partious

Sorry to hear that some people are highly sensitive to dropped frames in open world city driving sections. Perhaps they should add that disclaimer to their complaints instead of saying that the game is an unplayable mess and shouldn't have been released for the format etc. I haven't bothered watching the digital foundry video so I can't tell you exactly how many fps it runs at on every format like the framerate experts can, but my feeling having played over 8 hours is that it's close enough to 30fps the vast majority of time for it not to bother me. I've noticed some dropped frames when driving in busy city streets, but it's nowhere near "unplayable" and doesn't feel like 20fps. I'm comfortable enough with my knowledge of games to say that the game doesn't run anywhere near as badly as people are making out unless your head's full of rtx 3080 comparisons and what you heard on digital foundry. I have a PC and generally play games at 60fps. I have a preference for 60fps in arcade racers and such but in this I can't say I care, particularly in the moments outside of missions when I'm driving a car through the city to a marker on the map and get a few dropped frames. The comment about N64 is interesting as I had been thinking of OOT in relation to the current trend of very important deep dives into framerates on DF etc (mainly DF). That game and several other N64 classics actually did run like garbage but it still topped every "best games ever" list for about 15 years after release. I guess it was a different time. I had bigger issues with the framerate in Breath of The Wild on Wii U than I do with this. There's something "audiophile" esque about the whole tone of the discussions taking place. Graphic and framerate nitpicking with the occasional comment about the actual content of the game. I'm not saying people aren't entitled to do so and perhaps people do have different sensitivity levels, but like I said, for me it's a bit of an eye opener.

About 8 hours in on base ps4. Wasn't sure what to think of the story after the first 4 hours or so but after 8 I'm seriously impressed. This game is really something special. Still yet to see a bug of note or a crash and the game is totally playable in its current state on ps4 as far as I'm concerned. The discussion in this thread and on the news sites about this game being "unplayable" or "broken" on PS4 and just the entire tone of most posts and the obsession with graphical and framerate nitpicking has been a real eye opener for me.

I just played this on base ps4 for about 4 and a half hours. There's either something wrong with me or the internet gaming discussion hyperbole machine is busy at work again for the clicks. I saw zero noticeable bugs and I thought the performance, graphics and loading times were completely acceptable for an open world ps4 game, including driving in the city. I actually thought the nighttime city graphics were quite impressive for a ps4 game. That said, I haven't watched all the videos that helpfully explain to people that a ps4 game looks worse than it does on an rtx 3090 or has a lower framerate than on ps5, so maybe I'm doing this wrong.

First time I've noticed a repeat of a game that was previously given away. Pretty impressive considering I have over 100 games from them now.

I'd like to go to a late 90s/early 2000s pc parts/game shop and look through the big box pc games and also the fancy CRT monitors and peripherals. Console retro gaming is fairly well covered by the secondhand market (which is probably why most of the posts here are about buying something rare and flipping it to make a few quid) but much of the experience of PC gaming in the 90's/early 2000s seems lost to time.

This is pretty great for something that's just an added bonus on top of amazon prime. I've built up a library of over 100 games from this over the past year or two and a lot of them are fairly well regarded indies and games that fall into the "looks interesting but I probably wouldn't have bought it/known about it" category. Also, I didn't know this until recently but the twitch prime games don't have any drm or require the use of the twitch launcher, which is nice.

If we're talking historically and upto about 2005 then definitely Japanese but if we're talking about the present day then without a doubt western, if only for the indies. I can live without all of modern Japan's game output with the exception of the Nintendo big hitters. I think I'd even take the modern western AAAs over the Japanese (non-Nintendo) AAAs.

I do think there is an element of that to it but at least with Japan there's a reference point of classic games like the mountain racing of Initial D or Battle Gear, the urban highways of Wangan Midnight etc. Gamers clearly have a reference point for arcade racing games set in Japan. Nighttime mountain roads and neon cities are what come to mind when I think of a racing game set in Japan and I think it's an appealing setting for a game, particularly the latter, with one of the selling points of the Series X being the ability to make every surface look like a mirror... Also, Japan actually makes a lot of cars and has a fairly substantial and influential car modding/racing scene, which is more than can be said for some of the other settings they've chosen.

I care substantially more about a solid 60fps than I do about 4k or ray tracing etc. If it's a tradeoff between 30fps and 60fps, I very much want the option to turn the shiny graphics settings down this gen in every game. Maybe pc will be the place to go this gen for people like me because you have a guarantee that you can turn OFF certain features.

Haven't played a Halo game since a quick runthrough of Halo 2 in co-op on the original xbox back in the day but I picked this up in the Steam sale yesterday. Played through the first few stages of Halo 1 on normal difficulty but it feels more like an easy mode. Looking at the title of this topic...is Heroic the actual normal difficulty in Halo games?

I don't go in for console warring, never have and think it's silly. I can't even relate to the school playground references that are made so often here, in my school some people had a snes and some a megadrive etc and I don't remember any negativity/warring, just appreciating getting the chance to play the other one when you visited your classmate's house or friends trading consoles and games for a few days etc. With that out of the way, I believe the bulk of DF's viability is probably built on the internet culture of console wars and every generation having a winner and a loser between Sony and MS. That's not intended as an insult against the people behind DF, I just don't imagine there are as many people who own a PS5 and a Series X and want an in depth buyers guide as there are discussion board keyboard warriors looking for ammo. Also, I don't automatically equate the average console wars/pc master race fanboy with the type of unhinged individual who would be inclined to send the DF people threats or whatever is happening.

Thanks for the info. That's a bit disappointing, was hoping they sent a code now and I'd then have the pre order locked in on my gog account. I trust cdkeys enough to buy an old game or some psn credit but not sure I trust them enough to send me a key at some stage in the future.

Sorry if this is obvious but how does the cdkeys process work for a preorder? Will they send me a key now that I enter on gog now and can then download the game on release day or do I have to wait until release day for cdkeys to send the code?

Driveclub VR and to a lesser extent the vast majority of PSVR games.

Just bought the ps4 physical version on a whim a few minutes ago because it was 1900yen/16ish pounds and I want something new to dust off my psvr for. Remembered a few minutes after buying it that I don't have psplus so can't play online.. Hopefully that short single player has some replayability.

I enjoy some Digital Foundry videos (mainly the retro ones) but whether they're focussing on the minor performance differences between a game running on two near identical systems or telling you that your monitor just lacks that certain something that only their ultra rare Sony widescreen CRT monitor/some expensive 50 inch 4k 120hz OLED offers, it's very much a channel made to cater for the tech consumer/upgrade obsessive side of gaming and not the actual playing games part. I sort of think regularly watching it is more likely to result in someone getting less enjoyment from their time playing games than more. I'm glad when I got my PS1 and Ridge Racer back in the day I didn't have someone saying "sure you enjoy it, but what about the fact that it's only 30fps vs 60 in the arcade and the graphics are worse than the arcade version" etc etc. I got years of enjoyment out of Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast before finding out how inferior the port is to the model 3 original. Even that comparison is a bit generous. Most people would have an easier time noticing the difference between arcade daytona and Saturn Daytona than they would of spotting 99.9% of the stuff DF talk about in modern game comparison videos by themselves. I wouldn't worry about the PS5 vs Series X comparison wars, in a year and a half they'll be making videos about how the latest multiplatform games on both run like ass and look like garbage compared to the hottest new 1000 pound pc graphics card.

I was interested in the series s due to the small form factor and the fact that I don't have or particularly want to buy a 4k screen so it's quite disappointing to see that "same performance as the series x just at 1440 instead of 4k" is already totally out the window. I wouldn't have minded 1080p vs 4k on the series x but games running at 30fps on series s vs 60fps on the series x aside from the lower resolution feels significantly different to how the machine was presented before launch. Now that the real world performance is coming out the series s seems like very bad value for money when the digital ps5 is an extra hundred quid or whatever.

I had an original xbox back in the day, skipped most of the 360/PS3 gen (I later got a cheap used 360 for the Cave Shmups and a couple of other downloadable arcade games). Had a PS4/PC/Wii U/Switch for the previous gen and had absolutely zero desire to buy an xbox one. I'm seriously tempted by the Series S at the moment. Main reason is just the tiny size of the console. I had been looking at small form factor pcs and the prices are ridiculous so the series s seems like a good deal in comparison. Also gamepass seems impressive. PS5 is huge and I'm generally not really a fan of Sony's Playstation exclusives so I'm not bothered about missing those. I don't care about 1080 or 1440 vs 4k(I don't have a 4k screen), but I'm a bit worried that series s will end up with a bunch of games running at 30fps vs 60fps on the series x. If the trade off is just resolution I'll happily get the series s.

Do games on the oculus store go on sale often and are the discounts usually good?

The hardware must be decent enough if it can emulate Outrunners well enough to release commercially. How do raspberry pis generally do at running that?

I love the visuals/music of the Turtles arcade games but they're full of cheap deaths and gameplay balance designed to keep you feeding coins into the machines. As for the console Turtles in Time adaptations, TMNT Hyperstone Heist on the Mega Drive is probably my favourite scrolling beat em up because of the fast and frantic feeling gameplay, existence of a run button and the excellent music. It definitely does a better job of holding my attention in single player than the Streets of Rage games or Final Fight where I'm bored by the second or third stage and it all feels a bit slow. I like Turtles in Time on the snes, but not as much (mainly because of the lack of a run button and a preference for how the Mega Drive music sounds), but I still prefer it to SOR/Final Fight.

How do people feel about buying switch versions of games you already own on other formats? Does the portability justify it for you or do you avoid buying stuff you already have in a "backlog" somewhere else? There are a bunch of games on the eshop that I think I'd enjoy playing handheld (mainly indies but also some older big games) but...I have practically all of them on PC already between Epic/Twitch freebies over the past couple of years and old Steam sales. So I just suffer this "I should play them on PC" guilt that stops me buying the switch version and then I don't play the PC ones either because PC gaming is just too much effort for me to regularly fit in around everything else I have going on in life. I'm coming around to the idea of just making peace with it though and buying the switch versions.

I don't generally buy games at release or aaa franchises anyway but I'd be reluctant to boycott specific western devs over crunch unless I was going to blanket boycott Japanese games, since I suspect every Japanese dev likely exists in a perpetual state of crunch/overwork (why would game dev be run differently than every other company in Japan?).

All the games that come to mind are Sega ones... Crazy Taxi: Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, PSP, Steam/PC, Xbox 360 (Dreamcast collection disc). Virtua Racing: Mega Drive,32x,Saturn,PS2, Switch. (I feel like this is the easiest to justify as they're all quite different. Switch is arcade perfect or better but I still prefer playing the 32x version). Outrun 2: Xbox, PS2, PSP, PSN/PS3 Daytona: Saturn x2, Dreamcast, PSN/PS3 Nights into Dreams: Saturn, PS2, PSN/PS3, Steam/PC Sonic Adventure: Dreamcast(first game I got with my DC for Christmas back in the day so I have a soft spot for it..), Gamecube, PSN/PS3, Xbox 360(Dreamcast Collection Disc), Steam/PC Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed: Wii U, Vita, Steam/PC (put it on Switch and I'll buy it again)

Switch eshop is the modern version of "arcade screenshots on a c64 game box". Photos/videos of gameplay from the PC version that bear little resemblance to the heavily downgraded switch port you're buying. Most obvious example I've seen was Xenon Racer at release. More recently, I think I read similar about "Cloudpunk". I'm sure there are others as nintendo don't seem to care.