Same, I have been banned from both GAF and Era for being a little too positive for Xbox. Now I’m no crazy fanboy, and I will own both the PS5 and XSX. I just recently sold my PS4 Pro, and still have a XOX.
I got thread banned on GAF and had a stupid header on my Avatar that said to report me for console waring, because I said that PS5 variable clocks and smartshift was put in by Sony to help offset thermal issues.
I was told by mods that unless I could show where PS5 was having thermal issues then I was trolling. I explained that every single console when it is designed takes various steps to control thermal issues, and Sony used variable clocks and smartshift as a part of their solution, just like MS used a lower clock speed and a tower design.
GAF and Era are what they are.
You would also notice that there wasn’t really a need to have a Xbox era forum like this for PS. That’s because both of the other two are PS forums.
I can agree with this but he’s far from being consistent. He’s bashed Xbox repeatedly for the entire year for having cross-gen games but yet I have only seen him bash Sony once for the same thing and they seem to be doing it longer than Microsoft which would be hilarious. John doesn’t keep the same energy despite Sony doing something that he’s repeatedly bashed Xbox for.
In my eyes, if you bash one for doing a certain thing and the other company does the same, they need to be bashed equally. Can’t just let one get a free pass because it’s the favorite. That’s just bullshit to me.
I was banned from Era almost two years ago. Outside of a topic here and there that I see from time to time, better off being off of that site. Way too much bullshit. I’m still on GAF but don’t post as much as I used to. I have been warned though for saying PS5 is 9.2TF (because it is, lol) but whatever, it all is what it is.
I’ve been gaming a long time, I remember when Sony bought Psygnosis to get their foot in the door of the video game industry…it appears to me that PlayStation focused gamers for about 20 years have gotten used to only having the Xbox division, without the full resources of Microsoft, as the source of their false dilemma regarding videogame platforms…until about a month ago when I think it was made very clear that those days are over. Since then, the anger and anxiety and bargaining I’ve seen directed at places like DF demonstrate stages of grief; it’s an incredibly sad and destructive gamer mentality, everyone but PlayStation focused gamers are probably getting Starfield, ES VI etc, and they are pissed, but not understably because this is business, this is the way cookie crumbles and as Jim Sterling alluded to in his video, neither Sony nor Nintendo have the ability to manage the RISK involved in putting together a 7.4 billion dollar deal as readily as a gamepass motivated Microsoft.
We didn’t know this yet though. For all we know, the launch games might not reach the targets. They are just targets atm, after all. I mean this wrt XSX/PS5-specific games, not BC stuff.
He didn’t have opportunities to tbh. Their big post-showcase reaction vids are where he usually makes these comments, but Sony’s about-face only was evident after their last one was already over. MS’s position on generations had been consistent the entire time, so I bet that is the distinction there. I’d also say he is not super enthused about next gen generally speaking.
Since he spends all day pixel counting and tweaking game settings and whatnot, it makes sense to get a bit burned out on seeing dials turned to 11, which is essentially what the launch games on both platforms are doing. Sure, he is hyped for DS like tons of DS fans are. And Spiderman is a new game if not a whole new experience. But even that is a super weak launch lineup in terms of offering new, next gen experiences.
We are smashing into diminishing returns here in all the areas where the settings are being dialed up, except for RT, which isn’t in most launch games. I think that has a lot to do with where John is coming from.
Perhaps. John just doesn’t seem to go as hard on Sony compared to Microsoft even when Sony does the same stuff. If he’s not super enthused about next gen, that’s a “him” problem, not a next gen problem. I know he loves retro gaming and as great as all of that stuff was, it’s long past. If he can’t get hyped for both next gen consoles, then he honestly should step away for a while because it would be obvious that he just needs a break.
There weren’t any new next gen experiences in 2013 either or in 2005/2006. Next Gen experiences always comes after cross gen ends and a few years after the consoles launch. If anything, his expectations are way too high. I always have my expectations in check and in the middle no matter what it is.
I don’t know what John expects. Honestly, I don’t believe that there’s been a true “revolutionary” game or experience since the original Halo and if not that, all the way back to Mario 64 and Zelda OOT.
I see gaming as an evolution of what’s already available. Maybe John just has unrealistic expectations which at the end of the day is only going to hurt his own enjoyment of it all.
I believe that visuals are at it’s peak and maximum. I simply believe what is already there will just be better in terms of effects, lighting, draw distance, minimal to no pop-in, etc. I believe that this upcoming generation is all about performance because everything else visually is already there. I have high expectations for performance to be 60FPS as the STANDARD because the tech is finally here for consoles to pull that off. But other than that, my expectations like I said are in the middle because I don’t see how any of it can or will be revolutionary. I just don’t.
Back to John, maybe he just needs a vacation and decompress. Then come back refreshed and revitalized. Because no matter which platform you’ll be playing on, I don’t see how anyone could not be hyped. But that’s just me and my own personal opinion.
This thread is kind of disappointing I have to say. People are allowed to have personalities and with that comes biases. Otherwise we end up in the impossible dream of ‘objective reviews’ that Ga**rgat* pretended it was about for 5 minutes – what DF do is present entertainment. It’s showing you technical performance sure but while the facts are a key part of the presentation, it’s up to you as a discerning viewer to filter it and understand it as entertainment. DF is entertainment produced by people as biased and prickly and contradictory and flawed and struggling as any of us. So enjoy it and disagree with it but fod god’s sake stop seeing it as objective truth that must be absolutely neutral. That’s not a mature response to entertainment.
I agree its entertainment.
I laughed a lot when dark1x complained about xbox dashboard, saying “it is a big problem, not acceptable” for him that it isn’t native 4K.
I mean bro, you are doing technical analyses about games, you should know that saving a gigabyte from OS and giving it to the games is rather …crucial?
IIRC almost zero ps4pro games marketed as “4K” were ever native 4K, and I don’t recall him calling that “unacceptable”, even once.
But dashboard, oh dashboard is the bees knees
DF is not as balanced in their reporting as they are used to be. They should stick to technical analysis and cut out all the opinion that came in lateley. Also the last two weeks it was way too much promotion for the PS5 Pro for my taste. In my Twitter and Youtube timeline there was at least 1 new video about the PS5 Pro a day. I am not kidding.
Tbf they’re all about the state of the art. If anyone is going to pore over details of a new pro console, it’ll be them, and I think expecting anything else is foolish.
I disagree. The following video is one example for what I was talking about (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EQ7OSRvv9A&pp=ygUIZGYgY2xpcHM%3D). The content has nothing to do with facts, it is speculation. That type of content was absent in the past. Not a fan of. I wish they would stick to the old formula: Test games and hardware hands-on and not speculate abput every dumb question or rumor. That was actually what got them their reputation.
That’s a Direct though - not a review. It is explicitly an opinion/new/comment piece.
This need for facts is reserved for their reviews.
They have three kinds of content - reviews, podcast and retro. They’re reputation, as you suggest, hasn’t been tainted in my view by having a podcast where they discus and opine.
The issue is that having content where they give their opinion can highlight the biases that affects their reviews - which makes it harder to claim to be impartial and unbiased technical reviews when we can spot unfair behaviour that clearly aligns with their preferences they show in the podcasts or on social media.
Like many other outlets, they claim objectivity but pull Xbox up for things they let go with PlayStation, and treat Sony with such kid gloves it seems likely Sony blackmails the media with only favourable coverage getting future early review keys.
Stephen Totilo for example is someone who’s stated aim is to just report the facts, and I do think he honestly believes he’s as unbiased as he can be - but he admitted he struggled to fairly review Hellblade 2 as he strongly dislikes Microsoft, and so sought help on making reviews impartial.
While annoyed (as the review clearly still wasn’t particularly unbiased - particularly given most of it was taken up by “how to be impartial” while PlayStation first party get the entire review gushing) I still stayed subbed as I appreciated he was trying.
Then came “E3”, where he said “Xbox didn’t mention all the layoffs” - a similar claim was made by Eurogamer and DF, while none of them demanded Sony make similar representations at their showcase, despite similar layoffs and closures.
Failure to treat Xbox and PlayStation games and news equally, with fair comment, praise and criticism on both, is bias and unfortunately highly common in the gaming media that seem to all have grown up with a PS1 - and while just having “impartial, technical” reviews may seem unbiased they usually aren’t once you look deeper and check what the reviewers have said in the past…
It comes under same banner. If they like to do that kind of content they should do it on a different banner imho. They are IGN now, that would be a good alternative.
It quit literally doesn’t. It has its own - Digital Foundry Direct. That’s the entire point of the podcast.
Okay, so they do. Now what?
They are not IGN. They are independent, and shares of theirs that were owned by Eurogamer is now own by Ziff Davis.
Anyway, you’re not going to change your mind even when presented with facts, so I reckon I’m done. But before i go, I will say this - DF are quite literally the only subjective reviews out there, so if yiu find bias in them then I don’t know what you’re looking for.
With technical reviews is is obviouisly easier to stay objective at least with pixel counting and benchmarking. Conslusion is another topic Yes they try to stay objective.
I was actually a patreon of DF, so that is why I have a very strong opinion about in what direction they evolve.
About talking about facts. The video I showed is a fact. That they are now working with IGN is also a fact. I may have confused who the owner or major stakeholder into DF is but they already had team meetings with their IGN counterparts. IGN published DF content too IIRC.
P.S. I also don’t think that my observations would count as a “toxic attack”. I actually have not seen any (toxic attacks) of them.
I’ll put it this way, while I’m genuinely passionate, invested, and interested in photorealism in racing games, I skipped out on watching the GT vs Forza video not because of any favoritism or fanboyism that it could have, but because they don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to graphics technology.
I appreciate their enthusiasm, their visuals-centric approach, and their work-ethic. But at this stage you’d think they’d educate themselves on all the things a technical artist would be familiar with, and they haven’t.
