Joe's Thoughts - Sony's Big PS5 Reveal (Part 1)

Hey, guys, I know I have another thought in a row, but I have something to get this off my chest, the moment we been waiting for that in June 4th, Sony is finally revealing the the official design of their newest console to come out this year, the PS5. Ever since the PS5 has been announced, there has been a lot of rumors spread across the world, including the one feature that make fans freak out, full backwards compability raging from PS4 all the way to the PS1. I'll talk about that later.

Earlier this year, Sony was supposed to hold consumer events, but thanks to the pandemic, their plans have been postponed, but after a while, the Japanese giant is set to finally hold the big event where they reveal the official design for the PS5 and its games that will come out upon launch. We are ready for the future of gaming that suits our video game needs. First off, let talk about the powerful controller, the DualSense. It contains haptic feedback and a built in mic so you don't have to plug in a headset. It is more practical than the previous DualShock controllers that feel null. In fact, it is perfect for the future of gaming that no one ever experienced before.

Now with that out of the way, let's get to Sony's event that became a sleeper, the specs reveal keynote. Mark Cerny stated the specs for the PS5, including the fact that you don't have to wait long for the patches to apply and most notably, backwards compability. Mark has stated that the PS5 will play PS4 games and he didn't mention PS3, PS2 and PS1 games to be played. I was disappointed that it can only play PS4 games on the new system, but since I realized that there is space in the backwards compatibility diorama, previous platforms might be on it, I hope. But before you jump to conclusions, they didn't turn down PS3, PS2 and PS1 games. They gotta test PS4 games on the PS5 first because they are easy to do. They do also say that they are gonna give us further updates on backwards compability in the coming months.

And Sony, you can't just blatantly ignore your fans' years of demand wanting full backwards compability and not mention PS3, PS2 and PS1 games. We don't want to play only PS4 games on your newest system, but games on previous PlayStation consoles as well, including Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, a game that I enjoy playing, as well as old school RPGs Mana Khemia and Atelier Iris. You need to listen to your fans and take things into extreme consideration. It's very hopeful that you've finally opened cross-play, but the only thing you must do is listen to your PlayStation fans and fully extend backwards compatibility from PS4 all the way to PS1. Besides, Microsoft has the upper hand because their newest system, the Xbox Series X will have fully extended backwards compability from Xbox One all the way to the original Xbox, and that's something your newest system must have, Sony.

Now let's hope that the big PS5 reveal puts a lot more effort than they did at the specs reveal and that includes fully extending backwards compability from PS4 all the way to PS1, making it the ultimate console that we PlayStation fans want, and better yet, add more PS3 and PS2 games and add a PS1 catalogue on PSNow at least. I can't want to see what will the PS5 officially look like and what games will it have during launch. I bet it's a new PlayStation All-Stars game. I don't know about you guys, but the big PS5 reveal starts in June 4th at 1:00 PM here, so be sure to tune in.

UPDATE: Sony's big PS5 reveal event in June 4 has been postponed because of the weekend's series of protests against police violence throughout the US. I know it's a huge disappointment, but they can't hold that event until everything blows over, so a later date for the future of gaming reveal is still unknown. Signing out.

Joe's Thoughts - EVO Online

These thoughts may be mildly controversial. Anyway, let's talk about EVO Online. EVO 2020 was supposed to happen this year, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been cancelled in person, so they have to relegate it to online. In the online format, it will have 5 weekends of fighting game action with online tournaments for games that have good netcode. I don't want to be specific, but there are two gory games and two colorful games on the EVO Online lineup. Because this is an online format, there will be special exhibitions and upcoming content for games with lag in the original lineup, but the only difference is, Smash Ultimate and the MvC2 Invitational were taken out.

First off, let's talk about the elephant in the room, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now, as you may know, Smash Ultimate has been cut off from the lineup because it has a terrible online experience since it has that abysmal netcode. If they input a button, they wait 3 seconds before the character make an action. That's what delay based netcode is. Honestly, I had a lot of fun playing it online. A rightful decision for them to remove it because they wouldn't want to play such a slideshow game, especially when it comes to annoying Sonic mains.

If you watch Mightykeef's video on YouTube, you'll experience the jealousy of Smash Ultimate not welcome to the EVO Online club since it isn't in the lineup because of its terrible netcode. With Smash Ultimate not in the lineup, the FGC revolution is united.

Now let's get to the part that is the reason why the four games are in the lineup of open online tournaments, rollback netcode. Rollback is a type of netcode that makes you feel that you're playing online without the delay. For example, let's take one of the fighting games that has made its debut at EVO Online after a long wait, and that's Skullgirls. So why is it that Skullgirls deserves to be part of the event? There are two reasons.

Firstly is straight up rollback netcode. Skullgirls uses a buttery smooth and good netcode to allow your character to immediately act upon a button press and it predicts the inputs rather than waiting for the signal to hit the server before your character performs.

Secondly, bringing Skullgirls to EVO Online allowed it to get the Combo Breaker 2020 patch, which contains new palettes, a cameo of SonicFox in the training stage, new intros for the remaining characters taken directly from from Skullgirls Mobile and the most exciting thing, KO screams for all characters when they get KOed in the air. Now that's the only thing I like to hear often. I heard them firsthand during Ronaldokun's Skullgalz Showdown tournament and the devs say that further gameplay updates will not be made until after EVO Online and they'll bring it to PS4 and Nintendo Switch. But the sad thing is that they couldn't bring it to Xbox One because Microsoft wouldn't keep their act together.

Thirdly, the game made its debut back in 2013 and it is finally getting the attention it deserves. It's because the lobbies in the console versions are not faithful to them in the PC version because of their lack of flexibility.

Wikipedia has a list of games with rollback/GGPO netcode and Street Fighter V is on the list, but not on the EVO Online lineup of online tournaments. And even though, if Street Fighter V now has bad netcode according to fans, then why the heck put that there? Yeah, nice knowing your responsibility.

Honestly, this was an interesting deal that putting games with delay based netcode on online tournaments like Granblue Fantasy Versus and letting the slideshow moment unfold can convince companies to implement rollback netcode to their games because it is known for predicting inputs rather than waiting for the signal to hit the server before an action no matter the stage. Nintendo, though? Nope, they don't have the resources to implement rollback netcode into Smash Ultimate.