Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@Th3solution I was gonna tag you, but noticed you hadn't been around much and didn't wanna add any pressure in case real life was keeping you busy.

Knowing you've got it now, I'll likely hold off and wait for your thoughts!

Been playing some Heavy Rain. It started off slow, but it's getting better. I'm still quite early on in the game, so I'm curious about what's going to happen next.

The old school private detective is my favourite of the playable characters so far, so I'm hoping that he'll be the one to catch the villain instead of the FBI agent with all his gadgets. I've not seen much of the female character just yet, so I'm eager to see what her story is going to be.

@RogerRoger @Kindaichi The Council is on sale on the EU PS store £14 for the complete season or you can buy the individual episodes separately.

Just started up Yakuza Kiwami. Not much to say about it yet other than the fact that I'm liking the dense neon-lit cityscape.

@Kindaichi @RogerRoger Well, I decided to have a go at The Council after we brought it up recently. I needed a little break from the epic of Arthur Morgan, preferably one that didn’t involve horseback riding, large open worlds, or third person shooting. So The Council seemed to fit the bill — A nice story driven experience with choice and consequence.

Welp, I’ve played it for about 2-3 hours and I’ll leave my first impressions.
At first blush the game looks quite good, especially for an small studio production. ...That is, it looks good until the characters start to speak. The graphics look great when static, but the dynamic facial expressions leave something to be desired. The mediocre lip syncing and somewhat poor quality emotive facial displays are obvious within the first 5 minutes. Coupled with the odd audio, it definitely takes some getting used to. It’s hard not to compare the game to Detroit: Become Human because of the similar genre and gameplay style, and Quantic Dreams latest makes this look and sound like a PS2 game. It’s a very strange level of quality here, because on one hand I think the visuals look quite good, but then you have the wonkiness of the characters when speaking which is at times jarring. The art direction is great for the most part and the setting is interestingly manufactured. I think if the audio quality, acting, and writing was better then it would have easily covered up for the slight visual missteps. For example, in Red Dead 2, some of the NPC look a little weird due to lower quality character modeling compared to Arthur, but the voice acting and writing is so well done, it is hardly bothersome and barely noticeable. Here, the sound of the voices is a little bit “tinny” as if it was recorded in someone’s garage with an iPhone and then the acting is pretty average at best. The voice for the protagonist’s mother, Sarah, is just awful and does not match her character at all. The other voices are sort of hit-or-miss, but none are great. The combination of the audio shortcomings seems to magnify the visual flaws, rather than cover them up as most games do.

The story seems decent enough so far. It’s still early but there is a level of mystery and I want to find out what’s behind this secret society that has so many important world leaders involved. The build up for the conflict could have been better handled in the opening episode, but it’s not terrible.

The real strength of the game is in the innovative gameplay. I knew the game would be a story driven, choice and consequence type of outing, but the RPG mechanics seem to be well done. Depending on how you allocate points to your skills and talents, new dialog options open, or you have easier access to certain dialog or activities. It’s hard to explain, but it makes good sense and the tutorials are good about how the skills are developed and used. For example, in the opening parts of the game I was able to explore a bit and pick a lock to get access to some new information because I had chosen to be an “Occultist” with its accompanying perks (other options are Diplomat or Detective) and had some points in “subterfuge.” I was not, however, able to pry open some loose boards on the walkway to follow that clue because I didn’t have skill points in “agility”. Similar things occur when you’re speaking to someone and trying to convince them to do something for you or to give you secret information.

There is mild exploration, a lot of dialog choices, and then the aforementioned strategizing of how to use skill points to build your abilities. Some choices are timed, like in the Telltale games, and some are not. I actually missed a choice because I was sitting back watching a scene unfold and suddenly I had a choice to make and couldn’t do it in time.

As for the question of whether the game deals with just plain mystery or whether it deals in the supernatural, I’ll say that I’m not sure yet, but I do think there is a supernatural component because the protagonist is having short fits of visions which appear to be maybe premonitions of the future. It’s not clear to me yet.

So by my first impressions of the opening episode, the game does seem a solid 6/10 like Sammy gave it in his review. I like it enough to be excited to play through all of it to its conclusion, but I might be a bit biased because I really like the this type of QD/Telltale style of game and they really did some interesting things with the RPG elements. I can’t tell you whether to buy it or not, but for me, i think it’s worth the sale price I paid, so far. I’ll update with more impressions as I play more of it, but I wanted to get this out there since it’s on sale now and you all may be considering it.

@Kindaichi No problem! If you don’t mind reading my boring drivel then I’ll gladly share more thoughts as I have them. I love talking about games. It’s why we’re here in Push Square, after all! 😄

@Th3solution Nice, detailed impressions there.

@Th3solution Love your write-up, thank you so much for taking the plunge and getting underway with this mysterious game. A lot of the issues you describe just scream "indie game" to me, but the gameplay and different classes being able to take, or not take, different paths sounds really interesting. Looking forward to hearing what you think of future episodes and again, thanks for taking the time to write in so much eloquent detail (and for tagging me).

I started playing bloodborne again. That atmosphere is unprecedented. It's a shame I can't use my old character as I played it on different game region so I started a new one. I'm getting destroyed all over again

Heavy Rain started off slow, but it keeps getting better the more I play it. The quick time events can be a bit of a pain. My main concern right now is that I'm being too nice and trusting. If I don't change my ways, then I suspect it'll only br a matter of time before one of my main characters dies from that.

PSA: Do not play Just Cause 4 yet.

The summary of JC3 at launch has gone down in history as "gorgeous game, but long load times and an awful framerate keep it from being truly fun". You can literally flip that around for JC4, because it's got much shorter load times, a stable performance and therefore some very playable opening sequences... but the graphics are awful. Like, early PS3 awful and no, that's not an exaggeration.

A couple folks are saying it's a glitch and that, after getting several hours into the story, the game suddenly remembers that it's supposed to look good. I've played two hours on PS4 Pro and have yet to encounter that moment. Seriously, I was standing next to a jeep waiting for the textures to pop in, and they never did. Everything looks fuzzy but it isn't just a case of poor optimisation; object and landscape models are incredibly basic. It's almost laughable (and I'm not a graphics snob by any stretch of the imagination).

I'm gonna keep playing because the gameplay, story and music are all really excellent, and I didn't play £80 to just chuck the box back on the shelf, but expect to see some articles and low review scores from gaming journalists who love a good controversy.

Just finished Batman Return to Arkham: Arkham Asylum and i'm going to start Arkham City soon, i'm not trying to 100% them or do those damn stupid Riddler tasks just finish the story

After throwing Shantae: Half-Genie Hero aside in disgust after it first launched, I decided I'm going to go back to it and clear through all of the DLC content I got for being a backer on the original Kickstarter (I opted to support this over Mighty No. 9, and seeing how that turned out, I think I probably made a good choice). Playing "Officer Mode" right now, which plays like a very simplified version of Mighty Switch Force. It's forgettable fun. Like the original campaign, it's not nearly as good as the thing it's trying to emulate (it's missing the great level design and intricate puzzles from the normal Mighty Switch Force games), but it's decent fun, I guess. I'm reminded of why I didn't get the Wii U remaster of Mighty Switch Force, though: it's a lot harder to tell what position those blocks are in without the stereoscopic 3D effect.

Still not sure how you go from the highs of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, which I'd put alongside Rondo of Blood and Hollow Knight as one of the best action-platformers I've ever played, to this indie-tier mediocrity, but whatever. I'm just hoping future games are more like the original trilogy and less like Half-Genie Hero. I'd loooooooooove a remake of the first Shantae in HGH's engine.

I've just turned off my PS4 after my first two hours of Hollow Knight. Everything looks perfect: gameplay, art-style, music... It surely deserved a retail version and I can't believe I've paid only € 9 for it!

Hollow Knight is ridiculously well-priced considering its level of polish and the scope of the game itself.

I'd have happily paid $39.99 for it. Even the normal $14.99 price feels like a massive bargain.

Played some more Just Cause 4 last night and whilst the gameplay is excellent, the visuals haven't improved in the slightest; if anything, they've gotten worse in parts.

That didn't stop me from having a blast, though. One sequence was particularly exciting; I infiltrated (okay, more like assaulted) a weather-monitoring facility to steal some data chips, but they needed to be transmitted off-site before I could leave, and the transmission tower was inside a massive glass biodome, kinda like the EDEN Project. I shot out one hexagonal glass panel to gain access, but then enemy helicopters tracked me down and started shooting into the dome. Not only did they smash every panel, but they twisted and deformed parts of the metal structure itself, and it was pretty spectacular... and then a tornado showed up. If they've had to downgrade the graphics to make all the physics interact and work properly, then I can totally understand why.

I also noticed that there are a couple of bonus DLC packs which weren't included with my Gold Edition; some weapons, vehicles and skins for my wingsuit and parachute. When I went to GAME earlier, I had £10 worth of reward points and used them to get a £10 PSN credit code, but y'know what? I think I'm gonna use it to get the Patient Zero DLC for Hitman 2.

Says it all, really.

@andreoni79 I clocked 60 hours into that game and I wasn't bored or anxious to end it. All that's left is the last dlc, but I think that's too difficult for me, or at least not worth my time. I pre-ordered it and didn't regret my purchase. It's my GOTY after all.

I just started up Titanfall 2!

I thought it was neat how it recommended a difficulty level based on your performance in the training mission obstacle course (which it correctly picked based on my preference). Game looks really good (almost too lush for it's own good as enemies have been hidden so well behind foliage that I didn't notice them until I was right on top of them, lol). Definitely going to take some time getting used to the heavier platforming emphasis compared to Halo Anniversary, which is the only other FPS I've played in recent memory. I'm liking it so far, though.

Finally beat Red Dead Redemption 2!
So now that's done it's time to marathon run Kingdom Hearts again.
KH1.5, 2.5 & 2.8 in ~5 weeks. Should be doable.
KH3 is almost here. Still can't believe it.

@NecuVise Good to see fellow Hollow Knight advocates. Your right in that the DLC is super hard, particularly the latest. I played it on Switch but double dipped into the PS4 version too which I need to finish at some point.

As for the topic of the forum, I've finally taken a step away from Destiny to play a different game, and it couldn't be more different. Just finished an hour on What Remains of Edith Finch and WOW! What an interesting way to tell a story!