Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Been playing Ace Combat 7 on Steam today. Oh my goodness, I clearly forgot how to play Ace Combat ever since Assault Horizon Legacy on 3DS. I spent a long time just crashing because I kept going too fast lmao. But after remembering how to high-G turn and finding out that you can enter first-person mode again, I'm back in my element and holy crap, it's so fun.

Playing on Normal this time since I haven't played an Ace Combat game in a long while, but so far it's giving me good vibes. I love the music, the game looks and runs beautifully at 144fps, and the gameplay was always one of the strongest points of Ace Combat for me when I played it then.

The story though? Uh... it's kinda gibberish right now but whatever.

Looks like Sony intends to remain #1 going into the next generation, investing heavily into PS5.

I assume Playstation is the biggest source of profit for Sony, right? Makes sense they'd invest in a lot in it.

Ok, so I finally took out Astro Bot in VR. OMG that game is amazing! It is the game that defines VR! Moss is great, but the 3D isn't essential. The first person games are mostly 2D games retrofitted for VR (Borderlands works well, but it's awkward to me.) Astro Bot both uses the fact that VR is VR as a gameplay element, uses the dimensionality for puzzle solving and gameplay, and even as a 2D game never ceases to surprise, rivaling Nintendo's best platformers as a mix of Chibi Robo, Pikmin, and a few others all rolled into each other. Not being able to roll the camera backward is my pet peeve though....too often it inches forward when I collect a coin and I have to strain my neck looking behind me to finish things i know are there.

OTOH, can we talk for a moment about how Sony allowed a first party game to actively feature an in-game Dual Shock 4 phallus attachment, that squirts targets?

I like to think of it as the Officially licensed Dual Shock 4: P.H.U.K. (Phallus Hydrant Ultimate Kit.) The Gal Gun team must be blushing.....

@Ralizah Between FFIX, X, XII, YS VIII, Shining Res, and Tales of Vesperia I'm looking for a mostly handheld game....that said I played XC2 almost entirely handheld and didn't mind at all....it didn't look bad, and it was smooth. I didn't realize YS had puzzle dungeons...that's surprising...cool, but unexpected. I figured itw as a more straight RPG.

BTW, I also tried VR Tetris Effect...actually spent full price on it since it has NEVER gone on sale that I've caught, and I've waited patiently, and I rarely have the helmet and camera setup so I was curious, but you were pretty into wanting VR just for that. It's no Astro Bot (by far) but I do find it weirdly addictive and oddly zen. I'm not a big Tetris/Puyo guy (I suck at Puyo and I OD'd on Tetris on my OG Game Boy back in the day, though I was never amazing at it ) But I found I wanted to switch back to Astro Bot...but...somehow...just...couldn't.....one.......more..........board........ Though technically I don't know that it really needs the VR. It's still a mostly 2D game and the 3D effects are mostly off in the periphery. I'm not sure the 2D experience would really be any worse....just slightly less immersive. Thumper, OTOH, I find 2D makes it considerably harder than VR.....it requires you to be "in the zone" and the depth gives your brain that extra millisecond of reaction perception.

@NEStalgia I wouldn't really call them puzzle dungeons. Some of the later dungeons have physical puzzles, but they're not nearly as elaborate as what you would find in something like Ocarina of Time. The Zelda-ish nature of it comes more from the way you progress through the game. Like, you won't be able to access this area of the map until you go through a dungeon and get this item, which also allows you to access other, optional parts of the map as well because it fundamentally alters how you're able to interact with your environment. Meanwhile, an ever-expanding tree of side-quests and whatnot opens up to you.

It's fine as a handheld title, visual quirks aside. If you can deal with 300p Xenoblade 2, you'll be fine. As I said, it's still a considerably better looking game undocked. The framerate takes a much bigger hit than the visual quality, but, aside from some demanding areas, it's usually a pretty smooth 30fps. The lack of 60fps is unfortunate, but it doesn't ruin the game, and this is still a better version of the game than the Vita originally got.

Tales of Vesperia looks great undocked, but, man, I hate the battle systems in these games. They don't even feel compelling on an action game level. They just feel... clunky.

Tetris Effect went on sale for half price last year at Gamestop. Right after I bought it used for $30, in fact. I wasn't happy. Anyway, yeah, it's the primary game I want VR for, so it's good to hear that I'm not missing much. Honestly, the biggest boon to the game is probably playing it with headphones on. Between the serene music and the way everything makes noise when you do stuff, it makes for an almost hypnotic experience.

Astro Bot... I dunno. It looks fun, but, having seen footage, I feel like people are probably overhyping it. We'll see. I really like platformers and creative uses of technology, so I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

I hear Thumper is VERY cool in VR. It's the only way I'd be interested in experiencing the game, to be honest.

I also want to play Resi 7 in VR. VR is tailor-made for horror, IMO, considering how tied to emotion and immersion that genre fundamentally is.

@Ralizah Interesting. It's a hard call between Ys and Vesperia. I didn't really like that one Tales game 3DS got...but I hear Vesperia is the high point of the series...so I'm curious.

Tetris Effect was definitely a "digital first" game for me...the kind of game I'd never put in a drive bay but pick up and play on a whim. Byt yeah, it really is hypnotic. VR helps that hypnosis, but....only so much for what's a 2D game by any measure.

Astro Bot....if it were just a 2D platformer it would be a cute, fun, unremarkable platformer like Ziplash. But the way it showcases VR gameplay and environment. It's the single best VR experience I've had to date. It really feels built for VR, and a mature VR design more than any other. It's not transcendental or anything but it simply comes together on all fronts its supposed to in a way nothing else to date has.

Thumper...I agree. I feel that really needs VR to shine. Both in terms of the demands on perception and reaction that just work better in "real" space, and the need to shut out the world completely to have any hope of succeeding. Plus it's just moody in the way that VR helps, like a dark ride. Which it kind of is.

I still hate the bent toward horror of VR. As someone that won't touch horror, gore, fear, or thriller with a 100ft pole, it kills me that so much focus is placed on it with VR.

@NEStalgia I mean, there's just not a lot of really good VR experiences in the horror realm outside of RE7 right now. It kills me that P.T. VR will never be a thing, frankly.

So, how far does your distaste for dark subject matter extend? Can you watch crime movies? Cyberpunk with a flair for the gruesome? Violent action movies? Or is it purely about the emotions of terror and desperation that are evoked by horror films and thrillers?

Also, re Tetris Effect: another thing that might make VR pointless for me is that I don't leave it zoomed out like it is by default. I zoom it in so the board takes up the majority of the screen. I don't know if the zoomed out view would look better in VR, though, as opposed to a flatscreen TV across the room from me.

Finished up Farpoint (PSVR) this morning. There are some cool moments that really make use of the VR (the moments where you're riding in the cockpit of a shuttle are the highlight, but also the movements of the jumping spider enemies are real enough to set off your subconscious and make you jump everytime you run into them the first few hours even though you know they're not real, a few other setpieces look cool), though it's merely a decent FPS as a game (defeat a group/few waves of enemies in a larger area, things quiet down as you discover a story hologram or walk through a setpiece, another larger area with enemies, repeat until level's end. Later levels have more constant enemy encounters, and I preferred the balance of the early game). Not a big fan of how it ended, but that would be spoilers, so I won't elaborate.

I'm going to be taking a break from VR (I find it helps to dive into a regular game between VR games so that the effect keeps it's wow factor when you jump back in), asI have Tales of Zestiria downloading now.

@Ralizah Probably the best description is that I can't take CSI (Vegas) but loved CSI: Miami and CSI NY. I tried to love Vegas but they tried to make it too dark, too suspenseful, too supernatural even without actual supernatural. But Miami and Vegas I loved despite plenty of bloody murder scenes. It left out the suspense and was purely routine about it. I can't think of any cyberpunk off the top of my head, but it would likely be fine. Violent action movies, it depends. If it's Tarantino, no. If it's not, I'm probably fine

I gravely dislike blood/gore (I could never work in medical...) But in something like a procedural, I can grit my teeth and endure it unpleasantly (and in games, though I had to acclimate to it early on.) But thrillers/desperation/terror and general "twistedness" I can't endure at all.

Good question on Tetris Effect. The board is pretty big in VR....if you zoomed in (not even sure if you can?) I think you'd have to turn left and right to a frustrating degree rather than seeing the whole board easily at once. I have to look up and down to see top vs bottom.

@Ralizah PT is a thing in Dreams, and once VR support will be added at launch, you can kinda play the game in VR as well; at least the Dreams version.

@NEStalgia Did you ever see Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1? It's a horrifically violent movie, but it's so goofy and light-hearted about it that the violence barely even registers. I could see being skeeved out by something like the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, though. How are you with the gimp scene in Pulp Fiction?

I have a friend who can't stand violent or excessively dark subject matter. She could tolerate the very stylized darkness of the Danganronpa games, but the gruesome exploitation film-esque ultra-violence in the anime series was a bit too much for her, and she vowed to never associate with the franchise again!

My brother-in-law... I dunno. He watches zombie movies and can selectively do ultra-violence, but stuff like Law and Order: SVU and traditional horror movies really bothers him.

I used to watch anything and everything, and was quite a gorehound as a young teen. With life experience, I seem to have... lost my taste for media violence of the crueler variety. I don't know that I'd want to watch something like Cannibal Holocaust again, for example. Especially knowing the animal deaths are real. I can still enjoy more calculated gore films, like Lucio Fulci's italian splatter films, though.

The board sounds way bigger in VR Tetris. In 2D, when zoomed out all the way by default, it occupies a small space in the middle of the screen. Zooming it in mostly fills the screen, but it sounds nowhere near as encompassing as it does in VR.

@Octane How closely does the Dreams version actually recreate P.T.? I need to look that up. It'd be awesome if they recreated it down to the easter eggs and subtle audio cues in each loop. It's the coolest walking sim I've ever played by a country mile.

@Ralizah This is from the beta from earlier this year. I believe the creator is still working on it:

@Ralizah I never watched Kill Bill due to the excessive bloodbath. It is possible I would enjoy it with the overall style and theme, but I never got myself to be interested enough to try it. Torture scenes are a no go for me. Part of it is I think I'm part empathy or something. Everything done to the character is as though it's being at least half-way done to me. I can easily see anything through someone else's perspective....so torture, terror, etc...not terribly entertaining to live through

Danganroonpa games, I like. It's more metaphorical than anything, like Persona/SMT. Though I haven't seen the anime. I don't do zombies (ever, at all, can't stand it even slightly.) I never liked SVU, but not because I couldn't take the subject matter, etc, I just somehow never clicked with the show, or most of the acting. I liked the original series before Sam Waterston turned it into a personal political soapbox and it became painful to watch, and I liked, to a degree....ohh, what was the other Law & Order spinoff...can't remember the name but that one was decent.

Even for the police procedural I don't actually enjoy seeing all the gore, but I accept it just as actual investigators would as part of analyzing the evidence. I'm like Adachi in Persona 4....except....well not really then...

Yeah, like everything VR it's kind of a billboard or "drive in theater" sized display in the visor. Technically it's still a "small space in the middle of the screen" but the screen is a simulated movie theater sized display. (I've found even normal games get a 3DS-like 3D effect at billboard size. I had FFXII and FFIX running when I put the visor on a few times and everything seemed slightly 3D...and huge.

How is FF14? I've never played an MMO, but people have mentioned that XC2 is similar to an MMO, so I'm interested.

Uhhh, well I play FF14 currently, but I wouldn't compare it to XC at all.
It's a very in-depth game that requires a huge amount of time to dedicate to all its intricate gameplay systems. When I started playing, it was just too much. I put it down. It wasn't until I had a buddy that was a veteran of the game walk me through everything that it actually clicked. Don't think I ever would have figured it out by myself. But I can say if you do get the hang of it, it's very fun. I wouldn't base your feelings of Xenoblade as a way to gauge your potential interest in FF14, though, I just think they're apples and oranges

Archangel is....disappointing. The beginning was so promising, but the on-rails T2: Terminator type gameplay gets boring fast.

Moss, I still find amazing however.

@Trajan
FF XIV has Epic Boss Battles such as Doom Train FF VI, Kefka FFVI, ExDeath and NeoExdeath FF V.

Such a weird decision from SquareEnix to put a lot of efforts to redesign those Epic Final bosses in Full HD 3D with their signature moves while we still get Crappy HD 2D FF V & VI on mobile.

@PikPi Gotcha. I guess I'll skip it.

@Anti-Matter Thanks. How is FF5/6 crappy? Graphics look good on SNES. Minus the whole behind the character scenes.

@Trajan
How could FF V and VI were still 2D but FF IV remake and The After Years got Nice 3D rendering with voice over on mobile? 😕
Oh, the "crappy" i meant was the 2D style, not the gameplay quality.

@Anti-Matter I had to Google the FF4 remake. Looks terrible IMO. Like the Bravely series.