Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder Hey, I'm just callin' what I see. I've been back on and I'm definitely playing the PAL version, with its additional "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe" screen at the start. Its in-game menus and gameplay run significantly faster than the default NTSC version.

So maybe it is Sony's screw-up, then. All I know is that I played Syphon Filter 2 as a PSone Classic on my PS3 back in January, and the PS5's PAL version is comparable to that experience, in terms of fluidity and input. The NTSC version immediately felt slow, sluggish and "off" to me. I'll boot my PS3 back up at some point, and check whether that ol' PSone Classic says SCEE or SCEA on its opening logo (because regardless of your actual region, those PS3 downloads were always a crapshoot).

Just finished LoU2. Overall a great game, but horrible ending. There were so many opportunities to make a better ending that it left me disappointed. Not sure how to leave spoiler tags so I won't go into details. Not sure what to play next as I'm impatiently waiting for Pathfinder wotr to come out on the 29th. I might jump into CK3 and see if I can become the king of the north.

@RogerRoger I'll bow to your superior knowledge from your vastly more seasoned experience.

@JohnnyShoulder Good grief, I came across like a total spanner in that reply yesterday. Sorry about that!

@RogerRoger No worries, and none offence taken!

@Elodin
just put [spolier.] before what you want to hide and [/spoiler.] at the end (but without the full stops) and it should work

I tried the Wo Long demo and… wow, you really die quick in this game, don’t you?

@sorteddan thank you!

@Voltan Snap!

I have a confession on Wo Long though... I actually don't love this game anywhere near as I expected to. I got the Nioh(1) platinum a few months back, and genuinely enjoyed that game so much. Probably the tightest/best/fluid combat I have ever experienced in a game. Not without its faults, especially level design and enemy variety, ultimately though Nioh was a pretty epic experience.... and the boss fights and build variety is brilliant.

Wo Long though.... maybe I just need to 'git guderer' but it is just not clicking with me. The game seems to want to encourage parrying/deflecting, but the window for achieving this is so so slim it makes Sekiro's parry window look generous! Also the mechanics feel a bit clunky, especially with Circle being both dodge/parry. The mini bosses (tiger/bird) feel incredibly punishing when taken on solo, but then ridiculously easy/trivial when you summon!

I appreciate this is just a demo, and also think its great that Team Ninja are requesting player feedback. I just feel like TN have maybe neglected what made Nioh series so awesome (combat!) and then you're left with sub-par design.

Perhaps an 'expectations' issue, due to loving Nioh so much I maybe just hoped/wished for a lot more than given! I actually enjoyed Thymesia more than this demo...

How are you finding it in general?

Has anyone tried the Star Ocean demo? I have it downloaded, but haven't gotten a chance to try it yet.

@KilloWertz I tried it. I'm mildly positive about it.

It's clearly visible that it has a lesser budget, the character models animations look like ps3 era, the environments on the other hand look pretty good though. The world is like Tales of Arise, so not completely open world, but basically large instanced zones.

The combat is also like Tales of Arise, you have an Attack point bar which automatically fills over time and all actions you do take attack points. You can freely switch between the party members, so when you are out of AP you can just switch to another party member and fight some more. The combat in the demo is pretty simple with all party members basically doing basic attacks , but that seems to get better the further you level up if i look at the skill tree.

The biggest downside is you need a magnifiying glass to read anything on the screen, the letters from the UI, quest descriptions and subtitles are so small they are barely readable and we can not adjust their size.

If you can look through the older graphics and the small ui text, there is an enjoyable action rpg there. I haven't played another Sky Ocean game so i can't say how it compares to the other games. From what i've played i feel it doesn't have the same polish as lets say Tales of Arise (havent played XC3 so can't compare it to that) , so i think it is going to be very divisive what people think about it. I am waiting for the reviews to see how the rest of the game is, if the game is good enough i can easily forgive the unreadable text and lower graphics, if not ill just wait for a deep sale.

@CJD87 I liked the combat and I'd be fine with the parry (I got ok at it) if missing it didn't mean losing 3/4 of my life. I gotta say I didn't try the summoning though (although I knew it was an option).
At this rate the game is probably not for me but I might get back to it when it's on sale or PS Plus.

I also played some of the Star Ocean demo (didn't finish it yet but I suspect it won't be long until I do).
It seems to be running on the same or similar engine as the Valkyrie game, which means a noticeably short distance on the LOD pop-in - but also that the game ran relatively well until I got to the big open area and oh boy... it somehow seems to drop way below 30 fps in a 60 fps mode.
Combat seemed very basic at first but it introduces some original concepts once you find the thingy
Unlike Valkyrie Elysium, it's pretty clear that this one is driven by the story, which is good. Voice acting was decent too.
Oh, and I kind of hate the character models unfortunately. Not just the protag.

@CJD87 interesting… I’m also a big Nioh fan, so have been following Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty since it was announced. I obviously know you’re into your souls-likes much like me, so quite surprised to see that you’re not clicking with this.

I haven’t played the demo but from the vids I’ve seen, it seems that all out offence seems to be the way in which Team Ninja intend it to be played. Try watching the Skill Up preview on it… might be absolutely no help whatsoever but you never know.

@Voltan Yeh for sure, mistiming your parry is basically akin to insta-death lol.... so I've resorted to blocking. Its quite strange really, but I feel a bit like I'm forcing myself to keep playing until I like it! Surprised I've not clicked with it instantly, but hopefully the end product will improve greatly on the demo.

I had no idea Star Ocean had released a demo, and not too clued up on the game... but I generally enjoy SE's output so I'll check it out!

@colonelkilgore I'm surprised too mate! I really WANT to love it, but it is still falling short of the Nioh benchmark for me. Agree that all-out offense seems to be the way forward, but it does seem brutally hard...!
Normally when I die in a Souls-esque game, I always feel like it was 'my fault' and understand why I died and how to improve. But with Wo Long, it feels like perhaps the mechanics and gameplay are working against me?! Maybe I just need to git gud..
I watched SkillUp's preview, and he raved about it - which makes me want to give it another chance. He is one of the few YouTuber's whose opinions I actually rate. His video on 'Why You Should Play Returnal' was a huge reason as to why I picked it up, and it became my GOTY 2021.
I'll persevere... At least I can invert the X-Axis!!

… mate… you should be golden then! 🤣

@Voltan @CJD87 @colonelkilgore Played this co-op a few nights ago with @nitram2k11 and @Kairu. I am definitely far from gud at this game but we all still enjoyed it. It felt like most of the mini bosses hit really hard and there were a few areas where you just get obliterated in seconds if there are more than one in the fight.

Parrying is also always a challenge for me so I tend not to rely on that too much but did get it to connect every now and then and when it worked it worked well. Block does work well and deflected a lot of attacks that seemed would be too strong for it. It does mean that you probably don't do as much damage as you would if you could successfully parry counter though.

Generally it has potential and hopefully with the feedback from this demo they will improve on a few of those areas but as with all these games death is part of the experience.

Yeah I reckon you’re spot on with that. I remember that the initial Nioh demo received quite a bit of negativity at the time… but almost all issues were ironed out by the time of its release. Will probably be the same with this.

@render You're probably right mate, and initial promise is good.... A very high benchmark was set with Nioh I suppose, and I'm really hoping the team can measure up! I might boot Nioh 2 up later today for comparison..

@Lavalera Thanks for the detailed write-up. It being like Tales of Arise isn't exactly a bad thing, as the gameplay wasn't the turn off for me with that. It was the even cheesier than normal for a JRPG dialogue along with the sometimes for no reason conversations that ended up just being text along the characters making random noises.

Anyways, back on topic, I know it wouldn't have gotten a big budget, but the frame rate absolutely tanking is still a surprise from what Voltan said. That is something they could patch though I suppose. They could definitely patch the size of the text if enough people complain about it, as it has happened with some other games before.

I still plan on trying the demo out at some point over the weekend, but I have a feeling I will wait for a sale unless it somehow floors me. Or just skip it entirely if it ends up being like Tales of Arise for me and bombs completely, but it'll be a day or two before I can give my own opinion.

I realise I’m very late to the party but I’ve just finished Horizon Zero Dawn and it’s add-on The Frozen Wilds after two weeks of playing on my PS5. What a game it was. I enjoyed it so much that I did everything the game offered, every side mission, errands, hunting challenges etc.

I bought the game when I had a PS4 but only played the beginning where you first get to explore the Sacred Land. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ve realised I’ve been missing out on an amazing game but by waiting this long I at least got to play it at its best on PS5.

I’ve got Forbidden West which was bundled with my PS5 but I’m going to wait awhile before playing, I don’t want to get burned out playing another open world game. I’m thinking of playing Ratchet and Clank (PS4) next then give HFW a go.