Tag Archives: PS4

Ta-da!

Finally getting the Arcade Stick I deserve…

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I recently undertook a minor project to acquire a new arcade stick and mod it with SANWA arcade components. This is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, but has always been held up by costs or the need for additional tools for the processes involved.

I still have 2x Dreamcast Agetec sticks that I would like to adapt, but the need to widen the holes for buttons and cut spacing for changing the PCB etc has enabled my natural tendency towards procrastination.  However, a desire to replace my current 6 button Xbox 360 stick & cronusmax combo with a new 8 button model for my PS4 sent me to Google.

My current stick next to my friend's fightpad

A little research found that this “budget” stick from venom was fairly well regarded, and even better all of the parts are compatible with standard SANWA arcade components.  As a bonus, it even has easily replaceable art. The stick itself I picked up from my local GAME, it was pretty much the same price as everywhere online, and I had a bunch of trade-in credit that made it extra cheap. The Venom PS4 arcade stick is available from Amazon here*.

As it comes...

There are various guides for this mod around, but I found this one most useful. The provider I used for components is now out of business, but this is what I used:

  • 8x SANWA OBSF-30 buttons (6 red with yellow surround, 2 yellow with red surround)
  • SANWA JLF-TP-8YT ball top joystick (in red, of course)
  • A cable to connect the stick to the PCB 
Those lovely new components!

Some people also suggest getting an octagonal gate, but once I found out what they were talking about, I decided I was happy with the standard square one…

Street Fighter V was the primary motivation for getting involved in this, and I decided straight away that I would be going for a “Ken” theme.  I found this artwork online that someone else had shared to use for now. I have asked a friend to look at maybe making a new custom design for me, so hopefully I’ll be changing to something new later.  Cutting the artwork wasn’t as bad as expected, I had it printed onto A3 and with patience and a decent blade it was pretty painless:

Cutting artwork

Changing the components over and fitting the art was all straight-forward, no messing at all!

Opened, before changes
Buttons popped!
Fitting the art beneath the plexi
Installing the new buttons

I am really pleased with the results, and very much enjoying using the controller online.  I intend to re-purpose at least the original buttons from the Venom Stick, putting them into one of the Dreamcast sticks once I get my hands on a dremel…

Ta-da!

*These are affiliate links, I’ll get a small commission if you use them and buy something. Thanks!

Upgrading modern console storage on a budget

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If like me you’ve got entry level versions of both the Xbox One and PS4, then you’re probably running out of space on those 500gb drives.  There are many guides online on how easy it is to replace the internal hard drive on a PS4 and similarly how easy it is to add external storage to your Xbox One.

There are also numerous links to External USB Hard drives that are easy to open up and remove the drive ready to use in a PS4.  The natural extension of this applies if you have both consoles and wish to upgrade the storage in each machine as cheaply as possible while still getting a decent drive.

First of all I purchased this drive*, various other sites recommend that the 2014 and 2015 editions are suitable for opening up. I took a punt on the 2016 version and am happy to report that this works fine too.  Opening the case was just a matter of patience, took about 10 minutes working around the seam with a blade and then easing it open with a small screwdriver.  There are little clips all the way round.

Once you’ve got the hard drive out, you can follow the guide here for the process to upgrade your PS4.  A little note, when you get to Step 5 and need to reinstall the software, the most obvious download on the linked page will only give you the ‘update’ version of the firmware (it’s around 250mb), this won’t work.  What you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on “Perform a new installation of the system software”, Step 2 of these instructions has a new Download link which will give you the full upgrade file, (around 950mb so you know you’ve got the right one).  Once you’ve got that you can follow the rest of the steps to install it on your new drive.

When you’ve got the old 500mb drive from your PS4, you can put that into the enclosure your new one came in, and hook that up via the included USB lead to your Xbox One.  There are helpfully USB ports on the back of the machine so you can keep this tidy.  Once connected your Xbox will ask if you wish to format it to use for games storage, hit yes and once the format is complete it’ll be ready for use.

2TB PS4 and a 1TB Xbox One for < £70.  Bargain.

Note you don’t get the full advertised amounts of storage space, this is partly because some of it is reserved for system use and partly because of how data storage volumes are recorded, but you already knew that, right?

*Affiliate links, I will receive commission if you purchase

Ten reasons I own: A PlayStation 4

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I still see a lot of people unsure about the leap into the new(ish) generation, and still more arguments over which is best.  Given that I now own a gaming PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, I thought I’d review the reasoning behind the purchases, and also what I get out of them on-going. I also decided that if I couldn’t come up with 10 for each system, I might as well get rid!  This isn’t just a list of exclusive games, although those are obviously a factor.

  1. RESOGUN
    I’m a pretty big fan of Housemarque, particularly where their shmups are concerned.  Both Super Stardust HD and Super Stardust Delta were influential factors in why I invested in the PS3 and Vita respectively. I was excited about this from the early trailers and felt a draw to the PS4.  I played it for the first time when staying with friends for a long weekend and I realised it was something special.  I managed to resist buying the console for a while longer, and when the port to Vita was announced I thought I’d be safe for some time to come.  I hammered it on Vita when it turned up, but it wasn’t long after that I was handing over my monies for a PS4 to get the ‘proper’ 60fps experience.  It’s great and near enough justifies the purchase all on its own.
  2. Driveclub
    In what could be considered to be one of the greatest post launch turnarounds ever, this has recently become one of my favourite racers. (Notable mentions here for Destiny – The Taken King and Diablo – The Reaper of Souls as other great turnarounds…)  It was widely acknowledged that Driveclub at launch was a mess.  Server issues, the perpetually postponed ‘free’ PS+ version, you name it.By the time I got my PS4 though, things had improved.  When I got home with my console, I hooked it up online, set it downloading all the free PS+ games I’d acquired over the previous year, and purchased the Playstation Plus Full Game Upgrade (the free version wasn’t yet out, but this was on offer at £19.99 and seemed worth a punt) I also grabbed the RESOGUN season pass, since I still felt bad that I’d gained the game for free through Plus.  I loved Driveclub from the off, and it went some way to scratching the Forza itch I’d had since getting rid of my 360.  The developers continued to impress with regular free content and improvement patches, and the game matured.  It is very difficult though, and I found my progress coming to a halt in the ‘Tour’ modes.  Regardless, this didn’t stop me purchasing the Season Pass when a PSN sale saw it drop to £10.  So much content, it was obviously great value.Since then patches have addressed the difficulty, a ‘silver medal’ mode saw me returning to the Tour (the skill deficit is obviously my issue, I note plenty of my friends were progressing just fine on gold).  The addition of Bikes towards the end of last year was huge, and bizarrely I seem to be doing much better at that than I did in the cars.  It should be a system seller, and I still think it’s the best looking racing game I’ve ever played.  Even my flatmate finds himself watching me play and admiring the visuals.  I’m not so keen on his habit of telling me which crashes I’d walk away from, and which ones would see me dead on the spot.  I won’t be buying a motorcycle any time soon, regardless of any recommendations from my attorney…
  3. Metro Redux
    The first of my cross-platform mentions, and controversially, a HD Remaster of a game that was hardly old to begin with.  However, it stands out as being one of my favourite gaming experiences of recent years, and quite possibly my favourite single player FPS since Quake.  It looks amazing on PS4, and it nails the atmosphere perfectly.  Playing it alone at night with the lights off was terrifying, and I’m not ashamed to say I did dream about those tunnels for a while after.I heartily recommend playing this, and it’s frequently on sale.  I played through the 2033 remake first, then read the original novel before tackling Last Light.  A superb experience, I’m confident I’ll go back and replay it on those harder difficulties, which is almost unheard of for me, since I rarely even finish games once, nevermind a replay.
  4. Rayman Legends
    The Rayman reboot that started with Origins was a huge return to form for the character, and a boost for platforming in general. I picked this up as something to play in co-op with my girlfriend, and it has been a huge success.  A big plus here for the PS4 version is that although I still only have one controller for the system, I can use my Vita to play.  This works really well, and we have been enjoying playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes in the same manner.
  5. Madden 15
    One of my circles of friends used to all live fairly close, and we had regular gaming days and meetups. As we’ve grown older we’ve moved far enough away that it’s no longer easy to just meet up at short notice, and adult lives mean we’re rarely all free on the same evening to game online.  We agreed to buy Madden when it was on offer, thinking we’d be able to play 4 player 2 v 2 online on those occasions we did manage it.  Given that I hadn’t played an NFL game properly since Joe Montana on the SEGA Master System, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
    Well it turned out EA had removed the ability to play 2 v 2 which was a bummer, and we resigned ourselves to playing 1 v 1.  Then we discovered Connected Franchise mode.  Obviously this is old hat to anyone familiar with the series and I expect sporting games in general, but it was pretty huge to us.  We are now half way through an NFL season, where we’re essentially playing asynchronous multiplayer, in much the same way as you might have played chess via email in the 90s.  When fixtures mean we have to play each other, the PS4 makes it really easy to stream the games to the other players so we can offer support / abuse in real time.
  6. Geometry Wars 3 & Jamestown+
    Shmups! Again these are not platform exclusives, but they are excellent shmups.  They both benefit from being played on the big screen, and I’ve spent some time with each.  The PS4 shmup library is growing, with Darius Burst Chronicles being next on my list to acquire.  The PS4 is also platform of choice for these, as it has a friends list of active shmuppers, keeping those leaderboards populated.
  7. Rocket League
    A surprise contender for Game of the Year 2015, this completely came from nowhere. Free with PS+, I found myself buying cosmetic DLC just to throw a little money the developer’s way.  It’s an absolute blast, and a regular for when I can’t decide what to play, or for teaming up online with a couple of buddies and losing to randoms on ranked.  The ‘Snow Day’ playlist of an Ice Hockey mode was some of the best gaming I had over the holiday season.
  8. Battlefield 4
    Although military shooters all blurred into one for me sometime ago, that doesn’t mean I don’t like playing them. This was bundled with all the DLC for a sensible price, so a few of us agreed to buy it and play together.  We’ve had some solid Team Deathmatch experiences, and it also goes some of the way to recapturing the enjoyment I had from Warhawk on the PS3.I still drop into it, but I’d really like Warhawk 2 on the PS4, please. (No I don’t want to talk about Starhawk, go away).  Admittedly there are experiences on PC which should be comparable, but I always find PC FPS to be a bit more serious.  This is great for that chilled evening on the couch driving your buddies around in a tank.
  9. Crossbuy & PSPlus = Pix the Cat, Limbo, Velocity, Resogun again
    PS+ has been stella for me since launch. I adore my Vita, and thanks to Crossbuy there have been multiple games that I’ve enjoyed playing both on the go and on my big screen.  This list isn’t exhaustive, but they are highlights.  Pix the Cat stands out as being something that completely took me by surprise, but dominated my playtime for about a month.  I noticed recently that one of my friends beat me on one of the leaderboards too, so I’ll be back on it soon…
  10. SingStar, eventually
    Sometime early in the PS3 era, SingStar went from being a PS2 novelty I was vaguely aware of, to being at almost every social gathering I went to.  SingStar nights became regular occurrences, and through the wonders of alcohol, not at all horrific.  The game got more and more polished, my friends and I all spent a small fortune on downloading more songs, adding cameras and wireless microphones* and a good time was had by all.

    The inevitable PS4 launch came, and although initially sounding promising, your mics will still work, you’ll be able to download your songs (providing they’re on the new store) it was a disaster.  There was new latency on the mics, hardly any songs were downloadable, and they’d stripped out most of the gameplay modes.  We wrote it off. Recently though, after months and months of silence, it received a pretty hefty patch.  The whole experience has been improved, 95% of my songs are available and new gameplay modes have been added as well as restoring the ones taken away.  It’s the game it should have been.  All I need to do is shell out for another camera, and the parties are back in business.  Just need to apologise to the neighbours in advance.

Obviously the reasons mentioned above are personal, and we all like different games and experiences.  I’m very happy with my PS4, and although I’m also pleased with the Xbox One and will be doing a follow up post for that, the PS4 would still be the system I’d recommend if you were only going to get one current system.  It does tend to get the best versions of cross-platform games, and although you could argue a gaming PC might do that better, there is always an Arkham Knight to remind you that it’s not all that simple…

*Affiliate Amazon links, where I’ll receive a small commission for purchases

Whatever happened to cross-platform peripherals?

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It always used to be fairly common to take your games to your friend’s house to play on their console, providing you all had the same machine (and you weren’t that one kid who went Nintendo, bleurgh).  To a lesser extent this still happens now, although more often I find it just involves signing into your digital account to download your games straight onto their console.

What used to also be fairly common though, was owning joysticks and other controllers that were multi-format.  As far as I can remember, my first experience of this was owning the superb Quickshot Maverick.  Possibly the origin of my arcade stick love, I got this for my SEGA Master System and hammered R-Type, Fantasy Zone and Transbot(!) with it.  Well I say hammered, but I was young and probably shite/even worse than I am now.  The multi-format capability was a real bonus, I frequently took it to my friend’s house for C64 gaming, it was a joy for Sheep in Space, Arnie, Slicks and Silkworm, and later it became controller of choice for my next door neighbour’s Amiga and hours of Sensible Soccer.

Quickshot Maverick 1
QuickShot Maverick 1

In the Saturn era (my Golden Age of gaming) this phenomenon would help me out again.  I owned the delightful looking (!) Madcatz Fazor lightgun, compatible with both the Saturn and PSX.  As well as benefiting my ownership of each machine in turn, it also regularly travelled to friend’s houses for ‘player 2’ experiences on Virtua Cop and Die Hard Trilogy etc.  Sadly it wasn’t ‘Guncon’ compatible, but later multi-platform lightguns were released that were.

Madcatz Fazor
Madcatz Fazor

At this time I also had the VRF1 Steering Wheel.  Again it was pretty funky looking, not entirely dissimilar from the official Saturn one.  This also worked on both Saturn and PSX, but with added N64 support into the mix.  This device and I spent hours on Sega Rally, Wipeout 2097, Ridge Racer and Porsche Challenge.  I remember devices of this kind being fairly common, although obviously varying wildly in quality, as has always been the nature of third party accessories.

Madcatz VRF1
Madcatz VRF1

Fast forward to present day, and things get a bit different.  As discussed in my previous post, I embraced multi-format gaming in a big way once I was old enough to finance/justify to myself owning a range of machines.  However the perils of being an adult also involve balancing budgets and apartment space.  I find it impossible to justify buying controllers such as steering wheels, when they’ll only work on one platform and I want to play racing games on three or more.  They are simply too expensive and take up too much space to get involved with owning multiple devices.

I did buy myself a HORI arcade stick for my 360 since it at least also worked on PC. This worked out well for my love affair with Street Fighter 4, and the vast array of shmups I played on both 360 and PC.  Unfortunately this meant I was less inclined to enjoy fighters and (non-twinstick) shmups on my PS3 where I only had the standard pads.  Periodically I looked into either modding my existing stick or purchasing a custom one, utilising a multi-pcb like the MC Cthulhu board, but costs (and effort) kept putting me off.

Hori Fighting Stick EX2 – 360

Enter the CronusMax Plus. (Update for 2020 – I now have the newer model, Cronus Zen. Does much the same but more polished. Also works perfectly with my Switch and Xbox Series S, and has a built in hub solution for the problems described later in this paragraph so you don’t need an extra one).  I stumbled across this little gem on a friends FaceBook post, and it presented the ideal solution to my first world problem.  My existing Hori stick had exclusively been used with my PC since I traded in my 360, but after handing over my £45 for the cronus, I found I could now also use it on my PS3 (hello Gradius V and Tekken Tag 2), Xbox One (Killer Instinct!) and, with a little effort involving a ‘pass-thru’ setup with the PC in my lounge, also on PS4 (Jamestown+ and Injustice already getting play, and setting me up nicely for Street Fighter V).  I understand the device will do some other fancy stuff too, but just for this purpose it has already paid for itself.  A couple of weeks after my purchase a firmware update resolved the need for a pass-thru on PS4, and now even that is straight-forward using a simple usb hub.  I understand there are similar devices available, but so far as I’m aware it is the only one so far to resolve the PS4 issue properly, and thus the one I’d recommend.

Cronus Zen

I’m excited by the possibility now that if I want to upgrade my arcade stick I can stay cross-platform easily and still have a broad selection to choose from.  I may even investigate a steering wheel setup, or get one of those Xbox One Elite Controllers.  £120 seems marginally more reasonable when I’d be able to use it on PS4 as well as Xbox One and PC. I could even use the PC ‘pass-thru’ arrangement to use Keyboard & Mouse on console FPS games, although I think that might be a step too far.

Part of me does wish they’d just standardise controllers, but at least there is an affordable workaround, and the open nature of the device for ‘tweaking’ does appeal.  Now I just have to deal with my other modern, multi-platform gamer problem.  How do I decide which group of friends I want to play online with?  I’m looking at you Destiny, if only there were shared servers for that. (Another 2020 update, there has at least been some progress in these areas!)

“Real Gamers are Platform Agnostic”

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As much as I hate the idea of “hobby gatekeeping” the title above is something I have been known to band about (see “I’m with the Sega Boy“). Of course the statement is mostly how I justify buying more games and consoles than I could ever actually play, rather than a declaration about “real gamers”, whatever the hell they are…

A general rule for games consoles has always been the requirement of that “killer app” to sell the machine.  What I find interesting, is when they go beyond the obvious.  Everyone knows Sonic and Mario sold consoles, but it’s always refreshing to hear of other games that made people jump in.  Since the Dreamcast, the last machine I bought to play SEGA exclusives, there have been some key titles that stood out and made me buy each machine.  I largely skipped the PS2, but I think I’ve owned most other systems since the DC.

GameCube 
Main game here was Luigi’s Mansion, which I did really enjoy.  My console purchase was also helped by stumbling across a dirt cheap 2nd hand one only a month after launch…

Xbox
Admittedly I bought this for Halo, as it became apparent that as much as I prefer keyb & mouse for fps, I was going to have to get used to a controller.  The other factor though was the ease of modding, so I spent more time with emulators on my Xbox, and using xbconnect to play Rainbow 6 and Links golf online with friends, bypassing Xbox live…

Nintendo DS
Mario Kart and Animal Crossing were the big factors here, no surprises. Probably still my favourite versions of both franchises.

Wii
Yes, I bought this at launch to play Wii Sports, just like everyone else, I’m not a monster.  Later the purchase was justified with the addition of Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, apart from that I mostly played GameCube games on it.

Xbox 360
The promise of Space Giraffe from Jeff Minter put this on my radar, and I was happily waiting for the release to buy it.  However I played Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and Assault Heroes on a friends machine, and I was convinced to jump in before SG came out.  SG was still day one though, rank 27 on the hardcore leaderboard is about the best I think I’ve ever done on any game…

PS3
As with the 360, my main reason for buying this wasn’t out yet when I bought the console.  I was sold on PS3 when I heard about the upcoming Wipeout HD, I was content waiting for that, until the same friend showed me Super Stardust HD and Everyday Shooter.  There should also be an honourable mention here for SingStar, was definitely a factor!

3DS
Techinically I didn’t buy this, as it was generously donated by a friend who was upgrading to an XL.  However my reasons for wanting it were the usual Mario Kart and Animal Crossing combo…

PS Vita
This was another launch purchase for me, only my second one ever. Wipeout 2048 and Super Stardust both being ready at launch were enough to convince me, and I never regretted the purchase.  Later FuturLab’s Velocity games and Jeff Minter’s TxK (which arrived replacing Tempest 2000 as my favourite game of all time) would secure the Vita’s place as my favourite handheld system.

PS4
I resisted this for a while, mostly because I was still mourning the demise of Wipeout, RESOGUN was a huge draw though.  I played it at a friends knowing that I’d eventually own one.  It wasn’t long after RESOGUN turned up on the Vita and I was playing that constantly that I was in GAME handing over my cash for a PS4.  PSPlus was a big draw too, having been subscribed to that prior to the PS4 launching, meant I’d already got a decent library of games for it by the time I picked one up.

Xbox One
My most recent purchase, only in the last few months.  Rare Replay was the key title here, without which I might have skipped it entirely.  While RR was the catalyst, Halo Master Chief collection and Forza exclusives sold it.  On the whole I still think the PS4 is the better choice if you’re only going to have one current system, but both Halo and Forza are “best in class” for me, and completely warrant owning an Xbox One as well.

I should also give a nod to my gaming PC, it is decent enough that I can still play latest releases, although I’m no longer getting away with setting all the graphics to max at 1080p… (4k is still some way in my future) The low cost of games on PC is a factor in my maintaining one, so I often pick up cross-platform titles on Steam.  The biggest draw in terms of exclusives for me though is Blizzard.  Even discounting the thousands of hours I originally spent on WoW, a significant amount of my gaming time is spent on StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm and Diablo 3 (yeah I know it has a console release, but I still prefer playing it on pc, click click click).  Having a persistent games library for PC is also a nice touch, compared to effectively starting from scratch each new console generation.  It’s pretty horrific for the backlog though…

So far as notable absences go, I think I just missed out the Wii U.  I have been largely uninspired by this, Mario Kart should have been enough, but I really don’t like that controller and the Animal Crossing titles have been disappointing.  I maintain that I would buy a budget Wii U that had a classic controller instead of the touchscreen one, ala the later Wii’s that dropped backwards compatibility, and just came with Mario Kart.

And with that, I manage not to go a whole year without updating the blog. I’m off to play Forza.