2022 VIDEO GAME CATCH ALL THREAD

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Been having trouble shutting down my PS5 lately, to the point that I thought either my controller had gone bad or that one of the firmware updates had changed the way you open the control panel.

Finally googled it to see if other people were having the same problem and learned two things.  

1) You open the control panel with a short light press of the PS button.  At some point, I started holding the button down, which is the way you shut down the PS4.

2) There is a power button on the front of the console.  Who knew?  I’ve never used it and forgot it existed.  You’d think they’d publicize this better.

So, yeah, apparently I am not moar smarts az I need to be turn a game console on and off.  Now I am at work wondering if I should return my three college degrees.  Or maybe sue the schools for giving me degrees even though I am clearly dumb.  For that matter, how did I get into these schools in the first place?  At the moment. my working theory is that I must have cheated to gain admittance.  

I really didn’t expect turning on the PS5 to tie it to the new wireless network to set off an existential crisis but here we are.

[Robert S]

3 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

So, yeah, apparently I am not moar smarts az I need to be turn a game console on and off.  Now I am at work wondering if I should return my three college degrees.  Or maybe sue the schools for giving me degrees even though I am clearly dumb.  For that matter, how did I get into these schools in the first place?  At the moment. my working theory is that I must have cheated to gain admittance.

I have got a master in mathematics and I am working in software development for 14 years now but everytime I have to do something with my smartphone that goes beyond calling someone or texting via Signal, I am completely lost.

[Contentious C]

4 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

I really didn’t expect turning on the PS5 to tie it to the new wireless network to set off an existential crisis but here we are.

When you stare into the late-capitalist abyss, the late-capitalist abyss stares back.  Likely in emoji, but it's staring back.

[Tabe]

Decided this should go here since it's big news:

Ubisoft is shutting off servers for several Assassin's Creed games that were sold through Steam. This will render the games unplayable because they phone home for DRM. To rub it in, they just had a sale on the games - games they knew would be unplayable in the very near future. 

Highly scummy move by Ubi. 

[Raziel]

So, looking at the story, it looks like the only AC game affected is Liberation, and they've further clarified that it's just the DLC and online stuff, the single player will still be usable.  Brotherhood is also on the list, but it's only for the DLC and multiplayer.

[Tabe]

1 hour ago, Raziel said:

So, looking at the story, it looks like the only AC game affected is Liberation, and they've further clarified that it's just the DLC and online stuff, the single player will still be usable.  Brotherhood is also on the list, but it's only for the DLC and multiplayer.

OK, that's not quite so bad. The stuff I'd read previously definitely said the main games were going away. 

[Andrew POE!]

Just so people are aware, Assassin's Creed Liberation HD doesn't contain any multiplayer trophies/achievements but I think does have multiplayer. Assassin's Creed III Liberation on PSVita does have multiplayer trophies (it's possible that Vita version will be affected too on September 1).

I tested Liberation on PS3 with the internet unplugged and without PSN connection and the game loaded up fine.

[Contentious C]

I've played a decent chunk of TUNIC now (yay $1 Game Pass) and I'm glad I did, because it's *just* irksome enough with the combat that I wouldn't enjoy trying to grind through some of the enemies that are there.  I got frustrated before the first boss and deleted it, but then cursed myself for being so hasty.  Second time, I just slapped on God Mode and went Terms of Enrampagement on everything I saw, and now I'm closing in on the second bell tower.  I think. 

I love the feel and style - I like how it just kicks you in the deep end and says, "Have fun, ya vulpine idjit", but there are times when the runes and nonsense get to be a bit much.  I guess I should try playing FEZ at some point, since people keep comparing this to that, but for me, this was the most "First LoZ" experience I've had in...yeesh, maybe since the 80s when I *beat* LoZ.  It totally picks up where that left off with Miyamoto's sense of wonderment and exploration.  The iso POV is not much of a handicap for me, since my visual awareness is usually pretty good.  The only real door or hidden path I missed was a big one, though: the lantern.  Had to backtrack for that stuff.

The Dark Tomb puzzles with the guns were frickin' amazing, too.

I'll probably finish this on god-mode and then move on to something else.  I see what everyone else sees in it, I can admit it's a lovely piece of work all around, but I could do without it being so combat-heavy.  I have so many games already where I bought them years ago and never gave them much of a playthrough that I couldn't justify shelling out money for this since I know I wouldn't replay it legit, even if I wish there were more things like it.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Contentious C

[Casey]

If anyone cares, Amazon has various internal storage expansion cards for the PS5 on sale right now because of Prime Day. I grabbed the WD_Black 1TB w/ heatsink for $113 (usually $160).

[Kang]

I miss the Wario Land series.

I miss the F Zero series.

 

[Kevin Wilson]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

If anyone cares, Amazon has various internal storage expansion cards for the PS5 on sale right now because of Prime Day. I grabbed the WD_Black 1TB w/ heatsink for $113 (usually $160).

Good call. This is the one I got back in January for $190, now $140. There are a lot of really good sales on them today if anyone is looking to expand. They are super easy to install, if anyone is concerned about it.

[Ramo2653]

Is that additional storage or does it replace the existing HD? I see expansion but I don't feel like reinstalling a bunch of games.

[Casey]

It's in addition to the console storage. So it's however many gigs/terabytes you end up buying, plus the PS5's base size of around 600GBs.

[Chaos]

12 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Good call. This is the one I got back in January for $190, now $140. There are a lot of really good sales on them today if anyone is looking to expand. They are super easy to install, if anyone is concerned about it.

Gives me hope that around the holidays might be able to seem them be even a little lower.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Is is normal for PSN (& Xbox, Switch) downloads to be very slow compared to my desktop pc and mobile devices?  My internet package gives me a top speed of about 900 MBPS and, when I run speed tests on my devices, I usually get readings in the 550-800 mbps range, depending on the device.  When I download something from the PSN store or test my PS5 connection, I get a reading in the 90-150 mbps range.

is this normal?  I’ve run a couple diagnostics on my internet and the problem doesn’t seem to be on my end,  like i said, all my other devices are very fast, so I guess the problem is the digital stores themselves?

Thanks.

[NikoBaltimore]

On 7/12/2022 at 4:45 AM, Contentious C said:

Second time, I just slapped on God Mode and went Terms of Enrampagement on everything I saw, and now I'm closing in on the second bell tower.  I think. 

I had no idea this was an option.  I put the game aside to focus on others though after turning this on it's pretty damn nice to get through.  I'll give it another go and hope I know where I'm going.

[Craig H]

36 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Is is normal for PSN (& Xbox, Switch) downloads to be very slow compared to my desktop pc and mobile devices?  My internet package gives me a top speed of about 900 MBPS and, when I run speed tests on my devices, I usually get readings in the 550-800 mbps range, depending on the device.  When I download something from the PSN store or test my PS5 connection, I get a reading in the 90-150 mbps range.

is this normal?  I’ve run a couple diagnostics on my internet and the problem doesn’t seem to be on my end,  like i said, all my other devices are very fast, so I guess the problem is the digital stores themselves?

Thanks.

Yes. PSN is notoriously shitty when it comes to download speed. Sometimes I feel like I get lucky and a 50 to 75 gb game downloads in about an hour. Most of the time though even small patches that are close to 1 gb take forever. I know on the PS4 the workaround to this would be to start your download from the PS App or if you're on your console, download whatever you want and then put your PS4 into rest/sleep mode. That would speed up the download for whatever reason.

I don't know if that same workaround works on the PS5 mainly because I never put my PS5 into rest mode anymore. Another thing PS5s are notoriously shitty with - rest mode. Almost every time I put my PS5 into rest mode it inevitably shuts off completely and I have to press the power button on the console. Then it has to do all of it's hard drive damage checks and repairs and all of that. Twice now I've had my hard drive corrupted from this bug and had to wipe and reinstall the system software via a USB stick. So now I always turn off my PS5 instead of putting it in rest mode. Some people think it has to do with having an external USB hard drive connected to the PS5, but I disconnected mine and it still would just power off at some point. 

[Contentious C]

32 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

I had no idea this was an option.  I put the game aside to focus on others though after turning this on it's pretty damn nice to get through.  I'll give it another go and hope I know where I'm going.

Yeah.  I still think the challenge is way too high - the Quarry level is...ugh, just the absolute damn worst, easily the low point of the game for a variety of reasons, to the point that even being unkillable, it's still not easy per se - but it's been a lot of fun to explore and start to get a sense of what's happening.  It's more Zelda than Zelda but somehow also subverts a bunch of that stuff.

[supremebve]

1 hour ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Is is normal for PSN (& Xbox, Switch) downloads to be very slow compared to my desktop pc and mobile devices?  My internet package gives me a top speed of about 900 MBPS and, when I run speed tests on my devices, I usually get readings in the 550-800 mbps range, depending on the device.  When I download something from the PSN store or test my PS5 connection, I get a reading in the 90-150 mbps range.

is this normal?  I’ve run a couple diagnostics on my internet and the problem doesn’t seem to be on my end,  like i said, all my other devices are very fast, so I guess the problem is the digital stores themselves?

Thanks.

Yes this is pretty normal,  but here's a couple ways to deal with it. Put the system in rest mode when downloading. The more you do with the system the slower it will go,  rest mode shuts every other process down so it will go faster. Set up the system so it auto updates in rest mode. I swear PSN updates more than any other system, and I prefer the updates download when I'm not using the system, instead of waiting all damn day for removal to download when I want to play. I don't get the rest mode issues that @Craig Hspeaks about, but I could be the outlier.

[Craig H]

16 minutes ago, supremebve said:

Yes this is pretty normal,  but here's a couple ways to deal with it. Put the system in rest mode when downloading. The more you do with the system the slower it will go,  rest mode shuts every other process down so it will go faster. Set up the system so it auto updates in rest mode. I swear PSN updates more than any other system, and I prefer the updates download when I'm not using the system, instead of waiting all damn day for removal to download when I want to play. I don't get the rest mode issues that @Craig Hspeaks about, but I could be the outlier.

I swear it seems like 50% of PS5 owners go through rest mode issue. I know both Vinny and Brad from Nextlander, both Jeffs (former and current) and someone else from Giant Bomb, Dan, and other podcasters ran into the same issue I did where the system powered down or crashed while in rest mode and it did it so many times to the point where it corrupted their SSD and they had to reformat and redownload everything. Some of them thought it had to do with having an external hard drive plugged in, but even when I unplugged mine, I still ran into the same issue and it still has to check the additional NVME for errors whenever I boot up the Playstation.

It also feels like it's slightly dependent on the game you're playing. I don't recall running into that issue with Horizon Zero Dawn, but it happened all the time with Elden Ring. It also happened a ton with Cyberpunk. My daughter still puts the PS5 into rest mode because she forgets my rules for the system, but she's also playing either Forbidden West, Chicory, and Kena and I haven't noticed an issue with any of those. Still, I cringe whenever I see the system in rest mode because I can't afford another hit to my data cap. Stupid Comcast. Metronet needs to go live here already.

[tbarrie]

Since folks were talking up KOTOR II a little back - is that game worth playing if you have little interest in the Star Wars setting?

[supremebve]

16 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I swear it seems like 50% of PS5 owners go through rest mode issue. I know both Vinny and Brad from Nextlander, both Jeffs (former and current) and someone else from Giant Bomb, Dan, and other podcasters ran into the same issue I did where the system powered down or crashed while in rest mode and it did it so many times to the point where it corrupted their SSD and they had to reformat and redownload everything. Some of them thought it had to do with having an external hard drive plugged in, but even when I unplugged mine, I still ran into the same issue and it still has to check the additional NVME for errors whenever I boot up the Playstation.

It also feels like it's slightly dependent on the game you're playing. I don't recall running into that issue with Horizon Zero Dawn, but it happened all the time with Elden Ring. It also happened a ton with Cyberpunk. My daughter still puts the PS5 into rest mode because she forgets my rules for the system, but she's also playing either Forbidden West, Chicory, and Kena and I haven't noticed an issue with any of those. Still, I cringe whenever I see the system in rest mode because I can't afford another hit to my data cap. Stupid Comcast. Metronet needs to go live here already.

Yeah,  I tend to have really stable electricity at my house, so I'm fully aware that I could be an outlier. My sister lives about 5 minutes from me and the power flickers if it rains a single drop. My power doesn't surge, blink,  flicker,  or anything no matter what's going on outside. I feel like game systems tend to be extra sensitive to power spikes/dips and that could be the issue. We've had multiple storms this year that have downed trees in my neighborhood, and not a single power issue.  My rest mode stays on for weeks at a time with no issues whatsoever.

[Craig H]

Yeah, no real power issues here either. I also have a Series X and I went back to that thing after a month and my game was still in a paused state.

[supremebve]

4 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Yeah, no real power issues here either. I also have a Series X and I went back to that thing after a month and my game was still in a paused state.

We're opposites, I turn my Xbox on every day,  I might go a month or two without turning on the PS5 if no exclusives came out.. and it turns right on, and tells me what was updated while I was away. 

[Casey]

I left Assassin's Creed Valhalla in Quick Resume on the Series S for a week once and went back to it and it was pretty choppy for a good two minutes or so but eventually fixed itself.

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that Valhalla needs to be connected to the internet at all times, though. I took my Series S to work one weekend, played a few hours, then watched some TV/movies for the rest of the night. Went to play it the next day and none of my progression in the game had saved. Which blows, because I could easily lose myself in that game for a good few hours.

But now I've discovered the Xbox Cloud Gaming on my phone, and it's pretty fantastic. Something like Fortnite really isn't great, since it's 30fps or maybe even less, but a mode in that game like Prop Hunt is totally doable (maybe Save the World too, but strictly single player). I played House Flipper, Naraka: Bladepoint, Carrion, Shredder's Revenge and a few other games in one night and had hardly any issues.