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Just a little guy interested in videogames, reading, technology and the environment.
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Oh it’s great! The devs have added a few new things (slightly different boss battles, the addition of side missions) but all of this adds to the experience. I played through the original the other year and it holds up well, but the remake certainly felt like the definitive experience. So personally I’d go for that if you’re new to the series.
I also played DS2 a while back, and that felt much more polished/higher budget than the original. After you’ve played the remake of 1, definitely give the second one a go.
A friend let me borrow their PS4 version. Word of warning: Do not play it on PS4. I got through it, but damn if that cobbled together abandoned mess didn’t take away from the experience at times. I dread to think how bad it must’ve been at launch! It was the side content that was mostly broken; I recall the taxi missions just constantly glitching out. The music on the radio didn’t work properly and I was teleported to the other side of the map for no reason at one point.
Despite that the story, atmosphere, design of the city and characters are all great. I’m tempted to get it on PS5 or Steam (with the DLC) at some point to play through it again properly.
I think it’s a really clever game, though sometimes a bit too clever for its own good. The ‘aha’ moments I had throughout were extremely satisfying, especially the ones that made you think outside of the box (like one particular puzzle that made you look somewhere you wouldn’t expect). But as you say, those last few characters did require some guesswork because the clues were extremely vague/esoteric, and that made the game fizzle out a bit at the end.
Overall though it’s among the best puzzle games I’ve ever played.
Funnily enough I was looking to try one of the recent Assassin Creed games (Black Flag was my last). I heard good things about AC Odyssey, but it also sounded a bit overwhelming in its scale. Ghost of Tsushima perfectly filled this niche and was way better than any AC game I’d played before - I’m really glad I gave it a go!
I can understand that feeling regarding the activities of GoT. I skipped a fair amount of the side content and focused on the stuff I found interesting (such as the mythic tales), which I think helped. The ‘main’ side missions that involved specific characters I thought were quite engaging. What difficulty are you playing on? Perhaps it’s worth bumping it up to make the combat harder.
Have you played Ace Attorney or Danganronpa? It’s definitely going for something similar. I was a bit disappointed by it after the hype I’d seen, but it’s still a decent game. If you want something along the same lines of ‘weirdness’ I’d recommend Hypnospace Outlaw - I think that’s a better game overall.
I feel like this is an even trickier task than porting 2 & 3 too. MGS4’s reliance on the weird architecture of the PS3 means you need a powerful CPU to emulate it. Assuming then that it’ll be a port, I imagine the process of porting it would be particularly complex. And seeing how poorly they did with the HD collection it worries me.
I don’t find a lot of the things in the video that relevant to be honest. Not many people speaking online in games? Sure, but I never spoke with randoms to begin with. Discord seems to work fine on the PS5 from my experience. Do either of those things really affect the decision to buy a console? Games taking a while to download - you have the same thing on Steam.
I could definitely see that developers being shackled to the previous generation is an issue. Having to develop/optimise for 11 year old hardware must limit creativity.
Being a patient gamer, I think a lot of the issues people have with lack of current gen games isn’t so much of an issue for me. There are a ton of previous gen games that I never got round to playing, and the PS5 experience in playing them is superior. And there are a ton of current gen games I’ve now got my eye on - GTA 6, Spiderman 2, GoW Ragnarok, Dragons Dogma 2, Baldur’s Gate, FF7 Rebirth, Death Stranding 2, Astrobot, Monster Hunter Wilds, Resident Evil 4 remake and MGS3 remake.
I agree that PC is the best option in a lot of cases. For me, I like sitting back on a sofa with a controller. The Steam Deck is really great for this but it’s not powerful enough to play a lot of modern games at full res. The PS5 is filling that niche for me.
Ghost of Tsushima - Took a while to click, but now I’m really enjoying it. Pulling off some of the sword moves perfectly feels so satisfying. And it’s gorgeous to look at.
And also Dave the Diver. Very charming game and it keeps adding more and more layers to the gameplay. The gameplay loop is really fun so far.
I’m not sure if this is the best recommendation looking at your criteria, but Slime Rancher (1 and 2) are chilled games that have beautiful and colourful visuals. To me it feels like a summer vacation - one where you’re staying at a farm and catching adorable slimes.
Another recommendation I’d have is Tearaway unfolded. It’s a super charming adventure in a papercraft work. It really stuck with me and felt like an adventure. It’s only on PS4/5 as far as I’m aware though, but if you happen to have one of those I guess you could cast it to your Steam Deck using Chiaki. Or on the off-chance that you have a PS Vita, the original version of the game was on there.
It does feel so easy to get distracted nowadays with the infinite amount of content available online. If you’re pretty certain that there’s a game you’ll enjoy - yes, just give it a go rather than putting it off. If you don’t find yourself enjoying it, at least you gave it a go! On the other hand, maybe you’ll have found a new favourite genre.
Best of luck :)
Yeah definitely, wanting to complete every game 100% is a bit much. I’ll only ever do the side content that I actually enjoy. Ratchet and Clank: RA was great for this as it was easy and fun to complete everything (hence it being the only game I’ve managed to get all the trophies for).
In terms of keeping my to-play list short, I’ve done a pretty good job of not buying any games in Steam sales recently. Because 99% of the time they’ll be on sale again in the near future - buying them now only causes paralysis like you say.
Your labelling system is a good idea! I do have plenty of games from bundles, but I only add the ones to my library that I’m actually interested in. So everything in my backlog is something I want to play at some point. Personally I don’t feel that there is any negative connotation to the word backlog, but maybe that’s because mine is full of stuff I intend to play.
I have a spreadsheet listing the games I’ve got to play, and whilst I do usually set an ‘up next’, this can change depending on how I’m feeling at the time. So it’s rare that I play a game I don’t like or doesn’t fit my mood :)
Yeah I think having just one big game on the go is a good idea - spreading your attention too thin between games probably lessens your enjoyment of all of them!
I’m a little bad for this as I’m currently playing one game on PS5, Steam Deck and Switch each. But I stick to one game per console and it seems to work ok. I like having a variety of games to play depending on my mood - 3 seems a good limit. But when I do play each, I make sure to focus on that particular game for a while and not let myself get distracted by the others.
I finally got round to picking up a PS5 this week and have been really enjoying Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - it’s just beautiful to look at and genuinely fun to play. Looking forward to more of that over the weekend! I’ve also been trying out Astro’s Playroom, the free tech demo that comes with the console. I was half expecting it to be a gimmicky piece of advertising - but it’s really well made! The platforming is excellent and all the little references to games are cute.
Yes you’re right about having more time and better reflexes back then, but at the same time I feel like I pick up on cues and understand more what the developers intended for the player the older I’ve got. I remember playing the same levels over and over as a kid and eventually losing motivation to continue (this is somewhat balanced out by the fact that yes, I’d have more time, and also I didn’t have as many games - so I had more incentive to keep playing one to completion). Whereas nowadays I’ve got more patience and I can work out ‘oh I’m probably meant to go that way’ based on my experience of playing lots of different games over the years. I’ve built up more of an intuition for these things.
That said, I’m not sure I could beat many NES games!
Not sure if it counts as a patient game, but I’ve just started Persona 3 Reload (the original game came out in 2006 and I never played it, so maybe that’s acceptable?)
I love how stylish everything is - the music, UI and animations. So pretty. The story has quite a different vibe from the other persona games I’ve played too.