Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

Just started up Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on Series X. I've had it on my watchlist since it came out and when I read that it's been added to EA Play, I just had to play it now. Still crazy to me that I can play a game like this for only €6. One month should be enough to finish it. I also decided to play it on Xbox just in case I decide to play the Rising Tide DLC for Final Fantasy XVI now on PS5 so that I won't have to switch between two games on the same system. I also played the first game on Xbox, so I figured why not play this one there as well.

Anyway, the game is really fun so far and it feels like more of the same from the first title, which is a positive thing. I loved the gameplay in the first game and it's been a long time since I played it, so it feels refreshing to play the sequel now. I'm also glad that I waited to play it because I heard that it didn't run well at launch. Fortunately, performance mode with its 60 FPS feels incredible and I haven't run into any issues thus far.

On a side note, I've been really spoiled by games lately as so many offer 60 FPS, such as The Last of Us Part II and Control. I grew up with 30 FPS and it feels so weird to experience games like that now. I can't believe I was used to that before, the difference between 30 and 60 FPS is huge. I find that one of the major advantages with current-gen consoles is the fact that 60 FPS has become more common in games than in previous generations. And I love that!

For me I’ve been recently playing the RE4 remake. Right after I beat metal gear solid 3. After this, probably a replay of devil may cry 4. I’m playing multiple short games in a “non committal” way because earlier this year I begun playing a bunch of Pokémon and could not put the games down for several months. Made it really hard to work through my backlog and finish a variety of games. Not anymore though.

@LtSarge I’ll be interested to hear how you get along with Jedi Survivor. I really enjoyed it. It’s quite a bit bigger than Fallen Order and when you get to the first big open area you’ll see what I mean. It’s quite huge with a lot of little secret areas and places you’ll have to continually return to access. I think I spent close to 80 hrs on it, but it was well worth it and I enjoyed it more than the first game in many ways. I do think the storyline is a little weaker, or at least less novel than the first.

How are you finding the performance on Series X? One of the biggest criticisms for the game on PS5 was the unstable frame rate, which has been patched a couple times. I ended up playing the whole game in fidelity mode at 30 fps, and I really felt like the outcry about the performance was overblown.

@Th3solution I think I've spent over five hours with the game now and it's been a blast. At first it felt a bit overwhelming with the open world but then I realised that it wasn't that huge. It's actually quite fun to explore and the open world makes sense for this type of game, i.e. you return to the area when you've acquired new powers in order to open up new paths. The game has definitely clicked with me now.

The frame rate is great on Series X. The only issues I've encountered are some bugs, like BD-1 being stuck under the ground or Cal clipping through the ground. If this is how the game is like one year later, then I'm glad that I didn't play it at launch.

I've been currently playing these 2 games. After I platinum R&C3, I plan to replay R&C: Deadlocked.

Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension (PS3, playing on my PS5 thru PS+ Premium)
Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal HD (PS3, replaying on my PS5 thru PS+ Premium)

Finally decided to check out the big Classic Patch mod for FIFA 14 on PC. Really fun so far, played the 1880s patch and it’s remarkable the amount of effort put in. I played the 1888 season as Blackburn and finished in 5th cause Preston North End are far too good but it was a fun time, the old rules such as the goalkeeper having a weird bum shape to roam in along with a touch line made it strange and also made crosses unbelievably OP even though heading that ball is a one way ticket to dementia. The snazzy facial hair on the guys was cool too, considering their faces were having to be based on newspaper drawings of the teams as there weren’t exactly 4K photos to work from. The formations were the best part though, you could choose from a few from the era such as the classic 1 1 8 or the pyramid, which is what most of us in the league used. Makes the gameplay bizarre but really cool as it’s historical. You basically just bomb up and down the pitch chasing the ball as your two defenders struggle to make an impact.

They shadow dropped a port of Samurai Warriors 4 and all the DLC on PC.

I've always liked musou games ever since I was a kid, but I've never been like seriously all in, just dabbled on titles over the years - mainly Dynasty Warriors. Initial impressions with SW4 though is this is pretty damn good.

It looks nice for a ten plus year old game, doesn't appear to be quite a full remaster but still looks good for what it is.

Combat is a little more combo focused than I seemed to remember from the old Dynasty Warriors games - but its been a while, so I may have forgotten.

In the campaign you pick two characters, one is controlled by AI when you aren't controlling them, and you'll have objectives to clear within a certain window or you fail, which prompts you to constantly switch from one character to the other depending on where they are relative to the objectives for the most efficient clear. I like this, because it gets you to explore different characters rather than just maining one and you never one who you might end up enjoying. There is a young lady who fights with a parasol for example. Sounded stupid, but then I had to play her for a mission and she is so much fun.

One really cool thing is Conquest mode, I don't remember this in any of the DW games I played before but maybe it was always there and I forgot. Its almost like a procedural RPG. You create a character and then are dropped into a map where different events spawn, you choose what missions to take on and form bonds with various characters etc I dunno the longevity on this mode but dabbling for a couple of hours with it has been fun.

Back to Yakuza Kiwami 2. Pretty nice being able to juggle my playthrough between my rig and Steam Deck. That said, I do think the small hubs of these games tend to make them feel very... samey after awhile. I can't imagine doing most of the side-content in these games. I try to do the substories where possible, but even a lot of those feel sorta tedious.

Game runs well at medium settings at 45fps on my Deck, which is nice.

I think I'm gonna do what substories and other side content that is easy and accessible, but otherwise focus on main story progression. I have a lot of these games to get through, and I feel like most of them involve me flitting around Kamurocho, which is already getting old.

Also playing Unicorn Overlord on Switch, and it also feels kinda tedious. The gameplay is unique, for sure, and the progression is phenomenal, but I don't see this becoming an all-time favorite of mine. There's definitely a lot of strategy in unit builds and whatnot, but it very much lacks the tension and excitement of something like Fire Emblem for me. And the characters are all pretty forgettable so far.

@Ralizah They shake it up over the series, though 0 and 2 are nice with the long amount of time spent in Sotenbori (my fav), each one does spend time other places, but Kamuro is always the hub. But Kamuro changes so it feels the same but different often. I kind of like that about it, it might be samey but it feels like a real place you're really in because you spend so much time there over so many eras that you see it change like a real place. RIP Nakamichi Popo. You were so convenient.

I pretty much binged Kw2 through 6 all in a few months, did all the substories, and of COURSE the hostess clubs since major substory and even ability stuff is locked behind them. Kind of sad how few people do even the substories, to me that's the best part of the game with the best Kiryu rather than the dodgy poorly written main stories where Kiryu's always an idiot. Did you start with 0 or Kw1?

@NEStalgia I'm doing the substories where it makes sense. But I don't have any sort of completionist urge regarding them. And sweet jesus keep me far away from the hostess club stuff!

Generally they're pretty formulaic, I've noticed, and tend to end in the same place: with Kiryu beating up con artists and yakuza.

I actually started with 0 back in 2017, but only played half of it before BotW and Persona 5 consumed my time for months. Got back properly into the series a couple of years ago when I played Kiwami 1 via PS+. I'm hoping to make better progress through the series now, although the repetitive nature of these games might stop me.

It's an okay series, although once you get used to the randomness and weird sexual stuff, it loses a lot of its luster. I'm hoping this becomes more of an action spectacle soon, because Kiwami 2 is VERY slow so far.

The best part of this series so far was the Majima Everywhere thing in Kiwami. His Bugs Bunny-esque disguises and antics really kept that game feeling fresh.

@Ralizah I forget which games show you the substories and which ones require an upgrade/item to show you the substories, but to me, the substories are the reason to play the series. The main quest is usually somewhere between so-so and eyerolling nonsense. The "heart" of the series is the characters and that's all in the substories (please no Majima Construction though.)

LOL I spent MONTHS on the Y0 hostess game. But the thing is you have to do it because A) You need the cash. B) Half the best side sidestories are locked in it, C) Entire movesets are locked behind it. I flipped out when that game came back in Kw2. It's basically dumbed down Cooking Mama, but it's so time consuming. Then for a change of pace I finally played Fist of the North Star and WTF do I get? THE HOSTESS CLUB MINIGAME! FU!

FWIW, I'd rate Y0 as the best main story, and the best side quests in the series, so gauge the rest of the series based on how much you liked Y0. Y0 had a different writer that was much better than the main writer. 1 & 2 also have a different writer than the rest of the series so it can be jarring. Most of the rest is worse. Good, but worse. But also note that 1 and 2, being the oldest, also have the most boring, generic, and least interesting sidestories. Notice they're much less varied and story based than 0's.

OTOH Kw2 is considered one of the MOST "action spectacle" of the series, soooooo....... If you think Kw2 is slow you're in for a rough time with 3 which is, by far, the slowest in the first half. Also please look forward to 5 when Haruka is a playable character and gets and entire chapter....no, she's not caving in thug's heads, she's engaging in dance battles. Karaoke becomes the combat for an entire chapter. Please be excited. Tell me after you're done 5/6 because there's a whole freight train full of "WTF writers?" going on there to talk about

I loved the weirdness of Majima Everywhere, but they also don't know what they want to do with Majima. He's never that crazy again, he gets more serious (or just absent) as the series goes on. But I also HATED playing Majima Everywhere. It's just an increasing progression of identical damage sponge boss battles. It really wasn't fun, even if the theme was fun (the zombie motif was good fun.)

But the side stories definitely get better, closer to Y0 as the series goes on. 1&2 were very bland MMO side story fetch/kill x monster kinds of things.

@NEStalgia God knows how long it'll take me to get to 5/6. I'm toying with the idea of just playing Like A Dragon next. How essential are the references from games 3 - 6 to appreciating it? I'll play em eventually, but I'm a lot more excited to play the modern, turn-based entries.

Oh, I very much can avoid the hostess club in Y0. I don't care how much side-content it gates me out of. I don't boot up my PS4 to play mobile resource-management sims. And why would you need money anyway? I literally buy nothing in these games, because enemies are carrying loads of potions and weapons on them at all times.

Yeah, there's like a fun Batman/Joker dynamic in Kiwami with Majima and Kiryu, but now he's just sort of awkwardly hanging around in the background of the story like some ex-boyfriend you never fully moved on from.

@Ralizah The old games are worth it if You're invested in the world and characters. I enjoy the world but I reiterate the side quests are the good parts where your learn to appreciate the characters (more in later games) the main stories are generally terribly written.

Technically you don't need the old games for the new lad games, it's a fresh start with ichi, but old characters make some appearances including kiryu that are important to the story (and also discards the ending of 6............) but infinite wealth seems like it really benefits considering half the game you play terminally ill kiryu revisiting the places of his life which you presumably have experienced with him. "Critical", no, but the impact is different. Even adult haruka is there Even though I want to throw her from the millennium Tower after 5/6 . Dumb writing there.

Look well 0 you need money because money is exp in 0 and you need a LOT of it. It almost requires completing the hostess and real estate games.

Lol funny you'd say Joker for majima because the lone English dub on PS2 of Yakuza 1 featured Mark Hamill ad majimas VA! I love Hamill but it was horrible 😂

3 is the slowest of the games by far. It has its charm, is love or hate. Also horrible combat. It's the oldest of the remasters.

4 shakes things up with 4 protags. 5 also has 4 but one is harkas dance chapter. 6 is....ugh.

I adore the series. Mostly for side quests after 2. But some of that writing....

@Ralizah Also a PSA since it sounds like you didn't complete 0 yet but are mid Kw2, the second mini-campaign in Kiwami2, the Majima campaign, that you start on the main menu is a direct sequel/conclusion/closure to Majima's story in 0. Do not play it until you have finished 0.

Also (even though you're not playing it) the Hostess club game in Kiwami 2 is a direct sequel (for Yuki and the Sunshine arc) that won't have any meaning without 0's hostess club game.

@NEStalgia Geez.

Appreciate the heads up. I was gonna play it after finishing up the campaign, but yeah, I didn't beat Y0, so I'll go ahead and skip it for now.

So, based on what I've heard from you, I could complete the series in this order with little issue in terms of references and understanding plot points, right?

Kiwami 2 (current) --> 0 --> Majima Saga --> Like A Dragon --> 3 --> 4 --> 5 --> 6 --> Infinite Wealth --> [Insert latest game that'll be out at this point]

And do I need to worry about where in the series I play the Judgment spinoff duology?

@Ralizah Glad I mentioned it! Yeah, I think that order will be fine, the only "out of sequence" thing was that Majima Saga bit that was thrown into the Kiwami 2 remake as sort of fanservice to give closure to loose threads in Majima's story in 0, so it's really a stand-alone "epilogue" for 0 that shipped with Kw2.

3, 4, 5, 6 are a bit more coherent as sequels and narrative connections, while it's only 5 into 6 really run directly into each other as true continuous sequels where 5 ends on an obvious cliffhanger for its sequel that opens right into the same scene. (though...I have my opinions on that whole sequence.... )

LaD after 2 is fine. It'll be a weird kind of tone shift in that order because 3's opening scene starts in 2's closing scene but there's not an important story link other than the overarching living of Kiryu's life. And while Kiryu plays a role at the end of the story in LaD, it's not like it spoils anything other than throwing away narrative results from 6 because mascot. (I.E. Kiryu hanging out in the open in LaD is narrative inconsistent with him basically going underground at the end of 6, and then they made Man Who Erased His Name to retcon the plothole.) I'm certain by 2038 we'll be playing centenarian Kiryu ripping through thugs with his walker. Actually with RGG, that's actually likely, lol.

Nah, Judgement is a complete spinoff series. It does have cameos from main series characters, but they're just that, cameos, and it doesn't connect with their own stories, they just happen to exist in the same time and place because it's not like Kamuro's that big...

Zet Zillions dropped on PC. Picked it up to play on steamdeck. I am rubbish at these sorts of games for some reason, but still having a good time anyway. There is enough story packed between the battles to make it feel like you're still experiencing new things even with constant failure. The range of enemies and the strength of the visuals help as well. I won't say every run has felt unique but after a good dozen failures each run has been different enough.

In the same vein I picked up Inkbound and Monster Train. I am pretty sure I finished Monster Train years ago on Gamepass, I didn't realise I didn't own it on Steam so picked it up on sale and will chip away at this on Deck. In terms of Inkbound, I heard really positive things about this, but I have to be honest I am not really loving it. Kinda feels like a turn based Hades for a lack of a more eloquent descriptor and I thought it'd be for me but it really isn't.

The Getaway finally has RetroAchievements, time to see what the fuss is about. There really aren’t enough games set in the UK, weirdly enough.

This game is insane. Zero HUD. Navigate what looks like London if it’s been scanned with rudimentary satellite images, complete with Pret A Manger, Boots and so on. Use your indicators to find where the f**k the objective is, meaning if you bust your taillights you’re flying blind. To recover health you stand near a wall to make yourself heavy breathe a bit, WHICH IS NOT MENTIONED AT ALL. Truly wild design decisions… yet it’s kinda impressive for the time? Actually enjoying the jank as the vibe is excellent and the shooting is an interesting change from the usual third person controls of the early PS2 era. The voice acting is brilliant too, it’s like The Bill meets Snatch. Will never tire of the guy calling dead enemies f**king muppets.

Also… this was written by Bertie of Bert and Bertie? As in, directed a block of Hawkeye on Disney+? She’s done quite a lot of good stuff too. And, the craziest twist yet, the series has a spin off called Gangs of London on PSP. Turns out the TV show Gangs of London on Sky is an adaptation of it? So there’s a big high budget Sky show based on a PSP spin-off of a semi-obscure PS2 first-party game? Screw The Last of Us, this is the real Sony TV project.

I am around the 30ish hour mark into Unicorn Overlord now and it honestly might be my game of the year so far.

I deffo think if you were to have one criticism with the game, it has a real tutorialisation problem which can make it feel like you're running into difficulty walls fairly regularly. They often aren't that hard to overcome, but I do worry about whether that might put people off and I do wish they had done a better job of cleaning this aspect up.

And while that might be a deal breaker for me in other games, every other aspect of this is just so damn good. And addictive. So addictive.

It is funny because there was recently that divisive article on NL of this alternate future for the Fire Emblem series and while its not the vision that author envisioned, I feel like Unicorn Overlord solves a lot of Fire Emblems lingering problems for them and sorta feels like the actual future for what a Fire Emblem should be. Sure, it may be no Three Houses narratively, but as an actual game, I think it is significantly better built. Arguably that was true of Engage too, but I think Unicorn Overlord goes a leap or three even further on the gameplay frontier.

If the next FE - assuming it isn't already deep in its development cycle - doesn't take a long look at how Unicorn Overlord does things, I think it would be a mistake.

Might have to bin The Getaway. Persevered through 12 chapters of absolute hell only to get to the single worst chapter of any game of all time. The controls…. the f**king controls. Dreadful. There’s a lot going for the game but it’s practically unplayable most of the time. A remake with y’know, controls that worked, would be great.