had a recent encounter with a couple of insufferable players in Overwatch, who went from uncooperative to toxic to anti-semitic within a single match. And since Sony isn't interested in curating a healthy environment for their player base? End result: These two scumbags will keep going on their toxic spree completely unhindered, and I end up bullied out of a game I deeply enjoy. Absolutely unacceptable.

[Michiel K]

^^^^ Sorry to hear that man. That's pretty awful.

[KSubzero1000]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

To be fair, team-based multiplayer games like Overwatch do tend to bring the worst (and sometimes the best) out of people. So it's not like I don't know what I'm getting into. Still, it'd be nice to have proper options to combat the issue apart from muting/leaving team chat and stoically accept the loss.

Another thing is... well, I'm an adult. A thing like this will get under my skin for a few hours and I'll have forgotten about it in a few days. But I really don't like the idea of dumbasses like these running around and inflicting their garbage attitude on other, potentially younger and/or less resilient players.

[Alex79]

Custom themes for PS4 - anyone had any experience installing these? There are loads of websites, it seems, offering custom themes, ie. ones not available on the PSN store. Is it a case of just saving them to USB and installing them from there? Because it doesn't seem like it would be this easy to install 3rd party software from an external device - exactly the sort of thing that hackers could exploit to open up consoles to piracy in fact. Or am I misunderstanding what's being offered and it's just custom wallpapers and not the icons etc? Just wondered if anyone had ever tried it because it looks like there are some cool ones to play around with.

[Flabyo]

I’d assume it’s just using the new functionality that lets you upload your own images to use as backgrounds. Even the themes they sell on the store don’t seem to do more than that on PS4.