PS5

[Sacred Jellybean]

hay guyz how's PS5 looking these days? I just got a bonus at work and I'm thinking about splurging on one. SH2 remake is a given. I also recently saw a streamer (I know, I know) playing RE9 and it looked pretty badass. Oh yeah new Silent Hill ofc but I'm more excited for SH2. And Clair Obscur has looked pretty sweet too.

Any other recs?

[Geno]

My wife and I got a PS5 late last year (around October, I think?). We really like it so far. I enjoyed FF7: Rebirth, and Ghost of Yotei is pretty fun so far. I look forward to playing Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok, which I've heard great things about (I loved the first Spider-Man game and Miles Morales on PS4). I've heard mixed opinions about Final Fantasy XVI, but mostly positive, and I want to play it to determine for myself.

I don't know how helpful that is when I've only really played two games so far (and a bit of Genshin Impact, but that's also playable on PS4), but so far, I'm enjoying it and looking forward to upcoming titles.

[Dark Jaguar]

Get it soon if you're going to, because it's about to jump up by another $150 on April 2nd.

The good news is just about every game worth getting on it is on PC as well, so if you already have a powerful PC, you can get a lot of them there.  If you DON'T, the bad news is twofold.  One, PC parts are ridiculously expensive.  RAM is finally starting to see a decline in cost (not nearly enough, but a start), but SSDs are jumping up now.  Two, Sony decided to stop funding PC ports of their games.  While Capcom seems to be doing well selling their PC ports, I guess Sony haven't been satisfied with those numbers so they're just not going to bother after the ports currently in the works are out.

If you do get a PS5 (again, "and soon"), all the recommendations here are great.  There's also the newer Resident Evil titles, and some slight "remasters" of a lot of RPG classics coming out lately, and "pixel remakes" using the Octopath engine for some amazing retro-futurism looking games like the Dragon Quest 1-3 remakes.  Many of those are also on Switch 1 and Switch 2 though.

Speaking of, I get the sneaking suspicion ALL the big console makers will be announcing dramatic price increases soon.  I think they were all just waiting to see who blinked first, and now that Sony's done it, expect the Switch 2 and XBox Series prices to jump up pretty soon too.  The good news when it comes to XBox is if you have a solid PC, XBox is basically over as a dedicated thing you MUST buy for exclusives.  Some rather strong rumors and suggestive announcements from MS seem to confirm they're just making a Steambox style system that'll be a PC running Windows 11, with a now optional shell over the whole UI not unlike Steam's "Big mode".  They promise backwards compatibility with XBox games, and if that's done through an emulation layer, and the system's literally just running PC Windows, then that's getting ported to PC as well.

Anyway, if you have any interest in a Switch 2, budget for that rather quickly too because it'll be jumping up in price soon enough.

The last PS5 price increase was apparently due to tariffs, but the current one is due to the AI bubble snapping up all the components.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Silent Hill 2 owns bones, unsurprisingly. I also scooped up Cyberpunk 2077, which absolutely nails the aesthetic of the genre. All the different upgrades and customizations feel overwhelming at times, but I'm trying not to spend too much time overthinking things. And so much damn noise with people calling me all the time with new missions, agh. 

Geno - thanks, I'll check out FF7 Rebirth. I've tried to play through the old PSX version twice and ended up petering out, without even getting through Disc 1. Maybe the remake will grab me better. Oh damn, I remember hearing great things about Ghost of Tsushima, so I'll check out its sequel. Same with Spiderman apparently.

DJ - yeah, I just heard about the price increases, glad I just snagged mine. Got the digital version because I figured there's no need for discs anymore. I hardly ever buy'em anyway. One less component is one less thing to potentially break down over time.

Still not thinking of picking up a Switch 2 any time soon... maybe by the time I get to it, the cost will be lower. That strategy sure hasn't worked out for PS5, though. 

A Steambox type console may be up my alley. I've never been big on PC games. I grew up sitting on a couch playing video games, so doing it behind a computer feels weird, especially if it's the same place I'm sitting for work. I have to get up and move around sometime! Even if it's just to go from the desk to the couch! Plus keeping up with PC hardware, effing around with drivers and settings, etc feels like too much work, so I prefer to just buy a new console every 5 years or so. Plug 'n play all the way. 

Of course, I don't think I'd want to buy consoles from all three of the big names. Feels like overkill. Playstation and Nintendo have kept me satisfied over the years, so it's unlikely I'll get an X-Box at all.

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh, and another one I can recommend is the financial failure, Alone in the Dark's remake.  Frankly they did an amazing job.  The "feel" of the game is a bit less smooth than what the RE remakes pulled off, but it still works well and it's nice to see the series return to form.  It's just too bad no one bothered to buy it.

The XBox just being another PC works because I can safely ignore it, and those who don't have a PC have an option to simply attain one.  What I can say is this... modern operating systems are incredibly stable and don't require too much tweaking.  Consoles on the other hand have gotten more complex and finicky to get working right over the years.  Consoles are still the simpler to use of the two though, that's certainly true.  On Steam's side, they do a pretty good job making sure you don't have to muck around with much.  I imagine the next XBox will be similarly well designed.  Alright, as much as I rail against MS these days, and for what I think are good reasons, it's nice that their OS "just works" these days.  Across SO MANY hardware combinations, that's a tough thing to manage.  I say that, but now that they're using AI coding for certain parts, they haven't exactly had a good track record of "just working" the past two years.  Yet another place to pluck that unfit tech from.  I only bring that up to mention that while Linux is far more usable than it's ever been, and WINE also has grown leaps and bounds, it's still not at the "just works, don't even think about it" stage.