Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I do like the Souls games and Nioh but I got to Headless Ape last time and just didn’t feel the urge to succeed. It’s silly to go straight back to that file so I’m just starting again and seeing if I can appreciate it more, now that I’ve played everything except Demon’s Souls. For whatever reason, I still can’t hear voices though after checking loads of different settings. I’m beginning to think I have a dodgy disc but that’s fine, I have subtitles anyway.

Started Yakuza 0. I've not done much with it, just roughed up some people and did some karaoke, but I'm really liking what I'm seeing of it so far.

@crimsontadpoles Roughing up people on the streets and singing karaoke is only the half of it lol

Wait until you get to the phone sex minigames or collecting the trading cards that unlock softcore porn videos

Beat horse man on my first try in Sekiro. His attacks were a bit odd and completely missed me most of the time and the firecracker was hugely useful. I had more trouble on the giant thingy and bigger samurai earlier. Now I’m not sure whether to push ahead or attempt to get a bit further in the estate place. Still not sure I particularly enjoy the gameplay and it does seem to be missing a soul (ha ha).

@TheFrenchiestFry Lol. I can't not collect any trading cards in games, so guess I'm getting those videos then.

Yakuza 6, Mafia 2 and 3

@crimsontadpoles Enjoy! It’s a bit heavy on that story in those first couple of chapters but opens out quickly. Are you a newbie to the series? It’s where I started with the games and it’s certainly a great starting point.

@Thrillho Yes I'm new to the series, but eager to play more of it.

@crimsontadpoles I still have 5&6 to go but the whole series is great fun.

As I’ve said on here many times, Zero is a real high point as it was made much later (it came out ten years after the first game and between 5&6) so it really knows what it’s doing by that point and does an excellent job of being accessible to newcomers but with plenty of fan service for those who already know the games.

I think as long as you space the games out and appreciate the quirks of the older games for what they are, then the series still holds up fine.

Finally got around to playing Celeste, I love it - beat the game, got all the strawberries, now onto the thumb-destroying B-side levels. All this platforming is destroying the rubber on my ageing DS4 thumbsticks, but there's no way I'm replacing them now, they will have to survive two more months until DualSense comes along with the PS5...

Hitman Definitive Edition, there is much replayability!

@NeuralDeclan You can get thumb grips which slot on top of the thumbsticks. Only cost a few quid too.

Still going through my second playthrough of Dark Souls Remastered, I am soul farming in Darkroot Garden, in the Grave of Artorias, specifically. Stat-wise, I am at 50 Vit, 40 End, 35 Str and 31 Dex (the most important stats, I find) .Levelling Str & Dex up to 40 each before I can move on & brave the horrors (design-wise according to some opinions and literal according to others) of the second half of the game.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Good luck! I can’t quite remember how far I got with the game as I bought my PS4 midway through it and never went back to finish it.

I also ruined the game slightly for myself by using the Drake Sword (the one obtained by shooting off the dragon’s tail) which meant I never focused on building my stats appropriately.

@Thrillho Can't you start afresh on PS4 with Dark Souls Remastered? Apparently the Drake Sword becomes irrelevant around Sen's Fortress time, so that's probably a point you didn't make it to (about halfway through the game, well, almost). I am going on to Bloodborne next (for the second time as well).

Started Cuphead yesterday.

Really love the Fleischer/Rubber hose animation style and the soundtrack is wonderful of course. The bosses are all very vibrant and really seem to fit that 1930's style of cartoons. Even the names they give to the levels evoke that era to me

Bit surprised how well I did to be honest against the bosses (With only an extra heart and no other weapons or skills) and managed to get through them (and only them) on the first island in just over half an hour.

I've actually found the run and gun levels a bit harder so far, though that's probably just because it IS the starting area and I was trying to see if I could get through those platforming stages without taking damage (That seems a bit impossible at the moment!)

I really didn't like the initial control/button set up though... Felt very off to me so I ended up switching that up to take advantage of the shoulder buttons more.

I also played some more Fall Guys last night with a lot wider stage variety then my previous goes through it.

... I did pretty badly at that though to say the least 😅

Though I did finally manage to make it through slime climb.

And there was a smidge of Danganronpa 2 though not really enough to comment on anything about it besides finding out that walking raises your Tamogotchi like pets faster then running and after 3 or so snakemi pets I finally bothered a bit more and got something quite different 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy The run-and-gun levels bring it down for me. I like the bosses and I’m certainly glad I’ve beaten it but those levels erred slightly too far on the side of ‘frustratingly trial-and-error’.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Wow, 3 virtual pets already? I think I only had 2 Snakemi by the end of the main storyline. I did run everywhere though, which makes it slower to raise them.

Glad to see that you seem to be having fun with Danganronpa 2 and Cuphead. And very well done on reaching the end of Slime Climb, that is a very tricky stage.

I've never actually played a run 'n' gun like Contra or Metal Slug before so I'm not familar with the typical difficulty or how they should play in the slightest...

... but I did certainly retry those first two Run 'n' Gun levels in Cuphead a number of times @nessisonett! 😅

I've ran/walked everywhere in Danganronpa 2 compared to the first game where I did use the map rather freqently to jump to the various points of interest.

I've also taken longer routes to destinations purposely to raise up the virtual pets a bit more. Probably why I've gone quite a bit faster in raising them compared to you @crimsontadpoles 😅

I did also use my first bit of free time this chapter with Peko which was certainly interesting and kinda adorable in it's own way.

I'm trying to balance out the free time sessions with two boys/two girls each if I can to get a nice spread of events this time around rather then focusing on one or two characters like I did in Trigger Happy Havoc. Helps that I quite like the general cast a bit more from the get go so I'm more inclined to do so.

And cheers! Only took like six/seven attempts to finally through Slime Climb... Those beams are awful but hopefully I've got the hang of them now

Got back to Final Fantasy VII earlier and found myself playing for quite a big chunk of time. My motivation had been stuck in the mud for a while, so I decided to get myself un-stuck and keep going until I'd seen some major plot points unfold.

Part of what I played included my second trip to the Golden Saucer, and featured what I now realise was the game's romance mechanic. I say "now realise" because, whilst playing, I had no idea that Cloud was on a date with Barret; I just thought it was a Japanese RPG being weird again, but then a trophy popped and I mentioned the sequence to a friend, who confirmed that it's near-impossible to get that outcome without trying really, really hard to alienate the female characters. I don't know what makes me look worse; that I naturally stumbled into it, or that I'd previously renamed Barret "Big Daddy".

Otherwise, things are going well. If I said everything made sense to me, I'd be lying, but I'm keeping track of enough so that the major moments don't fly over my head. Now that I've adjusted to its antiquated presentation (kinda regret not playing it on PSone, as I'd imagine the disconnect between the polygonal objects and JPEG backgrounds wouldn't be as obvious) and told myself that it's okay to use cheats on the more challenging fights, I can settle down with it okay.

Best bit thusfar was the Cosmo Canyon sequence. It dumped some much-needed exposition on me, and fleshed out one of my favourite characters (with a backstory that would've been cliché even in the 90s, but I'm not complaining). The music was good, too.

Also, this had me laughing for a full minute, because it caught me totally off-guard.

So yeah, things are progressing, however slowly.