Playstation Now Catch-All

I got curious and bought a 4 hour rental of Final Fantasy XIII on my PlayStation TV. It's a game I own on disc, and I rented it so that I could do a sort of side-by-side comparison of playing the game locally versus streaming it.

I have to say that if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't know that it was being streamed. It looks great and plays as smoothly as if I were playing it on a PS3. Which, in a sense, I am, because you pretty clearly just remotely connect to a PS3 to play. You can even open a trimmed down version of the XMB. But there's no notable lag, no artifacting, and no stuttering. You just play the game. (It's even a little preferable to the PS3 in some ways because there's none of the deafening fan noise my George Foreman PS3 pumps out.)

From hitting the Start button to the game loading took about 30 seconds. That's not ideal but not painful, either. I hope the release version of the software does things up by not doing a connection test every time you launch a game.

The only real downside is that you can't pop out to the PS TV/Vita home menu without quitting your streaming game. You can suspend the PS Now app itself but can't suspend the game at all. I'm not surprised, though.

All in all, I'm really impressed and will certainly be taking advantage of renting games I'm uncertain of or am not interested in owning. And if the only Sony console you own is a Vita or PS4, this is a great option.

(And if they were to add PS2 games to the service, I'd be a really happy camper. Better if we could run them locally, of course, but the streaming is really good.)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I have to say that if you didn't tell me, I wouldn't know that it was being streamed. It looks great and plays as smoothly as if I were playing it on a PS3. Which, in a sense, I am, because you pretty clearly just remotely connect to a PS3 to play. You can even open a trimmed down version of the XMB.

I have no inside knowledge, but I feel certain it must be a virtual machine, and they don't actually have racks of PS3s. But it's nice that they can imitate it well.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm thinking about asking a buddy to borrow his PS3 and find used copies of the Uncharted series. It probably wouldn't cost much different and the save issue would be avoided.

Oh wow, thanks for that link! Cool!

New games this week: Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 3, and Mirror's Edge. After a couple months of mostly indie games that were on every platform already, that's a nice selection of high-end games, albeit older ones.

Not sure where to put this, since it is a bit of a crossing of the streams, but...

Playstation Now coming to PC

Cool! I don't need it, but it's a nice way for some people to access lots of the PS3 catalog without owning a PS3 or PS4.

That article also mentioned PS4 remote play for your PC. I wasn't aware that was a thing. Saves you from buying a Vita if you don't want to fight over the main TV with whoever you live with.

So I'm on the trial for this. Using my 360 controller and it works just fine. Can't play journey since it uses motions controls sadly. Beat it before but it is a favorite of mine. Also the audio is not very good. Thought it was my connection but from what I read they just have it at low quality. Will see if I'm not board after 7 days.

master0 wrote:

So I'm on the trial for this. Using my 360 controller and it works just fine. Can't play journey since it uses motions controls sadly. Beat it before but it is a favorite of mine. Also the audio is not very good. Thought it was my connection but from what I read they just have it at low quality. Will see if I'm not board after 7 days.

I thought Journey had an option to change camera control to the second analog. I'd check under options if I were you Im almost positive this was added during the original launch.

Rave wrote:
master0 wrote:

So I'm on the trial for this. Using my 360 controller and it works just fine. Can't play journey since it uses motions controls sadly. Beat it before but it is a favorite of mine. Also the audio is not very good. Thought it was my connection but from what I read they just have it at low quality. Will see if I'm not board after 7 days.

I thought Journey had an option to change camera control to the second analog. I'd check under options if I were you Im almost positive this was added during the original launch.

Yeah. I even think the PS4 version removed or at least hid the motion control aspect.

Ps4 version had analog control by default for sure, I just played it 2 months ago. Motion may have also just worked can't remember. Either way I'm sure there is an option on the PS3 version. I am curious how uncharted one works without it or if it does. I know balancing and grenade throwing used the sixaxis.

Yeah the sound is really the only issue I have with the streaming and it's completely understandable I guess, the games only stream in stereo. That said I've been a subscriber off and on for over a year (currently subbed) and I think the value is great. I've always been the type that jumps around game to game rarely sticking with any one thing for to long, this allows me to do that guilt free. They have a really good library of games now as well, if the get the tales games eventually ill be set. I wonder if they would ever do ps2 or ps1 games I think they have a lot of he must play games for PS3 and wonder how much longer they can keep things feeling fresh on it. It's great that this came to PC, I have a friend who has never owned a PlayStation console and is going to try it out this weekend. Can't wait to hear what he thinks.

If only Nintendo offered the same service!

Yesterday was actually the first time I was kinda disappointed actually was dying to get into Ni No Kuni and the network went down for a few hours, really wished I actually owned the game at that point. Oh well.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Rave wrote:
master0 wrote:

So I'm on the trial for this. Using my 360 controller and it works just fine. Can't play journey since it uses motions controls sadly. Beat it before but it is a favorite of mine. Also the audio is not very good. Thought it was my connection but from what I read they just have it at low quality. Will see if I'm not board after 7 days.

I thought Journey had an option to change camera control to the second analog. I'd check under options if I were you Im almost positive this was added during the original launch.

Yeah. I even think the PS4 version removed or at least hid the motion control aspect.

Thanks for that. Got it working with the 360 no problem. Wound up beating Journey for the fifth time. Still an amazing game. Thinking about renting for a month or two. Want to beat the atelier dusk game. Bunch of other small fun stuff as well.

Thinking about giving this a go. Is it working well with everyone who has tried it? I hope they get demon souls up soon. Main reason I want some sore of PS access

I mentioned in another thread I believe but this service became a bit of a let down. It's great for selection and price is fair, but unfortunately they remove games month to month. It wouldn't be so bad if you had a last chance section so you could try to finish up games, but there isn't.

They had a lot of Ubisoft games on the network and made a big deal about it, then 3 months later out of no where removed all the games. Now I have a few games I'll never finish. There are so many RPGs I wanted to try but knowing I will never finish them within a month and risk losing the game really took the wind out of my sails, I can't enjoy the service now makes me anxious.

If you'rethe type that can really just hone in on one game and finish it within a month you will probably like it. Technically it works really well.

PlayStation Now discontinued on everything but PS4 and PC. Service for the Vita, PS TV, Sony Bluray players, and Samsung TVs will end in mid-August. Sony Bravia TVs are getting the axe at the start of April.

I just tried out PSNow via my Vita last night

Not really bothered though because I wasn't planning on doing more than the 7-day trial. Still too expensive in my opinion. At least for the amount I would use it.

OK, I'm tempted to give this a go seeing as a) I've never owned a PS-anything before and b) there are some classics I want to try out (Red Dead Redemption, God of War...). How often are they removing games like this?

UMOarsman wrote:

OK, I'm tempted to give this a go seeing as a) I've never owned a PS-anything before and b) there are some classics I want to try out (Red Dead Redemption, God of War...). How often are they removing games like this?

It's completely at random, it seems to always be at the end of a month cycle so atleast you know that you have till the end of the month. They won't give you a heads up on which games, it could be a game they added and made a big deal of the month before and then they will pull it. The Ubisoft games had a huge advertising push and a big deal was made in like October and by December they were all gone again.

This might not be a huge deal breaker for some people. I have trouble getting into a game knowing I may not have access to it again if I can't beat it within a month though.

Keeping in mind that saves don't seem to be cross compatible, so it's not like you'd be able to start the game on disc if it's removed. So you'd be starting fresh again. Not bad for some games but long ass RPGs no thanks.

*edit the end of my post made no sense so I edited it to be more comprehensible. It was early when I posted...

Thanks, Rave - good food for thought.

Rave wrote:

*edit the end of my post made no sense so I edited it to be more comprehensible. It was early when I posted...

Made sense to me

PS4 games added to PlayStation Now:

  • Killzone Shadow Fall
  • God of War 3 Remastered
  • Saints Row 4: Re-Elected
  • WWE 2K16
  • Tropico 5
  • F1 2015
  • Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition
  • Evolve
  • MX vs ATV Supercross Encore
  • Resogun
  • Helldivers
  • Broken Age
  • Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition
  • Grim Fandango Remastered
  • Guilty Gear Xrd Sign
  • Castlestorm Definitive Edition
  • Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky
  • Arcania Complete Tale
  • Nidhogg
  • Super Mega Baseball

Huh. That's interesting.

I can't imagine trying to play Guilty Gear through an online connection.

Looks like they added the ability to download PS4 games from PlayStation Now back in September. I've resubscribed and have been very happy with it as both a source for downloaded games and streaming ones. It's nice to stream a game to see what I think of it before I commit to the time and bandwidth to download it.

Newly added this month:

  • Baja Edge of Control HD
  • Battle Chasers: Nightwar
  • Destroy All Humans! (PS2)
  • Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2)
  • Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2
  • Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (PS2)
  • LocoRoco Remastered
  • Mafia 3
  • Steep
  • Vikings: Wolves of Midgard
  • World to the West

That puts about 180 PS4 games on the service, plus they're saying almost 700 overall.