Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@Th3solution I can definitely see the argument for it trying to shock you too much, but it's not the experience I had in the slightest. It was confusing at first, buf after reading up on some explanations it all makes complete sense. I think that's the best kind of this sort of ending you can have. Be blown away by the total mind**** of it all, remain in confusion on what the hell happened for a bit thereafter and then realise it all makes complete sense and the game has been hinting at this throughout. It was just such clever writing. Not just the reveal, but also all the foreshadowing throughout. Incredible.

@Thrillho This definitely will be a game I'll probably remember for the rest of my life! I won't give Hellblade the burden of having to live up to that expectation, but I'm excited to hear it had a similar effect on you. I also had the WYK twist spoiled beforehand, but I would have to agree that this is even better. I'm surprised this isn't the BioShock twist people talk about when mentioning the franchise, but I'm glad it wasn't or it would've been spoiled for me as well!

@Ralizah Ohh, I'm happy to hear you started Detroit! One of my favourite games. I believe you can return to specific chapters without having to play through the entire game again. As for choices mattering, that's absolutely the case in Detroit. Your characters have many possibilities to just die and disappear, and especially towards the end there's multiple completely different scenarios your characters can find themselves in. At the very end, there's a ton of possible endings that all have to do with the choices you made getting to that point. It's definitiely the best incarnation of the choice/consequences shtick I've seen.

I would also have to say that I agree with Markus being the weakest playable character in the game, although his storyline gets somewhat more interesting as time goes on and stuff starts to hit the fan. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it so far despite some qualms with the narrative presented up to this point, and I can't wait to hear your final thoughts and ending after finishing the game.

@Ralizah I’m excited for you to play Detroit. It’s definitely a different style of game. But @Tjuz said it well already, I think you’ll find quite a bit more depth in the game than in your typical Telltale fare. As can be expected of a game with a narrative style this ambitious, it has its quirks and times when it doesn’t quite work, but imo those moments are minor when compared to what they achieved overall with it. Anyways, I won’t reiterate what Tjuz said, but I am also very curious to hear how the whole Detroit experience sits with you after you complete it.
Yeah, with HZD, then InFAMOUS FL, and now Detroit — you’re gonna have to play Spider-Man, God of War, or get on the Hellblade wagon maybe. Maybe Death Stranding, or Persona 5 Royal? We gotta keep this PS4 exclusive run going. 😄
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But this is a good opportunity for me to post some of my first impressions of Valkyria Chronicles 4. I’ve been playing it a little here and there over the last 2 weeks.
I had mentioned that I played the first game back on the PS3 several years ago and I loved it at the time. I also played the 2nd game on the PSP and found it decent. I’ve been tempted to play the remaster on PS4 of the first game, but I usually prefer to play games from my backlog rather than replaying games. But within the first hour of booting up VC4, I felt right at home and just like I was playing the first game. In my memory, this game plays just like the first one, which is a good thing. It was kind of like putting on an old comfortable shirt that you’ve worn for years and fits just right. I felt right at home in the menus, the book presentation, the leveling up and training mechanics, and of course on the battle maps. Even after several years, I was shocked how quickly the playstyle came right back to me. That’s either a testament of how many hours I spent ingraining the gameplay by perfecting and S ranking the maps in the first game, or of how intuitive the developers have made the game. Because it’s definitely not because of my memory for such things (which is typically pretty lousy; usually if I abandon a game for a couple months I have to redo the tutorials to remember how to play it again)

Anyways, so the first impressions are very positive and the game seems to have the perfect level of easing you into the game mechanics. So far I like the characters pretty well and the story seems like it’s going to be good; I think I’m going to like the characters. Claude’s voice actor sounded familiar and it kept bugging me until I finally realized he does a lot of audiobook narration. Raz is a little bit annoying, but he’s growing on me. I’m only in Chapter 3 (probably about 5-6 hours in) so I still haven’t learned the reveal yet about Kai’s backstory but I can guess. I like her character a lot. The diversity of secondary characters is where this game is really going to shine too, I think, compared to the first game.
As I get along with the game I’ll post more. I’m mixing it in with Spider-Man, so it will be a slow-burn for it I think — especially since the game is pretty long. I’m going to savor it though.

I tried to get into Dishonored 2 for the fourth time since release today, and once again I had to quit it out of boredom. I don't know what it is. I adore Dishonored and it is one of my favourite games, but I cannot for the live of me get invested in this sequel. There's just nothing there that makes me want to keep playing, and I can't fault the gameplay considering that's still very good. I can't fault the story because I only ever played two missions. I do prefer the Dunwall setting to Karnaca, but surely that shouldn't be enough to ruin an entire game for me. I really don't get it. I think it's about time I just give up on trying to play it. The one explanation I can come up with is that I played the first game years and years ago, and maybe my tastes have changed enough that I even wouldn't enjoy the first game were I to play it for the first time now. I can't make sense of it otherwise!

So instead I decided to start The Council, which, if my memory serves me right, I had a small exchange about with @Th3solution when you started it earlier this year. Hopefully I remembered the correct person. Did you ever end up finishing the game? I know you were struggling to stay interested after finishing episode 1. I didn't have much time left today and only played the first 2 chapters, but I am very much enjoying it so far. I really like the concept and implementation of the RPG system, and the story is intriguing. I'm not sure how much choices actually matter in this game, but at the very least it gives me the illusion that I am making choices. I love the confrontations with other characters. They're very tense despite just being dialogue exchanges. I think this is a game I can really get into. The OCD tics in me do despise the fact that I get locked out of options based on my skills, but I can respect and live with it, haha. Adds to the reason I enjoy the game!

@Tjuz The clockwork manor (or something) level in Dishonored 2 is fantastic so a shame you didn't get there. Some of the other abilities are quite neat too but I found the game a bit "cold" too and never felt particularly invested in it. I did have the problem of insisting on finishing the game without being spotted but by constantly quick saving and reloading which sort of spoilt it for me too (but I know that's my own fault!)

@Tjuz Yes, you did remember correctly — I have played The Council and I do think we had an exchange on the forums about it many months ago.
To answer your question, no I haven’t completed it. However I have made gradual progress. Every month or so I pick it back up and go through a couple chapters. And every time I come back with similar impressions — that is, that the game is very innovative and unique and the RPG mechanics coupled with a choice based story driven game is a great idea. The implementation works fairly well and the game also feeds my interest in stories of alternate history and historical fiction. ...But for some reason I can’t seem to absolutely fall in love with the game to the degree that I play it long enough to finish it. I’m on episode 4 now, so the end is in sight, but much like you reported there about Dishonored 2, there is some sort of intangible quality the game is missing to really fire me up about it. But I do think I’ll finish it eventually. It’s just that other games and distractions keep popping up. If you do make your way through, please post your thoughts. Perhaps that’s all I need is a forum buddy to share in the experience to motivate me to completion.

Still trying to get all trophies in GTSports and playing in spare time Odyssey and Bloodborne

@Tjuz @Thrillho I too couldn't get into Dishonoured 2 after really enjoying the first game. I found the non lethal style, which is how i played the first game a drag to play, and the other play style it just did not feel right for me. Weird.

It's so much more satisfying playing Dishonored 2 lethally and using every tool at your disposal! By the third level I found it too difficult to not be spotted by guards (there's a trophy for it like the first game, and it's something I managed on the 360 version) so at that point basically decided to just be brutal if I was spotted. It radically improved the experience for me, because where's the fun if you can't use the majority of Corvo's arsenal? Planning an Emily play-through at some point so shall see how it goes.

@Th3solution Ah, it's a shame you haven't been able to properly play The Council all the way through yet, but at least you're making progress here and there. I got up to chapter 5 today, and I must admit I am starting to feel the same way you said you do. I hope there's something that shakes up the story soon, because an entire chapter of just interrogating followed by an obscure puzzle became quite tedious in the end. I do keep almost running out of Effort Points, but just manage to squeeze by usually. It does somewhat annoy me to see the number dropping so low every time, though! And when you start a new chapter, you only get four refilled??? I have a bar of twelve! Use it, game!

@JohnnyShoulder I also play non-lethally, and I echo your sentiment exactly. There's just something about it that's not quite fun, and you never really feel a driving force to continue playing. Feels like I'm forcing myself to play it because I should like it more so than me actually enjoying what I'm playing.

@Thrillho Is Clockwork Manor the one that was in promotional material pre-release, that was all about switching realities or something? I must say that one did look really cool, but maybe I have the wrong one in mind. I do also quick save usually, but even when I started caring enough to do that yesterday it didn't improve my experience. It was like a double edged sword - don't savescum and be annoyed with the fact you were spotted, or do savescum and be annoyed with the fact that you couldn't do it properly, haha.

@Tjuz It was also taking me an age to get anywhere playing non-lethally. I'm generally quite slow progressing in games anyway, but always feel that I'm progressing something in the game (collectibles, opening the map up, side quests etc). With Dishonoured 2 I felt I was making very little progress with anything in the game. I could say I might pick It up again but I won't. I've got too many other games I can play rather to try and force myself to play something that I'm not enjoying.

For some strange reason, I successfully achieved both the Shadow (never spotted) and Clean Hands (no kills) trophies in all the Dishonored games playing on Hard... Maybe it's because I love to spend time looking for every single inch of the maps and in that way, one can discover many hidden resources and passages. I think the game offers enough powers to play stealthy, and not forget that you can still use sleep darts and chokehold to knock down enemies.
IIRC you can customize difficulty in many ways, lowering the enemies awareness too.

I'm house sitting for a friend of a friend... So of course I've spent most my time playing video games (It's my last day of my holiday before returning to work tomorrow) as a snake doesn't exactly need walking or anything (The reason why I've been house sitting the past 3 days)

So I've been trying Let It Die. It's my first Suda 51 game.

It's... actually pretty decent.

Seeing as it's free to play there's obviously microtransactions to support it. Having played it for ten hours over three days it hasn't been too aggressive about that. Yet

The cheapest thing it has is the storage chest in the main base which only had a measly 20 or so spaces in it and I had to use 2 of the premium currency to bump it up ten spaces each time. (Also the high powered gear (not that you can use them right away at low levels) is ridiculously expensive)

But it's been pretty generous with the gifts so it hasn't been too much of a bother, still have 15 of the suckers.

It really reminds me of the game Baroque with the whole roguelikey traverse the tower thing. Especially the industrially like first area. Just no weird mutants... just zombie people.

There's a definite unique tone to it with over the ridiculous gore and japan weirdness i've heard from Suda51.

Except it's not so vague you don't really know what you're doing at all ever and makes a bit more sense unlike Baroque

Also Uncle Death's pretty goofy and I like him. The Netherlands (... Or something around there) english accent he has gives him a unique voice that his radicals and stuff like that is strangely endearing

If this was available for £20/£30 with none of this microtransaction stuff or the always online requirement I'd probably get it easily

Also I've downloaded the Code Vein demo. The character creation looks pretty robust! But I'm gonna save that for later

Currently playing Assassin's creed Odyssey just finished the story and found all the cultists I've put 80+ hours into this game and there is still so much more left for me it's 1 of the best games i've ever played and i've played alot of games on PC and other consoles over the years.

As I mentioned in the screenshots thread, I started Ratchet and Clank earlier tonight. I've finished Veldin and Aridia so far, and am most of the way through Kerwan. It's really charming so far, and it's graphics are absolutely gorgeous. I do have to say those movie footage cutscenes do take me out of the game pretty much every time they're used, since they just don't quite add up within the game, but luckily they don't take up too much time. Really satisfying gameplay, and collecting bolts feels great. I also already have a soft spot for Mr. Zurkon. His taunts towards the enemies are truly adorable.

@Tjuz I like the Grooveaton, I think it's called which makes enemies dance. Seeing a tank doing the moonwalk never gets old!

Currently Playing Okage The Shadow King a game i didn't really Pay much attention to Back in the day But Hey Better Late then Never Right?

@JohnnyShoulder I really haven't used that weapon enough! I'm near the end, will finish up tomorrow, so I'll have to make it a point to use it on more enemies and see their respective dances. I did use it on Mrs. Zurkon though, not expecting it to work, and was in for a fun surprise when I saw her dance beautifully. Mr. Zurkon remains my favourite power to employ, and now there's cute little Zurkon Jr. as well!

@Tjuz I like it when your not shooting with Mr Zurkon and he tells you off!

@JohnnyShoulder "Mr. Zurkon is bored."
"Mr. Zurkon does not need bolts. His currency is pain."
"Nanotech? Would the lombax like a nap too?"

Good ol' Mr. Zurkon. I also love "You are not dead yet. Mr. Zurkon intends to rectify this."

Finally tried out the Code Vein demo.

The character creation is really quite good with a nice variety of stuff you can do and change especially with all the different colour pallets/patterns.

I like that whilst there is only 9 or so outfits (Really could do with some more), you can take like 7 or so "extra parts" off of the outfit to make it more unique looking.

For example the one that looks a bit like a tube top and shorts you can take the straps and the feathery gloves and the feathers attached to the boots, among other things, off.

Not to mention you can add accessories all over your character like a little coffin backpack, monacles, earrings or tiny top hats (There's like 8 pages of various accessories).

You'll likely run into clipping problems doing all this but there's a decent editor you can use to shift things about (if a touch cumbersome to get used to the controls for that).

It's one of the few creators that I did end up spending quite a bit of time with and made two characters for it.

Whereas Dark Souls is a Japanese take on Western fantasy themes... Code Vein is definitely Anime-y in terms of presentation and the story from what you can play.

I'd say it's a teeny bit more mature then the usual stuff you might associate with anime... but there's still a certain japanese feel to it as the first character to properly greet you is this lady.

It's the kinda stuff that makes me roll my eyes a little and go oh Japan 😅 (In a light hearted way mind!)

As for the proper meat of the demo it gives you one decently sized area (the first one in fact) and a boss fight. The whole "adventure" might take you about half an hour to 45 minutes for Souls players and a touch longer for anyone else.

It does then give you an optional harder dungeon to go through with two extra AI characters and two classes though which is nice.

I didn't find the main bulk of the demo overly difficult (Maybe because of my experience with the dark souls/bloodborne series), but I didn't find the right playstyle for me or even a weapon that I really liked though either.

The blood codes/classes and gifts are an interesting system... But I think I need to try the demo out a bit more as I never got the hang of it all and why I wasn't able to use a certain weapon or such.

The menu wasn't as clear as Dark Souls' but it could've been because I wasn't feeling great and didn't fully take it all in.

You can change the classes whenever you like during the game in the inventory but it'll affect the gifts (Spells), weapons, Ichor (Mp) and Hp you have as well though which is pretty neat but ya also have to be careful!

The combat feels pretty decent (Though I'd definitely fiddle about with the control scheme as I don't particularly like the set up) and probably have to do a comparison to the Dark Souls titles to see how it differs mechanically.

The Ai character is pretty decent in battle though and will always try to heal you if you fall down and buff you if they can. The two you initially play with in the main bit of the demo can handle the Lost quite happily.

Again I'd need to play more (Like the bonus area) to see how it does, the game does seem to be designed for the two characters though rather then just yourself bumbling about and they do make a number of commemts so it's not as lonesome as the Souls games either.

But of course you can purposely bump them off if you wish to travel by yourself...

Also little side note but it's quite odd that you don't level up any stats like Hp, Strength, Dexterity... You just get Haze (Souls) to level up your... well... level on the bonfires Mistle

It's an even more watered down version of Bloodborne's fewer stats.

But there is a bunch of passive and active skills you can buy with Haze from the different classes along with the usual buying items, upgrading weapons and so on that uses Haze (Souls).

Also just found out that

Bandai Namco will release an update for the Code Vein demo that adds the high-difficulty “Town of Sacrifice” stage, multiplayer mode, and the ability to bring customized character from the demo into the full game

No idea when it'll drop but that's pretty neat.

Overall I found it pretty good despite my negative sounding thoughts above. I have some quibbles and really need to try it again and get to grips with it but I can totally see myself enjoying the full game too!