HUMPERDOO

It's a Meh from me, Bob. Certainly not terrible, but I've already played Days Gone and don't have a PS5 to try Oddworld. Zombie Army 4 sounds like it could provide a few enjoyable hours for me and a mate across the pond, though. But I'd love to know the rationale behind putting out 2 zombie games. If it was October I could maybe understand, but ¯(ツ)/¯

Just started playing it this week after going through the original 2 or 3 times over the years. I'm not all that far in at the moment, but I'm currently in a love/hate kind of place. I love seeing this world and characters with a new lick of paint, but I hate the unnecessary filler I'm being forced through, which is clearly only there to justify selling a fraction of a game at full price. If I'm not won over soon I'll probably quit. And even that depends on how many more times I have to hear Cloud bang on about how it was never in doubt. Crumbs!

Went with the ones that came straight to mind. Dead Space, TLOU, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Catherine, Portal 2, Arkham Asylum/City/Origins (Origins is dope, I don't care what any fool says!), Puppeteer, GoW3 and Bioshock.

Maybe my brain's been re-configured after slogging through Death Stranding the last month, or perhaps it's just your enthusiastic writing @get2sammyb , but for the first time in my life I'm feeling drawn to try out a train sim. The world's gone mad, I tell thee!

I finished Death Stranding last night so not sure what's next. Maybe nothing today as I'm feeling pretty beat after going to bed a 2am. Thanks Kojima. I should have known better when I assumed the credits rolling at midnight meant I was off to bed 😂😭

What can anyone possibly think is intriguing/amazing about crawling slowly in a straight line? I'm genuinely flummoxed.

Very enjoyable if familiar experience, which isn't a dig - I don't often bother with trophies but got the platinum for GoT so clearly I was into it. Need to go back and try the Legends mode some time.

For the sequel's version of the Kurosawa mode I'd love something like a Shogun Assassin filter, all chromatic aberrations and that amazing synth soundtrack 👌🏻

When was this announced? Feels like forever. Looks quite a bit more cartoony than it did back then, but also slightly less bananas. Or am I just misremembering?

Call me a low-level sadist/grinch, but I can't help loving the idea of loads of happy couples playing this together to bond, only for it to end up in arguments and break-ups 😂😉

Great review, though. Enjoyed the format. I played. A Way Out with a non-gamer friend across the pond and we had a blast, so I'm sure this'll be great for what I'll coin a phrase and call "asymmetric gamer couples" 😎

Has someone there toggled on PushSquare's hyperbole setting today? 😉

@b1ackjack Wasn't going to until all parts are out, but Plus quickly changed my mind.

Same for me. That, and I'm not sure I'll still have my eyesight or any meaningful dexterity by the time they release the final part. I'm 40 as it is!

More Death Stranding for me. Loving it in a kind of masochistic sort of way 😂

Yep, complete agree with this. Too many open worlders seem to make themselves huge just because they think it equals value for money, the same as stuffing them with pointless collectathons.

What’s interesting about Death Stranding, which I’m playing at the moment (or was until I broke my finger and scuppered my gaming for a few weeks 🙄), is that it doesn’t feel like an open world game to me, even though I know it is, and what’s worse, that it’s essentially just a bunch of fetch quests. Instead it feels oddly linear, with the deliveries pit stops en route. Maybe it’s knowing your end destination from the outset, or seeing the network line extend across the map as you go. Curious for sure, though.

Oh. And personally I’d have gone with a Subway analogy @get2sammyb A burger patty, let alone two, suggests a visit to the doctor’s on the cards 😉

I'm on episode 3 or 4 of Death Stranding and genuinely don't know how I feel about it all. It's as infuriating as it is absorbing. The menus are a convoluted nightmare, the product placement's the most aggressive I've ever experienced, the story.... Christ, where do you even start with the story??? And yet I keep on going, trundling back and forth between grumpy old curmudgeons and sycophantic weirdos, never getting bored or annoyed enough to quit. Kojima's clearly done something right, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I know what that is.

Yeah, I reckon a Sony streaming service of some kind is definitely on the cards. They’ve got a huge archive of films, tv and cartoons going back decades. Seems like a no brainier. Although, that said, it is Sony, who’ve also got a pretty good track record of strange decisions.

I was about to buy FF7 so this was perfect timing for me. Being behind on my releases after a year out of gaming’s proving pretty advantageous lately

@Col_McCafferty Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely worth playing. Niggles about seeing it all before aside, it certainly does it all exceptionally well. The combat's satisfying in an Arkham-ish deceptively simple way, and the wind mechanic really is one of those things you can't believe someone hasn't done before. Funnily enough, seeing your profile pic, I've been playing Read Dead Online with mates at the same time as this, and the contrast between being glued to the hud to see where you're going and missing out on the passing scenery, and the freedom of just following GoT's gusts and soaking in the landscape was such a 'quality of life' improvement.

Finished Ghost of Tsushima last night so not sure what’s next. Possibly Death Stranding, or maybe a break until FF7R drops.

Having now played both TLoU2 and GoT, I’m firmly in the TLoU2 camp re game of the generation. There’s lots about GoT I enjoyed - fantastic art direction, and the wind mechanic is such an ingenious solution to staring at waypoint lines - but ultimately it was just another open world, with the same old structure and an overlong runtime. Whereas TLoU2 had impeccable mechanics, outstanding art direction, and a narrative and structure unique to games in its ability to truly engage with the player’s conscience and psychology.

Them’s my 2 cents.

@RawnDawn Jealous of that. It was one of the few times I went for the platinum but one of the innumerable bugs insisted I hadn’t cleared all the hordes when I absolutely had. Maddening to say the least 😭

In as much as I have an opinion, I'd say it's a good thing, since increased sales should theoretically mean increased budgets for 1st party studios and with them more ambitious games.

Otherwise, since I'm not a myopic and insecure baby, I couldn't care less

@TraCuz- Yeah, and at 40 as well. I mean he's played the odd bit of Sonic or Mariokart in his time, but didn't grow up umbilically attached to a console like most of us here. It's pretty fun giving him tips and advice and seeing him progress. Levelling up, basically 😂 Not an easy platinum, I don’t reckon!

Moving into the third act of Ghost of Tsushima, and then a stab at Red Dead Online with a buddy who moved from London to NYC, which should prove to be both hilarious and frustrating - he’s never been a gamer and only got a PS4 last year to survive lockdown. RDO’s gonna eat him alive 😂😂

Thing is, it's not just scalpers. Walked by my local CEX the other day and there was one in the window priced at £900.

You could possibly argue that CEX are scalpers anyhow, but I think we all know what I mean.

@Philbop Somehow the sight of someone’s nose just poking out above their mask grosses me out, as if it’s not even a nose anymore, more a guy’s old chap hanging free from his trouser flies. It’s almost more distressing than their obvious stupidity.

Almost...

Yeah, played it for the first time in months at the weekend and most shows were made entirely of the original stages. They should retire a bunch or adjust the selection algorithm.

Making it cross play’s a good call as well.

@Daleaf Thanks. I haven't played it either, but hopefully it goes some way to helping him understand the condition in a way clinical information can't or finds difficult. It's a tough thing for anyone to deal with, but especially when you're that age and already going through the trials of puberty (my god, the memories/horror!) , and then on top of it being cooped up all day and unable to escape to school and see your mates. We all need that non-familial outlet and support base. Your friend's clearly fortunate with you as part of his, so fingers crossed my nephew finds the same when he's finally released back into the wild

@Daleaf Ha! Well it really was right place right time then Thought you’d like to know I got him Night In the Woods as he’s 14 and was recently diagnosed with bipolar. I’ve read often that it’s one of the things NITW deals with in an approachable way, so thought it a good fit for him and an apt extension of your intent. Put out good and good comes back, as they say

@Daleaf You absolute legend. Seems I was in the right place right time for once in my life. What a lovely act of generosity. I’ll be passing it on by using it to gift a game to my nephew. Thanks so much and congrats on your win 😃

They RE:ally need to stop RE:gurgitating the same old titling format.

Not a Sony IP obviously, but Hotline Miami would make a killer (😉) film.

Nic Cage to star, Panos Cosmatos to direct.

Finished Bloodborne last week after years of avoiding it and now working through Hollow Knight. Apparently these lockdowns have instigated a sort of Stockholm Syndrome and I now can't get enough of getting my ass handed to me ¯(ツ)/¯

@katamariUK Ah, right. Perhaps I will give it a shot, then. Thanks for setting me straight. I'm very much a story guy and I do like the look of its unique setting.

Tempted by A Plague Tale but I found the controls for Vampyr horrible and enough to quit it early on, so will just wait and see if it's offered through plus at some point.

Happy enough, yeah. I don't have a Ps5 yet but quite like the look of Maneater so will stick it in the library for the future, and wasn't fussed enough about Shadow to buy it, so at least this way I can finish off the trilogy at minor cost.

"exclusive to PC"

So pretty much like Cyberpunk itself then. Fnar fnar! 😉

@banacheck Is that Hugh Jackman or Hugh Laurie?

"The world of assassination is on the brink" - has to be an all time great for a trailer's opening line. Completely ridiculous. I love it.

@LiamCroft Glad to hear they were banned. Can't say I agree with the approach of leaving the comment up, though. I understand where you're coming from, but this amounts to hate speech and I don't believe that should ever be given air to breathe. There's a very real difference between this and someone just voicing an unpopular opinion.

At the very least I wonder if adding a visible label or tag stating the user was banned wouldn't be a bad idea, making the site's policy more readily visible.

@LiamCroft Maybe think about deleting it instead of letting it sit here for hours, then...

@Alfieburns Nah, a lot of times - most if it’s a blockbuster - trailers are cut while principal photography’s still ongoing. See the recent The Batman trailer as an example. That came out with only a third of filming done.

Really enjoyed Days Gone. The gameplay loop never got old. They could do with some better writers for the sequel, though. Narrative-wise it was fine, but the characterisations were pretty rubbish. Didn't buy Deacon and Sarah's relationship at all. They were all over the place.

Glad to hear the bugs have been sorted, though. One of the few times I went for a platinum, only to complete it and be told there was still a horde undone, even though a checked online and confirmed that wasn't the case. Sucked a bit, that.

Working my way through Bloodborne and loving it. Just opened up Castle Cainhurst. After being put off but all the git gud BS and fact you’re dumped in without any guidance I’m actually finding the difficulty has been massively overhyped. It’s really not that bad once you’ve made it through the opening section in Yharnham, which is only as tough as it is because of the above mentioned lack of guidance and the fact you haven’t levelled up at all. It’s no cake walk after that obviously, but I haven’t found myself anywhere near as frustrated as then. Can’t help feel if the opening enemies were a touch more forgiving there’d be way more people playing. I imagine it’s the same as the souls games, which I’m now included to give another shot.

@Number09 @deathaxe The gladiatorial games were also at their peak right before the fall of the Roman Empire, which I’ve long considered have a contemporary cousin in shows like X Factor etc. Both built around the concept of entertaining the masses with other peoples misfortune.

OT, I think what irritates me most about this story is that they took bloody beds with them, which was so obviously done to get attention.

“You’ve got to respect the dedication“

You really don’t, y’know.

@LiamCroft Well sure, if you want to be all technical about it and specifically point it out to my idiot eyes of course I see it 😂

@CrispyMango92 I'm gunnamoooooon!

@Rob_230 Was about to point that out as well. Pocketed one for myself. I'm assuming it's not mentioned here as Push Square wouldn't get those tasty affiliate greenbacks.

Free games? I'm going all in and hoping for a free PS5. Just ordered some cat litter from Amazon.

@Ambassador_Kong I believe Sammy IS the site editor 😂

Bad things happen in Philadelphia...