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

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.

Sonic Adventure. Got my PS3 out of the cupboard especially to play it.

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.

@KilloWertz yeah don’t get me wrong, I put around 8 hours in yesterday and plan on putting a similar amount in today… I wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t think it was worth it. I’m just surprised by how antiquated it all feels. As you probably remember, I spent much of last year playing various 7th gen games but I don’t think any of them have aged in quite the same way that this has.

@graymamba Yeah I do remember. And you are right. It is a game that has had some parts age kind of poorly, but enough of it remains timeless in a sense where it doesn't really matter. Unlike some games where they aren't easy to go back to anymore.

It doesn't hurt that Morrigan is one of the best female characters of all time.

@KilloWertz funnily enough I’m currently watching season 2 of Farscape, so when im not hearing Claudia Black play Morrigan, I’m seeing her play Aeryn.

@graymamba I have all the seasons on Blu-ray but never did watch it all.

Also, in other words, then you can think of her before she finally has started to look old-ish.

@KilloWertz never did find her attractive tbh… even when she was young. Real solid actress though, I’m always pleased when I see her face in a movie or hear her voice in a game.

@graymamba But if you never found her attractive, then why were you always pleased to see her face?

You are right though. I've always enjoyed her voice work in games and the bit of in front of the camera acting I've seen.

Been enjoying the dwarven quest line in Dragon Age: Origins today… in all honestly it might be my favourite portrayal of dwarves in all of fantasy (books, film, tv or games). They really took a deep dive into the dwarves, much deeper than with the elves etc. Between this and the mages quest lines, the quality is very high fair play.

Is Mafia 2 one of the best PS3 titles that ever released? 😱

I'm almost in shock how good it is (and how very KCD it is) and I'm already annoyed that I've missed an emergent moment and acompanying trophy 🤦‍♂️ (i'm less bothered about the actual trophy than the moment itself)

Basically, someone's car had broken down and the husband was shouting and being abusive to his wife so I gave him a good old smack upside the head. But I've now found out you can fix the car, and I guess... mechanically cuckold the fella 😂 that is insane (and 100% Vavra game design)

I did manage to do a main quest 100% right which meant disabling an alarm (unmarked objective) and not killing guards etc (the guy quickly tells you he'd prefer it that way, but it isn't written as an actual objective either) but as I was exploring every inch of the building anyway and the safe had a massive flashing beacon on it it seemed obvious to not open it at that point. This is what popped the trophy that made me peer into the trophy list and learn about the one I had missed earlier too.

God, it's a well designed and highly detailed little game. And I bet it's a fun little platinum for those that like that kind of thing too.

I believe Mafia 3 (which I liked for it's story much more than the gameplay/design of quests. Bad districts. Bad, bad design) had nothing to do with 2K Czech, but soon after 2K Czech was absorbed into Hangar 13 anyway, so I am really hopeful that there are some devs knocking around with experience from Mafia 2 working on the Mafia games from this point on.

There's just something so damn pleasing about the game design, and if The Old Country has even a bit of this type of game design, on top of the writing, themes and tone, that have always been consistently strong through all 3 titles, it's going to be a good'un.

My advice to all PushSquarers: Stop what you're doing and play some Mafia 2!

Timeless classic

It's actually funny looking back at reviews of the time, vs players today enjoying it. I think at the time everyone was hung up on it not being GTA, a massive open world etc, but now here is this game that you can just rattle off a chapter of and enjoy it for what it is. It's kind of refreshing and it's good points far outweigh any limitations it may have had.

The Dragon Age: Origins replay continues. A very different experience this time than when I played it back on 360 at release… still enjoying it (more than I was initially expecting to be fair) but damn is there a lot of plates to keep spinning to get this plat 😅. Just finished what many people consider to be the buggiest and most annoying trophy in the game where you have to kill 1000 darkspawn. Now that might not seem a big thing but I’m right at the end of the game now and was only on 276… and there’s only so many more opportunities to get those kills. I literally spent my last two sessions farming one spot between an auto-save and a quest update. It’s a minor nightmare tbh because all logic has to go out the window as there is no indication that these kills are actually being counted… and even if they are, I don’t think my ps3 can count anymore 🤔. But after an incalculable amount of runs it finally popped ‘thank the maker’.

@Ravix I played it back when it released and quite liked it iirc… I enjoyed the remake of the original a fair bit more though if memory serves. Have you played the Mafia remake?

@graymamba yeah, finished Mafia I remake recently. I liked it, it looks pretty good as a remake, but there's just something unexplainably more pleasing about 2. It's just all the little details, I think, and it gives me more KCD vibes than Mafia 1. You can definitely see the ideas formulating on how to make the games more engaging with a bit more player freedom (kind of) it's not like it's an RPG or anything, but it has the same kind of spirit as one, I'm finding. I would love to have seen a full on Mafia (2k Czech) RPG.

Mafia 2 (judging by where I'm up to) also looks like it's going to have a segment "off the map" which is kind of a KCD calling card too. Where you are confined to one area and the open world is taken away from the player for a while. And for me, I love that in game design. And I know some people (impatient players) hate that kind of thing, so that makes me like it even more 😛

Will you be partaking in Mafia The Old Country at launch, or backlogging and playing in 7 years time? 🫣

@Ravix I was one of the minority that was pretty disappointed to hear that The Old Country wouldn’t be open world tbh. I’ll probably still play it at some point… but not in any crazy rush, so I doubt it’ll get played by 7 years time 😉