Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I've been playing The Talos Principle with my wife, all about the puzzles with an interesting narrative running in the background. It's a fun game to work together, trying to solve the tougher puzzle rooms.

Solo, I've been jumping between Guacamelee 2 and classic Doom. Trying to finish Doom on Nightmare difficulty is a fun challenge so far.

@LieutenantFatman

This post has come around at a good time for me actually as the missus and I are just about to finish Bugsnax and are starting to consider what our next ‘together’ game could be. I picked The Talos Principle up from the store last week too, so I’m gonna suggest this.

@colonelkilgore
I agree with @Arugula that Until Dawn is definitey a good shout if you don't mind a bit of light horror. Firewatch was also a good one to play, and suprisingly, What Remains of Edith Finch was a decent shared adventure as well.

I find a big consideration for what works well as a 'together game' as you put it is pacing. So many games that would be perfect in theory, but fail as there's so much added busy work or mowing down thousands of enemies between story scenes that it prevents certain games from escaping from a solo only experience.

I found that the Resi 2 and 3 remakes worked quite well as they're so atmospheric. FF7 remake would have been pretty good but they throw in so many extra boss fights it drags on a little too long at times.

@Arugula

Cheers for the suggestions, never even heard of the Powgie games but just googled them and yeah I reckon she may like them. I like the idea of the Supermassive games too, might save one of them for Halloween actually.

Thanks @LieutenantFatman , good suggestions all. The little I know of Firewatch makes me think it could be a good one for us. Think puzzle solving is far more of the missus-pace than defeating enemies but I’ll put a list together with some context for each and let her decide.

I've played a few more missions @RogerRoger (And I'll no doubt play some more later today) and it certainly hasn't stopped being good so far. Seeing as Mafia is a linear game and only about 10-15 hours, and I'm about halfway through already (I think), there's not a whole lot it can get wrong in the remaining half... Hopefully! 😅

Quite a few of the missions so far had been a bit on the short side of things with only one goal/objective so I was pleased now that Tommy's part of the crew and becone more trusted with the family it threw a couple of longer ones at me including one with a car chase in the middle of a stormy night which was quite enjoyable!

I might throw a couple of shots into the screenshot thread...

Made a bit more progress with Code Vein, beaten the Successor of the Breath which was pretty tough but mostly because I use a massive sword and it’s quite a fast boss. Absolutely no clue what’s going on with the plot but I’m having fun.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Did anything put you off about Code Vein? I’m just curious because I’ve been following your and @nessisonett ‘s playthroughs and you mentioned taking a break from it. Made me wonder if you ran into a hard boss that discouraged you. Likely I realize you’re probably just mixing things up in your gaming for variety like most of us do, but you tend to be more singularly focused than most people when you are getting along well with a game.

Edit: oops, never mind. I just re-read your post and realized you just are taking a break because Mafia dropped in unexpectedly. I assume that means you still are liking CV. 😄

I’m kinda tearing through Dragon Quest XI S as well, played 2.5 hours and just went through the Door of Departure. It’s been great so far, despite the strange worse graphics. Decided to give the Luminary greatswords this time which worked out better for me as I went past where I left it last year no bother. I did try 2D Mode but the implementation of it is so god-awful that there’s no point. Looks like the 3DS is the best place to experience that.

@nessisonett

Are you playing the switch version? Yeah I started the game on my Xbox one it’s definitely a hard game to put down honestly. I got up to the part where you need to help the guy with the bridge and he got turned in to a dog. I thought the graphics were really good on Xbox one. I know there a bit worse then vanilla, but I looked at graphical comparisons and honestly it isn’t that big of a graphical difference.

@TheOtherEden I’m playing on PC and the graphics are noticeably worse than when I played the base version on the same machine. It’s not a big deal, it’s mostly a layer of blurriness and worse pop-in.

Ha ha no worries @Th3solution. I'm a bit behind @nessisonett in Code Vein as the Christmas holidays did slow me down, then I've then been preparing for heading back to work the past few days and Mafia of course then fell in my lap.

I did get a little stuck against a boss called the Gilded Hunter in CV but the last attempt (Only my 5th or so) I got far enough to see how his second phase works so when I do get back to it, it'll be smooth sailing.... hopefully 😄

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Ok, thanks for the updates. 😄 I still hold some fleeting interest in the game and thought I might put it on deck, but the way things are going it will probably be a while.
You have my curiosity piqued for Mafia now too, by the way. I have Mafia 3 in my library from PS Plus, but I’ve avoided it due to thinking the games should be played in order. And then I read that Mafia 2’s remaster is atrocious, so that’s given me pause about committing to the franchise.

I played Mafia: Definitive Edition straight off the disc @Th3solution without updating it at all to V1.04 (I figured what would be the point if it's only going to be on my console for a few days at most?) and it's ran perfectly fine.

I noticed a couple of graphical glitches here and there but other then that it's played surprisingly well unpatched. And that's especially pleasing after hearing the mess of Mafia II's remaster like yourself (Though I'm sure that's been patched up by now).

Last Of Us 2 and The division 2. The last of us 2 I'm about 25 hours through and I'm really enjoying it, the story so has been good, gameplay is a little upgraded from the first can't wait to finish it but at the same time really don't want it to end.

The division 2 is just to mess around on when I need a break or just want to jump in to something mindless for a quick game, don't play many multiplayer games anymore but enjoying this

Still really enjoying Dragon Quest XI S, just got the twins and in what looks like a New Super Mario Bros desert world. This is probably an unpopular opinion but... even with the orchestrations, the music’s not very good. I mean, Dragon Quest has never had as good music as other JRPG series but I always put that down to Sugiyama’s weird soundfont he uses for every single game. It’s kinda grating though, the battle theme is one of those ones that you get sick of a few hours in. I don’t think I ever got sick of the Final Fantasy VII, Persona 3 or Skies of Arcadia battle themes. It’s not a big deal as the game is great and the individual stories are still as good as the rest of the series but it’s a bit of a downer on an otherwise excellent game. I did the first of the Tockington 2D sections and it was surprisingly brilliant even if I absolutely despise the 8bit DQ battle style where you have to put in every single party member’s move in before the enemy attacks.

Turns out my son didn't just borrow Mafia... But the whole Mafia Trilogy so I've given Mafia II:"Definitive" Edition a go.

Why is this game so damn big? It's 56GB... That's the biggest game on my PS4 (The biggest of my whole collection in fact bar DOOM 2016) and it's a barely touched up port of a PS3 game!

This is patched too and the performance isn't exactly great on my slim. The framerate isn't terrible slidshow levels or anything... But it stutters and dips enough in the open world whilst driving (I've even noticed it walking/running) for me to notice that it's not smooth.

The control scheme isn't all that great either but that's more due to it being 10 years old. The traffic AI is practically none existent too and they'll just happily crash into you unless you're blaring your horn.

Tommy wasn't exactly groundbreaking as a character but jeez Vito's like a plank of wood with how uninteresting he is... Even his voice actor sounds bored as all hell playing him and I'm really not invested in him or his story.

As for all the other characters? Not very likeable in the slightest. I think Joe does the voice of Phil (From Hercules) in Kingdom Hearts?. The cast of Mafia 1 weren't great people... But they had charm and good performances at least.

I've played up to chapter 5 and even with 25% of the game already beaten with just over 2 hours of playtime... I don't think I'll bother going any further.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, Mafia 2 felt like a bit of a step down for my mum too. She’s far more interested in Arkham Asylum at the minute. Vito isn’t that great but he could get better perhaps as it went on? I dunno, Joe is no Paulie either and my mind is filled with horrible flashbacks of GET UP ON THE HYDRA’S BACK whenever he opens his mouth.

Oh lord I was trying to forget that gem of a line @nessisonett

Paulie was a fun character in mafia 1 and Sam was pretty good too... I was quite a fan of Ralphie as well and always checked in on him when I could.

Not even taking in the awful porting/remastering job on it Mafia 2 feels badly paced like that first level/chapter in sicilly that's only 5 minutes long (if that) that kinda feels outta place.

Oh well... Back to Code Vein for me

Dragon Quest XI really is brilliant. I knew my years of holding out would pay off! I’ve played 18 hours now, just reached Sylv’s hometown. I’m slightly concerned by the way localisation seems to have butchered Sylv’s character but I do love him. It’s also hilarious to see how they’ve translated Dragon Quest’s signature dreadful accented characters into fully voice acted dreadful accented characters!