Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@RogerRoger awesome 😅

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’m knee deep in other things so I haven’t had time to get any more gaming in.
It’s been a while since I played RDR2, but I remember the part you’re currently playing. Are you enjoying the sandbox elements and the life sim aspects?

Been sent home from the office as a colleague has got covid… got my test booked for later this afternoon but in the meantime let’s try and get a little ahead of schedule on that backlog…

@RogerRoger cheers bud 👍… just re-ordered Just Cause 2 btw on PS3.

@colonelkilgore @RogerRoger I've said this before about the Just Cause games, I've never finished one as I always ended getting a bit bored of doing the same few things over and over. A game which has a lot of explosions and CHAOS, I should find endlessly fun.

@JohnnyShoulder You're not alone. I played through Just Cause 2 this past Spring and I was going in expecting a long story. But it was really short and the focus is more on the sandbox experience and causing mayhem in creative ways. It succeeds in that regard, it's just not my cup of tea, even though I managed to finish it. I enjoyed it overall, but the focus on doing repetitive side missions isn't exactly my idea of fun in an open world game.

I played Far Cry 3 right before JC2 and that game was much more to my liking in terms of an open world experience. Great story, fun missions and there were plenty of things to do in the open world.

@JohnnyShoulder @LtSarge I get you both, what’s worked for me in my situation is though, I did a massive chunk of 3 back in 2017, before moving on to something else… so now I have most of the story done but over half of the map to liberate. So it might be that it’s the perfect game to have a month on, take a break for a year (or 4) and then come back and continue from your save.

@Th3solution Eating and sleeping are going to be major parts of this gaming experience, I can already tell, I have already had to eat a fair deal to keep myself alive, always on the lookout for supplies for that, as for the sandbox elements, I haven't had much of a chance to explore the open world as of yet, but I am expecting that to change now.

@Th3solution Without wanting to sound too nosy, what are the other things you are "knee deep" in?

@colonelkilgore Don't think I've ever gone back to a game after that long away. If I've stopped playing cos I wasn't enjoying it, I'm most likely not even of thinking about the game after that long. And if it it is on disk, I've probably traded it in by then. The longest I've left it is probably about just short of a year with Assassin's Creed Origins, and I stopped playing that because I got distracted by other games at the time. I'm generally trying not to that so much these days.

@LtSarge Good point, I've enjoyed the Far Cry games a lot more and managed to complete more of the games than the Just Cause ones. They do tend to suffer a bit from the so called Ubisoft formula, but I've never found that as I always space them out to stop them from feeling as stale.

@JohnnyShoulder fair enough… we are free to game in whatever way feels right for us.

I remember that I really enjoyed playing Just Cause 3 back in the day but after liberating the first two ‘insulas’ (major areas) that I wasn’t up for liberating the third (& much larger insula) at the time. I was always planning on returning to it… though not 4 years later! Other games got in the way as is always the case and I may never have ended up returning to it if it wasn’t for a mate who needed a hand with one of the few online (though not multiplayer) trophies.

Glad I did though as after all that time off it feels as fresh as I’d did the first time and is an absolute joy.

@RogerRoger lol Just Cause 2 was probably up there with Oblivion and Skyrim as the most hours logged on my PS3. Cleared the entire map first time out, then a few years later I pretty much cleared the map again on a subsequent playthrough.

All being well, I’ll plat Just Cause 3 at this second bite of the cherry… and I’ll then come back for Just Cause 4 in a year or two.

@colonelkilgore I really enjoyed JC3 when I played it a few years ago but I also got nowhere near 100%. Getting full rating on every challenge was also ludicrous and one of my biggest criticisms of the game was how incredibly slow the game was at loading, especially if you wanted to retry a challenge and then had to sit there for 30s to a minute while the game reloaded it.

@Thrillho @RogerRoger yeah 5 gears on every challenge will be the decider no doubt.

@colonelkilgore Wasn't saying anyone was right or wrong in the way we approach our games, or anything along those lines. Just saying that is how I do it, that is all.

@JohnnyShoulder lol… and I wasn’t saying you was 😉😉

@TheBrandedSwordsman Mostly I’m busy with some work projects and having to do a little travel. I have some optimism that tonight I’ll have the mental energy left to dive into some gaming. But some days I feel too wiped out and prefer some passive entertainment like TV or going for a walk.

I’ve still got FF7R on deck, so anytime after I finish either Returnal or Plague Tale, I’ll be ready to put a new game in the rotation, but as long as you continue to enjoy it and want to see it through to the end, RDR2 will have you busy for many more hours. I think my playtime was in the neighborhood of 80 hrs.

I forgot — have you played the first RDR?

@colonelkilgore I think my playthroughs of both Persona 4 and Persona 5 had a multi-year break in the middle (although I don’t think quite 4 years, but maybe 2 or 3). And I ended up enjoying both games immensely. For me, longer games with similar gameplay loops are tough to make all the way to the end completion without drifting away for a little while.

Edit: I just confirmed with my trophy list and actually both Personas I was about 3.5 years between first trophy and last trophy. It looks like for Persona 4 I took two year long breaks between sessions on the game. There’s a group of trophies then a year later another group of trophies, then a year later another group of trophies 😅

@Th3solution yeah definitely how it’s been for me with this… I was considering starting it over from scratch but I honestly think I’d get to around the same point and feel burned out again, where as this way, I’ll finish the game and I’ll be left with a pleasant memory of it. This could be the way forward on longer games.

@Th3solution I think I will want to see RDR2 through to the end, I haven't played the first one in the series but know that the second is meant to be kind of a prequel to that game, so, yeah, i'm not missing out on anything story-wise. Anyway, go ahead with FF7 Remake, then hopefully you'll still remember it clearly enough to guide me through it by the time I come to it after RDR2!