Topic: PS4 recommendation thread

No Dark Souls III is my favourite actually @Th3solution 😄 I'm not too keen on Bloodborne myself because of the lack of build/weapon variety and I enjoy the dark fantasy/medievally setting a smidge more the victorian setting. Not a bad game by any means though. Just not my cup of tea.

As for your question... When I was playing through Code Vein in December & January I did say I found it a lot easier to play through myself. It would probably be a good way to warm yourself up to the souls mechanics again sol after being away from them for so long.

As @colonelkilgore says though the combat is a little floaty and I think that's partialy down to some of the team comprising of people who worked on the God Eater games? (Which is bandai namco's anime Monster Hunter series if you weren't aware) from trying the demo of the third GE it did have some similarities in how it felt (along with a few other things).

It's ultimately up to you. I enjoyed my time with Code Vein and I believe @nessisonett did too. Code Vein won't light your world on fire but I found it a solid entry and I appreciated there was a bit more of an upfront focus on the story/narrative compared to souls and the backstories of the all the characters getting a little more fleshed out too (Even if the characters aren't anything particularly special).

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it and came out pleasantly surprised. I'd say there's a solid base there to be built upon for future installments too (If Bandai Namco ever stops pumping out anime arena fighters 😧)

Plus it has that lovely photo mode Sol!

Dark Souls III is obviously the better game of course (Better level/world design, setting and combat) but I'd say Code Vein has it's merits! I'm hopefully gonna start actually writing a review for it soon... But uhh... Don't quote me on that 😄

@colonelkilgore Yep, I also go for two handed greatswords on bosses but one handed with a shield for mobs. It’s too easy to get murdered while out and about without a shield.

@Th3solution You could just play the game and see if you like it? You might be over thinking things a little and making it more complicated than it actually is. It might be a tad overwhelming at first, but it will be no matter how much you deliberate and help you get before hand.

Start a game, if you like it continue to play it. If you don't like it, stop playing and move on to something else. It should be that simple.

@JohnnyShoulder But that’s too logical! 😛

But yeah, at the end of the day, that’s what I’ll do. I do try to give a game like this plenty of breathing room to warm up to; I’m certain that the first hour isn’t going to be a particularly stellar experience, so will plan accordingly.
My next game was going to be something else but the peer pressure has gradually moved Dark Souls 3 up the list 😄, so I’m just going to follow my mood. I haven’t had game time this week anyways. Hopefully tomorrow.

@Th3solution good to know my peer pressure skills are still effective, haven't dusted those things off since the 90's 🤣

What would you say about Control Ultimate Edition on PS4, people? @Th3solution says it's performance is allegedly spotty on PS4, but I am hoping the Ultimate Edition addresses some of those technical issues. How does the difficulty compare to games like Uncharted 4?

@TheBrandedSwordsman The performance on PS4 actively makes the game experience worse. I probably remember more about the issues I experienced than the actual game, which is a real shame. Might be better to wait for a PS5!

@TheBrandedSwordsman I didn't think the PS4 version of Control Ultimate Edition offered any performance upgrades over the normal edition? You get all the dlc but only the PS5 version has the technical and performance upgrades.

@JohnnyShoulder @nessisonett I reckon I will wait until I can buy a PS5 then, thanks guys!

Days Gone completed. I'm now looking for what I should start next before Mass Effect is released.

I have a good few options I will give my pro and cons and would appreciate any feed back in to some of these games.

The next 3 on my list are

Resident Evil 2 Remake - Love Resident Evil but after my last 2 games being TLOU2 and Days Gone I'm on a bit of a Zombie burnout. But I've heard its about 10 - 12 hours to complete and about 20 for the plat so it isn't to much of a time sink.

Death Stranding - Its probably a 100 hour investment and after Days Gone I'm looking for something not as heavy although I'm really excited to try this out but don't want to get burnt out on another long haul and give it up.

Final Fantasy XV Remake - Can't wait to play this, about 40 hours I hear so not overly long loved the original and I'm a big final fantasy fan especially for 7, 8 and 9. It's getting a upgrade for ps5 so could wait till then.

Also I have available

Tomb Raider Trilogy - Own all 3 and would probably want to play all 3 close together similar how I did with the Nathan Drake Collection with little brakes of sports or multiplayer gaming in between to brake it up.

God of War - Completed but want the plat, would require another playthrough though as I didn't transfer any data from my ps4 to ps5, con is that I've got alot of games in my backlog so this would be taken a new games place.

Control Ultimate Edition - Not sure how long it takes and not a game I've ever been overly excited by but the gameplay looks cool and it was on ps plus so will definitely give it a try.

Greedfall - Same as above

Persona 5 - Definitely want to give it a go but it's another 100 hour game

@MaulTsir Congrats on completing Days Gone. Your short list of choices for the next game has some really great ones and you probably can’t go wrong with any of them.
I’ve played all of them except Control, FF7R (I’m assuming the XV was a typo), and Greedfall and those 3 are also in my backlog too. Based on some impressions I’ve read, Greedfall is one I’ll probably skip unless I get really in a mood for it. And Persona 5 is one that I’m currently playing through gradually and have been for a couple years 😅.

If I were approaching this list and knowing you have 2 months (or more, depending if ME stays on schedule), I’d probably go with Death Stranding or Control. Death Stranding because it’s an absolute gem in my opinion and although it can take 100 hours, it’s probably more like 60-80 depending on how much you want the platinum. I never grew tired of it in my 80 or so hours with it, although I fell short of the platinum a little bit and mostly just heard the beckoning call of my backlog so I didn’t pursue the last few trophies. The only bad part is that it is technically a horror/thriller game and although it’s not zombies per se, you may want to save it since you’ve had your fill of that. It’s also open world, which you’ve just finished one of those. (RE2 is also a favorite of mine, but I can see the issue there with zombie overload)

Control would fill a void since it’s different from the genre you’ve been playing. It’s quite a bit shorter. And although you don’t have a particular interest in it, I think it’s worth a whirl since you have a PS5 to play it on. But like I say, I haven’t played it myself so hopefully it’s not garbage. 😄

TR would also be a great break from zombies, but it might be tough to squeeze them all into 2 months, but you could probably do it. And honestly it might be a little much to play them back to back and you might burn out on them — they are less narrative driven than Uncharted and a bit longer games.

@Th3solution thanks for the input, yeah I did mean VII auto fill just finished it for me 🤣.

Looking on how long to beat I believe I could possibly get 2 mabye 3 completed, if I try control at about 15 hours, then final fantasy remake at rough 35 hours then Resident Evil 2 at about 12 hours I could get them 3 polished off, plus that gives me a break from zombies for 2 games and have a place for Death Stranding in between Mass Effect 2 and 3 to brake them up.

@MaulTsir That sounds like a good plan. And there’s a little flexibility built in that way and if you take longer on one of them then you can just delay it.

I will say that people are reporting that God of War plays almost like a new game with the PS5 upgrade. It might be worth a go at some point to try to get that platinum! 😛 But I hear you about the backlog — I usually move along because there are so many new games to play and experience.

Also, I keep hearing murmurings about a Death Stranding PS5 upgrade, if that makes any difference to you. Honestly I kinda doubt it will happen so I wouldn’t plan on it. Since Kojima isn’t a first party studio, I can’t see the incentive to devote time and effort into an upgrade.

Has anyone played Borderlands 3 and got some thoughts on the game? It’s on sale all the time and I was pretty hyped for it at the time but ultimately never got it.

Seeing as it’s one of a handful of games with a PS5 upgrade I’m tempted by it again now.

@Thrillho ooh, that is not a bad price for the "next level edition"... I'll have to look up how it differes from the previous ones though, becasue while I liked some elements of them, they never really clicked and I stopped playing them pretty quick (only had them from PS Plus)

@Voltan That version seems to just be the game with some extra skins so “next level edition” seems a bit of a generous name!

I played BL2 through to NG++ back on the PS3 and then got the Handsome Collection on PS4 and so played it again along with the pre-sequel. The Telltale game was good fun too.

I think BL3 came out not long after I’d played the Collection so I was a bit burned out with the games by then.

@Thrillho good to know but it's the only one on sale on PSN anyway

I tihnk I played the first one and the pre-sequel but didn't get far in either of them. Too much focus on loot for my taste, probably.

@Thrillho
If you like Borderlands gameplay and humour you will enjoy 3 - it's pretty much more of the same, though has introduced some new elements like climbing, which I wasn't overly fond of.
Personally I thought it was a bit too long for my liking - cant recall exact times but remember just wanting to see the end for the last quarter of it (though I was going for 100% and all trophies).

@Thrillho I’ve looked at Borderlands 3 before, having really enjoyed the first two, especially BL2. But it seems people cooled off to BL3 pretty quickly for whatever reason. Actually I’ve seen disc copies going for $20 or less for many months now. I agree the free PS5 upgrade makes it more tempting. I haven’t even played The Pre-sequel yet, so I wasn’t going to jump into BL3 until I at least tried that one. I’ll be curious what you think of you do decide to try it.

————

I think I might have asked about the Metro series before but I forget what was said. Obviously I decided to hold off on jumping in, but it continued to have a curiosity —
Piqued again by the sale now. A PS4 port of the older games Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light come in a collection called Metro Redux, which is on sale for $6. That’s $3 a piece, which sounds like a steal, I can’t even get a preowned disc copy of Redux for less than $15. The newer game Metro Exodus is frequently on sale too, now $20. I’m considering just getting the Redux collection and seeing if I like them enough to get Exodus, but I do understand the gameplay has evolved a fair bit through the trilogy. But if I recall correctly the story builds with each installment so it would seem important to play them in order.

Anyways, I haven’t a clue when I would get around to them, but for the cost of a couple tacos, two well regarded games seems like a good investment. Anyone recommend the series?

@Th3solution The Pre-Sequel is fine. It set up Handsome Jack’s character nicely as part of the story and is fine overall. The playable characters are all ones you come across in the other games (I played as Athena).

It’s mostly more of the same as BL2 with a couple of new features. Much more of it is in “space” so you have low G but also have to worry about O2 levels which is less fun. The humour is similar but with an Australian slant given the team made it are based there.

And reading players’ reviews for BL3 doesn’t sell it to me! Most of the time on that site, low scores are for non-gaming reasons but I had to go through quite a lot of well written negative reviews to find some with good things to say!

Thanks for your thoughts though @Sorteddan which are in keeping with the sort of thing I just mentioned.