The PS4 thread

[JBC]

It's totally worth it to hit up thrift stores, pawn shops, garage sells, etc to find a decent CRT with RGB/Component inputs for classic gaming. A PS3 can be hooked up to both a CRT & HDTV at the same time so you don't have to swap cables every time. This eliminates the aspect & visual problems for older titles.

[Xyga]

Star Ocean 5 delayed.

Maybe someone finally told Tri-Ace they've been doing another set of dumb looking characters and useless ugly 3D environements ?

Not in a hurry anyway.

If they did announce Valkyrie Profile 3 though, maybe I'd start to actually anticipate something for that gen and save a few bucks to buy the console when it's cheaper, in a couple of years or so. :p

[Immryr]

Reading reactions to the Final Fantasy VII port the amount of people who say they can't play 4:3 games anymore is depressing.

For me it is the godawful contrast of the super high fidelity display of the low poly 3D against the super low res backgrounds/textures in these new ports/re-releases. The assets look completely divorced from one another and make it almost impossible for me to just enjoy the game.

Yeah I thought that when I saw the screen shots too.

[iconoclast]

Until recently I was the same; one of the local Gamestop employees actually persuaded me to try 4 back when it was a freebie on PSPLus, and I bought myself a used copy soon afterwards. I'll be downloading 5 tomorrow (preordered the thing, in fact), but in the meantime I can say that 4 was good enough to convince at least one person to pick up the series, so if you see it cheap enough not to feel guilty about giving it a try (which shouldn't be too hard to happen upon by now) I recommend seeing if all that karaoke agrees with you.

Yeah, Yakuza 4 is a good entry point. Naturally, it'd be best to start at 1 and play them in order for story purposes, but Yakuza 1 has bad combat and an even worse English dub, and Yakuza 2 is somewhat rare and expensive (though it's the best in the series imo, and one of my favorite games on the PS2). 3 is a little different from the previous games and is the worst one overall, and 4 is just great all-around.

If an open world brawler/RPG about Japanese organized crime, with great characters, captivating stories, and a good sense of humor sounds appealing, then I definitely recommend checking any of them out. Yakuza is one of the few yearly franchises where pretty much every release is great (the others would be Monster Hunter & Souls).

[JBC]

I've been getting pretty interested in trying Yakuza as well. Am I too understand that they could be seen as a replacement or successor to Shenmue?

[Jonathan Ingram]

3 is a little different from the previous games and is the worst one overall, and 4 is just great all-around.

I beg to differ. Arguably, 4 is the only entry in the series which could legitimately be called a rehash. Yes, the series practically prides itself on reusing assets, but 4 is the only game, save the original Yakuza, where you're stuck in the good old Kamuro-cho for its entire duration. Coming on the heels of Yakuza 3 with its beautiful Ryukyu area and the altogether original locations of Kenzan, it was pretty disappointing.

[iconoclast]

4's setting wasn't a problem for me at all. I appreciate different locations, but the story, characters, and gameplay are more important to me. If they kept rehashing the same area for multiple games in a row I'd probably get sick of it, but they change things up enough to keep it from getting too repetitive.

I've been getting pretty interested in trying Yakuza as well. Am I too understand that they could be seen as a replacement or successor to Shenmue?

I haven't played Shenmue since I was a kid, but I'd say it's only vaguely similar to the Yakuza games. Yakuza is like an action-RPG, with character progression and lots of combat and story, whereas Shenmue is more of an adventure/simulation game, I think. Liking one doesn't necessarily mean you'll like the other.

[BulletMagnet]

Yakuza 1 has bad combat and an even worse English dub

I believe they're doing a remake of the first one ("Yakuza Kiwami", or something like that), though they haven't confirmed that one for the West. Glad to see 0 coming our way though, it looks even more bonkers than the rest, heh.

[ACSeraph]

Yakuza 2 is somewhat rare and expensive

Damn you aren't even kidding. I had no idea, my copy has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for years since I bought it at release. I ought to sell it... How is the HD collection on WiiU/PS3 compared to the PS2 version. I'm not too worried about the language barrier.

[iconoclast]

The only bad thing I've heard about the HD collection is that the pre-rendered videos are still low res, but I haven't played it. It's probably the way to go if the language barrier isn't a problem, though.

Yakuza 1 has bad combat and an even worse English dub

I believe they're doing a remake of the first one ("Yakuza Kiwami", or something like that), though they haven't confirmed that one for the West. Glad to see 0 coming our way though, it looks even more bonkers than the rest, heh.

Yep, and it's out in a month in Japan, with Yakuza 6 later in the year. Hopefully Sega localizes Kiwami too and tries to relaunch the series in the west. I think it could catch on (at least far better than it has) with a decent marketing push. How could anyone watch one their nicely made promotional videos and not think it looks awesome?

[Jonathan Ingram]

At this rate they seriously risk running the franchise into the ground. The market is oversaturated with Ryu ga Gotoku titles as is. If the sales of RgG0 are any indication(fewer copies sold than any mainline entry, Ishin! and Of The End), the fatigue is already kicking in.

[iconoclast]

There's definitely some franchise fatigue. They've released 11 games in the 10 years that the series has been running, so it was inevitable. But still, Yakuza 0 is a prequel. I think it naturally has less interest than a sequel, even though it's a mainline game. If Yakuza 6 has a disappointing debut, that's when they should think about shaking things up a bit instead of continuing to iterate on the same formula.

[system11]

Worth noting the PS2 games on PS4 in EU are ...... PAL versions with weird frame pacing to run at 50hz and display at 60. So don't buy them.

[evil_ash_xero]

Anyone here checked out Gravity Rush Remastered? It's not available, in the West, but the Asian (not JP) version, is in English.

Mine is on the way, from Play-Asia. I was not in the mood, to wait until February, for it.

If anyone has checked it out...how did the controls translate to PS4?

BluePoint did a nice job, as usual.

[Strider77]

Is it confirmed the Japan release has no english options.

[evil_ash_xero]

Is it confirmed the Japan release has no english options.

I'm pretty sure.

As far as I know, only the Asian version, has English.

[evil_ash_xero]

Not sure if it's known here, but Kojima Studios has reformed, and are funded by Sony.

That's exactly who I thought he should have hooked up with, given their deep pockets, and amazing patience.

Here's the announcement...which is in Japanese, but done by Andrew House. Weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=annuTcmB1rw

New logo:

[JBC]

Picking up a PS4 tomorrow & pretty excited.

My hit list:

Alien: Isolation
Mortal Kombat X
Dark Souls II
Until Dawn
Diablo III
Bloodborne
GTA V
Resident Evil Revelations 2
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
The Evil Within

As well as digital only stuff like Gauntlet & Dariusburst CS.

In the future there will be Dark Souls III, the Resident Evil Origins collection, & Doom, not to mention PlayStation VR & Eve: Valkyrie

[evil_ash_xero]

Any of you guys been playing Ratchet and Clank, or are you too busy with Dark Souls?

I got the JP version of DS, so I have been able to play this game some now. It seems like it's going to be pretty good, and the reviews are really good.

Interesting how we got two strong games, on the same day. This gen has been a little sparse, thus far, so it's a nice change of pace.

[Shelcoof]

I'm anxiously awaiting Uncharted 4 both for the single player and multiplayer.

For some reason the multiplayer stress test was amazingly fun. I found it to be much more enjoyable than the current generation stuff beating out Battlefield and Call of Duty for me.

The team oriented gameplay really hooked me and everything in the game just felt right..... May release isn't coming soon enough for that game.

Its a first ever that one game can have both a great solo campaign and multiplayer.

[BulletMagnet]

Any of you guys been playing Ratchet and Clank, or are you too busy with Dark Souls?

Picked up Ratchet the other day, but probably won't have much time to play it until next week. The little I tried of it seemed solid, at least to someone like me who enjoyed the previous "main" R+C titles, though it is still awkward to know in the back of your head that you're at least technically playing a movie-based game.

[system11]

Ignoring R&T due to them downgrading to 30fps on better hardware.

Still enjoying Neptunia VII, got a massive backlog pile too.

[gameoverDude]

Though not an exclusive, one that sounds good is Hard Reset: Redux- not a straight port of the PC game but rather an updated version. Melee combat with a cyber-katana, remixed enemy placements with some new enemies added, and visual/performance enhancements are some of the changes.

The original on PC is good stuff, so I'm looking forward to this (will probably double dip with PC & PS4 versions).

Gravity grenades are an awesome weapon in this, esp. when you use them to help set up massive environmental kills.

[HydrogLox]

PS4 NEO - really?!?!
An anagram of ONE (as in Xbox ONE).
No imagination these people ...

[Shelcoof]

PS4 NEO - really?!?!
An anagram of ONE (as in Xbox ONE).
No imagination these people ...

Could be New PS4 possibly....
Like New 3DS

[HydrogLox]

I was aware that this referred to the contentious 2.0 hardware update for the PS4.

R= & PS4 [Base] & PS4 NEO R=CPU & 8 Jaguar Cores @ 1.6 GHz & 8 Jaguar Cores @ 2.1 GHz R=GPU & AMD Graphics Core Next, 18 Compute Units @ 800 MHz & AMD GCN, 36 CUs @ 911 MHz R=Memory & 8GB GDDR5, 176 GB/s & 8GB GDDR5, 218GB/s
I just can't get passed the inane naming (ONE -[inverse ]circular shift-> NEO) of the product. Hopefully only big budget, mass market titles will divert effort into "NEO mode" - otherwise "Base mode" (which for some time to come will represent the only capability of the majority of the installed base) and possibly the game as a whole is going to suffer for it.

[options]

I just can't get passed the inane naming (ONE -[inverse ]circular shift-> NEO) of the product.

but wasn't their VR product codenamed "Morpheus"? I doubt they were thinking of XBox when they chose "Neo."

[HydrogLox]

I doubt they were thinking of XBox when they chose "Neo."

Agreed - hence my: "no imagination these people". You figure if they squinted at "NEO" just a little longer they would have realized the latent connection and decided to look a bit further afield.

but wasn't their VR product codenamed "Morpheus"?

Sure - but "The Matrix" references are so 1999 anyway. VR was used by machines as a means for mass oppression - something the characters were trying to escape from - later on VR was used to fight the system from within. In the end character names from "The Matrix" are hardly "charmed" monikers for VR-capable hardware.

[jugu]

I have a very bad feeling regarding PS4NEO. I would prefer that this model have 4K output for video playback. But making this incremental upgrade for games... This will increase development time and costs. Do you think PS4NEO games will carry a +$10 difference to offset these costs? At least it's not a 32X situation all over again.

[Marc]

Picking up a PS4 tomorrow & pretty excited.

My hit list:

Alien: Isolation
Mortal Kombat X
Dark Souls II
Until Dawn
Diablo III
Bloodborne
GTA V
Resident Evil Revelations 2
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
The Evil Within

As well as digital only stuff like Gauntlet & Dariusburst CS.

In the future there will be Dark Souls III, the Resident Evil Origins collection, & Doom, not to mention PlayStation VR & Eve: Valkyrie

Good list other than Gauntlet. Shit is truly dreadful.