Topic: Playstation 5 Recommendation Thread

@Kidfried Elden Ring for me. I rarely play games at release... but I do for From Soft games.

Of the others, I'll almost definitely play Horizon Zero Dawn sometime in 2022 as I really did like the original. Sifu has my attention but I want to understand how the combat system works before I allow myself to get too excited... and Gran Turismo 7... well driving games just don't do it for me.

@Kidfried From a consumer value perspective, they're all gonna drop severely in price over the course of a year or so.

But people don't usually buy unicorn-rare $500 consoles just to wait for everything to drop in price, right?

Personally, if it were me, I'd buy Horizon at launch. It's a big-budget release that'll show off what your new machine is capable of, and, of the games listed, it's likely to be the most narrative-driven, and, thus, the one you'd least like to be spoiled.

@Kidfried I have the same quandary as you, and my feeling shift based on my mood for the day.
Lately when I ask myself the question of which early 2022 game I’ll likely get first, my answer surprises me — Gran Turismo 7

Honestly, I’m finding it hard to get hyped for Horizon Forbidden West. Not sure why that is. Don’t get me wrong, it looks phenomenal and I have no doubt it will be a GOTY type of production. I was one the first to jump on with HZD, bought it day 1, knowing very little about it, only that it had that Sony sheen to it. I really enjoyed it up until about the 2/3 point and I had to take an extended break from it due to open world fatigue. When I forced myself to go back a few months later I really enjoyed the ending and figured out how I was playing it “wrong” during my first attempt and it became more enjoyable. ….Still, I can’t help but have the feeling that it’s a game I have likely already experienced a lot of what I has to offer. I could be totally wrong about that and early reviews and impressions might change my mind.

In the case of GT7, I skipped GT Sport and really haven’t enjoyed a racing game in a really, really long time. I have to go back to GT5 about 8 years ago to the last time I really sunk my teeth into a racing game. I dabbled in racing and car based games like DriveClub, OnRush, Horizon Chase Turbo, Destruction All-Stars but nothing had clicked like a solid Gran Turismo game. I’m starting to get the feeling it’s the game I need to add into my library first, since I’ve got dozens of third person action adventure games to choose from I already own.

I know that’s short-changing what is sure to be excellent output like Forbidden West and Elden Ring which might just blow all other action RPGs out of the water. But until I know more, I’ll lean toward GT7 for now.

The one wild card is Forspoken. I am loving the look and feel of that game. The more seasoned gamer I become I find myself just gravitating toward new IP’s and this one seems exciting. I like the creativeness on display, a new unique protagonist, bombastic appearing powers, and beautiful visuals. I’m probably most excited about what it could become and it might be a day 1 game for me, by the time all is said and done.

Not sure if any of that helps, as it’s my own thoughts. But I do appreciate the comment by @Ralizah that the most likely to be inadvertently spoiled narratively is Forbidden West, I didn’t consider that. So it may be a motivation to get into it early rather than late. However, I didn’t finish Zero Dawn until about a year and a half after release and I managed to avoid having its mysteries spoiled before I completed it.

@Th3solution I think I know why you're not getting hyped for Horizon Forbidden West... You're just extremely weird.

Well that’s a given. 😂

@Th3solution yes, I’d forgotten all about Forspoken, everything I’ve seen of it looks incredible. I have a feeling I might have some rescheduling to do 😅

Apologies if it's already been mentioned but... Death's Door.
A marvellous little gem.

@hypnotoad No need to keep crowing on about it....

I'll get my coat

chuckle

I want Horizon 2 and would have loved a Director's Cut of the first one.
My eyes are in Forspoken, GoW Ragnarok, the Uncharted Collection and I'm praying for Final Fantasy XVI.

@Keith_Zissou (I moved the reply over here to avoid detailing the trophy thread)

Yeah, Demon’s Souls is now my third (… well, fourth if you count Jedi Fallen Order) ‘Souls’ type of game. First attempt was the original Dark Souls back on PS3 where a guy at GameStop talked me into buying it because I was looking for a good follow up to Skyrim. It was probably an ill-advised recommendation since, outside of having Dragons and swords, the two games are quite different. So I wasn’t really prepared for the Souls experience. Also, I wasn’t yet on Push Square at the time and had no community support, which for me was the key. As a result, I made it through about 3-4 hours is all, and bowed out pretty quickly. There were too many nuanced mechanics and cryptic poorly explained systems. The hard combat is one thing, but the lack of guidance is another issue entirely and that was what frustrated me. I’ve discovered the From products are definitely games that require effort and investigation outside of the game itself, through using the internet to guide you some. At least in my opinion, the games are really meant to be “cheated on” through looking things up on Wiki’s and such. It was one of the key things I eventually was told by someone here — that there was no shame in looking up a YouTube video or guide to figure out how to get past a tough area or boss fight.

Anyways, fast forward to about 3 years ago when Bloodborne was given out on PS Plus and I played it and was able to get through the tough opening hours with the help of this forum and the aforementioned internet and YouTube advice. There’s something comforting to see it being done by someone else so that you realize it’s not impossible.
I fully completed and absolutely loved Bloodborne.

And for some reason it’s taken me a couple years to get back to the genre. Again, one might call Jedi Fallen Order a light Souls-like and I thoroughly enjoyed that during the interim. If you’ve not played that, and are a Star Wars fan, it’s also a decent entry point to cut your teeth on.

However, in the opening hours, Demon’s Souls is exceeding my expectations by far. The technical and visual showcasing of the game on PS5 would also make it a good entry point, since you’re likely to enjoy the spectacle of it so much that it will motivate you to push through. Either way, being on Push Square will be the absolute best way to ease into whichever entry point you take. I mentioned it elsewhere, but if there’s a game that’s worth $70, it’s Demon’s Souls. It has both the super high production value, and oodles of content to justify the higher price. Nevertheless, I was able to pick it up for something like $35 when coupled with BF sale and a store coupon at GameStop. It will likely go on sale again, now that they’ve started to reduce it.

@Keith_Zissou I’m not sure the most important lesson, but definitely the idea of patience and perseverance is key. Beyond that, there is a large importance to pattern recognition. If you played Fallen Order then you get the idea. Most of the times you die it’s because you failed to recognize the attack patterns and animations, or you got too greedy trying to just button mash your way through. Being tactical is the core of these games, I’d say. The other important lesson is that you need to have a plan for your build and use some guides maybe at first to plan that out. Progress points in Souls games are a premium and you can’t just use them willy-nilly like in most RPGs. You’ll hear a lot about this aspect of “builds” and “scaling” and the core system of From games is really complex in regard to how your attributes and weapons work together to have max effect. It’s not worth it to experiment around on your first (or even second, third, or fourth) playthroughs, it’s better to read on what the best way to make your build of choice is and then you can slightly modify it if you want later and throw progression points into a few things you think you might like; but overall you can actually hold your character back by putting points into certain attributes. These aren’t RPGs where by the time you make it to the end you’ll have all the stats maxed out and your goal isn’t to fill up some kind of linear pathway of character progression. You can’t play these like Assassins Creed or Horizon.

And the last lesson I learned is that although the games don’t have difficulty options, the “easy mode” is basically to grind out progress. In Bloodborne I played the opening areas dozens and dozens of times, just collecting Blood Echoes (that game’s form of currency for leveling up and buying items, similar to souls in the other games) going back to the hub and leveling up, and then doing it again and again until I felt strong enough to move on. It can be a little tedious, but I’m no good at these games and that made my time much easier to do it that way.

Welp, that’s more than one lesson but I couldn’t pick just one. 😅
If and when you get to your inaugural play, feel free to tag me if you need some support. Lots of players on here know way more than I do but it good to have a newbie to newbie counseling session sometimes 😄

Subnautica!

@Th3solution Really enjoying your updates re. Demon's Souls.... makes me wish I'd held back on my recent (first) playthrough by a few weeks, so I could ride the wave of 'safety in numbers'!

Out of interest, how is your build looking and your stat spread?

I completely agree on your tips/advice for newcomers, and would say this game is probably quite 'do-able' as long as you have conviction in whatever build you are working to attain.

I love that all builds seems completely viable, although of course some are considered to make the game easier than others (I understand Magic is essentially as close to 'easy mode' as you will find)

But yes I can imagine a lot of newcomers will play the game of spreading stats evenly accross all criteria...a recipe for disaster in Boletaria!
I went DEX in the end, with Uchichanga Sharp+5 and Comound Sticky LongBow+5 - gave great versatility for close/ranged combat. Basically I only pumped 18 into STR (to 2-hand the sword competently) and then ploughed everything else into END/VIT/DEX.

How far through are you? Also, are you shooting for the Plat?

@Keith_Zissou
@Th3solution
Hi guys. I hope you don’t mind my comment.
Your right about the souls games being obscure as in lacking any guidance. I feel it’s important to be aware of the tendency in DemonsSouls. It will change if you die in human form on the different worlds. Best is to kill you character in the nexus so you always are in soul form and keep towards pure white tendency even if you die. (That world tendency goes back towards black when you kill a npc) Later you can chose otherwise if you want to go for dark tendency.
Yes farming souls is also part of it and made more palatable with the SSD loading speed. I find Islands edge a good place to farm and in particular ritual path bonfire where you can snipe a few arrows the one summoner downstairs get thousands souls and repeat. There’s even a guy selling arrows nearby.

About the topic my fav game I played on PS5 has been DS3 so far haha
Happy gaming

@Th3solution Moving the convo from the resident evil thread.

Remember Gran Turismo 7 is more of a simulation than those two games which are arcade racers. I will most likely be skipping Gran Turismo 7 as I'm not keen on racing simulators. I was thinking of picking up GT Sport on the cheap, but I will probably giving that a miss too at this point.

I played a bit of Wreckfest but it didn't click with me for some reason. Apparently it is better as a mulitplayer racer, which is something I did not try. Will hopefully be starting Dirt 5 fairly soon.

@JohnnyShoulder 😄 Thanks. I must have forgot which thread I was in there.

Let me know what you think if you give Dirt 5 a shot then. I’m probably leaning toward trying it first since it was actually a game I had at least heard about before, where Wreckfest seems to have only been in my consciousness because it was given out on PS+ (although the reception by most has been positive). I’m looking for more of a single player experience.

So one of my gaming goals this year was to try to expose myself to the ever growing online gaming ecosystem. I have never really enjoyed online multiplayer gaming, but a lot of that might have to do with not playing the right games.

So I need some recommendations of a game to try with a primary MP focus. Preferably something easy to pick up and play and dabble in without being overwhelmed. I don’t anticipate this will become a main game I sink 100’s of hours into, but as a weeknight diversion for an hour or two here and there. I want it to be fun, engaging, yet not difficult. I prefer to not have to coordinate with any friends because my schedule is so unpredictable, so it’ll need to entail playing with randoms.

I also don’t want to spend a penny on it. This is just an experiment to see if I can ever really get into online MP gaming.

These are some of the games I am considering:

Apex Legends
Hood Outlaws and Legends
Knockout City
Genshin Impact
Fall Guys
Hell Let Loose
Rocket Arena
Dead by Daylight
Absolver
Destiny 2

All these I have access to from PS+ giveaways or F2P. I’ll consider anything else F2P if it comes highly recommended.

Any thoughts?

@velio84 They added single player content to GT Sport, correct? I have actually considered picking it up after this GT7 MTX debacle cooled my excitement about this new installment. So that’s a good idea, and one I might consider, although if there is hefty single player content in GT Sport then I’ll probably find myself automatically just dwelling on that rather than forcing myself to engage in the online community. It’s a great thought though since I have had some interest in picking it up recently

@velio84 That might be the worst botch of the word knockout I've ever seen...

As for the list of games by @Th3solution, I wouldn't recommend just jumping into Destiny 2 at this point if you care anything about story since they archived a decent portion of the early part of the story, so it's impossible to experience the full Destiny 2 story at this point. Mind blowing decision by Bungie imo.

I don't do online gaming anymore ever since I bought my PS3 back in the day, so I've never played any of those games, but other than the obvious big games on the list I'd probably try either Knockout City or Fall Guys. They seem to be pretty easy to just jump right into and have a pretty relaxing experience. I'm not sure how large either online community is, but I'd probably try one of those two if I was just experimenting and not looking to be a serious online gamer.