Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I had some time last night but I'm at a point on Demon's Souls where I need a bit more concentration than I could give it at that moment. Thought I'd check out A Plague Tale and was pleasantly surprised. I got a reasonable way into it and enjoyed most of the gameplay. I've not read too much about it before but guess a lot of people found it the same way as me in that it's very much like the TLoU but with less zombies and more rats.

@NedStarksGhost Glad to see someone else who has recently enjoyed Ghost!

I completely get what you said about DLC above though; Witcher 3 is the only time I’ve gone back to a game ages after finishing it to play DLC. Having only finished Ghost recently though I’m keen to play the expansion. I’ll pick up the FF7R intermission episode too at some point but I also intend to replay the game on PS5 too.

@Th3solution Miles Morales is great fun so you should get round to it! The new abilities he has makes it feel different enough to the main game and the different cast plus NYC in winter makes it feel quite fresh too.

@velio84 I'm surprised you found the side quests mediocre. I didn't doo all of them, only the ones invovling your allies. I found all of them to be rather compelling and served as great character building.

But hey we all have opinions, even if some of them are wrong (only joking). It's a shame you didn't enjoy it much!

@NedStarksGhost I'm not saying either person is right or wrong, but the character specific side quests were definitely better than the "regular" ones. I agree that those ones were definitely pretty good.

I'm kind of in between, where I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't call it one of the best open world games like some people declared it was last year. Some of the game was indeed great though, like the main story and especially the end of it. Without really spoiling anything for anybody who still hasn't played it yet, they really nailed the final duel.

I look forward to the PS5 version coming out, and I am considering playing it again to see if I enjoy it even more the second time around instead of just the DLC.

@KilloWertz I got bored of the regular ones as well, some I did were quite good but for the most part they were just filler.

I think one great thing about Ghost is that it knows when to be a video game and when not to be. Picking up resources is a breeze, fast travel can be used everywhere, the horse controls are fantastic. Some game designers restrict these things for "immersion" but to me it becomes tedious and I lose interest.

My comment about being wrong was in honestly just a joke. Some games just don't string the right notes for others. For me The Witcher 3 is that, I played it for half an hour to an hour and I just did not like the combat. Couldn't get into it at all, which some would consider blasphemy!

@KilloWertz @NedStarksGhost I’m with you on Witcher 3. And I even played it for about 4-5 hours or so. Still, I think it’s probably not sufficient to fully pass judgment on a 100+ hour game, but I didn’t feel compelled to continue it at the time. I think the combat and controls haven’t aged as well as the narrative aspects have. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it too. And the copious map markers and question marks dotting the map were very intimidating.

As far as open world games, it’s tough to beat Ghost of Tsushima; the wind mechanic alone makes riding around from objective to objective much more enjoyable.
I think pretty much all open world games have some tedium and can get bogged down in filler content. Both GoT and Horizon Zero Dawn had some lulls in the middle that I had to push through to get to the epic final acts where things really came together. Same with Red Dead Redemption 2, same with Assassin’s Creed Origins (and I assume more so in Odyssey and Valhalla, which I’ve not played yet), same with the open world Arkham games, etc, etc.
I think that an open world game does resonate more with some players’ style and preferences over others. Personally I enjoy both open world and linear games, but there is a certain mood one has to be in to really get the most enjoyment out of open world — you have to like the exploration aspects to click with the genre. If a player is more about moving a story forward and being fed constant narrative or gameplay excitement, then the time spent in travel or exploring around can feel tedious.

I still remember a really good soapbox article by the Push Square staff (I think it was Rob) a few years ago which used Dragon Age Inquisition as the example, but he made the argument that playing the game while ignoring the side quests made the game so much better.

@Th3solution I think the mood thing is important with open world games, personally. That's why I'm moving onto Returnal and Uncharted. Ghost is one of the best open world games for me as it just gives you the tools to make the mechanics easier. I loved that I could ride past bamboo and just press R2 to collect.

Can't believe I forgot to mention the wind mechanic. That's an excellent point. I loved Red Dead Redemption 2, but one isssue is you need to look at the radar to know the path to go, so you miss out on all this scenery and travelling. The wind mechanic was, excuse me for this but..... A breath of fresh air. It allowed me to immerse myself in the world, scenery and just enjoy this artistical beauty of a game!

Having side quests that the game told you were importat, the chracter centric ones, was a clever move. I get fed up of doing side quests that add nothing but a bit of fun for some. But sometimes you read that side quests are important. GoT found a great way to achieve that.

I do think as far as open world game design goes, they've achieved a fantastic formula between quality of life and immersion/story telling.

@NedStarksGhost I spent about 130 hours in Ghost of Tsushima's world and loved almost every minute of it. Glad you enjoyed it too. The thing I hold against it was there were too many of those tracking missions for me. Everything thing else though I thought was top knotch.

Finished FF7 last night, last few chapters were quite tough but managed to do it on Normal.

Really good game, great in fact, but for me in terms of narrative and overall quality it peaked at the end of Chapter 13. I still really loved my time with it, and kind of sad that's it all over now, but the latter chapters almost felt like the start of a new game in a weird way or at least they could've been.

Anyway, roll on Part 2 in 2027!

😉

@velio84 No, was going to but think I'll save it for my second playthrough.

Yeah that's a really good part of the game, enjoyed Wall Market and then what happens immediately after.

@Col_McCafferty I'm glad you enjoyed the marmite ending!

Those last couple of chapters are great for combat though and some of the boss fights are brilliant. But with so much party hopping at the end, I wish they had some system for being able to swap all materia from one character to another. It got pretty annoying manually doing it.

If you're thinking of doing a Hard run, I'd advise looking online for ways of AP boosting as you'll need plenty of top level HP and MP plus materia among other things.

@Thrillho not having ever played the original, the ending was fine for me. Sets things up really nicely for Part II. God knows when that will eventually be released!

So guys I started Uncharted last night, as I only had an hour to play something and didn't fancy a run on Returnal. I enjoyed it, it does feel a bit dated but I think it holds up quite well! Some fairly funny animations and at times the jumping feels a bit stiff and janky. But overall I honestly think it holds up well and can see myself really enjoying the game!

I love Sully, quite cheesy but that's definitely a good thing!

@NedStarksGhost yeah I always enjoy them when I play them... the original is definitely the worst too so you should really like the later entries.

@colonelkilgore glad to hear it! It's definitely the sort of linear single player experience I like for sitting back and just enjoyment (not for intensity such as Returnal).

@RogerRoger Yeah I can see that from early on!

@RogerRoger … but Rog you know you love a good rank once you get started 😉

@NedStarksGhost Fantastic! The game has plenty of levity to balance out the insanity-inducing bleak world of Returnal. I adore the characters and voice acting in Uncharted. I played Drake’s Fortune earlier this year and thought it held up pretty well, but yeah, some occasional jank and I’m sure controlling Nate after playing as Selene feels like driving a schoolbus after racing around in a Ferrari.

It’s fun to experience these things through new eyes!

@RogerRoger But, but, Uncharted 2 is so much better than....

Even though I've had The Nathan Drake Collection for several years now, I never started playing it until right before the PS5 came out. I played them all back in the day, but it was still really nice getting to revisit the first two (haven't played the 3rd one again yet). You can tell they are old games both visually and gameplay wise, but their charm is still there like when they first came out.

After finishing FF7 (I'm already missing the gang ☹️), I returned to the Normandy with ME2.

I can see the difference in the framerate from the first on PS4 and it definitely plays a bit better as well but it's all about the characters and the story and the exploration of space.

I'm sure I'm going to have a really good time with this game.

@Col_McCafferty I love that when a game and it’s characters are so good that you miss them afterwards. It’s a sign of good writing and good voice acting. I find that I miss the characters most when there are several in the game rather than games with just one protagonist without a lot of other character development.