Playstation 4: No backwards compatibility, used games locked out.

As far as backwards compatibility, there's a completely unfounded rumor going around (I think it's more well-wishing than anything, myself), that Sony is actually developing an add-on for PS4, a separate device that you buy and plug into the system, that gives it the ability to play all the old games (PS2/3, at any rate, the PS3 can already play PS1 games through emulation).

I actually think that something like this would be the best solution. When the rumor came along that the new system may not be backwards compatible, there were two sides of the camp. There was the "whatever, I don't want to play old-ass games on my shiny new system anyway" crowd, and the "oh no I'm never going to buy this thing ever ever" crowd, the ones who did want to keep playing their old games, but didn't want to have a four-high stack of Playstation consoles just to be able to play everything.

The trick is that there really are two sides to the argument, and both are correct. There are a bunch of people out there who don't care about BC, and don't want to play those old games anymore. And there are those that do. Out of the second bunch, roughly 100% of them would rather do it on one system than four.

Case in point, the recent release of the Silent Hill HD Collection. Go read the reviews, it's an absolute travesty. They re-recorded most of the voices for no apparent reason, there's textures actually missing in some parts of the game, especially SH2, the fog looks like crap (they said the PS3 doesn't handle transparency as well as the PS2 did... WHAT?!?!?), in some areas the fog is pushed back so far that you can see the "end of the world" (where there are no objects at all, until you get closer) and it actually has fewer lighting effects and shadows than the original games, which completely breaks it... the atmosphere of these games is based almost entirely on the visuals!

In other words, while the "HD" collection runs at a higher resolution, that's the only benefit.. otherwise, the original PS2 versions of SH2 and SH3 are better in every other way. And we can't play them without going out and buying a PS2 again.

You see, I had one of the first-gen PS3s with the PS2 circuits in it, and I could still play them. So I got rid of my PS2, but kept all of my games. And then my PS3 died and I had to replace it with one of the new slim models. Yes, it works great, no complaints.. except that I can't play those PS2 games anymore. Which means I have to buy another PS2 to actually play through the Silent Hill games again.

That's why we need BC. And yes, I would be willing to shell out another $50-60 bucks or so to buy a "BC Module" so that I could keep all of my PS1/2/3 games and only have the one PS4 hooked up.
 
Solo's right, I'm afraid. My PC isn't top of the line, but it can play pretty much everything. I'm slowly working my way through Battlefield 3, and during the F/A-18 mission, I kept thinking to myself "My God, this game is gorgeous".

Oh, and it's a shooter. Consoles just don't do shooters very well, period. Keyboard/mouse FTW.

That said, I do own a PS3, and I play action/adventure games on it (Assassin's Creed, for example), and racing games (Gran Turismo) and other types where the game is better suited to sitting on the couch and using a controller. But when it comes to FPS, most RPGs, RTS.. yeah, PC is the way to go.

Oh, and it's fully backwards-compatible.. I'm fairly certain I can play any PC game ever made without having to pull an older PC out of the closet.
 
Consoles do shooters ok, but the experience is markedly better on PC with a mousy + keyboard. I played Bad Company 2 on both the PC and the 360 and found it to be fine on both.

As for BF3's graphics....well, they're very "shiny," but they're also very very stupid in some aspects. Like, lensflare. I swear, JJ Abrams designed the look of this game. There is glare and lensflare off of EVERYTHING. It's insane and overdone and NOT AT ALL REALISTIC BECAUSE THE HUMAN EYE DOES NOT SEE LENS FLARE, DAMMIT.
 
That's a big problem in the nighttime scenes, definitely... I die a lot because I can't see ****. It's not so much of a problem in the daytime scenes.
 
People will still pay - and they know that. The question is, can they sustain business when a considerable amount of gamers decide to stop buying their product and start pirating BECAUSE of their prices/availability.
People usually don't pirate because they are poor or lazy. They do it because what is currently available does not suit their needs. These companies need to start thinking about the needs of the customers first before the needs of their own bank accounts.
 
Everyone seems more upset (lately anyhow) about not being backwards compatible. I think not being able to play used games will kill it first.
 
A lot of folks are up in arms about the used game thing but it also goes hand in hand with not being backwards compatible. This is going to hurt them. Anyone without a PS3 better get one as i have a feeling they're going to sell really well for folks who want to keep playing the games.
 
Jedi2016 said:
That's a big problem in the nighttime scenes, definitely... I die a lot because I can't see ****. It's not so much of a problem in the daytime scenes.
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Oh, it will be. Play it online and you'll see. Try playing Sharqi Peninsula rush on the attacker side.
 
I still have my old Playstation with FF7... I need no stinking p4 or p3 nor p2.....or the slimmer PsOne
 
i wont be buying one, hardly play my ps3, and i only buy used games a few months after release due to the expense of them.

i remember the days where you walked into a video arcade and tech was leaps ahead of the home market, now the next gen machinery doesnt seem to look any different to whats in the arcades these days - they all look like ps3/xbox games and simply dont appeal to me anymore.

taking the ability to play used games out of a system is simply stupid, oh hang on tho -- a new game sells once and makes the shop a little profit, by exchaning and reselling the shop makes more and sony lose out - lets put businesess into more of a recession shall we
 
I have a major problem with the whole Sony Network idea...I'm living in Tokyo.. But using a PSN account based on my credit card, which is an English one... Sadly, the best games come out first in the US, and there is a lovely site here (China) that sells the games for decent prices and still cheaper than they are sold here in Japan..

That price issue, as well as the fact that I like to play games in English, not Japanese (There's very seldom the alternative option to choose the language used or subtitling) has meant that I can't use ANY of the downloads I buy here (If I use my PSN card to buy them, they're English, if I use cash to buy them, they're Japanese)... Which means unless I get games sent over from the UK I'm screwed....

How the hell Sony hasn't noticed that people can actually travel with PS3's and use accounts in two or more countries is beyond me..It's an insult...They choose not to open the gates to it because it would mean they get less money from people like me who need to buy two games to play games with downloadable content..Which ABSOLUTELY sucks...It'd be fine if I was able to buy games from the UK and send them over all the time as easily as I can the US or Japanese games...But that's not possible...

Sony needs to wake up....The whole region thing needs to be stopped..It's stupid..If you pay fair money for fair games, and then the downloaded content on top of that, you have the right to have it work on your PS3 wherever you are...THAT'S WHAT I PAID FOR.....And it sucks...They need to wake up..

21st century people..Come on..We travel now..
 
Sadly Microsoft is going this way too. Nintendo seems to be the only consumer friendly company making systems at this point. My big issue is they're alienating all the people in rural areas with crap internet.
 
Ive not owned a Sony since the PSP, and ive not owned a Sony home console since the original PS that i had on grey import.
I cant say the constant reboot's of Ridge Racer, Tekken and Wipeout ever kept me hooked.
Ill never buy another, Sony really do know how to stick it in and break it off anyhoo, as for Xbox, just wish MAME would run on it lol.
TBH, the console industry has been a complete letdown since the days of the 'drive, PC Engine and Super Famicom....oh, and Sega backing out of the game.

lee
 
I (and I'm sure others) would often play through a game, then sell it, and use that money to buy a new game. If I can't sell it, then that means fewer new game purchases for me. So screw you Sony.
 
Well, just don't buy the new console when it comes out. Vote with your wallets. Sony will take notice if you do that. At least you know what you're getting if you do, right?
 
Lord Boron said:
I (and I'm sure others) would often play through a game, then sell it, and use that money to buy a new game. If I can't sell it, then that means fewer new game purchases for me. So screw you Sony.
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I just love their logic that it'll help fight piracy (which it won't) and that developers need this extra money. But have no problem with the fact that if it works, it destroys an entire industry employing more people than they could dream of ever employing.
 
I honestly don't think it's about "helping fight piracy," at least not directly. I mean, yeah, not being able to use a burned disc will cut down on piracy, but you know it's only a matter of time until someone figures out how to mod these things with a chip or something. We've seen these kinds of restrictive DRM methods before and they always end up being cracked. Hell, anyone remember when DVDs were "impossible" to rip because of CSS? Yep. Right up until DeCSS came out.

I think this gets used games out of circulation because (A) the console makers think it cuts into their profits (legitimately, not from the piracy angle alone), and (B) I think it "preps" the market to move towards streaming-only, which will be advertised as a feature, rather than a lack thereof.

Look, we already have Roku boxes, Tivos, streaming Netflix, so, what's to stop someone from eventually streaming games? And I'm not talking about Xbox Live Arcade, either, where you download a copy and play it off the system. Oh no. I'm talking about the game itself constantly streaming. No (or at least minimal) client side storage.

I'd bet we're a generation or two ahead of that, but mark my words, it will happen. The guys at Napster 2.0 were visionaries in that sense. Netflix Instant and On Demand are the tip of the iceberg. And since it's all just data, why not? It keeps everything resident on the company's servers, gives them far more control, and you can even sell it to folks as a subscription service where each individual game costs less (or nothing and you just pay for access to the marketplace), and people actually feel like they're getting a bargain.


This is the direction entertainment media is headed -- away from the "ownership/licensed" model where you have a license to the content of the disc/tape/record/book, and ownership of the physical thing on which the licensed material resides....to straight-up licensed model where you get access to stuff, but you never actually own any of it. And you know what? People will go for it. If they went for Pay-Per-View, they'll go for this, too.
 
I have a Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo GameCube, and a Wii. I'm happy and I don't play video games, go figure....
 
Well, as a few of you know, I'm a big Fallout universe fan. I've done three or four Fallout builds, one of which took me a year - but even now, I only just got New Vegas today because I could stomach the price on the Ultimate Edition. Today. Two years after it came out.
 
This is sad to hear even if it never makes it to the final system. I love my PS3 but they haven't had the best record lately with their fans. If they want to require internet connection to play games then what happens if they get attacked again and their network goes down for an extended period of time. It was out for over a month almost a year ago.
Also if they want to stop people from buying/selling used games its only going to hurt their sales. I'm sure like a lot of people I buy my games new because if I'm excited and want to play them I don't want to wait around for the used price to drop, but if its a game I'm on the fence about or just don't have the money on hand to buy it I trade in old games that just sit around collecting dust.
 
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