Crash Bandicoot and PS4 from a PC gamer's perspective

[WFMG]

I have loved Crash Bandicoot since I was little. It is amazing. When I saw that the remaster of the original trilogy was coming out, I was extremely excited. Sadly, however, it seems to only be on PS4 as of now. Some rumours point to it being a timed exclusive, perhaps for an entire year, of the PS4, while others say it is a permanent exclusive.

 

I am a PC gamer with a 1080 that only games at 4K these days. The point of the remaster would mainly be the graphics, which might not be the greatest when you're playing at just 1080p. Especially at 30 FPS. Even the PS4 Pro doesn't go beyond 1440p for this game, still at 30 FPS.

 

I'm really not sure what to do. I want the brand new, beautiful Crash experience, but I'm not that keen on spending $380 just on a console and the game. As has been said, however, the game might never come to anything but PS4, and PS4 emulation is going to take forever, with PS3 emulation just starting to take a hold, 11 years after console release. That'd mean I might have to wait 13 years from release for a playable PS4 emulator, meaning 2026, by which point the graphics of the game will not be even slightly impressive anymore.

 

What should I do?

[Cyracus]

even if it never gets a pc version there's still some hope https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/psnow/games/

[The Sloth]

not to be a dick there are more to games than resolution and frames, if you think 1080p or 1440p are "too low" than don't get it, simple as that. making everything come to the PC seems like a stupid idea, ps4 pro can play crash at a stable 30 fps, upscaled to 4k, yes it's worth the money. 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

There are other games on the PlayStation 4 that are worth investing time into.

 

Also while emulators may allow you to run at a higher resolution than normal, they may not necessarily let you run the game any faster. Yes, I'm aware that Dolphin can run Wii/WiiU games better than their emulated systems, but this has still been the exception, not the rule.

 

But at the end of the day, be a gamer. Don't put most of the game's weight on graphics and performance. Otherwise you should just abandon console gaming entirely.

[WFMG]

28 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

But at the end of the day, be a gamer. Don't put most of the game's weight on graphics and performance. Otherwise you should just abandon console gaming entirely.

Why did we stop developing for the Magnavox Oddysee and Atari 2600, then? If graphics don't matter, why did you buy a PS4, and probably a PS4 Pro? Was the PS3 just worthless?

 

If I just want to play the original games, I can, easily. The point of the remaster is that it looks beautiful and sounds beautiful. I know 1080p doesn't seem so low to you, but once you go 4K, you realise that 4K looks smooth, while everything under it looks all pixelated and ugly. I know, because my primary monitor since October last year is a 28" 4K monitor and my secondary and tertiary are 1080p/1200p.

 

That's not to mention that this costs money. 1080p has been the standard on PC for so long that it's started shifting away from it, in favour of 1440p, 4K, and all these weird tablets and laptops with strange, yet very high, resolutions. Hell, 5K is mainstream and there is even an 8K monitor out already. If I'm going to pay $380 for a console and a game at this point, I would expect something better than what the 6950 from 2011, which I bought for $24, can already do.

 

I understand your point that graphics aren't everything, but this game's main selling point is the graphics; the highly refined assets. Sure, mechanics have been tweaked a bit to work slightly better, but that's not worth hundreds of dollars.

 

The deal is that I'm not paying for a PS4 Pro. Way too much money for a hamfisted, forced attempt at a 4K machine, one that is beaten by my old R9 390 at 4K. So if I do buy a PS4, a normal one, it is probably only going to be used for Crash Bandicoot. Yeah, there are exclusives, but there are so many more PC exclusives, and I already have so many games on PC, PS1, PS2, PS3, and such, that they're coming out of my ears. I just really want Crash Bandicoot, but I'm not sure it's such a good idea when I'd be dipping into money I could potentially use to buy my first car.

[WFMG]

44 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

even if it never gets a pc version there's still some hope https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/psnow/games/

Yeah, but that looks silly. Why should I stream a game? I can render it on my own, on my own terms, with full access, control, and much lower latency.

[The Sloth]

3 minutes ago, WFMG said:

I know 1080p doesn't seem so low to you, but once you go 4K, you realise that 4K looks smooth, while everything under it looks all pixelated and ugly.

i guess it will depend on the person, i rather pay 720p/900p breath of the wild or 1080p Mario Kart than 4k Crysis 3. 

 

[WFMG]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

i guess it will depend on the person, i rather pay 720p/900p breath of the wild or 1080p Mario Kart than 4k Crysis 3. 

 

Crysis 3 isn't even impressive in the PC space anymore. It's old now. I'm not saying graphics alone make the game, but really, it just looks so much worse with 1080p over 4K. You can't see anything in the distance, but even with max AA, everything looks all pixelated, or it looks blurry. 720p on a 4K screen looks about as bad as 360p on a 1080p screen. This is my experience after almost 9 months of 4K, with 1080p to the side.

[The Sloth]

Just now, WFMG said:

Crysis 3 isn't even impressive in the PC space anymore. It's old now. I'm not saying graphics alone make the game, but really, it just looks so much worse with 1080p over 4K. You can't see anything in the distance, but even with max AA, everything looks all pixelated, or it looks blurry. 720p on a 4K screen looks about as bad as 360p on a 1080p screen. This is my experience after almost 9 months of 4K, with 1080p to the side.

what is an impressive game on pc? 

[Mira Yurizaki]

10 minutes ago, WFMG said:

Why did we stop developing for the Magnavox Oddysee and Atari 2600, then? If graphics don't matter, why did you buy a PS4, and probably a PS4 Pro? Was the PS3 just worthless?

I didn't say graphics don't matter. I said don't put most of the weight of how a game should be evaluated on graphics. I've played modern games with graphics that look better suited on a Sega Master System that were enjoyable and games that look comparable to whatever the modern Crysis is that were crap.

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If I just want to play the original games, I can, easily. The point of the remaster is that it looks beautiful and sounds beautiful. I know 1080p doesn't seem so low to you, but once you go 4K, you realise that 4K looks smooth, while everything under it looks all pixelated and ugly. I know, because my primary monitor since October last year is a 28" 4K monitor and my secondary and tertiary are 1080p/1200p.

The "smoothness" is attributed to the fact you have a high PPI monitor, not because of the resolution. Everything on my LG G6 looks "smooth" even though it has a 1440p screen because of its insane PPI of 500+ .

 

And yes, the point of the remaster was to bring it to modern systems with all the bells and whistles. But if the game still plays like crap, it doesn't matter. And I don't know if the game is a straight remaster or if it's a reboot, but if it's a reboot, you won't really get the same experience.

Quote

That's not to mention that this costs money. 1080p has been the standard on PC for so long that it's started shifting away from it, in favour of 1440p, 4K, and all these weird tablets and laptops with strange, yet very high, resolutions. Hell, 5K is mainstream and there is even an 8K monitor out already. If I'm going to pay $380 for a console and a game at this point, I would expect something better than what the 6950 from 2011, which I bought for $24, can already do.

The pricing argument is flawed in that:

• You're comparing a new price to a used price.
• You're comparing a video card to an entire system.

Quote

I understand your point that graphics aren't everything, but this game's main selling point is the graphics; the highly refined assets. Sure, mechanics have been tweaked a bit to work slightly better, but that's not worth hundreds of dollars.

Is it? Did Naughty Dog go "BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE WE HAVE THE BESTEST GRAPHICS"? No I'm pretty sure the main selling point is to tickle the nostalgia factor of people who played the original while currying interest in the current generation of gamers.

 

Quote

The deal is that I'm not paying for a PS4 Pro. Way too much money for a hamfisted, forced attempt at a 4K machine, one that is beaten by my old R9 390 at 4K. So if I do buy a PS4, a normal one, it is probably only going to be used for Crash Bandicoot. Yeah, there are exclusives, but there are so many more PC exclusives, and I already have so many games on PC, PS1, PS2, PS3, and such, that they're coming out of my ears. I just really want Crash Bandicoot, but I'm not sure it's such a good idea when I'd be dipping into money I could potentially use to buy my first car.

Then maybe you should just buy your car.

[WFMG]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

what is an impressive game on pc? 

The Witcher 3, Doom (2016), Metro Last Light: Redux, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor...

[Techicolors]

6 minutes ago, WFMG said:

That's not to mention that this costs money. 1080p has been the standard on PC for so long that it's started shifting away from it, in favour of 1440p, 4K, and all these weird tablets and laptops with strange, yet very high, resolutions. Hell, 5K is mainstream and there is even an 8K monitor out already. If I'm going to pay $380 for a console and a game at this point, I would expect something better than what the 6950 from 2011, which I bought for $24, can already do.

i don't think 5k is mainstream... even 4k isn't mainstream. it's still quite limited market, least for most gamers 

 

59 minutes ago, WFMG said:

I'm really not sure what to do. I want the brand new, beautiful Crash experience, but I'm not that keen on spending $380 just on a console and the game. As has been said, however, the game might never come to anything but PS4, and PS4 emulation is going to take forever, with PS3 emulation just starting to take a hold, 11 years after console release. That'd mean I might have to wait 13 years from release for a playable PS4 emulator, meaning 2026, by which point the graphics of the game will not be even slightly impressive anymore.

do what i did and grab a used ps4. preferably a ps4 slim, since they did some optimizations that made it a bit better.. tho it misses the iconic lightbar 

 

and there's always PS now, but it's a questionable service at best 

[WFMG]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I didn't say graphics don't matter. I said don't put most of the weight of how a game should be evaluated on graphics. I've played modern games with graphics that look better suited on a Sega Master System that were enjoyable and games that look comparable to Crysis that were crap.

The "smoothness" is attributed to the fact you have a high PPI monitor, not because of the resolution. Everything on my LG G6 looks "smooth" even though it has a 1440p screen because of its insane DPI of 500+ PPI.

 

And yes, the point of the remaster was to bring it to modern systems with all the bells and whistles. But if the game still plays like crap, it doesn't matter. And I don't know if the game is a straight remaster or if it's a reboot, but if it's a reboot, you won't really get the same experience.

The pricing argument is flawed in that:

• You're comparing a new price to a used price.
• You're comparing a video card to an entire system.

Is it? Did Naughty Dog go "BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE WE HAVE THE BESTEST GRAPHICS"? No I'm pretty sure the main selling point is to tickle the nostalgia factor of people who played the original while currying interest in the current generation of gamers.

 

Then maybe you should just buy your car.

The thing is, 1080p is getting too cramped to represent the details in modern games, at least at any sort of decent settings. You're missing out. Regardless of pixel density, 1080p, especially at 30 FPS (yuck) is too low. I'm not going to be playing on a phone screen, either.

 

It is an exact remaster of the three games. It plays great, because they did what they did with the original Crash and made it good, because they're the same games as from 20 years ago. That's a given. But that's already there in the PS1 originals. I'm not directly comparing a console and a video card. I'm saying that I'd expect a better experience out of something like the PS4 for the price, given that the GPU power is not even mid-range anymore. Either lowering the price or giving us a more powerful one for the same price. I've looked everywhere for a used PS4, and I can't find shit. But when the game is more expensive than the video card that could run the game just as well as the PS4 it insists on playing on, I think it's a bit ridiculous.

 

The gameplay is already out there for free. Just download ePSXe and the three ISOs, and bam, you're playing the games, wherever you want, at whichever resolution you want. If the appeal in a remaster wasn't the graphics, when it's the very same game(s), then the graphics wouldn't change.

 

If Crash Bandicoot were just a game for $40, it wouldn't make a lick of difference to the car situation. This would require more thought and discussion, which I'm trying to induce here.

[WFMG]

7 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

i don't think 5k is mainstream... even 4k isn't mainstream. it's still quite limited market, least for most gamers 

 

do what i did and grab a used ps4. preferably a ps4 slim, since they did some optimizations that made it a bit better.. tho it misses the iconic lightbar 

 

and there's always PS now, but it's a questionable service at best 

Heard of the 5K iMac? If Apple has it, it's mainstream. Most people have 1080p monitors, but most people upgrading aren't getting 1080p monitors. They're getting 4K monitors. It's not even that hard to game on, anyway.

 

I have looked everywhere I can, and there is nobody selling a used PS4 whatsoever. Not everyone lives in a cramped place. I don't even live on the same continent as you do.

 

PS Now sucks. I won't stream games. I want to render them with my GPU, at my settings. I don't have any interest in playing a video.

[Mira Yurizaki]

At the end of the day it's clear you're only interested in one game on the PS4. So don't buy a PS4 because it's not worth spending $300 on top of the cost of the game.

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

At the end of the day it's clear you're only interested in one game on the PS4. So don't buy a PS4 because it's not worth spending $300 on top of the cost of the game.

Horizon Zero Dawn, crash, last of us are reasons to buy a ps4 for i would say, overall it's not worth it for just to get some nostalgia kicks. 

[WFMG]

9 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

Horizon Zero Dawn, crash, last of us are reasons to buy a ps4 for i would say, overall it's not worth it for just to get some nostalgia kicks. 

I mean, the first one is not up my alley; seems a bit corny and weird to me. I already have The Last of Us on PS3, and I never play it. So I guess it's not worth it. But how come everyone said the game isn't coming to PC? There has been lots of talk about it.

[The Sloth]

5 minutes ago, WFMG said:

how come everyone said the game isn't coming to PC?

crash is a PlayStation exclusive, it doesn't belong on a PC also sony won't allow it to. 

 

5 minutes ago, WFMG said:

Last of Us on PS3,

play it, Last of us is one of the best games that exists easily 10/10, ps4 pro 4k mode looks gorgeous, looks like a movie. 

[WFMG]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

crash is a PlayStation exclusive, it doesn't belong on a PC also sony won't allow it to. 

 

play it,Last of us is one of the best games that exists easily 10/10, ps4 pro 4k mode looks gorgeous, looks like a movie. 

http://twinfinite.net/2017/06/crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-pc-coming/

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The PlayStation Ireland official Twitter account back in February stated that Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy would be coming to PS4 and PS4 Pro first, but not that it was solely exclusive on the platforms.

 

I have played it a bit on PS3, and it's just depressing, hard to see anything in (so dark), and not very pretty. Really, it just doesn't make sense for me to buy that.

[Cyracus]

4 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

crash is a PlayStation exclusive, it doesn't belong on a PC also sony won't allow it to

Mind over Mutant was released on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PSP... so crash has been in every major modern console family, just not pc 

[The Sloth]

Just now, Cyracus said:

Mind over Mutant was released on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PSP... so crash has been in every major modern console family, just not pc 

i was talking about main games not shitty ports 

[WFMG]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

i was talking about main games not shitty ports 

That doesn't make sense. Love 'em or hate 'em, these games were all main series. So, to me, it looks like you're saying that Crash won't come out on other platforms because if they do, they are apparently crappy ports, and so they don't count. Not the most clever observation in my opinion. What do you mean?

[Cyracus]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

i was talking about main games not shitty ports 

well, shitty spin offs, but fair point

[WFMG]

Just now, Cyracus said:

well, shitty spin offs, but fair point

Honestly, I like those games.

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, WFMG said:

That doesn't make sense. Love 'em or hate 'em, these games were all main series. So, to me, it looks like you're saying that Crash won't come out on other platforms because if they do, they are apparently crappy ports, and so they don't count. Not the most clever observation in my opinion. What do you mean?

.......not main games, spin offs FYI