Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

I always though Survive was supposed to be a decent game but is a slightly niche genre, with MGS fans put off by the fact it’s not Kojima (and with lots of reused MGS5 assets) while the Metal Gear name probably put off others.

Is there much of an online component to it @RogerRoger or can it be pretty much played offline?

@RogerRoger 🤣 he is indeed

@RogerRoger My experience with the survival genre is limited. I remember enjoying the Mother Base diversion in MGS5: TPP. Beyond that, I dabbled in Subnautica a couple years ago, played a little bit of the Conan the Barbarian survival game (I forget the exact name of it), and tried that little game Don’t Starve. Each time I only made it a handful of hours into it until I gave up. I think I enjoy them; they play into my obsessive-compulsive tendencies of organizing and strategizing, but they time-sink it what really kills it for me. They seem to take forever to get ramped up and so fail to keep my attention. But I’ve always been fascinated and allured by them. I’ve come close to trying Arc Survival when it was given away with PS+. But I just don’t have the time to devote to the genre. I do better when survival mechanics are lightly sprinkled into a more narrative and action epic, like in Red Dead Redemption 2. You were supposed to feed yourself and collect food for the camp, but no one died if you didn’t. So hunting and fishing were there if you wanted it, but could be mostly ignored if you didn’t.

I think it will take a beloved franchise to pull me in. Metal Gear is definitely tempting. The fact the servers may shut down soon is going to be the death knell to giving it a try, it seems.

@RogerRoger I forgot about No Man’s Sky (ironically forgotten since I was surveying my PS5’s memory drive last night and was tempted to finally delete it off there… as it turns out I left it on. One day maybe! 😅). There’s definitely the supply gathering part of things, and some worlds have that oxygen and temperature monitoring mechanic. So chalk another one up to “survival games I didn’t stick with”!

And that’s so funny, in a “great minds think alike” sort of way, that I was wondering if Star Wars could pull off a survival game. I’m surprised it hasn’t been done!

So I’m going through the backlog & I’m playing Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 & DMC:4 special edition.

Ninja Storm 4 is just fantastic. CC2 are the best in the biz when it comes to anime -to-game adaptation. I would have loved to have seen their take on Final Fantasy 7 Remake- that launch trailer with Jiraiya doing the voice over is unforgettable.

I don’t know why but DMC4 is just bad? The camera is the hardest enemy there is. Nero is alright, but give me Dante any day.

Also it’s funny to me that both games use the controller mic feature.

Not posted in a while.
Took a break from GT7 (sorry GT crew) and have been dividing my time between Elden Ring and Judgement.
Elden Ring brilliant but need a break after 25 hours. I’ve enjoyed Judgement as my first Yakuza game, but I’m not really seeing what the fuss is about. Characters are quite well done, but the gameplay is so basic. Fighting is janky and incredibly easy so far. The gameplay while doing story mission is mindless, everything is so clearly signposted I don’t have to engage my brain at all. Mini games are OK but not my kind of thing. It has been quite relaxing though, so I’ll keep playing.
Also been playing some NHL22 on EA Play. Very easy to pick up and play, really fun.
Since I’m enjoying the Last of Us TV show I picked up Last of Us 2, and have just started it.

@MB81
Well at least it sounds like you have a healthily varied gaming diet! I haven't booted up GT7 in months so should probably go check out the new stuff at some point. Also feel I should get around to TLoU2 one day, how are you finding it?

@sorteddan only an hour in, so not much combat so far. But the storytelling, dialogue and world building are top tier. Very much like playing a movie. Feels good to be back.
Picked up a used copy for about ¥1000 (£7).

@RogerRoger oops sorry for the late replyyy!
UNS4 has actual gameplay dialogue & some sounds playing through the microphone.
Each mission is split into parts, but they are all continues. It usually goes still or cutscene, followed by gameplay, then qte. They might repeat one or two after with longer mission. The narrative is constantly flowing as there’s no exploration (Adventure mode is unlocked after beating Story mode).
It’s an interesting take.

i was playing Mortal Kombat 10/X earlier today. was playing around in the Valentines Day Tower and some other tower

Unlocked Dark Emperess Kitana and the Kahnum Mileena outfits.

So after having having beating Resident Evil 2 twice I have Iam for that think is breif moment gone back to playing Uncharted 4 and GTA-V. Two games a started way back. After that I plan to again return to the action horror genre and a game Iam very much looking forward to play. Exciting times. Speaking of Uncharted 4 I feel its way better then its predecessor and the game I basically wanted and actually thought the first Uncharted games would be.

The missus and I started that Full Swing docu-series on Netflix over the weekend… and it has just left me jonesing for some golf action. So I started that PGA 2K21 that was on PS+ about a year or so back. Graphically I’m quite shocked by how bad it looks but it plays fairly well and that’s the most important thing.

It's been ages since I last posted on the Push Square Forum, but I think it's time to return. University has kept me extremely busy for the last year, and it will continue to do so for next 3 years, but I always keep up with gaming through Push Square, so I thought I would be more interactive and social.

I recently started and completed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (UDF) from the Nathan Drake Collection (NDC). I originally played UDF way back in January 2008 on the PS3 (I traded my copy of Assassin's Creed for it, and I think I got the better deal).

I can vividly remember the lush colour palette and the excellent water graphics. I enjoyed the gameplay quite a lot, being a big fan of third person shooters. At the time, I felt it was truly one of the first games to showcase what the PS3 was capable of (Assassin's Creed also fits in this category).

I completed UDF and then later in the year I traded my copy of UDF for Dark Sector (this time, I don't think I got the better deal). When the PS3 version was patched to support trophies, I reacquired a copy of UDF in 2009, and managed to obtain the Platinum trophy for it.

More than 13 years later, I returned to UDF, but this time on the PS4 thanks to the NDC giveaway a few years ago. I've played all the Uncharted games, excluding The Lost Legacy (currently in my backlog/library ATM), and I can honestly say that it's one of the franchises that I simply adore.

What I really appreciated about UDF on the PS4 is that the game runs at 60 fps. I feel it really allows the combat to be fluid and to be fun. The loading times were greatly improved as well, which was a blessing when compared to the PS3 version.

The game does look dated, especially when looking at the character models of the main cast, but it's not a big issue at all. UDF's story is simplistic, when compared to the later entries, but again, UDF was the first game in the series, so I won't be too harsh on it in terms of story.

What really suprised me is my reaction to that part of UDF which was polarising back in the PS3 days. It's the part of the game where the Descendants (undead/zombies) are introduced and the game takes a bit of a turn towards a survival-horror theme.

Originally on the PS3, I hated this change and thought it didn't really connect well with the game as a whole. However, during my PS4 playthrough, I actually enjoyed this section, as it allowed me to change up my strategy and the tension it introduces is, IMO, a nice change to the game.

Playing on the Crushing difficulty, there were some parts of the UDF which were quite frustrating (The Cistern and the courtyard from Chapter 6 being notoriously difficult for me). Mercifully, the final chapter was brief (but also brutally difficult) so in the end, I managed to complete the game.

I did some trophy collecting and managed to get the Platinum (again) for UDF. Overall, I'm quite happy I decide to start and finish UDF. I'm looking forward to replaying Uncharted 2: Among Thieves next year, especially at 60 fps.

@N1ghtW1ng I never played the first Uncharted game but beating any of them on Crushing is not to be sniffed at so congrats on that!

As you say, I can imagine these games feeling great to play at 60fps, even if the graphics don’t match the frame rate.

Horizon Forbidden West

@Thrillho; @RogerRoger;

Thanks for the replies guys. To be honest, I don't find Crushing to be extremely difficult in the Uncharted series. It's just really frustrating at times, and I think you need to keep trying new tactics to overcome the more frustrating/challenging sections. It's a test of patience and perseverance most of the time.

The remastered games include an even more challenging difficulty called Brutal, but thankfully it's not part of the main trophy list for each game, so it's not required for the platinums.

I played the Return to Arkham collection nearly 3 years ago, and I was bitterly disappointed that the games weren't 60 fps, so I'm really pleased that the Nathan Drake Collection is 60 fps.

Finally making my start on The Last of Us Part 2. Unlike Part 1 and Left Behind, I've never played this before (well I'd never played the remakes before either, but I played the originals on PS3/4).

APOLOGIES THERE SOME BIG ASS SPOILERS IN THIS I SHOULD HAVE WARNED YOU I AM SORRY I JUST HAD TO GET THIS OUT OF ME FREAL:

Gotta be honest, Part 2 is A LOT right out of the gate. Like, a lot.

After Part 1 deftly managed to go a whole game without really casting any judgment, literally in the opening moments of this they do away with this entirely with this weirdly reframed recap of the ending of Part 1. They have now twisted all nuance and context out of this to make this seem like the objectively evil choice, complete with ludicrous shots of piles of bodies in the hospital corridors (implying that all the sneaking I did in the last game was non canon, and Joel just shot his way through the entire hospital like Tony Montana), ludicrous zoom-ins to Joel pulling this evil looking face before he does anything, all of the aggression and incompetence by the Fireflies is now omitted on the recap, so it looks like he just handed over Ellie and then immediately started blasting his way through everyone for almost no reason at all and there are just other weird changes like showing a huge population of guards outside the Hospital, making it look like this well run core of the Firefly community, rather than the dingy, grimy, mostly empty, spooky hospital it actually was.

So Part 2 and I? Not getting off to a great start here.

Then Joel starts singing Future Days, and I'm just like... awww. I both loved the idea that Lightning Bolt might have been Joel's last ever album purchase, I love the nuance of what these lyrics can mean here in this context and the fact they don't need feel the need to explain to the audience which reading is the right one and I just loved hearing Joel sing, finally! I thought we'd never hear it, the gruff old dog.

But then Ellie doesn't really seem all that interested at all? Despite it being such a big thing to her in Part 1? I guess this is to like hint at how the dynamic between them has changed after the events of the Part 1 ending etc but I dunno, it just flattened what should have been a real special moment and I think I would have enjoyed this scene more if Ellie just loved this moment as much as I did, given she was the window for the audience for so much of the first game, despite you playing as Joel.

Also coming off playing these games back to back, both Joel and Ellie sound a little off, and I can't tell if that is an intentional decision to show the passage of time or just two actors struggling to get back into their characters after so long away.

I also loved exploring Ellie's room, all those little nods to events in the previous game or just little details we know about her character. I just love the amount of detail Naughty Dog squeeze into their environmental storytelling, and then stepping out into their settlement and stuff. Awesome stuff.

On a technical level, I was impressed. I dunno why I thought this given this is a late stage console title, which is usually when console games are at their best, but I thought after Part 1 this would feel like a huge drop off. It definitely doesn't look as textured and detailed as Part 1, I guess this is running in a lower resolution and is potentially being checkerboard upscaled? I dunno, there is just this comparative flatness to everything, I dunno.

I think part of this is to do with the lighting as Part 1 had almost raytracing like lighting and reflections and boy does that add a lot of dimension. The game is still gorgeous, and their art design and attention to detail feels almost unparalleled at this point.

It also feels smooth, but I haven't gotten to any combat sections yet so I'll have to check back in after that, but I just made a start on this, felt really overwhelmed and decided playing this after a long day at work is not the one, so will maybe try again tomorrow or wait for the weekend.

@Pizzamorg Great to see your thoughts on Part II. It had been many years between my playthrough of Part I and Part II so some of the things you mentioned didn’t stick out to me. But yes, the game can be a pretty heavy emotional roller coaster, so proper mindset is key. Remember this is the game that Druckmann famously said “games don’t have to be fun to be enjoyable” or something like that. 😅
I do think you’ll find some fun in it though. But yes, if nothing else, being able to admire the ND unparalleled attention to environmental detail is worth the investment alone.

@N1ghtW1ng Oh yeah congrats on beating the first Uncharted in the crushing difficulty nice achievement there. I think the game looks beautiful but unfounate feels kind of broken at times. That said I think the games improves.

About threeish hours into Part 2 now, got to that infamous death scene. And I hate this. I hate this so much. It feels like a complete betrayal of Part 1. And you could argue that Joel is older, and a different person, but surely his character could grow in other directions than just becoming a total moron? And that is ignoring how badly written this is just in a general sense, powered purely by contrivance and logic leaps. Just so, so, awful.

I get that after you go on a quest with literal world altering consequences that it is probably going to be hard to do a follow up, and revenge is probably one of the few ways you can avoid this feeling like either a downgrade or a retread, but the execution of all of this is just woeful.

And honestly the game up to this point hasn't been all that fun either. Changing back and forwards between two characters could have been interesting, but both characters just sorta feel like they are on filler arcs until their paths cross. I dunno why we didn't use this time to either learn more about Abby or spend time with Joel, to at least give something to that death scene. But instead we just faff about for two hours and then the game just takes a massive ***** in your face out of nowhere.

The combat also feels identical to Part 1. Like sure there are some new melee animations, you can go prone and stun enemies etc but none of it feels like it really transforms combat in any meaningful way. Even the dodge, I wished I had more mobility in Part 1, but instead of being like an organic dodge, its like this weird quick time event thing? Just feels really *****.

I just can't believe how quickly I was back to stealth killing Clickers in identical sequences I did dozens of times over already in the first game. I can't believe the takedown animation is still exactly the same every time (although slightly different for different characters, but each character still only has one animation) and my God, as cool as Ellie's was the first time it takes forever to finish. Kinda makes me wish there was an option to turn these animations off and the enemy just dies straight away instead.