Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

Beyond: Two Souls

Despite loving Heavy Rain and being an Ellen Page (at the time) fan, I skipped playing the game because it seemed to be a very divisive game. I remember there being a discussion on here about the game not that long ago and I said I would finally play it sooner or later.

That day came on Tuesday when I started it. It will likely end up falling behind Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain as far as Quantic Dream games for me, but I am enjoying it so far. I've only played it for a couple of hours so far, so I can't give a detailed opinion of it yet other than that.

@ThereThere I have a feeling that ME: Andromeda, like Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin’s Creed Unity, is probably not as bad as we were led to believe. The launch state just killed it from the outset and it seemed to have never recovered. Such a fall from grace.

Another less drastic example is BioShock 2 which I’ve recently been playing. I had heard bad things about it on the heels of being the follow up to one of the greatest games of that generation, but playing it now it’s actually not horrible. I’m not the biggest fan of FPS but BS2 is a pretty decent game.

Sometimes wrong @Thrillho? I think the only game I've agreed with you on is Yakuza 0... Otherwise I've not enjoyed anything else like NieR:A, Yakuza Kiwami, FFVII...

Really? Only 50 hours for the plat? That... seems rather low @Th3solution. Especially as you seem to like to take your time a little more with games compared to me. Either that or the second and third acts are over much quicker then the first. 😄

I'll be honest @RogerRoger (and this certainly isn't a brag or anything) but I had easier and a much less frustrating time with the Souls games then I did with those 15 hours of Ghost. I died at least as many times as I had hours. Probably more 😅

I get and totally understand the whole "maybe it's not the right time" thought. Happened plenty of times before with titles.

But I dunno... The fact I have a big ol' problem with the control scheme itself and think it's a bit of a mess & over complicated (Like why couldn't there have been a weapon wheel instead of some thrown items on R1 and then the bow and some other stuff on L2 or whatever?) and that I don't think the combat itself works well unless it's a 1v1 situation...

It's just very annoying when I happen to like everything else about the game and there's just one big ugly elephant in the room I can't overlook ya know?

Especially when I've played harder games or stuff with more complicated control schemes and playstyles and yet here's Ghost waltzing in making me feel like a four year old

@HallowMoonshadow I’m not at home so can’t confirm with my console (I wish I could check playtimes on the app) but it seems like it was 50, maybe 60 hrs. I could be mis-remembering though. For me the time flew by.

But yes, you’re right. I do tend to play games very slow. 😅 I’m a hopeless case.

Regarding the difficulty, or rather the lack of innate intuitiveness, of the game for you — I know how you feel. Not with GoT per se (I was able to adjust and enjoy the combat fairly easily) but with other games, especially of the first person variety, I’ve always struggled to perform the movements and input with the level of ease that the average player seems to pick them up. It’s like with Tetris Effect that we were discussing around here recently - I simply ran out of skill to be able to get past a certain level of difficulty. My brain and my fingers just don’t respond like everyone else’s when it comes to that.

@HallowMoonshadow Fair point. Ignore list updated.

@ThereThere Yes, you’re correct about BioShock 2 — The director and creative mind behind the original (and also involved in the progenitor System Shock series) was Ken Levine, who was not involved at all with BioShock 2. He did come back on board for the third game, BioShock Infinite.

I think the fandom dismissed the second game mainly because Levine had nothing to do with it. It actually has really solid reviews, but the game carries the albatross of perhaps not being considered canon for the series without Levine’s input. So I have been prejudiced against the game but have now played it (not quite finished it) by virtue of the Game Club and it’s pretty good, all around.

I think you’ll enjoy the series. I still feel like Infinite is the best of the trilogy, in my opinion. The games (especially the first and Infinite) are highly philosophical and political, so part of the strength of the game is in the messages and interpretation of a fallen utopian society. So your milage may vary depending if you like your games to get into ideology and ethics. As far as FPS games go, the games are fine, and gameplay isn’t necessarily earth-shattering, but is plenty solid for me.

Edit: And ME:A seems to be a reasonable game too, but there was a lot of bugs on release, if memory serves. And it just was never going to live up to expectations after the original ME trilogy. I’ve avoided the game but recently feel like maybe i should reconsider giving it a go one day. We’ll see.

Youtubers Life 2
Have reached Autumn seasons, still working on getting NT codes to continue the storyline.

@ThereThere I think it was @LtSarge who played Andromeda in the last few months and said they really enjoyed it.

I had no problems with Bioshock 2 myself. I quite enjoyed the different approach the game took to Rapture and the different combat abilities you had. I think at the time it suffered from the hype after such success of the original.

And then Infinite had such a different setting and brilliant storyline (one of those few endings that really stick with you) that it is more fondly remembered.

@Thrillho I appreciate you remembering my review given it was like six months ago since I wrote it.

But yes, @ThereThere I think Andromeda is overall the best game in the series. If you'd like to read my review of it, here's a link: https://www.pushsquare.com/forums/retro_and_other_gaming/user...

Or if you just want to read my summary of why I think it's the best game:

So as an overall package, I found Mass Effect Andromeda to be the best game in the series. While I didn’t like the story as much as in Mass Effect 3, the game delivers much improved character interactions, more open worlds with lots of things to do in them and a massively improved gameplay system.

Did you get round to checking your playtime for Ghost @Th3solution?😄

I've started up Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition after ditiching Ghost.

As I said in the WAYPTW article

I'm a bit disappointed about only being able to make a human but it makes sense that was one big area of improvement for the sequel with Elves, Dwarves, Lizard people and undead options for character creation (and I can honestly only hope the next Divinty game adds more).

I was surprised that you get to make two characters here though so I made a mage with Fire and Water magic and a Rogue with dual wielding. Can only hope the party members I'll eventually get can help balance my duo out further...

It's especially interesting playing this game second thanks to the sequel showing Source Hunters in a much more negative light throughout it with your character being a Sourcerer and thrown into jail.

My duo in this on the other hand are Source Hunters so I do wonder if the shoe is going to drop and reveal they aren't as noble as an organisation as they may seem or if Source Hunters are shown in a much more heroic light throughout the entire game.

Either way it's an interesting switch of perspective!

I'm already having fun though having met a magical talking clam called Ishmashell. As you can probably imagine there was a Moby Dick reference in his first line too

Pretty good time so far!

Still playing Youtubers Life 2.
I have cleared two main quests to get NT codes, have accumulated more than 600K subscribers, reached 9th position from Top 100 Youtubers.

@HallowMoonshadow Boy was I way off. So according to my PS5’s statistics, I played a total of 84 hours of Ghost of Tsushima. 😮
So I significantly underestimated. 😅

But I did spend a few hours with the multiplayer expansion Legends. Maybe 3-4 hours or so. So my platinum time was a lot closer to 80 hrs than 60 hrs.

Good to see you’re finding enjoyment in DOS I. Maybe one day I’ll finally get around to playing DOS 2. Or maybe DOS 1, depending. I wonder if you’ll end up feeling it a better game than the sequel. Based on how much you liked DOS2 I think that will be hard task.

@Th3solution And the PS5 statistics on the Games page is usually off too, so maybe you played it even longer than that. It's usually lower than what the game itself says if it tracks that in game.

@LtSarge Blimey, was it 6 months ago??

I just remembered it as it was interesting to hear the opinions of someone on the game after it got slated so much at launch. I’d almost pulled the trigger on buying it in the past but your thoughts renewed my interest.

But now I’m a 60fps snob I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to it as it stands.

@KilloWertz Yeah, I am fairly suspicious of the time played stats the PS5 gives. It’s good for a rough estimate, I guess. I think it does sometimes overestimate the time also, as it must count time while paused in certain games. Some games don’t actually “pause”, you just have the game running in the background when pulling up the menu.
According to my PS5 my BioShock 2 playtime is 44 hrs so far and I’m not even done with the game. Probably I’m 75% through. That’s a game that usually take people less than 20 hrs to complete 😅. I know I’m slow, but I think I’ve had more than my average use of pause and suspend mode for the game.

Youtubers Life 2 PS4.
I have finished 3 main quests to get NT codes.
Still working on Ziggy quest as I have to take 5 photos on specific random people with hashtag that being a trend on that day and upload the photos to InstaLife.
Also, I have built relationship with Robin until heart level 6, tried to flirt him and I kissed him. 😘

@Th3solution Yeah, it is indeed better than nothing even if it is usually wrong.

I have seen it basically forget I was in the middle of playing a game before. An example of that would be when I was replaying Assassin's Creed Origins a little while back, it had said I had last played the game about 55 minutes ago even though I was in the middle of playing it. I can't confirm, but I'm assuming it stops counting it then, which would obviously be a big reason why it shows a lower total than it should sometimes. You are right that it probably counts time in menus, but I've never really paid close enough attention to see if they overestimate. In the end, we both know that the counter is basically a relative guideline.

@Th3solution @KilloWertz Last night, I finished up a session on Hitman III and noticed that, according to my profile, my total time spent in the game was 47 hours, which pleased my inner nerd no end. Strangely enough, after tidying up some screenshots and answering a PSN message, I quickly returned to my profile and it'd dropped back to 46. I agree with you both, some idea is better than no idea at all, but those stats are all over the place, and definitely can't be trusted with 100% accuracy.

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@HallowMoonshadow Apologies; seems I missed your specific reply about Ghost of Tsushima from earlier in the week. When I logged back in yesterday, some of my notifications were out of alignment, which suggests that somebody deleted some posts. Wonder who it was.

Anyway yeah, I'm real sorry the combat didn't click with you. That's quite a bold claim, that you've found some Soulsborne games easier to play, or at least less frustrating! It's weird because, like you, I had to take a break from Tsushima, but it wasn't because of the combat and (as you know) I'm the first to run from a challenge. That being said, I do recall having to stop and think about my weapons and loadouts, and having to consciously consider which shoulder buttons to press, on more than one occasion, so it's possible that, objectively speaking, Jin really does have a cumbersome control scheme. I guess it's something that I was eventually able to overcome. I did mix my stealth with some all-out assaults, though, and you said you were trying to maintain pure stealth wherever possible, so perhaps that gameplay variety kept me from thinking about things too closely? Because the one-on-one duelling did work well, I reckon.

Yep the PS5 count includes time in the game app, so that includes even you pause or in the main menu it but I don't think when you suspend the console and are in 'appear offline'. Whereas an in game count will usually only include time actually playing the game. I'm pretty we have been through this before, as I'm getting a sense of deja vu! 😂

I thought the combat in Ghost of Tsushima was fine. It took a bit to get used too, but I was soon clearing out whole camps. Think I played a mixture of stealth and all out hack n slash, just to mix things up a bit.

@JohnnyShoulder We've definitely covered the errant time-tracker before, you're right, but I'd never seen any of my time totals go backwards 'til last night!

We should have a time-tracker for how much time we've spent discussing the time-tracker.