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

@Zazu yeah I’d be okay with wide-linear… though I have my doubts it’ll even have that level of scope what with the somewhat budget price announced. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see… but even if it does turn out to be extremely linear, I’ll probably still end up begrudgingly playing it at some point as I like third-person shooters.

@graymamba @Zazu

I seem to recall reading it was still the same kind of design as Mafia 1 & 2. But I'm not sure if it was developer talk or fan assumptions, so I won't state it as fact.

If they create the island and you can ride around it, but there is only ever one "next mission" it would still be cool. Although saying that, considering the Jungle segment in Mafia 3 (dlc?) was still really good, I think they could pull off the more linear style too. But I can't imagine the open island having invisible walls, or virtual stop signs like the Yakuza games. So if you have to go from A to B between tasks you'd assume you can go any way... maybe?

I too liked Mafia 3 more than most seemed to, but I definitely noticed the drag with the districts locking off progression. And the side content quest type was incredibly low quality. (DLC was better)

I'm still hoping for there to be a legit full fat Mafia 4 in development, too, but I don't think I'll cry if there isn't. It'd just be really, really nice if there was 😂 It is slightly strange that this one has the subtitle rather than the number though. It could just be to try and encourage new players, but I feel like they mentioned "the old country" a lot in the first two games, so it is probably something they always wanted to show which suggests it will written in a way that rewards Mafia 1 and 2 players more than newbies, with some tie ins or nods to those games at least.

@graymamba This is why I am glad I don't care about getting platinums. Whenever I do replay Origins (I played it back on my Xbox One X I believe) when I replay the whole series before I play The Veilguard, I expect to still enjoy it more consistently than you seem to have.

@KilloWertz we all take our satisfaction from where we can get it, I get mine from spinning metaphorical plates as a supplemental to simply gaming. When I simply gamed without considering trophies (basically 1983 - 2017), I was very casual and found I’d struggle to click with much, falling of most games out of boredom well before rolling credits. The meta of trophy hunting helped me connect with pretty much everything I play these days. Horses for courses 🤷‍♂️

@graymamba It's fine. You do whatever you want of course. It would take the enjoyment out of it for me to be doing things I know that are really annoying just to get the platinum, but we all are different. It honestly doesn't matter what I say.

@KilloWertz thanks… I’ll now return to spinning my metaphorical plates, which I’d placed on hold waiting for your say-so that it was okay to proceed 😉.

In all seriousness though, the things you see as annoying I don’t. When I get to a point where I have to farm a spot for a spell doing the same thing over and over, I actually find it quite meditative. Just stick a podcast on and drift away. The minor nightmare was more the uncertainty of whether what I was doing would actually work… which it ultimately did thankfully.

@graymamba @KilloWertz
I too am a trophy hunter, I do it for self satisfaction as I (mostly) don’t brag about them or are in any competition with other gamers.
Most games arent too much of a grind but if I like a game then I want to be pushed into playing it again, perhaps in a different way or difficulty (eg last of us on grounded is a totally different experience to easy/normal.

But whatever floats your boat I guess.

@CaptD yeah definitely more of a self-satisfaction thing for me too rather than a competition with other gamers.

I kinda treat every game as a new project (my psychological placement on the spectrum has always really engaged with the project mentality), so I always go through the same modus operandi of researching a game, then the trophy list, identifying any potential stumbling blocks like missables, difficulty-specific, multiplayer etc.

Then I map out my longterm plan of action to optimise the use of my time, including short term goals at the end of each sub-stage of the overall journey. It’s definitely not for everyone and am well aware how that would sound like the most boring thing in the world to many… but it works for me and I appreciate the aspects of planning and preparation almost as much as the actual game itself.

Going back to the Ratchet & Clank Future games and they bring me back such nostalgia, I wish they got ported physically to PS5, they are so good, but in the meantime having a blast with them on the PS3

Blue Toad Murder Files. A nice little detective game. I'll get 100% trophies for it before the week is out.

So, as I mentioned elsewhere… I’ve started Final Fantasy XIII - 2 today and think I’ve made some decent progress (it’s hard to tell really). I really liked the original XIII (mostly down to it’s combat, which finally won me over in regards to turn-based stuff) and the combat is much the same here with a nice tweak involving monsters/enemies that you’ve conquered and recruited. Not sure I like it quite as much yet but I’m thinking that is due to still being relatively low level and consequently having low-level battles.

The story has thrown me for a complete loop! It’s like some major things have happened between parts 1 and 2 but gives no insight into what exactly (yet 🤞).

As ever the OST is brilliant. I remember thinking that FF music was a bit cheesy and laughable when I played my first one (XV back in 2020) but I love it now. It’s still a bit cheesy… but I love hearing the different renditions of the melodies that you’ve heard in previous games.

All in all… a decent first sesh.

Managed to get a bit more Final Fantasy XIII 2 in today and am finally starting to feel somewhat oriented with travelling between locations and times. Still enjoying it but not sure if it’s falling a little short of the original for me… at least at this stage.

Anyone here has any experience with cloud streaming PS3 games from a modern device? In my case PC, but I assume that's no different from the experience on PS4/PS5 with it. I've always been incredibly interested in Puppeteer on the PS3, but I do not own my old PS3 anymore, yet have recently learned it's available on the PS Plus tier with cloud streaming. I'm currently not in a building which has incredibly high-speed internet available, often maxing out at about 7 - 10 MB/s in terms of download speed. Has someone been in a similar position and had good experiences with the cloud streaming? I'd love to finally get my hands on it and give it a fair shake! It seems like a forgotten gem from everything I've seen and heard about it, and absolutely up my alley with its stage-play presentation.

@Tjuz I have been streaming PS4 and PS5 games to my Portal and a few times to my PS5 and it works quite well, actually. I was just commenting over on the Portal article that the cloud streaming is really stable for me and better than expected. Not perfect, mind, but definitely playable for most types of games. I would assume that a PS3 game would be even more streamable since the graphics and files are less complex. My internet connection is decent though. I think I have 300-500 MB/s download speed.
You sure yours is 7-10 MB/s…? That sounds awfully low.

I have played and completed ps3 cloud streaming games even when i had 5mb ADSL the key is a wired connection with such a low speed any fluctuation in wireless signal would effect the game so a stable wired connection is a must

@Th3solution It was about 7-10 megabytes yes, but in megabits that would be around 56-80 if I did my math right. Paying premium Berlin prices only for them to still skimp on the internet connections... wouldn't expect less from my landlord! There's actually been a change in provider leading to maintenance in the last week, which seems to have upped my maximum speed to 100Mb/s, but so far it also keeps going down for short moments on regular intervals. Not very compatible with streaming, but I hope that'll get ironed out still in the next few days assuming they're still working on the internet in some way. If (and hopefully when) that does, I suppose it's worth giving the streaming a shot despite our speeds being wildly different! The fact that you had good experiences with it at least means that the tech is there. Just up to my internet to realise the potential then, haha.

@trev666 Thank you as well for your thoughts! Sadly a wired connection is not currently possible in my apartment complex, but if you've been able to complete games with half the speed, I assume stability will be more the issue then. Gonna hope that that stability will soon return to my safe haven as I mentioned before!

@Tjuz I’m not very tech savvy, but I do think the stability of the signal is probably as important or more important than the raw speed. Do you have any trouble with streaming TV from Netflix or other streaming services? If that’s smooth, then maybe PS3 game streaming has hope.

@Th3solution Streaming has always been stable enough, with occasional issues. I always assumed streaming video games would be much more demanding though, with the ping being important and all that for smooth gameplay. At least I'd be trying out a platformer and not some type of Battlefield!

@Tjuz Yeah, ideally something that is narrative, walking sim, visual novel, or turn based would be safe bets. Quick reflex competitive games are definitely going to fare worse. The games I’ve been streaming are more along the lines of the narrative choice games (Life is Strange and Telltale types) and stuff like Balatro. Baldur’s Gate 3 works well too, given there’s not need for timing reactions. I tried streaming Dark Souls 2 briefly on my Portal just for kicks and it actually did fine but I couldn’t take the chance for a random lag to occur during a boss fight so really stuck with it natively from the console.