Topic: Your Latest PS4 Purchase

@Th3solution Nope, I've always wanted to ever since then but the problem is that I did so many missions and was very close to the end before I lost my save file. Having to redo all of that is just discouraging to me, even though I know the game is a lot of fun. One of these days though, I'll pick it back up and finish it. I think the more I wait, the more "new" everything will feel to me so that's what I'm trying to aim for right now.

@LtSarge I have to say that I was surprised at how different everything was the second time I played phantom pain. I backed up and deleted my save file off the console so I could start it again from the beginning. Because you can do stuff in different orders it means that cut scenes can come out differently depending on who is at your base and their status. I had a few extra moments with Quiet that were kind of in extended versions of cutscenes that I'd seen before. It was about 5 years between playthroughs though so I'm sure I'd just forgotten a load of it! It was good though, I think a set amount of data gets tied to your PSN or something and because your base like generates resources while you are not playing, my new save file just randomly got tons of resources from my old save files base

@ralphdibny Oh I didn't know that it actually preserves some data. I think it would be very helpful to play through it again and gain more resources than normally so that I can get through it more quickly. I doubt that I'll spend as much time with it on a new playthrough compared to the first one. I have so many games to get through that I would just become impatient after a while.

But yeah, it sounds cool that you can experience certain stuff in different order. Definitely looking forward to seeing what else I haven't seen yet in this game.

@LtSarge I spent much more time on it the second time actually! 130 hours! I think the extra resources put me in a place where it was actually worth doing the grind to craft stuff because the grind was a lot smaller with a 5 year build up of fuel, common metal, precious metal etc

Picked up Dead Cells, Wizard of Legend and the original Psychonauts… decent deals on all three tbf.

@Th3solution I really enjoyed MHW when I played it and I’d never played anything in the series before.

It can be a bit opaque at times but there are loads of “top tips” type articles out there to explain some things. The armour mechanic isn’t that bad and I quite enjoyed creating different builds.

The hardest thing is choosing what weapon to pho with! It has a decent area to let you try them out and I ended up with the lance as I liked the range, aerial attacks, and defensive options with the shield.

The game also does a good job of allowing you to play solo if that’s your thing and I sometimes found it easier than playing in a group of random.

@colonelkilgore Thanks for that, I picked up Psychonauts too. No idea when I’ll play it

@Voltan yeah me neither tbh… just with all the positivity that the sequel has garnered of late, I thought it would be worth the £3 in order to have the full context when I eventually pick up Psychonauts 2.

@Thrillho That’s good to know. I’m not sure if I’ll get around to it. I also heard stories of how incredibly long the game can be, and I just have so many games that it has to be really compelling to me if I’m expecting to pour 100 hours into it.
Not to mention with each passing month and new PS5 games and updates dropping, I’m growing ever further away from my PS4 backlog. It’s the same thing that happened with PS3 where I left many games orphaned after the newer titles starting dropping quickly a couple years into the new generation.

@Th3solution I just had a look on my PS5 at my play time with the game.

156 hours 😳

Payday yesterday, so I pre-ordered Back 4 Blood and Far Cry 6.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The only metroidvania I’ve ever tried was Hollow Knight a couple of years back (& I wasn’t feeling it tbh) but I’m really thinking I need to give the genre another go.

@colonelkilgore Hollow Knight is like a mix of metroidvania and a 2D soulsborne. If you’re looking for a fun way to start with the genre, may I recommend Guacamelee!?

@Voltan yeah the partial 'soulsy-ness' was what made me give it a go tbh. Don't know why I didn't click with it really... maybe I should give it another go now I'm a bit more open-minded.

I will take your advice on Guacamele as well, I'll keep an eye on it in the store and pick it up when it gets a sale price. Same with Castlevania: Requiem.

@colonelkilgore Hollow Knight is a difficult game to get into because the world is just so huge and open. That's what makes it the best Metroidvania game though, but it also makes it hard for newcomers to stick with since you can easily get lost and therefore discouraged to continue playing it. I'd definitely recommend holding off on giving it another go until you've played a couple of Metroidvanias.

Bloodstained is a great Metroidvania, it's my second favourite one after Hollow Knight. The only thing I didn't like about it is that it can get very difficult during boss fights. Guacamelee is great fun and I feel like that's a good starting game if you want to get into Metroidvanias.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with that. I remember feeling like I really couldn’t get a handle on the orientation of the world. I remember thinking that was quite strange too, as one thing I do enjoy in souls-likes is mapping out the world in my head. I guess it is a different skill in two dimensions.

I’ll take yours and @Voltan’s advice and make Guacamele my entry-point. Cheers guys.

@colonelkilgore I absolutely loved both Guacamelee and Guacamelee 2. They’re a lot of fun and have just the right kind of humor for me
Well balanced difficulty too IMO.

@colonelkilgore I adored Hollow Knight and it’s one of my favourite games from the PS4 generation. I completely avoided using any guides and loved exploring the vast world. And despite playing it to death, the platinum remained well out of my reach (damn you pantheons!).

I hope you do give Guacamelee a blast as I also loved both the games. The trophies on those are very achievable but the platinums require a second run through on hard which I never got round to doing.

@Thrillho I probably only gave Hollow Knight around 4 or 5 hours back when I tried it… but I wasn’t as focused on keeping things fresh by varying the games and the order in which I played them at the time. I’m gonna add two genres to the rotation from next year, metroidvania’s and rogue-likes/lites.

Looks like it’s gonna be Guacamelee for the metroidvania and Returnal for the rogue-like/lite. I’m sure most people wouldn’t consider Returnal the best introduction to to the rogue-like/lite but I’ve been looking forward to playing it for a long time so I don’t wanna delay it any longer by sliding a more appropriate entry-level rogue in before it, if you know what I mean.

@colonelkilgore Returnal only dips into the rougelike mechanics and is definitely more of a shooter itself but that might be why it’s actually a pretty good “gateway game”