This was not feasible because these points are generated out of thin air so if someone spent £50 on a AAA game, got £5 in return and used that to buy an alternative product from a different developer, Valve would have to pay it out of their own pocket.
Isn't that similar to how Playstation rewards works? How tesco clubcard points works etc etc? Albeit not with handing back rights to a video game but you purchase something, they give you points and then when you have accumulated enough you then exchange that for a voucher?
I don't see why Sega would even consider making a new console, reading that letter it is a letter wrote after someone has just played their old sega for the first time in 30 years....
Physical media is coming to an end, there are positives to physical and I am a big fan of owning and collecting it but I do not see how we can continue to make physical media in a world with limited resources and the issues creating physical items brings about. This will ultimately bring about the end of physical consoles in the way that they are today and Microsoft can see this and have been getting ahead of the curve with their streaming service and subscription offerings. Sony have also cottoned I think now and that is what the PS Portal is about, a dedicated streaming device, I suspect the PS Portal 2 will be standalone and just stream titles from PS Plus.
I even think Nintendo will get caught out if they don't consider things going forwards, people have a lot less money today to keep committing to paying full price for Nintendo First Party titles (even when they have been out a number of years).
There is also the R&D costs to create a new console today, I don't think Sega have anywhere near the funds to achieve creating something new and different.
33 minutes ago, GazzaGarratt said:
I really genuinely believe in the world we do have a cyclical process on how we do things though
Correct me if I have misread this Lee but some things we do, fashion for example but not all, do you really think USB's or physical hard drive's will keep going as more and more people move to cloud storage? When was the last time you bought Microsoft word on a disc?
Vinyl has come back but that's because it has made listening to music more of an activity again, you have to take your time and you savour it more but you would not see cd's or tapes make the same sort of return. While video game's, the activity is playing them, not many people (especially in the modern world) appreciate the manuals, appreciate the box art and such, it's niche to collector's and that's why collector's editions of games still do well.
I think physical media has largely been kept alive by the ability to buy and sell second hand for a while.
I have moved to the ROG ally and haven't really looked back. The OLED screen is obviously a nice to have and I think the biggest thing for me on this release is the improvement in battery life, I think this is where all these devices need to work on for the moment and obviously Valve have made a positive step in that regard.
Funny though how the reduction in manufacturing cost never gets passed back to the consumer.
Yeah I am a fan of collecting my retro games and such but I'd be fine if we stopped producing them now, we have learnt enough in recent years to call it a day on physical games. That said I think my only gripe with going all digital is the lack of storefronts for a console and it would probably lead me to just gaming on pc only going forwards as at least there are some options.
Sony having such a big market share already and then being able to put on whatever percentage they like on top does not sit well with me and is something I could see happening down the road because they have shown time and time again that it is a company that can get complacent, can get a little bit greedy.
I think my SteamDeck has only been out in the wild once.
I'm in Hackney Downs park writing this, like a lot of sunny days after work, and I brought a book (and phone of course)...I tend to use the SD more late at night.
I am probably much like you, the SD was mostly used round the house and I suspect this will be too, I have a trip to Liverpool in a few weeks where I am contemplating taking it on the train but then my Switch is probably a less expensive gadget to take in case someone decides they want to do something stupid or something ^_^
I think there will be more innovation in this field, and it can only be a good thing for gamers.
Interested to see what Nintendo come up with too, as I hear rumours about their next handheld starting to pick up lately.
Yeah a steamdeck 2 or ultra could be a brilliant machine, the Switch with a bit more power, I have also seen a Lenovo handheld thing that has detachable controllers so there is a lot of potential at the moment. I think with the ROG, at least for the time being I am starting to use it more than my PS5 and it serves the purpose I wanted it for brilliantly.
So I let my Steamdeck go, it had an issue with one of the trigger buttons (I think after dropping it) and I managed to sell it and recoup most of my funds still ^_^
I opted to go for one of these instead of rebuying the Steamdeck, I think the big draw for me was having Windows straight off and not having to faff about trying to install it manually on the Steamdeck, playing with drivers etc. So I feel after having it for a week I can somewhat compare the 2 and I think as I was chatting to Greboth the other night there is a market for each of them and I don't necessarily feel like they are stepping too much on each others shoes.
Power / Grunt of the consoles -
The ROG wins this hands down, I can play Baldurs Gate 3 on high settings, it's also capable of running outer wilds and such which the Steam Deck somewhat struggles with. The ROG is definately the more powerful console. You are able to change the power settings so you can run at I think 5W, 15W & 25W (or 30 if plugged in), so you can adjust the power draw depending on the game you are playing, however it is worth noting that on more demanding games and running at a higher power draw the machine can run quite hot (something I will get onto later)
Audio -
I don't think there is much in this, the ROG has Dolby Atmos I believe but it does not make too much of a difference, I will note that playing Baldurs Gate 3 I seem to get some crackling in the speakers sometimes, I haven't had this with other games so I am not sure if it's the demand of the game on the chipset. On the whole I would say they are pretty even on this one.
Screen -
I think the ROG just edges it, it's a higher refresh rate and just looks a little bit sharper, that said, is it enough to justify buying it over the steam deck for the screen alone? Nope I wouldn't say so.
Portability / battery -
I think this is a point where the steamdeck may just win out, I find myself charging the ROG more, this might be due to the more demanding games I am playing mind. But due to this I have mostly been playing whilst plugged in and this obviously detracts from the portability. For me that is not an issue as I am using it in place of my Playstation when the kids are about at home (they tend to stand in front of the tv a lot when playing) but if you want a true handheld then I probably would not recommend the ROG over the steamdeck.
Controls -
The ROG does not have the trackpad admittedly, that said I think this boils down to the games you play. The ROG controls are basically like using an XBOX controller, so mainstream games tend work pretty well with it. I can navigate the OS with the gamepad fine or use touchscreen. Obviously the Steamdeck has the trackpad, which if you are comfortable with it is great and obviously for RTS games and such it is brilliant. I think the Steamdeck just pinches this one just by having more options of controls.
OS -
For me the ROG wins this one, I am a fan of the current Windows and it being installed by default there is no messing around, I can install anything and it all runs simply. Yes it can be a little fuddly on a smaller screen but on the whole the fact that it has a wider compatibility for me is great. For most people Windows is the problem with this handheld as it is not great for touchscreen etc, that said I tend to control it with the sticks fine. The console also has what is called Armoury Crate I think which is a layer over the top which allows you to easily access games or game launchers all from one menu (similar to how the Steamdeck works). Steam OS is great in itself in that it has been designed and adapted specifically for the Steam deck, it works fairly flawlessly and the obvious benefit of having such a good community behind it does help. Being able to access control schemes others have set up and such.
Other notes -
Going back to heat, the ROG get's quite hot and there have reportedly been issues around the SD card slot location, the exhaust vents are right next to the slot and some users have reported it burning out SD cards, certainly not great considering the device only comes with 512gb storage, a SD card for most people is a must. It has not happened to me yet, but so far I have only used the SD slot to transfer things between my tablet and my ROG and not to game from. I do plan to upgrade the internal storage at some point.
Pricing, the ROG has only one price point and it is pretty steep! The Steam deck has options with the bottom rung being much more available and affordable for people (I would not write off getting one again).
On the whole I think it is pretty 50/50, yeah the ROG wins out on power, screen and compatibility but the Steam deck is the better designed product. I think it will largely come down to your preference and the sort of games you want to play on it. If you want a handheld that can play great indie games and every now and again you might push it to play the Witcher 3 or something akin to that then the Steam Deck is perfect, if you want something with more grunt but you don't mind being tethered in place or lumping round a big power bank, being able to play current release Triple A titles then the ROG is the way to go 🙂
As soon as I got wind of a PS5 getting their own Pro controller I didn't really look at SCUF anymore as I was worried about compatibility and future proofing it to work with certain games. Clive @Teenwolf25 may have one still and try it out. I do think the Sony Pro PS5 Controller is truly the one part of the overall console that is 'Next Gen'. Everything works extremely well, super easy to custom and most of all I can just buy a stick for £20 whenever I get stick drift rather than nearly paying £100 for a new controller down the road. My original 2 PS5 controller both have stick drift already so this felt like the right thing to buy moving forwards.
For the stick drift reason I am umming and arring over picking one up when a controller fails. Currently I have 3 standard ones, one of which one of the triggers is broke in that it no longer has the resistance to it (button still works) so it will be fine if the kids want to play lego say as they get older. Then 2 that I switch between when batteries are on their way out. I did have the Victrix Pro as well, I liked the idea of having the sticks placed like an xbox controller but in the end I didn't get on with it and a friend had it off me (albeit at a fair loss as there isn't much of a market for selling them on).
There has been recent discussion around pro consoles and such already but to me it does not feel like the generation has really gotten going (hampered by Covid to some extent).
That said after Xbox's reveal the other day I sat and wondered if any of the consoles really jumps out at me this generation. PS5 vs Xbox seems much of a muchness, that said with the Series S it is much more easily attainable by everyone with it's entry price tag. There are a lack of AAA titles anyway and those that are tend to be on both platforms currently with the odd exception i.e. spiderman and errrm maybe Forza for Xbox
That said I think I tend to be drawn towards the Switch and even the Steam deck as being the best options this generation, portability with enough power I can slouch on the sofa of an evening and play some great games.
So is there anything that really jumps out at you this generation?
So I have seen a few more videos of this the last couple of days and the tech itself is actually quite exciting, what it's capable of I mean admittedly they do still look odd and I don't think that will change anytime soon.
I don't think there are many of us that have experience with VR tech here? But if you have you will know that it is exciting (especially when you first play it) and it's a form of gaming just like no other.
This headset is the first of the new generation of headsets, it's where the end goal is and that $3499 premium is so that you can be the first to experience it. The goal one day is essentially the riddance of a lot of our tech in the home and this is the first taste of it. Who need's to spend a grand on a tv, half a grand on a games console, however much on a great audio system to compliment it, another grand on a laptop or tablet device if you can just buy one of these and it does everything that they can do in one device? It sit's on your face so you don't need to find space for that tv in your lounge, you can conjure stuff in the air right in front of you (I mean as a designer of many things, not just work related I can tell you that excites me). If you notice on the videos as well there is a dial that allows you to block out what is going on around you and essentially turn it into a vr headset elsewhere so you could escape to other realms or worlds.
That said it is still in it's infancy, this product is priced at a premium for those who can afford it and one to experience the future. It is still years away for the likes of us (unless any of you are extremely wealthy and keeping it quiet) but it's quite exciting really especially when you consider how quick ai could advance (admittedly that is scary in itself).
The fact it can be wireless will still be a pull for people to get it over something like the new PSVR2. Although I didn't see much that makes it stand out from the crowd. Difficulty must be that you need to experience something like this in the flesh before you really get an idea on if the price is worth it.
This isn't a huge upgrade on the 2, it's very much quality of life improvements that I can see so far. If you have never given VR a go though it really will blow your mind the first time you experience it (if we ever get invited to your garden bar / outhouse I will bring mine with 🙂 )
On 6/3/2023 at 6:29 PM, Lurchzy said:
The Ghost Busters game coming out for Meta Quest looks really fun! One of the only times I've wished I had a VR Headset.
I must admit I have not seen it so I will check it out!
There wasnt much shown by this clip other than a slimmer headset and some improved controllers (both key to vr mind), it was also announced that there would be a big software update to the quest 2 (the version I have) which should improve performance by 20% which I was pleased to hear about!
I have been enjoying my VR for a variety of uses, recently doing some fitness things which are quite good (albeit not as good as going to a gym I am sure) but its easy to pick up and do 20 minutes or so, beat sabers great and I have just downloaded a FPS with a friend thats meant to be good fun. He also has plans to do some film nights with it.
VR is obviously not mainstream yet but it has certainly found an audience enough to keep it going I feel.
People really need to upgrade especially for security reasons. This is why I wouldn't turn my nose up at a free Windows update. I was a bit apprehensive going from 7 to 10 initially but it had to be done and it being free was a bonus. Can't stay locked to obsolete operating systems forever especially from a security standpoint.
Ironically I did have a Windows 98 machine until a couple of years back, some of the MS-DOS games worked best on there whilst modern systems sometimes require some effort to get things to run ^_^
But yeah you guy's should be on Windows 11 now, what the heck are you doing? 😛
To go back to the original post, I have a 500gb drive in my PS5 with a heatsink and I would tend to be over cautious and get a heatsink than not get one and face issues down the road.
As for size, I have found the 500gb to be plenty in addition to the internal and I do have some biggish games on there like COD, Hogwarts, Fallout 76 and fifa and such. If I had spare cash yeah maybe I would go bigger but I don't find I play more than 3 or 4 different games in a week because I just don't have the time too anyway.
Maybe...😅 I have a 4TB External because if you want me to play Rainbow 6 or some other random game on the fly, I need the space and it virtually ready!
I think the issue is PS5 games of late are super big right now so it helps having a larger one because the next AAA games that are 200GB are just around the corner....
They tend to be so badly compressed. Something to bare in mind though, more often than not games that have ps4 and ps5 releases, it is the ps5 version that tends to take up less storage. From a couple of years ago but just found this online -
But yeah the issues is developers being lazy I think more often than not resulting in large game sizes (in some instances it's about money, suspicion is that COD already has a shit tonne of assets in the game and they flick a button and all of a sudden we can buy them), I mean Call of duty is always over 200gb yet they can put games like Cyberpunk in 150gb and Hogwarts in 80gb.
I like them but unfortunately for me I have dodgy ears so had to stop using ear buds. Not sure if anyone remembers but back on the ps3 I used to have one of these bad boys -
Like I don't mind headsets and such but when it's just gaming with people online I am quite happy with something just for game chat and then the game audio to still come out the tv or something ^_^
I'd consider going for a SteamDeck, as building a PC has become pretty expensive.
It really depends on the type of games you'll expect it to be able to run though to be able to recommend anything.
I would second this, it gives you the console aspect, it's portable but if you wanted to, could also get a dock up and running to use it as an actual computer as well.
So this will be my last post for a little while as I think now it's time to get to grips with the system and really enjoy it but to provide another update.
Last night I had another play, I now have GTA V up and running, so that means Epic games work and though GTA is getting on a bit now it is still a fairly demanding game and the deck runs it fairly flawlessly (I did turn down settings to medium just to max out the performance and it was lovely).
In addition to that, I may have mentioned that I like the idea of taking some of my retro games with me. Lugging round a CRT and SNES or Gamecube is obviously not practical so I looked at setting up the emulation side of things. I at first tried to install a couple of emulators separately, the PS2 one ran ok but the dolphin emulator wouldn't detect the steam deck controller and buttons. Looking about online I came across emu deck, turns out it's a script you can download and run and it installs and sets up all of the main emulators for you including dolphin. So gave it a go and it was incredibly simple, got it up and running and just loaded up fire emblem path of radiance (something on my to buy list but depends on how much my work christmas bonus is this year) and it seemed to start up really well and looked fantastic. I will give it a proper go later on today but the deck is really impressing my with it's capability at the moment.
So I do have one small gripe but it could be game related. I wanted to push the deck a bit further yesterday and opted to try GTA V, where this fell down is I did not want to buy it again and I have a free copy on Epic that I got ages back. So looking about online, you can install Epic / GOG games onto the deck using a third party launcher, got that all installed and set up and then set GTA V to download and install.
Where it irked me is that it took the whole night to download and install, in fact the install only completed as I left for work this morning so I never even got to try it 😄
Now I am not sure if it's down to the speed of the SD card but it took far too long and I fear for the loading times off it!
I have also realised 256gb SD card is nowhere near going to be enough so I am going to look at getting a 1TB card some point the next couple of months when I have some spare cash.
I put the £5 deposit down at the end of August thinking I could make my mind up nearer the time, turned out it was much nearer than I thought it would be. Got the notification last week and decided to purchase it (only the basic model) and it turned up on Saturday. Picked myself up a £22 256gb SD card and I'm away pc gaming for under £400. I let my gaming computer go about 6 months ago and I have a laptop that's fairly capable but I find it difficult to game on as my daughter wants to mess.
So the steam deck seemed a good shout.
My first impressions are really really good, it's incredibly capable, runs well and isn't too difficult to get to grips with in terms of how things function and that.
I have played just 1 game so far, GTA IV and that played really well. Simple enough to get installed and up and running and now I spend an hour or so in bed of an evening shooting up Liberty City?
I have also put a couple of my PS2 games on there, I have had Shadow hearts ready to play for a long time but finding time to sit down with the CRT at my desk is difficult (again because of the little ones) so thought I would add it to the deck and see how it performs so I will let you know on that front if I get round to it. I have a fairly sizeable steam library backlog to play though and I do genuinely feel like it will get enjoyed now.
The screen's decent, the device is fairly snappy and simple and though it's only my first game to play GTA IV help up really well and played incredibly smoothly so I can see this potentially taking pole position when it comes to my gaming time in the not so distant future.
Posted
Isn't that similar to how Playstation rewards works? How tesco clubcard points works etc etc? Albeit not with handing back rights to a video game but you purchase something, they give you points and then when you have accumulated enough you then exchange that for a voucher?
Link to post
Share on other sites