IntrepidWombat

Lost Odyssey and a Gears of War trilogy upscaled with multiplayer - please!!

I thought 2018 was just ok. I have no desire to play Ragnarok given the stuttering flow between gameplay and cut scene. The original two are some of my favorites of the PS2 generation, up there with Okami, Tekken 5, and Final Fantasy X.

@zekepliskin Sadly, you're right. The other option is of course emulation. The 95nm RSX in the launch PS3s is so fundamentally flawed that a system expected to last more than a few years after repair should have the 'Frankenstein' RSX repair done to it.

Unfortunately the service is about $500 for the reputable places I've seen offer it - and that's if you already have the broken console. For that price, you can get an off lease SFF PC with a competent i7 CPU, a low profile GPU, a solid state drive, and an 8-Bitdo adapter for seamless DS4 functionality. You'd have yourself an excellent emulation PC, especially neat if you added an optical drive. Not hard to set it up so that you can just pop in your discs and launch them.

Dandy. Sony needs to do two things with this:

1.) All those PS1/PS2 classics we bought digitally on PS3 need to be restored to us and playable on PS4/PS5.

2.) Let me buy the emulator on PSN so that I can use my PS1 and PS2 discs that I already bought.

These two things are far too consumer-friendly, so I seriously doubt they happen.

I've wanted this game since the announcement of the very first one. I just don't trust current year Ubisoft. I fully expect a historical fiction "made for modern audiences," a map packed with all sorts of redundant things to do, a season pass for sale in huge letters on the title screen, and ads for OTHER GREAT UBISOFT PRODUCTS! in the pause screen. Please prove me wrong, Ubisoft!

Still enjoying a nostalgic replay of Final Fantasy VIII. It's only my second time through, the first being in 1999/2000, so a lot of it might as well be new. I just got Ragnarok, so I'm starting some of the optional side quests and the grind for ultimate weapon materials. Not sure what I'll be in the mood for when I'm finished with it. I may need an RPG break.

I'm hoping there's a demo. I'm very intrigued.

Busy weekend. Made it a long one to celebrate my and my wife's anniversary. I thought I'd beat the weather and get the yard taken care of Friday night, but my equipment all had other plans. In the end, it took cleaning up some fouled plugs on the riding mower, a complete carb disassembly and cleaning for the push mower, and fixing a kinked fuel line on the trimmer. I managed to get everything done and cleaned up just as the first drops fell late Saturday morning.

Having knocked out everything by Sunday, I spent majority of the day on the PS4 remaster of Final Fantasy VIII. I haven't played it all the way through in over 20 years, so it's great rediscovering all of the twists and turns that I had completely forgotten.

Maybe I'm just getting too old for this hobby - my selection would have been, "None of them have been great for several years." I may end up purchasing Stellar Blade when the price dips because I enjoy the combat in the demo, difficult as it may be. I will reserve judgement for now on whether the whole experience is great.

Rebirth is a train wreck - Final Fantasy died with XIII, and this whole Re-X trilogy for Final Fantasy VII is strengthening my opinion. I am absolutely stunned that so many find the combat mechanics fun or even usable. Final Fantasy XVI was a pretty ok action game with far too many cut scenes, but it has gone so far off the rails of what Final Fantasy was that I wish they would just change the name.

For first party titles, Open World Game: Post Apocalypse Robots, Open World Game: Super Hero, and Open World Game: Samurai had some entertainment value, but there's so much fluff in all of them. You really need to love that kind of game to keep playing them. They just feel like re-skins of one another: go to spot on map, follow/fight something. Pull up map. Go to next spot. Repeat. The experience is edging closer and closer to passive entertainment.

The Korean creative industry is resonating with the west in a big way, and it's been gaining steam for years. Their shows, movies, and games are doing things that western audiences love in storytelling and gameplay. The studios focus on delivering a good experience to everybody, not a message via a vanity project with bloated cost. I certainly hope we see more - the games industry needs a shake-up like this.

I'm in a bit of a gaming rut. I've tried spinning up Trails into Reverie, Star Ocean 4, Shining Resonance: Refrain, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Soul Hackers 2. None of them are grabbing me. I lost interest in Dragon Quest XI after about 12 hours. Maybe it's the music. I swear the game only has like 4 tracks. The idea of picking up a game controller right now is not appealing at all.

I'm thinking a gaming break is due this weekend. My small engines are all due for oil changes, so I'll probably do that. My mower was running rough last weekend, so I'll chase that too. If the weather calms down, maybe I'll go trout fishing and take care of the brush pile that needs to be burned.

@Zenos I don't know how you'd do an action RPG if it was based on the source material. It's not super action-heavy, but I suppose that there are good spots in the middle of Season 1 and beginning of Season 2.

If someone wanted to do something in-universe, a back story game following Paul and Ghislaine would be pretty cool.

So much Atlus this year. Between this, a second run of P3R with Episode Aigis, and Metaphor, I may every well be taken care of for the rest of the year with my backlog the way it is - just started dabbling with Digital Devil Saga and Soul Hackers 2, trying to decide which one to commit to first.

Awesome, looking forward to their next space fighting game: War of Colonies.

@MrBook They really don't. I can't believe it's been nearly 15 years. I remember getting off work at midnight, hitting the Taco Bell drive-thru (spending only $3 in the process), and playing that game at my bachelor pad until 3 or 4am for weeks. This was around the same time I started dating my wife. Just like you mentioned, the mineral mini game and reading all of the descriptions of the planets was such a cool experience. Lots of extrasolar captures, hot Jupiters, and bits of lore about ancient battles that took place.

@Blaze215 Different strokes, I suppose. I played the demo of Rebirth and thought it was clunky. The player attacks have no weight, and I got real tired of being attacked from off screen. FFXVI wasn't great or anything (shame when Nier: Automata offers an amazing blueprint of how an action RPG can play), but it was at least competent.

Is the lesson here that we should wait a full year before diving in to a Square Enix title? This is a game-altering collection of changes.

Seeing this, I'm even MORE hesitant to pick up Rebirth. FFXVI has so much better combat than the FF7 RE-x titles, and seeing that they've continued to refine XVI this long after release makes me want to wait to buy Rebirth until it gets a similar treatment. Just being able to remap controls would be huge.

On behalf of all cheapskates, I offer my thanks to the early adopters for finishing SE's job of play-testing this game.

In between household chores and getting ready for the week ahead, dipping my toes in to several games to see what grabs my interest for a play through. After finishing Persona 3 Reload and finishing a run of Persona 5 Royal that I started a year ago, I'm left with the question, "What do I play next?"

Trails in to Reverie - I loved Cold Steel and the Crossbell duology. For some reason, I can't get in to this one. Maybe it's Falcom fatigue.

Octopath Traveler II and Soul Hackers II - both are sitting on the shelf on plastic. I enjoyed the Octopath Traveler II demo, and I've been on a MegaTen kick. Either is viable.

Dragon Quest XI - this one is also sitting on the shelf, but I haven't broken the plastic just yet. I'm playing through the demo now and am really enjoying it. This may be the one.

Evil Within 1 and 2 - landed both very cheaply. I live survival horror, but just haven't played these too yet.

I also have some extended backlog ... I've been meaning to replay Final Fantasy 8, which I haven't beaten in over 20 years. Xenogears and Breath of Fire IV are others that I've been meaning to get around to since they came out.

Decisions decisions.

I'm glad I'm not the only one underwhelmed by the demo. Movement felt nice, and the game was a pleasure to look at - the game just isn't for me. I can tell that a lot of care went in to it though, so I hope fans of the IP enjoy it.

I only played the demo so didn't give it a ranking. I was underwhelmed by the gameplay, or really lack thereof. There was a lot of potential for the battles to play out like a turn-based RPG. I was unimpressed that the game ends up just playing itself. I'll either skip it entirely or revisit on a deep, deep sale.

@koffing Great memories there! Getting home from school to see the new PlayStation Magazine in the mailbox was a great feeling. It was extra motivation to blitz through homework, chores, and violin practice so that I could dig in to the demo disc - the magazine I saved for the bus ride to school. Demo discs that came with games were awesome too - would anyone have purchased Zone of the Enders without the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo?

Some of these responses are silly. Childish even.

"It's a bad practice!"

I see it all over, but the only justification that I've seen is, "It'll encourage bad game design!" Will it? Maybe. If it does, go after THOSE games. If the game is balanced around these items not being in it, then the game design is fine.

"It's a waste of money!"

What kind of pretentious, self-righteous git do you have to be to tell me what a waste of my money is? I'm in my late 30's, make great money, am married with a kid, and don't want to spend a ton of time on the game. This is a good option for me. I and the many like me are the target audience.

That's exactly what these are - options. When it gets to the point where games pop up the store to buy revival every time you die or force you to watch an ad, then we have an issue. When it's there in the background if you want it and completely separate from the game experience, this is blind outrage.

I'm going to stick with the standard. Looking at my library of PS5 games, there is a grand total of 2 games I could not have bought on PS4. I honestly regret buying it in the first place. PS5 will likely be my last Sony console before I make the full switch to PC if they really do decide to lean in on this all-digital future.

I guess I'm in the minority here - I think this is just fine. They're actually releasing the content as an expansion rather than as part of a deluxe edition you're forced to buy just to get the new content. The base game as it was released is a complete experience as far as I'm concerned. I paid $65 for it and played for about 75 hours so far. Less than $1 an hour for the experience is worth it to me, especially since I'll be starting another run in August to get ready for the new content and expect to put in another 90 hours or so to run the game again, finish the platinum (which I almost NEVER do), and play Episode Aigis. This was never billed as a remake of FES or Portable. It's a remake of the base game. Getting the ability to purchase Episode Aigis is just frosting on the cake as far as I'm concerned. I believe the devs deserve to be paid for extra work, so I'm happy to buy it.

I did some digging because that number was alarming to me, but for Osaka, that's a pretty decent income for a young single person starting out. Just a hair below the median income but enough to cover all expenses plus some discretionary spending if livingcost.org is accurate.

I guess I need to finish Reverie by then. This is also only two weeks after SMTV Vengeance. Hoo boy.

@Rafie Understood. I was only listing what I had personally purchased, and I've never owned a Vita. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

@Rafie Persona 4 Golden was, yes, but Persona 4 (not Golden) was not. It was exclusive to the PlayStation 2 for 4 years.

P3 and P4 originals, both on PS2
P3P on PSP
P4G on Steam
P5 on PS3
P5R on PS4
P5S on PS4
P3R on PS5

Wow, more than I realized.

Just finished Persona 3 Reload last night. Man, what an ending.

I played a bit of the Junon portion of the Rebirth demo. I still don't like the combat. I'll wait until it hits the bargain bin with whatever expansions they put out for it. Not in a hurry to play it, but I'm loving some of the mods I'm seeing for the original. Maybe I'll tinker with that a bit.

Not sure what's next yet. Star Ocean 4, Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler II, Trails into Reverie, Jedi Survivor, and the first Like a Dragon are all on the shelf. I may take a break and do some reading. I picked up The Sunlit Man in hardback last night.

@mcdreamer Cold Steel 1 is a 40 hour prorogue to the Cold Steel arc. CS2 is one of my personal favorites - really fantastic game!

@tselliot Your guess is as good as mine. It may come down to how well P3R does financially.

@tseliot I had to give P4 a couple chances before I got hooked. I actually bought it when it came out on PS2 back in...I don't know, 2006? I couldn't get in to it and shelved it until after I beat Persona 5 Royal in 2021. After getting through the first dungeon and going in to that loop, I finally got in to the story and played right through. Ended up enjoying it so much I bought Golden on Steam and played right through it again. It might be something to check out again later.

Looks cool. I'm looking forward to seeing more gameplay, specifically the combat.

I'm good with the graphics as long as it maintains a smooth 60fps. I'm getting Tokyo Xanadu and Scarlett Nexus vibes. Definitely intriguing at the right price point.

Still working through Persona 3 Reload. I have the second half of the Rebirth demo to play, but I think that's still going to be a sale game for me. Not overly impressed. Just downloaded the Unicorn Overlord demo too, so I'll give that a spin.

Other than that, it's going to be cleaning rain gutters, trimming trees, and prepping for the great garage clean out of 2024. Hm. Maybe a few more floors in Tartarus while my saw is charging.

@AndroidBango That is fantastic, great news about your pension. I think our life experiences color our beliefs - I have the opposite belief. Perhaps it's cultural, but nonetheless, always a pleasure to hear from someone who thinks differently.

@AndroidBango I guess it depends on where you are. Union dues (which are not optional) very often go towards a union that acts in the best interest of the union leaders, not necessarily the members. This could also include large political donations, which is especially a drag if they go towards a party/candidate that you don't support. I live and work in a "right to work" jurisdiction, and I get raises either by merit or by making lateral moves in my industry. The returns have been much better than my unionized counterparts. Invest in yourself by taking as much training and getting certified in as many disciplines as you can. It means less PlayStation time, but it pays off in the long run.

We were paying $50 for games in 1999. That $50 has lost nearly half of its value. If game prices were keeping up with inflation, they'd be over $90 - and that's just looking at a standard PlayStation release in 1999. Chrono Trigger launched in 1995 and retailed for $79.99 (I'm sure due in part to the chip shortage at that time), which would today be over $160.

All I'm saying is that we're lucky that gaming took off and became popular. Economy of scale has allowed the cost of the hobby to stay relatively cheap, but inflation and the higher cost of development were going to catch up sooner or later.

@CooCooKaChoo What a classic! I haven't played it in probably 25 years, but I remember getting stuck on Gerdeaux for a while.

I'm about 8 hours in to Persona 3 Reload, and it's excellent. I bought the original Persona 3 when it came out on PS2 and lost interest a few hours in. Cool to revisit it and already be further than I got before. Not in any hurry at all to finish as there aren't really any games I'm interested in grabbing day one until Trails through Daybreak. I also have Reverie and Octopath Traveler II on the shelf.

I might take a quick romp through Resident Evil 3 (1999). It's been a while since I played it. I realized last weekend that I hadn't ever cleared Resident Evil 2 Remake Claire B on hardcore, so I did that last weekend - always a great game to revisit.

@Rosona I don't really think it was a remake at all, just a sequel with a cheeky subtitle, but that's neither here nor there. It was a game that was paced an awful lot like the devs really, really wanted to get a full game out of the Midgar section, and they packed content accordingly. There was a lot of filler as a result. The combat is a chore, and not very fun for me - I think it might be more tolerable if I could remap the controls, but for some reason, that's not an option. I don't like the game's implementation of ATB or how the standard attacks are just so terribly weak through to the end. It's a game that couldn't decide whether it wanted to be turn-based or action-based, so it chose to do neither particularly well. It ended up being more similar to Parasite Eve, but without the proper balance. I thought the geeky fellow with the VR (I can't remember his name) was a lazy way to tack on extra challenges and add summon acquisition. I adore the original game, so I had high expectations for "Remake," and they just weren't met. I understand that I'm in the minority with this, and I'm fine with that.

It doesn't feel responsive, and the presentation is a mess visually. I've lost count of how many times I've played the PS1 game - so far, Rebirth is on track to be 'ok' much like Remake, which is disappointing.