Nintendo has made some really stupid decisions in recent years. The overpriced expansion pass and rereleasing Wii U games at full price being the biggest offenders.
Of the three, Microsoft seems to be the most on point. But even they have their problems.
Just moved it back to the SSD from my external storage drive in anticipation of this update. Played through a few biomes the other night to re-acclimate to the controls.
It’s ten bucks and I haven’t played through the story mode since I owned it physically on PS4 back in 2015. I also beat the PS3 version. So it’ll be a third playthrough for me.
Beat sonic voice actor was whoever did the English work for the Sonic OVA, which we got as a condensed version simply called Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie.
Mainly because it was so terrible that it was amazing.
I’d say give the demo a try. The gameplay loop is actually pretty satisfying.
This is one of those games where the core gameplay is very, very good. But it’s ugly as sin. Like one of the ugliest games I’ve seen out of a major developer in a long time. The presentation looks like it was made on a 360/PS3 budget.
I could see it becoming a cult classic down the road.
I’ve been playing the demo. The gameplay loop is really addictive.
But man this game is ugly. I think saying it looks like an early PS4 game isn’t accurate. This game looks worse than some late release PS3 games.
There’s no anti aliasing solution in the game. At all. And the environmental textures are just awful. No definition; it looks like a low budget Japanese PS3 release.
The best game the PS4 got between launch and Christmas of 2014 was The Last of Us Remastered. A PS3 game. Infamous was decent, but not outstanading. 2015 saw a few decent titles, but the big hitter was the Witcher 3, a non-Sony game. Bloodborne was acclaimed, but I didn’t care for it. I won’t deny it was a big game for fellow PS4 fans, though.
Honestly the PS4 didn’t hit its big stride with exclusive games until late 2016 and then exploded in 2017. At that point I felt like my early 2014 investment was finally worth it.
So it took almost 3 and a half years to get to that point.
IMO, the PS5 has been Sony’s best launch year since the PS2. The PS3 didn’t get good until 2008, and the PS4 to me was the slowest. Still the best console to play on that entire time, since the Xbox One was embarrassing and the Wii U was already a corpse. But it definitely took time for the PS4 to hit its stride.
I will say that the PS4 version of FW is surprisingly good when it comes to loading. My best friend is playing through it on PS4 Pro. The load times are certainly a pain compared to the PS5 version (which I counted at about 4 seconds at its slowest time; loading in a continue from the main menu) but it’s surprisingly good for an open world PS4 game. It’s much faster than Zero Dawn to load. I’d say about 45 seconds to load from a continue on the main menu. Zero Dawn was about a minute and 20 seconds on my old PS4.
But it’s really, REALLY hard to go back to slow loading times. When I play my Switch, it’s kind of horrifying. I can cold boot up my PS5, launch Forbidden West, and load in from a continue BEFORE Shin Megami Tensei V is finished loading from the title screen on my Switch.
I’ve had mine since launch. These are the games I’d rank as the ones I’ve enjoyed most.
1. Horizon: Forbidden West
2. Returnal
3. Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut (I know it wasn’t a huge upgrade over the original version, but I never owned it on PS4; it was an all new game for me)
4. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (upgraded a used PS4 copy I bought second hand; only played it on PS5)
5. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart
6. Miles Morales
7. Spiderman Remastered (never played it on PS4)
8. Control Ultimate Edition
9. Metro Exodus
10. Doom Eternal
Didn’t play any of the last three on PS4 either. Basically I went strictly Nintendo Switch in fall of 2019. Traded my PS4 for one. So I won’t lie I’ve been playing a lot of late 2019 and 2020 PS4 titles that have PS5 native versions to catch up.
Oh yeah, and Astro is fantastic. It’s hard to rank though because it is ultimately a tech demo. I think it’s made the best use of the Dualsense’s features and I absolutely adored the love letter to PlayStation history and it’s fans (I actually got emotional when I unlocked the Fat PS1 model; so many childhood memories with that hunk of gray plastic). I dunno how to rank it though because it is ultimately a demo of what the PS5 can do, rather than an entire game experience.
I’d like to see Sony bring back some of their classic franchises.
A new Jak and Daxter, please.
And while we are at it, a remake of Legend of Dragoon? The one time Sony tried to make a JRPG internally. It had its problems, but it was a great first try.
Back in 2013 Bioshock Infinite outsold The Last of Us pretty easily. But it was available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The Last of Us was confined to PS3 at the time.
Definitely. Makes it more immersive with the setting. The teeth in particular. I can imagine that a tribal society doesn’t have orthodontists around to give them braces lol.
I’ve owned this game three times. One PS3, Physical PS4, and Digital PS4.
There’s no reason someone like me should have to pay for this, again. Especially since the Rockstar Social Network tracks your activity all the way back to Online’s release in September of 2013.
I had a few. Now I only played Dark Souls 1. I never bought DSII or DSIII.
1. The load times after death. I don’t mind dying. I don’t even mind losing progress (I ran through Returnal multiple times last year and died A LOT on each playthrough) since that’s a core part of the Souls design. But I did mind having to wait what felt like an eternity to get another try. It eventually burned me out. Thankfully I have a PS5 and I’ve read that Elden Ring on the new consoles solves that problem admirably. So I know that complaint has already been fixed.
2. The stamina system seemed extremely punishing. I dunno if that was rectified in the later Souls games. I get what why the stamina gauge worked like it did; they were attempting to teach you to dodge and block with a plan and to maximize conservation of stamina, not just perform mindless random dodges (which is how one plays Horizon lol). But it always felt like it was tuned to punish you for the smallest mistakes in your defensive gameplan rather than attempting to teach you the lesson organically. I’m not sure how Elden Ring handles this aspect. Is the stamina system more forgiving or is it still extremely punishing?
3. The lack of any decent tutorials or even just a basic explanation of how the game’s systems worked. I don’t like using guides unless I’m trophy hunting. I’ve heard that Elden Ring drastically improves things in this regard. Would you agree with that take?
Those were my big three issues with DS1. Other than that, I thought it was a good game.
I played Sekiro a good bit and thought it was fantastic. I ended up trading my PS4 for a Switch so I never got a chance to finish it. So I do like Fromsoftware’s difficulty and challenging games in general.
I grew up on Contra and classic Castlevania. So the difficulty isn’t an issue, as long as the difficulty feels fair. Celeste is one the best games I’ve played in years and it’s HARD as hell. Like NES hard without all the BS those old games made you go through with limited continues.
I’ve still got some work to finish up in Forbidden West. But after that I have to choose. Elden Ring or Gran Turismo 7.
It’s actually a difficult choice for me. Elden Ring is the spiritual successor to a game series I never got into, but it seems like they solved a lot of the issues the Dark Souls series had. On the other hand, I haven’t owned a Gran Turismo title since GT6 on PS3.
I haven’t played Elden Ring, but I do remember the huge debate of Zero Dawn versus BOTW.
I played Zero Dawn first. Got it shortly after it released. I didn’t play BOTW until early 2020.
Of those two, I would say I vastly prefer the story and characters of Horizon. And it was a visually stunning game; I played the Frozen Wilds back in December and the game still holds up.
What makes BOTW my favorite open world game of all time, though, is the immense amount of real freedom the game gives you. It recaptures the magic of the original Legend of Zelda so well.
The freedom to go anywhere at anytime. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all. You go out and explore. Most of the fun of BOTW was going out and exploring and finding off the wall secrets.
But as a consequence of all that freedom (that I don’t think any game has recaptured since BOTW’s release) it’s narrative was very weak. It poorly justified your reason for being in the amazing world Nintendo crafted.
I love both. Forbidden West is a huge upgrade over Zero Dawn and I’m adoring it. But I don’t think it’s better, as an open world game, as BOTW. BOTW is still the GOAT for open world gameplay for me on a personal level. But Forbidden West, as an overall experience, is the better game to me.
Honestly if Forbidden West had simply adopted the traversal system of BOTW, I’d say it’s the best game I’ve played since the 360 and PS3 released. There’s still some classic 16 bit titles (like Chrono Trigger and Yoshi’s Island) that will never get dethroned for me.
I was burning through side quests to level up a bit. I’m at a point now where I’m going to burn through the rest of the story.
After that, I’m going back to play all the side content I’ve skipped and maxing out Aloy. That’s how I generally play open world titles. Do some early game side quests to level up, go through the story, then go back and do everything else and explore 100% of the map.
Plus this seems like a fairly easy platinum. I’ve only got the plat for one game (Astro’s Playroom, shoot me) and I’m going to get the plat for Ghost of Tsushima once I’m done with Horizon (I’ve only got 6 trophies to go on Tsushima, but they are all the most annoying ones in the game). But the plat for Horizon seems pretty straight forward without any of the bull crap Zero Dawn made you do.
9 out of 10 for me. I’m 2/3 through I think. I’ve been doing a ton of side quests so that’s sucked time away from the story.
The only thing I dislike is the climbing mechanics. I’m at the point now where I think I every open world game should adopt Breath of the Wild’s climb anything system, balanced out by a stamina gauge.
Other than that, though, I absolutely adore it and it has met my lofty expectations. Horizon Forbidden West is the reason I bought a PS5 at launch. My hype for this game has been insane. And outside of the traversal, it has lived up to my expectations in every category.
I’m about half way through the main story I think (been doing a buttload of side quests). Actually I may be 2/3rds through. I’m really not sure. I wouldn’t mind some DLC a year from now.
Since it’s set on the Pacific coast, I wouldn’t mind seeing Aloy visit the remains of Los Angeles. Or maybe they could add a place like Montana and let Aloy explore an ICBM field.
As for story? I mean I think it’s time to let home girl have some romance in her life. Maybe a romantic subplot throughout the DLC. If they went with an ICBM field setting, they could include some nut case antagonist with a death cult that wants to kill off humanity in North America by launching the somehow still working missiles and Aloy and her “romantic” interest have to stop them.
I’ve never beaten a FromSoftware game. I liked Sekiro, hated Bloodborne. I played the original Dark Souls a bit. Wasn’t a huge fan of it.
So I have a little experience with the games but I’ve never finished one. In the case of Bloodborne I was trading that game in a week after I got it. Dark Souls I put a little more time into but ended up burning out on it. I borrowed Sekiro from a friend of mine and thought it was really good. But it wasn’t long after that that I ended up trading my PS4 in on a Switch. So gave it back to him.
I’m not buying this any time soon. Maybe later this year when the big sales start and I can get it on a discount. Don’t want to pay full price and regret it. Like I did Bloodborne.
I buy single player games physical, multiplayer games digital.
Mainly because I play one single player game at a time, so the disc stays inside the PlayStation until I finish it. But I swap multiplayer games frequently.
My biggest issue has been the photo mode blur effect on Aloy’s lower half.
This update doesn’t cover that, but I’m enjoying the game so much that I don’t care.
I am glad the eyes are being fixed. I had a cutscene last night where I felt like Aloy was breaking the fourth wall because she was staring directly at me instead of the character she was talking to lol.
I played through the five hour trial. I’m gonna buy it before it goes off sale.
From what I’ve gathered so far… the game’s basic foundation is amazing.
But I can tell just five hours in that it’s not the game changer CDPR sold us all those years ago. It feels like a fairly run of the mill first person western RPG.
I think what helps it immensely though is the atmosphere of the game’s world, and the love and attention to detail that went into crafting it. Take that away and it’s merely average. But with it, it’s a genuinely good Western RPG.
Also, since there is no COD for 2023, for the love of God Activision remaster Black Ops 2. It’s still the best multiplayer COD has ever had. It doesn’t really need much attention; just port the PC version over to consoles (it had higher quality textures than the console version so they look better in 4K) and make sure all the DLC is included.
I’d be the happiest person in the world if they did that.
I think this is related to Treyarch. Technically next year is Treyarch’s turn. But they got roped into assisting on Vanguard; they helped with multiplayer and built zombies for Vanguard.
I’m guessing that cut into their development time for their 2023 release and someone at Treyarch finally put their foot down and told Activision that it was impossible to meet their deadline and still put out a quality product.
Nah the game is in a fully playable state and the bugs and glitches are fairly minor and to be expected of a game of this scope and scale. It’s a hugely ambitious title developed for one console on its last legs and another console that they have no experience developing for.
This isn’t Cyberpunk. Or even COD: Vanguard. The game works as intended. It needs a little shoe shine and polishing work but I’m willing to bet this next big update will get that taken care of.
A lot of people here love and adore Days Gone. And that game launched in far worse shape and took about three months to fix.
Now I will say this. The amount of small jank in Forbidden West is surprising considering the Sony 1st party pedigree. But I’m gonna give Guerrilla a passing grade on the technical front because this game was finishing its active development and pushing into bug fixing and correction during the Pandemic. In addition to this game being the studio’s first PS5 title and it clearly pushing the PS4 to its very limits.
This is the PS4’s first party swan song. The most ambitious game that console will ever receive from Sony. And it’s a stellar first effort on PS5. I’m proud of Guerrilla and once again they have proven why they are my favorite Sony studio. I’ve owned all of their titles since Killzone on PS2. They push boundaries and what the hardware their games run on can achieve when pushed to the max.
Most of their older games still hold up visually. If you go back and properly upres Shadow Fall to 4K and give it a little TAA, it would look like a shooter released this year. Because that is what Guerrilla does. They craft games that push Sony’s consoles to their breaking points. And those are my favorite kind of developers. I want them to come within an inch of breaking my console. That’s why I drop big money on PlayStations in the first place. To see what they can really achieve when the limits are pushed up against.
As for Horizon, I’ve had my share of glitches and problems. But overall the game is just so well designed and fun to play that it powers over the problems.
Plus I’m confident that most of my issues will be ironed out with this next patch. I’ll keep enjoying the game as is until then.
Another problem with HDR is the deceptive marketing around on TV sets. A TV set can support a certain HDR standard (like HDR 10 for example) but it may not have the peak brightness to do it well.
My TV is a good example. I bought it before I knew the things I know about HDR now. It honestly doesn’t get bright enough to make HDR worth it most of the time. I still try every game with HDR on because certain developers prioritize HDR on low light level panels. But most of the time, I end up turning it off because most developers simply apply the expected standard, not optimizing for TV sets that are “fraudulently” advertised.
The washout effect is commonly caused by the media scene in question demanding a higher brightness level than the TV can output at its peak brightness level. In addition, most cheaper HDR panels lack variable lighting. That’s where the panel can dynamically change the lighting on certain parts of the screen. Which is needed for the best HDR implementations, since not all scenes in games or movies are equally lit at the same frame of motion.
So ultimately, HDR can produce stunning results. If your panel has extremely high peak brightness, variable panel lighting, and actually meets the specifications stipulated in the most common HDR standards. Also it’s on the media developer as well. They have to shoot their scenes or design their game’s lighting around an HDR environment.
HDR can be a blessing and a curse. It depends on the implementation in the media itself and how your TV’s HDR output works.
When it works well, it works really WELL. When it works poorly, it’s Godawful. I had to turn off HDR in Forbidden West because it was washing bright colors out.
I had that same issue in a battle near the first “Forge” you can access. They spawn a crap ton of Leapers there. I ended up having to fight almost ten of them and the games framerate dropped to a crawl (I’m playing performance mode).
I didn’t have to reinstall though. I found two fixes for it.
The first thing I tried was switching to resolution mode. The framerate shot up to 30 and held steady. But I made it a point to play the game on performance mode. So I decided to restart my PS5 and go back the Campfire save point nearby and see if it did the same thing again. Didn’t happen again. Whole battle played out super smooth the second go round.
The one thing I liked about SFV was that they made it more friendly for pad players with its loosening of the execution timing. SFIV is playable with pad (many pros use them) but the execution on certain characters can be absolutely punishing. Chun-Li (my long time street fighter main) was really difficult to play on pad. I was one of the few who was actually happy to see lightening legs go to QCF motion.
On SFIV I had to use a Saturn style controller and hold it in my left hand with my right fingers elevated to play Chun on that game. That was the only way I could piano the keys fast enough to get Legs out on demand.
Sony should have priced all cross gen games at 60.
That said, I think I know why they didn’t. The only PS5 big budget exclusive titles are Demon’s Souls, Returnal, and Ratchet and Clank. I think Sony was thinking that those three games, compared to Horizon, Gran Turismo, and God of War, are second tier titles. For a few reasons.
1. Demon’s Souls is a niche game and is a remake of a PS3 game. 2. Returnal is an extremely niche game and isn’t very long. A lot of gamers (incorrectly, I add) think a game’s length is its value. 3. Ratchet and Clank is more generally appealing than the previous two, but the series sales have never been out of this world high. They were all successful and easily made their money back with some profit on top. But it doesn’t have the mass market appeal of God of War or Horizon. Ratchet has a very dedicated fan base, but that’s it.
So I’m thinking Sony felt that they had to price their big hitting 1st tier games the same.
All of that could have been avoided had they either priced every version of the cross Gen games at 70 or better yet, simply priced all PS5 games at 60 until 2023, when cross-Gen will be finished and people would have been more accepting of a price hike for games that literally couldn’t be done on the PS4 family.
And while I’m not exactly happy with the price jump for all PS5 Sony games, I do think it needs to be pointed out that there was a time when it worse.
Cartridge systems back in the day had wildly varying prices on software titles. I paid 70 bucks for Rogue Squadron back in the day. And that was in 1999 dollars.
So PS5 games are cheaper than most N64 games back in that console’s hey day. If anything, I’m surprised games aren’t selling for 100 bucks these days considering the inflation increase since the 90s.
I bought the PS5 version physical and I don’t feel bad about it.
1. I wanted the steelbook special edition. 2. I wanted a PS5 disc to save bandwidth. 3. The PS5 is the first console I’ve owned since the original Xbox where I don’t plan on trading or reselling my games. I want my PS5 games to look good on a shelf.
They completely revamped the melee and made it viable against machines. On the first game using melee against the machines on Hard or Very Hard difficulties got you killed immediately. I’m playing on Hard for my first playthrough and when they release New Game+ I’ll go back through it on Very Hard.
I never touched melee in Zero Dawn. On Forbidden West I’ve killed probably 30% of the machines I’ve fought with melee attacks. And melee is actually better than ranged attacks on human enemies.
Give the game another chance.
And to be honest, I have no idea how you beat Zero Dawn without heavily investing into ranged weapons. I was using combinations of every ranged weapon in Zero Dawn to kill Thunderjaws like it was a science.
Comments 775
Re: Gran Turismo 7 PS5, PS4 Offline and Unplayable for Over 24 Hours
@Gamer83
Nintendo has made some really stupid decisions in recent years. The overpriced expansion pass and rereleasing Wii U games at full price being the biggest offenders.
Of the three, Microsoft seems to be the most on point. But even they have their problems.
Re: Gran Turismo 7 PS5, PS4 Offline and Unplayable for Over 24 Hours
I’m really glad I refrained from buying this.
The always online component didn’t bother me too much.
But the fact that they went in and reduced the credit rewards to increase the grind and force players into buying MTX is absolutely disgusting.
Re: Housemarque Shares Lengthy Look at Returnal's New Endless Mode
Just moved it back to the SSD from my external storage drive in anticipation of this update. Played through a few biomes the other night to re-acclimate to the controls.
I love endless tower runs.
Re: Hands On: Is GTA 5 on PS5 Worth It?
It’s ten bucks and I haven’t played through the story mode since I owned it physically on PS4 back in 2015. I also beat the PS3 version. So it’ll be a third playthrough for me.
Re: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Trailer Brings the Heat Ahead of April Premiere
@J2theEzzo
Beat sonic voice actor was whoever did the English work for the Sonic OVA, which we got as a condensed version simply called Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie.
Mainly because it was so terrible that it was amazing.
Re: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (PS5) - Utterly Ridiculous Final Fantasy Spin-Off
@RubyCarbuncle
I’d say give the demo a try. The gameplay loop is actually pretty satisfying.
This is one of those games where the core gameplay is very, very good. But it’s ugly as sin. Like one of the ugliest games I’ve seen out of a major developer in a long time. The presentation looks like it was made on a 360/PS3 budget.
I could see it becoming a cult classic down the road.
Re: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (PS5) - Utterly Ridiculous Final Fantasy Spin-Off
I’ve been playing the demo. The gameplay loop is really addictive.
But man this game is ugly. I think saying it looks like an early PS4 game isn’t accurate. This game looks worse than some late release PS3 games.
There’s no anti aliasing solution in the game. At all. And the environmental textures are just awful. No definition; it looks like a low budget Japanese PS3 release.
The character models are decent, though.
Re: Babylon's Fall (PS5) - This Limp, Confusing 'Service Game' Has Nothing Going for It
@Danloaded
Every publisher wants to chase that damn Live Service dragon. It’s heroin to them.
They never realize that you never catch the dragon. Unless you are insanely lucky, like Epic or Activision.
Re: Poll: We Want You to Rate Your Favourite PS5 Games
@MetalGear_Yoshi
The PS4 started out way, way slower.
The best game the PS4 got between launch and Christmas of 2014 was The Last of Us Remastered. A PS3 game. Infamous was decent, but not outstanading. 2015 saw a few decent titles, but the big hitter was the Witcher 3, a non-Sony game. Bloodborne was acclaimed, but I didn’t care for it. I won’t deny it was a big game for fellow PS4 fans, though.
Honestly the PS4 didn’t hit its big stride with exclusive games until late 2016 and then exploded in 2017. At that point I felt like my early 2014 investment was finally worth it.
So it took almost 3 and a half years to get to that point.
IMO, the PS5 has been Sony’s best launch year since the PS2. The PS3 didn’t get good until 2008, and the PS4 to me was the slowest. Still the best console to play on that entire time, since the Xbox One was embarrassing and the Wii U was already a corpse. But it definitely took time for the PS4 to hit its stride.
Re: Poll: We Want You to Rate Your Favourite PS5 Games
@Nerdfather1
I will say that the PS4 version of FW is surprisingly good when it comes to loading. My best friend is playing through it on PS4 Pro. The load times are certainly a pain compared to the PS5 version (which I counted at about 4 seconds at its slowest time; loading in a continue from the main menu) but it’s surprisingly good for an open world PS4 game. It’s much faster than Zero Dawn to load. I’d say about 45 seconds to load from a continue on the main menu. Zero Dawn was about a minute and 20 seconds on my old PS4.
But it’s really, REALLY hard to go back to slow loading times. When I play my Switch, it’s kind of horrifying. I can cold boot up my PS5, launch Forbidden West, and load in from a continue BEFORE Shin Megami Tensei V is finished loading from the title screen on my Switch.
Re: Poll: We Want You to Rate Your Favourite PS5 Games
I’ve had mine since launch. These are the games I’d rank as the ones I’ve enjoyed most.
1. Horizon: Forbidden West
2. Returnal
3. Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut (I know it wasn’t a huge upgrade over the original version, but I never owned it on PS4; it was an all new game for me)
4. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (upgraded a used PS4 copy I bought second hand; only played it on PS5)
5. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart
6. Miles Morales
7. Spiderman Remastered (never played it on PS4)
8. Control Ultimate Edition
9. Metro Exodus
10. Doom Eternal
Didn’t play any of the last three on PS4 either. Basically I went strictly Nintendo Switch in fall of 2019. Traded my PS4 for one. So I won’t lie I’ve been playing a lot of late 2019 and 2020 PS4 titles that have PS5 native versions to catch up.
Oh yeah, and Astro is fantastic. It’s hard to rank though because it is ultimately a tech demo. I think it’s made the best use of the Dualsense’s features and I absolutely adored the love letter to PlayStation history and it’s fans (I actually got emotional when I unlocked the Fat PS1 model; so many childhood memories with that hunk of gray plastic). I dunno how to rank it though because it is ultimately a demo of what the PS5 can do, rather than an entire game experience.
Re: Shaky Sly Cooper PS5 Rumours Intensify, with PixelOpus Attached
I’d like to see Sony bring back some of their classic franchises.
A new Jak and Daxter, please.
And while we are at it, a remake of Legend of Dragoon? The one time Sony tried to make a JRPG internally. It had its problems, but it was a great first try.
Re: February 2022 NPD: Elden Ring Is the Best-Selling Game of the Year So Far
@jgrangervikings1
Multiplatform versus dual platform.
Back in 2013 Bioshock Infinite outsold The Last of Us pretty easily. But it was available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The Last of Us was confined to PS3 at the time.
Re: See Horizon Forbidden West's Dilapidated Real-World Locations in Comparison Video
@gollumb82
It shouldn’t be. You’re pointing out facts.
Re: WWE 2K22 (PS5) - A Return to Form for 2K's Wrestling Franchise
@Flaming_Kaiser
It’s my favorite wrestling game of all time, bar none.
I grew out of wrestling not long after HCTP released. So it was sort of the end of an era for me. Thus all the nostalgic feelings I guess.
Re: WWE 2K22 (PS5) - A Return to Form for 2K's Wrestling Franchise
@nessisonett
You’re right on that.
They could pull a Nintendo and make him a fictional character, like they did with Mike Tyson when they changed him to Mr. Dream.
Could call him “Mr. Wrestling” and give him all of Benoit’s moves. But different skin tone, face textures, and remove his name.
Re: WWE 2K22 (PS5) - A Return to Form for 2K's Wrestling Franchise
@PlayStationGamer3919
That would be nice.
I want a remaster of Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain!
I played the crap out of that game on PS2 back in the day.
Re: This Is Aloy's Real-Life Face Model from Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West
@themightyant
Definitely. Makes it more immersive with the setting. The teeth in particular. I can imagine that a tribal society doesn’t have orthodontists around to give them braces lol.
Re: Test Your PlayStation General Knowledge - Issue 4
Bro these questions were devious.
I did horribly. Won’t even say what I made.
Doesn’t help that out of all the games pictured the only two I had played were Spider-Man Remastered and a handful of Dynasty Warrior titles.
Re: Is GTA 5 on PS5 a Free Upgrade for PS4 Players? Probably Not
It should be a free upgrade.
I’ve owned this game three times. One PS3, Physical PS4, and Digital PS4.
There’s no reason someone like me should have to pay for this, again. Especially since the Rockstar Social Network tracks your activity all the way back to Online’s release in September of 2013.
Re: Elden Ring Enjoys Staggeringly Successful UK Launch, One of the Biggest Games in Years
@dschons
I had a few. Now I only played Dark Souls 1. I never bought DSII or DSIII.
1. The load times after death. I don’t mind dying. I don’t even mind losing progress (I ran through Returnal multiple times last year and died A LOT on each playthrough) since that’s a core part of the Souls design. But I did mind having to wait what felt like an eternity to get another try. It eventually burned me out. Thankfully I have a PS5 and I’ve read that Elden Ring on the new consoles solves that problem admirably. So I know that complaint has already been fixed.
2. The stamina system seemed extremely punishing. I dunno if that was rectified in the later Souls games. I get what why the stamina gauge worked like it did; they were attempting to teach you to dodge and block with a plan and to maximize conservation of stamina, not just perform mindless random dodges (which is how one plays Horizon lol). But it always felt like it was tuned to punish you for the smallest mistakes in your defensive gameplan rather than attempting to teach you the lesson organically. I’m not sure how Elden Ring handles this aspect. Is the stamina system more forgiving or is it still extremely punishing?
3. The lack of any decent tutorials or even just a basic explanation of how the game’s systems worked. I don’t like using guides unless I’m trophy hunting. I’ve heard that Elden Ring drastically improves things in this regard. Would you agree with that take?
Those were my big three issues with DS1. Other than that, I thought it was a good game.
I played Sekiro a good bit and thought it was fantastic. I ended up trading my PS4 for a Switch so I never got a chance to finish it. So I do like Fromsoftware’s difficulty and challenging games in general.
I grew up on Contra and classic Castlevania. So the difficulty isn’t an issue, as long as the difficulty feels fair. Celeste is one the best games I’ve played in years and it’s HARD as hell. Like NES hard without all the BS those old games made you go through with limited continues.
Re: Elden Ring Enjoys Staggeringly Successful UK Launch, One of the Biggest Games in Years
I’m strongly considering getting it.
I’ve still got some work to finish up in Forbidden West. But after that I have to choose. Elden Ring or Gran Turismo 7.
It’s actually a difficult choice for me. Elden Ring is the spiritual successor to a game series I never got into, but it seems like they solved a lot of the issues the Dark Souls series had. On the other hand, I haven’t owned a Gran Turismo title since GT6 on PS3.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Update 1.06 Available Now, Here Are the Patch Notes
@BritneyfR_ee
I’m playing on Hard and Aloy does the same thing.
Only got two more missions in the story to go.
Re: The Batman's Robert Pattinson Really Loves PS1 Classic Final Fantasy VII
@LieutenantFatman
I used her as a thief during my last play through lol. She was my thief/blue mage.
That’s the beauty of the Materia system.
Re: The Batman's Robert Pattinson Really Loves PS1 Classic Final Fantasy VII
Team Tifa. 100%.
Tifa is tied with Chun-Li as my favorite video game gal.
Re: Soapbox: It's Okay to Enjoy Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West
I haven’t played Elden Ring, but I do remember the huge debate of Zero Dawn versus BOTW.
I played Zero Dawn first. Got it shortly after it released. I didn’t play BOTW until early 2020.
Of those two, I would say I vastly prefer the story and characters of Horizon. And it was a visually stunning game; I played the Frozen Wilds back in December and the game still holds up.
What makes BOTW my favorite open world game of all time, though, is the immense amount of real freedom the game gives you. It recaptures the magic of the original Legend of Zelda so well.
The freedom to go anywhere at anytime. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all. You go out and explore. Most of the fun of BOTW was going out and exploring and finding off the wall secrets.
But as a consequence of all that freedom (that I don’t think any game has recaptured since BOTW’s release) it’s narrative was very weak. It poorly justified your reason for being in the amazing world Nintendo crafted.
I love both. Forbidden West is a huge upgrade over Zero Dawn and I’m adoring it. But I don’t think it’s better, as an open world game, as BOTW. BOTW is still the GOAT for open world gameplay for me on a personal level. But Forbidden West, as an overall experience, is the better game to me.
Honestly if Forbidden West had simply adopted the traversal system of BOTW, I’d say it’s the best game I’ve played since the 360 and PS3 released. There’s still some classic 16 bit titles (like Chrono Trigger and Yoshi’s Island) that will never get dethroned for me.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Could Be Getting DLC Expansions
@TheArt
I was burning through side quests to level up a bit. I’m at a point now where I’m going to burn through the rest of the story.
After that, I’m going back to play all the side content I’ve skipped and maxing out Aloy. That’s how I generally play open world titles. Do some early game side quests to level up, go through the story, then go back and do everything else and explore 100% of the map.
Plus this seems like a fairly easy platinum. I’ve only got the plat for one game (Astro’s Playroom, shoot me) and I’m going to get the plat for Ghost of Tsushima once I’m done with Horizon (I’ve only got 6 trophies to go on Tsushima, but they are all the most annoying ones in the game). But the plat for Horizon seems pretty straight forward without any of the bull crap Zero Dawn made you do.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Horizon Forbidden West?
9 out of 10 for me. I’m 2/3 through I think. I’ve been doing a ton of side quests so that’s sucked time away from the story.
The only thing I dislike is the climbing mechanics. I’m at the point now where I think I every open world game should adopt Breath of the Wild’s climb anything system, balanced out by a stamina gauge.
Other than that, though, I absolutely adore it and it has met my lofty expectations. Horizon Forbidden West is the reason I bought a PS5 at launch. My hype for this game has been insane. And outside of the traversal, it has lived up to my expectations in every category.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Could Be Getting DLC Expansions
I’m about half way through the main story I think (been doing a buttload of side quests). Actually I may be 2/3rds through. I’m really not sure. I wouldn’t mind some DLC a year from now.
Since it’s set on the Pacific coast, I wouldn’t mind seeing Aloy visit the remains of Los Angeles. Or maybe they could add a place like Montana and let Aloy explore an ICBM field.
As for story? I mean I think it’s time to let home girl have some romance in her life. Maybe a romantic subplot throughout the DLC. If they went with an ICBM field setting, they could include some nut case antagonist with a death cult that wants to kill off humanity in North America by launching the somehow still working missiles and Aloy and her “romantic” interest have to stop them.
Re: Poll: Did You Buy Elden Ring?
I’ve never beaten a FromSoftware game. I liked Sekiro, hated Bloodborne. I played the original Dark Souls a bit. Wasn’t a huge fan of it.
So I have a little experience with the games but I’ve never finished one. In the case of Bloodborne I was trading that game in a week after I got it. Dark Souls I put a little more time into but ended up burning out on it. I borrowed Sekiro from a friend of mine and thought it was really good. But it wasn’t long after that that I ended up trading my PS4 in on a Switch. So gave it back to him.
I’m not buying this any time soon. Maybe later this year when the big sales start and I can get it on a discount. Don’t want to pay full price and regret it. Like I did Bloodborne.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Drives Strong PS5, PS4 Digital Sales
@Fenbops
I buy single player games physical, multiplayer games digital.
Mainly because I play one single player game at a time, so the disc stays inside the PlayStation until I finish it. But I swap multiplayer games frequently.
It works out for the best.
Re: PS Plus March 2022 PS5, PS4 Games Announced
Seems like a decent month.
I already own Ghost of Tsushima, so I don’t need Legends mode.
But the rest seem interesting.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Update 1.05 Released, Here Are the Patch Notes
@KundaliniRising333
I agree. The game actually works as it’s intended to.
Cyberpunk’s original release was busted. The game didn’t work.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Update 1.05 Released, Here Are the Patch Notes
@Deadlyblack
My biggest issue has been the photo mode blur effect on Aloy’s lower half.
This update doesn’t cover that, but I’m enjoying the game so much that I don’t care.
I am glad the eyes are being fixed. I had a cutscene last night where I felt like Aloy was breaking the fourth wall because she was staring directly at me instead of the character she was talking to lol.
Re: Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5) - Dark Future RPG Is Finally Ready to Rock
I played through the five hour trial. I’m gonna buy it before it goes off sale.
From what I’ve gathered so far… the game’s basic foundation is amazing.
But I can tell just five hours in that it’s not the game changer CDPR sold us all those years ago. It feels like a fairly run of the mill first person western RPG.
I think what helps it immensely though is the atmosphere of the game’s world, and the love and attention to detail that went into crafting it. Take that away and it’s merely average. But with it, it’s a genuinely good Western RPG.
Re: Call of Duty Will Take Time Off Next Year
Also, since there is no COD for 2023, for the love of God Activision remaster Black Ops 2. It’s still the best multiplayer COD has ever had. It doesn’t really need much attention; just port the PC version over to consoles (it had higher quality textures than the console version so they look better in 4K) and make sure all the DLC is included.
I’d be the happiest person in the world if they did that.
Re: Call of Duty Will Take Time Off Next Year
@Jacko11
Dude Vanguard is awful. And I generally like COD a lot.
Cold War was mediocre. But it wasn’t as bad as Vanguard. Vanguard is horribly unbalanced and the launch was disastrous.
We shall see how IW does this year. I’m hoping they knock it out of the park.
Re: Call of Duty Will Take Time Off Next Year
@Stragen8
I think this is related to Treyarch. Technically next year is Treyarch’s turn. But they got roped into assisting on Vanguard; they helped with multiplayer and built zombies for Vanguard.
I’m guessing that cut into their development time for their 2023 release and someone at Treyarch finally put their foot down and told Activision that it was impossible to meet their deadline and still put out a quality product.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
@ApostateMage
That’s the exact same way I play.
Makes the world super immersive.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
@KnightRider1982
Nah the game is in a fully playable state and the bugs and glitches are fairly minor and to be expected of a game of this scope and scale. It’s a hugely ambitious title developed for one console on its last legs and another console that they have no experience developing for.
This isn’t Cyberpunk. Or even COD: Vanguard. The game works as intended. It needs a little shoe shine and polishing work but I’m willing to bet this next big update will get that taken care of.
A lot of people here love and adore Days Gone. And that game launched in far worse shape and took about three months to fix.
Now I will say this. The amount of small jank in Forbidden West is surprising considering the Sony 1st party pedigree. But I’m gonna give Guerrilla a passing grade on the technical front because this game was finishing its active development and pushing into bug fixing and correction during the Pandemic. In addition to this game being the studio’s first PS5 title and it clearly pushing the PS4 to its very limits.
This is the PS4’s first party swan song. The most ambitious game that console will ever receive from Sony. And it’s a stellar first effort on PS5. I’m proud of Guerrilla and once again they have proven why they are my favorite Sony studio. I’ve owned all of their titles since Killzone on PS2. They push boundaries and what the hardware their games run on can achieve when pushed to the max.
Most of their older games still hold up visually. If you go back and properly upres Shadow Fall to 4K and give it a little TAA, it would look like a shooter released this year. Because that is what Guerrilla does. They craft games that push Sony’s consoles to their breaking points. And those are my favorite kind of developers. I want them to come within an inch of breaking my console. That’s why I drop big money on PlayStations in the first place. To see what they can really achieve when the limits are pushed up against.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
As for Horizon, I’ve had my share of glitches and problems. But overall the game is just so well designed and fun to play that it powers over the problems.
Plus I’m confident that most of my issues will be ironed out with this next patch. I’ll keep enjoying the game as is until then.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
Another problem with HDR is the deceptive marketing around on TV sets. A TV set can support a certain HDR standard (like HDR 10 for example) but it may not have the peak brightness to do it well.
My TV is a good example. I bought it before I knew the things I know about HDR now. It honestly doesn’t get bright enough to make HDR worth it most of the time. I still try every game with HDR on because certain developers prioritize HDR on low light level panels. But most of the time, I end up turning it off because most developers simply apply the expected standard, not optimizing for TV sets that are “fraudulently” advertised.
The washout effect is commonly caused by the media scene in question demanding a higher brightness level than the TV can output at its peak brightness level. In addition, most cheaper HDR panels lack variable lighting. That’s where the panel can dynamically change the lighting on certain parts of the screen. Which is needed for the best HDR implementations, since not all scenes in games or movies are equally lit at the same frame of motion.
So ultimately, HDR can produce stunning results. If your panel has extremely high peak brightness, variable panel lighting, and actually meets the specifications stipulated in the most common HDR standards. Also it’s on the media developer as well. They have to shoot their scenes or design their game’s lighting around an HDR environment.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
@get2sammyb
HDR can be a blessing and a curse. It depends on the implementation in the media itself and how your TV’s HDR output works.
When it works well, it works really WELL. When it works poorly, it’s Godawful. I had to turn off HDR in Forbidden West because it was washing bright colors out.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West's PS5, PS4 Visual Issues a High Priority, Patch Incoming ASAP
@Jacko11
I had that same issue in a battle near the first “Forge” you can access. They spawn a crap ton of Leapers there. I ended up having to fight almost ten of them and the games framerate dropped to a crawl (I’m playing performance mode).
I didn’t have to reinstall though. I found two fixes for it.
The first thing I tried was switching to resolution mode. The framerate shot up to 30 and held steady. But I made it a point to play the game on performance mode. So I decided to restart my PS5 and go back the Campfire save point nearby and see if it did the same thing again. Didn’t happen again. Whole battle played out super smooth the second go round.
Re: Street Fighter 6 Announced, More Info Hits This Summer
@captainaverage
The one thing I liked about SFV was that they made it more friendly for pad players with its loosening of the execution timing. SFIV is playable with pad (many pros use them) but the execution on certain characters can be absolutely punishing. Chun-Li (my long time street fighter main) was really difficult to play on pad. I was one of the few who was actually happy to see lightening legs go to QCF motion.
On SFIV I had to use a Saturn style controller and hold it in my left hand with my right fingers elevated to play Chun on that game. That was the only way I could piano the keys fast enough to get Legs out on demand.
Re: In the UK, 70% of Boxed Horizon Forbidden West Buyers Paid More Than They Needed To
@MattBoothDev
I agree with that.
Sony should have priced all cross gen games at 60.
That said, I think I know why they didn’t. The only PS5 big budget exclusive titles are Demon’s Souls, Returnal, and Ratchet and Clank. I think Sony was thinking that those three games, compared to Horizon, Gran Turismo, and God of War, are second tier titles. For a few reasons.
1. Demon’s Souls is a niche game and is a remake of a PS3 game.
2. Returnal is an extremely niche game and isn’t very long. A lot of gamers (incorrectly, I add) think a game’s length is its value.
3. Ratchet and Clank is more generally appealing than the previous two, but the series sales have never been out of this world high. They were all successful and easily made their money back with some profit on top. But it doesn’t have the mass market appeal of God of War or Horizon. Ratchet has a very dedicated fan base, but that’s it.
So I’m thinking Sony felt that they had to price their big hitting 1st tier games the same.
All of that could have been avoided had they either priced every version of the cross Gen games at 70 or better yet, simply priced all PS5 games at 60 until 2023, when cross-Gen will be finished and people would have been more accepting of a price hike for games that literally couldn’t be done on the PS4 family.
Re: In the UK, 70% of Boxed Horizon Forbidden West Buyers Paid More Than They Needed To
And while I’m not exactly happy with the price jump for all PS5 Sony games, I do think it needs to be pointed out that there was a time when it worse.
Cartridge systems back in the day had wildly varying prices on software titles. I paid 70 bucks for Rogue Squadron back in the day. And that was in 1999 dollars.
So PS5 games are cheaper than most N64 games back in that console’s hey day. If anything, I’m surprised games aren’t selling for 100 bucks these days considering the inflation increase since the 90s.
Re: In the UK, 70% of Boxed Horizon Forbidden West Buyers Paid More Than They Needed To
@Futureshark
I will say I do have one disappointment with my PS5 physical special edition.
The steelbook is the same between both PS4 and PS5. Mine has an empty slot for the data disc on the PS4 version.
That said, I’m glad they didn’t label the console logo anywhere on the steelbook itself. From the outside, you can’t tell.
Re: In the UK, 70% of Boxed Horizon Forbidden West Buyers Paid More Than They Needed To
I bought the PS5 version physical and I don’t feel bad about it.
1. I wanted the steelbook special edition.
2. I wanted a PS5 disc to save bandwidth.
3. The PS5 is the first console I’ve owned since the original Xbox where I don’t plan on trading or reselling my games. I want my PS5 games to look good on a shelf.
Re: Horizon Forbidden West Is Getting Review Bombed on PS5, PS4 for No Reason
@gamiller1978
Wait what?
They completely revamped the melee and made it viable against machines. On the first game using melee against the machines on Hard or Very Hard difficulties got you killed immediately. I’m playing on Hard for my first playthrough and when they release New Game+ I’ll go back through it on Very Hard.
I never touched melee in Zero Dawn. On Forbidden West I’ve killed probably 30% of the machines I’ve fought with melee attacks. And melee is actually better than ranged attacks on human enemies.
Give the game another chance.
And to be honest, I have no idea how you beat Zero Dawn without heavily investing into ranged weapons. I was using combinations of every ranged weapon in Zero Dawn to kill Thunderjaws like it was a science.