Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@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.

@N1ghtW1ng Wait, was Return to Arkham not 60fps? I could've sworn it was. Hmm. Wonder what made me think otherwise? It's been a while, mind. Oh well.

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.

@Pizzamorg

We park our cars in the same garage. 🤣.

@Pizzamorg Well, you are either an alternate account for @LN78 or there’s some consensus to what you say because two of you have similar sounding opinions. 😄 But seriously, it’s understandable. There’s actually several people who have criticized the writing.

It is amazing to me how we can all see things so differently sometimes. But when I think back on the early sequences in question that you mentioned, I can see what you’re saying now in retrospect, but it didn’t seem to bother me at the time when I was playing. But then on the other hand, I’ll get totally triggered by things in a game that other people just look right past — like how I can barely even control Leon in RE4 such that the game is pretty much unplayable so how can this be the greatest horror game ever? …Or how the voice acting for Transistor was so grating that it ruined the game… or that the story for The Witcher 3 just didn’t seem all that great and didn’t hold my attention, not to mention Geralt is pretty insufferable as a character. 😅. People look at me like I have 3 eyeballs when I say some of these things, so I can totally understand the “why all the praise? why don’t people notice this glaring weakness? It’s terrible!” reaction.

Insert Spider-Man pointing meme here 😂

Given the somewhat necessary evil of this moment to allow a second game a reason to exist, maybe if I had some distance between me and Part 1 I would have less issues with this and take it more on its value of function, rather than being some great moment for the story.

However, Part 1 is so fresh in mind, so I can't help but notice all the flaws in the execution of this, both in the context of Part 1 and also just in the context of the fact that it is poorly written in general.

@Pizzamorg I have to massively disagree that the part 2 is poorly written, people not liking the outcome has lead to a massive cry of poor writing and a cheap shot at an easy revenge story. I was as traumatised as anyone when the scene in question happened but poor writing and shock value for just shock value sake are not exactly what Naughty Dog where aiming for, the whole point as you explained earlier how Joel looked like A monster in the recap was that is exactly how Abby seen it, she doesn't know Joel so why would she think he is this Hero.

I totally understand that everyone felt close to Joel and Ellie, we only spent an entire game forming their bond and getting them through some pretty impossible situations so that attachment to suddenly be ripped from you is in my opinion a stroke of genius but as @Th3solution eluded too its almost as wonderful that we all see something different and that's what's so good about gaming there's something for everyone.

I haven't got to the end yet, so I can't say.

In regards to your justification around the reframing of Part 1's ending, this would have been fine if this was Abby recounting this to one of her group. Spinning the story like some evil man just walked into the hospital and started blasting while laughing maniacally to himself.

But that wasn't the scene. This was Joel recounting to his own Brother. And sure, you could make the reading that Joel is carrying a lot of guilt about this so he twists the story in his own retelling, making himself seem more evil and violent than he was, because this is how he feels.

But if that is the intention, that isn't conveyed well by the game to the audience. Well it isn't conveyed at all. And if that is the intention, then it requires the audience to do the heavy lifting to connect the dots here, which to me still makes the writing bad.

@Pizzamorg I am interested in whether your thoughts evolve throughout the game or not, if you decide to continue. And it’s no spoiler to say that I really have no idea how you’ll get along with the middle and late game. Some people completely stop playing the game at the point you are currently, which is fine and if you feel strongly then it might salvage your opinions of the franchise to abort now. To continue the correlation, I ended up dropping Witcher 3, and I’m certain I’d grow accustomed to the aspects I disliked in the first 6-8 hours that I played it. It’s not an exact 1:1 parallel with your situation, but I guess I’m just saying that a game’s lofty reputation doesn’t mean you have to suffer through it if it feels a waste of time… Although I do have a little dangling FOMO on W3 and plan to try the PS5 version some day. But I digress…

Anyways, I’ll refrain from saying whether things get better or worse regarding these writing issues in Part 2, but should you persevere, at least the game’s pretty to look at. 😅

I deffo fully intend to finish the game @Th3solution, even if I am absolutely hating every second of it by some point, I feel like I need to see it through to the end. I'm very much of the opinion that Part 1 still exists, so if this absolutely stinks, it won't make me feel less about Part 1, which is one of my favourite games ever.

If need be, I will just huff on that copium and just pretend Part 2 doesn't exist. They certainly make that easy for you at least, as so far it feels so far removed from Part 1, I can easily treat it as some sort of Elseworlds story. In the main timeline Joel and Ellie moved to Tommy's settlement and lived happily ever after.

@Pizzamorg Yeah, my suggestion would be to endure and press ahead, so I support your unwavering commitment to see it through. The game is pretty long however, comparatively speaking. Maybe twice the length of P1. Perhaps future story beats and gameplay elements will win you over, but there are no guarantees. 🤐 Even though I am big fan of the game, there were many times it was hard to play, if that makes sense.

@Pizzamorg The only real thing that Part II ends up doing, at least for me, is chip away at the impact of the end of Part 1 knowing what is to follow for the characters. It's still a great game regardless, but I did notice that when going back to it via the PS5 version last year.

I'm in the same boat as you in regards to Part II other than the gameplay, which that along with the technical aspects of the game is what kept me going when things really turned to crap in the second half of the game's storytelling. The biggest difference from Part 1 to Part 2 is the fact that Neil Druckmann had full control over Part II, while he was kept in check in Part 1 since it was a collaboration between him and Bruce Straley. I wonder what Part 1 would have been if Neil had total control like the TV show credits make it seem like (completely removing Bruce from existence).

Endure and press ahead, or endure and survive?

That does make a lot of sense. I feel like we see this so many times.

@Th3solution @Pizzamorg There's nothing more I can really offer at this point (I've made my feelings on "Part II" abundantly clear on the site often enough) except to say that this is all incredibly fascinating as meta-commentary, having just completed/abandoned my own most recent playthroughs of the games. Oh and that the writing in "Part II" gets much, much worse as the game goes on. Sorry. Couldn't resist.😉.

Well don't worry, I won't bore anyone by making the same repeated criticisms over and over again (although I may clump it all together into a single package for the review thread at the end), but I will pop back into here if I get to any more ***** (and also stuff that I like, of course). If either things are meaningfully unique from things already said, anyway.

I honestly feel like I've written more about Part 2 than I did for like the whole of Part 1 already, and some of that is just that its easier to talk about sequels since you have something else for context, but I also didn't expect the game to assault me over those first three or so hours like it did. If I play the next three hours and have nothing to say at all that hasn't been already said, I'd feel like that was success.

@Pizzamorg Very true, and I also think that the ending of Part 1 being altered at the beginning of Part 2 was more in line with what Neil wanted it to be. Obviously I can't confirm that, but it seems to be a reasonable assumption.

I look forward to seeing if a part of the second half of the game makes you almost quit the game too and if the ending is as awful for you as it was for me. I guess the former will depend on how attached you are to Ellie and if you end up hating playing as Abby, but I won't say anything else about it to avoid spoiling it.

@LN78 I also find it fascinating to read differing takes from my own and compare and contrast my own experiences. Sometimes the polar opposite views are the most intriguing. But I’m sure the community at large is at the over-saturation point with TLoU, so I also hesitate to encourage further discussion. So either way @Pizzamorg if there’s foundational shifts in your line of thinking then I think it would definitely be worthwhile to read your thoughts. Or if, like you say, you just need to get some emotional injury off your chest as you go through. Sometimes it’s cathartic to expel a little vitriol (or praise, for that matter) to cleanse your chi when it’s been bombarded with a strong reaction to something. 😅