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Playstation Portal |OT| From WC with Love

FrankWza

Gold Member
I FINALLY GOT A PORTAL! Went to Target at 6:30am and waited 30 minutes in the 40 degree cold to grab one of the 2 shipped there that morning.
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Good stuff.
I've exclusively been playing Cocoon on the Portal and love the game and the device. It'll mainly be my indie game\AAA side-quest machine from now on. The next game I'll play exclusively on will be Jusant. These type of games just seem perfect for it.
I've tried everything and it's better for some of the intense games than it gets credit for. The issue to me is getting used to staring at the screen between the dualsense vs a big TV. I think that's part of why slower stuff is more comfortable. My favorite to play is the MGS collection
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I've tried everything and it's better for some of the intense games than it gets credit for. The issue to me is getting used to staring at the screen between the dualsense vs a big TV. I think that's part of why slower stuff is more comfortable. My favorite to play is the MGS collection

100% this!!! It's not that Spiderman 2 or God of War: Ragnarök wouldn't be good on the Portal. It's that I'd just rather play them on a big screen with my full surround sound. It's not an anti-Portal thing, but a pro big screen and full surround sound thing. Especially now that the PS5 has Atmos sound height speakers working in games now. Oh my!
 
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Only thing I've noticed over the last month is if a game is downloading in the background, connections is dog shit on a warm day
This! I noticed that with My PC and phone, You have to pause downloads in order to play decently, it does not matter if You connect throught LAN.
 

Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
I've exclusively been playing Cocoon on the Portal and love the game and the device. It'll mainly be my indie game\AAA side-quest machine from now on. The next game I'll play exclusively on will be Jusant. These type of games just seem perfect for it.
I am going to buy Jusant soon also, looks great. Enjoy the new toy 🎮
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Looks like Jusant is on sale for the Holidays. It's 20% off. Buying it now! Perfect Portal game. Just $20.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
So weird that Sony couldn't anticipate demand better than this.
Looking at the initial reactions after it's announcement, it's hard to blame Sony.
Lots of people whining about it not being a dedicated handheld.

Tbh though, 90% of my gametime is currently on Portal.
Remote Play after the 2 updates feels rather smooth to the point that I often feel like I'm playing on my tv.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Looking at the initial reactions after it's announcement, it's hard to blame Sony.
Lots of people whining about it not being a dedicated handheld.


Tbh though, 90% of my gametime is currently on Portal.
Remote Play after the 2 updates feels rather smooth to the point that I often feel like I'm playing on my tv.

Maybe they need to stop paying attention to trolls on Twitter and brain-dead Youtubers. I'd love to know how many they made world-wide for launch.
 
Next week I want to try another ultimate test. I'll be about 600 miles away from my PS5. I'm gonna have someone play my physical copy of Returnal while I play the PS+ version, and do co-op . . .
not sure how it'll go. I know expecting an online MP game co-op to work well is iffy at best.
 

manzo

Member
Next week I want to try another ultimate test. I'll be about 600 miles away from my PS5. I'm gonna have someone play my physical copy of Returnal while I play the PS+ version, and do co-op . . .
not sure how it'll go. I know expecting an online MP game co-op to work well is iffy at best.

I tested out 1700km from home, see my updated post in previous page for impressions.
 

Crayon

Member
Looking at the initial reactions after it's announcement, it's hard to blame Sony.
Lots of people whining about it not being a dedicated handheld.

Tbh though, 90% of my gametime is currently on Portal.
Remote Play after the 2 updates feels rather smooth to the point that I often feel like I'm playing on my tv.

I see how they could be unsure but not because of the online reaction. Demanding it be something else entirely is not a serious position.
 

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
I see how they could be unsure but not because of the online reaction. Demanding it be something else entirely is not a serious position.
True, it wasn't my intention to imply that Sony based availability on online reaction.

But I do think adoptation was a safe estimated guess by Sony that they might have underestimated.
 

Crayon

Member
True, it wasn't my intention to imply that Sony based availability on online reaction.

But I do think adoptation was a safe estimated guess by Sony that they might have underestimated.

I can defintely beleive they would have had no idea. My own estimate was a wide range, effectively having no idea. I was right about the price, which is good despite the crying online. On the high side, possibly being a hit, I was thinking about peoples experience with the switch over the years. While people don't always say it plainly, I could see that a lot were not geting to play as much games as they wanted because of sharing a tv, and not wanting to hole up in another room while family is in the living room. I think a lot of us can relate. That's part of the reason I never play pc games at a desk. Feels like I'm ditching my wife!
 

manzo

Member
I can defintely beleive they would have had no idea. My own estimate was a wide range, effectively having no idea. I was right about the price, which is good despite the crying online. On the high side, possibly being a hit, I was thinking about peoples experience with the switch over the years. While people don't always say it plainly, I could see that a lot were not geting to play as much games as they wanted because of sharing a tv, and not wanting to hole up in another room while family is in the living room. I think a lot of us can relate. That's part of the reason I never play pc games at a desk. Feels like I'm ditching my wife!

This also hit me after a couple of nights with the system by myself when the girl is sleeping and I still want to have a beer and chill. When I first read about the device, I was thinking to myself that ”why on earth? This is the most useless device Sony could think of, when you have RP on phones, PC’s etc”. How well the system works when travelling or wanting to share the TV is miles and leagues above any other RP setup and it just works.

I ate crow hardcore.

It’s one of those devices which enables way more flexible way of playing games while respecting others. Like you said, I can play on the living room tv as much as I want, but when the girl cozies up to me, I don’t have the gall to tell her to piss off unless she deserves it. Now I can continue my shit while she watches random Netflix stuff that I have no interest in. I can play in places I didn’t think of previously.

It’s the world of HAVING the possibility to play your PS5 wherever, even if you won’t. That’s quite a perk. Trust me, there will be a lot of these for sale 2nd hand after the holidays as many won’t find use to it, but for those where it soöves problems, it’s a great device.
 

Crayon

Member
This also hit me after a couple of nights with the system by myself when the girl is sleeping and I still want to have a beer and chill. When I first read about the device, I was thinking to myself that ”why on earth? This is the most useless device Sony could think of, when you have RP on phones, PC’s etc”. How well the system works when travelling or wanting to share the TV is miles and leagues above any other RP setup and it just works.

I ate crow hardcore.

It’s one of those devices which enables way more flexible way of playing games while respecting others. Like you said, I can play on the living room tv as much as I want, but when the girl cozies up to me, I don’t have the gall to tell her to piss off unless she deserves it. Now I can continue my shit while she watches random Netflix stuff that I have no interest in. I can play in places I didn’t think of previously.

It’s the world of HAVING the possibility to play your PS5 wherever, even if you won’t. That’s quite a perk. Trust me, there will be a lot of these for sale 2nd hand after the holidays as many won’t find use to it, but for those where it soöves problems, it’s a great device.

I would get one except I have vintage handhelds that I will take any excuse to play. Also, my wife likes games a lot so I already have more TV access than I even should use. If I had kids though? Damn I would be all over this thing.
 
I've been playing a lot of Powerwash Simulator with it recently which has been nice, but I'm still on the fence.

If it wasn't for Persona 3 coming out I would have probably boxed it up already to return.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Yes. I was using the portal, connecting to the ps+ copy 600 miles away, they were using my physical copy here. I still suck at life and haven’t made it past biome 3.

That's awesome, that you were even able to do that on the Portal for a co-op game in that way. This is also why physical media still rules!
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Yea it was awesome. I was hoping co-op would make the game easier for me. Starting to think I need to find someone to carry me past biome 3.

I'm going to play Returnal next year but only with co-op. I was 100% sure it would be easier. So, you're saying it's not easier, even with co-op?
 
I'm going to play Returnal next year but only with co-op. I was 100% sure it would be easier. So, you're saying it's not easier, even with co-op?
I think the way to go is to just co-op the biome you’re stuck on. Like I should build up my character in biome 1 and then have someone join at the start of biome 3. The start of each biome has a co-op join thing. That way we are not splitting all the stuff in biome 1.

You split most of the pickups. But you can revive each other.
 

PanzerCute

Member
I'm going to play Returnal next year but only with co-op. I was 100% sure it would be easier. So, you're saying it's not easier, even with co-op?
Hey it is not that hard. I finished it solo in 13 hours when it released. If you have experience in TPS and games like Doom or even Souls, it really is more than doable. The beginning can be quite brutal before you find upgrades and new stuff, but really the difficulty of this game is over exagerated imo.

And tbh it is a damn action master piece. I was in awe when I arrived at the last biome. And the infinite mode they added witht the coop update is exquisite.

Brilliant, brilliant game.
 
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I think I’m gonna return mine to Best Buy.

I installed Chiaki on my MacBook Air and it worked so much better and was still playable even with COD.
 

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Finally got the chance to use Portal outside the house during Christmas.

Tried at at both my parent's house and my parents in law.
Have to say, despite them having basic internet bundles, it works almost as good as at home, i.e. almost like playing on my tv (minus 4K/HDR/120hz).
Tried MW3, Fortnite, FF XIV and Pinball FX and they all ran completely fine.

No idea why some people have so many issues with performance on Portal. It must really be their internet connections that are causing issues, but that's an ISP/internet issue, outside of Portal.

Spend pretty much all my gametime on Portal and today I booted up Horizon on my tv and I agree that it's a shame Portal doesn't have an OLED screen and HDR, but for me personally, the convenience of Portal makes up for the lack of OLED/HDR.
(In particular being able to play games whenever I want while chilling on the couch with my fam, or when me and my gf are being lazy in bed during the weekends).
 

Nankatsu

Member
Did this previously had a permanent top stamp saying "Remote play connected."?

Is it me or did they had this and there's no way to get rid of it?
 
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Nankatsu

Member
When do you see this?

While using portal on the living room for example. Setup is exactly the same when I started using it and I didn't had the permanent stamp showing up before.

EDIT: Figured out the issue. If I connect the portal mid game I get the message showing up permanently.

If I connect the portal while on the menu, and then start the game I don't get the message.
 
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Diseased Yak

Gold Member
I snagged one of these this past Friday. I tend to buy any gadget like this, so I thought what the heck. Started tracking in-stock at Best Buy and had one in a few hours.

So far, I'm impressed! It plays 98% flawlessly in any room in my apartment, including while laying in bed, which is on the opposite side of the whole place from my router.
The screen is nice and big, and looks pretty fantastic. Also impressed with the sound quality from the speakers! I've mostly been playing FFVII Remake, and it looks amazing.

Question: For games like FFVII-R, does Performance or Quality tend to work better for streaming to the Portal?
 

Sleepwalker

Member
I snagged one of these this past Friday. I tend to buy any gadget like this, so I thought what the heck. Started tracking in-stock at Best Buy and had one in a few hours.

So far, I'm impressed! It plays 98% flawlessly in any room in my apartment, including while laying in bed, which is on the opposite side of the whole place from my router.
The screen is nice and big, and looks pretty fantastic. Also impressed with the sound quality from the speakers! I've mostly been playing FFVII Remake, and it looks amazing.

Question: For games like FFVII-R, does Performance or Quality tend to work better for streaming to the Portal?

Performance always, Portal is only 1080p/60, so pretty much use performance for all games that have it.
 

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Performance always, Portal is only 1080p/60, so pretty much use performance for all games that have it.
Makes perfect sense, thanks! FFVII-R defaulted to Performance and I never even thought to check it until I was playing last night and noticed there was a quality mode. Didn't want to mess with testing it until later, so thought I'd ask.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
While using portal on the living room for example. Setup is exactly the same when I started using it and I didn't had the permanent stamp showing up before.

EDIT: Figured out the issue. If I connect the portal mid game I get the message showing up permanently.

If I connect the portal while on the menu, and then start the game I don't get the message.

That's interesting. I wonder why they feel the need to tell the gamer that info. I mean.....no one is going to be playing remotely without knowing it's not local, right?
 

Cornbread78

Member
I still love that Sony made this. It is exactly what I asked for in one of the focus insider surveys. I wish it could used the Sony direct connection that the Pulses use, but I'm really enjoying my nightly sessiins with Star Ocean 2 on it.
 
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Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Got a Playstation Portal today but I'm probably going to return it already unless someone finds a trick to my issue which is the most common one I guess: bad streaming quality. Slows down easily the action when there's more than basic things going on and screen is also filled with artefacts which in games like AW2 basically makes even difficult to see anything. I tried to set the modem to 5GHZ only for the portal and Ps5 is wired but doesn't seem to change much from 2.4 GHZ at all. Also tried 1080p, HDR off, vrr off and 120hz off... still no difference :\ too bad because the concept rocks but I don't seem to make it run decently with my setup!
 
I returned mine to Best Buy and the employees acted like I sold them the portal. Apparently they had never seen one yet. It was decent device but my Steam deck does the same thing and the portal wasn't impressing enough to keep it over using my deck.
 

FrankWza

Gold Member
Got a Playstation Portal today but I'm probably going to return it already unless someone finds a trick to my issue which is the most common one I guess: bad streaming quality. Slows down easily the action when there's more than basic things going on and screen is also filled with artefacts which in games like AW2 basically makes even difficult to see anything. I tried to set the modem to 5GHZ only for the portal and Ps5 is wired but doesn't seem to change much from 2.4 GHZ at all. Also tried 1080p, HDR off, vrr off and 120hz off... still no difference :\ too bad because the concept rocks but I don't seem to make it run decently with my setup!
Try resetting the Portal with he changes you've made in place.
If that doesn't work try a different remote play option and see how it compares or it could be your router.
 
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