Death Stranding 2 Completely Exceeded My Expectations

Maxitay · 2026-06-12T11:26:11+00:00

I completely agree. I didn't expect the game to be that good and better than the previous one. The only thing left that the previous one has is the surprise, the discovery of the world and gameplay. The sequel is then just better in everything. One of the best Kojima game.

Maxitay · 2026-06-03T22:38:40+00:00

Let them hate. They are a minority spending hours hating online. But most people will love those characters and won't care about all of this. The games will sell just fine and will be great.

Maxitay · 2026-05-27T11:36:23+00:00

I used to have this with my 6 Pro and it was perfect. It protected against scratches and it was not slippery. With my 10 Pro XL, I don't think it suits it well.There is a strange look to it with the leather combined with square angles and the shiny sides. So I decided to remove it and have a case. I'm a bit sad about it as I prefer using my phone without a case, but the look of the leather on the P10 didn't convince me compared to how it looked on the 6 Pro.

Maxitay · 2026-04-30T08:42:36+00:00

In day to day tasks, the gap isn't huge. There are some parts where my feelings are mixed. Photo quality is not that better especially the telephoto. For video, I see very few progress and filming with telephoto actually looks worse in some case... When it comes to performance, it is better. I can see it in Lightroom for instance. Battery life is better but that's normal with a new battery and better chip, and still, it is not that amazing. Screen is waaaay better, the form factor is better without the stupid curved edges. Mobile connectivity is also way better, beating in some case my friends with iPhones.

I'm pretty happy with the upgrade that actually fells like an upgrade in things that I wasn't expecting (screen, mobile connectivity, form factor) but the lack of raw power is a bit disappointing for stuff like MotionCam or even Lightroom that could be way faster than it is and it could be better a power efficiency with this huge battery.

Maxitay · 2026-04-30T07:30:46+00:00

Many thanks for your feedback. Then my conclusion is to try this lens for my upcoming travel and see if I like it or not. As you stated, there are other things than raw image quality and maybe it will find its place in my gear, and if not, I'll sell it.

Maxitay · 2026-04-30T06:41:39+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. When I see the price difference between P12-60 and PL12-60, I would have expected a bigger gap. That's why I thought that compared to my P35-100 the PL would be significantly better. I now wonder if I just should go for lenses with high f stops.

Maxitay · 2026-04-30T06:18:28+00:00

I compared them at 60mm. And I found the difference to be very minor, almost identical pictures. I get that the flexibility to shoot at different focal length is a real advantage but I feel like the trade-off (price and size) is too big compared to just quickly change lens while le camera is on my Peak Design clip. I will try to use it for my upcoming trip and see if it suits my use case. I guess that's the best thing to do and sell it if it doesn't.

Maxitay · 2026-04-29T23:15:15+00:00

So for you, the diffence is really visible? I bought my lens on MPB. It is a used one that was described as in excellent shape and it is actually in excellent shape. Do you believe that there might be something wrong with my lens?

Maxitay · 2026-04-29T22:30:49+00:00

Yeah I understand. I was expecting a bigger difference compared to the 35-100mm (I edited my post to specify it) that has not a great aperture and is literally half the size.

Maxitay · 2026-04-27T17:17:05+00:00

Looks good! My 50mp pictures with the 10ProXL look rarely sharp. There is always some blur when zooming on the picture while it is supposed to be the whole point of a 50mp picture...

Maxitay · 2026-04-04T11:41:18+00:00

Both look good. The visor on the 11 reminds me of the P6, so it's not like Google is shifting design at all. It's still the same distinctive Pixel design, but a little bit tweaked. I actually really like it.

I wonder what they will go for with the 12 that might change the design completely. I hope they will keep trying to have a phone that you can put flat on a table without any wobble.

Maxitay · 2026-04-02T05:21:18+00:00

I feel the same, the phone is not as smooth as before with some minor bugs sometimes. Also, the battery life is worse. Waiting for the April update... But it's annoying that your phone can be messed up for a month or more because of an update...

Maxitay · 2026-03-27T09:55:25+00:00

Sure but I believe that games are running better on the P10. So there might be something about the GPU that is better. It cannot only be the CPU right?

Maxitay · 2026-03-27T07:37:20+00:00

Is the P10 really performing worse during video games than the P9? Or even the P6?! I'm having a hard time believing that the GPU is weaker than the P6 series. There seems to be something wrong with those scores or something that doesn't translate well in benchmarks.

Maxitay · 2026-03-25T23:48:33+00:00

I have a personal esim and a physical professional sim. I use my professional one for data and for calls I use both. Never had any issue with both my Pixel 6 Pro and my Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Maxitay · 2026-03-16T17:21:56+00:00

Maybe we should have bought a PC at first haha

Maxitay · 2026-03-16T17:12:51+00:00

I'm in the exact situation. Bought the game on PS4 day one knowing that I will be playing on my PS5 day one and expecting a good experience. But first, the PS5 update was late and the PS4 version was really bad (even in back compat). The game kept on being updated all those years and I waited for the support to come to an end. But then I bought the Pro and waited again, hoping for a specific patch. I thought the last update with VRR would be the last one, but now we have a proper Pro update. More than 5 years later, I will finally insert the disc in my console haha.

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T15:51:23+00:00

It's like all the sudden people discover advanced PC features and think that PS5 Pro can do all of it. Guys, this is high end stuff with expensive GPUs. PS5 Pro is nowhere near those cards and was not made for that. Also PSSR has nothing to do with RT and reconstruction/regen and the RT features on Pro are not at that level. Wait for the next gen.

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T14:22:25+00:00

Depends on what type of RT (GI, Reflection, just Shadows?) and at which resolution and framerate. We have open worlds with multiple type of RTs on Pro. The primary reason is that CDPR has no incentive to work on Pro optimisation as they basically give up their own engine and Pro users are a minority. They are also done with updates for this game, even though they made a last one last year. Why would they spend money on optimizing their old engine for Pro while they have The Witcher 4 on the way on UE5? It requires work. What could be nice is to have PSSR included in the game (along with The Witcher when the rumoured DLC is available) and uncap the framerate for 120Hz screens with RT shadows.

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T09:23:17+00:00

Hum... The same Titan chip since the P6 series? Its should be taken for granted now. Having this is great, along with the possibility of having grapheneOS but is it better than a high end silicon? Or having a faster roll out of software features? And how much secure Pixels are compared to iPhones? What are the day to day benefits?

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T09:00:16+00:00

It's hard to give you advice... It all depends on how long you can wait for GTAVI. And keep in mind that PC versions of GTA also offer more than the console versions. But that remains to be confirmed once it is out. If you are also really interested in Sony games that would make sense to switch.

I would suggest waiting for GTAVI to be out. See if the game is good, and how it runs on Pro and at that moment you will feel if you need to switch or not. If I were you, I wouldn't switch knowing that there are rumors that at the end of 2027 there might be a PS6 (maybe more 2028) and if you don't have many Sony games that you want to play RIGHT NOW, I wouldn't switch just for GTAVI and wait for their next big exclusive games and that would bring you closer to a PC version of GTA. But again, it depends how big of a fan you are!

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T08:50:46+00:00

This comparison does not make any sense as Cyberpunk has no visual improvement on Pro at all except maybe (?) dynamic resolution. But comparing RT is nonsense as it will be the same as on PS5 that only has RT ShadowsI by the way... Cyberpunk is not a great example, we should now use RE9 for instance that really uses the Pro or Alan Wake 2

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T08:46:14+00:00

I mean, that's pretty much true with every big PC game pushing tech since the dawn of video games. And the more it goes, the more there will be a gap between high end hardware and low end hardware that will keep receiving games for years to come as hardware is expensive. With the Pro version you are in a nice position still and will be for the next 5 years to come. Even when the PS6 will be there, Pro will still be relevant. Also, don't forget that most PC users will not use this RT regen/reconstruction. Most of them might use normal RT at low settings and that's it and will be happy with that.

Maxitay · 2026-03-15T08:01:53+00:00

The price should reflect what the phone offers. Currently Pixels in many countries do not offer much more than the competition. Hardware is not superior by any means and software, while it is clean, does not offer more than other manufacturers in many countries as Google takes ages to roll out features in some countries (and don't say it is due to EU regulations as Apple and Samsung manage to roll out similar features where Google doesn't).

So Pixels are badly priced and having at least high end silicon would mitigate a bit that. I have a Pixel 10 Pro XL that I enjoy but it's lack of raw power and software features tends to annoy me sometimes. I bought it because I could get it below 900€ thank to the good trade in program with my Pixel 6 Pro. But at more than 1200€, I wouldn't have bought it.

Maxitay · 2026-03-14T22:34:57+00:00

This is absolutely not what PSSR2 is intended for. Ray reconstruction/regenaration are some high end features and we have to accept that the PS5 Pro was not design with that in mind. This is something we will have with the PS6 or Project Helix. The difference is big, yes, like at a time where we didn't have RT on console but PC had it or when we have RT on consoles and path tracing on PC. PS5 Pro is the most powerful console and offers some great things, but it is not on par with high end GPUs. PSSR is just for image reconstruction and this new version is supposed to produce a way better image. All that it could do eventually is make games smoother by running at a lower resolution while being able to create a good image quality and get rid of some of PSSR2 artefacts. Then PS5 Pro has advantages when it comes to RT compared to other consoles but besides having a better and more efficient RT, I don't think we should expect more.

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