Official Playstation 5 thread

[purbeast0]

I love everything about how they did the map in Elden Ring compared to other open world games. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love how it looks like it was kind of hand drawn or something and you can tell what some landmarks are and stuff, but then i also hate how vertical the map is and how impossible it is to track that lol. I wish you could zoom in a bit more. When you are in a "dungeon" like a castle or capital city, it's really hard to figure out where you are and stuff. There are so many layered floors and then you have underground parts of the capital so its' just hard to tell how to get places or where you are.

But I've also grown to LIKE that about it and it's clearly intentionally done this way. I also love how the map isn't cluttered with waypoints and icons like every other open world game I've played is. I like that it's not basically a bunch of fetch quests. I find myself exploring a bunch of random places, even going back to places I've been, and finding new stuff. Like I didn't even know there was a peninsula below the starting point until like 3 weeks into the game and I was just wondering around exploring. I love that about this game.

But it's also making it hard for me to progress lol. The past 3 nights I have wanted to go past the capital but I have kept getting sidetracked with stuff prior to that. Last night I finally went past it and cut it off at that point since it was nearly 1am. But I still have a whole castle I need to explore that is prior so I may go back and do that before moving on lol. Just so much content and the scale of this game is unreal.

Oh and then there is the whole underworld part...

 

[igor_kavinski]

Oh and then there is the whole underworld part...

What if the real fun is there?

 

[jpiniero]

Elden Ring destroyed my desire to go back and play Horizon. It already felt to much like a run of the mill open world game and the characters are just flat with emotion. After experiencing organic exploration and discovery for 200 hours, not sure I want to chase icons on a map.

Didn't play with it too much but there is the ability to configure all UI elements on and off. I don't know if you can turn down Aloy's need to talk nonstop though.

 

[purbeast0]

What if the real fun is there?

Oh there is a lot of fun there...

 

[Oyeve]

Didn't play with it too much but there is the ability to configure all UI elements on and off. I don't know if you can turn down Aloy's need to talk nonstop though.

I wish there was a way to turn off her whistling sound for a mount. Its super freaking loud and annoys me so much!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Oh there is a lot of fun there...

That's great. As long as it keeps you occupied, you save money on not having to buy other games.

 

[jpiniero]

BTW had another bug. There 's a mission in Las Vegas where you're supposed to go into a dungeon and pick up an item doing some platforming. The game doesn't say anything about this but you are also have to kill the burrowers that spawn after picking up the item. On top of that, you're blocked from leaving the dungeon without killing them but the block isn't in the immediate vicinity where the platforming room is. I walked around for like 15 minutes wondering why I couldn't find the exit until I randomly went back into the room and killed the burrowers.

 

[Saylick]

I love everything about how they did the map in Elden Ring compared to other open world games. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love how it looks like it was kind of hand drawn or something and you can tell what some landmarks are and stuff, but then i also hate how vertical the map is and how impossible it is to track that lol. I wish you could zoom in a bit more. When you are in a "dungeon" like a castle or capital city, it's really hard to figure out where you are and stuff. There are so many layered floors and then you have underground parts of the capital so its' just hard to tell how to get places or where you are.

But I've also grown to LIKE that about it and it's clearly intentionally done this way. I also love how the map isn't cluttered with waypoints and icons like every other open world game I've played is. I like that it's not basically a bunch of fetch quests. I find myself exploring a bunch of random places, even going back to places I've been, and finding new stuff. Like I didn't even know there was a peninsula below the starting point until like 3 weeks into the game and I was just wondering around exploring. I love that about this game.

But it's also making it hard for me to progress lol. The past 3 nights I have wanted to go past the capital but I have kept getting sidetracked with stuff prior to that. Last night I finally went past it and cut it off at that point since it was nearly 1am. But I still have a whole castle I need to explore that is prior so I may go back and do that before moving on lol. Just so much content and the scale of this game is unreal.

Oh and then there is the whole underworld part...

Your comments about the map design in Elden Ring reminds me of the map design in World of Warcraft. Half of the fun in WoW, at least before the invention of Thottbot or WoWhead, was that you had to do a lot of self-exploration since the map wasn't specific enough to tell you much beyond the general area you needed to be in to complete the quest. It really forced you to either figure it out on your own or engage with the in-game community to complete quests (e.g. one of the most famous examples was locating Mankrik's wife). The former made you remember things about the game so that you had an easier time when you rolled a new character, and the latter made you a part of something bigger. Both of which are desirable if you enjoy soaking up game lore and just being invested in the game.

 

[purbeast0]

Your comments about the map design in Elden Ring reminds me of the map design in World of Warcraft. Half of the fun in WoW, at least before the invention of Thottbot or WoWhead, was that you had to do a lot of self-exploration since the map wasn't specific enough to tell you much beyond the general area you needed to be in to complete the quest. It really forced you to either figure it out on your own or engage with the in-game community to complete quests (e.g. one of the most famous examples was locating Mankrik's wife). The former made you remember things about the game so that you had an easier time when you rolled a new character, and the latter made you a part of something bigger. Both of which are desirable if you enjoy soaking up game lore and just being invested in the game.

Yeah the community is huge for Elden Ring (and all souls games in general). However on my first play through, and probably my only, I don't want to really just get everything handed to me when I am a bit stuck. I am playing completely offline and I've heard that one of the benefits of playing "online" is that people leave messages all over, and it helps with the secret rooms that are hidden behind walls you need to hit with your weapon. But to me, that wouldn't be as fun if I was just told what to do in those situations. Part of the fun/surprise is when you figure it out.

I actually lucked into finding it in the Volcano Manor because I knew that level was much bigger than the little part of the house, and I randomly walked in an area and the secret door opened. I heard that if online, there were messages all over the wall and it would have let me know immediately. I didn't even find it until like the 3rd or 4th time in that room.

Maybe after I finish my first play through I may look into it, but I doubt I will play it again considering how much time I've put into it already and how much I've explored.

 

[Saylick]

Yeah the community is huge for Elden Ring (and all souls games in general). However on my first play through, and probably my only, I don't want to really just get everything handed to me when I am a bit stuck. I am playing completely offline and I've heard that one of the benefits of playing "online" is that people leave messages all over, and it helps with the secret rooms that are hidden behind walls you need to hit with your weapon. But to me, that wouldn't be as fun if I was just told what to do in those situations. Part of the fun/surprise is when you figure it out.

I actually lucked into finding it in the Volcano Manor because I knew that level was much bigger than the little part of the house, and I randomly walked in an area and the secret door opened. I heard that if online, there were messages all over the wall and it would have let me know immediately. I didn't even find it until like the 3rd or 4th time in that room.

Maybe after I finish my first play through I may look into it, but I doubt I will play it again considering how much time I've put into it already and how much I've explored.

I think playing "offline" is the right way to go about it. Like I said, half the fun is just the self-exploration aspect. Sure, you might not have an OP build or achieve the optimal min-maxing that hardcore gamers often times do, but you only get to enjoy first impressions literally once. It's best not to enjoy first impressions through someone else's eyes, I think.

If I ever get around to playing Elden Ring, I'll definitely have to play it "offline", especially since by the time I get around to it all of the secrets would have likely been discovered, and I don't want to just follow a guide because then someone is doing the thinking for me and I'm just executing someone else's game plan.

 

[JujuFish]

secret rooms that are hidden behind walls you need to hit with your weapon

You don't need to hit illusory walls with your weapon. You can also roll into them.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

FYI - Patch 1.09 is out for Horizon Forbidden West.

https://www.reddit.com/r/horizon/comments/ts69fl

Still looks like garbage on my 4k panel in performance mode. Doubting this will ever be fixed, wasted my $60 on this trash. Thank god Elden Ring lived up to the hype.

 

[jpiniero]

Still looks like garbage on my 4k panel in performance mode. Doubting this will ever be fixed, wasted my $60 on this trash. Thank god Elden Ring lived up to the hype.

Someone's going to have to buy a PS5 Pro...

 

[sze5003]

Still looks like garbage on my 4k panel in performance mode. Doubting this will ever be fixed, wasted my $60 on this trash. Thank god Elden Ring lived up to the hype.

All of their previous patch notes mention they are still looking into the shimmering issues. It probably is not a simple fix. I think they would need to do use checkerboard rendering like zero down has in the 60 fps mode.

They could have done this earlier in the development cycle but probably avoided it since graphics mode took priority.

I'm still playing it in graphics mode and got used to playing it this way.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

All of their previous patch notes mention they are still looking into the shimmering issues. It probably is not a simple fix. I think they would need to do use checkerboard rendering like zero down has in the 60 fps mode.

They could have done this earlier in the development cycle but probably avoided it since graphics mode took priority.

I'm still playing it in graphics mode and got used to playing it this way.

Not sure they can fix it short of going to 1080p and applying TAA. Put too much vegetation and crap for their engine to be able to handle.

 

[jpiniero]

Funny bug I saw for HFW on PS4. The Base sometimes wouldn't load and after opening the door if you mindlessly walk into it... you could end up falling into the void.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Just picked up Dying Light 2 since Walmart has it for $30. Then Gamestop is offering $33 trade in for it so might just treat it like a rental and bang it out over a few days. They were supposed to have fixed the ragdolls a month ago so was just waiting for it to hit $30 before picking it up.

 

[sze5003]

They fixed the Ragdolls at least on PC a while ago. I haven't played it since but from what I've been reading people were happy.

 

[purbeast0]

All of their previous patch notes mention they are still looking into the shimmering issues. It probably is not a simple fix. I think they would need to do use checkerboard rendering like zero down has in the 60 fps mode.

They could have done this earlier in the development cycle but probably avoided it since graphics mode took priority.

I'm still playing it in graphics mode and got used to playing it this way.

I specifically remember the Digital Foundry guys (pretty sure it was them lol) mentioning that fixing this issue will not be a simple fix and may not even be fixable in just a patch.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I specifically remember the Digital Foundry guys (pretty sure it was them lol) mentioning that fixing this issue will not be a simple fix and may not even be fixable in just a patch.

John Linneman said that on Twitter. Of course after the game launched, never mentioned anything about the horrible image quality in performance mode in his fluff of a review where he called the game a "PS5 Graphics Masterclass." Can't trust his videos any more after that garbage he pulled.

 

[sze5003]

John Linneman said that on Twitter. Of course after the game launched, never mentioned anything about the horrible image quality in performance mode in his fluff of a review where he called the game a "PS5 Graphics Masterclass." Can't trust his videos any more after that garbage he pulled.

I agree I can't believe none of the reviewers mentioned the performance mode artifacts and shimmering. I think they did the same for dying light 2 where they were pushing heavily on use of dlss to say how nice the graphics are and in reality when the game released, without dlss the performance was pretty garbage.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I agree I can't believe none of the reviewers mentioned the performance mode artifacts and shimmering. I think they did the same for dying light 2 where they were pushing heavily on use of dlss to say how nice the graphics are and in reality when the game released, without dlss the performance was pretty garbage.

Yeah was pretty disappointed to find out DL2 was 1080p60 on PS5. Still, I wish Forbidden West would do the same because even at 1080p, DL2 looks way better than HFW at 1800p checkerboard.

 

[igor_kavinski]

The higher processing power of PS5/XbsX is just making developers lazy. They are doing the bare minimum optimizations and trying to get their games to market ASAP, warts and all.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm not surprised we get 1080p60 on PS5 at all. Been saying it all along we still aren't CLOSE to getting 4k60 any time soon yet they keep trying to push 4k with all these buzzwords.

Maybe when they stop worrying about games on PS4 and X1 they will be able to actually hit that target.

 

[jpiniero]

Maybe when they stop worrying about games on PS4 and X1 they will be able to actually hit that target.

Wouldn't it be the other way around? Higher detail would mean lower resolution.

Just tried if there was a difference between forced 1080p and automatic and couldn't tell a difference. Favor Resolution is still messed up too, it's like 15 fps.