Topic: What PS5 Games Are You Currently Playing?

@JohnnyShoulder I don’t know if they quite classify it as a walking sim, although many sections of it do play like that. It has elements of classic walking sims tropes, but other mechanics as well. In the continuum of the genre it has more gameplay compared to a full walking sim like Dear Esther or Virginia where literally you just walk and there’s not any complex input or mechanics. In DUtM you can jump and you do occasionally contend with gravity (or lack thereof) and oxygen (or lack thereof) and there’s a few section of traps to navigate, timed sections to complete something, and driving bits in a lunar rover, etc. There’s no combat but you can definitely die and I did many times in my playthrough — by asphyxiation, electrocution, and failing a task and sealing the end of the world in the process.

So perhaps my comparison to Tacoma and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a bit misleading as it does have more gameplay than those. But the way you play as a silent protagonist, piecing together a story by walking from one recorded video or audio log to another, yeah, that’s at the core. It’s just getting to the next story clue does sometimes take some puzzling, light platforming, and interaction with the environment with use of some tools and exploring to find items. But if you’re not a fan of walking sims then you probably should have the expectations that yes, it’s basically in that ballpark.

@Th3solution I have a mixed history with walking sims, so am always a bit more wary about trying them out. Same with rogue-lites/likes (i really do hate that term lol), I have probably fallen of more than I've enjoyed enough to keep playing to complete them.

I tried Wuthering Waves on PC like six months ago and thought the controls were just a complete and utter mess. Was excited to see it was being ported to PS5, as I was hoping they would create a much cleaner, dedicated, set of bindings for controller and that... hasn't happened. The game is still just an utter mess to control. I'm sure if I stuck with it I'll get used to it eventually, but my brain and muscle memory is very limited, and right now I have about a dozen ZZZ characters floating around in my noggin I need to remember how to control, and I'm worried I'd lose that if I dedicated myself to getting used to Wuthering Waves. And if there can be only one, I pick ZZZ, sorry WuWa.

Bought Street Fighter 6 because it's on sale. Not the biggest fan of fighting games, but the World Tour mode caught my interest. I'm a massive Like a Dragon fan and it reminds me of that. Obviously it's not in the same league, but it has the same type of silliness to it, which is one of my favourite things about the Like a Dragon series.

Not sure if the average person will think the World Tour mode alone makes the game worth a purchase, but I'm treating it like a single-player RPG and mostly ignoring the other modes and I don't regret buying it.

So I started playing Deathloop last week after having it in my backlog for years and I'm having a good time with it. In general, I love the whole timey wimey loop concepts in any media for storytelling, and this one definitely scratches the itch on that front. I love the puzzly nature of trying to figure out the best way to kill all Visionaries in one go, and so far it has felt very rewarding to go into an area again and again and discover new information that might help me in my next loop. It does annoy me when the game presents me with locations I can do nothing with that loop as I don't have the appropriate gear or information, but that's more of a personal issue than bad game design, haha.

However, the reason I wanted to make this post right now is the Julianna invasions. I had a horrible time with that gameplay feature yesterday. When I last stopped playing before then, I had saved after going into an area already in case I'd forget where I wanted to go next play session. As soon as I entered the area, a Julianna invasion instantly started. All good, I have no problem playing a cat and mouse game first before getting to my main objectives. Except for the fact that I got sniped from across the map as soon as I got into a somewhat vulnerable position. Only to respawn and instantly get sniped again five seconds later from lord knows where.

Okay, bad experience, but fine. I'll just restart the map. I walk out of the tunnels and... Julianna invasion. This time I didn't get instantly sniped from all over the place. This Julianna was putting traps everywhere, which is fun. Eventually however, they must've noticed the commotion I was causing killing a bunch of Eternalists and came running my way. I see her, start shooting her... she teleports right into my face and blasts a shotgun into me instantly killing me. Alright... I'll get her next time after I respawn. I go to my corpse to collect my residuum... and they were camping it to blast me in the face instantly with a shotgun again. Now, mind you, I just started playing not too long ago and my arsenal is not very big or powerful, so I can't really counter that easily with my own weapons if I wanted to.

Third try, I walk into the map and... Julianna invasion. At this point, I'm just annoyed. It's not particularly fun to try and play and explore only to constantly be interrupted by way higher-skilled and equipped players than you who easily just maul you to bits. Thus... I ran straight for the antenna and found her standing there. The player must've still been loading in or whatever, but I took that opportuntiy to blast a bunch of pistol shots in her face and was able to kill her before she could react luckily. I would've turned PvP invasions off before this point already, but as I kept spawning into a game where I was not able to change my online settings I was stuck on online mode.

I've now put the invasions to AI only, because I don't think I'm going to enjoy having to deal with more of that. Those twenty minutes already almost ruined my fun for the play session. I love the concept and think it's very cool, but if this is what it's like in practice, I'll pass. I don't really play PvP shooters for a reason. Maybe I'll try turning real players on again when my characters is a bit more well equipped and I can actually counter the powerful guns they come blazing in with, but until then I'm fine just dealing with the AI and actually focusing on what I'm trying to get out of the game.

Anyone else had fun or unfun experiences with this system?

@Tjuz - That sounds like a classic “I jumped into this multiplayer game years after it came out and the only players left are seasoned pros who tear me to shreds” situation. Personally I think you made the right call there, give yourself the opportunity to get some proper experience and better gear. Once you’ve got a good handle on the game, and you feel like a challenge, then it might be worth a go, but as you noticed, trying to do so with early-game gear and less experience is just asking for trouble.
As for my own experience, I played the game a bit earlier (early-to-mid 2022 iirc), so it was a bit more balanced back then (certainly never had someone spawn-camping with a shotgun, thank goodness), but I think I still ended up switching to offline so I could get the plat a bit easier: unfortunately it was a while ago now, so I don’t remember much in the way of specifics, but I don’t think it was particularly unfair, just annoying when I’m trying to get a particular trophy.
Anyway, I hope now the game goes back to being fun for you, now you don’t have to worry about getting melted straight out of the gate
Oh, and by the way, are you going for trophies/challenges? If so, let me know how “Judgment Day” goes? I’m curious to know others experience with that particular challenge.
————
Been playing some Warhammer 40k Darktide, and I’ve gotta admit, it’s actually pretty good so far. I appreciate the IG getting some love here, as they don’t usually (afaik) get the chance to be playable. Beyond that, the graphics look decent, the gunplay (and swordplay) is satisfying, and I like that players can jump in even after you’ve started a game, rather than only being allowed during the pre-game matchmaking period. Admittedly, the game might get a bit repetitive later on, as it seems like it doesn’t evolve past “kill a bunch of enemies, occasionally complete some objectives, then reach the evac point”, but as long as I don’t play too much of it at once, I reckon I’ll be fine.

@FullMetalWesker Haha, it's exactly that situation! It doesn't particularly help that I'm not very good at shooters to begin with, so it just makes it all the more frustrating. You'll never catch me making some amazing trick shot or having competent accuracy with my aiming. This is why I prefer to just bring a sword to gunfight every time. There at least I can just spam the button and eventually it'll connect! I've played more since and it's been a blast, so it definitely hasn't ruined anything about the game long-term... as I wouldn't have expected it to either.

I actually did two Julianna games earlier today, just to see what it's like from the other perspective. I can't say I did particularly well, as both Colts managed to take me out. At least the first one I was able to kill twice before I finally feigned to his machete. The second one... just had admittedly better aim and I respect him for it.

I'm not actually a big trophy guy (which you probably could make up out of my allergy to competitiveness). I tend to look at the trophy list not too long before finishing the game to see if there's any I can get that are not too time-consuming, but I won't go out of my way for them. The only game where I've done that would be Spider-Man on the PS4, but as far as I know that's considered an easy platinum by any self-respecting trophy hunter, haha. I did take a look what Judgment Day was, and... guess we'll find out if I end up going that route. Judging by the low completion score, I'm doubting it!

Speaking of low completion scores for trophies though, I was surprised to see two pop earlier today in the sub-10s. They were both ones I achieved on my first go around in Karl's Bay that I would've expected tons of people to have done. One was simply the challenge of the experimental machine to craft a powerful trinket which involved just shooting a few waves of enemies and collecting their residuum. The other one was killing the Garbage Collector which gets you Frank's slab that he dumped away. Especially the second one, I would've thought plenty of players would get it. Are so many people just missing a slab? Either way, I'm sure it also all depends on what times you go to what location to be able to do what and some people just not ever having gone to Karl's Bay in the afternoon possibly. Who knows!

@Tjuz - Hey, on the plus side, you probably gave them their only win of the day, so there’s a decent chance at least some good came out of it…probably.
Yeah, about Judgment Day: something I somehow forgot about with that trophy was that it wasn’t just difficult, but outright bugged; not to the point where you can’t get it ofc, but enough so you may have to re-do it a few times for the trophy to pop (so don’t worry if you think the game/PSN screwed you over, because it probably did ).
As for the low acquisition rate for those two trophies, to be fair, most trophies for this game seem to have that problem: looking at PSN, over 80% of players completed the prologue, but only a bit under 43% completed “The Longest Day” and only 37% have gone through a full time loop, so yeah, once you’ve removed that much of the playerbase, it makes sense why trophies like those would be so rare (which is a shame, but I guess is how it goes sometimes).

Now that I’ve beaten Stalker 2, I am finally playing Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. I’m a couple of hours in, but it’s pretty good so far. The protagonists are compelling, the voice acting is top notch, the story is interesting, the combat is simple but serviceable, and the open world, while bloated, is relatively small compared to Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. I may try and go for the platinum since it doesn’t seem too difficult.

I was playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice this morning, and, man, is it tough! .Definitely not the kind of FromSoftware game that I am used to. I still managed to do a decent amount of damage to Gyoubu this morning (just practicing, learning the moveset) though, the next stage to progress to is the first death-blow, then the second, obviously, and the Shinobi Execution on-screen text will be mine!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Sekiro is such an incredible game, and might arguably have the best combat in a video game ever. But it is hard, even more so than any other FromSoft game. The final boss took me forever to kill. Now that you mention it though, I kind of want to do a replay of it. According to my trophy list, I’m missing quite a bit of content. Good luck, you got this!

@Kraven Sekiro is in my top5 GOAT lit.... I highly recommend the recently released 'Nine Sols' if you want a similar fix (basically NS plays like a 2d-Sekiro, with immaculate combat and parry-based boss fights)

@FullMetalWesker Haha, that's a proper glass half full situation. At least I helped to make the other player have a more fun time, indeed! Not sure it would've felt like as much of an accomplishment to kill a frantically jumping around, clearly disoriented Julianna however!

@Kraven Syndicate is easily the AC game I've been most interested in as someone who has only tried and promptly jumped off of Odyssey and Black Flag back in the day. Their version of London always seemed incredibly well realised, and I like the concept of the twins both being the main playable characters. The only thing holding me back always is that I hope there's not a similar amount of bloat to it like the other entries I've tried, so pleass do let me know how your experience has been regarding that!

I'm a survivor, Jedi Survivor!

I am really struggling to stick to one game atm. I bounce around the following but nothing is really clicking...

• Forespoken
• Borderlands 3 DLCs
• Uncharted 3
• Metaphor

None of them seem to be grabbing my interest. I even tried Elden Ring on my Xbox for a change of genre (don't usually play Soulslike games) but that was just too difficult. Could not even make it through the first area.

@ZeD With regard to Elden Ring, have you considered going to a 'farming' spot and killing the weaker enemies over and over again until you have enough xp (souls) to level up significantly and then moving on to a more lucrative farming spot for even more xp and make your character truly op? Plus you can find various powerful weapons, spells etc. and their requisite upgrade materials, if you use an online resource to discover where to find them/the farming spots.

That's how I beat the game!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN my friend showed me a guide to a dragon I could go and kill.
Not aware of any other farming spots. Tbh, I am still learning the basics of the game. I played a little last night, but was just getting annoyed as I was just running away from everything. Heck, I know I have a horse somewhere but no idea how to summon it 😂

@ZeD try not to think of it as "I have to do this. Or I have to go this way" it is a game of exploring, trying and failing, and if you are every truly stuck, you can head off in another direction.

The "Horse" is something that you will find as part of the journey. Take heed of what certain ghostly visions say, look at the map for slight visual hints of the general way you go to discover certain things.

If there is, say, a big golden motherf***er blocking your path, simply avoid it, and come back when you are ready. That is the general feel of the game. Farming isn't essential, at all, but it can be useful to supplement your journey, and top up a level of you are close and worried.

Definitely don't try to seek dragons if you are in the early area.

Later on a few grumbling big boys will suffice for XP top ups (which will include combat so you can also practice) but this will be after you have the horse.

Focus on the stuff you can do, and then you will find you are able to do more as you progress. It's a great experience, and it was also my first souls game, and I went in blind and afraid 😂 so don't get too bogged down in what you can't do (yet) the exploring early on is what won me over really quick. If you learn to love losing all your runes, it's all good and there's so much to see 😁

@Ravix I think the exploring is one of the biggest things I have to over come. I like games with at least a clear goal. Currently I do not have that, so I am just wondering around, trying to survive. Every direction I go, there is something big or a group of enemies that just destroy me. I feel I mad no progress in the time I played the other day.
I have just been reading up and there are things called Spirit Ashes that could help but I need to go to a church first? Never done so much research into a game...
I think I got given the horse, I remember a cut scene with it in but that was a week ago when I gave up after less than an hour 😂. I just cannot find anything in the menus for the button to call it.

@ZeD ah. This is what you need then: "you need to equip the "Spectral Steed Whistle" item in your pouch and then use it by pressing the designated button."

For the game itself, just follow the general direction of the yellow arrows on the map, they will lead you to NPC's and goals and it will become clearer as you find more for yourself. And make sure read/listen to any hints they give you, or that you find.

It is an incredibly obtuse game, and a guide is a good helping hand. I'd not blindly follow a guide, however, as it will possibly be even more confusing, but if you use it to supplement what you are already finding out for yourself it can be a very good resource.