Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@RogerRoger I was thinking that last night when I was playing it, it definitely feels a more focused experienced than NMS. This feels like what that game should had been at launch, instead of 18 months worth of updates down the line. Once you fix the radio, you start receiving messages from other life pods which you can go to investigate. The data pads you find kinda fill in bits of the story but I've not interacted or seen anyone else yet. Strangely though I've not had the feeling of solitude much. But they was big story moment that happened last night that had me go 'WOW', something that NMS lacked.

@RogerRoger I'm curious, why won't you ever give Heavy Rain a chance? I gave up as I didn't like the controls.

If you like Detroit Become Human, you should give Beyond Two Souls ago too. I know a few people didn't like it but I thought it was ace, if not without a few faults.

@RogerRoger Ah fair enough, I never made it that far. The two later games control a lot better, but the stealth sections in Beyond I found a bit of a nightmare

@RogerRoger @JohnnyShoulder I need to play Beyond TS at some point, it sounds. I enjoyed both Heavy Rain and Detroit, especially Detroit. I finished HR once, and didn’t go back to experience other storylines, and I’d say it was a good narrative experience, weird controls and less interesting characters notwithstanding. But definitely the tone is a little bit grim and I’m glad Rog that you avoided it in favor of Detroit, which is far and away more polished and better imo.

I'm slowly but surely working my way through ESO. I only started playing it this year but loving it, so much too do it's crazy

I've just started playing ESO as an wood elf nightblade. Some of the quests make it feel like a proper single player game at times. It's not as polished as FFXIV but it's still good fun and as ever the music is fab.

I played Injustice 2 last night after watching a Suicide Sqaud animated flim. It's good fun, although as it's been so long since I last played it it has taken me a bit to get back up to speed with story. There should be a recap option for lapsed players such as me lol.

So I've played about twelve hours of Middle Earth: Shadow Of War now @Th3solution (Thought you might appreciate an update) @Kidfried (In case you're interested in my view)

The main story is rubbish. It and the characters I find are rather boringly written and incredibly tropey. It's pretty obvious where the plot is going. My prediction being Shelob being good all along and Celebrimbor betraying Talion with some feud between them and if it doesn't end up there I'll eat my hat.

I feel a bit sorry for Troy Baker having to play such a moody git like Talion... He's a great voice actor with roles like Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4 or Valvatorez from Disgaea IV ... Boy does Talion bore me silly though.

Thankfully the Orcs/Uruks are written well enough at least. The Austrailan accented Brůz The Chopper is a treat (And voiced by Gideon Emery or Leading Man Balthier from Final Fantasy XII) and it's always fun to get in a fight with a captain with the various abilities, weaknesses and the likes they might have. It's usally quite a challenge, especially if you go for one that's ten levels higher then you.

I've had one orc come back four times trying to get me!

They could've used a few more voice actors playing the orcs though (IMBD apparently says there's 20 or so playing the orcs) but I swear all I hear is J.B. Blanc (Ryotaro Dojima from Persona 4, Zinyak from Saints row 4), Dwight Schlutz (O'aka XXIII from FFX and the Vulture in Spiderman PS4) and Sam Reigel!

I've never personally really liked the Batman/Arkham gameplay but to be fair I have only played demo's of those so maybe I'd possibly think they're better down the line as Shadow Of War's combat is alright (I also ended up enjoying Spiderman so maybe I've given Bats a bit of a bum rap)

There's a decent amount of ways to deal with problems now that I've all the main skills unlocked. Though I've got plenty of upgrades/alternate effects I can still get.

The area's are pretty enough and I've kinda learnt the layout of each... Though they're a bit ho hum as well and just feel a bit samey with Ice Area, Fire Area, Forest Area, Mordor area etc with plenty of map icons and objectives

If it wasn't for the Nemesis System I'd honestly say it's a very average to poor game... The Nemesis system making it really and it's basically Shadow Of Mordor with a few bells and whistles attached

6/10 (maybe 6.5/10 if I'm feeling VERY generous) is the best I could see myself giving it when I'm done with it.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Great update! Thanks for that. It’s just what I was wondering about the game. And your thoughts show the game to be about what I expected. Good, not great. I enjoyed Shadow of Mordor about the same .. in the 6-7/10 range. So I’ll leave this one on the back burner until I feel impelled to jump into that world. Let me know if things change upon your completion because sometimes a well executed ending can propel the entire experience, especially from a narrative standpoint.

Just entered the Penitentiary in Batman: Return to Arkham Asylum. My first time playing any of the Arkham games, and while it's roots as a last gen title show through every once in awhile, I'm really into it.

Despite not being overtly violent/gory (there's no blood effects in the combat, for example), it does a fantastic job of making you feel uneasy thanks to the atmosphere (the Medical Facility creeped me the heck out, lol).

@RR529 Oh man, I started playing Arkham Asylum on Friday and for me it is the 4th or 5th time. I adore the game.

Continuing the Batman theme, I played a couple of hours on Batman AK last night. It was fine but has not clicked with me yet and i did not have that feeling that I must play it again. I've done the 3 wanted missions in the area and seen Oracle in the clock tower. Not sure what to make of the batmobile so far, it handles a bit too loose for my liking. And if all the Riddler missions are batmobile based I'm not overly keen on doing too many of those. I do really like using the grapple hook however, I'll probably be using that to get around for the majority of the time. I've also been reading the graphic novel which is set before the events of the game. I've not finished those yet but it has helped with some of the background stuff.

I think part of the reason it has not clicked with me is that I'm deep (quite literally lol) into Subnautica. I almost stopped playing it last week as i was finding it a bit mundane. But played on the next day and found a new area which resparked my interest. I've not progressed the story at all, but these types of games are not all about that. Instead I've been really getting into the mechanics of the game, especially the exploring and crafting which kind of compliment each other.

So I've managed to build a little one man submarine which speeds up traversal greatly. There were areas which I hadn't been back to as I couldn't be bothered to go back. Now with the sub I'm going back to those areas and doing a bit more exploring. I've also built an underwater base, which allows me to upgrade my sub, have more storage amongst other things which I have not fully played around with yet. I've never been that keen on base building in games and I hated it in Fallout 4. But I have enjoyed it in Subnautica so far. It is not without a few problems however as I spent about 30 mins trying to build something only to find out I didn't have enough of a material. To be fair it does tell you how much you need of the materials, but I think it could have been clearer as it still allowed be to start building but not let me finish it. Anyway, there have been quite a few instances like this, but I suppose it is purposely obtuse being a survival game. It feels like I've learnt loads in the game over the last few days, and had great feeling of accomplishment when I crafted my sub and built my base up.

@RogerRoger Tagged in as you showed some interest in the game earlier.

@RogerRoger No worries about not tagging me in the Detroit thread, you and TheSolution had all the bases covered and I would have chimed in if felt I could add anything to the discussion.

Good to hear about Batman AK, I see how I feel about what I want to play next when I'm finished with Subnautica.

Crafting feels a bit more streamlined than in NMS. You can basically collect most resources by hand, there are only one or two items that you have to chip away at and it does not feel as laberous as in NMS. You then go back to base and 3D print your stuff.
Building once you have the tool, you just select what you wanna build and where, and your are good to go. There are restrictions like you can only build certain buildings on a flat surface, but there is also foundations which you can build which solves that issue.
The gameplay loop which works for me is to go exploring/scavenging and then back to base and craft whatever I can. Sometimes I go just scavenging for a particular resource such food or a particular material I need for a building. But most of the time I'm combining exploring/scavenging and I have a mental checklist of what I need to look out for.

@RogerRoger Yeah that was another reason why I've kept playing Subnautica, especially with how hot it has been this week!

Right now I'm playing Tomb Raider and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Surprise, lol.

@RogerRoger XD Thank you! Believe it or not, Tomb Raider was my first game ever.

@RogerRoger Glad to get you back on the right track then, heh. Happy raiding.

Played about 30 mins of the demo's for Oninaki and Catherine: Full Body today along with a few hours of Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

Oninaki felt a little slow and clunky to me... or maybe I was just expecting it go be a bit faster? I dunno something about the gameplay seemed off. I'll try it again tomorrow and see if i think differently

Catherine: Full Body. Never played the PS3 release. Knew about it of course but never got around to it. Weird they don't let you play on a difficulty above Safety though. Neat that there's an autoplay button on Safety mode though if you wanna experience the story but suck at puzzles. Seems pretty fun.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled It's a very enjoyable game... Extremely pretty, the controls are very nice and the 30fps doesn't bother me at all.

The games as a service business model they have for the Nitro league and the staying online for coins to use in the pit stop is really crappy though... If it was anything else I wouldn't have gotten it (at least this soon as I don't agree with the practice) but CTR is one my favourite PS1 games.

• On Easy I can easily lap the CPU'S.
• On Medium I can usually get about a half a lap lead but on some of the more difficult tracks it can get a big hairy.
• On Hard though I get absolutely creamed no matter what. Like last place constantly.

That difficulty is wonky as hell! 😅

Think I'm getting close to the finale of Batman: Return to Arkham Asylum. In my last play session I beat the Poison Ivy fight, and it looks like I only have the final showdown with the Joker left.

I have about a dozen or so collectables left to get, so I'll probably try to mop those up first. I'm afraid it may be impossible for me to get them all though, as I'm apparently missing some Joker Teeth in the mansion, but after checking all the rooms twice over I can't for the life of me find any (it doesn't help that they're the only challenges that don't show up on the Riddler maps).

Finished the demo's of Oninaki & Catherine: Full Body and played some more Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

Oninaki

Yesterday I hadn't even done the first mission before stopping.

Having played it through now fully I'm not interested in the full release in the slightest (Not that I really knew about it before seeing the PushSquare article for the demo)

The combat seems a bit janky still, even when I could try the battle mode with the extra moves and spirits.

The art style seems a little bland and I dunno... the models aren't chibi but they don't look normal either. Like some weird cross between the two and I'm not a fan, plus the monsters are kinda boring looking.

The lack of music at times is weird. It's not like it uses music for big events like say Dark souls and Bosses to really prop them up as events. It's just like someone forgot to put a track in.

The story also kinda threw me off a bit and overall it just convinced me this isn't my thing in the slightest

Catherine: Full Body

Muuuuuuch better then my other demo playthrough. Only bad thing is it's just too darn short!

I remember hearing this being one of Troy Baker's roles before he got really big... So I'm pretty glad they actually didn't skimp out on the voice actor budget and brought him back! Plus looking up the ENG cast from the original release they seem to have brought everyone back so that's a really nice!

The puzzling stuff is pretty fun too though I don't think I'll be able to do anything above normal... The fact there's a normal mode and a new remixed mode is nice too to switch it up for people who've akready played it or are going fot a secomd playthrough

Definitely looking forward to it's release!

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

Making my peace with the always online bit to get Wumpa coins... It's very fun to play.

The new Egyptian & Arabian themed track is pretty nice and I'm looking forward to the next one. The fact there's the Nitro Kart tracks already in as well means there's a good amount of content!

The customisation aspect is nice too. The skins, karts, stickers and all that. Be nicer if some of it wasn't tied to the nitro league stuff though to get more points from the challenges... But at least you can unlock a decent amount just from playing the Adventure mode