By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 26 December 2021
Edit Thread
scrapking said:

Interesting experience, I've had essentially no difference in my service before and during the pandemic.  I guess it's very regional, perhaps even neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood.  If my service ever got that bad, my first thought would be to switch to another provider.  I suppose if every provider had a similar service reduction, then I'm not sure what I'd do.

I'm the first to admit that cloud streaming isn't for everyone.  I have a great experience, but I have gigabit internet, and live only a couple of hundred kilometres from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond Washington, so I have some baked-in advantages.  :)

Interesting that they actually included multiple discs for TLoU2.  Huh.  Well, I don't see anything wrong with that, especially for a re-release/remaster/GotY Edition where the game will be little changed after being pressed, because the game has matured to a relatively stable/complete state.  I think having a relatively complete game on disc is of much less value for the initial pressing of the game at launch, since the more updates/patches the game gets over time the less relevant the data on the disc becomes.  That doesn't mean it's a bad thing to have a relatively complete game on the disc at launch, it's just less of an advantage than having a complete version in a later pressing.

But I don't miss physical media.  Nor am I obsessed about whether I "own" or "control" the game or not.  The space savings alone makes digital distribution the superior choice for me, and my internet is plenty fast for downloading even the largest of games, whatever "preservation" or "control"-related downsides there may be.  But I am glad physical media is still around for those who (unlike me) might experience a net benefit from it.

I live in a small town, no fiber here and the only alternative to cable is 10 mbps through the phone line. (Which isn't stable either) We're happy to get HD on Netflix in the evening, if it works at all. So game streaming is simply not an option, unless you like endless frustration.

Funny, I see physical as space saving. When I need room for a new game, just delete the physical installs. The digital ones stay since they can take a long time to download again. Patches are a pita though. This morning some game had a 14GB patch while I was trying to play GT Sport. It took well over an hour to download, and during the 3 races I did on PS5 it seemed my internet was scrambled. Cars jumping all over the place, major lag. First I blamed my internet, yet after I switched to ps4 pro (while the ps5 kept on downloading) racing was smooth again. Maybe the PS5 can't handle downloading while playing, or my internet cleared up right as I switched. It's Sunday, second worst internet day after Saturday :/