Each week Sony brings PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable owners new content, add-ons, games and more. PlayStation LifeStyle catalogs the PlayStation Store updates for the major regions across the globe. This is a special Friday edition.
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
"trying to make do in a way it was never meant to be played"
I disagree. The accessories were a fun gimmick (and very marketable) but they were added AFTER the genre had been well established with games like Frequency and Amplitude (both also made by Harmonix).
The gameplay formula is different on a controller - there's a focus on switching lanes and contributing to all of the instruments.
Never played Frequency, but Amplitude and Rock Band Blitz were really good. I would love to get more of that kind of game. It's basically a different part of the genre, and stands on its own.
The insurmountable difference in popularity between Amplitude and Rock Band proves my point
Popularity isn't proof of quality. If it was, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now. lol. Our disagreement wasn't over which one is more popular. Amplitude and Blitz just aren't "torture" to play.
Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live failed to revive their sub-genre, and Rock Band 4 caused Mad Catz to have to file for bankruptcy. Doesn't mean that instrument-based music games are bad.
It does mean that there's too much overhead and risk for anyone to take a gamble on a big budget game that needs instrument accessories now though.
For the genre to thrive, for now, it needs to do so without the instrument accessories. That's just a fact, unfortunately.
VR games like Beat Sabre (a new sub-genre) and traditional music games make more sense and are more viable right now.
*"If quality is always proved by popularity, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now."
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
The only issue I ever had with any of the hardware was the drum pedal on the original rock band set stared to crack in half. The reason I, and other friends I know who played, lost interest is they weren't putting out new tracks that we were interested in anymore. I think earlier this year I looked through the releases for the last 2 years or so, and there was maybe 3 songs I would have bought.
Yeah I had this happen too with my drum controller, I ended up attaching a metal strip to it which fixed it up nicely.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
Dynasty Warriors has been around for two decades and has more than enough games to prove it.
Digital Foundry : Evolution Studios' Motorstorm is one of the first, finest and most fondly remembered of launch titles for PlayStation 3. It's a release designed to answer the question posed by each new console generation: what makes a game 'next-gen'? With its robust physics engine and massive tracks, Motorstorm serves up a bold affirmative answer to this question, delivering an experience that could never have existed on prior console hardware. At the same time, the path to release was fraught with challenges that almost serve as a microcosm of the PlayStation 3 release situation itself. It was a success, however, with a trilogy of PS3 releases, plus PSP, Vita and even PS2 off-shoots.
After Driveclub and Onrush, the dev team will now contribute to and assist with the development of the upcoming NFS.
I would give anything to have a full compilation of the series remastered to play on PS5 with full DS support. Feeling the deformation of the tracks as you race in pacific rift or the snow laden tracks in arctic edge... that would be sweet.
Yes MotorStorm World Tour for PS5 damn it Sony make it. The Desert, Pacific Islands, The Arctic and City races.
Motorstorm Pacific rift was awesome! I think MotorStorm: Apocalypse was what killed the franchise due to its change of direction...
Pacific rift is the best (IMO) but apocalypse wasnt what killed it. At least it was still somewhat of a MS game. The RC one is really a departure from the norm. None of which were bad as they were all fun in their own ways.
RC was a blast to play on Vita.
Apocalypse had unfortunate timing due to the 3/11 earthquake in Japan. I never got around to playing that one.
Evolution had some harsh experiences. I had Driveclub from launch and the server issues weren't that bad and certainly didn't prevent you from enjoying the game.
Agree Apocalypse didn't kill it, it's just racing games in general just became less popular nearing the end of the PS360 generation as it was flooded with medicore racers and the extremely niche but enjoyable ones like Motorstorm, Blur, Spilt Second, and Forza Horizon (still going strong, but actual sales have been decent fro a racer, and often expanded by console bundles and now GamePass)
But since the PS4/XBO generation had a lack of arcade racers, it's a prime time for games like this to come back.
I've said for the longest, the additional income of PS+ Premium should be used for, Remastering, Remaking, or recreating sequels / spinoffs of classic PS franchises to launch into the service. Many PS3 games fit this mold of looking good enough that a quick remaster to 4K@60 with better texture maps would give them near PS4 quality.
Remasters: A game like Motorstorm look good enough where it can simply be remastered in 4K @ 60fps, and have better textures for mud, mountains/rock structures, and vehicles and it would hold up WELL.
Remakes: Games like Legend of Dragoon, Warhawk (could be a simple remaster also), and so many others could get remakes like FF7.
Recreates: Shorter sequels/prequels/spin-offs to other classic PS IPs like how Infamous First Light / Blood Festival (BF was a highly underrated vampire game) and Uncharted Lost Legacy. Give spin-offs to things like Heavenly Sword, The Order 1886 (1786 or 1986), Puppeteer, Tokyo Jungle, and more.
This is also why Sone NEEDS to get PS3 emulation up and running. It gets rid of all the PS3 server farms and replaces it with software that can work on EVERY future PS console with updated coding.
At bare minimum emulation could double the resolution and framerates of all PS3 games making many of them 1440p@60fps without any real work, and a few 4k@60fps.
As for full-on remakes again updating to 4K@60fps with completely revamped textures, and an option for 1440p@60fps with global illumination can make these games shine with a new lease on life.
Also I'm still waiting on my DriveClub 1440p@60fps update 😭
Apocalypse was actually pretty good i don't think that's what killed the series. PR was the best though.
I was late to PS3 and Pacific Rift was the first game I picked up on it... huge miss to not have one on PS4, hope it gets some love on PS5 (as well as Ridge Racer and Wipeout).
Never really got into it myself I remember getting it with ps3 and being a bit underwhelmed I preferred the RC version they did for vita 🙌🏻🤣
Going from ps2 to ps3 was not underwhelming when I first played motorstorm, it was like nothing we'd ever seen before ?
Each to their own didn’t like it myself. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;I didn’t say going from ps2/3 was underwhelming just the launch game motorstorm, bit different but hey ho.
PS3 was a slow burner for me it’s my least favourite Sony console, maybe as I had my 360 as my main at that point but yeah wasn’t impressed with first couple of years to be honest but that’s just me. Once uncharted MGS4 GT5 Last of us GTA4/5 dropped sure but launch games weren’t all that imo. Resistance was alright wasn’t as big a change as ps4 or even now ps5 for me. PS3 took out rumble and basically went HD it’s wasn’t exactly a revolutionary start. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;
I forgot all about the update today. With all the 'Welcome Back' news floating around, this almost flew under the radar.
DCUO is dropping in price by 10 bucks :D
Sweet!
I cant access the PStore