Topic: PS4 recommendation thread

@mookysam I'll stick my oar in and vouch for Lego Batman 3. I'm really not all that fond of the Lego games - but from a DC fan boy point of view, it was just packed with so much attention to detail and love for a lot of characters that I went so far as to get the plat for it.

@Tjuz unravel 2 was on sale for like 12$ two weekends ago IIRC.

@RogerRoger I'm actually playing through the LEGO Harry Potter Collection with my brother currently. We've been at it for a while and are still only in year 5, but it's enjoyable enough! Not sure there'd be another LEGO licensed game I'm interested in, though. I did play and enjoy some LEGO Lord of the Rings years ago, but I don't think I ever finished that. LEGO Rock Band was my jam on the DS, although that was nothing like the others obviously. Tried a few others here and there but none of them really stuck.

@RogerRoger @KALofKRYPTON Thanks both. I think I will get Lego Batman 3 at some point. It looks like a fun little game to break things up a bit.

I've got another request for recommendations! This time not for co-op, but for myself. I decided to pull the trigger and subscribe to PS Now a couple of days ago. I already have downloaded most of the PS4 games that interest me, but there's obviously a huge back catalogue of PS3 games to stream on there. I'm looking for the ones I should give a shot. There's obviously the flagship franchises like God of War, Ratchet & Clank etc. on there, but what are some of the more obscurer ones to look out for too? If there's PS4 remasters available for a game, I'd prefer to play that version since they're usually the definitive version of the games. Stuff like BioShock and the Arkham games are therefore games I'd prefer to save for when I get the remastered PS4 collections for those.

I also made a (hopefully mostly) comprehensive list of games I've completed in the past, so if you would care to take a look at that maybe you'll be able to get a taste of the kind of games I like and might enjoy. There's a link to that here. I'm open to trying new things though, unless they're horror games. Warning, I'm definitely not as expansive with my completed games collection as I'm sure most of you are!

I did try Red Dead Redemption on PS Now, although that didn't run very well. I wasn't sure if it was my internet or PS Now at first, so I checked out Dishonored on PS Now as well (since I've already completed that) and that ran perfectly fine. I do know RDR already had problems on PS3 compared to it's XB360 counterpart though, so would getting it on PS3 natively help at all or is that just the PlayStation experience for RDR?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help! A bit of an overwhelming amount of games to choose from, haha.

@Tjuz Red Dead Redemption ran fine on my PS3.

@Tjuz Let's see, I'd give the first AC a shot. It's old, but I actually might think it's better than the other pre-unity games I've played (2 and Brotherhood.) The story easily outclasses Ezio's in my opinion and the combat is honestly more fun and responsive. The focused story is the main thing though, because it's really good and well thought out. It had much more artistic depth than Ezio's.
If you like James Bond, give 007 Bloodstone a shot.
You must get the Sly Cooper Trilogy. I'd wager 2&3 are still the best platforming games ever made.
inFamous 1&2 are excellent and have an amazing story.

@Tjuz Outside of Red Dead Redemption, nearly all my favorite PS3 games have been remastered and released on PS4: TLOU, UC1-3, Tomb Raider, Dragons Dogma, Skyrim, Bioshock 1&3, Batman Arkham City/Asylum, Assassins Creed 2/Ezio collection.

The few that haven’t been released on PS4 are: Mass Effect 2/3, MGS4, KOA Reckoning, and Borderlands.

So when I look at each in further detail —
Mass Effect trilogy - these games absolutely need a PS4 release. And they are not on PS Now. Besides, it looks like you played them on PC already
Metal Gear Solid 4 - unfortunately, not on PS Now. Fantastic game though and a must play. Also needs a PS4 release, but not gonna happen. Stupid Konami.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Not on PS Now either! (seeing a pattern here?) Also this needs a PS4 remaster. THQ Nordic just bought the rights so maybe we’ll see something done with this. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding... It’s THQ Nordic. 🙄

And so the one and only game from my PS3 favorites (besides RDR) that I can think of that meets your criteria of being available on PS Now and also not having a PS4 version too is...
Borderlands.
And honestly, BL2 is a better game and can be played on PS4 (And Vita!) But the first Borderlands is worth a look. I don’t even like FPS, and I quite enjoyed BL1/2 for their great art style, fun open world, smooth gameplay, humor, and myriads of guns to loot. Very good in co-op, although I’m not sure if PS Now supports co-op.

@Jaz007 I believe I actually tried the first Assassin's Creed on PC a while back, but I was unable to get into it. I also own Black Flag on PS3, and the same happened there. At this point I'm honestly more interested in the recent more RPG-ish ones, but I have heard differing things on the Ezio trilogy so if I'm going to pick up an ''old school'' Assassin's Creed game, it'd probably have to be the Ezio Collection on PS4.

I don't think 007 Bloodstone is available on PS Now, but I'll give it a look. I can always buy it retail since I still have my PS3! The Sly Cooper trilogy and first two inFAMOUS games are definitely on PS Now though, and I've always been somewhat interested in them, so I'll be sure to give them a try. Thanks!

@Th3solution Yup! I have played Mass Effect on PC. Easily my favourite games. I do own the entire MGS franchise (or at least, the main line ones) on PS3, and am currently on the third one. Definitely planning to move onto the fourth after finishing that one. I have heard of Kingdoms of Amalur, but never looked into it beyond the cover. I'll give that a second look (and just get it on PS3 or PC if I end up wanting to play it). I think I have a demo of that on Origin actually. I actually have played quite a bit of the first Borderlands in co-op, but never got into the second one because my PC couldn't handle it. I'll have to give it a shot solo on PS Now. Thanks!

@RogerRoger I definitely have seen Batman: Arkham Origins while scrolling in PS Now. I have been planning to get into those games proper at some point, but I always figured I'd just not play Origins since most people claim it's the worst of the four! Interesting you think otherwise. Could I actually play it before the trilogy? I understand there's no spoilers for the main trilogy, but does it rely on me knowing characters from previous games like i.e. Metal Gear Solid (which is why you shouldn't play those chronologically)?

@RogerRoger @Th3solution Sounds like it's just a PS Now thing with RDR then. That's a shame. I'll just pick it up for PS3 then, probably combine my purchase with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, since that's also not playable on PS Now but I desperately want to give that a shot. Thanks!

@Tjuz I forgot about Enslaved. Yeah, that’s a good one. A bit of a cult classic. It didn’t sell well and was a commercial disappointment, but I quite liked it.

@Tjuz @RogerRoger I’ll second this. The gameplay wasn’t as good as City or Knight, but that’s not an insult Origins has a fantastic story, which I’d wager is equal to Asylim, or better. It has a better ending for sure. I thought it was a really good game well worth playing.

@beemo I have heard nothing but good things about Mafia 2, so I'll definitely have to check it out. Thanks!

@RogerRoger @Jaz007 I'll have to give Batman: Arkham Origins a shot then! I suppose I'll play that on PS Now (if it runs properly) and then I can always get Return to Arkham after. Thanks!

I'll make sure to pick up a retail copy of Red Dead Redemption over the badly running PS Now version. Don't want to annoy myself to death! Since I'm planning to do that I've been looking into some other cheap PS3 games as well, like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West as I mentioned earlier. Might as well make it a combo-purchase and keep the shipping costs down. I'm also thinking I could bite the bullet on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Alpha Protocol. I actually own Alpha Protocol on PC, but it doesn't run well in the slightest and is a pain in the ass with a mouse instead of controller. Any opinions on those games?

@Kidfried I'll be sure to report back on how it runs once I try it out! Seems like there's varied experiences, considering Dishonored worked fine but RDR ran terribly.

@RogerRoger Good to hear Metal Gear Rising is a great game! I'm not all that familiar with the fighting games genre, but I do prefer melee combat over shooters so I'm very open to trying it out. Seems like a good starting point, since it's cheap and familiar! One thing, will it spoil anything from the MGS games set before it (which I suppose is all of them)? I have played MGS1 and MGS2, so I'm most concerned about it spoiling something from MGS4 since it stars Raiden. Well, outside of the fact that he survives MGS4 and turns into some cyborg, but that's not all that major.

I don't mind graphics all that much as long as the gameplay, or at least story, is engaging. I'm guessing the framerate isn't unplayable either, but I'm also the person who played Dishonored at 15 - 20 FPS and enjoyed it immensely. The controller/mouse is definitely what concerned me most regarding Alpha Protocol, so trying it out again on PS3 seems like a good way to go if it's not completely unplayable on there!

Also, you mentioned earlier that Batman: Arkham Origins would be a 10/10 game for you if not for some of it's faults. Out of curiosity, what are the games you'd consider 10/10?

Thanks!

@RogerRoger I guess I'll finish MGS4 before playing Metal Gear Rising then! Thanks for the warning. Alpha Protocol definitely has interested me and the only thing that really turned me off it was the controls like I said, so I hope the PS3 can at least provide a better experience with that. Considering you played it three times, I'm sure I'll be fine with a controller!

Wasn't the final episode of Enemy Within completely dependent on the choices you made in previous chapters? Maybe it was just Telltale hyping it up, but I think I remember hearing that the final chapter was vastly different depending on previous choices. If that's the case, I'm impressed they managed to keep a stable quality throughout both resolutions, unless you mean one of the two specifically. Not surprised you think highly of a Batman game though, considering the talks we've had in other threads and comments I've seen you make! Not to discredit your opinion, though. I really enjoyed the first season of Telltale's Batman when it was free with PS Plus earlier this year and I've been meaning to pick up Enemy Within on sale at some point. Good to hear it's great!

I do think that, like with MGS4 or the final episode of Enemy Within, in the case of sequels previous games should definitely be taken into account. It's a bit unfair to really take a sequel and put it in it's own box when the story and gameplay mechanics are most likely building off of previous entries. I'm sure MGS4 would make no sense story-wise if you haven't played the previous games, but is that really a fair point against the game if it's counting on you to have played the previous games? If that was the case, only debuts for franchises could really be classified as 10/10 games. I think the context definitely matters and there shouldn't be an asterisk because there's more to it than just one game, even if it can't quite stand on it's own.

I would ask you for your list of 9s, but I'm not sure I want to give you the task of listing them all since it sounds like you've got plenty! Feel free to throw some my way you deem worthy of mentioning though.

@RogerRoger Fair enough on the crying making your opinion biased. I feel like if a game has earned that cry, whether over the span of one game or an ongoing story, it should be counted equally. You can't expect to start a story in the last third and be emotionally invested in it's characters! I definitely understand your point though, and don't worry — Mass Effect 3 was a real tearjerker for me too. ^{I am the very model of a scientist salarian....}

I think rating games a 10 is really hard depending on how you define it. Is a 10 an indication of a perfect game or can it have it's faults? As you know, I absolutely love Mass Effect and as a trilogy I would easily give it a 10, but I don't think I can do that with any individual game in the trilogy. They all have some major faults (Mass Effect 1's gameplay, Mass Effect 2's main storyline, Mass Effect 3's ending and leaving out of some major plot points in favor of making it DLC). I would say Mass Effect 3 comes the closest though. It had a great mix of fantastic gameplay, great chat acts and character moments as well as some really memorable missions with Tuchanka and Rannoch. Also probably the highlight of the franchise's soundtracks, since I know you love those! I think it was the best overall package, but as with the sequels/franchise debuts discussion, I doubt it works as well without having played the previous game. Regardless of that, since I don't find that relevant, it's probably still a 9.

I think the only other games that I would come even close to giving a 10 are the first Dishonored and the first season of The Walking Dead. I don't really have any complaints with either of these games, and they're both fantastic experiences. I don't think they're perfect, but they sure are the closest to perfect I've come in my gaming life. Dishonored has a fairly unimpressive story, but makes up for it with incredible gameplay and varied level design. The Walking Dead has it's moments where the forward momentum dies down a little too much, but it makes up for it with interesting and lovable characters. I recognise that both of them have areas in which they could've improved, but I have no real complaints. If we go by the metric of not really having any complaints about a game and enjoying it a lot, then those would have to be my 10s. That said, I don't love either of them as much as I do the Mass Effect games, so to really balance that out I often refer to Mass Effect more as a trilogy than individual games. And like I said before, Mass Effect as a trilogy is absolutely a 10/10 for me, since every game makes up for the faults of the others. (Mass Effect 2/3 gameplay greatly improved, main story of 1/3 much more interesting, ending of 1/2 much more satisfying)

A bit of a convoluted answer to a fairly simple question, buy I hope you got my point. Those are the games/trilogy I would truly give a 10/10, even if not quite by every possible metric.

I actually own Horizon: Zero Dawn (came with my new PS4 when my old one broke within the warranty period), but I haven't played it past the 5 hour prologue. Once the world opened up, I just quit the game and never came back. Open worlds just overwhelm me at this point, and the only only I've been able to finish is The Witcher 3, and that took a lot of forcing myself to continue! Maybe I'll get back to Horizon: Zero Dawn some day, as it sounds like I should. I also own Uncharted 3 within the Nathan Drake Collection and am currently on Uncharted 2, so I should be making my way there some time! I've downloaded Tearaway Unfolded from PS Now. I don't think the PS4 Unfolded version is very different from the Vita version, right? If not, I clearly have to get started soon. I've never really played Sonic as much as I hate to admit that to a Sonic fan! Always been more about the Mario (and yet I don't own a Switch)! Definitely looking forward to continuing the Metal Gear franchise too. I've got a lot of gaming to do! This is what I get for having somewhat zoned out of it for the past couple of years.

Resident Evil and Resi Evil 0 Remasters are currently on offer on the PS store. I played Resi Evil when it first came out (not even going there now long ago that was lol) on ps1 but not played zero.

I've seen the trailers and I'm ok with the graphics. Has anyone played em and explain how they play compared to games these days? I believe tank controls are optional which is a good thing imo.

Also on the Resi Evil vibe, the season pass for 7 is also own offer. Is this worth it? I've played the base game up until the chainsaw fight.

Many thanks in advance!

@RogerRoger I actually also didn't play it until years after release. My first playthrough of the trilogy would've been... 2015? I did a second in 2016 and then solely replayed Mass Effect 1 earlier this year. I also didn't have any DLC outside of the extended cut until the second playthrough, and only added Pinnacle Station for my third playthrough of 1. I bought the Kasumi and Overlord DLC for my third playthrough of ME2, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I played all the other DLC on my second playthrough. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I only have played Citadel once and I don't actually recount Liara teaching a soung. I might recognise it if I rewatch the scene, but I'm ashamed to say I have no idea what this song is! I don't think the ending is too bad like many people did and still do, but I did feel it was quite disappointing and I had no real want to replay the ending for a second time, so I just capped my second playthrough off with the Citadel DLC and left it there. The thing that got to me the most of the Citadel DLC emotionally was probably Thane's funeral. That was really well done.

I definitely agree that review scores are almost too subjective to really be a metric worthy of recognising, but I still have to admit I use them. They're generally a fine indicator of what is at the very least a fine game vs. a bad game. It's really the amount to which you like something that gets blurry with review scores, as well as keeping an eye on what your preferred genres are and taking that into account. A scoring policy like the ones PushSquare uses certainly helps keep the review score as objective as humanly possible, but it's never perfect. Every person is going to give different games a 10/10, and every person will only review games of which they're fairly sure they'll enjoy them (or why play them?). This is both a positive and a negative for review scores. Someone who appreciates a certain genre is more likely to appreciate a certain game's genre-specific strengths than someone who isn't into the mechanics of that genre — or the genre period. On the other side, if a person who is fairly certain they'll enjoy a game ends up not enjoying said game as much as they imagined they're far more likely to have internal backlash to it and perhaps score it lower than it deserves ''objectively''. It's a very tricky thing to achieve a proper balance, and it only gets trickier when it comes to 10/10 since, as we've established, a 10/10 is quite different by everyone's metric whereas the meaning behind a 1-9 are fairly universal even if they are applied to different games from different people. That's a lot of words to describe that a 10/10 score striving to be objective can never quite exist, even if just looking at the factual aspects of a game, whereas other scores are usually more acceptable by anyone. It's what makes game reviews quite tricky to navigate, and you really need to find a certain reviewer you happen to agree with often to decide to heavily rely on them. So to answer your question in short, it sounds like I agree!

I'm afraid I can't really discuss further on the subject of the Tomb Raider HD Trilogy specifically. I've only played the 2013 Tomb Raider game for about four hours, and never got past that. Not quite sure why I quit as it was fairly enjoyable! I'll have to return to those games eventually, or maybe even the older ones like in the HD Trilogy if you believe they hold up? I absolutely agree with the overall thought that a trilogy can offset an individual game's faults though.

Don't remind me of my hopes for a Mass Effect current-gen remaster! I'd be delighted if Bluepoint actually made that. I did read they are hiring for a classic to remake today, so it's unlikely they will do it any time soon. Not sure why EA hasn't gone ahead with this yet, as I don't see why it wouldn't be as least competently successful. Especially if they manage to improve the gameplay of ME1, although I am not personally bothered by it all that much, yet recognise it could be a lot better. I do urge you to play at least the first season of The Walking Dead at some point in the future. I'm not sure whether your ''ick, zombies'' came from a place of zombie fatigue or general dislike for the zombie trope, but I think you'll find that The Walking Dead is not just a ''zombie game'' but also very much a genuine character study. The zombies are there more to raise the stakes than to play an active part in the story or gameplay. I actually was not at all looking forward to sinking my teeth into that game either before I booted it up and started playing it because of the ''zombie focus'', and yet here I am recommending it to any person who hasn't yet played it! Truly a masterclass in storytelling. Glad you will be looking into Dishonored, preferably as soon as possible! TWD is just another reason why I will definitely be giving The Enemy Within a shot as well at some point, besides me enjoying the first season. Just waiting for it to go on sale for like less than €10.

That's definitely a good point with the main story taking you pretty much all the way across the map. I'm just very OCD when it comes to video games (and even certain things in real life) and feel the need to clear out everything if I'm in the vincinity as much as possible, which really distracts me from my main goal in open world games which is to mostly just do the main mission and do side missions as I encounter them. At some point I just eventually get fatigued and don't play for like 6 months, which happened with The Witcher 3 probably 4/5 times (but hey, I got through it eventually)! I will keep the tip in mind though, as I never really viewed it from that perspective before. That specific perspective might just help get over the mental blockade, dread and possibly some of the OCD!

I have played LittleBigPlanet 3 and really enjoyed that, so I am somewhat familiar with MediaMolecule's work. A bit hesitant regarding Dreams however, considering I'm not sure I have the imagination or patience to come up with anything exciting in that game! I sure didn't in LBG3 at the very least, which also seemed incredibly complicated for the few minutes I gave it, haha. Tearaway is definitely one of my PS Now priorities, and I might start that after I finish Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments. It'll be either that or Gravity Rush Remastered depending on what I'll be in the mood for that day! I also can't really exclaim that Sonic isn't for me, as I've never actually given it a try. Always just stuck with what I knew! You're allowed to bestow your Sonic fan wrath upon me for that one! Also, speaking of PS Now. I gave Batman: Arkham Origins a shot earlier today, but playing it did feel somewhat awkward. I'm sure it was the streaming and input lag and not the game. It certainly was playable, but I felt like I wasn't getting the standard experience. Even when I would test my motions for input lag, it didn't seem all that terrible, and yet felt very off while playing it. I'll have to pick it up on PC or PS3, depending on wherever it's cheaper!

Not sure I could do what you did with focusing on one franchise at a time. I'd almost certainly burn myself out, which is why I'm currently focusing on trying a variety of different games simultaneously! I've also limited myself to one game per platform, so currently it's Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for PC, MGS3 for PS3 and Sherlock Holmes for PS4. I might start Arkham Origins after Dreamfall, or dig deeper into the backlog with older games such as Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines or Beyond Good & Evil, the latter of which I already own on PC. Not sure if I'll be able to keep myself to this system for long, but right now it's working... mostly! Any one-off experiences you found during your trudge to become up to date on gaming that might be worth playing? I'll accept any suggestions (that you haven't already suggested, of course)! I'm also trying to broaden my gaming library in terms of variety, instead of sticking to what I know, this time around! I probably won't be buying the PS5 any time soon after it has come out either. I like to give consoles some time to become the best versions of themselves, expand their library and most importantly — wait for the prices of both the console and games to drop. I can definitely relate to you on that front. Besides, I've already got tons to play!

Finally, I sure ain't judging you for your chattiness! I definitely enjoy chatting in-depth with people about whatever interests me too (as you probably also can tell), and you're a great discussion partner so far. Hope I didn't end up rambling for too long with this one, haha.

@beemo Cheers! Will probably get em before the sale ends.

All this talk of Mass Effect, plus last weeks quiz discussion has made me think I really need to replay the Mass Effect trilogy. Thus far I've held off in case EA decide to do a remaster. I haven't played the first one since 2008 (I replayed it about three times over the summer), but have only played 2 and 3 once apiece. Three was my favourite of the bunch. Replaying will give me the opportunity to do things I missed out on the first time such as be
a renegade. I also wanted to romance Kaiden in 3 but missed the one window to do so.

As for 10/10 games, for me it's highly subjective. Games that make me emotional or affect me on a deeper level, or even make me cry tend to be experiences that I rate highly because of their ability to touch something deeper than "oh this gameplay is fun" or "this and that are cool".

@RogerRoger I hope they don't mind, but it's a discussion forum after all! Might as well take the opportunity to discuss games! I had to cut this reply into two parts, since I got an error while trying to submit it in it's entirety. Seems like even the servers can't keep up with our sheer amount of discussion!

Yeah, my approach to Mass Effect was definitly not one I had planned beforehand. I had bought the first one on a whim, hoping I would enjoy it even though I wasn't quite sure. It was only €2, so worth the gamble! Suffice it to say I finished the entire trilogy soon after, not even knowing that ME1 or ME2 had DLC. I only found out about the Extended Cut by means of the Origin launcher when I had to move to Origin since ME3 wasn't available on Steam. I didn't really get into the gaming sphere until 2013, so I missed out on all the Mass Effect news and it was quite the foreign property to me.

The first time around I played as a male sentinel Shepard, romancing Ashley through all three games. I didn't get to play the CItadel DLC in this playthrough. I didn't have a fancy name for my character either, just John. I did customise my appearance though! For my second playthrough I went female Shepard partially because, like you said, people say they prefer her voice actress. I went engineer on this run and romanced Liara through all three games. This is the playthrough where I played Citadel, so possibly the scene changed considering I was in a romance with Liara, or I just genuinely have forgotten. It's been a while! I was doing another female Shepard for my third playthrough (which added Overlord and Kasumi, although I haven't gotten there yet), this time around romancing Kaidan. It took a lot out of me not to sacrifice Kaidan on Virmire this playthrough as I had done both of my previous ones, even though I had come into my second with the intention of doing the reverse of all of my previous choices. I just couldn't let Ashley die in favour of bland Kaidan! Did you play paragon, renegade or paragade in your playthroughs! I went mostly paragon --> mostly renegade --> do whatever the hell I feel like while trying to get some of the more obscure consequence to happen like having to kill Wrex in ME3 after he finds out you didn't cure the Genophage, but alas, also haven't gotten there yet.

Great point regarding the bonuses of game developers' being tied to Metacritic scores. That's an absolutely horrible practice and I hope dies out as soon as possible, but we all know the gaming industry has plenty of those! I don't think there's much we can do on that front. It's really just up to game development companies/publisheres to not be greedy little buggers. Like we've both acknowledged, they can still provide a useful source and it'd be ridiculous if we had to censor them just because of terrible inner gaming development related politics. I'm glad you can step back from a game and appreciate it as objectively I can for what you believe it to be worth, but on the other side of this complex matter you could argue that the whole point of a game is to please it's target audience. If it's managed to do that by a long shot, like in your case, why shouldn't it deserve a high score from someone who feels that way? What makes me the authority on you having to be as objective as possible, even when the game hit all the boxes to satisfy you as the game is intended to do? Why do we have to force ourselves to view such a game as a non-fan, when a big part of game development is having to please your already existing fans? If it manages to do that, hasn't it already succeeded as a game and is therefore deserving of a high score no matter how objectively lacking certain areas of the game were? It's an entirely new dimension of conundrums to get yourself involved in if you start thinking about it even more in-depth, but the case remains that a review score itself is fairly shallow and absolutely needs to be backed up by a scoring policy and well written, though out review to even have a semblance of meaning. I don't want to tire you out too much with review scores dicussion!

I don't think I really have much of a preference to go by regarding the Tomb Raider games so far, so I'm definitely open to giving the HD Trilogy a shot. I did see the trilogy is the 5th to 7th game (if I'm remembering the numbering correctly)? Are the first four not essential to the franchise? Are they still worth playing, even if not polished up to par with the later three games, despite being released years ago or have they started to show their age too much to properly enjoy them in this day and age?

Ah, I see. I'm also not a fan of horror in the slightest. No A Quiet Place, Halloween, It or whatever popular Hollywood horror movie has been released recently for me! I don't think The Walking Dead: Season 1 is very horrory. The zombies certainly are a presence throughout the game, but I don't recall being forced to interact with them all that much. There's a few jumpscares here and there, but in small doses and never meant to scare you for longer than a few seconds. That's also why I managed to get through it without Alt + F4'ing out of the game! The Descendants in the first Uncharted absolutely creeped me the hell out, and I don't think I've ever unintentionally speedrunned a section of a game faster than I did there. I'd say they were worse for me than the zombies in The Walking Dead, but I do recognise that that's a far smaller portion of the game. If the very knowledge of the presence of zombies creeps you out too much, then I would have to agree that maybe the game isn't quite for you. Especially if the Husks were already a challenge for you, since I wasn't all that bothered by them in Mass Effect personally. Just fantastic fodder for my pistol in that case! I can't personally relate to severely having your mood affected by the type of entertainment you're consuming, but if that's the case with you then The Walking Dead is definitely something you'll need a palate cleanser for afterwars. It's definitely very serious and can get incredibly dark.

Also, to go off on a little bit of a tangent regarding Hitman 2 since you mentioned it, do let me know what you think about the game when it comes out! As you know, I quite enjoyed Blood Money, but the episodic release of the 2016 Hitman game definitely put me off of that. I couldn't justify spending €60 now to get more episodes every month, but I also didn't have the patience to wait for all the episodes to come out and so I just ended up watching playthroughs of the levels on YouTube. I'm glad they've returned to the old format with Hitman 2, and from what I've seen of it so far, it's shaping up to be even better than how good 2016 Hitman looked. I might just have to get that close to launch, considering how well they supported the previous game as well post-launch. Not to mention the versus multiplayer mode looks incredibly fun. It'll be a bit of a deadlock between getting Red Dead Redemption 2 and Hitman 2 though, since I doubt I can justify myself dumping €60 on two games within a matter of weeks! Too many great options this fall!