Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@KratosMD How's life mate? Good to have you back posting. I hope things are better for you now.

Switching between Spiderman and Dead Cells. I just found out that Spiderman will be half during Days of Play so I'm a bit disappointed on my recent purchase. It's still a fun game though.

@KratosMD Good to see you back.

@Elodin Yeah I saw that, I may finally pick it up.

Down the souls rabbit role. Took on DS3 and finally went back to finish Bloodborne. Bought DS1 remastered and having a fun time with it, just got to Anor Londo. Also plan on getting back into Sekiro (hit a roadblock around the area of the Guardian Ape), looking forward to diving back in. While DS and BB have incredible worlds and satisfying combat, Sekiro was on a different level with the combat. Every sword fight feels like an intense duel.

Also played through the RE2 remake a couple times, incredible fun and still blows my mind seeing raccoon city with the aid of modern tech.

Some douche invaded and backstabbed me while I was in my equipment menu at the Giant Blacksmith in Anor Londo. I swung at him and hit the blacksmith by accident (my introduction to the aggro npc system).

Now I’m strictly playing offline. What kind of douche invades and backstabs a host while they’re obviously in their equipment menu and unaware of your invasion? I was all for dueling before, clean honorable duels, but that encounter kind of ruined pvp for me.

Bioshock 2, but got tired of it. Thank God for the library, saving me from spending money on games I might not like. I was excited to see Just Cause 4 on my most recent visit, but I was disappointed to find that graphically it is not much better than the third game, and just in general seems less enjoyable. They could have done so much more.

I've played Bioshock 1 and 2 now, and haven't cared for either, but I still have Infinite and based on what I've seen it looks more up my alley.

Started playing Sonic Mania tonight and completed the first three zones. Those special stages with the blue orbs really suck. And, boy, I was NOT expecting to encounter a legit Puyo-Puyo stage as a stand-in for a boss fight.

I can see why people like this game so much: it really does feel like a true sequel to the Genesis games. It'll never be one of my favorites, of course, because I'm just not a huge Sonic fan, but, so far, it's well-done. The boss encounters are already a lot more creative than they were in the classic games. I also like, in returning zones, how the first act is almost an exact replica of the classic stage, but it gets weird and starts introducing new mechanics in the second act.

Actually had to lower the volume in my headset settings, too. The game is INSANELY loud at max volume with headphones on.

@RogerRoger I have horrible memories of Mean Bean Machine. I've just never really grokked Puyo-Puyo, unfortunately, which is why I eventually ended up selling my copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris. The Game Gear version is brutal as well. The boss fight was a pretty darn easy match of Puyo-Puyo, but I can't imagine what I would have done if I wasn't already acquainted with the mechanics of that game!

RE headphone volume: It was everything. The music was deafening. Which is fine, because I can lower the volume via the quick menu, but I've never had to mess with it before.

Squeezed three more zones in this morning. I'm really glad modern consoles like PS4 and Switch have suspend functions. I'm also glad, in case we have a power outage and that function fails on PS4, that the game actually saves your progress.

The music might be the best aspect of this game. Simply superb.

I also continue to be amazed by the weird, warping level design in these games where, no matter what route you take and in what direction, you'll eventually find yourself on a path to the end of the stage. It feels very weird to go down little detours to the left before eventually heading the right direction again.

I'm loving ESO but after starting so late, still on the base game, I can't find ppl to do the dungeons with

Started Need For Speed Payback. Only played it for 45 mins or so but I like it so far. The handling is defo on the acrade as to be expected which is what I wanted. It looks and sounds good, so much that I had to turn the sound effects down so I could hear the radio better. I will probably last a few more days before Spotify comes into play. It does do a cool thing with the ds4 speaker with the police radio coming through. It always makes me smile when it is used, shame most devs do not use it.

On the negative side some of the cut scenes are laughingly bad, especially some of the character animations. Also don't like how the game goes to a cut scene on some of the cooler moments, on some there is no reason why it couldn't be left up to the player.

I anxiously started my first ever Sonic game, Sonic Mania today. I have to be honest — I haven’t particularly enjoyed it. My apologies to Sonic fans everywhere, but it’s not clicking with me. It’s not that I’ve never played retro styled 2D platformers before, but man... I just don’t get it. And by that I mainly mean - I don’t think I really comprehend how to play this game. I think I understand the allure of the game to its fans — The levels seem to be well crafted, there is a lot of depth to the gameplay for a game that uses basically one button. There is a lot of care put into the multiple possible pathways and the obstacle, enemy and power-up placement. But I have trouble completing even the opening levels. I know I’ve been spoiled by modern game development where now games have tutorial sections and beginning levels built in to naturally teach one the game mechanics and hints constantly pop up during gameplay and loading screens. This game tells me nothing. There is no introduction to even who Sonic is and the other little creatures you can play as. I know one is named Tails I think, which I know just from reading these forums. And I guess I would be fine with a lack of narrative or exposition of it weren’t for an also utter lack of direction on what I am to do in this game. Of course by trial and error I figured out a few things, like how to curl up into a ball and roll faster. And that the rings I collect seem to maybe be a form of health? All I know is that when I run into an enemy that my rings spill out everywhere apparently. The controls feel fairy imprecise and floaty and Mr. Sonic has a definite momentum to his movement that make his frustrating to control for a newbie. The early boss fights are actually the easiest part, but just trying to navigate through a map is quite a chore. I think the idea of Sonic is maybe the speed of it, but I can’t really get any speed with all the direction changes, enemies, spikes and pitfalls, water traps, and just general complexity of the map.
Anyway, I’m sure I’m playing the game completely the wrong way, but I haven’t found it enticing enough to ‘git gud’ at it. After an hour or so, I didn’t feel the fun factor kicking in yet, or the curiosity factor even because I just don’t have any emotional tie to see what becomes of these alien UFO’s and the (admittedly cute) little furry creatures running around.

@Th3solution Nah. While I'm enjoying it, and I think it's a legitimately fantastic example of classic Sonic game design, I also have my issues with how these games are constructed (which I'll get into when I beat the game and talk about it on here).

A few things:
1) Rings aren't really health. Rings do keep you from dying, though, so make sure to always grab at least one. The only advantage to having more, health-wise, is that it's easier to grab some when they spill ot from you. Don't be too concerned about spilling them when an enemy hits you, though, because, unless you really learn these levels, you ARE going to lose rings frequently.
2) At the checkpoint markers, if you have a certain number of rings saved up, there are special minigames you can play by jumping into a portal above the marker.
3) The levels are labyrinthine in design, but, no matter which route you go (other than back the way you immediately came, obviously), you'll always wind up at the end of the level eventually. Some routes are just far more circuitous than others. So don't be afraid to explore.
4) You can drop dash in this game. It doesn't really explain how to do the move, though. When you jump, holding the button you'd normally hold to charge up a dash, and then you should dash once you hit the ground.
5) Don't worry too much about going fast. And, if you do, just make sure Sonic is curled up so that he kills enemies when he hits them.

@Ralizah Thanks for the beginner tips. Those are all useful points that I didn’t know about.

@Th3solution Hmm, yes. All valid criticisms but LOOK HOW COOL HE IS!

This must be a very trippy experience for you. When you actually think about it, the early Sonic games explained practically nothing. No wonder my dad found them so confusing.

@Gremio108 Trippy is one way to describe it. Antiquated (but certainly viable and enjoyable for some people) gameplay and presentation is one thing, but man, for the love of Pete just give me a menu option that shows the basic moves, goals, and rules and a dossier of character background info or something. I’m going to have to go see the movie to know anything about the Sonic world, it’s heroes and villains, and why gold rings float randomly in the air!

@Th3solution "I’m going to have to go see the movie to know anything"

Whoa whoa whoa. Calm down, let's not do anything crazy. As for why rings are floating about everywhere, I have played many a Sonic game and I'm still completely unable to answer that question.

Basically Eggman aka Dr Robotnik aka Jim Carrey wants to imprison all the cute animals of Mobius (Sonic's planet) just like he did in the old games, but this time he has access to a time machine so he can send his robots to do it in all the old levels, as well as some new levels. I think that's what Mania is about. Knuckles is a good guy in this one. Knuckles is the pink echidna and the third playable character. Tails, as you say, is the fox with two tails, which enable him to fly. I don't know why he has two tails, possibly some sort of chemical spill-related accident when he was born.

Incidentally, echidnas are one of the only mammals which lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young. That isn't relevant in this game though, it's just an interesting fact. At no point in Sonic Mania does Knuckles lay an egg.

Sorry, this is the worst explanation of a game anyone has ever written. I don't think I'm helping your confusion.

@Th3solution If you feel the need to consume Sonic media other than games, you could always watch the incredibly cool and surprisingly dark Saturday morning cartoon.

If the show and its infamous cliffhanger ending leave you wanting more, you could also check out the famous Archie Comics adaptation of Sonic, which is based in roughly the same continuity as Sonic SatAM, and is a massive epic of a story that was published from 1993 - 2016.

@Gremio108 @Ralizah 🤣 ... the more I learn about Sonic, the more confused I become.

@Th3solution LMAO

No reason to become confused. Every old Sonic game is basically the same. Morbidly obese man imprisons animals for dubious reasons. Sonic and friends ain't having none of that, so they run forward, collect rings, chaos emeralds, and defeat bosses to stop said morbidly obese man from doing evil stuff. There's also a lot of unnecessarily complex lore structured around these simplistic 2D adventures, but you REALLY don't need to go down that rabbit hole.