I'm curious as to how the PS6 will fare but I will not be buying one. My interest in PlayStation died when Sony announced the death of the physical disc for games and PS5 Pro will be my last Sony console.
I've decided to just move over mainly to PC for gaming with a bit of Switch 2 on the side. As for XBOX, that platform died a long time ago for me and I sold my 18 months unused XBOX Series X last week.
I don't even think a PS6 handheld will do much either as look what happened to the PS Vita, which was a fantastic handheld, albeit a horrible fingerprint magnet with super expensive proprietary storage cards, that failed to sell leading Sony to pretty much abandon it.
With PC handhelds like Steam Deck and Switch/Switch 2, what makes Sony think a PS6 handheld will fare any better? I think it'll be a flop personally as what would it offer that Steam Deck or Switch 2 don't now? A few exclusives that are few and far between these days? A digital library of PS4 and PS5 games that Sony can just remove on a whim? Yeah, sounds great!
Hmmm, 8-cores and 20 E-cores... are those E-cores really useful for gaming? I always viewed them as background Windows process cores based on my experiences with the i5-13600KF in my current build.
There are some games that don't play nice with E-cores and Control outright crashes with them enabled unless you use software such as CoreDirector to force the game to use the P-cores.
Anyway, I've switched from Intel to AMD for my next build with a Ryzen 7 9850x3D as my PC is purely for gaming so I want the best performance for gaming.
The problem as far as I am concerned is that is so easy to distort the true digital sales figures because there are many, many games - smaller indie and shovelware titles for example -plus content such as DLC that don't exist on physical discs. Also, supplies of physical discs are limited so once they run out then people will be pushed, whether they realise it or not, toward buying the game digitally.
I have noticed that Amazon PS5 games can quickly go out of stock if you don't pre-order before release, whereas in the PS4 era and early days of PS5 it was very easy to buy physical games many months after release and always for a lot less than the original asking price.
It is hard to know if the current physical disc situation is because the supplies are being limited to force people toward digital, or if the publishers are just being cautious by not manufacturing a surplus of discs that no-one wants because everyone else is buying digitally. I personally suspect it is the former myself.
But ultimately the disc, while offering some kind of ownership and resell value, it pretty much always has the version of the game on it that you don't want to play and once those servers go offline and assuming the disc will still install then all those patches, updates and DLC etc are gone forever.
I still buy movies and music on disc. In the case of music CDs, I rip them to my PC to listen to from there so the disc gives me nicely boxed product, a sense of ownership and acts as a backup. I also buy games as a collector and to have something to own. However, I still see the convenience of digital and think it would be great if I could install a game from a disc and then not need to keep inserting it in the drive everytime I want to play it, kind of like how it works for CDs.
I will not be buying a PS6 or indeed buying any games for my PS5 Pro after January 2028 because of the whole disc situation.
Why is it that so many developers struggle to implement proper framepacing at 30 fps on consoles?
It's a genuine question that has been baffling me as someone who notices bad framepacing but doesn't code personally.
On PC bad framepacing is as simple to fix as just forcing a 30 fps framerate cap in RivaTuner Statistics Server or the graphics driver control panel. I then see a perfect 16.67ms line on the on-screen display.
Why is it that this no developer does this on consoles. Surely it can't be that difficult if a PC tool can do this independent of the game engine? I personally don't mind 30 fps games on consoles so long as the framepacing is correct as this means the game feels smooth and looks smooth in motion.
What I cannot stand is poor framepacing as it just puts me off playing it. Bloodborne is an example of a great game tarnished by bad framepacing, something that FromSoftware became notorious for until they started to release 'up to 60 fps' games on current gen consoles. At least those games can be fixed using VRR so long as they keep north of 48 fps.
Disappointing isn't a word I'd use for why they shadow dropped a poorly performing games on PS5 and PC, pretty much abandoned it and only now, after the Switch 2 version has been released, are saying they are looking into fixing the game on other systems.
I'd call that utterly disgusting personally.
Do Bethesda really think that people are happy to either play a game with lousy performance or wait 15+ months for a patch? People buy games to play them not sit and wait for a patch that may or may not come so everyone who owns the remaster will have experienced the sub-optimal beta build of the game.
Remember they shadow dropped this game the day it was officially announced so no-one was crying out for it. What they should have done was waited, continued to optimise it until it was ready for release then released it.
Shadow dropping a broken game is just insulting in my opinion and only serves to enhance Bethesda's reputation for releasing unpolished, unoptimised games.
One thing that puzzled me is if Xbox One and Series X|S discs have always had the disc ID that will allow them to convert them to a digital licence, then why did the discs need to be in the drive to play them? Could they not have automatically associated the disc ID with the Xbox account and bypassed the need for disc verification years ago?
I love having games on disc for that sense of ownership and having something tangible of value but dislike having to swap discs. Microsoft could very easily have implemented the disc ID to user account thing years ago allowing people to build up a digital library without ever realising.
Since the disc ID transfers to the new user if it is sold then it prevents people from buying a game, installing it and then selling it on (although there would be a period between the sale and the new owner playing the game which would allow the previous owner to still play it).
I have no interest in either next-gen console at this point but I am curious as to what Sony has planned for transferring PS4/PS5 discs over to a digital licence. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if they have nothing planned and just expect players to rebuy the games again digitally.
I have over 150 PS4 and PS5 games on disc so the only way I would have even considered buying a PS6 is if those were accessible as discs on the new console. I can't see them making an optional disc drive just for legacy games somehow and I don't think the games discs have individual IDs like Xbox ones do either to easily transfer the licences over.
It is so great to read that Microsoft are bringing over Xbox 360 games over to PC via emulation as well as I found I owned two of the four initial Xbox releases they released last week and bought one of the other two, Conker Live & Reloaded (obviously, look at my avatar!) which I still own on disc. I also own a few 360 games digitally too, which I bought when I used my Xbox Series X.
It's just a shame that in order to access these games I have to use the lacklustre Xbox app, which has a tendency to break games with updates and throw up unhelpful messages like "Something went wrong, please try again later" and vague error codes that are no help whatsoever.
In fact, all three of the emulated Xbox games ended up getting broken on my Windows 11 PC and no amount of verification and resetting/reinstalling the Xbox app would fix it. I even moved them to another drive, which which triggered an "Unsupported 16-bit executable" warning! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded all three games and, lo and behold, they are working again... until the next update breaks them, I guess.
This is one of the reasons I cancelled my GamePass subscription back in May 2024 and now just buy Xbox games on Steam, where oddly enough I never experience any of these issues. Isn't that strange?
Anyway, rant over, this push for Xbox and 360 emulation on PC means that I can finally sell my unused Xbox Series X and ditch the console for good but still have access to the small library of classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
That is good because I am ditching consoles next generation, including the PS6, which no longer interests me due to Sony killing physical discs for games (that for me was one of the key reasons to own consoles).
Game looks really nice artistically, I think, and image quality wise it looks decent on my 55" OLED TV so no real complaints there.
I don't use my Switch 2 in handheld mode ever because I hate that LCD screen so much but it baffles me why Nintendo continue to exist in the dark ages when it comes to anti-aliasing techniques, often foregoing it completely in handheld mode like they have here.
I can hear the purists screaming that this is how it should be to keep the image crisp and sharp and clear for a small screen, where maybe they won't notice the jaggies and shimmering so much, but I personally find it tarnishes the presentation. I am just so thankful that they at least added some kind of anti-aliasing treatment for the docked experience and, even if it is extremely basic by modern standards, I think it works well enough.
It is a shame though that Nintendo's own in-house games are not making use of NVIDIA's DLSS which has been shown to work extremely well in other third-party games.
I've just bought a new custom built AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D PC with 32 GB of DDR5 6000 memory, to be delivered later this month, mostly because of the rising price of the components.
Otherwise, I would have just waited another 12-18 months before upgrading my PC but, at this rate, who knows how much more expensive all these components will cost.
Absolutely ridiculous how the AI boom is slowly killing both the PC and console gaming market. RAM, SSDs, GPUs and now motherboards!
Looks fine to me but like Xenoblade Chronicles the framerate is wildly inconsistent when played docked, feeling like it is switching between 60 fps and 30 fps.
It's like they only considered this for handheld mode which supports VRR but, of course, the docked mode doesn't so any framerate drops immediately manifest as judder.
Smooth performance is something I've become accustomed to on PS5 Pro and PC where VRR is supported so it is really disappointing that the Switch 2 still does not support this.
What on earth were Nintendo thinking when they designed the Switch 2 which has VRR but poor HDR in handheld mode and no VRR but great HDR when docked (and connected to a modern 4K TV)?
Looks like the Microsoft Store updated Crimson Skies, Conker and BLiNX yesterday but now I can no longer play any of these games as I get an application error 0xc0000005 for EmuMenu.exe when I try to launch them.
All three were working perfectly over the weekend and the only things that have changed since then on my Windows 11 Pro 25H2 PC is updating the graphics drivers for my RTX 4080 from 610.74 to 610.88, along with a cumulative Windows update to 26200.8973.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
By the way, these kind of vague errors are exactly why I abandoned GamePass and the awful Microsoft Store for just buying Xbox games on Steam, where they just work. I was always getting these kind of errors on the Xbox app and Microsoft Store, along with the insulting "Something went wrong, please try again later" messages, which are absolutely no help at all.
EDIT
Not joking here but I relocated the games to a different drive and got a different error, an unsupported 16-bit application error!!! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded the games to the same drive and now all three work. THIS is why I despise the Xbox app... you don't have to put up with this crap on Steam!
Seems the ghosting I was seeing in the cutscene FMVs is due to them being capped at 30 fps which doesn't play nice with frame gen. Thought I saw some weirdness with them but I wasn't sure exactly what it was I seeing because the ghosting isn't there all the time.
Definitely evokes memories of playing the original for the first time and visually it is easily the best that Halo has ever looked, although I remember being just as blown away by the original when I saw it running on that GAME pod.
Runs really well maxed out on the Ultra preset with DLAA at 1440p on my i5-13600KF / RTX 4080 with only a couple of minor hitches in the 3 hours I've played it so far. One was during a cutscene transition and the other was a 1 second freeze during a Covenant battle during the initial mission on the Halo ring where you have to locate the three life boats.
I also thought I saw some weirdness with the cutscenes at one point as if the FMV was displaying a double-image or blurring. Might have just been a hiccup as the game transitions from gameplay to cutscene but I thought it worth mentioning.
Only other issue is that the audio mix seems quiet on my PC where I'm using a 2.1 stereo speaker set up. Cortana's dialogue was loud but the music seemed very subdued in the mix. I'm wondering if this is a bug with the game outputting 5.1 surround sound to a 2.1 setup. Will be interested to see if anyone else reports this.
Otherwise, a really fantastic remake and easily the best Halo game from Microsoft/Xbox since Halo 3 in my opinion.
P.S. The game has skins for Master Chief but with this remake using FMV cutscenes it means that the only way to actually see them is if you play the game in co-op and someone else wears the skin. Otherwise, all you see in game are Master Chiefs legs and arms and a bit of the chest at certain angles!
I am really looking forward to playing this on my PC in a couple of hours.
Great news that they've finally got a modernised version of Halo: Combat Evolved right. It always was my favourite game in the franchise ever since I played the Xbox demo on a pod in GAME all those years ago...
Only complaint is the use of pre-rendered FMV, which is a bit of a disappointment (and likely adds to the install size?) considering the original had real-time cutscenes. I would have preferred to seen real-time ones in the remake, especially on Unreal Engine 5, but it seems to be an intentional choice with Microsoft remakes as Gears of War: Reloaded also used pre-rendered FMV when the original's cutscenes were real-time.
I absolutely loved three of those four games on Xbox (sorry Fusion Frenzy!) so I really like the idea of being able to play these on PC with some enhancements even if those don't extend to proper 16:9 widescreen support or a higher framerate.
I was extremely saddened when I found that I could no longer play gems like RalliSport Challenge 2 on Xbox 360 or PGR 3 and 4 on Xbox One. With those being licenced games though that are no longer available to buy digitally then chances are they will never be playable on PC.
I still own those on disc, but since they don't work on Xbox Series X, then there seems little to no chance of them ever coming to PC in my opinion.
Until all games can run on SteamOS and at a performance level that is the same or better than Windows (some games do run worse on SteamOS than Windows from what I've read/seen) then I personally would not risk switching from Windows to SteamOS for any future PC.
My experience with SteamOS is only on Steam Deck where it seems to work well enough but there are still incompatibility issues that take months to address and in the meantime you end up having to mess around with different versions of Proton (the emulation layer).
That is less of an issue on Steam Deck, where I am mostly playing older games anyway that tend to mostly work fine, but it would become a big deal for me on a PC if I bought a new triple A game and was unable to play it properly because it didn't work properly on SteamOS.
Also, there is the fact that currently SteamOS only works with AMD GPUs. Apart from a brief stint with AMD GPUs and their awful CrossFire (their version of NVIDIA's SLI) in the early 2000s, I've always bought NVIDIA GPU for their features, usually better drivers and so on. NVIDIA are just two steps ahead of AMD when it comes to RT, DLSS and frame gen in my experience so I would only use SteamOS in a PC if I could use a NVIDIA GPU.
For some reason, I thought this redesign meant that the joycons and the main Switch 2 unit would have a removeable battery compartment like other accessories such as remote controls to make it easy to swap batteries. At worst, I thought I thought it would just be a case of removing four small screws to reveal the battery.
Just goes to show how naïve I was in that assumption because this battery replacement process still looks fiddly as hell and maybe benefits Switch 2 repair businesses more than the end user?
The post-release support for this game has been astonishing in my opinion to the point where the current build is significantly improved over the launch version.
I enjoyed my time with this game but had two gripes with it. One, the story is underwhelming and lead character, Kliff, is utterly forgettable. Two, the game looks nice enough visually but it falls apart as soon as you start moving as the engine's draw distance is poor with lots of distracting LOD issues and pop in, even when you completely max out the PC version on its inappropriately named Cinematic setting (I don't recall the last time I saw trees and grass popping into view in a movie, just mere feet in front of the actors!).
Seriously though, it is a great game besides those issues and I look forward to a much-improved (and inevitable?) sequel.
I will buy a Switch 2 OLED but I only use my current Switch 2 docked because I just cannot stand the LCD screen, especially after owning a Switch OLED.
Everything about the screen is just lacklustre except when looking at it direct with nothing moving. Motion, HDR, black levels, all are awful on the LCD screen and it just reminded me of why I ditched LCD in the first place to replace all my TVs and monitors with OLED (and QD-OLED) displays, including my original Switch 1!
The Switch 2's screen definitely felt like taking two steps forward - a lovely crisp 1080p resolutions, VRR support, nicer looking games - and one step back - everything else about the screen. It makes me laugh that Nintendo even have the balls to claim the screen supports HDR.
The game is fantastic but adding what looks like £90 worth of DLC outfits and equipment to what is a remake of a 13 year old game that is already missing the expansion from the original is a really scummy move but one that Ubisoft have sadly become renowned for.
Yes, you don't have to buy it but it is a reminder that the game you are playing is not really complete and, certainly in the case of this remake, it should damn well have everything included for the £49.99 they are charging for it.
I don't know what miracles Ubisoft have pulled off for the PS5 Pro version but the 30 fps Fidelity mode feels and looks much smoother, particularly when panning the camera, that most other 30 fps games out there. I tried this as well after playing the 60 fps Performance mode, which is usually extremely jarring.
Not yet tried the 40 fps Balanced mode yet as I wanted to see what the graphical differences were between the highest and lowest of the available presets.
The 60 fps mode is fine but it does look visually a bit cutback in terms of RT; I especially noticed that on the faces of the characters which has that uncanny valley look around the eyes without full RT (Resident Evil Requiem also had this issue).
I found this distracting so opted for the 30 fps mode which I found to be perfectly playable. Cutscenes are locked to 30 fps, I believe, regardless of the mode and do not have this issue; it is only apparent during gameplay so most people will either not see it - since you control Edward from behind - or won't care for the sake of the higher framerate.
I still find it strange though how 30 fps on consoles can feel and look fine but 30 fps on PC usually looks horrendous and feels horribly laggy, and that is when both games are played with the same controller and both are on OLED displays. I don't think viewing distance is the whole reason for the difference here.
I know Ubisoft get a lot of criticism for formulaic releases and overcluttered open world designs but I've always been impressed with how polished most of their games are, running on their own custom engines, especially compared with your typical Unreal Engine 5 stutterfest release.
And despite the repetitve gameplay, I've always managed to get my money's worth out of their games, usually around 30-50 hours, before I get bored and end up not finishing them...
... although I did finish Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on PS4, believe it or not. I absolutely loved that game and it is funny looking back and being excited about the original disc version of the game getting a resolution bump from 900p to 1080p via a patch and beating the Xbox One version (which went from 720p to 900p, I believe). These days a mere 180p difference is nothing with dynamic resolution scaling and quality upscalers such as PSSR. Back then though it was a thing and it helped define the PS4 as the superior platform for third-party game releases,, much to Microsft's annoyance!
I bought Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced on Steam last night and look forward to playing it later today.
My RTX 4080 Founders Edition, which I bought for a staggering (to me anyway!) £1,100 back in January 2023, is still going strong and running every game I play at maxed out 1440p settings, including ray-tracing/path-tracing etc, using DLSS and frame gen. I play games on a 1440p 500 Hz QD-OLED monitor.
While upgrading to a 24 GB RTX 5080 Super (if the rumours are correct) sounds appealing, the reality is that I really don't need it as I don't see any game coming out this year or next that requires a graphics card upgrade. The PS5 and Xbox Series X are still the target platforms for games after all so there aren't really any cutting edge games due any time soon...
... except for GTA 6 but that is a console-exclusive for now and likely won't come to PC until late 2027 at the earliest and possibly not until 2028. That is the game that I expect will benefit a graphics card upgrade, especially if Rockstar add settings that scale beyond the console versions, such as path-tracing and whatnot.
@Wazzo - Switch 2 still has physical cart games though. Many might be game key cards but at least that is a physical product that you own and can resell even if ultimately it becomes a paper-weight (albeit a very, very light one!) once the servers go offline. There are also full releases on cart too. Star Fox is one recent example and Oblivion Remastered is going to be another (I'll be very curious to see how that game runs on Switch 2!).
PC is digital only and has been for 10-15 years now but you have a choice of where to buy games. I buy the majority of mine from third-party key sellers for much less than the RRP on Steam; sometimes I even buy the premium/deluxe edition that costs less than Steam. This more than makes up for the lack of actual ownership and resell value in my experience, plus I can backup the games to physical media if I want. PC has choice whereas a console without physical does not.
I feel that Steam are a much more secure platform that will honour my digital purchases for far longer than Sony will ever do. I simply do not trust Sony with an all-digital library which is why 95% of my PS4 and PS5 games are on disc. The few digital games I own were either cheap digital-only games or games I picked up really cheap in a sale.
@StooMonster - Yes, I've been seeing numerous mentions of this on various YouTube videos and media articles.
It seems that this spreadsheet that Sony apparently used to determine when it was the right time to drop physical media, is skewered in favour of digital purchases by virtue of the fact that there is over five times more digital content than games actually available on a disc. Digital-only releases (sometimes the physical disc is only available weeks or months later), DLC, micro-transactions and pretty much most indie game are not available on discs (or if they are then they arrive later).
I would not be surprised if there is some truth to this as corporations often twist things to fit their own agenda and I don't see Sony being any different.
It is also worth pointing out that there has been a big increase in digital orders where you get to play the game a few days or a week earlier if you pre-order the more expensive version of the game. This "offer" is not attached to the physical release and must presumably be popular because almost every major release seems to have one. This arguably publishers pushing consumers towards digital since you do not get to play the game early if you order a physical copy.
I will not be buying an all-digital PS6 so chances are that PS5 Pro will be my last PlayStation console.
I signed the petition... obviously... but I suspect nothing will come of it. Sony will have decided on this at least a year ago and were just waiting for the right moment to (very poorly) announce it, i.e. after it was revealed that GTA 6 will not be shipping on disc. They seem to be only concerned about keeping their shareholders happy and their share prices rose after the annoucement so no doubt they will see this as a success, customers be damned!
My guess is that Sony will have a tough next-generation anyway due to the high price of the PS6 hardware but maybe they intend to offset that by having a long cross generation period which would mean few exclusive PS6 games anyway.
One thing is clear though I will not be buying cross gen games on PS5 if they are only digital. I'll just continue to buy games as long as they are available on disc and then move on to PC and Switch 2.
@SprSynJn - Sony could not have timed this announcement at a worse time in my opinion, basically the same week that they announced that they were removing 551 digital movies from people's libraries from 1st September 2026! That is a great way to sell an all-digital future! Well done, guys!
@Biedls - Sorry, I was really having a rant about Microsoft's whole attitude to physical discs which really started with the Xbox One when they wanted to do that whole 24-hour DRM checking thing and lock disc games to the console thus killing off the second-hand market altogether.
They abandoned that, thankfully, but that meant all Xbox One's had a very long and slow firmware update on Day One. I remember how painful that was. The irony is that the licence on the disc has meant that they have a means to transfer the licence to the user's account for this dystopian all-digital future.
It does beg the question of why this wasn't available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X already so you could buy the disc game, install it then not need to insert the disc again to play the game. If selling the game transfers the licence to the owner of the disc then they could have done this years ago so why didn't they? I actually think that would have been a great option.
Many people love owning physical discs, right, but we all hate having to swap them and see the convenience of having a digital copy. I buy CDs for example but I rip them to my PC using an external DVD drive to listen to them from my media library. The CDs in essence are backup discs. By not having to play them every time I save wear and tear on both the discs and the DVD player.
@otolithe - PC is different because it has choices of where you can buy the games... Steam, Epic Store, EA, Battle.net, Microsoft (if you must!) and so on, as well as third-party key sellers who undercut those aforementioned storefronts.
I frequently buy PC games from the likes of Loaded where I can buy the more expensive deluxe/premium/whatever edition at less than the standard version on Steam! Steam also has regular sales and then there's abandonware where you can download old games that are out of licence. There are tons of options for games. All these make up for the lack of ownership and resell value, at least for me.
On PS6, the only option you will have will be the PSN Store where Sony can charge what they like. They can also keep prices high if they choose since there will be no competition. I can guarantee that PS6 will have £79.99 games, possibly higher.
And, honestly, does anyone trust Sony to honour your digital game purchases? This is the same company who this week announced that they were removing 551 digital movies from people's libraries without any mention of a refund. Games often have licenced music and cars and so on; what's to say that Sony won't remove those games at some point because they failed to renew the licence for them?
People argue that consumption of music and movies have moved over to digital too. That is true but both of those still have physical media available. Hell, vinyl records are still on sale for the purists. I still buy music CDs and BD/4K movie discs. I also buy printed books and graphics novels (it really isn't the same reading a graphics novel on an iPad in my opinion).
Let's be real here, Microsoft never really supported discs on Xbox Series X anyway. They stuck with cheaper 50 GB Blu-ray discs, whereas Sony moved up to the 100 GB 4K UHD disc, and they started to release a lot of Xbox games with just an installer on the disc.
It was also clear that they were trying to push their customers away from physical media, especially with the focus on the GamePass "rental" subscription. And if you're conditioned to play rented digital games then the next step is just to remove the discs altogether. Not a great loss on Xbox since few games actually shipped on the discs anyway.
The appeal of consoles for me is not just the convenience for gaming on a TV but also being able to buy the games on physical media and having a tangible collection of physical games on a shelf. I already have a gaming PC where I'm fine with digital-only but that is more to do with having more choice of where to buy games new cheaper which offsets the lack of ownership and resell value. Plus Steam is a very consumer-friendly storefont having frequent sales and a decent refund policy.
The idea of trusting Sony with my games collection is something that makes me uncomfortable, mostly because of their reputation for being hacked and also the recent news that they will be removing digital movie purchases from people's libraries. There is also the fact that I'd be tied to their storefront for games and at mercy of whatever pricing they choose. I expect PS6 games will rise to £80 or more as they will have no competition and people will either have to pay that or not be able to play the games.
An all-digital PS6 does not appeal to me at all and I would just just stick with Switch 2 for now and PC for gaming. I will not be buying the PS6. I'll just hold on to my PS5 Pro for as long as I can where I can play my existing PS4 and PS5 collection and then once done sell them on. Who knows, those disc games could well become highly sought after collectibles that attract high prices?
Also, collector's editions for games are going to be a hell of a lot less excitring/compelling to buy without the physical disc. I know some of these don't include the disc now but those are usually the ones that are heavily criticised for not including them.
No physical disc means that collector's edition really become pointless because the people's those are aimed at are the very people who want physical items for their collections.
I was just thinking about how bizarre it is for Sony to drop physical discs. They were after all an avid supporter of the disc format since the launch of PlayStation and games on the CD format. The PS2 launched the DVD format, the PS3 did the same for Blu-rays (and killed the rival HD-DVD in the process) and the PS5 adopted the 4K UHD format.
It really is sad to see them go with this decision. I expected it to happen eventually but hoped that the PS6 would continue to support physical media just because it would be backward compatible with PS5 and PS4 games which both use the disc format.
I cannot help but wonder if this decision is more driven by the need to keep the PS6 hardware costs down by subsidising it. The only way they can do that is if they have full control over the distribution and pricing of PS6 games where they can set whatever price they like since people will have no option but to pay for them. I expect Sony will bump up the price of games from £69.99 to £79.99 for the PS6.
The alternative is to sell an expensive piece of hardware in fewer numbers which in turn means lower game sales because the install base will not be anyway near as large as the PS5. Retail discounts on physical games and second-hand sales (the latter of which Sony don't get anything for) are damaging to Sony when the same game is full price digitally on their storefront.
An all-digital PS6 is something I absolutely do not want as I'd be locked into the pricing on the PSN Store with no choice but to pay full price for new releases (unless I wait months for sales) and I would be at the mercy of Sony who could remove games from my library any time they want (they already do this with digital movie purchases!).
The next generation sounds like it is going to suck hard anyway with the high price of the hardware and this announcement of digital-only PS6 games from 2028. The PS5 Pro is looking like it may be my last PlayStation console because if I upgrade then I sell the old hardware as I simply do not have space to keep multiple generations of hardware.
@Max_the_German - The game literally has a Switch to Switch 2 save transfer feature but no upgrade path from the Switch version!
If that isn't a sign of sheer greed then I don't what is since SEGA included that knowing that there would be a demand and a use case for it. However, the only way to use it currently is to buy the game again. That is what SEGA want people to do! That is greed!
@Tobility - Hades 2? Ori and the Blind Forest? Hollow Knight: Silksong?
Seriously though, the Steam Machine is not a 4K 60 fps machine and Valve damn well knew that which is why all mention of that has now been removed from the advertising.
I think the Steam Machine has already aged like milk, personally, as I was never that impressed with the specs when they announced it. I would have been just as disappointed if it had launched at half its current price.
The only positive things I can say about the Steam Machine is (a) I like the small-form factor and design; and (b) I like that it supports HDMI CEC so it turns on using a controller, something I cannot do on my PC.
Otherwise, the whole thing is just underwhelming and at the price they are asking, I'm confused as to who exactly it is aimed at. It's too expensive for the mainstream and it's too underpowered for the hardcore.
It's feasible that Rockstar are showing off GTA 6 with the highest fidelity visuals in its 30 fps mode on console. That doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be a 60 fps mode though if they choose to scale down the resolution, graphical settings and ray-tracing to achieve it.
That said, I'll be perfectly fine with a 30 fps GTA 6 as long as it is a smooth 30 fps on PS5 Pro. I've recently been playing Final Fantasy XVI at 30 fps on PS5 Pro and that looks and runs fine to me even though I only played the PC version at 120 fps the day before.
The difference is that I'm playing from further away on PS5 Pro, on a 55" OLED TV, whereas on PC I am sat much closer to a 27" QD-OLED monitor. 30 fps on PC looks and feels so much worse that in does on PS5 Pro, even with the same controller, and I can only conclude that is because I'm sat closer to the screen.
I just think the whole situation with the Switch 2 supporting VRR in handheld but with a sub-par HDR experience versus not supporting VRR in docked mode but where you can have a vastly superior HDR experience, depending on your TV, is just utterly bizarre and shows how inconsistent Nintendo are when it comes to embracing and supporting new technologies.
I thought Sony were pretty bad when they released the PS5 without VRR support but at least they did add it after 18 months and, while flawed (due to not supporting LFC at the system level), at least it is there for people to use.
@MattGPT - Is it possible to release an updated dock for the Switch 2 with support for VRR? It would cause an uproar for sure if people found out they had to pay more for extra hardware to use something that should have been there from Day One.
The second most disappointing thing about the Switch 2, after the lacklustre LCD screen itself, is that there is no support for VRR in docked mode. It just baffles me as to why Nintendo chose to overlook this, especially as the handheld experience itself is hardly the definitive way to play Switch 2 games since HDR is just basically non-existent.
Star Fox has terrific HDR on my LG C3 OLED TV and it really pops in a way that it absolutely does not on the handheld screen (I briefly tried the demo this way).
Ah, Nintendo, 10 years behind everyone else in terms of adopting new graphical technologies and features - concepts like "good-quality anti-aliasing" and "anisotropic texture filtering" seem lost on most of their first-party developers for example - but they still manage to crack out great games.
I feel that releasing promotional screenshots that are not representative of the console game is likely to draw a lot of criticism when the game finally releases, or when we finally get to see more than a few minutes of actual gameplay running on the current systems to be able to compare them to.
That said, I am sure that this game will look astonishing good on consoles and likely one of the best-looking games of this generation, if not the best, and will only be one-upped by the future PC and next-gen console versions. Rockstar's games have really excelled visually since the release of GTA IV in my opinion and the switch to their in-house RAGE engine.
@MattGPT - To be honest, I would be absolutely fine with a 10 year life-cycle for the current consoles as I feel that due to COVID that we didn't really start this generation until 2-3 years in. There was a very long cross-over period which certainly wasn't a bad thing.
As you say, this is also beneficial for PC gamers as well as there would no less need to upgrade. I usually upgrade my PC when a new console generation arrives so ensure that I have approx. twice the performance (e.g. 32 GB system memory, 16 GB VRAM, a 2x faster GPU / CPU, etc).
I've seen mention that Micron have 16 big AI contracts for memory up until 2030 so unless the AI industry suddenly crashes in the next year then we could be looking at another three and half years of rising memory prices which in turn will affect not only current gen console and PC pricing but also next gen console pricing as well.
This could lead to the games industry crashing in my opinion if current and next gen console pricing becomes so expensive that few people can afford to buy them. And if people aren't buying the hardware then that would have a knock on affect on the games as player numbers potentially stagnate.
The so-called AI boom cannot end soon enough, if you ask me. While I can see its usefulness in certain areas, such as the Google search engine (which is the only place I actually use it personally), it is something that I suspect 99.999% of people have no use it at all outside of business use. That's what makes this so frustrating for the entertainment industry.
I am not pre-ordering - there really is no point - but I am glad to see that the game is £70 here in the UK, which is the same price that Sony sell their first-party releases for. Also, another £20 for the Ultimate Edition with extra content seems perfectly reasonable. I will buy this from the PS Store on 12th November, possibly the Ultimate Edition, we'll see, so I can pre-load for release on 19th.
All I want to see now is actual gameplay, at least 15-20 minutes, running on a PS5 Pro because what little I've seen so far looks so unbelievably good visually that I need to see it more of it to actually believe that what I've seen is real and not just a demo running on a high-end PC.
@BenWright - PC is a bit different as you have a choice of where to buy games; not just Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft, etc, but also third-party key sellers who often undercut the MSRP by quite a bit.
This makes the lack of resell value more palatable than on consoles where you would be tied into their storefront and MSRP pricing for new releases if digital becomes the only option.
I often buy PC games from third-party key sellers such as Loaded (CDKeys.com) and their discounts are usually such that I can buy the deluxe or premium-whatever-edition at less than the standard MSRP on Steam.
@Granadico - It is more likely about controlling second hand sales etc since Take-Two don't get a cut of those. Also, by making it a digital-only release they have full control of how long the game is available, the pricing, when it can be discounted for sales and by how much and so on.
Comments 120
Re: Sony Undecided on PS6 Price and Launch Date - but What Does It Mean for the Rumoured PS6 Handheld?
I'm curious as to how the PS6 will fare but I will not be buying one. My interest in PlayStation died when Sony announced the death of the physical disc for games and PS5 Pro will be my last Sony console.
I've decided to just move over mainly to PC for gaming with a bit of Switch 2 on the side. As for XBOX, that platform died a long time ago for me and I sold my 18 months unused XBOX Series X last week.
I don't even think a PS6 handheld will do much either as look what happened to the PS Vita, which was a fantastic handheld, albeit a horrible fingerprint magnet with super expensive proprietary storage cards, that failed to sell leading Sony to pretty much abandon it.
With PC handhelds like Steam Deck and Switch/Switch 2, what makes Sony think a PS6 handheld will fare any better? I think it'll be a flop personally as what would it offer that Steam Deck or Switch 2 don't now? A few exclusives that are few and far between these days? A digital library of PS4 and PS5 games that Sony can just remove on a whim? Yeah, sounds great!
Re: Intel may move back to four-digit CPU naming scheme, as impressive Core Ultra 9 4950K results leak
Hmmm, 8-cores and 20 E-cores... are those E-cores really useful for gaming? I always viewed them as background Windows process cores based on my experiences with the i5-13600KF in my current build.
There are some games that don't play nice with E-cores and Control outright crashes with them enabled unless you use software such as CoreDirector to force the game to use the P-cores.
Anyway, I've switched from Intel to AMD for my next build with a Ryzen 7 9850x3D as my PC is purely for gaming so I want the best performance for gaming.
Re: Do Resident Evil Requiem's Healthy Disc Sales Call Sony's All-Digital PS6 Strategy into Question?
The problem as far as I am concerned is that is so easy to distort the true digital sales figures because there are many, many games - smaller indie and shovelware titles for example -plus content such as DLC that don't exist on physical discs. Also, supplies of physical discs are limited so once they run out then people will be pushed, whether they realise it or not, toward buying the game digitally.
I have noticed that Amazon PS5 games can quickly go out of stock if you don't pre-order before release, whereas in the PS4 era and early days of PS5 it was very easy to buy physical games many months after release and always for a lot less than the original asking price.
It is hard to know if the current physical disc situation is because the supplies are being limited to force people toward digital, or if the publishers are just being cautious by not manufacturing a surplus of discs that no-one wants because everyone else is buying digitally. I personally suspect it is the former myself.
But ultimately the disc, while offering some kind of ownership and resell value, it pretty much always has the version of the game on it that you don't want to play and once those servers go offline and assuming the disc will still install then all those patches, updates and DLC etc are gone forever.
I still buy movies and music on disc. In the case of music CDs, I rip them to my PC to listen to from there so the disc gives me nicely boxed product, a sense of ownership and acts as a backup. I also buy games as a collector and to have something to own. However, I still see the convenience of digital and think it would be great if I could install a game from a disc and then not need to keep inserting it in the drive everytime I want to play it, kind of like how it works for CDs.
I will not be buying a PS6 or indeed buying any games for my PS5 Pro after January 2028 because of the whole disc situation.
Re: Review: Switch 2 Oblivion Remastered Frustrates as Much as It Impresses
Why is it that so many developers struggle to implement proper framepacing at 30 fps on consoles?
It's a genuine question that has been baffling me as someone who notices bad framepacing but doesn't code personally.
On PC bad framepacing is as simple to fix as just forcing a 30 fps framerate cap in RivaTuner Statistics Server or the graphics driver control panel. I then see a perfect 16.67ms line on the on-screen display.
Why is it that this no developer does this on consoles. Surely it can't be that difficult if a PC tool can do this independent of the game engine? I personally don't mind 30 fps games on consoles so long as the framepacing is correct as this means the game feels smooth and looks smooth in motion.
What I cannot stand is poor framepacing as it just puts me off playing it. Bloodborne is an example of a great game tarnished by bad framepacing, something that FromSoftware became notorious for until they started to release 'up to 60 fps' games on current gen consoles. At least those games can be fixed using VRR so long as they keep north of 48 fps.
Re: Bethesda Acknowledges Demand for Oblivion Remastered Patch, Calls for Calm
Disappointing isn't a word I'd use for why they shadow dropped a poorly performing games on PS5 and PC, pretty much abandoned it and only now, after the Switch 2 version has been released, are saying they are looking into fixing the game on other systems.
I'd call that utterly disgusting personally.
Do Bethesda really think that people are happy to either play a game with lousy performance or wait 15+ months for a patch? People buy games to play them not sit and wait for a patch that may or may not come so everyone who owns the remaster will have experienced the sub-optimal beta build of the game.
Remember they shadow dropped this game the day it was officially announced so no-one was crying out for it. What they should have done was waited, continued to optimise it until it was ready for release then released it.
Shadow dropping a broken game is just insulting in my opinion and only serves to enhance Bethesda's reputation for releasing unpolished, unoptimised games.
Re: Report: Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 games to "Xbox PCs", handhelds and Project Helix
One thing that puzzled me is if Xbox One and Series X|S discs have always had the disc ID that will allow them to convert them to a digital licence, then why did the discs need to be in the drive to play them? Could they not have automatically associated the disc ID with the Xbox account and bypassed the need for disc verification years ago?
I love having games on disc for that sense of ownership and having something tangible of value but dislike having to swap discs. Microsoft could very easily have implemented the disc ID to user account thing years ago allowing people to build up a digital library without ever realising.
Since the disc ID transfers to the new user if it is sold then it prevents people from buying a game, installing it and then selling it on (although there would be a period between the sale and the new owner playing the game which would allow the previous owner to still play it).
I have no interest in either next-gen console at this point but I am curious as to what Sony has planned for transferring PS4/PS5 discs over to a digital licence. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if they have nothing planned and just expect players to rebuy the games again digitally.
I have over 150 PS4 and PS5 games on disc so the only way I would have even considered buying a PS6 is if those were accessible as discs on the new console. I can't see them making an optional disc drive just for legacy games somehow and I don't think the games discs have individual IDs like Xbox ones do either to easily transfer the licences over.
Re: Report: Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 games to "Xbox PCs", handhelds and Project Helix
It is so great to read that Microsoft are bringing over Xbox 360 games over to PC via emulation as well as I found I owned two of the four initial Xbox releases they released last week and bought one of the other two, Conker Live & Reloaded (obviously, look at my avatar!) which I still own on disc. I also own a few 360 games digitally too, which I bought when I used my Xbox Series X.
It's just a shame that in order to access these games I have to use the lacklustre Xbox app, which has a tendency to break games with updates and throw up unhelpful messages like "Something went wrong, please try again later" and vague error codes that are no help whatsoever.
In fact, all three of the emulated Xbox games ended up getting broken on my Windows 11 PC and no amount of verification and resetting/reinstalling the Xbox app would fix it. I even moved them to another drive, which which triggered an "Unsupported 16-bit executable" warning! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded all three games and, lo and behold, they are working again... until the next update breaks them, I guess.
This is one of the reasons I cancelled my GamePass subscription back in May 2024 and now just buy Xbox games on Steam, where oddly enough I never experience any of these issues. Isn't that strange?
Anyway, rant over, this push for Xbox and 360 emulation on PC means that I can finally sell my unused Xbox Series X and ditch the console for good but still have access to the small library of classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
That is good because I am ditching consoles next generation, including the PS6, which no longer interests me due to Sony killing physical discs for games (that for me was one of the key reasons to own consoles).
Re: Review: Built for Switch 2, Splatoon Raiders Delivers a Safe but Satisfying Tech Upgrade
Game looks really nice artistically, I think, and image quality wise it looks decent on my 55" OLED TV so no real complaints there.
I don't use my Switch 2 in handheld mode ever because I hate that LCD screen so much but it baffles me why Nintendo continue to exist in the dark ages when it comes to anti-aliasing techniques, often foregoing it completely in handheld mode like they have here.
I can hear the purists screaming that this is how it should be to keep the image crisp and sharp and clear for a small screen, where maybe they won't notice the jaggies and shimmering so much, but I personally find it tarnishes the presentation. I am just so thankful that they at least added some kind of anti-aliasing treatment for the docked experience and, even if it is extremely basic by modern standards, I think it works well enough.
It is a shame though that Nintendo's own in-house games are not making use of NVIDIA's DLSS which has been shown to work extremely well in other third-party games.
Re: Motherboard Prices Set to Rise as AI-Fuelled PC Component Disruption Continues
I've just bought a new custom built AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D PC with 32 GB of DDR5 6000 memory, to be delivered later this month, mostly because of the rising price of the components.
Otherwise, I would have just waited another 12-18 months before upgrading my PC but, at this rate, who knows how much more expensive all these components will cost.
Absolutely ridiculous how the AI boom is slowly killing both the PC and console gaming market. RAM, SSDs, GPUs and now motherboards!
Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Does Switch 2's Power Finally Fix This Ambitious Open-World RPG?
Looks fine to me but like Xenoblade Chronicles the framerate is wildly inconsistent when played docked, feeling like it is switching between 60 fps and 30 fps.
It's like they only considered this for handheld mode which supports VRR but, of course, the docked mode doesn't so any framerate drops immediately manifest as judder.
Smooth performance is something I've become accustomed to on PS5 Pro and PC where VRR is supported so it is really disappointing that the Switch 2 still does not support this.
What on earth were Nintendo thinking when they designed the Switch 2 which has VRR but poor HDR in handheld mode and no VRR but great HDR when docked (and connected to a modern 4K TV)?
Re: Halo: Campaign Evolved PC Looks Stunning - But Requires Further Optimisation
Does anyone know why I have to manually sign in with a code every time I play the Steam version of this game on PC?
It is absolutely infuriating and actually putting me off playing it.
This issue does not happen with Forza Horizon 6 (also on Steam) by the way so I am not sure why the log in is broken for Halo: Campaign Evolved.
(And, yes, I clicked Yes to the Save Sign In Details prompt... I've done this three or four times now to no avail!)
Re: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Update Brings Enhanced PSSR, Power-Saver Mode, Two Free New Suits
The PC version also got this update yesterday to add the two new costumes by the way so kudos to Insomniac for not ignoring that version.
Re: Xbox Back-Compat for PC: New Patch Fixes Most Issues - but Frame Pacing Problems and Other Limitations Remain
Looks like the Microsoft Store updated Crimson Skies, Conker and BLiNX yesterday but now I can no longer play any of these games as I get an application error 0xc0000005 for EmuMenu.exe when I try to launch them.
All three were working perfectly over the weekend and the only things that have changed since then on my Windows 11 Pro 25H2 PC is updating the graphics drivers for my RTX 4080 from 610.74 to 610.88, along with a cumulative Windows update to 26200.8973.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
By the way, these kind of vague errors are exactly why I abandoned GamePass and the awful Microsoft Store for just buying Xbox games on Steam, where they just work. I was always getting these kind of errors on the Xbox app and Microsoft Store, along with the insulting "Something went wrong, please try again later" messages, which are absolutely no help at all.
EDIT
Not joking here but I relocated the games to a different drive and got a different error, an unsupported 16-bit application error!!! In the end, I uninstalled and redownloaded the games to the same drive and now all three work. THIS is why I despise the Xbox app... you don't have to put up with this crap on Steam!
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
Seems the ghosting I was seeing in the cutscene FMVs is due to them being capped at 30 fps which doesn't play nice with frame gen. Thought I saw some weirdness with them but I wasn't sure exactly what it was I seeing because the ghosting isn't there all the time.
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
The game is absolutely excellent.
Definitely evokes memories of playing the original for the first time and visually it is easily the best that Halo has ever looked, although I remember being just as blown away by the original when I saw it running on that GAME pod.
Runs really well maxed out on the Ultra preset with DLAA at 1440p on my i5-13600KF / RTX 4080 with only a couple of minor hitches in the 3 hours I've played it so far. One was during a cutscene transition and the other was a 1 second freeze during a Covenant battle during the initial mission on the Halo ring where you have to locate the three life boats.
I also thought I saw some weirdness with the cutscenes at one point as if the FMV was displaying a double-image or blurring. Might have just been a hiccup as the game transitions from gameplay to cutscene but I thought it worth mentioning.
Only other issue is that the audio mix seems quiet on my PC where I'm using a 2.1 stereo speaker set up. Cortana's dialogue was loud but the music seemed very subdued in the mix. I'm wondering if this is a bug with the game outputting 5.1 surround sound to a 2.1 setup. Will be interested to see if anyone else reports this.
Otherwise, a really fantastic remake and easily the best Halo game from Microsoft/Xbox since Halo 3 in my opinion.
P.S. The game has skins for Master Chief but with this remake using FMV cutscenes it means that the only way to actually see them is if you play the game in co-op and someone else wears the skin. Otherwise, all you see in game are Master Chiefs legs and arms and a bit of the chest at certain angles!
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Gives Us Hope for a Reforged Franchise
I am really looking forward to playing this on my PC in a couple of hours.
Great news that they've finally got a modernised version of Halo: Combat Evolved right. It always was my favourite game in the franchise ever since I played the Xbox demo on a pod in GAME all those years ago...
Only complaint is the use of pre-rendered FMV, which is a bit of a disappointment (and likely adds to the install size?) considering the original had real-time cutscenes. I would have preferred to seen real-time ones in the remake, especially on Unreal Engine 5, but it seems to be an intentional choice with Microsoft remakes as Gears of War: Reloaded also used pre-rendered FMV when the original's cutscenes were real-time.
Re: Hands On with Xbox Back-Compat for PC - a New Initiative That Begins with Four Classic Games
I absolutely loved three of those four games on Xbox (sorry Fusion Frenzy!) so I really like the idea of being able to play these on PC with some enhancements even if those don't extend to proper 16:9 widescreen support or a higher framerate.
I was extremely saddened when I found that I could no longer play gems like RalliSport Challenge 2 on Xbox 360 or PGR 3 and 4 on Xbox One. With those being licenced games though that are no longer available to buy digitally then chances are they will never be playable on PC.
I still own those on disc, but since they don't work on Xbox Series X, then there seems little to no chance of them ever coming to PC in my opinion.
Re: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: Our Optimised Settings For A Terrific PC Release
What are the PC equivalent settings for the PS5 Pro then, oddly omitted from this article?
Re: AMD's Ryzen 7 7700X3D is the heart of my new SteamOS gaming PC
Until all games can run on SteamOS and at a performance level that is the same or better than Windows (some games do run worse on SteamOS than Windows from what I've read/seen) then I personally would not risk switching from Windows to SteamOS for any future PC.
My experience with SteamOS is only on Steam Deck where it seems to work well enough but there are still incompatibility issues that take months to address and in the meantime you end up having to mess around with different versions of Proton (the emulation layer).
That is less of an issue on Steam Deck, where I am mostly playing older games anyway that tend to mostly work fine, but it would become a big deal for me on a PC if I bought a new triple A game and was unable to play it properly because it didn't work properly on SteamOS.
Also, there is the fact that currently SteamOS only works with AMD GPUs. Apart from a brief stint with AMD GPUs and their awful CrossFire (their version of NVIDIA's SLI) in the early 2000s, I've always bought NVIDIA GPU for their features, usually better drivers and so on. NVIDIA are just two steps ahead of AMD when it comes to RT, DLSS and frame gen in my experience so I would only use SteamOS in a PC if I could use a NVIDIA GPU.
Re: Nintendo Explains How to Replace Its New User-Serviceable Joy-Con Batteries in 12 (or 13) Easy Steps
For some reason, I thought this redesign meant that the joycons and the main Switch 2 unit would have a removeable battery compartment like other accessories such as remote controls to make it easy to swap batteries. At worst, I thought I thought it would just be a case of removing four small screws to reveal the battery.
Just goes to show how naïve I was in that assumption because this battery replacement process still looks fiddly as hell and maybe benefits Switch 2 repair businesses more than the end user?
Re: Crimson Desert Adds Cross-Save Support Between PS5, Series X/S and PC, Wins Technical Innovation Award at Develop
The post-release support for this game has been astonishing in my opinion to the point where the current build is significantly improved over the launch version.
I enjoyed my time with this game but had two gripes with it. One, the story is underwhelming and lead character, Kliff, is utterly forgettable. Two, the game looks nice enough visually but it falls apart as soon as you start moving as the engine's draw distance is poor with lots of distracting LOD issues and pop in, even when you completely max out the PC version on its inappropriately named Cinematic setting (I don't recall the last time I saw trees and grass popping into view in a movie, just mere feet in front of the actors!).
Seriously though, it is a great game besides those issues and I look forward to a much-improved (and inevitable?) sequel.
Re: Report: Nintendo mulling Switch 2 OLED with Samsung Display panel
I will buy a Switch 2 OLED but I only use my current Switch 2 docked because I just cannot stand the LCD screen, especially after owning a Switch OLED.
Everything about the screen is just lacklustre except when looking at it direct with nothing moving. Motion, HDR, black levels, all are awful on the LCD screen and it just reminded me of why I ditched LCD in the first place to replace all my TVs and monitors with OLED (and QD-OLED) displays, including my original Switch 1!
The Switch 2's screen definitely felt like taking two steps forward - a lovely crisp 1080p resolutions, VRR support, nicer looking games - and one step back - everything else about the screen. It makes me laugh that Nintendo even have the balls to claim the screen supports HDR.
Re: "We really squeezed the PS5 as much as we could": Ubisoft talks tech on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced
The game is fantastic but adding what looks like £90 worth of DLC outfits and equipment to what is a remake of a 13 year old game that is already missing the expansion from the original is a really scummy move but one that Ubisoft have sadly become renowned for.
Yes, you don't have to buy it but it is a reminder that the game you are playing is not really complete and, certainly in the case of this remake, it should damn well have everything included for the £49.99 they are charging for it.
Re: Review: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: One of the Most Effective Remakes We've Ever Seen
I don't know what miracles Ubisoft have pulled off for the PS5 Pro version but the 30 fps Fidelity mode feels and looks much smoother, particularly when panning the camera, that most other 30 fps games out there. I tried this as well after playing the 60 fps Performance mode, which is usually extremely jarring.
Not yet tried the 40 fps Balanced mode yet as I wanted to see what the graphical differences were between the highest and lowest of the available presets.
The 60 fps mode is fine but it does look visually a bit cutback in terms of RT; I especially noticed that on the faces of the characters which has that uncanny valley look around the eyes without full RT (Resident Evil Requiem also had this issue).
I found this distracting so opted for the 30 fps mode which I found to be perfectly playable. Cutscenes are locked to 30 fps, I believe, regardless of the mode and do not have this issue; it is only apparent during gameplay so most people will either not see it - since you control Edward from behind - or won't care for the sake of the higher framerate.
I still find it strange though how 30 fps on consoles can feel and look fine but 30 fps on PC usually looks horrendous and feels horribly laggy, and that is when both games are played with the same controller and both are on OLED displays. I don't think viewing distance is the whole reason for the difference here.
Re: Review: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: One of the Most Effective Remakes We've Ever Seen
I know Ubisoft get a lot of criticism for formulaic releases and overcluttered open world designs but I've always been impressed with how polished most of their games are, running on their own custom engines, especially compared with your typical Unreal Engine 5 stutterfest release.
And despite the repetitve gameplay, I've always managed to get my money's worth out of their games, usually around 30-50 hours, before I get bored and end up not finishing them...
... although I did finish Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on PS4, believe it or not. I absolutely loved that game and it is funny looking back and being excited about the original disc version of the game getting a resolution bump from 900p to 1080p via a patch and beating the Xbox One version (which went from 720p to 900p, I believe). These days a mere 180p difference is nothing with dynamic resolution scaling and quality upscalers such as PSSR. Back then though it was a thing and it helped define the PS4 as the superior platform for third-party game releases,, much to Microsft's annoyance!
I bought Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced on Steam last night and look forward to playing it later today.
Re: PSU maker Seasonic adds RTX 50-Series Super graphics cards to its website - but don't expect a reveal any time soon
My RTX 4080 Founders Edition, which I bought for a staggering (to me anyway!) £1,100 back in January 2023, is still going strong and running every game I play at maxed out 1440p settings, including ray-tracing/path-tracing etc, using DLSS and frame gen. I play games on a 1440p 500 Hz QD-OLED monitor.
While upgrading to a 24 GB RTX 5080 Super (if the rumours are correct) sounds appealing, the reality is that I really don't need it as I don't see any game coming out this year or next that requires a graphics card upgrade. The PS5 and Xbox Series X are still the target platforms for games after all so there aren't really any cutting edge games due any time soon...
... except for GTA 6 but that is a console-exclusive for now and likely won't come to PC until late 2027 at the earliest and possibly not until 2028. That is the game that I expect will benefit a graphics card upgrade, especially if Rockstar add settings that scale beyond the console versions, such as path-tracing and whatnot.
Re: "Don't Kill the Disc": Petition Against Sony PS5 and PS6 Digital Media Plans Reaches 120,000 Signatures
@Wazzo - Switch 2 still has physical cart games though. Many might be game key cards but at least that is a physical product that you own and can resell even if ultimately it becomes a paper-weight (albeit a very, very light one!) once the servers go offline. There are also full releases on cart too. Star Fox is one recent example and Oblivion Remastered is going to be another (I'll be very curious to see how that game runs on Switch 2!).
PC is digital only and has been for 10-15 years now but you have a choice of where to buy games. I buy the majority of mine from third-party key sellers for much less than the RRP on Steam; sometimes I even buy the premium/deluxe edition that costs less than Steam. This more than makes up for the lack of actual ownership and resell value in my experience, plus I can backup the games to physical media if I want. PC has choice whereas a console without physical does not.
I feel that Steam are a much more secure platform that will honour my digital purchases for far longer than Sony will ever do. I simply do not trust Sony with an all-digital library which is why 95% of my PS4 and PS5 games are on disc. The few digital games I own were either cheap digital-only games or games I picked up really cheap in a sale.
Re: "Don't Kill the Disc": Petition Against Sony PS5 and PS6 Digital Media Plans Reaches 120,000 Signatures
@StooMonster - Yes, I've been seeing numerous mentions of this on various YouTube videos and media articles.
It seems that this spreadsheet that Sony apparently used to determine when it was the right time to drop physical media, is skewered in favour of digital purchases by virtue of the fact that there is over five times more digital content than games actually available on a disc. Digital-only releases (sometimes the physical disc is only available weeks or months later), DLC, micro-transactions and pretty much most indie game are not available on discs (or if they are then they arrive later).
I would not be surprised if there is some truth to this as corporations often twist things to fit their own agenda and I don't see Sony being any different.
It is also worth pointing out that there has been a big increase in digital orders where you get to play the game a few days or a week earlier if you pre-order the more expensive version of the game. This "offer" is not attached to the physical release and must presumably be popular because almost every major release seems to have one. This arguably publishers pushing consumers towards digital since you do not get to play the game early if you order a physical copy.
Re: "Don't Kill the Disc": Petition Against Sony PS5 and PS6 Digital Media Plans Reaches 120,000 Signatures
I will not be buying an all-digital PS6 so chances are that PS5 Pro will be my last PlayStation console.
I signed the petition... obviously... but I suspect nothing will come of it. Sony will have decided on this at least a year ago and were just waiting for the right moment to (very poorly) announce it, i.e. after it was revealed that GTA 6 will not be shipping on disc. They seem to be only concerned about keeping their shareholders happy and their share prices rose after the annoucement so no doubt they will see this as a success, customers be damned!
My guess is that Sony will have a tough next-generation anyway due to the high price of the PS6 hardware but maybe they intend to offset that by having a long cross generation period which would mean few exclusive PS6 games anyway.
One thing is clear though I will not be buying cross gen games on PS5 if they are only digital. I'll just continue to buy games as long as they are available on disc and then move on to PC and Switch 2.
Re: "PS5 Will Be My Last Console": After 45K Votes, 86% of DF Viewers Say Sony Should Reconsider Killing Physical Games
@SprSynJn - Sony could not have timed this announcement at a worse time in my opinion, basically the same week that they announced that they were removing 551 digital movies from people's libraries from 1st September 2026! That is a great way to sell an all-digital future! Well done, guys!
Re: Report: Xbox Disc-to-Digital Feature in Testing, Microsoft "Likely" to Stop Disc Production Too
@Biedls - Sorry, I was really having a rant about Microsoft's whole attitude to physical discs which really started with the Xbox One when they wanted to do that whole 24-hour DRM checking thing and lock disc games to the console thus killing off the second-hand market altogether.
They abandoned that, thankfully, but that meant all Xbox One's had a very long and slow firmware update on Day One. I remember how painful that was. The irony is that the licence on the disc has meant that they have a means to transfer the licence to the user's account for this dystopian all-digital future.
It does beg the question of why this wasn't available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X already so you could buy the disc game, install it then not need to insert the disc again to play the game. If selling the game transfers the licence to the owner of the disc then they could have done this years ago so why didn't they? I actually think that would have been a great option.
Many people love owning physical discs, right, but we all hate having to swap them and see the convenience of having a digital copy. I buy CDs for example but I rip them to my PC using an external DVD drive to listen to them from my media library. The CDs in essence are backup discs. By not having to play them every time I save wear and tear on both the discs and the DVD player.
Re: "PS5 Will Be My Last Console": After 45K Votes, 86% of DF Viewers Say Sony Should Reconsider Killing Physical Games
@otolithe - PC is different because it has choices of where you can buy the games... Steam, Epic Store, EA, Battle.net, Microsoft (if you must!) and so on, as well as third-party key sellers who undercut those aforementioned storefronts.
I frequently buy PC games from the likes of Loaded where I can buy the more expensive deluxe/premium/whatever edition at less than the standard version on Steam! Steam also has regular sales and then there's abandonware where you can download old games that are out of licence. There are tons of options for games. All these make up for the lack of ownership and resell value, at least for me.
On PS6, the only option you will have will be the PSN Store where Sony can charge what they like. They can also keep prices high if they choose since there will be no competition. I can guarantee that PS6 will have £79.99 games, possibly higher.
And, honestly, does anyone trust Sony to honour your digital game purchases? This is the same company who this week announced that they were removing 551 digital movies from people's libraries without any mention of a refund. Games often have licenced music and cars and so on; what's to say that Sony won't remove those games at some point because they failed to renew the licence for them?
People argue that consumption of music and movies have moved over to digital too. That is true but both of those still have physical media available. Hell, vinyl records are still on sale for the purists. I still buy music CDs and BD/4K movie discs. I also buy printed books and graphics novels (it really isn't the same reading a graphics novel on an iPad in my opinion).
Re: Report: Xbox Disc-to-Digital Feature in Testing, Microsoft "Likely" to Stop Disc Production Too
Let's be real here, Microsoft never really supported discs on Xbox Series X anyway. They stuck with cheaper 50 GB Blu-ray discs, whereas Sony moved up to the 100 GB 4K UHD disc, and they started to release a lot of Xbox games with just an installer on the disc.
It was also clear that they were trying to push their customers away from physical media, especially with the focus on the GamePass "rental" subscription. And if you're conditioned to play rented digital games then the next step is just to remove the discs altogether. Not a great loss on Xbox since few games actually shipped on the discs anyway.
Re: "PS5 Will Be My Last Console": After 45K Votes, 86% of DF Viewers Say Sony Should Reconsider Killing Physical Games
The appeal of consoles for me is not just the convenience for gaming on a TV but also being able to buy the games on physical media and having a tangible collection of physical games on a shelf. I already have a gaming PC where I'm fine with digital-only but that is more to do with having more choice of where to buy games new cheaper which offsets the lack of ownership and resell value. Plus Steam is a very consumer-friendly storefont having frequent sales and a decent refund policy.
The idea of trusting Sony with my games collection is something that makes me uncomfortable, mostly because of their reputation for being hacked and also the recent news that they will be removing digital movie purchases from people's libraries. There is also the fact that I'd be tied to their storefront for games and at mercy of whatever pricing they choose. I expect PS6 games will rise to £80 or more as they will have no competition and people will either have to pay that or not be able to play the games.
An all-digital PS6 does not appeal to me at all and I would just just stick with Switch 2 for now and PC for gaming. I will not be buying the PS6. I'll just hold on to my PS5 Pro for as long as I can where I can play my existing PS4 and PS5 collection and then once done sell them on. Who knows, those disc games could well become highly sought after collectibles that attract high prices?
Re: Sony Kills Physical PS5 Games, Starting in January 2028: A Gigantic Hint That PS6 Will Be "Adorably All-Digital"
Also, collector's editions for games are going to be a hell of a lot less excitring/compelling to buy without the physical disc. I know some of these don't include the disc now but those are usually the ones that are heavily criticised for not including them.
No physical disc means that collector's edition really become pointless because the people's those are aimed at are the very people who want physical items for their collections.
Re: Sony Kills Physical PS5 Games, Starting in January 2028: A Gigantic Hint That PS6 Will Be "Adorably All-Digital"
I was just thinking about how bizarre it is for Sony to drop physical discs. They were after all an avid supporter of the disc format since the launch of PlayStation and games on the CD format. The PS2 launched the DVD format, the PS3 did the same for Blu-rays (and killed the rival HD-DVD in the process) and the PS5 adopted the 4K UHD format.
It really is sad to see them go with this decision. I expected it to happen eventually but hoped that the PS6 would continue to support physical media just because it would be backward compatible with PS5 and PS4 games which both use the disc format.
I cannot help but wonder if this decision is more driven by the need to keep the PS6 hardware costs down by subsidising it. The only way they can do that is if they have full control over the distribution and pricing of PS6 games where they can set whatever price they like since people will have no option but to pay for them. I expect Sony will bump up the price of games from £69.99 to £79.99 for the PS6.
The alternative is to sell an expensive piece of hardware in fewer numbers which in turn means lower game sales because the install base will not be anyway near as large as the PS5. Retail discounts on physical games and second-hand sales (the latter of which Sony don't get anything for) are damaging to Sony when the same game is full price digitally on their storefront.
Re: Sony Kills Physical PS5 Games, Starting in January 2028: A Gigantic Hint That PS6 Will Be "Adorably All-Digital"
An all-digital PS6 is something I absolutely do not want as I'd be locked into the pricing on the PSN Store with no choice but to pay full price for new releases (unless I wait months for sales) and I would be at the mercy of Sony who could remove games from my library any time they want (they already do this with digital movie purchases!).
The next generation sounds like it is going to suck hard anyway with the high price of the hardware and this announcement of digital-only PS6 games from 2028. The PS5 Pro is looking like it may be my last PlayStation console because if I upgrade then I sell the old hardware as I simply do not have space to keep multiple generations of hardware.
Re: DF Weekly: The GTA 6 60fps Debate Returns: Is There a Route Forward on Current-Gen Consoles Like Series X, PS5 or PS5 Pro?
@MichaelPearn - GTA V on PS5 has three modes from memory, including 30 fps and 60 fps modes with and without ray-tracing.
Or are you referring to the PS4 version of GTA V running on the PS5 in back-compat mode which is 30 fps?
Re: Review: Sonic Frontiers Definitive Edition on Switch 2 is a comprehensive technical upgrade, but buying twice stings
@Max_the_German - The game literally has a Switch to Switch 2 save transfer feature but no upgrade path from the Switch version!
If that isn't a sign of sheer greed then I don't what is since SEGA included that knowing that there would be a demand and a use case for it. However, the only way to use it currently is to buy the game again. That is what SEGA want people to do! That is greed!
Re: Will the Steam Machine Age Like Fine Wine? Anti-Cheat, FSR 4, Driver Optimisation, Remote Play and More
@Tobility - Hades 2? Ori and the Blind Forest? Hollow Knight: Silksong?
Seriously though, the Steam Machine is not a 4K 60 fps machine and Valve damn well knew that which is why all mention of that has now been removed from the advertising.
Re: Will the Steam Machine Age Like Fine Wine? Anti-Cheat, FSR 4, Driver Optimisation, Remote Play and More
I think the Steam Machine has already aged like milk, personally, as I was never that impressed with the specs when they announced it. I would have been just as disappointed if it had launched at half its current price.
The only positive things I can say about the Steam Machine is (a) I like the small-form factor and design; and (b) I like that it supports HDMI CEC so it turns on using a controller, something I cannot do on my PC.
Otherwise, the whole thing is just underwhelming and at the price they are asking, I'm confused as to who exactly it is aimed at. It's too expensive for the mainstream and it's too underpowered for the hardcore.
Re: DF Weekly: The GTA 6 60fps Debate Returns: Is There a Route Forward on Current-Gen Consoles Like Series X, PS5 or PS5 Pro?
It's feasible that Rockstar are showing off GTA 6 with the highest fidelity visuals in its 30 fps mode on console. That doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be a 60 fps mode though if they choose to scale down the resolution, graphical settings and ray-tracing to achieve it.
That said, I'll be perfectly fine with a 30 fps GTA 6 as long as it is a smooth 30 fps on PS5 Pro. I've recently been playing Final Fantasy XVI at 30 fps on PS5 Pro and that looks and runs fine to me even though I only played the PC version at 120 fps the day before.
The difference is that I'm playing from further away on PS5 Pro, on a 55" OLED TV, whereas on PC I am sat much closer to a 27" QD-OLED monitor. 30 fps on PC looks and feels so much worse that in does on PS5 Pro, even with the same controller, and I can only conclude that is because I'm sat closer to the screen.
Re: Review: Star Fox On Switch 2 Is a Refined Return to an Iconic Game - and the Rail Shooter Genre
I just think the whole situation with the Switch 2 supporting VRR in handheld but with a sub-par HDR experience versus not supporting VRR in docked mode but where you can have a vastly superior HDR experience, depending on your TV, is just utterly bizarre and shows how inconsistent Nintendo are when it comes to embracing and supporting new technologies.
I thought Sony were pretty bad when they released the PS5 without VRR support but at least they did add it after 18 months and, while flawed (due to not supporting LFC at the system level), at least it is there for people to use.
Re: Review: Star Fox On Switch 2 Is a Refined Return to an Iconic Game - and the Rail Shooter Genre
@MattGPT - Is it possible to release an updated dock for the Switch 2 with support for VRR? It would cause an uproar for sure if people found out they had to pay more for extra hardware to use something that should have been there from Day One.
The second most disappointing thing about the Switch 2, after the lacklustre LCD screen itself, is that there is no support for VRR in docked mode. It just baffles me as to why Nintendo chose to overlook this, especially as the handheld experience itself is hardly the definitive way to play Switch 2 games since HDR is just basically non-existent.
Star Fox has terrific HDR on my LG C3 OLED TV and it really pops in a way that it absolutely does not on the handheld screen (I briefly tried the demo this way).
Ah, Nintendo, 10 years behind everyone else in terms of adopting new graphical technologies and features - concepts like "good-quality anti-aliasing" and "anisotropic texture filtering" seem lost on most of their first-party developers for example - but they still manage to crack out great games.
Re: Rockstar Just Released 63 New GTA 6 Screenshots - Here's What We Spotted
I feel that releasing promotional screenshots that are not representative of the console game is likely to draw a lot of criticism when the game finally releases, or when we finally get to see more than a few minutes of actual gameplay running on the current systems to be able to compare them to.
That said, I am sure that this game will look astonishing good on consoles and likely one of the best-looking games of this generation, if not the best, and will only be one-upped by the future PC and next-gen console versions. Rockstar's games have really excelled visually since the release of GTA IV in my opinion and the switch to their in-house RAGE engine.
Re: Valve Would "Love to Make the Steam Machine More Affordable" - Just Don't Expect It "Any Time Soon"
@MattGPT - To be honest, I would be absolutely fine with a 10 year life-cycle for the current consoles as I feel that due to COVID that we didn't really start this generation until 2-3 years in. There was a very long cross-over period which certainly wasn't a bad thing.
As you say, this is also beneficial for PC gamers as well as there would no less need to upgrade. I usually upgrade my PC when a new console generation arrives so ensure that I have approx. twice the performance (e.g. 32 GB system memory, 16 GB VRAM, a 2x faster GPU / CPU, etc).
Re: Valve Would "Love to Make the Steam Machine More Affordable" - Just Don't Expect It "Any Time Soon"
I've seen mention that Micron have 16 big AI contracts for memory up until 2030 so unless the AI industry suddenly crashes in the next year then we could be looking at another three and half years of rising memory prices which in turn will affect not only current gen console and PC pricing but also next gen console pricing as well.
This could lead to the games industry crashing in my opinion if current and next gen console pricing becomes so expensive that few people can afford to buy them. And if people aren't buying the hardware then that would have a knock on affect on the games as player numbers potentially stagnate.
The so-called AI boom cannot end soon enough, if you ask me. While I can see its usefulness in certain areas, such as the Google search engine (which is the only place I actually use it personally), it is something that I suspect 99.999% of people have no use it at all outside of business use. That's what makes this so frustrating for the entertainment industry.
Re: GTA 6 UK Pre-Order Price Confirmed
I am not pre-ordering - there really is no point - but I am glad to see that the game is £70 here in the UK, which is the same price that Sony sell their first-party releases for. Also, another £20 for the Ultimate Edition with extra content seems perfectly reasonable. I will buy this from the PS Store on 12th November, possibly the Ultimate Edition, we'll see, so I can pre-load for release on 19th.
All I want to see now is actual gameplay, at least 15-20 minutes, running on a PS5 Pro because what little I've seen so far looks so unbelievably good visually that I need to see it more of it to actually believe that what I've seen is real and not just a demo running on a high-end PC.
Re: Physical Editions of GTA 6 Will Come with "A Download Code Inside the Box", Pre-Loads Begin on November 12th
@BenWright - PC is a bit different as you have a choice of where to buy games; not just Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft, etc, but also third-party key sellers who often undercut the MSRP by quite a bit.
This makes the lack of resell value more palatable than on consoles where you would be tied into their storefront and MSRP pricing for new releases if digital becomes the only option.
I often buy PC games from third-party key sellers such as Loaded (CDKeys.com) and their discounts are usually such that I can buy the deluxe or premium-whatever-edition at less than the standard MSRP on Steam.
Re: Physical Editions of GTA 6 Will Come with "A Download Code Inside the Box", Pre-Loads Begin on November 12th
@Granadico - It is more likely about controlling second hand sales etc since Take-Two don't get a cut of those. Also, by making it a digital-only release they have full control of how long the game is available, the pricing, when it can be discounted for sales and by how much and so on.