Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@nessisonett Yes, suddenly it all becomes clear.

Although I'm sure the remake has a consistently-sized church going for it!

@RogerRoger Ah yes, the Midgar TARDIS, also known as Aerith’s church!

@nessisonett If anything the issues that Rog has with the original, the remake rectifies those mostly? It has its own set of of problems, but certainly not those.

@JohnnyShoulder I’m just not a fan of the Midgar scenario in general. It’s very longwinded and I always keep a save directly afterwards because I love everything afterwards. It’s probably because I had to play it over and over and over again when I was a kid, we didn’t have a PS1 memory card with our PS2. Complete overexposure, most likely.

@nessisonett Ha, I have similar feelings with FF8 as I had a “copy” of the game where the second disc didn’t work so I must have played the first disc four or five times before getting beyond that point. I’ve still only ever finished the game once.

@RogerRoger I look forward to hearing your thoughts as you go. At the time it really was a mind blowing experience for someone whose gaming exposure to that point was Sonic, Streets of Rage etc.

@RogerRoger This will be fascinating to read your impressions and experiences. Despite being a large fan of the game, your early thoughts are on target. As I think back on my time with game, as much as I really liked it years ago, I strangely remember very little about the story. That’s actually a recurring symptom of mine, but for a game this beloved, it really should have had a more impactful story. Weird.

But what I do remember is the setting, the addictive grinding, and the engaging strategy and exploration. All of these great attributes of the game have been much better realized in modern gaming however. It was my entry point for the FF franchise and was one of the earliest JRPGs I think I played. Having cut my gaming teeth on more action oriented series’ like MGS, Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo, and Crash Bandicoot, it was a departure to play FF7. I think, like you, it was just the hype and its place in gaming history and culture that drove me to play it. But it started an interest in a whole new genre for me, and afterward prompted me to devour FF8-FF13 with ferocity. Not to mention springboarding into the SMT and Persona games and a few other turn based JRPGs.

I’ll be really curious about your experience as a first timer to the game because A) FF7 is so aged and dated but also revered, and you do have a appreciation and tolerance for retro gaming, B) it’s your initial foray into the series and not a genre you care for, and C) I’ve often wondered how I would like it if I replayed it now. I have avoided doing so because I don’t want to tarnish the great memories I have of it.
Keep us posted!

I was going to play Watch Dogs 2 alongside Bioshock but decided against it in favour of going back to Tokyo Xanadu eX+ first. It’s pretty decent, mostly standard Falcom in terms of OK gameplay but incredible world building. The gameplay’s really quite similar to Ys: Memories of Celceta which I did enjoy even if it was a little uninspired. It’s a shame Kratos isn’t here as he is a big Falcom fan and it would be good to get someone else’s thoughts on it. It’s not a bad game but I wouldn’t say that I’m fully enjoying it either, I just want to finish it as I don’t like leaving games half done, even though I’m really bad at going back to games.

I've been playing Conan Exiles. Really enjoying it and thinking about picking up a Conan hoodie online as well, great game. Endless possibilities.

@Arugula Cool, what do you like about The Witcher 3?

@Arugula Number 9?! Dang. I only played it once, though I did go for the full completion, so put in a few hundred.

I still get what you're saying, that I really appreciated being in that world with those characters. Yennefer and Geralt actually felt like friends in the end.

@Arugula Nine?? I don't think I've ever replayed a game that many times.

TW3 is one of those games I have gone to restart a few times, got a minute in, and then given up as I know just how long a game it'll be while new games are there waiting to be played.

I also have such fond memories of the game that I worry it won't be as great as I remember if I was to go back to it now.

Such an incredible game though and the DLC is the best I think I've played.

@Thrillho I played Tetris over 9 times!

@Thrillho @Th3solution Belated thanks for the interest in my FFVII thoughts, folks. I didn't get to play much over the weekend, but I got far enough to see the story start to take hold. My aversion to the gameplay is still there, and a certain poorly-explained boss fight led to a game over screen which very, very nearly triggered a "screw this, I'm turning the cheats on" outburst, but I took a deep breath and emerged victorious second time around. There was a decent chunk of interesting plot immediately afterwards, and I soon forgot my frustrations. I'm not sure it'll ever become the kinda game I can lose myself in for hours on end, but never say never, I suppose.

That being said, whilst I do try and keep retro games in context, I'd like to think that I'd have been equally disgusted by the whole Wall Market / Don Corneo section back in 1997. Cultural differences be damned, that was just gross and unnecessary and made me feel really uncomfortable. Fortunately I'd been warned about it beforehand, and knew that I could make it a short sequence; I skipped going into most of the buildings, and just focused on moving things along as quickly as possible. Yuck.

Happy to move rapidly on. Will get back to it a little later on this afternoon, and see how I go. Aside from one major moment (which I think everybody knows about by now) I have no idea what's gonna happen next, and so I'm busy forming plot predictions in my brain.

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@Arugula I've lost count of the amount of times I've played through some of my favourite games, but I'm certain a good handful of them will be far in excess of nine, so I'm not surprised at your revelation!

@RogerRoger Which boss is that you mention? There are some great moments still to come before you leave Midgar and the come becomes much more interesting when you’re no longer bound by the city limits.

@Kidfried Did you ever manage to get the good ending after nine goes?

As for me, I’m still mucking about with City Skylines and think the second city I tried is even worse than my first! I tried using more main roads through the city and creating smaller suburbs but it’s turning into a mess. I don’t know whether to try again or come back to it at some other point.

The other issue I’m having is that it seems to be one of a handful of games that really irritates my eyes. They get quite red when I’ve played it for any amount of time. It’s a little weird that only a few games seem to do this to me.

@Thrillho It was Reno I was referring to earlier, and the fact that I accidentally discovered that I could shatter his pyramids by attacking my own squad second time around; at first, I figured they were just temporary status effects, not permanent prisons. Having the nearest save point all the way at the bottom of the pillar didn't help, especially considering the high volume of random encounters in that area.

From the sounds of things, Cities: Skylines isn't exactly making you wanna study Town Planning, is it? Sorry to hear it's impacting your eyes like that. Are there lots of small details on screen at once?

@Thrillho Do you wear glasses? A trip to the opticians might be needed as it sounds like your eyes are straining. If you get headaches too that would be my first port of call.

@RogerRoger Fair enough. I remember the fight but it’s so long since I played the original now. That move is even more annoying in the remake!

And I am enjoy Skylines. Like a lot of these games though, it’s learning by your mistakes but then it’s the question of whether you want to start again or try to work with what you’ve got. The hard thing for me with these games is thinking ahead about incorporating stuff you’re going to unlock. For instance, planning districts around where your future metro line will be once you unlock it.

If anything, it’s making me look at town planning even more! What other people have achieved, especially on PC with mods, is pretty amazing. I struggle to figure out how to make a get highway junction that works and doesn’t look like an utter mess (it’s more fun than it sounds, honest).

@JohnnyShoulder No headaches. It’s only a handful of games that make this happen. I can play plenty of games for hours without problems but a small handful seem to make it happen. I don’t know if it’s the concentration, lighting, or colour scheme. I haven’t had any problems with other games recently.

@Thrillho I got really awful headaches with Control, no game’s made me feel physically sick before that one. It might be the motion blur, the camera movement or a mixture of the two.