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Playstation Now: Your impressions

Mikey Jr.

Member
This thread is for PS Now control/image quality/general feelings impressions. This is NOT to discuss pricing, or why PS2/PS1 games are not on there, or "I won't subscribe until a Netflix model", or I haven't played it yet!

So if you rented a game, come in here and describe your experience. If possible, please state your internet connection stats when replying. It would give people a good idea on how well the game performed versus your internet connection.

So the beta has been open for a few days now. They updated their game selection quite a bit from the closed beta, so there were a few things that peaked my interest. But anyways...

1. So right off the bat, the PS Now store is kinda sloppy. The way games are shown is too large. I would like to see more games at a glance rather than having to scroll so much. Also, it shows the 4 hour pricing there. Is this to trick people? Show me 7 day rental prices. That is much more useful for me.

2. Renting was pretty simple. It was essentially the same as buying the game. No problems here. Also, it puts the game onto your XMB which I found really neat. So I can get into the game really quickly.

3. Starting the game was really quick. From purchase to menu was probably 30 seconds.

4. First game I rented was Catherine for a week. Controls seemed great. But then again, I was kinda skeptical because it was not a very fast paced game. Your just climbing up blocks. So it didn't really give a good judge of if PS Now was capable.
Having said that, I wish I didn't rent this game. Don't like it at all. I like the game parts where your NOT playing the game, like cheating on my GF and stuff. Thats fun. The puzzles part pisses me off. I am just not good at puzzle games and get aggravated easily.
This is where an hour option would have been useful. Let me play for 1 hour for X amount, to see if I like it. ohh well. A refund option would be kinda nice too. Play for half an hour. If you like it, your card is charged. If you stop, then your card is not charged. The refund option gets removed from that game forever to prevent abuse. (Sorry, wasn't supposed to discuss pricing). I'll discuss graphics in the next game because I feel slower type games usually look better, you know, without a lot of fast moving stuff.

5. Next game I rented was Darksiders 2. Loved DS1, and DS has a lot of fast moving action, so this should test the capabilities in my opinion. Heard bad stuff about this game, but for $7 for a week, I felt ok about it.

The graphics: There will be a difference between disc and streaming for sure, but having said that, it looked good. Someone described it as high quality twitch which sounds right. But yeah, lots of fast moving objects, and the picture quality stayed good. It really never was a distraction. There is compression though.

The controls: Now this part is surprising. The lag seems to be incredibly low. I was killing dudes, dodging, using skills, no problems. Brad from Giant Bomb said the best indicator that the service works is if you forget you are streaming the game. He's right. When I finished, I remembered I was streaming the game. Kinda blew my mind. I was playing a streamed game and I forgot I was doing it.

Audio: Sorry, no idea. Sounded fine, but I'm not an audiophile, so its hard to give an opinion on that.



Conclusion: Overall, very happy. Darksiders 2 seems very playable. And the week option is great. That is the perfect game time for me. I hop from game to game, so a week will hold my interest for this game.

I will use the service again, hopefully they will expand the catalog to include more first party as well, of course as well as PS2 and PS1 eventually which I am more excited about.

And just so you know, I live in Ontario Canada, and my internet is 25mbps, with 2 upload. According to PS4 connection test, my down is 22.6 and up is 1.8 over wireless.
 

The Lamp

Member
I'm very happy as well. Rented Stranger's Wrath in the Beta and was very pleased with the quality. Believe.
 
I don't know what exactly is par for the course but the video quality was what I would consider a bare minimum for streaming. Lag is noticeable but doesn't get in the way. Audio was extremely compressed. All in all I probably will not be playing games this way ever. I just prefer things to look and sound the way they should. Streams just don't do it for me.

30/5, 11ms
 

freefornow

Member
And just so you know, I live in Ontario Canada, and my internet is 25mbps, with 2 upload. According to PS4 connection test, my down is 22.6 and up is 1.8 over wireless.

OP, I think you should make this a requirement to state your connection stats when posting comments in this thread. Maybe add it to the header of your post?

Only a suggestion. May provide context to some posts
 
Wireless performance varied. I have 50 mb down and 3mb up, game wasnt the best looking though the PS4 is quite far from the router. Wired, the games run fine. Even Ninja Gaiden 2 was perfect, and El Shaddai is amazing. so far it's pretty good, I hope similar performance is available on the vita for PS2 classics when the time comes.
 
Here's my posts from the other threads:
Rented Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 for 3.99 for 7 days, which seems reasonable to me (as I plant to beat the game in that time-frame and never touch it again).

The experience went really well. I completed up to the first opening boss. There was very little input lag, if at all. I tested the movement in game quite a bit, and it was very slight whenever I was looking for it. I would definitely not play a fighter with this but Bionic Commando was very playable and I didn't feel inhibited by the streaming at all.

As for the video quality, I play fairly close to a monitor. I could clearly tell it was being streamed but the quality all in all was pretty impressive. Video compression is only really evident when your looking at static images or standing still. It was pretty easy to forget that I was streaming a game when I played the game because the compression was not noticeable.

I hope Sony adds more RPG titles, because I would love to rent some.

Wow... I am impressed. I change my initial impressions ever so slightly. I just picked up the Zone of the Enders HD collection.

I cannot notice any sort of input lag. Furthermore, its actually difficult to tell your watching an optimized video unless you really look for it (except when subtitles kick in, that makes it really obvious lol).

I'm really impressed, I didn't expect this kind of input lag free environment.

I just want to stress for people that are on the fence... playing Zone of the Enders 2 right now... that its impossible for me to spot input lag, thats how good it is. I consider myself pretty perceptible when it comes to these things (FPS, resolution, input lag) and I couldn't tell you. If you told me I was playing an actual copy of the game on a PS3, I would believe you.

I am very impressed by the service.

Edit: Internet is 25/25. Wired connection.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
That's better. OK, so because the selection is atrocious, I decided to rent way of the samurai 3 because I had never played this game but I wanted to. It was 3 for four hours of gsmepaly, which I feel is a fair price.

Anyway, that was a mistake. I hated the game, but more importantly I couldn't tell if the game was struggling or the service was because the game looks like a ps2 game and runs like shit on native hardware.

That said, the image is OK. Its not super obviously compressed except for around text, where you can usually spot it a little more easily. I felt no lag at all. I hated the game though. The sound quality was pretty good. I thought it would be more tinny.

Where are the Sony games?

15 down / 7 up
 
If it puts the game into that XMB style list, what's going to happen when your renting duration is up? Does it stay on that list or go away? Is this just another way that the game list is going to get unmanageable without folders or any sort of manual control?

Edit: I'm going to just post my PS Now questions here as with the above Q's:

What does a 4 hour rental mean? If I start playing at noon, do I have to finish at 4pm? Or, is it 4 hours of game time? What about 7 day rentals? If I rent on a Monday, do I have until the following Monday to play? What happens if I play only Monday and Tuesday and then not again until Sunday. Do I have 4 days left or just 1?

Are saves transferable? If I start a game in PS Now and decided to buy the game, either digitally or physically, can I use my save that I started on PS Now? What about vice verse? Can I start physically and then transfer to PS Now with my save?

I did a 7 day rental of Deus Ex because I want to replay that. My above questions still apply.

Also, speed is roughly 25/2, and it's ok. It's better than remote play with the Vita.
 

ducksauce

Member
I wish there was something on it I wanted to play so I could try it. Didn't they demo this at some events with God of War, Ratchet and Clank and TLOU? I'd definitely rent the God of War and R&C games.
 

NfoRcEr

Neo Member
I recently moved, but I had Beta access back when I had a 100/5 plan through Charter a few months ago and I found it unsatisfactory.

Sniper 2 had 500ms or more of control lag where I could not actually aim the gun well enough to get kills on anything moving. It made it a real challenge because I had to basically lead people even more, compensating for the delay from my input to be registered on the PS Now servers. Also, the video quality looked terrible. It appeared to be about as blocky as 360/480 youtube videos stretched to fullscreen on my 1900x1200 monitor.

I played 2 or 3 other games while they were free and felt that it was unplayable. Knowing that there is lag can mean you can force yourself to compensate, but ultimately there is no reason for me to have to put up with poor service on a moderately fast connection (would prefer faster upload). I would reserve PS Now to turn based games or PSX RPGs, but then again I could just do Vita/PS3 for that if the game is out for purchase.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
Where are the Sony games?

Good question. You would think Sony would spruce up their catalog with their own games.

I wish there was something on it I wanted to play so I could try it. Didn't they demo this at some events with God of War, Ratchet and Clank and TLOU? I'd definitely rent the God of War and R&C games.

Yep, I would rent the Jak And Dax collection, but probably go for the 30 day option? 7 days is kinda cutting it close for 3 games.

Anyways, I suggest you at least play something for 4 hours. Its not that much money, and its kinda cool using this new type of service. You can see if its something you like and give your impressions here.

The rent is to damn high.

Didn't even read the first line.......
 

Lemondish

Member
I want it to succeed but I think it's way too soon to be trying this. Based on the prices, it looks far too much like it just won't be profitable if it goes any lower. $380 million mistake on Sony's part.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
I recently moved, but I had Beta access back when I had a 100/5 plan through Charter a few months ago and I found it unsatisfactory.

Sniper 2 had 500ms or more of control lag where I could not actually aim the gun well enough to get kills on anything moving.

Whoa, 500ms?

Maybe it was an early beta thing? Because I am not getting that at all.
 

ShinMaruku

Member
About to test Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 with a ps3 friend. This will be a true test. Gonna be using Ayane of course.
She my boo,Momiji is my wife
 

jwk94

Member
If it puts the game into that XMB style list, what's going to happen when your renting duration is up? Does it stay on that list or go away? Is this just another way that the game list is going to get unmanageable without folders or any sort of manual control?

Edit: I'm going to just post my PS Now questions here as with the above Q's:

What does a 4 hour rental mean? If I start playing at noon, do I have to finish at 4pm? Or, is it 4 hours of game time? What about 7 day rentals? If I rent on a Monday, do I have until the following Monday to play? What happens if I play only Monday and Tuesday and then not again until Sunday. Do I have 4 days left or just 1?

Are saves transferable? If I start a game in PS Now and decided to buy the game, either digitally or physically, can I use my save that I started on PS Now? What about vice verse? Can I start physically and then transfer to PS Now with my save?

1. It stays there until you delete it.

2. 4 hours after you start the game.

3. Yes you can start your saves however you want. I rented Guacamelee! and downloaded my save that I had on my PS3 and continued from there.

Guacamelee! was lag free and the picture quality was as if I was playing it on my PS3. Internet speed in my basement (where i have my ps4) is around 17 down and .82 up.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
I've tried Ninja Gaiden 2. There were some artifacts but it ultimately worked really well. I've got wifi too.

Better than onlive worked for me. 30/10
 
Rented Final Fantasy 13.

My connection is wireless so the video quality tends to drop once in a blue moon, but other than that it plays almost like actually owning the game.... I am very impressed by it. I forget that I'm actually streaming the game until my wifi signal goes crazy then I'm brought back to reality. Once I get a hardline connection then life would be better.

I also rented Dead or Alive 5 for a few hours, first time actually playing it... I actually managed to win a match online and that blew my mind.
 

Exis

Member
When I first got into the beta it sucked, but there was an update that fixed everything and it works great for me.
 
Where are the Sony games?

I don't think Sony would want to use their games for PSNow just yet i.e. while the service still has a ways to go.

I believe they'd want their games to be poster child for PSNow, showcasing the best PSNow experience. That should come when PSNow is more robust.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Rented Final Fantasy 13.

My connection is wireless so the video quality tends to drop once in a blue moon, but other than that it plays almost like actually owning the game.... I am very impressed by it. I forget that I'm actually streaming the game until my wifi signal goes crazy then I'm brought back to reality. Once I get a hardline connection then life would be better.

I also rented Dead or Alive 5 for a few hours, first time actually playing it... I actually managed to win a match online and that blew my mind.

That's pretty meta when you think about it. You are playing in your house, instructions sent to a server that are then sent to a server then sent to someone else.
 
This thread is for PS Now control/image quality/general feelings impressions. This is NOT to discuss pricing, or why PS2/PS1 games are not on there, or "I won't subscribe until a Netflix model", or I haven't played it yet!

I want it to succeed but I think it's way too soon to be trying this. Based on the prices, it looks far too much like it just won't be profitable if it goes any lower. $380 million mistake on Sony's part.

reading is fundamental
 
2. 4 hours after you start the game.
.

That's a real bummer. Sometimes life gets in the way, so if I start a 4 hour rental and something comes up, I'm screwed. Since that's such a short amount of time, I wish it was 4 hours spent with the game, any maybe cap that by saying "You get 4 hours of game time within 24 hours" or something.
 

Jafku

Member
When I first got in the beta I rented Dead Island Riptide. The controls were stiff due to lag and the game looked horrible. This after I had tested my connection and got the best connection. Didn't leave a good impression. Afterwards I tried Pixeljunk Eden and Mutant Blobs. Both played great and looked good 95% of the time.
 
I wish there was something on it I wanted to play so I could try it. Didn't they demo this at some events with God of War, Ratchet and Clank and TLOU? I'd definitely rent the God of War and R&C games.

I was hoping to replay God of War 3 or something but yeah, the selection is shit. I'll definitely try it when there's something worth trying.




Please read the op friends!!!


This thread is for PS Now control/image quality/general feelings impressions. This is NOT to discuss pricing, or why PS2/PS1 games are not on there, or "I won't subscribe until a Netflix model", or I haven't played it yet!

So if you rented a game, come in here and describe your experience.
 
I like it so far. There's a bit of noticeable lag with my wireless connection but other than that I'm happy.
Can't wait for more games to be added and Vita support.
 

jwk94

Member
That's better. OK, so because the selection is atrocious, I decided to rent way of the samurai 3 because I had never played this game but I wanted to. It was 3 for four hours of gsmepaly, which I feel is a fair price.

Anyway, that was a mistake. I hated the game, but more importantly I couldn't tell if the game was struggling or the service was because the game looks like a ps2 game and runs like shit on native hardware.

That said, the image is OK. Its not super obviously compressed except for around text, where you can usually spot it a little more easily. I felt no lag at all. I hated the game though. The sound quality was pretty good. I thought it would be more tinny.

Where are the Sony games?

15 down / 7 up
Sony has Killzone 3 up. I think there may be something else too.
 
I sometimes have issues with Remote Play over internet, but PS Now has really impressed me. I rented Earth Defense Force, and so far, not a single issue. It works so well, honestly didn't expect it. I'll probably rent MGS4 or Killzone to check out how those work too.
 

Valnen

Member
3. Yes you can start your saves however you want. I rented Guacamelee! and downloaded my save that I had on my PS3 and continued from there.

Whoa, this is the biggest news for me. I have PS3 save data in the cloud on PS+. So say I rent MGS3, I can use that data on the PS+ cloud? Or does my PS3 actually need to be working? Also wouldn't mind finishing up my platinum for FFXIII. Damn this service possibly just became a helluva lot more enticing for me. I was worried I wouldn't have any access to the save files.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
Kinda surprised by all the positive impressions. Expected way more negative ones.

Would psp and vita games be possible to come to this service? Lots of psp games I missed out on.
 
Ohh so you can play online?

Good to know. Had no idea.

Yep! Didn't think I was able to either until I just selected online mode. The guy kicked my ass first because my wifi started spazzing out on me and my inputs were taking forever. Then I got a rematch and defeated him when my connection stabilized. Barely noticeable input lag that time.
 

bebop242

Member
Technically, the service works pretty great. Played Catherine, Sniper Elite 2 and some others. Outside of maybe 3 glitches total, felt like I was playing off the hard drive.

If this bombs, it won't be because it doesn't work.
 

Shinjiru

Member
Overall, I am very impressed with PlayStation Now. I played through all of Papo & Yo a few weeks ago. I barely noticed any lag and the picture quality was fine. A few times I did get a notification that my speed (9/2) wasn't sufficient for the service. The picture quality would degrade sometimes when I got that message but it never lasted long and it was nothing that I couldn't play through.
 
One negative thing I got from my experience... though once again I blame it on my internet connection.

I was playing FF13.... been a while since I saved, then I get the message that my connection is unstable and it's going to terminate the game in 20 seconds. So I'm scrambling trying to find a save spot.... nothing -_-

I got kicked out and had to restart where I left off. Reminded of when I was playing FFX a decade ago and my mom accidentally unplugged my PS2....
 

Jafku

Member
Kinda surprised by all the positive impressions. Expected way more negative ones.

Would psp and vita games be possible to come to this service? Lots of psp games I missed out on.
PSP games maybe. Vita games? lol. Who knows maybe. Sony doesn't give a fuck about Vita
 

jwk94

Member
Whoa, this is the biggest news for me. I have PS3 save data in the cloud on PS+. So say I rent MGS3, I can use that data on the PS+ cloud? Or does my PS3 actually need to be working? Also wouldn't mind finishing up my platinum for FFXIII. Damn this service possibly just became a helluva lot more enticing for me. I was worried I wouldn't have any access to the save files.

You don't need your Ps3 to be working. As long as the data is already in the cloud, then you're good to go.
 
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