Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

My main problem with God of War wasn't the fact that it seemed like Sony forced them to make it be like a lot of their other exclusives. Or at least they chose to, but anyways, it was his son. He was incredibly annoying to me, and I almost stopped playing it when he basically betrays Kratos. It still makes me wonder to this day how people were able to stomach the son enough to think it was one of the best games ever made.

Taking him out of the equation, the game was obviously incredibly well made. Like what has already been stated, it runs great and overall is one of the most technologically impressive games on the PS4 (behind only The Last of Us Part II and maybe a couple of others). I just wish they didn't make his son so obnoxious.

@Ralizah I think GoW strikes a nice balance between open world and linear. The hub area you eventually reach gives you a lot of freedom but the game keeps you going at a nice pace. There are plenty of optional places to explore and some places you certainly won't be able to beat until later on.

@KilloWertz Yep. Even with a game I strongly disliked like The Last of Us, I was still really impressed with the technical side of it. Sony's tentpole first-party games are, as tech showcases, a clear cut above their competitors.

@nessisonett I'm really glad the QTE-driven boss fights don't seem to be a thing here.

It's good to hear they loosen the narrative leash at some point. Although I do wonder how much of a pain it is going to be to backtrack through these environments. We'll see.

@Thrillho So, is it the sort of game where you need to hit a certain point in the main story before particular collectibles will become available to you? Because I've noticed certain chests have some sort of tentacles wrapped around them and just don't seem to be accessible.

Finished Iki Island DLC on Ghost. I didn't opt for the PS5 upgrade as I honestly didn't see the need to pay the extra money for a few extra hours content.

Loved the DLC though overall. Great story and character building for Jin. Feel the DLC with some of the extra side content was well worth the money.

I’ve been playing Resonance of Fate, specifically the 4K remaster. It’s legitimately good and has aged wonderfully considering it’s over 10 years old now. The art style feels like they’ve actually somehow managed to make a pretty game using the standard beige and brown PS3 palette. The combat’s unique and engaging and the plot’s not bad at all and rises above expected tropes. The only weird thing is hearing Nolan North’s voice in a JRPG!

@JechtUltima There’s an extensive optional tutorial available from the start of the game that goes through basically everything you need to know about the combat. I’d say if you do that then it’s not hard at all to get stuck into.

Yeah. And you gain certain abilities which will allow to get past these obstacles. I thought the way it was done was quite neat and ties into the game world really well.

@Th3solution @Jimmer-jammer In RDR2 I just completed the mission entitled A Quiet Time, wherein you have a "quiet" drink with Lenny which leads to a couple of searches for Lenny where you can, as you get progressively more drunk, gives you the option to 'grate' or 'great' other customers, then you get into a drunken brawl, end up running from the law and then wake up in jail in the morning, pay a ten dollar fine and get out short but sweet mission and really adds to the life sim quality of the game that you mentioned, sol. How are your games going?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I remember that mission and it was a really funny bit of content. What I really love and appreciate about RDR2 from the narrative standpoint is how these little bits of story and character development make you really bond with these characters. It adds so much depth and texture to the narrative.

In fact, on that subject, my gaming time with FF7R has been limited this week to one play session so far but I hope to enjoy a bit of time with it over the next few days. I mentioned on another thread how one of my few gripes with the game so far has to do with that issue of bonding to the characters and feeling like they are real people. Arthur and company felt very real to me. So far Cloud and company are less relatable. But they are growing on me. And I admit that it’s ridiculous that I would even compare the two games as RDR2 is a gritty simulation based rpg that takes place in the American Wild West, and FF7 is a fictional JRPG that sometimes embraces the whimsical and illogical as part of its charm. Nevertheless, I’ve not yet started to care about the plight of the protagonist to the degree that I had hoped. But I’m still in the early chapters and I expect that to change over time.

And it’s not necessarily that Japanese written characters can’t be extremely well conceived and performed to be relevant to a Western gamer. Kiryu from Yakuza was one of my favorite characters and just fantastic in how he was portrayed and relatable.

But the real fun of FF7R so far has been with the flashy combat and RPG aspects with shifting equipment around and learning new spells.

@TheBrandedSwordsman that’s one of the most memorable missions from the game for me, with some genuine laugh out loud moments. I enjoy the tug and pull dynamic of the gang - where you can see the appeal of the life yet also the ugliness of it. It feeds the themes of the game brilliantly.

I really haven’t had much time for gaming recently so I’m still on Iki island. Downloaded Psychonauts 2 and am very much looking forward to it. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to make some progress.

@Th3solution I get what you mean, I am definitely beginning to feel a sense of bonding, kinship and simpatico with Arthur and the rest of the gang. It's a shame you can't glean the same sense of those things from FF7R, but, to put a spin on your words, only time will tell if you can do that.How far have you made it % wise in that game? Are you going for the plat?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’m at chapter 4 out of… I think maybe 16? I’m not sure. My trophy percentage is at 12%, but I’m not sure if that’s indicative of what percent of the game I’ve seen so far, but it’s probably a rough estimate.

As far as the platinum, I think there’s a decent chance I’ll try for it, but I’ll not be committed to it unless I’m pretty close by the end (like when I got plat for Spiderman and Ghost of Tsushima) or if I’m just really loving the game still and want to spend more time in it (like when I got the Control and GoW plats because I just couldn’t stop playing since I enjoyed them so much) 😃

@Th3solution Congrats on all your plats, keep me posted on how your playthrough of FF7R goes - spoiler-free of course!

N.B I loved GoW too!

@Th3solution Just so you are aware, I believe you need to complete the game in Hard mode to get the platinum for FFVIIR.

@Th3solution Yup hard mode, plus beat a run of VR enemies only accessible in that mode (difficult but I did it first time), and you also need to do a short part of the game a third time to get the "three dresses" trophy.

@JohnnyShoulder @Thrillho Oooo… typically having to do more than one run is a no-go for me. So it’ll have to be something special to entice me for the platinum.

@Th3solution I feel like I've said it a lot on this forum but I really enjoyed hard mode as it makes you use the combat fully. You can't use items and MP doesn't restore at benches either so MP is precious. That means you really have to focus on using abilities more (and making sure you utilise every character in your party) and have to be much cleverer with what you do in fights. Materia setups are key as well to do maximum damage but some grinding before you start to level up your materia is kind of needed (all your equipment, XP, and materia carries over).

@Thrillho

I've been back at work since Wednesday so I unfortunately haven't had a whole lot of time for gaming til now.

I have made some progress Pathfinder: Kingmaker and I finally reached level 7. Compared to Divinity I'm really having to start thinking about my loadout, party and the likes much more carefully and not just run into the thick of things and wing it 😅

Haven't actually made much story progress though (Still trying to stop that invasion of trolls I'm dealing with) and I've spent over 40 hours in the game so far and still enjoying myself

Haven't made any progress in Uncharted 3 since I last played it but I plan to return to it later for a chapter or two as I stroll through the french "jungles" and whatever crops up after that

@Th3solution Best of luck with the plat if you feel enticed! In RDR2 I just completed Exit: Pursued by a Bruised Ego, which sees you rabbit-hunting and then cooking and eating your caught rabbits over an open flame, and doing some brotherly bonding with Hosea, they discuss the ups and downs of the wild west gang lifestyle, and the fact you can't really leave it even if you wanted to, there's simply no option of doing so. We also hunted the bear, which mauled me when we confronted it, and I barely escaped with my life, I decided to return to camp and left things there @Jimmer-jammer thought I'd tag you here too as you've also beaten the game. How are both your games going?

N.B. Jimmer, say, did you make much use of the Legendary Animals map once you got it? With you being a hunting fanatic and all! (I'm even starting to speak like them on here now! haha)