Opinion #1
Why wait for the perfect finishing touch? We’ll do it ourselves
PlayStation needs to do something special to properly compete with the sheer overwhelming value of Game Pass. While the exclusives it has are good, and often great, more could certainly be done to add value for the loyal gamers who have miraculously secured a PS5.
There’s a space that consoles still aren’t really diving into, and it’s one that makes PC gaming attractive: modding. The ability to mod your games gives them extra life, and often gives you more reasons to revisit your favourites. Take Dark Souls 3, for example, which I found myself drawn back to recently. I’ve played the normal version of the game countless times, but in my most recent run I decided to give the Cinders Mod a go, because it was my first time playing it on PC.
The Cinders Mod completely overhauls a lot of the mechanics in the game, adds extra playstyles like a summoner class, and even introduces new bosses, weapons, and spells. It’s like playing a different game, but one that you already know how to play, so you don’t have any of the hassle of having to learn anything. While Sony is releasing some of its games on PC, a lot of its output is still PlayStation-exclusive. And while you can mod those games on PlayStation, you have to go through a lot of (potentially warranty-voiding) work to do so.
PLAYING WITH POWER?
What Sony should do then, is allow players to mod the games properly, and integrate them into the PlayStation ecosystem. Imagine being able to browse for mods for your old gaming flames, reigniting your passion for them again in a way that feels new, or more refined. We’ve seen a little bit of modding on consoles, but it’s never been properly supported.
The thing is, it’s not just complete overhauls that improve games on PC. Small changes can also add to the fun. There are mods to change The Witcher 3’s Geralt into Henry Cavill, or to improve the textures in Skyrim. It’s not just about changing a game; it’s about doing some of the little things developers might not have had time to do.
With PS5, and the DualSense in particular, having so many new features, there are going to be a lot of extant games that won’t ever be able to take advantage of them. So let players take the time instead. Imagine being able to boot up Bloodborne and the haptic feedback of your controller alerting you when an enemy is chasing you, or i fighting you as you’re charging up a killing blow. There are so many little things that can be done by the geniuses of the world that simply won’t exist without mod support.
Now, PlayStation’s hardly going to disappear overnight without mod support, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t the right thing to do. This is especially true as Sony isn’t exactly all-in on backwards compatibility, so we’re probably never going to get proper DualSense support for older games without modders. Also, everyone knows Thomas The Tank Engine should be modded into every game – why let PC players have all the tootin’ fun?
Thomas The Tank Engine should be put into every game.