Playstation event Today

[stroopwafel]

I think that while more people buy games digitally, virtually nobody buys digital games exclusively, which is the key nuance here in my estimation.

I haven't bought a physical game in four years. Digital is just more convenient. You don't have to swap discs and everything is in one place. Biggest factor ofcourse is that physical games(or media in general) has lost all appeal. I remember in the old days they really put care in the box art and the manuals. Now you have this paper thin cheap plastic case hastily put together with nothing but a single disclaimer leaflet. Worse thing is what is printed on the disc; nine out of ten times it is incomplete code. So it's pretty much worthless without an internet connection anyway. Art books of games I really love have pretty much replaced physical media for me.

 

[Dreiko]

I haven't bought a physical game in four years. Digital is just more convenient. You don't have to swap discs and everything is in one place. Biggest factor ofcourse is that physical games(or media in general) has lost all appeal. I remember in the old days they really put care in the box art and the manuals. Now you have this paper thin cheap plastic case hastily put together with nothing but a single disclaimer leaflet. Worse thing is what is printed on the disc; nine out of ten times it is incomplete code. So it's pretty much worthless without an internet connection anyway. Art books of games I really love have pretty much replaced physical media for me.

Well, like I said above, some physical games come out with cool collectibles like the art books you mention, which make physical purchases worthwhile. 13 Sentinels being a huge upcoming example of this, and they give out the artbooks on the standard edition preorder at no extra charge too. I'm super hype about that one.

 

[stroopwafel]

Well, like I said above, some physical games come out with cool collectibles like the art books you mention, which make physical purchases worthwhile. 13 Sentinels being a huge upcoming example of this, and they give out the artbooks on the standard edition preorder at no extra charge too. I'm super hype about that one.

Yep, already pre-ordered. Ehmm..digital edition xD

The art books they sell at a later date don't really compare though. Take for example the DkS3 artbook that was with the collector's edition and the official artworks published by Kadokawa later. They really made that one for the connoiseur.

 

[Dreiko]

Yep, already pre-ordered. Ehmm..digital edition xD

The art books they sell at a later date don't really compare though. Take for example the DkS3 artbook that was with the collector's edition and the official artworks published by Kadokawa later. They really made that one for the connoiseur.

Oh yeah, if it's something like an enthusiast level fan artbook that's above and beyond and is kinda worth it even at a higher price. Though that being said, if this is anywhere near as good as the one they did for Dragon's Crown, that is good enough for me to get this disk ps5 so that I'll have other stuff like that in the future.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Fuck it, gonna ***** about that price hike some more. That 80 euros? Fuck you, for effectively making us pay $15-20 more when taking exchange rates and sales tax into account, just because we so happen to not live in the US. Can't imagine what the rest of the world get to look forward to, like the Aussies. And Latin America is no doubt completely shafted.

It's fine tho. I got my monthly €60 games budget and I'll be sticking to it. Meanwhile, PS5 is going on the backburner for at least 3-4 years and that €500 is going towards pc upgrades.

Australian here. $750 for a 9th-gen console with a disc drive. If you want a game to go with that console, that's an extra $125 (up from $100 or $110 for 8th-gen games). And I liked all the Dark Souls games including Bloodborne and Sekiro, but Demon's Souls is not worth $875.

 

[Chimpzy]

Australian here. $750 for a 9th-gen console with a disc drive. If you want a game to go with that console, that's an extra $125 (up from $100 or $110 for 8th-gen games). And I liked all the Dark Souls games including Bloodborne and Sekiro, but Demon's Souls is not worth $875.

Is that including tax? Cuz converting those prices to euros is actually a little cheaper than what we're expected to pay (€464 vs 500, and €77 vs 80), tho we're both a fair bit up from yank prices (even with the highest US sales tax). Tho games might still be relatively more expensive for you, I don't know what pricing for consumer goods is like over there.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Australian here. $750 for a 9th-gen console with a disc drive. If you want a game to go with that console, that's an extra $125 (up from $100 or $110 for 8th-gen games). And I liked all the Dark Souls games including Bloodborne and Sekiro, but Demon's Souls is not worth $875.

Isn’t your sales tax there 10%? Even at $70 U.S. that’s only 105.50 in Aussie money, unless I’m missing something?

Anyways, since one of my favorite games from last gen is Demon’s Souls, I’ll give my thoughts on the gameplay trailer -

Pro’s:

- They seem to have kept the classic opening.

- I like the aesthetics. It feels gloomy enough but with better color grading, and environmental details look pretty fantastic.

- Player Character (“PC” henceforth) animations look nice, and the frame rate helps sell the smoothness, like when he hurdles the fence and jumps down.

- The grunts and such are also a nice touch, as are the little struggles like removing his sword from an enemy.

- Enemy character models are wonderfully detailed

- It looks swifter than the original; more like DS3 in terms of speed and responsiveness.


Con’s:

- Enemies don’t seem rag-dolly enough even compared to the original. Not talking about the silly weightless crap once they’re dead, but they don’t seem to respond much to being hit beyond what looks like canned death animations.

- Some of the PC physics don’t seem right. Blue eyed demons hit the PC’s shield with full force and he doesn’t even flinch; like he’s a brick wall. Just a *tink* sound. Only a massive blow from the Vanguard demon causes him to lose poise. He also appears to cut down everyone else like they’re nothing but an afterthought. That leads to another major complaint:

- Next gen needs to have more dynamic damage models. There’s really little excuse for it anymore when they put so much detail into everything else. When you slice into a scrub we should see cloth tearing and visual flesh gashes. The Vanguard demon’s highly exposed gut should be showing physical signs of the PC hacking it with a sword over and over. Ideally with this attack method his entrails would eventually spill out. Or for a riskier tactic you could possibly bait him into stumbling forward leaving him open for a well-placed sword stab to the temple to finish him off quicker. Or you could douse him in oil and set him on fire with a torch. Ideas. Improvements. Just getting really tired of the binary alive/dead approach to boss design where you’re essentially fighting a health bar.

I’m hoping I’m wrong and this was all just early footage shown purely for demonstration, but it really feels like a rough draft in terms of combat. I know this is really early next gen but I feel like Demon’s Souls kinda seems a little off. From the footage I can get a sense of how it plays, and I like the little grunts and melee animations, but I think they could’ve dove a bit deeper. Maybe it’s expecting too much from essentially a port/remake developer, or I’m being too critical being a huge fan with hundreds of hours in the original and wanting this update to be perfect.

 

[BrawlMan]

You do realize Microsoft was way more arrogant with the 360 than Sony was with the PS3. The main reason why PS3s were expensive was the blu-ray drive (partly Microsoft's fault actually, no lie), which you can call arrogance on that a bit because I'm sure Sony was using PS3 as a Trojan horse for blu-ray like the PS2 for DVD, but blu-ray is far better than DVD for storage (equaling better audio for PS3 games), ability to watch movies, and scratch resistance on the discs. Outside of that, Sony sold you a console with a hard drive, wi-fi, and a HDMI port, which the 360 didn't have. Microsoft charged an exorbitant amount for both wi-fi and hard drive add-ons that you could ONLY BUY FROM THEM. Microsoft, the one company of the big 3 that actually makes their own internet browser obviously, didn't put an internet browser on the 360 so they could control everything you do on the internet and charge you for it while even Nintendo, the company that seems like they don't even understand the Internet, put Opera on the Wii. Wanna use Facebook, you gotta pay for Xbox Gold. Wanna watch Netflix that you pay Netflix for, you gotta pay Microsoft for some reason (and still do). PS3 had free multiplayer gaming, 360 didn't. Oh, and PS3s didn't break like once a month like 360s, which Microsoft knew about before even selling them. Sony "arrogance" during the PS3 generation is so overblown, it's not even funny.

What single mistake is Sony even repeating from 2006 as their main mistake from then was using blu-ray drives one gen too early and over doing the R&D on the cell processor? For PS5, they're using standard x86 architecture with AMD chips and still using blu-ray drives. PS5's big thing is the SSD for this gen but console gaming really needs SSDs at this point and the competition is doing the same as well. The price point for games going up isn't a Sony only thing and will probably make it's way to PC gaming as well. Hell, Nintendo's whole "our games never go on sale" thing cost consumers more money than this will. Mario Kart on the Switch is basically the WiiU version and it still cost $60 today.

No fucking duh on microsoft. That's not the point. Right now they're both being arrogant assholes. With Nintendo not that far behind us certain aspects. If you stop adding all the other stuff that's not the main point. Doesn't matter end of the discussion for me.

Fuck it, gonna ***** about that price hike some more. That 80 euros? Fuck you, for effectively making us pay $15-20 more when taking exchange rates and sales tax into account, just because we so happen to not live in the US. Can't imagine what the rest of the world get to look forward to, like the Aussies. And Latin America is no doubt completely shafted.

It's fine tho. I got my monthly €60 games budget and I'll be sticking to it. Meanwhile, PS5 is going on the backburner for at least 3-4 years and that €500 is going towards pc upgrades.

Glad to see someone makes sense.

I really need to start living life more instead of this addictive past-time. Can't let this coping mechanism for the multitude of anxieties swallow the rest of the dwindling time and money any more than it already has.

I respect you for that and I don't blame you.

 

[BrawlMan]

I enjoy seeing both their views and reactions. Max has some extra details in his though.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Is that including tax? Cuz converting those prices to euros is actually a little cheaper than what we're expected to pay (€464 vs 500, and €77 vs 80), tho we're both a fair bit up from yank prices (even with the highest US sales tax). Tho games might still be relatively more expensive for you, I don't know what pricing for consumer goods is like over there.

Isn’t your sales tax there 10%? Even at $70 U.S. that’s only 105.50 in Aussie money, unless I’m missing something?

Yeah, that's including tax. I've never seen tax-free prices anywhere in Australia except on a receipt. In the store, adverts, wherever you actually need to think about it, the tax is always included.

 

[Chimpzy]

Yeah, that's including tax. I've never seen tax-free prices anywhere in Australia except on a receipt. In the store, adverts, wherever you actually need to think about it, the tax is always included.

Hurrah, then you're not as shafted as you could've been. Maybe we should form a club. Take turns fuming with disgust. No yanks allowed.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I enjoy seeing both their views and reactions. Max has some extra details in his though.

I literally lol’d at Jim complaining about a new console generation approaching.

God I’m going to have to get the consoles, turn them on, set them up, play games on them, do videos on them...ugh...ugh...ugh...hate it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Hurrah, then you're not as shafted as you could've been. Maybe we should form a club. Take turns fuming with disgust. No yanks allowed.

So what else is factored into such pricing disparity across regions on top of sales tax differences, which isn’t much? Certainly can’t be anything involving logic?

 

[Chimpzy]

So what else is factored into such pricing disparity across regions on top of sales tax differences, which isn’t much? Certainly can’t be anything involving logic?

Cost of distribution maybe? Australia is big and largely empty, meaning relatively higher logistics costs and such. I mean, that sounds like something they'd come up with as a reason. Doesn't really explain why Europe and Japan are also seeing an extra €10/¥1000 slapped on. In Europe's case, maybe localisation for all these different languages and such, but that sure as fuck doesn't apply to Japan, least of all for Japanese games.

Want my highly educated guess? They charge more because they can.

 

[CriticalGaming]

The pre-orders are fucked as usual. Websites have been crashing and people have had issues at checkout and such.

I didn't even bother to try because I live in shithole-ville USA and I'll walk into Walmart release date and just buy one when the store opens. Like I did with my Switch.

The Switch launch was a mess everywhere, but I literally just walked into Walmart and said, "can I have one?" And boom, Switch and BotW without effort. Gotta love shithole towns.

 

[stroopwafel]

- Next gen needs to have more dynamic damage models. There’s really little excuse for it anymore when they put so much detail into everything else. When you slice into a scrub we should see cloth tearing and visual flesh gashes. The Vanguard demon’s highly exposed gut should be showing physical signs of the PC hacking it with a sword over and over. Ideally with this attack method his entrails would eventually spill out. Or for a riskier tactic you could possibly bait him into stumbling forward leaving him open for a well-placed sword stab to the temple to finish him off quicker. Or you could douse him in oil and set him on fire with a torch. Ideas. Improvements. Just getting really tired of the binary alive/dead approach to boss design where you’re essentially fighting a health bar.

I’m hoping I’m wrong and this was all just early footage shown purely for demonstration, but it really feels like a rough draft in terms of combat. I know this is really early next gen but I feel like Demon’s Souls kinda seems a little off. From the footage I can get a sense of how it plays, and I like the little grunts and melee animations, but I think they could’ve dove a bit deeper. Maybe it’s expecting too much from essentially a port/remake developer, or I’m being too critical being a huge fan with hundreds of hours in the original and wanting this update to be perfect.

They can make the game look prettier and add a ton of graphic details and lighting effects but dynamic damage models is really on another level. Technically that was already possible this gen but the only studios to pull it off were Rockstar and Naughty Dog with respectively RDR2 and TLoU2. Both games were in development for like seven years and had hundreds if not thousands of people working on these kind of animations. RE2 Remake zombie dismemberment was also on another level, just as the visible knife slashes on Jack Baker in RE7, but you're talking two enemy types here in fairly static encounters. Having this translated to a game like DeS with it's zoo of monsters and different enemy types and flexible encounters I wouldn't know how many resources or manpower has to be put in to have dynamic damage models and reactive animations on them. Some games have even taken a step back if you compare the physics model of GTA4 with GTA5 or Far Cry 2 with FC3, 4, 5 etc. At one point a choice has to be made between graphic fidelity and physics/damage models. And pretty graphics are just more of a crowd pleaser. Probably also the reason why enemy A.I. seems to have never really advanced beyond a certain level.

I would definitely love realistic damage models as well. One of the reasons RE4 remains one of my most favorite games is because the damage model and particle effects still haven't really been surpassed. But with the almost photo realistic graphics I think the most realistic expectation for next-gen is prettier and better looking without sinking the framerate. Unless you're a studio with infinite resources and the better part of a decade of development time I don't think it's really possible to have dynamic damage models. And even then it's still pretty limited.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I literally lol’d at Jim complaining about a new console generation approaching.

God I’m going to have to get the consoles, turn them on, set them up, play games on them, do videos on them...ugh...ugh...ugh...hate it.

I really dont understand why people ***** about a new generation every single time. They always ***** like they don't want the tech to evolve, or the medium to move forward in anyway, or to ever have to replace equipment. It's not like there is a new generation every other year, it's not like when you buy a Playstation 5 you'll need a PS6 in 2022.

Nobody bitches about Nvidia dropping a new $1500 graphics card every other year. So why do they complain about a new console every 7 years? It's really not that big of a deal and you never have to jump into the new console at launch so.....

 

[CriticalGaming]

They can make the game look prettier and add a ton of graphic details and lighting effects but dynamic damage models is really on another level. Technically that was already possible this gen but the only studios to pull it off were Rockstar and Naughty Dog with respectively RDR2 and TLoU2. Both games were in development for like seven years and had hundreds if not thousands of people working on these kind of animations. RE2 Remake zombie dismemberment was also on another level, just as the visible knife slashes on Jack Baker in RE7, but you're talking two enemy types here in fairly static encounters. Having this translated to a game like DeS with it's zoo of monsters and different enemy types and flexible encounters I wouldn't know how many resources or manpower has to be put in to have dynamic damage models and reactive animations on them. Some games have even taken a step back if you compare the physics model of GTA4 with GTA5 or Far Cry 2 with FC3, 4, 5 etc. At one point a choice has to be made between graphic fidelity and physics/damage models. And pretty graphics are just more of a crowd pleaser. Probably also the reason why enemy A.I. seems to have never really advanced beyond a certain level.

I would definitely love realistic damage models as well. One of the reasons RE4 remains one of my most favorite games is because the damage model and particle effects still haven't really been surpassed. But with the almost photo realistic graphics I think the most realistic expectation for next-gen is prettier and better looking without sinking the framerate. Unless you're a studio with infinite resources and the better part of a decade of development time I don't really think it's really possible to have dynamic damage models. And even then it's still pretty limited.

Wolverine Origins had dynamic damage on Wolverine while you played and that was a Xbox 360/PS3 game. And Racing games have been using dynamic damage models for ages.

The problem is that dynamic damage isn't a detail that usually matters. Very few games would make any use of it and those that do it hardly matter. So i don't think it's something that they feel is worth the dev time.

Though Kratos had dynamic damage in God of War. It just heals quickly because he's awesome.

 

[stroopwafel]

Wolverine Origins had dynamic damage on Wolverine while you played and that was a Xbox 360/PS3 game. And Racing games have been using dynamic damage models for ages.

The problem is that dynamic damage isn't a detail that usually matters. Very few games would make any use of it and those that do it hardly matter. So i don't think it's something that they feel is worth the dev time.

Though Kratos had dynamic damage in God of War. It just heals quickly because he's awesome.

Yeah, but it's still really limited. What Hansel meant I think is that in DeS you could for example slash Vanguard's belly open as his bowels protrude out that Vanguard then tries to push back as he continues to fight you. That kind of dynamic animations. Not a scripted scene. It would be my dream game as well but just not really realistic.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I get that games cost more to make these days, but man that $10 increase fucking hurts. Not to mention they could have easily absorbed the extra cost with the fucktillion tons of cash they make. So that pretty much destroys any possibility of me getting a digital version, since I'd have to buy games in a currency that's not my own.

Pricing is nice, but irrelevant to me since there's now no way in hell I'm early adopting again. I look forward to getting a PS5 slim, if there are any exclusives that would be able to pry me way from PC.

I really dont understand why people ***** about a new generation every single time. They always ***** like they don't want the tech to evolve, or the medium to move forward in anyway, or to ever have to replace equipment. It's not like there is a new generation every other year, it's not like when you buy a Playstation 5 you'll need a PS6 in 2022.

Nobody bitches about Nvidia dropping a new $1500 graphics card every other year. So why do they complain about a new console every 7 years? It's really not that big of a deal and you never have to jump into the new console at launch so.....

You'll still be able to play majority of the new games with your "old" graphics card though. Not the same with the PS4. I think its a fairly natural reaction to an expense that pops up after fairly long time periods. I'd ***** about having to buy a new car, despite getting so much use out of the old car that its falling apart. I mean, who would have a positive reaction towards the idea of having to spend more money? Regardless of justified the expense would be.