R(ob)’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2021)

R(ob)’s comments from the The Video Game Forum group.

I'm so glad I didn't waste any money on PS VR 1 or 2.

I'm still plugging away at the Dead Space remake. On chapter 8. It's one amazing game even today. It looks amazing with the graphical remake aspect but the game play and level design and the attention to detail is still better than most new games released nowadays. Traveling around the Ishimura is really well done. OK the lifts and train do hide level loading - probably not so much needed nowadays on Series X/PS5 and more needed back in the 360/PS3 era but kept to remain true to the original game - still, it's not intrusive and the sense of ship exploration is just superb.

Yea and we used to have folders (they have them now but they are buried and useless), animated backgrounds and a newsfeed - all really simple things they just don't do now. Actually PS in the USA has a newsfeed on the homescreen but europe has nothing. I mean it's a small thing but I liked to look through it for what people had shared, trophies they got and PS blog shares etc. Just more and more simple stuff they don't do. And these cards I never ever look at - I looked initially but they are next to pointless and not very well supported.

Equinox80 wrote: "I sometimes wonder if I'm too old for gaming. Where are all the new Killzones or Motorstorm games, or something to replace them? Is there no appetite for this kind of thing anymore?"

Yea I'm exactly the same. The PS3/360 gen for games was the pinnacle for me in terms of my gaming interest. Lots of great games and they came out fast - three Uncharted games in one generation, for example. And for all the issues with the 360 and PS3 with RROD and YLOD etc even the user interfaces - well, more the 360 - were better than what we have now. I remember on 360 on the homescreen you would get new XBox produced videos every week called SentUAMessage and Inside XBox which were so good and I'd be excited for new videos each week. And the friends screen where all your friends could be seen together in 3D animated Avatars with various outfits, and all of these Avatars would dance together when in a party-chat. Now both XBox and PS user interfaces are just so dull and lifeless.

The biggest issue with this gen is increased development cost and time. The increase in console power and the expectation of visually stunning games with rich and complex mechanics and environments is weirdly killing the industry. Perhaps if they scaled back games to be fun and short and smaller in scope we might get more games, spend more on games. Reduce the purchase price but also reduce their investment in creating the games in the first place. Or the devs really have to make much more use of AI to reduce development time but that doesn't come without its impact on jobs probably. I mean that new Senua's Saga took like 6-7 years to develop for a 5-6 hour game that's super linear and on-rails a lot of the time - that's crazy.

It’s a frequent topic in the various game podcasts I watch that Sony’s devs are very quiet at the moment and for the rest of the year.

The only thing I saw was the Concorde game play which looks like yet another Overwatch clone. All the other announcements that came out of the Sony event I didn’t even bother to watch. I’m interested in a new Astrobot- that was a decent fun game.

I don’t know why they ever stopped supporting E3 - that was a great event every summer that created a lot of buzz and excitement for new and future games. These state of play streams and the Xbox equivalent were always better embedded in the buzz of E3 and presented on stage.

I do remember that section in Jedi Survivor. It did start off a bit confusing and I did die a few times but in the end it wasn’t too bad. There’s another section much further in that was a platforming section through some beam facility and that was tougher for me but after a few failed attempts I did it. Actually there is another platforming puzzle after that that was a little frustrating too - like yellow orbs you have to bounce off in a tall lobby type area. On the whole though it wasn’t too frustrating. Try playing The New War mission in Warframe - nearly caused me an aneurysm.

Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Finally found my gaming mojo again over the weekend. I persevered with the Dead Space remake and I'm glad I did. I'm on the fifth chapter and really enjoying it. And I've been playing..."

Yea my new OLED really does allow games with a lot of dark areas to shine. And the contrast is excellent, and makes images really pop. However, when I compare it to my LED zone backlit Samsung QN90B it's not like a massive difference. Yea blacks look better on the OLED but when I go back to my QN90B it looks much much better than edge lit for deeper blacks (I used to have a edge lit TV before replacing it with my OLED). I have to say the OLED even though it's 1000 nits compared to the 2000 nits of the QN90B it's still very bright for an OLED and HDR looks amazing. There's not a lot between the two TVs on the whole but you do notice more the deep blacks - everything else is like splitting hairs. Even the 1000 nits vs 2000 nits is difficult to notice as generally most images are no where near these brightness levels except for small highlights and even then both TVs have great specular highlights. Although OLED is now my favourite TV display tech - I've been converted as OLED tech historically couldn't achieve a lot of brightness but with the new QD-OLEDs that problem has been solved. And although I'd really like to change my gaming TV to OLED I spent over £1000 on my QN90B and I'm not changing it now. I need to stop spending money on new tech :-).

Finally found my gaming mojo again over the weekend. I persevered with the Dead Space remake and I'm glad I did. I'm on the fifth chapter and really enjoying it. And I've been playing it on my new OLED TV - moved my Series X into the living room temporarily to see how games looked on it - and boy I must admit I'm a bit of a convert to OLED now. With Dead Space being such a dark game everything really pops from the darkness (rather than from the greyness). And it's such a varied game with the puzzles and combat and so well done. Loving it. I must not let myself change my main gaming TV to an OLED otherwise I'm wasting money - a 2022 QN90B still has a bloody nice looking image. I also played another Warframe Codex called Whispers in the Walls which my mate had been nagging me to do for ages. Got to say I'm not a big fan of Warframe single player missions as they usually have something frustrating about them. They are well done just that they go above my frustration threshold. And then I tried XDefiant - and I've been hooked most of the bank holiday weekend. A really decent FPS that's a lot of fun. I can't see me playing it long term but it's a decent shooter. Nothing ground breaking - kinda COD like but with special abilities, good mechanics, nice maps and some good game modes.

So if Diablo 4 is an easy game I might be tempted ;-). I could do with going out of my usual comfort zone of the genres of games I normally play.

DeckardCain's Sandals wrote: "Definitely stuff I'll have to look into more. I've a(n) (extremely) vague idea of the specs I'd look for gaming wise but QLED, OLED, Neo-QLED, QD-OLED? It all sounds like one-upmanship between the ..."

Yea in 5 years I’ll sell you a TV at a bargain price. 😉

Phil, psn: p4tiny wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "It depends on how good/sheet your current TV is. If it's an LCD, that's not very bright, with no decent local dimming or not OLED then you could see a big picture quality improvement ..."

Yea QLEDs are great too. If you can get a QLED from Samsung for cheaper I’d definitely recommend it. I have a Samsung QN90B. The two OLEDs I mentioned are not top end, more mid range. The Samsung QD-OLED goes over 1000 nits so for HDR it’s reported to be very impressive. The LG C3 I believe is 800nits but apparently still has good HDR. Now if you want top end it’s got be an LG G3 but it has quite a price bump.

Got to say I don’t like the OS on Samsung nowadays. It was better a few years ago.

DeckardCain's Sandals wrote: "My current one is a 65in Hisense 4K HDR LCD lol, so anything is likely to be a step up ;) To be fair, I was blown away the first time I gamed in 4K on it, back when 4k was just getting its feet, an..."

I think 120Hz is mostly for fast multiplayer if you're a really competitive multiplayer gamer - COD supports it for example. Some single player games support it but they are only a few. You do notice a difference between 60Hz and 120Hz - it feels a lot smoother, and more responsive as the input lag is reduced too. For me it's very noticable that 120Hz is better than 60HZ - but I'm happy with 60Hz TBH. The biggest drawback is any game that supports 120 reduces resolution. COD for example, and if my memory serves me correct, drops from 4k down to around 1200-1400p. Some other games will drop further - you always notice a softness to the resolution of 120Hz games. For next gen that might be a lot better :-). 120 Hz without the game supporting it doesn't help those games that don't support it. Sony recently for some of their exclusive games - I think Spiderman is one - support 40Hz. So the game uses 120Hz but renders at 40Hz - 120 divided by 3 - so it gives a slight smoothness boost but nothing massive. Again only on games that support it.

Yea HDR is basically worth nothing and you won't notice it unless you have a high peak brightness - 1000 nits plus. Plus poor blacks don't help that's why OLED or a TV with a lot of dimming zones helps too. I think 4k has a bigger impact than HDR - for sure - but if you have both on a good TV it can really make the colour, details and image pop.

TVs with very good HDR I appreciate but for some people it's not a big deal - depends on the individual. Same with 120Hz. I think 60Hz is a sweet spot most notice and are happy with the extra smoothness but anything more - 120Hz - is no big deal.

It depends on how good/sheet your current TV is. If it's an LCD, that's not very bright, with no decent local dimming or not OLED then you could see a big picture quality improvement buying a more modern TV which is at least mid-range (not a cheapo TV). I doubt you'd use 120Hz by the sounds of it - but you never know? Most modern mid-range TV's support 120Hz HDMI.

I've just bought a QD-OLED (Samsung) 55 inch with a high peak brightness for an OLED and infinite contrast - any game on that should look stunning. It's approx £1000 and that's considered cheap for an OLED. First launched last year it was over £2000 but as the newer model has just come out (again over £2000) you can get last year's model very cheap comparitively.

My gaming TV is a QLED - has hundreds if not thousands of dimming zones to help with achieving better blacks. However is very very bright around 2000 nits peak brightness which helps massively with HDR. Plus it's 65 inch and 120Hz.

I've never owned an OLED TV so I'll let you know which I prefer for gaming - going to put my XBox on it for a while.

If you're looking for a cheap mid-range then it's either a Samsung s90c or an LG C3 - both OLED. There are samsung QLEDs worth considering too. These are the best options on price whilst being very decent TVs. John Lewis are doing a deal with £100 off with a code and then another £100 gift voucher that you redeem later on another purchase - plus comes with free 5 year warranty. AO also do the same TVs for around £1000 - but only 1 year warranty. £1000 sounds a lot but these are very good TVs. And pretty much half price from when they were launched. Anything else cheaper I'd wait until your TV gives up.

I've not been playing a lot recently. I did do another codex mission on Warframe but it only took less than an hour. I then started Dead Space remake and it looks very nice but after 1 hour I put it down and thought to myself I'm not sure I feel the need to play this again. Still in two minds to continue but I really haven't got a lot screaming out to me to play from my back log (of mostly PS+ monthly freebies).

Last weekend I did see Dune 2 for the first time. The first Dune (as in the Denis Villeneuve film) was pretty decent but nothing special. The sequel however is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. I loved it. I was hooked from start to finish. It had some amazing scenes and flowed well. And the cinematography was superb. Honestly best big budget sci-fi probably since Bladerunner 2049 - I loved that too. Very excited for the third film.

Other than that I've been splashing the cash. I upgraded my gaming TV last year to a 65inch QLED but my living room TV was still a six year old pretty basic LCD panel. So I'm upgrading tomorrow to an OLED (QD-OLED) and very excited to watch Dune 2 on it again.

I had no issues but I guess I was lucky.

Yea it can be challenging but very good. I tended to stick to the main missions but did a few side missions to get better stuff on recommendation of guides I read/watched.

The Ascent is an excellent game. Try the photo mode too - as you can move the camera anywhere - the visuals are amazing. They could have done it as an FPS and the world would have been unbelievable. It was definitely a challenging game the further you get into it but there are two things that made the game a lot more manageable - a mini-gun and there was something where you spam regenerating health quickly. I can't remember what it was called as I played it years ago. Without the latter item I think I would have given up. I'm sure some guide would help you find these items - that's what I did.

It's an augmentation called Overclock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH8dx...

Jedi survivor graphics when I played it left a lot to be desired. Constant screen tearing in 60fps and resolution so low most X360 games looked sharper. I think it has since been patched so I hope they resolved a lot of the graphical problems. I believe they've just patched Starfield with a 60fps mode too. I really need to learn not to play certain games on or soon after launch.

I'm really struggling for my next game. All the new PS+ monthly games look frustrating: Tunic and Ghostrunner 2. And FC24 isn't my bag. I might start the Dead Space remake but TBH I'm not that excited to play it again. It was very good back in the day but it was never a game I felt the need to play a second time even with the better updated graphics.

Glassmoon - The Benny Hill of Plats wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Glassmoon - The Benny Hill of Plats wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Jedi Survivor is not even remotely punishing - it depends on difficulty setting but even I found it easy on the easy settings..."

Honestly I do like the look of the From Software games but unfortunately I know due to difficulty they are not for me. They look really good though. I recently played a long frustrating Codex (single player mission) on Warframe so I could unlock some stuff for the multiplayer (to use with mates) and although it was well done the frustration ruined it for me.

Glassmoon - The Benny Hill of Plats wrote: "R(ob) wrote: "Jedi Survivor is not even remotely punishing - it depends on difficulty setting but even I found it easy on the easy settings :-). And better than the first game."

Really?
I thought ..."

Knock the difficulty down and it'll be a breeze. I can't play frustrating games anymore :-). There are a couple of parkour sections that might take a few attempts but combat is mostly pretty straightfoward on easy.

Jedi Survivor is not even remotely punishing - it depends on difficulty setting but even I found it easy on the easy settings :-). And better than the first game.