Topic: Your Latest PS4 Purchase

Just ordered NiOh 2 for €20. I've honestly been hesitant on purchasing this game because I know there's a complete collection on PS5 with both games and all the DLC. However, I have no plans of buying a PS5 anytime soon and honestly, I don't know if I care about playing DLCs in games anymore. Most of the time when I finish a game, I just feel like moving on to another one even if it has DLC and I already own it. I feel like I experienced pretty much everything that game had to offer and the DLC is just more of the same.

Anyway, for €20 I feel like NiOh 2 is worth the price considering it's a 50 hour game and this will encourage me to start up the first one so that I can finally experience this series.

@LtSarge The first Nioh is an absolute monster at first, really hard to get into but steadily gets better until you get to the end and realise that it’s been a great game the whole time. The post-game is insane though, no clue how anybody beats most of those missions.

@nessisonett It's a Souls game, right? I've played the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne so I have some experience with those games. Is NiOh on that level of hard or is it even harder?

@LtSarge I’d say it’s harder than all the Souls games because it felt like it was harder to cheese. Easier than Sekiro though.

@LtSarge I thought the original was different enough though. It’s more level focused so there’s a bit more variety in locations but the type of enemies was quite limited.

The stance system is kind of the USP though as it means weapon type do feel really different but can also be used in quite a few ways.

As much as I enjoyed the first game, I never played the sequel.

@LtSarge I'm the same with DLC, most of the time I've purchased them in the past, I've not touched them. So unless I'm really eager to carry on playing the game after I've finished it, I don't bother with them anymore.

@nessisonett Well, I did cheese Dark Souls and Bloodborne a bit and regretted it afterwards so maybe this would be a good time to finally learn how to properly play these games with NiOh.

@Thrillho Ah I see, it definitely sounds different enough from the Souls games so it might be nice to switch things up and try another franchise. I personally really like the setting and the game overall just looks fun to play so I might have to give it a go soon.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I mean I'm not totally against DLC. I thought the DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey was absolutely phenomenal. But most games don't have as good of DLC as that game. For example, I played a bit of Wolfenstein 2 recently on PS4 and realised that the game actually has a season pass. But after doing some research, it doesn't look worth getting at all. I'm sure NiOh has great DLC but I'd honestly rather just move on to a different game.

I also just recalled another good example of DLC: ones that are integrated with the main story. I don't know if you've played Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Batman Arkham Knight, but if you bought the DLCs before playing the games, you could experience them alongside the main story. DLC that is pretty much indistinguishable from the main game is worth experiencing in my opinion because it might as well have been content that was in the game to begin with. But if you've already finished those games, then I don't think it's worth buying the DLCs because at that point it's already too late.

@LtSarge Yeah played both those games well after all the DLC was released, and you are right, I much preferred when the dlc was integrated into the main game. Strangely I did try out most of the challenge arenas in Tomb Raider, but didn't touch any of them in Batman.

@JohnnyShoulder As much as I enjoyed all the DLC from Batman: Arkham Knight, the themed race tracks which accompanied the various movie Batmobiles were my favourite. I do agree with you and @LtSarge about how DLC feels better when it's integrated into the core game, but there are some exceptions that allow for some really wacky, unique and enjoyable nonsense to take place that'd otherwise be at odds with a game's tone or style. Speaking of which...

@LtSarge I actually thought the DLC for Wolfenstein II was head-and-shoulders above the core game, which I found to be a crushing disappointment. If the core game was more like the DLC, it could've become one of my all-time favourite shooters. Each to their own, though!

@RogerRoger Interesting. I haven't played either the full game or the DLC but when I looked up info about the DLC, everyone was saying how it's not worth playing. But I guess if you didn't like the main game then it'd be more likely for you to like the DLC since I read that it was quite different from the main story.

What did you think about Wolfenstein: The New Order?

@LtSarge I thought The New Order was superb. It was a surprisingly mature take on the series which delicately balanced all of the competing tones just right. I also thoroughly enjoyed The Old Blood, which was its expandalone prequel and which lent a bit more towards absurd fantasy, but it did so without being offensive. That was what ruined The New Colossus for me. It became immature and stupid, and replaced all of the nuance with some really awful, dumb nonsense. Its ending was also unsatisfying and preachy (and will only ever make sense in the context of its release window as a result).

Its DLC, meanwhile, just went off and told small chunks of story about three separate American resistance fighters, each with their own gameplay gimmick. It was much more of what I wanted from a sequel to The New Order, and I found the characters much, much more interesting (well, the first two were brilliant; third one's perfectly fine, but it was definitely the weakest of the lot).

Apologies if some of the above has veered into spoiler territory. Regardless of my rant, I hope you enjoy it as and when, because it's always better to be having fun than not!

@RogerRoger It's no problem at all, in fact I'm even more interested in playing Wolfenstein 2 now that I've read your thoughts about these games. I personally enjoyed The New Order but it didn't really resonate with me that much. Same with The Old Blood. I did play an hour of Wolfenstein 2 before putting it on hold and thought it was still a good time. But maybe I'll think differently once I get further into the game. Either way, I'm very intrigued now and I'll be sure to share my thoughts with you whenever I finish the game!

@RogerRoger @LtSarge I quite enjoyed New Colossus but it is pretty wacky even for Wolfenstein.

I also felt like it was gearing up some story points for another game as I swear there was some stuff that came up and then was promptly never mentioned again.

@LtSarge Ah, that's interesting. Perhaps you'll get along better with it, then! Yes please, do let me know how it goes. As always, my thoughts and opinions are subject to change over time anyway, and I've been meaning to revisit The New Order for a while now.

@Thrillho You're right, there was the distinct whiff of "trilogy" about The New Colossus. I was kinda surprised when they ended up rushing out Youngblood, in all honesty.

Salt & Sanctuary, The Sexy Brutale, Little Knightmares and Amnesia Collection. I know that S&S is a 2D souls-like but don’t know much else about the other three, apart from hearing positives… somewhere or another.

@colonelkilgore Very nice haul there! I've been eyeing Salt & Sanctuary for years now and now seems like a good time to finally get it. It's just, whenever I look at the game's art style, it just looks so unappealing. I'm sure the game is really good, but I keep getting put off by the way it looks.

The Sexy Brutale interested me for a while until I found out that it's a time-loop game and I lost all interest in it, lol. I recently played through Twelve Minutes so I've had my share of time-loop games now.

Little Nightmares was a great title, albeit it frustrated me to no end. The game doesn't hold your hand at all and there will be a lot of trial and error moments. Hopefully though, you won't run into these issues as much as I did.

Still haven't played through the Amnesia games. I own the collection so I really need to get around to playing The Dark Descent soon as it's one of those horror titles like Outlast and Slenderman that you truly need to experience if you're a fan of the genre. Halloween is right around the corner so that might encourage me to finally play through it.

@LtSarge what was your thoughts on Twelve Minutes?

@colonelkilgore I'm not that fond of point-and-click games, or even the time-loop theme in any form of media, but this one was very good. I played through it in an afternoon and it kept my interest from beginning to end. It was really fun trying to piece everything together and every time you figure out one thing, you get so eager to restart the loop so that you can unlock the next section of the game. The progression is steady so you'll always find out something new in every loop.

Regarding the ending, I thought at first it was really good due to its shock value (after all, the best games are the ones that stick in your mind well after you've finished them). But after having watched a couple of streamers play through the game, I realised that the game doesn't really end in a satisfying way. It feels like the devs just decided to have that ending for the shock value alone even though it didn't feel fitting at all. So there is a very high likelihood that you might feel "betrayed" by the developers for having spent 4-5 hours playing a game just to reach an ending that was unsatisfactory.

Let me just say this though, if you're the type who doesn't get bothered by much in life then you'll probably enjoy the game because the overall product is still good. If not, then yeah maybe it's worth skipping. I'm normally all for creative freedom and variety in video games so I wasn't bothered by the ending. But it definitely could've been handled better, that's for sure.

@LtSarge glad you enjoyed mate, most reviews I’ve watched and read have been negative but… they’ve all said that it isn’t a bad experience and is just not for them specifically. Guess it found its audience with you though 👍

I just picked up Baldo The Guardian Owls.

It’s far from the best game I’ve played, but it’s quite charming. It was apparently made by two people, which is really impressive. It’s very slow paced, so I think I’m going to leave it until my next week off.