katamariUK

I agree with almost all of this review and would mark it a little higher due to the game being an absolute joy to play. The diverse biomes really lift it above the first game's already varied worlds.

I have never got lost at all using the map, however. The map key is easy to follow and you always know which icon points to the next objective.

My biggest problem with the game, however, is the constant chatter from the player character. Every single encounter, your character will quip at the start and the end of it to signify when there is danger and when it is clear once more. When you are fighting mobs, this isn't such an issue, but when it's a series of single enemies, it gets very old, very fast.
You can sneak up on an unsuspecting enemy and shoot them in the back for an insta-kill. Even though they are dead, your character will say 'Here we go!', then about 5 seconds later 'Whew! I'm glad that's over!', every. single. time! It randomizes it somewhat, but it is really annoying and desperately needs toning down.
Otherwise, great game just needs some small tweaks to remove the headaches.

Probably means this will be a PSPlus game for December. I got the Plat on PS4 but not sure I want to go through it again on PS5, even though it wasn't too bad.

Microids? I think I remember a friend having a bad case of those once. Couldn't sit down for a week.

On topic- Nice this is a free upgrade. I never bothered trying the version on PSPlus due to reports of all the bugs and I was never a fan of the PS1 originals back in the day. Maybe will try this new shiny version though.

Doesn't work for me. It usually will let me know if a game has launched that I wishlisted before it came out. But I never get informed of any of my wishlist games that are currently discounted.
The store is still pretty useless on PS5, even the newly added New Releases section misses off new games regularly. I have to use PSPrices each day just in case games get released that the PS5 store forgets to show.
And there is still no DLC section at all! I saw a banner for DLC once in the past year which took me to them, but never again. Madness that they can get the store so wrong for so long.

I think there is somebody out there who has had a vision of an apocalyptic future where the only currency is disc copies of GTA5 and they are stocking up now in preparation.

I Platinumed it in 19 hours, but there is no option for between 15 and 20 hours.

It looks like a great piece of DLC, but apparently you cannot use it online so it makes it kind of pointless, especially as the game is marketed as an ESports kind of thing.

Phase 3 of the Nemesis boss fight can still break after this patch so you cannot cause any damage. I've had this issue since day one.
I now had audio glitches on the final boss fight with some awful loud crackle replacing all of the audio. And I've had various random interaction problems even though I use the default suit. Not as serious as before as moving to other interactions can usually fix the initial problem.

I'm really looking forward to playing it tonight after work, but very concerned that many trophies don't seem to work at the moment. I heard some of these are difficult to re-obtain too and can require starting a new save file.
@get2sammyb did you guys notice any trophy issues on your playthroughs?

It still amazes me that Sony are not acknowledging how broken all of their digital storefronts are and fixing them. The web store is universally regarded as worse than before, the PS5 store has no DLC or Demos sections and many new releases don't even show up in the filters list and the PS4 store is slow and has crashed repeatedly for years and still does to this day.
I may be wrong, but you rarely, if ever, hear the same about people disliking the Xbox, Steam or Switch Estores unless it's about discoverability.
I think it's past time for Sony to give the stores to another company to manage and maintain as the current one is clearly not up to it.

Game Base (I really hate that name) now defaults to Parties, even if you have none and you have to tab right every time to find your Friends. Can this be changed anywhere as there are already so many button presses to get to things in the PS5 UI, adding more is getting tiresome?
Clicking on your Downloads used to take you to the download list but now requires you to move down to the bottom to select All Downloads.
Minor irritations, but still has some way to go.

Sorry to bring this up again, but how about a Soapbox article covering how bad the PS5 store is? It's been months now and still is barely fit for purpose. So much stuff is hidden and will get missed unless you know what you are looking for.

• Missing games when listing PS5 or PS4 games- For example, the Nioh Collection doesn't show in the entire PS5 games list. You have to manually search for it! This is a big problem as there are many more games not showing up when it comes to PS4 titles, too. You have to manually search for them if you wish to buy them. I only knew some recent indies had launched after booting up my PS4 to check the store or saw them listed on PSPrices.
• The awkwardness of getting an upgrade from a PS4 version to PS5. It really shouldn't be this hidden and work 'most of the time'.
• Discoverability in the store is awful now. If you thought it was bad on the PS4, then this is on a whole new level. Unless you are a pre-order for DeathLoop, of course. That one has been prominent since launch day!
• Only 2 featured sales are displayed. If there are 3 Sales (as was the case a week or two ago) then you will not see one of these. Additionally, the Deal of the Week is never shown. Thankfully we even have a Sales tab now, but it's still not good enough.
• No demos tab. If you wanted to try the Guilty Gear Strive or Outriders demos, you need to find the full game to find the demo.
• The filters do not work. I have it set to show 'New to Old' but it will frequently put new games amongst releases from months ago. This is obviously worse with PS4 games where the titles go back years.

Didn't Codemasters get the rights to the official WRC licence starting from this year? Another racing licence to be filled with micro transactions and pointless DLC.

I've quite enjoyed it so far and come top a bit also, so I must be getting the hang of it. But I agree with the criticisms in the review.
Had this been 70 Pounds, which it will still be in a couple of months, I would be stunned at the lack of content. No promises of future content drops cannot disguise the fact that it is not a full price release in any way. It should remain free on Plus to preserve some kind of player base, unless they sell it at the same price as Fall Guys, Rocket League (at launch), etc go for. For now it is clear it was built as a F2P game and treats its players as such.

@themightyant Very true and I can see why some prefer it without. But I don't understand then why there isn't the option to have these things on or off per each user's preference.
Personally, I used to like seeing what trophies a Friend had just earned and I may go for (and to see how they were progressing in a game so I could avoid talking spoilers with them). And I used to like sharing/seeing screenshots and videos in the feed. There is now little incentive to capture anything as you can only share externally.

Although this is a minor issue, there are so many problems and missing features from the PS5 UI that make it feel rushed and unfinished. Compared to the PS4 UI (even at the launch), the PS5 dashboard feels anti-social and barely functional with no What's New feed, no Friends List or Message tab (everything is hidden inside 'Game Base', whatever that means), missing Trophy percentage progress...
@LiamCroft please could you also mention something about the PS5 store missing off games when filtering by New Releases? The PS5 Store is pretty bad as we all know, with no Demos, DLC or (until recently) Deals sections. This issue of missing games has been happening since launch and is very frustrating to have to always check the PS4 store (or even PSPrices) to see what games are released.

I posted this in the 'The Pedestrian' review-
"Is this out for PS5? It doesn't show up on the PS5 store if you filter all PS5 games by 'New-Old' or 'Recently Released' (as with many new releases). I can manually search and find the PS4 version, but the PS5 version still says 'Coming Soon'.
The PS5 store is an utter mess with games not showing up in the PS5 or PS4 lists at random! Gods Will Fall is another new release that doesn't show up, but it does on the PS4 store. I shouldn't have to manually search for games I know are released as how would I find any unknown releases? There is no Blog to inform us anymore!"

Is this out for PS5? It doesn't show up on the PS5 store if you filter all PS5 games by 'New-Old' or 'Recently Released' (as with many new releases). I can manually search and find the PS4 version, but the PS5 version still says 'Coming Soon'.
The PS5 store is an utter mess with games not showing up in the PS5 or PS4 lists at random! Gods Will Fall is another new release that doesn't show up, but it does on the PS4 store. I shouldn't have to manually search for games I know are released as how would I find any unknown releases? There is no Blog to inform us anymore!

So the single player Challenge modes can only be purchased with Destruction Points that have to bought with real money? Did I understand that correctly? He said those points can also be earned later this year through daily challenges, but not at launch.

That's pretty awesome. I Platinumed the regular Control and didn't want to buy the 'shady' version again just to play the PS5 upgrade.
Destruction All Stars hopefully will be fun and populated as it is on Plus.
Concrete Genie I also Platinumed and enjoyed every minute of it apart from having to restart the whole game from the beginning due to a game breaking bug that caused me to always respawn to insta-death water in some sewers.

I wonder if this sale will show up on the terrible PS5 store? No sale, no DLC, no demos, many missing PS4 games in new releases...
The whole PS5 store and UI needs a serious overhaul to make it useful.

Looks nice and kinda like Hades, so will probably pick it up.
Still hoping Hades will surprise us though, and pop up on PS4/PS5 soon. I would much rather play it on console for the Trophies rather than Steam and have no interest in my Switch.

@Shigurui Ooh, nice! I didn't know that. I may have to play through Infinite once again now I can get the trophies. Thanks!

@HUMPERDOO A Plague Tale is wonderful and a very underrated gem. I never had any issues with the controls at all. It's not by the same team as Vampyr (only same publisher) so you have nothing to worry about.

Would be nice if those of us with the PS5 Gold Edition could actually get our included rewards at some point. The code only gives the Season Pass but all the other items don't appear for anyone on PS5. Seems to affect a lot of players.

Hopefully the update also fixes the constant framerate problems in all visual modes. I've stopped playing it as it is all over the place even when in non-busy areas. Not game breaking, but very distracting and unimpressive.

I am amazed that Sony isn't more concerned about these companies they use for outsourcing their stores to. The PS3 and PS4 stores have always been unstable and untidy, crashing regularly. The PS5 store is barely fit for purpose and is missing entire DLC, Movies and Sales sections. The webstore is an awful mess and cannot be used for very much at all. And now the VIta store totally broken (temporarily most likely).
It's really not good enough when these are often the only way to purchase games. I know some within Sony are not happy with the situation, so why does Sony keep allowing these companies to continue when it obviously is losing them revenue?

Why does the cover of every football game have to have a guy looking as though he has just stepped on some Lego?

I'm a bit confused at this review saying that it runs buttery smooth at all times. I have been playing it almost a week now on and off and have never had a single race that has run smoothly. I've played well over 30 races in all disciplines I think and none run well. There are frame rate drops all of the time, especially at the start when all cars are bashing into one another. However, it's not just the amount of cars that can cause issues as the one on one races or even the solo hill climbs drop frames constantly. I've tried playing it in all Video modes, including the 120fps mode and get frame rate problems in all. Can this be my PS5 or somehow TV related or even the SDD as right now it runs extremely poorly? It's not a particularly good looking game anyway so I am unsure what is wrong. Oh, and it crashes a lot too!

You didn't need to log in as Online and then switch to Offline at all on PS4. If you press the Options button before selecting your profile, you can choose whether to show up as Offline or Online.

Are there Sega arcades in this one? If so which games do they have? Thanks.

I really enjoyed this apart from that there is no invert Y-axis option (really, devs still forget to add this), has plenty of glitches such as being able to retake the same side quest but not complete it so it stays on your to do list, sometimes very lengthy conversations and a broken trophy for finishing the game.
But it is often times amazing to look at and is nice and leisurely to play with no real threats.

I noticed they have messed up how it displays friends alphabetically now. If you have close friends (you can see their real name), they don't appear alphabetically in the Friends List where they should. Instead they appear where their username falls.
For example a Close Friend called 'John Smith' with a username of 'Wanted' would appear in your list under 'W' but still show the name 'John Smith' first in the list.
It's a small issue but a pain to have to look through 100+ friends trying to find what people have as a username when you know them by their real name.