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PlayStation 5 activities, cards and trophies

RCU005

Member
I think Activities and cards have a great potential if used correctly. I really like how you can see what you can do or have to do in certain areas or worlds in the game.

I think for games with lots of collectibles is amazing because it would be a fast way to see your progress within each area/level.

I also like that they could help you not miss stuff in games. My most favorite trophy sets in a game are those that by getting the platinum, you do everything the game has to offer. On the contrary, I hate those platinums that even if you get it, you could still have content you don't see, or even worse not know about. This is where activities and cards come to play.


Then, there's trophies. Right now, the PS5 UI is horrible, not because it's bad, but because someone at Sony said "fuck it" and didn't care to put features yet again, and we have to start from zero (and who knows how long it will take to get to PS4 level of features back, even basic ones), but I digress...

Since the UI sucks, it's hard to get to trophies within a game. It just to be very simple since it was right in the menu on PS4 when you hold PS button. Not anymore, but it shouldn't be!

There are cards related to trophies, but I think they are badly implemented (as many things in the OS). It's like random! It's good they tell you the progress for a trophy, but I think it's only related to activity cards, and not for trophies in general. Like you don't get a trophy card, if that trophy doesn't have an activity card related to it.

Just like you get activity cards for many things, you should get trophy cards released to the area you are in order to get them. For example:

In Astro's Playroom, you have a trophy that you can get in SSD Speedway. Then, when you press the PS button, you should be able to see one card for each trophy you can get there. Even hidden ones, so you know that hidden one is obtainable there, but it just doesn't tell you which one or how.

That way, you don't have to check the complete list of trophies. You should be able to do that easily either way (it's as simple as adding a direct access in the control menu), but it would blend very well with cards and trophy cards that are already there.


What do you guys think?

TL;DR -
Activity Cards should be helpful to make the player actually know there are stuff to do in a game in order to not miss it, and be able to experience everything in the game.

Trophies should have cards for each area/place/world you are in to know that you can get those trophies there. Right now it seems the only trophies related to other cards have their own card.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Cards and Activities is the best thing that happened to games.
It fucking awesome feature.

After use it is like you can't go back to play without them.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
Its good but Im sure they will make better use of it.
Give me a quick resume card lol. Where I last left off in my game like Xbox does.

They are pretty cool but I still havent got to use the trophy tracker properly.
 

Dibils2k

Member
only game i used cards on was/is Sackboy and after like halfwaythrough the first world they just stop!!! lol wtf, devs just gave up on showing secrets!
 

RCU005

Member
only game i used cards on was/is Sackboy and after like halfwaythrough the first world they just stop!!! lol wtf, devs just gave up on showing secrets!

Really? Maybe something is wrong, like a bug or something?

If that's the case, it's disappointing. After all, that's the game they chose to reveal activities with.

Another reason the PS5 is definitely so unfinished.
 
Cards and Activities are awesome, but I don't have high hopes they'll be utilized.

I was playing Sackboy. This is the game they used to showcase the feature. I tried it on World 1 to find collectibles, mostly just to play with the feature, as they were pretty easy to find on my own. It worked great.

However, later in the game, I got to a few I genuinely needed help finding. I went to the cards and noticed there were no Activities or videos to help locate them. I ended back up on my phone looking them up.

If Sony can't be bothered to make the videos for the game they used to showcase the feature, what are the chances any third-party developers use them?
 

SaucyJack

Member
Cards and Activities is the best thing that happened to games.
It fucking awesome feature.

After use it is like you can't go back to play without them.

Agree.

Since I finished the main story of AC Valhalla I’ve been pissed off that there isn’t a card that takes me straight into the game without interacting with two different screens - Click X to start and then the select Continue screen.
 

BlackM1st

Banned
Sony can't be bothered to make the videos for the game they used to showcase the feature, what are the chances any third-party developers use them?
Sony fucked up royally when they killed communities. Such amount of content can't be created for free. Only fans will work for free - see fandom wikia. Sony should bring communities back and integrate fan made walkthroughs into game cards system.
 

AmuroChan

Member
I like that when a trophy pops, you can click the PS button to see more details and it doesn't take you out of the game. That was something that I hated on the PS4, where it takes you out of the game and into the trophy menu. It's much more seamless on the PS5. Now the change that I don't like is the horizontal arrangement of the trophies. I hope they change it back to vertical.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
Seriously. Gamechanger for 1%.


Give me PS4 quick menu on long PS button press and gtfo.

Yep I'm in that 99%, like there's a few to jump into game modes for fifa, but honestly most games when you press the control center just show me a trophy card and that's it. Its made it a lot easier to nit care about trophies because they're buried in my profile or I just see massive blank cards which I cant be arsed with.

Game changer for me is the speed of screenshots and quickly having the option to select a recent gameplay length (15/30 secs.)
 
I agree; it is very counter intuitive that hidden trophy's are not shown. I did everything in astro only to find that there are hidden trophys which cards dont tell me about or how to get them.
 

Boss Man

Member
I think they're a really neat idea, but honestly using the PS5 UI while in game (vs PS4) still doesn't feel very natural to me and I've been playing pretty regularly for a few weeks now. I like the idea of the cards, but I haven't really found a reason to use them yet. I like your idea of tying them more into trophies, and I also noticed that trophies were a bit cumbersome to get to now.

Initially I actually switched the PS Button to hold for quick menu and tap for the regular OS screen. I swapped it back to give it a chance as it was intended but I think it's been long enough now, will probably swap back today.
 
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Royal-Slime

Banned
Activities... I'd rather have the option to hide dislked games and PS3 content, PS Now stuff in the library... The library is a huge mess right now and it's weird seeing after PS4. It's like they are competing who will cut the most features: Nintendo with Switch, PS with PS5 :messenger_persevering: :messenger_beaming:
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
PS5's Activities is a game-changer that no one really talks about much for some odd reason.

The fact that you can enter a game mode directly from the UI is amazing and saves so much time.

It's like the system xbox one had regarding achievements. If you needed to kill a thousand enemies or something like that it showed in percentage how much was needed. Was kinda cool.
 
It's like the system xbox one had regarding achievements. If you needed to kill a thousand enemies or something like that it showed in percentage how much was needed. Was kinda cool.
Umm, what!?

Were you able to enter any game mode directly from the UI?

You're talking about trophies, not activities.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Umm, what!?

Were you able to enter any game mode directly from the UI?

You're talking about trophies, not activities.

Well, yeah, we are also talking about trophies.

What I tried to agree on, is that "the little things" that tends to improve these features, being minor or major, are being overlooked.

From what I understand, card is a visual overlay from the game of some sorts that shows where the criteria for trophies are? It sounds kinda cool and as an achievement hunter I would use it.

I like both system and think both companies could learn a thing or two from each other in that regard.
 
Well, yeah, we are also talking about trophies.

What I tried to agree on, is that "the little things" that tends to improve these features, being minor or major, are being overlooked.

From what I understand, card is a visual overlay from the game of some sorts that shows where the criteria for trophies are? It sounds kinda cool and as an achievement hunter I would use it.

I like both system and think both companies could learn a thing or two from each other in that regard.
Damn, I didn't know that....
 

mitch1971

Member
I'm on a 4k tv. Do the cards have to be so big? Smaller means I can see more of them at a time, and not be limited to a small portion because of said size. And my biggest bug bear is the News tab. Can I get rid of it? I don't need to see adverts for fucking fortnight all the time.
 

Boss Man

Member
Well, yeah, we are also talking about trophies.

What I tried to agree on, is that "the little things" that tends to improve these features, being minor or major, are being overlooked.

From what I understand, card is a visual overlay from the game of some sorts that shows where the criteria for trophies are? It sounds kinda cool and as an achievement hunter I would use it.

I like both system and think both companies could learn a thing or two from each other in that regard.
I don't think the two are very comparable. MS has been great a pioneering features like this, but in this case I think Sony's got something significantly ahead of what's on Xbox (for now...). For example, one feature exposed in Astro's Playroom is the ability to bring up the quick menu and get contextual walkthrough videos for the level that you are currently on. You can watch the video in the corner of the screen as you play. It also opens up nice conveniences, like selecting a "Join Team Deathmatch" type card from the OS level without navigating through the game's menus or even starting the game.
 

Grinchy

Banned
They were great for Astro, but the ones for Demon's Souls are useless. I was surprised that Demon's Souls didn't make full use of them. I haven't played Sackboy yet but apparently it makes great use of them.

I hope to see more of it being used, even if just to skip the splash screens and load the game up to your save file in 4 seconds.
 

Calverz

Member
Iv found the card system nigh on useless showing me stuff i couldnt care less about. Fortnite “news” etc. Its seems to just be a clever means of advertising. RE7 “news” turned out to be links to buy dlc etc.
To be honest i just want to turn them off
 
It's like the system xbox one had regarding achievements. If you needed to kill a thousand enemies or something like that it showed in percentage how much was needed. Was kinda cool.

Yeah, it's good for that. Keeps your sanity when going for those types of trophies, that the trophy just didn't glitch when it feels like you've killed 3,000, but it's really only like 800.
 

DansDans

Member
The UI needs a complete reset - back to the drawing board

Except, Sony has never redesigned a UI during the life of a console (only exception was the original PS3 store - thats the only big UI change)

We're stuck with this stupid UI for the whole generation and its assbackwards way of doing things
 

RCU005

Member
Now the change that I don't like is the horizontal arrangement of the trophies. I hope they change it back to vertical.

That's something I actually like. When it's vertical, you can't still see more than three anyway. So it doesn't bother me. however, since the UI is a mess in many ways, it wouldn't surprise me that it will get a complete overhaul sooner or later.

The little bit that bothers me, is that when you press X to see more details about a trophy, the card is not big enough so there's a scroll bar.
 

RCU005

Member
The UI needs a complete reset - back to the drawing board

Except, Sony has never redesigned a UI during the life of a console (only exception was the original PS3 store - thats the only big UI change)

We're stuck with this stupid UI for the whole generation and its assbackwards way of doing things

The UI has great design ideas, but they are done terribly. Whoever approved on getting rid of so many basic features and great things that the PS4 had, needs to be fired! Why, in their right mind, couldn't begin the design from what the PS4 has as the minimum? Why getting rid of features yet again, if they know people will complain about them all over again because they are so incredibly basic?
 
to me they are pretyy useless, im not sure who is idea was at sony to remove community page from ps xmb, but that has to be dumbest decision ever
 
It exists, that's the nicest thing I can think of to say about it.

Can't say I've noticed this 'cards' thing. I'll have to see what that is if I can find it.
 
I don't think the two are very comparable. MS has been great a pioneering features like this, but in this case I think Sony's got something significantly ahead of what's on Xbox (for now...). For example, one feature exposed in Astro's Playroom is the ability to bring up the quick menu and get contextual walkthrough videos for the level that you are currently on. You can watch the video in the corner of the screen as you play. It also opens up nice conveniences, like selecting a "Join Team Deathmatch" type card from the OS level without navigating through the game's menus or even starting the game.
TrueAchievments has an application that works very well with the Xbox since 2013... When it comes to cards that allow you to browse the game menus, the Xbox doesn't have something similar, although QuickResume in a certain way does something that resembles that.
 
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