The Sony news and discussion thread

[ratsoalbion]

I use a pair of £15 Sony headphones plugged directly into the controller and it sounds fine to me.

Those Sony surround ones are obviously a treat if you can afford them though.

[Stanshall]

They sound great - what connector do they have on the end? Like where do you plug them in, I mean.

They're wireless in fact, I should have mentioned that. They come with a 'Mixamp' which plugs into the PS4 via USB (for power and voice chat) and optical (comes with the cable) for 7.1 sound (in theory, though the PS4 only supports 5.1 Dolby). They also charge off the Mixamp and I reckon I get 6-8 hours off a full charge. They come with a pretty discrete stand too, so they're not as unwieldy as all that cabling sounds.

I spent about a fortnight going 'yeah they're good but not great' before I found out that I hadn't properly set them up via the PS4 to allow for the optical connection, and it was night and day. Definitely one of my more extravagant buys but I've never looked back since I set them up properly.

I see they've brought out another revision but it looks purely cosmetic again! If you can find an 'old' version, that's the way to go. They're also less garish than the new grey and lime monstrosity.

And as Leon says, the Sony Golds are good, but if you can find the Astros for a sensible price, there's no comparison, in comfort, sound quality and build quality.

[Alex79]

PS+ games for September 2016 :

Lords of the Fallen, PS4
Journey, PS4, PS3
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, PS3
Datura, PS3
Badland, PS Vita, PS4, PS3
Amnesia: Memories, PS Vita

Anyone played these? Journey is excellent, obviously. Lords Of The Fallen looks right up my street, but I've heard a lot of negative talk, despite the above average reviews. Badland I have no interest in at all, but Amnesia seems to have been well received if you like visual novels - I'll be giving it a try for sure. Of the two PS3 games, I can't say I'm too interested in Prince Of Persia, but Datura looks quite intriguing and will be a good excuse to dust off the Move controller.

Thoughts?

[Alex79]

Thanks for the headphone info guys, yeah definitely something I'd like to invest in when I have some spare cash.

[Stanshall]

I remember buying LotF when I was basically just waiting for Bloodborne and Scholar, thought it might be a decent stopgap. It is quite shite and doesn't have the Souls feel or any depth but for a PS+ game, I think it's playable enough. Some people do like it, in the same way that meth probably scratches an itch for crack addicts, which is a fair analogy for Souls fans!

[Flabyo]

There's a live-streamed Sony press event today. 3pm New York time (which I think puts it at 8pm in the UK).

Expectation is this is the proper announcement of the Neo, though we'll probably see that PS4 slim that everyone already knows about.

As for what else we might see... literally no idea. Probably a lot more VR guff.

[Alex79]

I'll be watching. The thing I'm most excited about though over the next few weeks is the Rez Infinite launch. I've got some credit on my PSN I'm saving for it. Just hope it's under 20 quid.

[Alex79]

EDIT : Fixed.

[Flabyo]

So the PS4 Pro.

If you have a 4K TV, yeah, it's great. Not so much if you only bought your ps4 recently though.

They did nothing to convince me you'd want one if you only have a normal HD TV though.

EA snuck in some new Mass Effect Andromeda footage, but it looked kinda bland. The graceful 70s sci-fi aesthetic of the characters, armour and environments is gone. Made it look pretty indistinguishable from the forerunner sections of Halo 5 sadly.

Given it'll be at least another year before I even consider getting a new TV, by the time I do we'll probably be into the round of machines after these. (Cause I don't for a minute buy into this 'post generations' future as a thing that will actually happen).

[stvnorman]

I just got a 4K TV, but only because I needed a new TV and it seems to be standard now for 40-inch and above. I would quite like a second Blu-ray player, 4K or not, and I'm sure my son would appreciate a dedicated FIFA machine on our other TV, but I'll wait to see how VR actually performs on the current PS4 before I decide... No chance my wife will buy me both for Christmas!

[Electric Crocosaurus]

Just catching up the news of the PS4Pro and I'm amazed that they won't allow for Ultra 4K BluRay discs to be played. Seems like a key feature if you're interested in 4K and making a choice between the PS4Pro and the Xbox One S (or Scorpio). Free HDR upgrade for existing PS4 owners is nice, though. Regardless, I only bought a PS4 last year so I'm in no hurry to throw more money at an electronics company any time soon.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

So PS4 Pro reaction seems broadly pretty negative across the internet, but I'm not sure what people were expecting. It seems pretty bang on what I thought it was going to be based on all the leaks we've had for months now - an incremental power boost with 4K support.

The omission of a 4K blu ray drive is an odd one though for sure as the Xbox One S now retains what for some is a pretty big unique selling point that Sony doesn't offer on either of it's PS4's.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Interesting PS4 Pro article from Digital Foundry for those that like a little tech geekery: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... tion-4-pro

They seem to be really impressed overall, saying that although it's not capable of rendering native 4K (and bafflingly lacks a 4K drive) the upscaling techniques used offer clear, significant improvements over the standard console on the right display.

And there in lies the rub....

Anyone got a spare £1,000+ I can borrow for a new telly?

[JaySevenZero]

The omission of a 4K blu ray drive is an odd one though for sure as the Xbox One S now retains what for some is a pretty big unique selling point that Sony doesn't offer on either of it's PS4's.

I know from my own experience that it's rare that I'll actually purchase a disc these days preferring the digital streaming/download services over just about everything these days. And whilst the sales of some films on disc have been strong (but even then BD sales are paltry in comparison to DVD, even in 2016), many more films have a far better time via services like Netflix. The disc based media market has seen a steady decline over the last 10 years whilst the streaming market grows by around 30% year on year. So at the end of the day, I'm not really surprised that it doesn't support it, by the time enough people have 4K capability, I wouldn't like to say how relevant disc based media will actually be? And given that current 4K disc sales at this point are almost nonexistent the actual take up is likely to be even less that the current BD market.

[skidoosh]

So PS4 Pro reaction seems broadly pretty negative across the internet, but I'm not sure what people were expecting. It seems pretty bang on what I thought it was going to be based on all the leaks we've had for months now - an incremental power boost with 4K support.

The omission of a 4K blu ray drive is an odd one though for sure as the Xbox One S now retains what for some is a pretty big unique selling point that Sony doesn't offer on either of it's PS4's.

I don't feel any negativity towards it myself, but I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed. I think they showed their had too early too if I'm honest. On paper it's got less grunt than the Scorpio and the lack of the 4k blu ray player will be used against it. In fact I opened twitter this morning to this xbone ad "Play the greatest games in HDR. Stream 4K video & watch ultra HD Blu-ray movies in stunning 4K the the Xbox One S".

I think I can contain myself this time round and wait a bit before I pick one up. But, that's completely based on the fact that no one seems to be doing anything special for the release that I feel I'd like to witness.

[Flabyo]

That you need a fairly new TV to see the benefits means this is for the early adopter crowd right now.

At some point I suspect the current spec PS4 will be discontinued, but the fact they've made the slim suggests they know there isn't the market for the Pro to be the only device out there.

It's hedging of bets. Risk averse.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

By the time enough people have 4K capability, I wouldn't like to say how relevant disc based media will actually be? Especially given that current 4K disc sales at this point are almost nonexistent.

I largely agree with you Jay. I don't know if 4K blu ray will take off at all either, but at this point I think it's more of a perception issue than anything else. If you're going to shell out top dollar for the most expensive console on the market people expect it to have to most high-end tech baked in, and the fact that it doesn't is an issue. How big an issue we'll have to wait and see given that 4K is not yet the in-home standard, but in the short term there's no denying that on the face of it, it simply looks bad. Hanging the very existence of the box on 4K as they have, and then not supporting the 4K disc medium feels like a strange disconnect. Aside from anything else Microsoft has already jumped on it with cheeky tweets and ads, and handing your major competitor a stick to beat you with is just an unforced error.

I don't feel any negativity towards it myself

I’m on the fence with it as an endeavour personally, but probably wavering on the side of it feeling like they’ve not gone far enough to make it worthwhile.

The mainstream outlets seem to be in fairly neutral mode at the minute, but Twitter and the more independent industry commentators are coming down on it pretty hard from what I can see. I decided to watch the PS I Love You XOXO live stream of the event, and whether you like those guys or not they’re a big voice in the Playstation ecosystem. All three of them dismiss the machine in pretty strong terms and the comments from the nearly 20,000 live viewers they had were also largely pretty scathing.

Sony’s got some work to do if it has it’s most fervent fanbase up in arms, but then this is the internet! They'll probably find something else to be angry about in a few days

[skidoosh]

They'll probably find something else to be angry about in a few days

[Jusifer]

wouldn't most of the people interested in this small a difference between the systems be in the pc gaming world anyway? I mean if you don't have a 4k tv it only has minimal effects on only certain games if I understood this correctly?

[chase210]

PS4 Pro pre ordered. *sits here with 4K TV*