Topic: What PS3 game(s) are you currently playing?

@PorkChopExpress 🍻

@colonelkilgore @PorkChopExpress Indeed. Some valid thoughts there, especially Kojima/MGS. Fans (myself included) venerate Kojima much more extensively than fans of other series do for their creators.

I’ve posted the discussion question over on a more general thread, the Hot Takes thread. I’m curious to read peoples’ thoughts on the matter.

Alice: Madness Returns

Since I just recently bought it thanks to a recommendation from @colonelkilgore, I figured I might as well make it my next game after I just finished Fallout 3.

Played it for roughly an hour this morning before work and I'm definitely enjoying it so far. Random thought, but for a PS3 game, I think the developer did a pretty good job with the blowing of her clothes and hair while in Wonderland. Looks better than some modern games in that regard.

@KilloWertz glad you’re enjoying what you’ve played of it so far bud. I thought it only got better too, with the new skills you collect along the way… and how dark it gets by the end.

I've continued working my way through Bayonetta, which has just been an absolute blast. It's the first hack-and-slash action type of game I've given the time of day and I'm not disappointed. I just love the campy nature of this whole game. The aesthetics, the dialogue, the character designs... they all just complement each other perfectly to create this highly entertaining over-the-top action romp. I've also been getting better at it over time, which has definitely helped lessen the frustration I occasionally felt at the start to make the whole experience all the more enjoyable. Really excited to continue it and get to the end of the ride.

It's a shame it's become a Nintendo exclusive after this first entry, but my roommate has been kind enough to promise to let me use his Switch to continue the series. In fact, my copy of the second game is already awaiting me. Ridiculous how the prices of these Switch games are still so high for a game that's a decade old by now. I bought it second hand, and yet I still had to pay thirty euros for it. Crazy.

@colonelkilgore Thanks. A couple more hours and I'm still highly enjoying it. One unfortunate issue I did run into is the same problem a lot of games like this have. Two different ways to go in an area, one with a Memory and one that ended up having a door closing behind me so I can't get back to get the Memory. It's not something that's a dealbreaker by any means, but it is still annoying that there's no way to get all of the Memory collectibles now because I chose to go one way and end up getting blocked off.

@KilloWertz yeah that does suck. To this day I still to-and-fro about every fork-in-the-road in a game, trying to out-guess the devs and pick the route that doesn’t progress the main story first.

To put your mind at rest though, I think that there is chapter select available after completion though, so you will be able to go back and mop-up any missed collectibles and the like once you’ve finished the main story.

@colonelkilgore So do I, but it obviously doesn't always work. I'll survive though as I was right back highly enjoying the game later in the day.

Thanks. I'll see how close I am by the time I finish the game and if it's worth it. If I'm only a couple off, then obviously I'll go back.

Having finally finished off the Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Directors Cut plat yesterday, I just went back to FFXIII… to start mopping up the last few trophies on that.

Took on my first Shaolong Gui this evening and… dayum! They took a bit of getting used to and that’s for sure. Think there was around 10 straight deaths at the start there 😅 but managed to get my collective **** together after an hour or so and managed a few victories by the end of my sesh and two of the six Dark Matter drops that I’m needing. Hopefully I’ll get the remaining four over the next few days and then I’ll be on the final stretch.

The Final Fantasy XIII material farm is finally done! I’ve farmed money, xp and various materials here and there since last September… and honestly never known anything quite like it! The Trapezohedron farm literally took months… for 5 of them! And I just completed my Dark Matter farm, which only took a week for the 6 to drop but battling Shaolong Gui with un-upgraded gear felt about as tough as most Sekiro boss fights… and I had to kill around 150 of them by the time I’d got everything I needed 😅.

The remaining 4 trophies should be plain sailing now tbh… as long as I haven’t missed a missable elemental ring (which is possible tbh) but… what a ride!

Bad news/Good news

Bad new: having finished off the farmiest-of-farms on Saturday, I was hoping to finish off the plat on this today but the upgrading system is the most confusing I’ve ever experienced and getting everything upgraded took pretty much all day.

Good news: I somehow managed to have not missed any of the missable elemental rings during my playthrough, I also somehow managed to eventually wrap my head around the upgrading system and eventually popped many peoples plat-blocker, the Treasure Hunter trophy.

I also managed to knock out a few more Cie’ th Stones at 5 stars too. So just 5 of them left, a Long Gui kill and 5 stars on the end-game boss and this 5 month long odyssey will be over 🫠

Man...
I rarely played my PS3 games after I got PS5 machine.
But I will find the right time to continue my PS3 backlogs.

And it’s all over! A week and a half of main story, followed by another 4 and a half months worth of the grindiest-grind this side of Monster Hunter… and Final Fantasy XIII is finally done!

The trophy guide states 100 hours but it was more like 300 for me. I do think I got a bit unlucky with rng drops but apart from that I’m not entirely sure where I could’ve made up the time. I mean… I’m always a bit over what the suggested time-to-plat states but never by over 200 hours 😅.

Good game though… much better than the general consensus. Loved the combat! And as someone who doesn’t really click with turn-based (FFXIII’s is actually somewhere in-between turn-based and action tbh… it’s difficult to explain succinctly) but it’s fantastic! I’ll look forward to more of it in Final Fantasy XIII-2 (which I hear is actually a better game too). Might not play it this year as I’d originally planned though, as this dragged on far longer than it had any right too and I don’t think that my palate will be cleansed of it for quite a while.

@graymamba Yay! Another epic platinum in the bag!
Congratulations and I am happy that you found the game enjoyable overall. It’s definitely one of those games that time has been kind to and seems to have held up better than what the initial backlash would have led you to think.

@Th3solution thanks sol… and yeah I think time passing has put the quality of the game into perspective for sure. It’s been the case with quite a few games I’ve come-late-to-the-party on tbh. Whether it’s down to devs going on to patch games after their initial release, or approaching games with lower expectations that the general-gamer had at the time (probably a bit of both), I’ve enjoyed the hell out of a load of games that were apparently big disappointments. 🤔 could be the birth of a new thread methinks 🤣

@graymamba I agree that’s an interesting subject to explore. I can’t think of a couple games off the top of my head which have had a renaissance, so to speak.

Back to the PS3 to (re)start my Dragon Age odyssey with Dragon Age: Origins today. I did play both it and DA2 on 360 back in the day but remember very little of it. Planning on playing one per year for the next few years until I finish the series.

@graymamba I’ll be curious if the game holds up.

I tried DA Origins and quickly fell off, back in the day. Skipped DA2, then enjoyed DA Inquisition for tens of hours (I can’t remember exactly but I feel like I played it for at least 50 hours or more) until I abandoned it. Always meant to go back to it but it’s too late now. I have Veilguard on the 2nd or 3rd tier of my backlog, so we’ll see if it ever gets played. 50-50 chance. 😄

@Th3solution well… it’s aged… a fair bit more than I’d anticipated. Runs poorly too… but thankfully it still holds some charm. Regardless of its issues though, it’s making for a nice change of pace from what I’ve been playing lately.

Inquisition is probably the one I’m most looking forward to tbh, so glad that you clicked with that one. And for all the negativity pushed out there about Veilguard, it certainly has its fans too, so I’m pretty intrigued by that too tbh.

@graymamba Origins has definitely aged in more ways than one, but at the same time I still think it's well worth playing today because of how good the characters and story are. That can keep a game relevant even when certain aspects of it age.