Topic: Playstation 5 Recommendation Thread

@Keith_Zissou
@Th3solution
Hi guys. I hope you don’t mind my comment.
Your right about the souls games being obscure as in lacking any guidance. I feel it’s important to be aware of the tendency in DemonsSouls. It will change if you die in human form on the different worlds. Best is to kill you character in the nexus so you always are in soul form and keep towards pure white tendency even if you die. (That world tendency goes back towards black when you kill a npc) Later you can chose otherwise if you want to go for dark tendency.
Yes farming souls is also part of it and made more palatable with the SSD loading speed. I find Islands edge a good place to farm and in particular ritual path bonfire where you can snipe a few arrows the one summoner downstairs get thousands souls and repeat. There’s even a guy selling arrows nearby.

About the topic my fav game I played on PS5 has been DS3 so far haha
Happy gaming

@Th3solution Moving the convo from the resident evil thread.

Remember Gran Turismo 7 is more of a simulation than those two games which are arcade racers. I will most likely be skipping Gran Turismo 7 as I'm not keen on racing simulators. I was thinking of picking up GT Sport on the cheap, but I will probably giving that a miss too at this point.

I played a bit of Wreckfest but it didn't click with me for some reason. Apparently it is better as a mulitplayer racer, which is something I did not try. Will hopefully be starting Dirt 5 fairly soon.

@JohnnyShoulder 😄 Thanks. I must have forgot which thread I was in there.

Let me know what you think if you give Dirt 5 a shot then. I’m probably leaning toward trying it first since it was actually a game I had at least heard about before, where Wreckfest seems to have only been in my consciousness because it was given out on PS+ (although the reception by most has been positive). I’m looking for more of a single player experience.

So one of my gaming goals this year was to try to expose myself to the ever growing online gaming ecosystem. I have never really enjoyed online multiplayer gaming, but a lot of that might have to do with not playing the right games.

So I need some recommendations of a game to try with a primary MP focus. Preferably something easy to pick up and play and dabble in without being overwhelmed. I don’t anticipate this will become a main game I sink 100’s of hours into, but as a weeknight diversion for an hour or two here and there. I want it to be fun, engaging, yet not difficult. I prefer to not have to coordinate with any friends because my schedule is so unpredictable, so it’ll need to entail playing with randoms.

I also don’t want to spend a penny on it. This is just an experiment to see if I can ever really get into online MP gaming.

These are some of the games I am considering:

Apex Legends
Hood Outlaws and Legends
Knockout City
Genshin Impact
Fall Guys
Hell Let Loose
Rocket Arena
Dead by Daylight
Absolver
Destiny 2

All these I have access to from PS+ giveaways or F2P. I’ll consider anything else F2P if it comes highly recommended.

Any thoughts?

@velio84 They added single player content to GT Sport, correct? I have actually considered picking it up after this GT7 MTX debacle cooled my excitement about this new installment. So that’s a good idea, and one I might consider, although if there is hefty single player content in GT Sport then I’ll probably find myself automatically just dwelling on that rather than forcing myself to engage in the online community. It’s a great thought though since I have had some interest in picking it up recently

@velio84 That might be the worst botch of the word knockout I've ever seen...

As for the list of games by @Th3solution, I wouldn't recommend just jumping into Destiny 2 at this point if you care anything about story since they archived a decent portion of the early part of the story, so it's impossible to experience the full Destiny 2 story at this point. Mind blowing decision by Bungie imo.

I don't do online gaming anymore ever since I bought my PS3 back in the day, so I've never played any of those games, but other than the obvious big games on the list I'd probably try either Knockout City or Fall Guys. They seem to be pretty easy to just jump right into and have a pretty relaxing experience. I'm not sure how large either online community is, but I'd probably try one of those two if I was just experimenting and not looking to be a serious online gamer.

@velio84 @Kairu @KilloWertz Thanks for the recs. I did play Rocket League way back at the beginning when it was new and dropped on PS+. It was decent enough, but I wasn’t very good at it and the game physics were a bit frustrating so I dropped off pretty quickly. I’m not a soccer fan either; not that you need to be to play the game but it probably helps.

Fall Guys seems to fit the bill for something really simple and isolated for short session of mindless fun. It seems a little silly thematically but maybe I need a little silliness in my life.

This thought and question in my mind was evoked partly because of Hood Outlaws and Legends dropping on PS+ this month. What I read about it seemed to evoke memories of the old Assassin’s Creed MP modes in the Ezio games, which is probably one of the few MP experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Since my gaming skills are so painfully average, I always liked that I could at least earn points for hiding from the other team. In most games skill based MP games like FPS I just drag my team down and it’s not fun being the lowest kill count guy every single match. I’m sure that I could get decent enough at some of these games but people spend hundreds of hours getting good and I’m not willing to do that with all the other games I want to play.

So if anyone spends time playing Hood O&L then let me know what you think.

@Lavalera Responding over here so as to avoid detailing the PS Plus thread, but I’d say go for it with Death Stranding and with Demon’s Souls. Death Stranding is, as you said, different from anything else you’ve ever played. In my book that was a good thing though. The gameplay is engaging in a different way. And it does still have some traditional stealth and gun combat, so there’s enough familiar to keep it on track. The gunplay opens up a little later in the game and is never the centerpiece, but just enough to keep it fresh. The story is bonkers and so your mileage may vary on whether you find that part of it entertaining, but the ideas of how the game world works are where it really shines.

Demon’s Souls is (from what I hear) probably the easiest if the FromSoft games. If you go with a magic wielder (as I did) for your character build then it’s kind of like an “easy mode” for the game. It’s still tough though and a few bosses may have you squeezing your controller, but much of the game is quite approachable with magic as your primary focus, with a sword to use for combat clean up. Fextralife has a nice build I loosely followed for my point allocation, and there are plenty of videos on the internet for boss strategies. I think just about every boss has a technique or “cheese” that you can try out if you run into a wall. As far as I’m concerned, with FromSoft games then all methods are viable and I don’t feel the least bit guilty to look up a video to help me out. It made the game much more enjoyable for me.

Returnal however does not have easy cheesing that can be done in most of the game, so it’s just a matter of getting good for the most part. It might be hard enough to put you off for a while, but as a average gamer I got my skills up to speed and had a blast doing it. The videos online do help to slow down boss battles and teach strategies to look for which moves are coming, etc, but most of the big fights just need to be earned through repetition.

I’m sure a lot of this you’ve heard or read before, but I wanted to give you my two cents and encourage you.

@Th3solution Thanks m8, i appreciate the feedback It's always good to read other people's opinions about games i might be interested in so i can easier decide if i want to try a game or not.

Returnal out of the 3 is the one i doubt the most, because i'm generally not a fan of roguelike's. They tend to get repetitive for me. I tried games like Hades on gamepass and while i get people like that game it simply isn't for me. Now with the ps plus extra tier i can see if maybe Returnal is better suited for me or still feels so repetitive.

I will eventually try them all out and see if i like them or not. If i like them aweseome i found some new games, if i don't thats fine as well, since with these services it doesn't feel like you wasted money. I have been a gamepass subscriber since 1 1/2 year so know the pros and cons of those services and for me the biggest pro is trying games i would never have touched otherwise or maybe on a deep deep sale. And if i really like those games i buy them with DLC, if it is available. That happened for me with games like the entire yakuza series. Which i never tried before, but thanks to gamepass im now a huge Yakuza fan and it made me buy the ultimate edition of lost judgment the day it arrived.

@Lavalera No problem. I agree — one of the best things about the forums is hearing people’s personal experiences with games and it has motivated me many times to try new things.
I’ve had a similar experience that you describe through PS+ in that I have found a few favorites by trying some games I would have never tried otherwise. Control comes to mind. That game is one of my favorites I’ve played on PS5 and I played it through PS+. Another is Bloodborne, which I was like you and was skeptical enough to not want to spend money on it, but when it was give out on PS+ I decided to try it. It was a rough opening 5 hours or so, but I eventually grew to like it and then eventually became obsessed and loved it and consider it one of my favorite PS4 games. I had tried the original Dark Souls on PS3 and didn’t click with it. But I think I just wasn’t in the right mindset at the time, so I need to retry the Dark Souls series again. I think I’ll try DS3 soon, because it’s supposed to be the easiest of the three and closest to Bloodborne in how it plays. I also plan to try Elden Ring, but unless it has a steep sale price drop (unlikely for a while given it’s success), I’ll probably try DS3 first. We’ll see.

Interesting you mention Yakuza, because I should probably go back and try to finish Yakuza 0. I played it for about 20 hours I think and I liked what I played, but it seemed so overwhelming as far as length and easy to get distracted with all the side content. Then when I looked at the fact there was 6 more games to get to the end of the Kiryu arc, I just gave up. I just don’t have the time that I used to for devoting 500+ hours into one series. Maybe I should try to go back, or maybe it would be better to just play the two Judgement games. Again, if they drop onto PS+ it might tempt me to try them.

And since you mention Hades, I picked it up on sale on the back of my enjoyment of Returnal. I think I only paid about $17 for it. Not sure when I’ll get around to it, but looking forward to it. The only other rogue-like I played was Dead Cells which I enjoyed enough to continue to experiment with the genre. It wasn’t an all-time favorite, but fun enough and was a pretty good entry point to the genre.

I may want something to play between now and GOW. Kena or Plague Tale?

@Octane Having played neither, in my head that seems like a choice between fun and misery!

@Octane I'm replaying God of War before Ragnarok releases. Currently taking Atreus back to Freya after being ambushed by Modi.

As for your picks it's a tricky choice.
One is more colourful but combat is more involved, I enjoyed both but they are very different experiences!

@MightyDemon82 Which one is shorter you think? I'm going to play them both eventually anyway.

@nessisonett Is Kena that miserable?

@Octane Depends if you wanna go into Ragnarok having played a more gritty experience with Plague Tale. Saying that Kena does have its darker moments too, but can't say much without spoiling stuff. Both good games mind.

@Octane been a while since I've played both, but A Plague Tale is probably the shorter of the 2 as you won't be retrying bosses several times unlike Kena unless you set that on easy.

@Octane I've only played Kena, and its a pretty decent game... but the bosses are pretty punishing unless you drop the difficulty down big time!

Not sure if you'd be interested, or are into Souls-likes, but one of my favorite games of all time - 'Salt and Sanctuary' - is now on sale in PS Store. In UK it is like 3 £GBP (!!!) and a great experience. Basically a 2D-Dark Souls, loads of build diversity and cool bosses etc. You'd happily mop it up in a week or so, prior to Ragnarok.

But assuming you an answer to your original Q, I understand both games could probably be beaten before Ragnarok... but I think Plague Tale is probably the better experience (also nice Halloween vibes I guess)

@Octane Assuming you’re referring to A Plague Tale: Innocence rather than Requiem, I’ve played both your options.

For what it’s worth, I liked both. Quite a bit.
I thought I actually wrote a review of them, but I guess not, as I just checked the contents page and don’t see either.

But in short, I’d say APT:I is like a poor man’s The Last of Us with a little more emphasis on dynamic puzzle solving over combat. Quite a bit of stealth.

Kena: Bridge of Sprits is more like like a Disney/Pixar action rpg-lite. Very colorful, cutesy (almost too much), but really fun combat and exploration.

Both are fantastic examples of why I really love AA games.

Thematically, I’d go with Kena before GoW since it’s less narrative heavy (and in fact the narrative aspects are probably it’s weaker parts, imo. There’s a story there, but it’s awkwardly told).
The downside is that the gameplay is a little closer to what GoW will be, which is action-combat with a splash of magic skills, open world, map exploration, big boss fights. The art design is so different that you probably won’t notice it, though.

You can’t go wrong with APT though. The gameplay will be less like GoW, but it feels kinda like a Sony-narrative-driven-game-wannabe. And that’s not an knock on it necessarily, as it accomplishes quite a bit in that regard.
Nevertheless, I think APT is a little shorter. And it’s linearity makes it a nice one to pace through rather quickly without the temptation to go back and explore the whole map and find all the collectibles.

So, I think I just probably confused you more. 😅

Thanks all! I think I'm going to order Kena and see if it arrives on time, since that one seems to be the shorter one. Though the difficulty has me a little worried, I do like to play on normal or hard, so if it's too much of a time sink I may just wait until I'm done with GOW.

@Th3solution I actually meant Requiem! I played Innocence when it came out and I quite liked it! So I have no doubt the sequel will be just as fun.