Best PS4 and PS5 games You Can Play Online Without

what games don't require ps plus to play online

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As of right now, what games don't require Ps plus to play online?

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HITMAN 3 PRE-LAUNCH GUIDE (PROGRESSION CARRYOVER)

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-pre-launch-guide/
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Welcome to the HITMAN 3 Pre-launch guide. This blog post will be our place to share in-depth details about HITMAN 3, including how to carryover your progression, our new Access Pass system, what to expect on launch day and more.
We are excited to see all of our players embark on Agent 47’s next journey and experience the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Before you start reading, this is how the game begins.

Release Details

HITMAN 3 will be available on 20 January 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC.
We’re happy to confirm that the Nintendo Switch version of HITMAN 3 will also launch on 20 January. The Switch version of HITMAN 3 is playable via cloud streaming technology. A stable and permanent internet connection is required to play.
Release Time HITMAN 3 will release simultaneously on all platforms at 13:00 UTC on 20 January 2021. To see the exact release time in your timezone, follow this link. This release time will ensure that the IOI teams in Copenhagen and Malmö are best-placed to ensure a smooth launch. At that time, digital copies will be available to play and the games servers will be online.
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Pre-load It will be possible to pre-load HITMAN 3 on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Make sure that you’ve configured your console to do that and the downloads will begin when they have been prepared and certified. On PC, there won’t be a pre-load option for HITMAN 3 and downloads will begin at the above release time.
(For PS4 and PS5 owners in Asia, please note that HITMAN 3 will not be available for pre-order or pre-load. This is due to recent changes in the age ratings systems in those regions. HITMAN 3 will be available for purchase at the above time.)
Day One Patch HITMAN 3 will require a day one patch for all disc users. The day one patch will be automatically applied to digital players. This patch will include access to the VR mode for PlayStation users and will include the remaining locations that are not included on the disc.
Game Size HITMAN 3 will take up approximately 60-70 GB of storage space on all platforms, with the obvious exceptions of Stadia and Switch. The data that you download will also include all the content required to access HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 – but you are still required to own/purchase access to those games. To underline that; purchasing HITMAN 3 does not grant access to the previous two games by default.
Using this method allows us to reduce the file size for all players to 60-70 GB and has the benefit of making the process of redeeming or purchase access to HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 as simple as possible. (We talk about that more later). Also, we want to clarify that reducing the file size doesn’t mean that we’ve made any compromises on the visual/audio quality of the game. If you’re curious about the technical aspects that made this possible, we recently talked to PC Gamer about it.

HITMAN 3 - Editions

There are two editions of HITMAN 3; The Standard Edition and the Deluxe Edition.
– The Standard Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game. Nice and simple. – The Deluxe Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game and the Deluxe Pack. Again, nice and simple.
The only difference between the two editions is the Deluxe Pack, which includes 6 Deluxe Escalations, in-game suits, items and weapons, a digital soundtrack for each game in the World of Assassination trilogy, an introduction to each HITMAN 3 campaign mission by the Game Director and a digital artbook that highlights the characters, targets and missions included in the trilogy. A free IOI Account is required to download the digital soundtracks and World of HITMAN Art Book.
Here’s a visual look at everything that’s packed into the HITMAN 3 Deluxe Edition:
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Next-gen Upgrade Console players who pre-order or purchase a physical or digital copy of HITMAN 3 (either Standard or Deluxe) on the current generation of consoles (PS4/Xbox One), will receive a free upgrade to the next-gen version of the game for no additional cost. Note that you won’t be able to receive the next-gen upgrade if you purchase HITMAN 3 on disc and you own a disc-free next gen console.
When making a digital purchase, you will automatically be entitled to download the next-gen version when you access the game on that console.
When making a physical disc purchase, you’ll need to insert the current gen disc into your next gen console and you’ll be able to download the next-gen version for no additional cost. Simply keep the disc in your machine whenever you want to play and you’ll be good to go.
Pre-order Bonus The HITMAN 3 pre-order bonus celebrates all three games in the World of Assassination trilogy. Introducing the Trinity Pack. You’ll get it just by pre-ordering the game, no matter what platform or edition.
The Trinity Pack includes a total of 9 items, with 3 distinct sets that represent a different game from the trilogy. Each set includes a suit, briefcase and weapon. From the White of HITMAN 1, the Red of HITMAN 2 or the Black of HITMAN 3, you’ll have all 9 items in your inventory to mix and match as you like. The classic Hitman insignia is etched onto the items in gold to add an elegant flourish.
Note: The Trinity Pack will not be included with either the Standard Edition or Deluxe Edition after January 20.
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At selected retailers, pre-ordering a physical edition of HITMAN 3 will also include an exclusive physical passport. This unique item is filled with details and references from Agent 47’s career and commemorates 20 years of Hitman. See the list of retailers in our previous pre-order blog post.

Progression Carryover

All current HITMAN 2 players will be able to carryover their hard-earned progression into HITMAN 3.
After completing the carryover process, HITMAN 2 players will be able to start HITMAN 3 with their existing player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. All of those things are what we call ‘progression’. It’s not possible to pick and choose elements to carryover. It’s all or nothing.
The carryover process requires an IOI Account and can only be done through a web browser, it’s not possible to do it in-game. We will have the website ready to go before launch, but it is not live yet. Once it is ready, we will share the news via ioi.dk and update this post.
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Here’s more about how it will work:
– Progression can only be carried over from HITMAN 2, including progression you have from the Legacy Pack (HITMAN 1 locations within HITMAN 2).
– Progression can only be carried over from within the same platform. There are only three options:
HITMAN 2 (PlayStation) → HITMAN 3 (PlayStation) HITMAN 2 (Xbox) → HITMAN 3 (Xbox) HITMAN 2 (PC/Steam) → HITMAN 3 (PC/Epic)
Note: “PlayStation” = PS4, PS4 Pro and PS5. “Xbox” = Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.
Essentially, it doesn’t matter what specific console you have earned progression on. It only matters that progression can only move forward and within the same console ‘family’.
– Progression carryover is a one-time process, meaning once you have performed a carryover for a particular platform, you will not be able to do so again at a later time.
– If you have played HITMAN 2 on multiple platforms, you CAN perform a carryover for EACH of those profiles, but only within the same platform, as listed above. For example, if you play H2 on Xbox and PlayStation, you can carryover your H2 Xbox progression into H3 Xbox and independently carryover your H2 PlayStation progress into H3 PlayStation.
– When you complete the carryover process, your existing HITMAN 2 progress will remain as it is (i.e it will not be removed/deleted). However, your progression in H2 and H3 will NOT be synchronised.
– If you have already started playing HITMAN 3 and THEN choose to perform the progression carryover process, you will lose all progression earned within HITMAN 3 up to that point. We recommend you carryover progress before starting HITMAN 3.
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What exactly will be carried over?
When you start the process, you will need to select an account that you have linked to your IOI Account. You will then be able to review the HITMAN 2 progress earned on that account and confirm that you want to perform the carryover process into HITMAN 3.
The following progression will be included in the carryover process: player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. Savegame files are not carried over.
Note that there are a small amount of items/unlocks that are not carried over through this process, such as the rewards unlocked through the HITMAN 1 GOTY Escalations, becuase they are linked to a purchase. Those items will be available in HITMAN 3 when you redeem access to the associated content. In addition, the ICA Electrocution Phone has been retired and will not be available in HITMAN 3.
HITMAN 3 on Stadia On Stadia, all progression that players have earned in Hitman: World of Assassination (from both H1 and H2) will automatically ‘carryover’ to HITMAN 3. For additional clarity, Stadia and PC are two different platforms and progress cannot be shared or carried over between them.
HITMAN 3 on Nintendo Switch Progression carryover is not possible on Nintendo Switch because HITMAN 2 is not available on that platform as a standalone game.

Access Pass FAQ

HITMAN 3 allows players to access locations from the previous games in the trilogy (H1 and H2) and play them all under one roof. Essentially, we have setup H1 and H2 as DLC for HITMAN 3. You can buy or redeem/download an Access Pass and get access to its content within H3. For example, if you buy the HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass DLC for HITMAN 3, you’ll get access to the locations and missions included in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition within HITMAN 3.
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In addition to the option of purchasing an Access Pass, it is also possible to redeem/download an Access Pass for no additional cost, if you have already purchased that content from the same store that you have pre-ordered or purchased HITMAN 3.
To make this happen, we detect what you already have installed for HITMAN 2 and can make the corresponding Access Pass available for no additional cost on the same store. Note: If you only own HITMAN 1, you will need to import that content into HITMAN 2 first, via the instructions in our Legacy Pack FAQ.
This process will work between console generations. For example, if you own HITMAN 2 on PS4, you’ll be able to download the HITMAN 2 Access Pass DLC in HITMAN 3 for both PS4 and PS5. The same applies for the Xbox family of consoles as well.
We know that’s a lot of information, but once you’ve seen all of the Access Pass options, and there are five in total, it will make more sense.
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HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 1 GOTY Edition: ICA Facility, Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado, Hokkaido, 3x GOTY Escalations and rewards and 4x Patient Zero campaign missions
How to get it – Consoles: If you have previously downloaded the HITMAN 1 Legacy Pack, HITMAN 1 GOTY Legacy Pack or HITMAN 1 GOTY Upgrade for HITMAN 2, you will be able to download it for no additional cost. (Yes, that’s a free upgrade to the GOTY Edition if you only own the Standard Edition of H1!). The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a version of H1 on disc, you must follow the process in the Legacy Pack FAQ to access that content in HITMAN 2 – and then redeem this Access Pass.
– PC (Epic): If you pre-purchase or purchase HITMAN 3 on EGS within the first 10 days of launch, you will be granted the HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass for no additional charge. In addition, if you own or redeemed a free copy of HITMAN – The Complete First Season on EGS when it was available for free, you will be able to download this Access Pass at any time after purchasing HITMAN 3.
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HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition or HITMAN 2 SilveGold, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
– Disc: [See below]
– PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch.
HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass [DISC] Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a physical disc copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost through the HITMAN 2 in-game store. (You will see the full listing price if you look for the Access Pass in the PS/Xbox store as a disc owner.) On Xbox, you also need to own a digital copy of either HITMAN 3 or the HITMAN 2 Free Starter Pack before navigating to the in-game store.
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HITMAN 2 Gold Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Gold Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you bought HITMAN 2 Gold Edition on Disc, it will have included a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass; you need to use that to get access to the content from the Gold Edition. See below. – PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch. It will also grant access to the HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass.
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HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass: New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for the Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a physical copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost because a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass was included in the box. If you have redeemed that code, the price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on PC We’ve done everything possible to make this process smooth and player-friendly. However, due to various circumstances out of our control, we want to acknowledge that the process is different to our initial plans for PC players. We also want to share some of the initiatives we’ve set-up to make sure that PC players the chance to keep enjoying the benefits of the World of Assassination.
Our hope is that these initiatives help to ensure all HITMAN 3 PC players can able to enjoy the new game with full access to HITMAN 1 and their progression carried over as a minimum.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Stadia Due to the convenient set-up of HITMAN 1-3 on Stadia, the Access Pass system is not required. Players will continue to have access to the locations they already own through Hitman: World of Assassination, or can purchase the games that they don’t own through the Stadia Store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Switch HITMAN 3 is the first game in the trilogy to be available on Switch. As such, each relevant Access Pass is available for purchase through the HITMAN 3 in-game store.

HITMAN VR

At launch, HITMAN 3 will support PS VR and all locations in the World of Assassination trilogy can be experienced in a new first-person perspective. Yes, that means you can traverse the outside of the tallest building in the (Hitman) world in PS VR! If you own the previous games from the trilogy on PS4, you can also access locations from them within HITMAN 3. That’s more than 20 Hitman locations from the World of Assassination trilogy to enjoy in PS VR.
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You can either play HITMAN 3 in PS VR natively on your PS4 or via backward compatibility on PS5. To make sure all PS VR owners can experience the game in VR, we’re including a free digital copy of the PS4 version of HITMAN 3 with all PS5 copies, whether you choose to buy it via disc or digital.
If you are playing on PS5, your progress between the PS4 (VR) and PS5 (non-VR) versions is shared between the two versions. You’ll be able to play the non-VR version of HITMAN 3 on PS5 with the next-gen improvements that we support (including Dual Sense support!) and then switch to the PS4 version for VR and all of your items and unlocks will be right there waiting for you. You will need to have both versions of the game installed on your PS5 to make that happen.
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Whether you play on PS4 or PS5, a DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controller is required to play HITMAN 3 in VR. Playing HITMAN 3 in VR on PS5 also requires a PlayStation Camera adaptor. For full details on the requirements for playing PS VR on your PS5, including how to order a free PlayStation Camera adaptor, see the official PlayStation PS VR site.

More to come

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We have got our sights firmly set on January 20 and our entire team is doing everything in our power to make the launch of HITMAN 3 as successful as possible. It’s an incredibly exciting time for us to be so close to releasing our next game, as well as deliver the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Please keep the conversation going on Twitter, Discord, Reddit and in HitmanForum and be excellent to each other.
The World of Assassination awaits…
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I bought a PS4 at the start of 2020 and played video games a bit too much this crazy year! Here are my rankings and brief reviews of the 32 excellent games I finished this year, as well as my thoughts on patient gaming.

Introduction:

It's basically trite at this point to say this year has been challenging, but one positive out of everything is that I've been fortunate enough to have the time and funds to play a huge number of games that I've heard so much about, yet never was able to before now. I grew up on almost exclusively Nintendo games and then branched out to indie games in college I could play on my laptop, so I was more than excited when I bought the base PS4 that came bundled with God of War, Last of Us, and Horizon Zero Dawn for $200 (and I snagged Bloodborne for $15 while I was at it).
What ensued was a year of frenzied gaming-- never in any year of my life have I played games as much as I did this year. I enjoyed it, but there were also some surprising drawbacks to placing such an emphasis on gaming as a primary hobby, and I'll discuss those towards the conclusion. But man, there were some absolutely fantastic games that I played this year and I want to share my thoughts on them! Not every game I played this year was PS4, but most were.
Since literally every game I played this year was a good game, I have stratified my rankings into three overarching tiers: Best, Great, and Good. I was lucky enough to not even need a Meh tier this year. Lots of games within the same tier could probably have their orders switched, but I did my best. And all but two of these games I was patient™ on, which is a fun side note.
Disclaimer*:* These rankings reflect my personal opinions on the experience I had after finishing the game, rather than my thoughts on its overall quality as a product for everyone. There are a few rankings that are sure to ruffle some feathers-- I know that God of War, RDR2, Journey, Undertale, and Nier: Automata for example are great games, but they didn't resonate with me nearly as much as some others. So know that I appreciate them and those who hold these games so dear.
Without further ado, let's get going!

The BEST:

1. Bloodborne (PS4): Quite simply, I'm still chasing the feeling I had after playing this game for the first time. So much so you could say, that I played it 7 times this year. Never has a game enraptured me with its shocking world, brutal combat, and the best DLC I've ever played. I want to talk about Bloodborne (and all the souls games, really) constantly, learn everything about them, and play them forever.
  1. Last of Us Part II (PS4): One of two games I broke being patient™ on, I waited a couple months before diving in just to stop working to avoid spoilers. I enjoyed the first game but this absolutely blew me out of the water. On a gameplay level I couldn't believe how fluid and visceral the combat was, how immense the encounters were with countless approaches to every situation, and how fun it was to play. The narrative was challenging and forced me to grapple with the same emotions as the protagonist initially, then brilliantly the player and character on divergent emotional tracks as you become more shocked and uncomfortable with what happens. I encourage anyone who hasn't yet to play with an open mind and avoid trying to reduce the story to a single theme or message. It may not be your cup of tea, but it was mine.
3. Outer Wilds (PS4): This game feels like it was made just for me. I love space and rocket physics, I love discovery, and I love it when a game makes me feel clever. The level of wonder and curiosity I felt while playing can only be compared to what I experienced with Breath of the Wild. This game is difficult to talk about without spoilers, but if discovery and outer space get you excited, there is nothing like Outer Wilds.
  1. Dark Souls III (PS4): Yeah, I like souls games. While certainly less groundbreaking than DS1 and perhaps less atmospheric than Bloodborne, DS3 is a grand experience with, in my opinion, the best bosses in all the souls games. It's also the best souls game for experimenting with different playstyles without needing to watch 6 hours of VaatiVidya to figure out how to be a pyromancer.
  2. Control (PS4): Objectively speaking, this game might not have the same merits as the others in the "Best" category. But it sucked me in with it's completely unique visual style. It felt like a strange acid trip and I was always excited to see what was next. The powers and combat were fun even if not terribly original (and even though the gunplay wasn't too strong) but I was completely enthralled by the nonchalance of the cast amid mind blowing supernatural activity. Far from a perfect game, but give it a chance if the style seems intriguing to you!

The Great:

  1. The Last of Us Remastered (PS4): One of my most anticipated games when I picked up a PS4, having watched my friends play some of it. Though it didn't blow me away as much in 2020 as it might have in 2013, I thought it had decent gameplay, a great story, and a stunning world. The cities and post-apocalyptic environments were a pleasure to soak in, packed with detail, and well paced. Definitely a deserved classic.
  2. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4): In a lot of ways, this game isn't good as an open world game. It doesn't do a great job of compelling you to explore and engage with all the cool stuff it has. The sidequests are kind of bad, many characters forgettable and oddly animated. But this game is this high on the list because it's just so much fun taking down machine dinosaurs. They nailed gameplay in a technically beautiful world, and actually surprised me with the quality of the main story line. Not groundbreaking, but solid and a joy to play.
  3. Death Stranding (PS4): For being one of the best games I have ever played, Death Stranding kinda sucks. I absolutely adored the premise and the world Kojima crafted, and delivering packages was really enjoyable. I loved figuring out traversal and just soaking in the graphics. I'm not one that normally cares about technical graphical showcases, but this game has made me reconsider how important graphics can be to an experience. Unfortunately, the dreadful gun mechanics, broken driving, constant NPC interjections, and the game's refusal to just end already kinda bogged it down. There's a lot here though that won me over and is an experience unlike anything I've ever played.
  4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch): The other game on this list I was not patient™ for, since I bought it for my wife... and then got sucked in. Truth is, as a non-creative type, I just loved this game as an outlet for my creativity and expression. I loved having projects like my zen garden, my Domino's Pizza restaurant, and then getting to share them with my friends. I've heard it said something along the lines of "It wasn't the best game of 2020, but it was the game for 2020".
  5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4): Once I adjusted my expectations of what this game was and was not, it was great. While it doesn't reward open exploration as much as BoTW and Skyrim did, it simply has the best quests of any open world game I've played. Very rich environments and stories, and I even thought the gameplay was more than serviceable. It did kind of drag on by the end though. Also, disclaimer, I haven't played the DLC (sorry).
  6. Return of the Obra Dinn (Nintendo Switch): I had hoped it would blow me away in a way similar to Outer Wilds, and while it didn't quite reach the same heights for me it was great nonetheless. I loved the nautical setting, the critical thinking and deduction required, and the way it was balanced perfectly between leaving you totally on your own and confirming bits at a time. My only real complaint is that I felt the true ending didn't really reveal anything about the story I didn't already know, I guess I expected some grand reveal.
  7. Doom Eternal (PS4): White-knuckle, heart pounding, insane. The game forces you to engage with every mechanic it throws at you and is brutally challenging, but all in the best way. Though the gameplay was better than DOOM 2016, I actually preferred the latter since Eternal's levels felt more like a silly mario level than a tense demon-infested place. I get what they were going for and they executed well, I just prefer the more serious tone.
  8. Hades (Nintendo Switch): Biggest surprise of the year for me, I didn't actually expect to like it. Hades is perfectly polished and a big step forward for integrating its excellent narrative with its roguelike structure. It's very easy to play without investing too much, making it great for unwinding. It deserves all the praise it's getting.
  9. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Remastered) (PS4): All the mainline Uncharted games are on this list but I enjoyed 2 the most. The set pieces were the most memorable, and I enjoyed almost every second. These games aren't as high on the list because, no matter how you dress it up, it's a pretty simple affair ultimately in terms of gameplay but it nails the style of game that it is.
  10. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4): An amazing game in its own right, but was ultimately disappointing for me as a From Software fan. I found that what I appreciated most about Souls games was the tension of not knowing if you could make it to the next checkpoint, the terror of encountering something surprising and having to deal with it. Sekiro litters checkpoints left and right, which is of course great for its more boss-focused design, but left me far less immersed in the environments personally. I also wished I had more options for playing aggressively rather than just memorizing the parry patterns. In any case, these gripes are my personal preferences coming through and any hardcore gamer owes it to themselves to conquer this behemoth of a challenge.
  11. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4): Pure, unadulterated fun. I was absolutely addicted to the core gameplay and the levels, especially in the first game, were so cool to explore. For me the core loop started to get stale by the time I finished all the challenges on the levels, but for those that wanted more there is almost an endless amount of bonus challenges to tackle.
  12. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4): There's definitely a strong argument that this is the ultimate uncharted game to play-- best gunplay and options in encounters, by far the best puzzles, and the delivery of the story is leagues above the rest of the series. I simply think that Uncharted 2 had the highest highs, so 4 is a tad lower. That, and the beautiful story set up was not brought together in a satisfying way; it in no way felt like Drake had earned Elena's forgiveness, but they kind just glossed over it. Still, a must play and Naughty Dog games at their best.
  13. Subnautica (PS4): I wanted to love it more than I did. I was hooked on exploring and discovering the mysteries of the alien underwater, but I think I do better with games with less of a survival focus. I got really far into the game, but didn't actually finish since eventually the slow drip of clues started to get a bit too slow for my tastes, and the survival and basebuilding began to get tedious. Minor PS4 technical issues aside though, This is a dang good survival game, and immense in a terrifying and wonderful way.
  14. Monster Train (PC): Slay the Spire is one of my all-time favorites, so I was pretty excited to be gifted this. It's a blast as a deckbuilder, and I think it was smartly designed in how it throws significant and strong rewards at you at every phase of a run, whereas StS often forces you to make the best of an iffy situation. Had a great time, but I lost interest after 15 or so hours since most runs tend to feel fairly similar. Still would absolutely recommend for StS and deckbuilding fans.
  15. Spelunky (PC): Not the hardest game I've ever played, but definitely the most unforgiving. The controls took a while to get used to but once I was engaged, the game is a tight, slick, and enthralling adventure and test of skills. Full of secrets (I've only scratched the surface) and deeply satisfying to conquer. But boy, is it unforgiving.
  16. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Remastered) (PS4): Another strong entry in the Uncharted series, just a tad weaker than 2 I think. I will credit it though with having the most memorable environments and locales in any Uncharted though!

The Good:

  1. Read Dead Redemption II (PS4): *Full disclosure, I'm still playing through act 5 at the time of this post.* This one is really tough for me to fully form an opinion on. On the one hand, I think this is the most stunning and immersive open world I've ever seen. Deeply authentic towns, regions, unparalleled attention to detail, and great characters and a decent story. But the way the missions force you to do things explicitly one way with terrible hand-holding just isn't fun to me, and makes Uncharted games feel like open-world sandboxes by comparison. There's a lot of quality here and I've enjoyed many elements, but have been disillusioned by others. NakeyJakey explains what I felt far better than I can (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos&t=392s). Still a good time though.
  2. God of War (PS4): Like RDR2, an incredible technical achievement, for me hands down the best looking PS4 game, best voice acting, and for most people this should be towards the top of your must-play list. At its best, the characters are great, the combat is crunchy and satisfying, and the world beautiful. I just felt that for far too often the game was far from its best-- too many combat encounters didn't feel like I was a God of War but rather smacking a giant meat sack of health, so many secrets and puzzles that I just stopped caring about because finding treasure chests isn't fun when the rpg/loot elements feel so tacked on and pointless, endlessly recycled bosses... for me it was just pretty good, nothing like the game of the generation in my eyes. That said, most people don't seem too bothered by the things I found mediocre, so the sheer spectacle (looking at you world serpent!) and great moments make this well worth the price of admission!
  3. Undertale (PC): I did not play this game the way it was meant to be played, let's say that up front. It was a gift, and I played about a half an hour every month for a year and just finally finished it. I loved the music, it was charming, and I see why people love this game so much. I think it just didn't hit those highs for me and I was left with a fairly silly little 8-bit game. Which was good. I'm glad I experienced what it had to offer but didn't leave a huge mark on me.
  4. Superhot (Google Stadia): I had wanted to play this game forever but couldn't justify spending $20 on it, so I was pleased when I got a free Google Stadia kit and got to play it free! Really neat blend of stylized retro computer flavor and a fabulous central time-stop mechanic. A great 2 hour experience but tough to recommend as more than a novelty.
  5. NieR: Automata (PS4): I have made it through 1.5 playthroughs so I know I haven't gotten the full experience, but I wasn't enjoying it enough to continue. I think every game developer though should learn from the brilliance of this game-- constantly keeping the player on its toes by not confining itself by a genre and by focusing on what's fun and cool, rather than convention. Excellent music. I get the hype, and the healthy dose of existential musings was interesting... it just didn't ultimately click for me. I can't unequivocally recommend this game to everyone, but if the premise and style stand out to you, this could be your next all-time favorite game.
  6. Star Wars Battlefront II (PS4): Picked this up for free with PS Plus, and while there's not a lot here that's that special it was honestly super nice comfort food gaming. I just enjoyed shooting stuff in really cool Star Wars settings, a franchise I love. For what it was, I had a blast, minus the fact that I personally feel Jedi/heroes really kinda ruin the game for me. Unfortunately, it also is nothing more than a basic mass multiplayer battlefield game, so don't expect anything crazy.
  7. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Remastered) (PS4): Definitely weaker than its successors, but still a really fun romp with trope-y but effective narrative and characters, and totally serviceable gunplay. This would be much higher on the list, and I honestly had a great time with it, but man the final third of the game was really painful to play. The switch to zombies was bad, and just wasn't fun to play through.
  8. Until Dawn (PS4): I did not think I would like this game at all, I don't care for cheesy horror and definitely am not interested in interactive movies. But if you have a significant other or group of friends to play this with, it can be a great time! I played with my wife and we were honestly pretty engaged with the characters and the story was well told and had plenty of nice jump scares. There's not much game here, but for what it is it was a neat experience.
  9. Shadow of the Colossus (Remake) (PS4): There were some incredible highlights to this game like the flying colossus and the sand worm, and the scale of the encounters with the epic music has earned this game a place as a masterpiece and classic to so many gamers. The remake looks stunning and it was exciting to see what type of colossus was up next. Unfortunately, every great moment I had was accompanied by an equally frustrating moment with mediocre controls and a couple of colossus that were so bad (looking at you, little bull/lion Celosia) that made me have to put down the game for a few days. A great game let down by some dated and poor elements.
  10. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4): Souls games are my favorites, so it pains me to put this game so low. The best areas in the game (Heide's tower, Drangleic Castle, etc) are up there with the best in the series and most of the excellent combat found in the other games is more or less present here. But I think 2/3 of the game is bogged down by drab areas that feel more like a mario level designed to kill the player more than an area that could really exist. The Iron keep was the worst offender, the area was absolutely nonsensical and like so many other areas, enemies were placed in a way designed to frustrate the player with difficulty rather than engage them with challenge. Bosses were also mostly forgettable, but I did love the Looking Glass knight and the Pursuer!
  11. Journey (PS4): Look, I'm as surprised as you that this game is on the bottom of the list. I honestly expected to love it. An artistic, beautiful marriage of environmental storytelling and unforgettable online interaction? A smooth and cathartic movement system? It has all these things, and no doubt deserves the acclaim and love it has from so many gamers. It just didn't resonate with me. Especially the ending, I felt for sure that there would be some great climax that contrasted with the struggle of the icy segment, but instead it fell a bit flat. Maybe I'll give it another try someday.

Conclusion, Gaming Patiently, and a Warning:

There you have it! I'd love to hear what surprised you in my rankings, where I'm horribly wrong, and what games you recommend I play next! Personally, I'm considering Persona 5 (though I'm not super into JRPGs), Dishonored 2 (am curious about immersive sims), and Jedi Fallen Order.
Gaming patiently is a strategy I absolutely endorse. Not only has it allowed me to form my own opinions of games independent of hype, but has allowed me to play a huge quantity of incredible games for honestly pennies. The average cost per game of everything I played this year was under $20. Now, more than ever, is an amazing time to get a PS4 and be a patient gamer, due to both the relative inexpensiveness and the sheer volume of outstanding games. I still will probably buy the big nintendo titles at launch and occasionally buy into hype, but most of the time it just isn't worth it anymore.
Finally, a friendly warning as a personal story for those of us who deeply love games and devote a lot of time to them. Like many kids, I was pretty limited by my parents growing up on what and how much I was allowed to play. I loved gaming but it was somewhat of a forbidden fruit. In college, I loved gaming and definitely played more, but still was very busy with social activities, studies, and other hobbies. Now, as a working adult with a comfortable job, I suddenly have more time and money than I have ever had in my life, and thus this giant list of games I played was created. For the first few months it was enthralling; all I wanted to do was play. Over the course of the year, however, it has become clear to me that requiring so much of my happiness and fun coming from having a game to be excited about can have some drawbacks. In the middle of a pandemic, if I'm sitting on the couch waiting for video games to make me happy and they just aren't giving me the same enjoyment that Bloodborne did when I played it for the first time, I'm just gonna be stuck there on the couch, slowly getting a bit depressed when my main source of fun isn't cutting it. So what's the point? Well, enjoy your games! Don't let anyone stop you from loving what you love. But if you start to burn out, please take care of yourself and engage in other hobbies, get outside, and keep things balanced. For me, doing so has made gaming all the sweeter.
Thanks for reading and indulging this long post!
submitted by DJ_FryTime to patientgamers [link] [comments]

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VITA PIRACY AND HOMEBREW (31/12/2020). CHECK THIS BEFORE POSTING!

Hello all,

I have compiled some resources here for those who may have questions or who may be in need of an in-depth guide. This thread was made as the [last "FYI' thread], byInquisitionImplied had become locked due to reddit's 6 month time limit before a thread becomes archived. I volunteered to make this thread as I had some free time, and I am grateful to have been able to build on the work of the previous megathread.

If there are suggestions for further content please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments below and I will add those suggestions to the main post.

It is expected that you read this pinned post before posting. Any post asking for or about material included here will be deleted and the poster will be issued a warning

[MOST IMPORTANT INFO]

vita.hacks.guide is a good website to help you with hacking your vita
• Nopaystation has been moved to the sidebar
• Those on the discord guide can help you if you want to mod a game and wonder where to begin.
• Every PSVita mod created (also include translation patch) is listed here
• I made a troubleshooting guide which should helps with most of the problems you could encounter as well as some tutorials here


[NEWS]\*
• [June 22] Thread optimizer by graphene is released
• [June 25] HENlo is announced
• [July 16] A legal shader compiler is released. Useful for emulation and port/homebrew games
• [October 27] re3 port of GTA3 released by Rinnegatamante, TheFlow and the re3 team
[EMULATORS]
mGBA - GB/GBC/GBA emulator
RetroArch- Multi-system emulator (CSP2/Saturn/MegaDrive/PS1/NES/etc), individually installed by core
SNES9x - Standalone SNES emulator
DaedalusX64 – a N64 emulator for vita
Flycast – a Dreamcast emulator
pfba – an arcade emulator
[HOMEBREW]
AccountSwitcher - Switch between multiple psn account
AdBlocker - Delete the ads in the multi-tasking menu
Anti-Blacklist - Enable all games for play on the PSTV
Lua Player Plus+ - First Lua Interpreter for the Vita
Moonlight - Stream from your PC to your Vita (Nvidia GPU required)
PSVita DB Theme Installer - Install custom and official themes
RegistryEditorMod - Edit adhoc username, disable sleep mode, etc.
Savemgr - Backup and share your saves
VHBB/Easyvpk - Download homebrew from your Vita
NOBORU – Manga reader for PSVita
ThreadOptimizer – Use the 4th cpu of the vita for more performance.
VITAlbum – A Photo Gallery app so you can view any image format
IMCunlock – Create an internal partition for fat psvita
ITLS-ENSO – Add TLS 1.2 support for the PSVita to browse more websites
VitaIdent– Show useful info about your vita
Yamt - Storage manager plugin customizable and loaded by the bootconfig
Enso EX - Customizable enso with script support, intended for advanced users
PSP2BatteryFixer - Fix errors about wrong battery % or weird shutdown
mincg - Change the factory version
Modoru - Downgrader for PSVita
Cex2Rex - Testkit Installer for PSVita
[HOMEBREW GAMES]
Zombiebound - Inspired by Call of Duty Zombies
Tropical Zone - Shooter game on a island
VitaFighters - Street fighter like game
Pingo - A puzzle game, paint the whole level with as little step as possible
Super Drone Racer Ultra - Retrowave style race game
Speed Run Vita - Parkour game
More can be found in vitadb under original game section
[PLUGINS]
Revita - Remap buttons for individual games and trigger actions
DownloadEnabler - Download any file extension to your Vita
RePatch - Patch your encrypted games (cartridge, digital download, NoNpDRM/pkgj)
VitaCheat - Cheating tool for the PSVita
Screenie - Take uncompressed screenshots (.bmp format)
Shellbat - Display your battery percentage on the Livearea
PSVshell - Change your Vita's clock speeds/overclock the CPU to 500mhz (saves profiles on a per game basis), display framerate/ battery percentage, cpu usage.
VitaGrafix - Change the resolution and framerate of many Vita games
UDCD-UVC – Allow streaming your vita screen to a PC (or a TV)
MiniVitaTV – Allow you to use a DS3/4 controller with your vita
[TOOLS]
AdrenalineBubbleManager - Create Livearea bubbles to launch your PSP content from
FAGDec - Decrypt eboots/modules for modding and prepare games for lower firmwares than they require. Tutorial on how to mod here under eboot modding
VitaGameUpdateChecker - See the latest update version for a game
UMDGen v4.00 - Trim/Cut unnecessary files from your PSP ISOs.
NPS Browser - Download Vita/PSM/PSX/PS3 games+DLC and much, much more!
pkgj- freeshop for the Vita. Download games on to your Vita
[MISC]
"Premium" Crunchyroll - Watch anime without ads! (the dramas are still not accessible with this)

I have also included an FAQ in this guide for those who may find it useful;

[FAQs:]
Q: Can I pirate Vita games?
• A. You certainly can, and it's possible on a 3.60-3.73 Vita
Q: Can I downgrade my Vita?
• A. Yes, with modoru.
Q: What's the best firmware to use?
• A. The only differences are that 3.60 and 3.65 are Enso compatible, 3.68-3.73 is not. And that 3.60 has a much easier method to exploit it over 3.65 and 3.68 but also the webkit makes it easier to save you from troubles that can arise as we don’t need a memorycard, psn access or a qcma. I highly recommend people to choose that one. Note that if you have a fat (OLED) Vita, you will need an official Sony memory card in order to use the 3.65 and 3.73 exploits as they require internal storage. If you’re in 3.60 you can use mlthaku
Q: Can I play games with a firmware requirement higher than what my current firmware is?
• A. Yes, you can, thanks to 0syscall6.
Q: What games can I pirate?
• A. Any game out there.
Q: What's the fastest way to play pirated games?
• A. Upon getting your Vita, install the NoNpDRM plugin to the ux0:tai/config.txt or ur0:tai/config.txt (depending on if you are using SD2Vita or not), then install pkgj.
Q: What about PS1 and PSP games? Do those come in .vpk/.pkg files?
• A. PS1 games can be converted into an eboot to be used with Adrenaline or can be left as .bin/.cue for use with Retroarch. PSP games need to be in .iso/.cso format to be used with Adrenaline. You can also see if they're available in pkgj
Q: I require assistance, can you help me?
• A. Yes sure, but first read the faq, if your question is about a generic issue (plugins not working, hack installation, downgrade) check first the troubleshooting guide and ask help in the VitaPiracy discord where people are available to personally help you. If you feel that your issue is not generic or complex, make a post about it. For exemple, "nonpdrm is not working help" shouldn't need a post. "I haven't touched my Vita since 2009 what updates do I need" are ok
Q: How do I install Adrenaline to play PSP/PS1/PSP homebrew?
• A. Here's the github for Adrenaline
Q: Can I still play games I downloaded from PSN or use my cartridges?
• A. Yes.
Q: How do I update my game?
• A. With NoNpDRM dumps, you can use the Livearea to update your game. If you're using the anti-blacklist hack on your PSTV, you can download game updates with pkgj without having to disable the blacklist
Q: My PSTV isn't installing a Livearea update. How do I fix it?
• A. If you have a antiblacklist hack installed, it may prevent installing for some games, but certainly does for games originally not allowed. Disable the antiblacklist hack to install the update.
Q: How do I know if a game update requires a certain firmware?
• A. Use VitaGameUpdateChecker
Q: What is NoNpDRM?
• A. It's a plugin by TheFloW that lets you play encrypted, untampered Vita games. Read more about it here
Q: What differences are there between Vitamin, NoNpDRM, and Maidump?
• A. See this chart
Q: What differences are there between 3.60 Enso, 3.65 Enso, and h-encore
• A. See this chart
Q: Can I transfer my saves if I'm still on Vitamin/Maidump dumps to be used with the NoNpDRM plugin?
• A. Yes. savemgr is a useful tool to easily backup/restore your saves. Alternatively, you can backup your savedata folder in ux0:use00/savedata.
Q: My dumps are currently Maidumps. Should I swap them out to play with the NoNpDRM plugin? How do I do that?
• A. You'll be fine with sticking to Maidumps if you're updated to the latest version possible and used the method to prevent your saves being wiped after you resume your Vita from sleep (detailed in "Q: I lost my savedata after I started my Vita up from suspend mode!..."). To swap the dumps, you can either use savemgr or manually copy/paste the game's savefolder (ux0:use00/savedata) to backup your saves before deleting the game in question to restore it after downloading and installing the NoNpDRM rip
Q: How do I rip/play games with NoNpDRM?
• A. Use this guide
Q: Where's NoPayStation and how do I use it?
• A. You can find a bunch of links to games, the tool and a tutorial here
Q: How do I use pkgj (freeshop for the Vita) to download games right on to my Vita?
• A. Making sure you have NoNpDRM working prior to this, get pkgj from here and install it.
Open the app, and refresh (triangle to open the menu, then select refresh) and you will be able to select which game you want to install.
Note: You can press L when a game is highlighted if you want to download its compatibility pack (0.31 pkgj or higher). You don’t need that if you use ref00d/0syscall6
Q: I've installed pkgj, but it does not work. It says "install failed" when trying to download the game.
• A1: Your NoNPDRM plugin might cause this issue. Check your config.txt and make sure the plugin is listed there correctly.
• A2: Try changing the plugin's path in ur0/ux0:tai to "ur0:/tai/nonpdrm.skprx" or "ux0:/tai/nonpdrm.skprx", wherever it's placed (It's best to keep all plugins in ur0: and keep a backup in ux0:).
• A3: There is an issue with size (you need to check it out on pkgj's github, I'm not sure) some people are experiencing.
• A4: If everything fails, it may be that the zrif is invalid. Use NPS browser on your PC instead (as a bonus you get access to PSP/PSX/PS3 titles and DLCs (including Vita DLCs)
Q: Can I delete my game, but backup my saves?
• A. Yes, use savemgr.
Q: How do I mod NoNpDRM games?
• A. To mod games, install RePatch and treat ux0:repatch as ux0:app, then put your decrypted, modded files in the correct file path. Follow these github instructions for savemgr. For mods that require a modified eboot, follow the tutorial for modified eboots
Q: NPS browser is giving me "PKG Decrypt Err!" on everything
• A: You are probably using pkg2zip parameters with pkg_dec. You should download pkg2zip and use it instead in order to use all of NPS browser's features.
Q: What else can I do with my Vita?
• A. Some other things you can do are transfer files using a FTP client or direct transfer using Vitashell 1.60+, configure controls past the game's options, modifying game files (undubs, translations, graphical hacks, etc.), playing PSP/PS1 games with native emulation, use microSDcards as storage, or whitelisting your PSTV to play all games.
Q: Where do you find the "refresh livearea", "mount uma0:", and "refresh license database" options in Vitashell?
• A: While viewing all partitions (ux0:, ur0:,...), press triangle.
Q: Can I play online, download, and update my games?
• A: You can update your legitimate games regardless of your firmware. As far as online is concerned, PSN spoofing still works, so you can use the PSN store, sync trophies, play online, etc.
Q: I'm not going to bother with Playstation network services. Can I use a Vita without having an account?
• A: Yes, you can set up a trial account when you set up your system.
Q: Can I use a USB as storage with my PSTV?
• A. Yes. It needs to be formatted to FAT32 and you need to be using Vitashell 1.60 or later. For your first time using it, when viewing all partitions in Vitashell (ur0:, uma0:, etc), press triangle, mount the USB as uma0:, disconnect and connect the USB again if it asks you to, press triangle again, and mount it as ux0:. Making sure you have Enso installed, use usbmc_installer so that the USB will be mounted on boot every time.You can also either use storagemanager using the UMA option in the config (for exemple set UMA=ux0 in storagemgr_config.txt) in order to mount the USB storage as the memorycard at boot
Q: "MicroSD cards as storage? How do I do it?"
• A: To use a microSD card on your Vita, You will an adapter that will need to take up your cartridge slot or one that will replace your 3G modem (only for the 3G Fat model). I am only aware of Yifanlu selling those type of adapters, but here is a thread for one of the latest SD2Vita designs. They've yet to ship, but there's a place to look. Check the other pinned message for other adapters. Use this guide from cfw.guide to use it.
Q: "How do I upgrade from my memory card/internal storage to a SD2Vita?"
• A: Make sure you can view hidden folders and unhide protected operating system files in your Windows' folder options (picture), then back up all the files from your memory card and ur0:shell/db/app.db (which you can access by opening up a FTP server with Vitashell if your Vita's not in safe mode) so that your bubbles are in the same place. You can copy the entire memory card to your PC using Vitashell. After that, copy everything onto your microSD card (provided that you formatted your microSD card correctly as pointed out in the Wololo tutorial.
Q: How do I move to a bigger microSD card, say 128GB to 256GB?
• A: It's the same deal as upgrading from an official memory card to your SD2Vita card, except you obviously don't need Vitashell to move files across the memory cards. Another thing to take into consideration is that you need to manually set the cluster size to 64kb since the size of the microsd is bigger we need to adjust it.
Q: Where do I put PSP/PS1 games?
• A: PSP games go in ux0, ur0, or uma0:pspemu/iso/[isoname].iso. PS1 eboots go in ux0, ur0, or uma0:pspemu/PSP/GAME/[GAMEID]/EBOOT.PBP If you have put it on uma0: ur0: you need to change the memory stick path in adrenaline settings to ur0/uma0 (long press PS button to open the quick menu, then press settings button for adrenaline)
Q: "Where can I get normal PSP ISOs and special modified ISOs (translations, etc.)?
• A. You can use Emuparadise with a workaround script for normal ISOs and NextGenRoms for modified ISOs. There's also a spreadsheet that has some links still active (backup to that spreadsheet)
Q: How do I launch my PSP games from the Livearea just like a PS Vita game?
• A. Use AdrenalineBubbleManager
Q: How do I install .vpks without needing double the space of it?
• A. .vpks are basically renamed .zip files. Either rename them to a .zip for extraction or use an extraction program (I use 7-Zip) to extract the .vpk as-is. You can then install it as a folder in Vitashell
Q: I lost my savedata after I started my Vita up from suspend mode! What happened?
• A: Vitamin and Maidumps required a work around for games to work, so their metadata gets messed up. Savedata can as a result disappear from these dumps. You can check ux0:use00/savedata_backup and see if your save is there. To stop this from happening, create a folder in ux0:use00/savedata and rename it to "list.dat".
Q: Will I get banned for playing online with pirated games, syncing trophies with pirated games, or using any PSN service with spoofing?
• A: No, you won't. There haven't been any reports of bans as a result of any of these activities, but there have been unconfirmed ban reports of syncing trophies with a pre-release vpk of the US Criminal Girls and a developer build of Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom back in November-ish and September, respectively. Another case of temporary IP bans came as a result of the near app excessively pinging Sony's servers. At this point, there's no chance of you getting banned.
Q: I've been told that the Vita has no games. Is this true?
• A: If all you care about are exclusives, certain Vita publishers (Spike Chunsoft, Koei Tecmo, XSEED and NISA) have been porting their Vita titles to the PC, with the most recent being Valkyrie Drive and Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls. Some Vita ports (Virtua Tennis 4, Rayman Legends, and Dead or Alive 5+) have content exclusive to the system, which make them worthwhile to visit. Gematsu has a very accurate list of the status of the exclusives. Otherwise, the system has quite a few strong ports. It's weak in some genres, like racing games or first-person shooters, but is very strong in role-playing games and anime tie-ins, so your mileage will vary.
Q: Will oclockvita/VSHMenu damage my system?
• A: No. Sony kept the system underclocked from it's maximum clock speeds. Oclockvita and VSHMenu only take the Vita's clock speeds to the maximum allowed by the Vita's SoC.
Q: Do I use Lolicon or PSVshell?
• A: PSVshell should be what you need. It’s a better lolicon version
Q: I have heard about or have experienced a savedata error which made me lose my savedata! What can I do to keep this from happening?
• A: If you're using only NoNpDRM dumps, you will not have this issue. If you're using a Maidump, use this method to keep it from happening again.
Q: I want to request a dump, translation, or save file. Do I just make a thread on that?
• A: No, you need to use the correct thread underneath the subreddit info. Making a thread will result in the post being deleted and a warning.
Q: I need help with an emulator. Can I ask about my problem here?
• A. Emulator discussion is better suited over at vitahacks.
Q: Can I post anything I create on Vita here?
• A: We'll make an exemption to the rule here (yes, even with uncensored mods). If you think it'll better suit this subreddit instead of vitahacks or just want to cross post, go ahead. This subreddit has several thousand people subscribed to it and we don't want to deny community created creations that exposure. 99% of things will be allowed. You'd have to make something like a bricker vpk for it to be denied from this subreddit. If too much stuff gets posted, however, we'll dial this back and remove more lesser quality or less relevant creations. Lastly, try to post it when it's as finished as possible. ;)
Q: Can I post a thread asking for help with my creation?
• A: Translation and mod threads are 100% acceptable here, but you need to know what you're doing and/or have at least some part of it done. You can also ask in vitahacks.
Q: What letters in the game's ID (ex. PCSA) go with what regions?
• A: Here's a guide for that
submitted by Cimmerian_Iter to VitaPiracy [link] [comments]

Founder’s View: Stadia as a Platform May Die, but Stadia White Label May Be Great for us!

First things first: this is not intended to 'whitewash' an epic communication disaster by Google. I am also not here to debate what the news means. There were plenty of threads here and other sources discerning this in great detail. But I am writing this subject to the assumption that the following most commonly accepted interpretation of the news is true:
So my thesis is that this may be a good thing for the gamers. Currently, the gaming industry is dominated by large game publishing (distribution) platforms. This offers some benefits to the gamers (cheaper prices due to the economies of scale). But ultimately that system is geared towards profit-maximising of those platforms at the expense of everyone else in the chain (smaller publishers, game developers and the consumers). This is why every moderately successful game publisher tries to create and grow a platform of its own, rather than focusing on publishing better games. This is why so many of them now have those stupid 'launchers' on PC and why Valve never made HL3. And the consumer is important only as a commodity, and to the extent that 'commodity' can be kept reasonably happy with the platform.
The result is that for the last three decades, the gamers were held hostage to those publishers fights. Think of console wars; PS vs XBOX; Steam vs EPIC; EPIC vs Apple. Think of ridiculous bundling of specific consumer offerings/products ('subscribe to PS Plus if you want to play games online'). Think of years of suboptimal consumer experience (DRMs, games pulled out of a particular online storefront, inconvenient integrations). Think of bafflingly idiotic current situation around Hitman on PC. None of this benefits us as consumers, regardless of what is your preferred gaming platform. I would also argue that this also adversely affected the quality of games, but this is such a big topic of its own and deserves a separate discussion.
Yes, there is an idea of economies of scale, and whoever attempts creation of this 'walled garden' often tries to entice and appease the consumers by special deals, extra offers and whatnot. Stadia currently, namely its pro subscription are a perfect example of this. But all other already established platforms do the same marketing tricks. Yet this creates two problems for the consumers:
(1) An average gamer never actually has enough time to play those 'free' games. During the last year I 'really' played only four games on Stadia. By 'really' I mean with ~100 or more hours of gametime. Two of these were not even claimed through Pro subscription. I am yet to play at least once most of those freely claimed games!
(2) All those extra benefits are ultimately of no use to the consumer if their preferred platform doesn't win. This is even a fork problem:
(2)(a) In a highly aggressive competitive environment, it may be a 'winner takes all' scenario, where the losing platform just stops existing. This is precisely the threat that Stadia platform is now facing. What difference does it make that I have over 40 games here if I am not sure if in a year or two I will have them at all? Realistically, I may never even get to some of those titles (happened to me before with PS Plus subscription).
(2)(b) Look at the movie streaming market. Remember when Netflix just broke out and how great it was back then? Better than the TV, all at once, just 9.99 per month (cheaper than the TV subscription at the time). But now every big player in that industry wants to make their own Netflix, so the content is segmented. Netflix is not enough, get Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, get Hulu, YouTube Premium, Peacock and whatever else is out there now.
And this is where the white label solution may be a great proposition, aligning interests of the consumers/gamers, developers and publishers (that don't have aspirations for creating their own all-encompassing 'platforms'), and transforming the industry.
>For the consumegamer, nothing is more liberating than playing a game he wants to play; on any device, at any time, and the way he wants it to play. Curiously, Stadia today doesn't offer this now. You need STADIA to play the game, although it's close, given that there is a free tier. Every other platform offers even more limitations and costs.
>For the game developer, anything not in the cloud presents numerous technical limitations (hardware, porting and optimising for each platform, dealing with game updates, less control over how the gamer experiences the game, etc).
>For the publisher: they have to juggle the byzantine system of licensing agreements with each separate platform and often be at the mercy of their whims/business model, commercial rationale. On top of that, you have to either opt for exclusivity, significantly limiting the audience. Alternatively, you segment your audience by multiplatform or throw extra resources to support cross-platform (if we are talking about multiplayer games). So this ties back again to the challenges for the game developers.
Ultimate white label model removes all these hurdles; it unbundles gaming from the gaming industry. Simply imagine the environment, where if you are interested in a particular game, all you need is to google the title, pay the price and start playing immediately. There would be no need to wait for PS5 to be back in stock, be a member of some odd subscription tier (looking at you Apple, your 'Arcade' is creepy). No risks that your particular console or PC will be running the game poorly, or that your favourite multiplayer game doesn't support cross-platform.
Yes, perhaps there will be fewer games published, and all an average price per game may climb higher (as an individual publisher less likely to utilise economies of scale). But as a consumer wouldn't you prefer to pay more fo one game, but with better quality, replayability and continued developer support, than some vaguely priced packaged offering of 5-year-old indie titles that will bore you after 2 hours? On top of that, if the distribution is back into the hands of the publisher, nothing prevents it from offering a game for download alongside streaming, if anybody still wants/needs it.
So there is that. The market where the white label cloud gaming model wins, promises a great gaming experience to people who just want to play games. There are so many of us, who want more than 'Candy crush', but also cannot justify the investment into all the 'extra' stuff that comes along with AAA game titles.
And perhaps by opting early on for a distributed, multi-party licensing approach to their tech, Google may be positioning to disrupt the gaming industry, rather than create just another competing walled garden.
However, there is one catch: the great unbundled future of ubiquitous cloud gaming also requires that Google (or other existing cloud gaming providers for that matter) doesn’t bet on one horse. I.e. they may enter into (semi)exclusive deal with one, already established platform. (e.g. Sony or Nintendo, or perhaps one of the challenger publishers). This will be unwelcome because and we will back to square one: Several big walled gardens competing with each other, but now just with the cloud gaming option as another enticing option. However, there are enough reasons for optimism here. As much as Google is known for suddenly killing good consumer products, they are equally known for not committing to a single exclusive partner. In fact, they are quite good at developing a backbone systems that then are widely adopted and perfected by many small and big players.
So in closing (TLDR): Stadia white label may do to gaming what Android did to smartphones.*
submitted by xdereksx to Stadia [link] [comments]

Getting a PlayStation under the tree this year? Here's some tips and tricks you should know!

Hello /PS4,
Here's a post for all new owners of a PlayStation console. This post is of course focused on the PS4 but some of the tips also apply to the PS5 as well. They can also be useful to existing owners that might not now these tips and tricks!

Tip #1: Enable 2-factor authentication

To avoid any problems of hacking, not only use a unique password for your PSN profile, but also enable 2-factor authentication. Every time you will log in on a new device, a 6-digit code will be sent to you via SMS or an Authenticator app (like Google Authenticator, for example).
So in case someone gets your password, he won't be able to use your account. Receiving a lot of codes via SMS is also a sign someone tries to access your account and you should change your password ASAP.
Follow this link to enable 2FA!

Tip #2: Enable password at checkout

You have to know that some games propose microtransactions, mostly for cosmetic items. As a way to avoid an underage person to empty your bank account by accident, or to prevent you of making some impulsive purchases, enabling password on checkout is a pretty good option.
To do so on PS4, please follow these instructions:

Tip #3: Grab PlayStation Plus monthly games

As PlayStation Plus is required to play online on paid games (it's not a requirement on Free to play games!), you get "free" games every month. These games are available on your account as long as your Plus subscription is active, and if your subscription runs out, don't worry, if you renew your subscription, you regain access to your games.
Anyway, the PlayStation Plus games are renewed every first Tuesday of the month. So as long as this date isn't passed, you can grab the games of the previous month. All you have to do is to add them to your library, and voilà!
Another tip is to claim the games every first tuesday of the month, so you don't forget about them, and they'll wait in your library. And to conclude, these games are backwards compatible on PS5, and you can even claim the PS5 games even if you don't own a PS5!
For December, you can claim Just Cause 4, Rocket Arena and Worms Rumble. The link to claim these games is here!

Tip #4: Rest Mode

Rest Mode is a pretty nifty feature for the PS4: not only you can resume a game where you left it off, but it also allows you to charge your controllers and download updates while your PS4 isn't used. Some people prefer to not use it as their PS4 can be noisy, or because they want to save as much energy as they can. But the consumption is not that high (10 watts).
If you want to check by yourself, go to Settings > Power Save Settings and navigate through the menus to suit your needs.

Tip #5: For PS4 Pro: enable boost mode!

You might have got a PS4 Pro, which is a more powerful version of the PS4 released in 2016. The PS4 Pro allows 4K support and improved detail and performance for many games. However, for games released before 2016, if you want to benefit from a slight performance boost, the boost mode might be handy.
To do so, go to Settings > System > Boost Mode and tick the box.

Tip #6: A few useful shortcuts

Here's a few shortcuts that you could use to make your PS4 experience better:

Tip #7: Create folders

At some point you might have a lot of games installed on your console. To keep things tidy, you can create folders to group similar games, or by support (physical or digital). The choice is up to you.
To make folders, highlight a game, then press Options, then Add to folder. Then create folders or add your games to existing ones!

Tip #8: Get some extra storage space

After installing some games (mostly Call of Duty...), you might quickly run out of storage space, especially if you only have a 500GB! internal hard drive. But you can add storage space with an external hard drive, up to 8TB! Also, external hard drives can benefit from slightly better loading times.
And for more improvement, you can change the internal hard drive for a bigger one (2.5-inch only). you can access it very easily with a screwdriver, and without voiding the warranty. But you'll need to reinstall the firmware on the new hard drive.

Tip #9: Download the PS App

The PlayStation App allows you to check your messages, join Party Chats, download games to your PS4 remotely, access the PlayStation Store, show your trophies, and much more. The PS App is free to download on iOS and Android.

Tip #10: Clean your console regularly

Finally, to ensure your console runs well, you will have to keep it clean. Put it in a well-ventilated area and not directly on the ground where it could gather dust very quickly (and especially not on a carpet). But even when putting it in a safe area, it will gather dust.
You can access the fan easily without voiding the warranty, and use a can of compressed air to blow off the dust. There are also tutorials on YouTube to clean your PS4 at a deeper level and possibly change the thermal paste, but refrain from doing that if you're not perfectly sure of what you're doing.

If you have any more useful tips, feel free to post them here!
Enjoy your play and Merry Christmas!
submitted by Linkinito to PS4 [link] [comments]

Winter Wonderland HUT Guide - for Beginners!

It’s Coooolin ! Hey there!
Are you new to HUT? About to fire it up for the first time? Here’s a guide for you! ... and tips at the verrryyyy end!!

Knowing the Menus

There’s a bunch of things to do in HUT under different categories they are ...
• HUT Central
• Solo Play
• Online
• Auction House - sets
• Team
Each of these have various things underneath them, so let’s talk about them.
HUT CENTRAL
First off we have a scroll-through menu on what new content is out.
New content; packs, and players gets released every week day at 5pm EST , unless it’s a Holiday - then we’ll get the content a day earlier.
You will see when the content is out of packs by the timer and the date on the banner shown - Winterinternational Players released Monday were a week long to pull.
We will see new events come into HUT bi-weekly. This event ends soon, so we will see a new Event next Friday at 5pm EST.
Team of the Weeks are Wednesdays at 5pm EST. Available for the Week.
HUT RUSH
What else is there on HUT Central? You can go directly to HUT RUSH game mode by going to the banner using the left stick, highlighting it and clicking “X” or “A”.
HUT Rush is 2 game modes , normally one is Traditional Hockey gamestyle, and other is Arcade Hockey gamestyle with “moneypuck” attached.
Play games, win, get points, rank up in tiers. Get rewards - instantly. You can net 18.5k in coins, and 2 and a half gold collectables normally — or 100 Gold Players for 3 Gold Collectables, once. — willl talk about later. This is a limited time set, ending Tuesday @5pm EST.
Objectives / Milestones
You will also be available to see what Objectives / Milestones are close to completion. Click on this, and you will be shown the “Daily” Objectives. If you do all these, you get a Monthly Collectable, and 1,250 coins for the day.
Weekly Objectives are the same thing, finish all those up within a weeks time (Friday at 5pm EST - Friday at 5pm EST) and get a cool 5k, plus an Untradable Premium Pack - worth 7,500 coins.
Milestones have infinite time, do those for coins, players, packs. Do them all? Get yourself an Icon or Gold Collectable. — I’ll talk about these later.

Solo Play

Under Solo Play there is Squad Battles , and Challenges.
What is Squad Battles?
Squad Battles is playing your team against the A.I. for points. The higher difficulty; rookie, semi-pro, pro, all-star, superstar - and opponents OVR - i.e., 77 or 88 - the more points you can obtain. To get max points, score 5 goals, and have 20 shots on net. Points will increase as more people play, and get updated weekday, 5pm EST. The more games you play, and win the higher the rank you will get. Aim for at least Pro 2 , which is 4-5 games.** Squad Battles resets on Wednesday - 5pm EST and you will receive your rewards on Thursday at 5pm EST. —- some people still don’t know this, so have that memorized and you’ll know more than some people.
Squad Battles affects your win-loss ratio, and Players Stats
Squad Battles rewards you in Tradable Packs, Coins, and HUT Sweats CHAMPS points
Challenges
Challenges are a great way to earn a coin stack, and receive free packs - usually earned at the second last - last challenge in the “Event Challenges”. You will also receive Monthly Collectables throughout doing the Event Challenges.
If you opt not to do these Event Challenges, there are “offline” challenges to do - Starting at Rookie, and ending in Superstar you can net a free 200k for doing them all!! It is time consuming, but it’s 200k worth!
Challenge Coin Tiered

Online

Rivals Mode
What is Rivals?
Rivals is playing against people online. PS+ or Xbox Membership is required in order to play online.
Play your first 5 games, get entered into a Division.
Do well - win lots in a row, and you’ll be able to go up in Divisions. This gives yourself better, and bigger rewards. Want to get those rewards in a higher tier, but you’re afraid you’ll lose the division? Hold off, and don’t play. Rivals resets Tuesdays at 5pm EST, Rewards available Wednesday at 5pm EST.
Each game gives you points, as well. You get more points winning than losing, duh. More points will net you better rewards for the week. I normally just aim for Gold.
You can choose from Tradable packs, Untradable packs (2 times the amount as tradable) or coins.
Play a friend
You can play your friend in HUT. They will obviously use their HUT team, and you’ll use yours. You can use expired loan players in this. Make up your own rules, and have fun!

Auction House

Buy players, jerseys, logos, coaches, arenas, cellys, jersey numbers, goalie masks in the Auction House. You can also sell your own, as well. Simply click on the “Auction House” . You can change the category by clicking “X/A” and scroll over to your designated category you want to buy. - Also filter out the things if you want a specific player, or event.
You will have the option to click down and sell players, view them in the next tab and see how much time is left, and also see what price they go for at the very end at the “Sell Transactions” - it will show you what you’ve sold, and by clicking “R2/RT” you will have a timestamp, going back a week, month, year, or all-time. Clicking “L2/LT” you will see your sold items, and expired items — if they didnt sell they’ll go here.
• Since you are new?? There is a “Market Crash” happening right now. Load yourself up with “Base” 84+ cards for cheap - Mackinnon, Kane, McDavid - best Base player - Hedman, Vasilevskiy, etc., —- Tall goalies are “meta” , as well as “speedy” players. —
I would also suggest buying TOTW Players, they will rebound in price.
Sets
Do your re-rolls what even is a “re-roll” ? A reroll is trading in 8 of a specific “level” to 2 of the “next level” players. For example 8 Bronze Players to 2 Silver Players. 8 Silver Players to 2 Gold Players. Lastly, we have 8 Gold Players to 2 Gold Players with one being an 80+ Player. I would not suggest doing the Gold -> Gold reroll
You can also trade in Monthly Collectables you get from the Daily login for a Free Gold Collect / Icon. This costs 30 Monthly Collectables. You can also get packs, or a 80-82 player. You can get 2 per day - Daily Pack you get every 24hrs, plus doing the Daily Challenges.
When a player gets 50 Gold Players, you can lock those into a Gold or Icon Collectable. Each will help your team in various ways, lets look at it.
There is a set right now under “Winterinternational” where you trade in 100 Gold Players to 3 Gold Collectables, I highly suggest this, especially as a new player - redeemable twice
—- The Winterinternational Collectables from the Event Challenges gives you a free Gold Collectable or helps with building a 91/92 random player, or specific player. For the free Gold Collectable you need 21 Winterinternational Collectables. —
Icon Collectable - Untradable Master Icons. 1 Icon Collectable is an 85 Master Icon. There’s 84-89 OVR Master Icons available. Each one requires more and more Icon Collectables.
—- Master Icons will eventually go to 99 OVR. Will require more Icons. Lower OVR Icons will need more Icons to get to Max OVR - 99. Higher Icons - Gretz / Lem. will require less.
To get Lemieux / Gretzy it is 7? Icon Collectables.
Gold Collectables - Tradable / Untradable Event Master Set Players (MsPs). Less Gold Collectables will net you an Untradable MSP , More Gold Collectables will net you a Tradable MSP. You can also get yourself specific 92 MsPs this event by doing their tasks. — They are Untradable. —
Normally I go Tradable, and sell them for more coins. This allows you to build your favourite team the fastest.

Team

Store
Also under this is “Store” . Right now until Tuesday at 5pm EST you can get a free 90 OVR player! What a great way to start! Just pick your favourite one - THERE IS NO WRONG CHOICE!!
Seriously grinds my gears seeing a post “what 90 is the best” “who should I choose?” It is YOUR GAME! What works for others , may not work for you. Pick YOUR FAVOURITE!
Base & Premium Packs are always there. Base packs are 5k coins, Premium Packs are 7.5k coins. Every other weekday we will see a new pack enter the store. New Events bring more packs, containing specific stuff. One guarantees a Gold Collectable, and a Winterinternational Player. Since Boxing Day is today, there are packs out for it!! These packs end on Monday at 5pm EST.
A player can also buy packs by purchasing “points” to purchase points, click the Triangle or Y button in the store.
To see how much a pack is in “points” it is the Green Circle “Pucks” besides the coins. Currently the guaranteed Winterinternational and Gold Collectable pack is $25.
Team
Change your team players, lineups, goalies, coaches, add better players, etc.,
You can change your strategies by going to “Manage Lineups” and “Strategies”.
Also there is the “Settings” to fix your camera, puck size, visual / audio, and controls.
—- My Collection —
Click on this, see every possible card you will be able to buy, and collect. Click “Triangle” to view all your players, jerseys, arenas, etc.,

Free Beginning Tips

My hints?
———————-
This is my HUT Guide to you, new HUT player, or Old HUT Player reading this for fun.
I hope you enjoy HUT.
If you get frustrated or run down? I would suggest playing a different game-mode, game, or simply taking a break from the gaming system in general. That way you will be fired up to play again, and have fun!
See you guys when new content gets released for another post!
Comment down anything a new player would need to know to get their game started, and tips!
• Coolin Killin It
(Life is like a puzzle, you just have to find the right piece.)
submitted by coolin68 to NHLHUT [link] [comments]

Stadia vs xcloud / game pass ultimate vs ps now / remote play vs Luna

Hello Stadians,
First post here. I joined the cult not long ago after extensive research and since my post on red flag deals about Stadia has gained much traction, I decided to post it here for future Stadians or people who might be interested. Information is spread out across many sources, so I am trying to bring all current cloud services together into one giant post. If you want to spread the message to people who are on the fence, please use this post as you like, you are free to share this. Please correct me if I got anything wrong since I am still new to the game. Here goes :
PART #1 :
Stadia is still very new to a lot of people but have gained quite a bit of attention recently due to Google freely handing out hardware. However, it is still largely misunderstood.
Unlike what many people think there it's either one or the other, Stadia is so versatile that it can complement anything (ps5, xbox, pc, mobile gaming). It doesn't have to be one or the other. You can sub, or you can just buy a game and play it whenever and wherever you want as long as you have a stable Internet connection.
The most important thing is to test it out for FREE. Go on your chrome browser, log in with your gmail account, and click on Destiny 2. No downloads, no load times, no patches, no wait times, no hidden fees, no hardware requirements, just play it for free indefinitely on any toaster computer you are running as long as you have a stable connection.
Like it ? Then don't be afraid to buy some games during their sales if they are cheaper on Stadia than other platforms. You will be able to play is as long as you have an stable Internet connection.
Don't listen to people who says Stadia is going away like some of Google's retired products. If anything, it's expanding and the future of gaming is streaming. Say goodbye to overpriced hardwares that expire or games that don't run properly on newer hardwares. Say goodbye to having to buy the same game on xbox, pc, mobile. Say goodbye to load times, storage limits, hardware problems like the ps4 pro making absurb noise.
Don't listen to people wo says Stadia has awful lag - they either have a bad connection or only tested Stadia at launch. With a good reliable connection with at least 35mbps download, there is absolutely no way the input lag will bother you unless you do competitive gaming. Everyone has their own experience with Stadia and best is to try it out yourself and not listen to people - it's free anyway with zero hurdles.
Don't listen to people claiming Stadia has a very limited library. Stadia launched roughly 1 year ago compared to xbox / steam / ps who have been there for ages. Obviously, you won't have the same library. Stadia is about to lock in 400+ games this year alone and more to come. Library size shouldn't matter since you do not have to pay or commit to anything. If you don't like what Stadia has to offer right now, just set it aside - you aren't losing out or anything. Your hardware is not going to expire, you aren't paying a dime to have a Stadia account, you have zero commitment necessary.
I hope this sums up the debate and why everyone should at least give Stadia a chance and try it out on your browser right now and experience the future of gaming. Zero commitment needed.

PART #2 : This is the part where I try to summarize each available streaming service and compare it to Stadia as of today.
PS Remote Play, which has pretty much been given up by Sony because they want to focus on PS5 hardware, is basically a service that allows you to connect to your own hardware to play games you own on your PS4 / PS5. You have the same limitations than your current hardware. Therefore, if your game only runs on 30FPS on PS4, it will only run 30FPS remotely. Your hardware will also eventually expire as new games get developed that require more juice. Last time I checked, remote play on PS4 Pro is capped at 720p. Since the connection has to jump through 2 loops (from your PS to Internet, and from the Internet back to your device), you will definitely feel a latency while streaming your games. Stadia is running off of a dedicated hardware and servers straight to the device you're streaming on, while the PS4/5 remote play has no server and uses your hardware.
PS Now is a service you need to pay either 12.99$ CAD a month or commit to $79.99 CAD for a whole year (20% off during BF sale, good value). It has its own dedicated servers so latency should be better. However, as of now, games are still being streamed at 720p only, and hopefully 1080p soon. A plus side is the access to a bigger library, potentially bigger than what xbox game pass ultimate has to offer. You can also download PS4/5 games to play offline unlike Stadia where a stable connection is required at all times. However, you need an online check every 7 days and the offline service only works on your PS4/5 hardware. if you use this service, some games can leave the platform on a rotation basis (about 10 out of 800 games available) and you don't own any games unless you buy them on the PS store. If your subscription expires, you'll lose access to the downloaded games and any DLC associated with it. As noted by redditors here, you do get plenty of time to finish the game and a notice ahead of time before rotation begins.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate cost 16.99$ CAD a month and provides the best library of games on a rotation basis, and is now combined with xbox gold meaning you can claim free games every month that you can keep as long as you are subbed, like Stadia Pro. The game selection is arguably better than PS Now, and is much more varied than Stadia. The biggest downside is that Game Pass Ultimate only offers 720p streaming as of now and I have noticed many more players reporting latency issues with Game Pass compared to Stadia. Just like PS now, Game Pass Ultimate is like a rental service where you don't get to keep any games unless you keep paying a fee. The difference with Stadia is that your money is exchanged for games you can keep with regular Stadia. You keep the games you bought and they do offer some free to play games like Destiny 2 and more to come eventually. However, free version of Stadia is capped at 1080p 60fps with stereo sound.
Geforce Now from Nvidia costs 6.49$ CAD a month to play, or offered free but you are limited to 1-hour sessions only, which is quite stressful in my opinion. It basically uses your steam games library and allows you to stream them using their cloud servers. If you have a big library of steam games, I can see a good reason to use Geforce Now. However, their cloud servers are much much smaller than Google (obviously). For new games, you have to wait for them to become available on the service if the game requires different specs, since Nvidia has to make Steam games compatible with their service first. Due to their small servers, 2 years after their launch, they have yet announced support for 4k streaming and yet to have their own exclusives. This is only a good option if you have a huge amount of steam games and want to access those games outside of your PC.
Luna offers game streaming for 7.99$ CAD (note that this is their entry price, and I will guarantee you this price will get a bump once their service is more widely known) . They have a bigger game library than Stadia but a lot of players claim that their games aren't as quality (filled with indie games and less AAA titles). However, Stadia has much better latency because Amazon servers are more tailored towards enterprise usage rather than customer. Another downside to Luna is that it doesn't offer a free service compared to Stadia, but time will tell.
To me, the main selling point for Stadia is this : no commitment required.
With other services, you either have to pay to use their service or buy their hardware, or both. A paywall is the highest obstacle to a new user base and Google knows that. No other services would allow you to create a free account, go on your chrome browser, and play Destiny 2 (other free games will be announced soon) right away without any hardware check. You can play Destiny 2 on a toaster computer, a TV with a Chromecast Ultra dongle and all you need is keyboard + mouse, or any controller you can find. Stadia can accommodate those with little to no interest to build a 1,000 $ CAD PC to keep up with current games (to eventually expire and have to upgrade again) and Stadia doesn't require you to buy consoles, have console hardwares expire, compatibility issues with previous games, update games, run out of storage room.
All you need to ask yourself is : do you want to play this game or not ?
You are not pressured to finish a game before it rotates out.
You are not forced to pay to play - you buy and own.
You don't have to think about compatibility issues nor hardware issues.
If Stadia manages to secure more AAA and exclusive titles, they will be an even more fearful competitor to other game streaming services.
Cloud gaming is still very young but it is the future. We don't know when it will happen, but one day, it will be the Netflix of gaming.

2020-11-26 EDIT : Thank you so much for all the feedback guys, I stand corrected on many points you guys put forward and I appreciate the time you put to read through my wall of text.
EDIT 2 : Updated PS Now to include 10 games out of 800 that gets rotated out and library size potentially bigger than xbox's.
EDIT 3 : correction on stadia servers vs amazon luna's
submitted by valcyclovir to Stadia [link] [comments]

Next-gen console buying guide - a detailed look at the next generation consoles

Hey /IndianGaming !
A new generation of gaming is nearly upon us, and for those us who aren't PC gamers, that means weighty decisions about which machine to pick as our primary gaming rig for the next six or seven years. Now that we know pretty much everything about the Xbox and PlayStation, let's compare the two to try and discern which console would offer you the best gaming experience and value. I'll do the Xbox first because the difference between the two consoles is larger than with PlayStation.

PS5 vs Xbox - Hardware

Xbox
The Xbox brand has come a long way in the past seven years. The release of the Xbox One was disastrous, plagued by always online, intrusive DRM, high pricing because of Kinect, and a bunch of other silly decisions from clueless execs who were completely out of touch which what gamers wanted. But ever since MS fired Don Mattrick and replaced him with Phil Spencer as the head of the Xbox division, Phil has slowly turned things around, coming up with many new innovations in an effort to get the xbox back up to competing with the big boys.
Their hardware team too went from creating a prohibitively priced but technically weak console, to the most powerful console of this generation. For next gen, they've gone with an even more ambitious vision, creating two consoles at different price points targeting different output resolutions, but hoping to achieve the same level of performance. That's quite the goal! Let's check out the specs.
Component Xbox Series X Xbox Series S
CPU 8 Core AMD Zen 2 @3.8Ghz/3.6GhzSMT 8 Core AMD Zen 2 @3.6Ghz/3.4SMT
GPU AMD RDNA2 GPU 52CU's @1.825 Ghz AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CU's @1.565 Ghz
GPU Power 12.15 Teraflops 4 Teraflops
RAM 10GBGDDR6@560GB's / 6GB@336GB/s 8GBGDDR6@224GB's / 2GB@56GB/s
Storage 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD w/Velocity 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD w/Velocity
I/O Throughput 2.4 GB/s Uncompressed / 4.8 GB/s Compressed 2.4 GB/s Uncompressed / 4.8 GB/s Compressed
Performance Target 4k UHD 1440p
Disc Drive 4KUHD Blu-Ray No Disc Drive
Price ₹49,999 ₹34,999
Whoo! These are quite beefy machines. The current generation of consoles were actually quite dated even for their time. Not so this time around, these consoles are high end gaming rigs, with the Series X even beating most PC's that took the Steam hardware survey.
Before we go any further though, let's untangle this alphabet soup of tech specs and try and translate it into something readable(tech geeks bear with me, there's a lot of oversimplification here, I know!)
SMT - Stands for Simultaneous MultiThreading. Simultaneous multithreading allows different processes to utilize the same core, allowing for greater efficiency. Basically, a CPU core that could normally only do one thing at a time now spends less time sitting idle, as it works other things while waiting for instructions to finish processing. Sometimes this means way better performance when code is specifically optimized for it, other times it doesn't really matter because code has to wait on a previous operation to finish before starting a new one.
Teraflops - Short for Trillion Floating Point Operations per Second. A floating point operation is basically a standard arithmetic operation(multiplication, division etc) involving decimal numbers(floating points). So the 4 Teraflop Series S GPU, for instance, can do 4 trillion of these a second. Phew!
PCiE/NVMe - Short for Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCIe is just a connector standard that transfers data across components. These connectors have various lanes of traffic, so the more lanes a component utilizes, the faster information will flow, like on a road or highway. NVMe(Nonvolatile Memory Express) drives use more lanes than SATA drives probably used by your computer, which means way faster speeds. It's planning a road layout and choosing to use a highway instead of a normal road to make things faster.
Xbox Velocity Architecture - Fancy marketing term for a collection of technologies that aim to increase rendering and texture streaming efficiency i.e squeeze as much juice out of the hardware as possible. It incudes stuff like Sampler Feedback Streaming(tech that allows the hardware to load only the mipmaps that are necessary, reducing I/O because less data has to be sent to RAM to load a frame), improvements to DX, and of course a fast SSD(although less powerful than the one on the PS5). It also enables stuff like Quick Resume.
So what does this all mean for gaming? Well, the Xbox Series X is a way more powerful machine across the board, aimed at hitting a higher performance target. It needs higher specs because it's outputting 4K images as opposed to a target of 1440p on the Series S. Microsoft says the Series S specs have been neatly scaled so the only difference between the two consoles is resolution. Don't take them at their word though, there are bound to be other small differences , resolution will just be the biggest differentiator. So that means both consoles are equipped with technologies like Raytracing, Variable Rate Shading, Sampler Feedback Streaming, all that good next-gen stuff.
But wait...
What the F is Ray Tracing?!
Arguably the defining feature of Next-Generation graphics, Ray tracing is a radical new way to render realistic graphics on-screen. In order to understand how it works, let's think a bit about how graphics are rendered.
The real world is complicated. Very complicated. Trying to recreate that in a game requires the use of various algorithms to simulate various parts of the real world, like a physics engine to handle various forces and collisions, a shadow and reflection maps to handle shadows and reflections, a light map to handle the lighting of a scene, and of course a virtual camera viewport to simulate your eyes. There are a ton of things game developers do to try and recreate the real world as accurately as possible with the processing power available to them, and you can see them if you've ever opened up a game graphics menu where it allows you to toggle certain settings, or 'tricks' on or off, that were developed to make scenes look more realistic.
So where does ray tracing come in? Well, Raytracing is meant to replace 'fake' methods of rendering stuff like lighting and shadows by attempting to realistically simulate the way lighting and shadows actually work in the real world. If you've ever taken a high school physics class, you'll know that light travels in the form of rays - reflecting, refracting, getting absorbed etc ad infinitum. Ray tracing is the process by which computers attempt to simulate this in an effort to make scenes look more realistic than what can be achieved by artificial tricks.
For instance, check out Raytraced minecraft
Wow! Quite the quantum jump there, right? While minecraft's graphics were never technically very impressive, with raytracing everything looks so much nicer. Water actually looks like water and not blue lines, dark caves actually look dark and not just black, lava actually behaves like lava instead of looking like someone spilled some red paint on a light source, everything just looks that much more realistic.
It's achieved by each pixel, both inside and outside the scene(traditional rendering methods typically only consider pixels inside the scene for lighting and shadows) casting off a ray of light, the path of which is then traced around the scene until it hits a light source or an artificial limit. This eliminates the need for manually providing lightmaps or reflection details, because those can be simulated in real time and look even better. As you can imagine, it's very computationally intensive, which is why we haven't really see it go mainstream in gaming until now. Even with the monsters that are this-gen consoles, they probably won't be able to hit their performance targets with full RT. From what we can see so far, the Xbox Series X will likely run at 4k30 with RT, and the Series S will run at 1080p30 with RT.
Alright that's enough about Raytracing for now, back to the console comparison.
Some quick FAQs
  1. Is there any benefit to getting the Series X if I don't have a 4k TV? - Yes, but probably not a 15k difference. The Series X will still be processing higher resolution textures and might even give you better framerates in games, but the primary reason to get a Series X over the S if you don't have a 4k TV will probably just be to future-proof yourself in case you ever do decide to buy one in the future
  2. Why would I need Quick Resume? - A strange question, but one I have nevertheless seen asked a fair number of times. To clarify, you don't really 'use' quick resume as you benefit from it. Just opening a game will take you right back to the state it was in when you last closed it, so you don't need to sit through loading screens, menus, or studio logos to get in the game. It also persists across cold boots.
  3. What are the PC equivalents to the Xbox Series X specs? - The Series X GPU lies somewhere between the RTX 2080 Super and the RTX 2080 ti as far as raw performance is concerned. As for the CPU, the closest PC equivalent would probably be the AMD Ryzen 7 3700x, or a less than an Intel i7 9700k.
PS5
Arguably the more highly anticipated console, the PS5 succeeds the PS4, which absolutely crushed the Xbox One this generation in terms of sales and games. Fueled by phenomenal exclusives like God of War, Spiderman, Bloodborne, TLOU2 etc, the PS4 juggernaut's got quite a bit of momentum going into this generation. Sadly as we all know, it hit a bit of a legal hiccup coming to India so it'll be delayed. We also don't know as much about it as we do the Xbox because Sony hasn't actually sent out any units to Influencers/Reviewers yet, so all we have to go on are the specs, demos, and teardowns that Sony themselves have provided.
This generation, Sony's offering two variants of the PS5, but in contrast to Microsoft's strategy, both their consoles are equally powerful and offer basically the same gaming experience, the only difference being that one plays discs while the other doesn't. The price difference between the two consoles is also 10k as opposed to 15k with the Xbox.
Because the consoles share identical specs, I won't be comparing them with each other. Instead, let's compare them to the Xboxes. Here's the same table again, except with PS5 in the middle this time.
Component Xbox Series X PlayStation 5 Xbox Series S
CPU 8 Core AMD Zen 2 @3.8Ghz/3.6GhzSMT 8 Core AMD Zen 2 CPU varfreq* upto 3.5GhzSMT 8 Core AMD Zen 2 @3.6Ghz/3.4SMT
GPU AMD RDNA2 GPU 52CU's @1.825 Ghz AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36CUs varfreq upto 2.23Ghz AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CU's @1.565 Ghz
GPU Power 12.15 Teraflops 10.3 Teraflops 4 Teraflops
RAM 10GBGDDR6@560GB's / 6GB@336GB/s 16GB GDDR6 RAM @ 448GB/s 8GBGDDR6@224GB's / 2GB@56GB/s
Storage 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD w/Velocity Custom 825GB SSD 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD w/Velocity
I/O Throughput 2.4 GB/s Uncompressed / 4.8 GB/s Compressed 5.5GBs Uncompressed / 8-9 GB/s Compressed 2.4 GB/s Uncompressed / 4.8 GB/s Compressed
Performance Target 4k UHD 4k UHD 1440p
Disc Drive 4KUHD Blu-Ray Optional Disc Drive No Disc Drive
Price ₹49,999 ₹39,999/₹49,999 ₹34,999
*varfreq = variable frequency
On paper, the Xbox Series X is the most powerful console, then the PlayStations, with the Series S coming in at a distant third. The Series X has a slightly faster CPU, a significantly faster GPU, and slightly faster RAM than the PS5. Meanwhile, the PS5 has the edge in I/O throughput, which is about twice as fast as that on the Series X when it comes to raw numbers.
What do these numbers actually mean for games? Well, we just don't know yet, because multiplats have yet to be benchmarked on the PS5. Sony seems to be playing their cards close to the vest, and haven't given their hardware to any reviewers to try. It's a safe guess to say that games will probably look slightly better on the Series X with maybe slightly better performance, but the difference is unlikely to be significant and probably won't matter to most casual gamers. Meanwhile, the difference in I/O throughput could mean that the PS5 will possibly load worlds and start up games faster than the Series X. It will probably be most noticeable in exclusive first party titles that are coded to specifically take advantage of the SSD.
Let's discuss hardware value by price. When it comes to price, the best value hardware wise is clearly the PS5 DE. For merely 5k more than the Series S you're getting 3-4x the processing power. If you have a 4k TV at home, it's probably not worth considering the Series S, just the PS5 and the Series X. Maybe when the Series S is more reasonably priced in India according to the $1 = ₹100 rule it could be a contender, but as of now, it's my personal opinion that the Series S is just not good value in India for those who have a 4K TV at home and the budget to afford one.
But of course there's more to a system than just hardware. Now that we've drawn up some specs comparisons, let's get down to the software side.

PS5 vs Xbox- Software

For most gamers, this will be the real meat of the comparison. The power differences between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are probably not significant enough on their own to decide a purchase, so for most casual gamers, software is what will decide it.
Xbox
By far the biggest difference software side on the Xbox is Xbox Game Pass. Love or hate Xbox, you can't deny that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is quite simply the best value in gaming right now. Following this guide from the subreddit , you can get 3 years of it for as low as ₹7500. In case you've been living under a rock, here's what you get with Xbox Game Pass.
  1. Xbox Live Gold (Multiplayer and Games with Gold)
  2. Access to a growing and rotating library of ~350 games(as part of PC+Console. Console only - ~250 Games)
  3. Perks - This can sometimes include cool stuff like the presently included 3 months of Discord Nitro, but so far for the most part I've not found it to be of too much use unless you play a lot of free to play games like World of Tanks or Warframe.
  4. xCloud - Not really relevant in India right now, but if you go the 3 years of gamepass route it might be a nice bonus down the line. It's possible to access xCloud right now with a VPN, but it's not a great experience.
  5. EA Play - Game Pass will also soon include access to EA Play, the basic tier of their subscription service, including very popular games like FIFA, Battlefield, Sims, etc. It also includes trials of the latest EA games.
  6. A 20% Discount on buying the games included in Game Pass, if you decide to buy them to keep.
It's also worth noting that all future Xbox Games Studios games will land on Xbox Game Pass Day 1, which is a really good value considering that Xbox now has 23 studios making games. While most of them are a ways off, it looks like a good lineup, especially if you're into RPG's.
Game Pass is pretty much the USP of the Xbox right now. For gamers on limited budgets, it's just tremendous value. For ₹700 per month(It's regionally priced too!), you get to play way more games and have much more fun with your console than you could have had without the service. For many, this could possibly be the decider.
The second big difference, of course, is in the exclusives. Here's what the upcoming Xbox exclusive lineup looks like -
  1. Halo Infinite
  2. Microsoft Flight Simulator
  3. Senua's Saga - Hellblade 2
  4. Avowed
  5. Fable
  6. Everwild
  7. Forza Motorsport
  8. Starfield
  9. The Elder Scrolls VI
It's also worth noting that all these games will still go on PC Game Pass Day 1. If you have a PC capable of running these games when they come out, then missing out on Xbox games shouldn't really be an issue or a deciding factor.
The third big difference is in backwards compatibility. The Series X and S will be compatible with every single Xbox One game, a lot of the most popular Xbox 360 games, and some of the most popular OG Xbox games. Here's the full list of 607 supported titles. It's great if you're already invested in the platform or are nostalgic for old titles like Burnout Revenge, Red Dead Redemption, Black Ops 2, Fallout New Vegas, etc. Probably won't be a big thing for most people, but for those it will help, it can make a purchase.
there's also a bunch of conveniences like quick resume and play anywhere. Quick Resume works like a save state where the console just loads back to where you last were when you quit the game instead of starting the game afresh. It works with multiple games at a time and persists even if you pull the plug on the Xbox. Play Anywhere works with some titles where your saves carry over from Xbox to PC. Nice to have, but not anything major.
Finally, an important note - unlike the PS5, even Free to Play games need a subscription to play online. So yeah, you can't play stuff like Fortnite or Warzone without a live gold or game pass ultimate subscription. If you spend a lot of time playing F2P games and can't afford game pass, this is a significant downside that might even be a dealbreaker, depending on how much time you spend playing F2P and how broke you are.
Quick FAQ's
Will future Bethesda Games be Xbox exclusive? - We still don't have definitive confirmation on whether future Bethesda titles will be exclusive, but it's highly likely that they will be, considering that Minecraft excluded, no other Microsoft first party studio currently develops games for other platforms. Phil Spencer also recently went on record to say that they're not worried about losing out on PS sales. Keep in mind that games like DOOM, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, will sell many Xboxes if they go exclusive. So while we can't claim anything definitively either way, don't buy a PS5 expecting to play these games for sure.
What's the best deal on Game Pass? - Currently it's the 3 year gold conversion deal. It probably won't last forever, so don't pass up the opportunity. Follow the guide linked above.
Are PC and Console Game Pass the same? - No. They are similar services but have different libraries. While all Xbox Games Studios games will release Day 1 on both platforms, major third party titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 are not likely to hit PC game pass.
PS5
Software wise, the biggest reason to buy the PS5 are for its exclusives. So far, PS4 exclusives blow Microsoft's out of the water. God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, time and again Sony has proven that they have some of the best studios out there. The PS5 will certainly have some spectacular games. Here's what the upcoming PS5 exclusive lineup looks like -
  1. Spider-Man : Miles Morales(Launch)
  2. Demon's Souls (Launch)
  3. God of War - Ragnarok
  4. Ratchet and Clank : A Rift Apart
  5. Gran Turismo 7
  6. Sackboy - A Big Adventure
  7. Godfall
  8. Final Fantasy 16 (timed)
  9. Deathloop, Ghostwire(timed)
The majority of these games will most likely only be playable on PlayStation i.e they won't be coming to PC, so that's another thing to keep in mind when deciding which system to buy. They'll all mostly be phenomenal games, Sony titles usually are, especially first party ones.
On the downside, great games can be quite expensive. As you've heard, Sony has confirmed that all PS5 first party exclusives will be 4999 going forward(no regional pricing). So if you care about playing Ratchet and Clank/God of WaGran Turismo at launch, be ready to shell out the cash. Personally I don't believe 5k for a single player game is worth it in India, but of course it depends on your personal finances.
To alleviate this somewhat we have PS Now and the PS Plus collection, Sony's answer to Game Pass. The PS Plus collection includes a lot of popular PS4 exclusives and some third party titles like Arkham Knight and Fallout 4. It's a really good deal if you're jumping into the PS ecosystem for the first time, but those who already own PS5's will probably already have played most of the games on there and will only benefit once they grow the service.
Sony also a bunch of conveniences in the UI like activites, which let you jump right into a certain part of the game. It's also rumored to have some sort of quick resume, but nothing's been confirmed in that regard yet.
As for Backwards Compatibility, Sony has confirmed that the PS5 will be BC with nearly all PS4 titles, but PS1,2,and 3 games will be left to history. Regrettable, but probably not a dealbreaker for most people.
So on the Sony side, we have some killer exclusives but not as much value with highly priced games and no game pass.

Verdict

So, for the most important question, which one do you get? Well, even after 21,000 words I won't really pretend to have an answer. There are too many variables to consider. How invested you are in a particular ecosystem, your personal financial situation, the type of games you like, etc. That said, I have some broad recommendations -
  1. If you have already have a 4k TV and have/plan to buy online - The PS5 DE is the way to go. The asinine pricing of the Series S in India makes this particular situation an easy call in my opinion. Yeah games will be expensive, but if you have the budget to buy a 4k TV maybe you can afford it. If not, you could always wait and pick up the games later when they go on sale. Kind of a bummer, but you'd still be playing on better hardware and actually putting your 4k TV to good use, instead of wasting its potential on the Series S. Maybe this will change if the Series S ever comes down in price, but for now this is the easiest reco to make.
  2. If you don't own a 4k TV and are strapped for cash(maybe you lost your job during rona), get the Series S. The Series S gets a lot of flak from hardcore gamers but IMO it is still a great gaming machine. for those upgrading from the Xbox One/One S/PS4/PS4 Slim it will still be a huge upgrade. Don't get carried away by 4k Marketing. 1440p gaming still looks great, and if the Series S can keep its promises of 1440p 60fps or even 1080p w/ Raytracing, games will look gorgeous and play great. Game Pass is also phenomenal value, and you get to play way more games for cheaper than on the PS4.
  3. If neither of these statements are close to your use case, don't consider the Series S or the PS5 DE. The PS5 DE might be a tempting buy for those who own discless collections and want to save money, but that would be a mistake. You're probably going to be playing on this console for at least 5-6 years, and are going to buy many games in that time. With PS5 games priced as highly as they are, you're almost certainly going to make up the difference and more buying expensive non-regionally priced games. The PS5 might cost more, but buying physical will save you a ton of money over digital purchases.
  4. XSX vs PS5 is kind of a toss-up. XSX is compact and more powerful and is overall better value with Game Pass, but doesn't have many next-gen games to play at launch(most Xbox heavy hitters are landing much later). Meanwhile the PS5 has Demon's Souls and Miles Morales which comes with Spider Man Remastered. Personally I would go with an XSX in this situation because it's better value and will probably have more exclusives down the line(I don't mind waiting), but if you're eager to get on the next-gen hype train as soon as possible or are already invested in the PS ecosystem/you just love PS games that much, the PS5 is also a pretty good purchase. Definitely the hardest call to make.
  5. If you are much into WRPGS, go with Xbox. Microsoft has a solid lock on western RPG's this generation, with titles like Fable, Avowed, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Starfield. Given that Sony doesn't really make these sorts of games themselves and there aren't that many big WRPG devs left(CDPR and BioWare are pretty much the only ones I think?), you're better off going with Xbox if you're a fan of these sorts of games.

Closing Thoughts

Phew! This write-up turned out to be a lot longer than I had initially expected. It was quite a bit of work writing it, and I did quite a bit of research to ensure that it's as accurate as possible. I'm still human so I've probably made some mistakes still, so please feel free to correct me if you spot an error.
And of course, these are ultimately just my thoughts on the matter as someone who owns and plays on both consoles right now, as well as PC, and will probably end up getting both new consoles down the line. I've tried to keep this as unbiased as possible, but if you feel I've misrepresented something or left something out, do weigh in in the comments and help other people out.
Tl;Dr - Consoles good, console war bad.
submitted by mrappbrain to IndianGaming [link] [comments]

Another Winterhome strategies discussion

Hello everyone,
I know the game came out couple of years ago, but I hope someone is still interested in discussion, as the game was recently released in gamepass and PS Now so perhaps many like me have played it recently.
Specifically I want to discuss with you about some aspect of Winterhome I didn’t find online (reddit/steam/youtube run). I just finished my first run in winterhome and like many I struggled to find so much steel required. After completing it, out of curiosity I started to look for the strategies to implement and to develop some strategies myself. What I’m about to write is the strategies I think COULD work AND that I didn’t find online. Be aware that I didn’t implement these strategies (yet), so they could be not feseable/wrong, for this reason this is a discussion: please share your thoughts!
Here we go, the strategies I haven’t found online and that I think could work, I’ll try as soon as possible:
-take it slow. This puzzled me a bit and I had to open another reddit question and search the run on youtube to finally understand that, contrary to the other scenario, Winterhome doesn’t have a fixed day for the events, so in order to accumulate resources it is better to delay until the very end the two stages of the scenario. In particular in the first stage you have 9 days to regain hope and drop discontent (among the other minor goals), in the second stage you have 4 days to research and analyze the generator’s failure. In my first playtrough I rushed the stages and I completed the first stage in 4 days and the second in just 1 days. This of course shortened the period of time I had to accumulate the resources. This was because I managed the medical crisis very quickly. In many youtube run you can see people taking it slowly and wait until the very end to meet the requirements. While this can be easy for the second stage, it’s very risky for the first. You can delay until the end the malcontent, that is the easiest to lower (hope is more difficult to rise) and then spam the church power to dramatically drop the malcontent (and the emergency shift to rise it in the case it is dropping and you don’t want).
-retrieve the researchers. The decision to retrieve the weather forecast is discussed and up to you, but I didn’t find any discussion about the researcher at the very end of the map. After the first run you understand that it’s basically useless to let them keep searching (even if they found another location and you send the scout there, nothing happen, it’s just a matter of lore). So retrieve them immediately as they are useful to repair the generator.
-Don’t cure the amputees. I know it may sound cruel, but we are talking about the best path to fulfill all the optional requirements. I was surprised no one wrote this. The dreadnought has 500 seats anyway, so you are not going to save everyone anyway. Why bother to spend time for 2 research of prothesis and 1 law, why spend as much as 500-700 steel to cure people that aren’t going to be saved anyway? You have enough workforce and if you retrieve he enegineers from previous point you won’t need anymore, so it’s a waste of resources.
-Soup as soon as possible. I think soup must be the third law, after radical cures and overcrowding. This because at the beginning you will face a mass starvation (beside the medical crysis) and you will need a massive amount of food anyway for dreadnought (5k).
-improved depot. Since you have to accumulate a lot of resources for the third stage, but you need to start immediately, you need also a lot of storage. Depots are costly (in terms of steel), so it could be convenient to invest in this upgrade.
-don’t bother to clean all the city. Ruins outside the generator’s circle are cold, for me is not worth to scavange them since at that point you have already moved to the various structures for coal, steel and wood. I didn’t use that space anyway, the generator’s circle plus 2-3 hub were sufficient for everything. This can be of course optimized but I don’t think many of the ruins are worth the investment, but here I could be wrong.
-scouts numbespeed is not a top priority. I know steam core can only be retrieved by scouts, but for me the second scouts group and the speed upgrade shouldn’t be a top priority in the tech tree. This is because basically the place to visit are not too many and not too far, and you don’t struggle for resources most of the time (except the steamcore that you need late game).
That’s all, let me know what do you think!
submitted by Sauron8 to Frostpunk [link] [comments]

[Req] Need some financial help to raise funds for my 17 year old sister's Dental treatment/Dentures so she can sing with confidence.

Good Day Redditors!
My sister loves to sing and I think she has an amazing voice, here are the samples if you wanna hear her( Blessed , Last Christmas). We've been wanting to create a youtube channel lately to cover songs but she can't sing with confidence in front of the camera because of her messed up teeth and I feel bad for her, I wonder how she's been able to cope with it especially in school. She's been suffering from toothaches but fortunately, she's been able to save money through the game she was playing(She's been selling in-game items online to save money) and been able to get checked up, get some of the molars extracted and get some fillings but 7 more teeth need to be extracted including 4 front ones, the dentist said that it was years too late to save the front teeth and it can't be fixed with fillings anymore. Growing up, our parents although they never failed to put food on our table they barely had enough money to take us to the dentist, and I kinda wanna blame them for this but I understand that they had to focus on our youngest sibling because he has autism and needs costly therapies.
The dentist said that it's gonna be a little less than $350 ($200 was the cheapest) for the extraction plus dentures for her 4 front teeth(not including molars). That's the only price the dentist given since we didn't ask for the cost for the molars' dentures since we don't have the money for it yet, the dentist also suggested dental bridges but we didn't ask what the price was since we think it's gonna be a lot more expensive. Last Christmas we've been able to gather $40 from the online Christmas caroling that we did but still far from what we need(we also used half of it to buy cheap recording equipment). Estimating from that price for the 4 teeth I think it's about $600-$700 for the 7 teeth.
She's turning 18 this year and hopefully, before she turns 18 I can help to get her teeth fixed. I've been trying to apply for online jobs but it's hard to get a job that you can do anytime and pays decently since I can't do full-time jobs yet as I'm still studying, currently 3rd-year college.
I am from the Philippines, if you guys are from here and can suggest dental clinics which is cheaper and near me (North Caloocan) I would very much appreciate it.
ps: I tried to post this weeks ago but was removed because I didn't meet the requirement yet, and I updated some of the prices since we've been able to gather more info from different dentists near us.
Thank you guys, God bless!
submitted by Raedwulfred to Need [link] [comments]

My 2020 review! - beat 37 games in total!

Hello all – and welcome to a (slightly overdue) review of my year in gaming!
As always, I first want to thank the sub. I maintained motivation to continue to work through a significant chunk of my backlog throughout the year, and even found the chance to play a few newer releases as well. I did make a list of 12 specific games I wanted to play back in January last year, but abandoned as it just felt a bit restrictive, which is totally at odds with the fun that gaming is supposed to be about! I then just focused on playing what I felt like, making sure to consider all the games I owned already before spending on something new.
A combination of increased motivation and more spare time due to - well, you know what - I managed to maintain steady progress throughout the year and beat 37 games in total, just shy of the 40 I beat last year. This did, however, include a fair few longer titles which I've typically been averse to in previous years where I tended to stick more to 10-15 hour campaigns. In broad terms, there were three general highlights to my year:
  1. Discovering my love of a challenge - specifically in beating all the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne and Sekiro, but also in finding I often have more fun when I bump regular games up to harder difficulties - which I did in The Last of Us (1+2), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Ghost of Tsushima
  2. Discovering the 'immersive sim' genre - Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an incredible find for me this year, having previously pretty much ignored the series, and it sparked an interest in immersive sims which led to me discovering several new games to try
  3. Catching up on my 'missed generation', i.e. the PS3/360 era. Back then I only had a Wii, and many quality titles completely passed me by, so it was great to catch up on some of them. Highlights include the above mentioned Dark Souls and Deus Ex:HR, as well as the Bioshock series, Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, Arkham City and Dead Space
I thought I may as well copy in my brief thoughts on all the games I played this year. Mostly these are just copied from when I originally posted them in my monthly updates, but in some cases I’ve altered the review if I felt that my opinion had changed significantly since I’d played the game. In some cases I've just posted an abbreviated version... if for some reason you do give a shit about what I think you can dig through my post history on the sub! Here are my mini-reviews for everything I beat in 2020:
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4) – absolutely incredible experience. Played it through 5 times pretty much back to back and it gets an extra special place in my heart for opening my eyes to the wonders of FromSoftware and challenging games in general – ★★★★★
Bloodborne (PS4) – played this straight after Sekiro and loved the combat, world design and atmosphere. Bosses were a bit hit and miss but overall a great experience - ★★★★
Yakuza 0 (PC) - this was terrific... I probably started back in October last year, and very slowly made my way through until eventually reaching the end after ~60 hours of play. At one point I went about 15 hours without progressing the story because I was so engrossed with some of the mini-games. The gameplay is pretty basic, although the combat was very satisfying. The story itself could get a little confusing at times, but for the most part it was quite character driven which kept me invested even when I wasn't totally sure about all of the political intricacies going on in the background - ★★★★
Dark Souls Remastered (PC) – finally hopped on the Dark Souls train nearly a decade late, but still it’s probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. So many vivid memories of my journey through such an intricately designed, haunting world. Stumbling across the great hollow – and subsequently ash lake - in my desperation to find a bonfire (apparently I missed one at the bottom of blighttown) might be one of my most incredible gaming memories ever. The game lived up to the ‘tough but fair’ reputation I’d heard of and I never felt like giving up. Only hiccup was the archers in Anor Londo which made me so angry I kicked a hole in the wall, resulting in some awkward email exchanges with the landlord, but all’s well that end’s well - we got the hole patched up, didn't get kicked out, and I beat the game a few days later – ★★★★★
A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4) - This was an okay game, especially considering it came from a small studio. The gameplay switches between some straightforward stealth, and puzzles that involve manipulating massive swarms of rats with light sources. Both were fine, but I thought there was some missed potential with the puzzles. The game in general is quite easy, and in the middle it was almost boring, but towards the end it became a bit more challenging and actually really fun
In any case, it's actually quite a narrative focused game, which perhaps explains the lack of complexity in the gameplay, and it does at least deliver on that front with a creative, well written story that ensured I kept playing, even when the game itself was quite slow - ★★
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (PS4) - got this to play with my friends whilst we're all on lockdown, and managed to get 100% in the story mode. The story mode is alright, but mainly just a way to learn some of the tracks and unlock a few customisable options. It's a fun game - I think it's ridiculously high skill ceiling, meaning that even after 50 or so hours of play you're still getting obliterated online, which with limited features and support is probably not worth the effort, but it was a fun diversion at the time - ★★★
Dark Souls II (PC) – a strange, but ultimately very enjoyable experience. I went into this knowing nothing other that it’s considered the ‘black sheep’ of the franchise, but it wasn’t until after I beat it I really got why that is. My sense for the first half of the game was how overwhelming it was – so many different directions to go and so much to keep track of – and the volume of enemies in certain areas produced some huge difficulty spikes throughout. I felt this lost the ‘tough but fair’ mantra on a few occasions, with some rooms or areas taking several hours for me to progress through. The bosses as well were definitely a case of quantity over quality.
Still, I did really enjoy most of the time with the game, and I was well and truly hooked for the 60 hours it took to beat it - ★★★★
Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) – This was the first Final Fantasy game I ever finished, and one of the few RPGs I’ve played that I actually enjoyed all the way through. I had played the beginning of the original, so I was familiar with the events of this game without necessarily having any kind of nostalgia or expectations. Visually I thought they did a great job of bringing those PS1 era pre rendered backgrounds into the HD era. The highlight for me though was the combat. It was super satisfying, with a perfect balance of broader strategy/preparation and making decisions on the fly in the heat of battle.
A few chapters in the middle portion of the game the game felt really slow and stretched out - I did like that they’d clearly gone above and beyond in developing the world, but adding in long empty corridors, tedious puzzles and “platforming” really did not help the experience. Overall though, great game and hopefully the next instalment can live up to the potential shown here - ★★★
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC) – picked this up on a whim since it’d been a while since I’d had my Metroidvania fix. The first half of the game is great, a steady stream of new abilities and great enemy variety pulled me through. I slowly grew tired of it though, as all the small issues I’d noticed at the beginning became more and more irritating. Still though, I did get a few fun hours out of this, and some of the songs were stuck in my head for a while, so it wasn’t all bad – ★★
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) – I held off on this game for a while as I’d kind of dismissed it as yet another open world action RPG in a new coat of paint. For the most part, that’s what it is, but I’m still really glad I played it. The combat is really fun and gets better as you unlock new weapons, and uncovering the mysteries of the “post-post-apocalyptic” world was really compelling. Visually it's one of the most impressive games I think I've ever seen.
I thought the crafting, levelling system and skill tree were a bit tacked on, but that’s something of a nitpick, and somewhat undermined by the fact that I did find every collectible to get the platinum anyway. I really liked the game overall, from the exciting combat, to the stunning visuals, to the intriguing lore, and I’m interested to see where they take the story in the sequel - ★★★
Final Fantasy XV (PS4) – had a pretty fun time with this game. It felt like a proper road trip which was helped by the characters feeling genuinely likeable, and some impressive visuals. The game itself is pretty weird though. Nothing you do really matters, since if you just buy 99 potions you basically can’t die, so experimenting with all the different weapons and strategies never felt worth it. It also removes any motivation to do side quests, but they weren’t especially interesting anyway.
Still, it was a good ride and aside from a late game chapter which I can only describe as an indefensible piece of trash, an enjoyable if disjointed experience - ★★
Control (PS4) – I was initially attracted to this game by a few Metroid comparisons I’d seen, and in that regard it fell short, but it’s still a good game in its own right. The combat was super satisfying and the setting and the story did not hold back on the weirdness. I had a few serious framerate drops when there were a lot of enemies on screen, which ultimately did detract from my enjoyment a bit, but your mileage may vary (for reference I played on a 3.5-year old PS4 slim).
The most fun I had was actually after I beat the main story. The side quests had some really good boss fights in there and helped add context to the world, and I ended up getting the platinum trophy - ★★★
Batman: Arkham City (PS4) – I don’t really know why it’s taken me so long to play this, but I have now and it was absolutely superb, one of the best I’ve played this year. I played Arkham Asylum last year and loved it, but I had worries that the switch to open world would sacrifice some of what made that game so good in favour of just having more content, but I needn’t have been concerned.
The main story was one of the most compelling I’ve experienced in a game recently, and the combat, stealth rooms and Zelda-dungeon-like item based puzzles all alternate wonderfully to ensure I was basically never bored. Even the side missions were interesting and introduced their own unique gameplay twists. The riddler trophies were as addicting as always to pick up and ensured there was always something fun to do when travelling between mission locations - ★★★★
Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) – a great game and a satisfying way to round out a superb series. It carries over everything that makes the previous games great – simple but satisfying combat, exciting stealth encounters and plenty of Zelda-like environmental puzzles – but the new additions in this game improve all of that. The combat is more fluid with a whole bunch of new abilities and animations, the stealth sections are made infinitely more dynamic by the multi-fear takedown, and the puzzles are as good as ever. The riddler trophies in particular are much improved – pretty much all of them require some level of thought to get compared to previous games where they were often extremely basic to figure out.
Plotwise, it was engaging throughout, although I never found it reached the heights of Arkham City. The Joker’s inclusion as a memory(?) felt a bit forced - like they regretted killing him off in the last game - but that’s understandable since he is such a great character - ★★★★
The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) [REPLAY] – Decided to replay this in preparation for Part II. Previously I had played it on the Normal difficulty and found it way too easy, so I stuck it on hard and found it much more enjoyable. I’d actually forgotten how much shit happens in this game, the pacing is so good it never feels like a drag. The scenarios are tense throughout, although never truly mindblowing
On the surface it’s a relatively simple story, but the development of the relationship between Joel and Ellie is the driving force and is compelling right up to the end. It’s close to perfect, although I’m still not a huge fan of the winter section from a story perspective. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably the most fun area – controlling Ellie with her reduced abilities really ramps up the tension, the section where you crawl through a blizzard is great, and I found the boss fight at the end fun. However, it feels a bit jarring to have an outright villain given the morally ambiguity of the actions from the rest of the characters
Still, it’s a classic – a bit limited on the gameplay front but more than made up for with a simple story with emotional depth - ★★★
Wreckfest (PS4) – been playing this with a friend online. The single player is actually really good, but primarily functions as a method of unlocking the vehicles you need to compete online. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in an online racing game. Being aggressive and booting other players off the track is a genuinely viable strategy, and there’s a glorious satisfaction in nailing someone into the wall on the final corner.
It also solves an issue with many racing games whereby, if you fuckup early on you have to just slog it out until the next race for a chance to win. This is still true to an extent, but now you have the perfectly legitimate option of just going backwards round the track trying to destroy the leaders, which can be just as fun as fighting for victory - ★★★
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) – I know it’s the same engine as Uncharted 4, but a lot of the time it felt a little off. Aiming didn’t feel as snappy, and the platforming wasn’t quite as reliable as I’d hoped. It’s still a worthy addition to the series - Nadine and Chloe are both likeable in their on way, and there’s a few great set pieces in there. The plot is generic Uncharted fare, but you do get to ride an elephant - ★★
The Last of Us Part II (PS4) – check my post history if you want my longer thoughts on this game but the short version is that I thought it was great. Ellie is so much more dynamic than Joel was in TLOU1, with several new tricks up her sleeve. She can go prone, lay trap mines and actually dodge melee attacks, all of which added a real sense of improvisation to the tougher encounters in the game.
Whilst the scenarios that required these new moves were exciting, they were also quite sparse, particularly in the first half of the game. There was a lot of walking around and light puzzling, and a bunch of less exciting mini-encounters before you get to the really good stuff. Not that this stuff was bad, but the ratio of super open exciting stealth-combat arena to slow-paced walking and talking meant that the game felt like it wasn’t playing to its strength a lot of the time.
There’s a lot to go into with the story, but the ultimately I enjoyed it and found it engaging through to the end – it wasn’t a mindblowing masterpiece and I thought they tried a bit too hard to “subvert expectations” at times, but it was a good ride - ★★★
Until Dawn (PS4) – I was surprised by how much fun this was. The story was a pretty good twist on the standard cabin in the woods type drama, the quality of the voice acting helped me to feel invested in the characters, and whilst the gameplay was simple, the QTEs were fun and added a lot of tension to the experience. Also, all the choices felt meaningful and, unlike certain similar games (looking at you Detroit: Become Human), it was genuinely fun to see the consequences of your actions. Unfortunately it looks like the developers’ more recent efforts have fallen flat but this was definitely a worthwhile experience - ★★★
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut (PC) – This game was a revelation for me. Within the first few hours I was completely hooked, a feeling that lasted for the full 30 or so hours it took to beat the game. The game is just amazing. The mission structure, level design, upgrade system and weapon/item variety all come together to create an experience greater than its already substantial parts. Even the dialog wheels were fun!
I could go on… the world, the visuals, the music was great and it was one of the few games where I actually bothered to read all the little notes you find. The narrative was pretty good as well, although sometimes a bit difficult to follow and with some dodgy voice acting along the way. All in all I was absolutely delighted with this game, I’d honestly rate it amongst the best games I’ve ever played
Similarly to Sekiro, it will always be a special game for me for opening my eyes to a new ‘genre’ – in this case the immersive sim, which I have subsequently begun to dig into – ★★★★★
Sleeping Dogs (PS4) – Another surprisingly great game. The game very closely follows the GTA structure, and while it doesn’t do anything major to differentiate itself from Rockstar’s bigger budget hits, it does do a lot of little things that made it, in some ways at least, better than the GTA series. The melee combat is actually fun, the narrative is really engaging and, because of its shorter length, seems to have a lot more focus.
Most appreciated was that all the tedium of GTA games has just been entirely removed here. If a mission requires you to drive somewhere you’ll actually start the mission in a car. Collectibles actually appear on the map (once you do certain side activites). Setting a waypoint for your next mission just requires clicking the analog stick. The game always gives you the weapons you need for each mission. So many nice little touches like this mean that the whole experience felt so much more seamless compared to GTA, which I’ve always thought had a tendency to sacrifice a smooth gameplay experience in the name of ‘realism’.
It's certainly not as big and bombastic as the best GTA games, and there’s a lot less to do on the side, but the content it does have is, in my opinion, better than the equivalent in any GTA game - ★★★
Bioshock (PS4) – I did try this a few years back but dropped it fairly early on. In the intervening time I spoiled myself on the story and the big twist as I’d kind of written off the idea that I’d actually play it myself, but having the trilogy for free on PS Plus recently I thought I‘d give it another go. Turns out that one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time is, in fact, really good.
Knowing the big plot twist obviously took away from one dramatic moment but there was a lot more to the story that I wasn’t aware of previously, and uncovering all the mysteries of Rapture was compelling right to the end. It’s possibly one of the best and most creative settings I’ve ever seen in a game. I played the Remastered version, and visually it was stunning. I was really immersed in the world, and the various different areas were each impressive their own right.
On the gameplay side, it’s a lot of fun once you get past the first few hours. At the start, you have very few abilities and there were some weird design choices that made the game incredibly frustrating until you’ve got some good upgrades, but once you’re past that it really is an incredible game - ★★★★
Bioshock 2 (PS4) – Thought I would jump straight into this after beating the first. The first half of this game is a bit frustrating – to my horror they kept the health system exactly the same as the first which made the opening couple of hours a little rough, but the game is mercifully a bit more forthcoming with cash and health packs this time. Also, nothing really happens from a story perspective for a good 5-6 hours.
It does eventually pick up though, both in terms of story and gameplay. The story itself actually turns out to be just as good as the first, taking some pretty weird turns I didn’t expect and wrapping up in a very satisfying way. The gameplay builds well on the foundations of the first game, with newer weapons, improved plasmids, and a much better hacking minigame. All in all a very fun time
I also went on to beat the Minerva’s Den DLC the next day too which was fantastic - ★★★
Bioshock Infinite (PS4) – went into this one without too much being spoiled for me… all I really knew was that the setting had changed to a city in the sky and the gameplay was much closer to a traditional shooter. Similar to when I played all the MGS games last year I had an idea that there was some crazy shit going on in this game but it still managed to surprise me – although I did figure out the final twist a good few hours before the end
I won’t go into the story too much more but I really enjoyed it. It touched on a lot of interesting themes and wrapped them up in the kind of weird mystery sci-fi I tend to love in other forms of media but rarely see done well in games. Columbia was a beautiful place to explore and the bright colours were wonderful, especially coming out of 2 games + a DLC of dark, dingy underwater corridors.
The gameplay itself was okay, obviously being more of a straight shooter there wasn’t as much scope for creativity, but there was a good range of abilities to keep things interesting. It was much, much easier than the other two games as well - Ordinarily this might have disappointed me but it was actually nice to be able to kick back and just enjoy the ride - ★★★
Dishonored (PC) – I played this on the back of having enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution so much, as it seemed to have a similar approach in terms of freedom in how you approach things.
It was definitely a worthwhile experience – the variety of the levels was great and succeeding was always satisfying no matter how you pulled it off. The House of Pleasure and Last Party missions were both particularly memorable.
I did think the abilities you could unlock felt a bit limited, and the way the game was broken up into separate missions meant it lacked the addictiveness you might get in an open-world or metroidvania structure, but it was good fun and I’m definitely going to check out the second at some point - ★★★
Disco Elysium (PC) – I bought this on a whim, having pretty much no experience whatsoever in this type of game, or indeed most kinds of RPG, but ended up really enjoying it. The slow-paced nature of the game took some getting used to, and after the first 8 hours I actually stopped playing for a good couple of months until I eventually picked it back up again, but when I did resume it really sucked me in.
The world and the characters were all pretty interesting, and at times it was genuinely hilarious but I mostly enjoyed how the levelling system worked with your attributes all being different parts of your psyche, and they’d talk to you and give you advice throughout the game. The game itself was quite satisfying to work through as well, it felt a bit like the classic point-and-click but without the frustratingly obscure puzzle solutions – instead you can just explore elsewhere and return when you’ve upgraded an ability or found a key item.
I did feel like towards the end of the game you were just going through the motions, and opportunities to express yourself through the dialogue became less frequent, but this wasn’t a major drawback and it was somewhat offset by the fact you were then dealing with the consequences of the choices you’d made earlier.
All in all an interesting game, one I’m glad I took a chance on, but I doubt I’ll be digging any deeper into the ‘CRPG’ genre - ★★★
What Remains of Edith Finch (PC) – an interesting way to spend my bank holiday afternoon. A 2 hour ‘walking simulator’, another genre that I’ve not really explored, but it was a really nice game. I didn’t blow my mind or anything, but I was really impressed with how much variety – both visually, thematically, and in terms of gameplay – they managed to cram in to the experience whilst still feeling totally organic.
As with Disco Elysium, I don’t really feel compelled to check out any similar games, but still felt it was a worthwhile experience and one I’m glad I had - ★★★
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4) - this is probably my game of the year. I still rank the original THPS2 as one of my all time favourites, and when this was announced I was almost overwhelmed with excitement - particularly as it previously seemed like the series was pretty much dead. The game itself is incredible - effectively bringing a refined, streamlined version of the gameplay from the later games to beautifully reconstructed levels from the first two. All the gaps and goals were still there, and it can't be understated how massive it was for them to get most of the old soundtrack on there as well. The introduction of a ton of new challenges, high scores and, of course, online play means I'll likely be playing this for a long long time, especially if they do what the people want and bring in THPS3 levels as DLC – ★★★★★
Metro 2033 Redux (PC) - A pretty fun game, although without too much depth in gameplay terms. The atmosphere here was genuinely oppressive, and I really liked the slow paced nature of the levels, especially when contrasted with the dopamine overload of other modern shooters. Have heard positive things about the sequels so will hopefully have a chance to give them a go in the coming year - ★★★
Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) - Essentially another one of these open world checklist type games, but the combat, story and side activities were all slightly better than you usually see. The 'following the wind' was interesting at first, but functionally not much different from following a way point so the novelty wore off after a few hours. I kind of wish the game had been a bit more linear and focused as the main story is actually quite good, but I kind of ruined the pacing for myself due to my completionist tendencies. Not really a complaint against the game itself I suppose, and I did overall enjoy my time, even if I did bog myself down running around chasing foxes for hours - ★★★
Dark Souls III (PC) - A superb end to an incredible series. The gameplay was at its most refined, the enemy variety was the best it's been and some of the bosses were absolutely incredible - a welcome change from the quantity over quality approach DS2 had. The difficulty I think was tougher but fairer than the previous games - Essentially the bosses were harder and there fewer bullshit traps and ambushes in between, which I quite liked
I felt like progression could be a bit linear at times, for the first 25-30 hours there was only really one direction I had to go, whereas in the older titles I usually had two or three different routes to prod at. It opened up a bit towards the end as I discovered a few secret areas and tried the DLC, and ultimately I loved my time with this game. It's also another to tick off from the wider Soulsborne series which I've played all of this year (except Demon's Souls, waiting to get a PS5!). Difficult to say how I'd rank them, the first Dark Souls is probably my favourite, it felt most like a genuine adventure, but they're all absolutely incredible games – ★★★★
Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - A bit of a weird one. It looks and plays just like Yakuza 0, which I loved, but I occasionally notice the very '2005' DNA of the game coming through, with the odd tedious fetch sequence, and some pretty underwhelming side stories. I started out trying to do quite a lot of stuff on the side, but quickly realised most of it was just a rehash of what was in Yakuza 0, which I didn't really fancy doing again. I was also wary of getting bogged down in the world like I did for Ghost of Tsushima, especially given that the main story here was actually very, very good.
A slow start and a weird midgame chapter aside, the story here was a really tight, focused experience and I was always genuinely excited to see what happened next. The last couple of chapters were absolutely gripping and I'm definitely going to check out Yakuza Kiwami 2 some time to see where it goes next - ★★★
Dead Space (PC) – honestly found this a bit of a slog. It was a nice twist on the survival horror, and the atmosphere and story were good, but the levels and missions got pretty repetitive and the moment to moment gameplay was a bit dull. Running out of ammo was frequent which – I get it, it’s a survival horror - for whatever reason it just irritated me in this game. The story was good though, and the payoff at the end made me glad I stuck with it, but any possible interest I had in the sequels was extinguished long before that point - ★★
GRIS (PC) – absolutely stunning, if brief, experience. Visually this game is one of the most beautiful I’ve played, and there was actually a bit of depth in some of the puzzles, which kept me engaged throughout its runtime. I’ve heard people say that the story made them cry, but honestly I found it too abstract to even guess what was happening, let alone have it elicit a strong emotional response. Still though, a nice way to spend 4 hours - ★★★
Final Fantasy VII (Switch) – decided to go back an experience the original as I couldn’t wait for the remake sequels to see what was gonna happen (plus I realised that they were gonna shake things up in terms of the story anyway). I really loved this game, a really good mix of high concept fantasy sci-fi and more emotional personal stories. The gameplay modifiers (turning off random encounters/speeding up the game) were really helpful in getting me through what I think is the first non-Pokemon JRPG I’ve ever beaten - ★★★
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) – this was a pleasant surprise… the level design and exploration were really enjoyable, and the combat was fun and strategic, if a bit unwieldly at times. I’m not a massive Star Wars fan outside of the films themselves, so didn’t have any particular hopes or expectations with regards to the story, but found this to be a worthy addition to the Star Wars canon that I know- ★★★
Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) [REPLAY] – I rate this as my favourite game of all time and replaying it on Switch has done nothing to change that. It’s not quite as massive as I remember it being over a decade ago, but this time round I appreciated more the sheer variety and creativity in the levels, backed by one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It was also amazing to play it in full HD for the first time and, despite a few minor issues with the pointer controls, I think this is now the definitive version of the game – ★★★★★
And that's it. As for what's next, I'll make a post soon outlining my challenge for 2021 - haven't decided on what it will be but I'm hoping to keep my gaming varied so potentially something around beating games from different genres. In the meantime I'll also make a 'bonus' post of all the other games I played this year but didn't beat - either because I dropped them, put them on hold or just they're not the type of game that can be 'beaten'.
In gaming terms, I've got a couple currrently on the go, both of which I'm really enjoying and will share my thoughts here once I'm done:
And that's it, thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
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what games don't require ps plus to play online video

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Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Journey. Rayman legends. Street fighter V. Rocket league. Destiny (anything besides raids, strikes, and PvP. The meat of the game requires PS plus basically) Elder scrolls online (requires in game subscription fee though) Assassins Creed IV, PS4 ( Sharing is caring trophy. List of free to play online games that don't require ps plus subscription. I know for sure Fortnite is the main one. Any other games? 20 comments. share. save. hide. report. 60% Upvoted. This thread is archived . New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Sort by. best. level 1. 8 points · 3 years ago. I thought all F2P games doesn't require ps plus. level 2. Quiet--Jackal. 5 Fortnite Battle Royale Fortnite may be one of the most popular games ever — certainly one of the most popular this year — and best of all, it doesn't require a PS Plus membership to play. You can... PS4 Free-To-Play Games Will Not Require PlayStation Plus Our trip to SOE's E3 2013 booth revealed that PS4 free-to-play titles like 'DC Universe Online' and 'PlanetSide 2' will not require a... I am planning to buy a PS4 and i didn't like the idea that all PS4 users have to subscribe to PS plus to be able to play online. And i also heard for some games - you don't need PS plus to play online. Games like: Free to play games Elder Scrolls Online So far thats all that i know of, could anyone provide me info of any other games, or a link with all the games that don't require ps plus for So I've recently found out that certain games (like Destiny) don't require a PS Plus subscription to play online. Apparently, it's down to the developer / publisher if they want to make it a requirement AFAIK. I was wondering if Dark Souls 2: SotFS was one of these games. I'd imagine it would be but I might as well check. I wouldn't want to PS4 Says I Need Playstation Plus But I Have It - We've got some solutions to help you get back on track with your PS Plus subscription. Sony explains why PS Plus is required for PS4 online play Shuhei Yoshida says due to "large investment of resources" for online play, keeping service free would have been "absurd." The Elder Scrolls Online was a mess when it launched back in 2013, but since then Bethesda has taken special care with the game to shape it up into something that’s actually playable. When the game first debuted it cost $60 on top of a $15 a month subscription, which is part of the reason the game doesn’t require PlayStation Plus to play. The PS4 launches later this year for $399/€399/£349, or $100 less than competitor Microsoft's Xbox One. In addition, the PS4 will play used games and won't require an online check-in. The current...

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Top 5 Best Gaming Website To Play Games (Online Without ...

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what games don't require ps plus to play online

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