Topic: What PS4 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@RogerRoger If you enjoyed No Man's Sky but not so much the grindy feeling of the crafting and the procedural generated worlds, I say give Subnautica a go! It is a mid budget title, so the graphics can look a bit basic in places and there is some slow down occasionally (seems to happen when most often when you jump out of the water). But generally the game looks gorgeous, especially at night when everything lights up.
It feels more fun to play than NMS, as I've been having a good time just swimming underwater exploring. And there is a more consistent threat with some of the wildlife attacking you on sight or when you get too close to them. These are easily identified however, and you can usually swim around them. I've not been able to kill any fish yet, I have knife which only scares predators away but am unsure if you can later on. You catch some of the fish and then cook them for food or craft into water. Most of the materials for crafting are quite easy to find with only the rarer stuff like gold and silver you have go searching for, usually deeper underwater.
When you die you lose some of you items and are returned to your life pod. I think I've only died a handful of times at the most. As long as you prepare enough water and stuff you should be ok most of the time.
The game is very atmospheric and can be quite haunting, especially at night time. With headphones even more so and is a very immersive experience.

@RogerRoger I was thinking that last night when I was playing it, it definitely feels a more focused experienced than NMS. This feels like what that game should had been at launch, instead of 18 months worth of updates down the line. Once you fix the radio, you start receiving messages from other life pods which you can go to investigate. The data pads you find kinda fill in bits of the story but I've not interacted or seen anyone else yet. Strangely though I've not had the feeling of solitude much. But they was big story moment that happened last night that had me go 'WOW', something that NMS lacked.

@RogerRoger I'm curious, why won't you ever give Heavy Rain a chance? I gave up as I didn't like the controls.

If you like Detroit Become Human, you should give Beyond Two Souls ago too. I know a few people didn't like it but I thought it was ace, if not without a few faults.

@RogerRoger Ah fair enough, I never made it that far. The two later games control a lot better, but the stealth sections in Beyond I found a bit of a nightmare

@RogerRoger @JohnnyShoulder I need to play Beyond TS at some point, it sounds. I enjoyed both Heavy Rain and Detroit, especially Detroit. I finished HR once, and didn’t go back to experience other storylines, and I’d say it was a good narrative experience, weird controls and less interesting characters notwithstanding. But definitely the tone is a little bit grim and I’m glad Rog that you avoided it in favor of Detroit, which is far and away more polished and better imo.

I've just started playing ESO as an wood elf nightblade. Some of the quests make it feel like a proper single player game at times. It's not as polished as FFXIV but it's still good fun and as ever the music is fab.

I played Injustice 2 last night after watching a Suicide Sqaud animated flim. It's good fun, although as it's been so long since I last played it it has taken me a bit to get back up to speed with story. There should be a recap option for lapsed players such as me lol.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Great update! Thanks for that. It’s just what I was wondering about the game. And your thoughts show the game to be about what I expected. Good, not great. I enjoyed Shadow of Mordor about the same .. in the 6-7/10 range. So I’ll leave this one on the back burner until I feel impelled to jump into that world. Let me know if things change upon your completion because sometimes a well executed ending can propel the entire experience, especially from a narrative standpoint.

Just entered the Penitentiary in Batman: Return to Arkham Asylum. My first time playing any of the Arkham games, and while it's roots as a last gen title show through every once in awhile, I'm really into it.

Despite not being overtly violent/gory (there's no blood effects in the combat, for example), it does a fantastic job of making you feel uneasy thanks to the atmosphere (the Medical Facility creeped me the heck out, lol).

@RR529 Oh man, I started playing Arkham Asylum on Friday and for me it is the 4th or 5th time. I adore the game.

Continuing the Batman theme, I played a couple of hours on Batman AK last night. It was fine but has not clicked with me yet and i did not have that feeling that I must play it again. I've done the 3 wanted missions in the area and seen Oracle in the clock tower. Not sure what to make of the batmobile so far, it handles a bit too loose for my liking. And if all the Riddler missions are batmobile based I'm not overly keen on doing too many of those. I do really like using the grapple hook however, I'll probably be using that to get around for the majority of the time. I've also been reading the graphic novel which is set before the events of the game. I've not finished those yet but it has helped with some of the background stuff.

I think part of the reason it has not clicked with me is that I'm deep (quite literally lol) into Subnautica. I almost stopped playing it last week as i was finding it a bit mundane. But played on the next day and found a new area which resparked my interest. I've not progressed the story at all, but these types of games are not all about that. Instead I've been really getting into the mechanics of the game, especially the exploring and crafting which kind of compliment each other.

So I've managed to build a little one man submarine which speeds up traversal greatly. There were areas which I hadn't been back to as I couldn't be bothered to go back. Now with the sub I'm going back to those areas and doing a bit more exploring. I've also built an underwater base, which allows me to upgrade my sub, have more storage amongst other things which I have not fully played around with yet. I've never been that keen on base building in games and I hated it in Fallout 4. But I have enjoyed it in Subnautica so far. It is not without a few problems however as I spent about 30 mins trying to build something only to find out I didn't have enough of a material. To be fair it does tell you how much you need of the materials, but I think it could have been clearer as it still allowed be to start building but not let me finish it. Anyway, there have been quite a few instances like this, but I suppose it is purposely obtuse being a survival game. It feels like I've learnt loads in the game over the last few days, and had great feeling of accomplishment when I crafted my sub and built my base up.

@RogerRoger Tagged in as you showed some interest in the game earlier.

@RogerRoger No worries about not tagging me in the Detroit thread, you and TheSolution had all the bases covered and I would have chimed in if felt I could add anything to the discussion.

Good to hear about Batman AK, I see how I feel about what I want to play next when I'm finished with Subnautica.

Crafting feels a bit more streamlined than in NMS. You can basically collect most resources by hand, there are only one or two items that you have to chip away at and it does not feel as laberous as in NMS. You then go back to base and 3D print your stuff.
Building once you have the tool, you just select what you wanna build and where, and your are good to go. There are restrictions like you can only build certain buildings on a flat surface, but there is also foundations which you can build which solves that issue.
The gameplay loop which works for me is to go exploring/scavenging and then back to base and craft whatever I can. Sometimes I go just scavenging for a particular resource such food or a particular material I need for a building. But most of the time I'm combining exploring/scavenging and I have a mental checklist of what I need to look out for.

@RogerRoger Yeah that was another reason why I've kept playing Subnautica, especially with how hot it has been this week!

Right now I'm playing Tomb Raider and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Surprise, lol.

@RogerRoger XD Thank you! Believe it or not, Tomb Raider was my first game ever.

@RogerRoger Glad to get you back on the right track then, heh. Happy raiding.

Think I'm getting close to the finale of Batman: Return to Arkham Asylum. In my last play session I beat the Poison Ivy fight, and it looks like I only have the final showdown with the Joker left.

I have about a dozen or so collectables left to get, so I'll probably try to mop those up first. I'm afraid it may be impossible for me to get them all though, as I'm apparently missing some Joker Teeth in the mansion, but after checking all the rooms twice over I can't for the life of me find any (it doesn't help that they're the only challenges that don't show up on the Riddler maps).

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Tokyo RPG Factory can't make a great game to save their life. I thought Oninaki's theme and setting were interesting, and I like the XC2-esque ghosts you can collect and use, but otherwise, the janky combat, low-rent presentation, and weird lack of music didn't really impress me.

I might still get it one day, but only when there's a deep sale.

If nothing else, it's more interesting than I Am Setsuna or Lost Sphear.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, Tokyo RPG Factory's output seems to be regarded as fairly mediocre by most people I talk to. A lot of us were hoping Oninaki would be their breakthrough game, but... that's not looking like it's going to be the case.

Played the first two chapters of Until Dawn and since now it has been a costant yawning. Zero gameplay, wonky controls, stupid jumpscarrs and annoying characters... Let's hope it gets better soon.

EDIT: Well, chapter 3 and 4 were surely better! Now that everyone is in danger, they are are way more interesting especially since they stopped their stupis chatter!