Game

[bork]

there will always be games, so no worries.

 

[Smooth Groove]

PS4 might mark the return of Japanese console games due to Japan finally getting the hang of shaders and advanced architecture and the PS4 being very easy to work with and thus lowering costs

Is tech really Japan's main problem though?  For example, Resident Evil had some of the best looking games last gen but still gamers weren't happy with where the series was heading. 

I think a bigger problem is Japan devs trying to understand the modern needs and wants of Western gamers.  Either they overcompensate and add unnecessary shooter elements or they make something that is just a PS2 game running in higher resolution. 

[cool breeze]

has anyone else try that F2P ww2 plane game? blanking on the name, but it's only on the euro store.  it's straight up a PC game running on a console.  the menus are all pointer based and you navigate with the touchpad.  in-game you can aim and fly using the touchpad.  and there's a menu where you can adjust video options (notably, disabling FXAA if you'd like).  makes me wonder if sony has a certification process or if they're lenient.  really weird to see a game in this state on a console.

[tiesto]

PS4 might mark the return of Japanese console games due to Japan finally getting the hang of shaders and advanced architecture and the PS4 being very easy to work with and thus lowering costs

Is tech really Japan's main problem though?  For example, Resident Evil had some of the best looking games last gen but still gamers weren't happy with where the series was heading. 

I think a bigger problem is Japan devs trying to understand the modern needs and wants of Western gamers.  Either they overcompensate and add unnecessary shooter elements or they make something that is just a PS2 game running in higher resolution.

I think Japanese devs (well, SOME of them) are finally waking up to the fact that they shouldn't try to copy western games and that the people who like Japanese games like them for what they bring to the table that's different from the west.

[Shaka Khan]

has anyone else try that F2P ww2 plane game? blanking on the name, but it's only on the euro store.  it's straight up a PC game running on a console.  the menus are all pointer based and you navigate with the touchpad.  in-game you can aim and fly using the touchpad.  and there's a menu where you can adjust video options (notably, disabling FXAA if you'd like).  makes me wonder if sony has a certification process or if they're lenient.  really weird to see a game in this state on a console.

I think it's called War Thunder, but the more important question is: does it work in that state or is it broken?

[cool breeze]

It seems to work and it's labeled as a beta.

Still, it's the best 'test' for the touchpad.  It works like a laptop touchpad, pretty responsive and accurate, which shouldn't be surprising but when you can't use it in the web browser you suspect something is wrong.

[Eel O'Brian]

I should've bought NFS instead of COD, I think. I like the dumb campaign, but have no interest in MP, really, so once I've blown through it I probably won't touch it again. NFS sounds like a good "pick up and play anytime" game.

[Shaka Khan]

NFS looks like a legitimately good game, and also a good technical showcase after reading the DF article. They only pick on a weird framerate issue that Ghost Games said is getting patched.

[AdmiralViscen]

Downloading BF4 update on PS4, 107 minutes remaining, pretty good. Dropped down to 63 minutes after cancelling the DCU and Trine demos I set up to download a week ago and were halfway done.

My phone is giving me 25mps down on the same Wifi network, what the fuck

[chronovore]

High end Japanese gaming is dead, man.

Yall just gotta deal with it

In some ways I feel like we never really got a "high end Japanese" game out of last gen. We got higher and higher non-game production values out of some studios; S-E kept throwing huge money at their pre-rendered movie division, and Capcom did a really nice fancy coat of paint on their remakes and remakes-of-remakes, but there were no transformative, high budget titles on par with the west's. Even where the western developers are creating iterative sequels, the increased level of polish from one installation to the next is revelatory, whereas Japanese devs seem to be going fractal into their own navels.

[Himu]

RE5 is the only case of high end japanese gaming i could think of last gen. maybe dmc4, ng2.

[Rahxephon91]

There's Metal Gear Solid 4. I mean I don't like the game, but it did actually try to modernize MGS controls.  Excellent sound design, incredible polish, and some at the time time high end graphics. It was a marque title.

If you mean high end Japanese games as pure production values and not quality. There's more. RE5, 6, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia(I don't know, it sure looks like a step up compared to those that followed), Soul Calibur, FFXIII for sure, Ni No Kuni, and maybe the two Ace Combats?

Yeah, I guess those days are done though. Well whatever, I'm ready for my western overloads and Witcher related products.

[chronovore]

It could be so; sadly, I haven't played all that many Japanese exclusives. Many of my friends at the Japanese company where I worked were still buying all the new stuff, and I got a lot of reports on what they were experiencing, but my impressions are second-hand because I couldn't be bothered. So take my opinion with the appropriate pinch of salt. Or salt shaker.

I can't even say that I blame the Japanese developers; taking chances, sticking one's neck out is not really what the culture is based on. Technology is historically, largely a matter of fine-tuning improvements into proven systems. I'm sure that watching some of the GLORIOUS FACEPLANTS many western devs performed when attempting something brilliant and ambitious but ultimately ineffective in terms of sales was a huge encouragement to stay safe.

Then again, there are a few titles which did that; I'm suddenly remembering Bayonetta and Catherine, which had interesting and fresh mechanics, impressive production value, strong marketing, and also still managed to flop.

[Himu]

As I've mentioned here a couple times, third party software sales on the Wii were really good, and for certain companies, EA, Ubisoft, and Activision in particular, not having those sales this generation is going to make a big difference on their bottom line.

SOURCE.

[maxy]

 

Trolling or serious,himu?

[Bebpo]

It could be so; sadly, I haven't played all that many Japanese exclusives. Many of my friends at the Japanese company where I worked were still buying all the new stuff, and I got a lot of reports on what they were experiencing, but my impressions are second-hand because I couldn't be bothered. So take my opinion with the appropriate pinch of salt. Or salt shaker.

I can't even say that I blame the Japanese developers; taking chances, sticking one's neck out is not really what the culture is based on. Technology is historically, largely a matter of fine-tuning improvements into proven systems. I'm sure that watching some of the GLORIOUS FACEPLANTS many western devs performed when attempting something brilliant and ambitious but ultimately ineffective in terms of sales was a huge encouragement to stay safe.

Then again, there are a few titles which did that; I'm suddenly remembering Bayonetta and Catherine, which had interesting and fresh mechanics, impressive production value, strong marketing, and also still managed to flop.

Chrono, Catherine was actually a huge hit for Atlus.  One of the biggest sellers the company's had up there with Persona and SMT.  Catherine 2 will come down the line eventually, they just don't have any free staff to work on it. 

Bayo was a bomb though, but everything Clover/Platinum has always been a sales bomb.  They make fantastic games that don't sell.

[Bebpo]

It did over 200k first two weeks in Japan.  That puts it behind P3/P4, but up there with SMT.

Atlus games don't sell much in general.  Anything over 200k is good sales for the company.

[Bebpo]

Actually, wait.  It outsold Persona 3 as well if you're just counting the base P3 and not the expansions/ports.  And it outsold every Etrian Odyssey game.  So, yeah, it's pretty much the 2nd highest selling game from the company after P4 (not sure if SMTIV outsold it, maybe).

Sounds pretty successful for a small/moderate budget PS3 engine test.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Actually, wait.  It outsold Persona 3 as well if you're just counting the base P3 and not the expansions/ports.  And it outsold every Etrian Odyssey game.  So, yeah, it's pretty much the 2nd highest selling game from the company after P4 (not sure if SMTIV outsold it, maybe).

Sounds pretty successful for a small/moderate budget PS3 engine test.

who told you Catherine was small budget?

just because it looks and plays like a small budget puzzler doesn't mean it cost the same as one

it would be great if more expensive games had more complex gameplay, but... 

[Bebpo]

It did over 200k first two weeks in Japan.  That puts it behind P3/P4, but up there with SMT.

Atlus games don't sell much in general.  Anything over 200k is good sales for the company.

It sold 206k ltd on PS3 in Japan, which is good, yes.  Almost exactly the same as Bayonetta PS3.  But in NA, its first month was under 80k across both platforms, and it had awful legs.  Counting the 25k from Xbox Japanese sales, Catherine is under 350k across NA/JP.  That puts it up with recent SMT games but well below Persona. 

Bayonetta, which you're saying is a huge bomb, sold 320k across both platforms in Japan and 450k across both platforms in NA.

Different companies, different efficiency/budgets.

I mean going by your logic, Atlus has never made a game that sells well in the last 10 years.  And that Persona 4 family is the only thing they've ever been profitable and happy about.  Which is crazy talk or else the company wouldn't still be in business. 

Atlus has always been about efficient games on a low budget so that 100k+ sales = good seller = profit.  Whereas Platinum...who knows.  Bayonetta seems like a pretty medium -> high budget game to me, but I have no idea how Platinum runs.  I mean it didn't sell enough at that 700k+ to fund the sequel to completion under Sega...


Which is my only worry about Sega buying Atlus.  If they try to make Atlus games bigger than they are, they're going to get burned when they don't sell millions and I don't want that to happen and then they shut down Atlus and just keep the IP.  There are very few game developers that can run on the budgets that Atlus does and still output the quality they do.

Actually, wait.  It outsold Persona 3 as well if you're just counting the base P3 and not the expansions/ports.  And it outsold every Etrian Odyssey game.  So, yeah, it's pretty much the 2nd highest selling game from the company after P4 (not sure if SMTIV outsold it, maybe).

Sounds pretty successful for a small/moderate budget PS3 engine test.

who told you Catherine was small budget?

just because it looks and plays like a small budget puzzler doesn't mean it cost the same as one

it would be great if more expensive games had more complex gameplay, but... 

Eh, there's no way Catherine cost as much to make as Persona 3/4.  I mean it probably was more expensive than the DS stuff like EO or SJ, maybe even on par with SMTIV, but it wasn't a "big" budget game.  That's why I said small/medium.  Probably about medium budget for the company.

[Takao]

If they took a bath on Catherine, wouldn't it make sense to try to release more games using those assets in an attempt to recoup costs? The game was very well received critically, and by those that bought it so I doubt a lower budget sequel would have sold a tonne worse.

[Bebpo]

The "insider" information I've heard (take this with a huuuuuge grain of salt as it's like telephone game rumor) is that Atlus only has one team with PS3 development knowledge/ability and that entire team's been making P5 since Catherine ended, hence no one free to make a Catherine 2 unless they hired a bunch of new people and trained them up to Atlus standards.

I think we'll see a Catherine 2 someday.  Maybe on 3DS or Vita or Mobile or something that re-uses the engine/assets and builds on the gameplay.

[Takao]

Did that Game of Thrones game Atlus USA put out do well?

[Takao]

So I guess none of their "Oh god, we want another Demon's Souls but Namco Bandai has more money than us" games did remotely well? They were mostly janky games from Europe no one had ever heard of, so I guess that's not a shock.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

So my wife bought me one of these for Christmas and I haven't been paying too much attention to what's actually out there.....

What's the game to get for this? It better not be Killzone. Fuck Killzone.

[Eel O'Brian]

Asscreed 4
BF4, now that it sort of works
Resogun, which is free with PS+

[archnemesis]

Resogun is awesome! You should also consider picking up Flower, Flow, Sound Shapes, Escape Plan, The Pinball Arcade, and Zen Pinball 2 if you didn't play any of the other versions.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Yeah I downloaded all of my cross platform games from my ps3/Vita. Man, Flower looks a hell of a lot better on the PS4 than I remember but I haven't really compared the two to see what the difference actually is.

Resogun is alright I guess.  It's no Geometry Wars or anything but can't argue with the price. Free is always good.

Downloaded Warframe but I haven't had a chance to do anything because the boys want me to play Disney Infinity and Skylanders Swap Force on the 360.

I haven't liked Asscreed since Brotherhood but I guess I'll give them another chance. I should probably play something on this.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Dead Rising 1?

[Cerveza mas fina]

Well the fact there is no one clear example kind of proves the point.

On the other hand we have games like MW1, Gears, Uncharted.

[maxy]

Real talk

Dark Souls is like a Euro janky RPG,but with no story.Not hard at all,you just have to level up/get better weapons and endure pathetic framerate.Can't believe I spend $40 on it,never fooling me again sfags.



I feel better now.

[archie4208]

Real talk

Dark Souls is like a Euro janky RPG,but with no story.Not hard at all,you just have to level up/get better weapons and endure pathetic framerate.Can't believe I spend $40 on it,never fooling me again sfags.



I feel better now.

It's a Eurojank RPG with good gameplay and level design.

You know, what your typical Eurojank RPG is missing.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Well the fact there is no one clear example kind of proves the point.

On the other hand we have games like MW1, Gears, Uncharted.

I don't think the latter two are transformative to any great extent, especially Uncharted.  MW, I'll grant, on the basis of the perk system.

Generally, though, on either side of the ocean, game devs tended to either roll something safe with a high budget or experimental with a lower one.  Very few games were released that could tick off both the "high budget" and "experimental" boxes this last gen.

Well Gears and Uncharted both heralded in the era of tps cover shooters (I know people often say that Uncharted copied gears, but it came so close to it im sure the game was designed as a tps cover shooter).

[Shaka Khan]

Real talk

Dark Souls is like a Euro janky RPG,but with no story.Not hard at all,you just have to level up/get better weapons and endure pathetic framerate.Can't believe I spend $40 on it,never fooling me again sfags.

I feel better now.

Not a single word about the quality of the gameplay and design. Leper this revolting filth.

[cool breeze]

is anyone using the dual shock 4 as a PC controller? I read that the trackpad is now working with windows, but on giantbomb they talked about a lag when connected through bluetooth.

Yeah I downloaded all of my cross platform games from my ps3/Vita. Man, Flower looks a hell of a lot better on the PS4 than I remember but I haven't really compared the two to see what the difference actually is.

yeah, it went from 720p 30fps to 1080p 60fps.  game looks really nice.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Alright, I'm finally a believer of remote play with the Vita. It always seemed janky as hell with the PS3 but the PS4 makes it a whole new animal. This totally works....and works well.

I hooked up the PS4 in our master bedroom on the top floor of our house and I was able to get a stable connection 3 stories down in my office. I can't go down to the lower 2 floors, but whatever. Very impressive IMO.

[Cerveza mas fina]

What about input lag?

Which game did you play?

I can see this being good for turn based games.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I was playing AC4 and there was some noticeable input lag but it was pretty easy to get acclimated and definitely playable.  You wouldn't want to play something like a fighting game this way but I thought AC4 worked brilliantly.

[bork]

When the PS4 came out, I tested Injustice streaming on the Vita for a bit.  30 FPS sucks, but it was still surprisingly playable via remote play.  Input lag was not really a problem.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Good to hear, might be nice to invest in a Vita at some point then.

[demi]

Vita is awesome with PS+

[bork]

The hardest game for me to play with remote play is CoD Ghosts.  Adjusting the controller sensitivity helps, but it still feels a bit 'off'.  Killzone Shadow Fall fares better, but I'd rather just play Mercenary, which is the better game.   

[Cerveza mas fina]

Well COD is proud to have the least input lag in the shooter genre, so any kind of delay will make it feel off.

[AdmiralViscen]

So PSN is just completely fucked ATM? Christmas was a week ago

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Well my PS4 died last night.....


Good job Sorny.  Totally Xboxed. 


Time to call customer service and get me a coffin to send this thing off in.

[Eel O'Brian]

what happened?

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Not really sure.  We were browsing Netflix and I hit the guide button to go back to the dashboard then the whole system locked up.  I tried to reset it but nothing happened so I finally had to unplug the thing.  Now all that happens is that when I turn it on it'll make an audible click, the blue light turns on for a fraction of a second and then it shuts off completely.

I called customer support and they said it's a known problem and they'll send me a replacement so that's cool, but my AC4 save is lost for good.....ugh.  No fucking way am I doing all that again.  I guess I'll trade it in for something else.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Man, I was just thinking I'll probably lose Resogun since more than likely it still won't be free  by the time I get my new system.....

 

[archnemesis]

Not a PS+ subscriber? I believe cloud saves sync automatically in the background.

[Mupepe]

There's no cloud saves?  that sucks, dude.  I hate the lost progress dilemma.

[archnemesis]

Man, I was just thinking I'll probably also lose Resogun since it'll probably not be free still by the time I get my new system.....

 

You can "buy" PS freebies from https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/

[cool breeze]

Your save might not be lost.  PS4 seems to automatically upload game saves.  Not quite sure how it works but I've seen "save data uploaded" on the notification screen and I didn't do it manually like on the PS3.

and that Sony Gaikai stuff is called Playstation Now.  Sounds like you can subscribe (doubt it's part of PS+) to access the library or rent games.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Not a PS+ subscriber? I believe cloud saves sync automatically in the background.

Really?  I thought I had to activate it for that to happen....which I know I didn't.


That would be awesome if my AC4 save is there still.

[archnemesis]

I've been seeing the same notifications as fryinghigh and I never activated anything.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

It uploads after you exit a application os ur prob safe

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Awesome news. 

Just the thought of having to go back and do all those countless tail missions again was maddening.

[fistfulofmetal]

Turn on PS4 for the first time in a month

Nothing has been downloading to it because the internet wasn't connected.

Now to download countless updates and patches. It's like I'm on a PS3 again.

[Eel O'Brian]

Don't Starve is free today for PS+

glad i didn't spend any money on it

[Eel O'Brian]

90 minutes for a 617mb download. Nice to see PSN is back to normal.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

lots of great deals today on psn. puppeteer is $7, killzone vita is $9