Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@mkr That's interesting to know, what you said about DS1 style combat feeling superior to DD2's combat, especially considering the rave reviews that people had been giving about DD2's combat, i.e FightinCowboy on YouTube. I'm about 1/3 through Demon's Souls but have been farming a lot working on an optimal build to breeze through the rest of the game after defeating/if I can defeat False King Allant, as other people on here might know.

Have you ever tried Lords of the Fallen (2023)? Feels like a very good game to me, basically the spiritual successor to the Dark Souls games. Essentially Dark Souls 4 (imo).

Edit: I didn't check out Armored Core, yeah, different people say different things about those games, but I'm not too into robotic stuff so I think I'll give them a pass.

I'm not saying DD2 is bad, it was good in a lot ways, just that the combat is very easy, therefore the combat itself, mostly, lacks tension, the world itself has tension though.

As for Lord of the Fallen, I tried an, erm, "unofficial demo" on my laptop recently, because I saw the PS5 version is £21 on Amazon atm. I have to say it did seem good, ran well too. I think I'll wait and get on PC for peanuts at a later date.

@Th3solution You're not the only one who enjoys taking a trip down memory lane and scrolling down the trophies! Maybe I do that a bit too often even. Not great to be stuck in the past with your gaming, though it's always great to reminisce. Besides, how else are you going to get that satisfying trophy notification noise other than to play new games?

You just make me more and more interested in Enslaved! Sounds like it's finally time I dust that off and give it a proper shot, though maybe I will just buy it on my PC now as my PS3 is currently in a different country from me, haha. Ninja Theory games in general have always been ones that interest me greatly conceptually. I just never actually dipped my feet into them to know if I fall in love with them or not! Brothers is another one I've heard great things about indeed, but never tried. I believe it was TotalBiscuit's favourite video game back in the day (if you know him)? I do know the big spoiler of how the game ends however, so would that ruin my experience with it?

The Order 1886 is an interesting shout! I'd completely forgotten about that game as clearly many have at this point. I do also still remember when it came out and the vitriol that was thrown at it. It's funny to think how different expectations were there, because I think a lot of the criticism it received back then it would not so much now. The world building they did in that game did always sound intriguing, so maybe I would have to dip my toes into that. I'll look into it!

To be fair, I didn't dislike the first Last of Us at all! I had a good time with its story and the gameplay was generally fine (though easily the worst part about it), but it just never quite hit the highs for me that it seemed to for many people. The sequel having improved gameplay already sounds like it would be an improvement to my enjoyment, even with the... sometimes controversial nature of the actual narrative. I've been very spoiled on what exactly happens in that game, but I'd still be open to playing it as I think it sounds like a very different experience narratively than you would have in your typical gaming blockbuster.

I haven't played Fallen Order actually! I think what made me look into Survivor more at the time was that it seemed more like a galaxy-spanning adventure than the first one, which as far as I remember just took place on a world with much backtracking? Or at least, that's what I believe I heard as one of the main criticisms back when it came out. If I'd really need to try the first one narratively though, of course I will not skip to Survivor as it would grind my gears missing out on important information! I didn't realise the combat was very Souls-like however. I'm not a big fan of... difficulty in my games. I like to just chill, play through the game without too much restarting and feel like a badass. I don't actually feel rewarded from putting in the work to become a badass, haha. I'm here to play out a fantasy and going to the gym isn't part of that!

Well, just alone being able to sell me on 13 Sentinels not having even seen the end of it speaks volumes about the game clearly! Unless of course it all falls apart in the end and you'd have doomed me for ever getting invested.. but! Judging from @LN78's comment on that end, it doesn't sound like that's the case. I'll see if I can possibly start it later tonight. I'll let you know how it goes if I do and maybe then we can have some discussions around that!

With my newly found short bit of free time, I've picked Midnight Suns back up. I had let it fall to the wayside for a while having started my new job, but I'm glad to be back in this world and playing cards. It remains such a fun gameplay loop, though there's definitely a part of me that's starting to tire of the Abbey dialogue a bit already. Maybe not so promising considering I only just finished the first out of three acts, but I can always take a chill pill and not engage with every conversation if ever it becomes fully too much.

I think the end of Act I and with it the introduction of a new area injected a badly needed sense of discovery again. I'm glad to be adding some new characters to my roster again and see some new landscapes, enemy types and missions. New York City had started to feel a bit monotone after thirty in-game days spent in it. I'll still be returning for the rest of the DLC missions which are finally starting to open up again, but the mixture will be nice. I'm about fourty hours into the game now.

I've also finally finished all of the Abbey exploration. Or at least however much of it is available to me right now.It feels good knowing I can entirely focus on the missions and building my team now, even if I did enjoy my time running around using spells everywhere. It all felt very satisfying watching areas open up as I progressed through the world. I even did that final trial completely underleveled just because I was excited to get the final spell and break some walls I had only been able to stare at helplessly before. Mostly, it feels good having to hear less of Agatha harping on about whatever the mystical flavour of the day is.

I'm shocked by how many "big things" have already happened narratively in just the first act though. The loss of Avengers Tower, the Sanctum, that one time we infiltrated their head of operations through a mirror... Normally these events would be like Act 2 things at the earliest! I wonder how they keep up this pace and have everything just get bigger and uglier, but it definitely helps to keep you invested in the story. First up though, time to finally continue those aforementioned DLC missions. That Storm icon has been teasing me long on the map long enough!

I played Sifu for a few hours, and I'm not sure on it in all honesty. Not a bad game, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it currently. I'm not too keen on having to replay the previous level to get your starting age down for the level you are playing. So unless that changes at some point, I will most likely go back to that later if I feel like it.

@Tjuz Dang, you’re making me want to move Midnight Suns up my backlog list. I really got into the card game groove recently with Inscryption and was craving a new deck builder, but I thought I’d take a break from card games and play something more action oriented and so I’m currently playing Spider-Man 2. 😄 And I don’t know how I feel about playing two Marvel games concurrently, or even one right after another. Even if they are different genres. Interest definitely piqued though!

As for your other questions, I think that yes, knowing the ending of Brothers is probably going to take the air out of the game’s enjoyment, especially from the narrative experience. It won’t hit quite the same, but it will probably still be a good one to play some day, so keep it in mind.

Same with the TLoU2. The story has been spoiled for most people by now, every which way imaginable. But there’s definitely some really fun gameplay there, and probably a few story beats that will still catch you by surprise. And even the story moments you already know about, like them or not, have that hallmark Naughty Dog polish that is just so impressive to see on display.

And as for Fallen Order, it does indeed have a few planets to explore, so you get to experience some variability and space travel in a limited way. And each planet does have a labyrinthine environment to explore, which includes backtracking in the standard Metroidvania ways (ex. On the first trip to Planet A you can only explore 30% of the map until you get the double jump later and then you can go back and get to another 30% of the map and then when you get force push you can go back and get through another 30%, etc, etc). Survivor is set up the same, and in fact if memory serves I do think Fallen Order may even have more planets than Survivor but each planet map is smaller in scale. The games are Souls-like but they do have difficulty sliders. So on “easy” (actually called “Padowan”, I believe) it’s quite approachable and a good entry point as a first Souls-like, imo, because of the lighter difficulty level. Survivor even has accessibility options on top of that where you can slow down time and do other things to make the game even more of a cake walk. But yes, definitely recommend starting with Fallen Order.

I’m excited to see if you like 13 Sentinels, so drop some impressions on the forums when you do get to it. Likewise for the rest of Midnight Suns. I’m curious to see how the late game goes for you.

@JohnnyShoulder There are shortcuts to make moving through those levels much shorter 😄

@Jimmer-jammer Ah yes, I unlocked one of them in the first level. Any game with similar elements it will always be a dice roll if it clicks with me. Returnal I loved, but that is the only one I think I've managed to stick through to the end. All the others I've pretty much bounced off at some point.

@Th3solution Haha, first 13 Sentinels and now Midnight Suns. My sudden appearance is certainly wreaking havoc on your backlog. My bad! The beauty of the Midnight Suns combat is that while it is obviously card based, it also feels surprisingly action-oriented thanks to the beautiful, hard-hitting animations they have for every card. Definitely a lot different than just watching cards explode a la Hearthstone or the like when they've been defeated. Here everyone's an actual character on a battlefield moving around and kicking butt, but yeah, I can imagine not wanting to out-Marvel yourself playing it next to Spider-Man 2 (which is a game I'm going to have to get to myself still).

Thank you for taking the time to answer my outstanding questions! I'll take that all into account when it's time for me to choose a new game again, but between Midnight Suns and 13 Sentinels I think I have enough on my plate for the moment. Not like either are particularly short games! I'll let you know how I get on with the latter as soon as I collect some thoughts.

@JohnnyShoulder That’s understandable! Returnal really is something special.

Been playing South Park: Snow Day! with my brother and I quite like it. The gameplay loop is pretty satisfying and I like South Park's humour. It's definitely a step back from the previous two games, but I don't regret buying it at all.

@colonelkilgore Have you started GT7 yet?
Just bought it (along with psvr2) so if you fancy a race.
Delivery is estimated to be 29 May (this is from Amazon) so you have time to get some practice laps in.

@CaptD I haven’t yet mate, but thanks for the heads up… before we get to that though, when will be a good time to get that CoD:MW2 co-op done?

@colonelkilgore Anytime is fine with me except Sunday's. It would be good to get it done and deleted from my internal ssd because I wish to install GT7 on the internal ssd as I read somewhere that it can crash when installed on the external ssd. I don't know ho much truth there is to that and it depend on other factors (external ssd type etc..).

@CaptD it could take a few sessions tbh mate, some of the trophies are somewhat challenging. Maybe we’ll try and make a start one evening next week.

@CaptD @colonelkilgore We run a just for fun session of racing on a Sunday night with @render and a few others if you fancy joining, nothing serious, just a giggle and a few laps in some fast cars.

@nitram2k11 cheers mate, I’ll keep that in mind 👍

@nitram2k11 Cheers. I think it will take a while before I have a decent car otherwise all I will be hearing "who is the wally in the Renault 5?"
Can't wait to have a garage that would make Jay Leno green with envy.

@CaptD ahh, so you hit me up for a banger-race 😉

@colonelkilgore What else would you do with a Renault 5?