Shadow and Flame with Magik

Making all types of buzz is Mark Cenry’s interview with Wired.

https://www.wired.com/story/exclusive-sony-next-gen-console/

The most exciting news for me is that the next Sony console, most likely titled, PlayStation 5 (PS5), is going to be backwards compatible.  That’s awesome news!  I most likely won’t get a PS5 until the following year it is out.  Like, it will come out say Black Friday 2020, and I won’t even be tempted to get it until Black Friday 2021.  Well, tempted, isn’t the right word.  I’ll be tempted to get it immediately but there won’t be any way I’ll get one until the next year.

I do like how Cerny states PS5 won’t be out this year, which is nice.  Next year is PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary, so I’m sure there is some marketing guru who really wants to advertist PS25 and have the 2 fade away and bold the 5 as it slowly moves towards the PS.  It practically writes itself!

I also like how Cerny uses Spider-Man as the example game to showcase what the PS4 can do and what the next console can do with load times and fast travel times.

Cerny stating the PS4’s PSVR headset will also work with the PS5, is also amazing news!

There is a lot of comments over at the PS4 subreddit covering a wide range of topics such as price points and what type of specs are going to go into the system.

 

Redditor, Trav_Hogan, perfectly summarized the article (it is like three pages, if you have the time to read it).

TL;DR

– Not coming in 2019 but developers have been working with the console for some time now.

– 8-Core AMD CPU using 7nm Zen 2 microarcitecture and a variant of Radeon’s Navi family supporting ray tracing. Chipset also includes 3D Audio support. Can produce graphics up to 8K.

– SSD that is specifically designed for the console that potentially makes load times 19x faster. Also has real time in-game benefits such as much smoother streaming in open world games.

– Will have a disc drive.

– Current PSVR headset will be compatible with PS5.

– PS5 will be backwards-compatible with PS4.

– Death Stranding is highly alluded to being a cross-generation title. (Speculation)

– PlayStation will have a cloud-streaming strategy that will become clearer in the future.

I used to be more of a tech guy but the thread has been a learning experience with what the latest SSD cards can do and pretty much everything that exactly is needed to run a console.

People are commenting that it sounds like a real powerhouse of a system, especially if it can run on 8K and most advanced TVs are 4K that the PS4Pro can run on, so it sounds like it could be a pretty penny.  We bought ours from Costco on Black Friday 2017 for $299 and that seems pretty reasonable.  I’ll be willing to wait until the PS5 is in its midcycle before purchasing it if it means we had to wait for it to come down to $299 from $499.  I have never bought a console the first it is out, not even the Wii Plus.

The really nice thing is that, if we keep our PS Plus subscription active (and I hope we do!), we’ll be getting free PS5 games and enjoying some amazing PS4 games, that will be just given away at that point.

People have long memories as I don’t recall the PS3 being priced at $500 when it first came out but we also bought it off a college kid for like $200 and he gave us a slew of games and a complete Guitar Hero set that included drums.  But bless those early adopters and their wallets.

Then again, it being backwards compatible, does make me feel like it will be safe to move to the next system relatively quickly too.  Which I’m sure is what Sony wants me to think.

.  .  .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cerny

I hadn’t heard of Mark Cerny before, so I checked and of course he has a Wikipedia page.  He was one of the main architects of the PS4 and the Vita, so it makes sense that he would be so involved with the PS5.

Also, on a fun note, he was the game director and writer of Knack, which I’ve enjoyed and he has a close working relationship with Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games.

.  .  .

Walker Dennis and I have beaten the first Lego Movie game and he’s been nice enough to give me the green light to try to obtain the rest of the trophies on my own.  He’s helped a lot with most of them, the ones I knew he might not want to sit through was trying to obtain the final five trophies.  Obtain all the pairs of pants (we just need two more), purchase all red bricks (we’re down to our final four), and collect all of the golden manuals (we only have two levels completely done).  He’s helped getting some of these already but now it is just a matter of cleaning up the rest.  There is also a trophy for building all 15 items in the Bonus World that we earn by collecting all of the golden manuals (each level has five pieces of one manual) and I figure it would be fun to just let him build all 15 of those and then he would be present for when we earn the Platinum.  Since I’ve been so focus on these collectibles, I haven’t played any other games.

I’m getting pretty excited to finally buy the Lego Marvel Collection.  It occurred to me that I should trade in our XBox 360 and original Wii to GameStop when they do another one of those double credits events for consoles.  I know we won’t get much for them, but even if we earn back a total of ten dollars, we’ll be that much closer to our goal.  I can usually save $40 pretty easy but then Walker gives me those big brown eyes of his and I usually end up buying him some Lego set or some other silly item.

So those are some of my standing goals.  I’ll get back to Batman : The Enemy Within one of these days.

.  .  .

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/vue/game-of-thrones/

PlayStation has teamed up with HBO to promote a little known show called, Game of Thrones.  There are three events that you can get three sets of avatars and a pretty cool dragon dynamic theme.

The house avatars were nice and I will never use actor avatars but it is nice to get them.  They slowly rolled these out with the house avatars being on Friday, then the actor ones on Saturday and the theme with bonus avatars on Sunday.  Which makes sense and all I wanted was the theme.

That and I really want that TellTale Game of Thrones game.  I couldn’t get my wife interested in it as she didn’t quite recognize the House Forrester or Ironrath.

I’m only at the beginning of Season Two and I have to catch up while our current HBO subscription lasts.  My wife doesn’t think she can watch two seasons at the same time, which I get, but I’m not sure if I can watch it on my own.  She saw the first episode of Umbrella Academy and wants me to watch it so we can watch it together but I don’t think I can do it as I’m just enjoying my gaming time.  I should just make time or do an every other night, either play a game or watch a show, and do that until I’ve seen Legion Season Two, the first Umbrella Academy episode and maybe a few episodes of Game of Thrones but that all seems pretty ambitious.  Plus, all of the shows I have saved in my Netflix queue.

.  .  .

PlayStation Store Deals that I’m aware of thanks to psprices.com :

Burnout Paradise Remastered is 75% off for PS Plus subscribers at $4.99 and 65% off at $6.99 for non-subscribers from $19.99
God of War is 40% off at $29.99 down from $49.99
Fallout 76 Tricentinnial Edition is 35% off at $51.99 down from $79.99
Kingdom Come : Deliverance is 33% at $39.99 down from $59.99 and BestBuy has it at 26% off at $29.99

Squares for the Vita remains at $4.99 and Ms. Pac-Man stays at $3.99, my two cheapest games that if I had a spare nine dollars, I’ll snatch both of them up right now.  I really should just buy Burnout Paradise Remastered as $4.99 is as cheap as it has ever been.

Pretty much any game over ten dollars is too rich for my blood but those seem like good prices for those games.  I suspect dog companions are never coming to Fallout 76 but one day, it will be a $20 game and I’ll probably get it at that point.  By then, all of the bugs should be worked out right?  Also, when it becomes a $20 game, is probably when a new batch of characters will be joining so I won’t be the only level 5 guy walking around new to the world.

.  .  .

https://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/cast/216124/

We watch Survivor, Big Brother, and Amazing Race through the CBS All Access app, so I haven’t been shown any advertising for Amazing Race 31.  We also don’t get to see the episodes until the next day but I just learned that Amazing Race aired last night!  So hopefully we can watch it tonight.

Britney Haynes, my all time favorite Big Brother House Guest (from seasons 12 and 14!) is teaming up with Janelle who was on Big Brother 6, All Stars (7), and 14.

They are taking on fellow Houseguests, former Survivors, and former Amazing Racers.  I can’t believe Britney is only 30!  No wonder she looks as great as she does and after three kids too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_31

From Big Brother is Fruit Loop Dingus, Nicole and her fiance Victor, also from Big Brother.

The Reilly Sisters, Rachel (for a third season of Amazing Race) and Elissa.

The only Survivors I recognize is Rupert and his lovely wife, Laura.  I’m sure I recognize the other two groups’ faces but there isn’t any connections there.

Same for the Racers, I recognize their faces and I like the two sets of friends from their previous seasons.

Should be a pretty grand season, no real jerks and I don’t watch the show for any drama, I just want them to compete.  Sort of like how I watch Survivor, the camp stuff isn’t the thing I’m most interested in, I stop looking at my phone to watch the competitions and then I stop for the tribal discussion.  Everything else is just misdirection and editing, which is misdirection for the most part.

Though I do like to see the teams interacting as there is a huge aspect of Amazing Race’s production that I wished I knew more about.  Like, I wouldn’t mind a documentary series that shadows the main series for a season just to see what it really is like to race.

I would love to be on Big Brother and Amazing Race is a close second.