W♥M

Weekend Gamer Update: Labor Day

Weekend Gamer Update:

Read More Games Can you believe it? Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on the PC. I paid full price ($60) for this game in Oct 2020, and have played a demo or early access of the game. I maxed out my character, and have patiently waited for the full …

Baldur’s Gate 3

After over 60 hours, I finally made it to Act II. There are three acts in the game, and each Act, I felt could have been sold as three different games.

Act I set up the story and throws you in the outskirts Baldur’s Gate. All signs points to Baldur’s Gate, so the goal is to travel there… but getting there is harder than it looks. Act I basically is a giant tutorial on how to play the game. You have to solve the goblin crisis, the grove, and help inhabitants along the way. I tried to complete everything in the first part: killing the hag, killing the giant spider, saving Halsin … and murdering every goblin!

Act II, you are given several choices to get to Baldur’s Gate 3. You can travel through the underdark, you can try to go through Githyanki, and finally through the cursed land. Your companions’ stories also unfolds, with Lae’zel’s story the most compelling to me. Her entire belief turned upside-down… and even her god, the undying queen, is out to kill her.

Shadowheart’s story is no slack either… you have to make some hard decisions to keep her in your party, because fighting her will result in her leaving your party. You’re given an impossible decision to save both Shadowheart and the Nightsong… and, there is a way to save both of them! My first play, Shadowheart kills Nightsong. After reloading the previous save, I confronted Shadowheart and she got angry and left! I’m sorry, we can’t have that, because she’s my only cleric and a useful one at that! Finally, after various choices, I was able to reason with Shadowheart and as a result, save both of them! It’s the best scenario… however, I know most players will just “go with the flow” and continue the game.

Anyway, currently, I’m about 100 hours into the game… and I finally got to Act III! It’s been a long journey, and I have a feeling that it’ll end up being 150 hours when I finally finish the game. And when I see the credits roll… the first thing I want to do is start another game, with a different character build!

For those who are interested in checking out the game, I wholly recommend it.

Read More PlayStation For the lowest priced, PS+ Essential, you only get three or four “free” monthly games… and the ability to play online games, just like the original PlayStation Plus. For $3 more, you can get PS+ Extra, which includes the monthly “free” games …

PlayStation

With the extra-long Labor Day weekend, that means more weekend gaming for me. Originally, my plans were to see Soul Asylum at the Minnesota State Fair, but having walked about 10 miles on the Second Day of the Fair and seeing that this weekend is going to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit… I think it’s probably in my best interest to stay indoors and keep cool.

With the Labor Day weekend here, there’s actually a lot of sales going on right now. GOG is having an Autumn 2023 Sale, which includes the original Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Cyberpunk, The Witcher, etc. A good sale, unfortunately, I own all those great games, so there’s not much for me… but if you are interested in those games, get it on sale and try them out.

Steam has a PlayStation sale… including, for the first time, a sale on The Last of Us Part 1. The game launched poorly on PC, and I wasn’t really didn’t love the television show… so I haven’t exactly been excited to re-play the game again. I bought the game when it was on the PS3, and re-bought the game for PS4. Do I really want to get it again for the PC? I probably will get it… but who knows.

Speaking of Sony, they recently announced a huge price hike in their PlayStation Plus subscription, with their premium plan going from $120 to $160. What do you get for the extra $40? Absolutely nothing.

On top of that, with the recent useless $200 PlayStation Portal (a tiny screen to stream games locally from your PlayStation 5), I’m not a PlayStation fan at the moment. I’m glad I never bought a PlayStation 5, instead going with Xbox for this (and next) generation.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer and Technology.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

The Last of Us

Read More The Last of Us As for The Last of Us, I'm in the middle of the game right now. It's hard. The clickers are impossible to kill, basically one attack will kill you right away. Having said that, the play style is a lot more fun than Beyond: Two Souls ....

The Last of Us
hbo.com

I love the video game The Last of Us, probably my personal Game of the Year in 2018 for the PS3. The game was so good, that I re-purchased it for the PS4. I probably would’ve have bought the PS5 version if it wasn’t so hard to find the Sony console. I kid, I saw one at a retail store, but am waiting for a “slim” or new version. I absolutely hate the look and massive size of the current PS5 console (I think it’s ugly).

I love the game, I know the story well, so I’m very interested in this HBO Max’s television show based on the game.

I just saw the pilot, and there are some sequences that are straight out of the video game. Of course, the show made some changes to the story, like adding more store to Joel’s daughter. It’s weird, but the show cast a girl that doesn’t look (or mix race?) anything like Joel. As for Ellie, they also cast the girl from Game of Thrones… and she doesn’t look anything like the girl in the game. Personally speaking, I would have preferred they casted someone who looked like Ellen Page. I get it, they cast people who can act, but it’s just my personal preference to have them look exactly like the characters in the game.

I think whenever they lifted the scenes from the game, I’m very happy. It’s when the show decides to change things or add stories and characters that has nothing to do with the game, that’s when I’m not interested. There’s enough from the game that I think the pilot does a good job in setting up the story.

As for the story, if you’ve never played the game, it’s about how this fungus destroyed the human race. It’s somewhat based on real life fungus that would take over ants and control them, like puppets. Anyway, this random girl, Ellie, may hold the key to saving humanity, and it’s up to Joel to transport her across the country. It’s a simple story, I don’t know if they can stretch it out to more than one or two seasons.

Here is my fear: I haven’t played the sequel to The Last of Us, but I’ve heard fans absolutely hated the game. According to these gamers, they made Joel into a bad guy and everybody revolted against it. So my fear is that fans will absolutely hate Season 2 or something. I don’t know, I haven’t played the second game, so I’m reserving judgement.

I am excited enough that I may re-buy The Last of Us for the PC when it is available on Steam (which I previously mentioned will be available Mar 3, 2023).

Update: Now that I’ve seen up to Episode 3 of The Last of Us, I thought I would share my opinion on what I’ve seen so far.

Of the three episodes, I think Episode 2 is by far the best. That’s because it’s so close to the game, that I’m really happy how it turned out.

I hated Episode 3, because it had nothing to do with Joel & Ellie. For whatever reasons, the show creators devoted a whole 70 minutes to two random characters Bill and Frank. Look, it’s a beautiful love story… but it didn’t really fit into the grand story! I wish HBO Max would have made this episode a “special”, I wouldn’t have an issue with it. Instead, I’m spending so much time with Bill & Frank, and it’s all for nothing! Maybe they could have cut the time in half and devote half the episode to Tess?

In the video game, you do meet one of these characters, but it’s a totally different story. In the game, the two hated each other.

Of course my opinion on Episode 3 is in the minority… as the whole world seemed to love this episode.

I’m hoping Episode 4 goes back on track and we can see those deadly fungus creatures and more action.

The show is doing so well that they’ve already announced a Season 2!

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Steam Winter Sale 2022

Read More Steam There’s no more waiting… You can now buy Steam Deck, right now, without reservation. According to steampowered, it’s been more than a year since it was first announced, but due to numerous supply chain issues and …

Here are three reasons why you would want to invest in buying games on Steam:

1. You can play your games on any PC or Linux… this includes my PC, laptop, and Steam Deck. If you buy your games on Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch, you’ve locked your games on their system.

2. All “Exclusive” games on the PlayStation and Xbox will eventually be available on Steam. This means the PC is the only place you can play both Halo and God of War. Note that Sony only decided to make their games available on Steam starting last year… which is the smartest decision they’ve ever made. Even exclusive games on the Switch can be played on your PC through emulation. It’s not legal, but it’s the only way you can play Nintendo games on your computer.

3. Games are dirt cheap, as evident in the Steam Winter Sale that kicked off today (December 22). You can get hundred of games for less than $3. On top of that, you can also get packages, like from Humble Bundle which will save you even more!

Anyway, this year, I’ve barely keep it under $100, but here are some games I would recommend:

The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt - $7.99 (80% off)

DOOM Eternal - $9.99 (75% off)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection - $15.99 (60% off)

Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition - $16.49 (67% off)

God of War - $29.99 (40% off)

Elden Ring - $41.99 (30% off)

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Game of the Year: Elden Ring

Read More Elden Ring Yes, I’m finally playing Elden Ring, the game that literally everybody was playing in February 2022. The game went on sale on disc, so picked it up. I popped in the disc, expecting to play the game. Guess what? You can’t just put in a disc and play the game. ....

Ever since I started playing Elden Ring in September 2022, I knew this game was special. At first, you might get discouraged, but as you build up your character, you feel accomplished when you finally take down that boss!

Of all the games that came out in 2022, I really felt that Elden Ring was my personal game of the year.

As it turned out, the Game Awards also agreed with me, and gave Elden Ring the “Game of the Year” award as well. The game also won three other awards: “Best Game Direction”, “Best Art Direction”, and “Best Role Playing”. Its biggest competitor, God of War Ragnarök, the sequel to my game of the year 2018 God of War, won “Best Narrative”, “Best Score and Music (Bear McCreary)”, “Best Audio Design”, “Best Performance (Christopher Judge)”, “Best Action/Adventure”, and “Innovation in Accessibility”.

I personally haven’t played God of War Ragnarök as the game is on PS5 (which I don’t have) and it was only released in November 9, 2022. I’m sure the game is deserving of those awards, but it just seemed really unfair to release the game only weeks before the Game Awards… so it’s so fresh on everyone’s mind.

With the Game Awards over and done with, I’m excited to see how everyone loved Elden Ring … that it’s almost guaranteed to get a sequel. Of all the Souls-like games, I felt that Elden Ring is the best among them, thanks to the open world nature of the game.

If you follow what I have said in the past, I have disagreed with Sony and their greed. In additional to raising the PlayStation 5 prices, they’re releasing their new games at $69. New games on Xbox are $59 (or in some cases, free via Game Pass), and games on PC are $59 new. Sony wants $69 to be the normal price for “next gen” games. Let me speak for everyone, no one wants to pay $70 for a new game. Since I refused to get a PS5 (and being locked in that $70 per game pricing), I’m glad to see that Sony decided to release their PlayStation exclusive games on Steam, starting in Jan 2022 with their PS4 game God of War. I think the trend is good for Sony, as they’re seeing even more profit from having their games on the PC.

Since these PlayStation games are now available on Steam, I have purchased God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection, and Days Gone. Besides from GoW, I wouldn’t have bought or played these other games, if those games remain exclusively on their PlayStation … so, yeah, I’m glad Sony is moving their games outside of their PSN.

Even though I own The Last of Us on my PS4, I’ll probably re-buy it on Steam, as the game is now available for pre-order for Mar 3, 2023.

Returnal also has a listing, but no release date is set. I’m probably less interested in this game, but will likely pick it up if it’s on sale.

In other gaming news, Ubisoft has come back to Steam, with its game Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Dec 6, 2022. Ubisoft wanted to make money by force PC players to buy games directly from them, using their U-Play launcher. Unfortunately, PC gamers refused to buy it on U-Play, so Ubisoft has decided to bring their game back on Steam.

Enjoy,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Steam Deck: First Impressions

Read More Steam I’ve put down my $5 to preorder my Steam Deck. I decided to get the $400 entry model. I think that is a fantastic price, considering that I looked at similar handheld PCs, such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer, and they are usually $1,000 or more … Elden Ring Yes, I’m finally playing Elden Ring, the game that literally everybody was playing in February 2022. The game went on sale on disc, so picked it up. I popped in the disc, expecting to play the game. Guess what? … Cyberpunk For some odd reason, Best Buy, allowed me to pick up my pre-order for Cyberpunk 2077 video game for the PC. The game is not officially out until December 10, 2020, on a variety of platforms: Windows …

I’m so excited to finally get my hands on the Steam Deck

Downloading queue

As soon as I opened the case, I immediately booted it up and started downloading Elden Ring. On my slow hotspot connection, it was going to take 11 hours to download 50GB. In the meantime, I did download some smaller games to test out the unit, particularly older games like Galaga or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Those ran as I would expect: amazingly well. What I’m more interested in is if the Deck can handle modern graphically-intense games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk (which does not run well on the PS4).

What I’ve experienced so far, it’s a really good system. As you may or may not know, the SteamOS is actually running in Linux. What that means is that anything that can run on the Linux desktop mode, you can run it on the Steam Deck. So there are a lot of enthusiasts that have created various software to modify how Steam function and look.

I did briefly explore Desktop mode by changing some themes and downloading Firefox. It’s not a great experience on Desktop mode because the Steam Deck wasn’t designed to run in desktop. For example, after downloading Firefox, I couldn’t get the touchscreen keyboard to load up, and it was generally slow and not as responsive.

For most people, I suggest just sticking to the SteamOS. That’s what I’m going to do from now on (although it’s good to know that I can muck around with Linux if I get bored in the future).

The Steam Deck screen looks great. Games looks great on it. The audio is very loud and very good for its size. Controllers is good too. I like the D-Pad, I like the buttons. Some people complained that the Deck has a very loud fan. Maybe it’s just their device, but mine didn’t make that much noise. The Deck does get hot, and you can feel the heat leaving the vents on top and on the back.

The AMD Zen 2 CPU, combined with 16GB DDR5 and custom GPU, it’s very fast. Much faster than the Switch and better than the PS4. All this power needs a super fast charger, which Valve included out of the box: a 45-Watt charger.

The ability to use any hardware or software that is supported on Linux, you can truly use the Steam Deck as a desktop/laptop.

There are some minor complaints I have about the Steam Deck. I’m just nit-picking, they’re not really complaints, but more like what I hope can be improved in the next generation Steam Deck. I think the device is very big. Holding it, looking at it, I don’t really think it’s meant to be a pocketable handheld gaming device. It’s almost double the weight and size of the Nintendo Switch, and certainly much, much larger than the portable Switch Lite or the PlayStation Vita.

My Steam Games

I own over 300 games on Steam, but only about 80 of them are Deck Verified… which means they will run on the Deck without any issues. Some games will run on Steam Deck, but it’s not optimized for it. For example, some text might be too small to read on a small screen. So the problem is that developers needs to update their games to run on Steam Deck - and on older titles, that might not be possible.

I wish there was a cover over the MicroSD card reader. I accidentally ejected the card a few times, which I’m very worried about damaging my expensive 1TB SD card. It’s a valid concern. On my camera and one any phones that accepts MicroSD cards, there is a cover that keeps the card safe in its place.

I absolutely hate the two mousepads/touchpads on the Deck. I hated it on the Steam Controller, I absolutely hated it on the Deck. If they got rid of it to make the Deck smaller, I will co-sign that.

I also wish there was another USB-C on the bottom of the device. Right now, there is one USB-C port on top, so all the Docks designed for the Steam Deck looks … ugly. On the Switch, the USB-C is on the bottom, so you just “dock” it in the stand and voila, it’s charging and in its stand. Since the Steam Deck has the USB-C on top, it’s not as elegant. You have to bring up the chord and manually locate the USB-C and plug it in. Not great.

I wanted to buy a third-party Steam Deck Dock, but I’m waiting for the official Docking Station to be release. Valve is having some supply issues so they haven’t announced or released the Dock yet.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Steam Deck Update

Technical Specs Processor AMD APU CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz Storage 64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or x2) 512 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or x2) Display 7" - 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) Optically bonded IPS LCD Expansion UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K or 4K Read More Steam I’ve put down my $5 to preorder my Steam Deck. I decided to get the $400 entry model. I think that is a fantastic price, considering that I looked at similar handheld PCs, such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer, and they are usually $1,000 or more …

When I placed my $5 deposit to buy the Steam Deck in Aug 2022, I was convinced that I wouldn’t get it until 2023. I was so wrong.

I recently got the alert that I have three days to purchase the Steam Deck. So it took a little over a month to finally fulfill my order. It could be that someone else turned down their Steam Deck, due to disinterests, or the email went to a spam filter, or lack of funds, and I may have gotten their Steam Deck… or it could be that Steam really was ramping production to meet demand. Either way, I’m so excited to finally get my hands on this thing.

I bought the cheapest one, because all three version are basically the same device (same chip, same speed), with the only exception of storage. The cheap version comes with 64GB, but I can always expand it with an SD card.

Again, I have been shopping around at various hand-held devices, such as the OneXPlayer and Aya Neo, and they are all very expensive (about $1,000). The only advantage is that those devices runs the full Windows operating system by default, so you can play GOG or Epic games.

With the Steam Deck, you have to go through a lot of trouble to install Windows on the device. Since the hardware is so new, and Windows doesn’t really support it, getting Windows to run on the Steam Deck is difficult.

Now that I’m waiting for the Steam Deck to ship to me, I am shopping for some new Steam Games. I’m excited to see that Sony is making some of their PlayStation games available on Steam, including God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition. All of which are Steam Deck verified (meaning they will run on the Steam Deck without issues). Since I probably will never buy a PS5, these PS games are the only way that I’ll get to experience them.

Also, it’s laughable, but none of the PS games will install on my Steam Deck because they’re all over 64GB in size. I probably need to invest in a 1TB SD card ($140) or 512GB card ($70).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Elden Ring

Read More Demon’s Souls I was a bit surprise to hear that the 2009 Gamespot Game of the Year went to Demon's Souls. What was so surprising is that the game was hardly marketed here, I mean I didn't really see any advertisement for the game nor did I read any reviews …

Yes, I’m finally playing Elden Ring, the game that literally everybody was playing in February 2022. The game went on sale on disc, so picked it up. I popped in the disc, expecting to play the game. Guess what? You can’t just put in a disc and play the game.

The game required a 50GB download/update. This might be more common than you think, as sometime the game on the disc is actually not complete. For example, if there are cut scenes or files that are too large to fit on the disc, you need to download the missing components. It just basically suck, because you can’t really play games offline.

Having said that, I’ve been offline and playing the Elden Ring game, after that one-time 50GB update. In recent news (as of today): “Microsoft is making it easier to play games on your Xbox Series X, even if it’s offline — as of the 2208 update released earlier this month, you won’t be forced to do an online compatibility check to play a game from an Xbox One disc. Instead, you can just pop the disc in, install the game, and play; no internet connection required.”

That works out just fine for me, as currently I’m only connecting online via my iPhone’s internet connection on Visible Mobile.

As for Elden Ring, playing at first was overwhelming, as the game is open world and you can wander where you like. I like that sort of game play, but I found myself getting killed a lot and I didn’t really understand all the mechanics in leveling up or farming for “souls”. I’ve played other “souls” games, starting with Demon Souls on the PS3, so I’m familiar on how they work. To be honest, I’m surprised that this sort of role-playing/action game is beloved by so many gamers… as they are very hard game. They’re so hard, that I’ve never beaten any souls games. I like playing them, but man, I generally suck at my timing for defending and attacking.

What drew me into Elden Ring is that the software developer, FromSoftware, hired George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones) as writer. There’s actually not much of a story, but it’s clear that FromSoftware wanted a Western perspective/writing style to the game to appeal the Western market.

Anyway, I’ve been watching some masters at the game explain how you can level up faster and how they did it. It’s fascinating. You can go from level 1 to 100 in just an hour. There are obviously some exploits, but I didn’t think it was cheating.

Right now, I’m at level 15 and I’m still learning all the basics. I still suck at defense, but I’m enjoying what I already put into the game. From this point, I’m just going to take it easy and explore the world.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer Update (August 2022)

Read More Steam Weekend gamer here. This weekend, we will look at Steam’s Steam Deck (not to be confused with Elgato’s Stream Deck). For some months, I’ve been eyeing on the handheld AYA Neo as a … Nintendo Switch I’ve wanted the Nintendo Switch since I first heard about it last October 2016. The system launched in March 2017, but it immediately sold out everywhere. … Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online … Sony Still, you know I’m still somewhat interested in seeing the next generation of gaming consoles… and today, Sony showed up what the upcoming PS5 will look like. And holy crap, it is so ugly. …

It’s the weekend, and here’s your Weekend Gamer update.

I’ve put down my $5 to preorder my Steam Deck.

I decided to get the $400 entry model. I think that is a fantastic price, considering that I looked at similar handheld PCs, such as the Aya Neo and OneXPlayer, and they are usually $1,000 or more. Even though Steam said they are ramping up production, and it’s listed as delivery date of “October-December 2022”, but I doubt that I will get my Steam Deck until 2023. The company already announced they are working on a Steam Deck 2. I think the smart move is to just wait for the second version, as it will fix all the problems in the first version...

I think my main reason for wanting a portable PC game console is that increasingly I’m very unhappy with the performance of my Nintendo Switch. I recently launched Diablo II on the Switch and it was just unplayable. Whenever there are hundreds of enemies on screen, the Switch just crawls to a snail’s pace. The Switch desperately needs a refresh. Come on, it’s been five years already!

Also, after six months, I finally cancelled my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The main reason is that I honestly did not have the time to fully take advantage of Game Pass. I love the fact that I could I try out the full games that I normally wouldn’t pay money for... And for titles that would normally cost $60! It was a huge savings, but at the end of the day, I would just rather buy (and own) the games that I like. What I am trying say is that I end up just playing the games that I already paid for.

I had a problem with Game Pass removing some games when they end their license agreement with Xbox. It’s very frustrating to play a game one month and then come back a few months later only to find out that game is no longer accessible, because it left Game Pass.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Microsoft announced that they will no longer be offering free downloads to Xbox 360 games in their subscription services (they simply ran out of games to give away). The one saving grace of Game Pass was that you were allowed to keep one Xbox 360 game for free (yours to keep forever!)… and it was going away as of October 1st.

Having said all those negative things, I still believe Game Pass is worth that $10 (or $15), because if you just play one game, you’ve literally made up the price of admission. It is excellent value for the money... but I didn’t have the time for it. When I find myself with more free time, I will definitely reactivate my Game Pass.

The opposite of not good value is PlayStation 5, which is still impossible to find in retail stores. I’ve seen a lot of Xbox Series X in stores recently. I’ve yet to see one PS5 in stores. In a move that I think is a mistake, Sony announced that they are raising prices for the PS5. While the USA is not one of the region that is getting a price hike, the announcement does not bode well.

Everything I’ve researched about PlayStation 5, from ripping people off on digital games to extra $10 charge for PS5 games to Sony blocking games from Game Pass... it tells me that PlayStation is very anti-consumer and they are only interested in profits.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Game Pass is still amazing

Read More Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online Xbox games) …

One and a half month into Xbox Game Pass, I’m happy to report that it is an insane deal. It doesn’t even make any sense how MicroSoft is even making money off Game Pass… the value is just that good! Sure, some games do rotate out, but there’s still enough there to keep me in the service.

I’m not at all worried about Sony’s PS Plus service (coming in June 2022), which is basically their answer to Game Pass. As I previously pointed out in last month, they’re not going to include downloadable PS3 games. This is because the architecture is so different, that the PS5 or PS4 cannot run PS3 games. Sony’s solution is to let you stream those PS3 games - which is not an option for me. My internet is not great, and I think it’s a poor solution to Sony’s PS3 problem.

Anyway, back to Game Pass. I have so many games (it’s about 400 games available on Game Pass Ultimate), that I finally got around to trying Game Pass on the PC recently. While the experience wasn’t amazing: the Xbox App on the PC that I was under the age of 18 and put restrictions on what games I could download. That was an easy fix (but why was this a problem before?)

Then the Xbox App would not sign me in, no matter what I did. After rebooting my computer, it seemed to sign in fine now. Again, why was this a problem? I see that others experienced similar problem, especially after the App updated.

So… when you get the Xbox App to actually work, it’s pretty amazing! There are certain games that are available on the PC only, such as the latest Age of Empires IV, that I need the PC App to run. Again, I’m impressed that I’m playing these $60 games, for basically free… so long as I pay for that service.

I knew that MicroSoft said that my Xbox games will be available on the PC for free, if I purchased them, but I never looked into this as I didn’t really care that much. So imagine my surprise when I see that my Xbox games that I bought showed up on the Xbox App for the PC… meaning I now I have access to the PC version of some of these games. Now, that’s cool.

Going forward, I think I’ll only buy Xbox games, as it’s somewhat of a “two-for-one” deal for me (since the games will be available for me in two places).

One final thing about Game Pass that I didn’t know, until after I joined… it’s that you actually get to keep one or two games forever. Whatever the Xbox 360 games Game Pass/Games with Gold offers for the month, after you click on get for free, it’s yourself permanently. Seriously, I didn’t know that.

Sure the 360 games aren’t amazing (or are available for cheap), but I feel it’s such an added bonus, that I am more than happy to remain on the service for the time being.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

PlayStation Game Pass

Read More Xbox So, I joined Game Pass. There are two price points, the $10 per month pricing is strictly for Xbox games, and the $15, called Game Pass Ultimate includes PC, EA and Xbox Gold (you need this to play online Xbox games) …

Sony’s answer to Game Pass is finally here… at least in a pricing leak. According to Venture Beat, the new PlayStation Plus will include elements of PlayStation Now elements, with the three different tiers: Essential ($10), Extra ($13), and Premium ($16).

For the lowest priced, PS+ Essential, you only get three or four “free” monthly games… and the ability to play online games, just like the original PlayStation Plus.

For $3 more, you can get PS+ Extra, which includes the monthly “free” games and a game catalogue of “hundreds of older, downloadable games.”

For PS+ Premium, you get everything in Essential and Extra, plus the ability to stream PS Now games and access to “game trials” and “classic games”. To me, I read the game trial as simply a timed demo, so, to me, it’s a useless “feature”. I don’t know what the classic games will get you… maybe PlayStation One games?

The service hasn’t launched yet, but I’m curious to see how many games you will get compared to Game Pass. Currently my $15 Ultimate Game Pass gives me access to about 400 games. I don’t believe PlayStation will offer as much, but we’ll see. We do know, based on previous interviews and attitude, that new games won’t get day-one release on the PlayStation Plus service…. And that’s a real bummer. That just means that you only have access to old games.

With Game Pass, I have previously mentioned that there are only a few old games that I’m interested in checking out, the main draw for Game Pass are the new games, like Halo Infinite. I’ll be brutally honest, if Game Pass took away the new games, I know I wouldn’t bother with the service, that’s how important it is for them to include new games. If PlayStation Now Premium won’t include any new games, then I think it failed out of the gate.

There are so much we still don’t know about the new service - like will gamers have access to their PS3 games ? I still own some PS3 digital and disc games, and from what I know, I cannot play them on the PS4 and PS5 currently. With the upcoming service, I wonder if Sony will finally allow us access to our games? I hate to say it, but seeing as they up-charge $10 for PS4 to PS5 games, I wouldn’t put it pass greedy Sony to charge you $10 extra so you can play PS3 games you previously paid for.

That is the biggest difference that I’ve seen in this console generation… while Xbox won’t charge you for access to all your games (going back to the original Xbox). In fact, if you pop in an Xbox 360 disc, the new Xbox Series X will automatically download a playable version of that game (using Smart Delivery) and won’t charge you any money to play your game.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Sony do better. I do still own a PS4 and PS3, which are both currently de-powered as I haven’t used them for over a year. The way I see it, if I get a PS5, I don’t want to pay $10 for each PS4 games I own… and my PS3 games, that’s up in the air (as it’s currently not compatible with PS5).

I don’t even know why I’m so interested in the new PlayStation service, I guess what I’m more interested in is competition to Xbox Game Pass. It’ll be good to see what PS will bring to the table… and how Xbox can improve their service by seeing what PS has to offer.

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com