Wait a second, you can add on the Bluray drive to the slim PS5? Meaning you're not locked in to an all-digital console, but you can still upgrade later? That's a great idea, why is no one talking about this?
Sony finally gets to join the ranks of add-on-disc-player consoles: the Sega Megadrive, the N64DD, and this... thing.
If the launch of these is anything like the original launch, I think I’ll pass on this one too. That launch experience trying to get ahold of one really soured me on the PS5
I’m in the same boat. I used that money and saved a bit more and just built my first gaming PC.
I still want to play Ghost of Tsushima but I will not buy a PS5 just for that game. Don’t think I’m going to buy any more consoles in the future, sadly. The last release soured me on these releases too.
Funnily enough same for me, I already had a prebuilt gaming PC but after spending the time trying to get ahold of the PS5, I just started saving and made my first PC build as an upgrade to what I already had, feel like it was the better choice in the long run.
In early 2021 I, like so many people, wanted to build my first gaming pc. As I’m sure you can guess, I had a hell of a time trying to get my hands on a decent graphics card. In the end I purchased a prebuilt pc. The whole gpu buying attempt was so stressful and giving up was so disappointing. Should I never try to build a pc in the future? Of course not! Mostly I learned to be patient and accept that I might not get exactly what I want. The large PS5s are currently readily available, just get one of those.
The thing i like most about pc is the wide array of games that require different specs. I have a pretty powerful pc but I could easily entertain myself with the lowest end pc.
It’s not just the lack of availability but that was a part of it. Microsoft and Sony’s lack of proper response is part of the reason.
I remained “patient” to some extent as I only just got to build my PC this year. The GPU “shortage” was a part of it too.
But I felt that Sony and Microsoft could have done more for customers. Sony had a program to get actual PS users a PS5 but that too was still sold out. Scalpers had no issue buying pallets of consoles but actual fans couldn’t. It was insane.
But besides that, I’ve since realized that, at least for myself, a PC is the better way to go. Consoles are a waste of money for me in the long run as a PC will be used for more than just gaming and the longevity of the parts and upgradeability is incomparable. I likely wouldn’t have felt this way had I just been able to get a PS5/Xbox Series X like I wanted.
But Microsoft and Sony don’t seem to care about their actual fans and them getting consoles in their homes, which is what soured it for me. Though, yeah, same could be said about Nvidia and AMD as well to an extent too, but there are more manufacturers under them that make the actual cards and you had some like EVGA that had programs that tried to get a GPU in actual customers’ hands and not the greedy scalpers.
They literally just announced three more cover colors, (got the announcement email yesterday), I doubt they’ll phase them out that quickly. Even if they decide to go fast, I’d think they at least be smart enough to wait until after the holidays.
Saw that but these won’t work on the new model so I doubt they make more. Unless of course they’re for the revision but I don’t know how that’d work with the new design.
Would you normally replace a perfectly functional console with a smaller but otherwise identical machine? Do what you want with your own cash but that’s a very decadent purchase!
Just in time for the only game Sony has put out to make owning a PS5 worthwhile! (Fingers crossed Spiderman 2 is as good as its predecessors.)
EDIT - To be clear, spoken as someone who was lucky enough to get a PS5 on day 1 and almost never uses it. I like the Xbox controller and UI much better and… there just aren’t many good exclusives. And a lot of the ones that are good end up on other systems anyways.
You’re not wrong. In a year where there are entirely too many great releases on all consoles, I’ve only played two on my PS5 (Street Fighter 6 & Final Fantasy XVI)
To be fair, FF16 is on my list of games to play… but like you said, too many great releases at once. I figure by the time I get around to it, maybe I can get a price break.
As a die-hard, I bought it Day 1 and got my $70 worth. But after I 100%'d it and looked at my recently played, I realized the only other game was Chicory which I played around Christmas time…
Demon’s Souls is the first souls game that I have ever completed, I think it is an astounding part of the ps5 catalogue. Also, currently going through Ghost of Tsushima PS5 edition and at 4k60 that game is incredible.
Those are 2 experiences that I loved that are only available on PS5.
Are you talking about the original Demon’s Souls? From what I’ve heard, there are so many QOL improvements they can’t really be treated as the same game.
Also, Ratchet and Clank made me happy to have a PS5 (at that time the PC release hadn’t been announced).
there are so many QOL improvements they can’t really be treated as the same game.
there's a few, but it definitely doesn't make it a superior version or anything. Honestly Bluepoint did what Bluepoint does best and fucked with the lightning and color palette too much and the PS5 remake of Demon's Souls loses a lot of what made the original's aesthetic so great.
Why does it feel like every remake messes with lighting? As if making things brighter means it looks better. Halo CE is another that gets blasted for ruining the anesthetic of the original.
"Graphics:" are the only thing consoles can actively advertise on since "graphics" are the easiest thing to showcase in a screenshot or video.
It's why so many gamers whine and complain about "graphics" being the most importnat thing that determines whether they buy a game or not, which I find completely asinine.
Notice I put graphics in quotes a lot. That's because I distinctly and separating graphics/fidelity and art direction/aesthetic. I would much rather take a great game with a unique art style and lower fidelity over a game that has good fidelity, but a bog standard boring art direction and a color pallete of mostly browns and grays where 90% of the budget went to visuals and not the gameplay or content.
It's why I pretty much don't play modern AAA games. Year after year it's just the same crap rehashed in a slightly differnet $60 package. Why would I buy Call of Duty 26 or Open World Collectathon But This Time There's a Spider-Man Coat of Paint On It when I can play shit like Signalis or Crow Country or any of the Yakuza games or Nier or Antichamber or Death Stranding or Monster Hunter
I played through Demon’s Souls on a ps3 emulator and then the PS5 version. The PS3 version with a 60fps+1440p mod is great but the new version is still worth getting a PS5 for imo
Probably the least important of all these problems, but really, the publisher issuing a blanket chatGPT-generated apology, in the name of the studio without their knowledge, not even getting the name of the fucking game right.
Hardly surprising and it fits the scenario: a relatively small indie dev studio with only small-mid sized games under their belt with leadership deciding to buy into one of the most expensive IP available. Now, not only do they have a publisher looming over their work but are also under serious financial pressure to perform as well as expectation of a huge fan base plus promising a AAA sized game.
The leadership simply bit off far more than they could chew and panic set in, resulting in cut corners everywhere.
End result was a predictable disaster. Could have been avoided with smarter/better leadership. Clearly they didn’t think much of their dev team.
They could give away the game for free for a short boost in players, but they need to do something about the endgame first. Or else they end up in the same position they are in now.
Microsoft upped the Gamepass price on the basis that it would allow for bigger titles. Honestly I think they are delivering on that with Starfield and Forza Motorsport amongst others. EA Play inclusion also adds value as does having the 2 out of the 3 most recent AC chapters. Ubisoft + can go suck a dick though, I want Valhalla and eventually Mirage on Gamepass.
reportedly enforcing uncompensated overtime, allegedly trying to pay staff below minimum wage, and a toxic work environment cultivated by an alleged abusive leadership
The idea that only having a €15M budget is what caused this game's issues is ridiculous. It's not a game that had good ideas and just failed to execute them properly; it's fundamentally bad on a conceptual level.
The setting and story concept are bad. When the game was first announced, I don't think I heard or saw a single discussion where someone was excited to experience playing through the story of Gollum in that time period in the story. Or even playing as Gollum at all - he's a great secondary character in the books and films, but he's hardly a character you want to play as in a video game. There's no room for character development either.
The game design is bad. It's just bad. No amount of time, money or polish is going to fix the terrible basic design principles the game is built on. And even if they had 10x the budget and hired a world-class lead game designer from the start, it still would have the issues with the story and character.
The whole project is one that shouldn't have left the brainstorming session it was conceived in.
I have no better source than the person I replied to. I was on Reddit when the game was announced and it was clear that the game was about being gollum. Plenty of people were excited.
You can go back on reddit and look. Calling it revisionist is a bit of a stretch. The temperature on this game was very much mid to uninterested. Sure there were people who were excited, but it wasn’t a majority at all.
I was excited when it was first announced. I was hoping for a stealth game with gameplay like souls games or the shadow of mordor games. Sadly the game wasn’t even close to that so I didn’t buy it.
Those were your go-tos for gameplay expectations for sneaking around as a pretty weak little goblin man? I would’ve gone for Styx instead, a game about sneaking around as a little goblin man. (Which I think actually belongs to the same publisher)
Obviously combat would have to be balanced for Gollums powers. 1v1 an orc could have been fine but anything else would overpower him. I didn’t play Styx so I can’t compare it. I played the Splinter Cell Series and Dishonored, but both offered technology and weapons with range to help with sneaking. So I opted for games with a high fantasy setting. A game with controls like Souls, balanced for sneaking and ambushes as a focus, using the environment as your asset? Feels to me like it could work. Well, nothing like Souls, Shadow or Styx happened and we got whatever the Gollum game was.
I only played one for maybe like 2 hours, but they seem like pretty good games, you could probably pick one up for cheap on sale.
Also when I think of Soulslike Gollum, all I see in my mind is this gormless little creature wielding a 6 foot axe or something and that just makes me laugh.
Anyway, yeah, Nacon/Daedelic had several studios that had more experience making stealth-action games. I mean, besides the guys that made Styx, they also have the Shadow Tactics guys. Isometric tactical stealth could’ve been another option.
It’s honestly like they just made the absolute wrong decision for all things during development.
I could have seen it as a Stardew valley-esque Hobbit farming Sim, you start with simple farming, interacting with lore accurate villagers, fishing, cave gathering as Smeagol.
Then after a certain point of the game in a quest you find the Ring and your memories start getting hazy and your farming skill starts deteriorating and your cave gathering skills improve and the Ring blanks out part of your days and suddenly you find Deagols body and get flashbacks to what happened.
In the epilogue you start your usual day in the cave ‘bed’ instead of your Hobbit hole bed and you go gathering and meet Bilbo. Then cut to black
What was released was a disaster that hadn’t had anywhere near enough thought and consideration put into it. However, frankly if you don’t think a gollum game couldn’t be good I’d have to blame it on a lack of imagination.
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