Will you buy the PS5 Pro?

The Monday letters page debates which is the ugliest video game console ever, as one reader finally beats F-Zero GX.

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Pro tip
Now that the preview showcases are over for this year, except for Nintendo, it’s another long trek towards the next PS5 State of Play. Except presumably the next one will be for the PS5 Pro? The idea seems to be that they won’t announce it too early, because they don’t want to put anyone off buying the current model in the meantime.

Except, I would assume the PS5 Pro is hardcore enough a purchase that it’s not really going to put off much, so I’d probably expect it by August at the latest. They could combine it with more on Concord, since that’s out in mid-August, although I’m not sure most people really want to hear all that much about it.

The question for me is whether anyone’s going to buy the PS5 Pro? The rumours about frame rate and resolution upscaling sound so technical I really don’t see it being as popular as the PS4 Pro and that was only around 20% of total PlayStation 5 sales. I think that’s too niche to make any meaningful difference and I doubt the PS5 Pro will even do that.

I’m certainly not planning to get one and I’m curious to know how many people reading this are. If money is not an issue then I can understand it but other than that it sounds very miss-able, unless they also announce a new game that actually needs it/really uses it.
St1nger

Car settings
To Alex, who wrote in about just beating everyone on hard mode on Gran Turismo. I’ve found I only play the weekly lap challenges online. You are forced to race properly as your lap time won’t count (the timer goes red) if you go over the line on the track.

I absolutely loved turning off all the UI brake zone and line help. I left apexes on.

Turned the skid control down to two.

Spent about an hour mastering some mountain level in a mega responsive rally type car and had an absolute blast getting a time good enough to earn me a bronze trophy and 250,000 credits.

Can’t recommend it enough for forcing you to learn the track and feel like you are actually racing.
TommyFatFingers

Finally mastered
Hello, been a while since I last wrote in. I’ve managed to complete the Diamond Cup on Master difficulty in F-Zero GX in the intervening period. It was a bittersweet feeling in the end, considering the difficulty, but an achievement to finally unlock the AX Cup.

If Nintendo were to make another game in the series, it would be nice to have the random track generator return from F-Zero X, with maybe the option to save any cool tracks generated. Maybe they could also add a custom track editor.

In terms of new ideas, maybe we could have tracks that terraform to add a ramp, rough patch, boost (or any other whacky idea they can think of) when you travel over them at a certain speed or using a specific button. It would add a nice strategy element to the races.

If they name their next console the Switch U, then the new game could have the aptly named moniker F- Zero SUX!
Netwoim
PS: Does the content from your newsletters get added to the RSS feed?

GC: No, as it’s supposed to be exclusive content for if you subscribe to the newsletter (which is completely free).

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Hard start
I only played Dark Souls DLC, but you had to progress a bit and find an item to access it. The new area wasn’t handed to you then either. Never tried 2 or 3, so they might be different, although I think you have to get through the swamp area in 3 to get to the Frida DLC.

The guy that wrote in saying he beat Elden Ring never met Mohg? He must have missed so much of the game. I’m 200 hours in it and still missed some optional bosses and areas.

I’m looking forward to going back in. I’ve missed it but had spent too long there to go back to the vanilla area. I’m even going to use Faith this time, a class I normally avoid like the plague, but I’ve played through with brute force and magic previously.
Bobwallett

GC: We’re not sure that’s true. Mohg, Lord of Blood is confined to his own area, which can only be accessed via an easy-to-miss side quest (that requires PS Plus) or a random teleporter in a late game area which needs two difficult to obtain items to access.

Looks are everything
Crikey! Seeing that thumbnail of the PS5 ‘slim’ (RE: GC’s sales drop article) was a bit jarring. I’ve always thought it was an awful looking machine but it looks even worse after losing its heft. Definitely a console to be operated from a compartment with a door. I do think that sales can be driven by the aesthetics of a product.

Don’t forget that Nintendo DS sales went rampant after the much needed redesign (okay, it did hit its stride software-wise to coincide). I can’t think of a system so brutal to the eye in the history of games consoles and that is taking into account the US SNES.

The PlayStation 5 just screams corporate opulence and complacency. The PS4 Pro and Xbox X just scream to be fired up but this abomination puts the idea in my head that I should have a fire extinguisher to hand given the shoddy demeanour of it. It’s like something that came out of the minds of an echo chamber of corporate types with blocked noses.
D Dubya

GC: Worse than the US SNES? That’s harsh, but we’re not sure we can disagree. But which Xbox X do you mean? The Xbox One X or the Xbox Series X? Microsoft are as bad at naming consoles as Sony are at designing their looks.

90s shopping
RE: Games should increase in price to around £150! Because in the 90s, blah, blah, that’s the equivalent in today’s money.

1. In the 90s I never paid for my games my parents did, and then it was only twice a year, birthdays and Christmas and maybe a year of savings. If the company’s want us to buy more games than three per year, then £150 a time is not the way to entice us, or me anyway.

2. In the 90s we took our games to school and swapped them with our mates, my Earthworm Jim for your Zool, your Pit-Fighter for my Mean Machines. With a rapidly changing dynamic towards digital-only, where are we going to be able to try some of the games we never ended up getting, especially at say £150? Didn’t buy it, couldn’t afford or justify the cost, can’t lend it from a friend, people buying less, let’s put the cost up even more to cover our costs and put even more people off.

3. In the 90s almost every other town had a place to trade in. Now, as is reported seemingly every other week, that’s rapidly in decline, if not extinct entirely now with GAME now finished. I distinctly remember in the late 90s my independent games shop would sell me a new N64 game, that was 50 quid and whenever I wanted to trade in I got £25 back towards the next purchase, regardless of which game was traded and for what? Good times!

The point is that whatever the cost of a game was, there was always the option of getting back a percentage. If I’m expected to pay £150 for something that I can’t trade in or sell on, which seems like it will be the case sooner rather than later, then I for one am less likely to buy it in the first place.

Now, Cranston made the comparison to movies and value for money, which is true, I guess, on paper, however films make millions upon millions worldwide. Why? Well, I believe it’s in the pricing, I can see a new film at the local cinema for a fiver, £7.50 for the posh seats! It’s throwaway, disposable and that applies worldwide. If the cinema cost £45 to go see the newest blockbuster, then you can guarantee a lot less people would be filling those seats.

Doesn’t it stand to reason that if games cost a lot less, say 40 quid RRP, that more would sell? I know I for one would definitely buy four games costing combined £160 rather than one costing £150! Especially in a digital age with less and less ways to recoup some of your initial costs.
big boy bent

Pretend evidence
So, the Nintendo Direct has got to be June 18 now, right? I wonder why they’re leaving it so late after the other companies? They usually have no problem being at the same time, so is something maybe not quite ready that they want to show off?

I guess if they haven’t got much overall they need to make sure what they do have is looking tip top. I’m going to take this as proof that Metroid Prime 4 is going to be revealed this month, even though it’s not really evidence for that at all.
Gaston

We can rebuild
I’ve sunk a lot of time into Starfield. I really have. It’s Bethesda. It’s one of their role-playing games and I’m a sucker for their work. It’s the reason why there’s no follow up to Skyrim and it’s the reason why there’s no Fallout 5. It really is that big of an issue doing a new IP.

Last year when the reviews were coming in and I was awaiting GC’s verdict on the game at the time, I couldn’t believe it when GC only gave it a mediocre score. I had already played hours upon hours of it. Realised it had a few frailties but the core games was good. It was addictive. The way The Elder Scrolls and Fallout had always dragged me in and consumed all my time.

Starfield is not Fallout. It’s not Skyrim. It has the underpinnings of those great games, but GC got it right in their review. I agree with every word. You can still have fun with it. Of course you can. But it’s not breakthrough. It’s nothing new. It’s a menu adventure to the next place. It deserves every last lambast it’s ever had.

The skill tree is fantastic. It’s the one main reason I continued with it at the time, who doesn’t like levelling up? Space games don’t thrill me as much as a Lord of the Rings type adventure does, but I’ll give anything a shot at least once.

Phil Spencer saying he has played a lot of the game and he’s definitely a space pirate makes me wonder if he has played it or he’s perked into the right categories from the word of some understudy Yes-man beneath his job stature. It’s the worst part of the game. The ship fighting is not good at all. Kudos for them trying something different but just no. No thank you.

Shattered Space DLC better not be a dogfight around planets, hidden behind a few minutes video of the house of Varuun, like we’re going to get a proper planet to explore and none of this boring procedural stuff.

Do you know what? I finally do understand why it’s mediocre and I hate to say it but it is. It’s the worst game they’ve ever done, but it’s fixable. Not fixing stuff over time, like their usual big and glitch stuff. Like a huge overall. Cyberpunk style.

If they can fix it like Team Projekt Red have done with Cyberpunk 2077 over a few years then good luck. Cyberpunk is exceptionally good now.
Nick The Greek

Inbox also-rans
I know you guys are fans of the genre but have you played Sine Mora? I used to have it on my PS Vita but picked it up cheap for my Switch and it’s such a great shooter. I highly recommend it and it has the best end of stage music of any game.
Simon

GC: Yes, but we haven’t thought about it in years.

Sony’s hatred/disinterest for Bloodborne will never not be the strangest mystery in gaming. If they don’t care about it so much then why not just sell the rights back to From? At least they’d make some new money from it that way.
Limpton

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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