PS4 Owners Thread

[yourbeliefs]

The only way the service will truly be successful is if they remove as much lag as humanly possible, and even then there could be some issues with people's broadband connections. Also, how much data is this service going to use up? There's lots of data being transmitted, and that could cause issues for people with limited broadband data caps.

 

[Zookster]

Interesting. Apparently what subs get isn't everything available in PS Now's catalog: http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-Now/PlayStation-Now-Title-List/td-p/44466574

I didn't experience any noticeable lag when I was part of the early beta on PS3 (when all the games were free), but part of the reason I was invited was because of my proximity to Sony's servers here in San Diego. But then again, I wasn't playing TLOU. At least the seven-day trial gives people a chance to see if it really works for them. I might do the trial just to knock off a game I've wanted to play but don't really want to buy.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I suppose I could try to finally plow through Shadow of the Colossus, although my ADHD may stop me from doing so within a 7 day span. GoW: Ascension might be a better bet. I tried it like once but for whatever reason I just wasn't in the mood and returned it after 1 gameplay session.

That is a little off-putting that the AYCE list differs from the "regular" Now list, but I'm sure it's a pricing and rights issue.

 

[Zookster]

I suppose I could try to finally plow through Shadow of the Colossus, although my ADHD may stop me from doing so within a 7 day span. GoW: Ascension might be a better bet. I tried it like once but for whatever reason I just wasn't in the mood and returned it after 1 gameplay session.

That is a little off-putting that the AYCE list differs from the "regular" Now list, but I'm sure it's a pricing and rights issue.

Reading Sony's official responses in the blog comments, it looks like the subscription service is designed to only include around 100 games, which will rotate on a regular basis, so spot on about pricing and rights issues, as I see no other reason to limit the number when there are clearly more options available and to be added. Kind of like an expanded version of the original Instant Game Collection model, where instead of 12 games on a rotating basis, you get ~100.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Apparently PSN is down again..

http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/7/7507267/playstation-network-connection-outage-problem-psn-ps4

 

[king3pj]

It looks like it went down around 1:30am ET. When I woke up at 6:00am ET IGN already had an update posted saying it was back online. They didn't post a time on the update article but it seems like the whole issue was resolved pretty quickly. I have today off so I'm glad the whole outage took place while I was sleeping.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I just hope it was online long enough for my copy of First Light to download last night. It was a 10 GB download and my PS4 is on the far end of my house (slow speeds, but surprisingly low latency for online matches.)

 

[king3pj]

I just hope it was online long enough for my copy of First Light to download last night. It was a 10 GB download and my PS4 is on the far end of my house (slow speeds, but surprisingly low latency for online matches.)

If you put your PS4 in "rest mode" instead of shutting all the way down it will continue to download when you aren't using the system. It should be there next time you go to use the PS4.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah I used Rest mode, but I don't know how "smart" the PS4 is to handle a lost connection. I guess I'll find out when I get home.

 

[Zookster]

Some PSN services/functions still seemed available during the outage last night when I was on my Vita at about 9:30pm PST -- the PS store being one of them. So maybe a download in progress wouldn't be interrupted.

 

[Zookster]

I just came across some interesting info about PS Now. Apparently PS3 and PS Now game saves are completely compatible via the PS Cloud storage system. So for example, if you played a game on your PS3 a while back, but no longer own it, you can still pick up your progress from your save (assuming you still have it) when you fire it up in PS Now. Likewise, if you start a game on PS Now and decide to buy the game much cheaper at retail (because you don't plan on subbing or renting the game for very long on PS Now), you can download the save to your PS3 from the Cloud regardless of whether you are using PS Now on PS4 or PS3.

 

[king3pj]

I just came across some interesting info about PS Now. Apparently PS3 and PS Now game saves are completely compatible via the PS Cloud storage system. So for example, if you played a game on your PS3 a while back, but no longer own it, you can still pick up your progress from your save (assuming you still have it) when you fire it up in PS Now. Likewise, if you start a game on PS Now and decide to buy the game much cheaper at retail (because you don't plan on subbing or renting the game for very long on PS Now), you can download the save to your PS3 from the Cloud regardless of whether you are using PS Now on PS4 or PS3.

One thing that would get me to try this service is if they automatically gave you access to any game you have in your digital library. If they know you have a digital copy of a game that they are streaming with PS Now there is no reason they should charge you to stream it to PS4. This would allow me to get some use out of the PS3 games I got from PS Plus or bought digitally.

Who knows? Maybe I'll fire up PS Now to play Uncharted 3 on my PS4 and like it so much that I subscribe for years. That's highly doubtful but it would give me a reason to try the service.

 

[Zookster]

One thing that would get me to try this service is if they automatically gave you access to any game you have in your digital library. If they know you have a digital copy of a game that they are streaming with PS Now there is no reason they should charge you to stream it to PS4. This would allow me to get some use out of the PS3 games I got from PS Plus or bought digitally.

Who knows? Maybe I'll fire up PS Now to play Uncharted 3 on my PS4 and like it so much that I subscribe for years. That's highly doubtful but it would give me a reason to try the service.

I counted over 20 games in the current subscription service list that were free for Plus members at one point (with promises of a regular rotation of games), so I would be surprised if Sony ever took the next step to unlock all peviously purchased content for subscribers, as they are likely dealing with myriad licensing issues with the various developers.

 

[king3pj]

I counted over 20 games in the current subscription service list that were free for Plus members at one point (with promises of a regular rotation of games), so I would be surprised if Sony ever took the next step to unlock all peviously purchased content for subscribers, as they are likely dealing with myriad licensing issues with the various developers.

I'm sure you're right about the licensing issues. It just seems wrong to charge people to stream a game they already own in the PSN store. I personally don't see this service having much success at all. $20 per month is too much money to stream old content at lower quality than it originally had on PS3.

That list of games included in the subscription plan is pretty small for a service that costs over twice as much as Netflx. Not only that but most of the games included have either been offered for free or have been available to purchase for very little money.

 

[Zookster]

I'm sure you're right about the licensing issues. It just seems wrong to charge people to stream a game they already own in the PSN store. I personally don't see this service having much success at all. $20 per month is too much money to stream old content at lower quality than it originally had on PS3.

That list of games included in the subscription plan is pretty small for a service that costs over twice as much as Netflx. Not only that but most of the games included have either been offered for free or have been available to purchase for very little money.

As I may have said before (can't remember where), I think PS Now and its subscription model is ultimately targeting two types of customers 1) longtime gamers like 360 owners who were new to the Playstation Universe when they got a PS4; 2) casual gamers who drop 100s of dollars every year on IOs and Android games who will be able to access PS content on their smart TVs and phones. A distant third might be folks who never keep an old console when the new generation comes out but find they have a strong desire to play the older games--the impulse nostalgia PS gamer, if you will.

 

[Zookster]

The Interview is finally available on Sony's Video Unlimited service. Now I just need to decide if I still care enough to pay actual $$ to watch it or if I should wait for it to show up on Netflix or Crackle.

EDIT: It's also available on Amazon VoD. (same pricing)

Surprisingly given how well it was doing on VoD, The Interview has just been added to Netflix streaming. Glad my initial impulse to watch ASAP wore off quickly (though if the Sony network had been up and stable over Christmas weekend, and The Interview was made available on Sony's Video Unlimited service at that time, I would've paid to watch it then). I'll still be watching it sooner than if it did actually get a widespread theatrical release.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Apparently even Sony's poster child developer Naughty Dog can't seem to figure out how to pull off 60FPS...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...is-Really-F-ing-Hard-to-Get-Running-at-60-FPS

 

[king3pj]

Apparently even Sony's poster child developer Naughty Dog can't seem to figure out how to pull off 60FPS...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...is-Really-F-ing-Hard-to-Get-Running-at-60-FPS

From what I understand, 60FPS is easy if you are willing to sacrifice everything else to get it. The problem comes when you are trying to maximize visual fidelity and amount of stuff on screen and still hold a solid 60FPS. Naughty Dog is known for getting the best visual quality possible out of Playstation consoles. That is directly at odds with trying to maximize framerate.

I know I've said this before but I'd rather have most games look great with 30FPS than sacrifice visual quality to hold 60FPS. There are exceptions to this but I really feel that 30FPS is good enough for most games. For twitch shooters like COD, fighting games, and racing games 60FPS is preferred.

For action games like Uncharted I think getting the best possible graphics out of the PS4 will have a bigger impact than trying to hit 60FPS for the few people who care about that. The vast majority of console gamers (casual players) won't know the difference between 30FPS and 60FPS but they will notice a great looking world and player models.

 

[meStevo]

The arbitrary 1080p/60fps expectation some have/had about this generation of games to qualify them as good has been absurd from the beginning.

 

[yourbeliefs]

The arbitrary 1080p/60fps expectation some have/had about this generation of games to qualify them as good has been absurd from the beginning.

Those things don't make a game "good" but I'd argue that 60 FPS is definitely better than 30 FPS. 60 FPS basically means better gameplay, which in my mind is paramount over better visuals. Hell, there are NES games that ran at 60 FPS.

The funny thing is that as far as publishers are concerned, the FPS thing goes both ways. If they can pull it off, like in the Master Chief Collection, the publisher is like, "Look! 60 FPS! This game is so much better now!" If they CAN'T pull it off, then they'll either say, "Well, we want to game to look the best that it possibly can!" (Naughty Dog) or "30 FPS is just more 'cinematic' (Ubisoft). Personally I'd prefer Uncharted 4 sacrifice some visual fidelity in order to get a 60 FPS experience, but that's just me. And Naughty Dog can't act like 60 FPS isn't a selling point. It was a predominant selling point of The Last of Us Remastered and basically every reviewer said the game was more fun at 60 as opposed to 30 FPS.